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Good morning!
Here is today’s riddle: I have many keys, but no locks. I have space, but no rooms. You may enter, but you may not go outside. What am I?
The answer is in the tidbit!
I’ve got 10 seconds
Quote of the day
“I have determined that I do not have confidence in the officer’s suitability to continue as a police officer… Accordingly, I have removed him from the NSW Police Force.”
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb in a statement on Kristian White, the officer found guilty of manslaughter for tasering a 95-year-old aged care resident.
Stat of the day
$50 million
The value of sales Woolworths said it’s lost since workers at four warehouses across Victoria and NSW went on strike, seeking better pay.
Today in history
1791
The Observer, in the UK, became the world’s first Sunday paper. It’s still published today after it was acquired by the Guardian Media Group in 1993.
I’ve got 30 seconds
Some headlines from this morning:
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has responded to the Business Council of Australia ranking the state the worst in the country for businesses, saying “more and more businesses are choosing Victoria as a place to invest in record numbers”. Yesterday, the peak body released its annual report comparing Australia’s states and territories based on the ease and cost of running a business. It said South Australia has “the best regulatory and tax settings for doing business in Australia,” while Victoria’s rate of taxes on land and how much businesses have to pay in workers’ compensation mean the state “has the most work to do in improving its business environment.” At a press conference yesterday, Premier Allan said the report was incomplete, and that Victoria’s businesses have access to a “strong skilled workforce” and low energy prices.
Hezbollah and Israel have accused each other of breaking a ceasefire, less than a week after it was signed. However, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby has said the ceasefire is “largely holding”. He said the strikes are to “be expected” after over a year of war and maintained there is a “mechanism” in place to try to stop these attacks. Lebanese authorities report Israel’s strikes have killed at least nine people. Under the agreement, both Israel and Hezbollah are required to gradually retreat from their current positions in southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army to secure the area.
Recommendation of the day
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I’ve got 1 minute
Australia’s 2024 spring was the hottest on record
Australia’s 2024 spring season was the hottest since records began in 1910.
Data from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) shows spring was 2.08°C warmer than average.
It was also one of the wettest known springs, with 28% more rainfall than average.
Measurement
Standardised weather data observations across Australia began in 1910.
Following international standards, the BoM also compares present-day temperatures against a “baseline” of data from 1961-1990.
Recent decades have recorded warmer temperatures than the baseline level.
Hottest spring
The average temperature across September to November was 2.08°C higher than the 1961-1990 baseline. This is the warmest spring in Australia on record.
Northern and some southern parts of the country experienced maximum daily temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s.
The BoM said: “There were extended periods with low to severe intensity heatwaves across much of Australia in both October and November.”
Averages
Rainfall
Overall, spring rainfall was 28% higher than average. Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory recorded higher levels of rainfall than a regular spring.
Some parts of the country were particularly dry, however. NSW, Victoria, and Queensland had lower rainfall averages for September-November than usual.
The Murray-Darling Basin, a large system of rivers and lakes in southeast Australia, recorded 5% lower rainfall than the baseline average.
Reporting by Harry Sekulich.
I’ve got 2 minutes
Belgium has passed a law to give sex workers maternity leave in a world first
Many sex workers in Belgium will now be able to access parental leave, sick days, and pensions under new legislation that came into effect this week.
The world-first legislation is designed to improve the safety of sex workers in the workplace.
The new law doesn’t apply to self-employed sex workers.
It comes after Belgium decriminalised sex work in 2022.
Sex work
In May, Belgium’s Parliament passed this law to allow employment contracts for sex workers. The implementation was delayed while details were worked out.
As well as excluding self-employed sex workers, the law does not cover dancers, adult film stars, or web-cam sex workers.
Worker’s rights
Under the law, sex workers employed by a business will have access to paid leave, pensions, unemployment payments, and parental leave.
Contracts will need to include hours and pay.
Employers must not have been convicted of serious crimes, and must make sure rooms have emergency buttons so workers can get help.
Additionally, sex workers now legally have the right to refuse a client or a client’s request. They cannot be fired for doing so.
Advocates
The reforms were spearheaded by sex-worker unions and advocacy groups who worked directly with the government.
In a post to social media, Belgian sex worker Mel Melicious said it was a “historical day”.
“I am a very proud Belgian sex worker right now. [The union] had a very difficult job of making this happen, but they did make it happen.”
Concerns
Isala, a Belgium-based organisation dedicated to helping women exit the sex work industry, has criticised the recent legal reform as a step backward.
It said the new law gives ‘pimps’ legal recognition as an “employer”.
“This amounts to normalising the exploitation of women's bodies and sexuality, legitimising the fact that men can buy them,” the organisation said.
It also argued the law is “contrary to protection against sexual harassment at work”.
Reporting by Harry Sekulich.
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🍊 The Australian rugby union star who is trialling for the NFL.
🍊 Dozens were killed in a crowd crush in Guinea. More details here.
🍊 An Aussie will make his F1 debut in Abu Dhabi. Find out more.
🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: soccer, skiing and more…
Give me some good news
Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that a set of drugs used to treat heart disease may slow the onset of Huntington’s disease, a genetic condition.
Symptoms of Huntington’s disease include lack of control over one’s body and changes in ability to think. It most frequently begins when people are in their 30s and has no cure. In a long-term study published in academic journal JAMA Neurology, researchers found that taking beta blockers was associated with the disease’s symptoms developing later in life, and worsening at a slower rate when they did appear.
Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!
Reporting by Lucy Tassell.
TDA tidbit
A few weeks ago, TDA brought you the Macquarie Dictionary’s nominations for word of the year.
FYI, the eventual winner was ‘enshittification’, meaning “the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service”.
Now, Oxford University Press has released its pick for the word that best defined 2024: “brain rot”.
If you’re chronically online, you likely already know what this means.
If not, brain rot is defined as: “Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material.”
Reporting by Nandini Dhir.
Riddle answer: A keyboard.
Want more from The Daily Aus? Listen to our podcast!
Earlier this week, Australian authorities seized 2.34 tonnes of cocaine from a fishing boat off Queensland’s coast, in what was the largest cocaine seizure in Australian history. Police told us that the haul has a street value of about $760 million. On today’s pod, we’re going to chat to AFP Commander Stephen Jay, who led the operation.
TDA asks
