Starmer calls Gaza City takeover plan wrong and urges Israel to reconsider

Posted on by

UK prime minister says occupation approved by Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet will only bring more bloodshed

Keir Starmer has urged Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider his plans to take over Gaza City and said the move would only bring more bloodshed.

The British prime minister said Israel’s decision to escalate a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 22 months while pushing the territory into famine was wrong and would do nothing to secure the release of Israeli hostages.

Continue reading...

Natsiaa 2025: Gaypalani Waṉambi wins $100,000 award for ‘exquisite’ artwork made with discarded road signs

Posted on by

Waṉambi takes home Australia’s most prestigious First Nations art prize for her artwork Burwu, blossom, which saw her etch thousands of stringybark blossoms and bees

Gaypalani Waṉambi grew up surrounded by art, with her family home in north-eastern Arnhem Land doubling as a studio where her parents and siblings painted on bark and wooden poles. In her late teens, she started assisting her father, esteemed artist Mr W Waṉambi, who taught her how to paint the clan’s ancient designs, using traditional materials such as ochre. As he branched into more experimental forms such as animation and etching on metal, she too began to experiment with these new mediums.

On Friday night, the Yolŋu woman was awarded the $100,000 top prize at the 42nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art awards (Natsiaas), one of Australia’s richest and most prestigious art prizes, for an artwork that honoured his legacy while forging her own path.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

NSW police officers jailed for assaulting woman suffering mental health episode during welfare check

Posted on by

Nathan Black, 28, and Timothy John Trautsch, 30, sentenced to at least three years in prison for attack in Sydney in 2023

Two police officers who punched, kicked and pepper-sprayed a naked woman experiencing a mental health episode will spend the next three years behind bars.

Nathan Black, 28, and Timothy John Trautsch, 30, were sentenced in the Penrith district court in Sydney on Friday.

Continue reading...

‘They must not touch the Strait’: Sicily bridge opponents vow to put up a fight – Reuters

Posted on by
  1. 'They must not touch the Strait': Sicily bridge opponents vow to put up a fight  Reuters
  2. Italy OKs $15.5 billion project to build world's longest suspension bridge from mainland to Sicily  AP News
  3. Record-breaking bridges: How Italy and China are pushing engineering limits  ABC News
  4. Meloni revives €13.5bn Sicilian bridge proposal as part of defence planning  Financial Times
  5. Italy gives final approval for world's longest suspension bridge to Sicily  BBC
Posted in Uncategorized

Israel-Gaza war live: security cabinet approves Gaza City take over; opposition leader calls decision ‘a disaster’

Posted on by

Yair Lapid says far-right ministers dragged Benjamin Netanyahu into ‘exactly what Hamas wanted’ after security cabinet approves take over plan

The UK’s ambassador to Israel has said extending the war in Gaza would only lead to more deaths and that occupying Gaza would be a “huge mistake”.

Simon Walters was quoted by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying on Thursday:

The IDF has achieved all that it can achieve in Gaza, and extending the war any further will simply lead to more deaths. Deaths of soldiers, deaths of Palestinians, deaths of hostages.

If you want to defeat Hamas, you cannot achieve that through military force. You need to use politics and diplomacy and you need to give the people of Gaza an alternative to Hamas.

We are working with friends, allies in Europe and in the Middle East to generate a real plan for what happens after the fighting stops, after the war.

It needs to be a description of what the governments will be for Gaza. That has to be governance by Palestinians who are not members of Hamas with a role for the Palestinian Authority.

Continue reading...

Penny Wong warns Israel that occupying Gaza could violate international law

Posted on by

Australia’s foreign minister says two-state solution the only pathway to peace as Israel’s security cabinet approves plan to take over Gaza City

Penny Wong has urged Israel not to follow through on its plans to occupy Gaza, a step she said could constitute a breach of international law.

In a statement to Guardian Australia, Australia’s foreign minister pushed back on Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take control of the whole Gaza Strip. The plan approved by Israel’s security cabinet after an overnight meeting on Thursday – to take over Gaza City – stopped short of that, but will likely displace tens of thousands of Palestinians already suffering from famine.

Continue reading...

Neo-Nazi leader sentenced to 20 years for plot to attack Maryland’s power grid

Posted on by

Brandon Russell, founder of neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was convicted of plotting to blow up Baltimore power grid

The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs.

Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize “sniper attacks” on electrical substations around Baltimore.

Continue reading...

Emergency care at Lucy Letby hospital falls short of legal standards, CQC finds

Posted on by

Countess of Chester receives urgent warning notice over ‘visibly dirty equipment’ and routine corridor care

Emergency care at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked is falling far short of legal standards, the healthcare watchdog has found, with routine corridor care and “critical gaps” in sepsis treatment.

The Countess of Chester hospital, in north-west England, was issued with an urgent warning notice after inspectors found “repeated breaches” of regulations in its emergency care unit.

Continue reading...

Released violent offenders to be ‘locked’ in restriction zones in England and Wales

Posted on by

Women’s safety campaigners welcome plan to switch from exclusion zones that ‘have made victims feel trapped’

Restriction zones aimed at “locking” violent offenders – rather than their victims – into specific areas when they are released from prison are to be introduced by the government in England and Wales.

At the moment, exclusion zones are often used to keep an offender away from their victim’s home but many campaigners for women’s safety have long called for this to be flipped.

Increased tagging for domestic perpetrators.

Requiring judges to flag domestic abuse at sentencing so prisons, probation and police can better identify and manage abusers.

Expanding specialist domestic abuse courts.

Bolstering transparency for victims at sentencing – including the provision of free copies of judges’ sentencing remarks for victims of rape and other sexual offences.

Continue reading...

Russian football clubs secure €10.8m in Uefa ‘solidarity’ funds since Ukraine invasion

Posted on by

Exclusive: Five Ukraine clubs failed to win similar payments due to allegedly being located in ‘zone of military operations’

Uefa has paid more than €10.8m (£9.4m) in “solidarity” funds to Russian football clubs since they were banned from taking part in European tournaments after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian can reveal.

The payments were made despite five Ukrainian clubs failing to receive similar such funds allegedly due to their locations being in a “zone of military operations”.

Continue reading...

UK ministers push ahead with discount on bills for households near new pylons

Posted on by

Plans have provoked outrage from communities in areas of Great Britain expected to host new infrastructure

The government is pushing head with a plan to offer those who live near new electricity pylons a discount of £2,500 from their energy bills over the next 10 years to ease the backlash against its clean power plans.

Thousands of households within half a kilometre of new or upgraded electricity infrastructure could each receive up to £250 off their annual energy bill from next year to help speed up the rollout of infrastructure critical to the government’s targets.

Continue reading...