Democrats in Virginia preserved their majority in the state legislature late on Tuesday in the first statewide elections since Donald Trump’s presidential victory in November. In special elections for open seats, Kannan Srinivasan, a Democratic state representative, defeated Republican Tumay Harding in a race for an open state senate seat in Loudon county, Virginia, just…
Keir Starmer has accused Kemi Badenoch of “bandwagon jumping” in calling for a new inquiry into sexual abuse gangs, as he condemned the Conservative leader for her plan to try to vote down a bill on children’s wellbeing. In sometimes bitter exchanges at prime minister’s questions, as the topic of grooming gangs continued to dominate…
The sister of the OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he regularly sexually abused her for several years, starting when they were children. The lawsuit filed on 6 January in a US district court in the Eastern District of Missouri alleges that the abuse began when Ann Altman was three…
Giving a colleague an “air kiss” does not amount to sexual harassment, a UK employment judge has ruled. Judge Perry said the gesture, a trope in the 1990s British comedy Absolutely Fabulous, could not be regarded as “unwanted conduct of a sexual nature”. The ruling came at the end of the case of a hospitality…
France has warned Donald Trump against threatening the “sovereign borders” of the European Union after the US president-elect refused to rule out military action to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of EU member Denmark. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told France Inter radio: “There is no question of the EU letting other…
If you’d asked me which rare bird I might see in Somerset in early January, the least sandpiper would have been very low on my list. Yet on a fine, bright, chilly morning here it was: running along the edge of the water like a clockwork toy, probing the mud for food with its stubby…
A police sergeant who allegedly performed two Nazi salutes in front of colleagues at the police academy will not be charged despite the gesture being banned in Victoria, the force says. The 65-year-old woman, who has been in the force for 40 years, was suspended with pay last October, after police launched a criminal investigation…
A 23-year-old hiker who has been missing since Boxing Day in the remote Kosciuszko national park has been found alive. Police confirmed on Wednesday that Hadi Nazari had been found alive. Hikers found Nazari at about 3.15pm on Wednesday off the circuit walk near Blue Lake, police said in a statement. Nazari has been winched…
A man accused of setting fire to a heritage-listed racecourse grandstand before breaking into a Jewish community centre will remain behind bars after facing court. Travis Bird, 51, appeared at Melbourne magistrates court on Wednesday after being charged with nine offences – four counts of arson, two of trespass and one each of burglary, criminal…
The monthly inflation rate rose to 2.3% in November, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The underlying inflation rate – the Reserve Bank’s preferred measure for prices – has declined but remains above the bank’s target band, casting doubt over the prospect of a February interest rate cut. The consumer…
