Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Sharlotte Thou

Afternoon Update: Australia unfreezes UN agency funding; aged care workers celebrate pay rise; and the world’s heaviest blueberry

Australia’s foreign affairs minister Penny Wong
‘We have children and families who are starving,’ Penny Wong says of the need for lifesaving supplies in Gaza. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Good afternoon. Australia is reinstating funding to a key UN aid agency amid concerns about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while calling on Israel to allow lifesaving supplies into the territory “now”.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, announced the decision to unfreeze $6m in emergency funding for UNRWA on Friday, as part of a broader package of support.

“We have children and families who are starving,” Wong said. “We have a capacity, along with the international community, to assist them and we know that UNRWA is central and vital to delivering that assistance to the people who need it.”

Australia was among more than a dozen countries to pause funding to UNRWA in late January after the Israeli government alleged 12 UNRWA staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Top news

  • Pay boost for aged care workers | Aged care workers will receive a pay rise of up to 28.5% after the Fair Work Commission delivered its decision in a long-running work value case.

  • CSIRO chief hits back at Dutton criticism | Douglas Hilton has warned political leaders to “resist the temptation to disparage science”, rejecting Peter Dutton’s claim that the CSIRO’s estimates of the cost of renewables were unreliable.

  • Time to stop using term ‘long Covid’, study finds | Long Covid may be no different from other post-viral syndromes such as those experienced after flu, according to new research from Queensland Health.

  • World’s heaviest blueberry grown in NSW | It’s dark blue, about the diameter of a golf ball and it weighs 10 times as much as your average blueberry. Picked on 13 November, the piece of fruit has been officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world’s heaviest blueberry.

  • Alec Baldwin files to dismiss charge in Rust shooting | The actor’s lawyers have asked a judge to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against him, accusing prosectors of “violating every rule in the book” in acquiring the indictment.

  • US school shooter’s father guilty of involuntary manslaughter | The father of a school shooter in Michigan has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a case that created headlines across the US for seeking to find a parent criminally responsible for the actions of their child.

  • Meghan launches new lifestyle brand | The Duchess of Sussex has launched what appears to be a new lifestyle brand with dozens of products in the works as she makes a return to Instagram after a four-year hiatus.

What they said …

***

“He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he is a tool.” – Tim Pallas.

It’s not very often the Victorian treasurer holds a press conference just to sledge someone – let alone another member of the Labor party. But he did exactly that this morning, ripping into the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, for his “welfare state” comments after the latest carve-up of GST revenue.

In numbers

Police were called after reports of a vehicle being driven dangerously in Bondeno, a town of 13,000 inhabitants, north of Bologna.

Before bed read

Grant Page, one of Australia’s most renowned stuntmen, has passed away at 85. He was wild, bold and brilliant and had a storied career, appearing in some of Australia’s most loved films, including The Man From Hong Kong, Mad Dog Morgan and Stunt Rock.

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: OFF. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

Sign up

If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here. And start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know. Sign up for our Morning Mail newsletter here.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.