SBS News in Easy English 8 May 2025

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


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TRANSCRIPT:

A WARNING THAT THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRESSING FOR SOME LISTENERS:

Three children have now died in a house fire in the Queensland city of Toowoomba.

Two children have died in hospital after being rushed there in a critical condition, following their escape from the blaze with a woman and a man.

The body of another child - believed to be a nine year old boy - had already been located in the home.

Detective Superintendent George Marchaseni says a woman is under police guard in hospital as the investigation into the cause of the blaze continues.

"What we know so far is that we are treating this matter as suspicious. We have detectives from the Darling Downs district along with the Homicide Investigation Unit assisting this investigation. We have also brought in other specialist teams to assist, and some of that takes part with the forensic and scientific investigation at the scene. As part of our investigation we'll be looking at any interaction or communication from the family with police prior to this incident."

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A conclave has begun in Rome to elect a new Pope for the Catholic Church.

Black smoke has emerged from the Sistine Chapel chimney in the Vatican, indicating there has been an inconclusive vote on the first day.

There are 133 cardinals involved in the voting.

Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, says they will vote - potentially up to four times a day - until a new pope is named.

"We are here to invoke the help of the Holy Spirit, to implore his light and strength so that the Pope elected may be he whom the Church and humanity need at this difficult, complex and tormented point in history."

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Greens leader Adam Bandt is set to join Liberal counterpart Peter Dutton in the departures lounge after multiple media outlets called the seat of Melbourne for Labor's Sarah Witty.

But Mr Bandt has declined to concede, with up to 15,000 absentee votes yet to be counted.

The Greens have lost three of their four lower house seats, but the minor party is set to hold the balance of the power in the Senate.

Almost a dozen seats are still officially undecided after Saturday's election.

Independent Zoe Daniel has also refused to concede the seat of Goldstein in Melbourne, which Liberal Tim Wilson has now claimed victory in.

"The reality is three years ago we were written off... I am very proud - genuinely very proud to say - that we are pleased to accept that we have won the seat of Goldstein back for the Liberal party."

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Meanwhile, Peter Dutton has been seen in public for the first time since losing his seat in parliament and the federal election.

He has returned to Canberra briefly to thank supporters.

But the former opposition leader has said it's best for him to maintain a dignified silence after being asked to comment on who should replace him.

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Candlelight vigils have taken place around the country to mark National Domestic Violence Remembrance Day.

The vigils have remembered survivors as well as those who have lost their lives to violence, with Our Watch figures suggesting one woman is killed every nine days on average by a current or former partner.

Data from 2024 shows First Nations women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous women, and eight times more likely to be murdered, with the perpetrators men of all cultural backgrounds.

But Mudgin-Gal Women's Aboriginal Corporation CEO Ashley Donohoe has told NITV there is not enough investment in community-led solutions for First Nations women.

"All the plans, all the projects, all the programming, all the policies are seen through a white lens in this country, and that white lens does not see Aboriginal women in the anti-violence space."

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Researchers say they have discovered the wreck of the Koning Willem de Tweede, an 800 tonne Dutch merchant ship that was lost off the coast of South Australia in 1857.

The team that includes the Australian National Maritime Museum say they are confident it is the Koning.

They say its location corresponds to historic accounts of the vessel’s loss, and it is the only known historic shipwreck event to have occurred on that stretch of Long Beach.

Sixteen crew members were drowned when the ship sank in a storm off Robe, in South Australia's southeast.

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