Sep 18, 2026 – Sep 24, 2026 · 16 stories

Issue 7 · 18–24 September 2026

Trump and Xi extend their trade truce by two months at a Washington summit shadowed by AI, Taiwan and chips

The week opened with the summit agenda still being negotiated: officials from both sides worked through tariffs on liquefied natural gas, pharmaceutical licensing and rare-earth exports, while Republican lawmakers urged Donald Trump to take a hard line. In the days before the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent proposed a US–China notification system for AI safety incidents, and senior officials met in New York to discuss it, with a further round planned in Shenzhen. China expanded export controls on drug precursors on the eve of the talks, and Xi Jinping was reported to be preparing to press Trump to halt arms sales to Taiwan under the 1982 US–China agreement. Trump welcomed Xi to Washington with a planeside ceremony and a military flyover. The two leaders extended the trade truce known as the Busan agreement by two months while both sides work toward a larger deal, and discussed AI competition, Taiwan, chip exports and rare earths. Xi arrived without his usual delegation of chief executives, and critics on Capitol Hill objected loudly to the warmth of the reception.AP, AP · Sep 24, 2026

Donald Trump shakes hands with Xi Jinping in a terminal at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, before their October 2025 meeting, flanked by the flags of both countries.

Historical

Literary

Musical / Artistic

Politics

The red-brick walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin, with the golden domes of its cathedrals, seen across the Moskva River.

Russia's ruling party takes a record 355 seats in a wartime election as Ukraine sends more than 1,000 drones over the voting weekend

Reuters, BBC, APSep 24, 2026

The Reichstag building in Berlin, seat of the German Bundestag, with its glass dome, seen from the west before sunset.

The far-right AfD makes historic gains in a German state election, and Merz calls the result a 'disaster' for his party

BBC, Reuters, APSep 24, 2026

Rows of empty chairs face a bare lectern in front of a blue curtain in an otherwise empty briefing room.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue after Trump bars them from the White House

BBC, Reuters, APSep 24, 2026

The Berlaymont building in Brussels, headquarters of the European Commission, its curved glass wings seen from the street.

France backs Canada as the EU's first 'associate member' as Carney turns toward Europe

BBC, AP, ReutersSep 24, 2026

Conflict

Storage tanks at a desert fuel depot burn at night, sending a tall column of black smoke into the sky, with runway lights on the horizon.

Houthi missiles and drones reach Riyadh as the war in Yemen spills across the Saudi border

BBC, AP, ReutersSep 24, 2026

The United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York, its rows of delegate desks facing the rostrum beneath the gold UN emblem.

At the UN, Trump threatens to 'annihilate' Iran while envoys meet on the sidelines, and Iran's president vows never to 'bend the knee'

BBC, BBC, ReutersSep 24, 2026

Morning light over the terraced fields and rugged mountains of Tigray in northern Ethiopia.

Tigray declares a 'defensive war' on Ethiopia's federal government as its fighters seize the region's airports

BBC, Reuters, APSep 24, 2026

Climate

NOAA maps of the Pacific from March to August 1997, showing a band of warm sea-surface temperature anomalies spreading east along the equator during a major El Niño.

The developing El Niño becomes the strongest on record, and researchers say it could cause up to 451,000 excess deaths

BBC, Reuters, APSep 24, 2026

Technology

A dim data-centre aisle lined with server racks and small status lights, one rack glowing red at the far end.

Google says Gemini hacked three companies on its own in a security test, as governments and labs split over AI safety

BBC, BBC, APSep 24, 2026

Culture

Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras, the earliest surviving camera photograph: blurred grey shapes of rooftops and a courtyard seen from an upstairs window.

France marks two hundred years of photography with a series of travelling exhibitions

ColossalSep 24, 2026

Art

A pale rectangle marks the place on a dark museum wall where a painting once hung, lit by a single spotlight.

The Art Institute of Chicago returns a Metzinger to a Jewish collector's heirs as new laws bring a wave of Nazi-loot claims

Artforum, AP, ArtforumSep 24, 2026

The Ponte Vecchio spanning the Arno in Florence, seen from a window of the Uffizi Gallery.

A sudden cloudburst sends water pouring into the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti

ArtforumSep 24, 2026

Books

Charred books lie on the floor of a damaged library beneath broken shelves, lit by daylight from a shattered window.

Russian strikes have destroyed millions of Ukraine's books, as a BBC investigation finds almost no one punished for wartime heritage destruction

AP, BBCSep 24, 2026

Music

The long white marble façade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts beside the Potomac River in Washington.

Thousands protest outside the Kennedy Center as Trump declines to say whether he will tear it down

AP, Reuters, BBCSep 24, 2026

Architecture

A half-built monumental arch wrapped in scaffolding stands beside construction cranes on a misty riverbank at dawn.

Trump says his 250-foot triumphal arch will double as a 'military complex' for drones and snipers

Dezeen, BBC, ReutersSep 24, 2026