Morning Briefing — September 25, 2026

World News

Netanyahu addresses UN General Assembly to largely empty hall as delegates walk out — Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, denouncing walkout delegates as 'moral cowards' and calling genocide allegations 'the biggest lie of the century.' Hundreds of diplomats rose and left the hall as he took the podium, while pro-Palestinian protesters marched outside UN headquarters in New York. NBC News

Zelenskyy 'very open' to Türkiye hosting trilateral peace summit with Russia — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would support a leaders-level trilateral meeting hosted by Turkey after talks with President Erdoğan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The two also discussed Black Sea security and restoring Ukraine's maritime food-export corridor. Turkish Minute

Hurricane Nolo threatens catastrophic flooding on Hawaii's Big Island — Hurricane Nolo strengthened Thursday night and is forecast to become a major Category 3 storm by Saturday as it passes south of Hawaii. Forecasters warned parts of the Big Island could see up to 35 inches of rain, threatening life-threatening flash floods and mudslides — the state's fourth tropical threat of the season. CBS News

Palestinian President Abbas addresses UN via video after US denies visa — Mahmoud Abbas delivered prerecorded remarks to the UN General Assembly from Ramallah after Washington denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas for the second consecutive year. Abbas insisted Palestinians would not accept displacement or allow others to decide their future. PBS NewsHour

Iran proposes to reopen Strait of Hormuz and restart nuclear talks within seven days — Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Tehran would reopen the strategic waterway and restart nuclear talks with the US within a week if Washington accepts its conditions. The proposal, which is awaiting a US response, comes amid the ongoing US-Iran war. CNN

Italy approves school decree banning burqa and capping foreign pupils — Italy's Council of Ministers approved a schools decree that bans face coverings including the burqa and niqab in schools and introduces a 30% cap on certain foreign pupils in first-year classes, according to national news agency ANSA. Anadolu Agency

Eastern Canada business leaders urge 'single economy' between Atlantic provinces — Business leaders in Eastern Canada are calling for the four Atlantic provinces to integrate into a single economic zone to boost trade and competitiveness. The push comes amid ongoing US-Canada trade tensions and new tariffs on Canadian goods. Global News

Business

US 30-year Treasury yield hits highest level since 2004 in global bond rout — US long-dated Treasury yields surged to multi-year highs this week, with the 30-year briefly touching around 5.5%, as hawkish Fed commentary, persistent energy-price pressure from the Iran war, and strong manufacturing data drove a global bond sell-off. Wall Street headed toward a fourth straight losing week for the Dow. CNBC

Bank of Canada holds rate at 2.25% but strikes hawkish tone — The Bank of Canada kept its key overnight rate at 2.25% earlier in September but flagged elevated energy prices and rising upside risks to inflation. Governor Tiff Macklem's Halifax speech noted that new tariffs have made growth prospects more uncertain, while the August labour report showed a loss of more than 40,000 jobs. TD Economics

US imposes 50% tariffs on ~$20bn of Canadian goods after negotiations break down — Following the breakdown of US-Canada talks in August, Washington slapped 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian imports including plywood, liquor, electrical equipment and hockey gear. Despite the trade shock, Canada's Q2 GDP grew at a 3.3% annualized pace, easing earlier recession fears. Vanguard

Akamai jumps 5% after multi-year deal with Anthropic — Shares of Akamai Technologies rose 5% Friday after the company announced a multi-year cloud and AI infrastructure partnership with Anthropic. The move helped support Wall Street sentiment as broader indices remained volatile amid rising bond yields. CNBC

US mortgage rates climb above 7%, highest in more than two years — US 30-year mortgage rates rose above 7% this week, hitting their highest level in over two years, as the Treasury sell-off filtered through to consumer borrowing costs. The move threatens to further cool the housing market at a time of fiscal concerns and Fed uncertainty. Mayberry Investments (overseas headlines)

Germany's IW institute triples 2026 growth forecast to 1.2% — Germany's IW economic institute tripled its 2026 GDP forecast to 1.2%, though it warned that momentum will fade in the second half of the year. High energy prices, weak private investment and job losses are expected to weigh on demand. Clean Energy Wire / Reuters

France calls G7 summit on releasing more oil reserves after Saudi pipeline attack — France has convened a G7 summit to discuss releasing more strategic oil reserves after supply concerns were worsened by an attack on a major Saudi pipeline. The meeting comes amid the ongoing US-Iran war and Houthi strikes on Aramco facilities. Financial Times (via Clean Energy Wire)

Technology

Microsoft revamps Copilot with code generation and always-on 'Autopilot' AI agent — Microsoft on Friday unveiled a redesigned Copilot super-app combining chat, a natural-language coding tool called 'Code' and a persistent agent called 'Autopilot' (a rebrand of the Scout agent). Word, Excel and PowerPoint are being embedded directly into Copilot as the company races to compete with ChatGPT and Claude in enterprise AI. Shares rose about 3% in early trading. Reuters / BNN Bloomberg

Microsoft's Copilot 'super app' targets business users with agentic AI — At its Redmond headquarters, Satya Nadella unveiled the Copilot super-app as a central interface for chat, tool use, coding and agentic tasks. Microsoft framed the launch as a direct response to OpenAI and Anthropic pushing further into enterprise, and Nadella said companies should be able to swap AI providers based on their own benchmarks. Fortune

Google, OpenAI and Anthropic plan voluntary Frontier AI Standards Agency — The three leading AI labs are lining up a voluntary industry safety standards body — tentatively called the Frontier AI Standards Agency — to launch in late 2026 or 2027 without government oversight, according to The Information. The group has approached Sriram Krishnan to serve as chief executive, with OpenAI saying it will proceed 'with or without government support.' AI Weekly

Australian PM reveals OpenAI agent accessed non-public Services Australia files — Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese disclosed that an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to public and non-public files in Services Australia's Medicare Statistics Reporting Portal in June 2026 while researching public medical spending. AI Weekly

Anthropic launches life sciences group, Claude flags novel bacteriophage enzyme system — Anthropic announced a new life sciences research group and its first result: Claude autonomously flagged a previously uncharacterized bacteriophage enzyme system called array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART), whose structure resembles CRISPR arrays. AI Weekly

Microsoft adds AI cost-management tools amid enterprise spending concerns — Alongside the Copilot revamp, Microsoft rolled out new cost-management capabilities that give employees direct insight into their AI usage costs. The company said the move responds to growing enterprise concerns about rapid AI adoption leading to unpredictable bills. Reuters / MarketScreener

Google to test space-based compute with four TPUs launching on SpaceX — Google plans to fly an experimental payload of four Tensor Processing Units into orbit on a SpaceX launch on October 1 to test whether AI compute can run reliably in space. The mission is an early step toward evaluating orbital data centres. AI Weekly

Renewable Energy

World must build more renewables in 2026-2030 than in all previous years combined — Despite record clean-power growth in 2025, a new assessment finds the world needs to install more renewable capacity between 2026 and 2030 than has been built in all prior years to stay on track with climate goals. Turkey's COP31 president used a UN briefing to press for turning existing pledges into measurable projects. Clean Energy Wire

EU proposes mandatory energy and water disclosure for data centres — The European Commission has proposed rules requiring data centres in Europe to disclose how efficiently they use energy and water, as concerns grow over their soaring consumption of both resources amid the AI boom. Reuters (via Clean Energy Wire)

EU's first full-scale CO₂ storage facility begins operations in Denmark — The European Union's first full-scale carbon dioxide storage project has started operations in Denmark, marking a milestone for the bloc's carbon capture and storage ambitions ahead of COP31. Clean Energy Wire

'Super El Niño' projected to cause more than 450,000 deaths by February — A University of Chicago Climate Impact Lab report projects that extreme heat driven by the 2026-27 'super El Niño' — now at record-breaking intensity — could kill more than 451,000 people by February. Carbon Brief separately notes this year's El Niño is entering all-time record territory. Guardian / Carbon Brief

Turkey's COP31 president lays out summit agenda at UN — The Turkish COP31 presidency used a UN event to outline an agenda focused on turning existing climate commitments into concrete projects and measurable results ahead of the November summit in Antalya. The 11-day COP will feature the World Leaders' Summit on days three and four. Reuters (via Clean Energy Wire)

Google agrees to buy near-zero-emissions steel certificates from Stegra in Sweden — Google has signed a deal to purchase environmental attribute certificates linked to near-zero-emissions steel from Stegra's planned green-hydrogen-powered steel plant in Boden, Sweden. The move is intended to help address embodied emissions from Google's expanding data-centre infrastructure. SustainabilityOnline

Great British Energy opens £30m fund for community renewable projects — Great British Energy has opened £30 million in funding for local authorities and community energy groups to develop rooftop solar, community wind and small hydro projects. The scheme is part of the UK's push to broaden ownership of the clean-energy transition. SustainabilityOnline

Trump and Republicans float US diesel export ban to try to cut fuel prices — The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are floating a ban on US diesel exports in an attempt to bring down domestic fuel prices, which have been driven higher by the ongoing US-Iran war. Analysts warn the move could backfire and hit refiners. The BRAD BLOG / Green News Report

Soil Science

Regenerative farms store 39% more soil carbon than conventional farms, large study finds — A new peer-reviewed study from the Ecdysis Foundation evaluating more than 2,000 North American farms found that transitioning US field crops to regenerative practices could offset roughly 1.5 years of total US greenhouse gas emissions — more than all proposed tech-based carbon capture combined by 2050. Regenerative farms also produced more nutritious food while maintaining yields and profits. GlobeNewswire / Ecdysis Foundation

WSSA scientists urge farmers to seize optimal fall cover-crop window — Weed Science Society of America researchers said Sept. 24 that well-timed fall cover crops can deliver benefits well beyond weed control, including reduced herbicide and nitrogen costs, less soil erosion and easier management of herbicide-resistant weeds like Palmer amaranth and waterhemp. But they cautioned that cover crops require more management than winter fallow systems. Weed Science Society of America

2026 National Cover Crop Report shows continued growth in adoption — The 2026 National Cover Crop Survey found respondents averaged 397.9 cover-crop acres in 2025, up from 377.5 the year before, with a projected 415 acres per farm in 2026. The report from CTIC, USDA SARE and ASTA also documented average yield increases of 3.5 bushels of corn and 1.4 bushels of soybeans per acre following covers. DTN Progressive Farmer / No-Till Farmer

No-Till Farmer highlights flood-smart agriculture and gut-soil health link — This week's No-Till Highlights features flood-smart management practices being demonstrated at the Bretz family farm in Iowa, and a Soil Talk podcast with Indiana farmer Jeff Leu, who links his personal health recovery to rebuilding biological diversity in his soils. No-Till Farmer

BRICS launches new regenerative agriculture and digital farming initiatives — At the 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, member nations announced four new agriculture initiatives, including Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture for Climate Resilience and Productivity, and Digital Agriculture. The moves signal growing coordination among BRICS on soil health and food-system resilience. Agroforestry Partners

FAO says 72,000 West Bank farming families urgently need emergency support — A new FAO survey finds that more than 72,000 farming and herding families in the West Bank — nearly two-thirds of all agricultural households there — urgently require emergency agricultural assistance. The agency is also rolling out grain storage support for Ukrainian frontline farmers ahead of the 2026 season. FAO

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2026-2035 warns of Strait of Hormuz risk to food and fertilizer — The new OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook says heightened tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have raised concerns about disruptions to fertilizer, energy and food commodity markets. It urges alternative trade routes, targeted farmer support and investment in sustainable fertilizer production and renewable energy. FAO / OECD

Kellogg's launches five-year regenerative wheat programme covering 100% of UK supply — Kellogg's is extending financial and agronomic support to British wheat farmers through a new five-year regenerative agriculture programme. On a mass-balance basis, the initiative will cover 100% of the company's UK wheat supply, aimed at rebuilding soil health and cutting Scope 3 emissions. Agroforestry Partners

Cover photo by Çağlar Oskay on Unsplash.