Australia's prime minister has apologised for calling a former Australian of the Year and sexual abuse survivor "difficult", saying it was only in reference to the hardships she has faced. During a one-word response game, Anthony Albanese used the adjective to describe Grace Tame, who was named the 2021 Australian …

Aldi has announced its second wage increase for floor staff since the new year, as it vies to increase its market share in the UK. The budget supermarket will pay its store assistants £13. 50 per hour from April — just a month after an increase is due to take …

15 hours ago Lyse DoucetChief international correspondent In a world on edge waiting to see what US President Donald Trump does next in the Middle East, he provided no clear signal when he presented the longest ever State of the Union address. The world's most powerful commander-in-chief decided not to …

Watch: Jesse Jackson's life in civil rights, diplomacy, and politics The civil rights leader, who ran for president twice in the 1980s, leaves a lasting legacy. US & Canada Watch: Moment crew docks at International Space Station The crew blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop …

On the day households found out their energy bills would fall in April, the Chancellor chose to go to the headquarters of the company that has quietly become the UK's biggest domestic energy supplier, Octopus. Rachel Reeves was shown the screens displaying the real-time management of energy demand for electric …

'Met exposed Hoyle' and 'Iran tempts Trump' BBC News observes strict reporting restrictions on polling day when elections are held in the UK. We have omitted or cropped some of Thursday's front pages in connection with the Gorton and Denton by-election. The Daily Mail focuses on Scotland Yard's "extraordinary apology" …

Yungblud festival goes international, but not everyone's convinced 12 hours ago Peter GillibrandBBC Newsbeat Rock singer Yungblud is taking his music festival BludFest abroad, but the move has split fans. The third edition of the event is going to take place in the Czech Republic in June, after being held …

US and Iran to hold talks as pressure for nuclear deal builds 6 hours ago Hugo BachegaMiddle East correspondent, Jerusalem US and Iranian officials are due to meet in Geneva on Thursday for a third round of indirect talks, as President Donald Trump threatens to strike Iran if a nuclear …

The Metropolitan Police has apologised to the Commons Speaker for "inadvertently revealing" he was the source of information relating to Lord Mandelson's arrest on Monday. It comes after Sir Lindsay Hoyle confirmed he had passed on information to the force suggesting the peer could be a flight risk. Lord Mandelson's …

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says he has stationed soldiers at key energy facilities across the country after he blamed Ukraine for disrupting energy supplies. Orbán has accused Kyiv of imposing an "oil blockade" on Hungary by deliberately delaying the reopening of the Druzhba pipeline, the main route for delivering …