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Happy Wednesday!
Here’s today’s riddle…
The owner of a popular clothing store comes up with his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $8, socks cost $10, a tie costs $6, and a blouse costs $12. Using the owner’s method, how much would a pair of underwear cost?
Answer is in the tidbit!
I've got 10 seconds
The quote
"We’ve got to change the debate that everyone on welfare is a dole bludger. We have to stop treating people who may have fallen on hard times as a second-class Australian." – Government Services Minister Bill Shorten on social security recipients.
The stat
3.3%
The percentage that overall household spending increased in May compared to the same time last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Today in history
2022: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released its first images from space. NASA called it the “dawn of a new era in astronomy”.
I've got 30 seconds
Some headlines from this morning:
Ben Roberts-Smith will appeal his unsuccessful defamation case against Nine newspapers. His claims against three papers were dismissed by the Federal Court in June, with a judge ruling some key claims in the articles were "substantially true". The newspapers alleged the prominent former soldier either killed, or ordered the killings, of prisoners in Afghanistan.
The family of the 95-year-old woman who was tasered in an aged care home is suing the NSW Government. Clare Nowland was tasered by police during an incident in May, and died as a result of her injuries a week later.
I've got 1 minute
Access to abortion pills will be significantly expanded after Australia's drug and medicine regulator announced several restrictions will be removed.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has said the common medication MS-2 Step will now be able to be prescribed by doctors and nurses without specialist training and to be dispensed at all pharmacies.
The decision will take effect from 1 August.
MS-2 step:
MS-2 Step is a combination of two pills, Mifepristone and Misoprostol. The pills can terminate a standard pregnancy up to 63 days (nine weeks).
Under previous rules, MS-2 Step could only be prescribed by specially-certified doctors and dispensed by registered pharmacists.
Currently, 1 in 10 doctors are certified to prescribe MS-2 Step and 3 in 10 pharmacists are registered to dispense it.
The decision:
The non-profit pharmaceutical company MS Health, which supplies the medication in Australia, applied to the TGA to relax these requirements.
The TGA announced it had approved this application. From 1 August, MS 2-Step can be dispensed at any pharmacy and prescribed by any qualified healthcare practitioner, which the TGA says may include nurses.
In response, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), which oversees government funding for medications, has announced it will recognise nurses as approved prescribers.
Both the TGA and PBAC said their decisions would address "important access issues" for patients.
The Federal Government welcomed the decision. Ged Kearney, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, said women currently experience structural barriers to accessing the medication.
"These changes recognise the importance of health practitioners that women see regularly – their GP, their nurse practitioner and their community pharmacist."
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I've got 2 minutes
The world is in "uncharted territory" after recording its hottest-ever week, according to experts from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Several days in the first week of July broke daily temperature records and July is on track to be the hottest month on record.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres says it shows "climate change is out of control".
The weekly record:
Measuring global average temperature is a complicated exercise that involves computer modelling as well as direct measurements. This means different meteorological organisations can produce slightly different results, and early results can change.
However, early results from the Japanese Meteorological Agency suggest the first week of July was the hottest ever.
Several days in the week recorded an average temperature above 17.2ºC, beating the previous daily record of 16.94ºC from August 2016. The WMO says these results match early results from other organisations.
Monthly records:
The result comes after the hottest June ever recorded, with record-breaking land and sea surface temperatures.
The current record for the hottest month ever recorded is July 2021. July is typically the hottest month of the year, so a continuation of the current pattern could see the all-time monthly record broken.
Reasons:
The WMO says there are two key reasons for the warm weather.
One is a heatwave in the North Atlantic ocean, which WMO Head of World Climate Research Dr Michael Sparrow says is "much higher than anything the models predicted" and of "great concern".
According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, this heatwave is caused by a combination of short-term anomalies and longer-term climate change.
The second is the 'El Niño' weather event developing in the Pacific Ocean, which leads to hotter, drier temperatures in areas including Australia.
El Niño is in its early stages, and the WMO expects it will continue to drive higher temperatures in the coming months.
WMO Director of Climate Services Professor Christopher Hewitt says "we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024... This is worrying news for the planet”.
Give me some good news
The uniform of the Australian netball team will feature First Nations artwork for the first time ever.
The uniform was unveiled ahead of this month’s netball World Cup. It depicts a gathering circle representing past, present, and future Australian netball players.
A message from our sponsor
Women's football has reached new heights in Australia - and continues to ignite a broader passion for women's sports, from grassroots fields to professional stadiums.
The Matildas have already played a pivotal role in this global phenomenon. So, on the eve of the world’s biggest moment for the “beautiful game”, this is the perfect moment to remind ourselves just how far our national team has come.
Since the first Australian Women’s national team was invited to participate on a global stage in 1978, to the naming of the Matildas in 1995, to becoming the first Australian national football team to win silverware in Asia in 2010; they’ve gone on to break both TV viewing and attendance records. Once a largely unknown team, the Matildas now inspire a new generation of football fans.
As the Matildas face France in a momentous Farewell Match at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on July 14th, TDA and Nike invite you to join us in celebrating their successes both on and off the pitch and remember the power of women’s sport to build a better game for all.
A TDA tidbit
Yesterday at lunch we played a game: Name someone who everyone in the room knows, but nobody has thought about in two years.
It was a segment Hamish & Andy used to do. Here are some of the people we thought of:
‘Chck Chck Boom’ girl
Egg Boy
Gabriella Cilmi
Redfoo
It was an extremely entertaining lunchtime conversation. Anyhoo. Moving on.
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Answer: $18 – The method is charging $2 for each letter needed to spell out the clothing item.
The Daily Aus acknowledges the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.