Ausgrid slashes safety inspectors after report finds cheaper to pay permanent disability injury compensation

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Secret report from CutlerMerz finds yearly cost of inspections – $520,219 – is more than cost of paying compensation – $28,375 a year

Ausgrid cut safety inspector numbers by more than half after receiving a secret report that said it was cheaper for the company to pay compensation for a permanent disability injury than to continue paying for the inspections.

The secret report, conducted by consultancy CutlerMerz and seen by Guardian Australia, recommended Ausgrid slash the inspections it was doing by as much as 55%, saying the cost – $520,219 per year – was “grossly disproportionate to the cost of the consequence being managed”.

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Retail sales rise in Great Britain as warm weather boosts clothing purchases

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Increase of 0.5% in August helped by back-to-school shopping, while food stores also given lift

Back-to-school shopping and warm weather helped to boost retail sales last month, according to the latest official data.

Total retail sales in Great Britain rose 0.5%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, as parents prepared for the new school year and shoppers enjoyed a series of heatwave and the summer’s last bank holiday.

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Doctor who called Erin Patterson ‘crazy bitch’ after treating her penalised for speaking about case

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Health regulator places conditions on Dr Christopher Webster’s registration over comments made after mushroom lunch murder trial

An Australian doctor who treated triple murderer Erin Patterson and her victims after the deadly mushroom lunch has been slapped with conditions by the health regulator after speaking out about the case.

Dr Christopher Webster, a GP in the Victorian town of Leongatha, south-east of Melbourne, was a witness in Patterson’s trial earlier this year.

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Sussan Ley says she ‘misspoke’ after comments that Coalition doesn’t believe in setting climate targets

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Liberal leader later clarifies she doesn’t support setting targets while in opposition

The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has indicated the Coalition won’t set a 2030 or 2035 climate target unless they return to government, saying her colleagues didn’t back locking in an emissions goal while they remained in opposition.

It came as Ley had to clean up her own error, claiming she “misspoke” after initially saying her party “don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government”. She later clarified she only meant in opposition, prompting ridicule from Anthony Albanese who claimed the opposition “changes its policies from hour to hour”.

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Eritrean man is second to be deported to France under UK’s ‘one in, one out’ deal

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Home Office says man left Heathrow for Paris early on Friday after losing high court attempt to block move

An Eritrean man has been deported to France under the UK government’s “one in, one out” deal with the neighbouring country.

The man – the second to be deported under the agreement – was on a flight that left Heathrow for Paris at 6.15am on Friday, the Home Office confirmed after he lost a high court attempt to block the move.

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For comedians around the world, the laughs often end as democracy fades

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Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel sets US on course similar to that charted by authoritarian regimes from Egypt to India

The exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has experienced firsthand how intolerant governments can silence political satire. And he had a short message this week for those living in an age of Donald Trump’s free speech clampdown: “My Fellow American Citizens,” he wrote on X. “Welcome to my world.”

In his attacks on the most prominent of American satirists, the US president has joined a cadre of illiberal and sensitive leaders around the world who will not tolerate a joke.

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Strong quake hits Russia’s Kamchatka, no damage reported – Reuters

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  1. Strong quake hits Russia's Kamchatka, no damage reported  Reuters
  2. Powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake shakes Russia's far east Kamchatka region  ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos
  3. Tsunami Advisory Dropped In Alaska After Major Russian Aftershock  The Weather Channel
  4. 7.8 magnitude quake off Kamchatka was one of many aftershocks since July  Alaska's News Source
  5. Aftershock Rocks Kamchatka after July’s Massive Earthquake  Scientific American
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Kim Jong Un declares AI military drone development a ‘top priority’ – Al Jazeera

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  1. Kim Jong Un declares AI military drone development a ‘top priority’  Al Jazeera
  2. North Korea's Copycat US Drone Takes Flight As Kim Jong Un Watches On  Newsweek
  3. Kim Jong Un oversees drone tests, calls UAV development ‘top priority’ for DPRK  NK News
  4. North Korea's Kim Jong Un oversees drone testing, KCNA says  Reuters
  5. Test flights of the new Kumsong drone, the “Global Hawk” developed by North Korea to equip its Air Force, have been recorded  Zona Militar
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Expert: Kyiv ‘hits nail on the head’ with strikes on Russian oil sites – Euronews.com

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  1. Expert: Kyiv 'hits nail on the head' with strikes on Russian oil sites  Euronews.com
  2. Ukraine strikes choke off Russian oil exports and fuel supplies  Al Jazeera
  3. Ukraine updates: Drones target key Russian refinery  dw.com
  4. Russia’s Crude Exports Lose Momentum After Baltic Flows Targeted  Bloomberg.com
  5. Russia gasoline sales hit 2-year low amid Ukrainian drone strikes and harvest-season demand  politico.eu
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Bali to block new hotels and restaurants after deadly flooding raises questions about mass tourism

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Bali governor says new instructions issued to stop hotels and restaurants being built on productive land, especially rice fields

Indonesia will ban the construction of new hotels and restaurants built atop cleared rice fields and agricultural land on the popular resort island of Bali, after recent flash flooding killed at least 18 people.

A state of emergency was declared on Bali on 10 September after the island experienced the most severe flooding in more than a decade.

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