Top World News

Feb 16, 2026 - World

First-of-its-kind project will see bogong moths tagged in the Australian Alps and monitored as they reach breeding groundsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastResearchers and citizen scientists will, for the first time, tag and track 10,000 bogong moths as they travel hundreds of kilometres, from the Australian Alps to breeding grounds across the country’s south-east.The massive moth tagging project was modelled on monarch watch, a citizen science program that has traced the migration of monarch butterflies across North America over decades. Both species undertake long-distance journeys, with butterflies travelling by day and bogong moths by night. Continue reading...

Feb 16, 2026 - World

Paul Scarr, the shadow immigration minister under Sussan Ley and South Australian senator Andrew McLachlan expressed concernGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLiberal MPs have warned their new leader, Angus Taylor, against lurching further to the right, and imposing “blanket bans” on immigration after a proposal was leaked to adopt hardline Trump-like policies to ban immigrants from specific regions under terrorist control – including Gaza and Lebanon.Guardian Australia reported on Monday an immigration plan drafted under the former leader Sussan Ley, proposing to ban migrants from 37 regions of 13 countries where listed terrorist organisations have territorial control. Continue reading...

Feb 16, 2026 - World

Liz Kendall says officials will be ‘establishing the facts’ about report that made false claims about journalistsUK politics live – latest updatesThe Cabinet Office is examining the commissioning of a report that made false claims about journalists who were investigating Labour Together, the thinktank closely linked to Keir Starmer, a cabinet minister has said.Liz Kendall, the science and technology secretary, indicated it would not be a formal inquiry, as demanded by the Conservatives and some Labour MPs, noting that the trade association for the PR industry was carrying out such an investigation. Continue reading...

Feb 16, 2026 - World

Prime minister says outcomes of consultation on social media ban should be implemented quickly as technology minister says Australia-style ban is not inevitableIn his Q&A with journalists, Keir Starmer was also asked to respond to a report by the BBC’s James Landale saying he is looking at plans to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by the end of this parliament. In the past Starmer has just said that he would like to do this at some point in the next parliament.In his reply, Starmer said that at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend he was arguing that the UK, and Europe as a whole, needs to “step up”.We want a just and lasting peace, but that will not extinguish the Russian threat, and we need to be alert to that, because that’s going to affect every single person in this room, every single person in this country, so we need to step up.That means, on defence spending, we need to go faster. Continue reading...

Feb 16, 2026 - World

At least nine people were injured, and a house was set ablaze amid escalating incidents of post-election violence in five districts across Bangladesh, local media reported.