TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
Warning - this story includes content that may distress some listeners.
Hundreds of families are demanding answers after unknowingly handing their children into the care of an alleged sex offender at childcare centres.
The alleged offender, 26-year-old Joshua Dale Brown, worked at 20 different childcare centres in Victoria since 2017, and faces over 70 charges including the sexual penetration of a child under 12.
More than 1,200 families with young children who attended the centres have been told to have their children screened for potential diseases.
The Victorian government has ordered an urgent child safety review, a register of all early childhood educators and moved forward a mobile phone ban in facilities to late September with $50,000 fines for breaches.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare told Nine's Today Show the federal government will also make changes.
"We've got to act here, there's steps that we've already taken, but not enough and not fast enough. One of the things that I will do as the Minister for Education is when the parliament returns later this month, introduced legislation that will cut off funding to childcare centres that aren't meeting our safety standards or our quality standards."
And listeners needing support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kidshelpline on 1800 55 1800
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Residents on Lord Howe Island are being urged to prepare as a complex and damaging weather system is forecast to bring rain, storms, wind and elevated seas for the coming days.
Thousands remain without power across Australia's east coast after a wild weather system swept the region.
Emergency services in New South Wales say almost 4,000 incidents have been reported since the weather event began on Monday.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Gabrielle Woodhouse has given an update from Wollongong.
"Starting to see the tail end of this event in terms of the weather and flooding, but there is still flooding occurring at the moment. We're expecting the damaging wind severe weather warning as well as the coastal hazard warning for damaging surf to be cancelled later this morning, and with that we're starting to see that easing trend in the waves and the wind. In saying that it is still going to be fairly wind. windy near the coast today, it's just not going to be reaching those damaging thresholds."
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The United States Defence Department says US strikes on Iran heavily degraded its nuclear program by up to two years, despite previous assessments suggesting it was only set back by a few months.
The claim comes as Iran officially suspends cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, accusing the agency of siding with Western nations after Israel's strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defence Intelligence Agency suggested the strikes may have only set back Iran's nuclear program by months.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says the sites have been 'completely obliterated'.
"All of the conversations that we've had since Operation Midnight Hammer with our allies all around the world, but certainly also in the region, you know, they say a couple of things. They share our sentiments about, you know, the degradation of Iran's nuclear program and the fact that we have degraded their program by one to two years at least, Intel assessments inside the department assess that."
As well as strikes on the nuclear facilities, Iranian officials say Israeli and U-S strikes on Iran killed at least 935 people over the 12 days.
Israeli officials says Iran's retaliatory strikes killed 28 people in Israel.
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To Basketball now...
Australia are two steps away from ending a decades-long medal drought at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup after advancing to the quarter-finals with a 106-96 win over the Dominican Republic.
Jacob Furphy led all scorers with five three-pointers, and Jack Whitbourn posted a double-double for the Emus, who never trailed in their round-of-16 encounter.
The win sees the Emus advancing to the last eight of the tournament for the first time since 2015.
They next face Germany on Friday, after the European team continued their strong tournament with a win over Serbia.
That was SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
