Melbourne’s Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year

Previous winners of the award have included Saint Peter, Attica, Orana by the late Jock Zonfrillo, and Quay

Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh has been named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year, in a category of the annual industry awards that has historically been dominated by European-leaning cuisine and fine-dining establishments.

The restaurant’s menu pulls from the Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese backgrounds of co-owners Tom Sarafian and Jinane Bou-Assi: aish baladi (Egyptian flatbread) is made with a flour milled in the Mornington Peninsula; kafta nayyah comprises raw minced lamb from Tasmania and Victoria; hummus is crowned with spanner crab.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/aug/18/melbournes-armenian-lebanese-eatery-zareh-named-gourmet-travellers-restaurant-of-the-year

Burnham scraps restrictions on disabled people’s bus passes in England

Move means holders will be able to travel free on local services at any time of day or night from April next year

Disabled people across England will be able to use their free bus passes at any time of day from next April, as Andy Burnham expands a policy he introduced as mayor of Greater Manchester.

The prime minister has said the current weekday restrictions on when disabled people can use their bus passes will be removed from 1 April 2027. Their passes are valid only between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, although some councils pay to allow people free travel outside those hours.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/17/burnham-scraps-restrictions-disabled-people-bus-passes-england

Lindsay Clancy had ‘thoughts of harming the children’, mother testifies at trial

Paula Musgrove stated her daughter had said medications were ‘destroying’ her mind and she was becoming ‘paranoid’

The defense in the Lindsay Clancy filicide case called the defendant’s mother as one of its first witnesses Monday, after three weeks of prosecution evidence laid out, in often harrowing detail, events surrounding Clancy’s killing of her three children.

Under questioning from defense attorney David Reddington, Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, testified that her daughter’s statements and actions had unsettled her in the months leading up to 24 January 2023.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/lindsay-clancy-trial-mother-witness-testimony

Election denier Tina Peters to be hired as elections consultant in conservative California county

Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison term

A northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections.

Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent Turner, his top deputy, who has been on medical leave. He said Peters would not have access to the county’s voting system. Plans to hire Peters were first reported by Action News Now.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/election-denier-tina-peters-shasta-county

Thailand has a gun problem - 10 million of them

Recent shootings have highlighted the country's troubled relationship with guns, with laws doing little to curb the violence.

Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut

Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’

Reform UK has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it prepared to outline £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals.

Robert Jenrick, Reform’s finance spokesperson, will detail the plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as another £21bn from stopping foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status – claiming almost any benefits, among other cuts.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/16/jenrick-cuts-benefits-disabled-people-foreign-nationals

Australian state to launch gun buyback after Bondi Beach attack

New South Wales, where the attack took place, will offer gun owners cash to give up their firearms.