“Venezuela’s opposition leader, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado, was prevented from returning to the South American country from her exile in Panama, a source from her political party told AFP on Tuesday. Machado is considered a fugitive by the Venezuelan government, which accuses her of calling for military intervention against the country. She has been unable to return to Venezuela since being covertly sneaked out of the country in December by a private U.S. rescue team to accept her Nobel Prize in Norway. ‘During the last 24 hours, María Corina Machado has been denied entry into Venezuela three times,’ the politician’s senior adviser David Smolansky said in a statement shared with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and other journalists early Wednesday morning.” (09/23/26)
“Billionaire Les Wexner has long been a magnet for political campaigns seeking contributions — especially in his native Ohio, where the retail tycoon directed a generous portion of his giving to candidates from both parties. Then came the Epstein files. Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, was Wexner’s former financial adviser. That relationship and Wexner’s history of political donations has figured prominently in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, which could end up as the most expensive in the country this year. Wexner, who has disavowed his prior association with Epstein, contributed about $116,000 to support Republican Sen. Jon Husted from 2001 to 2025, mostly during the two decades he spent in state politics before being appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat last year. While that’s just a sliver of Husted’s prolific fundraising, his opponent in this year’s race, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is turning it into a campaign cudgel.” (09/23/26)
“Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted rebel commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani of persecution and torture as crimes against humanity committed while he ran a prison in the Central African Republic. Said, 56, wore jeans and a blue sweater and remained expressionless for most of the hourlong hearing as presiding Judge Miatta Maria Samba described the conditions prisoners endured at the facility in the capital, Bangui. … The charges stemmed from fighting more than a decade ago between the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels, who had seized power from then-President Francois Bozize, and a mainly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka.” (09/23/26)
“Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, issued a warning on debt levels at the UN general assembly meeting in New York City. The world’s advanced economies including the UK and US need to cut borrowing and reduce debt levels following weeks of spiraling government interest costs, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. In an exclusive interview, Kristalina Georgieva said global economic shocks had been ‘pushing debt levels up like a staircase not to heaven’ but that governments had taken ‘no action to contain that service cost’. ‘[It’s] time to take that action,’ she said, adding that ‘courage’ was needed by politicians to take the necessary steps. The intervention comes as government borrowing costs have surged in response to wars disrupting the supply of oil, which has fueled inflation.” (09/23/26)
“Two leading progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, are unveiling legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI as some of the industry’s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology. The bill, provided first to The Associated Press, would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are endorsing the bill. … The legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence, which it defines as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity.” [editor’s note: I’m shocked — shocked! — that people who would benefit from limiting competition in AI are endorsing a bill that would try to limit competition in AI – TLK] (09/23/26)
“Police in Mississippi have arrested a second man in the death of a [b]lack woman found hanging from a tree and have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect. Jackson police said late Tuesday that they arrested 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr. in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging behind an abandoned home in the city on Aug. 3. Like Fortune and the first man arrested, 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, Lloyd is [b]lack.” [editor’s note: One more brick falls in the wall of claims about “racist lynchings” – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Arrests are not convictions. And falling bricks would explain a lot about whatever goes on in SAT’s head – TLK] (09/23/26)
“The Philippine Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, on Wednesday lowered the number of votes needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, reducing the threshold prosecutors must clear to secure a guilty verdict. The court ruled that only senator-judges that are able to participate in the trial should be counted when determining the threshold for conviction. Four of the 24 senator-judges have been unable to participate in the proceedings and cannot vote. The constitution requires a two-thirds vote to convict an impeached official, so the decision means prosecutors now need 14 votes instead of 16 to gain a conviction. The decision could have broader implications if more senator-judges become unable to participate in the proceedings.” (09/23/26)
“Ethiopia’s government and the party in control of the northern region of Tigray have accused each other of launching offensives, escalating fears of a return to full-scale conflict. Getachew Reda, a cabinet minister and adviser to Ethiopia’s prime minister, said Tigrayan fighters had taken control of federally administered airports in Tigray and launched offensives in neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions. Earlier, the Tigrayan authorities said their forces had been forced to enter ‘a defensive war’. The statement followed reports of drone strikes in Tigray. The two-year war in Tigray ended in 2022 – but over recent months both sides have been accusing each other of violating a peace deal. It was one of the most deadly conflicts this century – the African Union’s mediator estimated some 600,000 people died as the fighting drove the region to the precipice of famine.” (09/23/26)
“A former U.S. Postal Service worker has been indicted forallegedly throwing away about 300 mail-in ballots earlier this year in Utah. The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed the indictment Tuesday as Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, Utah, appeared for his arraignment at the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse in Salt Lake City. Seei was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday. He faces charges of unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail for allegedly throwing the ballots into a dumpster in a church parking lot. Justice Department officials alleged in a detention memo that Seei said in an interview that he threw away the ballots and other mail on June 3 to ‘lighten his workload.'” (09/22/26)
“Iran’s president said Wednesday that his people have been ‘victims of terrorism’ by the United States, delivering a rare wartime speech at U.N. General Assembly a day after President Donald Trump said he ‘may annihilate’ the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war. The defiant speech by President Masoud Pezeshkian marked a striking instance of a foreign leader addressing the world body while their country is at war with the host nation. … ‘We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,’ Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. ‘Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.’ He added of the United States: ‘Yes they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.'” (09/23/26)
