The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has condemned the “disgraceful behaviour by a pack of cowards” after police reported a suspicious fire at a synagogue in East Melbourne on Friday night. Victoria police alleged an unknown man entered the grounds of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation on Albert Street at about 8pm on Friday night and…
Quebec’s mercurial and controversial language police have decided that using the word “go” is a legitimate way to cheer on sports teams in the province, paving the way for excited fans – and Montreal’s transit agency – to celebrate without fear of recrimination. In new guidelines, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF, the…
A federal judge has briefly halted the deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan, the latest twist in a case that came hours after the supreme court cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport the men to a country where almost none of them have ties. On Thursday, the nation’s highest court…
A boast by a Reform UK councillor that he ensured the removal of “trans-ideological material and books” from the children’s section of his county’s libraries has fallen flat after it emerged that no such material ever existed there. Paul Webb, the cabinet member for communities at Kent council, whose portfolio covers libraries, posted a video…
A group of Florida lawmakers were denied entry on Thursday into the new Florida-based immigration jail dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” one day after the first immigrant detainees began to arrive. Five Democratic lawmakers attempted to enter the facility, which was previously toured on Tuesday by White House officials, but were stopped by law enforcement officers from…
A conservation project in West Sussex has had its best day on record for rare purple emperor butterfly sighting, and ecologists say they are confident the species is doing well nationally. Purple emperor populations steadily declined over the course of the 20th century but they have been slowly recolonising the landscape at Knepp since 2001,…
Bans on smartphones in Dutch schools have improved the learning environment despite initial protests, according to a study commissioned by the government of the Netherlands. National guidelines, introduced in January 2024, recommend banning smartphones from classrooms and almost all schools have complied. Close to two-thirds of secondary schools ask pupils to leave their phones at…
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he is in discussions about creating a new leftwing political party, hours after the MP Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting Labour to co-lead the project. Sultana, the MP for Coventry South who had the Labour whip suspended last year for voting against the government over the two-child limit on benefits,…
Sewage sludge and wastewater treatment plants are major sources of Pfas water pollution, new research finds, raising questions about whether the US is safely managing its waste. A first-of-its-kind study tested rivers bordering 32 sewage sludge sites, including wastewater treatment plants and fields where the substance is spread as fertilizer – it found concerning levels…
The former Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean has urged Rachel Reeves to create much wider headroom against her fiscal rules – a decision likely to require significant tax rises or spending cuts. Bean suggested that the current slim margin of less than £10bn, had led the chancellor to “fine-tune” the government’s tax and…
