Coles adds 20c to the price of milk as war in the Middle East pushes up Australian grocery costs

News follows Guardian report on licence given to British firm exporting machinery to Armenian firm linked to Russian war effortBritish firms will face “much tougher” controls to prevent their goods from reaching Russia via other countries, undermining sanctions and aiding Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine.Under plans to be unveiled on Wednesday, the government will be able to require UK manufacturers to obtain a licence if they want to export to a country suspected of acting as a staging post for exports ultimately destined for Russia. Continue reading...

Council proposal to use glyphosate to tidy up pavements criticised over potential harm to humans and wildlifeCornwall is famed for its glorious gardens and verdant landscapes but a bitter row has broken out over a plan to tackle a less glamorous type of vegetation – roadside weeds.The unitary authority has announced plans to use the controversial herbicide glyphosate to tidy up pavements and kerbsides, after largely phasing out its use over the last decade amid concerns about potential harm to humans and the peninsula’s rich ecosystems. Continue reading...

Kevin Warsh, Trump’s ‘central casting’, has a long road ahead of convincing board members to lower interest ratesDonald Trump’s fate is to be frustrated by monetary policy.Even assuming he gets his way and Kevin Warsh succeeds Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve next month, it is unlikely that the president will finally gain control of the Fed. Continue reading...

Macaques have learned to eat soil to avert gut irritation caused by salty and sugary snacks, researchers believeTroops of monkeys living on the Rock of Gibraltar have learned to eat soil in what scientists believe is an effort to settle their stomachs after all the junk food they receive – and sometimes steal – from crowds of tourists.Researchers spotted the intentional mud eating, known as geophagy, while observing groups of Barbary macaques in the territory. Monkeys that had the most contact with tourists ate the most soil and consumption peaked in the holiday season, they found. Continue reading...

Conservative host says he’s ‘tormented’ by previous support for Trump – could this presage his own run for president?He can’t live with him and can’t live without him. But, finally, the conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson seems to have made up his mind about Donald Trump. Their up-and-down marriage of political convenience is heading for the divorce court.On Tuesday Carlson admitted that he will be “tormented” for a long time by his support for Trump in the 2024 US presidential election “and I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people”. What he did not say is whether this presages his own run for president in 2028. Continue reading...

Shell Australia says campaign needed to ‘counter-balance’ claims by levy advocates – but Ed Husic urges industry ‘do not spend millions defending the indefensible’The gas giants are mounting a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to fight against a new export tax, prompting Labor MP Ed Husic to accuse the industry of “defending the indefensible”.Shell Australia is among half-a-dozen oil and gas companies contributing around $1m to an Australian Energy Producers (AEP) campaign that attempts to justify the amount of tax the industry pays, a parliamentary inquiry heard on Wednesday. Continue reading...

CSIRO researcher says there are reports of up to 4,000 mouse burrows per hectare in parts of Western AustraliaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGrain growers are on high alert as mouse numbers in Western Australia reach plague proportions and numbers surge in South Australia.Steve Henry, who researches mice and their impact on the grain industry at CSIRO, says more than 800 mice per hectare is considered a plague. Continue reading...

Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill has called for Robbins to be reinstated at the Foreign Office after his evidence to MPsGood morning. Keir Starmer faces PMQs today with the Peter Mandelson vetting row still dominating the Westminster agenda and – in the view of most observers familiar with the views of Labour MPs – the wagons of doom circling in, ever closer, on the Starmer premiership. In an ideal world, the fate of prime ministers would be decided by the big issues, not arcane scandals and personality spats. But we don’t live in the ideal world; we live in 21st century Britain, where everyone has social media on their phone. And even if you don’t care much about Mandelson, there is a link between how Starmer has handled this and wider government failures.Starmer’s position got worse yesterday as Olly Robbins, the person he sacked as Foreign Office permanent secretary, gave evidence to MPs. Here is our overnight story about it by Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey.The prime minister appointed Peter Mandelson against official advice, announced that appointment without security vetting having been completed and claims that he would have changed his mind had he been told that the vetting process had raised the concerns about Mandelson’s previous conduct of which he was already well aware.As Robbins explained yesterday, the question for him was not whether to tell the prime minister what he already knew, but whether those issues could be mitigated enough to allow Mandelson access to the secret intelligence necessary to do his job. He made the professional judgment that they could. Unwisely as it turned out, he shouldered his responsibilities rather than shunting them. Continue reading...

Member states meet this morning to discuss loan after longstanding disagreement between Kyiv and outgoing Hungarian PM Viktor OrbánAfter four months of very public disagreements between Ukraine and Hungary, today could be the day when the EU finally signs off (for the second time) on the critical €90bn loan for Kyiv.Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed yesterday that the Druzhba pipeline, carrying Russian oil imports to Hungary and Slovakia, has been repaired and is ready to be used again. EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said yesterday she expected “a positive decision” within the next 24 hours. Continue reading...

Experts say regulation of child influencers sits in a legal grey area as children promote products on social media#ToddlerSkincare: the ‘dark and exploitative’ world of children’s beauty videos on TikTokIn a TikTok video a young girl – her age anywhere between 10 and 15 – sits unboxing package after package of products she says were sent to her by skincare brands. She calls it a “PR haul”.In another video, a 16-year-old opens a box of products she received from a well known brand. She says: “I know I have younger people watching,” before reading out a note from the brand that says: “Can’t wait for you to share your thoughts.” Continue reading...

Program portrayed efforts to wean Australia off fossil fuels as morally bankrupt, trashing rainforests and enslaving Australia to ChinaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastChildren sieve mud, workers drop down claustrophobic hand-cut mine shafts, men grimace while others carve out rock with chisels in bare feet to recover cobalt “for our renewable green dream”.These were the dramatic scenes from the Democratic Republic of Congo in a “special investigation” from Channel Seven’s Spotlight program, aired in prime-time on Sunday evening. Continue reading...