JUNE 18 (GMT) – JUNE 19 (AEST), 2021 YOUR DAILY TOP 12 STORIES FROM FRANK NEWS FULL STORIES START ON PAGE 3 NORTH AMERICA UK AUSTRALIA Three killed in tubing tragedy Lib Dems claim by-election win NSW on alert amid virus cases Three people are dead and two remain Boris Johnson’s Tories have suffered a Mask use is again compulsory on missing after a group floating down a shock by-election defeat as the Liberal Sydney’s public transport after a man North Carolina river on inflatable tubes Democrats secured a historic win in picked up COVID-19 from “fleeting went over a dam, authorities said. Chesham and Amersham. Lib Dem exposure” with an infected shopper. A Rockingham County Emergency Services Sarah Green is the country’s newest MP number of new exposure sites have also Director Rodney Cates said a group of after winning the seat, which has been a been announced across Bondi Junction, nine people tubing on the Dan River Conservative stronghold since its creation as well as Macquarie Park and at Sydney’s went over the Duke Energy dam in Eden in 1974. The contest was triggered by the international airport. The man in his 50s around sunset on Wednesday, local time. death of former Cabinet minister Dame caught the virus while shopping at Myer A Duke Energy employee who saw some Cheryl Gillan, who took the seat with a Bondi Junction on Saturday. of the tubers called the situation in to majority of 16,233 in the 2019 general 911, Cates said. election – some 55 per cent of the vote. NORTH AMERICA UK NEW ZEALAND Biden faces long to-do list Blue Wall ‘beginning to crumble’ Shot in the arm for Ardern President Joe Biden is facing a formidable Boris Johnson will be forced to confront Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has had a to-do list now that he’s back from some difficult political choices as he Covid-19 vaccination in Auckland, hailing his summit-filled trip to Europe, with assesses the Tory drubbing in Chesham it as a personal milestone. Ardern was pressing legislative challenges, foreign and Amersham. The Liberal Democrats vaccinated alongside the Chief Science policy follow-up and a need to steer the claim the result has sent a “shockwave Advisor Juliet Gerrard. After being country’s reopening as the coronavirus through British politics” by showing that innoculated, Ardern said it was “pretty threat recedes. His overseas tour was seats in the “Blue Wall” of Tory seats in pain free” and felt better than having the meant to showcase the US return to southern England are vulnerable. flu vaccination. “To be a part of what is global leadership – a central pledge of the biggest vaccination event and the Biden’s 2020 – but he now faces a critical biggest health rollout of our history is a juncture for securing other planks of his really important milestone for me.” agenda. 1 JUNE 18 (GMT) – JUNE 19 (AEST), 2021 YOUR DAILY TOP 12 STORIES FROM FRANK NEWS FULL STORIES START ON PAGE 6 ASIA UK AUSTRALIA Rampaging bear injures four Food exports to Europe plunge Rail driver killed as trains collide A wild brown bear on the the loose all The UK exported more food and drink to A Queensland Rail train driver is dead night in a city in northern Japan wounded outside the EU than into it in the first few and two others are injured after a four people, entered a military camp months after Brexit as exports to the bloc locomotive and a coal train collided west and disrupted flights at an airport before nosedived. Sales to non-EU countries of Rockhampton. The three drivers were being shot and killed by authorities. The made up 55 per cent of all UK food and all on the locomotive when it collided bear was seen wandering through the drink exports in the first three months of with a coal train on the Aurizon rail streets of Sapporo, triggering a number 2021 compared to less than 40 per cent network, about 11:30am on Friday, local of calls to police. Over the next eight a year earlier, according to data from the time, Queensland Rail chief executive hours, Hokkaido prefectural police said Food and Drink Federation. However, Nick Easy said. Police say the driver the bear injured a woman in her 80s, this is not thanks to any major boom in who died was a 49-year-old man from a man in his 70s and a man in his 40s exports to non-EU countries, which only Margate, north of Brisbane. before attacking a soldier. rose by 0.3 per cent, the group said. AFRICA UK NEW ZEALAND Massive diamond unearthed Youth driving rise in Delta cases Peters slams vaccine rollout A huge diamond weighing more than There has been a 79 per cent rise in one Former New Zealand Deputy Prime 1000 carats, which could be the third- week in cases of the Delta variant first Minister Winston Peters has picked a largest mined in history, has been identified in India, Public Health England surprise place to end his media boycott: discovered in the southern African says. Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of Australian breakfast television. And country of Botswana. The high-quality the UK Health Security Agency, said the the 76-year-old doyen of Kiwi politics gemstone weighing 1098.3 carats was increase across the UK is being driven by has used it to slam the government’s unearthed earlier this month in the younger age groups, many of whom have Covid-19 vaccine rollout, deriding as “too Jwaneng mine owned by Debswana, now been invited for a vaccination as the late” and leaving NZ open to potential the mining company jointly owned by jab rollout extends to anyone aged 18 tragedy. Peters first entered parliament the Botswanan government and the De and over. Hospital cases have also risen, more than 40 years ago, but lost his Beers Group. though most of those needing treatment seat last year in Jacinda Ardern’s Labour have not had a vaccine. landslide. 2 JUNE 18 (GMT) – JUNE 19 (AEST), 2021 Emergency personnel respond to the scene where a group tubing on the Dan river went President Joe Biden. - AP over a dam in North Carolina. - AP NORTH AMERICA NORTH AMERICA Three dead, two missing Biden faces to-do list on after tubers go over dam return home from Europe Three people are dead and two remain missing after a President Joe Biden is facing a formidable to-do list now group floating down a North Carolina river on inflatable that he’s back from his summit-filled trip to Europe, with tubes went over a dam, authorities said. pressing legislative challenges, foreign policy follow- up and a need to steer the country’s reopening as the Rockingham County Emergency Services Director Rodney Cates coronavirus threat recedes. said a group of nine people tubing on the Dan River went over the Duke Energy dam in Eden around sunset on Wednesday, His overseas tour was meant to showcase the US return to local time. A Duke Energy employee who saw some of the global leadership – a central pledge of Biden’s 2020 campaign tubers called the situation in to 911, Cates said. for the White House – but he now faces a critical juncture Cates did not release the identities of the three people for securing other planks of his agenda. From voting rights who died. and immigration to his massive legislation on jobs and Four other people were rescued and taken to a hospital for infrastructure, Biden is trying to get as much done as possible treatment of injuries that Cates said were not life-threatening. in Congress before the start of its August recess. Two more remained missing. “I think we – the country, has put a different face on where Boats and helicopters were used in the search in the county we’ve been and where we’re going,” Biden said on the tarmac north of Greensboro along the Virginia state line. in Geneva as he headed back to Washington. “And I feel good Cates said it’s not immediately clear why the tubers didn’t about it.” contact authorities sooner, but he said it may have been It has been a start-and-stop process on many of Biden’s because they didn’t have phones with them. priorities on Capitol Hill, where Democrats hold the majority He said it’s not unusual for people to float the river on tubes but only by the narrowest of margins. He is reaching for or rafts in the area but most get out and walk around the dam, bipartisan deals with Republicans while also moving along with which is marked by signs. The dam is approximately eight feet his own party’s go-it-alone strategy, a two-pronged approach (2.5m) tall, he said. ■ that is particularly coming into focus on his big infrastructure investment plan. Other legislation, on voting rights, policing reforms and immigration, will need support from Republicans in the Senate, and talks are teetering on those and other issues as bipartisan groups of lawmakers strain to find agreements while the days tick off on the legislative calendar. Talks over immigration have all but come to a standstill, and Democrats are now eying putting some immigration law changes into the infrastructure overhaul, relying on budget rules that would allow majority passage without the need for Republican votes. Talks on policing reform are still going, but even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted, “It’s challenging.” ■ 3 JUNE 18 (GMT) – JUNE 19 (AEST), 2021 Lib Dem Sarah Green.