Government’s FoI changes unlikely to pass Senate as Coalition, Greens and key crossbenchers voice outrage

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The Labor government’s changes to limit access to freedom of information (FoI) requests appear to be dead in the water, with the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, saying the Coalition will vote against the “friendless” proposal.

After the Greens and key crossbenchers also voiced their outrage, there currently appears to be no pathway for the government to pass the reforms through the Senate. But the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, says she remains committed to the contentious reform, criticising the Coalition for once again reshuffling its frontbench and naming yet another new shadow legal spokesperson.

Major changes include indexing super balances to inflation and addition of a new threshold taxing balances between $3m and $10m

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The Albanese government has dramatically rewritten its major tax policy, caving in to criticism on its controversial superannuation tax plan by raising thresholds and slashing the amount of money it will rake in.

After a long period of sustained attack from politicians and lobby groups, the government has conceded defeat on all major criticisms, with the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, saying the policy rewrites would “better target superannuation concessions”.

Jim Chalmers says revised superannuation tax reforms still raise a ‘substantial’ amount of money, but it will be much less than before

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Labor has dramatically overhauled its $3m super tax legislation, and the policy is weaker for it. It’s still pushing in the right direction, just not as hard.

None of this bodes well for Jim Chalmers’ lofty vision of a boldly reforming Labor party in those heady early days after May’s landslide election victory.

Farmers praised the move, but scientists and opposition parties criticised it as ‘weak’ and ‘unambitious’

Environmental campaigners have accused New Zealand’s government of “full-blown climate denial” after it slashed targets for reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

New Zealand’s right-leaning coalition government outlined plans on Sunday to reduce methane emissions by between 14 and 24% by 2050, compared to 2017 levels.

More than 20,000 children were born to non-Japanese couples, accounting for more than 3% of all newborns

The number of babies born to foreign parents reached a record high in Japan in 2024, underlining rapid demographic changes that have propelled migration to the heart of the country’s political debate.

More than 20,000 children were born to non-Japanese couples, accounting for more than 3% of all newborns, according to the health ministry – in stark contrast to another sharp fall in the number born to Japanese parents.

Bridget Phillipson says national security adviser was not involved in discussions before CPS abandoned its prosecution

The government’s national security adviser had no involvement in the prosecution being dropped against two British men accused of spying for China, a senior cabinet minister has said.

Jonathan Powell had no connection to discussions about the “substance or the evidence” of the case, Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday, adding that Keir Starmer had full confidence in him.

María Corina Machado’s Nobel award puts focus on country but analysts doubt it will produce democratic change

In March 2019 as a nationwide blackout plunged Venezuela into darkness, hundreds of citizens huddled on a basketball court in the city of Maracaibo to hear their leader promise to guide them out of the gloom.

“We are, quite literally, living through our darkest hour. But these are also the brightest of times,” María Corina Machado told supporters as they used mobile phones to illuminate the night.

Beijing says it will act if US president doesn’t stand down, while investors brace for trade war turmoil

Beijing has told the US it will retaliate if Donald Trump fails to back down on his threat to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports as investors brace for another bout of trade war turmoil.

China’s commerce ministry blamed Washington for raising trade tensions between the two countries after Trump announced on Friday that he would impose the additional tariffs on China’s exports to the US, along with new controls on critical software, by 1 November.

Soldiers from elite Capsat unit have announced they are taking over after weeks of youth-led protests

Madagascar’s president said an “attempt to seize power illegally and by force” was under way, as an elite military unit that joined protesters on the streets on Saturday announced it was taking over the army.

The Capsat unit’s intervention comes after weeks of youth-led protests, which started on 25 September against water and electricity shortages and expanded to calling for the resignation of the president, Andry Rajoelina, an end to corruption and radical overhaul of the political system.

The public display of artefacts looted by British colonial forces at the new Museum of West African Art was supposed to be the crowning glory of a decades-long restitution effort. What went wrong?

In a corner of the new Museum of West African Art, visitors can marvel at a sample display of the cultural treasures that adorned the royal palace that once stood in its place: a proud cockerel, a plaque with three mighty warriors, a bust of a king with a glorious beaded collar.

The artefacts, collectively known as the Benin bronzes, were looted by British colonial forces who went on to burn down the palace in a punitive expedition in 1897. In the decades that followed they were scattered across collections in Europe and America.

Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has brushed off calls to retire but is rarely seen in public

Cameroon goes to the polls on Sunday for a presidential election with Paul Biya, already the world’s oldest head of state at the age of 92, the favourite to win an eighth term in power in the central African country.

A fractured opposition of 11 candidates is standing against Biya, who, despite his advanced age and declining health, has dismissed calls for him to retire.

Demonstrators march alongside regiment, who earlier in the day said they would not fire on the crowds

Madagascar’s prime minister called for calm after an elite group of soldiers joined thousands of protesters against the country’s president on the streets of the capital on Saturday afternoon.

Protesters marched alongside soldiers from the Capsat unit, who drove armoured vehicles, some waving Madagascar flags, from their base in Soanierana in the south of Antananarivo.

Drone and artillery strikes by RSF paramilitaries hit Dar al-Arqam shelter in western city, says resistance committee

Militia drone and artillery strikes have killed at least 60 people at a displacement shelter in the besieged city of El Fasher in western Sudan, a local activist group has said.

The resistance committee for El Fasher said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group hit the Dar al-Arqam displacement centre, which is in the grounds of a university.

President accuses China of ‘very hostile’ moves and says additional tariffs could come on 1 November ‘or sooner’

Donald Trump has threatened to impose additional US tariffs of 100% on China starting next month, accusing Beijing of “very hostile” moves to restrict exports of rare earths needed for American industry.

Wall Street fell sharply after the US president reignited public tensions with the Chinese government, and raised the prospect of another acrimonious trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Opponent of Maduro regime receives award and praise for keeping ‘flame of democracy burning’

The Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado has won the Nobel peace prize for her dogged struggle to rescue the South American country from its fate as “a brutal, authoritarian state”.

Machado, 58, a conservative often described as Venezuela’s Iron Lady, has spent the last year living in hiding after her political movement was widely believed to have beaten the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in the July 2024 presidential election.

Congress leader José Jerí sworn in as interim president as majority of lawmakers initiate impeachment against Boluarte

Lawmakers in Peru have voted to remove the president, Dina Boluarte, whose term has been marked by protests and accusations of failing to stem crime.

Boluarte refused to appear before Congress on Friday for an overnight hearing after a majority of lawmakers, including some once loyal to her, voted to initiate impeachment proceedings.

Gustavo Petro demands US release names of victims: ‘A new theatre of war has opened up: the Caribbean’

Colombia’s president has drawn Washington’s ire after accusing the US of killing Colombian citizens during a recent boat strike in the Caribbean Sea.

“A new theatre of war has opened up: the Caribbean,” Gustavo Petro wrote on his official X account on Wednesday night.

Court in Buenos Aires sentences Fernando Sabag Montiel and accomplice over 2022 incident in which gun was pointed at former president but did not go off

A court in Argentina has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of attempting to kill former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The court in Buenos Aires also sentenced the man’s accomplice to eight years in prison, capping a dramatic case that has captivated the country since 2022, when the main defendant, Fernando Sabag Montiel, squeezed through a crowd outside the ex-president’s home, thrust a loaded gun at her face and pulled the trigger.