The Guardian

María Corina Machado climbs over barriers to meet chanting supporters gathered outside the Grand Hotel in early hours of Thursday Venezuela’s best-known opposition leader, the Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado, has made a dramatic appearance in Norway after slipping out of her authoritarian homeland by boat. The Venezuelan politician and pro-democracy activist stepped out on to the ba…

Former judge did not prove the ACT integrity commission’s findings of his ‘dishonesty, bad faith, and partiality’ were without evidence, court finds Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Walter Sofronoff has lost his bid against the ACT integrity commission’s finding he engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” by leaking hi…

Labor and Coalition cut deal which unions argue will deny income support to people who can’t work Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Workers suffering psychological injuries in New South Wales will have their compensation entitlements slashed under a controversial deal between Labor and the Coalition. The major parti…

Legislation includes pay increase for troops and a demand for more information about boat strikes in the Caribbean The US House voted 312-112 to pass a sweeping defense policy bill on Wednesday that authorizes $900bn in military programs, including a pay raise for troops and an overhaul of how the Department of Defense purchases weapons. The 3,000-page bill also includes a demand for more informa…

Commercial in Netherlands depicting festival-season chaos at ‘most terrible time of year’ prompted flurry of criticism online McDonald’s says it has removed an AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the Netherlands after it was criticised online. The ad, titled “the most terrible time of the year”, depicts scenes of Christmas chaos, with Santa caught in a traffic jam and a gift-laden Dutch cycli…

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) carries $8bn more than the funding Trump requested in May The US House has approved a sweeping defence bill that bolsters Europe’s security, in what appears to be sharp rebuke to Donald Trump’s mounting threats to downgrade Washington’s ties to traditional allies and Nato. The bipartisan vote came just days after the publication of a White House …

At least 15 people killed, while more than 500,000 people have fled border areas near where jets, tanks and drones were waging battle Half a million evacuees in Cambodia and Thailand were sheltering in pagodas, schools and other safe havens on Wednesday after fleeing fresh border clashes while US president Donald Trump vowed to intercede to stop the fighting. At least 15 people, including Thai so…

Bob Ferguson says he has also activated the state’s national guard to respond to the flooding The governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, declared a statewide emergency on Wednesday in response to heavy rain in the Pacific north-west state since an atmospheric river smacked the region a day earlier with rains that triggered mudslides and washed out roads and submerged vehicles. The emergency declar…

Qualifications watchdog launches consultation amid complaints from pupils about writing fatigue in exams Students could be sitting some of their GCSEs and A-levels on a laptop by the end of the decade, according to England’s qualifications watchdog. Amid complaints from pupils of writing fatigue in exams because their hand muscles “are not strong enough”, Ofqual is launching a three-month public …

Figures for England and Wales show there were 51,672 offences for child sexual exploitation and abuse online in 2024 Online child sexual abuse in England and Wales has surged by a quarter within a year, figures show, prompting police to call for social media platforms to do more to protect young people. Becky Riggs, the acting chief constable of Staffordshire police, called for tech companies to …

More than £10bn was committed to building new schools between 2014-15 and 2023-24, compared with £6.8bn for rebuilding existing schools Conservative governments spent £325m creating 67 free schools that subsequently failed or disappeared, many through lack of demand, according to data revealed by a freedom of information request. The figures from the Department for Education (DfE) show that the g…

Exclusive: Alison McGovern makes target for end of this parliament, but figures show homelessness has jumped The homelessness minister has pledged to end the use of bed and breakfasts as emergency housing, even as new figures show that the country’s homelessness problem has worsened since Labour came into government. Alison McGovern said she would consider it a personal failing if people were sti…

Ally claims former MAS president ‘illegally kidnapped’ and suggests arrest linked to fund for Indigenous Bolivians Bolivia’s former president Luis Arce was reportedly detained and taken to police headquarters on Wednesday. His former presidency minister, María Nela Prada Tejada, posted a video on social media saying she had received information from “unofficial sources” that Arce had been “illega…

Court sets aside former Jetstar pilot’s conviction over the 2020 killing of elderly camper Carol Clay Former pilot Greg Lynn has had his conviction for murdering an elderly camper in the Victorian high country overturned in a stunning decision made by the state’s highest court. Lynn, 59, was found guilty in June last year of murdering grandmother Carol Clay in 2020, but was acquitted of murdering…

Sex and nudity, violence and health and safety rank as top concerns among 5,000 complaints assessed by watchdog Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Cars driving through a zombie neighbourhood, a boy picking his nose and a girl flipping off the camera are among the ads that have garnered the most complaints. Sex and nu…