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[...] “You may still be seeing the inflationary impact of food industry costs for the next 12 to 15 months,” he said. [...] If this sounds hyperbolic, consider the importance of fertiliser. Some 40-50 per cent of the world’s food production depends on artificial nitrogen-based fertiliser, which is created by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas to make ammonia. In turn, this is combined with either nitric acid or carbon dioxide to produce ammonium nitrate, or urea. The problem is that 34 per cent of global urea passes through the Strait of Hormuz, having been produced...

Europe will not submit to a more “brutal world”, and can instead be the base from which a new international order can be rebuilt, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said. Carney was speaking as the first non-European leader to attend a meeting of the European Political Community, which opened on Monday amid high tensions in the strait of Hormuz and renewed doubts about the US commitment to Nato. “We don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world, and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,” he said. In...

In rural Maryland, USA, Travis Reyes savours the simple things. A cup of coffee on the deck with his wife. A walk in the nearby woods. All of it sweeter because, against all odds, somehow, he is still alive."I think most of it is stubbornness. A little too stubborn to die," Travis told 7.30.In August 2023, Travis was a 20-year-old US Marine Corporal stationed in Darwin. He was part of the crew of a tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey taking part in an Australian Defence Force-run exercise, Predators Run.On the morning of August 27, Travis's Osprey left Darwin but didn't make it...

The United Nations, in its infinite wisdom has appointed the Islamic Republic of Iran to serve as one of the 34 Vice Presidents of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference on Monday, which is set to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The decision was made by a bloc of non-aligned and other states, typically composed of developing and non-nuclear countries. BREAKING: The U.N. just elected the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the Vice Presidents of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference.Bravo to the U.S., UAE, Australia, UK, France and Germany for objecting.Last time, only 🇺🇸 spoke out: https://t.co/bmhFp2gKEw https://t.co/Ije4bXbV7u...

Sure, it's not antisemitism. It's a political statement against Bibi Netanyahu or something. A benefit concert for the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia has been canceled because the choir that was scheduled to sing refused to share the stage with a Jewish choir group. You can't make this up. I used to love visiting Australia. This is very sad. https://t.co/2RRrABKrF7— Thrill Science ✡️ עם ישראל חי (@ThrillScience) April 28, 2026Surprised to find an action like this from the cultural elite? I'm not. A choral concert fundraiser for the victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack at a...

In the end, the only 'king' who matters in Washington is Donald Trump] Local DC government workers replace the Australian flag with the Union Jack along 17th Street next to the White House on April 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. The DC government mistakenly placed both flags around the White House in preparation of King Charles visit to Washington on April 27, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images) A Union Flag is up and an Australian flag taken down near the White House. The slip-up is a pretty good summation of how much attention America as a whole is...

Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith has declared that Anzac Day is so “sacred” that his prosecution for war crime-related murder won’t stop him attending the public commemorations on Saturday. In a move that threatens to overshadow the 111th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, a day of solemn remembrance for Australians, Mr Roberts-Smith will front an Anzac Day event in Queensland and defy reported calls by some of his supporters to boycott the annual services and marches. This follows intervention by the doyen of Australia’s four living VC holders, Vietnam War hero Keith Payne, to back the former SAS operator’s right...

Japan for the first time has deployed ground troops to the Balikatan exercise, a series of multidomain drills staged across the Philippine archipelago. Participation by about 1,000 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Soldiers augments the annual training that began decades ago as a Philippines-United States exercise and now involves about 20 nations. Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) personnel previously attended Balikatan as observers and in noncombat roles focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR). They participated in a maritime drill in 2025. A reciprocal access agreement between Manila and Tokyo, which took effect in September 2025, allows JSDF and Armed...

In his funeral oration to the mothers and wives of fallen soldiers, Pericles, the Athenian leader, said: “Like them, remember that prosperity can only be for the free, that freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”This line is engraved on war memorials across Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth nations, quoted at dawn services and used in official Anzac Day reflections for almost a century. Instead of honouring what these great soldiers, including our special forces, served and died to defend, in one sentence Anthony Albanese told us plainly: “We can’t go...

Lawyers for murder-accused Ben Roberts-Smith are considering an application to permanently halt proceedings because of concerns that he may not get a fair trial, as the decorated soldier condemned the “unnecessary spectacle” caused by police arresting him in front of his daughters at Sydney airport. In a statement delivered to reporters on Sunday, Mr Roberts-Smith vowed to fight five war crime charges brought against him, saying he had been targeted as part of a decade-long “campaign” painting his conduct in ­Afghanistan as improper. The Australian understands that while it could be years before Mr Roberts-Smith faces trial, his legal team,...

Ben Roberts-Smith has been granted bail pending his war crime trial, despite claims by the prosecution that the former soldier had been “on the cusp of moving overseas” and that he might try to interfere with witnesses. The decision by Judge Greg Grogin at a bail hearing in Sydney on Friday means Mr Roberts-Smith is likely to be freed from Silverwater Correctional Complex later this afternoon. Judge Greg Grogin said the court needed to be satisfied before bail could be granted, that there were exceptional circumstances which exist to justify bail. “There is a presumption of innocence in, in place...

Ben Roberts-Smith was taking his teenage daughters on a shopping day trip to Sydney when he was arrested getting off a Qantas flight and charged with war crimes. The Victoria Cross recipient had flown from Queensland to NSW with his 15-year-old twins and partner Sarah Matulin on the morning of April 7 and all four were holding return tickets to Brisbane. Roberts-Smith, who will apply for bail today in Downing Centre Local Court, had treated his girls to an Easter school holidays expedition and none of the group had checked any luggage. Federal authorities knew the 47-year-old was making the...

When Australian Army private Robert Poate was gunned down in 2012 by a rogue Afghan soldier inside what should have been a safe patrol base, within 20 minutes Ben Roberts-Smith was on the scene with his small SAS team. Too late to save Poate and the two other Australians murdered by Hekmatullah, the war hero was sent out to hunt the Afghan down. Elevated to the top of the Joint Priorities Effects List, this terrorist could be killed whether armed or not. If the war in Afghanistan taught our soldiers anything it was that the line between friend and foe...

In UN Watch's press release, the NGO cited the UN's Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) recent nomination of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination. UN Watch demanded an explanation on Saturday from democratic countries for why they'd allowed "serial abusers of human rights" to be elected to key positions in the United Nations. In UN Watch's press release, the NGO cited the UN's Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) recent nomination of Iran to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, which would include an active role in shaping policy on women's rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention, as...

Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith had written to Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator multiple times offering to hand himself in before his high-profile arrest in front of his teenage daughters at Sydney Airport this week. Veterans have reacted ­furiously to what they see as an orchestrated and deliberate attempt to humiliate Australia’s most decorated soldier to justify only the second arrest after the Office of the Special Investigator’s (OSI) six-year, $300m investigation into ­alleged war crimes. Roberts-Smith was arrested in front of media cameras on Tuesday as he arrived at Sydney Airport on a Qantas...

Former SAS soldiers warn the prolonged war crimes investigation into Ben Roberts-Smith threatens to create life or death hesitation for troops in combat situations.The father of an Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan has questioned why a dedicated team of investigators has spent six years building a case against Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith while his son’s killer remains free.It comes as former SAS soldiers warn the Office of the Special Investigator’s (OSI) prolonged investigation into alleged war crimes is causing mental health issues to military families and creating life or death issues for soldiers in combat.Hugh Poate’s son Robert was...

Australia’s most decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith faces five war crimes murder charges, but a retired army Colonel and ADF legal expert claims prosecutors will struggle to secure a conviction.Prosecutors squaring up against the nation’s most decorated soldier will struggle to get a successful war crimes conviction regardless of the quality of the evidence, according to a retired colonel of the Australian Army Legal Corps.Bruce Levet, who served the Australian Army Legal Corps until 2022, told The Daily Telegraph he did not believe Victoria Cross recipient and former Special Air Service corporal Ben Roberts-Smith would be convicted of five counts of...

A retired US Navy SEAL has interrupted a live television interview about Donald Trump and the war in Iran to call for the release of Australia's most decorated soldier, who was arrested over alleged war crimes. Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, will face court on Wednesday after being charged with two counts of the war crime of murder and three counts of aiding or abetting the same charge. The maximum penalty for the charges is life imprisonment. The Victoria Cross recipient, who spent the night in custody, is accused of murdering unarmed civilians while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, as...

War crime murder charges carry potential sentence of life in prisonAustralia's most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, faces war crime charges on allegations he killed five unarmed Afghans while serving in Afghanistan from 2009 and 2012, police and media reported on Tuesday. Police have not confirmed the name of the 47-year-old former soldier who was arrested on Tuesday. But he has been widely reported in the media to be Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment corporal who was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan. Police charged him on Tuesday with...

One of Australia's most decorated soldiers, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been arrested and is expected to be charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.The Victoria Cross recipient was arrested at Sydney Airport's domestic terminal after a flight from Brisbane this morning.The former special forces soldier's arrest comes after a mammoth defamation trial against Nine Newspapers that in 2023 ended in a court finding that on the balance of probabilities, allegations he was responsible for, or complicit in the deaths of four detainees in Afghanistan were substantially true.There have been no findings of guilt against Mr Roberts-Smith to a...