Daily News Roundup

 

MONDAY NOV 2

On the tarmac of an airport in Dubuque, Iowa — where he held his second rally of the day — Mr Trump shot down reports he was planning to “declare premature victory” on election night if looks as though he is ahead.

According to sources who spoke to Axios, he’ll make the call even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states.

Mr Trump however said this was a “false report”, but he blasted the expected vote-counting delays in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s secretary of state says it will take days to count “overwhelming majority” of votes, meaning the election could hang in the balance.

In his tarmac rant, Mr Trump repeatedly described the situation as “terrible”

“We’ll look at what happens,” he told reporters.

“I think it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election, 

I think it’s a terrible thing where states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over because it can only lead to one thing and that’s very bad – you know what that one thing is.

“I think it’s a very dangerous, terrible thing, and I think it’s terrible when we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election in a modern day age of computers,” he said.

“I think it’s a terrible thing, and I happen to think it was terrible decision for our country made by the Supreme Court, and I think it’s a very dangerous decision, because you’re going to have one or two or three states depending on how it ends up where they’re tabulating ballots and the rest of the world is waiting to find out. I think there’s great danger to it, and I think a lot of fraud and misuse can take place.”

Axios reports that, behind the scenes, the President has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

“For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia. Like Pennsylvania,” the report states.

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A 12-year-old surfer is in hospital after an early morning shark attack off Port Macquarie in New South Wales.

Lifeguard supervisor James Turnham said the boy was bitten at Town Beach on Monday about 6am.

Ambulance NSW said the boy was treated at the scene before being taken to Port Macquarie Base Hospital in a stable condition.

Susan George, from NSW Ambulance, said paramedics treated the boy for a number of suspected bite wounds to his foot, upper leg and finger.

“Amazingly, he was in fairly good spirits when our crew arrived and local surf lifesavers did a great job looking after him when he first came out of the water,” Inspector George said.

“I’d say this young man will have a few stories to tell his mates when he’s well enough to return to school.”

Mr Turnham said the boy seemed to be in good spirits when he was loaded into the ambulance.

“I don’t believe the injuries are life-threatening or anything, just a bite to his ankle and finger,” he said.

“When he left in the ambulance he had a smile on his face, so that’s a good thing.

“We’ve just closed Town Beach, probably for the day at this stage.”

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Jamie Kah will be the only female jockey riding in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday but that’s not what makes her unique.

A special ABC report says she rode miniature ponies as a toddler and broke in wild horses aged 8, and it’s her lifelong affinity with the animals that has taken her to the top of the Melbourne Jockey Premiership and to her first Melbourne Cup ride.

Her father John Kah says her innate ability with horses was evident from a young age.

“She had a couple of miniature ponies running around even when she was one or two years old,” he says.

“So instead of walking her in her pram, she got walked on the back of a miniature pony. On the second walk she said ‘no, I want to ride it by myself, thanks Mum’.

John Kah has been by his daughter’s side throughout her stunning rise in racing.(Supplied)

“We’ve always bought in young horses, green broken horses, or towards the end, basically unbroken horses, and we’ve had a lot of good people helping us with Jamie educating the horses.

“A lot of the very good horsemen saw very early on that Jamie just had a knack with horses and a way with things.”

Kah competed in mounted games competitions, show jumping and equestrian but as a young teenager it was a part-time job with horse trainer John MacMillan in the nearby Adelaide Hills that turned her to racing.

“She used to arrive before dawn, work in the stables and then she would come up to the house and have a shower and breakfast and her mum would pick her up ready for school at eight o’clock,” MacMillan recalls.

“She had this natural riding ability and balance combined with an ability to read a race and that sort of jockeyship you can’t easily teach.”

She was late to racing but learned quickly, and by the end of her first full season in 2012/13 she won the Adelaide Jockeys’ Premiership at age 17, the first apprentice to do so in 20 years.

She took some time off but with three Adelaide jockey premierships to her name she moved to Melbourne in early 2019, where her success continued.

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Queensland’s Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington says she will step down as party leader following the Liberal National Party’s electoral defeat at the weekend.

Talks about the LNP’s leadership began almost immediately after the party lost a number of seats at the state election.

Ms Frecklington declared on Saturday night she planned to continue as LNP leader but said she has since reflected on her future.

Once the final vote is tallied, Ms Frecklington said she will convene a party meeting to appoint a new leader and will not run as a candidate.

“My first instinct is always to fight on,” Ms Frecklington said.

“Since then I’ve had a great day with my family and my husband Jason and reflected on my future.

“Once all of the results are finally declared I will convene a party room meeting and I will ask my colleagues to appoint a new leader of the Liberal National Party.

“I will not be a candidate in the leadership contest.

“Whoever the new leader of the LNP is will have my full support and my full loyalty, I will assist them in any way possible to help this party move forward.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life so far to be the leader of the Liberal National Party and uphold the great traditions of democracy, the great traditions to hold this government to account.”