Federal Minister for Immigration, Alex Hawke, has warned councils against refusing to hold Australia Day celebrations, The Australian reports.
Minister Hawke said the national day should not be defined by “past mistakes” and councils should not be using the day to launch protests.
“It is… very sad to see some councils continue to politicise Australia Day this year, in a range of increasingly ridiculous ways, totally out of step with an overwhelming majority of people and the Australian community generally,” Minister Hawke told the newspaper.
“Councils should stick to their own role and not waste ratepayers’ time or money entertaining extreme views.”
Australians are rightly proud and grateful to have one of the most prosperous, safe and free societies in the world. It is important that we reflect on aspects of our history including the good and bad. However, Australia is not defined by the bad, nor past mistakes.🇦🇺 🏆 👍 https://t.co/qPdu7UcQ6R
A number of Councils across Australia have cancelled or modified their Australia Day events this year.
Melbourne’s Australia Day parade was cancelled for the second consecutive year, whilst other events, such as one held in Byron Bay, have become online events due to COVID-19.
In response, Mr Hawke said the federal government rejected “disingenuous and ahistorical views from fringe councillors designed to undermine what is in reality the luckiest country on earth.”
South Australian property developer, Theo Maras, has publicly declared his support for SA Labor Party leader, Peter Malinauskas.
After sharing a post by Mr Malinauskas on LinkedIn, Mr Maras wrote: “Leadership that looks to the future generation and a team that will work together for the benefit of all South Australians.”
This news comes as a surprise to many as Mr Maras has consistently been a strong Liberal Party donor.
But Mr Maras said he had lost confidence in Liberal SA Premier, Steven Marshall, after he decided to reopen the state’s borders when the Omicron variant posed a serious threat to the state’s economy.
“We needed a plan before we opened the gates, we needed contingencies in case of the worst case scenario,” he told The Advertiser.
“We needed strength, leadership and conviction. That did not happen from our Premier or our government.”
The ABC’s Patricia Karvelas hosted her first-ever Radio National (RN) Breakfast show on Monday with the confidence and enthusiasm of a well-trained professional.
Karvelas took over hosting duties of the much-loved program when long-time host, Fran Kelly, stepped down after 17 years last year.
She told The Guardian today that she accepts there’ll be a ‘period of grief’ for the loss of Kelly, but she’s determined to show listeners “that the show’s spirit will continue.”
“That’s my first project: to sort of steady the ship. When you lose a host there is a period of grief and adjustment that I’m very prepared for,” Karvelas said in the interview.
Once that job’s been done, Karvelas’ next focus will be on ensuring the radio program has a national focus, even though it is being produced from her hometown of Melbourne rather than Sydney.
“This country is big and vast and the experiences we have in it are just so diverse and different,” she said.
Patricia Karvelas (right) took over hosting duties of the much-loved program when long-time host, Fran Kelly (left), stepped down after 17 years last year.
“What I am interested in is the truth and sometimes if you pursue the truth and facts they can take you to places unexpected.”
In a back-to-school plan announced by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet over the weekend, every student and teacher will be asked to take a rapid antigen test twice a week to attend school, but masks will be restricted to high school.
More than six million tests will be distributed to 3000 public, Catholic and independent schools across the state before the start of the term to ensure enough supply for the first two weeks of term.
Students will also be allowed to take part in choirs, music ensembles and overnight camps again, subject to Department of Education guidelines to reduce the risk of virus infection.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announced his back-to-school plan over the weekend.
Premier Perrottet acknowledged that whilst there would be some “disruption” along the way, it was important for children to return to school on the first day of term.
“It’s best for educational outcomes, it’s best for mental health, and it’s best for social outcomes as well,” he said.
In response, the NSW Teachers Federation President, Angelo Gavrielatos, said his members were concerned for the health and safety of students and staff.
"We believe the government should have gone further, making mask wearing a requirement for all in our schools in indoor settings." @AGavrielatoshttps://t.co/Iw8bOHESqP
He said masks should be mandatory for primary school children as well.
“You can’t be vigilant enough with these settings. No other industry requests you to be on a work site with hundreds and up to 2000 other people in sometimes poorly ventilated sites, which are classrooms with up to 30 students,” he said.
“We remain very concerned and we are bracing ourselves for a disruptive start to the school year.”
US academics have used ground-penetrating radar to seek burial sites on Cyprus of people missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion and earlier interethnic strife, AP News reports.
Team leader Harry M. Jol told the Associated Press on Friday that they scanned several pre-selected sites between December 28 and January 6, using a system that creates subsurface images without the need to dig.
Traces of ground disturbance from human activity were found among the half-dozen sites searched, but confirmation of burials would require excavation.
An anthropologist works on the remains of a missing person at the anthropologist laboratory of Cyprus Missing Persons (CMP) inside the U.N buffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, May 31, 2017. Photo: AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File.
Jol said he passed on to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) — an expert group that has since 2006 been seeking more than 2,000 missing Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots — information on where soil disturbance was found.
The data continues to be processed and interpreted in collaboration with CMP staff, while Jol said there are plans for his team to return to the east Mediterranean island nation in the near future.
CMP experts have so far exhumed the remains of 1,114 people and identified 1,023. However, 778 Greek Cypriots and 201 Turkish Cypriots still remain missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion, which split the island along ethnic lines, and intercommunal fighting in the decade before.
There was a lot of action at the Australian Open in Melbourne over the weekend with Maria Sakkari being eliminated from the tournament, whilst the ‘Special K’s’ (Nick Kyrgios and Thanasis Kokkinakis) and Stefanos Tsitsipas progressed to their next rounds.
Here is The Greek Herald‘s rundown of this weekend’s matches:
Stefanos Tsitsipas beats Paire without realising it:
Stefanos Tsitsipas fought off Benoit Paire to reach the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday with a tough 6-3 7-5 6-7(2) 6-4 win.
But in a funny turn-of-events, Tsitsipas appeared not to realise the game was over after converting match point.
Paire dunked a forehand into the net on the first of three match points when serving to stay in the match, but fourth seed Tsitsipas walked to the back of the court rather than approach the net.
The Greek turned around at the baseline with a look of surprise on his face, before walking forward to acknowledge Paire.
“I’m pretty glad with that win, Benoit is someone I say is one of the biggest stars in our game,” Tsitsipas, who is a former semi-finalist at Melbourne Park, said in his post-match interview.
Tsitsipas.
Having held Paire at bay at Rod Laver Arena, the Greek crumbled in the third set tiebreak to let the Frenchman back into the match.
Paire kept in touch to 4-4 in the fourth set before conceding the match points with a double-fault.
Tsitsipas will meet with American Taylor Fritz today for a place in the quarter-finals.
Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis continue dream doubles run:
Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis have stormed into the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles draw at the Australian Open.
The Australians took down 15th seeds Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 inside a packed Kia Arena.
At one set apiece, the deciding third was on a knife’s edge until the Australian duo got a break of serve in the fifth game.
Later at 5-4, Kyrgios served for the match, before Kokkinakis iced the victory with a brilliant backhand volley at the net that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
The pair took to the court in the wake of Kyrgios’s claim he and Kokkinakis were threatened with violence following their win over number one seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic on Friday.
Photo: Twitter / Australian Open.
In what was an upset second-round result, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis defeated the Croatian pairing 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
Now Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will play sixth seeds Tim Pütz and Michael Venus in the quarter-finals.
Maria Sakkari eliminated at Australian Open:
Fifth-seed Maria Sakkari crashed out of the Australian Open on Sunday, losing in straight sets, 6-7 (0-7), 3-6 to Jessica Pegula of the United States.
Sakkari was trying to reach her first Australian Open Quarterfinal but could not overcome Pegula, losing to her for the first time in their three encounters.
The first set was fairly even until Pegula dominated the tie-break, winning without conceding a point. Pegula jumped into an early lead in the second, going up 5-2.
Sakkari held serve in the next game and tried hard for a break in the ninth, staving off a match point, but Pegula held to advance to her second consecutive quarterfinal in the competition.
More borders are closing to Australian travellers as the Omicron variant causes one of the biggest surges of COVID-19 cases in the world.
The United States and Europe have this week both downgraded Australia’s travel safety rating, making it significantly harder for Australians to visit.
In an official directive, the European Council listed Australia, Canada and Argentina as “COVID-19 danger zones” due to surging Omicron case numbers, and they were removed from the EU’s travel white list.
The directive, which applies regardless of vaccination status, means people wanting to undertake non-essential travel to Europe from Australia could face restrictions ranging from a total ban on entry to having to quarantine or face extra testing requirements.
Greece dissented from the European Council’s decision to ban Australian travellers.
Cyprus, Greece and Italy dissented from the European Council’s decision to ban Australian travellers.
This comes as the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also issued a warning to avoid travel to Australia, listing the country as “Level 4: Very High Level of COVID-19.
The CDC places a destination at level four when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.
The Chief Executive and Founder of Flight Centre, Graham Turner, told The Sydney Morning Herald that although he was taken aback by these developments, he was confident the restrictions would be lifted quickly as case numbers stabilise in Australia.
Australia is listed as red on the CDC map.
“Things will open up fairly quickly… I will be surprised if most countries have many restrictions after [the next few weeks or months],” Mr Turner said.
These restrictions come just as it has now become easier for Australians to get home.
International arrivals no longer need a PCR test to enter Australia, instead a rapid test within 24 hours of departure will be accepted.
If travellers contract COVID-19 overseas, they only have to wait seven days instead of 14 before flying home.
— Ελεύθερα Βουνά χωρίς αιολικά (@savegreekmounts) January 23, 2022
Later, the snowfall extended to eastern portions of the mainland, including the Athens region, as well as the Cyclades islands and Crete.
This extreme weather comes as the Elpis weather front travels across Greece, bringing with it low temperatures, heavy snowfall and gale force winds.
According to Ekathimerini, temperatures throughout Greece gradually fell from Saturday, with highs of no more than to 3 degrees Celsius expected from Monday to Wednesday. There will be heavy frost, especially in the central and northern regions of the country.
The cold snap will also see schools shut on Monday and Tuesday in the Attica region – which includes the capital Athens.
Χιονίζει στη Σαντορίνη, ασπρισε ο Σκάρος κ εμείς στην Αθήνα περιμένουμε την ελπίδα να φανεί pic.twitter.com/tysqxntZfS
Businesses across New South Wales are struggling in the wake of the Omicron wave, with many feeling like they are in a “de facto” lockdown.
One of these businesses is Helen Psarakis’ Impress Laundry Dry Cleaning, which has a shopfront at Bondi Beach and a cleaning service based in Banksmeadow.
The business has had its turnover decimated as customers continue to work from home and don’t need to wash business wear. There’s also the constant cancellation of social events.
Sydney has experienced a ‘de facto’ lockdown.
Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Psarakis said the business had already been doing it tough through two lockdowns since 2020, but recent weeks have provided no reprieve.
“I think people are tending to be cautious and holding back on doing any unnecessary cleaning of garments, particularly those they would normally wear to evening functions,” Ms Psarakis said.
Ms Psarakis’ business partner, Debbie Moore, added that the cost of coat hangers, chemicals, electricity and other services had increased while revenue had plummeted.
Paul Nicolaou agrees businesses have been struggling.
“The governments can easily say we’ve got to continue, but life doesn’t continue. This is a Clayton’s lockdown,” Ms Moore said.
The Executive Director of Business Sydney, Paul Nicolaou, agreed that small businesses were “hurting very badly due to a self-imposed lockdown where customers are choosing to stay away and shop online out of fear of catching Omicron or because they are isolating or recovering from it.”
In response, Mr Nicolaou said the NSW government could reintroduce a form of funding like the previous Job Saver assistance package.
Inspired by long afternoons enjoying playing backgammon with his father and powered by pulverised coffee, the Director of OASIS Coffee, Chris Togias, has created custom backgammon boards.
Dating back over 5000 years, backgammon is steeped in a rich history and in order to preserve this tradition, OASIS Coffee engaged Greek-based craftsmen, Manopoulos, to create their custom boards.
The final product is of superb craftmanship and created in the Oasis signature style, with inspiration drawn from the whitewashed architecture of Greece and OASIS’ signature blue.
Available in traditional and travel sizes, these premium board games are set to become a treasured family favourite activity that brings together generations.
They are limited edition though so don’t forget to shop NOW at the OASIS bean store or online, strictly while stocks last.
Hot Tip? Backgammon is best played whilst enjoying a pulverised OASIS coffee.
