Headlines: Australia and EU sign free-trade deal

0:00From the Daily Ours, I'm Emma Gillespie. I'm Lucy Tassel. It's Tuesday 24 March. Here's what's making headlines this evening. Australia and the European Union have agreed to a new free trade deal aimed at reducing tariffs and expanding exports. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and European Commission President Ursula von Delayen signed the agreement in Canberra today after almost a decade of negotiations. As part of the deal, Australia has agreed to scrap a 5% import tariff on EU goods. It means European food, wine, cars and clothes will become cheaper for Australian consumers. In return, the EU will remove import tariffs on a range of Australian goods, including critical minerals. Both sides have also agreed to increased military cooperation, including cyber security and counterterrorism. Albanese and von Delayen called the deal a quote,

1:02win-win for people and businesses. Under 16-year-olds in Queensland will be banned from writing e-scooters and e-bikes, while writers over 16 must hold at least a learner's license the state government has announced. Legislation set to be introduced this week will penalise parents, retailers and operators found to be facilitating unlawful e-bike use. Transport Minister Brent Mikkelberg said the reforms are about protecting community safety, following a spike in related hospitalisations. The new law will also grant police more powers to randomly breath test writers and seize and destroy illegal bikes and scooters. Queensland's Liberal National Government has a majority in the One House of State Parliament, meaning the legislation is expected to pass. At least 66 people have died and dozens are injured after a Colombian military plane crashed in the country's southern Amazon region.

2:02The Air Force carrier was transporting troops when it went down near Colombia's border with Peru shortly after takeoff on Monday local time. The country's Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez said a fire at the crash site caused quote, some of the ammunition carried by the troops on board to detonate. Sanchez confirmed the plane was in quote, airworthy condition and the crew was properly qualified. Authority said there's no indication the plane was attacked, calling the incident a tragic accident. And today's good news, a decades-long archaeological dig in Egypt has uncovered to do lists and receipts dating back 3,000 years. The University of Tobingen in Germany and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities have been working together to recover artifacts from the ancient city of Athribus since 2005. In the last eight years alone, they found more than 42,000 items and fragments. Most recently, the team has discovered tax receipts, lists and inscriptions

3:04from as far back as the third century BCE. The site's director, Professor Christian Leitz, said the findings show us an astonishing variety of everyday situations, giving us quote a direct insight into the lives of the people who lived there in ancient Egyptian times. It's like, have you ever seen the receipt or the complaint letter for the copper merchant from ancient Mesopotamia? I wonder if they'll find anything like that. I missed that one summit. It's great. It's a several thousand-year-old receipt complaining about the quality of copper. Wow. So it's by a merchant named Aya Naseer. We don't change. We don't change, actually. That is the latest from the Daily Earth newsroom. If you're looking for something else, you can catch up on this morning's deep dive on the rise of one nation. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another deep dive, but until then, have a good one. My name is Lily Madden, and I'm a proud Arunda, Bungalung Calcadune woman from Gadigal Country. The Daily Ours acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people

4:08and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present. The Daily Ours acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.