Today I was minding my own business, trawling the internet for interesting hotels when I came across the formidably named Special Hotel ‘Crazy’ on booking.com.
And I would like you to come on a wild, frightening and mind-boggling journey with me as we drink in the photos from this utterly bizarre themed hotel on the outskirts of Moscow.
(The words “kiss”, “love” and “sex” give a not-so-subtle hint as to what this room is all about. That’s right: crosswords.)
Oh wait, we have more clues. Turns out there’s a bath on a tiled roulette wheel in the other corner. It’s a Vegas-themed room I guess? Also love the curtain in the corner, for a window that is probably very much wished for, but doesn’t exist.
One of my worst nightmares is entering a hotel room to find someone “in character” in the room. As such I find many of these images rather triggering.
Oh god, no room is safe. REFUND! REFUND!
My friend from primary school had Italian grandparents and I swear their bedroom in the 1980s was the inspiration for this particular room.
It’s particularly charming how nobody quite knew where to put the television.
“I know, let’s put it right next to the very eye-catching reverse cycle airconditioning unit.”
This is either some kind of medieval inn vibe, or a ski chalet, or an Early Settler Furniture showroom.
Oh wait, no, *that* is the ski chalet.
The soccer room is very well done. Especially the way they have strung 900 lights up on the ceiling so you feel like you are in the middle of a stadium. It’s very relaxing.
I finally see what hotel rooms have been missing: A mosaic-tiled face that judges you while you’re on the toilet.
Imagine you accidentally booked this with a colleague on a work conference …
… Somebody is calling HR first thing on Monday morning.
To the right is the door you run screaming through.
Another one that is slightly difficult to nail down. Parisian brothel from a rather poor neighbourhood?
Ohhh… it could be an old-timey dress shop. Or a visual merchandising training facility.
This must be the Presidential Suite, because that room has an actual window. Doesn’t even matter what the theme is. Window! We’ll take it.
… on second thoughts.
Another thing we didn’t realize hotels had been missing until now – port holes in the bathroom so you can keep an eye on your partner at all times.
This has just the right amount of kitsch to actually work. Crank that big old oil heater up and pretend you are in the Maldives instead of on the outskirts of Moscow.
Okay what have we here? Are we in Nepal? India? In a wooden crate filled with items bound for an Ishka store?
Oh, we’re in the Karma Sutra room. Don’t look too closely at the images on the wall, children.
This must be the budget room. Geez it looks nice and peaceful.
So it seems the directions to the rooms are done in the style of an airport terminal? Don’t hate that. Points for originality.
It actually turns out, upon further investigation, that “the style of the individually decorated rooms represent different countries and cities”.
So you have the “Royal – Moscow” room, the “Inquisition – Madrid” (oh so *that’s* what that was all about), and the “Sports – London” for example.
Imagine spending a week there and traveling the world through their different themed rooms.
MSI ultra premium motherboard design for Ryzen 7000 CPUs
MSI X670E GODLIKE from the MEG series is big and powerful. First pictures of the new motherboard PCB design have been shared by Wccftech.
The MEG GODLIKE and its sibling MEG ACE are to offer the best features MSI has to offer. This premier motherboard design is E-ATX form factor with a size of 305×288 mm. The series is based on AMD X670E series which ensure GPU and storage PCIe Gen5 support.
The motherboard is powered by 24-pin ATX, dual 8-pin and dual 6-pin power connectors, one of with dedicated to USB Power Delivery up to 60W. Equipped with 24+2+1 VRM and 105A Power Stage design, it’s a major upgrade over X570 GODLIKE with 14 phases for the CPU.
MSI MEG X670E GODLIKE, Source: Wccftech
There are four DDR5 memory slots for up to 128 GB of capacity. According to the specs that we posted below, this motherboard supports DDR5-5600+ (OC) memory. Unfortunately MSI is not stating the maximum supported speed.
For storage, MEG GODLIKE has four M.2 slots, one x4 slot supporting Gen5 speeds running of the CPU and three Gen4 x4 slots attached to the dual X670 PCH configuration.
Three PCIe x16 slots are available and all of them are Gen5 attached to the CPU. Users can run one graphics card which use Gen5x16 speed or two cards in Gen5x8 mode. The third slot is Gen5x4.
MSI MEG X670E GODLIKE, Source: VideoCardz
It appears that just like Z690 GODLIKE, this motherboard will also feature the so-called M-VISION dashboard. This is an on-board display that shows system information and can also launch MSI apps or play YouTube videos.
MSI is now teasing August 4th as potential full disclosure on MEG X670E GODLIKE and other X670 series.
A spokesperson for Taylor Swift has denied that the US pop star is responsible for “most or all” of the trips taken on her private jet after she was alleged to be the highest-use celebrity by sustainability marketing firm Yard, calling the claim “blatantly incorrect”.
Yard’s survey found that Swift’s plane has taken 170 flights between 1 January and 29 July 2022, clocking up 15.9 days in the air with an average flight time of 80 minutes and 139.36 miles per flight. The total flight emissions for 2022 were calculated at 8,293.54 tonnes – 1,184.8 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.
“Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals,” the spokesperson told the Guardian, declining further comment.
Yard compiled data from the Celebrity Jets Twitter accountwhich automatically tracks certain aircraft, to highlight “the damaging impact of private jet usage” after fans called out celebrities such as Drake, Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner for taking strikingly short flights at a time of profound climate crisis.
In July, Jenner, who is in a relationship with Scott, posted a photo of their respective jets to Instagram with the caption: “you wanna take mine or yours?” The Celebrity Jets Twitter account found that Jenner’s flight later that day lasted just 17 minutes.
Drake attempted to defend his use of a vast private plane – a $185m Boeing 767 that typically seats hundreds of people, modified to his tastes – for a series of sub-20-minute flights by saying that the aircraft was being moved to a storage location and had no passengers on board. One fan responded: “OK but that’s worse, you don’t see how that’s worse?”
While Scott clocked in at No 10 in Yard’s survey, neither Drake nor Jenner featured in the 10 worst offenders list. Swift was closely followed by boxer Floyd Mayweather, with emissions of 7,076.8 tonnes of CO2, and Jay-Z, with 6,981.3 tonnes.
Former baseball player Alex Rodriguez ranked at No 4, country singer Blake Shelton at No 5, director Steven Spielberg at No 6, Kim Kardashian at No 7, Mark Wahlberg at No 8, Oprah Winfrey at No 9 and Scott at No 10.
Private jets emit more than 33m tonnes of greenhouse gases each year – more than the country of Denmark. Their slight passenger loads mean that they are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains. Just 1% of the global population is responsible for half of the emissions associated with flying.
The CelebJets Twitter and Instagram accounts are run by Jack Sweeney, a student coder at the University of Central Florida who has previously tracked the movements of Russian oligarchs and tech mogul Elon Musk, who reportedly offered him $5,000 to stop tracking his movements. “The amount of time and dedication I have put into it is cool,” Sweeney told Bloomberg. “$5k isn’t enough to drop it.”
Yard digital sustainability director Chris Butterworth said: “It’s easy to get lost in the dazzling lives of the rich and famous, but, unfortunately, they’re a massive part of the CO2e problem we have with the aviation industry. Aviation is responsible for 2.4% of human-produced CO2e every year, and research shows a vast divide between the super-rich and the rest of us regarding flights, travel, and even general emissions.”
Yard stated that its research was “not conclusive to the biggest offenders, but the biggest offenders according to the data as presented on the Celebrity Jets Twitter page” and said it was not clear whether the planes’ respective owners were on each flight.
Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis has slammed rivals for “exploiting” the August 1 signing deadline after finals contenders raided the merger club’s outside back stocks.
Bellamy’s Storm signed flyer David Nofoaluma, while the Roosters acquired English import Oliver Gildart’s services for the remainder of 2022.
While Hagipantelis agrees there are some benefits of letting players go on short-term loans — he believes clubs should have to look within for recruits to replace injured or suspended squad members.
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“My personal view is I am not a fan of the transfer system this late in the season, I agree with Peter V’landys that it is there to be exploited,” Hagipantelis said on Fox Sports News.
“The intentions when it was introduced were all very altruistic to assist during the Covid pandemic, but it has gone further than that now.
“And if there is one thing that NRL clubs are good at doing, that is exploiting the rules.
“I think that this late in the season, clubs that are struggling for reasons of injury or suspension should look to themselves, it is a test of their own resilience and their depth.
“I am not in favor of the top four or top eight teams cherry-picking from the bottom eight to enhance their prospects of a premiership, they should be relying on their own assets.
“But as I say, the rules are there to be exploited.”
‘Can’t be repaired’ – Are Manly split? | 03:58
Hagipantelis was also asked how he thinks the fans have reacted to the club allowing players to leave for the remainder of 2022 — revealing the overwhelming response was positive.
“I think it has been understanding, I think people understand that there is a forensic and financial advantage to an NRL club in this loan system,”
“There can be advantages to the player as well to experience an alternate reality and then come back, David Nofoaluma is a perfect example.
“I know David personally, I think it will be very good for him to get away from Sydney to play in Melbourne and in all likelihood play in the finals.
“He is very keen on coming back to the Wests Tigers with that experience under his belt, we see how David plays when he plays for Samoa when he has something to play for.”
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The Daily Telegraph’s Buzz Rothfield revealed on NRL360 ARLC chairman Peter V’landys was set to move to August 1 deadline back to its original June 30 date.
In 2020, the cut-off was moved to assist teams stuck in Queensland fill their squads without reserve grade competitions taking the field.
NRL360 co-host Paul Kent was “disappointed” the NRL didn’t have the foresight to shift the date back, labeling it an “oversight” from powerbrokers.
“The whole thing is a win for common sense, it needed to happen, I am disappointed it was allowed to happen this year, I think it was an oversight that they have allowed it to happen,” Kent said.
How long will Carrigan get for hip drop? | 03:22
“The fact is, this is wrong for so many reasons this August 1 deadline, it is allowing teams to troubleshoot their rosters.
“The part of the game’s appeal is your 30-man roster gets you through the season, and it is the attrition and the endurance to last the season and to get to the finals in a good state of fitness.
“If you can’t do that for whatever reason… so be it, but that is a part of the magic of this competition.”
Fox League’s James Hooper agreed, explaining clubs making late-season signings “cheapens” the values that NRL clubs have stood for.
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It has long been the attitude of the rugby league fraternity that your roster is what you have to work with for that season, and if replacements are needed they came from reserve grade.
Now clubs are able to cast an eye across the competition and cherry pick the best players from teams who will not be playing football finals.
“For a game that has been founded on tribalism, it just cheapens that whole concept because for the weaker clubs, what does it say for their fans,” Hooper said.
V’landys moves transfer deadline | 03:02
“They don’t get anything out of the fact that the strong clubs sit back and know the deadline is looming, know they have got time.
“Look at the Storm, how many players did they go after from Reece Walsh to Adam Doueihi… the list went on.
“That can’t be sitting well with the clubs down the bottom of the ladder.”
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“For those middle teams… they get no benefit out of it, and I actually believe they are harmed by it because they can’t troubleshoot,” Kent said.
“The middle teams are not attracting players and they aren’t loaning players because it is just too tight, they need all hands on deck.
“They were being impacted, it was basically strengthening the top four teams who have the ability to go and pick the eyes out, as has happened, of the bottom four teams and just target their better players.”
The government will expand a scheme allowing Pacific Islanders to work in Australia to include jobs in aged care to help fill tens of thousands of job vacancies in the crises-riddled sector.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphatically back broadening the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility Scheme after former NSW premier and head of aged-care provider Hammondcare, Mike Baird, urged the government to let Pacific Island workers fill jobs in areas where there were critical shortages.
Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, announced in Question Time on Tuesday the government would be expanding the scheme to include aged care.
Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy.Credit:Joe Armao
“Back during the recent very successful Pacific Islanders Forum in Fiji, I visited the Australia Pacific Coalition facility in Suva with the Prime Minister,” he said.
“We met 40 enthusiastic women who were trained to work on aged care centers in regional Queensland from Mackay to Toowoomba.”
He also said the government was expanding the scheme to reduce travel costs for employers, who foot upfront costs for workers, allowing Pacific workers to bring in family members, and improving protections against worker exploitation.
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The Australian Workers’ Union is calling on the government to impose protections after MADEC, a prominent labour-hire firm under the PALM scheme, had license restrictions imposed on it after paying back $70,000 in wages deducted from workers for accommodation. AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said many deductions were “plainly rorts.”
“Most PALM workers work in excess of 30 hours a week and can earn over $800. But their take-home is less than $100 a week after dubious deductions for accommodation and Transport,” he said.
Allegations over wage deductions were aired in a Senate inquiry led by Labor Senator Tony Sheldon.
“This saga sums up why we must be wary of calls for significantly increased worker migration,” he said.
“Unless unions are empowered to have greater involvement in migrant worker schemes, these stories of exploitation will continue.”
Aug 1 (Reuters) – Floods unleashed by torrential rains in eastern Kentucky have killed at least 37 people, including four children, Governor Andy Beshear said on Monday while warning that more dangerous weather is approaching the region.
Beshear on Monday morning confirmed 30 deaths, followed by five more in an afternoon briefing, when he said there would be yet more to come. Hours later he confirmed on Twitter there had been two more deaths.
Authorities continued to work to rescue residents and provide food and shelter for thousands who had been displaced. Efforts have been hampered by weather conditions, officials say.
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Many residents had been unprepared for heavy downfall overnight, leading to more deaths, Beshear said. For people remaining in Eastern Kentucky, he advised seeking higher ground ahead of evening storms.
“It is a continuing natural disaster. We are still searching for people,” Beshear said in a CNN interview. “A large amount of grief throughout Kentucky.”
The National Weather Service forecast several rounds of continuing showers and storms through Tuesday.
Beshear, who declared a state emergency last week, said over the weekend that authorities would likely “be finding bodies for weeks” as teams fanned out to more remote areas.
Days of heavy rainfall – described by Beshear as some of the worst in the state’s history – caused some homes in the hardest-hit areas to be swept away. Video clips posted online showed rescue teams guiding motor boats through residential and commercial areas searching for victims. read more
The Wolfe County Search and Rescue Team on Sunday published footage on Facebook of a helicopter lifting an 83-year-old woman from the roof of a home almost completely submerged. This was part of a five-person rescue.
A flooded area is flown over by a Kentucky National Guard helicopter deployed in response to a declared state of emergency in eastern Kentucky, US July 27, 2022. US Army National Guard/Handout via REUTERS
At least 16 deaths were reported in Knott County alone. The bodies of four children, between ages 18 months and eight years, were recovered Friday afternoon. A fast current had swept them out of their parent’s grip, a family member told the Lexington Herald Leader.
“The mother and father was stranded in the tree for 8 hours before anyone got there to help,” Brittany Trejo said.
Also among the dead in Knott County was Eva Nicole “Nikki” Slone, a 50-year-old who ventured out on Thursday to check on an elderly friend, according to her daughter.
Slone’s body was recovered the next day near home.
“My mom was a very caring woman,” Misty Franklin told the newspaper.
The floods were the second major disaster to strike Kentucky in seven months, following a swarm of tornadoes that claimed nearly 80 lives in the western part of the state in December. read more
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Kentucky on Friday, allowing federal funding to be allocated to the state.
Power lines were widely damaged, with more than 8,000 households remaining without power on Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US. But that was down from 15,000 on Monday morning.
Among the various charitable efforts springing up to help flood victims is one by the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team.
The team, one of the most decorated in college sports, said it would open practice for a telethon for Kentucky Flood Relief Tuesday evening.
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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Tyler Clifford in New York; Editing by Mark Potter, Aurora Ellis and Bradley Perrett
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Maltesers are now the latest victims of the curse of shrinkflation.
Sharing packs – in the UK at least – are now seven lighter chocolates, in a trend which sees manufacturers reduce sizes while keeping prices the same.
The tactic has been used on everything from teabags to toilet rolls.
The packs have shrunk from 189g to 175g – a fall of seven per cent, or seven chocolates – but still cost £2 in most UK supermarkets.
A spokesman for brand owner Mars Wrigley said: “We have been absorbing the rising costs of raw materials and operations for some time, but the growing pressures we are facing mean that more needs to be done.”
Last month, the company reduced its Twix bars by one per cent, to just a third of its original size.
Meanwhile Cadburys slashed the size of Dairy Milk bars by 10 per cent in March.
A spokesman for its owner Mondelez said: “Our products are much more expensive to make.”
Mars Wrigley media representatives in Australia have been contacted for comment.
Last month Aussies were rocked by the news that the price of a snag and bread at Bunnings was set to increase for the first time in 15 years.
A Bunnings sausage sizzle will go up from $2.50 to $3.50 at stores across Australia from July 23, it was revealed, as community groups struggle to cover the rising cost of ingredients.
Last month it was also revealed that Coles and Woolworths will charge more for home-brand milk from in yet another hit to household budgets.
Forest Whitaker reprises his role as veteran freedom fighter Saw Gerrera. Although most audiences likely know him best as the paranoid leader of the Partisans terrorist cell from rogue oneand the rebel who raised Jyn Erso after she was separated from her father as a child, Gerrera actually made his first appearance in Clone Wars animatedseries.
Since Andor takes place five years before the events of rogue one, it doesn’t look like the Partisans have yet settled on Jedha to sabotage the Imperial kyber crystal mining operation, which is why their base looks a bit different in this trailer. Interestingly enough, this is also around the time that Saw abandoned Jyn to fend for herself. She was only 16 when the Partisans abandoned her, and since she was 21 when she died in rogue onethat would mean Gerrera parted ways with her around five years before the film as well.
Does this mean we might get a Felicity Jones cameo when Stellan Skarsgard’s Luthen Rael comes to recruit the group for the Rebel Alliance he’s trying to build with Mon Mothma? Let us know you predictions in the comments!
yes
Stellan Skarsgard as Luthen Rael
We also see more of Stellan Skarsgard’s new character Luthen Rael, who seems to be another character working against the Empire from the inside. In the trailer, we watch him not only meeting with Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma on Coruscant but also trying to recruit Saw Gerrera and Cassian to his new cause of him. It seems Luthen is being set up as a previously unknown founder of the Rebel Alliance, and also doesn’t seem afraid to get his own hands dirty by the way he shoots at TIE fighters in one scene.
Ben Miles as Chancellor Valorum?
Some fans jumped to Twitter to celebrate the return of Terence Stamp as disgraced former Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum from The Phantom Menace. But that’s actually actor Ben Miles (The Crown) as what looks like an Imperial senator whom Mon Mothma trusts enough to confide in.
Yes, from this angle, it does kind of look like Miles is playing Valorum, but we’ve learned in the past few years that Disney isn’t super fond of recasting characters, especially after Only (which wasn’t actually Alden Ehrenreich’s fault, no matter how much anyone tries to spin that). But, assuming Stamp wasn’t interested in returning to starwars, would Lucasfilm have no other choice but to recast the character? We’ll just have to wait and see.
English swimming goliath Adam Peaty has apologized over an “arrogant” interview that followed his incredible collapse at the Commonwealth Games on Monday.
Peaty’s defeat in the event he has owned for 10 years left Aussie legend Ian Thorpe staggered. It was a result almost nobody saw coming.
The world record holder had been undefeated in the 100m breaststroke at major meets since 2014. He had qualified fastest for the final and led the event with 25m to go. However, English teammate James Wilby pushed ahead of him to take the gold.
The magnitude of the boilover was written all over Wilby’s stunned face as he looked up to the big screen to see that he had won. With Aussies Zac Stubblety-Cook and Sam Williamson exploding at the death, Peaty suddenly went from the gold medal position to missing out on the podium completely.
It has been an explosive fall-out to the result with the 27-year-old declaring he won’t be coming back to the Commonwealth Games in four years’ time. It followed a social media backlash over comments that have been branded “arrogant” by fans.
Peaty spoke to the BBC on the pooldeck after finishing outside the medals and said losing in the Commonwealth Games meant little to him after already scooping up three Olympic gold medals.
“It doesn’t feel amazing, but it doesn’t feel bad either,” Peaty said.
“It’ll probably be my last attempt tomorrow, but I’m not bothered about it. The Commonwealths to me, in the grand scheme of things… it’s about two years time (the Olympics).
“That’s no disrespect. I’m still four weeks into my program, I can’t put that expectation on myself.”
Retired English swimmer Mark Foster responded to Peaty’s comments, saying: “I think he’s trying to say it doesn’t matter, but it does matter.
“It’s the Commonwealth Games, it’s a multi-sport event and I think when he was growing up, the Commonwealth Games would have been a big deal.
“But the fact that he’s won lots of Worlds and Olympic Games, maybe he’s trying to play it down to himself that it doesn’t matter.”
The Birmingham Mail reported fans on social media said Peaty’s comments were “arrogant” and “disrespectful”.
“Adam peaty is disrespectful to every other athlete at the Commonwealth Games Acting like he doesn’t care While all the other athletes are trying they best to win medals,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another posted: “Adam Peaty, I think you need to take a deep breath, have a word with yourself and take a look at the para swimmers. Used to really respect you and what you were trying to achieve but feel let down by tonight’s comments.”
World record-holder Peaty qualified second-fastest for the 50m breaststroke final, scheduled for Wednesday morning, behind Australia’s Sam Williamson.
After moving through to the end, Peaty appeared to apologize for his comments.
He wrote on Twitter: “Thankful for all the supportful messages I’m getting at the moment. It has been an incredibly hard time the past few months, but mostly the last few days.
“Sometimes in the heat of the moment my emotions better me and I can’t speak with a clear mind.
“These championships mean a lot to me being a home games but I have to think bigger picture to keep my spirits high. It really, really isn’t easy. My last Commonwealth Games race will be tomorrow.”
Peaty said he simply hasn’t had the time to return to his best shape as a result of a lengthy rehabilitation from several foot injuries. He said he didn’t have the aerobic fitness to challenge for the 100m breaststroke and even said he needs to lose 4kg before competing at the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
He said he has a long way to go before Paris.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Peaty said.
“I don’t see the point in doing something I wouldn’t do that well at, at the moment. We’ll see.
“I don’t know what went wrong. With 25m to go I had nothing in the tank. Maybe that’s overexposure on the foot. Sometimes you just have a bad race, I can’t pinpoint where I went wrong. There’s a lot of debriefing to do. I need a full reset now.
“It was a slow ending, I can’t remember the last time I went that slow. It just didn’t go right. Of course, I’m disappointed, but that’s what makes you go faster next time.
“I’ve kind of lost that spark, whether it’s with my foot, but I’ll be looking to find that over the next months and into the next two years.”
Mining tycoon Clive Palmer and WA Premier Mark McGowan defamed each other, the Federal Court has found, in a war of words over WA’s hard border and a damage claim for a failed mining project worth up to $30 billion.
Key points:
Both Clive Palmer and Mark McGowan were awarded damages
The case related to comments made after the closing of WA’s borders
Costs will be assessed at a later court hearing
Mr Palmer was awarded $5,000 while Mr McGowan won a counter-claim of $20,000, in a judgment handed down by Justice Michael Lee today.
Mr Palmer launched legal action against Mr McGowan after a series of comments made at press conferences in 2020, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Queensland mining magnate told the Federal Court he was brought into “hatred, ridiculous and contempt” after Mr McGowan called him an “enemy of the state” over his challenge that sought to overturn WA’s hard border policy.
Mr McGowan counter-sued Mr Palmer over comments centered on legislation that prevented the Queensland businessman from claiming up to $30 billion in damages over a mining development by his firm Mineralogy.
Justice Lee said when assessing damages, he considered the fact much of the public would already have “well-entrenched perceptions” as to the character and reputations of political figures.
However, when deciding damages for Mr McGowan, Justice Lee said although the damage to his reputation was “non-existent”, “Mr McGowan’s evidence as to an aspect of the subjective hurt he suffered was compelling”.
In delivering his judgement, Justice Lee noted the significant costs incurred in prosecuting this case.
“The game has not been worth the candle,” he said.
“These proceedings have not only involved considerable expenditure by Mr Palmer and the taxpayers of Western Australia, but have also consumed considerable resources of the Commonwealth,” he said.
“Importantly (they have) diverted court time from resolving controversies of real importance to persons who have a pressing need to litigate.”
At a press conference, Mr McGowan said the last thing he wanted to be doing was fighting a defamation action, adding the start of the pandemic was a “highly anxious time”.
But he defended the steps he took in putting in place the hard border and mineralology legislation.
“I’ll go to my grave proud of what we did,” he said.
“I actually think it was one of the proudest moments, that and the hard border, in recent West Australian history.”
The court will reconvene at a later date to assess costs, which are expected to far outstrip the damages awarded.
McGowan, Palmer chose ‘hurly burly’ of political life
In his ruling, Justice Lee referred to conservative British MP Enoch Powell’s remark “for a politician to complain about the press is like a ship’s captain complaining about the sea”.
“As these proceedings demonstrate, a politician litigating over the barbs of a political adversary might be considered a similarly futile exercise,” Justice Lee said.
The judge said Mr McGowan and Mr Palmer chose to be part of the “hurly burly” of political life, despite Mr Palmer resisting characterization as a political figure.
He described Mr Palmer as an “indefatigable litigant”.
The public spat between mining magnate Clive Palmer (pictured) and Mark McGowan erupted at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.(ABC News: Steve Keen)
“This was evidently not his first experience in a witness box … he carried himself with the unmistakable aura of a man assured as to the correctness of his own opinions,” Justice Lee noted.
The judge described Mr Palmer as a generally “combative and evasive witness” who on more than one occasion was unwilling to make obvious concessions.
He also rubbished Mr Palmer’s claim he feared for his, his family’s and his employee’s safety and lives, after the Mineralogy legislation was passed.
“To even his most-rusted on partisans, Mr McGowan would be unlikely to have thought to resemble Ian Fleming’s fictional MI6 character James Bond,” Justice Lee said.
Justice Lee described Mr Palmer’s evidence that Mr McGowan had been given a “license to kill” as “fanciful”.
Feud erupts over WA hard border
The stoush began whenWA shut its border to the rest of the country in 2020, which Clive Palmer challenged in the High Court, drawing the ire of Mr McGowan.
The court heard Mr McGowan made comments about an alleged plan by Mr Palmer to promote the drug hydroxychloroquine, which in the early days of the pandemic was briefly touted as a potential treatment.
Mr Palmer brought the defamation action against Mr McGowan over his comments about the mining magnate’s attempt to enter the state in 2020.(Facebook: Clive Palmer, Mark McGowan)
After a series of trials, it became clear the drug was not effective.
Mr McGowan told a press conference in August 2020 that Mr Palmer was coming to “promote” hydroxychloroquine, when all the evidence showed it was not a cure and was in fact dangerous.
In the defamation proceedings, Mr Palmer argued this implied he sought to harm the people of Western Australia by providing them with a drug he knew was dangerous and dishonestly promoted it as a cure for COVID-19.
Justice Lee did not accept this, saying “it is too much of a stretch to say that vehement disagreement with Mr Palmer’s view conveys that Mr Palmer subjectively intended to cause harm or behaved dishonestly”.
Multi-billion dollar mining damages claim at heart of case
The defamation proceedings also examined a state agreement held by Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy for the Balmoral South iron ore project.
Mr Palmer sought to develop that site in 2012 but was knocked back by the then-Barnett government, prompting him to launch legal action against the WA Government seeking damages for what he said was a breach of the state agreement.
The WA Government then passed extraordinary legislation that prevented Mr Palmer from succeeding in that claim, which was estimated at $30 billion, amounting to the state government’s 2020 annual budget.
Mr Palmer lashed out at Mr McGowan as the architect of that legislation.
Mark McGowan said Mr Palmer’s comments had aroused “anger and madness” in the community. (ABC News: Cecilia Connell)
The court heard in an August 2020 interview with ABC radio, Mr Palmer described Mr McGowan as “an outlaw swinging his gun around to protect him and his Attorney General from the criminal law”.
“What crime did you commit Mark, that you want to be immune from?”
Mr McGowan countered Mr Palmer on those and other comments, which he said suggested he had acted corruptly.
Palmer defamed McGowan for claiming he ‘lied’
Mr McGowan also argued Mr Palmer had defamed him when he claimed he had lied about the health advice he relied on when deciding to close the state’s border.
Justice Lee upheld that claim.
However, the judge said while Mr McGowan was generally an impressive witness, he “skirted” around the substantive question as to whether Dr Robertson, the Chief Health Officer, had given advice to this effect.
Justice Lee noted however that the impact on Mr McGowan’s reputation was “inconsequential”, citing his personal approval polling of 89 per cent and Labor’s sweeping victory in the 2021 state election, in which he increased the margin in his seat of Rockingham to 37.7 per cent .
WA government’s behavior ‘highly disturbing’: Palmer
Mr Palmer responded to Tuesday’s finding by saying it highlighted the extent to which the WA Premier and Attorney-General had conspired in secrecy to change legislation.
This was designed to deprive Mineralogy of its property, according to Mr Palmer.
“Today’s judgment in Sydney from Justice Michael Lee revealed that Mark McGowan and John Quigley plotted between themselves with late-night texts to have legislation changed,” he said.
“It is highly disturbing that this is how the WA government acts.”
Premier’s relationship with media mogul under microscope
The very public spat played out in the Federal Court has also revealed aspects of Mr McGowan’s relationship with the state’s only daily newspaper owner, Kerry Stokes.
Texts between Mr McGowan and Mr Stokes were read in court regarding the introduction of legislation that prevented Mr Palmer from claiming damages in relation to the failed Balmoral South mining project.
A text from Mr McGowan flagged the legislation in question, which was a closely-guarded secret, just minutes before it was introduced to Parliament, saying he would call Mr Stokes to discuss.
Subsequent front pages of The West Australian newspaper featured images of Mr Palmer digitally manipulated to appear as a cane toad and a cockroach, prompting Mr McGowan to thank him for the “marvelous front pages”.
At a press conference, Mr McGowan was asked a series of questions about the nature of his relationship with Mr Stokes.
Mr McGowan defended his decision to let Mr Stokes know about the legislation before it was read into parliament.(ABC News: James Carmody)
He denied Mr Stokes was one of the few people informed of the legislation before it was introduced, saying he had told the expenditure cabinet review committee on the previous Friday.
He said he briefed a number of people before the legislation went before the Upper House, including senior members of the federal government, state opposition, former Premier Colin Barnett, industry associations and groups and a “range of journalists”.
The Premier said he rarely contacted Mr Stokes for advice or discussion around state issues, and could not remember if he called him that day.
Justice Lee also noted WA Attorney General John Quigley’s evidence was “confusing” but he did not believe he was trying to be dishonest.
Mr Quigley later corrected evidence he gave at the trial, while insisting his evidence could be relied upon.
Opposition slams McGowan over trial
Opposition Leader Mia Davies said the trial was a “waste of money and the government’s time.”
Mia Davies says Mr McGowan should have been attending to issues affecting WA rather than spending time in court. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)
“This case wasted time that the Premier could have spent dealing with the multitude of crises on the home front in health, housing and easing the cost of living for everyday West Australians,” Ms Davies said.
She called for Mr Quigley to be given the boot, saying the Premier “needs to wake up and take responsibility for his embattled Cabinet”.
WA Liberals leader David Honey said the defamation trial was an insult to the WA taxpayer, who were “undeservedly footing the bill for Premier McGowan’s bruised ego.”
“WA’s Premier needs to be leading the state, not embarking on unnecessary legal action,” he said.
“The vanity exercise by the Premier has wasted considerable public money but also wasted, as Justice Lee highlighted, valuable court time for far more pressing legal matters affecting the lives of everyday Australians.”
Dr Honey also called for the Attorney General’s role to be immediately reviewed following his “memory failure” in court.
