The Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson is to lead a new taskforce created to improve air travel for disabled passengers, the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, has announced. The taskforce will spend nine months speaking to disabled passengers to establish what are the biggest barriers to air travel, and working with the aviation industry to find short-…
A nine-year prison term for a man who killed two migrant sex workers within 24 hours shows that the justice system values their lives less than others, advocates say. The Chinese student Xiaozheng Lin, 24, could walk from jail in seven years with time already served after he pleaded guilty to two manslaughter charges. He…
The head of Queensland’s Indigenous truth-telling and healing inquiry says the new minister has called off their first meeting by email, as the government prepares to pass a law eliminating the body. The inquiry chair, Joshua Creamer, revealed on Wednesday that he was scheduled to meet with the minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander…
Australia’s ambassador in Washington, Kevin Rudd, deleted comments he previously made about Donald Trump after the Republican’s election win, saying on Thursday they did not reflect the view of the Australian government. Rudd, a former prime minister, had previously made the comments about Trump in his capacity as the head of a US-based thinktank, a…
The Democrat and former Trump administration official Eugene Vindman has won his House race against the Republican and former army green beret Derrick Anderson in Virginia’s seventh congressional district, representing a key victory for Democrats as they cling to the last glimmers of hope of regaining a majority in the lower chamber. When the Associated…
A 12-year-old boy was among five people who died in the fiery crash of a small business jet near a suburban Phoenix airport, authorities said Wednesday. Preliminary information indicated the six-seater HondaJet HA-420 aircraft was headed to Provo, Utah, when it aborted takeoff at the Falcon Field airport in Mesa on Tuesday afternoon. The plane…
While Donald Trump comfortably cruised to victory over Kamala Harris, , voters in a handful of red states cast their ballots for policies favored by centrists and progressives – such as minimum wage protections. Meanwhile voters in some deep-blue states favored measures that are conventionally associated with conservatism, such as tough-on-crime initiatives. These outcomes to…
A convicted murderer and rapist who was the prime suspect in the disappearance of the missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh has died in prison aged 70. John Cannan was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in 1989 for the rape and murder of a Bristol factory manager, Shirley Banks, along with a further sexual…
More than 50 people have been rescued after attempting to cross the Channel and the bodies of several others were found floating at sea. The French coastguard said 51 people were rescued on Monday night after a boat got into difficulty when its engine failed off the coast of Audresselles in northern France. Those rescued…
An “overtly racist” masked man who stopped drivers to check they were white during the summer riots has been jailed for 38 months. Jake Wray, 23, from Middlesbrough, admitted violent disorder in the town on 4 August, including trying to set a car on fire, making racist chants and pushing a flaming wheelie bin into…
