Greater Greenfield MA - Franklin County

Follow today’s news liveAnthony Albanese shrugs off Dorinda Cox’s sharp criticism of Labor before party switchGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSocial housing waitlists grew by 26,000 households in six-year periodIn the six years to 2022, Australia’s social housing waitlists grew by more than 26,000 households, while the number of households able to get into social housing fell by 6,400, according to new analysis from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.Australia’s social housing system needs to make stronger assurances of different kinds of housing assistance that reach beyond the constraints of unavailable social housing stock. It needs to do more for the people who are waiting, as well as for those already in social housing.Housing legislation should enshrine the right of individuals to reasonable and necessary housing assistance, and provide for a range of forms of housing assistance that are designed in participation with recipients to better meet their needs. Continue reading...

Victorian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder over a fatal 2023 beef wellington lunch. Follow liveBarrister Colin Mandy SC asks his client why at one stage there were three properties in both Erin and Simon Patterson’s name when the couple had been separated for four years.I always thought we would bring the family back together. That is what I wanted ... It was something tangible to say to Simon, I see a future for us.I have not.I’ve never had a needle biopsy anywhere.I consulted Dr Google.I alternated that with Don.We did talk about it sometimes.The kind of conversations that we had ... they would gently make fun of the fact that I was religious and I would try and evangelise back to them in a sense ... It was sort of all in good humour. Continue reading...

IDF says it fired at ‘individual suspects who advanced towards troops’ during incident at aid point in southern Gaza StripPalestinians killed by Israeli fire at aid point, Gaza officials sayIsraeli strikes on Gaza schools part of deliberate strategy, say sourcesIn its statement about troops opening fire on people near an aid distribution point in southern Gaza, Israel’s military has claimed “IDF troops are not preventing the arrival of Gazan civilians to the humanitarian aid distribution sites. The warning shots were fired approximately half a kilometer away from the humanitarian aid distribution site toward several suspects who advanced toward the troops in such a way that posed a threat to them.”At the weekend Philippe Lazzarini, the Unrwa commissioner-general described the aid distribution system being enforced by Israeli authorities as a “death trap”, adding that “This humiliating system has forced thousands of hungry and desperate people to walk for tens of miles to an area that’s all but pulverized due to heavy bombardment.” Continue reading...

Future of troubled supplier in doubt as US private equity group says it cannot proceed with acquiring £4bn stakeBusiness live – latest updatesUS private equity group KKR has pulled out of a deal to inject fresh equity into Thames Water, leaving the troubled supplier’s future in doubt and increasing the prospects of a temporary nationalisation.The UK’s biggest water supplier had picked KKR as its preferred partner, but the company has “indicated that it will not be in a position to proceed,” Thames Water said. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: The problems and proposed solutions of a major new strategic defence review pitched as a blueprint to modernise the militaryGood morning. The government’s strategic defence review was launched on Monday and billed as a blueprint to modernise the military so that, in the words of Keir Starmer, the UK is “safer and stronger, a battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities”.Reviews like this one come along every decade or so – but the context now appears more urgent than at any time since the end of the cold war. In the place of the old consensus that the UK simply needed to be ready for (deeply questionable) deployments to places such as Iraq and Afghanistan is a view that the threats now are much closer to home, and much closer to existential. “UK armed forces have begun the necessary process of change in response to this new reality,” the review said. “But progress has not been fast or radical enough.”Israel-Gaza war | A series of recent deadly airstrikes on school buildings sheltering displaced people in Gaza were part of a deliberate Israeli military bombing strategy, the Guardian has learned. The strikes followed a loosening of controls on actions targeting Hamas operatives at sites with large numbers of civilians present, sources said.Health | The proportion of people surviving cancer in the UK has doubled since the 1970s amid a “golden age” of progress in diagnosis and treatment, a report says. Half of those diagnosed will now survive for 10 years or more, up from 24%, according to the first study of 50 years of data on cancer mortality and cases.US news | Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and multiple other offences after he allegedly used a makeshift flamethrower and incendiary devices to burn people in Boulder, Colorado who were raising awareness about Israeli hostages in Gaza.Iran | Tehran is on the brink of rejecting US proposals on the future of its nuclear programme after a US draft insisted on the suspension of enrichment of uranium inside the country. The US proposal also offered no clear route map for lifting sanctions.Scotland | A Scottish Labour councillor has defected to Reform UK on the eve of a pivotal Holyrood byelection, as the rightwing populist party’s leader, Nigel Farage, defended a controversial advert attacking Anas Sarwar that has prompted accusations of racism. Continue reading...