Their reluctance to speak to authorities or even open their front door concerned workers and managers in their building enough to call police officers to perform a welfare check in March. They said, “no we’re alright,” and that they did not need help, one witness said.
However, they “looked pretty timid and upset, scared for whatever reason,” the witness said.
The sisters’ decomposing bodies were found in separate bedrooms in their small flat when the sheriff attended to query their failure to pay rent in early June. Their bodies lay undiscovered for a month in a block of 200 apartments beside one of the busiest roads in south-west Sydney.
Reports in Middle Eastern news outlets, which were widely re-reported in Australia at the weekend, said that the sisters were known as Reem and Rawan and fled to Hong Kong while on a family holiday with $5000.
However, the reports appear to have confirmed the Alsehlis’ escape with a separate case.
Another set of sisters who used the names Reem and Rawan were famously detained in Hong Kong in 2018 at the request of Saudi authorities after renouncing Islam and fleeing their family while on holiday with $5000 they had secretly saved.
Contacts of those sisters confirmed to the herald that they were alive and well in an undisclosed country.
Like many women who leave Saudi Arabia, Reem and Rawan fled because of abuse by their male relatives. Police said they were in contact with the Alsehli sisters’ family, and there was “nothing to suggest” the women’s relatives were suspects.
A police source did confirm that the women’s family did not want to publicly issue photographs, but the coroner ordered their release to encourage members of the community to come forward with information that might help the investigation.
Another person with knowledge of the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the sisters had traveled to Australia through Jordan and Dubai. Police have been tight-lipped about their movements and visa status.
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The case has echoes of one in New York, in which the bodies of two Saudi sisters – who were seeking asylum – were found next to the Hudson River, bound together with duct tape by the wrists and ankles. There were no signs of trauma.
Their deaths were ruled a suicide, New York Times reported.
The coroner will decide whether to hold an inquiry once they have reviewed the police evidence and the autopsy results.
with Maher Mughrabi
For support contact Lifeline on 131114; 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)
The Republican primary features a onetime state superintendent-turned-attorney general, a real estate business owner who now ranks at the top of the GOP primary’s latest poll, and a Maricopa County state representative who married into the Udall family political dynasty.
They have courted endorsements from far-right figures including former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Rep. Paul Gossar. And each of the aspiring school chiefs have portrayed classrooms as being overrun with hypersexualized lessons and critical race theory that harm children still regrouping after months of mask mandates and school closures.
“Before, you couldn’t pay someone enough to go to an education board meeting — now all of a sudden, they’re taking the battle to the school districts,” Mike Noble of OH Predictive Insights, a nonpartisan Arizona pollster that has tracked Republican voters’ favored candidates throughout the campaign, said in an interview.
“Critical race theory has really caught on, especially with folks on the right, so that’s kind of their battlefront for superintendent of public instruction,” Noble said. “That’s one that really resonates with the Republican base.”
Critical race theory is an analytical practice of examining how race and racism permeates American law and society. Most public school officials across the country say they do not teach the theory, even in districts where lawmakers are seeking to ban it.
Hoffman, a speech pathologist who first took office as a political novice in a surprise 2018 victory, believes she can win with a message that appeals to independent voters — who made up roughly one-third of the Arizona electorate last year — and moderate Republicans willing to cross party lines. She’s trying to build the kind of message being urged by national liberal education groups scrambling to help Democrats gain ground on education policy.
“It can be disheartening for me to see the divisive language that really puts a wedge between our schools and families,” Hoffman said about her Republican opponents in an interview. She is running unopposed in her party primary.
“They want to be leading our school system. Yet they’re attacking it, and have this very negative rhetoric of distrust around our public schools in a time when our schools need our support more than ever,” she said.
While the Republicans hoping to challenge Hoffman in November have groused about classroom lessons, conservatives control Arizona education policy. Ducey and the state’s GOP-controlled legislature have enacted a rush of education laws during the pandemic despite Hoffman’s opposition, including a universal school voucher program, and bans on sports participation and gender-affirming surgical procedures for LGBTQ youth.
The state superintendent technically carries an administrative role to distribute school funding and carry out laws and policies, though they also hold influential posts on the state board of education and state university board of regents.
Democrats nationally are also struggling to recover their grip on school-based politics after Youngkin won office last year with help from frustrated and swing-voting parents angered by the consequences of Covid-19’s school lockdowns.
Liberal advocacy group research shows the party has lost the trust of voters and parents in dozens of congressional battlegrounds, including Arizona, to handle education. And polls point to frustration that both major parties — but especially Democrats — are more focused on race and gender instead of helping students get back on track in class.
“The political high ground in education debates will be held by whichever side is seen as focused on advancing education fundamentals,” Hart Research Associates pollsters wrote in a June 21 memo for the American Federation of Teachers labor group, following interviews with 1,758 likely voters in Arizona and six other battleground states. “The side seen as politicizing education will be at a distinct disadvantage.”
The trio of Republicans listed on Tuesday’s primary ballot agree they want to remove politics from education and get schools back to basics, even as they appeal to party-line voters with culture-based appeals.
“This a terrible, terrible direction that the country has gone in,” said Tom Horne, a leading Hoffman opponent who seeks a political comeback following tenures as the state’s attorney general and school superintendent.
The leading fundraiser in the race, largely thanks to $550,000 in personal loans to his own campaign, Horne has promoted his past efforts to ban local Mexican-American studies programs — later deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge — as a pillar of his campaign despite a past record of alleged campaign finance violations and a reported FBI investigation.
“I want to get the focus back on academics,” Horne said in an interview. “I want to get rid of the distractions, which in addition to being distractions from academics, are inherently evil and immoral and backwards in emphasizing race and sexuality rather than teaching kids to treat each other as individuals.”
Real estate broker Shiry Sapir said she pulled her children out of their public school and enrolled them in a private institution when Covid-19 pushed classes into remote learning, and she has emerged in local polls this summer.
“I’ve literally been all over the state talking to different Republican groups. The message from them is absolutely what I’ve been talking about: the sexualization, the grooming, the critical race theory, the lack of academic excellence, and of course the issues with masks,” Sapir said in an interview.
“It’s not just conservative mothers, and it’s not their anger. It’s their worry. We’re worried about our children,” Sapir said. “I am the extent of that. I’m the voice that we don’t have. I’m the voice that we must have.”
State Rep. Michelle Udall, chair of the Arizona House education committee and a licensed math teacher, backed legislation that would have allowed state regulators and civil courts to revoke educator licenses and fine schools $5,000 if “any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex” is part of their curriculum.
“You can teach the facts, you can teach what happened, and you can help students understand the horrible things that people went through and the horrible outcomes that racism brings,” Udall said in an interview. “Students need to know that history. Those are skills and knowledge they need to be successful. Whereas critical race theory and the gender identity stuff, those are not.”
Conservatives are staring down a very tight race. An OH Predictive Insights poll of roughly 500 likely GOP primary voters since July 27 showed Horne and Sapir tied for first place with support from 21 percent of respondents. Udall was in third place with 14 percent. Forty-four percent of voters said they were undecided. The survey had an approximate margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Still, it’s not clear Arizona’s general election voters will flock to a Republican superintendent candidate who has focused on cultivating the party’s most conservative wing.
A May survey of 500 likely state voters commissioned by the Education Forward Arizona organization concluded that fewer than half of respondents supported bans on critical race theory or restricting discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation during sex education.
That leaves Hoffman, who has endorsements from the Human Rights Campaign and Planned Parenthood, to save her campaign funds and prepare for the fall.
“We have such a high number of independent voters here and also a portion of Democrats and Republicans who will cross party lines for a candidate that they believe in,” Hoffman said.
“I hope I will be a model,” she said. “We will find out in November.”
We had the usual slowdown in June and July where we saw mostly announcements but not that many big releases. But August has just arrived and it will be full of new games to play.
There’s something for everyone with two big sports games coming up, a turn-based tactical shooter, games that let you start a cult or build a university campus, a highly anticipated crime game and a few nostalgic remasters and remakes. PC gamers are getting yet another PlayStation gem with improved graphics.
Let’s have a look at the best games releasing in August 2022.
Hard West 2
Hard West 2 is very similar to XCOM but with cowboys in a supernatural version of the American West. It features turn-based tactical combat so you’ll have to think before you make a move.
Hard West 2 releases on August 4 for PC on Steam.
Two Point Campus
A follow-up to the successful Two Point Hospital game, Two Point Campus is a business simulator that tasks you with building and managing a university campus. You’ll be appointing staff and organizing classes, but you’ll also have to take care of your students’ needs and keep them happy.
Two Point Campus is coming August 9 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.
Cult of the Lamb
In this one you play as lamb that is starting its own cult and recruiting other animals to join. Once you have indoctrinated some followers, you can assign them to do tasks for you while you’re busy completing dungeons and slaying bosses.
Cult of the Lamb’s is slated for August 11 coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
PC gamers will be treated to yet another PlayStation-exclusive game this month. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered brings one of the best Spidey games of all time to the most powerful gaming platform and with the best graphics.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is coming August 12 for PC.
Madden NFL 23
Every August we’re getting the latest American football video game and this year is no exception. Madden NFL 23 promises quite a few improvements over its predecessor and this year’s box cover will pay tribute to legendary NFL coach and commentator John Madden, who slowed his name and expertise to kickstart the video game series back in the ’80s.
Madden NFL 23 launches on August 20 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Saint’s Row
Saints Row is like GTA but different. Both are crime games but while GTA tries to keep it real, Saints Row brings a more lighthearted over-the-top version of the “build your own criminal empire” fantasy.
This new Saints Row game is a reboot of the series which takes you to the fictional city of Santo Ileso and promises a huge open world to explore and conquer, plus a lot of ways to customize your character, cars and guns.
Saints Row will be out August 23 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac
Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a remake of a popular 1999 Pac-Man game for the original PlayStation console. Expect loads of fun and updated graphics as you jump your way through six different worlds playing as the iconic yellow ball.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac is releasing on August 26 to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Failed
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reproved is another remake. The original game was released on PS2 and Xbox in 2006 and it had you play as an alien posing as the US President in the ’60s while seeking revenge on the KGB for destroying his ship from him.
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed releases on August 30 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
F1 Manager 2022
After F1 22, which put you in the driver’s seat of a Formula One car, F1 Manager 22 will let you call the shots at one of the 10 teams in motorsport’ premier discipline. This new game, which is poised to start a series, promises unprecedented control over every minute aspect of F1 team management.
F1 Manager 2022 arrives on August 30 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection
After Shredder’s Revenge showed everyone how to make a nostalgic ’90s game in 2022 the right way, we are now getting a compilation of 13 classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games with The Cowabunga Collection. The games are coming in their authentic 8- and 16-bit era glory and all three Tournament Fighters versions are included.
TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection will be out August 30 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.
The party is going strong on both sides of the world after Australia’s Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens gold medal triumph.
Taking to the field just before 6am AEST, the Aussies were unstoppable, leading 22-0 before two late tries gave some respectability to the scoreline in the 22-12 result over Fiji.
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The Commonwealth gold is the final piece of Australia’s trophy cabinet as the side won the 2016 Olympic gold and are the current Rugby Sevens World Series champions.
And while our stars were living it up, those left back at home were also getting in on the celebrations — just ask Richelle Levi.
The mother of the Levi sisters Teagan, 18, and Maddison, 20, was ready for the win, showing up on Channel 7’s Sunriseafter enjoying the spoils of victory.
Asked if the party was going to go on all day, Richelle was clearly already enjoying herself.
“100 per cent, two bottles of champagne already done — woo!” she said.
Sunrise host Natalie Barr and David Koch were in hysterics over the cross to the Gold Coast.
At a bowls club on the Gold Coast, Richelle said: “This is their little club, they used to sit out on that balcony …”
Weatherman Sam Mac added: “…while you were drinking champagne?”
He added: “I feel like the Olympics was all about Dean Boxall (Ariarne Titmus’ coach) in terms of passionate supporter, well I see your Dean Boxall and I raise you Richelle.”
Back in the studio, Edwina Batholemew said: “Imagine winning a gold medal and waking up the next morning with messages, ‘your mum’s on TV, she’s had two bottles of champagne, and she’s a riot”.
However, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise for the champion sisters who knew their mum was prepared for victory and was even more loose off camera.
“Mum had a bottle of champagne ready at 6 in the morning — she was ready to celebrate and I think she’ll be on it all day celebrating,” a jubilant Maddison Levi said after Australia’s historic maiden Sevens gold medal win over Fiji.
“I don’t know if I can say it on camera (what mum said) but they were definitely happy.
“There were tears of joy. It was a pretty emotional rollercoaster…. they’ve been with us through the highs and lows and to have two kids standing on that podium is pretty awesome.
“They definitely had tears. But lots of swearing, I can confirm.”
Fans may need to remember the Levi name as the duo are set for long careers in the sporting spotlight.
The Levi sisters have been pursued by rugby, AFLW and rugby league, such is their athletic prowess.
Maddison played eight games for the Gold Coast Suns in the AFLW, kicking three goals, before representing Australia at the Tokyo Olympics. Teagan was drafted No. 6 by the Suns in the 2021 Draft before joining the Rugby Sevens tour.
But before the Games, Maddi revealed she would like to try everything.
“AFLW and NRLW is still there, which later down the track we’d love to give a go, but for now our heart is set on sevens,” Maddi told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“In sevens there is so much opportunity and it’s a growing sport. With the Olympics coming up and World Series [tournaments] every year, traveling the world with your best friend … there’s no other sport that compares to that.”
Teagan adds: “Mads has been my best friend since day one. I guess we do fight a little bit, but as we’ve grown older I wouldn’t change it for the world to finally play in an Aussie sevens team together. It’s a dream come true.”
The Independent MP for Kooyong has blasted LNP members in Question Time for not wearing a mask.
Dr Monique Ryan told the members of the Coalition to “put your masks on” after she was interrupted during Parliament while discussing the burden of COVID-19 reinfection rates on the health care system.
“COVID-19 infections in this country are at a record high and increasing,” the former pediatric neurologist said while posing her question to Health Minister Mark Butler.
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“There is an increasing risk of cumulative neurological and cardiovascular disease from infections from COVID-19.
“Can the Minister please explain how he proposes to manage the oncoming national significant burden of disability and chronic illness from repeated infection?”
During her question, Dr Ryan was jeered at by some MPs, before snapping back “put your masks on” as she pointed at the opposition benches.
The Member for Kooyong later took to Twitter later saying: “I don’t appreciate being interrupted while speaking on serious risks of repeated COVID infections.”
“I particularly don’t appreciate being interrupted by shouting LNP MPs who refuse to wear masks.
“We all have a duty to look after each other. Here & everywhere. Put your mask on!”
Mask-wearing is only a recommendation inside Parliament and most Coalition MPs exercise their free choice not to wear one, despite a few exceptions.
The former Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital Neurology department Director was one of a slate of Climate 200-backed independents who toppled sitting Liberal MPs at the last election including the then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg who was seen as a future leader of the party.
Mr Frydenberg’s campaign spent an estimated more than $2 million to hold the seat which was once considered one of the jewels in the Liberal Party crown.
But Dr Ryan’s strong grass roots campaign targeting more ambitious action on climate change and greater integrity in politics, along with the personal unpopularity of then-prime minister Scott Morrison, delivered the independent a historic win.
In Arizona, where GOP state legislators have embraced Trump’s fictions and financed investigations into the 2020 vote count, Trump supporters are “gunning for secretary of state,” said Mike Noble, the chief of research and managing partner at the Arizona-based polling firm OH predictive insights. “[It] is definitely one they have really put a priority on.”
Finchem does face significant opposition in the primary, including from Beau Lane, a businessman endorsed by GOP Gov. Doug Duey. But if the latest polling is any guide, Arizona Republicans are poised to elevate someone who has relentlessly sought to undermine confidence in state elections as their pick to run future elections.
Finchem has been one of the chief proponents of election conspiracy theories since the 2020 election. He was a significant booster of the GOP-led review of all of the ballots cast in 2020 in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county, which was strongly opposed by the Republican-dominated county government and a bipartisan cast of election officials. Finchem also advocates the fanciful plan of “decertifying” the 2020 election results in Arizona, which has no basis in the law, and he counts others who worked to undermine American elections among his prominent supporters of him, including Michael Flynn, Jenna Ellis and Mike Lindell.
Finchem has charged ahead in the lone series of public polling from OH Predictive Insights. The group’s surveys over the last year have had Finchem in the lead but never getting above the mid-teens.
But in their final poll on the eve of the primary, Finchem stormed ahead, leading the field with 32 percent, compared to 11 percent for his closest rival in Lane. The Trump-backed candidates in the Republican primaries for governor and Senate, Kari Lake and Blake Masters, respectively, also had double-digit leads in the survey.
“Trump’s recent visit to Arizona really helped increase the awareness” of his endorsed candidates, Noble said, but particularly of the secretary of state’s race.
Finchem’s biggest challenger for the nomination is believed to be Lane, an advertising executive. Two state lawmakers — Michelle Ugenti-Rita and Shawnna Bolick — were in the high single digits in the OHPI poll, with a plurality of 41 percent still undecided.
Lane hails from the business wing of the state party. He launched his campaign touting the endorsement of dozens of business leaders in the state. And in July, he scored the endorsement of outgoing Ducey, the term-limited governor, who praised him for his integrity and “competence in [his] ability to actually do the job they seek.”
“I think the governor recognizes the importance of having someone who could actually be governor in addition to being secretary of state,” said Daniel Scarpinato, a veteran consultant and former top Ducey aide who is on Lane’s campaign team. “I think he sees Beau as being a mainstream conservative who could effectively execute our elections without politicizing it.”
Finchem has referred to Lane as a “Democrat plant” on his Telegram channel, and has claimed that internal polls have shown him up over the advertising exec. But supporters of Finchem have shown at least some concern about the rest of the field potentially splitting the vote.
Trump put out a statement days before the ballot request deadline in the state, reinforcing his endorsement of Finchem as “the kind of fighter we need to turn Arizona and our Country around.” The former president also attacked one of Finchem’s opponents in his statement by him — but went after Ugenti-Rita as “a weak ‘Never Trumper’ RINO” without mentioning Lane.
Lane and Finchem have been the only two candidates with notable advertising expenditures on the airwaves, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Lane’s campaign has spent roughly $423,000 on TV and radio advertising, edging out the roughly $256,000 that Finchem has spent there. (Finchem also has about $79,000 in digital advertising.)
Lane’s most recent spot has been a contrast spot, attacking Finchem for once supporting the National Popular Vote Compact — “if he had it his way, Hillary Clinton would have been our president” — while playing up his background as a “business guy.” Finchem’s ad, meanwhile, features Trump praising him and boosting his role with the election review in the state.
But the combined spending of well under $1 million between the two men is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the tidal wave of political advertising that Arizonans are currently subjected to. Over $93 million has already been spent on radio and television ads in Arizona this year — headlined by the competitive Republican gubernatorial and Senate primaries.
“It is a low-information race, which is kind of unfortunate because it is an important position,” said Scarpinato. “Because you have so many competitive races, more than we’ve really seen in a generation in Arizona, you have a lot of people undecided and that is leaving some of these downballot races wide open.”
It is also the second major primary in the state that pits Ducey against Trump, who has publicly feuded since the 2020 election. In the governor’s race, Ducey has backed former state board of regents member Karrin Taylor Robson, while Trump has thrown his support behind Lake, a former TV anchor.
The Arizona secretary of state race is expected to be among the most competitive election administrator elections this year. And it will be an open race, with current Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
The Democratic primary is a faceoff between Adrian Fontes, the former top election official for Maricopa County, and state House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding.
That primary has quietly become acrimonious between the two men. The political arm of a nonprofit founded by Bolding called Our Voice Our Vote has helped boost his campaign by him, leading to charges of self-dealing from Fontes’ camp. (Bolding told the Arizona Republic that he and his wife have walled themselves off from the political operation of the nonprofit.) And Fontes blamed Bolding’s apparatus for airing an overdue tax bill, which he said was inadvertent.
The race will also test the saliency of the election conspiracy theories that have been so potent in Arizona. Finchem and Lake have worked together in the past: The two filed a joint lawsuit looking to block the use of ballot tabulators in the state, a common target for unfounded claims about the security of American elections.
Barring a blowout in a statewide primary, there’s a strong chance that the winner of the election won’t be known on Tuesday night — the exact situation that Trump took advantage of in 2020 to discredit his loss.
Both Finchem and Lake have signaled they are more than willing to follow the former president’s lead with their own campaigns. In a joint Q&A at a late June fundraiser, which was first reported by Axios Phoenix, both candidates suggested that they would challenge a loss.
“Ain’t gonna be no concession speech coming from this guy,” Finchem said. “I’m going to demand a 100 percent hand count if there’s the slightest hint that there’s an impropriety.”
The ACCC report warns of a significant domestic gas shortfall next year unless the LNG producers redirect some of the uncontracted gas to the local market.
(It marks a turnaround from the ACCC’s February assessment that the gas market would be in domestic surplus next year.)
The LNG producers say there is more than enough gas to supply the shortfall identified in the ACCC’s Monday report – effectively disputing there is a looming crisis.
The existing mechanism that outlines the way producers satisfy the government’s heads of agreement with producers to support domestic supply is referred to as a “gentleman’s agreement”.
However, it seems the government is skeptical of the gas industry’s willingness to honor it and can’t afford the risk to industry and consumers if it is not.
The ACCC’s report is clearly suggesting the behavior of some gas companies amounts to not playing cricket.
“There remain instances where some suppliers are not engaging with the domestic market in ways that are likely to result in supply agreements being reached and market conditions improving,” the ACCC wrote.
That includes offering uncontracted gas to domestic users at prices above the international market.
Invoking the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, or even threatening to do so, enables the government to flex it muscles on gas supply, but it doesn’t address the issue of price, according to a large group of industrial customers who lobby under the banner of the Energy Users’ Association of Australia.
Presumably, there would be little argument from the LNG industry over selling more product into Australia if the price was comparable to that being paid in the booming international spot market.
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But domestic users don’t have the stomach to pay the elevated international spot prices that are running as high as $US40 ($57) per MMBtu.
In Australia, 90 per cent of domestic customers are contracted and currently paying a fraction of that.
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The first week of Fantasy finals have been played with a couple of teams in leagues through to the preliminary finals while others will face sudden death semi finals this week. Roy, Calvin and Warnie have everything you need to help you get on your way to a premiership.
Click here to download.
Episode Guide
1:00 – The Traders are facing do-or-die semi-finals this weekend.
3:10 – Stephen Coniglio as a late out upset Roy.
7:30 – A late change at the Saints had Warnie filthy as he missed Rowan Marshall‘s 163.
12:20 – “The torment of it” – one point separated Roy and Calvin.
15:00 – Zach Merrett‘s 172 was a thing of beauty with 135 points scored in the second half.
18:00 – A forward tagging role for ben keays earned him a -3.
9:00 p.m. – Matt, coach of Mottram’s Marvels, joins the boys.
24:45 – A bold captain choice, off the back of a hunch, has seen Matt take a 104 point lead into round 21.
28:50 – It looks like Stephen Coniglio will be available this week.
31:20 – An impending suspension and hamstring injury will see Jay Culley on the sidelines.
34:45 – Brodie Gundy is set to return for the Feet. time to trade Darcy Cameron?
41:20 – Who do you trade out of your backline? Jack Crisp, Nick Daicos or Jayden Short.
45:05 – You have harry himmelberg moved forward again?
47:20 – The Traders’ trades thanks to Toyota.
49:30 – Questions from social media – follow @AFLFantasy on Twitter and like the Official AFL Fantasy facebook page.
54:30 – Who goes first: harry himmelberg or James Sicily?
59:50 – The boys celebrate Mason Redman‘s scoring.
1:03:00 – The cupboard is bare for free agents in Fantasy Draft.
The board of the ABC has appointed media executive and former Coalition adviser Fiona Cameron to the newly created role of ABC ombudsman.
The new role was recommended by an independent review that found the public broadcaster’s internal complaints unit was “efficient” but could benefit from the addition of someone to handle appeals and reviews.
The ABC commissioned the former commonwealth ombudsman John McMillan and the former SBS and Ten news chief Jim Carroll to conduct the review last year. This came after high-profile complaints about television programs Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, Ms Represented, Inside the Canberra Bubble on Four Corners and Q+A’s Trauma and Truth Telling.
Cameron will head an expanded ABC editorial complaints unit and will have the power to review a complaint finding. The ombudsman will report to the board, not the managing director.
Cameron’s most recent role was as an authority member at the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma), and she was previously chief operating officer at Screen Australia for a decade.
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She was previously chief of staff and media adviser to the former communications minister Richard Alston, a strong critic of the ABC.
Jonathan Holmes, a former ABC journalist, has warned that keeping the ombudsman separate from editorial management by having them report to the board and not the managing director is highly unusual.
Ita Buttrose, chair of the ABC, says the new ombudsman role will help strengthen the existing complaints handling processes.
“We already have the highest standards of complaints handling in place of any Australian media organization and Fiona’s appointment will assist us in maintaining those standards,” Buttrose said.
The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, said Cameron’s appointment will help the broadcaster maintain the strong bond of trust and confidence with audiences.
“The ABC Ombudsman will be key to us maintaining the high standards Australians know and expect from the ABC,” Anderson said.
Cameron said: “This is an important and challenging role and strengthens the ABC’s commitment to its audience. I look forward to getting my feet under the desk and grappling with all the many and varied issues.”
The ombudsman role is in addition to the existing two-tier model of in-house complaints handling and external review by the media watchdog, the Acma.
The complaints review was commissioned by the ABC board in October 2021.
Shortly after the review was announced, the ABC’s five-person complaints unit was targeted by the Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, who attempted to establish a government-led inquiry. That move was labeled “political interference” by Buttrose, and was voted down by Labor and the Greens in the Senate.
“The ABC gets to mark its own homework and as an organization paid for by the taxpayer, I believe there should be extra scrutiny,” Bragg told Sky News last year.
But there remains at least one huge question mark — the vote of Sinema, whose support is just as critical as Manchin’s in the 50-50 Senate. Like Manchin, she has opposed dismantling the Senate filibuster to pass other Democratic priority bills. She did help remodel Biden’s larger Build Back Better bill before Manchin blocked it last year. But now there are questions about whether she will back tax changes affecting private equity investors in the Manchin-Schumer compromise. As the 50th Democrat needed to pass the measure with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, Sinema has huge leverage to seek changes that threaten the bill’s fragile foundation, and she has so far avoided giving her verdict on the deal.
Manchin suggested on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he hadn’t spoken to Sinema about the package since he agreed on it with Schumer. But he paid tribute to his Arizona colleague de ella and her previous work on reducing prescription drug prices – a goal that is included in the new draft law.
“When she looks at the bill and sees the whole spectrum of what we’re doing and all of the energy we’re bringing in — all of the reduction of prices and fighting inflation by bringing prices down, by having more energy — hopefully, she will be positive about it,” Manchin said. “But she will make her decision about her. And I respect that.”
Manchin wields his power
Manchin, blanketing Sunday TV talk shows, demonstrated his power at the fulcrum of a closely divided Senate as he put his spin on the legislation — always with an eye on voters back home in a deeply red state. Once again, Manchin has succeeded in putting his state of him, one of the poorest and smallest in the nation, at the center of Washington policy making.
He has also used his power to champion centrism at a time when both parties seem to be moving toward their most radical base supporters. After repeatedly infuriating Democrats by thwarting Biden’s agenda, he’s now disappointing Republicans who had hoped he would maintain his opposition to him. On Sunday, Manchin insisted his package would lower inflation, expand domestic energy production, ensure certain corporations pay their fair tax share, and would benefit Americans by cutting prescription drug costs for Medicare patients.
The measure would also spend nearly $370 billion on fighting climate change and developing a new green energy economy, reviving efforts that had seemed doomed just weeks ago by opposition from the coal-state senator. If the bill does pass the Senate and later makes it through the House, it would instantly transform Biden into the President who made the greatest commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and would enshrine his global leadership of the effort to stave off the most disastrous future effects. of climate change. It comes as extreme weather events — from drought in the American West to flooding in Kentucky that has killed at least 28 people — are ravaging the US.
The climate funding is not the only key Democratic priority in the bill.
The Manchin-Schumer bill, now rebranded as the “Inflation Reduction Act,” includes extended Affordable Care Act subsidies that would also cement another key reform wrought by Democratic power in the 21st century — Obamacare. These twin achievements could go some way to changing perceptions of the Biden presidency — which, despite some successes, including a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 rescue package and a rare bipartisan infrastructure law — has seen key agenda items like voting rights and police reform founder in the Senate.
While the passage of the bill could come too late to save Democrats from the painful punch of high inflation in midterm elections in November, it might turnout of progressives demoralized by the failure to do more with the party’s thin control of Washington power. Taken together with the mobilization of liberals following the conservative Supreme Court’s overturning of the constitutional right to an abortion, and majority public support for gun restrictions in the wake of a string of mass shootings, Democrats would at least have a platform to run on in November if they can succeed in weaving a coherent narrative on their achievements.
While Republican strategists believe that the House is already heading toward them, according to new CNN reporting over the weekend, a late spike in Democratic enthusiasm could spur the hopes of party leaders who believe the Senate is not a lost cause — especially against a clutch of candidates in ex-President Donald Trump’s image who could scare off suburban voters.
GOP mobilizes to prevent Democratic win
Manchin explained on Sunday that he understood the invective hurled his way by many Democrats, and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, after he derailed the previous “Build Back Better” plan over his belief that it would fuel already soaring inflation. He said that he hoped the new measure would pass by the end of this week, when the Senate is due to break for an August recess.
The timetable remains a high wire act — just one case of Covid-19 among Democratic senators, for example, could fracture the party’s majority since all Republicans are expected to be against it. There have been several recent positive tests among senators that have sent them into isolation, including Manchin.
In defending his deal with Schumer, the West Virginia senator said that “in normal times,” Republicans would support the bill, since it would pay down the deficit, accelerate permitting for oil and gas drilling and increase energy production — all of which the GOP has previously been on record supporting.
But GOP senators are mobilizing to try to prevent passage of the bill, which would represent a victory for Biden and the Democrats before the midterms.
“It really looks to me like Joe Manchin has been taken to the cleaners,” Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey told Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“Look, this bill, the corporate tax increase, is going to slow down growth, probably exacerbate a recession that we’re probably already in,” said Toomey, who’s retiring. He argued that prescription drug price controls would slow development of life-saving medicines and that the bill would subsidize “wealthy people buying Teslas.”
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said on ABC News’ “This Week” that another multi-billion dollar spending bill could inject “an incredible amount of uncertainty” into the economy just as it entered a recession.
Debate is raging in Washington on that last point following the release of an official report last week showing a second straight quarter of negative growth. The White House insists that given strong job growth, the economy is not in a classic contraction. In practical terms, however, the inside-the-Beltway semantics make little difference to Americans confronted by grocery bills that are far more expensive than a year ago, even if the prices at the pump have eased somewhat in recent weeks.
Republicans accused of ‘cruelty’ over veterans’ health care
The battle over the climate and health care bill will take place in parallel this week with a fierce controversy over the GOP blockage of a bill that would provide health care to veterans exposed to toxic fumes from burn pits, which were used to incinerate waste at military installations during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Activists, including comedian Jon Stewart, have accused the GOP of “cruelty” after some senators who voted for a previous version of the bill voted not to advance this one. Republicans, meanwhile, accuse Democrats of inserting new spending and complain that their amendments were not included. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said on “State of the Union” that a Toomey amendment would put a “year-on-year” cap on what the department can spend on veterans exposed to burn pits and would lead to “rationing of care.”
Biden, in a FaceTime call from isolation after he registered another positive Covid-19 test on Saturday, promised protesters at the Capitol that he’d fight for the legislation “as long as I have a breath in me.”
Toomey told Tapper, however, that he had long raised opposition to the measure since he wanted funding for burn pit care included in year-on-year appropriations rather than in the mandatory spending column. He said the current legislation would allow Democrats to divert $400 billion for other purposes. And he denied claims that Republicans are holding up the bill to prevent Democrats from scoring another win, following the closing of the Manchin-Schumer deal, as “absurd and dishonest.”
However, the sight of Republicans voting against veterans’ health care — whatever the intricate details of the case — threatens to further an impression that the party is becoming more extreme. And it also takes the focus off the key issues that are most likely to sway the midterm elections in the GOP’s favor, including inflation, gasoline prices and Biden’s low approval rating.
