24 h. ago ‘Sell America’: investors are increasingly avoiding the US – here’s what it means for Australian markets

After decades as a safe haven, Donald Trump’s economic upheaval has some traders looking to put their money elsewhere – and countries looking to decouple their economiesElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAt the same time as Australians are cutting back on plans to visit the US under Donald Trump, a new type of investment strategy designed to avoid America is fast gaining popularity.The “sell America trade”, an expression that barely existed before Trump spooked markets by unveiling his new tariff regime late on 2 April, is now a common expression among traders and appears regularly in investment notes to explain the day’s price movements. Continue reading...

Economics

28 h. ago It’s not too late to stop Trump and the Silicon Valley broligarchy from controlling our lives, but we must act now | Carole Cadwalladr

In her final piece for the Observer, Carole Cadwalladr reveals what happened when she returned last week to give the opening speech at technology conference Ted, where she gave her first – life-changing – talk six years agoTo walk into the lion’s den once might be considered foolhardy. To do so again after being mauled by the lion? It’s what ill-advised? Reckless? Suicidal? Six years ago I gave a talk at Ted, the world’s leading technology and ideas conference. It led to a gruelling lawsuit and a series of consequences that reverberate through my life to this day.And last week I returned. To give another talk that would incorporate some of my experience: a Ted Talk about being sued for giving a Ted Talk, and how the lessons I’d learned from surviving all that were a model for surviving “broligarchy” – a concept I first wrote about in the Observer in July last year: the alignment of Silicon Valley and autocracy, and a kind of power the world has never seen before. The key point I wan...

Politics

3 d. ago Trump says Fed chair would resign if asked and condemns him over interest rates

President, whose tariffs has caused turmoil, said Jerome Powell is ‘always too late and wrong’ with rate policyDonald Trump early on Thursday condemned the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, for not lowering US interest rates, and expressed a wish for him to be gone from his role.The US president lambasted Powell as “always too late and wrong” in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump noted that the European Central Bank (ECB) was poised on Thursday to lower interest rates again, without mentioning that the body has been responding to the chaos caused by Trump’s initiatives on tariffs. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Google ‘wilfully’ monopolised online advertising market, US judge rules

Decision by federal court heightens the risks that Silicon Valley behemoth will need to sell assets

Events

4 d. ago Trump attacks Fed chair over interest rates and says his termination ‘cannot come fast enough’

President, whose tariff policy has caused turmoil, said Jerome Powell is ‘always too late and wrong’ with rate policyBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump early on Thursday blasted the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, for not lowering US interest rates and expressed a wish for him to be gone from his role.The US president lambasted Powell as “always too late and wrong” in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump noted that the European Central Bank (ECB) was poised on Thursday to lower interest rates again, without mentioning that the body has been responding to the chaos caused by Trump’s initiatives on tariffs. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Credit card late fee cap scrapped as Trump admin sides with Wall Street banks

Last month, President Trump tried to dismantle the bureau completely by slashing £100m in contracts and firing 70 employees

Politics

5 d. ago Nvidia to take $5.5bn hit as US clamps down on China AI chip exports

Trump administration requires Silicon Valley chipmaker to obtain special license to sell H20 product

Events

6 d. ago Hackers insert Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s voices into crosswalk signals

AI-generated prank messages played at various locations across Silicon Valley

Technology

7 d. ago US stock markets expected to recover after Trump drops tariffs on mobiles

Exemption, seen as a climbdown, includes laptops and chips, and is likely to help firms such as Apple and NvidiaUS stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Coffee, canned veggies and iPhones: Americans spent 20 percent more on goods facing tariffs after Trump’s announcement

Trump exempted phones and other electronics from his tariffs late Friday

Politics

9 d. ago Rory McIlroy's ex Caroline Wozniacki takes a dig in live TV interview years after he dumped her

Rory McIlroy's ex-fiancee Caroline Wozniacki was interviewed by ESPN at Augusta on Friday and she shared her prediction for the Masters, taking a subtle dig at the former world No. 1

Politics

2 w. ago Stephen Colbert on Trump tariffs: ‘America is finally free from the tyranny of being able to buy stuff from other countries’

Late-night hosts discuss Trump’s ‘liberation day’ of sweeping tariffs and a liberal judge’s victory over an Elon Musk-backed candidate in WisconsinLate-night hosts delve into Donald Trump’s so-called “liberation day” of tariffs and the defeat of an Elon Musk-backed candidate in the Wisconsin supreme court race. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Family feared for their lives when Land Rover Defender burst into flames on country road as mother yelled at children: 'Run as fast as you can!'

Caroline Rodda and her family were left fearing for their lives when their Land Rover suddenly 'exploded' into flames on a country road as they shouted at the children to 'run as fast as you can'.

Society

2 w. ago Donald Trump is eyeing up a third term – and no one is opposing him | Arwa Mahdawi

So many people and organisations are capitulating to the US president, from Silicon Valley to the Democrats, legal firms and elite universities. How realistic is the prospect of Trump 3.0?Hell is empty and all the devils are in Washington DC. And, what with devils being immortal and all, it looks as if they might stay there indefinitely. Now, before I seamlessly segue from fun devil facts into talking about Donald Trump threatening to run for a third term, the current political climate compels me to make a few things clear. I recently had to submit my US green card for renewal (impeccable timing!) so I’d like to explain to any United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers reviewing my file that the first line of this piece was just riffing on Shakespeare. I’m absolutely not comparing Trump, the greatest man to walk this Earth, to Satan. Nor am I suggesting evil people seem to live long lives.On the contrary, I am thrilled that our 78-year-old president has sugg...

Politics

2 w. ago Twitter: Breaking the Bird review – how all the hate speech flooded in

This film shows how a ‘hallucinogenically optimistic’ vision descended into the hellscape we know today. Young, confident men really should not rule the internet It turns out that Mike Judge’s supposed sitcom Silicon Valley was a documentary after all. My bad, as the people young and in touch enough with the world to have known this all along may still say.Twitter: Breaking the Bird is a 75-minute CNN film chronicling the rise, fall and possibly end of the social media site that was launched by a group of eager young things in 2006 amid a widespread belief – at least in the Valley – in the power of the internet to remake the world in radically better ways. This, a co-founder or two has come to consider since, may have been a “hallucinogenically optimistic” view. Well, we were all young once. Although that feels – and in no small measure because of Twitter – like a very long time ago. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Artificial intelligence firms should pay artists and musicians for using their work amid uproar over Labour's plans to exempt them from copyright laws, according to a new poll of Brits

New research shows 69 per cent of the public and 86 per cent of politicians think Silicon Valley giants should compensate creators when they use their work to train AI models.

Economics

3 w. ago Move fast, kill things: the tech startups trying to reinvent defence with Silicon Valley values

Venture capital-backed, $1bn companies are disrupting the way war will be waged with AI and futuristic weapons. Will they overthrow the traditional big military manufacturers, and what would that mean for the battlefield?Visit tech startup Skydio’s headquarters on the San Francisco peninsula in California and you’re likely to find flying robots buzzing on the roof overhead. Docking stations with motorised covers open to allow small drones that resemble the TIE fighters from Star Wars films to take off; when each drone lands back again, they close. The drones can fly completely autonomously and without GPS, taking in data from onboard cameras and using AI to execute programmed missions and avoid obstacles.Skydio, with more than $740m in venture capital funding and a valuation of about $2.5bn, makes drones for the military along with civilian organisations such as police forces and utility companies. The company moved away from the consumer market in 2020 and is now the largest US dro...

Events

3 w. ago ‘It’s a scary time’: artists react to White House’s recent targeting of Smithsonian Institution

Roberto Lugo and other artists of color are now feeling heat from Trump’s attack on diversity and efforts to rewrite truth of the US’s pastArtists, academics and politicians have shared their outrage in reaction to the Trump administration’s latest executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum network.Late on Thursday, Trump announced that his administration had ordered a large reshaping of the Smithsonian in an attempt to eliminate what he described as “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology”. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Stephen Colbert on the Signal leak: ‘All of these people should be fired’

Late-night hosts discuss fallout from Trump officials accidentally sending Yemen war plans to a journalist Late-night hosts examined the fallout, denials and revelations from the Trump administration accidentally sending war plans to a US journalist. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Teenagers worshiping in London and Christians in Silicon Valley

Teenagers worshiping in London and Christians in Silicon Valley  Denison Forum

Politics