Trump ally says Peter Mandelson’s US ambassador job will not be blocked

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Newspapers had reported that new president might veto UK pick, as ministers brace for a turbulent four years

Donald Trump will not block the appointment of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to the US, according to a London-based ally of the president-elect, as ministers brace for a turbulent four years of British-American relations.

Greg Swenson, the head of the UK branch of Republicans Overseas, told the BBC on Sunday he did not believe Trump would prevent the Labour peer from taking up his post in Washington, despite reports to the contrary.

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Gaza children return home only to be killed by Israel after ceasefire delay – Middle East Eye

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  1. Gaza children return home only to be killed by Israel after ceasefire delay  Middle East Eye
  2. Updates: Israel kills 21 children in Gaza following ceasefire announcement  Al Jazeera English
  3. Israeli air strikes continue in Gaza after ceasefire deal announced  BBC.com
  4. Gaza reports 19 people killed in airstrike during ceasefire delay  MSNBC
  5. Middle East live updates: 90 Palestinian prisoners released  ABC News
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‘A real lack of empathy’: women’s experiences of expressing milk at work

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From showers to unlocked rooms, types of spaces offered to mothers wanting to express have been a source of dismay

An employment judge has ruled that a healthcare worker suffered “harassment related to sex” after a suitable private space for her to express breast milk was not provided to her by an NHS health board.

Robyn Gibbins told an employment tribunal that she was not given a room that she could lock and felt let down by the trust in Cardiff. A trust spokesperson said the Cardiff and Vale university health board was committed to ensuring all colleagues are treated respectfully, with dignity and without discrimination or prejudice.

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Treasury seeks to keep water firm fines earmarked for sewage cleanups

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Exclusive: Restoration fund in England could be ‘siphoned off’ to be used for general government spending, not repairing rivers

Rachel Reeves’s Treasury is looking to keep millions of pounds levied on polluting water companies in fines that were meant to be earmarked for sewage cleanup, the Guardian has learned.

The £11m water restoration fund was announced before the election last year, with projects bidding for the cash to improve waterways and repair damage done by sewage pollution in areas where fines have been imposed.

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Victorian RSL clubs spent only 1.5% of pokies revenue on veteran welfare, study finds

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Financial analysis shows clubs took $2.1bn in gambling revenue over 10-year period but spent 12 times more on business expenses than support programs

Only 1.5% of the money lost by gamblers in poker machines in Victorian RSLs over several years went towards improving veteran welfare, new research shows.

The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, analysed records submitted to the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission over a 10-year period.

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Services Australia chasing billions in unpaid debt – including some which may have been unlawfully calculated

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Agency pursuing $4.9bn in unpaid debts, including some potentially calculated with controversial method, question to parliament reveals

Services Australia is chasing billions of dollars in decades-old debt, it has been revealed, some of which may have been incorrectly calculated.

Data released under questions on notice shows that, as at the end of October last year, Services Australia was pursuing $4.9bn in unpaid debts from 829,266 customers. The oldest debt dates back to 1979, with thousands from the 1990s.

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Australia grants nearly 1,000 humanitarian visas in three months to those fleeing Israel-Hamas conflict

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Figures reveal number of beneficiaries of temporary three-year visa since it was introduced by Labor in October

Almost 1,000 Palestinian and Israeli nationals have been offered temporary humanitarian visas in Australia since last October, new data shows, as the six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza begins.

The humanitarian pathway for those affected by the conflict was introduced in October 2024 for the more than 1,300 Palestinians in Australia on visitor visas but prevents them from applying for permanent protection.

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Lebedev’s London Live TV channel closes after decade of mounting losses

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Station was crown jewel of Jeremy Hunt’s strategy to populate the UK with dozens of local TV stations

At midnight on Sunday, London Live, the capital’s dedicated TV channel and crown jewel of Jeremy Hunt’s strategy to populate the UK with dozens of local TV stations, will cease broadcasting after a little over a decade.

Back in 2010, the then Conservative culture secretary’s local TV plan was criticised as financially unviable by much of the media industry, but London was the exception.

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Thousands of imports enter Australia from firms blacklisted by US over alleged Uyghur forced labour links

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Exclusive: Imports of a range of products, including parts for Sydney Metro vehicles, increase despite US bans on dozens of companies

Australia is allowing thousands of imports from Chinese companies blacklisted by the US over alleged links to forced Uyghur labour, including a supplier of parts to Sydney Metro vehicles, government documents have revealed.

In 2021 the Biden administration passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and from the following year began outlawing imports from dozens of companies, seizing shipments at the border and releasing a public blacklist of the companies, mostly operating in Xinjiang.

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Who banned TikTok? Politicians toss culpability like a football

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Claiming a threat from a ‘foreign adversary’, the US has yet to prove China shared propaganda or collected US user data

The United States of America deleted TikTok early on the morning of 19 January. A government formed “by the people, for the people”, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, has made scant evidence available to those people as to why. As those in power at the 11th hour realize how unpopular such a paternalistic move might be, each is doing their best to lay blame with the others.

Why did the US ban an app used and beloved by some 170 million Americans? For fear of China’s propaganda and data collection. It’s a far-reaching, unprecedented move. The text of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in April and signed by Joe Biden, reads: “This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (eg, TikTok).” Both a federal appeals court and the US supreme court have affirmed that rationale as sufficient.

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Champagne makers say sales losing fizz amid global gloom and changing habits

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Shipments fell nearly 10% last year with French firms blaming economic and political anxiety, and cheaper drinks

Changing habits and the gloomy state of the world are taking the fizz out of French champagne sales, the producers’ association has said, with shipments down nearly 10% last year.

Consumers in crucial markets such as the US and home country France cut down on the luxury beverage, as economic and political anxiety dampened the party mood.

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