Hi there. It's two weeks tomorrow until Christmas Day and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of the news you need to know about.
One thing you should know
The South Australian government says the personal details of tens of thousands of employees, including potentially the Premier, have been accessed in a cyber-attack.
- The "ransomware cyber attack" targeted external payroll software provider Frontier Software
- The SA government says somewhere between 38,000 and 80,000 employees have been affected
- The Department for Education is one of the only departments that does not use Frontier
Treasurer Rob Lucas says staff are being offered support and the incident is being investigated.
What else is going on
- England is clawing back a chance at a first Ashes Test win after what most have described as a pretty shocking start. After going down for less than 150 in the first innings and chasing Australia's 425, it was looking all but over until captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan managed to build a pretty solid partnership through the afternoon
- Speaking of the Ashes, Tasmania's bid to host the fifth Test is pretty close to being locked in with official confirmation expected over the weekend
- A Tasmanian man who set his girlfriend on fire in 2017, leaving her with "catastrophic burns" and lifelong injuries, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for attempted murder. Justice Michael Brett described Davey's actions as "cruel" and "arrogant" and the final step in an escalating pattern of violence
Family and domestic violence support:
- 1800 Respect national helpline:
1800 737 732- Women's Crisis Line:
1800 811 811- Men's Referral Service:
1300 766 491- Lifeline (24 hour crisis line):
131 114- Relationships Australia:
1300 364 277
News alerts you might have missed
- About 33 per cent of Australian public companies paid zero tax in the 2019-20 financial year. Here's the list of who paid (or didn't pay) what
- Queensland has recorded nine new cases of COVID-19, including six people who have been infectious in the Gold Coast community for a number of days
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
Lionel Rose. A whole new generation of fans has been introduced to the former Australian of the Year and one of the country's most legendary boxers thanks to the former world champion being featured as a Google Doodle.
Josh Duggar. The former reality TV star (the oldest kid of 19 Kids and Counting fame) has been found guilty of downloading and possessing images of children being sexually abused.
And one more thing
There are spoilers below.
If you're a Sex and the City fan and you don't want the reboot spoiled for you, stop scrolling now.
OK, that was your last chance. Here we go.
It's been 17 years since the last Sex and the City episode aired and 11 years since we last saw Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda together (although most of us prefer to pretend that second movie didn't happen), but overnight the first two episodes of a new season were released.
Kim Cattrall isn't involved in the reboot, and it took just 44 seconds for the question "where's Samantha?" to come up on the show.
I won't tell you what the answer was just in case you're STILL reading this and have hit a spoiler, but we later find out there was some drama between Carrie and Samantha, which mirrors the real life … situation with Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Of course, fans had a lot of opinions about this — not all of them positive — but as the show kept trying to hammer home, things change.
The reboot, titled And Just Like That, is on Foxtel and Binge.
You're up to date
We'll be back with more of The Loop next week.
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