This is The Loop, your quick catch-up on this morning's news as it happens.
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By Tom Williams
That's all for The Loop this morning!
You can keep up-to-date on the ABC News website, by watching News Channel or listening to local radio here, and by subscribing to our mobile alerts.
We'll be back with another live blog tomorrow morning.
By Tom Williams
Lauren Jackson named in the Opals' World Cup squad
As expected, Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson has been named on her fifth FIBA World Cup roster for Australia in her comeback to the international game.
The 41-year-old said while she didn't know if her body would hold up to vigorous training at first, "it has and I'm feeling good".
The Opals team will see Bec Allen and Cayla George return for their third World Cup appearance.
Marianna Tolo, Steph Talbot, Sami Whitcomb, Tess Madgen and Ezi Magbegor will return for their second.
Sara Blicavs, Darcee Garbin, Anneli Maley and Kristy Wallace will make their debuts.
By Tom Williams
Dozens of guns found in executive's office in US hospital, police say
Police in the US say they've found dozens of guns in a hospital executive's office, following a bogus bomb threat.
Officers in Secaucus said they were called to Hudson Regional Hospital on July 18, and that during a search, bomb detection dogs led investigators to an unlocked office closet containing a pile of weapons.
Here's what they say they found:
- 11 handguns and 27 rifles or shotguns
- A .45 caliber semi-automatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine which was determined to be an assault rifle
- A 14-round high-capacity handgun magazine
On Sunday, police arrested the hospital's marketing director, Reuven Alonalayoff, at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The 46-year-old has been charged with possession of an assault rifle and possession of two high-capacity magazines.
By Bridget Judd
Grand jury declines to indict woman in Emmett Till killing
A US grand jury has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago.
After hearing more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses, a Mississippi grand jury last week determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter.
Till, visiting from Chicago, was beaten, shot and mutilated in Money, Mississippi, four days after Donham, then 20, accused him of whistling at her. Later, the woman added the accusation that he grabbed her waist and made sexual remarks.
Donham's husband at the time, Roy Bryant, and his half brother, JW Milam, were charged with Till's murder, but the two men were later acquitted.
The pair later confessed in a paid magazine interview to abducting and killing the teenager. They have since died.
Reverand Wheeler Parker, Jr, Emmett Till’s cousin and the last living witness to his 1955 abduction, said today's announcement is “unfortunate, but predictable".
“The prosecutor tried his best, and we appreciate his efforts, but he alone cannot undo hundreds of years of anti-Black systems that guaranteed those who killed Emmett Till would go unpunished, to this day,” Mr Parker said in a statement.
“The fact remains that the people who abducted, tortured, and murdered Emmett did so in plain sight, and our American justice system was and continues to be set up in such a way that they could not be brought to justice for their heinous crimes.”
AP
By Tom Williams
Mike Pence says FBI raid of Trump estate undermines confidence in justice system
Former US vice-president Mike Pence is the latest senior Republican to condemn the FBI's unprecedented search of former president Donald Trump's Florida estate.
Mr Pence has called for the US Attorney-General to give a full public account of why it happened.
"I share the deep concern of millions of Americans over the unprecedented search of the personal residence of President Trump," he said.
"No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history."
There's been no comment from President Joe Biden.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the move showed no-one was above the law.
By Tom Williams
The worst fire in Cuba's history is now under control
Firefighters have finally overcome what officials described as the worst fire in Cuba's history — which over five days destroyed 40 per cent of the Caribbean island's main fuel storage facility, leading to widespread blackouts.
Witnesses have told the Reuters news agency that flames which ravaged a segment of the Matanzas super tanker port had died down and towering plumes of smoke were diminished.
Lightning had struck one of the fuel storage tanks on Friday, before the fire spread to a second by Sunday and engulfed the four-tank area on Monday, accompanied by huge explosions.
One firefighter died and 14 went missing on Saturday, authorities said. Five others remain in critical condition.
By Bridget Judd
Rescuers race against clock to save beluga whale stranded in French river
It's all hands on deck, as French marine experts try to rescue an ailing beluga whale that swam up the Seine river.
The four-metre animal was spotted a week ago heading towards Paris, and is now some 130 kilometres inland.
"It's a long rescue operation, very technical, which required many skills," Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary-general of the Eure prefecture, said on Tuesday.
Divers and animal specialists, including veterinarians, will work to get the beluga into "a sort of hammock to suspend it above the water and bring it to a vehicle that will then transport it to the sea".
The animal's movement inland has been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne in Normandy, and its health has deteriorated after it refused to eat.
By Tom Williams
Paramedics union voices concern after woman dies waiting outside Tasmanian hospital
The paramedics' union says it's unacceptable that a woman died at the Launceston General Hospital on Saturday after being ramped for nine hours.
The woman in her 70s arrived at the hospital in an ambulance around midnight on Saturday morning and died at about 9am, still waiting to be admitted to the emergency department.
The Health Department says the patient was receiving care from emergency department staff and paramedics in a transition area, and the case is being formally reviewed.
Robbie Moore from the Health and Community Services Union says the incident shows the danger of ambulance ramping.
"This is a very sad situation that just demonstrates how bad our health system is, that we couldn't have a bed available for a patient who clearly needed medical assistance, and shows that ambulance ramping is out of control and patients' lives are being put at risk."
You can read more about this story here:
By Bridget Judd
Do spiders sleep? According to one study, they may snooze like humans
Do spiders sleep? Do they find themselves staring at the ceiling at 2am spiralling about that time they said "thanks, you too" when the waitress said "enjoy your meal"?
Well, maybe not the latter, but according to one study, they do appear to have sleep cycles.
Daniela Roessler and her colleagues trained cameras on baby jumping spiders, and discovered their legs twitched and parts of their eyes flickered.
The researchers described this pattern as a “REM sleep-like state”. In humans, REM, or rapid eye movement, is an active phase of sleep when parts of the brain light up with activity and is closely linked with dreaming.
Other animals, including some birds and mammals, have been shown to experience REM sleep.
But creatures like the jumping spider haven’t gotten as much attention so it wasn’t known if they got the same kind of sleep, said Roessler, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Konstanz in Germany.
By Tom Williams
Police charge man with murder of two Muslim men in New Mexico
Police in New Mexico say they have charged a 51-year-old man with killing two Muslim men in the city of Albuquerque.
Authorities said the man is also suspected in the slayings of two others whose deaths sparked fear in Muslim communities nationwide.
Police Chief Harold Medina said authorities had tracked down a vehicle believed to be involved in one of the killings in New Mexico's largest city.
The killings have drawn the attention of US President Joe Biden, who has said such attacks "have no place in America".
By Tom Williams
Let's set you up for the day!
From Serena Williams foreshadowing her retirement to a dire sea ice record and the demise of Australia's COVIDSafe app, here's what you need to know at 6:15am AEST.
By Tom Williams
One thing to know: We've hit a dire record for sea ice
The European Union's satellite monitoring group has said that last month it saw the lowest extent of Antarctic sea ice on record for July.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service found Antarctic sea ice extent reached some 1.1 million km2, or 7 per cent below the 1991-2020 average for July.
It also followed record-low Antarctic sea ice levels for June.
Here's what the World Meteorological Organization had to say:
By Tom Williams
News while you snoozed
- Serena Williams has hinted at a possible retirement from tennis, saying she is "evolving away" from the sport she has dominated for much of her career, with 23 women's grand slam singles titles. She's given an interview to Vogue Magazine, in which she says she's "ready for what's next"
- Iconic Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake has died due to liver cancer at the age of 84. He was known for inventing a new style of pleats and designing Steve Jobs' iconic turtlenecks
By Tom Williams
Here's the news Australia is searching for
- Rudi Koertzen. The former international cricket umpire has died in a car accident in South Africa, according to his family. The 73-year-old was on the International Cricket Council's elite panel of umpires for eight years and he officiated in 331 matches, a record at the time of his retirement in 2010
- Donald Trump. ICYMI - yesterday the former US president said a "large group of FBI agents" raided his Mar-a-Lago estate and broke into his safe. Here's what we know about the raid and why it may have occurred:
By Tom Williams
One more thing: Remember the COVIDSafe app? It's being killed off
Yep, the multi-million-dollar Australian government app is being decommissioned, according to an update to its listings on mobile app stores.
The listings are now asking users to uninstall the app, as it's no longer being used in contact tracing (even though it never really caught on anyway).
The app first launched in mid-2020. In December last year the now Health Minister Mark Butler described it as "useless", and called on then PM Scott Morrison to "stop wasting taxpayers' money" on it.
Take a look at the updated app listing below, or scroll up for the latest blog posts.
