Howdy. It's Thursday, May 12 and you're reading The Loop, a quick look at today's news.
Let's start here: Albanese wins audience vote in last leaders' debate
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese won the audience vote after the third and final leaders' debate against Prime Minister Scott Morrison last night, in a more civilised and less shouty discussion than the previous two debates.
Here are the key takeaways:
- The leaders covered topics such as wages, the rising of cost of living, anti-corruption commissions, climate change and child care
- Of the 160 undecided voters in marginal electorates asked to judge who won the debate, 50 per cent voted in favour of Mr Albanese, 34 per cent in favour of Mr Morrison and 16 per cent were still undecided after the debate
- When asked to say something he liked about his opponent, Mr Morrison made another sledge in a moment which "lacked grace", writes David Speers
Something you'll be hearing about today: Some supermassive black hole news
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Tonight we may get our first look at Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole in the middle of the Milky Way (that's the galaxy which includes our solar system, in case you're not sure where you've been living all this time...)
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An international team of scientists has announced it will reveal a "groundbreaking" discovery at 11pm AEST (you'll be able to watch it live)
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There are rumbles the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) will unveil images of Sagittarius A*, which lies 26,000 light-years away and is about 4 million times the mass of our Sun
News while you snoozed
Here's what you may have missed:
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The US Senate has voted against a bill to legalise abortion nationally, with a vote of 51 to 49. Senate Democrats pushed the vote in the wake of reports the US Supreme Court was set to overturn a 50-year old ruling that abortion is a constitutional right. Democratic senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin voted with Republicans to kill the bill
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Authorities in Sri Lanka have moved former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to a naval base for his safety two days after his resignation, as authorities patrol the streets to manage unrest in the country's capital
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Ukraine's top prosecutor has disclosed plans for the first war crimes trial of a captured Russian soldier, after a 21-year-old was charged with shooting dead an unarmed 62-year-old civilian back in February. Ukraine has also shut down one of the pipelines which carries Russian gas across Ukraine to homes and industries in Western Europe
What Australia has been searching for online
- Celtic Football Club: In soccer, Celtic have won the Scottish Premiership title for the 10th time in 11 seasons after drawing with Dundee United at Tannadice. It's vindication for the team's Australian manager Ange Postecoglou, who has faced many critics but has now won a league title in a third country
- Sydney Kings: In basketball, the Sydney Kings have won their first NBL title in 17 years, defeating the Tasmania JackJumpers in game three of the 2022 grand final series, denying them a title in their maiden season
- RIP iPod: Yesterday, Apple announced it was discontinuing its only remaining iPod, the iPod Touch, thereby marking the end of an influential 21 years for the music device which helped pave the way for the iPhone. The first iPod was introduced in 2001, and some models are still fetching decent prices with collectors. So it might be time to clean out that desk draw you never look in?
One more thing:
- Here's a cute one — couple Ondra Hadras and Lucie Minarikova have welcomed a Northern Territory outback town's first new baby in decades, which single-handedly grew the town's population by about 10 per cent and significantly lowered its median age
You're up to date!
We'll be back for more later today.
ABC/wires
