Sept. 24, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1877, The Battle of Shiroyama is a decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion.
QOTD: “The crisis engulfing the judiciary has provided another advantageous twist for Mr. Bolsonaro. It has eclipsed revelations that he himself is being investigated by the authorities for raising millions of dollars from Mr. Vorcaro to finance a biopic about his father.”
ITALY/GLOW IN THE DARK PASTA - 40 years after Chernobyl, Italy greenlights a return to nuclear energy
https://apnews.com/article/italy-nuclear-chernobyl-4891b6b7c7791ae84db6b0bf0f7cf567
Italy’s Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation paving the way for a return to nuclear power nearly four decades after the Chernobyl disaster prompted the country to abandon atomic energy.
The measure cleared the upper house 81-51 with seven abstentions. It marks a major step in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s drive to bolster energy security and meet climate goals, even though the construction of possible new reactors is still years away.
The bill, which earlier passed the lower Chamber of Deputies, establishes a legal framework for next-generation nuclear technologies. It authorizes the government to draft implementing decrees over the next 12 months covering reactor licensing, safety standards, waste management and criteria for future sites.
The vote puts Italy on a path toward reintroducing nuclear power after voters twice rejected it in national referendums, first in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and again following Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011.
UKRAINE/DPRK/ROK/MIL - Ukraine sent two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, Zelenskiy says
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-sent-two-captured-north-korean-soldiers-south-korea-zelenskiy-says-2026-09-23/
Ukraine has transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday in an address to the United Nations General Assembly.
"Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea," said Zelenskiy in his speech.
"These guys are not easy to capture alive. One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself. And he was shocked that fate did not let him die."
BRAZIL/POL/CASCADING IRONIES - The High-Stakes Corruption Scandal Shaking Up Brazil’s Election
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/world/americas/brazil-supreme-court-justice-moraes-vorcaro-trump.html
He cracked down on a deluge of online lies. He punished rioters falsely claiming a stolen election. And he jailed a former president who tried to stage a coup.
Depending on whom you ask, this made Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes either a hero who protected Brazil’s democracy or a villain deploying authoritarian means to target the far right.
His decisions have turned him into a polarizing figure in the complicated global debate over the limits and policing of what can be said online — and drew the ire, and sanctions, of President Trump.
Now, an explosive scandal linking Justice Moraes to a disgraced banker at the center of a multibillion dollar fraud scheme has plunged Brazil’s highest court into a crisis, reshaping a narrow presidential election just weeks away.
The crisis began when another justice made public a damning police dossier suggesting that Justice Moraes may have exchanged dozens of messages with the banker, Daniel Vorcaro.
In texts apparently sent to Justice Moraes, Mr. Vorcaro asked for help avoiding arrest. In other exchanges with associates, Mr. Vorcaro mentioned paying millions to a law firm run by the justice’s wife.
SPAIN/POL/OWN GOALS GALORE - Dramatic eviction of 87-year-old Madrid tenant spotlights Spain's housing crisis
https://www.reuters.com/world/dramatic-eviction-87-year-old-madrid-tenant-spotlights-spains-housing-crisis-2026-09-23/
Police evicted an 87-year-old woman on Wednesday from her Madrid home of more than seven decades despite hundreds of people protesting outside and the government criticising the eviction order, in a dramatic new flashpoint of Spain's housing crisis.
After being given just 30 minutes to leave with only essential belongings, Maricarmen Abascal was eventually removed from the building on a stretcher accompanied by social services officials and driven away in an ambulance as supporters chanted "Maricarmen, you're not alone!" and "Murderers!"
The case highlights mounting pressure on long-term tenants in major Spanish cities, where soaring rents, gentrification and a shortage of affordable housing have fuelled social and political tensions.
The apartment in the capital's affluent Retiro neighbourhood had been acquired by an investment fund that sought a steep increase in her rent.
Maricarmen's lawyer, Beatriz Duro, said court officials and representatives of the investment fund, Urbagestion, had refused to suspend the eviction despite a pending court filing, humanitarian appeals and evidence that public authorities were working to secure alternative accommodation.
POLAND/TECH/SEC - Starlink Base Station Caught Fire in Poland, Minister Says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-24/starlink-base-station-caught-fire-in-poland-minister-says
A Starlink base station near Warsaw that helps provide internet to Ukraine caught fire late on Wednesday, Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said in TVP Info interview.
“A lot points to an intentional attempt of disrupting the operations of an important hub that also provides internet to Ukraine,” Gawkowski said, adding that it could be an element of a hybrid war by Russia.
Poland, as a key transit route for Western aid to Ukraine, has suffered a spate of suspicious incidents, with multiple cyberattacks on public utilities like water, energy infrastructure and hospitals, and damage to a rail line between Warsaw and the Ukrainian border which the authorities attributed to Russian sabotage. A Russian missile also crashed in Poland in late July.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said later on Thursday that it’s too early to definitely determine what, if anything, was behind the Starlink incident.
“I don’t like to specify without 100% certainty what is sabotage and what is an accident, but it looks bad,” Tusk told reporters.
The equipment providing power to the station were on fire but the facility is online at the moment, he said, without specifying whether the internet connection was at any point disrupted. The Internal Security Agency officers are investigating the incident on site.
WORLD/FOOD/RUSSIA/UKRAINE/MIL - Wheat buyers brace for higher costs as Russia-Ukraine war drags on
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/wheat-buyers-brace-higher-costs-russia-ukraine-war-drags-2026-09-23/
Global wheat buyers holding out to replenish dwindling stocks face painfully higher costs when they return to the market in the coming weeks, with world prices soaring as the Russia-Ukraine war shows no signs of abating.
Top wheat importers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa that were counting on the Black Sea region for wheat have been finding it hard to secure supplies, as attacks on vessels and port infrastructure have brought cargo movements to a near standstill since July.
The constraints have triggered a rally in prices, with benchmark Chicago futures climbing 40% from June lows to a three-and-a-half-year high and physical prices from alternative exporters surging, threatening a fresh bout of food inflation for some of the world's most vulnerable consumers.
Most global importers have held off making alternative purchases for the past few months, hoping for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to allow grain shipments, but local supplies are running thin, especially in import-dependent Asia, traders and millers said.
Competition for cargoes is poised to intensify until the end of the year, when the Southern Hemisphere harvest kicks in, with prices set to rise further in the meantime.
ARGENTINA/UK/UN - Milei renews Argentina’s Falklands claim at the UN, urging a ‘peaceful solution’
https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-general-assembly-milei-argentina-britain-falklands-64f19bec568a6e783263d2dbd55a2e7e
Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the islands known to Britain as the Falklands and to Argentines as the Malvinas, calling it a key issue for his nation and urging the parties to find a “peaceful solution” as tensions with London over the disputed archipelago grow.
“The Malvinas for us is a national cause,” Milei, a strong ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said Wednesday while addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Milei accused the United Nations of failing to enforce international resolutions that urge the parties to “refrain from introducing unilateral changes while the dispute remains unresolved.” He also called on Britain to resume negotiations to “find a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute.”
“The Malvinas issue is not merely a matter between Argentina and the United Kingdom; it is also a question regarding this organization’s ability to enforce its own resolutions,” he said.
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN/STONE AGE RETRIBUTION IN THE AGE OF DRONE WARFARE - Afghanistan vows to respond after Pakistani air strikes kill four
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/24/pakistan-says-it-launches-air-strikes-on-afghanistan-after-drone-attacks
Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan have killed at least four people, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban government said, promising to deliver an “appropriate response”.
Pakistan said on Thursday it carried out air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan used to store and launch drones, some of which were used in cross-border attacks.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the air strikes targeted Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces.
A resident in Kandahar city told the AFP news agency that an air strike hit the city in southern Afghanistan. The resident said they heard a jet, then a large explosion, followed by a fire in the centre of Kandahar city, AFP reported.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said air strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate, and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan”.
He condemned a “deliberate and unlawful incursion into Pakistan by drones” on Wednesday.
“This constitutes a blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and is a grave and unacceptable act of aggression,” he said.
Taliban officials denied that their government launched drones against Pakistan on Wednesday.
The air raids on Thursday were carried out as tensions grow between the former allies over attacks by armed groups in Pakistan, which triggered their worst fighting in years in February.