Sept. 28, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1066, William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.
QOTD: "This result is not a vote against neutrality. Switzerland was neutral yesterday, it is neutral today, and it will remain neutral in the future," Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said at a press conference following the outcome.
UK/US/IRAN/SEC - U.K. Probes Possible Iran Link to Suspected Terror Plot at Base Hosting U.S. Forces
https://www.wsj.com/world/u-k-probes-possible-iran-link-to-suspected-terror-plot-at-base-hosting-u-s-forces-b2328fb2
British investigators are probing whether Iran or an Islamist group was behind a foiled attack on an air base in England that houses U.S. forces and has been used to launch attacks in the conflict with Iran, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Police on Monday said that the five men arrested in connection with the incident were all U.K. nationals in their early 20s and living in London. The men were detained a few hundred yards from the RAF Fairford base in western England in the early hours of Sunday. Police haven’t so far identified a motive, though security officials suspect U.S. B-1 bombers at the base were a likely target.
Iran’s Embassy in the U.K. said Monday it “categorically rejects” attempts to link Iran to the arrests, calling such reports “unfounded and malicious speculations,” in a statement on X.
Images published by local outlets Sunday showed five shirtless men being arrested by counterterrorism police, while a robotic bomb-detection crew searched three white vans. Large black canisters sat nearby on the road, the images showed. The men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.
Security officials said Monday it was still too early to say whether the men were directed by Tehran. Iran had warned the U.K. earlier this year that it would face consequences for allowing the U.S. to use its bases to attack the country. U.S. bombers have used Fairford base to fly sorties in the Middle East conflict.
SPAIN/POL/I GUESS PR HASN’T BEEN A SPANISH CONSIDERATION SINCE 1898 -
Anger grows across Spain after elderly woman is evicted from her home of 70 years
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/spain/anger-grows-spain-elderly-woman-evicted-home-70-years-rcna599808
An 87-year-old Spanish woman was forcibly evicted Wednesday from the Madrid apartment she had lived in for more than 70 years, in a case that highlights a growing housing crisis in the country.
Video showed Maricarmen Abascal, who is a wheelchair user, being taken out of the building in the Spanish capital’s Retiro neighborhood on a stretcher and driven away in an ambulance.
Supporters had gathered outside her building overnight on Friday, with dozens of police officers holding them back as some tried to stop the eviction from going ahead. In a social media video posted Friday by the Madrid tenants union, Abascal gave thanks for the support she had received.[…]
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid to protest the eviction, some setting off flares. They carried placards reading “Not one more eviction, not one less neighbor, we are all Maricarmen” and “right to housing at a fair price.”
DPRK/ROK/UKRAINE/GROWING PAINS - Seoul demands an apology after Zelenskyy reveals North Korean POWs were sent to South Korea
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-ukraine-prisoners-of-war-russia-17df235a34d773c7dcf20a6b73f2b997
Seoul has called for an official apology from Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed what it says was supposed to be a secret transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea.
Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly last week that Ukraine had recently sent the men to South Korea, after capturing them on a Ukraine-Russia battlefield in early 2025. The two are among thousands of North Korean soldiers sent to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung quickly accused Ukraine of violating a nondisclosure agreement about the transfer. Ukraine denied making such a deal.
Late Sunday, Seong Ghi-hong, a senior presidential adviser for Lee on public relations, expressed “strong regret” over Ukraine’s latest actions and demanded an official apology and explanation.
SERBIA/POL - Serbia’s populist President Vucic resigns to run for prime minister at early vote
https://apnews.com/article/serbia-election-vucic-resigns-students-dc1ac38b8f442bb7e32c339dc7fad069
Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic resigned Sunday to pursue a bid to become prime minister in an upcoming early parliamentary election that will test his firm rule in the Balkan country, which was rattled by nearly two years of protests.
Vucic’s second presidential term would otherwise end in May next year. He is banned by the Serbian Constitution from seeking a third term and said he was resigning to lead his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party in the Oct. 25 ballot.
The governing populists face a major challenge at the ballot box from a youth-backed movement that led the protests triggered by the Nov. 1, 2024, train station canopy collapse that killed 16 people in the northern city of Novi Sad.
University students demanded accountability for the tragedy. Their struggle for justice and against corruption has grown into a strong movement that will attempt to oust Vucic’s government after 14 years in power. Vucic himself has been either prime minister or president for the past 12 years.
“I am resigning the duty of the President of the Republic,” Vucic said, reading the text of his resignation.
SWEDEN/POL - Sweden faces political deadlock after Andersson gives up attempt to form government
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-opposition-leader-andersson-says-she-cannot-form-goverment-current-2026-09-28/
Attempts to form a new government in Sweden hit the buffers on Monday after Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson said she was unable to secure enough support, despite the centre-left bloc winning a narrow majority in this month's election.
"I can conclude that there is currently no possibility for me to form a government," Andersson said at a press conference, saying she had lost the support of Sweden's Left Party.
The speaker of Sweden's parliament is now likely to turn to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to see if he can form a government. Kristersson's Moderates are the next biggest party after the Social Democrats.
The general election on September 13 saw the centre-left opposition winning a narrow majority, taking 176 seats in parliament to the centre-right's 173.
The result was driven by a decline in support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats in the Nordic nation of 10.6 million people, bucking a Europe-wide trend of gains for the far right.
Despite the centre-left's victory, the vote, widely seen as a referendum on Kristersson's promise to bring the far-right Sweden Democrats into a ruling coalition, has left forming a stable government fraught with difficulties.
SWITZERLAND/POL - Swiss voters reject tighter neutrality rules that would have curbed NATO cooperation
https://www.reuters.com/world/swiss-vote-tightening-neutrality-rules-ending-peacetime-cooperation-with-nato-2026-09-27/
Swiss voters on Sunday firmly rejected a proposal to adopt a more restrictive form of neutrality that would have blocked their country from imposing economic sanctions or cooperating with NATO.
All cantons and about 70% of voters rejected the proposal for a strictly defined version of neutrality to be written into the Swiss constitution, final results from the Federal Statistical Office showed.
While Swiss neutrality has been internationally recognised since the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, how the government implements it is not spelled out.
The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) has said that Switzerland's traditional position has been eroded after Bern imposed sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
The campaign had funded posters across the country urging people to vote "No war, yes to neutrality", featuring white peace doves, ahead of the vote.
Cassis said the rejection allows Switzerland to continue deciding on economic sanctions on a case-by-case basis and to cooperate with partners when doing so strengthens the country's security, which, he stressed, also depends on the security of its neighbours and the European continent.
UK/ECON/MIL - UK's Healey puts defence in focus for reindustrialisation push
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/uks-healey-puts-defence-focus-reindustrialisation-push-2026-09-27/
British finance minister John Healey will put his support firmly behind firms investing in defence on Monday, part of what he will describe as a new industrialisation drive to try to spur the nation's anaemic economic growth.
In his first speech to the governing Labour Party's annual conference as finance minister, Healey will aim to put flesh on the bones of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge to reindustrialise Britain when he became the nation's seventh leader in a decade in July.
Healey, who resigned as defence minister under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer over what he felt was inadequate spending on defence, will say a "new age of industrialisation" will see British firms deliver multi-billion pound defence projects, such as three new floating docks for submarines in Clyde in Scotland.
"By backing British shipyards, we are not only boosting national security but also securing resilience in the industries that will drive growth today while building the capabilities the country needs for the future," Healey said in a statement.
Burnham has pledged to meet a NATO target of increasing the core defence budget to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
EGYPT/ISRAEL/SEC - Egypt Warned Netanyahu of Impending Attack on Israel Before Oct. 7
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/egypt-warned-netanyahu-of-impending-attack-on-israel-before-oct-7-8e3d5ae0
Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, was growing anxious.
It was early October 2023 and two Egyptian warnings about signs of an impending attack from Gaza had gone unheeded by Israel. Kamel called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a third alert, said officials in an Arab government.
Just days later, Hamas would unleash a deadly attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw some 250 taken hostage, sparking a devastating war in Gaza that has reshaped the Middle East.
The call from Kamel to Netanyahu, which hasn’t previously been reported, is one of multiple advance warnings Netanyahu and other Israeli officials received before the attack, said the Arab government officials and other people familiar with the matter. Those allegations have sparked renewed focus ahead of tight national elections next month on the longtime Israeli leader’s prewar actions.
Netanyahu was also told about indications of a Hamas attack in a call with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed in September 2023, but the Israeli leader didn’t seem convinced, the Arab officials and people familiar with the matter said. The warnings weren’t specific about the timing or the scale of the possible attack, the officials and people said.
Netanyahu’s office didn’t respond to questions from The Wall Street Journal about Kamel’s call. The prime minister’s office has previously denied there were conversations between the Israeli leader and Kamel in the months leading up to Oct. 7.
The foreign ministries of Egypt and the U.A.E. didn’t respond to requests for comment.
GIFT LINK: The Mystery Man Shadowing Kimberly Guilfoyle as She Pushes Deals Across Europe
https://www.wsj.com/articles/kimberly-guilfoyle-mystery-man-energy-5adeb541?st=7VTJ8M&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Kimberly Guilfoyle was a long way from Mar-a-Lago.
The U.S. ambassador to Greece—Donald Trump Jr.’s former fiancée—was shuttling back and forth to Bulgaria’s capital on a mission this spring. The Trump administration wanted allies on Europe’s eastern edge to buy billions of dollars of American natural gas.
There was just one thing.
The Bulgarian government, she told people, should deal with a Greek construction firm called Aktor Group, a newcomer to the gas business that had teamed up with a Greek state-backed energy company to bring in liquefied natural gas from the U.S. “There is no doubt that this is kind of an official position of the U.S. government,” said a person familiar with the talks.
Sitting beside the 57-year-old ambassador in an audience with the Bulgarian president was a 39-year-old named Christos Marafatsos. He has attended so many of her meetings that some foreign officials mistook him for her chief of staff. In fact, he is a top lobbyist for Aktor, whose CEO had flown Guilfoyle to the country on a private jet.
A one-time prosecutor who morphed into a MAGA icon, Guilfoyle is parlaying her ambassadorship to Greece into one of the Trump administration’s most important diplomatic roles. The former Fox News host has crisscrossed the Balkans to help Europe wean itself from Russian energy, via a “vertical gas corridor” meant to receive U.S. LNG in Greece and pipe it toward Ukraine.
But she has puzzled government officials across the region with her persistent promotion of a specific Greek company—and her extensive efforts to involve Marafatsos, a neophyte in both diplomacy and energy.
His prior experience includes co-founding a Washington, D.C.-area produce distributor and working in businesses ranging from real-estate consulting to creating “the ultimate immersive experience” of the Acropolis in IMAX 3-D.
These days, the Maryland-raised Marafatsos is frequently seen at Guilfoyle’s side, acting as her unofficial gatekeeper and joining her for meetings at her ambassadorial residence and with government officials in countries around the region—a highly unusual move for a private citizen.
[This piece published Friday night, but over the weekend eastern Europe/Balkan outlets have seized upon the details in the story where Ambassador Guilfoyle seems to threaten the Greek government with a Romanian-style government collapse. The implication is that the Americans had a hand in the upset. Bad looks all around but great gowns, beautiful gowns… -mnno]