One in 20 Australian adults found to have suffered reproductive coercion and abuse

Australian Study of Health and Relationship study finds 3.9% of women aged 16-69 had experienced contraceptive interference and 4.9% forced abortion

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One in 20 Australian adults have experienced reproductive coercion and abuse.

That is among the findings of the Australian Study of Health and Relationships, released this week, the first time researchers in Australia have estimated the national prevalence of behaviour used to control a person’s reproductive autonomy.

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/22/one-in-20-australian-adults-found-to-have-suffered-reproductive-coercion-and-abuse?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Burglar awarded £5m after being stabbed in Chelmsford prison kitchen

Steven Wilson was attacked after risk assessment failed to stop convicted murderer working in kitchen with access to knives

A career burglar has been awarded more than £5m in damages by a high court judge because of “life-changing” injuries he sustained after being stabbed in prison.

Steven Wilson, 36, sued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after a convicted murderer stabbed him several times with a 22cm (9in) knife in July 2018 while working in the canteen at HMP Chelmsford. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/21/burglar-awarded-5m-after-being-stabbed-in-chelmsford-prison-kitchen?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

How tycoons and oligarchs are pushing corporate spies out into the cold

Business intelligence firms who compile reports on corporate subjects find their targets are fighting back

In John le Carré’s landmark espionage novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, undersecretary Oliver Lacon ­outlines the obvious ­problem in unearthing a traitor at the heart of the British secret service. “It’s the oldest question of all, George,” he muses to the hero, George Smiley. “Who can spy on the spies? Who can smell out the fox without running with him?”

Yet in the modern setting of ­corporate intelligence – an industry that collates research on the business world and employs its fair share of former state-agency operatives – there appears to be no such issue. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/21/how-tycoons-and-oligarchs-are-pushing-corporate-spies-out-into-the-cold?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

US soldier Travis King sentenced for desertion after fleeing into North Korea

Private was sentenced to 12 months of confinement and dishonourably discharged from army but has been released because of time already served

A US soldier who fled into North Korea last year has been sentenced to 12 months of confinement after pleading guilty to desertion as part of a plea agreement, his lawyer has said.

Because of good behaviour and time served, the soldier was released, the lawyer, Franklin Rosenblatt, said on Friday. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/21/us-soldier-travis-king-sentenced-for-desertion-after-fleeing-into-north-korea?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Revealed: where property underquoting is rife in Australia – and when buyers are most likely to get stung

Our analysis suggests buyers are better off checking an automated price estimate than going by the real estate agent’s guide

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On a gloomy Saturday morning in Sydney, a small crowd with umbrellas and raincoats is waiting outside a terrace in the inner west for an auction to start.

The place is completely rundown, with peeling paint and water-stained ceilings. But the guide price online is $1.3m, and the house will sell for more than $1.8m after a six-minute auction marked more by a feeling of inevitability than excitement.

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/21/real-estate-property-underquoting-australia?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Jasper, garnet, sometimes sapphires: pocketfuls of treasure at Gemstone Beach

At Orepuki, on the remote south coast of New Zealand’s South Island, a bed of riches colour the shoreline, bringing gem hunters from near and far

Jack Geerlings crouches down at the shoreline to sift through a bed of stones. He picks up a small rough rock and turns it over in his hands. “This one is too coarse,” he says and flicks it back to the pile. Geerlings is after something a little more interesting.

Slowly, he walks along the vast sweep of beach, his gaze rarely lifting from the ground. “The sunlight helps to reveal the stones,” he says, bending to pick up and inspect rocks one by one. A little further on, he turns over a small red-brown stone, the colour and texture of a chestnut. “This one could be jasper,” he says, with more enthusiasm. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/21/jasper-garnet-sometimes-sapphires-pocketfuls-of-treasure-at-gemstone-beach?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Midlife left me asking what was the point of me? But then everything changed, again | Ros Reines

Losing fertility, friends, family, work – midlife for women can be self-altering. But I found liberation on the other side of menopause

In the first flush of my post-menopausal years, I didn’t exactly experience the energy surge that Dr Christine Northrup mentions in her breakthrough book The Wisdom of Menopause. She refers to menopause as “the mind-body revolution that brings the greatest opportunity for growth since adolescence”. Talk about a positive spin.

On one level, I was still mourning the loss of my fertility and feeling a bit like a husk of a person. I longed to get my sexy back, not realising that it would eventually be replaced by something equally as powerful – a lust for life. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/21/midlife-left-me-asking-what-was-the-point-of-me-but-then-everything-changed-again?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger