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7897 articles · page 59 of 165 · The World front page
Defence officials behind Australia's flagship missile program committed at least $15.6 million in financial and procurement blunders, including paying out $13.3 million before securing basic legal sign-off, freedom of information documents show. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has acknowledged the errors, telling the ABC: "We agree the rot has to stop."
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has introduced a sweeping overhaul of Queensland's industrial relations laws, including a provision granting the minister the power to terminate protected industrial action. The bill, introduced on Wednesday night, drew immediate fire from the opposition and unions, with Opposition Leader Steven Miles accusing the Crisafulli LNP of misleading voters by not taking the changes to the 2024 election.
· 6 sourcesResidents in Yass, Murrumbateman and Sutton could face a 76 per cent increase in council rates, after Yass Valley Council voted 5-4 at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to take the proposal to public consultation. Independent consultants found the council would need to generate an extra $8.3 million from operations each year by 2027-28 to maintain its financial and infrastructure position.
· 2 sourcesA 19-year-old Illinois man has been ordered detained by a judge after prosecutors said he shared a mass shooting plan and told a coworker he 'couldn't wait' to kill Indian people, in an alleged plot that may have targeted a Hindu place of worship near Aurora.
· 3 sourcesQueensland jails could be forced to house three prisoners in cells designed for one once new breach bail laws come into effect, the union representing prison guards has warned. Together Queensland says an expected surge in the prison population of potentially thousands of adults and children would trigger a sanitation crisis and increase the risk of assaults and deaths.
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has taken leave from the party room after seven party members sent a letter to leader David Shoebridge demanding an investigation into allegations of inappropriate comments to women spanning almost a decade. Steele-John rejects the allegations and has referred the matter to the WA Greens for an independent process.
· 10 sourcesKenya’s ability to respond to imported Ebola cases is being tested beyond its capital, as a suspected case in the northeastern county of Wajir highlighted gaps in surveillance, isolation capacity and public communication in communities far from major health facilities. The suspected case, involving a 20-year-old man who had travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda, tested negative, according to county officials, easing immediate fears but underscoring the challenges of protecting areas near porous borders.
President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Arizona that people who leak government information to the news media should be shot, invoking leaks connected to last year's US attack on Iran and accusing outlets of endangering military members.
· 4 sourcesThe Wallabies' hopes of snapping a 12-Test losing streak against the All Blacks have been dealt a blow, with playmaker Ben Donaldson ruled out of Saturday's Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney after suffering a groin injury at training.
· 3 sourcesBeau Lamarre-Condon asked a friend he met through celebrity-chasing to dispose of a mobile phone the day after the alleged murders of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, the NSW Supreme Court has heard. Lamarre-Condon, 31, a former NSW police officer, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.
· 7 sourcesFresh US inflation data shows price rises accelerating and broadening with less than three weeks to go before the midterm elections, a development that lands badly for Donald Trump and the Republicans as affordability dominates the campaign, according to an opinion column by Stephen Bartholomeusz.
· 3 sourcesThe federal government has revised its flagship online safety bill to penalise platforms that allow users to advocate gender-based violence, adding three new categories of harmful content while stripping ministerial discretion over what constitutes online harm. Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced the changes in the House of Representatives on Thursday, with the Greens emerging as the sole gatekeeper for the legislation's passage by the end of the year.
· 6 sourcesKenya has recorded a second Ebola death, a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the first victim, the Health Ministry said on Friday, as the virus spread to Nigeria and the United States raised its travel advisory for Kenya to Level 3.
· 5 sourcesA 21-year-old woman has reported being sexually assaulted at an off-campus fraternity house near the University of Chicago, prompting an ongoing police investigation and renewed attention to fraternity conduct at American universities. A person of interest has been identified but is not in custody, according to officials.
The Resolution Foundation has warned that barring people with anxiety, ADHD or autism from claiming disability benefits would not deliver major financial savings and would probably make it harder for them to get or stay in a job and participate in society.
A ground-penetrating radar survey has uncovered more than 300 unmarked burial sites at each of two cemeteries in far-west New South Wales, prompting the Central Darling Shire Council to launch a project to identify the people buried there.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff is facing calls to apologise after a Facebook post about a public school renaming a Christmas event drew more than 5,400 comments and prompted him to ask the education department to intervene.
The Age has obtained and verified a catalogue of nearly 17,000 social media posts from One Nation candidate Matthew Collins, revealing a fixation with a perceived clash of civilizations between Christians and Muslims, including calls to "decolonise" parts of the Muslim world and references to the crusades. Collins has deleted or locked his accounts since being selected as one of 112 candidates for the party at next month's Victorian state election. One Nation refused to answer detailed questions about the posts, and Collins did not respond to contact attempts. The party is currently polling at a 23 per cent primary vote, according to the Resolve Political Monitor.
· 4 sourcesAustralia's record 214-run win over South Africa in Durban was celebrated from the Kingsmead dressing room to the Oyster Box Hotel, and much of it was filmed: The Test, the Amazon documentary series, has been revived for a fourth season that will follow the team through South Africa, India and England over the next 12 months. But two of the team's most experienced players, Mitchell Starc and Travis Head, say they still have not watched a single complete episode.
· 4 sourcesTravis Bazzana's breakout rookie season has the Cleveland Guardians locked at 1-1 with the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series, putting the Australian on the verge of a World Series berth. Game three is early Friday morning, 4am AEDT, and the 24-year-old from Turramurra, NSW, has become the man Cleveland fans cannot take their eyes off.
· 4 sourcesAlgeria is aggressively reasserting its influence in the Sahel, seeking to reclaim its traditional role as security mediator just as Mali's military and its Russian allies retake the strategic city of Kidal from Tuareg separatists. The recapture comes amid a resumption of bilateral ties, with Algiers reopening its airspace to Bamako in July after a 15-month rift.
San Francisco police have arrested four men in connection with the February shooting of 49ers player Keion White, who was wounded in the leg during a confrontation inside a crowded Mission District nightclub.
The black-market tobacco trade continues to thrive with criminal syndicates in Cambodia producing counterfeit cigarettes that mimic Australian plain packaging and health warnings at industrial scale, prompting the federal government to push for urgent passage of new laws giving authorities stronger powers to detect and disrupt illegal supply chains.
· 2 sourcesDenmark has pushed back against President Donald Trump’s claims that oil, gas and mineral extraction will soon begin in Greenland, insisting that a recent agreement between the two countries and the island does not give US investors special rights over other NATO or EU nations.
Costa Rica has inaugurated a high-security mega-prison, joining a growing number of Latin American countries adopting the tough-on-crime model popularised by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele. President Laura Fernandez opened the High-Containment Centre Against Organised Crime (CACCO) on Wednesday, a facility with capacity for 5,100 people, equivalent to about 20 percent of the country's current prison population.
An independent commission has upheld 114 of 115 Premier League charges against Manchester City for serious financial misreporting between 2009 and 2018, a ruling that has taken on diplomatic weight and reportedly entangled UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
· 4 sourcesIndependent Senator David Pocock is pushing for a Senate public hearing into the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority's (APVMA) decision to keep the controversial herbicide paraquat on the market. The chemical, which is linked to Parkinson's disease, has been banned in more than 70 countries but remains in use across Australian agriculture. Parkinson's Australia has joined the calls, alongside Queensland farmer Greg Smith, who is living with Parkinson's and has issued a warning against its continued use.
Labor and the Coalition have blocked a vote on a bill that would have banned the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth, with the government arguing criminal justice is a state and territory responsibility. Independent senator Lidia Thorpe introduced the legislation, which also sought to stop children being strip-searched.
· 2 sourcesFive homeless men have died from injuries suffered in the middle of the night along a 1.6-kilometre stretch of the Lansing River Trail in Michigan over less than a year, and police have raised the possibility that a serial killer is responsible. Four of the men suffered head injuries, while a fifth was stabbed. A suspect has been charged with murder in the stabbing, but the other deaths remain under investigation.
Australia's unemployment rate has climbed to 4.7 per cent, its highest level in almost five years, after the economy shed nearly 39,000 jobs in September, a result that has increased pressure on the Reserve Bank to hold off on further interest rate rises.
· 7 sourcesVictoria's corruption watchdog has found senior public servants provided false and misleading information to then ministers Martin Pakula and Ben Carroll to cover up $285 million in COVID-19 business grants paid to ineligible applicants, and deliberately withheld the scale of the loss from their own department head.
· 7 sourcesSuspected Russian drone attacks sank a cargo ship and forced the evacuation of another vessel within two dozen miles of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast on October 13, prompting requests for NATO to redeploy counter-drone systems to protect shipping in the region.
Schools and libraries across the United States are urging the Federal Communications Commission to abandon a proposal that could sharply reduce or eliminate the $2 billion-a-year E-Rate program, which provides discounted internet access to educational institutions and libraries. The FCC's Republican majority launched a rulemaking in June exploring whether to limit or sunset the program, arguing it has strayed from its original mission.
The Guardian has launched a live question-and-answer session on whether Trump's economy will sink Republicans in the US midterm elections, with reporters taking reader questions on the cost of living as Americans prepare to vote. The paper says high living costs have left voters angrier than ever.
· 2 sourcesA plan to build one of Victoria's first undercover, automated cattle feedlots at Llowalong, north of Maffra, has sparked opposition from local residents who say the facility would create road safety and odour problems for neighbouring properties. The 2,206-head feedlot would house cattle in enclosed sheds on a 90-day feeding cycles and would require more than 850 truck movements per year, according to opponents.
· 2 sourcesParis Saint-Germain beat Manchester City 4-2 at the Etihad on Wednesday, while Real Madrid scored three goals in seven minutes to beat Roma 4-3 in Rome, completing a stunning comeback from 3-1 down.
· 2 sourcesReal Madrid scored three times in a seven-minute spell late in the second half to overturn a 3-1 deficit and defeat Roma 4-3 in the Champions League on Wednesday, with Jose Mourinho's return to the Italian capital ending in a dramatic defeat.
Thousands of Colombians marched in Bogota and other major cities on Wednesday, marking the first day of a nationwide protest campaign against a series of economic and security policies introduced under right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella, with the country's former left-wing President Gustavo Petro leading the coalition of opposition parties, trade unions, indigenous groups and social movements.
Bars, clubs and restaurants across the UK will offer up to 100,000 placements to young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) over the next three years, in a scheme backed by the Department for Work and Pensions and launched ahead of a government-commissioned review warning the Neet population could reach 1.25 million.
· 2 sourcesFederal authorities have seized Representative Ilhan Omar's phone and issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to some of her relatives, as part of a criminal investigation into potential fraud in her immigration paperwork, according to a person briefed on the inquiry. The investigation led to a search of the Minnesota Democrat's Washington home earlier this week and has reportedly examined whether Omar or her late father altered her age in citizenship documents.
· 2 sourcesA popular Southern California beach was closed Tuesday after a great white shark reportedly exhibiting aggressive behavior was spotted near swimmers and surfers, prompting a two-mile closure through Wednesday afternoon.
Greta Gerwig's adaptation of C.S. Lewis's 'The Magician's Nephew' for Netflix has released its first trailer, showcasing a psychedelic, David Bowie-inspired aesthetic set to Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven.' Gerwig, who chose the project after her billion-dollar success with 'Barbie,' has said the film is not a musical but was inspired by 1960s-era Bowie.
Police in Bangladesh have arrested two men accused of trafficking at least 30 people to Russia on false promises of high-paying jobs, only for the victims to be conscripted into the Russian army fighting in Ukraine. Seventeen of them were killed on their first day of deployment after minimal training, authorities say.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has threatened to ban all Eritrean nationals from entering the UK unless the Eritrean government agrees to accept more returns of rejected asylum seekers and foreign criminals. The warning, delivered on 14 October, escalates a standoff that has already seen Eritrean diplomats restricted to London and VIP fast-track visas suspended, with the Home Office accusing Eritrea of abruptly withdrawing cooperation earlier this year.
· 4 sourcesAustin Waugh, son of former Australian Test captain Steve Waugh, produced a remarkable catch in a Sydney first-grade cricket match last Sunday, leaping high near the boundary and flicking the ball back to a teammate to dismiss Campbelltown Camden opener Bailey Abela. The former captain, who photographed the moment, said it was better than John Dyson's famous 1982 grab.
· 3 sourcesUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described it as 'painful' that US President Donald Trump has chosen Russia's side in the ongoing war, after Mr Trump said Mr Zelenskyy should be replaced and lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports.
Randovan Banic was set alight by another patient while being treated in the spinal unit at Prince of Wales hospital, according to reports. The attacker had earlier attempted to set three other people alight.
· 3 sourcesRaymond James Dungay, a 48-year-old patient at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after allegedly pouring petrol on three fellow patients and setting one on fire in the spinal ward on Tuesday night. Police said Dungay was expected to appear at a bail hearing on Thursday.
· 8 sources