“Bitcoin slipped on Wednesday, as sentiment for risky assets took a hit from soaring U.S. Treasury yields, a boost to Federal Reserve rate hike expectations, and a rise in oil prices as hopes for diplomatic progress between Washington and Tehran took a hit. After rallying nearly 7% on Monday and peaking above $87.3k to touch its highest level since the end of January, Bitcoin has given back some gains. Still, investors remain upbeat about regulatory proceedings around crypto despite the recent failure of the Clarity Act in clearing Congress. … U.S. Treasury yields surged on Wednesday amid a rise in odds of the Fed delivering a rate hike in October. The moves were driven by hot U.S. economic data.” (09/23/26)
“The Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday in favor of petitions to disqualify the Joint List slate — made up of Balad, Hadash, and Ta’al — altogether as well as Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party from running in the October 27 election, effectively barring all majority Arab parties from running in the election. The rulings by the panel, made up almost entirely of politicians representing Knesset factions, must be approved by the Supreme Court of Justice, which is expected to strike down the bans, due to the high legal threshold for preventing a political party from running.” (09/23/26)
“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 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.” (09/23/26)
“The UK is reviewing its deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the defence secretary has said. Wes Streeting confirmed the deal was being looked at again after US President Donald Trump called it ‘terrible’ at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. The original agreement would see the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius and pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base there, prized for its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. In April the deal, agreed under Sir Keir Starmer, was paused indefinitely because Trump pulled his support. Streeting said ‘we have to’ review the deal ‘because the United States doesn’t support it’.” (09/23/26)
“The ICE [gang member] who shot a Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas, on Sunday had been issued a body camera but was not wearing it at the time, two Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News. According to NBC News, officials said it remains unclear why the [gang member] was not wearing the camera while another ICE [gang member] at the scene had a bodycam that captured part of the incident, but not the shooting itself. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was shot while working as a DoorDash driver and later [abducted by the ICE gang]. His lawyer said the bullet remains lodged in his back. A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked deportation proceedings against Garcés Pérez.” (09/23/26)
“Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands before the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, accusing the international body of failing to enforce its own resolutions amid the exploitation of natural resources in the disputed territory. … Milei recalled that 50 years ago, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 3149, which calls on the parties to refrain from making unilateral changes while the sovereignty dispute remains unresolved. ‘Fifty years later, the situation has not changed, but the unilateral changes continue,’ he said. Milei focused his criticism on the Sea Lion oil project, which is moving toward crude oil production in the North Falkland Basin under British-issued licenses that Argentina considers ‘illegal and illegitimate.'” (09/23/26)
“Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday in another #MeToo reckoning for sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006. Weinstein, who was at the center of abuse allegations that spurred the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, was resentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley. In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years for assaulting Haley but his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2024. A jury found him guilty again in 2025 after a retrial in New York.” (09/23/26)
“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)
