Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 3 October. Top stories Police are searching for answers after at least 58 people were killed and more than 500 injured by a gunman at an open-air music festival in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in US history. The gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old local man, opened fire, apparently with an automatic or modified semi-automatic weapon, from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. He was found dead after officers stormed the room, where they recovered more than 10 weapons. A brother of the suspect said Paddock was "not an avid gun guy at all" and "the fact that he had those kind of weapons is just … he has no military background or anything like that". So far there is no known international terrorism link, and Las Vegas police said Paddock had no criminal record or history of suspicious behaviour. The death toll is expected to rise. Witnesses who fled the scene as events unfolded on Sunday night described seeing muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay and hearing what they described as sustained automatic gunfire. "It was very obvious it was gunfire coming down into the crowd," said Jackie Hoffing, who lives in Las Vegas. "It was hysteria. There were people trampled ... we jumped walls, climbed cars, ran for our lives. I've never run that hard or been that scared in my whole life." Nevada authorities have pleaded for locals to donate blood, describing the scene as "basically a war zone". The US president, Donald Trump labelled the massacre an act of "pure evil". Follow our live blog for the latest updates through the day. Adani's grip on the Abbot Point coal terminal is threatened by a crash in income unless its contentious Carmichael mine becomes a reality, a new report says. Adani must refinance more than $2bn in debt on the terminal – more than it paid in 2011 – despite earning $1.2bn in revenue and paying virtually no tax in Australia since, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The analysis was included in Monday night's Four Corners program, which also featured a former Indian environment minister saying he was "appalled" by Australia's approval of the mine. The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to a trio of American scientists for their research into the 24-hour body clock. Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young were recognised for their discoveries explaining "how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth's revolutions". Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, said the trio's work deserved the prize because it proved how all living creatures were "slaves to the sun". It could have implications for how people travel and work, and at what time of the day they take medicine or have surgery.
The Queensland Conservation Council says One Nation appears to have confused coal seam gas mining with shale gas extraction in its pledge to protect the state's channel country from CSG. One Nation's Queensland state policy booklet also lists a number of steps that have already been legislated. These include "no body, no parole" laws for homicide convictions that Labor passed this year, and mandatory sentences for possession of illegal weapons such as sawn-off shotguns. The party, which is on track for a 18% primary vote according to a poll, has made a further pitch for farmers' votes by vowing to fight tree-clearing restrictions that Labor has promised to restore if returned with an outright majority. Meanwhile, a poll has found that twice as many voters support state-based restrictions on unconventional gas extraction as oppose them. Nutritionists want tougher salt reduction targets for food manufacturers after a study revealed the average salt content in chilled ready meals has skyrocketed by 31% since 2010. The lead author of the research and a nutritionist for the George Institute, Clare Farrand, said salt was being "used to make bad food taste good" in Australia. The chief executive of VicHealth, Jerril Rechter, said three-quarters of the salt consumed in Australia was in processed and packaged foods and rising salt levels were creating increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. Sport With the AFL and NRL seasons done and dusted, it's time to turn attention to the round ball game. The new A-League season, officially launched in Melbourne today, gets under way on Friday, and we kick off our team-by-team guide with the four clubs least likely to make it to this year's finals. You most likely will not have heard of Albert "Pompey" Austin but the talented athlete's feats are worth remembering. Austin took on white men at their own games in the mid-19th century, a time when two different worlds collided in western Victoria and the impact on Indigenous people was devastating. Thinking time |
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