Good afternoon.
Woolworths has reported a $175m surge in net profit to $1.14bn, but the supermarket giant’s chief executive, Amanda Bardwell, said it had not done so by lifting shelf prices.
The supermarket duopoly, Woolworths and Coles, has previously faced criticism for fattening profit margins during periods of high living costs at the expense of higher prices for shoppers.
Woolworths pointed to the drop to “ongoing cost-of-living pressures on households” and the ever popular Ooshies campaign as the reason shoppers continued to choose the supermarket giant.
Top news
-
Teenage girl allegedly raped in ‘heinous’ attack at Queensland residential care home
-
Nine CEO sees ‘world of growth in publishing’ as network slashes costs
In pictures
Sydney Dance Company is marking four decades since it made its home at the Wharf theatres at Walsh Bay. As part of the celebrations, the company is presenting an exhibition in the foyer of its Wharf home, developed in partnership with Museums of History NSW. With photographs, oral histories and archival material, the exhibition explores the people, stories and spaces that have shaped the company and the wharf precinct itself.
What they said …
***
“We’d hate to see him get the flu.” – Lynn Murrell, president of the Southwest Environment Alliance, when asked about Sammy the seal
Since H5 bird flu arrived in Portland, Victoria, the situation has been “pretty grim”, with many dead and suffering birds found on the beach. But since the first confirmed case in a fur seal on Sunday at Beachport, South Australia – a two-hour trip over the border – people have been worried for their local “pet seal”, known as Sammy.
In video
Dolly Parton in her own words: ageing, sex appeal and motivation
The singer Dolly Parton, who has died aged 80, had a ready fund of quips, most mercilessly self-deprecating. “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap” was perhaps the most famous, and undoubtedly the one that best captured her appetite for glitz and mischief.
Watch Dolly Parton tell us more about who she was and how she lived here, and read her life in quotes here.
Before bed read
In China, talking to AI is normal. But now the government fears it might replace human intimacy. Companion bots are being regulated over worries they foster “emotional dependence” and young people could stop marrying and having families. Read more about the phenomenon from Amy Hawkins and Yu-chen Li in Shanghai.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: WEST. 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, or start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know with our Morning Mail newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland.
