Leon Comber, who served as a Special Branch officer in colonial Malayan Police during the Emergency, has died aged 101. Comber and his colleagues outsmarted and won over some of the mostly Chinese communist insurgents in Malaya. After the formation of Malaysia in 1963, Comber was among the few non-Muslim Europeans allowed to acquire Malaysian citizenship in recognition of his contribution to the battle against militant communism. He also wrote Malaya’s Secret Police 1945-60: the role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency, which described how he drew on his experiences to write about the history of the Chinese in the Malay Peninsula and works of translation. In 1952, Comber married Rosalie Kuanghu Chou, a Eurasian doctor whom he had met at a hospital in Hong Kong. By the time they married, she was better known as Han Suyin, the author of the autobiographical novel A Many-Splendoured Thing, which would be adapted into the 1955 Hollywood weepie Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones.
Qantas will be offering passengers the option of a "Neighbour Free" experience on some domestic Australian flights, guaranteed to have the seat next to them vacant. The move is aimed at travellers who seek more comfort and privacy. Only eligible passengers on selected flights within Australia will receive an email invitation to reserve the seat next to them. Prices start from AU$30 (£16). The upgrade covers “the personal seat space only” and cannot be used for infants or any carry-on baggage. The trial service, previously restricted to Qantas frequent flyers, is now open to all passengers.
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has temporarily stepped away from the game due to his mental and physical wellbeing, following ongoing racism allegations at Hawthorn. Sources say there is little likelihood of Clarkson, former lieutenants Chris Fagan and Jason Burt facing sanctions based on the evidence presented during the inquiry. Brett Ratten will take over as interim North Melbourne coach. North Melbourne's president, Sonja Hood, criticised the investigation, declaring that she wouldn't change anything if she could do it again. Lions coach Fagan also called for a prompt ending to the investigation process.
Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal may not return to competitive play, admitting that his plans to train for a return are on hold indefinitely. Nadal pulled out of the French Open and his future career plans are uncertain. He said retirement would come when he couldn't "compete and enjoy", adding that he wanted to say goodbye to key events that were important to him. The 14-time French Open winner may wrap up his pro career by 2024, although omens are not good for a full-scale comeback, given his injury history.
Alcoa's chief executive, Roy Harvey, has expressed confidence that the firm will be able to continue to operate in Western Australia (WA), despite challenges to its mining activities. The concerns include the impact on Serpentine Dam, which provided 18% of the water supply system to south west WA in 2022. Alcoa plans to mine new areas of jarrah forest on its 7,000-square-kilometre lease in a region that produced 75% of the firm's bauxite and 71% of its alumina in 2022. The miner has had approvals delayed due to regulatory concerns. In April, WA Premier Mark McGowan called on Alcoa to satisfy state regulators.
Melbourne’s median house price stands at approximately $1,023,000, and that would roughly cover the purchase of either the Hamptons-inspired six-bedroom Craigieburn house, a two-bedroom Brunswick Victorian or a three-bedroom house in Glenroy. The type of property on offer to buyers with this budget varies across the city, ranging from freestanding Californian bungalows and 1940s weatherboard homes in areas like Preston or Reservoir, to modern town houses with a small courtyard in Northcote or Clifton Hill.
A “pollinator corridor” stretching over eight kilometres of central Melbourne hopes to attract native bees and other pollinators that have struggled to survive in urban environments. To be established mainly on public land, the project will comprise around 200 volunteer-created “wildlife-friendly gardens” in footpaths, car parks, schools, social housing areas, churches and laneways. Each garden will be less than 50 metres from its neighbour. Cutting says the project should encourage more nature in cities. The corridor will stretch from Westgate Park in Port Melbourne to the City of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. The idea is reportedly an Australian first.
A recent debate at Melbourne University on the future of Australia's constitutional monarchy, hosted by the Robert Menzies Institute, has ended in protesters shouting at the University's Deputy Lord Mayor, Nicholas Reece, a former labor party state secretary. CBD is inviting Melbourne University to introduce a compulsory module called Google 101 to help enrollees differentiate between different politicians. Meanwhile, Uber rides worth AUD15,000 ($11,640) were taken by Australian public servants in the past year, compared to AUD4000 previously, according to the recently released Freedom of Information documents. Cab rides, however, still cost public servants AUD59,118.20 in 2022 to 2023.
The Natural History Museum in London and Warner Bros are presenting Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature at Melbourne Museum featuring both real and mythological species including Harry Potter’s Mooncalf and Erumpent. As well as displaying the creatures, the interactive exhibition examines the origins of mythological animals and relationships between genuine creatures. The third part of the exhibition focuses on how ecosystems are currently under threat and the importance of preserving the natural world.
Amy Lehpamer, actress and singer, who will be playing Anne Hathaway in the jukebox musical & Juliet reflects on what advice Shakespeare’s wife would give to a novice nun like the Sound of Music’s Fraulein Maria. She also talks about the show's premise, which gives Juliet a chance to write her own story. Lehpamer describes the music as “part of your break-ups, that first love, that school camp" and says the show is an all-encompassing experience. Regent Theatre Melbourne will host & Juliet until 29 July.
Cayla George, a professional basketball player, reveals how she and her sister-in-law, Serina George, came to honour the Torres Strait tradition of “island adoption”. Following George's struggles with infertility and IVF treatments, her sister-in-law told her and her husband that she would like to gift them a child, and in this case a baby girl called Pearl. The transplant is the highest form of respect within the Torres Strait culture, and was recently recognised and legislated with the Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa Act 2020, which allows island adoption in Queensland.
Australian airline Qantas is to expand its international capacity with the addition of new services to New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles. The firm will lease two Airbus A330s from Finnair in an effort to meet its goal of returning to 100% of pre-pandemic international flight capacity by March 2024. Flights to San Francisco are due to resume next week and a new service to New York via Auckland will launch in November. The company is aiming to recruit an additional 300 pilots and cabin crew to support its expansion. The move could also reduce airfare prices due to the additional capacity.
A teenage boy has been stabbed to death in Melbourne in what is believed to be the latest in a series of attacks involving African youths. The crime wave has led the Victoria state premier, Daniel Andrews, to admit that authorities have "a problem" and to suggest that the federal government should help Victoria increase its police force. The number of hospital admissions resulting from knife attacks has more than doubled in less than three years and police seizures of bladed weapons have reached record levels.
An Australian boy has set up his own free library at his home in Melbourne's north-west. Seth Chirau has loaned out part of his collection of 570 books to his neighbours and friends since February, under the venture "A library in Aintree". Orders can be placed online and members can access the service within walking distance from their homes. Membership and borrowing are free, but new members pay a one-time AUD20 ($14) bond that is returned when they leave the group. Wendy Rapee, chair of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, praised Seth's initiative as a "gold-star model".
Australian NBA player Dyson Daniels expects competition from veteran teammate Matthew Dellavedova to make the Boomers' team for the FIBA World Cup. Daniels joins a pool of elite guards, each with a chance of missing out on one of the 12 lucrative spots in the team. Despite the difficulty Daniels faces, the Coach of the side, Brian Goorjian, said the team could be the most talented Australian team ever assembled.
India has been accused of suppressing academic freedom due to interference from Prime Minister Modi's government, suggesting the country is not the democracy it's portrayed to be. One Australian researcher and former director of the Australia India Institute claimed it had become a "government-supported think tank" and that academic freedom had been stifled on discussions around the country's caste and class issues. Subsequent drops in India's academic freedom ranking caused New Delhi to denounce the assessment, while the Australian government chose to stay silent on the issue while promoting closer commercial ties with India. Critics suggest that it highlights the challenges associated with countries balancing the promotion of democratic values against economic links, particularly when autocratic regimes set themselves up as primary suppliers of fast-growing markets such as India.
The New Yorker has published an article on the history of police surveillance, documenting how hi-tech techniques are being used alongside old-fashioned detective work. Ed Caesar, who authored the piece, details activities ranging from the police following suspected hitmen and dressing up as abattoir workers next to illegal gambling dens to dropping stories in the media to gather information from phone-savvy criminals. Caesar notes electronic surveillance is increasingly being used, with the Australian Federal Police and international colleagues downloading 27 million messages from crooks who believed they were using highly secure messaging app An0m. The Australian Federal Police then dropped a series of stories to help fuel the underground chatter and, over time, had a complete view of the dark web underworld. In addition to electronic surveillance, snitches were used, with criminals offered deals to become informers. The ultimate version of covert work is spying, and there are numerous cases whereby undercover officers have infiltrated and helped smash gangs, from undercover cop Nick Cecil, who exposed SP bookmakers in the 1950s, to the two officers who lived among bikies for 13 months.
Australian community radio was set up by Tony Staley, a minister in Malcolm Fraser's government, a development that Tony Walker argues in The Age was more significant than most for Australia's future. Although the government was full of conservative members, Staley believed that community radio was important, and though he took risks, his success in getting it established has been monitored by McNair Ingenuity Research as a weekly audience of five million people.
Australia’s media watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has said that footage of a violent dispute between neighbours, posted on social media platform TikTok, was a breach of privacy and should not have been shown by network A Current Affair. The segment showed footage from 19-year-old Jack Stokes, who captured a fight with a neighbour and posted it on the site, in which the neighbour’s face is seen. Nine Network aired the footage in March 2019. ACMA said Stokes had not obtained consent from the neighbour and that there was no public interest in the material.
Devin Haney won his rematch against George Kambosos Jr in Melbourne, marking his second victory over the Australian, but Haney’s record belies his evolution as a professional boxer. First, Haney relieved Kambosos of his unbeaten record and unified lightweight titles in 2021 before maintaining his undisputed status in the rematch by punishing Kambosos with piston right hands and torquey left hooks. Haney’s next fight will be against Ukrainian boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko, who critics are unsure if he will succeed since losing two fights recently, including one with Teofimo Lopez in 2020 which saw Lomachenko surrender the unified lightweight titles.
