Repression of anti-Gaza genocide protests took another leap at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Sunday, confirming that Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government is continuing the pro-Zionist and pro-war agenda of his predecessor, Keir Starmer. 

Mass arrests of 150 Palestine Action protesters at UK Labour Party conference, as total nears 4,000

BY Robert Stevens

Merseyside Police arrested more than 150 people, the vast majority of those peacefully protesting. This brings the total arrests since the undemocratic proscription last year of Palestine Action under anti-terror legislation to almost 4,000.

The Reserve Bank has delivered its fourth rate hike for 2026, bringing interest rates to the highest level since November 2011.

Meanwhile, the Australian share market opened higher in morning trading ahead of the RBA's interest rate decision.

US bonds surged as Wall Street closed lower.

Meanwhile, oil is trading above $US105 a barrel.

Follow the day's financial news and insights from our specialist business reporters on our live blog.

Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.

Paris – On August 25, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unexpected visit to Moscow, where he met with several senior Russian military officials and intelligence chiefs. The reason for the visit remained unclear, and speculation circulated on social media, but it was largely speculative.

BY Huda Al-Husseini*

In mid-September, the Kremlin was signaling that negotiations could resume. Putin had said the trilateral talks with the United States and Ukraine would be unlikely before the State Duma elections, but that Russia would be ready to resume contacts after them. The elections ended on September 20. Within a week, both Putin and Lavrov had shifted from conditional openness to a set of positions that make a negotiated end to the war harder to reach than at any point this year.

A new poll finds majority support among surveyed Democrats for pursuing criminal prosecutions of officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations over Gaza. The finding points to demands for accountability that extend beyond party allegiance.

Stephen Prager

The majority of Democratic voters believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza for the past three years. And they want the American politicians in both parties who supported it to pay.

On June 14, 1854, the allied Anglo-French fleet dropped anchor off Krasnaya Gorka, a village 20 km from Kronstadt and around 50 km from St. Petersburg. Dozens of screw-propelled frigates and steam and sail-powered ships – carrying 3,500 guns and over 30,000 sailors – formed an armada the likes of which had not been seen since the Battle of Trafalgar. They stood by, ready to attack the capital of the Russian Empire. 

Britain and Russia have been to war before. Ask the British fleet how that went

In the Baltic, London’s armada found that threatening St. Petersburg was easier than getting past Kronstadt

US President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping whether Beijing would be interested in buying US weapons, according to Washington’s ambassador to China, despite longstanding restrictions on military exports to the country.

Ambassador David Perdue revealed the exchange during an interview with Fox News Sunday while discussing Trump’s approach to China and continued US weapons sales to Taiwan.

Trump asked Xi to buy US weapons – ambassador

Federal restrictions bar defense exports to China, while Washington continues to antagonize Beijing by supplying Taiwan

“President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,’” Perdue said. “He actually asked President Xi if he would like to buy some at one point.”

trumpoot 

Last week President Donald Trump gave a public address to the United Nations General Assembly, declaring that he might soon “annihilate” Iran, a large country of over 90 million people.

The UN has always been a rather stodgy and subdued international organization, normally the venue for diplomatic presentations of remarkable blandness. In its entire history, I doubt it has ever seen a speech of comparable boldness, let alone one made by the leader of a top world power.

American Pravda: Will AI Exterminate the Human Species? 

Or Will Our AI Boom Merely Waste Trillions of Dollars of Capital?

BY RON UNZ

I was surprised a few weeks ago to get an invitation from Yana Lantratova, Russian Federal Commissioner for Human Rights, to deliver a speech on human rights to the International Youth Festival in Ekaterinburg. It is approaching 20 years since I was last in Russia, and I tend to avoid invitations from governments.

Craig Murray: Four Days in Ekaterinburg

One could read the super-Russophobic Guardian in Russia anytime, with no VPN. That alone is sufficient to destroy the simplistic narrative of “free West vs. authoritarian Russia.”

But on reflection, I decided that the current official Russophobia of the West and the constant state of propaganda for war with Russia to which we are subjected make an overwhelming reason to go and take a look at the state of the country.

Argentina's poverty rate increased to 32.3 percent in the first half of 2026, partly erasing gains made under President Javier Milei as incomes fail to keep step with rising prices, official statistics showed Thursday.

The rate grew 4.1 points compared to the last half of 2025, the national statistics agency Indec said.

The rate of extreme poverty also shot up from 6.3 percent to 7.5 percent.

The Swiss government and parliament are urging voters to reject a proposal during an upcoming referendum that would strengthen the country’s neutrality policy by constraining Bern’s ability to impose unilateral sanctions.

The motion is being pushed by pro-sovereignty politicians, who have criticized the government’s decision to largely adopt EU sanctions against Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Under the current system that the Federal Council seeks to preserve, the seven-member ruling body decides on a case-by-case basis whether Switzerland should copy restrictions imposed by other Western nations.

The proposed amendment will be put to a nationwide vote on Sunday, September 27.

Jennifer Game considered herself a "true believer" in One Nation. Not anymore.

"They use people," she said.

"It's not a democratic party in the way that other parties are.

"They've got no checks and balances on them."

Ms Game was One Nation's party leader in South Australia, and policy adviser to Pauline Hanson for eight years.

But after having a front row seat to its operations, Ms Game said she would not vote for One Nation at the next election.

"It's not a party, in truth," she said.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Will Cain Show,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that China could easily open the Strait of Hormuz, but refuses to, and the U.S. will “have to decide whether, having achieved all of our objectives, it’s time to come home and let China and Russia and North Korea and Europe and all of the other countries that refuse to help” deal with the situation.

Kennedy began by saying, “I think that the people running Iran are reptiles, and they’re part of a colony of reptiles, China, North Korea, Russia, and — as I said — Iran. The chief reptile, the quarterback, is President Xi in China. You can’t trust any of them. All four of them are the same.”

A senior official in Vladimir Zelensky’s office frantically tried to reconcile her official annual salary of $12,500 with what surveillance records suggest was $30,000 per month in cash payments received from her new boss, a former head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR), according to a new investigation. 

Inside the bunker: How a Zelensky aide struggled to explain away corruption

The Ukrainian leader’s inner circle was frantically trying to cover up extravagant purchases made while the rest of the country suffered