Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) on Friday requested a special prosecutor investigate her opponent’s alleged involvement in a group that gained unauthorized access to voting machines.
Politico published a petition from Nessel’s office calling for the special prosecutor after her investigation into the alleged scheme found ties to Matthew DePerno, the presumptive Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general, who is endorsed by former President Trump.
“When this investigation began there was not a conflict of interest,” the petition states. “However, during the course of the investigation, facts were developed that DePerno was one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy.”
The Hill has reached out to Nessel’s office and the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council, the group that received the petition, for comment.
Nessel’s investigation began after a request in February from Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who said she received reports that at least one unnamed third party was able to “gain inappropriate access” to voting machines in Richfield Township and Roscommon County.
Reuters on Sunday first publicly revealed DePerno’s alleged ties in Nessel’s investigation, and Politico moments later reported on her office’s request for a special prosecutor.
Reuters cited court documents alleging DePerno led a team that gained unauthorized access to voting machines in Richfield Township.
In its petition, Nessel’s office said the special prosecutor should review charges like willfully damaging a voting machine and fraudulent access to a computer system.
Trump in September endorsed DePerno, who is a vocal supporter of the former president’s unfounded claims of election fraud.
Tyson Shepard, DePerno’s campaign manager, in a statement called Nessel’s actions “unethical.”
“Dana Nessel has a history of targeting and persecuting her political enemies,” Shepard said.
“At the same time she has refused to prosecute any crime involving Democrats including the deaths resulting from the nursing home COVID scandal,” he added.
Republican state lawmakers have grilled Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) administration for her executive order early in the pandemic that placed seniors recovering from COVID in dedicated isolation wings in nursing homes, arguing the policy led to more deaths.
There’s nothing quite like the disappointment of opening a food order and discovering what’s inside isn’t exactly what you ordered.
So spare a thought for this Macca’s customer who claims she found an unexpected item in her McChicken Sandwich.
The Irish woman was recorded by her boyfriend expressing her shock after she took a bite of her burger and pulled out what appears to resemble a dandelion.
“There’s a flower in my McChicken Sandwich,” she states, holding the mayo-covered piece of greenery.
“Is this actually for real?”
She then places the mysterious green item into the top of the burger box, showing it was an entire stem complete with yellowing buds.
The video of the unimpressed woman – captioned, “Flowers in chicken legend meal looks lovely so it does” – has clocked up over two million views since it was shared on TikTok on Sunday.
But while many people sympathized with the woman’s plight – others were suspicious.
“I work at McDonald’s. No you didn’t,” one bloke wrote.
“Yeah nah Maccies worker here, that’s not possible,” another agreed.
While another said: “I work in McDonald’s and I can assure you that everything is checked, so I feel like this has been planted in.”
Others tagged McDonald’s UK in the video, stating: “You owe her free food for life.”
“That’s true, I find these all the time in the bags of lettuce when at work,” one user said.
“Would have been in the lettuce mix. Staff wouldn’t have known it’s contaminated,” another argued.
Despite not being able to tell if the video was authentic, many saw the funny side, remarking it made the fast-food item “healthier”.
“That’s a weed, they must have run out of lettuce,” one teased.
“Still better than a bug or plastic. It is organic girl!” another laughed.
“Cost of living is so bad now, they’re just tricking us with dandelions instead of lettuce,” someone else joked.
It’s not the first time a hungry diner has found something unexpected in their Macca’s order – with a Sydney woman recently claiming there was a cockroach crawling in her fries.
The woman posted photos of the shock found on social media in April with the caption: “Straya – where you get a free live toy with every Happy Meal.”
As a result, McDonald’s launched an investigation into the gross discovery, which was found in an order delivered via UberEats.
It’s still unclear how the roach got into the food but Reddit users posted several theories.
“My guess is he crawled in while our food was sitting on the front porch of the wrong address for half an hour,” the woman said.
“I’m Australian and should be used to them I guess, but give me snakes, spiders and rats over cockroaches any day. Those things are unspeakably revolting.”
Other users agreed with the theory the cockroach got in the bag while it was being delivered.
“Christ, driver’s car must have been a dumpster fire, I reckon that’s the only way it got in there,” a user commented.
“I’ve not seen inside an Uber/Menulog etc bag but I reckon they’d be rank,” a second said.
When you’re having phone troubles that basic troubleshooting can’t fix, organizing a repair is a common next step. However, data security when someone else is fixing your phone is a valid concern. Samsung’s new Repair Mode might be the solution to put your mind at ease.
As spotted by SamMobile, Samsung is adding a Repair Mode feature to devices in South Korea via a software update. Announced via a newsroom post on its Korean site, Repair Mode is a setting found in the Battery and Device Care menu rolling out to Galaxy S21 devices at first. It reboots your phone, blocking access to personal data such as photos and messages, while only providing access to the phone’s default apps. To then disable repair mode, you’ll need to reboot the phone again using fingerprint or pattern authentication. The idea is that you enable Repair Mode prior to sending the device away so no one can snoop on your private info.
Although it will only be for Galaxy S21 devices initially, Samsung plans to release the feature on more devices in the future. Recently, the Korean company shared a blog post about security and privacy discussing its Knox Vault technology. Samsung Knox Vault works to store your most sensitive data separately from the rest of the device at a hardware level. In short: Samsung is getting serious about security.
It’s not known when other countries will get Repair Mode, which leaves the door open for a potential announcement at the next Samsung Unpacked event on 10 August in New York. GadgetGuy will be at the event, bringing you the latest.
Repair Mode is a clever idea from Samsung on multiple levels. It provides peace of mind when you need to send a phone for repairs and can’t monitor its usage. Additionally, depending on how well the feature works, it could be a big time-saver not needing to factory reset your phone before sending it away – if you’re the extra cautious type. Hopefully, it won’t be too long until we see the feature on Australian shores.
Robert Lewandowski opened his account for Barcelona and Pedri scored twice in a resounding 6-0 win against Pumas UNAM in the Joan Gamper Trophy at Camp Nou on Sunday.
Lewandowski broke the deadlock inside the first two minutes before a Pedri brace and an Ousmane Dembele goal eased Barca into a four-goal lead by the 20-minute mark.
– La Liga on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games and replays (US only)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Frenkie de Jong completed the scoring in the second half as Xavi Hernandez’s side rounded off an unbeaten preseason with their fourth win in six matches.
Barca’s LaLiga campaign kicks off next Saturday at home to Rayo Vallecano (watch live on ABC, ESPN+ at 3 pm ET), while Pumas return to Liga MX action against Club America next weekend.
Despite a trophyless season last time out, there is excitement at Barca once again following a summer of spending, with Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christesen all arriving.
They were all presented to a crowd of over 80,000 before the game, with Lewandowski drawing the loudest roar from supporters following his €45 million transfer from Bayern Munich.
The Poland striker had failed to score in three friendlies for his new club so far, but he took less than two minutes to find the net against Pumas, rounding goalkeeper Julio Jose Gonzalez and finishing from a tight angle after a fine pass from Pedri.
That blossoming relationship between Pedri and Lewandowski was the highlight of the first half. Lewandowski returned the favor soon after and then, via a brilliant flick, sent Pedri through for his second goal in the 20th minute.
In the middle of Pedri’s two goals, Dembele drilled home his fifth goal of preseason after good work from Raphinha, a €55m signing from Leeds United.
Raphinha and Lewandowski then both hit the woodwork in the space of a minute, but Pumas managed to survive until halftime without granting a fifth goal.
It wasn’t the Camp Nou return Dani Alves had perhaps expected. The Brazilian swapped Barca for Pumas in the summer and was presented with a commemorative shirt by his former club before the game but, like his new teammates, he was a passenger once the match started.
Barca made seven changes at the break and two of the substitutes combined in the 49th minute to make it five. Lewandowski fed Kessie and the former AC Milan midfielder picked out Aubameyang at the far post to complete the scoring.
Aubameyang then hit the bar and saw another chance deflected over before De Jong found the net late. The Netherlands midfielder, linked with a move away from Barca this summer, won the ball back high up the pitch before slotting home to round off an impressive 45-minute performance.
There was almost a late consolation for Pumas, but Jeronimo Rodriguez was denied by a stunning save from substitute goalkeeper Inaki Pena.
A man is facing a long list of charges after a bizarre police pursuit in Perth’s south on Sunday night – during which he was chased by a herd of cattle.
WATCH THE CHASE FOOTAGE IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE
The chase began somewhat slowly about 8.45pm when officers from Murdoch Police spotted a vehicle of interest being driven on Coolbellup Avenue.
Police tried to stop the car as it turned into Forrest Road however the driver failed to stop and drove at slow speed east along Forrest Road before turning right onto North Lake Road to head south.
The man appears to struggle in the terrain. Credit: WA Police
The police helicopter above watched the man drive off before he abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot into a property on the eastern side of South Western Highway in Mundizong.
While running through a paddock the man changed direction after being chased by a herd of cattle.
“The man encountered some steep terrain and started to struggle. The Police Air Wing officers directed units on the ground to his location and he was arrested without incident, ”police said in a statement.
The 34-year-old White Gum Valley man has been charged with several offenses unrelated to the chase. He was refused bail and is due to appear in Fremantle Magistrates Court on Monday.
It is expected he will be charged with further offenses in relation to Sunday night’s pursuit.
The general manager of a barbecue restaurant in Texas says that a thief stole almost $3,000 worth of brisket on the morning of Aug. 4.
Alison Clem, the general manager of the Barbecue in Austin, Texas, said that 20 briskets were stolen by someone who jumped a fence at around 4 am and ran toward the smoker, according to FOX 7.
Clem said that she thinks the thief had been planning the theft.
“We’re kind of speculating that he’s been watching. You know, somebody that used to cook for us possibly. We haven’t had a turnover in our house since we’ve been here, so it wouldn’t be current. So, that’s also kind of strange that he knew.” Clem said.
She said the incident was caught on camera and went on for around 15 minutes.
“One of my strongest guys back there can barely lift 10 briskets in a box, and [the thief] lifted them over his head. So, I really just think that it was planned.” said Clem.
The cost of the meat, according to Clem, is $3,000 when seasoning and labor is factored in, she said.
Clem also said that while it’s the seventh or eighth time that the restaurant has been broken into, it’s the first time that meat has been stolen.
“I can only speculate that he possibly works for a food truck or a restaurant. I don’t know, even throwing a party. I have no idea,” Clem said.
A tourist has described her horror after she was charged $A800 for four drinks and a snack at a notorious Mykonos beach restaurant.
US lawyer Theodora McCormick was holidaying on the Greek island with her husband when the couple stopped at DK Oyster Bar to grab a drink.
After ordering two beers, two cocktails and some seafood, the pair were stunned to be handed the exorbitant bill, The Sun reports.
When they tried to complain, they said they were squared up to by hulking waiters.
DK Oyster Bar has previously been at the center of similar controversy and has a reputation for staggering prices.
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It has been accused of scamming tourists – allegations it always furiously denies as it defends its high prices.
Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Theodora, 50, said they had been in the beachside resort of Platis Gialos last month when they stopped at DK Oyster.
They were looking to order a taxi back to their hotel when they saw the sign outside DK Oyster which said that taxis could be ordered from inside.
“I told my husband, ‘Oh, why don’t we call a taxi and grab a drink,’” she said.
“That was my big mistake.”
When the waiter came over, Theodora said she asked for a cocktail menu, but instead of bringing one over, he rattled off a list of options.
They ordered two martinis and two beers, which they were stunned to see arrived in giant glass boots – estimated to be around three pints.
The waiter also pestered them to order some seafood and so the couple ordered a dozen oysters.
Before ordering the bill, Theodora and her husband were bracing themselves for a hefty tab – but when they received it their jaws dropped.
“It was Mykonos, we knew it was going to be ridiculous,” she said, but she expected a bill around “250-odd euros – that’s what we were thinking”.
“But when we got the bill… it was around €500 ($A800).
“My husband was like, ‘There’s got to be a mistake.”
When they tried to complain about the bill, Theodora said they were immediately surrounded by the waiters, “a group of big, hulking men.”
She went on: “They have no female waiters.”
As it was a day before they were scheduled to fly home, they felt they had no choice but to back down and pay.
She said: “I told my husband, ‘We’re in a foreign country. It’s ridiculous, but it’s obviously some sort of scam. We’ll pay up and try to deal with our credit card company later.’”
Describing the “weird experience,” Theodora said it was only when they got back to their hotel and looked at the DK Oyster Bar’s hundreds of negative reviews on TripAdvisor that they realized they weren’t alone.
“I feel foolish,” she said. “It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. We weren’t planning on eating there, but we saw the sign.”
She added: “They’re never going to have any repeat business, but I suppose they get enough people from around the world that there’s always a supply of fresh meat.”
Theodora said that they had visited a number of the Greek islands as well as Mykonos, and that most of their meals were “extremely reasonable,” and that they were often able to enjoy great meals for just €40 ($A60).
Her experience is echoed by hundreds of other customers, with DK Oyster having a 2.5 star rating on TripAdvisor from 1532 reviews as of publication.
The bar has 635 one-star, 33 two-star, 19 three-star, 52 four-star, and 339 five-star reviews.
Furious customers blasted the restaurant as the “worst experience ever”.
However, other customers were more positive, praising the restaurant’s setting and saying “prices are good for the high class restaurant it is”.
DK Oyster has a reputation for high prices and was recently fined $A43,000 after an audit by Cyclades Regional Tourism Agency, reports Prototheme and the Greek City Times.
The investigation was sparked by two Americans who claimed they were charged more than $800 for a pair of mojitos and some crab legs.
And this week, the bar’s owner Dimitrios Kalamaras issued a direct response to his critics and denied customers’ claims they don’t know the prices before they step inside.
He accused many of his reviewers on TripAdvisor of lying, and said following “dozens” of similar “false” claims, he had installed three blackboards at the entrance to the restaurant displaying his prices.
Mr Kalamaras also said that “no adult in their right mind” would order a drink without seeing how much it costs first and told customers to discuss the price with the manager before they order.
Justifying his higher-than-average prices, he said that DK Oyster’s “concept” was completely different to other restaurants.
And he accused critics of being “influencers” who were looking for a free meal.
“Unfortunately, all of us who work in the hospitality sector have been approached by notorious ‘influencers’ who instead of making their living by advertising products and services to their audience, they put pressure on certain businesses for exorbitant fees and free meals,” he said.
“In DK Oyster, we have advertised in the ways we consider suitable for our restaurant and we will not succumb to the influencers who have been attracted to the beautiful island of Mykonos.”
Previously, a British tourist revealed how he was charged £360 ($A600) for four drinks and a snack at the restaurant.
Londoner Jak Kypri was visiting the Greek island – and thought that he wouldn’t be ripped off because he spoke Greek.
“I thought if they try to scam me I’ll tell them to p**s off and give me the real price.”
But when he walked in, Jak said that waiters didn’t offer him a menu, instead telling him what they had.
Jak ordered two tequilas, two beers, and some shrimp which, when it arrived, was just “six prawns.”
To his horror, when the bill arrived, Jak was handed a receipt for an eye-watering €425 ($A600).
Meanwhile another UK tourist claimed she was charged £50 ($A90) for lemonade that she said was so bitter it was undrinkable.
And a dad lashed out at the restaurant after his daughter was allegedly charged nearly £300 ($A500) for a single meal.
The Sun Online has approached DK Oyster Bar for comment.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission
A new player in smart cameras offers up tilt and pan control, but really needs to work on the app experience. What makes the Aqara Camera Hub G3 good today?
Our homes aren’t the same as they used to be, and that’s something that doesn’t take much effort or thought to realize. Smart lights, smart speakers, smart TVs and so on and so on mean so much around the house is now labeled as “smart”, but what does that even mean, and how do you control them?
The obvious approach is by your phone, and then maybe through your voice. Call out and your home can stack signals and routines, making actions happen based on concepts you’ve programmed, but these aren’t the only options available to you.
As the smart home evolves, it’s also our faces and hands that can gesture for things and stuff to happen. While your face mightn’t launch a thousand ships like Marlowe wrote, it could be the thing to open a door, or even lock another. So how do you do this, and is the technology available now?
A new player in the world of the smart home in Australia could have something for that, as Aqara launches not just a security camera, but a “camera hub”.
What is the Aqara Camera Hub G3?
Not quite a hub, but definitely a camera, the Aqara Camera Hub G3 is a PTZ security camera for the home that comes with ears and painted on sleepy eyes when it’s off, as smart home brand Aqara tries its hand with a subscription-free approach to secure the smart home.
The G3 camera isn’t the only smart home gadget Aqara makes; there’s also a G2H and G2H Pro camera, curtain and rollershade controllers, door locks, a light bulb or two, and several detectors for smoke, gas, motion, vibration, water leaks, temperature, and so on and so on.
Like many things related to the smart home, the idea is to equip your home with the smart versions of things you need, and then work with the system to join the dots, allowing bits and pieces to talk to each other so your home can do things for you.
What does it do?
With the Camera Hub G3, doing things for you is both for security and for home control.
Much like other security cameras, you can turn the Aqara G3 Camera Hub to monitor for familiar faces, pets, and intruders, and have that information pop up with an alert. It can also track things that are familiar and act on them, such as when you come home and you want to do something — like turn on the lights — or even make a gesture to the camera, and have an action play out because of that .
The Aqara Camera Hub G3 will talk to pretty much every system, playing nicely with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s HomeKit, Zigbee, and even the IFTTT platform, basically making it work with pretty much every other smart home system you might encounter in Aussie shops. Handy.
One of the more interesting features is that it’s largely a subscription-free approach to the smart home, doing away with a monthly or even yearly cost of gadgets these days, and instead just letting you link it up with what you have. Gone is the monthly or yearly cost, and instead you just plug it in, set it up, and away you go.
The Camera Hub G3 needs to be permanently powered — no battery here! — and can rotate in its spot, tilting up and down, too. That’s the nature of a Pan-Tilt-Zoom “PTZ” camera, similar to what Canon made with its PowerShock Pick, but unlike that compact, there’s no battery in the Aqara G3. You’ll need to keep the USB Type C port plugged in and powered to use this.
Do that, though, and you’ll find 360 degrees of camera aiming, several degrees of tilting, plus support for night mode and object tracking, all available in 2K video, running at 2304×1296.
When you don’t want the camera to be doing anything, it’ll even shut up shop, tilting the camera so far down that it’s hidden with only a sleeping face left on the camera. Cute.
Does the Camera Hub G3 do the job?
A bit of a jack-of-all-trades as far as security cameras go, we’ve not seen a local player try what Aqara is doing in this model. This isn’t just a security play for the home, but also a smart home controller.
You can register your face and set up an assortment of functions, and triggering parts of your home if you have extra sensors, locks, or smart devices, such as an Amazon Echo or Google Nest Hub.
Security alerts are the obvious feature, but gesture support and face recognition mean you can set the Aqara Hub to monitor for specific things, and make smart gadgets do other things. A gesture could be linked to a curtain being lifted, while a face could unlock a door. That sort of thing.
What does it need?
But being a jack-of-all-trades comes with some catches, because it’s the basic things the Aqara Camera Hub G3 seems to mess up at.
You can’t turn the LED off forever, only at times. You can’t program your own motion mode by selecting what you want to track and where, and you can’t crop your field of view to a specific area.
And notification videos don’t have a cloud option, only a microSD option or save to your phone, basically making the Aqara security camera system a net-controllable one, but not necessarily a cloud one. This isn’t quite the Arlo competitor, or even the Google Nest Cam competition Aqara may think of itself as.
Aqara has also left out pre-built automations, so you kind of have to do everything yourself. Uploading a picture or two of your family for the camera to track is easy enough, but getting it to send an alert or record a video becomes you learning Aqara’s own take on If This Then That, which is easy enough, but time consuming. Prebuilt automations would be super handy here, but they just don’t seem to exist in the Aqara app.
It’s not just the app that struggles to do things, but also the feature set. Namely what the camera presents itself as when you take it from the box.
Open the box for the Aqara G3 Hub, and the camera arrives with cute little silicone cat ears pre-installed, almost like what the Arlo Baby offered. That’s all well and good, but there are no kids mode options in the app.
For instance, while you can track people and dogs and cats and such, you can’t set the camera app to monitor for kids crying or if the temperature is too hot. It’s not a camera for the nursery or your kids room, even if the silicone ears suggest otherwise.
It’s kind of surreal, almost as if Aqara had an idea of what it was going to do, and didn’t follow through. The company could probably add it with new software, and it could probably fix most of these complaints on software, but the fact that this is the G3 — presumably the third generation — and we’re still not there, well that’s something Aqara needs to think long and hard about, especially for the G4 version.
Is it worth your money?
At $195, Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 provides an interesting approach to security the smart home, especially given it is largely subscription-free. In an era where everything seems to have a subscription to make a little extra money from you with long-term support, this sort of approach is foreign and unusual, which makes the Camera Hub G3 worth it, at least on paper.
It isn’t perfect, though, and Aqara really needs to work things out. Better functionality in the app, support for a battery variation, and if you wanted to, a cloud option would be really appreciated. We love the idea of a microSD card for storage, but it should really be a choice: store locally, or store on Google or Dropbox. Or maybe even both.
A battery would help make this even better, too, allowing you to set the camera up outside to do that little bit more. Pick up on faces, on objects, provide tracking and identification and so on and so on.
These are just examples of things Aqara needs to work on. We love what the company is trying to build out, making the security camera more than about simply security, but about controlling the smart home in its entirety.
The idea of a whole home concept is here, but it just needs to be finished. Fortunately, it’s a solid idea, and you just get the feeling that in G4, Aqara will be so much closer.
Yay or nay?
Right now, we’d have a hard time calling the Aqara G3 Camera Hub the best security solution, because it’s not. The bones of a great idea are here, but it’s only a neat idea for some rooms, not all.
At a little under $200, the Aqara Camera Hub G3 may be a best fit for small homes without a big need for security. The idea of security doesn’t seem as well developed as home controlling, although we suspect in time that it will change.
Overall, the Aqara system does seem like something that will grow with you, but we’d wait until the feature set is more polished until we outfitted the entire home in gadgets made by the brand. It’s a positive start for holistic smart home technology, and we’ll be watching Aqara eagerly.
Aqara Camera Hub G3
the good
Subscription-free approach to security
Can be rotated and tilted (it’s a PTZ camera)
2K resolution is handy
Comes with cute little silicon cat ears for the kids room
Hardware privacy mode is cute
Gesture support is a neat inclusion
Does more than just act as a form of security and can trigger other function
Compatibility for Amazon, Apple, Google, IFTTT
The not-so-good
Subscription-free approach to security means you need to BYO storage
Athletes like Emma McKeon, Georgia Godwin and Oliver Hoare have captured Australians’ attention at the Commonwealth Games, and the likes of “Rin”, “Jakino” and “Fern” could one day be up there too.
It is not as fanciful as it may sound. On the final weekend of the Games in Birmingham, the inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championships were held as a pilot to see whether it could be a part of the Games proper.
There are currently 16 sports already confirmed for Victoria 2026, with organizers looking to add three or four more to the final program by the end of September.
“We signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the Global Esports Federation which doesn’t stop after this Games,” Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) chief executive Katie Sadleir said.
“It’s a long-term commitment to learning, transferring knowledge.”
Ms Sadleir said the CGF would conduct an independent review after the Birmingham event to consider what the future of esports at the Games could look like.
“We will evaluate all options and look at what is the best win-win for the partnership,” she said.
“It’s not just about whether or not we would like esports in the Games, it’s also about whether or not esports wants to be inside the Games.”
Exorcisms and dragon slaying the new sporting frontier
Australia lost to Singapore in the Dota 2 women’s bronze-medal match.(Supplied: Global Esports Federation)
Having watched rowdy crowds pack into venues all over Birmingham to cheer on athletes from Niue to Nigeria, in sports as diverse as weightlifting to rhythmic gymnastics, it feels a little strange stepping into the esports arena.
It is being held at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre, and there is a small crowd gathered to watch Australia and Singapore face off in the women’s Dota 2 bronze-medal match.
Two teams of five are placed on an impressive-looking stage, each player with their own computer and headset, while the multi-player battle arena video game is displayed on a big screen overhead.
There is even a live commentary, albeit pretty different from the typical sports event.
“A lot of Australia’s damage is coming on the exorcism,” one of the commentators says.
Cheers and applause break out when there’s a flurry of activity on the big screen. It is hard to tell what’s going on, but maybe a dragon slaying?
This is different, but that’s the point. The CGF wants to tap into a new, younger audience, who might not traditionally engage in mainstream sport.
And the potential money on offer does not hurt either — the global esports market is currently valued at about $2 billion, dominated by Asia and North America.
There are several different bodies that govern esports. This event is being looked after by the Global Esports Federation (GEF).
The players are not involved with the politics behind the scenes, but they are excited to be on a world stage, just like any athlete representing their country.
Five players represented Australia in the women’s Dota 2 competition.(ABC Sport: Amanda Shalala)
Adelaide’s Lynley-Ann Dodd, or Rin, is a member of the Australian women’s Dota 2 team.
The 29-year-old has been playing games for most of her life and she said the growth of esports meant a lot to people who were not interested in traditional sport.
“I wish I could turn it back and look at my younger self — 13, 14 — when I first started this game and be like, ‘You could do it,’ because I never felt like there was that possibility,” she said.
“I gave up on myself multiple times because there was not that possibility.
“And I think now being able to be a role model for… women, teenagers, children who actually enjoy games, who want to be able to take it seriously, that is the best gift of all from this.”
The Australian women’s Dota 2 team enjoyed an opportunity to compete in a big international tournament.(Supplied: Global Esports Federation)
Another member of the Australian team, Sydney’s Antonia “Jakino” Cai, 28, also sees the market value in established sporting organizations engaging with esports.
“Esports is going to be getting bigger over the years as technology gets better, and all the young people will know about it,” she said.
“There’s going to be a lot of money invested into this. We already have tournaments that are [worth] millions of dollars.
“So this is going to be getting bigger and the next step is putting it into the Commonwealth Games or Olympics.”
Can esports be a sport for all?
Esports are still dominated by men, although women from Asia are leading the way for greater representation.(Supplied: Global Esports Federation)
The Commonwealth Games ethos is about being the friendly and inclusive Games, with a particular focus on women and people with a disability.
And esports has its challenges when it comes to being a truly welcoming environment for women.
“There is that perception that women aren’t as good, and for me I believe it’s since we don’t have that many women in the area,” Sydney’s Kanyarat “Fern” Bupphaves said.
“We don’t have as much exposure to show how good and how talented women can be. The guys have been playing for years on end, whereas the girls haven’t had as much support to grow in this area.”
The topic was tackled at a forum hosted by GEF as part of the exhibition event. It looked at whether having open and women’s categories at tournaments was the answer.
Sophie Spink, from global sports management company Portas Consulting, said parallels could be drawn with Formula 1, which is open to all drivers — but there has never been a female F1 driver.
“And in the last few years they’ve released the (all-female) W series and it was highly controversial when it first came out because they said people can compete in F1, they don’t need this platform,” she said.
“But the athletes themselves [were] calling for this as an opportunity for them to demonstrate their skills.
“And yes, probably the end goal is for full integration, but those milestones in between are really important. And to give those grassroots drivers the visibility, the role models are so important.”
Head of Global Esports Academy Tom Dore also told the forum that esports provided unique opportunities for people of all genders, ages and abilities.
“We have the case studies of the inclusion of neurodiverse individuals, young people in wheelchairs playing alongside their able-bodied friends in esports in the way they can’t do or haven’t been able to do in traditional sports,” he said.
GEF commission member and former New Zealand national women’s football team player Rebecca Smith said esports could help young people who did not engage in the usual team-based activities.
“I find it really hard watching some of the kids come through that don’t know how to handle some of the pressure or some of the challenges that are coming [in life]and this is what sports teaches you,” she said.
“So I think that there’s so many opportunities in esports to learn traditional sports values, like communication, resilience, teamwork.”
Esports will be a part of next year’s Asian Games, and if it gets the green light for the Commonwealth Games, perhaps an Olympics appearance could be on the horizon too.
A Sydney council investigation has found 700 of its residents’ recycle bins were regularly dumped into the same rubbish truck as garbage bins.
Canterbury Bankstown reviewed its waste system after Herald revealed the practice had gone on for decades, infuriating residents who had faithfully separated their landfill from recyclables without being told their efforts were pointless.
In response, the council has redesigned runs and added more trucks. It is also introducing new technology that will identify which households and streets are routinely contaminating recycling trucks, so education campaigns can be targeted.
The furore over the revelations has fueled a local push to split the mega-council of Canterbury Bankstown, which was created in 2016 as part of the Baird government’s controversial policy to merge Sydney’s local councils.
On Monday, Major Khal Asfour said the preliminary findings of the rubbish review, prompted by the Herald’s story, showed general and recycled waste were mixed in narrow streets and laneways because the street size posed a safety risk to larger trucks.
It affected 700 of the region’s 400,000 bins each fortnight.
“The issue was the massive side loaders, they’re big trucks, they don’t fit down these roads, there’s safety issues for motorists, pedestrians,” he said. As a result, council had added extra, smaller trucks to its fleet that could fit more easily into narrow streets.
Residents of other councils also told the herald that they had caught rubbish collectors doing the same thing.
Tony Khoury, the executive director of the Waste Contractors and Recyclers Association of NSW, said councils were often forced into a situation in which they had to do bin collections in daylight hours due to complaints about noise overnight.
