作者： admin

‘Humble but ambitious’ – the return of fallen giants Schalke

In the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen, Germany, matchdays bring local life to a standstill. Every road, tram and sidewalk leads to the 62,000-seat Veltins-Arena, where crowds clad in the club’s iconic blue and white flood in to cheer on their beloved FC Schalke 04. This unbreakable bond between the club and its community has been tested more than ever over the past six years, a period marked by two promotions, two relegations, near-insolvency and constant upheaval – but it has only grown stronger through every crisis.

The chaos of recent years traces back to a pattern of reckless financial decision-making. Years of overspending to chase instant success, combined with missed opportunities to qualify for lucrative European competitions and the financial shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, left Schalke drowning in massive debt. When the club dropped to the second-tier Bundesliga 2 for the first time in 21 years, even the worst-case scenario of total insolvency felt like a real possibility. Through it all, one thing remained certain: the fans never wavered.

That fierce loyalty is more than just casual support – it is woven into the identity of Gelsenkirchen’s working-class community. “It’s a kind of religious feeling that people have towards Schalke,” explained Professor Frank Eckardt, who grew up in the city’s Schalke-Nord neighborhood. “It feels like people think, ‘OK, we don’t have anything else, but we have Schalke. It’s our club.’ If you go to graveyards, for example, you will find that people have Schalke on their graves in one way or the other. So it is really something deep. You can take everything from us, but you will never take Schalke from us. That’s what they really believe.”

Even after the 2021 relegation, the club bounced back to the Bundesliga at the first attempt in 2022, giving fans hope that their struggles were over. That joy proved short-lived: a dismal campaign sent Schalke back to the second tier just 12 months later, where they would spend the next three seasons stagnating. A 10th-place finish was followed by an even grimmer 14th-place result in 2024, leaving the club just two spots above the drop to the third division.

German football analyst Mark Lovell argues that Schalke’s repeated struggles were largely self-inflicted, brought on by the weight of unmet expectations and years of living beyond their means. “They were expected to basically walk the league every season despite having huge financial problems,” Lovell noted. “There’s sympathy for Schalke, but they’ve been their own worst enemies by chasing success and extending themselves too far. When you do suffer relegation something has to give, and they haven’t been able to buy their way out. They had to live more to their needs, get rid of their best players, and then sort of start again with a real skeleton type operation.”

That rebuild began in earnest after the 14th-place finish in 2024, when the club turned to a new, unproven leadership team to turn their fortunes around. Tasked with engineering a promotion push was head coach Miron Muslić, a little-known Austrian manager who had just suffered relegation to England’s third tier with Plymouth Argyle. Few gave him a chance to succeed, but he quickly defied every expectation.

“He is the face of the Schalke promotion. He is the hero because his way of coaching is so powerful. He gave the people the belief back,” explained Robin Haack, a Schalke correspondent for local outlet WAV. “Nobody knew him before. Some Austrian who was relegated to the third league in England – he must be bad. But he proved all the haters wrong in an incredible way. Fans love him like I’ve never experienced a coach has been loved before.”

Muslić built his side around a high-pressing, hard-working style of play that perfectly aligns with Gelsenkirchen’s blue-collar identity, turning a group of underrated and discarded players into a cohesive promotion-winning unit. Working quietly behind the scenes alongside Muslić was newly appointed sporting director Frank Baumann, a former Germany international and ex-Werder Bremen sporting director who joined the club in June 2025.

Andreas Ernst, another WAV reporter covering Schalke, described the task Baumann walked into: “He had the whole club, but it lay on the ground. They said do whatever you want to do. But with no money. We have a bad team. But come here – a very great club. Frank Baumann did everything out of nothing.”

Lovell echoed that praise, noting that Baumann brought the steady, intelligent leadership Schalke had lacked for years: “At Schalke right now there’s some very intelligent football people behind the scenes. Frank Baumann’s a real top football man, and just a decent person, which Schalke didn’t have.”

Baumann’s most high-profile and impactful signing was experienced veteran striker Edin Džeko, who joined Schalke in January 2025 after a difficult spell at Italy’s Fiorentina. Now 40 years old, Džeko has already proven his worth, netting eight goals in his first 13 appearances for the club, including two strikes in this season’s DFB Pokal cup win.

For Muslić, Džeko is far more than just a goalscorer – he is an idol and a role model that has lifted the entire squad. “I grew up in Austria, but I’m from Bosnia. And Edin Dzeko for us is Gary Lineker. He’s our Johan Cruyff. He’s our Franz Beckenbauer. He’s just an idol,” Muslić told the BBC’s Euro Leagues podcast. “He’s 40 years old, and he’s still able to perform. That means he was super professional the last 25 years. That’s why he’s a role model and that’s why he will also have his impact and he will leave also his fingerprints in this upcoming Bundesliga season.”

Schalke defender Christian Fuchs added that Džeko’s biggest contribution has been building a stable, accountable club culture, a vital foundation for long-term success. “Where it’s a player like this… there’s so much respect towards him from his team-mates. It’s so important to build a club culture, to hold players accountable, to keep them all in check,” Fuchs explained. “Even if it’s a small piece in the bigger puzzle, there is so much value that you need to give to that. Dzeko plays an important part in growing stability in the club.”

While Džeko is a seasoned star rebuilding his legacy at Schalke, the club has also become a fresh start for players who had fallen on hard times. That is perfectly embodied by former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, who had repeatedly questioned whether to retire from football after years of struggle. At Schalke, Karius has earned a starting spot and emerged as a symbol of the club’s new resilient mindset.

“He is the face of this new Schalke, the face of this new resilience, this new mindset,” Muslić said. “After tough years behind him, he found a new home. He found new trust – like so many other players from Schalke who had some rough moments in their careers. They found a safe heaven. And then it was just about, let’s do this together and let’s start from scratch and let’s do it in our way.”

Schalke’s 2025-26 Bundesliga campaign got off to a tough start with a 3-0 defeat away to Augsburg, but even in defeat, the loyalty of the fanbase shone through: 6,000 visiting supporters stayed behind after the final whistle to cheer on the new squad. This weekend, the club will host reigning champions Bayern Munich for their first home game of the season, where a packed Veltins-Arena will create a typically raucous atmosphere.

Unlike past seasons, where fans and the club expected an immediate push for European football or even the title, expectations are far more grounded this time around. Most supporters are simply hoping the club can avoid relegation and secure a long-term foothold back in Germany’s top flight. It is a far cry from the glory days of the past, but it is a mindset that fits this new, rebuilt Schalke.

“We know the glory of the past. But we know also the present and the future,” Muslić said. “We are very humble but ambitious. Right now it’s all about playing another year in the Bundesliga.”

As Fuchs put it, Schalke 04 belongs in the Bundesliga – and after years of chaos, the whole city is ready to prove they are back to stay.

2 9 月, 2026
Norway seizes Russian vessel to enforce $4.22B Ukrainian arbitration claim

In a landmark move to enforce an international legal judgment against Russia over its 2014 seizure of Ukrainian energy assets, Norwegian authorities have seized a Russian commercial cruise vessel in the Svalbard Arctic archipelago, acting at the request of Ukraine’s state-owned energy giant Naftogaz. This action marks one of the most high-profile asset seizures to date as part of Naftogaz’s global campaign to collect on a $4.22 billion arbitration award granted against Russia three years ago.

The legal dispute at the heart of the incident traces back to 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and seized control of Naftogaz’s energy infrastructure in the region, including natural gas fields and distribution pipelines. In 2023, a permanent arbitration tribunal based in The Hague ruled in Naftogaz’s favor, ordering Russia to compensate the company more than $4 billion for the illegal expropriation of its assets. When Moscow refused to honor the tribunal’s ruling, Naftogaz launched a global legal push, petitioning national courts across multiple countries to grant seizure orders for Russian commercial assets held within their jurisdictions.

Wednesday’s seizure of the *Professor Molchanov* — a Russian vessel operated for commercial Arctic expedition cruises to Svalbard — was carried out under the authority of a court order issued by Norway’s Nord-Troms District Court on August 31, Svalbard Governor Lars Fause confirmed in an official statement. Following the action, the vessel has been prohibited from departing its current berth in the Svalbard settlement of Barentsburg, Fause added.

For Naftogaz, the seizure represents a critical milestone in its years-long fight to hold Russia accountable for its actions. “This is another important step towards restoring justice for Russia’s unlawful seizure of Naftogaz assets in Crimea,” Naftogaz Chief Executive Officer Sergii Fedorenko said in a statement after the seizure. “Russia cannot evade responsibility simply by refusing to comply with an international arbitral award. We will continue to pursue Russian assets around the world.”

Moscow has responded with fierce condemnation of the action. During an appearance at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the seizure of the civilian cruise vessel, paired with recent warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to foreign airlines operating in Russian airspace, “acts of state terrorism.” Zelenskyy had recently warned international carriers that flying over Russian territory would no longer be safe amid Ukraine’s expanding long-range drone campaign against Russian military and infrastructure targets.

Putin tied both the vessel seizure and Zelenskyy’s airspace warning together, arguing that the incidents significantly complicate any path toward future peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. He also accused Western allies of Ukraine of being “complicit in international terrorism” for their refusal to condemn the developments.

The seizure comes at a moment of heightened tension between Russia and Nordic nations, as Norway and neighboring Finland ramp up preparedness for potential Russian aggression amid the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Just this week, Finland launched Europe’s largest civil defense exercise since World War II, held with explicit attention to growing threats from Moscow, and Russia recently announced it would close all German cultural centers within its borders in a tit-for-tat move after Berlin blamed Russian intelligence for a foiled drone plot at a German airport.

2 9 月, 2026
Were Christians the target of the Palm Sunday attack in Nigeria?

On March 29, a violent outbreak of gunfire shook the city of Jos, Nigeria, leaving investigators and local communities grappling with a critical question: were Christians specifically targeted for attack on one of Christianity’s most sacred holy days, Palm Sunday?

The attack, which unfolded in the bustling central Nigerian city, saw unidentified gunmen launch a sudden assault, opening fire on civilian targets before fleeing the scene. In the immediate aftermath of the violence, conflicting reports have emerged about the motivation behind the shooting, with regional security forces yet to release a full breakdown of the attack’s perpetrators, casualties, or underlying motives.

Jos, located in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, has long been a flashpoint for intercommunal tensions, which often overlap with religious and ethnic divides. The timing of the attack, falling on Palm Sunday – a day that marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christian communities around the world – has fueled speculation that the attack was deliberately planned to target worshippers gathered for religious observances.

Local security agencies have launched a manhunt for the assailants, while community leaders have called for calm as investigations continue. Nigerian authorities have not yet confirmed whether the attack was religiously motivated, but the incident has already drawn international attention to the persistent security challenges facing the West African nation, where violent attacks targeting civilian populations remain a recurring crisis.

2 9 月, 2026
USS Lincoln crew hits the streets of Thai beach city after lengthy Middle East deployment

Thailand’s sun-soaked coastal resort city of Pattaya welcomed busloads of crew members from the U.S. Navy’s USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on Thursday, marking the first shore stop for the strike group after an unprecedentedly long deployment supporting American operations in the Middle East. The nuclear-powered carrier spent a historic 264 consecutive days at sea before docking at Laem Chabang port in Chonburi province on Wednesday, capping a total deployment of 286 days to date, per official figures from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. Two other vessels in the Lincoln’s strike group are also anchored across Thailand: the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. is docked at Sriracha port in Chonburi, while the cruiser USS Robert Smalls is stationed at Map Ta Phut in adjacent Rayong province. This extended uninterrupted deployment, which broke previous records for U.S. Navy operations, sparked public concern last month over mounting mental health strain among crew members and critical food supply shortages on board. While U.S. Navy officials sought to minimize reports of these challenges, former President Donald Trump drew widespread attention when he publicly stated the deployment was “not nearly long enough.” For most crew members stepping off the buses carrying them from the port to central Pattaya, the mood after months at sea was one of eager relief. Loaded down with personal luggage, several service members told the Associated Press they were thrilled to explore the Thai resort city. One sailor described the lengthy deployment as “alright” when asked, but declined to share additional comments. Local vendors and tour operators turned out in force outside the Hard Rock Hotel, the designated meeting point for crew organizing trips around Pattaya, hoping to capitalize on the influx of visiting service members. Crowding around arriving sailors, vendors offered everything from handmade souvenirs to pre-planned city tours, though many sailors politely declined offers as they waited for their arranged transportation. A-ngoon Sombat, a local artisan who makes the trip 200 kilometers from her home in central Thailand’s Ayutthaya province every time a U.S. naval vessel docks in Chonburi, set up her stall selling bright woven braided bracelets directly across from the hotel entrance. She had already recorded a handful of sales by midday Thursday, but remained uncertain about how her business would fare over the stop. “There are many vendors around. It’s really up to how lucky each of us are,” she explained. News of the massive aircraft carrier’s arrival also drew crowds of curious onlookers to a popular viewing spot just outside Laem Chabang port by Wednesday evening. Visitors arrived by car and motorcycle, peering through a mesh security fence to catch a glimpse of the 333-meter-long vessel – a length roughly equal to three American football fields – and snapping photos and videos of the massive warship. Many struck up casual conversations with other enthusiasts who shared the goal of seeing the aircraft carrier in person. Keith Eldridge, an American expat who has lived in Thailand for five years, traveled from neighboring Chachoengsao province specifically to see the Lincoln. Though he missed the actual docking, he tracked down the popular viewing spot after a tip from other ship enthusiasts. Eldridge described the massive vessel as an awe-inspiring “engineering marvel.” “When you get to look at something so big, wrapped up with so much technology – the radars, the sonars, the weapon systems, the propulsion systems – it is truly amazing that we can build it, float it, and we fight from it,” he said. Capt. Dan Keeler, the commanding officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, confirmed the carrier is en route back to its home base in the United States, with the Thai port stop serving as a rest and resupply stop before the final leg of the journey. He noted the strike group may make additional resupply stops before reaching the U.S., but declined to share an exact date for the group’s arrival back on American soil. The carrier is scheduled to depart Thailand this weekend to continue its homeward journey.

2 9 月, 2026
Trading food for medicine and crossing the river by zip line are part of life in Nepal flood zone

Nearly two weeks after catastrophic glacial outburst floods tore through mountain valleys and towns across Nepal, thousands of displaced survivors sheltering in temporary relief camps are still grappling with critical gaps in essential services, even as government agencies deliver basic food provisions to those who lost everything. The disaster, triggered by a glacier collapse on August 26, has become one of South Asia’s deadliest climate-linked disasters in recent years, leaving an unprecedented trail of destruction and loss that continues to disrupt recovery efforts.

For many families already reeling from the loss of loved ones and entire homes, the lack of access to prescription medications and emergency cash has compounded the hardship of life in temporary shelters. Suresh Kumar Karanjit, a resident who has taken shelter at a relief center in Devighat, Nuwakot district, lost his younger brother to the flood’s surging waters last week. Living with a chronic heart condition, Karanjit found that the limited medications available at the camp did not match his required prescription. With no personal cash on hand to purchase his regular drugs, he was forced to sell a carton of relief-issued noodles for 400 Nepalese rupees, equal to roughly $2.60, to cover the cost. “We have been living here for a week, and it is good that relief materials are being provided. But there is a clear lack of appropriate medicine,” Karanjit told reporters in an interview this Thursday.

Official data from Nepal’s disaster management agency puts the confirmed death toll from the disaster at 1,252, with more than 4,200 people still listed as missing. Across the border in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, authorities reported as of late Wednesday that 21 people had been killed and 541 others remain unaccounted for. In total, close to 4,000 displaced Nepalese residents are currently housed across 32 government-run relief centers spread across the worst-hit regions.

Dharam Raj Uprety, Nepal’s top disaster management official, stated that authorities have established dedicated health camps staffed with licensed doctors and stocked medication at each relief hub, with additional work focused on improving hygiene and sanitation to prevent post-flood disease outbreaks. However, on-the-ground accounts from survivors contradict official claims of full service provision, highlighting gaps in matching the specific medical needs of vulnerable people with chronic conditions.

In hard-hit areas cut off by destroyed transport links, local residents and military personnel have improvised alternative routes to restore basic connectivity. In Bidur town along the Trishuli River, where all permanent bridge crossings were washed away by floodwaters, residents now rely on a makeshift zip line to travel between the two riverbanks. Nepalese Army personnel have been deployed to assist riders as they board and disembark, while dozens of locals wait along the bank for their turn to cross.

In recent days, rescue operations have increasingly shifted focus to collapsed tunnels at several hydropower construction sites across the flood zone, where an estimated 900 workers are believed to have been trapped when debris and floodwaters inundated the passages. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, and the United States have joined the search and recovery effort, but difficult terrain and heavy debris have slowed progress significantly. As of Thursday, there was still no confirmation as to whether any of the trapped workers remain alive.

At the Trishuli-3A hydropower project tunnel, construction crews have begun manually clearing the upper section of the blocked passage, lawmaker Ram Neupane confirmed. An access road to the excavation site was completed over the past week, but additional rock blasting and large-scale debris removal will be required before heavy rescue machinery can be brought into the area.

Climate scientists have long warned that rising global temperatures are accelerating glacial melt across the Himalayan mountain range, increasing the frequency and severity of glacial lake outburst floods and similar catastrophic events like the one that struck Nepal late last month.

2 9 月, 2026
Israeli minister: Palestinians leaving is only ‘solution’ in Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has publicly confirmed that his country has finalized operational plans to enact a controversial proposal first put forward by former US President Donald Trump that would displace the vast majority of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Katz has emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of the plan, which was first unveiled in February 2025: the proposal would require roughly 2 million Palestinians to leave Gaza permanently and resettle in third countries with no right of return, after which Israel would clear the remains of the enclave, which has suffered widespread destruction from more than two years of sustained Israeli military operations that have already displaced most of Gaza’s existing population.

Trump and his Israeli backers have framed the initiative as “voluntary migration,” but the plan has drawn fierce international condemnation. United Nations officials, multiple foreign governments, and leading global human rights organizations have universally condemned the initiative as a deliberate plot to carry out illegal ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people of Gaza.

Shortly after Trump first announced the proposal, Katz stated he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to begin developing infrastructure and procedures to facilitate the mass departure of Gaza’s Palestinian population. Notably, the policy of forced displacement was ultimately dropped from the 20-point “peace plan” that Trump formally agreed to in October 2025. However, in an exclusive interview Wednesday with Israeli news outlet Ynet and leading daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Katz made clear that planning for the relocation has remained on track, and that Israel stands ready to launch the operation immediately once Trump gives the official go-ahead.

“ There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,” Katz told reporters. He claimed that 80 percent of Palestinians residing in Gaza want to leave the territory permanently, a figure he asserted is consistently backed by public opinion surveys. Katz did not provide specific details about the origin or methodology of the purported surveys, but a May 2026 poll conducted by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli body that manages civilian affairs in occupied Palestinian territories, only found that nearly 80 percent of respondents wanted more information about potential relocation pathways through the Rafah or Kerem Shalom border crossings. The survey question never established that respondents sought permanent departure from Gaza.

Independent surveys conducted by neutral pollsters paint a far different picture: most studies find that between half and a majority of Gaza residents intend to remain in their home territory, even amid the widespread destruction and crippling deprivation that has followed more than two years of conflict.

Katz went on to state that the Israeli government is “fully prepared to move [Palestinians] out if it becomes possible—by sea, by air, by every way possible.” He added that the only factor delaying implementation is a lack of formal US backing for third countries that would agree to accept displaced Palestinians. “Every country that is willing wants American backing. Currently, President Trump didn’t cancel this; he froze it. All the Arab countries came to him due to their pressure on this matter,” Katz said.

Katz suggested that a breakdown in the existing ceasefire and disarmament agreement with Hamas would create the conditions to move forward with the plan. He argued that “the moment will come” when it becomes clear that Hamas has failed to meet its commitments under the Phase 2 disarmament and withdrawal roadmap that the group agreed to in July 2026, which built on the initial October 2025 ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Israel has claimed that the agreement requires Hamas to fully disarm before Israel withdraws any troops that advanced past the original October 2025 ceasefire line in violation of the truce. However, the formal text of the roadmap explicitly states that Israeli withdrawal and Hamas disarmament will proceed in parallel.

Katz claimed that once the agreement is declared breached, Israel “will get a green light to move forward militarily, territorially, and in other areas, and this thing will gain momentum.”

While other senior figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government have openly stated their goal of forcing Palestinians out of Gaza to make way for new Jewish Israeli settlements, Katz’s Wednesday remarks represent one of the most concrete confirmations to date that a fully developed plan to carry out the mass displacement is already in place.

H.A. Hellyer, senior associate fellow at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute, responded to Katz’s comments by saying that “This is the Israeli defense minister admitting, completely and brazenly, that the official policy of the Israeli state is ethnic cleansing in Gaza. But somehow we are expected to take seriously those who say it is not.”

2 9 月, 2026
With a wary eye on Russia, Finland runs Europe’s largest civil defense exercise since WWII

Deep beneath the central Finnish city of Kuopio, a massive man-made chamber carved into solid rock tells a story of a nation preparing for uncertainty. Behind thick blast doors engineered to withstand the worst impacts of nuclear or biological strikes, two young Finnish conscripts clad in full hazmat gear and filtered breathing masks move through the space, their Geiger counters clicking softly as they measure potential radiation levels. This is not a crisis response — it is the centerpiece of the largest civil defense exercise Europe has seen since the end of World War II.

2 9 月, 2026
UN warns of ‘supersized’ El Niño as countries prepare for impact

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a stark warning that the globe has entered a ‘danger zone of extreme weather’ as a historically powerful El Niño event begins to send disruptive impacts across every continent. New data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a UN specialized agency, indicates this climate event could become the strongest El Niño recorded in more than 70 years, with its far-reaching effects expected to persist through at least February 2027.

El Niño, a natural climate pattern originating in the tropical Pacific Ocean driven by shifting trade winds that push warm surface water eastward, triggers profound disruptions to global weather systems. It creates prolonged drought in some regions while supercharging typhoons and catastrophic flooding in others, and amplifies global surface temperatures on top of the long-term warming already driven by human-caused climate change.

“El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up,” Guterres stated in his warning.

Latest ocean temperature readings confirm the rapid strengthening of this event. In recent months, sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific have spiked dramatically, with key monitoring regions recording readings more than 2°C above the long-term average. Forecasts project monthly anomalies could approach 4°C above average in the coming months, pushing this event past the ‘very strong’ threshold to become the most intense El Niño since at least 1950, potentially by a substantial margin. Even more striking anomalies have been recorded below the ocean surface, where some areas are more than 8°C warmer than average.

Above-normal ocean temperatures are also projected across the Indian Ocean, tropical Atlantic, and sections of Australia’s coastline, bringing heightened risk to the country’s unique marine ecosystems. Australia has already seen a string of climate change-fueled marine heatwaves in recent years, and El Niño typically amplifies the extreme ocean heat that drives these events.

Dr. Alistair Hobday, chief researcher at Australia’s national science agency, told the BBC that while forecasts predict the Great Barrier Reef will avoid the most severe heat stress this year – giving vulnerable coral populations valuable additional recovery time – southern parts of the country face extreme impacts. When the region last suffered a major marine heatwave, the event caused mass penguin starvation, large-scale fish die-offs, toxic algal blooms, and widespread jellyfish invasions. Australia has rolled out new early warning systems for marine crises that allow policymakers to activate financial support for fishing industries, relocate at-risk species, and step up coral monitoring, but Hobday acknowledged deep concern over the unprecedented intensity of the approaching event.

The WMO projects major shifts to global rainfall patterns over the coming months, with impacts that will ripple through communities and global trade. Much of Southeast Asia, Central America, and northern South America are forecast to see far drier conditions than average, raising the risks of severe drought and destructive wildfires. In anticipation of low rainfall that will limit water levels along its key shipping route, the Panama Canal will cut daily vessel transits by more than 10% starting this week. The canal supports 14,000 annual ship passages, serves as a critical artery for global trade, and generates roughly $3 billion in annual revenue for Panama, making the cuts a significant economic concern.

In Indonesia, authorities are already working to contain wildfires that have burned over 107,000 hectares of land across the country this extended dry season. A Central Kalimantan resident told BBC News Indonesia that blazes have burned for more than a month, leaving thick smoke that stings the eyes and lingers in the air. The government has deployed cloud-seeding aircraft to trigger rainfall, allocated emergency resources, and arrested dozens of people accused of intentionally setting fires to clear land for development.

Across the globe, other regions face the opposite risk: above-average rainfall and devastating flooding. Eastern Africa, southern Brazil, and the southern United States all face elevated flood risk, while China has already seen a surge in typhoon activity linked to the super El Niño, with seven storms projected to make landfall this year. Three typhoons hit the country in July alone, leaving dozens dead, and more than one million people were evacuated as Typhoon Dolphin brought destructive winds and torrential rain in August.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo warned that El Niño “has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world. We are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods and we expect these impacts to increase as El Niño intensifies.”

All these risks are compounded by long-term anthropogenic climate change, which amplifies the intensity of extreme weather events linked to El Niño. While some research suggests climate change may be making individual El Niño events stronger, this hypothesis has not yet been confirmed by consensus science.

Peru, which borders the warming eastern Pacific, is among the most vulnerable nations to this event. Past strong El Niños have brought extreme rainfall, deadly flash floods, and destructive landslides to Peru, neighboring Ecuador, and parts of Brazil, particularly in densely populated urban areas with poor drainage.

Miguel Aréstegui, climate resilience lead at the non-profit Practical Action which supports extreme weather preparedness in vulnerable nations, said that while the scale of the event warrants serious concern, that urgency should translate to preparedness rather than panic. Aréstegui noted that Practical Action and its partners have spent years expanding public access to early warning systems, including real-time data on river levels, flood risk, and weather forecasts. At the end of last month, the U.S. announced it would deploy the hospital ship USNS Comfort to the Peruvian coast to provide additional medical support and technical equipment ahead of the event’s peak intensity.

Even with these preparedness measures, Aréstegui emphasized that El Niño’s impacts are worsened by long-standing structural vulnerabilities that take far longer to address. “El Niño does not arrive in a vacuum,” he said, pointing to unplanned housing in high-risk flood zones, fragile water and sanitation infrastructure, and under-resourced healthcare systems as persistent challenges that amplify harm from extreme weather.

To respond to the event, the WMO has launched a major global mobilization effort to distribute El Niño-linked extreme weather forecasts to as many at-risk communities as possible. While many nations have strengthened early warning systems and pre-positioned emergency medical support, the unprecedented intensity of this event has raised sharp concerns about outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

2 9 月, 2026
India’s GDP growth defies oil shock but stirs up controversy

India’s economy has delivered a shockingly strong first-quarter growth performance that has simultaneously cheered government leaders, divided economic analysts, and reignited fierce political debate over the country’s uneven economic trajectory. The 7.8% year-on-year GDP expansion, released earlier this week, far outpaced most private forecasts, prompting a celebratory post from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social platform X, where he wrote, “Doomsayers were doomed and India bloomed… Yet again.”

On paper, the robust growth figure comes as a much-needed boost for Modi, who has recently faced widespread public backlash—particularly from young students—over the government’s handling of widespread exam paper leaks and persistent elevated youth unemployment. Long-running concerns over these issues remain unresolved, but the better-than-expected data suggests the federal government has successfully navigated the economic fallout of geopolitical instability in the Middle East, even with India’s heavy reliance on imported crude oil.

Sajjid Chinoy, chief India economist at global investment bank JP Morgan, explains that a cyclical growth recovery has been building for six months, fueled by substantial fiscal support measures: direct tax cuts implemented in February 2025, a reduction in consumption levies rolled out last September, and a 150 basis point cut in interest rates since the start of 2025. “But the question was, could India insulate that recovery from events in the Middle East, and this is where the government deserves enormous credit,” Chinoy told India Today. He added that New Delhi’s rapid push to diversify energy import sources following the Strait of Hormuz blockade was critical to shielding domestic economic expansion from global energy market chaos.

Two additional key factors have helped Asia’s third-largest economy outperform expectations: accelerating export growth and a long-awaited rebound in private corporate investment, a sector that has been a major source of concern for economists for years. Despite ongoing global tariff uncertainties, Indian exports jumped 12% in the quarter, supported by strong global demand and a weakened rupee. Economists estimate the rupee has depreciated 15% against the U.S. dollar, which has boosted the international competitiveness of Indian goods, driving higher overseas demand.

For the first time in years, corporate India is also ramping up capital expenditure on new facilities and production capacity. Gross fixed capital formation, a core metric measuring total public and private domestic investment, rose nearly 12% in the first three months of the year. Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at state-run Bank of Baroda, told the BBC that non-government data confirms rising corporate investment intentions in recent months, with major projects concentrated in high-growth sectors including data centers, renewable energy, and metals. “Of course, private investment is not broad-based yet, but these are definitely signs of a pick up,” Sabnavis noted.

While the strong GDP numbers have led multiple private brokerages to upgrade their full-year growth forecasts, they have also ignited a fierce public debate and sharp political clashes over the credibility of the data. Senior opposition leader Jairam Ramesh has dismissed the 7.8% figure as “statistical gymnastics,” accusing the Modi government of repeatedly altering calculation methodology to hide what he calls “India’s dire economic reality.” A former Indian finance secretary also raised questions, arguing the growth number was inflated by newly revised baseline data from the same period a year prior—a claim the federal government has strongly rejected, noting that regular revisions are a standard, established part of GDP accounting.

The government’s position on data methodology received backing from Neelkanth Mishra, World Bank executive director for India, who stated that the updated GDP series “cleaned up the data and also significantly improved the methodology,” strengthening the credibility of the official estimates. Even so, prominent economic figures including former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan have questioned why rapid officially reported growth has not translated into stronger job creation or higher foreign direct investment inflows. Adding to the mixed picture, Indian stock markets largely ignored the positive GDP news, failing to post meaningful gains after the data release.

Beyond the statistical debate, underlying domestic and global risks mean it may be too early to declare a sustained growth boom. In the near term, government spending is projected to decline in coming months as policymakers face growing pressure to meet fiscal deficit reduction targets. HSBC analysts also note that the consumption-boosting impact of earlier consumption tax cuts is expected to fade before the end of the year.

Additionally, a below-average monsoon season and El Niño-influenced weather patterns have put significant pressure on India’s rural agrarian economy, which supports half of the country’s population. As of August 27, cumulative nationwide rainfall was 13% lower than the long-term average. Rating agency CareEdge noted in a recent analysis that this creates “clear risks to agriculture, rural demand and food inflation [even though] India appears better prepared than in past episodes.”

Prices for staple food goods including sugar and onions have already spiked across the country, forcing the government to deploy special supply trains to major urban centers to meet demand. India’s retail inflation hit a 15-month high of 3.9% in May, and most economists expect further increases, with some predicting inflation will reach the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India’s target tolerance band if monsoon conditions remain weak.

Against a backdrop of strong growth and rising inflation, most financial institutions are now predicting the central bank will raise interest rates in the coming months. When combined with expectations of slowing global growth (which would cut demand for Indian exports), volatile input and energy costs driven by ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, many analysts warn that the current growth surge—whether credible or not—may already be near its peak.

2 9 月, 2026
Russia to close German cultural centers after Berlin blames Moscow for airport drone plot

A fresh wave of diplomatic escalation between Russia and Germany has sent tensions soaring across European political circles, following Berlin’s accusations of a Russian-state-backed attempted drone attack at a key German airport. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced Moscow’s decision to shutter all of Germany’s Goethe-Institut cultural centers operating across Russian territory, with targeted closures confirmed in three major cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg.

This countermove comes directly in response to actions taken by Berlin earlier this month, after German authorities blamed Moscow for an explosive drone plot discovered at Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4. The airport, a critical international freight hub that logistics support for Kyiv amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, had an explosive-laden drone found near a Ukrainian aircraft, which was safely defused by bomb disposal teams. Following the incident, Germany moved to close the Russian Consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in Berlin, cutting off two key Russian cultural and diplomatic presences in the country.

Speaking from the Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok, Lavrov emphasized that any response less than the closure of German cultural institutions would have amounted to a betrayal of Russian self-respect. He added that German leadership could not have failed to anticipate that shutting down Russian House in Berlin would trigger a reciprocal end to Germany’s own cultural footprint within Russia’s borders.

The incident has sparked broader debate across the European Union, where foreign ministers gathered this week in Ireland to debate a coordinated bloc-wide response to the alleged attack. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas told reporters ahead of the closed-door meeting that the attempted attack bears all the markings of state-sponsored terrorism, though ministers struggled to reach consensus on new non-military retaliatory measures. Options on the table included expanding existing sanctions, imposing new visa restrictions on Russian officials, and ordering the closure of additional Russian consulates across EU member states.

To date, the EU has rolled out nearly 24 separate packages of economic and political sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, targeting more than 3,000 individuals and entities ranging from senior government officials and billionaire oligarchs to major Russian banks, energy firms, and drone manufacturers. Kallas confirmed that the bloc is already finalizing new travel bans and asset freezes for an additional 1,600 Russian individuals tied to the Kremlin’s war effort.

Western governments have broadly accused Russia of waging a sustained campaign of hybrid sabotage and disruption across Europe, aimed at eroding public support for Ukraine and destabilizing Western political institutions. Berlin has pushed back against Russian denials, noting that while Germany is “not at war” with Russia, it has become a regular target of the Kremlin’s hybrid operations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected all accusations out of hand, arguing that German authorities are pushing the unsubstantiated claims to distract voter attention from domestic policy failures and growing public discontent with Berlin’s current governing agenda. All evidence presented to back up the sabotage allegations has been “planted,” Putin claimed. German Foreign Minister Johan Wadephul countered that Berlin had thoroughly prepared for the fallout of its actions, and that “now Russia must live with these consequences.” He also called on Moscow to return to the negotiating table for productive talks, particularly to resolve the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

2 9 月, 2026