International News Bulletin — September 27, 2026

Politics

• Iran says it awaits formal US reply on Hormuz plan – Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Donald Trump’s public rejection of Tehran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz had not yet been communicated through mediators, adding: “It is up to President Trump to choose.” He said Iran wanted its frozen assets released and to be able to sell its oil, and was “fully prepared for the war to be resumed”. Separately, the Revolutionary Guards Navy said it had seized a US Remus 600 underwater drone in the strait, a claim US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins rejected, saying Washington retained “positive control” of all its operational drone assets.
• Venezuela frees 39 political prisoners after government-opposition talks – Rights group Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón said 39 detainees were released between Friday and Saturday, including eight women accused of “narco-terrorism” in 2021 and six people accused of involvement in a 2020 plot against Nicolás Maduro, Al Jazeera and AFP reported. The releases followed a second round of talks on Friday between interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s government and the opposition, held with US approval since Maduro’s removal in January. Foro Penal counted 344 political prisoners as of September 18, according to Al Jazeera.
• Ethiopia’s army chief pledges restraint as northern fighting spreads – Field Marshal Berhanu Jula said the federal army was answering what he called provocations from the Tigray front with “wisdom and restraint”, Al Jazeera reported. He accused Eritrea of funding and supporting armed groups to weaken Ethiopia, an accusation Asmara denied. Fighting has spread from Tigray into Afar and Amhara since seven armed groups formed an alliance pledged to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, straining the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement.

Economy

• US energy secretary says Hormuz oil flows near 13 million barrels – Chris Wright told Fox News on Sunday that the running average of crude leaving the Strait of Hormuz was “nearly 13 million barrels per day”, counting waterborne cargoes and pipeline routes that bypass the waterway. He said that on one day last week more than 20 million barrels, above pre-conflict levels, had flowed out of the strait. US Central Command said it had helped move more than one billion barrels of Gulf crude over two months, Al Jazeera reported, while a senior Iranian military official said the strait would remain closed until US “economic warfare” ends.
• Bangkok floods shut 113 bank outlets as lenders offer relief – Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank and the Government Savings Bank temporarily closed a combined 113 branches and service points on Sunday as floods disrupted Bangkok, nearby provinces and parts of eastern Thailand, The Nation and The Star reported. State-owned Krungthai said flood-hit home-loan and SME borrowers could cut monthly repayments by 75 percent for a year, with zero interest for the first three months. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration put the number of affected households at about 52,000, with nearly 4,900 people in shelters, according to AFP.
• Burnham unveils “Your First Home” loans as Labour conference opens – Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government announced a scheme letting first-time buyers in England purchase new-build homes with a 2.5 percent deposit, backed by a state equity loan worth 20 percent of the property’s value with an initial interest-free period. Full details are due in the October 28 budget, the first under Chancellor John Healey, as Labour opened its annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday. Conservative shadow housing secretary Katie Lam said the plan asked buyers to “take on even more debt”, while Burnham told ITV he could “knock dead” speculation about an early election.

World News

• Two mass shootings kill at least 27 in South Africa – Eight gunmen armed with assault rifles and pistols killed 17 people and wounded 15 at a tavern in Wedela, southwest of Johannesburg, late on Saturday, police said. Early on Sunday, gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 at a venue in Lwandle, near Cape Town, according to Al Jazeera and France 24. Gauteng police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni said one line of inquiry was a “turf war” over illegal mining, and President Cyril Ramaphosa said South Africa “cannot be a country where people just pick up guns and start shooting”.
• Russian strikes hit Kyiv data centre and kill civilians in Sumy – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia struck a data centre in Kyiv twice on Sunday morning, wounding two children and an adult, and Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had targeted data centres it claimed served the Ukrainian military. Guided bombs killed a woman and a 16-year-old girl in Sumy, and one person was killed in the Odesa region, the AP reported, citing local officials. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 170 Shahed-type drones overnight, of which 147 were shot down or suppressed, while Zelenskyy said: “It is purely an attempt to break people and inflict as much harm as possible.”
• Five men arrested near US-used RAF Fairford air base – Police arrested five men on suspicion of Explosives Act offences after a call at 12:45 a.m. on Sunday about three suspicious vehicles heading towards RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, the AP reported, and the men were later held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, according to NPR. About 85 households in nearby Whelford were evacuated while bomb-disposal teams examined the vans inside a cordon. The base has been used by US bombers for strikes on Iran since February 28, and counterterrorism police are leading the inquiry.
• Pope Leo meets clergy abuse survivors at Lourdes – Pope Leo XIV met seven French survivors of clerical sexual abuse privately at the Lourdes shrine on Sunday, listening to each of them individually before gathering the group, the Vatican said. At Mass earlier in the day, he said that “in order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors” in the Church, it must place itself “under the Lord’s purifying gaze”, according to OSV News and Religion News Service. Monday is the final day of his first official visit to France, which began in Paris on September 25.
• Hurricane Nolo moves away from Hawaii, leaving thousands without power – Nolo tracked westward on Sunday with its centre well south of the main Hawaiian Islands, while high wind warnings stayed in force for parts of Hawaiʻi Island and Maui County until 6 p.m. local time, Hawaiʻi Public Radio and CBS News reported. More than 12,000 customers on Maui and over 4,000 on Hawaiʻi Island were without power on Sunday morning, and significant flooding was reported in Waiʻōhinu and Nāʻālehu, according to Hawaiʻi Public Radio. A landslide blocked the Hana Highway on Maui, and no injuries had been reported.

Bulletin automatically generated on September 27, 2026.