SBS News In Easy English 31 October 2024

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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News In Easy English. I’m Catriona Stirrat.
A new report has found Australia’s weather and climate continues to change.
This includes more extreme heat events, longer fire seasons, more intense heavy rainfall, and rising sea levels.
The Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO have released their 2024 State of the Climate Report, which finds eight of the nine warmest years on record in Australia have occurred since 2013.
The report also found emissions reductions must occur immediately to meet Australia’s 2030 emissions targets.
Dr Jaci Brown, from the CSIRO, says while the issue isn’t simple, it’s one we can’t afford to ignore.
“It’s sobering and it’s a tough one, seven years for the whole globe to turn around. If we do go past that, there is still hope to then bring it back to 1.5 (degrees of warming), but that’s a lot harder once the greenhouse gases are out there to bring it back down and some of the effects won’t be reversible. We do have the technology out there. I try to remain positive and optimistic that we can pull that together.”
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Israel continued heavy bombardment of Gaza, killing at least 20 people, Palestinian medics reported.
This comes a day after one of the war’s deadliest strikes killed over 90 in northern Gaza.
Eight casualties were reported in Beit Lahiya’s Salateen area, close to Tuesday’s strike site, which State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described as horrifying.
“We are deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life in this incident. This is a horrifying incident with a horrifying result. I can’t speak to the total death toll, but there are reports of two dozen children killed in this incident. No doubt, a number of them are children who have been fleeing the effects of this war for more than a year now. We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here. We don’t yet know the underlying circumstances.”
Northern Gaza, where Israel claims to have dismantled Hamas’s command earlier this year, is now a primary target.
The intensified offensive has killed hundreds of Palestinians and reduced aid and food supplies to critical lows.
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The public health system has been accused of failing mental health patients, with record numbers arriving at hospitals only to face lengthy wait times in emergency departments.
The Australian Medical Association warns the situation will worsen as more staff leave due to stress and burnout.
According to the association’s latest mental health Public Hospital Report Card, patients waited an average of seven hours in emergency before being admitted in the 2022/23 financial year.
One in 10 spent more than 23 hours in emergency before receiving a hospital bed.
AMA president Danielle McMullen is calling for extra resources and mental health support reform at all levels.
“We need to do better. We need all governments to stop putting this in the too hard basket. We need them to invest in increasing the capacity of our mental health units, that’s beds and the workforce needed to support them, and we need that investment in the community to keep as many people as healthy and out of hospital as we can, and that’s investment in general practice in psychiatry and in those wraparound psycho-social supports for people with chronic and complex mental health problems.”
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The Prime Minister has denied contacting former Qantas boss Alan Joyce for flight upgrades.
Radio host Ben Fordham read out an exchange he had with the Prime Minister on 2GB, where the Prime Minister clarified that he had not texted, called, or emailed Mr Joyce requesting flight upgrades.
“Did you text Allan Joyce about flight upgrades, the PM’s answer, no. Did you ever email Allan Joyce about flight upgrades? The PM’s answer again, no. Did you ever share with Allan Joyce any flights or travel plans without specifically asking for an upgrade? The PM replied, no. Was there someone else at Qantas, you were seeking upgrades from or sharing your travel plans with? Again the PM, replied, No.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has accused Anthony Albanese of breaching ministerial standards after former Nine newspaper columnist Joe Aston claimed he received 22 upgrades on Qantas flights.
That was SBS News in Easy English. I’m Catriona Stirrat.