Hi there. It's Thursday, July 21 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here: China's AUKUS concerns
A report issued by the Chinese government has declared that the AUKUS submarine deal sets a "dangerous precedent" and threatens nuclear non-proliferation.
The report berates Australia, the US and the UK over the project, saying it would allow nuclear states to transfer weapons-grade nuclear materials to a non-nuclear state for the first time.
It also claims that the deal signals that Australia is intent on developing nuclear weapons.
Richard McGregor from the Lowy Institute said the report was part of an orchestrated campaign against AUKUS by the Chinese government, but pointed out that China "had an argument to make" when it came to AUKUS setting a precedent.
"The Chinese can argue that, once the US and the UK can do this for Australia, then any other nuclear country — say Russia — could say, 'OK, we can transfer similar material to, say, Iran for use in their submarines'," he said.
"Now we might rightly trust Australia to handle this material correctly, but would we trust Iran to use it according to global rules? And there might be a different answer to those two questions."
We heard a lot about foot-and-mouth disease
There are growing fears about a potential outbreak of the disease here in Australia after viral fragments were detected on imported meat in Melbourne.
The disease has spread through Asia, and any widespread outbreak in Australia could have a devastating impact on the economy.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the fragments were discovered using "routine retail surveillance" exercises, and the affected products have been seized from shelves and warehouses.
The viral fragments detected are not the same as the live virus, meaning they don't post a threat to human health, but Senator Watt said there would be a risk of it being transmitted to pigs if they ate the contaminated meat — even though it is illegal to feed meat, animal products or imported dairy products to pigs in Australia.
Yesterday, Senator Watt announced citric acid foot mats would be installed at airports around the country to prevent any fragments entering the country from overseas travellers.
News you might have missed
- The price of your daily coffee could be about to get more expensive, with the price of milk on the rise. One coffee shop in Hobart says this means their prices will be going up by about 50 to 80 cents. Farmers say it's a sign that their product is finally being valued at the right price.
- The CIA estimates around 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war in Ukraine. Russia classifies its military deaths as a state secret, and provided its last update on March 25 when it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed.
- Ivana Trump has been farewelled at a funeral in New York City. The businesswoman, socialite and first wife of former US president Donald Trump died from her injuries after falling down the stairs at her home on July 14.
What Australia has been searching for online
- Josh Frydenberg: Australia's former treasurer has been appointed as a senior regional adviser for Asia-Pacific for investment bank Goldman Sachs, two months after losing his seat at the federal election.
- Microsoft Teams: No, you weren't imagining it — Microsoft's messaging platform was affected by an outage today. Thousands of people reported running into problems shortly before midday AEST, according to outage website DownDetector, but Microsoft hasn't given any details on how many users were impacted. A large portion of the affected services have since been restored, but some users are still experiencing some issues.
One more thing: Quidditch gets a rebrand
The International Quidditch Association will change its name to Quadball to cut trademark costs with Warner Bros and distance itself from JK Rowling.
The change has been a long time coming, with the IQA's Name Change Committee working since March to rebrand the sport.
In its statement announcing the new name, the IQA called out Harry Potter author JK Rowling, saying she has "increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions".
As for the sport itself, it's a big deal — there's nearly 600 teams registered across 40 countries, and Australia's national team, the Dropbears, will compete in the IQA European Games in Ireland this weekend.
You're up to date
We'll be back with more tomorrow.
ABC/Wires
