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Exclusive: Documents obtained through parliamentary order show NSW deputy Liberal leader helped produce shortlist of candidates

Bailey’s book on Philip Roth was pulled after former students said he abused themThe author of a Philip Roth biography that was taken out of print by its original publisher last year after allegations that he raped multiple women and groomed his former middle school students for sexual encounters when they were older is gearing up to publish a book billing itself as a warning tale of so-called cancel culture.Blake Bailey’s latest work is scheduled to be printed by the controversial Skyhorse Publishing, which picked up his Roth book and an earlier memoir after WW Norton took it out of print and pledged to donate money to sexual abuse organizations equaling the advance it had paid to the biographer. Continue reading...

Labour MP will make court apology to financier Christopher Chandler over Commons comments he later tweetedThe Labour MP Chris Bryant is to make a formal court apology to a billionaire financier he accused in parliament of money laundering, after being sued for repeating the claims in a tweeted letter.In a highly unusual legal case, Bryant was taken to court by Christopher Chandler, a New Zealand-born investor and co-founder of a London-based thinktank, over comments initially made during a debate in the House of Commons in 2018, during which another MP accused Chandler of links to Russian intelligence Continue reading...

Announcement comes amid growing criticism that authorities have acted too slowly to fight infectious diseaseAfter weeks of delays, nearly 800,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine will soon be available for distribution, US health regulators said on Wednesday.Also on Wednesday, it was reported that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to make the rapidly spreading disease a nationally notifiable condition, a move that would streamline reporting of cases. Continue reading...

As Leeds prepares to host hustings, residents of leafy suburb where Truss grew up take issue with her claims about the areaAs Leeds prepared to host the first of the Conservative leadership regional hustings on Thursday evening, people who grew up alongside candidate Liz Truss have found much to disagree with her on.Truss went to Roundhay school, an Ofsted “outstanding” comprehensive in the leafy suburb in the north of the city. She caused outrage and indignation among local leaders with her comments about her former school, which she said “let down” children. Continue reading...

Father Mattia Bernasconi apologises for any offence after failing to find shade while on camp in southern Italy with high school studentsA priest who celebrated mass in the sea using an inflatable mattress as an altar has been placed under investigation by Italian authorities.Father Mattia Bernasconi, 36, from the archdiocese of Milan, said he had planned to hold Sunday’s ceremony among the trees by the beach in Crotone, southern Italy, after he had been helping with a week-long summer camp for high school students organised by Libera, an anti-mafia organisation. Continue reading...

Minister for Indigenous Australians says more is needed to address systemic disadvantage as data shows four of 13 targets on track

Media regulator deciding whether to investigate ITV reality show over behaviour of male contestants towards womenLove Island viewers have made 1,509 complaints to the media regulator Ofcom over allegedly misogynistic behaviour by male contestants towards their female counterparts.Viewers were upset by a Snog, Marry, Pie challenge, in which the show’s participants revealed who they would kiss, marry or hit in the face with a cream pie. The dancer and model Tasha Ghouri was left in tears over comments that Dami Hope and Luca Bish made before delivering a pie to her face. Continue reading...

Kyiv’s forces seek to disrupt major Russian supply route through Antonivskiy bridge in bid to retake Kherson

Gold-medallist’s comment comes ahead of opening ceremony in Birmingham on FridayThe Olympic diver Tom Daley has condemned homophobia across Commonwealth nations ahead of the start of competition in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday.Daley, who won gold at the event in 2018, said: “Thirty-five out of the 56 Commonwealth member states criminalise same-sex relations. That’s half the countries in the world that outlaw homosexuality. Continue reading...

State-run Gazprom reduces flow through Nord Stream 1 to around 20% of its capacity

Families spending on average £89 more a month on energy, food and fuel than before pandemic, says bankFamilies are spending an average of £89 more a month on energy, food and fuel than they were before the pandemic, Lloyds Banking Group said in a financial update, as it laid bare the impact of surging inflation on everyday customers.Lloyds’ chief executive, Charlie Nunn, said about 20% of the bank’s customers had had to adapt their spending “significantly” to rising prices, forcing them to refrain from purchases such as white goods and computers. Continue reading...

Ukrainian forces strike Antonivskiy Bridge in Russian-occupied Kherson to disrupt Moscow’s supply routes

Senators call for investigation into top prosecutor after charges against president shelvedBrazilian senators are calling for an investigation into one of the country’s top prosecutors after she shelved several charges against President Jair Bolsonaro for his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.A damning congressional inquiry had recommended that Bolsonaro be charged with nine offences, including crimes against humanity and charlatanism, for promoting false treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Continue reading...

The measure would also provide for an appointment every two years but any such reforms are vigorously opposed by RepublicansUS House Democrats have introduced a bill to establish term limits for supreme court justices, after an unprecedented term in which the highest court produced a series of deeply conservative rulings upending American law.In June, a court dominated 6-3 by Republican appointees overturned the right to abortion. It also issued consequential rulings on gun control, the environment and other controversial issues. Continue reading...

Searchers find further human remains in ruins of Bismarck House Mill, where four Vietnamese men are feared deadPolice searching the remnants of a fire-wrecked mill in Oldham have recovered further human remains, which indicate a second victim.Demolition workers came across human remains on Saturday, two days after police received reports that four Vietnamese men were missing and may have been involved in a fire. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester police forced to use agency supplying retired detectives to bridge gapsOne of the UK’s biggest police forces is suffering a detective shortage and is pulling investigators out of retirement to help solve crimes.Greater Manchester police (GMP) is struggling to recruit young people who want to become detectives because of the job’s poor work-life balance compared with other policing roles, its chief constable said. Continue reading...

Foreign Office confirms British-Iranian man is at home in Tehran and officials are working to free him permanentlyMorad Tahbaz, the British-Iranian man held in a Tehran prison, has been released on an electronic tag, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed.He had been due to be released on a tag at the same time as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were allowed to return to the UK in March, but he was only allowed to return to his mother’s home in Tehran for a few days before he was sent back to Evin prison. Continue reading...

Women’s 4-0 triumph one of the most-watched broadcasts of the year, BBC One figures showEngland’s Euro 2022 semi-final triumph over Sweden attracted a peak audience of 9.3 million viewers on BBC One, making it among the most-watched television broadcasts of the year.The figures do not include the many viewers who will have watched using the BBC’s online streams, or in public spaces such as pubs or fanzones. The audience were rewarded with a comprehensive 4-0 victory at Bramall Lane, featuring Alessia Russo back-heeling the ball into Sweden’s goal. Continue reading...

Shadow minister defying Labour leadership to stand on picket line says lives are at stakeGrant Shapps has escalated the government’s confrontation with the rail unions by ruling out meeting with them, as a shadow minister said “lives could be lost” if wages did not improve.Labour’s Sam Tarry defied his party leadership to stand on the picket line at Euston on Wednesday morning while rail strikes disrupted travel for millions. Continue reading...

61-year-old says what he saw and experienced at Edinburgh Academy has ‘stayed with me all my life’The BBC presenter Nicky Campbell has claimed he was the victim of abuse at a Scottish private school during the 1970s.Campbell, 61, said witnessing incidents of both sexual and physical abuse at the Edinburgh Academy had had a “profound effect on my life”.In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. Continue reading...

Use this data explorer to see which goods and services are getting cheaper or more expensive in different Australian cities

Cognitive decline in older people more likely to be accelerated by exposure to emissions, finds review of 70 studiesAir pollution is likely to increase the risk of developing dementia, a government research group has said.The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants has published its findings after reviewing almost 70 studies which analysed how exposure to emissions affect the brain over time. Continue reading...

More than 40,000 staff involved in widespread action after union leaders rejected ‘paltry’ 4% pay riseThe railways will again grind to a halt on Wednesday as workers strike over pay, job security and working conditions.The latest talks to avert the action failed last week, a month since three days of industrial action in June. The strikes involve more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail, 14 train companies, and members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT). Continue reading...

Ex-soldier’s barrister tells court that reporters ‘jumped on rumours’, while newspapers’ counsel alleges Roberts-Smith ‘prepared to lie under oath’

Industrial action by RMT members means a ‘very limited timetable’Great Britain’s railways will grind to a halt on Wednesday in the latest round of strikes.More than 40,000 rail workers belonging to the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are taking part in a further day of nationwide strike action, following three days of strikes in June. Continue reading...

Six-monthly appointments being scrapped for most adults to try to free up space for more NHS patientsThe decades-old routine of visiting an NHS dentist for a six-month checkup is being scrapped across England and Wales for most adults as part of changes designed to address the dire lack of access to dental care for many people.Wales has announced that most adults now only need to see their dentist once a year, which the government in Cardiff says will free up NHS dentists’ time and allow them to take on more than 100,000 extra patients annually. Continue reading...

Key bridge attacked using longer-range weapons in bid to cut off Russian supply routes

Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead in a Canterbury apartment in June

Human Rights Law Centre says new attorney general should abandon the appeal and let judgment ‘finally see the light’

Australians are paying more for food and fuel, according to data released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereThe Russian state-controlled energy company Gazprom has announced a drastic cut to gas deliveries through its main pipeline to Europe from Wednesday.The Russian gas export monopoly said it was halting the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the “technical condition of the engine”, cutting daily gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline to 33m cubic metres a day – about 20% of the pipeline’s capacity.Today we saw another gas threat to Europe. Even despite the concession regarding the Nord Stream turbine, Russia is not going to resume gas supplies to European countries, as it is contractually obligated to do.All this is done by Russia deliberately to make it as difficult as possible for Europeans to prepare for winter. And this is an overt gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe - this is exactly how it should be perceived. And they don’t care what will happen to the people, how they will suffer - from hunger due to the blocking of ports or from winter cold and poverty... Or from occupation. These are just different forms of terror. Continue reading...

Commons public accounts committee issues damning report into £777m spent with firm that employed Owen Paterson as lobbyistMinisters and government officials played “fast and loose” when awarding £777m in Covid contracts to a healthcare firm that employed the Conservative MP Owen Paterson as a lobbyist, the head of parliament’s spending watchdog has said.In a damning report, the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) concluded that the government made a series of failures, making it impossible to know if the contracts had been awarded properly to Randox. Continue reading...

FCA’s new rules are expected to help reduce call wait times, end rip-off charges and make it easier to change investmentsSenior bosses at City firms could face fines and have their bonuses docked if they fail to put consumer needs first, in one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation in a decade.Rules being rolled out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will force financial firms – including banks, insurers and investment firms – to focus on delivering “good outcomes” for customers, in a move expected to reduce call wait times, end rip-off charges and fees through clearer promotions, and make it easier to cancel or switch investments. Continue reading...

Plan to publish league tables for forces in England and Wales if she becomes PM condemned as ‘failed approach’Liz Truss would return to national crime targets – pledging a 20% reduction in murders, other violence and burglaries within two years if she became prime minister – under a plan immediately condemned as a “failed approach” and political meddling.In another example of the policy arms race with Rishi Sunak as they vie for the Conservative leadership, with limited detail on implementation or costs, Truss said her government would publish league tables for police forces in England and Wales. Continue reading...

Emails disclosed by lawyers for two families of victims suggested police told to ignore role of senior officers“Political pressure” was applied in 2016 to narrow the focus of a military police investigation into allegations of summary killings by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan, according to a legal claim made in the high court on Tuesday.An email disclosed to lawyers representing two families of Afghans killed by the SAS showed that the second in charge of the unit investigating the alleged war crimes, had told colleagues about demands being made from higher up.An SAS officer, discussing the Saifullah family case in an email dated May 2011, asked whether there was an opportunity “to ‘nip’ this allegation before it becomes an official allegation and is fed into either the national or Isaf chain of commands in Kabul, attracting lots of scrutiny”.Concern about the SAS tactics, techniques and procedures in Afghanistan were raised in 2011 by an external organisation, whose identity the MoD wants to keep secret, which warned that the British soldiers were using unlawful techniques to kill Afghans in cold blood.Neil Sheldon QC, for the MoD, told the court that the government wanted disclosure of the organisation’s full evidence and name to be prevented by a public interest immunity certificate. The application, he said, was being made on “international relations grounds”.The chief MoD lawyer acknowledged in an email sent in the run up to a previous hearing in early 2020 that the SAS explanations for the summary killings in 2011 “appear highly questionable, if not implausible, not helped by the practice of post-mission ‘cut and paste’ statements” and that the MoD should “review all incidents involving fatalities”.His deputy suggested in another email that the UK should investigate “the conduct” of UK armed forces in Afghanistan and “the investigative and prosecutorial response of the RMP [Royal Military Police] and the SPA [Service Prosecuting Authority]”. Continue reading...

TalkTV show goes off air after Kate McCann’s collapse, cutting short a bitter clash over NHS and tax cutsThe second TV debate between the Conservative leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak was halted dramatically after the presenter Kate McCann fainted, cutting short a bitter clash over funding for the NHS and tax cuts.The event, hosted by TalkTV, had the Tory leadership hopefuls quizzed by one audience member with cancer, who said he had not received proper support from the health service and asked: “Why is the NHS broken?” Continue reading...

TalkTV says that Kate McCann ‘is fine’ but ‘the medical advice was that we shouldn’t continue with the debate’

Long-running feud between family members however cost businessman and his daughter £7.5m in legal feesSir Frederick Barclay received £800,000 from his nephews for settling a legal battle over alleged “commercial espionage on a vast scale” that included bugging of thousands of his private conversations at the five-star Ritz hotel, a court was told.It also emerged in the high court on Tuesday that the feud played out between two sides of the Barclay family, which own the Telegraph media group as well as Yodel and Shop Direct, cost the billionaire businessman and his daughter Amanda £7.5m in legal fees. Continue reading...

Some customers whose homes were uninhabitable for months were billed based on estimated power usage

State government guidelines say ‘targeted’ testing approach is for ‘clinically vulnerable people’ and other at-risk groups

Support will be available to those who want to transition off the card that ‘often makes participants’ lives more difficult’, social services minister says

Devon and Cornwall officer Matthew Tregale remanded in custody accused of 10 offences against three women

Three arrested after Jack Fenton hit by rear rotor while reportedly trying to take a selfie at heliport in AthensA Greek prosecutor has ordered an inquiry into the death of a 21-year-old British man killed by a spinning rotor blade after disembarking in Athens from a helicopter chartered from Mykonos.Instructing the probe in the wake of Monday’s tragedy, the magistrate allowed two ground engineers and the aircraft’s pilot to walk free pending the results of the investigation. The trio had been detained after the incident. Continue reading...

City council admits up to 20 families sent to Coventry to make space for visitors to the gamesHomeless families being housed in Birmingham hotels have been moved out of the city at short notice to make way for Commonwealth Games visitors.The city council confirmed up to 20 families have been moved to nearby Coventry for the duration of the sporting event, which starts on Thursday and runs for 12 days. Continue reading...

Russian branch of charity with close ties to Israeli government shut down after Israeli criticism of Ukraine warThe Kremlin has insisted its decision to shut down the agency that processes Jewish migration to Israel should not be “politicised”, amid a widening rift between the two countries over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.Last week Russia’s justice ministry requested the liquidation of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, a private charity closely affiliated with the Israeli government that promotes migration to Israel. Continue reading...

Pandemic and climate crisis account for most new entries in authoritative Le Robert and Larousse dictionariesFrom covidé (infected with coronavirus) to confinement (lockdown) and éco-anxiété (climate anxiety) to verdissement d’image (greenwashing), the pandemic and the climate crisis account for most new French words, Le Monde has concluded.But if 28% of recent additions are essentially English, according to an analysis by the paper, nearly half are French coinages, demonstrating what it called the language’s “great suppleness, as well as the creativity and humour of its users”. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s ‘appalling’ attitude to women to blame for lack of progress on gender-based violence, suggests Keir Starmer

Most energy ministers back plan to reduce winter usage by 15%, although some argue uniform target unfairEU member states have agreed to ration gas this winter, in an attempt to avoid an energy crisis generated by further Russian cuts to supply.Energy ministers from the 27 member states mostly backed a plan for a voluntary 15% reduction in gas usage over the winter, but added in several opt-outs for island nations and countries unconnected or little connected to the European gas network, which will blunt the overall effect. Continue reading...

Daniel Lambert, who supplies M&S, Waitrose and 300 independent retailers, to set up business in FranceA British wine wholesaler who last year criticised Brexit as the biggest threat to his business in 30 years has decided to leave the UK after post-Brexit paperwork left him with a £150,000 hole in revenue.Daniel Lambert, who supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and 300 independent retailers, is moving to Montpelier in France later this week with his wife and two teenage children. Continue reading...