A daily 5 minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability.
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English, I'm Catriona Stirrat.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a $150m workers accommodation fund for regional Victorian workers as part of its investment to help offset losses by the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The 2026 event was due to take place across five regional Victorian sites but the government on Tuesday said the cost had risen from an original estimation of $2.6bn to $6bn to $7bn.
Mr Andrews says he will not apologise for cancelling the Games because the government could not justify the cost increase.
"The key point here is we are not just about making easy decisions or popular decisions, you've got to do what's right and at six, seven billion dollars, that event just doesn't stack up. What however is important and what is a profound investment in the future of rural and regional Victoria is to get on and deliver each and every one of the legacy items, and indeed go beyond what was going to be the legacy benefits from the Commonwealth Games. "
The state government is in negotiations with Commonwealth Games organisers in London over the cost of cancelling the event.
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Education minister Jason Clare has announced the government's plans to reform Australia's university system.
It comes ahead of findings from the Universities Accord interim review, the largest review into universities in 15 years.
The more than 70 recommendations in the report estimates that 55 percent of Australian jobs could require a university degree by 2050 and recommends bold, long-term change in order to meet the coming challenges.
Mr Clare says if Australia is to be prepared for the jobs of the future, it has to start getting more students from diverse communities into university.
"And what this report argues is that the only way to really do this is to significantly increase the number of university students from our outer suburbs, and the regions, students from poor backgrounds, students with a disability and indigenous students. If we don't, we won't have the skills and the economic firepower that we need to make this country, everything that can be in the years ahead."
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An Australian sailor has finally touched dry land in the Mexican port city of Manzanillo, after months spent adrift at sea with his dog until a surprise rescue by a Mexican fishing ship.
The castaway, 54-year-old Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, was spotted by a fishing boat with his dog, Bella, on a catamaran in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.
The sailor and his pup originally set sail in April from Mexico bound for French Polynesia, but became stranded after a rough storm damaged their catamaran and knocked out its communication equipment.
The two survived the ordeal by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater.
Mr Shaddock says he, and Bella, are doing well.
“Look, I feel really good. I’ve been struggling. The health was pretty bad – for a while, I was pretty hungry and I didn’t think I could make it through the storm. But now I’m really doing good.
REPORTER: "And how is Bella?"
"She is amazing. That dog is something else.”
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In tennis,
Li Tu has won the Newport Open's 'battle of Australia' beating fellow Australian and world number 83 Aleksandar Vukic in straight sets at the A-T-P 250 tournament in the United States.
Ranked number 252 in the world, the win was Adelaide-based Li's first triumph over a top-100 player.
Li beat Vukic 6-3 7-6 to progress to the round of 16, where he will face another top-100 player - the U-S' Mackenzie McDonald who sits at number 54.
I'm Catriona Stirrat, this is SBS News in Easy English.
