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Shields told SMH staff in an email that working in the role had been the honour of his life

Project aims to unlock memories and sensations for participants while creating nine-track CD, recorded at GlyndebourneOn a stage once presided over by Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Renee Fleming, people living with dementia are recording songs of their own composition.With the microphones of Glyndebourne opera house capturing every note, their voices rise and intertwine. Not echoing old, familiar tunes but shaping entirely new pieces expressing their feelings, hopes and fears - emotions that, when the music stops, their brains can no longer convey in mere words. Continue reading...

Victim, 17, died from stab wounds to his thigh after being attacked in Rouse Hill on Monday evening, NSW police say

Winds the biggest contributor to power outages as city saw more than 880,000 lightning strikes and 12cm diameter hail

One Nation leader suspended for seven days after members of Labor, Greens and crossbench vote to censure

King has announced a genealogist working with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds found no evidence of Cherokee ancestry in his family lineageA prominent Canadian-American author, who has long claimed Indigenous ancestry and whose work exposed the hard truths of the injustices of the Indigenous peoples of North America", has learned from a genealogist that he has no Cherokee ancestry.In an essay titled A most inconvenient Indian" published on Monday for Canada's Globe and Mail, Thomas King said he had learned of rumours circulating in recent years within both the arts and Indigenous communities that questioned his Cherokee heritage. Continue reading...

Nathan Gill was an MEP for the Brexit party and Ukip, and later became Reform UK's leader in Wales. Now he has been jailed for 10 years for taking bribes to make pro-Russia statements. Luke Harding reportsNathan Gill was a Mormon bishop who went on to represent Wales in the European parliament - first for Ukip, Nigel Farage's original party, then for the Brexit party. Most recently he led Reform UK in Wales. He wasn't the most flashy orator - some would say his delivery was wooden - but the content of his speeches could be surprising, including criticising the Ukrainian government, for, among other things, closing down TV channels. Now those speeches have landed Gill a 10-and-a-half-year jail sentence.Luke Harding is a senior foreign correspondent at the Guardian and former Russia correspondent. He tells Helen Pidd how the case against Gill unfolded - and why it matters. Continue reading...

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and Xi told Trump that its return was an integral part of the post-war international order'Chinese leader Xi Jinping has told Donald Trump that Beijing's claims to Taiwan remain unchanged, in a phone call that came amid rising tensions over the self-governing island.Xi told Trump on Monday that Taiwan's return to China was an integral part of the postwar international order" forged in the joint US-China fight against fascism and militarism", according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Continue reading...

The 65-year-old woman shocked temple staff when they heard a faint knocking and she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremationA woman in Thailand shocked temple staff when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation.Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple in the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok , posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered. Continue reading...

Home perched in Hollywood Hills, constructed for $37,500 and made famous by Julius Shulman photo, listed for $25mThe Stahl house - a paragon of Los Angeles mid-century modern architectural design - is for sale for the first time in the home's history.The cantilevered home, perched in the Hollywood Hills, hit the listings market this week. The asking price: $25m. Continue reading...

Witness Dr Andrea Boros-Lavack was at times confusing' and incorrect, senior counsel assisting coroner says

Damning official review finds many unpaid carers left with huge debt because of government failure

Claimants forced to pay back thousands of pounds tell of horrendous' court ordeals and of desire for official apology

Ten years of bureaucratic failure, whistleblowing, political neglect and groundhog day-style policy inertia

Rachel Reeves says changes to subsidised scheme for disabled drivers will help support thousands of jobsThe Motability scheme to provide disabled drivers with subsidised cars has said it will remove expensive cars such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and aim to buy more British-built cars.Motability said it hopes that 50% of the vehicles it offers will come from British factories by 2035. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the changes to the scheme would support thousands of well-paid, skilled jobs", before the budget on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The actor won best performance for BBC drama Gatsby in Harlem at the inaugural British Audio awards, while Nicola Coughlan's narration of Juno Dawson's Queen B clinched best sci-fi audiobookAudiobooks narrated by Ncuti Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan and David Tennant were among those recognised at the inaugural British Audio awards, the Speakies".Gatwa's performance in the lead role of Gatsby in Harlem helped it emerge as one of Monday evening's biggest winners: it took three major prizes including audio of the year. The reimagining of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby also won best audio drama adaptation, while Gatwa took home the best performance award for what organisers described as his remarkable poise and flair" in capturing Gatsby's character. Continue reading...

In an interview kept secret since February, David Adeang wrongly stated the people Australia has begun deporting to his country are not refugees

Reform leader denies racist or antisemitic behaviour with intent' at school, but says he can't remember everything from 49 years agoNigel Farage has broken his silence nearly a week after he was accused by about 20 people of racism and antisemitism as a teenager, by saying he never directly, really tried to go and hurt anybody".His remarks came after the publication of a detailed investigation by the Guardian in which many of his school contemporaries claimed to be victims of, or witnesses to, repeated incidents of deeply offensive behaviour. Continue reading...

The victim was treated by NSW paramedics for wounds to his thigh but died at the scene

BBC board member, a former spin doctor for Theresa May, dismisses suggestion in questioning by MPsCaroline Daniel is also asked about her views on editorial bias.My experience was the BBC took issues of impartiality extremely seriously," she said. Continue reading...

A parliamentary select committee has questioned Michael Prescott, the adviser who wrote the memo that led to the resignation of the BBC's director general, Tim DavieSenior figures running and advising the BBC have been questioned about the crisis at the broadcaster, which has been threatened with a $1bn lawsuit from Donald Trump.The BBC's director general, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned this month after controversy triggered by the leak of a memo written by a former external adviser. Continue reading...

Simon Levy faces charges over the deaths of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39A man charged with murdering one woman and raping another earlier this year has been charged with a second murder.Simon Levy, 40, will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday over the death of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, whose body was found in south London in March. Continue reading...

Homeland security claims country being ruled by military dictatorship no longer continues to meet conditions' for Temporary Protected Status

Four main food distribution sites operated by the opaque company had been flashpoints of deadly violenceA controversial and secretive private company backed by the US and Israel that distributed food in Gaza has announced the end of its operations in the devastated territory.The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which had four food distribution sites that became flashpoints of chaos and deadly violence between May and October, said in a statement that it would shut down permanently, having successfully completed its emergency mission". Continue reading...

Decision to remove children comes after they and their parents ate poisonous mushrooms and ended up in hospitalThe decision by an Italian court to remove three children being brought up in the woods from their British-Australian parents has sparked a fierce debate in the country over alternative lifestyles.Nathan Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol, and his wife, Catherine Birmingham, a former horse-riding teacher from Melbourne, bought a dilapidated property in a wooded area in Palmoli, in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, in 2021. Continue reading...

Even before the 2020 election, tensions were high between Fox News executives and Trump, new documents showNew revelations about the tense relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump in the fall of 2020 have emerged in a trove of thousands of court documents released Sunday as part of a massive defamation lawsuit filed against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic.One exchange showed that Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox News parent company Fox Corp, told star anchor Sean Hannity in a 1 October 2020 text chain that Trump could not appear on Fox again if he attacked the network. Continue reading...

Three people were pulled into the water and one remained missing, with search efforts hindered by high winds and unsafe water conditions'Authorities in California are searching for the body of a man who was swept into the ocean at a beach in the Big Sur area, one week after a girl and her father died after being pulled into the water in the same state park.Three people were pulled into the water from the rocks at the Soberanes Point area of Garrapata state park on Saturday afternoon just after 3pm and began yelling for help, according to a statement from the Monterey county sheriff's office. Two women who had been dragged into the ocean were able to pull themselves out of the water. Continue reading...

Ukraine has been cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and faces threat of losing its most important allyThe Kremlin has barely lifted a finger in recent days. It hasn't needed to.The 28-point US-Russia peace proposal, leaked to the media last week, has thrown Washington, Kyiv and European capitals into disarray, creating precisely the conditions Vladimir Putin has long sought: a negotiating table sharply tilted in the Russian president's favour, with Ukraine cornered into weighing terms it cannot accept and the threat of losing its most important ally hanging over its head. Continue reading...

Lord Evans of Watford and Lord Dannatt were filmed breaking rules, in undercover footage recorded by Guardian

All-party group say move is needed to stop UK lagging behind global standards on election integrityKeir Starmer is being urged to restore independence to the Electoral Commission, with MPs and peers likely to launch a battle to amend the elections bill in the new year.In a letter to the prime minister, MPs and peers will warn the elections watchdog should not be overseen by the political parties in charge of holding to account. Continue reading...

Exclusive: The Reform UK leader discussed far-right talking points in web TV and radio appearances between 2009 and 2018Nigel Farage is facing calls to explain why he repeatedly aired tropes and conspiracy theories associated with antisemitism during interviews, after claims the Reform UK leader used racist language in his teens.In appearances on US TV shows and podcasts earlier in his political career, Farage discussed supposed plots by bankers to create a global government, citing Goldman Sachs, the Bilderberg group and the financier George Soros as threats to democracy. Continue reading...

Forward Trust patron says compassion and love' are needed to end fear and shame felt by those affectedThe Princess of Wales has called for an end to the stigma" surrounding addictions, saying the experiences of those dependent on drugs, alcohol or gambling are shaped by fear, shame and judgment".Catherine, who is a patron of the charity Forward Trust supporting recovering addicts, said more open conversations were needed to bring the issue out of the shadows" and for society to show compassion and love" to those affected. Continue reading...

Former prime minister says he wants to join ranks of those pressing for more checks on men who may have diseaseDavid Cameron has disclosed he was treated for prostate cancer and has called for a targeted screening programme.The former prime minister said he had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which looks for proteins associated with the form of the disease. The result was high and he subsequently had a biopsy that revealed the cancer. Continue reading...

Militant group confirms Haytham Ali Tabatabai was killed in attack that dramatically escalates tensions in the regionIsrael targeted one of Hezbollah's most senior military commanders in an airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, dramatically escalating tensions with the group almost exactly a year after a ceasefire ended 14 months of clashes.The Israeli military said several hours after the attack that Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah's chief of staff, was killed in the strike in Lebanese capital. Continue reading...

South African president bangs gavel after rejecting plan from US, which hosts next meeting, for him to hand over to junior officialSouth Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, closed the G20 summit in Johannesburg by banging a gavel, having rejected a US proposal for him to hand over to a relatively junior embassy official for the next summit in Florida in a year's time.South Africa presented the two-day event as a triumph for multilateralism but it was marred by a boycott by the US, which has repeatedly accused South Africa of discriminating against white-minority Afrikaners, a claim that has been widely discredited. Continue reading...

Shortage of specialist doctors means service is in crisis, says chair of Royal College of Pathologists committeeBereaved parents are enduring harrowing" delays of more than a year to find out why their child died because the NHS has too few specialist doctors to perform postmortems.The shortage of paediatric and perinatal pathologists is revealed in a report by the Royal College of Pathologists published on Sunday. It warns that the situation is dire", services in some parts of the UK have totally collapsed" and families are paying the price.37% of consultant posts in the UK are lying vacant.The UK has just 52 paediatric and perinatal consultants and 13 are due to retire in the next five years.Just 3% of consultants think current staffing levels are enough to sustain their service.Only 13 resident doctors are in training to become consultants in the specialty. Continue reading...

Vineyard owners say sales slump, Trump tariffs and worst harvest in 70 years have put producers in danger of closureFrench winemakers are often accused of viewing the glass as half empty. Dire warnings about the state of the sector - one of the three pillars of the country's economy - are a hardy perennial blamed on everything from geopolitics to a drop in the number of drinkers.Before a crisis meeting with the agriculture minister on Monday, vineyard owners say an unprecedented series of setbacks, including some of the worst harvests in 70 years, has left many of them on their last legs. Continue reading...

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen gold watch belonged to Isidor Straus, who along with his wife lost his life when ship sankA gold pocket watch that belonged to a man who died onboard the Titanic when it sank has sold for a record sum.The watch, which belonged to 67-year-old Isidor Straus, went for 1.78m at auction, the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia. He was given the watch - an engraved 18-carat Jules Jurgensen - as a gift on his 43rd birthday in 1888. Continue reading...

Chancellor admits economy feels stuck' for many as she signals intention to freeze income tax thresholds

Court papers show the island cautiously welcomed the oligarch - with London's approval - before Russia's invasion of UkraineFor decades the Channel Islands tax haven of Jersey has played a big role in moving fortunes made in some of the world's most despotic countries into the west, attracting overseas oligarchs with a mix of low tax and high levels of financial secrecy.It is a secrecy that extends to Jersey's relationship with the UK government. As a crown dependency, Jersey has its own parliament, but belongs to the king. The relationship between the two jurisdictions remains something of a black box, with very little public information on how the big decisions are made, or to what extent Westminster is consulted. Continue reading...

Shades of green, pink and glitter accompany sold out screenings as Wicked: For Good's release prompts wave of themed dressing

Strongest cyclone to approach Darwin since Tracy in 1974 intensifies to category 4 as it moves towards northeast Kimberley coast

Pageantry and trillion-dollar promises reveal how Washington's loyalties may be tilting toward the GulfThe White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities.It was billed as a mere working visit, but it was more extravagant than any previous state visit. The president greeted the prince on the south lawn, the White House's biggest stage. There were uniformed men on horses bearing flags and a flypast of fighter jets. Continue reading...

Despite Australia signing the Belem declaration, Albanese rejected suggestion Labor shouldn't develop new gas fields

US president signals potential room for adjustments after Zelenskyy says proposals force Ukraine to choose between national dignity and losing the USDonald Trump said on Saturday that his Moscow-drafted peace plan" was not my final offer", after a furious backlash from Ukrainians who described it as reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain's 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.The US president told reporters during brief remarks at the White House: We'd like to get to peace. It should've happened a long time ago ... we're trying to get it ended, one way or the other we have to get it ended." Continue reading...

Industry experts welcome extra incentives but fear a consultation on a mileage tax sends mixed messagesDrivers will be able to claim government subsidies to cut the cost of buying a new electric car until 2030 under plans to be announced by Rachel Reeves at next week's budget.The chancellor will unveil an extra 1.3bn for subsidies for new electric vehicles (EVs) and a further 200m for charging points, as she attempts to prevent the market for clean cars drying up amid concerns about a new pay-per-mile tax. Continue reading...

European leaders say Washington's proposal needs major changes, as Macron warns G20 risks losing relevanceWestern leaders have said the US peace plan for ending the war in Ukraine will require additional work" at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, which Donald Trump boycotted.The draft plan, which was leaked this week, endorsed some of Russia's demands, such as handing over areas of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, limiting its military, and relinquishing its ambitions to join Nato. Washington has given Kyiv a deadline of Thursday to respond. Continue reading...

Readers share the impact of Guardian Australia's two-year investigation Broken trust, which underlined the shocking realities of domestic violence-related deaths'Guardian Australia's Broken trust series has uncovered allegations of policing failures before domestic and family violence homicides, and cases that were not adequately investigated.Over the course of the week, we revealed new information about the cases of Hannah Clarke and her children, Gail Karran and Kardell Lomas. Continue reading...

Higher education regulator investigates Catholic institute after comments by academics, including endorsing the White Australia policy

Experts warn US deal on lethal' aircraft presents issues for Australia that we've tried desperately to ignore with the Israelis'