Spiky blue devils and chocolate lilies: Victorian grassland bursts with wildflowers after ecological ‘reset’

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Careful management including weed control and a burn laid the groundwork for floral abundance in Boorhaman reserve

Thousands of native daisies, aromatic lilies, milkmaids, billy buttons and rare orchids have blossomed in a pocket of north-east Victorian grassland in one of the best wildflower displays in years.

Glen Johnson, an ecologist at Wild Research, said Boorhaman reserve, located north of Wangaratta, was “an amazingly diverse environment from the knees down”.

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Meta is ‘reckless’ in ‘need-to-know situations’, Canada warns Australia as it braces for early bushfire season

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Heritage minister says Facebook made ‘room for misinformation’ after turning news off in 2023 as Australia mulls actions that could lead to Meta doing the same

Twelve months on from Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season unfolding during a news blackout on Facebook, the nation has warned Australia about Meta’s “reckless” behaviour during “need-to-know situations”.

An early start to Australia’s bushfire season is looming for swaths of the country, with large parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the south-west of Victoria and south-east corner of South Australia facing higher risk, according to an official assessment in September.

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Ramshackle Russian Assault Groups Are Maneuvering Around Undermanned Ukrainian Defenses In Donetsk Oblast – Forbes

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  1. Ramshackle Russian Assault Groups Are Maneuvering Around Undermanned Ukrainian Defenses In Donetsk Oblast  Forbes
  2. Russian forces capture settlement of Novodmytrivka in eastern Ukraine  Reuters
  3. Kyiv says Russian troops advancing fast as missile fears grow  Courthouse News Service
  4. Russia reports it has taken control of Ukraine’s Donetsk villages  VOA Asia
  5. Russian troops advance near five settlements in Donetsk Oblast – DeepState analysts  Ukrainska Pravda
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‘One conversation really changed my mind’: the personal stories driving MPs’ decisions on assisted dying

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Traditional allies such as Diane Abbott and John McDonnell are split over Friday’s vote as politicians grapple with the issue

During a Labour away day ahead of the last election, the party’s candidates were put through their paces as parliamentary debaters. The topic chosen, assisted dying, was a deliberately intractable issue designed to test their analytical skills. Yet just months later, scores of new MPs find themselves having to make a very real decision over changing the law.

“I’m genuinely the most back and forth on this that I’ve been on anything,” said one new MP who has found themselves on either side of the debate over recent months. Like so many, with the issues so finely balanced in their mind, a single conversation can sway their thinking.

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Hamas says Israeli female hostage killed in north Gaza combat zone

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Group’s armed wing says unnamed woman’s death established after long break in contact with her captors

Hamas’s armed wing said on Saturday that an Israeli woman taken hostage during the October 2023 attack had been killed in a combat zone in northern Gaza, as the Israeli military said it was investigating.

The spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said contact had been restored with the woman’s captors after a break of several weeks and it was established that the hostage had been killed in an area of north Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating.

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UK justice secretary attacks assisted dying bill as ‘state death service’

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Shabana Mahmood has written to her constituents saying she is ‘profoundly concerned’ about Friday’s Commons vote

MPs will be placing the country on a “slippery slope towards death on demand” if they back legislation on assisted dying in England and Wales this week, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said in a letter to constituents before a historic Commons vote on Friday.

Mahmood has received numerous letters about the bill from people in her Birmingham Ladywood seat, which has a big Muslim population, and sent out replies saying that she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation, not only for religious reasons but also because of what it would mean for the role of the state if one of its functions became helping people to die.

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Nine people hospitalized in listeria outbreak linked to South Carolina food processor

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A woman in California also lost a fetus from the disease that US health officials have linked to Yu Shang Food Inc

A listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat meat and poultry products from a South Carolina food processor has caused 11 illnesses in four states, with nine hospitalizations, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A woman who was pregnant with twins was also sickened. Both of the fetuses died, but listeria was found in a sample from only one.

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Revealed: Home Office ‘completely lost grip’ at notorious Manston asylum centre

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Court documents contain admissions by officials that they were unable to control the situation at the Kent facility where 18,000 asylum seekers were illegally detained

Home Office officials have admitted that “we completely lost our grip” on the situation at a notorious asylum processing centre that led to 18,000 people being unlawfully detained in horrific conditions.

Overcrowding at Manston, a former RAF base in Kent, in autumn 2022 led to an outbreak of diphtheria and scabies. Asylum seekers who had crossed the Channel in small boats were forced to sleep on filthy floors or on flattened cardboard boxes, while toilets were overflowing with faeces. Women and children were forced to sleep close to unrelated men and there were claims of assaults by guards.

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Police carry out controlled explosion at London Euston station

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Cordons lifted after passengers were evacuated when a suspicious package was reported

Police have carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious package at Euston railway station, the Metropolitan police have confirmed.

Cordons were in place around the main line station in north London at lunchtime on Saturday and passengers due to travel were evacuated from the station.

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What’s Behind Ukraine and Russia’s Missile Brinkmanship? – The New York Times

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  1. What’s Behind Ukraine and Russia’s Missile Brinkmanship?  The New York Times
  2. The Ukraine missile crisis: Putin’s shadow war against the west finally breaks cover  The Guardian
  3. This is no time to surrender to Putin’s rockets – still less his words  The Independent
  4. Putin is climbing the ‘escalation ladder’ in his war against Ukraine, expert warns  Fox News
  5. What Putin plans next for Ukraine, nuclear threats explained  USA TODAY
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Couple accused of stealing nearly $1m of Lululemon products from stores

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Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on 14 November in Minneapolis-St Paul

A couple has been accused of stealing nearly $1m worth of Lululemon products from its stores across the US.

Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on 14 November in Minneapolis-St Paul and have each been charged with one count of organized retail theft, according to a criminal complaint filed in Minnesota and reviewed by multiple outlets.

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Ukraine has lost over 40% of Russia’s Kursk region to counter-attacks, Kyiv military source says – Reuters

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  1. Ukraine has lost over 40% of Russia's Kursk region to counter-attacks, Kyiv military source says  Reuters
  2. Ukraine has lost over 40% of territory previously gained in Kursk incursion, Reuters reports.  Kyiv Independent
  3. Ukraine Lost Nearly Half The Territory It Captured In Russia: Report  The War Zone
  4. Ukraine loses over 40% of its controlled territory in Russia's Kursk Oblast – Reuters  Ukrainska Pravda
  5. The Operational And Strategic Genius Of The Kursk Offensive – Analysis  Eurasia Review
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Arrest warrants for Israeli leaders marks pivotal moment in international law | Beth McKernan

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Charges against Israeli prime minister and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant mark first time western-affiliated leaders have been targeted for war crimes

The international criminal court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza has been welcomed by Palestinians as a landmark moment in their decade-long fight to challenge the Israeli occupation through international institutions.

Thursday’s announcement from the international criminal court’s pretrial chamber of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has sent shockwaves through the international legal system. As the first time that officials from a democratic, western-allied state have been charged with war crimes, it is widely seen as the most significant action taken by the court since it was set up at the turn of the century.

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Settlers set sights on Trump support for full control of West Bank – The Times of Israel

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  1. Settlers set sights on Trump support for full control of West Bank  The Times of Israel
  2. West Bank Settlement Supporters Have Big Hopes for Trump’s Presidency  The New York Times
  3. It is in our hands to make Judea and Samaria an inseparable part of Israel - opinion  The Jerusalem Post
  4. On the road to annexation, Israel is intentionally causing a Palestinian economic collapse  Haaretz
  5. Trump win fuels discussion of Israel annexing the West Bank. Here's what that means.  CBS News
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Laos government ‘profoundly saddened’ by deaths of tourists in Vang Vieng

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Six foreign visitors died earlier this month after suspected methanol poisoning during night out in backpacker hotspot

The Lao government has said it is “profoundly saddened” by the deaths of foreign tourists in Vang Vieng and has promised justice, as tributes were paid to victims of a suspected mass methanol poisoning which has claimed six lives.

Two Danish citizens, two Australians, an American, and a Briton died after becoming ill following a night out in the small riverside town, a popular destination for backpackers.

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