Most states and territories to ban product on 1 July, with Commonwealth flagging an import prohibitionAustralia will ban engineered stone from 1 July 2024, following a meeting of state and federal workplace ministers.According to Queensland and Victorian governments, ministers on Wednesday agreed to ban the material, which is commonly used in kitchen and bathroom benchtops. Continue reading...
Supermarket says it protects personal data incredibly carefully' and move makes ads more relevant'The chief executive of Sainsbury's has defended its decision to sell data on the shopping habits of his customers to TV and consumer goods manufacturers looking to target their advertising.Simon Roberts has said the supermarket group protects personal data incredibly carefully" and that its strategy had made adverts more relevant" for shoppers. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#6H3MV)
Exclusive: survey finds 57% of people have never heard of physician associates even though they are widely usedMany people are deeply confused about the growing number of physician associates" in the NHS and wrongly assume they are doctors, research suggests.Around 4,000 physician associates work in the NHS in England. Ministers and health chiefs plan to increase the figure to 10,000 to help plug widespread gaps in the NHS workforce. Continue reading...
Historic England highlights remarkable gems' among 227 places added to national list in 2023An intact second world war radar station and a 1960s church that resembles an upturned boat have joined some of England's grandest buildings on the national heritage list.Historic England singled out 16 remarkable historic gems" that had been added to the list or had their entries updated in 2023. They include a 400-year-old structure regarded as England's earliest known modern-day car wash", an unusually long railway footbridge, an iron age cave and a Manchester primary school that still has its flashy art nouveau tiling from more than a century ago. Continue reading...
Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff warns the Europe puzzle' cannot come together without UkraineKyiv has increased pressure on the EU to open accession talks at a crucial summit this week, with Volodymyr Zelenskiy's most senior adviser warning that without his country the Europe puzzle' cannot come together".After the European Commission's recommendation last month that formal membership talks begin, the EU's 27 heads of government are due to discuss the proposal at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. Continue reading...
by Adam Fulton (now); Gloria Oladipo, Martin Belam, R on (#6H2QS)
This blog is now closed. See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage hereReports are coming in from the Reuters news agency that three Palestinians were killed on Tuesday during an Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin - that's according to the Palestinian health ministry.An Israeli drone attack killed the three Palestinians and injured others, medical sources say, adding that the Israeli raid included the city of Jenin and its refugee camp.Between the afternoons of 10 and 11 December, 208 Palestinians were killed and another 416 were injured, according to the [Hamas run] Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza. Heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea across Gaza continued, especially in the central part, including Al Maghazi and An Nuseirat Refugee Camps, as well as in parts of northern Gaza. Meanwhile, intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, especially in Khan Younis, Jabalya, and the northern parts of Gaza Strip. Additionally, air strikes have reportedly targeted residential homes in the western and central parts of Rafah, areas designated as safe for displaced Palestinians by the Israeli army. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel also continued.Limited aid distributions are taking place in Rafah governorate. In the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely stopped over the past few days, due to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions of movement along the main roads, except for limited fuel deliveries to key service providers and a one-off high-risk mission on 9 December to Al Ahli hospital.On 11 December, as of 22:00, 100 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Egypt, the same volume recorded on most days since the resumption of hostilities on 1 December. This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel) that entered every working day prior to 7 October. The ability of the UN to receive incoming aid has been significantly impaired over the past few days by several factors. These include a shortage of trucks within Gaza; the continuing lack of fuel; telecommunications blackouts; and the increasing number of staff who were unable to travel to the Rafah crossing due to the intensity of hostilities. Continue reading...
The actor who played the deadpan Captain Raymond Holt and starred in Homicide: Life on the Street, has died after a brief illnessAndre Braugher, who starred as Captain Raymond Holt in the hit comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and as Detective Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life on the Street, has died aged 61.The actor died on Monday after a brief illness, his publicist confirmed. Continue reading...
Attacks on vessels close to Yemen have led to a rise in the cost of shipping with fears that supply chains could be disruptedA senior official from Yemen's Houthis has warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling toward Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said that ships should avoid heading toward Israel and that any that pass Yemen should keep radios turned on, and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication. Continue reading...
Artistic director of the Kiln theatre will take over from Rufus Norris in spring 2025Indhu Rubasingham has been announced as the next director of the National Theatre, marking the first time that a woman and a person of colour has taken on the biggest role in British theatre.Rubasingham, who has been artistic director of the Kiln theatre since 2012, will take over from Rufus Norris in spring 2025, when his second term ends. She and Kate Varah will also become joint chief executives in a co-leadership model. Continue reading...
by Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent on (#6H3GK)
Study says societal factors play more of a role rather than the views of individual officersPolice are far more likely to use a Taser electrical weapon against black people due to structural and institutional racism rather than the views of individual officers, a new report says.It follows the biggest ever academic study of the police's use of the weapon, which found officers increasingly see it as a tool that can get suspects to comply, rather than a potentially lethal item. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier) on (#6H2VN)
Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill passes its first Commons vote but only after rebellion by a collection of rightwing Tory MPsLord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice of England and Wales, has said the government should not try to ignore the jurisdiction of the European court of human rights. In an interview for a podcast called the Judges, he said:If you have subjected yourself to a court, and it was our voluntary decision to do so, then you have to take the rough with the smooth and if they've decided [the court] have this jurisdiction then you ought to follow it.You can't expect others to respect the law if you say you won't respect the law of someone else.You ought to actually be able, within a set period of time, say a fortnight, to investigate, decide, give him one right of appeal - why you should have more than one right of appeal I simply don't understand - and remove them." But, he concedes, it costs money.Britain is a practical nation - always has been. People can't afford Christmas. If they call an ambulance this winter - they don't know if it will come. 6,000 crimes go unpunished - every day. Common sense is rolling your sleeves up and solving these problems practically, not indulging in some kind of political performance art.This goes for stopping the boats as well. It's not about wave machines, or armoured jet skis, or schemes like Rwanda you know will never work. Continue reading...
Callum Griffiths, 19, Jesse Owen, 18, and Morgan Smith, 18, declared dead at scene while two others suffer life-threatening injuriesThe families of three teenagers who died after a road traffic collision in a small village in south Wales have paid tribute to the young men.Callum Griffiths, 19, from Porth, and Jesse Owen, 18, and Morgan Smith, 18, both from Tonypandy, were killed in a collision between a bus and an Audi A1 on Ely Valley Road in Coedely, in the borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, at about 7pm on Monday. Continue reading...
Prime minister's focus on small boats looks tragically misdirected and the storm clouds are still gatheringAs the storm clouds gathered over Westminster on Tuesday afternoon, one of Rishi Sunak's cabinet ministers looked up at the heavy grey sky and sighed: It's pathetic fallacy."Yet despite the dark mood among the prime minister's allies - and grim warnings to the contrary - the first stage of his flagship Rwanda bill passed easily through the House of Commons. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Deputy political editor on (#6H38G)
So-called five families deal blow to Rishi Sunak before vote on second reading of bill on Tuesday nightA collective of rightwing Conservative MPs have announced that they will not support the second reading of Rishi Sunak's bill which aims to overcome legal obstacles in deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.The so-called five families - a loose alliance of five different rightwing Tory groups, who claim to represent more than 100 MPs overall - announced their decision as the Commons continued to debate the bill, which will be voted on at about 7pm. The bulk are expected to abstain. Continue reading...
Rabbi says antisemitic attack, hours after new PM vowed to reform Poland, had galvanised support for Jewish communityA far-right Polish MP has extinguished candles on a menorah lit for Hanukah in Poland's parliament, disrupting proceedings before a planned vote of confidence in the new government.Grzegorz Braun, a fringe far-right MP, was shown on television spraying the menorah with a fire extinguisher. Smoke and haze filled the area. The parliament took a break in proceedings to deal with the incident and Braun was suspended for the rest of the day. Continue reading...
Speaker of house tells reporters that a complaint will be filed with the prosecutor's office against Grzegorz Braun after incidentAs Poland moves to form a new government, the European court of human rights issued a new judgment today that the lack of any form of legal recognition and protection for same-sex couples in Poland breaches the European convention on human rights.The court considered that the Polish state had failed to comply with its duty to ensure that the applicants had a specific legal framework providing for the recognition and protection of their samesex unions.That failure had resulted in the applicants' inability to regulate fundamental aspects of their lives and amounted to a breach of their right to respect for their private and family life.I protest against the xenophobia introduced by the authorities into public debate.I protest against the hostile attitude of the authorities towards immigrants.I protest against the incapacitation of public television.We will have different views on many issues, but we want to be a community and the work of the future government will focus on this.We are so different, we are attached to different traditions. This is our wealth. The community is built by the rule of law and the constitution, and we should not argue about this just to be able to safely argue about other topics. Continue reading...
by Bibi van der Zee (now) and Ajit Niranjan (earlier) on (#6H2S4)
Fury as Graham Stuart returns to London as Caroline Lucas says UK has obliterated its moral authority'Tuesday morning at Cop28 and we're back in a waiting game. Heads of delegation met until the early hours, mostly expressing their deep unhappiness with the draft text produced by the summit presidency late Monday afternoon.The scheduled end of the two-week conference has come and gone - that was 11am local - and as yet there is no new text to replace the document from yesterday. Anybody who says they know when this will end is guessing. Continue reading...
Police say Kenneth Law, 58, sent at least 1,200 packages containing lethal substances to addresses in more than 40 countriesA Canadian man who allegedly helped more than a dozen young people across the province of Ontario kill themselves by mailing them poison has been charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder, police said on Tuesday.Kenneth Law, 58, had previously been charged with 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide.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 the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...
The 22-year-old's family blocked from coming to France from Iran to collect Sakharov prizeThe European parliament has presented a rights prize posthumously to Mahsa Amini, whose death in Iranian custody prompted mass protests, as her mother hailed her daughter's name as a secret code for freedom".The award is the latest international recognition for the women challenging Iran's religious government after Narges Mohammadi, the jailed activist, was given the Nobel peace prize. Continue reading...
Telegraph bidder RedBird IMI in talks to buy UK's largest independent TV production groupThe Abu Dhabi-backed investment group that has struck a deal to buy the Telegraph is close to securing a 1bn-plus takeover of another prize UK media asset - All3Media, the TV production group behind shows including Call the Midwife, Squid Game: The Challenge, Gogglebox and Midsomer Murders.RedBird IMI, a joint-venture between the US company RedBird Capital and International Media Investments (IMI) of Abu Dhabi, the investment vehicle for the UAE vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, is understood to be in advanced negotiations to buy the UK's largest independent TV production group. Continue reading...
The nation's outdoorsy reputation may not be fully deserved, according to the AllTrails app study, with many too scared to go on walksAustralians' outdoorsy reputation may not be earned when it comes to survival skills, according to a new survey.Just one in three Australians know how to deal with getting lost, while two in three Australians entirely reconsider going on trail walks due to safety concerns, according to research commissioned by popular hiking app AllTrails. Continue reading...
Circles UK is one of a handful of organisations taking creative approaches to help tackle an escalating problemJames (not his real name) was in his early 20s and sinking into depression after the death of his father when he started to visit anonymous online chatrooms. There he formed a relationship he now recognises as really unhealthy" with a man who encouraged him to download indecent images of children.James describes his arrest - his first contact with the criminal justice system - as shocking. He had only the vaguest idea that this activity was illegal and understood it as victimless. I think very differently now," he says. Continue reading...
Consumers may be misled by green' claims on some essential household products, says watchdogUnilever, the maker of Marmite, Domestos and Vaseline, is to be investigated by the UK's competition watchdog over concerns that consumers are being misled by the company's green" claims on some essential household products.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Unilever may be overstating how green certain products are through the use of vague and broad" claims, unclear statements about recyclability, and natural-looking images and logos such as green leaves. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Report calls for new law on maximum indoor temperature to stop workers overheatingA maximum indoor temperature working law giving people a day off if workplace temperatures surpass 30C should be mandated by government, a new report recommends.The report by the Fabian Society thinktank highlights inequalities in who bears the brunt of the impacts of climate breakdown and puts responsibility on bosses and landlords to stop people from overheating. Continue reading...
by Australian Associated Press and Caitlin Cassidy on (#6H2PC)
Michael Yung, head of the Women's and Children's Hospital paediatric intensive care unit, has died in hospital after he was attacked in his Gilberton home
Singer who played for Nelson Mandela at his home had been hospitalised with physical pains', and previously suffered liver damage from alcoholismThe South African pop singer Zahara, whose soaring voice and strident ballads earned her multiple platinum-selling albums in her home country, has died aged 35.South Africa's sports, arts and culture minister, Zizi Kodwa, announced her death, saying: My deepest condolences to the Mkutukana family and the South African music industry. Government has been with the family for some time now. Zahara and her guitar made an incredible and lasting impact in South African music." Continue reading...
Defamation trial also played two secret recordings, including one in which Michaelia Cash tells Higgins we didn't know anything'The Project producer Angus Llewellyn has been cross-examined in the federal court about whether the program checked the credibility of what Brittany Higgins told them before her interview with Lisa Wilkinson was broadcast on Ten.Bruce Lehrmann brought the defamation case against Network Ten and Wilkinson over the interview, in which Higgins alleged she was raped by a Liberal staffer in Parliament House in March 2019. Network Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case. Continue reading...
At least 38 people, including a new mother, have died in the month after the earthquake struck, among 40,000 people living under tarpaulinAt least 38 people who survived an earthquake in Nepal have died after spending more than a month living in tents in freezing temperatures. Among the dead is a woman who gave birth two days after the earthquake struck the west of the country on 3 November.More than 40,000 people are now living under sheets of tarpaulin, according to the directorate of health for Karnali province. Continue reading...
500-year-old miniature acquired under acceptance in lieu scheme will go on display at Fitzwilliam Museum in CambridgeOne of the finest Italian Renaissance bronzes ever made, a miniature of an ancient Greek marble statue of Apollo, has been donated to the nation in lieu of a 10.5m inheritance tax bill.The Apollo Belvedere, created 500 years ago by Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico, will go on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, home to an outstanding collection of Renaissance and baroque bronzes. Continue reading...
Victory for former self-defense forces member Rina Gonoi after long battle for justice that challenged taboos in a male-dominated societyA Japanese court has found three former soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting a female colleague, in a victory for the victim's long battle for justice which challenged taboos in a traditional, male-dominated society.The case of 24-year-old former self-defence forces member Rina Gonoi, which has drawn international attention, relates to a 2021 incident during her time in the army when she alleges she was assaulted by three male colleagues. Continue reading...
by Amanda Meade with Australian Associated Press on (#6H2PD)
Recordings of Leon Zwier and others in Sydney bar reportedly revealed lawyer discussing how Higgins could respond to cross-examination. Zwier has denied coaching his client through her fiance
Number rose by almost 60% in a year to 49,691 stores, making China a global coffee industry powerhouse'The branded coffee chain craze may trace its roots to a single Starbucks in Seattle's Pike Place market in 1971, but now China has toppled the US as the country with the most branded coffee shops.The number of branded coffee shops in China increased by 58% over the past 12 months to a record 49,691 outlets, according to research by World Coffee Portal. That was more than 9,000 in excess of the 40,062 in the US, where the market grew by just 4%. The US had held the crown as the world's biggest coffee shop market for the entire 20-year history of the research. Continue reading...
Known by friends for his courage and monstrous stubbornness', Tusk will aim to deliver reform in the face of a divided electorate and a hostile presidentIt was the young Donald Tusk's habit, after watching or playing a game of football with friends, to make two toasts at the Pod Kasztanami bar in Gdask: the first to the fortunes of his club, Lechia Gdask, and the second to the end of komunizm" in Poland.Tusk, now 66, is unlikely to make the annual game of football that his close circle has been playing for the last 40 years, always at noon on New Year's Eve. But at the final whistle there is likely to be a tentative third toast offered - to Tusk's return as prime minister and the end of Poland's disastrous flirtation with a populism that has ploughed deep divisions in society, undermined democratic institutions and driven a wedge between Warsaw and the EU. Continue reading...
Many say Germany's historical responsibility for Nazi crimes makes it hard for people to criticise Gaza strategyLobna Shammout was initially only vaguely aware of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, because she had been celebrating her 40th birthday. The breaking news was crashing my phone, I thought please, not today'," the Palestinian-German said. When I finally checked ... each newsflash was worse than the one before."In the following weeks, as Israel launched an all-out assault on Gaza in retaliation for the attacks, which killed 1,200 people, Shammout has waited anxiously for news of her relatives and friends in Gaza. Some have been killed, among the estimated 15,000 Palestinians who the Hamas-run health ministry says have lost their lives. Continue reading...
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