Labor powerbroker Sam Dastyari has been admonished by a senior factional ally and is facing further scrutiny after it was revealed he backed China's position in the South China Sea dispute at an event with a Chinese-Australian political donor who has previously forked out for his legal bills.

In a June press conference for Chinese media, Senator Dastyari pledged to respect China's position in the hostile dispute with other Asian nations and the United States, at odds with the Labor Party's position, The Australian Financial Review reports.

The senator is also reported as saying "the South China Sea is China's own affair", calling on Australia to remain neutral and drop its opposition to China's air defence zone in the region.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke, a senior figure of Senator Dastyari's own NSW right faction, has now restated the party's "crystal clear" stance on the issue and Coalition minister Josh Frydenberg labelled the reports "very worrying".</s>Labor Senator Sam Dastyari appeared to contravene his party's policy on the international dispute over the South China Sea at a press conference in Sydney with a Chinese donor who paid some of his travel expenses, it has been reported.

During the press conference, Dastyari also advised Australia to drop its opposition to China's air defence zone in the region where tempers have been fraying over the disputed waters, the Financial Review reports.

Dastyari's views, which were reported in the Chinese media, directly clash with his party's official stance on the issue which opposes China's aggressive sabre rattling over the South China Sea.

It was reported that the moves tried to get Australia's support toward's China's controversial position on the South China Sea issue, with the outgoing US Ambassador to Australia John Berry wary of the implications.

For this reason Berry urged Australia to be more vigilant when it came to transparency around political donations.

But Senator Dastyari has already been called the 'Manchurian candidate' by Senator Cory Bernardi after he admitted in the Senate he was wrong to ask Minshen Zhu of Top Education Institute, to pay an expenses bill of $1,670 for him.

The senator did so because he had exceeded his publicly funded travel entitlements, but to counteract this Dastyari said he had instead donated the amount to charity.

Articles in the Chinese media have emerged revealing that at the June 17 campaign press conference Senator Dastyari made it clear he would respect China's stance on the South China Sea.

Political donor and philanthropist Huang Xiangmo was also pictured attending the Sydney get-together beside Senator Dastyari. He had complained that Australian MPs were not delivering on donations from the Chinese community.

'The South China Sea is China's own affair. On this issue, Australia should remain neutral and respect China's decision,' Mr Huang said.</s>He found fame on the 2015 series of The Bachelor.

And personal trainer Sam Wood has confessed he's 'guilty' of looking up his own name on Google to see whether he's making news.

Asked if he's ever Googled himself during a question and answer segment on TheFIX, the 36-year-old laughed: 'Definitely not before the show, but yes, since the show just to keep tabs on things.'

During the same interview, the Tasmanian-born hunk also revealed he would get eyebrow tattoos to improve his looks.

'I keep getting told I don't have any eyebrows,' he chuckled in response to a question about having plastic surgery.

'So maybe something to do with the eyebrows,' Sam added.

The former reality TV star has been settling into family life after his fiancée Snezana Markoski moved from Perth to Melbourne with her 11-year-old daughter Eve.

The fitness entrepreneur has a fantastic relationship with his step-daughter and the pair are often seen hanging out on social media.

Sharing a snap of their little family on Instagram before heading to the zoo, Sam wrote: '#zoolife #familytime (sic)'

The trio are living in a $1.4 million home that was purchased by the couple earlier this year.

Revealing the move in July, Sam shared on his Facebook page: 'When you've spent all night cleaning the house as your fiancée and her beautiful little girl are finally coming to live and you know it still isn't clean enough.'

Sam met the busty beauty on The Bachelor last year and became engaged in December during a romantic getaway to his home state.</s>To have no voice is the new norm for disabled people, a by-product of a political climate in which politicians vote in Westminster, then care packages around the country are cut. For Sam St Pierre, who has severe cerebral palsy as well as learning difficulties, the problem is literal. “She’s sharp as a razor,” her mum Alison says, but because she communicates with a mixture of signing and speech, she struggles to tell strangers what’s happening to her. With Sam’s permission, I talk to her mum on her behalf. Her daughter, Alison says, is now desperate.

In a small bungalow punctured with the sound of constant shrieks, 36-year-old Sam has – in her mum’s words – been “left to rot”.

For over a decade, Sam had been happy living in a busy residential home in Preston, Lancashire: she had friends, went horse riding twice a week and was learning to swim. But in 2014, following an incident in which she complained of an assault by a staff member, Sam had to move.

At this point, things only got worse. In a village 30 miles away, Lancashire county council offered up their solution: a supported tenancy for the elderly with severe disabilities. Or as Alison, 56, calls it: “like a holding place or a morgue.”

The bungalow sits set back from the other houses on the street – “Children don’t even knock on the door at Halloween”, Alison says – and Sam can’t get outside because the layout of the garden blocks her wheelchair and walking frame.

Now, at only 36, for the last two years Sam has spent her days stuck inside with two elderly women: one 79-year-old, too frail to move, and a 61-year-old with autism and Alzheimer’s. Neither is able to communicate or respond to Sam.

The place is run on “skeleton staff” – two carers for three people – and often, that’s down to one. In a typical weekend, Sam is left to sit by herself in her bedroom. “It was sold to me as a package of independence,” Alison says. “They take her to Asda. That’s about it.”

Alison is disabled herself – two major surgeries on her legs and hips after a car crash – but removes Sam for hours whenever she can. She’s exhausted, emotionally as much as physically.

What’s worse for the family is that 20 miles away in Hebden Bridge – five minutes from Sam’s mum, sister and newborn niece – is a safe, busy residential house with an opening. “You walk in the place and there’s music, it’s bustling,” Alison says. “All her own age.”

A empty bedroom has been waiting for Sam there for 12 months. The problem is that the council won’t pay for it. “It’s the cuts, the cuts, isn’t it?” Alison says.

The fees for Sam’s current home are £850 a month. The new house will accept £1,250 (Alison says they’ve already dropped their fees twice). That’s less than the council was spending on the home Sam was living in before she was assaulted but in the current climate, that’s an ignored detail.

A spokesperson for Lancashire county council told me they’ve given “careful consideration” to Sam’s needs and believe that “her current placement is suitable”. They add that “it has been suggested to us that Ms St Pierre is moved [from local authority supported living accommodation] to private residential care outside of the county at significant additional cost. However, we have to make decisions about placements based on an approach that is fair and equitable to all of the people we support.”

Left where she is, Alison says her daughter is fading away in front of her eyes. “She used to laugh and joke. All that’s gone now.” Sam has developed stress-related seizures (“She turns blue. She just keeps going in and out.”), which were virtually unknown before she was moved there. She’s been hospitalised for them – she fell out of bed once – and the doctors have tripled her medication.

“Sam’s desperately unhappy and the social care team agrees that her health has deteriorated significantly,” Alison stresses. “I don’t know how the council could leave her there.”

A fortnight after we talk, Alison emails me, distraught. It’s Sam’s birthday and she’s found out the bedroom in Hebden Bridge – Sam’s hope – has been taken.

Alison’s been to visit the replacement home the council allocated via email: another home housing residents up to 80 years old, that is 40 miles away from Sam’s family. Staff were friendly but tired, Alison says. “One told me it’s a private house and they’re worked day after day without a break”. The sofas were stained with bodily fluid, she says. There were holes in the plaster on the walls and dirty floors. The lounge stank of urine.

Alison thinks about hiring a lawyer but she has no way of affording it. Besides, she says, legal help would take time and “I’m not sure Sam will last.” She contacts the council daily – report after report, email after email, letter after letter – but says they refuse to meet with her.

“Sam, she’s being so brave,” Alison says, pausing. “She can’t write an email or speak to an MP. If you haven’t got a voice – if you literally haven’t even got the speech – who’s going to fight?”</s>The 60th anniversary of the first Jack Nicklaus-Sam Snead golf match contested at Urbana Country Club occurred last month, and Pro Football Hall of Famer/London native Dick LeBeau recently passed along an interesting story about the time he met Snead in the late-1960s when Snead was well past his prime as a golfer.

“When I was a player for the Detroit Lions, I once sat in a golf cart with Sam Snead for 30 or 40 minutes and watched scores come in at a U.S. Open qualifier he was playing in,” said LeBeau. “When I was introduced to him and he sat down in my cart, one of the first things he asked was how much I weighed. It was later in my career then and I was playing at about 180 pounds (to save a step or two). Sam said that was what he weighed when he played football in high school and I could just feel him thinking, ‘I could have played professional football.’

“I vividly remember thinking that this was all wrong to have one of the greatest golfers of all time sitting there watching the scoreboard like I used to do at the Ohio Amateur to see if my 76 was going to make the match play round.

“Sam sat in the cart until it started looking pretty certain that he was not going to make it – he didn’t – and I don’t think he ever tried to make the Open field again.

“He said good-bye, walked a little ways to a helicopter, got in and flew away.”

Todd Michael was the winner of the framed 16×20 autographed photo of Jack Nicklaus that was recently raffled off at Urbana Country Club.

The raffle for the autographed photo – donated by Nicklaus himself – raised $234 for the United Way of Clark, Champaign and Madison Counties.

Trivia Time – Jannon Roland averaged 29.5 points per game her senior basketball season at Urbana High School in 1992-93.

This week’s question – How many U.S. Open titles did Sam Snead win?

Reach Steve Stout at 652-1331 (ext. 1776) or on Twitter @udcstout</s>The line has been repeated so many times that people are almost as familiar with Sam Allardyce’s alter ego as they are with the man himself.

Sam Allardici. The manager Allardyce could have been, if only he had been born near the Dolomites and not Dudley.

A coach who would have sailed through positions at Real Madrid and Inter Milan, deftly sidestepping the toil at Bolton and Blackburn on his way to the best jobs in Serie A or La Liga.

‘I won’t ever be going to a top-four club because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce,’ said England’s manager during his time with West Ham. ‘It wouldn’t be a problem to me to go and manage those clubs because I would win the double or the league every time.

‘Give me Manchester United or Chelsea and I would do the same. It’s not where I’m suited to, it’s just where I’ve been for most of the time.’

And now he has the chance to prove that. For if ever a team needed the bold, the brilliant Sam Allardici right now, it is England. They need a manager with ambition, a manager whose teams can play, a manager with the confidence to be successful.

Sam Allardyce may be the best available in a country where English managers do not rise to the top; but this Allardici figure, the finest coach Real Madrid never had, what a coup it would be to get him instead.

So far, though, mixed reviews. England’s new manager allowed the names in his starting XI for Sunday’s match with Slovakia to be made public on Friday, which took guts, but the team itself bore a striking resemblance to Roy Hodgson’s first England team of the 2016 European Championship.

There were two changes and perhaps there would have been three had Fraser Forster not been injured in training. As it is, John Stones comes in for Chris Smalling at centre half; Jordan Henderson for Dele Alli in midfield. Actually, it is Wayne Rooney’s reversion to No 10 from midfield that has forced Alli out — Allardyce then preferring Henderson in the deeper role beside Eric Dier.

No clues on how the team will play — that would be taking the new openness a little too far — but it could be 4-2-3-1, or even a tweaked 4-4-2.

Either way, Allardyce’s assertion that England did not play too disastrously in the European Championship — others share this belief, not least Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp — would appear to be reflected in his selection.

There is no reservoir of talent outside the England squad; there really isn’t too much beyond the starting XI. Allardyce has pretty much picked the same team, in the same shape, as Roy Hodgson. It isn’t revolution. It isn’t even evolution. It’s more of the same, repackaged.

This is where Signor Allardici comes in. What has to be hoped is this radical figure can take Hodgson’s group and transform them.

There is no place for Michail Antonio — the one new face in the squad — no place for Danny Drinkwater, excluded by Hodgson at the last. Barring late injuries, eight of the team who started England’s last game against Iceland in June will retain their places against Slovakia in Trnava.

Daniel Sturridge, Alli and Smalling are the only casualties.

It was Bobby Robson who, in September 1982, named the team before his opening game against Denmark in Copenhagen, throwing the sheet of paper on the table in an act of great drama.

‘Sepp Piontek, I’ve picked my team and we’re coming to get you,’ he told a delighted press pack. Unfortunately, the printers went out on strike later that day, so nobody got to read Robson’s bold challenge to the Danish manager.

Probably just as well. England led twice, both goals through Trevor Francis, but Jesper Olsen equalised for Denmark in the 89th minute. The Danes won at Wembley a year later, meaning England failed to qualify for the 1984 European Championship finals and Robson offered to resign.

So confidence by itself is of little use. Luiz Felipe Scolari admits agonising over the make-up of his 23-man group, but that did not prevent him naming Brazil’s team for the first game of the 2002 World Cup on the day he announced his squad. He also detailed how they would play: three defenders, two guarding midfield players, two wing-backs.

Despite handing the opposition this knowledge, Brazil won that World Cup. Then again, Scolari had Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. Allardyce is not exactly over- burdened with all-time greats. So he has to think anew. A sign of that, perhaps, was his decision to let the players go home on Wednesday, reconvening Thursday.

To many this was a surprise, Allardyce limiting his time with the team when it was felt he would use the opportunity of a week together to pump his philosophy into them.

Maybe he’s smarter than that. Maybe he has identified that what England players need is decompression. In conversation with this newspaper last month, Rooney said it could be advantageous to mirror club preparation.

‘If you think about the way club football works during the season, you play a game, you go home, you’re with your kids, your wife or girlfriend, you put it away for a while and then go into training the next day,’ said Rooney. ‘It’s a very different environment to just being totally wrapped up in football, with no time to step outside that world.

‘I think we need to have the down time you get with clubs, to chill out, to have that few hours in the day when we forget about it. If you’re watching football, talking football, thinking about football 24/7, then your head’s constantly working, you never get those moments.

‘And I think that’s the start, really, to try to get the lads working more like they do at home.

‘I don’t see why some days after training the manager can’t say, ‘‘Right, I’ll see you at 9am tomorrow’’ and then that time is your own.’

Maybe Allardyce has discussed this issue with his captain. It would be a departure, certainly, a fresh approach. He’s definitely not the boot camp commander he has been painted.

Whether he’s Sam Allardici, though, we are about to find out.</s>He's the former Bachelor with a ripped physique and isn't shy about showing if off on social media.

But Sam Wood has revealed he's not opposed to changing a thing to two about his physical aesthetics, telling TheFIX he would get eyebrow tattoos.

Asked what he'd choose if he 'could get any plastic surgery done,' the 36-year-old chuckled: 'I keep getting told I don't have any eyebrows, so maybe something to do with the eyebrows.'

The admission came about while the fitness business owner was asking a series of 28 questions about himself.

The former reality TV star also spoke about plans for his wedding to Bachelor winner Snezana Markoski.

The gym owner revealed that the Macedonian beauty would prefer 'something a bit more gangster' than his choice of David Grey's tunes as their wedding song.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the personal trainer told Yahoo! Be the couple's wedding plans have halted.

'It was kind of put on the back burner till the girls moved to Melbourne and settled in,' Sam said.

The groom-to-be also revealed the couple could marry as soon as March but it all hinges on his blushing bride.

'It's up to Snez really with the wedding - I mean I'm relatively happy for her to have whatever sort of wedding she wants - so she's gonna find a venue and we've gotta make sure it's available on the date,' he said.

Sam and Snezana met on last year's season of the Network Ten dating show, and became engaged in December during a trip back to the hunk's home state of Tasmania.

After almost a year of living in different cities, Snezana moved to Melbourne into a home that she bought with Sam, along with her 11-year-old daughter Eve.</s>She has inside knowledge of what it takes to win The Bachelor.

But that did not stop Snezana Markoski being a little hesitant when Sam Wood asked if he could place a $25,000 bet on the winner of this series in a hilarious radio prank.

The former Bachelor phoned his fiancee on Fitzy and Wippa's show on Thursday and told her they could get a $100,000 return on 4/1 odds if they backed Nikki Gogan.

But Snezana did not seem convinced by the minimum $25,000 bet, saying: 'Why does it have to be 25. It’s not the NBA or something, it’s the f***ing Bachelor.'

Sam told her he had met someone who gave him a 'tip' in the coffee shop at Channel 10.

'I've got to speak quickly, I was just in the coffee shop at 10 and I bumped into a guy I met on the show and he’s told me who wins The Bachelor,' he told the Nova 969 show.

'He said he's pretty sure is the winner, Nikki.

'So I’ve rung a mate who has got a betting account and he’s said he could put 4/1 on it. But we have to put a minimum bet on of 25,000.'

He added: 'Obviously I don’t want to throw 25,000 without getting your permission.'

Sam then asked whether she was OK with the idea of taking part in a 'dodgy' bet.

But Snezana did not seem to mind, saying: 'I don’t care about the dodginess'.

Snezana then voiced her concern about splashing out $25,000.

The radio presenters then interjected, saying: 'Do you know how many Gucci handbags you could buy for $100,000?'

The brunette beauty then laughed along and said: 'You are such an a***hole.'

Earlier in the segment, Sam had joked that Snezana could 'rip' through $25,000.

'Snez is pretty trusting with the money stuff, she spends $25,000 pretty quick,' he said.

'It all equals out, We’ve been decorating the house. She’ll rip through that.'</s>Australian foodie Stephanie Alexander once wrote that if you hear visitors arriving at the front gate, your scones should be in the oven by the time they are at the door. Somewhat unconvinced, I confronted her about it. She laughed and said that it depended on the length of your garden path. I like the sentiment though; scones don't really need the effort that people think they do.

In fact, the less effort, the better. Don't overwork the dough; you are merely combining the ingredients.

I always have countless pieces of leftover cheese in the fridge. It drives the others insane. I refuse to throw them out because they are perfect for cheese scones. The stronger the cheese, the better.

For a sweet version, leave out the cheese, parsley and cayenne and add a quarter cup of sugar, half a cup of chopped dates and zest of a lemon.

READ MORE:

 * Recipes: Keep things simple for summer with scones and salad

 * Three ways with... citrus

 * Ruth's pikelet and scone secrets

MY CHEESE SCONES

 Serves: depends how greedy you are

 Prep time: 5 minutes

 Cook time: 15 minutes

Into a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne. Grate in the cold butter and rub through the dry ingredients. Add the cheeses and parsley and combine well. Create a well in the centre of the mixture, pour in the milk and bring in the dry ingredients gently, combining everything until you have a soft, consistent dough. Take care not to overwork the dough.

Roll out to a thickness of about an inch and a half, then cut into squares or use a round cutter.

Transfer to a flat oven tray lined with baking paper. Brush with beaten egg.

Bake for five minutes at 200ºC, then bring the temperature down to 180ºC and bake for another 8-10 minutes, until well risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let them rest and cool for five minutes before serving with lashings of good butter – the salted Lewis Road stuff is pretty good.

Sam Mannering is the author of Food Worth Making (poshgiraffepublishing.co.nz)

 Photograph & Styling/ Jason Creaghan
Iranian-born Australian politician Sam Dastyari pledges his support for China's position in the dispute.