The OECD reported on September 8, 2026, that more than 760,000 15-year-old students in 91 countries and economies took PISA 2025. OECD averages fell in all three core subjects, while the cycle added computational problem solving and left country data quality uneven.
Leaders of China, Russia, India and other states gathered in Bishkek on August 31, 2026, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s 25th-anniversary summit. The forum gives Beijing and Moscow a venue for security and economic coordination, but membership carries no collective-defense obligation.
On August 31, the Financial Stability Board published Andrew Bailey's warning that frontier AI could amplify cyber risk across the global financial system. Shared technology providers and concentrated market positions could transmit disruption across borders.
The Pacific Islands Forum ended its Palau summit on September 3 with a call for at least 24 hours’ notice before intercontinental ballistic missile tests. The communiqué did not name China, Nauru dissented from the paragraph and Kiribati did not attend the leaders’ retreat.
Israel's military said on August 19, 2026, that it would not open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza. Australia summoned Israel's ambassador the next day, while calls for an apology, evidence disclosure and possible compensation remain unresolved.
BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors met in Jaipur, India, on August 12 and 13, 2026, as the bloc considered links among national payment systems. Iran said it would soon join the New Development Bank, but the lender’s public membership list does not include it.
The World Food Programme said on August 5 that a strengthening El Niño could push 49 million more people into acute hunger across 45 countries by the end of 2027. The UN agency expects the heaviest effects late in 2026, while limited funding and uneven monitoring leave the final toll uncertain.
The World Bank approved a $100 million grant on August 7, 2026, to modernize Syria's financial sector. The plan targets payment systems, bank supervision and financial integrity, but its figures are goals rather than current results.
Human Rights Watch said on August 6 that Israeli attacks that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and wounded photographer Zeinab Faraj included apparently deliberate attacks on civilians. Israel's military said the four people at the site had posed a threat and referred the case for review.
Uganda's parliament approved a troop deployment to the planned International Stabilization Force for Gaza on August 6. The vote adds a sixth prospective contributor, but Uganda has not disclosed how many troops it would send or when they could deploy.
Nagasaki marked 81 years since the US atomic bombing on August 9, with Mayor Shiro Suzuki warning that reliance on nuclear deterrence raises the risk of war. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan currently maintains its three non-nuclear principles but did not commit to preserving them unchanged.
Confirmed Bundibugyo Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo passed 4,200 by August 9, with more than 1,900 deaths. Tests found no infections among passengers quarantined on a river boat near Kinshasa, but the wider outbreak continues without an approved vaccine or specific treatment.
Journalists Razi Tahir and Muhammad Saif were reported missing from Islamabad on August 1 after covering unrest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Their disappearance followed election violence and an internet shutdown that had lasted nearly two months.
The US State Department apologized after a presentation at AIDS 2026 displayed a map that misplaced and distorted African countries. The department blamed a last-minute slide change, while a Reuters analysis found a watermark indicating likely use of OpenAI tools.
A survey of organizations funded by the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief linked grant terminations to the closure of more than 1,700 HIV service sites. The findings dominated the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro as delegates assessed whether damaged treatment and prevention networks can be rebuilt.
