Top World News

Dec 3, 2025 - World

Claude, the de facto mascot for a local museum, was the subject of a children’s book and regularly received fan mailClaude, the beloved albino alligator who called the California Academy of Sciences home for the better part of two decades, has died at age 30.The San Francisco museum announced his death on Tuesday and said that the reptile had in recent weeks received treatment for a “suspected infection”. Claude, with his unusual white scales, had become a sort of mascot for the academy and the city. He was the subject of a children’s book and regularly received fan mail and gifts from around the world, the museum said. Continue reading...

Dec 3, 2025 - World

Court lifts order preventing details of former pilot’s dealings with Victoria police before his former partner died in 1999Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastConvicted high country murderer Greg Lynn once escaped police custody and was subject to intervention orders obtained by his former partner before her 1999 death, it can now be revealed.A suppression order first made in January 2023 lapsed on Wednesday, after media fought for it to be overturned in the wake of the former Jetstar pilot’s conviction for the March 2020 murder of Carol Clay, 73, at a remote Victorian campsite. Continue reading...

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

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...