‘We demand the truth’: Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee lead calls for proof of life of disappeared Eritrean writers

• World leaders will gather in New York starting Tuesday for several days of high-level debate at the United Nations General Assembly. • The assembly includes representatives from 193 member states, growing from the 51 original members that formed the organization in 1945.

• President Trump will meet with Persian Gulf leaders in New York next week during the United Nations General Assembly to discuss postwar strategy for the region. • U.S. officials also met over the weekend with representatives of Yemen's Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis.

Liberal MP speaks of AI’s shortcomings as cyber chief tells inquiry the tech is needed to fend off ‘highly capable malicious cyber actors’Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcastWhen a man with a terminal illness wrote to his local MP Andrew Hastie, telling him he planned on ending his own life with voluntary assisted dying, Microsoft Copilot suggested Hastie reply with “congratulations!”, “great to hear from you” or “that is wonderful news!”.Hastie shared the episode at a parliamentary inquiry on Friday to underline the shortcomings of the American-run software as he called for AI run by Australians. Continue reading...

At least one person dead as stormy weather causes severe flooding in Barcelona and Valencia Intense and slow-moving thunderstorms broke out on Wednesday afternoon across parts of eastern Spain, bringing some severe flooding and killing at least one person.Storms first struck over the Castilla-La Mancha regionduring the afternoon before passing over Spain’s east coast, becoming very slow-moving and continuing overnight. Torrential rainfall, strong winds and large hail were reported in Valencia and Barcelona, causing widespread flooding in both cities. Weather stations west of Barcelona recorded some of the highest totals with more than 100mm (4in) of rain falling in the space of a few hours, and locally 70mm in just 30 minutes in the early hours of Thursday morning. Cars and roads were submerged, and flights were cancelled across the region. Continue reading...

It will be the first time the PM uses No 10 North to host an overseas visit while the chancellor will be in Dublin meeting with EU finance ministersGood morning. On Monday, at her summit in Cardiff with the leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru, Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin president, joked about Liverpool being the 33rd county of Ireland. Andy Burnham is basically a Scouser; he was born in Liverpool and supports a Liverpool football team, despite being brought up in Culcheth, a village mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester, which made him enough of a Manc to be the city’s mayor. He also has Irish ancestry, and so the mood should be very cordial today when he hosts Micheál Martin, the taoiseach (Irish PM) at No 10 North in Manchester this morning.It is the first time that Burnham has used No 10 North to host an overseas visit, which should help a bit his efforts to establish that No 10 North is a proper government power base, and not just a branch office.The historic visit to No 10 North comes as the prime minister shines a spotlight on towns up and down the country, days after he hosted Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in Liverpool and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in Oxford. Continue reading...

Patients among hundreds who suffered harm at County Durham and Darlington foundation trust’s breast unitTwenty women had their breasts removed unnecessarily while being treated for cancer at an NHS trust in north-east England.The County Durham and Darlington foundation trust (CDDFT) told the BBC that the women were among hundreds of patients who came to harm during treatment at its breast unit. Continue reading...

Latest data to defy economic gloom shows 0.5% rise boosted by purchases of sports items, aircon units and fans amid heatwavesBusiness live – latest updatesRetail sales across Great Britain unexpectedly rose last month, the latest economic indicator to defy gloomy forecasts as the chancellor, John Healey, prepares to present next month’s budget.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the volume of goods sold rose 0.5% month on month in August, defying analyst expectations of a 0.2% fall. Continue reading...

Australian Greens senator compares government’s policy to ICE as Tony Burke calls it a ‘ridiculous claim’Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcastThe federal government’s move to reopen detention centres for visa overstayers, overseen by compliance officers, has drawn comparison from the Greens and advocates to Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown in the United States.The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, was careful to downplay any similarities when he announced the federal government’s immigration plan on Thursday, which includes reducing the roughly 77,000 unlawful non-citizens in Australia. Continue reading...

Warwick Levy, who runs Lonely Kids Club, says AI may have been used to scrape his entire website and replicate designsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAfter 15 years running a small business making T-shirts, Warwick Levy says it was “brutal” when he first discovered an identical design for sale on Temu.It turned out there was an overwhelming amount of T-shirts identical to his own for sale on the Chinese e-commerce marketplace. Between 2025 and earlier this year, Levy, 37, found thousands of rip-offs. Continue reading...

Authorities called to Sorrento Beach on Friday morning following reports of shark-related incidentA man has died after being bitten by a shark off Sorrento Beach in Perth’s north.Emergency services were called to the popular Sorrento Beach at about 10.30am on Friday after reports of a shark-related incident. Continue reading...

Detective senior constable is due to face court in Ballarat next month on common assault chargeGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA Victorian detective allegedly punched and kicked a teenager multiple times while they were handcuffed and compliant during an arrest last year, the state’s corruption watchdog says.The independent broad-based anti-corruption commission (Ibac) said on Friday that it had charged the detective senior constable with common assault in relation to the October 2025 incident in Ballarat. Continue reading...