U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a CNBC interview that all Iranian airlines would be effectively shut down starting Sept. 23, warning that any party providing fuel, landing services, or ticket sales to those carriers could be cut off from the U.S. dollar system. His remarks followed the Treasury Department’s Sept. 8 sanctions action, which targeted 36 entities, including 27 Iranian airlines such as Mahan Air and companies handling cargo and ticketing services for the carrier. Bessent said Washington was applying pressure on Iran with what he described as an unprecedented level of force and was also moving against facilitators worldwide, including banks. CNBC noted that the Treasury last week sanctioned Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank as part of a broader effort to isolate Iran’s economy by targeting its commercial partners and financial backers. Oil moved higher after Bessent’s comments, while traders also watched diplomatic signals tied to Iranian President Pezeshkian’s trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly and fresh tensions involving the Houthis and key maritime chokepoints.

S&P Global said on Sept. 17 that it has entered into an agreement to acquire blockchain security firm OpenZeppelin, with financial terms undisclosed and the deal still subject to closing conditions. After the transaction closes, OpenZeppelin will continue to operate as an independent business, keep its brand, and remain led by CEO Demian Brener, who will report to Yann Le Pallec, president of S&P Global Ratings. The company also said its open-source products, including OpenZeppelin Contracts, will remain free and publicly maintained on GitHub, while its audit, engineering, and ecosystem work will stay with the existing team. The acquisition gives S&P a security and technical-risk layer that goes beyond a standard crypto audit business. OpenZeppelin says it has completed more than 900 security engagements since 2015, identified more than 10,000 vulnerabilities, including over 700 high and severe issues, and built software used across both crypto-native and traditional finance-linked projects. S&P said the deal will help extend its risk assessment capabilities into the onchain technology-risk layer, tying that effort to its recent digital asset moves, including its lead investment in Kaiko’s latest funding round and prior work on digital asset indices and a blockchain-based version of the iBoxx U.S. Treasury Index.

S&P Global’s digital-asset strategy has moved well beyond simply tracking crypto prices. Since launching its first cryptocurrency benchmarks in May 2021, the company has steadily built out a broader framework for how on-chain markets can be measured, compared and assessed for risk. That effort has included DeFi-focused index products, a stablecoin stability assessment framework, and direct publication of those assessments on Base through Chainlink’s DataLink service so smart contracts can read them automatically. The pace picked up in 2025. S&P Global Ratings expanded coverage from traditional issuers into tokenized funds such as Delta Wellington Ultra Short Treasury On-Chain Fund, Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund and OpenEden Tokenized TBILL Fund. In August 2025, it also assigned Sky Protocol a "B-" issuer credit rating with a stable outlook, marking S&P’s first credit rating for a DeFi protocol. By 2026, S&P had added two more pieces. It combined its digital-asset index business with Kaiko to form S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices, a suite launched with more than 4,000 reference prices and indices, and later made a strategic investment in Kaiko without disclosing the amount. On Sept. 17, 2026, S&P Global also said it had signed an agreement to acquire smart-contract security firm OpenZeppelin. The price was not disclosed. Together, those moves point to a broader effort to assemble a stack of pricing, risk, data and security tools for on-chain finance.

Most Premier League matches start at 15:00 UK time on Saturdays. The handbook sets 15:00 for weekends and 19:45 for midweek by default.

The Premier League fixture list is built with Atos over about six months, with FIFA, UEFA and FA Cup dates protected before all 380 league matches are placed.

Swiss bitcoin hardware wallet maker BitBox said users of any BitBox hardware wallet can now create a Lightning Network hot wallet inside the mobile BitBoxApp. The setup lets users fund the wallet directly from on-chain balances and pay Lightning invoices without moving between different apps, wallets, or third-party services. According to the announcement, the Lightning wallet is derived from an existing BitBox backup, so users do not need to write down a new seed phrase, while the hardware wallet and the Lightning wallet remain separate. BitBox said the Lightning side operates as a hot wallet for small, everyday payments such as coffee purchases, invoices, and quick transfers, while long-term savings remain stored on the hardware device. Inside BitBoxApp, users can scan and pay Lightning invoices, send and receive bitcoin, claim a dedicated Lightning address, top up from an on-chain wallet, and move funds back again. The feature is built with Breez SDK and makes BitBox one of more than 100 integration partners in the Breez network. Spark provides the underlying infrastructure, and users do not need to run a node, open channels, or manage liquidity, with custody of funds remaining in users’ hands. Breez also launched the developer app Glow in August.

In 2025, only Manchester United v Newcastle United was on Boxing Day because the calendar is tighter; for 2026, 7 games are scheduled on 26 December.

John Burridge is the oldest Premier League player at 43 years 162 days. The oldest goalscorer is Teddy Sheringham at 40 years 268 days.