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Secretary of State Marco Rubio says South Africa has not addressed US concerns over racial inequality.

Official results confirmed that his right-leaning bloc lost last Sunday’s parliamentary election Meanwhile, we are getting some interesting lines from Paris that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, convened the chiefs ⁠of ⁠the ​different political parties to discuss the ​crises ‌in ‌the Middle East ‌and Ukraine and their consequences on the energy market. The meeting will ‌be held on Friday morning at 10:30am local time on Thursday (that’s 9:30am UK) and military and intelligence officers will share ⁠the information they have ​provided to ​Macron , his ​office said ​in ‌a ​statement. Continue reading...

Act divides Democrats and Republicans, with some saying it gives president power that could be turned against US allies The US Congress has passed a sweeping bill allowing Donald Trump to raise tariffs on top buyers of Russian energy and issue other punishing sanctions against the Kremlin following a pitched battle between lawmakers backing Ukraine and sceptics worried the bill gives the president too much power. The Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 passed in a 262-159 vote on the last day before Congress goes on recess ahead of the midterm elections. Graham, who died earlier this year, co-authored and submitted the bill more than a year and a half ago. Continue reading...

Three more GOP members voted for war powers resolution to force withdrawal from the conflict as election looms As the US war with Iran drags on, the ranks of Republicans signaling the conflict is a liability for their party continues to grow. When the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening considered its sixth war powers resolution intended to force Donald Trump to withdraw troops from the conflict, three Republicans who had not supported the previous efforts broke with their party to vote this one to passage. Earlier that day, a Republican who had lost his primary after repeatedly clashing with Trump proposed impeaching the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, alleging a variety of constitutional transgressions including prosecuting the war against Iran without congressional authorization. Continue reading...

It comes after the Green leader, who is standing as a candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, recorded a campaign video in Urdu Andrew Griffith has delivered his speech, and he is now taking questions. Q: You want the government to pause the making tax digital programme . Is that an admission that the last government got this wrong when it introduced it? It is an admission that despite [good] intentions, the execution of that has left a lot to be desired. In fact, coming to parliament from business, I can confess the law that we pass the most often is the law of unintended consequences. And I think making tax digital is a good example of that. The truth is that Burnham and Miliband ignored the advice they were given – which was that if they were determined to sanction Israel, they should not do so before the Israeli election on 27 October. It may not be surprising that this was the message from the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, when Miliband called him on 11 August to warn sanctions were imminent. ‘He said postpone it until after the elections,’ a diplomatic source confirms. It was also the message the Israeli embassy in London – and its new chargé d’affaires Chris Cantor – was relaying to the Foreign Office. ‘Their message was clear: why do it now? Wait until after the elections, because something might change,’ a senior Labour figure says. Continue reading...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday embraced the prospect of his country becoming the European Union's first associate member, saying closer ties with the continent would ensure no country could control Canada's markets or undermine its sovereignty.

Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N. say they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the U.S. committed war crimes in Iran, including a strike on a school in the southern city of Minab.

In address to European parliament, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney listed areas where he wants to boost cooperation.

U.N.-commissioned rights experts say there are "reasonable grounds" to believe the U.S. committed war crimes with strikes that killed scores of Iranian civilians.

Hundreds gather to share roast potatoes in northern Slovenia as think tank warns 'chips are down' across Europe.

Unite union, which represents 36,000 Barclays staff, calls for a one-off payment to offset increased travel and childcare costs.

Patients in England with an incurable breast cancer can now access a life-extending drug on the NHS.

Central bank announces surprise plan to sell billions of pounds in government bonds back to the Treasury Burnham has to sell Bank rate rises as ‘breathing space’ – good luck with that Business live – latest updates The Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold as it warned a continuation of the bitter fighting in the Middle East could force it to raise borrowing costs amid mounting fears over inflation. It also announced a surprise plan to sell billions of pounds in UK government bonds back to the Treasury to avoid fuelling turbulence in the gilt market, a decision that could have significant consequences for the public finances before next month’s budget. Continue reading...

As the country’s top public health official spends his time in office undermining science, doctors and advocates mount an urgent campaign for childhood vaccines On an early September morning, dozens of families stood in line outside a clinic in Yeadon, Pennsylvania. It was “exclusion day”, the deadline by which students without complete immunizations are barred from returning to class. Instead of turning families away, school district leaders partnered with the county health department to vaccinate kids nearby so they could go back to their desks. That day, 42 middle and high school students were vaccinated to protect against tetanus, pertussis and meningitis, among other diseases. Continue reading...

Minister for public service says the devices pose ‘legitimate privacy and security concerns’ in commonwealth-run workplaces The Albanese government is considering a “world-leading” ban on smart glasses in its offices and service centres as councils around Australia push the technology out of public spaces over privacy fears. The government has avoided a sweeping ban on the import of the camera-equipped technology and encouraged individual workplaces to set their own rules. Continue reading...

The network continues to cater to its presidential ‘audience of one’, downplaying his supreme court loss and more Two breaking stories roiled US politics this week and immediately got big play on most news sites. The supreme court surprisingly rejected – for now – Donald Trump’s attempted restrictions on mail-in ballots, a blow to Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. Continue reading...

In a statement, RTÉ said it feels Ireland's participation "cannot be justified given the appalling and ongoing loss of lives in Gaza".

PM’s push to cut cost of living is threatened by rising inflation and higher government borrowing costs Bank of England holds interest rates Business live – latest updates Good luck to Andy Burnham convincing voters he is giving them “breathing space,” if the Bank of England ratchets up interest rates in the coming months. That was the prospect opened up by Thursday’s minutes of the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting, which left rates unchanged at 3.75% – for now – but suggested policymakers may be unlikely to hold out much longer. Continue reading...

Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.'s top human rights body say they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran.

The combined toll from the deadly incident now stands at 1,446 people dead and at least 6,669 missing.

It's the end of an era for India's popular instant digital payments system, which has been free of charge until now.

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, is due to address the European parliament on Thursday. Plus, how the attention economy overwhelmed children’s TV Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. Donald Trump has threatened the EU with “serious tariffs” after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, invited Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member”. Why does the EU want closer ties with Canada? Von der Leyen told the European parliament that, as democracies faced a “fracture in the international rules-based system”, Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together. “This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,” she said. How has the EU responded to Trump’s comments? France’s Europe minister, Benjamin Haddad, said on Thursday that Washington had no power to veto EU decisions. “It is not up to the United States, or ‌anyone else, to choose the political and geopolitical direction of the Europeans,” Haddad ‌told the Public Sénat TV channel. What’s next? Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has been addressing the European parliament on Thursday. Follow our live coverage here . Did Warsh identify what is driving inflation? Warsh acknowledged changing geopolitics, but avoided calling out the US-Israel war with Iran by name. How did Trump respond? Shortly after the announcement, Trump said in a Truth Social post that interest rates should be 1% or less and criticized the US trade deficit. Continue reading...

A river that is home to about 500 saltwater crocodiles is given the OK to host Olympic and Paralympic rowing and canoeing events at the 2032 Brisbane Games.

Make ICE Pay Act would block nearly $140bn in funding and redirect money to places reeling from Trump crackdown The US congresswoman Ilhan Omar is set to introduce a bill that would make federal immigration agencies “pay the price” for terrorising vulnerable communities, blocking nearly $140bn in funding and redirecting it to local recovery efforts, the Guardian has learned. The Make ICE Pay Act, due to be introduced on Thursday, targets funding previously designated for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”. Continue reading...

Shutdown of study is latest for Trump administration, which has canceled, frozen and otherwise disrupted more than 5,700 medical research grants over two years Scientific funding cuts imposed by the Trump administration may force researchers to close a study on Alzheimer’s disease risk among 600 ageing people without sharing the results of cognitive tests with participants – even though researchers have all the data to do so. The Trump administration canceled a federal research grant studying two low-income, majority Black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in August. Researchers were given 90 days to shut down the study – more than five months earlier than planned. Now, they lack the time and money to assess data collected from trial participants. Continue reading...

Layers of management help bigger bosses get stuff done. Their loss will come back to bite companies sooner than they realize.

The $1-per-hour increase applies to the e-commerce company’s front-line workers, who handle tasks like sorting, packing and transporting orders.

PepsiCo Beverages laid off 143 workers from its Maryland bottling facility as it shut down manufacturing and warehouse operations at its Cheverly location.

What happens when our therapists are no longer able to feel?

The face of London in the 1960s is living her best life at the age of 77.

The Upper West Side headquarters features a bookstore and gallery for exhibitions and discussions.

The anonymous donation, the library’s largest ever, will support digitization of archival items related to theater, dance and music.

A journalist confronts his family history and his health.

Food and Drug Administration officials said the new recall affects X10 and biQ-FEL products after lab testing found that the supplements contained undeclared ingredients.