From Virginia to New York, the bugs drain vines, cut yields and leave growers resorting to one simple fix: squash themAround grape harvest time about three years ago, an employee at Zephaniah Farm Vineyard in Leesburg, Virginia, noticed bugs, about 1in long with gray and black wings and a bright red underwing, atop some trees.While the insects were pretty, they were there for the grapevines and not welcome guests at the vineyard, which sits atop a farm that the Zephaniah family has run since 1949. Continue reading...
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Agents would not allow Pavel Talankin to carry statuette for Mr Nobody Against Putin onto flight from New YorkSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Oscar statuette belonging to Pavel Talankin, star and co-director of the Academy award-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin, has disappeared after officials at New York’s John F Kennedy airport confiscated it before he boarded a flight, claiming it could be used as a weapon.Talankin, whose documentation of Russia’s propaganda machine in grade schools won international acclaim, told Deadline that he has brought the statuette on several flights without incident. But when he arrived at JFK’s terminal 1 on Wednesday morning, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents said he could not take the 8.5lb trophy on board because it posed a security risk. Continue reading...
Bipartisan measure includes funding for Secret Service and TSA, but excludes immigration enforcement operationsPartial government shutdown ends after Congress votes to fund DHS The US House of Representatives has voted to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security – excluding immigration enforcement operations – and end the longest government agency shutdown in history.The deal struck on Thursday aims to draw a line under a 75-day impasse that had threatened airport chaos and exposed fresh strains within the Republican party. Continue reading...
Housing secretary and housing minister latest to criticise idea, which has also been ruled out by No 10Senior ministers have poured scorn on the idea of freezing private sector rents for a year, less than 48 hours after the Guardian revealed Rachel Reeves was considering it.Steve Reed, the housing secretary, and Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, became the latest government figures to criticise the idea, which has since been ruled out by No 10. Continue reading...
The firms said last week that they will be reducing parental leave and other benefits for employees starting next yearRecent moves by US companies Deloitte and Zoom to reduce how much paid parental leave they offer employees could signal a larger reduction in benefits in corporate America, according to labor market experts.American workers are already seen as having less benefits and labor protections than many of their counterparts across the world, especially in Europe. Continue reading...
US judge orders release of a woman and her five children who were family of the 2025 Colorado fire attack suspectA woman and her five children, whose immigration detention of more than 10 months marked the longest family detention under Donald Trump’s second administration, were released on Thursday hours after a judge’s order, their lawyer said.US district judge Fred Biery of the western district of Texas ordered the family’s release. Continue reading...
Campaign is said to be first time Labour-affiliated Unison is lobbying en masse against a key party policyMigrant workers and the UK’s largest union will carry out a mass leafleting campaign in Shabana Mahmood’s Birmingham constituency to protest against a planned change in immigration policy.The Labour-affiliated Unison union says the changes will adversely affect migrant care workers. About one-third of all care workers and one-fifth of all NHS workers are migrants. Continue reading...
Lord Robertson says diplomatic tone from White House is at ‘historic low’ and two allies are likely to keep divergingUK politics live – latest updatesBritain’s high military dependence on the US “is no longer tenable” and the UK has to become increasingly independent of the special relationship with Washington, a former Nato chief has warned.Lord Robertson, who last week accused British leaders of a “corrosive complacency” towards defence, said on Wednesday the traditional allies were diverging over values – and that even after Donald Trump, the separation was likely to continue. Continue reading...
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth makes announcement and calls military’s flu vaccine mandate ‘broad’ and ‘not rational’Members of the armed services will no longer be required to have an annual flu vaccination shot under a new policy announced Tuesday by Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary.In a video statement posted to social media, Hegseth described the mandate as “overly broad” and “not rational” and the decision to drop the vaccine requirement as “seizing this moment to discard any absurd overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities”. Continue reading...
PM to update state and territory leaders and is weighing options to increase oil refining in Australia. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories. Nick Visser will take the reins shortly.Anthony Albanese will convene the national cabinet again in coming days to discuss the fuel crisis, he told the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, as the government considers options to boost domestic fuel refining capacity. Continue reading...
Maria Medetis Long had expressed doubts over case of John Brennan, whose agency said Russia boosted Trump in 2016Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA federal prosecutor leading the investigation into former CIA director John Brennan is no longer working on the case after expressing reservations about it, according to a person familiar with the matter.The prosecutor, Maria Medetis Long, informed attorneys involved in the case she was no longer handling it, according to CNN, which first reported she was leaving the case. Medetis Long is a career attorney serving as the chief of the national security division in the US attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Continue reading...
• The Nasdaq achieved its 12th consecutive daily gain on Thursday, marking the longest winning streak since July 2009, as easing Middle East tensions and strong corporate earnings sustained broad market momentum.
• The S&P 500 closed at a new record of 7,041.28, while the VIX declined to 17.94, reflecting reduced market volatility amid improved geopolitical sentiment.
• TSMC's blowout Q1 results—with net profit rising 58.3% year-over-year to a record level and revenue of $35.9 billion—added significant momentum, confirming sustained AI-driven chip demand across the technology sector.
The decision to extend a warrantless security law until 30 April came after 20 Republicans worked with House Democrats to defeat attempts to pass five-year and 18-month renewalsSign up for the Breaking News US emailHello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.The House of Representatives voted early on Friday to briefly extend an expiring and controversial law that grants the US government sweeping powers for warrantless surveillance.Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon to be followed by a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese leaders next week.Progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia won a New Jersey special election for the US House on Thursday. Mejia, who was endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is far more critical on Israel and was the only candidate in the Democratic primary to call Israel’s actions during the war in Gaza a genocide.Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is stepping down after a turbulent year carrying out Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.Donald Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general during his first administration, to lead the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).Schwartz was under immediate pressure from critics of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to oppose his anti-vaccine ideology. At a heated oversight hearing, House Democrats grilled Kennedy over his vaccine rollbacks.Speaking in Las Vegas, Trump told supporters “the war in Iran is going along swimmingly, we can do whatever we want.” He did not explain why, then, the US military has been unable to stop Iran from closing the strait of Hormuz.The US Department of Justice opened an investigation into Eric Swalwell following his resignation from Congress, according to a source familiar with the matter.Police in Illinois responded Wednesday evening to the home of Pope Leo’s brother, John Prevost, after a bomb threat was made, NBC Chicago reported. Continue reading...
Tony award-winning actor will play lead role of Judith Bliss in Noël Coward’s comedy at Wyndham’s theatre in LondonChristine Baranski is to make her West End debut alongside Richard E Grant in a revival of Noël Coward’s comedy Hay Fever. The US star, known for her TV roles in The Good Fight and The Gilded Age, says she is looking forward to “tearing a passion to tatters” in the 1925 play about a family toying with their guests at a country house party.She will star as the newly retired actor Judith Bliss, with Grant playing her novelist husband. Baranski has twice won the Tony award for best featured actress in a play – with New York productions of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing in 1984 and Neil Simon’s Rumors in 1989. She also appeared in the comedies Hurlyburly (in 1985) and Boeing-Boeing (in 2008) on Broadway. Continue reading...
Prime minister says Corio refinery fire will not push Australia into stage 3 restrictions, despite reduced production of petrol, diesel and aviation fuelFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese says petrol production has fallen 40% at one of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries but the damage caused by the fire at the Geelong facility will not lead to fuel restrictions.The prime minister spoke outside the Viva Energy refinery – which had been supplying about half of Victoria’s fuel before a massive fire burned for 13 hours until noon Thursday – on Friday morning, and said the facility was also producing less diesel and aviation fuel. Continue reading...
Prime minister cuts fuel security visit to Malaysia short. Follow updates liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAn extra 250,000 tonnes of agricultural-grade urea for fertiliser will come to Australia from Indonesia, under a new deal supported by the federal government.That’s around 20% of the fertiliser needed for the current planting season for Australian farmers, according to the Albanese government.This deal also shows why it’s critically important that we have strong relationships with our regional partners.While this is a commercial deal, the Australian and Indonesian Governments have been working to support this positive outcome … This will mean Australia can continue to play an important role supporting food security in Indonesia and our region at a time of global uncertainty. Continue reading...
Some petrol stations may see short-term fuel outages as refinery output slows, but national supplies should not be affectedFull report: Geelong oil refinery fireGeelong oil refinery fire: what we know so farFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastVictorian motorists are being warned to brace for a spike in petrol prices of up to 20c a litre due to a huge blaze at Viva Energy’s oil refinery in Geelong, but oil and supply chain experts say the effects should be short-lived.Viva’s Corio facility is one of two domestic refineries that reduce Australia’s heavy reliance on direct imports of ready-to-use oil products from Asia. Continue reading...
Smoke warning for residents south of Viva oil refinery in Corio as Geelong mayor calls fire ‘unprecedented’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA major oil refinery in Geelong, which supplies half of Victoria’s fuel and 10% of the nation’s, exploded into flames on Wednesday night and the blaze was still out of control by first light on Thursday.Fire Rescue Victoria said they responded to an incident at the Mogas (motor gasoline) unit at Viva oil refinery in Corio around 11:15pm Thursday. Continue reading...
Residents south of the refinery in Corio warned to shelter inside due to smokeGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNationals leader Matt Canavan defended the Coalition’s planned crack down on immigrations as “fair and reasonable” and that migrants would understand the policy.Asked on 7.30 last night how Australia’s migrant communities would see the plan, Canavan referred to the “rigour” of the naturalisation process his Italian grandparents went through in the 1950s and his own publicised Section 44 high court citizenship saga (which he said ultimately proved him to be a “dinky-di Aussie”). He said:It’s fair and reasonable that we set high standards to join the club of Australians and I’m sure migrants here today want to see that …We have a Government that has put its head in the sand now and has not listened to the Australian people that clearly want change.I think we should discriminate on values …We shouldn’t discriminate on colour, religion, sexuality, gender, but surely … we should discriminate on people who don’t support democracy, who profess support for terrorism or violence, who don’t believe in equality between male and female genders. People who have those views I don’t want them in our country.I’ll comment that the Robert Frost line in that poem was delivered in irony.But we’ll return to that another day along with many other questions, thank you for joining us … Continue reading...
Beijing may be reaping some diplomatic benefit but Trump’s war holds risks for its energy security and economyTwo months ago, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, promised it would be a “big year” for China-US relations. He was right, but perhaps not in the way he expected.Wang was speaking before a planned visit by Donald Trump to Beijing in March, which would have been Trump’s first trip to China since 2017. But the trip, and a meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping, was kicked back by several weeks after Trump decided to launch strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a war in the Middle East that has caused a global energy crisis and roiled diplomatic relations across the board. Continue reading...
Oil prices and borrowing costs are expected to rise this week as tankers remain stranded in Persian gulfMiddle East crisis live – latest updatesThe failure of the US and Iran to reach a peace deal after marathon negotiations has put markets on alert for further oil and gas price rises.With large numbers of oil tankers remaining stuck in the Persian gulf, the US vice-president, JD Vance blamed the collapse of the talks on Tehran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian sources hit back at “excessive” demands from Washington. Continue reading...
Catherine King says while peace talks were ‘best chance’ at lowering fuel prices, further help may be included in budgetFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesTrack Australia’s fuel prices, service station outages and shipments in chartsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Albanese government is contemplating further relief for struggling households and businesses in next month’s federal budget, as peace talks continue between the US and Iran amid a fragile ceasefire.The infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said the success of those talks was the “best chance” at bringing down fuel prices. But she warned there would be a “long tail” from the crisis even if the strait of Hormuz – which was still being blocked by Iran and strangling global oil supplies – reopened imminently. Continue reading...
Woman tells court ‘I lost my teenage self’ from abuse by teacher William ‘Rob’ Gilfillan, already in prison for offences against daughter Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA woman who was repeatedly sexually assaulted in the 1980s by her high school PE teacher has told a court how the man’s actions resulted in her life being changed “negatively for decades”.In December, William “Rob” Gilfillan was found guilty of indecent assault of a person under 16 and sexual penetration of a child under 16. The five counts against two victims took place at Traralgon high school in Gippsland. Continue reading...
Benjamin Torres, son of Valerie Mack, files suit before Rex Heuermann reportedly set to change plea to guiltyThe accused serial killer Rex Heuermann is being sued along with his former wife and their daughter, by the son of one of his alleged victims.Benjamin Torres, the son of Valerie Mack, one the victims charged in the case against Heuermann, claims his mother was “tortured ferociously, and her body dismembered”. Continue reading...
The health secretary and the BMA trade accusations over who bears responsibility for the collapse of talksGood morning. Resident doctors in English hospitals started a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many of them will continue to work, but there will be enough of them joining the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can deliver. It is the 15th resident doctors (who used to be known as junior doctors) have been on stage since they launched a campaign in 2023 to get their pay back to the equivalent level it used to be before austerity kicked in after the financial crash.This morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, deployed a new statistic in his PR battle against the BMA, the doctors’ union organised the strikes. He confirmed a figure highlighted in the Daily Mail’s splash saying strikes by resident doctors have now cost the country £3bn.We think that strikes cost £50m a day. And so that is, an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.What is true is that in order to deliver a full pay restoration back to 2008 levels, using the RPI account of inflation, it would cost in the order of £3bn a year.Let’s then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30bn a year. That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice’s entire budget for running the criminal justice system. Continue reading...
Iranian authorities cut access to internet on 28 February leaving many with limited information about warIran’s internet shutdown, which began shortly after the first US-Israel strikes in late February, is now the longest national-scale blackout since the Arab spring, monitors have said.Iranian authorities cut all access to the internet on 28 February, the day the war began, after an earlier shutdown in January during nationwide protests. This current blackout has lasted more than 38 days. Continue reading...
Reduced public holiday services and school holidays heighten pressure on network, leading to overcrowdingFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPassengers have been forced to stand for hours and many were unable to board services over Easter as Victoria’s regional train system strained under the combined weight of a long weekend, school holidays and fare-free services.Reports of overcrowding on V/Line services escalated on Friday and Saturday as public holiday timetables reduced services, amid increased demand after the state government introducing free travel during April. Continue reading...
Clause says those aged up to 45 may need permission from armed forces to leave country for more than three monthsA little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has caused uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime.The legislation, which went into effect on 1 January, aims to bolster the the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. Continue reading...
Researchers warn the high-pressure conditions could disrupt marine life and ecosystems if it continuesSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxFor more than a century, shoreline stations operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have measured water temperatures along the California coast. This year, they are flashing a warning sign.Over the last three months, several stations have repeatedly posted record-breaking daily high temperatures – with the La Jolla station registering temperatures a full 10F above historical average at one point last month. Continue reading...
