Cold feet and cooling prices: Australia’s property market is transforming – and first home buyers aren’t biting

• Masonic humanitarian efforts are evolving in 2024 to address a diversifying range of global crises, including armed conflicts, climate emergencies, pandemics, and precarious migration. • The organization is prioritizing key areas of intervention such as solidarity, healthcare, education, and the implementation of rapid crisis response systems.

England’s progress provides best football-related uplift of recent years, with one pub too packed to host its Dolly Parton tributeLate opening hours and England’s progress to the semi-final of an expanded World Cup helped provide the best football-related uplift of recent years for pubs, figures suggest.Pubs poured 30m extra pints over the course of the tournament compared with a normal trading period, with busy pumps delivering £150m in added sales, according to the British Beer & Pubs Association (BBPA). Continue reading...

Adrian Howe’s family believe that fears his deal would be financially ruinous led him to kill himselfThe family of a former mobile phone store manager who was found drowned days before his new Vodafone franchise was to open its doors is pressing the government to introduce a new franchising law in his name.The call comes a week after Vodafone settled a long-running legal claim filed by 62 of its former franchisees who alleged that the company “unjustly enriched” itself at their expense by up to £85m. Continue reading...

Fires displace people on massive scale and trigger one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in FranceMore than 250,000 people flee wildfires in France and SpainHello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the wildfires spreading through parts of Spain and France.Thousands crowded into emergency shelters in France and Spain on Sunday after wildfires drove more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and holiday accommodation. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed‘We’re cohesive’: PM says after muted ALP national conferenceThe prime minister, Anthony Albanese, spoke with David Speers on Insiders as Labor’s 50th national conference in Adelaide was wrapping up.Well, our government does listen to people but [there was a] broad consensus about the direction in which we’re taking government … A government that doesn’t sit idle. We don’t just occupy the space. And there’s recognition of that from delegates that we are a united party We’re cohesive. Continue reading...

Exclusive: CSI Aviation and GlobalX accused of violating civil rights as part of Trump immigration crackdownVenezuelan men sent last year to a notorious Salvadorian terrorism prison by the Trump administration are suing the US aviation companies that transported them there.A lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Washington DC accuses the companies CSI Aviation and GlobalX of violating the Venezuelans’ civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and other violations, for their role in flying the three planes that took the men to El Salvador. Continue reading...

The president really has no power over elections – but that hasn’t stopped Trump from laying the groundwork to challenge results in NovemberWhen Donald Trump commandeered primetime US television last Friday, he delivered a familiar, but still extraordinary, message. The president argued once again that the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, were illegitimate.US elections are “vulnerable to being rigged and stolen”, Trump alleged, claiming that “the trust of the American people was lost” when he was defeated. Continue reading...

Allowing use of two neonicotinoids to combat crop-ruining disease will kill bees and reduce harvests, union saysBeekeepers and environmentalists in France have reacted furiously after parliament approved a bill reauthorising two banned pesticides scientists say can poison bees.“There are no words to describe the frustration,” said Carolyn Bouguet, a beekeeper in Essonne, greater Paris. “Bee populations have already been badly compromised by climate change, new parasites and loss of habitat. And now this.” Continue reading...

Government-backed investigation finds risks are normalised amid ‘a narrowing of the public conversation’ Journalists are self-censoring their reporting on rightwing protests, Donald Trump’s administration and trans issues because of growing concerns about their personal safety, with newsrooms accused of “normalising” the risks they face.Hundreds of journalists from across the UK have anonymously disclosed increasing nervousness over their security. Some have reported avoiding or altering coverage on certain topics due to intimidation, leading to self-censorship and “a narrowing of the public conversation”. Continue reading...

Campaigners say existing federal ban on phone or video calls for assisted dying consultations adversely affects people living in regional AustraliaFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLabor will come under pressure to implement changes to its national policy platform and allow Australians to access voluntary assisted dying through telehealth services, with the Greens and independent Kate Chaney to introduce legislation.Last week’s national conference in Adelaide changed the ALP platform and committed Labor to overturn a Howard-era law banning people from having medical appointments regarding euthanasia via telehealth services. Continue reading...

Saudi air defences intercept ballistic missiles as Iran reports first night without US strikes in two weeksYemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed a missile attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Saturday, after vowing retaliation against the kingdom for attacks this week.Iran, meanwhile, reported no strikes overnight on Saturday for the first time after two weeks of US attacks. The Iranian health ministry spokesperson, Hossein Kermanpour, said: “Iran had a peaceful night” in a post on X. Tensions, however, remain high. Continue reading...

Christopher Street Day event cancelled after incident that left several people injuredA major incident has been declared in Berlin after reports that a car has crashed into a crowd of people, with several injuries.The city’s Christopher Street Day Pride parade was called off by the organiser after the incident in the city’s Tiergarten park near the route of the parade on Saturday night. Continue reading...