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Advocates urge state government to scrap approval system and adopt charter of human rights similar to Victoria and Queensland

State counties are required to offer at least 13 days of in-person early voting. Many may struggle to meet thatThe devastating path charted by Hurricane Helene has taken at least 190 lives, decimated entire communities, and cut off access to food, water, and power for many. It could also disrupt voting, including in North Carolina, one of just a handful of states that will likely decide the 5 November presidential election.Long before the storm made landfall on Thursday, politicos have kept a close eye on North Carolina as a key battleground state, with polls showing the state is closely divided in the choice between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Continue reading...

The UK has agreed to hand the archipelago over to Mauritius after decades of diplomatic disputeThe UK has agreed to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic deal. Here we detail the history of the archipelago. Continue reading...

Hundreds of arachnophiles flock to La Junta to watch the creatures emerge in droves and look for love on the plainsLove is in the air on the Colorado plains - the kind that makes your heart beat a bit faster, quickens your step and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.It's tarantula mating season, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate, and hundreds of arachnophiles flock to the small farming town of La Junta to watch them emerge in droves. Continue reading...

Delusion and short-term relief brought a strange buzz to Birmingham, with the leadership race still wide openThree months on from almost their worst ever election loss, Conservative MPs were curiously gleeful at their Birmingham conference this week.Denial about the scale of the defeat, exaggeration of Labour's teething troubles in government and delusion about the party's chances of returning quickly were widespread. Continue reading...

Centrepoint records 564 instances of gatekeeping' including dozens involving young people who were pregnant or had children

Medical centre is target of second attack on central city this week after eight IDF soldiers killed on frontier

Man in Rotterdam faces 100 penalty after law introduced across Netherlands to tackle harassment in public spacesA court in the Netherlands has fined a man for harassing and intimidating a woman on a street in Rotterdam, in the first conviction under a new law tackling sexual harassment in public spaces.The 33-year-old man was fined 100 (84) by a court in Rotterdam on Wednesday, months after he was accused of grabbing a woman on the street by the hips and holding her. The court set out an additional fine of 180 if he is caught reoffending. Continue reading...

New details emerge that Trump's then lawyer tried but failed to urge Michigan legislator to install fake electorsRudy Giuliani texted the wrong number as he tried to persuade Michigan legislators to help overthrow the 2020 election.According to a document unsealed in federal court on Wednesday, on 7 December 2020, Giuliani tried to send a message urging someone unspecified to help in the plan to appoint a slate of fake electors. Continue reading...

Agreement to hand back UK's last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressureThe UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain's last African colony.The UK expelled the Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity, when it retained possession of what it called the British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968. Continue reading...

Several missing and more than 120 injured after storm makes landfall in Kaohsiung, with authorities pleading for people to stay insideTyphoon Krathon has made landfall in Taiwan, bringing destructive wind and rain to the island's second biggest city.The storm has killed at least two people with another several reported missing and more than 120 injured. Continue reading...

Regulator says advert by publisher of the Citizen newspaper likely to harm national unity'Tanzania has suspended the online operations of a top newspaper publisher after one of its publications ran an animated advert depicting the country's president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and referencing a spate of recent abductions and killings of dissidents.The advert, published on X and Instagram on Tuesday by the Citizen, an English-language newspaper, showed the president flipping through TV channels. Each channel showed people speaking about loved ones they had lost through disappearances. Continue reading...

Trial told Thomas Kwan, 53, disguised himself as a nurse and told Patrick O'Hara he was getting a Covid jabA GP worried about his inheritance disguised himself as a nurse and injected deadly poison into his victim after duping them into believing they were being given a home-visit Covid booster jab, a court has heard.Thomas Kwan was not injecting Covid vaccine into Patrick O'Hara, prosecutors allege, but a poison that gave his victim a rare and life-threatening flesh-eating disease. Continue reading...

International Longshoremen's Association members walk out on east and Gulf coasts over pay and automation disputeA parade of tractors without their trailers made their way through the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine terminal on Wednesday morning, blaring their horns, to cheers from the picket lines.Tens of thousands of longshoremen walked off the job at dozens of ports across the east and Gulf coasts earlier this week. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirms most operations have been shut down as a result of the strike. Continue reading...

As the vice-president visited the Georgia city shattered by Helene, the sense of community spirit was palpableAs Kamala Harris descended Wednesday into Augusta, she met a city contemplating how much of their lives have been unmade by Hurricane Helene.I am here to personally take a look at the devastation," Harris said after receiving a briefing by emergency response leaders in Georgia. It's particularly devastating in terms of loss of life that this community has experienced, the loss of normalcy, and the loss of critical resources." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Nacc says operational activity' does not involve any current or former member of parliament

Bill is likely to include measures such as ending exploitative' zero-hours contracts and changes to sick pay

Sarah Jones suggests PM believes he should be held to higher standards now he is in government

Law Commission also suggests reopening cemeteries declared full as part of England and Wales consultationGraves could be reused and closed burial grounds reopened under proposals aimed at tackling a lack of space for the dead.The Law Commission has suggested that cemeteries that have been declared full could be reused for new burials. The proposal is part of a public consultation by the commission on updating 170-year-old burial laws in England and Wales. Continue reading...

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Andre Stepanyan, one of two men charged over an alleged arson at the home of YouTuber Jordan Shanks-Markovina in November 2022, will fight the charges

The former TV personality announced her own death from motor neurone disease in a prepared statement, saying it was an end to a very tough few months'Australian TV host Fiona MacDonald, known for her work on shows including It's A Knockout and the children's program Wombat, has died aged 67 of motor neurone disease (MND).MacDonald was diagnosed with MND in November 2021, a terminal degenerative disorder that causes people to lose the use of their limbs and ability to speak, swallow and breathe. There is no cure; those with MND die, on average, 27 months after diagnosis. Continue reading...

Party that campaigned with manifesto warning of 24/7 surveillance state and social credit system' claims seats across state

Briefing notes mistakenly being sent to ex-PM meant it was not right for the interview to go ahead', says presenterThe BBC has cancelled a prime-time interview with Boris Johnson after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg accidentally sent the former prime minister her briefing notes.Kuenssberg said she sent Johnson the notes in a message meant for my team". The former BBC political editor said it was embarrassing and disappointing", adding the error meant it was not right for the interview to go ahead". Continue reading...

Jayson Gillham claims he was silenced for speaking the truth' and says situation strikes at the heart of our right to free speech'

Customer disputes over sewage spills, billing mistakes and water meters soar in past year

Where there's smoke sometimes there's fire,' WA senator's chief of staff and preference whisperer' tells Guardian Australia

Police had opposed events being held at Town Hall on 6 and 7 October and launched supreme court action to have them ruled unlawful

This blog has now closed. You can follow our new blog hereDanish police said on Wednesday morning that they were investigating two blasts in the vicinity of Israel's embassy in Copenhagen.No one has been injured, and we are carrying out initial investigations at the scene," Copenhagen police said in a statement. They said a possible connection" to the Israeli embassy, which is located in the area, was being investigated. Continue reading...

Images from Arthur William Hobart, who leant out of a biplane to produce pictures of life in the interwar period, digitised and released

Exclusive: in an interview with the Guardian Andrew Bailey says he fears conflict will affect oil pricesThe Bank of England is monitoring the Middle East crisis amid fears that a worsening conflict between Iran and Israel will make it impossible to stabilise oil prices and leave the global economy vulnerable to a 1970s-style energy shock.Andrew Bailey, the Bank's governor, said he was watching developments extremely closely" and that there were limits to what could be done to prevent the cost of crude rising if things got really bad". Continue reading...

High street banks handed new powers by the Treasury to delay and investigate payments suspected of being fraudulentBank payments can be delayed by an extra three days if lenders suspect consumers are being scammed, as part of a crackdown on booming levels of digital fraud in Britain.Under changes designed to protect consumers against online scams, high street banks are to be handed new powers by the Treasury to delay and investigate payments suspected of being fraudulent. Continue reading...

Damien Gibson handed five-year jail term after all-terrain vehicle carrying seven children rolled on Gippsland farm

State records 433 mpox cases and 26 hospitalisations since June, following a similar spike in Victoria

The escalating Middle East conflict could create a dangerous vacuum - or an opportunity - for several statesThe coincidental timing of an emergency meeting of Gulf foreign ministers in Doha with a visit to the same city by the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, for talks with Qatar's emir raises questions about how the Gulf states will react if Israel pushes ahead with its plan to use its recent military success not just to weaken Iran, but reorder the Middle East.This Sunni coalition of six Gulf monarchs is not naturally well disposed to Iran or its Shia proxies, and only in 2016 labelled Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. But they also oppose further Israeli escalation, and believe it is ultimately only Washington that has the means to restrain the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Continue reading...

Credibility damaged' by proposed 12-month delay, which followed lobbying from governments and firms around the worldA former top environment official has said the EU's credibility on its climate commitments has been damaged by plans for a one-year delay to a law to combat deforestation that followed intense lobbying from companies and governments around the world.Virginijus Sinkeviius, a Lithuanian MEP who was the environment commissioner until mid-July, said postponing the deforestation regulation would be a step backward in the fight against climate change". Continue reading...

Experts are calling for rapid rescue package' for nature to improve condition of protected sitesThe amount of land that is protected for nature in England has fallen to just 2.93%, despite government promises to conserve 30% of it by 2030, new data reveals.Campaigners are calling for a rapid rescue package for UK nature", as government delegates head to Cop16, the international nature summit, which will take place from 21 October in Colombia. They intend to ask other countries to stick to ambitious nature targets. Continue reading...

The H5N1 virus killed 47 tigers, three lions and a panther at the My Quynh safari park and the Vuon Xoai zoo, according to state mediaForty-seven tigers, three lions and a panther have died in zoos in south Vietnam due to the H5N1 bird flu virus, state media reported.The deaths occurred in August and September at the private My Quynh safari park in Long An province and the Vuon Xoai zoo in Dong Nai, near the capital Ho Chi Minh City, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The RBA's decision to maintain its restrictive policy stance in the near-term is appropriate,' fund says in latest assessment report

Saturday morning showers will make way for a top of 29C on Sunday and 27C Monday, good news for NRL and NRLW fans headed to grand finals

Defectors seeking to cross back into North Korea from the South are rare, though many struggle to adapt to life in their democratic, capitalist neighbourA North Korean defector living in South Korea has been detained after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarised border, in a failed attempt to return to his isolated homeland.The man - who fled to the South in 2011 - ignored warnings from soldiers to stop while attempting on Tuesday to drive through the Tongil Bridge in Paju, just south of the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, according to media reports citing South Korean provincial police. Continue reading...

Some councils are already spending up to 80% of their budget on social care and say costs are rising and increasingly unsustainableThe spiralling cost of social services is eating into the budgets of England's largest councils to the extent that many will soon be forced to abandon nice to have" functions such as arts and youth clubs and Sure Start centres.Council leaders are concerned town halls are at risk of becoming care authorities" focused primarily on the provision of care packages to an expanding number of at-risk children and frail adults at the expense of other services. Continue reading...

Researchers suggest stricter regulation as one in 10 people in Britain aged 16 or over now use e-cigarettesOne million people in England now vape despite never having been regular smokers, a seven-fold increase in just three years, according to research that has prompted alarm among health experts.Rates of e-cigarette use among adults who had never regularly smoked were stable until 2021, when one in 200 - about 133,000 people - were vapers. However, the proportion has increased sharply to one in 28 in 2024 - 1,006,000 people - a study published in The Lancet Public Health journal suggests. Continue reading...

Top Israeli diplomat at UN warns his country's retaliation for Iranian missile attack will be heavier than Tehran could ever have imagined'Joe Biden has said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites, as the US sought to temper Israel's response to Iran's missile attack on Tuesday and contain a rapidly escalating regional conflict.Biden's comments came after the top Israeli diplomat at the UN warned his country's retaliation for an Iranian salvo of nearly 200 ballistic missiles would be heavier than Tehran could ever have imagined". Continue reading...

Hawks argue Tehran's missile assault gives legitimacy to a direct attack on Iran - but would wars and wars and wars' guarantee greater security?Israel is enjoying a moment of military and intelligence triumph. Over two weeks, it has killed an archenemy" in his secret bunker, decimated Hezbollah's leadership, blown up the militant group's communications networks and parts of its arsenal and humbled its sponsor, Iran.As its ground troops marched into Lebanon, Israel fended off a large-scale Iranian ballistic missile attack with backing from the US and other allies. Continue reading...

Mark Chavez, 52, signed a plea agreement in which he admitted to obtaining ketamine from his former clinicOne of two doctors charged in the investigation of the death of Matthew Perry pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a federal court in Los Angeles to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine.Dr Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, signed a plea agreement with prosecutors in August and is now the third person to plead guilty in the aftermath of the Friends star's fatal overdose last year. Continue reading...

First charter flight has left Beirut, says David Lammy, with officials planning sea and air' rescues if situation worsens

Joan E Greve and Leah Wright Rigueur discuss JD Vance and Tim Walz's clash on the debate stage in New York City on Tuesday night. Although Walz gave a solid performance, it was described as underwhelming, while Vance attempted to reset his image and get on the front foot. Will this debate have moved the needle at all? And as the situation in the Middle East escalates, where do Trump and Harris stand on foreign policy?Archive: Continue reading...

At least 70 dead as Israeli strikes against Hamas continue despite attention shifting to Lebanon and Iran

Most of the defensive effort appears to have been undertaken by Israeli air defence systems