Though she lives with constant pain, Stanthorpe’s Kerrie Stratford still has what it takes to claim her 22nd harvest festival title

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Outside a marquee, across from the clock tower, a crowd is gathering for the Stanthorpe apple and grape harvest festival’s apple peeling contest. Well, contest might be an exaggeration.

Kerrie Stratford, 65, is the undisputed champion of apple peeling. There is no competition. She has won 21 titles at the Queensland town’s biannual festival, claiming a shelf full of trophies including one tasteful prize that is a rock with a peeler on top of it.

US president again suggests Zelenskyy needs to compromise; Ukraine president says US is seeking its drone expertise for the Middle East. What we know on day 1,472

US president Donald Trump on Thursday again urged Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to strike a deal with Russia, claiming that Russian president Vladimir Putin was prepared to reach an agreement. “Zelenskyy, he has to get on the ball, and he has to get a deal done,” Trump said in an interview with Politico. Trump, returning to language he used during a tense White House meeting a year ago where he and vice-president JD Vance publicly berated Zelenskyy, suggested the Ukrainian president was in a weak position and needed to make compromises, saying “Now he’s got even less cards” and repeated his insistence that “Putin is ready to make a deal”, without providing evidence. Trump has long said that US support for Ukraine is wasteful to the US and has spoken admirably in the past about Putin, whom he invited to Alaska in August 2025.

Zelenskyy said the US and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones. The Ukrainian president said various countries, including the US, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against Iranian drones. He said he had spoken in recent days to the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation. Russia has fired tens of thousands of Shaheds at Ukraine since it invaded its neighbor just over four years ago. Iran has responded with the same type of drones to joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha accused Hungary early on Friday of detaining seven employees of Ukraine’s state savings bank while they were transporting cash from Austria back to Ukraine. Sybiha was writing on X after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán said Budapest would force Ukraine with “political and financial tools” to reopen the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungarian refineries. Hungary is one of the few European countries to maintain close ties with Russia since its Ukraine offensive. “In fact, we are talking about Hungary taking hostages and stealing money,” Sybiha wrote. “If this is the ‘force’ announced earlier today by Mr Orban, then this is a force of a criminal gang. This is state terrorism and racketeering.”

Repair crews have restored an external line to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine nearly a month after it was taken out of operation, the head of Russia’s nuclear energy corporation said. Alexei Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, said in a statement that repairs to the Ferosplavna-1 line connecting the plant to the power grid were completed late on Thursday afternoon. Europe’s largest nuclear plant, with six reactors, was seized by Russia soon after Moscow’s troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

A downed Ukrainian drone fell next to a five-storey apartment building in the port of Sevastopol in Russian-held Crimea, injuring nine people and causing considerable damage, the Russian-appointed governor said early on Friday. Mikhail Razvozhayev said the drone was filled with metal pieces and explosives fell next to the building, badly damaging it. Sevastopol hosts the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

The economist, author and politician Yanis Varoufakis speaks to political editor Tom McIlroy about his blunt assessment about the ability of the global economic system to address the biggest challenges of the 21st century. They also discuss Europe’s failures in Russia’s war on Ukraine, the candid admissions of Donald Trump on the reality of climate change and how AI has changed the relationship between individuals and capital.

Speaking from Athens before his national tour with the Australia Institute this week, the former finance minister for Greece also speaks about his recent charge for the alleged promotion of recreational drugs and why he thinks this was politically motivated

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Firing of US homeland security secretary is first major personnel shakeup of Trump’s second term – key US politics stories from 5 March at a glance

Kristi Noem is out of a job.

Donald Trump on Thursday announced he was replacing his embattled homeland security secretary, capping weeks of bipartisan complaints about her leadership after immigration agents killed two US citizens and reports emerged that she was involved in a personal relationship with a top deputy.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De Raad voor Cultuur heeft vijf Nederlandse 'erfgoedelementen' uitgekozen als voorselectie voor de nominatie voor UNESCO's internationale lijst van immaterieel erfgoed. De raad legt het lijstje voor aan minister van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap Rianne Letschert, die het besluit neemt over een nominatie bij UNESCO in 2027.

De cultuurraad koos voor de herdenking en viering van het Leidens Ontzet 1574, heggenvlechten, het fanfareorkest, Pride Amsterdam en de woonwagencultuur.

Onder immaterieel erfgoed vallen tradities, rituelen, festiviteiten en gewoonten. "Je kunt het niet aanraken, maar het zit diep geworteld in mensen en draagt bij aan wie ze zijn", aldus UNESCO.

Namens Nederland staan al vijf vormen van immaterieel erfgoed op de UNESCO-werelderfgoedlijst: het ambacht van molenaar, de corsocultuur, de valkerij, het zomercarnaval in Rotterdam en de traditionele bevloeiing van grasland.

something's fishy

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide February 1964

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: