NSW Health has put out a public health alert after meningococcal disease was identified in two people who attended the Splendor in the Grass music festival a fortnight ago.
One of those cases, a man in his 40s, has died with the disease.
NSW Health says the disease is uncommon, but it’s urging people who went to Splendor in the Grass at the North Byron Parklands to watch for symptoms and act immediately if they appear.
What are the symptoms of meningococcal?
Perhaps one of the best-known symptoms is a rash with dark red and purple spots, but the Department of Health says that comes at the later stages of infection.
The meningococcal rash doesn’t disappear with gentle pressure on the skin like other rashes might, NSW Health says.
Not everyone with meningococcal disease gets a rash.
NSW Health says meningococcal symptoms are non-specific and may not all be present at once.
People with the disease might notice leg pain, cold hands and abnormal skin color before the onset of the typical symptoms, which may include:
sudden onset of fever
headache
neck stiffness
joint pain
a rash of red-purple spots or bruises
dislike of bright lights
nausea and vomiting
Symptoms for young children may be less specific.
Here’s what to watch out for:
irritability
difficulty waking
high pitched crying
refuse to eat
Splendor in the Grass was held at the North Byron Parklands a fortnight ago. (Russell Privett/triple j )
What is meningococcal?
It’s a serious bacterial infection that can be fatal.
People with the disease can become severely unwell quite quickly, with the Department of Health urging people with a suspected infection to see a doctor immediately.
“It can kill within hours, so early diagnosis and treatment is vital,” the Department of Health website says.
“Do not wait for the purple rash to appear as that is a late stage of the disease.”
Usually, meningococcal causes blood poisoning and/or meningitis — which is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
It can also result in severe scarring, loss of limbs and brain damage.
What is the meningococcal fatality rate?
Between five and 10 per cent of patients with the disease die.
How does meningococcal spread?
Meningococcal bacteria is passed on through secretions from the back of the nose and throat.
Typically, it needs close and prolonged contact to be passed from one person to another.
Meningococcal bacteria don’t survive well outside the human body, with NSW Health saying the disease isn’t easily spread by sharing food, drinks or cigarettes.
NSW Health says people in the following groups are at higher risk of contracting the disease:
household contacts of patients with meningococcal disease
infants, small children, adolescents and young adults
people who smoke or are exposed to tobacco smoke
people who practice intimate (deep mouth) kissing, especially with more than one partner
people who have recently had a viral upper respiratory tract illness
travelers to countries with high rates of meningococcal disease
people with no working spleen or who have certain other rare medical conditions
Is there a meningococcal vaccine?
And it is.
NSW Health says people should watch for symptoms even if they’re vaccinated against meningococcal.(AFP: Science Photo Library)
The Department of Health says meningococcal vaccines are recommended for:
infants, children, adolescents and young adults
special risk groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, individuals with certain medical conditions, laboratory workers who frequently handle Neisseria meningitidis, travellers, and young adults who live in close quarters or who are current smokers
But anyone who wants to protect themselves against meningococcal should talk to their doctor.
Adolescents are offered the shot via school vaccination programs.
You can check to see if you’re vaccinated by viewing your immunization history statement through Medicare.
But NSW Health says routine childhood vaccines don’t protect against all strains of the disease, so even vaccinated people should still be alert for symptoms.
A damaged dialysis device. A busted hearing aid. A rough-up cancer patient. These allegations are included in a federal lawsuit filed this week against a Texas police department accused of routinely using “severe force on compliant civilians” — including people with medical issues.
The suit, filed Thursday in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas by lawyers with the National Police Accountability Project, claims that officers with the Rosenberg Police Department illegally detained a couple at gunpoint before destroying, damaging or confiscating their belongings, including the dialysis device, on Nov. 6, 2020.
Regina Armstead and Michael Lewis, who has kidney disease, said the nearly hour-long stop left them feeling “frightened, humiliated, embarrassed, and persecuted for being Black,” the suit says.
Regina Armstead and Michael Lewis. The couple is suing the Rosenberg Police Department for illegally detaining them and damaging Lewis’ dialysis device.Courtesy Regina Armstead and Michael Lewis
Their experience, according to the lawsuit, is typical for “many other civilians” in the city of roughly 39,000, located about 40 miles southwest of Houston.
The pair, who had been driving home after picking up a meal, was stopped by authorities searching for a white car linked to a group of armed teens, the suit states.
Lewis and Armstead were driving a white Dodge Charger but were far older than the suspects: Armstead, a nursing assistant, is 57. Lewis, a retired Imperial Sugar supervisor, is 67.
Still, Armstead was handcuffed and placed in the patrol vehicle at gunpoint without explanation, the suit alleges.
The couple alerted officers to the device in Lewis’ arm used to connect to a dialysis machine — and the warning he’d received from doctors not to put anything tight around his hands or wrists, according to the suit.
“But they just kept doing what they wanted to do,” Lewis told NBC News.
The device, a fistula, malfunctioned after Lewis was stopped, and he’s needed eight to 10 procedures in the nearly two years since to ensure his three-days-per-week treatment goes smoothly, he said. During a trip last month, he said a stint had to be inserted into his arm of him to “open up the vein.”
The couple was released without being charged, though the officers who searched their car confiscated Armstead’s cellphone without telling her, she said.
And her key fob — which officers told her to drop — wound up crushed and down the road, she said. Armstead’s phone was returned, but the department has not paid the $270 replacement cost of her key device for her, despite multiple requests, she said.
“I hope this makes it better for all of us, but especially for people of color,” Armstead said of the lawsuit. “It’s not just happening to us.”
Neither Rosenberg’s chief of police nor the city’s mayor responded to requests for comment. The law firm that represents the city did not respond, and neither did two former police chiefs.
Phone messages left at listed numbers for four of the officers named in the suit went unreturned, and a fifth officer could not be reached.
‘This is not an individual officer’
An attorney for the couple, Lauren Bonds, said that what Lewis and Armstead went through shows how the city’s police department operates with “no accountability.”
“This is not an individual officer who’s flying under the radar,” she said. “The city and police department have been unwilling to improve their officers’ behavior.”
The five officers involved in the couple’s stop were named in about 100 complaints in seven years, Bonds said, citing data her legal team obtained through a public records request.
In a 2016 incident referenced in the suit, a mother described an officer throwing her son’s phone on the ground and breaking it while he attempted to record a police response to a loud family cookout, Bonds said. Two years ago, officers “brandished pistols and rifles” at a group of unarmed people filming a music video, the suit says.
Bonds said the records request found no disciplinary measures associated with the complaints.
NBC News has not verified the allegations in the complaints. Neither the mayor nor the police chief responded to requests for comment.
Bonds also pointed to a series of lawsuits filed against the department that spanned more than a decade, including some filed by people who are disabled or have medical issues. In this latter category, one of the cases was dismissed, another was settled and a third is ongoing.
A broken hearing aid
In 2009, an off-duty police sergeant with hearing loss, from nearby Richmond, was pulled over in Rosenberg, according to a federal lawsuit that the master sergeant, Robert Eiteman, filed.
The suit, which was mentioned in the complaint filed by the Police Accountability Project, was dismissed in 2013.
In an affidavit included in the suit, Eiteman, who was wearing only one hearing aid at the time, said he wasn’t told why he was stopped, and he believed he was following the officer’s instructions when he placed his hands on top of his car.
The officer, Justin Pannell, had actually told Eiteman to get back in his car — and what Pannell perceived as defiance prompted him to throw Eiteman to the ground, according to a judge’s decision in the suit.
Pannell punched and handcuffed Eiteman, then placed his knee on the sergeant’s head and neck while pressing his face into the asphalt, according to documents in the decision. Eiteman struggled to get into Pannell’s car, and the officer threatened to “tase” him, according to the decision.
In the affidavit, Eiteman said his one working hearing aid — which cost $4,500 — was broken during the encounter.
He was booked on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest, although he denied the allegations and the charges were dismissed after a judge found there was no probable cause to take him into custody, according to the decision. In a suit filed in 2011, Eiteman claimed he was the victim of excessive force and false arrest.
“Never did I imagine that I would become the target of an overly aggressive, storm-trooping street cop with no regard for policy,” he said in the affidavit.
Lawyers representing the city denied the allegations, saying in a court filing that Pannell used a “reasonable” level of force when Eiteman failed to comply with verbal commands. The judge agreed with the city, and in 2013, his lawsuit was dismissed.
A message left on a phone number listed under Eiteman’s name was not returned, and the lawyer who represented him did not respond to a request for comment. Pannell, who left the department and now works for a private investigations firm, did not respond to a request for comment.
Altercation with a cancer patient
A year after Eiteman’s case was dismissed, a 51-year-old woman with a device in her chest for administering cancer-fighting drugs was tackled by a Rosenberg police officer during a family dispute, according to a federal lawsuit filed in 2016 alleging excessive force and false arrest.
The suit was also referenced by the Police Accountability Project.
The dispute escalated into a physical confrontation when an officer told the woman’s husband to “back off” as he alerted officers to her condition, according to the suit, which cited dashcam video. After the man, Steven Saenz, stepped back, an officer appeared to tackle him and began “pummeling” his head, causing him to temporarily blackout, the suit says.
Another officer tackled his wife, Christine Saenz, according to the suit.
In disturbing cellphone video provided to NBC News by the family’s lawyer, Steven Saenz can be seen on the ground, his head bloody and an officer on top of him. Christine Saenz appears to be on the ground nearby, yelling for her husband de ella to “stop” as another officer places handcuffs on her.
As the officers wrestle with Steven Saenz, Christine Saenz can be seen rising to her feet before an officer throws her to the ground. The same officer can then be seen striking Steven Saenz in the head.
“She needs to be checked — she has cancer,” the man recording the video, the couple’s son, can be heard saying a short time later.
On July 30, the Saenzes were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a public servant and causing bodily injury, court records show. Their son Brandon Alaniz was also arrested and accused of interfering with an officer.
In a court filing included in the federal lawsuit, lawyers for the police department said officers acted when Steven Saenz “physically inserted himself” between an officer and his wife.
“Officers asked Mr. Saenz to step back and stop interfering but he refused to comply,” the filing says, adding that instead, the couple assaulted the officers. Alaniz was taken into custody for “repeatedly interfering” with the investigation, the document says.
Court records show that all but one of the charges were dismissed. A spokesman for the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s said that Alaniz’s charge was dropped because of insufficient evidence.
The charges against Christine Saenz were dismissed “in the interest of justice,” said the district attorney’s spokesperson, Wesley Wittig. Wittig added that it wasn’t clear what that meant, and additional files that could clarify the dismissal weren’t immediately available.
The charges against Steven Saenz were reduced to misdemeanor resisting, and he pleaded guilty and was given time served, Wittig said.
The Saenzes declined to be interviewed, but the lawyer who handled their civil rights suit, Robert Whitley, said the suit was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
Steven Saenz’s nose was broken in the altercation, the suit says, and both he and his wife suffered concussions.
“These cops were off the charts,” Whitley said. “They blew this whole situation up. It’s the kind of thing that makes your blood boil.”
The June trade surplus amounted to an external stimulus equal to 8 per cent or so of monthly national income in nominal or money terms. That makes it even more imperative that the RBA keeps on lifting interest rates to more normal settings – even now it is just easing back towards neutral.
Forecasters got it wrong
The inflation surge underscores just how much even expert forecasters and modellers got it wrong last year. Central banks and governments kept pumping up demand and failed to see early enough how supply-side problems were acute, not temporary, and would force inflationary spillovers. Had Labor been in charge then, it would have kept the JobKeeper support flowing.
Many of the same people, such as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, now caution the Reserve Bank not to “overreach” on the monetary normalisation, this time claiming higher rates won’t make any difference to supply-side issues such as logistics bottlenecks or Vladimir Putin’s energy blackmail. Yet, returning monetary policy back to something like normal can hardly be characterized as overreach in any sense.
The RBA still believes it was right to err on the side of over-insurance when the medical prognosis during the pandemic was very bleak. But the policymaking lesson, as economics editor John Kehoe suggested this week, is that there wasn’t enough of a reverse gear built into the stimulus juggernaut to back up a bit if circumstances were changing.
However, we now have a chance to get the policy house in order – on monetary settings, as well as fiscal policy in the October budget – while Australians are still in a reasonably strong position.
The contrasts elsewhere could not be greater. On Thursday, the Bank of England – astonishingly for a central bank – forecast the worst stagflationary downturn in Britain since the earlier postwar nadir of the mid-1970s. That experience drove the Thatcher reform revolution.
Recriminations over Bank of England policy in 2022 have become part of the brutal fight for the Tory leadership, but likely winner Liz Truss will need more than Thatcherish soundbites to fix the UK. And the US is already in a technical recession.
However, Australia can’t be complacent. Inflation will peak, but so will commodity prices. The RBA has lowered its growth forecast to 1.75 per cent in 2023 and 2024, which is still a soft landing.
Yet there are still too many disconnects in the public mind about the sources of Australian prosperity. Gas producers are being demonized for allegedly hoarding gas for export, when their sales are propping up the economy.
That detachment from reality doesn’t actually prepare Australia well for the leap to net zero, when some of these money-spinners will have to be replaced.
Politicians who have been cushioned by easy central bank money will also find they have to make unpopular decisions. It is best they start while this tailwind is still there.
Nicola Peltz Beckham shared a cryptic instagram-post about being “hurt” just days after rumors of her feud with mother-in-law victoria beckham were first reported by Page Six.
The actress and daughter of billionaire investor Nelson Peltz posted a photo of herself with blood-shot, watery eyes attached to an emotionally-vulnerable caption.
“Sometimes I find it hard to show the sad bits of me. Growing up with seven siblings and two very strong parents made me really tough, they hammered it into me to not let people bring me down or hurt my heart,” she wrote.
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Nicola Peltz Beckham shared a photo of herself with watery eyes. (instagram)
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“It made me put such a wall up to protect myself, especially in this industry,” the newlywed added.
“We all have days where people make you feel bad and it’s okay to be hurt by it. I love you all so much and truly appreciate all of your support.”
This post comes little more than a month after her wedding to photographer Brooklyn Beckham and just days after reports of bad blood between the Beckhams and the Peltzs.
According to Page SixVictorian Beckham and Nicola Peltz, “can’t stand each other and don’t talk.”
Allegedly, “the build-up to the wedding was horrendous.”
READMORE:Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson welcome baby boy via surrogate
The source said in the months before Nicola and 23-year-old Brooklyn’s star-studded Miami wedding, the 27-year-old actress and her wealthy family did not want Victoria “to be any part of the planning.”
The source claimed that Nicola wouldn’t clue the former Spice Girl in on anything and “communication was minimal.”
Even during the celebrations, “there was a feeling that the wedding was all about the Peltz family, as you can imagine, as it was their house and their daughter and their son making the speeches.”
Since then, there has allegedly been “non-stop petty drama” between the two families, which has also caused tension between david beckhamVictoria, and their son.
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Nine presenter Tracy Vo engaged to partner on holiday
Nick Kyrgios has survived an epic three-set clash against Frances Tiafoe to progress through to the semi-finals of the Washington Open.
After two and a half hours of high quality tennis, the Australian prevailed over the American 6-7 7-6 6-2.
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There was nothing in it in the first set, but Kyrgios didn’t do himself any favors with a double fault in the tie-break to give Tiafoe the upper hand.
The match went up a gear in the second set, culminating in an epic tie-break that Kyrgios won 14-12, as he somehow managed to save five match points.
Kyrgios and Tiafoe fired off several aces and countless lengthy rallies in an exchange that left tennis fans in awe.
The Washington Post’s Ella Brockway tweeted: “This Kyrgios-Tiafoe match is absolutely bonkers.
“There are few things in sports quite like The Nick Kyrgios Experience.”
Both players complained to the chair umpire on multiple occasions, unhappy with spectators in the crowd yelling out during points and as they were preparing to serve.
“I want to go to bed,” Kyrgios said midway through the third set.
He fired off a whopping 35 aces and 60 winners in total as he ran away with the third set, wrapping up the match at 1am local time in Washington DC
He will next face Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the semi-finals as his quest for a second title in Washington continues.
On the women’s side of the draw, Australia’s Daria Saville continued her strong form with a 6-1 7-5 win over Rebecca Marino to book her place in a semi-final against sixth seed Kaia Kanepi.
Top seed Andrey Rublev won twice on Saturday (AEST) to reach the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA Washington Open, dispatching Americans Maxime Cressy and JJ Wolf at the US Open tuneup.
Rain forced double duty upon Rublev and several others but storms provided everyone a timely rest break between matches.
He will take on Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the other semi-final.
John Tingle pictured in his office at State Parliament.Credit:Nick Moir
“Apart from all else, of course, he was my greatest urger-on, fan and critic in my professional life and so proud I had followed him into journalism,” she said.
“He taught me at 15 what was the most important question to ask, cheered me on to tackle the small and mean people in politics, and [taught me] to not be afraid to celebrate the transformative people and moments it sometimes gives us. And to always report what you believe to be true.”
In an obituary, Laura Tingle wrote about her father’s love of classical music and sound equipment, which spurred his media career – initially as a panel operator, and later writing and reading the news at smaller stations.
John Tingle pictured at a Sydney gun shop in 1992.Credit:Robert Pearce
Throughout a long career, her father always seemed to be at the center of things, Tingle said – including exotic overseas assignments, attending a press conference for The Beatles at Sydney Airport, and filming Harold Holt at Cheviot Beach a month before the Prime Minister would go there.
“He retired to Port Macquarie and later to Wauchope, taking an active interest in the life of both communities and acting as an advocate for them,” Tingle wrote.
“He is survived by his sister Margaret, his three children and his two grandchildren, Tosca and Kristian.”
John Tingle hugs his granddaughter Tosca in 2006, when he retired from politics.Credit:Brendan Esposito
Laura Tingle’s obituary for her father, John, in full:
John Saxon Tingle (November 2, 1931 – August 5, 2022)
John Tingle had never planned a life in journalism or in public as a young man.
But for almost 70 years, Tingle, who has died a few months short of his 91st birthday, was a voice familiar to hundreds of thousands of Australians, as an ABC journalist, a commercial radio broadcaster, a politician and a community advocate.
He was born in Bondi at the height of the Great Depression and was carried across the brand new Sydney Harbor Bridge on the day it officially opened in March 1932 as a baby.
His parents – Leigh Lewis Tingle and Maureen Patricia O’Rourke – were a colorful pair: Leigh a frustrated thespian and dreamer who had been forced to go into pharmacy by his father; Molly also a dreamer on a plane all of her own.
With his younger sister Margaret, he grew up in a flat in the Bondi Beach hinterland, spending many of his days on the beach and nights listening to music on the radio.
At the age of 9 he heard the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling singing Puccini and it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with both the singer and the composer.
He inherited his father’s love of sound equipment and, despite plenty of opportunities, always preferred to hear recorded music rather than live performances, arguing the recorded version was always going to be the better and more perfect performance.
It was this fascination with sound equipment and music that initially drove him into radio, where his ambitions were to act as a panel operator. But he found that, when he had been hired in a series of small town radio stations, he was often the only staff on hand and would find himself writing
and reading the news as well.
This led on to a cadetship in the ABC newsroom in William Street, Sydney, where he met and, in 1955, married Pam Chivers.
He had a long career with the ABC, working in both radio and television, including as director of TV news in Sydney at Gore Hill.
He would often go on what seemed to his children to be exotic overseas assignments, including to England, Africa, India and Papua New Guinea.
And he always seemed to be at the center of things – whether attending The Beatles press conference at Sydney Airport or, along with a then-aspiring cameraman Don McAlpine, swimming with then-Prime Minister Harold Holt at Cheviot Beach – where Holt was to drown just a month later – to record his passion for snorkelling and scuba diving.
Tingle moved into commercial radio at 2UE in 1969, and a long career as a talkback host – when that form of radio was at its peak – followed through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, primarily in Sydney but also in Melbourne and Brisbane. He also presented television programs for the Nine and Seven
Networks, as well as SBS and WIN in Wollongong.
John and Pam raised three children: Peter, Sally and Laura. But the marriage ended in divorce in 1976. Tingle subsequently married Gail Williams in 1980 and the pair were together until they divorced in 2012.
A lifelong interest in guns and shooting made the subject of Australia’s gun laws a particular passion which led him to found the Shooters Party in 1992.
Partly as a result of a dare, he stood for the NSW Parliament’s upper house in 1995 and – much to his shock – was successful.
He went on to serve the Parliament for eleven years, developing warm and sometimes unlikely relationships with other MPs from across the political spectrum. Labor’s Tony Burke, Independent MP Tony Windsor and Greens politician Ian Cohen were among those who remembered his contribution to intelligent debates about legislation well.
He retired to Port Macquarie and later to Wauchope, taking an active interest in the life of both communities and acting as an advocate for them. He is survived by his sister Margaret, his three children de el and his two grandchildren, Tosca and Kristia
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LIND, Wash. – After destroying 14 structures Thursday, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) said the Lind Fire is now fully contained.
ACSO said the firefighter who was airlifted to Spokane is now home with his family and recovering.
Local crews are mopping up and monitoring hot spots.
Last Updated: August 5 at 10:30 am
In a statewide briefing, Washington Department of Natural Resource (DNR) officials said the Lind Fire is not yet contained but is “looking really good.”
DNR said firefighting progress is moving in the right direction and they are optimistic that there will be no more damage to structures.
Last Updated: August 5 at 8:30 am
All evacuations have now been lifted for the Lind Fire, after 14 structures, including six homes and eight other structures, were lost to a quick-moving wildfire. Officials say the fire is now contained and under control, but crews will work through the night to make sure it doesn’t spark back up.
State fire assistance was put in place to support local firefighters who are working to contain it. Ground and air support responded to the fire.
The fire started on the south side of the town and began approaching homes. Adams County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) and Washington State Patrol (WSP) crews are helping with evacuations.
WSDOT East
Highway 395 was closed in both directions as well as SR 21 but has since been reopened.
Update regarding the wildfire burning south of Lind: We have reopened US 395 in the area but our crews are on standby if the fire warrants a closure. State Route 21 is also open but be advised there are some low visibility areas.
The Red Cross was assisting displaced people at the Ritzville Elementary School.
#UPDATE: Just arrived at Ritzville Grade School, the evacuation site for those in Lind, which had a population of around 600 people. Shelter is about 20 min north of the front lines of the fire south of Lind.@KHQLocalNewspic.twitter.com/g7ANp5boke
A woman’s travel horror story has shocked TikTok users after she shared her experience of traveling to the airport and learning her flight had been canceled five months ago.
TikTok user @parishilton49 told her viewers about her experience booking a holiday package to Greece with online travel agent On the Beach. She booked the $4500AUD holiday package to the Greek city of Thessaloniki in October last year in preparation for a May summer holiday.
But when she attempted to check-in online, she couldn’t find their flight.
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A woman found out her flight was canceled five months before she arrived at the airport. (Tik Tok)
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So she went to Bristol Airport to inquire about her flight which was scheduled for 6am the next day. The check-in assistant told her there was no flight to Thessaloniki and that, upon further inspection, the flight she had been booked on was canceled five months earlier.
The TikTok user said, “I am such a nervous flyer as it is, I absolutely hate it, so to hear this just sent me through the biggest anxiety of my life.”
She said she had never been informed by On the Beach or the airline, nor had she received a refund.
To make things worse, the airport worker told her none of the airlines servicing Bristol Airport were going to Thessaloniki.
She and her travel partner had already paid for parking and a one-night stay at a hotel in Bristol in anticipation of their flight as they live far from the airport.
The worker told her the only way they could get to the Greek city was to drive for two hours to London and take a new flight. So they did.
The response the TikToker received from On the Beach. (Tik Tok)
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The travelers arrived at Gatwick Airport at 2am and paid an extra $1100AUD for the new flight along with more parking fees for their car.
They stayed up for another four hours to board their flight and luckily, their accommodation plans were still in place and the rest of their holiday worked out.
But when they arrived home and emailed On the Beach asking for compensation, they apologised, gave her a vague excuse that they tried to refund the flight and notify her months ago but that it didn’t process, and offered only some refunds.
While they compensated her for the difference in flight cost, the London Gatwick parking, the cost of the original canceled flight, and the transfer, they did not compensate her for any of the time she spent in Bristol or fuel costs for the drive to London .
The flight agent’s TikTok account replied to her original video after it went viral and offered a brief apology.
“You’re right, this sounds like a terrible experience and I can only apologize!” the comment read.
The TikToker addressed the company’s response in a follow-up video. (Tik Tok)
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in to follow up videothe TikTok user said she wasn’t that concerned about the money but rather wanted to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else.
“It’s not so much the money that I’m worried about… It’s more the fact that we felt completely cheated of this holiday,” she said. “I don’t think this is something they can get away with.”
“I just want them to be able to take accountability and responsibility,” said the TikToker. “They have somewhat said y’know sorry it was an error but that’s not good enough.”
Viewers who followed her story were horrified.
One said, “Was just looking at booking with them… think we will pass.”
Another said, “Is this a joke??? They haven’t even refunded you for the hotel and parking you incurred because of THEIR ERROR absolutely insane.”
Many shared similar travel horror stories.
“I had the exact same thing with the last-minute, promised refund but it never came. So, [I] opened a small claims court and got all money plus parking,” said one user.
When chatting to others in the comments, the original TikTok poster suggested others “take it into your own hands with hotels and flights and don’t put your trust in them!”
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Passenger slammed online for ‘gross’ act on flight
A British OnlyFans star says she has the most heavily tattooed vagina in the world, with an artist needing five separate sessions to needle her labia.
Over the years, Becky Holt, 34, has spent more than $42,000 on a tattoo “bodysuit” with artworks adorning her entire frame, from her face to her feet, The NY Post reports.
The blonde made sure not to neglect her pubic region, and recently sought to have the sensitive area inked — despite an intense amount of agony it caused.
“I was in an incredible amount of pain,” Holt told Ark Media of the fifth and final ink session that she underwent on July 5.
“It’s quite embarrassing having a tattoo artist between your legs but it needed to be finished as I want my body suit to be fully complete,” the mom-of-one added.
Almost a month on, Holt’s vagina is still “swollen” and she isn’t able to have sex with her partner, Ben.
“We won’t be able to be intimate until it’s finished healing which will be difficult for both of us as we have a very active sex life,” Holt divulged. “Foreplay for him only currently!”
Despite the sex drought, Holt’s beau has managed to find some humor in the situation.
“When I showed him how swollen it was he joked and showed me a picture of a ‘Monsters In.’ character saying my fanny looked like them,” the tattoo lover revealed.
Holt didn’t divulge what design she chose to have permanently plastered onto her labia, but shared photos of her trip to the tattoo parlor.
The blonde was seen wincing in pain as she sat on a chair with her legs spread while the artist needled away.
Holt believes she’s one of the only women in the world to have her vaginal folds inked, and says admirers have praised her for enduring the painful process.
“People can’t believe how brave I am for having my labia tattooed,” she bragged. “I’m not sure how many people in the world have this tattoo but I imagine I’m one of very few.”
This story originally appeared on The NY Post and was reproduced with permission.
Nick Kyrgios has survived an epic three-set clash against Frances Tiafoe to progress through to the semi-finals of the Washington Open.
After two and a half hours of high quality tennis, the Australian prevailed over the American 6-7 7-6 6-2.
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There was nothing in it in the first set, but Kyrgios didn’t do himself any favors with a double fault in the tie-break to give Tiafoe the upper hand.
The match went up a gear in the second set, culminating in an epic tie-break that Kyrgios won 14-12, as he somehow managed to save five match points.
Kyrgios and Tiafoe fired off several aces and countless lengthy rallies in an exchange that left tennis fans in awe.
The Washington Post’s Ella Brockway tweeted: “This Kyrgios-Tiafoe match is absolutely bonkers.
“There are few things in sports quite like The Nick Kyrgios Experience.”
Both players complained to the chair umpire on multiple occasions, unhappy with spectators in the crowd yelling out during points and as they were preparing to serve.
“I want to go to bed,” Kyrgios said midway through the third set.
He fired off a whopping 35 aces and 60 winners in total as he ran away with the third set, wrapping up the match at 1am local time in Washington DC
He will next face Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the semi-finals as his quest for a second title in Washington continues.
On the women’s side of the draw, Australia’s Daria Saville continued her strong form with a 6-1 7-5 win over Rebecca Marino to book her place in a semi-final against sixth seed Kaia Kanepi.
Top seed Andrey Rublev won twice on Saturday (AEST) to reach the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA Washington Open, dispatching Americans Maxime Cressy and JJ Wolf at the US Open tuneup.
Rain forced double duty upon Rublev and several others but storms provided everyone a timely rest break between matches.
He will take on Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in the other semi-final.
