Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich says ICC is seeking his arrest

• U.S. Central Command has launched strikes against Iran in response to the downing of an American military helicopter. • Iranian officials report that the strikes hit two water storage tanks in Sirik County, Hormozgan province, cutting off drinking water for local residents.

• UN partners in Gaza reported a significant decline in food aid as of May 31, with 80 kitchens delivering 678,000 meals daily, down from 1.5 million meals provided by 170 kitchens in mid-March. • UN official DiCarlo urged parties to return to diplomacy and good-faith negotiations, reiterating the Secretary-General’s demand for an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire.

• Portugal's Minister for Diplomacy, Mr. Rangel, announced that the agreement allowing the United States to use Lajes Air Base will be reviewed. • The review is deferred until after the current crisis in the Middle East is resolved to ensure regional stability.

• The 2026 Global Peace Index reports that global peace has reached a historic low due to a record-high number of interconnected conflicts. • This decline is attributed to the "Great Fragmentation," a geopolitical shift where traditional European powers are losing influence to rising middle powers.

• Two decades of Global Peace Index (GPI) data reveal a global trend of deteriorating peace and an increasing inventory of unresolved conflicts. • The report highlights a significant success in Ethiopia, where the November 2022 Pretoria Peace Agreement reduced annual conflict deaths in Tigray from over 100,000 to roughly 2,300 in 2023.

• Global conflicts have surged to their highest levels since World War II, according to data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. • Conflict-related fatalities reached a record high in 2025, with approximately 244,600 people killed.

• New Zealand has been ranked as the second-safest country in the world according to the latest Global Peace Index, which evaluates 163 independent states and territories. • This improvement in New Zealand's standing comes despite a broader global trend where world conflict has reached a historic high.

• An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted in 100 deaths out of 550 reported cases. • Ongoing regional conflict is significantly hindering medical response efforts and slowing the containment of the virus.

Restaurant chain took chainsaw to ancient oak tree in Enfield without permissionThe restaurant chain Toby Carvery has settled a legal dispute after taking a chainsaw to an ancient oak tree without permission by agreeing to pay for the restoration of a lost orchard.The unauthorised partial felling of the 500-year-old oak next to a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, in April last year, prompted widespread public outrage and questions in parliament. Continue reading...

Sean Strickland claims he was not cleared to attend the UFC event because he ‘made fun of Israel and Epstein’The only current US UFC champion says he has been barred from Sunday’s fight card on the south lawn of the White House because he dared to criticize Donald Trump, Israel and Jeffrey Epstein.On Tuesday night, middleweight champion Sean Strickland wrote on X that he had been informed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that he had not been cleared on attend the event by the White House. Continue reading...

The vital medicine, made by AstraZeneca, will not be available from November, possibly leaving thousands of women without treatmentGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThousands of women could be left without vital breast cancer and endometriosis medicine when AstraZeneca removes its treatment from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and the private market, experts warn.Zoladex will no longer be available in Australia from November, as the ABC first reported, but some existing patients will still be able to access it for an additional six months. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Financial returns, obtained by the Guardian, are ‘very poor and unprofessional’ and call into question party’s fitness to govern, expert says• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPauline Hanson’s One Nation party reported more than $1m in missing and worthless assets in more than six years of filed financial reports, Guardian Australia can reveal.The financial returns lodged by One Nation with the Office of Fair Trading in Queensland from 2016 to 2022 have been criticised by a leading expert in financial accounting as “sloppy and unprofessional”. Continue reading...