Spain's leader says the warnings were vague, and a leaked police note says extreme risk

The rest of the day

49 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   US envoys to visit Russia and Ukraine

   Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that preliminary dates are set for US negotiators to visit Kyiv, and then Russia. [4] Russia's president Vladimir Putin spoke at an economic forum and said there is a chance of an agreement. [4] He said the United States and China are among the countries ready to support one. [4] He added that Russia and Ukraine must settle it between themselves, and called Ukrainian attacks on civilian aircraft acts of terrorism that complicate talks. [4] It is day 1,654 of the invasion. [4]

   Why it matters — The two sides last met for US-mediated talks in February, so this is the first movement in seven months. Nothing is agreed, and Putin's terrorism line is the kind of condition that has ended earlier rounds.

2. 03

   Ten hurt in a strike on Kyiv

   A Russian attack on Kyiv on Thursday evening injured at least ten people including a child, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said six of them were medical staff. [5] The ninth floor of a tower block just outside the city centre was damaged and fifteen people were evacuated. [5] Naftogaz, the state company that supplies Ukraine's gas, said its production sites were hit and equipment badly damaged, without saying where. [5] The city has been under sustained attack for more than a week. [5]

   Why it matters — The bombing did not pause for the diplomacy being arranged above it. Naftogaz's production sites have been struck repeatedly, and what they produce is what heats Ukrainian homes.

3. 04

   Four killed in Russia's Belgorod region

   A Ukrainian strike killed four people in Shebekino, a town in Russia's Belgorod region just across the border from Ukraine, and two of the dead were medical staff. [4][6] A separate drone attack on a passenger bus in the same region killed one person and injured four. [5] In Horlivka, in the part of Ukraine's Donetsk region that Russia controls, a drone hit another bus, killing one and injuring five, according to the Russian-installed mayor. [5] Al Jazeera could not verify that account, and both governments deny targeting civilians. [5]

   Why it matters — Belgorod has taken cross-border fire throughout the war, and each day's dead are added to the ledger both sides will bring to any table. The two buses show what a cheap drone now reaches: an ordinary road.

4. 05

   Ukraine's two spy agencies shoot at each other

   A gunfight broke out on Wednesday in Kyiv's Dniprovskyi district between officers of HUR, Ukraine's military intelligence service, and the SBU, which handles security inside the country. [7] It began after the SBU detained Stepan Kaplunov, deputy commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit of Russians fighting for Ukraine that answers to HUR. [7] Prosecutors say SBU officers were acting to stop a planned attack and were fired on. [7] The commander of HUR's Timur unit says the SBU seized Kaplunov in broad daylight and shot first. At least three officers were wounded. [7]

   Why it matters — Zelenskyy called it an absolutely disgraceful situation, ordered an investigation, and said the only people who may be shot at are Russian occupiers. [7] Two armed agencies settling a dispute by gunfire in the capital is a problem no ceasefire abroad would fix.

5. 06

   Ukraine attacks Russia's space sites

   Ukrainian drones have reached Plesetsk, the spaceport that launches Russia's military satellites and intercontinental missiles, three times. [8] In late June they hit the space communications centre at Dubna outside Moscow. [8] The strike damaged a 32-metre satellite antenna, control consoles and technical buildings, and Russian authorities said a six-month-old baby died there. [8] Three smaller centres in western Russia and in Crimea were also struck. [8] Anatoly Zak, an expert on the Russian space programme, said such centres are very hard to replace because they manage satellites tied to a fixed position. [8]

   Why it matters — These sites feed the navigation, reconnaissance and coordination behind Russian drone and missile attacks, so the war has moved from the front line to the machinery that aims it. Nikolay Mitrokhin of the University of Bremen expects the damage to reach Russia's civilian and international space work too. [8]

6. 07

   Norway seizes a Russian ship

   Norway's coast guard seized the Russian research ship Professor Molchanov off Svalbard on Wednesday, after a 24-hour standoff. [9] It was taken on behalf of Naftogaz, which won a $4.22bn award at a tribunal in The Hague in 2023 over property Russia took when it annexed Crimea in 2014. [9] Russia has not paid, and Naftogaz has been pursuing it in court since 2016. [9] Russia's foreign ministry called the seizure piracy, and its Arctic development minister Alexei Chekunkov said the ruling would be challenged. [9]

   Why it matters — An arbitration award is a piece of paper until somebody physically takes something, and this is the first time one has been collected from Russia this way. [9] Naftogaz says it is part of a wider effort to enforce the award.

7. 08

   Russia sanctions bill stalls in the US

   A bill of sanctions on Russia passed the US Senate by a wide margin last month. [10] It is now stuck in the House of Representatives and unlikely to move before the November election. [10] Lawmakers from both parties object that it would hand President Donald Trump new legal grounds for broad tariffs and would push oil prices up. [10] The retail industry and the US Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby, have pressed that argument hardest. [10]

   Why it matters — The pressure was aimed at Russia and has been stopped by what it would cost inside the United States. It stalls in the same week US negotiators are due in Kyiv and Moscow, which takes one card off that table.

8. 09

   India offers to help end the war

   India's foreign minister S Jaishankar arrived in Kyiv on Thursday and said that if India can help end the war in any way, it will. [11] Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha called it the first dedicated visit to Ukraine by an Indian foreign minister. [11] It follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Putin at the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan this week. [11] There Modi called for a move from endless war to an end to the war. [11] Jaishankar was in Moscow the week before for annual India-Russia talks. [11]

   Why it matters — India buys Russian oil and Russian weapons and has refused to take a side. That is why an offer from India carries weight with Russia that offers from Ukraine's partners do not. Those same partners have spent three years pressing India over exactly those purchases. [11]

9. 10

   Kyrgyzstan hosts the SCO summit

   Leaders of Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan met in Bishkek for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, joined in its wider format by Turkey and by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres. [12] Putin told the summit that six countries founded the SCO 25 years ago. [12] It is now, he said, one of the influential centres of an emerging multipolar world, and the largest regional grouping there is. [12] The host, Kyrgyzstan, is a small mountainous landlocked country with Russia to the north and China next door. [12]

   Why it matters — What holds the group together is not agreement on much, but the space to pursue their interests outside a Western-led framework. [12] For the smaller members the calculation is narrower: how to stand between two giants without being absorbed by either. [12]

10. 11

    Israeli minister's plan to empty Gaza

    Itamar Ben Gvir is Israel's national security minister and leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit party. [14] On Thursday he published a plan to move roughly 1.9 million Palestinians out of Gaza within seven years. [14] It schedules 250,000 departures in the first year and about 1.1 million within three, and proposes a dedicated ministry plus agreements with countries willing to receive people. [14] He called the plan realistic and described it as encouraging emigration. [13][14] Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel is still working to remove Palestinians from Gaza. [14]

    Why it matters — Forcing civilians out of occupied territory is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, and the plan names no country that has agreed to take anyone. [14] Israeli elections are due on 27 October. [14]

11. 12

    Three killed in Gaza under the ceasefire

    Israeli forces killed three people in Gaza on Thursday. [14] Two had crossed the Yellow Line, the military said, which is the buffer zone drawn inside Gaza under the ceasefire that took effect in October. [14] Major fighting stopped after that agreement; the strikes did not. [14] Gaza's health ministry counts at least 73,470 people killed since October 2023, more than 1,330 of them since the ceasefire began. [14]

    Why it matters — A ceasefire that permits a line inside the territory, and killing at it, is a different object from the one the word suggests. The daily toll is small enough not to be reported as fighting and has still passed a thousand. [14]

12. 13

    Jailed Gaza doctor's condition

    Hussam Abu Safiya is the doctor Israel took from Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on 27 December 2024, after he refused an order to evacuate it. [15] He has given fresh testimony through his lawyer Nasser Odeh, who visited him in the Rakefet unit of Nitzan prison on 30 August. [15] Physicians for Human Rights Israel says guards punch and kick him and beat him with batons, and deprive him of sleep using loudspeakers through the night. [15] He is held in solitary confinement and has never been charged or tried. [15] A UN inquiry described continued and severe abuse in July. [15]

    Why it matters — Kamal Adwan was one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza when he refused to leave it. [15] Twenty months on, no court has been asked to rule on whether he did anything wrong.

13. 14

    One Lebanese freed, thirty still held

    Malek Ghazi went out to exercise near his village in southern Lebanon last October, and his family lost contact with him. [16][17] On Thursday the Red Cross handed him to the Lebanese army at the Naqoura crossing, and he was taken to Tyre for a medical examination. [16][17] He is the first known civilian released since US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon began in April, and Israel said more would be freed on Friday. [16][17] Families and a follow-up committee have compiled a list of more than 30 Lebanese still held. [17] Israeli troops detained three farmers in southern Lebanon the same day. [16]

    Why it matters — The prisoners are one strand of a June framework under which Hezbollah disarms, the Lebanese army deploys in the south and Israeli forces withdraw from pilot zones first. [16] It has barely moved. Israel questions the Lebanese army's role, and the two sides disagree on how compliance would be checked. [16] Hezbollah rejects the whole thing, and no date is set for an eighth round of talks. [16]

14. 15

    Pacific summit fails to agree on China

    Leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau agreed to register concern about China's ballistic missile test into their waters in July, but could not do it unanimously. [18] Nauru refused to join the statement, and Kiribati sent nobody to the leaders' closed retreat. [18] Nikkei reported that 17 of the 18 members backed a call for advance notice of any future test. [19] Forum communiques are normally agreed by consensus, which is where their weight comes from. [18]

    Why it matters — One refusal turns a regional position into a majority opinion, which is a much cheaper thing for a large country to ignore. Nauru switched its recognition from Taiwan to China in 2024. [18]

15. 16

    Pacific leaders answer the 1.5C report

    Leaders in Palau responded to a new UN Environment Programme report on warming. [32] It says the world will pass 1.5C within a few years, and that even the most optimistic path peaks near 1.8C. [32] UNEP calls for an overshoot, peak and decline strategy: deep and immediate emissions cuts, a rapid move away from fossil fuels, and carefully governed carbon removal later. [32] Carbon removal cannot replace the cuts, it says. [32] Vanuatu's climate minister Ralph Regenvanu said loss and damage is not a future category in his country. [20]

    Why it matters — Pacific states are trying to turn the sudden interest of large powers in their region into money to adapt with. [20] The report's warning is about how long the world stays above the line, not about whether it crosses it. [32]

16. 17

    Vanuatu takes France to the world court

    Vanuatu asked the International Court of Justice this week to recognise its claim to Matthew and Hunter, two uninhabited islands about 300km east of the French territory of New Caledonia. [21] Together they cover less than one square kilometre, and owning them carries an exclusive economic zone of 350,000 square kilometres, which decides fishing rights and access to seabed minerals. [21] The court said no step will be taken unless France accepts its jurisdiction. [21] France restated its sovereignty on Wednesday, and a junior foreign minister, Eleonore Caroit, said it would respond in due course. [21]

    Why it matters — Vanuatu says it will ask the UN General Assembly for an opinion if France refuses, which is the route left when a court needs the other side's permission to sit. [21]

17. 18

    US and Australia deepen defence ties

    The United States and Australia agreed to expand defence cooperation, including shared capacity for guided weapons and next-generation systems. [22] Australia does not allow foreign military bases on its soil, so American forces are present through rotations instead. [22] US Marines rotate through Darwin, and from 2027 US-commanded submarines will rotate through HMAS Stirling in Western Australia under the AUKUS pact with Britain. [22] It is not clear whether the new agreement adds troops. [22] Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the two countries' strategies were strongly aligned and pressed allies to invest in their own security. [22]

    Why it matters — China calls AUKUS dangerous and warns it could start a regional arms race. [22] The rotation is how a country that bans foreign bases ends up hosting foreign forces anyway.

18. 19

    Taiwan asks for more defence money

    Taiwan's government proposed an extra $4.6bn of defence spending for this year, on top of the budget already passed. [23]

    Why it matters — It lands in a week when Pacific leaders could not agree on how to name China's July missile test. [18] In the same week Malaysia's prime minister appeared to accept that force could be used against a province that breaks away. [24] Taiwan's argument for spending is made of weeks like this one.

19. 20

    Malaysia's leader on using force

    Malaysia's prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, asked about Taiwan, said that if one province decides to break away he would use force to protect the unity of the nation. [24] China's government responded enthusiastically. [24] Taiwan's foreign ministry said he had effectively legitimised the use of force against the island. [24] It warned that one-sided support for China could dent Taiwanese confidence in investing in Malaysia, including in its semiconductor plants. [24] Two days later Anwar said Malaysia should strengthen its defences in Sabah, citing US-backed facilities on the Philippine island of Balabac, about 50km away. [24]

    Why it matters — Malaysia has held a middle position between China and the United States for years, and both halves of it moved in the same week. Analysts quoted by DW warn against reading that as a strategic realignment. [24]

20. 21

    Chinese church lawyer flees to Taiwan

    A lawyer who defended the Zion Church, a large unregistered Protestant congregation in Beijing, has fled to Taiwan and is seeking resettlement after being told to dissolve her law firm. [25] Eighteen members of the church were arrested last October. [25]

    Why it matters — The pressure has moved from the congregation to the people who would argue its case, which closes the route by which the first arrests would have been contested.

21. 22

    US cyber unit may move to South Korea

    The US defence department is considering moving part of the Second Multi-Domain Task Force from Germany to South Korea. [26] The reports come from the Wall Street Journal, Yonhap and the Chosun Ilbo. [26] The unit's Multi-Domain Effects Battalion handles cyber, information and space operations, and hundreds of troops would be involved. [26] Neither government has confirmed it, and South Korea's defence ministry declined to comment. [26] General Xavier Brunson, who commands US Forces Korea, said last year he was considering bringing in such a unit to improve intelligence and situational awareness. [26]

    Why it matters — Analysts say it would tilt the 28,500 US troops in South Korea from deterring North Korea towards watching China. [26] That is the choice South Korea's governments have spent years arranging not to have to make.

22. 23

    Philippine schools rehearse shootings

    Public schools across the Philippines held active-shooter drills on 3 September, under a national safety programme run by the education department and security agencies. [27] At Carlos F. Gonzales High School in Bulacan province, alarms sounded and students and teachers locked doors, blocked entrances and closed the curtains. [27] They turned off the lights and took cover under desks in silence until police had swept the campus. [27] A shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on 18 August killed two students, one of them the gunman. [27]

    Why it matters — It was the country's second school attack in under three months, and it came days after a student opened fire at a school near Bangkok. [27] Every child under a desk that morning lost a lesson to an attacker who did not come. That is what a drill costs, and the school has now practised.

23. 24

    Pakistan kills 15 near the Afghan border

    Pakistan's military said it killed 15 fighters trying to enter North Waziristan, a district in the north-west, after an exchange of fire lasting 36 hours. [28] It identified them as members of the Pakistani Taliban, a group separate from but closely allied to the Afghan Taliban, and said India sponsored them. [28] Neither India nor Afghanistan commented, and both deny backing the group. [28] Pakistan says its leaders have sheltered in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power there in 2021, which Afghanistan's government denies. [28]

    Why it matters — Militant violence in Pakistan has risen sharply in recent months. A Chinese envoy, Yue Xiaoyong, was in Islamabad this week trying to ease the tension, and Pakistan's foreign ministry said progress depends on what Afghanistan actually does. [28]

24. 25

    Pakistan's newborns keep dying

    Fourteen newborn babies died in a fire in the mother and child ward of Islamabad's largest public hospital on 26 August. [29] About 691 newborns die every day in Pakistan, roughly 248,500 a year, most of them from prematurity, oxygen starvation at birth and infection. [29] Around 49% of women of childbearing age are anaemic, and 31% of births are attended by untrained birth attendants. [29] At least 7,500 children have separately caught HIV through unsafe medical care in Pakistani facilities. [29]

    Why it matters — The fire is one visible instance of a health system that fails quietly at a rate no single event can match. [29] The columnist who set out those figures expects the story to fade from public memory, and argues the system has to change anyway. [29]

25. 26

    India waits on a US trade rate

    India's commerce minister Piyush Goyal said the trade agreement with the United States will be finalised when the US offers India better terms than its competitors, and not before. [30] The two announced a framework for a first phase in February, and US tariff changes since have reopened the talks. [30] An extra 10% duty has applied to Indian goods since 24 July. [30] Goyal said India's nine existing trade agreements already reach economies worth about $60 trillion, roughly two-thirds of world trade. [30]

    Why it matters — Deals with New Zealand and the European Union are due to take effect. [30] Talks with Canada, Mexico, Chile, Mercosur and the Gulf states would take India to about 75% of world trade. [30] The more doors that are open, the less any single closed one costs. Goyal travels to the United States late this month. [30]

26. 27

    India's first fully local rifle

    India test-fired the AK-203 Sher at an ordnance factory in Amethi on 23 August, an advanced Kalashnikov built without a single imported part. [31] It replaces the INSAS rifle, criticised within a year of adoption and blamed by soldiers in the 1999 Kargil war for jamming and for magazines that cracked in the cold. [31] Most of India's major systems, from Su-30MKI fighters to warships and submarines, are Russian. [31]

    Why it matters — Russia is prioritising its own war, so India has been buying from France, Israel and the United States and building more at home. [31] A rifle is a small thing to celebrate, and what is being celebrated is where the parts came from, not what it fires.

27. 28

    Guinea-Bissau votes to empower its president

    Provisional results show 70% of voters in Guinea-Bissau approved a new constitution. [32] It lets Guinea-Bissau's president appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet, create or abolish ministries, and dissolve parliament in a serious political crisis. [32] It also cuts the number of parliamentary seats and constituencies, while keeping the five-year term and the two-term limit. [32] The military leaders who took power after a disputed vote in November 2025 say the changes will end repeated political deadlock. [32] The main opposition party campaigned against it and boycotted the vote. [32]

    Why it matters — Presidential and parliamentary elections are due in December, and they are the test of whether the soldiers hand power back. Critics have questioned the referendum's legitimacy and asked Ecowas, the West African regional bloc, to step in. [32]

28. 29

    Uber quits Nigeria and Uganda

    Uber closed its ride-hailing operations in Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect after a review of both markets. [32] It had operated in Nigeria since 2014 and in Uganda since 2016, and cites rising fuel costs, competition from rival platforms, and driver complaints about low fares and high commission. [32] It left Ivory Coast and Tanzania recently for similar reasons. [32] Its help centres in both countries stay open until later this month to settle outstanding issues. [32]

    Why it matters — Bolt, inDrive and local operators are expected to compete for the customers Uber leaves behind. [32] Uber says the decision does not affect the rest of its sub-Saharan business, where it still sees room to grow. [32]

29. 30

    Madagascar ex-Senate chief jailed

    Madagascar's former Senate president Richard Ravalomanana, a retired general and close ally of former president Andry Rajoelina, was sentenced to ten years of hard labour for complicity in murder. [32] Prosecutors said he directed security forces to use violence against demonstrators during the protests of September and October 2025. [32] The UN counted at least 22 people killed and more than 100 injured. [32] The protests began over persistent power and water cuts and grew into a movement that brought Madagascar's government down. [32] He denies it and will appeal. [32]

    Why it matters — The Madagascan government now prosecuting him exists because those protests succeeded. Several other senior figures from the previous government are facing proceedings. [32]

30. 31

    Sudanese refugees walk for food

    Dozens of Sudanese refugees walked about 20 kilometres from Marra camp in eastern Chad to the town of Amliouna to ask for help. [32] They had gone roughly four months with no food or cash support. [32] They reached the camp between five and eight months ago and are asking for regular deliveries of food or money. [32] At Mile camp near Guereda, storms have damaged shelters and injured several people, leaving refugees including children and elderly people without cover. [32] They are asking aid agencies for food, clean water, medicine, tents and repair materials. [32]

    Why it matters — A camp is a system that has to be resupplied, and it stops working long before anybody announces that it has. The rain arrived while the support was already four months late. [32]

31. 32

    Zambia's crackdown after a disputed vote

    The UN human rights office reported a surge in repression of Zambia's opposition since the election of 13 August. [33] President Hakainde Hichilema won that vote, and his main challenger says it was rigged. [33][34] A raid after the results ended in an exchange of fire that fatally wounded a former minister, Mutotwe Kafwaya. [33] Eleven people were arrested, including senior opposition figures, and accused of planning a coup with foreign militia, which they deny. [33] The office also cited voter intimidation, assaults and abductions during the election itself. [33] Hichilema was sworn in for a second five-year term on Tuesday. [34]

    Why it matters — Zambia has changed governments peacefully since 1991 and has treated that as a badge. [34] He begins this term with his challenger facing treason charges, and with controversy over courts being closed during the window for election petitions. [34] Four in every ten voters, as one analyst put it, backed someone else. [34]

32. 33

    South Africa's ANC runs on its failures

    The ANC launched its local election manifesto behind a photograph of a rundown rural facility. [35] The line beside it said the party presents the manifesto in full acknowledgement of areas in which it has fallen short. [35] It then defended its record and made its promises. [35] Communications people call the tactic stealing thunder: disclose the damaging thing before somebody else does, because bad news does less harm when it comes from the person responsible for it. [35]

    Why it matters — The difference here is that the ANC is not revealing a secret. South Africans already know which roads, water systems, power supplies and municipal offices do not work, because they use them. [35]

33. 34

    Kenya's airport strike ends unsettled

    Kenyan aviation workers returned to their posts on 1 September after a two-day strike that disrupted Jomo Kenyatta, Moi, Kisumu and Eldoret airports, under a return-to-work deal agreed overnight. [36] The grievances behind it are back on the negotiating table rather than settled: collective bargaining, salaries, agency fees, union recognition at the low-cost airline Jambojet, and claims of victimisation. [36] The same union signed a return-to-work deal in February and another agreement in July. [36] Kenyan private sector activity also slowed in August. [56]

    Why it matters — This is the third agreement with the same union this year, and none of the three has resolved what is underneath. [36] Airlines were still clearing a backlog after the strike was called off. [36]

34. 35

    Nigeria could double energy investment

    The head of the International Energy Agency, which advises mostly wealthy member governments on energy policy, said Nigeria could double its energy investment within five years. [37]

    Why it matters — An agency's forecast is not money. Nigeria's shortfall has for years been in what actually gets invested rather than in what is in the ground.

35. 36

    Haiti asks the UN to keep the anti-gang force

    Haiti's foreign minister Raina Forbin asked the UN Security Council on Thursday to renew and fully deploy the Gang Suppression Force, whose mandate expires on 30 September. [38] She said Haiti needs technical, financial, logistical and safety support, and that the world must move from solidarity to action. [38] An estimated 1,408 people were killed and 656 injured in Haiti between April and June, most of it attributed to armed groups. [38] More than a million people have been displaced since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. [38]

    Why it matters — Haiti's first elections in a decade are scheduled for 13 December, and officials have questioned whether they can be held safely. [38] The mandate lapses ten weeks before the vote unless the Security Council acts. [38]

36. 37

    Venezuela's oil deal draws scrutiny

    Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez and US energy secretary Chris Wright signed an oil agreement in Caracas on 2 September. [39] It hands a large share of the country's production to North American Blue Energy Partners. [39] The firm is based in Barbados, led by the Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, and grew through opaque block awards from the Venezuelan government rather than on technical record. [39] The US says the deal gives it majority control over 65 billion barrels of reserves, and Venezuela $100bn of investment and more than $200bn of royalties. [39] Chevron committed this week to expand there. [39]

    Why it matters — Venezuelans expected the page to turn after Nicolas Maduro's capture. The first big economic decision has gone to a company that prospered under the arrangement they were told was ending. [39] The opposition leader says only a democratic government can give oil investors the stability they need. [40]

37. 38

    Peru's first budget under Fujimori

    Peru's 2027 budget, the first under President Keiko Fujimori, does not grow once inflation is stripped out, and most of the revenue windfall goes to day-to-day spending. [41] She took office on 28 July with approval between 53% and 60%, growth near 3.5%, double-digit private investment growth, and copper and gold prices that comfortably fund any Peruvian budget. [41] Inflation ended August at 4.4%, above target, pushed up by imported oil and the first effects of El Nino. [41]

    Why it matters — Peru has had eight presidents in ten years. Its strong economy has coexisted for decades with a state that cannot pipe drinkable water into a house, police a neighbourhood or finish a subway line. [41] Closing that gap is what she was elected to do, and an austere first budget is not obviously how. [41]

38. 39

    Canada says it is ready to deal

    Canada's prime minister Mark Carney said he is ready to sign a trade agreement with the United States that benefits both countries, weeks after talks collapsed in their final hours. [42] The US has since put 50% tariffs on $20bn of Canadian goods, and threatened the same on all Canadian cars and parts from 1 January. [42] Canada's answer, on a similar amount, takes effect next week. [42] Carney said the US side had dropped demands about Canadian language and culture that it pressed until the last hour. [42] Canada's July trade surplus fell to C$769m from C$4.2bn in June. [43]

    Why it matters — The United States took 66.35% of Canadian exports in July, against 72.64% a year ago and nearly 80% historically. [42][43] A country that cannot leave its largest customer can still take fractions off the share, and that is what the figures now show.

39. 40

    US trade gap widens on AI buying

    The US trade deficit reached its widest in more than a year in July, driven by imports of equipment for building artificial intelligence systems. [44] Its goods deficit with 13 Asia-Pacific economies grew to $93.8bn, led by Vietnam. [45] The US Supreme Court struck down many of the tariffs in February, and officials replaced them in July with fresh duties on 60 trading partners. [44] An investigation covering 16 more, including China, the European Union and Taiwan, could bring another round. [44] Iran's blocking of the Strait of Hormuz is also weighing on trade flows. [44]

    Why it matters — Two years of tariffs have not shrunk the gap they were aimed at, and this month's widening came from the data-centre build-out rather than from consumer goods. [44][45]

40. 41

    Netherlands moves gold out of the US

    The Dutch central bank moved about $11.7bn of its gold out of North America. [46] New York's share of the country's 612.4 tonnes fell from 31.3% to 18.5%, and Ottawa's from 19.7% to 18.5%. [46] London's rose from 18.1% to 32.1%, and the domestic vault at Zeist stayed at 30.8%. [46] The bank sold about 59 tonnes in New York and bought the same amount in London, and physically flew more than 27 tonnes. [46] Its president Olaf Sleijpen said the aim is tradability, and that the reserves will probably never be needed. [46]

    Why it matters — Far more was taken out of the United States than out of Canada, [46] The bank sold gold in New York, bought the same amount in London, and paid to fly 27 tonnes across, in order to hold what it already held. [46]

41. 42

    ICC leaders defend the court

    The current and former presidents of the International Criminal Court's assembly of states published an argument on the Just Security site. [47] Countries that join treaties, they wrote, are exercising sovereignty rather than surrendering it. [47] They described the court as one of last resort that does not replace national justice systems. [47] They asked its 125 member states and regional organisations for political, legal and practical backing. [47] The choice, they wrote, is between a world based on the rule of law and one where might decides what is right. [47]

    Why it matters — The US government is not a member. It has sanctioned ICC judges and officials and pressed other countries to distance themselves, chiefly over the case involving Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [47] A court asking its own members to hold the line is a court that has noticed some of them wavering.

42. 43

    Fight over the EU's diplomatic service

    Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign policy chief, is working to head off a French and German plan to overhaul the bloc's diplomatic service. [48] She is courting member governments and has put her new secretary-general in charge of a rival reform effort. [48] Kajsa Ollongren has been touring capitals and is expected to set up a task force to think about reform separately from the Franco-German push. [48] Her predecessor delayed taking up her post as EU ambassador to Mexico in order to advise her. [48]

    Why it matters — The plan Kallas opposes would move work she currently oversees under the control of the European Commission and its president Ursula von der Leyen. [48] A reorganisation is how influence changes hands without anyone having to lose a vote.

43. 44

    Meloni passes Berlusconi's record

    Giorgia Meloni passed 1,412 consecutive days as Italy's prime minister on Friday, overtaking Silvio Berlusconi's record for the longest unbroken run in the history of the Italian Republic. [49] Berlusconi's total across all his terms, 3,340 days, is more than twice as long. [49] Meloni is 49, leads the polls, and towers over her coalition partners with no obvious rival on the right. [49] She is planning an electoral reform before a general election due next year. [49]

    Why it matters — Berlusconi's endurance rested on personal wealth, a television empire and a party built around himself, which gave him resources independent of how popular he was at any moment. [49] Meloni has none of those, so the reform is where the durability would have to come from.

44. 45

    Reform UK promises lower energy bills

    Reform UK said it would cut British household energy bills by about 250 pounds a year. [50] About 90 pounds of that would come from scrapping the UK Emissions Trading Scheme charge on gas generators and the Carbon Price Support tax. [50] Another 80 pounds would come from ending the Renewables Obligation, the Feed-in Tariff and the Warm Home Discount, which helps struggling households with electricity costs. [50] It would also make permanent the removal of VAT on household electricity. [50] The regulator's price cap rises 4% next month. [50]

    Why it matters — The regulator attributes that rise principally to the Middle East conflict's effect on global gas markets, which no domestic levy touches. [50] The Warm Home Discount is a transfer to poorer households, so removing it lowers the average bill and raises the bills of the people it was paying for.

45. 46

    Sweden's election is a close race

    A second poll this week put Sweden's governing right-wing bloc within reach of the centre-left opposition, ten days before the parliamentary election on 13 September. [51]

    Why it matters — Each bloc is assembled from several parties, and Sweden's parliament admits none that fall below 4% of the vote. A tight result therefore leaves the smallest parties deciding who governs.

46. 47

    El Nino to run into February

    The World Meteorological Organization said the current El Nino is almost 100% likely to last through February 2027, and said so with what it called an unprecedented level of confidence. [52] It expects drought and raised temperatures across much of Asia. [52] El Nino is a periodic warming of the eastern Pacific that shifts where the world's rain falls, bringing drought to some regions and floods to others. [52]

    Why it matters — Farmers, power planners and water utilities across Asia now have a five-month forecast solid enough to plan against, which is rare. [52] The same conditions are behind the haze now sitting over South East Asia. [53]

47. 48

    Toxic haze spreads across South East Asia

    Smoke from fires on drained Indonesian peatlands has spread across South East Asia, and residents say this year is worse than usual. [53] A mother in Pengayuan village said her three-year-old daughter developed a cough, a sore throat and a runny nose. [53] In the Philippine province of Palawan, 1,300km away, people reported itchy eyes and throats, and Malaysia reports rising asthma and conjunctivitis. [53] Researchers trace the fires to decades of clearance for logging and plantations, and say drained peat leaves the same landscapes primed to burn year after year. [53]

    Why it matters — Environmental groups, researchers and government investigations have repeatedly alleged that some companies use fire because it is the cheapest way to clear land. [53] El Nino makes the fires spread; it does not light them. [52][53]

48. 49

    US firms pressed to skip Paris space summit

    The US president's Office of Science and Technology Policy held a call with US space companies a week ago. [54] It strongly suggested that attending France's international space summit on 9 and 10 September could imply support for European positions. [54] SpaceX has withdrawn, and some joint announcements planned with European firms have been cancelled. [54] The summit will hear from President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and involves participants from about 120 countries. [54] European officials say it takes no policy or budget decisions. [54] An OSTP official said the US continues to work with allies in space. [54]

    Why it matters — European governments are spending to depend less on US firms for launches and satellite communications, and SpaceX is the firm they mean. [54] Pressure not to appear at a summit is a cheap way to slow that, and a visible one.

49. 50

    Britain urged to strip Chinese parts from kit

    Experts told Nikkei that Britain should rewrite its military procurement rules to remove Chinese-made components from its hardware, down to the uniforms, and stop defaulting to the cheapest option. [55] They describe the present position as an unhealthy dependency and frame it as a spying risk. [55]

    Why it matters — Cheapest-bid rules are how that dependency was bought in the first place, one correct decision at a time. Undoing it means choosing in advance to pay more for parts that will look identical unless one day they turn out not to be.