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Fraudsters exploit confusion or anxiety over new IHT rules by offering a ‘safe haven’ for savings potsThe caller pitches a great deal. Shift the moneysaved in your pension and reinvest it in a scheme overseas where you can avoid it being caught under next year’s changes to the UK’s inheritance tax (IHT) system.From April next year, any money left in a defined contribution pension after your death, which is most workplace and all private pensions, will be pulled into the IHT net. Continue reading...

Revolutionary Guards issue warning as Trump awaits Iran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal for peace dealIran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to target US sites in the Middle East if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported on Saturday, as Washington was left waiting for Tehran’s response to its latest negotiating position.“Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships,” the force said, a day after US strikes on two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Continue reading...

This blog is now closedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWilson promises Coalition will be ‘very clear’ on migrationWilson is asked about comments made by the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, after the byelection that hinted at a rightward shift toward “ending mass migration” and stopping net zero policies.I can assure you in the coming weeks we’re going to make it very clear what we’re for. Australians need to know that we’re in favour of families, community, small business and self-starters. My focus on migration is how we make sure we get new Australians integrated successfully. One of the reasons Australians have become very nervous about migration is they feel that people are coming to Australia and getting the benefits without making the contribution. And I want the best, boldest, most confident new Australians we can have. There would be some nervous Labor MPs because what people want to see is change.One of the most consistent messages is that people want someone who is going to fight for them and their future. Continue reading...

Historic Farrer byelection win ignites internal rumblings about Coalition leadership Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA triumphant Pauline Hanson has declared One Nation is “here for the long haul” after a historic Farrer byelection win that has ignited internal rumblings about Angus Taylor’s leadership just three months into his tenure.The rightwing populist party won its first federal lower house seat on Saturday night, after David Farley defeated the independent, Michelle Milthorpe. Continue reading...

The Trump administration continued its illegal bombing of small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two and leaving one survivor in its third such strike in five days.US Southern Command announced the attack on social media, claiming that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”“Under [President Donald] Trump’s illegal orders, the US military conducted its third boat strike in five days against supposed drug smugglers, killing at least two. Each of these is a murder. Drug suspects should be arrested and prosecuted, not summarily executed,” former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth wrote on social media Saturday in response to the news.Friday’s strike marks the 57th by the Trump administration and raises the death toll from the boat-strike campaign, which experts say is illegal even if every boat targeted is ferrying drugs, to 192.“What do you call a US citizen who smuggles drugs, SOUTHCOM? A ‘narco-terrorist’?” social media user Andrew Marinelli said in response to the Southern Command announcement. “If a US citizen [allegedly] drove drugs into Canada and they blew him away with a drone strike, would you accept it?”The administration has also not provided evidence for its claims that the boats belong to drug traffickers, and relatives of the victims say at least some of those killed were simply on the water to fish.Friday’s strike was notable in that it left behind a survivor and that US Southern Command said it had activated the US Coast Guard to conduct a search and rescue operation.The announcement may reflect a response to backlash after news broke last year that, in the administration’s first such strike, commanders had ordered a vessel bombed twice when it became clear there were survivors, in keeping with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s directive to “kill everybody.”Despite scrutiny, the campaign has continued and even escalated in the past few weeks. There have been three such bombings since the beginning of May, according to The Intercept: One on May 4 in the Caribbean that killed two, one on May 5 in the Pacific that killed three, and the Pacific strike on May 8 that killed two. The reported survivor remains missing.While the Trump administration claims the strikes have dramatically reduced the flow of illegal drugs into the US, evidence reveals this is not the case, according to an Intercept analysis published May 4.For example, Trump claimed that drugs entering the US by sea had decreased by 97%, but the administration’s own data contradicts this claim, retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner told The Intercept.Adam Isacson, the director for defense oversight at human rights group Washington Office on Latin America, said, “Really absurdly, there’s been no impact on flows of drugs toward the United States,” noting that Customs and Border Protection seized 6,000 pounds more cocaine at all US borders in the seven months following the strikes than in the seven months before.As Sanho Tree, who directs the Institute for Policy Studies’ Drug Policy Project, put it, “It wouldn’t be the first time this administration just made up something out of whole cloth.”

There are nearly 150 people on board the MV Hondius at the centre of the outbreak that has killed three people, which is heading towards the waters off Tenerife.

Florida wildlife commission investigating cause of incident that left passengers with burns and traumatic injuriesSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA suspected boat explosion at a Miami sandbar sent at least 11 people to the hospital on Saturday with some suffering from burns and traumatic injuries, according to Juan Arias, the Miami Dade fire rescue battalion chief.First responders received reports roughly around 12.45pm of a possible boat explosion on the water, Arias told WPEC 12. Continue reading...

A veteran State Department negotiator predicted that as the Trump administration struggles to find an off-ramp out of the Iran war, a ground invasion seems more likely."The administration is frustrated," David Miller told CNN on Saturday, saying that Trump will likely try "to go back to Project Freedom with some variation," referring to the short-lived effort to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has a blockade.The difference with a new attempt at Project Freedom would be "the deployment of ground troops on one of those key islands" that are part of Iran, like Larak Island, Miller said. Such an invasion "would surprise me," he added."They're looking for a way to break out of this," Miller said. "But right now, I suspect the situation is going to get worse before it gets worse."Miller made the comment as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with a Qatari mediator in Miami on Saturday to negotiate with Iran."It wouldn't surprise me if Iranians came back with a response that the administration doesn't like, or if they delay further," Miller said. "What's the alternative? Economic blockade and military strikes on both sides have created a situation where neither side is getting what they want."