PM

In the UK, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked the Queen to suspend parliament in just a few days time, until mid-October - the eleventh hour effectively before the 31st of October Brexit deadline.

An Australian academic may face the death penalty in China after being arrested on spying allegations; We speak to Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne on her return from meetings in Papua New Guinea; And Brazil accepts, then rejects a $32 million international aid package aimed at dousing the Amazon fires.

Australian academic and democracy activist Yang Hengjun has been officially arrested in China on charges of espionage.

The wife of detained Australian academic Yang Hengjun says she has been denied access to her husband in the seven months he's been locked up.

Australia has ruled out a request to divert half its annual aid budget to PNG to the country's treasury - but is considering other options

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the Government has made it clear that Dr Yang Hengjun is not a spy for Australia, and will continue to advocate for him.

Brazil's hard-right government has this afternoon declared it will knock back an aid package from G7 countries with money and resources to help extinguish the fires consuming the Amazon.

There are renewed calls for industrial manslaughter laws after a man was buried alive under 48,000 cubic metres of soil at a central Australian manganese mine.

Financial experts say record low interest rates are here to stay; NSW Labor accused of taking $100,000 in cash from a Chinese billionaire property developer; and the global anguish over the burning Amazon.

Major global investment banks are now predicting record low interest rates as far as the eye can see. Their forecasts are in keeping with the sentiment at a meeting of central bankers in the US during the weekend, as they struggle to protect the global economy from the US-China trade war.