UK house prices are growing at their fastest annual rate for nearly two years as borrowing costs continue to fall on expectations that the Bank of England will keep cutting interest rates, Nationwide has said. The building society said prices grew by 3.2% in September compared with the same month last year, well above the…
Nadhim Zahawi instructed his lawyer to threaten legal action against a tax campaigner who helped reveal that the then chancellor was under investigation by HM Revenue and Customs, according to a tribunal document. Zahawi’s solicitor, Ashley Hurst, is accused of breaching his regulator’s code of conduct by attempting to prevent Dan Neidle from publishing correspondence…
Rightmove has rejected a £6.2bn takeover offer from REA Group, the Australian real estate firm backed by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The UK property portal told the City on Monday morning that its board had turned down REA’s fourth offer, having concluded it was “unattractive and materially undervalues Rightmove”. The rejection came less than 10…
The influential Liberal figure Michael Kroger claimed Moira Deeming had said “more crazy stuff over the years” as he urged the Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, to build a stronger case for her ousting from the party room, a court has heard. Deeming, now an independent MP after her expulsion, is suing Pesutto for allegedly…
British judge Nicholas Phillips has stepped down from Hong Kong’s top appeals court, the fourth overseas judge to leave the city’s judiciary this year. Phillips, 86, is leaving Hong Kong’s court of final appeal (CFA) after 22 years for “personal reasons” after his fourth term ended on Monday and he said he did not wish…
The Albanese government is due to announce British-Australian academic Aftab Malik as the special envoy to combat Islamophobia after months of delays. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said in early July that two envoys would be established – one to tackle antisemitism and another to look at Islamophobia in Australia during the ongoing war in…
Years of wet weather and vegetation growth have made it harder for the New South Wales fire authorities to prepare for this year’s bushfire season that officially begins on Tuesday, with warnings to residents to prepare now. The NSW Rural fire service (RFS) has already responded to more than 1,600 bush and grass fires across…
The government is threatening to cancel the visa of anyone inciting “discord” in Australia and has warned against importing “radical ideologies of conflict”, after weekend protests against Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. Some marchers carried Hezbollah flags and portraits of leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack. The home affairs minister, Tony Burke,…
A hundred munitions – including, it is believed, US-made 2,000lb bombs – were used by the Israeli air force in Friday evening’s overwhelming air raid that killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an underground complex hidden in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh. Nasrallah, who was careful to the point of paranoia about his…
Almost half of British adults will ration their energy use this winter, a survey has found, as energy bills will rise again by 10% this week. Charities have called on the government to do more to help vulnerable people to heat their homes, with the average household bill scheduled to rise by £149 after the…
