Top World News

Jun 26, 2026 - World

While Anthony Albanese calls ousted British PM Keir Starmer his mate, the pair share very different political fortunesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese channelled Paul Keating as he spoke to government MPs in Canberra this week, reflecting on the tough work of reform.Keating, Albanese said, considered Labor to be a bit like a bicycle. “It only stands up when you pedal,” the party grandee once warned, suggesting that without ideas, direction or momentum, the whole show falls over. Continue reading...

Jun 26, 2026 - World

The LNP’s unapologetic moves on Indigenous issues, crime, transgender healthcare and police-led suppression of protests are a throwback to days many thought had come and goneGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA sign stopped Aunty Sandra King in her tracks. The elder of the Yagara, Quandamooka and Bundjalung people, now in her 70s, spoke at a protest last month against plans to build an Olympic stadium in the heart of Brisbane’s Victoria Park.In the crowd a man held aloft a homemade placard with the words “I Preferred Joh”. Continue reading...

Jun 26, 2026 - World

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereChina’s president Xi Jinping said Beijing was ready to provide Venezuela with “disaster relief and reconstruction” assistance.Xi sent a message of condolence to Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez today, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. Continue reading...

Jun 26, 2026 - World

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's secret resort deal on Albania's only island has sparked a mass revolt that now threatens to bring down the country's entire government.Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, quietly secured rights to build a $1.6 billion luxury resort on Sazan Island — a protected Adriatic nature preserve — and a $4 billion coastal development on a nearby wildlife reserve.The Albanian government granted the project special investor status, bypassed public tenders, and stripped the land of its protected status — all without disclosing the deal to parliament or the public, WIRED reported.Heavy machinery rolled in without permits, private security guards dragged away environmental protesters on video, and what critics describe as an alleged "land grab" went viral overnight, the report said.Hundreds of thousands of Albanians have since flooded the capital, Tirana, under signs reading "Albania is not a Gucci bag on sale," according to WIRED. The movement calls itself the Flamingo Revolution, named after the birds whose protected habitat is under threat of destruction.Now protesters aren't just demanding the resort be stopped, they want Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation, a caretaker government, and early elections — a full governmental reset that would put every elected official's job on the line.Ivanka Trump told a podcaster she and Kushner stumbled onto Sazan by accident during a 2021 yacht trip. "We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it," she said, according to PBS NewsHour. Dea Dervishi, an Albanian student, had a pointed response: "She said she discovered the island, but the island belongs to us."A U.S. Senate investigation found Affinity has pocketed roughly $157 million in fees from foreign governments — including $87 million from Saudi Arabia — while generating zero return for investors.Kushner simultaneously serves as the president's Middle East envoy. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called it "a glaring and incurable conflict of interest."Albania's special anti-corruption prosecutors have opened a formal probe and frozen developer assets. It's a pattern critics recognize: Kushner ran the same play in Serbia, where four government officials were charged with corruption to enable his resort deal. He withdrew from that project in December 2025.Protesters are organizing a nationwide mobilization on Saturday and are demanding early elections that would put every elected official's job on the line.

Jun 26, 2026 - World

A small aircraft crashed into Beijing's tallest building on Friday, the global flight tracking service provider Flightradar24 confirmed, following witness accounts and evacuations in the city's business district.