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Exclusive: Kelly told the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority he took the trips to meet United Australia party members

Monitoring boards chief warns of poor conditions at four young offender institutions in EnglandA prisons watchdog has warned that poor conditions are endemic" at four young offender institutions in England and urged ministers to take urgent action to improve them.In her new role as the national chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs), Elisabeth Davies has taken the unusual step of writing a letter to the prisons minister, Damian Hinds, to raise serious concerns about the welfare of children in YOIs in England. Continue reading...

Australian athlete says the news is a dream come true and no one should experience what he has gone throughAustralian athlete Peter Bol says he has been exonerated" after Sport Integrity Australia decided to close its anti-doping case against him.On social media, Bol said it was a false positive like I have said all along" and the news was a dream come true". Continue reading...

Abdellatif remains in Australian immigration detention, where he has been held for a decade thanks to security assessments tainted by evidence obtained under torture

Neil Para and his wife and two eldest children have been on a temporary protection visa since they arrived in Australia in 2012

A team of engineers, divers and car enthusiasts took more than 12 hours to drive the vehicle while underwater across city's harbour

British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza lost his appeal against a 25-year prison term on MondayThe UK government has imposed sanctions on those involved in the deplorable" sentencing of the dual-national dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza after a Russian court dismissed his appeal against a 25-year sentence.Six figures - three judges, two prosecutors and an expert witness - will face sanctions for their role in a politically motivated conviction". Continue reading...

The actor died on Sunday night, years after he had been diagnosed with cancer, according to his teamThe actor Paul Reubens - best known for his 1980s portrayal of the children's film character Pee-wee Herman - died on Sunday night at the age of 70, years after he had been diagnosed with cancer, according to his team.A statement on Monday on a Facebook page for the Herman character said: Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens." Continue reading...

While many welcome the end of strike action, the campaign for fair pay and better funding for state schools looks set to continueMinisters will have heaved a huge sigh of relief to see teachers and school leaders in England vote to accept a 6.5% pay offer and end strike action in state schools in England.After months of disruption as a result of strikes by members of the National Education Union (NEU), there were real fears in government of an escalation of the dispute, with coordinated strike action in the autumn term by four unions. Continue reading...

Former Ukip leader is still taking legal action against bank demanding compensation and apologyNigel Farage has said that the newly installed boss of Coutts has offered to keep his accounts there open, reversing a decision that triggered a scandal and the resignation of the private bank's previous chief executive.The former Ukip leader said he welcomed the offer but was still taking legal action against NatWest, which owns Coutts, demanding compensation, a full apology and a face-to-face meeting with the banking group's bosses. Continue reading...

At least six people have been killed in Kryvyi Rih, and two people killed in occupied Donetsk, after multiple strikes across UkraineAt least six people, including a 10-year-old child, have been killed and more than 50 people injured when Russia struck a high-rise apartment in Kryvyi Rih. Authorities said people were trapped under rubble. Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, called for revenge, saying: Every day, Ukrainian cities are under fire from Russian terrorists. Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv. This is only for the last few days." He said targeting civilians was a sign of the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front".Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, said This is how the week begins in a Ukrainian city that just wants a quiet, normal life. Russia wants to take peace and life away", and offered condolences to the victims and their families. The city is the home town of both Zelenska and her husband.On Telegram, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 350 people are working on the rescue mission in Kryvyi Rih after what he said were two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city.Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday lost an appeal against his 25-year jail sentence, the RIA state news agency reported. Kara-Murza, who holds Russian and British citizenship, was jailed for 25 years in April for treason and spreading false information" about Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reports. Britain added six new designations to its Russia sanctions list, an update to the government website showed on Monday, targeting judges and officials involved in the trial of Kara-Murza.According to Reuters, Ukraine and Croatia have agreed on the possibility of using Croatian ports on the Danube and the Adriatic Sea for the export of Ukrainian grain, Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said after talks with his Croatian counterpart on Monday.Russian airstrikes destroyed an estimated 180,000 metric tonnes of grain crops in the space of nine days this month, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Monday, Reuters reports.Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, said Russia lost 87 units of equipment last week, including 33 strongholds, 26 armored combat vehicles and 15 tanks. These claims have not been independently verified.The Kremlin on Monday described a recent drone attack on Moscow as an act of desperation" by Ukraine after setbacks on the battlefield. AFP reports that Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said it has been very difficult" for Ukrainian forces on the frontline since it launched its counteroffensive in June. He added: It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not a success. In an act of desperation, the regime in Kyiv is turning to such terrorist attacks. All possible measures have been taken to defend civil infrastructure [against Ukrainian strikes]."Ukrainian forces have recaptured nearly 15 sq km (5.8 sq miles) of land from Russian troops in the east and south over the past week during their counteroffensive, a senior defence official said on Monday. Kyiv's forces have now retaken 204.7 sq km in the south since they launched a major push back against Russian forces early last month, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine's counteroffensive is not working out as planned" and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been wasted", during the course of a two month-long operation that has seen limited gains for Ukraine. Continue reading...

Ukraine defence minister says Moscow has intensified strikes on military infrastructure; Kremlin says Ukraine counteroffensive not working out as planned'

Members accepted 6.5% pay rise, but said it was not enough to correct decade of real-terms pay cutsSchool strikes in England have been called off after teachers and school leaders in four education unions voted to accept the government's 6.5% pay offer, ending fears of widespread disruption in the autumn term.Members of the National Education Union (NEU), the NASUWT teachers' union, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) were considering staging coordinated strike action if there was no progress on pay. Continue reading...

Emily Thornberry says PM must explain why he did not use available scheduled flightsLabour has asked Rishi Sunak to explain why he used an RAF jet to fly to Scotland on Monday when scheduled flights were available, given the ministerial code says private planes should only be used when there is no alternative.Sunak, a habitual user of helicopters and private jets even for other, relatively short UK journeys, travelled to Aberdeen on Monday morning in connection with an announcement on new North Sea drilling licences. Continue reading...

Residential buildings and civilian neighbourhoods in Ukraine were targeted by ballistic missiles

Case of Briton who killed ill wife puts taboo subject in spotlight of socially conservative society British man who killed sick wife freed due to time servedA little after daybreak, a police van carrying an elderly Briton pulled out of the high-walled, colonial-era complex that is Nicosia's central prison.As on so many other occasions, it was the start of a journey David Hunter knew well: a near 100-mile road trip that would take the septuagenarian to the only other building he has been permitted to visit over the past 19 months - the district court in the coastal town of Paphos. Continue reading...

Center for Countering Digital Hate claims publication of hateful material on Twitter has risen since Musk took overAn anti-hate speech campaign group has accused Elon Musk's X Corp of intimidation after the owner of the rebranded social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, threatened legal action over the organisation's research into hate speech on the platform.The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has regularly conducted research into the platform's content since it was bought last year by Musk and has produced work claiming publication of hateful material on the site has risen since the $44bn (34.2bn) deal was completed. Continue reading...

Peak body for general practitioners will consider simplifying assessments that compare skills of foreign doctors to local ones to address demand

The Data Local team uses AI technology to generate stories on weather, fuel prices and traffic reports for hyper-local mastheads

Supporters of the Indigenous voice to parliament urged to hone their strategy in bid to convince undecided Australians to vote yes

The prince has not inherited his father's enthusiasm for traditional Highland dressHe has donned plumes of ostrich feathers, embraced bows and ribbons and even worn a cap with an embroidered leek.Such are the elaborate sartorial demands on the Prince of Wales, who away from royal and military ceremonials tends to be a blue-shirt-and-chinos man. Continue reading...

76-year-old man was threatened with court action and turned to food handouts after E.ON mistakeA 76-year-old widower was forced to ration his electricity for a year and rely on charity food handouts after a clerical error by his supplier left him facing a bill of nearly 13,000.John*, who has a serious heart condition, has paid in advance for his electricity via a prepayment meter for 10 years. However, his supplier, E.ON, began sending unexplained bills several years ago and subsequently threatened court action if he failed to pay. It also withheld his 400 energy bill support scheme payment from the government to help with last winter's heating bills. Continue reading...

David Hunter, 76, given two-year sentence for manslaughter but had already spent 19 months in custodyA British retired miner, David Hunter, has been sentenced to two years in prison for the manslaughter of his seriously ill wife in Cyprus but has been released from custody due to time already served.The 76-year-old had admitted suffocating Janice, his wife of 52 years, who had blood cancer, at their home on the island after she begged him" to end her life.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

FCA lays out 14-point plan to monitor how banks are treating customers following month-long review of savings market

Bafta-winner wrote theme music for shows including Ground Force and made albums with poet laureateThe celebrated composer Jim Parker, who won four Baftas during a 60-year music career, has died aged 88 after a long illness, his family have said.Parker was behind some of television's most recognisable theme music, including the BBC's Tom Jones period drama, as well as the intros to Ground Force, Changing Rooms and ITV's Midsomer Murders, among others. Continue reading...

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Broadcaster says public interest rises well above truth' in defence to defamation allegations brought by ex-commando

Former boss of Swedish telecoms firm Telia to continue outgoing Philip Jansen's cost-cutting driveBT has appointed board member Allison Kirkby as its first female chief executive, to take over from Philip Jansen after he set a course for significant job cuts at the telecoms provider.Kirkby will leave her job as chief executive of Swedish telecoms company Telia at the end of January 2024. She has been a non-executive director at BT since 2019. Continue reading...

Huge hailstones pummelled continent before expected cooling down across much of central and southern EuropeTemperatures were not the only weather-related record to be broken over the past couple of weeks. The European hail record has been breached too. Twice.On 19 July 2023, there were several very large hailstones, more than 10cm in diameter measured along their longest axis, recorded across parts of Italy and Croatia. One of these stones, measuring 16cm in diameter, was recorded in Carmignano di Brenta, Italy, and broke the previous largest hail record in Europe, which was previously held by a 15cm stone found in Romania in 2016. Continue reading...

Rodney Lee is destined to die in jail after a Victorian supreme court judge sentenced him to 30 years behind barsAngry with his neighbours for turning off the hose he used to water the communal garden in their apartment complex, Rodney Lee turned to murder.Lee was jailed for 30 years on Monday, having pleaded guilty to murdering Saumotu Gasio, 62, and Tibor Laszlo, 57 at their Melbourne public housing complex in January last year.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Doultani, 22, was studying a master's in finance hoping to give his family in India a brighter future'

Exclusive: Many exhausted relatives asking for help as health and social care services stretched beyond limitSoaring numbers of families struggling to care for someone with dementia have hit a crisis point" with nowhere to turn for help when their loved one puts themselves or others at risk of harm, a charity has said.More than 700,000 people in the UK look after a relative with dementia. Many feel they can no longer cope with alarming situations where they or their relative are at immediate risk of being harmed, according to Dementia UK. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Survivors and witnesses bring case to human rights council over 2021 attack killing eight peopleTurkish airstrikes that allegedly targeted a civilian hospital and killed eight people in Iraq have been made the subject of a formal complaint to the UN human rights council.It is the first case to be brought on the issue of Turkish airstrikes against the Yazidi people. The attack on 17 August 2021 destroyed the Sikeniye medical clinic in Sinjar and left more than 20 people injured. Continue reading...

The landmark Maputo protocol has led to huge gains in women's rights, from abortion access to equal pay. But to go further will require political will and actionSigned 20 years ago, in the Mozambique city that bears its name, the Maputo protocol was a landmark treaty in the progress towards gender equality across Africa.It promises equality and non-discrimination to women and girls in civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Continue reading...

July records broken over the weekend in parts of NSW and Victoria as almost the entire country' 2-6C above average temperatures

Pro-democracy leader who now lives in UK argues UK government is doing too little about Chinese threatWhen Finn Lau woke one morning this month to dozens of messages urging him to take care, he was confused as to what had happened. But he was not distressed to learn that Hong Kong authorities had offered a HK$1m (100,000) bounty for his arrest, along with that of seven other overseas activists, because it was not the first threat he had faced.Since helping to lead pro-democracy protests challenging Hong Kong's authorities and a national security law that brought sweeping extraterritorial powers into force three years ago, Lau, 29, who now lives in the UK, has become a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist party. Continue reading...

Precision policing' approach builds on force's strategy to identify the 100 most dangerous men in LondonThe Metropolitan police is expanding its use of precision policing", an approach that uses crime data to focus police activity, in an effort to remove some of the most serious criminals from the streets.The move builds on the Met's strategy to identify the 100 most dangerous men in London. It will create a more powerful offender forecasting tool and broaden the range of crimes the force targets through data analysis. Continue reading...

Defence minister tells reporters that a thorough investigation will be carried out after Taipan MRH-90 crash during training exercise in Queensland

Strongest storm to hit country in years has also caused widespread flooding and evacuations in province of FujianBeijing has recorded its heaviest rainfall this year as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri passed through China's capital, forcing more than 31,000 people to evacuate their homes in the city, according to state broadcaster CCTV.Heavy rain continued to fall in Beijing as well as in Hebei, Tianjin and eastern Shanxi as Doksuri dissipated over northern China, the China Meteorological Administration said. Continue reading...

Federal police statement of facts tendered to court say Alexander Csergo was in an enhanced state of paranoia' about being detained in Shanghai

Nearly 200 injured at gathering of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party ahead of elections expected later this yearAt least 44 people have been killed and almost 200 injured in a bomb blast in Pakistan's north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that targeted a political party gathering.Police said the explosion at a rally on Sunday afternoon for the conservative Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party (JUI-F), a government coalition partner, was carried out by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives vest close to the stage where several senior leaders of the party were sitting. Continue reading...

Improvised and atrocious' decision in 2019 made Italy the only major western member, says Guido Crosetto, the defence ministerJoining China's vast Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was an atrocious" decision, Italy's defence minister has said, and the issue was how to leave it without damaging ties with Beijing.Guido Crosetto said in an interview published on Sunday that the move made four years ago under a previous government had done little to boost exports, while Chinese exports to Italy had soared. Continue reading...

Nick Timothy chosen as Tory candidate in West Suffolk constituency set to be vacated by former health secretaryA man seen as one of the key architects of Theresa May's disastrous 2017 election campaign has been selected by the Conservative party to fight Matt Hancock's seat at the next general election.Nick Timothy abruptly resigned from his post as May's chief of staff when MPs put pressure on her to get rid of him, shortly after the party lost its majority in the 2017 vote and had to turn to the DUP to form a government. Continue reading...

Host Sam Pang cracks joke at celebrities including Sam Neill, Karl Stefanovic and Jonathan LaPaglia - and takes a shot at broadcaster Channel Seven

Party says recruits with relevant skills could help tackle government's abysmal' record on unsolved crimesDirectly recruiting new police detectives from parallel fields such as business fraud investigation could help tackle the government's abysmal" record on unsolved crimes, according to a proposal from Labour.Analysis by the party found that 90% of recorded crimes do not get solved and there has been a 60% reduction in the proportion of offences that result in a criminal charge since 2015. Continue reading...

At least seven injured after violence between Fatah and Islamists in Ain al-Hilweh campAt least six people have been killed after fighting broke out in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, put the death toll at six, and Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two children were among seven people wounded at the Ain al-Hilweh camp. Continue reading...

Nigel Farage calls for royal commission as data shows big jump in customers being debanked'Banks are closing more than 1,000 accounts every working day, according to new data that has fuelled the growing row over so-called debanking" and prompted Nigel Farage to call for a royal commission to investigate what he said was a scandal.Hours after the former Ukip leader revealed he was spearheading a website to campaign on behalf of people whose accounts had been shut, data revealed a big jump in the numbers of customers dumped by their bank. Continue reading...

Review of spinal expert John Bradley Williamson identifies poor surgical technique, record-keeping and communication with patientsA leading spinal surgeon's botched operations left patients with serious blood loss, long-term pain and mobility problems, a damning report has revealed.It found that John Bradley Williamson's unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour" severely or moderately harmed 20 patients at Salford Royal hospital, once regarded as one of England's safest. Continue reading...

Exclusive: moves against what PM terms anti-motorist' policies follow order of review into low-traffic neighbourhoodsMinisters are considering restrictions on councils' ability to impose 20mph speed limits as part of a new shift against green policies and traffic schemes, a stance condemned by safety and travel groups as shortsighted and divisive.The Guardian has been told the push against what Rishi Sunak has termed anti-motorist" policies could be extended to find ways to stop local authorities taking other measures, such as installing bus gates, that have been used routinely for decades. Continue reading...

Overlapping concepts of LTNs and modal filtering' - a staple of postwar planning - creates challenge in how to categorise schemesWhile the concept of the low-traffic neighbourhood, or LTN, first entered the UK political mainstream during the Covid pandemic, the basic concept - filtering streets for different types of traffic - is older. Much, much older, in fact.Some ancient Roman cities, including Pompeii, used stone posts set in the road to stop carriages reaching the central plaza, while allowing unimpeded access for pedestrians and less cumbersome forms of transport. Continue reading...