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Zoë Kravitz, Naomi Campbell and the celebrity motherhood myth.
Zoë Kravitz and Naomi Campbell are both on magazine covers this week, giving interviews about two very different stages of motherhood and fertility. Both these interviews are groundbreaking in different ways, but they can also be incredibly damaging when it comes to promoting the celebrity motherhood myth.
And in TV news today, Australia will become the first country outside the US to make a local series of the long-running police investigative drama NCIS. Here’s everything you need to know.
Plus, everyone is still buzzing about Netflix's new series Inventing Anna, based on the story of Anna Sorokin, who pretended to be a wealthy German heiress under the name Anna Delvey and was arrested in 2017. Now Anna is critiquing the show on her own Instagram account and threatening to sell even more secrets to the highest bidder.
Listen to today's episode of The Spill below:
Australia's biggest coal-fired power station to close in 2025.
Origin Energy's decision to shutter Australia's largest coal-fired power station by 2025 is a shock to both the NSW Government and Hawkesbury locals in the area of the power station.
The Eraring Power Station at Lake Macquarie near Newcastle, was initially slated for closure in 2032, but the company decided to bring forward the shut down to 2025. It supplies about 20 per cent of the state's power.
The power station currently provides approximately 16,000 jobs.
"I am disappointed by today's announcement and this is a difficult day for the Lake Macquarie community," Energy Minister Matt Kean said on Thursday. Kean also promised "a comprehensive jobs package to support those affected communities", within days.
In contrast to the government's dismay, many environmental groups hailed the move towards clean energy as contributing in reducing climate pollution. The site had emitted 69 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, making it the second-largest climate polluting facility in NSW, he said.
"Origin's announcement is a ray of hope for leaving a safe climate for our children," Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.
"Origin has acknowledged the reality of the Australian energy market - that renewables backed by storage are the future of electricity," Glenn Walker, a senior Greenpeace campaigner, told AAP on Thursday.
- With AAP.
COVID restrictions to ease in NSW and VIC.
Hi all! Isabella here to get you across the news that is happening this afternoon.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has just made an announcement that the following changes will come into effect from Friday.
Masks will be scrapped in most settings across NSW: they will only be required on public transport, airports and hospitals. QR codes will be scrapped from all retail and hospitality, except for nightclubs and music festivals. Density limits and NSW’s work-from-home direction will also end.
The singing and dancing ban will also lift. People attending a music event with more than 1000 patrons will need to be fully vaccinated. And hotel quarantine isolation requirements for unvaccinated travellers will be shortened to seven days from Monday, February 21.
As for Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews says the state will cautiously move "back to normal" over the coming weeks.
From 6pm this Friday, the one person per two square metre density limit in hospitality and entertainment venues will be scrapped, meaning dancefloors can reopen.
Also in Victoria: QR check-ins will no longer be required in retail, schools and workplaces. Hospital worker bubbles will also be scrapped, but health services can implement them at their discretion.
- With AAP.
Today, a snuff video is playing on every device in the land, dressed up as ‘news’.
Just popping in again to direct you to a brilliant opinion piece by our Head of Content, Holly Wainwright.
One of the biggest stories making headlines today (including here on this feed) is the awful fatal shark attack off the coast of Sydney.
"If you have watched that video - and so very many have - there is no shame on you. It is human to want to witness something extraordinary. There’s a dark thrill in seeing one of our deepest fears - and shark attacks do occupy a particularly embedded primal space in our psyche - actualised.
"But there is some shame on the outlets that are playing that death as looped entertainment today. They are enabling our darkest impulses. They are feeding the beast. And they are altering lives," Holly writes.
There is a difference between reporting the news, and sharing grotesque details, videos and commentary that the public don't need to see. That the family of that poor man shouldn't have to see.....
Read Holly's words below:
"Today, a snuff video is playing on every device in the land, dressed up as ‘news’."
Consent education will be mandatory across all Australian schools from 2023.
Big, huge, exciting news - education ministers across Australia have today unanimously made a commitment to mandating holistic and age-appropriate consent education in every school.
The movement was spearheaded by Chanel Contos and her Teach Us Consent campaign, which you can read about here, and here.
A brief backstory: In February 2021, Chanel posted a poll on her Instagram stories, asking if anyone had been sexually assaulted by someone who attended an all boys school. She was inundated, and the response prompted a petition for consent education in schools.
After 44,000 signatures and more than 6,700 testimonies of sexual assault, Chanel and countless other volunteers have finally achieved their goal. The next generation of young people will be given proper consent education from the first year of school to Year 10.
The new curriculum will include an understanding of gendered stereotypes, coercion and power imbalances.
It will be implemented from 2023.
Everything that's happened since Brittany Higgins went public with abuse allegations.
This week marks one year since Brittany Higgins went public with allegations she was raped inside Parliament House.
It was a story that sparked a movement; rallies, outrage, noise.
Higgins, along with child sexual abuse survivor, Grace Tame, quickly made their voices heard. Fed up with the Prime Minister's handling of sexual assault claims, they called out the government again, and again and again.
It's been 12 months since that moment of reckoning. I have pulled together everything the government has and hasn't done since then, to make Parliament House and Australia safer for women.
Have a read below:
From a new complaints system to the Prime Minister's apology, here are the seven biggest changes to come out of Parliament in the last year - and the biggest shortcomings. https://t.co/7zQtlXpgon
— Mamamia (@Mamamia) February 16, 2022
The pop culture stories you missed.
So, we're two weeks into Married At First Sight and - in a development that surprises absolutely no one! - it has well and truly lost the plot.
Last night's episode featured a highly dramatic dinner party, which saw basically everyone side with a man who they definitely should not have sided with???
Firstly, the twins recap is a much-read to laugh and understand WTF is going on: The Twins recap Married at First Sight: The most manipulative night we've seen on television.
Then, I choked on my coffee reading the hilarious takes from Twitter, rounded up here: "I feel sick watching this." The best reactions from tonight's explosive MAFS dinner party.
And finally, check out our regularly updated round-up of all the behind-the-scenes insanity from this ridiculous show: The reason why one contestant wiped their socials, and all the other gossip from MAFS in one place. Because gossip. And rumours. And maybe even flying fruit bowls.
First fatal Sydney shark attack in decades, and all the news you need to know this morning.
Ok stop.
My colleague Erin has written an article about 'mucus fishing' and it's giving me literal nightmares.
Apparently it's something the youths are doing on TikTok... as in, millions of them are sharing clips of themselves removing strings of mucus from their eyes.
I CAN'T.
Erin explains why that's not only... weird... but also bad for your poor eyes. What a way to start a Thursday, I know. But it's a rough day in the news headlines, so a bit of lightness to ease you in.
Ok, back to news. Here are your top five stories of the morning:
1. Swimmer killed in Sydney's first fatal shark attack in 60 years.
A swimmer has died from "catastrophic injuries" after being attacked by what witnesses describe as a four-and-a-half metre great white shark at a Sydney beach.
About 4.30pm on Wednesday emergency services were called to Little Bay in the city's east after being told a shark had attacked the swimmer.
It is the first fatal shark attack in Sydney since 1963.
A witness told Nine News the swimmer was in the water when the shark "came and attacked him vertically".
"We heard a yell … it looked like a car had landed in the water," he said.
Nine said the victim was a local man who swam in the area regularly.
2. Murder charge over death of Qld toddler.
A man has been charged with murder following the death of a 16-month-old boy north of Brisbane last month.
Paramedics were called to a Burpengary address on the afternoon of December 30 in relation to the medical welfare of a child.
The boy was transported to hospital in a critical condition and died just over a week later, with the cause of death still unknown.
#breaking A 33-year-old man has been charged with murder following investigations into the death of a toddler north of Brisbane.https://t.co/pGhPp7s95D
— The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) February 16, 2022
He was at home with his mother and his mother's partner before emergency services arrived, Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Zitny said on Wednesday.
"Due to the tragic circumstances of what we believe happened at that location, the child has passed," he said.
On Wednesday evening police said a 33-year-old man (who the ABC reports is the boy's stepfather) had been charged with murder (Domestic Violence Offence) and was scheduled to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Call safe steps 24/7 Family Violence Response Line on 1800 015 188 or visit www.safesteps.org.au for further information.
3. Four or five doses may be needed of COVID vaccine.
Australia's immunisation regulator cannot rule out four or even five doses of COVID-19 vaccine being required to be considered "up to date".
Appearing before a Senate estimates committee on Wednesday, Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation chair Nigel Crawford said his organisation would continue to monitor data from countries administering four doses.
Health Minister Greg Hunt announced last week three doses are now required to be considered up to date, while Professor Crawford told the hearing some immunocompromised patients are already recommended four vaccine doses.
Almost 60 per cent of eligible Australians have had three doses, and 48.1 per cent of children aged between five and 11 years old have had their first dose.
Some 64 COVID-related deaths were recorded on Wednesday with 27 from NSW, 18 in Victoria, 12 in Queensland, four in South Australia and three in the Northern Territory.
4. Prince Charles investigated by police.
The Prince of Wales says he's "happy" to help a new Metropolitan Police investigation into an alleged cash-for-honours scandal launched after he and a former close confidant were reported to officers over the claims.
Anti-monarchy group Republic made a formal complaint to Met detectives about the heir to the throne and Michael Fawcett last September, following a series of newspaper articles alleging a donor to The Prince's Foundation was offered help securing a knighthood.
We have launched an investigation into allegations of offences under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) February 16, 2022
Decision follows an assessment of a Sep 2021 letter, related to media reporting alleging offers of help made to secure honours and citizenship for a Saudi national.
At the time Clarence House said the prince had "no knowledge" of the alleged cash-for-honours scandal.
On Wednesday, the Met announced there was just cause to launch an investigation into the affair.
Fawcett, who has since resigned as chief executive of The Prince's Foundation in the wake of the alleged scandal, had been accused of promising to help Saudi billionaire donor Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz achieve British citizenship and a knighthood.
5. House and unit price gap hits record high.
We all know how expensive it is to buy in Australia (especially in the capital cities), but new research has confirmed that the gap between house and unit prices has reached an all-time high in Australia, as the cost of buying a property grew by its fastest pace in 33 years. Wowza.
CoreLogic's monthly market update has revealed unit prices rose by 14.3 per cent in the 12 months to January 2022, while house prices increased by 24.8 per cent over that period.
When combined, the two figures represent Australia's highest annual dwelling growth rate since 1989.
However, the disparity between house and unit values reached a record high of 28.3 per cent in January.
Report author Kaytlin Ezzy said the performance gap between houses and units was in part due to COVID-related shocks disproportionately affecting unit demand.
*weeps*
And you're up to date!
We'll pop back in here to bring you more of the biggest news stories throughout the day.
- With AAP
Have we finally forgiven Camilla?
It's one of the most famous and controversial love triangles in history.
Prince Charles and Camilla have been dominating the headlines for four decades now, facing tabloid and public scrutiny for their relationships.
But this month, on the eve of the Queen's 70th Jubilee, it seems all may have been forgiven, after Her Majesty gave her daughter-in-law a title upgrade.
In this episode we look back at the messy beginnings of this royal love story and how public opinion may slowly be shifting to acceptance of Camilla.
READ:
What women were talking about on Wednesday
What women were talking about on Tuesday
What women were talking about on Monday
Feature image: 7NEWS/Getty.