Top World News

Jul 14, 2026 - World

GenCost report contradicts parties’ claims about abandoning emissions target, and finds nuclear would be most expensive way to generate powerFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastClaims by the Coalition and One Nation that abandoning a net zero climate target would bring down power prices are contradicted in a new CSIRO report on the costs of generating electricity.Generation costs will probably rise after 2030 regardless of Australia’s policy on net zero, according to the CSIRO’s annual GenCost report, but prices should then stabilise at levels below recent price spikes. Continue reading...

Jul 14, 2026 - World

Growing Up in Australia report shows gen Z are more anxious about housing affordability than climate change or following a chosen career pathGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFar more young people are worried about being able to buy a home than about climate change or finding a job in their chosen field, according to a study that also reveals gen Z’s deep distrust of politicians, political parties and the media.The latest insights from a major longitudinal study show high levels of participation in the political debate, challenging stereotypes that younger Australians are disengaged from public life. Continue reading...

Jul 14, 2026 - World

Energy traders and Wall Street analysts are resorting to dark humor to cope with Donald Trump's foreign policy catastrophe in the Persian Gulf, where his aggressive posturing toward Iran has backfired spectacularly and destabilized one of the world's most critical shipping routes.The situation has become so dire that financial markets have developed a bitter joke about it. Traders have coined a new term for what they now expect: the "NACHO trade" — shorthand for "Not a Chance Hormuz Opens," according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.That acronym joins other Trump-themed market jargon, including "TACO," which stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," revealing the contempt Trump critics have for his erratic decision-making.The Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20 percent of the world's oil passes, has become the focal point of Trump's unraveling Middle East strategy. After renewed fighting over the weekend and Trump's announcement that he was reimposing a U.S. blockade on Iranian shipping, oil prices surged more than 10 percent, erasing an entire month of price declines."The chance of the region and Hormuz going back to the old normal is effectively zero," said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the Journal. "If anything this reinforces the impetus to invest in other pathways as quickly as possible."The core problem, according to Wall Street Journal reporting, is that Iran and neighboring countries have discovered they can easily manipulate U.S. politics by threatening to choke off shipping through the strait. That realization has fundamentally altered market calculations."Oil markets and Middle East producers appear to be aligning around a new reality: The Strait of Hormuz is no longer expected to return to a prewar norm," the Journal reported.According to the Journal, "The idea behind the NACHO trade is that the shipping route through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil had passed will remain virtually shut, with only a trickle of traffic slipping through clandestine routes, until the economic costs of its closure, such as high oil prices and accelerating inflation, become untenable."

Jul 14, 2026 - World

Bar owner offers ‘deepest apologies’ as police investigate whether exits were either blocked or hard to accessThe Bangkok pub that became the scene of the city’s deadliest blaze in 17 years has said it will cooperate with an investigation into alleged negligence, as the death toll rose to 30.The local district office said on Tuesday that three more people had died after the devastating fire that broke out in the early hours of Monday. An initial assessment by disaster officials found an electrical short ‌circuit in an air conditioner located in the ‌ceiling had caused the fire. Continue reading...

Jul 14, 2026 - World

Counterterror police say former politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was the victim of a "targeted attack."