Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) attends a meeting with Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Oleksandr Poklad (R) in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine's SBU security services on September 4, 2026, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, accusing Moscow of aiming directly at the SBU head's personal office. Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP / Lehtikuva

A Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service in central Kyiv on Friday, injuring at least 12 people and prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to order a retaliatory response.

The aircraft hit the SBU building on Volodymyrska Street, opposite St Sophia Cathedral, according to Zelenskyy. He said the drone had targeted the office of SBU head Oleksandr Poklad.

A cargo ship waits before entering the Panama Canal in Panama City on August 8,2026. Panama declared an emergency over El Nino climate phenomenon on August 25, 2026, after Honduras and El Salvador, which has already forced a reduction in shipping through the Panama Canal. Photo: Martin Bernetti / AFP / Lehtikuva

El Niño is strengthening across the Pacific and is expected to persist into early 2027, increasing the risk of heat, drought and flooding across several regions, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

The UN weather agency expects the climate pattern to develop into a “very strong” event and peak around the end of 2026. The likelihood of El Niño continuing through February 2027 is close to 100 per cent.

Ships are seen docked at Charak Port in Iran's Hormozgan Province on August 9, 2026. Photo: Atta Kenare / AFP

The United States and Iran exchanged their largest attacks in weeks on Tuesday and Wednesday, with US forces striking sites across southern Iran and Tehran retaliating by firing missiles and drones towards US-linked military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and northern Iraq.

Iranian authorities also reported civilian deaths from the US operation, including five people killed when shrapnel struck a home hosting a wedding in southern Hormozgan province.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, together with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his wife Aigul Japarova, jointly appreciate Chinese songs singing by local teenagers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Aug. 30, 2026. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visits to Kyrgyzstan and Egypt have placed economic cooperation, infrastructure, trade and people-to-people exchanges at the centre of China’s engagement with two regions linking Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Xi arrived in Bishkek on August 30 for a state visit to Kyrgyzstan and the 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (R) and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul deliver a joint statement on national security, at the Interior Ministry in Berlin on September 1, 2026. German media reported on September 1, 2026 that the government was set to formally blame Russia for an incident involving an explosive-laden drone at a strategic airport last month. Photo: Tobias Schwarz / AFP / Lehtikuva

Germany has formally blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in August, saying intelligence findings and the equipment used matched methods seen in previous Russian hybrid operations.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Tuesday that the government had concluded Russia was responsible for the 4 August incident.

The European Central Bank is expected to raise its policy rate to 2.5 per cent next week. Photo: Lehtikuva / AFP

Euro area inflation rose to 3.3% in August from 2.9% in July, according to a flash estimate published by Eurostat on Tuesday, driven by a rise in energy prices. Finland moved in the opposite direction, with annual inflation easing to 2.4% from 2.5% a month earlier.

Energy prices in the euro area increased by 14.3% from a year earlier, compared with a 10.3% annual rise in July.

The European Commission said that ChatGPT is a hybrid service that qualifies as an online search engine under the DSA. Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto / Lehtikuva

The European Commission has designated ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox as services subject to added requirements under the Digital Services Act after each reported at least 45 million monthly users in the EU. ChatGPT will be treated as a Very Large Online Search Engine, while Reddit and Roblox will fall under rules for Very Large Online Platforms.

The classifications place the three services under the DSA framework for online services with the largest audiences in the bloc.

Army personnel conduct a search and rescue operation for flood victims along the Narayani river at Bharatpur in Nepal's Chitwan district on August 30, 2026. Photo: Prakash Mathema / AFP / Lehtikuva

Nepalese rescue teams are trying to reach 933 workers missing at hydropower projects after floods killed more than 900 people and left thousands unaccounted for across Nepal and Tibet. Teams are clearing mud, rocks and water from tunnels in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, two districts hit by the disaster.

The floods swept ice, rock, mud and other debris through Himalayan valleys last Wednesday. Nepal’s disaster authorities said on Monday that 903 people had died and 4,247 remained missing.

Vessels transit the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on August 10, 2026. Iran attacked US military targets in the Middle East on August 31, 2026 in retaliation for American strikes on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, the first exchange of fire for a month in a war that has engulfed the region. Photo: Atta Kenare / AFP / Lehtikuva

US and Iranian forces exchanged attacks around the Strait of Hormuz and across the region on Monday after Washington struck targets on Iran’s Larak Island, ending more than a month without a known US attack on Iranian territory. Tehran retaliated with missiles towards bases in Jordan and announced drone operations against a base in the UAE.

US Central Command claimed American forces struck two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps rocket launchers on Larak Island after assessing that Iranian forces were preparing to deploy naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

Turkish vessels, aircraft, and rescue rafts are pictured off the port of Kyrenia in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognised only by Turkey, in the north of the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus on August 30, 2026 during search and rescue operations following a ferry capsizing. Photo: Jewel Samad / AFP / Lehtikuva

At least seven people have died and 23 remain missing after a passenger ferry carrying 267 people capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus on Sunday, according to Turkish Cypriot authorities. Rescue teams recovered 237 people alive as boats and helicopters searched waters near the port of Kyrenia.

The privately operated Filo Jet was travelling from Kyrenia, also known as Girne, to Taşucu in Turkey’s Mersin province when it began taking on water about four nautical miles from the coast.