Germany’s outgoing parliament is meeting on Thursday to debate the creation of a €500bn fund for infrastructure investment and radical changes in the country’s borrowing limits in order to boost defence spending. Friedrich Merz, whose conservatives won last month’s election and who is on the verge of becoming the new chancellor, wants to seal the … Read more
US immigration enforcement officials arrested more people in the first 22 days of February 2025 than in any month over the last seven years, according to a Guardian review of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data. The Guardian review, which analyzed DHS data from the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency, in addition to interviews … Read more
Farmers’ incomes have remained stagnant since the 1970s despite improvements in productivity and a fall in the workforce, research has found. This has been driven by falling prices for farm produce; as the UK has become more reliant on imports, supermarkets have taken over grocery shopping, and households are eating more ultra-processed food, according to … Read more
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Olli Rehn, an European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker, said that the US administration must be encouraged to avoid leveraging “unnecessary and very harmful” tariffs on Europe through a negotiations solution, reports Reuters. “The simple conclusion is that we should aim at … Read more
Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the US, has vowed to keep fighting for a tariff carve out, but warned the current administration is “protectionist” and transactional”. Rudd told ABC’s 7.30 program on Thursday night that negotiating to exempt Australia from a 25% tariff on aluminium and steel imports to the US has been “tough”. “Team … Read more
Good morning. All prime ministers, sooner or later, get frustrated when they realise that the central government machine isn’t as effective as they would like. They arrive thinking that if they tell their officials to do something, it will happen, and they find out that it’s not that simple. When talking about this, they normally … Read more
Former Australian Test cricket star Stuart MacGill might still be jailed, but he has been spared a potential life sentence over his role in a $330,000 cocaine deal that led to his violent kidnapping. The former legspinner, whose post-cricket life has been marred by regular cocaine use, was acquitted on Thursday of taking part in … Read more
The owner of John Lewis and Waitrose has tripled profits to £126m but workers at the staff-owned retail group have missed out on a bonus for a third year in a row. The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) said sales rose 3% to £12.8bn in the 12 months to 25 January 2025, as underlying profit rose … Read more
Angus Taylor has said the opposition has no plans to forcibly break up insurance companies just hours after Peter Dutton said a Coalition government would be prepared to take the step if the treasury recommended it, adding further confusion to the party’s position. The mixed messaging comes amid unease among some Coalition MPs about the … Read more
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has said he will accept responsibility for his government’s so-called “war on drugs” in a video message filmed on board a plane shortly before he was taken into the custody of the international criminal court (ICC). “Whatever happened in the past, I will be the front of our law enforcement … Read more