After a six-week recess, America’s Congress returns to work on Monday. One item will dominate the agenda: a funding package to keep the government working past September 30th, when federal agencies run out of money.

For months Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has warned, baselessly, that non-citizens will vote in the election, helping Democrats. On Friday Republicans in the House of Representatives released a draft bill. Tacked onto the funding proposal was a section that would require people to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. They also want the bill to expire in March 2025, when they hope that Mr Trump will be back in the White House. Democrats want to keep funding at existing levels until the end of the calendar year, so it can be renegotiated before Joe Biden leaves office. With November’s election looming, lawmakers will probably come to some agreement. But expect a lot of wrangling first.

Japan’s economy is bouncing back. GDP figures announced on Monday showed the economy grew by an annualised 2.9% for the second quarter of 2024—just a slight downward revision from the preliminary figures, 3.1%. Relatively strong private consumption, which accounts for half of GDP, has contributed. And real wages grew by 1.1% in June, the first increase in just over two years. (They also grew by 0.4% in July.)

How long wage growth will last is unclear. And households are feeling the pinch of inflation, which was 2.7% in July. The political implications are significant. Kishida Fumio’s recent decision to step down as prime minister was partly due to anger over rising living costs. His Liberal Democratic Party is set to elect their next leader, and thus the new PM , on September 27th. A poll conducted in August showed more than half of voters consider inflation the most urgent issue.

Mexico’s upper chamber must start considering a crucial decision this week: whether to approve a constitutional change to overhaul the judiciary. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the outgoing president, wants to replace a system of professional exams for federal judges—including those of the Supreme Court and electoral courts—with elections. The bill was approved by the lower chamber last week.

Mexico’s justice system needs reform. But academics, diplomats and business groups (both Mexican and foreign) have warned that electing judges would increase the influence of the dominant ruling party, corrupt actors and organised crime over the judiciary. And, they claim, it threatens Mexico’s relationship with the United States and the North American free-trade deal. The reform seems almost certain to pass all hurdles. Claudia Sheinbaum, who becomes president on October 1st, will have to deal with the fallout.

On Monday Apple unveils its new iPhone 16 models. They will be jam-packed with artificial-intelligence features, including an upgrade to Siri, Apple’s previously dimwitted digital assistant. (Though the full software update probably won’t be available until later this year). True to Apple’s love of design, the whole screen will glow colourfully when active.

Apple hopes that new AI features will encourage users to upgrade. iPhones account for half of the firm’s revenue, though sales growth has slowed in recent years as competition intensifies and markets become saturated. But investors’ perception of Apple as an “AI stock” has given it a boost. Since announcing the iPhone’s new features in June, the firm’s share price has risen by 14%, compared with 3% for the S&P 500, an index of big American firms. That said, a recent survey suggests new features rarely convince iPhone users to upgrade. Nevertheless, Apple will hope its new iPhones get glowing reviews.

Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are some of Australia’s most remote wildernesses. The territory is some 4,000km from the western edge of the mainland, in the middle of the Southern Ocean. The volcanic sediments of Big Ben, Australia’s highest mountain, nourish a rich marine ecosystem largely devoid of human-introduced species. Wetlands support up to 4m birds.

Yet climate change and overfishing threaten the territory’s habitat. An agreement to protect the landscape expires this year. Australia’s government is proposing to replace it with a deal to expand the marine protected reserve by 400%. It also wants to promote sustainable fishing, including for Patagonian toothfish, or “Chilean sea bass”. Still, some conservationists have argued the scheme does not go far enough. The Australian Marine Conservation Society, a non-profit group, claims that 77% of the fishing grounds used by vulnerable macaroni penguins will remain unprotected.