Midday News Bulletin 2 November 2024

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TRANSCRIPT
Education Minister Jason Clare unveils new measures to ease student debt
Victoria Police seize half a billion dollars in drug manufacturing chemicals
Neymar out of Brazil squad for World Cup qualifiers
Education Minister Jason Clare has unveiled new measures to ease student debt repayments, building on the University Accord’s plan to reshape higher education.
Graduates will now start repaying debt only once earning $67,000, up from $54,000.
Those on $70,000 will save around $1,300 annually, while those on $80,000 will save $850.
The reforms, backdated to June last year, will also erase $3 billion in debt for over three million Australians.
Additional support includes paid practical training for teaching, nursing, and social work students, plus expanded fee-free “university-ready” courses for young people in outer suburbs and regional areas.
” What this will do is help people who are just starting out, who’ve just finished uni, who’ve just finished TAFE, and are now got to pay the bills, pay the rent, or are saving for a mortgage, or they’re trying to start a family, and this will just take a bit of the pressure off and help a lot of young Australians right across the country.”
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Police have seized half a billion dollars’ worth of chemicals allegedly intended for methamphetamine production, arresting a man in a major crackdown on a drug trafficking syndicate.
According to Victoria Police, officers raided a 200-acre property in the state’s Wimmera region, uncovering over 10 tonnes of precursor chemicals stored in 50 drums, enough to produce up to five tonnes of meth.
A 59-year-old man was arrested on the property but later released pending further inquiries.
The seizure follows a 20-month investigation into an alleged drug syndicate in Victoria.
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The United Nations has called for its peacekeepers in Lebanon to be allowed to fulfil their mandate without being fired upon or forced to relocate.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Pierre Lacroix says UNIFIL peacekeepers are committed to their mission.
Established in 1978 to monitor Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon also patrols the Blue Line, a UN-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel.
Mr Lacroix warns that abandoning positions along this line could lead to occupation by either side.
“We made a very considered decision that it was critical to stay, first of all, because there is a mandate and we have to…we are duty bound to the mandate the peacekeepers need to stay. Second, because we thought that if those positions along the Blue Line are abandoned, then they would likely be occupied by one party or the other. And that would be very bad for many reasons, including the perception of impartiality and neutrality of the of the United Nation.”
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Former US politician Liz Cheney has posted on X that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s violent remark suggesting she should face a firing squad for her foreign policy views demonstrates he is unfit for the White House and would target his adversaries if elected.
Mr Trump, who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election on Tuesday, did not receive the endorsement of Ms Cheney or her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, in his third presidential bid.
“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrel shooting at her. Okay. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face, you know, they’re all warhawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh, gee, we’ll let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy. But she’s a stupid person. And I used to have I have meetings with a lot of people. And she always wanted to go to war with people.”
Vice-president Kamala Harris says such violent rhetoric is unbecoming of a President and should disqualify the former President.
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Neymar is back in action after more than a year out due to a torn ACL, but he won’t be playing in Brazil’s last two World Cup qualifiers this year.
Brazil coach Dorival Júnior did not include the star striker in his squad on Friday for matches against Venezuela on November 14 and Uruguay five days later.
Neymar returned for Saudi Arabia club Al-Hilal on October 21 in the AFC Champions League Elite.
Junior says he’s talked to Neymar three times in the last two months and the striker wanted to play for the national team.
Brazil are fourth in South American qualifying, six points behind leaders Argentina after 10 rounds.