French president says EU should resist prime minister’s calls for compromise on Brexit

Emmanuel Macron has appealed to his fellow EU leaders to maintain their tough approach to Brexit in response to the British prime minister’s demand for compromise at the end of a late dinner at the opening of an EU summit.

The French president, who is fighting a rearguard action against the rise of populism in Europe, said that blocking any attempt by the UK to pick and choose EU membership had to be the priority in the dying days of the Brexit negotiations.

All the day’s economic and financial news, including the latest UK retail sales figures

• Introduction: Trade war fears loom over markets
  
• China: We won’t let the yuan tumble
  

9.41am BST

Newsflash: UK shoppers kept spending in August despite rising inflation and worries over Brexit.

Retail sales volumes (the amount of stuff people bought) rose by 0.3% in August compared with July, the Office for National Statistics says. That beats forecasts of a 0.2% decline.

“Retail sales remained strong in the three months to August, with continued growth across all sectors. Food and household goods stores particularly benefitted from the warm weather when compared with last summer.

“The figures for the month of August were a little more mixed, with food sales falling after strong sales earlier in the summer and clothing sales declining following a strong July, as suggested by clothing retailers. On the other hand, household goods grew strongly.”

9.32am BST

Back to the US-China trade war, and billionaire Jack Ma has ditched his goal of creating a million new jobs for Americans.

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese retail giant Alibaba, says the company no longer plans to create 1 million jobs in the United States in the wake of the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China.

Ma made his original job creation pronouncement during a high-profile meeting with Donald Trump in January 2017 before Trump’s inauguration as president.

Excellent smart device comes with optional 24/7 video recording with facial recognition – and works as a doorbell too

Google’s new Nest Hello is a video doorbell that aims to be smarter than the rest with constant recording, face and object recognition.

The Hello is a direct replacement for a wired doorbell, working with an existing chime and requiring constant power, making it one of the high-end options for smart doorbells.

PC found guilty of misconduct for failing to watch over Leroy Junior Medford, who died from heroin overdose

A Thames Valley police constable has received a written warning after he was found guilty of misconduct for failing to properly observe Leroy Junior Medford, 43, who died in custody last year from an overdose of heroin.

Medford was arrested near Reading at about 1.30pm on 1 April 2017 by Thames Valley police. After he became unwell, officers took him to Royal Berkshire hospital. After he was discharged and returned to custody at Loddon Valley police station, he was found unresponsive in his cell at about 4am on Sunday and pronounced dead at 5:13am.

South Korean president’s visit to North concludes with highly symbolic trip to Mount Paektu

Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, stepped into the shallow waters of Heaven Lake, regarded as the spiritual home of the Korean people, bent down at the knee and scooped up a glassful of water.

Kim Jong-un, his North Korean counterpart, watched from a distance. Moon was fulfilling a long-held dream to visit Mount Paektu, which straddles the border between North Korea and China. At the summit the two men held hands and thrust them into the air as they posed for a photo with their wives, the lake in the background.