Sept. 16, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1810, Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell and issued an impassioned call to arms against Spanish rule. Known as the Grito de Dolores, his cry helped ignite the Mexican War of Independence. Hidalgo was captured and executed the following year.
QotD: "I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So, I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU," von der Leyen said at the European Parliament Wednesday .
CANADA/EU – EU’s von der Leyen wants Canada to become bloc’s first associate member.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday she wanted to open the door to Canada becoming the EU's first "associate member" in a push to forge new links among allies in "an openly hostile world".
EU lawmakers gave a standing ovation after she made the proposal and then walked over to embrace Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was in the European Parliament to hear her annual State of the Union address.
New partnerships were needed "in the cold fragility of today’s world," von der Leyen told the assembly in Strasbourg.
"I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So, I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU," von der Leyen said.
The EU and Canada "see the world with the same eyes: from AI to climate change, from the Arctic to geopolitics. And we have stood together: on Ukraine, on defence, on raw materials and on supply chains. But above all ... Europe and Canada believe in democracy," von der Leyen told the assembly.
TECH/AI – AI leaders call for regulations, Trump dismisses ‘hoaxes’.
https://www.dw.com/en/ai-leaders-call-for-regulations-trump-dismisses-hoaxes/a-79284638
Some of the top names in AI are working on creating a standards body they say would regulate the industry amid rising fears about its dangers and an apparent US reluctance to police its speedy development.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI on Tuesday said it was working with top competitors Anthropic and Google on a self-regulatory body.
This comes amid rising calls for stricter control on the technology that is growing at lightning speed and not without dangerous precedents, calls that have thus far gone unanswered by the Donald Trump administration.
The regulatory body, proposed by Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, would be modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees US brokers and investment firms.
Hassabis had called in July for a federal organization that would test the most powerful AI systems before they are released to the public.
He suggested funding would come from the industry to "attract world-class technical talent and provide the necessary compute resources for large-scale testing."
SAUDI/YEMEN/HOUTHIS/MIL – Saudis pound Yemen, Houthis fire at Saudi, as Middle East war spreads.
Saudi warplanes pounded Yemen and Houthi fighters launched drones and missiles at Saudi cities, the Iran-backed movement said on Wednesday, after a lightning advance that has extended Tehran's reach in the Middle East war.
In a sign of the worsening conflict in a new theatre, the United States tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, banning government employees from travelling within 20 miles of the Yemen border.
The Houthis, who since last week have swept through Yemeni towns along the Red Sea coast and seized islands in the Bab el-Mandeb strait at its mouth, released battlefield video overnight of fighters seizing armoured vehicles from Saudi-backed forces. Warplanes flew overhead and huge explosions billowed into the sky from desert dunes, the video showed.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had launched fresh drone and missile strikes on the major Saudi Red Sea oil port of Yanbu, and at a southern Saudi airbase at Khamis Mushait. He did not say when the strikes had taken place. Both cities were among a wide range of locations where Saudi Arabia announced alerts on Tuesday, although there were no similar announcements on Wednesday.
GAZA/ISRAEL/HUMANITARIAN/MIL – Gaza: 20 dead, including children, in building collapse.
https://www.dw.com/en/gaza-20-dead-including-children-in-building-collapse/a-79293453
At least 20 people, including six children, were killed in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Wednesday morning when a war-damaged building collapsed, injuring at least 14 more people and trapping dozens of others beneath the rubble.
On Wednesday, rescue workers were still searching through the wreckage — in many cases with their bare hands given the lack of heavy machinery in the devastated Palestinian enclave.
"We are still hearing voices from under the rubble," said Raed Al-Dahshan, the director of Gaza City's civil defense service, adding that at least 10 families had lived in the collapsed building and expressing hope that more survivors could yet be found.
"My friend and neighbors live in this building," resident Mohannad Al-Mashharawi told the AFP news agency. "I came to help my friend retrieve some clothes and mattresses. He currently has no shelter or home."
The death toll is expected to rise as the search for victims buried in the rubble continues.
SOUTH AFRICA/SEC – South Africa now probing deaths of 8 women near Johannesburg.
https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-now-probing-deaths-of-8-women-near-johannesburg/a-79278296
South African police are now investigating the deaths of eight women found east of Johannesburg over the past two months, after another body was discovered on Tuesday and an earlier case was added to the widening investigation.
The deaths have raised fears that a serial killer or group of killers could be operating in the area. Several of the victims were found naked or partially clothed, with some showing signs of sexual violence.
"The challenge is ahead of us and the deaths of these young women must not be in vain," acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told reporters following a meeting to discuss the killings.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has issued a public warning urging women to exercise caution when jogging or carrying out similar activities in the area.
"While investigations are still underway and SAPS has not, at this stage, confirmed that the deaths are linked to a serial killer, the similarities are sufficiently concerning for the police to issue a public warning and intensify investigations," police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.
US/RUSSIA/JUSTICE – US announces charges against five alleged agents for Russia over assassination plots.
The US Department of Justice announced charges Tuesday against five alleged agents for Russian intelligence accused of conspiring to carry out attacks and murders around the world, including in the United States.
The group, which has been active since at least 2024, attempted to have a "prominent Russian dissident" believed to be living in the US murdered this summer, the department said in a statement, without naming the target.
Its members allegedly operated as part of "a global assassination network that reached into the United States", Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said.
They attempted to recruit US citizens and foreigners to carry out killings on the Kremlin's orders, Eisenberg said.
According to the statement, the three main suspects are Yuri Khrameev, a 63-year-old former colonel in the Russian intelligence services, his son Kirill, 27, and Oemis Romagoza Durruthy, a 35-year-old Cuban.
UKR/MIL/FUNDING – Ukraine proposes record defence spending next year as war costs soar.
Ukraine is proposing record defence spending for 2027 as the cost of the war with Russia, now in its fifth year, rises and the country needs more financial support from its partners, officials said on Wednesday.
Defence spending is expected to hit 4.89 trillion hryvnias ($110 billion) in 2027, 12% higher than this year. It accounted for about two-thirds of the total spending in a draft 2027 budget of 7.27 trillion hryvnias presented to parliament on Wednesday.
Budget revenues are forecast at 5.6 trillion hryvnias.
"This is the sixth budget of the full-scale war, and it's again bigger than the previous one. During these years, the war has become more expensive," said Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the parliamentary budget committee told lawmakers.
"At the same time, state revenues ... are not growing at the same pace as spending is increasing."
The daily cost of the war has risen to $190 million this year compared with $116 million in 2022 at the start of Russia's invasion, Pidlasa said.
Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said told parliament that Ukraine would require more than $52 billion in international financial aid next year.
BRAZIL/LAW – Brazil Supreme Court postpones decision on opening probe of Justice Moraes.
Brazil's Supreme Court postponed on Tuesday a decision on whether to open an investigation of fellow court member Justice Alexandre de Moraes over allegations he advised a banker accused of leading a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Justice Flavio Dino asked for more time to review the case, postponing any decision on the matter. The session was halted while the justices were voting on procedural matters, before the formal discussion of the merits had even begun.
PHILIPPINES/ICC – Former Philippines leader Duterte appears before ICC judges for first time.
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte appeared in the courtroom on Wednesday for the first time since being transferred to the International Criminal Court 18 months ago to face murder charges regarding his war on drugs.
Duterte, 81, served as president from 2016 to 2022, before being charged with crimes against humanity for setting up, funding and arming death squads that targeted narcotics peddlers and users. He was arrested and taken to The Hague in March 2025.
Dressed in a black suit and white shirt, Duterte did not speak in court, but sat quietly sipping water during the proceedings. He stood and waved to family members in the public gallery.
"We're happy that he has finally appeared and that he looks OK. In fact, he looks like he has put on weight," said Llore Pasco, whose two sons were killed during Duterte's war on drugs, watching a television broadcast of the hearings from Manila.
In court, Presiding Judge Joanna Korner asked prosecutors to find ways to shorten the trial, set to begin in November, due to the defendant's age and health.
"It's important this trial goes ahead as quickly as possible," she said, pressing parties to limit the number of witnesses and focus on key evidence.
KOSOVO/SERBIA – Former Kosovo president sentenced to 25 years for war crimes in Serbia conflict.
An international tribunal convicted the former president of Kosovo of war crimes during the separatist war against Serbia and sentenced him to 25 years in prison, one of the final verdicts in a series of landmark trials arising from the bloody dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.
A panel of three judges in The Hague ruled Wednesday that Hashim Thaci and three other commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army were responsible for the torture and murder of Serbs, suspected Serb collaborators and other ethnic minorities between 1998 and 1999.
“Mr. Thaci had contemporaneous knowledge of a significant number of crimes against opponents, in particular unlawful arrest and detention, mistreatment and murder,” Charles Smith III, one of the judges, said. “Despite this knowledge, Mr. Thaci took no steps to prevent, investigate or punish these crimes. Instead…Mr. Thaci actively participated in and encouraged crimes.”
Thaci has been in custody in The Hague for six years since he voluntarily surrendered in 2020 to the tribunal, known as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. The former leader and the other onetime KLA commanders were indicted by Jack Smith, the tribunal’s former chief prosecutor who went on to indict President Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Comments (1)
What is the White House reaction (if any) to the trade initiatives precipitated by Canada?