Video of Chinese jet’s apparent intercept with Australian defence plane ‘deeply troubling’ propaganda, Coalition says

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Shadow defence minister calls on Australian prime minister to raise matter with Chinese president, saying it is ‘not the actions of a friend’

The release of a video appearing to show a Chinese military aircraft in a “dangerous” interception with an Australian surveillance plane has been criticised as “risky” and “deeply troubling” propaganda by the Australian opposition, who are calling for the prime minister to raise the matter with China’s president.

The footage, posted on video-hosting site BiliBili with the watermark of Chinese state television’s military affairs channel, appeared to show a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) J-16 fighter intercepting an Australian P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft. The incident took place in international airspace over the South China Sea in 2022.

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‘Butterfly emergency’ declared as UK summer count hits record low

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Conservation group calls on government to ban insect-killing neonicotinoid pesticides outright

A national “butterfly emergency” has been declared by Butterfly Conservation after the lowest Big Butterfly Count since records began.

An average of just seven butterflies per 15-minute count were recorded by participants in this summer’s butterfly count, the lowest in the survey’s 14-year history.

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Superyacht and private jet tax could raise £2bn a year, say campaigners

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Oxfam says ‘commonsense solution’ would reduce emissions and raise urgently needed climate finance

Fair taxes on superyachts and private jets in the UK could have brought in £2bn last year to provide vital funds for communities suffering the worst effects of climate breakdown, campaigners say.

Private jet use in the UK is soaring. It was home to the second highest number of private flights in Europe last year, behind only France, according to figures from the European Business Aviation Association.

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More than £494bn subsidies a year are harmful to the climate, says report

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ActionAid says ‘parasitic behaviour’ is fuelling the climate crisis and represents ‘corporate capture’ of public finance

More than $650bn (£494bn) a year in public subsidies goes to fossil fuel companies, intensive agriculture and other harmful industries in the developing world, new data has shown.

The subsidies entrench high greenhouse gas emissions and are fuelling the destruction of the natural world, according to a report from the charity ActionAid.

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Pagers in deadly attack on Hezbollah ‘made in Europe’, as Middle East braces for reprisals

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Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says a company in Europe made the pagers used in extraordinary attack in Lebanon that Hezbollah blames on Israel

The Taiwanese manufacturer linked to pagers that exploded as part of a deadly and unprecedented attack in Lebanon against Hezbollah has said the devices were made by a company in Europe, as the militant group blamed Israel and vowed revenge attacks.

Potentially thousands of pagers were remotely and simultaneously detonated across Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding almost 3,000 on Tuesday. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said a young girl was among the dead, and that more than 200 people had critical injuries.

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Hezbollah is hit by a wave of exploding pagers that killed at least 9 people and injured thousands – The Associated Press

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  1. Hezbollah is hit by a wave of exploding pagers that killed at least 9 people and injured thousands  The Associated Press
  2. Pagers explode across Lebanon in attack targeting Hezbollah members  CNN
  3. Pagers in deadly attack on Hezbollah ‘made in Europe’, as Middle East braces for reprisals  The Guardian
  4. Hezbollah Pagers Explode in Apparent Attack Across Lebanon - WSJ  The Wall Street Journal
  5. Wednesday Briefing  The New York Times
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UK overseas aid spend will reach 17-year low without urgent action, NGOs warn

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Humanitarian sector says UK will lack credibility at world summits owing to ‘devastating’ impact of budget cuts

UK aid spending will fall to its lowest level since 2007 unless the government takes urgent remedial action in the autumn budget, a group of more than 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the aid and humanitarian sector jointly warn on Wednesday.

The budget dedicated to providing aid overseas will be just 0.36% of gross national income (GNI) in 2024 largely owing to huge sums in the budget being diverted to hosting asylum-seekers in the UK, the aid organisations say.

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‘If they don’t die, our infantry will’: Ukraine’s pivotal battle for Donetsk

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Russian forces are gathering on Pokrovsk, a logistics base and transport hub, after months of slow, brutal advance

The Russian soldiers sent to storm Ukrainian positions arrived at a graveyard. Around them was the ruined village of Mykhailivka. From above, Ukrainian spy drones watched. One soldier vanished under a tree. Another jogged towards a shell-walloped cottage. Back at a control observation centre, Maj Oleksandr Fanagey muttered a few words.

Seconds later, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone hit a moving Russian. A live video stream showed that he survived but his left leg was injured. The soldier bottom-shuffled towards a patch of grass and tried to pull a bandage from a green backpack. “He will die for sure,” Fanagey predicted. “The enemy doesn’t bother evacuating its wounded.”

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UK’s ‘not for EU’ meat and dairy labelling plan postponed indefinitely

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Policy devised under Conservatives will be reviewed after warnings of chaos for producers and suppliers

Government plans to force food manufacturers to put “not for EU” labels on all meat and dairy products sold across Britain next month have been indefinitely postponed after warnings that the scheme could cause “chaos” for producers and suppliers.

The government will instead review the policy, which was devised under the Conservative administration. Legislation to implement the changes has yet to be brought in.

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Trump-allied Pac fires canvassing vendor in crucial states weeks before election

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Elon Musk’s America Pac replaces voter turnout operations in Arizona and Nevada with less than 50 days until election

America Pac, one of the largest and the most ambitious of the groups supporting Donald Trump’s campaign, is replacing its voter turnout operations in the crucial battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The political action committee, backed by billionaire Elon Musk, has ended its contract with the September Group and will hire a new company to knock on doors with fewer than 50 days left until the election.

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Trump praises Secret Service in first event since thwarted assassination plot

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Former president talks up tariffs in Flint, Michigan, and warns attendees of dangers of nuclear ‘obliteration’

Trump held his first campaign event on Tuesday since the thwarted assassination attempt over the weekend, telling a packed 6,000-seat arena in Flint, Michigan that the assassin “couldn’t even get a shot off” while describing the Secret Service’s “great” response to the threat.

During a town hall moderated by former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump took audience questions about manufacturing and the economy, among other issues. Like his first appearance after the attempt on his life in July – also a rally in Michigan – Trump appeared ready to return to business as usual on the campaign trail, and his supporters were eager to see him in action.

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Russia propaganda group behind fake Kamala Harris hit-and-run story, says Microsoft

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Microsoft researchers found that the group created a video, paid an actor to appear as the alleged victim, and spread the claim through a fake website

A false claim circulating on social media that Kamala Harris was involved in an alleged hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011 is the work of a covert Russian disinformation operation, according to new research by Microsoft.

Researchers found that the group created a video, paid an actor to appear as the alleged victim, and spread the claim through a fake website for a nonexistent San Francisco news outlet named KBSF-TV. The Russian group responsible, which Microsoft dubs Storm-1516, is described as a Kremlin-aligned troll farm.

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JD Vance defends pet-eating remarks: ‘The media has a responsibility to fact-check’

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Republican VP nominee claims at Wisconsin rally that constituents told him ‘they’d seen something in Springfield’

JD Vance defended his comments about Haitian immigrants eating pets during a Tuesday rally, saying that “the media has a responsibility to fact-check” stories – not him.

The rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, came two days after the Ohio senator told CNN host Dana Bash it was OK “to create stories” to draw attention to issues his constituents care about, regarding inflammatory and unfounded claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had eaten residents’ pets.

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