NSW official admits hiding in cupboard during multimillion-dollar kickback investigation

Former transport bureaucrat Ibrahim Helmy appeared at an ICAC hearing after allegedly forming corrupt relationships with contractors and colleagues

Ibrahim Helmy was hiding in a cupboard for the moment he had been warned about.

Police had arrived at the share house where the former transport bureaucrat was laying low, living discreetly with strangers after failing to appear before a major corruption probe.

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Media and political attacks on Australia’s emissions targets ‘straight out of the climate obstruction playbook’, expert says

Prof Christian Downie points to the Business Council of Australia and News Corp newspapers as examples of deliberate obstruction

Political and media attacks on renewable energy and climate action in Australia in recent months have come “out of the climate obstruction playbook” that has been honed over decades around the world by fossil fuel interests.

Prof Christian Downie, an Australian researcher, says he has studied techniques used by business groups and lobbyists all over the world which are now being seen in Australia.

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Women carry a higher genetic risk of depression, new study says

Researchers in Australia find 16 genetic variants linked to depression in women but only eight in men

Women carry a higher genetic risk of depression, a new study has found.

Claiming to be the largest genetic study to date on sex differences in major depression, the research published Wednesday in Nature Communications has found 16 genetic variants linked to depression in women and eight in men.

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Ineos to cut a fifth of Hull jobs, blaming ‘dirt-cheap’ imports from China

Company says more roles will be at risk unless UK government supports tariffs to protect industry

Ineos, the chemicals company owned by the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is to cut a fifth of jobs at its East Yorkshire plant, blaming “sky high” energy costs and “dirt-cheap” imports from China.

The company founded in 1998 by Ratcliffe, who co-owns Manchester United FC, said it would cut 60 jobs at the Acetyls site in Hull, which makes petrochemical products such as acetic acid. It said more roles would be at risk across the industry unless the government stepped in.

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Diplomacy’s lowest point: how the Israel-Gaza conflict was mishandled

In two years there have been many versions of a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza and many obstacles to overcome

George Mitchell, the great US advocate for the Northern Ireland peace agreement, described diplomacy as 700 days of failure and one of success. In Gaza, tragically, there have been 730 days of failure and none of success. Indeed, the destruction, the death toll and the spillover of the conflict into other countries is a monument to shame diplomacy and what remains of international law. Arguably, it is the profession’s lowest point since 1939.

Some will claim failure is inevitable since this conflict is now so embedded and impervious to compromise that it can only be settled at the barrel of the gun, in essence through the repression or erasure of one side.

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Labour accuses Robert Jenrick of ‘personal attack’ on attorney general

Party source says shadow justice secretary’s comments are attempt to disguise his own poor grip of the law

Robert Jenrick has been accused by Labour of resorting to an unwarranted personal attack after comparing the attorney general, Lord Hermer, to a mafia lawyer and calling him a “useful idiot” for Britain’s “enemies”.

In a combative speech to Conservative conference in Manchester, the shadow justice secretary also promised to remove judges with links to migrant charities, saying they “dishonour generations of independent jurists”.

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UPDATE: Pope Leo XIV to make first international trip, to Turkey and Lebanon – Catholic News Agency

  1. UPDATE: Pope Leo XIV to make first international trip, to Turkey and Lebanon  Catholic News Agency
  2. Pope Leo will travel to Turkey and Lebanon in first international trip  CNN
  3. Pope Leo to visit Turkey and Lebanon on first overseas trip  The Guardian
  4. Pope Leo plans symbolic debut foreign trips to Turkiye and Lebanon  Al Jazeera
  5. Pope Leo to visit Turkey, Lebanon in November in first trip abroad  Reuters
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Canada’s Marineland theme park says it will have to euthanize 30 beluga whales without emergency funding – CBS News

  1. Canada's Marineland theme park says it will have to euthanize 30 beluga whales without emergency funding  CBS News
  2. Marine Park in Ontario Warns It May Euthanize Beluga Whales Without Cash Infusion  The New York Times
  3. Canada’s Marineland threatens to euthanize 30 whales if funding needs not met  WIVB News 4
  4. Canadian marine park threatens to euthanise 30 beluga whales  BBC
  5. Marineland says its remaining belugas shouldn’t be sent to N.S. sanctuary  Global News
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Canadian amusement park threatens to euthanise 30 beluga whales – BBC

  1. Canadian amusement park threatens to euthanise 30 beluga whales  BBC
  2. Canada's Marineland theme park says it will have to euthanize 30 beluga whales without emergency funding  CBS News
  3. Animal rights advocates urge Ontario to seize belugas, fearing Marineland may euthanize them  CBC
  4. Marine Park in Ontario Warns It May Euthanize Beluga Whales Without Cash Infusion  The New York Times
  5. Canada's Marineland 'threatens to euthanise 30 beluga whales' in row with government  Sky News
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131 Gaza flotilla activists deported to Jordan, kingdom’s state news says – The Times of Israel

  1. 131 Gaza flotilla activists deported to Jordan, kingdom’s state news says  The Times of Israel
  2. Returning Gaza flotilla activists claim mistreatment in Israeli detention, fear for remaining prisoners  CNN
  3. Gaza flotilla members allege beatings and insults in Israeli detention  The Guardian
  4. Thunberg greeted by cheering crowd in Athens after Israel expels flotilla activists  Reuters
  5. Israel deports Greta Thunberg and other Gaza Freedom Flotilla activists  MSNBC News
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George Clooney says his children have a ‘much better life’ being raised in France than LA

The actor said that their French farm will be free of paparazzi, teach them self-sufficiency and let them see his handyman skills, such as fixing the coffee machine

George Clooney has said that his decision to base himself in France was informed by the desire to give his children a better start in life than if they had remained in the US.

The actor, 64, who has eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, gave a lengthy interview to US Esquire magazine while staying at his Italian villa on Lake Como.

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