Middle East crisis live: ceasefire under pressure and talks in doubt as Iran threatens to ‘retaliate’ to US seizure of ship

• Catastrophic flooding across Nepal and China has resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, marking one of the region's deadliest weather events. • The disaster was triggered by intense monsoon rains that caused widespread landslides and flash floods, destroying critical infrastructure and displacing thousands.

• The author argues that traditional, discreet diplomacy has been replaced by a performative and brash style of international relations. • This shift is attributed to a modern culture of short attention spans, likened to "TikTok-addled" behavior.

• Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Drago Bosnic released a video on August 31, 2026, alleging that President Trump and the Pentagon are targeting civilians globally. • The authors argue that the U.S. military has maintained an unspoken practice of routinely targeting non-combatants from World War II to the present day.

Prime minister will bring upbeat message to adversarial Commons after a summer of policy announcements and improved poll ratingsGood morning. Andy Burnham became prime minister six weeks ago, but today will be the first time he addresses MPs in the Commons. It will be the first time he has spoken as a minister from the dispatch box in more than 16 years. As MPs return to Westminster, they will be telling each other about how they spent the summer holiday and, for Burnham, it has undoubtedly gone well. He has unveiled a blitz of announcements which, broadly, have gone down quite well and he has delivered the kiss of life to Labour’s poll ratings.Today Burnham will chair cabinet in the morning and then make a ministerial statement in the Commons after 3.30pm. Normally a prime ministerial statement has a specific focus; it will be about a major policy decision, or a foreign affairs crisis. From the briefing that we have had so far, it sounds as if Burnham’s will be more of a wide-ranging rehash of all the things that he has been talking about this summer. In her preview, Jessica Elgot says he will talk about his intention to bring more essential services back into public control. Continue reading...

Zelenskyy says dozens more injured as strikes leave thousands without electricity in Odesa regionOn behalf of the Irish presidency in the EU Council, Ireland’s defence minister Helen McEntee said the talks in Wicklow come “at a moment of profound challenge for all of us in terms of defence and security,” with closer cooperation needed “more than ever.”Ukraine, maritime security, and resilience against hybrid and cyber threats will be top of the agenda today, she says. Continue reading...

Liberal party figure tells inquiry he never asked Jean Nassif ‘for payments for political outcomes’ as lawyer tells him she is ‘gobsmacked’ by his ‘obfuscation’The younger brother of Dominic Perrottet has insisted he never asked a fugitive property developer for money for political outcomes – including at a meeting at fine-dining restaurant Nobu in Crown Casino, an inquiry has heard.On Tuesday, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) heard that developer Jean Nassif had withdrawn from a scheduled videolink appearance from Lebanon later this week, after Charles Perrottet faced questions about the dinner meeting between the two men in Melbourne in May 2021. Continue reading...

Three projected victories are ‘a message’ to US that Carney ‘has the support of the Canadian people’, says one lawmakerCanada’s ruling Liberal party has swept three special elections in a result that showed voters backing the prime minister, Mark Carney, after his face-off with the US president, Donald Trump.The Canadian Press, Canada’s national news agency, projected Liberal victories in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord in Quebec, Beaches-East York in Toronto and North Vancouver-Capilano in British Columbia. Continue reading...

FCA chief, Nikhil Rathi, warned of ‘adverse consequences’ if challenge made to settlement, court filings allegeThe boss of the UK’s financial regulator is accused of threatening a consumer group with “adverse consequences” if it blocked a £9.1bn compensation scheme meant to settle the motor finance scandal.Legal documents reviewed by the Guardian said the alleged comments by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, amounted to “an inappropriate intervention by a public official”. Continue reading...

Christine Edzard’s The Man With the Plan tours the country with a timely message about tackling want, disease, squalor, idleness and ignoranceA new film that addresses issues fundamental to the new prime minister’s declared mission will star Simon Callow as a historical British political figure.The hero of The Man With the Plan is William Beveridge, who helped to lay the foundations of the postwar welfare state. It shows that the Liberal peer was much more radical than is usually assumed – and certainly far more so than Churchill anticipated when he asked Beveridge to draw up a report into the future of Britain’s fragmented social insurance and national health system after the second world war. Continue reading...

Youth club closures, unaffordable housing and social media cited as factors contributing to a sharp decline in wellbeingThe number of young people with no close friends has risen fivefold since 2014 as a result of growing up in a “bleak world” dominated by austerity, the pandemic and social media.New research paints a sobering picture of how 11- to 24-year-olds in England are increasingly lonely, isolated and “disconnected” from themselves, peers and wider society. Continue reading...

Increase coincides with proscription of Palestine Action last year which has led to thousands of arrests for allegedly supporting the protest groupAlmost half of all terrorism arrests in Great Britain since the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in 2001 have come in the past year, official data shows.There have been 6,539 arrests for terror-related activity in Great Britain since the 2001 attacks and 3,021 of those arrests were in the year ending 31 March 2026, according to the Home Office. Continue reading...

Seven-year-old girl and aunt, 34, killed while four others injured in incident near Middlesbrough last WednesdayA 23-year-old man has been charged with murder after a house fire killed a seven-year-old girl and her aunt, police said.Officers were called to reports of a blaze at Birchington Avenue in Grangetown at 5.23am on 26 August. Continue reading...