Hi there. It's Thursday, December 16 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of the news you need to know about.
A note — much of today's news may be distressing for some readers.
One thing you should know
Five children have died and multiple others have been critically injured after the wind blew a jumping castle high into the air at a Tasmanian primary school.
Police say several children "fell from a height of about 10 metres" during an end-of-year activity day.
Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport, in the state's north-west, was closed soon after the incident and several helicopters helped transport injured children to hospitals.
"This is a very tragic event and our thoughts are with the families and the wider school community, and also our first responders," Commander Debbie Williams told media.
Many parents arrived at the school not knowing if their child had been affected.
If this story has raised concerns for you, please call:
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
- MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978
- Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
- Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36
- Headspace on 1800 650 890
- QLife on 1800 184 527
What else is going on
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COVID cases are increasing in multiple states. Today, there were:
- 1,742 new cases reported in NSW
- 1,622 in Victoria
- 24 in SA
- 22 in Queensland
- 11 in the ACT
- And one in Tasmania (its first infection since borders reopened) - Queensland is "actively considering" re-introducing a mask mandate, Victorian authorities are investigating a potential Omicron exposure event at two Melbourne bars, and today is the first time in months NSW has surpassed Victoria's daily case figures
- WA has lost the rest of its scheduled Big Bash fixtures after declaring NSW an "extreme risk" jurisdiction, with organisers forced to pull matches from the state over quarantine arrangements, and a Perth Glory player has tested positive for COVID (at least the third A League player to test positive this season).
News alerts you might have missed
- Our debt has been revised down by almost $66 billion and is no longer expected to hit almost $1 trillion (just). Here's what else MYEFO told us
- Sydney gangster Pasquale Barbaro was killed in 2016. After three secret trials, details of his underworld execution can finally be revealed.
Not signed up for ABC News alerts and want updates like these in real-time? Head to the ABC News app homepage ➡️ Settings ➡️ Notifications and tailor your alerts to what you want to know.
What Australia has been searching for online
- VCE results. Many, many Victorian graduates were up early this morning waiting to hear their scores which were released today — as someone who cried for days when they got their final year 12 grading, let me tell you, it's not worth crying about. I got my dream job eventually and you can too
- Lewis Hamilton. He may have been pipped at the post for the Formula 1 World Championship, but he's making up for it by receiving a knighthood at Windsor Castle, the fourth F1 driver to be knighted and the first to do so while still competing.
One more thing
It's the first day of the second Ashes Test, and the drama started rolling in well before the first ball was bowled.
It's a long story, but basically:
- New captain Pat Cummins was ruled out last-minute — like, really last-minute — after being named a close contact of a COVID case
- That came after Josh Hazlewood was already ruled out with injury
- Michael Neser was rushed in to replace Cummins, making his Test debut
- Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon were at the same exposure site as Cummins, but only deemed casual contacts
- The Barmy Army swears it wasn't them who COVID-ed up our captain
- Steve Smith was named captain, and Travis Head vice-captain
- David Warner was ruled fit to play just in time, but he's also carrying an injury he picked up in the first Test.
And that was all before the match even started.
You can join the actual playing-of-cricket action in our live blog.
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