More than 10,000 jobseeker payments may have been wrongfully reduced or cancelled, government says

Posted on by

Australia employment department announces more payment system pauses due to it not ‘operating in alignment with the law’

Thousands of people may have had their social security payments wrongly reduced or cancelled because the mutual obligations system was not “operating in alignment with the law”.

On Friday, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) announced it had paused more payment reductions and cancellations, with more than 10,000 people understood to be affected.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Major-power conflict ‘no longer unimaginable’, Australian intelligence review finds

Posted on by

Independent assessment, which was handed to government before US election, warns of ‘global geopolitical and economic fragmentation’

Australia faces a world more volatile and dangerous than it has known for more than four decades, and “major-power conflict is no longer unimaginable”, a review of the country’s intelligence agencies has found.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, commissioned the review of the work of the 10 agencies that make up Australia’s national intelligence community in September 2023.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

There have been shifts in relative global power balances, accompanied by a sharp contest between nation-states for power and influence. This contest is at once diplomatic, military, economic and technological, and is pursued within Australia’s borders as much as beyond them, including through cyber-attacks and foreign interference.

New technologies are being used to amplify some old threats while creating entirely new ones.

There are a range of transnational challenges, including climate change, pandemics, irregular migration, terrorism, and polarisation and fraying social cohesion in many democracies. In a globalised world, the ripples from even geographically distant conflicts inevitably reach Australia, with significant, often grave, consequences.

Continue reading...

Ministers urged to act as thousands more hit by UK carer’s allowance debts

Posted on by

Latest overpayment figures bring total number falling foul of ‘cliff-edge’ rules on earnings to 144,000

More than 9,000 unpaid carers looking after ill and disabled loved ones have become the latest to be hit with carer’s allowance overpayment debts in the past year, prompting calls for ministers to suspend the controversial practice.

While the government has promised to tackle the carer’s allowance scandal and launched a review, the latest figures show carers continue to be unwittingly caught by the system, landing them with debts often running into thousands of pounds.

Continue reading...

Post-Brexit reliance on NHS staff from ‘red list’ countries is unethical, Streeting says

Posted on by

Exclusive: NHS England has dramatically increased recruitment of workers from states with critical medical staff shortages

Brexit has left the NHS increasingly dependent on doctors and nurses from poor “red list” countries, from which the World Health Organization says it is wrong to recruit.

The health service in England has hired tens of thousands of health staff from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe since the UK left the EU single market at the end of 2020.

Continue reading...

Netanyahu Fires Israeli Intelligence Chief, Deepening Domestic Turmoil – The Wall Street Journal

Posted on by
  1. Netanyahu Fires Israeli Intelligence Chief, Deepening Domestic Turmoil  The Wall Street Journal
  2. Netanyahu ousts intelligence chief as Israeli troops continue Gaza operations  The Washington Post
  3. Why dismiss Shin Bet head? Newly leaked quotes from Netanyahu reveal rationale  The Jerusalem Post
  4. Israeli Supreme Court freezes dismissal of Shin Bet chief  Reuters
  5. ‘There will be no civil war,’ Netanyahu tweets; insists gov’t decides who heads the Shin Bet  The Times of Israel
Posted in Uncategorized

Flights leaving Bali cancelled after volcanic eruption shoots ash plume 8km into sky

Posted on by

Indonesia’s 1,700m Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted for 11 minutes on Thursday, causing ash cloud but no damage to nearby villages on the island of Flores

At least seven international flights from Indonesia’s resort island Bali have been cancelled, an airport official said on Friday, after a volcano in the archipelago nation’s east erupted, shooting dark ash 8km into the sky.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703m (5,587ft) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted for 11 minutes and nine seconds late on Thursday, authorities said, raising the volcano’s alert status to the highest level.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Calls grow in Serbia for investigation into claims ‘sound cannon’ targeted protesters

Posted on by

More than 500,000 people sign petition after ‘powerful sonic impact’ allegedly directed towards rally in Belgrade

More than half a million people have signed an online petition calling for an independent investigation into whether security forces in Serbia used a sonic weapon – what the petition described as a “sound cannon” – during Saturday’s huge anti-corruption rally.

Days after as many as 325,000 people took to the streets of Belgrade, rights groups and opposition parties continue to allege that protesters were targeted with some sort of auditory device that briefly sowed panic and left some with symptoms that lingered long after the rally.

Continue reading...

Inside Trump’s Lightning-Fast Deportation of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran Prison – The Wall Street Journal

Posted on by
  1. Inside Trump’s Lightning-Fast Deportation of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran Prison  The Wall Street Journal
  2. What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced  TIME
  3. Shackles, shock troops, windowless cells: How bad is Trump's favorite Salvadoran prison?  USA TODAY
  4. Why experts fear the men who were sent to El Salvador's megaprison may never make it out  NBC News
  5. US deportees face brutal conditions in El Salvador mega-prison: ‘Severe overcrowding, inadequate food’  The Guardian US
Posted in Uncategorized

The mystery of why kangaroos hop could be solved thanks to this musky mammal

Posted on by

Kangaroos and wallabies are the only hopping species heavier than 5kg, and the small musky rat-kangaroo might help us learn why

Scientists stalking a small marsupial through a remote Australian rainforest say they may have found a clue to the mystery of why its bigger kangaroo cousins hop instead of walk.

Kangaroos and closely related wallabies are the only large animals to hop upright on two legs, researchers from Australia’s Flinders University said Thursday, but why remains a mystery.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Israeli troops enter northern Gaza; Hamas retaliates with rocket fire – The Washington Post

Posted on by
  1. Israeli troops enter northern Gaza; Hamas retaliates with rocket fire  The Washington Post
  2. Why did Netanyahu end the Gaza ceasefire?  The Associated Press
  3. Israel Expands Gaza Ground Offensive as Hamas Fires Rockets at Tel Aviv  The New York Times
  4. Hamas launches first attack on Israel since ceasefire collapse  Fox News
  5. The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question - Security Council, 9882nd meeting  Welcome to the United Nations
Posted in Uncategorized

Heathrow Airport closes all day over power outage – BBC.com

Posted on by
  1. Heathrow Airport closes all day over power outage  BBC.com
  2. Heathrow Airport in London closed after fire at nearby electrical substation  USA TODAY
  3. Hayes fire: Heathrow airport closed after blaze at electrical substation in west London  The Guardian
  4. London’s Heathrow Airport Shut Friday Due to Power Outage  Bloomberg
  5. London’s Heathrow Airport Shuts After Fire Triggers Power Outage  The New York Times
Posted in Uncategorized

Why Bukele opened his infamous prison to Trump – The Washington Post

Posted on by
  1. Why Bukele opened his infamous prison to Trump  The Washington Post
  2. Why experts fear the men who were sent to El Salvador's megaprison may never make it out  NBC News
  3. Inside Trump’s Lightning-Fast Deportation of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran Prison  The Wall Street Journal
  4. Videos of Shackled Venezuelan Migrants Have History in El Salvador  The New York Times
  5. The Horror Inside the Salvadoran Prisons Where Trump Is Sending Migrants  Foreign Policy
Posted in Uncategorized

The search for missing plane MH370 is back on. An underwater robotics expert explains what’s involved – The Conversation

Posted on by
  1. The search for missing plane MH370 is back on. An underwater robotics expert explains what’s involved  The Conversation
  2. New search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 approved as researchers plan to investigate fresh area of Indian Ocean  Yahoo
  3. Texas robotics company gets green light to search for MH370 in new part of Indian Ocean  NBC DFW
  4. Malaysia green-lights new MH370 search in Indian Ocean  BBC.com
  5. What Happened to MH370, the Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight?  History | HowStuffWorks
Posted in Uncategorized

Florida man executed for killing eight-year-old girl and her grandmother

Posted on by

Edward James received three-drug lethal injection under death warrant signed in February by governor Ron DeSantis

A Florida man who killed an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday.

Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis. The execution was the second this year in Florida, which is planning a third in April.

Continue reading...