Netanyahu rejects US-backed 15-point Gaza peace plan | First Thing

• 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.

• 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.

• World leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly to address escalating conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East alongside risks from artificial intelligence. • The assembly focused on managing global instability and the regulatory challenges posed by emerging AI technologies.

• Ed Sheeran's current United States tour has drawn the global pop music industry into a public debate regarding art, activism, and Palestine. • The situation highlights a culture clash as artists face increasing public pressure to take political stands on polarizing global conflicts.

• A top Iranian official announced on September 19 that the country has provided specific conditions to mediators to facilitate talks with the United States. • The US State Department notified Congress of a determination approving a possible foreign military sale to Ukraine for air defense development upgrades and related services.

Data raid comes amid targeting of lifeboat charity by far-right agitators who object to migrant boat rescuesSupporters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) have been warned that their personal information could have been stolen by hackers amid targeting of the charity by far-right agitators.In a letter accompanying the autumn copy of its Lifeboat magazine, the charity warned members that their “name, contact details and records of interactions with the RNLI” could have been breached in the raid on a company it uses for customer relationship management. Continue reading...

Rabid goats at a North Carolina petting zoo and a diseased beaver attacking a Maryland boy have set the public on edgeRecent unusual incidents involving humans and rabid animals and a subsequent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory have prompted concerns about rabies, but it’s not clear if there has actually been an increase in cases of the deadly disease in the United States, experts say.In recent months, rabid beavers have attacked three people in Maryland, and hundreds of people were exposed to goats with rabies at a petting zoo in North Carolina, according to news reports. The CDC issued a health advisory on 10 September “in response to recent reports of increases in human exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals”. Continue reading...

Environmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal ruleThe EPA allowed pesticide giant Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller dicamba, newly released internal agency documents show.The documents provide an unusually clear look into the process of developing pesticide regulations, which is typically done out of public view. It shows in detail how the EPA asked Bayer which regulations it wanted, received a response from Bayer, then put Bayer’s choices into a proposed federal rule. Continue reading...

Michelle Bachelet drops out after support collapsed in security council straw poll, leaving seven candidates in contestMichelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, has withdrawn her candidacy to become the next secretary general of the ⁠UN, ending a ⁠bid ​that had struggled to gain traction among security council members.Bachelet, 74, announced ⁠her decision in a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, saying: “I will now continue, with the ⁠same determination as always, my international work.” Continue reading...

Charles lands at Heathrow with just two bags and nowhere to go as a result of Brexit and Stockholm’s hardline immigration positionDoubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden.Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Five gardening teams shortlisted for Royal Horticultural Society’s new Railway Stations in Bloom awardEvery year since 1964, towns across the UK have bloomed with hanging baskets and brightly coloured flowerbeds planted by residents.They wield their trowels in aid of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition, a coveted accolade for the 1,600 communities that enter each year. Continue reading...

Rafael Moreno, whose company has opened demo plant in Brazil, says market is ‘nervous’ as Trump-Xi summit loomsThe head of a mining company hoping to supply the EU with rare earths in two years’ time has said it is “paramount” to end China’s stranglehold on the supply of the raw materials used in everything from cars to wind turbines and military jets.As Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping, prepare to meet on Thursday in their second summit of the year, Rafael Moreno said it was also “imperative” that they do a deal for Beijing to ease up, once again, on its threat to ban exports of rare earths. Continue reading...