What we learned today, Saturday 13 August
We will close this blog now. Many thanks for your company, comments and correspondence today.
A brief summary to finish:
89 deaths were recorded in Australia due to Covid, the majority in NSW (35) and Victoria (22).
A child from the NSW north coast may be the third person linked to the recent Splendour in the Grass festival to contract meningococcal disease.
Internationally, the British-Indian author Sir Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage at a literary event in New York. The Booker prize winner lived for years in hiding after a fatwa was issued against him by the then leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims regard as blasphemous. Rushdie remains in hospital, with reports he may lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.
The UN has warned of a “grave crisis” resulting from shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, rebuked Amnesty International for a report that accused the Ukrainian military of endangering civilians. And a Russian airbase on Crimean coast was damaged by several large explosions.
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Socialite Lillian Frank remembered as a flamboyant personality who used her social standing for good
The Melbourne socialite Lillian Frank has been remembered as a flamboyant personality who used her social standing for good, after her death aged 92.
The icon of Melbourne’s social scene, hairdresser and tireless charity worker died on Friday night.
we lost the heart and soul of our family. She lived life to the max, without any regrets and was forever grateful . she saw goodeverything. She used her flamboyant personality and social standing for good, raising millions for charity. ❤️ you but our hearts will be broken forever pic.twitter.com/qK6gUY4qYn
— jackie (@jackie_frank) August 13, 2022
Frank’s daughter Jackie Frank paid tribute to the social doyenne, saying “last night we lost the heart and soul of our family”.
“She lived life to the max, without any regrets and was forever grateful,” she wrote on Instagram.
“She saw things through rose-coloured glasses. No matter what adversity she had to face, and there were many, she saw the good in everyone and everything.
“Forever trying to make a difference in the world. She used her flamboyant personality and social standing for good, raising millions and millions for charity.”
She said of the longtime Toorak hair salon owner: “To us she was mum, to my kids nani and the most spectacular selfless human being in the world with the biggest heart.
“We (heart) you but a piece of our hearts will be broken forever. #RIP Lillian.”
The Victoria Racing Club paid tribute to Frank, who was a longtime judge of Myer Fashions on the Field and attended her first Melbourne Cup in the 1960s.
“Lillian left an indelible mark on the Melbourne Cup Carnival where she attended nearly every year for 50 years,” chairman Neil Wilson said.
“Her impeccable sense of style and vibrant personality helped elevate the VRC’s Fashions on the Field competition to one of the most popular and prestigious outdoor fashion events in Australia, if not the world.”
The club was celebrating 60 years of Fashions on the Field in 2022, and would not be the enduring competition it had become without Frank’s influence, Wilson said.
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