There is a lot going on around the world and in the US as well…and nothing is political. Teddy bears in surgery, a typhoon, personal space, and people’s achievements.
Africa
Nigeria
Eight-year-old Ibrahim Dalhatu has undergone six reconstructive operations after surviving noma, a disease that can destroy facial tissue within days and is fatal in about 90% of untreated cases.
Hundreds of residents of Niger State protested after an estimated 600–700 people remained captive one month after mass kidnappings in Borgu district. Residents say most of those abducted are women, children and elderly people.
Ghana
A six-day health program in Nabdam District screened 1,447 people for eye disease; 199 were referred for cataract surgery. The program also provided diabetes and blood-pressure screening in five communities.
Ten student companies from Ghanaian senior high schools have been selected for a national business-pitch competition showcasing projects created by teenagers.
Kenya
Hundreds of households in Makuyu and Kambiti are gaining access to a more reliable water supply following completion of the Mugira Dam Water Project in Murang’a County.
South Africa
Nine women’s bodies have been found across Ekurhuleni since July. Running clubs held memorial runs after Johannesburg runner Elizabeth Moselakgomo was killed while exercising alone.
Asia
India
Three infants died after a fire broke out in the neonatal-care unit at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Telangana. Twenty-eight children were evacuated; investigators are examining an electrical malfunction as a possible cause.
A photographer at the Taj Mahal confronted a group of men who were staring at a foreign tourist during a photo session and asked them to respect her personal space. Video of the encounter spread widely in India.
Farmers blocked the Delhi–Chandigarh highway in Haryana after the government’s purchase of the new paddy crop failed to begin as expected. Farmers said harvested rice was accumulating in markets while they waited for government agencies to buy it at the guaranteed minimum price.
India and Japan are playing their first-ever men’s T20 international cricket match in Sano, Japan. The match is part of a new sporting initiative between the two countries.
China
Chinese memory-chip producer CXMT says a new manufacturing platform has entered mass production with feature spacing of 11.95 nanometres. New mobile-memory chips built on the platform can hold 50% more data than the preceding generation.
Japan
Typhoon Dujuan brought record rainfall and landslides to Japan’s Pacific coast, killing at least four people and leaving six missing. Approximately 45,000 households lost electricity.
South Korea
Twenty-year-old swimmer Kim Young-beom won the Asian Games 50-metre freestyle with a new Games record. South Korea’s baseball team also defeated Taiwan 5–0.
Pakistan
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement eliminating visa requirements for holders of diplomatic and official passports.
Cambodia
Conservationists monitoring the Mekong’s Irrawaddy dolphins have recorded encouraging signs in the small population shared by Cambodia and Laos, although the species remains critically endangered.
Australia & Pacific
Australia
A small agricultural town has sponsored 15 aged-care workers from the Philippines to address a shortage of carers.
An aged-care provider in the ACT and New South Wales has been ordered to repay A$1.39 million to 335 workers, most of whom are migrants, for underpayments dating back to 2018.
Twenty new emergency beds installed during a A$50-million expansion of Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital cannot currently be used because no additional staffing money was provided.
St John Ambulance is recruiting Aboriginal liaison officers in the Northern Territory to improve communication, community trust and emergency care, particularly for patients whose first language is not English.
Cook Islands
Community volunteers are growing coral in underwater nurseries to restore damaged reefs. The project transplants nursery-grown coral back onto local reef systems.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea has one of the world’s highest rates of oral cancer, closely associated with widespread betel-nut chewing. Local health workers are expanding efforts to identify cancers earlier, when treatment is more likely to succeed.
Europe
Greece
Fifteen looted Greek antiquities confiscated in the United States have been returned to Greece. The collection spans about 3,000 years and includes ornate seventh-century BC bronze helmets illegally excavated on Crete in 1964.
Portugal
The Convent of Christ in Tomar has reopened cloisters to visitors following restoration work. The UNESCO World Heritage complex began as a 12th-century Templar stronghold.
In Lisbon’s Rua da Conceição, once famous for its haberdashery shops, only three of the former 14 shops remain. Researchers and shopkeepers are documenting the transformation of the historic commercial street.
Italy
A mobile opera stage mounted on a truck has completed its 2026 tour of Rome after reaching approximately 40,000 people. Performances were taken directly into neighbourhoods rather than requiring audiences to travel to an opera house.
A large contemporary installation by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama has opened in central Naples. The work, titled Voyager, occupies a prominent public space in the city.
Finland
Finland is changing the way its national Lucia is selected. Public voting has been eliminated after increasing harassment and inappropriate behaviour toward candidates; an 11-member committee will choose Lucia instead.
Sweden
The first lobster box of Sweden’s new season sold at Gothenburg’s fish auction for 53,000 kronor per kilogram. Much of the proceeds from the ceremonial first sale will go to Sweden’s sea-rescue service.
Ireland
Scientists in Galway are studying compounds in spider venom for their potential to kill disease-causing bacteria and provide leads for new medicines.
Germany
A worker at Munich’s Oktoberfest died after being struck by a gondola on a free-fall tower. Police are investigating how the accident occurred.
North America
Canada
Three University of Toronto dragon-boat clubs returned from an international competition in Taiwan with 30 medals.
New Brunswick researchers are fitting migrating monarch butterflies with tiny 0.066-gram solar-powered Bluetooth transmitters. Phones running the Project Monarch app can detect tagged butterflies as they migrate.
Nineteen University of British Columbia graduate researchers received C$1 million in Peter Wall Fellowships for projects involving human and ecosystem health.
United States
Colorado
A minimally invasive procedure being used at the University of Colorado Anschutz blocks tiny blood vessels associated with inflammation in arthritic knees.
Florida
Chemical analysis has solved a century-old puzzle about Mississippian-style pottery found around Tampa Bay. Migrant Native American potters apparently moved roughly 200 miles into Florida and continued their craft there, even bringing crushed pieces of pottery from their homeland to mix into vessels made with Florida clay.
Alaska
Yup’ik residents and archaeologists are conducting an emergency excavation at the approximately 500-year-old Nunalleq settlement near Quinhagak. A powerful storm exposed and scattered artifacts, leaving the community racing to recover pieces of its history before another storm carries them into the Bering Sea.
Kentucky
Shriners Children’s Lexington turned its hospital into a Teddy Bear Clinic, allowing children to take stuffed animals through surgery, medical examinations and recovery.
Texas
A new international organization headquartered around a Rice University initiative is bringing engineers and physicians together to work on diseases including pancreatic cancer, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, sepsis and stroke.
Virginia
Construction begins this week on a major redesign of the Route 1/Augustine Avenue intersection in Fredericksburg, while a separate $13.9-million project replaces the Route 1 bridge over Chopawamsic Creek near Quantico. The intersection project is scheduled to continue through October 2027.
Minnesota — Education & Culture
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino is bringing its collections directly into Minnesota classrooms through a program in St. Paul today. Teachers are being trained to use museum objects, primary sources and children’s books in social studies and language-arts lessons.
Ohio
National research involving Ohio State found substantially higher school absenteeism among children involved with child-protective services, particularly children placed in foster care and those whose families had been investigated for maltreatment.
Oklahoma
Neurosurgeon Mary Kay Gumerlock has been inducted into the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Hall of Fame after more than three decades in neurosurgery, teaching and research. She entered the field when relatively few women practiced neurosurgery and was an early adopter of intravascular chemotherapy techniques for brain tumors.
Rhode Island — Education
Brown University produced 41 Fulbright recipients this year, the second-highest number among U.S. universities. The grants send students and recent graduates overseas for research, graduate study and teaching.
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