Hey everyone, welcome back to Flashback Friday. Let’s get right into it.

Starting with the food contamination crisis this week, and it has been a tumultuous week for the food industry and for farmers this week, with a saboteur inserting needles into strawberries in an effort to harm people who purchase them. The saboteur still hasn’t been found, however an investigation is underway, with police looking for any information that might lead them to the culprit. However, the incident was not isolated, with multiple copycat incidents now having taken place in addition to the incidents related to the initial finding, and with multiple types of fruit being contaminated. Six brands of Australian strawberries have now been taken off the shelves, and New Zealand have stopped importing Australian strawberries altogether. Woolworths have also pulled sewing needles and other types of needles from their shelves in an effort to prevent further contamination incidents. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, along with Health Minister Greg Hunt and Attorney General Christian Porter, have also made an amendment to contamination laws, one which was passed through the House of Representatives on Thursday, which strengthens the laws in relation to contamination and increases the penalty from 10 years to 15 years max in prison in an effort to put a stop to the contamination crisis. More to come on this in the coming weeks.

In general Parliamentary news now, and this week saw Scott Morrison’s second sitting week as the new PM in Parliament. And Labor and the Greens did not make it an easy one for him. After a Labor dominated Senate inquiry into the decisions Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton made on a few au pairs reported back that Dutton had in fact misled the Parliament, Greens MP Adam Bandt attempted to have a motion of no confidence moved through the House of Representatives. The motion was defeated by one vote, 68-67, with many saying that Dutton saved himself. Morrison was also criticised by the Labor Party for the funding boost he announced yesterday for the Catholic and independent schools. The main criticism was that there was lack of funding for public schools, however they are practically on par with, if not receiving more funding than the Catholic and independent schools, so this criticism is unnecessary. What was amusing about this week in Parliament however, was the one question repeatedly asked in question time. Bill Shorten found a new way each sitting day of the last two weeks to ask why Malcolm Turnbull wasn’t the Prime Minister. The question has just become a joke. Additionally this week, Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis announced she will not recontest her seat in the next federal election, following in the footsteps of Julia Banks, citing bullying as one of the reasons. And a royal commission into aged care has also been announced this week by the government. The Parliament is now on a three week break.

In a bit more political news now, and Pauline Hanson has once again caused a stir this week with a motion she wishes to present to the Senate, one which will now be presented when Parliament returns after a three week break. The motion was to be put forward yesterday, however time was running short and it could not occur. The motion is that the Senate acknowledge a) The deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation b) It is ok to be white. The motion has caused a stir, becoming controversial almost instantly. Many are saying that Hanson is wrong, and that this is a ridiculous motion, that there is no such thing as racism towards white people. But Hanson is actually right. She is standing up for something that needs recognition, and racism against white people is very much a real thing. Now obviously, the Left are going to be all over this. In fact, they already are. And they will do everything they can to ridicule the motion and Pauline Hanson and attempt to shut her and this down. But this is the Left attempting to blind people once again. And I’ll have more on this in the next Exposé article coming soon. But for now, well done to Pauline Hanson for standing up for something completely valid.

And in entertainment news this week, it was announced that, 22 years after the first film was released, a second Space Jam movie is in the works. The first movie starred NBA star Michael Jordan, with the sequel set to star NBA star Lebron James. The film will once again feature the Looney Tunes characters, and is set to be released sometime in 2019, 23 years after the first film’s release. And, keeping with films, the first Captain Marvel trailer was released this week, showing off Brie Larson as the major Marvel superhero. The film, set in the 1990s, is set to be released on March 6 2019, with the trailer already garnering over one hundred million views in its first day. And another exciting film has been released today, that being the highly anticipated Johnny English Strikes Again. The film, starring Rowan Atkinson as British Spy Johnny English, is the third film in the series, being released seven years after Johnny English Reborn, the sequel to the first film, was released. It is in cinemas now and it should be worth seeing.

And that’s it for another Flashback Friday. Join me next week for another Mystery Monday, another Exposé, another Flashback Friday, and maybe even more. Have a good one!

JJ

Hey everyone, welcome back to Short Story Sunday. It’s been a while since I’ve done one, but here we are. Hope you enjoy.

The Maze

Detective Carter Henry had been on the job for twelve years now. It had been a long stint, but it was completely worth it. The countless cases he had solved, the lives he had saved, the families he had brought closure to, & all the people he had met along the way. It all made the job worth doing. The Detective still remembered the day he had been promoted to this very special position. He had been a regular cop for five years before he had been recognized as one of the best, & had subsequently been handed a detective’s badge with his name & face on it. The detective job had always been his dream. As a kid on the streets, he had played games with his friends, many a day pretending to be a skilled detective. And now here he was, twelve years in & still going strong. Mind you, it did take a slight toll on his mentality at times. There would be late nights & early mornings, days where he was downing coffees just to keep himself awake. And then there were the cases.

Some of the cases Detective Henry had worked were light, & there wasn’t too much in them. They were relatively clean & simple. But then there were the ones which were harsh, confronting, something else entirely, a world apart from the others. There had been some really brutal ones. Crime scenes from hell. Places soaked in the blood of innocent victims. Although there had been a few cases where the victims weren’t always innocent, but they were few in number. The thing about being a detective was that you had to be ready to face absolutely anything. You had to mentally prepare yourself. You had to have garnered complete control over your emotions. It was absolutely essential. However, for Detective Henry, one who had capably centred his emotional & mental state, there had been a few cases that were simply too much. The crazed lunatics who had created these crime scenes had gone way overboard. It seemed as if these criminal had absolutely lost their minds. Yet they were still found, prosecuted, & locked up thanks to the Detective. Because whilst the job wasn’t always pretty, it had to be done.

Of all the cases the Detective had seen, nothing could have prepared him for the one he had just been assigned. He had been through a lot in his life, & seen a multitude of crime scenes, some similar in nature, some different. But this one was exquisitely unique. It was something that only a delusional mastermind could accomplish. The Detective was out on a fifty acre block of land. Now on any other day, he may have found a nice big house, maybe some animals living out in the remainder of the land, or maybe even a community building, or a theme park, or anything other than what he was looking at right now. In front of the Detective was a giant maze. Cut from deep green hedges which were at least seven metres tall, and spanning at least three quarters of the block of land, it was like nothing he had ever seen before. This was allegedly something which needed to be investigated due to its unnatural & mysterious nature. And there he was, standing at the entrance. There was only one way to investigate, & that was to enter the maze. And so into the depths he stepped.

The Detective followed the maze around for about three minutes before he came to an intersection. He chose to veer right. After continuing on for another two minutes, he noticed something different about the small leaves on the hedge to his right. Their colour was dissimilar to the rest of the maze, or at least what he had walked through so far. They were a deep red. He took a closer look, reaching out & lightly touching this part of the hedge. He rubbed some of the leaves between his forefinger & thumb, attempting to determine if they had a different texture. As he pulled his hand away, he looked down, & noticed a section of the ground he was standing on was also a deep red in colour. He knelt down, reached inside his coat & pulled out a torch. Shining the torch into the hedge, he began to notice something inside it. He decided to reach in, just to check if something was indeed hidden inside the leafy walls of this maze. He could feel something soft in the hedge. He got a grip on it & pulled it out. As soon as the Detective saw what it was, he immediately dropped it. His eyes had widened, his jaw dropped. He felt feint. He thought he could pass out at any moment. This was pure evil.

What the Detective had seen was truly horrendous. Whoever had done this had been completely corrupted by all forms of evil. He knew he had to call this in right away. He had to get a team out here. A search team, a forensics team, the whole nine yards. This was not something which could just be done by one experienced Detective. It was so much bigger than that. For what this humble Detective had just seen, what he had just physically held, was the work of nightmares, something he would never wish upon any other human being. It was worse than being in a horror film. This practically was one. The Detective, going against all his better instincts, glimpsed down once more just to be certain this was real, that what he saw was actually there. And sure enough, there it was, a severed human head.

When the teams he had requested had arrived, the Detective had remained on the scene for a while, searching with them, combing the maze for anything hidden within it. After a few hours, he had decided it was best for him to go home & attempt to rebuild the wall that had just come crashing down in his mind. As the search went on, it was found that there were human body parts scattered throughout the maze. Many were hidden, some were left out in the open for anyone who walked through to see. It took a few weeks to search the entire maze, & after multiple searches were carried out, it was found that the remains of at least 42 people had been scattered all over this real-life nightmare. Detective Henry was astounded. He was genuinely appalled, disgusted at what was such a vicious crime, something which had never been seen anywhere in the world. But he knew that he had a duty, no matter how hard it was, to find whoever had done this, for the sake of those who had known these people. He had to close this case so that he could get justice for them. It wasn’t going to be easy, & it wasn’t going to be pretty, but it had to be done. No matter what.

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed it!

JJ

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

Hey everyone, welcome back to Flashback Friday. As always, let’s get right into it.

First to political news, and this week saw the beginning of a Senate inquiry into the au pair decisions of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. The Senate heard from AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, who had made requests from the Minister on multiple occasions. Dutton still denies that he had any personal relationships with those who made requests, and stands by the decisions he has made. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has this week visited Indonesia and met with President Joko Widodo to sign off on a free trade agreement put together in the Turnbull era. He has also given a speech at the Menzies centre, showing his values and giving the people of Australia an idea as to what he stands for. It was a fantastic speech, and things may finally be starting to look up for the government a little.

Meanwhile, over in the US, President Donald Trump has become discontent after an op ed allegedly written by a member of his staff appeared in a newspaper. The piece detailed how Trump was not necessarily doing a great job as President, and has Trump fuming. Members of the President’s own staff are turning on him, and it has become a mess. There has also been fresh speculation that Trump could be impeached, news that comes after the article which suggested members of Trump’s own administration were working to undermine the President, potentially destroying his Presidency. This has ultimately put Trump on the hunt to find out which senior official wrote the piece and who may be attempting to undermine him as President. It’s really one big mess.

To some sports news now, and this week saw the rise to fame of Australian tennis player John Millman, after he managed to win his match in the US Open against 2nd seed Roger Federer to progress to the Quarter Finals for the first time. He won the match against he World No. 2 in four sets, after fighting back from being almost two sets down. The amusing thing was that his parents weren’t even watching, but that didn’t phase them, and they were still very proud of him. He went on to play Novak Djokovic in the next round and was unfortunately knocked out of the tournament in straight sets in a match that saw both players feeling the heat. Good to see an Australian playing well though.

And finally to some entertainment news, and it was announced that legendary actor Burt Reynolds has passed away this morning after suffering a heart attack. The actor had starred in over 200 films, and really left his mark on the acting world. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. Additionally in entertainment news, today saw the release of the second season of one of Netflix’s Marvel series, Iron Fist. The series follows the release of the second season of Jessica Jones and the second season of Luke Cage earlier this year. It is available to watch on Netflix now, with all ten episodes being released simultaneously. So if you’re a Marvel fan, go check it out.

And that’s it for this week. As always keep watch for more coming soon. I actually have an article in the works at the moment which should be out sometime next week, so get ready for it. Have a good one!

JJ

Hey everyone, seeing as it was Father’s Day today, and it’s been a bit busy, as well as that I haven’t been able to think of any story ideas for today, I’m postponing Short Story Sunday for this week. There may be an extra one to make up for the lack of Short Story today at some point in the future. Thanks for continuing to follow the blog, I’ll be back with more this week. Have a good one.

JJ