Working for a brighter, healthier future: How WHO improves health and promotes well-being for the world’s adolescents, Third edition - World Health Organization (WHO)

Don’t look up! The world is a mess. The sky could fall in any day. Unending wars, expanding humanitarian crises, rising authoritarianism, dysfunctional democracies, rampant racial and religious extremism, and unchecked lawlessness cast a dark cloud as the west’s new political year begins. Set all that against a backdrop of staggering global economic inequality, corporate and individual greed, irresponsible government indebtedness, dangerous AI gambles, climate breakdown and proliferating nuclear weapons, and a truly apocalyptic global outlook begins to take shape. It’s enough to make anyone shut their eyes, cover their ears and utter a Munch-like scream. And it’s only getting worse. Democratic leaders who promise a better, safer, more optimistic future – what Britain’s freshly arrived prime minister, Andy Burnham, calls a “new era of possibility” – cannot escape this wider international context. Last week’s global bond market upheaval, sparked by external factors, left Burnham’s cash-strapped government struggling with sharply increased borrowing costs before he barely got started.

After 20 months of upheaval in transatlantic relations, EU officials fear the U. S. president dislikes Ukraine’s leader too much to push for a fair peace. U. S. President Donald Trump with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22, 2026. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

A drone strike on a market in Abyei, a border region disputed by Sudan and South Sudan, hit a nearby fuel depot, killing at least 153 people and igniting a fire that was still burning Tuesday, a local official said.