What the rest of the world is reading today.

A digest of top world and technology headlines, pulled from a handful of publisher feeds once a day and stored here. Every link goes straight to the original story.

September 19, 2026

67 stories published this day.

Around the world

Ed Davey takes aim at Reform and Elon Musk as Lib Dem conference begins

The Guardian

Leader says party ‘won’t give up the fight’ to defeat ‘nasty populism’ in first-day speech to delegatesThe Liberal Democrats’ leader, Sir Ed Davey, took aim at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Elon Musk on the first day of his party’s annual conference, saying that they “won’t give up the fight” to defeat “nasty populism” and the far-right party’s “£72m arsenal of hate and lies”.Speaking from the main stage at Brighton Centre, Davey called on the assembled delegates not to be deterred in the face of Reform’s hope “that the anger and the hatred and the lies will grind us down until eventually we just give up”, and praised earlier speakers for showing “why we care and why we fight”. Continue reading...

Israeli president pardons combat medic who shot dead wounded Palestinian attacker

The Guardian

Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter of man who stabbed soldier continues to divide countryIsrael’s president has pardoned a combat medic who shot dead a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank, in a case that divided the country a decade ago.Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his 18-month sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men. Continue reading...

As tobacconist firebombings intensify in Melbourne, nearby stores are being denied insurance

The Guardian

Arson attacks related to illegal tobacco trade are also causing revenue and reputation problems for neighbouring businessesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSmall businesses located near tobacconists are being denied insurance or priced out of coverage as rising arson attacks turn neighbouring shops into collateral damage.The problem has intensified after a spate of firebombings, which includes a recent Melbourne blaze that destroyed a Richmond tobacco retailer and nearly a dozen neighbouring shops, requiring 80 firefighters to contain. Continue reading...

Trump to create ‘AI Force’ to monitor technology as fears over out-of-control agents grow

The Guardian

President had brushed away suggestions to slow down AI technology, even as his own party counseled cautionDonald Trump on Saturday said he would appoint an artificial intelligence czar and create an “AI Force” to help monitor the technology, though he gave almost no details about either plan.As global fears over AI have grown, especially in the past week in the face of multiple industry figures sounding the alarm about its dangers, the president has been critical of calls to slow down development of the fast-moving industry. Continue reading...

Dutch riot police break up violent far-right protest in The Hague

The Guardian

Authorities ban anti-immigration march after fireworks and other projectiles thrown at officers in city centre parkDutch riot police dispersed several hundred far-right protesters in The Hague on Saturday after violence erupted and local authorities banned a planned march in the city against immigration and asylum policies.The Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that 24 people had been arrested, after some protesters threw fireworks and other projectiles at police. Continue reading...

Victorian Labor promises new offences to close domestic and family violence ‘loopholes’

The Guardian

Premier Ben Carroll vows to legislate new form of manslaughter and increase maximum penalty for rape to life imprisonmentGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastA re-elected Victorian Labor government will create two new Australian-first offences aimed at closing “loopholes” it says have allowed perpetrators of family violence to escape punishment.On Sunday, the premier, Ben Carroll, will announce an election commitment to legislate a new form of manslaughter covering cases in which a person takes their own life as a result of family violence, as well as a new offence covering perpetrators abandoning a victim in need of medical care.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

The new lines of southern Lebanon

NPR World

The U.N. expanded the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's mandate 20 years ago to include monitoring adherence to a ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah — the militant group created in 1982 to counter a second Israeli invasion.

California warns of measles exposure in six counties from unvaccinated train passenger

The Guardian

Health authorities work to notify people who were exposed to person who traveled through at least six countiesCalifornia public health officials are warning of a possible measles exposure spanning multiple counties after an infected and unvaccinated passenger traveled through the state via Amtrak trains and thruway buses.The warning comes as the US faces its largest measles resurgence in more than three decades, fueled largely by growing vaccine hesitancy. Continue reading...

Manchester United Muslim fans group calls on co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to quit

The Guardian

Supporters’ club says billionaire should stand down after ‘completely unacceptable’ comments on the UK and empireManchester United’s Muslim supporters’ Club (MUMSC) has called for the Premier League side’s co-owner to step down after he made “completely unacceptable” comments during a BBC interview.Sir Jim Ratcliffe described the UK as being a country “on the slide” from the days when it had “the greatest empire in the world”. Continue reading...

Kent hotel fire that forced hundreds to evacuate being treated as suspicious

The Guardian

No injuries reported after about 280 people taken to safety from the Grand Burstin in Folkestone after blazeA large fire that broke out overnight at a seaside hotel and forced hundreds of people to evacuate is being treated by police as suspicious.Emergency services were called just after 1am on Saturday to the Grand Burstin hotel in Folkestone, where a fire is believed to have started in the basement, Kent fire and rescue service said. Continue reading...

Lindsay Clancy ex-husband says ‘I think I did the best I could’

The Guardian

Patrick Clancy and wife Rachel Danis to speak publicly on 60 Minutes on Sunday about Massachusetts murder trialPatrick Clancy and his wife Rachel Danis are set to describe their experiences of the Massachusetts triple-murder trial of his former wife Lindsay Clancy, with Clancy telling 60 Minutes: “I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could.”The couple will on Sunday night make their first public comments on the case. CBS has been trailing excerpts of the broadcast. Continue reading...

Life in Kabul 5 years after the Taliban's return

NPR World

Five years after the return of Taliban rule, NPR visited Kabul to see how Afghans are dealing with their new government's strict social restrictions.

As Europe warms, Italy sees West Nile virus spread

NPR World

Italian health authorities see evidence that rising temperatures and longer warm seasons are helping mosquitoes spread West Nile virus across a wider area, during more months of the year.

In tech

Meta’s Muse is creepy, but maybe not for the reasons you think

The Verge

Meta's Muse is apparently an effective AI assistant, but one that's a little creepy. Part of that is because of its new Mac app, which can access Messages, Calendar, and Notes. But for all its smarts, Muse doesn't actually know how to describe itself. Jason Aten, a contributing editor at Inc Magazine, posted on Threads […]

Trump treads further on free speech with new journalist bans

The Verge

On Friday, the president threatened to ban CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House. It could have just been another one of his Truth Social fever dreams, but it turns out it's very real. All three publications were turned away from the White House this morning, NPR reports, marking an escalation in the […]

Gemini went rogue, hacked three companies, and Google hid it

The Verge

In May, Gemini broke containment and hacked three different companies, but Google didn't disclose the incident until the Wall Street Journal approached the company. The hacks happened during a test of the model's cybersecurity capabilities run by third-party Irregular, which was also involved in similar incidents involving Meta and OpenAI. According to WSJ, Google didn't […]

Anamanaguchi has ‘too goddamn many’ browser tabs open right now

The Verge

Anamanaguchi, the band consisting of Peter Berkman, James DeVito, Luke Silas, and Ary Warnaar, are most known for their chiptune music. Like me, you might have first heard them in game soundtracks like 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game or know of their collaboration with Hatsune Miku (which even made its way into […]

The colorful, unique Hyte X50 PC case is $50 off

The Verge

The Hyte X50 is a PC case that really stands out from the typical black box design, and it’s $50 off at the company’s site until September 21st, 2026, bringing the price down to $99.99. This attractive case supports motherboards from ITX all the way up to the E-ATX form factors, and GPUs that are […]

Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesn’t kill everyone????

The Verge

Today on Decoder, we’ve got the first of a two-part series on the future of business, and I’m talking with Jonathan Kanter, the former antitrust chief for the US Department of Justice in the Biden administration. These days, he’s both a professor of law at WashU and professor of technology policy at Carnegie Mellon. The […]

Prices go up in 7 days. Get your Disrupt ticket now.

TechCrunch

Current ticket pricing ends Sept. 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Join 10,000+ founders, investors and tech leaders at Disrupt and save up to $200 on your ticket until then..

The AI regulation smackdown isn’t over

The Verge

At the start of this week, the who's-who of AI seemed - at least tentatively - on the side of AI regulation. Over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had proposed a three-step plan for slowing AI development, including by embedding third-party evaluators in labs, coordinating across the domestic industry, and forging international agreements potentially […]

It’s not just LG. Every TV company is spying on you

The Verge

The TV world has been a pot of controversy thanks to a two-hour-and-15-minute video from Gamers Nexus claiming LG TVs are nefariously spying on everything you do. They can record and store audio even when they seem to be off, track everything you watch, and could even be hacked remotely and turned into covert surveillance […]

Mathematicians Hate AI. They Can’t Quit It

Wired

Powerful AI models have created an existential risk to the field, but researchers can’t stop relying on them because they’re too useful.