Hong Kong fire: police blame construction company’s ‘gross negligence’ as death toll rises to 44
Three construction industry employees arrested after police allege unsafe scaffolding materials may have been behind fire’s rapid spread
Cuddling capybaras and ogling otters: the problem with animal cafes in Asia
A boom in places offering petting sessions is linked to a rise in the illegal movement of exotic and endangered species, say experts
‘Struggling to pay the bills’: Britons under pressure react to budget 2025
As they struggle with the cost of living, people weigh up whether Rachel Reeves’s measures will help them
Warning of £20bn timebomb as Reeves switches Send funding in England to education department
Councils welcome move but OBR says it is a significant fiscal risk and could lead to 4.9% real fall in spending per pupil
‘I don’t live in a mansion. It’s a 1930s house’: Richmond residents react to council tax rise
Rachel Reeves’s new council tax surcharge on homes worth £2m or more earns mixed reception in well-heeled London borough
Leaders hope budget funding will boost Labour in next year’s Scotland and Wales elections
Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar and the Welsh first minister, Eluned Morgan, both face humiliating defeat in next year’s elections, according to polling
Rachel Reeves’s budget has inflamed, not calmed, Britain’s febrile mood
The chancellor’s statement will be remembered for the many taxes it raised, rather than the big one – income tax – it did not, says Guardian columnist Martin Kettle
Weatherwatch: Can you really hear the wind?
Some would argue airflow is silent, and that only the objects in its way give rise to vortex shedding or sough
Rachel Reeves hands farmers inheritance tax break
Treasury says concession could be worth £30m next year and £70m a year until 2030
The best Secret Santa gifts in the UK under £15: fun ideas they’ll actually want to keep
Quirky and characterful, our gift ideas run from socks and chocs to sleep aids and lovely homeware – and all of them with affordability in mind
Seven ways Australia’s nature laws are changing after Labor’s deal with the Greens
Legislation to reform the EPBC Act runs to hundreds of pages – here are the main changes
Labor and Greens do nature laws deal; Barnaby Joyce quits Nationals; and cricket’s real-life Field of Dreams
Government agrees to prevent fast-tracking of coal and gas projects and subject native forest logging to national environment standards over 18 months
Large bull shark kills woman and injures man in attack at NSW beach
Swimmers aged in their 20s bitten by shark at Kylies beach in Crowdy Bay early on Thursday morning, with woman dying at the scene
The rewriting of Australia’s nature laws comes as a relief, yet I can’t help feel a sense of foreboding
The minister says quick approvals can happen while protecting the environment, but my experience tells me that haste brings unintended consequences
Teens seek urgent high court injunction to block Australian government’s social media ban
Noah Jones and Macy Neyland, both 15, are supported by a digital rights group led by NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick
Country diary: The river has risen to meet the trees. This is Storm Claudia’s work
Welsh Marches, Shropshire: All the ditches and drains from the hills of mid-Wales to here burst with rain. The Severn has a deadly seriousness now
National Guard shooting: Trump says US should ‘re-examine’ all Afghan refugees after suspect named
President calls the shooting in Washington an ‘act of terror’, as officials name Rahmanullah Lakanwal as suspected shooter
Labour MPs celebrate end of two-child benefit cap in Reeves’s budget
Abolition is popular with backbenchers and is expected to stabilise precarious positions of the PM and chancellor