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Australia fires: tens of thousands stranded while attempting to flee Visitors who were told to evacuate a vast area along the NSW south coast before even worse fire conditions return stuck for hours in gridlocked traffic Tens of thousands of people remained stranded on Thursday evening while attempting to flee bushfire-ravaged areas of the south-east Australian coast – having earlier been urged to leave before the return of extreme and dangerous weather conditions.The mass evacuation of communities in New South Wales and Victoria is among the largest ever emergency movements of people in Australia. The numbers fleeing the bushfire crisis remain unclear, but are expected to compare to the 60,000 people who were flown out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Continue reading... ...

Labour leadership: Blow to 'continuity Corbyn' as poll of members suggests Starmer clear favourite - live news Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen 11.43am GMTYouGov included Yvette Cooper in its list of seven potential Labour leadership candidates for its poll of party members. (See 9.51am and 10.21am.) But, according to a story by Jason Groves in the Daily Mail, Cooper is expected to announce that she won’t be standing, because she has concluded that her opposition to Jeremy Corbyn would make her unelectable given how popular he is with members. Groves quotes a “friend” of Cooper’s as saying:From the way Yvette is talking, she is not going to stand. The way the party is now, it is going to be very difficult for anyone who ...

Northern rail to be stripped of franchise, says Grant Shapps Transport secretary says he has started process after year of chaos and cancellationsThe process to strip Northern rail of its franchise has begun after years of poor performance, the transport secretary has said.Grant Shapps told the BBC he had started the process that could result in removing the firm’s routes, calling its service “completely unacceptable”. Continue reading... Go to Source

Carlos Ghosn prepares to speak as Japan comes to terms with saviour who fled Wife dismisses reports husband escaped inside an instrument case as world awaits full explanation from fugitiveThe world will have to wait until next week for what could be the only definitive account of how Carlos Ghosn managed to leave Japan months before he was due to stand trial for alleged financial misconduct.The former Nissan chairman who fled the country to Lebanon while out on bail, will speak to the media in Beirut next Wednesday, media reports said, in a public appearance that could provide answers to myriad questions swirling around his daring escape. Continue reading... Go to Source

Turkish parliament to vote on sending troops to Libya Lawmakers expected to approve action to back UN-supported Tripoli governmentTurkey’s parliament is to vote on Thursday on whether to send troops to Libya to back the UN-supported government in Tripoli in its fight against forces loyal to a rival administration in eastern Libya seeking to capture the capital.Lawmakers are expected to approve the motion at the emergency session called for later in the day, and grant a one-year mandate for the deployment, despite concerns that Turkish forces could aggravate Libya’s conflict further and destabilise the region. Continue reading... Go to Source

Australia fires: NSW state of emergency declared as 17 missing in Victoria bushfires – live At least nine people have died since Christmas Day, and the RFS is urging people to evacuate the New South Wales south coast before dangerous conditions on the weekend. Follow the live news and latest updates today 5.54am GMTOur neighbour, Indonesia, is experiencing its worse flooding in a decade as Australia burnsA world of weather extremes: Australia burns, Indonesia floods. 21 people dead and 30,000 homeless in Jakarta’s worst flooding in years. More downpours forecast #banjir2020 https://t.co/dOFiiUQ3vZ 5.52am GMTA bushfire emergency has been declared for the outskirts of HobartYou can follow along here Bushfire emergency declared on Hobart's outskirts, lives and homes in danger https...

Australia bushfires: PM's climate stance criticised as thousands flee blazes Scott Morrison’s government under pressure as fires feared to have killed 17 peopleNavy ships and army aircraft have been dispatched to help fight devastating bushfires on Australia’s south-east coast that are feared to have killed at least 17 people, amid a spiralling debate over the government’s stance on the climate emergency.Thousands of people have fled apocalyptic scenes, abandoning their homes and huddling on beaches to escape raging columns of flame and smoke that have plunged whole towns into darkness and destroyed more than 4m hectares of land. Continue reading... Go to Source

Poll of Labour members suggests Keir Starmer is first choice Exclusive: shadow Brexit secretary early frontrunner to succeed Jeremy CorbynKeir Starmer has emerged as an early frontrunner in the Labour leadership race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn after a poll of members suggested he was the first choice in all regions of the UK, age groups and social classes.The shadow Brexit secretary is yet to formally launch his campaign but is expected to do so in the first few weeks of the new year. The new leader will be elected in March after Corbyn said he would step down following the party’s catastrophic general election defeat. Continue reading... Go to Source

AI system outperforms experts in spotting breast cancer Program developed by Google Health tested on mammograms of UK and US womenAn artificial intelligence program has been developed that is better at spotting breast cancer in mammograms than expert radiologists.The AI outperformed the specialists by detecting cancers that the radiologists missed in the images, while ignoring features they falsely flagged as possible tumours. Continue reading... Go to Source

Bristol students told to study at SS Great Britain due to overcrowding Bristol University says students can use reading room at site of attraction to reviseOvercrowding in libraries and a severe shortage of desks have led to students at the University of Bristol being offered places to study at the SS Great Britain.The university’s history department has told students looking for somewhere quiet to revise during the January exam period that they can reserve desks at the site in Bristol harbour where Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship is housed in a dry dock, more than a mile from their campus across the Avon. Continue reading... Go to Source

Resurgent Austrian Greens in coalition deal with centre-right party Sebastian Kurz, who leads the People’s party, can now return to power with small majorityAustria’s main centre-right party and the Greens have agreed on a coalition deal that will return ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz to power.Both Kurz and Werner Kogler from the Greens, who led the negotiations between the two parties, told reporters in Vienna they had hammered out a government programme that would be presented to the public in detail on Thursday afternoon. Continue reading... Go to Source

BBC seeks to settle equal pay cases ahead of Samira Ahmed tribunal verdict Broadcaster in apparent attempt to avoid repeat of tribunal embarrassmentThe BBC has approached women who are bringing equal pay cases against it to discuss potential settlements, in an apparent attempt to head off a repeat of Samira Ahmed’s employment tribunal in which embarrassing details of the corporation’s inner workings were made public.Individuals with knowledge of the equal pay cases said some women who were preparing to follow Ahmed and take their cases to tribunal, having exhausted internal BBC processes, were being approached and asked if they would be interested in a settlement. Continue reading... Go to Source

Hundreds arrested at huge New Year’s Day rally in Hong Kong Police detain 400 and fire teargas as anti-government protests continue into 2020A huge New Year’s Day march in Hong Kong has ended in mass arrests and street clashes as the anti-government movement – now in its eighth month – continued into 2020.Police detained about 400 people on charges including illegal assembly and possession of offensive weapons after the rally on Wednesday, which organisers said was attended by more than a million people. It was one of the largest numbers of arrests in a single day since the unrest began. Continue reading... Go to Source

Australia fires: nine dead and hundreds of properties destroyed, with worse to come Residents in Victoria and New South Wales count terrible cost during brief reprieve from disaster that has sent smoke as far as New ZealandNine people are confirmed dead, with four still missing, and more than 200 properties have been lost since Christmas Day in Australia’s catastrophic bushfires.Smoke still hung thick over the south-east of the country on Wednesday evening, even as weather conditions offered a reprieve to take stock of the destruction. Continue reading... Go to Source

US troops fire teargas to disperse protesters at Baghdad embassy Dozens of pro-Iran militiamen and supporters camped out at gates of embassy overnightUS troops have fired teargas to disperse pro-Iran protesters gathered outside the US embassy compound in Baghdad for a second day.Dozens of militiamen and their supporters camped out at the gates of the embassy overnight. On Tuesday, dozens of protesters had broken into the compound, damaging a reception area and smashing windows in one of the worst attacks on the embassy in recent memory. Continue reading... Go to Source

Let's be friends: Boris Johnson's new year message to remainers PM talks up Britain’s future as he attempts to reach out to those who did not vote ToryBoris Johnson has pledged to represent remainers and work with them as “friends and equals”, in a New Year’s Day message in which he sounded upbeat about the UK’s fortunes in the 2020s. The prime minister, who is seeing in the new year on the private Caribbean island of Mustique, said he was “acutely aware” that millions of people did not vote for him despite the Tories’ landslide election victory. Continue reading... Go to Source

British teenager's mother calls for tourism boycott of Cyprus Mother of woman found guilty of lying about being gang-raped says Ayia Napa resort is unsafeThe mother of a British teenager found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus has backed calls for a tourism boycott of the country.The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she supported the campaign and that she believed the resort town of Ayia Napa was unsafe. Continue reading... Go to Source

Three die in New Year's Eve collision in Surrey Two men and a woman die after crash involving a lorry and car in village of StanwellThree people have died and a fourth person was seriously injured in a New Year’s Eve collision between a lorry and a car in Surrey.Emergency services were called at 11.39pm to a crash involving a white Mercedes HGV and a white Toyota Yaris at the junction of Bedfont Road and Long Lane in the village of Stanwell. The HGV had left the road and ended up in Longford river. Continue reading... Go to Source