Australia’s first public vending machines offering free pads and tampons launch in Melbourne

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Libraries, Tafes and hospitals among first 30 locations to have period product dispensers installed in Victorian government initiative

Vending machines offering free pads and tampons will begin operating at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building, as well as hospitals, libraries and Tafes, as part of an Australian-first government initiative aimed at ending period poverty.

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, will on Thursday announce the first 30 locations where 50 vending machines will be installed as part of the pilot program, which also includes the Melbourne Immigration Museum, three Northern Health campuses, the Royal Women’s hospital in Parkville and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

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Fayed accuser files US court claim to make his younger brother give evidence

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Claim will be first legal action taken related to alleged crimes of former Harrods owner, who died last year

A woman who claims to have been raped and trafficked while working for Mohamed Al Fayed has filed a legal claim in a US court to oblige his surviving younger brother to give evidence about his alleged knowledge of the crimes.

The application filed at the US district court for Connecticut claims Ali Fayed, 80, has “unique and critical evidence” to give about a “more than two-decade-long trafficking scheme that ensnared and irrevocably injured what is reported to be more than 100 women”.

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Sara Sharif’s father tells court 10-year-old’s death was ‘all my fault’

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Urfan Sharif says he takes ‘full responsibility’ for daughter’s death and admits beating her with a cricket bat

Sara Sharif’s father has told a court he takes “full responsibility” for the 10-year-old’s death and admitted striking her across the abdomen with a metal pole as she lay dying.

Urfan Sharif also admitted strangling Sara and beating her with a cricket bat while her ankles and wrists were bound with packing tape in the weeks before she was killed. Sharif told jurors he accepted everything that he had told police in a 999 call and a handwritten confession after his daughter’s death.

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C.I.A. Official Charged in Leak of Classified Documents About Israeli Military Plans – The New York Times

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  1. C.I.A. Official Charged in Leak of Classified Documents About Israeli Military Plans  The New York Times
  2. FBI arrests alleged leaker of US intelligence documents related to Israel’s attack plans against Iran  CNN
  3. US government worker charged with leaking classified documents on Israel's plans to strike Iran  The Associated Press
  4. US intelligence official charged after Israel’s plan to attack Iran leaked  The Guardian US
  5. CIA Official Arrested for Intelligence Leak on Israeli Plans to Strike Iran  The Wall Street Journal
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Live Briefing: IDF strikes Beirut’s southern suburbs; Israeli ministers welcome Trump Cabinet picks – The Washington Post

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  1. Live Briefing: IDF strikes Beirut’s southern suburbs; Israeli ministers welcome Trump Cabinet picks  The Washington Post
  2. LIVE: Hezbollah attacks Israeli army HQ; Israel again hits Gaza ‘safe zone’  Al Jazeera English
  3. Lebanon, Gaza and Syria hit by deadly Israeli strikes, reports say  CNN
  4. Israel presses airstrikes as Beirut awaits truce ideas  Reuters
  5. Israel Intensifies Strikes in Lebanon Amid Push for Cease-Fire  The New York Times
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Schools closed and people evacuated as torrential rain returns in Spain

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Large parts of east and south under alerts as schools are shut and riverside neighbourhoods evacuated in Andalucía

Authorities in eastern and southern Spain have closed schools and begun evacuating some residents as the country is pounded by further torrential rains two weeks after the catastrophic floods that killed at least 215 people and unleashed a bitter political blame game.

On Wednesday morning, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, put large parts of eastern and southern Spain on amber alert and issued the highest level of warning for the provinces Tarragona in Catalonia and Málaga in Andalucía.

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The Guardian stops posting on Elon Musk’s ‘toxic’ X – BBC.com

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  1. The Guardian stops posting on Elon Musk's 'toxic' X  BBC.com
  2. Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X  The Guardian
  3. Bluesky’s user base has doubled in the past 90 days. Is it a mass exodus from X?  CNN
  4. Prominent X Accounts—Including The Guardian And Don Lemon—Are Leaving Elon Musk’s Site. Here’s Why.  Forbes
  5. If You Haven’t Left Twitter Already, Please Do So Now  The Daily Beast
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Doctors Without Borders ambulance in Haiti ambushed and two patients killed

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Medical charity says its staff members were violently attacked by police and vigilantes 100 meters from hospital

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that at least two of its patients were killed after one of its ambulances was stopped and attacked in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

MSF said its staff members were violently attacked on Monday after “members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers” stopped the ambulance, which was transporting three young people with gunshot wounds.

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Indigenous deaths in custody reach 22 in 11 months as advocates say numbers ‘met with indifference’

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Justice campaigners say 580 Aboriginal deaths since 1991 royal commission point to ‘gross overrepresentation’ in system

Twenty-two Indigenous people have died in custody in just 11 months, according to national data collated by the Australian Institute of Criminology, with justice advocates saying deaths that should spark a “national outcry” are being met with silence.

That means at least 580 Aboriginal people have died in police or prison custody since 1991 – when the royal commission into the matter handed down its final report – according to the AIC’s National Deaths in Custody database, which tracks Indigenous deaths in prison, police custody and youth detention.

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Trump’s unfinished business for ‘Greater Israel’ – +972 Magazine

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  1. Trump’s unfinished business for ‘Greater Israel’  +972 Magazine
  2. Iran Is Off-Balance. Israel Has a Narrow Window to Take Advantage.  Barron's
  3. 'Trump is targeting bottom line': Israel expects new US administration to take hard line on Iran  The Times of India
  4. Gazans Heard Trump’s Promises. Now They Want Him to Keep Them.  The Nation
  5. Donald Trump’s Return Could Bring a More Peaceful Middle East  TIME
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South African tiger farms illegally smuggling body parts, says charity

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Biggest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, Four Paws animal charity says

The largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger body parts, according to a report by an animal welfare charity.

Research by Four Paws, which is campaigning to shut down South Africa’s big cat industry, found 103 places in the country where tigers were kept in captivity in 2023 or 2024 or had been kept during the previous three years.

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Pakistan employs new measures to deal with nearly 70,000 people affected daily by hazardous smog – The Associated Press

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  1. Pakistan employs new measures to deal with nearly 70,000 people affected daily by hazardous smog  The Associated Press
  2. India, Pakistan blanketed in smog so thick, it's visible from space: See pictures  USA TODAY
  3. Life in Lahore, the world's most polluted city  DW (English)
  4. How India, Pakistan and China Might Cooperate On Air Quality  Forbes
  5. Pakistan's smog is visible from space. This activist is 'frustrated' but won't give up : Goats and Soda  NPR
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Biden to meet for a final time with Xi this week as a new Trump era of China relations begins – CNN

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  1. Biden to meet for a final time with Xi this week as a new Trump era of China relations begins  CNN
  2. Biden to Meet With President Xi Jinping of China During Summit This Weekend  The New York Times
  3. Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet in Peru this weekend  CBS News
  4. A diminished Biden heads to APEC summit in Peru, overshadowed by China’s Xi  The Associated Press
  5. Biden and Xi will meet on Saturday, the 3rd and likely final time during Biden's term  NPR
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Exiles ask King Charles to rescind honour awarded to king of Bahrain

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Buckingham Palace accused of ‘burying’ news of GCVO bestowed on King Hamad, whose regime is accused of torturing opponents

King Charles has been asked by exiles from Bahrain to rescind an honour he bestowed this week on the ruler of the Gulf kingdom.

Charles was told in a letter by the exiles: “It is personally difficult for us to view this honour as anything other than a betrayal of victims who have suffered at the hands of King Hamad and his brutal regime.”

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‘Minuscule’ amount of novichok could have been fatal, scientist tells inquiry

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Witness from Porton Down laboratory says ‘many lethal doses’ of nerve agent were applied to Sergei Skripal’s door

A “minuscule” amount of the nerve agent used in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal – as small as a sixth of a grain of salt – could have been enough to prove fatal, a government scientist has told an inquiry.

The scientist, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, said “many lethal doses” of novichok were daubed on the handle of the former Russian spy’s front door in Salisbury and it was so pure that it must have been manufactured by a sophisticated laboratory.

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Argentina withdraws negotiators from Cop29 summit

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Move adds to concerns about the stability of the Paris agreement after the election in the US of Donald Trump

Argentinian negotiators representing the government of the climate science denier Javier Milei have been ordered to withdraw from the Cop29 summit after only three days, adding to concerns about the stability of the Paris agreement.

More than 80 representatives from the South American country are in Baku, Azerbaijan, for two weeks of negotiations about climate finance for the energy transition. Argentina’s far-right leader has previously called the climate crisis a “socialist lie”, and during his election campaign last year he threatened to withdraw from the Paris agreement, though he has since backed down.

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