On Wednesday, former National Rugby League (NRL) player Rowan Baxter, 42, reportedly doused his estranged wife Hannah Baxter, 31, in gasoline and set her and their three children on fire to be burned alive in a car.
Hannah reportedly made it out of the car while engulfed in flames screaming that Rowan had poured gasoline on her as she fought to save her babies. Rowan, it has been reported, left the accident and died of self-inflected knife wounds in an apparent suicide.
Rowan, according to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8019461/Ex-footballer-shared-footage-play-fighting-kids-Brisbane-car-inferno-left-four-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR2yPLk9lJr0aislqsM6AzI7ExkCYSxb_TrpQOJsbaQqH-iUCvT7Y6diSh8">The Daily Mail</a>, set the family&#8217;s white SUV aflame on Wednesday morning at Camp Hill, in Brisbane, Australia. &#8220;Baxter survived the blast but stabbed himself in the chest on the sidewalk next to the car as locals desperately tried to free the children trapped inside,&#8221; the report outlined.
All three children, 6-year-old Aaliyah, 4-year-old Laianah, and 3-year-old Trey, perished on Wednesday. Hannah was brought to a hospital, but later succumbed to her injuries.
One witness, reported The Daily Mail, claimed Hannah screamed, &#8220;he&#8217;s poured petrol on me.&#8221;
&#8220;The former New Zealand Warriors player stabbed himself after the blast and begged first responders not to put out the flames on the car,&#8221; the report said.
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<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/10NewsAdl/photos/basw.AboVvYhpzpWKt4NRHY6nvX4ZiKXyG6QdFfv7Evc2UkxzZkPOMMrOu65XHYxMdU8yn0IVE5HYtqEjdt1_ZvhixvAPlSuN2q673ihF1nq-m_EE9U-p3nauvQ2g4mTfFNQcwKNVpPNrHdrbJcxM0LkRVSgobTm59ZTQj7tOvh_4dbnXdw.2912448478819879.496619447677524.496619484344187.489425685067637.10153965157585187.194087351962142.548321469120393.741378079345281.770635446362830/2912448478819879/?type=1&amp;opaqueCursor=AbrB27hqpMxO1-NhS2UsphefLb62_apXhD66d0E-8i2_8vr62FneNuMqwEHpDfr7va0zal6dRipevFcamy9_3DDXfBcR28G6HaqSyR2MgAiNdvH1w7FDcr6mlX0YRWgakn7WJ5nsNNn9zvlj9BvMXJwb70PvwlAPphl0HnTqtxhGA2wJsVGmC-dpybzbpEwg5hV0RQ09_bACoc_iYjUD8k3HQ5mWJr_fZDzia5eKKJNEi6Buj1Uqj3Ay4rJDLNcmyWmVMCCYcgrpCe0CR0b-n_3cuOxrR3DL9D5v5d5273f2obTtwArxKDZkTpVZt4KFwjCjVjCTfBgaaI0rvOwjE2NMjUNeCi3SSgY5yu-8Wk0r1ff6KA5fSCxJe24Y5_HqnRdHIas3ICSq3-rEis4a81iRbYmMu8VcMWFVogpjCQfKaSY0GzboM9tuv3UPq5STJKdmxPnZRpAh_wX77e_ZKrHXYMmZfazQ_jwH-6GpfftV-A1uTsnbMAHpH_T6QGwmuuQGqz1MooMwVemlzaw6Nivu9kVm1tBJNi8MzBdAFgZmAwtKvExnvwQ3v1GzIo_K9NKzp-ss_D8-oVDls57k-BFPfDGJ-9YaoJLLkwvLcWnjxJV3CohX0l-41jnuMp2biSrT1NDPhmShHCWnZM3PPH182Uhh68Sq_xDxdwzZOj5WhRxzxg63MKGJS_E3v4o_xqqjrZGVskGtLnb04rcPliKUHMrfPKnYlgs-3t22wMJ183L1TePwgZMmzHrmhmA8Uaw&amp;theater" data-width="500">
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MOTHER DIES: Hannah Baxter, the mother badly burned in the deliberately lit Brisbane car fire which killed her three&#8230;
Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/10NewsAdl/">10 News First Adelaide</a> on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/10NewsAdl/photos/a.611472955584121/2912448478819879/?type=3">Wednesday, February 19, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Det. Insp. Mark Thompson called the scene &#8220;horrific,&#8221; while speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/19/three-dead-including-children-after-car-allegedly-set-alight-in-brisbane">The Guardian</a> reported.
“It will be a horrific thing for police and emergency services to deal with in the coming days,” said Thompson.
“We’ve all got different experiences in life. I’ve seen some horrific scenes, this is up there with the [worst] of them,&#8221; he added.
“Preliminary investigations indicate the woman was driving the car and the man was in the front passenger seat prior to the incident,&#8221; a police report said, noting, &#8220;A man who assisted in rescuing the woman from the vehicle sustained burns and was transported to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for treatment.”
According to The Daily Mail, Rowan posted a video to Facebook of himself playing with his children about a month ago:
<blockquote>
Baxter uploaded to his Facebook account about a month ago, the three children giggled as he took turns grabbing them by the neck and pushing them away from him.
Trey, who was still in diapers at the time, eventually grew tired of the game after having his head slammed into a bed and ran off camera in tears.
Baxter laughed and continued playing with his two older girls.
The video was met with messages of support from his friends, who said he was teaching his children to have a thick skin.
</blockquote>
Hannah and Rowan ran a gym together called <a href="http://integr8fit.com.au">Integr8</a> and even created a video, as seen below, to advertise their services. According to reporting from The Guardian, the gym stopped operating within the last few months.
&#8220;By far the best trainers I have ever experienced,&#8221; reads a review posted to the gym&#8217;s website from a woman named Erika. &#8220;They are so passionate about what they do and care so much about their members, and for their member to reach their goals.&#8221;
&#8220;I’ve been at Integr8 for 4 months now and love it more every week. From the moment I joined the welcome was warm and the vibe was like nothing I’d experienced,&#8221; praised another reviewer.
&#8220;Rowan and Hannah are top notch athletes with a wealth of knowledge in various areas of fitness,&#8221; a review from Sima said.
WATCH:
<iframe title="Introduction video" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nzQRczkRvp8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rowan Baxter

‘Horrific’: Ex-Rugby Player Burns Alive Wife, Three Young Children: Report

Australia

Murder

On Tuesday, scientists in Australia gave new hope to a world fearful of the deadly coronavirus, as they announced they had recreated the virus, which may expedite the process in developing a vaccine.
As <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/">ABC News Australia</a> reported, the scientists at Melbourne&#8217;s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity intended to share their discovery with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe, from where it will be sent to labs worldwide  in order to speedily develop a vaccine.
The virus was grown from cells gleaned from a patient who was infected last Friday. Dr. Mike Catton, the co-deputy director of the Doherty Institute, exulted, &#8220;We got it. Fantastic.&#8221; He asserted that the virus could also be used to detect if someone was already infected before they displayed any symptoms.
Doherty Institute lead scientist Julian Druce said, “This will be a game changer for other labs within Australia.” He added, &#8220;It&#8217;s been 10-12 hour days, 2:00am finishes; so it&#8217;s been pretty full on. We&#8217;ve designed and planned for an exercise like this for many years. This is what the Doherty Institute was built for. And that&#8217;s really why we&#8217;re able to get an answer from Friday to today [of] diagnosis, detection, sequencing, and isolation.&#8221;
A lab in China had also recreated the virus, but would not share it with the WHO. ABC News noted, “However,the same lab released images of the genetic sequence of the disease, which helped scientists at the Doherty Institute recreate it.”
The Daily Wire <a href="https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/report-china-deliberately-spreading-misinformation-about-coronavirus-to-convince-world-health-authorities-outbreak-is-under-control/">reported</a> on Tuesday, “ … the Chinese government, it now seems, is working against the tide, spreading misinformation of their own to convince foreign governments and world health officials that they&#8217;re efficiently handling the outbreak. The Daily Beast reports that Chinese state media is tweeting photos of roadblocks, checkpoints, and even a hastily constructed hospital to show it&#8217;s ‘on top of things.’&#8221;
Catton stated, &#8220;This virus qualifies as a three out of four, so it&#8217;s a level three virus and that&#8217;s based off our understanding of SARS (sudden acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome), which are its close cousins. It&#8217;s dangerous, it does kill some people, but it hasn&#8217;t got the lethality that viruses like Ebola do.&#8221;
He continued, &#8220;I&#8217;d still say we&#8217;re alert but not alarmed. We shared the view of national health authorities that it was likely there would be cases in Australia. That didn&#8217;t happen with SARS, which is a similar virus. I think it&#8217;s something like 150 million visits more each year with China to countries like Australia than was true back then.&#8221;
Catton concluded, &#8220;SARS we know had a death rate — a mortality rate — of about 10 per cent. This [coronavirus] appears to be 3 per cent; my personal opinion is it will turn out to be lower than that.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/world-health-organization-we-blew-it-risk-of-coronavirus-risk-actually-very-high">The Daily Wire</a> reported on Tuesday, “The World Health Organization (WHO) has admitted it made an error last week when it classified the global risk of China’s new coronavirus &#8212; which can lead to SARS &#8212; as ‘moderate.’ The organization on Monday released a new report late Sunday that stated the risk was actually ‘very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level.’”

Coronavirus structure, illustration

Aussie Scientists Recreate Coronavirus. That May Speed Up Creating A Vaccine.

Coronavirus

The government of New South Wales in Australia announced Tuesday that they&#8217;ve arrested two dozen more individuals for deliberately setting some of the fires now burning out of control, part of Australia&#8217;s ongoing &#8220;brushfire crisis.&#8221;
On Monday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/australian-authorities-round-up-firebugs-accused-of-starting-100-fires-that-contributed-to-brushfire-crisis">the Daily Wire reported</a> that the government of Queensland, in northeastern Australia, rounded up dozens of individuals who set at least 100 fires, some of which are still burning, even after consuming tens of thousands of acres, killing tens of thousands of wild animals, and leaving countless farms, homes, and businesses, decimated.
<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/24-australians-arrested-deliberately-setting-fires-season/story?id=68108272">ABC News reports</a> that authorities in New South Wales have charged 24 individuals with deliberately setting fires and dozens more are facing possible consequences for negligence or recklessness.
&#8220;In addition to those facing the most serious charges of starting fires intentionally, authorities said another 53 people are facing legal action for not complying with the state&#8217;s fire ban and 47 people have faced legal action for discarding a lit cigarette or match on land,&#8221; according to the outlet.
&#8220;Investigations into the cause, origin and overall impact of fires are continuing and since the latest State of Emergency was declared&#8230;Strike Force Tronto has provided expertise to six police area commands and eight police districts,&#8221; NSW police said in a statement released to media this week. &#8220;As inquiries continue, police are appealing to the community to provide footage and/or images from phones, dashcam, or other devices, that show any of the fires in their infancy, even if only from a distance.&#8221;
The two dozen people charged could face up to 21 years in prison. The others are likely to face fines.
At least 24 people are dead and thousands are homeless as a result of the fires, many of them in New South Wales, where the fires have been among the most destructive and difficult to manage. The fires, raging across the eastern part of the country, have burned approximately 12 million acres.
According to ABC News and the University of Sydney, an estimated 480 million animals have perished in New South Wales alone, some of them cattle and livestock, but many of them wild. The true loss is unknown and it could be months before Australians can calculate the damages. The current fires could be burning for weeks and the wildfire season in Australia could drag on until March.
&#8220;The fires have also been devastating for Australia’s wildlife and wild places, as vital areas of bush, forests and parks have been scorched and many millions of animals killed or injured,&#8221; the World Wildlife Fund told ABC. &#8220;Until the fires subside the full extent of damage will remain unknown.&#8221;
Experts and quasi-experts blame &#8220;climate change&#8221; for the devastating wildfires, but it appears that poor fire prevention practices have at least contributed to the brushfire crisis, as have &#8220;green&#8221; policies that limit the use of controlled burns. Those burns help farmers clear their land of excess foliage but, in recent years, activists concerned about carbon emissions have pressured Australia&#8217;s government to curb the practice, leaving acres of land overgrown.
&nbsp;

Update: Dozens More Arrested In Australia For Deliberately Setting Wildfires

Social media models are now offering nude pics in exchange for philanthropy.
As reported by <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/nudes-nsfw-photos-australia-fire-relief-934119/">Rolling Stone</a>, this trend got a boost from 20-year-old model and &#8220;sex worker&#8221; Kaylen Ward, aptly named the Naked Philanthropist, who offered followers free nude photos if they would donate $10 to any of the organizations that she listed to help the growing brushfires in Australia.
&#8220;Appalled by the lack of media coverage of the fires, one woman decided to raise money by offering nudes in exchange for donations to a disaster relief fund — only to have her accounts disabled by <a id="auto-tag_instagram" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/instagram/" data-tag="instagram">Instagram</a> not once, but twice,&#8221; reports the outlet.
On January 3, Ward tweeted along with the hashtag #AustraliaOnFire, “Every $10 you donate = one nude picture from me to your DM. You must send me confirmation that you donated.&#8221; The tweet featured a small preview in the form of a <a href="https://twitter.com/lilearthangelk/status/1213284066755317761" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">censored nude photo </a>and quickly went viral, accumulating 75,000 retweets by Monday afternoon with nearly $500,000 raised in funds.
&#8220;We have hit an estimated $500k&#8230;&#8230; guys I am crying&#8230;. this is f***ing crazy,&#8221; she tweeted on Sunday.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/nudes-nsfw-photos-australia-fire-relief-934119/">Buzzfeed News</a>, Ward said that she felt deeply concerned about the Australia bushfires after seeing all the media coverage and wanted to do something.
&#8220;I was seeing all the posts on Twitter about the Australian fires and I was really concerned there wasn&#8217;t a lot of media coverage and not a lot of people donating,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We have hit and estimated $500k&#8230;&#8230; guys I am crying&#8230;. this is fucking crazy
&mdash; THE NAKED PHILANTHROPIST (@lilearthangelk) <a href="https://twitter.com/lilearthangelk/status/1213909113639448576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Then Instagram abruptly disabled Ward’s account, even though she primarily ran the fundraising campaign on Twitter,&#8221; continued Rolling Stone. &#8220;When she tried to make another account, that one was disabled as well. All in all, Ward tweeted, Instagram has disabled three of her accounts, with a number of imposter accounts popping up in the process.&#8221;
A spokesperson for Facebook (Instagram&#8217;s parent company) told Rolling Stone that Ward&#8217;s account was disabled for violating community guidelines, which <a href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/sexual_solicitation" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">prohibits sexual solicitation </a>and  “offering or asking for…nude photos/videos/imagery.”
&#8220;This account was disabled for violating our policies. Offering nude images is not allowed on Instagram,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
Ward has since hired a team of people to sort through the massive number of DMs she received to best figure out how to distribute her promised nudes. Though social media responded enthusiastically, Ward later lamented that the tweet had ramifications in her personal life she did not expect.
&#8220;My IG got deactivated, my family disowned me, and the guy I like won’t talk to me all because of that tweet. But f**k it, save the koalas,&#8221; she tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
My IG got deactivated, my family disowned me, and the guy I like won’t talk to me all because of that tweet. But fuck it, save the koalas.
&mdash; THE NAKED PHILANTHROPIST (@lilearthangelk) <a href="https://twitter.com/lilearthangelk/status/1213713839155486721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As a result of Ward&#8217;s naked philanthropy, other models felt inspired to make similar offers. One model, <a href="https://twitter.com/AphroditeAeria" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Aphrodite Aeria</a>, has since raised $2,000 for the bushfire effort by offering nude photos of herself.
“The Australian bushfires are probably one of the greatest tragedies of our time, but no one is fundraising or pledging to rebuild things like at Notre Dame,” she said. “But if each individual person is giving as they can, we can actually make a difference.”
Model <a href="https://twitter.com/itsemmycorinne" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Emmy Corinne </a>told Rolling Stone that she has not posted about her campaign on Instagram because &#8220;people got their accounts deleted for mentioning it.&#8221;
&#8220;Instagram is super strict, [and] even words I post get flagged,” she said.

Boston History In Restaurants

Models Offer Nude Pics Of Themselves To Raise Money For Australia Bushfires

As record-breaking fires rage across southeastern Australia, authorities say they&#8217;re rounding up dozens of suspects whom, they claim, started at least 100 fires that eventually led to the &#8220;brushfire crisis&#8221; that has killed at least 25 people and thousands of animals and may continue to burn for &#8220;months.&#8221;
&#8220;The number of cattle and sheep killed is still being tallied, but the losses are expected to be enormous,&#8221; <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/06/793931658/australia-wildfires-have-claimed-25-lives-and-will-burn-for-months-officials-say">according to National Public Radio</a>. &#8220;And the death toll among wild animals is even worse. An ecologist at Sydney University estimates that nearly half a billion animals perished in the state of New South Wales alone.&#8221;
Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the fire zone and thousands more are awaiting clearer weather so that they, too, can be rescued. As many as 4,000 residents and tourists in NSW took shelter on beaches over the weekend, Fox News reports, and still at least 300 of those need to be evacuated to safer ground.
Thousands of firefighters have been called in to help manage the blaze, which has already &#8220;burned millions of acres in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, an area twice the size of Maryland,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-wildfires-mega-blaze-death-toll-government-pledge-nsw">according to Fox News</a>.
The cost of burned homes, buildings, businesses, and farmland &#8212; and lost possessions &#8212; is incalculable.
The &#8220;brushfire crisis&#8221; is actually hundreds of separate fires burning at once, though several smaller fires have now merged into what Australian authorities are calling a &#8220;mega-blaze&#8221; in New South Wales. Weather in Australia has been hot and dry, encouraging the fires on, but this week, some areas got a reprieve, and firefighters have been able to better manage some of the blazes before the temperatures jump up again &#8212; a jump expected Thursday.
Many experts &#8212; and quasi-experts &#8212; have blamed climate change for the increasingly destructive fires that now rage almost yearly in Australia, but at least some of the blazes currently burning were set deliberately by &#8220;firebugs,&#8221; according to Australian authorities, who have arrested around 100 people who, they say, are responsible for hundreds of small fires that became massive brushfires.
&#8220;As firefighters remained on high alert, police revealed 103 of the destructive fires that had lashed Queensland since September were deliberately lit,&#8221; <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/dozens-of-firebugs-blamed-for-destructive-queensland-fires-20191220-p53m1i.html?fbclid=IwAR3eqB8N4Dbgl4sTbVKItSPbgwuPj-sWyWhej3Wi8OIKzanOS2LDqq1gEtM">Brisbane news reported</a>. &#8220;Figures obtained by AAP revealed police had dealt with 98 people &#8211; 31 adults and 67 juveniles &#8211; for deliberately setting fires.&#8221;
&#8220;More than 120 fires are still being investigated and more people could be charged,&#8221; the outlet added, noting that Queensland has seen hundreds of homes destroyed and thousands of acres of land burned by wildfires just this year, and the typical wildfire season in Australia stretches all the way from September through March, so it&#8217;s far from over.
In the states of New South Wales and Victoria, authorities are more concerned with getting the brushfires under control than they are finding the culprit, but many of those fires may have been set deliberately, as well, or could have started as small fires that ultimately went out of control.
<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/04/green-agenda-exacerbating-australias-wildfire-problem/">The UK&#8217;s Telegraph also carried an op-ed</a> over the weekend noting that &#8220;green&#8221; policies that prevent farmers from doing controlled burns on their property may be part of the reason typical Australian brushfires now regularly rage out of control.
&#8220;Heart-rending tweets from the fire zone convey the raw anger of farmers burnt out of their homes,&#8221; writer Jamie Blackett noted. &#8220;But their interpretation is strikingly different. Far from begging everybody to embrace the green agenda, many are blaming the greens for exacerbating the fires by meddling in the time-honoured practice of burning off excess vegetation to mitigate wildfires.&#8221;
For now, though, those affected by the brushfires are more concerned with saving what they can. Monday morning, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, released several billion in additional aid to the fire-ravaged southeast.
&nbsp;

Evacuations Continue Across East Gippsland As State Of Disaster Is Declared

Australian Authorities Round Up ‘Firebugs’ Accused Of Starting 100 Fires That Contributed To ‘Brushfire Crisis’

Far-left climate alarmist Greta Thunberg urged political leaders on Sunday to connect the fires that are raging in Australia to &#8220;the climate crisis,&#8221; while ignoring the fact that the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/arson-mischief-and-recklessness-87-per-cent-of-fires-are-man-made-20191117-p53bcl.html">overwhelming majority</a> of Australia&#8217;s fires are man-made, many of which are intentional acts of arson.
Thunberg made the remarks in a retweet of a video from a local Australian news outlet, writing: &#8220;Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible? Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires That&#8217;s what has to change. Now.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible? Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AustraliaFires?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AustraliaFires</a> That&#39;s what has to change. Now. <a href="https://t.co/DQcZViKJQz">https://t.co/DQcZViKJQz</a>
&mdash; Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1208682929855041538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Thunberg&#8217;s tweet takes aim at the wild fires that have raged across the continent over the past few months, many of which investigators allege have been started by people, both intentionally and on accident.
In Australia, those responsible for starting fires, especially if done so in a deliberate act, are often referred to as &#8220;firebugs.&#8221;
&#8220;As firefighters remained on high alert, police revealed 103 of the destructive fires that had lashed Queensland since September were deliberately lit,&#8221; The Brisbane Times <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/dozens-of-firebugs-blamed-for-destructive-queensland-fires-20191220-p53m1i.html">reported</a>. &#8220;Figures obtained by AAP revealed police had dealt with 98 people &#8211; 31 adults and 67 juveniles &#8211; for deliberately setting fires.&#8221;
&#8220;More than 120 fires are still being investigated and more people could be charged,&#8221; The Brisbane Times added. &#8220;The firebug revelations come as fire crews continue to face challenging conditions as a strong upper ridge sweeping across the south-east combines with fresh east northeasterly winds on Friday.&#8221;
Several years ago, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-21072349">noted</a> that &#8220;firebugs&#8221; are &#8220;arsonists who set alight bushfires, and who often strike on days when soaring temperatures and high winds combine to create the most hazardous conditions.&#8221;
On Twitter, some pushed back on Thunberg&#8217;s assertion that &#8220;the climate crisis&#8221; was to blame for the wild fires in Australia.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Sorry, Greta, but fires are *not* evidence that trace CO2 causes fires. 
&quot;Arson, mischief and recklessness: 87 per cent of fires are man-made&quot;; fire has been in a long-term *decline* globally. <a href="https://t.co/Pg0T8nsWbz">https://t.co/Pg0T8nsWbz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateTwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ClimateTwitter</a> <a href="https://t.co/ilhA6LaAWn">pic.twitter.com/ilhA6LaAWn</a>
&mdash; Tom Nelson (@tan123) <a href="https://twitter.com/tan123/status/1208720790805532677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Sydney Morning Herald <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/arson-mischief-and-recklessness-87-per-cent-of-fires-are-man-made-20191117-p53bcl.html">reported</a> last month:
<blockquote>There are, on average, 62,000 fires in Australia every year. Only a very small number strike far from populated areas and satellite studies tell us that lightning is responsible for only 13 per cent. Not so the current fires threatening to engulf Queensland and NSW. There were no lightning strikes on most of the days when the fires first started in September. Although there have been since, these fires – joining up to create a new form of mega-fire – are almost all man-made.
A 2015 satellite analysis of 113,000 fires from 1997-2009 confirmed what we had known for some time – 40 per cent of fires are deliberately lit, another 47 per cent accidental. This generally matches previous data published a decade earlier that about half of all fires were suspected or deliberate arson, and 37 per cent accidental. Combined, they reach the same conclusion: 87 per cent are man-made. &#8230;
<section class="_1ysFk">
<div class="_1665V undefined">
Seasonal changes, in part due to climate change on top of natural oscillations causing the drought and westerly winds, have some origins in man-made emissions. More directly, however, the source of ignition is human.
</div>
</section>
</blockquote>
Make no mistake, the current weather conditions in Australia are causing the fires to spread and are making them harder to combat, as December is one of Australia&#8217;s hotter summer months, but that does not mean that climate change is necessarily responsible for igniting all of the fires.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said climate change was “one of many factors” that was contributing to what was going on, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-22/australian-pm-downplays-climate-change-as-cause-of-deadly-fires">saying</a>, “I have always acknowledged the connection between these weather events and these broader fire events and the impact globally of climate change. But I’m sure people equally would acknowledge that the direct connection to any single fire event, it’s not a credible suggestion to make that link.”
Some news publications have <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191223110854/https://news.sky.com/story/australia-bushfires-not-much-left-of-town-near-sydney-as-pm-apologises-for-hawaii-holiday-11893737">reported</a> that climate change was a &#8220;major factor&#8221; in the fires, but did not elaborate or give any evidence to back their claims.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Based on preliminary analysis, yesterday, Australia recorded its hottest day on record. The nationally-averaged maximum daytime temp was 41.9 °C exceeding the record set on Tuesday, 40.9 ºC. You can view the top ten highest daily maximum temps here: <a href="https://t.co/Cdqm9vD1cI">https://t.co/Cdqm9vD1cI</a> <a href="https://t.co/DRDK9LAvrg">pic.twitter.com/DRDK9LAvrg</a>
&mdash; Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) <a href="https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/1207539156483792897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In September, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released data that showed that forest fires are not becoming more prevalent, in fact, they are on a decline across the globe.
“Any reader of the New York Times and other mainstream media outlet would be forgiven for believing that fires globally are on the rise, but they aren’t,” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/30/forget-the-hype-forest-fires-have-declined-25-since-2003-thanks-to-economic-growth/">Forbes</a> reported. “In reality, there was a whopping 25 percent <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/90493/researchers-detect-a-global-drop-in-fires" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/90493/researchers-detect-a-global-drop-in-fires">decrease</a> in the area burned from 2003 to 2019, according to NASA.”
“For the last 35 years, the world has been re-foresting, meaning new tree growth has exceeded deforestation,” Forbes continued. “The area of the Earth covered with forest has increased by an area the size of Texas and Alaska combined.”

Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg: Connect Australia’s Fires To Climate Crisis. Here’s What’s Actually Happening.

Climate Change

Global Warming

A letter emerged late on Monday from the Australian government that directly disputed the accuracy of a New York Times report that claimed that President Donald Trump &#8220;pushed&#8221; Australia to help Attorney General William Barr investigate the origins of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in an attempt to &#8220;discredit&#8221; the investigation in what The Times claimed was an example of Trump “using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.”
The letter, <a href="https://twitter.com/KerrieYaxley/status/1178799676604047360">reported</a> by Nine News Australia&#8217;s Kerrie Yaxley, is dated May 28, 2019, from Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey to Barr, and states:
<blockquote>Dear Attorney General,
I refer to President Trump&#8217;s announcement on 24 May that you will investigate the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigations probe into Russian links to the 2016 US election.
I note that the President referred to Australia, the United Kingdom and the Ukraine as potential stakeholders. Moreover, I note that he has declassified intelligence material to support your investigation.
The Australian Government will use its best endeavors to support your efforts in this matter. While Australia&#8217;s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, The Hon. Alexander Downer, is no longer employed by the government, we stand ready to provide you with all the relevant information to support your inquiries.
The Acting White House Chief of Staff, The Honorable Michael Mulvaney, has been copied on this letter.
Yours sincerely,
The Hon Joe Hockey</blockquote>
The development comes after The New York Times tried to suggest that it was a scandal for Trump to ask for Australia to cooperate with an ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) into the origins of the Russia investigation.
Shortly after The Times&#8217; report was published, a source at the DOJ pushed back on it, telling <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-trump-durham-probe-new-york-times-reporting-justice-department">Fox News</a>: “The countries have been helpful. There was no pressing required.”
“The president was letting the heads of other countries know that the attorney general would be contacting the appropriate law enforcement entities in each country, according to the DOJ official. When Barr was in Italy last week, he did talk to law enforcement officials there about Durham’s review, Fox News was told,” the network added. “The DOJ official also stressed that this has been a routine procedure in diplomacy and that Barr would not usually reach out to his direct counterpart in another country unilaterally. Instead, usually there would be an introduction of sorts made at the head-of-state level.”
The flood of new information surrounding the DOJ&#8217;s investigation included new reporting from The Washington Post, which sought to cast Barr in a negative light for conducting his job, claiming that he was trying to help Trump &#8220;discredit&#8221; Mueller&#8217;s investigation.
&#8220;Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries,&#8221; the Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/attorney-general-barr-personally-asked-foreign-officials-to-aid-inquiry-into-cia-fbi-activities-in-2016/2019/09/30/d50cd5c4-e3a5-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html">reported</a>. &#8220;But the high level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct will likely cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom &#8216;investigate the investigators&#8217; has become a rallying cry. Barr has voiced his own concerns, telling lawmakers in April that he believed &#8216;spying did occur&#8217; when it came to the U.S. investigation of the Trump campaign.&#8221;
The new and relevant information from the Post&#8217;s report was the revelation that Barr has been in contact with British intelligence officials and has traveled to Italy as a part of the ongoing investigation.
&#8220;Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter,&#8221; the Post added. &#8220;It was not Barr’s first trip to Italy to meet intelligence officials, the person said. The Trump administration has made similar requests of Australia, these people said.&#8221;
In May, Trump <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/24/trump-barr-australia-surveillance-uk/">said</a> of Barr: “And I hope he looks at the U.K., and I hope he looks at Australia, and I hope he looks at Ukraine. I hope he looks at everything because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country.”
<div id="div-gpt-ad-DW_Body2" class="advertisment" data-google-query-id="CPO4tO3Y-eQCFUNRAQod8VEPuw">The DOJ&#8217;s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe is being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham.</div>
<div data-google-query-id="CPO4tO3Y-eQCFUNRAQod8VEPuw">
The DOJ responded to recent news reports with the following: “A Department of Justice team led by U.S. Attorney John Durham is separately exploring the extent to which a number of countries, including Ukraine, played a role in the counterintelligence investigation directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. While the Attorney General has yet to contact Ukraine in connection with this investigation, certain Ukrainians who are not members of the government have volunteered information to Mr. Durham, which he is evaluating.”
</div>

William Barr

Letter From Australian Official Emerges That Casts Doubt On Report From New York Times

Donald Trump

Media Bias

Ukraine

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison slammed those who &#8220;exploit&#8221; children&#8217;s &#8220;anxiety&#8221; over climate change to push their political agendas in a speech he gave this week to the United Nations.
&#8220;We must respect and harness the passion and aspiration of our younger generations, we must guard against others who would seek to compound or, worse, facelessly exploit their anxiety for their own agendas,&#8221; Morrison said. &#8220;We must similarly not allow their concerns to be dismissed or diminished as this can also increase their anxiety.&#8221;
&#8220;Above all, we should let our children be children, let our kids be kids, let our teenagers be teenagers,&#8221; Morrison continued, adding, &#8220;while we work positively together to deliver the practical solutions for them and their future.&#8221;
Morrison&#8217;s comments come after far-left climate extremist Greta Thunberg had a meltdown earlier this week at the U.N., claiming that adults had &#8220;stolen&#8221; her &#8220;dreams&#8221; and her &#8220;childhood.&#8221;
&#8220;People are suffering, people are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,&#8221; Thunberg fumed while repeatedly declaring her disgust for those in attendance, saying: &#8220;How dare you!&#8221;
&#8220;There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is,&#8221; Thunberg added. &#8220;You are failing us but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line the world is waking up and change is coming whether you like it or not.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Australian PM Scott Morrison slams those who “facelessly exploit” children’s “anxiety” over the climate to push their far-left agendas:
“Above all, we should let our children be children, let our kids be kids, let our teenagers be teenagers” <a href="https://t.co/F3zp30r5Xe">pic.twitter.com/F3zp30r5Xe</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1177416758468071425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
Partial transcript of Morrison&#8217;s speech to the U.N.:
<blockquote>Like many leaders here, I get many letters from children in Australia concerned about their future.
I take them very seriously and I deeply respect their concerns and indeed I welcome their passion, especially when it comes to the environment.
My impulse is always to seek to respond positively and to encourage them. To provide context, perspective and particularly to generate hope.
To focus their minds and direct their energies to practical solutions and positive behaviour that will deliver enduring results for them.
To encourage them to learn more about science, technology, engineering and maths – because it’s through research, innovation and enterprise that the practical work of successfully managing our very real environmental challenges is achieved.
We must respect and harness the passion and aspiration of our younger generations, we must guard against others who would seek to compound or, worse, facelessly exploit their anxiety for their own agendas. We must similarly not allow their concerns to be dismissed or diminished as this can also increase their anxiety. What parent could do otherwise?
Our children have a right not just to their future but to their optimism.
Above all, we should let our children be children, let our kids be kids, let our teenagers be teenagers &#8211; while we work positively together to deliver the practical solutions for them and their future.</blockquote>

Greta Thunberg Scott Morrison

WATCH: Australian PM Blasts Those Who Exploit Children’s Anxiety On Climate Change

Equality? No thanks. Women at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will be able to enter engineering and construction degrees with a lower score on an admissions test than their male counterparts.
The Sydney Morning Herald <a href="https://amp.smh.com.au/education/a-hand-up-not-a-handout-uts-lowers-engineering-entry-bar-for-women-20190828-p52lpp.html?__twitter_impression=true">reported</a> that UTS will allow women to enter engineering and construction degrees with a lower score on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) than male students. Women can score 10 points lower than men and still be admitted into the degree programs.
As the Herald reported, many universities in the country “allocate adjustment points based on disadvantage or illness,” but UTS appears to be the first one to make the adjustment based on gender. As one can guess, the move to lower the entry bar for women is being done in an effort to get more women into engineering.
Dr. Arti Agarwal, director of women in engineering and IT at UTS, told the Herald that admitting women into the programs — even with lower entrance scores — would make the world a better place.
“Lots of research has shown that teams are more productive when they are gender balanced. They come up with better ideas and better solutions,&#8221; she told the outlet. No such research was cited.
&#8220;We (women) ride in cars, we use public transport, we do all kinds of things,&#8221; she added. &#8220;If they are only being designed and engineered by one gender, then the requirements and needs of the other gender can get missed a bit.&#8221;
Because women weren’t entering certain engineering degrees, such as mechanics and mechatronics, according to the Herald, the entry bar needed to be lowered. Just 4% of participants in the stated programs were women.
Agarwal told the Herald that the lower bar for women was expected to increase female participation in the programs by 10%. She also emphasized that even though the entry bar was lowered, women would still have to complete the programs just as men do.
&#8220;The decision would not lower the quality of the graduates,&#8221; she told the outlet. &#8220;I really cannot stress this enough &#8211; we are not taking people who don&#8217;t deserve to be here.”
If women require a lower score to get into the programs, however, it would only be a matter of time before program standards are lowered for them as well. Once women struggle to complete the degree, will the university accept that women generally just aren’t that interested in STEM fields?
One female engineering student insisted to the Herald that the lower acceptance score was not a “handout” but “a hand up.”
“I hope it does [act as an incentive]. They will still be able to prove themselves throughout the degree by doing just as well, if not better,&#8221; she told the outlet.
Andrew Norton, director of higher education at the Grattan Institute — an Australian public policy think tank — told the outlet that women leave STEM fields because of the male-dominated workplaces.
“It&#8217;s a very male-dominated workplace, and work we did recently showed that even when women have the qualification they don&#8217;t work in the area because of the nature of the workplace,&#8221; he told the Herald.
Women also leave STEM fields to focus more on their families, or for less demanding careers.

Engineers

EQUALITY: Australian University Lowers Standards For Women Looking To Enter Engineering Degrees

Education

Gender

An Australian couple who fed their toddler a strict vegan diet that resulted in the child becoming so malnourished that she had no teeth will avoid jail time after a judge ruled that imprisoning them would deprive their children of an &#8220;important bond.&#8221;
The Sydney Morning Herald <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/vegan-parents-avoid-jail-over-malnourished-daughter-20190822-p52jlr.html">reported</a> that New South Wales District Court Judge Sarah Huggett sentenced the couple to 18 months of &#8220;intensive corrections orders&#8221; rather than send them to jail. The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46987/parents-who-fed-infant-vegan-diet-arrested-after-ashe-schow">reported</a> that the child had not been vaccinated or even taken to a doctor since her birth and suffered from rickets.
&#8220;The reckless failure of these offenders to provide their daughter with the necessities of life in fact caused serious harm,&#8221; Huggett said during sentencing, according to the Herald.
The couple was arrested in April 2018 and earlier pleaded guilty to failing to provide for their child. The father is 35 years old and the mother is 33. Australian press can&#8217;t name them for legal reasons.
The child &#8220;was fed oats, potatoes, rice, tofu, bread, peanut butter and rice milk,&#8221; according to court documents reviewed by the Herald. For a snack, she was given a &#8220;mouthful of fruit or two sultanas.&#8221;
The mother told a forensic psychiatrist that she didn&#8217;t think her child was ill until the girl suffered a seizure in March 2018. The mother called paramedics who found the child &#8220;floppy,&#8221; with blue lips and eyes rolling back into her head.
&#8220;The child was severely malnourished, underweight and undersized, and delayed as far as age-appropriate milestones were concerned,&#8221; Huggett said in court.
The parents faced five years in jail, but will not serve such a sentence because of Huggett&#8217;s ruling.
The mother had previously claimed she was severely depressed after her daughter’s birth, but a psychologist disputed the claims. That psychologist told the court that the mother’s medical records showed no evidence of her depression, and an interview with the mother revealed the same.
Huggett said during sentencing that &#8220;it is the responsibility of every parent to ensure the diet they chose to provide to their children &#8230; is one that is balanced and contains sufficient essential nutrients and vitamins for optimum growth and development.&#8221; She also said that the mother’s alleged depression made it difficult for her to care for her child &#8220;to an extent.&#8221;
&#8220;I say &#8216;to an extent&#8217; because this offence was committed over a substantial period of time,&#8221; Huggett said.
The father claimed he was not to blame because the mother &#8220;dictated&#8221; the child&#8217;s care. Huggett in May dismissed the father’s claims, saying he was an &#8220;educated man&#8221; who &#8220;could have picked her up and taken her to a doctor.&#8221;
During sentencing, Huggett further criticized the father, saying his &#8220;abandonment of his parental responsibility cannot be justified or excused on the basis that he was busy or preoccupied.&#8221;
It should have been obvious, Huggett said, to anyone that the child was unhealthy. At 20 months old, the girl couldn&#8217;t walk or talk and was the size of a 3-month old. Once medical staff determined the child was malnourished, she spent a month in the hospital and was then taken care of by a foster parent. Six months after her seizure, the little girl could crawl and had put on 13 pounds.
The little girl and her two older brothers are now being cared for by their maternal grandmother in Queensland.

Directly Above Shot Of Oat Flakes In Bowl On Marble Table

Vegan Parents Whose Daughter Was Malnourished Due To Vegan Diet Won’t Go To Jail

Children

Health

On Tuesday afternoon, a man went on a stabbing rampage in Sydney, Australia, having allegedly murdered a 21-year-old woman inside an apartment before he attacked others in the street, where he stabbed a 41-year-old woman in the back.
New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller called the attacks in the street six minutes of “terrifying carnage,” as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/13/sydney-stabbing-one-woman-killed-and-one-injured-in-terrifying-carnage">The Guardian</a> reported. The Guardian added, “Police say the man was arrested carrying a USB drive containing documents espousing ‘terrorist ideologies’ and detailing mass casualty crimes, including recent attacks in North America and New Zealand, but he did not have any known links to terror groups, and acted alone.”
A witness told Daily Mail Australia she saw fire and rescue workers with an axe and a crowbar join civilians who carried chairs chasing after the man. She added, “One of the guys who was chasing pushed him in the back, then as he was falling the firies got him in the legs, and then they pinned him down with the chairs. Then they just sat on him until the cops came.”
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/sydney-stabbing-spree-leaves-one-dead-another-wounded-11565692327">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported, “Television images showed a young man in a bloodied shirt and black hooded sweatshirt being chased through the streets. He leapt onto the hood of a Mercedes-Benz car and waved a large butcher’s knife from its roof. When the car shot forward, the man fell off, and that is when several other men surrounded him. News footage showed his body pinned under a chair and his head under a milk crate while armed police handcuffed him.”
According to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-49327241">BBC</a>, Lee Cuthbert, Paul O&#8217;Shaughnessy and Luke O&#8217;Shaughnessy ran out from their office when they heard the commotion and ran out to catch the man; Luke O&#8217;Shaughnessy said he forced a “chair over the man’s legs, a chair over his torso and then a milk crate on his face&#8221; to hold him down.
Detective Superintendent Gavin Wood, of New South Wales Police, stated, “These people are heroes, and I want to acknowledge that. We will allege the offender has attempted to stab multiple people, luckily unsuccessfully.”
Video of the man’s rampage shows him brandishing a large knife while jumping on a car and screaming “shoot me in the head.” A Channel Seven cameraman who followed the man as he was chased by civilians filmed him as he was finally restrained, showing a bottle of pills labeled Antenex next to him; Antenex is a medication for anxiety and depression. Channel Seven stated that the man had recently escaped from a mental health facility.
According to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7351231/Man-machete-runs-riot-Sydneys-CBD-police-lock-streets-Wynyard-Station.html">The Daily Mail</a>, Fuller said the suspect had been known to police, adding, &#8220;All the evidence we have at hand would link these two crimes (the killing and stabbing).&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/mert-ney-20-arrested-after-womans-body-found-in-sydney-cbd-stabbing/news-story/ad100888ee7489af029a97635850b784">The Daily Telegraph</a> said a judge dismissed a charge against the man in June after the man had been caught with knuckledusters; the man was sentenced to nine months conditional release.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “The violent attack that took place in Sydney this afternoon is deeply concerning. The attacker is now in police custody following the brave actions of those who were present at the scene and were able to able to restrain him.”

Sydney CBD In Lockdown Following Stabbing Attack

Man Goes On Stabbing Rampage In Sydney After Allegedly Slitting Woman’s Throat

Stabbing

Earlier this week, Philadelphia 76ers player Ben Simmons posted a video on Instagram that suggested he was racially profiled at a casino in Melbourne, Australia. He later deleted the video and explained more fully what his post meant.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/ben-simmons-says-he-was-singled-out-trying-to-enter-casino">reported</a> that Simmons claimed he and two other black friends were asked for ID to enter the casino while a white person in their group was not. Simmons claimed racism was the reason. The Crown Casino issued a statement saying “internal security policy requires our security officers to check identification of those persons they believe to be under the age of 25, this is an enhanced safeguard to ensure that no one under the age of 18 is permitted entry to the casino floor as required by law.”
Simmons is 23.
The statement added that the group provided ID and was allowed entrance to the casino and “strenuously reject reports that it discriminated against a group of visitors last night.&#8221;
Simmons, according to Fox, is the highest-paid Australian athlete, having just signed “a five-year, $170 million contract extension with the 76ers.”
Rita Panahi, an Australian opinion columnist, provided <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/ben-simmons-attacks-on-crown-ludicrous/news-story/75506ed07e88c109a9abf89efb175349">more details</a> about the incident in Australia’s Herald Sun.
“Privilege is earning more than $240 million for playing basketball, then having taxpayers <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/andrews-government-paying-ben-simmons-to-spruik-melbourne-and-victoria/news-story/ccde933789ea000c88c1b546884eb90b">subsidise your Australian holiday</a> and still playing the victim because for a couple of minutes you were subjected to the indignity of being treated like everybody else,” Panahi wrote.
The News.com.au had previously <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/ben-simmons-is-being-paid-to-show-off-melbourne-to-the-world/news-story/50729e50c0762eb3798932f62ba66373">reported</a> that Victoria’s tourism agency paid Simmons to promote the state, meaning at least part of his trip home was funded by taxpayers.
“Visit Victoria has a standard commercial arrangement with Ben Simmons to utilise his international profile in promoting Victoria to a global audience,” the organization said in a statement. “The agreement contains standard obligations, and payments are only triggered when certain milestones are met.”
The organization added that the payments to Simmons were “very, very modest.”
7News <a href="https://7news.com.au/sport/basketball/is-this-why-ben-simmons-deleted-his-crown-casino-video-in-melbourne-c-387764">reported</a> this agreement may have been why Simmons deleted his initial Instagram post.
“Undoubtedly Simmons’ claims against Crown Casino to his 4.4 million Instagram followers would have put that arrangement in some jeopardy,” the outlet reported.
Panahi disclosed that the security guard who checked Simmons’ ID (the man essentially accused of racism) was someone with a Middle Eastern background. She added that the casino has a diverse clientele and staff, and said that she is the “same skin shade as Simmons” but is never asked for ID.
“[N]ot because I’m privileged but because I, just like his white mate, clearly look over 25,” Pahani wrote.
The opinion columnist added that Simmons is being called by some “Australia’s Jussie Smollett,” a reference to the “Empire” actor’s claims that he was attacked by white supporters of President Donald Trump. Police have since determined that two black men were hired by Smollett to stage the attack.
Pahani shot down radio host Steve Price’s suggesting that Simmons made his claim to promote a documentary he is involved in about racism in Australia, writing she believed Simmons may have truly believed he was singled out.

Ben Simmons

NBA Star Claims Racism After Getting ID Checked At Diverse Australian Casino

Racism

Forced gender quotas in places where they have no need usually just hurt the businesses in question, but the gender quota imposed on Australia’s mine safety committee appear to have led to the deaths of four miners.
The Mine Health and Safety Advisory Committee <a href="https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-08/queensland-mine-death-response/11287178?pfmredir=sm">dissolved late last year</a>, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company. The reason the committee went idle was because it could not meet its gender quota. Four miners died during the time the committee was inactive. Two additional miners died within the year but prior to the committee’s dissolution. From ABC:
<blockquote>On Sunday a <a href="https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-07/mining-death-bowen-basin-central-queensland/11286356" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">27-year-old man suffered fatal head injuries at the Baralaba North coal mine</a>, west of Gladstone.
He was found &#8220;entangled in an excavator access ladder&#8221; about 2:00am, the Department of Mines and Energy said.
Six hours later, another man in his 50s was seriously injured in fall at a mine in Collinsville in the Bowen Basin.
The death takes the fatality total to six over the last year — making it the worst year for mining deaths since 1997.</blockquote>
An emergency meeting was called, with Australia’s Mines Minister Anthony Lynham attending along with representatives from the mining industry and its union. After the meeting concluded, Lynham announced two forthcoming reviews regarding mine safety. One review will look into the incidents at coal and mineral mines and quarry sites. The other review will be conducted by the University of Queensland and will review state laws to see if they should be updated.
The safety committee, Lynham told reporters, would be re-established in light of the recent deaths. Ian Macfarlane, CEO of Queensland Resources Council, told ABC that the council nominated two women to serve on the committee six months ago, but both were rejected by state government.
“We need to make sure the outcomes of what we do today, Wednesday, later on this week and over the safety stop is something that is tangible and that does give people something to take away that improves their individual safety and the safety of the mining operations,&#8221; he said regarding another emergency meeting that will occur on Wednesday. &#8220;Safety goes on every minute of every day, and this is certainly an escalation of safety in terms of making sure people have an understanding of what they have to do.&#8221;
Meanwhile, CFMMEU, a mining union, representative Steve Smyth called for all Queensland mines to halt production until CEOs and workers could meet to discuss important safety issues, ABC reported.
“These coal companies have got to stop production. There&#8217;s got to be a reset, there&#8217;s got to be a stopping of production, a sitting down with the workers and working through what is actually going on at each and every one of their mine sites,&#8221; Smyth said. &#8220;We need to be stopping the industry, the industry needs a reset and get back on with business but be empowering their workers to stand up and speak out.&#8221;

Four Men Have Died Since An Australian Mining Safety Committee Stopped Meeting Due To Gender Quotas

Your father may have smelt of elderberries, but he probably wasn&#8217;t using them to fight the flu.
That&#8217;s despite the findings of the University of Sydney, which previously published a study claiming that eating elderberries could help fight the flu. The university has now been forced to retract that study, according to Melbourne, Victoria <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/university-of-sydney-pulls-claims-elderberries-can-fight-flu-20190515-p51nij.html">local news outlet</a> The Age.
In retracting its survey, the university admitted it had overhyped the results. Also, the study was partly funded by a company that sells flu remedies made with elderberries and even sent an employee to help with the research. Oh, and the researchers only dosed human cells with concentrated elderberry juice. No tests were actually conducted on humans or mice (or hamsters), the Age reported. The outlet stated that it did &#8220;not suggest this is improper, and do not question the validity of the study itself or the work of the study&#8217;s authors,&#8221; however.
The university had touted the study in a press release on its website, saying, &#8220;Eating elderberries can help minimise influenza symptoms.&#8221; The press release has since been removed and the university now acknowledges it has no real evidence to support the original claim.
&#8220;It has withdrawn the press release and launched an investigation into how it was produced, and said it would change its practices to always highlight industry funding,&#8221; the Age reported.
The press release did not mention that Pharmacare, a company that sells elderberry flu remedies, helped pay for and conduct the research. The actual study did declare that an employee worked on the research.
One of the study&#8217;s authors told the Age that Pharmacare asked not to be mentioned in the press release &#8211; and the university obliged.
&#8220;We asked them, &#8216;Do you want to be named?&#8217; Although they were very excited about all the promotion of their products, they don&#8217;t want to be specifically named,&#8221; the author told the outlet.
Beyond that, Pharmacare was also shown &#8220;a near-final copy&#8221; of the university&#8217;s press release before it was distributed, a university spokeswoman told the Age.
Ken Harvey, an associate professor and president of Friends of Science in Medicine, told the Age that the press release was &#8220;appalling.&#8221;
&#8220;This is an appalling misrepresentation of this Pharmacare-funded in-vitro study,&#8221; Harvey said. &#8220;It was inappropriate and misleading to imply from this study that an extract was &#8216;proven to fight flu.&#8217;&#8221;
In a statement, the University of Sydney&#8217;s acting deputy vice-chancellor for research, professor Laurent Rivory told the Age that future press releases would include funding information.
&#8220;The accurate reporting of our research is crucial. It should have been clearer in the media release that the research didn&#8217;t involve the human consumption of elderberries and that more research was required before the full impact on humans could be determined,&#8221; Rivory said. &#8220;There was no attempt to hide the funding source from the media. The authors included Pharmacare among its financial contributors in the published paper, which is publicly available online and a link to this paper was included in the final media release.&#8221;

Australian University Retracts Study Claiming Elderberries Help Fight The Flu

Science

Australia has &#8220;unexpectedly&#8221; returned their conservative, Donald Trump-esque Prime Minister to office for a third term in a vote that &#8220;shocked&#8221; international media and left-leaning Australians.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison&#8217;s Liberal National coalition government will return to power, despite an election that most pollsters and experts agreed was &#8220;unwinnable&#8221; for conservatives and &#8220;unlosable&#8221; for the country&#8217;s Labor party, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/18/world/australia-election-scott-morrison-intl/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
&#8220;This was the unlosable election for the Labor Party. That&#8217;s how this was considered,&#8221; one reporter told international media from an Australian Labor party election celebration Friday evening. Instead, it&#8217;s likely that the Labor party will be forced to deeply reconsider its platform and make radical changes in leadership.
It seems the polling problems were similar to those that dogged major American networks in the days before the 2016 presidential election, with most outlets under-reporting those who planned to vote for now-President Donald Trump, particularly in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida. Australians under-reported their support for their conservative government, and Labor leaders took that as a sign that they were headed for a landslide victory.
But, it turns out, the Labor position of &#8220;taking action on climate change, improving funding to services, and ending tax cuts for top earners&#8221; was more unpopular than initially believed. The consensus among post-mortem analysts seems to be that Labor simply got too greedy, assuming that because Australians are willing to accept small, incremental tax increases for certain projects, that they&#8217;d be supportive of tax hikes across the board.
&#8220;It&#8217;s Australians who have worked hard, started a business, started a family, bought a home,&#8221; Morrison credited with sending him to victory. &#8220;These are the quiet Australians who have won a great victory tonight.&#8221;
He called the results a &#8220;miracle win.&#8221;
Morrison campaigned on a simple platform: keep the economy strong by enacting pro-business policies and cutting taxes where he is able. He did not, controversially, have any plan to address &#8220;climate change&#8221; &#8212; something the left made the hallmark of their national campaign.
The left quickly predicted a swift and apocalyptic end to the world. Celebrities and television personalities burst into hysterics on social media, over concerns that Australians had just signed their environmental death warrants, according <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/australians-are-dumb-celebs-fury-at-scott-morrison-federal-election-win/news-story/8392a4c2d8540d0c895808896c61409d">news.com.au</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Australians are dumb, mean-spirited and greedy. Accept it.
&#8212; Meshel Laurie (@Meshel_Laurie) <a href="https://twitter.com/Meshel_Laurie/status/1129711405177769985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
One &#8220;author and social commentator&#8221; whined, &#8220;I guess this is Australia right now. Like so many others, I despair. Trump, Brexit, Scomo &#8212; while the planet disintegrates.&#8221;
&#8220;Australia has given its malevolent, ignorant and corrupt version of the Trump administration a third term,&#8221; a late-night comedy talk show host tweeted.
&#8220;I&#8217;m scared. I&#8217;m scared for women, refugees, the disadvantaged, our indigenous people and anyone who wants a better Australia. Is this what America felt a few years ago?&#8221; another commentator added.
Live panels assessing the election results <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/rita-panahi/scott-morrisons-miracle-victorythe-left-reacts/news-story/42288757e2a9a031a6e459a284f008f5">competed for who could look the most despondent</a>.

Australia Re-Elects Conservative As Prime Minister In ‘Shock’ Result, Left Predicts Environmental Apocalypse

The right-wing Australian senator who blamed Muslims after a mosque was attacked in New Zealand has lost his re-election bid.
Fraser Anning made international headlines in March after he released a statement that contained one sentence condemning the massacre at the Christchurch Mosque in New Zealand, which killed 50 worshippers, and several paragraphs attacking Muslims for radical Islam.
&#8220;I am utterly opposed to any form of violence within our community, and I totally condemn the actions of the gunman,&#8221; Anning said, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44712/new-zealand-right-wing-senator-slammed-vile-ashe-schow">previously reported</a> by The Daily Wire. &#8220;However, whilst this kind of violent vigilantism can never be justified, what it highlights is the growing fear within our community, both in Australia and New Zealand, of the increasing Muslim presence.&#8221;
Anning went on to claim &#8220;left-wing politicians and media&#8221; will target gun laws (which they did) while maintaining that New Zealand&#8217;s immigration policies &#8211; which allowed &#8220;Muslim fanatics&#8221; into the country, he said &#8211; was what actually caused the massacre.
&#8220;Let us be clear, while Muslims may have been the victims today, usually they are the perpetrators,&#8221; Anning said. &#8220;World-wide, Muslims are killing people in the name of their faith on an industrial scale.&#8221;
He concluded by saying, &#8220;just because the followers of this savage belief were not the killers in this instance, does not make them blameless.&#8221;
Anning was quickly condemned by politicians in Australia, including the current prime minister and a former prime minister.
&#8220;He is a disgrace to the Senate and what is worse, by spreading hatred and turning Australians against each other, he is doing exactly what the terrorists want,&#8221; said former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The Australian senate voted to censure Anning for his comments.
Following Anning&#8217;s comments, a 17-year-old protester cracked a head on the senator&#8217;s head as he gave a press conference just days after he released his statement. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44751/watch-teen-smashes-egg-senators-head-gets-punched-ryan-saavedra">reported</a> at the time that Anning then punched the protester in the face.
After Saturday&#8217;s elections in Australia, Anning will no longer have a place in parliament, Australia&#8217;s SBS News <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/senate-fraser-anning-out-as-jacqui-lambie-and-malcolm-roberts-return">reported</a>. An Australian Broadcasting Corporation pundit commented on Anning&#8217;s loss by saying, &#8220;Fraser Anning goes back to where he came from&#8230; he won&#8217;t be in the Parliament.&#8221;
Though the center-left Labor party lost to the center-right Liberal National coalition, Anning&#8217;s loss was viewed as &#8220;one of the great outcomes of this election,&#8221; according to North Sydney Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman.
&#8220;There have been a lot of people concerned about the rise in extremism here and around the world. And what we&#8217;ve tonight is Australians reject the type of extremism Fraser Anning was offering,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Frankly the position he took on issues of race were simply reprehensible and it had no place in the Australian Parliament and the Australian people appeared to have agreed with that.&#8221;
Anning had created his own political party in April &#8211; after his mosque statement &#8211; called &#8220;Fraser Anning&#8217;s Conservative National Party.&#8221; On Saturday, the party received 53,875 first preference votes in Australia&#8217;s House of Representatives, but that was not enough to win a single seat.
If you would like to watch Anning get egged, you can view the video below:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Someone has just slapped an egg on the back of Australian Senator Fraser Anning&#8217;s head, who immediately turned around and punched him in the face. <a href="https://twitter.com/politicsabc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@politicsabc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/abcnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@abcnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/HkDZe2rn0X">pic.twitter.com/HkDZe2rn0X</a>
&#8212; Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) <a href="https://twitter.com/Henry_Belot/status/1106790914414919681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Australian Senator Who Blamed Muslims For Mosque Shooting Has Lost Re-Election

New Zealand

Shooting

A Queensland man, now 49, was accused of raping a woman whom he had known and previously had sex with back in October 2017.
The couple met at a church event years before this alleged incident, The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7008173/Rape-charged-dropped-woman-realises-FORGOT-consented-having-sex-man.html">reported</a>, and had sex on occasion throughout those years. On October 8, 2017, the woman invited the man over to her home after the two had a fight earlier that day. The man came over and the two had consensual sex. The next day, however, she called police and said the man had raped her.
The charges were finally dropped against the man, who will not be named by The Daily Wire, because the woman simply &#8220;forgot&#8221; she had invited him.
Crown Prosecutor Matthew Hynes withdrew the charges and told an Australian court that the woman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had a personality disorder. He said these disorders would lead the woman to engage in &#8220;incidences with men, whereby consensual sex can occur, she can transplant previous memories on to that.&#8221;
&#8220;She has a high-functioning alcoholism issue whereby she consumes a fair bit of alcohol every day, and that plays a part into her mental health and her mind and state and perception of things,&#8221; Hynes added. &#8220;It also plays a part in why she might forget things at times.&#8221;
The judge in the case, Catherine Muir, told the courtroom the accuser had a &#8220;false impression&#8221; of the incident.
The woman also claimed that prior to the sex, the accused man pushed her &#8220;backwards on to the couch, which hurt her back.&#8221; The man allegedly had &#8220;no recollection&#8221; of pushing her, according to his attorney Peter Nolan, but pleaded guilty to assault to &#8220;prevent the woman from having to face the witness box,&#8221; the Mail reported.
The accused man, despite being innocent, lost his job as an Uber driver as a result of the woman&#8217;s claims. He had no criminal history prior to this accusation.
This is what happens when we live in the era of #MeToo, where every accusation, no matter how thin or what the woman&#8217;s circumstances are, must be believed and every accused man must be taken through the system. This man was charged with rape because a mentally ill woman forgot she consented.
In another recent example, a man faced the court system after an abusive ex-girlfriend stalked him and then made up a false rape claim against him when he didn&#8217;t respond. He was the victim, yet he was treated as a perpetrator until the charges were finally dropped.
Perhaps the woman who forgot she consented needs mental health help, but many other women, who lie for vindictive reasons, are never punished for the harm they cause to innocent men. Or, in the rare instance they are criminally punished, they receive light sentences such as probation or a fine.
Until false accusations are taken seriously, they will continue, and when there&#8217;s a movement that seeks to paint due process as an impediment to justice, they will not just continue, but pick up.

She Accused Him Of Rape. The Charges Were Dropped When She Realized She FORGOT She Gave Consent.

Rape

Sexual Assault

An Australian school renamed Mother&#8217;s Day, calling it &#8220;Acknowledgment Day&#8221; as the principal stated, &#8220;We no longer subscribe to a binary world.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7004335/School-renames-Mothers-Day-not-offend-kids-without-mother.html">The Daily Mail</a> writes of Brunswick East Primary School in Melbourne, &#8220;In previous years, the school has hosted a fundraising stall where children could buy Mother&#8217;s Day merchandise such as mugs, trinkets, candles and soaps.&#8221; But now the stall will be called the &#8220;appreciation stall&#8221; instead, where children can buy gifts for anyone.
Principal Janet Di Pilla <a href="According%20to%20the%25C2%25A0Herald%20Sun,">wrote</a> in the school newsletter:
<blockquote>
You will see further in this newsletter a fantastic poster for our first &#8220;Acknowledgment Day.&#8221; We will be holding 2 of these days each year; one to coincide with the &#8220;traditional&#8221; Mother&#8217;s Day and the other to coincide with the &#8220;traditional&#8221; Father&#8217;s Day. There has been a lot of discussion about the reason we celebrate these days and the naming of the celebration. I believe that days like this are important because we do need to stop and show gratitude for those around us. However, it is also very important that we make these occasions as inclusive as possible.
I sincerely hope that this change in name will show that we as a community recognize that our families are not made up of any particular combination of people and that we no longer subscribe to a binary world. I am sorry that in the past we have offended some members of our community and I hope that this acknowledgment goes some way to address any hurt which has occurred in the past.
</blockquote>
The Australian Liberty Alliance ripped the alteration, writing, &#8220;We believe the natural family is the core building block of human society and must be protected.&#8221;
A preschool in Sydney, Australia is also on the anti-Mother&#8217;s Day bandwagon; as <a href="https://10daily.com.au/news/australia/a190430ihdky/a-slap-in-the-face-early-learning-centre-scraps-mothers-day-celebrations-20190501">10Daily</a> reported on April 30:
<blockquote>
The Learn and Laugh early childhood centre in Drummoyne emailed parents on Tuesday to let them know that Mother&#8217;s and Father&#8217;s Day activities would no longer be going ahead. &#8220;We have spent a lot of time discussing and reflection on this and believe we want to be a more inclusive centre,&#8221; an email from acting director April Howlin reads. &#8220;We want to include all families here at Learn and Laugh regardless of their family dynamics. &#8220;Instead, we have decided to do family and friends day at different times throughout the year. That way anyone close to the children can come and take part.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Mother&#8217;s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial service for her mother at St Andrew&#8217;s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Her mother, Ann, who had nursed soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, had died in 1905. The idea of making the day a national holiday was rejected by Congress In 1908, but by 1911 all U.S. states observed the holiday. Jarvis later resented the commercialization of the holiday and wound up organizing boycotts of Mother&#8217;s Day. She felt people should simply write to their mothers instead of purchasing ready-made cards.

Australian School Renames Mother’s Day. Principal States, ‘We No Longer Subscribe To A Binary World’

A Sydney couple who fed their children a vegan diet were arrested a year ago after their youngest child suffered a seizure. The couple, in court on Thursday, now face up to five years in jail.
When the child had her seizure and emergency services were called, doctors discovered the 20-month-old was severely malnourished, had no teeth, and suffered from rickets. She also had not been vaccinated or taken to the doctor since she was born, nor had she received a birth certificate or a Medicare number.
The Centers for Disease Control suggests that children around the baby girl&#8217;s age should weigh around 17 to 30 pounds. The little girl in question weighed barely 11 pounds, less than what a 3-month-old should weigh.
Neither the father nor mother are named in news reports, for legal reasons.
The Australian news outlet news.com.au <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/parents-face-court-over-neglect-of-child-on-veganonly-diet/news-story/00b9be2eac43730183111939626ee10a">reviewed court documents</a>, which showed the parents fed their child &#8220;one cup of oats with rice milk and half a banana in the morning, and a piece of toast with jam or peanut butter for lunch.&#8221; For dinner, the mother told the court she would serve the baby tofu, rice, or potatoes, but since her daughter was a &#8220;fussy eater,&#8221; she might just eat oats for dinner as well.
&#8220;This diet resulted in severe deficiencies in nutrients across the board for the infant, including a lack of calcium, phosphate, vitamin B12, vitamin A, iron and zinc,&#8221; news.com.au reported. &#8220;Her levels of vitamin D &#8212; which can cause bone disease if found to be too low &#8212; were &#8216;undetectable.&#8217;&#8221;
The calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D deficiencies led to rickets, which weakens the bones.
The mother&#8217;s attorney claimed in court documents that she was severely depressed after the child&#8217;s birth. The attorney claimed the woman suspected the girl&#8217;s father was cheating on her and questioned her skills as a mother. The attorney claimed the mother wouldn&#8217;t even leave the house to get groceries.
A psychologist disputed these claims, telling the court on Thursday that medical records showed no evidence of the depression and her own interview with the mother revealed otherwise. The psychologist, Dr. Yvonne Skinner, said the mother had actually bonded with her child and enjoyed spending time with her.
An attorney for the girl&#8217;s father said the accused man was not vegan nor anti-vaccination but was being subjected to a &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; based on that belief. The attorney for the man claimed his client was essentially helpless to save the child, as the mother &#8220;dictated&#8221; her care. The attorney said the father was the family&#8217;s sole provider and did everything &#8211; from cooking to driving to shopping.
Judge Sarah Huggett of Downing Centre Court in Sydney dismissed the attorney&#8217;s claims, instead reprimanding the father because he is an &#8220;educated man&#8221; who &#8220;could have picked her up and taken her to a doctor.&#8221; She said he should have noticed something was wrong because the child, at 20 months, couldn&#8217;t walk or talk and &#8220;wasn&#8217;t hitting milestones.&#8221;
After the baby&#8217;s seizure, the child spent a month in the hospital and was taken in by a foster caregiver, who said the little girl couldn&#8217;t even roll over. After six months away from her parents, the baby was able to crawl and stand and put on 13 pounds.

Parents Who Fed Infant Vegan Diet Arrested After Police Discovered Child Malnourished, Suffering From Rickets

No good deed goes unpunished, an Australian man falsely accused of sexual assault after helping a woman with her broken down car has learned.
Thirty-six-year-old Kenan Basic spent weeks in jail, lost his relationship, and was repeatedly slandered after a woman falsely accused him of sexual misconduct.
<a href="https://7news.com.au/news/court-justice/good-samaritan-vindicated-after-indecent-assault-charges-thrown-out-in-court-c-96406?fbclid=IwAR1YoSRK4T8YvlFPeWL2YD5YtvG3s484nb8J2SwOa1AnHk_cVkskaDGw63U">According</a> to Australia-based 7NEWS, Basic was accused of &#8220;indecently assaulting and stalking&#8221; Caitlyn Gray, a 19-year-old woman, after he stopped to help her when her car broke down late last year.
Basic apparently spent two hours fixing Gray&#8217;s vehicle. As shown by surveillance footage, the smiling pair seem happy, hugging after the car is fixed and eventually parting ways. But according to the news station, &#8220;Gray told police Basic had allegedly propositioned her for sex in return for his help before he pursued her in the car and later indecently assaulted her at a different location.&#8221; Authorities investigating the incident called Basic&#8217;s behavior &#8220;predatory.&#8221;
Months later, however, the truth about the incident finally came out: Basic never assaulted the woman. The 19-year-old confessed to police during an interrogation that she fabricated evidence and made up the assault whole-cloth.
All charges against Basic have been dismissed. Gray is now the one with the legal issues, charged with contempt of court, fabricating evidence, and lying to law enforcement.
&#8220;My client and his family are extremely happy with the outcome,&#8221; said Mona Elbaba, a lawyer representing Basic.
&#8220;He has always maintained his innocence, he&#8217;s always said he&#8217;s not guilty to the charges, and has vigorously denied the allegations,&#8221; said the lawyer.
&#8220;I understand that there was some CCTV footage which contradicted her version, and the police obtained that footage by mere luck after we asked the police to investigate the matter further, and they did,&#8221; Elbaba continued. &#8220;It&#8217;s an extraordinary outcome for my client. Justice has been served and we are very happy with the outcome.&#8221;
Walking out of the court room where the charges were dropped on Monday, a relieved Basic told reporters, &#8220;Finally this is over, so I am very happy.&#8221;
The falsely accused man noted that he&#8217;s &#8220;never been jailed, never had a criminal record or anything.&#8221;
&#8220;I always help people, all my life,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And this was the first time a snake bit me.&#8221;
The 36-year-old said he&#8217;ll &#8220;probably never help again, ya know. I don&#8217;t want that to happen again.&#8221;
Basic is now pursuing costs and compensation over the ordeal and is set for a court date in July, 7NEWS reported.

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