The world in brief, by day

Eryri National Park in Wales and Los Alerces National Park in Chubut, Argentine Patagonia, are to sign a twinning agreement on 26 September, timed to Eryri’s seventy-fifth year as a protected area. Los Alerces lies near the Welsh-founded settlements of the Chubut valley. MercoPress, 14 Sep 2026 →

The Netherlands presented its 2027 budget on Budget Day. The Finance Ministry puts the deficit at 2.9 per cent of output in 2027, easing to 2.2 per cent by 2030, with public debt rising from 45.6 per cent this year to 46.9 next. Rijksoverheid, 15 Sep 2026 →

Nigeria’s headline inflation eased to 15.39 per cent in August from 15.43 in July, the National Bureau of Statistics reported, with food inflation at 19.57 per cent against 25.30 a year earlier. The consumer price index rose one point to 146.3. Blueprint, 15 Sep 2026 →

Qatar’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched Dar Al Sharikat, a single body to register and license companies across the Qatar Financial Centre, the Free Zones Authority, the Science and Technology Park and Media City, with tax, immigration and labour functions attached. Qatar Tribune, 14 Sep 2026 →

Four people have died in three weeks and more than a hundred cases have been confirmed as scrub typhus spreads through Darma Rural Municipality in Salyan, Nepal, with three to four new cases a day. Health camps and rapid testing have been expanded. The Kathmandu Post, 15 Sep 2026 →

Thailand’s Cabinet revised the rules for its seventy-two-hour universal emergency cover from 15 September. Patients may appeal an emergency classification within ninety days, the national institute must decide within sixty, and hospitals must refund fees within thirty. Nation Thailand, 15 Sep 2026 →

Okinawa elected a new governor on 13 September. The prefectural count gave Genta Koja 423,124 votes against 276,060 for the incumbent, Denny Tamaki, a margin of 147,064. Koja supports relocating the Futenma air station within the prefecture. Malay Mail, citing AFP, 14 Sep 2026 →

The euro area recorded a €14.2 billion surplus in goods trade with the rest of the world in July, Eurostat reported, against €10.7 billion a year earlier. The euro area job vacancy rate fell to 2.1 per cent in the second quarter from 2.3. Eurostat euro-indicators, 15 Sep 2026 →

NASA has selected twelve space-biology investigations, six on growing crops beyond Earth and six on precision health, sharing more than seven million dollars through 2030 across ten institutions in eight states. Nine of the investigators are new to the programme. NASA Science, 14 Sep 2026 →

Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka won the javelin at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest on 13 September with 91.09 metres, the first ninety-metre throw recorded in Hungary. Anderson Peters threw 86.18, Julian Weber 85.89. World Athletics, Jon Mulkeen, 13 Sep 2026 →

Statistics Canada reports household net worth rose 2.9 per cent in the second quarter to exceed C$19 trillion, in its national balance sheet and financial flow accounts released on 11 September. Statistics Canada, 11 Sep 2026 →

The European Space Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with Axiom Space — on 10 September in Paris, announced by ESA on the 12th — covering possible astronaut missions to Axiom Station, science payload development and spacewalk training at its European Astronaut Centre. ESA, 12 Sep 2026 →

South Africa’s Department of Employment and Labour says more than 42 million rand reached former Eastern Cape mineworkers and surviving beneficiaries during a 41-day claims drive under Project Ithubalethu that began on 13 July. SAnews, 14 Sep 2026 →

Egypt’s Higher Committee for Coastal Licensing approved 42 of 44 applications at its latest session, covering works in the Red Sea, Suez, Damietta, South Sinai, Alexandria, Port Said and Beheira governorates; one application was deferred and one rejected. Daily News Egypt, 14 Sep 2026 →

The State Bank of Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee kept the policy rate at 11.5 per cent on 14 September, with seven of its ten members voting for no change, according to Radio Pakistan, the state broadcaster. Radio Pakistan, 14 Sep 2026 →

Indonesia’s marine affairs and fisheries ministry has designated 683,826 hectares around the Teon, Nila and Serua islands in Maluku as a conservation area, by a ministerial decree issued on 2 September, protecting reefs, seagrass and hammerhead shark habitat. ANTARA News, 14 Sep 2026 →

Taiwan’s statistics agency reports average real total earnings rose 2.33 per cent from a year earlier to NT$434,420 over January to July, the largest gain for that period in eleven years, with consumer prices up 1.8 per cent. Focus Taiwan, 14 Sep 2026 →

Chile’s central bank published its September Monetary Policy Report on 9 September, cutting its 2026 growth forecast to between 0.25 and 0.75 per cent from 1.0 to 1.75, and holding the policy rate at 4.5 per cent. Banco Central de Chile, 9 Sep 2026 →

Djibouti signed the Artemis Accords at NASA headquarters in Washington on 14 September, becoming the seventy-second signatory and the eighth African country to join the framework, which sets out principles for peaceful and transparent space exploration. NASA, 14 Sep 2026 →

Oktoberfest Seoul opened on Saturday 12 September at Oil Tank Culture Park in Mapo-gu and runs to 21 September, the first festival in Korea authorised by the city of Munich to use the Oktoberfest name; opening-weekend seats sold out. The Korea Herald, 13 Sep 2026 →

The White House issued five proclamations on 8 September under section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Three exclude Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motor vehicles from importation from 29 September — the dairy order citing Canada’s tariff-rate quota allocation measures on American cheeses — and two adjust the existing 50 per cent tariffs from 15 September. The White House, 8 Sep 2026 →

The 83rd Venice Film Festival gave its Golden Lion to Kvinde Ukendt (Woman Unknown), directed by May el-Toukhy. Lee Chang-dong took the Grand Jury Prize and John Malkovich the Volpi Cup for best actor. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s jury announced the awards on 12 September. La Biennale di Venezia, 12 Sep 2026 →

The South African Weather Service issued a Yellow Level 4 warning for disruptive rain over Eastern Namakwa and the Central Karoo, running from 6pm on Sunday to 11.59pm on Monday. It expects 25 to 50mm, locally 60 to 80mm, from a cut-off low. SAnews, 13 Sep 2026 →

A survey of Wadi Al-Usaylah, north-east of Makkah, has recorded more than 60 rock inscriptions from the seventh and eighth centuries and two surviving wells of an original four. The valley carried pilgrim caravans arriving from Iraq, and the inscriptions document early Arabic script. Arab News, 13 Sep 2026 →

Nepal has completed the 18-kilometre, 400-kilovolt section linking the New Butwal substation to the Indian border, built under the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact. It is part of a 315-kilometre transmission project and is not yet energised, pending cross-border approvals. The Kathmandu Post, 13 Sep 2026 →

The ferry Virgo Transport 8, sailing Surabaya to Banjarmasin with 243 people and 89 vehicles aboard, lost contact around 2am on Sunday in the Java Sea. By 11am on Monday, Basarnas had recorded six dead and 108 survivors, with 129 people still missing. The figures are provisional. ANTARA News, 14 Sep 2026 →

South Korea’s Ministry of Personnel Management has replaced the formal dress expectation at national civil-service interviews with guidance recommending jeans, knitwear, chinos and flats. Ties and formal dress shoes are out, the latter because their noise disrupts examinations. The guidance takes effect in October. The Korea Herald, Song Seung-hyun, 12 Sep 2026 →

The Bank of Russia held its key rate at 14.00 per cent on 11 September. It put annual inflation at 6.3 per cent as of 7 September and forecasts 6.0 to 7.0 per cent for 2026. The next rate meeting is 23 October. Bank of Russia, 11 Sep 2026 →

NASA says the satellite-aided distress system it began developing at Goddard has now been credited with more than 63,000 rescues since the programme began in the 1980s; United States operations started in 1982. Sixty-two satellites carry the instruments, and 45 nations run ground stations and rescue coordination centres. NASA, 10 Sep 2026 →

Alexander Zverev, the top seed, beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 in the US Open men’s singles final on 13 September. It is his second Grand Slam title of the year, and his second in all: he won his first at Roland Garros in June. ATP Tour, 13 Sep 2026 →

Average asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment across Canada’s census metropolitan areas was $2,130 a month in the second quarter of 2026, down 3.6 per cent on the same quarter of 2025, Statistics Canada reported in its quarterly rent release. Statistics Canada, 9 Sep 2026 →

Just over a third of the European Union’s greenhouse-gas footprint in 2023 was generated outside its borders, a European Climate Foundation tracker of traded emissions finds; Eurostat’s own footprint accounts put it at 1.4 of 4.0 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, about 9.0 tonnes a head. Euronews, 8 Sep 2026; Eurostat, Feb 2026 →

Africa CDC has agreed a partnership with the Geneva Learning Foundation to route frontline experience into continental immunisation policy, drawing on a network of more than 50,000 health workers, over 80 per cent of them at district or community level. Africa CDC, 4 Sep 2026 →

Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation is advancing shore protection works at Alexandria, Damietta, Marsa Matrouh and Kafr El-Sheikh, and says it is preparing management studies covering 1,200 kilometres of the country’s northern shoreline. Daily News Egypt, 8 Sep 2026 →

Pakistan’s Petroleum Division notified higher pump prices from 10 September: petrol up 3.40 rupees to 367.75 rupees a litre and high-speed diesel up 6.72 rupees to 392.67 rupees. Taxes and duties remain 114 rupees a litre on petrol and 100 on diesel. Dawn, 9 Sep 2026 →

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board for Metro Manila approved Wage Order No. 28 on Monday by four votes to three, raising the daily minimum for non-agricultural workers by 60 pesos to 755. It goes to the national commission for review before taking effect. Philstar, 10 Sep 2026 →

Russia and North Korea opened their first road bridge on 7 September, a one-kilometre two-lane crossing of the Tumen river named after Yakov Novichenko. Construction began in April 2025; Russia’s prime minister said up to 300 vehicles a day would be able to cross. Al Jazeera, 7 Sep 2026 →

Taiwan’s exports reached a record US$82.4 billion in August, up 41.0 per cent on a year earlier, with imports at US$60.1 billion and a record monthly surplus of US$22.3 billion. It was a 34th consecutive month of annual export growth, the Ministry of Finance said. Focus Taiwan, 9 Sep 2026 →

A UNECE task force paper warns that datacentre electricity use, 485 terawatt-hours in 2025, could approach 950 by 2030 — roughly 3 per cent of world demand — while large facilities take two to five years to build and transmission networks more than a decade. UNRIC / UNECE, 9 Sep 2026 →

Ben Shelton beat the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10/7) in the US Open quarter-finals, a four-hour, 28-minute match that ended at 3:33 a.m. in New York — the latest finish in the tournament’s history. He meets Frances Tiafoe next. ATP Tour, 9 Sep 2026 →

Canadian employment fell by 42,000 in August, Statistics Canada reported, after gains of 181,000 from April through July. The unemployment rate held at 6.4 per cent, and average hourly wages rose 2.0 per cent on the year to $37.02. Statistics Canada, 4 Sep 2026 →

Industrial producer prices in the euro area rose 1.6 per cent in July against June, and 5.8 per cent against July 2025, Eurostat said. Energy led the monthly move at 5.6 per cent; non-durable consumer goods fell 0.1 per cent. Eurostat, 3 Sep 2026 →

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and its partners have launched a revised 180-day plan for the Bundibugyo Ebola response, covering 60 health zones across six provinces and costed at $1.3 billion, Africa CDC said. Africa CDC, 4 Sep 2026 →

Egypt’s industry ministry signed two memoranda with Chinese manufacturers: an integrated tyre complex by Linglong, put at about $2 billion and more than 5,000 jobs, and an automotive manufacturing platform with Jiangsu Changzhou, for which no value was given. Ahram Online, 3 Sep 2026 →

The Pakistan People’s Party took the GBA-09 Skardu-III seat in Gilgit-Baltistan. Akhtar Abbas Nashad won 8,399 votes against an independent’s 8,094, a margin of 305, on a turnout of 51.79 per cent, per the official Form 47. Dawn, 6 Sep 2026 →

Mount Ile Lewotolok on Lembata, in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara, erupted 1,873 times between 1 and 5 September, its observation post reported, throwing columns of white, grey and black ash 200 to 700 metres above the summit. ANTARA News, 6 Sep 2026 →

President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea arrived in Nice on Sunday for four days in France: a summit on the future of cinema at Saint-Paul-de-Vence, co-chaired with President Macron, then a two-day state visit in Paris. The Korea Herald, 7 Sep 2026 →

Seven OPEC+ producers — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — decided on Sunday to hold October production at September’s required levels. They next meet on 4 October. OPEC, 6 Sep 2026 →

NASA reported that the LINK spacecraft, operated by Katalyst Space, closed to within 12 to 15 kilometres of the Swift observatory, deployed its three robotic arms and fired all three electric thrusters together. The planned reboost was scaled back to a technology demonstration. NASA, 4 Sep 2026 →

Three mechanical elephants, each 4.5 metres tall and eight metres long, were walked through Taipei’s Shilin district by the French company Compagnie Oposito. The Taipei Performing Arts Center put the opening night’s audience at about 100,000. Focus Taiwan, 6 Sep 2026 →