The Loop: New unemployment figures, a Russian soldier pleads guilty, and the PM crashes into a child

Hi there. It's Thursday, May 19 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.

Let's start here: It's only two days until the election!

• Today we're expecting Labor to reveal its election costings — which is basically an explanation of how it intends to pay for the policies it announced throughout the campaign. Party leaders have previously pointed to cracking down on multinational tax avoidance and reviewing spending on previous government programs as ways it would find the money
• The Coalition announced its costings on Tuesday, and has criticised Labor for not announcing its costings sooner

Something you'll be hearing about today: Wages and unemployment

• Today we're going to get some new employment figures, which many economists expect will show the unemployment rate has fallen to below 4 per cent
• Wages data released yesterday showed that Australian workers saw their base wages rise an average of 0.7 per cent over the quarter and 2.4 per cent over the past year. The annual pay rise trails a 5.1 per cent jump in the cost of living, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, over the same period

• Many economists are pretty puzzled as to why wages growth isn't responding more strongly to Australia's falling unemployment

Here's how annual wage growth has been looking since 1998:

Annual wages growth has not exceeded 3 per cent since the March quarter of 2013. (Supplied: ABS)

News while you snoozed

• A 21-year-old Russian soldier has pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian in the first trial since Russia invaded Ukraine. Vadim Shishimarin could get life in prison for shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head. A further 40 cases are being prepared by Ukrainian prosecutors against Russians involved in the war
• A 130-per-cent increase in flu cases in Queensland has experts concerned, with calls for more people to get the flu vaccine. People are also getting "flurona", which is the double whammy of having COVID-19 and the flu at the same time, which doesn't sound like fun at all

What Australia has been searching for online

• Sam Fisher. The retired AFL star has been charged with drug trafficking as part of a joint investigation between Victorian and Western Australian police. The 39-year-old, a past All-Australian and two-time St Kilda best and fairest, was charged with trafficking large commercial quantities of illicit drugs after detectives searched a Sandringham property on Wednesday morning. Drugs and a luxury car were seized in the raid

The matter involving Sam Fisher has been adjourned until August 10. (AAP: Julian Smith)

• Kathleen Folbigg. She was convicted in 2003 of the murder of three of her children, and the manslaughter of a fourth, but Folbigg is now facing another inquiry into her convictions. A 2019 inquiry has already reinforced her guilt, and she continues to serve a 25-year non-parole period. Her legal team argues there is scientific evidence that a genetic mutation could be responsible for the deaths of two of her children

One more thing

In case you missed it, here's an outstanding video of Prime Minister Scott Morrison crashing into a small boy during some soccer training in Tasmania.

The PM recently described himself as someone who "can be a bit of a bulldozer when it comes to issues", but this takes things to a whole new level (albeit accidentally).

Luca, the boy who was tackled, is doing fine according to his club, the Devonport Strikers.

They said that he "showed plenty of determination and effort to stop the PM scoring at all costs".

PM Scott Morrison accidentally bowling over a kid in Tasmania.

You're up to date!

We'll be back later with more Loopy goodness.

ABC/wires