Top World News

Dec 3, 2025 - World

City argues corporations profit while communities bear the cost of diseases linked to ultra-processed foodsSan Francisco filed the nation’s first government lawsuit against food manufacturers over ultra-processed foods (UPFs) on Tuesday, arguing that local governments have been shouldering the costs of treating diseases that stem from public consumption of the companies’ products.The city’s attorney, David Chiu, sued 10 corporations that create some of the country’s most popular food and drinks, from chicken nuggets and frozen pizzas to potato chips and sugary breakfast cereals – but also foods like breads and granola bars that are marketed as “healthy”. Continue reading...

Dec 3, 2025 - World

Defense secretary says he ‘moved on to my next meeting’ as sensitive military operation was under way; top Democrat calls Hegseth ‘spineless’ and ‘a national embarrassment’White House ‘selling out’ admiral to shield Hegseth over strikes, officials sayTrump threatens strikes on any country he claims makes drugs for USJoseph Gedeon is a politics breaking news reporter based in WashingtonThe FBI director, Kash Patel, is “in over his head” and leading a “chronically under-performing” agency paralyzed by fear and plummeting morale, according to a scathing 115-page report compiled by a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI special agents and analysts. Continue reading...

Dec 3, 2025 - World

Former political staffer was seeking to overturn 2024 ruling by federal court judge which found on the balance of probabilities he raped colleague Brittany HigginsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBruce Lehrmann has lost his appeal against the judgment in his defamation claim against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.Justice Michael Wigney said the primary judge did not err in his determination that Higgins’s claims Lehrmann had raped her inside Parliament House were established to the civil standard, and that the judgment was not unfair to Lehrmann. Continue reading...

Dec 3, 2025 - World

Report says ‘systemic failures’ led to collapse of trial, but found no evidence of UK government interference Parliament’s security committee has criticised prosecutors for pulling their charges against two men accused of spying for Beijing, in a damning report that concluded the handling of the case was “shambolic”.MPs said that a process “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations” and “inadequate” communication between the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had contributed to the collapse of the trial, while several “opportunities to correct course were missed”.It was “unclear” why the CPS had concluded that a July 2024 ruling concerning a Bulgarian spy ring “altered the legal landscape so significantly” that they had to change their approach.It was “surprised” the CPS had deemed the government’s evidence insufficient to put to a jury when it had set out how China “posed a range of threats to the United Kingdom’s national security” that “amounted to a more general active threat”.The government “did not have sufficiently clear processes for escalating issues where there was a lack of clarity” and “the level of senior oversight” from cabinet ministers and national security advisers “was insufficiently robust”. Continue reading...

Dec 3, 2025 - World

Group including Margaret Atwood, Ian McKellen and Richard Branson sign open letter to free Marwan BarghoutiMore than 200 leading cultural figures have come together to call for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the jailed Palestinian leader seen as capable of uniting factions and bringing the best hope to the stalled mission of creating a Palestinian state.The prestigious and diverse group calling for his release in an open letter includes a variety of prominent names, including the writers Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Zadie Smith and Annie Ernaux; actors Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Josh O’Connor and Mark Ruffalo, and the broadcaster and former footballer Gary Lineker. Continue reading...