Tuesday, Sep 15, 2026

• Karnataka's Manaswini monthly pension scheme for single, divorced and legally separated women pays Rs 800 a month to 132,976 active beneficiaries, but a report finds its 40-64 age band and Rs 32,000 annual income ceiling exclude many vulnerable women, and a recent verification drive has suspended pensions for thousands flagged "doubtful," including more than 100,000 cases in Mysore alone. The Wire
• An analysis of India's Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and Code on Social Security, 2020 (both in force since November 21, 2025) argues they do little to protect women manufacturing workers from heat stress: 87% of surveyed garment workers reported acute heat-related symptoms in the past year, and Employees' State Insurance dispensary coverage per 100,000 insured persons has roughly halved, from 9.80 to 4.47, over 15 years. Newslaundry
• An opinion piece contends the Indian state has the demonstrated capacity to run good schools, citing well-resourced Kendriya Vidyalayas, but chooses not to extend that quality to schools serving poor families, and connects this to the Cockroach Janta Party's "SchoolThikKaro" student protest campaign over government school conditions. The Wire
• A report on Braille access in India's Northeast finds Meghalaya's only school for the blind, the School of Mother Elizabeth, has repeatedly asked authorities for Braille textbooks without response; that Braille does not exist in the Pnar language even though it does in Khasi, Garo and English; and that the Chakma Autonomous District Council area in Mizoram has a literacy rate of 46.4% against the state average of 98.2%. The Wire
• Three days old but substantial: an investigation into Delhi's unregulated paying-guest housing market, prompted by the Satya Niketan PG collapse that killed seven people, finds the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has identified 1,355 PG buildings housing about 27,000 occupants, filling a shortfall at Delhi University, which has only 3,422 official hostel seats across roughly 90 colleges. Newslaundry
• Two days old but substantial: Bihar's floods have affected nearly 48 lakh people across 575 gram panchayats in 87 blocks in 15 districts after the state received 27% above-normal September rainfall; the Ganga at Sultanganj was running 1.9 metres above the danger mark, and the state Water Resources Department has directed officials to monitor riverbank erosion. Scroll.in

• India's Consumer Price Index inflation rose to 4.82% year-on-year in August 2026, up from 4.38% in June, with food inflation at 5.95%, according to government data released September 14. Business Today
• India's Wholesale Price Index inflation rose to 9.92% year-on-year in August 2026, up from 9.78% in July, with fuel and power inflation jumping to 22.93% and the WPI Food Index rising to 7.05% from 6.65%, per data released September 14. ANI
• Union Home Minister Amit Shah told media in Mumbai that the Uniform Civil Code would be introduced in all 21 states and Union Territories governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections; it is already in force in Uttarakhand, with Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh having passed Uniform Civil Code bills and Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh examining implementation frameworks. India Legal
• The Central Bureau of Investigation registered a First Information Report (FIR) in the death of Disha Salian, Sushant Singh Rajput's former manager, naming former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, MLA Aaditya Thackeray, actors Dino Morea, Rhea Chakraborty and Sooraj Pancholi, former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and suspended officer Sachin Vaze, alleging a conspiracy and cover-up including destruction of records and propagation of a "false suicide story." The Bombay High Court had directed the CBI to register the FIR on September 2, 2026. Scroll.in
• A group of 20 Trinamool Congress MPs who defected to form the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) is reportedly set to merge into the BJP; one of them, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, said 17 would join, but West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya denied it, saying "no one from the TMC or NCPI is joining the BJP." Business Today
• The Constitutional Conduct Group, comprising 108 former civil servants, condemned Delhi Police's roughly 10-hour detention and questioning of retired civil servant Ashish Joshi over his social media posts on September 2, calling it a "blatant display of unconstitutional power" that could create "a chilling effect on free speech and democratic discourse." The Print
• An analysis finds 24 Delhi assembly constituencies now have fewer registered voters on the rolls than votes actually cast in the February 2025 election, including the New Delhi seat, where 61,636 votes were cast in 2025 against just 52,368 currently registered voters; the piece links this to a voter list revision that removed 84,000 names recorded as dead and 39,729 as duplicates. The Wire
• Parliament's monsoon session, adjourned on August 13, 2026, has still not been formally prorogued 32 days later; Congress MP Jairam Ramesh alleged the government is deliberately keeping the session open to muster numbers to reintroduce the Delimitation Bill, which would expand the Lok Sabha to 850 seats and failed to pass in a special April session. The Wire
• Two days old: Mumbai police denied Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil permission to hold a protest at Azad Maidan; he is demanding faster issuance of Kunbi (OBC) caste certificates to eligible Marathas in the Marathwada region, a similar process in Satara, and withdrawal of cases against protesters. The Wire

• The opposition in Meghalaya's 60-member assembly remains fragmented ahead of the 2028 election: the ruling side holds 51 seats (National People's Party 33, United Democratic Party 12, BJP 2, Hill State People's Democratic Party 2, plus two independents), while the nine-member opposition splits between five Trinamool Congress Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and three Voice of the People Party (VPP) legislators (a fourth VPP-ticket winner, North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum, was suspended from the party in March last year), with Trinamool Congress's Mukul M. Sangma as Leader of the Opposition and no joint platform yet visible between the two parties. The Shillong Times
• VPP chief Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit accused Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma of frequenting Smit for Jadoh as a political move to weaken his hold on the Nongkrem constituency, made while distributing MLA scheme funds for 2025-26 at his Nongkrem residence, and said the VPP would form the government in 2028. The Shillong Times
• The Jaintia National Council's Central Executive Committee has asked the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee and State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to maintain the government-ordered status quo on the proposed Shree Cement project at Lum Syrman until a fact-finding committee reports, after JNC president Sambormi Lyngdoh flagged a contradiction between SEIAA chairman Annamalai, who said the authority has halted all processing, and a Chief Minister's Secretariat joint secretary who said the status quo covers only physical groundwork, not paperwork. The Shillong Times
• Following pressure from the Jaintia Students' Union, the Directorate of Health Services agreed to withdraw and redo the flawed 2026-27 Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) seat allotment list, where a candidate ranked 30th with a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) score of 439 got a seat at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences over higher-scoring applicants, after officials admitted they had used an unpublished standard operating procedure; a revised merit-based list was promised for September 15. Meghalaya Monitor
• Chief Minister Conrad Sangma distributed one-time relocation grants of Rs 20,000 (Rs 10,000 upfront via Direct Benefit Transfer, then Rs 2,000 monthly for five months) to vendors relocated from Laitumkhrah and Laban to new vending zones at Barik and Dhanketi, with Arts & Culture Minister Sanbor Shullai and East Shillong MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh attending. Meghalaya Monitor
• The Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) Progressive Workers' Union has threatened a month-long sit-in outside the Pinewood Hotel gate from October 21 to November 20 if the corporation does not start a time-bound regularisation process for contractual employees by October 20, union president Napoleon S. Mawphniang said, adding the union has sought a tripartite meeting with the Tourism Department, MTDC's chairman and the Labour Commissioner first. The Shillong Times
• The Hill Farmers Union met Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to press for compensation and loan relief for piggery farmers hit by African Swine Fever, with union president Commander Shangpliang blaming the outbreak on pigs entering the state without health checkups and warning of protests if the government does not pay compensation. Meghalaya Monitor
• The Hills Farmers' Union, after meeting Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, demanded a special investigation team probe into alleged illegal cash collection (via Google Pay and the Unified Payments Interface, to an account named Pankaj Das Car Rental) from livestock-transport vehicles entering Meghalaya, alleging police involvement, and submitted representations to the Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home and Police, Director General of Police Idashisha Nongrang and Ri-Bhoi Superintendent of Police Giri Prasad. The Shillong Times
• The Meghalaya Board of School Education announced the Secondary School Leaving Certificate 2026-27 exams will run December 4-16, listing the full subject-wise schedule and hall procedures. Upcoming. The Shillong Times
• Expansion work has begun at Shillong Airport under a March 28, 2026 environmental clearance: the domestic terminal will grow from 5,000 to 10,550 square metres and the runway will extend from 1,829 to 2,400 metres, at an estimated cost of Rs 488.67 crore using 168.414 hectares of non-forest land, with conditions on waste, sewage treatment, rainwater harvesting, noise limits and air-quality monitoring. The Shillong Times

Standing searches: none of the targeted institution, programme or NGO searches (Government Innovation Lab, State Capability Enhancement Project, Sampath Kumar, HDLP, MECDM/Mission 1000 Days, CM-SMS, Child Care Support Initiative, Nokma Empowerment Research Project, CMHF, JSSK, MHIS, GREEN Meghalaya, ResGov, Indus Action, CPR, IDinsight, Inclusion Economics, Rocket Learning) returned anything new within the recency window.

Bangladesh

• The Appellate Division of Bangladesh's Supreme Court, a four-member bench led by Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury, upheld a High Court order halting construction of a 1.6-kilometre road through an Ecologically Critical Area in Cox's Bazar, after the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association argued the municipality began work without environmental clearance. The Daily Star
• Petrobangla Chairman Md Abdul Mannan said gas supply is expected to improve from Monday as one unit of the Adani power plant resumed operation after a technical fault, though three major coal-fired plants are still running at half capacity and load-shedding will continue. Prothom Alo
• State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wants to "reset" ties with India away from the "uncomfortable" pattern of the past 15 years, saying Prime Minister Tarique Rahman should make a dedicated bilateral visit rather than meet Indian officials only at multilateral forums; he said bilateral engagement, not "breakfast in India, lunch in India, dinner in India," was the goal. The Daily Star
• Dhaka University's Central Students' Union term ends on September 15 with no election schedule yet announced; Islami Chhatra Shibir is actively organising for the polls, while Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, which won none of the 28 posts contested in 2025, is lagging in forming its committees. The Daily Star

Pakistan

• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said he was "abducted" by authorities during a protest rally on Lahore's Mall Road and left by the roadside without security; Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari denied this, saying video showed him boarding a police vehicle voluntarily, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Shafi Jan alleged an unlawful abduction attempt by Punjab Police. Dawn
• Pakistan raised petrol prices by Rs4.42 per litre to Rs380.24 and high-speed diesel by Rs6.10 per litre to Rs409.42, effective September 15, citing rising global oil prices; Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had a day earlier announced a Rs100-per-litre relief subsidy for motorcycles, autos and vehicles up to 800cc on monthly fuel quotas. Dawn
• The State Bank of Pakistan's Monetary Policy Committee kept its key policy rate unchanged at 11.5 percent, citing Middle East tensions pushing up global oil prices and inflation, which rose to 11.1 percent in August after easing to 9.2 percent the previous month. Dawn

Sri Lanka

• Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa was named a suspect in a money-laundering investigation linked to Airbus aircraft procurement for SriLankan Airlines, after the Criminal Investigation Department filed a motion on the Attorney General's instructions; Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena ordered him to appear in court on September 16. News First
• A complaint was lodged with the Criminal Investigation Department alleging the promotion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at a Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna rally in Anuradhapura. Daily Mirror
• President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is set to lay foundation stones on September 16 for four hospital development projects worth Rs 7,148 million across the Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Mannar and Mullaitivu districts. Daily Mirror

Nepal

• The United States approved an additional $1 million in forensic assistance, including DNA analysis kits and FBI specialists working alongside Nepal Police, to help identify victims of Nepal's recent floods, bringing total US flood-related aid to more than $5 million. The Kathmandu Post
• Nepal's ruling Nepali Congress moved to end its internal split by absorbing 31 leaders loyal to former party president Sher Bahadur Deuba into its central working committee ahead of a general convention starting September 19; General Secretary Pradeep Paudel said "the main issues have been addressed" and "the door for an agreement is open." The Kathmandu Post
• Lawmakers on Nepal's Finance Committee are proposing to cut the Nepal Rastra Bank governor's term from five years to three, with a possible two-year extension by the Cabinet; former governors Yubaraj Khatiwada, Tilak Rawal, Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, Chiranjibi Nepal and Maha Prasad Adhikari have warned the change could increase political interference in the central bank. One day older than the strict 24-hour window, included as a substantial story. The Kathmandu Post

Bhutan

• Local government leaders in Zhemgang petitioned the government demanding the immediate transfer of the district's sitting Dzongda (district administrator), threatening mass resignation if their demand is not met, saying this was needed to prevent further administrative breakdown. Flagged as older, published roughly three days ago; it is the most recent substantive Zhemgang governance item recoverable from Kuensel after escalation, and is included as a substantial, otherwise-uncovered story within the outer three-day limit. Kuensel

Asia Pacific

• The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao held its first parliamentary election since the region was created under a 2014 peace agreement, with nearly 2.4 million registered voters choosing among candidates for an 80-seat parliament that will go on to elect a chief minister. Election Commission chairman George Garcia said a shooting in Cotabato City killed three people and injured 15 others in the run-up to the vote. Al Jazeera
• The Indonesian passenger ferry Virgo Transport 8 capsized in the Java Sea while sailing from Surabaya to Banjarmasin in rough weather; 129 of its 243 passengers remain missing after six confirmed deaths and 108 rescued, according to national rescue agency head Mohammad Syafii and Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi. Al Jazeera
• Genta Koja, a candidate backed by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party, won the Okinawa gubernatorial election with 59 percent of the vote, defeating two-term incumbent Denny Tamaki, who had opposed expansion of US military bases on the island. Al Jazeera
• The inter-island ferry MV Matui sank off Vanuatu in bad weather while travelling between Ambae and Santo islands, leaving at least one person dead and more than 30 missing; Prime Minister Jotham Napat's office said the sinking may have involved negligence, including overloading. Al Jazeera
• Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei's call to slow advanced AI development and restrict chip sales to China drew an accusation from Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun that Washington is using AI safety as cover to preserve its technological lead; Al Jazeera cited 2025 AI investment of $285.9 billion in the US against $12.4 billion in China. Al Jazeera
• Rest of World profiled workers outside Silicon Valley's hype cycle adopting AI tools for everyday business tasks, including a Lagos makeup artist using ChatGPT for hiring and pricing, and a Zhengzhou film director whose minidrama production costs fell from $200,000 to $20,000 per series using AI-generated video. Rest of World

Africa

• Soldiers calling themselves the Armed Forces for the Restoration of the Homeland attacked Niger's Air Base 101, the presidential palace and the national broadcaster in Niamey on August 29, falsely claiming President Abdourahamane Tchiani had been removed; about 200 Russian Africa Corps soldiers backed by drones helped loyalist forces retake the airbase, and 27 people were killed with 100 mutineers arrested. Al Jazeera
• Uganda's King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who died on August 27 of angiosarcoma, was buried on September 12 amid a succession dispute after Babiito clan elders selected 56-year-old Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma as successor, while the late king's mother, Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, and sister, Princess Ruth Komuntale, say a 2022 will named an unidentified biological son as heir. Al Jazeera
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ebola outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, has spread to a seventh province after South-Ubangi was confirmed affected this week; the country's 17th Ebola epidemic has reached 7,022 registered cases and 3,398 deaths, and there is no approved vaccine or treatment for this strain. Al Jazeera
• The UN's International Organization for Migration warned Sudan's aid network could collapse within weeks without more funding, with director-general Amy Pope saying "the entire humanitarian system could collapse within weeks if we don't act now"; the World Food Programme's Sudan funding has fallen to $206 million in 2026 from $645 million in 2025, even as 8.6 million people remain internally displaced. Al Jazeera
• More than 2,000 Yemenis have fled to Djibouti as Houthi forces advanced along Yemen's Red Sea coast, with Djibouti's economy and finance minister Ilyas M Dawaleh saying 1,400 people arrived within a single 24-hour period. Al Jazeera
• Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have built a parallel taxation and administrative system in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since capturing Goma and Bukavu in early 2025, with UN experts estimating the group collects about $800,000 a month by taxing coltan mining at the Rubaya mines it has controlled since 2024. The New Humanitarian
• Samuel Eto'o, president of Cameroon's football federation FECAFOOT, faces embezzlement allegations reported by The Times that more than 567,000 euros ($665,000) in payments from Russia for a 2023 friendly match were redirected to his personal bank account at Qatar National Bank in Doha; Eto'o denies the allegations. Al Jazeera

Latin America

• A Guatemalan court dismissed terrorism, illicit association and obstruction of justice charges against four Indigenous leaders, including deputy minister of sustainable development Luis Pacheco, who had been accused over October 2023 protests demanding the resignation of then attorney general Consuelo Porras; judge Mynor Moto ruled they had broken no laws, and the UN human rights office said the decision reaffirmed freedoms of expression and assembly. Al Jazeera
• A fire at a nursing home in Pitrufquen, in Chile's Araucania region, killed 16 elderly residents out of 26 people present; mayor Jacqueline Romero said the municipality had requested a regulatory inspection in February after the home failed to comply with rules dating to 2019. Al Jazeera

Middle East

• Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar threatened to revoke the citizenship of filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, calling their Gaza documentary "NAZA," which includes testimony from Israeli military and intelligence personnel about an AI system called Lavender, "vile" after it won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, saying: "As culture minister, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state." Al Jazeera
• Russia resupplied its military bases in Syria for the first time under a new agreement, with a four-vessel convoy delivering supplies to Tartous port on September 7; the August memorandum of understanding, reached after 18 months of talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ahmed al-Sharaa, converts the Tartous and Hmeimim facilities into joint training centres with Syria controlling civilian operations. Al Jazeera
• Houthi forces completed control of Yemen's Red Sea coastline by capturing the port of Mocha and Mayyun island over the weekend, effectively controlling the Bab al-Mandeb strait, through which about 12 percent of global trade passes; shipping volumes through the Red Sea have already fallen 50 to 55 percent between 2023 and 2025. Al Jazeera

Europe

• Sweden's election was too close to call with 95 percent of districts counted: the centre-left opposition bloc was projected at 176 seats against the governing coalition's 173 in the 349-seat parliament, while support for the far-right Sweden Democrats fell to 17.5 percent from 20.5 percent in 2022, the party's first loss since it entered parliament in 2010, according to political scientist Anders Sannerstedt. Al Jazeera
• Scotland's John Swinney, Northern Ireland's Michelle O'Neill and Wales's Rhun ap Iorwerth signed a joint agreement in Cardiff asserting their nations' right to self-determination, declaring "no Westminster government has the right to block democracy," after UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham reiterated that another Scottish independence referendum and Northern Ireland reunification votes remained off the table. Al Jazeera
• A boat carrying migrants sank off the Greek island of Gavdos, near Crete, leaving one confirmed dead and 25 missing out of 77 people believed aboard; 51 were rescued by nearby vessels, and the coastguard, Frontex aircraft and a coastguard helicopter continued searching in strong winds. Al Jazeera
• France opened a judicial investigation for "intentional violence" against a police officer after a 29-year-old homeless man, identified as Youssef E, died 13 days after being violently thrown to the ground by the officer during a music festival, with video footage of the incident circulating. Al Jazeera

North America

• Landowners, ranchers, businesses and the nonprofit Conserve Big Bend sued the Trump administration to block construction of a steel bollard border wall in Texas's Big Bend region, arguing the area accounts for roughly a quarter of the US-Mexico border's length but only about 1 percent of border arrests. Al Jazeera
• The US Environmental Protection Agency repealed rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas power plants; administrator Lee Zeldin announced the rollback at a Houston news conference, while critics including the Center for Biological Diversity's Maggie Coulter cited estimates that the previous rules would have prevented 30,000 deaths a year. Al Jazeera
• Former Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil filed a discrimination lawsuit against Columbia University and a dean, alleging what he called institutionalised racism against Palestinian students, saying "Columbia did not care." Al Jazeera
• US President Donald Trump dismissed calls from tech figures including Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and Elon Musk for more AI regulation as a "SICK conspiracy," writing that "the only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT," after Amodei had cited a six-to-twelve month timeframe for potential AI risks. Al Jazeera
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting roughly 300 global investors managing nearly $120 trillion in assets at a Canada Investment Summit in Toronto starting September 16, seeking to fund $1 trillion in Canadian investment projects over five years as Canada faces 50 percent US tariffs on about $20 billion of its goods. Al Jazeera
• Mexican authorities rescued eight people who had been forcibly recruited by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel from a clandestine clinic in Tecalitlan, Jalisco state, and arrested six suspected guards, according to state prosecutor Salvador Gonzalez; the investigation began while searching for a 20-year-old man who disappeared in late July after responding to a fake job offer. Al Jazeera

• Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy, announced it is accelerating its global health and wellbeing funding with a $1 billion commitment to GiveWell and a new "Launchpad Funds" mechanism to seed or scale general-manager-led funds in underfunded areas. Published September 8, seven days old. Coefficient Giving
• The World Bank's research blog "Let's Talk Development" published new evidence from a multi-country study on how governments are using artificial intelligence, authored by Timothy Lundy, Manuel Ramos-Maqueda, Shyam Jayanti Patel, Daniel Rogger, Flavia Sacco Capurro and Josefina Silva Fuentealba. Published September 9, six days old. World Bank Blogs
• World Bank economist Joana Silva published research arguing that workers' skills increasingly come from on-the-job experience rather than formal education and that labour policy has not adapted. Published September 10, five days old. World Bank Blogs
• BRAC announced a new partnership with Pabna Municipality and the company Square to improve waste management in Bangladesh. Published September 12, three days old. BRAC

• Nepal's government submitted a formal claim to the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage after the August 26 rock-ice avalanche and flood on Langtang Himal's Bhote Koshi river killed more than 1,386 people, with over 5,130 still missing as of September 12; direct damage is estimated at $2.6 billion and reconstruction costs at $4-5 billion. The fund, set up at the 2023 UN climate conference (COP28), has pledges exceeding $820 million against 176 funding requests worldwide worth about $2.8 billion, and Nepal's claim is seen as an early test of whether it can actually pay out; its board next meets in Manila in December. Mongabay India
• One day old but substantial: the 18th summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and partner economies), hosted by India in New Delhi, issued a declaration on clean technology and energy cooperation that reaffirms the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, opposes unilaterally imposed carbon border adjustment mechanisms, and sets up a BRICS photovoltaic industry working group and a low-emission hydrogen workstream. The Centre for Science and Environment's Avantika Goswami said BRICS nations already generate more than half the world's solar power but are unlikely to commit to a fossil fuel phase-out given developing economies' energy needs. Down To Earth
• European Union carbon allowance prices hit their highest level in almost nine months on September 14, driven by the closure of a major Middle Eastern oil pipeline and a drop in solar and wind output in central Europe that pushed up prices across the energy complex. Carbon Pulse
• Upcoming: COP31, the next United Nations climate conference, will be held in Antalya, Turkey from November 9-20, 2026, with registration through the UNFCCC's Online Registration System now open for parties, observer states and non-governmental organisations. UNFCCC