Former South Australian senator, Nick Xenophon, says he is seriously considering a return to federal politics and all because of ugg boots, The Advertiser reports.

Mr Xenophon is one of the lawyers representing Sydney shoemaker, Eddie Oygur, in his battle against US outdoor clothing retailer, Deckers, over the right to market sheepskin boots as “uggs.”

According to The Advertiser, Australia is this week set to lose the rights to “ugg” boots, the only remaining hope being if the Federal Government makes a direct appeal to the US Supreme Court and provides $500,000 in legal funding.

Mr Xenophon said he was incensed by the government’s “couldn’t give a stuff attitude.”

“For the last five years, Eddie has been standing up for Australia to bring the ugg back home, and with it thousands of jobs. It’s about time the Australian government stood up for the national interest and stood by Eddie,” Mr Xenophon, who is Greek Australian, told The Advertiser.

“This should be a no-brainer. Are our political leaders so out of touch they can’t see the benefits of rolling their sleeves up and getting involved?

“For the Australian Government not to stand up for an iconic Aussie product, and let an overseas corporate giant bully Aussie battlers like Eddie is a disgrace. It makes us an international laughing stock.”

Mr Oygur’s legal argument is “ugg” is a generic Australian term for sheepskin boots lined with fleece, made since the 1960s, that should be protected against trademark in the same way companies cannot trademark French “champagne” or Greek “feta.”

If he loses, according to The Advertiser, Mr Oygur will be financially ruined by Deckers, a global behemoth manufacturing ugg boots in China and Vietnam.

Source: The Advertiser.

An aged care business operated by Chris and Gerry Apostolatos, former bankrupt brothers who have been convicted of appalling animal cruelty, has failed to return deposits to the families of former residents, The Age reports.

Chronos Care, which owns aged care homes in Alphington and Mount Eliza, was issued with a non-compliance notice by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission last month, following several complaints from concerned families.

Last week, Chronos Care was also served with a statutory demand to return a deposit of $500,000 which should have been repaid within 14 days of when probate was finalised in April.

According to The Age, Stuart Reynolds, whose mother-in-law passed away at the Mount Eliza facility in July 2020, said he was forced to issue the demand because of repeated obfuscation by Chronos Care management and weak enforcement action by the regulator.

A failure to comply with the order within 21 days could see Chronos Care placed into administration.

“Chronos Care’s management have blatantly ignored their responsibilities in respect of the timely return of our refundable accommodation deposit,” Mr Reynolds said according to The Age.

READ MORE: Apostolatos brothers: Bankrupt chicken growers banned for cruelty run aged care homes.

“They have been contacted by our agents on numerous occasions seeking an explanation for the delay. Their responses have ranged from spurious excuses to outright lies.”

Another family, whose mother died in Chronos Care’s Alphington facility in February 2021, is still trying to recoup a debt of $225,000 that should also have been refunded in April.

The Age reports the late woman’s son had been repeatedly told by the company that it was unable to refund the bond because it was in the process of refinancing and had been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concerns about Chronos Care were first raised by The Age in February, when it was revealed the company was founded by Gerry and Chris Apostolatos in 2014 – when both men were bankrupt.

Chris Apostolatos was declared bankrupt in November 2012 with debts of more than $2.46 million and just $600 in the bank. Gerry Apostolatos owed $2.55 million to creditors when he was declared bankrupt in August 2013.

The pair were also fined and banned from the poultry industry for a combined total of 17 years after pleading guilty to serious animal cruelty charges over the mistreatment of more than a million chickens.

This happened about five months after they purchased the Mount Eliza aged care home known as Ranelagh.

Chronos Care did not respond to questions from The Age.

*Note: If your aged care provider becomes bankrupt or insolvent and cannot give you your refund, the Australian Government guarantees to pay it back to you. This includes any interest due since you left care. This is called the Guarantee Scheme, and it covers all residents of Australian Government-subsidised aged care services who have paid a lump sum. More information can be found here.

FULL STORY: The Age.

NSW has reported 112 new local coronavirus cases on Monday, another record daily total for Sydney’s growing coronavirus outbreak.

The figure is more than triple the highest daily case numbers seen during the city’s Crossroads or Avalon clusters last year.

Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the “vast majority” of those cases are family members of close contacts of existing cases.

Of these locally acquired cases, 64 are linked to a known case or cluster – 41 are household contacts and 23 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 48 cases remains under investigation.

48 cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 12 cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period. 34 cases were infectious in the community, and the isolation status of 18 cases remain under investigation.

Berejiklian said there are a large number of cases and exposure venues in south west Sydney, particularly the Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury Banstown areas.

“All of us want to get out of this lockdown as soon as we can. All of us want to reduce the stress we are all feeling and the future is in our hands,” Berejiklian says.

“It is up to us to make sure we get the word out and whilst three local government areas are where most of the cases are certainly circulating, please know the risk is everywhere in those areas that we have asked for people to stay home.”

New phase of the vaccine rollout in NSW:

The NSW Government will enhance its contribution to the Federal Government’s vaccine rollout to ensure maximum uptake both now, and as more supplies arrive.

NSW will prioritise teachers and aged care workers in the Fairfield, Canterbury Bankstown and Liverpool local government areas where there is greater concern of COVID-19 transmission. A vaccine hub will begin operating at Fairfield Showground this Friday to target these two groups.

NSW Health vaccination clinics and centres will now begin making the AstraZeneca vaccine available to people aged over 40.

NSW will also green-light pharmacies across the state to do the same.

Anyone aged 18-39 wishing to get the AstraZeneca jab, is encouraged to talk to their GP.

Bill Papas, the Sydney businessman believed to be at the centre of a $300 million alleged Westpac fraud, is likely still in Greece, The Australian Financial Review has reported.

This news comes despite his lawyer, Rocco Panetta, telling the Federal Court last week that he was scheduled to return to Sydney over the weekend.

READ MORE: Sydney tycoon, Bill Papas, returning to Australia following Westpac fraud allegations.

The Australian Financial Review sent a photographer to Sydney International Airport for the arrival of several flights, including the only Japan Airlines flight coming into Sydney over the weekend, a flight from Tokyo on Sunday morning, as well as an Emirates flight from Dubai late on Saturday night.

According to the Australian media outlet, Basile Papadimitriou, also known as Bill Papas, was not seen among any of the arrivals who were moved on to buses to travel to hotel quarantine.

The whereabouts of the CEO of the Forum Group are unknown since mid-June when, according to court filings, he claimed to be in a Perth Hospital.

READ MORE: Westpac fraud: Sydney tycoon Bill Papas seen in Greece following fraud investigation.

The 49-year-old is named along with Forum Finance in court documents alleging a scheme to defraud Westpac by presenting false invoices and documents for financing.

The bank says its total exposure could be as high as $285 million and has told the sharemarket it could shave $200 million off the bank’s post-tax profit.

FULL STORY: The Australian Financial Review.

There were 77 locally transmitted of Covid-19 in NSW during the latest reporting period with Premier Gladys Berejiklian again urging people to follow lockdown measures.

Sadly, a woman in her 90s from south west Sydney died yesterday at Liverpool Hospital. She was a close contact of a locally acquired case and was tested for COVID-19 on Friday, returning a positive result early yesterday morning.

“Tragically we’ve seen one older person die and I want to extend my deepest condolences to their families and loved ones and Dr Chant will provide further details,” she said.

“Regrettably, that person did acquire it within the household, within the home setting.

She added, that she expected to see case numbers soar into triple-digits.

“Given the number of people exposed in the community overnight, I’m anticipating the numbers in New South Wales will be greater than 100 tomorrow,” she said.

Premier Berejiklian again pleaded with the community to stay at home.

“To 8:00pm last night, we had over 48,000 people getting tested for COVID. We have to keep that number high. It’s so important, given we had 77 cases of community transmission,” she said

“Now, out of these 77 cases, there are two facts I want to highlight. Firstly, 33 of those have been exposed in the community whilst infectious.”

Of the 77 locally acquired cases, 55 are linked to a known case or cluster – 39 are household contacts and 16 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 22 cases remains under investigation.

Thirty-two cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and nine cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period. Thirty-three cases were infectious in the community, and three cases remain under investigation.

NSW Health administered 15,310 COVID-19 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, including 7,073 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.

Australian tales of heroism and sacrifice by the ANZAC’s in Greece during the second World War unites continues to unite the two countries. To this day, new stories continue to emerge of the battle scars endured during one of Allies’ worst defeats in the war.

ABC News have published the story of John Robin Greaves; An Anzac trooper who beat the odds to survive a Prison of War camp in Greece.

Born in Shanghai in 1914, Greaves, known as ‘Jack’, was the eldest son of a mixed-race family which had made its home in the foreign-controlled Chinese treaty port two generations before.

Escaping Shanghai after defending in the Japanese incursion, Jack sailed to Sydney and enlisted at the recruitment office at Sydney’s Victoria Barracks.

After travelling to Palestine, then eventually Cairo, Jack spent a few days camped near Athens before being dispatched north to Veria Pass, high in the mountains of northern Greece. By early April, the German invasion was underway and the entire Allied expeditionary force was soon in full retreat.

Pinios Gorge, also known more poetically as the Vale of Tempe, lies near Greece’s eastern coast. Defending the heartland from invasion, Greek, Australian and New Zealand troops attempted to prevent the Axis advance on April 17, 1941.

Private Greaves was there as part of what the diggers called the PBI — the Poor Bloody Infantry. His mortar platoon was among those ordered to help slow the German advance, which threatened to cut off the main Allied retreat.

The Anzacs proved to be no match for a combined tank and infantry assault supported by the Luftwaffe’s overwhelming air superiority. The battle extended into the following evening, and at dusk the German Panzers broke through, scattering the defenders.

“Orders were then given to us to retire, every man for himself. After spiking the mortars with grenades down the barrels … we made for battalion HQ,” Jack wrote in a report. “Close behind, a German tank seemed to be aiming its fire directly at me. Flaming onions [tracer rounds] flew past as I ran for my life.”

He hopped into a truck heading south. But in the twilight, the Germans had cut off their escape route. The truck had only travelled a kilometre when a single shot rang out.

“Then all of a sudden hell broke loose … The Jerries [Germans] were in a perfect ambush … Machine guns, mortars and Very lights [flares] turned night into day for a few brief moments,” Jack wrote in his account of that evening. “Before I realised what had happened, Jerry was searching us for arms.”

He was now a prisoner of the Reich. “I felt in a daze,” Jack recalled, “and I am sure my mates did too.” Nine days later, the Germans swept into Athens and following that, the rest of the Greek mainland was overrun.

Although the Germans were victorious, they were delayed just long enough to allow thousands more retreating Allied troops to avoid capture.

As enemy forces streamed south, Jack was marched north to Dulag 183, a notorious prisoner of war (POW) transit camp in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, or Salonika as it was then known.

In a letter to his sister Beatrice, Jack described camp life as being a “hellish … nasty nightmare” where poor sanitation, meagre rations and backbreaking work became the norm. The POWs were attacked by what he described as “all species of body vermin ″ which covered their bodies and the rags that passed for bedding. “Life there was an unbelievable hell,” he wrote.

On June 25, he was among about 2,000 prisoners assembled on the camp parade ground and given rations meant to last the four-day rail journey to more permanent camps in Germany and Austria. As they marched to the station behind a German brass band playing Roll Out the Barrel, Jack knew that the train journey was his best and last chance to escape.

Jack paired up with Private Tom Walker, a fellow digger from his battalion, and they made their way to the back of a carriage near the ventilation hole. At 7:00pm, the train pulled out of the station.

The night wore on and the train crossed the border into German-occupied Yugoslavia. Jack made his move, squeezing through the tiny window and onto the buffers and waited until the train slowed down going uphill. “And luckily, we didn’t jump into anything because it was still dark,” Jack later recounted.

The train stopped briefly and the guards fired a few parting shots into the bushes before resuming the journey without the two escapees. “Kaput! Kaput!” he heard them shout, as if to indicate that the bullets had hit their mark.

Jack and Tom spent the next six weeks navigating their way south from Yugoslavia back into Greece, following the path of the Vardar River valley before heading east towards the coast.

To read the rest of Jack’s story, click the link to ABC News’ profile: https://ab.co/36qTL0X