Collective action needed to tackle global information crisis, UN-led dialogue hears

• The UN Security Council will hold its annual open debate on women, peace and security in October. • Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis is expected to chair the session titled “Women, peace and security in the next quarter-century: fulfilling the promise through implementation”.

• Security Council members held an informal interactive dialogue on September 2 to discuss using artificial intelligence for conflict resolution. • The meeting, titled “From Early Warning to Durable Peace: Leveraging AI in Conflict Resolution,” was organized by Bahrain, France, Greece, and Latvia.

• Britain held emergency discussions with European allies on October 2, 2026, to address a developing diesel confrontation. • Governments are currently deciding whether to release strategic stocks of fuel to stabilize the market.

Movie about Nazi-collaborating administration strikes chord during what director calls ‘time of great uncertainty’It is the story of how a lowly state administrator unthinkingly becomes a cog in the machine of an authoritarian regime, embracing the bureaucracy and logistics of sending people to their deaths – and it is drawing in audiences to French cinemas.The French film Notre Salut (Our Salvation), with its modern lighting, improvised scenes and anachronistic 1980s Europop soundtrack, is far from the standard historical costume drama about the second world war. Continue reading...

With 40 dead and a disaster declared across all 50 city districts, experts warn extreme flooding will only worsen across south-east AsiaBangkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that inundate the city during the rainy season. Even streets in many central high-rise districts can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches racing out of sewers and taking temporary refuge on trees and buildings as the subterranean world is flushed out.But every city has a breaking point, and this year rain fell so fast and so hard that whole neighbourhoods of the Thai capital have been transformed, not into rivers, but stagnant lakes. In parts of the city, roughly 300mm of rain – the equivalent of half a year of average rainfall in London – fell in about two days. Continue reading...

NSW Ambulance confirms multiple people injured after a car hit a crowdA car has crashed into a crowd of people in Newcastle injuring several as fans waited to farewell the Knights team bus before the NRL grand final.NSW police said that emergency services were called to Newcastle Link Road at the Transfield Drive roundabout in Wallsend about 9.30am after reports a vehicle struck multiple people in a crowd. Continue reading...

Announcement from US officials comes after CDC declared end to outbreak that infected nearly 13,000 peopleThe Food and Drug Administration said on Friday its inspectors had detected cyclospora at the Mexican farm blamed for the largest foodborne illness outbreak of the parasite in US history.FDA inspectors said Friday they found cyclospora in two places: a wastewater tank and a drainage ditch used for lettuce cultivation. They said it was unclear how the lettuce became infected. Continue reading...

Plan to install barriers through popular national park sparked outrage from advocates and politicians alikeA federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expanding the border wall and other security infrastructure across the Big Bend region of west Texas, where contentious plans to build roads and vehicle barriers through a popular national park have led to furious backlash and public protests.US district judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling after a Friday hearing in El Paso deals a major blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the border wall through west Texas at breakneck pace, while riding roughshod over the objections of local business owners, landowners, public land advocates and politicians from both parties. Continue reading...

Kenan ‘Ken’ Urker, 34, who died of apparent drug overdose, was partner of woman convicted of murder of mother The on-and-off partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who spent time in prison for her role in the murder of her abusive mother, was found dead inside his Louisiana home on his 34th birthday on Thursday in what authorities described as an apparent drug overdose.The sheriff’s office in Lafourche parish, Louisiana, confirmed Kenan “Ken” Urker – the father of Blanchard’s daughter – was discovered on Thursday after relatives asked police to conduct a welfare check at his residence. Continue reading...

The justice and treasury departments said they sent $2m to Hamas through charities and cryptocurrency, while six people were arrested across the US and FranceThe Trump administration on Friday unveiled sanctions against three individuals allegedly related to the Islamist militant group Hamas and against two charities based in France while also announcing six arrests – actions that the government called an “extraordinary counter-terrorism work” to expose “a sophisticated, multi‑year financing architecture”.Investigators alleged that the network moved more than $2m to Hamas “through deceptive charitable fronts and cryptocurrency channels”. Continue reading...

Judge unseals bodycam footage from officers who responded to 911 from McDonald’s in PennsylvaniaPolice bodycam footage released Friday shows the moment officers located and arrested Luigi Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s in connection with the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.In one video, officers ask Mangione to lower the face mask he was wearing to hide his identity. Continue reading...