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The climate crisis is coming for some of the world’s greatest surf breaks, submerging some as sea level rises and wiping out others as classic breaks get crushed against coastal developments. Analysis of dozens of famous waves in world surfing reserves (WSR) found more than three-quarters were at high risk because of changing tide levels, hardened shorelines and shifting sands. The impacts matter not only to the surfers catching the waves but also to the communities that depend on the multibillion-dollar surf economy, often located in places with little else. The waves rated at most risk in the study include the “bombing barrels” of Croyde beach in north Devon, UK, the point breaks at Noosa in Australia and Oriente Salvaje, El Salvador, and Santa Cruz reefs of California such as Sewer Peak and Wind and Sea. Croyde’s heavy wave is considered the best beach break in the UK. Photograph: Rob TibblesThe best surfing waves are created by intricate combinations of sea-floor shape, swell direction and tide.

The DP World Tour is in talks with LIV Golf players over a deal that will see some notable names leave the league. Several LIV Golf players are in advanced talks over an exit plan from the bankrupt league with a deal which guarantees them playing opportunities on the DP World Tour, TG understands. Agents have been exploring potential pathways out of LIV on behalf of players ever since it emerged that the Saudi Public Investment Fund would be withdrawing its multi-billion dollar backing of the league in April. And bosses at Wentworth are now in negotiations with a significant number of players planning to use the DP World Tour as a landing ground next season. LIV has been granted a 12-day extension to convince players to stay for a proposed relaunch, after BC Partners Credit conditionally agreed to invest a total of $300million into the post-Saudi project. League sources remain confident they can secure a “critical mass” of players to sign up before the new October 25 deadline, but David Puig’s move to follow Jon Rahm out of the exit door this week has intensified fears of an exodus.

The winner of a prestigious scientific photography competition has been disqualified after organizers concluded that his use of generative AI broke the rules.

Billionaire’s blindness and the price of gas may ultimately be the end of Donald Trump’s tumultuous tenure. U. S. President Donald Trump, pictured on Oct. 5, 2026, has talked up a non-existent 'booming' economy, and called the affordability crisis a 'hoax.' He has also described the increase in the cost of gas as 'peanuts.' That is a hard sell to lower-income families facing hour-long commutes to work, writes Michael Harris. Photograph courtesy of the White House/Daniel Torok

One of science fiction’s oldest themes is its insistence that the future isn’t inevitable. Few contemporary authors embody that idea more than Becky Chambers, whose stories imagine alternative futures—not through grand revolutions or galaxy-spanning battles but through ordinary people trying to care for one another. As a defining voice of the “hopepunk” genre, Chambers has built a reputation for science fiction that prizes empathy as much as imagination. Her latest novel, As You Wake, Break the Shell, brings us to the hostile, unpredictable world of Fortune, where acid rain falls and billowing volcanoes shroud the horizon. The story follows a reclusive botanist and a spacefaring pilot across alternating timelines as they search for connection and purpose, attempting to navigate a life where Fortune has never favored the bold. We caught up with Chambers to discuss a toxic planet’s world-building, scientific accuracy in storytelling and the motivational merits of unrelenting spite. On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing.

The finding comes in the 2026 update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford University, which measures overlapping hardship across health, education and standard of living. The 1.2 billion figure represents 51.5 million more people than in the 2025 update.  Of this number, more than half are children – 617 million – and 83 per cent live in rural areas. ‘This is unacceptable’  “The rise in poverty should be a wake-up call for the world,” said UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo. “Behind these figures are 1.2 billion people facing hardships that reinforce one another: hunger, missed schooling and a lack of clean water or electricity. This is unacceptable.” The index was developed in 2010 to measure poverty beyond what people earn. Overlapping deprivations It examines 10 indicators of health, education and standard of living, such as nutrition and child mortality, years of schooling, and access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation. A person is considered “multidimensionally poor” if they are deprived in one-third or more of the indicators.

U23 World Wrestling Championships 2026 will be held in Las Vegas, United States from October 12 to 18.

At the Explorers Club, uptown, the American Geographical Society, founded in 1851, celebrated its hundred-and-seventy-fifth year one recent evening by observing its most sacred ritual: a ceremonial globe signing. The society’s Fliers & Explorers Globe, donated in 1929 by the Times editor and A. G. S. president John Finley, was signed by many of his era’s most renowned explorers, including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Sir Edmund Hillary. “Finley interviewed people who came in from their expeditions, and he’d get them to sign it,” Jerome Dobson, an A. G. S. president emeritus, said. His necktie had an antique-map print. Later, the globe was signed by John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 8 crew, and others. That night, it would be signed by the oceanographer, former Navy captain, and retired astronaut Kathryn Sullivan—the first person to both walk in outer space and visit the deepest point of the ocean, in the Mariana Trench. During cocktail hour, a spiffily dressed group of eminent geographers gathered in the library bar around a Fliers & Explorers replica—a party globe, perhaps. “This is the globe you can touch,” Marie Price, the current A. G. S. president, said.

England’s players will have no shortage of motivation when they step on to the field this Saturday for the opening match of their Rugby League World Cup campaign. But few, you suspect, have as strong a desire to send the right message out as Junior Nsemba. Whether you are a seasoned Super League fan or a first-time watcher on Saturday morning, the 22-year-old Wigan forward is one of English rugby league’s must-see talents and a player the eyes of the world will be drawn to over the next month. But Nsemba has much more motivation than just on-field performances. This summer, he was subjected to racist abuse on social media after the Warriors’ win against St Helens at Magic Weekend. The matter was dealt with by police and a 56-year-old man arrested. In the buildup to England’s first group match against Tonga on Saturday, Nsemba has bravely agreed to speak about those experiences for the first time; how it has affected him and his family, as well as how it has steeled him further to inspire young black people to rise up against such horrific abuse. “I don’t really know if I was angry when I saw it … just upset, and really disappointed,” he says.

The Salesforce FIDE World Chess Championship begins on November 22, 2026, in Geneva, Switzerland. The first of 14 games between World Champion Gukesh D of India and Challenger Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan will be played on November 24. Two 20-year-old prodigies will battle for the most prestigious title in chess. Media accreditation for the event is now open. To apply, please complete the digital form on the match website. Once submitted, your application will be reviewed by our team. If approved, you will receive a separate confirmation email. Please note that there will be no on-site registration desk at the venue. The online form is the only way to obtain media accreditation. Accreditation will remain open throughout the championship. However, we cannot guarantee timely processing of last-minute applications, so we strongly encourage media representatives to apply in advance. Press accreditation is reserved for professional journalists and media representatives working on behalf of bona fide media organisations. A limited number of accreditations may also be granted to independent writers, bloggers, YouTubers and freelance reporters.

Players who sign up to LIV Golf next season will not be allowed to be members of the European tour in 2027. The European tour, which is sponsored by DP World, said players must "make a choice" regarding where they play - a significantly tougher stance than in recent seasons. Only players who are members of the DP World Tour can play for Europe in the Ryder Cup. Deadlines for both tours are in the next five weeks, though there remains uncertainty surrounding LIV Golf's future despite it securing a possible $300m in funding as it attempts to restructure. "Players need to make a choice," Guy Kinnings, CEO of the DP World Tour, told BBC Sport. "We have rules and regulations which are there to protect our tour and which our members must all abide by. "Players who are not willing to comply with our rules and regulations should not be seeking to join our tour. "In previous years, conditional releases were struck with some top players - including Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton - enabling them to play on both the DP World Tour and LIV.

IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva warned AI is hitting the global labor market like a “slow-moving tsunami,” with young workers entering the job market the most exposed.

Making the jump: A render of the nanomechanical resonator used in the sound quantization experiment. The lighter coloured pads below the resonator are the contacts of the superconducting qubit. The dark field behind is the silicon substrate of the superconducting qubit chip. (Courtesy: Erik Szakiel) In the 1980s, scientists measured quantized jumps in the energy of ions for the first time. In the 2000s, it was photons’ turn. Now, thanks to a tour de force of device engineering and nanofabrication, researchers at Stanford University in the US are reporting that phonons – mechanical vibrations like those that carry sound – also display this quantum behaviour.

BANGKOK (AP) — The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slightly upgraded its outlook for the world economy for this year, while warning of growing risks from rising debt, including the financial frenzy around artificial intelligence. The IMF says it expects the global economy to grow at a 3.1% pace this year. That’s up from its July forecast for 3.0% growth and well below the 3.5% expansion in 2025. Growth in 2027 should rebound to 3.4%, it said in its latest Economic Outlook.

This infographic illustrates the distances driven by various rovers on the surface of Earth’s Moon and Mars. Of the vehicles shown, the NASA Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity are still operational and moving across the surface; the figures shown for those two are distances driven as of Oct. 11, 2026. As of that date, Perseverance exceeded the distance record held by NASA’s Opportunity rover, which came to a final halt in 2018 at about 28.1 miles (45.16 kilometers) driven. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.

On World Teachers’ Day, government institutions, development partners, United Nations agencies, and civil society organizations convened in Baghdad to strengthen coordination and accelerate the implementation of Iraq’s National Education Strategy 2022-2031, with a strong emphasis on teacher development as a cornerstone of quality education. More than 50 participants attended the meeting of the Education Sector Coordination Group (ESCG), hosted at Al-Farahidi University and chaired by H. E. Dr. Haider Abed Dhahad, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research for Scientific Affairs. Mr. Wim Riepma, Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Union to Iraq, participated as Co-Chair. UNESCO serves as the Secretariat of the Group. Discussions focused on advancing national education priorities, including continuous professional development for teachers, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), inclusive education, school feeding programmes, and climate-resilient learning. Marking World Teachers’ Day, participants underscored the central role of teachers in improving learning outcomes and building resilient education systems.

Guided by the FIVB Strategic Vision 2032, the FIVB Board of Administration met to advance key priorities for the Global Volleyball Movement, focusing on strengthening good governance, improving regulations, supporting National Federations and creating new opportunities for the next generation of athletes. The meeting opened with a review of activity since the previous Board of Administration meeting, highlighting progress in youth volleyball, Continental Championships and international collaboration.