1. Maggie Beer’s daughter Saskia, 46, died in her sleep on Friday.
“It is with broken hearts we need to let you all know that our beautiful, extraordinary daughter Saskia died unexpectedly yet peacefully in her sleep on Friday night,” wrote Australian cook Maggie Beer on Instagram last night.
“We ask for time/space as we grapple to come to terms with our loss and appreciate all the support we have been given. Maggie, Colin and family,” she added.
Saskia Beer, the eldest of Maggie’s two daughters leaves behind husband Petar Jercic who she married in April last year, and her three children.
The 46-year-old was also a chef and caterer – she owned a business called Saskia Beer Farm Produce, which her husband says he will continue for her.
Fellow celebrity chefs have paid their respects on Maggie’s Instagram.
“Your beautiful, special, darling Sassy-girl … I am just so, so sad for all of you, I loved Sassy so much and hold you all very, very closely in my heart,” wrote Kylie Kwong.
“So terribly sad for your devastating loss Maggie & Colin. From our family to yours our thoughts are with you and we send all our love,” wrote Gary Mehigan.
“So sad. My love and thoughts are with you, Colin and the family,” said fellow former Masterchef host Matt Preston.
2. Nearly $10 million raised in bushfire relief concert.
More than 70,000 people packed out Sydney’s ANZ stadium yesterday for the Fire Fight Australia concert, with Queen reprising their 22-minute Live Aid set from 1985.
The marathon concert, hosted by comedian Celeste Barber who herself raised more than $50 million for bushfire relief, featured 10 hours of musical performances to raise money for communities and emergency services involved in the summer’s catastrophic bushfires.
$9.5 million was raised by the end of the show, with performances including Olivia Newton John, John Farnham, Alice Cooper, Ronan Keating, 5 Seconds of Summer, Amy Shark, Daryl Braithwaite, Delta Goodrem, and Lee Kernaghan.
“I wanted people in Australia to know that we heard you, and that you weren’t alone,” Keating told Seven. “That was really important to me, that I could be here and perform or do whatever just to stand in solidarity.”
"Our volunteers across this entire country, they are the ones who saved us, they are the ones who cancel holidays to stay here and look after us, and I will speak now very confidently on behalf of a nation when I say to those volunteers: thankyou," said Barber.
Fire Fight's profits will be shared between the Red Cross' disaster relief and recovery fund, rural and regional fire services and the RSPCA's bushfire appeal.
3. Teen relative of ISIS terrorist shot dead in south-west Sydney.
Omar Elomar, 18, was shot and killed next to his car in Sydney's west, dying on the footpath on Saturday evening at about 11pm.
A neighbour heard the shots and ran to his aid, telling the Daily Telegraph, "I tried CPR, mouth to mouth, I had my phone on the ground and the ambulance they were [talking to me.]"
On Facebook, his family and friends described the aspiring lawyer as having a smile that could "light up any room."
Daily Mail reports he was also a relative of infamous ISIS terrorist Mohamed Elomar, who was known for holding a severed head in each hand while fighting with the terrorist group in Syria, before dying in a drone strike in 2015.
Police think Omar's death was a targeted killing and are still hunting for his killer.
Feature image: Instagram @maggiebeer.
Top Comments
My love and thoughts to the beer family. Absolutely dreadful news
#2. It’s a fantastic effort but my concern is how it is distributed. Years ago they had a hugely successful fund raising for fires in the Blue Mountains and they made such a meal of distributing to people that the victims were saying for a really long while that they hadn’t seen any of it. They ended up getting some form of body to organise it but in the end you never hear if it was fairly done or how infact it was done. I think it could be made public how the very generous donations are spent. From my memory the collection was around $11,000,000.00. I think it was in the 1990’s.
Since the concert was pretty East coast centric, Kangaroo Island and Cuddlee Creek (both in South Australia) will be lucky if they receive a few left over crumbs.
Yes you are right. How the donations are spread really concerns me, also how speedily they are given as people are in such a mess.