Malaysia begins Myanmar repatriations despite warnings from UN and rights groups

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

New leader says his party must connect with millions of disaffected voters and ‘make them believe in politics again’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastAs One Nation’s polling surged this year, and Pauline Hanson ate away at the votes of first the Coalition and then Labor, one curious mainstay emerged; the Greens remained seemingly anchored to the 10-12% range, no matter which poll you look at.That’s despite the fact that, arguably, there’s rarely been more fertile political ground for the Greens leader to reap rewards; a centrist Labor government with a big majority but increasingly on the nose, a resurgent anti-immigration populist party backed by Australia’s richest mining billionaire, a Coalition in disarray, a cost-of-living crisis set ablaze by rising interest rates and inflation, and a public increasingly alarmed about the nexus of big tech, big datacentres and shadowy AI oligarchs operating with impunity. Continue reading...

The prime minister says he wants to open a debate about the UK’s future relationship with EuropeGood morning. Andy Burnham’s speech is getting a mixed review in the papers, but there is general consensus that it is a consequential one – not one that we will have forgotten within a fortnight or so, but one that will make the next list of all-time important Labour conference speeches of the last 50 years.If you are still catching up, here are three good places to start. Continue reading...

Councils collectively spent record 71.9% of core spending on adult and children’s care last year, analysis showsSixteen English councils spent more than 80% of their core funding on adult and children’s social care last year, highlighting the growing financial pressure on other local services.Guardian analysis of government figures found that councils responsible for social care spent a net £42.8bn on adult and children’s services in 2025-26, equivalent to a record 71.9% of their combined core spending. Adult social care took 44.5% and children’s services accounted for 27.4%. In 2017-18, care costs made up 62.4% of councils’ core spending. Continue reading...

Cap poised to rise by 16% to equivalent of £1,999 for dual-fuel bill as impact of Iran war puts squeeze on homesHousehold energy bills in Great Britain are predicted to soar by £276 a year for the typical household from January as the impact of the Middle East war continues through the coldest months of winter.The government’s cap on energy prices is poised to jump by 16% to the equivalent of £1,999 for the average annual dual-fuel bill in a further blow to struggling households, according to figures from the leading forecaster Cornwall Insight. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Environment secretary Angela Eagle to make pledge as part of efforts to protect against extreme weatherHalf a million trees will be planted across England in the next three years to protect against extreme weather, the environment secretary, Angela Eagle, will pledge on Wednesday morning.Mayors, local authorities, charities and grassroots groups will be given new funding and responsibilities for restoring natural landscapes such as wetlands, river edges and meadows, which can provide natural flood management and reduce the damage done by droughts. Continue reading...

The injection of thermal energy, 40 times that used by humanity in total, comes amid an increasing rise in sea levels and continuing acidificationA record-breaking 23 zettajoules of heat was sunk into the world’s seas last year, leaving ocean waters hotter, higher and less hospitable, a report has found.The explosive addition of thermal energy, which was almost 40 times greater than all the energy humanity used that year, comes amid far-reaching changes to the deep water bodies fundamental to life on Earth. Continue reading...

Independent Planning Commission says climate change impacts from Hunter Valley project will be ‘outweighed’ by economic benefitsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastThe New South Wales independent planner has approved the biggest coalmine project to ever go before it, allowing mining to continue until 2045 at a Hunter Valley project described by climate groups as a “carbon bomb”.The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has green lit the Hunter Valley Operations Continuation Project after a contentious assessment that drew in climate and environment groups, unions, state authorities and more than 10,000 public submissions. Continue reading...