America's big tech sector is lobbying the Trump administration to take up a new fight with the Australian government — over its rules governing social media and streaming services. 

Silicon Valley, whose top executives have cultivated close relationships with Donald Trump, is now pushing the new president to pressure Australia to relax its regulations or risk retaliation.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), representing the sector, has made a formal submission as part of the White House's review of US trade policy.

A jury in North Dakota has decided that the environmental group Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the pipeline company Energy Transfer and is liable for defamation and other claims over protests in the state nearly a decade ago.

Let’s start with that phone call. The Kremlin readout is quite sober – but it does reveal a few nuggets. There is no comprehensive deal – yet – between Moscow and Washington. Far from it: we are just in the initial tentative stage of talking and talking about several interconnected dossiers.

A Democratic congressman has become the first to publicly call for Chuck Schumer to step down as Senate minority leader, highlighting growing divisions within the party over how to confront and counter Donald Trump’s administration.

Glenn Ivey of Maryland told constituents on Tuesday that Schumer’s decision to allow a Republican funding bill to pass had surrendered crucial leverage against the administration.

People behind The Simpsons use the animated sitcom to “program” the audience and prepare it for real-life events, a senior Russian mufti has claimed. 

Mufti Aynur Birgalin, the chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Russia’s Muslim-majority Bashkortostan Republic, went viral on Wednesday after an excerpt from his sermon was shared online. During a gathering of Muslims in the regional capital of Ufa, Birgalin said that the Simpsons “predicted” actual events, such as pandemics. 

Fans have long joked that during its nearly 40-year run, the animated comedy show predicted many historical events, including the presidency of Donald Trump. 

Birgalin, however, argued that “behind-the-scenes conductors” use the show to influence the public.

Emmanuel Macron announced an increase in military spending on Wednesday evening, specifying that it would not be financed by tax increases and by preparing the French for further budget cuts. Mobilizing savings is reportedly under consideration. For its part, the left is arguing, on the contrary, for the wealthiest to contribute.

Financing Future Military Spending: A New Political Confrontation Ahead

Trump wants US ownership of Ukraine’s energy facilities – White House
The president has told Vladimir Zelensky it would be the best way to protect the country’s power plants

US President Donald Trump has proposed an American takeover of Ukrainian power plants, suggesting it would be the best way to protect the infrastructure, the White House has revealed.

The idea was floated by Trump during a phone conversation with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on Wednesday, described by the US president as a “very good” call.

Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy agrees to 'partial ceasefire'

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says he is open to a "partial ceasefire" after a "frank" call with US President Trump, who suggested the United States take over Ukrainian power plants as a security guarantee. DW has more.

Ukrainian frontline troops suspicious of Trump and Putin's proposals

Matt Ford with AFP

At one stage the mining billionaire accidentally referred to his new political party, the Trumpet of Patriots, as the ‘Trumpet of Parrots’. Well, if the shoe fits …

Billed as news that could ‘break the Guardian’s website’, it turned out to be Clive Palmer’s best shot at Trump lite

BY Dan Jervis-Bardy

“It will break the Guardian’s website.”

Let’s restore the trust in China that we once enjoyed. This was the key message I presented to an online forum titled Does China Threaten Australia’s Peace and Security hosted by the Australian Peace and Security Forum on 18 March. Following is a condensed version of my talk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, trust each other, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said regarding the two leaders’ phone conversation on Tuesday.

During the call, which lasted more than two hours, the two heads of state discussed the resolution of the Ukraine conflict, with Putin responding positively to a 30-day ceasefire proposed earlier by Trump and agreeing to halt attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure as an initial step in that direction. On top of that, the Russian and US presidents reportedly discussed the situation in the Middle East.

Speaking to Russian media on Wednesday, Peskov stated, “I can say with a high degree of confidence that Presidents Putin and Trump understand each other well, trust each other, and intend to proceed step-by-step along the path of normalizing Russian-US relations.”

With Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, the United States has attempted to reshape its global image from a disrupter to a peacemaker. However, this transformation appears to be an illusion masking long-standing hegemonic ambitions.

Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, is voting today on the largest rearmament programme since the Nazi regime. It will provide the future government with around €1 trillion to rearm Germany into a major military power and enable it to wage war.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has rejected the idea of deploying troops in Ukraine, after France and the UK proposed sending peacekeepers to secure an eventual truce between Kiev and Moscow.

Meloni expressed her opposition during an address to the upper house of the Italian parliament on Tuesday, ahead of a European Council meeting in Brussels this week expected to discuss the Ukraine conflict.

France and the UK have been leading efforts to form a “coalition of the willing,” with French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting that “a few thousand troops per country” would be deployed at key locations in Ukraine.

Meloni said the Italian government respected the proposal but was not “convinced” by it.

Former attorney-general George Brandis has rubbished Peter Dutton's proposal to hold a referendum in order to deport criminal dual nationals, labelling it "as mad an idea as I have heard in a long time".

The opposition leader confirmed he would consider holding a national poll to change the constitution if elected at the coming federal election, after the High Court ruled that only judges, not politicians, could strip people of Australian citizenship.

Mr Dutton has previously criticised the government for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the failed Voice referendum during a cost of living crisis, but defended his plan on the basis that the changes required constitutional change.