Politics and funding cuts threaten global relief efforts: UN aid chief
Tom Fletcher warns that global humanitarian aid is at risk as funding collapses and political battles block relief.
Video: Palestinians observe sombre Ramadan in Gaza as Israel blocks aid
Palestinian Muslims in Gaza are observing Ramadan amid rubble.
Oscars 2025: Nominees, predictions and what time to watch
Emilia Perez, Wicked, The Brutalist and The Substance are some of the top films up for trophies at the Academy Awards.
Premier claims WA a ‘renewable energy powerhouse’ but leaked document shows wind and solar projects have ‘stalled’
Exclusive: Government document confirms electricity from large-scale renewables has flatlined, with one campaigner saying pipeline has ‘little sign of life’
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Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state’s main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows.
A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the “decarbonisation work program” in Perth’s electricity grid had “stalled to date”. It said there were “few new wind developments” advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027.
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Continue reading...Social media platforms could face $50m fines if Australian children access adult content on their sites
Under proposed new codes submitted to eSafety commissioner, tech companies would have six months to implement new measures
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Social media and technology companies would have six months to implement a suite of new measures to restrict Australian children from accessing adult content online, or face fines up to $50m, under proposed new codes developed by the industry.
The draft codes, submitted to the eSafety commissioner last week for approval, would require social media platforms that allow pornography to prevent access to minors, and implement age assurance measures for users.
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Continue reading...AFL admits it has lost control of online gambling oversight amid spike in ‘integrity risks’
Exclusive: Leaked documents reveal the AFL struggles to detect if players are using inside information to manipulate betting markets, despite close ties to industry
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The AFL has admitted its integrity system for online gambling is seriously deficient and struggles to identity whether players, coaches and staff are using inside information to manipulate betting markets, in breach of their contracts.
Leaked documents seen by Guardian Australia reveal executives have expressed alarm about an “unprecedented” increase in “integrity risks” posed by the wagering industry, which has exploded in popularity since the pandemic with more than 80 bookmakers now taking bets on its games.
Continue reading...TV nostalgia continues with new gameshow based on musical chairs
Game of Chairs will have 10 contestants move around a circle who try to land on a seat when the music stops
A new TV show based on the children’s party game musical chairs is set to hit screens, tapping into viewers’ cravings for nostalgia and happy childhood memories.
The company behind Big Brother, Masterchef and Peaky Blinders is launching the elimination gameshow Game of Chairs – a series in which 10 contestants move around a circle of nine coloured chairs and aim to land on a seat when the music stops.
Continue reading...The Lost Film of Panama: Indigenous Kuna reclaim their voice
Fifty years after a documentary film was confiscated by a bank, Panama's Indigenous Kuna people reclaim their story.
Israeli soldiers assault intellectually disabled man in West Bank raid
Israeli soldiers attack a Palestinian man with an intellectual disability during a raid in the occupied West Bank.
Hazel Dukes, lifelong civil rights leader, dies aged 92
President of the NAACP New York state chapter fought tirelessly for voting rights, fair housing and education
Hazel Dukes, the president of the New York state chapter of the NAACP and lifelong civil rights advocate, died Saturday at the age of 92.
Dukes peacefully passed away in her New York City home surrounded by family, her son, Ronald Dukes, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Israel blocks entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza
Netanyahu is demanding Hamas agree to a US plan for a ceasefire extension, the Palestinian group says blocking aid is "cheap blackmail".
Young adults increasingly struggling offline turn to ASMR videos, report finds
Visceral videos of people playing with slime or braiding hair soothe those who feel overwhelmed by in-person contact
Younger adults are increasingly overwhelmed by in-person interaction and soothing themselves instead with sensory online content, according to a report on the wildly popular online content known as ASMR.
ASMR – autonomous sensory meridian response – describes a particular sensory phenomenon that is triggered by specific sights or sounds, which usually begins with a tingling sensation across the scalp and results in feelings of deep calm and relaxation.
47% of those aged 25-34 said they felt overwhelmed in noisy or busy places such as shopping centres or train stations, compared with 35% of those aged 55-64.
39% of those aged 18-24 felt the need to shut out noise, for example using noise-cancelling headphones in public, compared with only 21% of those age 45-54.
Younger age groups were also more likely to prefer chatting to people online rather than face to face and to prefer to work alone rather than around other people.
Continue reading...UK gives Ukraine’s Zelenskyy a warm welcome after Trump confrontation
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has received a warm welcome in the UK after his fiery exchange with Donald Trump
US Postal Service faces murky future as Trump mulls dismantling institution
Resistance to any proposals remains speculative until administration lays out its plan for the federal agency
After the postmaster general, Louis Dejoy, a former Trump fundraiser and logistics executive appointed during the president’s first term, announced last month that he was stepping down, defenders of the US Postal Service (USPS) concerned that the 249-year-old institution could soon experience the slice and slash of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” scimitar have expressed alarm.
Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to dissolve USPS’s bipartisan board of governors and place the agency under the control of the commerce department secretary, Howard Lutnick, the Washington Post recently reported.
Continue reading...I love Italy, says Estonian Eurovision entry accused of insulting Italians
Tommy Cash says he did not expect Espresso Macchiato to cause such offence with references to the mafia and coffee
Estonia’s entry for this year’s Eurovision song contest has said he never intended to offend Italy with his song that pokes fun at Italian stereotypes of coffee-drinking, spaghetti-eating mafiosi – and said he submitted the song after his grandmother cried over it.
There have been calls in Italy for Tommy Cash’s catchy song, Espresso Macchiato, to be banned from the competition, which takes place in Basel, Switzerland, in May.
Continue reading...Iran’s economy minister impeached as inflation rises, currency falls
Hemmati removed from office after 182 of 273 lawmakers vote against him as rising cost of living fuels discontent.
Pope absent from St Peter’s Square for third week
Pope Francis is unable to deliver his traditional Angelus prayer in person, with the Vatican publishing a text.
Trump is making Central America become a dumping ground for US immigrants
President bullying countries’ leaders into collaborating with his deportation agenda that critics say violates rights
Central America has long been a source of immigrants, and in recent years, it’s also become a major transit route for those from around the world heading to the United States.
That shift led to record numbers of immigrants arriving at the US border, and contributed to the supposed crisis that helped Donald Trump win the election this past November.
Continue reading...Tim Walz regrets getting ‘sucked in’ to addressing Trump’s pet-eating lies
Harris running mate discussed campaign missteps after saying he’ll run for third term as Minnesota governor
Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate in the November presidential election won by Donald Trump, says he deplores how much time he spent addressing the opposing campaign’s decision to spread false, racist rumors of pets being abducted and eaten in Springfield, Ohio.
“They sucked me in on” that, Walz said in a recent episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast. Echoing similar remarks that he made on a recent episode of the Fast Politics With Molly Jong-Fast podcast, he added: “I was just horrified and angry when they were demonizing folks in Springfield, Ohio. [And] there I was talking for almost a week about immigration, right where they wanted us to be.”
Continue reading...Inside the Ramallah hotel housing Gaza’s cancer patients
As war destroyed their homes and killed their families, these hotel guests fought another battle - to survive illness.