World
The Norwegian Nobel Committee named Navanethem “Navi” Pillay as the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate on October 9 in Oslo. The 85-year-old South African judge spent her career widening the reach of international law. She defended Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists, then served on the High Court of South Africa, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. At the Rwanda tribunal her influence helped establish that rape and sexual violence can count as crimes against humanity and genocide. She was United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and chaired the UN inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She now sits on the International Court of Justice in the Myanmar genocide case.
NobelPrize.org
Politics
A federal immigration agent shot and wounded a man in the Marble Hill area of the Bronx on Thursday afternoon, New York police said. A five-year-old child was in the car and was not hurt. Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the shooting, said the agents wore plain clothes and were hard to identify, and asked President Trump to end ICE operations in the city. Federal officials said the man drove toward the agents. Protests formed at the scene, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin criticised sanctuary city policies. The clash lands in the middle of midterm campaigning, days after the Cook Political Report moved 18 House races toward the Democrats.
CNN
Business
The US trade deficit widened 13.7 percent in August to 105.6 billion dollars, the largest monthly gap in 17 months, the Commerce Department reported. Imports rose 4.3 percent to a record 420.8 billion dollars while exports grew 1.4 percent to 315.2 billion dollars. The goods deficit reached 136.6 billion dollars and the services surplus held near 31 billion dollars. A new round of tariffs in July and heavy imports of components for AI data centres both pushed the numbers up. Year to date the deficit is down almost 20 percent. West Coast ports are working through a strong peak season that has stretched dockworker rosters.
Reuters
Technology
Semiconductor shares climbed on Friday as investors looked past a report that OpenAI revenue may fall short of earlier estimates. Broadcom, Micron, Marvell, AMD and Lam Research all rose, and futures for the Nasdaq 100 gained about 1 percent. The S&P 500 closed above 7,800 for the first time earlier in the week. Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to grow about 30 percent for the July-to-September quarter, led by energy and technology. Chipmakers sit at the centre of the AI buildout, and demand for advanced processors and high-bandwidth memory remains the main driver. Traders expect the Federal Reserve to hold rates steady at its October meeting.
Reuters
Science
Physicists at the University of Innsbruck created and observed Bethe strings, quantum bound states that Hans Bethe predicted in 1931. The team cooled caesium atoms to a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero and split the cloud into thousands of narrow one-dimensional tubes. By tuning the interactions from repulsive to attractive, the atoms bound together into clusters of several sizes, some holding six or more particles. The strings survived collisions with one another but fell apart when released into three dimensions, which freed extra energy and confirmed their presence. The results appeared in Nature Communications.
University of Innsbruck
Sports
Cleveland beat the Chicago White Sox 9-5 in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Thursday at Rate Field, levelling the best-of-five series at 2-2. A six-run sixth inning broke the game open. Jose Ramirez hit a two-run homer, and Gavin Williams, the American League strikeout leader, closed it out in his first career relief appearance. Game 5 is Saturday at Progressive Field. The winner meets the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS, which starts October 12. In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers visit the Milwaukee Brewers for Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.
MLB.com
Health
A study published in Nature Medicine analysed self-reported pain from 6,125,459 people in 118 countries. Women reported more pain than men at all 11 body sites examined. The largest differences were facial pain, 83 percent higher, headache, 74 percent higher, and stomach or abdominal pain, 60 percent higher. Back pain was the most common complaint at 40 percent, while facial pain was the least common at 2 percent. Pain at most sites rose fastest before age 55. Overall any-body pain climbed from about 30 percent at age five to 70 percent at age 100 or older.
Nature Medicine
Environment
NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum on September 12, covering 4.60 million square kilometres. That ties 2008, 2010 and 2025 for the tenth-lowest minimum in the satellite record, which began in 1978. Every summer from 2007 through 2026 ranks among the 20 lowest. In the Antarctic, sea ice likely reached its maximum on September 14 at 17.59 million square kilometres, which would be the third-lowest maximum on record. Scientists say increased cloud cover has slowed the recent decline, but ice levels remain far below the 1980s.
NASA Earth Observatory