The Loop: Why the urea shortage matters, WA's border rules to reopen, Miranda Tapsell's baby news and Peloton responds to that Mr Big scene

G'day g'day!

It's Monday, December 13. Here's what's been happening today:

One thing to know right now: There's a global shortage of urea

Here's why you should care:

• Urea is a natural chemical compound that's a key ingredient in a fluid called AdBlue, which is used to reduce pollution from diesel engines
• Diesel trucks and cars that use AdBlue simply will not run without the chemical, according to British insurer AA
• So without AdBlue, the transport industry could grind to a halt but it'd also impact the agriculture sector, with farmers relying on diesel machinery for planting and harvesting — so, essentially, it'd make it very, very hard to grow food and transport anything around the country
• 80 per cent of Australia's urea stocks come from China, which has capped exports of the chemical to protect its own domestic supplies
• Trade Minister Dan Tehan says Australia should be able to secure a crucial supply of the chemical from Indonesia "in the coming weeks" and the government has also reached out to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Japan
• Mr Tehan says businesses shouldn't be stockpiling supplies of AdBlue 

Supermarkets rely on diesel-fuelled trucks to get food on the shelves. (Flickr: Carol E. Davis)

One thing we heard a lot about today: WA's hard border won't come down until February 5

• The WA government hopes 90 per cent of the state's population aged 12 and over will be vaccinated by then
• Fully vaccinated travellers will be able to enter the state without having to quarantine, but testing requirements will still apply
• Everyone will need to return a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure, with follow-up tests being required within 48 hours of arrival if their trip into WA is for six days or more
• There will be a small cap on unvaccinated international arrivals, who will have to go into hotel quarantine 

Fully vaccinated travellers will not need to quarantine in WA once the hard border lifts on February 5, 2022.  (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)

News you might have missed:

Let's get you up to speed.

• The federal government announced that telehealth will be permanently included in Australia's health system. More than $100 million will be spent to make telehealth services permanent
• The NT recorded 16 new COVID-19 cases linked to the Katherine cluster. The NT government said it was treating the Katherine area as an exposure site, making it mandatory for anyone who has left Katherine, Binjari or Rockhole since Monday, November 29 to get tested for the virus
• SA Police say a man was left with serious injuries after being assaulted with a brick in Adelaide's CBD at about 10:30am this morning

The news Australia is searching for

• Miss Universe 2021: Bollywood actor Harnaaz Sandhu of India was crowned the 70th Miss Universe in the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat. It kicked off in the middle of the night, wrapping up at 5:00am local time just so it would sync up with primetime TV viewing in the US.
  
• Miranda Tapsell: The Sapphires and Top End Wedding star has welcomed her first child with husband James Colley. Her name is Grace Birri-Pa Purnarrika Colley — Birri-Pa is Larrakia for butterfly and Purnarrika is Tiwi for water lily. The Larrakia people are the traditional owners of the Darwin region and Tiwi is the language spoken in the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. Look at that little face:
  

One more thing: Peloton has responded to THAT Mr Big scene

If you haven't yet seen the first two episodes of the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That yet and you care about spoilers, please look away now. 

I mean it — I don't want spoiling AJLT for you to weigh on to my conscience. 

If you keep scrolling, it's your own fault. 

Ok? Good. 

So the beloved-but-also-kinda-hated Sex and the City character Mr Big had a heart attack after a session on his Peloton bike and just like that, he died. 

Peloton knew its bike would be in the series, but the company had no idea how it would be used — especially not that it'd be what led to Chris Noth's character's death. 

The day after the episode aired, Peloton stocks plummeted by 11.3 per cent to a 19-month low (I couldn't help but wonder if there would be such a dramatic impact if it were Aidan on that bike...).

So they did a bit of damage control, quickly whipping up this ad and undoing all our radical acceptance work in processing Mr Big's death. 

It includes Allegra, Mr Big's favourite instructor and the big man himself, who Peloton assures us is not dead (that delivery Carrie got was actually just a canister of potpourri, OK!?)

Yeah, let's put this thing to bed

We'll be back in the morning!

ABC/wires