Video taking off 13x its usual first day

Hundreds honour Helen Haines at a Wodonga vigil, and her husband asks for more love

The vigil opens TODAY's morning bulletin, followed by Phil Haines' first account of his wife's condition since surgeons amputated both her legs.

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TODAY Story of October 22, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 129,665 views a day, 13 times a normal first day on this channel (9,716).

Hundreds honour Helen Haines at vigil; Man stabbed after home invasion | Today Show Australia

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0:00Hundreds gather at a vigil in Wodonga for injured federal MP Helen Haines.
0:20Phil Haines confirms both of Helen's legs were amputated, and says her heart and mind are in good shape.
2:46A boat capsizes crossing a bar near the NSW-Queensland border, and all three passengers escape unharmed.
3:47South-East Queensland is told to brace for heavier rain and flash flooding.
5:01A live report from Baulkham Hills, where a man was stabbed during a home invasion.
6:10The royal family attends the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster in Wales.

"Please keep sending Helen your love and our family as well," Phil Haines says, near the start of a TODAY news bulletin that puts the community around the injured federal MP ahead of everything else.

The broadcast opens in Wodonga, where hundreds gathered for a vigil for Helen Haines. Reporting from Wangaratta, Christine Ahern describes the evening and the words of Cathy McGowan, the independent who held the seat of Indi before Haines won it in 2019. The two women's names have been linked in the electorate for years, which gives McGowan's presence its own weight.

Then comes the update from Phil Haines' press conference. He confirms that his wife has had both legs amputated, and adds the line the family clearly wants people to hear: "We are grateful and thankful that at this stage both her heart and her mind are in good shape." A report from outside Melbourne Assessment Prison follows on where the police case stands.

The bulletin reached about 62,000 views in its first eight hours, well past what a regular TODAY video usually draws in a whole day. A companion piece posted the same day, on violence against public figures after the attack, has drawn even more.

The rest of the bulletin moves across the day's news: a boat capsizing on the Brunswick Bar near the NSW-Queensland border, with all three passengers escaping unharmed; flash flood warnings in South-East Queensland; a home invasion stabbing in Baulkham Hills in Sydney's north-west; and the royal family at Aberfan for the 60th anniversary of the disaster.

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