TUESDAY, March 2
Australian music industry legend Michael Gudinski has died aged 68.
According to a statement from the Mushroom Group, Gudinski “died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Melbourne”.
Gudinski is survived by his wife, Sue, and their children Matt and Kate and two grandchildren.
“The family respectfully ask for privacy in this incredibly difficult time and thank everyone for their support,” the statement said.
Gudinski founded the Mushroom Group in 1972 at just 20 years old, which went on to become Australia’s largest independent entertainment group covering touring, record labels, publishing, merchandising, booking agencies, film and television production and creative services.
Some of Australia’s most iconic albums have been released under one of his Mushroom Group record labels.
His touring company Frontier Touring is Australia’s leading promoter and has toured acts including Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran and Paul McCartney since its inception in 1979.
A larger-than-life figure, Gudinski was widely respected for his unwavering passion for all music – in particular Australian music.
Most recently, with the music industry severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Gudinski conceptualised and developed Music From The Home Front, The Sound and The State Of Music, platforms designed to showcase and support contemporary Australian music in an incredibly difficult time.
According to the Herald Sun, Gudinski was last seen in public earlier this month when he attended the Australian Open in Melbourne
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Twitter says it will apply warnings to tweets that contain misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines and implement a strike system that could see users permanently banned for repeat violations.
The social media network started promoting public health information before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.
It also aimed to remove demonstrably false or misleading content about the virus that had the highest risk of causing harm.
Since introducing its COVID-19 guidance in December, the company said it had removed more than 8,400 tweets and challenged 11.5 million accounts.
Under its new guidelines, Twitter users who are deemed to have peddled false COVID-19 information will be given a strike.
Twitter says there will be no punishment for a user’s first strike, but that they will be temporarily locked out of their account after their second and third strikes.
If a user is issued a fourth strike, they will be banned from the social network for seven days.
A fifth strike will result in the user being permanently banned.
With more and more people now looking for authoritative public health information about vaccines as programs are rolled out across the world, Twitter said it would expand the guidance.
Katy Minshall, Twitter’s head of UK public policy, said the company recognised the role it played in giving people credible public health information.
“We continue to work with health authorities around the world … to ensure high visibility access to trusted and accurate public health information on our service, including about COVID-19 vaccines,” she told Reuters.
“Today we will begin applying labels to tweets that may contain misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines, in addition to our continued efforts to remove the most harmful COVID-19 misleading information from the service.”
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Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of trying to bribe a judge and of influence peddling and has been sentenced to three years in jail, with two years suspended.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had denied any wrongdoing, and said he was the victim of a witch-hunt by financial prosecutors who used excessive means to snoop on his affairs.
Taking into account the two years suspended, the sentence of one year jail means it is unlikely Sarkozy will physically go to prison, a punishment that in France usually applies to jail terms of above two years.
He is the second former president in modern France, after the late Jacques Chirac, to be convicted of corruption.
Prosecutors persuaded the judges that Sarkozy had offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into allegations that he had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.
This came to light, they said, while they were wiretapping conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog after Sarkozy left office, in relation to another investigation into alleged Libyan financing of the same campaign.
Sarkozy will appeal the ruling, his lawyer said.
The court said Sarkozy would be entitled to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet.
The court said the facts were “particularly serious” given that they were committed by a former president who used his status to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest.
Sarkozy is set to face another trial later this months over charges of illegal campaign financing from his 2012 presidential campaign.(AP: Michel Euler)
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Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has been transferred to another hospital to continue treatment for an infection and undergo testing for a heart condition.
An ambulance carrying the duke was seen leaving King Edward VII hospital in London on Monday morning (local time).
Buckingham Palace later confirmed he was being moved to St Bartholomew’s hospital, which is also in London.
“The Duke of Edinburgh was today transferred from King Edward VII’s Hospital to St Bartholomew’s Hospital where doctors will continue to treat him for an infection, as well as undertake testing and observation for a pre-existing heart condition,” a statement from Buckingham Palace said.
“The duke remains comfortable and is responding to treatment but is expected to remain in hospital until at least the end of the week.”
Staff use umbrellas to shield the entrance to an ambulance outside the rear of the King Edward VII Hospital.(AP: Dominic Lipinski)
Prince Philip, 99, was admitted to hospital on February 17 as a precaution after he felt unwell for several days, the palace said at the time.
St Bartholomew’s, or St Bart’s as it is known, is renowned for its cardiovascular treatment, and its website states it has one of the UK’s leading specialist cardiac centres, “offering state-of-the-art treatments for the full range of heart conditions”.
Prince Philip has previously been treated during Christmas in 2011 for a blocked coronary artery.
Last week, the duke’s youngest son, Prince Edward, told Britain’s Sky News his father was improving and looking forward to leaving hospital.
“As far as I’m aware, he’s a lot better … so he’s looking forward to getting out, which is the most positive thing,” he said.
Edward said his father was “just a bit” frustrated at being in hospital.
“You can only watch the clock so many times and the walls are only so interesting,” he said.
“We’ve had some lovely messages from all sorts of people and we really appreciate that and so does he, I’ve been passing them on.”
Prince Philip and the Queen have been staying at Windsor Palace, just outside of London, during the pandemic, and both received their first COVID-19 vaccinations in early January.
The prince, who turns 100 in June, retired from public life in August 2017 but occasionally makes appearances at royal engagements.
In June last year Buckingham Palace released a photo of the Queen and the duke at Windsor Castle to mark his 99th birthday.
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