1. Meghan Trainor slams ‘no’ groups for using her photograph to campaign against marriage equality.
US popstar Meghan Trainor has called out Australian groups campaigning aginst marriage equality after her photograph appeared in an advertisment urging people to vote ‘no’ in the upcoming postal plebiscite.
She was alerted to the ad on Twitter and the 23-year-old I’m a Lady singer was quick to condemn the message and the use of her photograph.
“I SUPPORT MARRIAGE EQUALITY,” she tweeted. “Someone in Australia is illegally using my picture for a campaign against marriage equality. So wrong. Not okay.”
The ad showed Trainor’s face behind the words: “My vote is no, you need to let it go”.
“I’ve said it before. Everyone should be able to love who they want. I support equality,” Trainor added. She also posted an image to Instagram, reminding Australians to enrol their details with the electoral office.
Meanwhile, Australian popstar Kylie Minogue has joined Hollywood stars Chris Hemsworth and Russell Crowe in backing a vote to allow gay marriage in Australia. Stephen Fry, Tim Minchin and Ellen DeGeneres have also urged voters to register and back the call for marriage equality.
2. Two children have gone missing south of Brisbane.
Two teenagers have gone missing in separate cases south of Brisbane.
Police hold concerns for the welfare of a 12-year-old boy from Drewvale, who has not been seen since about 7pm on Wednesday in the Browns Plains area.
They are also appealing for help to find a 14-year-old girl, who was last seen in Park Ridge on Sunday afternoon.
Anyone with information is being urged to contact Policelink on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
3. Sister of Manchester bomb victim aces exams she sat the day after her brother was killed.
It was May 22 and Martyn Hett was one of the 22 people killed when a bomb was detonated after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in the UK.
The 29-year-old left behind a shattered family and a 16-year-old sister Nikita Murray – who was scheduled to sit her final high school General Certificate of Secondary Education exams the day after her brother’s death.
Anyone else might have applied for special consideration but, not only did Nikita sit the exams, she learned yesterday she excelled in them, receiving 11 A grades.
“I didn’t want to let what’s happened stop me. Martyn would have wanted me to do it and do it well,” she told media, the BBC reports. “He’d be so happy, he’d be tweeting about it. He’d be more excited than I am,” she said of the results.
Her brother, Dan Hett, has applauded her on social media, calling her “an actual hero” and “the toughest person I have ever met”.
4. “He’d cover up anything.” PM takes aim at Bill Shorten citizenship.
Malcolm Turnbull has weighed into the debate over Bill Shorten’s citizenship, saying the Labor leader is “prepared to cover up anything”.
The opposition leader says he has no issues with his citizenship but has declined to release paperwork showing he renounced his British ties before the 2007 election, AAP reports
He has labelled talk of his potential ineligibility for parliament a “crazy conspiracy” without any evidence to back it up.
“Transparency is not Bill’s long suit,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Albury on Thursday.
“It’s up to him whether he wants to be transparent and disclose the basis on which he says he renounced his citizenship. He is creating a big issue by failing to do so.”
5. Australia gets fourth shot at Eurovision in 2018.
Eurovision fans rejoice – Australia has been invited back in 2018.
It seems Australia has proven itself worthy of another wild card entry with three top 10 finishes over the last three years, including Isaiah Firebrace’s ninth position in last year’s contest in Kyiv, Ukraine.
SBS will be putting forward another Aussie entrant for the 2018 Eurovision in Lisbon, Portugal, having held broadcast rights to the contest in Australia for more than 30 years.
SBS also revealed Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey will be returning to take charge of the broadcast and commentary in Australia once again.
The Eurovision will be hosted by Portugal for the first time following singer Salvador Sobral’s win last year.
6. Government funding new treatment for children with brain cancer.
Children with brain tumours will be given access to a new genetic testing program aimed at helping them survive.
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the Federal Government is funding a four-year AIM BRAIN study, working towards better and more targeted treatment of cancer, AAP reports.
The families of children will be able to access the genetic testing program from October 31, with the study to be funded as part of the $79 million committed to cancer research in the federal budget.
“This helps provide kids with better and targeted treatments for cancer and helps avoid unnecessary treatments that won’t work for a particular patient,” Mr Hunt said on Thursday.
Top Comments
#1 .. this is one of the various types of trickery to expect of the no camp. they cant win by acting honestly so they use a pop stars image in their ads even though the said singer is for equality. similarly they take the conversation off on tangents like pc or kids when they cant just campaign on the simple question that the issue is about.
#4 ... if there were questions about any labor mps or senators dont you think the media, esp murdoch media, would have sniffed it out by now ? theres no evidence because they have processes in place before they are nominated
I wonder how much the high court challenges on politician citizenship are costing and whether that money could be better spent on cancer research.
same with the 122m wasted on the pointless, useless postal opinion poll