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 30, 2026

77 stories published this day.

Around the world

Swiss glaciers suffer another year of record ice loss

NPR World

Switzerland's glaciers are disappearing at a record pace. More than 5% of their ice has vanished this year alone — threatening water supplies, ecosystems and communities across Europe.

Australia news live: ATO finds one-quarter of big firms pay zero tax; NDIS alternative Thriving Kids program begins

The Guardian

Follow the day’s news live.Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastShoebridge says people are sick of ‘messaging without substance’David Shoebridge, the new Greens leader, says Australians are “sick of the messaging without substance”.People are sick of the messaging without substance. What they’re asking for is they’re asking for a political party that’s going to go and fight for them and take on the 1% and take on the corporations. They want to see us fighting for that.We have an incredibly united membership base. We have an incredibly united party across the country. And I expect that to be how we operate as a party room, how we operate as a leadership team and how we operate as a growing movement.The ATO is committed to helping taxpayers transition to alternative payment methods and will continue to support those experiencing financial hardship or other circumstances that make it difficult to meet their obligations. Continue reading...

Hegseth confirms plan to cut 20% of US top military brass and rails at ‘beardos, weirdos and wimps’

The Guardian

Pentagon head hails military with ‘no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals’ in anti-DEI rantSend us your questions about how the Iran war will affect US voters in the midtermsThe US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has confirmed plans to cut 20% of generals and admirals and declared “no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps” would be tolerated inside the country’s military.Delivering his latest extraordinary attack on diversity, and dismissing reports of low morale within the US armed forces as “false claims”, Hegseth also suggested they were retaining service personnel at “record” rates. Continue reading...

Pete Hegseth appoints Elon Musk to US taskforce on future of warfare

The Guardian

A year after his explosive tenure at Doge, the SpaceX CEO is back in the Trump administration’s good gracesPete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that Elon Musk will co-lead a government project to study the future of warfare, marking the SpaceX CEO’s first return to government since he ran the chaotic, so -called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge. Musk will be joined by Palmer Luckey, CEO of the defense tech company Anduril, and Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House.A defense department press release on the effort, called Project Meridian, described its goal as “identifying the capabilities required to achieve absolute technological dominance on the next-generation battlefield”. The project will run for 120 days and culminate in an unclassified public report of its recommendations. Continue reading...

Brisbane and Sydney hit hardest by falling house prices as 5.2% shaved from property values nationwide

The Guardian

Cotality data shows median house prices fell in September as interest rates hit borrowing capacityFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHousing prices are falling in almost every suburb in Australia’s biggest cities, with values dropping faster in Brisbane than Sydney as the slowdown intensifies.Prices nationally have fallen 5.2% from their peak in March to where they were a year ago, Cotality data released on Thursday shows. Continue reading...

Parents of toddler who had loaded pistol in bag at Detroit daycare to face charges

The Guardian

No one was injured at Children’s World Early Learning Center and parents will appear in court, police saidThe parents of a Detroit-area toddler who pulled a loaded pistol out of his backpack at a daycare will face charges in the case, police said on Wednesday.In a statement, police in Canton Township said the parents would make an initial court appearance on Thursday. The Wayne county prosecutor’s office declined to offer details or additional comment, saying it would wait until a judge signs off on the charges. Continue reading...

Senate blocks Republican bill restricting stock trades by US Congress members

The Guardian

Democrats block measure they say didn’t go far enough – and was bundled with ‘poison pill’ voter ID rulesThe US Senate on Wednesday blocked a Republican bill restricting stock trading by members of Congress, after Democrats refused to advance a measure they said would let lawmakers keep their portfolios and was bundled with voter ID rules they called a “poison pill”.The 53-47 vote fell seven short of the 60 needed to open debate on the Stop Insider Trading Act, which the Republican-controlled House passed in July. Every Democrat and independent voted no, and the failure comes five weeks before the 3 November midterms. Continue reading...

In-laws charged with murder of New York Times games engineer in California

The Guardian

Shili Chen and Shouyong Zhang, both 77, charged days before Jonathan McKinsey and wife were set for hearing in divorce caseA California couple have been charged with murder after authorities say they shot their son-in-law to death on Saturday in a public park, days before he and the couple’s daughter were set for a hearing in a bitter divorce case.Shili Chen and Shouyong Zhang, both 77, were due in court on Wednesday for an arraignment on the charges. The Associated Press was not able to reach an attorney for the couple before the court appearance. Their daughter, Candice Jang, could not be reached, though she appeared virtually at Wednesday’s hearing. Continue reading...

Trump administration diverts human rights funds to push far-right agenda abroad

The Guardian

Support for white Afrikaners, anti-communism and others reveals how US redefining what qualifies as human rightsWith hours left before the funding expires, the Trump administration is pushing to direct more than $175m of the state department’s flagship human rights fund to a slate of awards that includes a huge $40m grant for an anti-communism fund, support for a group advancing white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a campaign against Brazil’s supreme court and programs that would reward ideological allies in Europe who protect “western civilizational norms”.On Wednesday, the state department obligated the funds to the grantees hours before the deadline despite congressional concerns and requests not to do so, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The state department declined to comment on questions from the Guardian specifically on whether it had obligated the funds and had “blown” holds from Congress due to concerns about the money’s use. Continue reading...

Israeli forces overwhelmed by violent settlers in ‘terrorist attack’ on Palestinian family

The Guardian

Settler violence in West Bank makes everyday life ‘untenable’ for Palestinians, says ICRC after assault on family trying to return home in JaludThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said Israeli settler violence in the West Bank has made everyday life for Palestinians “untenable”, as a mob attack on Palestinians trying to return home prompted one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rivals to warn of a campaign of settler terror.More than 100 militant settlers overwhelmed Israeli security forces early on Tuesday to attack a Palestinian family as they attempted to reclaim their homes which had been seized by settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud. Three Israeli security officials were injured and houses were set on fire. Continue reading...

Stella McCartney makes waves with ‘sea life, not sea food’ theme in zero-wool Paris show

The Guardian

Designer showcases wool alternatives and ocean-inspired clothes and says ‘kindness requires real work’Stella McCartney has been talking about animal rights at fashion week for 30 years. She is usually a lone voice, but the issue is back in the headlines this season. Outcry over the physical restraining of a Peta protester at a catwalk show by Steven Kolb, the president of New York fashion week’s governing body, has put cruelty in wool production – previously considered niche compared to the hot button topic of fur – on the news agenda.“There is no wool on the runway this season, and I’m proud of that,” McCartney said after her show. She has been working on wool alternatives, including Brewed Protein, a fermented alternative to cashmere and wool developed in collaboration with the Japanese biotech firm Spiber, which was first used in her collections a year ago. Continue reading...

In tech

Neon sticks it to A24 by announcing a Creative Commons SCP Foundation movie

The Verge

A24 pissed off one of the internet's largest horror communities when it announced it was working on an SCP Foundation film, but apparently hadn't bothered to contact the SCP Wiki team, nor did it commit to releasing it under a Creative Commons license as required. Seeing an easy PR win, Neon is cashing in by […]

Google announces Gemini 4 and says it’s so capable that only ‘trusted cyber defenders’ can have it right now

The Verge

Google today revealed its next AI frontier model, which it's calling Gemini 4 Argon. The new model delivers "frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, enterprise knowledge work like legal and finance, and cybersecurity defense," according to chief AI architect and Google DeepMind SVP Koray Kavukcuoglu. But the company is limiting access at […]

Is Neko Health’s body scan worth it? Spotify billionaire’s startup has come to America

TechCrunch

Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s Neko Health raised $700 million to build a business around scanning your body, but it’s not the only company centering its roadmap around a new kind of preventative healthcare. Midjourney is building its own body scanner, while Function Health has also raised significant capital to build out its preventative-health platform. Why are investors betting so big on this category? On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, […]

Furry Airline Pilots Are Just Minding Their Own Business

Wired

“We’re furries at home, and we’re airline pilots at work, and these are two separate things,” says one member of the community in response to senator Tommy Tuberville's recent rant.

The AI Tamagotchis are coming

The Verge

While AI has made plenty of inroads on people's phones and computers, it's largely failed in dedicated devices. But over the next year, two major AI companies, Meta and OpenAI, will attempt to change that. And they're apparently betting on a similar path: testing appetites for physical hardware with their cutesy software agents. "Hardware is […]

Reddit says it has to cut back access to ‘Old Reddit’ because of AI bots

The Verge

Reddit is further limiting who can use the "Old Reddit" experience as part of its efforts to combat scraping and automated traffic. Reddit recently started forcing users to log in to be able to use Old Reddit, but in the "next few months," the company says that you'll have to be logged in and have […]

The ugly economics of consumer AI

TechCrunch

There’s a reason frontier labs have gotten gun-shy about consumer AI — and it’s not because the tech isn’t good enough.

Amazon’s delivery driver smart glasses will reportedly take photos ‘almost constantly’

The Verge

Amazon deliveries could soon come with a new catch: the delivery driver's smart glasses will be snapping photos of anything they see while they're in use, including people and private property. Bloomberg reports that the glasses could take "several thousand captures in a single driver's typical shift," which Amazon plans to upload to its AI […]

Here’s what AI leaders are saying about Trump’s new safety plan

The Verge

After hosting a meal with Big Tech leaders on Tuesday, President Donald Trump responded to journalist questions about his artificial intelligence announcements in typical fashion. He said his previous claims regarding fears around AI safety being a "hoax" cooked up by Democrats no longer apply now that he's renamed the technology to "Super Intelligence." He […]

This blog could help you poop better

The Verge

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. "I will explode your butthole with this poopmaxxer pesto," a calm Gen Z voice announced from my phone's speakers. "And […]

Asus won’t say how it escaped the US router ban

The Verge

This spring, the United States banned all future foreign-made consumer routers - effectively all future routers - unless their makers could 1) convince the US government that they weren't a national security threat, and 2) submit "a detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand manufacturing in the United States." As of September 9th, Asus now […]

‘Xbox is not for sale’ says Microsoft’s gaming chief

The Verge

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied reports that Microsoft is considering selling off its Xbox business. The Information reported in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had been considering spinning out Xbox entirely, and then reported earlier this month that both execs have "more recently supported Sharma's plans to overhaul the […]

The Halide camera app now offers full control of the iPhone 18 Pro’s aperture

The Verge

A new update to Lux Optics' anti-algorithm Halide camera app for the iPhone and iPad adds two new photography looks and support for the variable aperture on the new iPhone 18 Pro's main camera. Halide isn't the first alternative to the native iOS camera app to add support for the new feature, but it offers […]

Black Twitter Is Thriving—on Threads

Wired

From outrage over Nolan Wells’ death to analysis of HBO Max’s Lanterns, Threads has transformed into a vital artery of the Black social media ecosystem.