Can a mushroom make music? Devon exhibition explores ‘cultural world’ of fungi

• 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.

• 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.

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned a Tuesday airstrike that reportedly killed at least 50 people at a market in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. • The UN humanitarian office reported that Israeli fire hit near humanitarian convoys and UN facilities in Gaza several times in recent days.

Exclusive: Culture secretary says UK will crack down further and be ‘pioneer of tech as a force for good’Lisa Nandy has warned technology firms that the government’s online safety crackdown is not finished, saying that banning under-16s from social media platforms is only a “staging post”.Earlier this year the government announced that teenagers under the age of 16 would be banned from accessing “high-risk” social media apps, while safer platforms would be subjected to restrictions. Continue reading...

Relatives of Hollywood legend say her doppelganger could now be used for more glamorous rolesShe shimmered in Hollywood’s silent movie era and lit up the first talkies – now Greta Garbo may be about to star in cinema’s new AI age.More than a century after her screen debut and decades after her ashes were laid to rest in a Swedish woodland cemetery, the Hollywood superstar’s descendants are ready to consider an AI version of her taking a 21st-century film role. Continue reading...

Scheme will follow principles of Sure Start, helping families with infant feeding, mental health and bonding with babiesThe government is rolling out a Healthy Babies programme to every local authority in England, as part of its efforts to expand a Sure Start-type system of help for deprived children and families.It aims to support parents with infant feeding, their mental health and building strong bonds with their babies, alongside health visits, midwifery care and wider services. Continue reading...

Jim Chalmers says ‘higher global oil prices flowing through to oil prices in Australia’ are to blame for inflation rising from 3.5%Inflation has jumped to 4% in the year to August, from 3.5%, as Jim Chalmers was again forced to defend Labor’s economic management amid fears the Reserve Bank will need to hike interest rates again before Christmas.The increasingly embattled treasurer was accused of “gaslighting” Australians by insisting that government spending was not responsible for high inflation, blaming instead higher fuel costs associated with the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...

Former police officer has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in early 2024Warning: graphic contentFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWarning: graphic contentA hole in a door and a bullet bent out of shape: crime scene photos shown to a jury paint a harrowing picture of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies’ final moments. Continue reading...

Figure cited by minister highlights trade-offs Kyiv faces as it tries to keep normal life moving amid Russian strikesMissile alerts are costing Ukraine an estimated $45m (£34m) for every hour they bring business to a halt, according to the country’s economy minister, as Kyiv searches for ways to keep the economy running under an intensifying Russian bombardment.Russia has increasingly targeted the infrastructure underpinning Ukraine’s economy, striking industrial sites, warehouses, logistics hubs and datacentres in what Oleksandr Kravchenko, the minister for economy and the environment, described as an effort to “destroy pretty much the entire economy”. Continue reading...

National Trust says latest figures encouraging – with numbers of birds on the rise – but work still to be doneEngland’s most important tern colonies are showing signs of recovery after being hit by years of bird flu, flooding and increasingly unpredictable weather, new figures from the National Trust reveal.The trust reported record numbers of little terns at Long Nanny in Northumberland, one of the UK’s most important breeding sites for what is the country’s second-rarest breeding seabird. Continue reading...