Today’s headlines at a glance
Hello and welcome to our national news blog. It’s Wednesday, July 29. Here’s what is making headlines.
-
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake has struck Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu, about 900 kilometres from central Tokyo, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and damaging buildings.
- Ben Carroll will begin his first full day as Victorian premier today after Jacinta Allan announced her resignation. Follow along on our live blog as Carroll names his cabinet and outlines the terms of reference for a royal commission into the construction industry – his first pledge as leader.
- The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption enters its third day. The commission is investigating claims of secret donations allegedly flowing to right-wing Liberal Party activists.
- Australia has continued to dominate at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Seventeen-year-old Sienna Toohey won silver in the 50m women’s breaststroke final earlier this morning, while Lachlan Kennedy has become Australia’s fastest ever man after he finished the 100m final in 9.85 seconds. You can read all the updates on our live blog here.
Latest Project Sunrise success sees aircraft complete 24-hour flight
A Qantas plane completed a marathon 24 hour flight from Melbourne to France yesterday, marking a key step in the airline’s Project Sunrise, which aims to launch the world’s longest commercial passenger services and reshape long-haul travel by eliminating stopovers between Australia and Europe.
The test triggered a surge in online tracking: Flightradar24 said the trip was the second-most-tracked flight ever on its channels – behind only a 2024 flight carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin – with more than 3.6 million people following the plane’s progress northwards via Canada.
The specially adapted A350-1000ULR airliner is due to debut with Qantas’s nonstop Sydney-London route from 2027. Airbus has been conducting a two-month test campaign on the aircraft since June.
Airbus said the aircraft, which boasts a specially designed extra fuel tank, remained in the air for 24 hours and 24 minutes, covering 23,075 km without stopping, before landing at the plane’s factory in Toulouse, France.
With Reuters.
AI job losses poised to upend Labor’s electoral map
Artificial intelligence disruption to white-collar jobs in the cities risks fuelling the same political upheaval as the decline of manufacturing and coal that contributed to One Nation’s rise.
New research from the University of Sydney warns that after waves of economic change in industrial and regional communities, known particularly in the US as the “rust belt”, a “wired belt” is emerging in well-heeled parts of Australia.
Report authors professor Clinton Free and former adviser to Kevin Rudd, Lachlan Harris, find the Albanese government holds nearly 80 per cent of the 60 seats most exposed to AI, showing that Labor’s modern, highly educated voting coalition faces new-found economic uncertainty.
A fortnight after Albanese vowed to protect jobs from the technological transformation, Free and Harris say this “wired belt” enjoyed decades of economic growth but residents now “face a form of economic upheaval [they] have not experienced for decades, and for which they possess neither a familiar political language nor an established political response”.
New analysis finds 30 per cent of women experience at least one miscarriage
A first-of-its-kind study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found pregnancy loss is a common reproductive health experience in Australia, as researchers highlight the need for better national data.
The report found that among women who gave birth in 2022, 30 per cent had previously experienced at least one miscarriage, while 10 per cent had experienced two or more miscarriages. These proportions remained relatively stable between 2017 and 2022, the report released this morning found.
“Pregnancy loss is a deeply personal experience that touches the lives of many women and families,” said AIHW spokesperson Deanna Eldridge.
From 2019-20 and 2024-25, there were between 34,000 and 37,000 pregnancy loss-related hospital admissions each year, representing six per 1000 women aged 15–44.
Trump mourns Lindsey Graham at Washington funeral
US President Donald Trump eulogised Republican Senator Lindsey Graham as a fixture of national politics and unflinching foreign policy hawk, as the leaders of Israel and Ukraine joined Washington’s most powerful at his funeral.
Earlier in the day, lawmakers paid tribute at the Capitol Rotunda, remembering one of the last prominent Republicans to advocate for muscular US military power abroad as gregarious, funny and persuasive.
“He was extremely hawkish – he never saw a war that he didn’t like,” Trump said. “Nothing of significance happened anywhere in the world without Lindsey Graham having a view on it.”
Graham denounced Trump early in his political career before becoming a staunch supporter, and Trump mourned his fellow Republican as both a favourite golfing buddy and an essential confidant in navigating partisan politics in Washington.
Today’s headlines at a glance
Hello and welcome to our national news blog. It’s Wednesday, July 29. Here’s what is making headlines.
-
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake has struck Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu, about 900 kilometres from central Tokyo, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and damaging buildings.
- Ben Carroll will begin his first full day as Victorian premier today after Jacinta Allan announced her resignation. Follow along on our live blog as Carroll names his cabinet and outlines the terms of reference for a royal commission into the construction industry – his first pledge as leader.
- The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption enters its third day. The commission is investigating claims of secret donations allegedly flowing to right-wing Liberal Party activists.
- Australia has continued to dominate at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Seventeen-year-old Sienna Toohey won silver in the 50m women’s breaststroke final earlier this morning, while Lachlan Kennedy has become Australia’s fastest ever man after he finished the 100m final in 9.85 seconds. You can read all the updates on our live blog here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
