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China, Philippines Trade Accusations over South China Sea Encounter

File photo: An aerial view of what Philippine Coast Guard alleges were Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea, March 9, 2023.
File photo: An aerial view of what Philippine Coast Guard alleges were Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea, March 9, 2023.
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China, Philippines Trade Accusations over South China Sea Encounter

File photo: An aerial view of what Philippine Coast Guard alleges were Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea, March 9, 2023.
File photo: An aerial view of what Philippine Coast Guard alleges were Chinese vessels in the disputed South China Sea, March 9, 2023.

China and the Philippines on Monday traded accusations after an encounter between vessels in contested South China Sea waters, with Manila saying one of its navy personnel was struck on the head and Beijing saying Manila provoked the incident. The Philippines said Chinese Coast Guard personnel aggressively struck one of its navy staff on the head with a wooden baton during an encounter in the Second Thomas Shoal on Monday in which a navy rubber boat was damaged. Southeast Asian foreign ministers will gather in Manila for high-level meetings this week, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also in attendance. Tensions in the South China Sea are expected to feature in the discussions. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said a Chinese Coast Guard rigid-hull inflatable boat with eight personnel approached to within close range of its grounded warship on the Second Thomas Shoal and took photos and videos, Reuters reported.

When two Philippine navy boats moved to drive the Chinese vessel away, its personnel "reacted violently and aggressively by striking Philippine navy personnel with a wooden baton."

In a 25-second video clip released by the Philippine armed forces, one of the eight could be seen hitting a navy crew member in a rubber boat that was close to the Chinese vessel.

"We call on the People's Liberation Army and the China Coast Guard, including their maritime militia, to put a stop to their illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive actions within the West Philippine Sea and adhere to the 2016 Arbitral Award that affirms the Philippines' lawful maritime rights under international law," the Philippine military said.

In response, China's Coast Guard accused the Philippine vessels of ignoring repeated warnings, approaching and ramming a Chinese patrol boat in a dangerous manner and said the Philippine personnel were the first to attack, a statement showed.

"Philippine personnel first used paddles, wooden poles and other implements to aggressively attack Chinese law enforcement officers," the statement read, noting the Chinese forces exercised the utmost restraint in the handling by issuing warnings, making maneuvering operations around the boats and taking proportionate countermeasures. China's Coast Guard also accused the Philippines of distorting facts and levelling false accusations against China on the incident, demanding "immediate cessation of infringement, provocation and false hype."

In a 49-second video clip released late on Monday by China's state-backed tabloid Global Times, Chinese officers can be heard shouting "This is China Coast Guard, please leave immediately" as personnel from both sides wielded paddles and batons during a confrontation.

Southeast Asian ministers are gathering in Manila this week for high-level meetings, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also in attendance. Tensions in the South China Sea are expected to be discussed.

Manila's foreign ministry said the "act of violence" against its navy personnel was "unacceptable" and warranted diplomatic action. The shoal is within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and is 1,300 km (808 miles) from mainland China, which refers to it as the Renai Reef.

The Philippines has accused China of disrupting resupply missions to troops on the grounded vessel. A June 2024 incident also turned violent, with one Filipino sailor losing a thumb. The 2024 confrontation later led to a provisional understanding with China to allow resupply missions to the grounded ship.

China has denied allegations of aggressive conduct during encounters in the South China Sea and has accused the Philippines of trespassing in its waters.

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World

Trump Predicts Cuba and US Will Make a Deal

A classic American car drives along Malecon during a power outage in Havana, Cuba, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo
A classic American car drives along Malecon during a power outage in Havana, Cuba, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo
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Trump Predicts Cuba and US Will Make a Deal

A classic American car drives along Malecon during a power outage in Havana, Cuba, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo
A classic American car drives along Malecon during a power outage in Havana, Cuba, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo

President Donald Trump predicted on Saturday that the US and Cuba will reach an agreement and that he does not think military action will be necessary.

"I would say that Cuba and us will make a deal. I don't think ⁠we'll need the ⁠military," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Trump administration has openly stated that its goal is to change Cuba's government. ⁠A US-imposed oil blockade implemented earlier this year has put the country under severe strain as it contends with fuel shortages and blackouts exacerbated by failing infrastructure.

"We want to help Cuba," Trump said before departing for Tennessee, according to Reuters.

"We want to open Cuba ⁠up ⁠to our people."

In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump called Cuba a failed state and said "freedom will be coming" to the island nation.

The Cuban delegation walked out of the hall during that speech.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said at the UN later on Saturday ‌that Cuba will always be open for dialogue with the United States. ⁠He ⁠did not reference Trump's comments specifically.

"We are open to commercial and business relationships with US companies, just as we are with any other country," said Rodriguez, while also strongly condemning the US trade embargo on Cuba.

The US has maintained the embargo on Cuba for more than 60 years and the Trump administration has been stepping up pressure after using ​the military in ​January to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

World

‘I Reject their Proposal,’ Says Trump after Iran’s Offer on Hormuz

US President Donald Trump walks out of the South Portico towards members of the press before departing from the new South Lawn helipad in Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 26 September 2026. EPA/Samuel Corum / POOL
US President Donald Trump walks out of the South Portico towards members of the press before departing from the new South Lawn helipad in Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 26 September 2026. EPA/Samuel Corum / POOL
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‘I Reject their Proposal,’ Says Trump after Iran’s Offer on Hormuz

US President Donald Trump walks out of the South Portico towards members of the press before departing from the new South Lawn helipad in Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 26 September 2026. EPA/Samuel Corum / POOL
US President Donald Trump walks out of the South Portico towards members of the press before departing from the new South Lawn helipad in Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 26 September 2026. EPA/Samuel Corum / POOL

US President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected a truce deal proposed by Iran that Tehran said could have reopened the Strait of Hormuz to shipping within a week if Washington met certain conditions.

The waterway is key to the world's energy supply and is now central to the conflict between the US and Iran, which is at a stalemate after nearly seven months.

"I reject their proposal," Trump told reporters outside the White House before leaving for a college football game. "They want to make a deal where they open the Strait immediately because they're losing so badly.

"They want to make a deal and I think that's fine. I like making a deal too," he said.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was on his way back to Tehran after attending the UN General Assembly in New York, told CBS News the proposal had been developed "in coordination" with supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to an excerpt from the video interview shared by Iranian media.

Iran's plan calls for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met earlier in the week with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff.

He said the conditions were the same as those laid out in a memorandum of understanding signed with the US earlier this year, which called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.

On the seventh day of the truce, Iran would reopen Hormuz. Pezeshkian told CBS that the "process will begin from the very day they accept it."

In New York, Pezeshkian met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to his office, and said: "Iran has not walked away from the negotiating table but, given past experiences, it no longer trusts the United States."

Araghchi said at the UN: "Iran has conveyed to the United States, through Qatar, a concrete seven-day plan. If the necessary conditions are met, the strait can be reopened, and normal maritime passage restored within seven days."

"The choice now rests with the United States. Iran does not accept coercion, threats or intimidation, and Iran will not surrender its sovereign rights under pressure," he added.

However, within hours of his comments The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was skeptical that Tehran would meet his demands and expects to renew the US bombing campaign.

Trump also posted an image to his Truth Social platform of a map showing the Strait of Hormuz circled and labelled "Trump Strait."

Hossein Mohebi, a spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: "We will not cease punishing the US until Iran's seven conditions are met."

World

At Least 16 Killed in Russian and Ukrainian Strikes

A Ukrainian rescuer works at the site of a Russian attack on a five-story residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 26 September 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO
A Ukrainian rescuer works at the site of a Russian attack on a five-story residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 26 September 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO
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At Least 16 Killed in Russian and Ukrainian Strikes

A Ukrainian rescuer works at the site of a Russian attack on a five-story residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 26 September 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO
A Ukrainian rescuer works at the site of a Russian attack on a five-story residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 26 September 2026, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/MAXYM MARUSENKO

Russian and Ukrainian strikes killed at least 16 people over the last 24 hours, both countries said Saturday, with the war still raging in its fifth year.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up attacks after the deadliest summer since 2022 -- the year Russia launched its invasion, starting Europe's worst war since World War Two.

US-led talks to end fighting have not led to a breakthrough and the Kremlin has repeatedly said it intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.

Kyiv said Russian strikes had killed at least six people -- in northeastern Sumy, in Zaporizhzhia and in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where a 17-year-old girl was among the victims.

And in Kyiv, several people were wounded a day after a day-time Russian attack killed seven people. Moscow has intensified strikes on the capital as the city prepares for another winter of war.

Russia said Ukrainian strikes had killed four people in its Krasnodar and Belgorod regions.

Vladimir Saldo, appointed by Moscow to lead occupational authorities in the Kherson region, said a Ukrainian drone had hit a cafe in the village of Askaniya-Nova, near Crimea, Friday evening.

"Under the rubble, rescuers found the bodies of two young girls -- born in 2004 and 2006," he said on Telegram, adding that a man had also been killed in the same area.

Moscow-appointed official Yevgeny Balitsky said night-time Ukrainian strikes killed three more people in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

United Nations officials have warned about the increasing numbers of civilian victims in the war.

At the UN General Assembly this week, US President Donald Trump once again said that a deal between Moscow and Kyiv to end the war was "going to happen".

For many observers however, that prospect appeared distant, AFP reported.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia was "escalating every single day".

In Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, residents of a typical Soviet-era apartment bock hit by a Russian drone were cleaning up their building -- already worried about what might come next.

Oleksandr Gorlachov, 43, had gone to his allotment plot outside the city Friday night.

Early Saturday morning however, he was woken up by a video call from his elderly parents -- who are both deaf -- and rushed back to help.

"I watched as my mother is standing there in her nightgown, my father in his underwear, outside the building in tears... and there are flames, everything is burning," he told AFP.

"The apartment is completely smashed up."

His mother, he said, is a seamstress.

"Her sewing machine was there. She was in tears because it's broken now. So, well, it's a tragedy. But in my family everyone is alive and for that I thank God," he said.

With mounting Russian attacks on the capital, his family is in "constant stress" and he tries to distract himself by planting tomatoes.

"They don't have enough land," he said, mocking Russia -- the world's largest country. "They want to simply wipe out our nation."

Despite Russia making life in Kyiv increasingly tough, Gorlachov said he "wasn't going anywhere".

But fellow resident Anastasiia Grygorovych -- woken up when her window "fell on me" -- had already fled her home-town of Gorlivka, now occupied by Russia.

Now she was considering leaving Ukraine altogether.

"In general, I'm already thinking that I need to leave," she said.

Russia's invasion has forced millions to flee their homes.

Kyiv also hit Russia with retaliatory strikes Saturday. Ukraine has struck deeper inside Russia this year, hitting as far as the Urals and Siberia.

Zelensky said Kyiv hit an oil refinery in the southern Russian Krasnodar region and a plant "supplying the occupiers" in the neighboring Rostov region.

The Ukrainian leader called on allies to adopt more sanctions on Moscow.