September 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
The surface rain freshens is missing from the carbon ledger
Witte, Zappa and McGillis find that rain lifts ocean carbon uptake 13.6 per cent above a wind-only account. The missing term is salinity under the rain.
Treasury paper in Fedwire becomes same-day reserves
Philip Jefferson described how Treasury securities in Fedwire can be pledged to the discount window late in the day and turned into a same-day loan. More than 60 per cent of requests now come through Discount Window Direct.
Who speaks when Muse places the call
The 16 September trial announcement gives the call to Muse. An internal notice reported on 22 September can leave the same request with a trained person. The transcript that comes back does not name the speaker.
103 bat genomes point to a late Palaeocene origin in Europe
Morales and colleagues assembled chromosome-level genomes for 103 bat species, 42 of them new, covering all 21 families. The tree may place the origin of powered flight in Europe in the late Palaeocene. The Guardian reads the same genomes as a European origin about 65 million years ago, not in Africa, Asia or North America.
A Hadean heat model puts an RNA World at 4.33 billion years ago
A peer-reviewed three-dimensional heat model in Nature Communications marks about 4.33 billion years ago for a proposed RNA World, a stage at which RNA would have been the main replicating substance. Live Science reports the same sweet spot, and says Earth may have been suitable as early as 4.4 billion years ago once heavy bombardment eased. In the model, global sterilization events last until about 4.4 billion years ago. Estimates for life's emergence still run from about 3.8 billion years ago into the Hadean.
A Lassen amoeba divides at 63°C, past the old eukaryote limit
Incendiamoeba cascadensis, nicknamed the fire amoeba, was collected in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park. NASA says a funded team watched it reproduce by division at 145 degrees Fahrenheit, which NASA equates to 63 degrees Celsius. New Scientist says it can survive water up to 70°C, eats and reproduces only up to 63°C, and stops moving above 64°C. Angela Oliverio says 60°C had been treated as a barrier for eukaryotes, cells whose DNA sits inside a nucleus.
A second energy wave holds inflation up into 2027
Philip Lane told Le Temps that a second wave of oil and gas prices leaves inflation higher for longer, with a turn back toward the target from the middle of 2027. Bloomberg's headline states the same expectation: a new energy shock means longer inflation. The European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist said pass-through into services prices has not appeared since February. He added that a more persistent shock this autumn would be felt by the European economy.
Aliyev's order names Martin Ryan among 19 people leaving prison early
An order signed in Baku on 23 September releases 19 people from the unserved part of their prison sentences, and item 1.16 names French citizen Ryan Martin Riçard, born in 1988. France 24 reports that President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Martin Ryan on Wednesday, a day after the EU lifted sanctions on a Russian billionaire. The order itself does not draw that link.
Bank Indonesia holds the benchmark rate at 5.75 per cent
Bank Indonesia left the 7-day reverse repo rate at 5.75 per cent, with the deposit rate at 4.75 per cent and the lending rate at 6.50 per cent. It was Destry Damayanti's first meeting as governor. The Jakarta Post reports that she said the BI rate would remain at 5.75 per cent, where it has stood since June.
Belgium and Rwanda restore diplomatic relations after the March 2025 break
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said in New York that Belgium and Rwanda had restored relations, and a joint statement with Olivier Nduhungirehe confirmed it. KT Press reports the same restoration, 18 months after Kigali cut ties over the war in eastern Congo. Rwanda had cut diplomatic ties on 17 March 2025.