Wednesday Headlines:

• Australia’s big four banks pass on rate hike with more pain on the way
• WHO suspects human-to-human transmission in deadly cruise ship hantavirus outbreak
• Carlton whacked with fine over Elijah Hollands incident
• Illegal cigarettes could wipe out the legal trade in Australia as soon as 2030
• Met Gala red carpet has dominated social media feeds overnight

Deep Dive: Restaurants, pubs, brothels and bars have become the latest targets of firebombings across Melbourne, with a new taskforce set up to investigate the recent spate of attacks.

Since February, at least 32 businesses have been hit with molotov cocktails, shot up with bullets and broken into.

In today’s episode of The Briefing, Natarsha Belling is joined by former AFP officer who led one of Australia’s illicit tobacco taskforces Rohan Pike to find out why the city’s hospitality businesses are being targeted by organised crime gangs and what’s being done to stop the violence.

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