Ed Davey takes aim at Reform and Elon Musk as Lib Dem conference begins

• Iran-backed Houthi forces recently expanded the Middle East conflict by seizing a strategically important island in the Red Sea. • Multiple sources told CNN that neither the United States nor Saudi Arabia currently has a clear plan to push the group back.

• The European Union formally urged the United States to grant diplomatic entry visas to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his high-level officials. • EU officials stated that allowing senior leaders to address the General Assembly is critical for maintaining open dialogue channels in the Middle East.

Follow live updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has vowed to deliver one of the biggest immigration cuts in Australia history and called Labor “socialist in all but name” in a bid to rally the party faithful, six months out from the New South Wales election.In a wide-ranging address to the NSW Liberal party state council in Sydney on Saturday, Taylor admitted the previous coalition government had its shortcomings, but said Labor was “utterly failing the nation”.For the past four years, we’ve had a government in Canberra which is socialist in all but name.I will deliver one of the biggest cuts to immigration in Australian history.We will not allow the ideologues and activists to deny the truth … Under a Coalition government I lead, we will end this lunacy. Continue reading...

Ruling latest step in legal fight over medically fragile child born after surrogate rejected couple’s request for abortionThe Texas supreme court has decided that the month-old infant that surrogate McKenna West gave birth to can be relocated to Los Angeles, a Thursday ruling that came weeks after a California court had recognized the biological parents’ custody rights.“Sustaining the life of the medically fragile child is the paramount concern in this time-sensitive matter,” the court wrote in a Thursday order, referring to the baby’s rare severe heart defect. West had attempted to block the biological parents from removing the child from Texas and taking him to a hospital in Los Angeles where the couple live. Continue reading...

Players in Everton v Ipswich Town match wear black armbands as supporters join in minute’s applausePlayers wore black armbands during Everton’s home match against Ipswich Town on Saturday, as part of a tribute to three-year-old Noah Woods, whose body was found after he went missing in Suffolk this week.A photograph of the boy was shown on the big screen before the Premier League game in Liverpool and three minutes after kick-off both sets of supporters stood to applaud in memory of Noah. Continue reading...

Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter of man who stabbed soldier continues to divide countryIsrael’s president has pardoned a combat medic who shot dead a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank, in a case that divided the country a decade ago.Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his 18-month sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men. Continue reading...

Arson attacks related to illegal tobacco trade are also causing revenue and reputation problems for neighbouring businessesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSmall businesses located near tobacconists are being denied insurance or priced out of coverage as rising arson attacks turn neighbouring shops into collateral damage.The problem has intensified after a spate of firebombings, which includes a recent Melbourne blaze that destroyed a Richmond tobacco retailer and nearly a dozen neighbouring shops, requiring 80 firefighters to contain. Continue reading...

President had brushed away suggestions to slow down AI technology, even as his own party counseled cautionDonald Trump on Saturday said he would appoint an artificial intelligence czar and create an “AI Force” to help monitor the technology, though he gave almost no details about either plan.As global fears over AI have grown, especially in the past week in the face of multiple industry figures sounding the alarm about its dangers, the president has been critical of calls to slow down development of the fast-moving industry. Continue reading...

Authorities ban anti-immigration march after fireworks and other projectiles thrown at officers in city centre parkDutch riot police dispersed several hundred far-right protesters in The Hague on Saturday after violence erupted and local authorities banned a planned march in the city against immigration and asylum policies.The Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that 24 people had been arrested, after some protesters threw fireworks and other projectiles at police. Continue reading...

Premier Ben Carroll vows to legislate new form of manslaughter and increase maximum penalty for rape to life imprisonmentGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastA re-elected Victorian Labor government will create two new Australian-first offences aimed at closing “loopholes” it says have allowed perpetrators of family violence to escape punishment.On Sunday, the premier, Ben Carroll, will announce an election commitment to legislate a new form of manslaughter covering cases in which a person takes their own life as a result of family violence, as well as a new offence covering perpetrators abandoning a victim in need of medical care.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

Health authorities work to notify people who were exposed to person who traveled through at least six countiesCalifornia public health officials are warning of a possible measles exposure spanning multiple counties after an infected and unvaccinated passenger traveled through the state via Amtrak trains and thruway buses.The warning comes as the US faces its largest measles resurgence in more than three decades, fueled largely by growing vaccine hesitancy. Continue reading...