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Japanese car firms embark on negotiations to combat competition from bigger EV manufacturersJapanese carmakers Honda and Nissan will begin negotiations over a potential merger, according to reports.The Nikkei financial newspaper said on Tuesday that the two Japanese companies would start talks to help combat the increased global competition from bigger electric vehicle makers. Continue reading...

Secretary of department took leave in October after being questioned about whether he played a role in the retirement of Cate Saunders, which he denies

The economy's rebound won't be as strong as anticipated and more government rebates seem to be pencilled for the coming year

Possums are thought to be the main carriers of the ulcer-causing bacteria that has emerged in Batemans Bay after surging in Victoria

MCA to charge $20 entry fee from 31 January, which will rise to $35 if visitors want to see its major summer or winter exhibitions

Budget downgrade blamed on Australian economy being hit harder than anticipated by higher interest rates, cost of living pressures and global uncertainty

All ranks' among casualties in Kursk after Pyongyang sent thousands of soldiers to reinforce Russia's war effortNorth Korean forces have suffered several hundred" casualties fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region, according to a senior US military official.Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia's war effort, including to the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year. Continue reading...

Minister calls bill demanding digital platforms publicly correct false information good news for democracy'Spain's leftwing government has announced a bill extending a requirement to publish corrections to posts by digital platforms and social media influencers in an attempt to fight disinformation.The explosion of social media in recent years has allowed new actors to reach larger audiences but raised concerns about a lack of regulation and the spread of fake news. Continue reading...

Chrystia Freeland's exit as deputy prime minister shows how America First' policies can decimate political tiesJustin Trudeau's political future has been thrown into doubt by the shock resignation of his own deputy, as Canada's prime minister faces plummeting popularity and growing fears over a second Donald Trump presidency.The sudden exit of Chrystia Freeland - the deputy prime minister and minister of finance - unleashed a political earthquake in Ottawa, prompting politicians both outside and in Trudeau's own party to call for him to stand down. Continue reading...

Avanti says it is assessing how much impact strikes will have but spokesperson says disruption will be significant'Workers on Avanti West Coast will go on strike on New Year's Eve after rejecting a deal designed to resolve an ongoing dispute over rest day working.

Minister hope plan will deter young people from extremism amid rise in arrests of under-18s for offencesYoung terrorism suspects could avoid prosecution if they agree to a diversion scheme, in a new government plan to cope with the post-lockdown surge in youngsters drawn to violent extremism.The youth diversion orders are part of a host of changes announced by the Labour government, including a new tsar to ensure Prevent - the official scheme to deter people from terrorism - is as effective as it needs to be. Ministers claimed they were providing new money to fight terrorism. Continue reading...

Passenger numbers on the UK's first autonomous buses - a 6m venture over the Firth of Forth - did not meet expectations'The UK's first driverless bus service, originally heralded as a breakthrough of global significance, is being withdrawn from service because too few passengers used it.The autonomous buses, operated by Stagecoach, have been running between Fife and Edinburgh along a 14-mile route over the Forth road bridge since May 2023 to relieve the heavy congestion which can bring traffic to a standstill. Continue reading...

Momeni, 40-year-old tech consultant, found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2023 stabbing of Lee, 43A San Francisco jury on Tuesday found a tech consultant guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of the Cash App founder, Bob Lee, which carries a sentence of 16 years to life.Nima Momeni was charged with murder in the first degree, but jurors found him guilty of murder in the second degree. Momeni, 40, has been in custody since his arrest in April 2023. Continue reading...

Projected bill includes price of building HS2 station at Euston, with a budget of about 5bnThe bill for building the HS2 high-speed railway could pass 80bn at current prices, as estimated costs jumped by 15% since the last parliamentary report just over a year ago.An update expected imminently from ministers will put the budget at building the line from London to Birmingham at between 54bn and 66bn, quoting figures supplied to the Department for Transportby HS2 Ltd. Continue reading...

Impact of Storm Darragh has shut route between Wales and Ireland, with up to 150,000 passengers affectedHolyhead port in Wales, battered by Storm Darragh 10 days ago, is to remain closed until mid-January at the earliest, in a major blow for 150,000 passengers in Britain trying to get to Ireland for Christmas.The port in the north-west of Wales is the second biggest roll-on roll-off ferry in the UK after Dover, and the continued closure is likely to have a major impact on deliveries of cheese, beef and stout. Continue reading...

Reform treasurer also joins talks at Donald Trump's home as far-right party says we can do great things together'Elon Musk has met Nigel Farage and Nick Candy, Reform UK's new treasurer, at Donald Trump's home, Mar-a-Largo, reviving speculation the billionaire could fund the hard-right party.After the meeting on Monday, Reform released photos of Musk sitting with Farage and Candy, and standing with them beneath a portrait of a young Trump at the US president-elect's Florida home. Continue reading...

Architect Rex Heuermann charged in death of Valerie Mack, who was last seen in 2000The alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer previously charged in the deaths of six women on New York's Long Island was charged on Tuesday with the murder of a seventh alleged victim.Valerie Mack, 24, is the latest murder victim linked to Rex Heuermann. Continue reading...

Farage and Reform UK treasurer met Musk at Donald Trump's Florida home, party saysJonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has announced that the scope of the compensation programme for victims of the Post Office scandal will be extended to cover earlier potential victims.The government already has four schemes in place offering compensation to post officer operators who suffered because faulty Horizon IT software led to them being wrongly blamed for missing money. More than 900 people were prosecuted, more than 100 were jailed, but many more lost out because they were forced to repay money they were accused of losing or stealing, and/or because they lost their jobs.A significant amount of time has also passed, and we recognise that this means that timescales are far greater, and the population of postmasters that used Capture will be more advanced in age, or a greater proportion of the population may have unfortunately died. We also recognise that the passage of time means that evidence of shortfalls and consequential losses, and evidence relating to suspensions, termination, prosecution, or convictions, will be far more difficult to find. It will therefore be difficult for claimants to corroborate their claims with contemporary evidence. Postmasters, the Post Office, or the UK government may not have enough evidence, and we may never find enough evidence to determine liability to the level that would be expected by the courts.It is thanks to testimony of postmasters that this has been brought to light and failings have been discovered.We must now work quickly to provide redress and justice to those who have suffered greatly after being wrongly accused.We are considering the right form of redress for victims who have suffered.This is a challenging exercise given the passage of time and the significant lack of records and evidence.Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said that those whose brothers or sisters were infected with potentially deadly viruses while receiving care should be fairly compensated.He also announced in a written ministerial statement that the government accepts in full or accepts in principle" all of the 12 recommendations made as part of the Infected Blood Inquiry. Continue reading...

Geir Pedersen warns of intense clashes between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in the northFrance has raised its flag over its embassy in Damascus, Syria, after it had been closed for 12 years during the country's civil war, the foreign ministry said.France sent a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to assess the political and security situation. The team will not be staying, however, and the gesture does not mean the embassy has reopened, according to reports. Continue reading...

Survey finds voters think Trump will be an effective president, but don't believe his administration will share accurate informationDonald Trump won a second White House term in November's election thanks to voters' attaching higher priority to having an effective president than one who was trustworthy, fresh polling has suggested.A post-election survey conducted by Scheon Cooperman Research, in conjunction with George Washington University's graduate school of political management, has concluded that voters believe Trump's second presidency will be more effective in getting things done - even though they trust his administration less to share accurate information. And Trump not only failed to deliver on some of his more prominent campaign promises during his first term from 2017 to 2021, including a southern US border wall for which Mexico would pay - he also botched the federal response to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

John Jacob Hasenbein was found guilty in court-martial over treatment of civilian role player, but a mistrial was later declaredPete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for US defense secretary, has been accompanied by a security guard with a history of alleged military misconduct.John Jacob Hasenbein, a former army special forces MSgt who deployed to Iraq eight times, was found guilty of aggravated assault in a 2020 court-martial stemming from a 2019 incident at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the New York Times reports. The incident involved the violent treatment of Ahmed Altameemi, a civilian role player in a simulated hostage rescue training scenario. Continue reading...

Minister says flat-rate compensation scheme for women affected by rising state pension age would have cost taxpayer 10.5bn,Waspi women" affected by the rising state pension age will not get compensation, the government has announced, with the prime minister arguing it would be wrong to burden the taxpayer.Keir Starmer was asked about the issue in Estonia, after the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, told MPs she was rejecting the parliamentary and health service ombudsman's recommendation for compensation to be paid. Continue reading...

Urfan Sharif, 43, and Beinash Batool, 30, sentenced for killing 10-year-old who was found dead in Surrey homeSara Sharif's mother called her daughter's murderers sadists and executioners" as they were jailed for life.Olga Domin joined the Old Bailey hearing remotely as Urfan Sharif, 43, and Beinash Batool, 30, were sentenced for killing the schoolgirl. Continue reading...

Police found 35 category A images on devices belonging to Jac Davies, 25A man who received child abuse images from the same paedophile who supplied them to Huw Edwards has been given a suspended sentence after arguing he should get the same treatment as the BBC presenter.Jac Davies, 25, was given a sentence of 12 months, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to possession of class A drugs and possession of indecent images of children, sent to him by Alex Williams, who sent similar images to Edwards. Continue reading...

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed outside an apartment after a device inside a scooter detonatedRussia is boosting its ballistic arsenal with new strategic missile systems, plans maximum-range launches and may increase testing in response to growing external threats, a senior Russian military commander said on Monday.In a clear warning that Russia will respond if it deems its security is threatened, Sergei Karakayev, the commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, said the country plans maximum-range test launches as part of testing new systems, Reuters reported. Continue reading...

Attack in Moscow was Ukrainian security service's most audacious operation yet as it pursues enemy commanders

Authorities impose night-time curfew to prevent looting as dozens reported killed across Mozambique and MalawiThe search for missing people has continued on the French territory of Mayotte, after Cyclone Chido devastated the islands on Saturday before sweeping through south-eastern Africa, where the death toll is climbing in Mozambique and Malawi.Large parts of Mayotte's main island, Grande-Terre, are still cut off from roads, internet and phone networks, as well as electricity and water. Continue reading...

James Watt's investment in I'm a Celebrity winner Georgia Toffolo's raw dog food venture needs three years as unconnected person' under HMRC rulesJames Watt, the multimillionaire co-founder of punk" brewer BrewDog, has said he is considering delaying his marriage to reality TV star girlfriend Georgia Toffolo for three years, to avoid missing out on tax relief for investing in her raw dog food business.The controversial entrepreneur - who built his brewing empire on a reputation for challenging the ethics of big business - has delivered his second anti-tax message in two months. Continue reading...

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa says fighters will all be subject to the law' as he emphasises need for unity in post-war SyriaSyria's rebel factions will be disbanded", the head of the group that led the ousting of Bashar al-Assad has pledged, as he seeks to reassure minorities at home and abroad that the country's interim leaders will protect all Syrians, as well as state institutions.Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that toppled Syrian president Assad, said all rebel factions would be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry" during a meeting with members of the minority Druze community. Continue reading...

Former CEO's legal team tells inquiry to treat evidence cautiously, saying Jo Swinson sought to point the finger'Paula Vennells' legal team has told the Horizon IT inquiry to treat the evidence of some witnesses cautiously", arguing a desire for self-preservation" meant they were trying to scapegoat the former Post Office chief executive for the scandal.Samantha Leek KC, delivering the closing statement on behalf of Vennells to the public inquiry on Tuesday, said that as Vennells had become a high-profile figure in the scandal others had tried to point the finger at her". Continue reading...

Brian Simpson was arrested at victim Kristine Sparane's home in Spalding on 26 NovemberA man accused of murdering a woman whose body was found in her Lincolnshire home is due to stand trial in May.Kristine Sparane, 37, was discovered in Winsover Road, Spalding, at 7.30pm on 26 November. Continue reading...

PSNI ordered to pay damages to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey who worked on No Stone UnturnedThe Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Metropolitan police unlawfully spied on two investigative journalists, a tribunal has found.The investigatory powers tribunal ruled that the PSNI must pay 4,000 each in damages to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, who were arrested in 2018 after they produced No Stone Unturned, an award-winning documentary about a notorious massacre during the Troubles. Continue reading...

Danish brewer hopes to make 100m savings over five years after buying maker of Robinsons, J20 and R White's

Skilled overseas workers contribute 20 times more than UK-born adults, while some shortages may be due to pay and conditions, say advisersKeir Starmer's plan to bring down UK net migration by improving domestic training and skills is not guaranteed to work, the government's independent advisers have concluded.The migration advisory committee also said that the average migrant who comes to the UK on a skilled worker visa contributes 20 times more than the average UK-born adult. Continue reading...

Optimism over ceasefire-for-hostages deal as Trump says there will be hell to pay' if captives not releasedAn Israeli negotiating team has arrived for talks in Qatar amid renewed optimism that a ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas in Gaza can be achieved by the end of the year.Both sides have expressed optimism in recent days that a deal may be close for a phased release of the surviving hostages in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Continue reading...

Police investigating murder of Zhuojun Sally' Li and disappearance of husband Jai-Bao Rex' Chen find second body in Botany

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ACCC alleges telco sold hundreds of vulnerable people phones and plans they couldn't afford, mostly from three stores

In today's newsletter: As a judge finds the government unlawfully detained Tamils on Diego Garcia, we look at the geopolitcs that led to them being trapped in hell on earth' for three yearsGood morning. In October 2021, a boat carrying dozens of Tamils trying to find their way to Canada sprung a leak. They were rescued by the British navy and brought to Diego Garcia, a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean that was under the control of the British government, and which hosted a US military base. But their saviours became their captors - and they found themselves in rat-infested camps, largely deprived of their liberty and caught in legal limbo with no obvious way out.The authorities on Diego Garcia maintained that the asylum seekers were free to leave whenever they wanted, and that any restrictions on their movements there were lawful and necessary. Yesterday, a judge said that case had not come close" to being made. She ruled that the asylum seekers had been unlawfully detained in conditions that one of them described as hell on earth". The ruling amounts to a crushing defeat for the British government, and a wholesale vindication for an almost forgotten group of people whose fate has been subjugated to geopolitical forces far beyond their control.Espionage | The alleged Chinese spy with links to Prince Andrew and who made connections at the heart of the UK establishment has been named as Yang Tengbo, a businessman also known as Chris Yang. Yang ran the Duke of York's Pitch@Palace charity project in China and was given authority to act on his behalf in Chinese business dealings.Russia | A Russian general in charge of radiation, chemical and biological protection forces has been killed in an explosion in Moscow, the country's investigative committee has said. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his assistant were said to have been killed by a device hidden inside a scooter.Germany | Olaf Scholz has lost a historic vote of confidence in the German parliament after the collapse of his government. The German chancellor had called the vote in order to deliberately lose it so that the first formal step could be made towards triggering new elections.UK news | Lucy Letby's lawyer has announced he is seeking to reopen her appeal because the prosecution's lead medical expert witness, Dr Dewi Evans, has changed his mind on some key evidence. At a press conference on Monday, Mark McDonald said Evans was not a reliable expert, and that not all of Letby's convictions were safe.Politics| Victoria Thomas Bowen, the 25-year-old woman who threw a milkshake over Nigel Farage during the UK general election campaign in June, has been given a 13-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. Continue reading...

Level of compensation - and looming penalties - mean cost of airline's outsourcing saga has ballooned past budgeted figure

The Accomplice, a noir tale found by Strand editor Andrew Gulli, considers the temptation of a grocery clerkA previously unknown story by John D MacDonald, author of The Executioners, the novel twice filmed as Cape Fear, is published for the first time on Tuesday in the Strand Magazine.The Accomplice is the hard-boiled story of Joey, a young grocery store worker who attracts the attentions of Belle, the much younger wife of the store owner. Continue reading...

The order follows three-year-long legal saga involving the south coast park's owner and Kiama council

Australia's defence department has defended the security at a naval base on Sydney's Garden Island despite drone's close flight above several warships

Teenager receives raucous reception after defeating China's Ding Liren in tense 14-game seriesIndian chess star Gukesh Dommaraju returned to a hero's welcome in his home city on Monday after becoming the youngest world champion aged only 18.Hundreds of fans crowded the arrivals area of Chennai airport, cheering alongside banks of television cameras as Gukesh made his way out of the airport after victory in taking the World Chess Championship title. Continue reading...

Brisbane soaked by up to 127mm of rain in 12 hours, with more than a dozen dams spilling over in the south-east of the state

Mary Jane Veloso was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2010A Filipino migrant worker who has spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia is expected to arrive home on Wednesday after a deal was struck between Manila and Jakarta.Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2010, but has always maintained her innocence, saying she had been duped into carrying a suitcase containing drugs as she travelled to a new job abroad. Continue reading...

Anti-corruption champion to examine Arts Council England projects and lack of facilities in some areas of countryMargaret Hodge will oversee a review into regional inequality in the arts after the culture secretary described some areas of Britain as cultural deserts".Sky News first reported a week ago that Hodge, who was last week named as the government's anti-corruption champion, would take control of the review into Arts Council England, which was originally announced by the Conservative government and was to be chaired by Mary Archer but was shelved shortly after Labour won the general election. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Engaging with arts improves quality of life, increases productivity and creates financial dividend'Most people are familiar with the buzz that attending a memorable play, film, concert or art exhibition can trigger.But now it is official: consuming culture is good for your health and wellbeing - and generates 8bn a year worth of improvements in people's quality of life and higher productivity. Continue reading...

Prime minister tells Joint Expeditionary Force conference in Estonia that Ukraine requires all the capability it can get'Keir Starmer is to visit British troops serving on Russia's border after saying that Ukraine will require more funding and capability.The prime minister was speaking at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) conference in Estonia, where he met leaders of other Baltic states. Continue reading...

Composer Toninho Geraes claims 2015 song Million Years Ago copied music of his samba classic Mulheres (Women)A Brazilian judge has ordered a song by British pop superstar Adele, Million Years Ago, be pulled worldwide - including on streaming services - over a continuing plagiarism claim by a Brazilian composer.The injunction threatens the Brazilian subsidiaries of Sony and Universal, Adele's labels, with a fine of $8,000 per act of non-compliance". Continue reading...