Speaking of the Greens, Senator Lidia Thorpe – a DjabWurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman – says her tone in taking the oath of allegiance yesterday “was the tone that you use when you really, really, really don’t want to do something and you ‘re being forced to do it”.
“To be told that I have to swear allegiance to a queen from another country, I feel really uncomfortable about that given I’m a First Nations woman, and my allegiance is to this country and the people of this country, not to a queen who lives in England and who has not been elected,” Thorpe told Melbourne-based radio station 3AW.
Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate, Senator Lidia Thorpe.Credit:alex ellinghausen
Thorpe was made to redo her oath in the Senate after calling the Queen to colonize in her first try, which was ruled out of order by president Susan Lines.
Today’s 3AW interview descended into a fiery debate in which host Neil Mitchell accused Thorpe of being disrespectful and a hypocrite after she said she was part of an “illegitimate” parliament.
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“To be there with the Black Power salute, sarcastic tone, and in describing the Queen as a colonizer is divisive and destructive at a time where we need a unity of purpose,” Mitchell said.
Thorpe denied both accusations.
“I suppose what it does is it puts a spotlight on truth-telling,” she said. “This country was invaded, and this country does not have an agreement with its people.
“This country is rich and vibrant. And we have things here, our country and our own people, that we should be swearing allegiance to. So I wanted to inform the Australian public that we are still, today, swearing allegiance to someone who has nothing really to do with our everyday lives.”
The state of Georgia has established that a fetus can be listed as a dependent on state tax returns.
Encyclopaedia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty
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The state of Georgia has established that a fetus can be listed as a dependent on state tax returns.
Encyclopaedia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty
Pregnant Georgians can now list their fetuses as a dependent on their tax returns.
The Georgia Department of Revenue released new guidance this week establishing that the agency “will recognize any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat … as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption.”
An individual at least six weeks pregnant on or after July 20 through Dec. 31, 2022, can list the fetus asa dependent on their tax returns starting next year, the agency said. Georgian taxpayers can claim an exemption in the amount of $3,000 for each dependent.
This policy change follows the US Supreme Court’s decision in June that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion. Following that, an appeals court ruled on July 20 that Georgia’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy can become law.
Taxpayers will have to submit relevant medical records or other supporting documentation to the department in order to provide their filing.
The “fetal personhood law” is the idea that a fetus is a person with full constitutional rights from the moment of fertilization. Both Georgia and Arizona established this in their abortion laws, but Arizona’s statute has been challenged in court.
This tax policy change has far wider implications “from taxes and inheritance rights to education to population counts,” says Elizabeth Nash, the Guttmacher Institute’s principal policy associate for state issues.
For now, the policy change only applies tostate tax returns. This state law has no effect on federal taxes, says Alex Raskolnikov, a professor of tax law at Columbia Law School.
“A state (eg, GA) cannot dictate federal law. GA’s decision will have no impact of the IRS or the Internal Revenue Code,” he says.
Early critics note that this state policy may create questions for those who miscarry further along in their pregnancy.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, the campaign manager for Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams, tweeted: “So what happens when you claim your fetus as a dependent and then miscarry later in the pregnancy, you get investigated both for tax fraud and an illegal abortion?”
Georgia’s abortion law does allow exceptions for stillbirths, miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies (which can be deadly).
The motivation for the development of gradient-flipping and phase prediction assisted flux-preserving full-resolution wave reconstruction (GPFRWR) is that, in most TEM investigations of specimens that do not generate magnetic and electrostatic fringing fields, the phase in vacuum regions within the field of view has a constant value. The slab geometry of many TEM samples may also result in approximately flat regions of phase in large parts of the specimen, at least at medium spatial resolution. In other words, the gradient of the phase is often quite sparse, especially when excluding high spatial frequencies.
In its original application, the charge flipping algorithm for solving crystal structures from X-ray diffraction data30 is very effective at finding a sparse solution in the charge density domain by flipping the signs of small values while retaining values above a given threshold and enforcing consistency with measured diffraction intensities. After demonstrating its feasibility for removing low spatial frequency noise in TIE reconstructions23.24we adapted the principle to non-linear inline electron holography by inserting a phase-modifying procedure every few iterations (eg, every third iteration) in an iterative reconstruction algorithm (the FRWR algorithm25.26), flipping the signs of small values of each of the two components of the gradient of the phase and reducing their amplitudes, yielding a modified gradient ({overrightarrow{G}}^{^{prime}}left(overrightarrow{r}right)). This procedure was implemented simply by multiplying these values by a scaling factor β that was slightly larger than − 1 (eg, β = − 0.97). This operation was only performed within the field of view defined by the experimental data. The size of the array defining the reconstructed phase was larger than the field of view, in order to be able to accommodate non-periodic boundary conditions. Whereas the larger array has periodic boundary conditions, the array corresponding to the field of view of the experimental data can have any boundary because it lies within the typically 1.5 to 2 times wider reconstruction array that has periodic boundary conditions16. Once the small gradients have been flipped, the modified phase is obtained by integrating the modified gradient ({overrightarrow{G}}^{^{prime}}left(overrightarrow{r}right)) The Fourier transform of the modified phase ({phi }^{^{prime}}left(overrightarrow{q}right)) is obtained from ({overrightarrow{G}}^{^{prime}}left(overrightarrow{r}right)) by the following operation:
where rc is the length scale below which the flipping of the gradient has very little effect, ie this value can be chosen to apply gradient flipping only to spatial frequencies for which the iterative reconstruction algorithm would otherwise converge only very slowly. Dividing by – qtwo effectively implements an inverse Laplace operator. At what= 0, we multiply by 0 instead of dividing by qtwo. This approach can be justified by the argument that the absolute phase is not a well-defined physical quantity. Multiplication by 0 at what= 0 will cause the mean of the reconstructed phase to be set to 0. After reconstruction, an offset that corresponds to the mean of the phase-in vacuum can be subtracted. This subtraction was applied to the phase maps shown in this paper.
Using the above expression, gradient flipping affects mostly spatial frequencies in the phase that are larger than rc by using a Gaussian taper to transition between the ranges r > rc andr< rc. Since the iterative part of the focal series reconstruction algorithm reconstructs primarily high spatial frequencies in the phase and requires many iterations to have an effect on lower spatial frequencies16, Eq. (3) ensures that gradient flipping does not affect the convergence of the iterative reconstruction algorithm significantly. It may even help to speed up convergence, especially in regions where large areas of the phase are flat (egfor nanoparticles on homogeneous supports or if the field of view contains large areas of empty space).
In order to reduce the detrimental effect of incoherent scattering (eg, electron–phonon and electron-plasmon interactions or the excitation of core electrons) on the interpretability of experimental TEM images using elastic scattering theory, our algorithm is based on the following flux-preserving imaging model, which is modified to include an inconsistent background:
whereΨΔf ( r) is the coherent electron wave function defocused by an amount ΔFin the plane of the detector, ANDs, Δf(r ) is the inverse Fourier transform of the spatial coherence envelopefifteen and Yoinconsistent (r ) is the intensity distribution of the incoherent background that is determined in addition to the electron wave function Ψ0 ( r) at the exit surface of the specimen. Since only a single inconsistent image is assumed, this residual image is taken to be the same for all images in the focal series. The inconsistent intensity is strictly positive. At each iteration, after the average of the remaining difference between the forward simulated image and the experimental image has been added to the incoherent intensity array, this array is multiplied by a damping factor, which is set to 0.98 by default but can be changed when calling the reconstruction program. Thus, only a fraction of the minimum difference between simulated and experimental images in each pixel is assigned to this inconsistent intensity array, ensuring that only image counts observed that cannot be attributed to the coherent imaging process are considered for assignment to the inconsistent background.
The FRWR algorithm25.26 accelerates the retrieval of low spatial frequency phase information by using a ‘phase prediction’ mechanism. In addition to directly minimizing the difference between simulated and experimental images in a manner that is somewhat similar to conventional Gerchberg-Saxton-type focal series reconstruction algorithms.25, the FRWR algorithm also explicitly updates the phase. This is done by first computing a phase update that is motivated by the transport of intensity equation (TIE) as follows:
Before adding this phase update to the phase of the current estimate of the retrieved wave function, its magnitude is limited to a maximum valueϕmaxthe so-called phase prediction threshold (PPT), by using exponential compression for high values of Δϕ(r) to avoid a sharp threshold:
The use of this limit is important because inconsistent contributions to the signal and noise prevent a perfect match from being obtained between experimental and simulated intensities, causing the expression in parentheses in Eq. (6) to practically never reach zero. The continual addition of a non-zero update to the phase would therefore result in diverging behavior of the reconstruction algorithm.
He plays a retired hitman called Ladybug in the new action film Bullet Train.
And while Brad Pitt may not be a professional assassin, the actor says he’s not so different from his on-screen character.
Discussing the film on Australian breakfast show Sunrise, the 58-year-old said he can relate to Ladybug’s tendency to lose his temper, no matter how hard he tries to stay calm.
Brad Pitt, 58, has admitted he sometimes ‘loses his cool’ despite being a ‘pretty laid-back guy’
‘[Ladybug is] trying really hard [to relax]. He’s such a chump. He just can’t get out of his own way and it just makes me laugh,’ he said on Wednesday.
When asked whether he is a ‘Zen guy’, Pitt smiled knowingly and replied: ‘Listen, I can be all things.’
‘I mean, I’m pretty laid-back but I can lose it and lose my s**t, and I can certainly step in s**t and put my foot in my mouth,’ he confessed, adding: ‘So , [the film is] just making fun of all of that, where the big laugh is.’
Pitt plays a retired hitman called Ladybug in the new film Bullet Train (pictured). While he may not be a professional assassin, the actor says he’s not so different to his on-screen character
Discussing the film on Australian TV show Sunrise on Wednesday, the 58-year-old said he can relate to Ladybug’s tendency to lose his temper, no matter how hard he tries to stay calm
Bullet Train centers on five assassins who find themselves on a fast-moving train.
The hitmen discover their jobs are intertwined, as they are all attempting to retrieve a strange silver briefcase.
The thrilling movie also stars Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Logan Lerman, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz and Bad Bunny.
When asked whether he is a ‘Zen guy’, Pitt replied: ‘I can be all things… I mean, I’m pretty laid-back but I can lose my s**t, and I can certainly step in s **t and put my foot in my mouth’
The thrilling movie also stars Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Logan Lerman, Michael Shannon, Zazie Beetz and Bad Bunny
It’s not the first time Pitt has spoken about battling with anger issues.
In 2019, three years after his separation from ex-wife Angelina Jolie, Pitt told Interview he wasn’t as even-tempered as he may appear.
‘I lose it at times. I get sucked into something, and I can lose it. I take my hands off the wheel… I’m human,’ he admitted.
In 2019, three years after his separation from ex-wife Angelina Jolie, Pitt said he wasn’t as even-tempered as he may appear. (Jolie and Pitt are pictured at their last red carpet event together in Hollywood on November 5, 2015)
The Fight Club star also spoke about turning his mistakes into life lessons.
‘I’m realizing, as a real act of forgiveness for myself for all the choices that I’ve made that I’m not proud of, that I value those missteps, because they led to some wisdom, which led to something else, ‘ he said.
Pitt’s revelations came three years after he split from Jolie.
‘I lose it at times. I get sucked into something, and I can lose it. I take my hands off the wheel… I’m human,’ he admitted
Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, citing the ‘health of the family’, in the wake of a conflict on a private flight from France to Los Angeles in which she accused Pitt of behaving abusively to son Maddox, who was 15 at the time .
Brad faced no charges in connection with the incident amid probes from the FBI and social services.
Angelina and Brad met while working on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2004 while he was married to Jennifer Aniston.
Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, citing the ‘health of the family’, in the wake of a conflict on a private flight from France to Los Angeles in which she accused Pitt of behaving abusively to son Maddox, who was 15 at the time . (Pictured in Beverly Hills on January 9, 2015)
More train chaos could be the way for New South Wales residents as the transport union vows to hold more strikes over the next month.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) announced there will be rolling strikes through August to voice their demands to the government over safety concerns on the New Intercity Fleet.
Here is what we know about the upcoming strikes.
More train chaos is headed for Sydneysiders (Janie Barrett)
When are there planned train strikes?
There are nine different strikes planned throughout August, some of which will impact the regularity of train services and others won’t.
On August 7, transport officers will be banned from issuing fines and cautions.
On August 10, train services will be impacted in area one which covers the T4 Illawarra and South Coast line and some Sydney services.
These trains will be impacted from 10am to 4pm.
On August 12, cleaners are banned from using vacuum cleaners or scrubbing machines.
On August 13, station staff will leave all gates open at all times.
On August 15, train crew will only operate trains that meet “minimum standards” of the maintenance center.
This means not all trains will be operational however it is unclear which trains do not meet these standards.
On August 17, services in area two which covers the T3 Liverpool line and T2 Campbelltown line.
Suburbs from Campbelltown to Goulburn and Albury will be affected.
This area will be impacted from 10am to 4pm.
Different train lines are expected to be impacted on different days. (9News)
On August 23, train services in area three including the T1 Blue Mountains line and Newcastle line will be impacted.
Stops from Newcastle to Lithgow will be affected.
This area will also be impacted from 10am to 4pm.
On August 25, train services in area four including inner city services at Central, St James, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, Redfern and Museum will be impacted.
This will be from 10am to 4pm.
On August 31, there will be a ban on operating foreign made trains which makes up 70 per cent of the fleet.
This will cause significant delays for commuters similar to those seen in previous strikes when only 30 per cent of the fleet was operating.
Why are transport staff striking?
Transport staff are walking off the job again as they claim the NSW government has failed to meet their safety demands relating to the New Intercity Fleet.
The union has been concerned about crucial blind spots in surveillance on the new fleet due to it relying solely on monitoring from CCTV cameras mounted on the sides of the trains, which have no audio and restricted line of sight because of the design of the carriages.
The union wants the government to fix safety issues around surveillance black spots on the New Intercity Fleet. (9News)
RTBU secretary Alex Claassens said rail workers have no choice but to take further action.
“The NSW Government is essentially holding the people of NSW to ransom in order to make a political point which is as bizarre as it is bitterly disappointing,” he said.
“We’ve done everything by the book in order to get these vital safety changes, but the government is refusing to listen.
“This is our only way of making sure that the safety changes that need to be made will actually be made.
“We’ve had plenty of verbal promises before which is why this time we need to see it committed to in a binding document.”
The strikes are over the New Intercity Fleet. (9News)
What lines will be affected by train strikes?
Different train lines will be impacted on different days in the upcoming strikes.
August 17: T3 Liverpool line and T2 Campbelltown line.
August 23: T1 Blue Mountains and Newcastle line.
August 25: Inner city services including the city circle.
August 31: the majority of train lines.
Commuters are urged to leave extra travel time. (Kate Geraghty)
Buses will be running normally on the days of the strikes.
What to expect on strike days?
Commuters are urged to leave extra travel time or to avoid trains if a strike is planned on their line.
The union did however say there should be little impact on the public.
“There’s no reason why, with some planning and common-sense, trains cannot continue to run relatively smoothly while our actions are happening,” Claassens said.
The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army. The watchdog group is seeking January 6 records from former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel, and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other prominent Pentagon officials — having filed initial FOIA requests just a few days after the Capitol attack.
Miller, Patel and McCarthy have all been viewed as crucial witnesses for understanding the government’s response to the January 6 Capitol assault and former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the breach. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to sending National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot was unfolding. There is no suggestion that the officials themselves erased the records.
The government’s assertion in the files that the officials’ text messages from that day were not preserved is the latest blow to the efforts to bring transparency to the events of January 6. It comes as the Department of Homeland Security is also under fire for the apparent loss of messages from the Secret Service that day.
Miller declined to comment. Patel and McCarthy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon and the Army also did not respond to requests for comment.
American Oversight is now calling for a “cross-agency investigation” by the Justice Department to investigate destruction of the materials.
“It’s just astounding to believe that the agency did not understand the importance of preserving its records — particularly [with regards] to the top officials that might have captured: what they were doing, when they were doing it, why they were doing, it on that day,” Heather Sawyer, American Oversight’s executive director, told CNN.
Sawyer said that her organization learned the records were not preserved from government attorneys last spring, and that acknowledgment was then memorialized in a joint status report filed with the court in March.
“DOD and Army conveyed to Plaintiff that when an employee separates from DOD or Army he or she turns in the government-issued phone, and the phone is wiped,” the government said in the filing. “For those custodians no longer with the agency, the text messages were not preserved and therefore could not be searched, although it is possible that particular text messages could have been saved into other records systems such as email.”
The acknowledgment that the records were not preserved has taken on new significance in the wake of the ongoing scandal over the loss of Secret Service agents’ texts from January 6.
“It just reveals a widespread lack of taking seriously the obligation to preserve records, to ensure accountability, to ensure accountability to their partners in the legislative branch and to the American people,” Sawyer said.
Samsung Electronics released its Odyssey Neo G8, the world’s first 240Hz 4K gaming monitor. At CES 2022, it was awarded the Best of Innovation Award in the Gaming category, receiving recognition for its technological excellence. To explore the features of the world’s first and fastest gaming monitor, Samsung Newsroom takes you through an unboxing of the Odyssey Neo G8.
Samsung’s Odyssey Neo G8 Offers Enhanced Convenience With Matte Display, Ergonomic Stand and More
When you first open the box, the assorted parts, including the monitor, stand neck, stand base and power cable are the first things you see.1
Installing the monitor is very simple.two First, connect the stand base to the back of the product and fasten it with a screw. Then, connect the stand base to the stand neck and fasten the screw on the bottom. Then, put on the back cover and turn it clockwise. The monitor is now ready to be used.
Once assembled, the 32-inch curved shape of the monitor is eye-catching. The monitor has a 1000R curved VA panel, which is a curvature most similar to a human’s field of vision. This curvature intensifies immersion while gaming, making you feel as if you are really inside the world of the game.
The Odyssey Neo G8’s Matte Display was also verified as ‘Glare-Free’ by global safety certification company UL (Underwriters Laboratories), meaning its panel reduces light reflection. The display absorbs surrounding light so the user can enjoy an immersive gaming experience without being hindered by external elements, such as sunlight from windows.
Consoles and other gaming accessories can also be easily connected to the monitor. When the Odyssey Neo G8 is turned on, its Auto Source Switch+ feature automatically detects other devices and switches the screen to the source of those devices.
Plus, the monitor offers a Height Adjustable Stand (HAS), as well as Swivel and Tilt functionality for ergonomic efficiency and Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) compliant mounting.
Unrivaled Speed With 0.001 Second Response Time and 240Hz Refresh Rate
The Odyssey Neo G8 boasts a fast response time of 1ms (0.001 second) (GtG),3 giving users a more vivid gaming experience when playing games that require fast response times. Games such as first-person shooters (FPS) and racing games change screens rapidly, and lag or slow response times could affect the outcome of the game. Luckily, the Odyssey Neo G8 keeps up with the pace and gives gamers the best chance to win the game.
Refresh rate, which measures how many times per second the display is able to show a new image, is also very important to gamers. The Odyssey Neo G8’s refresh rate of 240Hz provides a stable and smooth viewing experience.
The monitor also comes with Low Input Lag to enhance response time. Input Lag is an indicator that measures how long it takes for input from a keyboard or mouse to be shown on screen. The lower the input lag, the shorter the input time and the faster the response time. The Odyssey Neo G8 has a low input lag of 1ms, helping gamers play more accurately in games where every second matters.
The tearing effect is another factor that can determine the outcome of a game. This is when the screen lags and the display becomes choppy due to a communication issue between the PC and the monitor. The Odyssey Neo G8 supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro which minimizes screen tearing and lag when playing CPU-intensive games, allowing users to enjoy smooth visuals when playing games.
An Upgraded Vivid Gaming Environment With Quantum Matrix, HDR 2000 and Amazing UHD Picture Quality
As the Odyssey Neo G8 is the world’s fastest 4K gaming monitor, it boasts a UHD resolution of 3,840 x 2,160. The UHD resolution enlivens the game by providing vivid graphics, making it seem as if the world of the game is right in front of your eyes.
The Odyssey Neo G8 also features Quantum Matrix Technology, which is Samsung’s proprietary technology that controls picture quality. Quantum Matrix uses Quantum Mini LEDs, which are 1/40 the height of conventional LEDs, as a light source for even more precise control of contrast. This technology clearly displays the contrast between the darkest shadows and brightest objects in scenes that utilize a wide spectrum of colors, such as explosion scenes, creating a more vivid gaming experience. It also prevents the halo effect, in which the light from a bright area on the screen bleeds into darker areas surrounding it.
The Quantum HDR 2000 utilized in the Odyssey Neo G8 delivers maximum brightness for a rich HDR experience. Specifically, it provides 4,096 steps for screen brightness adjustments and supports a high static contrast ratio of a million-to-one. Furthermore, the local dimming zone displays the color black more precisely. By capturing the reflected light of an enemy’s movement, the user can easily discover where the enemy is hiding and also notice the details hidden behind the shadows.
Superior Backlighting That Changes According to the Display Color
The lighting on the back of the monitor makes your gaming experience feel more futuristic. The Odyssey Neo G8 comes with the CoreSync lighting feature, in which the monitor automatically detects the color at the center of the display and syncs it to the color of the lighting on the back of the monitor. The monitor can display five different light colors, enabling gamers to enjoy a modern, sleek vibe while gaming.
When gaming in a dark place, the CoreSync feature can blur the line between reality and the game, fully immersing the player in the experience.
Odyssey Neo G8 Leads the Premium Gaming Monitor Market
The monitor’s fast response time and vivid picture quality maximize the immersive experience users can feel while playing a game. These modern features also help gamers be successful during gameplay, making the Odyssey Neo G8 the ideal choice for gamers.
The Odyssey Neo G8 has received positive reviews and is being called the “Best Gaming Monitor” by global media outlets. Techaeris and Trusted Review have raved about the Odyssey Neo G8, stating that it “offers up a fantastic picture and a high refresh rate,” and provides a “stunning, immersive gaming experience.”
The gaming monitor industry has gone beyond simply providing nice screens for game-playing. Products offering highly advanced features, such as fast speed, high picture quality and more, are becoming increasingly more important as they help gamers perform their best. The Odyssey Neo G8 is the top monitor for serious gamers who want to be immersed in the game while experiencing the best in picture quality during gameplay.
1 Accessories may vary by country or region.
two Needs to be installed according to the instructions in the manual. Placing the curved panel alone on a desk or floor can cause damage to the product.
3 Gray to Gray. A unit of measurement of pixel speed. Used to measure the response time of gaming monitors.
Our Geeks wake up brimming with confidence with their brand new looks following their mega makeovers. It’s set to be a huge day.
with the Beauty and the Geek competition nearing an end, they have their final exam ahead of them. Here the Geeks enter the Beauties’ world and go speed dating while the Beauties become trivia masters.
Catch up on the latest episodes of Beauty and the Geek on 9Now.
Teams will put everything they’ve learned from the experience to the ultimate test before the top three pairs are announced.
“You’ll need to draw on everything you’ve learned about each others’ worlds to thrive in this challenge. You’ll be competing as a couple, but working separately,” Sophie tells the contestants.
For the Geeks, Sophie has staged a real-life speed dating event. The top performing Geeks will be those that best impress the single ladies. While the Beauties need to tap into their inner Geek and host their own trivia night. Here they have to write their own questions based on their partner’s passion.
Beauties and Geeks face their toughest challenge yet. (Nine)
The winning team will be safe from elimination and go straight through to the Grand Finale.
The first Geek to try his hand at speed dating is Aaron. It’s a big moment for the Geek who is feeling the pressure about making small talk.
But going into the situation armed with Karly’s advice, Aaron walks into his first date confidently and strikes up a conversation.
There’s one lady in particular who takes him by surprise.
“It actually did feel like I was lost at the moment,” he says.
The really pair hit it off as Aaron re-enacts a scene from titanica with her.
“The old me would have never had the confidence, but it’s now time for the new me to carry on forever,” he beams.
Aaron impresses his date with a re-enactment of a famous Titanic scene. (Nine)
Next up is Chris, and the Yu-Gi-Oh! fanatic comfortably makes small talk with the women at the event. He gets complimented on him for his great eye-contact, which is something he struggled with in the past.
He even builds up the courage to get one of their numbers for a second date.
“That’s something I would have never considered or risked doing once upon a time,” he says.
The final Geek to try his hand at speed dating is Michael, and he has the challenge of dealing with being hit on by some of the women.
The compliments are flowing for the Geek who looks visibly uncomfortable with the situation after recently making his relationship with Tara official. But he handles it like a gentleman and tells the woman that he’s taken.
(Nine)
Over at the Beauties’ trivia night, the girls are judged on their knowledge and if they can pass as convincing trivia nerds.
Karly hosts train-themed trivia and does really well at impressing the crowd. While Tara asks a bunch of questions based on superheroes and does well at keeping her cool.
Tegan has written some questions on Harry Potter, and despite some minor microphone issues, she transcends the room into a wizarding world of magic.
Sophie announces the best performing couple is Aaron and Karly, which means they are safe from elimination and straight through to the Grand Finale.
But before we find out who the bottom two couples are, the contestants head out on their final dates.
In Pictures
The cutest date moments so far on Beauty and the Geek
Bri breaks down over a past relationship.
ViewGallery
It’s a particularly important moment for Michael, who wants to put his heart on the line and confesses his feelings to Tara.
He organizes a romantic picnic in the park and feels like it’s the perfect opportunity to drop the L-bomb on the Beauty.
“I have definitely fallen for you and I can see myself falling in love with you,” he tells her.
Michael confesses his feelings to Tara during a romantic picnic. (Nine)
Without any hesitation, Tara confesses she feels the same way before the pair share a kiss.
“He is very easy to fall in love with. I didn’t think I could ever meet someone that could actually make me believe in love again,” Tara tells the camera.
For Bri and Chris, the Beauty opens up about how much the Geek has helped her grow during the experience.
“He’s made me feel safe, he’s opened his ears when I needed him to listen to me and I feel like he’s really helping me get my zest for life back,” she reveals.
The Beauty gets emotional while opening up about her past relationship and going through hardships, before admitting she feels like he’s helped her get the “old Bri back”.
But the time has come for another elimination and Sophie reveals that Michael and Tara and Tegan and Anthony will battle it out for the remaining Grand Finale spot.
It’s the most nail-biting elimination challenge yet, but in the final round of the quiz Anthony and Tegan manage to take the win, sending Michael and Tara home.
While it is an emotional farewell, the couple are excited to take their relationship out into the real world.
“I definitely feel like I’ve won in so many ways, I’ve had such an amazing time and losing now doesn’t take any of it away,” Michael says.
“I think we have so many more amazing experiences to come, and now we get to go live them,” Tara adds.
And just like that our final three couples are revealed, with just one challenge left until the winner of Beauty and the Geek2022 is crowned.
Beauty and the Geek continues tomorrow at 7.30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.Catch up on the latest episodes of Beauty and the Geek on 9Now.
As the cost of living continues to bite, the Greens Party is increasing pressure on the government to introduce new measures to further help households.
Key points:
The Greens are expected to argue making child care and dental free would save households thousands
The federal government has promised to reduce child care costs from July next year
The measures would cost $182 billion over the next decades
In an address to the National Press Club today, Greens Leader Adam Bandt will call on the government to make childcare and dental healthcare free, arguing it would provide thousands of dollars in long-term support for families who are struggling to pay bills.
“These would be long-lasting changes that would deliver real relief to everyday people battling with high inflation and low wages and incomes,” he is expected to say.
“Better than a short-lived cut to fuel excise that can be wiped out by a profiteering petroleum corporation, these measures would mean people were better off not just right now, but next month and next year, year after year.”
The federal government has promised to reduce childcare costs from July next year, estimating 96 per cent of families will be better off.
Under the proposal, the childcare subsidy rate will be lifted to 90 per cent for the first child and the means taper will be less steep than the current system.
For example, a family earning $75,000 will be eligible for a 90 per cent subsidy, while a family earning $120,000 will receive an 82 per cent subsidy.
Families with a combined income of up to $530,000 will receive some level of support.
Mr Bandt will today declare the July start date is too far away and instead call on the government to go one step further and make child care free for all in the October budget.
The government also plans to ask the Productivity Commission to review the child care sector, with the aim to provide 90 per cent subsidies for all families in the future.
Mr Bandt will argue there is no need for a review and the government should move quickly towards free child care for all and not a heavily subsidized program.
“Make child care free and support the workforce,” he is expected to say.
“We don’t need to wait for another review to tell us that child care is in crisis.”
Dental support would save hundreds
The Greens have long called for universal access to free dental care and Mr Bandt will again ramp up the party’s calls for the government to consider the measure.
Medicare does not subsidize dental check-ups for all Australians. About $9.5 billion was spent on dental services in 2019-20, with the majority paid in out-of-pocket costs.
In his speech, Mr Bandt will refer to figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that estimate each household spends on average $960 every year on dental care.
“The government should also put dental into Medicare, delivering real cost-of-living relief to everyone in the country,” he is expected to say.
The government has previously indicated it wants to expand Medicare so dental care is covered but it is yet to specify a time frame.
The Greens estimate free dental and healthcare would save a family of four about $7,000 a year.
Both measures would cost $182 billion over the next decades. The Greens believe that money could be found by taxing gas companies and extremely wealthy Australians.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration sued Idaho on Tuesday over a strict state abortion law set to take effect this month that the Justice Department said would inhibit emergency room doctors from performing abortions that are necessary to stabilize the health of women facing medical emergencies.
The lawsuit, announced by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, is the first Biden administration has filed to protect access to abortion since the Supreme Court ruling in late June that ended the constitutional right to terminate pregnancies.
Since then, Mr. Garland noted at a news conference on Tuesday, “there have been widespread reports of delays and denials of treatment to pregnant women experiencing emergencies.” The lawsuit argues that a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, bars states from imposing restrictions that would prevent emergency room doctors from treating those women.
“If a patient comes into the emergency room with a medical emergency jeopardizing the patient’s life or health, the hospital must provide the treatment necessary to stabilize that patient,” Mr. Garland said. “This includes abortion when that is the necessary treatment.”
The litigation came as voters in Kansas went to the polls to decide whether to overturn a 2019 ruling by the state’s Supreme Court interpreting the state’s Constitution as protecting abortion rights. The ballot initiative is the first referendum on abortion rights since the US Supreme Court’s decision in late June.
Last month, after the federal Department of Health and Human Services put out guidance to ensure access to abortion in certain emergency situations at hospitals that take Medicare funding, Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas filed a lawsuit challenging the rules.
The new case raises similar legal issues about the scope of federal law to protect emergency room doctors who decide abortions are necessary to treat dangerous pregnancy complications that fall short of a direct threat to the life of a patient. This time, however, the federal government is the plaintiff, not the defendant.
The Justice Department is also seeking an injunction barring Idaho from enforcing its strict abortion law on emergency room doctors, nurses and lab technicians who assist with abortions in emergency situations — including instances in which women face conditions like ectopic pregnancies, severe pre-eclampsia or pregnancy complications threatening septic infections or hemorrhages.
Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion contained a trigger that would allow it to take effect shortly after any ruling by the US Supreme Court overturning its Roe v. Wade abortion rights precedent. Because the court issued such a ruling earlier this summer, the Idaho law is set to take effect in about three weeks.
The legislation bans abortion except when necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman — but not to protect her health — or in cases of rape or incest that were previously reported to the authorities.
It allows law enforcement officials to arrest and indict a doctor whenever an abortion has been performed, regardless of the circumstances; it is up to the doctor, as a defense at trial, to prove that one of the narrow exceptions to the ban applied. As a result, critics of the law say that doctors will be afraid to perform abortions under any circumstances.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit seeks a declaration from a court that Idaho’s law is invalid if applied to situations covered by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act because the US Constitution makes federal law supreme over state law where the two conflicts.
“Even in dire situations that might qualify for the Idaho law’s limited ‘necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman’ affirmative defense, some providers could withhold care based on a well-founded fear of criminal prosecution,” the department’s complaint said.
It continued: “Idaho’s abortion law will therefore prevent doctors from performing abortions even when a doctor determines that abortion is the medically necessary treatment to prevent severe risk to the patient’s health and even in cases where denial of care will likely result in death for the pregnant patient.”
Appearing alongside Mr. Garland, Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general and the head of a Justice Department task force on reproductive rights, said that her working group had been studying the “fast-changing landscape” of state legal restrictions on abortion since the Supreme Court’s ruling. She suggested that more lawsuits were likely to follow.
“We know that these are frighting and uncertain times for pregnant women and their providers,” she said. “The Justice Department, through the work of its task force, is committed to doing everything we can to ensure continued, lawful access to reproductive services.”
