States and territories to bake in heatwave

This is excitement over nothing.  It's a normal Summer, not a heatwave. And temperatures in Brisbane where I live have been cooler than normal this January.  My heat-dependent Crepe Myrtles have not yet begun to blossom. A normal mid-afternooon Summer temperature here is 34C.  It is only 32C today.  Random air currents push the heat around from place to place in Australia, that is all.  Even the BoM seems to have given up saying it is caused by global warming

A possible cyclone is forecast on Australia's west coast while heatwave conditions are expected to bake much of the rest of the country throughout the week.

Every state and territory will bake through a heatwave on Monday with meteorologists saying soaring temperatures will last for days in some parts.

The Bureau of Meteorology said hot days were expected in January but multiple days in a row of temperatures above 40 degrees were unusual.

"Particularly northern South Australia, they're looking at maybe five days in a row above 45 and normally they might only get five or 10 a year," meteorologist Dean Narramore told AAP on Sunday.

Low intensity heatwave conditions have been forecast across parts of central Western Australia to southern parts of the Northern Territory, southwestern Queensland and across NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia on Monday.

Some regions won't be affected at all while more severe and extreme heat conditions are expected across each state, moving into east and northeastern NSW and southern Queensland by mid to late week.

It comes off the back of heatwave conditions over the Christmas and New Year period, with inland areas being hit hardest.

Holidaymakers and those getting back to work in Melbourne can expect to see a few days in the mid to high 30s, while a sea breeze will shield Sydney city.

But that relief won't stretch to the city's western suburbs, where Mr Narramore said residents in Penrith and Richmond would swelter through four or five days above 40 degrees.

A tropical low may lurk off the Western Australian coast, creating stormy weather on Sunday and into Monday, but will then move further off the coast, he added.

"That could become a cyclone but it's not going to come anywhere near the coast," he said.

SOURCE 







Fury as councils ban 'politically incorrect' Australia Day celebrations because they are 'offensive to Aboriginals'.  (Australia day commemorates the landing of the first white settlers in Australia)

Very selective respect.  What about my heritage?  This disrespects my heritage as a 5th generation Australian.  Members of my family were here in the days of the Sydney penal colony.  My ancestors helped build this country up to what it is today and I honour them. They and those like them brought civilization to a vast and generally inhospitable land. I will of course be celebrating Australia Day -- in the great Australian tradition of a family BBQ -- JR

Councils across the country are axing Australia Day celebrations, to the fury of some residents, while some Greens MPs will attend 'Invasion Day' rallies instead.

Byron Bay in New South Wales, Fremantle in Western Australia and Victoria's Darebin, Yarra and Moreland councils are among the first to cancel official events on January 26.

The changes have been made out of respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who see Australia Day as a time of mourning. 

The national public holiday recognises the date in 1788 when the First Fleet arrived and British sovereignty was declared on the land that would become Australia.

Recently however, many have questioned if the historic date of the celebration should be changed.

Inner-city Melbourne's Yarra City Council last year became the first in the country to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on January 26.

Similarly, the City of Fremantle has held its Australia Day celebrations the day after the rest of the country for the past three years.   

City of Darebin Mayor Susan Rennie in Melbourne's north told SBS News her council 'will not be marking January 26 by holding any events' for the second year in a row.

The Byron Shire Council will hold celebrations on the evening on January 25 with citizenship ceremonies held the following day.

While the changes have been lauded by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, they have sparked backlash in other facets of the community.

Online, Perth residents expressed fury and confusion at the councils' desertion from January 26-based celebrations.

'It's all noise being made by loud greens voters and socialists. I can't imagine ever being so fragile I need to use atrocities of yesteryear as a red herring for me to project my insecurities onto happy Australians,' wrote one man.

'So your saying I can celebrate in city then again in Freo. How is that a bad thing?' joked another in reference to Fremantle's January 26 celebrations.

The comments come as it was revealed by The Australian that Greens MPs will attend 'Invasion Day' rallies around the country on January 26.

The move is part of a bid to pose political pressure toward Bill Shorten and the Labor Party to change their sway of support for Australia Day.

Greens' Indigenous affairs spokeswoman, Rachel Siewert told the publication that Mr Shorten's opposition to support changing the date was out of step with the majority of Australians.

'He says 'yeah we know a lot of Aboriginal people aren't happy with it', but he still thinks we should be celebrating on that day. He is trying to have it both ways,' she said.

SOURCE 






A NSW police arrest of doubtful legality and excessive force

The man had legal precedent to say he was entitled to use FVCK etc on a sign.  He should appeal the verdict and sue the cops

Sydney sandwich board activist Danny Lim has been arrested and fined for offensive behaviour.

Three police officers arrested the 74-year-old at Exchange Place in Barangaroo about 9.20am on Friday. It’s unclear what the offensive behaviour involved.

Video of the arrest shows an officer holding a sandwich board sign that reads: “SMILE CVN’T! WHY CVN’T?”

In August 2018 Lim successfully had a 2015 conviction and $500 fine for offensive conduct overturned over a sandwich board that mocked the then-prime minister Tony Abbott with a rewriting of the word “can’t”.

District court Judge Andrew Scotting said it was unlikely the sign would offend the average Australian.

Witnesses to Friday’s arrest criticised police for the manner in which Lim was arrested. “I saw police officers use a completely unnecessary and unacceptable amount of force to arrest Danny for wearing a humorous sign,” Christina Halm posted on Facebook.

“There was a crowd of at least 30 who had stopped in their tracks once we realised what was happening, clearly all shocked, gasping and crying at what we were seeing.”

Niki Anstiss said Lim was trying to make people smile. “This is disgusting,” she wrote. “I saw 3 police officers brutally rip his sign from his back and arrest him while he was screaming for them to not take his sign. He did nothing wrong.”

New South Wales police declined to comment when asked about the physicality of Friday’s arrest.

SOURCE 






Australia's canceled Israel embassy in Jerusalem defers to Muslim concerns in Asia

But the PM's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital appears to stand

When Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison decided to shelve a plan to relocate his country's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he was concerned about the country's relationship with its Asian neighbors, rather than with the Palestinians.

The confusion has highlighted the policy-making difficulties for a country growing more reliant on Asia.

"Fundamentally, it is the right of every country to determine its national capital," Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Dec. 15.

"West Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. And we look forward to moving our embassy to West Jerusalem when practical, in support of, and after final status of determination," Morrison told reporters in Sydney. He said Australia will recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but he also denied his government will relocate the embassy immediately.

A political source in Canberra said, "Morrison meant that Australia would not relocate its embassy in Israel for the time being."

The city of Jerusalem is sacred to a number of religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Many analysts said Australia's decision to recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital without relocating its embassy is in effect no more than a political message. But it immediately made a ripple as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized it the next day, saying countries had "no right" to do so, Reuters reported.

Plans to recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the Australian embassy were announced by Morrison four days before a by-election in the House of Representatives in October. At stake in the poll was whether the ruling conservative coalition of the Liberal Party and National Party could retain its majority.

The announcement, following the relocation of the U.S. embassy to West Jerusalem earlier in the year, was widely seen as an attempt to attract support from Jewish voters, who account for more than 10% of the constituency's population.

But the strategy proved to be a major mistake as the coalition lost the seat and has left Australia nothing but friction with the Palestinian people, countries in the Middle East and Asian neighbors such as Indonesia.

Shortly after taking office in August, Morrison visited Indonesia and agreed with President Joko Widodo to promptly conclude a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between the two countries.

Promoting Asia-oriented policies, Australia sees the CEPA as a trump card to boost its access to the growing market of Indonesia. Australia hoped to sign the CEPA in November, but the embassy relocation issue has led to a delay in sealing the accord.

There are some 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, more than half of whom reside in Asia. The Middle East has a much smaller number. Indonesia, where Muslims account for more than 90% of the population, is the biggest Muslim country in the world.

So it was a natural course of events that Australia's plan to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem has provoked a strong backlash from Indonesia and other Muslim countries such as Malaysia.

SOURCE 

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here