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Politics
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Sexualised, violent threats: female Victorian MPs fear for their safety as they fight more than just next month’s election
Hostility from constituents is not new for the state’s politicians, including its premiers. But the alleged attack on Helen Haines has sent a chill down the collective spine Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast On Monday night, Georgie Purcell shared a statement on social media in support of Helen Haines, who earlier that day had been allegedly attacked by a constituent in her regional Victorian electorate. Purcell, a Victorian upper house MP whose region partly overlaps with Haines’s federal electorate, wrote that the alleged attack had sent chills down her spine. Being a woman in politics, she said, had changed the way she moved through the world – where she parked her car, which route she took home, even whether she held public events at all. Continue reading...
Champions League review: PSG take a hit, Man City’s empty seats and teenage hope for Liverpool
The reigning champions must deal with the absence of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for some time, while fans at Anfield were thrilled by Rio Ngumoha Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona 4-2 on Tuesday , but the reigning champions lost the best player in last season’s tournament, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. This autumn has seen much lobbying for the Ballon d’Or, with the Georgian a popular choice, despite his absence from the World Cup. He is expected to be out for six months, although Rodri’s comeback from serious injury – he was rested by Barcelona on Tuesday until coming off the bench in the 60th minute – shows it can take far longer than that for players to rediscover their highest level. Continue reading...
UK must prepare for infrastructure attacks by hostile states, says Streeting
Warning by defence secretary comes as he opens a tank gun barrel factory in the West Midlands Business live – latest updates The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, has said Britain should prepare for the threat of “state-sponsored terrorism” by hostile powers targeting everyday infrastructure as part of a national conversation about resilience in the face of emergencies. He said on Thursday the public should consider how to respond to so-called hybrid warfare risks, such as cyber-attacks that could knock out payment systems used by businesses or cause supply chains to collapse. He also said the public should consider natural risks, such as flooding or wildfires. Continue reading...
One in 10 adults in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in last year, ONS finds
Charities say ‘tip of iceberg’ figures show government is not fulfilling pledge to halve violence against women and girls Almost one in 10 adults in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse in the last year, a survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) found that 9.6% of people aged 16 and over had experienced domestic abuse in the last year – which equates to about 4.7 million people. Continue reading...
Rosebank row: will Labour block the oilfield? – podcast
The government has given the go-ahead for the Jackdaw gasfield, but that was the easy part. The next big headache is the Rosebank oilfield. The energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, has indicated she might reject this licence because of the project’s expected environmental impact, but could Andy Burnham overrule her to help the chancellor, John Healey? You can read Kiran Stacey’s exclusive report on Rosebank here Continue reading...
Florida police officer finds man dead and steals his house and identity, authorities allege
The officer says he took possession of the property and renovated it ‘to prevent criminal activity’ and ‘squatting’ A Florida police officer who discovered a man dead during a welfare check stole his house and identity and spent years renovating the property for himself, authorities said. Brian Louis Sguros, 35, an officer with the Lauderhill police department near Miami, appeared in court Wednesday on charges including criminal use of a deceased person’s identification. Continue reading...
Judi Dench says sight loss means she can no longer perform but she is still ‘besotted by’ Shakespeare’s sonnets
Age-related macular degeneration has also left actor, 91, unable to read or recognise faces any more Judi Dench has said she can no longer perform on stage or in films because of her deteriorating eyesight, more than a decade after revealing she had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration. “I can’t be on stage. I can’t do a play any more. I can’t do a film any more. I can’t read any more,” the 91-year-old actor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday. Continue reading...
Arizona storms topple trees and bring golf ball-sized hail in possible tornado
Violent storms overnight knocked over utility poles and carried thunder and heavy winds through central Arizona Trees fell on to homes and utility poles were knocked down by a possible tornado in a central Arizona community during a series of violent storms that moved through the state overnight into Thursday. Storms capable of causing hail and wind damage were traveling through central Arizona early on Thursday, with some flood watches and the possibility of tornadoes, the National Weather Service said. Continue reading...
Chiricahua monument in Arizona is now the 64th US national park
New designation of the Land of Standing-Up Rocks, known for its historic rock spires, passed with bipartisan support An area of towering rock spires in south-eastern Arizona known among Native Americans as the Land of Standing-Up Rocks has become the nation’s newest national park. Legislation to create Chiricahua national park was sent to the White House and Donald Trump signed it on Tuesday. It passed Congress with bipartisan backing and is now the 64th US national park. Continue reading...
‘Nunchucks’ wielded by agitated man in Hannah Beazley’s office may have been drumsticks, court told
John Lawrence Smart charged with being armed in a way that may cause fear but Perth lawyer expresses concern for mental health Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A man accused of making threats while armed with “improvised nunchucks” at a Western Australian MP’s electorate office could have been holding a musical instrument, not a weapon, a court has been told. John Lawrence Smart appeared on Thursday in the WA magistrates court where his lawyer expressed concern for his mental health. He was not required to enter a plea. Continue reading...
BBC News to axe education editor role in cost-cutting move
Fears over lack of scrutiny for key sectors as health editor position will also go in cuts aimed at saving £5.5m The BBC will no longer have a dedicated education editor as part of a cost-cutting drive that will see 100 jobs go across BBC News, under a plan that school leaders described as “deeply regrettable”. BBC staff have been told that the roles of education editor and social affairs editor are to be combined into a single position as part of a round of changes that will save £5.5m. However, prominent unions and campaigners are warning the reform will dilute scrutiny of two specialisms that are too important to go without a dedicated BBC role. Continue reading...
Almost every shallow-water coral reef on the planet faces ecosystem collapse by 2075, UN advisors say
Assessment finds global heating is endangering 96% of coral reefs across 80 countries – a figure scientists say should serve as a ‘wake-up call’ Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Almost every shallow-water coral reef on the planet, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, faces a high risk of ecosystem collapse before 2075 because of global heating, according to an assessment by United Nations nature advisers. About 24% of the planet’s reefs across more than 80 countries are already critically endangered, the assessment said, but when the expected impacts of global heating were added this rose to 96%. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...
How tech became the villain of the US midterms
Datacenters, AI and distaste for the billionaires developing it has soured Americans on big tech The campaign ad begins with a clear, idyllic stream that suddenly turns sludge-brown as two concrete datacenters slam onto its banks. Another facility thuds down on a peaceful suburban park, and two more crush-green pastures as an ominous soundtrack to a disaster movie blares overtop. “They’re coming for our rivers. Our neighborhoods. Our farmland,” a deep-voiced narrator says. “Because Brent Taylor wrote the law allowing datacenters to take over Tennessee.” Continue reading...
Economy set to worsen, with higher unemployment and weaker growth on the way, Jim Chalmers reveals
Treasury is revising all the numbers for the mid-year update as economists warn of a difficult six months ahead Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Jim Chalmers has revealed December’s mid-year budget update will project weaker growth and higher unemployment, as economists warn of a difficult six months ahead for the Australian economy. Two days after a senior Reserve Bank official foreshadowed the potential for another interest rate hike in under two weeks’ time, the treasurer in a speech on Friday morning will say “higher inflation is putting people under pressure, tighter monetary policy is weighing on domestic activity, and we can see that in the softening of the labour market”. Continue reading...
Save high street by taxing online sales at higher rate, Burnham urged
Exclusive: British Chambers of Commerce president tells PM to ‘level the playing field’ for struggling high streets • How Middleton’s revival could be grist to the mill for Britain’s struggling towns Andy Burnham has been urged by one of his most senior former advisers to tax internet sales at a higher rate than those in physical shops to help “level the playing field” for struggling high streets. As the prime minister and his chancellor, John Healey, prepare for their first budget next week, Andy Haldane joined calls for them to take action to stop the shutters coming down on growing numbers of shops across the UK. Continue reading...
Oil prices jump to five-month high as attacks threaten global supply
Iran’s IRGC says it hit four vessels in the northern Gulf and three more struck mines near the strait of Hormuz Shipping workers: how is the Middle East conflict affecting you? Business live – latest updates Oil prices jumped to a five-month high on Thursday after attacks in Saudi Arabia and hits to tankers in the strait of Hormuz threatened further disruptions to the world’s crude supply. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by 3% to hit $112 a barrel for first time since 18 May. Continue reading...
How Middleton’s revival could be grist to the mill for Britain’s struggling towns
Turnaround initiated by Andy Burnham and led by Steve Coogan could provide blueprint for other neglected areas Save high street by taxing online sales at higher rate, Burnham urged The former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester . Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is an enormous former cotton mill that powered its economy a century ago. The deafening looms and spindles of Warwick Mill fell silent decades ago, replaced in recent years by TikTok “urban explorers” who share videos of themselves crawling through its abandoned shell. Continue reading...
Angry lawyers and bewildered defendants: the fallout from fast-tracking French rioting cases
Politicians have called for ruthless sentencing, but lawyers blame the politicians for the poverty, and anger, behind their clients’ looting Awa, 18, stood in the dock in the tribunal de Paris , a small, mute and bewildered figure seeming unable to understand, let alone answer, the simplest of questions. The court was told she had joined young people who looted an Yves Saint Laurent store on Boulevard Saint Germain in Paris’s Left Bank late on Sunday and stripped it bare within minutes. Continue reading...
‘America, this is a warning’: pro- Trump Maga media in a froth over Europe protests
Fox News and others have toed president’s line – seemingly hoping unrest abroad will make people vote Republican Donald Trump sought to capitalize on the scenes of unrest in France, telling a crowd in Kansas on Monday that “migrants” and “communists” were responsible, and that the scenes were “what the radical ‘Dumocrats’ want to do to America”. As Republicans struggle to convince voters across the country ahead of November’s midterm elections, Trump’s allies in the conservative media have followed suit, seemingly hoping that the scenes in France can scare people to the polls. Continue reading...
Snowy Hydro 2.0 has blown out to 12 times its original cost – but the CEO says it ‘could have been worse’
New projections by the Snowy Hydro company show tunnelling work is now 65% finished, but the completion date has been pushed back to 2029 Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The cost of Snowy Hydro 2.0 has blown out to as much as $25bn, with a major reassessment finding the long-delayed renewable energy project will not be completed until the end of the decade. First touted by the Turnbull government in 2017 with a price tag of $2bn , the cost of the project in the Kosciuszko national park has increased dramatically over time. In 2023 it was revised to almost $13bn, with construction due to completed by the end of 2028. Continue reading...
Donald Trump has sold out Ukraine. He makes Chamberlain look like a man of iron principle | Simon Tisdall
Europe’s leaders can no longer trust a word that comes out of Washington. No more slaps on the wrist – we need concrete steps to punish Trump Historical comparisons are always inexact. No one conflict precisely mirrors another. Yet Donald Trump’s shameless appeasement of Vladimir Putin carries more than a noxious whiff of Neville Chamberlain’s failed attempt in Munich in 1938 to head off war with Nazi Germany. To be fair to the former UK prime minister – and history largely hasn’t been – his peacemaking efforts had the enthusiastic backing of most people in Britain and France who, like him, were desperate to avoid a repeat of the horrors of the first world war. Trump enjoys no equivalent public support for his treachery . Nor does he face the prospect of a US war with Russia. His betrayal of Ukraine is cynically self-interested, globally dangerous and utterly contemptible. US-Russian talks on agreeing the shoddy terms of a precedent-setting American sell-out of Ukraine are at an advanced stage, after meetings in St Petersburg this week. Trump has zigzagged over the war ever since returning to office. Now, panicked by record-low poll ratings , he seems determined to scapegoat Ukraine and force its de facto capitulation. Recent steps – his shocking decision to fund Putin’s war machine by buying Russian diesel, his waiving of tougher sanctions, his mysterious, lethal interruptions in US satellite and intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and his renewed attempt to oust Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – mark Trump out as the skulking Judas, the craven Brutus of the modern age. He makes Chamberlain look like a man of iron principle. All that’s lacking is an umbrella. Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...
Too little, too late: Trump takes on gas prices as fuel costs hamper his midterm hopes
Polls show US voters are deeply upset by high gas prices and are likely to punish Republicans in the midterms as a result With fewer than two weeks until the midterm s, US voters are unlikely to see relief on one of this election cycle’s main issues: gas prices. Airing up her car’s tires at a Speedway in Perrysburg, Ohio , Toledo resident Sharie Smith, 41, says soaring costs are having a direct impact on her life. Continue reading...
Vivek Ramaswamy campaign ad for Ohio ‘shameful, disgusting’, says Republican congresswoman – US politics live
Nancy Mace said: ‘This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season’ Responding to the ad yesterday, Amy Acton told a group of voters that her mother was not well and Ramaswamy shouldn’t have “exploited her”. Earlier in the week, her brother had called Ramaswamy’s attack ad a “despicable low” in a statement released by Acton’s campaign: It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point. After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.” This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season. I just can’t believe that this is what passes for decency in this election. Continue reading...
Israel using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees | First Thing
An American company is still supplying Taser weapons linked to abuse of prisoners by Israeli forces. Plus, 12 valuable lessons about life and death by hospice workers Good morning. An investigation has revealed that Israel is using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees . American company Axon is still supplying the Taser weapons despite evidence they have been used to torture prisoners. The news comes as US volunteers including a lawmaker helping Palestinians harvest olives were detained, and Heidi Levine revealed more details of her violent assault by Israeli settlers. Human rights groups have condemned allegations of the repeated torture and ill-treatment of detainees held in Israeli detention centres and prisons using electric shock devices, with Amnesty calling for restrictions on exports of such devices. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the abuse of detainees was strictly prohibited. Who was detained by Israel near Nahalin in the occupied West Bank? The Israeli military detained about 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem, including the New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy attorney general. Soldiers said the area had been declared a closed military zone. What more has Heidi Levine said about the Israeli settler attack on her? The Washington Post photojournalist who was attacked and seriously injured by Israeli settlers on Friday has described how she was saved with the help of local Palestinians . Witnesses said her beating only ceased when young men used slingshots to aim stones at the settlers, forcing them back. What is the latest development with US diplomats in the Middle E ast? The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia , as it faces a barrage of near-daily attacks from Yemen’s Houthis. Reports have emerged of similar US withdrawals in UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain amid concerns of a return to conflict with Iran after the midterm elections. Where has Elon Musk been spending his election campaign money? Elon Musk’s Super Pac has spent more than $500,000 in New York’s highly competitive 17th congressional district race to help Mike Lawler, the Republican incumbent, hold his seat. Lawler, a moderate Republican, is fending off a challenge from Democrat Cait Conley in one of the most-watched races that could determine who controls Congress. What has happened with letters containing white powder being sent to Congress? Nancy Pelosi’s office received “a suspicious letter” on Wednesday in what appears to be the latest incident of ill-intentioned mailings targeted at US Congress members. The offices of more than three dozen members of Congress across the political spectrum have received envelopes containing white powder in recent days. What is Trump’s polling as the election looms? Donald Trump’s approval rating has sunk to 36% , the lowest recorded, with most respondents expressing frustration over his handling of the US economy, cost of living and Iran war. The president was heckled at least nine times during a campaign event yesterday, and reacted to a supporter punching a demonstrator by saying: “Man, I loved that.” Continue reading...