US Democrat, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has secured a win for legislation she had foreshadowed if the Democrats came to power. In future ‘gendered’ words including mother, father, daughter, brother, sister, etc., will be replaced with ‘gender neutral’ terms, such as parent, child or sibling.

Amelia has unseated Charlotte as the most popular girls’ baby name for 2020, while Oliver was top for boys for the seventh straight year. Oliver is still the leading name for boys, followed by Noah and William, unchanged for the past five years. Amelia took out the girls’ number one spot ahead of Olivia, while Charlotte was bumped down to third place after being most favoured for the past three years. Leo jumped 61 places up the rankings to fourth place. Isla has climbed 18 spots in the girls’ list to place fourth. Zoe broke into the top 10 names for girls, where Ava, Chloe, Grace and Sophia remained unchanged. Lucas, Liam and Henry gained popularity in the boys’ list.

Some big orders have gone out to Australian companies supplying the Inland Rail project including $51 million for 38,000 tonnes of steel rail to Whyalla, $25 million for 800,000 tonnes of ballast and capping from Parkes, 26,625 tonnes of culverts worth $13 million from Tamworth, 116,396 concrete sleepers from Mittagong. 224,939 sleepers from Wagga Wagga and 365,000 rail clips from Pandrol, Blacktown.