“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)
“A Colombian warlord, whose extradition to the United States had been delayed for several months while he was designated a peace negotiator by the country’s previous government, was flown to California and placed in custody of federal agents. Geovany Andres Rojas faces drug trafficking and terrorism charges in the United States. For years, he acted as a spokesman and leader of Comandos de la Frontera, a rebel group known for trafficking cocaine in Putumayo, a Colombian province that borders Ecuador and Peru. … a new government, led by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, lifted the ban on Rojas’s extradition, signaling a shift in the nation’s security strategy.” (09/28/26)
“The UK is in talks with US authorities over a potential stoppage of diesel exports and has started preparing for a ban, Chancellor John Healey has told BBC News. Diesel prices in the UK reached a new high on Monday due to supply pressures springing from the US-Israel conflict with Iran and Russia’s war with Ukraine. Fuel prices are rising globally and US President Donald Trump has threatened to ban diesel exports, stating at the weekend: ‘We’re thinking about it very seriously’. Healey, who admitted that UK diesel prices are ‘extreme’, said the government was in discussions with the US, adding: ‘We’re also making the provision that we may need to and we have our own stocks in the UK.’ Speaking on the sidelines of the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Healey said: ‘We work very closely with the Americans’. (09/28/26)
“China and the United States have agreed to cut tariffs imposed on [buyers of] $60 billion worth of goods imported from each other, on an array of products ranging from U.S. corn to cosmetics, and from Chinese household appliances to toys. Under the U.S.-China Board of Trade, both countries have each recommended $30 billion of trade in non-sensitive goods for more favourable tariff treatment, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement on Sunday. … The reciprocal tariff reduction as well as an extension of a trade truce were among the key takeaways from the second summit this year between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, hosted in Washington last week.” (09/28/26)
“A maritime expert planned to visit a Nantucket beach Monday to inspect weathered wooden beams exposed by the weekend’s powerful nor’easter, possibly the remnants of a 19th-century shipwreck buried beneath the island’s southern shore. The Egan Maritime Institute said its exhibits and collections manager would survey the site and send a report to state underwater archaeologists, who then will work with the institute to determine which vessel the wreckage came from. The splintered timbers, fastened together by rusted iron, emerged near an area where remains believed to be from the Warren Sawyer, a wooden schooner lost in 1884, have been found before. Officials from Egan, a nonprofit that operates the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum, cautioned Monday that the newly exposed wreckage has not been identified with certainty.” (09/28/26)
“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. … 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. … Andersson would likely get another shot at trying to form a government if any centre-right attempt fails. The speaker can put four candidates forward to parliament for approval, but if each is rejected, Sweden will hold a new election.” (09/28/26)
“It’s a calculation by Republicans to keep the Senate in session this week. Yes. The Senate was scheduled to meet anyway over the next few days. But the general consensus early last week was that the Senate would be done then, and those facing competitive races would be back home campaigning. Then Wednesday hit. Republicans wanted to stay in Washington. For a very specific reason. And many of them told Senate Majority Leader John Thune [R-SD] as much at their weekly luncheon. ‘Odds are we plan on being here next week,’ said Thune. One Senate aide compared the Senate’s schedule to a cat chasing a beam of light from a laser pointer. But the Senate is in fact meeting.” (09/28/26)
“France prosecutors on Monday sought two years with an electronic tag and a five-year ban on public office for ex-culture minister Rachida Dati in a trial on corruption charges linked to dealings with the Renault-Nissan group. They sought a four-year jail term for Carlos Ghosn, the fugitive former Renault-Nissan chief now living in Lebanon, who is being tried in absentia as part of the same trial in Paris. … [Dati] stands charged with corruption and influence peddling over alleged lobbying for Renault-Nissan between October 2009 and February 2013 while she was a member of the European Parliament.” (09/28/260
“A British child chess prodigy has become the youngest player in history to earn the woman [sic] grandmaster (WGM) title. Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, from north-west London, secured her third and final WGM norm – a certified title-level performance – while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) confirmed. Speaking to FIDE, Sivanandan said she was happy about the achievement but wanted to ‘keep making history’. It is the latest milestone in a remarkable rise for the schoolgirl, who has already become Britain’s youngest women’s [sic] chess champion and the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport.” [editor’s note: The BBC headline calls her a “woman”; I attempted to fix that, since last I knew an 11-year-old human was still a “child” – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Whether the person in question is either biologically or mentally a “child” or “adult” isn’t something that can be determined by drawing a number out of a hat; all the number indicates is that she is legally a “minor” – TLK] (09/28/26)
