Jim Chalmers says fewer homes selling at auction may be a ‘good thing’ for first-time buyers

• ACCORD is analyzing the evolving African mediation landscape, questioning if current mediation architectures are failing to keep pace with rapidly changing conflict dynamics. • A critical "seventh shift" identified is geopolitical fragmentation, where global powers have moved away from multilateral norms toward pursuing transactional interests.

Airline’s shares hit highest level in three months as investment group Castlelake says it is considering offerBusiness live – latest updatesEasyJet has called a potential £3bn bid by a US investment group “highly opportunistic”, as shares in the budget airline shot up to their highest level in three months on the takeover interest.The US private credit firm Castlelake said on Friday it was considering a takeover offer for the airline. On Monday, it said it had already bought a 2.14% stake in the business and its offer would value easyJet at least at 403p a share, or about £3bn overall. Continue reading...

Alleged threat on regional school north of Brisbane was ‘quite well advanced’, Queensland counter-terrorism police sayQueensland counter-terrorism police have charged a 13-year-old with planning an attack on a regional school north of Brisbane.The teenager was arrested last Thursday after allegedly making threats at a business in Maryborough, armed with a knife. Continue reading...

Labor MP Mike Freelander says party must continue to help under-pressure workers, including considering further income tax cutsLabor will seek to highlight Pauline Hanson’s record of opposing cost-of-living relief for working people as it tries to prevent One Nation further eroding its voter base.As the government grapples with how to deal with Hanson’s surge, one Labor MP predicted One Nation’s support had peaked and the right-wing populist party wouldn’t be able to replicate its polling success at a federal election. Continue reading...

Graphic videos on social media appear to show upset onlookers after police accidentally ran over animal in Mount Isa streetFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastConfronting footage has emerged of police shooting dead a pet dog as it lay prone in the middle of a street in front of screaming onlookers, after they accidentally ran over the animal in an outback mining city.The graphic videos, posted to social media on Sunday afternoon, appear to show one resident in distress and being led away wailing and pulling at her hair in distress as a shot rings out. Continue reading...

French president says it is ‘unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions’, adding operation took place with support of UKThe French navy has boarded an oil tanker that was subject to international sanctions and sailing from Russia, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said.Macron wrote on X: “This operation took place in the Atlantic Ocean, on the high seas, with the support of several partners, including the United Kingdom, in strict compliance with the law of the sea,. Continue reading...

Sources predict ‘toe-curling’ revelations as more than 1,000 pages of documents relating to his appointment as US ambassador to be publishedMandelson files show no mitigation of security concernsGood morning. Many people despair at the quality of governance in Britain at the moment, but in one respect we are living through a golden age; if you are interested in contemporary history, and learning about what actually happens at the heart of government, then you can now – sometimes – access the sort of information never available before.Today the government is publishing a mass of information – apparently running to three volumes, and more than 1,000 pages – containing the private messages Peter Mandelson exchanged with government ministers and officials when he was ambassador to the US, and before his appointment. Last month a minister compared this to the evidence released as part of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. But the Chilcot inquiry took place in the era before WhatsApp, and it was publishing secret memos – intended for circulation within Whitehall. WhatsApp messages are a lot more personal; reading them is like being able to eavesdrop on a private conversation. Mandelson is a man with spiky, controversial views, who loves gossip and plotting, and whose private views don’t always accord with what he has said in public. It should be fascinating.I think the level of transparency is going to be unprecedented. The volume of information that’s going to be put out is unprecedented.It’s right we do that. We have been very clear that the appointment of Mandelson was wrong. Continue reading...

Powerful winds and rain expected in parts of Japan and Australia, while temperatures in Spain could hit 40CA powerful tropical storm is forecast to track near Okinawa, Japan, on Monday before moving towards the south-east of the country. Typhoon Jangmi (also known as Typhoon No 6) has formed within the monsoonal gyre over the Philippine Sea.A monsoonal gyre is a large, slow-rotating weather system that spawns typhoons through smaller vortices formed within it. This flow can intensify storms. Such typhoons are typically characterised by a broad areas of low pressure and extensive wind fields, often without a distinct eye. Continue reading...

Nationwide finds typical price was £278,024 in May, as Savills says Iran war has ‘fundamentally changed’ outlookBusiness live – latest updatesHouse prices fell in the UK for the first time this year in May, as rising interest rates triggered by the war in Iran hurt homebuyer demand.The price of the average UK home dropped 0.6% in May compared with the month before, according to the lender Nationwide. Continue reading...

Scientific dating proves streaks on walls of Bacon Hole, near the Mumbles in south Wales, is Palaeolithic rock artIn 1912, the Guardian reported on the discovery of Palaeolithic rock art on the walls of Bacon Hole, a cave near the Mumbles in south Wales – only for the painted panel’s authenticity to be dismissed by 1928.A series of horizontal bands in red pigment were subsequently deemed no more than a natural phenomenon and the newspaper added an updated statement: “It was later established that the red streaks … turned out to be red oxide mineral seeping through the rock and not prehistoric art.” Continue reading...

‘Megafires’ in California, Canada, South Korea and Europe in 2025, but changes to farming slowed spread in parts of Africa“Devastating” wildfires ripped across the wealthier parts of the world in 2025, a study has found, even as globally, the area ravaged by flames fell.Catastrophic blazes claimed lives, homes and jobs last year in California, Canada, Europe and South Korea. But the 335m hectares burned was the second-lowest since 2002, the review found, largely owing to the expansion of African farms that have fragmented landscapes and hampered the spread of large savannah fires. Continue reading...