Victorian prisoners to be sent out to repair roads under Labor’s pothole plan

By: Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent

31 August 2026 at 04:04

Inmates would take over ‘basic’ road maintenance duties, allowing skilled crews to focus on fixing 500,000 potholes

Victorian prisoners will be put to work on road maintenance as part of Labor’s plan to fix the state’s potholes if re-elected.

The state’s premier, Ben Carroll, outlined the plan on Monday off the back of an announcement on Sunday that the government would be increasing the road maintenance budget by $352m to fix 500,000 potholes by the end of January.

Deportees Sent to Liberia Recount Harrowing Details of U.S. Expulsion and Treatment by ICE

NYT > Top Stories

By: Emmanuel Akinwotu · Pranav Baskar · Genevieve Glatsky and Hamed Aleaziz

30 August 2026 at 14:32

Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.

A plane carrying deportees from the United States at the international airport outside of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on Aug. 20.

Relative of Afghans Who Helped U.S. Military Is Deported to Africa

NYT > Top Stories

By: Miriam Jordan and Hamed Aleaziz

29 August 2026 at 19:29

The Trump administration has deported thousands of immigrants to countries where they have no ties. Dozens were on the latest flight, to the Central African Republic.

The Central African capital of Bangui, in 2024.

Roy Cohn, Robert Mapplethorpe and a Trump-Era Dilemma Over Free Speech

NYT > Top Stories

By: Michael M. Grynbaum

27 August 2026 at 12:02

When a respected biographer tried to use a Mapplethorpe photograph of Roy Cohn for a book cover, worries about the wrath of Mr. Cohn’s protégé, President Trump, intervened.

Reading view