What we learned today, Saturday 19 March
The time has come to wrap up our blog for the evening, just as the polls are set to close in South Australia. Here’s a recap of the day’s top stories:
- Voters in South Australia will decide the fate of the first-term Liberal government, led by the premier, Steven Marshall. Recent opinion polls have put Labor in a commanding position, but the opposition leader, Peter Malinauskas, said today he expected the result to be close. Marshall said he was “not that fussed” by polls predicting a Labor win.
- There were 46,422 new Covid infections and 24 deaths reported across the country today. New case numbers nationally have risen by 37% in the past week, linked to the more transmissible BA.2 Omicron subvariant.
- The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said the late senator Kimberley Kitching never raised complaints of bullying with him, and labelled political debate about her death as “not constructive”.
- Hillsong apologised after internal investigations concluded its founder, Brian Houston, engaged in “inappropriate” behaviour.
Enjoy your night!
Updated
While we’re on the topic of climate change, temperatures in Antarctica are unusually high at the moment. At Concordia station, recorded temperatures have been about 40C above average. Yes, you read that correctly.
Extraordinary anomalies in #Antarctica lead to historic records today:
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) March 18, 2022
-Vostok 3489m -17.7C,monthly record beaten by nearly 15C !
-Concordia 3234m -12.2C,highest Temp. on records and about 40C above average !
-Dome C II 3250m -10.1C
-D-47 1560m -3.3C
-Terra Nova Base 74S +7.0C pic.twitter.com/w6Ry4Dy4wz
Updated
