Companies say price hikes are necessary to offset costs of attracting and retaining workers, but charity contends some fee increases are ‘not reasonable’

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The aged care sector is warning almost half of the nation’s home care providers will be increasing fees by up to 20% after a new two-hour minimum shift for carers comes into force on Friday, prompting complaints from older Australians and advocates.

Home care helps more than 200,000 older Australians stay at home, playing a critical role in relieving pressure on Australia’s residential aged care system and ensuring independence for the nation’s ageing population.

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Environment secretary George Eustice wants to amend Habitats Directive, which protects Natura 2000 sites

Environment secretary George Eustice wants to tear up a key piece of European law that environmentalists say protects cherished habitats in the UK.

Eustice told MPs the Habitats Directive was in a list of laws he wanted to amend in the forthcoming Brexit freedoms bill designed to cut red tape, saying it was bureaucratic and fundamentally flawed on multiple levels.

Magistrate dismisses application for woman’s charges of assault and intimidation to be dealt with under Mental Health Act

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William Tyrrell’s foster mother, who allegedly kicked and assaulted a child with a wooden spoon, has had her mental health application dismissed.

The woman known as SD, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared alongside her partner and foster father of William at a Parramatta local court hearing on Thursday.

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Caderyn Neville has made headlines but the selection of Quade Cooper is key to unlocking the team’s attacking mojo

A golden oldie debutante, a front row firebrand, the return of the Rising Sun triangle, a dirty dozen Brumbies but no Tongan Thor and just one Red. Dave Rennie’s 23-man Wallabies squad for the first Test against England on Saturday is a tough, fast, freewheeling outfit designed to run England ragged, snap Eddie Jones’s eight-game winning streak and reverse England’s 3-0 whitewash of 2016.

Brumbies lock Caderyn Neville has caught the headlines, set to debut at age 33 after being part of national squads since 2012. The 120kg, 2.02-metre tall journeyman who represented Australia in rowing at the Youth Olympics in 2006 and played his first game of rugby at age 21 has been named in the run-on side at last, after being overlooked by four Wallabies coaches across the past decade.

Evidence of bruising could lead court to find she had been killed instead of having left home, prosecution tells Chris Dawson trial

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Witness accounts that Lynette Dawson was seen bruised before she vanished in January 1982 were small pieces of a larger picture showing she was murdered by her husband, prosecutors have told a court.

As the murder trial against Christopher Michael Dawson, 73, enters its closing phase, crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC said that evidence of the bruising could lead the NSW supreme court to find Lynette Dawson had been killed instead of having left home.

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If confirmed, last week’s attack would be the eighth this year – involving $1bn in stolen funds – that could be confidently attributed to North Korea

North Korean hackers are thought to be behind last week’s theft of as much as $100m in cryptocurrency from a US company, as the regime steps up attempts to secure funding for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The assets were stolen on 23 June from Horizon Bridge, a service operated by the Harmony blockchain that allows assets to be transferred to other blockchains, three digital investigative firms have concluded.

Victoria Atkins says Ellie Reeves should retract statement that government had ‘let off rapists and let survivors down’

A Home Office minister has privately written to the House of Commons Speaker to complain about the language used by a Labour frontbencher, suggesting she should be made to correct her remarks on rape convictions.

Victoria Atkins suggested in her letter to Sir Lindsay Hoyle that her Labour counterpart would deter victims by saying the government “let off rapists and let survivors down”.

Commons foreign affairs committee criticises ministers’ complacency and ‘unwillingness to bring forward legislation’

The government’s failure to tackle Russian kleptocrats laundering “dirty money” through the UK has led millions of pounds used to finance Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to flow through London, a powerful committee of MPs has warned.

The commons foreign affairs committee said ministers’ complacency over “morally bankrupt billionaires using the UK as a safe deposit box” had led to “assets laundered through the UK … financing President Putin’s war in Ukraine”.

Vacancies blamed on ticketholders wining and dining and technical issues with re-sale

Swathes of empty seats on Wimbledon’s Centre Court have been blamed on hospitality guests wining and dining rather than watching the tennis.

Fans unable to find Centre Court tickets have complained about the large number of empty seats at key matches this week – including those of Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray on Wednesday.

Exclusive: Met police, in need of special measures for first time since founding in 1829, is not the only force where intervention is deemed necessary

A record six police forces are currently judged as failing so badly that they need special help, the Guardian can reveal, as a furious political row erupted over the placing of Scotland Yard into special measures.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary confirmed on Tuesday that the Metropolitan police had been placed into special measures as it waits for a new commissioner to reverse plunging public confidence.

The review into the rules was ordered by Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle in November

MPs should not be allowed to bring babies into the House of Commons chamber during debates, a cross-party review has recommended after mounting “confusion” about the rules.

The procedure committee report was ordered amid an outcry over Labour backbencher Stella Creasy being told she could no longer bring her newborn son while making statements or asking questions in parliament.

• No spectators underneath roof when it buckles
• Start of play on day two delayed at Galle International Stadium

The roof on a makeshift grandstand at Galle International Stadium has collapsed in heavy rain and wind, delaying the start of play between Sri Lanka and Australia.

Rain began falling around 90 minutes before the scheduled first ball on day two of the first Test, with big gusts blowing in off the coastline.

Russia will respond in kind if Nato sets up military in Finland and Sweden, Vladimir Putin warns; residents attempt to flee from frontline eastern city

• Putin issues fresh warning to Finland and Sweden after joining Nato
• Ukraine announces largest exchange of prisoners of war
• US to increase military forces across Europe
• Evidence contradicts Russian claims about Kremenchuk mall attack
• At a glance: what we know on day 127 of the invasion

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you as we continue to report all the latest news from Ukraine.

Here are all the major developments as of 8am in Kyiv.

Experts say Australian census data linking income level and health outcomes is unsurprising and focus is now on how to change it

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The median age in Queenscliffe, a small, wealthy seaside region in Victoria, is 62 – almost three times higher than in Cherbourg, the Aboriginal community in south-east Queensland, where the median age is just 23.

Cherbourg was Australia’s most disadvantaged local government area the last time the Australian Bureau of Statistics calculated it in 2016. Queenscliffe was one of the most advantaged, and holds the honour of being the first local government area in Australia to reach the national Covid vaccination target.

Shooting marks the latest in a string of attacks on the streets and subways of New York that have left residents on edge

A 20-year-old woman pushing a baby stroller on a New York City street was shot in the head and killed, the New York police department said.

The victim was taken to Metropolitan hospital Center on Wednesday, where she died of her wounds. Her three-month-old child was unharmed, police said.

NSW Labor and others warn failure to bring land clearing under control is ‘unsustainable’ and threatens Coalition pledge to cut emissions by 2030

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Land clearing in NSW continues to exceed the long-term average, with more than 50,000 hectares of vegetation cleared for farming, forestry and infrastructure in 2020.

The NSW opposition has described the situation as unsustainable. The shadow minister for the environment, Penny Sharpe, promised Labor would use a statutory review of native vegetation laws to consider what would be necessary to stop “skyrocketing” clearing, if elected in March.

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• Lock Cadeyrn Neville, 33, to earn first Wallabies cap on Saturday
• Quade Cooper, Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete will also start

The Wallabies have picked their oldest debutant this century to face England on Saturday. The 33-year-old Brumbies lock Cadeyrn Neville will pack down for his first cap in the opening game of the eagerly-awaited three-Test series as Australia look to beef up their forward power to counter the touring side’s primary strength.

The 120-kg Neville was first selected in an Australian squad a decade ago but, until now, has never actually made it on to the field. He is the oldest Wallaby to make his debut since Tiaan Strauss in 1999 and the third oldest since the second world war but his impact for the Brumbies in Super Rugby has earned him a deserved call up.

Annastacia Palaszczuk taking ‘personal responsibility’ for recommendations from Peter Coaldrake’s damning review

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The Queensland government will release cabinet papers within 30 days instead of 30 years, in what premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says is a “revolutionary” response to a damning integrity review.

Palaszczuk, who was publicly absent on Wednesday while undergoing dental surgery, faced a barrage of questions on Thursday, two days after the review found major issues within the public service.

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Xi Jinping will make his first trip outside mainland China since the Covid pandemic began, as the territory marks the milestone amid heightened security

In downtown Hong Kong huge barriers have gone up around the convention centre, establishing a tight, two-level securitised zone with no civilian access. On Wednesday hundreds of Hong Kong’s distinctive red taxis, adorned with red Chinese flags, and red celebratory banners, parked in the shape of the number “25” in the city’s Central district. Across the harbour in Kowloon, hundreds of Chinese and Hong Kong flags fluttered from balcony railings of two housing estates, each dozens of storeys high.

On Friday, Hong Kong will mark 25 years since the territory was returned from Britain to China, and authorities are taking no chances, ensuring the day is filled with pomp and pageantry – and no sign of dissent. China’s president, Xi Jinping, will attend a ceremony marking the anniversary, his first trip outside mainland China since the pandemic began.

Barilaro texted his replacement as trade minister to ask about $500,000-a-year trade role before it was advertised

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It’s been revealed John Barilaro contacted NSW deputy Liberal party leader Stuart Ayres to enquire about “the status” of a $500,000 New York trade commissioner job prior to it being publicly advertised, as pressure grows on the former deputy premier to withdraw from the role.

On Thursday, the NSW transport minister, David Elliott, broke ranks and called for Barilaro to “do the honourable thing” and quit of his own accord.