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Concert giant of monopolistically inflating ticket prices and hurting artists in suit now including 26 states and DCAttorneys general from about two dozen US states are going after three times the monetary damages originally sought against Live Nation Entertainment and its ticket-selling unit, Ticketmaster. In an updated version of a lawsuit first filed in May, the states allege the concert giant monopolized markets across its industry.The attorneys general had sought damages under state law in the initial version of the lawsuit. By adding claims under the federal anti-monopoly law, states can seek three times the monetary damages, a penalty for especially egregious conduct known as treble damages. Continue reading...

Index on Censorship said 53% of librarians polled had been asked to remove books - and that in more than half of those cases books were taken off shelvesMore than two dozen school librarians in the UK have been asked to remove books - many of which are LGBTQ+ titles - from school library shelves, according to new survey data.The Index on Censorship survey found that 28 of 53 librarians polled - 53% - said that they had been asked to remove books. In more than half of those cases books were taken off shelves. Continue reading...

Donna Conniff, 40, encouraged boy to throw missile at police and was seen kicking out at an officerA woman who threw a brick at police officers has been jailed for two years as more people were sentenced for their part in far-right riots in England.Donna Conniff, 40, encouraged a young boy to throw a missile at police and was seen kicking out at an officer in actions a judge called truly disgraceful". Continue reading...

Tories and allies have tried criticising Labour's willingness to negotiate with unions before to no effect, and unions have strong support at a time when the cost of living is highLabour caves in to unions. Fears of a wage-price spiral. Back to the 1970s and a new winter of discontent. The Conservative party and their friends in the media have been in full cry since the government made an offer to train drivers last week aimed at ending two years of disruption on the railways.The rightwing press needed little prompting to claim that Britain is taking a step back into the industrial anarchy" of the past and was eager to contrast the deal for the Aslef union with Rachel Reeves's decision to means test the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. The level of outrage was further ratcheted up on Friday when Aslef announced plans for 22 days of strikes at weekends from late August to November on LNER trains. Continue reading...

GOP call Biden corrupt' in 291-page report meant to derail the president's now abandoned re-election effort

Reece forecasts further softness' in the building and renovation markets over the coming year

Hot winds predicted to push temperatures four to seven degrees above average across the east of the country

Childcare workers, aged carers, teachers and retail assistants are among those priced out of the market, analysis suggests

Israeli prime minister says meeting with US secretary of state was conducted in good spirit' as Blinken says latest push for ceasefire is last opportunity

Forecasters warn of life-threatening surf and rip tides: It's going to be really dangerous out in the water today'Tropical Storm Ernesto became a hurricane again on Sunday as it churned away from Bermuda and headed further out in the Atlantic, sending powerful swells toward the US east coast, generating rip currents associated with at least one death and prompting many rescues.The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ernesto's maximum sustained winds were 75mph (120km/h), just barely category 1 strength. Continue reading...

First minister told to justify secret meeting between Angus Robertson and Israel's deputy ambassador to UKJohn Swinney is under growing pressure to justify a meeting between a senior Scottish minister and an Israeli diplomat that caused a revolt within his Scottish National party.Senior figures in the SNP have criticised a secret meeting between Angus Robertson, Scotland's external affairs secretary, and Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK earlier this month, with some calling for Robertson to be suspended. Continue reading...

Ukrainian president says troops meeting their objectives and have taken more prisonersAn update to that earlier map, showing the three bridges hit by the Ukrainian air force:Ukrainian forces have struck and damaged a third bridge over the River Seym, near the village of Karyzh in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a member of Russia's Investigative Committee. The hit could seriously complicate Russian military logistics as Moscow attempts to fend off Ukraine's incursion into the region.Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine's attack on Kursk means Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks for now. Proposed discussions aimed at negotiating a halt to strikes on energy and power infrastructure between the two sides had been planned to be held in Qatar.RIA News, a state-owned news agency, says Russian forces have captured 19 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. The report has not been independently verified.Ukraine's air force said on Monday morning that the country's air defence units had repelled an overnight Russian drone attack on multiple cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy. Continue reading...

Mark Smith, who quit Dublin embassy role, says he raised his concerns over weapons sales with foreign secretary

As madrilenos head for the cooler Atlantic coast, those in the north have given them an unflattering nicknameGalicia and Spain's other Atlantic regions are becoming increasingly popular holiday destinations for Spaniards, and people from Madrid in particular, as they turn their backs on overcrowded and overheated Mediterranean resorts in favour of the more temperate north.But while welcoming the income from tourism, Galicians have also given a nickname to their notoriously haughty visitors from the Spanish capital: fodechinchos, which translates literally as fish thieves". Continue reading...

President to meet party and parliamentary leaders this week for series of exchanges' in effort to end stalemateEmmanuel Macron is to meet French party and parliamentary leaders this week for negotiations to break the political deadlock over who should form a new government.France has been led by a caretaker administration since the July general election failed to leave any party with a working majority in the national assembly. Continue reading...

Debbie Duncan tells of online harassment she has faced since Slater's disappearance on holiday in TenerifeThe mother of Jay Slater, the British teenager who died while on holiday in Tenerife, says she has been terrorised" by internet trolls since her son's disappearance.Slater, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle near Accrington in Lancashire, disappeared after attending a music festival with friends on the holiday island in June. The 19-year-old's body was found about a month later in a ravine close to where he was last seen and an autopsy found he had died after an accidental fall. Continue reading...

Register of MPs' financial interests show former home secretary is highest earner for speeches this parliament

UK's largest housebuilder will waive conditions put on 2.5bn deal, set to be completed this week, from CMAThe housebuilder Barratt is pushing ahead with its 2.5bn takeover of rival Redrow this week despite concerns raised by the government's competition watchdog.Barratt said on Monday that it would waive conditions put on the deal - set to be completed this week - from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after it found that the merger could disadvantage homebuyers in the area around a town in Shropshire. Continue reading...

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Rachael Young tells court Higgins' medical state' forms part of the reasoning behind no longer calling her to give evidence

Nearly 1,000 train fans were at Sydenham station before 5am to ride the first service on the new city section

Queensland police sent to remote property had no idea about the correspondence and their checks raised no significant red flags, inquest hears

In parliament, opposition leader accuses Anthony Albanese of misleading the house by selectively quoting Australia's spy boss Mike Burgess

Cornwall Insight analysts predict price cap for October until end of December will increase by 9%Energy bills across Great Britain could rise by 9% this winter to an average of 1,714 a year for the typical household's gas and electricity, according to forecasts.Analysts at Cornwall Insight, a well-respected energy consultancy, have forecast that the government's energy price cap will rise for the average dual-fuel energy bill from October, up from its current level of 1,568. Continue reading...

Highest traffic levels since 2015 anticipated, though overseas visitors remain below pre-pandemic levelsBritain is set for the busiest August bank holiday getaway on the roads in nearly a decade, with severe delays expected on routes towards the Leeds and Reading music festivals, despite overseas tourists continuing to stay away.An estimated 19.2m leisure journeys by car are expected over the weekend, according to the RAC - the highest level since the breakdown services company began recording traffic data in 2015 - as drivers go day-trip crazy". Continue reading...

Discovery of Victorian network hiding under some of city's busiest streets set magical' new challenge for 150m projectWhen a contractor working on the site of the new London Museum at Smithfield market knocked a tentative hole in a bricked-up basement wall, all he could see, peering in with a torch, was a muddy pile of rubble and some scurrying rats.That unpromising beginning, however, would lead to an unparalleled" discovery. Behind the wall, once the detritus had been carefully removed, the architects and builders were astonished to find an enormous and beautifully constructed network of subterranean brick vaults that no one, even a year into the ambitious multimillion-pound building project, had known were there at all. Continue reading...

Payments finally received into accounts set up for each victim more than a decade after the fraudVictims of the Norton Motorcycles pension scandal have finally been paid 9.4m in compensation more than a decade after they had seemingly lost their life savings.The move represents some long-awaited good news for more than 200 people who fell victim to what is known as a pensions liberation fraud during 2012 and 2013, when they were tricked into allowing about 11.5m to be transferred out of their retirement plans. Continue reading...

Clemency Jacques told to pay extra 1,300 for accidental carer's allowance breach or have case sent to CPSA vulnerable unpaid carer threatened by benefits officials with prosecution for fraud unless she agreed to pay a 1,300 penalty for an accidental breach of carer's allowance earnings rules has described her experience as like blackmail".Clemency Jacques, a carer for her disabled son, was told by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) investigators her case would be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unless she paid a 50% charge on top of an existing agreement to repay 2,600 in carer's allowance overpayments - a total of 3,900. Continue reading...

Clement Jacques was questioned under caution and agreed to pay penalty for error that could have been spotted soonerClemency Jacques's interview under caution by benefits officials is seared into her memory. She was accused of benefits fraud and, utterly bewildered, she tried to defend herself. It did not go well. I sat there for two hours crying," she recalls.In a room at the local jobcentre, officials had read her her rights just like in the movies". She was warned that she could face police arrest, referral to the Crown Prosecution Service and a criminal court appearance. It was bloody scary", she says. Continue reading...

Comedian was in top 10 on three previous occasions - here are this year's best gags, as voted for by a public panelA joke by Mark Simmons has been declared the funniest of this year's Edinburgh fringe festival, chosen by a public panel from a shortlist compiled by comedy critics.Simmons, who got into comedy more than a decade ago after his friend convinced him to do an open mic night, won the television channel U&Dave's funniest joke of the fringe award with I was going to sail around the globe in the world's smallest ship but I bottled it". Continue reading...

Philippines says two coast guard vessels damaged by China's unlawful manoeuvres', while Beijing says it took control measures' after vessels illegally entered waters around shoal

President states he wants to stop cross-border attacks by Russian forces and that counteroffensive was much neededVolodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine's military incursion into Russia's Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.It marked the first time the Ukrainian president had clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on 6 August. Previously, he had suggested it aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling. Continue reading...

Firefighters called to a Thomastown house, a hair salon, an apartment and a disused retirement building

All remaining employees will be retained and 100 new employees will be recruited after the sale of Australia's largest online bookseller

A report by the children's commissioner says nothing is found in half of strip-searches of children and its use has a racial disparity. Can its implementation ever be balanced?When is it reasonable, necessary and proportionate for agents of the state, such as police officers, to take actions that are likely to leave a child traumatised?There is little dispute that compelling anyone, let alone a child, to expose their intimate body parts against their will to a stranger causes real emotional pain. But police believe strip-searching can be a useful tool. Continue reading...

Children's commissioner finds wide disparity with white counterparts in year to June 2023, with 88% of searches aimed at finding drugsBlack children are four times more likely to be strip-searched by police officers across England and Wales than their white counterparts, according to the latest nationwide figures disclosed by a watchdog.The children's commissioner also found that children under the age of 15 are a bigger proportion of those subjected to intimate searches, official figures from the year to June 2023 showed. Fewer than half of all searches of children in that year (45%) were conducted in the presence of an appropriate adult. Continue reading...

POA chair says ministers could declare as soon as Monday that Operation Early Dawn is coming into forceThe launch of an emergency plan to avoid prison overcrowding in England could be announced as soon as Monday, the Prison Officers' Association has said.The longstanding measure, known as Operation Early Dawn, would allow defendants to be held in police cells until prison beds became available and could mean their court dates are delayed or adjourned at short notice. Continue reading...

US secretary of state flies into Tel Aviv amid signals that a breakthrough may not be as close as had been suggestedThe US secretary of state has arrived in Israel for 11th-hour talks aimed at shoring up a deal for a lasting ceasefire in the war in Gaza, amid signals from Israeli and Hamas officials that a breakthrough may not be as close as international mediators had suggested.Antony Blinken flew into Tel Aviv on Sunday as part of Washington's renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire in the 10-month-old conflict, negotiations seen as even more urgent after last month's back-to-back assassinations of a top Hezbollah commander and the Hamas political chief, Ismail Haniyeh. Continue reading...

Key civilian leader says attack on Russia's Kursk region is first of several stages' in taking the fight to MoscowUkraine has captured more than 150 Russian prisoners of war on some days in the cross-border military operation that a key civilian official said was the first of several stages" in taking the fight to Moscow.Oleksii Drozdenko, the head of the military administration in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, said the attack had fared better than expected and there had been only 15 casualties needing hospital treatment on the first day. Continue reading...

Twenty-six-year-old suspect in incident, which happened on Sunday morning in Crawley, remains in custodyA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was found stabbed in a car park on Sunday morning, Sussex police have said.Officers were called to a report of an altercation between a man and woman at about 7.10am on Station Way in Crawley, West Sussex. The area was searched and a woman was found in a nearby car park with stab injuries", the force said. Continue reading...

The highly anticipated Chatswood to Sydenham extension will drastically cut travel times in Sydney

Staff replaced stencil art of gorilla helping animals to escape with reproduction to preserve significant moment' for zooStencilled on a shutter at the entrance to London Zoo, the mural showed a powerful gorilla lifting up the metal barrier and creating a dark hole just big enough for other animals to use to make a speedy getaway.Now, Banksy's ninth and final artwork in his animal-themed London series has itself escaped, removed in an attempt by the 196-year-old zoo to properly preserve" a significant moment" in its history. Continue reading...

Adviser to imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan says he submitted application to run in October electionImran Khan, the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, is aiming to become Oxford's next chancellor when the university's graduates and staff vote later this year.Syed Zulfi Bukhari, one of Khan's advisers, said the former international cricket star had submitted an application to run in the election in October to replace Chris Patten, the former Conservative minister. Continue reading...

Mark Smith says evidence of Gaza war crimes is clear, but that his complaints were brushed asideA Foreign Office official has resigned over the UK's refusal to ban arms exports to Israel because of alleged breaches of international law.Mark Smith, a counter-terrorism official based at the British embassy in Dublin, said he had resigned after making numerous internal complaints, including through an official whistleblowing mechanism, but receiving nothing but pro-forma responses. Continue reading...

Gross misconduct case over December 2020 incident that could lead to Met sackings may not be heard until 2025A date is still to be set for a disciplinary hearing that could result in three Metropolitan police officers being sacked for their alleged part in the strip-search of an innocent child in December 2020.Child Q, 15, was strip-searched at her school in Hackney, east London, while menstruating, having been wrongly accused of possessing cannabis. It was an experience she found traumatising and which has been widely condemned. Continue reading...

Head of IT was kidnapped in Tripoli and other executives threatened a week after siege at bankThe Central Bank of Libya said on Sunday it was suspending all operations" after a bank official was abducted in the capital, Tripoli, in a statement posted on social media.Musab Msallem, the head of information technology at the Central Bank, was kidnapped by an unidentified group from his house this morning", the statement said. Continue reading...

Troubled fashion retailer's 31 shops to close five months after chain went into administrationFashion brand Ted Baker's remaining 31 stores in the UK are to close this week, putting more than 500 jobs at risk.Started as a men's clothing label in Glasgow in 1988 by entrepreneur Ray Kelvin and becoming known for its quirky advertising and floral prints, Ted Baker's UK arm entered administration in March after racking up losses. Continue reading...

Former minister said Conservatives had deserved' to lose power and that he had not been shocked to lose his seatJacob Rees-Mogg has said he is very strongly" considering standing at the next general election after losing his seat to Labour.The former Tory cabinet minister told an audience at the Edinburgh fringe festival that the Conservatives had deserved" to lose the recent election, and that he was not shocked after losing his North East Somerset and Hanham seat to the former mayor of the West of England Dan Norris by more than 5,000 votes. Rees-Mogg had won it from Norris in 2010. Continue reading...

Home secretary orders review to identify gaps in system to tackle extremist ideologies including extreme misogynyThe home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has vowed to crack down on people pushing harmful and hateful beliefs", including extreme misogyny, as she announced a new approach to fighting extremism.The Home Office has commissioned a rapid review to inform a new government counter-extremism strategy on how best to tackle the threat posed by extremist ideologies online and offline. Continue reading...

Hezbollah fires 55 missiles at town in Israel after Israeli strike killed 10 Syrian workers and their relatives in LebanonFighting between Hezbollah and Israel has intensified over the weekend despite diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between the two and prevent an expected Hezbollah and Iranian attack against Israel.An Israeli attack on Saturday was one of the bloodiest for civilians since fighting began in October, killing 10 Syrian workers and their family members in what Israel said was a strike on a Hezbollah weapons depot in Nabatieh, south Lebanon. In response, Hezbollah launched a 55-missile barrage at the town of Ayelet HaShahar, in north Israel. Continue reading...