SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government said on Wednesday it filed a lawsuit in a federal court against Discord, the popular platform for gamers to communicate online, seeking damages of 500 million reais (about $97 million) for the company’s alleged failure to protect children online.

The move comes in the wake of a July suicide case linked to the platform. Earlier this month, Brazil’s government pushed Discord to suspend its live broadcasts in relation to the incident.

The Solicitor-General’s office for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a statement the damages it is seeking from Discord are due to alleged collective psychological harm it has allowed.

Discord in Brazil said in a statement that the move by the country’s government is “disproportionate” and “does not accurately reflect Discord’s approach to safety and compliance with Brazilian law.”

Brazil’s government’s 25-page long lawsuit, which was obtained by The Associated Press, says there are severe gaps in its age-verification systems and user safety protections.

The company has committed “direct violations to a number of obligations and protective norms of Brazilian law, regarding the special protections and safety of vulnerable groups, including children and teenagers,” Brazil’s Solicitor-General’s office said.

The office is also asking the court to order Discord to immediately strengthen parental controls, expand cooperation with local law enforcement, and deploy automated tools to detect and remove dangerous content.

The filing also notes that Discord faces similar legal pressure globally, including active lawsuits in U.S. states like Texas, Nevada and New Jersey.

Lula, who is seeking reelection in October, and Brazil’s Supreme Court have tried to regulate the use of the internet by minors, with mixed results so far, at a moment when countries, including Australia, Canada and Indonesia, are undertaking similar efforts.

Brazil’s first lady Rosângela Lula da Silva, known as Janja, said on Aug. 6 that the platform should be taken offline, citing the suicide case. Five teenagers were arrested in connection with the death, according to Brazil’s justice ministry.

Discord has more than 90 million active daily users worldwide, according to its website.

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Curry, who hails from Warrington, passed away late Tuesday night (August 25) at his home in Los Angeles, according to reports.

“Police responded to his house at 11:23 PM Tuesday night,” TMZ reported.

“We’re told there is no foul play suspected in the case.”

Curry was best known for his iconic role as Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and built a celebrated career across stage, film, and television.

Rotten Tomatoes posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Tim Curry, best known for his roles in ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ ‘Clue,’ and ‘IT’ has sadly passed away.

“Rest in peace.”

Curry first played Dr Frank-N-Furter in the original London stage production of The Rocky Horror Show before reprising the role in the 1975 film adaptation, which became a cult classic.

His film credits include Clue, Legend, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and Muppet Treasure Island.

On television, he gained further fame as Pennywise in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

Curry also enjoyed a prolific voice-acting career, earning a Daytime Emmy for his role as Captain Hook in Peter Pan & the Pirates.

He also voiced Nigel Thornberry in the animated series The Wild Thornberrys.

What is your favourite Tim Curry movie/TV show? Let us know in the comments below.

The major airline has reminded passengers that power banks and e-cigarettes must be carried in hand luggage, not placed in hold baggage.

An EasyJet flight from Egypt to London Luton was diverted to Rome earlier this year after a power bank was found to be charging in a passenger’s luggage.

UK airlines warned passengers at the time to be aware of the rules surrounding power banks, e-cigarettes and other products containing lithium batteries.

Jet2 issues fresh safety warning about power banks and e-cigarettes

Jet2 has now issued a fresh safety warning about power banks, e-cigarettes and items containing lithium batteries amid a surge in demand for late-summer holidays.

The airline is reminding passengers to check how they pack power banks and e-cigarettes before heading to the airport.

The airline is urging travellers not to place items containing lithium batteries in checked luggage, but instead to carry them in their hand baggage and store power banks and e-cigarettes under the seat in front of them.

Chief customer officer at Jet2, David Hills, said: “Lots of customers travel with everyday items such as power banks and e-cigarettes, so this is a simple but important reminder to check where they are packed before setting off for the airport.

“These items are common, but they do need to be carried correctly, and doing so helps us keep everyone safe while they travel to enjoy their well-deserved holidays.”

Passengers are also being advised to ensure these items are:

• Switched off
• Securely packaged
• Any exposed terminals are protected to prevent short circuits.

Damaged devices or batteries are not permitted on board, and small vehicles powered by lithium batteries are also banned from both checked and hand luggage.

The reminder forms part of Jet2’s wider focus on safety and providing clear information to travellers about restricted items.

More information and guidance on restricted items can be found on Jet2’s website.

How often do you fly with power banks or e-cigarettes? Let us know in the poll above or in the comments below.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Glasgow looked at the GP records of nearly 12million people and discovered a five-fold leap in a type of liver disease over the past ten years

Cases of a type of liver disease linked to type 2 diabetes and obesity have risen five-fold in the past 10 years, a new study has revealed.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, happens when fat builds up in the liver. Researchers said that despite a “growing recognition” of the chronic condition a large “diagnostic gap persists”.

People who are overweight, not active, have type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or are over 50 years old are more likely to develop MASLD. Symptoms of the condition include feeling very tired or generally unwell, as well as pain in the abdomen.

The study, by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Glasgow, looked at GP records from almost 12 million people in the UK between 2003 and 2022. The researchers found that recorded diagnoses of MASLD were 0.02% of adults in 2003, the equivalent of 1,300 people but this then jumped up to 0.5% in 2012, around 60,000 people.

These figures skyrocketed to 2.4% in 2022, or 283,762 people. New diagnoses of the condition doubled from 2012 to 2022, and those diagnosed with MASLD were three times as likely to have type 2 diabetes.

Researchers also found that people of south Asian ethnicity were also “overrepresented” in MASLD diagnoses. Despite this, they were least likely to have a score used to estimate liver scarring despite higher levels of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers said that “more progress is needed to reach public health goals in this disease”. They added: “Equally urgent is the need for additional research to identify and mitigate any risks of compounding health disparities among different ethnic groups especially in the era of medicines with specific indications in this space.”

An “opportunity to detect advanced fibrosis” would be through blood test that enables doctors to estimate liver scarring, according to the team behind the study. The study also found there was a “substantial diagnostic gap” in the UK, based on estimated cases of MASLD cases in Europe.

Researchers said: “The current data demonstrate that while UK prevalence has risen substantially to 2.42%, the diagnostic gap remains large compared to expected rates.”

They suggest that, to close the gap, “at-risk groups such as those living with type 2 diabetes and obesity should be identified and case-finding actively pursued”.

It is estimated that almost six million people in the UK are living with diabetes, almost 1.3 million of which may be living with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. The latest NHS data also shows that in 2024, 30% of adults aged 16 and over were obese.

You might be familiar with the narwhal – otherwise known as the “unicorn of the sea”. The whale species, with their iconic spiral tusks that can extend up to three metres long, live year-round in Arctic waters across Canada, Greenland and Russia. They attract committed tourists determined to see and photograph them in the wild, where, if lucky, they can be observed gathering and feeding in large groups.

Between 2017 and 2019, a group of scientists travelled to the eastern coast of Greenland also hoping to see some narwhals. Unlike tourists, however, they had a slightly more unusual task in mind: together with a group of local hunters from the town of Ittoqqortoormiit, they aimed to attach electronic tags that allowed the narwhals to measure water temperature and salinity as they travelled around the region. Their results are now published in the journal Science Advances.

To understand why these narwhals make such useful scientific instruments, it helps to understand the waters they travel through. The continental shelf of East Greenland has a complex network of ocean currents. At depths of hundreds of metres, a relatively warm (up to 3˚C), salty current of water is given the name “Atlantic intermediate water” after its origins in the North Atlantic. Above this – at depths shallower than 150m – is “polar water”, originating from the melting of sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet. Despite reaching temperatures down to a frosty -2˚C, the low salt content of polar water (due to its origins as ice) means it is less dense and can float on top of the warm water beneath.

For oceanographers, attempting to gather data about this complex system is extremely challenging. Heavy multi-year sea ice meant that being able to access the region with large vessels was uncommon until the motor-driven ships of the 20th century. Inside the long, deep coastal fjords, icebergs are an ever-present danger. And even if access were easy, polar research vessels are an expensive and scarce resource: there is no way that we could gather detailed observations of every nook and cranny of the East Greenland coast.

A solution, then, is narwhals. Scientists have been recruiting sealife into scientific studies for decades, attaching various instruments to animals ranging from whales to turtles to seals. Narwhals make a particularly good candidate for the problem at hand: they are known to perform uniquely deep dives (1,500 – 2,000m depth) in predictable areas, often under thick sea ice.

These almost perfectly match the movements that scientists need to extract vertical “CTD” (conductivity-temperature-depth) records of the ocean. By tagging six narwhals with temperature and salinity sensors, the study, led by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, could gather more than 2,000 records of the structure of the ocean, even in places such as fjords that ships struggle to reach.

The ocean and the ice

As a glaciologist, I have a keen interest in understanding what is happening to the warm, salty Atlantic water at the margins of Greenland. Often, this water is prevented from entering fjords by a “sill” – an underwater ridge at the mouth of the fjord. However, when sills are deep and Atlantic water is abundant, warm water can spill over the sill and approach the front of glaciers.

At the ice front, warm ocean waters can make glaciers melt and retreat faster. This has contributed to the rapid acceleration of the loss of the Greenland ice sheet since the 1990s, as the waters around Greenland have experienced what the authors of the new study call “Atlantification”.

These complex ice-ocean interactions are difficult to implement in our models of future ice sheet behaviour. We do not have detailed records of where and how water is transported through fjords, making it hard to predict exactly how glaciers will respond to the changes in the wider ocean.

The narwhal records help to fill some of this gap: where dives are concentrated, the data can be used to reconstruct a remarkably high-resolution map of water temperatures at different depths within the fjord. Additionally, the depths that the narwhals dive to provide some record of the minimum possible depth of the fjord, giving us indications of where and how big the sill might be, even without maps of the ocean floor from ship records. The records indicate that shallow fjords of less than 400m depth can limit the penetration of warmer Atlantic water, making the glaciers that flow into them more resilient to a warming ocean.

Narwhals are not the whole answer: as tagging only began in 2017, historic records from instruments on ships are needed to assess longer-term trends. There is also some uncertainty as to whether any preferences in where and when narwhals dive may bias the results obtained.

However, they have given us an extraordinary new way see what is happening beneath the surface. As tagging continues, these unlikely oceanographers could help us spot new intrusions of warm Atlantic water – and understand what they mean for Greenland’s glaciers.

Andy Burnham is reportedly considering a change in the law, that would prevent cop-killers ever being released early

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Two men who killed Pc Andrew Harper as they fled a crime scene will be excluded from the Government’s early release scheme, according to reports.

Premature release will be banned for those jailed of a certain type of manslaughter, according to The Telegraph.

This includes Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were passengers in the car that dragged the police officer down a country road after he got caught in a strap attached to the vehicle as they fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham previously pledged to do “everything possible” to ensure the pair were not freed from prison early, following widespread condemnation of the scheme.

However, the Prime Minister declined to confirm this particular change relating to “unlawful act” manslaughter earlier this month, telling reporters it was “speculation”.

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He ordered a review of the scheme, which is being undertaken by Justice Secretary Alex Norris and is set to be published when Parliament returns from summer recess in September.

Mr Norris was asked by Mr Burnham “to develop a plan to maximise public safety and minimise the early release of prisoners”.

Police chiefs have since been told Mr Norris will introduce secondary legislation to amend the Sentencing Act, according to the newspaper.

Under the scheme’s current rules, Bowers and Cole would be released next year, halfway through their 13-year sentences.

Labour’s early release scheme started in September 2024 with the aim of easing overcrowding in jails.

It allows certain prisoners to be released after serving 40% of their fixed-term sentence, rather than the usual 50%.

The 2026 Sentencing Act, which became law earlier this year, allows for an expansion of the early release scheme by reducing the threshold from 40% of a fixed-term sentence to a third.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Burnham has excluded rapists and child sex offenders from being eligible for the scheme.

Unlawful act manslaughter is when a person causes the death of another while committing a separate illegal act.

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A Government spokesperson said: “The death of Pc Andrew Harper was a horrific crime.

“Our thoughts are with his family and friends, and we share the anger from the police community that we are in this position.

“The Prime Minister has asked the Justice Secretary to work through further options to keep a greater number of the most serious offenders in prison, including the killers of Pc Harper.

“Thanks to tireless campaigning by Andrew’s family, Harper’s Law means that anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker whilst committing a crime now gets a mandatory life sentence.

“This Government has gone further by introducing a presumption that anyone convicted of murdering a police, prison or probation officer is handed a whole-life order.”

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The car was seized by police

A Lamborghini was taken away on the back of a truck after the driver was reportedly seen losing control of the supercar. Officers were called to reports of racing around Bury Road and Hypatia Street on Wednesday evening (August 26).

When they arrived, the matte orange Lamborghini sped up before the driver lost control in full view of officers.

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The car was stopped and seized under Section 59 of the Police Reform Act. The driver was issued a traffic offence report.

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A GMP spokesperson said: “On Wednesday 26th August 2026 18:30hrs police received a report of high powered vehicles racing.

“Officers attended the Bury road/Hypatia street area in Bolton when this vehicle accelerated at speed, loosing control of the back end of the vehicle, directly in front of a liveried police vehicle.

“The vehicle was stopped and seized under S59 police reform act with the driver being issued a traffic offence report.”

It was recently confirmed that he would be returning for his fourth season after renewing his contract

The Late Late Show return date has been confirmed, with the Friday night chat show back on our TV screens next month.

The show went on a summer break, with host Patrick Kielty signing off in May. At the time, it was unknown whether he would be returning to the role, after initially signing on to present three seasons back in 2023.

However, it was confirmed last month that the Co Down would be back behind the desk for another few seasons after renewing his contract until 2028.

RTÉ announced their slate of shows for the autumn on Wednesday, with the return date confirmed for the 18th September, RSVP Live reports.

In a statement, the national broadcaster wrote: ” Patrick Kielty is back in the hot seat for a brand-new season of The Late Late Show starting September 18th. Live from RTÉ Studios on Friday nights, join Patrick for celebrity guests, a live studio audience, and the stories that have Ireland talking.

“The countdown is also on to the biggest night in Irish television – The Late Late Toy Show – packed with must-see moments as the children of Ireland take over the telly for one night only.”

Elsewhere in the announcement, RTE also confirmed the return of some other eagerly awaited programmes in the coming months.

“Dancing with the Stars returns in January 2027 for a tenth season, with hosts Jennifer Zamparelli and Doireann Garrihy, who is back on our screens after maternity leave,” they continued.

“In a new series of Ireland’s Fittest Family, winning coach Andrew Trimble – fresh from his debut glory – will be returning alongside Davy Fitzgerald, Anna Geary, Donncha O’Callaghan, Michael Darragh MacAuley, and Ellen Keane for the highest-octane series yet.

“January 2027 will see Tommy Tiernan back in the hotseat with a brand-new line-up of top-secret guests for The Tommy Tiernan Show. The 2 Johnnies’ Late Night Lock-In is serving up another round of unpredictable laughs, unforgettable guests and the very best of Irish craic from Johnny B and Johnny Smacks.

“Also coming soon is a new series of the nation’s favourite dating show First Dates , all loved-up and looking its absolute best for a new season of seduction with Mateo, Pete, Alice, and Niall welcoming a fresh batch of hopeful singletons to the restaurant, and a First Dates Christmas Special will embrace the magic of the season. Ireland’s most successful and longest-running afternoon show, The TODAY Show, returns with more than a few surprises in store.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our What’s On newsletter.

Here’s the updated list of teams still in the Carabao Cup:

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Barnsley

Brentford

Chelsea/Luton (play tomorrow night)

Sheffield United

Lincoln City

Bournemouth

Bradford City/Burnley (gone to extra time)

Brighton & Hove Albion

Norwich City

Millwall

Crystal Palace

Middlesbrough

Fleetwood Town

Fulham/Wimbledon (play tomorrow night)

Ipswich Town

Liverpool

Manchester City

Manchester United

Newcastle United

Leeds United

Coventry City

Preston North End/Everton (Everton 4-0 up)

Wolverhampton Wanderers

West Ham United

Reading

Hull City

Sunderland

Tottenham Hotspur

Leyton Orient

Peterborough United