This roundup summarises the most important news stories around the world in the last month (September 2025).

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In China, president Xi Jinping hosted Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Russian president Vladimir Putin, with the three leaders casting themselves as a united front against growing pressure from the United States (US). Later, the Chinese and Russian leaders stood together publicly for the first time with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, at a military parade in Tiananmen Square commemorating the end of the Second World War. In response, US president Donald Trump accused the countries of conspiring against the US.

Relatedly, in relation to Russia, more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace, during a large air attack on Ukraine, prompting the scrambling of NATO forces to send up fighter jets. Following that, Russian military jets – in a series of additional incursions – also violated Estonia’s airspace.

And in the Middle East, Israel targeted Hamas leaders in an attack in Doha, Qatar, killing five members, including a lead negotiator. Earlier, in Yemen, Israeli airstrikes killed the country’s prime minister and other ministers in the Houthi rebel-controlled government.

Large-scale national protests

In Indonesia, protests erupted over the death of a delivery rider, allegedly run over by a police armoured vehicle, as well as opposition against lawmakers’ extravagant allowances. In Nepal, a social media ban – which tapped into mounting frustration over persistent problems of corruption and inequality – led to demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people, and eventually to the prime minister’s resignation. Despite the resignation and eventual reversal of the ban, protests continued to escalate.

And in the United Kingdom, a nationalist-populist rally attracted over 100,000 protestors in London. Separately, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner resigned after underpaying taxes on a seaside apartment.

Legal consequences and political developments

Legally, in Brazil, a majority of its supreme court judges voted to convict former president Jair Bolsonaro for plotting to overturn the 2022 election. He was sentenced to over 27 years in prison. And in Denmark, the prime minister publicly apologised to Greenlandic indigenous girls and women who were given invasive contraception against their will by health authorities in the 1960s and 1970s.

Politically, in France, the prime minister – the country’s fourth in 20 months – was ousted after losing a no-confidence vote. In Japan, following a series of electoral losses, the prime minister announced his resignation. In Moldova, a pro-European party won a clear parliamentary majority, defeating pro-Russian groups. And in Thailand, a construction tycoon and political conservative was chosen as the country’s next prime minister, following a week of political upheaval. A fresh election must be called within four months of him being sworn in. Later, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ordered by a court to serve a year in prison.

In other news

• Afghanistan: An earthquake – the country’s third major one since 2021 – killed over 2,200 people.
• Sudan: A landslide killed at least 1,000 people.
• United States: Because Congress could not agree on a funding bill, the federal government shut down at the end of the month.