Johnny Depp releases a revenge track and Grace Tame's charity ascends
All the news that's fit to mint.
All the news that's fit to mint.
What's happening in (The) Oz today:
☯️ Wong and Wang not yet yin and yang
💊 Antivirals for everyone (kind of)
🐥 This Elon-Twitter thing is exhausting
🤑 Albo does Grace Tame a solid
🏝 Victoria could get another public holiday
💰 Johnny Depp's donation to Aussie kids
🛩 Europe's dodgiest airline is now...the best?
🎾 Australia claims men's doubles crown
👠 Maybe Mariah Carey should consider flats
Good morning!
Novak Djokovic has claimed his seventh Wimbledon title, defeating Nick Kyrgios. The scoreboard read 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 but it doesn't reflect the thrilling closeness of the match.
After the game, Nick Kyrgios, who faces assault charges back home, wore a red hat to receive his trophy, in defiance of Wimbledon's all-white rules.
Djokovic says what the pair share is "officially a bromance", with Kyrgios inviting Djokovic to "go nuts" at a nightclub together.
Wong and Wang
It hasn't been a great weekend for the legacy of the former Federal government.
New(ish) Foreign Affairs minister Penny Wong met with her Chinese government counterpart following that G20 Foreign Affairs meeting in Bali and was told the previous government (the one led by Scott Morrison) was the "root cause" of our Ross and Rachel style break up/ diplomatic break down.
The Australian reports the CCP's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Wong that China was willing to "re-examine and re-calibrate" the bilateral relationship "based on mutual respect".
"The root cause of the difficulties in bilateral relations over the past few years was the former Australian government’s insisting on regarding China as a rival or even a threat, allowing its words and deeds being irresponsible against China," Wang said during the first Australian-Chinese government meeting in three years, according to China’s official newsagency, Xinhua.
The CCP then delivered a four-point plan to fix it:
- Australia must treat China as a “partner rather than a rival".
- Australia and China "must seek common ground while shelving differences".
- Australia "must reject manipulation by a third party" (👀 the United States).
- We have to build "public support featuring positiveness and pragmatism" together.
Following the meeting, Wong said: "It's a first step for both our nations" adding "We've got a path to walk."
She said the Australian government was attempting to “stabilise” relations which would “take time and work”.
For fun, we went skipping down memory lane to find Penny Wong's maiden speech:
More Covid protection that doesn't involve needles
Health Minister Mark Butler announced at the weekend that elderly Aussies with Covid will get access to antiviral meds they can take at home rather than having to head into a hospital for the treatment.
The move comes as we've been told for some time now to expect a third Covid wave before the end of winter.
Access to antiviral medication has been sticky for most people given to get them you have to have your GP sign 'em off if you have pre-existing health conditions, are immunocompromised or are senior. Which meant the 1.3m doses the former government ordered have just been sitting in warehouses collecting dust.
"If you're over 50, you'll have to show you've got a couple of risk factors that make you particularly vulnerable to severe Covid,” Butler said.
Butler said If you're over 70, you will have automatic access to them on the PBS, which will see you pay about $6 for a round.
The treatment would usually cost more than $1000 for the two antivirals.
Butler said he will next investigate extending the 18-month shelf life of the tablets.
And if you're under 30 and feeling like you're missing out on the new booster, you should read this.
Elon's gone cold...again
Father of nine, Elon Musk, has withdrawn his interest in buying Twitter.
His bid to take over the social media cesspit was due to cost him about $64bn but has become embroiled in more drama over the weekend when he left a post-it for Twitter board basically saying "I'm sorry. I can't. Don't hate me."
Once news the Tesla CEO terminated the acquisition, the share price and Twitter's executives freaked out.
On Friday in the US, shares of Twitter fell 5% to $US36.81, well below the $US54.20 that Musk had offered to pay. But shares of Tesla climbed 2.5% to $US752.29.
Much of the drama has played out on Twitter, with Musk - the world's richest bloke who has more than 95m followers - lamenting the company is failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech and isn't doing enough to combat bots and fake accounts.
Twitter's CEO Bret Taylor has responded by saying Twitter will now take legal action to ensure the deal goes ahead.
The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
— Bret Taylor (@btaylor) July 8, 2022
Grace Tame's charity gets some charity
The Grace Tame Foundation has been granted tax-free status.
The foundation was established by Tame in order to support victims of childhood sexual abuse, the same kind she was subjected to.
According to reports, its charity status was held back for nearly a year as it was waiting for approval from the former Federal government helmed by Morrison.
At the weekend, the new Albanese government confirmed it has been a charity for tax purposes since July 1.
New Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth and Assistant Charities Minister Andrew Leigh took six weeks to grant deductible gift recipient (DGR) status on the Register of Harm Prevention Charities after a “rigorous approvals process”.
Leigh said the extraordinary delay in approving the status was politically motivated.
Rishworth described the foundation as “an incredibly deserving charity”.
The foundation applied for DGR status on July 14, 2021.
Charities benefit from the classification as it's easier to fundraise when donations of more than $2 are tax deductible.
Tame is the CEO and executive director. Her partner Max Heerey is an executive director, and #letherspeak campaign founder, advocate and award-winning journalist Nina Funnell sits on its advisory panel.
"The former Coalition government did not approve the foundation’s charity application for 44 weeks, during which time Ms Tame claimed publicly that she had been threatened that if she didn’t support Mr Morrison, the former government would not support the foundation," The Daily Telegraph reported.
Another day off is on the cards
Victorians could soon be given a public holiday in recognition of NAIDOC week under a new plan to celebrate the history and culture of its First Nations peoples.
As this year’s NAIDOC Week comes to a close, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria have launched an official petition calling for a recognised public holiday to promote lasting change and a commitment to creating better cooperation in the state.
"We have public holidays for horse races, invasions, footy games, wars and the birthday of foreign monarchs, but we don’t have a day to share and celebrate the history and culture of First Peoples," the online petition states.
Assembly Co-Chair and Bangerang and Wiradjuri Elder, Aunty Geraldine Atkinson, said the day of celebration would be a chance for "unification and education".
Johnny Depp's deep pockets
Amidst all the drama of his defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp has pledged to donate the proceeds made from the sale of an NFT of Heath Ledger to Perth Children's Hospital.
The NFT, created by Depp, was for his Never Fear Truth artwork collection.
He said he will release more than 10,000 unique NFTs drawn from his paintings of friends and personal heroes in order to raise money for charities. So far he's pledged more than $1.17m.
The donation to the Perth hospital - the amount yet to be confirmed - was inspired by Ledger's family, who still reside in WA.
News of his philanthropy comes as reviews for his latest body of work start hitting news stands.
Depp has recorded an album with Jeff Beck, the singer he toured with during the trial.
Depp wrote two of the songs.
The Times of London has had a listen to the record titled 18, which will be released this week.
Here's a snippet of the review:
"'Erased by the same world that made her a star,' he coos on one, This is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr. 'Spun out of beauty, trapped by its web.' He sounds really sad. On the chorus, Depp sings, 'I don’t believe in humans any more,' as strings swell. And, yes, he has had a few tough years. But then, as we heard in the court case, he did text his fellow actor Paul Bettany and say, of Heard, “I will f.... her burnt corpse.' And that did not make me believe in humans any more either.
"Hedy Lamarr was an extraordinary woman who fled Austria in 1937 to become a Hollywood star and invented a radio signal system that would eventually lead to the creation of Bluetooth. One night, I assume, Depp read her Wikipedia page and, as any rampant narcissist would, took a woman battling the odds and made her story about himself."
Ryanair gets the last laugh
In the past two months, Virgin has overtaken Qantas on reliability.
According to data from Canberra's Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics, back in May Qantas averaged an on-time arrival rate of 60.7% and a 71% cancellation rate.
Virgin, which operates two-thirds of the volume of domestic flights, arrived as scheduled 65.7% of the time and had a 5% cancellation rate.
It's not just our domestic travel sector that is a mess. Airports across Europe are equally as traumatic, troubled and tiresome.
Through the cancelled flight chaos and lost luggage that has turned parts of London's Heathrow into a Strandbags store, Ryanair has emerged as a phoenix rising through the ashes.
In case you haven't had the previous displeasure of flying to and from continental Europe on board a Ryanair plane, it's become shorthand for surprise surcharges, uncomfortable seats, and unreasonable customer service.
"But amid the airport chaos since families rebooted their holiday plans at Easter, Ryanair is quietly gaining a new reputation among travellers as the most reliable post-Covid airline," according to data collated by Eurocontrol.
In June easyJet cancelled 741 flights, the plush British Airways canned 421, Ryanair just 25.
In May, it cancelled just four.
In April, three. EasyJet cancelled about 400 flights in both months; BA scrapped 784 in April.
M-Squared
There are some new kings on the throne of men's doubles tennis and they're from Australia.
Matt Ebden and Max Purcell won at Wimbledon, becoming the first men's duo to win the Championships since The Woodies - Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde - in 2000.
Pray for Mariah's phalanges
Mariah Carey was front row at the Dolce & Gabbana haute couture show held in Italy over the weekend.
She was paraded around for the press pack by the designers then rubbed shoulders with other VIP guests like Helen Mirren and Drew Barrymore.
Carey obviously always looks $1m bucks so why does it always appear she's wearing shoes that cost $1?
This is her second public appearance where she's needed assistants to walk.
Just a few weeks ago Big Latto bought her out on stage to perform her award-winning ditty "Big Energy" at the BET Awards where Carey needed help to walk in the similar fashion that most women wearing synthetic heels that are too tall also do.
Unfortunately, the stupid shoe trend is set to take hold. Our new Lord and Saviour Anne Hathaway was spotted in these stilts at the Valentino show (sans walking aides).
Meghan Markle’s favourite face gym is opening in Australia, Greta Thunberg publishes Andrew Tate’s contact details
All the news that's fit to mint.
Emily Ratajkowski joins the competitive world of online dating, Nick Kyrgios quits at the last minute
All the news that's fit to mint.