World news | The Guardian

Socialist left ally of Daniel Andrews is seen as his successor, but battles for deputy leader are expected on Wednesday

Death toll from fuel depot explosion on Monday rises to 68 as ethnic Armenians raise concerns about reprisals from AzerbaijanAlmost a quarter of Nagorno-Karabakh's population have fled into Armenia since Azerbaijan launched an attack on the breakaway region last week, according to Armenia's government.Some 28,000 people - about 23% of the region's population - scrambled to flee as soon as Azerbaijan lifted a 10-month blockade on the region's only road to Armenia. That blockade had caused severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of Armenians, many residents feared reprisals. Continue reading...

Fire started after fireworks were lit during the celebration in Nineveh province, according to local mediaAt least 100 people have been killed and 150 people injured in a fire at a wedding celebration in the district of Hamdaniya in Iraq's Nineveh province, Iraqi state media have reported, with local sources saying the toll was expected to rise.The fire ripped through a large events hall in the north-eastern region after fireworks were lit during the celebration, state media said. Continue reading...

NSW chief health officer says scheme particularly popular in regional areas, where fewer GPs are often available

PwC Australia will also commit to publishing audited financial statements

Councils, police and hospitals endangering women by accidentally revealing details such as addresses, says ICOCouncils, police forces and hospitals are putting women's lives at risk by accidentally disclosing domestic abuse victims' addresses to perpetrators, the UK's information watchdog has said.John Edwards, the information commissioner, who has reprimanded seven organisations in just over a year for data breaches affecting victims of abuse, said: This is a pattern that must stop." Continue reading...

Researchers in Norway reveal further analysis of 2022 explosions as well as a detailed timeline of eventsScientists investigating the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines have revealed key new details of explosions linked to the event, which remains unsolved on its first anniversary.Researchers in Norway shared with the Guardian seismic evidence of the four explosions, becoming the first national body to publicly confirm the second two detonations, as well as revealing a detailed timeline of events. Continue reading...

In a trial that started Tuesday in Toronto five women accuse Nygard of similar sexual assaults and confinement over 25 yearsFashion mogul Peter Nygard used his power and status to lure five women separately into a private bedroom suite attached to his company headquarters where he sexually assaulted them, a court in Toronto has heard.In opening arguments on Tuesday, prosecutors said that Nygard, 82, met the women in social settings and invited them to the headquarters of his clothing empire in Toronto. All of the tours" ended in his bedroom suite. The room had a bed, televisions and a jacuzzi. Prosectors say the doors didn't have handles and the locks were controlled by Nygard. Continue reading...

Medical centres in Stepanakert at capacity after explosion, the cause of which remains unknownDozens of people are feared dead and hundreds more injured after a powerful explosion at a fuel storage depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as thousands of ethnic Armenians streamed out of the breakaway territory after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of it in a lightning offensive last week.Most of those wounded were in a severe or extremely severe" condition after the blast at the facility near the regional capital of Stepanakert on Monday evening, according to the Armenian health ministry. The death toll from the blast is expected to rise significantly, with more than 100 still listed as missing. Continue reading...

UNHCR takes unusual step of defending 1951 convention after UK home secretary's speech on uncontrolled and illegal migration'Suella Braverman has been rebuked by the United Nations' refugee agency after claiming that world leaders have failed to make wholesale reform of human rights laws because of fears of being branded racist or illiberal".The UNHCR on Tuesday issued a highly unusual statement defending the 1951 refugee convention and highlighting the UK's record asylum claim backlog. Continue reading...

Former Cop26 president announces he will not stand in Reading West seat he has held since 2010The former Cop26 president Sir Alok Sharma has announced he will not stand at the next general election.The Tory MP for Reading West since 2010 wrote on Twitter, now known as X: "I have this evening informed my local Conservative Association that I have decided not to stand at the next general election and therefore do not seek to be adopted as the Conservative candidate for the revised seat of Reading West & Mid Berkshire. This has not been an easy decision for me. Continue reading...

Gay rights groups laud fashion designer for speech in which she said minority voices' were under attackGay rights groups in Italy have praised Donatella Versace for speaking out against the government's anti-gay policies in a heartfelt and personal speech while receiving a fashion award.Our government is trying to take away people's rights to live as they wish," Versace said in a speech on Sunday night, citing in particular a government policy that allows only the biological parent in same-sex couples to be officially recognised as the parent. They are restricting our freedoms," she said. Continue reading...

NEC approves rule stipulating that only motions deemed contemporary' can be debated, it is understoodDebates sought by local Labour parties on issues like Brexit and electoral reform at the annual conference starting this weekend could be quashed by the leadership, after a series of rule changes passed on Tuesday.The national executive committee, Labour's governing body, voted on Tuesday to approve a series of rule changes, including one that requires motions for debate at the conference in Liverpool to be deemed contemporary", it is understood. Continue reading...

Anthony Rota steps down after meeting with party leaders in Ottawa having invited Yaroslav Hunka to special sessionThe speaker of Canada's parliament has resigned after inviting a Ukrainian Nazi veteran to attend a special session of parliament, and then calling the man a hero" amid two standing ovations.Anthony Rota stepped down as speaker on Tuesday after meeting with party leaders in Ottawa amid growing cross-party calls for his resignation. Continue reading...

Biden becomes the first visit US president to visit a union picket line in modern timesIn a major blow to Bob Menendez's support, Cory Booker, his fellow Democratic senator from New Jersey, says he should resign following his indictment on corruption charges last week.I believe stepping down is best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving," said Booker, who supported Menendez when he previously faced corruption charges in 2015. Continue reading...

Viktor Sokolov shown in footage released by defence ministry, day after Ukraine said he had been killed in missile strike

Exclusive: Questions mount over ties between Farhad Moshiri and tycoon, before he was put under sanctionsThe Everton Football Club owner, Farhad Moshiri, received more than 400m from Alisher Usmanov companies in the run-up to the Russian billionaire being placed under sanctions, documents suggest, raising fresh questions about the financial ties between the two men.Records seen by the Guardian appear to show that Moshiri borrowed 145m from a company wholly owned by the Russian-Uzbek tycoon from about 2020. Continue reading...

King's Lynn and West Norfolk officers urge refusal of planning permission to bury 97-year-old bridgeA second act of vandalism" by the government's roads agency on another historic railway bridge looks set to be reversed, following the intervention of council planning officers.King's Lynn and West Norfolk council planning committee is being urged by its officers to refuse retrospective planning permission next week for a 127,000 scheme in 2021 by National Highways (NH) to bury a 97-year-old bridge in concrete. Continue reading...

The mission-critical nature of air traffic control surely means that you have standby staff in place in case of sicknessIn the competitive field of infrastructure shambles, cancelled flights at Gatwick are an also-ran. All the same, the embarrassment factor ought to be acute. How can a shortage of staff in the air traffic controllers - we are talking about as few as 10 individuals off sick - mean the UK's second largest airport has to ground 164 flights this week? Where is the slack in the system? Where is the backup?The superficial explanation from Nats, the company running the control tower at the West Sussex airport, is easy enough to follow. With 30% of tower staff unavailable for a variety of medical reasons including Covid, we cannot manage the number of flights that were originally planned for this week," it says. Thus capacity will be capped this week at 800 arrivals or departures a day. Continue reading...

Baku has drawn the ire of the EU and US after years of promoting itself as a reliable security partner and vital transport hubAs the dramatic images emerge of thousands of Karabakh Armenians forced away from their homes in a mass exodus, some in the west are beginning to rethink their relationship with Azerbaijan.Through a mixture of skilled diplomacy and lobbying, the resource-rich country has for years promoted itself in the UK and EU as a reliable security partner and vital transport hub. Continue reading...

Superannuation and property investment fuels growing inequality, with the richest fifth worth an average of $3.2m

Compassion just dissipates' among public when young victims of abuse become offenders, expert says

Christopher Saunders, who denies grooming young boys, criticised the Catholic church's response to child sexual abuse allegations at a royal commission in 2017

Exclusive: Johns, who is facing calls to resign, also described the National Indigenous Australians Agency as a shadow government'

Streamlined party under Ed Davey will concentrate its finite resources on a number of key, mainly Tory, constituencies at the next election

Lib Dem leader closes party conference with speech reinforcing party's focus on the NHS

There have been several recent incidents in the US in which people have been shot after approaching the wrong residenceEarly on Monday, an off-duty Texas highway patrol officer thought someone was trying to break into his apartment in Houston, according to authorities. He pulled his gun out, shot the person behind his shuttered door - and realized it was his neighbor, officials said.The latest case of an off-duty law enforcement officer encountering and shooting a member of the public took place after midnight at an apartment complex just outside Minute Maid Park, where Houston's professional baseball team, the Astros, plays. Continue reading...

Fewer than half of companies meeting their targets on leaks, says the regulator, OfwatWater companies in England and Wales have been ordered to return 114m to customers through lower bills next year because progress on leakage and sewage spills has been too slow".In its annual water company performance report, the regulator, Ofwat, said the majority of water and wastewater companies were underperforming on targets set for 2020-25 to deliver better outcomes, for customers and the environment. Continue reading...

Despite Feijoo's party winning July's snap poll, his rival Pedro Sanchez remains best placed to form a government

Labour says veterans minister inferred he did not receive money

Coogan will follow in Peter Sellers' footsteps to play multiple roles in stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 satirical war filmSteve Coogan is to star in Armando Iannucci's stage adaptation of the satirical war film Dr Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.The play, set to open in London next autumn, reunites the pair who worked together more than 30 years ago on the BBC radio comedy On the Hour, in which Coogan played Alan Partridge, and on subsequent Partridge projects. Continue reading...

Russia again strikes at Ukraine's port and grain infrastructure; border crossing with Romania closed following drone attack

Labor colleagues hail Andrews as a giant' who was tested by some of the toughest times', as opposition says he resigned due to things falling apart'. Follow the day's news live

UK home secretary in US to call for rewriting of UN asylum rules so they are fit for the modern age'A Labour MP has urged LGBTQ+ Conservatives to condemn Suella Braverman's speech, in which she will say that Britain should not grant asylum to people who are simply fearful of persecution for being gay.Ben Bradshaw, a former minister, made the call before a speech the home secretary is due to make in the US where she will make her case for the rewriting of key international refugee rules so they are fit for the modern age". Continue reading...

Operation Dudula changes tactics from evictions and violence, with plans to fight elections on platform of expelling foreignersAn anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year's general elections.Operation Dudula, whose name means to force out" in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported. Continue reading...

Advisers of detained Mohamed Bazoum say French withdrawal removes coup leaders' pretext for power grabAides and supporters of Niger's deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, have welcomed the decision of France to withdraw its diplomatic staff and military from the country, saying it will deny the military junta a scapegoat" to disguise its failings.Bazoum, a French ally whose election in 2021 had boosted hopes of stability in the unstable Sahel state, was detained on 26 July by members of his guard. Senior soldiers took power in the unstable Sahel state shortly afterwards. Continue reading...

Revelation comes days after prime minister Justin Trudeau blamed the assassination of the Sikh activist on the Indian governmentThe FBI warned at least three Americans active in the Sikh community that their lives were in danger in the immediate aftermath of the murder of a Sikh activist in Canada last June.Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has blamed the apparent assassination on the Indian government, as assessment that has reportedly been backed by Canadian and US intelligence sources and has created a rupture in Ottawa's relationship with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's government. Continue reading...

Trade bodies join political figures in backing policy of alignment with standards and regulations' with blocSenior business leaders and trade bodies have backed Keir Starmer's comments that Britain should not part from the European Union on standards ranging from the environment to employment.The Labour leader has come under fire from the Conservatives, who accused him of wanting to unpick" Brexit after saying that most of the conflict" since 2016 had arisen because the UK wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners". Continue reading...

Other sites to be restored include Cardiff's Victorian market, Lowestoft town hall and a lochside churchA 19th-century thatched ice house that was an important staging post for fish between the sea and the nation's stomachs is to be transformed into a circus training centre.The quayside Grade II-listed Great Yarmouth Ice House, built as one of a pair between 1851 and 1892, was a key asset in the town's once-thriving fishing industry. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Police and charities warn of rise in harmful sexual behaviour among young peopleChild abuse experts and police are warning that access to increasingly extreme pornography is driving a rise in harmful sexual behaviour among young people, from sexting to watching online child abuse.One charity that works to prevent child sexual abuse said there had been a 30% increase in under-18s contacting them, and a 26% rise in adults contacting them because they were concerned about the behaviour of a young person. Continue reading...

Historian says ignorance and indifference between UK nations could pose biggest threat to future of unionSchools in the UK need to teach the history of all four nations, the historian David Olusoga has said, warning that ambivalence and indifference risk pulling apart the union.The fact that A-level pupils in England do not learn much about the history of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and vice versa means that Britons struggle to understand key contemporary political issues in the other nations, for example the Scottish independence movement or sectarianism in Northern Ireland, Olusoga said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Roberta Metsola warns pushing the can down the road' will fuel nationalism and the far rightThe European Union must begin a major wave of change to prepare for the arrival of Ukraine as a member state, the leader of its parliament has said, with nothing off the table", including removing trade tariffs and giving Kyiv access to internal markets before full membership.Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Roberta Metsola, an MEP from Malta who became the European parliament's youngest ever president last year, said she expected member states to begin formal negotiations with Ukraine as soon as December. Continue reading...

Exclusive: BCG relied on verbal agreements' with senior bureaucrats to secure extra $880,000, according to emails attached to a submission to Senate inquiry

Metropolitan police firearms officers have downed their weapons in protest at the charging of a colleague with murder. Vikram Dodd reports on what happens nowLast September, a Metropolitan police operation led to the killing of Chris Kaba, an unarmed 24-year-old man, by a firearms officer in south-east London. Last week, the officer identified only as NX121 was charged with murder.The Guardian's crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd, tells Michael Safi that the decision to prosecute a colleague for murder has led to dozens of officers putting down their weapons and asking for clarity about their duties. Continue reading...

Adam Robert Corden Britton, 51, tortured and sexually exploited more than 42 dogs and also transmitted child abuse material before his arrest in April 2022Warning: this story contains graphic content

The 78-year-old, the show's oldest ever contestant, demonstrated advanced moves in the cha-cha-chaWhether you can do the splits is a favoured test of flexibility in the playground, but it's generally assumed that most people over 40 can't. So when 78-year-old Angela Rippon kicked her leg into a standing split on Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing, she caused a stir among viewers.Rippon is the show's oldest ever contestant, yet experts say her move is difficult for most younger people and highly unusual for someone her age, as the body stiffens with age, while balance and muscle strength decline. Continue reading...

The stricken authority now set to receive a revised emergency budget after Michael Gove was forced to call in commissionersBirmingham city council has voted to approve spending control measures, as well as endorsing a financial recovery plan" that is already under way.The council debated the plan to tackle an estimated 760m equal pay liability before giving the go-ahead for the section 114 notice it issued earlier this month. The notice in effect declared the authority bankrupt and it is now expected to receive a revised emergency budget at another meeting late next month. Continue reading...

The Scottish-born actor was most famous for his stint in the 60s spy TV series, and most recently for his work on NCISActor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series The Man from UNCLE in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular television show NCIS 40 years later, has died. He was 90.McCallum died on Monday of natural causes, surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS said in a statement. Continue reading...

Overwhelming conference vote defies Ed Davey strategy of reshaping policy to court wavering Tory votersLiberal Democrat members have handed a very public rebuke to Ed Davey before his key speech to the party conference, rebelling in large numbers over a plan by the leadership to scrap national targets for housebuilding.In a first tangible sign of internal pushback against the Davey-led idea of shaping the Lib Dems' policy platform to tempt wavering Conservative voters to backing the party in so-called blue wall" seats, members voted to maintain a target of 380,000 homes a year. Continue reading...

Home secretary's address in Washington will urge reform of UN convention and has already prompted concern from charitiesSuella Braverman will appeal on Tuesday to world leaders and political thinkers to consider rewriting key refugee rules so they are fit for the modern age".In a move to alter an agreement that undermined UK plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the home secretary will argue that the United Nations 1951 refugee convention must be reformed to tackle a worldwide migration crisis. Continue reading...