Daily News Roundup

29th April 2019

An IT problem is causing chaos across Australia’s international airports, with significant delays in processing inbound and outbound passengers sparking long queues.

Passengers at international terminals in Sydney and Melbourne have been found waiting for around 90 minutes, posting photos of long queues on social media.

Every international airport in Australia has been reportedly affected.

The Australian Border Force (ABF) stated it was working with the Department of Home Affairs to resolve the “IT systems outage”.

“Additional ABF staff have been deployed to process passengers and to minmise delays,” the statement reports.

“Passengers are encouraged to arrive at airports early to allow additional time for processing.”

Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) confirms that the ABF outage was affecting all electronic passport gates.

The outages at Brisbane started just after 6:00am with additional staff being brought in, however have warned that “delays will be lengthy”.

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One of Queensland’s leading universities has been forced to backflip over a decision not to award female runners prize money at a weekend fun run.

Alexandra Blake won the women’s 5 kilometre race at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Classic, but was outraged when she didn’t receive an award, unlike her male counterparts.

“I train just as hard as those guys. I come here thinking that if I do well I can get something out of it to support my running and I don’t see how I’m any less valued than the men,” Blake stated.

Blake was told after confronting a race official that “the money was only for the first three across the line, that was always the case and we made that very clear in our advertising.”

Alexandra’s father, Mark Blake posted on social media saying that organisers should be ashamed of themselves.

“This is pure disgrace and sexist in the extreme. It’s not about the money- it’s about the simple concept of equality,” he said.

“My daughter who won the 5km was told by the race director- it’s simple enough, if you want prize money you simply have to beat the men.”

His post prompted similar sentiments after being shared on Facebook.

The QUT Classic website stated first, second and third place men and women would receive prize packs, including a bowling voucher and a YMCA membership.

It also said the winners of the 10km and 5km races would receive cash prizes as well.

QUT described the decision to the ABC as an “oversight” and said its “intention was to award prize money to the first three runners over the line, regardless of gender.”

“We apologise for this and given QUT’s oversight we have restructured the winnings and will now be awarding cash prizes to the top three female and male runners,” QUT stated.

The University has stated that all winners will now be contacted.

The event has been run annually since 2016 to raise funds for QUT’s Learning Potential Fund providing scholarships to low-income students.

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A male model has died after falling ill and reportedly tripping over his shoelaces on the catwalk during Sao Paulo’s Fashion Week in Brazil.

26 year old model, Tales Soares was reportedly unwell when he walked in his last catwalk show. Audience during the show thought that Soares falling over was part of the show.

A statement from organisers said Soares fell ill on Saturday while he took part in a parade for Spanish fashion label Ocksa.

A medical team attended to him on the catwalk and was later taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“With this news, the organisation met with the brands, directors of parades, stylists and models that had parades in the programming, and was given the option to cancel them. Even shaken, everyone decided to keep the parades,” organisers said in its statement.

“We deeply regret the death of Tales, and once again we extend our condolences to the family. We are providing all necessary assistance in this sad moment.”

Folha de S Paulo, a Brazilian daily newspaper reported Soares tripped on his shoelace and fell.

A minute of silence will be observed before the opening of all remaining shows.