1. North Korea fires missile over Japan.
North Korea has fired a missile over Japan and into the Pacific waters off the northern region of Hokkaido, in a sharp escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
South Korea’s military said the missile was launched from the Sunan region near the North Korean capital Pyongyang just before 6am (7am AEST). It flew 2700km, reaching an altitude of about 550km.
“It is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to our nation,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a briefing, adding the government had protested the move in the strongest terms.
Suga said the launch was a clear violation of United Nations resolutions and Japan will work closely with the United States, South Korea and other concerned nations on a response.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month threatened to fire missiles into the sea near the US Pacific territory of Guam, and President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” if it threatened the United States.
The last North Korean projectile to fly over Japan was in 2009.
2. Malcolm Turnbull “very confident” he will win next election.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told 7:30’s Leigh Sales on the ABC he is “very confident” he will win the next election.
“We will continue to deliver the economic leadership that is showing strong growth in jobs,” was the point he kept returning to during the 25-minute interview on Monday night.
When pressed as to how this economic leadership is benefiting Australian families – people who might be “struggling to pay for childcare, who go to the emergency room at the hospital and have a long wait, who commute for more than an hour to work every day”, as Sales asked – the Prime Minister doubled down.
“Everybody knows that their prosperity depends on the prosperity of their employer,” Turnbull told Sales. “If they’re working for a business, they want to know their business is doing well. The company they’re working for is investing and growing. Everything we’re doing is going to encourage more investment. Labor’s policy will discourage investment.”
Sales asked Turnbull about his seeming lack of “signature achievements” during the last three years. He cited the reform of school funding (originally a Labor policy), as well as restoring the Building and Construction Commission, and increasing access to child care. “We have made one big reform after another,” Turnbull told Sales. “You can be as negative as you like.”
In between asking Sales to “stop interrupting” him, Turnbull also said he is confident the three Coalition MPs caught up in the citizenship scandal will be cleared by the High Court. And he denied the same-sex marriage postal survey is a turning into a comment on freedom of religion.
3. We’ve officially reached peak activewear.
The comfy years of wearing yoga pants to brunch and sweatpants to the supermarket – all in the name of fashion, of course – might be over. It seems we’ve reached ‘peak athleisure’.
It was a trend spearheaded by the big names in sportswear: Lululemon, Nike, Adidas and Under Armour. The rest soon followed and social media feeds became cluttered with advertisements from from startups or established brands hoping to piggyback on the trend – swimwear brand Seafolly brought out a line of activewear, so did Calvin Klein.
The numbers were huge. According to retail market research group NPD, in 2016 activewear apparel sales totalled $US45.9 billion ($AU57.6 billion) in the US – this was an 11 per cent increase on the year before and a far, far greater sum than any other apparel sector, Business Insider reports.
Now, however, things are changing. Business Insider reports that athleisure sales are down, and denim is making a comeback. Lululemon just slashed prices on the greatest amount of product in four years (ladies, time to go shopping). And other sports retailers, including Foot Locker, Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods in the US, have seen heavy second-quarter losses.
No one knows if it’s the end of crop-tops-come-fashion-statements, or if the downturn is simply a reflection of the wider retail market – every sector is struggling, but athleisure is falling from monstrous heights.
One thing’s for sure: Best make the most of brunching in seamless tights while it’s still fashionable to do so. It may be a long time ’til we see a trend so accommodating.
4. Yes, this is good news: Four cups of coffee a day will help you live longer.
An observational study of 20,000 Spanish residents has found an association between regular coffee consumption and a lower risk of premature death.
The research, presented at the ESC (European Society of Cardiology) Congress in Barcelona this week, found the risk of early death was cut by nearly two-thirds among those who drank four cups of coffee every day.
The study followed the health of 22,500 Spanish university graduates from 1999 and, for a period of 10 years, researchers followed-up with patients for information on coffee consumption, lifestyle characteristics and health conditions.
The researchers found participants who consumed at least four cups of coffee per day had a 64 per cent lower risk of “all-cause mortality” than those who never or almost never consumed coffee.
5. New Sydney animal home to include a refuge for pets whose owners are fleeing domestic violence.
A western Sydney council has announced plans to build a $30 million animal home which would take in lost, stray and abandoned animals from up to 15 neighbouring council areas.
Blacktown City Council has provided land worth $15 million for the Animal Re-homing Centre and will spend $15 million to build the facility which will include a refuge for pets whose owners are fleeing domestic violence.
"It's a major reason why a lot of women will not leave a violent relationship - because there's nowhere to go for pets," Superintendent Gary Merryweather told the Seven Network on Sunday.
With extra state government funding, the facility, to be built on a 10.5 hectare site at Glendenning, will feature a state-of-the-art vet hospital, a greyhound re-homing facility and more than 350 kennels for cats and dogs.
6. Ironman champion Dean Mercer dies, age 47.
Ironman champion Dean Mercer is being remembered as a loving father, husband and a competitor with the "heart of Phar Lap", following his sudden death on the Gold Coast on Monday.
The father-of-four died after suffering a heart attack while driving following an early morning training session at about 7am. His 4WD crashed into a fence at Mermaid Waters but despite the attempts of paramedics, the 47-year-old was declared dead hours later at the Gold Coast University Hospital, AAP reports.
Wife Reen Mercer, herself a former ironwoman champion, was left to tell Mr Mercer's four sons - aged six to 13 - the heartbreaking news.
"Dean was an amazing husband and loving father who loved nothing more than sharing his and Reen's love of life and love of the surf," the Mercer family said in a statement.
Mercer was a two-time Australian Ironman champion, who alongside his brother Darren, made their family name synonymous with surf lifesaving in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
7. Bill Shorten's seat eyed by gangland widow, Roberta Williams.
Bill Shorten faces a new challenge with gangland widow and convicted drug trafficker Roberta Williams planning to make a bid for the opposition leader's Melbourne seat at the next federal poll.
"Just when I thought politics couldn't get more interesting," Mr Shorten said on Monday when asked about his prospective new adversary, AAP reports.
Ms Williams is hoping to be preselected as a candidate for the Australian People's Party but her status as a undischarged bankrupt is likely to hinder her bid. She spent six months in jail in 2006 for trafficking 8000 ecstasy tablets that were supplied to an undercover police officer.
Ms Williams gained notoriety during Melbourne's gangland wars as the wife of slain underworld kingpin Carl Williams - a convicted killer who was beaten to death by an inmate at Barwon Prison in 2010.
Top Comments
If I read that correctly, 15 million is being used by just one NSW council alone for cats and dogs of domestic violence.
Meanwhile the "exorbitant" cost of the the Federal Government SSM vote at 122 million, less than 10 ten times more than the cats and dogs shelter in a single council is seen as a flagrant waste of money according to the last few articles. It's madness.
I didn't get up this morning looking for a news bite that reinforces the fact that men are seen by & large as disposable by society. But as a male victim of domestic violence I'm glad they are taking care of the dogs & cats. I'll be sure to show this too both my sons. Thanks.
I'm not sure male DV victims need the same support as female victims, not at least in every case. Men tend to have more options when confronted by a violent partner, both physical and economic. Men probably need more legal, financial and counselling help over emergency shelters, with exceptions of course.
But, yes, the Victorian government provided a funding boost for women's accomodation, which is fine, but then allocated $100,000 for pet accomodation and $0 in funding for male victims. Just imagine if that was reversed.
Men have been honed by evolution & social conditioning to be experts at maintaining a stoic front to their suffering. But they are only human at the end of the day. Hence why men make up 75% of the homeless population & 80% of suicides. Men will suffer in silence with little to no outreach from the services their tax dollars alone fund for women (men as a group are the only net payers of tax). Herein lies the rub; pro feminist government policy & the consequential undermining of men's position in the traditional family acts as a major disincentive for men to fulfil & realise their full potential as societies most efficient units of production. We can already see this has reached a tipping point in balooning government debt & deficit. When the music stops & the fat ladies sing it will be every man for himself.
Please qualify "men as a group are the only net payers of tax"
Basically every tax dollar paid by women is spent by women, leaving a deficit that is only filled by tax dollars paid by men. New Zealand published a study on this statistical data recently. Although Australia's notoriously PC government departments avoid such studies it's easily extrapolated from 2 other ABS data sets that this is the case here & likely across every other developed economy. Hence by obvious extension this would be the case across the developing world also. When you realize this it's all the more amazing that feminism as a movement acts so aggressively to subdue the male incentive to produce more then he consumes when that productivity alone is the difference between feminism's survival or not. I guess that's why historically we only see short flashes of movements resembling feminism in the late androgynous stages of an empire before it collapses.