It’s Monday!

And it’s Super Bowl day – the championship game of the NFL in the U.S.

Did you know there have been some years where more people in the U.S. watched the Super Bowl than voted in their most recent election?

It’s huge. 

So how has it become one of the biggest annual events in the world? I had a fascinating chat with Associate Professor David Smith from the United States Studies Centre about this.

You can listen here, or on your favourite podcast app.

Quote of the day
“[Joe Biden] did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?“), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still Vice President?“). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”
U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert K. Hur in a report explaining why he won’t press charges against President Joe Biden over keeping classified documents at his home.

Stat of the day
$7.8 million
How much Optus’ retail arm will backpay employees, after an internal review found a pattern of underpayment from 2014 to 2020.

Today in history
1851
Edward Hammond Hargraves finds gold for the first time in Bathurst, marking the beginning of Australia’s first gold rush.

Some headlines from this morning:

• Israel’s military is expected to launch a ground invasion in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, where over a million Palestinian people are currently seeking refuge. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered plans for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians, saying: "It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.” Nearly 28,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's war in Gaza since 7 October, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200.

• Myanmar has announced compulsory military service for all young men and women in the country. The conscription law will come into effect immediately, and will require all men aged 18-35, and women aged 18-27, to serve for at least two years. The military seized control of Myanmar in February 2021, just as a new session of Parliament was about to begin, and has ruled ever since.

Emergency services in WA used wastewater (sewage) to extinguish a bushfire in Perth last week, prompting an official investigation.

Firefighting helicopters dropped the water, which may have contained hazardous and toxic materials, on the suburb of Bullsbrook on Wednesday.

A health alert has since been issued, advising residents to empty any water tanks and avoid eating homegrown vegetables or fruit.

Authorities said any bacteria spread by the water should be neutralised by warm weather in the coming days.

Fallout
The wastewater was dropped as part of wider efforts to contain bushfires in Perth’s northern suburbs last week.

The water wasn’t dropped over any properties, but concerns about drifting wastewater spray forced school closures on Thursday.

Residents are advised to seek medical attention if they’re feeling unwell.

Investigation
An investigation has been launched to determine how the wastewater ended up being used on the fires.

It’s believed the water came from a sewage treatment facility, which is not where water for firefighting purposes is typically drawn from.

However, emergency service officials said the water wasn’t viewed as a “no-go” before it was dropped.

Premier
WA Premier Roger Cook said the risk to residents was minimal.

“Our priority is to keep people safe and to get the fires out, and in an emergency situation sometimes it doesn’t always go to plan,” he conceded.

Australian employees will have a legal right to switch off outside of work hours.

It comes after the Government’s Industrial Relations reforms (measures for workers) passed the Senate last week.

Other new measures include increased support for gig workers, such as Uber and Menulog drivers, and improved conditions for casual workers seeking permanent employment.

Background
The government first tabled workplace reforms last year.

Some of its proposed changes, such as criminalising wage theft, were passed in December. However, the original legislation was split, so aspects of it could undergo further consideration by a Senate committee.

That committee handed down its findings last week. Its report made 11 recommendations, including a need to legislate protections for employees’ ‘right to disconnect’ outside of work hours.

Right to disconnect
A legal right to disconnect is designed to support workers who choose not to respond to “unreasonable contact” outside of paid hours. It won’t stop employees from choosing to work after hours.

The Senate committee found some employees were being driven to exhaustion due to an expectation of being accessible outside of work hours.

This included teachers, who were said to be confronted by parents when they failed to respond to messages outside of class hours.

Criticism
Concerns about a legal right to disconnect were raised by several members of the Senate committee.

Unintended consequences for businesses were mentioned in the Senate report, including potential logistical challenges or legal disputes brought by workers.

Nationals Leader David Litttleproud told ABC that a “common sense” approach should be taken to disconnecting from work, rather than adding a legal right.

Unpaid overtime
The Government said it hopes the legal right to disconnect will prevent employees from being made to work unpaid overtime.

In the committee report, Greens Senators referred to unpaid overtime as a “ubiquitous problem” across Australian workplaces, which had “untold financial, physical, mental and social costs”.

A report released by the Australia Institute in November found the average worker was losing about $11,000 each year to unpaid overtime.

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The Super Bowl is one of the biggest nights in entertainment in America, and more recently in Australia as well.

Every year, millions of people tune in to watch not only the game, but also some of the biggest names in music perform during the half-time show, as well as multi-million dollar advertisements.

So why is the Super Bowl such a cultural phenomenon? Listen today’s podcast.

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Greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide could be transformed into a carbon free fuel.

Researchers successfully converted emissions to formic acid — a chemical compound naturally produced by ants that could be used to store electrical energy. Scientists at the University of Auckland said the breakthrough “opens up exciting possibilities for carbon-neutral technologies” and could see cars running on “repurposed carbon dioxide” in the future.

Medalists at this year’s Olympics won’t just be taking home memories of the Games’ host city, Paris – they’ll actually get a tiny piece of it.

Leftover metal used to construct the Eiffel Tower (which was completed in 1889) has been incorporated into this year’s Olympic and Paralympic medals. It means the centre of every gold, silver and bronze medal will contain a piece of the original iron used to build the Eiffel Tower, more than 130 years ago.

President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee Tony Estanguet said: “There was a huge amount done to try to bring together these precious metals - gold, silver and bronze - with the most precious metal in the Eiffel Tower, the jewel in the French crown.”

The Committee produced more than 5,000 medals for this year's Games. Each includes 18 grams of Eiffel Tower iron, and weighs about 500 grams.

Iron? Icon.