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• Rappler examines the ongoing political conflict within the Philippine Senate, characterized by rhetoric and a "teleserye"-like atmosphere. • The dispute centers on a boycott led by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who claims to be fighting for Senate independence, while opposing members argue for the rule of law. • A key point of contention involves Senator Rodante Marcoleta's proposal to amend Senate rules to permit online voting under "justifiable" circumstances.

Deletion of the bureau’s website content is just the most recent part of a larger plan to ‘undermine an agency that’s helped people’The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deleted at least 2,200 webpages from its website last month, a move advocates say is part of the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the federal consumer finance watchdog.The removed content was all published before Trump’s second term, and includes press releases, consumer advisories, congressional testimonies, speeches and blog posts. Some of the material dates back to as early as 2010, when the agency was formed. Continue reading...

Non-binding agreement to start building vehicles in 2027 would safeguard jobs at UK’s largest car factoryNissan has agreed to look at building cars in northern England for Chinese manufacturer Chery, in a move that would secure jobs at the UK’s largest car factory.The Japanese carmaker on Wednesday said it had signed a non-binding agreement and that discussions were ongoing over contract manufacturing by Nissan for Chery, which is part-owned by the Chinese state. Continue reading...

There’s a three-week wait on test results in Yuendumu, near Alice Springs, and locals say NT Health has dropped the ball on telling locals what to do if they test positiveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA remote Aboriginal community at the centre of the Northern Territory’s diphtheria outbreak is struggling to cope with rising case numbers, with locals saying there is no hand sanitiser at the health clinic and limited information about how to avoid the disease or what to do if you test positive.There have been more than 240 cases of the once-eradicated disease reported in Australia since October, primarily in remote Indigenous communities in the NT, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, according to data released by the Australian Centre for Disease Control. One of the largest clusters in the NT is in Yuendumu, a community of about 700 people 300km from Alice Springs. Continue reading...

DfE plans to withdraw funding for assistive software, saying it is now rarely needed due to ‘widely available free tools’Disability campaigners have called on the government to halt plans to cut funding for specialist tech support for tens of thousands of disabled students in England.Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition opposing Department for Education (DfE) proposals to withdraw funding for specialist assistive software available as part of the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). Continue reading...

• EU crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib announced on Tuesday that the bloc is placing its largest-ever firefighting force on standby to combat an increase in wildfires. • The initiative follows a trend of forest fires starting earlier and growing in scale, with responses already required this spring in Czechia, Germany, Italy, and Poland. • This escalation in readiness highlights the EU's urgent need to mitigate climate-driven environmental disasters across member states.

• EU leaders are preparing a draft diplomatic text to increase pressure on Israel by threatening new sanctions against "extremist ministers." • The initiative gained momentum after Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani formally requested that EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas place the issue on the union's agenda. • This move signals a significant escalation in the EU's diplomatic approach to the conflict, targeting specific government officials rather than the state as a whole.

Senate estimates hearing told issues caused by a glitch in the automated system that runs the controversial mutual obligations schemeFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe government has admitted it illegally cancelled hundreds of thousands of Centrelink payments because of a glitch in the automated system that runs the controversial mutual obligations scheme, it has been revealed.Speaking at senate estimates on Wednesday, representatives for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations said the number of illegal cancellations, where people were not given enough time to reconnect to a job provider after missing a compulsory activity as part of their mutual obligations, was in “the vicinity” of 300,000. Continue reading...

• UC San Diego researchers are employing unconventional methods to study space, expanding beyond the university's established history of producing astronauts like Jessica Meir and Kate Rubins. • Professor Karin Sandstrom of the School of Physical Sciences is specifically analyzing the interstellar medium to understand how gas and dust become dense and cold. • This research is critical for uncovering the fundamental mechanisms that trigger the formation of new stars within the universe.

Disgraced former congressman said to have put bet on whether he would be at Trump’s State of the Union speechFederal authorities are investigating whether George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman from New York, engaged in insider trading by betting on a prediction market on his own attendance to the State of the Union address, multiple news outlets reported on Tuesday.Santos allegedly placed a bet on Kalshi, a popular online prediction market, over whether he would be in attendance at Trump’s State of the Union address in February, according to NPR, which first reported on the investigation citing anonymous sources. Continue reading...

Health secretary announces expansion of Transform trial but does not back population-wide testingThousands more black men will be invited to take part in a prostate cancer screening trial as the health secretary insisted he was “following the science” in not backing population-wide testing.James Murray accepted a recommendation from the UK national screening committee (UKNSC) that will result in only a few thousand high-risk men with a gene mutation being screened for the disease. Continue reading...

Patients with knee arthritis who took medications for at least three years at reduced risk of needing surgeryTaking weight-loss drugs for at least three years could prevent thousands of knee replacements a year, research suggests.Globally, more than 500 million people have osteoarthritis. Knee arthritis is the most common form, affecting about 14 million people in the US and more than 5 million in the UK. Many will require knee surgery. In the UK more than 120,000 knee replacements are carried out every year. Continue reading...

Environment Centre of the Northern Territory warns it could be ‘gateway to full-scale fracking in the territory’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSantos could begin new drilling for gas in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo basin within weeks after the Finocchiaro government granted approval for up to 12 wells.The decision, published late last month, has prompted calls from environment groups for the federal environment minister, Murray Watt, to use his powers to “call in” the development for an assessment of its potential effects on water and threatened species under national nature laws. Continue reading...

Joy turned to panic as Sarah and her dog sank quickly. She thought ‘this is not how I’m going to go’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast“I’ve literally had my real, live Indiana Jones moment,” Sarah Darbyshire says of the frightening moment she and her dog stumbled into quicksand.The Holdfast Bay council has put up signs warning about the treacherous, liquefied patch on Glenelg North beach in South Australia. Continue reading...

• An AI-driven semiconductor boom is fueling a broader economic resurgence across North Asia, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan. • Beyond increasing profits for chip champions, the trend is stimulating regional growth through rising investment, stronger household consumption, and expanded tax revenues. • This shift matters as it transforms the AI surge from a niche corporate success into a systemic economic driver for these key global tech hubs.

• The surge in demand for AI chips from US hyperscalers is driving significant profit growth for semiconductor giants in North Asia, particularly in South Korea and Taiwan. • This boom has attracted substantial foreign investment and led to increased employee compensation at major regional technology firms. • The trend is viewed as a potential catalyst for a broader regional economic renaissance, extending benefits beyond the immediate chip manufacturers.

Doug Burgum complains some musicians ‘segmented their audiences’ after artists back out of 250th anniversary eventThe Trump administration’s interior secretary, Doug Burgum, complained on Sunday that some musicians “seem to have segmented their audiences” after artists bailed on participating in a concert series planned for the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence.In the interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Burgum also dismissed calls to publicly identified who had made donations for the concert series – and maintained it was a “nonpartisan” event despite Donald Trump referring to it as a rally. Continue reading...

Wind gusts up to 125km/h forecast to hit city as residents urged to stay away from windowsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTens of thousands of residents have been left without power in Perth as an intense storm lashed Australia’s west coast, with authorities warning on Sunday morning the worst was still to come.The powerful weather event was forecast to bring wind gusts of up to 125km/h to Perth and communities along Western Australia’s coast. Continue reading...

Lawsuit says settlement fund was ‘fraud on the court’ that would funnel taxpayer dollars to Trump alliesDozens of former federal judges have joined the push to thwart Donald Trump’s creation of a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization fund” that would funnel taxpayer dollars to the president’s political allies.The bipartisan group of 35 judges filed a lawsuit in the southern district of Florida on Wednesday seeking to reopen Trump’s legal case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the leaking of his tax information by a whistleblower who was later sentenced to five years in prison. Continue reading...

After CEO’s comments to investors, opponents urge miner to ‘stop stringing everybody along and spike the project finally’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSantos chief executive, Kevin Gallagher, has told an investor briefing the company will not be “exerting any effort” on its Narrabri gas project while it awaits outstanding approvals, prompting fresh questions about the future of the controversial development.Gallagher told investors this week the company was prioritising exploration in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin, where it is pursuing an expansion. Continue reading...

The UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, on the war in Gaza, living under US sanctions and accusations of antisemitismFor a brief period this month, the human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese seemed to have some relief.In an extraordinary move in July last year, the Trump administration placed sanctions on the UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine – placing her alongside figures such as Vladimir Putin and Bashir al-Assad – over her engagement with the international criminal court. Continue reading...

Markwayne Mullin, DHS secretary, said move would come in response to protests outside ICE facility in New JerseyThe Trump administration has threatened to stop processing international flights in major cities around the country as a reaction to protests against immigration enforcement.Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said on Tuesday that the administration is “drawing up plans” to take the action, in response to days of clashes at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey. Continue reading...

State attorneys general say their deputies were turned away and criticized White House for ‘politicizing’ fraud issuesThree Democratic state attorneys general said their deputies were turned away from a roundtable hosted by JD Vance on Tuesday, sowing confusion about what the White House has billed as a bipartisan crackdown on fraud.After attorneys general – including New York’s Letitia James, California’s Rob Bonta and New Jersey’s Jennifer Davenport – declined a last-minute invitation to participate in the event alongside their Republican counterparts, they said representatives from their offices travelled to Washington to attend, but were shut out. Continue reading...

• EU officials are proposing new sanctions against Russia, specifically targeting the Moscow-based League for Assistance to Defense Enterprises and various military companies. • The measures focus on restricting components used for drones in the Ukraine war, including CNC machines, lasers, and lighting equipment used for reconnaissance and kamikaze missions. • These sanctions aim to cripple the modernization and growth of the Russian military industry by cutting off essential technological supplies.

Officials say still not safe for 16,000 people to return home as crews in Orange county work to neutralize damaged tankA crack that formed by chance in an overheated chemical tank in southern California relieved pressure and helped avert a catastrophic explosion, but officials said on Tuesday it still was not safe enough for 16,000 people living closest to the aerospace plant to return home.The crisis forced 50,000 people to evacuate in and near the Orange county city of Garden Grove last week. Most returned home after the crack formed over the Memorial Day weekend, but the risk of a smaller explosion or potential spill kept evacuation orders in place for about a third of residents. Continue reading...

Links between Trump Organization and Ivanishvili family for Tbilisi skyscraper raise new conflict of interest concernsA Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records.The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu. Continue reading...

US imposed sanctions on nine judges and a prosecutor after ICC issued arrest warrants for members of Israeli cabinetA former prosecutor at the international criminal court has called for an EU-wide statute blocking what she describes as “thuggish” and “bullying” US sanctions imposed on members of the court that are designed to send the court into oblivion.In February 2025, the US imposed sanctions on 11 ICC officials, including nine judges and the chief prosecutor as well three Palestinian organisations, in response to the ICC decision in 2024 to issue arrest warrants for members of the Israeli cabinet, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Continue reading...

• EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis announced that the European Union will not ease sanctions against Russia, despite mounting pressure to mitigate an energy crisis linked to the Iran war. • This decision follows a downgrade in the EU's economic growth forecast and official warnings regarding rising inflation across the bloc. • The EU's firm stance contrasts with the approaches of the US and UK, highlighting a divergence in how major Western powers are managing economic pressures.