The World Today

People who work as first responders in the emergency services are often required to have super-human levels of mental resilience. But their jobs can take a toll on their mental health. In an Australian first, New South Wales has launched a plan which brings together all emergency workers under the one mental health strategy, including intervention, prevention, treatment and awareness.

If you've ever used words like 'schmuck' or 'klutz', you may not know it, but you've been speaking Yiddish. It's a Jewish language that was born in Europe and has spread around the world. But how do you say 'email' in Yiddish? What about 'transgender' or 'butt-dial'? Thanks to a new English-to-Yiddish dictionary, the first of its kind in nearly 50 years, we now know the answers. Yiddish speakers the world over, including here in Australia, are snapping the dictionary up as a handy reference that brings the thousand-year-old language into the 21st Century. But where did the authors get the 'chutzpah' to tackle such a project in the first place?

Toowoomba mayor Paul Antonio admits the phrase handed out on cards at a Toowoomba park - 'I will help create a city free from porn' - is idealistic. Councillor Antonio was one of more than 200 civic leaders, students and workers who gathered to hear stories of the personal impacts of pornography, and to read a pledge promising not to engage with porn.

The Australian Pro Bono Centre's goal for lawyers to do at least 35 hours of pro bono work each year was met last financial year. There's been an 8.3 per cent increase in the unpaid work done by the signatory firms to the voluntary target on the previous year. But the profession and community workers both say the pro bono system is only a small part of a desperately underfunded legal aid system.

In Canberra today, Labor has voted unanimously to oppose the Government's planned plebiscite on same-sex marriage. It's a fatal blow for a plan first floated by former prime minister Tony Abbott last year, and comes despite last-minute manoeuvering by the Government to convince Labor to support the plebiscite.

The Republican Party appears to be in public free-fall after House Speaker Paul Ryan effectively conceding defeat for his party in the presidential race. At least 38 senior Republicans - including senators, members of Congress, and state governors - have withdrawn their support for Trump since a video surfaced of Trump boasting about groping women. But the Republican National Committee Chairman has said 'nothing has changed' in relation to the campaign.

The first formal hearings of the Royal Commission into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory have begun in Darwin. The inquiry has begun by hearing from authors of numerous previous reports into juvenile detention and child protection in the territory.

The batting partner of the Phillip Hughes has denied telling the late cricketer's family he was sledged before he was struck by a fatal delivery. South Australian cricketer Tom Cooper has appeared before the coronial inquest into the death of the 25 year old, who was hit to the head by a ball in 2014. Tom Cooper has told the inquest Hughes was being targeted by short pitched bowling, but was not being sledged.

In New South Wales the Premier Mike Baird has buckled to extreme political pressure and back flipped on ban greyhound racing in the state. The proposed shutdown of the industry was prompted by revelations on the ABC's Four Corners program about the practice of live baiting. But since the Premier announced the shock decision in July, it's been a lightning rod for discontent and there's been a relentless campaign by the media and industry to overturn the ban. It's also caused deep internal ructions within the coalition government which is facing a worrying electoral backlash in regional seats in New South Wales.

The Fair Work Commission appears likely to test new Federal legislation aimed at giving Victorian volunteer firefighters more influence in industrial negotiations. The legislation was passed by the Senate last night with crossbench support.