BUSINESS

A coal lobby group encouraged its members to attend a political fundraiser with the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, in the lead-up to a federal election that would “decide the future” of the industry. The fundraising dinner with Littleproud was scheduled for Wednesday night, according to promotional material circulated by Coal Australia. The group confirmed it … Read more

Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a “strategic alliance” with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial “war” on crime. Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night. “We [have] established a strategic … Read more

An operation to rescue hundreds of people taken hostage when a train was hijacked by a separatist militant group in remote south-west Pakistan has continued into its second day, with dozens killed in the onslaught. On Wednesday, Pakistan’s security services claimed to have rescued about 190 people who were being held captive after militants from … Read more

Over the past two years, programming a writers’ festival has become one of the most politically fraught undertakings in the Australian cultural sphere. Both Sydney and Melbourne writers’ festivals have seen board members resign over programming decisions, while Adelaide and Perth have fended off calls for the de-platforming of speakers on both sides of the … Read more

A Jewish Republican congressman whom Donald Trump appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council compared Trump and his running mate JD Vance’s extremist attacks on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, during last year’s presidential campaign to the “‘target[ing]’ of Jews”, a new book reports. After Trump endured a difficult debate against Kamala Harris in … Read more

The Kremlin has declined to commit to an immediate 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine, stating that Vladimir Putin must first be briefed by the US before deciding whether the proposal would be acceptable to Russia. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow was awaiting “detailed information” from Washington after talks between senior US … Read more

The 11 days of whiplash-inducing diplomacy British and French officials endured to repair shattered relations between Washington and Kyiv, and for the first time put Donald Trump’s trust in Vladimir Putin to the test, could go down as one of the great feats of diplomatic escapology. The dogged fence-mending may yet unravel as multiple hurdles … Read more

Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced she is standing down as an MSP. Sturgeon, who led the Scottish National party from 2014 until her shock resignation in 2023, said she would not seek re-election in 2026, telling her Glasgow Southside constituency party members: “I have known in my heart for a while that … Read more

Donald Trump’s repeated mantra of “drill, baby, drill” demands that more oil and gas be extracted in the United States, but the president has set his sights on an even broader goal: keeping the world hooked on planet-heating fossil fuels for as long as possible. In deals being formulated with countries such as Japan and … Read more

Peers working for big City firms including Santander, Secure Trust Bank and the London Stock Exchange are sitting on a new Lords committee scrutinising regulation of the financial services industry, the Guardian has found. The House of Lords financial services regulation committee was formed in January last year and 10 of its 13 members have … Read more