Man in critical condition with lyssavirus after bat bite – as it happened

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NSW wild weather: ‘Conditions can become dangerous quickly’

Wild weather has brought down trees, damaged properties and flooded roads on the NSW coast, NSW SES says.

These incidents are a timely reminder that roads are slippery, and conditions can become dangerous quickly.

Please, never drive, walk or play in flood waters. If you do come across a flooded road, turn around and find an alternative route.

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An oil-drilling ship capsized in the Gulf of Suez, killing at least 4 crewmen, Egypt says – AP News

  1. An oil-drilling ship capsized in the Gulf of Suez, killing at least 4 crewmen, Egypt says  AP News
  2. Four dead, four missing after oil barge sinks in Gulf of Suez: Egypt gov’t  Al Jazeera
  3. Four dead, three missing as Saudi-owned drilling barge capsizes  Upstream Online
  4. Vessel off coach of Egypt, in Gulf of Suez, capsizes in deadly accident  The Jerusalem Post
  5. Suez Canal traffic unaffected by drill ship Incident  Egyptian Gazette
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Paramount settles with Trump for $16m over ‘60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview

Paramount said it would pay the $16m to Trump’s future presidential library and not to Trump himself. It also said the settlement did not include a statement of apology or regret.

CBS parent company Paramount on Wednesday settled a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over an interview broadcast in October, in the latest concession by a media company to the US president, who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.

Paramount said it would pay $16m to settle the suit with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, and not paid to Trump “directly or indirectly”.

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Judge orders Queensland council to pause planned demolition of homeless camps

Moreton Bay council agrees to supreme court injunction against evicting residents who had previously been evicted from another park

Moreton Bay city council has been ordered not to clear a homeless encampment after a hearing in the Queensland supreme court on Wednesday.

Numerous homeless residents of Eddie Hyland Park in Lawnton were evicted by council rangers in April, with their tents cleared by heavy machinery. Just two were granted public housing. Most have set up a new camp in a different park in Kallangur.

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EU may as well be ‘province of China’ due to reliance on imports, says industrialist

Stefan Scherer, boss of AMG Lithium, says Europe must become more self-sufficient in critical raw materials and new technologies

The EU may as well “apply to be a province of China” such is its inability to wean itself off that country’s supply of critical raw materials used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and wind turbines, a leading German industrialist has said.

As chief executive of AMG Lithium, the EU’s first factory to make the lithium hydroxide used in many car batteries, Stefan Scherer sits at the centre of what has been dubbed a new gold rush.

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‘Tiny melodies’: musician uses moths’ flight data to compose piece about their decline

Ellie Wilson’s piece titled Moth x Human assigns different sounds to the species on Parsonage Down in Salisbury

They are vital pollinators who come out at night, but now moths have emerged into the bright light of day as co-creators of a new piece of music – composed using the insects’ own flight data.

Ellie Wilson composed Moth x Human in a protected habitat on Parsonage Down in Salisbury, Wiltshire. She assigned each of the 80 resident moth species a different sound, which was triggered when it landed on her monitor.

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Humiliation for Starmer as he loses control of Commons – BBC

  1. Humiliation for Starmer as he loses control of Commons  BBC
  2. Keir Starmer Endures Rebellion in Parliament Over Welfare Cuts  The New York Times
  3. PMQs latest: Starmer fails to rule out tax rises and refuses to guarantee Reeves will stay on as chancellor  The Independent
  4. A humiliating day for Keir Starmer in parliament - podcast  The Guardian
  5. Starmer guts UK welfare reforms to avoid Commons defeat  Financial Times
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‘A billion people backing you’: China transfixed as Musk turns against Trump

Tesla CEO’s feud with US president dominates Chinese social media, with many praising his ‘tech-driven mindset’

Few break-ups have as many gossiping observers as the fallout between the once inseparable Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

The ill-fated bromance between the US president and the world’s richest man, which once raised questions about American oligarchy, is now being pored over by social media users in China, many of whom are Team Musk.

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What’s next after Thai PM Paetongtarn’s suspension and who’s taking over? – Reuters

  1. What’s next after Thai PM Paetongtarn’s suspension and who’s taking over?  Reuters
  2. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra Suspended Amid Cambodia Dispute  The New York Times
  3. Thailand’s Most Divisive Family May Have No More Moves Left  Bloomberg
  4. Thailand: PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra suspended over leaked phone call  BBC
  5. Dynasty in distress: Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn's fate in limbo  Reuters
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Wednesday briefing: ​​Has Starmer’s welfare reform bill victory left a fractured Labour party in its wake?

In today’s newsletter: After frantic late negotiations, the government’s welfare overhaul has ​passed – now saving almost none of the money that the government said was crucial to its success

Good morning. To his loveless landslide, Keir Starmer can now add a vapid victory. Last night, the government’s flagship welfare reform bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons by 335 votes to 260 – a majority of 75. But after last-minute concessions from the government to secure the bill’s passage, a set of measures whose intended savings had already fallen from £5bn to £2.5bn a year, now looks like recouping much closer to nothing.

The central climbdown, where plans for deep cuts to the personal independence payment (Pip) in the future were shelved, has been celebrated by disabled people and the charities who represent them. They had feared that the support they rely on was about to be ripped away. But it is also a measure of how disastrous the whole process has been for Starmer.

Israel-Gaza war | Donald Trump says that Israel has accepted conditions of a ceasefire after US-Israeli talks and urged Hamas to agree. The US president did not give details of the terms and there is no indication that Hamas will accept them.

NHS | Three bosses at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, police have said. The three, who have not been named, were arrested as part of the investigation into the actions of leaders at the Countess of Chester hospital.

UK news | The home secretary is coming under increasing pressure to abandon plans to ban Palestine Action, as UN experts and hundreds of lawyers warned that proscribing the group would conflate protest and terrorism.

US news | The jury in the high-profile federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs concluded the day without a verdict on Tuesday, unable to come to a decision on one of the five counts. The judge advised the jury to “keep deliberating”.

Extreme heat | Outdoor working has been banned during the hottest parts of the day in more than half of Italy’s regions, as an extreme heatwave that has smashed June temperature records in Spain and Portugal continues to grip large swathes of Europe.

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UK universities have failed to protect gender-critical academics, report finds

Report’s author raises ‘stark concerns about barriers to academic freedom’

UK universities have failed to protect gender-critical academics from bullying and career-threatening restrictions on their research, according to a report.

The report, by Prof Alice Sullivan of University College London, recommends that students and staff “taking part in freedom-restricting harassment should face consequences commensurate with the seriousness of the offence”.

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Quad countries agree to diversify critical mineral supplies amid China concerns – The Guardian

  1. Quad countries agree to diversify critical mineral supplies amid China concerns  The Guardian
  2. Secretary Rubio’s Meeting with the Quad Foreign Ministers  U.S. Department of State (.gov)
  3. US, Japan, India, Australia announce minerals initiative  DW
  4. US, Indo-Pacific partners agree to strengthen maritime, critical minerals cooperation  AP News
  5. Quad Summit: Jaishankar says South China Sea an 'issue of great concern'; joint statement opposes forcefu  The Times of India
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US, Japan, India, Australia announce minerals initiative – DW

  1. US, Japan, India, Australia announce minerals initiative  DW
  2. US, Indo-Pacific partners announce minerals initiative as Rubio hosts counterparts  Reuters
  3. Quad countries agree to diversify critical mineral supplies amid China concerns  The Guardian
  4. Secretary Rubio’s Meeting with the Quad Foreign Ministers  U.S. Department of State (.gov)
  5. Quad Summit: Jaishankar says South China Sea an 'issue of great concern'; joint statement opposes forcefu  The Times of India
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A new tech race is on. Can Europe learn from the ones it lost? – politico.eu

  1. A new tech race is on. Can Europe learn from the ones it lost?  politico.eu
  2. EU turns to private funding to boost quantum technology ambition  Yahoo Finance
  3. Brussels launches Quantum Strategy to stay in global tech race  Euronews.com
  4. EU wants to bridge finance gap for quantum computing, says tech chief  Financial Times
  5. Quantum strategy: Don’t regulate what hasn’t matured – fund it, build it, and scale it  DigitalEurope
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Brussels fiddles on climate target while Europe burns – politico.eu

  1. Brussels fiddles on climate target while Europe burns  politico.eu
  2. Gulf Between U.S. and Europe’s Climate Targets Just Got Wider  WSJ
  3. EU includes international CO2 credits in climate goal for first time  Reuters
  4. EU’s proposed 2040 emissions target signals its retreat as leader on climate action  The Guardian
  5. What a 90% emissions cut could mean for EU citizens  Euractiv
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