Report supporting Australia’s teen social media ban appears to contain AI hallucinations, Senate hears 17. August 2026 (04:58) Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds one section of report includes links to academic articles that do not exist, but authors deny the references were made up by AIFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe authors of a report testing the technology underpinning Australia’s social media ban have conceded ChatGPT was used in editing, but denied a number of citation errors in the report were due to AI hallucinations.The $3.48m age assurance technology trial, run by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) last year, tested various types of technology that could be used by social media platforms as part of Australia’s under-16 social media ban. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Trump orders cuts to South Korea joint drills despite warnings of North’s growing battlefield experience 17. August 2026 (02:19) President says move is based on ‘very good relationship with Kim Jong-un’ but US military officials have said Ukraine war is boosting regime’s combat capabilitiesDonald Trump has said he is scaling back joint US military drills with South Korea aimed at deterring North Korea, despite military officials from both countries warning that Kim Jong-un’s regime was learning new battlefield tactics from the Ukraine war.The drills under Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of two major annual exercises held by South Korea and the US, start on Monday and run until 27 August. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo now deadliest in country’s history 17. August 2026 (02:09) At least 2,325 people have been killed, according to government data, surpassing the death toll from 2018-20 outbreakThe Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the deadliest in the country’s history with at least 2,325 people killed, according to government data, surpassing the toll from the 2018-20 outbreak.Congo’s public health institute said on Sunday that confirmed cases had risen to 4,945, including 101 new cases detected in the previous 24 hours. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Jared Kushner meets with Hamas ahead of talks with Netanyahu on Gaza 17. August 2026 (00:07) Trump’s son-in-law and envoy held rare meeting with Hamas chief in Egypt in push for progress on ceasefireDonald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner, held a rare meeting with Hamas’s political chief on Sunday in Egypt, in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure after rejecting the new 15-point, US-backed road map.The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Five teenagers killed after car driven on wrong side of Irish motorway 16. August 2026 (23:50) Head-on collision between two vehicles on M9 in County Kildare also injured four other people, say policeFive teenagers have died and four other people have been seriously injured in a crash involving a car driving in the wrong direction on a motorway in the Republic of Ireland, police said.Gardaí confirmed the bodies of the youths, all male, had been removed from the scene of the two-vehicle collision, which happened at about 3am on Sunday on the M9 in County Kildare. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Australia politics live: Nationals argue gun buyback is against constitutional clause featured in The Castle 16. August 2026 (23:44) Scheme will give NSW gun licence holders a fixed compensation fee based on type of firearm. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNationals argue low gun buyback price doesn’t sit well with the constitutionNationals senator Bridget McKenzie says the first and only deal so far negotiated between the commonwealth and NSW to buy back guns in the wake of the Bondi terror attack might not work with the constitution.Does a buyback need to be on just terms? Yes, it does. Does it need to ensure that market value is paid to Australians for their own assets? Of course it does. And under the federal constitution, that’s a requirement.I’m confident that there is an agreement to be reached here, and I say it for this reason. The Coalition has said publicly that they think that reforming this scheme does matter. They’ve said that they’re up for that task. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut 16. August 2026 (23:00) Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’Reform UK has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it prepared to outline £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals.Robert Jenrick, Reform’s finance spokesperson, will detail the plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as another £21bn from stopping foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status – claiming almost any benefits, among other cuts. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Republican senator denounces Trump’s ‘crazy, stupid’ claims about MMR vaccine safety 16. August 2026 (21:58) Outgoing Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, voted to confirm anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr as health secretary before speaking outRepublican senator Bill Cassidy – a medical doctor who voted to confirm anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy as federal health secretary in early 2025 – on Sunday denounced Donald Trump’s “crazy, stupid” claims about the safety of the combined MMR vaccine for undermining faith in immunization.When Trump recently ordered changes to the recommended childhood vaccination schedule, with Kennedy by his side, the president called for two shots of the combined Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine to be scrapped in favor of two doses of three separate vaccines, claiming that the MMR shots are “sort of like a nuclear weapon” that could be “quite lethal”. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
At least six people dead from days of storms and record flooding in Indiana 16. August 2026 (21:27) Four-year-old boy, two men and three women among those who died since storms began on 11 August, officials sayDays of storms and flooding in Indiana left at least six people dead as flood waters peaked in Indianapolis’s White River – and rains were expected to ease in the state capital region and other parts of the state on Sunday.A four-year-old boy, two men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began on 11 August, state homeland security department spokesperson Liz Woods said. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Brazil’s Lula launches historic fourth term bid – but son of jailed Bolsonaro stands in his way 16. August 2026 (20:44) President, 80, vows to keep far-right from power as Flávio Bolsonaro tells supporters he will ‘fight this system’Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has launched his campaign for a historic fourth term and vowed that as long as he lived he would not allow the “shameless” right to return to power.Addressing a sea of supporters in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, the 80-year-old politician reminded voters of the chaos and violence that unfolded during the 2018-2022 presidency of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, whose son, Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula will face in October’s presidential election. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
