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In today’s newsletter: The Los Angeles wildfires highlighted the immense challenges faced by the insurance industry amid the escalating risks of the climate crisis. Are there any potential solutions for homeowners?Good morning. If the Los Angeles wildfires are bracing evidence of the general threat posed by the climate crisis, they have also brought home a specific problem: how can you make the insurance system...

This blog is now closed‘There aren’t people on Mars’: Anthony Albanese criticises Sussan Ley’s First Fleet analogyGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFor people with disability, the end of 2024 was a rollercoaster.New legislation for the National Disability Insurance Scheme started coming into effect in October, with new lists of what can and cannot be funded, changes to early intervention...

More than 5,000 workers to benefit from reduced hours with no loss of payTwo hundred UK companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, in the latest landmark in the campaign to reinvent Britain’s working week.Together the companies employ more than 5,000 people, with charities, marketing and technology firms among the best-represented, according...

Current rules leave door open for medicines to be supplied without appropriate patient consultation, association saysPharmacies are demanding tougher regulation of the online sale of weight-loss jabs amid a predicted new year’s boom in demand.The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), who represent independent community pharmacies, urged the regulator to require greater consultation with patients before dispensing weight-loss jabs and other high-risk medication online. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Office workers have more flexibility than frontline staff such as nurses and shop workers, report saysBritain is dividing into a two-tier workforce as office staff benefit from flexible working but the conditions of frontline staff such as nurses and shop workers remain “frozen in time”, according to a report.Workers who were considered to be on the frontline during the pandemic have seen no...

Hot, dry and windy weather for Australia’s south-east prompts bushfire and heatwave warningsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMultiple heatwave and bushfire warnings are in place for the Australia Day public holiday, with every Australian capital city expecting maximum temperatures above 30C and Melbourne forecast for a scorcher.On Monday Melbourne was forecast...

Actor has accused Justin Baldoni, co-star and director of It Ends With Us, of sexual harassment in civil actionThe film footage at the centre of Blake Lively’s high-profile legal row proves that intimacy coordination should be considered as necessary on set as organising stunts, leading consultants have said.Lively filed a civil complaint against co-star and director Justin Baldoni just before Christmas, accusing him of...

Report by rights groups alleges border police refused to rescue boys and blocked activists’ efforts to save themBulgarian authorities have been accused of ignoring emergency calls and obstructing efforts to rescue three Egyptian teenage boys, who later died in sub-zero temperatures near the Bulgarian-Turkish border in late December.A dossier of evidence compiled by two humanitarian organisations, seen by the Guardian, contains photos, testimonies and...

Prime minister says deputy Liberal leader’s Australia Day speech was ‘disrespectful’ and Katy Gallagher calls it ‘nuts’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese and Katy Gallagher have rebuked the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, for drawing parallels between the arrival of the first fleet to Elon Musk’s SpaceX mission to reach...

Court Services Victoria security staff directed three people to remove the scarves, which are often worn by Palestine supportersFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSecurity staff at Melbourne’s busiest court have told people they must remove their keffiyehs before entering.Court Services Victoria said that staff had discretion to order the removal of...

Accused to face court on Monday after boy found dead from what police allege ‘appears to be blunt force trauma’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA woman has been charged with the murder of a boy who was in her care inside what police describe as a “normal suburban household” in the...

Executive order comes two days after visit to LA, which has been devastated by wildfires that burned over 35,000 acresDonald Trump on Sunday issued an executive order directing the federal government to override the state of California’s water management practices if they are found to be ineffective.The order comes two days after the president visited the Los Angeles region, which has been devastated by...

The missing 73-year-old set off his distress beacon during stormy weather on Saturday afternoonA 73-year-old British sailor is lost at sea and his yacht has been found “eviscerated” off the French coast in stormy weather.A French air force helicopter was dispatched to find the man after he set off his distress beacon at 3pm on Saturday, approximately 50 miles (80km) west of Lacanau in...

Benjamin Netanyahu confirms agreement reached with Hamas for civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud to be released on ThursdayMiddle East crisis – live updatesDisplaced Palestinians have started returning to north Gaza, the territory’s interior ministry said, after mediator Qatar said an agreement had been reached to release an Israeli civilian hostage, easing the first major crisis of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.Qatar’s statement early...

Authorities have arrested dozens of people accused of taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to settle old scoresFighters affiliated with Syria’s new leaders have carried out 35 summary executions over 72 hours, mostly of Assad-era officers, a war monitor has said.The authorities, installed by the rebel forces that toppled longtime president Bashar al-Assad last month, said they had carried out multiple arrests in...

Ice confirms ‘enhanced targeted operations’ in a city on edge after Trump officials warned of enforcement actionsUS federal authorities have begun immigration raids in Chicago, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) statement confirmed on Sunday, just days after incoming “border czar” Tom Homan said officials were “reconsidering” after details leaked into the press.In a statement, Ice said its agents, along with the FBI, ATF,...

A vessel has been seized after suspected sabotage of fibre optic line, probably due to external influence, Latvia saysAn undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, probably as a result of external influence, Riga has said, prompting Nato to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities.Sweden’s security service has seized control of...

Memo offers further guidance to ‘stop-work’ directive and how to achieve Trump’s America first policyDonald Trump urged US Agency for International Development (USAid) workers to join the effort to transform how the federal government allocates aid around the world in line with his America first policy. His administration threatened “disciplinary action” for any staff ignoring the its orders, issued days into Trump’s second presidency.A...

Former secretary of state has faced threats from Iran since since he took hard-line stances on the Islamic RepublicThe Ohio Republican Mike Turner said on Sunday’s Face the Nation he is “very concerned” for former secretary of state Mike Pompeo after Donald Trump revoked his security detail earlier in the week.Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, who have faced threats from Iran since...

Putin ally comfortably wins vote that US and EU have said could not be free or fairAlexander Lukashenko has secured a seventh five-year term as Belarusian president in a resounding election victory that western governments have rejected as a sham.Lukashenko won 86.8% of the vote in Sunday’s election, according to results published by the country’s electoral commission. Continue reading...

Source says purpose of Wang Yi’s visit is to hold first UK-China strategic dialogue since 2018China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, is due to visit the UK next month for talks with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, the Guardian has learned.The Foreign Office (FCDO) is drawing up plans to host the Chinese foreign minister in mid-February, according to three people briefed on the plans....

Man, 19, died after car struck in Scotland and 20-year-old man killed in Ireland, as Met Office issues further warningsTwo people were killed by falling trees during the record-breaking gusts of Storm Éowyn, which also damaged property and led to widespread power cuts across the UK and Ireland.The deaths were confirmed as the Met Office issued more wind and rain weather warnings, which are...

People shot at attempting to get back to their homes, with Israel accusing Lebanese army and Hamas of violating dealsIsraeli forces have opened fire on people trying to return to their homes under ceasefire agreements for Lebanon and Gaza, killing more than 20 people in Lebanon and one Palestinian in Gaza.Israeli authorities also ordered the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to vacate its hub...

Impeached leader Yoon Suk Yeoul could face years in prison after six-hour imposition which set off political upheavalSouth Korea’s prosecutors indicted the impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on 3 December, the main opposition party said.The charges are unprecedented for a South Korean president, and if convicted, Yoon could face...