☕️ Sam Kerr found not guilty

Here is today’s riddle: John had $800.
Tasha has $500. Kyle had $300. Who has the most money?

Answer is in the tidbit!

“No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (which owns ChatGPT), in response to an offer by a group of investors led by Elon Musk, of nearly $US100 billion, to take over the firm.

$740,000
The price of the watch, a Jacob & Co Yellow Sapphire Caviar Tourbillon, that Tom Brady wore to commentate at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Mellifluous: Something that is sweet or pleasant to hear.

Hamas has said it will delay the scheduled release of hostages “until further notice,” accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement. Israel has denied any violations of the terms.

Under the first phase of the agreement, Hamas is required to release small groups of Israeli hostages each week, in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners.

U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday the ceasefire should be cancelled if Hamas does not return all the remaining hostages by the weekend. Overnight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the ceasefire will end on Saturday if the hostages are not returned.

Following 15 months of war, a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect on 19 January.

The agreement has three phases. Under Phase 1, hostilities between Israel and Hamas were required to cease.

During this time, Hamas was required to release 33 hostages over a six week period, including women, children, older adults and the wounded.

In exchange, Israel was required to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including several serving life sentences.

In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of delaying Palestinians’ return to northern Gaza, attacking civilians, and blocking aid.

It said it would postpone the next release of hostages – scheduled for Saturday – ”until [Israel] commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks”.

In a follow-up statement, Hamas said it had given five days of warning about the delay “in order to give mediators sufficient time to pressure [Israel] into fulfilling its obligations.”

Yesterday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz called the delay to the release of hostages an “outright violation of the ceasefire”. The Israeli government also rejected claims about the blocking of aid.

Overnight, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the cease-fire will end, and the IDF will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated.”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel’s response to Hamas was its decision to make.

However, he said: “As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock... I would say cancel [the ceasefire] and all bets are off, and let hell break out.”

During a joint press conference with Netanyahu last week, Trump said he wanted the U.S. to “take over” and re-develop the Gaza Strip.

Australia’s peak body for general practitioners is calling for the Government to make it easier for people under 35 to visit a GP for free.

The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has laid out its election wish list for the major parties. It includes 19 areas to expand access to GPs across the country.

The RACGP pointed to recent data showing those aged 25 to 34-years-old are the most likely age group to avoid seeing a doctor due to cost.

It’s suggested paying doctors more for bulk-billing those under 35.

Medicare is Australia’s taxpayer-funded national health insurance scheme.

When a GP bulk bills a patient, they receive a payment from Medicare instead of the patient.

This is in place of paying directly to see a doctor for an appointment, which is known as an “out of pocket” cost.

In 2023, the Government increased payments to GPs for bulk-billing patients who were under 16 or held a concession card.

The change came after a decline in bulk billing rates in the 2022/23 financial year.

According to Government data, 80% of GP services were bulk billed in 2022/23, down from nearly 90% the year before.

The next federal election must be held by 17 May. In the lead-up, the RACGP has laid out 19 ways to increase affordable access to healthcare.

One of the key proposals is to extend the incentive payments for people up to (not including) the age of 35.

That means Medicare would pay GPs more for bulk billing appointments for those under the age of 35.

Speaking to TDA, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright pointed to Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing 25 to 34-year-olds were the most likely to delay seeing a doctor due to cost in 2023/24.

“People should not be having to put off essential general practice care to put food on their table or to fill their car with petrol,” Dr Wright told TDA.

He said GPs are the “front door” to Australia’s healthcare system, which he said is high quality “by international standards”.

“But there are gaps to access that need to be improved,” Wright said.

Speaking to media on Tuesday, Health Minister Mark Butler did not rule out incentives targeted at helping more people under 35 access a GP.

“We’ll have a lot more to say between now and the election,” he said.

Yesterday, the Government released its own data showing an increase in bulk billing across all states and territories.

Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston told TDA said the Coalition is “really concerned” about the number of people avoiding seeing a GP due to cost.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

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🍊 Soccer star defends touching accusation. Details here.
🍊 Bencic wins her 9th WTA title and her first as a mother.
🍊 The barefoot marathon winner. Read here.
🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: cricket, basketball, and more…

A group of 73 children aged 4 to 14 were included in the trials. Over an 18-month period, participants were gradually exposed to increasing traces of peanut butter. Initially, all 73 kids could only tolerate around half a peanut. By the end of the study, their tolerance increased to three tablespoons of peanut butter without an allergic reaction. Researchers from the UK’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said children with high-threshold peanut allergies have previously been excluded from food allergy treatment trials. However, it said these findings show there’s a “very safe and accessible form of therapy” that “could be liberating for many of these children and their families.”

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Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Ed Sheeran was stopped by police while busking performance in India.

The British singer-songwriter and four-time Grammy winner is currently touring the country, and decided to surprise crowds with a street-side performance in the city of Bengaluru.

Mid-way through ‘Shape of You’, a local police officer approached Sheeran and unplugged his microphone, which authorities have now said was because he did not have a permit to perform on the busy street.

Sheeran took to his social media, saying: “We had permission to busk, by the way. Hence, us playing in that exact spot was planned out beforehand. It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good, though.”

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

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Riddle answer: Tasha.

Celebrity lawsuits have dominated headlines in recent months, from Blake Lively to Jay-Z, Diddy, and Prince Harry. Another high-profile case is back in the spotlight this week, after Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance. The rapper's diss track ‘Not Like Us’ is the subject of a defamation lawsuit filed by Drake last month. Today, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about the long-running Drake/Kendrick feud and the latest developments on this lawsuit.