Former UN food agency official claims he was fired for highlighting hunger in Gaza 06. October 2026 (13:31) Benjamin Davis appealing against dismissal from FAO, after being accused by director general of playing ‘political games’A former senior UN food agency official has alleged he was fired last week for his work highlighting hunger in Gaza, and has launched an appeal against his dismissal.Benjamin Davis said the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had refused to renew his contract as director of its rural transformation and gender equality division because his team had published a brief on hunger in Gaza and held a seminar on the subject last year, and because he taken part in weekly “moment of silence” vigils on FAO grounds for those killed. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
‘This is state violence’: Paris students rage at politicians and heavy-handed policing 06. October 2026 (13:28) Unprecedented protests that began in low-income banlieue are turning ugly, with investigations under way into police brutalityBefore dawn on Tuesday outside the Lycée Sophie-Germain in central Paris, hundreds of teenagers dragged wheelie bins, metal barriers and shopping trolleys to build a barricade outside the front door of their secondary school.Climbing to the top of the piles of bins, pupils held banners calling for more funding and greater equality in French schools. But they were also protesting against French riot police, who have been accused by human rights groups of using disproportionate force against children in what is fast becoming the biggest youth protest movement in decades. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
OpenAI delivers a mea culpa to the Australian government in person – but answers still elude 06. October 2026 (13:12) Jason Kwon’s answers were provided in a helpful, quiet and calm manner. For a company under intense scrutiny, there were no missteps Open AI’s Jason Kwon flew 15 hours from San Francisco to Sydney to give the company’s first in-person mea culpa after it admitted – in an unsigned email, to a public departmental inbox – that one of its AI agents had accessed a Services Australia website without authorisation and grabbed data related to Medicare.Kwon – polite, friendly, even-toned – got through a potentially dicey committee hearing unscathed, promising to do better and pledging assistance to Australia. No missteps, no viral moments, just delivering his answers helpfully, in a quiet and calm manner, sympathising with the questioner and the point they were making.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Misuse of AI is brands’ top reputational threat, new survey says 06. October 2026 (13:00) The findings come after warnings from tech leaders that AI placed in the wrong hands could trigger larger threats such as nuclear war or bioweaponry destructionMisusing artificial intelligence (AI) is the top threat to companies’ reputations – more so than being accused of putting children in the way of mental, emotional or physical harm and issues exposed by the US-Israel war on Iran, among other brand risks, according to a new survey of more than 150 public affairs leaders.Those findings in the new edition of the quarterly Reputation Risk Index, released on Tuesday, came on the heels of other perhaps more dire warnings from leading tech figures that AI in the wrong hands could precipitate existential threats on a mass scale such as nuclear war or destruction by bioweaponry. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Democrats upbeat as unpopular Trump imperils Republican midterm hopes 06. October 2026 (13:00) Polls show GOP candidates trailing Democrats in Senate races, and Republicans also struggling in House contestsThirty days remain until the midterm elections, and Donald Trump and his Republican allies are pulling out all the stops to maintain control of Congress.Super Pacs aligned with the GOP have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising and voter outreach in races expected to decide the majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, and plan to spend even more before the election is over. The president, vice-president JD Vance, and other top Republicans are fanning out across the country to stump for vulnerable lawmakers. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Richard Morecroft, veteran ABC news presenter, dies age 70 after cancer diagnosis 06. October 2026 (12:44) Michael Rowland and Leigh Sales lead tributes to newsreader who read the ABC’s 7pm bulletin for 20 yearsGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastFormer ABC news presenter Richard Morecroft has died at the age of 70.Morecroft presented ABC’s 7pm news bulletin for almost 20 years until 2002. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Drax datacentre could create nearly twice the yearly emissions of all Gatwick flights 06. October 2026 (12:27) Exclusive: Campaign group’s analysis of North Yorkshire plans finds datacentre would have to burn 4.9m tonnes of wood a yearDrax’s planned datacentre could produce nearly double the emissions of all flights out of Gatwick airport each year by burning 4.9m tonnes of wood annually, an analysis has shown.Campaigners say this would make it “one of the dirtiest datacentres out there”. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
