Hey, you there!
Welcome to Friday, November 5. Here's what you need to get going today.
One thing to know right now: The annual card for Australia's hospitals is in … and it's not great
Here's the lowdown:
- The Australian Medical Association's (AMA) Public Hospital Report Card 2021 shows the hospital system showed some improvements during COVID-19, when patient levels dropped dramatically.
- But the report found hospitals were still facing severe pressure.
- AMA president Omar Khorshid says it's "not to the level we thought it should be" and it's about to get "much worse".
Something else you’ll be hearing about today: Those late-night COVID-19 developments
The good news: The border between Victoria and NSW reopened last night for the first time in months. People coming into Victoria from NSW will need to get a permit that verifies they aren't COVID-positive or a close contact required to isolate. There are no restrictions on fully vaccinated Victorians entering NSW, but unvaccinated people aged 16 or over are not allowed to enter NSW for recreation or a holiday.
The bad news: The Northern Territory has recorded its first-ever case of COVID-19 community transmission. Late last night, the territory government announced a three-day lockdown of the Katherine region.
More good news: We're also going to hear about WA's roadmap to reopening at some point today.
And the other news: The first National Cabinet meeting in more than a month is on today, with international border arrangements, Indigenous vaccination programs and community COVID readiness on the agenda.
News while you snoozed
Let's get you up to speed.
- The UK has become the first nation to approve Merck's antiviral COVID-19 pill molnupiravir. It will be used as soon as possible following a positive COVID-19 test and within five days of the onset of symptoms.
- Australia's hopes of qualifying for the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals are back on track after chalking up an eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
- A US court is considering whether to release hundreds of Donald Trump's White House records as part of an investigation into the Capitol riot.
- Tiger King's Joseph "Joe Exotic" Maldonado-Passage says he has been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer in a message from prison. He asked on Twitter for people to pray for him.
The news Australia is searching for
- Great Barrier Reef: A James Cook University study shows only 2 per cent of the reef has escaped a bleaching event since 1998 and about 80 per cent has been severely bleached at least once since 2016.
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ABBA: The Swedish pop group has dropped eight new songs after their new album Voyage was officially released today. ALSO: They put out a trailer for the upcoming Voyage concerts — which will be performed by the ABBA avatars with a 10-piece band:
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Aurora Australis: The Bureau of Meteorology issued an alert for the phenomenon yesterday evening, saying it might be visible from Tasmania and Victoria's coastline:
One more thing: Look at the size of this potato!
It's roughly the size of a small dog, weighing 7.9 kilograms:
And would you believe that it wasn't grown on purpose?
Well, you better believe it because Colin and Donna Craig-Brown found it while weeding their garden in Hamilton, New Zealand.
They'd been growing cucumbers in that spot before weeds took over, so they think it was self-sown and had been growing for a few years.
They've named the potato Doug, after the way it was unearthed.
Colin even built a small cart to tow Doug around.
The current Guinness World Records entry for the heaviest potato is a 2011 monster from Britain that weighed in at just under 5 kilograms.
Donna and Colin have applied to Guinness and are waiting to hear back.
So what will become of Doug?
Colin, who is a keen amateur brewer, plans to eventually turn Doug into potato vodka.
Read the storyThat's it for now
We'll be back later on with more of the good stuff.
ABC/wires
