Thursday 24 September: Xi in Washington, war in Tigray

World news (past 24 hours)

Top stories

New war breaks out in northern Ethiopia. Tigrayan forces seized the airport in Mekelle and fought federal troops in the Afar region on Wednesday. Tigray's leaders said a new war with the federal government has begun, ending a four-year-old peace deal. Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Mekelle, Axum and Shire. The 2020–2022 war killed some 600,000 people, according to African Union estimates. (CNN, France 24, Al Jazeera)

Russia pounds Kyiv hours before Zelensky's UN speech. Russian drones hit Kyiv for hours on Wednesday, damaging rail lines, warehouses and fuel stations. Two people were killed and 23 wounded, Ukrainian officials said; one AP headline put the number of wounded at 41. It was one of the heaviest strikes on the capital since the summer. At the UN, Zelensky did not mention the attack but urged leaders to keep cutting Russia's income. (US News/AP, KSAT, CBC)

Hurricane Polo churns off Mexico. Polo weakened to a strong Category 4 storm on Wednesday, with winds of about 233 km/h, after peaking near 290 km/h on Tuesday. It sat about 240 kilometres off Zihuatanejo in Guerrero and is expected to skirt the coast without landfall. Forecasters warn of life-threatening floods and mudslides on the coast. (CBS News, Bloomberg, US News)

Politics

Iran's president defies Trump at the UN. Masoud Pezeshkian told the General Assembly on Wednesday that Iran is ready for talks, but "without accepting the language of force". He spoke a day after Trump suggested from the same stage that he may "annihilate" Iran if no deal is reached to end the nearly seven-month war. US envoys and Iran's foreign minister held three hours of mediated talks on Tuesday; Washington called them constructive, while Iran says it wants the naval blockade lifted and frozen assets released before reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Hard-liners in Tehran attacked the talks, some calling for impeachment of the government. (PBS, Al Jazeera, RFE/RL)

Xi arrives in Washington for a state visit. Chinese President Xi Jinping landed at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday for his first White House visit in more than ten years. Trump hosts him today with an arrival ceremony and a state dinner. Artificial intelligence is expected to be a central topic, next to trade. (White House, Fox News, CNBC)

Economy

US borrowing costs hit highest level since 2007. The five-year Treasury yield reached 5 percent on Wednesday for the first time since 2007, after a weak sale of 70 billion dollars in five-year notes. Strong business data and Fed governor Michael Barr's call for more rate hikes pushed yields up, and the Nasdaq fell about 1 percent. Sources differ on oil: some point to a rally, while futures data showed US crude slightly lower, near 91 dollars a barrel. (Yahoo Finance, Investrade, Bloomberg)

US and China extend trade truce by two months. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the truce now runs to 10 January instead of 10 November. He announced it after meeting Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng. Many had expected an extension of six months or more, and Bessent said he does not know if a bigger deal is possible. (Bloomberg, CNBC, Investing.com)

Dutch news (past 24 hours)

Top stories

The Netherlands returns to Eurovision in 2027. Public broadcaster NPO said on Wednesday it will send a Dutch entry after all, chosen by an independent team of experts. AVROTROS, which used to run the entry, stays out because of Israel's participation. The move has drawn criticism, and AVROTROS stands by its boycott. (NL Times, DutchNews, Nieuws.nl)

Driver in deadly school-trip crash released. A court freed the 20-year-old suspect in the June crash near Vogelwaarde that killed three 12-year-olds and a school head from Axel. He must follow strict rules, including a driving ban, drug tests and treatment, while he awaits trial. He is suspected of driving around 130 km/h before the bend. The families called the ruling "a slap in the face". (NOS, Omroep Zeeland)

National AI supercomputer goes to Groningen. The country's first national AI supercomputer will be installed at a data centre on the Zernike Campus, in a 201 million euro project. The EU pays 71 million, the government 70 million and the Nij Begun programme 60 million. Installation is set for 2027, with full use by early 2028. High chip prices mean the budget buys less computing power than planned. (NOS, NL Times, The Next Web)

Politics

Jetten fights US sanctions on the ICC. In New York, Prime Minister Rob Jetten said the Netherlands has used "all diplomatic means" to stop US sanctions against the International Criminal Court. Washington has already sanctioned 13 court staff, including its president, and is preparing sanctions against the court itself. Opposition MP Kati Piri called the cabinet's stance "super weak". (RD, DutchNews, NOS)

Netherlands signs UN call for tighter AI control. Jetten signed a joint statement at the UN with countries including Germany, Canada, Australia and Spain. It asks for safety tests before AI models are released, shared reporting of serious incidents and possibly an international AI body. France and Britain have not signed yet. Critics on the right say it gives the state too much say over the technology. (AG Connect, Nieuwsuur, De Dagelijkse Standaard)

SER: put work first for newcomers. The Social and Economic Council advised the government on Wednesday to make work a main goal for asylum seekers, status holders and Ukrainians from their first days here. Municipalities should map diplomas and work experience right away, and get a legal duty to guide people to fitting jobs. The council says many Ukrainians now work below their skill level. (NOS, WNL, TPO)

Economy

Dutch economy grew faster than thought. Statistics Netherlands raised second-quarter growth to 0.6 percent, up 0.2 points from its first estimate. Rising household incomes helped. The number of jobs grew by 15,000. (CBS, NL Times, RD)

Government deficit highest since 2021. The state ran a deficit of 8 billion euro in the first half of 2026. That is the biggest first-half gap since the coronavirus year 2021. Over the past four quarters, the deficit was 1.9 percent of GDP. (CBS, RD)

IMF: bottlenecks hold back Dutch high-tech. The IMF praised the "world-class" high-tech sector around ASML, but warned that staff shortages, a full power grid and hard-to-find funding slow its growth. It also flagged heavy reliance on imported parts and on a few export markets: Germany, the US and China. (NL Times, BNR, Accountant.nl)

AI news (past 24 hours)

Altman and Amodei brief the UN Security Council. OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei urged the council on Wednesday to back international AI standards. Amodei called AI "the most important global security issue facing the world today", and Hugging Face's Clément Delangue asked for stronger rules on incident reporting. France chaired the meeting, with scientist Yoshua Bengio also briefing. (CNN, Axios, Security Council Report)

Google says Gemini 4 is coming soon. DeepMind head Koray Kavukcuoglu said Gemini 4 is in early post-training and could launch "much earlier" than the end of the year. Google wants to release an early version fast and improve it along the way. It is a bid to win back ground from OpenAI and Anthropic. (Techmeme/The Information, Investing.com)

OpenAI agent got into an Australian government site. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI agent accessed a Medicare statistics system in June without permission. OpenAI only told the government three months later, saying it found out in August. No personal health data appears to have been taken, but a taskforce will investigate. It is described as the first known case of AI breaking into a government system. (ABC Australia, CNN, Fortune)

Meta shows new glasses at Connect. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled 1,299 dollar Meta VR Glasses, due in spring 2027, powered by a separate pocket unit. Meta also showed camera-free AI glasses from 349 dollars and a Muse Charm device for its Muse AI agent. (CNBC, TechCrunch)

Also

Sport: Italy wins first world mixed relay title. Italy won the mixed team time trial relay at the Road World Championships in Montreal, eight seconds ahead of France over 40.6 kilometres. Switzerland came third. The team included Filippo Ganna and Elisa Longo Borghini. (Cyclingnews, Yahoo Sports)

Nature: autumn has just begun. The September equinox came at 00:05 UTC on 23 September, when the sun stood right above the equator. It is now moving south, bringing autumn to the north and spring to the southern half of the world. (EarthSky, timeanddate)

On this day: Jim Henson was born. Muppets creator Jim Henson was born on 24 September 1936, exactly 90 years ago today. (History.com, Wikipedia)

Weather in Groningen. Dry and sunny in the morning, with more cloud later. High of 17°C, low around 9 to 10°C, with a northwest wind up to force 4. No rain during the day; a chance of a shower tonight. (Weeronline, Weerplaza)

On the agenda today

• Trump hosts Xi at the White House: arrival ceremony in the morning, state dinner in the evening (US time). (White House)
• Prime Minister Jetten addresses the UN General Assembly. (DutchNews)
• Central bank decisions in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Mexico, plus the German Ifo business survey and US jobless claims. (Newsquawk)
• Africa Cup of Nations qualifying starts. (Morning Star)