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Sports

All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock draws on 2011 for inspiration against Springboks

All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock draws on 2011 for inspiration against Springboks

Sam Whitelock draws back on his time in the black jersey ahead of another pressure-test against the Boks.

Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images

Sam Whitelock draws back on his time in the black jersey ahead of another pressure-test against the Boks.

Sam Whitelock has seen it all before. Of course he has, over a 134-test All Blacks career that stretches back 13 seasons and some giddy peaks, interspersed with a few gut-wrenching lows.

So, as he ponders the latest predicament ahead of back-to-back tests against the Springboks in South Africa that are not just likely to decide the fate of the head coach – New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson made that tantalizingly clear last Saturday – but indeed tell us a lot about the future prospects of an All Blacks team giving every indication of teetering on the brink, it was remarkable to hear him put things in fairly firm perspective.

The All Blacks’ most capped player said from the team’s training base in White River, just out of Mbombela, formerly Nelspruit in the northeast of the republic, that he knows exactly what to draw on as he looks to do his bit to negotiate a way out of the look.

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The players have held their own meetings, with the coaches, who are left adamant they can turn this team around.

“When I first came into the team we were going into a World Cup at home, and hadn’t won it for 24 years,” he said after the New Zealanders kicked off preparations with their customary “clarity” session. “There was a lot of external pressure, and the best advice I got from senior players was don’t read into the media, don’t worry about all those things, just control what you can control.

“That’s the main thing I’ve been telling the boys – think about yourself, control how you train, prepare and play. It was the best thing I got given as advice, and it’s still true now.”

But Whitelock acknowledged this was a different sort of position the All Blacks found themselves in after defeat in four of their last five tests, and a first home series loss in 28 years.

You have to go all the way back to 1998 for a worse funk (five straight defeats to Australia and South Africa from July 11 to August 29), though 2009’s four losses in eight tests, including a three-game sweep by the Boks, also offers series similarities.

Sam Whitelock: 'I've been telling the boys – think about yourself, control how you train, prepare and play.'

Andrew Cornaga/Photosport

Sam Whitelock: ‘I’ve been telling the boys – think about yourself, control how you train, prepare and play.’

“The pressure cooker is still on,” said Whitelock in response to a query on whether it was good to escape the reaction at home. “As players and as a team we’re always trying to put pressure on ourselves. But it is good for us to be over here. It’s a great time to work on what we need to work on, we’ve got great facilities, a nice training field and close to our hotel, so we can have a little more time on the field to improve.”

Improve they’ll surely need to against the predatory Boks who would have been watching the All Blacks’ descent since they rolled them on the Gold Coast last October with interest. The South Africans are not the team you want to expose your soft underbelly to.

“We’re always looking to get better – that shouldn’t change, win loss or draw,” added the 33-year-old lock who has tucked away 20 tests against the South Africans in his career. “But at the moment we know we have some areas we need to be better at. Conceding a couple of maul tries [against Ireland] is an obvious one for myself as a tight forward. That’s a key area I’m focused on.”

Whitelock talked about the predictable nature of the Boks’ game-plan and cautioned, “they’re smart guys, they play all around the world, and have a number of different styles they can go to… the beauty of rugby is sometimes you know how they’re going to play and it’s actually stopping it that’s the major one”.

Rieko Ioane says the All Blacks backs have to find away to be more effective against the Springboks.

Phil Walter/Getty Images

Rieko Ioane says the All Blacks backs have to find away to be more effective against the Springboks.

He also brushed off any impact his Crusaders forwards coach Jason Ryan will be able to make in little more than a week with the team. “It falls on to us as players – we’ve got to go out there and perform for 80-plus minutes, whether that’s at set piece, round the field, the breakdown, defensively… it’s something we need to drive as players.”

Center Rieko Ioane, coming off a flat series against Ireland, adopted a similar tone of self-ownership.

“As backs, we need to fire as well. We know we’re coming up against a world-class outfit, and we need to get better all over the park,” he said.

“It’s a completely different beast we’re facing this week. The Irish play how they play, the Africans have some similarities, but they’re smart footballers, they’ll see what we did [against Ireland]and we’ve got to plan for their absolute best game.

“Some of the toughest games I’ve played in the black jersey have been over here. Last time (a 32-30 victory in Pretoria in 2018) it went beyond the 80th minute, and we had to dig deep. The hardest games and toughest places to play are the ones you want to be a part of.”

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US

US strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, top Al Qaeda leader

US strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, top Al Qaeda leader

WASHINGTON— President Joe Biden announced Monday night that a US counterterrorism operation over the weekend in Afghanistan killed top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the plotters behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Justice has been delivered. And this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a rare evening address from the White House. “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide — if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”

Two people briefed on the matter told NBC News it was a CIA drone strike that killed al-Zawahiri.

Al-Zawahiri was second in command to Osama bin Laden during the 9/11 attacks and took over as Al Qaeda leader in 2011 after US forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan. In that role, al-Zawahiri continued to call for attacks against the US and its allies.

In 2001, al-Zawahiri escaped US forces when they invaded Afghanistan and toppled the previous Taliban government, which had refused to hand over bin Laden in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Al-Zawahiri’s whereabouts of him were long unknown.

Osama bin Laden and his then-deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Afghanistan in 1998.
Osama bin Laden and his then-deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Afghanistan in 1998. AP files

But US intelligence located al-Zawahiri earlier this year, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters Monday on the operation.

US intelligence officials had determined that al-Zawahiri had moved from Pakistan to a Taliban-supported safe house in downtown Kabul. Al-Zawahiri’s wife and children had relocated there first, officials said. As US intelligence officials monitored them, they learned al-Zawahiri had joined his family from him.

Once al-Zawahiri arrived at the safe house he never left, officials said.

Authorities then spent months identifying a “pattern of life,” tracking his daily habits to avoid civilian casualties, the senior administration official said.

Intelligence officials created a model of al-Zawahiri’s safe house and used it to brief Biden on the risk to civilians, the senior administration official added. They tried to minimize risk to civilians by not threatening the integrity of the structure during the planned strike.

Asked whether Biden would have tolerated even a few civilian casualties, an administration official said there was no reason to expect any. The strike was so precise that it killed Zawahiri on a balcony without harming family members elsewhere in the house, the official said.

Biden was shown the model of the safe house during a Situation Room meeting on July 1 that included CIA Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and Christine Abizaid, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

The president wanted to know the type of construction materials the safe house was made of, as well as potential conditions during the strike such as weather and lighting.

He also pressed officials on why they were so confident al-Zawahiri was indeed at the safe house.

Government lawyers, meanwhile, determined a legal basis for the operation. Al-Zawahiri was seen as a lawful target given his continuing leadership role in Al Qaeda.

When asked Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show whether Al-Zawahiri was planning attacks against US interests, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said: “We do believe he was playing an active role at a strategic level and directing al-Qaeda, and continuing to pose a severe threat against the United States and American citizens everywhere.”

On July 25, Biden again agreed relevant Cabinet officials and aides. He was briefed on a potential operation by this broader group of national security officials in the Situation Room.

The president wanted to understand more about the lay-out of safe house, officials said, and how a strike on al-Zawahiri inside of Afghanistan might impact the US relationship with the Taliban. Biden specifically pressed them on how a strike inside the country could impact his administration’s effort to relocate Afghans who had helped the US during the Afghanistan war.

At the end of the meeting, Biden authorized the airstrike.

All of the president’s national security team had recommended he approve the strike.

His sign-off allowed intelligence officials to take out al Zawahiri when they determined the time was optimal.

Al-Zawahiri was killed in a drone strike at 6:18 am local time Saturday, July 30, or shortly before 10 pm Friday night in Washington.

Two Hellfire missiles were fired at al-Zawahiri while he was on the balcony of the safe house, the official said, adding that no civilians or family members of al-Zawahiri were killed in the attack. The Haqqani Taliban whisked the family away after the attack, the official said.

In his Monday evening address, Biden described al-Zawahiri as a “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks and said the terrorist leader also played a key role in the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

“He carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats and American interests,” Biden said.

The Associated Press first reported that al-Zawahiri was killed in the operation.

Al-Zawahiri’s death comes almost a year after the US completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending the nearly 20-year war in the country following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Biden was heavily criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as foreign allies, for his handling of the withdrawal that involved the death of 13 US service members and hundreds of civilians as the Taliban quickly toppled the Western-backed government and took control of the country.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement Monday that while Biden “deserves credit for approving this strike,” it also shows that “Afghanistan is again becoming a major thicket of terrorist activity following the President’s decision to withdraw US forces.”

The Taliban was not warned ahead of the strike against al-Zawahiri, the Biden administration official said Monday, adding that the Al Qaeda leader’s presence in the country was a violation of the Doha Agreement signed by the US and the Taliban in 2020.

Kristen Welker

Kristen Welker is chief White House correspondent for NBC News.

Ken Dilanian is the intelligence and national security correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington.

Lauren Egan is a White House reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Carol E Lee

Carol E. Lee is an NBC News correspondent.

Zoe Richards contributed.

Categories
Sports

Commonwealth Games 2022: Cody Simpson butterfly result, 100m final, star gives Emma McKeon scare

Commonwealth Games 2022: Cody Simpson butterfly result, 100m final, star gives Emma McKeon scare

Cody Simpson’s impressive swim in the semi-finals of the men’s 100m butterfly may not have been what Emma McKeon needed before she was about to go out and make history.

The singer turned swimmer moved through to the end of the 100m butterfly, continuing his remarkable return to swimming — as well as giving McKeon a scare in the process.

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The 25-year-old will join countryman Matt Temple in the decider after qualifying fifth-fastest for the race, scheduled for Wednesday morning (AEST).

Simpson was sluggish out of the blocks in his semi-final but found his groove to be second at the turn. It looked like he was in danger of being hunted down at death but he held on to finish third with a time of 52.16 seconds.

Heading into these Commonwealth Games it was Simpson’s ambition to make an individual final, and he has done just that – but will be hoping to go even further.

“Pretty wild, pretty special. That was my goal to make sure I got into the final – just relieved that I am,” he told Channel 7 on the pooldeck.

McKeon appeared to be just as relieved.

Asked how Simpson was handling things after she won a historic 12th gold medal in the 50m butterfly, McKeon revealed her heart was racing when watching Simpson race, half an hour before she walked out onto the pooldeck for her event.

“I was very excited for him,” she told Channel 7.

“I get that when watching him and other people that are close to me, more than I do for my own races. I am excited to watch him tomorrow night.”

Simpson revealed earlier it has been hard for him watching McKeon as well this week — even though she has delivered a golden avalanche in the Birmingham pool, breaking the record for the most gold medals ever won at the Commonwealth Games.

Simpson had missed the previous two previous night sessions when McKeon won gold medals because he had been back at his room preparing for his next event.

However, he was there with the rest of the Aussie team cheering her on as she collected her gold medal on Tuesday morning.

“I was watching her back at the Village, 50m free, it was hard because I was trying not to get excited because I had to keep something in the tank for my morning,” he said.

“It is hard, you want to stay focused but you want to be absolutely supportive of her too.

“I feel like every time I look over, she is racing. Ella she has a harder job than I do but she is handling it awesome. ”

Simpson won a gold medal earlier in the Games after an impressive performance in the heats of the 4x100m freestyle relay, which Australia went on to win in a Commonwealth Games record in the final.

Although he wasn’t part of the team in the final, Simpson still takes home a gold medal because he participated in the heats.

In the 100m butterfly heats on Monday night (AEST), Simpson made the surprising comment that he had been able to take it easy in the heats on the way through to the semi-finals.

“I was quite calm,” he told Channel 7.

“Knew I had to get through the next round, tick the box off, try to swim it as comfortably as I could without spending too much for tonight. Quite happy with it.”

Kyle Chalmers was scheduled to swim in the 100m butterfly, but revealed on Monday night he was pulling out to focus on his 100m freestyle final – which he won on Tuesday morning.

Chalmers’ decision to add butterfly to his program at this year’s national championships caused a stir, as it forced Simpson out of the Australian team for the world championships in Budapest.

There were suggestions at the time Chalmers’ butterfly move was sparked by Simpson’s relationship with Emma McKeon, but the Rio Olympic gold medalist fiercely denied that.

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Categories
US

Brittney Griner: Exam of substance in vape cartridges violated Russian law, defense expert says

Brittney Griner: Exam of substance in vape cartridges violated Russian law, defense expert says



CNN
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Examination of the substance in vape cartridges WNBA star Brittney Griner’s carried in February at a Moscow airport did not comply with Russian law, a defense expert testified Tuesday as her drug-smuggling trial in Russia continues amid US efforts to negotiate a prisoner swap for her release .

Among the violations is that results of the examination do not contain the amount of THC in the substance investigators tested, Griner’s lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, said after the hearing.

“The examination does not comply with the law in terms of the completeness of the study and does not comply with the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” forensic chemist Dmitry Gladyshev testified for the defense during the roughly two-hour session.

The defense also interrogated prosecution expert Alexander Korablyov, who examined Griner’s cartridges taken from her luggage.

Griner’s appearance in the Khimki city courthouse marked her seventh hearing as Russian prosecutors accuse her of trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. She has pleaded guilty to drug charges – a decision her lawyers hope will result in a less severe sentence – even as the US State Department maintains she is wrongfully detained, and she faces up to 10 years in prison.

Supporters of the two-time Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury center who plays in Russia during the WNBA offseason have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. US officials face immense pressure from Griner’s family, lawmakers and the professional basketball community to bring her home, and Griner wrote to President Joe Biden pleading with him to do everything in his power to facilitate her release from her.

The 31-year-old sat Tuesday inside the defendant’s cage in the courtroom. The charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, attended Tuesday’s hearing and afterward said the US would “continue to support Miss Griner through every step of this process and as long as it takes to bring her home to the United States safely.”

Griner’s next hearing is set for Thursday.

At trial, Griner has testified that she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis and had no intention of bringing the drug into Russia. Following her arrest of her in February, she was tested for drugs and was clean, her lawyers previously said.

Amid public pressure and after months of internal debate, the Biden administration proposed a prisoner swap with Russia, offering to release a convicted Russian arms trafficker in exchange for Griner and another American detainee, Paul Whelan, people briefed on the matter have told CNN.

Russian officials countered the US offer, multiple sources familiar with the discussions have said, requesting in addition to arms dealer Viktor Bout the US also include a convicted murderer who was formerly a colonel with the Russian spy agency, Vadim Krasikov.

US officials did not accept the request as a legitimate counteroffer, the sources told CNN, in part because the proposal was sent through an informal backchannel. Krasikov’s release would also be complicated because he is in German custody.

“It’s a bad faith attempt to avoid a very serious offer and proposal that the United States has put forward and we urge Russia to take that offer seriously,” Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby told CNN, later adding, “We very much want to see Brittney and Paul come home to their families where they belong.”

Meantime, Griner’s trial carries on, with her legal team expected to continue questioning more witnesses before moving to closing arguments, during which the lawyers will elaborate on why they believe Griner’s detention was handled improperly. Closing arguments are expected in coming weeks.

Griner’s attorneys have already laid out some arguments claiming the basketball player’s detention was not handled correctly after she was arrested February 17 by personnel at the Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Her detention, search and arrest were “improper,” Alexander Boykov, one of her lawyers, said last week, noting more details would be revealed during closing arguments.

After she was stopped in the airport, Griner was made to sign documents that she did not fully understand, she testified. At first, she said, she was using Google translate on her phone from her but was later moved to another room where her phone from her was taken and she was made to sign more documents.

No lawyer was present, she testified, and her rights were not explained to her. Those rights would include access to an attorney once she was detained and the right to know what she was suspected of. Under Russian law, she should have been informed of her rights within three hours of her arrest.

In her testimony, Griner “explained to the court that she knows and respects Russian laws and never intended to break them,” Blagovolina – a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners – said after last week’s hearing.

The detained player testified she was aware of Russian laws and had no intention of bringing the cannabis oil into the country, noting she was in a rush and “stress packing.”

Griner confirmed she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis, Blagovolina said, which she uses to treat knee pain and joint inflammation.

“We continue to insist that, by indiscretion, in a hurry, she packed her suitcase and did not pay attention to the fact that substances allowed for use in the United States ended up in this suitcase and arrived in the Russian Federation,” Boykov, of Moscow Legal Center, has said.

Griner’s family, supporters and WNBA teammates continue to express messages of solidarity and hope as they wait for the conclusion of the trial and look forward to the potential of her release.

Before trial proceedings last week, the WNBA players union tweeted, “Dear BG … It’s early in Moscow. Our day is ending and yours is just beginning. Not a day, not an hour goes by that you’re not on our minds & in our hearts.”

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

correction: A prior version of this story missed Brittney Griner’s first name.

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Categories
Technology

Linus Torvalds says he’s been waiting a ‘long time’ for this Linux laptop option

Linus Torvalds says he's been waiting a 'long time' for this Linux laptop option

zd-software-development-bundle.jpg

Linus Torvalds has announced Linux 5.19, and this time released a version of Linux from an Arm-based Apple MacBook running Asahi Linux.

Torvalds says Linux 5.19 contains “nothing really interesting” and a “lot of random stuff”.

The most interesting thing about the release, according to Torvalds, is the fact he used an Arm64 development platform. Torvalds has been keen on using an Apple M1 MacBook Air, which he’s previously said would be “almost perfect, except for the OS.”

Last year the Asahi Linux project was working to bring the Arch Linux distro to Apple’s M1 architecture. But key Linux maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman (gregkh) predicted it would be difficult, as no one outside of Apple had the official specifications for its Arm chips.

SEE: Best Windows laptop 2022: Top notebooks compared

“For ten years or so I’d be complaining about the fact that it’s really, really hard to find ARM hardware that is usable for development. They exist, but they have certainly not been real competition for x86 so far,” Torvalds said shortly after Apple Silicon announced.

Apple’s Arm hardware and a viable Linux OS for it has changed the status of Arm as a development platform, according to Torvalds.

“It’s something I’ve been waiting for for a long time, and it’s finally reality, thanks to the Asahi team. We’ve had Arm64 hardware around running Linux for a long time, but none of it has really been usable as a development platform until now,” wrote Torvalds on Sunday.

“It’s the third time I’m using Apple hardware for Linux development – ​​I did it many years ago for PowerPC development on a PPC970 machine. And then a decade+ ago when the Macbook Air was the only real thin-and-lite around. And now as an arm64 platform.”

Torvalds doesn’t clarify what Apple Mac model he’s currently using but does confirm it’s a laptop, so it’s possible he’s using Apple’s new M2 MacBook Air but also possible it’s the M1 MacBook Air.

He cautioned he hadn’t used the Apple hardware for “real work” yet, but would now get to try the Linux kernel on Arm64 the next time he’s on the road.

“Not that I’ve used it for any real work, I literally have only been doing test builds and boots and now the actual release tagging. But I’m trying to make sure that the next time I travel, I can travel with this as a laptop and finally dogfooding the Arm64 side too,” wrote Torvalds.

As for Asahi, the project last month released an update that brought support for Apple’s Mac Studio, Bluetooth and M2 support.

Torvalds notes that the next version of the Linux kernel will likely be 6.0 because he’s “starting to worry about getting confused by big numbers again.”

Categories
Sports

NRL 2022, Melbourne Storm v Gold Coast Titans round 21 match preview, team lists, ins and outs, updates

NRL 2022, Melbourne Storm v Gold Coast Titans round 21 match preview, team lists, ins and outs, updates

The Storm got back on track with a win over the Warriors and will look to pick up momentum against a struggling Titans outfit which has lost nine in a row.

A top-four finish will be the focus from Melbourne who face a tough run home with games against the Panthers, Broncos, Roosters and Eels after this weekend.

The Titans are out to restore pride after a horror season and if they are to rattle the Storm’s cage much will depend on David Fifita and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui laying a foundation for AJ Brimson and Jayden Campbell to work off.

A trip to AAMI Park is a daunting prospect at the best of times but for a team low on confidence and teetering towards a second wooden spoon in four years, it’s going to take a mighty effort to avoid a blowout.

The Rundown

teamnews

Storm: Hooker Brandon Smith returns from suspension in a boost for Craig Bellamy but fullback Nick Meaney (shoulder/concussion) is out, replaced by Tyran Wishart. Winger David Nofoaluma has arrived on loan from Wests Tigers and slots straight in to the starting side with Grant Anderson shifting to center to replace Justin Olam, who has tested positive to COVID. Chris Lewis has been recalled on the bench and Xavier Coates is listed among the reserves as he nears a return from an ankle injury.

Titans: Jayden Campbell returns to the starting side at fullback after two games on the interchange so AJ Brimson goes to five-eighth, Tanah Boyd to halfback and Toby Sexton rested. Greg Marzhew is the new man on the bench.

key match-up

Felise Kaufusi v Tino Fa’asuamaleaui: Two Maroons hardheads who leave nothing in the tank every time they take the field. Having spent time away in the USA with his ill father, Kaufusi has powered back with 97 tackles and 257 running meters in the past three matches. The big game specialist will continue to build for the finals and be ready to explode in September. Tino’s Titans won’t be there when the whips are cracking but the young skipper has done all he can to ensure they don’t collect the wooden spoon, running for 153 meters per match and busting 42 tackles so far this season.

Stat Attack

The Storm lead the NRL for dummy half runs with 268, well clear of the Bulldogs in second place with 223. The 1-2 punch of Harry Grant and Brandon Smith out of dummy half has brought plenty of defensive lines undone in 2022 and they are reunited on Friday after Smith’s three-game suspension for contrary conduct.

Categories
Australia

ICAC report says pork-barrelling may be corrupt conduct

ICAC report says pork-barrelling may be corrupt conduct

The ICAC did not make findings about individual grant schemes or politicians, and there is no suggestion that Berejiklian or Morrison were sanctioning corrupt conduct by making those comments. But the watchdog clarified that “pork-barrelling can indeed amount to a breach of the law, including the criminal law.”

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Pressuring a public servant to skew a grant assessment, dishonestly favoring political and private advantage over merit and deliberately breaching the guidelines of a grant program could amount to corrupt conduct, the ICAC said. It acknowledged that a politician may obtain a political benefit from exercising their public powers, but said this must be in the nature of a “side wind” and not their “dominating motivation”.

Griffith University Professor AJ Brown, leader of the Center for Governance and Public Policy’s public integrity and anti-corruption research program, participated in an expert forum as part of the ICAC’s investigation into pork-barrelling. He welcomed the report and said he hoped the NSW government adopted all 21 recommendations.

The report served a “dual function”, Brown said, in helping to change the political culture, but also “strengthening the hand of the public service, and recognizing and enforcing and upholding the expectation that the independent public service will play this crucial role in making decisions based on merit”. Both functions were equally important, he said.

Brown said governments had been allowed to function on the basis that an election commitment was itself a formal decision to allocate money, and that it had the authority of law and satisfied all criteria for a funding allocation to be made.

“That’s not a decision,” he said. “That’s an indication of the policy intent of the government. You can’t outsource the decision-making of government to a political candidate who hasn’t even been elected yet.”

The ICAC’s centrepiece recommendation was for guidelines about grants funding to be set out in statutory regulations, not policy documents, so that a contravention would amount to a breach of the law.

The watchdog also recommended NSW follow the lead of the Commonwealth and enshrine in law a requirement that a minister “must not approve expenditure of money unless that the expenditure would be an efficient, effective, economical and ethical use of the money and that the expenditure represents value for money”.

Anthony Whealy, QC, chair of the Center for Public Integrity and a former Court of Appeal judge and ICAC assistant commissioner, said the report “draws the demarcation line between merely promising money with an eye to political gain” and making a grant “primarily or solely for political gain, or where the public interest is ignored”.

He said the former “may be distasteful [but] is not corrupt conduct or criminal behaviour”. The latter “could amount to misconduct in public office, a criminal offence, or, at a lesser level, it could be a substantial breach of the ministerial code of conduct if a minister is involved”.

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But Whealy was less optimistic that the report would be heeded. “Putting it bluntly, we probably need to see a successful prosecution before this bites effectively. It’s easy for politicians to fool themselves into thinking that they’re acting in the public interest,” he said.

He said the law needed to be changed to ensure that grants guidelines “are published by parliament and that the selection process is reported on to parliament … and we need a parliamentary oversight body to whom a report is made”.

“All those things are cumbersome, but until we get that we’re not going to improve the system,” Whealy said.

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US

Illinois Gov. declares state of emergency over monkeypox

Illinois Gov. declares state of emergency over monkeypox

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) on Monday declared a state of emergency over monkeypox in order to “expand the resources” needed to combat the current outbreak.

“The Monkeypox Virus is a rare, but potentially serious disease that requires the full mobilization of all available public health resources to prevent the spread,” Pritzker said in a statement.

“I am declaring a state of emergency to expand the resources and coordination efforts of state agencies in responding to, treating, and preventing the spread of MPV,” I added.

There are currently 5,000 monkeypox cases confirmed in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Illinois currently ranks third in terms of cases — behind New York and California — with 520 confirmed cases.

Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared a disaster emergency in the state in order to “respond more swiftly to the outbreak” of monkeypox. Some cities, including San Francisco and New York City, have also declared emergencies in response to monkeypox outbreaks.

The World Health Organization has already declared the outbreak of monkeypox in non-endemic countries to be a global health emergency.

Calls have grown for President Biden to declare a nationwide health emergency in the US over monkeypox, with a group of high-ranking members of Congress urging him to do so. Administration officials say the decision is still under consideration.

Local health authorities and public health experts have said that declaring a public health emergency would help coordinate the national monkeypox strategy and allow for data to be more easily shared between states and the federal government.

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Categories
Business

Neutral Bay pub offered for record-breaking $175 million

Neutral Bay pub offered for record-breaking $175 million

John Musca, managing director of JLL Hotels & Hospitality, who is handling the sale of The Oaks with colleague Ben McDonald, said a family office or high-net-worth investor was the most likely buyer of the famed property, pointing to the Smorgon and Kanat families’ investment in the Continental Hotel at Sorrento as a prime example.

“For those that accumulated wealth in mining, media, software, logistics or any other sector, once you finalize a business case, owning an iconic pub hotel in reality is far more fulfilling and exciting than any other form of investment,” Mr Musca said .

The Oaks is best known for its beer garden.

Standing on a 2188-square-meter corner site at 118 Military Road in affluent Neutral Bay on Sydney’s lower north shore, The Oaks dates back to 1938, when it was built by Tooth brewing company & Co. The first hotel on the site opened in 1880.

Its popular garden lounge opened in the late 1950s after being designed by architects Morrow and Gordon.

Extensively renovated in 2019 by the Thomas family, headed by David “Taffy” Thomas, The Oaks includes Taffy’s Sports Bar, Alala’s Cocktail Bar, Bar and Grill Restaurant, the beer garden, a gaming room with 30 poker machines, extensive first-floor function spaces and a bottle shop.

The John Meillon OBE Bar, named after the late Crocodile Dundee character actor, has been popular for years with famous identities and sports stars.

There’s also development potential with the site’s mixed-use zoning and favorable planning guidelines allowing for a development of up to five storeys.

Family representative Andrew Thomas said following a number of unsolicited approaches to purchase The Oaks, the family felt it was the appropriate time to move on.

The Thomas family will remain invested in the pub sector, retaining ownership of the Winston Hills Hotel in Sydney’s west and The Entrance Hotel on the Central Coast.

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No Apex August starts with a lot of people playing Apex Legends

No Apex August starts with a lot of people playing Apex Legends

August is here and with it comes the planned boycott of apex legends. The plan gained steam near the middle of season 13 on Reddit and Twitter among disgruntled Apex players. The hashtag #NoApexAugust gained mobility, with players hoping to force Respawn to reckon with broken legend abilities, hit registration issues, cheating, and more long-standing problems like the game’s audio.

But now that it’s officially Aug. 1… well, it doesn’t seem like many people have actually stopped playing Apex at there.

While there’s no way to tell exactly how many people are playing Apex across all the platforms the game is available on, Steam Charts is a good way to gauge how popular or unpopular a game is, as one of the most far-reaching and popular PC platforms to play games. And according to that platform, Apex is just as popular as ever.

At the time of writing, Apex is the fifth-most popular game on Steam by concurrent players, with over 300,000 people playing the game. That’s almost double the number of people playing the sixth-most popular game, Grand Theft Auto V.

A lot of that probably has to do with Respawn fixing a lot of the issues that #NoApexAugust cited as a reason for boycotting the game. Loba’s teleporter bracelet has finally been corrected, as have the maddening hit registration issues on Wraith when she comes out of her ability usage. The game even may have added a new anti-cheat system in the latter half of the season.

With a new season coming up and a host of map and weapon changes coming in season 14, it seems like the #NoApexAugust movement ended before it actually started. It’s possible that a more concerted effort comes from players as the month wears on, but for now, Apex is back on the menu for August.

Season 14 of Apex kicks off on Aug. 9.