Daily News Roundup

November 6, 2018

Image: ABC News

TUESDAY  November 6

The Spice Girls are coming back for a 2019 British stadium tour without fashion designer Victoria Beckham, who performed as Posh Spice during the group’s 1990s pop heyday.

The band said Beckham would not take part because of business commitments but “will always be one of the Spice Girls and remains aligned with Emma, Mel B, Melanie C and Geri in preserving their unique legacy”.

The tour will mark the first time the group — best known for the 1996 hit Wannabe — has performed together since the 2012 Olympics.

June dates have been scheduled in Manchester, Coventry, Sunderland, Edinburgh, Bristol and London.

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A New Zealand fisherman has rescued an 18-month-old boy from the ocean, only realising he was a child and not a floating doll when he “let out a little squeak”, reports the ABC.

Gus Hutt was staying on Matata Beach on the North Island when he spotted the figure floating past while he was fishing in the morning, according to the NZ Herald.

“I thought he was a doll … his face looked just like porcelain with his short hair wetted down, but then he let out a little squeak and I thought, ‘Oh God, this is a baby and it’s alive’.”

It was lucky he even spotted the boy, Mr Hutt said, explaining he only decided to fish in that spot — different to usual — that morning. After checking his fishing lines, he spotted the boy and pulled him from the ocean.

“He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadn’t been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldn’t have seen him,” Mr Hutt said.

“He was bloody lucky, but he just wasn’t meant to go; it wasn’t his time.”

Mr Hutt’s wife told camp staff, who said there was only one family staying at the site with a toddler.

The 18-month-old had escaped from his parents’ tent that morning while they were sleeping and had wandered down to the beach.

His parents were relieved to find their child was safe, thanking the Hutts before returning home.

A police spokesperson confirmed they had attended the scene, but were taking no further action.

“The child was quickly removed from the water by the informant at the scene and began breathing again, and was taken to hospital for a check-up in a moderate condition.”

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Iranians already struggling to get by amid spiralling prices fear even more hardship is on the way following the restoration of crippling US sanctions.

At a Tehran pharmacy, customers said medicines were already getting further out of reach, according to an AP report carried by the ABC.

Manijeh Khorrami, who had come to buy tablets for his diabetic mother, said the Iranian-made version’s price had tripled since the summer and the foreign version was no longer available.

“Can it get worse than the current situation?” Mr Khorrami said. “I don’t know what will happen.”

The new sanctions end all economic benefits America had granted Tehran for its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, though Iran continues to abide by the accord, which requires it to curb its uranium enrichment.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in May, saying it did not address Iran’s regional military activities and other issues.

Iran’s national currency, the rial, has plummeted for months and is now trading at 150,000 to one US dollar, compared to around 40,500 a year ago.

The new sanctions will likely undermine the rial even more since they target Iran’s oil industry, a crucial source of hard currency.

They also target dozens of Iranian banks, aiming to push the financial sector deeper into isolation.

The result has been skyrocketing prices for everything from clothes and transportation to food.

“Check the shops here one by one, there are no customers,” said business owner Hossein Ahmadi.

His purse shop is located on a normally busy commercial street in the Iranian capital.

“People have kept their money for rainy days out of fear of sanctions, while the rent of the shop has gone up.”

“I don’t know how to explain this to my wife and children,” he said.

At nearby clothes shops, a few women looked through the scarves and coats.

 

This daily news roundup is curated with stories from ABC News.

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