Health News at Your Fingertips

From AAP:

High-tech police drones will be deployed in Cairns and Townsville as part of a new 12-month trial, but a “line-of-sight” rule will limit their capability for situations like car chases.

Equipped with tracking and thermal imaging cameras, the drones will be useful in disaster response, siege situations and to help find lost people, remote pilot Sergeant Mark Gamer says.

While they have a range of about 5km, pilots are only permitted to fly them to visual line of sight – meaning they must be visible at all times.

“Even though the drone can only be used within visual line of sight, the zoom beyond that is quite incredible,” Gamer said on Monday.

“We don’t use drones for car chases, drones are used for static type jobs like sieges … [and] intelligence operations.”

Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Sally McManus has posted this on Twitter in response to the PM’s (incorrect) comments today that train workers are striking and a Labor government will mean more strikes.

From AAP:

The Northern Territory has reported 627 new Covid-19 infections, with the region set to welcome the return of international tourists.

NT Health officials said 123 people remained in hospital with Covid-19, including three in intensive care.

There are 6,106 active infections.

A Qantas flight from London was due to touch down in Darwin on Monday morning following the opening of Australia’s international borders.

The tourism minister, Natasha Fyles, said the Territory’s management of the pandemic had put it in a strong position to welcome the return of international visitors.

“This will be an economic shot in the arm for tourism businesses who have been doing it incredibly tough over the past two years,” she said.

From AAP:

AGL Energy has rejected the first salvo in a multi-billion dollar takeover play by a consortium led by the tech billionaire, Mike Cannon-Brookes, to fast-track Australia’s exit from coal-fired power.

The consortium on Monday said it intends to spend A$20bn to transform AGL’s generation fleet consistent with a target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

“The consortium remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached with the AGL board,” the group told AAP on Monday.

“If successful, this will be one of the biggest decarbonisation projects in the world today and show Australia is capable of globally significant projects,” said Cannon-Brookes, who made his fortune through software company Atlassian.

“It will create over 10,000 Australian jobs and ensure customers don’t bear the brunt of higher power prices – a likely scenario if the proposed demerger happens.”

Jo Haylen is the shadow minister for transport in NSW – she tweeted this just before:

Western Australia has reported 224 new cases of Covid overnight, with 213 of them locally acquired.

Confused about the Chinese laser situation? Here is a really good rundown from the Conversation.

The last time I hugged my mum was early on a July morning in 2019 as I put her in a taxi outside my house in Canterbury, Kent. I should have been driving her to Heathrow myself.

I’d picked her up at 6am when she’d arrived from Australia, but I was feeling fractious after five weeks together in my cramped terrace house, writes Kate Guest.

The ACT has recorded one Covid death, a man in his 80s. It is unclear if he was vaccinated.

There were 458 new cases recorded, 37 are in hospital and of those, one is in ICU.

Perrott says it’s a strike, but train drivers say they turned up to work as rostered to start their shifts – which is not very strike-like.