World - Monday, May 11, 2026

This blog is now closed. Chalmers goes for broke in federal budget facing twin threats of housing pain and Iran war disaster Budget 2026 winner and losers What the budget means for your generation See all our Australia budget 2026 coverage Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast ‘Let’s build more houses … not start taxing them’, shadow finance minister says Claire Chandler , the shadow minister for finance, spoke a moment ago. You don’t make more of something by increasing taxes on it. Taxes are inherently a disincentive to create more of something. If we need more houses in this country, let’s build more houses. Let’s not start taxing them. It’s all of our housing programs, 5% deposit, the Housing Australia Future Fund, the partnership we’ve had with the states and territories, the announcement made … on the weekend or yet around enabling infrastructure, $2bn to do the kind of the back end of housing development, all the connections and all of that kind of thing that state and territory and local government struggle with. I think there is a lot of understanding across the community about governments needing to respond to try and make housing more affordable. This isn’t about generation versus generation. Continue reading...

Dozens of Labour Party leaders called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to leave office, and several government aides announced their resignations.

French President Emmanuel Macron interrupted a youth-focused session at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, calling the disruption "a total lack of respect."

President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would not resign on Monday evening after days of speculation.

This blog is now closed. See full report: Trump calls Iran’s response to peace plan ‘totally unacceptable’ as ceasefire frays Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, will visit Qatar later today for talks on the war, its impact on the region and efforts to ensure navigational safety in the strait of Hormuz is resumed, a Turkish diplomatic source told the Reuters news agency. Turkey, which neighbours Iran, has been in close contact with the US, Iran and mediator Pakistan since the start of the conflict. It condemnded the US and Israel for launching the war, widely seen to have been done illegally, but also criticised Iran’s counter strikes on Gulf states. Continue reading...

Iran defended its demands for a peace deal and President Trump called them “garbage.” Mr. Trump said he wanted to suspend the federal gasoline tax, which would require congressional approval.

Two former Chinese defense ministers were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption, marking a severe blow in Xi's military purge.

This live blog is now closed. Sign up for the Breaking News US email Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump reiterated that Iran’s peace proposal was “just unacceptable”. The president went on to insist that he had a “very simple plan”, and maintained that Tehran could not have a nuclear weapon, without elaborating on the next negotiating steps. Continue reading...

An American and a French national who have returned home have tested positive for hantavirus.

Taiwan, tariffs and the strait of Hormuz are on the meeting’s agenda for Beijing – but will the US president be forced to ask for help in ending his war with Iran? On 20 February, a White House official confirmed that US president Donald Trump would be travelling to Beijing the following month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda: the US-China trade war. One week later, Trump approved joint strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a new war in the Middle East. Its ramifications have spread far beyond the region and caused alarm in Beijing. The presidential summit was postponed. Continue reading...