Sydney church stabbing: police treating as terrorist attack the alleged stabbing of bishop during livestreamed mass

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NSW premier Chris Minns said a ‘major and serious criminal investigation’ was underway after the incident at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, which Anthony Albanese describes as ‘extremely concerning’

New South Wales police are treating the alleged stabbing of a bishop during the live stream of a mass in western Sydney as a terrorist attack.

The premier, Chris Minns, said the decision was taken early on Tuesday morning and validated by the police minister.

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Australia news live: NSW police treating alleged Sydney church stabbing as ‘terrorist act’; PM calls for unity

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A 15-year-old was arrested over the alleged attack and hundreds of people clashed with police outside the Wakeley church. Follow the day’s news live

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says he has been briefed by the Australian federal police following an alleged stabbing at a Wakeley church overnight.

Albanese wrote on X:

I have been briefed by the AFP and our security agencies regarding the shocking incident at Wakeley’s Christ the Good Shepherd Church.

As police continue their investigations, Australians are thinking of those who have been injured, the first responders who rushed to help and the police who worked to restore order.

They are coming out on a united front irrespective of religion, political [or] ideological views, and I think that is really important to send a message [that] we are collectively one community …

We are a fairly big mixed community now in NSW but it doesn’t mean we can’t live side by side.

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US federal women’s prison plagued by rampant staff sexual abuse to close

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Since 2021, eight employees of Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, charged with assaulting female prisoners

The US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) is closing a federal women’s prison in California that has been plagued by rampant staff sexual abuse of incarcerated residents.

Colette Peters, the BoP director, said in a statement to the Associated Press on Monday that Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin was “not meeting expected standards and that the best course of action is to close the facility”.

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Teasing children about weight increases risk of self-stigma as adults, study finds

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Research reveals ‘long-lasting effects’ caused by pressure from parents, families, bullies and the media

Parents who tease their children about their weight are putting them at greater risk of feeling bad about their bodies decades later, regardless of whether they grow up to have obesity or not, a groundbreaking study has found.

Thirteen-year-olds who felt pressure from family members to shed pounds and endured weight-based teasing showed higher levels of internalised weight stigma when they turned 31, according to research by the University of Bristol published on Tuesday in the Lancet Regional Health Europe journal.

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Creating sexually explicit deepfake images to be made offence in UK

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Offenders could face jail if image is widely shared under proposed amendment to criminal justice bill

Creating a sexually explicit “deepfake” image is to be made an offence under a new law, the Ministry of Justice has announced.

Under the legislation, anyone who creates such an image without consent will face a criminal record and an unlimited fine. They could also face jail if the image is shared more widely.

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Trump’s hush-money trial: key takeaways from the first day

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Monday’s day in court indicated that jury selection could take weeks – and that Trump could yet be held in contempt

Donald Trump struggled through the opening day of his New York criminal trial on Monday as the jury selection process formally got under way in Manhattan in the first criminal trial of a current or former US president.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in trying to cover up hush-money payments to an adult film star that influenced the 2016 election.

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Court adjourns after first day of Trump’s historic criminal trial – as it happened

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Ex-president dozed off during calm day of proceedings in trial over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, with some potential jurors chosen. This blog is now closed.

Shortly, we should have the first set of potential jurors enter the courtroom where they will give their responses verbally to a 42-point questionnaire.

There are several categories of questions, including: in which New York neighborhood they live, their educational background, whether they’ve engaged in political activism or previously served on a jury.

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Conman who swindled $175m in ‘massive’ psychic fraud scheme sentenced to 10 years

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Patrice Runner, 57, of Canada was convicted in June of multiple counts of defrauding ‘millions of older and vulnerable Americans’

A Canadian conman, who swindled more than US$175m (C$241m) from his North American victims through “a massive psychic mass-mailing fraud scheme” has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Patrice Runner, 57, who holds citizenship with both Canada and France, was convicted by a jury in June of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, eight counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was found not guilty on four counts of mail fraud.

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Sunak to give Rwanda £50m if deportation bill passed into law

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MPs voted through plans on Monday and bill is expected to become law within days

Rishi Sunak will hand over £50m to Rwanda as soon as his flagship deportation bill is passed into law, it emerged on Monday.

On Monday night, MPs voted through plans to forcibly send asylum seekers to east Africa if they arrived in the UK via small boats. The bill, one of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed in decades, is expected to pass into law at some point this week after further criticisms and amendments in the Lords.

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Ohio man charged with murder over shooting of Black ride-share driver

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William Brock, 81, who is white, was arrested after he fatally shot Lo-Letha Hall, 61, outside his home in South Charleston, Ohio

An Ohio man was charged with murder after shooting a Black ride-share driver in an unprovoked attack, following the most recent string of cases of Black Americans being shot while doing mundane things.

William Brock, 81, who is white, was arrested after he fatally shot Lo-Letha Hall, 61, outside his home in South Charleston, Ohio, about an hour outside Dayton, NBC News reported.

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Roads blocked as thousands protest in US against Israel’s attack on Gaza

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Flights delayed and traffic disrupted as protesters in major US cities intensify call for ceasefire in Gaza

Thousands of people held protests across the US on Monday condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza, shutting down airports and disrupting traffic in major cities from New York to San Francisco.

A portion of the Kennedy Expressway into Chicago O’Hare international airport, one of the US’s busiest, was blocked off by protesters calling for an end to the violence.

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Woman charged with murder of baby found in Warrington woodland in 1998

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Joanne Sharkey faces charge in ‘extremely emotional case’ of baby known as Callum

A woman has been charged with murder by detectives investigating the death of a baby found in woodland in Warrington more than 25 years ago.

“Baby Callum” was discovered close to the Gulliver’s World theme park in the Callands area of the town in March 1998 and a murder investigation was launched.

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Robert F Kennedy Jr claims Trump had asked him to be running mate

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The assertion followed the launch of a website attacking the independent presidential candidate calling him a ‘leftist radical’

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the prominent conspiracy theorist and independent presidential candidate, claimed on Monday he had turned down an offer from Donald Trump to be his running mate for the White House.

The assertion followed the launch earlier in the day of a website attacking Kennedy, published by a pro-Trump political action committee called Make America Great Again Inc (Maga Inc).

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Carers having to pay back thousands is very wrong, says Keir Starmer

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Labour leader was responding to a question from the BBC about Vivienne Groom, who was prosecuted over breach of benefit rules

Keir Starmer has called for fairer treatment of unpaid carers plunged into poverty after being forced to pay back thousands of pounds – and in some cases facing criminal prosecution – for minor breaches of benefit rules.

Last week the Guardian revealed thousands of carers had run up big debts, were given criminal records and forced to sell their homes when chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over “honest mistakes” that officials could have spotted years earlier.

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Owners of Colorado funeral home where 190 bodies were found charged with Covid fraud

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Jon and Carie Hallford accused of fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds from US government

The couple who owned a Colorado funeral home – where 190 decaying bodies were discovered last year – have been indicted on federal charges for fraudulently obtaining nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds from the US government, according to court documents unsealed on Monday.

The new federal charges against Jon and Carie Hallford add to charges in Colorado state court for abusing corpses. The 15 fraud charges filed against each of the Hallfords carry potential penalties of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, according to the indictment.

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