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The Loop: Liz Truss resignation means UK facing third prime minister in three months, Kevin Spacey found not liable in civil sexual abuse trial

This is The Loop, your quick catch-up for this morning's news as it happens.

Live updates

By Kelsie Iorio

Pinned

Stay in The Loop

Thanks for reading this morning's live wrap of key news headlines.

You can stay up to date on the ABC News website and by subscribing to our mobile alerts.

If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

  • Liz Truss has become the shortest-serving British prime minister in history, resigning after just 45 days
  • Overnight rain has worsened fears in south-east Australia's hardest-hit flood zones with more rain forecast for today
  • Teenage grandmaster Hans Niemann is suing chess world champion Magnus Carlsen and others over cheating allegations
  • A jury has sided with Kevin Spacey in one of the lawsuits that derailed his career, finding he did not sexually abuse Anthony Rapp in 1986 when Rapp was 14
  • Aston Villa has sacked head coach Steven Gerrard 'with immediate effect' after a troubled start to the Premier League season

I'll leave you with this:

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Björk is coming back to Australia

Incomparable indie music innovator Björk will exhibit her spellbinding show Cornucopia at the Perth Festival in 2023.

The Australian exclusive concert experience will take place in a purpose-built pavilion and promises "a visually spectacular landscape of lush colours, futuristic screens and wild images of nature".

The show, based on her 2017 album Utopia, features Björk performing with choirs of flutes and voices and promises a unique, immersive multimedia experience.

It will be Björk's first musical performance in Australia since 2008.

By Double J reporter Dan Condon

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Treasury Select Committee chair backs Rushi Sunak to lead UK conservatives

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Another limerick

ICYMI earlier, we simply had to include a Liz Truss limerick in today's blog.

Sticking with the theme, reporter Ruby Cornish has penned this piece of sheer brilliance on Nedd Brockmann, the legend who ran 4,000km across the entire country and raised $1.85 million for charity:

By Kelsie Iorio

Overnight: Social media companies take a dive

Shares of Meta Platforms, Google-owner Alphabet and other companies that sell digital ads have dropped late Thursday after Snapchat owner Snap Inc blamed inflation for its slowest revenue growth since going public five years ago.

Snap was the first major social media company to release its September-quarter earnings, and its stock tumbled 25 per cent following the disappointing results.

Shares of other companies that sell internet advertising also fell, with Facebook-owner Meta down about 4 per cent, Alphabet down 2 per cent and Pinterest losing nearly 8 per cent.

Altogether the sell-off in late trading erased over US$40 billion in stock market value from those and other internet ad companies, including Spotify and Roku.

Reporting by Reuters

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Charlie Hebdo attacker's prison sentence extended on appeal

A court in Paris has increased the prison sentence of a man connected to the deadly attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine office and a Jewish supermarket eight years ago.

Ali Riza Polat had originally been handed a 30-year sentence for helping the Islamist gunmen in the attacks.

The court has increased his jail term to life after Polat appealed against his conviction of conspiring with the attackers.

A dozen people were killed in the 2015 attacks, sparked by the satirical magazine publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

"In the end, this trial revealed nothing fundamentally new, in any case nothing astonishing that earned one or the other of the defendants an acquittal," the magazine said in an online article after the verdict.

"The legal history of the January 2015 attacks is therefore over. But not that of the women and men who suffered the consequences, like all the other victims of the attacks that preceded and followed."

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: NSW's weekly COVID update

By Kelsie Iorio

Happening now: Some fun Liz Truss facts and rhymes

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Home affairs minister says there are 'real questions' about why companies hold data for so long

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil says the full scale of the Medibank Private hack remains unclear, but she's still deeply concerned.

The health insurer is working the federal police and Australian Cyber Security Centre to respond to a ransom demand from a group claiming to have customer's details.

Ms O'Neil says Medibank has 3.7 million customers, but the much smaller AHM and international student groups are those primarily affected.

She told Channel Nine there's a strong case for legislative change to try to mitigate future incidents.

"There are real questions here about why Australian companies are holding so much data, and holding it for such a long period of time," she said.

"So we are looking at ways we might be able to change that."

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard part ways 'with immediate effect'

Aston Villa has confirmed in a statement that it's parting ways with head coach Steven Gerrard.

"We would like to thank Steven for his hard work and commitment and wish him well for the future," a spokesperson said.

Aston Villa has had a poor start to the season under the former Liverpool great, sitting 17th on the Premier League table after 11 matches.

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Deputy PM says Truss resignation won’t affect UK-Australia relations

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says the Australian government will continue to work well with Britain, regardless of the country's ongoing leadership turmoil.

The UK Conservative Party will elect a new Prime Minister by the end of next week after Liz Truss resigned overnight.

Australia is currently working with the UK on projects like the AUKUS submarine program.

Mr Marles says the changes in leadership won't affect any of that work.

"Britain will work this through, they'll sort this out," he said.

"It actually doesn't, in my view, have an impact on our relationship with Britain and our ability to engage on the really critical issues which we have with Britain in a timely way."

By political reporter Tom Lowrey

By Kelsie Iorio

Update: Absolute savagery from the Scottish First Minister

By Kelsie Iorio

ICYMI: Tanya Plibersek weighs in in Lidia Thorpe's resignation

Environment minister Tanya Plibersek spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning, and was asked about Senator Lidia Thorpe's resignation which came after it was revealed she "briefly dated" an ex-bikie boss while sitting on a parliamentary law enforcement committee.

Ms Plibersek says there needs to be an explanation provided.

"She can date whoever she likes but if there is a conflict, she has to declare that conflict. That is the issue here," she says.

"The leader of the Greens should actually be explaining why it seems that people alerted his office to this conflict and no further action was taken. It is up to Adam Bandt to explain why that's occurred."

By Kelsie Iorio

Just in: Hans Niemann sues Magnus Carlsen

Hans Niemann, the teenage grandmaster at the centre of the cheating scandal that has rocked professional chess, is suing the world champion Magnus Carlsen and others for defaming him and conspiring to ruin his career.

The 19-year-old has filed a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages.

The suit claims that Niemann's upset victory over Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup in September resulted in a wave of defamatory statements, accusing Niemann of cheating.

By Kelsie Iorio

Overnight: Chief Mouser weighs in on Liz Truss debacle

By Kelsie Iorio

Coming up: Federal opposition will move to censure Lidia Thorpe

The federal opposition will be moving to censure Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe when parliament returns next week.

Censure motions allow MPs to express their disapproval of their colleagues but don't have any direct legal consequences.

Senator Thorpe's undisclosed relationship with a former bikie boss prompted concerns across the political spectrum about a perceived conflict with her role on a law enforcement committee of parliament. 

She resigned from her position as deputy leader of the Greens in the Senate yesterday, admitting she didn't exercise good judgement.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he believes Senator Thorpe is "not fit" to serve in the federal parliament.

He said yesterday that the matter was a "test of leadership" for Greens leader Adam Bandt and called on him to expel Senator Thorpe from the party.

By Kelsie Iorio

Overnight: Oaklahoma executes sixth prisoner in a year

Authorities in Oaklahoma have executed a man convicted of killing his infant daughter — the sixth prison inmate to be executed since the state resumed carrying them out in October 2021.

Benjamin Cole's lawyers did not dispute that he killed his nine-month-old daughter Brianna in 2002, but argued that he was severely mentally ill and had a growing lesion on his brain that had worsened in recent years.

"Ben lacked a rational understanding of why Oklahoma took his life today," Cole's attorney Tom Hird said in a statement after the execution.

"As Oklahoma proceeds with its relentless march to execute one mentally ill, traumatised man after another, we should pause to ask whether this is really who we are, and who we want to be."

But baby Brianna's maternal aunt Donna Daniel and uncle Bryan Young, who witnessed the execution, said they were disappointed it took more than 20 years for Cole's execution to be carried out.

"Give me a break," Mr Young said.

"We should not have to wait 20 years for a nine-month-old baby to get justice."

By Kelsie Iorio

Watch: Liz Truss goes to see King Charles

By Kelsie Iorio

Update: US condemns deadly clashes in Chad

The United States has condemned violence in Chad involving clashes between security forces and demonstrators, including an attack that took place outside the US Embassy.

"We are deeply concerned by reports of casualties and urge all parties to deescalate the situation and exercise restraint," the State Department said in a statement.

"We also condemn the attack that occurred outside the main gate of the US Embassy in which assailants in civilian clothes and private vehicles cleared police checkpoints and killed four individuals."

By Kelsie Iorio

Overnight: Multiple people injured in Melbourne CBD bus crash

Police are investigating a bus crash in Melbourne last night, which injured several people.

Emergency services were called to Lonsdale Street in the CBD after reports a bus had hit a tree.

A number of passengers were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

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