Global Express | September 21, 2026 Trump threatens to 'blow up' Iran as Tehran warns of 'painful strikes'

1. Trump threatens to "blow up" Iran as Tehran warns of "painful strikes"

Source: The Independent

US President Donald Trump has again issued a stark threat against Iran, saying he could "blow the entire nation up." Speaking to Fox's Trey Yingst, he said the "question" was "if and when" it would be required to "blow the entire nation up" if Tehran failed to agree to his demands. According to Yingst, Trump said Iran's government had "better behave," and that the choices included "wiping them out, letting Iran rot economically, or making a deal."

Iran warned that the US and its regional partners would be targeted by "painful strikes" if they made "any mistake" against it. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday that if the US launched a new offensive it would change its weaponry and the geography of the war, striking targets not attacked before. "If a new aggression occurs, we will certainly change the weaponry and the geography of the war," spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will fly to New York on Tuesday for the UN General Assembly.

The US State Department issued a security alert over hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis, saying they had the "potential to escalate rapidly"; at least 11 US embassies in the region warned of possible travel disruptions. Shipping data showed 17 commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, down from 37 a week earlier. A US Central Command estimate given to lawmakers this week put the cost of the Iran war at $43.6 billion as of Sept. 3.

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2. Merz calls state election a "disaster" but vows to stay on

Source: BBC

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called a local election defeat for his party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a "disaster" but vowed to remain in post. In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the CDU fell short of the 5% threshold to enter parliament, underperforming against what had already been projected to be the party's worst ever result there. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was on track to win the most votes in the state, but is unlikely to govern as other parties refuse to work with it.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, the ruling CDU was on course to be beaten by Die Linke (The Left). Merz is under mounting pressure after months of poor approval ratings, and there have been rumours he could be replaced mid-term in a so-called chancellor swap. After the results, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was asked by the BBC how long Merz has left in office; she replied, in English: "Pretty soon, he's going to leave."

The two local elections took place on Sunday, a fortnight after the CDU saw its vote halved in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD won a major victory. Merz told reporters at the party's Berlin headquarters on Sunday that he would push ahead with his coalition's package of economic, tax and welfare reforms. "The reforms have to come," he insisted, describing them as the "antidote to the authoritarian poison" seeping deeper into society. Projections put the AfD on about 38% in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ahead of the SPD on 35%; in Berlin, the CDU was on about 19%, behind Die Linke on nearly 26%, with the AfD on about 16%. Merz has been chancellor for only 16 months.

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3. Macron and Carney announce closer France-Canada ties

Source: The Guardian

French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met in the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland, pledging closer relations to grapple with rising geopolitical tensions, climate change and the erosion of democratic values. It was the first visit by a French president since 2014 and the first by a Canadian prime minister. The trip came just weeks after Donald Trump posted an image showing Canada and other countries covered by the US flag.

"Our societies are being shaken by new storms: the upheavals, caused by climate change, the erosion of democratic norms, and new threats to our sovereignty," Carney said in a statement alongside Macron. "The time has come to strengthen our ties." Macron said the two allies had agreed to forge closer ties in sectors ranging from space and climate to energy. "We both believe in democracy, the rule of law, respect for international law, respect for free and fair trade, science as the basis for our decisions, and the strategic autonomy that we defend," he said.

Diplomats said the visit by Macron, who was en route to the annual UN General Assembly, carried symbolic weight following Trump's social media post. The image draped the US flag over a map of the US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, labelled "United States of America." Responding to questions on the post, Macron dismissed any notion that the territories could not be French. Paris hopes Canada will broaden its exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe rather than primarily to Asia.

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4. Seven Ethiopian armed groups forge alliance against government

Source: Al Jazeera

Seven Ethiopian armed groups have formed an alliance aimed at overthrowing the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The groups announced the alliance on Sunday, saying they would work together to set up an inclusive transitional government. "We have established a joint alliance called the Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival," they said in a joint statement. It includes the Amhara Fano National Movement, which has fought federal forces in the Amhara region since 2023; the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Abiy took office; and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which has fought federal forces in Oromia since 2018. Four smaller groups make up the rest.

A source close to Fano told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the groups' leaders had been talking about forming the alliance for about a year. The announcement comes weeks after clashes in the northern region of Tigray — one of the most serious breaches yet of a 2022 peace deal — deepened fears of a return to full-scale war. Fighting has gripped parts of Oromia since 2018 and Amhara since 2023. In the statement, the alliance accused the government of imposing "dictatorial rule" that has pushed the country towards break-up. The government has not publicly commented on Sunday's announcement.

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5. US economy milestone: AI data-center spending tops housing

Source: Fortune

Two decades after the housing boom reshaped, then tanked, the US economy, the AI boom is similarly transforming the drivers of growth. Hyperscalers have poured so much money into building AI infrastructure as quickly as possible that investment from a handful of companies is expected to reach $1 trillion a year soon. Meanwhile, the housing market has been largely frozen since the COVID-era boom ended in 2022, when the Federal Reserve embarked on an aggressive rate-hiking campaign to rein in inflation.

"We're seeing a pivotal shift in the US economy: investment is shifting away from residential investment and towards computers," Adam Shapiro, vice president at the San Francisco Fed, posted on LinkedIn. He pointed out that inflation-adjusted spending on information processing equipment, which includes data centers and computer hardware, now exceeds residential investment. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real private residential fixed investment was $748 billion in the second quarter, down 18% from an early 2021 peak, while spending on information processing equipment has soared 51% to $752 billion. He also noted that AI investment has been less sensitive to interest rates.

S&P Global estimated last month that capital expenditures from Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle and SpaceX will exceed $1.3 trillion in 2027, up from a projected $870 billion in 2026 and $470 billion in 2025. The ratings firm warned the aggressive build-out could lead to overcapacity if future demand doesn't pan out. A new NBC News poll found that 64% of registered voters said they'd be less likely to support a candidate in favour of building a data center in their community.

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6. Dollar General CEO: a $100,000 salary no longer feels like high income

Source: Fortune

A six-figure annual salary used to be a milestone for career success and financial security, but it isn't what it used to be. The era of elevated inflation that began during the COVID pandemic has eroded the value of $100,000 to the point that Americans earning that much are hunting for bargains like everyone else. Walmart has previously noted that more affluent customers are shopping at discount chains, and now they are patronizing deep discounters like dollar stores.

At the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference on Tuesday, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said core customers, whom he defined as those making less than $45,000 a year, change their shopping behavior when gas prices hit $4 a gallon: they tend to buy closer to home, shop more often, and buy less on each trip. "But the interesting thing with this economy, because of the other sustained headwinds of inflation over the years, even that middle to upper middle is acting more like a lower-income shopper these days."

The national average for gasoline is now $4.476 a gallon, up from $3.189 a year ago, according to AAA, while the price of diesel has soared to $6.50. Vasos said even those making $100,000 a year or more are feeling the squeeze. "I would tell you, what we're hearing more and more from them is 'I don't feel like I'm higher income at $100,000 any longer,' because of all of the headwinds that I just mentioned," he said. He added that consumers remain resilient, mainly because they have stayed employed.

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7. Ten lions suspected poisoned in Tanzania wildlife reserve

Source: NPR

Ten lions found dead in a wildlife reserve in Tanzania are suspected to have been poisoned, according to wildlife officials. The animals were discovered on Friday in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, home to pastoral tribal communities that raise cattle and one of the country's most visited tourist destinations.

"Preliminary findings suggest the animals may have died after ingesting poison," a statement from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority said, adding that it has launched a full investigation "to determine the cause of the incident and identify those responsible." Large animals are under threat across East Africa, where they frequently come into conflict with humans. An investigation is underway in neighbouring Kenya, where over the summer 18 elephants died from suspected poisoning; police have arrested four people.

Tanzania is home to Africa's largest lion population, about half the world's wild lions, but they are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, under threat from shrinking habitat and poaching. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site protected under international law, site of the Ngorongoro Crater and home to the Big Five game animals — the elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino.

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8. Police officer shot outside Ontario synagogue on Yom Kippur

Source: ABC News

A police officer was shot outside a synagogue in Ontario, Canada, on Sunday night, as Jewish community members were gathered to mark Yom Kippur, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. Ford condemned the incident, which occurred outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, and called for everyone responsible to be arrested and fully prosecuted. "I'm disgusted by the shooting that took place outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville earlier this evening as Jewish community members gathered to mark Yom Kippur," Ford said, adding that the Jewish community "have every right to gather and worship safely and without fear."

Belleville Police said the officer encountered an individual in the area of Bleecker Avenue and Victoria Avenue around 7 p.m. The officer and the individual sustained injuries and were transported to hospital, police said. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the province's civilian police watchdog, is investigating; the SIU said the officer was injured and the other individual is in life-threatening condition. In the wake of the shooting, Toronto Police said it is increasing patrols at synagogues and its presence in Jewish communities "out of an abundance of caution."

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9. China launches four different rockets to orbit in 45 hours

Source: Space

The growing diversity and capability of China's launch sector were on display last week, when four different Chinese orbital rockets lifted off in a 45-hour span, flying from three different launch sites. Two of the rockets were private vehicles — and all four aced their missions.

The action started Tuesday at 2:26 a.m. EDT (0626 GMT), when the Beijing company LandSpace sent one of its Zhuque-2E rockets up from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The methane-and-oxygen-fuelled rocket hauled 10 satellites to low Earth orbit for the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband megaconstellation, which is eventually to consist of about 15,000 active spacecraft. At 6:00 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) on Tuesday, a Gravity-1 rocket launched from a barge off the coast of Shanghai, carrying another nine Qianfan satellites; operated by the company Orienspace, it is the world's most powerful solid rocket.

Next up was a Long March 12 rocket, flown by the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which lifted off on Wednesday at 8:32 p.m. EDT (0032 GMT on Sept. 17) from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan, carrying nine spacecraft for another Chinese low-Earth-orbit broadband megaconstellation called SatNet, envisioned to harbour about 13,000 satellites. A Kuaizhou-11 rocket finished the flurry about two hours later, launching from Jiuquan with two Earth-observing radar satellites for the Chinese company Spacety. None of the four rockets attempted a landing, but China is working hard on reusable rockets — in the last 2.5 months, LandSpace's Zhuque-3 and CASC's Long March 10B have both landed their first stages during orbital missions.

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10. China slams Japan's Typhon deployment as proof of "re-militarization"

Source: Beijing Daily

At a regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the US "Typhon" mid-range missile system that Japan is introducing is a strategic offensive weapon, calling Japan's move "another proof" that it is accelerating "re-militarization." He said the move heightens the risk of military confrontation and an arms race, threatens strategic balance and regional stability, and harms the legitimate security interests of neighbouring countries, adding that the international community is highly vigilant and people in many Asian countries have voiced opposition.

Guo said China has repeatedly lodged strong protests with Japan through diplomatic channels and recently presented a note to Japan reaffirming its position. He was responding to a question noting that Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Sept. 18 that Moscow had sent a note to Japan over the US deployment of the Typhon system in Japan's Kyushu, stressing the deployment is unacceptable and urging Tokyo to fully acknowledge the outcome of World War II and stop "re-militarization"; China had also recently sent a note to Japan expressing concern. Guo stressed that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trial, urging Japan to deeply reflect on its history of aggression, heed the calls of regional countries and stop pursuing any "re-militarization" schemes.

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