International News Bulletin — September 28, 2026

Politics

• Mediators press on with US-Iran talks after Trump’s rejection – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was due to meet Qatari mediators and UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday, days after Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the AP reported. A US official said “there will not be a deal unless the nuclear issues are addressed”, according to CBS News, while Araghchi said the seven-day timeline “will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan”. In a statement attributed to him, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said US forces had taken “painful blows” near the strait.
• Serbia’s Vucic resigns to seek prime minister’s post – Aleksandar Vucic resigned as president on Sunday to lead his Serbian Progressive Party into a snap parliamentary election on October 25, the AP and Euronews reported. Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic becomes acting president, and Vucic, who is constitutionally barred from a third term, pardoned 49 people before leaving office, including 23 convicted in connection with protests. The vote follows nearly two years of student-led demonstrations that began after a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people.
• Seoul demands apology from Kyiv over prisoner disclosure – South Korea’s presidential office demanded an explanation and an apology from Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN General Assembly that Kyiv had transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to the South. Senior presidential secretary Seong Ghi-hong expressed “strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure” and said Seoul had agreed to a Ukrainian request to keep the transfer confidential, according to Al Jazeera and CNN. Ukraine denies that any such agreement existed, and the two soldiers were captured in Russia’s Kursk region in January 2025.
• Israel strips Dutch diplomats in Ramallah of their status – Israel’s Foreign Ministry revoked the diplomatic status of Dutch envoys accredited to the Palestinian Authority and gave them seven days to return their Israeli-issued credentials, in response to a Dutch ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that “Israel will not ignore measures intended to harm it”, Al Jazeera reported. Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said the sanctions “are not targeted against Israel”, and the Netherlands summoned Israel’s ambassador on Monday, according to NL Times.
• South African migrants brace for activists’ September 30 deadline – The anti-immigration movement March and March has called on undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa by September 30, a deadline the government says has no legal force, Al Jazeera reported. Police said they had no plans to change their normal approach, while Bishop Raphael Bahebwa, speaking for refugees who fear renewed attacks, said: “They are scapegoating us as foreigners.” Migration has become a prominent issue before local government elections on November 4.

Economy

• Wall Street falls as oil and Treasury yields climb – The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7 percent on Monday, the S&P 500 about 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq Composite 0.9 percent, while the 10-year Treasury yield rose 6 basis points to 5.24 percent, according to Yahoo Finance. Brent crude settled 96 cents higher at $105.28 a barrel after touching $108.83 and West Texas Intermediate settled at $92.60, CNBC reported, with prices easing from their highs on reports that Saudi Arabia was ramping up its East-West pipeline. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.70 percent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.73 percent, according to Al Jazeera.
• Washington and Beijing publish lists for reciprocal tariff cuts – The United States and China on Monday released lists of goods worth about $30 billion on each side that will receive lower tariffs, covering 77 Chinese product categories and 1,619 US items, PBS and Bloomberg reported. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the lists focused on “nonsensitive goods on each side”, and strategic sectors such as semiconductors, electric vehicles and batteries were left out. China’s Ministry of Commerce said about 90 percent of the products covered would move to most-favoured-nation rates.
• Florida asks court to halt OpenAI model development – Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a motion on Monday in Florida’s Tenth Judicial Circuit in Highlands County seeking to stop OpenAI from developing new models without independent third-party safety approval and to bar minors in the state from using ChatGPT, Axios and the Florida Phoenix reported. Uthmeier said the state was asking the court “to do what OpenAI will not do for itself: protect Florida families”, according to Al Jazeera, whose report carried no response from the company. The motion comes in a lawsuit the state filed against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman in June.

World News

• SpaceX’s Starship reaches orbit for the first time – Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday morning on its 14th test flight and reached orbit despite the early shutdown of one upper-stage engine, then deployed 26 Starlink satellites, CBS News and Al Jazeera reported. Mission managers brought the vehicle down after about three hours rather than completing the six planned orbits, and it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii, according to CBS News. NASA, which plans to use a Starship lander in its Artemis programme, welcomed the flight through Administrator Jared Isaacman.
• Congo’s Ebola outbreak passes 8,000 confirmed cases – The Democratic Republic of the Congo has recorded 8,067 confirmed Ebola cases and 3,901 deaths, according to national health authority figures reported by the AP and Al Jazeera. The outbreak, declared on May 15 and caused by the Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no licensed vaccine or treatment, has reached 63 health zones in seven of the country’s 26 provinces, the AP said. The World Health Organization said the “continuously high rate of deaths occurring in communities” underlined the seriousness of the outbreak.
• Russian guided bomb wounds 22 in Kharkiv apartment block – A Russian guided aerial bomb hit an apartment building in Kharkiv early on Monday, injuring 22 people including children, the city’s mayor said, according to Reuters. Ukrainian drones struck the Pavlovskaya oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region on Monday, causing a large fire with no injuries reported, Al Jazeera said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 2,200 attack drones, 1,630 aerial bombs and 38 missiles at Ukraine over the past week.
• Hurricane Polo bears down on Mexico’s Baja California Sur – Polo was a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 115 mph about 110 miles southwest of Cabo San Lázaro on Monday morning and was forecast to make landfall in Baja California Sur in the late afternoon or early evening, CBS News reported. Authorities suspended school and work in the state on Monday and Tuesday and closed ports including Cabo San Lucas and Loreto, according to Mexico News Daily. Forecasters expect 6 to 12 inches of rain in Baja California Sur and a second landfall in Sonora late on Monday or early on Tuesday.
• Strike on Yemeni market kills seven, Houthi ministry says – Yemen’s Houthi-run health ministry said seven people were killed and 40 injured, including children, in a strike on shops at the Mawiya junction in Taiz province on Sunday, Reuters reported. The internationally recognised government said its forces had targeted a Houthi military camp and vehicles at the junction, while Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree blamed Saudi Arabia for the attack, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Bulletin automatically generated on September 28, 2026.