Sari remarks took place during his meeting in Baghdad with US Charge d’Affaires to Iraq Steven Fagin to review bilateral relations and discuss approaches to enhance economic and financial cooperation.

The Iraqi minister’s call aims to boost foreign investment and support the development of vital sectors.

Sari said in a statement that Iraq’s relations with other countries are driven by the country’s supreme interests. He emphasized the Iraqi government’s commitment to maintaining a balanced relationship with the United States based on shared interests.

Fagin described the Iraqi government delegation’s visit to Washington last July as highly successful. He emphasized the importance of building upon the visit’s outcomes to strengthen cooperation between the United States and Iraq.

On July 13, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi paid a five-day visit to the United States, where he signed 48 agreements and memoranda of understanding, as well as announced cooperation between Iraqi and US organizations.

The agreements totaled over $60 billion and encompassed industries such as oil, energy, industry, technology, telecommunications, finance, agriculture, education, and health.

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“Luis de la Fuente will extend his contract through the next two European Championships, in 2028 and 2032, as well as the 2030 World Cup,” the RFEF said in a statement.

The 65-year-old, who took charge of Spain in 2022 after replacing Luis Enrique, has since led the national team to World Cup success, Euro 2024 glory and the 2023 UEFA Nations League title.

De la Fuente spent a decade working with Spain’s youth teams before stepping up to the senior role.

“We’re talking about the most successful head coach in the history of the national team, and after fourteen years with us, this is something Luis de la Fuente deserves, a long-term future at the RFEF,” said Rafael Louzan, chair of the Spanish FA’s board of directors.

Spain travel to England on September 26 in their first game since lifting the World Cup in July before hosting Croatia three days later in Seville, to start their Nations League campaign.

They return home to play the Czech Republic in Oviedo on October 3 and end the international window by heading to Croatia three days later.

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The European Union is aiming to triple its data centre capacity over the next seven years as it plays catch up with the United States and China on artificial intelligence.

“Tripling our data centre capacity cannot mean tripling the pressure on our grids, our water and our energy bills,” said European Commission vice president for clean transition Teresa Ribera. 

Data centre construction has sparked backlash across the United States, with local residents often complaining about the power-hungry engines of AI driving up electricity costs — a hot political issue ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The EU said its scheme would provide the public with information about the water and energy consumption of sites with capacity above 500 kW, which already have to report key performance metrics to the EU. 

Similarly to that already in use for home appliances, the rating will rank data centres on a coloured scale where A/Green is the most efficient and G/red the least efficient, according to a commission presentation.

To encourage good practices, the score will take into account data centres’ contribution to the grid, such as the reuse of waste heat and the addition of clean energy generation capacities, the commission said.

“Efficient, flexible, powered by additional clean energy and reusing waste heat, this is how data centres become an asset for (the) EU’s energy transition,” Ribera added.

Data centres are yet to become a flashpoint political issue in the 27-nation EU, as the bloc lags well behind the United States on AI development.

The slower growth is in part due to already-high-energy costs, which weigh on European businesses and families alike.

But the International Energy Agency estimates the fast expanding sector will account for more than three percent of overall electricity demand in the EU by 2030.

“To ensure that the digital transformation truly works for our society, we must address the growing energy demand of data centres,” said the EU’s energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen.

“Understanding their energy and resource consumption is the essential first step towards integrating them sustainably into our energy system.”

The labels will be automatically generated by the EU based on companies’ reporting and will be accessible on an EU database, with the first expected to appear in 2027, Brussels said. 

The commission said it was also looking into setting minimum performance standards for data centres.

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Electoral chief Ella Pamfilova said preliminary results showed United Russia — which has dominated Russian politics for 25 years — won 355 of the Duma’s 450 seats.

The result handed Putin’s party an increased supermajority and beat its previous record of 343 seats. The supermajority means it can change the constitution, if it needs to.  

The Kremlin said the result of the first parliamentary election since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in 2022 showed Russians were united around Putin, who has been in power since New Year’s Eve 1999.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and hit ordinary lives in Russia more than ever this year. Moscow has banned criticism of its military campaign and the only party that called for an end to the war was removed from the election.  

“These indicators, of course, point to the highest level of consolidation within Russian society around the head of state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing with journalists. 

Elections under Putin are tightly controlled and few in Russia doubted United Russia would win. 

Putin had encouraged Russians to vote in support of troops in Ukraine and Moscow also organised voting in occupied Ukraine.  

Pamfilova said turnout was over 59 percent, thanking Russians for voting despite what she called “psychological pressure on Russia.” 

Russia’s Ukraine campaign broke its ties with the West. Kyiv hit Moscow with its biggest drone attack of the war Sunday, the last day of voting, killing two people and setting an oil refinery ablaze.   

“Despite the extreme situation, we were successful in ensuring the maximum security of these elections,” Pamfilova told a Moscow press conference, thanking security services for ensuring the vote went ahead.  

– Fifth year of war –

The election result is expected to further tighten Putin’s grip on power. 

Some fear a new military mobilisation in Russia. Putin has denied this is in the works, while Kyiv accuses Moscow of planning a callup in coming weeks. 

Russia’s Communist party came second in the vote, winning 40 seats. The nationalist LDPR party took 25 seats and the New People party won 20.  

The election took place amid the escalation of the Ukraine war in recent months, with no diplomatic solution in sight.  

For the Kremlin, it served as a barometer on the mood of Russians towards the war.  

In some regions, voting also took place for the heads of regions. 

In Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov — known for ruling the Muslim-majority republic with an iron fist — won 99.85 percent of the vote, the electoral commission said. 

Opposing Kadyrov is hugely dangerous in Chechnya, which is known for extra-judicial killings. 

Putin’s political opponents are in exile, prison or dead — such as his main opponents Alexei Navalny who died in an Arctic prison in 2024. 

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas dismissed Russia’s “so-called” election. 

“The Kremlin silenced dissent, barred the only registered party that opposed its war in Ukraine, and shut out international election monitors. The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia,” Kallas said.

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13 oil tankers departed the Strait of Hormuz during the week that started on September 13, carrying a total of approximately 34 million barrels of crude oil.

Saudi Arabia accounted for approximately half of the exports, while Iraq contributed 35 percent of the total crude oil shipments that left the Strait of Hormuz that week.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains significantly lower than pre-war levels; prior to the outbreak of the war on February 28, the vital waterway typically handled around 125 large commercial vessels daily.oil,

Over the weekend, 12 commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz, compared to 35 the previous weekend, amid ongoing tensions in the Gulf region and a disagreement between the United States and Iran.

Visible shipping traffic through the strait, which previously served as a conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, has decreased significantly. However, Middle Eastern producers continue to export oil on tankers with their transponders switched off.

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The debate over the risks from artificial intelligence has intensified this month, with many of the industry’s leading lights voicing support for more cooperation, regulation and slower development of the technology.

Former employees of major AI companies have resigned warning of the technology’s risks, even pointing to an existential threat to humanity.

“If artificial intelligence is concentrated among a few companies and a handful of countries, its impact on shared prosperity, and therefore on the idea of democracy, will be very negative, if not devastating,” Sanchez told an AI-focused event in Madrid.

“We must act urgently, because unregulated, opaque artificial intelligence running wild… and in very few hands is the perfect recipe for disaster,” added the Socialist leader.

US President Donald Trump — with whom Sanchez has repeatedly clashed — has dismissed fears that AI could wipe out humanity and rejected calls to put greater controls around the fast-moving technology.

Sanchez, an outspoken critic of the power of big tech companies and their bosses, on Monday renewed his criticism of “techno-oligarchs” and urged international coordination on AI.

“Self-regulation does not work”, said Sanchez, calling for an AI “focused on well-being and collective prosperity that enables the building of fairer societies”.

He presented a 12-month plan aiming for “a new social contract for artificial intelligence” in Spain in cooperation with civil society.

This agreement would have to offer “security to people in the face of the changes in work and in life that this technology will entail”, he said.

In February, Sanchez announced a plan to ban social media for under-16s, sparking a spat with X owner Elon Musk and Telegram founder Pavel Durov.

His government has also asked the Spanish prosecutors to investigate X, Meta and TikTok for possible offences related to AI-generated child pornography.

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“We are determined to live up to the historic responsibilities our country is facing,” said Merz about the coalition between his centre-right CDU and the centre-left SPD. 

“It is about nothing less, and nothing more, than the democratic future of our country.”

The SPD also vowed to remain in the coalition despite the centre-right party suffering heavy losses in Sunday’s votes, while hinting it would push for changes to planned reforms.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came first in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the CDU crashed out of the local parliament after its worst ever election result since the party’s founding in 1945.

Merz described the result as a “heavy blow”, adding: “This election is a profound turning point. It is a dramatic, unprecedented result for the CDU in Germany.”

In the other vote, in the city-state of Berlin, the CDU was pushed into second place by the far-left Die Linke party while the AfD also made strong gains.

Despite calls for him to step down from the AfD after just 16 months in office, Merz repeated he would remain in office and seek to push through hard-fought economic and social welfare reforms.

“But we know that we owe people answers to their worries, to their fears,” he said. 

Merz pushed back at criticism that his own low popularity ratings were behind the election defeats.

“The reasons for these election results go far beyond my own person,” he said. 

“We are witnessing a profound transformation of the political party system in Germany as well as in many other countries around the world.”

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Speaking at a press briefing, Technical Deputy Minister of Health Hani Al-Oqabi announced that the international summit will take place from October 28 to October 31, 2026, at the Baghdad International Fairgrounds under the direct supervision and sponsorship of the Ministry of Health.

Al-Oqabi outlined the ministry’s operational strategy, emphasizing on-the-ground administrative oversight, institutional readiness, and direct engagement with hospital cadres to enhance clinical responsiveness and restore public trust in the state healthcare ecosystem.

Extending an official invitation to international, regional, and domestic medical enterprises, academic bodies, and healthcare organizations, the deputy minister highlighted that the four-day convention aims to facilitate cross-border technology transfer, introduce innovative healthcare solutions tailored to Iraq’s specific needs, and accelerate the localization of essential healthcare industries.

The summit announcement coincides with ongoing structural reforms within Iraq’s public health network, including the progressive expansion of the National Health Insurance scheme across additional governorates, improving centralized procurement lines for specialized pharmaceuticals, and fostering public-private healthcare partnerships.

Al-Oqabi stressed that the ministry’s strategic vision prioritizes clinical safety, patient-centered care standards, and bilateral institutional cooperation, anticipating that the upcoming Baghdad summit will yield actionable partnerships and open channels to integrate advanced medical technology into the nation’s medical facilities.

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Barzani’s remarks took place during an official ceremony in Erbil, where he described the step as a historic day for the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The move unifies formerly separate troops, especially Unit 80, which is affiliated to the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Unit 70, which is connected to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, under the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.

The change is supported by an agreement with the US Department of Defense, as well as backing from the international coalition.

Barzani stressed the significance of continued coordination with the federal Iraqi Army, describing the Peshmerga as an essential component of Iraq’s national security system.

The following phase concentrates on improving military capabilities, delivering sophisticated weaponry and air defenses, and training soldiers to meet global requirements.

The Iraqi constitution recognizes the Peshmerga as a legitimate component of Iraq’s comprehensive defense system, allowing them to serve alongside the federal Iraqi Army.

The Peshmerga received considerable worldwide appreciation for their crucial frontline role in combating ISIS in northern Iraq.

The US-led international coalition has been providing the Peshmerga with training, logistics, and material assistance as they work to upgrade into a professional, structured military force.

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Market tracking shows that despite the downward trend, parallel trading rates remain elevated well above the Central Bank of Iraq’s official statutory rate of 131,000 dinars per $100.

In the capital city of Baghdad, private exchange houses posted selling prices of 158,500 dinars per $100 against purchase rates of 157,900 dinars, registering a drop of more than 1,000 dinars from Sunday’s levels.

In Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, currency desks mirrored Baghdad’s selling level at 158,500 dinars per $100, while buying rates settled slightly lower at 157,750 dinars.

In the southern port hub of Basra, rates recorded an even sharper dip, with bureaus offering dollars at 158,000 dinars for sale and 157,500 dinars for purchase.

The continued retreat across major trading hubs indicates a brief easing in panic-buying and currency speculation following last week’s sharp climb toward 160,000 dinars.

Nonetheless, market participants maintain a defensive posture, as ongoing dollar supply constraints and broader liquidity uncertainties surrounding the end-of-month deadline continue to keep the unofficial exchange spread wide.

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