The Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, has expressed regret over the donations scandal that has beset his first weeks in office but rejected a fresh allegation that he may have committed perjury in statements made to the UK Covid inquiry concerning deleted messages.
In an interview with the Guardian, Gething said it was important not to “get lost” in controversy that drew attention away from the business of running Wales and winning the general election. He vowed to show “resilience” in the face of attacks on him.
Asked if he regretted taking the donation, Gething said: “I really do regret the impact it has had on so many people.” He said he was trying to draw a line under the issue by asking the Senedd’s standards of conduct committee to look at the issue of political donations and make sure they are “robust, transparent and have the confidence of the public”.
Gething said he had followed the rules in accepting the donation and wanted to focus on the job of governing Wales and preparing for the general election. He said: “We’ve got to not get lost in a story that has importance but actually takes us away from our mainstream business.”
This week, however, the pressure was ratcheted up bythe emergence of an exchange with fellow Labour members from the time of the pandemic when Gething was health minister in which he said he was going to delete iMessages. He wrote: “I’m deleting the messages in this group. They can be captured in an FoI [freedom of information request] and I think we are all in the right place on the choice being made.”
The UK Covid inquiry is considering whether to seek more information from Gething over the exchange, and a bereaved family support group expressed anger. In the Senedd on Tuesday, the Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, suggested Gething may have committed perjury in his evidence to the inquiry when he addressed the issue of how information from the period was retained.
Gething called the idea that he may have committed perjury “obnoxious”. He told the Guardian he had not deleted any messages that related to decisions made by the Welsh government during Covid. He said the iMessages, leaked to the news service Nation Cymru, related to “unkind comments” that were potentially embarrassing made on a group following a Labour group meeting.
The first minister said: “This is actually about not saying things that are embarrassing as opposed to trying to hide Covid decision-making. I stand by everything I’ve said both about how my devices were managed [and] the information that’s been provided.”
Asked if it was worrying that the messages had been leaked, he said: “It’s obviously concerning that a photo of a message from nearly four years ago has been provided to a journalist but that’s what happens and part of the job is you need to be resilient enough to deal with that.” He said there was “mischief” in how the messages had been presented and he had sent the full exchange to the UK Covid inquiry.
Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, said: “Yet more obfuscation from Vaughan Gething. His explanations simply don’t stack up. He explained that the messages were just Labour group business. But if that was the case then FoI requests wouldn’t apply.”
Marsh-Rees said: “We must know why Welsh government didn’t disclose this [iMessage] group chat to the inquiry before the Cardiff hearing. It’s imperative that we have access these chats in their entirety.”
The Welsh Conservatives said the “cloak and dagger decision-making in the Labour Welsh government” was clear to see.
The former Welsh Labour minister Leighton Andrews said: “Every day there is a new story about the first minister. It’s distracting from the task of government and it’s highly damaging to the Labour party. All these issues involve questions of principle and of judgment.”
The latest developments come as the Senedd celebrates its 25th anniversary and on Wednesday was voting on expanding the size of the parliament from 60 to 96 members and bringing in a new electoral system.
André Onana Of all the Ajax players, perhaps Onana has been on the wildest ride since 2019. Just over two years separated a 2021 doping suspension after a positive test for Furosemide – a substance he says was his wife’s and taken mistakenly – and his appearance in the 2023 Champions League final with Internazionale. A £44.1m move to Manchester United followed, where form and fortunes have fluctuated for both club and Cameroon.
Noussair Mazraoui An Ajax transfer fumble, Mazraoui left for free on expiry of his contract in 2022, joining Bayern Munich. Can play full-back on either flank, and was a key part of Morocco’s run to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals, but the 26-year-old has not flourished in Germany, and could be sold in this summer, albeit for a significant profit.
Joël Veltman Brighton activated a preposterously low release clause of €1m to bring Veltman to the Premier League in 2020. Brighton have had lots of exciting full-backs but Veltman, nicknamed Mr Consistent, remains a vital cog on the south coast. Still wears the No 34 in tribute to Abdelhak Nouri, his former Ajax teammate.
Joël Veltman is a fan favourite for Brighton after moving to the south coast in 2020. Photograph: Robin Jones/AFC Bournemouth/Getty Images
Matthijs de Ligt Captain of Ajax at just 19, De Ligt was arguably the most coveted of their players in 2019. Juventus won his signature that summer, for a cool €75m, before a similar move to Bayern three years later. “If I ever get the chance to return to Ajax, I would like to do it,” revealed De Ligt in an interview this week, before joking: “with the whole side from 2019”.
Daley Blind Few expected that Blind’s career would gain traction after he left Manchester United in 2018, but that is exactly what has happened: four league titles, deep runs in the Champions League and stints at Bayern and La Liga’s surprise package Girona. Was fitted with a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator after being diagnosed with a heart condition.
Nicolás Tagliafico Regarded as one of Europe’s best left-backs at Ajax, his club career has stagnated somewhat at Lyon, but he has retained his place in the Argentina squad which romped to the Copa América title in 2021 and World Cup glory in 2022. Tagliafico played a key part in both finals.
Donny van de Beek One of the shining lights of this Ajax team, Van de Beek’s career has nosedived since he joined Manchester United in 2022 for £35m, including disappointing loans at Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt. He had a daughter (born 2022) and a son (this year) with Estelle Bergkamp, daughter of Dennis.
David Neres Ajax signed the Brazilian in the summer of 2019 amid interest from England and Spain but Neres lost his place under Erik ten Hag and was sold to Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2022, one month before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Neres safely made it out of the country in March 2022 and secured a move to Benfica, but is yet to discover his best form.
Dusan Tadic The former Southampton playmaker is maybe the single biggest reason why Ajax made it to the semi-finals; his goal and two assists in their 4-1 win at Real Madrid made him only the ninth player to earn a 10 out of 10 match rating from L’Équipe. After five brilliant years at Ajax, Tadic left for Fenerbahce last year but the 35-year-old retains legendary status in Amsterdam.
Lasse Schöne Left Ajax for Genoa that summer for €1.5m and endured a torrid time in Italy as Covid took hold. When football resumed in 2020, Schöne remained frozen out of Genoa’s squad, prompting his agent to announce he was “taking legal action” against the club. Now Schöne is back at NEC in the Netherlands at 37 years old, where he made his name before signing for Ajax in 2012.
Frenkie de Jong Possibly the only star from this team who has fully realised his potential. De Jong has justified his €75m price tag in moving to Barcelona in 2019 and remains one of the most exciting central midfielders in Europe under their manager, Xavi Hernández. Now a father to baby Miles, De Jong is in his prime at 26 years old.
Frenkie de Jong has won La Liga and the Copa del Rey since moving to Barcelona in 2019. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images
Hakim Ziyech The Netherlands-born Morocco international has been underwhelming since his move to Chelsea in 2020 despite the Blues’ Champions League final triumph in 2021, where Ziyech was an unused substitute. His best post-Ajax performances were at the World Cup in 2022 but his club future remains uncertain. On loan at Galatasaray, Ziyech has one year on his Chelsea contract.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar The prolific striker retired in 2021 after his second stint at Ajax was followed by a second stint at Schalke. Now 40, he is Ajax’s technical manager, reporting to the sporting director, but has taken a leave of absence this season. Was recently spotted acting as a henchman in an Ajax kit launch video, alongside Jari Litmanen.
Kasper Dolberg It was a surprise that summer to see Dolberg make a £18.2m switch to Nice, where he had a £62,000 watch stolen in the dressing room by teammate Lamine Diaby-Fadiga, who was sacked. After initially impressing in France, Dolberg left for Anderlecht in 2023. Was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2021.
Daley Sinkgraven Sinkgraven’s four years at Ajax were injury-stricken, and the former wonderkid left for Bayer Leverkusen shortly after the Spurs semi-final. The arrival of Álex Grimaldo led to Sinkgraven’s departure to Las Palmas last summer.
Lisandro Magallán Made only four appearances for Ajax, one of which was in the second leg in London, where his slip contributed to Lucas Moura’s dramatic winning goal. Loan spells at Alavés, Crotone and Anderlecht preceded a move to Elche and then Pumas in Mexico.
Tottenham
Hugo Lloris Surpassed Lilian Thuram to become France’s record appearance holder at the 2022 World Cup, where he helped guide his country to the final. On returning to Spurs, he blamed a lack of “mental freshness” for some costly errors and the arrival of Guglielmo Vicario last summer saw the veteran lose his No 1 spot. Announced a move to LAFC in MLS in December but last made headlines when shivering in a snowstorm during a heavy defeat at Real Salt Lake.
Kieran Trippier The right-back’s European form earned him a move to Atlético Madrid in the summer of 2019. He settled well, before a 10-week ban and £70,000 fine for breaching the FA’s betting regulations relating to his transfer. Was a key cog in Diego Simeone’s title-winning side of 2021 before moving to Newcastle in 2022. Started England’s Euro 2020 final against Italy, providing an assist for Luke Shaw, but at 33 years old and currently injured, it remains unclear whether he will make Gareth Southgate’s squad for Euro 2024.
Kieran Trippier has won La Liga since leaving Spurs and now plays for Newcastle. Photograph: Richard Lee/Shutterstock
Danny Rose After starting the Champions League final for Spurs, the left-back struggled under the new manager José Mourinho and accused the Portuguese of being “unfair” in Tottenham’s Amazon documentary. An unsuccessful loan to Newcastle and permanent move to Watford followed, but the 33-year-old has been without a club since September 2022. “It’s obviously no secret I’ve been away from football and I’ve deliberately not watched any football,” admitted an emotional Rose last year while speaking as a Sky Sport pundit.
Toby Alderweireld The former Ajax academy graduate made a huge contribution to Spurs’ run to the final. Despite signing a new contract later that year, Alderweireld left for the Qatari side Al-Duhail in 2021 before moving a year later to Royal Antwerp, the city of his birth, where he was immediately made captain. With Antwerp trailing to rivals Genk in the 94th-minute of their final league game, Alderweireld scored a sensational wonder-goal to earn Royal Antwerp their first league title in 66 years. Recently founded an alcohol company, which makes amaretto, gin and pastis.
Jan Vertonghen Sustained a concussion in the first leg and played on for nine months with dizziness and headaches. “I couldn’t go to a restaurant,” he recently said of that time. “I couldn’t tolerate crowds. I fell asleep anywhere. Now I am convinced that it was a mental-psychological problem. I was often down.” Vertonghen joined Benfica on expiry of his contract in 2020 and now captains Anderlecht – an eerily similar career arc to his pal Alderweireld: Ajax-Tottenham-playing-in-his-native-Belgium. Vertonghen is set to add to his record 154 international caps at Euro 2024 at the age of 37.
Davinson Sánchez Another former Ajax player parachuted into Tottenham’s defence (for a club-record £42m), Sánchez had an impressive start at Spurs but faded to being a squad player. Was brought on and taken off as a substitute in the same game by the interim manager Cristian Stellini in April 2023 and openly booed by Spurs fans. Left for Galatasaray last September and has been quietly rebuilding his reputation. Sánchez, 27, has recently been linked with a move to West Ham and Napoli.
Victor Wanyama Author of surely one of the greatest tweets of all time, Wanyama is another whose career at Tottenham petered out after the Champions League run. Moved to MLS in 2020 with Montreal Impact, now known as CF Montréal, where he continues to be the vice-captain. In December 2022 the Kenyan helped his former and boyhood club, Celtic, sign his Montréal teammate and friend Alistair Johnston, who jokingly referred to Wanyama as “Agent Victor”.
Dele Alli Dele provided two assists for Lucas Moura in the second leg but he has since been unable to recapture the form which saw him become one of the most exciting midfielders in Europe. Has recently spoken of his desire to get back into the England squad. Injuries and off-field issues have engulfed Dele, who revealed last year he was sexually abused at the age of six and selling drugs at eight. Signed for Everton on a free transfer in 2022, but last played a competitive match more than a year ago during a loan at Besiktas. Out of contract in the summer, the 28-year-old was attacked when two armed raiders broke into his home this month.
Christian Eriksen The Dane has been on a rollercoaster in the past five years. After leaving Spurs for Internazionale in January 2020, the midfielder won a scudetto the following season before an incident that changed his life. During a Euro 2020 group game against Finland, Eriksen collapsed, suffering a cardiac arrest. After emergency CPR and a hospital visit, Eriksen made a remarkable recovery aided by a cardioverter defibrillator, a device not permitted in Serie A. After terminating his contract with Inter, Eriksen impressed at Brentford on a short-term deal before a move to Manchester United.
Lucas Moura The Brazilian’s hat-trick heroics to cap a remarkable away-goals win in the second leg against Ajax will never be forgotten by Spurs fans, arguably the club’s best moment since the 1991 FA Cup triumph. Scored another brilliant solo goal in his final game for Spurs before a 2023 move back to São Paulo, where he helped his boyhood side clinch the Copa do Brasil, the club’s first silverware in more than a decade. “I was very happy and fulfilled in many ways, despite not winning a title,” the 31-year-old said recently of his Tottenham days. “It’s a club I will hold dear in my heart.”
Lucas Moura (centre) celebrates his 2019 hat-trick against Ajax with Toby Alderweireld (left) and Dele Alli. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images/Reuters
Fernando Llorente Started the first leg against Ajax but was best known as a super-sub at Tottenham, a role he played expertly in the second leg to aid Spurs’ comeback. Was oddly placed on the released list of players by Tottenham that summer, without an official announcement, and left the club shortly after. Brief spells at Udinese and Eibar followed, before he announced his retirement in February 2023. The 6ft 4in former striker now keeps fit “by playing padel” tennis and was pictured watching a professional event in Madrid in February.
Juan Foyth Had never won any silverware before leaving Spurs – initially on loan – in 2020, but was immediately a key part of Unai Emery’s Villarreal side that won the Europa League in 2021, beating Manchester United in the final on penalties. Holder of a Polish passport, Foyth missed out on the Argentina squad that clinched the Copa América title in 2021, but was selected by Lionel Scaloni for the victorious 2022 World Cup, coming on as a substitute in the semi-final.
Ben Davies One of just two Spurs players on this list to remain at the club, the Welshman became just the 49th ever Tottenham player to make more than 300 appearances for the club last year. Having earned a university degree in business economics by the time he was 26 while playing full-time, Davies is now working towards a master’s degree in sports business and wants to complete his coaching badges by the time he retires. “I thought a good use of my time in the afternoon would be to get my head in some books, mainly maths and economics,” said the 31-year-old.
Moussa Sissoko Sissoko was one of Tottenham’s players of the season in 2018-19 but it was the Frenchman that was penalised for handball just 22 seconds into the Champions League final with Liverpool. Was a popular player at Spurs under Mourinho but form and a knee injury meant he made an ill-fated switch to Watford, who suffered relegation in 2022. Sissoko, 34, now plays for Nantes in Ligue 1 after joining in 2022.
Son Heung-min Excused from the full 21-month military service after helping South Korea to victory in the 2018 Asian Games, Son finished a shorter period of service over lockdown. The 31-year-old is now third on Spurs’ all-time scorer list and has more than 400 appearances. Son has dated celebrities in the past but has vowed not to marry until he retires. “When you marry, the No 1 will be family, wife and kids, and then football. I want to make sure that while I play at the top level, football can be No 1,” said the South Korean. “My father says this and I agree.”
Érik Lamela A divisive figure at Spurs who attracted adulation as well as controversy and frustration – Lamela was one of three Tottenham players to break coronavirus rules by attending a Christmas party. Scored arguably the best ever goal in a north London derby in 2021, with his rabona-nutmeg effort nominated for a Puskas Award. Left for Sevilla at the end of that season and won the Europa League in 2023, netting an extra-time winner in the semi-finals against Juventus before scoring in the penalty shootout in the final to deny Roma, the team he joined Spurs from.
Managers
Erik ten Hag With so many of his Ajax players departing, it was perhaps a surprise that Ten Hag wasn’t also poached by one of Europe’s elite clubs. Instead, after two further Eredivisie titles, Manchester United came calling in 2022. Things have not gone to plan at Old Trafford, despite an outlay of more than £400m, a Carabao Cup triumph last season and the chance to win the FA Cup this month. Controversies around Antony and Jadon Sancho have complicated matters and a change of ownership has left Ten Hag’s future uncertain.
Mauricio Pochettino Just five months after guiding Spurs to the Champions League final, Pochettino was sacked and replaced by Mourinho. After more than a year out of the game, the Argentinian was hired by PSG but finished second to Lille. A Ligue 1 title in 2021-22 was not enough to save Pochettino from the sack. After another nine months out, he joined Chelsea last summer, but a turbulent campaign has left the 52-year-old under pressure once more.
Toilet sinks are streaked with purple glitter and lost hair ribbons decorate the foyer. Olivia Rodrigo has not yet arrived, but the Hydro already feels like a teen girl’s bedroom. On stage, Guts – the title of her Grammy-nominated second album – is spelled out by towering, melting candles. A soldout crowd, clad in homemade merch, scream when the T teeters and falls; they know it means the show’s about to start.
Expectations are sky-high for the American singer-songwriter’s second UK tour, not least because her original opening night was rescheduled due to ongoing technical problems with Manchester’s new Co-op Live arena. Rodrigo’s previous visit, in 2022, intentionally played to small venues that could barely meet demand; a smart decision she has described as “ultimate practice” in stagecraft, designed to balance out her rapid rise to fame in 2021.
Breezy confidence … Olivia Rodrigo performing in Glasgow. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer
That patience, and practice, pays off tonight. Rodrigo skips on stage with the proud, puffed-out chest of a WWE wrestler, over the surging bass line from her sarcastic pop-punk rager Bad Idea Right? Her band would have been riot grrrl heroines in another decade; they careen through an extended outro stuffed with guitar solos while Rodrigo pogos and headbangs and air-guitars with dorky dance-like-nobody’s-watching exuberance.
Collaging a grungy, 90s MTV vibe with silver-screen glamour, the show flicks between all-out rock show and elegant, intimate pop balladeering. Rodrigo tucks her Dr Martens under a grand piano to perform her break-out single Drivers License, but later uses them to stomp on a camera set into the stage. For Vampire, a showstopping, stormy rock opera, she is cast in black and white like a cursed silent film heroine, yet still curls her lip to snarl the song’s furious accusation: “Fame-fucker.”
Rodrigo rides around the arena on a glowing half moon prop to sing Logical, a Guts album track about a manipulative relationship, but ear-splitting cheering from each section of the crowd as she floats nearer relegates it to background music. Other ballads shine with far simpler treatment; she sits cross-legged with guitarist Daisy Spencer for Happier, from her blockbuster first album Sour, and turns it into a campfire song.
The 21-year-old leads her band with breezy confidence, somersaults her ballads’ big notes with ease and instead focuses on delivering feeling. No wonder she saves Good 4 U and Get Him Back! for the encore: in a feat of stamina, she runs, leaps, bounces and screams through the two pop-rock teen anthems with total commitment to their messy, witty lyrics.
But it’s on All-American Bitch that she directly confronts those enormous expectations. A cathartic, sarcastic song inspired by Joan Didion, the track implodes under the weight of societal pressure – “I’m built like a mother and a total machine” goes one brutal line. “Think about someone that pisses you off and scream your fucking heads off!” Rodrigo yells and thousands of young women take the cue. “I know my place … and this is it,” she shrieks, every inch at home.
The 16-year-old boy’s school, Rossmoyne Senior High, was aware his extreme behaviour had seen him enter a deradicalisation program
Western Australian Department of Education director general Lisa Rodgers today described the prayer room as a corridor overlooked by two classrooms and a staff office.
The radicalised teenager who was shot dead after stabbing a man in a Perth Bunnings on Saturday had been given access to his school’s prayer rooms without direct supervision. (9News)
“Certainly there was ongoing kind of passive monitoring of that prayer room,” she told 6PR radio, adding that the teen “would have had the opportunity to participate in that prayer room without active oversight”.
Rodgers denied claims the young extremist was using his time in the room to indoctrinate others after parents of another student raised concerns but admitted he might have been talking to his peers about religion.
“They may have been having conversations in regards to religion,” she said.
“But certainly not radicalisation, there’s a big line between practising your faith and radicalisation.”
The 16-year-old’s extreme behaviour had seen him enter a deradicalisation program. (9News)
The 16-year-old police described as radicalised was shot dead by an officer after stabbing a stranger at Willetton Bunnings on Saturday night, but his online movements had been closely watched before that.
He had been caught viewing videos of people being beheaded and was provided with a school laptop with a locked browser on which his activity was monitored.
“What he did outside of school gates in regards to what he did with that content, I can’t speak to,” Rodgers said.
“But I can tell you and I can assure parents that while he was at school he was prevailed and monitored.”
She said Rossmoyne was reporting to police about the boy every month.
The education department said prayer rooms at Rossmoyne and other schools would remain open so students had the opportunity to practise their religion.
“We can’t ask students to park their faith at the door,” Rodgers said.
Australia’s most popular short story competition, The Best Australian Yarn, has returned for 2024 with a bigger prize pool, a new addition to the Prize Jury and an exciting new category.
For the first time, prizes will be awarded for the best comic story, both in the general section and in the two Youth sections.
The decision to include the new categories recognises the rapidly growing appeal of graphic novels and reflects the competition’s aim to provide opportunities to all storytellers.
Leading education provider Navitas has again partnered with Seven West Media to sponsor the contest — the richest short story competition in the world — and deliver an astonishing $80,000 prize pool.
The overall winner will receive $50,000 while the runners-up prize money has been increased to $4000. All the prize winners will be announced at an awards night at the State Library of Western Australia on November 22.
Australia’s leading writer of romantic fiction, WA author Rachael Johns, has joined returning judges Robert Drewe, Terri-ann White, Rachel Bin Salleh and Holden Sheppard on the Prize Jury.
Johns, whose latest novel The Other Bridget is a runaway success, said she was thrilled to join the judging panel and support the competition.
The introduction last year of the Navitas English as a Second Language Prize and the First Nations Storytelling Prize created great interest in 2023 and both categories will feature again this year.
The popular Youth Prizes remain divided into two categories — one for those aged 12 to 14 and the other for those aged 15 to 18.
Seven West Media’s new national platform The Nightly joins the competition as a supporting partner together with the WA branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Writing WA, the Perth Comic Arts Festival and the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage of WA.
The Youth Prizes are again supported by the Education Department through the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
The competition for published and unpublished writers is the brainchild of Seven West Media’s Director of News and Current Affairs and Editor-in-Chief, Anthony De Ceglie, who wanted to inspire people who had a passion for writing and help put arts and culture at the forefront of Australia’s identity.
De Ceglie, who will chair the Prize Jury, said he was thrilled Navitas was back on board in 2024 adding that its valuable sponsorship would allow the competition to continue to grow.
Writers from around the country have embraced The Best Australian Yarn in its first two years, submitting 4700 entries in 2022 and a staggering 5500 entries last year.
The inaugural competition was won by WA writer David Harris while Jacqueline MacDonald, from Tasmania, was named the second winner for her story Split Life.
The dystopian story about a worker who wrestles with doubt as the rich and powerful are increasingly able to clone themselves, impressed the Prize Jury with its ambition and range.
Navitas chief executive Scott Jones said the company was thrilled to extend its support to the competition once again.
“This year marks a special milestone for our business as we celebrate 30 years in operation,” he said.
“As a global education provider, we remain committed to offering the best opportunities for our students to grow and succeed every day.
“Similarly, The Best Australian Yarn provides writers of all ages and backgrounds across Australia with a platform to showcase their creativity and explore their talent as authors and storytellers.
“This shared goal of helping others reach their potential makes Navitas and The Best Australian Yarn an ideal partnership.”
Mr Jones said Navitas was privileged to continue to support the English as a Second Language Prize category of the competition after the tremendous interest it gathered in its inaugural year.
“Through our programs, we are proud to support new migrants to Australia on their education journey and I know from my own interactions with students and staff members from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds that there are some wonderful people with unique and interesting stories just bursting to be told,” he said.
“The English as a Second Language Prize creates an opportunity to hear migrant voices through storytelling and the ‘yarns’ created and shared by this group will no doubt broaden our understanding of important lived experiences which add to the richness and vibrancy of Australian culture and community. I can’t wait to read the top submissions from this category.”
Basim Shamaoan and Miles Hitchcock have worked extensively in the ESL field with Navitas and will again lead the judging for the ESL Prize. Both are published authors.
Emma Garlett, Indigenous affairs advocate and columnist for Seven West Media, returns as the ambassador for the First Nations Storytelling Prize and will help judge the category.
She will be assisted by acclaimed WA authors Professor Kim Scott and Associate Professor Elfie Shiosaki and the winner of last year’s First Nations Prize, Sharleigh Crittenden.
The head judge in the Comic Story categories is Associate Professor Stuart Medley, a co-founder of the Perth Comic Arts Festival who has worked extensively as a professional illustrator and graphic designer.
Education Minister Tony Buti said it was important people learnt to love writing and reading from a young age and The Best Australian Yarn did a great job supporting this.
“The competition continues to go from strength to strength and it was truly inspiring seeing the quality and diversity of stories that emerged from last year’s program,” Dr Buti said.
“I am very excited to see the Comic Story Prize being included in the two Youth sections this year, which I am sure will be embraced by young people across the country.”
Kris Williams, WA branch president of the Children’s Book Council, said its purpose was to enrich young lives through Australian stories.
“Stories have the power to transform across generations,” she said.
“As an organisation we celebrate and advocate for the value of stories and what better way to do that than support The Best Australian Yarn.”
Johns is an award-winning writer who has successfully established her career from her Swan Valley base.
She said she was very keen to give back to the WA writing community after volunteering for many years with Romance Writers of Australia.
“I’ll be looking for a strong narrative voice, a story that really draws you in and leaves you wanting to read more even though you have come to the end,” she said.
“I also love a good twist.”
She said those considering entering should first read plenty of short stories because they could teach you so much.
“And when you come to write, don’t think about the people who will read it,” she said. “I know that sounds a bit weird but really put your heart and soul into your story. Write it for you and enjoy it, don’t think about someone judging it.”
All Australians aged 12 and over are eligible to submit an original, unpublished work of fiction of no more than 2500 words by the closing date – Monday, August 12.
The best entries will be compiled into a longlist of 50 stories by a panel of The West’s writers and authors, which will then go to the Prize Jury.
Each of the category winners is eligible to be named in the Top 10.
To enter and to read all the terms and conditions go to bestaustralianyarn.com.au. Entry is free.
The $80,000 prize pool
Overall Winner: $50,000
Runner-up: $4000
The other eight finalists shortlisted for the overall prize: $1000 each
Regional Prize winner: $3000
Navitas English as a Second Language Prize winner: $3000
First Nations Storytelling Prize winner: $3000
Comic Story Prize winner: $3000
Comic Story Youth Prize winners: $1500 each (12-14 years old & 15-18 years old)
Youth Prize winners: $1500 each (12-14 years old & 15-18 years old)
Frustrated by the precarious state of Ukraine’s war effort and the long delays in US aid, leaders in France and Britain have stepped up their promises to Ukraine in the last few days. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, repeated in an interview last week that he might send ground forces to shore up beleaguered Ukrainian defenses. Meanwhile, speaking in Kyiv, the British foreign minister, David Cameron, gave Ukraine the green light to strike into Russian territory, clearly signaling that the UK wants a more aggressive approach to the war.
Their frustration is understandable, as is the temptation to get more directly involved in the war, with more powerful weapons and more guarantees of long-term backing for Ukraine. Perhaps with enough time and a lot more effort, and if Washington can maintain its focus amid all the crises bearing down on it, Ukraine could eventually regain its footing on the battlefield. It might then be able to start taking back some of the territory it has lost to Russia – perhaps in 2025, or maybe the year after that.
But the problem is that the closer Nato hugs Ukraine, the more Russia is sure to brandish its nuclear weapons, and the greater the chances it actually uses them. In response to Macron and Cameron’s remarks last week, the Kremlin on Monday issued an angry statement full of accusations at the west in which it announced that Russia would soon conduct a tactical nuclear weapons exercise near Ukraine. This underscores yet again that Vladimir Putin considers these weapons fair game in this war.
To be sure, tactical nuclear weapons – sometimes referred to as “tac nukes” or non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNW) – are less destructive than the larger strategic weapons that usually come to mind when one imagines thermonuclear war. But if Russia employed any nuclear weapons, even at a fraction of the destructive power of a strategic warhead, it would obliterate a swath of Ukrainian land, rendering it uninhabitable for decades.
It would also risk a vastly more destructive conflagration. Having now broken the near 80-year taboo on using nuclear weapons by attacking Ukraine with them, Russia would have far fewer reasons to hold back. Joe Biden would meanwhile face pressure to use America’s own nuclear weapons in response, if only to demonstrate that he had the nerve to do so. That’s why he has said that if Russia fired a nuclear weapon this would unleash “Armageddon”.
Nato has thus rightly condemned Russia’s nuclear posturing this time as irresponsible, and even China has expressed concerns in the past. But Putin is unfortunately a leader with an excellent record of breaking norms and taking western nations by surprise.
In 2014, Putin’s covert operation to seize and then annex Crimea shocked the world. In 2015, Russia launched a surprise military intervention into Syria. The following year Putin directed an unprecedented operation to sway the US presidential elections. He did the same in Europe in 2017. Then he tried to kill off an enemy by poisoning him on British soil, attacked the US with cyberweapons, and, finally, carried out a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country – Ukraine.
Who can know with enough confidence when a reckless autocrat like this, surrounded by yes-men, might decide the time is right to teach the West a lesson with a tactical nuclear strike? Internal Russian documents, as well as the latest Kremlin statement, suggest Russia’s threshold for using a nuclear weapon is fairly high but getting lower. The fact is that Putin’s nuclear redlines are nearly impossible for Ukraine, Nato, or anyone outside Putin’s innermost circle to know with the certainty needed in light of the gravity of the issue.
That Russia has not used nuclear weapons yet offers little confidence that it won’t do so in the future. It’s not hard to imagine circumstances in which using a nuclear weapon might seem like the rational choice from the Kremlin’s point of view, especially if faced with a rapid reversal of the gains for which Russia has paid dearly, or if confronting western escalation that only nuclear weapons can match. Putin himself may not even know for sure what his red lines are until he perceives Ukraine as having crossed them on the battlefield.
This is a serious problem, one that the US director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, referenced in her latest testimony to Congress. That Putin’s threats are irresponsible doesn’t mean the West can blithely ignore them. Too many of Ukraine’s hardline advocates are saying otherwise, claiming that Russia would never use nuclear weapons, despite its threats, or that in any case the west cannot give in to “nuclear blackmail”. But in light of the stakes, these attitudes seem cavalier.
Obviously, Nato cannot and should not quiver, cut, and run every time Russia rattles the nuclear saber. Nor is Nato doing so. But western leaders need to be clear-eyed about the risks and prudent in their approach. Rather than envisioning how incremental military steps to help Ukraine might someday bring about a heretofore elusive victory, leaders need to think about how to open up alternative paths to peace – paths that don’t rely on military means alone and in which negotiation can play a larger role in the western strategy. The other options are just too dangerous.
And in an exclusive interview with Channel 7, Steve McBurney has also cleared up one of the game’s oldest myths, while revealing the challenges behind Brownlow Medal voting.
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Former umpire McBurney is responsible for more than 200 AFL officials and he has told 7NEWS that AFL umps are finally trending towards full-time positions.
Seven news understands that a field umpire can earn up to $200,000 a season.
“I think we’re nearly there with quite a number of the field umpires, they’ve chosen AFL umpiring as their primary occupation,” McBurney told 7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary.
It is expected AFL umpires will soon be full-time. Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
“They spend more time than they ever have, certainly than I did, at clubs doing clubs visits and clubs are desperate to have umpires there.”
McBurney is only a fortnight into his new role and he’s not afraid to stamp himself.
“For send-offs, that exists at every level below AFL but there’s no plan to bring it back into the AFL,” he said.
McBurney has also spoken about what Cleary calls “one of the game’s oldest myths”.
And that myth is what many people call the AFL’s “rule of the week”.
There is a wide-spread among AFL fans that umpires get together during the week, discuss a rule that needs tightening, and that rule then becomes a sharp focus in the next round.
But under McBurney’s watch there will be no microscope on a specific weekly rule.
McBurney says the ‘rule of the week’ is a myth. Credit: Seven
“I’ve been looking for this rule of the week for the 21 years I’ve umpired,” McBurney said.
“And maybe I wasn’t paying attention at coaching sessions because I never saw the memo with ‘rule of the week’.
“We will show examples every week and if we’ve gone too far one week, we just need to adjust it and get the middle ground.”
But he stressed there was no such thing as “rule of the week”
Another issue that was raised last year is around Brownlow Medal voting, with fans wondering why umpires don’t have access to match statistics when they do their votes.
Those calls came after Lachie Neale won his second Brownlow and received three votes in games where his performance was questionable.
One of those games was in round 6, Neale was just OK, but GWS midfielder Josh Kelly had a whopping 41 disposals while Neale’s teammates Charlie Cameron booted seven goals.
Neale, however, go the three votes and social media exploded.
But McBurney has confirmed that umpires still won’t have access to stats when voting for the Brownlow.
“The Brownlow’s a time-honoured tradition. We want the umpires to adjudicate best and fairest,” he said.
“They understand their responsibility, they take it really seriously, they do it in a confidential setting.”
McBurney has made an immediate impact with the maligned score review system as well.
The common complaint about score reviews is that there are too many and they take too long.
But score reviews have already reduced from more than 20 in Round 4 to just seven last week.
“We’re really happy with what we’ve seen over the last three weeks. We’re really happy with how the goal umpires have adapted to the new instruction,” he said.
“They will now give a goal and not go to review where they believe it’s a goal.
“Score reviews dropped to seven on the weekend and only four were goal umpire initiated reviews and that compares to over 20 in rounds three and four.”
Alstom plans to raise €1bn (£0.87bn) to help cut its debt as the world’s second largest train maker struggles with delayed orders amid concerns about the future of its Derby factory.
The Paris-listed company will tap investors with the aim of raising the funds by September. It also plans a €750m bond issue as part of a €2bn new finance plan.
Alstom finances have been in the spotlight after clients, including some in Britain, delayed putting in orders, raising concerns over its cashflow and the future of its train factory in Derby. It bought the site from Canada’s Bombardier in 2021 in a deal that made it the world’s second largest train manufacturer after China’s CRRC.
The slowdown in orders last year led to fears about staff at the plant as 1,300 jobs were put at risk. However, there are now hopes that operations at the historic site, where manufacturing has taken place since 1876, can be safeguarded.
Last month the transport secretary, Mark Harper, met Alstom executives and announced that the UK’s Department for Transport had reached an “agreement in principle” with Alstom to support funding for a further five Elizabeth line trains, in addition to the five trains confirmed in March. He added that he was confident “a solution is now in sight”.
Alstom has also been affected in the UK by uncertainty over an order for new trains for HS2, after Rishi Sunak scrapped the northern leg of the high-speed line initially proposed from London to Manchester. The trains were due to be built in Derby and at a Hitachi factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
Alstom is also paring back its operations as part of the debt-cutting plan. The strategy has led to the sale of its stake in the railcar manufacturer TMH for €75m in January and offloading its North American signalling business to Knorr-Bremse for €630m in a deal that is expected to be completed later this year.
Alstom, announcing its full-year results, said its net debt position stood at €2.99bn on 31 March compared with €2.13bn a year earlier.
Alstom said it booked €18.9 bn of orders between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 against €20.7bn the previous year. Adjusted net profit fell to €44m against €292m the previous year.
Henri Poupart-Lafarge, the chair and chief executive of Alstom, said: “Alstom recorded a strong rebound during the second half of the year, with solid order intake, strong organic growth, improved profitability and €562m free cashflow generation.”
It was a bright hot day in August, and the heaters were stuck on full blast. A nurse on the acute medical ward bleeped my pager. The heart of a patient I’d seen that morning had started palpitating. Soon, my heart was racing too, not out of solidarity but from the seven flights of stairs I had to sprint up. One half of our ward had been relocated seven flights away from the other, after flakes of asbestos started falling from the ceiling.
Squinting over a trace of the patient’s heart rhythm, I suspected the culprit was potassium – that salt we need just the right amount of, Goldilocks-style, to keep beating. If it’s too high or too low, you’ve got a real problem. A straightforward blood test would contain the information I needed. I travelled across the building to one of just two blood gas analyser machines in the hospital and queued impatiently, only to find its potassium-reading function was not working.
I called back up to the seventh floor, half thinking someone might have to check my potassium levels if I did any more running. A nursing colleague kindly agreed to get more blood from the patient with the heart palpitations, this time to send to laboratory, asking only that I print the appropriate forms. The first printer I tried was jammed. Log off, kick someone off another computer, log on, press print again. At last, the blood sample and paperwork were ready to be shot through the hospital’s pneumatic tube system. Just as I readied the shoot, the ward manager reminded me that the system had not been working for the past two days. They suggested the quickest way to get the blood to the lab was to run it there myself. Off again I went.
It took nearly two hours to complete a task that should have taken 10 minutes. This is the quintessential NHS experience. When policy wonks talk about “productivity” and a lack of “capital investment” in the health service, this is what they’re talking about. There are 16% more junior doctors and 11% more nurses and health visitors working in the NHS than before the pandemic, yet we’re treating about the same number of patients. That’s because the tools NHS staff are working with are ancient. Our hospital machinery and equipment has depreciated so much that, in 2019, it was worth five times less per health worker than the tools used by clinicians in Austria or Denmark, and less than those used in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. There’s little point in training more doctors if they’re all fighting to get on to a computer with Windows XP that is ceaselessly restarting in order to install updates.
These kinds of bottlenecks are everywhere in the health service. The daily struggle to find a bed for a patient who urgently needs one; the week it can take to get an MRI scan performed; the hernia operation cancelled because a trauma call has taken over the precious surgical theatre. They are consequences of years of very low investment and shoot-yourself-in-the-foot policymaking. The UK now has fewer scanners and hospital beds per person than virtually any other comparable country.
When the basic tools you need to practise medicine in the 21st century are lacking, politicians’ talk of a science and technology “revolution” can seem misdirected and wilfully optimistic. But they have a point. It’s hard to think of a sector where better information and new technologies can have such a rapid and direct impact on peoples lives. Medicine is the science of gathering information, and the art of interpreting it. It’s ripe for the AI revolution, in theory. The reality is quite different. It is a world of pagers, pneumatic tubes and paternoster lifts. You can’t build an AI on top of that.
Vintage kit is not even the worst problem: 42% of NHS hospitals in England have been forced to close wards and key services due to structural or repair issues since 2020. In some hospitals, rats and cockroaches have taken over. Electrical failures, overflowing sewage and rodent infestations have a domino effect in healthcare. Dispersing patients from the now-closed respiratory ward across the hospital unintentionally (but foreseeably) propagates hospital-acquired pneumonia to other inpatients. Closing an ambulatory care service to make more room for an A&E department that has run out of corridors only adds more people to the emergency queue. These short-term solutions store up disasters for the future.
This gets to the crux of the problem: the NHS is stuck in a cycle of “avoidance coping”, the psychological term that describes the tendency to avoid or miminise the reality of stressful demands. The total maintenance bill just to keep NHS buildings and equipment in England upright and safe-for-use has run up to almost £12bn. This figure has grown reliably year on year, nearly tripling across the past decade. There’s a case to be made that we are already now seeing what it looks like when the physical infrastructure of the NHS – the buildings, equipment and machinery our healthcare system relies upon – comes crashing down. Nearly 8 million people in England are waiting for hospital treatment, about four in 10 cancer patients are waiting more than two months to start treatment, and 12-hour waits are common in A&E.
If the UK had matched the average western European country’s investment into healthcare as a share of GDP in the decade after 2010, it would have put in £33bn more. This chronic lack of investment riddles almost every area of public infrastructure in Britain, from sewage systems to schools to railways. Is it not time to end the self-flagellation and spend a bit on ourselves? The NHS – the closest thing the country has to a national religion – needs a church that isn’t falling down.
