Woman and child expected to settle in Sydney as part of returning cohort. Follow today’s news live

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Bridget McKenzie says rollback of inland rail project sends ‘chill’ through community

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, the shadow minister for infrastructure, said the Labor party has sent a “chill through the infrastructure pipeline” after the Albanese government abandoned a beleaguered inland rail project connecting NSW with Queensland.

People were surprised and shocked and dismayed at this announcement by the Labor government, they’ve been making their concerns heard loud and clear.

This Labor government has actually derailed this project and, indeed, sent a chill through the infrastructure pipeline investment community because no project would now be safe from some future government turning off the tap.

You’re cutting the wrong things, not the things that are going to drive a productive economy.

‘Clinical consensus statement’ also urges heart doctors to advise patients to not eat late at night, and chew slowly

Want to reduce your intake of ultra-processed food? If so, cook at home more often, don’t eat late at night and chew your food more slowly.

Those are among some of the tips doctors have offered to help people limit the amount of UPF they consume given the acute and growing danger it poses to human health worldwide.

Michael Marx was shot by authorities multiple times and then taken to a hospital after bystander was wounded

A man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington monument this week was walking along the path of JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing on Wednesday.

Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said: “‘F—k the White House’ and ‘Kill me, kill me, kill me’”, a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit.

University of California at Los Angeles says admissions are ‘based on merit’ and it complies with state and federal laws

The US Department of Justice found on Wednesday that the medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles illegally considered race in admissions as the Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of colleges’ processes for selecting students.

The finding escalates the Trump administration’s ongoing standoff with UCLA, which has focused mostly on the main campus’s response to allegations of antisemitic harassment.

Democrats sharply criticize the US commerce secretary’s testimony, saying he was ‘dishonest’ and should resign

The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, appeared before the House oversight and reform committee on Wednesday to answer questions over his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Lutnick agreed in March to sit for a transcribed interview with the committee after the justice department’s release of millions of documents related to Epstein, which included documents showing that Lutnick continued correspondence with Epstein after the disgraced financier had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. The session is part of the committee’s broader investigation into Epstein.

Powerful property and farming firm Grosvenor Group says knock-on effect of Iran war could arrive next year

Fertiliser shortages caused by the Iran war have driven up costs for UK farmers by up to 70% and will have a “dramatic” impact on food prices globally next year, according to one of Britain’s most powerful property and farming companies.

Mark Preston, executive trustee of the 349-year-old Grosvenor Group, controlled by the Duke of Westminster, said fertiliser “was already quite expensive” before the 50% to 70% surge in prices since the start of the Iran war in late February.

As Labour faces record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections, prime minister says rivals are unfit to lead

Labour is braced for record-breaking losses in Thursday’s local elections in England, which could be decisive for Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister.

In a message to voters on Thursday, Starmer said Reform’s Nigel Farage and the Greens’ Zack Polanski were “not fit to meet this moment of great global instability” and that only Labour was putting the national interest first.

Police say they arrested 18-year-old man after weekend mass shooting at lake party promoted across social media

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Police announced on Wednesday that an 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting that left one woman dead and 22 other people wounded during a night-time party beside an Oklahoma lake.

Police in Edmond announced that the man was arrested earlier in the day on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon in the wake of Sunday night’s shooting, which erupted following an argument amid a large crowd gathered at Arcadia Lake in that Oklahoma City suburb.

Shabana Mahmood has announced plan to cut leave to remain from five years to 30 months, to concern of UN refugee agency

Two Sudanese asylum seekers are challenging a central element of Labour’s plans to strip refugees of basic rights, rejecting the home secretary’s accusation that they are “asylum shoppers”.

Shabana Mahmood has announced plans to halve refugees’ leave to remain in the UK, from five years to 30 months. Previously, people could apply for permanent settlement after five years but now refugees will have to wait 20 years before being eligible.

Video shows ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades

A controversial social media influencer known as Clavicular is facing charges in connection with a video showing him shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades, local Florida media has reported.

Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters and is known for the practice of “looksmaxxing”, faces charges of unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place or residential property, according to legal files obtained by television station ABC6 in South Florida.

As Reform vows to block solar and windfarms, energy leaders say renewables offer most secure future, insulating UK from hostile forces

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• May elections: What’s at stake across England, Wales and Scotland?

The defining issue of Thursday’s local elections, feedback from doorsteps suggests, will be the UK’s soaring cost of living. But voters should be told about the links between inflation and the affects of fossil fuels and the climate crisis – or the remedies they choose – may make the situation worse, green campaigners have warned.

Ami McCarthy, the head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said: “With people’s bills and prices soaring from yet another fossil fuel crisis, these local elections have a global context – driven by the Iran war.

Steve Roth was responding to the announcement by New York’s mayor of tax on second homes worth more than $5m

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The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.

Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in the 15 April announcement by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m.