The authors introduce the Percentage of Node in Flood Assessment (PNFA) and Flood Expansion Rate (FER) to assess urban pluvial flooding in Do Lo, Hanoi.

• Study setup and main findings: The paper uses EPA SWMM to simulate three historical storms (2008, 2019, 2020) and seven return-period scenarios for Do Lo, Hanoi, Vietnam; reported FER values range from 0.17 to 0.902, and the study identifies consistent flood-prone areas that reach drainage saturation early.
• Other details and metadata: This is a version 1 preprint (not peer reviewed) published 2025-09-18, licensed under CC BY 4.0; data are not publicly available due to stakeholder privacy (readers instructed to contact the corresponding author). Subjects listed: Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The authors (Barry van Jaarsveld et al.) present a global hyper-resolution dataset of monthly groundwater heads and water table depth simulated with GLOBGM.

• Main dataset release: Provides monthly groundwater heads and water table depth at 30 arc-seconds (~1 km) resolution; simulations cover a reference period 1960–2019 (ISIMIP3a inputs) for model evaluation and attribution. The dataset includes historical baselines (1960–2014) and future projections (2015–2100) using three SSP–RCP scenarios (SSP1-RCP2.6, SSP3-RCP7.0, SSP5-RCP8.5) run with five GCMs under ISIMIP protocols.
• Background and quality controls: Developed by researchers at Utrecht University and Deltares using the GLOBGM model; the project maps regions of reduced reliability and provides quality assurance flags to guide use and interpretation. The manuscript is a preprint on EarthArXiv and submitted to Scientific Data (Nature); DOI and download links are provided.

Think Tank Carrefour announces the 30th session of the Vendredis de Carrefour to be held in the Republic of Congo on December 4-5, focused on Local Content and the Domestic Market and hosted under the patronage of Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua.

• Event details & main announcement: The two-day event (December 4-5, 2025) will convene industry stakeholders, including an African Energy Chamber delegation led by NJ Ayuk, to discuss strategies to boost local content across oil, gas and renewable sectors; agenda topics include upstream development, energy transition, human capital development, and financing.

  • Date: December 4-5, 2025
  • Time: not specified in article
  • Location: Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville reported as press location)
  • Agenda/subject: Local content, domestic market strategies, upstream oil & gas, energy transition, human capital, financing

• Project and deal context: The article highlights concrete projects and deals tied to the discussion: Eni-led Congo LNG began production in December 2023 and its second phase is nearing completion with the Nguya FLNG unit (departed Shanghai in August 2025) increasing capacity from 2.4 mtpa to 3 mtpa; China’s Wing Wah signed a $23 billion hydrocarbon deal for integrated development of Bango Kayo, Holmoni and Cayo permits and the Bango Kayo development is expected to deliver domestic LNG/LPG and create 3,000–3,300 jobs; downstream projects include the Fouta Refinery (targeted first production in 2025, 2.5 mtpa) and modernization at CORAF Refinery, plus a planned pipeline linking Pointe-Noire western port to Brazzaville.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced Vice-Minister Ogushi attended Barbados National Day at the Osaka-Kansai Expo on 17 September 2025 and met Barbados Minister of Economy and Investment Kay McConney to discuss strengthening bilateral economic relations.

• Main action / event: Vice-Minister Ogushi attended the Barbados National Day ceremony at the Osaka-Kansai Expo, delivered a speech as the Japanese government representative, participated in a luncheon with Japan-Barbados stakeholders, and inspected the Japan government pavilion and the Barbados Pavilion.

  • Date: 17 September 2025
  • Location: Osaka-Kansai Expo site
  • Agenda: National Day ceremony, speech by METI Vice-Minister, luncheon with bilateral stakeholders, inspection of Japan government pavilion and Barbados Pavilion, and bilateral meeting.

• Bilateral meeting and topics discussed: In the meeting with Barbados Minister Kay McConney, METI officials expressed appreciation for Barbados’ official participation in the Expo and discussed cooperation areas including infrastructure, disaster prevention, environment, digital, climate change measures, renewable energy, logistics, and cultural industries such as anime and games. Contacts listed in the release: Trade Policy Bureau, Latin America and Caribbean Office (email: bzl-s-tsusei-chunanbei@meti.go.jp; phone: +81-3-3501-1511 ext 2998) and Commerce and Services Group, Expo Promotion Office (email: bzl-s-shosa-hakurankai@meti.go.jp; phone: +81-3-3501-1511 ext 4031).

Bryan Fuentes, Patricia Manley, and Nicholas Povak present two scalable pathways for constructing composite indicators of forest ecosystem resilience applied to California’s Sierra Nevada.

• Main announcement/action: The authors introduce two operationalized metric-selection pathways — Real Core Metrics (RCM) using hierarchical clustering and Synthetic Core Metrics (SCM) using factor analysis — combined with climate-based ecological stratification, fuzzy logic-based normalization, and optimized metric weighting to build composite indicators of forest resilience; they evaluate both compensatory and non-compensatory aggregation approaches and apply the methods to the Ten Pillars of Resilience (TPOR) framework in California’s Sierra Nevada.
• Background and methods details: The study introduces an Information Retention Index (IRI) to measure information preserved by indicators and performs a Monte Carlo-based sensitivity analysis to test indicator stability; results report that stratified, optimized approaches (RCM and SCM) outperformed a traditional landscape-wide theoretical model, with SCM giving more symmetric indicators and RCM retaining interpretability.

The UK Trade Minister Chris Bryant is visiting Brazil and Argentina (Thursday 18 September) to progress targeted trade agreements and partnerships that make it easier and cheaper for British businesses to export to South America.

• Main announcement: Minister Chris Bryant will progress targeted partnerships and sign a Statement of Intent during visits to Brazil and Argentina to cut red tape and boost digital trade, including advancing discussions on a Conformity Assessment Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), ongoing negotiations on a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement (CMAA), and starting talks to mutually recognise Authorised Economic Operators (AEOs) to speed customs clearance. Sub‑actions and meetings include:

  • Date: Thursday 18 September (as stated in the release).
  • Location & engagements: São Paulo (meetings with senior UK businesses, Latin American investors) and engagements in Argentina (ministerial meeting, business roundtable, whisky reception).
  • Agenda/subjects: customs cooperation, regulatory good practices, export credit, digital trade, clean energy, life sciences, digital transformation, Open Finance, and promotion of UK as an investment destination.

• Background and details: Trade with Brazil has reached an all‑time high of £12.3 billion; UK–Argentina bilateral trade grew 10% in the 12 months to March 2025 to reach £2.2 billion. The visit includes a whisky reception noting Argentina’s recognition of the Geographic Indication for Scotch whisky and Argentina’s tariff reduction from 35% to 20% on relevant items; the release cites 1.4 billion bottles of Scotch whisky exported globally in 2024 (SWA). The minister will hold the first major bilateral ministerial trade meeting with Argentina since 2018 and will highlight Argentina’s move to Open Finance, drawing on the UK’s Open Banking model.

Logan E. Mann (Dartmouth College) et al. derive new exact solutions to the Shallow Shelf/Stream Approximation (SSA) that reveal how nonlinear ice rheology determines the longitudinal coupling length (LCL).

• The authors present exact analytic solutions for two step-change problems: a sudden change in driving stress and a sudden change in basal friction, under assumptions of constant thickness, isothermal ice (constant A), and linear sliding (m=1); they derive a scaling expression for the LCL (see eq. 2.12) and an identity for the weighting function w(x) with du/dx = (UB-UA) w(x). The manuscript provides a numerical example (Fig. 2) using UA=250 m yr^-1 and UB=350 m yr^-1, and validates solutions using the Firedrake finite-element package.
• Background and implementation details: this is a non-peer-reviewed preprint submitted to Proceedings A (Proc R Soc A), published on EarthArXiv (2025-09-18) under CC BY 4.0; the authors provide code/data at https://github.com/loganemann/glacier-greens-function and list Logan E. Mann as the corresponding author (logan.e.mann.th@dartmouth.edu). The analysis relies on the power-law ice rheology (n, with n typically taken as 4) and distinguishes stress vs strain-rate longitudinal coupling lengths.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) held the 7th India-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP) vice-ministerial meeting in Tokyo on September 17, 2025.

• Main action: The METI-led meeting in Tokyo on 2025-09-17 convened ~50 participants (including online attendees) from Japanese ministries/agencies and Indian ministries to confirm progress of sectoral working groups; co-chairs were Matsuo (METI) and Amardeep Singh Bathia (DPIIT, India). Key outcomes included sharing that during Prime Minister Modi’s late-August visit Japan and India exchanged a “Memorandum of Cooperation concerning the Japan-India Digital Partnership 2.0” and a “Joint Declaration of Intent on Clean Hydrogen and Clean Ammonia”, that 170 private-sector MOUs were announced at the Japan-India Economic Forum, and an agreed push to promote Japanese investment in India (including human resources development) to realize a ¥10 trillion private investment target in the joint 10-year vision.

• Background and details: The IJICP is a vice-ministerial framework launched in December 2019 (agreed between Kajiyama and Piyush Goyal) with sectoral working groups to strengthen India’s industrial competitiveness; this Tokyo meeting was held after PM Modi’s August visit and is the second Tokyo host in two years.

  • Event details: Date: 2025-09-17; Location: Tokyo; Agenda/Subject: progress reports from working groups, promotion of bilateral industrial cooperation and investment, discussion of digital partnership and clean hydrogen/ammonia cooperation documents.
  • Reference materials and contact: press images and related METI links are provided; contact office: Trade Policy Bureau, Southwest Asia Office (Shimano), phone 03-3501-1511 (ext 2987), email bzl-ijicp@meti.go.jp.

The Environment Agency has received an application from Timothy Spurrier & Liana Spurrier (trading as Toft Grange Farms) for a licence to abstract (take) water.

• Application details: The applicants are Timothy Spurrier & Liana Spurrier (trading as Toft Grange Farms) requesting a licence to abstract water; the notice and application documents are published on GOV.UK (publication date 18 September 2025) and the notice applies to England.
• Public consultation and access: The Environment Agency states it consults the public on abstraction and impoundment applications; documents can be viewed at Environment Agency offices/public register, and the notice specifies when you need to comment by (see publication link for the deadline).

Natural England has published guidance and an interactive map listing conservation advice packages for marine protected sites in the Southern North Sea.

• Main action: Natural England provides an interactive map and an alphabetically listed set of conservation advice packages for the Southern North Sea marine area; each package shows a status such as ‘draft’ or ‘formal’ and links to the Designated Sites System (site codes shown, e.g., UKMCZ0080, UK9020329). The page includes direct links to the interactive ArcGIS map and the Designated Sites View search.
• Updates and timeline: The publication records dated updates including 18 September 2025 (“Change of status from ‘draft’ to ‘formal’ for Kentish Knock East MCZ” and map URL updated), 21 March 2024 (“Added new site with draft status - Orford Inshore Marine Conservation Zone (UKMCZ0081)”), and earlier status changes and additions on 9 May 2023, 28 September 2021, and back to the original publication on 30 March 2017.

Natural England has published updates to conservation advice package statuses for the Northern North Sea marine area, and provided an interactive ArcGIS map to check package status (page last updated 18 September 2025).

• Main action: Natural England updated the interactive map URL and the advice package statuses for the Northern North Sea; most listed packages are shown as Formal status and the page records a specific status change on 18 September 2025: change of status from ‘draft’ to ‘formal’ for Berwick to St Mary’s MCZ. The guidance page links to the ArcGIS interactive map and to the Designated Sites View for site-specific advice.
• Background and details: The page lists advice packages alphabetically (examples include Aln Estuary MCZ (UKMCZ0001), Berwickshire and North Northumberland Coast SAC (UK0017072), Flamborough and Filey Coast SPA (UK9006101), Runswick Bay MCZ (UKMCZ0039) and others). The publication history records multiple updates between 2017–2025, with dates and status changes (e.g., 26 Sep 2024 added Berwick to St Mary’s MCZ as draft; 30 Mar 2021 Runswick Bay MCZ moved from draft to formal). Links provided: ArcGIS interactive map and Designated Sites View site search for full advice.

African Energy Chamber announces AEW: Invest in African Energies 2025 will take place from September 29 to October 3, 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa, preparing to welcome over 7,000 delegates for a week of dealmaking and dialogue.

• Event details: AEW: Invest in African Energies 2025 running September 29 - October 3, 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa; expecting over 7,000 delegates, featuring the AEW Townhall, Upstream E&P Stage, Energy Finance Stage, Energy Transition Stage, and Powering Africa Stage; program includes keynote addresses, ministerial panels, investor forums, technical sessions, the African Energy Awards & Gala Dinner, and the Just Energy Transition Concert.
• Context and figures: The release highlights sector financing context: oil and gas capital expenditure set to reach $54 billion in 2030, and Africa requiring up to $240 billion in annual energy investments to meet energy and climate goals; participating delegations include presidents of Algeria, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, ministerial delegations from 30+ countries, and global partners such as the EU, US, UAE, China, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Canada, UK; major corporate participants include bp, TotalEnergies, Eni, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Woodside Energy, Kosmos Energy.

The Ministry of Environment (Taiwan) unveiled the “Environmental Heart Stage” environmental installation art display at its main gate.

• Main exhibit: The first rotating display is a renewable-energy themed installation made from recycled PET bottles, designed and co-created by Tzu Chi Foundation volunteer Zhou Xiuqin (周秀琴) inspired by the 2025 Earth Day theme “Our Power, Our Planet”; the piece depicts oceans, land, mountains, atmosphere and symbols of solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, ocean, and bioenergy to promote environmental education and sustainable daily choices, and the installation will serve as an ongoing platform for rotating environmental artworks at the ministry entrance.
• Policy action: Minister Peng said “Destroying the environment is a crime!” and announced accelerated amendments to the Waste Disposal Act to curb illegal dumping; after a May 29 pre-announcement and 40+ consultation meetings, the draft will be submitted to the Executive Yuan this week and targeted for Legislative Yuan review before end of November, with key focuses on heavier penalties, strengthened source-to-sink (full-flow) management, and strengthened creditor-protection procedures, plus unified reuse management responsibilities.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) opened the 2025 Green Fintech Symposium on 12 September 2025 in Hong Kong and highlighted HKMA initiatives including the 2025 Green Fintech Competition, a cloud-based climate-risk data platform, and Project Ensemble exploring tokenisation of carbon credits.

• Main announcement/action: The HKMA showcased the 2025 Green Fintech Competition and HKMA-led projects: the Competition attracted more than 140 entries from 26 jurisdictions (a 63% increase versus 2023); Hong Kong Green Week involved more than 60 local and international institutions delivering more than 40 conferences, forums, workshops, and expos. The speech referenced a Big 4 firm finding that, from a sample of 4,000 companies, 83% made R&D investment in low-carbon products and services. The HKMA also published an adoption practice guide, hosted a FiNETech event focused on green fintech, and rolled out training sessions to build banks’ capacity.
• Background, projects and event details: HKMA described operational projects: a cloud-based platform that “equips banks with vital data to better assess and manage physical climate risks” and Project Ensemble, which explores tokenisation to improve issuance, trading and retirement of carbon credits (including cross-border activity). Event details:
  • Date: 12 September 2025
  • Time: not specified
  • Location: Hong Kong
  • Agenda/subject: “Creating Synergies Through Finance” (closing event of Hong Kong Green Week)

Brad Jones (Assistant Governor, Financial System, Reserve Bank of Australia) delivered opening remarks to FINSIA in Sydney on 12 September 2025, setting out RBA actions to build an “anti-fragile” payments and financial market infrastructure ecosystem that balances resilience with innovation.

• Main announcement/action: The RBA is coordinating industry and regulators to strengthen payments and FMI resilience via the Industry Resilience Initiative, embedding resilience into the future account-to-account (A2A) payments design (Public Interest Framework published in July after a March Risk Assessment), supporting migration to Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for quantum-safe payments, and assisting Government reforms to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act; key collaborators include APRA, Australian Payments Plus, AusPayNet, DFCRC, ASIC, Treasury and central bank partners.
• Details & concrete steps: The Payments System Board raised the annual settlement threshold for Financial Stability Standards for Securities Settlement Facilities from $200 million to $40 billion to ease licence applications for smaller firms; RBA is engaged in Project Acacia (wholesale/digital money, CBDC-related research with DFCRC and industry) and Project Mandala (developing automated cross-border compliance protocols), and warned of specific operational risks such as cascading power outages (Iberian outage affecting 50 million households) and cyber/quantum threats (noting the risk of “harvest now, decrypt later” data theft).

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced support measures for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by heavy rain in Akita Prefecture, where the Disaster Relief Act has been applied to four municipalities.

• Main action: METI has set up special consultation desks in Akita at JFC, Shoko Chukin Bank, credit guarantee associations, chambers of commerce, Small Business Support Centers, the National Federation of Shopping Street Promotion Associations, the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation (Tohoku Office), and the Tohoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry; Japan Finance Corporation and Shoko Chukin Bank will provide disaster recovery loans (working capital or equipment loans); Credit Guarantee Associations will apply Safety Net Guarantee No.4 to guarantee 100% of loan amounts within a separate limit; the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises will apply immediate low-interest emergency loans for small enterprise mutual aid contract holders. The affected municipalities are Noshiro City, Semboku City, Kamikoani Village (Kamikōani), and Gojome Town. METI will announce the designated areas in the Official Gazette shortly, and credit guarantee associations will begin pre-consultations for Safety Net Guarantee No.4.

• Background and implementation details: The measures respond to the heavy rain that began on September 2, 2025; METI references four PDF documents (special consultation list, JFC loan overview, Safety Net Guarantee No.4 overview, and emergency loan overview) and provided contact points: Management Stabilization Measures Office (Tachikawa; staff Yano, Suzuki, Baba) phone 03-3501-1511 ext 5251-3, email bzl-keieiantei-toiawase@meti.go.jp; Finance Division (Hashimoto; staff Fujioka, Yamamoto, Henmi) phone 03-3501-1511 ext 5271-5, email bzl-contact-finance@meti.go.jp.

HKEX has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) to seek collaboration opportunities and enhance connectivity between the capital markets of Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.

• Main announcement and scope: HKEX and ADX will explore joint initiatives in market promotion, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), ESG-related products, cross-listings and other areas of mutual interest; the MOU was signed by HKEX Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Y Chan and ADX Group Chief Executive Officer Abdulla Salem Alnuaimi on the sidelines of the Global Investopia conference in Hong Kong (signing witnessed by Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan, UAE Ministry of Investment Undersecretary H.E. Mohammed Alhawi, HKEX Chairman Carlson Tong and Investopia CEO Dr. Jean Fares).
• Background and other details: The MOU builds on ADX’s addition last year to HKEX’s list of recognised stock exchanges; HKEX recently also recognised the Dubai Financial Market; the release highlights growing participation of Middle Eastern funds as cornerstone investors in recent Hong Kong IPOs and reiterates HKEX’s role as a global exchange group (HKEX Stock Code:388) that includes the London Metal Exchange.

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that Germany issued 22,100 building permits for dwellings in July 2025, a 30.0% increase year-on-year.

• Main announcement: Destatis published that 22,100 dwellings were approved in July 2025 (an increase of 30.0% / +5,100 vs. July 2024); 131,800 dwellings were approved from January–July 2025 (+6.6% / +8,200 vs. same period 2024). The release distinguishes permits for new residential and non-residential buildings and new dwellings in existing buildings.
• Additional details & methodology: In newly constructed residential buildings 17,800 permits were approved in July 2025 (+33.2% / +4,400 year-on-year); single-family houses permits rose 15.0% (+3,300) to 25,400, two-family houses fell 6.6% (-500) to 7,100, and multi-family houses reached 69,300 approvals (Jan–Jul 2025, +5.6% / +3,700). Data are based on reports from Statistical Offices of the Länder and lower building authorities; see the Qualitätsbericht and GENESIS-Online tables. Contact phone for further enquiries: +49 611 75 2442.

The Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, held an interview with prominent Chinese media outlets on the sidelines of the 12th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China.

• Interview focus and action: Dr. Kao discussed ASEAN’s commitment to dialogue and diplomacy and provided perspectives on the evolving security landscape in the Asia‑Pacific; the interview was conducted with prominent Chinese media outlets.
• Role of multilateral platforms and event details: He emphasized the role of forums like the Xiangshan Forum in fostering mutual understanding and building trust among nations.
  • Event: 12th Xiangshan Forum
  • Location: Beijing, China
  • Agenda/subject: dialogue and diplomacy; evolving Asia‑Pacific security landscape

Google is announcing four strategic subsea cable connectivity hubs across Africa and expanded AI access and skills programs, including a free one-year Google Gemini AI Pro subscription for eligible college students in seven countries.

• Main announcement: Google is launching four strategic subsea cable connectivity hubs (north, south, east, west Africa) as part of its Africa Connect program, has exceeded a $1 billion connectivity pledge (invested more than $1 billion), is offering a free one-year Google Gemini AI Pro subscription to college students (aged 18+) in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and announced Gemini availability on Google Distributed Cloud.
• Background and details: Google says it has trained 7 million Africans to date and plans to train an additional 3 million students, young people, and teachers by 2030; it has provided over $17 million in funding, curriculum, training, compute and access to advanced AI models over the past four years with an additional $9 million planned for the coming year; infrastructure efforts cited include the Google Cloud region in Johannesburg, the Equiano subsea cable and the Umoja fiber route (running through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa). The Equiano cable is cited as expected to increase 2024 real GDP by $11.1 billion (Nigeria), $5.8 billion (South Africa) and $290 million (Namibia).