Within three months of beginning to serve customers, early on Monday morning 12 October, the cafe And Bodega run by Ashish Sharma and Manali Purohit was severely damaged in a suspected arson attack that gutted the tobacco shop next door that had opened in recent weeks.

The day after the firebombing, about $5,000 worth of technology and equipment was stolen from the burnt-out cafe. When the couple entered the shop after the robbery, Sharma says it felt as if their “dream had been ripped away”. It comes amid a spate of firebombings targeting tobacconists across Melbourne, with hundreds hit since late 2023.

Emergency services were called to respond to reports of an explosion on St Georges Road at about 3.40am on Monday. Police investigators believe one or multiple offenders forced entry into the tobacco shop and set it alight. The tobacconist was completely destroyed, while And Bodega and other neighbouring businesses were damaged, police said in a statement. The Victorian Coalition this week said the state government’s new closure powers “had barely made a dent” and vowed that if elected next month it would bolster laws and increase police presence to close down illegal retailers.

The couple have set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for repairing and replacing equipment, paying outstanding staff and supplier costs and planning a new home for And Bodega. Purohit, who grew up in Mumbai and trained as a pastry chef in India, says the couple have also received offers from fellow small businesses to donate portions of their profits to the couple, host fundraisers and drop off ice-cream.

Labor’s bid to cut the private health insurance rebate for over-65s has been blocked in parliament, with the Greens insisting they will withhold support unless pensioners receive a carve-out from the new rules.

The proposed changes, which would take effect from April 2027, would save the federal budget $3bn. It marks another defeat for a key cost-saving measure after the government was forced to back down on its plan to cap allied health payments for veterans which would have saved $748m over three years. People who are 65 or over currently receive a larger rebate on their premium, with the rebate higher for those 70 and over.

The Greens, Coalition and crossbench senators teamed up in the Senate on Wednesday to block Labor’s bill. In a rare move, the bill was discharged from the upper house, meaning it will need to be reintroduced if Labor tries to push ahead.

The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, said the party would only offer its support for the changes if the government excluded pensioners. Almost 80,000 older Australians are expected to ditch their private health cover by 2028-29 as a result of the Albanese government’s proposal, according to health department modelling released under freedom of information laws.

The chief executive of the Council on the Ageing Australia, Patricia Sparrow, also rejected the planned savings being linked to aged care funding commitments. She explained that older Australians shouldn’t have to choose between protecting their health and paying for everyday essentials, nor should they be asked to choose between affordable healthcare and a properly funded aged care system.

Australia’s online safety regulator eSafety says it does not have the powers to “proactively prevent” the live stream of a firing squad execution in the United States from being shown in Australia, but argues platforms have a responsibility to protect users from harmful content.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people at a military base in Texas in 2009, would be available for the public to watch. Across the political divide in Canberra there has been widespread concern about Australians seeing the December 3 live stream.

The federal government said Australians “rightly expect” the content would not appear on their screens, and platforms have a responsibility to meet those expectations. Media Lecturer at Swinburne University Dr Belinda Barnet believed the most the eSafety commissioner could do was issue take down notices, like was done in the case of a Sydney church stabbing in 2024.

“While eSafety does not have powers to proactively prevent a live stream from occurring online, online services have responsibilities under Australia’s online safety regulatory framework to protect users from harmful material,” a spokesperson said. Experts agreed eSafety’s power was more geared towards being able to take down content rather than pre-emptively blocking it.