President Trump said Saturday he has rejected Iran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz; Russian and Ukrainian strikes killed seven people as the aerial war intensified; and the U.N. said nearly 1.5 million Haitians are now displaced by gang violence. Ten stories as of Saturday morning, September 26.
1. Washington / Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday that he has rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end fighting in the wider Middle East war within seven days, Reuters reported. “I reject their proposal,” he said, arguing Tehran wants the strait open because it is “losing so badly.” Iran had floated the plan at the U.N. via Qatari mediators, conditioning a pause on lifting the U.S. naval blockade, releasing frozen funds and waiving oil sanctions. The Wall Street Journal earlier cited officials saying Trump sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely after the November midterms.
2. Kyiv / Zaporizhzhia / Krasnodar. Russian attacks killed four people across Ukraine on Saturday and a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia’s Krasnodar region killed three more, the Associated Press reported. Two women died under rubble in Zaporizhzhia; two people were killed in Sumy. Drones hit several Kyiv districts, injuring four, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said a data center supporting cellphone and Starlink services was damaged. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote that Russia is “escalating every single day” and urged partners to choose stronger responses.
3. Port-au-Prince / Artibonite. Nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced across Haiti as gang violence pushes families far beyond the capital, the International Organization for Migration said Friday; Reuters carried the figures. Nearly 80 percent of those uprooted now live outside Port-au-Prince, with the sharpest recent rise in Artibonite. Armed attacks in Kenscoff displaced more than 4,000 people. IOM warned hundreds of thousands in informal settlements face hurricane-season risk: “For families already displaced by violence, a major storm could trigger another humanitarian emergency.”
4. Brussels. EU member countries agreed to release €6.6 billion ($7.5 billion) in European Peace Facility funds linked to military aid for Ukraine, foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Friday, Reuters reported. Of that, €900 million goes to the EU training mission, €1 billion to joint procurement, and €4.7 billion to reimburse member states. “That’s good news for Ukraine and bad news for Russia,” Kallas said. The package had been stalled since 2023 under a Hungarian veto that lifted after a change of government in Budapest.
5. Kenge / Democratic Republic of Congo. At least 17 people, including two army generals, were killed when a military plane crashed into a residential area in Kenge, Kwango province, on Friday, Al Jazeera and local officials reported. The aircraft was flying from Kikwit toward Kinshasa when it developed a technical fault; with no landing strip in Kenge it crashed and caught fire. The army said the dead included Lt. Gen. Joseph Mutombo, first president of the High Military Court, and Lt. Gen. Lucien-René Likulia, the military’s auditor general. President Félix Tshisekedi ordered an investigation.
6. São Paulo / Brasília. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday announced a ban on online betting operations less than two years after Brazil legalized the industry, Reuters reported. The executive order takes immediate effect but needs congressional approval within 120 days; Finance Minister Dario Durigan’s team said app stores and providers must block betting sites from October 6. The move comes days before the October 4 first-round election, where Lula faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a tight race; Bolsonaro called the ban “populist” and “politically motivated.”
7. Washington / Ottawa. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday the Trump administration sees “no urgency” to strike a Canada trade deal even as new U.S. import bans on Canadian goods take effect next week and Washington threatens 50% tariffs on Canadian autos, parts and steel from January, Reuters reported. “We’re comfortable with where we are,” Greer told CNBC, noting the U.S. is still receiving Canadian oil, gas and potash. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs took effect earlier this month after U.S. duties on roughly $20–28 billion of Canadian goods.
8. Bogotá. Colombia on Friday extradited Geovany Andrés Rojas — known as “Spider,” an alleged Border Commands FARC-dissident leader — to the United States, the first transfer of a senior illegal-armed-group commander under President Abelardo De La Espriella, Reuters reported. U.S. prosecutors accuse him of drug trafficking and conspiracy tied to operations in Colombia and Ecuador since 2017. De La Espriella, who took office in August, said his government has carried out 94 extraditions and that “Colombia will not be a refuge for drug traffickers.”
9. Taipei. After Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping ended a three-day Washington summit with no major public breakthrough on Taiwan, Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu said Saturday that arming the island so it can defend itself and keep supplying semiconductors remains in the U.S. national interest, Reuters reported. Xi pressed Trump to oppose Taiwan independence; Trump has yet to approve a pending roughly $14 billion arms package he said in May he was holding in abeyance. U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Friday there has been no change in Taiwan policy under the Taiwan Relations Act.
10. Suva / Fiji. Pacific defence ministers wrapping up the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Fiji signalled a phased approach to any expansion of the Pacific Response Group into civil-unrest “stabilisation” missions and voiced “grave concern” over China’s ballistic missile test into the Blue Pacific “without appropriate notice,” RNZ reported. Australia, Chile, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga took part. Australian Defence Force chief Adm. Mark Hammond said there must be “absolute consensus” and respect for sovereign constitutional processes.
Coming up. Monday 28 September — UN General Assembly high-level week continues in New York. Tuesday–Wednesday 30 September–1 October — G20 trade ministers, Milwaukee. Sunday 4 October — Brazil general election (first round; runoff 25 October if needed). The standing calendar is at The Watch.
Sources: Reuters; Associated Press; Al Jazeera; International Organization for Migration; RNZ.
