Blog

30Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

Business

Pakistan Local Currency Bond Market Plan Unveiled as $1.2bn IMF Review Begins

The Pakistan local currency bond market plan published on Tuesday, September 29, would widen public access to treasury bills and bonds and loosen the grip commercial banks hold on sovereign debt. The Finance Division released it to meet an end-September commitment under the country's IMF programme, on the day an IMF staff mission began its latest review in Islamabad. The timing carries financial weight. Dawn reported that a successful review would make Pakistan eligible for about $1.2 billion: $1 billion under the Extended Fund Facility and $200 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. Dawn put the likely release at the end of October or early November, and said Pakistan may need waivers from the IMF executive board for missed structural targets. Why the Pakistan loc...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Sports

Dhanda and Chenai Take India to Trap Mixed Team Gold at the Asian Games

India's Neeru Dhanda and Kynan Chenai won the Asian Games trap mixed team gold in Aichi-Nagoya on Wednesday, finishing the final with 34 hits after starting it in last place. Most Indian outlets call the score an Asian record, and reports put the mark it replaced at 30 or 33, both credited to Qatar. It was Dhanda's second gold of the Games in two days. How India won the Asian Games trap mixed team gold The pair reached the four-team final as the fourth-ranked qualifiers. In qualification, Chenai shot 73 and Dhanda 63, according to Deccan Herald. The Statesman reports that they sat last after the opening series of the final, then kept finding targets until the gold was secure. Their 34 secured the Asian Games trap mixed team gold, ahead of Qatar's Mohammed Al-Rumaihi and Ray Bassil...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Sports

WNBA Playoff Upset: Liberty Sweep Top-Seeded Lynx to Reach the Semifinals as a No. 8 Seed

A historic WNBA playoff upset was completed in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, when the eighth-seeded New York Liberty beat the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx 87-71 in Game 2 and finished a two-game sweep. According to the Associated Press, no No. 8 seed had eliminated a No. 1 seed in the league's 30-year history. Why this WNBA playoff upset counts as a first The record comes with a structural caveat. Before 2022 the league used several playoff formats, and many of them never put a No. 8 seed opposite a No. 1 seed, as the AP pointed out. Since the current format began, in which the top eight teams open with a best-of-three round, this is the first time the lowest seed has taken down the highest, the Japan Times noted. Naming conventions also differ. Several outlets call this round the quart...

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30Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Sports

McKenna’s NHL Debut Ends in Defeat as Canadiens Edge Maple Leafs 3-2

The Gavin McKenna NHL debut ended without a point or a win. The 18-year-old, picked first overall by Toronto in June, played 15 minutes 19 seconds as the Maple Leafs lost 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena. He finished minus-2 with one shot on goal and two giveaways in the opener for both clubs. Gavin McKenna NHL debut: how the game unfolded against Montreal McKenna began the night on the second line beside veterans John Tavares and William Nylander, and later took shifts on the third line when Easton Cowan moved up to the second. He worked 18 shifts in total, including 2 minutes 33 seconds on a Toronto power play that went 0-for-4 on the night, according to TSN's game report. Nylander put Toronto ahead just under a minute into the game. Montreal an...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Sports

Kane Scores in Blackhawks Return, but Vegas Wins Opener 5-2

The Patrick Kane Blackhawks return happened Tuesday night in Las Vegas, and it came with a goal but no win. Kane, 37, played his first game for Chicago since 2023 and scored early in the third period, but the Vegas Golden Knights, last season's Western Conference champions, took the season opener 5-2 at T-Mobile Arena. The goal itself was worth the wait. Kane broke in alone 4:04 into the third period, took his time against goalie Carter Hart and finished with a backhand to make it 3-2. It was his first goal in a Blackhawks sweater since 2023, and it gave Chicago a brief shot at a comeback. Vegas shut that down quickly. Noah Hanifin restored the two-goal lead soon afterward, and Mark Stone sealed the game with an empty-net goal after Chicago pulled goalie Spencer Knight for an extra a...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Sports

Spain Beat Croatia 4-1 as Yamal Scores Twice in Seville

Lamine Yamal scored twice and set up another goal as Spain beat Croatia 4-1 at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in Seville on Tuesday, 29 September. The result gives the World Cup holders two wins from two in UEFA Nations League Group A3 and stretches their unbeaten run to 40 international matches. Yamal is only 19, and the night took his tally to 10 international goals in 35 appearances. How Spain beat Croatia in Seville It was Spain's first home match since winning the World Cup in July, and Rodri paraded the trophy on the pitch before kick-off, Al Jazeera reported. Yamal then needed only 75 seconds to score the opener, according to beIN Sports. Opta noted it was the second match running in which Spain had scored inside the first two minutes, after the same start against England. ...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Sports

Schlittler and Rice Power Yankees to 9–0 Wild Card Win Over Red Sox

Yankees beat Red Sox 9–0 at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night to take a 1–0 lead in their American League Wild Card Series, a best-of-three format in which the first team to win two games advances. Right-hander Cam Schlittler struck out 10 across 6⅓ scoreless innings, and designated hitter Ben Rice hit two home runs, including a grand slam, to finish with six runs batted in. Boston must win Wednesday to keep its season alive. The fourth-seeded Yankees hosted the fifth-seeded Red Sox in the best-of-three round, and the pairing has fresh history. Last year the two clubs met at the same stage, Boston won the opener, and New York took the next two games, becoming the first team since MLB expanded the first round in 2022 to lose a Wild Card opener and still advance, according to ESPN. This yea...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Climate & Earth

A Farmer’s Fossil Turns Out to Be a New Feathered Dinosaur, and a Clue on Flight

A fossil picked up by a farmer in western Liaoning has been named Norellraptor barsboldi, a new feathered dinosaur described in a study published in Nature Communications on 29 September 2026. The 57-centimetre skeleton belongs to the microraptorines, small bird-like dinosaurs whose feathered limbs have long fuelled a debate over whether flight evolved once or several times. The authors say Norellraptor barsboldi supports the second answer, though their case rests on a single specimen and a preliminary bone analysis. The skeleton is complete, and it adds a new name to a group that Discover Wildlife notes may contain more than a dozen genera. How a Farmer's Find Became Norellraptor barsboldi The specimen was found near Lamadong Town in Jianchang County and donated in 2023 to the mu...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Climate & Earth

California Brings Back Statewide Wildlife Coexistence Program After 2024 Funding Lapse

The state has revived the California Wildlife Coexistence Program, a statewide service for handling run-ins between people and wild animals, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1135 on Tuesday, September 29. The program sits inside the Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and is meant to help residents, ranchers and communities prevent conflicts with wildlife without killing the animals. The earlier version lost its funding and ended in 2024. The law was written by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, whose office says it takes effect on Jan. 1, 2027. That office also says she helped secure $5 million in this year's state budget for the effort. Defenders of Wildlife, which co-sponsored the bill with the National Wildlife Federation, says it passed both chambers of the Legisl...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Climate & Earth

Rare Two-Headed Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling Under Care on Cape Cod

A two-headed diamondback terrapin that hatched in mid-September is now being cared for at a wildlife center on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The baby turtle weighs just 5.2 grams, about the size of a nickel, and its two heads share one body. Vets do not yet know how it will develop, but staff are watching its feeding, growth and behavior closely, and the case is only the third of its kind the center has handled in five to six years. How the hatchling reached the Cape Wildlife Center The hatchling arrived at the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Staff from Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary brought it in after it was found at a protected nesting site in Wellfleet. Fox Weather reported that the find came during nest monitoring, shortly after the tu...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Health

Meningitis Deaths Fell About 30% in Africa’s Belt in 2025, While Plague Stays Concentrated

Reported meningitis deaths in Africa's meningitis belt fell about 30% in 2025, while most human plague cases came from Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to WHO's latest data on meningitis and plague. The figures appeared on 29 September 2026 in the agency's Weekly Epidemiological Record, alongside its annual cholera report. The meningitis and plague reviews sit beside the cholera report and share one difficulty with it: the counts depend on which countries report. WHO says so itself, cautioning that the drop in meningitis cases cannot be read as an equal fall in disease burden. Meningitis in Africa's belt: deaths down, cases hard to compare In 2025, 24 of the 26 countries in WHO's enhanced surveillance network sent data, reporting 21,526 suspecte...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Health

Cholera Deaths Reach Highest Reported Level Since 1999 Even as Case Counts Fall

Cholera deaths reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) rose about 30% in 2025 to 7,870, the highest annual toll since 1999, even though reported cases went down. WHO published the figures on 29 September 2026 in its Weekly Epidemiological Record, drawing on 47 countries that together reported 451,499 cases. Reading the trends in cholera cases and cholera deaths together requires care. Reported cases fell 19.5% from 560,823 in 2024, but 60 countries reported cases that year and only 47 did in 2025. WHO says the totals reflect what surveillance systems captured, not the true burden. Its estimate for endemic countries, listed on its cholera fact sheet, is 1.3 million to 4.0 million cases and 21,000 to 143,000 deaths a year. Why cholera deaths rose in 2025 while reported cases fe...

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30Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Conflict

How Seoul Built Its Case Against North Korea After the DMZ Blast, and What Is Still Missing

The DMZ landmine investigation into the 21 September explosion now rests on a few physical clues: where the blast happened, how large it was, what it left behind and what soldiers saw. South Korea's military says those clues point to North Korean mines, and Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul told lawmakers on Tuesday that their placement broke the armistice. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, rejected the conclusion on Wednesday, so the two governments now dispute evidence that neither has fully made public. The case is strongest on location and weakest on intent, and HCN's earlier report on the blast covers where the accusation began. What the DMZ landmine investigation has established The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the blast happened about 10 metres sout...

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29Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Conflict

Iran Expects US Answer on Hormuz Ceasefire Plan That Trump Has Already Rejected

Iran's foreign minister said late Monday that Qatari mediators would present Washington with new ideas on meeting Tehran's conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and that a US response could reach Tehran on Tuesday. He made the comments to Iranian reporters in New York, two days after President Donald Trump publicly rejected the plan. The Strait of Hormuz ceasefire proposal remains the central issue between the two sides. No formal US reply had been made public when this report was written. aaj Abbas Araghchi said he had met the Qatari mediators again to discuss how Iran's conditions could be fulfilled, and that the mediators would take those ideas to the US side. He said he would leave New York for Tehran within hours. Communication through Qatari and Pakistani mediators had st...

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29Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Crisis

UNHCR Says 8.3 Million Displaced People Could Lose Aid as Funding Gap Reaches $5.8 Billion

The UNHCR funding shortfall has left nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced or stateless people at risk of losing access to assistance this year, the United Nations refugee agency said on 29 September. UNHCR faces a gap of $5.789 billion against a 2026 requirement of $8.505 billion, and by the end of July it had received only 32% of that sum, roughly $2.7 billion. The warning comes in a 26-page report, "Protection Eroded: The Human Cost of Underfunding," published in Geneva. The 8.3 million figure is UNHCR's own estimate of people exposed to losing help, not a count of those who have already lost it. How the UNHCR funding shortfall grew Money available to the agency fell from $5.2 billion in 2024 to $3.9 billion in 2025, a drop of 24%. Reuters reported that the decl...

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29Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

News

Five Men Held Near RAF Fairford Released on Bail as Police Probe Possible Foreign-State Link

The five RAF Fairford suspects were released on bail on Monday after extensive interviews, but counter-terrorism police say they remain under investigation and have not been charged. The men, all British nationals from London aged between 23 and 25, were arrested early on Sunday near the US-operated air base in Gloucestershire, first on suspicion of explosives offences and later on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism. Detectives are examining whether the men acted for, or were used by, a foreign state, with Iran among the countries under review. The Iranian embassy in London has denied involvement, and police say they are still working to establish the circumstances and any motivation. Bail conditions and what comes next for the RAF Fairford suspects Laurence Taylor, head of N...

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29Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

World

US Forces Set to Leave Iraq’s Last Bases by Wednesday as Iran’s Allies Claim Victory

The US withdrawal from Iraq is due to finish by Wednesday, when the last American forces are set to leave their remaining bases after more than two decades, according to Reuters' reporting on the final pullout. Iran and its Iraqi allies are celebrating the exit as a victory, while some Iraqi security experts warn it could expose the country to Tehran's influence and to Islamic State. Baghdad agreed the pullout with Washington in 2024 under President Joe Biden, and the Trump administration is carrying it out while waging war against Iran. HCN has not seen a final US statement declaring the withdrawal complete. How the US withdrawal from Iraq reached its final days The American presence began with the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and peaked at about 170,000 troops. Preside...

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29Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Politics

French High School Blockades Spread Nationwide as Government and Hard Left Trade Blame

French student protests spread to more cities on Tuesday, with high school pupils setting bins alight and throwing projectiles at police as blockades that began last week continued. The pupils are demanding smaller classes, more teachers and lighter timetables. The dispute has become a political fight after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned that any escalation would be irresponsible and accused the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of encouraging the movement. It landed on the same day as a nationwide public-sector strike against Lecornu's budget, and the situation was still developing when this report was written. How the French student protests began and where they have spread The movement started in the lycées, the schools covering the final years of secondary education, ...

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29Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Conflict

North Korea DMZ Blast Blamed on North Korean Mines by Seoul

The North Korea DMZ blast that wounded South Korean troops last week was caused by North Korean landmines, Seoul's defense ministry said Tuesday, calling it a violation of the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War. Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul told a parliamentary hearing that Pyongyang bears responsibility and that Seoul "will take corresponding measures." He said the military has response options and would carry them out in stages, without giving further detail. The blast happened on Sept. 21 inside the DMZ, the heavily fortified and mined buffer zone that has divided the two Koreas since the armistice was signed. Reuters, citing Kang, reported that two South Korean personnel were injured. Separate reporting from AFP and Euronews put the number at three troops, with one losing a...

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29Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

News

Senate Passes Bill to Set National Rules for College Sports

The U.S. Senate voted 77-22 on Monday to pass the Protect College Sports Act, a bill that would replace the patchwork of state laws governing college athletics with a single federal framework. The bipartisan measure covers how student athletes get paid for their name, image and likeness, how they transfer between schools, and how conferences realign. It now moves to the House, where its timeline is far less certain. Senators Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, led the bill through nearly six hours of floor debate and seven amendments before the final vote. Cruz called it "a monumental day for college athletics." President Donald Trump also welcomed the vote, posting on Truth Social that the bill would "save college sports" and the schools that run th...

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29Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

Politics

National Rally Gets Its First Senate Group, With Help From Ciotti’s UDR

A National Rally Senate group will exist for the first time in the party's history. Near-final results from Sunday's elections show the far-right party and its allies from Éric Ciotti's UDR holding at least 14 of the Senate's 348 seats, four more than the minimum needed to form a group. Marine Le Pen called it a "historic victory." Before the vote the party had only three senators, elected in 2023. An AFP tally credits it with nine more on Sunday, and two further seats went to the UDR, the party Ciotti founded after leaving the Republicans in 2024. RN president Jordan Bardella said the new senators will sit as one group with their UDR allies. These numbers are preliminary. Brussels Signal counts a possible 15th member if a Republican senator who announced a switch is included, and th...

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29Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

Politics

Sweden Deadlock: Andersson Hands Back Mandate Despite Centre-Left’s 176-Seat Majority

Sweden government deadlock is now the honest description of Swedish politics: the centre-left bloc won the 13 September election with 176 of the Riksdag's 349 seats, yet nobody in it says she can form a government. Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson told a Monday press conference, Reuters reported, that "there is currently no possibility for me to form a government." She is handing back the exploratory mandate Speaker Andreas Norlén gave her on 18 September, so the next move in the Sweden government deadlock now belongs to him. What broke her attempt was a vote on a different job entirely. On Sunday the Left Party said it would back Norlén, a Moderate, for another term as speaker rather than the Social Democrats' own nominee, Johanna Haraldsson. Norlén won on Monday by 200 vot...

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28Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Politics

Vucic Resigns as Serbia’s President to Run for Prime Minister in October Election

Vucic resigns as Serbia's president on Sunday, September 27, to run for prime minister in a snap parliamentary election on October 25. Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic, a close ally, will serve as acting president until a successor is chosen. The step follows nearly two years of student-led protests that began after a concrete canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad railway station on November 1, 2024, killing 16 people. The collapse was widely blamed on corruption, and the demonstrations that followed became some of Serbia's largest since the fall of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, at times drawing hundreds of thousands of people. Early elections were a central demand of that movement. What happens after Vucic resigns Vucic spoke from the presidential palace in Belgrade and sa...

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28Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

World

Israel Gives Dutch Diplomats in Ramallah a Week to Hand Back Their Papers

Israel has ordered the Dutch diplomats in Ramallah to surrender their Israeli-issued diplomatic documents within seven days, five days after the Netherlands began enforcing a ban on goods from Israeli settlements. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced the decision on Sunday, 27 September, in a post on X, saying he had informed the Dutch Embassy in Israel that evening. When the week ends, the immunities and privileges those documents confer will lapse. The Dutch Foreign Ministry declined to comment, according to The New Arab, and no other Dutch response had been published when this report was written. What Israel has withdrawn from the Dutch diplomats in Ramallah Many governments, the Netherlands among them, keep diplomats in Ramallah to deal with the Palestinian Authority, the self...

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27Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

News

Pope Leo Paris Mass Draws 800,000 to Place de la Concorde

The Pope Leo Paris Mass drew an estimated 800,000 people to the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde on Saturday, the Vatican said, making it the single largest event of his four-day visit to France. That figure ran roughly 200,000 above the number who had pre-registered, a gap organizers put down to walk-ins who showed up once word of the spectacle spread through the city. Leo, the first American to hold the papacy, covered the two-kilometer stretch between the avenue and the square in his popemobile, waving to crowds several people deep before taking the stage built for the service. Wire photographers on the ground put the scene at roughly 800,000 people, a number that would make it one of the largest gatherings the avenue has seen outside a national celebration. Church attendance...

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27Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

News

Orange Order Marches Garvaghy Road After Overnight Legal Battle

A Drumcree Orange Order parade crossed Portadown's Garvaghy Road on Sunday morning for the first time in almost 30 years. Northern Ireland's High Court had dismissed a last-minute challenge from local residents just hours earlier. The ruling capped a legal standoff that ran through three separate courts over two days, reviving one of the most sensitive parading disputes to come out of the Troubles, the decades of conflict over Northern Ireland's political status. Why the Drumcree Orange Order Parade Needed a Court Order The Parades Commission approved the parade on Friday. It is the independent body that rules on contested marches in Northern Ireland, and this was the first time in almost three decades that it let the Portadown District Orange Order walk the road, the route had been ...

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27Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

World

Abraham Accords Meeting Marks a Critical Return to Regional Diplomacy

The Abraham Accords meeting held in New York on Thursday brought senior officials from Israel, the United States and accord-partner countries together for the first time since January 2023, restarting a diplomatic track that had been largely frozen since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The roundtable was convened by the N7 Foundation, a US-based organization that has hosted Abraham Accords meetings since 2021, and chaired by its founder, Jeffrey Talpins. It brought together US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker with officials from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, along with a representative from Kazakhstan, the first time Kazakhstan has taken part in an official Abraham Accords engagement. "Nearly three years after October ...

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27Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

World

US China Tariff Cut Deal Also Brings New AI Dialogue With Beijing

The US China tariff cut agreement announced this week will reduce duties on $30 billion worth of goods traded between the two countries, alongside a new dialogue on artificial intelligence, according to statements from both governments following a three-day state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington. The tariff arrangement was one of eight measures included in a broader understanding reached between President Donald Trump and Xi during talks that concluded on Friday. China's Foreign Ministry described the outcome as an "eight-point consensus," while the White House said the two sides had agreed on more favorable tariff treatment for $30 billion of "non-sensitive goods" moving in each direction. According to the White House, the US side of the reduction would apply to A...

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27Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

World

Trump Rejects Iran’s Latest Offer to Reopen the Strait of Hormuz

The Iran Hormuz plan that President Donald Trump rejected on Saturday would have reopened the strait within seven days and paused the fighting between the two countries. Iranian officials had submitted it through Qatari mediators, and Trump called it "not acceptable" when reporters asked him about it at the White House before he left for a college football game in Tennessee. "I reject their proposal," he told them. Trump did not detail every term he objected to, but he said Tehran wanted the deal because it was "losing so badly." Why the Iran Hormuz Plan Matters Right Now The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula that normally carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil and a large share of the world's liquefied natural gas. Iran effectively clos...

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27Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

World

Russia and Germany Hold First Foreign Minister Talks Since 2022 Invasion

The Russia Germany foreign minister talks that took place Saturday were the first between the two countries since before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov and Johann Wadephul met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The two sat in the Russian delegation's room at UN headquarters for just over 20 minutes, according to a person familiar with the German side's account. It produced no breakthrough on Ukraine. But it was the first direct conversation between the countries' top diplomats in more than three years, and it came just weeks after tensions between Moscow and Berlin spiked over an airport drone incident. How the Russia Germany foreign minister talks came together The two governments told different stories about how the meeting happened. Russian forei...

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27Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

News, Crisis

Nor’easter Flooding Triggers State Emergencies in New York and New Jersey

Nor'easter flooding swept through New Jersey's shore communities and parts of New York City on Saturday, forcing evacuation orders, downing trees and cutting power to tens of thousands of customers as a powerful coastal storm settled over the Northeast for a second consecutive day. Governors in both states moved ahead of the storm's arrival. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday covering Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and New York City, warning of "dangerous coastal flooding, strong winds and potential power outages through the weekend." New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill placed eight counties, Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Salem, under emergency status the same evening, telling residents to "take this storm seriously" and...

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25Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Conflict

NATO Says It Can Handle Russian Sabotage as Denmark Warns of Rising Risk

Russian hybrid threats against NATO are likely to increase, Danish intelligence warned Thursday, hours after the alliance's secretary-general said NATO can handle the sabotage and drone incidents already spreading across Europe. Speaking at a ceremony in New York marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mark Rutte said the rise in hybrid incidents shows Russian President Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, and that sending more weapons to Ukraine remains the best response. "All the response options are there, and we will use whatever we need," he said, adding that citizens of NATO's 32 member countries can stay calm because "Putin is in a bad place." What Danish intelligence found The Danish Defense Intelligence Service released a new risk asse...

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24Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

World

Lee Jae Myung Begins First South Korean State Visit to Mexico in 16 Years

The Lee Jae Myung Mexico visit got under way on Wednesday night, Sept. 23, when the South Korean president's plane touched down in Mexico City. It is a state visit, the first by a South Korean president to Mexico in 16 years. On Thursday, Lee sits down with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for summit talks, and the two leaders are then due to oversee the signing of several memorandums of understanding, share a luncheon and hold a joint press announcement. Seoul says it wants closer ties on trade, investment, energy and critical mineral supply chains, though no results had been announced when this report was written. Lee flew in from the United States, where he attended the UN General Assembly as part of a trip that runs from Sept. 21 to Sept. 27. What to expect from the Lee Jae Myung...

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24Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Politics

Judge Orders White House to Restore Press Passes for CNN, Politico and MS NOW

A federal judge in Washington has temporarily blocked the White House press ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ordering the administration to restore the reporters' credentials after finding that President Donald Trump's ban was likely unconstitutional. The restraining order, issued early Thursday by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, reinstates the journalists' access to the White House complex for 14 days while he considers longer-lasting relief. Trump said before the ruling that he expected to lose and would appeal. The order is preliminary and does not decide the case. But it is the first judicial answer to a ban that took effect within a day of its announcement and reached the courts within a week. How the White House press ban unfolded Trump announced the ban on Friday, Sept. 18,...

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24Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Climate & Earth

Nearly a Century Later, Two New Sea Spider Species Turn Up in the Salish Sea

Two new sea spider species have been described from Canada's Salish Sea, the first to be added there in almost a century. Researchers at the University of British Columbia announced the pair on Wednesday, September 23, in a study published in Organisms Diversity & Evolution. One has red eyes and hairy legs. The other is routinely found under a coat of debris and its own parasites. Why the Salish Sea's sea spiders went unrecorded for so long Sea spiders are marine arthropods, not true spiders. They are distant relatives of spiders, scorpions and horseshoe crabs, and they have lived in the ocean for roughly 500 million years. Some species have as many as 12 legs, all of them carry a sucking proboscis, and body size runs from under a centimetre to more than 70 centimetres in Antarct...

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24Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Climate & Earth

A Tropical Turtle Nested in California for the First Time. Will the Eggs Hatch?

On 16 September, an olive ridley sea turtle crawled out of the Pacific near Seal Beach in Orange County, dug a hole in the sand and laid her eggs, something no sea turtle has ever been recorded doing on the US West Coast. The Huntington Beach Fire Department filmed it, and the footage was later shared by NOAA Fisheries. Three days afterwards a turtle came ashore again near the Huntington Beach Pier, a few miles to the south, and laid a second nest. Both spots are now fenced off and signposted, and each is thought to hold between 50 and 100 eggs. NOAA Fisheries describes it as the first-ever recorded natural nesting of any sea turtle species on this coast. The bigger questions come after that: why an olive ridley sea turtle turned up in Southern California at all, whether these eggs have...

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24Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

Climate & Earth

Bats Have a Birthplace at Last: Europe, 65 Million Years Ago

Bats originated in Europe, according to the largest study of bat evolution ever attempted, and they did so about 65 million years ago, not long after the dinosaurs vanished. The paper, published in Nature on Wednesday, comes from 137 researchers in 64 countries working under the Bat1K consortium, and it overturns earlier ideas that pointed to Asia, Africa or North America. The authors say the finding that bats originated in Europe settles a debate that has run for decades. Whether it stays settled will depend on fossils not yet found, but the case is unusually well built. The evidence that bats originated in Europe Two kinds of evidence went in. The first was DNA from 103 living bat species, covering all 21 recognised families, with dozens of the genomes assembled from scratch for th...

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24Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Health

An FDA Panel Backs a Blood Test for Dozens of Cancers, but Only by a Split Vote

Seven of ten FDA advisers said on Wednesday that the benefits of Grail's Galleri blood test outweigh its risks. Two voted no and one abstained. No test of this kind has FDA approval today, so the vote moves a long-debated idea, one blood draw that hunts for dozens of cancers at once, a real step closer to routine medicine. The margins, though, say more than the headline does. Start with what was not in doubt. All ten members of the Molecular and Clinical Genetics Devices Panel agreed there is reasonable assurance the Galleri blood test is safe. On whether it works, they split 6 to 4. On the overall balance of benefit and risk for adults 50 and older, the result was 7 to 2 with one abstention. These are recommendations. The FDA does not have to follow them, though it usually does, and it...

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24Sep By HCN EditorialNo Comments

Business

Diller Walks Away From MGM After Months of Talks, but Keeps His 27% Stake

The $48.30-a-share offer for MGM Resorts is off. Barry Diller's People Inc. told the casino operator on Wednesday that it has withdrawn its MGM Resorts takeover bid, ending nearly four months of talks and leaving one of Las Vegas's biggest names to carry on by itself. The market reacted within minutes. Reuters reported that MGM shares dropped 8% in extended trading after the news. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, and MGM confirmed it soon afterward. Neither side has said what specifically stopped the deal. Diller offered only a general explanation: "We didn't feel the mix was coming together in the way we had hoped." People, he said, will not pursue taking MGM private "at this time," though his belief in the company's future is unchanged. What Diller keeps now that the MGM Re...

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24Sep By HCN Editorial2 Comments

Business

Treasury Yields Hit a 19-Year High, and the Trigger Was Good News

One business survey was enough to push the world's most closely watched bond yield up by roughly 14 basis points on Wednesday. The 10-year Treasury reached about 5.1%, its highest level since July 2007, and the explanation traders offered was simple: an October Fed rate hike suddenly looked more likely than not. The strange part is that the news behind it was good. The precise level varies by data provider. CNN put the 10-year at 5.11% after a 15-basis-point jump, while Reuters data relayed by CNA showed 5.106%, up about 14 basis points and the biggest one-day rise since April 2025. Neither figure changes the story. How a business survey became a bond sell-off S&P Global's preliminary September survey of purchasing managers asks executives a plain question: are output, orders ...

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23Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Technology

Ema AI Employees Land $77 Million as Enterprises Move Past the Pilot Stage

Ema AI employees just picked up a $77 million vote of confidence from investors who believe large companies are done testing AI agents and ready to put them to work. The Mountain View startup closed a Series B round led by Bengaluru-based Creaegis. Existing backers Accel, Section 32, and Prosus all returned with significantly bigger checks than they wrote the first time. The round brings Ema's total funding to $140 million and comes just two years after the company launched out of stealth. The company says its valuation has more than quadrupled since its last raise in 2024, though it has not disclosed the exact figure. Every dollar arrived as primary equity. No debt was involved, and no existing shares changed hands. How Ema AI Employees Actually Get Work Done Most AI products sold t...

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23Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Technology

Airbus PARACOM Contract Gives France a 25-Year Military Cyber Shield

The Airbus PARACOM contract will decide how France's armed forces move sensitive data between military networks for the next 25 years. France's defense procurement agency, the DGA, has awarded the deal to Airbus Cybersecurity SAS, an Airbus subsidiary, tasking the company with building the digital checkpoints that keep classified and unclassified military systems from leaking information into each other. Airbus announced the award this week, saying the contract followed a competitive tender. The company did not disclose its financial value. What the Airbus PARACOM Contract Covers At its core, the Airbus PARACOM contract is about controlling how information flows across a military network that is not really one network at all. France's armed forces, like most modern militaries, ope...

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23Sep By HCN Editorial1 Comment

Business

Nasdaq Closes at a Record High for the Second Day in a Row as a Meta Chatbot Reignites the AI Trade

Nasdaq record high AI stocks are back in focus after the index closed at an all-time high for the second day running. The Nasdaq Composite closed Tuesday at 27,244.28, up 122 points, its second consecutive all-time closing high after touching an intraday peak of 27,288.79 during the session. It followed an even bigger move a day earlier, when the index jumped 599 points, a 2.26% gain, its sharpest single-day rise since early August, to end Monday at 27,122.09, breaking a record that had stood since June. What's pulling the index higher isn't a broad market story. It's a narrow one, concentrated almost entirely in technology and semiconductor names, and it traces back to a single product launch. Meta released a new autonomous AI assistant called Muse earlier this month, and within roughl...

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