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Premier Chris Minns announces new housing targets for 43 councils across NSW

Exclusive: Footage shows private event, attended by representatives of firms including StubHub and Viagogo, where 73,000 was raised for political lobbyingSome of the most powerful ticket touts in the UK have discussed a secret plan to try to scupper a Labour crackdown on the industry via a lobbying campaign, footage filmed by the Guardian reveals.Touts and representatives of major resale websites such as Viagogo and StubHub gathered at a private event this month organised by the US-based lobby group the Coalition for Ticket Fairness (CTF), which outlined a plan to target MPs. Continue reading...

Party policy is to add standard 20% rate of VAT to school fees and use funds raised to pay for more state teachersOne of Labour's headline policies in the run-up to the general election is its promise to end tax breaks for private schools in the UK.The policy is not new - it was adopted under Jeremy Corbyn and has featured in previous Labour election manifestos. But with Keir Starmer's party leading in the polls and apparently on course for victory on 4 July, it is coming under renewed scrutiny, prompting front page headlines, claims and counter-claims. Continue reading...

German Green MEP chair warns that EU plan to tackle climate crisis will be put at risk by agreement with hard right partiesGreen members of the European parliament will not support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as the commission president if she makes a deal with hard-right nationalists, the party's joint lead candidate has said.Terry Reintke, the German Green MEP chair, said her group would absolutely" not support von der Leyen - the incumbent centre-right commission president who is seeking a second term - if she made a deal with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni's group in the European parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Continue reading...

One officer has serious facial injury from thrown bottle, says Scotland Yard, after about 500 people refused to leave WhitehallThree police officers were injured and 40 people arrested during a protest in Westminster on Tuesday night, Scotland Yard said.One officer was left with a serious facial injury after she was hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd, while two officers had minor injuries. Continue reading...

Reforms will expand parliamentarians' powers to question officials and citizensTaiwan's opposition-controlled parliament has passed a controversial reform bill after days of hostile debate and physical fights between MPs inside, and mass protests by citizens outside.The bills passed 58 votes to 45, Bloomberg reported, after a third reading on Tuesday evening in Taipei during which there were further scuffles and members of the ruling party throwing paper planes and hurling garbage bags at the opposition. Continue reading...

Michael Murphy denies deliberately misleading public about knowledge of awards but regrets not investigating earlier, inquest hearsWARNING: This article contains offensive images and contentThe Northern Territory's top police officer has agreed he was gaslighting" Aboriginal people when he said he had not seen racism in the force, and admitted he knew about racist award certificates months before their existence was made public.The police commissioner, Michael Murphy, told the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker on Wednesday that he regretted not investigating the coon of the year" certificates awarded within the force's Territory Response Group or reporting them to the NT police professional standards command when he learned about them in August 2023. Continue reading...

Minister says it's illegal' after Guardian revelations of contaminated products on sale in stores, but Greens say it's obvious' new laws not enough

CPI increases for second month in a row with housing and food top contributors, lessening chances of the RBA cutting interest rates in 2024

Members of public asked not to attend search for the body, nearly four months after Murphy was last seen

Ariel Bombara said she contacted police three times to raise the alarm' about her father, Mark Bombara, before Jenny and Gretl Petelczyc were shot in their Floreat home

Italy celebrates getting back 600 antiquities that were taken and sold years ago and recovered as a result of criminal investigationsItaly on Tuesday celebrated the return of around 600 antiquities from the US, including ancient bronze statues, gold coins, mosaics and manuscripts valued at 60m ($65m), that were looted years ago, sold to US museums, galleries and collectors and recovered as a result of criminal investigations.US ambassador Jack Markell, Matthew Bogdanos, the head of the antiquities trafficking unit of the New York district attorney's office, and members of the US Homeland Security Investigations department were on hand for the presentation alongside the leadership of Italy's culture ministry and carabinieri art squad. Continue reading...

Damaging winds and baseball-sized hail hit state over holiday weekend as much of US recovers from extreme heat and tornadoesStrong storms that brought damaging winds and baseball-sized hail hit central and northern Texas during the Memorial Day weekend, leaving one person dead and more than 800,000 homes and businesses without power as much of the US recovered from extreme heat and tornadoes.Widespread outages were reported across a wide swath of storm-weary Texas, where an oppressive, early-season heat wave added to the misery. Voters in the state's runoff elections found dozens of polling places without power. Dallas county said it would keep polls open two hours later because of the outages Tuesday. Continue reading...

Labor's Murray Watt tells Senate the directive is being interpreted in a way that no minister intended'

The 2018 hit about a cleaner who dreams of becoming a star in Nashville will begin theatre run in EdinburghWild Rose, the award-winning movie about a Glasgow country singer, is to be turned into a musical. Writer Nicole Taylor is adapting her 2018 screenplay and working with John Tiffany, the director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The show will begin at the Royal Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh in March 2025, with further dates expected to be announced.Taylor adapted the recent Netflix hit One Day, and her other small-screen credits include Three Girls, The Nest and The C Word. She said she always believed in the dramatic potential of Wild Rose: I held on to the rights, even though as a first-time writer I had no negotiating position and I'd never written a word for theatre. I knew it would take theatrical form at some point." Continue reading...

Serious concerns held for welfare of mother and her baby after placenta found at Cooks River, Earlwood

Wes Streeting says another Conservative term could result in waiting list swelling to 10m casesLabour has promised to clear the NHS waiting list backlog in England within five years, with Wes Streeting warning that the health service risks becoming a poor service for poor people" while the wealthy shift to using private care.In an interview with the Guardian, the shadow health secretary said that in another Conservative term the total waiting list in England could grow to 10m cases, with healthcare becoming as degraded as NHS dental services. Continue reading...

Conservatives' policy would be funded by scrapping rip-off degrees' with high drop-out rates and low job progressionRishi Sunak has promised to create 100,000 high-skilled apprenticeships a year by scrapping rip-off degrees" if he wins the general election.In the latest of a flurry of announcements as the Conservatives try to narrow Labour's 20-point poll lead, the party pledged to replace low-quality" university degrees with apprenticeships. Continue reading...

Dorset police make arrest after fatal stabbing of Amie Gray, 34, on Friday eveningA 20-year-old man from south London has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was fatally stabbed on a beach in Bournemouth, police have said.Two women from Poole in Dorset were stabbed on Durley Chine beach at about 11.45pm last Friday. A 34-year-old woman died at the scene while a 38-year-old woman sustained serious injuries and remains in hospital. Continue reading...

Crucial supply line for aid deliveries to starving Palestinians cut off and will take at least a week to repair, Pentagon saysUS aid efforts for Gaza have suffered an embarrassing setback after the temporary pier built by the military broke apart in heavy seas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.The $320m pier was intended to provide a crucial supply line for aid deliveries by sea to reach starving Palestinians and alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe. Now the effort is on hold for at least a week. Continue reading...

Daleep Singh said that sanctioning third parties that trade with Russia is needed, in addition to seizing assets for UkraineRussia's shift towards a full-fledged war economy requires the west to extend its sanctions policy, including by sanctioning third-party entities that trade with Moscow, a senior White House official signalled on Tuesday.Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the United States would consider export controls to prevent China-Russia trade that threatens American security and take further action to increase the cost of Russia using a shadow fleet to evade the G7 countries' oil price cap. Continue reading...

Biden campaign holds press conference with Oscar winner and two Capitol officers in first clear foray into ex-president's legal troublesIt was a scenario that Donald Trump, in his pre-presidential celebrity days, might have relished; as he sat inside a Manhattan courtroom, Robert De Niro was waiting outside.But this was politics and De Niro, the pugnacious star of myriad Hollywood gangster films, was there not to pay homage to the former president as a fellow VIP, but to diss him in terms that might have been in place in Goodfellas or Mean Streets. Continue reading...

British soldiers stationed in Kenya have been accused of rights violations and offences including murderKenya has launched public hearings into allegations of human rights violations and abuses of power by British troops based in the former colony.The British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk) is an economic lifeline for many in the central town of Nanyuki, where it maintains a permanent base, but soldiers stationed there have also been accused of committing offences including murder. Continue reading...

Salome Zourabichvili addresses protesters outside parliament by video link, urging them to mobilise against Russian slavery'Georgia's parliament has voted to override a presidential veto on the controversial foreign influence" law, a move that is poised to derail the EU aspirations of many Georgians in favour of closer ties with Moscow.The divisive bill, which requires civil society organisations and media that receive more than 20% of their revenues from abroad to register as organisations serving the interests of a foreign power", was approved by the parliament earlier this month. Continue reading...

Sol Mamakwa gave first-ever Indigenous-language speech to Ontario provincial legislature, thanks to a 2019 lawA First Nations lawmaker in Ontario has addressed the province's legislature in Anishininiimowin, in a historic" milestone that repudiates a centuries-long colonial war" on Indigenous languages.Sol Mamakwa, a New Democratic party member from the community of Kingfisher Lake First Nation, rose on Tuesday to give the province's first-ever Indigenous language speech in Queen's Park, telling colleagues the moment left him feeling thankful and proud". Continue reading...

Daniel Mihai Popescu given more than 17 years for stabbing Andreea Pintili as she left home in AberfanA man who stabbed his pregnant ex-girlfriend weeks before she was due to give birth to their baby has been jailed for 17 years and four months for attempted murder.Daniel Mihai Popescu, 29, grabbed Andreea Pintili as she left home in Aberfan, south Wales, and told her: I have a knife and I am going to kill you." Continue reading...

Police say no further action will be taken as deputy Labour leader criticises desperate tactics' of Tories who urged officers to investigateAngela Rayner has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing over claims she avoided tax on the sale of a home, with the Labour deputy leader criticising what she called the desperate tactics" of Conservative MPs who urged police to investigate.In a statement, Greater Manchester police (GMP) said any allegations that Rayner should have paid capital gains tax or council tax would not fall under their jurisdiction, and that they had shared details of their investigation with the local council, Stockport, and HMRC. The Guardian understands that neither of these bodies plan to take action. Continue reading...

Shadow chancellor insists no additional tax rises will be needed beyond ones already announced by the partyRachel Reeves has said there will be no budget until September if Labour wins the election, and the party will not announce any additional tax measures beyond what it has already promised.The party has ruled out increases to income tax, national insurance, corporation tax or any form of wealth tax and Reeves said there would be no new measures proposed or black holes" to fill. Continue reading...

Air attack reported in al-Mawasi in western Rafah, a location that Israel's military had designated as a humanitarian areaMedical workers in Gaza exhausted' and their message is not getting through, the MSF chief has said.When asked about the types and extent of injuries arising out of an Israeli airstrike in Rafah that left at least 45 people dead, Dr Christos Christou, the Medecins Sans Frontieres International president, says his organisation's medical facility received more than 128 patients, some of whom, after being stabilised, have nowhere to turn for further surgical treatment. Continue reading...

Parliament overturns presidential veto of legislation that had sparked large protests and international condemnationHere are more images from Tbilisi today.Last week, the speakers of seven European parliaments called on Georgia's parliament to withdraw the controversial foreign agents' law. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Johnston Busingye formally appointed days after UK agreed Rwanda asylum deal with Paul Kagame in 2022Rwanda's top diplomat in the UK oversaw the use of the international justice system to target opponents of the country's rulers around the world, the Guardian can reveal.New details of the Rwandan government's suppression of opposition beyond its borders add to concerns about the regime at the heart of Rishi Sunak's asylum policy. Continue reading...

Managers say no place at beer festival for song adapted with Nazi slogan Germany for the Germans, foreigners out'The managers of Munich's Oktoberfest have said they will seek to ban an Italian disco hit from being played at the world's most famous beer festival after its hijacking by far-right revellers.In recent months the schmaltzy love lyrics of L'amour Toujours, a catchy 2001 hit by Italian DJ Gigi D'Agostino, have repeatedly been drowned out at public gatherings by a Nazi slogan: Germany for the Germans, foreigners out". Continue reading...

Prime minister makes comment after decision by Northern Ireland minister to go ahead with Greek holidayRishi Sunak has warned Conservative MPs that election campaigning is not optional after a minister decided to fly to Greece on holiday.During a campaign visit to a ceramics factory in the Midlands, the prime minister said he had been out every day" and that the MPs he had spent time with were working their socks off for their communities". Continue reading...

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy signs security pact with Belgium's De Croo during visit to BrusselsNato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has said it is time for EU member states to lift restrictions on Ukraine striking Russian territory on the grounds that it would escalate the war.He said it was up to national governments in the EU to decide if their weapons and some already do, adding:Some allies have not imposed restrictions on the weapons. I believe the time has come to consider those restrictions, not least in light of the development in the war, the evolution into a war which now is actually taking place along the borders and that makes it even harder for them to defend themselves and the right for self defence is part of the right for self defence. Continue reading...

The house in Winnetka, Illinois still features the staircase which Macauley Culkin rode down on a sledge, but the swinging paint cans have since been removedCinema fans - and burglars - alert: the home made famous by 1990 film Home Alone is on the market, with a sale price of $5.25m (4.1m).The five bedroom, six bathroom mansion at 671 Lincoln Avenue, Winnetka, Illinois forms the key setting for the bulk of Chris Columbus's festive hit, as 10-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) fends off the break-in efforts of villains played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, after his parents inadvertently leave him unattended over the holidays. Continue reading...

Devotees of author from Britain and the US lobby Southampton council to reject proposals for historic Dolphin buildingDevotees of Jane Austen on both sides of the Atlantic have joined a campaign to save the historic port city hotel where she celebrated her 18th birthday.Plans are afoot to transform the grade II listed Dolphin hotel in Southampton, where Austen once danced in the grand ballroom, into student accommodation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Investigation reveals how intelligence agencies tried to derail war crimes prosecution, with Netanyahu obsessed' with intercepts

KPMG analysis reveals 15,593 dwellings in NSW and 7,897 in Victoria are yet to break ground despite planning approval amid higher cost of materials and financeDevelopers have yet to begin work on almost 40,000 new homes across Australia - including 11,170 in Sydney - despite being granted building approvals, with stubbornly high interest rates and construction costs being blamed.According to KPMG analysis released on Tuesday, 15,593 dwellings with planning approval were yet to break ground across New South Wales by December 2023. It was only a slight improvement on the state's figures a year earlier, when there were 15,818 approved dwellings across NSW where work was yet to commence. Continue reading...

Mel Stride says pensioners will pay more income tax under Labour as critics say plan is merely reversal of previous Tory policy

US box office revenue is down 36% on last year's Memorial Day weekend, as the two leading films take only around $30m eachNeither a fat cat nor a ravening pack of post-apocalyptic Australian warlords could save US cinemas from their worst performance over the Memorial Day weekend in nearly three decades.George Miller's origins tale Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga just pipped pizza-loving feline Garfield to the top spot, taking $32m (25m) over the four days, compared with Garfield's $31.1m (24m). Ghostly animation Casper took $22m (17m) over the same period in 1995, but ever since then receipts have been up - excluding in 2020, when cinemas were entirely closed due to Covid. Continue reading...

Toby Loughnane has admitted to negligent manslaughter but is fighting murder charge in Victorian supreme court

Rob Stefanic tells Senate he declared a conflict of interest over close friendship' with subordinate due to gossip'

Candidacy applications open for safe seats after six MPs announce retirements with more expected

Kallista Mutten breaks down in the witness stand as she rejects suggestions she shot her daughter dead behind a chicken shed

Meteorologists forecast wet weather for 70%-80% of Australia with the BoM expecting heaviest rain in north-eastern Victoria

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Opposition leader labels proposed hate speech offence a Labor wedge' as negotiations falter on religious discrimination bill

Andrew Giles expressed his thoughts' for the family of the alleged victim, a 22-year-old man killed in Brisbane in May

Israel pursuing a policy of deliberate deprivation' and taking disproportionate' military action against Palestinians in Gaza, Dr Christos Christou says

Expert says gun didn't discharge when dropped during test, after Lynn pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol ClayIt would be difficult for a gun linked to the deaths of campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay to go off accidentally, a forensic police officer has told a double-murder trial.Former Jetstar captain Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the deaths of Hill, 74, and Clay, 73, in Victoria's alpine region, and is on trial in the supreme court in Melbourne.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...