A daily 5 minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Deborah Groarke.
Senior staff from social media companies in Australia will face a parliamentary committee on foreign interference today.
Officials from Meta, TikTok, Google and Twitter are expected to be asked what action they're taking to stop foreign interference in elections.
Committee chair James Paterson says concerns social media companies are being weaponised by foreign powers are not theoretical.
"It's a real threat. We've seen a recent examples in Canada in the United States and elsewhere in the world, where authoritarian states, particularly Russia and China, have sought to weaponise both Western headquartered social media platforms by pumping their systems full of disinformation and weaponizing their algorithms to try and interfere in our elections. So it is a very serious threat and that's why the Senate is taking it seriously with this inquiry."
TURKIYE has agreed to accept Sweden's bid for NATO membership.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to send Sweden's NATO accession protocol to the Turkish Parliament as soon as possible.
The announcement comes after talks with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on the eve of a NATO summit in Lithuania.
A new survey has revealed renters in Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales are experiencing the most cost-pressure nationwide.
The survey, conducted by New South Wales researcher Suburbtrends, suggests Queensland is experiencing the most strain of any jurisdiction with rental costs up by over 16 per cent in the last year.
Founder of Suburbtrends Kent Lardner says investment in public housing should be central to any strategy to alleviate pressure on renters.
"We've turned our back on public housing for too long, so we need a massive supply of public housing - a lot more community housing, that's subsidised housing. We need more build to rent. And then finally we still need the ma-and-pa investors."
AUSTRALIA has accepted an invitation to join a group known as the climate club, an initiative of Germany that aims to increase international collaboration on greenhouse gas emissions.
Australia's entry into the club is expected to increase pressure on the government to improve its plans to cut emissions even further.
It's also expected the membership will aid Australia as it aims to seal a free trade deal with the European Union.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the trade agreement would strengthen economic links between Australia and the EU at a time of global uncertainty.
"The chancellor's commitment to free trade is crucial to us. Unsurprisingly, our discussions today have been warm and productive. We discussed the ongoing negotiations of the Australia EU Free Trade Agreement, the FTA will diversify trade and strengthen economic links between Australia and the EU at a time of considerable and global uncertainty."
A new report from the Institute of Health and Welfare has found First Nations people die around 9-10 years earlier than the general population.
It suggests the life expectancy for Indigenous men is over 71 years and over 75 years for women.
But over the past 50 years, the life expectancy for the general population has increased to over 81 years for males, and over 85 years for females.
A rare Victoria Cross awarded to an Australian digger in World War 2 is being sold at auction in Sydney.
The highly-prized medal for conspicuous bravery was awarded to Queensland soldier John Alexander "Jack" French, one of just 20 VCs won by Australians in the Second Word War.
Corporal French's Victoria Cross, as well as another six of his medals, are expected to fetch more than $1.6 million when they go under the hammer at the State Library of New South Wales at the end of this month.
I'm Deborah Groarke. This is SBS News in Easy English.
