Early voting in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum opens for all Australians, Scientists win Nobel Prize for research that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccines, Australia falls victim to the greatest women's Twenty-20 run chase in history.
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TRANSCRIPT
- Early voting in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum opens for all Australians.
- Scientists win Nobel Prize for research that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccines.
- And in cricket, Australia falls victim to the greatest women's Twenty-20 run chase in history.
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Early voting in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum will continue across the country as polling stations open in New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and South Australia today.
Campaigners for both sides of the referendum have been out at polling stations since early voting began in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia yesterday.
The Yes and No campaigns have less than two weeks to make their case over whether to enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the constitution, with Australians set to cast their ballots on October 14th.
YES23 Campaign Director Dean Parkin has told SBS News the Yes campaign sees the final weeks as crucial to win over Australia's many undecided voters.
"We've geared our whole campaign up for these last couple of weeks, leading up to the 14th of October. Fifty thousand Australians are on the ground as we speak campaigning in support as volunteers for the 'yes' vote, and you'll see them around polling booths around the country, a wonderful group of people doing whatever they can to achieve a successful 'yes' vote."
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Fires are burning across the country, with flash flooding also expected for Gippsland in Victoria, where wild weather has left three blazes out of control.
Strong winds associated with a cold front are set to make firefighting conditions more challenging in the region, with heavy rain predicted for later in the week providing only temporary relief after an unusually warm and dry start to the season.
One home was destroyed in the town of Briagalong as crews battled 220 bush and grass fires ignited in the area on Sunday, with three fires, the largest of which has burned through 5,000 hectares already, yet to be contained.
Senior Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology Christie Johnson says cold fronts today and tomorrow could lead to flash flooding in the region.
"We could see some heavy rain, so that severe weather running that's current may be extended to include the risk of heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding tomorrow afternoon, particularly about the eastern ranges."
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Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
University of Pennsylvania Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the prize for their research into how human cells recognise different kinds of RNA, a molecule which plays a role in the immune system's response to viral infections.
The Nobel Committee says through their ground-breaking findings, the pair contributed to the "unprecedented rate" of vaccine development during the pandemic.
Chair of the Nobel Committee Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam says this year's prize shows the beauty of science, where a small piece of research can lead to an enormous global benefit.
“We think it's quite a beautiful prize because it really ties together this basic discovery of what Katalin and Weissman did, as you heard, over almost 20 years ago. And this is exactly how science works, and we think that you can't have a better example of how something became useful for the whole world and for humanity.”
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A civil fraud trial against Donald Trump has begun in New York, with the former United States president labelling the case a "scam".
The trial, which sees Donald Trump accused of lying in order to generate more than $1.5 billion, could deal a major blow to Mr Trump's real estate empire.
The state Attorney General, Letitia James, claims Mr Trump inflated his assets and his own net worth from 2011 to 2021 to obtain favourable bank loans and lower insurance premiums.
Ms James is seeking at least $392 million in fines, a permanent ban against Donald Trump and his sons, Donald Junior and Eric, from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against the former president and the Trump Organisation.
Donald Trump took a break from proceedings to call the trial a disgrace.
"And we're wasting our time on this trial with a Democrat judge from the clubhouses. It's a disgrace. They ought to look for the murderers and the killers that are all up in New York killing people. And we're going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind."
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In cricket,
Australia has fallen victim to the greatest women's Twenty-20 run chase of all time, as the West Indies levelled a three-match series at 1-1.
A Hayley Matthews century helped the West Indies chase down a target of 213 at North Sydney Oval on Monday as she hit 132 from 64 balls.
Australia was given a late glimmer of hope when Stefanie Taylor was bowled by Megan Schutt after hitting 59 off 41 balls, with 28 runs required from three overs.
But Matthews hit 16 runs from the 19th over being bowled by Jonassen, guiding her team to a victory with one ball and seven wickets to spare.
