Making news: Serena Williams won tennis off no sleep, and other secrets she told Meghan Markle

All the news that's fit to mint.

All the news that's fit to mint.

What's happening in (The) Oz today:

👨🏻‍💼 Morrison's "extraordinary" but not illegal behaviour exposed

🙅🏻‍♀️ Not now 2022, leave John Farnham alone

🧁 Peter Dutton's morning tea ban has been lifted

🏋🏻‍♀️ Nicole Kidman has gone full CrossFit

🥛 Steve Smith is now milking oats

🎾 Serena William's won a tennis match after 30-minutes of sleep

🪐 Space just sounds like being trapped in a Dyson

Good morning!

Unless you slept in a space, which NASA has just discovered sounds like a vacuum.

Edited so that it can be heard by human ears, the release of this audio clip from the Perseus galaxy cluster marks the first time the sound of a black hole has been heard. 

Imagine living there and being trapped, not only alongside all wannabe space pioneers like Musk, Bezos and Branson, but no one will be able to hear you scream. And on the flip side, all their hot air can't escape either.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to flog my ticket to Mars on Facebook Marketplace - a black hole right here on Earth.

The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e

— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 21, 2022

So about those secret jobs for the boy

The Solicitor-General has found that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison was validly appointed to those five extra ministries but by not informing us - the public - or Parliament (and even those whose jobs he hijacked) "the principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined," Stephen Donaghue QC's review states.

Who is he?

He's the second law officer of the country and is charged as the nation's solicitor-general to both advise the government and represent it in the highest courts in the land if things go really pear shaped.

Anthony Albanese asked him just one question to answer: "Was Mr Morrison validly appointed to administer the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER) on April 15 2021?"

The SG could have just said yes or no.

He said "yes", then chose to include a 26 page summary with an expansive assessment of what the heck happened.

The PM has since decided to make the review public, you can read it here if you want. 

And he's also called for an inquiry.

Something a contrite opposition will pay attention to.

“The Opposition will work with the Government on any reasonable proposals to provide clarity to processes and improve transparency in ministerial appointments,” the Opposition's legal affairs spokesman Julian Leeser said.

Meanwhile Morrison responded with another Facebook essay explaining how he kept us all safe.

"In the extraordinary circumstances I was contending with, decisions were made and then I kept moving forward. We did not dwell on such decisions, especially those of a precautionary nature as they were effectively dormant."

Morrison said he would be happy to assist in any “genuine” inquiry into the pandemic, and that an investigation should also look into the state and territories.

"I’ve reflected further on these matters over the past week. I appreciate the concerns that have been raised in relation to these matters and regret any offence caused. To my colleagues I have expressed this directly. Notwithstanding the current criticisms of these past decisions, it is important not to lose sight of the result achieved."

The comments make for interesting reading.

https://www.facebook.com/100044561133947/posts/pfbid02AVe1vm3empcLte42hKED3fAVdya95YBq7qTaudLobBygcQHAnG5xEJk9LQDeLfEWl/?d=n

Feel better soon Farnzie

John Farnham - the man who never quits - is undergoing treatment for cancer.

The 73-year-old singer is in ICU after a surgery that took more than 11-hours to remove a "cancerous growth", according to a statement from his family.

Farnham said a cancer diagnosis was something many people faced each day “and countless others have walked this path before me”.

“The one thing I know for sure is that we have the very best specialist healthcare professionals in Victoria and we can all be grateful for that. I know I am.”

Australian music legend John Farnham has been diagnosed with cancer and will undergo surgery today. As we wish John a fast recovery, #60Mins look back to our 2003 interview with the rock icon, who invited us backstage on his farewell tour through Australia's heartland. pic.twitter.com/Fhv3fD6xhk

— 60 Minutes Australia (@60Mins) August 23, 2022

Smoko is back!

Those morning teas former Defence Minister Peter Dutton cancelled are back.

His successor, Richard Marles, overturned the ban which prevented public service and military staff from engaging in “woke” events.

Peter Dutton’s 2021 ban, also known as the “morning tea ban”, prohibited public service employees from participating in certain charity, diversity and cultural events at work.

The “morning tea ban” was infamously announced after staff attended morning teas held by defence while wearing rainbow clothes in respect of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia. 

Having been lifted immediately, employees are now able to engage in R U OK? and Wear it Purple days, where participants wear yellow and purple to raise awareness for suicide prevention and LGBTQIA+ visibility respectively. 

Nicole Kidman is Perfect

Which is, coincidentally, the name of the new magazine she appears on with all guns blazing.

The 55-year-old Oscar winner - clad in menswear - has gone full J.Lo, looking fitter than an athlete on the cover.

Nicole Kidman wearing Y/Project fall 2022 menswear and Diesel fall 2022 for Perfect Magazine Issue 3 by Zhong Lin. MOTHERNISM pic.twitter.com/H6Uca1lOeE

— gabriela (@schiaplicious) August 22, 2022

Kidman is the magazine’s inaugural winner of the "Icon" award. 

"At a time when the validity of awards ceremonies is in question, and the red-carpet spectacle of presentations is dominated by the awarding bodies and the presenters, we wanted to shift the focus back on those who we think deserve to be rewarded,” Perfect said in a statement.

Always was, always will be perfect...

@theoz.com.au

👠 #nicolekidman #tomcruise #letterman

♬ original sound - Xelly.fxf

Tree change

Former Australian cricket captain Steve Smith is moving onto greener pastures.

He's becoming an oat milk mogul.

Oat Milk Goodness has been four years in the making but Smith said, despite a saturated alternative milk market, his will convert baristas and even rusted on lactose lovers. 

"We wanted to perfect our recipe and get everything right, and it just took a lot longer than we thought … We’re really proud of the product we’ve got now," he said.

The milk will be made using Australian-grown oats and it will be different to other oat milk brands out there now as it'll include olive oil in the production process instead of industrial seed oils like sunflower or canola oil.

Australian revenue from milk substitutes (or as my dairy loving father calls it "high maintenance juice") rose from $30 million in 2021 to $327 million, a figure that is expected to hit $550 million by 2026.

A podcast? In 2022? Ground breaking

The Duchess of Sussex is back at work. She's the new host and executive producer of a brand new podcast series that dropped late Tuesday night.

Despite her taking more than 7-minutes of the cold open retelling that story about how she wrote a letter to a dishing washing liquid company as a kid, it's an interest listen.

"Archetypes with Meghan - a podcast where we investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back," the bio states.

Her first guest is Serena Williams, and it also includes a cameo by Prince Harry who compliments her on her hair while the two Americans mock his accent.

The good stuff is when Williams opens up about her return from tennis after having her daughter, an experience that nearly killed her, back in 2018 and she wore the "controversial" black cat suit at the French Open.

You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers. #justdoit pic.twitter.com/dDB6D9nzaD

— Nike (@Nike) August 25, 2018

"That year I had Olympia and I had a match the next day and that night she fell out of her high-chair and broke her wrist and she was on my watch. I was just, basically, devastated, I couldn't think. I felt so guilty. We went to the hospital and she had a small tear and break in her wrist so she had to get a cast and we didn't get back til 4am, meanwhile it was the one day I was playing early. I remember holding her the whole night and just rocking her to sleep. I didn't let her out of my sight from that point. I'm hard on myself, as I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, but I was so mad at myself for allowing that to happen," Williams said.

"I got 30 minutes of sleep and had to go play this match. I somehow managed to win but I was so emotionally spent and so emotionally draining and then every night after that I was with her the whole time. I took a lot on. But Mum's do a lot."

Amen.