By Luke Henriques-Gomes

In 12 months, Australian welfare payments were stopped an extra 1m times thanks to automated technologies. Money is stopped first and questions asked later, causing untold misery

• To read our entire Automating Poverty series, click here

Bad news comes to Australia’s welfare recipients in different ways.

Sometimes, the message comes in the post. More often than not, though, word arrives through a special email portal, or by text to a smartphone. The sender always says the same thing: “Your payments have been suspended.”

Related: ParentsNext: 80% of recipients who had payments suspended not at fault, data shows

Related: Zombie …read more

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By Virginia Eubanks

Tens of thousands of Americans have received demands to repay alleged overpayments of government benefits – often decades old – plunging them into a Kafkaesque struggle against a faceless bureaucracy

This is what happens when the government targets you for zombie debt collection.

You receive a letter from your state’s department of human services claiming that you were “overissued” $4,132 in food stamp and cash benefits in the 1980s. Enclosed is a copy of the original overpayment notice they say they sent you when you were still listening to Madonna and Bobby Brown.

How do you argue with the government? How do …read more

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By Paul Karp

Christian Porter suggests claim the bill could harm Victorian ban on conversion therapy is either ‘inept’ or ‘malicious’

The attorney general Christian Porter has emphatically rejected the Victorian government’s claim the religious discrimination bill could harm its proposed ban on gay conversion therapy.

In comments to Guardian Australia, Porter accused the Andrews Labor government of a “clear lack of understanding” of the bill which he said preserves states’ rights to pass their own laws, suggesting the criticism was either inept or malicious.

Related: Religious discrimination bill would create barriers to women’s healthcare, advocates warn

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By Helena Smith

Woman, 19, to go on trial after revoking claim she was raped by 12 Israeli tourists

Human rights and feminist groups are calling for Cypriot authorities to drop the case against a British teenager accused of falsely claiming she was raped by 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room.

The 19-year-old, who reported the alleged assault almost three months ago but was then arrested after revoking her criminal complaint, is due to go on trial on Tuesday on a charge of public mischief. She has pleaded not guilty to fabricating the accusation of rape, but could be imprisoned for up to a …read more

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By Caroline Davies

Critics say voter fraud numbers are tiny and proposals would threaten democratic participation

The government has been accused of “blatant” election rigging and the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans to introduce compulsory photo ID for voters were leaked.

Reports that the Queen’s speech contains proposals to make showing ID such as driving licences or passports at the ballot box a requirement have been met anger by campaigners who say the move is a threat to democratic participation.

Related: More than 9 million eligible UK voters ‘not correctly registered’

Continue reading… …read more

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By Sian Cain

Writers including Salman Rushdie, Hari Kunzru and Slavoj Žižek say the 2019 Nobel laureate ‘combines great insight with shocking ethical blindness’

• Olga Tokarczuk: the dreadlocked feminist winner the Nobel needed

Twenty years before Peter Handke would become a Nobel laureate, he won another title. In 1999, Salman Rushdie named him the runner-up for “International moron of the year” in the Guardian, for his “series of impassioned apologias for the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milošević”. (The winner was actor Charlton Heston, for being a gun lobbyist.)

The Austrian playwright, whose Slovenian heritage had inspired in him a fervent nationalism during the Balkans …read more

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By Kate Lamb

Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong is being held in conditions ‘conducive to mistreatment or torture’, says Human Rights Watch

Human rights groups have called for the immediate release of a Vietnamese activist arrested for criticising one-party Communist rule on his Facebook page.

Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong, 28, from Ho Chi Minh city was arrested in late September and now faces charges of “making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information” intended “to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, said Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Related: Vietnam blogger jailed for six years for Facebook posts calling for peaceful protests

Continue reading… …read more

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By Helen Davidson

Michelle Bachelet says Australia has been scrutinised according to international standards it helped create

The high commissioner for human rights has pushed back on Scott Morrison’s recent criticism of the United Nations, noting the scrutiny Australia has received is based on international standards it helped create.

In a speech to a human rights conference in Sydney, Michelle Bachelet also urged Australian parliamentarians not to repeal the medevac laws, and to roll back mandatory detention policies.

Related: Scott Morrison’s ‘negative globalism’ no echo of Trump, Josh Frydenberg says

Related: ‘Delicate moment’: was Scott Morrison’s Lowy speech a pivot towards Trumpism? …read more

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By Mark Townsend

Legal challenge after force tries to revive policy of passing information to immigration authorities

Scotland Yard has drawn up a new policy to ensure officers continue the deeply controversial practice of sharing data on victims of crime – including domestic and sexual violence offences – with the immigration authorities.

After a previous legal challenge from campaigners to stop the “unlawful practice” the Met ditched the policy earlier this year. Yet it has emerged that the force has redrafted the controversial measure, issuing new guidance which is almost identical to the previous policy it withdrew.

Related: Green party calls for …read more

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By Hannah Devlin

It can pick out shoplifters, international criminals and lost children in seconds. But as the cameras proliferate, who’s watching the watchers?

Gordon’s wine bar is reached through a discreet side-door, a few paces from the slipstream of London theatregoers and suited professionals powering towards their evening train. A steep staircase plunges visitors into a dimly lit cavern, lined with dusty champagne bottles and faded newspaper clippings, which appears to have had only minor refurbishment since it opened in 1890. “If Miss Havisham was in the licensing trade,” an Evening Standard review once suggested, “this could have been …read more

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