OPINION: Could it be a case of not appreciating what you’ve got until it’s gone? The National Party lost Simon Bridges last week, which has reinforced the notion that the party still has some serious deficits of talent and diversity.The…

A German airline is apologising after a large number of Jewish passengers were denied boarding on a connecting flight at a Frankfurt airport earlier this month because, the airline said, a "limited" number of them did not follow mask rules and other crew instructions.

Passengers told CNN they flew Lufthansa from New York's John F Kennedy Airport to Frankfurt, intending to connect to a flight to Budapest for a religious pilgrimage on March 4.

Yitzy Halpern of New York said he was trying to board the flight when he and a number of other passengers recognisable as Jewish, who were not associated with his group, were told they would not be allowed to board.

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Halpern said once the gate was closed, the airline announced their tickets to Budapest were cancelled due to an incident that happened on the flight from JFK, which the airline told CNN included people not complying with mask rules or other crew member instructions.

Passengers told CNN that though they were not travelling as "a group," they were treated as such by Lufthansa.

During the announcement, which was captured on video, an employee said, "You know why it was," and passengers are heard yelling back, "No, we don't".

Lufthansa said it is contacting passengers and has apologised for "not only for the inconvenience, but also for the offence caused and personal impact." A spokesperson told CNN the airline is conducting an internal review.

Passengers accuse airline of anti-Semitism

In video of the incident, posted to the website Dan's Deals, passengers accuse the airline and German police, who were at the departure gate, of anti-Semitism.

At one point, in a heated exchange, a passenger who is not visible to the camera or identified can be heard calling a police officer a "Nazi."

Another passenger tells a police officer guarding the gate: "Your grandparents would be proud."

Halpern is heard saying: "I'm not with the group. I understand that pilot made a decision and we don't question the pilot's decision but apparently, we're banned from the other Lufthansa flights. Is this a Lufthansa decision, that all Jewish people that were on that flight can't go on any other flight today?"

Halpern asks to speak to upper management and continues to question the decision.

"I was wearing a mask the whole time. Why am I lumped in with them?" he asks the employee.

"Everybody has to pay for a couple," the employee says a few seconds later.

When Halpern asks for clarification of what "everybody" means, the employee responds, "Because it's Jewish coming from JFK".

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Halpern and the employee, who is speaking in broken English, continue to go back and forth, and then the employee is heard saying: "Jewish people were the mess, who made the problems."

"So Jewish people on the plane made the problems so all Jews are banned from Lufthansa for the day?" Halpern asks.

"Just for this flight," the employee responds.

Three passengers CNN contacted reported not seeing anything out of the ordinary on the flight from JFK and said the passengers they saw complied with airline staff directions to adjust their masks.

Yitzy Schmidt, who was travelling with Halpern, told CNN he did not witness any wrongdoing on the part of the passengers.

Schmidt said there were a few times people ate and forgot to put their masks back on, or a passenger was told to adjust their mask, but everyone he witnessed complied with what the flight attendants said.

"We were all stunned and trying to get clarification of how something like this could happen," Schmidt said.

https://twitter.com/lufthansa/status/1524042322069106688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Lufthansa apologises, says decision based on 'non-compliance'

"The reasoning for the decision was based upon various instances of non-compliance by numerous guests with mask requirements and crew-safety instructions on the previous flight LH401 from New York to Frankfurt," airline spokesperson Tal Muscal told CNN in a statement.

"Lufthansa regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight, for which Lufthansa sincerely apologises.

"What transpired is not consistent with Lufthansa's policies or values. We have zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of any type," Muscal said.

"While Lufthansa is still reviewing the facts and circumstances of that day, we regret that the large group was denied boarding rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests."

Muscal said he is not aware of any disciplinary actions.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told employees what happened was not acceptable, according to a German news report confirmed by Muscal.

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"Anti-Semitism has no place at Lufthansa," Spohr said.

"The procedure last Wednesday should not have happened like this and must now be fully clarified."

Earlier on Wednesday he spoke with a Jewish leader in Berlin in a video call.

"We are in detailed analysis (for) days how this could have happened. What exactly has happened. Various sources. We talked to our crew members by now. We talked to the business the ground. It's obvious. That's why we apologised," Spohr told the Rabbi.

"This is nowhere in line with our rules of communication and rules of behaviour."

'It was some type of unacceptable selection'

At least two Jewish men were allowed to board the flight to Budapest.

Max Weingarten tells CNN he and his business partner flew in first class from JFK to Frankfurt with no issue and was allowed onto the next flight.

His business partner was stopped when boarding but was eventually allowed onboard after a discussion with the airline staff.

"We don't dress like ultraorthodox, we looked like regular civilians," he told CNN.

"The selection of Jews versus non-Jews or the selection between Jews is horrifying. It was some type of unacceptable selection that was done. I felt completely uncomfortable."

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German politician Marlene Schönberger said if the accounts prove true, there must be consequences.

"Excluding Jews from a flight because they were recognisable as Jewish is a scandal. I expect German companies in particular to be aware of anti-Semitism," she tweeted.

The German state of Hesse's Jewish life and fight against anti-Semitism commissioner Uwe Becker demanded an apology and clarification from Lufthansa.

"Here, an entire group of people was obviously made responsible for something that obviously only affected individual travellers, solely because of their recognisable faith. This is discriminatory and not a trivial matter," he said.

Police are investigating the sudden death of a person at a Favona property this afternoon.A spokesperson said a person at the Hall Ave property, understood to be known to the deceased male, is speaking with police.Police inquiries…

Complaints by hundreds of western Sydney residents over bad smells has led to the initiation of legal proceedings against a waste management and recycling company.

The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said today it is prosecuting Dial-A-Dump (EC) Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Bingo Industries Limited.

The EPA said it had received more than 800 complaints from residents last autumn about offensive "rotten egg gas odours" allegedly coming from the company's landfill operation at Eastern Creek.

Bingo says it has spent millions of dollars on odour monitoring and gas collection systems, approved by the Department of Planning and Environment earlier this year.

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It will be alleged that between March and June 2021, Dial-A-Dump committed an offence under section 129 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, causing the emission of offensive odour – a rotten egg gas smell – from its premises.

The EPA claims the company failed to have adequate controls in place to collect landfill gas and treat it to remove odours.

The offence carries a maximum penalty for a company of $1 million. A hearing date is yet to be set.

Bingo confirmed it had been advised by the EPA that it had started legal proceedings against Dial-a Dump (EC) Pty Ltd.

"Bingo has spent in excess of $3 million on odour monitoring and mitigation infrastructure and activities at its Eastern Creek facility," a Bingo company statement said.

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"This includes the expedited installation of a temporary advanced gas collection and management system which is now operating effectively.

"Additionally the company has committed a further $4 million for the installation of a permanent gas collection and management system, which was approved by the Department of Planning and Environment in March 2022 and will be in place before the end of this year."

The Thai government will distribute one million free cannabis plants to households across the nation next month to mark a new rule allowing people to grow cannabis at home.

Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced the move in a Facebook post on May 8 in which he expressed his intention for cannabis plants to be grown like "household crops".

The new rule, which comes into force on June 9, will allow people to grow cannabis plants at home after notifying their local government, but the plants will have to be of medical grade and used exclusively for medicinal purposes.

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Additionally, the cannabis cannot be used for commercial purposes without further licences.

The move is the latest step in Thailand's plan to promote cannabis as a cash crop.

About a third of its labour force works in agriculture, according to the World Bank.

In a region notorious for harsh penalties towards illegal drugs, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia in 2018 to legalise cannabis for medical research and use.

The kingdom has also loosened local laws around cannabis.

Thai drinks and cosmetics companies last year rushed to launch products with hemp and CBD, a compound that does not give users a high, after their use was approved for consumer goods.

In a further Facebook post on May 10, Anutin noted that Thai companies registered to do so could sell cannabis products that contained less than 0.2 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the part of the plant responsible for getting people high.

"This will enable people and the government to generate more than 10 billion baht per year in revenue from marijuana and hemp," Anutin wrote.

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Kitty Chopaka, a Bangkok-based cannabis entrepreneur, told CNN the law was meant to pave the way for people to use the plant in medicinal teas or soups.

"It will still be considered criminal if you don't have a legal prescription and you have to be a patient of some form of ailment for this to work," she said.

"Only then will you be able to grow cannabis at home and use it however you like."

She added that, even though recreational use of the drug remained illegal, "smoking weed will happen, and there's no way the [government] can stop that".

The remains of a "well-preserved" pregnant dinosaur with several embryos still inside it have been unearthed by paleontologists in Chile in a ground-breaking expedition.

The fossil is the first complete ichthyosaur from the country, and was uncovered by Dr Pardo-Pérez from the Universidad de Magallanes; the first female palaeontologist to lead a major expedition in Patagonia.

The 139-million-year-old reptile has been nicknamed "Fiona".

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Fiona was recovered from a retreating glacier in a remote region within the Torres del Paine National Park during a gruelling 31-day expedition.

A 10-hour-hike or horse ride was needed to reach the site. Scientists were subject to volatile weather, had to evade pumas, and navigate rocky outcrops.

After all that, Fiona's intact remains were delicately collected using a helicopter.

Despite the challenges, the expedition was beyond successful; in addition to Fiona, scientists collected 23 new specimens.

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"The results of the expedition met all expectations, and even more than expected," Pardo-Pérez said.

Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist and a visiting scientist at the University of Manchester, who was part of the team said, "on average, two ichthyosaurs were found every day".

Ichthyosaurs are ancient marine reptiles that thrived during much of the Mesozoic era.

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"The fact that these incredible ichthyosaurs are so well preserved in an extreme environment, revealed by a retreating glacier, is unlike anywhere else in the world," Lomax said.

"The considerable number of ichthyosaurs found in the area, including complete skeletons of adults, juveniles, and newborns, provides a unique window into the past."

Fiona will now be prepared in the palaeontology laboratory of the Río Seco Natural History Museum in Punta Arenas, where it will be temporarily stored for later exhibition.

The amount of time it takes for first homebuyers in Australia to save for a deposit for a property has blown out to more than a decade as prices radically outstrip wages.

A new report by ANZ and property data firm CoreLogic shows that the median 20 per cent deposit to purchase a property in Australia – which includes both units and houses – is now $147,795.

On a median weekly household income of $1665, it would now take first-timers 11.4 years to save for the 20 per cent deposit required to avoid paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance or LMI.

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Across Australia's combined capital cities that figure falls slightly to 11.2 years, while across the nation's combined regional centres it falls to 10.5 years.

Head of Australian Research at CoreLogic Eliza Owen said record high prices are driving up the "significant barrier" of saving for a deposit.

"The national median dwelling value is now an estimated 8.5 times the median annual household income level nationally," Owen said.

"This is a record high and an increase from 6.8 times since the onset of COVID-19 two years ago.

"Moreover, the increase in the dwelling value to income ratio was largest across regional Australia, where property prices have risen substantially more than incomes."

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The report found that the cost of renting in Australia is now almost on par with the cost of servicing a mortgage, moreso in rental markets known for their lifestyle attributes.

In places such as Bourke (NSW), the Grampians (Victoria), East Pilbara (Western Australia) and Far North Queensland it is now cheaper to buy than it is the rent.

As of March 2022, advertised rents around Australia are around 13 per cent higher than they were prior to the pandemic.

Recent research by financial comparison site Finder correlates the sharp rise in asking rents, revealed that almost half of surveyed renters report struggling to pay their rent in April 2022.

"This spike in rental costs is putting a lot of pressure on tenants, and it's leaving them with very little money left over for other necessities," said Sarah Megginson, Finder's senior editor of money.

"Once they pay the rent – life is very hard.

"Some tenants simply can't afford the rapid increase in their rent in such a short amount of time and there are even stories of families being forced out to live in their cars, or in makeshift tents in the street."

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Megginson recommended that people struggling to pay their rent try to negotiate with their property manager and do an "emergency audit" of the household budget.

"If you can't afford your rent and you have a lease now, reach out to your property manager and see if you can come to an agreement with your landlord," she said.

"Those currently in a house could consider downsizing to a townhouse or unit, as rent increases for apartments have not been as steep.

"Slash all unnecessary expenses and do an emergency audit of all utilities to see where you can save money on things like energy bills and insurance."

Australians at risk of homelessness can call the Homelessness Hotline on 1800 474 753, or the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

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