TRANSCRIPT
- Swedish police destroy a dangerous object found outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm
- Ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily to bring more heavy rain to Queensland’s northwest
- Mitch Marsh wins the Allan Border Medal
Police in Stockholm have described what they've called a "dangerous object" found outside the Israeli embassy.
The object was assessed by the national bomb squad and destroyed.
The Israeli ambassador to Sweden described it as an attempted attack on the embassy and its employees.
—-
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is not going away any time soon, with more heavy rain set to inundate Queensland's northwest.
The system is even a "very low" chance of re-intensifying into a cyclone again in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Ex-Kirrily is near Mount Isa and set to drift toward Gulf Country, days after first impacting the coast near Townsville.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the system may move into the Gulf today but rated it a less than five per cent chance of forming into a cyclone again.
It's more likely to drift back south by Friday and move through western Queensland, bringing heavy rain.
A severe weather warning is current for the northwest and Gulf Country, with six-hourly falls between 90mm and 150mm likely.
—-
Australian and New Zealand defence and foreign ministers will meet in Melbourne today for the first time together, at the inaugural ANZMIN meeting.
New Zealand will reportedly explore deepening military ties with Australia, the US and UK at the trans-Tasman meeting.
On the agenda also are regional concerns in the Pacific, the broader Indo-Pacific, and the growing crisis in the Middle East.
—-
Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been jailed for 14 years, the second sentence handed to the former PM in two days.
The couple were convicted of illegally profiting from state gifts.
The sentence comes just a week before a general election in which Imran Khan is barred from standing.
Khan is already serving a prison sentence for corruption.
He says the legal cases against him are all politically motivated.
—-
The federal government is putting more funding into public schools in Western Australia- but remains at an impasse with other states and territories over the issue.
Public schools in Western Australia will receive a massive injection of extra funding.
The combined funding from the state and federal government for the schools will be $1.6 billion dollars.
The deal forms the basis of something that will eventually tie funding to reforms aimed at improving the education system.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says he wants to put more money into his state's public schools, but wants the federal government to commit more money, too.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare says he wants agreements with everyone like the one with Western Australia.
"This agreement today is just the start. I want to strike an agreement like this with every state and every territory across the country, to make sure we fully and fairly fund all our schools across the country."
—-
The head of Rare Cancers Australia says she's hoping for real change at a Senate Inquiry into equitable access to diagnosis and treatment for patients with rare and less common cancers.
About 52,000 Australians are diagnosed with a rare or less common cancer each year and in that same period approximately 25,000 people lose their lives.
These forms of cancer make up 37 per cent of cancer deaths in the country.
Chief Executive of RCA Christine Cockburn has appeared at the senate inquiry to advocate on behalf of these patients.
She says the government needs to understand that the experiences of these patients is distinctly different from those with more common cancers.
"There is bipartisan agreement on improving outcomes for cancer, of course. The Australian cancer plan was launched recently and it's really promising. We're very optimistic that when it's implemented, it will change things. But we must make sure that people understand that rare is different. It needs to be treated as a priority population because the outcomes are unacceptably poor. And it's just not fair. It's not fair that people diagnosed with a disease that we don't fully understand get put to the side and they have to wait."
—-
Mitch Marsh has been embraced as one of the most popular winners of the Allan Border Medal.
The 32-year-old has been crowned Australia's best men's player, just six months after finally breaking back into the Test team.
Since smashing a brilliant Ashes century on his return, Marsh has not looked back and become a lock across all three formats.
Marsh told an adoring crowd he only begun to consider the possibility of winning just before the ceremony.
"I really hadn't thought about it until a few of the boys started getting stuck into me that they thought I was a chance. I started thinking maybe I can win it. Had four beers at lunch so had to stop there. And now I just hope me winning this isn't like covid and we don't look back in 3 years and go wow that was a weird time."
