Florida woman arrested for fatally shooting neighbour

Susan Louise Lorincz says she shot the mother of four in self defence - a claim that police deny.

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Australia news live: Anika Wells to map out aged care reforms; Philip Lowe to speak after rates rise

Reforms will aim to create a more sustainable funding system as population grows older, and Lowe to address economy’s ‘narrow path’. Follow live

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Parts of Victoria and South Australia are being warned to expect heavy rainfall today.

The heavy rain that’s already hit Western Australia is sweeping across the country, with South Australia’s Riverland and Murraylands warned to brace for heavy rainfall to last until Friday.

We want to see productivity get going. We have had the worst decade, I think, in productivity growth in the last 60 years in the previous decade so there’s a lot of work to do. We can’t turn that around in one year.

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Atlanta 'Cop City': Money approved for controversial training centre

Opponents say the training centre will destroy a vital forest and lead to militarisation of police.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 468 of the invasion

Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up Nova Kakhovka dam; people in parts of Kherson and the surrounding area urged to evacuate

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Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff says he ‘does not understand’ how there are any doubts that Russian forces blew up the dam. In a statement, Andriy Yermak said: “At 2.50am, Russian troops blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and its dam. I do not understand how there can be any doubt about this. Both constructions are located in the temporary Russian-occupied territories. Neither shelling nor any other external influence was capable of destroying the structures. The explosion came from within.”

The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of deliberately sabotaging the dam. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, told reporters: “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.” He said [Russian president] Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the situation.

The US “cannot say conclusively” who was responsible. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House: “We’re doing the best we can to assess”, noting “destruction of civilian infrastructure is not allowed by the laws of war”. Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that the US government had intelligence indicating Russia was behind the incident, according to two US officials and one western official.

The Ukrainian government called for people living downstream to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding. Energy company Ukrahydroenergo said the hydroelectric power plant at the dam had been blown up from the inside and was irreparable.

The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said about 16,000 people were in the “critical zone” on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the river.

The areas most under threat of flooding are the islands along the course of the Dnipro downstream of Nova Kakhovka and much of the Russian-held left bank in southern Kherson. Andrey Alekseyenko, one of the Russian-installed officials in occupied Kherson, has posted to Telegram to say that up to 22,000 people are in the flood plains in Russian-controlled territory.

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Ros Atkins on… The Ukraine dam breach

The BBC’s analysis editor Ros Atkins looks at what we know about the Ukraine dam collapse at Nova Kakhovka.

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Australian-first affordable rental scheme a ‘massive relief’ for Victorians faced with housing crisis

Exclusive: About 2,400 homes will be available for low- to middle-income earners to rent under ‘big housing build’

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After five months spent searching for a Melbourne rental, Miranda Templeman stumbled upon an online listing she thought was too good to be true. There was a whole block of brand new apartments in the inner-city suburb of Kensington, each offering three-year leases that were much cheaper than other properties in the area.

“I honestly wasn’t sure if it was a scam or not,” she said. “But we figured we had nothing to lose and we put ourselves down for as many spots as we could. When we got the call that we had been selected for one it was a massive relief.”

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Chris Christie's long-shot mission to torpedo Trump in 2024

The former New Jersey governor is entering the Republican race for the White House in 2024.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 468 of the invasion

Ukraine has enough weapons to begin counteroffensive, says foreign minister; Zelenskiy welcomes ‘the news we have been waiting for’ from Bakhmut

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Ukrainian troops went on the attack at multiple points along the frontline in the Donetsk region on Monday, driving back Russian forces in at least two areas in what appeared to be the preliminary stages of Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive.

Ukraine has enough weapons to begin its counteroffensive, and the operation will give the country the victory it needs to join Nato, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters on Monday. Membership of the military alliance would “probably” only be possible for Ukraine after the end of active hostilities, Kuleba said in an interview in Kyiv.

Russia claimed to have repelled a “major offensive” in the Donetsk region and to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops, but the claims could not be independently verified. The defence ministry in Moscow said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions from two brigades.

The ministry claimed 250 Ukrainian troops had been killed, and 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured personnel carriers destroyed. It also claimed that Valery Gerasimov, the Russian chief of general staff, had been near the frontlines when the attack was repelled. The Russian defence ministry has consistently made exaggerated claims about the casualties its forces have inflicted.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed on Monday what he called “the news we have been waiting for” from troops in Bakhmut, but gave no further details. “I am grateful to each soldier, to all our defenders, men and women, who have given us today the news we have been waiting for. Fine job, soldiers in the Bakhmut sector!” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

The US imposed sanctions on members of a Russian intelligence-linked group for their role in Moscow’s efforts to destabilise democracy and influence elections in Moldova, the Treasury department said. The sanctions target seven individuals, several of whom maintain ties to Russian intelligence services, the department said. They include the group’s leader, Konstantin Prokopyevich Sapozhnikov, who organised the plot to destabilise the government of Moldova, which borders Ukraine, earlier this year.

The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, met Zelenskiy in Kyiv. They discussed preparations for the Nato summit in Lithuania next month and Ukraine’s plan for ending Russia’s invasion. During the meeting, Cleverly said: “Ukraine will win this war and can count on our support.”

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed leader in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast has rebuked those sharing information. He wrote on Telegram: “Friends, I ask you not to rush to publish news about the mass use of Leopard [tanks] on the Zaporizhzhia front. Wait for the official or at least video confirmation of their use by the enemy in our direction. Observe information hygiene!” Alexander Khodakovsky, the head of the pro-Moscow Vostok Battalion in the Donbas, had posted to Telegram to say that “the situation on Novodonetsk and to the left towards Velykonovosilkivskyi is difficult” and that “for the first time we saw Leopards [tanks] in our tactical area”.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, said three people were killed in the region as a result of Russian attacks.

Two drones fell on the M3 Ukraine highway, in the Russian region of Kaluga, just south of Moscow, the region’s governor said. There was no detonation and the sites have been cordoned off by investigators, said governor Vladislav Shapsha on Monday.

Poland’s agriculture minister has received a draft regulation from the European Commission extending a ban on Ukrainian grain imports until 15 September, he said on Monday.

Belgium will ask Ukraine for clarification on reports that rifles made in Belgium had been used by pro-Ukrainian forces to fight Russian troops inside Russia’s western border, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday.

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Ukraine war: Can UK’s Storm Shadow missiles change the battle?

The UK is sending missiles to Ukraine – but how could Storm Shadows change its fight against Russia?

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Ghana patients in danger as nurses head for NHS in UK - medics

The recruitment of nurses by high-income countries is "out of control", a nursing body says.

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