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Homes Victoria says maintaining the 44 towers would cost $2.3bn over 20 years but Greens say some estates are already being refurbished

Organisers say they will still be loud and proud' on Sunday but have changed plans after premier Chris Minns vowed to stop any protestsA planned pro-Palestine march through the streets of Sydney on Sunday has been scrapped in favour of a static demonstration" at Hyde Park after the premier, Chris Minns, vowed to stop any protests.Event co-organiser Amal Naser said the decision had been made to avoid dealing with legal issues related to obtaining police protection for a march. Continue reading...

After breakdancing debuted at the games in China, members of the Thai national team say they needed support for hair treatmentA member of Thailand's national breakdancing team has spoken about one of the lesser known challenges of the sport - hair loss.At the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, where breaking - known in the media as breakdancing - debuted this year, Thailand's national team was asked about the kinds of support performers need. They said there was a lack of facilities for training in Thailand, meaning people have to practise in parks or shopping malls. Continue reading...

Decision to release Robert Brown halfway through 26-year sentence for killing Joanna Simpson referred to Parole BoardThe early automatic release of a man who bludgeoned to death his estranged wife has been blocked by the UK justice secretary.Robert Brown was due to be released at the beginning of next month after serving half of his 26-year sentence for killing Joanna Simpson in October 2010. Continue reading...

Co-founder of Change UK who opposed Brexit praises Keir Starmer as having the values and competence' Britain desperately needs'Anna Soubry, the former Conservative business minister, has announced she will be voting for Labour at the next general election.The former MP, now a criminal barrister, said on social media that she will be voting for Keir Starmer. On Wednesday, she wrote on X, formerly Twitter: I will be voting #Labour. Continue reading...

Emergency meeting of Arab League calls for serious negotiations between the PLO and Israel'Arab foreign ministers have urged Israel to meet its international obligations as an occupying power and return to negotiations on a two-state solution that provides a viable state for Palestine.At an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on Wednesday, ministers underlined the importance of resuming the peace process and starting serious negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel". Continue reading...

UK minister calls urgent meeting to discuss coverage as X comes under scrutiny over disinformation claims

Exclusive: Family First director leads Christians for Equality, which claims voice would embed Indigenous spirituality' in constitution

After Mladenov's appointment, Latham aired further accusations that his former party misused electoral funds by spending thousands on unnecessary merchandise'

The standup, writer and actor, who co-hosted The Great Australian Bake Off and appeared as a guest on Thank God You're Here, died after a short illness in SydneyCal Wilson, the New Zealand standup comedian who became a mainstay on Australian television over a 20-year career, has died at the age of 53.Her death was confirmed in a statement released by her artist management agency. She died on Wednesday surrounded by family and friends after a short illness at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney", the statement read. Continue reading...

The competition watchdog approved the deal despite concerns it would reduce competition in the Victoria energy market

Part two of the Netflix historical drama will follow in DecemberThe final season of The Crown will be released in two parts later this year, Netflix has announced.The first instalment of the historical TV drama's sixth season will be released on 16 November with part two to follow on 14 December. The series, broadly based on historical events, depicts a fictionalised version of the British royal family. Continue reading...

Yvette Cooper will announce scheme that will also offer mental health supportYvette Cooper will set up a 100m tough love" youth programme to help tackle a knife crime epidemic and a mental health crisis among UK teenagers if Labour is elected, she will announce.On Tuesday, the shadow home secretary will tell the Labour party conference in Liverpool that the young futures" programme will target 92 communities under a Keir Starmer-led government that are blighted by youth crime and violence. Continue reading...

Odey Asset Management was thrown into turmoil after allegations of sexual misconduct against its founderThe wealth management arm of Crispin Odey's investment group will be wound down months after the hedge fund tycoon was accused of sexual misconduct by junior female members of staff.The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said it was working closely with the firm, as it prepares to shut its operations in the UK and Guernsey. It is expected to return any remaining money to investors. Continue reading...

Home Office brings fresh legal challenge after court of appeal ruled UK's deportation policy unlawfulRwanda is a country that imprisons, tortures and murders" its opponents, including those who have already fled the country, the UK's supreme court has heard.Raza Husain KC, representing asylum seekers challenging the Rwanda policy, told five senior judges of human rights breaches in the east African country. He said opponents of the Rwandan government were at risk of police violence and absolute repression". Continue reading...

Ukraine replaces commander of Territorial Defence Forces; Zelenskiy appeals for world to unite to deal with terrorist' organisations and states

World's first museum devoted to the female organ moves to bigger premises after more than 2,500 people donatedThe world's first vagina museum will reopen next month with a new exhibition thanks to a public fundraising drive after it was forced to close for months and relocate.The museum was forced to shut its east London premises in February this year when its property guardianship came to an end. Continue reading...

Military confirms 700 killed in Israel after attack described as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor wrapped into one'

Concern as significantly lower level of the Rhine could have big impact on transportationRiver levels in parts of Europe have once again reached significant lows after conditions that were drier and warmer than normal across central and western parts of Europe through September and the first week of October.In Germany, levels for the River Rhine have been steadily lowering since the end of September and are now running well below the normal level of 1.75m or so, with the key chokepoint of Kaub recorded at 90cm on 8 October. Continue reading...

Lender confirms customers have started to pull money out amid worries over its financial health

The scheme could see thousands of recreational ice, cocaine and MDMA users avoid criminal penalties

Former federal senator says her conservative views will take a back seat to kitchen table concerns during Queensland state parliament election

Report says many aspects make companies uncompetitive, as chancellor Jeremy Hunt is urged to make reformsBritain's manufacturers are urging the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to announce a major MOT" of the UK's uncompetitive" business tax and regulatory system in his autumn statement next month.Many aspects of the system are not fit for purpose", the business group Make UK said in a report published in the middle of the political party conference season, and called for major reform as part of an industrial strategy. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been wounded and killed since Saturday morning, with Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of a long and difficult war' after Hamas attack Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.At about 6:30am local time on Saturday, Hamas, the Palestinian para-military group, launched an unprecedented, surprise attack by land, air and sea, firing thousands of rockets from Gaza and launching an incursion into southern Israel taking over several Israeli towns. The offensive, which Hamas have called Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", took place a day after the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war and caught the Israeli government and military completely off guard. It has been described as an intelligence failure for the ages".Germany | Germany's opposition conservatives have held ground in the key states of Hesse and Bavaria in elections that highlighted discontent with Olaf Scholz's centre-left government amid worries about economic slowdown and migration.Labour | Rachel Reeves will announce today that a Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic.Health | Mental healthcare in England has become a national emergency", with overwhelmed" services unable to cope with a big post-Covid surge in people needing help, NHS bosses say.Conservatives | Working-class people who were a key part of the coalition of voters that delivered the Conservatives' 2019 general election win have been deserting the party in droves under Rishi Sunak's leadership, polling by YouGov has found. Only 44% of working-class voters who voted for the Tories in 2019 say they will back the party next time.Spain | Tens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party's decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago. Continue reading...

Selesa Tafaifa, 45, died in November 2021 after being restrained by staff at Townsville Women's Correctional Centre

Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintainedEngland's newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct culture wars" and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom.Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England's higher education regulator. Continue reading...

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury says multinationals are crying out for stability and competence'Businesses are crying out for stability and competence" and are turning in droves to Labour after losing hope with the government the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury has said.Speaking to the Guardian before a speech by his boss, Rachel Reeves, at the Labour conference, Darren Jones said the scale of renewed corporate interest in Labour meant he was spending almost the entire event meeting business leaders. Continue reading...

People who took up party's incorrect suggestion on applying for postal ballots could miss out on voting in referendum, MP warns

Footage of green and red fireworks and Palestinian flags in Greenacre and a rally in Lakemba after attacks on Israel are horrific', Jewish leaders say

But report says Labour lead is much narrower among working-class voters than electorate as a whole and urges focus on fairnessWorking-class people who were a key part of the coalition of voters that delivered the Conservatives' 2019 general election win have been deserting the party in droves under Rishi Sunak's leadership, polling has found.Only 44% of working-class voters who voted for the Tories in 2019 say they will back the party next time, according to research by YouGov released as Keir Starmer prepares to make what will probably be his last pitch for support at a Labour conference before a general election. Continue reading...

Political stakes are high for ministers but refugees say their lives are at risk if policy is greenlitThe UK government's plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda had generated controversy even before the former home secretary Priti Patel signed a deal with the east African country in April last year sealing the deal. Ministers claimed the plan would deter people from making the dangerous journey across the Channel on small boats.On Monday, a case examining the legality of the policy reaches the UK's highest court, the supreme court. The political stakes for ministers are high but the asylum seekers threatened with being forcibly removed to Rwanda say their lives are at stake if the policy is greenlit. Continue reading...

Daniel Moritz says people attending Supernova music festival were totally unaware and unprotected' in Hamas attack

Department head says now Victorian premier was briefed on revised budget requirements', with $4.5bn estimate not approved

Coalition talks to begin on Monday after full results show previous Liberal-led coalition no longer has majorityThe coalition government of Luxembourg's Liberal prime minister Xavier Bettel has lost its parliamentary majority in Sunday's general election, which also saw the Greens routed.That leaves the way open for the biggest single party, the conservative Christian Social People's party (CSV). The CSV came out on top, as it did at the last elections in 2018, with 29% of the vote, up 0.9 percentage points, according to the full results published on Sunday evening. Continue reading...

Public inquiry into alleged actions of SAS units to begin amid victims' families pleas for truth to be uncoveredA public inquiry into allegations that 80 Afghans were summarily killed by members of three different British SAS units begins on Monday amid pleas from victims' families to uncover the truth behind the deaths.Mansour Aziz, whose brother and sister-in-law were shot and killed while sleeping by British elite forces during a night raid on 6 August 2012, said he hoped the inquiry would establish why his home had been targeted. Continue reading...

Offensive launched from Gaza represents large failure of Israeli intelligence and is likely to have long-lasting repercussions

Exclusive: Rachel Reeves announces plans for powerful watchdog to recover taxpayer cash lost to waste and fraudA Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic, Rachel Reeves is to announce.The new commissioner would be given the power to bring together public agencies including HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency to pursue at least 2.6bn of lost" public funds. They would examine contracts line by line and would have to update parliament on their progress in clawing back money. Continue reading...

Staffing difficulties worst in hospitality sector, finds BCC poll, with separate research showing recruitment intentions falling in UKThree-quarters of UK firms are still struggling to recruit staff, research has found, but the post-pandemic jobs boom" appears to be in decline, with hiring intentions continuing to fall last month.A survey by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 73% of the almost 5,000 companies it polled had faced hiring difficulties in the July to September quarter - a nine percentage point drop from the record high of 82% in the final three months of 2022. Continue reading...

Worries about the economy and migration pushed up share for far-right AfD in Hesse and Bavaria, while coalition parties did worseGerman chancellor Olaf Scholz's fractious centre-left coalition has received a sharp rebuke from voters in the key states of Bavaria and Hesse, with economic woes and immigration fears boosting the opposition conservatives and the far right.At the elections on Sunday the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party burst out of its post-industrial eastern strongholds to score its best ever result in a western state. Polls showed it on course to be the second largest party in Hesse, home to the financial capital Frankfurt. Continue reading...

Benjamin Netanyahu warns of long and difficult war' as security cabinet signs off on wide-ranging authorisation for military action

Director recalls enjoyment of making highest-grossing film of the year and says she was so moved' by responseGreta Gerwig has spoken of her thrill" at the incredible reaction" to Barbie, her existential comedy and the runaway hit film of the year.Talking to Succession and Peep Show co-creator Jesse Armstrong at an audience during the London film festival at the BFI Southbank, Gerwig, 40, recalled standing covertly at the back of cinemas in New York during the film's opening weekend, asking the projectors to turn up the volume" and being so moved" by the warmth of audience response. Continue reading...

Israel's national security council says its citizens should avoid going abroad and those in Egypt should leaveAn Egyptian police officer shot dead two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide on Sunday, as war raged for a second day between Israel and Palestinian militants.Israel's national security council later said its citizens should consider not travelling abroad particularly in the Middle East on the backdrop of the attack in Egypt". It said visitors already in Egypt should leave as soon as possible". Continue reading...

Russia, China and Turkey merely urge restraint while some Islamic nations, and Iran in particular, blame Israel exclusively

At least 600 Israelis have been killed and around 100 taken hostage in the deadliest attack in the country's history

Tens of thousands demonstrate in Spanish region's capital as Pedro Sanchez weighs move in attempt to form governmentTens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party's decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago.Sunday's demonstration, organised by the anti-independence group Societat Civil Catalana, was called after Catalan separatist parties said they would only consider supporting a new, socialist-led government following July's inconclusive general election if they were offered an amnesty in return. Continue reading...

Spokesman for air force says country has already seen more than 500 Iranian-designed Shahed drones in September aloneFour people including a nine-year-old girl have been injured in a rocket strike on Konstantinivka on Sunday morning, according to the acting governor of Donetsk.A 27-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby are among those wounded in a Russian attack on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, according to its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. The woman and the infant were hospitalised with moderate wounds, he said, adding that a 33-year-old Red Cross medic was also wounded. Several houses and gas pipelines were damaged in the attack.UN and local investigators are searching for answers in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv following one of the deadliest air strikes of the war. The strike on Thursday turned the sole cafe and store in the village to rubble and killed nearly 52 people gathered for a dead soldier's wake, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top officials in Kyiv. Only six people in the cafe survived.Ukraine's armed forces report that about 580 Russian troops have been killed during fighting over the last day. Posting its latest overnight summary of casualties, the Ukrainian military claims Russia has suffered 282,280 losses since the start of the war on 24 February last year.The figures have not been independently verified and are still being updated.Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world's attention and works in their favour. Duda argued in an interview with private broadcaster Polsat News on Sunday that conflict in the Middle East distracts international scrutiny away from Moscow's aggression in Ukraine and may result in new migration pressures on Europe.Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine by stating that Israel's right to self-defence is unquestionable". He said his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel. While having sent tons of humanitarian aid, Netanyahu has consistently refused to supply weapons to Kyiv.A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia's governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former leader, has called for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop America's manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet".Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a likely" transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea's border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as unprecedented".Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world's attention and works in their favour, Reuters reports. Continue reading...

Iran wants to make it impossible for Saudi Arabia to strike deal with Israel, while others in region cannot afford mayhem in Gaza

Charities fear landlords are pushing evictions through before the renters' reform bill becomes lawWhen Kitto Haywood moved into their eighth-floor flat in Manchester last year, they planted tomatoes, strawberries, garlic, carrots and mint in pots on the balcony. It had taken five months to find an ideal home after moving from Brighton. I finally felt like we were going to be there long-term," says Haywood.But over the summer, Haywood, 24, let the plants wilt. On 21 May they received a no-fault" section 21 eviction notice from their estate agent, telling them to leave in two months. Four months later, they're still in limbo. Continue reading...

Hundreds are dead after a surprise attack by Hamas, prompting Israel to declare a state of war and launch retaliatory strikes

JP Morgan also approached as Metro reportedly tries to thrash out rescue package with investorsThe Bank of England's regulatory arm is understood to have approached a number of big lenders in the past few days, including NatWest and JP Morgan Chase, to see if they had any interest in the embattled high street rival Metro Bank.JP Morgan Chase examined a potential bid to take over the whole of Metro after speaking to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) but decided on Saturday night not to go ahead with it, a source said. Continue reading...