The monsoon season in India has been particularly intense this year, killing at least 130 people in August alone in north India, wiping out villages and destroying infrastructure

International News via Reuters:

Flooding across northern India killed at least five people on Wednesday, officials said, with more thunderstorms expected and local media reporting that 10,000 people have been evacuated from the river banks in capital Delhi. 

The monsoon season in India has been particularly intense this year, killing at least 130 people in August alone in north India, wiping out villages and destroying infrastructure. 

The latest round of flooding has hit northern Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, where the Chenab and Tawi rivers have risen above the danger mark at several spots. 

The swollen rivers have triggered landslides and damaged many roads, disconnecting parts of the mountainous regions of Jammu and Himachal from the rest of India. 

At least five people were killed on Wednesday after landslides battered Rajouri and Mandi districts in Jammu and Himachal Pradesh respectively, officials said. 

The India Meteorological Department warned of heavy to very heavy rain in the region on Wednesday, with more downpours expected in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The Central Water Commission said the swollen Yamuna had breached its danger mark on Tuesday in Delhi.

Local media reported that nearly 10,000 people had been evacuated to relief camps set up by the government along the main highways as a precautionary measure for those living in low-lying areas. 

Residents living along the Yamuna in Delhi were evacuated in 2023 as well after floodwaters entered their homes and the river hit its highest level in 45 years.

Many tourist spots in Himachal Pradesh have been hit by landslides in recent weeks, as raging rivers damaged infrastructure. 

Educational institutions were ordered shut, authorities said, asking people to remain indoors due to flood warnings. 

In neighbouring Punjab, the government said 30 people have been killed and nearly 20,000 evacuated since August 1. 

Water gushing through the plains in India’s breadbasket Punjab state has destroyed 150,000 hectares of crops, the government said on Tuesday. 

Continuous rain prompted authorities to release water from dams, which has caused flooding in plains in India and Pakistan in recent days. 

On the other side of the border, Pakistani authorities issued an alert for more floods in the eastern heartland province of Punjab on Wednesday, after India warned it would release water downstream from its dams, officials said.

New Delhi has previously given four such warnings to Islamabad, the officials said.

The worst floods in four decades have killed at least 43 people in Punjab, with more than 3.3 million affected since August 26, the provincial disaster management authority said.

The death toll across the country since the start of the monsoon season in late June stands at 881, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in New Delhi, Fayaz Bukhari in Srinagar, Jaspreet Singh in Patiala and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Editing by Saad Sayeed

The centre includes gardens, vocational training facilities, and educational opportunities for local children

International News via Reuters:

Pope Leo will open a new Vatican-run ecological training centre in the Italian countryside on Friday, in an initiative Catholic officials say is meant to encourage world leaders to address global climate change.

The centre, located across 55 hectares (136 acres) on the sprawling grounds of a Renaissance-era papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, includes gardens, vocational training facilities, and educational opportunities for local children.

Rev. Manuel Dorantes, a U.S. priest directing the centre, said the Vatican wants to set an example for how countries should pursue environmental initiatives.

“If we, the smallest city-state in the world, can do this, what is the potential for other states that are bigger than us?” he said. “Our world can be different if we work together.”

The ecological project, named the “Borgo Laudato Si”, was first announced in 2023 by the late Pope Francis, who was a firm proponent of environmental care. The centre’s large surface area represents about 55 percent of the Vatican’s total landholdings, according to officials.

The centre is named after a major 2015 document by Francis, which was the first papal text to embrace the scientific consensus about climate change and urged nations to reduce their carbon emissions.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, has also emphasised the Church’s environmental teachings. In July, the new pontiff approved a first-of-its-kind rite allowing priests to celebrate Masses that exhort Catholics to exercise care for the Earth.

Castel Gandolfo is about an hour’s drive southeast of Rome on the shores of Lake Albano. A place where popes have spent summer vacations for centuries, the new centre is attached to the building where Leo took his holidays earlier this year.

At the heart of the new institute is a greenhouse built in a curved shape to imitate the colonnade in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Officials say visiting groups will be able to learn about organic farming in the greenhouse, or take classes in an adjacent 10-room educational facility.

Tourists, who can book a visit, will also be able to buy local agricultural products, including wine grown from vineyards on the Vatican grounds, organic olive oil, and cheese made from 60 cows living on the site.

Reporting by Joshua McElwee; additional reporting by Claudia Chieppa; editing by William Maclean

The protests began in the capital Jakarta, targeting government spending such as enhanced perks for lawmakers, and have since spread nationwide

International News via Reuters:

Indonesian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters near two universities in the city of Bandung, student groups and authorities said on Tuesday, stoking concerns over unrest in which 10 people have been killed since last week.

The protests began in the capital Jakarta, targeting government spending such as enhanced perks for lawmakers, and have since spread nationwide. They escalated into rioting and looting, causing millions of dollars of damage in the capital, after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle taxi driver.

University students have long been seen as vanguards of Indonesia’s democracy, having taken a leading role in protests that toppled authoritarian President Suharto in 1998.

The incident in Bandung was the first instance of police firing at demonstrators on or near university campuses during the current protests, with previous clashes in and around government buildings and officials’ residences.

President Prabowo Subianto warned on Monday that the police and military would stand firm against violent escalations.

Police official Hendra Rochmawan said officers did not enter the campuses of the Islamic University of Bandung, or UNISBA, and nearby Pasundan University, more than 140 km (87 miles) from Jakarta, on Monday night, but tried to break up crowds of “non-student protesters” around the premises.

The UNISBA student body accused security forces of seeking to silence dissent, saying they “brutally attacked” the campus. Student groups at Pasundan shared a similar account on social media.

“We feel campuses are no longer safe for students … When military or security officers came into our campuses, then there is no longer a safe zone for us,” Raviv Tuanku Alsaid, head of Islamic Students Union at the university, told Reuters.

Pasundan student Yoga Tadiyalaga Ruchiyat said students were angry and had found at least 40 teargas shells on their campus. “We were here as paramedics to help if protesters got injured but the police fired teargas (at us),” he said.

One UNISBA student was critically injured when hit by rubber bullets on his campus and was undergoing surgery, Raviv said.

President Prabowo Subianto had talks with labour unions, some of whom joined demonstrations last week calling for a hike in the minimum wage, and said he told lawmakers to discuss labour laws, according to a statement from his office.

The head of the Indonesia Trade Union Confederation, Said Iqbal, told reporters he had conveyed workers’ demands to Prabowo, such as income tax cuts, and an end to cheap labour and outsourcing of jobs.

Analysts said the protests were testing Prabowo’s young presidency, which nears its first anniversary in October.

Growing inequality had contributed to the unrest, said Achmad Sukarsono, associate director at consultancy Control Risks, citing a recent allowance for lawmakers that stoked public resentment.

“The growing gap between the rich and poor in Indonesia provides an easily combustible dry-hay situation. Policies that fail to consider social sensitivities like the perks for parliamentarians then turn into matchsticks,” he said.

Indonesia’s official human rights body voiced concern over security forces’ handling of the protests and is conducting an investigation, its commissioner Anis Hidayah told journalists.

The security response has also been criticised by international organisations. The United Nations rights office called for accusations of rights violations by security forces to be investigated.

Indonesians added pink and green hues to their pictures in social media profiles in response to the protests. Some used hashtag #ResetIndonesia and listed 25 demands for the government, including an end to police brutality and decent wages for the public.

Reporting by Ananda Teresia; editing by Clarence Fernandez, Saad Sayeed and Mark Heinrich

Gold has gained more than 34% this year and analysts have steadily raised their average 2025 price outlook

International News via Reuters:

Gold’s latest rally, triggered by expectations of U.S. rate cuts, concerns about Federal Reserve independence and strong demand from investors as well as the central bank, is likely to propel prices to new records in the coming weeks.

Analysts see spot gold, which hit a record high of $3,527.5 as of 1700 GMT on Tuesday, in a $3,600-$3,900 range in the near to medium term, with potential to test the $4,000 level in 2026 if economic and geopolitical uncertainties persist.

Gold has gained more than 34% this year and analysts have steadily raised their average 2025 price outlook from $2,756 an ounce in January to $3,065 in April and most recently to $3,220 in July, according to Reuters polls.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s acknowledgment of rising employment risks has seen financial markets betting on a September interest rate cut.

“Supportive for gold is the bearish dollar outlook underpinned by expectations of Fed cuts, investors distancing from U.S. assets and tariff-related economic uncertainty,” said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades.

The dollar has fallen nearly 11% since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. A softer dollar makes the greenback-priced gold less expensive for holders of other currencies.

Meanwhile, Trump’s criticism of Powell and attempts to remove Governor Lisa Cook have heightened concerns over the Fed’s independence and sparked further gold purchases.

“The most bullish wildcard is… potential interference with the U.S. Federal Reserve and concerns about the dollar’s status as a safe-haven,” said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke.

Among other factors fortifying gold’s appeal are security concerns emanating from the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine and central bank demand, particularly from developing countries.

That includes China’s central bank adding gold to its reserves for the ninth consecutive month in July.

World Gold Council data shows central banks plan to increase gold holdings as a share of their reserves, while reducing dollar reserves over the next five years.

“The combination of a rising gold price and central bank accumulation means that gold shares of reserves have risen steeply for some central banks,” said Michael Hsueh, Deutsche Bank’s precious metals analyst.

Gold-backed ETFs have also seen significant inflows. SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest physically-backed gold ETF, said its holdings rose to 977.68 tons for a 12% increase so far this year and its highest since August 2022.

Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee and Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Kavya Balaraman; Editing by Pratima Desai, Shailesh Kuber and Shreya Biswas

EU countries are negotiating a legally binding 2040 climate change target

International News via Reuters:

France has demanded that negotiations on the European Union’s new climate change target are escalated to national leaders, diplomats said on Tuesday, a move that could delay a deal on the 2040 emissions goal.

EU countries are negotiating a legally binding 2040 climate change target, which their ministers had planned to approve at a summit on September 18. The EU is striving to reaffirm its commitment to fight climate change, as the U.S. administration abandons global efforts to do this.

   In a closed-door meeting of EU diplomats on Tuesday, France said the 2040 target would not be ready for ministers to approve this month, two diplomats familiar with the talks told Reuters.

   France is mired in a domestic political crisis, with the government facing potential collapse in a confidence vote next week.

   A French diplomatic source said the government had reiterated its concerns on whether the 2040 climate goal is feasible, and asked for the talks to be escalated to EU leaders.

Escalating the climate talks to leaders could make it harder to clinch a deal. Unlike ministers, EU leaders take decisions unanimously.

EU governments’ leaders are next due to meet in October. But Brussels is running up against a mid-September deadline for countries to submit 2035 climate plans to the U.N. – and the Commission has said the EU’s should be derived from its 2040 goal.

France and others argue the 2035 target could still be agreed this month and the 2040 target negotiated later. Countries including Spain and Denmark are opposed, warning this approach would yield a weaker 2035 target.

Climate change has made Europe the world’s fastest-warming continent, fuelling record-breaking wildfires this summer.

Even if ministers try to clinch a deal this month, EU diplomats said it was not clear if it would pass, with countries including the Czech Republic and Poland still warning the 2040 target is too strenuous.

The European Commission wants the EU to commit to cut emissions by 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels. It says this would offer investors certainty and keep Europe on track for net zero emissions by 2050.

The proposed target includes some flexibility for domestic industries but countries are wrangling over whether to add more.

Reporting by Kate AbnettEditing by Gareth Jones

Novartis has been on a deal-making spree in 2025

International News via Reuters:

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals will get up to $2 billion from Swiss pharma major Novartis for an exclusive worldwide license to the U.S. drugmaker’s experimental therapy that targets neuromuscular conditions such as Parkinson’s.

Shares of Arrowhead, which has also partnered with Sanofi and GSK, rose about 10.4% in morning trading following the news.

Novartis has been on a deal-making spree in 2025, including buyouts and licensing pacts, as it prepares for looming patent expirations on several blockbuster medicines.

The company has been looking to acquire Avidity Biosciences, a developer of treatments for rare muscle disorders, according to media reports.

H.C. Wainwright analysts said the collaboration was a “strategically clean deal” that would extend Arrowhead’s cash runway without diluting its ownership.

They said the deal directly supports Arrowhead’s treatment strategy for the central nervous system alongside its in-house ARO-MAPT program, a candidate for treating neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia.

Arrowhead will receive $200 million upfront when the deal with Novartis closes and up to $2 billion in milestone payments and royalties on future sales. Novartis will receive exclusive worldwide rights to the experimental therapy, ARO-SNCA.

Arrowhead had previously said it expects to receive near-term milestone payments from its collaboration with Sarepta Therapeutics despite recent setbacks around the latter’s gene therapy Elevidys, including two deaths.

TD Cowen analyst Joseph Thome said the deal should help mitigate concerns some have expressed around the probability of milestones being received from the Sarepta deal.

ARO-SNCA is in preclinical testing and is designed to lower levels of alpha-synuclein, a protein linked to Parkinson’s and related disorders.

Novartis and Arrowhead said they plan to move the program into human trials as soon as possible.

The agreement also covers future projects using Arrowhead’s RNA-targeting platform. Financial terms for those were not disclosed.

Novartis will use Arrowhead’s platform to develop additional treatments outside the U.S. drugmaker’s current pipeline.

Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Sriraj Kalluvila