Top World News
UAE’s ruling royal family benefits from more than €71m in EU farming subsidies
Al Nahyans’ control over farmland in Europe has meant they receive proportion of payments to farmsThe United Arab Emirates’ ruling royal family is benefiting from tens of millions in EU subsidies to grow crops destined for the Gulf, it can be revealed.A cross-border investigation by DeSmog and shared with the Guardian found subsidiaries controlled by the Al Nahyans collected more than €71m (£61m) in six years for farmland it controls in Romania, Italy and Spain. Continue reading...
New Hungarian PM’s voters want action on climate and LGBTQ+ rights, poll finds
Exclusive: Voters remain split on issues critical to EU, such as support for Ukraine and dependence on Russian energyMore than three-quarters of Hungarians who voted for Péter Magyar in last month’s election want his government to do more to address the climate crisis, and more than 70% want him to protect LGBTQ+ rights, a poll has found.Magyar’s opposition Tisza party won a supermajority in the vote, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. The new prime minister will be sworn in on Saturday, weeks after the results set off celebrations in Budapest and Brussels. Continue reading...
French professor accused of ‘gigantic hoax’ after inventing Nobel-style prize
Authorities investigate Florent Montaclair over award given to himself and others including Noam ChomskyAt a ceremony at the French national assembly attended by Nobel prize winners, former government ministers, MPs, decorated scientists and academics, all attention was on a previously unknown literature professor.Florent Montaclair, then 46, a balding, bespectacled figure in an ill-fitting suit and rosé-coloured shirt, was receiving the 2016 Gold Medal of Philology - the study of linguistics – from an international society of the same name. Continue reading...
Australia news live: gas companies ordered to keep 20% of potential exports onshore; royal commission hears NSW health system ‘not safe’ for Jewish people
Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBridget McKenzie says rollback of inland rail project sends ‘chill’ through communityNationals senator Bridget McKenzie, the shadow minister for infrastructure, said the Labor party has sent a “chill through the infrastructure pipeline” after the Albanese government abandoned a beleaguered inland rail project connecting NSW with Queensland.People were surprised and shocked and dismayed at this announcement by the Labor government, they’ve been making their concerns heard loud and clear.This Labor government has actually derailed this project and, indeed, sent a chill through the infrastructure pipeline investment community because no project would now be safe from some future government turning off the tap.You’re cutting the wrong things, not the things that are going to drive a productive economy. Continue reading...
Gas companies will be forced to set aside local supply under major Labor shakeup
Albanese government announces east coast gas reservation policy, which will require producers to set aside 20% of export volumesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGas companies will be forced to set aside 20% of exports for domestic use under a reservation scheme designed to shore up supplies and bring down prices for households and businesses on the east coast.The federal government announced the design of the reservation scheme on Thursday as part of a wider overhaul of the mechanisms regulating the gas sector. Continue reading...
Australian director Phillip Noyce shoots feature film for Saudi Arabia celebrating ‘heroism of security men in combating drugs’
Exclusive: Regime, which executed 243 people last year for drug offences, accused of investing in entertainment to whitewash its human rights recordThe acclaimed Australian film-maker Phillip Noyce is being paid by the Saudi regime to make a feature film portraying the repressive state’s narcotics officers as heroes.The Watchful Eyes, based on a real Saudi ministry of interior narcotics case, is billed as a dramatic depiction of the “heroism of security men in combating drugs”. Continue reading...
Macron says ‘all parties must lift the blockades’ – as it happened
This blog is now closedUS fires on Iranian-flagged oil tanker as Trump gives Tehran fresh ultimatumThe UK work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, has warned that job losses “could happen” in Britain due to the economic impacts of the Iran war.He said the UK economy was “going in the right direction” at the start of the year and unemployment figures for February showed a decline. He added that interest rates were expected to come down and the markets were pricing in cuts during the course of the year. Continue reading...
Federal authorities arrest 18 people in Los Angeles raid amid drug crackdown
Justice department targets MacArthur Park, which has long struggled with fentanyl use, overdoses and homelessnessFederal authorities arrested 18 people in Los Angeles in a crackdown on drugs in MacArthur Park, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.The DoJ said it was targeting an “open-air drug market” in the park near downtown, which has long struggled with fentanyl use and overdoses and has at times had large encampments of unhoused people. Continue reading...
‘We just want our children to be safe’: two Australian states prepare to resettle children from Syrian detention camp
Four women and nine children expected to return to Australia on Thursday with all apart from a mother and her child expected to go to VictoriaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAuthorities in two Australian states are preparing to resettle children returning from squalid detention camps and life under Islamic State rule, as at least some of their mothers face possible criminal charges.Four women and nine children are expected to return to Australia on Thursday, with all of them apart from a mother and her child bound for Melbourne. Continue reading...
Southeast Asian leaders will reaffirm core values in veiled Mideast war rebuke
Southeast Asian leaders plan to issue a contingency plan that upholds international law, sovereignty and freedom of navigation in what could be seen as a veiled rebuke to the United States, Israel and Iran over the Middle East war which has impacted th...
Bus and oil tanker collide in Indonesia, killing at least 16 people
A passenger bus has collided with a fuel tanker truck on Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing at least 16 people and injuring four others
Cook more at home to reduce ultra-processed food intake, say cardiologist groups
‘Clinical consensus statement’ also urges heart doctors to advise patients to not eat late at night, and chew slowlyWant to reduce your intake of ultra-processed food? If so, cook at home more often, don’t eat late at night and chew your food more slowly.Those are among some of the tips doctors have offered to help people limit the amount of UPF they consume given the acute and growing danger it poses to human health worldwide. Continue reading...


