Author: DispatchTimes News Desk

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to discuss British backpacker visa changes with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham during talks at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in the Caribbean. The discussions are likely to focus on encouraging more British working holiday makers to take jobs in regional and rural Australia, where they are currently exempt from the work requirements imposed on backpackers from other countries seeking visa extensions. Matthew Heyes, founder of the Backpacker Job Board, welcomed efforts to direct British visitors towards areas facing labour shortages. However, he said the proposal was being undermined by planned visa…

Donald Trump has ended his final midterm campaign rallies in Iowa and Kansas as a poll showed Democratic candidates ahead in all seven closely contested Senate races. The president had hoped a schedule of 30 rallies would strengthen Republican turnout and prevent Democrats from taking control of both chambers of Congress. The latest New York Times/Siena poll put Democrats in front in races including those in the two states Trump visited on Sunday. Trump spent more than two hours campaigning in Dubuque, Iowa, for Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, before travelling to Salina, Kansas, to support Senator Roger Marshall. At…

Texas’s 2026 midterm election is entering its final hours with candidates criss-crossing the state in a last-ditch effort to mobilise voters in two unusually close statewide contests. San Antonio was a key stop on Sunday as Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa made their closing appeals, while the Senate hopefuls James Talarico and Ken Paxton intensified their own campaigns ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, November 3. Texas governor race remains tightly contested A Texas Southern University survey gives Mr Abbott a narrow lead, with the incumbent Republican on 50 per cent compared with 47 per cent…

Police body-worn camera footage shown at the Robert Crawford trial has captured the accused pilot crying at his kitchen table and asking where his wife’s body would be taken after she was found dead at their Queensland home. Crawford, 49, is accused of murdering Frances at the couple’s rural property in Upper Lockyer, west of Brisbane, in the early hours of July 30, 2024. He has pleaded not guilty. Footage shown in the Robert Crawford trial In the footage, Crawford can be heard asking: “Where will they put her?” Sergeant Glen Thomas told him Frances would be taken to Brisbane…

JD Vance’s Halloween costume has drawn ridicule online after the US vice-president shared a video of himself dressed as Albus Dumbledore while holding his baby son, Alec. Vance, 41, wore a long grey wig and robe inspired by the Harry Potter headmaster. Alec, who was born in July, was dressed in a knitted hat with pointed ears resembling the house elf Dobby. “Hey guys, Vice President Dumbledore here with little Dobby the Elf,” Vance said in the video. “Wishing you a Happy Halloween. Have fun, be safe, eat a lot of candy.” The light-hearted family post prompted a wave of…

A federal judge has ordered the US government to return a Nicaraguan man deported to the Central African Republic to Minnesota, after finding that immigration authorities likely breached his due-process rights. Kenis Lopez Gonzalez, who had been living in Shakopee, was detained during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in January and sent to the African nation in August, despite an earlier ruling that prevented his removal to Nicaragua because of fears he could be tortured there. Judge orders Kenis Lopez Gonzalez’s return US District Judge Jeffrey M Bryan directed the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to…

An Australian university student has argued that the country’s universities are failing to prepare graduates for life after graduation, after an exchange at the University of Pennsylvania exposed her to a more demanding and engaged academic culture. Allegra Schubert, who is studying Commerce and Engineering at the University of Sydney, said the course content at the Ivy League institution was not significantly harder than at home. The difference, she said, was the way students were taught and encouraged to think about their futures. At Penn, lecturers worked through problems by hand in real time rather than presenting pre-written solutions. Lectures…

Donald Trump has intensified Islamophobic rhetoric and unsubstantiated conspiracy claims at his final campaign rallies before the US midterm elections, attacking Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar. Speaking in Iowa and Kansas on Sunday, the president repeated his description of Mr El-Sayed, a Michigan candidate, as a “jihadist” and joked that the Senate would need a special metal detector if he were elected. “We’ll have a hundred senators, and most of them will go directly [into the Senate]… We’re gonna have to get a special metal detector for Abdul,” Mr Trump told supporters, prompting laughter. He also…

A 20-year-old man died after suffering an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound during a foot chase involving police in DeKalb County, Georgia. Vermontay Burch, of Stone Mountain, was pursued by a DeKalb County police officer early on Sunday after officers received a report of an armed carjacking at about 4.51am. The officer later spotted a vehicle matching the description of the car involved near Lancashire Circle. Investigators said Burch got out and ran when the officer approached. The pursuit continued into a nearby apartment complex close to the 400 building on Eagle Springs Way. During the chase, the officer deployed a…

Fourteen-year-old Charlotte Ehioghae has run the quickest 200m by a woman in Western Australia, clocking 22.81 seconds at the WA All Schools Championships. Her time will not be recognised as an official record because it was assisted by a tailwind of 2.3 metres per second, above the 2.0m/s limit. It will, however, stand as an all-conditions record. The performance is the second time in 18 months that an illegal wind has prevented Ehioghae from entering the record books. In April last year, she ran 11.36 seconds for 100m — a time that would have beaten the under-13 world record held…