Auditor general finds police unable to ‘assure itself or community’ that $2bn program is meeting its aims

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation goes to jobs summit saying nurse-to-patient ratios more important than pay

Children’s commissioner for England says investing in family is the single greatest investment you can makeMinisters have been urged to put family at the centre of policymaking, with the children’s commissioner for England saying “investing in family is the single greatest investment you can make”.Dame Rachel de Souza has called on the incoming Conservative leader’s administration to “prioritise” putting families “at the heart” of policymaking as outlined in the government-commissioned family review. Continue reading...

Investigation sees 55% of respondents allege they had been sexually harassed, with women sharing their frustration at being objectified and having to work ‘10 times harder’

Medical regulator and board agree to strengthen industry standards after review revealed unsafe practices and misleading advertising

Frontrunner for PM rejected the proposal, along with further windfall tax to pay for cost of living support for struggling familiesThe Conservative leadership frontrunner Liz Truss has ruled out energy rationing this winter as she clashed over the cost of living crisis with her rival, Rishi Sunak.The foreign secretary rejected the proposal at the final Tory hustings, despite it being a key fall-back measure in the government’s “worst case” contingency planning. Continue reading...

At the final leadership hustings, the two candidates have one last opportunity to sell themselves to Tory membersThe Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association has announced a countrywide 24-hour strike as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, job security, and working conditions.The union said that staff at nine train operating companies as well as Network Rail would strike from midday on Monday 26 September until midday the following day. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals the £120m creative event series has attracted fraction of target numbersThe head of the £120m Unboxed, an ongoing project aimed at celebrating UK creativity, has conceded the scheme has been dogged by being nicknamed the “Festival of Brexit” after it attracted a fraction of the target visitor numbers.Ministers had hoped that the festival would attract 66 million people, but with just over two more months to go, four of the events have so far only drawn 238,000 visitors, according to official figures. Continue reading...

Citizens Advice in affluent Wokingham says requests for help have nearly doubled in a yearA growing number of people in one of the most affluent areas of the country are struggling financially because of a huge spike in energy bills and the soaring cost of living, according to the chief executive of Wokingham Citizens Advice.Many people who have been “just about managing” are now slipping into poverty and debt in Berkshire, said Jake Morrison, making him fearful for poorer regions throughout the country. Continue reading...

Charities say social care crisis is ‘crippling patient flow’ in hospitals and has created a ‘miserable situation’Patients are waiting up to nine months to be discharged from NHS hospitals in England despite being medically fit to leave, according to “shocking” figures that will pile pressure on ministers to tackle the social care crisis.Health experts say the incredibly long-delayed discharges are yet more evidence of the impact of the shortage of social care beds and provisions to get patients home safely. Continue reading...

A new book says Met police knew she was helped to join IS by a Canadian spy, reinforcing concerns she was victim of traffickingIt is not new – although it is eyecatching – to report that Shamima Begum, then 15, was helped to travel to Syria and join Islamic State by a Canadian agent. Mohammed al-Rashed was picked up by the Turkish authorities in March 2015, and said at the time he was an informant for Canadian intelligence, and had helped Begum travel from Istanbul airport to the Syrian border a few days earlier.What is new is the suggestion that the Metropolitan police knew about Canada’s behind-the-scenes involvement for some time. A book, The Secret History of the Five Eyes, out this week, reveals that Canadian intelligence officers went shortly after to the British police to admit their connection to Rashed, boosting the argument that the teenager from Bethnal Green and her two friends were in fact trafficked. Continue reading...

Jacob Rees-Mogg accused of pursuing agenda of ‘punishing civil servants who work from home’Plans to sell off £1.5bn worth of government-owned buildings are based on “fantasy” job cuts to the civil service and ignore the role of hybrid working, critics have said.They took aim at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s crackdown on what he called “under-utilised” property, under which the number of offices operating at the heart of Westminster would more than halved. Continue reading...

The church has built close ties with Fumio Kishida’s ruling party, as well as a host of conservative lawmakersJapan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has announced that his ruling party will cut ties with the Unification Church after a widening scandal caused by the assassination of its former leader Shinzo Abe last month. Kishida also apologised for causing the loss of public trust in politics.Cozy ties between members of Kishida’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, many of them belonging to Abe’s faction, and the South Korean-born church have surfaced since Abe was shot to death while giving a campaign speech in July. Continue reading...

CPS will decide whether former footballer should face retrial on charges of assault and controlling behaviourRyan Giggs is facing a possible retrial after a jury failed to reach verdicts on charges of assault and controlling behaviour.Giggs, 48, had been charged with deliberately head-butting his former girlfriend, Kate Greville, and elbowing her younger sister in the face during an argument at his home in Greater Manchester on 1 November 2020. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson will also have to travel 500 miles from London to monarch’s Aberdeenshire estate before he steps down

Christie Lee Kennedy is accused of intentionally running over the pair in her BMW after discovering them together in a local park

Museum directors ‘in absolute despair’ at latest blow after Covid decline in revenuesMuseums have said they will struggle to provide “warm banks” planned for people priced out of heating their homes, because their own soaring bills threaten opening restrictions and closures this winter.The Museums Association said on Tuesday that the cost of living crisis risked being a bigger blow to the sector than the pandemic, with many museum directors in despair about how to pay for energy bill increases of up to 500%. Continue reading...

Deputy head of Russian-backed administration reportedly leaves Ukraine amid counterattack; first shipment of grain arrives in Djibouti. This blog is now closed

City councillors accept all 10 recommendations of review set up in response to BLM movementEdinburgh will apologise for suffering caused through the city’s involvement in slavery, while statues, street names and buildings associated with the trade will be “re-presented” to explain the consequences to the public.City councillors on Tuesday unanimously accepted all 10 recommendations made in a report on Edinburgh’s historical links with slavery and colonialism, the result of a review set up in 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and chaired by Scotland’s first black professor, Sir Geoff Palmer. Continue reading...

Island country’s president says Taiwan could take ‘strong countermeasures’ if necessaryTaiwan fired warning shots at a Chinese drone that buzzed an offshore islet shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen said she had ordered Taiwan’s military to take “strong countermeasures” against what she termed Chinese provocations.It was the first time warning shots have been fired in such an incident amid a period of heightened tension between China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory. Taiwan strongly disputes China’s sovereignty claims. Continue reading...

Prime minister urges people to have hope cost of living crisis will ease as he uses final week in office to highlight achievements

Sandrine Rousseau was hoping to draw attention to the impact of meat-eating on climate changeA prominent French green MP has sparked a national debate by suggesting that red meat is macho and grilled ribs are a gender issue.Sandrine Rousseau, a leading figure in the EELV party and self-declared “eco-feminist”, has raised one of the most talked about topics of the end-of-holidays period. Continue reading...

Food experts say shipment is drop in bucket for drought-hit Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia but hope supplies pick upThe first ship carrying grain from Ukraine for people in the hungriest parts of the world has docked at Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, as areas of east Africa are badly affected by deadly drought and conflict.Food security experts say it is a drop in the bucket for the vast needs in the worst-hit countries of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the country to which the shipment is going. But the flow of Ukrainian grain to other hungry parts of the world is expected to continue, with another ship leaving on Tuesday for Yemen. The UN World Food Programme has said it was working on multiple ships. Continue reading...

Xi Jinping expected to be given third term and be anointed as country’s most powerful leader in decadesChina’s ruling Communist party will begin its 20th congress on 16 October, state media has reported, a meeting at which President Xi Jinping is expected to be anointed as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.The congress in Beijing comes as Xi faces significant political headwinds, including an ailing economy, deteriorating relations with the US and a strict zero-Covid policy that has accelerated China’s inward turn from the world. Continue reading...

Government urged to ensure thousands living in park homes in Great Britain receive £400 paymentsGypsy and Traveller groups are calling on the government to ensure thousands of households living in park homes are not excluded from its energy bills support scheme this winter as bills soar.The scheme will pay out a total of £400 to all households in Great Britain with a domestic electricity connection between October and March, with monthly payments administered by their energy supplier. Continue reading...

More than 300 festival goers also injured during 2022’s Bous al Carrer festivitiesAuthorities in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia are calling on festival goers not to “lose respect for bulls” after seven people were killed by the animals during this year’s Bous al Carrer bull-running fiestas.The summer festivities – which translate as “bulls on the street”, and which are held in towns and villages across Valencia – have also resulted in more than 300 injuries in the past two months. Continue reading...

High-speed rail firm blames departure from EU and Covid for decision to halt service next summerEurostar has decided to stop direct services from London to Disneyland Paris from next summer, citing the fallout from Brexit and Covid.The high-speed train operator said on Tuesday it was scrapping trains running from the British capital to the Disneyland site in Marne-la-Vallée, in the eastern Paris suburbs. Continue reading...

Despite their costs going ‘through the roof’, education leaders fear they will be a low priority for the next occupant of No 10Education leaders in England fear one thing: that schools, colleges and universities will be hammered by the cost of living crisis but will not be enough of a priority to get the help they need from government. And they see little hope from a change in leadership at No 10.“Our costs are going through the roof, our staff badly need pay rises and are going to strike, our students are suffering, but our income is stuck,” said one vice-chancellor, echoing their peers in schools and colleges around the country. Continue reading...

Manager of Takayo Nembhard pays tribute to ‘talented’ 21-year-old who performed as TKorStretchA man stabbed to death at Notting Hill carnival was Takayo Nembhard, 21, a rapper from Bristol, his manager said.Chris Patrick said in a statement to PA Media: “He went to carnival with his younger sister and friends to have a good time. This is the worst possible ending for a talented kid.” Continue reading...

Move follows revelations that opposition leader was placed under surveillance while serving as MEPGreece is to launch a parliamentary inquiry into a spy scandal embroiling the government as MEPs also step up calls for an investigation into the use of phone taps in the country.An inquiry proposed by the centre-left Pasok party was backed by the entire political opposition late on Monday after revelations that the group’s leader, Nikos Androulakis, had been placed under surveillance while serving as an MEP. Continue reading...

Manchester mayor says he sees no controversy in Labour frontbenchers joining strikers during cost of living crisisAndy Burnham has voiced criticism of Keir Starmer’s policy of stopping Labour frontbenchers from joining picket lines, saying he would not “see this as controversial” during a crisis over the cost of living.The mayor of Greater Manchester is due to join Mick Lynch, the leader of the RMT rail union at the launch of the Enough is Enough movement in the city on Tuesday. The new movement is calling for lower energy prices and increases to wages and benefits. Continue reading...

Hit podcast examines Chris Dawson’s extra-marital affair with teen student and 1982 disappearance of wife Lynette DawsonAn Australian former teacher who was the subject of an investigation by a wildly-popular true crime podcast has been found guilty of the 1982 killing of his wife.The New South Wales supreme court on Tuesday found Christopher Dawson, 73, guilty of murdering his former wife Lynette Dawson, who he had wanted to leave so that he could pursue an uninterrupted relationship with a teenage schoolgirl known in the trial as JC. Dawson pleaded not guilty and has always maintained his innocence. Continue reading...

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani accused of ‘using the internet to tear Saudi Arabia’s social fabric’Another Saudi Arabian woman has been sentenced to decades in prison by the kingdom’s terrorism court for using social media to “violate the public order”, according to court documents seen by a human rights group.Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a specialised criminal court convicted her of “using the internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric”, according to documents that were obtained and reviewed by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organisation founded by Jamal Khashoggi. Continue reading...

Supreme court verdict in case that was the subject of popular Teacher’s Pet podcast will be appealed, Dawson’s lawyer says

Researchers and Greens raise concerns about ‘national interest test’ introduced by Coalition which Labor has signalled will remain

A 2010 book on the British empire by the man set to be chancellor shows a very different worldview to that of some of his Tory colleaguesThe British empire was an anti-democratic, poorly governed institution that created some of the world’s worst geopolitical flashpoints. Steeped in public school snobbery, it otherwise had very little unifying ideology.“Much of the instability in the world is a product of its legacy of individualism and haphazard policymaking,” Kwasi Kwarteng concludes in Ghosts of Empire: Britain’s Legacies in the Modern World, published a few months after his election in 2010 as the MP for Spelthorne. He claimed to be sidestepping the “sterile debate” over whether “empire was a good or bad thing”, but the book’s conclusions are quietly, firmly critical. Continue reading...

Sky News broadcaster said an article and two tweets defamed her by wrongly portraying her as mocking Polynesian names

Former Australian of the year shares screenshots on Twitter purportedly from the now-suspended account of the man who repeatedly abused her in 2010

Government told mass job losses are inevitable in absence of help, with sector still battling back from CovidThousands of pubs face closure without urgent government support to soften the blow from soaring energy bills, the beer industry has said, putting jobs at risk in a sector still battling to recover from the Covid pandemic.The bosses of companies owning almost half of the UK’s 47,000 pubs said tenants were already giving notice because they could not cope with energy bills, which are due to rise more than fivefold in some cases. Continue reading...

Dominic Perrottet pushing for cut to five days, while Daniel Andrews open to shift if supported by health advice

At least 15 killed in clashes between Iraq militias after Shia leader announces his exit from Iraqi politicsMonths of political tensions over stalled attempts to form a government in Iraq have spilled over into violence, with at least 15 people killed and hundreds hurt in clashes between militias in Baghdad’s Green Zone and a nationwide curfew imposed.The gunfire followed an announcement by the powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that he was quitting politics and an earlier decision by his spiritual mentor to retire and attempt to persuade Sadr to transfer his fealty to Iran. Continue reading...

The climate crisis is the prime suspect, but the vulnerability of poor citizens and other factors are important tooThe climate crisis is the prime suspect for the devastating scale of flooding in Pakistan, which has killed more than 1,000 people and affected 30 million. But the catastrophe, still unfolding, is most likely the result of a lethal combination of factors including the vulnerability of poor citizens, steep mountainous slopes in some regions, the unexpected destruction of embankments and dams, and some natural climate variation.The horrific scale of the floods are not in doubt. “We are witnessing the worst flooding in the history of the country,” said Dr Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist with the Climate Analytics group, who is based in Islamabad. Continue reading...

Nadhim Zahawi to go on fact-finding trip to discuss measures on energy costs in what are likely to be his last days in postNadhim Zahawi will spend what are likely to be his final few days as chancellor in the US on a fact-finding trip to discuss measures to tackle soaring energy costs.Zahawi, who took over as chancellor eight weeks ago and is likely to be replaced if, as widely expected, Liz Truss is unveiled as the next Conservative leader, will also discuss the Ukraine war and cooperation on financial services. Continue reading...

Southern command spokesperson says Ukrainian troops have begun long-awaited counter-offensive in Kherson region. This blog is now closed

Warning raises prospect of continued rationing, as Total boss says Europe has to plan for future without Russian suppliesGas shortages across Europe are likely to last for several winters to come, the chief executive of Shell has said, raising the prospect of continued energy rationing as governments across the continent push to develop alternative supplies.Cuts to the supply of Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine have plunged European countries into a devastating energy crisis, driving up wholesale prices to leave consumers facing huge bills and the highest rates of inflation since the 1980s. Continue reading...

Adam Bandt says changes will ‘turbocharge’ inequality as parliamentary budget office analysis finds men will benefit the most

The Allianz Stadium has been rebuilt at a cost of $800m but the harbour city still lacks the right grounds in the right places

In the lead-up to Labor’s jobs and skills summit, unions have also called for payments to match actual wages and the inclusion of superannuation

Truss now likely to become prime minister without undergoing a single sit-down grilling on TVLiz Truss has pulled out of Tuesday’s planned interview with the BBC, the corporation has said, meaning she is likely to become prime minister without undergoing a single sit-down quizzing.Earlier this month the foreign secretary agreed to the primetime interview with the veteran political journalist Nick Robinson, something already done by Rishi Sunak, her rival to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative party leader. Continue reading...

PM vows government will not disappoint flood victims as economic losses estimated at more than $10bnThere are growing fears for people living in communities in Pakistan cut off by devastating flooding caused by unusually strong monsoon rains, as damage to major roads hampers the military-led relief effort.On a visit to a badly flooded area in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday, the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, described the rains as “unprecedented in the last 30 years”. “I have never seen such devastation in my life,” he said, vowing that his government “won’t disappoint” flood victims. Continue reading...