Follow updates live Stunned Albanese says Coalition ‘playing politics’ as Ley calls hate speech reforms ‘pretty unsalvageable’ Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Iranian Australians left distraught with no confirmation their family is safe Almost a week into Iran’s communication blackout, Iranian Australian activist Mohammad Hashemi received a call from his home country. When I heard the stories, what happened to people, I was crying about the situation and what’s going…

Emergency warning issued for parts of Victoria’s southwest coast including Wye, Kennett and Cumberland rivers in the Lorne area People have been urged to find shelter after a severe thunderstorm caused flash flooding, closed a major scenic tourism road and washed cars out to sea. An emergency warning was in place for the Wye, Kennett and Cumberland rivers in the Lorne area in Victoria’s southwest coast after thunderstorms dumped more than 170mm of rain on the area on Thursday afternoon. Continue…

United Nations says man experienced ‘serious violence’ in detention but Australia argues it did not control PNG facilities Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Australia exposed an Iranian asylum seeker to torture and ill-treatment during his years in detention, a UN committee has found, amounting to a breach of international obligations. On Wednesday evening, the UN committee against torture released its decision on …

Apology comes as former Adelaide festival board member accuses Louise Adler of hypocrisy after she resigned citing free speech concerns Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The new Adelaide festival board has issued a public apology to Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, and has promised she will be invited to Adelaide writers’ week in 2027. Abdel-Fattah immediately accepted the apology, posting on Ins…

US president says ‘important sources’ told him executions are not going ahead. This live blog is now closed – our new blog is here For the first time in days, Iranians were able to make calls abroad from their mobiles on Tuesday, according to reporting by Associated Press. Texting services have not been restored, however, and nor has the internet. Although Iranians were able to call abroad, they could not receive calls from outside the country, several people in the capital told Associated Press…

Police believe no one hurt but urge public not to pick up explosive devices and say more may be found Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Nearly a dozen pipe bombs, some of them already detonated, have been found on footpaths and in parks in the nation’s capital, sparking a major police investigation and warnings not to touch the potentially explosive items. ACT police Det Acting Insp Anna Wronski could not say where…

Amid global backlash, billionaire had only hours earlier said he was not aware of any ‘naked underage images’ Elon Musk’s xAI has announced it will block the ability of its Grok AI tool to alter images of real people to put them in “revealing clothing such as bikinis”, amid a global backlash over the tool being used to generate explicit imagery. The move came just hours after the billionaire said he was was not aware of any “naked underage images” made by Grok. Continue reading...

Items worth £59.7m allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives as part of Arts Council England scheme Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli’s desk, a painting by Vanessa Bell and a rare artwork by Edgar Degas are among the items of cultural importance saved for the nation this year. The items, worth a total of £59.7m, will be allocated to museums, galleries, libraries and archives around the UK as part of Art Council England’s cultural gifts and acceptance in lieu schemes. Continue…

Pressure mounting for use of glyphosate, listed by WHO since 2015 as probable carcinogen, to be heavily restricted Children are potentially being exposed to the controversial weedkiller glyphosate at playgrounds across the UK, campaigners have said after testing playgrounds in London and the home counties. The World Health Organization has listed glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen since 2015 . However, campaigners say local authorities in the UK are still using thousands of litres of glyp…

Royal College of Nursing publishes dossier of evidence including case of elderly patient who choked to death in corridor Corridor care is “a type of torture” that is leading to patients dying and causing NHS staff to have nightmares, the UK’s nurses union has warned. In one case, an elderly patient choked to death in a corridor, unseen by staff, according to a new dossier of evidence highlighting the problem published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Continue reading...

Shabana Mahmood has lost confidence in Craig Guildford over his force’s ‘exaggerated and untrue’ intelligence assessments Explainer: What did West Midlands police chief get wrong in decision to ban Maccabi fans? The police chief who used “exaggerated and untrue” intelligence to justify a ban on Israeli football fans was clinging on to his job on Wednesday, despite the home secretary demanding he resign. Craig Guildford, who leads West Midlands police, is determined to stay in his post for now, t…

Ynyshir’s Gareth Ward ‘not embarrassed’ by score and says it was due to concerns about the use of raw ingredients The chef behind a Welsh restaurant with two Michelin stars says it has “the highest standards in the world”, despite being given a one-star hygiene rating in a recent inspection. Ynyshir, a restaurant with rooms near Machynlleth on the southern edge of the Eryri national park, has been praised as one of the best in the world. Continue reading...

Family stayed up until dawn waiting for news of Erfan Soltani who was due to be executed on Wednesday Iran latest – live updates The family of Erfan Soltani, the first Iranian protester sentenced to death since the current unrest began, have been told his execution has been postponed. Soltani, a 26-year-old clothing shop employee, was arrested in Karaj, a city north-west of Tehran, last Thursday after participating in protests and was due to be executed on Wednesday, according to rights groups. …

AI tool made by Elon Musk’s xAI makes it easy to harass women with deepfake images, says state’s top attorney California authorities have announced an investigation into the output of Elon Musk ’s Grok. The state’s top attorney said Grok , an AI tool and image generator made by Musk’s company xAI, appears to be making it easy to harass women and girls with deepfake images on X and elsewhere online. Continue reading...

NGOs estimate that there are still close to 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela despite claims by new leaders Venezuela’s acting president has claimed that the regime’s release of political prisoners sent a “very clear message” that the country was “opening up to a new political moment”, days after the seizure and rendition of the dictator Nicolás Maduro. Delcy Rodríguez also vowed to continue the releases and accused NGOs that have described the process as slow and opaque of “lying to the wo…

Legault’s abrupt resignation follows months of chaos that has rocked the governing Coalition Avenir Québec party Quebec ’s premier, François Legault, has announced his resignation as leader of the province, in an abrupt departure for the polarizing figure whose embattled government faces the prospects of an electoral wipeout in the coming months. Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in Quebec City on Wednesday, Legault said he was proud to have founded the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ…

Crane in use on high-speed rail project hits passing train, causing it to derail At least 32 people in Thailand have been killed and scores injured after a crane collapsed on to a passenger train and derailed it, officials said. Footage from the scene verified by Agence France-Presse showed the crane’s broken structure resting on giant concrete pillars and smoke rising from the wreckage of the train below. Continue reading...

French interior ministry issues ‘territorial bans’ after reports of anti-migrant activities by members of Raise the Colours movement France’s interior ministry has announced a ban on 10 British anti-migrant activists who travelled to the country. Officials said they took action after reports that members of the Raise the Colours movement had conducted anti-migrant activities in France. Continue reading...

Yoon is on trial for insurrection charges, after trying to declare martial law in late 2024 South Korean prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, in the first insurrection trial of a Korean head of state in three decades. Prosecutors characterised the case as the “serious destruction of constitutional order by anti-state forces”, telling Seoul central district court that Yoon had “directly and fundame…

K-pop band to start tour in April after nearly four-year hiatus due to all seven members needing to complete South Korea’s mandatory military service The BTS comeback is upon us: the K-pop septet has announced a 2026-2027 world tour, kicking off in South Korea in April and running through to March 2027 with more than 70 dates across Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Europe. The tour marks the group’s first headline performances since their 2021–22 Permission to Dance on Stage tou…

Global growth ‘downshifted’ since Covid pandemic and sub-Saharan Africa particularly affected, report says Business live – latest updates A quarter of countries in the developing world are poorer than they were in 2019 before the Covid pandemic, the World Bank has found. The Washington-based organisation said a large group of low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, had suffered a negative shock in the six years to the end of last year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: China Labor Watch says people aged 16-18 employed without required special protections A labour rights NGO says it has found evidence of worker exploitation in the supply chain of Labubus, the furry toys that took the world by storm last year and which are expected to continue to grow in popularity in 2026. Labubus, toothy gremlins made by the Chinese toy company Pop Mart, have become one of China’s hottest cultural exports. In the first half of 2025 alone, “the Monsters” line of toys…

Eastern region on high alert as authorities try to track animal tearing through villages in Jharkhand after apparently becoming separated from herd Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more than 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkhand. Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. Continue reading…

Delhi is world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude, which is now cheaper than oil from Middle East Russia is already working to circumvent the latest US sanctions to ensure India can continue to import high levels of cheap Russian crude oil, according to industry analysts. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, India has become the world’s second largest purchaser of Russian crude oil , which has been heavily discounted due to the impact of western sanctions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ClimatePartner analysis shows how move would risk plunging Earth further into climate catastrophe US plans to exploit Venezuela’s oil reserves could by 2050 consume more than a tenth of the world’s remaining carbon budget to limit global heating to 1.5C, according to an exclusive analysis. The calculation highlights how any moves to further exploit the South American nation’s oil reserves – the largest in the world, at least on paper – would put increasing pressure on climate goals, a…

Lawyers for Adichie and her husband serve Euracare hospital with legal notice after death of 21-month-old The Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a Lagos hospital of negligence after the death of one of her 21-month-old twin boys. Nkanu Nnamdi died on 6 January after a brief illness. He was one of twin boys born to Adichie and Ivara Esege, a doctor, in 2024 by surrogacy, eight years after the birth of their first child, a girl. Continue reading...

Police ask Paramjeet Singh Pamma to install security cameras and reinforce door locks at his home Police have advised a high-profile Sikh activist in the UK to install security cameras at his home and reinforce door locks because of threats from Hindu nationalist elements. Paramjeet Singh Pamma, 52, said he had been visited by police and received verbal advice to increase his security due to intelligence suggesting threats to his safety. Continue reading...

UN and many western countries as well as human rights groups say that in the absence of a meaningful opposition the election is neither free, fair nor credible Voters in war-torn Myanmar queued up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule. Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military ousted a civilian government in a 2021 coup and…

Case brought by Muslim leaders and MP follows failed 2024 bid and seen as part of global anti-women’s rights backlash A group of religious leaders and an MP in the Gambia have launched efforts to overturn a ban on female genital mutilation at the country’s supreme court. The court case, due to resume this month, comes after two babies bled to death after undergoing FGM in the Gambia last year. Almameh Gibba, an MP and one of the plaintiffs, tabled a bill to decriminalise FGM that was rejected by…

Satat Sampada founders Harjeet Singh and Jyoti Awasthi say allegations are ‘baseless, biased and misleading’ Police have raided the home of one of India’s leading environmental activists over claims his campaigning for a treaty to cut the use of fossil fuels was undermining the national interest. Investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) claim Harjeet Singh and his wife, Jyoti Awasthi, co-founders of Satat Sampada (Nature Forever), were paid almost £500,000 to advocate for a fossil…