Sept. 30, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1773, the Polish Sejm ratified the treaty that led to the First Partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
QotD: "Since summer, there's barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn't happened since the end of last heating season,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on X.
ISRAEL/SAUDI/AVIATION/SEC – Passengers intervened in cockpit stabbing on Israel-bound flight.
Passengers intervened to stop a cockpit fight on a FlyDubai flight to Israel that left at least one pilot stabbed and bloody, and sent the airplane into a steep dive before it made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Passengers said in an interview and in social media videos that they surged forward to stop an attacker who stabbed a pilot in an incident whose details remain murky. Saudi officials said both pilots were taken off the plane with stab wounds after it landed.
Just over two hours into the early morning flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft plunged more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds, according to flight trackers.
At 1:31 a.m. ET, the plane’s transponder issued a Squawk 7700, indicating a general emergency. Seven minutes later, that alert switched to a code for unlawful interference, according to Flightradar24—a code used to describe attempts to jeopardize the safety of the airplane, like hijacking or hostage taking.
FlyDubai, the sister airline to the long-haul carrier Emirates, didn’t explain what happened on flight FZ1073, only saying that it “experienced an incident while en route.” The plane landed in Tabuk in western Saudi Arabia and “all passengers are safe and accounted for,” the carrier added.
US/MIL/IRAQ – Joy mixed with fear as US forces quit Iraq leaving potential security vacuum.
Iraqis celebrated the departure of US forces after more than two decades of war on Wednesday, though many were worried that a security vacuum could increase the power of Iran-backed militia or provide an opening for the return of Islamic State.
The withdrawal of the final troops, mainly from an airbase in Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, ended the biggest US war of the century, which brought widespread devastation and chaos from which Iraq has yet to fully emerge.
Tehran and its allies hailed the withdrawal as a victory in their campaign to drive US forces from the Middle East.
Iraqi troops paraded in vehicles through the streets of Baghdad and the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf to mark the pullout.
The withdrawal "fills our hearts with joy," said Baghdad resident Ahmed Salah, who said he felt reborn at the age of 70. But he also said it was now time for powerful militia groups to surrender their weapons, "and let the government be the one responsible to protect me and you on the ground, sky and water."
HORMUZ/IRAN/OIL – Mideast oil exports rebound even as prices remain elevated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/business/oil-exports-strait-of-hormuz.html
Oil exports from the Middle East have risen sharply this month, some oil analysts say, taking them closer to the level they were at before Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz in March, a rebound that could ease some pressure on global energy prices.
In September, an average of 10 million barrels of oil has gone through the waterway daily, according to Kpler, a firm that tracks oil tankers. Separately, six million barrels of crude a day has left the Persian Gulf states this month through pipelines and ports that bypass the strait, Kpler’s data shows.
Before the war with Iran began at the end of February, around 19 million barrels of crude left the region daily through the waterway and other routes. Because of the difficulty in tracking tankers, export totals supplied by analysts might not reflect the true flow of oil, but most experts say volumes rose significantly this month.
The turnaround has most noticeably occurred in the strait, even though Iran continues to attack tankers. A U.S. military operation aimed at protecting the vessels from the attacks appears to have encouraged more shipments by big exporting countries, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
US/LAW/IMMIGRATION – US Supreme Court lifts restrictions on third-party deportations.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted restrictions on the deportations of immigrants to countries that are not their own, while agreeing to hear the issue on its merits in December.
The conservative-dominated high court granted an emergency request by the Trump administration to suspend a lower court ruling that restricted, but did not outright ban, so-called "third-country removals".
The lower court had said that people targeted with deportation must be given effective notice ahead of time about where they are being sent to allow them to raise concerns about potential persecution.
RUS/UKR/MIL – Russia unleashes heavy attack on Ukrainian energy grid as winter looms.
Russia unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine's energy grid on Wednesday, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months.
The strikes, in which Ukrainian officials said seven people were killed, followed days of intensifying drone barrages primarily on the capital, a prelude to what many Ukrainians expect to be a winter of attacks intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness when Ukraine is short of air defences.
"Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure," Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on X after the attacks overnight.
"Since summer, there's barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn't happened since the end of last heating season."
Russian attacks last winter, which brought record-low temperatures, ravaged power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to adapt to dire circumstances.
ROMANIA/POL – Romanian lawmakers reject a new center-right Cabinet as political crisis deepens.
Lawmakers in Romania on Wednesday rejected a new center-right Cabinet proposed by Siegfried Muresan, who was the latest of three designated prime ministers in recent months tasked with ending a deepening political crisis.
The vote prolongs the crisis and raises the chance of early elections at a time of regional security concerns, with the NATO member confronting a sharp increase in drone incursions linked to Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine.
The vote was 182 lawmakers for the proposed Cabinet and 15 against, but it left Muresan well short of the 233 votes needed to secure Parliamentary approval in the European Union country.
“We came up with a solution to end the political crisis, and we saw that the parties that triggered the political crisis voted to extend the political crisis,” Muresan told a press conference after the vote.
KOREA/DMZ – North Korea denies South’s claim, calls DMZ blast a ‘farce’.
https://www.dw.com/en/north-korea-denies-souths-claim-calls-dmz-blast-a-farce/a-79481164
North Korea on Wednesday denied a South Korean claim that blamed Pyongyang for a mine blast in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that left three South Korean soldiers injured.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, accused Seoul of coming up with false evidence after blaming Pyongyang for last week's explosion.
"It is too low and dirty as befitting the tribes of South Korea," Kim said in a statement carried by state media KCNA.
"Such a farce is by no means new."
South Korea's Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said on Tuesday that North Korean mines caused the blast and that it would take "corresponding" action. He also said North Korea likely planted mines to fortify the border.
He said the South Korean military "has a range of necessary measures at our disposal, and we will implement them in stages."
AG/CHINA/BRAZIL/WORLD OF BEEF – China adds 55% tariff to Brazil beef as imports hit quota.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-adds-55-tariff-brazil-beef-imports-2026-09-30/
China will start collecting an additional 55% tariff on Brazil's beef shipments on October 1 after the South American country reached its annual quota of 1.1 million metric tons, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday.
China unveiled the added tariff, applicable to all suppliers, in January to protect its domestic cattle industry.
The duty adds to the standard import tariff of 12%, taking to 67% Brazil's total import duty on all shipments surpassing its quota.
CHINA/LAOS/MIL – China carves new military presence in Southeast Asian neighbour.
China’s latest expansion of its overseas military footprint was carved from a patch of farmland in Laos over the past year, satellite imagery showed, as analysts said the new support centre could deepen Beijing's presence in Southeast Asia.
The China-Laos Joint Support and Training Center and the China-Laos Friendship Aviation Academy are now operational at an airport in Ban Keun, some 50 km (31 miles) north of the Lao capital Vientiane, Beijing's Ministry of National Defence said on Tuesday.
"The fact that this is a joint support and training centre suggests (China's People's Liberation Army) could be seeking persistent access to a logistics hub that can support forces rotating through Laos, perhaps with a small forward support element," said Rachel Vandenbrink, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Some records indicate the area was once used by the United States during its war in Laos and neighbouring Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s. But commercial satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters shows the new construction goes far beyond the rough dirt strip visible until last year.
IRAN/US – Iran indicates it’s received an official US response to its latest offer on ending the war.
https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-hormuz-trump-proposal-2c42d71d8a4be3443147cd65a6ee9193
Iranian officials indicated Wednesday they have received an official U.S. response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the seven-month war, which U.S. President Donald Trump had publicly rejected just days earlier.
The officials did not say what the response contained, and whether it was a rejection or not.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the U.S. response to President Masoud Pezeshkian at a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told the state-run IRNA news agency.
“We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian said. “The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”
The Cabinet meeting follows Araghchi’s return to Iran after travelling to New York for the U.N. General Assembly last week. While there, officials held indirect talks with U.S. officials and also met with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders.