WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Lebanon evacuation, assassination charge, and a nuclear defence plan for asteroids

 
today's middle east story

UK prepares to evacuate Britons from Lebanon

What happened 
Britain is sending 700 troops to Cyprus in preparation for an emergency evacuation of UK citizens from Lebanon as all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah looms.

Who said what
The government was "ramping up the contingency plans" to rescue British nationals, said Keir Starmer. Speaking on a flight to New York for the UN general assembly, the prime minister urged any UK citizens still in Lebanon to "leave immediately".

The Royal Air Force has aircraft and helicopters on standby as the government "seeks to avoid the chaos seen when British nationals were evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021", said The Guardian.

At least 569 people, including 50 children, have been killed and 1,835 wounded in Israel's air strikes across Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Hezbollah yesterday responded by firing missiles at Israeli air bases and attacking the Atlit naval base south of Haifa with drones.

What next? 
If full-scale war comes to Lebanon, "Israel will be fighting on Hezbollah's turf, where its "advantages in technology and intelligence won't be as decisive" as the fight against Hamas in Gaza, said The Wall Street Journal.

World leaders called for calm yesterday as the UN general assembly held its first major session since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago. Israel and Hezbollah must "pull back from the brink", Starmer said as he flew to the conference yesterday. "We need de-escalation, we need a ceasefire."

 
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today's us news story

Man charged with attempting to assassinate Trump

What happened
Prosecutors have charged Ryan Routh (pictured above) with attempting to assassinate former president Donald Trump at his Florida golf course last week.

Who said what
The attempted assassination of a presidential candidate "strikes at the very heart of our democratic system", said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Routh, a 58-year-old from Hawai'i, had already been charged with two gun crimes for allegedly pointing a rifle through the treeline surrounding the golf course where Trump was playing a game with friends.

The charge comes a day after a court filing showed Routh had written a note months ago saying he planned to kill Trump. In the note he had also "offered $150,000 for help" and "kept a list of venues where Trump would be", said Fox News.

What next?
Routh potentially faces life in prison if convicted on the "new, more serious" charge, said the BBC. He has yet to enter a plea in the case.

 
 
Today's europe story

Police open probe into use of 'suicide capsule'

What happened
Police in Switzerland said they had detained several people over the suspected death of a person inside a 3-D printed "suicide capsule".

Who said what
The "Sarco" capsule, which had never been used before and reportedly cost more than $1 million to develop, is "designed to allow a person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber", allowing them to "fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes", said The Guardian.

Exit International, the group that created the 3-D printed device, said in a statement that a 64-year-old US woman had died using it on Monday. The group said the woman "had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise".

What next?
Exit International said it had followed advice from lawyers that confirmed the capsule's use was lawful. But Swiss authorities had previously warned that operating the device in the country could lead to criminal charges, potentially resulting in up to five years in prison.

 
 

It's not all bad

Scientists have demonstrated how a nuclear blast could deflect an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. The experiment, by physicists from the Sandia National Laboratories in the US, showed how radiation from a nuclear blast could vaporise part of an asteroid's surface, creating a gas that pushes it off course. This method could protect the Earth from large asteroids when time is short. Researchers are interested in exploring ways to shield the Earth from massive impacts given the potentially "existential nature of the threat", said The Guardian.

 
 
under the radar

The kidnapped pilot and the Free Papua Movement

A New Zealand pilot held prisoner for more than 19 months by armed insurgents has been freed.

Phillip Mehrtens was taken hostage last year when he landed a small commercial plane in the remote, "restive" region of Papua, a "resource-rich former Dutch colony" that is part of modern-day Indonesia, said CNN. His captors had "hoped to press New Zealand to lobby Indonesia" to meet their "seemingly impossible demand": Papuan independence.

His release came after months of "critical" diplomatic efforts by officials in Wellington and Jakarta, said the BBC. But it has also renewed scrutiny of the controversial and often violent insurgency movement known as the Free Papua Movement.

Papua, which borders New Guinea, came under Indonesian control in 1969 after a highly controversial referendum. The vote, overseen by the UN, is widely seen as a sham. Ever since the Free Papua Movement has sought independence from the Indonesian government, which it accuses of "running a police state" of violent repression in the region, said DW.

The largely peaceful independence movement is, however, overshadowed by armed insurgents such as the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) that kidnapped Mehrtens. Indonesia has proscribed the TPNPB as a terrorist group as it has previously taken hostages to "further the cause". 

But exactly a year after his abduction the TPNPB suddenly announced that it would free Mehrtens to uphold human rights. "The best they could hope for was to be seen as having a humanitarian side and gaining some publicity for their cause", said Damien Kingsbury, professor at Melbourne's Deakin University and a specialist in West Papuan politics.

 
 
on this day

25 September 1926

Henry Ford announced a five-day working week for employees of the Ford Motor Company, giving them Saturdays and Sundays off with no loss of wages. "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either lost time or a class privilege," said the carmaker. Ford also set a standard shift for employees at eight hours a day, both measures helping shape the modern conception of the working week.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Keir Starmer has said that Britain should "brace for the incoming storm", says The Times, which describes his conference speech as an "attempt to refocus the government after days dominated by rows over gifts and infighting in No. 10". The Mirror says his message was one of "tough love", while The Telegraph says the PM rebooted the popular Brexit slogan as he promised to take back "control" of the NHS and other key policy areas. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail leads on the UK is preparing for the possible evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Machine spurning

One of Britain's "most feared and revered" art critics may be making a comeback, nearly a decade after his death. Deadline cites sources claiming that the London Evening Standard is planning to revive Brian Sewell, who worked there for more than 30 years, by using artificial intelligence to mimic his writing. "AI Sewell" has reportedly been assigned to review the latest Vincent van Gogh exhibition for the paper, which recently laid off about 150 employees. Dylan Jones, the editor-in-chief, did not respond to requests for comment.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Sorcha Bradley and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Omar El Bsat / Anadolu via Getty Images; AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images; Arnd Wiegmann / AFP via Getty Images.