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 27, 2026

56 stories published this day.

Around the world

Australia news live: Chalmers and Gallagher to present final budget outcome; RBA interest rate hike looms

The Guardian

Follow the day’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGallagher says final budget outcome will show $6bn improvement Gallagher and treasurer Jim Chalmers are set to present the final budget outcome today, which she said will show about a $6bn improvement since the federal budget.We do everything we can to make sure that the budget is in as good a shape as it can, acknowledging that we are having to find room to invest in all these areas that the Australian people care about deeply and want to see improved services in.I think this incident really adds weight to the arguments that the PM that has been putting forward about needing to legislate, to provide some protections, some guardrails, and also, you know, have an escalation pathway.I mean, the idea that something happened in June 18th and we weren’t aware of it until the second week of September is just not acceptable.I think we have to have a look at this incident and deal with it on its merits, but the broader question of how we deal with these in the future. Continue reading...

Nor’easter storm batters US east coast with heavy winds and power outages

The Guardian

At least one person killed and about 110,500 households still without power from North Carolina to New EnglandA strong, deadly storm known as a nor’easter battered the US’s east coast over the weekend, bringing power outages, flooding, damaging winds and hazardous ocean conditions.Trees and power lines were knocked down across the region, at least one person was killed and hundreds of thousands were left without electricity. Continue reading...

Blanche defends Trump’s White House media ban: ‘It is a privilege, not a right’

The Guardian

US attorney general argues that president was ‘sick and tired’ of inaccurate reporting by CNN, MS Now and PoliticoDonald Trump’s attorney general Todd Blanche argued on Sunday that the administration was permitted to ban three news outlets from the White House because “it is a privilege and not a right to be there”.Appearing on the ABC News program This Week during the second week of the White House’s dispute over press credentialing and access, Blanche also said that the administration took the decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico beginning on 19 September because the president was “sick and tired” of what he considered to be those media outlets’ inaccurate reporting. Continue reading...

Shannon felt a ‘sense of doom’ as she sought justice for sexual assault. A new NSW program hopes to alleviate that

The Guardian

Exclusive: Dedicated service to support sexual assault victim-survivors as they navigate legal system to open in NSWFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt took Shannon Stokes two years and 11 days to successfully prosecute her former boyfriend for sexual assault and domestic violence offences. The lengthy trial left her feeling as though “there wasn’t going to be an end in sight”.Prosecutors secured convictions on nine of the 11 charges, and he was later sentenced to five years in prison. Continue reading...

Republican senator criticizes White House for taxpayer-funded Trump ads

The Guardian

John Kennedy pushes back against such spending as pro-Trump ‘public service announcements’ air before midtermsAs the White House expands a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign to promote Donald Trump’s political agenda before the November midterm elections, US senator John Kennedy told CBS News on Sunday “there ought to be a rule” against such spending – before tacitly admitting such spending is “probably” illegal.Kennedy, the US president’s fellow Republican, was asked by Margaret Brennan, the CBS Face the Nation host, about the White House spending to air multiple ads featuring Trump – including one that was produced for his 2024 election campaign. Continue reading...

Serbia’s populist president Aleksandar Vučić resigns to run for prime minister

The Guardian

Vučić not allowed to seek third presidential term and election will test his grip on rule after widespread protestsSerbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vučić, has resigned to pursue an attempt to become prime minister in an early parliamentary election that will test his firm rule in the Balkan country after nearly two years of protests.Vučić’s second presidential term would otherwise end in May next year. He is banned by the constitution from seeking a third term and said he was resigning to lead his rightwing Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in the 25 October ballot. Continue reading...

Andy Burnham to fight next election with plan for NHS-style care service

The Guardian

PM says he is willing to expend political capital to bring in universal service for England funded by ‘everybody’Analysis: can Labour hang on to Burnham bounce?Andy Burnham will fight the next election with a pledge to finally fix the broken social care system, acknowledging he is willing to expend political capital by asking taxpayers to cover the cost.As Labour’s party conference began in Liverpool, he pledged to “rip the plaster off” to radically transform care, setting out a vision for a universal service that would be free at the point of use for everyone in England. Continue reading...

Five arrested on terrorism charges after explosives found near RAF base used by US

The Guardian

Counter-terrorism police investigate whether Iran is behind suspected bomb plot after member of public calls 999 over suspicious vehiclesCounter-terrorism police are investigating whether Iran is behind a suspected bomb plot after armed officers found explosives on three vans parked minutes from an RAF base used by the US military.The Guardian understands that after five men were arrested on terrorism charges, investigators were examining materials found in the vans, with an initial view being they were consistent with improvised explosive devices. Continue reading...

Republican says Trump’s support of Ken Paxton in Texas primary was ‘colossal mistake’

The Guardian

Thom Tillis says Trump’s decision to back Paxton over John Cornyn has put the Senate seat at risk for RepublicansUS senator Thom Tillis on Sunday criticized Donald Trump, his fellow Republican, for the president’s support of Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the Texas Senate Republican primary.“He made a colossal mistake,” Tillis, a frequent Trump critic from North Carolina, said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union in reference to the president’s support of Paxton who defeated Cornyn in the May primary. Continue reading...

‘Don’t squander it’: Can Labour hang on to the Burnham bounce?

The Guardian

Conference delegates grateful ousting Starmer has paid off, but relief tempered by fiscal headwinds aheadUK politics live – latest updatesEven Andy Burnham’s closest allies accept that deposing Keir Starmer to install their man as leader was a huge political gamble. But if the mood at the Labour party conference in Liverpool is anything to go by, it is one that – so far – has paid off.The contrast with last year, when Starmer retained his grip on the party and Burnham slunk away from Liverpool early, could not be more stark. Their relief at their turn of fortune is tempered only by the fiscal headwinds ahead. Continue reading...

In tech

Out of the Park Baseball lets me enjoy baseball even when the Mets suck

The Verge

If you were to ask me what game or game series I've sunk the most time into, the answer would be easy: Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP). I have spent roughly 2,300 hours, according to Steam, playing various editions of the game. OOTP isn't like MLB The Show or Super Mega Baseball. It's not […]

Engram is a sampler that turns broken AI hallucinations into music

The Verge

Music startup Thoughtful Things has just launched the Kickstarter campaign for its first instrument, Engram. It's a sampler and groovebox that uses AI to mangle incoming audio and even hallucinate completely new sounds. This isn't Suno in a box, though. This isn't a "push-button, get-song" device, aimed at creating something that sounds ready for top-40 […]

OpenAI agents tried to ‘bruteforce’ a UN website

The Verge

Security researcher Rowan Howard-Jones says that OpenAI agents scanned the UN Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) statistics site over 16,000 times between April and June. While the incident doesn't quite rise to the level of the Hugging Face hack, or the recent attacks on US government sites, it's yet another concerning example of AI […]

Why OLPC’s $100 laptop never stood a chance

The Verge

The idea was big, exciting, and inspiring: What if we could get every kid in the world access to a computer? For a bunch of thinkers and executives in Silicon Valley, it felt like the way to fix everything. But the One Laptop Per Child initiative, and the XO-1 laptop designed to be given away, […]

The smart home graveyard is getting crowded

The Verge

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the fragile state of your connected devices, follow Jennifer Pattison Tuohy. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started A decade ago, a […]

Googlebooks might be the real deal

The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 145, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, I'm happy to be done traveling for a bit, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I flew to San Francisco to try out […]

PNOE’s new face mask wants to make lab-grade breath testing a self-serve affair

TechCrunch

PNOĒ, the Malden, Mass.-based startup whose breath-analyzing mask used to bear an unfortunate resemblance to Bane's, is launching a sleeker self-serve version on October 1 that lets gym-goers measure their VO₂ max and other metabolic markers in eight minutes without a trained operator.