A royal baby, a school shooting and a $2.3 billion mistake What’s News? Catalyst News picks the top 5 stories that made headlines this week

By Siri Smith

Photo by: USA TODAY, Nine Entertainment, AAP, Daniel Pockett, Getty Images

1.     Harry and Megan welcome their first child

Son of a Duke! The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have welcomed their first child – a baby boy, early last Monday morning.

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was delivered at 5:26 a.m. (BST) and weighed in at 7lbs 3oz (3.2kg) according to reports from the BBC.

Harry and Meghan announced the name after Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip met their great-grandchild for the first time at Windsor Castle.

“It’s great. Parenting is amazing” Prince Harry said to the BBC.

“We’re just so thrilled to have our own little bundle of joy”.

2.     $50 Note Typo

Triple M radio had a hot tip this week from one of their eagle-eyed listeners spotted a spelling mistake on the newly minted Australian $50 note.

The station published an image of the note to Instagram which highlights the small writing where the word “responsibility” is printed three times, missing the third ‘i’.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has admitted a batch of 46 million notes were printed with the error and put into circulation in October last year.

The RBA said the typo would be corrected in future prints, but this small breach in the fine print has cost $2.3 billion for the reprint of 46 million new notes.

3.     Third Leader’s Debate

The third and final leader’s debate Wednesday night saw Leader of the Coalition and current Prime Minister Scott Morrison go head to head with Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten.

Both leaders acknowledged the rise of carbon pollution in Australia, with claims from Mr Shorten that the current Liberal government is to blame for the crisis.

According to RMIT ABC Fact Check, Australia is set to reduce emissions by only 7 per cent by 2030 as opposed to the 26 to 28 per cent trajectory set in 2005.

Despite this, Mr Morrison said he was confident that Australia will achieve the emissions reduction target we have set for 2030, by 2030.

4. Colorado School Shooting

One student has died and eight were injured in a shooting at a Colorado school on Tuesday this week, according to US authorities.

18-year-old Kendrick Castillo was killed whilst trying to stop one of the attackers from shooting at his classmates.

The Highlands Ranch charter school was hit by two shooters, one a minor, who were armed with handguns that were allegedly stolen from the suspect’s parents.

The two suspects have made their first appearance in court on Wednesday, but neither of the suspects have been formally charged.

5. Nine axes the AFL Footy Show

The AFL Footy Show aired its last episode on Thursday night after Nine Network made the decision to axe the long time running program.

“It is with regret that The Footy Show will no longer be produced,” said Nine Melbourne’s managing director Matt Scriven in a statement on Thursday.

The statement acknowledged the drop-in audience ratings after the major revamp of the show after just eight episodes.

In a breakfast interview on Triple M, veteran host Eddie McGuire said goodbye and paid tribute to the program that “changed [his] life”.

Catalyst has been the student publication of RMIT University since 1944. We may be older than your parents but we’re still going strong!

Sign up for Catalyst Magazine

Get the latest on what's happening
* = required field