The World Today

The Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has denied allegations he misled Parliament over his dealings with the nation's second-highest law officer. A Senate inquiry is examining a direction blocking the Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson from providing legal advice to anyone in the Government without the permission of Senator Brandis. The Attorney-General initially told the Senate he'd consulted Mr Gleeson over the matter, but Mr Gleeson explicitly denies that. It's prompted Labor to call on Senator Brandis to resign.

Mass evacuations are taking place along the south-east coast of the US, as Hurricane Matthew bears down. The storm has already caused widespread damage to parts of Cuba and to Haiti, where many people have been left without shelter or access to basic services.

From smart, interconnected homes, cities and businesses - how will the Internet of Things disrupt our future and are we ready for the potential risks of greater connectivity?

Our correspondent Samantha Hawley is in Malaysia, where nine Australian men are to appear in court after being detained for stripping down to swimwear bearing the nation's flag at the Formula One Grand Prix. She's been told lawyers for the men have been kept in the dark about what their clients will be charged with.

Portugal's former prime minister and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres is likely to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. The UN Security Council has reached a consensus and a formal vote is set to take place tomorrow.

A study has tallied up the economic cost of stillbirths in Australia for the first time, calculating they will cost the economy $681.4 million over the next five years. The biggest cost is due to bereaved parents' absences from work and lower productivity, but hospital fees and counselling also add up. The Stillbirth Foundation, which commissioned the work, says it should increase pressure on governments and the private sector to invest more money into research and education.

ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott has agreed to consider changes to the bank's credit card products, as he appeared before the parliamentary inquiry into the big four banks. Mr Elliott also apologised for mistakes made and defended ANZ's culture against allegations it is 'blokey'. He also told the committee almost all staff caught up in allegations that the bank rigged a key financial benchmark had returned to work, because ANZ believed they'd done nothing wrong.

The Federal Education Minister has abandoned efforts to reform the rorted vocational education loans scheme and announced a new scheme instead. The VET FEE-HELP scheme has cost the federal budget billions of dollars since its introduction in 2012. But already some in the sector say they're not convinced that the new program will end the rorting or help students.

A preliminary report by the Australian Energy Market Operator into what caused South Australia's state-wide electricity blackout last week has found severe weather was at fault. It found that there was a reduction in wind farm generation at connection points leading up to the outage, but more analysis was needed to determine the cause. The SA Premier, Jay Weatherill, has taken the opportunity to hit back at the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, for 'politicking' over the issue.

American tech company Yahoo has reportedly built special software that automatically searches incoming user emails for specific information and, if it matches, allows US intelligence access to the communication. Citing people familiar with the matter, news agency Reuters says Yahoo developed the software in response to a classified US Government order, from either the FBI or the NSA.