Epa

• A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday that the Trump administration illegally terminated the Solar for All program. • The Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the $7 billion in funds in August, which were intended to provide solar power to over 900,000 lower-income Americans. • This ruling restores access to funding designed to make renewable energy affordable for poorer households.

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned leaders from 193 member nations that the world is facing three existential threats as he prepares to leave office. • Guterres identified runaway artificial intelligence, galloping climate change, and escalating inequality as the primary drivers of global instability and conflict. • A paralyzed Security Council and a deep geopolitical divide have allowed powerful countries to ignore international law with impunity.

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned leaders from 193 member nations that the world is deeply divided and the UN Security Council is paralyzed. • Guterres identified three existential threats facing the globe: runaway artificial intelligence, galloping climate change, and escalating inequality. • This geopolitical divide allows powerful countries to flout international law, creating an environment of impunity that hinders the end of global conflicts.

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned leaders from 193 member nations that the world is facing three existential threats: runaway artificial intelligence, galloping climate change, and escalating inequality. • Guterres stated that a huge geopolitical divide and paralysis in the Security Council have allowed powerful countries to flout international law. • This instability creates an environment of impunity where the UN's most powerful body cannot effectively end global conflicts.

• Several countries, including Nepal, Singapore, Israel, Romania, South Korea, and Chile, have submitted their official entries for the 2027 Academy Award for best international feature film. • Turkey selected the social drama "Like a Limbless Tree," directed by Tunç Davut, as its official representative for the competition. • These submissions determine which global films will compete for one of cinema's most prestigious awards, impacting international distribution and visibility for the filmmakers.

• The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the southern Philippines completed its first parliamentary election on September 15. • This vote follows the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, a peace deal signed between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. • The transition to a parliamentary system ends decades of armed conflict by rebel groups seeking a separate Muslim exclusive state.

Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in AugustClimate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found.Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3,885 cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This triggered flash floods on an almost unprecedented scale, hitting communities downstream without warning. Continue reading...

Gen Dan Caine comments at Washington summit come after US revealed it has deployed weapons in spaceAmerican troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth’s orbit but around the moon, Donald Trump’s top military adviser said on Wednesday, looking ahead to a new frontier in warfare after the US revealed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space.Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told service members and industry figures at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference outside Washington that the US military should adapt now so it “is prepared to fight, endure and win ... from the seabed to cislunar space”. Continue reading...

• Pope Francis welcomed a major pilgrimage from the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania during a weekly general audience in September 2026. • The event included academic delegations alongside the religious pilgrims at the Vatican. • This gathering highlights the Holy See's ongoing function as a central hub for transnational soft diplomacy, which is the use of cultural and political influence to build international relationships.

• Climate experts are urging the United Nations General Assembly and COP31 to establish trackable commitments following a deadly glacier collapse in Nepal and a global energy crisis. • The current crisis is driven by the Iran war, which has triggered what is described as the worst energy crisis in history. • These events highlight the urgent need to link energy security and electrification with loss and damage finance, which provides funds to countries suffering from climate-driven disasters.

Claims that dismantling pollution rules will lower energy bills and have little climate impact are far from convincingIn allowing US power plants to emit any amount of planet-heating pollution they wish to, the Trump administration made two striking claims – that this will cut Americans’ electricity bills and that the pollution itself doesn’t really matter anyway. Both claims struggle to stand up to even basic scrutiny.On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would erase any limits on emissions from coal and gas plants that are dangerously heating up our planet. This move, which follows a similar dismantling of pollution limits from cars ands trucks, is part of a broader push to eliminate the longstanding legal authority of this, or any future, US administration to deal with the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Register of British Slave Traders shows clergymen financed company that trafficked enslaved Africans on hundreds of voyagesNearly 250 years after the abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano made the Christian case for reparative justice, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, visited the Ghanaian shore where he was enslaved as a boy.After witnessing the dungeons beneath the chapel at Cape Coast Castle, once run by the Royal African Company (RAC), Mullally recommitted the Church of England to its “journey of repentance” for its role in slavery. Continue reading...

Disbanding of department in Trinidad comes after arrest of a resident for posting about issues with local water supplyA police department in Texas that arrested a local resident for complaining on social media about their city’s contaminated water supply has been ordered closed after failing to prove it provided any benefit to the community.State officials stepped in to investigate after Jennifer Combs spent a night in jail in May after a post appeared on her Facebook page suggesting people were hospitalized by bacteria in the water pipes of Trinidad, a municipality in Henderson county about 75 miles south-east of Dallas. Continue reading...

Advocates and experts describe the Trump administration’s climate rollbacks as gifts to polluters at expense of planetThe US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is ⁠poised to formally repeal carbon pollution standards for coal- and gas-fired power plants, according to reports.The Trump administration’s latest climate rollback is expected to ⁠come as soon as Monday on the sidelines of the G20 energy ministers’ meeting in Houston, ⁠Texas, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Continue reading...

Criticism of three-year threshold repayment freeze prompts update to guidance warning terms and conditions could changeUniversity students taking out student loans are to be warned that the terms and conditions could change so they are better informed about what they are signing up to, the government has said.In July, a report by MPs said slideshows that compared student loan repayments to the cost of a mobile phone contract, and YouTube videos that did not mention the fact that conditions could be altered amounted to mis-selling by the government. Continue reading...

Royal guards carry casket through streets of Fort Portal amid row over appointment of Edward Rukidi KijanangomaUganda’s King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, long the world’s youngest monarch, has been buried among the tombs of his royal forebears as ⁠his Tooro kingdom looked to put ⁠a bitter succession battle behind ​it.Oyo’s appointed successor, the news anchor Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, cast nine coffee berries into the grave at the Karambi Royal Tombs, marking the formal handover of power in the western Ugandan kingdom. Continue reading...

Petition to king, who remains Jamaica’s head of state, is formally lodged in landmark visit to UK by officialsA palpable surge of emotion swept through Brixton’s New Park Road Baptist church as the packed congregation rose to sing Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.The service on Sunday marked the anniversary of the 1781 Zong massacre, when more than 100 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard so the ship’s owners could claim insurance for “lost cargo”. Continue reading...

Many are rooting for vocal critic Catherine Connolly to let rip in Dublin meeting, but others hope she holds backIreland’s president, Catherine Connolly, has called Donald Trump abhorrent and an abuser of power. In his sole previous comment on Connolly, the US president seemed to think she was a man. Now that they are about to meet, Ireland is holding its breath.Trump is to fly into Dublin on Saturday morning for a two-day visit centred on golf but, before making it to his beloved greens, protocol obliges him to meet a woman who has given every impression of loathing him. Continue reading...

More than 30,000 due to attend Canadian artist’s opener at Plenitude arena, as thousands without tickets plan Friday night karaokeMore than 30,000 Céline Dion fans have gathered in Paris for the Canadian singer’s long-awaited return to performing on Saturday night – four years after she revealed her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological condition.Thousands more people without tickets have flocked to a series of giant karaoke events across France to belt out Dion’s famous power ballads, in celebration of the star’s health stabilising enough for her to return to the stage. Continue reading...

• The Trump administration directed officials in more than two dozen states to preserve all records from the 2024 election. • This order is part of a broader campaign to force states to turn over detailed voter records despite the administration facing repeated court losses. • State officials must now maintain these documents to ensure data is available if the Justice Department successfully overcomes legal hurdles to obtain the information.

• Federal prosecutors filed documents Tuesday arguing that a funding freeze by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and related media coverage do not justify dismissing the case against former contractors Davidson and Sasha Charlemagne. • Defense attorneys David Cattie and Pamela Lynn Colon claimed that public statements linking their clients to the VIHFA bid process created a presumption of prejudice. • The ruling determines whether the legal proceedings against the Charlemagnes can continue despite claims that public perception has compromised a fair trial.

Clothing chain says trading in Europe ‘challenging’ but customers are responding well to its price-cutting campaignPrimark will offer home delivery in Britain for the first time, as the fast-fashion retailer prepares to spin off from its owner Associated British Foods (ABF).The clothing chain, which already offers a click and collect service in the UK, has long avoided home delivery, arguing that its low prices made it too difficult to absorb the cost of packing and shipping orders. Continue reading...

• Nepal faced Hong Kong, China in the final of the Asian Games Men's T20I Qualifier for 2026. • Hong Kong, China set a target of 188/7, while Nepal reached 114/2 after 11.3 overs. • Rohit Paudel contributed 35 runs from 24 balls to Nepal's effort in this qualifying match.

Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people.Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods, which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal in late August. So far, more than 1,300 are confirmed dead and more than 5,500 still missing, with hopes of their survival diminished after 12 days of rescue operations. Continue reading...

• NASA and the European Space Agency have launched uncrewed probes, including the Europa Clipper and Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, to search for life-sustaining conditions on Jupiter's moons. • Researchers are combining data from these probes with findings from the James Webb Space Telescope and future missions to Saturn's moon Enceladus to identify microbial life. • The increased likelihood of discovering extraterrestrial life forces experts to plan for the social and political fallout of such a discovery.