The Guardian

London-based company to sell local loan portfolio to Blackstone, but will continue private and institutional banking services Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The London-headquartered HSBC is closing all Australian branches over the next 18 months after selling its local mortgage and personal loan portfolio to glob…

Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos was found guilty of two counts of assault and not guilty of three of six counts of rape A British musician and YouTube personality on trial for allegedly violently raping a fan in a Perth hotel has been acquitted of three sexual penetration charges. But the jury found rapper Yung Filly guilty of two assault offences over his September 2024 encounter with a 20-yea…

Pre-programmed flights gather data at different altitudes then return to bases to recharge and download Weather happens in the boundary layer, the atmosphere from ground level to a few thousand metres, but this can be difficult to study in detail: weather stations are too low, and aircraft are expensive. Instrumented weather balloons are the traditional solution, and thousands are released every …

Geoffrey Watson criticises Victorian government as union administrator warns of ongoing criminality on construction sites Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Integrity expert Geoffrey Watson SC says “nobody” from the Victorian Labor government has contacted him about his bombshell report alleging corruption in the con…

Campaigners worry politicians will have moved on by time of elections in which Marine Le Pen is expected to challenge As dozens of forest wildfires burned across France this week amid the summer’s fourth brutal heatwave and increasing air pollution, some wondered whether voters’ first-hand experience of the climate emergency would change the political debate ahead of next year’s presidential elec…

Leftwing Democrats are having their moment in the sun, with Zohran Mamdani in New York, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and endless calls for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028. Has Democratic socialism shifted from the political fringe to the mainstream? And can this group lure back the all-important swing voters? Jonathan Freedland speaks to Bhaskar Sunkara , president of the Nati…

Queensland police fine driver of another car that allegedly caused Yaris to swerve before it hit kerb and catapulted into air – and bus A Queensland driver has been fined after being involved in a stunning crash that saw a car become airborne and then stuck into the side of a bus. The drama unfolded at Rocklea in Brisbane’s south on Wednesday evening. A blue Toyota Yaris hit a traffic island and …

US president’s Board of Peace says Israel will withdraw from Gaza following disarmament of Hamas but no immediate statement from either side What is Trump’s Board of Peace and who is involved? Donald Trump on Thursday announced an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas, calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government in Gaza. There was no immediate statement from Hamas o…

Company says it discovered unauthorized access during ‘proactive review’ after rival OpenAI revealed rogue agent Anthropic ⁠said on Thursday its AI Claude model hacked ⁠systems of ⁠three ​organizations during testing, days after rival OpenAI ⁠revealed a rogue agent had gone on a days-long ⁠hacking spree at AI ​firm Hugging ‌Face. Claude gained ‌unauthorized access to the ‌systems during cybersecu…

Officers in murder trial testify of arriving at Massachusetts home after anguished 911 call from Patrick Clancy The two police officers focused first on Lindsay Clancy drifting in and out of consciousness in the snow after jumping from her Massachusetts home’s second-floor window in January 2023. Within minutes, they were racing into the basement after her then husband screamed that all three of …

Local leaders say plan will transform funding so English regions no longer rely on Whitehall handouts for projects England’s regional mayors will be able to break out of the “death grip of the Treasury” by borrowing to invest in big projects under “transformational” plans to shift power out of Whitehall. For the first time, mayors will keep a share of income tax generated in their area from 2028,…

Attorneys general meet in Darwin to work on nationalising the working with children check after serious allegations of safety breaches in childcare sector. Follow live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Attorneys-general are meeting in Darwin on Friday, to work on nationalising the working with children check - sparked by serious allegations of safety breaches and child …

Both MPs have had the parliamentary whip restored following separate independent disciplinary processes MPs Diane Abbott and Joani Reid have been readmitted into Labour and had the parliamentary whip restored, just under two weeks into Andy Burnham’s premiership. The party confirmed that this followed separate independent disciplinary processes, although Labour said the leadership played no role …

CRS officers funded by UK tried to stop boarding of boat, on day four asylum seekers died trying to cross Channel French riot police funded by UK taxpayers used teargas on asylum seekers in a bid to stop them from boarding a boat in which three women were later found dead, a charity has claimed. Footage and photographs seen by the Guardian show CS gas canisters being fired towards groups of peopl…

Major incident declared with Sizewell B power station monitoring blaze and RSPB nature reserve badly hit Hundreds of people have been evacuated and a major incident declared after a wildfire spread over more than 80 hectares (200 acres) on the coast of Suffolk, just a few miles from the Sizewell B nuclear power station. The fire – described by one witness as “apocalyptic” – was still not complete…