RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
MORE details have emerged about exactly what Jodhi Meares was up to before her alleged DUI car crash at the weekend.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
TODAY
LIVE UPDATES
10am
That’s it for our RUSH HOUR live news blog for this morning. Get across the stories you need to know today below.
9.45am
If you ever feel guilty about your eating habits, take some solace in the fact that this dude eats like a pig.
Hollywood hunk Channing Tatum has revealed to German magazine TV Movie that he eats “as much as I possibly can” between movies.
“Bacon in the morning, cake in the afternoon, popcorn in the evening,” the Magic Mike star said.
“During breaks in filming I drink so much alcohol that I get fat anyway. Embarrassing.”
When he needs to get in shape for a movie, he eats nothing but broccoli and chicken. So there.
9.30am
It's a #Blizzard -5C & #Dumping #Snow at #FallsCreek. Lots more to come! @VanessaOHanlon @sunriseon7 pic.twitter.com/moanRyX4dA
— Falls Creek Official (@fallsaustralia) June 23, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: It's a #Blizzard -5C & #Dumping #Snow at #FallsCreek. Lots more to come! @VanessaOHanlon @sunriseon7 pic.twitter.com/moanRyX4dA— Falls Creek Official (@fallsaustralia) June 23, 2014
As Melbourne shivers through a chilly morning with wild winds, snow is falling in the Australian Alps. Check out more cool pics here in our story about Australia’s megablizzard.
9.15am
The UN World Heritage Committee has rejected the Abbott Government’s application to cut back Tasmania’s protected forests.
Australia applied to remove 74,000 hectares of forest from the World Heritage list, but the committee yesterday dismissed the attempt unanimously.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt applied for the concession in February in order to open up more of the forests to logging.
Mr Hunt said in a statement this morning that he accepted the UN’s decision.
9am
May was so hot that it set a new world record, according to US authorities.
AFP reports that last month had the warmest temperatures on both land and water since record-keeping began in 1880.
The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was 0.74C above the 20th century average of 14.8C, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday, eclipsing the previous best in May 2010.
“The majority of the world experienced warmer-than-average monthly temperatures, with record warmth across eastern Kazakhstan, parts of Indonesia, and central and north-western Australia,” NOAA said.
8.30am
Disgraced DJ Mel Greig could return to the airwaves a year and a half after the royal hoax call that went terribly wrong.
There are reports that Greig will return to radio on KiisFM with Big Brother winner Tim Dormer.
Radio insiders told The Daily Telegraph that the radio personality flew from her Adelaide home to Sydney yesterday to meet with Dormer and executives from the station.
Greig received international notoriety in December 2012 when she and her on-air co-host Michael Christian prank called the hospital that the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was staying at impersonating the Queen.
The British nurse who took the call, Jacintha Saldanha, took her own life after the hoax.
8.15am
A road rage incident in Sydney’s inner west has left an elderly man fighting for his life.
A 73-year-old remains in intensive care with a fractured neck and head injuries after being punched to the ground after a minor vehicle crash last night, The Daily Telegraph reports.
A male passenger bashed the older man after the white sedan he was travelling in reversed into the 73-year-old’s Mazda XRC in Strathfield about 5.10pm.
The assailant was last seen running west along Liverpool Rd.
8am
The “living legend” that is Migaloo the big white whale, is making his seasonal trip north.
He swam past the Gold Coast under cover of darkness last night and is expected near South Stradbroke Island this morning, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.
Whale watchers will be out in force today, hoping to catch a glimpse of the extremely rare hypo-pigmented humpback.
“It’s very exciting as he isn’t usually this close to the coastline — last year we didn’t get to see him as he was too far away,” said Bruce Nicholls of Gold Coast Adventures.
Whale enthusiast Oskar Peterson said the white whale was “a living legend” that garnered worldwide attention.
7.45am
US Secretary of State John Kerry has pledged “intense” support for Iraq against the “existential threat” of a major militant offensive pushing toward Baghdad from the north and west.
Kerry met with under-pressure Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday, as the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria threatened to tear the country apart, AFP reports.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced as the Sunni insurgents continue their campaign.
Most recently, ISIS seized a strategic town in northern Iraq, while security forces reclaimed a border crossing with Syria.
Washington’s “support will be intense, sustained, and if Iraq’s leaders take the necessary steps to bring the country together, it will be effective,” Kerry said from the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.
7.40am
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is the most expensive film ever, according to Business Insider.
The 2007 movie, which saw Johnny Depp reprise his iconic role as Captain Jack Sparrow, cost $US341.8 million ($A369.81 million) to produce.
Allowing for inflation, the next most expensive films were the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor epic Cleopatra ($US339.5 million) and James Cameron’s Titanic ($US294.3 million) from 1997.
7.25am
It’s enough to make you long for Jar Jar Binks.
In news that is likely to make Star Wars fans cranky, there are reports that director JJ Abrams is courting Tom Cruise to make a cameo in the upcoming sequel, Episode VII.
Cruise met up with Abrams in London to discuss the movie, according to The Sun.
7am
Details have emerged about exactly what Jodhi Meares was up to before her alleged DUI car crash in Sydney at the weekend.
A restaurant customer has told The Daily Telegraph that Meares, James Packer’s ex-wife, was already “fairly pickled” when he spoke to her at a North Bondi eatery about 6.30pm on Saturday.
The customer also said she had a tiff with her fiance Jon Stevens about the best way to deal with his complaints about her smoking.
Three hours later, she allegedly drove her Range Rover into three parked cars in the exclusive suburb of Bellevue Hill.
Police have charged Meares with high-range drink-driving, which means she could face jail time, and they have suspended her licence.
Stevens, the former frontman of Noiseworks, told Channel 9 yesterday that “she made a mistake, she made an error of judgment’’.
6.30am
The family of Australian journalist Peter Greste say they are devastated after an Egyptian court sentenced him to seven years’ jail yesterday.
The Al-Jazeera journalist was found guilty for spreading false news and supporting former prime minister Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
“Regardless of whether you prepare yourself (for the verdict), the emotions are just devastated, I’m gutted. It’s unbelievable,” Greste’s brother Andrew told the ABC.
The sentence has been met with widespread condemnation, and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the Australian Government will speak to the new Egyptian Government to see if intervention is possible.
6.20am
Australia will leave the World Cup without a win after being schooled by reigning world champions Spain in the Socceroos’ final match.
The Aussies went down 3-0 in a deflating loss.
Spain’s David Villa offered the match’s highlight, scoring with a deft backheel that placed him among only four Spanish players to score at three separate World Cups.
Despite the loss, Australia’s Cup campaign will be remembered for proving that we are a football nation and the sport has a bright future Down Under.
Check out our live World Cup blog here.
6.01am
VICTORIANS should brace for traffic hell this morning as winds up to 125km/h lash the state.
State Emergency Services spokesman Stefan Delatovic has warned commuters to leave early to avoid rushing in bad conditions, the Herald Sun reports.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning, with damaging winds forecast for parts of the state’s south-west and west and South Gippsland.
Sydney should expect a sunny but very windy day, with a top of 17C.
The weather bureau has also issued another severe weather warning for Adelaide and much of South Australia.
This follows a horror day of weather in Melbourne yesterday, where strong winds knocked over a brick wall at a construction site in Brighton East, killing a father of two.
Weather watchers are also marking the arrival of the megablizzard, a major snowstorm that could blanket the Australian Alps for the next 10 days.
6am
Good morning, and welcome to our “headlines in a hurry” news coverage. We’ll be bringing you the morning’s biggest stories so you can get across the news quickly.
Originally published as RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
Woman allegedly poisoned with tainted tea
A man in his 60s has been charged with attempting to kill a woman after he allegedly poisoned her tea with insecticide.
‘A joke’: Tyrrell ‘witness’ finally speaks
Several people who believe they saw William Tyrrell in the days after his disappearance have claimed their tip-offs were not taken seriously by police.