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Government changes parliamentary schedule on Wednesday morning in surprise move to bring debate on federal budget tax cuts immediately

News of protests has been preserve of a few newspapers and channels outside well funded pro-government networksAt the same time as the sound of clanging pots and pans rang out through the streets of opposition strongholds in Istanbul on a recent evening, marking another mass anti-government demonstration, a different reality was being broadcast to viewers of Turkish pro-government channels.Public television showed the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, speaking to a gilded conference room after an iftar dinner. He boasted of his government's achievements, of hiring new teachers and attracting youth to an aerospace and technology conference. Continue reading...

Award-winning film set in fictional town has already made its debut at Cannes but censors have refused to approve it for domestic releaseIndian film censors have blocked the release of critically acclaimed film Santosh over concerns about its portrayal of misogyny, Islamophobia and violence in the Indian police force.Santosh, written and directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, is set in north India and has won international plaudits for its portrayal of a young widow who joins the police force and investigates the murder of a young Dalit girl. Continue reading...

A 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple is among buildings destroyed after dry and windy weather saw mostly contained blazes spread againWind-driven wildfires that were among South Korea's worst ever are ravaging southern regions, killing 18 people, destroying more than 200 structures and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate, officials said on Wednesday.Han Duck-soo, South Korea's prime minister and acting president, said five days of fires had caused unprecedented damage" and asked agencies tackling the disaster to assume the worst-case scenario and respond accordingly", according to Yonhap news agency. Continue reading...

Monash University has indefinitely postponed' upcoming exhibition at Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne, after consultation with our communities'

CPI figures have economists predicting one to three RBA cash rate cuts in 2025 - the question is whether one will occur before federal election

Pet escaped from her pen when her owners were holidaying on Kangaroo Island, which is famous for its native wildlife

Ted Hui received letter offering reward for information about his family after China accused Australia of interfering with its internal affairs

Kremlin stipulates maritime ceasefire will start only if it gets sanctions relief on agricultural exportsRussia and Ukraine have agreed to eliminate the use of force" in the Black Sea after parallel talks with US negotiators in Saudi Arabia, though the Kremlin said a maritime ceasefire would start only if it received sanctions relief on agricultural exports.Donald Trump said that the US was reviewing the Russian conditions after the Kremlin insisted it had negotiated concessions with the White House that would mark the first major recision of sanctions since the full-scale invasion of 2022. Continue reading...

Duke of Sussex and co-founder of Sentebale step down as patrons amid infighting in the organisationThe Duke of Sussex has resigned from an African charity he set up 20 years ago after infighting in the organisation, saying he is in shock" and truly heartbroken".Prince Harry and the co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho both stepped down as patrons on Tuesday until further notice after trustees quit over a dispute with the chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, a lawyer who was appointed in 2023. Continue reading...

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says hard strategic decisions' need to be made

Chancellor risks wrath of Labour backbenchers with spring statement set to confirm deeper cutsRachel Reeves will make additional welfare cuts in her spring statement on Wednesday after the Office for Budget Responsibility rejected her estimate of savings from the changes announced last week.The chancellor hoped to shift the focus from the benefits cuts, which appalled some Labour backbenchers, to promising to secure Britain's future" with a 2.2bn increase to defence spending. Continue reading...

Demonstrators shout Hamas out' and carry banners saying we want to live in peace'Hundreds of Palestinians have joined protests in northern Gaza, shouting anti-Hamas slogans and calling for an end to the war with Israel, in what has been described as the largest protest against the militant group inside the territory since the 7 October attacks.Videos and photos shared on social media late on Tuesday showed hundreds of people, mostly men, chanting Hamas out" and Hamas terrorists" in Beit Lahia, where the crowd had gathered a week after the Israeli army resumed its intense bombing of Gaza after nearly two months of a truce. Continue reading...

Timeline for implementation in England and Wales likely to be pushed back a further two years, meaning it may coincide with general electionThe introduction of assisted dying in England and Wales is likely to be pushed back by a further two years in a delay that supportive MPs fear could mean the change of law is never realised.The deferral was proposed by Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP piloting the assisted dying bill through parliament. It means the initial timeline of two years for implementing the law will now stretch to four. Continue reading...

Pledge comes after Labour MPs were whipped to remove legal protections from Great British Energy billMinisters have vowed to tackle forced labour in supply chains to mollify MPs after asking them to remove legal protections from the Great British Energy bill.Labour MPs were whipped on Tuesday night to strip out an amendment intended to ensure that companies using forced labour do not drive the UK's green energy transition. Continue reading...

White House says both sides agree to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes'A former head of Dutch cybersecurity has expressed his surprise at Donald Trump's top team's use of Signal for classified communications that revealed visceral anti-European messaging".Bart Groothuis, an MEP for the Dutch liberal VVD party, who used to run the cybersecurity bureau at the Dutch ministry of defence, said he was a bit surprised" at the US government's use of a commercial app for highly classified conversations. Continue reading...

Report on former Reform UK MP details unacceptable remarks' and criticism meted out unpleasantly and harshly'Two women who worked for Rupert Lowe, the former Reform UK MP who was suspended from the party earlier this month, gave credible" evidence of bullying or harassment by him and his team, according to a report from a KC hired by the party.The report also disputed Lowe's statement that the women had only made complaints after they faced internal disciplinary proceedings against them, saying the timeline of events showed this was incorrect". Continue reading...

Destruction of statue by RAF engineers described as the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for'Great-aunt Lucy asked Britons to please look after" Paddington Bear when he arrived on UK shores. Perhaps she was thinking of the risks of him running into two RAF engineers out on a bender in Hampshire.Fortunately, Paddington's aunt didn't have to watch the CCTV footage shown to Reading magistrates court on Tuesday of Daniel Heath and William Lawrence tearing apart a newly installed statue of her nephew - before absconding with the severed half. Continue reading...

Spider-Man's Amy Pascal and Harry Potter's David Heyman will helm the tech company's first official 007 adventureAfter rumours circulated online, Amazon has now confirmed that Amy Pascal and David Heyman will steer the next James Bond adventure.The news comes after longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson gave creative control to the tech company in a deal that is reported to have cost around $1bn. Continue reading...

Former footballer found guilty of offence at family home in south-west London in June 2021The former footballer Joey Barton has been handed a 12-week suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of assaulting his wife at their family home in south-west London in June 2021.The 42-year-old pushed Georgia Barton to the floor before kicking her in the head during a drunken row at their family home which left her with a lump on her forehead and a bleeding nose, a court previously heard. Continue reading...

Experts hope the use of the headphones for mild to moderate hearing loss will reduce stigma and persuade people to test their hearing

Increase in pay package comes despite fall in profits and as oil company waters down pledge to cut emissionsThe oil company Shell has revealed plans to hand bigger payouts to its chief executive and shareholders - by pumping more oil and gas and halving its green spending.Europe's largest oil and gas producer will hand its chief executive, Wael Sawan, a package worth 8.6m for last year, from 7.9m in 2023. The pay hike, labelled obscene" by green campaigners, was awarded after Sawan scrapped Shell's green targets in favour of a renewed focus on fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Political activist accused of sharing a compromising picture of Narinder Kaur on social media without her consentThe actor and political activist Laurence Fox has been charged with a sexual offence after allegedly sharing a compromising photograph of the TV presenter Narinder Kaur on social media without her consent.The 46-year-old is said to have shared the image of the broadcaster, who appears on ITV's Good Morning Britain and previously on GB News, in a tweet posted in April 2024. Continue reading...

Plane was over Pacific Ocean when pilot realized he didn't have his document and headed back to switch out crewPassengers heading to China aboard a recent United Airlines flight faced an unexpected travel headache after a pilot's forgotten passport prompted their return to the United States.Flight UA198 from Los Angeles to Shanghai was over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday afternoon when it made a U-turn and headed to San Francisco, tracking data showed. Continue reading...

Matthew Pennycook makes apparent dig at chancellor's concert freebie but adds it is decision for individual MPs'

Actor denies assault and says any crude comments he made on film set were due to his bad moodThe French actor Gerard Depardieu has admitted in court that he grabbed the hips of a woman who has accused him of sexual assault, but said it was to avoid slipping and was not a sexual attack.I grabbed her hips," the actor, 76, told his trial for sexual assault at Paris's criminal court on Tuesday. The head judge noted that this was a change from his testimony during police interrogation when he had denied that any physical contact had taken place with the 54-year-old set decorator. Continue reading...

Ballal released after spending night on floor of military base after he was detained following attack by Jewish settlers in West BankAt least 50,144 Palestinian people have been killed and 113,704 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.Gaza's health ministry has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory. Continue reading...

National Crime Agency says such groups are fuelling crimes including fraud, violence and child sexual abuse

Luigi Mangione's lawyers want computer for him to review case materials in deadly shooting of Brian ThompsonThe accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is asking for a laptop in jail, but just for legal purposes - not for communicating with anyone - as he awaits trial.In a court filing made public late Monday, Luigi Mangione's lawyers proposed that he get a laptop configured solely to let him view a vast amount of documents, video and other material in the case surrounding Thompson's deadly shooting on 4 December. Similar limited-laptop provisions have been made for some other defendants in the federal lockup where Mangione is being held. Continue reading...

Daniela Klette, the last female member at large of the 70s terror network, had been living quietly in BerlinA former member of the Red Army Faction has gone on trial in Germany for robberies she allegedly committed during three decades hiding in broad daylight.Daniela Klette, the last female member of the far-left terror network still on the run before her arrest, appeared before a court in the north-central city of Celle on Tuesday charged with 14 criminal offences including armed robbery and attempted murder. Continue reading...

Exhibition opens this week in Taunton Castle, where mass death sentences were infamously issued during Bloody AssizesA fresh look at an ill-fated 17th-century uprising that haunts the English West Country - and may hold lessons for the world today - is taking place close to the spot where many of the rebels were condemned to death.An exhibition at the Museum of Somerset tells the story of the Monmouth Rebellion, which ended with defeat for the rebels who fought alongside the charismatic Duke of Monmouth, with many condemned to death at the notorious Bloody Assizes led by George Jeffreys, the Lord Chancellor. Continue reading...

The One Day actor will star in Sophia Chetin-Leuner's Porn Play, one of four new premieres announced by the London theatreAmbika Mod is to star as an academic addicted to violent pornography in a new play at the Royal Court in London. Mod, best known for her screen performances in One Day and This Is Going to Hurt, will take on her highest profile theatre role to date in Porn Play, written by Sophia Chetin-Leuner and directed by Josie Rourke.Billed as funny, unsettling and honest", it opens in November at the Royal Court's smaller Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Chetin-Leuner, whose play This Might Not Be It was set in a mental health unit and staged at the Bush last year, said: Ever since I was a teenager, going to see plays at the Royal Court has shaped my ideals and purpose of who I want to be as a writer - so it's a terrifying privilege to have Porn Play debuting here." The play was shortlisted for Soho theatre's Verity Bargate award in 2022. Chetin-Leuner said she began writing it to explore the effects of pornography on women but that it has evolved into something much more delicate and intricate over the years". Continue reading...

Home Office removes Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL) and Napier Barracks in Folkestone, KentA company managing hotel accommodation for thousands of asylum seekers has been axed by the Home Office due to performance concerns and replaced by the firm that ran the Bibby Stockholm barge. As a result the 51 hotels it runs will close.In a late night statement the Home Office said it had removed Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL), which manages 51 hotels across England and Wales and Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, from government asylum operations. Continue reading...

Academic who died in 1987 is thought to be responsible for documents that vanished over a 30-year periodScotland's national archive has traced the mysterious disappearance of more than 3,000 historical documents over a period of 30 years to a history professor with an all-consuming interest in stamps.The theft began to unravel when a National Records of Scotland archivist attended an auction in London in 1994. There, he discovered that 200 of the items for sale belonged to the archive, some still marked with their NRS reference numbers. Continue reading...

What the treasurer said - and what we can read between the lines of the budget night speech

Assassination of former Japanese prime minister in 2022 spurred official request for South Korean-based sect to be closedA court in Japan has ordered the Unification Church to be dissolved after a government request that was spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe.The church, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the Moonies" after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon, is accused of pressuring followers into making life-ruining donations, and blamed for child neglect among its members, although it has denied any wrongdoing. Continue reading...

MPs likely to be whipped against move to add protections, as government says it is already taking action on risk of forced labourMinisters have been accused of turning a blind eye to slavery" by ordering Labour MPs to remove legal protections to stop money being spent by state-owned Great British Energy on solar panels manufactured by forced labour in China.The protections were added to the government bill in the House of Lords via an amendment from the cross-bench peer David Alton, which said the new body must not spend money on solar or other materials where supply chains had credible evidence of modern slavery". Continue reading...

Environment minister defends balanced and sensible' changes amid questions of how rushed legislation' would work

Fotis Frank Antonios facing 21 charges, including inciting individuals into making fraudulent claims of historical child sexual assault

In today's newsletter: With elbows up on both sides, two very different political operators - Mark Carney and the Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre - attempt to fend off threats from the southGood morning. When Justin Trudeau announced he would be resigning as Canada's prime minister in January, he did so amid surging support for the Conservative opposition and a sense that its Trump-adjacent leader, Pierre Poilievre, might be the right candidate for a new political era. The Liberals' near-decade in power appeared to be close to an end.Now, Trudeau's successor, the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, has called a snap general election against a dramatically different political backdrop. With Donald Trump's tariff war and musings about Canada's future as a 51st state the inescapable mood music, many voters who had given up on the Liberals appear ready to give them another hearing - and Poilievre is trying to distance himself from the president whose methods he was once so happy to adopt.Trump administration | A catastrophic security leak triggered outrage in US politics after senior Trump administration officials accidentally broadcast highly sensitive military plans through a Signal group chat with a journalist reading along. The stunning breach implicates key figures in the Trump administration including the vice-president, JD Vance.Domestic violence | Domestic abusers are driving their victims to suicide, police have warned, as they admitted to past mistakes and pledged to investigate more hidden" cases of violence against women. The concession came as deaths by suicide among victims of domestic abuse surpassed the number of people killed by an intimate partner for a second year in a row.UK economy | Rachel Reeves will put 2bn into affordable housing in a bid to sweeten the pill" of the spending cuts being announced at this week's spring statement. The chancellor will set out one of the tightest budget buffers on record, with the Office for Budget Responsibility expected to put the government about 5bn in the red.Turkey | Turkish authorities have arrested more than 1,100 people including journalists, while bombarding the social media platform X with requests to block hundreds of accounts after tens of thousands took to the streets in the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.Archaeology | One of the biggest and most important iron age hoards ever found in the UK has been revealed, potentially altering our understanding of life in Britain 2,000 years ago. More than 800 objects were unearthed in a field near the village of Melsonby, North Yorkshire dating back to the first century. Continue reading...

Opposition leader calls for discipline in the ranks after destabilising leaks led to critical headlines, multiple insiders say

Flood waters are expected to take weeks to flow into Lake Eyre and north-east South Australia after widespread wet weather

Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest serving death row prisoner, had been wrongly convicted of a quadruple murderA Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world's longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded $1.4m in compensation, an official has said.The payout represents 12,500 yen ($83) for each day of the 46 years that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. Continue reading...

Other questions include whether science organisation receives funding from China and whether it is a climate or environmental justice' project

Body of 79-year-old woman Cecilia Yoke Webb discovered with fatal stab wounds at home in Brisbane's north-west

Historic Gabba stadium to be demolished and replaced by residential development, with new $3.8bn stadium at Victoria Park to host Olympics, AFL and cricket

Report finds that 98 domestic abuse victims in England and Wales died by suspected suicide in 2023-2024

Chancellor will announce plans to fund 18,000 social homes before fraught spring statement on WednesdayRachel Reeves will plough 2bn into affordable housing in a bid to sweeten the pill" of the spending cuts being announced at this week's spring statement.The chancellor made the surprise announcement of the new cash - a down payment on the June spending review - as the Treasury bids to demonstrate that it remains focused on investment, rather than cuts. It will fund 18,000 affordable and social homes, part of the target to build 1.5m homes over the course of the parliament. Continue reading...