Stories followed in this country, with their framing set against the rest of the world.
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On Saturday in Dublin, facing Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Donald Trump said he would love to see Ireland “united” and that reunification would be “fantastic”, before a tournament at his Doonbeg golf course. On Sunday he insisted it “is going to happen eventually”. Northern Irish unionists and Reform UK hit back sharply, while London had ruled the question off the table. Twenty countries read an unprecedented remark for a US president.
Riyadh temporarily shut the East-West pipeline, its bypass around the Strait of Hormuz, after drone attacks on Friday night. Baghdad admits the drones came from Iraq, dismisses two officials and closes three border crossings with Iran; Donald Trump names Iran as the likely culprit. Twenty countries tell the same night, from crude above $100 to Iraqi militias.
On Tuesday 8 September, twelve countries — the United Kingdom, France, Canada and nine European states — said they intend to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband linked to “ethnic cleansing”. Two hours later Israel ordered the British consulate in East Jerusalem to close, told diplomats to leave and barred twelve Britons from entry. Washington said it would not follow.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to its lowest level since May: a ten-day moving average of ten vessels a day, down from more than fifteen on Friday, according to Kpler cited by Reuters. Iran has announced a new restricted zone near the strait and three tankers turned back after a warning from the Revolutionary Guard. Canada has joined the US-French-British effort to reopen the passage.
The AfD won Sunday's regional election in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote, 23 points more than in 2021, on a record turnout of 77.8%. It takes 39 of the Landtag's 83 seats and falls three short of an absolute majority. Sahra Wagenknecht's BSW scraping in at 5.3% makes both an AfD majority and a cordon-sanitaire coalition of all the other parties impossible at once.
On September 4 Giorgia Meloni's government became the longest-serving in the history of the Italian Republic, with 1,413 days in office, surpassing the second Berlusconi government. Fratelli d'Italia marked the record at the port of Bari, where organizers expected 10,000 people, while an opposition march passed nearby. A poll cited by La Repubblica puts disapproval of the government at 53 percent.
Pedro Sánchez told Congress there is "no solid evidence" that Morocco orchestrated the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta — even as a Spanish report documents that Moroccan gendarmes let people through for some ten hours. His own allies accuse him of lying, protesters fill the streets, and Vox is carrying the affair as far as Chile.
On 29 August 2026 Icelanders voted in a referendum on resuming EU accession talks, suspended since 2013. The final figures give 118,040 votes to no against 105,339 to yes — 52.8% against 47.2%, a gap of 12,701 ballots — on the highest turnout since 1944. Yes wins in both Reykjavik constituencies, no passes 60% in the three rural constituencies. The vote does not withdraw the application filed in 2009.
A month after a record crossing from Morocco, the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has seen a surge of violence since 26 August 2026: groups of residents attacked migrants and tore down camps, a military vehicle was stoned and twelve Moroccan nationals were arrested. Madrid is asking the European Union for help.
CIA director John Ratcliffe travelled discreetly to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, according to several US outlets; the Kremlin confirmed contacts between intelligence services. The visit comes as Vladimir Putin has just rejected the peace plan put forward by Volodymyr Zelensky. It is read very differently in Kyiv, Moscow and Washington.
Nigel Farage won back the Clacton seat on 14 August with 22,239 votes against 9,455 for a satirical candidate wearing a bin on his head. He had resigned that same seat in July, under investigation over an undeclared £5 million donation. The major parties boycotted the vote; the inquiry resumed hours after the result.
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