Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Swedish election is close race with 10 days to go, poll shows

Sweden's ruling right-wing bloc has closed in on the centre-left opposition ahead of a parliamentary election on September 13, according to a fresh opinion poll released on Thursday, the second survey this week to indicate a close race. While earlier polls have pointed to near-certain victory for the opposition headed by Social ​Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson, the latest surveys show that the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, in office since 2022, may still win.

Iran war escalation raises concern over civilian death toll

The sudden recent escalation of the Iran war has cast renewed attention on its civilian ​toll after Iran reported 18 dead in the last U.S. assault, including four killed and dozens wounded at a wedding. Iran's health minister said 18 people were killed and 108 wounded in ‌Tuesday night's U.S. strikes across Iran. ​The Iranian Red Crescent said four people were killed and 67 wounded at a wedding ceremony near the coast of the Strait of Hormuz.

Reform UK gets 75% of its donations from crypto entreprenneur pardoned by Trump

Britain's populist Reform UK party received a £4 million donation from a crypto investor convicted of a banking secrecy violation in the United States and pardoned by Donald Trump, accounting for 75% of the party's donations last quarter. The party led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage received the big donation from Ben Delo, who announced this year he was returning to the UK from Hong Kong and involving himself in politics "to save Britain before decline becomes irreversible".

Nepalis pin hopes on 'wall of the missing' in hunt for relatives after deadly flood

Sati Sigdel makes daily visits to a hospital wall in Kathmandu blanketed in hundreds of photographs, some of missing relatives, others of retrieved bodies yet to be identified, in desperate hopes ‌of finding news of her cousin. "We put up her photo three days ago, but we still haven't heard anything," Sigdel said of her cousin, Sweety Paithan, one of more than 4,200 missing after a catastrophic flood L4N44V09R triggered by a glacier collapse killed more than 1,200 people.

Britain summons Russian charge d'affaires over Leipzig airport attack

Britain has summoned the Russian charge d'affaires to condemn an attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle airport last month after the German government said that Russia was responsible for the incident. "The UK stands in full solidarity with Germany following Russia's egregious and reckless attack on Leipzig Airport," the spokesperson said, adding that Russian attempts to undermine the resolve of Ukraine's allies were "futile."

Partner of Australian missing in Nepal presses tech firms for access to location data

An Australian medical student whose partner went missing in the Nepal floods believes tech companies must do more to help find him and others caught up in the disaster by sharing location data that could narrow search areas for rescue teams. Sarada Viswanathan, 23, has spent the past eight days trying to piece together the last movements of her boyfriend Rishab Iyer and his family, after they vanished near the border between Nepal and China's Tibet when a glacier collapse unleashed a torrent of destruction through the region.

Feminist activist Gloria Steinem dies at ‌age 92

Gloria Steinem, the American writer, lecturer, activist and organizer who fought for gender equality and women's civil and reproductive rights for more than five decades, has died, her foundation said. She was 92 years old. The co-founder and consulting editor of Ms. Magazine championed the feminist movement from the late 1960s onwards and inspired generations of women.

Health officials turn to mobile-phone data to track Ebola spread in Congo

Health officials battling the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are using anonymised mobile-phone data to map population movements and identify areas where the virus could spread next, according to the World ‌Health Organisation and researchers working with it. The approach, which has not been used before in an Ebola response, comes as authorities struggle to contain what the WHO has described as the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. Cases have been confirmed in six provinces, with more than 6,250 people infected and 3,039 killed since the outbreak was declared on May 15, according to the latest government data.

Foreign support, drones fuel Sudan war and possible war crimes, UN probe says

Foreign weapons, military technology, fighters and logistical networks are helping sustain Sudan's conflict and expanding the warring parties' ability to strike distant civilian areas with drones, a U.N. fact-finding mission said on Thursday. Sudan's war, which erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has displaced more than 14 million people and created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Misuse of informal money-transfer networks is growing worldwide, global watchdog says

Criminal use of informal banking networks has become a global problem and is growing, the Financial Action Task Force said on Thursday, urging companies and governments to do more to combat professional money-laundering services. Here's what the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog FATF said in a report:

Iran warns US against Israeli attack on south Lebanon ridge held by Hezbollah, sources say

Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters. The message, delivered last month, highlights Iran's continued direct involvement in the ground fighting ⁠in southern Lebanon and its readiness ​to retaliate against Israeli attacks there as the regional war enters its seventh month.

Nepali survivor recounts 'fight through darkness' to escape flood-hit tunnel

Dhan Bahadur Tamang was at work in a ⁠hydropower project near Nepal's border with China when he sensed a sudden air pressure change in the underground tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project. Under the industrial floodlights, dust started to rise, the 32-year-old recalled: "Something was coming."

Germany's far-right AfD aims for breakthrough in state election

Voters in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt go to the polls on Sunday in an election where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is hoping to win power for the first time and mark a historic shift in German politics. State Premier Sven Schulze from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) says the election in Saxony-Anhalt is "a decision that will set the course for Germany."

Britain's King Charles to host Oman's Sultan for October state visit

Britain's King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla will host Oman's ⁠Sultan Haitham bin Tariq at Windsor Castle for a state visit next month, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday. The visit from October 20 to 22 will come against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the Middle East since U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran in February, which prompted retaliatory strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. bases.

As Colombia slowly identifies conflict victims, families left waiting

Roselly Gil watched as authorities carefully removed the blackened bones from the rotting wooden coffin, stored for decades in a cemetery in Rionegro, Colombia. They were, she hoped, the remains of her younger brother. Now a willowy 59-year-old grandmother, Gil has been waiting more than two decades for information about what happened to her brother Jesus Arbey Gil, a ​Colombian soldier who disappeared in 2003.

Putin cites chance of peace deal, Ukraine sees 'new dynamic'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday there was a chance of reaching an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while Kyiv said it expected a "new dynamic" in peace efforts. Putin, speaking at an economic forum in Russia's far east, said a number of countries including the U.S. and China were ready to support a peace settlement.

Spain's PM Sanchez says no evidence Morocco orchestrated Ceuta border surge

Spain has found no evidence to conclude that July's deadly border ⁠rush from Morocco into its enclave of Ceuta was orchestrated by Moroccan authorities, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday, countering allegations in a Spanish police report. Speaking in parliament, Sanchez responded to claims in the report that emerged this week suggesting the entry of over 70,000 people into Ceuta was not a spontaneous migration but a planned effort to overwhelm border controls.

Explainer-How will the result of the Saxony-Anhalt election be decided?

The eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt holds an election on Sunday that could see the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party win power in a German state for the first time. The AfD has been leading in polls, with surveys regularly putting support at over 40%, 10 to 15 points or more ahead of the conservative Christian Democrat party (CDU), which currently leads a coalition with the centre-left Social ⁠Democrats (SPD) and the ​pro-free-market Free Democrats (FDP).

Acquittal in journalist murder trial stirs tensions in Malta

Malta's government has urged calm after the acquittal of a businessman accused of commissioning the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The 53-year-old journalist and anti-corruption activist was killed in a car bomb attack outside her home in October 2017. Her murder set off a political firestorm in Malta as well as focusing international attention on its police and judiciary.

In El Nino-hit Sri Lanka, wells run dry and farmer incomes shrink as drought deepens

For the first time in over three decades, Sri Lankan farmer A.M. Pathmasena says, his well is running so dry that it barely provides enough water for his family and two cows. He has fallen victim to one of the nation's worst El Nino-driven droughts. Sri Lanka is among the South Asian countries badly affected by weather disruption this year, with some key farming districts recording rainfall deficits of 85% to 100% below long-term averages. The government has arranged for water to be delivered to tens of thousands of people.

'Supersized' El Niño may become strongest ever recorded, UN says

The El Niño weather phenomenon is set to intensify further into 2027 and could be the strongest ever, raising risks of extreme weather into next year, the World ⁠Meteorological Organization said on Thursday. The U.N. weather agency said its forecasts showed a near 100% likelihood that El Niño would persist through February 2027, fuelled by exceptionally warm Pacific Ocean temperatures. This is the first time it has expressed such a degree of certainty, the WMO said.

More than 1,700 Indonesian students and teachers sickened this week due to free meals programme

Another 777 students and teachers contracted food poisoning in Indonesia's Central Java after consuming government-issued free meals, a school principal said on Thursday, bringing the total number of people made ill by the scheme to more than 1,700 in ⁠just a week. In separate incidents in three other locations this week, 950 Indonesians had fallen ill as a result of food poisoning linked to the programme, a member of a parliamentary ⁠commission overseeing health said.

Five dead on migrant boat rescued off Canary Islands, aid group says toll may be higher

Five migrants were found dead aboard a boat rescued off Spain's Canary Islands, maritime rescue authorities said on Thursday, while a migrant rights group reported that survivors said dozens more had died during the crossing. Three survivors were in a serious condition and were airlifted to hospital, while another 41 disembarked at the port of Arguineguin on Gran Canaria in the early hours of Thursday, Maritime Rescue said in a statement.

Gaza seed bank helps farmers cultivate the little land they have left

A group of farmers has been working to preserve Gaza's native crops by rebuilding a local seed bank that was destroyed during Israel's war in the enclave and by encouraging Palestinians to cultivate what little viable land they have left. Most of Gaza's pre-war farmland lies in an area under Israeli military occupation. Gaza's entire 2 million ‌population is penned into around 30% of the tiny enclave, much of which was laid to waste by two ‌years of Israeli bombardment.

Lula adopts cautious Brazil election campaign, sources say

Weeks before Brazil's October election, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is running one of the country's most cautious presidential campaigns in years as he tries to protect a razor-thin lead in the polls against right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, advisers close to ​his campaign told Reuters. The result has been an unusually subdued campaign, the sources said, amid concerns about misinformation, foreign interference, and accidentally unleashing damaging political narratives.