SBS News in Easy English 7 May 2025

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A daily 5-minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability. 


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TRANSCRIPT:

Labor MPs will meet in Canberra this week to decide on the shape of its second term government.

The current top-line leadership members are expected to remain in their portfolios - but Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt has told Seven's Sunrise it's up to the Prime Minister as to who will fill the various positions on offer.

"We do have an umpire, and his name is the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. So I think he'll do a good job of sort of shaping this. The way it's going to work is that we'll all get together on Friday in Canberra as a caucus to decide who will be elected into the ministry, and then it's a hundred percent up to the Prime Minister to decide who goes into what role."

Meanwhile, post-election fighting is continuing in the losing coalition party.

Retired senator Linda Reynolds is amongst a group of senior Liberals urging the party to learn from previous reviews, which found the party was failing to adequately represent the values and priorities of women.

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Greens Leader Adam Bandt is struggling to hold onto his inner city seat of Melbourne as final counting continues in the federal election.

A-L-P candidate Sarah Witty is ahead but the seat will remain uncalled until more preference votes are taken into consideration.

Mr Bandt has declared that the strong Greens result in the Senate is the true reflection of the level of support for his party - but Labor Senator Penny Wong says she believes voters did not appreciate what she has described as the negativity of the minor party.

"Australians rejected the politics of conflict and the politics of grievance. And unfortunately Adam Bandt in some ways is quite like Peter Dutton. It's the same conflict, and frankly quite aggressive, and the same politics of protest and grievance. I think Australians have comprehensively rejected that."

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A warning that the following story may be distressing to some listeners:

New South Wales Police say the discovery of two young boys found dead at a property in the regional town of Coonabarabran is being treated as a double murder.

The grandmother of the 6 and 8 year old boys has been arrested and taken to a mental health facility.

Western Region assistant commissioner Andrew Holland says the discovery was a confronting situation for first responders.

"They've had to force entry to the house. They were first confronted with the death or sorry, the body of a young six year old boy who was located in the front bedroom. They then located the 66 year old woman who had attempted self-harm in that location. She was immediately placed under arrest at that time. And then from that point, police did a further search of the house and located the second young child."

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At least three people have died in missile strikes on Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan officials say the missiles struck nine locations in Kashmir and Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.

One of them hit a mosque in the city of Bahawalpur in Punjab, where a child was killed and a woman and man were injured.

India's offensive has occurred amid heightened tensions in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month, when Islamist assailants killed 26 men in the worst violence targeted at civilians in India in nearly two decades.

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Cardinals have begun checking into two Vatican hotels ahead of a secret conclave to elect a new Catholic Pope.

The conclave starts this afternoon in Rome, with all cardinals under the age of 80 able to vote on who should be the next leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church.

Vatican expert Peter Casarella has spoken to S-B-S Arabic about how the conclave will work.

"There'll be a mass for the election of the Pope in the morning, presided by the Dean of the College of the Cardinals, Jovanna Batre, in which he'll offer a homily to prepare them to go in the conclave. And then the cardinal electors, I believe there's 133. These are the members of the College of Cardinals that are under the age of 80, will go into the conclave, no listening devices. They'll literally be under lock and key with very few other assistants at their side."

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Australians are being warned to get vaccinated before the peak of the flu season.

Health officials say those considered at high risk are among those who should get immunised, including young children, the elderly, pregnant women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Health officials say there has been an unusual spike in cases across the country already, with more than 71,000 flu cases reported since January 1.

University of Sydney Public Health scientist Julie Leask says influenza vaccination rates in Australia are dire.

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