TRANSCRIPT
- Call for more protections for sailors, after two deaths during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race
- An Italian journalist detained in Iran
- Australia's Alex de Minaur takes on Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry at the United Cup
The winner of this year’s Sydney to Hobart yacht race has delayed celebrations after back-to-back line honour wins.
The owner of LawConnect says the mood is sombre after the death of two sailors during the race on two separate yachts.
LawConnect's Tony Mutter says he would like to see more done to protect sailors.
"(I'm) very happy to be here. It was challenging conditions. Probably the roughest race that I have done in the 11 I have done. But we came through okay. We didn't break too much stuff - and people are okay. We have a few bumps and bruises. For us, it was part of our management of the boat was to get... To finish first, you must look after the asset. So we were certainly mindful of that and we pushed when we could. And we certainly had to take the foot off the throttle when it was too much."
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In Victoria, the deputy mayor of the Northern Grampian Shire, Justine Hide, says the recovery from a bushfire that has burnt through nearly 80-thousand hectares in the state's west will take months - or even years.
The bushfire in the Grampians has been burning for more than a week and still remains out-of-control, but a cooler weather conditions have allowed fire authorities to strengthen containment lines; and downgrade the threat.
Damage assessments are also underway, with three homes and six sheds confirmed as destroyed.
Ms Hide says she is worried about the extent of the impact to the local economy and tourism sector.
"These fires are going to be felt for months and months, if not years, to be honest. Because the impact of the just the recent Pomonal fires in February has already forced the closure of some local businesses. And this fire is much more widespread. It is impacting a far greater area and it is hard to imagine actually what is going to be the long-term outcome of this."
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Italy says it is making every effort to bring home a journalist who has been under arrest in Iran for more than a week.
29-year-old Cecilia Sala was detained in Tehran on December 19, but her arrest was only made public by Italy's Foreign Ministry on Friday.
The ministry revealed no reason for the detention, which Iran's officials have yet to acknowledge.
Iran is routinely accused of arresting dual nationals and Western citizens on false charges to use them to pressure Western countries.
Ms Sala works for the newspaper Il Foglio and the podcast company Chora Media.
The editor-in-chief of Il Foglio, Claudio Cerasa, says Ms Sala was in Iran with a regular visa "to report on a country she knows and loves" - and it is concerning to hear she is being held in Tehran's Evin prison.
"What we know about Cecilia Sala is that she is doing well, as well as you can in isolation in an Iranian prison, which, as is known, is one of the worst places in the world where a journalist can be imprisoned. And in Iran, freedom is a crime, journalism is a crime, and the two things put together have produced what we are seeing. We know that there have been negotiations that have been going on for days now to try to resolve the situation."
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US space agency NASA has revealed one of its spacecrafts has made history, after completing the closest-ever approach to the Sun by any human-made object.
The Parker Solar Probe survived the encounter, experiencing temperatures of up to 982 degrees Celsius and intense radiation.
NASA says the spacecraft is expected to send detailed data from the flyby on January 1.
Dr Joe Westlake is NASA's heliophysics director.
He says the team is preparing for even more flybys in the extended mission phase, hoping to capture unique events.
"It's amazing. We humans have created a spacecraft, that spacecraft has gone on into the atmosphere of the sun. Like that's just a huge technological achievement. We're rewriting the textbooks on how on on how the sun works with this data and with the information that we get from this. So really exciting is really, really exciting. And there's much, much more to come for Parker, too. It's going to keep doing flybys like this and it's going to keep delivering great science."
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In tennis, Australia's Alex de Minaur says he feels no pressure to replicate his United Cup success when he returns to Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney tonight.
De Minaur takes on Argentina's Tomas Etcheverry in Australia's first United Cup match.
Meanwhile, ahead of the on-court competition, players from Team Germany and the United States took time out to visit Rottnest Island, just offshore Perth, and took selfies with quokkas.
Alexander Zverev says Team Germany has big goals.
"We had an amazing time last year here to, you know, to win the United Cup for Germany, was amazing, and, obviously, coming back as defending champions, we want to do great things, we want to fight for the title again, and hopefully, everybody’s fit and healthy and we can do that."
