In a separate letter, the NSW Department of Education said inquiries had been sent to King’s regarding the use of school funds.
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“As this matter is the subject of ongoing inquiry, it is not appropriate to comment further,” a spokesperson said. “The Department of Education routinely requests information from non-government schools to ensure compliance with not-for-profit funding requirements.”
It is understood the school is required to respond to the state government this week.
King’s, which has about 2000 students and is located in North Parramatta, charges fees that range from $24,000 for pre-school to $40,000 for year 12 and $69,000 for tuition and boarding in high school.
The school did not respond to questions on the letters from the state and federal governments. King’s previously defended a controversial trip by his headmaster and his wife to the Royal Henley Regatta, saying it was standard practice among independent schools to fly principals overseas, and traditional for principals to go business class. One estimate put the cost of flights and accommodation at $45,000, but the school later said that cost was “grossly exaggerated”.
Paul Kidson, an education leadership academic at the Australian Catholic University and a former independent school principal, said that regardless of how much money private schools receive from Commonwealth and state coffers, schools must be responsible and accountable for the expenditure.
“It should be done in a way that is both transparent and gives confidence about the appropriateness of spending,” he said.
“The issue about transparency is critical. Independent schools get funding from three main sources, the Commonwealth, limited amounts from the state government, and the rest of it from parent fees and other private sources. And a school like King’s will get the vast majority of its funding from fees,” he said.
“But at a time when society is looking to schools for what they contribute to who we are as a community, we should be working even harder to build confidence and trust in the schools, not erode it.”
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The extreme rainfall and flash flooding that killed at least 37 people in Eastern Kentucky this week, washing away houses and cars and turning streets into raging rivers, is one more example of how climate change is poised to overwhelm infrastructure across the United States in the years you eat
“We have dozens of bridges that are out — making it hard to get to people, making it hard to supply people with water,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on Sunday. “We have entire water systems down that we are working hard to get up.”
With the electricity knocked out in many areas that set rainfall records, residents who survived the flooding were left to swelter without air conditioning amid the latest heat wave to hit the area this summer.
Janey Camp, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University, told Yahoo News that the combination of climate change and the nation’s aging and neglected infrastructure are putting millions of people at risk of severe flooding.
“Nobody’s immune. I think Kentucky shows us that. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an urban area like Nashville or if you’re in rural Appalachia,” Camp said, adding, “We’re seeing more of these intense precipitation events, where there’s a lot of water dumped on an area in a short amount of time. And the infrastructure wasn’t designed to handle that amount of precipitation.”
On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the Biden administration would make just over $1 billion in grants available for states to harden infrastructure against threats like flooding and extreme heat.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an event on funding climate resilience in Miami on Monday. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
“In recent days, deadly floods have swept through Missouri and Kentucky, washing away entire neighborhoods, leaving at least 35 dead, including babies, children,” Harris said of the still-rising death toll. “As has been reported, four children from one family. So, the devastation is real. The harm is real. The impact is real.”
Camp said that action, the funding of which came from the 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Law, was overdue.
“We have a lot of aging infrastructure, especially when you think about storm water. A lot of communities don’t even have their own department for managing storm water, it kind of falls to public works or the water department,” Camp said. “Only in recent years, the past decade or so, have we really started thinking more about storm water. Now we’re being hit with these extreme storm events where the stormwater infrastructure, or any infrastructure put in place to help convey water away from an area, is being exceeded.”
Climate scientists have shown that for every degree Celsius of warming, the Earth’s atmosphere holds 7% more moisture. When conditions are right, that moisture can unload in the form of extreme precipitation events like the ones that dumped 12 inches of rain in Eastern Kentucky last week and another foot of rain days later in Illinois. In fact, three so-called 1,000-year rain events hit the nation’s midsection in a matter of days this past week.
“It’s almost as if you need to be hit by something, unfortunately, before the community wakes up and starts doing things differently,” Camp said, adding, “We can look at trends. We can look at the down-scale climate data and say, ‘Hey, some of these things are starting to happen more.’ What we are seeing in a lot of areas, especially in the Southeast, is more precipitation. year event, it’s an anomaly, but we’re seeing these happen more frequently.”
A car destroyed by flooding in Central Appalachia in Kentucky on July 30, 2022. (Wang Changzheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Cities and towns across the country are required by FEMA to formulate hazard mitigation plans, and many do so using Hazus, the department’s computer tool, which is described as providing “data for estimating risk from earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes.”
While that’s a good start at assessing risk, Camp said, the problem is that many communities don’t examine the worst-case models that climate change is making much more commonplace.
“In all reality, nobody’s running a 1,000-year event in their analysis. They’re running a 100-year event and maybe a 500-year event, to check the box and meet FEMA regulations for their hazard mitigation plan,” Camp said. “We need to quit looking at the past and start looking to the future And that’s challenging in a lot of communities, because they don’t have a lot of resources or expertise to do that.”
Indeed, communities like the ones ravaged in Appalachia didn’t have the budget to upgrade infrastructure to meet the threat of climate change. But if the Biden administration’s allocation of $1 billion in grant funding for infrastructure upgrades sounds like too much money, experts say far more money will be needed. As if to bolster that point, initial damage estimates for the recent flooding in Kentucky have been quoted at $1 billion.
We learned last week inflation is officially 6.1% – way above the average over the past 20 years of 2.5%. This is right in the middle of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target band.
But although the rate is now 6.1%, not everyone faces it. It depends on what you buy.
And there’s one big anomaly right now.
The “basket” of goods and services whose prices the Bureau of Statistics uses to work out the consumer price index is dominated by one item, one most Australians rarely buy.
It is what the bureau calls “new dwelling purchase by owner-occupiers”.
This is mostly the cost of building a new home (excluding the cost of the land) and also the cost of major renovations, but not repairs.
We rarely build a house, and rarely pay up front
Even though very few Australians pay this cost in any given year, and some never pay it, it makes up almost 9% of the total basket, a heavier weight than any other single item in the Consumer Price Index.
By way of comparison, bread – a product most households buy every day – makes up only 0.53% of the index. “New dwelling purchase” makes up 8.67%.
New dwelling purchase gets such a big weight because it is so expensive, sometimes as much as half a million dollars or more. Like most other items in the consumer price index, bread is cheaper.
We buy bread more often, but it scarcely counts
Normally when the price of “new dwelling purchase” isn’t moving by much (or by much more than other prices) it doesn’t much move the index.
But material and labor shortages mean that over the past year alone, the cost of new dwelling purchase has jumped by more than 20%. In the June quarter it was responsible for almost a third – 0.5 points – of the 1.8% increase in the entire consumer price index.
If your interest is the change in household cost of living, the inclusion of the cost of buying a new house is a problem as the very few people who pay it mostly don’t pay it upfront. They take out a loan which they pay off slowly.
Measured differently, costs didn’t rise 6.1%
Before 1998 the bureau used a different so-called “outlays” approach to measuring inflation that measured payments made to gain access to goods and services.
The resulting weight of housing in the index was much lower.
The bureau still uses the outlays method to calculate separately-published living cost indexes published on Wednesday.
Using these indexes, ANU modeling suggests about 80% of households had a living cost increase below the consumer price index of 6.1%.
The median (typical) increase over the past year is 4.7%, meaning half of households had increases in living costs below 4.7%.
Half of us faced less than 4.7%
Among the households whose living costs have climbed by less than 6.1% would be almost all of those headed by people on the JobSeeker unemployment benefit.
The cost of living for these households climbed by 5%.
Yet in September this year the benefit will increase in total by the increase in the consumer price index, meaning that for once the living standards of households receiving those benefits will move ahead.
Wage earner living costs have increased by just 4.6%, suggesting wage increases in line with the consumer price index would also leave them ahead.
Read more: Inflation hasn’t been higher for 32 years. What now?
Our modeling suggests high income families suffered a cost of living increase of only 4.5%, compared to 4.9% for lower income families.
For the moment, the lower living cost indexes are a better guide to changes in the cost of living than the consumer price index.
In time, as the increases in the cost of new dwellings subside, the difference will become less stark. Indeed, as mortgage rates increase over the year growth in the living cost indexes might exceed the consumer price index.
Read more: What’s in the CPI and what does it actually measure?
According to multiple recent rumors, Apple is expected to introduce a more expensive Apple Watch “Pro” this year in addition to the regular new Series 8 models. And as we’re only a month away from Apple’s new product announcements, the current Apple Watch Series 7 Edition is now sold out in the US and a few other countries.
Based on Apple’s website, most models of the Apple Watch Series 7 Edition are now sold out. As noted by MacRumorsthe product is unavailable in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries – although you can still find the 45mm version in some configurations.
In most cases, the Apple Watch Series 7 Edition is listed as “Currently Unavailable” in Apple’s online store. It’s also hard to find one of these models available by choosing the in-store pickup option, which suggests that the current generation Apple Watch Edition is indeed out of stock. This comes ahead of the announcement of the new Apple Watch Series 8 and the first Apple Watch Pro.
For those unfamiliar, Apple Watch Edition is a more expensive version of the Apple Watch made of titanium. In previous years, Apple Watch Edition was also available in gold and ceramic. However, despite the more premium materials, the Apple Watch Edition has exactly the same hardware as regular Apple Watch models.
Apple WatchPro
This year, it seems that Apple will take a different approach with the Apple Watch lineup. While Apple Watch Series 8 should be a minor upgrade compared to the Series 7, the company has also been working on a new model called “Apple Watch Pro” made for extreme sports. This Pro model will have a more rugged design and a different form factor than the current Apple Watch.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently reported that Apple Watch Pro will have a 7% larger display that will also allow Apple to put a larger battery inside it. More than that, this watch should be made of titanium, just like the Apple Watch Edition, so that it will be more durable than Apple Watches made of aluminum and stainless steel.
Gurman also reported that the Apple Watch Pro is expected to cost from $900 due to the larger display and premium material, which puts it close to the price of the Apple Watch Edition, which starts at $799. With that in mind, it won’t be a surprise if Apple discontinues the Edition models in favor of the new Pro model.
Considering that the Apple Watch Series 7 Edition is now sold out in multiple countries, this sounds even more likely.
Of course, Apple Watch Pro will also have the new body temperature sensor expected to be introduced with Apple Watch Series 8. However, none of this year’s models will have a faster chip compared to the Apple Watch Series 7, which has the same CPU as the Apple Watch Series 6.
Apple will likely introduce the new Apple Watch family in September along with the new iPhones. And if you’re looking to get a new Apple Watch for a great price, be sure to take a look at Amazon’s special deals.
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Heidi and Mike were fan favorites on Beauty and the Geekand one of the few couples to spark a romance together during their time on the show.
Here we watched their relationship blossom, with the pair sharing a kiss on their first date and Heidi even taking Mike home to meet her family.
Catch up on the latest episodes of Beauty and the Geek on 9Now.
But Mike revealed to 9Entertainment that since they left the show the pair have decided not to continue exploring a romantic connection.
“Things pretty much ended as soon as things ended on the show. We went back and it kind of just ended from there,” he revealed.
“She just said she wasn’t ready to keep things going.”
Heidi and Mike still remain good friends. (Nine)
But despite the pair deciding to end things, the Geek assured that there’s no bad blood between them and that they still talk every day.
“I still love her, but not in the way that everyone wishes. We’re still really good friends and that’s all that matters… as long as I didn’t lose her, I didn’t care,” he said.
Mike and Heidi have even caught up several times since the show ended.
“I’ve been to Melbourne three times since the show ended and I’ve caught up with her every single time, so there’s nothing bad between Heidi and I,” he said.
READMORE:Aaron and Karly reveal their surprising prize money plans after winning Beauty and the Geek 2022
(Nine)
But when asked if he would ever want to get back with the Beauty, Mike revealed that he’s just focusing on himself at the moment. However he didn’t rule out the possibility of it happening later down the track.
Throughout the Beauty and the Geek experience, we watched Mike and Heidi share a romantic connection after the Geek took her on her first-ever date.
I have prepared a romantic fine dining experience for her, and even a hand-written love letter. The date ended with a slow dance and their first kiss.
From there, the couple continued to grow closer, and Heidi even took him home to her family farm during the Life Swap Challenge.
It was a momentous day for Heidi, as it was the first time she took a partner home to meet her family.
But sadly, their on-screen journey came to an end in Episode 9 after they failed to impress with their video skills during the TikTok Challenge.
Despite their Beauty and the Geek journey coming to an end, Mike sees Heidi as a life-long friend.
In Pictures
All of the best Mixer looks from Beauty and the Geek 2022
All of the cast return for the Grand Finale.
ViewGallery
Catch up on the latest episodes of Beauty and the Geek on 9Now.
Australia has suffered a historic three-goal loss to Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games, rocking their gold medal campaign in Birmingham.
The Diamonds had been expected to sail through their Pool A matches and meet the second ranked team in Pool B in the semi finals.
But they coughed up a six-goal lead heading into the final term to suffer their first ever loss to the Sunshine Girls.
A brilliant 47 goals from international superstar Jhaniele Fowler and some remarkable defensive efforts from Shamera Sterling ensured Jamaica nailed a 57-55 win.
Fox Netball’s Catherine Cox said the Diamonds “just shut up shop” in the last quarter as Jamaica ran home with the win.
“Australia couldn’t win the ball back – it was some brilliant defensive work from Jamaica. They really just lifted another level in the fourth quarter,” she said.
Questions will be asked of coach Stacey Marinkovich’s selections, with just Sunday Aryang entering for four minutes in the second term and Sarah Klau coming on to a rejigged defensive line with four minutes remaining in the match.
Gretel Bueta finished the pick of the Diamonds attack, despite being silenced in the final quarter by Sterling, with 36 goals from 39 attempts.
Steph Wood’s night ended with 19 goals at 86%.
QUARTER BY QUARTER MATCH REPORT
Australia opted to start Gretel Bueta at goal shooter, with Steph Wood and Liz Watson out in front of her. Kate Moloney got the nod at center with Ash Brazill, Jo Weston and Courtney Bruce rounding out the defensive trio.
For Jamaica, Jhaniele Fowler started at GS, with Beckford and Williams at GA and WA respectively. Nicole Dixon-Rochester was center with Super Netball trio Jodi-Ann Ward, Latanya Wilson and Shamera Sterling the starting defenders.
The world’s best shooter started the match with a bang, with five quick goals to open up the first break of the match for Jamaica.
Courtney Bruce kept her West Coast Fever teammate in Fowler as high as she could, but Shanice Beckford was brilliant around the edges to keep feeding from close range.
GAMES WRAP: Aussie men stunned as Titmus, McKeon finish on top in 25-gold blitz
FULL MEDAL TALLY >
Browning finishes 0.06 off a medal! | 00:25
Bruce and Jo Weston got early tips, but it was Jamaica who were able to convert while down the other end the connection to Gretel Bueta just fell away.
“The Diamonds are stunned here,” commentator Sue Gaudion said.
Australia scored just three goals in the opening seven minutes, before Steph Wood went from range and leveled up scores.
A Jodi-Ann Ward intercept gave Jamaica the lead once again as the long ball caught Weston’s eyes down.
“They exposed the Diamonds defense again,” Gaudion said.
A quick double play by Bueta ensured the Aussies took the lead with less than two minutes remaining in the first term.
Coach Connie Francis was left less than impressed when the Sunshine Girls threw away a brilliant Sterling intercept.
“But that is the issue – the conversion of those brilliant moments,” commentator Cath Cox said.
By the first break, it was Australia leading by one goal.
The Aussies went unchanged for the second term – the first time this tournament coach Stacey Marinkovich has opted for no changes after a break.
A big Sterling rebound gave Jamaica the first opportunity, but they couldn’t convert as Courtney Bruce’s brilliant hands over disrupted play.
“There’s plenty of feeling out there,” Cox said.
“Courtney Bruce giving the death stare to Beckford.”
The Aussies chanced their luck feeding Bueta with Sterling in hot pursuit but the move continued to pay off.
When Shanice Beckford found the top of the circle, the Sunshine Girls opted for a rare straight ball feed to Fowler.
“On the circle edge, feeding to Fowler – unbeatable,” Cox praised.
A rare mistake by Bueta saw the replay called, but once again Jamaica couldn’t convert as Khadijah Williams was penalized for footwork.
“It’s the simple things letting Jamaica down isn’t it,” Cox said.
Sunday Aryang was introduced at goal defence, joining her Fever teammates Bruce and Fowler in the goal circle.
And she almost had the immediate impact, getting a tip on a high ball to Fowler, but ultimately couldn’t stop the conversion.
Beckford had a brilliant intercept in front of Ash Brazill and suddenly the margin was back to one.
“Connie Francis willing them on,” Gaudion praised.
Wood backed her teammate Bueta when she went with the feed from the transverse, and the Firebird didn’t let her down with beautiful hands.
“The courage to let that go over the best goal keeper in the game… look at that take,” Cox praised.
By half time, it was Australia leading 30-29.
Weston returned to the court as some bad hands by Wood allowed the Sunshine Girls to draw level early in the third.
Jamaica managed to pull down another deflection but once again threw it away in the midcourt.
“That long outlet ball, if they just shortened it up and do one safety ball, I reckon they’d get themselves on the attack,” Cox said.
A rare shooter contact call on Fowler handed Australia the chance to pull away. Sterling’s cheeky pickup when Bueta put the ball down to set the penalty didn’t go unnoticed by the umpire as suddenly the lead was back out to four.
The physicality stepped up in the third, with Brazill getting under the skin of Adean Thomas and sent sprawling into the goal circle off the ball.
Once again, a Ward pick up on the circle edge ended up sailing over Fowler’s head as another turnover was wasted.
A second straight rejection from Sterling was called for obstruction as the crowd started to find their voice.
A misdirected midcourt ball ensured another turnover as the Diamonds extended the lead to six – the biggest of the match.
A strong take by Bueta over Sterling in the dying seconds pushed Australia out to a 46-40 lead at the final change.
Marinkovich went unchanged once again for the final term as Jamaican wing defender Jodi-Ann Ward came through with the deflection to help her side close within three.
Williams’ return at WA lifted the Sunshine Girls’ attack in the final term as they looked to find their rhythm to Fowler once more.
And when Wood couldn’t regather the short ball, and got done for replay, Jhaniele Fowler made the Aussies pay seconds later to close within one goal.
Liz Watson overcooked the lob to Bueta, and remarkably the Sunshine Girls took the lead with eight minutes to play.
“We haven’t seen that this game – that is the pressure. Mistakes like that have been few and far between for the Diamonds,” Cox said.
Despite Jamaican assistant coach Rob Wright pleading with his defenders to shut down Wood’s influence, it was Bueta they silenced as Wood had to step up.
And the Lightning star was up to the challenge with three successive mid-range shots.
Another Diamonds turnover, this time from Weston to her Vixens’ teammate Watson, gave Jamaica a two-goal buffer as injury time was called.
Weston headed to the bench, Bruce pushed out to GD and Sarah Klau was introduced for her first minutes of the night.
When Shamera Sterling came up with the big rejection and regather, Jamaica pushed out the lead with just a minute to play.
And in remarkable scenes, the Sunshine Girls held on in the thrilling final seconds with Shanice Beckford landing the final goal of the match.
In the end, it was Jamaica who claimed the win 57-55.
Tobias Friedrich Moran, accused of murdering his former German backpacker girlfriend, will be released on bail as prosecutors decided not to proceed with a detention application.
The 42-year-old was freed by a magistrate today and can now return to Western Australia from where he was extradited.
Bail conditions stipulate he must report to police three days a week and must not communicate via any encrypted websites.
Tobias Moran, formerly known as Tobias Suckfuel, has been danced but will not be released today. (9News)
Magistrate Margaret Quinn in the Downing Center Local Court earlier on Thursday accepted submissions from Moran’s barrister there was no new evidence connecting him to the murder of Simone Strobel in 2005.
And while the Crown submitted new witness statements taken from people in Germany showed that he lied about the state of their relationship, that evidence was not currently before the court.
The magistrate said evidence showed the couple had been fighting, drinking a lot and perhaps on some drugs about the time of the alleged murder.
“(But) it doesn’t appear in this case to be any direct or indirect evidence connecting him to the offence,” Quinn said.
“It’s not the strongest circumstantial case I have seen.”
German backpacker Simone Strobel was found dead in Lismore in 2005. (9News)
His wife has offered $200,000 in security if he fails to show up in Lismore court when required, while another $250,000 has been offered as an undertaking.
Moran is charged with murdering his then partner and acting with intent to pervert the course of justice between 11pm on February 11, 2005 and 3.30pm the following day.
Police allege Moran suffocated or smothered his girlfriend in a camper van in Lismore and disposed of her body nearby.
Moran reported the school teacher missing before she was found days later 100 meters from the camper van.
Her body was too decomposed for a coroner to determine the cause of death, but it is believed to be asphyxiation.
Tobias Moran, formerly known as Tobias Suckfuel, had been traveling around Australia with Simone Strobel in 2005. (Supplied)
The magistrate disagreed with the Crown’s submission that Moran had not co-operated with police, acknowledging he had refused to show up for an inquest in 2007.
But he had submitted plenty of DNA samples to police, one of which was lost, and most recently put himself forward for extradition, she said.
Police last week confirmed they were communicating with German authorities about two arrest warrants for suspects who had been “persons of interest from the very beginning”.
Moran’s sister Katrin Suckfuel and friend Jens Martin were also traveling with the pair.
Donald Trump’s image as GOP kingmaker wastarnished by several high-profile election losses earlier this year, but Tuesday’s primaries in states like Arizona put the Republican shine back on the former president.
In what’s shaping up to be a clean sweep in Arizona, 11 of Trump’s 12 endorsed candidates won in primaries for US Senate, secretary of state, Congress, state House and state Senate. (Trump’s pick for governor leads in a race that remains too close to call in the battleground state.)
All of those candidates have embraced Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election.
The Arizona wins were a sharp contrast to Georgia’s primaries in May, when most of Trump’s major candidates lost in the swing state as they tried to unseat a governor and secretary of state who had refused to aid in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
While Arizona illustrated the strength of Trump’s influence in the GOP, it wasn’t the only primary state to showcase his power on Tuesday. His preferred candidates dominated him in Missouri and Kansas, as well as Michigan, where one of the 10 members of Congress who voted for his second impeachment was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger.
“Trump is still the 800-pound gorilla,” said Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan Republican Party chairman and GOP consultant. “He has significant influence.”
With just a handful of state primaries left, 188 Trump-endorsed candidates have won primaries during his post presidency, 14 have lost, two dropped out or were disqualified before their races, 26 await their primaries and two are in races that have yet to be called, according to his staff and statistics compiled by Ballotpedia.
Trump padded his endorsement stats by backing many incumbents with minimal opposition, but his obsessive involvement in all of the races and the degree to which candidates have prostrated themselves for his support — as well as the difference it has made in some races like Ohio, Arizona and Michigan — makes him an outlier among former presidents.
Trump’s record also shows that, while he may be damaged by the multiple investigations focused on him, the former president appears most likely at this time to secure the GOP nominee for president should he run again in 2024.
But Trump’s endorsement isn’t so magical that it can elevate an unelectable candidate, nor are Republicans clamoring for Trump to run again; polls show him getting about half the hypothetical vote in a crowded Republican presidential primary, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant second carrying about half the amount of support as Trump.
Arizona Republican consultant Sean Noble said it’s undeniable that “we’re in uncharted territory with a former president having this level of control over the party. It’s more of his party than anyone else. His endorsement of him obviously matters more than anyone else’s.”
But, he said, Republicans worry that Trump might decide to make his announcement for re-election before the midterms, making himself more of a campaign issue that could turn off independent and swing voters who are crucial to winning elections in swing states.
Democrats agree that Trump’s influence is unique, but they say he and his endorsed candidates are outside the mainstream for states like Arizona and Michigan.
“The Trump-endorsed slate in Arizona is by far the most extreme we’ve seen, and that word is far too tame,” said DJ Quinlan, a top Arizona Democratic consultant, referring to gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Senate candidate Blake Masters and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, a fervent election denier like Lake.
Quinlan said, however, that Democrats “face headwinds” and they should not underestimate the energy that Republicans, especially Lake and Trump, can muster.
In another swing swing-state the former president lost in 2020, Michigan, Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon won her primary Tuesday but began backing off her claims that the election was stolen. (Trump’s pick for secretary of state and attorney general in Michigan are also election deniers, but they secured their party nominations at a GOP convention instead of Tuesday’s primary.)
Still, Trump’s record on Tuesday was not without some blemishes. In Washington, GOP Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, who both voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, are leading their respective Trump-backed challengers.
Of the 10 pro-impeachment Republicans, six decided not to run for office again, and only one has so far made it through a primary, California Rep. David Valadao. As with Newhouse and Beutler’s races, Valadao’s race was a so-called “jungle primary” where every candidate from every party runs, as opposed to a partisan primary.
In Michigan, Rep. Peter Meijer paid for his impeachment vote by losing his primary on Tuesday to Trump-endorsed John Gibbs.
“It tells you there’s not a big appetite among Republican voters to support Republicans who side against Trump,” said Andy Surabian, Republican strategist who’s a former Trump White House official.
“I would describe what happened in Arizona and Michigan as the anti-Georgia. Last night proves that the media narrative out of Georgia, that Trump was losing his influence, was completely wrong, ”he said. “There were local factors at play in Georgia — the candidate quality more than anything. The primary results since then have all clearly shown the unique power of Trump and his endorsement of him.”
Democrats, however, don’t see any staying power with those endorsements.
Pamela Pugh, a Democrat who serves on the Michigan State Board of Education, echoed the views of other Democrats in swing states by predicting that Trump’s involvement and the extremist nature of some of his picks will hurt Republicans in November.
Westpac Bank has made a surprising move, choosing to spare some customers from escalating price hike pain.
The big bank has announced it will be decreasing its four-year owner occupied fixed interest rate by one per cent, down to 4.99.
Westpac is the third of the big banks to announce its rate changes following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to increase the official cash rate by 0.50% per annum (pa) on Tuesday.
The big bank has unsurprisingly followed its rivals the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ in increasing its variable home loan interest rates.
The interest rate changes will come into effect for new and existing home loan variable rate products on Thursday, August 18.
Earlier today, ANZ joined CBA in announcing it will be passing on the hike to variable rate mortgages and one savings account by the full 0.50 percentage points.
The major bank said its up-scaled up mortgage rates will come into effect for both new and existing customers from Friday, August 12.
The lowest variable rate will now be increased to 3.69 per cent – just under that of CBA, which pumped up its lowest rate to 3.79 per cent.
Both rates are at three-year highs.
The ANZ decision also included increasing the rate on its new ANZ Plus Save account by 0.50 percentage points to 2.50 per cent for balances up to $250,000, which will come into place on Monday.
The move came just hours after Australia’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank, announced it will pass on the full 0.50 percentage point hike to its variable home loan customers and some savings customers.
CBA will bring its occupier principal and interest standard variable home loans rate to 5.8 per cent.
Uncharacteristically, Australia’s other big banks have been slow off the blocks following the RBA’s decision on Tuesday, with CBA’s competitors Westpac, NAB and ANZ yet to make their announcements.
Mortgage rates for new and existing customers at CBA will rise by 0.50 percentage points on August 12, with investor rates rising to 6.38 per cent.
Research director at RateCity.com.au Sally Tindall said while the CBA’s decision comes as no surprise, for customers who are already feeling the heat, this fourth hike is a “difficult pill to swallow”.
“From next week, CBA’s basic variable rate will hit a three-year high of 3.79 per cent – a huge increase from three months ago when it was just 2.19 per cent,” she said.
For an owner-occupier with $500,000 debt and 25 years remaining, the 0.5 percentage point hike means they will see their monthly repayments rise by $140.
To ease the strain, Commonwealth Bank is cutting its lowest four-year fixed rate to 4.99 per cent – a drop of 1.60 percentage points.
This special rate, which comes into play on Friday, is strictly for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest on a package rate ($395 annual fee) for a limited time.
While Ms Tindall said the “whopping cut” will make it the lowest in its category, she warned it may not necessarily be a good idea.
“People should think carefully about whether they want to lock up their mortgage for the next four years because there can be significant consequences if they decide to break their loan,” she said.
For those with a NetBank Saver account, who will see the full rate hike, the research director said an ongoing rate of just 0.85 still won’t cut it.
“In this market, where we could see ongoing rates over 3 per cent, these savers are still getting paid peanuts,” she said.
But Ms Tindall said there are signs things could be turning around.
“On Tuesday, Macquarie announced it was making significant cuts to its fixed rates and now CBA is following suit,” she said.
“We expect this will trigger further fixed rate cuts from other lenders in response to both evolving market expectations and competition among the banks.”
Snapchat fans have never been able to officially use the hugely successful app on their computer – until now.
The social media company, which has 332 million users, has announced that Snapchat for Web allows you to log on and continue conversations online, make and receive video and voice calls, plus send text-based Snaps all via a web-browser.
Ryan Thomas, head of synchronous experiences at Snap Inc, says the move to a PC screen for Snapchat fans seemed an obvious step for the platform.
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“With over 100 million Snapchatters making calls to their friends on Snapchat every month, we knew this was a critical element to get right,” he told Mumbrella.
While users in the US, UK and Canada have to pay a monthly fee to access Snapchat on their laptops, it’s a different story for people in Australia and New Zealand.
All Australians can use the web-based function free of charge – at no additional cost.
Australians can now use Snapchat on their computers. Credit: AP
Want to use Snapchat on your computer? Here’s how.
How to use Snapchat for Web on your computer
To use Snapchat for Web on your computer, follow these simple steps:
Go to web.snapchat.com in either Chrome or Edge, and then log in with your Snapchat account. At present, you cannot access Snapchat for Web on any other web browser, including Safari and Firefox.
Once you are logged into your account, you’ll be able to make video and voice calls and send messages from your laptop.
Popular features such as Chat Reactions and Chat Reply can also be used. Insiders say Lenses will roll out in the coming months.
Up until now, users could only access Snapchat via the app. Credit: AP
Kate Ritchie shares throwback Home and Away performance.
Kate Ritchie shares throwback Home and Away performance.
