Thursday 1 October: cockpit attack and box 3 under fire

World news (past 24 hours)

News

Co-pilot stabs captain on Dubai–Tel Aviv flight. A Flydubai flight with about 180 passengers made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday after the co-pilot stabbed the captain. Israeli officials say the co-pilot, an Omani citizen, tried to crash the plane, and passengers and crew overpowered him. Netanyahu called the captain an Indian citizen, while Israel Hayom describes him as Emirati. The case is being investigated as a possible attack on Israelis. (CBC, Washington Post, Israel Hayom)

Russia hits Ukraine's power grid hard. Russia launched nearly 190 drones plus ballistic missiles on Wednesday, mainly at energy sites in and around Kyiv. President Zelensky said seven civilians were killed and about two dozen wounded. Kyiv got emergency power cuts. Ukraine's prime minister called it the biggest attack on the energy sector since the end of last winter, a warning sign for the coming cold months. (France 24, RFE/RL)

Last US troops leave Iraq. The Pentagon says all US forces have left Iraq, ending the 12-year mission against ISIS. The last troops left the air base in Erbil, in the Kurdish region. Security is now fully in Iraqi hands. Kurdish leaders worry about ISIS remnants and Iran-aligned militias. (ABC News Australia, Democracy Now)

Politics

US tightens Cuba sanctions. New US rules took effect on Wednesday. Americans may no longer attend or organise conferences in Cuba, and "people to people" group trips are gone. Licences for dollar transactions and private-sector banking were also revoked. Havana condemned the move as a new escalation. (UPI, OFAC)

German state holds first hearing on AfD ban. The justice committee of the Thuringia state parliament held a public hearing on Wednesday about a possible ban of the far-right AfD. It is the first time a German parliament committee has looked at this in public, with 15 experts for and against. The Left party pushed for it. Only the Federal Constitutional Court can actually ban a party. (NOS, Brussels Signal)

Economy

Softer US inflation, but stocks slip. Core PCE prices, the Fed's preferred measure, rose 0.2 percent in August, below the 0.3 percent forecast. Traders cut the odds of a Fed rate hike next month to about 35 percent, from 51 percent a day earlier. Still, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent and the Dow 0.9 percent as bond yields rose, closing a losing September. (BNN Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance)

Paramount–Warner Bros deal cleared. A US federal judge approved Paramount's settlement with 12 states that had sued to block its takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. This removes the last legal hurdle. Paramount agreed to five years of commitments on film releases, US production spending and cable deals. The companies expect to close on 6 October. (US News/Reuters, Variety)

Dutch news (past 24 hours)

News

Paulien Cornelisse has died. The writer and comedian died on Wednesday in Amsterdam, aged 50, from complications of cancer. She was best known for her bestseller "Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding" and her sharp columns on language and behaviour. She made her illness public in 2024. (NOS, NH Nieuws)

Warmest 30 September ever. De Bilt reached 24.5 degrees, the highest for this date since records began in 1901. Hupsel hit 27.1 degrees, a national record for 30 September. It is the twelfth date record of 2026. (Weeronline, RTV Utrecht)

Tougher sentences for violence against emergency workers. From today, prosecutors will in principle demand prison for physical violence against police, ambulance staff, firefighters and others with a public task, including journalists. Sentence demands will double, and cases must go to a judge. A Tweede Kamer majority had asked for this. (NOS, OM)

Politics

No majority for wider box 3 tax. On the first day of the budget debate, there was no majority for the plan to make about 850,000 more small savers and investors pay box 3 tax. JA21, SGP, ChristenUnie and PRO oppose it, and coalition parties CDA, D66 and VVD also distanced themselves. Minister Heinen answers today. (De Belegger, NOS)

Faber's border controls end. The border checks introduced in December 2024 stopped on 30 September. From today, the Marechaussee uses a wider form of mobile checks. It may now check cars, trains and planes anywhere within 20 kilometres of the Belgian and German borders. (NOS, Marechaussee)

Rhenen votes for asylum shelter, unrest follows. The Rhenen council voted 15 to 3 to house 110 asylum seekers under the Spreidingswet. A protest of several hundred people stayed calm, but later fireworks smashed two windows of the town hall. Riot police came, and a 25-year-old man was arrested. (NOS, RTV Utrecht)

Economy

Government takes over oversight of estate agents. Housing minister Boekholt-O'Sullivan wants a public register that every estate agent must join. Agents must follow rules such as showing the bid log. A disputes committee can strike agents off, ending their right to work. (NOS, NVM)

Flink hackers get no money. Hackers who stole data from grocery delivery firm Flink demanded about 10 euro in crypto from each customer, with a deadline of 2 October. RTL found that nobody has paid so far. They also asked Flink itself for 235,000 euro. Flink says no passwords or payment data were taken. (NOS, ICT Magazine)

Data centres keep their energy use secret. About three quarters of large Dutch data centres do not publish their power and water use, even though the law requires it. An investigation by Lighthouse Reports and Trouw calls it a "wall of silence". Data centres used 4.6 percent of Dutch electricity in 2024, almost double five years earlier. (NOS, iBestuur)

AI news (past 24 hours)

FTC opens probe into Anthropic, OpenAI and others. The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating top AI labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI and research group METR, over risks to consumers. It plans legally binding demands for documents and testimony from executives within weeks. It is the first major US regulatory action of its kind, and comes one day after tech leaders signed a voluntary AI safety accord at the White House. (Semafor, US News)

Google rolls out Gemini 4 Argon. Google began releasing Gemini 4 Argon, its new flagship model, to a small group of cybersecurity partners first. Google says it beats OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra on several coding and work benchmarks. Paying subscribers come next, after more testing. Bloomberg reports some Google staff doubt how well it codes. (CNBC, Bloomberg)

Apple plans smart home launch on 13 October. Bloomberg reports Apple will show a smart home hub with a six-inch screen, plus a new HomePod mini and Apple TV, on 13 October. The hub can recognise who is using it by voice or camera. The new Siri AI is the core of the line-up. (MacRumors, Daring Fireball)

SpaceX Crew-13 is "go". NASA says SpaceX's Crew-13 mission is ready to launch today toward the International Space Station. The crew is two NASA astronauts, a Canadian and a Russian cosmonaut. Forecasters gave a 60 percent chance of good weather. (Space.com, NASA)

Also

Sport: pressure grows on Manchester City. After an independent commission found City guilty of all serious financial breaches from 2009 to 2018, rival clubs are now demanding swift punishment. The commission found City inflated commercial income by 830 million pounds through "sham" deals. Sanctions, which could include points deductions or even expulsion, follow at a separate hearing. City says it will appeal. (NOS, ESPN)

Nature: Early October is peak autumn bird migration in the Netherlands. On a good day, more than 100,000 chaffinches or starlings can pass a single spot along the coast, mostly in the first hours after sunrise. (Birdingplaces, University of Twente)

On this day: On 1 October 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. Ford built nearly 15 million of them by 1927, putting cars within reach of ordinary families. (HistoryNet, WKYT)

Weather in Groningen: Grey and wet. Highs of 19 to 20 degrees, lows around 14 to 15. Rain from early morning, around 6:40, on and off through the day, 5 to 7 millimetres in total. West to southwest wind, force 3. (Weeronline, Meteovista)

On the agenda today

• Tweede Kamer: Minister Heinen responds in the budget debate, including on box 3.
• New rules: Prison as the starting point for violence against emergency workers; the new border check regime starts.
• Heineken: Rafael Oliveira starts as CEO, the first outsider to lead the brewer. (Heineken)
• Space: SpaceX Crew-13 launch, planned for 17:10 Dutch time.
• Prices: KPN and Vodafone raise mobile prices from today. (iPhoned)