AI tool that copied actor’s ‘lustrous’ voice violated his rights, says Tokyo court

• The United Nations concluded its 81st General Assembly amid rising geopolitical tensions that threaten global cooperation and peace. • The organization is currently facing a rupture of multilateralism, which is the process of multiple countries working together to solve shared problems.

• Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger appointed Douglas Mercado, a visiting lecturer in public and international affairs, to the advisory board of the state’s Office of New Americans in September 2026. • Mercado cited his decades of professional experience supporting refugees, internally displaced persons, and disaster-impacted communities as the basis for his appointment.

• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that the United States and other partners must better understand India's concerns regarding cross-border terrorism. • The minister indicated that a lack of understanding on these specific security threats could negatively impact diplomatic relations.

• Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned on September 29 that mass draft evasion and the potential collapse of the Israel Defense Forces are the greatest dangers facing the country. • The Israel Defense Forces reported that its troops physically prevented harm to a Palestinian family during a settler riot in the West Bank.

• Interconnected conflicts are expanding on both sides of the Red Sea while the United States continues to provide inconsistent policy signals. • The African Union estimates that the conflict leading to the 2022 Pretoria Agreement resulted in approximately 600,000 deaths.

Israeli media say incident, which raised fears of possible hijacking, stemmed from feud between plane’s two pilotsFull report: Israel-bound passenger plane makes emergency landing in Saudi Arabia An Israeli minister has decried what he described as a “terrorist” incident to kill Israelis after a flight was forced to land in Saudi Arabia when a physical altercation between the pilot and co-pilot prompted initial fears of a hijacking.A Boeing 737 Max 8 with up to 180 passengers on board made an emergency landing at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport this morning after transmitting three emergency signals, one of which indicated what is known as a possible unlawful interference. Israeli media have reported dramatic testimonies and video from people on board, with some describing passengers storming the cockpit to subdue the attacker and one of the pilots being seriously injured. Continue reading...

Trump administration can deport immigrants to countries other than their homeland. Plus, 550lb bear returns to LA neighborhoodGood morning. The supreme court has ruled the Trump administration can resume deporting immigrants to “third countries”, or countries other than their homeland, without giving them any opportunity to contest their removals.The six-justice conservative majority of the high court temporarily lifted a decision by a lower court that required the administration to provide immigrants sufficient notice and the opportunity to claim fear of torture or persecution in the countries where they were being sent.What has the administration asked the supreme court to rule on about trans prisoners? The administration asked the justices to allow it to deny gender-affirming care to transgender people in federal prisons. The solicitor general, D John Sauer, wrote that gender-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapy and social accommodations such as undergarments, makeup, padding and wigs “could no longer be justified.”Why is the EPA union suing the administration? The union, which represents more than 8,000 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency, has filed a lawsuit against the EPA and the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, alleging it illegally terminated a collective bargaining agreement.Which legal battle has Trump appeared to have conceded? The president has agreed to stop fighting the disbursement of E Jean Carroll’s $5m verdict in her 2023 sexual abuse and defamation civil trial against him, a procedural development as the funds had already been distributed to her.What new product has OpenAI announced? Less than 24 hours after OpenAI said it would scrap the launch of a model over safety concerns, the company debuted a whole new suite of artificial intelligence tools, including “dots”, agents it said were “more ambitious” than ChatGPT and a “whole new way to work with AI.”Why is Greta Garbo making AI headlines? More than a century after her screen debut and decades after she was laid to rest, the actor has been reanimated by AI for a Swedish advert. Peter Bradshaw has given it a damning one-star review. Continue reading...

Iranian court upholds sentence against 29-year-old star Parastoo Ahmadi and other musicians in crackdown on women flouting hijab lawAn Iranian court’s decision to uphold a sentence of 74 lashes against the popular singer Parastoo Ahmadi for performing without a hijab has sparked outrage among rights groups, who described it as “a form of torture”.In June, Ahmadi, 29, and eight members of her production team, including musicians, were sentenced by a court in the city of Qom over a concert that was streamed online in 2024, which went viral and racked up millions of views. The court said the group had violated the country’s “legal and cultural norms” and called the performance “obscene and vulgar”. Continue reading...

Wave nearing southern California expected to reach San Francisco Bay Area by October as it crawls toward AlaskaCommunities across California are rushing to prepare for the imminent arrival of the so-called “Kelvin wave”, a massive underwater band of warm water threatening to inundate swaths of the vast North American shoreline.The wave is nearing southern California and expected to reach the San Francisco Bay Area by early October, as it crawls toward Alaska. Waters could rise by a foot along the California coast, according to scientists, who have warned that this could dramatically double the 8-12in rise in sea levels already caused by climate change over the last century. Continue reading...

Andrew Bailey’s comments come as fears grow that rogue models could take financial system hostageBusiness live – latest updatesThe governor of the Bank of England has said authorities must retain the “right to intervene” in the AI industry amid growing fears that rogue models could take the financial system hostage.Andrew Bailey said the risks posed by the rapid advancement of frontier AI models – a number of which have gone rogue in recent months – were “real and increasingly significant” and reduced the ability of society to supervise and intervene when things went wrong. Continue reading...

Deal aimed at deterring small boat arrivals set to end as talks stall over French demand for EU-wide schemeUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK government’s “one in one out” deal with France, which was supposed to help deter small boat arrivals, is expected to expire on Thursday, government sources have said.It is understood that negotiations have stalled over French demands for a Europe-wide deal instead, and a reluctance to scale up the numbers of people exchanged between the two countries. Continue reading...