Cobar: two people killed in Endeavour mine explosion in far western NSW

Two people have been killed by an explosion at the Endeavour mine in western New South Wales, devastating the local community of Cobar.Police said emergency services had been called to the mine on Endeavour Mine Road at Cobar, about 600km north-west of Sydney, at about 3.45am on Tuesday.Officers were told that a man, believed to be in his 60s, had been confirmed dead after the underground explosion.Two women were brought to the surface, but one, a woman in her 20s, later died

Shrinkflation hits everyday staples, piling more pressure on households

Toothpaste, coffee and even heartburn medicine are among the latest products quietly shrinking in size while shoppers pay the same price, piling more pressure on household grocery budgets.Consumer watchdog Which? found a range of new examples of shrinkflation as brands cut back on quantity and quality in an effort to reduce their own costs.One of the worst instances was Aquafresh complete care original toothpaste, which went from £1.30 for 100ml to £2 for 75ml at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado – a 105% increase per 100ml.Haleon Great Britain and Ireland, which owns the Aquafresh brand, told the Guardian: “We understand that people across the UK are facing pressure on their finances

First banker jailed over Libor interest rate rigging to sue UBS for $400m

Tom Hayes, the first banker jailed over Libor interest rate rigging, is suing his former employer UBS for $400m (£300m), claiming he was a “hand-picked scapegoat” for the Swiss bank as it tried to avoid regulatory scrutiny.The claim, which was publicly filed in a US court in Connecticut on Monday, alleges that UBS misled US authorities and called him an “evil mastermind” behind the alleged Libor scandal, in order to protect senior executives and minimise fines.Hayes spent five and a half years of an 11-year term in prison after he was accused of being a ringleader in a vast conspiracy to fix the now defunct London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which was used to price trillions of pounds worth of financial products, between 2006 and 2010.The wider scandal, which erupted in 2012, led to fines of almost $10bn for a dozen banks and brokerages. Hayes maintained his innocence and claimed during his original trial that he was taking part in an “industry-wide” practice, accusing regulators of making him a scapegoat

UK in £8bn deal to sell Typhoon jets to Turkey despite human rights concerns

Britain has agreed to sell 20 Typhoon fighter jets to Turkey in an £8bn deal despite concerns about alleged human rights violations by its government.Keir Starmer signed the deal during a visit on Monday to Ankara to meet the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The prime minister said the deal would boost the Nato alliance, despite criticism of Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian administration.The deal was signed as Erdoğan’s jailed chief political opponent, Ekrem İmamoğlu, faced fresh charges including alleged links to British intelligence.The jet, also known as the Eurofighter, is a joint project between the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, and has been one of the Royal Air Force’s key aircraft for two decades, including in Iraq, and intercepting Russian planes since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Exxon sues California over climate laws, alleging free speech violations

Exxon, an oil firm consistently ranked among the world’s top contributors to global carbon emissions, is suing the state of California over two climate-focused state laws, arguing that the rules infringe upon the corporation’s right to free speech.The 2023 laws, known collectively as the California Climate Accountability Package, will require large companies doing business in the state to disclose both their planet-heating carbon emissions and their climate-related financial risks, or face annual penalties.The laws would thereby force Exxon to “serve as a mouthpiece for ideas with which it disagrees”, says the lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the eastern district of California on Friday.Asked for comment, Exxon referred the Guardian to the lawsuit. The state of California was not immediately available for comment

Oil firm Petrofac enters administration, putting 2,000 jobs at risk; Greencore-Bakkavor food giant deal faces UK competition concerns – as it happened

Time to wrap up.Wall Street shares have scaled new all-time highs, as rising expectations of a US-China trade deal encouraged risk-taking by investors, in a week dominated by Big Tech results and a widely-expected Federal Reserve interest rate cut on Wednesday.The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose by 1.6%, the Dow Jones gained 0.5% and the S&P 500 climbed by nearly 1%