Australia news live: PM to host three Pacific leaders in Brisbane, with all eyes on China after missile test

• Tensions are rising in Ethiopia's Tigray region due to the incomplete implementation of the Pretoria Agreement. • Key sticking points include the failure to fully disarm Tigray Defense Forces and the continued presence of Eritrean troops on Ethiopian soil.

• The United States has experienced a pause in direct fire exchanges with Iran, though experts suggest this is driven by more than just diplomatic efforts. • A critical shortfall in the inventory of ballistic missile and drone defense systems has emerged as a primary challenge for the U.S. military during the conflict.

• The UN Security Council convened on Monday at Ukraine's request to address the escalation of large-scale Russian military strikes. • Recent attacks, including an overnight strike on Kyiv on July 19, resulted in at least one civilian death and over a dozen injuries.

• Iraq continues to struggle with severe political instability and recovery challenges six years after the war against the Islamic State. • Humanitarian needs remain critical, with three million people requiring assistance and over one million individuals still internally displaced.

• Africa is home to 9 of the 10 poorest countries in the world as of 2026, facing a combination of compounding systemic issues. • These nations are struggling with severe climate conditions, widespread corruption, and ongoing civil wars fueled by ethnic and sectarian strife.

Pop star aims to use legal process to name ‘wrongdoers who hide in the shadows and wreak technological havoc with impunity’Ariana Grande has filed a lawsuit against hackers who she alleges have stolen unreleased music, as well as private photos and video footage, and sold them online.Grande filed the lawsuit in a Los Angeles court on Monday. It doesn’t name the hackers, who are referred to with the generic name John Doe. Grande will look to have them identified during the legal process “in order to hold them accountable for their invasive and reprehensible conduct”, the lawsuit reads. Continue reading...

Samsung and SK Hynix fall by more than 10% amid renewed fears over AI spending and Chinese competitionBusiness live – latest updatesThe sell-off in AI stocks has intensified, driving South Korea’s stock market down to its lowest level in three months.Investors continued to ditch chip stocks on Tuesday, amid rising concerns about the huge amount of borrowing among AI companies to fund their datacentre expansion plans. Continue reading...

MTC provided security at heavily criticised Manston centre in Kent and could now make £500m managing the siteA private security company linked to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown reported a slump in UK revenues after losing an asylum centre contract but could make £500m managing the same facility until 2036.Management & Training Corporation (MTC) said sales fell from £28.4m to £17.6m in 2025 after its contract to provide “security and care” at the heavily criticised Manston site in Kent ended in September. Continue reading...

The newly minted premier must convince voters that he doesn’t represent more of the sameWill a new premier save Victorian Labor? - Full Story podcastWho is Ben Carroll?Ben Carroll had hoped to quietly rise to the top job. Instead, he became Victoria’s 50th premier after 48 hours of heated confrontations and shouting matches, all as the public watched on.It was his first confrontation against the premier, and he emerged from it relatively unscathed. Continue reading...

The new prime minister is linking the need for better vocational education in school with his belief in localismGood morning. In his last speech to Labour’s annual conference as party leader, Keir Starmer called for a fundamental shift in the way education in England operates. While saying he would never “denigrate the aspiration to go to university”, he said that aiming to get 50% of pupils into university was wrong and that it was finally time to show equivalent respect to apprenticeships and technical education. “So, today I can announce we will scrap that [50%] target and replace it with a new ambition, that two-thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold standard apprenticeship,” Starmer said, to loud applause.So heaven knows what Starmer is thinking this morning as he hears his successor, Andy Burnham, announce his own plan for “a fundamental change to the education system” that sounds – well, very similar.For too long, we’ve built an education system around the idea that there’s only one route to success: university, a degree, a desk. That opened doors for millions of people, and rightly so. But somewhere along the way, we sent another message too: that if your ambition was to do something that required more technical skills, somehow you were aiming lower.I think that was one of the biggest mistakes this country has made. In the age of AI, practical and technical skills haven’t become less valuable — they’ve become more valuable than ever. Britain will need brilliant engineers, electricians and cybersecurity experts more than ever before.These new [technical education] routes won’t be designed by Westminster. They’ll be shaped by the people and places they serve. Working with mayors, local leaders, employers and schools, we’ll identify the industries driving growth in local areas and make sure that local kids have a clear route into them.We all want to see better opportunities for young people and a boost to technical education, but this announcement is all over the place. Labour have literally just legislated to strip schools of their freedom to choose what’s best for the pupils they’re teaching, yet now they imply it should be locally tailored. It’s not clear whether or not Labour intends to replace GCSEs, which would be a disaster. The focus should be on the knowledge rich curriculum that has helped the most deprived children. Continue reading...

Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and BiharIndia’s youth-led “Cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister, has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations.The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or “harassed” by police. Continue reading...

Co-presenter of former BBC motoring show given penalty after being caught twice in three weeksThe former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has been fined £999 by a court after he was caught speeding twice in three weeks while driving his luxury cars.The 56-year-old was in a Porsche when he broke the speed limit on 2 December last year, and was caught out again just 20 days later while driving a Bentley. Continue reading...