Albanese government to lift ban on working with PwC Australia as police investigation continues

Exclusive: Finance minister to consider feedback from senators before making decision final

The finance department has found consultancy firm PwC Australia is an ethically sound company and recommended the end of a long-term ban on it working with the government, despite an ongoing police investigation into the company.

But the firm, which sold its entire government consulting business for just $1 at the height of a scandal over the misuse of confidential Treasury information, will not be able to tender for government work until at least 2028 due to a non-compete clause with its spin-off, Scyne Advisory.

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NatWest investors given £1.5bn weeks after full privatisation

Profits rise 4.4% at lender, which plans to distribute interim dividend of 9.5p a share on top of fresh £750m buyback

NatWest will give a further £1.5bn to shareholders only weeks after the UK government sold the final part of its stake in the once bailed-out bank.

The high street lender on Friday announced plans to distribute an interim dividend of 9.5p a share, worth a collective £768m, on top of a fresh £750m share buyback in the second half of the year.

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‘City of singles’: cosmopolitan prewar Paris’s ‘crazy years’ brought to life

Database of 8m handwritten census entries paints portrait of city that was hub for intellectuals, artists and young, single people

In 1926, James Joyce was working on his novel Finnegans Wake while living in a spacious apartment in the 7th arrondissement of Paris with his partner, Nora Barnacle, and their two adult children, Giorgio and Lucia.

Joyce’s neighbours in the elegant stone building at 2 Square de Robiac included a Syrian family whose three children had an English nanny called Jessie, Russian émigrés, an Egyptian industrialist, and the US writers William and Elizabeth Placida Mahl.

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NSW police actions should be examined in Tammy Shipley’s death in custody, lawyer argues

Court asked to consider whether the coroner has jurisdiction to examine Shipley’s arrest

The actions of New South Wales police during the arrest of an Indigenous woman who later died in custody should be examined, given officers did not identify her “acute mental illness”, a court has heard.

Tammy Shipley died in prison while being held on remand at Silverwater women’s correctional centre in December 2022.

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4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of ‘mass starvation’ risk – NPR

  1. 4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of 'mass starvation' risk  NPR
  2. Almost a third of people in Gaza not eating for days, UN food programme warns  BBC
  3. Israel says hundreds of truckloads of aid are waiting to enter Gaza. Why can't the UN bring them in?  The Washington Post
  4. Gazans Are Dying of Starvation  The New York Times
  5. Gaza's hunger crisis is having 'catastrophic' outcomes for mothers and babies  NBC News
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Australian actor Rebel Wilson sued by production company behind her own film

UK-based AI Film has accused the actor of deliberately sabotaging The Deb’s release by making alleged threats and defamatory claims

The legal drama surrounding The Deb, Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, has made landfall in Australia, with one of the production companies behind the venture filing a lawsuit against Wilson in the New South Wales supreme court this week.

UK-based AI Film, represented by Australian legal firm Giles George and high-profile barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, accused the Pitch Perfect Australian actor of deliberately sabotaging the film’s release, alleging threats and defamatory claims had caused the production company financial and reputational damage.

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Warm weather and live events give lift to retail sales in Great Britain

Shoppers flock to stores in June for food, drink and merchandise, and also go on short breaks

Sunny summer weather and a packed schedule of events including Wimbledon, concerts by Oasis and Beyoncé, and international cricket and football sent shoppers flocking to retailers and supermarkets last month.

Retail sales volumes in Great Britain rose by 0.9% in June, bouncing back from a sharp fall in May, although slightly below analyst consensus forecasts of a 1.2% month-on-month increase.

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Georges Abdallah: Pro-Palestinian convict freed after 40 years – BBC

  1. Georges Abdallah: Pro-Palestinian convict freed after 40 years  BBC
  2. Militant Georges Abdallah arrives in Lebanon after more than 40 years in French detention  AP News
  3. Lebanese terrorist convicted of killing Israeli diplomat to be freed Friday in France  The Times of Israel
  4. Pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter freed from France welcomed home in Beirut  Al Jazeera
  5. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is free after 40 years in French prison: 'I return to Lebanon as an activist'  Le Monde.fr
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Australia Says Gaza Situation Beyond ‘Worst Fears’ as Pressure Mounts on Israel – The New York Times

  1. Australia Says Gaza Situation Beyond ‘Worst Fears’ as Pressure Mounts on Israel  The New York Times
  2. Gaza situation beyond ‘worst fears,’ Australia says amid mass starvation  The Hill
  3. Albanese says Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza ‘cannot be defended or ignored’ in strongest condemnation yet  The Guardian
  4. PM says Gaza situation 'beyond the world's worst fears'  Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  5. Anthony Albanese slams Israeli government for aid in Gaza  The Jerusalem Post
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‘We’re terribly sorry’: South Park creators respond with humour to White House anger over naked Donald Trump

Speaking at Comic-Con on Thursday, Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed they spent days negotiating with producers to show the US president’s genitals

South Park co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest of responses on Thursday to anger from the White House over the latest season premiere, which showed a naked Donald Trump in bed with Satan.

“We’re terribly sorry,” Parker said, followed by a long, deadpan-comic stare.

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Russia launches satellite for Iran toward orbit alongside 2 space weather probes (photos) – Space

  1. Russia launches satellite for Iran toward orbit alongside 2 space weather probes (photos)  Space
  2. Russian rocket launches Iran satellite into space: Iranian media  Al Jazeera
  3. Russia launches Iranian communications satellite into orbit  The Times of Israel
  4. Iranian satellite to launch aboard Russian Soyuz rocket - IRGC media  ایران اینترنشنال
  5. Russia Blasts New Iran Satellite Into Space  Newsweek
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Thailand-Cambodia border dispute: 130,000 Thai civilians evacuated amid second day of clashes

Thailand PM warns cross-border clashes ‘could develop into war’ as fighting spreads to 12 locations

Thailand has evacuated more than 130,000 people along the Cambodian border, it said on Friday, as the country’s leader warned cross-border clashes could develop into war.

Clashes that began on Thursday resumed early on Friday, the Thai military reported, as the two countries fought in their bloodiest military clashes in over a decade.

Fighting had taken place in 12 locations along the disputed border, a Thai military official – an expansion of the conflict that erupted a day earlier.

“This present incident of aggression is escalating and could develop to the stage of war,” Thailand’s acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters in Bangkok. “However, right now we are still at altercation level, battling with heavy weapons. What we have done so far are to protect our land and sovereignty of our nation.”

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