“Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday boosting the size of the army by 15,500 troops in the fourth such order this year. Putin’s order comes as both Russia and Ukraine suffer mounting casualties in the more than four-and-a-half-year Ukraine war. The decree did not give a reason for the troop increase. … Putin had previously signed documents boosting the size of the army in March, June and July. The combined increase since March amounts to 47,860 soldiers. Russia’s battlefield advances have slowed this year, as widespread drone use on the front has made swift, large-scale troop movements almost impossible. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of preparing for another military call-up, a suggestion that Putin has called Ukrainian ‘disinformation’.” (09/28/26)
“Intense clashes have broken out in the Somali city of Baidoa between government forces and fighters loyal to the ousted regional president. Fighter jets and drones were reported as the hostilities flared on Monday in the South West State city after thousands of local fighters entered the city in the morning. Violence has plagued the city in recent weeks as the army seeks to maintain the control it wrested earlier this year. … A number of states in Somalia oppose President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. His government sent troops to oust the head of South West State, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen in March. Laftagareen has repeatedly attempted to retake the area, including the administrative capital of Baidoa.” (09/28/26)
“A judge on Monday vacated a Trump administration rule that would withhold 20% of federal counterterrorism funds allocated for states unless states and certain municipalities made certain changes to how they administer elections. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali said the Federal Emergency Management Agency exceeded its legal authority ‘by conditioning the counterterrorism grant funds on changes to routine election administration.’ Ali also said FEMA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, had not shown how the desired changes to election administration related to stopping terrorism.” (09/28/26)
“Republican state Attorney General James Uthmeier intensified his fight with OpenAI and its founder Sam Altman on Monday by asking a Florida court to stop the tech giant from further developing its artificial intelligence technology while their legal battle plays out. In his latest push to put guardrails around AI, Uthmeier is attempting to leverage the recent panic about the technology’s unchecked growth in Washington and beyond as proof that ChatGPT and other AI models are dangerous products. Uthmeier is seeking an injunction against OpenAI that would prevent the company from advancing new AI models without third-party approved protections, and cut off minors from using its popular chatbot.” [editor’s note: Uthmeier always wants every public discussion to be about him … except, of course, the public discussion about the embezzled taxpayer funds his PACs used to rig the 2024 election in Florida – TLK] (09/28/26)
‘The Tompkins County, N.Y., District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that it is reopening its investigation into an alleged gang-rape involving Cornell University fraternity members. The victim in the case says they were drugged and raped by multiple members of Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University in 2024. … [Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew] Van Houten noted in his statement that the victim’s original statement did not appear to require criminal charges to be filed as she ‘described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.’ However, in the decision to reopen the investigation, Van Houten said he recognized ‘the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.'” [editor’s note: When something isn’t rape shortly after it happens and suddenly becomes rape years later, that’s pretty much the definition of “reasonable doubt” – TLK] (09/28/26)
“Metal mixtures found in the leftover smoke, ash and debris from the deadly 2023 Maui wildfires were harmful to the lung health of people living nearby long after the burning ended, a new study says. The work shows that major wildfires, which are worsening with the planet’s warming, could have lasting effects beyond immediate exposure. Post-wildfire air quality needs to be monitored longer term, the research suggests, and recovery efforts need to consider what might remain in contaminated soot, residue and dirt well after burning stops. The wildfires, caused by wind spreading a brushfire spurred by downed power lines, burned on the Hawaiian island of Maui in August 2023, destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people.” (09/28/26)
“British police said on Monday they had released on bail five men who were arrested on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offences near a British airbase used by the U.S., although they remain under investigation. Officers arrested the men in the early hours of Sunday after a tipoff that three large white vans were heading to the military airfield in west England. … The British government had given authorization to the U.S. to use bombers based at Fairford to strike Iranian missile sites that were attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had warned Britain in July not to allow U.S. bombers to fly from Fairford, saying any base used to launch attacks would be a legitimate target. … Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in attacks or plots in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.” (09/28/26)
“Apple has been ordered to pay $5.7bn (£4.3bn) in damages after a US jury found it had used another firm’s tech without permission. Audio firm Taction Technology claimed in 2021 that Apple had infringed two of its patents for haptics systems, which enable vibrations for actions such as receiving a message or pressing a button. This tech is built into devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple said it had not used Taction’s vibration tech and would appeal the verdict. ‘While we thank the jury for their consideration, we strongly disagree with today’s verdict and the damages awarded, which are entirely unsupported by the facts,’ it said. ‘Apple’s Taptic Engine is fundamentally different from Taction’s technology, which Taction’s own testing of Apple’s products confirmed during trial.'” (09/28/26)
“Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday unveiled a final regulation that seeks to restore a rule on how sexual misconduct is investigated on college campuses. The final rule, which is expected to officially publish Tuesday, comes after federal courts vacated a Biden administration regulation that sought to strengthen discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The rule ‘clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX’ from federal regulations and ‘restores the commonsense language’ of the rule adopted during the first Trump administration, which the second Trump administration has been enforcing, McMahon said in a statement.” (09/28/26)
“North Korea used its yearly U.N. platform on Monday to warn other world leaders of ‘a harsh reality rampant with unprecedented mutual distrust and confrontation,’ but said that it would endure and, in a multilateral world, ‘surely attain all that we plan to, relying entirely on our own efforts.’ It was, by Pyongyang’s standards, a relatively mild speech that contained no direct threats. The annual opportunity for the country, whose formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to speak on the world stage fell this year to Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong. Like many nations, he touted the notion of U.N.-focused multilateralism, yet repeatedly insisted that North Korea could — and would, if necessary — go it alone.” (09/28/26)
