Norway goes to the polls on Monday after an unusually close-fought and polarised election dominated by the cost of living, wealth taxes, oil fund investment in Israel and relations with Donald Trump. View image in fullscreen The finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, remains a popular figure in Norwegian politics. Photograph: Tom Little/ReutersShazia Majid, a journalist and commentator for the Norwegian newspaper VG, said this election has been “unexpectedly suspenseful” and significantly more polarised than usual. “There seems to be two duelling trends in Norwegian politics. Peter Egge Langsæther, an assistant political science professor at the University of Oslo, said Stoltenberg’s return to Norwegian politics last winter has proved critical for Labour.

It is the issue that has set the Norwegian general election alight: whether to keep, cut or abolish the national wealth tax. It seems settling the wealth tax dispute will take all of the diplomatic skills he deployed in that role. Photograph: Drazen_/Getty ImagesAlthough 720,000 citizens pay wealth tax, for most the annual contribution is small. He exited the company last year and no longer pays the wealth tax, but has done previously. Alstadsæter says the wealth tax is harder to dodge: “It’s the only tax that cannot be avoided through restructuring while living in Norway, hence the opposition.”

The former Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Jersey authorities over allegations of corruption and money laundering in connection with the original source of his billions, according to court documents. According to the Swiss rulings, Jersey investigators are looking into the very origins of the oligarch’s wealth, acquired during the chaotic, freewheeling rise of capitalism in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s. Although the Swiss rulings anonymise names, they disclose other details about the parties and circumstances. The Jersey authorities believe the money found its way into various bank accounts, of which the oligarch was the beneficiary. Lawyers for the companies in the dispute have argued that Jersey’s investigation was “politically motivated”, according to the Swiss rulings.

A cable linking two carriages snapped shortly before Wednesday’s funicular crash in Lisbon that killed 16 people, accident inspectors have said in a report. The findings were published on Saturday by Portugal’s air and rail accident investigations bureau (GPIAAF) into the incident that left at least 20 others injured with five people in a critical condition. A scheduled visual inspection had been carried out on the morning of the accident but the area where the cable broke was “not visible without dismantling” and the rest of the mechanism was functioning properly, the report added. The carriages of the city’s iconic Glória funicular had travelled no more than six metres when they “suddenly lost the balancing force of the connecting cable”. Two separate investigations are now under way into the accident: one carried out by the accident investigators’ office and another by the prosecutors’ office.

India has a strong hand, as the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju (ineligible to qualify), is joined by the world No 4, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, the world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, and the world No 27, Vidit Gujrathi, who won the 2023 Grand Swiss in Douglas, Isle of Man. Could this be the tournament where Gukesh finally proves himself a worthy world champion after several disappointments? The $230,000 Women’s Grand Swiss is also under way, and in that event round one proved a real shocker. A video has emerged of Bobby Fischer being crowned as world champion in 1972 at the end of his historic match in Reykjavik against Boris Spassky. As the Fide president, Dr Max Euwe, himself a former world champion, hands him the gold medal, Fischer says: “There is no name on it.” Euwe replies: “They did not know it,” and they both laugh.

Authorities in Argentina have recovered an 18th-century painting stolen more than 80 years ago by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a week after it was spotted by chance in a real estate listing. The painting, the long-lost Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi, was looted in the second world war. The judiciary is analysing the works to determine whether they, too, were looted during the second world war. After the fall of the Third Reich at the end of the second world war, several high-ranking Nazi officials fled to South America. The portrait was among more than 1,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis from Goudstikker, who died in 1940 after falling in the hold of the ship carrying him to safety.

View image in fullscreen Police officers inspect the wreckage of the derailed streetcar . Photograph: Armando França/APOne fellow rescuer passed a bleeding young boy to Azevedo, who held him as he cried for his father. View image in fullscreen Onlookers stand behind a police line, taking photographs of the wreckage on their phones. “When I first saw the Glória funicular, it looked very unsafe, but I am not an engineer; it was just a feeling. View image in fullscreen Onlookers watch as police inspect the wreckage of the derailed funicular Photograph: Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images“I don’t think this will affect tourism much,” he said.

Portugal’s prime minister, Luís Montenegro, has promised a swift and thorough investigation to determine the causes of the funicular railway crash in Lisbon that killed 16 people and injured 21 others, describing the incident as “one of the biggest tragedies in our recent history”. The authorities are looking into the crash, which happened on the Portuguese capital’s famous Glória funicular just after 6pm on Wednesday. The Portuguese authorities suspended Lisbon’s other funiculars for safety checks after the derailment. 1:22 Aerial footage shows wreckage of Lisbon funicular crash – videoFootage showed the wreckage of the yellow-and-white car lying on its side in the narrow street it ran along. View image in fullscreen Lisbon’s Glória funicular tram before the crash.

In his remarks, Putin said that that Moscow had never opposed Ukraine’s potential membership of the European Union, and dismissed claims that Moscow was somehow planning to attack Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, walks with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, left, at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China. Share14h ago 13.14 BST 'Opportunity to find consensus' on ending war in Ukraine, Putin claims We are getting a bit more from Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his comments during the meeting with Slovakia’s Robert Fico earlier. Share Updated at 11.44 BST16h ago 11.32 BST European Commission says Slovakia's Fico does not represent EU in Beijing Ouch. View image in fullscreen Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, walks with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, left, at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China.

A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population. View image in fullscreen Image from the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust – or Great – proposal. Under the plan, Israel would maintain vaguely defined “overarching rights” over Gaza “to meet its security needs”. “The US has made clear since February [when details of plans for a Trump Riviera in Gaza first emerged] that they are OK with the idea of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The leaked plan was also rejected by senior Hamas official Basem Naim who said: “Gaza is not for sale.

Yermak said the talks in Riyadh focused on paths to peace in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia’s participation in this process . Zelenskyy said the delegation would also hold talks on Thursday in Switzerland before proceeding to New York. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration, said Moscow had fired ballistic and cruise missiles as well as Iranian-designed Shahed drones from different directions to “systematically” target residential buildings. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed Olha Stefanishyna, a former top cabinet minister, as Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, ending months of speculation . “More than 100,000 households” in Ukraine had blackouts on Wednesday after Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, Zelenskyy said.

Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on most US imports from India, making good on a threat to punish one of the world’s largest economies over its purchases of discounted Russian oil. This latest move leaves Indian exporters facing among the highest US duties Trump has slapped on goods from overseas. “I don’t care what India does with Russia,” Trump claimed on Truth Social, his social network, last month. The country’s government has refused to halt purchases of Russian oil, and Narendra Modi urged Indians to buy local. “All of us should follow the mantra of buying only ‘made in India’ goods,” the prime minister said on Tuesday, encouraging shopkeepers to display big signs promoting domestic products.

Portrait of a Lady belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a leading Dutch art dealer who fled the Netherlands in mid-May 1940 to escape the invading Nazis but died after falling in the hold of the vessel carrying him to safety and breaking his neck. “By the way, the house is for sale,” he added, attaching a link to the agency, Robles Casas & Campos. The AD reporter Cyril Rosman said: “As I opened the link the next morning, I started scrolling through the interior photos of the property. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. “My family aims to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’ collection, and to restore his legacy,” von Saher said.

Ice Edge Journey shows an emperor penguin colony on the Ekström ice shelf, in Atka Bay, Antarctica. It was taken by Bertie Gregory, from the UK, who saw most of the fledgling chicks using ice ramps to enter the sea to hunt for food. But this group missed the easy way down and took a 15-metre (50ft) leap into the water. Scientists say the decline of sea ice in Antarctica may force more penguins to breed on ice shelves, making this behaviour increasingly common in the future. Photograph: Bertie Gregory/2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

His statement today read: “The confirmation of famine in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhood is utterly horrifying and is wholly preventable. Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition. View image in fullscreen A Palestinian girl waits at a community kitchen before donated food is distributed in Gaza City, earlier today. His statement today read: The confirmation of famine in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhood is utterly horrifying and is wholly preventable. About 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City – known as Gaza governorate.