☕️ Queensland's election is tomorrow

In case you missed it, Queensland has an election this weekend!

Incumbent Premier Steven Miles is wanting to continue Labor’s nine years in government, while the Liberal National Party (LNP) are looking to takeover. The LNP have been ahead in the polls, but it has been tightening.

You can listen to an interview with the Premier on our daily podcast here.

“The evidence for the effect heat has on child and adolescent mental health is significantly stronger than that for social media, which we are already seeing quite a lot of action on.”
UNSW lecturer Dr Cybele Dey, lead author of a study linking increased temperature to a spike in mental health-related presentations to emergency departments.

$200
The amount households in NSW’s Far West region will receive in compensation, following days of power outages.

2016
Four people were killed at theme park Dreamworld on the Gold Coast when a ride malfunctioned.

A blast at the headquarters of a Government-owned aviation company in Türkiye has killed five people and injured at least 14 others.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the strike a “terrorist attack”.

While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, a Kurdish militant group, authorities have blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Türkiye, Australia, the UK, and U.S. all classify the group as a terrorist organisation.

Footage appears to show two armed figures entering a Turkish Aerospace Industries building near Ankara, the country’s capital.

An explosion was then set off inside the building at the industry’s complex.

The firm is the central headquarters of Türkiye’s defence capabilities. Its website shows it often holds exhibitions of military equipment and aerospace technology.

Officials have put the death toll at five: four employees and a taxi driver.

President Erdoğan said security forces “neutralised” the two alleged terrorists.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told media the attack was likely carried out by the PKK.

In response to the attack, Turkish forces have struck PKK targets in Syria and northern Iraq.

The PKK wants to set up an independent Kurdish state in south-east Türkiye, bordering Syria and Iraq.

Kurdish people have ethnic links to the region and are a minority in Türkiye.

The PKK has been responsible for numerous violent attacks against Turkish people in recent decades.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Federal Court action against Woolworths and Coles has commenced.

The consumer watchdog is suing the supermarket giants in separate lawsuits for allegedly misleading customers.

It claims the retailers breached consumer law by using deceptive “discount pricing claims”. It alleges Coles and Woolies “derived significant revenue” from selling “millions” of these products.

Lawyers for both supermarkets have blamed suppliers, saying pricing practices are based on their demands.

Coles and Woolworths control around two-thirds of the supermarket sector. A Senate inquiry earlier this year called the companies a “duopoly”. This is when two businesses control an overwhelming majority of an industry.

In the 2023/24 financial year, Coles’ net profits were $1.1 billion. Woolworths reported a $1.7 billion profit for the same period.

The ACCC is currently conducting a separate inquiry into supermarket price-setting for the Federal Government. Its final report is due in February.

The ACCC alleges the retailers use the “Prices Dropped” (Woolies) and “Down Down” (Coles) tags to unlawfully mislead customers.

It argues the retailers use “price spiking” — when products briefly become more expensive before being “reduced” to a price that is more expensive, or the same as, before the spike.

The ACCC is seeking “significant” cost penalties from the supermarkets, and a mandatory order for the companies to fund a registered food/meal service charity.

Coles’ barrister John Sheahan told the court price increases were a product of suppliers also experiencing “a period of sudden high inflation".

He argued that when suppliers requested price increases on their products, “they were tested and investigated by Coles” to ensure they were well-founded.

Woolworths’ barrister Cameron Moore told the court “the ACCC’s case is misconceived”.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

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🍊 Eight Aussies will be joining the Hall of Fame. Who are they?
🍊 NRLW players want compensation. More details here.
🍊 ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ is joining NASCAR. Check out what he said.
🗞️ Also in today’s Sport Newsletter: cricket, soccer, and more…

It comes after a remotely-operated underwater vehicle was used to conduct a 30-day expedition in the southeastern Pacific last year.

Researchers found worms and snails living in hidden vents beneath the ocean floor. Findings published in the journal Nature show large tubeworms were found living in cavities below the seabed in a volcanically active area.

Sabine Gollner from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research told Reuters it was a “mind-blowing” discovery to find animals surviving in hot, mineral-rich environments of the deep sea.

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Chloe Christie.

The Metropolitan Government of Seoul, South Korea, has announced initiatives to make the city the first “where no one is lonely”.

Over five years, the city council will spend 451 billion won ($AU490 million) on social services to reduce mental ill-health and increase connection.

First, it will launch a 24/7 call centre to “comfort tired hearts and overcome loneliness”, for those who “want to step out into society after a long period of seclusion”, or simply feel lonely.

The Government also announced plans to identify and support “isolated households”, including by allowing their family to reach out on their behalf.

In perhaps the cutest new policy, Seoul’s green spaces will be expanded under a program “turning hardware into ‘heartware’”, helping reduce isolation by connecting citizens with nature.

Reporting by Lucy Tassell.

Earlier this week, independent Senator Lidia Thorpe disrupted a ceremony for the King and Queen, speaking for nearly a minute about the King being a “genocidalist”, calling for land to be returned to First Nations communities and asking for a Treaty.

In the days since, Thorpe has been accused of breaching the oath of allegiance she took when she entered Parliament. Only Thorpe doesn’t think so, because she’s claiming a bit of wordplay meant she didn’t actually make the pledge.