Source : the age
Blanche d’Alpuget, Australian writer and the widow of former prime minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82.
Her family confirmed d’Alpuget’s death this morning.
She was an acclaimed author of biographies, novels and essays, and won the New South Wales Premier’s Award for her political biography about her late husband Bob Hawke.
She requested her family share a final message:
“Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”
Grammy Award-winning American singer Macy Gray will no longer be performing in Melbourne this week, after workers at Arts Centre Melbourne said they would walk off the job as part of a campaign of industrial action.
Gray was scheduled to perform at Hamer Hall on Friday night, but ticket holders received an email today saying the event had been cancelled “due to planned lawful protected industrial action”.
“Some employees have advised that they intend to stop work on Friday 11 September, and as a result the event cannot proceed as scheduled,” the email said.
“We are working to reschedule the performance to a new date.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has released a statement following news of the death of Blanche d’Alpuget.
Here’s what he said.
With the passing of Blanche d’Alpuget overnight, Australia has lost a true one-off.
As a writer, she was at home in fiction as she was in non-fiction, working in each realm with a keen eye for every telling detail that opened up the humanity of her subject to her readers.
Blanche’s novels were compelling works of verve and originality, and her biographies comprehensive and definitive – most famously those she wrote of Bob Hawke, who became her great love and ultimately her husband.
It is so fitting that Blanche’s final message to us all is this: “Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”
Our hearts right now with her family and all who loved her.
May Blanche d’Alpuget rest in peace.
Blanche d’Alpuget, Australian writer and the widow of former prime minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82.
Her family confirmed d’Alpuget’s death this morning.
She was an acclaimed author of biographies, novels and essays, and won the New South Wales Premier’s Award for her political biography about her late husband Bob Hawke.
She requested her family share a final message:
“Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells has batted down concerns the US viewed Labor’s digital duty of care laws as a form of extortion, following reports the White House had signalled frustration over Australia’s latest plan.
“I wouldn’t characterise it that way,” Wells told News24.
“Like the prime minister said, we’re a sovereign nation, we have the right to defend Australian parents and kids and we’ll do that.”
She insisted she was not aware of any potential punitive measures the US might take against Australia in response to the new laws.
Iran’s military claimed that it captured a state-of-the-art underwater drone from US forces amid ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, but the US dismissed the sea drone as “defective and malfunctioning” and said it didn’t have any classified equipment on board.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting service said in a social media post that the Iranian navy had seized one of the US military’s “most advanced unmanned underwater vehicles” at the “entrance to the Strait of Hormuz during a complex intelligence and field operation and brought into Iran”.
Centcom spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins downplayed the loss saying the drone malfunctioned and was “essentially dead in the water for more than a day”.
It was “an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment,” he said, adding that US operations in “area waters continue”.
Bloomberg
Salmon farming licences have been renewed in Macquarie Harbour on the Tasmanian West Coast, the only home of the critically endangered Maugean skate.
The 10 marine farming licences for fin fish, mostly salmon and trout, lapsed in March. Public notification went out last night that the state’s Natural Environment and Resources Department had renewed the licences in August.
The Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority released data last week showing that oxygen levels in the harbour had declined, which it blamed on rainfall.
Before the last federal election, the Albanese government passed special legislation to ensure salmon farming could continue at Macquarie Harbour without assessment under federal environmental laws, and committed more than $20 million to enable oxygenation projects in the water.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have renamed their long-running animated satirical cartoon series South America ahead of the 29th season premiere on September 16 (US time) and following the show’s Emmy win for outstanding animated program at the weekend.
“Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA,” the pair said in a post to X early this morning (AEST).
“We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount – a Skydance Capitulation.”
Last year Paramount merged with Skydance in an $US8 billion deal. Skydance founder and chief executive David Ellison is the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, who is close to US President Donald Trump, and the company is now attempting to takeover Warner Bros. Discovery in a $US110 billion move.
The Education Minister has blamed plummeting numeracy and literacy rates of Australian students on technology as he called for a “digital detox” among children.
Australian high school students recorded their worst maths and reading results, and 15-year-olds are now two and a half years behind teenagers who went to school at the turn of the millennium, according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey.
“I think you can draw a line between this and the ubiquitousness of technology,” Clare told ABC’s News Breakfast.
The PISA report also found Australian classrooms were among the most disruptive in the world because of distraction caused by digital devices.
“The evidence is telling us that we probably need a good digital detox in our schools. It doesn’t mean that there’s no place for technology. Our kids need to learn digital skills, and that includes AI. They need to know how to use it and how not to use it. But if it’s everywhere, then it’s having negative impacts on our kids,” Clare said.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the party was confident its leader in Victoria, Warren Pickering, had turned his life around as he urged the public to avoid a “pile-on” in response to reports about Pickering’s past behaviour.
Yesterday, Pickering called a press conference in which he admitted he had made mistakes as a young man and had “utilised illegal drugs” including speed, amphetamine, ecstasy and marijuana, after initially denying the allegations of drug use made by his former partner on Monday.
“I think if they’ve moved on, if they’ve turned their life around, then there’s a redemptive quality to it,” Joyce told News24.
“I’m a bit worried about this pile-on … If all of us are going to be held to all our past discretions and behaviour, then let’s have everybody in any parliament give a complete sort of display of every fault we’ve ever had.”
He said he remained satisfied by One Nation’s vetting process for prospective candidates.
Washington: The US has struck multiple Iranian tankers in response to more attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship, according to US Central Command.
It marks the latest tit-for-tat strikes as Washington and Tehran lurch back towards fighting in more than six months of war.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy has warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for US attacks on Iranian tankers.
The warning, carried by Iranian state television, said the US military had targeted several Iranian oil tankers. It accused Kuwait and Bahrain of hosting US forces and assisting in the attacks.
The Revolutionary Guard warned tanker crews to abandon their vessels whether they were at anchor or docked, saying they “will be targeted”.
AP
