By Hope NewsroomFriday 19 Feb 2021NewsReading Time: 2 minutes
Today’s headlines from the Hope News team. You can listen to hourly bulletin updates at hopenews.com.au.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has safely touched down on Mars after a seven-month-long journey spanning nearly half-a-billion kilometres.
The mission is the first with the explicit goal of searching for signs of ancient life on Mars.
Listen: Astrophysicist Kirsten Banks joined Sam on Hope Breakfast to share what Perseverance will be up to, and how important this landing was for the advancement of space travel and exploration
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she won’t make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory – but instead will focus on encouraging people to consider getting it.
She says she thinks there should be strong incentives for people to get the vaccine when rollout begins next Monday.
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Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will have another phone conversation with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg today to try and resolve issues around the Government’s media bargaining code.
The social media giant shows no sign of backing down after banning access to news and information pages across Australia in response to the code.
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A permanent increase to fortnightly welfare payments will be at the forefront of a budget committee meeting this morning
Leaders are due to meet to discuss increasing the rate of JobSeeker payments, once the COVID-supplement ends next month.
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Health experts have warned against apathy as the reported daily number of coronavirus infections has fallen across the world for a month.
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The Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed two new cases of Ebola.
Six people are now confirmed to have been infected, two have died.
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Hundreds of thousands of homes in the US state of Texas are coping without heat for a fourth day after a deadly winter storm.
Power has been restored to some areas, but millions still don’t have access to water, with many struggling to find food.
Featured image: NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Facebook