What you need to know today
Welcome to our rolling coverage of all the latest news and developments from around Australia and the world. It’s Monday, September 21.
John Farnham celebrated at sold-out tribute concert
“JF”, read the raw ink inscription on the left wrist of the woman beside me. Her name was Rebecca, and she reckoned she’d seen John Farnham at least 50 times since her mum took her to a show as a 10-year-old in the Whispering Jack years.
Rebecca got her first tattoo that morning, she told me, right after she heard the news that Farnham wasn’t well enough to attend the evening’s sold-out celebration concert at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
“I wanted to do it while he was still with us,” she said.
Nobody who managed to snag a ticket to this massive, all-star arena gig could have felt otherwise. Despite handling the not inconsiderable demands of his repertoire to the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Kate Ceberano, Tina Arena and Richard Marx, the absent legend was with us in every sky-piercing note of the three-hour, 26-song show.
Trump says planned Washington arch to house drones and snipers
US President Donald Trump says the massive arch he wants to build in Washington would become a “top-grade military complex” able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition.
Posting on social media, Trump said he had agreed, at the “strong request” of the military, to convert the planned 76-metre-high memorial arch “into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.”
The arch is proposed for a circle adjacent to the Memorial Bridge, which is a heavy traffic area as one of a handful of connecting bridges between the nation’s capital and northern Virginia. Groundbreaking for the project was due to take place at the start of this month, but it has not yet received final planning approval.
The Pentagon said it had no information beyond the president’s statement.
The arch is one of several projects Trump is pursuing to leave his lasting imprint on the US capital. Among the others are the White House ballroom, renaming and renovating the Kennedy Centre, and refurbishing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
AP
What you need to know today
Welcome to our rolling coverage of all the latest news and developments from around Australia and the world. It’s Monday, September 21.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
