Hi there. It's Friday, October 28 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains the name and image of a person who has died.
One thing to know: Twitter is now an Elon Musk company
After months of lawsuits, tactical business moves and sassy tweets, Elon Musk's acquisition of social media platform Twitter is complete.
Finalisation of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's $US44 billion ($68 billion) acquisition was followed almost immediately with the firing of multiple top executives, including chief executive Parag Agrawal.
There was also, of course, a tweet:
Mr Musk had previously accused Twitter's leadership team of misleading him over the number of spam accounts on the platform.
On Thursday, Mr Musk said the reason he acquired Twitter was "because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence".
There have been concerns that his plans to promote free speech by cutting back on content moderation might open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.
However, Mr Musk told advertisers Twitter should be "warm and welcoming to all".
Vladimir Putin thinks the world faces its most dangerous decade since WWII
Yep, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the world is facing the most dangerous period it has seen since World War II.
He has also accused what he declared as a declining West of engaging in nuclear blackmail against his country.
In a speech to a group of Russian specialists at the Valdai Discussion Club, Mr Putin said he had no regrets about sending troops into Ukraine.
He also accused the West of inciting the war and playing a "dangerous, bloody and dirty" geopolitical game that was sowing chaos across the world.
"The historical period of the West's undivided dominance over world affairs is coming to an end," he said.
"We are standing at a historical frontier: Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War II."
Mr Putin warned the world was facing a chain of global conflicts, but said a new "world order" was being formed which would imply changes in the composition of the UN Security Council.
He also repeated an assertion that Ukraine could detonate a "dirty bomb" laced with radioactive material to frame Moscow, and dismissed as false Kyiv's suggestion that the allegation might mean Russia plans to detonate such a device itself.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US hasn't seen anything to indicate that Mr Putin has decided to use a dirty bomb, but there were ongoing concerns that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate.
News you might have missed
- Traditional owners in the Northern Territory have launched a High Court appeal over a ruling that found the Commonwealth could not be held legally responsible for sacred site damage in Kakadu National Park. Last month, the NT Supreme Court found Parks Australia had carried out illegal works during construction of a walkway to the top pools of Kakadu's Gunlom Falls, which was built too close to a sacred men's site. However, the court found the Commonwealth could not be prosecuted over the offence because of the wording of the Northern Territory's legislation
- The first group of Australian women and children held in a detention camp in north-east Syria since the fall of Islamic State (IS) in 2019 is en route to Sydney. Four women and 13 children were taken from the camp on Thursday afternoon and made the 30-kilometre trip to the Iraq border, before boarding a plane home. It is likely to be the first step in repatriating the entire cohort of Australian citizens still detained in the war-torn country.
Here's what Australia has been searching for online
- Cassius Turvey. Police have laid another two charges against the 21-year-old man accused of murdering West Australian schoolboy Cassius Turvey. Authorities said the charges relate to the alleged assault of a 13-year-old who was present when 15-year-old Cassius was allegedly hit with a metal pole in Perth's east. Cassius suffered a seizure some days later and, despite multiple surgeries, died on the weekend
- Europa League. In soccer, PSV Eindhoven have secured a place in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase by beating Arsenal, while Manchester United claimed victory over Sheriff to also make it through. Wins also kept Roma and Lazio's qualification hopes alive.
One more thing: Could nose-picking increase your risk of dementia?
Researchers at Griffith University in Queensland are preparing to examine whether picking your nose could increase your chances of being diagnosed with dementia, following some interesting results in their tests on mice.
The researchers say they've demonstrated that a bacteria called Chlamydia pneumoniae "can travel through the olfactory nerve in the nose and into the brain in mice, where it creates markers that are a tell-tale sign of Alzheimer's disease".
They say the cells in the brain then deposit an amyloid beta protein, which is a hallmark of the disease.
Co-author of the research, Professor James St John, said his team were the first in the world to prove this, and he claimed "the evidence is potentially scary for humans as well".
"We need to do this study in humans and confirm whether the same pathway operates in the same way," he said.
"It's research that has been proposed by many people, but not yet completed. What we do know is that these same bacteria are present in humans, but we haven't worked out how they get there."
Professor St John said damaging the inside of the nose by picking it or plucking inside it can increase how many bacteria can get up into your brain, which doesn't sound fun at all.
If you want to learn more about the science behind nose-picking, you can keep reading here.
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We'll be back next week with our noses freshly un-picked.
ABC/wires
