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The Carroll government in Victoria has cancelled controversial plans for a statue of former Labor premier Daniel Andrews.Work began in May on the statue commemorating the former premier’s more than 3,000 days in office, as part of a 1999 policy recognising long-serving Victorian premiers.But the premier, Ben Carroll, announced an end to the Kennett government policy on Saturday, appointing an independent panel to review how Victoria commemorates officials with statues and state services.He directed work on the Andrews statue to cease.“We are grateful to former premiers for their service. But gratitude does not require a taxpayer-funded statue,” Carroll said.Sign up…

National Park Service report admits Trump’s arch will have ‘adverse effects’ on existing monuments but not enough to stop itA new National Park Service report on Donald Trump’s vast monumental arch acknowledges but downplays the importance of the fact that the 250ft-high structure will have adverse effects on a series of existing monuments, including views of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.The 133-page report released on Friday says the memorial arch is likely to disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location at the Arlington Memorial Bridge, near what the service calls National…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.US manufacturing is showing signs of a revival. After six months of expansion, factory activity surged to its strongest in more than four years in July. So far this year, production has edged higher, around 30,000 new jobs have been created, and just this month industrial titans Siemens, Amazon and SK Hynix unveiled hefty investment plans.For the Maga movement this is evidence that President Donald Trump’s protectionism-powered “renaissance” of American manufacturing is taking shape. Speaking at a General Motors plant in Michigan…

Nicola Coughlan, Hugh Bonneville and Matt Lucas are among a group of actors backing a campaign against artificial intelligence voice cloning.Save Our Voices Now, which is also being supported by Luke Evans, Jen Brister, Siobhán McSweeney and Pearl Mackie, aims to stop the practice in which AI technology is used to replicate a real person’s voice to say anything it is prompted to.Bonneville, the star of Paddington and Downton Abbey, said: “My voice is unique, it’s mine, it’s part of my identity. So is yours. That’s worth speaking up about.”“The quote was handwritten, not created by AI,” he added.About 80…

The African Democratic Congress has said it does not need a coalition with other opposition parties to win the 2027 presidential election, although it remains open to cooperation with other political groups. Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesperson for the ADC, stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday while discussing the chances of the party ahead of the 2027 general election. Abdullahi said the coalition initially envisaged by opposition politicians was expected to make it easier to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress, but the political landscape had since changed following the movement of some key figures to other parties. “When…

As delegates await the adoption of the final text and resolutions of the two-week-long COP17 negotiations in Mongolia, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Yasmine Fouad, has said the conference must translate commitments into concrete action. Ms Fouad made the remarks while speaking with six UNCCD media fellows on the sidelines of the COP17 conference in Ulaanbaatar on Friday. She described COP17 as the “COP of implementation,” stressing that the true measure of success would be whether decisions taken at the conference lead to action on the ground. “Rest assured that COP17 is the…

The classic checklist for psychopathy was developed in 1980 by Prof Robert Hare, who is still the recognised giant of the territory. The 20 traits, which ranged from pathological lying to a lack of empathy, were based entirely on prison populations. This worked because not only did Hare have the benefit of a large sample, with pronounced psychopathic behaviours, but he was able to compare interviews and self-reporting with data collected about the individuals – so inconsistencies could be identified.However, Hare knew this approach was limited. In 1976, he said that he simply didn’t know to what extent his results…

Tour Championship – round two-10 R Gerard (US), V Hovland (Nor); -9 C Morikawa (US), C Gotterup (US); -8 S Scheffler (US), C Young (US)Selected others: -7 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), J Rose (Eng), A Scott (Aus), L Aberg (Swe); R -6 Fox (NZ); -4 T Fleetwood (Eng), A Fitzpatrick (Eng), W Clark (US); -3 R McIlroy (NI); +3 R MacIntyre (Sco)Full leaderboardNorway’s Viktor Hovland and American Ryan Gerard are tied for the lead at 10 under, heading into the weekend at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Hovland, who was crowned the Fedex Cup champion in 2023, made a birdie on…

Apparently the deep and much-talked-about rift between the Who and former (and future?) drummer Zak Starkey was not quite a hell-freezes-over situation after all. Starkey, who was famously revealed to have been unceremoniously handed his walking orders in April 2025, is now back with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend … or at least he has rehearsed with them in advance of expected future dates. Both Daltrey and Starkey have made public statements announcing and confirming the somewhat surprising musical reconciliation. Representatives for both Starkey and the Who confirmed to Variety that the respective statements are accurate. In a solo gig…

Normal sudoku rules apply, except the numbers in the cells contained within dotted lines add up to the figures in the corner. No number can be repeated within each shape formed by dotted lines.To see the completed puzzle, buy the next issue of the Guardian (for puzzles published Monday to Thursday). Solutions to Friday and Saturday puzzles are given in either Saturday’s or Monday’s edition.