World
President Donald Trump addressed the 81st UN General Assembly in New York this week, with the seven-month war with Iran, energy security and Gaza at the centre of his message. Delegates walked out of the chamber during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech a day earlier. Washington is pressing for shipping to flow freely again through the Strait of Hormuz, where attacks on tankers have cut oil traffic since late February. Trump also said he wants to keep talking with Russia and Ukraine about an energy truce. He met Japan's prime minister and is hosting China's Xi Jinping at the White House in a crowded diplomatic week.
UN News / PBS NewsHour
Politics
President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday for a state visit centred on trade, artificial intelligence, Taiwan and the war with Iran. The two sides agreed the day before to extend a one-year trade truce, which had been due to expire on November 10, by two months. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the leaders may support a notification mechanism for AI incidents that could affect national security. Xi said AI development must always stay under human control. China wants Washington to halt arms sales to Taiwan and ease export controls on advanced chips.
AP News / Al Jazeera
Business
The months-long crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is still pushing up the cost of moving goods. Brent crude has traded close to $100 a barrel for weeks, and bunker fuel surcharges are feeding into container and bulk cargo rates. Container schedule reliability fell to 56.1%, the sharpest monthly drop since the pandemic, as ships take longer routes and bunch up at ports. Shipping stocks have reached decade highs as investors bet on higher rates. Analysts warn that peak-season demand plus fuel costs could keep rates firm into the fourth quarter. Tanker operators have booked strong earnings, while importers brace for another quarter of unpredictable delivery windows and higher landed costs.
Freightos / CNBC
Technology
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek is reportedly developing its own AI chip to cut its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei, and has been expanding its use of Huawei's Ascend processors for model training. Huawei said at its Connect conference on September 17 that it is moving its next data-centre accelerator, the Ascend 960DT, up to the first quarter of 2027. Supply is the bottleneck. US export controls keep Chinese designers away from advanced overseas foundries, SMIC's 7nm and 6nm capacity limits domestic output, and high-bandwidth memory is tight. Analysts say the programme is still early and will depend on how fast domestic foundry and memory capacity can grow.
TrendForce / TechCrunch
Science
A team led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute has won a $3.3 million National Science Foundation award to test whether biological tricks used by diatoms, sea sponges and plants can pull rare earth elements and silica out of coal ash, red mud and mine tailings. One estimate puts 11 million tons of rare earth elements in US coal ash, worth $8.4 billion, or nearly eight times current domestic reserves. The five-year project also aims to turn the leftover silica into useful products, cutting energy use and harsh chemicals. The project brings together biology, geochemistry, materials science, metallurgy, engineering, computational chemistry and artificial intelligence.
ScienceDaily / Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Sports
The 2026 Presidents Cup is tight at Medinah Country Club near Chicago, where the United States led 3-2 after Thursday's four-ball matches. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns won 1-up over Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im, while rookies Jackson Koivun and Justin Thomas won their match. Friday's foursomes brought Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman into the American lineup against Im and Hideki Matsuyama. The US has won ten Presidents Cups in a row and leads the series 13-1-1. Ticket demand has been strong, and the International team is chasing its first win on American soil in the event's history, with four rookies in its lineup.
PGA Tour / AP
Health
A study of more than 72,000 adults aged 60 and over found that those who received the recombinant shingles vaccine Shingrix had a 9% lower burden of cardiovascular disease over seven years than those who received the older live-virus vaccine. Heart failure risk was 12% lower and ischemic heart disease 10% lower. Oxford researchers used the US switch between the two vaccines in late 2017 as a natural experiment. The findings are observational, and a randomised trial in Denmark is expected to report in 2027. Public health agencies currently recommend shingles vaccination by age and immune status rather than by heart risk.
Nature Medicine / Harvard Health
Environment
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center says there is a greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Nino during the 2026-27 autumn and winter. Sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific are more than 3C above average, and European seasonal models project the event could peak at levels never recorded since 1950. NOAA's winter outlook favours warmer-than-normal conditions across the northern United States and a wetter pattern in the south. Climate Week NYC is meeting in New York as governments weigh the risks. Forecasters will update the outlook in October, when the peak strength of the event should be clearer.
NOAA Climate Prediction Center / WMO