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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96: Buckingham Palace announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in UK history, on Thursday afternoon at her Scottish residence of Balmoral Castle. Her son Charles became King Charles III and the country entered 10 days of mourning. An official date for her funerals is expected to be announced shortly.

• Ukraine hails advances: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces reclaimed 1,000 square kilometers (385 square miles) of territory in the south and east since launching their counter-offensive on Sept. 1. The troops continue to advance in both the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

• North Korea’s new nuclear state: According to state media, North Korea has passed a law declaring its status as a nuclear weapons state and allowing the country’s right to carry out preventive nuclear strikes if threatened. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un said such status is now “irreversible.”

• UN chief visits flooded Pakistan: UN Secretary General António Guterres traveled to Pakistan for a two-day visit to express his solidarity and bring global focus to the country that is experiencing devastating floods. Pakistani officials hope it will boost support as one third of Pakistan is under water.

• Steve Bannon charged with fraud: A New York court charged former Donald Trump’s White House advisor Steve Bannon, who surrendered yesterday, with money laundering, conspiracy and fraud in connection with a charity fraud case related to the construction of a wall along the U.S. border. Bannon pleaded not guilty.

• Erdogan-Biden to meet later this month: U.S. President Joe Biden and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to meet later in the month to discuss Turkey-Russia ties, U.S. weapons and the war in Ukraine, according to a Turkish senior official.

• Noodle vendor arrested for “anti-state” acts in Vietnam: Vietnamese noodle vendor Bui Tuan Lam has been arrested by the police for “anti-state” acts after he published a video that went viral last year and that was viewed as mocking a Vietnam minister. He was imitating the moves of Turkish chef “Salt Bae” a few days after the senior government official was seen in one of his restaurants eating a gold-encrusted steak.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

The Daily Mail mourns Queen Elizabeth II and embodies on its front page the grief of a country. The sovereign died yesterday at her Scottish residence of Balmoral Castle, surrounded by her family. Tributes to her life and reign are pouring in from all over the world. Here's our collection of 37 front pages from 29 different countries.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

2.38 million

China’s auto sales amounted to 2.38 million units in August, a 32.1% increase from a year ago. This boost was in part due to government incentives for consumers to buy new energy vehicles, among which electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The country’s vehicle exports also increased 65% from last year at the same period, with a strong demand for EVs (27%).

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

How Elizabeth II reconciled the monarchy with modernity

The function Charles III inherits today is widely different from what it was when Elizabeth II was crowned 70 years ago. With the “new Elizabethan age” coming to an end, what kind of monarchy will the new King usher in? asks Laura Clancy in The Conversation.

👑 When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, Britain was just seven years out of the second world war. Rebuilding work was still ongoing. But the austerity and restraint of the 1940s was giving way to a more prosperous 1950s. It is perhaps no wonder, then, that the Queen’s succession was hailed as the “new Elizabethan age”. Society was changing, and here was a young, beautiful queen to sit at its helm. Seventy years later, Britain looks very different. Elizabeth II ruled over perhaps the most rapid technological expansion and sociopolitical change of any monarch in recent history.

📸📱 The royal image has always been mediated, from the monarch’s profile on coins, to portraiture. For Elizabeth II this involved radical development: from the emergence of television, through tabloid newspapers and paparazzi, to social media and citizen journalism (processes related to democratization and participation). Because of this, we now have more access to monarchy than ever before. Social media has given the monarchy access to new audiences: a younger generation who are more likely to scroll royal photographs on phone apps than read newspapers.

🇬🇧 The Queen’s death is bound to prompt Britain’s reflection on its past, its present and its future. Time will tell what the reign of Charles III will look like, but one thing is for sure: the “new Elizabethan age” is long gone. Britain is now recovering from recent ruptures in its status quo, from Brexit, to the COVID-19 pandemic, to ongoing calls for Scottish independence. Charles III inherits a very different country than that of his mother. What purpose, if any, will the next monarchy have for Britain’s future?

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

Thank you Ma’am, for everything.

— Paddington Bear paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on Twitter, reprising his closing remarks from the special short film the fictional character starred in with the monarch to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee last February. Other leaders around the world paid homage to the Queen, from U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife saluting her “steadying presence” as “a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons” to the Dalai Lama who said she “represented celebration, inspiration and a reassuring sense of continuity.”