Hello. It's Tuesday, May 3 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's headlines.
Let's start here
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says more than 100 civilians who have been stuck in Mariupol are due to arrive in Zaporizhzhia via a "vitally needed" green corridor.
An official in Mariupol says Russian forces resumed shelling the besieged city's Azovstal steel plant as soon as buses loaded with evacuating civilians departed.
The evacuation, if successful, would represent rare progress in easing the human cost of the almost 10-week war after previous attempts to open safe corridors out of the city and other places broke down.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a news conference that evacuation efforts remained "very fragile".
Something you’ll be hearing about today
The Reserve Bank will reveal today a decision on whether it will lift the official cash rate for the first time in years.
The rate has been at a record low throughout most of the pandemic, but economists are predicting that's about to come to an end — whether that's today or after the RBA's next meeting in a few weeks.
The Drum's David Taylor has taken a closer look at how to navigate the inevitable interest rate rise with your mortgage — check it out here.
News while you snoozed
- The Tasmania JackJumpers will play the Sydney Kings in the NBL grand final series in the team's very first season in the league. The JackJumpers defeated Melbourne United 76-73 in game three of their semi-final series overnight, with guard Josh Adams scoring 30 points including 12 in the third quarter to set up the victory.
-
A former US police officer has been found guilty of assault for his actions during the attack on the Capitol building by Donald Trump supporters last year. Thomas Webster is the fourth person to be found guilty for their role in the riot in Washington DC after a jury rejected his claim he was defending himself when he tackled a policeman and grabbed his gas mask.
What Australia has been searching for online
- Met Gala 2022. The "Super Bowl of fashion" kicks off about 8am AEST, and this year Hollywood's biggest names are dressing to the theme In America: An Anthology of Fashion.
- Emma Watkins. The former Yellow Wiggle has shared the first pictures of her wedding to musician Oliver Brian, who also worked with The Wiggles.
One more thing
COVID-19 reinfections are becoming increasingly common.
Health authorities typically define reinfection as a case 90 days or more after a previous COVID infection, to exclude people who simply shed the virus for a long period of time.
So if you've had COVID, what are the odds of getting sick a second time?
- Publicly available data on COVID reinfections is pretty limited in Australia
- Victoria is one of the few jurisdictions that does report this data
- There, almost 10,000 COVID-19 reinfections were recorded in the three months to March 2022
Mathematical biologist Deborah Cromer says from a statistical point of view, now is the time we'd expect to see a rise in the rates of people testing positive for COVID a second time.
"Within Australia, this is the first time we would expect to see a whole lot of reinfection because before December, we really didn't have huge numbers of infections," Dr Cromer says.
You're up to date
Thanks for reading. See you this afternoon for another edition of The Loop.
ABC/wires
