New record as Senate question time blows out into chaotic marathon over transparency fight

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Labor government loses control of chamber and threatens to strip Coalition members from parliamentary committees

In chaotic Senate scenes, Labor has set a 125-year record by keeping question time running for more than three hours, after the government lost control of the chamber and threatened to strip Coalition members from parliamentary committees in a fight over transparency.

Senator David Pocock led a push to dramatically extend question time and force ministers to answer more questions, with the Coalition, Greens and crossbench defying the government to force changes to long-held conventions and rules in the upper house. It was a rare move which Labor minister Murray Watt labelled a “dummy spit”.

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‘They killed civilians in their beds’: chaos and brutality reign after fall of El Fasher

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Thousands have fled the North Darfur city in terror with stories of the Rapid Support Forces attacking and killing civilians

Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for three years at El Fasher South hospital when the city was captured on Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was busy treating patients, including an elderly woman who needed a blood transfusion, when the attack began.

“They killed six wounded soldiers and civilians in their beds – some of them women,” she says. “I don’t know what happened to my other patients. I had to run when they stormed the hospital.”

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‘White-knuckled wolf spider’ thought lost is rediscovered on Isle of Wight

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Conservationists hail ‘remarkable’ rediscovery after 40 years, at nature reserve only accessible by boat

A tiny spider thought to have vanished for ever from the UK has been rediscovered on a remote area of a nature reserve accessible only by boat.

The Aulonia albimana, a member of the wolf spider family with orange legs, was found on the Isle of Wight in a spot grazed by a flock of Hebridean sheep.

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Donald Trump praises ‘great’ Washington meeting with Anthony Albanese as leaders dine at Apec

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US president tells reporters he and Australian PM ‘working on a lot of things together’

After waiting a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has now done so twice in 10 days, as his US counterpart talks up cooperation on rare earths and other issues.

Albanese followed last week’s trip to Washington by sitting next to the US president on Wednesday evening at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea.

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News Corp had no first-hand source suggesting Sam Groth’s wife underage at start of relationship, MP’s lawyer tells court

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Australia’s new privacy laws to be tested as Victorian Liberal MP and wife Brittany Groth sue over Herald Sun articles

A News Corp journalist had “not one piece of information” to suggest the deputy Victorian Liberal leader, Sam Groth, began a relationship with his wife when she was underage, the MP’s lawyers have told a court.

In what a federal court judge described as a “test case” for Australia’s new privacy laws, Groth and his wife, Brittany, are suing the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), reporter Stephen Drill and the Herald Sun’s editor, Sam Weir, over a series of articles published in July.

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