Sydney man who allegedly called 13-year-old Muslim girl a ‘terrorist’ berates judge after bail refused 16. September 2026 (07:27) Omar Yassine was arrested and charged with stalking and intimidation after allegedly hurling insults at year 8 student wearing a hijabGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA middle-aged man accused of a “disgusting” Islamophobic attack on a 13-year-old girl has berated a judge after he was denied bailOmar Yassine made an eventful court appearance on Wednesday after being held by police overnight for allegedly verbally abusing the Muslim schoolgirl on a Sydney bus. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Anthropic to build $31bn datacentre in western Queensland, David Crisafulli says 16. September 2026 (07:20) Premier describes deal as ‘major win’ that will deliver more jobs for the state and put more energy into its gridAnthropic, the AI giant behind the large language model Claude, has done a deal to lease the site of its first Australian datacentre in western Queensland.The state premier, David Crisafulli, announced the decision in parliament on Wednesday. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Slave-trade wealth was embedded in Britain’s financial system, research finds 16. September 2026 (07:00) Dozens of Bank of England directors and founding subscribers invested in trafficking of enslaved AfricansThe Bank of England and the British financial system were for centuries deeply involved in the enslavement and transatlantic trafficking of millions of African people, according to new research on Britain’s slavery history.Research by historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders has found that the scale of the financial system’s involvement in enslavement is greater than previously known or acknowledged. The Bank of England, the central bank owned by the government since nationalisation by Clement Attlee’s Labour administration in 1946, had dozens of financiers involved in its foundation who were also significant investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Fresh evidence of C of E’s role in enslavement uncovered as church wrestles with reparations debate 16. September 2026 (07:00) Register of British Slave Traders shows clergymen financed company that trafficked enslaved Africans on hundreds of voyagesNearly 250 years after the abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano made the Christian case for reparative justice, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, visited the Ghanaian shore where he was enslaved as a boy.After witnessing the dungeons beneath the chapel at Cape Coast Castle, once run by the Royal African Company (RAC), Mullally recommitted the Church of England to its “journey of repentance” for its role in slavery. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Revealed: the UK towns with the fewest jobs for young people 16. September 2026 (07:00) Rotherham has 46 online vacancies for every 1,000 young people but there are 288 in Cotswold district council areaYoung people in Rotherham face a local jobs market with the fewest suitable opportunities in Britain, according to a report that warns stark regional divisions are fuelling a crisis in youth work.As ministers push to combat rising youth unemployment, the analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) showed young people faced a tougher challenge in some parts of the country to find work than in others. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder 16. September 2026 (07:00) Defenders of forests and rivers killed at rate of one every three days in 2025, with 85% of deaths in Latin AmericaNature and land defenders were murdered at the rate of one every three days last year, prompting many communities to set up self-defence units, according to the latest annual death toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness.Organised crime groups or professional killers were implicated in more than a third of the 124 killings of defenders in 2025 as narco-trafficking activities overlapped with intrusions into indigenous territories and environmental crime, such as illegal logging and wildcat gold mining. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
NBC helicopter crash in LA kills at least three people with others injured 16. September 2026 (06:32) Accident occurred as news crews in Los Angeles were covering a bus crash that had killed at least two people hours earlierA news helicopter crash in a Los Angeles neighborhood has killed at least three people, after it came to the ground and burst into flames near the site of a bus crash that occurred hours earlier.The helicopter crashed near a one-storey commercial building in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, as news crews were covering the bus crash that left at least two people dead and six others injured, according the Los Angeles Fire Department. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
UK mathematician debunks myth around Parthenon’s optical illusions 16. September 2026 (06:01) Study challenges belief that temple’s curves were designed to correct optical illusions that would have ruined its clean linesA mathematician has uncovered what may be one of the longest-running myths in history after studying optical illusions and the Parthenon, the famed Greek temple that overlooks Athens.Scholars have marvelled at the building on the Acropolis hill for more than 2,000 years and heaped praise on its architects for their clever use of geometry. Its subtle curves are said to correct optical illusions that would have otherwise ruined the Parthenon’s clean lines. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Airlines should pay for CO2 removal if Heathrow expands, say climate advisers 16. September 2026 (06:00) Climate Change Committee says government cannot expand airport without requiring aviation industry to clean up its emissions Heathrow airport should be allowed to expand only if airlines pay for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the government’s climate advisers have said.Building a third runway and new terminals, as some in government want to do, would breach the UK’s carbon budgets and make reaching net zero by 2050 impossible, on current policies, according to the Climate Change Committee. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Students in Gaza ‘devastated’ after plan for them to study in Belgium fails 16. September 2026 (06:00) Belgian government unable to agree on evacuation of 13 students to take up scholarships at universitiesStudents who are unable to leave Gaza and take up scholarships at Belgian universities have said they are devastated after Belgium’s government hit deadlock on a plan enabling them to leave the war-torn territory.Ahmed Abujami, a 28-year-old doctor in Gaza, said he was “deeply disappointed” after Belgium’s five-party coalition government last Friday failed to agree on an evacuation plan for 13 students and researchers in the territory. Abujami has a scholarship to do a one-year master’s degree in public health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. He hopes to gain skills and experience to rebuild Gaza’s shattered health system. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
