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• Flagstaff City Council candidates for the November general election and July primary are answering a weekly question in 150 words or less. • The candidates will provide these brief responses to help voters evaluate them before the upcoming local elections. • This process gives residents a direct way to compare candidate platforms and priorities before casting their ballots.

• BRICS nations issued a joint declaration during their summit in New Delhi expressing concern over increasing risks of nuclear danger and conflict. • The grouping specifically highlighted the need to step up the fight against terrorism as a primary goal of the declaration. • This agreement signals a collective effort by these major economies to coordinate security policies and mitigate global instability.

SF Gate reports bond for Vicky Kyung Mi Kim, 65, set at $10m after man found dead at couple’s Palm Desert homeA 65-year-old California woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after allegedly fatally wounding her husband with a flagpole, according to SF Gate.On 4 September, Palm Desert sheriff’s deputies responded to an “unknown trouble call” in The Enclave, a luxury condominium community. Upon arrival, officers located an individual with “traumatic injuries” that appeared to be from a physical assault and pronounced them dead. Continue reading...

• European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned of ongoing inflation risks, triggering a selloff in European bonds. • Bond yields reached multi-year highs as investors reacted to Lagarde's comments and rising energy prices. • Higher bond yields increase borrowing costs for governments and businesses across Europe.

Pre-inquest conference into Queensland deaths hears witnesses did not hear any smoke alarms during 2023 fireA landlord was repeatedly warned about improperly installed smoke alarms before a house fire that killed a father and five children in Queensland in 2023, a coroner has heard.Deputy state coroner Donald MacKenzie held a pre-inquest conference into the Russell Island deaths on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Ryan Bridge, who co-founded Raise the Colours, to appear in court on charges including racially aggravated harassmentThe leader of a group responsible for raising union jack and St George’s flags across England has been charged with 14 offences, including racially aggravated harassment, threatening behaviour and assault.Ryan Bridge, 45, of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, co-founded Raise the Colours, which describes itself as a “grassroots movement for unity and patriotism”.Seven counts of using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress;Three counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke, unlawful violence;Two counts of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress;One count of racially aggravated fear of violence;One count of common assault. Continue reading...

Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus near to station will make it easier for students and staff to commuteNot so long ago, the first impression for visitors arriving by train to Bristol’s main railway station was a derelict building described by David Cameron as looking like the entrance to a war zone.On Monday, a shiny new University of Bristol campus on the site of that crumbling Royal Mail sorting office next door to Temple Meads is opening its doors to students, teachers and members of the public. Continue reading...

Policy unveiled on Sunday would create new criminal offences for flag burning and defacing historical monuments, and legislate 26 January as Australia DayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesSign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter hereAngus Taylor has rejected claims the Coalition’s push to criminalise burning of the Australian flag is an attempt to undercut One Nation, insisting penalties of up to a year in prison are necessary to “stand up for our country”.The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has previously called for criminal penalties for flag burning, with a petition by the party attracting approximately 50,000 signatures last year.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMore money for the Western FreewayThe Victorian government has committed another $550m to the upgrade of the Western Freeway.We have listened to the community. Better local roads in growing areas are my priority.I want to help working people in the west spend less time on the road and more time where they need to be.Temperatures this spring will average as much as three degrees above the baseline from recent decades, potentially the hottest spring on record. Continue reading...

X2 ride at Magic Mountain has been closed for a month after one rider experienced brain compression and another remains in comaAn infamous Six Flags Magic Mountain rollercoaster, long favored by intrepid theme park goers, has been closed for more than a month after two people say they experienced brain injuries after riding it, according to a new CNN investigation.The X2 rollercoaster can send riders plummeting and twisting hundreds of feet, reaching up to 76mph (about 122km/h), as the seats rotate 360 degrees. On the southern California theme park’s website, it’s advertised as a rite of passage for daredevils. Continue reading...

City residents had accused council of giving ‘free rein’ to campaign promoting England flags Birmingham city council is seeking an injunction to stop members of an anti-migrant group from erecting flags, including union jack and St George’s flags, on public infrastructure across the city.A nationwide campaign to give prominence to the England flag, which resulted in thousands of St George’s crosses being flown from lamp-posts, roundabouts and other public infrastructure, is believed to have started last summer in Birmingham. Continue reading...

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced plans to expand the government's efforts to buy back costlier debt to manage federal liabilities. • The administration is preparing to unveil a new fiscal initiative specifically designed to address the highest borrowing costs seen in several years. • This strategy aims to reduce the overall cost of servicing U.S. debt by replacing expensive older bonds with more favorable terms.

Trump administration put sanctions on the international criminal court’s president and a senior trial lawyerThe international criminal court on Wednesday condemned the latest US sanctions targeting senior ICC staff, including its president, as a “flagrant attack” on the global tribunal’s independence and vowed to continue seeking justice for atrocities around the world.The state department announced Tuesday that it had hit ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is from Senegal, with sanctions that freeze any assets they have in US jurisdictions or come into contact with the US financial system. Continue reading...

• The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has reported a significant increase in trading volumes driven by strong corporate quarterly earnings. • Positive investor sentiment and favorable economic indicators are fueling cautious optimism across multiple market sectors. • A growing pipeline of upcoming IPOs from various industries suggests sustained momentum and broader market activity.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has signaled a willingness to take action against gambling advertisement inducements to secure legislative progress. • This strategic move is designed to win the support of the Coalition for the government's proposed gambling law reforms. • The initiative matters as it addresses the controversial use of incentives in gambling ads, which has been a point of contention in federal policy.

• DeepSeek has released V4-Flash-0731, a smaller model designed to enhance agent performance through advanced post-training techniques. • Despite its reduced size, the new model has reportedly outperformed DeepSeek's own flagship version while maintaining the same underlying architecture. • The release is significant as it provides open weights, allowing developers more flexibility and accessibility to high-performance AI agents.

British band say they are ‘proud to have made this impromptu expression with our fans in Singapore’, where open display of all foreign flags is bannedMassive Attack have called being banned from Singapore a “surreal experience” after displaying a Palestinian flag during their show.On Wednesday, the English trip-hop collective – whose current lineup includes Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall – played a show at the Star theatre. Continue reading...

Two members given ‘stern warnings’ after concert and barred from returning, with band also excluded from performing in Singapore again, say authoritiesBritish trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said.Singapore, known for its tough laws on public speech and assembly, bans the open display of all foreign flags, national emblems or banners without a permit. Continue reading...

• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has identified a potential boom in AI investments as a key risk to global financial stability. • To address this, MAS and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) have set up a task force to enhance cyber and technology resilience against AI-driven threats. • The move aims to mitigate potential risks and ensure the stability of the financial system in the face of rapid technological advancements.

• A security breach involving OpenAI models on the Hugging Face platform has served as a critical warning for the banking sector, despite no direct financial industry impact. • Expert McAlum argues that traditional risk management frameworks are insufficient for "agentic AI," which can perform autonomous actions and exploitation unlike deterministic software. • The incident highlights an urgent need for banks to expand oversight to include model behavior, containment, and software-supply-chain exposure to prevent adversarial attacks.

• Google has ended the blackout of AI Overviews in France, following reports from 68 users who flagged the gap in service. • The rollout follows a March 26, 2025, expansion of the feature into nine other European nations, including Germany, Italy, and Spain. • The move is significant as AI Overviews have drastically reduced position-one click-through rates from 27% to 11%, threatening traditional web traffic.

• Shanghai Blacklake Technologies Co., Ltd. is showcasing its portfolio of industrial AI agents at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which opened in Shanghai on July 17. • The company has been named a TOP30 finalist for the SAIL Award, a prestigious honor recognizing breakthroughs in technological application and industrial value. • Black Lake was also selected as a Trusted Partner under the UNIDO Global Call for Industrial AI in the Global South, a partnership involving the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.

Trump’s effort to revamp the landmark stretched well past the goal of having it ready by the Fourth of JulyThe newly drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s bottom surface has noticeably faded since it was lined with a protective coating in a color Donald Trump called “American flag blue” this spring.An Associated Press reporter and photographer viewed the fenced-off reflecting pool on Wednesday from the top of the Washington Monument. The new liner appears grayer than when the pool was repainted and refilled with water in early June. Debris that had been visible earlier this week after the pool was drained is now largely gone, after work crews removed it. Continue reading...

• India’s second Digital Threat Report for the BFSI sector reveals that six out of seven emerging cyber threats predicted last year have already become fully operational. • Attackers are leveraging artificial intelligence, stolen identities, and manipulated payment workflows to create fraudulent activities that closely mimic legitimate transactions. • This trend highlights a critical escalation in the sophistication of cyberattacks targeting banks and financial institutions, making detection significantly more difficult.

• President Trump has appointed Matthew Wielicki, a known climate skeptic and PragerU contributor, to lead the U.S. government’s flagship climate report. • Wielicki has a history of publicly criticizing established climate science, raising concerns about the objectivity of the government's environmental assessments. • This move follows previous efforts by the Trump administration to gut the Global Change Research program, prompting the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union to step in.

Plans to build a NZ$3.5bn datacentre in Makarewa in the country’s south has drawn concern about electricity and water use, and potential noise pollutionPeople living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI datacentre are calling for more transparency about the project, especially about how the centre’s huge electricity and water use and potential noise pollution could affect them.Singapore-based company Datagrid has secured approval to build a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) AI datacentre on a 49-hectare site in Makarewa, just north of New Zealand’s southern-most city, Invercargill. Construction is due to begin this year, with the centre becoming operational by 2028. Continue reading...

• Big Tech giants including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Oracle issued a combined $159 billion in debt during the first five months of the year to fund expansive AI projects. • According to Bank of America, Big Tech's share of the total US corporate bond market reached a record high of over 8% by the end of May. • This surge in borrowing is driven by the massive capital requirements of AI infrastructure, with SemiAnalysis estimating the AI debt market could swell to $7 trillion by 2029.