Tuesday briefing: Is a social media ban in the UK enough to help protect young people?

• 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• The author argues that traditional, discreet diplomacy has been replaced by a performative and brash style of international relations.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.

Rollback of ‘roadless rule’ expected to benefit companies US Forest Service chief, Tom Schultz, previously lobbied forDonald Trump this month announced plans to rescind a landmark rule that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years. If finalized, the rollback is expected to benefit the companies that Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, represented in his previous roles as a timber industry lobbyist and executive, according to research by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the “roadless rule”, was adopted in 2001 to limit development in roughly 45m acres of national forest. Industry interests and Republican representatives have long lobbied for the rule’s rescission, which would open up those swaths of untouched land to road construction, drilling and logging. Continue reading...

Yield on 30-year government bonds jumps to 5.88%, the highest since 1998, in bond rout triggered by global factorsBusiness live – latest updatesThe UK government’s long-term borrowing costs jumped to their highest level since early 1998 on Tuesday as a global bond sell-off gathered pace.The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 30-year UK government bonds, known as gilts, hit 5.89% as traders fretted about a fresh increase in oil prices driving up inflation. Continue reading...

Latest purchases take value of deals to leave capital’s stock market this year past $100bnThree more London-listed companies are set to be taken over as the value of deals removing firms from the capital’s under-pressure stock market passes $100bn (£74bn) so far this year.On Tuesday, Bodycote, the FTSE 250 industrials group that has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1972, agreed a £1.84bn takeover by the US private equity group Veritas. Continue reading...

Jury took about three hours to reach verdict in case that relied heavily on confessions from the defendant. Plus, the woman who lived with and loved Freddie Mercury as her fianceGood morning. A Las Vegas jury has found the former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane Keith Davis guilty of the murder of Tupac Shakur, bringing the case to a close nearly 30 years after the rapper was gunned down. The jury took about three hours to reach a guilty verdict in a case that relied heavily on multiple confessions from Davis himself.The 63-year-old, who was accused of instigating the deadly shooting but not pulling the trigger himself, had spent years telling investigators and interviewers alike of his direct involvement before he was arrested in 2023.Who was Tupac Shakur? Shakur was born in 1971 in East Harlem, New York, and rose to fame in the early 90s with lyrics that doubled as a sharp commentary on social injustice, including systemic racism and police brutality. He was 25 when he died and is regarded among the greatest rappers to ever live, and continues to be celebrated around the world years after his life was cut short.How have his family reacted to the trial? “We’ve been waiting 30 years to grieve properly,” Zayd Akinyela, Shakur’s cousin, told reporters outside the courtroom when the trial was under way. “A lot of people don’t get to grieve until they understand what happened to their loved one and how it happened.”Why have authorities been so heavily criticised over the case? Las Vegas police faced criticism that they had bungled the investigation and failed to pursue crucial leads, including from a member of Shakur’s entourage who claimed he could identify the shooters. That witness died weeks later in a separate shooting. Continue reading...

Relatives of missing tourists asked for blood samples and photos, as efforts continue to rescue trapped hydropower workersNepal-Tibet floods – latest updatesVisual guide: How the Nepal-Tibet flash flood unfoldedNepali rescuers have built temporary bridges to reach remote areas and dug through the ruins of hydropower projects in the Himalayas to rescue hundreds of trapped workers, as the death toll passed 1,000 nearly ⁠a week after devastating ​floods left a trail of destruction across the country’s towns and valleys.About 600 people remain stuck in several devastated hydropower stations that have become the focus of rescue efforts. The prime ⁠minister, Balendra Shah, said more than 11,000 people had been rescued across the affected region, and power and communication lines had been restored in some areas. Continue reading...

Inquiry come after conservative thinktanks claim unions are using member dues to support Democratic causesHouse Republicans are investigating several US labor unions based on claims from far-right nonprofits alleging union dues are being used for illegal political funding.Republicans on the House’s education and workforce committee opened the investigation this summer after multiple reports from the conservative thinktanks targeted unions and their spending, claiming that unions are using member dues to support Democratic causes. Continue reading...

Experts say ruling could undermine the ‘actual malice’ standard and make publishers more wary of critical reportingA $300,000 jury verdict won recently by a Louisiana supreme court justice who sued the Advocate, the state’s largest newspaper, for libel over an editorial has caused concern among some US press freedom advocates.One said the decision demonstrated a misunderstanding of a key legal principle governing such cases. And another worries the verdict could have a chilling effect on the media industry’s efforts to report on powerful people and institutions. Continue reading...

Zelenskyy says Moscow is capitalising on shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors to lower morale in capitalEurope live – latest updatesAt least 12 people have been killed in and around Kyiv overnight as Ukraine’s capital endured a sixth consecutive night of Russian drone and missile attacks aimed at shattering infrastructure and lowering the morale of the city.Eight of the dead were reported killed in Kyiv, including seven at a railway depot on the city’s left bank, and four more in the surrounding region, after hours of air alerts culminating in a wave of strikes at about 2.30am. Continue reading...

Age on the agenda in Massachusetts but octogenarian leftwinger leads younger rival Seth Moulton in primary pollDemocrats have spent the summer ousting long-serving incumbents in primaries across the country. On Tuesday, Massachusetts voters will decide whether that generational revolt extends to the 80-year-old Ed Markey, whose younger Democratic rival has argued that the incumbent is simply too old to serve another term.But the Senate primary in this heavily Democratic state flips a central dynamic of previous contests, where youthful progressive insurgents have targeted – and in several cases, toppled – older incumbents they derided as avatars of an outmoded cautious establishment. Continue reading...