MicroWave

Life insurance companies will be banned from discriminating against people based on genetic testing under federal government moves designed to encourage greater use of predictive technology in preventive health.

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, will announce on Wednesday that life insurers will be banned from using predictive genetic testing results in their underwriting assessments.

“This change will give Australians the confidence to undertake genetic testing without fear it will impact their ability to access financial security through life insurance,” Jones said in comments provided before the formal announcement.

Western countries imposed sanctions on Iran after claiming Russia had received shipments of ballistic missiles from the country for use in the war in Ukraine. Iran denies the claims.

Iran has vowed to respond to fresh sanctions imposed by Britain, France and Germany over what they said was its supply of short-range missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.

"This action of the three European countries is the continuation of the hostile policy of the West and economic terrorism against the people of Iran, which will face the appropriate and proportionate action of the Islamic Republic of Iran," foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said in a statement late Tuesday, September 10.

The three governments had announced they would take steps to cancel air services agreements with Iran and "work towards imposing sanctions on Iran Air."

In short:

Facebook is scraping the public data of all Australian adults on the platform, it has acknowledged in an inquiry.

The company does not offer Australians an opt out option like it does in the EU, because it has not been required to do so under privacy law.

What's next?

Facebook representatives could not say whether an opt-out option would be offered to Australians in the future.

“P.S. We also don’t eat cats and dogs,” Berlin’s foreign ministry taunts Republican presidential candidate.

Germany’s foreign ministry hit back Wednesday at former U.S. President Donald Trump after he criticized the country’s energy policy at the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump slammed Germany in his closing remarks, claiming Berlin regretted its decision to transition to renewable energy.

…

But the German foreign ministry took umbrage at that, blasting Trump in an unusually blunt statement on social media.

“Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50 percent renewables,” the ministry wrote. “And we are shutting down — not building — coal and nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest.”

Mexico's Senate has approved a controversial judicial reform under which judges will be elected by popular vote.

Its supporters say the changes will make judges more accountable to the Mexican people but critics argue it undermines the country's system of checks and balances and will strengthen the power of the governing Morena party.

The bill has triggered strikes and protests, with demonstrators earlier breaking into the building where the vote was due to take place.

…

Among those who have criticised the changes is Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Piña. 

She warned the proposed model would "generate tension between judges' duty to be independent and impartial and their need to make rulings which are popular in order to attract votes".

A personal assistant convicted of killing and dismembering his former tech entrepreneur boss after stealing about $400,000 from him was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison, Manhattan’s district attorney said. 

Tyrese Haspil, 25, was found guilty in June of murder, grand larceny and other charges in the 2020 death of his former boss, Fahim Saleh. 

Prosecutors said Haspil had been hired as an assistant for Saleh, whose ventures included a ride-hailing motorcycle startup in Nigeria, but quickly began to siphon money from Saleh’s businesses. Haspil resigned a year later but continued to steal money, even after Saleh discovered the theft and let Haspil repay him over two years to avoid criminal prosecution. 

Haspil decided to kill Saleh over concerns that his former boss would discover he was continuing to steal from his companies, prosecutors said.

Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences identified a compound that affects an area of the brain that triggers hormone production.

The age when girls hit puberty has been falling at an alarming rate for decades, and scientists have struggled to explain why. New research suggests a compound found in a wide variety of products — from cosmetics to air fresheners to detergents and soaps — may send a signal to an area of the brain that triggers the start of puberty. 

It’s the first time researchers have looked at the possible impact of environmental chemicals on the brain to explain the rise in early puberty, said Dr. Natalie Shaw, a pediatric endocrinologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, North Carolina. 

Starting puberty significantly early — younger than age 8 in girls, 9 in boys — may have health effects lasting into adulthood, including higher risks of breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease. It can also lead to shortened stature in both girls and boys. In May, a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 15.5% of girls experienced early periods — younger than age 11 — and that 1.4% started menstruating younger than age 9.

The morning after his first presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump turned to friendly territory by calling into Fox & Friends. But co-host Steve Doocy still had a question for Trump that he probably wouldn’t like: Did he hear about Taylor Swift endorsing Harris?

Almost immediately following the end of the debate on Tuesday, Swift posted her endorsement of Harris on Instagram, imploring her followers to do their own research and vote; she endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020. She also cited the faked AI images of her that she was supporting Trump, which Trump and his campaign shared.

Apple on Tuesday lost its last bid to avoid paying 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in back taxes to Ireland, in a finale to a dispute with the European Union that centered on sweetheart deals that Dublin was offering to attract multinational businesses with minimal taxes across the 27-nation bloc. The final decision by the EU’s top court was quickly hailed as a landmark victory over corporate greed.

“Today is a big win for European citizens and for tax justice,” said European antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, whose 8-year fight to impose the measure on the global tech behemoth brought her to tears when she finally heard she had won.

The ruling “confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover,” the European Court of Justice said in a press release summarizing its decision.

Medical staff on the front line of the battle against mpox in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have told the BBC they are desperate for vaccines to arrive so they can stem the rate of new infections.

At a treatment centre in South Kivu province that the BBC visited in the epicentre of the outbreak, they say more patients are arriving every day - especially babies - and there is a shortage of essential equipment.

Mpox - formerly known as monkeypox - is a highly contagious disease and has killed at least 635 people in DR Congo this year.

Even though 200,000 vaccines, donated by the European Commission, were flown into the capital, Kinshasa, last week, they are yet to be transported across this vast country - and it could be several weeks before they reach South Kivu.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy have arrived in Kyiv on a joint visit as Ukraine continues to press for the right to use US and British long-range missiles against Russia.

The two men travelled together to the Ukrainian capital after talks in London. They are due to meet President Volodymr Zelensky, who has repeatedly called on Washington to loosen the limits on US-supplied weapons.

When President Joe Biden gave bumbling remarks about abortion on the debate stage this summer, it was widely viewed as a missed opportunity — a failure, even — on a powerful and motivating issue for Democrats at the ballot box.

The difference was stark, then, on Tuesday night, when Vice President Kamala Harris gave a forceful defense of abortion rights during her presidential debate with Republican Donald Trump.

Harris conveyed the dire medical situations women have found themselves in since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022. Harris quickly placed blamed directly on Trump, who recalibrated the Supreme Court to the conservative majority that issued the landmark ruling during his term.

Women, Harris told the national audience, have been denied care as a result.

“You want to talk about this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because health care providers are afraid they might go to jail and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot?” Harris said.