Australia museum can bar men from ‘Ladies Lounge’ exhibition

A museum in Australia was within its rights to bar men from a controversial art exhibit for women meant to underscore their exclusion from segments of the male-dominated society, a top regional court said on Friday.

The development is the latest in the long-running saga of the “Ladies Lounge” exhibition that has provoked an uproar in the art world. Its curator, Kirsha Kaechele, admitted in June she had created all the art, including the paintings she had billed for years as works by Spanish master Pablo Picasso without anyone noticing they were fake.

On Friday, Tasmania’s Supreme Court threw out on appeal an order for Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art, where the exhibit opened in 2020, to stop refusing male patrons entry to the show. It said the lower tribunal should have found that the “Ladies Lounge” was exempt from Australia’s gender discrimination law.

The appeals court asked Tasmania’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal to reconsider its ruling from April in the case brought by a disgruntled male visitor. It wasn’t immediately clear when the case would be revisited.

Associate Justice Shane Marshall wrote in his ruling Friday that the lower body was wrong when it decided the exhibition did not qualify for an exemption to gender discrimination laws. The exhibition was intended to promote equal opportunity for women – who suffer ongoing gender disadvantage – by excluding men, he said.

When the museum first lost the suit, Kaechele relocated the paintings to a women’s restroom at the gallery – rather than allow male visitors to see the art.

The fracas, however, continued, with the Guardian newspaper eventually questioning the authenticity of the art work after the museum published a picture of a supposed Picasso hanging above a toilet.

Friday’s ruling was a victory for Kaechele, who said in July that the purpose of the “Ladies Lounge” – open to all who identified as women – was to make men “feel as excluded as possible.”

Catherine Scott, a lawyer representing the museum, said the ruling Friday recognized that the “Ladies Lounge” challenged inequality by “providing a flipped universe where women experience advantage.”

During the hearings, Scott had presented a 2024 report card by the Australian government on gender equality, which shows that women working full-time earn 12% less than men.

Kaechele claimed the court’s decision reflected what she holds as “a simple truth: women are better than men.”

Jason Lau, the New South Wales resident who brought the case against the museum, did not appear in court — neither during the initial lawsuit nor during the appeal — and has never spoken publicly about it.

Lau’s lawyer, Greg Barns, said he was unable to comment on the case and did not respond to a request to speak to his client.

When the appeal hearing opened last week, Kaechele repeated her performance from earlier, showing up at the Supreme Court in Tasmania‘s city of Hobart surrounded by dozens of women supporters in navy-colored suits and wearing bright red lipstick. The women danced out of the court in single file, some holding placards denouncing men.

“Yes, the men, understandably, are a little grumpy about this,” Kaechele wrote on Instagram after Friday’s ruling. “They may even appeal. (They do not appeal to me.)”

When Kaechele announced in July that she had created the artwork at the exhibit, including the supposed Picasso paintings, she provoked a debate among art critics.

Detractors said that to knowingly display forgeries undermined a gallery’s credibility and that Kaechele was making a joke at her women patrons’ expense by passing off worthless trinkets as art.

But many gallery visitors appeared to be in on the act.

In March, a panelist on the Australian current events show “The Project” on Network 10 described being forced to wait outside while his female companions visited the exhibition.

“I begged to find out what happened, but no one said anything,” Sam Taunton told the program. “My girlfriend said it was the greatest experience of her life.”

Fans bid farewell to beloved panda pair before their return to China

Thousands of Japanese fans bid tearful farewell to their beloved panda couple that made their final public appearance at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo on Saturday before returning to China for medical treatment.

The pair, Ri Ri and Shan Shan, are the parents of Xiang Xiang, the park-born idol that had returned home last year.

More than 2,000 visitors, many wearing T-shirts and carrying items decorated by panda motifs, queued outside the zoo hours before the opening. Some said they camped out overnight to secure their chance.

The pandas, both 19 years old, arrived at the Ueno Zoo in 2011. Although their lease is good through 2026, Japan and China agreed to their return home as the aging couple need treatment for high blood pressure, according to the zoo.

Hirono Sasaki, who waited to enter the zoo since 5 a.m., was crying. “They were always my source of comfort, so I’m feel extremely sad,” she said. “I loved seeing Ri Ri climbing trees in her old enclosure. I hope she can climb trees again when she is back in China.”

After their hours long wait, visitors were given only a few minutes inside their hut to view the black-and-white animals. Lucky ones could get a glimpse of them nibbling on bamboo branches, but others could only catch them during their naps.

China sends pandas abroad as a sign of goodwill but maintains ownership over the animals and any cubs they produce. The animals are native to southwestern China and are an unofficial national mascot.

Pandas, which reproduce rarely in the wild and rely on a diet of bamboo, remain among the world’s most threatened species. An estimated 1,800 pandas live in the wild, while another 500 are in zoos or reserves, mostly in Sichuan.

At least 46 drown in India as major festival goes ahead amid flooding

At least 46 people, most of them children, have drowned in swollen rivers and ponds in northern India during a Hindu festival amid heavy monsoon rains.

The festival of Jivitputrika Vrat, marked by women fasting and offering prayers for the health and prosperity of their children, sees millions of people visit rivers, ponds and streams for ritual bathing in the northern state of Bihar.

The water bodies have been swollen by heavy monsoon rains this time, leading to scattered incidents of drowning in 15 districts of the state.

The victims include 37 children and seven women. The state has announced ₹400,000 (£3,940) as compensation for the families of each of the victims.

Fatalities during crowded festivities are not uncommon in India. Last year, 22 people drowned during the same festival in Bihar. In July this year, at least 116 people were crushed to death at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade.

The latest deaths occurred amid heavy rainfall and flooding across India as the monsoon rains continue for longer this year. India usually experiences the monsoon between mid-June to mid-September. This year, though, heavy rains have continued till the end of September, leaving several rivers across the country swollen for longer than usual.

Separate rain-related incidents in Bihar have killed at least 10 people this monsoon season.

In the southern state of Kerala, torrential rains caused a series of landslides that killed at least 200 people and flattened entire villages earlier in the summer.

The monsoon rains also brought the financial capital Mumbai in western India to a standstill this week, killing four people, flooding roads, and leading to cancellation of flights and trains.

This week’s heavy rainfall in the country was caused by excess moisture over the Bay of Bengal in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west, combined with a low-pressure system across the region. More heavy rainfall is forecast in the coming days.

Former defence minister chosen to be Japan’s next prime minister

Japan’s former defence minister, Shigeru Ishiba, has won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) presidential election at his fifth and final attempt, defeating economic security minister Sanae Takaichi in a runoff vote.

He is set to become the country’s next prime minister, with Fumio Kishida handing over the reins after almost exactly three years in power.

“We must believe in the people, speak the truth with courage and sincerity, and work together to make Japan a safe and secure country where everyone can live with a smile once again,” Mr Ishiba told lawmakers after the result on Friday.

The rush to find a successor for Mr Kishida began in August when he declared his intention to resign amid a series of scandals that drove the LDP’s ratings to historic lows.

Mr Ishiba secured 215 votes – 189 from LDP lawmakers and 26 from local chapters – compared to 194 votes for Ms Takaichi, who would have become the first female prime minister in Japanese history if she had won.

Mr Ishiba, 67, has also previously served as the party’s secretary-general. He will be formally confirmed as prime minister next week following a parliamentary vote.

“We must believe in the people and speak the truth with courage and sincerity,” Mr Ishiba said.

The 67-year-old, unaffiliated with any party faction, previously ran for LDP president four times without success – in 2008, 2012, 2018, and 2020.

The Asahi Shimbun noted that Mr Ishiba faces the urgent task of revitalising the LDP’s image, which has suffered due to a political funding scandal linked to party factions. The country is due to go to the polls by the end of October 2025, although there has been speculation that a new LDP leader could call a snap election sooner.

In his victory speech, Mr Ishiba commended Mr Kishida for making “a decision to regain the trust of the people so that the LDP can be reborn”.

“We must respond to his decision as one,” he said.

During his campaign, Mr Ishiba proposed forming an “Asian Nato”, a controversial idea that could provoke Beijing and was described as premature by a senior US official.

Mr Kishida and his cabinet ministers will resign on Tuesday to make way for Mr Ishiba.

The US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, congratulated Mr Ishiba in a post on X and said he looked forward to working with him to strengthen the US-Japan alliance.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian expressed hope that Japan would adopt an “objective and correct” understanding of its neighbour under the LDP’s new leadership. Relations between Japan and China under Mr Kishida have worsened as his government has taken a much stronger pro–US stance.

South Korea’s foreign ministry also said it was looking forward to working with Mr Ishiba and his cabinet ministers. “South Korea and Japan are the closest neighbours and partners that share the values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law and pursue common interests in security, economy and global agenda,” the ministry said.

“This government looks forward to our two countries working together proactively for improving future oriented ties.”

Additional reporting by agencies

China ‘covers up’ major blunder involving most advanced nuclear sub

China’s most advanced nuclear submarine sank in port while undergoing final sea tests earlier this year, American officials have claimed, in a blunder Beijing rushed to cover up.

The Zhou class vessel sank in May or June at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan, an anonymous Pentagon official told Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the boat was likely carrying nuclear fuel when it went down.

The sinking, if confirmed, would mark a blow to the plans of the Chinese navy, already the largest in the world with over 370 ships.

China is vying to overtake the US as the dominant maritime power in the world and the production of a new generation of nuclear submarines is crucial to its strategy.

The US has designated China as its long-term “pacing challenge”.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said they had no information to provide. “We are not familiar with the situation you mentioned and currently have no information to provide,” they said.

The unnamed American official told Reuters that it was not clear what caused the boat to sink, or whether it carried nuclear fuel.

“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China‘s defence industry, which has long been plagued by corruption,” the official said, using an acronym for the People’s Liberation Army, adding that it was “not surprising that the PLA navy would try to conceal” the sinking.

Analysts noted changes in satellite imagery of the dock at the Shuangliu shipyard on the Yangtze River where the nuclear submarine was undergoing final checks.

Images from 10 March show the boat docked at the port and being prepared for its first sea trial, but images from 15 June do not show the submarine. Naval experts said they only see floating cranes in the later images, a possible indication that attempts were being made to salvage the vessel.

An image from 15 June showed the submarine either fully or partially submerged just under the river’s surface, surrounded by rescue equipment. Containment booms can be seen around the area, likely used to prevent any oil or other substances leaking from the vessel.

A subsequent satellite image on 25 August showed a submarine back at the same dock. It is not clear if this is the same vessel.

It is not known if the reported sinking caused any casualties.

The incident is likely to add to growing pressure on China’s military as the government presses ahead with a crackdown on corruption.

President Xi Jinping recently removed the top leadership of the Rocket Force, the military branch responsible for managing both conventional and nuclear missile operations.

The Chinese Communist Party has framed the crackdown on the Rocket Force as part of an anti-corruption drive, particularly targeting officials involved in military procurement.

The state-of-the-art Zhou class nuclear attack submarines have a distinctive X-shaped tail that aids manoeuvrability as well as advanced stealth technology to reduce noise and evade detection by enemy forces.

In recent years, Beijing has made the modernisation of its naval fleet a top priority. The PLA navy operates six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines, according to a 2023 China military power report.

In comparison, the US navy has 53 fast attack submarines, 14 ballistic-missile submarines and four guided-missile submarines. This force is expected to grow to 65 by 2025 and 80 by 2035, the US Defense Department has said.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the PLA navy operates 234 warships compared to the US navy’s 219.

Boy killed in ‘ritual sacrifice’ to bring school success, say police

A young boy was killed in a ritual sacrifice by teachers who believed it would please the gods and bring good fortune to their school in India, police said on Friday.

The boy, the son of a software engineer at a private firm in Delhi, was killed at a private school in the city of Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.

Five people, including the school’s director and three teachers, have been arrested for the alleged murder of the second grade student, police said.

The director, Dinesh Baghel, and his father, Jashodhan Singh, are accused of orchestrating the ritualistic killing with the help of the three teachers.

Mr Singh, who police said is a believer in black magic and human sacrifice, allegedly performed the ritual to improve the struggling school’s financial prospects.

“The boy was sacrificed as part of a ritual for the school’s supposed success and glory. We are investigating if any other individuals were involved in the murder,” senior police officer Nipun Agarwal told The Times of India.

Mr Agarwal said the director and his father had previously attempted to sacrifice another boy for the same reason but that plan failed. He did not elaborate on how or why the earlier attempt did not succeed, or what happened to the victim.

Police say they tried again on 22 September, abducting the boy while he was sleeping and placing him by a well behind the school to perform the ritual. When the boy woke up and tried to escape, the accused allegedly panicked and strangled him.

School staff found the boy lying dead in his hostel bed the next morning. But instead of reporting to the police, Mr Baghel drove around the city with the body in his car, reported The Times of India.

The boy’s family, informed that their child was “unwell”, arrived at the school in the meantime and raised the alarm when they could not find him.

“I received a call from the school saying, ‘Your child’s condition is very serious. Please come immediately.’ While I was on my way, they called again, saying, ‘The child’s condition has worsened and we are taking him to Sadabad,’” the student’s father recounted, referring to a nearby town.

“We followed them towards Agra, but they didn’t stop the car. When we returned, we caught up with them in Sadabad where we found my child’s body in their car.”

Human sacrifices, although rare, are still prevalent in India. These are conducted to appease deities into granting wishes.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the country reported 103 cases of human sacrifice from 2014 and 2021.

Three people were arrested in 2022 in the southern state of Kerala for allegedly murdering two women in a suspected case of human sacrifice.

Oscar-nominated Australian filmmaker refused entry to India

Australian documentary filmmaker David Bradbury was detained at an airport in India while travelling with his children earlier this month and refused entry to the country.

The director says he was stopped and questioned about a documentary he made in India more than a decade ago, before eventually being deported.

Mr Bradbury, 73, landed at the Chennai airport in southern Tamil Nadu state on 10 September with his children Nakeita and Omar. The family intended to take a two-week trip across India, with plans to visit five tourist destinations.

“I wanted to show my son Omar how Hindus deal with death and say farewell to their loved ones in the next life,” the filmmaker told The Wire.

Mr Bradbury’s wife, Treena Lenthall, an activist and filmmaker, died of cancer five months ago.

Mr Bradbury started working as a radio journalist for ABC in 1972 and went on to make several acclaimed documentary films. He has been twice nominated for an Oscar—in 1987 for his film on Pinochet’s Chile, Chile Hasta Quando? and in 1981 for Front Line, a profile of Tasmanian-born combat cameraman Neil Davis.

Speaking to The News Minute, Mr Bradbury described being pulled aside at the Chennai airport, being held in a room with “a single bed, mattress, no sheets, or blanket”, and being refused when he asked to contact the Australian embassy.

Naketia, 21, and Omar, 14, were allowed through.

Describing the room, he said there was “rubbish on the floor and a metal grill on the door, which had a view out to a wall beyond. I was allowed to go to the toilet up the corridor, but there was one time when, despite my calling out, they didn’t come back to let me out. So I was obliged to relieve my bladder into a paper cup I found on the floor,” he said.

He was denied access to his medication and warmer clothes, he added, and his request to contact the embassy was ignored.

Mr Bradbury said the interrogators asked him to unlock his phone and provide details of his contacts in India, but he refused.

The Independent has contacted Mr Bradbury as well as India’s home ministry for comment.

Mr Bradbury said that he was asked about the purpose of his current visit and to explain his first visit to the country in 2012.

That 2012 visit is the reason Mr Bradbury believes he was stopped and questioned.

The filmmaker was a member of the jury for the Mumbai International Film Festival in 2012. After his obligations at the festival ended, Mr Bradbury travelled to Idinthakarai, a coastal village in Tamil Nadu, with Lenthall and then three-year-old Omar.

The village is near the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, and Mr Bradbury stayed for over two weeks to document ongoing protests against the project. The protests centred around concerns of local villagers over the long-term impacts of the plant, especially in light of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Detailing what he had seen and faced, Mr Bradbury wrote in 2013: “I watched as Leon the fisherman rubbed ‘440 days’ off the whiteboard and added a ‘1’ to it. For 441 days the people of Idinthakarai have resisted the dictates of the Centre Government 3000km away in New Delhi to incorporate their village into the grand scheme of things.”

“In the last raid, the police lathi charged (with bamboo sticks) peaceful protestors and beat everyone in their path who could not flee fast enough: children, the crippled, women, old men and women. One fisherman was shot dead.”

“I’ve just been informed 30 people including the woman who helped me get to Idinthakarai have been arrested and detained by Tamil Nadu police…They are ordinary people like you and me. The police couldn’t get away with putting me in gaol, but they can do this to their own people.”

Questions about this trip at the airport have led Mr Bradbury to conclude that his detention and subsequent deportation were related to his role in documenting the protests.

“I told them I was just doing my job, like they are now interrogating me. It was important for me to see the people of Idinthakarai learn why they were so determined in their struggle against the Union government in Delhi and the state government in Chennai that six nuclear power plants were being built. I told the interrogating officers that if India was truly a democracy, it should value the rights of the media to have access to marginalised people and tell their side of the story,” Mr Bradbury said.

“I told the two officers that I agreed with the people of Idinthakarai that it was ‘madness’ to build one, let alone six nuclear reactors, on a major earthquake faultline that had swept one thousand locals to their deaths in the tsunami of 2004.”

After Mr Bradbury was detained, his children decided to continue on their trip.

They said Indian police allowed them to speak to Mr Bradbury only across a barricade and tried to convince them to ask their father to return to Bangkok, where the three had come from.

“They kept asking us to convince our father to return to Bangkok. We just refused,” they said.

Mr Bradbury was deported to Thailand and planned to join his children in Milan, which was where they were meant to go after their trip in India. His children reportedly left India on 26 September.

Teenage girl dies after collapsing during flight from Iraq to China

An Iraqi Airways flight from Baghdad to Guangzhou in China made an emergency landing at Kolkata airport in India due to a medical emergency involving a 16-year-old girl who suddenly fell ill.

Despite getting immediate medical attention after the plane landed, the Iraqi girl was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital.

The flight, carrying 100 passengers and 15 crew members, landed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose airport at around 10.18pm on Wednesday.

The teenager had reportedly taken ill on the aircraft about half an hour earlier.

According to an Airports Authority of India spokesperson, a medical team was rushed to see the passenger. “The girl had no pulse or heartbeat when the plane landed in Kolkata,” the agency said in a statement. “The attending doctor referred her to the nearest hospital for further evaluation.”

“At about 1.18am, the passenger along with two of her immediate family members were offloaded and due formalities completed.”

It was unclear who the family members were.

The girl’s body would be handed over to her family with assistance from the Iraqi embassy in Delhi.

The Independent has reached out to the Iraqi embassy for comment.

Dr Pooja Adhikary, who was with the medical team that attended the teenager, reported a case of unnatural death at the Baguiati police station, according to The Indian Express.

The Baguiati police launched an investigation based on the doctor’s report, NDTV reported, and collected the girl’s body from the Charnock Hospital for a postmortem examination.

The flight took off for China with the remaining passengers at 1.49am on Thursday.

The Independent has contacted Iraqi Airways for comment.