Flagship

World nears new ‘age of electricity’

China is leading a new “age of electricity,” the International Energy Agency said, as fossil fuel demand looks set to peak by decade-end. The global energy watchdog’s annual report said clean energy is being added at “an unprecedented rate,” faster than the growth in energy demand and enough to push fossil fuels into decline. China accounted for 60% of new renewable energy in 2023, it said, and its solar generation alone is on course to exceed the US’ total electricity demand by the early 2030s. The IEA noted, though, that uncertainty remained high due to wars involving oil-producing Russia and the Middle East. India wants to challenge China’s clean-energy dominance: New Delhi is planning a $109 billion investment in the electricity grid to incorporate new renewable sources.

The growing cost of climate risks

US citizens have been moving towards climate risks. People have been leaving the big northern and northeastern cities since the 2010s, but since the pandemic that migration has sped up, the Financial Times’ global business editor noted, as both house prices and remote-working opportunities have increased. Some southern states have lowered taxes and regulations to attract businesses and workers. But insurance analysis showed that it meant the flow of people from low to high climate risk areas had doubled: 40% now live in hurricane-prone regions, and migration to wildfire regions is up 146%. The combination of increasing risk and increasing numbers exposed to that risk is driving insurance costs: Premiums are up 33% since the pandemic. Hurricane Milton is expected to cost insurers $36 billion in payouts.

Voting in Georgia (the state)

A record number of votes were cast as early voting began in Georgia, a key battleground state in the US election. More than 328,000 people voted Tuesday, almost three times the previous first-day record. Former President Donald Trump lost Georgia narrowly to US President Joe Biden in 2020, and allegedly attempted to overthrow the result, making the state among the most closely watched this year. Other states began mail-in voting, with concerns growing over its reliability: In Pennsylvania, another battleground, 1.9% of mail ballots were rejected in 2020. “The nightmare scenario,” The Wall Street Journal said, was that in a tight race, errors could decide the result, leading to a legal dispute that “could make Bush v. Gore (2000) seem like a badminton scrimmage.”

Voting in Georgia (the country)

Georgia — the country — goes to the polls this month, facing an epoch-defining choice between Moscow and Brussels. The ruling Georgian Dream party is strongly pro-Russia, and its adverts ahead of the Oct. 26 election are pushing voters to “choose peace not war,” showing images of bombed-out churches and classrooms in Ukraine compared to peaceful scenes in Georgia. But Georgian Dream has introduced strict Russian-style laws on the media and public dissent, leading the European Union to freeze the country’s accession to the bloc in July, months after it was granted candidate status. Opposition parties say Georgia is under “one-party rule,” the BBC reported, and insist that the country’s future is in Europe.

Riots in Bolivia over Morales warrant

Supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales clashed with police on the news that he faced arrest. Morales ran the country for 13 years until 2019, and plans to run again in elections next year. But he is under investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with an underage girl, which prosecutors said constituted statutory rape. The news of the arrest warrant, to be issued as Morales failed to attend a hearing, saw his supporters clash with those of President Luis Arce. Both men are part of the governing party, but command loyal gangs who regularly face off in the street. Morales says the accusations against him are part of a right-wing conspiracy.

Africa’s economic growth slows

The World Bank cut its growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa. The continent’s largest economy, South Africa, will see just 1.1% growth, a figure barely expected to improve next year, while Sudan’s GDP, crippled by its 18-month war, fell 15%. The bank now estimates that the region’s countries will average 3% growth this year, down from its more optimistic 3.4% in April. Some small to mid-sized economies are still seeing rapid improvement — Senegal, Rwanda, and Niger are projected to see better than 6% growth in 2024 — but even that is a downward revision.

Canada reveals India spy networks

Ontario’s murder accusations against India have given the world a glimpse of how New Delhi’s spies operate, The New York Times noted in a recent piece. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s strongly worded allegations, accusing India of orchestrating a campaign of murder on Canadian soil, call attention to the reach of India’s intelligence services, which are widely believed to have carried out assassinations and airstrikes in South Asian countries. Authorities said they believe six diplomats were part of a criminal gang spread across the country intimidating, harassing, and sometimes murdering Canadian Sikhs. At least two killings, including that of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, were linked to the India-backed network. Canada expelled six Indian diplomats over the row.

Wine scammers sell plonk for thousands

Vintage wine scams are becoming more common. French and Italian police said they had broken up a fraud ring passing off cheap wine as premier vintages, selling them for up to $16,000 a bottle. They printed fake labels of famous chateaux and sold them through wine traders, earning over $2 million, prosecutors said. Wine fraud “has existed since wine was invented,” the BBC said, although how it knows what went on in Persia in 5,000 BC is not explained. But in the last decade, the price of the best grands crus has shot up, to sometimes thousands of dollars a bottle, making organized counterfeiting more worthwhile. With some buyers storing bottles for years, many may never find out that they bought a fake.

Graphene fulfills its promise

Twenty years on from its discovery, graphene is coming of age. Graphene, an atom-thick honeycomb of carbon atoms, was hailed as a wonder material when it was first made, in England in 2004. It conducts heat and electricity brilliantly while being stronger than steel — “expectations were very, very high,” its Nobel-winning discoverer told Science. But it was hard to incorporate in mass-produced devices, applications were overhyped, and interest waned in the 2010s. In the last few years, though, following the classic hype cycle, companies are developing new uses for graphene — uses as diverse as coating for ships’ hulls, heat diffusers in cell phones, and brain electrodes — and the industry, currently worth around $150 million a year, could increase in value tenfold in the next decade.

Tomb uncovered beneath Petra

Researchers discovered a tomb underneath the ruins of Petra. Petra, in Jordan, is an entire city carved 2,000 years ago from the walls of a desert canyon: It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been named one of the new seven wonders of the world. The archeologists used ground-penetrating radar to look beneath the floor of one large building at the center of the ancient city, and detected underground cavities. Excavation revealed a tomb with 12 bodies — a hugely exciting find, because very little is known about the Nabataean civilization that made the city. “The burials, their goods, and the human remains can all be expected to help fill the gaps in our knowledge of how Petra came to be,” one archaeologist said.

• Serbia’s green activists are set to protest against Rio Tinto’s plans to mine lithium in the western town of Loznica.
• The UK’s Prince William will attend the Centrepoint Awards, which celebrate the achievements of young people who have transformed their lives after experiencing homelessness.
• The cycling Track World Championships begin in the Danish town of Ballerup.

The number of major trophies — World Cups and European Championships — won by the men’s German national soccer team since 1966, when England won its first and so far only World Cup. The success of Die Fußballnationalmannschaft may explain why the German Thomas Tuchel has been appointed as manager of the England national team, which reached two finals under its previous boss, Gareth Southgate, but has always fallen just short of victory. England considers Germany its biggest rival, making the appointment controversial, although what really hurts is that Germany barely considers England at all.

I SHOULD CALL THEM by Dua Saleh. The Sudanese-American artist is a “genre-agnostic shape-shifter,” Pitchfork noted, and her debut album pulls strands from R&B, pop, trap, and gospel in “an inventive and sinewy mix.” Listen to I SHOULD CALL THEM on Spotify.

• Inside Condé Nast’s Gaza war.
• Microsoft Azure CTO: US data centers will soon hit size limits.
• Nigerian airline CEO faces new US charge in $20M fraud case.