A record number of First Nations people died in NSW prison custody last year. Advocates fear this year will be worse

Wheat is half normal height, while England is seeing earliest ever harvest as farmers battle to salvage what they can of their cropsBritain could face shortages of certain foods after parts of England faced a punishing drought, the president of the National Farmers’ Union has warned.Farms across the country faced floods over the winter, making planting extremely difficult, and now they do not have access to water in many parts of England as irrigation is being restricted due to drought. Continue reading...

Farms and rooftop panels contribute 14.4% to the grid – and figures reveal a surge in new installationsSolar energy supplied more power to Great Britain’s grid in July than in any previous month as households turned to rooftop panels to cut their energy bills.Solar farms and rooftop panels provided 14.4% of the country’s electricity after some parts of the UK recorded almost twice the average sunshine hours for the time of year. Continue reading...

Review goes down to the wire after ministers speak with victims’ representatives and support servicesAndy Burnham is focused on preventing the release of child sexual abuse perpetrators as part of the government’s early release scheme, as urgent talks on which serious criminals could be exempted go down to the wire.Government ministers are understood to have 24 hours to assess which criminals can be released early to free up prison space, with every exemption weighed up against the threat of the criminal justice system’s collapse. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Outsourced guards, largely from ethnic minority backgrounds, barred from staff hub for mainly white employeesThe National Gallery’s security staff, of whom the vast majority are from ethnic minority backgrounds, are facing shocking segregation, a senior curator has claimed.Its outsourced guards are barred from the building’s high-quality “hub” – bright and airy recreation rooms that are available to the institution’s mainly white employees. Continue reading...

The 85-year-old former broadcaster faces 22 charges from six different complainants in what is expected to be a four-month trialGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe high-profile trial of former broadcaster Alan Jones for indecent assault and sexual touching charges begins on Monday in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court and is expected to run for four months and hear from 76 witnesses.Judge Glenn Walsh will hear from six complainants who were allegedly indecently assaulted by the 85-year-old between 2003 and 2020. Continue reading...

Greek police say 26-year-old foreigner is believed to have left Elisabeth-Jane Ross’s body in derelict buildingA man has been arrested after the death of a Scottish woman whose body was found inside a suitcase in Athens.The 26-year-old man, who Greek police said was a foreigner, was arrested after the death of Elisabeth-Jane Ross. The 38-year-old’s body was discovered inside a suitcase by a homeless man in a derelict building in the Kypseli area of Athens on 18 July. Continue reading...

Labour chair accuses Reform of making ‘grubby pacts’ after contradictory reports emerge on timeline of eventsReform UK is operating under a “stench of sleaze” Labour have said, after reports that Nigel Farage struck a secret deal to return as leader of Reform UK months before the general election.Farage was in discussions about a return to the political frontline from as early as March 2024, despite claiming that he had no intention of returning to politics until June 2024, the Sunday Times reported. Continue reading...

Cotality data shows a drop in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, as nation’s median home price falls about $19,000 below its March peakGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHouse prices have fallen in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth as the market downturn spreads across Australia.New Cotality data, released on Monday, showed prices have fallen across most of the nation since May. Continue reading...

New education secretary says it is ‘false trade-off’ by critics to suggest schools cannot pursue academic excellence alongside technical skillsLucy Powell has said she wants to be an ambitious “tiger mum” for all young people, whatever their route through education, after the government was accused of dumbing down England’s schools with plans to create more vocational routes.The new education secretary said secondary pupils should be able to pursue academic excellence as well as high-quality vocational training, and it was a “false trade-off” to suggest schools could not provide both. Continue reading...

People among the more than 50,000 who entered Spanish enclave this week describe the journey and their prospectsFour days ago, Youssef El Abbas saw an opportunity to reclaim the life he had lost years seven earlier. News was circulating that about 400 people had swum from Morocco to the neighbouring Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the north African coast, approximately 12 miles (19km) across the strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain.Here was a chance for the 44-year-old Moroccan father of four to return to Spain, from which he had been deported when his residency expired after the loss of his job in Bilbao in 2019. Continue reading...

High winds prevent firefighting aircraft from collecting seawater as flames spread through AtticaEurope’s wildfire crisis fractured along starkly different fronts on Sunday: gale-force winds drove flames deeper into the Athens region and forced fresh evacuations, France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris against renewed spread, and Spain’s major fires finally stopped advancing.The centre of immediate danger was Greece. Gale-force winds drove flames deeper into western Attica, the administrative region that includes the capital, threatening villages and an industrial district outside the city of Megara as violent wind gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the sea. Continue reading...