Middle East crisis live: Hezbollah urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel; blockade of strait of Hormuz begins

• World leaders are gathering for the United Nations General Assembly to address ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. • Oxfam is using the event to urge global action on an "inequality emergency" involving climate change, artificial intelligence, and the crisis in Gaza.

• Nearly 130 heads of state are meeting at the United Nations as the organization struggles to maintain its relevance amid global political strain. • The assembly follows a period of tension with the United States, where Donald Trump slashed financial contributions and withdrew from dozens of UN bodies.

• Global leaders are meeting in New York this week for the UN General Assembly to discuss the Middle East crisis, the war in Ukraine, and artificial intelligence risks. • President Donald Trump will address the assembly, while Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend the event.

• Iranian Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf stated that the old United States-led global order has collapsed and called for Islamic nations to implement a new one. • Ghalibaf noted that Tehran's specific messages and conditions regarding this shift were explicitly conveyed to the U.S. through intermediaries.

Funding boost for facilities and fixed dates for trials designed to encourage more survivors to come forwardSpecialist courtrooms prioritising cases of rape and other serious sex offences are to be introduced across England and Wales, with campaigners welcoming the move as potentially transformative.The changes, designed to encourage more survivors to come forward, will include the provision of private entrances and waiting rooms, and facilities equipped for recording evidence in advance and observing sentencing remotely. Continue reading...

Follow the day’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese launched a formal bid for Australia to serve a two-year term on powerful UN body in 2029 and 2030.A vote for the spot won’t be held until mid 2028, but lobbying efforts will intensify during the prime minister’s visit to New York for the UN General Assembly.That is why we can’t afford to not be engaged with the world, because it has a direct impact on the quality of life of Australians on a day-to-day basis.We have an opportunity through this potential seat on the UN Security Council to play a key role in shaping the global issues that really matter to Australians.We do need to stand up to the Middle East conflict. I think there is a role for middle powers to engage, and Australia has done that as we’ve engaged with the war in Ukraine in the coalition of the willing. Continue reading...

Jovenel Moïse, 53, was shot dead in July 2021 in a killing which sparked chaos in HaitiEighteen people have been arrested in association with the 2021 assassination of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, according to US officials.Moïse, 53, was shot dead on 7 July 2021, at his private residence by a hired group of about 20 military-trained Colombian mercenaries. His security detail did not intervene to protect him. Continue reading...

Tensions grow as Trump tells Fox News he is considering ‘wiping Iran out’ after attacks on Riyadh by Houthi rebelsGovernments across the Middle East are bracing for an escalation of violence after Iran claimed it had received intelligence that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.In a potential sign of growing tensions before the UN general assembly in New York this week, Donald Trump cut short a weekend visit to the Camp David presidential retreat on Sunday with no official explanation, and a new security alert was issued by the state department to all US citizens in the Middle East. Continue reading...

Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters from Uxbridge were found on 13 MayThe deaths of three sisters found in the sea off Brighton beach did not involve any criminality or third-party involvement, police have concluded.The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from Uxbridge, west London, were found on 13 May. A postmortem conducted that month confirmed all three women died by drowning. Continue reading...

The PM hopes to be firmer with the US leader than his predecessor without provoking diplomatic warfare, as the Iran war weighs on the UK economyNo international relationship has more power to determine the success of Andy Burnham’s premiership. So you might imagine the stakes for the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday would be high.Yet Burnham may prove to be a lucky general. The balance of risk has shifted. Trump is unpopular at home, where inflation remains high, and is mired in an intractable conflict in Iran that has the potential to sink his midterm dreams. Continue reading...

Far-right AfD wins in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and leftwing Die Linke on course for victory in BerlinGermany’s embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to stay in office and fight for future-proofing economic reforms despite heavy losses for his conservatives in two state elections, one to the far right and the other to a leftwing party.Preliminary results indicated Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) tallied just over the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament in the coastal region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its worst-ever state score, which he called a “disaster”. Continue reading...

Self-described moderates say they feel forced out of Kemi Badenoch’s party, and into the arms of Ed Davey’sClimbing the party-branded stairs of the Brighton Centre with a Liberal Britain tote bag over his shoulder, Cody Butler looks quite at home at the Liberal Democrats’ annual jamboree.But asked how he is finding it, the 21-year-old replied: “Odd.” The former Tory activist resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network and left his old party in July, arguing that centrists, remainers and members worried about the climate crisis and conservation were no longer welcome in the party. A week ago, he joined the Lib Dems. Continue reading...