Hey everyone, welcome back to Flashback Friday. Another week of news, another wrap. Let’s get to it.

As always, I’ll start with the political landscape. And in a big week in Parliament, we saw the new PM Scott Morrison progress steadily through his first sitting week of Parliament this week. The LNP talked policy all week, and showed that there may yet be some hope for this government to continue in the future. But the Labor Party made sure to continue to pull the government back to issues such as Peter Dutton’s eligibility and au pair decisions, as well as the reasoning as to why Malcolm Turnbull was rolled. Turnbull himself tweeted out this week suggesting that Peter Dutton be referred to the high court over his eligibility, something which he voted against when a motion was put to the parliament a few weeks ago. And in other Parliamentary news, Dave Sharma has been selected to be the Liberal candidate for the Wentworth by election which will be held on the 20th of October. It comes after a week in which the bullying card was once again played by women in the party, including former Deputy Leader Julie Bishop. Additionally, the Greens made a shocking attempt to have the reading of the Lord’s Prayer at the commencement of Senate sittings ousted this week, a motion which failed easily. The Greens really need to have a good think about what they’re doing, because it’s not working, and we aren’t going to be fooled by it. As always, an interesting week in the Parliament.

In some other news, this week saw a nine year old Queensland school girl by the name of Harper Nielsen attempt to make a political statement. The young student refused to stand for the Australian National Anthem at her school assembly this week, citing that the anthem was not inclusive of Indigenous Australians. She was told by the school that she could go and sit outside while the Anthem was played, however she refused, because she just had to make a point. It is quite obvious that this is most likely coming from her parents’ influence, however her father has stated to the media that it was her idea. The school gave her a lunchtime detention for her refusal, and asked her to write an apology. They have also threatened expulsion. Since this occurred, 2GB host Alan Jones, former Labor leader Mark Latham, and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson have all criticised the young girl for doing what she did. Hanson in particular pointed out that Indigenous Australians have embraced the National Anthem, citing examples such as Cathy Freeman and Warren Mundine. Now while I won’t personally comment on this just yet, I will be touching on this in a future article. But what I will say for the sake of this is that young children shouldn’t be attempting to make political statements like this due to parent influence.

In sports news this week, and the US open has concluded with an uproar. Novak Djokovic claimed another title in straight sets in the men’s final against Juan Martin Del Potro, however it was the women’s final that really stole the show, with Serena Williams copping three code violations from the umpire and ultimately losing the match to her opponent Naomi Osaka. Williams claimed it was because she was a woman that he was penalised, practically using sexism as reasoning. And the feminist movement once again showed themselves when Sun Herald cartoonist Mark Knight was heavily criticised for his cartoon of Williams, Osaka and the chair umpire at the final. He was accused of being sexist and racist by many individuals, for the majority women. J.K. Rowling even tweeted about the cartoon, once again slamming Knight for sexism. And then there was The Project host Waleed Aly, who said there were reasons for the cartoon being labelled as sexist and racist, reasoning that was so utterly ridiculous. All in all, the cartoon was an accurate depiction of the scenario, and was not at all racist or sexist. Don’t let the feminists fool you.

And in technology news, Apple has unveiled three new phones plus a new watch at this week’s Apple event in the US. The new phones, the iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and XR are the tech giants’ biggest phones yet, and will feature a dual sim, meaning that you will be able to maintain two phone numbers on the one phone. The Apple Watch Series 4 also has features some new breakthrough technology, with the capability for electrocardiographs (ECG), allowing you to take an ECG by simply touching your finger to a specific part of the watch. It has been approved by the FDA, and will be able to detect any irregularities or underlying heart conditions you may have, as well as any signs of stroke. The new devices will be released over the next couple of months.

And that’s it for another week of news. Join me in the upcoming week for another Short Story Sunday, Part 2 of the Exposé Series, another Flashback Friday, and maybe a few more articles in between. Have a good one!

JJ