Live breaking news: Tragic end to search for missing toddler, Royals reaction to Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview, Dan Andrews in hospital after fall

KFC has gone for the jugular on a bizarre advert from one of its fast food rivals by making a savage meme. 

Burger King – known as Hungry Jacks in Australia – is being severely criticised for tweeting that “women belong in the kitchen” on International Women’s Day.

 

The tweet was tied to the chain’s launch of an initiative to help increase the number of women in head-chef roles. The message also ran in a full-page advert in the New York Times overnight.

It was roasted by KFC which posted a meme of the colonel writing; "The best time to delete this post was immediately after posting it. The second best is now."

Burger King hit back at KFC for the meme, saying: "Why would we delete a tweet that's drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry, we thought you'd be on board with this as well?"

However, Burger King pulled the tweet down and apologised after a sustained backlash.

Follow our updates on today's breaking news in the blog below, where you can also find more details on this story.

You can find yesterday's blog here and live updates on royals here.

Updates

4:10 pm March 9, 2021 Highlight

'It's bleeding': Bold plan for empty CBD

Melbourne restaurant owners are backing a radical plan to revitalise the city’s night-life post-COVID, saying the hospitality industry is “bleeding” and “any idea has got to help”.

The Property Council of Australia is pushing state and local governments to introduce a “Fab Fridays” idea where city workers would knock off at 4pm and public transport into the CBD would be free on Fridays.

Under the plan, councils would also launch festivals and events to encourage people “to get out and about and make the most of their Friday afternoon”.

Picture: Jason Edwards

Chin Chin restaurant owner Chris Lucas said Melbourne’s hospitality industry needed help immediately.

“There are lots of good ideas floating around, but what we really want is a dissemination of those ideas and we need some action now,” he told NCA NewsWire.

“Business has picked up a little last week and hopefully this trend continues, but we need to see these plans to revitalise the CBD executed as soon as possible before venues start to close.”

4:08 pm March 9, 2021 Highlight

Sad prediction for Prince Harry

Such was the sustained jackhammering of the royal family it’s difficult to imagine the dust ever settling on the Duke and Duchess’s astonishing Oprah interview, particularly when the question remains who came off worse.

Prince Charles, who was effectively blamed for being an uncaring father and heads the small subset now under suspicion for the alleged racist comments surrounding Harry and Meghan’s son Archie?

Picture: Screengrab

Kate, who Meghan claims is not the Merriest Wife of Windsor but rather a mean girl who picked on her during the week of her wedding?

Or the Queen who heads this apparently dysfunctional family “trapped” by their titles and held hostage by the tabloid press?

Truth be told, it’s none of these key players who will ultimately suffer as a result of the nuclear interview, but the one person who had the opportunity to halt it: Prince Harry.

4:06 pm March 9, 2021 Highlight

Meghan 'slammed the door' in Kate's face

Meghan Markle “slammed the door” in sister-in-law Kate Middleton’s face when she tried to apologise over a disagreement about a pair of stockings, palace insiders have said in the wake of Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah.

Yesterday, Meghan revealed to Oprah the “turning point” in her relationship with the royal family: the stoush with the Duchess of Cambridge, over whether the bridesmaids at her wedding to Prince Harry should wear hosiery.

Rumours at the time suggested that “hurricane Meghan” and her difficult behaviour had made Kate cry.

Picture: Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Dropping the first of many bombshells in the interview, Meghan told Oprah that actually, “the reverse happened”.

“The narrative with Kate – which didn’t happen – was really, really difficult and something that I think, that’s when everything changed, really,” Meghan said.

“And I don’t say that to be disparaging to anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding, and she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised, and she brought me flowers and a note apologising and she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone. To just take accountability for it.”

4:04 pm March 9, 2021 Highlight

Family mourns for toddler in dam tragedy

The family of a young girl found dead in a dam on a property in western Queensland have remembered the toddler as a “special little girl”.

Two-year-old Ruby Gulliver was last seen playing with a dog near a house on a 1500 hectare property in Tara, 300km west of Brisbane about 3pm on Monday afternoon.

Picture: Facebook

When her mother noticed she was missing, friends, family and neighbours immediately launched a search effort. Police, the State Emergency Services and other emergency services arrived shortly and were later joined by Polair, police dogs and police divers.

Ruby’s body was recovered from a dam, 70 metres from the home, about 1am on Tuesday morning.

2:55 pm March 9, 2021 Highlight

Second 'strong' COVID find in wastewater

Testing has shown a second strong result for levels of COVID-19 traces within Adelaide’s wastewater.

After the “strong positive” was detected in sewer water over the weekend, follow up testing has been conducted, which showed another strong positive result on Monday night.

“At this stage, there is as yet no clear explanation to the wastewater detection result,” a spokesman for SA Health said in a statement.

“It’s imperative that anyone who has been in the Adelaide CBD in the past week seek immediate testing if they have any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild.”

2:46 pm March 9, 2021 Highlight

Daniel Andrews in intensive care

Daniel Andrews has been placed in intensive care in hospital where he is expected to remain for “the next few days” after suffering a serious fall this morning.

The Victorian Premier issued a statement via his office this afternoon giving details of the accident and his condition.

BREAKING @DanielAndrewsMP is on intensive care after serious fall @newscomauHQ pic.twitter.com/20aAPFnvOY

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) March 9, 2021

“Early this morning, I was admitted to hospital after slipping and falling on wet and slippery stairs,” Mr Andrews said. “A CT scan has revealed several broken ribs and vertebrae damage, and subsequent medical advice has recommended I remain in intensive care for the next few days.”

Mr Andrews said his wife Catherine and his children were “extremely grateful to the Ambulance Victoria paramedics who showed such care and kindness to our family this morning, as we are to the clinicians who have taken care of me today”.

“Our warm and sincere thanks go to the many family members, friends, colleagues and Victorians who have sent messages of love and support throughout the day. Thank you,” he said.

2:02 pm March 9, 2021

Calls to restart search for MH370

The man who headed the Australian Government’s fruitless, years-long search for missing flight MH370 has called for a fresh sweep of the ocean floor based on new evidence.

Peter Foley says new research produced by oceanographers and flight experts has pinpointed a possible resting place for the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, which vanished exactly seven years ago with 239 souls on board, including six Australians.

1:22 pm March 9, 2021

Italy seeing surge in infections as deaths hit 100,000

Italy on Monday surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 official coronavirus deaths, amid warnings the spread of new variants is fuelling a fresh wave of infections.

Just over a year since it became the first European country to be overwhelmed by Covid-19, Italy’s health ministry recorded another 318 virus-related deaths, taking the total to 100,103.

The figure is almost certainly an underestimate of the true toll, but is nevertheless shocking.

When the pandemic started, “we could have never imagined that after a year … the official death toll would have neared the terrible threshold of 100,000,” said Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who took over last month.

In a video message that represented his first public statement in three weeks, he added: “The pandemic has not yet been defeated, but with the acceleration of the vaccination plan, we can see a way out.”

AFP

11:35 am March 9, 2021 Highlight

Fast food giant cops unholy backlash over ad

Burger King – known as Hungry Jacks in Australia – is being severely criticised for tweeting that “women belong in the kitchen” on International Women’s Day.

The tweet was tied to the chain’s launch of an initiative to help increase the number of women in head-chef roles.

It was roasted by KFC which posted a meme of the colonel writing; "The best time to delete this post was immediately after posting it. The second best is now."

Burger King's message also ran in a full-page advert in the New York Times overnight, and they hit back at KFC for the meme.

"Why would we delete a tweet that's drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry, we thought you'd be on board with this as well?" a Burger King spokesperson responded.

The funniest thing about the Burger King "tweet" is that it clearly wasn't just a tweet. This was a whole international campaign that the UK timezone just got first. They can decide against tweeting it from the US account but they couldn't pull the New York Times ad fast enough🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/i4EvOCdFDF

— Thomas ‘TomSka’ Ridgewell (@thetomska) March 8, 2021

However, it was clear many people weren't happy with the messaging, as thousands of people flamed the burger giant on social media.

Some described the tweet as tone-deaf on a day meant to celebrate women. Others said they wouldn’t eat at the restaurant anymore.

Burger King UK, which was the first to post the message, pulled the tweet down and apologised.

"We hear you," a spokesperson said. "We got our initial tweet wrong and we’re sorry.

"Our aim was to draw attention to the fact that only 20 per cent of professional chefs in UK kitchens are women and to help change that by awarding culinary scholarships. We will do better next time."

We hear you. We got our initial tweet wrong and we’re sorry. Our aim was to draw attention to the fact that only 20% of professional chefs in UK kitchens are women and to help change that by awarding culinary scholarships. We will do better next time.

— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) March 8, 2021

10:40 am March 9, 2021 Highlight

Christian Porter not returning next week

The prime minister has just given a press conference, where he revealed Christian Porter will not return to parliament next week.

The attorney-general is currently on stress leave following accusations levelled against him of historical rape which he strongly denies.

Mr Morrison said he had recently spoken to Mr Porter.

"I’ve spoken to Christian, as have many colleagues in providing their support. And at this stage, he hasn’t advised the date he’s returning," he said.

"I don’t anticipate him to be back in the parliament next week. But he’ll give me further updates as we go through the course of this week and we’re making arrangements to ensure that next week in the Parliament, that his responsibilities are handled by other ministers."