Australia's prime minister has criticized China for what he calls a “dangerous” encounter between Chinese and Australian warships but declined to say whether he raised the issue with President Xi Jinping

Max Verstappen equalled Alain Prost’s tally of 51 victories with an emphatic triumph at the Mexican Grand Prix – as Sergio Perez’s home race came to a sorry end after just 14 seconds. Verstappen’s remarkable winning sequence, which now includes a record 16 in one season, continued in the breathless Mexico City air following two pulsating starts after Kevin Magnussen’s high-speed crash resulted in a reg flag at the midway stage of Sunday’s 71-lap race. Verstappen mastered both getaways to draw alongside four-time world champion Prost, with only Lewis Hamilton (103 wins), Michael Schumacher (91) and Sebastian Vettel (53) ahead of the all-conquering Dutchman in Formula One folklore. Hamilton impressed to finish runner-up, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Lando Norris drove from 17th to fifth, passing George Russell with four laps remaining on a strong afternoon for the Brit, in an event that Perez will want to forget. As Verstappen sliced through the middle of pole-sitter Leclerc, and his Ferrari team-mate Sainz on the 830 metre charge to the opening bend, 130,000 Mexican hearts sank when an over-eager Perez crashed into Leclerc. Perez, who started fifth, ran line astern with Leclerc and Verstappen as the trio stamped on the brakes from 200mph for the opening bend – and Perez, occupying the racing line, sensed his opportunity for glory. But his banzai move was badly misjudged. The 33-year-old turned into Leclerc, and was sent airborne before landing back on four wheels and spinning into the run-off area. Perez limped back to the pits but the damage sustained to his machine left his race in tatters. Perez banged his steering wheel with both hands in frustration. Children were left seeking comfort from their parents in the grandstands. Perez’s Red Bull mechanics attempted a quick fix to get their man back on track. But after a handful of laps they conceded defeat. Perez departed his Red Bull cockpit to watch team-mate Verstappen gallop to victory. Question marks hang over Perez’s future at Red Bull. He has one year to run on his deal, but the paddock is awash with rumours that he could be replaced next year. Daniel Ricciardo is mooted as a possible candidate, and Perez’s first-corner disaster – coupled with the Australian out-performing his modest AlphaTauri machinery to take the chequered flag in seventh in just his fourth comeback race, will do little to dampen the speculation. Perez last won a race in Azerbaijan on April 30, and his failure to finish at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez leaves his second place in the championship under threat from Hamilton. Indeed, the seven-time world champion reduced the gap from 39 points to 20 with his strong display. For Verstappen, this was his 32nd victory – remarkably the same tally double world champion Fernando Alonso has managed throughout his entire career – from his last 41 appearances, dating back to his controversial triumph over Hamilton in Abu Dhabi in 2021. Hamilton, who has not won a race during that period, crossed the line a close second to Verstappen in America a week ago before he was disqualified for running his Mercedes too close to the floor. He started sixth here, swiftly promoted one position after Perez’s crash. On lap 11 he blasted past Ricciardo for fourth. Verstappen gave up his lead on lap 19 after he stopped for new rubber, with Hamilton in five laps later. Then on lap 34, the race was suspended. Magnussen lost control of his Haas at 130mph through Turn 8. The Dane ended up in the wall following a suspected rear suspension failure. He swiftly emerged from his cockpit before his mangled machine caught fire. The safety car was deployed but with significant damage to the tyre barrier, repairs were required, and the race was halted, leading to a 22-minute delay. “That’s a joke,” complained Verstappen. “A red flag for what?” The drivers lined up on the grid for the second standing start of the afternoon with Hamilton the sole man in the top five on the quicker, medium rubber. But it was Verstappen who produced another scintillating getaway to leave the others trailing in his wake. He set about building his gap, with Hamilton intent on taking Leclerc for second, and on lap 40, he did just that following a bold and gutsy move. On the fastest straight of the year, Hamilton jinked to Leclerc’s right, dropping two tyres on to the turf and kicking up dirt at 225mph, before holding his nerve under braking for the first corner to make the move stick. The British driver nursed his tyres to finish runner-up to Verstappen, 13.8 sec back. Prost was 38 when he claimed his 51st and final win 30 years ago. Verstappen turned 26 only last month, with Vettel’s 53 triumphs now on his radar before the close of the year with races in Brazil and Las Vegas to follow ahead of the final round in Abu Dhabi on November 26. Read More Charles Leclerc secures pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix Charles Leclerc leads Ferrari front row at Mexican Grand Prix Essex boy with Italian twang – History-maker Ollie Bearman impresses in Mexico Max Verstappen sets fastest time in Mexican Grand Prix practice Max Verstappen urges fans to show him respect ahead of feisty Mexican Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton claims many more cars were illegal at United States Grand Prix

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Posts on X carrying any misinformation that is corrected by the platform’s crowd-sourced fact-checking system will now be “ineligible for revenue share”, the social media company’s owner Elon Musk has said. “Any posts that are corrected by Community Notes become ineligible for revenue share,” the multibillionaire posted on X on Sunday. Mr Musk said the change aims to “maximise the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism”. The Tesla titan also noted that any attempts to “weaponise Community Notes to demonetise people will be immediately obvious, because all code and data is open source.” Some users were quick to criticise the change, observing that the feature is used not just to correct misinformation, but also to add essential context even if there is nothing wrong with the initial post. The Community Notes feature was first launched by Twitter co-founder and former chief Jack Dorsey in 2021 as a way to debunk misleading tweets. Currently, eligible users on the social media platform can sign up to contribute to Community Notes, which involves sharing a short note of context for any post, including correcting an error or providing essential information that has been omitted. An account can sign up for Community Notes, according to X, if the user has not recently violated the platform’s rules and has been on the platform for at least 6 months. Other users who view the note can then rate the helpfulness of notes with the note garnering the largest consensus surfacing to the top. Then earlier this year, Twitter/X started paying creators on the platform for the first time via a revenue-sharing program that provided them compensation for the ads appearing in their reply threads. But the social media platform has come under increasing scrutiny for its handling of misinformation since Mr Musk bought Twitter for $44bn last year and cut nearly two-thirds of the company’s workforce. The platform’s handling of misinformation has particularly been on focus following the conflict in Israel and Gaza. The European Union also raised concerns that amid the conflict Twitter was not quick to take down problematic content even when it had been flagged by relevant authorities. EU commissioner Thierry Breton noted that Twitter was hosting “fake and manipulated images and facts ... such as repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games”. The EU has also opened an investigation into X on the issue, while the company maintained that it has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts in response to the concerns. Read More Twitter takeover: 1 year later, X struggles with misinformation, advertising and usage decline Tesla’s profits dip as Elon Musk goes on rant against staff working from home ‘He brought so much joy’: Heartbroken Friends stars among those paying tribute to Matthew Perry Twitter adds video calling – and lets strangers ring you Elon Musk was ‘almost in tears’ on Tesla earnings call, analyst claims Slack to retire its status account on Elon Musk’s X