Politics

Russian Strikes Hit Kyiv Academy of Sciences; Nationwide Toll Rises: September 29, 2026

KYIV — Russian forces struck Ukraine’s capital again early Tuesday, hours after a drone hit the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv’s historic centre, killing at least two people, Al Jazeera reported with AFP and Reuters. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said missile debris fell in one courtyard while another building caught fire.

Emergency officials said Monday’s academy strike killed two, with one body recovered from rubble later in the evening. Former national security official Volodymyr Horbulin said he was at work when the academy was hit; his assistant was killed and he was slightly wounded. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian strikes also hit a medical facility in Kyiv and that at least nine people were killed and more than 80 wounded nationwide Monday, with 90 of 120 drones jet-propelled and an interception rate of 57% for that type.

Officials said Kyiv targets included a pharmaceutical company and petrol stations; a Dnipro business-centre strike killed three, and Zaporizhzhia infrastructure attacks wounded 32. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged allies to send more air defences, calling the academy hit an expansion of what Russia believes the world will tolerate. Ukraine said it struck Russian oil facilities in Krasnodar and two defence plants.

Sources: Al Jazeera with AFP and Reuters

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Milei Threatens Legal Action Against UK Over Falklands Sea Lion Oil Project: September 29, 2026

BUENOS AIRES — Argentine President Javier Milei threatened to launch international legal action against the United Kingdom unless oil exploration at the Sea Lion field off the Falkland Islands — known in Argentina as Las Malvinas — is halted within two weeks, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

In a social media post, Milei said he had instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to prepare arbitration if what he called “illegal plundering” through the Sea Lion project continued, warning he would take the dispute to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg. Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum hold licences issued under British authority; the field, about 130 miles (209 km) from the islands, is estimated to hold about 1.7 billion barrels, and extraction is due within two years, the BBC said.

The threat follows Milei’s United Nations General Assembly speech criticising the UN over Falklands sovereignty and British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting’s remark that Argentina “lacks the ability” to seize the islands by force. Islanders voted 99.8% to remain a British overseas territory in a 2013 referendum. Argentina invaded in 1982 before a British task force retook the archipelago after a 74-day war.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera

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U.S. Ban on Canadian Alcohol, Dairy and Motorcycles Takes Effect: September 29, 2026

WASHINGTON / OTTAWA — A U.S. ban on selected Canadian imports — including alcoholic drinks, dairy byproducts such as whey, molasses and motorcycles — took effect just after midnight Eastern time Tuesday, escalating a trade feud after talks collapsed in August, the BBC, Associated Press and CBC reported.

Tuesday’s measures cover nearly C$1 billion ($710 million) in Canadian liquor exports to the United States, where about 90–93% of Canada’s alcohol exports were bound in 2025, BBC News said. President Donald Trump’s September 8 executive orders framed the bans as a response to what he called continued Canadian “discrimination”; on Monday he again accused Canada of treating the United States “very unfairly.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney has called the bans “relatively modest” beside broader U.S. tariffs, while Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office said Ottawa’s priority remains protecting workers and businesses. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC last week there is “no urgency” on Washington’s side for a deal. The bans add to 50% U.S. tariffs on many Canadian goods and Canadian retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of U.S. products.

Sources: BBC News, Associated Press via WTOP, CBC News

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South Korea Says North Korean Mine Highly Likely Caused DMZ Blast: September 28, 2026

SEOUL — South Korea’s military said Monday it was “highly likely” that a blast that seriously injured South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone on Sept. 21 was caused by a North Korean mine, Reuters and Yonhap reported.

The Joint Chiefs’ assessment followed a week-long probe of the western-sector explosion that wounded troops on patrol. Earlier, Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul had said it was too early to confirm the explosive’s type or origin even as some soldiers reported seeing an object resembling a North Korean wooden-box mine. A joint investigation with the United Nations Command continued, with forensic analysis of materials from the scene underway.

Mines and accidental detonations have periodically wounded troops along the heavily fortified border decades after the 1950–53 Korean War armistice. Seoul’s Monday finding sharpens attribution toward Pyongyang without announcing retaliatory steps in the initial military statement.

Sources: Reuters, Yonhap

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Taiwan Pushes Back After Xi–Trump Summit Recasts World War Two Narrative: September 28, 2026

TAIPEI — Taiwan pushed back Monday against what it called Beijing’s effort to rewrite World War Two history after Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump highlighted a wartime U.S.–China alliance at last week’s Washington summit, Reuters reported.

Taipei notes the Republic of China government—then based on the mainland and now in Taiwan—fought alongside the Allies, while the People’s Republic was founded only in 1949. A White House fact sheet said Trump and Xi recalled that the U.S. and China “were allies in World War Two and fought side by side.” Mainland Affairs Council deputy Shen Yu-chung said Xi is “continuously trying to guide” the narrative toward the PRC; Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu said China wants to “overwrite the true history.”

Neither the White House, State Department nor China’s Taiwan Affairs Office immediately commented. Last year the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said China was spreading “false” WWII narratives to pressure Taiwan. The island’s opposition Kuomintang said the government had the history right but accused President Lai Ching-te’s DPP of selective use of Republic of China memory for political ends.

Sources: Reuters

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Ethiopia Claims Alamata as Army Accuses Sudan and Egypt of Backing Tigray Rebels: September 28, 2026

NAIROBI / ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s military and allied militiamen claimed Monday to have captured the strategic southern Tigray town of Alamata, turning the tables after a TPLF-led offensive shattered the 2022 Pretoria peace deal last week, Reuters reported, as the army chief accused Sudan and Egypt of backing the rebels.

A pro-government militia posted video of soldiers waving Ethiopian flags in Alamata’s streets; Reuters could not immediately verify it. Two diplomatic sources said the town had fallen. Alamata is a supply hub about 120 km south of Mekelle. Field Marshal Birhanu Jula said federal forces were fighting groups “organised and allied to serve the interests of external forces,” naming Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea; Sudan’s army called the charge “baseless” and alleged the RSF receives support from Ethiopian territory. Egypt did not immediately comment.

TPLF fighters seized Erebti in Afar on Sunday and pushed toward Afdera, threatening the Djibouti trade corridor that carries most of Ethiopia’s imports, Al Jazeera and AFP reported. Phone and internet in Tigray remained down for a fourth day. U.N. chief António Guterres voiced alarm over drone use and civilian harm after a Sunday strike on Tigrai TV headquarters in Mekelle.

Sources: Reuters via ThePrint, Al Jazeera / AFP

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Russian Strikes Kill at Least Seven Across Ukraine as Kharkiv Apartment Hit: September 28, 2026

KYIV — Russia’s round-the-clock bombardment killed at least seven civilians and wounded more than 50 across Ukraine on Monday, officials said, as a guided aerial bomb struck a Kharkiv apartment building and drones hit offices, data centres and a National Academy of Sciences building in Kyiv, the Associated Press reported.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a strike on a nine-story apartment wounded dozens, including children. A drone hit an office centre in central Dnipro during working hours, killing three and wounding at least 12; Kyiv-region drones killed several more. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine would “pay a price” for recent attacks and that this was “happening right now,” a day after eight people died in Sunday’s nationwide strikes.

Ukraine’s Third Army Corps said it had recaptured another 51 square kilometres under Operation Vivaldi in Donetsk, bringing claimed gains to 176 square kilometres. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said long-range Ukrainian strikes hit defence plants in Russia’s Tula and Voronezh regions and oil facilities in Krasnodar; Moscow said air defences downed 254 Ukrainian drones overnight. Claims on both sides could not be independently verified.

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera

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Lula Leads Flávio Bolsonaro 42–37 in Poll One Week Before Brazil Vote: September 28, 2026

SÃO PAULO — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva led Senator Flávio Bolsonaro 42% to 37% in a BTG/Nexus poll released Monday, one week before Brazil’s Oct. 4 first-round presidential election, with a simulated runoff still a technical tie, Folha de S.Paulo reported.

The Nexus survey of 2,000 voters ages 16 and older, conducted Sept. 25–27 with a two-point margin of error, showed Lula up slightly from 40% a week earlier while Bolsonaro held at 37%. In a second-round matchup Lula had 46% to Bolsonaro’s 44%. Minor candidates trailed in single digits. Reuters separately reported the race remains neck-and-neck as Flávio Bolsonaro seeks to inherit his imprisoned father’s far-right base after Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction over a failed coup plot.

Campaigning intensified over Lula’s online-betting ban and allegations tying Flávio to movie funding from disgraced banker Daniel Vorcaro. A runoff, if needed, is set for Oct. 25. Rival street rallies filled Brazilian cities Sunday with seven days left in the first-round sprint.

Sources: Folha de S.Paulo (BTG/Nexus), Reuters

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White House Moves to Rescind $810 Million in Health and Education Funds: September 28, 2026

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved to cancel about $810 million in congressionally approved health, education and related spending through a so-called pocket rescission days before the fiscal year ends, drawing sharp bipartisan protests from top appropriators who called the maneuver unlawful, wire and Capitol Hill reports said Monday.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the White House budget office “intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation” of bipartisan appropriations and vowed to work with colleagues to challenge it. The package includes roughly $567 million from HHS refugee-resettlement accounts, plus cuts to migrant-student aid, foreign-exchange education grants, health research and HUD housing counseling the administration branded wasteful or DEI-focused.

Pocket rescissions exploit the Impoundment Control Act’s 45-day clock so withheld money can lapse when a fiscal year ends before Congress acts. The administration hailed “historic action to eliminate wasteful and harmful spending”; House Appropriations ranking Democrat Rosa DeLauro accused the White House of unlawfully impounding funds all year to reach this point. The Supreme Court last year allowed a prior foreign-aid rescission to proceed without a final merits ruling.

Sources: Roll Call, ABC News

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New Zealand’s National and Labour Launch 2026 Election Campaigns: September 27, 2026

AUCKLAND — New Zealand’s National and Labour parties launched their 2026 general election campaigns on Sunday, opening a roughly six-week run toward what polls suggest could be a knife-edge contest, RNZ reported.

National leader Christopher Luxon’s central Auckland launch was expected to stress the government’s record and a “build the future” message, while Labour leader Chris Hipkins held his event in South Auckland after telling a recent public meeting he was “just getting warmed up.” An Ipsos Issues Monitor released this week listed cost of living, healthcare, the economy, unemployment and housing as voters’ top concerns.

Labour was still rated most capable on those issues but lost ground on every measure, narrowing the gap with National. The government’s performance score held at 4.1 out of 10. Election day is November 7.

Sources: RNZ

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