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Former leader of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi is sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for war crimes during his leadership of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
- Hashim Thaçi (born 24 April 1968) is a Kosovan politician and convicted war criminal. He was the first prime minister of Kosovo (2008–2014) and the foreign minister and deputy prime minister (2014–2016) in the cabinet led by Isa Mustafa. He served as president of Kosovo from 2016 until his resignation in 2020.
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- War crimes were committed by all sides during the Kosovo War, which lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. According to Human Rights Watch, the vast majority of abuses were attributable to the government of Slobodan Milošević, mainly perpetrated by the Serbian police, the Yugoslav army, and Serb paramilitary units. During the war, Yugoslav forces killed between 7,000–9,000 Kosovo Albanians, engaged in numerous acts of rape, destroyed villages, and displaced nearly one million people. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA or the UÇK) has also been implicated in atrocities, such as kidnappings and summary executions of civilians. Moreover, the NATO bombing campaign has been harshly criticized by human rights organizations and the Serbian government for causing roughly 500 civilian casualties.
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A ferry fire off Coron, Palawan, Philippines, kills at least seventy-seven people.
- On the evening of September 9, 2026, the Philippine passenger-cargo vessel MV June Aster caught fire in the waters off Coron, Palawan. The ferry was carrying 128 passengers and 17 crew members when the fire broke out. The fire was reported at around 6:45 p.m. PHT (UTC+8) approximately 1.2 nautical miles (2.2 km; 1.4 mi) northeast of Barangay Marcilla in Coron. At least 77 people on board were killed, while 43 were rescued and 8 remain missing.
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A ferry sinks in the Java Sea, resulting in at least nine deaths and more than a hundred others missing.
- On 13 September 2026, the Indonesian-flagged ferry Virgo Transport 8 capsized and sank in the Java Sea. The ferry was travelling from Surabaya, East Java to Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, carrying 243 people and 89 vehicles. The sinking has resulted in at least 9 deaths, while 108 people have been rescued and 126 people remain missing.
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In Turkey, hundreds of people are arrested in a crackdown on LGBTQ expression and subsequent protests.
- In the early morning of 13 September 2026, prosecutors and courts started a crackdown on LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in Turkey and HIV advocacy groups, which then evolved into attacks on journalists, politicians, and protesters. The government justification for the crackdowns refers to a controversial policy called "My Family is Safe".
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A new species of tiger cat is formally identified.
- The tilcayo ( til-KYE-oh; Spanish pronunciation: [tilˈkaʝo] ; Leopardus tilcayo) is a species of small wildcat in the genus Leopardus native to Bolivia. Identified through a genetic study of tiger cats published in September 2026, the tilcayo is the first extant cat species formally described since 1923. The tilcayo was already known to local communities under that name. Their visual appearance is extremely similar to that of other tiger cat species, with their status as a genetically distinct population not being documented by zoologists until the 2026 study.
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Iran war (ongoing)
- Since 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel have been at war with Iran and its regional allies. Hostilities broke out after US–Israeli airstrikes killed several Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The strikes were launched amid ongoing US–Iran negotiations regarding Iran's nuclear program.
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Lebanon war (ongoing)
- Since 2 March 2026, there has been an ongoing war in Lebanon between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah, with Israel invading parts of Lebanon. It is a resumption of major fighting in the Hezbollah–Israel conflict, and part of the wider conflict in the Middle East. The war has precipitated a humanitarian crisis, resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 people from Israeli strikes in Lebanon, and seen the forced displacement of over 1 million.
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Russo-Ukrainian war (ongoing)
- On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the existing war between the two countries that began when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. Russian troops
occupy roughly 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and 6–7 million have fled the country, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
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