While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 24, 2026
US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sept 23.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plane landed in the United States on Sept 23 US time ahead of a high-stakes summit with President Donald Trump, who was waiting at the airport to greet his counterpart.
Xi’s plane, with the words “Air China” on the side, touched down and taxied to a stop at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, near Washington, kicking off a three-day state visit filled with pomp and ceremony.
Trump is laying on extraordinary levels of pomp for Xi’s first state visit to the White House in over a decade, including a lavish state banquet, military flyover and 21-gun salute.
The spectacle underscores Trump’s desire to maintain a fragile diplomatic and trade truce between the rival superpowers – although no breakthroughs are expected on any of the key issues.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sept 23 an AI agent developed by OpenAI infiltrated an Australian government website in June, accessing public and non-public files in the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website.
The breach would mark one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the United States and is likely to further fan concerns about AI developers’ ability to contain the technology.
“This incident occurred in June this year, and involved an OpenAI agent gaining unauthorised access into the public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, which is administered by Services Australia,” Albanese told reporters in New York, in remarks broadcast by Australian media.
President Donald Trump has invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to attend the Group of 20 summit of world leaders in Miami in December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sept 23.
The move comes as Washington struggles to secure a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Trump insisting that he is working with both sides to stop the war.
“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with,” Rubio told reporters in New York on Sept 23.
UK Defence Minister Wes Streeting on Sept 23 said an investigation was under way after an air force Hawk fighter jet crashed during a training exercise in north Wales.
A video clip posted on social media showed what appeared to be the two pilots ejecting moments before the aircraft nosedived and crashed in flames.
The Hawk T2 aircraft had been flying out of the Royal Air Force (RAF) Valley station on Anglesey, an island off the north-west coast of Wales.
Irish superstars U2 revealed the name of their new album on Sept 23 – Carnaval de Luz – days ahead of the 50th anniversary of their first encounter as schoolboys in a Dublin kitchen in 1976.
Speaking on a podcast, lead singer Bono confirmed longstanding rumours that they were preparing to release their 15th album, thrilling fans who are set to attend commemorative events this weekend in the Irish capital.
“I can’t say it. I’m going to say it,” Bono teased on an Irish Times podcast which looked back on their career.
