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Business

Woolworths worker pays for a mother’s groceries leaving her ‘grateful and mortified’

A shopper has revealed how she felt 'grateful' and 'mortified' when a supermarket worker offered to paid for her groceries at the checkout

Woolies worker’s selfless act leaves a young mother ‘grateful and also mortified’ – but was the staff member just being nice or were they up to something ‘DODGY’?

  • A Woolworths shopper claims she had a staff member pay for her groceries
  • The mother said that her baby ‘kicking off’ prompted the worker to offer to pay
  • She broke down the details of the strange transaction in a post to Reddit

By Jesse Hyland For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

A shopper has revealed how she felt ‘grateful’ and ‘mortified’ when a supermarket worker offered to paid for her groceries at the checkout.

The mother, who was carrying her newborn while she was shopping at a Melbourne Woolworths, and had to go to a service desk because of a technical issue she was having with the self-checkout.

Struggling with moving her crying baby and the trolley, a Woolies staff member offered to pay for her groceries in light of the inconvenience.

Social media users debated whether the worker was just being nice or if they were up to something ‘dodgy’.

A shopper has revealed how she felt 'grateful' and 'mortified' when a supermarket worker offered to paid for her groceries at the checkout

A shopper has revealed how she felt ‘grateful’ and ‘mortified’ when a supermarket worker offered to paid for her groceries at the checkout

chicken

Was the worker just being nice or were they up to something dodgy?

  • And it is 183 votes
  • Nope 95 votes

She explained the details of the strange transaction in a post to Reddit last Thursday and asked other shoppers if they felt it was a ‘dodgy’ thing to do?

‘I just got back from Woolworths where I tried to pay with my phone on self checkout,’ the mother wrote.

‘It wasn’t working so they printed me a barcode and took me to the service desk to pay, but my phone payment still didn’t work.

‘After trying a few times and my newborn kicking off, the staff member said, don’t worry it’s on me.’

The mother said she was ‘really taken back’ by the generous offer and asked the worker if she could transfer her the money.

She claimed the employee declined the offer and responded and insisted it was no problem.

The mother, who was carrying her newborn while she was shopping at a Melbourne Woolworths, and had to go to a service desk because a technical issue she was having with the self-checkout

The mother, who was carrying her newborn while she was shopping at a Melbourne Woolworths, and had to go to a service desk because a technical issue she was having with the self-checkout

‘I was so grateful and also mortified,’ the mother said.

She questioned whether Woolworths staff members can pay for customers groceries legally or if it was ‘dodgy’.

‘I want to go back and give her something to say thank you, but don’t want to get her in trouble if she’s done something she’s not supposed to have done,’ she added.

Respondents in the Reddit post largely agreed that the woman should be thankful for the kind gesture and not bring attention to it at the store in case the staff member gets into trouble.

‘Maybe accept the kindness shown and pay it forward to someone else in need. In that way, you don’t risk getting the staff member in trouble,’ one commenter said.

Another person wrote: ‘Yeah, don’t go back and thank her manager and unwittingly have her fired. It’s a good intention that may backfire. Instead, next time you see her, thank her yourself.’

A third added: ‘What’s more likely? They risk being sacked or even arrested for a total stranger, or pays a few bucks to help out someone obviously trying their best but struggling.’

Social media users debated whether the worker was just being nice or if they were up to something 'dodgy'

Social media users debated whether the worker was just being nice or if they were up to something ‘dodgy’

‘My partner works at a supermarket and has paid for people before. It feels good. Pay it forward.’

Others disagreed with the act and claimed the employee likely voided the transaction.

‘She wouldn’t have paid. Technically, it’s not the right thing to do but also Woolies wouldn’t risk the bad PR of firing an employee over helping someone with a screaming baby,’ said one.

‘Yeah that transaction 100% got voided. More than likely she just wanted that screaming baby out of the store ASAP because parents never try and quieten them, ‘she wrote her a second.

A handful of commenters revealed they had personally paid for other shopper’s groceries before usually because of a technical issue or the customer struggled to afford it.

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Entertainment

Rock legend Ozzy Osbourne stuns world at Commonwealth Games closing ceremony

Rock legend Ozzy Osbourne stuns world at Commonwealth Games closing ceremony

Legendary Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne brought the curtain down on the Commonwealth Games in spectacular style on Monday as dominant Australia celebrated finishing top of the medals table yet again.

Athletes swarmed Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium for a closing party that also featured UB40, Dexys and a tribute to Peaky Blinders, the global hit TV show about the city’s most notorious gang.

Birmingham-born Osbourne, known as the “Prince of Darkness”, brought the ceremony to a climax after emerging as the surprise act.

Osbourne was recently seen looking frail following a major back operation in June, two years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

But the 73-year-old put on an energetic performance of the Black Sabbath’s biggest hit paranoid to put a cap on the 11-day sporting extravaganza.

The show, celebrating Birmingham’s rise from the wreckage of World War II and its emergence as a diverse and vibrant modern city, brought 11 days of sporting action to a close.

Earlier, six-time defending champions Australia wrapped up their campaign in style, hammering India 7-0 in the men’s hockey final to end up with 67 golds overall.

Hosts England ended in second place with 57 golds, ahead of Canada on 26 and India on 22, with para sports included in the medal tally.

Sporting powerhouse Australia have topped the table at every Games since 1990 except in 2014, when England finished in first place in Glasgow.

Australia hockey captain Aran Zalewski said winning the Commonwealth Games title is “harder than you think”.

“We have won seven, but it’s not as simple as coming out here and winning,” he said.

Elsewhere on Monday, Scotland’s James Heatly and Grace Reid won the mixed synchronized 3m springboard final, with England pair Noah Williams and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix taking gold in the 10m event.

India celebrated a golden double in badminton.

World number seven PV Sindhu won the women’s singles, overcoming Canada’s Michelle Li, while Lakshya Sen beat Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong to win the men’s gold.

India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta beat England’s Liam Pitchford 4-1 in the men’s singles table tennis gold-medal match.

Birmingham 2022 CEO Ian Reid told a briefing earlier that the Games had been a huge boost for the city and the surrounding area.

He said more than 1.5 million tickets had been sold, with most venues above 90 per cent capacity.

“One of the goals at the outset was to put the city on the world map and instill that huge pride across everyone that lives in the region and I think we’ve achieved that,” he said.

“I think that can lead to much bigger and greater things.”

Commonwealth Games Federation CEO Katie Sadleir said there had been “huge engagement” with the Games globally.

She added a number of countries had expressed an interest in staging future Commonwealth Games, including African nations.

She said Birmingham, which already had many facilities in place, could be a blueprint for the future.

“It is definitely not something we want people to spend huge amounts of money and capital investment if it is not needed and desired by the long-term plans for the country,” she said.

The Birmingham Games made history in being the first to award more medals to women than men.

Australian swimming great Emma McKeon became the most decorated athlete in Commonwealth Games history, with 20 medals — including six golds in Birmingham.

And the tiny island of Niue won its first ever Commonwealth Games medal, a boxing bronze for Duken Tutakitoa-Williams.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Louise Martin handed the flag to Linda Dessau, the governor of the Australian state of Victoria, which will host the 2026 Games.

Martin said Birmingham had put on an event “unlike any we’ve seen before”.

“We are emerging from one of the most challenging periods in modern history, where the Covid-19 pandemic has kept us apart,” she said.

“Birmingham 2022 proved to be a special moment when we reunited, when the power of sport to connect us came into sharp focus.”

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Categories
Sports

Cornes calls out chairman’s “stupid” comments after he “felt the angst”

Cornes calls out chairman's “stupid” comments after he “felt the angst”

Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has blasted the club’s chairman David Koch for his comments on Ken Hinkley’s future at Alberton.

With Hinkley under some pressure to remain as coach next year but contracted for 2023, Koch set a fire under the club’s footy program on Monday morning.

“It’s not just about one individual person. It’s the whole program. Turn it around or watch out,” Koch told FIVEaa.

“Every single person’s role will be assessed at the end of the year, as we do each year.

“But this year (it is) more important than ever and we are not afraid to make change. We have made plenty of changes (before). We have high expectations both on field and off field.”

It’s a change of tone from the Power hierarchy. Just days before, club CEO Matthew Richardson had called out the “disrespectful” comments towards Hinkley, saying: “This is not a reset moment. As we’ve said, Ken’s contracted, he’s our coach and I think sometimes it’s just the fact that it keeps coming up is disrespectful”.

Cornes suggested Koch had caved to the loudest voices on Hinkley.

“This is a classic example of a chairman kicking with the breeze,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.

“He had felt the angst from the supporter group, he felt like he needed to make a strong statement to alleviate some of the concerns from the very Port Adelaide supporter group who share their feedback regularly.

“Their desire to sack Ken Hinkley right now, Kochie (Koch) listened to that and he’s said, ‘even though my language has been one way all year, with two games to go I’m going to alleviate some of the concerns from the Port Adelaide supporter group and make a big, strong, sweeping statement about the coaching with two weeks to go’: ‘turn it around or watch out’.

“Turn what around? There are two weeks left in the season. What do you need to know in the next two weeks regarding Ken Hinkley’s ability to coach this club that you haven’t already discovered in the last ten years?

“Either make a call or back him in… ‘turn it around or watch out’, what a ridiculous thing to say.”

Cornes isn’t so concerned about what the club decides, as long as a decision is made.

Port Adelaide entered 2022 with the expectation they would once again be at the pointy end of the ladder, but a series of injury and form issues early saw them start the season 0-5.

They’ve somewhat recovered to be 8-12, but won’t play finals in 2022. Given Hinkley’s uncertainty at Port Adelaide, he’s been linked to the vacant jobs at GWS and North Melbourne.

But as Cornes notes, the Port coach can’t apply for other jobs while he’s still uncertain about his future.

“The thing that David Koch needs to do is make a call, is he your coach or is he not your coach? And if he’s not your coach, you have to tell him now so that he has the opportunity and you give him the respect to go and find another job,” the Power Hall of Famer said.

“There are two vacant coaching jobs right now that Ken Hinkley would absolutely be in the mix for it, but he can’t be in the mix for it if he thinks he’s going to be coaching Port Adelaide next year.

“Conversely, if he is your guy and you’ve contracted him for next year, which they have, back him in now. There’s nothing to be learned in the next two weeks that you don’t already know and you haven’t already discovered in the last 10 weeks.

“It was a stupid thing to say, it sent the media into a spin and it now has everyone questioning if Ken Hinkley will be there next year.”

Hinkley and Port Adelaide travel to Marvel Stadium to take on Essendon on Sunday.





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Categories
Australia

Household Resilience Program to help Queenslanders protect homes from wild weather

Damage to houses resulting from Tropical Cyclone Marcia

Could your home withstand a wild weather event? If you are feeling nervous about the next wet season, a $20 million state government scheme could help allay those fears.

Here is how you could get your hands on cash to help fund home improvements and bring down your insurance premiums.

The Household Resilience Program was first introduced in 2018 to help homes in flood and cyclone risk areas north of Bundaberg.

The initiative is targeted at low-income households to replace roofs and doors, reinforce windows and tie down external structures.

The government will provide up to $11,250, with owners required to stump up 25 per cent of the total cost.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible, your home must have been built before 1984 and located 50 kilometers off the coast in locations north of Bundaberg.

Your weekly combined household income must be less than $1,801 for a couple with a child or $1,050 for an individual.

A house, completely destroyed, with debris lying everywhere in Tully after Cyclone Yasi hit on February 3, 2011.
Roof replacement has been one of the most popular improvements made as part of the scheme.(AAP: Dave Hunt)

Will the building industry cope?

While the construction industry has been plagued by delays due to unprecedented demand in recent years, the pipeline of work is now beginning to show signs of slowing down.

Master Builders Queensland regional manager Emma Peters said the timing was right.

“Those HomeBuilder residential builds are now very much a work in progress, if not coming towards the end of having those properties finished now,” Ms Peters said.

“So this is very welcome.”

A builder repairing a roof with a drill
The program is expected to provide a significant economic injection for the building industry.(ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Samille Mitchell)

The last phase of the Household Resilience Program injected $8 million into the Townsville economy alone.

“Last time, north Queenslanders wholly embraced the program; about 45 per cent of the entire program was actually spent here in the Townsville region,” she said.

John Wilkinson runs a roofing company in north Queensland.

He said the program generated significant interest in his business during the last round.

“Yes, well definitely it’s been good for business,” Mr Wilkinson said.

“The nature of quoting for the job is the same as any other; it’s just that the funding comes from the government.”

With the wet season fast approaching it is hoped works can be undertaken to provide added protection to home owners, while also bringing down insurance premiums that continue to cause pain to many household budgets in the state’s north.

State government data has shown those who have participated in the past schemes have seen a drop of 8.5 per cent in their premiums.

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Categories
US

Inflation could push Fed into August rate hike

Inflation could push Fed into August rate hike

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in August, before its next scheduled meeting in September, if this week’s economic data shows that inflation isn’t abating.

“The Fed is still in charge of this market. A week ago, it looked like they might ease up, but after Friday’s red-hot jobs number and the passage of the [Inflation Reduction Act]I’m worried they might lower the boom on us even before September comes,” he said.

“If both numbers are scorchers, we will get a surprise August meeting,” he predicted, referencing the consumer price index and producer price index data coming this week.

The Senate on Sunday passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a Democrat-backed package aimed at fighting climate change and extending health care coverage.

The legislation, among other provisions, allows Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies and puts a 15% minimum tax on large corporations.

The July jobs report saw stronger-than-expected numbers last week, meaning the central bank could have to continue its path forward on raising interest rates aggressively.

“If I were Chairman Jay Powell … I’d be hard-pressed not to call a special Fed meeting this month to hit us with another 75-basis point rate hike,” Cramer said. A basis point equals 0.01 percentage point.

Investors are also looking to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index this week to shed more light on how consumers are coping with inflation.

Cramer also previewed this week’s slate of earnings. All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet.

Tuesday: Emerson Electric, Ralph Lauren, Plug Power, Unity Software

Emerson Electric

  • Q3 2022 earnings release at 6:55 am ET; conference call at 9 am ET
  • Projected EPS: $1.29
  • Projected revenue: $5.10 billion

Cramer said he expects Emerson to perform well long term after selling its waste disposal business InSinkErator to Whirlpool, but is still curious about how the company is faring short term.

Ralph Lauren

  • Q1 2023 earnings release at 8 am ET; conference call at 9 am ET
  • Projected EPS: $1.71
  • Projected revenue: $1.40 billion

Though Ralph Lauren is a high-end store, it could still face the same inventory gluts that other retailers are dealing with, he said.

plug-power

  • Q2 2022 earnings release after the close; conference call at 4:30 pm ET
  • Projected loss: 21 cents per share
  • Projected revenue: $159 million

Plug Power will benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act because of the bill’s hydrogen tax credit, which could help the company become more than just a niche fuel cell producer, Cramer said.

UnitySoftware

  • Q2 2022 earnings release at 4:05 pm ET; conference call at 5 pm ET
  • Projected loss: 21 cents per share
  • Projected revenue: $300 million

Cramer predicted that the beaten-down stock could go even lower since Nvidia’s preliminary financial results on Monday revealed that gaming is weak.

Wednesday: CyberArk Software, Wendy’s, Disney, Dutch Bros

Cyber ​​Ark Software

  • Q2 2022 earnings release between 7:00-7:10 am ET; conference call at 8:30 am ET
  • Projected loss: 30 cents per share
  • Projected revenue: $138 million

The company should report great results since cybersecurity companies tend to be shielded from economic turbulence, Cramer said.

Wendy’s

  • Q2 2022 earnings release at 7 am ET; conference call at 8:30 am ET
  • Projected EPS: 22 cents
  • Projected revenue: $540 million

Cramer said he’s worried about how inflation could be hurting Wendy’s performance.

Disney

  • Q3 2022 earnings release at 4:05 pm ET; conference call at 4:30 pm ET
  • Projected EPS: 98 cents
  • Projected revenue: $20.99 billion

“It’s just too hated for me to believe it can stay down,” he said.

Dutch Bros.

  • Q2 2022 earnings release after the close; conference call at 5 pm ET
  • Projected EPS: 5 cents per share
  • Projected revenue: $182 million

The company is a beloved brand, but it’ll have to convince investors that its stock is worth buying, Cramer said.

Thursday: Warby Parker, Toast, Rivian

Warby Parker

  • Q2 2022 earnings release at 6:45 am ET; conference call at 8 am ET
  • Projected loss: 2 cents per share
  • Projected revenue: $150 million

“I bet, like other recent IPOs, it’s going to move up on the quarter,” Cramer said.

toast

  • Q2 2022 earnings release at 4:05 pm ET; conference call at 5 pm ET
  • Projected loss: 12 cents per share
  • Projected revenue: $651 million

He said that he’s surprised so many small companies like Toast are seeing their stocks go higher, even on no news — which suggests they never should have gone down so much in the first place.

Rivian

  • Q2 2022 earnings release at 4:10 pm ET; conference call at 5 pm ET
  • Projected loss: $1.63 per share
  • Projected revenue: $335 million

The electric vehicle maker will likely benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act due to the bill’s extension of income tax credits for consumers who purchase electric vehicles, Cramer said. I have added that he still prefers Tesla.

Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Disney.

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Categories
Business

Reserve Bank to trial digital currency in ‘limited-scale pilot’ scheme

A 3D animated graphical representation of a series of blockchain.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will trial its own digital currency as part of a research project to evaluate the future of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) in Australia.

Unlike well known cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, which were created by private entities or individuals, a CBDC is issued and controlled by the central bank just like cash and electronic stores of sovereign currency sitting in bank accounts.

The research project the RBA is undertaking in collaboration with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center (DFCRC) will focus on the uses for, and potential economic benefits of, a CBDC.

“The project, which is expected to take about a year to complete, will involve the development of a limited-scale CBDC pilot that will operate in a ring-fenced environment for a period of time and is intended to involve a pilot CBDC that is a real claim on the Reserve Bank,” the RBA noted in a media release.

“Interested industry participants will be invited to develop specific use cases that demonstrate how a CBDC could be used to provide innovative and value-added payment and settlement services to households and businesses.”

RBA deputy governor Michelle Bullock said this project is “an important step” on the path to a potential Australian CBDC.

“We are looking forward to engaging with a wide range of industry participants to better understand the potential benefits a CBDC could bring to Australia,” she said in a statement.

Dr Andreas Furche, the chief executive of the DFCRC which is undertaking the research project with the RBA, said the doubts around CBDCs are mainly focused on how useful they could actually be, and in what ways.

“CBDC is no longer a question of technological feasibility,” he argued.

“The key research questions now are what economic benefits a CBDC could enable, and how it could be designed to maximize those benefits.”

The Reserve Bank said Treasury is involved with the project, which will soon invite industry participants to pitch specific uses for a CBDC that might be selected for trials in the pilot.

The project will then help to understand some of the technological, legal and regulatory issues that arise from a CBDC.

A report on the results of the project is expected in about a year’s time.

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Categories
Sports

Newcastle Knights trainer speaks out on David Klemmer axing furore

The Newcastle trainer at the center of the David Klemmer furore has spoken out about the week-long saga that threatened to divide the club.

Experienced NRL trainer Hayden Knowles and fiery prop Klemmer had an on-field run-in when the latter was asked to leave the field during last week’s loss to the Bulldogs.

A HR complaint was subsequently lodged and Klemmer had to be stood down by the club, and was made unavailable for selection for round 21.

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That freezeout has since been lifted and Klemmer and Knowles have put any differences behind them.

Knowles spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald to further explain the situation.

“The swearing wasn’t the issue. That’s what everyone is losing sight of,” Knowles said.

“For me it’s not personal with Klem. It wouldn’t matter if it was Kalyn Ponga, Nathan Cleary, Junior Paulo or Payne Haas.

“It wouldn’t matter who it is. If someone puts themselves before the team, I would forever die for the fact that I won’t tolerate that behaviour. The behavior is what I was against, not the person.

“The swearing is not the issue. Swearing doesn’t bother me. I feel like my reputation has taken a hit. I’ve worked 23 years to build that.

“Nathan Hindmarsh rang me during the week. I’m mates for life with Nathan Hindmarsh, and we had a spray every other week at Parra.”

Speaking after the Knights’ round 21 victory over the Tigers, coach Adam O’Brien said Klemmer would return next week with the situation now “dealt with.”

“No doubt, he’s dealt with now, he’s back in the team,” he said.

“He’s back training now so I can pick him on Tuesday.”

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The incredible stories behind State of Origin’s one-game wonders

Categories
Australia

Foot-and-mouth disease led to 6 million slaughtered animals in England 21 years ago. Could it happen in Australia?

A man in a green wet weather jacket stands in front of a herd of black and white cows.

Robert Craig’s memories of foot-and-mouth disease tearing through the north of England are more than 20 years old, but they’re as painful as ever.

“It still makes my hair stand on end now,” the dairy farmer said.

“You don’t realize at the time that things do affect you longer term.”

There has not been an outbreak of the disease in Australia for over a century, but cases detected in Indonesia in May have put authorities on high alert, and farmers fear what could happen if the disease lands in Australia.

Foot-and-mouth spreads rapidly between cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. It’s serious and highly contagious.

Warning: This story contains images some readers may find distressing

In February 2001, Robert Craig was raising a young family in Cumbria, which became one of the worst-affected areas during a devastating outbreak of the disease.

It led to the mass slaughter of cows, pigs and sheep.

“I remember being out in the fields, I think spreading fertilizer, and they were rounding up these sheep and lambs and there’s this truck in the gateway,” he told the ABC News Daily podcast.

“Seeing them rounding up newborn lambs and you knew where they were going, that was just hideous. Absolutely hideous.”

Men checking cow carcasses as they are lined up with excavators in the background.
Slaughtered cows in Yorkshire were lined up before they were loaded onto trucks and transported to a burial pit.(Supplied: Bill Sykes)

Mr Craig said he remembers tracking the spread of the disease on a map and watching as it got closer and closer to his own farm.

“There was a real sense of despair. It was hard for people to see at that time how anything could get back to normality because such a huge number of livestock had been taken,” he said.

Over the course of 11 months, more than 6 million cows, sheep and pigs were slaughtered in an effort to contain the spread of the disease, although only a relatively small portion of that number had the infection.

In total 2,000 cases were ultimately confirmed across the UK.

“I don’t know whether it did any good either. There was a fair bit of panic at the time,” Mr Craig said.

“It was just like, removing as much livestock as possible to try and slow [it] down, to get in front of it because it had gotten so badly out of control.

“I don’t know if they even tested these sheep that were taken away.”

Mr Craig was one of the lucky ones whose animals were spared, but his community suffered badly.

“Pretty much all of our neighbors sort of succumbed to it at some point,” he said.

“The whole of our area was pretty much just dead, like no livestock at all.”

Dead cows being sprayed with disinfectant on a farm.
In 2001, destroyed cattle with foot-and-mouth disease were sprayed with disinfectant to stop the spread.(Supplied: Bill Sykes)

Australians sent to help

Australian vet Bill Sykes has similar “life-changing” memories of the time.

The Victorian, who had a background in national disease control and animal slaughtering, was sent to Yorkshire, in northern England, as part of an Australian contingent deployed to help.

“It’s 20 years on, there’s a lot of things I don’t remember since five minutes ago, but these things come back, and they haunt,” he told the ABC News Daily podcast.

Mr Sykes recalls how the abattoir workers would try to calmly gain the trust of bobby calves, or calves less than a month old, before the slaughter.

“The strategy was to put his finger in the calf’s mouth so that it would happily suck and while it was sucking, he’d shoot the animal with a captive bolt pistol, and it would drop and then he’d go to the next one .”

But for him, the destruction of newborn lambs via lethal injection was particularly devastating.

“They went limp in your arms, you put them down and you picked up the next one,” he said.

“And I happened to love little lambs. I found that real, real tough.”

Mr Sykes said the immediate impact of the disease in the countryside was stark.

“At the bottom of the valley, everything is normal, sheep and cattle grazing in the paddocks,” he said.

“By the time we get to the top of the valley there’s nothing there, it’s just an eerie silence. It’s a sea of ​​nothing.”

Two men walk towards green hill, lined with empty paddocks.
The “sea of ​​nothing” remained after neighboring Yorkshire farms had been “slaughtered out”.(Supplied: Bill Sykes)

Australia assesses its preparedness for an outbreak

Bill Sykes, who is also a former regional vet officer in the Victorian Agriculture Department and former Nationals MP, is enraged by reports of Australia’s biosecurity laws being breached.

Foot-and-mouth disease can be carried on meat and animal goods, and in one recent case, a backpacker returned from Indonesia with prohibited meat.

The passenger was fined $2,664 after being detected with undeclared sausage meat and a ham croissant at Darwin airport.

“Just unbelievably dumb. Stupid, thoughtless, call it what you like, but that’s the sort of situation that can occur,” Mr Sykes said.

Foot-and-mouth disease can also spread in air particles between animals situated closely together, through contaminated water and on clothing and footwear.

The risk of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Australia has increased to approximately 12 per cent after the recent spread in Indonesia and its popular tourist island, Bali.

Mr Sykes said vigilance is paramount.

a number of officials in white coats inspecting sick cattle.
Officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture visit a farm in East Java where cattle have foot-and-mouth disease.(Supplied: Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture)

The Australian government has introduced a range of measures to lower the risk of foot-and-mouth disease entering the country.

Biosecurity measures have been ramped up at airports, including installing acidic disinfectant foot mats and increased surveillance on meat products entering the country.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced a new task force will also be established to focus on how to best prepare for a potential outbreak.

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Categories
US

Photos show handwritten notes that Trump apparently ripped up and attempted to flush down toilet

Photos show handwritten notes that Trump apparently ripped up and attempted to flush down toilet

Maggie Haberman, a New York Times reporter and CNN contributor, is publishing the new images in her forthcoming book, “Confidence Man,” and the images were posted earlier by Axios. CNN has previously reported how Trump flouted presidential record-keeping laws and would often tear up documents, drafts and memos after reading them.

He periodically flushed papers down the toilet in the White House residence — only to be discovered later on when repairmen were summoned to fix the clogged toilets. Trump has denied the allegations, and in a statement given to Axios on Monday, a spokesman claimed that reporting about the practice was fabricated.

This picture shows notes that former President Donald Trump apparently ripped up and attempted to flush down the toilet.

In the images revealed on Monday, it’s unclear what the documents are in reference to — and who authored them — but they appear to be written in Trump’s handwriting in black marker. Haberman said one image is from a White House toilet and the other one is from an overseas trip that was provided to her by a Trump White House source.

“Who knows what this paper was? Only he would know and presumably whoever was dealing with it, but the important point is about the records,” Haberman told CNN’s John Berman and Brianna Keilar on “New Day” Monday morning.

Trump had a pattern of disregarding normal record preservation procedures. On one occasion, Trump asked if anyone wanted to put a copy of a speech he just delivered up for auction on eBay, during a mid-flight visit to the press cabin Air Force One.

In other instances, Trump would task aides with carrying boxes of unread memos, articles and tweet drafts aboard the presidential aircraft for him to review and then tear to shreds.

A former senior Trump administration official said a deputy from the Office of Staff Secretary would usually come in to pull things out of the trash and take them off Trump’s desk after he left a room.

A former White House official recalled that while document preservation was a key responsibility of the staff secretary, the rest of Trump’s senior staffers lacked the sense of their obligation to maintain records of papers that moved through the West Wing.

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Freeze on start-up founder’s $10m Mosman mansion after business collapses

Freeze on start-up founder's $10m Mosman mansion after business collapses

A Sydney entrepreneur’s house has been caught up in the collapse of his start-up after two separate freezes were placed on his $10.5 million Mosman mansion.

Marketing technology company Metigy abruptly collapsed in July, leaving its 75 staff stunned. Some employees had been recruited only a month before the collapse and the company was still advertising jobs when it went into administration at the behest of investors. Metigy, which was co-founded by entrepreneur David Fairfull, raised $20 million in 2020 and was reportedly trying to raise capital earlier this year at a valuation of $1 billion.

Metgy founder David Fairfull.

Metgy founder David Fairfull. Credit:

The Australian Financial Review was first to report on the company’s collapse into administration, which it said was triggered by investors eager to see a full audit of Metigy’s finances.

Last week, some investors went further. On Monday, entities associated with investment funds Five V Capital and Regal Funds Management engaged lawyers at Allens to lodge a caveat over Fairfull’s Mosman property. On Tuesday, Metigy’s administrators had their lawyers, Addisons, lodge a similar caveat.

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom trophy home with expansive harbor views was sold in September last year to Fairfull, and a woman who appears to be his wife, legal records show.

At the time, Metigy was riding high with tens of millions banked from investors who believed in its plans to use artificial intelligence to improve digital marketing and its partnerships with web giant Google and telecommunications network Optus.

On its website and in media stories, Metigy spruiked a “reseller partnership” in which the telecommunications giant would offer Metigy’s marketing products to its more than 400,000 small business clients.

The harbor view from the $10m home that is subject to a caveat relating to Metigy, a failed AI marketing start-up.

The harbor view from the $10m home that is subject to a caveat relating to Metigy, a failed AI marketing start-up.Credit:Domain

In response, an Optus spokesman issued a brief statement on Monday saying that it had facilitated networking opportunities for Australian start-ups and small businesses in 2018. “Metigy participated, but as of today there is no active contractual arrangements,” the spokesman said.