May, 2019
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US ace Ligety’s historic skiing hat-trick
American star Ted Ligety made history on Sunday with a record third straight win at Soelden in Austria in the World Cup season-opening men’s giant slalom.
The 29-year-old, who led after the first run, gave a blistering performance (1 minute, 59.50 seconds) to beat Frenchman Alexis Pinturault (2:00.29) and Austrian Marcel Hirscher at (2:00.52).
The triple world champion – who won by an astonishing 2.75sec last year – equalled Austrian legend Hermann Maier’s three wins at Soelden. Ligety, however, is the first person to win them in consecutive seasons.
“I feel like in some ways that first race anxiety kinda helps me a little bit.
“It’s nice to be able to consistently do well here, and this is a hill that suits me well.
“You don’t have to think too much about tactics … you just have to charge and trust your skiing.
“Coming into the race, I wasn’t super confident actually until a couple of days ago,” he said, citing limited opportunities to train over the summer.
“The first run felt super smooth … (but) the second run had a couple of tricky spots.
“So I was just happy to make it to the finish line and see the green light,” he added.
With the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February, he said he wanted to remain focused on the World Cup races.
“I think the best preparation for the Olympics is the World Cup season. It gives you confidence, it keeps you sharp and just that whole competitive atmosphere keeps you going and gives you the ability to really bring your best to the Olympics.”
Downhill world champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who had been one of the favourites, finished joint fourth with France’s Steve Missillier.
The World Cup next moves to Levi in Finland on November 16-17.
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Comment: Abbott needs to become less tribal
By Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Tony Abbott hasn’t lost his opposition mentality yet.
AAP/Matthew Newton
We used to wait 100 days to draw up an initial report card on a government but now we’re down to 50 days. Today is that milepost (since the election) and Tony Abbott made something of it at the weekend, telling the Tasmanian Liberal council on Saturday the government had made a “strong start” and listing what it has done.
The Coalition wants to appear to be operating in a more orderly fashion than Labor did, but also to give the impression of much activity.
It can point to producing draft legislation for the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes. Four weeks of parliament, starting mid November, have been scheduled.
The Audit Commission has been announced, with the task of recommending savings that would get the budget to a surplus of 1% of GDP before 2023-24. (A smaller surplus is being promised for earlier. Abbott said in an interview with Andrew Bolt last week: “We will get back to surplus at least as quickly as the former government claimed that it would get back”. That was 2016-17.)
The new government is seeking to re-energise the negotiations for a free trade agreement with China in particular. It has started to re-orient the NBN.
Abbott has been to Indonesia to discuss the boats issue (apparently the Indonesians were quite impressed with him, but less so with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who followed separately).
So, 50 days and a reasonable amount started of its pre-election undertakings. But some uglier features are appearing too.
Abbott just after the election declared: “I am very conscious of the fact that opposition leaders are tribal chiefs but prime ministers have to be national leaders.”
Despite this fine sentiment he and his government are being very tribal.
It is not just that ministers spend much of their time harking back to Labor’s record when they are answering questions about the economy and the like. That’s standard operating practice for new administrations.
More unjustifiable is the sort of spray Abbott gave the former government in an interview with the Washington Post, published last week. The convention – and surely Abbott, who prides himself on being a conservative, would like to see himself as a man who recognises convention – is that politicians show a certain restraint in talking to an overseas audience about their opponents.
But Abbott was entirely off the leash. Asked about Labor wanting under its NBN to extend fibre to every household, he said “Welcome to the wonderful wacko world of the former government”.
When pressed he went on: “I thought it was the most incompetent and untrustworthy government in modern Australian history.
“They made a whole lot of commitments, which they scandalously failed to honour. They did a lot of things that were scandalously wasteful and the actual conduct of government was a circus.
“They were untrustworthy in terms of the carbon tax. They were incompetent in terms of the national broadband network. They were a scandal when it came to their own internal disunity. They made a whole lot of grubby deals in order to try and perpetuate themselves in power. It was an embarrassing spectacle.”
Tell us what you really think, Tony!
It is reported today that the government is drawing up terms of reference for an inquiry into the Rudd government’s home insulation scheme, which saw several deaths.
Obviously still grieving families would like further investigation. But inquiries have already been held, and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a very political operation.
Even more political is the proposal raised before the election to have an inquiry into the old AWU scandal involving Julia Gillard’s former boyfriend, in which she gave legal advice (she has always maintained she did nothing wrong).
The Coalition moved heaven and earth last term to use this affair against Gillard. If there is anything more to be done, that should be left to the relevant authorities.
A new prime minister does well to avoid trying to hunt down his predecessor, in this case predecessors. The people have made their judgement on them – it is unfortunate Abbott is not willing to be satisfied with that.
Listen to Nick Xenophon on the Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast, available below, by rss and on iTunes.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
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Wider plane seats help sleep
Relief could be on the way for passengers crammed into narrow seats on planes.
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is calling on the aviation industry to set a minimum seat width of 18 inch (46cm) for long-haul aircraft.
The call comes after London-based research showed that sleep quality can improve substantially if seats are a little wider.
Airbus, whose planes’ wings are made in the UK, already has a 46cm minimum width in its long-haul economy cabins, with business and first-class passengers having wider seats.
“However, other manufacturers are eroding passenger comfort standards by going back to narrower seat widths from the 1950s in order to remain competitive,” the company says.”
Airbus released details of research conducted by Harley Street medical practice The London Sleep Centre.
Tests were done on a selection of passengers. These included monitoring brainwaves, eye, abdominal, chest, hip and leg movement.
The tests revealed that a minimum seat width of 46cm improved passenger sleep quality by 53 per cent when compared to the 1950s-style 17 inch (43cm) standard.
Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, of The London Sleep Centre, said: “The difference was significant. All passengers experienced a deeper, less disturbed and longer night’s sleep in the 18-inch seat.”
Kevin Keniston, Airbus’ head of passenger comfort, said: “If the aviation industry doesn’t take a stand right now then we risk jeopardising passenger comfort into 2045 and beyond – especially if you take into account aircraft delivery timetables combined with expected years in service. Which means another generation of passengers will be consigned to seats which are based on outdated standards.”
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Vettel wins historic 4th straight F1 title
P – Sebastian Vettel roared into the history books as Formula One’s youngest four-time champion after a superlative win on Sunday at the Indian Grand Prix.
Pole-sitter Vettel pitted early to change his soft tyres but then cut through the field to win by 30 seconds from Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean third.
The 26-year-old German becomes the youngest man to win four straight titles, joining Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as the only others to achieve the feat.
Despite teammate Mark Webber’s retirement with mechanical problems, Red Bull also sealed their fourth straight constructors’ title.
“Unbelievable day,” said Vettel over the team radio. “We did it! Yes! Yes!”
“You’ve done it in style,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said back. “Brilliant drive – you join the greats.”
With his fourth championship, achieved with 10 wins this season, Vettel levels French great Alain Prost on the all-time list with only Fangio (five) and Schumacher (seven) ahead of him.
He did doughnuts for a raucous grandstand, then leapt on top of his car and saluted fans before kneeling in front of the Red Bull in mock worship.
An emotional Vettel was hoisted onto the shoulders of Rosberg and Grosjean on the podium.
“First of all I want to thank the crowd for an unbelievable reception. I am speechless. I spent ages thinking what to say; there is so much you want to say at a time like that.
“It is a pleasure to jump in the car and go out and drive for the guys and give it all I have. The car was phenomenal today and has been phenomenal all season, to be honest.
“I want to say a big thank you to everyone who is behind the team. It has not been an easy season. From the outside, people will think it was easy but it wasn’t.”
Vettel said the enthusiastic applause from the Indian crowd was particularly sweet after he was unsportingly jeered after winning in Belgium, Italy and Singapore.
“It has been hard for me in particular. To be booed when I have not done anything wrong was hard, but I think I answered the things on the track which I am very pleased about.
“I am overwhelmed, I don’t know what to say but it is the best day of my life so far.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Vettel’s nearest challenger but 90 points adrift, managed only 11th place.
Vettel’s sixth win in a row, 10th in 16 races this season and 36th of his career left him poised to shatter more records in the remaining three races in Abu Dhabi, the United States and Brazil.
If he takes all three, Vettel will equal Schumacher’s record of 13 victories in 2004 and become the only driver to secure nine consecutive wins in a season.
Vettel, made a quick change to medium tyres after the second lap and dropped to the back of the field, but returned to second place by the 21st lap behind Webber.
He regained the lead in the 30th lap but then saw Webber drop out of the race in the 40th.
Red Bull ordered a stunned Webber to stop while in second place due to a problem with his car’s alternator.
“Disappointing, but there’s not much I can do,” Webber said. “There was something wrong with the car, so we had to stop straight away.”
Webber’s fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished 10th in his Toro Rosso.
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Chinese gay apps surging but ‘acceptance’ still a rocky road
Chinese versions of the “hook-up app” Grindr are surging in popularity among gay men and women living outside the more liberal Beijing and Shanghai, serving up a dose of freedom for those who can’t come out to their families.
Gang Le, a former policeman, founded the Grindr-like app Blued,which allows gay men to use their mobile phone to search for potential partners nearby. Gang Le, who is gay and uses the app himself, says gay men and LGBT people in China’s so-called third and second tier cities make up 80% of the users.
But this statistic doesn’t surprise long-time followers of the gay scene here. Beijing-based gay activist and founder of NGO Queer Comrades, Xiao Gang is originally from Xinjiang, a sparsely-populated province – by Chinese standards – in the often restive northwest.
“Social media can help a lot in small cities. There are no gay bars, so you meet online,” he says.
Seeing the market grow has got gay dating site Xuanta founder Sense Lou planning the launch of a new location-based LGBT dating app before the end of this year.
Grinding with Chinese Characteristics
But sexually conservative attitudes permeate the online world too. On the homepages of gay-oriented dating sites Feizan and Xuanta (set up by a former engineer at Baidu, China’s search engine giant), users are politely urged to sign up for love, not sex: “We’re different to other dating sites, pornography, including pictures and videos, are not welcome!” Blued also instructs users to look for friends and love.
Regular Blued user, Harry Lui, a 31-year-old Beijing man who has studied in the UK, says men who contact him on the app “dance around the sex question.”
“In the US or in the UK, they will just go straight for it. [In] Beijing really they want the same thing, they’re just more coy,” he says.
Despite finding the instructions a bit puritan, and promoting the idea that “having a lot of sex is a bad thing”, activist Xiao Gang says social media has been good for the gay community. “Knowing that there are other people around you in the countryside going through the same thing helps people’s mental health,” he says.
Living in fear of being outed
With many LGBT people keeping their sexuality secret from their families, friends and colleagues, it’s no surprise that Blued’s tagline is “no longer lonely.” A 2013 study of Chinese gay men in Hunan province’s ‘second tier’ city of Changsha found one in ten were married to women. One in three experienced abuse in their relationships, mostly from male partners. This was five times more than their heterosexual peers in the control group.
Researchers Yu Yong, Shuiyuan Xiao and Kirin Qilin Liu from Sichuan’s University of Electronic Science and Technology interviewed 418 gay men. The research found that many of their male partners had threatened to out them when things got messy, while women who married gay men (or “gay wives”) used the threat to keep their partners from breaking up with them – an enormous loss of face.
Kirin Liu says many stay on in abusive relationships “because they think it’s very difficult to find someone else.” He added that the choice to stay in gay relationships put a lot of pressure on many interviewees.
The study found as many as one in ten gay men lived in fear of being outed by their partners – a threat particularly potent in China where Confucian traditions and the importance placed on having children keep many in the closet.
“Traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in the minds of many gay and lesbian people,” Liu says.
Private social media groups a low-key way to hook-up
Xiao Qu, 23 and from Chengdu in Sichuan province, hasn’t spoken to her father in 10 years. She is “lala” or lesbian. In a confrontation with her father she discovered that he didn’t just regard her sexuality as a bad thing – it was “truly horrible.”
After realising she was gay at 13, she first met another lesbian when she was 18.
“I thought I was so weird and couldn’t understand why I was made this way,” she says.
She now works in technology in Kunming, has many gay friends and meets other women online.
“There aren’t many gay bars here so we use private groups for single lesbians on (popular social media apps) Wechat and QQ to organize to hang out together,” she says.
“In small towns, it simply the most important thing for us.”
One step forward, another back
The rainbow is ever widening over the red nation. Chengdu in Sichuan is known as China’s gay capital (a “gay paradise!” Xiao Qu enthuses), Shanghai has an annual PRIDE festival and revelers keep gay clubs open every night of the week in capital cities.
But discrimination against LGBT people, while hard to measure, remains prevalent, and HIV. discrimination remains a serious concern in China. As recently as October, the Ministry Of Commerce drafted regulations to ban HIV-positive people from bathhouses.
Activists like Xiao Gang think sham nuptials signal that the country needs to have a bigger discussion about the pressures around marriage. In a recent interview, another gay activist and scriptwriter Cheng Qingsong called for the inclusion of gay people in popular television dating show “You Are the One”.
While Chinese society leaves some space for the expression of gay identities, Cheng said, the lack of legislation protecting gay rights combined with popular attitudes can put gay relationships out in the cold.
The Changsha study authors said the scarcity of sexual education programs fans popular notions that homosexuality is unhealthy. Kirin Liu warns many homosexuals in China were still under huge psychological pressure.
“No gay men we interviewed ever told anyone about the abuse they were experiencing,” he says.
“They had very limited sources of emotional support.”