A prominent rabbi in Australia published an op-ed Sunday examining the question of whether the global COVID-19 pandemic was sent by God.
Raymond Apple, who is rabbi emeritus of the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia, wrote in <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/coronavirus-is-it-an-act-of-god-opinion-635514" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Jerusalem Post</a> that &#8220;the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the whole world and raised the deep theological question of whether to blame God for the catastrophe.&#8221;
&#8220;Disasters have attacked human beings and nations – not least the Jewish people – throughout history,&#8221; Apple continued, explaining how catastrophes that befall humans tend to come in either &#8220;natural&#8221; or &#8220;moral&#8221; forms. The latter are &#8220;hard to cope with,&#8221; he asserted but conceded there is some consolation in knowing it was mankind&#8217;s fault.
&#8220;Natural&#8221; disasters, on the other hand, bring up a host of theological questions, Apple argued. Explaining how lawyers often call such things &#8220;acts of God,&#8221; Apple said, &#8220;our problem is how literally to take this rather strange phrase, how seriously we should view its theological undertones, and whether to aver that these are tragedies which man should directly attribute to God.&#8221;
Apple went on to examine the complexity of the question of suffering:
<blockquote>If we say the catastrophes have been <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/coronavirus-crisis-turned-israelis-palestinians-to-faith-in-god-628578">caused by God</a>, we want to know His motives. At the very least we want to know whether He could have prevented the evil. If He lacks that power, it seems we are thrown back upon the old dualistic theory that there are rival forces outside (and opposed to) Him, so that there is an eternal struggle between light and darkness: sometimes one force wins, sometimes the other, and we are left (as Arnold Toynbee wrote in A Study of History,) as victims of a cosmic joke.</blockquote>
Appealing to the Psalms and Isaiah, Apple further argued in favor of God&#8217;s sovereignty over human affairs, even in events that appear to be evil. After examining several possible explanations for the pandemic, Apple writes that &#8220;messianic redemption&#8221; is the world&#8217;s only hope, quoting Psalm 13: &#8220;How long, O Lord?&#8221;
&#8220;One day we will come closer to an answer to the current pandemic,&#8221; Apple concluded. &#8220;In the meantime, the human mind, implanted by God, is capable of even greater bursts of effort to overcome this grave medical, social and economic problem. We hope that God will arise and assure us – in the words of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev – so that our suffering is for His sake.&#8221;
In a March interview with <a href="https://spectator.us/tucker-carlson-interview-good-talking-death/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spectator USA</a>, Fox News host Tucker Carlson opined that the coronavirus crisis has laid bare the theological weakness of the United States and the inadequacy of the West&#8217;s secular materialism to answer humanity&#8217;s deepest problems.
&#8220;I actually think part of the problem and the root of the public’s fear — and my fear, too, I’m not judging anyone — is an unwillingness to acknowledge that, on the big things, we are not in control,&#8221; said Carlson, who is an Episcopalian. &#8220;And that’s basically a theological precept that we’re not comfortable with because we don’t ever talk about anything that’s not rooted in materialism.&#8221;
Acknowledging that prevailing secular materialism is useful for a culture that only values economic prosperity, Carlson said, &#8220;What it doesn’t do a very good job of is explaining death. That’s really where it falls down. And so, our response has been to basically ignore death and put poor people in homes, and then, they just kind of disappear, and no one talks about what happened. But in a time like this, death is at the forefront. You can’t ignore it. We’re all brooding about it.&#8221;
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hatred-of-god-lies-at-root-of-nationwide-vandalism-christian-historian-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘Hatred Of God’ Lies At Root Of Nationwide Vandalism, Christian Historian Says</a>
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Rabbi Raymond Apple

‘Our Suffering Is For His Sake’: Rabbi Questions If God Is Behind Coronavirus Pandemic

Australia

Coronavirus

Judaism

Religion

An Australian accused her former partner of sexual assault. When his defense attorneys tried to bring up her prior history of making false accusations of sexual assault, a court <a href="https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/173091e5a18c0afe1ef34836#_Toc44662009">ruled</a> that such evidence was inadmissible, akin to bringing up her past sexual history, something prohibited in such cases.
The woman, who is not named in court documents, claimed that at the end of a 10-year relationship, her male partner, who is also not named, violently sexually assaulted her multiple times. The man, whom The Daily Wire will refer to as John Doe, claims that not only are the allegations against him false but that he has evidence that the woman, who will be referred to as Jane Roe, has made similar false claims in the past. The relationship ended in 2014, and the woman claimed the assaults happened in May and August of that year. The couple had been together since 2005 and had two children together, though they were split up for two years between 2008 and 2009.
The case ended up at the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal, which did not look at the substance of Jane’s complaint since they were only concerned with whether John could submit evidence showing she had previously lied about being sexually assaulted. Some of the evidence presented against the woman include statements she made to friends back in 2001 while in school. Her numerous allegations became more egregious over time.
The first allegation, according to a summary of evidence provided to the court by John, states that in 2001, Jane told a friend and a school “notifier” that she had been sexually assaulted. When the notifier asked for more information, Jane allegedly “giggled and walked away.” That same year, she told another friend that her ex-boyfriend would rape her and beat her. She apparently changed the name of this alleged ex-boyfriend from Clint to Tim. Jane told this same friend at another point that she had been “gang raped.” Yet again in 2001, Jane wrote notes to two other schoolgirls saying that she had been raped and beaten the night before. Her mother confirmed that Jane had been home all evening so the attack couldn’t have happened.
When the school notifier tried to get Jane to go to the police, she denied ever making the accusations. The notifier showed her one of the notes she had written, Jane allegedly said, “Oh, didn’t happen that way.” Jane then claimed the man who raped her was from a different school, but when the notifier checked, they found no person with the name Jane gave or anything similar.
Jane also made several allegations in 2002, according to John. In a letter to one of her school friends, Jane claimed men named Daniel and Leon had attacked and raped her. She then changed Leon’s name to something else. Her friend didn’t think the allegation was true since Jane’s story kept changing and didn’t make sense. Also in 2002, Jane told another person that someone named Craig or a similar name had “bashed her up and stuff,” possibly alluding to sexual violence. Later in 2002, Jane told police that her boss (the man she falsely referred to as “Leon” earlier in the year) had raped her multiple times. Police investigated and found multiple inconsistencies in Jane’s story, and her mother said Jane didn’t even work for the man at the time. Jane told police she had never made false accusations before.
During the investigation into her former boss, Jane told police that multiple boys had sex with her in primary school.
The final two entries on John’s list of evidence are the most brazen. In 2002, Jane fabricated a letter against her former boss and other men from a non-existent law firm. Police figured out quickly that it was fake, and Jane admitted that it was “all made up.”
Fast forward to 2009. Jane told police that a man named “Leon” forced open her security door to get inside her home around 1 a.m., chased her around the house, hit her, and raped her with an object. Jane eventually pleaded guilty to making up the false claim, admitting “Leon” was a client.
The court ruled that the evidence John submitted is inadmissible because it falls under the exclusionary rule in s 293 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986, which states that evidence “that discloses or implies (a) that the complainant has or may have had sexual experience or a lack of sexual experience, or (b) has or may have taken part or not taken part in any sexual activity, is inadmissible.” Instead of finding that John’s evidence was about prior bad acts of a similar nature, the court found a way to make it about Jane’s sexual history, or lack thereof. The judges ruled that if the law was incorrect it should be changed by the legislature.
Two Sydney defense attorneys, Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim <a href="https://www.mondaq.com/australia/crime/965148/history-of-false-sexual-assault-allegations-by-complainant-is-inadmissible">wrote</a> that “Attorney-General Mark Speakman has already asked his department to review the law.”
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Question and answer

She Made 12 Prior False Accusations Of Sexual Assault. An Australian Court Ruled They Can’t Be Used Against Her.

false accusations

Sexual Assault

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week that Australia will spend hundreds of billions of dollars to significantly ramp up its military capabilities as it faces increasing threats from communist China amid fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement comes after the Chinese Communist Party <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-threatens-australia-if-it-pushes-for-investigation-over-coronavirus-report-says">reportedly</a> threatened Australia for pushing for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in China. China&#8217;s attempts to pressure Australia to drop the request for an investigation into the origins of the outbreak only strengthened Australia&#8217;s resolve against China, as Australia later came out and backed an initiative to have Taiwan rejoin the World Health Organization (WHO).
Morrison announced the $270 billion increase to Australia&#8217;s defense strategy, which includes &#8220;the purchase of long-range anti-ship missiles from the United States to equip its fleet of Super Hornets,&#8221; The Sydney Morning Herald <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-to-buy-ship-killing-missiles-and-shift-focus-to-indo-pacific-20200630-p557op.html">reported</a>. &#8220;It will also investigate the possibility of acquiring new long-range missiles that can be launched from the land in the future, including hypersonic missiles that can travel at least five times the speed of sound.&#8221;
&#8220;This includes developing capabilities in areas such as longer range strike weapons, cyber capabilities, area denial systems,&#8221; Morrison <a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/scott-morrison-speech-transcript-unveiling-270bn-australian-defence-plan">said</a>. &#8220;We are undertaking the biggest regeneration of our Navy since the second world war, and have charted the transition to a fifth generation air force. This includes the F35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter, the most advanced Strike Fighter in the world. The Joint Strike Fighter. We’re strengthening our high tech industrial capability, as well.&#8221;
&#8220;It will expand our plans to acquire sophisticated maritime long range missiles, air launched strike, and anti ship weapons, as well as additional land-based weapons,&#8221; Morrison continued. &#8220;That’s right. That’s what we’re going to do. We will also invest in more highly integrated and automated sensors and weapons, including potential development of hypersonic weapons systems.&#8221;
Morrison noted that a lot has changed in the world due to the coronavirus pandemic and that Australia needed to be prepared to deal with a world that is &#8220;more dangerous&#8221; and &#8220;more disorderly.&#8221;
&#8220;The simple truth is this: Even as we stare down the COVID pandemic at home, we need to also prepare for a post-COVID world that is poorer, that is more dangerous, and that is more disorderly,&#8221; Morrison said. &#8220;We have been favored with many natural advantages for many decades. But we have not seen the conflation of global, economic and strategic uncertainty, now being experienced here in Australia, in our region, since the existential threat we face when the global and regional order collapsed in the 1930s and 1940s. That is a sobering thought. And it’s something I have reflected on quite a lot lately, as we’ve considered the dire economic circumstances we face.&#8221;
Morrison specifically highlighted the need for Australia to be competitive in the Indo-Pacific region given the increasing aggression from China in its border disputes with India and its territorial aggression in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea.
&#8220;Since the government’s 2016 Defense White Paper was released, we have witnessed an acceleration of the strategic trends that were already underway,&#8221; Morrison continued. &#8220;The pandemic has accelerated and accentuated many of those trends. And that is why today, I’m launching the 2020 Defense Strategic Update. It represents a significant pivot. It outlines the shifts and challenges I’ve foreshadowed and mentioned. It makes clear the strategic environment we face. And this clarity will guide Australia’s actions. The update sees an evolution of strategic defense objectives, in accord with our new strategic environment.&#8221;
<iframe title="Australia to build larger, more aggressive military to prepare for post-pandemic disorder | ABC News" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wvb4XAeHSms?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison Calls May 18 Election

Australia Begins Massive Military Build-Up As Conflict With Communist China Grows Over Pandemic

China

Chinese Communist Party

On Sunday morning in Sydney, Australia, a 42-year-old man with cerebral palsy tried to make a withdrawal from an ATM from his wheelchair as two young men watched him.
The man only had the money for a second before one of the young men grabbed the money from him and the two young men ran off.  <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-sydney/haymarket-wheelchair-robbery-police-appeal-after-thugs-snatch-cash/news-story/51ce7ab85bb568f6449ffc6db939de0c">The Daily Telegraph</a> reported:
<blockquote>CCTV showed the brazen thieves walk into the ANZ Chinatown branch about 11.45am, and after one tries to pry open locked glass doors blocking access to the main bank area, he sits down on the floor while the other paces back and forth appearing to look at his phone. Shortly afterwards the victim enters the bank and asks his would-be robbers if they were waiting in line before moving to the ATM and withdrawing cash.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3165742950135368">7News</a> reported that Julian Stuart, the man who was robbed, stated, &#8220;I noticed they were paying quite a lot of attention to me, but by then it was already too late.&#8221; He noticed the two men loitering near him and asked them if they intended to use the ATM. He told <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/wheelchair-bound-man-robbed-of-cash-in-sydney-while-withdrawing-cash-from-atm/a8cbe72f-0f2e-4b9e-8e2d-e117fab7e59a?ocid=Social-9NewsA#close">9News</a>, &#8220;All of a sudden one of them just lunged at me and grabbed the money,&#8221; adding, &#8220;You don&#8217;t expect someone to do that to you.&#8221;
Sydney Detective Inspector Dave El-Badawi said, “There&#8217;s no words to describe it. Cowards. If you can identify them, don&#8217;t protect them. Please contact us.&#8221;
9News reported, “Both men allegedly fled the bank and were last seen running north along George Street, NSW Police said. Mr. Stuart was not hurt and was helped by a man and a woman in the moments after the alleged robbery.”
Stuart stated, &#8220;Australian people are the most generous people and caring people and I have so many people that help me. I&#8217;m born with cerebral palsy and I&#8217;ve had a great life and there&#8217;s always someone there to lend a hand but unfortunately there&#8217;s bad people out there … I&#8217;m a disabled pensioner, and life&#8217;s a bit of a struggle &#8211; you should worry about helping people &#8211; not doing that to them.&#8221;
Stuart pointed out that he would like not to be helpless, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got no capability to go here and get a job and being a productive member of society. Unfortunately, I don&#8217;t have those opportunities.&#8221;
On Monday afternoon, police arrested a 20-year-old man and charged him with stealing. Bail was not given; he will appear at Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday. 9News reported, “Police are still looking for the second man allegedly involved in the robbery and are hoping to speak to the man and woman of Asian appearance who came to the man&#8217;s aid, saying they might have valuable information about the incident.”
Video below:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
DESPICABLE: A wheelchair-bound man suffering cerebral palsy has been robbed by two men moments after he withdrew cash from an ATM in Sydney. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/9News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#9News</a>
Police are hunting for the culprits: <a href="https://t.co/5HImWrb73o">https://t.co/5HImWrb73o</a> <a href="https://t.co/2YoXBY0kLo">pic.twitter.com/2YoXBY0kLo</a>
&mdash; Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) <a href="https://twitter.com/9NewsMelb/status/1265152936851709954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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wheelchair

WATCH: Man With Cerebral Palsy In Wheelchair Gets Cash From ATM. Then He Gets Robbed.

cerebral palsy

Robbery

The Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s (CCP) attempts to pressure Australia to back off calls for an international investigation into China&#8217;s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China, appear to have backfired as Australia now supports Taiwan rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO) after it was ousted by Beijing in 2016.
&#8220;The position, which follows an appeal from Taiwan&#8217;s Health Minister, is consistent with Australia&#8217;s long-held view that Taiwan should be able to participate in practical cooperation at the UN health agency,&#8221; The Sydney Morning Herald reported. &#8220;Australia and China&#8217;s foreign ministries have traded barbs over the past week, leading to accusations of bullying, coercion and intimidation as the Morrison government pushes global calls into an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.&#8221;
Taiwan warned the WHO in December about the coronavirus epidemic that was growing inside China but was ignored. FT <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2a70a02a-644a-11ea-a6cd-df28cc3c6a68">reports</a>:
<blockquote>Taiwan said its doctors had heard from mainland colleagues that medical staff were getting ill — a sign of human-to-human transmission. Taipei officials said they reported this to both International Health Regulations (IHR), a WHO framework for exchange of epidemic prevention and response data between 196 countries, and Chinese health authorities on December 31.
Taiwanese government officials told the Financial Times the warning was not shared with other countries.</blockquote>
Australia is expected to formalize its call for an international investigation into China during the World Health Assembly on May 17.
&#8220;The challenge of COVID-19 demands a determined, global response. The WHO must therefore maintain a close working relationship with all health authorities,&#8221; a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told The Sydney Morning Herald. &#8220;We support Taiwan’s participation as an observer or guest, consistent with our one-China policy.&#8221;
Taiwan is only eligible for observer status at the WHO because China claims that Taiwan is not its own nation and is essentially a province that belongs to China. The Council on Foreign Relations <a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/why-does-who-exclude-taiwan">reported</a>:
<blockquote>While Beijing will never accept Taiwan’s formal entry into organizations that require statehood, lesser forms of participation are possible. For example, during the 2008–2016 political detente between Beijing and Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) government, Taiwan was invited to be an observer at the [World Health Assembly] WHA under the name “Chinese Taipei.” This invitation, however, had to be renewed annually with China’s approval, and Taiwan was blocked from most WHO technical meetings where important health information and decisions were discussed. Since Taiwan elected [pro-independence] President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)—which Beijing condemns—in 2016, Taiwan has not been able to return to the WHA.</blockquote>
The news comes after China tried to threaten Australia with economic punishments if it continued to press ahead with support for investigations into China.
“Ambassador Cheng Jingye on Monday said the push was ‘dangerous’ and could encourage Chinese citizens to not purchase Australian exports or travel to the nation,” <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6152226957001">Sky News Australia</a> reported. “The government however is not backing down from the call for an independent inquiry, with Foreign Minister Marise Payne criticizing the threat of an economic hit due to the push.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

China Tried To Pressure Australia To Back Off Coronavirus Investigation. It Backfired.

Taiwan

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has reportedly threatened Australia over its push for an investigation into China&#8217;s handling of the coronavirus.
&#8220;Ambassador Cheng Jingye on Monday said the push was &#8216;dangerous&#8217; and could encourage Chinese citizens to not purchase Australian exports or travel to the nation,&#8221; <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6152226957001">Sky News Australia</a> reported. &#8220;The government however is not backing down from the call for an independent inquiry, with Foreign Minister Marise Payne criticizing the threat of an economic hit due to the push.&#8221;
Sky News Australia reporter Tom Connell said that Australian politicians were united in their push for a &#8220;global independent&#8221; investigation into the coronavirus, which originated in China.
&#8220;China&#8217;s response, of course, has been to push back and the stakes did increase today from the Chinese ambassador in this interview with the Australian Financial Review,&#8221; Connell said.
In the interview, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye admitted that China&#8217;s response to the pandemic has not been &#8220;perfect.&#8221;
On the matter of Australia siding with the U.S. on wanting an investigation into China, Cheng said, &#8220;It&#8217;s a kind of pandering to the assertions that are made by some forces in Washington. Over a certain period of time, some guys are attempting to blame China for their problems and deflect the attention.&#8221;
&#8220;So what is being done by the Australia side?&#8221; Cheng continued. &#8220;The proposition is a kind of teaming up with those forces in Washington and to launch a kind of political campaign against China.&#8221;
&#8220;The Chinese public is frustrated, dismayed and disappointed with what Australia is doing now,&#8221; Cheng continued. &#8220;I think in the long term&#8230; if the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think &#8216;Why should we go to such a country that is not so friendly to China?&#8217; The tourists may have second thoughts.
&#8220;The parents of the students would also think whether this place which they found is not so friendly, even hostile, whether this is the best place to send their kids here,&#8221; Cheng continued. &#8220;It is up to the people to decide. Maybe the ordinary people will say &#8216;Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?'&#8221;
China has aggressively sought to squash criticism of its handling of the outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, and had success against weak European leaders that cowered to China&#8217;s demands. The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/world/europe/disinformation-china-eu-coronavirus.html">reported</a> last week:
<blockquote>Bowing to heavy pressure from Beijing, European Union officials softened their criticism of China this week in a report documenting how governments push disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to documents, emails and interviews.
Worried about the repercussions, European officials first delayed and then rewrote the document in ways that diluted the focus on China, a vital trading partner — taking a very different approach than the confrontational stance adopted by the Trump administration.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-gates-attacks-u-s-praises-china-china-did-a-lot-of-things-right-at-the-beginning">reported</a> on Sunday, &#8220;China has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/asia/coronavirus-china-conspiracy-theory.html">falsely claimed</a> that the coronavirus came from the United States Army; tried to cover it up by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-it-all-started-chinas-early-coronavirus-missteps-11583508932">silencing</a> doctors and journalists who were trying to warn the world; <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/world-health-organization-blame-pandemic-coronavirus/609820/">told</a> the world that there was not evidence the coronavirus could be transmitted person to person when they <a href="https://apnews.com/68a9e1b91de4ffc166acd6012d82c2f9">knew</a> for a fact that it could; <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/china-concealed-extent-of-virus-outbreak-u-s-intelligence-says">intentionally lied</a> about how bad the outbreak was and tried to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-post-evidence-coming-out-of-wuhan-suggests-real-death-toll-over-40000">cover up</a> deaths; and is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-still-misleads-the-world-on-the-coronavirus-11586818132">allegedly</a> continuing to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-still-not-letting-u-s-in-to-study-coronavirus-mike-pompeo-says">withhold</a> critical information about the outbreak.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe title="China warns of economic hit over COVID inquiry" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0pX6PBf3xco?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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IAEA Meeting Starts in Vienna

China Threatens Australia If It Pushes For Investigation Over Coronavirus, Report Says

According to infectious disease experts at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, they may have found a treatment that could possibly eliminate the coronavirus.
“University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research director Professor David Paterson told news.com.au today they have seen two drugs used to treat other conditions wipe out the virus in test tubes,&#8221; <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-australia-queensland-researchers-find-cure-want-drug-trial/news-story/93e7656da0cff4fc4d2c5e51706accb5">News.com.au</a> reported Monday.
The two medications Paterson referred to are Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, and HIV-suppressing combination lopinavir/ritonavir. Paterson told the outlet that it seemed reasonable to call the drugs &#8220;a treatment or a cure … It’s a potentially effective treatment. Patients would end up with no viable coronavirus in their system at all after the end of therapy.&#8221;
Paterson, who also works as an infectious disease physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, said one of the drugs, given to some of the first victims of COVID-19 in Australia, resulted in the &#8220;disappearance of the virus&#8221; and complete recovery.
&#8220;Our doctors were very, very surprised that a HIV drug could actually work against the novel coronavirus and there was a bit of skepticism,&#8221; said Paterson. &#8220;That first wave of Chinese patients we had (in Australia), they all did very, very well when they were treated with the HIV drug. That’s reassuring … that we’re onto something really good here.&#8221;
&#8220;What we want to do at the moment is a large clinical trial across Australia, looking at 50 hospitals, and what we’re going to compare is one drug, versus another drug, versus the combination of the two drugs,&#8221; said Paterson, adding there is a &#8220;long experience of them being very well tolerated&#8221; and no unexpected side effects.
&#8220;We’re not on a flat foot, we can sort of move ahead very rapidly with enrolling Australians in this trial,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It’s the question we all have – we know it’s coming now, what is the best way to treat it? We want to give Australians the absolute best treatment rather than just someone’s guesses or someone’s anecdotal experiences from a few people.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8115879/COVID-19-Australian-researchers-CURE-coronavirus.html">The Daily Mail</a> provides some more information on the anti-HIV drug used by Paterson&#8217;s research team:
<blockquote>Lopinavir/ritonavir, the anti-HIV drug being tested, is most commonly sold under the name Kaletra. It is an antiviral medication which can be taken twice a day by people infected with HIV in order to reduce levels of the virus circulating in the body. Regular use of the medication is intended to stop HIV progressing to AIDS, which is fatal, and may also reduce the risk of people transmitting the infection to others.
It is a type of drug called a protease inhibitor, which works by stopping viruses from using an enzyme called protease, which is vital for them to be able to spread. Without protease viruses cannot make the fully-matured clones that they need to be able to infect other healthy cells, so the infection can&#8217;t spread … Kaletra is approved for use in the U.S., Europe and Australia,</blockquote>
Of Chloroquine, The Daily Mail added, “It has also been found to be able to destroy viruses, and scientists found in lab tests that it could be effective against the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). It is already widely used as an antimalarial for travelers and is also approved in the UK for use on people with rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wuhan-china-ground-zero-for-coronavirus-gets-back-to-work-in-preview-of-whats-to-come-in-u-s">Wuhan, China — Ground Zero For Coronavirus — Gets Back To Work In Preview Of What’s To Come In U.S.</a>

Aides Treatment For Man

Australian Infectious Disease Expert: We May Have A ‘Cure’ For Coronavirus

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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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

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.

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>
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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;

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