This roundup summarises the most important news stories around the world in the last month (September 2026).
There were protests around the world, including in Guatemala, the Philippines, Portugal, and Syria, over rising prices and concerns about rising costs of living. In France, student protests – focused on overcrowded classrooms, poor facilities, and teacher shortages – led to the closure of over 400 schools and around 2,000 arrests.
In other news, the death toll of DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak surpassed 4,000, as soldiers burned down a transit and treatment centre while searching for weapons and those suspected of belonging to non-state armed groups. Fiji declared a national HIV emergency, with one in 60 residents having the blood-borne virus (up from one in 167 five years ago).
Europe and the European Union in the spotlight
The European Union (EU) invited Canada to become the bloc’s first associate member, with terms of the arrangement to be negotiated next month. In the same month, Iceland rejected a membership plan to join the EU.
In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany party, AfD, won a landslide victory in a key regional election (with 44 per cent of the vote), though it did not secure an absolute majority to govern alone. Later, the centre-right party of the chancellor registered significant losses in two other local elections, losing to parties to its political left and right. And in Norway, Europe’s oldest monarch, King Harald V, died at the age of 89 after 35 years on the throne.
Other geopolitical developments
Iran and the United States traded strikes for the first time since late July. In the same month, Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized a strategic Red Sea port city from Saudi-backed forces, potentially signalling a return to full-scale civil war. Later, the rebels continued to make strategic advances and declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia.
And in Asia, North Korea and Russia opened the first road bridge across their shared border, marking a continued geopolitical partnership since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
