As Townsville prepares for an influx of rugby fans, game one of State of Origin is expected to inject around $7 million into the local economy. As has been the case on several occasions in sport during the pandemic, Melbourne’s loss has been Queensland’s gain, with Wednesday’s series opener shifted from the MCG to Queensland…
Update: Yesterday, it was announced that two of Melbourne’s most concerning cases of COVID-19 were false positives causing Victoria’s overall case numbers to go backwards. Despite the announcement, the news has not impacted the timeline of Victoria’s lockdown, which is set to last until next week. The health advice for Victoria still required a lockdown,…
Naomi Osaka’s decision to withdraw from the French Open, sparked by a media boycott and mental health issues, has prompted an outpouring across the tennis and sporting world. Osaka declared prior to Roland Garros that she would not speak to the media, tweeting: “I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes mental health…
Qantas will offer a range of incentives to people who are vaccinated, encouraging more people to get a COVID jab. Qantas, which has had its business largely grounded during the COVID-19 pandemic, is hoping free flights, points, and credits will encourage Australians to get vaccinated. The airline’s vaccine incentive program, which launches July 2021, will…
United States President Joe Biden has ordered national intelligence agencies to intensify its efforts to determine the origins of coronavirus, saying they are pursuing theories of a possible laboratory accident in China. Biden said in a statement that the US intelligence are looking into two different scenarios and have low confidence in their current conclusions.…
Victoria will become the first state in Australia to tax electric vehicle drivers after the controversial legislation passed through parliament. Earlier this week, Victoria’s Legislative Assembly debated the merits of the ‘Zero and Low Emission Vehicle Distance-based Charge Bill 2021’, more commonly known as the EV tax. The Andrews government’s electric vehicle tax passed without…
The Victorian government has announced a new seven-day lockdown today in a bid to reduce the state’s growing coronavirus outbreak. The “circuit-breaker” lockdown will be in place from midnight Thursday until midnight on June 3. The lockdown marks the fourth lockdown the Victoria Government has implemented since the pandemic began. The state’s recent outbreak has…
Update: Victoria has recorded another six local COVID-19 cases, bringing the cluster in Melbourne’s north to 15. Acting Premier James Merlino said health authorities reported 10 new local cases in the past 24 hours to midnight and revealed they had been notified of one new case this morning which will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.…
Elon Musk’s recent tweet about “promising” developments on clean energy crypto mining ignited a surge in Bitcoin overnight. According to CoinMarketCap, by 8:00am AEST, Bitcoin’s price had jumped 15 per cent in a 24-hour period – pushing US $39,100. After a week of chaos where billions of dollars were wiped off the value of the…
Saturday marked the triumphant return of the 65th Eurovision Song Contest after being postponed last year due to COVID-19. This year the contest was held in the Netherlands’ Rotterdam Ahoy arena in front of a live audience of 3,500 fans. The 2021 winner was Italy’s leather-dressed rock band, Måneskin, with their single ‘Zitti E Buoni’.…