Daily News Roundup

TUESDAY April 2

The reason for the postponement of the Rolling Stones’ US tour is out.

Frontman Mick Jagger, 75, is having heart surgery to replace a valve and have a stent put in, says US website Drudge Report, citing unidentified sources.

New York Post’s Page Six website, said the surgery would involve placing a stent in the singer’s heart.

Representatives for Jagger in the US did not return requests for comment. A spokesman for the British band in London declined to comment on the Drudge Report article.

The band on Saturday announced it was postponing all dates on its tour of the US and Canada to give Jagger time to receive medical treatment.

It did not specify what treatment Jagger needed but said he is expected to make a full recovery.

The North American tour had been scheduled to run from April 20 until June 29.

Jagger was photographed on Sunday in Miami Beach, Florida on the beach with his current girlfriend, ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick, their young son, and daughter Georgia May, one of his seven adult children.

The British singer has not explained his medical issue but told fans in a tweet on Saturday that he would be “working very hard to be back on stage as soon as I can”.

Stents are typically used to prop open arteries that have been cleared of a blockage.

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US President Donald Trump routinely cheats at golf, according to a new book by a veteran sports writer who has been named the US Sportswriter of the Year 11 times.

Celebrities and professional golf players have shared anecdotes about Mr Trump’s behaviour in the book Commander in Cheat: How golf explains Trump

Author Rick Reilly says that Trump’s relationship to golf speaks volumes about his Presidency

“To say ‘Donald Trump cheats’ is like saying ‘Michael Phelps swims’,” wrote Reilly.

“He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that’s how he plays golf… if you’re playing golf with him, he’s going to cheat.”

Reilly interviewed celebrities and golf stars to get a true picture of the President’s golfing habits.

And whether he’s playing with luminaries in film, golf, or music, the book said Mr Trump refuses to play fair.

“We clearly saw him hook a ball into a lake… and his caddy told him he found it!,” said actor Samuel L Jackson.

The book also revealed similar behaviour with stars such as Alice Cooper and LPGA player Suzann Pettersen.

“No matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it’s in the middle of the fairway when we get there,” she told Reilly.

Some people have speculated that Mr Trump gets away with his sporting misdemeanours courtesy of his caddie, an ex-marine in his sixties only known as ‘AJ’.

The caddie spoke to Reilly and said he once placed pro-level player Brian Sullivan in a chokehold during a 2017 Senior PGA Championship at a Trump golf course for disparaging comments about Mr Trump.

“Now, you listen to me, f—–! You’re not gonna come to Mr Trump’s course and eat Mr Trump’s food and then use the word ‘hate’ about my president. I won’t have it, you got me?,” he told Mr Reilly.

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The Federal Government, its eye firmly on getting re-elected in May, will tonight hand down its 2019-20 Budget  containing sweeteners, job creating programs and policies and the first forecast surplus in more than a decade.

But the overriding message will be that the Coalition are better economic managers than Labour and all the “goodies” offered are only possible because of a strong economy.

Among the many promises aimed at winning over voters will be:

• A cash handout to deal with rising power prices — $75 for singles and $125 for couples
• $600 million will be put aside for financial regulation in the wake of the banking royal commission
• Details of the boost to drought assistance are not yet known, and
• A possible reshaping of its already legislated tax plan, with tax cuts favouring low- and middle-income earners to be brought forward.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will hand down a projected surplus, building on the last official update in December, which predicted the next financial year would end $4.1 billion in the black.

If actually delivered in 15 months’ time, it would be the first surplus recorded in 12 years.

There will be billions of dollars for new roads and trains in this Budget, with the Government’s $75 billion infrastructure plan over 10 years continuing.

There will be $2.2 billion spent on a road safety plan, which will include black spot repair and a new national office of road safety.

Almost $1 billion will go towards a rail line in Geelong, which runs through the Coalition’s most marginal seat of Corangamite

An amount of $500 million will be set aside for the M1 motorway in Queensland, while $1.5 billion will go to the north-south corridor in Adelaide.

Regional roads will also get $1 billion.