Hi there. It's Wednesday, July 13 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here
The Coral Princess, a cruise liner that docked in Sydney today as part of a 12-day voyage along the east coast, is battling a COVID-19 outbreak of 118 people — 114 crew and four passengers.
But infectious disease experts say the outbreak of the virus is no surprise and have warned prospective travellers to get used to infections on ships.
"Around one in 20 cruises would have a norovirus outbreak on them [before the pandemic] but we know that SARS-CoV-2 is probably more transmissible and infectious," UNSW Professor of Infectious Diseases Peter White says.
"The inevitable has happened and we've had an outbreak."
When the ship stops in Sydney today, NSW Health says the crew will not be allowed to get off and passengers will have to take a RAT before disembarking.
Something you'll be hearing about today
Space lovers unite! NASA has released some more images from the James Webb Space Telescope — and they are spectacular.
We'll let the experts explain the details of what we're seeing and how it was captured, but as a teaser, feast your eyes on this:
News while you snoozed
- United States Vice-President Kamala Harris is set to make a major intervention at the Pacific Islands Forum to announce that America will substantially ramp up its presence in the region. A senior administration official said the US was "embarking on a new chapter of a long-standing partnership" with the Pacific and "significantly stepping up our game in the Pacific Islands".
- Protesters brought the Tour de France to a standstill for more than 10 minutes after chaining themselves to each other in the middle of the road. Once the race resumed, two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar, who has lost two teammates after positive COVID-19 tests, retained the overall leader's yellow jersey. Australian Luke Durbridge has also been forced to withdraw after testing positive for COVID.
What Australia has been searching for online
- MasterChef Australia and Big Brother. The 2022 winners for both shows were revealed last night — I'm not gonna tell you who they are, but if you wanna know, here's Big Brother and here's MasterChef.
- Nani. Melbourne Victory have signed the former Manchester United winger for the 2022-23 A-League Men's season, a ~ victory ~ coach Tony Popovic says will be "an incredible asset" for the club and league.
One more thing
Succession has made its presence known with 25 nods but it has a big-time rival for Best Drama in Squid Game, which is the first non-English language series to vie for television's top honour.
Euphoria, Stranger Things and Ozark are also among the nominees for Best Drama Series, with Ted Lasso, Barry and Only Murders in the Building scoring multiple nods in the comedy categories.
The 74th Emmy Awards will be held on September 12 (US time).
You're up to date
Thanks for joining us.
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