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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Vivian Ho

First Thing: Global temperatures soared to new record in September

A firefighter tries to control a fire in the hills of Cali, Colombia on 22 September 2023
A firefighter tries to control a fire in the hills of Cali, Colombia on 22 September 2023. It’s all but certain 2023 will be the hottest year on record. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Good morning.

Global temperatures set a new record in September by a huge margin, beating the previous record for the month by 0.5C – the largest jump in temperature ever seen.

The hottest September on record follows the hottest August and hottest July on record, with the latter being the hottest month ever recorded. “September was, in my professional opinion as a climate scientist, absolutely gobsmackingly bananas,” said Zeke Hausfather, of the Berkeley Earth climate data project.

  • The high temperatures have driven heatwaves and wildfires across the world, with the UK, France, Germany, and Poland reporting record highs.

  • The heat is the result of the continuing high levels of carbon dioxide emissions combined with a rapid flip of El Niño, which releases ocean heat and drives up temperatures.

“The unprecedented temperatures for the time of year observed in September have broken records by an extraordinary amount,” Samantha Burgess, at the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, said. “2023 [is] on track to be the warmest year and about 1.4C above pre-industrial average temperatures.”

Biden cancels additional $9bn in student loan debt

Joe Biden.
Joe Biden. Photograph: Shawn Thew/UPI/Shutterstock

An additional 125,000 people have been approved for student debt relief totalling $9bn, Joe Biden announced on Wednesday.

This latest approval brings the total approved debt cancellation under his administration to $127bn for nearly 3.6 million Americans, the White House said.

Earlier this year, the conservative-majority supreme court’s 6-3 decision ruled against the Biden administration’s $430bn student debt forgiveness plan for 40 million borrowers. However, on Wednesday, Biden said that his administration’s efforts to relieve student debt were “not done yet”. “My administration is doing everything we can to deliver student debt relief for as many as we can, as fast as we can,” he said.

In other news …

Cars lie submerged in water after flash floods.
Cars lie submerged in water after flash floods triggered by a sudden heavy rainfall swamped the Rangpo town in Sikkim, India, on Thursday 5 October. Photograph: Prakash Adhikari/AP

Stat of the day: Taiwan records world’s third most powerful wind gust

People watch waves crashing against a sea wall.
People gather by the coastline as strong waves brought by Typhoon Koinu break nearby in New Taipei City on 5 October. Photograph: I-Hwa Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

Typhoon Koinu brought a wind gust so strong when it crossed Taiwan’s outer Lanyu (Orchid) island last night that it destroyed the island’s anemometer. The gust measured up to 95.2 metres a second, or 342.7km/h (212.9mph), the third-strongest recorded globally. Almost 200 people have been injured by this category four cyclone.

Don’t miss this: Paris’s booming ballroom scene

A dancer in a sequined costume makes vogue moves.
Vinii Revlon vogues during the Stars of Paris are Shining Ball, a voguing event at la Gaite Lyrique, in Paris, in June. Photograph: Julie Sebadelha/AFP/Getty Images

Paris is known for its haute couture catwalks of fashion week. But another kind of catwalk is taking center stage. The drag ballroom scene has blossomed in Paris, becoming a haven for the city’s queer people of color. “The French were so racist for so long that gay spaces didn’t like having Black people, Arabs and Asians in their spaces,” said Parisian house DJ Kiddy Smile. “Voguing resonated; it was built by two Black trans women. We had the opportunity to have a scene that was Black and Queer.”

… or this: Lisa Simone on loving and fearing her mother Nina

Nina Simone with her daughter Lisa in front of a piano.
American singer, Nina Simone, in the UK recording a television programme called Sound of Soul for London Weekend Television, with her daughter, Lisa, in Wembley, London, on 28 May 1968. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Lisa Simone, the only child of legendary musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone, was just as familiar with her mother’s rage as she was her brilliance. On Lisa’s 16th birthday, her mother sent her a card that said: “I curse the day you were born.” Lisa, now a singer-songwriter and a Broadway star, spoke with the Guardian about making peace with her inspirational mother who could in some moments be fun, loving and nurturing, and also a neglectful bully to her only child.

Climate check: carbon emissions from global electricity

Men cleaning solar panels.
Solar power grew by 16% in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2022, according to Ember. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

Carbon emissions from the global electricity sector may peak this year because of a surge in wind and solar power. According to a new report on global electricty generation, the growth of renewables was so rapid that it was close to the incredibly fast rate required if the world is to hit the tripling of capacity by the end of the decade that experts believe is necessary to stay on the 1.5C pathway.

Last Thing: boards trodden by Shakespeare

A portrait of William Shakespeare.
A portrait of William Shakespeare by artist Robert Peake, which is believed to be the only signed and dated image of the playwright created during his lifetime. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA

At St George’s Guildhall in King’s Lynn – England’s oldest medieval guildhall – workers have discovered 600-year-old oak floorboards that are believed to be the only surviving stage from William Shakespeare’s time. “Experts are now confidently saying these are the floorboards Shakespeare would have trodden,” said Tim FitzHigham, an actor and comedian who is now the site’s creative director.

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