Politics & World Affairs — September 27, 2026

Swiss vote on neutrality rules. Swiss voters decide Sunday whether to adopt stricter neutrality that would bar the country from imposing economic sanctions or cooperating with NATO in peacetime.

Reuters · Read more ↗

Nor’easter floods Northeast coast. New York and New Jersey declared states of emergency Saturday as the storm brought widespread flooding, power outages, and hundreds of flight cancellations across the region.

Tens of millions of people from Maine to Virginia were in the storm’s path, according to the BBC, which reported rising tides and widespread power outages along the coast. The emergency declarations in New York and New Jersey came Saturday as conditions worsened, with the storm’s effects extending well beyond the two states across the broader Northeast corridor.

BBC World · Read more ↗

U.S., China cut tariffs. The White House announced a deal lowering tariffs on $30 billion of non-sensitive goods after the Trump-Xi summit, plus a new U.S.-China channel for AI safety incidents.

The agreement followed a three-day summit in Washington between the two leaders, a meeting that had drawn assessments of ceremony outpacing substance before the White House announcement. The two concrete outcomes were the tariff reduction covering non-sensitive goods and the establishment of a dedicated communications channel between the two governments to handle incidents involving artificial intelligence safety.

Fox News Politics · Read more ↗

Shootings kill 27 in South Africa. Two shootings hours apart at taverns near Johannesburg and Cape Town killed at least 27 people, police said. Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt.

Seventeen people were killed at a bar near Johannesburg, while 10 died in the separate attack at a barbecue venue near Cape Town, according to The Guardian, citing police. The two incidents occurred within hours of each other at opposite ends of the country, and authorities have not announced arrests as the nationwide search for suspects continues.

The Guardian World · Read more ↗