General News

Labor will provide $1bn in zero interest loans to help export-focused companies tap alternative markets as Australia seeks to loosen trade ties with the US in response to Donald Trump’s new tariffs. The lending facility would complement a separate government initiative to fund representative bodies of affected sectors “to secure and grow new markets”. The…

Stocks dived and investors scrambled to the safety of bonds, gold and the yen on Thursday as Donald Trump unveiled a bigger-than-expected wall of tariffs around the world’s largest economy, upending trade and supply chains. The technology sector was pummelled as manufacturing hubs in China and Taiwan faced new tariffs above 30%. In total, China…

Australia has experienced its hottest 12-month period on record, ending with its hottest March on record, with last month seeing temperatures 2.41C above average, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed. The bureau said its data going back to 1910 showed the 12 months ending in March 2025 averaged 1.61C above average – the hottest of…

For weeks, Donald Trump and his aides sought to brand Wednesday as “liberation day” in America. Many in the US could be forgiven for wondering what exactly they’ve just been liberated from. After much hype, the president unveiled his plan for a new era in global trade: a blanket 10% tariff on goods imported into…

Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and his team have created at least 20 different group chats on the encrypted messaging app Signal to coordinate sensitive national security work, sources tell Politico. The revelation, which cites four people with direct knowledge of the practice, follows heightened scrutiny of the administration’s handling of sensitive information…

Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan and rising star in the Democratic party, has announced her bid for the US Senate in what is expected to be one of 2026’s most competitive and high-profile contests. McMorrow, 38, launched her campaign on Wednesday to succeed Michigan’s retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters with a video that…

Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, has criticized the president’s administration over the deportation of a professional makeup artist and hairdresser to a prison in El Salvador, calling it “horrific”. Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, had sought asylum in the US, telling officials he faced persecution because…

There was “no agenda” in the Guardian’s investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Noel Clarke, the high court has heard. In her second day in the witness box, Lucy Osborne, an investigative correspondent at the Guardian, defended the publication’s reporting in the face of questioning from the former Doctor Who star’s barrister, Philip Williams. Osborne,…

If the bill to legalise assisted dying is thrown out by MPs later this month then “the conversation ends” on the subject, with dreadful consequences for many terminally ill people, the MP leading the process has warned. Speaking at a press conference organised by supporters of the bill, which has its third reading on 25…

Young women in England and Wales are likely to have just one child by the time they are 35, according to groundbreaking analysis of past and projected fertility trends by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Girls who turn 18 this year are projected to have an average of one child each by the age…