At the NATO summit he hosted in Ankara this July, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, gifted visiting heads of state a peculiar souvenir: a Turkish-made revolver, loaded with live ammunition. Several delegations were left wondering how one declares an unregistered firearm at customs.
It was a fitting emblem: a gift no one could quite accept, from an ally no one can quite place. At the summit itself, Turkey had never looked more central to the alliance. The Ankara Summit Declaration called for “a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO”, reaffirmed Article 5 and placed European support for Ukraine at the heart of the alliance’s future. With NATO’s second-largest armed forces, an expanding defence industry and control of the Black Sea’s southern gateway, Turkey looked indispensable.
Look closer though and the picture is less tidy. This is still the NATO ally that bought Russia’s S-400 air-defence system, the EU candidate country whose membership negotiations have effectively collapsed, and the Black Sea power that arms Ukraine while maintaining extensive ties with Moscow. It is also, thanks to Erdogan’s close relationship with US president Donald Trump, an ally with unusual leverage over Washington at a time of strained transatlantic relations.
Turkey is neither drifting away from the West nor it is coming home. It has become an embedded outsider: a middle power that has learned to build strategic autonomy from inside the Western system rather than by leaving it. NATO still guarantees its security, Europe still buys its exports and funds its factories, and Western technology still powers its best weapons. But none of that buys alignment with Western preferences any more.
European policymakers have often treated this contradiction as a problem to solve. Their debate has revolved around whether Turkey can be “anchored” in the West or prevented from “drifting” towards Russia, China or the Middle East. Both approaches assume that Ankara must eventually pick a geopolitical home. It has chosen not to. Nor is this likely to change after Erdogan. A post-Erdogan government could be more democratic and predictable, but it would still be unlikely to abandon defence autonomy, regional activism or Turkey’s desire to balance among larger powers.
This paper argues that Europe should stop trying to resolve this contradiction and instead learn to capitalise on it. Turkey’s autonomy can frustrate Europeans, but it has also produced capabilities and relationships that Europe itself lacks. Its ability to maintain channels to Moscow helped it broker the Black Sea Grain Initiative and prisoner exchanges while continuing to arm Ukraine. Its military presence and political networks in Syria give it influence that few European states can match. Its growing defence industry could also make it an important partner in Europe’s rearmament.
It is true that the same autonomy sometimes works against European interests. In the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s assertiveness has brought it into direct conflict with EU member states Greece and Cyprus. Elsewhere, its balancing between Russia and the West has sometimes undermined European objectives.
The more useful question for Europe therefore is not whether Turkey can ever be a reliable ally, but when its autonomy serves Europe and when it cuts against it. The answer is managed interdependence: deepen cooperation where interests converge, tie the benefits of cooperation to clear and reciprocal obligations and withhold these benefits when Ankara acts against fundamental European interests. The aim is not obedience. It is to make Turkey’s autonomy pay for Europe more often than it costs.
Turkey’s pursuit of greater foreign-policy autonomy did not start with Erdogan. Since the early republic, Turkey’s Western alignment has coexisted with suspicion of Western intentions.
The young republic pursued Westernisation after fighting a war of independence against European powers. It developed close ties with Soviet Russia after the war, but Soviet pressure later helped justify Turkey’s integration into the US-led Western bloc, culminating in NATO membership in 1952. But alliance membership did not end tensions with the West. The Cyprus crisis, the 1974 military intervention and the subsequent US arms embargo reinforced Turkey’s conviction that it could not always rely on its allies.
Erdogan inherited this impulse, but he also transformed it. Over more than two decades, his governments have expanded Turkey’s geographical ambitions and given them a neo-Ottomanist flavour at home. Turkey has become more willing to use force abroad and built the institutions needed to sustain a more autonomous foreign policy. Erdogan has also added a personal style of decision-making and an ideological vocabulary. His slogan “the world is bigger than five” calls for reform of the UN Security Council. The term “precious loneliness”, coined in 2013 by his then foreign policy adviser Ibrahim Kalim, casts Turkey’s regional isolation as the price of moral consistency.
This transformation unfolded in four broad phases:
In the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) first years in power, from 2002 to roughly the end of that decade, Erdogan and his government were celebrated in the West as reformists. They used the EU accession process to modernise the economy, pursue political reforms and curb the military’s influence over civilian politics. Ankara also expanded trade and diplomacy across its neighbourhood, presenting this activism as complementary to its Western orientation.
Closer ties with Europe accompanied an economic boom. Turkey’s GDP rose from roughly $241bn in 2002 to $775bn in 2008, while GDP per capita tripled. Foreign investment surged after accession talks opened in 2005, from about $900m in 2002-04 to nearly $12bn a year in 2005-08. EU member states accounted for roughly three-quarters of inflows by 2008.
From the late 2000s through the Arab uprisings, Ankara became more ambitious in its neighbourhood. Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems with neighbours” doctrine reflected a growing belief that Turkey’s history, location and political model gave it a distinctive regional role. Economic growth and mediation underpinned this confidence, while construction companies, television dramas, Turkish Airlines, diplomats, religious institutions and development agencies extended the country’s soft power.
However, the Syrian civil war, Egypt’s military coup and the regional backlash against the Arab uprisings upended this strategy. Soft power gave way increasingly to hard power and regional rivalry.
The decisive turn came between 2015 and 2020. The collapse of the peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and a failed coup attempt of July 2016 fed a sense of geopolitical isolation and a more combative foreign policy. As Turkey grew more authoritarian, with executive power consolidated in the presidency, the country launched several external military operations in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and expanded its overseas military presence across the Middle East. It also cultivated closer economic and defence ties with Russia to reduce dependence on the US and Europe, both of which were becoming increasingly concerned about Turkey’s democratic backsliding and regional activism.
Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 systems in 2017 became the clearest symbol of this rupture. It led to Turkey’s removal from the F-35 programme—the US-led fighter-jet project for which Turkish firms were supplying components—in 2019 and to American sanctions in 2020. This purchase showed that Ankara was prepared to defy its allies when it believed core security interests were at stake.
Anti-Western sentiment rose significantly during this period. Many Turks blamed the US for the failed coup attempt and for supporting Kurdish forces in Syria affiliated with the PKK. The post-coup crackdown, along with the 2017 constitutional referendum, helped create a national security state and concentrated decision-making even more in the presidency.
Military interventions in Syria and elsewhere during this period also created their own momentum. The armed forces, intelligence services, defence companies and the state bureaucracy acquired the skills and experience to sustain overseas operations, cooperate with non-state partners and convert military involvement into diplomatic leverage.
By the end of 2020, Ankara concluded that its assertive posture had become counterproductive—it had alienated Western allies and Middle Eastern governments alike, thereby helping create an anti-Turkey alignment across multiple fronts. Intensifying great power rivalry and the fragmentation of the West also made Turkish leaders more anxious about being left out in the cold in a tumultuous world. The recalibration was also economic: a currency crisis at the end of 2020 left Ankara in acute need of external capital—Western and Gulf alike—and de-escalation on both fronts was the price of access to it.
From 2021, Ankara therefore sought to repair ties with former regional rivals, from Saudi Arabia to Greece, and pursued a pragmatic reset with Europe and America—while preserving its autonomy.
Turkey’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine captured this shift. Ankara condemned the invasion, supplied Kyiv with drones that proved highly effective early on, refused to recognise Moscow’s annexations, and invoked Montreux’s wartime provisions to close the Straits to belligerents’ warships, which mainly constrained Russia’s Black Sea fleet. It saved its neutrality for the economic sphere, declining to join Western sanctions and casting itself as mediator, keeping Moscow close.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House created another opportunity to reboot ties with the Western system. Erdogan and Trump share a disdain for liberal Europe and a preference for flexible, transactional and personalised diplomacy. Close ties between the two presidents and their inner circles also facilitated dialogue on Gaza, Caucasus, Ukraine and Syria, with a surprising degree of alignment on many of these files.
Ankara increasingly saw its military leverage and geography as the basis for strategic autonomy—a foreign policy built on cultivating ties across rival centres of power so that no single relationship became indispensable and none foreclosed another. It sought closer defence-industrial ties with European states without abandoning its domestic production. It normalised relations with Gulf monarchies while retaining military or political networks in Libya, Syria, Palestine and Somalia. It renewed dialogue with the EU while prioritising bilateral ties with individual member states. Even as a NATO member, it flirted with membership of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
In August 2026, Turkey joined Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement—a trilateral mutual-defence pact dubbed in the media as a “Muslim NATO” that commits the three states to Article 5-like security guarantees. Building on a 2025 Saudi-Pakistani accord, the pact signals Turkey’s ambition to make regional security arrangements of its own, even as it remains in NATO. However, the new pact so far lacks the integrated command, joint planning and shared threat perception that would make it a functioning alliance rather than a political declaration.
The Mecca agreement aligns with Turkey’s ambition to keep a foot in several camps. Many in the country’s ruling elite see a larger role in the Middle East and on the world stage as Ankara’s natural destiny. Meanwhile, where previous US presidents saw Turkey’s regional ambitions as disruptive, the Trump administration came to view Ankara as a useful and capable regional partner.
Turkish foreign policy under Erdogan has not travelled a simple path from pro-Westernism to anti-Westernism and back again. Ankara has rebuilt its foreign policy repeatedly around the needs of the ruling far-right nationalist coalition at home and what a changing international order permits abroad. The re-embedding since 2021 is no exception: it did not reverse Turkey’s pursuit of strategic autonomy, but relocated it. Ankara now seeks that autonomy from inside Western structures, because that is where the leverage lies.
Although Erdogan’s dominance at home is a reality, in 2024, the opposition alliance led by the Republican People’s Party swept local elections, taking Istanbul, Ankara and most major cities—its best showing since 1979. The following March, Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoglu, the opposition’s presidential candidate and the man most likely to beat Erdogan, was arrested on corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated. Two decades of Erdogan rule have narrowed political space, but they have not closed it.
So what would change in foreign policy in a post-Erdogan Turkey? A successor could reset relations with the West and rebuild institutions. But a new government would not rethink the fundamentals—that Turkey must keep its freedom of action, arm itself and depend on no single power. Those assumptions no longer rest on one man’s decisions. They rest on an elite consensus, underpinned by a domestic defence industry, bases across three continents and Turkey’s own geography—and reinforced by a fragmenting international order that makes autonomy look like a necessity.
Public sentiment also seems to embrace an independent foreign policy. Turks might be split over Erdogan and domestic governance, but they largely agree on autonomy and avoiding unconditional alignment with any single outside power. Ukraine makes this point clearly. In a 2022 Kadir Has University survey, 52% of respondents wanted Turkey to remain impartial and 50.7% wanted it to mediate. Only 21.5% backed sanctioning Russia and 20.8% backed supporting it. In spring 2024 polling by Pew Research Center, a plurality of Turks (46%) said Turkey was providing the right amount of support to Ukraine.
The Iran war reveals a similar picture. A MetroPoll survey in March 2026 found that 68.1% wanted Turkey to remain neutral between Iran and the US, compared with 22.6% favouring support for Iran and 2.1% for the US and Israel. Neutrality won among the voters of every major party. This was no affection for the mullahs; rather, Turks fear a collapsing Iran would send refugees across the border, give the Kurdish insurgency new momentum, disrupt the Turkish economy and embolden Israel.
The argument at home is therefore about the methods, not autonomy itself. The opposition parties criticise the AKP-MHP government’s rhetoric and self-inflicted isolation, yet they treat maritime jurisdiction, the Aegean and Cyprus as national issues. In the 2022 Kadir Has survey, half or more of every major party’s supporters named maritime jurisdiction and the militarisation of Aegean islands among Turkey’s main problems with Greece.
A 2022 Carnegie study that interviewed opposition foreign-policy figures found the same. Most favoured repairing relations with the US and EU, restoring the foreign ministry’s authority, reducing personal diplomacy, and resolving the S-400 dispute to reopen the path to the F-35 programme. They also wanted no confrontation with Russia, no concessions on Turkey’s maritime claims, and no American weapons for Syria’s Kurds.
A post-Erdogan Turkey would therefore be a different kind of embedded outsider, not a former one. Democratisation and a return to institutional decision-making would make Turkey more predictable. But Ankara would still likely pursue diversified partnerships, its own arms industry, regional influence and the ability to say no to allies.
Turkey no longer treats the West as a complete strategic home or a reliable guarantor of its interests. Yet Russia, China, Iran and the Gulf cannot replace the security, markets, technology and institutional ties it draws from NATO, Europe and America. Turkey thus hedges from the inside. Europe cannot end that, and no Turkish government would tolerate the attempt. Its only realistic aim is to keep the hedge bending westward.
Turkey today is rarely described as a European power. Yet it is still a NATO member and, technically, an EU candidate. It is also a partner for Europe and the US on critical regional issues ranging from containment of Iran to counter-terrorism and support for Ukraine.
But Turkey’s Western embeddedness goes much deeper than institutions. Its economy, private sector, defence industry and society are tightly integrated with the West, particularly Europe. These connections constrain Turkish autonomy, but they also enable it: the markets, technology, capital and security relationships Turkey draws on to project power remain disproportionately Western.
The EU remains the centre of gravity of the Turkish economy. The customs union, in force since 1996, goes far beyond an ordinary free-trade agreement. It removed tariffs and quantitative restrictions on industrial goods and required Turkey to align with important parts of EU customs, commercial, competition, intellectual-property and technical legislation.
The numbers remain striking despite political tensions. The EU accounts for 42.7% of Turkey’s goods exports and 35.3% of its imports, with volume reaching €217.6bn in 2025. Services trade added €42.1bn in 2024.
Trade volumes understate the depth of integration. Turkish factories are embedded in European production networks, supplying the automotive, appliance, machinery, textile and electronics industries while relying on European capital goods, technology, standards and intermediate inputs. By mid-2025, Turkey reported that it had aligned 24,597 national standards with European standards, a harmonisation rate of 99.5% with the European Committee for Standardisation and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation systems.
European capital has been equally important. Turkey received roughly $200bn in foreign-equity inflows between 2003 and 2025, with around 60% originating in the EU. The West as a whole, including the US, UK and Canada, supplies roughly 70% of Turkey’s foreign direct investment.
Ankara has tried to diversify, towards Russia, the Gulf and, above all, China. It joined the Belt and Road Initiative in 2015, applied to BRICS in 2024 and courted Chinese manufacturing, including electric vehicle manufacturer BYD, whose $1bn plant in Turkey will benefit from access to the EU market. But China has not emerged as an alternative to the EU. Chinese firms treat Turkey as high-risk and stayed out of the top 20 sources of foreign investment in 2024. Turkey runs a large trade deficit with Beijing and competes with it for influence in Africa and Central Asia, while Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur population remains a source of tension.
No partner has been able to match Europe’s market, investment stock and dense supply chains. Ankara’s economic autonomy therefore has limits. It can diversify eastwards, but the capital, technology and markets on which much of its industry depends remain Western. That dependence is sharpened by chronic macroeconomic fragility—high inflation, a weak lira and reliance on external financing—which has repeatedly forced Ankara to seek Gulf and Western capital, setting a hard ceiling on its autonomy.
This dependence also comes with a political irritation. Through the customs union, Turkey aligns with relevant EU regulations but has no say in making them. The agreement is also outdated, excluding services, digital commerce, public procurement, agriculture and climate regulation. The European Commission proposed negotiations to modernise it in 2016, but the European Council has yet to approve a mandate.
This captures a contradiction in Turkish foreign policy. Ankara seeks privileged access to the EU economy while demanding political distance from Brussels. Yet much of its industrial power, export capacity and ability to attract investment still depends on its position at the edge of Europe.
Turkey’s security ties with the West are deep. A NATO member since 1952, Turkey has the alliance’s second-largest military after the US and critical infrastructure including the Incirlik air base, where US nuclear weapons are widely believed to be stored; the Kurecik early-warning radar system that covers the Middle East; the Allied Land Command headquarters in Izmir; and forward bases at Konya and Istanbul. Turkey and its territory are therefore woven into a NATO security architecture that stretches from the Middle East to Europe’s eastern flank.
Despite the on-and-off crises with America and a more ambivalent policy towards Russia than most European allies, Turkey’s relationship with NATO is not dormant. Not only has Ankara recently hosted the NATO summit, it has also continued to support NATO’s collective defence missions, including participating in the Baltic Air Policing in 2006 and 2021. After the summit, Turkey agreed to do so again in 2026, even as it maintains cordial relations with Moscow. And while Turkey has worked hard to reduce its military dependence on its allies, many of its high-end programmes still depend on Western engines, components, certification, financing and export access.
Yet embeddedness has not meant deference or loyalty. For example, when Sweden and Finland sought to join NATO, Ankara used its veto in the alliance as leverage—delaying ratification until it had extracted commitments on the PKK and, from the US, approval of a major F-16 sale. Turkey capitalises on its position in NATO as much as it upholds the alliance.
Turkey’s political relationship with Europe is weakest precisely where its institutional ties are deepest. Ankara applied to the European Economic Community in 1959, signed the Ankara Agreement in 1963, became an EU candidate in 1999 and opened accession talks in 2005. Those negotiations have now effectively collapsed: only 16 of 35 chapters were opened and just one closed before the process froze. In 2018, the EU General Affairs Council noted that accession talks had come to a standstill, stopping short of formal suspension, but freezing the opening or closing of any new chapters. In 2025, the European Parliament reaffirmed this, on the grounds that Turkey’s strategic importance cannot offset its democratic backsliding and divergence from European norms.
Yet neither side has formally ended the process. Turkey remains a candidate, receives pre-accession funding and participates in EU programmes like Erasmus and Horizon Europe. It is also in the European Political Community and has expressed a desire to be part of a future European security architecture.
Turkey’s European embeddedness is also demographic. Since the 1960s, migration has created communities whose lives span Turkey and Europe. At the end of 2024, around two million Turkish citizens held valid residence permits in the EU, excluding naturalised citizens and second generation Turks born in Europe. Germany alone is home to about 2.6 million people of Turkish background, the country’s largest single-origin immigrant community. Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Sweden also have sizeable Turkish communities.
Turkey’s European diaspora connects Turkish cities and regions to European labour markets, schools, businesses, media and political parties. They also make Europe an arena of Turkish domestic politics: governments and opposition parties campaign among overseas voters, while disputes about nationalism, religion, Kurdish identity and democratic rights spill into European public life. Europe is therefore not just an external actor but an extension of the political debate in Ankara.
Turkey’s political estrangement from the EU can also obscure the continued attraction Europe holds for many Turks. In a spring 2025 survey commissioned by the EU delegation to Turkey, 58% said they would support EU membership in a referendum and 66% said membership would bring more advantages than disadvantages. Visa-free travel, higher living standards and employment opportunities were the most frequently cited benefits. Similarly, Pew found in 2024 that 56% supported EU membership, rising to 66% among those under 35. Polls show mixed motivations for supporting Turkey’s accession to the EU, with younger, urban and educated Turks consistently aspiring to European legal and political standards even as faith in accession has eroded.
Migration creates another form of interdependence between Turkey and Europe. Turkey hosts a large refugee population and sits on major migration routes from the Middle East and Asia into Europe. European governments have relied on Turkey as a buffer, most explicitly through the 2016 EU-Turkey migration deal. Meanwhile, Ankara has periodically used refugee flows as political leverage, but it has also come to rely on EU funds to manage migration. Neither side can manage migration sustainably without the other.
Turkey’s distinctive position among middle powers lies not only in its aspiration to act independently but in the tools it has built to do so. It is one of the few middle powers that treats military force as a routine instrument rather than an exception, and the only one that has turned the resulting hardware into a diplomatic currency.
Five tools carry Turkish influence abroad: an expeditionary military, a strong arms industry, a geography that charges rent, an apparatus for soft power and a habit of brokering other people’s wars. Each has widened Ankara’s room for manoeuvre, but each also reveals the limits of Turkish autonomy.
What changed under the AKP was less Turkey’s appetite for military activism abroad than how it used force. Before the Arab uprisings, Turkish deployments took place largely within NATO and UN frameworks. But over the past decade, Ankara has increasingly acted unilaterally to advance its own security interests, using forward bases, long-term deployments and partnership with local armed actors. Syria, Libya, Iraq and the Caucasus region each show a version of the method.
In Syria, four cross-border operations between 2016 and 2020 created a belt of Turkish-controlled territory in the north, governed through the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army. Ankara’s presence also helped preserve an opposition-controlled enclave in Idlib, from which Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) emerged and eventually overthrew Bashar al-Assad, in December 2024. Turkey has since become the most important external backer of Syria’s new government, signing a defence accord in August 2025 to train, equip and advise the army Damascus is rebuilding out of former rebel factions. Ankara’s leverage nonetheless has limits: it has not yet converted this partnership into permanent bases beyond the north, constrained by Israeli red lines and Damascus’s own wariness of overdependence.
Turkey has similarly intervened militarily in Libya since 2020, when it helped prevent warlord Khalifa Haftar’s forces overrunning the internationally recognised government in Tripoli. The intervention has shifted the military balance and entrenched a Turkish security presence, which Ankara subsequently converted into economic and political leverage—against the will of competitors like Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and the UAE. However, Turkey has recently repaired relations with Egypt and opened channels to actors in eastern Libya.
In Iraq, Ankara’s footprint has proved more durable, driven primarily by its campaign against the PKK. A network of forward operating bases across the north has hardened into a de-facto security belt along the border. And despite renewed efforts to resolve the Kurdish question—such as PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan’s 2025 call to disarm and the party’s subsequent dissolution—Ankara is unlikely to dismantle that presence in the near future.
Beyond those, Turkey maintains bases in northern Cyprus, facilities in Qatar, and a training base in Mogadishu. Turkey’s regional footprint today is far larger than it was two decades ago.
Turkey’s expanding defence industry provides the material foundation for this more assertive foreign policy. Once a buyer of US weapons systems, Turkey has spent the last three decades building its capacity to produce a range of high- and low-end systems, from armed drones and navy vessels to armoured vehicles, missiles, tanks and artillery shells.
Defence and aerospace exports reached $10.05bn in 2025, a dramatic hike from $248m in 2002. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ranked Turkey the 11th-largest exporter of major arms for 2021-25, with five Turkish firms—MKE, ASELSAN, Turkish Aerospace, Baykar and Roketsan—entering its global top 100 in 2025. Many of their systems have been battle-tested in Karabakh, Libya, Syria and Ukraine. In the early phase of the Ukraine war, Baykar’s TB2 “Bayraktar” drones gained particular prominence and have since become a symbol of Turkey’s defence-industrial rise. This transformation in the defence industrial base has given Ankara capabilities and relationships in Africa, Central Asia and Europe it did not possess two decades ago.
Greater autonomy, however, is not self-sufficiency. Turkish officials boast that the domestic share of defence production has risen from about 20% in the early 2000s to roughly 80%. But that figure conceals continued dependency on imported technology in propulsion, power transmission, advanced materials and aviation components. For example, Turkey’s flagship fifth-generation fighter-jet, the KAAN, relies on imported engines, as its indigenous turbofan is still in development. Altay tanks entered production with a South Korean power pack, pending integration of the domestic BATU engine and transmission. Imported engines and export licences have also complicated both production and sales of systems such as the Firtina howitzer.
One way Turkey has sought to overcome these constraints has been by embedding itself into the European defence base. In 2025, Baykar and Italy’s Leonardo formed LBA Systems, a fifty-fifty joint venture headquartered in Italy to build unmanned systems, while Baykar outright bought Italian aerospace company Piaggio Aerospace, with its production lines inside the EU. Also in 2025, Turkish Aerospace agreed to supply Spain with Hürjet trainer jets in a €2.6bn deal, which includes substantial production in Spain. These are co-production arrangements inside European supply chains.
Turkey’s defence-industrial autonomy is therefore uneven. It is strongest where companies have accumulated design experience and domestic supply chains, and weakest where production depends on complex propulsion or externally controlled components. And while the industry’s rise has reduced the ability of any single country or supplier to block Turkish military action, its most ambitious programmes still depend on Western technology, certification, finance and markets. This captures the logic of the embedded outsider. Turkey has built greater autonomy not by leaving Western industrial networks, but by using domestic production, offset agreements and selective partnerships to improve its bargaining position within them.
Ankara has not created its own geography, but it has learned to monetise it. Turkey sits between Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Russia, astride important trade and energy routes. It is crisscrossed by several energy pipelines despite producing little energy itself. And regional disorder only makes Turkey’s location more valuable.
Azerbaijani oil and gas cross Anatolia through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor. Russian gas reaches Turkey and south-eastern Europe through Blue Stream and TurkStream, while Iranian gas enters from the east. Expanding liquefied natural gas terminals give Ankara access to seaborne supplies from America, Qatar and elsewhere.
Turkey has also invested in logistics and connectivity. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway connects Turkey to the trans-Caspian Middle Corridor, linking Central Asia and China westwards. Ankara regards the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which bypasses Turkey, as a geopolitical challenge. It has instead backed the $17bn Development Road, linking Iraq’s al-Faw Grand Port through Turkey to Europe. Instability in the Strait of Hormuz has given a boost to this project. This eastward reach also has an institutional home: Turkey leads the Organization of Turkic States, a bloc spanning Azerbaijan and Central Asia that hopes to turn the corridor’s unique geography and ethnic ties into standing political influence.
Turkey’s ambitions are also supported by an extensive cultural and diplomatic network. It now operates 255 diplomatic missions, up from 163 in 2002, with the number of African embassies rising from 12 to 44 in this period.
In addition to its diplomatic corps, there is the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, the Turkish Maarif Foundation, the Presidency of Religious Affairs, the Yunus Emre Institute and the state broadcaster TRT World. All of those are active in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Turkish Airlines has also become an unusually effective instrument for connectivity and visibility. The Antalya Diplomacy Forum now serves as a flagship venue to showcase Turkey’s ambition to convene international actors, modelled after the Munich Security Conference, India’s Raisina Dialogue and Russia’s Valdai Discussion Club.
Perhaps Turkey’s most effective soft power, however, is one the state neither built nor controls. In 2024, Turkish producers exported more than 300 television dramas to over 150 countries, earning over $500m a year and reaching close to a billion viewers. They have made Turkey’s language, cities and lifestyle familiar across the Balkans, Middle East, Latin America and parts of Africa. The state has since moved to harness this success: TRT’s own historical epics carry a more explicit neo-Ottoman message abroad, while per–episode export subsidies introduced in 2026 aim to bend the commercial sector toward promoting Turkey’s image.
Meanwhile, humanitarian aid, education, religion, media, commerce and defence partnerships reinforce the conservative government’s “civilisational” narrative, placing Turkey at the centre of a wider historical and cultural world. Turkey’s overseas network promotes Palestinian rights and positions Turkey as a natural leader of Muslim nations. Erdogan’s slogan that “the world is bigger than five”, referring to the UN Security Council, captures this ambition.
Yet Turkey’s economic fragility sets a hard limit on its ambitions. Inflation peaked at 85.5% in October 2022 and, despite the return to orthodox monetary policy after the 2023 election, remained above 32% in mid-2026. A volatile lira and persistent inflation make it harder to finance reconstruction in Syria, sustain long-term influence in Africa and compete with other powers. Technological dependence, weak institutions and personalised decision-making reinforce these constraints.
Mediation became a signature of Turkish foreign policy in the mid-2000s. Under the Davutoglu doctrine of “zero problems with neighbours”, Ankara presented itself as a country able to speak simultaneously to the West, the West’s regional adversaries and the Muslim world. Ankara facilitated indirect talks between Syria and Israel in 2008, engaged in Balkan diplomacy and, alongside Brazil, negotiated a nuclear fuel-swap with Iran in 2010. Also that year, Turkey and Finland launched a UN Friends of Mediation group.
That premise collapsed with the Arab uprisings. Ankara’s support for Syrian opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood, along with its feuds with the Arab Gulf monarchies, Egypt and Israel, made Turkey increasingly party to the region’s conflicts rather than a neutral mediator. As it expanded its regional entanglements, the nature of its mediation efforts changed. From 2017, Ankara worked with Russia and Iran through the Astana process on ceasefires and de-escalation deals in Syria even while backing the opposition on the ground. In Libya in 2020, Turkey participated in the Berlin process as a stakeholder while its troops were deployed in Tripoli. Ankara was not mediating because it stood outside these conflicts, but because it was embedded in them.
From the 2020s, Turkey’s mediation rested on a different foundation. Its leverage came from its higher international profile and its unique access to regional conflicts, such as in Gaza and Ukraine.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Turkey has hosted several rounds of negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials, facilitated prisoner exchanges and, with the UN, brokered the Black Sea grain deal in 2022. None ended the war, but the grain agreement kept a critical maritime trade route open for almost a year and demonstrated the value of Ankara’s working relationships with both Moscow and Kyiv.
In the final round of negotiations leading to the Gaza ceasefire, Turkey used its relationship with Hamas to convince the armed group to sign the US-brokered agreement with a specific clause for disarmament. Ankara provided political guarantees that helped bring Hamas to the table, but its involvement also led Israel to veto a greater Turkish role in a multinational peacekeeping force in Gaza.
Turkey’s comparative advantage in mediation therefore does not come from neutrality but access. Its willingness to maintain relationships across geopolitical divides can make Ankara frustrating for its Western allies. But it is also precisely what allows Turkey to reach actors that Europeans and Americans sometimes cannot.
For Europe, the instruments described above could be assets or liabilities, depending on where and how Turkey uses them. The three case studies that follow trace that variation. In Ukraine and Syria, autonomy generates outcomes Europe wants—grain corridors, prisoner exchanges, a check on Russian and Iranian influence—that a more compliant ally could not have delivered. In the eastern Mediterranean, the same autonomy cuts the other way, pitting Turkey directly against two member states. Together, the three cases leave Europe with a question: how to channel an autonomy it can influence but cannot switch off.
Ankara’s position is often summarised as “pro-Ukraine without being anti-Russia”—a formulation that frustrates European allies but has proved durable. Turkey recognises Ukraine’s territorial integrity, including Crimea, and built a substantial defence relationship with Kyiv before the full-scale invasion, selling it Bayraktar TB2 drones and agreeing joint production. It was also among the few NATO states willing to provide strategically significant military technology before February 2022.
At the same time, Ankara refused to join Western sanctions, kept extensive ties with Moscow and described Russia’s aggression in cautious language. After the invasion, it invoked the wartime provisions of the Montreux Convention, closing the Straits to belligerent warships—a move that limited escalation while also constraining NATO’s naval access.
Ankara’s access to both capitals produced results, though not a ceasefire. In 2022, Turkey brokered the Black Sea grain deal with the UN and has facilitated several prisoner exchanges. But it has also been a key conduit for trade with Russia, the flipside of its balancing act.
Ukraine shows the embedded outsider at work: Turkey supports the principles and institutions that protect its own security while reserving the right to diverge from the broader Western strategy. While this balancing is self-interested, it has at times served Ukrainian or European interests.
Syria offers the clearest demonstration of Turkey’s embedded-outsider role in practice. After more than a decade of cross-border operations, troop deployments, intelligence work and local patronage, Ankara entered the post-Assad period with leverage few external powers could match: close access to President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government, influence over armed groups in the north, control of border routes, a substantial military presence, and a strong hand in debates about reconstruction and refugee returns. Assad’s fall also weakened Turkey’s rivals, Iran and Russia, and opened up space for Ankara to expand its political and economic influence.
Yet Syria remains a work in progress. Turkey met its core security objective—blocking a PKK-linked autonomous zone along its border—and deepened its leverage in Damascus, but it has neither established a new order nor reaped the economic benefits of its patronage.
Syria’s battered economy is one constraint. Ankara can reopen trade routes, repair energy links and position its companies for reconstruction, but it cannot finance Syria’s recovery alone; that will depend on external capital, European and Gulf support and governance reforms.
Israel is another problem. It remains deeply suspicious of an enlarged Turkish role and has attacked sites earmarked for Turkish military installations. Turkey, in turn, views Israeli support for Syria’s Druze and Kurdish minorities as an obstacle to state consolidation. The Turkish-Israeli rivalry, sharpened since 2024 by Gaza and in the contest for Syria’s new government, increasingly structures the regional order into rival camps: Ankara’s Sunni grouping on one side and an Israel-Greece-Cyprus bloc on the other.
Syria is therefore where Turkey’s embedded-outsider status could pay off most—and where its limits show most clearly. Ankara has access, military leverage and relationships Europe cannot easily reproduce, but not the financial resources and institutional capacity to rebuild Syria on its own. Its ability to shepherd the transition depends, paradoxically, on the very Western relationships it has sought to loosen.
The eastern Mediterranean shows the other side of bounded autonomy. Turkish hydrocarbon exploration in waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus triggered EU sanctions in 2020, and contested maritime claims between the three countries remain. This is potentially the most dangerous flashpoint in Turkey’s relations with the EU.
The dispute predates Erdogan. It is rooted in the unresolved conflict in Cyprus and competing interpretations of maritime jurisdiction in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. Ankara rejects Greek claims that islands close to the Anatolian coast should generate extensive maritime zones, and resists any arrangement it sees as restricting Turkey’s access to the open sea. Successive rounds of UN-led negotiations—including a 2004 referendum and the 2017 talks at Crans-Montana—have failed to produce a settlement.
These longstanding trilateral disagreements have sprawled into a regional confrontation. Offshore gas exploration around Cyprus has repeatedly stoked tensions over the past decade, while closer defence and energy ties between Cyprus, Greece and Israel have reinforced Ankara’s sense of encirclement.
Tensions peaked in 2020, when Turkish and Greek vessels came close to direct conflict. The EU subsequently imposed targeted sanctions linked to Turkish drilling activities. At that time, the German former chancellor Angela Merkel became personally involved in shuttle diplomacy between Ankara and Athens and helped avert a military confrontation. But since Merkel left office, no European leader has had the same standing with Erdogan or mounted a comparable sustained effort to address the underlying political dispute.
As long as Cyprus remains divided, Ankara is unlikely to abandon its insistence that Nicosia cannot unilaterally develop the island’s hydrocarbon resources without agreement on how Turkish Cypriots will share in them. Ankara is also unlikely to accept any Greek extension of territorial waters from six to twelve nautical miles in the Aegean—a step the Turkish parliament declared a casus belli in 1995—on grounds that it would sharply curtail its own access to the open sea. That suggests a limit to punitive conditionality by the EU. Targeted sanctions may raise the price of Turkish actions, but by themselves they are unlikely to change Ankara’s position on an issue it regards as a core national interest.
But Europe has not yet seriously tested sustained diplomacy aimed at the source of the dispute. The EU should invest political capital in a renewed Cyprus settlement process, working alongside the UN and encouraging a negotiated arrangement between the island’s two communities. It should not approach the conflict simply as a dispute between a member state and an outside power. The EU cannot easily present itself as a neutral actor when Cyprus is itself a member state, but it can provide incentives, pressure Nicosia into talks, and use diplomatic weight and the prospect of deeper Turkey-EU integration, with security guarantees for Cyprus, to support a settlement. Without progress on Cyprus, the island will remain a perennial obstacle to a more functional relationship between Turkey and Europe.
***
The three case studies show the uses and limits of Turkish autonomy. In Ukraine, Ankara worked both sides without breaking with either, creating access Europe could use. In Syria, Turkish power created leverage but not the resources to consolidate it. In the eastern Mediterranean, autonomy produced confrontation, while European sanctions contained some of the immediate costs without resolving the political dispute that generated them.
Europe’s Turkey policy swings between two illusions: that Ankara can be brought back to the Western alignment of the 1990s, or that it is lost and can only be contained. A country this entangled with Europe yet so determined to act alone fits neither.
The alternative is managed interdependence. It begins from two facts: first, Turkish autonomy is here to stay—no future government will return to unquestioned Western alignment; second, autonomy stops well short of independence—Turkey still relies on NATO for ultimate security, Europe for markets, capital, technology and regulation, and America for advanced defence cooperation and regional deterrence.
Europe should use that dependence without trying to eliminate Turkish autonomy. It should make Western cooperation valuable enough that Ankara keeps its forces interoperable, honours common rules and avoids partnerships that damage allied security.
There are limits to this policy. Ankara is unlikely to agree to Greek or Cypriot maritime claims, but it could be open to a UN-led settlement or a deal dividing hydrocarbon resources. Europe should push for that instead of settling for the status quo, even at the cost of having to pressure Cyprus into a new framework or resumption of UN-led talks.
The reality is that European leverage on the eastern Mediterranean is limited, and punitive measures will not change the Turkish calculus. In order to build leverage, Europe first has to define a credible endgame in the conflict and try something new: positive engagement with Ankara aimed at a durable settlement to the frozen conflict. A good place to start would be a pan-Mediterranean conference, inviting Turkey, to set out the disputes and the case for diplomacy. Following that, the EU could work with the UN to push Cyprus and Turkey back to the table, either for a final settlement on Cyprus or a resource-sharing deal on hydrocarbons.
On the broader agenda with Turkey, the EU should pursue separate, self-contained deals across defence, trade, regional security, migration and mobility. Cyprus can block some of these deals, but in the end can be persuaded by other member states to agree to a more pragmatic approach in return for security guarantees. Each deal should exchange concrete benefits for defined obligations with clear monitoring so that cooperation no longer rests on personal ties between leaders.
The return of Donald Trump somewhat complicates this strategy. Erdogan’s direct relationship with Washington can reduce the immediate cost of ignoring Brussels by giving Ankara another route into the Western system. But transatlantic uncertainty also cuts the other way. Turkey likes to hedge and understands that Trump’s America is a risky player—and that Europe is a good hedge against US volatility. As Europe assumes more responsibility for its own defence and Washington becomes less predictable, Turkey’s military capacity, geography and defence industry become more valuable to Europeans. The result is mutual leverage rather than European dependence alone. Ankara has alternatives to Brussels, but Europe also has assets—market access, industrial integration, finance and regulation—that Washington cannot replace.
This is where Turkish and European interests overlap most obviously. Europe is rearming; Turkey has factories, a fast-growing arms industry and capabilities relevant to Europe’s eastern and southern flanks. Excluding Turkey entirely from emerging defence-industrial arrangements would be self-defeating.
Yet that is roughly what has happened. In 2025, the EU launched its most ambitious defence effort to date—ReArm Europe, including SAFE, a €150bn joint-procurement instrument. SAFE is open in principle to candidate countries such as Turkey, but deeper participation requires a separate bilateral agreement with the EU, and Turkey has yet to conclude one. Cyprus and Greece have made clear that they view such access through the prism of their own security disputes with Ankara, and this is another way unresolved conflicts in the eastern Mediterranean constrain Europe’s ability to draw Turkey more deeply into its emerging defence architecture.
Turkey should be let in. Europe should use the linkage constructively: greater Turkish access to European defence programmes should accompany sustained de-escalation with Greece and progress on Cyprus, rather than being treated either as an unconditional entitlement or as a permanent exclusion.
EU institutions and member states should pursue this at different levels. The Commission and Council should create pathways for Turkish participation in EU-level defence instruments where political and security conditions are met. Meanwhile, individual member states should expand bilateral procurement, co-production and supply-chain partnerships with Turkish firms on a project-specific basis. Access should be conditional: tied to end-use guarantees, IP protection, sanctions compliance and limits on transferring jointly developed technology to third countries. Kept modular and reversible, such projects give Ankara a stake in interoperability and give Europe access to Turkish capacity without waving away its political and security concerns.
Economic interdependence is Europe’s strongest lever and Turkey’s main reason to stay close. Yet the existing customs union is outdated and ill-suited to a world of supply chain fragmentation, US tariffs, Chinese overcapacity, digital trade and climate regulation. It covers goods and little else—no services, no digital trade, no public procurement and almost no agriculture—besides having weak dispute mechanisms.
Modernisation of the customs union should be at the centre of the Turkey-EU relationship. An expanded agreement would deepen supply-chain integration, attract investment, support green and digital transitions, and pull Turkish regulation closer to that of the EU. And by helping the EU’s industrial competitiveness, it would strengthen its hand against both China and America.
Modernisation should proceed in stages, with access to new sectors tied to measurable compliance and stronger dispute settlement. The objective is not more trade for its own sake. It is to make the dependence run in both directions.
Turkey is now central to many crises in the Middle East, and there is room for Ankara and Brussels to work together more closely. But this does not have to be a single regional bargain. A more realistic model is a portfolio of issue-based coalitions.
In Iraq, both want stronger state institutions, better energy and transport links, reduced dependence on the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian-backed militias out of the military and politics. In Lebanon, both want functioning state institutions and reconstruction while containing escalation with Israel. In Libya and Somalia, maritime security, migration, energy and political stabilisation all provide areas for cooperation.
In the South Caucasus, Europe should continue to support Turkish-Armenian normalisation, the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process and the east-west transit corridor. On Iran, Ankara’s rivalry with Tehran and diplomatic access to it are useful: both Europe and Turkey want neither an Iranian hegemon nor an Iranian collapse.
The 2016 migration deal reduced a complicated relationship to cash for border control, punctuated by political threats. Europe treats Turkey as a wall; Turkey periodically opens a door in it to make a point. This has delivered no more than short-term containment.
A more durable framework should distribute responsibilities more evenly between Turkey and Europe. It should combine joint border management with sustained refugee protection, greater EU financial support for Turkish municipalities and host communities and expanded resettlement from Turkey to EU member states. Any large-scale return to Syria should be voluntary and depend on improvements in security, housing, documentation, ability to earn a living and protection from persecution. Achieving that will require the EU to do more than simply leave returns for Turkey to manage: it should jointly monitor conditions on the ground, while helping finance reconstruction of civilian infrastructure Syria needs to improve those conditions.
The EU should also make legal travel easier for Turkish citizens: faster visa processing for students, academics, businesspeople, and families, alongside expanded educational and professional exchanges. The point is to replace money-for-containment with better mobility, giving Turkish citizens a reason to care about Europe while reducing Ankara’s ability to weaponise migration.
Managed interdependence cannot ignore Turkey’s authoritarian turn. Politicised courts, jailed political opponents and hollowed-out institutions render commercial deals less reliable and foreign policy less predictable.
But Europe’s response has often produced the opposite of what it intended. Keeping Turkey at political distance has not reversed democratic backsliding. It has instead weakened constituencies invested in European integration, reduced the EU’s influence over domestic reform and recast the relationship as an increasingly transactional exchange between governments. The lesson is not to abandon conditionality, but to use it more precisely and consistently.
Europe’s experience with Viktor Orban’s Hungary offers a partial lesson. It demonstrates the value of linking material benefits to specific institutional and rule-of-law conditions, and that different policy areas can be treated separately. But Turkey is not an EU member. It has an independent, regional presence, relationships beyond Europe and no obligation to submit to European courts. The EU’s leverage therefore is much narrower.
Conditionality should therefore be specific, proportionate and tied to the area of cooperation concerned. Instead of making the broader relationship contingent on an open-ended judgment about Turkey’s political trajectory, the EU should tie access to particular benefits to transparent and measurable commitments. Serious rule-of-law violations might affect access to EU financing or progress in areas requiring high levels of regulatory and judicial trust. Coercive actions abroad might trigger restrictions on particular defence-industrial partnerships or targeted measures against the individuals and entities responsible. Measures should have clearly defined triggers and, equally importantly, a clear route to reversal when the triggering behaviour stops.
This approach also requires distinguishing between the Turkish government and Turkish society. Measures intended to constrain the government should not unnecessarily restrict students, researchers, businesses, municipalities or civil society organisations whose interaction with Europe sustains the social foundations of the relationship. Visa access, academic cooperation, municipal partnerships and civil society programmes should therefore be insulated, as far as possible, from political disputes between Ankara and European governments.
Conditionality also has limits when disputes concern interests that Ankara defines as fundamental to sovereignty or national security. In such cases, increasing the cost of Turkish behaviour may signal European resolve without producing a change in policy. Conditionality works best when it creates incentives for a negotiated adjustment, not when it becomes a substitute for diplomacy. Europe therefore needs to pair credible costs with equally credible benefits and a political route back to cooperation.
Managed interdependence is not a substitute for democracy, nor does it require pretending that Turkish accession is imminent. It is a framework for organising relations in the space between joining and walking away. But that raises the question of what should happen to Turkey’s candidate status. Three options are on the table.
Re-opening accession negotiations is unrealistic: the talks have been at a standstill since 2018 and there is neither consensus for a fresh start nor much value in pretending membership is approaching. Formally closing the process would be worse. It would remove one of the last institutional links between the two, weaken pro-European constituencies inside Turkey and make cooperation harder without resolving a single underlying dispute.
The better course is to leave candidate status legally intact but politically dormant and build the cooperation around it. However, the relationship should not be called a “privileged partnership”. This term, floated in some European capitals in the past, remains toxic in Turkey as Ankara sees it as a demotion that in practice would close the accession door forever. The substance is more important: a deep and differentiated partnership of managed interdependence that both sides have reason to maintain, with the formal question left open.
Turkey would remain outside the EU’s political core but get closer where interests align: NATO planning, Ukraine and Black Sea security, defence production, trade, energy, migration, mobility and Syria. In return, Europe would demand greater predictability, sanctions compliance, institutional accountability and adherence to agreed rules.
Disagreement would persist over Cyprus, the eastern Mediterranean, Israel, aspects of the regional order, and Turkey’s continued relations with Russia and China. Managed interdependence is not designed to erase those differences, but to prevent them from bringing down the wider structure of cooperation.
Europe’s choice is not between restoring the Turkey of the past and accepting permanent divergence. It is between an interdependence left hostage to crises and personal bargains, or one organised around common projects, reciprocal obligations and enforceable conditions. A successful strategy would give Turkey room to act as a middle power while making Western cooperation more valuable than the alternatives.
Over the past two decades, Turkey has gone from aspiring to regional influence to building the capabilities to exercise it—military deployments, overseas bases, defence exports, economic networks and diplomatic channels. The paradox is that much of this autonomy rests on continued integration with the West. Turkish embeddedness is the platform Turkish autonomy runs on. Ankara has learned to operate in the space between alliance and independence, sufficiently autonomous to shape regional crises, yet sufficiently embedded that the West cannot easily exclude it.
There are limits to this model. Turkey might be able to disrupt arrangements it opposes, but it has been less successful at building durable regional arrangements of its own. That asymmetry is the opening for Europe. A Turkey that can obstruct but not construct needs partners for what it wants to achieve—reconstruction money in Syria, advanced technology for its defence programmes and markets for its exports. Europe has been slow to use this leverage because it keeps looking for a different kind of relationship: an ally that agrees, or an adversary it can hold at arm’s length. Turkey is neither.
Europe needs to stop waiting. It should start using the interdependence that already exists around common projects and enforceable terms. This will not eliminate the contradictions at the heart of the relationship. It will instead turn those contradictions into a framework for bargaining, making cooperation possible without requiring alignment and disagreement manageable without producing rupture.
We are grateful to Jana Puglierin and the Re:Order team at ECFR for encouraging us to take on this project and for helping shape the original idea, and to Angela Mehrer for her coordination throughout. Thanks also to Jeremy Cliffe and the ECFR publications team for their guidance on the initial proposal and outline, and to Nastassia Zenovich whose work on the maps was essential. We would also like to thank the many officials, experts and practitioners who shared their insights with us on an off-the-record basis; their perspectives informed the argument in important ways. Finally, we are especially grateful to Taisa Sganzerla for her thoughtful and incisive editing, which sharpened both the structure and the argument of the paper.
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is an associate senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and a fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, where she also directs the Turkey Project. Before joining the foreign policy community, Aydintasbas had a long career in journalism, including writing a Global Opinions column for the Washington Post. She has covered wars in the Middle East and lived in New York and Istanbul, holding positions at Milliyet, Cumhuriyet, and CNN Turk. She is a regular commentator on the Middle East and Turkey and her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, among others. Her recent publications include “Turkey’s search for a new Middle East order” and “Turkey’s post-American hesitation” on the impact of the Iran war. She has also recently written “Here is how one country may have solved a violent uprising” and “Trump, don’t repeat Churchill’s mistake” for the New York Times.
Evren Balta is a professor of international relations at Özyeğin University in Istanbul. She is also academic coordinator of the TÜSİAD Global Politics Forum, co-director of the Democracy Lab at Özyeğin University, a permanent member of the North South Futures Forum and a member of the Global Scholars Network on Identity and Conflict at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She is also affiliated with the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. She is the author or co-author of several books, including “The American Passport in Turkey: National Citizenship in the Age of Transnationalism”, which received a Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association. She holds a PhD in political science from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, an MIA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and an MA in sociology from Middle East Technical University.
This paper is part of the Re:Order project and was made possible with support from Stiftung Mercator, but does not necessarily represent its view.
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The unilateral declaration of two marine parks by Turkey in international waters in the Aegean Sea has caused heavy waves and threatens to drown the “calm waters” policy between the two neighboring countries and has led to sharp rhetoric from both sides. “Any move that could lead to uncontrolled escalation must be avoided,” Foreign Minister […]
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The U.S. military has quietly been scaling back its troop presence at bases across the Middle East in recent days, and the State Department is ordering a further reduction in staff at multiple diplomatic posts in the region, according to two U.S. officials and two people familiar with the matte, according to NBC News.
They said the moves are in response to ongoing threats in the region, including from Iran and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The drawdowns come as senior U.S. military officials have been presenting Trump with options for strikes in Iran.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has strongly denounced the issuance of an arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raul Castro in the United States.
“The issuance by a Miami judge (USA) of an arrest warrant for Raul Castro, a leading figure in Cuba’s political history, has drawn categorical rejection and strong condemnation,” the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry noted that UN Security Council Resolution 1067, adopted on July 26, 1996, set out the political and legal assessments of the February 1996 events that the United States attributes personally to Raul Castro. “The resolution does not call for anyone to be held personally accountable. This effectively means that the Security Council, including the United States, agreed that the incident had been resolved in this respect,” the statement emphasized.
Bringing forward baseless, fabricated charges more than 30 years later appears to be nothing more than revenge by the anti-Cuban lobby in Miami, which is eager to settle scores with Raul Castro, who turned 95 in June, the ministry pointed out.
“Further escalating tensions around the Island of Freedom, which is currently going through an extremely dire period amid the unprecedented trade, economic, financial, and energy blockade, may destabilize the situation across the entire Latin American and Caribbean region,” it stated. “A potential social upheaval may trigger a mass exodus of Cuban citizens to neighboring countries, creating a social crisis for them.”
“This court ruling could have been viewed merely as an expression of the sentiments of a certain group of individuals, had it not been for events earlier this year in Venezuela, where the country’s leader was abducted in violation of all norms and principles of international law,“ the ministry stressed.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has said new curfews will be imposed where necessary in parts of the country, as authorities sought to restore order after weekend demonstrations over the cost of living and issues in the education system descended into riots.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Lecornu said local authorities would coordinate with mayors to decide whether to impose curfews in their respective prefectures.
More than half a million people gathered across France on Saturday for demonstrations that brought together students demanding better education conditions and groups rejecting the high cost of living. The protests descended into looting and arson in numerous locations, with more than 2,500 people arrested.
Monday night passed without any major incidents across France, police have confirmed.
The government is due to hold a series of meetings as it intensifies efforts to contain the unrest, which followed weeks of student protests over education standards.
«The United Kingdom said Tuesday it will deploy fighter jets to defend Saudi Arabia against attacks by the Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen» CNN reported.
The UK will fly “defensive counter-air missions” using Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to protect Saudi cities and critical infrastructure, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“These aircraft will operate in a defensive role and will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis,” it added.
«UK Defence Minister Wes Streeting has expressed concern over attacks targeting civilians and called for a diplomatic resolution. The deployment comes amid rising regional tensions and domestic debate in the UK over defence spending and increasing energy costs» Al Jazeera’s Camille Nedelec reports from London,
Over the past month, the Houthis have intensified their attacks on Saudi Arabia, launching ballistic missiles and drones at key infrastructure, including oil facilities and airports.
The UK is already providing air-to-air refueling support to Saudi Arabia and has deployed air defense equipment and British personnel to help protect the kingdom, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office told reporters.
Britain’s latest deployment is not the first time London has participated in military aggression against Yemen.
«From 2015 onward, Britain supplied Saudi Arabia with aircraft, bombs and other military equipment, accelerated munitions deliveries, provided training and stationed liaison personnel at Saudi military headquarters» Al Mayadeen recalls.
In 2024, as Yemen’s Armed Forces carried out operations targeting “Israel” in support of Gaza amid the genocidal war on the besieged Palestinian territory, the UK joined the US in launching strikes against Yemen.
Houthi-affiliated media are reporting that three coalition air strikes have targeted and destroyed the telecommunications network in the Maran district of Yemen’s Saada governorate, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced via Telegram, “Over the past 24 hours, Saudi warplanes—specifically F-15s and Typhoons—launched 93 airstrikes and missile attacks targeting civilian sites” (more details in the yesterdays’ update on Houthi attacks).
The humanitarian situation in Yemen’s Taiz has worsened as road closures block essential goods and services from reaching millions, the UN has warned.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a news conference, citing colleagues on the ground, that “road closures and insecurity are preventing vital supplies, including fuel, from entering the city and surrounding areas”.
Despite efforts by the UN to provide aid in Taiz, it “cannot meet these needs if essential supplies are prevented from reaching the city”, Dujarric said.
Oil prices have risen on Wednesday on Middle East supply concerns, with traders wary of Red Sea shipping risks and threats to oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude futures gained $1.21 to reach $110 per barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed by more than a dollar to reach $99 per barrel.
Italy has approved the deployment of troops and tougher legal penalties in a bid to quell cost-of-living protests in the north of the country that occasionally turned violent over the weekend.
The Italian cabinet on Tuesday approved sending 500 troops to Milan, a new legal offence covering violent participation in a demonstration, tougher penalties for rioters and financial liability for parents whose children take part in vandalism and looting.
Unrest swept northern Italian cities at the weekend, including the financial capital Milan, where groups of mainly young people looted shops, smashed windows and clashed with the police.
However, many social media posts have featured images of “Black Bloc” protesters mysteriously embedded among police officers, seemingly to incite unrest—this following days of protests by truckers and farmers in Southern Italy, who have been demonstrating against rising diesel prices and the high cost of living, including by blocking traffic on motorway access routes.
Full report available on Gospa News Italia (post in Italian, with an automatic translation in English and other languages available by clicking the flags in the up left).
As part of the new legal measures, which take effect immediately, anyone who takes part in a group of at least five people and endangers public safety during protests faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of €20,000 ($22,460). Penalties increase if faces are concealed or people are injured.
«State media releases images of dictator out and about in Pyongyang after unfounded claims he had succumbed to brain haemorrhage» Emily Smith, Foreign Breaking News Reporter, wrote on The Telegraph.
The story was given credence by a fake North Korean TV outlet that exists only on social media profiles (created on X on September, 2026) and, in a country of 26.6 million inhabitants, has just over 4,000 followers. It is, quite obviously, a colossal piece of fake news—the work of bloggers incapable of verifying the accuracy of information.
Kim Jong-un went shopping to prove he was alive after rumours emerged that he had succumbed to a brain haemorrhage. The North Korean dictator, 42, was pictured with his daughter Kim Ju-ae, 13, at a clothing and footwear exhibition in Pyongyang.
The photos, released by state media, followed unfounded speculation this week that he had been taken to a hospital in Beijing in a coma.
A Chinese dissident, based in the US, claimed that Kim had suffered a severe brain haemorrhage and died.
“The majority of the Italian population opposes aid to Ukraine” Guido Crosetto, Italian Defense Minister and former LEONARDO WEAPONS well payed Advisor said.
“But we have already prepared 12 aid packages, and by the end of the year we will probably be able to prepare another one,” he said.
Ukraine will never be able to win in the ongoing conflict with Russia, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said.
After all, when someone in Italy said, “Ukraine will win the conflict,” some people thought that Ukraine wanted to defeat Russia. That Zelensky* will practically enter Moscow with the Ukrainian flag. No, that’s impossible”..
During an investigation into the illegal activities of Mexican drug cartels, US law enforcement agencies obtained information about their cooperation with representatives of the Kiev regime, the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a press release.
TASS has compiled the SVR’s key statements. The links to previous Gospa News investigations have been added in the aftermath.
While investigating the illegal activities of Mexican drug cartels, US law enforcement agencies have obtained information about their cooperation with the Kiev regime:
“According to information coming to the SVR, there is a new reason to panic in Kiev. The Ukrainian presidential office has learned that, in the course of a probe into illegal activities of Mexican drug cartels, US law enforcement agencies obtained information about their cooperation with representatives of the Zelensky regime.”
The US has found that Mexican criminal groups have been sending militants to Ukraine to receive training in the assembly and combat use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs): “The Americans have uncovered that criminal groups have, for a long time, been sending their militants to Ukraine to train them in the assembly and combat use of drones. At least 80 individuals have been identified who underwent such training within the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
“Payment for this ‘education’ was funneled to officials close to [Vladimir] Zelensky, using funds generated by drug traffickers from the sale of illicit substances in the US.”
Kiev recognizes that the presence of trained drone operators within drug cartels poses risks to US officers involved in combating drug trafficking along the border with Mexico: “The Ukrainian presidential office is aware that the presence of trained FPV drone operators within the ranks of drug cartels poses risks to the lives of US security officers involved in anti-drug operations along the border with Mexico.”
Zelensky’s cooperation with drug cartels “could become yet another ‘nail in the coffin’ of his political career.”
Western Weapons sent to Kiev found in Possession of Mexican Drug Cartels
The Kiev regime’s cooperation with drug cartels, combined with attacks on Russian oil refineries, could push the US past the breaking point and lead to a refusal to assist Zelensky:
“This fact comes alongside the abysmal corruption of Ukraine’s gauleiter, his offensive behavior and his disregard for Washington’s more than obvious warnings against targeting Russian oil refineries, as well as his refusal to hold an election. All this, Zelensky’s team fears, may be the last straw for the White House and force it to cancel all support to Kiev’s bloody clown.”
The IRGC Navy has released additional footage showing a third oil tanker on fire after its engine room was targeted.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says two oil tankers were set ablaze and halted after hitting mines planted along an unauthorized passage south of the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement on Tuesday, the IRGC said its navy forces reported that two oil tankers were set ablaze and stopped after mines laid by the naval forces exploded along an unauthorized passage south of the strait.
“The IRGC Navy once again warns that passage through the mined route is illegal and will result in violators’ assets being set ablaze. If the US regime continues its provocations, oil companies will have to pay a heavier price,” it noted.
It added that IRGC air defense forces detected and struck a US military MQ-9 drone overnight as it monitored the airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, destroying the aircraft.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez admitted that the police lost control of the situation in several cities, with 350 people detained in Paris alone on Sunday.
“I have submitted my resignation, because I bear responsibility for everything that is happening,” Nunez said.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has announced measures—to take effect “as early as tonight”—aimed at curbing troublemakers, following scenes of chaos, destruction, and looting in Paris and other French cities during Saturday’s protests against the rising cost of living.
Shortly before this, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had announced the implementation of “various curfews”—described as “partial” and “localized”—to prevent further violence. Nuñez ruled out any impact on upcoming football matches.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu stated that the curfews, which have come into effect in several cities—such as Paris, Lyon, Nantes, and Marseille—have “contributed to calm during the night,” and announced that further curfews will be imposed this evening “wherever the situation requires it.”
French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that 149 arrests have been made in the wake of the urban unrest that took place last weekend. Speaking from the courthouse in Lille, Darmanin “welcomed the significant legal actions” taken by the judicial system following the weekend’s unrest, confirming that 149 individuals—suspected rioters or looters—have been arrested and are now either in “police custody” or “awaiting trial.”
The death toll from a missile attack launched by the Houthis against a government military base in southern Yemen has risen to 73—all of them new recruits—marking the deadliest attack since the conflict in the country began to intensify.
The recruits were all between 18 and 20 years old, and some remained missing the day after the Iranian-backed rebels struck the Al-Alam training camp in the southern province of Shabwa with ballistic missiles, as reported to the Associated Press by the governor of Shabwa, Awad Ibn al-Wazir.
Yemeni Military Media posted and exclusive footage shows the targeting of Saudi enemy army officers, soldiers, and military vehicles on the Jizan and Asir border fronts using ‘Rojoum’ the-drone-system.
The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced via Telegram, “Over the past 24 hours, Saudi warplanes—specifically F-15s and Typhoons—launched 93 airstrikes and missile attacks targeting civilian sites across the governorates of Al-Jawf, Taiz, Saada, Marib, Hajjah, Lahj, Amran, and Ibb”.
“These aircraft took off from enemy bases in Khamis Mushait, Taif, Al-Kharj, and the Sharurah airfield, resulting in civilian casualties, including both deaths and injuries. This brings the total number of airstrikes and missile attacks carried out by the Saudi-led aggression since the escalation began in our country to 2,793.”
President Donald Trump attacked Somali immigrants and Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar during an Ohio rally on Monday, October 12, calling Omar a “disaster” and repeating claims about crime, welfare fraud and immigration.
He also called Democratic Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “jihadist” and urged the removal of people he described as Somali “bandits,” gangs and jihadist sympathisers.
Trump’s remarks came hours after federal agents searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home under a court-authorised warrant in an ongoing criminal investigation.
Federal immigration agents searched Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington, D.C., on Monday, as part of a probe that sources say centers on Omar’s immigration paperwork completed by her late father when she was a child.
CBS News homeland security correspondent Nicole Sganga has the details.
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen has said its forces intercepted another ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the Saudi capital, Riyadh, as the city reels from attacks that have killed at least 14 people in recent days (see more details and videos in the updates below on yesterday and October, 11).
Houthi missile attack targets Saudi capital Riyadh and Airport for third day in a row killing another people.
Residents of Riyadh reported several powerful explosions on Monday night, moments after a text message to their phones warned of an aerial threat.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous areas, including the capital, Sanaa, said their target in Riyadh had been King Khalid International airport.
Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said the group had also sent a drone towards a military airbase at Khamis Mushait, near the Yemeni border. He again warned international airlines and travellers “against operating flights to airports” in Saudi Arabia, except in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, saying the facilities were “unsafe”.
The renewed attacks came as King Khalid International airport in Riyadh remains closed after a Houthi attack on Saturday that killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300 others. Another strike on Sunday killed one person and wounded 11.
Saudi authorities said the airport would remain closed until this Saturday, and airlines have canceled flights. The Houthis have also struck Saudi oil facilities.
Oil prices have risen following statements by Vladimir Zelensky and new strikes on Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reports.
The price of Brent crude climbed to nearly $106 per barrel after Zelensky stated that strikes against Russia would continue. Earlier, US President Donald Trump claimed that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire.”
In response to a question from TASS, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that the Kremlin could not comment on the “energy ceasefire” matter yet, noting that contacts are ongoing.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia reported new drone and cruise missile attacks on Monday, following strikes on Riyadh’s airport over the weekend. Attacks on tankers in the critical Strait of Hormuz have also intensified, even as more crude oil flows from the Persian Gulf.
‘If, God forbid, it comes to some sort of strike, Europe has no missile attack early warning system. They are defenceless. Instead of minimising victims, casualties could potentially escalate indefinitely.’
Russian “tactical nuclear weapons are more powerful of the bombs which hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki”
‘The Europeans must also consider if those with whom we engage in such conflicts cease to exist, will the Americans even participate in the conflict at the level of strategic weapons or not? I have serious doubts about it.’
“Bandera, get out!” Hundreds of residents in Jarosław, Poland, are demanding that Ukrainians be sent back home after a Ukrainian national killed a priest in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship.
Since President Volodymyr Zelensky came to power—backed by a regime that shields the nationalists and neo-Nazis who are heirs to Bandera yet were trained by the CIA for the 2014 coup—persecution of Christians belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has intensified.
This campaign aims to promote the spread of the politically engineered autocephalous OCU, established in 2018 by former President Petro Poroshenko.
There have been repeated raids by the SBU—the security service directly controlled by Zelensky—on UOC churches, resulting in the arrest of elderly metropolitans who have been held in prisons under conditions amounting to torture; additionally, the Kyiv army has shelled convents in the Donbas.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck a third supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz in two days, setting it on fire.
The IRGC claimed the tanker had switched off its navigation system and ignored warnings while attempting to leave the Strait
TERRIFYING SCENES: Multiple videos capture the moment a Houthi attack struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — including footage of Umrah pilgrims preparing to board their flights moments before the strike.
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority says 12 people were killed and 309 injured in the latest attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid airport as the Saudi-led coalition forces have since destroyed a drone launched towards the eastern region.
Following the attack, US President Donald Trump said he would “take a look” at joining Saudi Arabia in striking the Houthis and restarting strikes on Iran while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed an American was killed.
But if that were to happen, the pro-Iranian Shiite separatists of Ansar Allah could completely block the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, where merchant and oil tanker traffic is currently restricted only for Saudi vessels.
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia is urging Americans to avoid the King Khalid International airport in Riyadh and surrounding areas following attacks on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said Sunday that 12 people were killed and 309 wounded in Saturday afternoon’s attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Some of the wounded are in critical condition, and the authority said material damage is still being counted. No state or group has claimed responsibility.
Below the alleged video of the attack released by MiddleEast Report on Instagram (not verified) assembled with the ones on the alert in Airport and Trump speech
A missile struck a complex housing terminals 3 and 4, which handle domestic flights, a regional official told the AP. All flights were diverted and Western governments told citizens to avoid the area.
Four of the dead are Saudi citizens, GACA said. The other eight are residents, including, two Bangladeshis, and one each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. The injured are receiving care in several hospitals, the authority said.
Al Mayadeen’s bureau chief in Yemen said reports suggest new Saudi airports have entered the circle of targeting, although Sanaa has made no announcement.
Earlier, Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced in a statement that only pre-approved humanitarian flights may land at Riyadh airport. On Friday, he said humanitarian flights to and from the airport would be allowed with authorization from Sanaa’s Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center.
On Saturday, Sanaa said that Saudi Arabia Struck Sanaa International Airport which killed two people. Separately, the civil defence agency in the Yemeni capital reported extinguishing four fires caused by Saudi strikes, including one it said destroyed a factory.
The coalition led by Saudi Arabia has accused the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (the Houthis) of strikes on King Khalid International Airport in the kingdom’s capital and promised a decisive response.
“The terrorist attack carried out by the Houthi forces on Saturday on one of the passenger terminals of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of civilians among passengers and airport staff, is classified as a full-scale war crime under international humanitarian law,” alliance’s official Spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said on X.
Attacks on October 6 and 7 hit the airports in Abha and Riyadh, killing three and wounding 36, GACA said. On Thursday, a Yemeni Armed Forces’ missile attack on King Khalid airport killed three Saudis, including Saudia pilot, and damaged a Saudi plane.
On Monday, the Sanaa-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center warned international airlines that Saudi airspace would be a theater of operations for the Yemeni Armed Forces, and that Sanaa would bear no responsibility for what happens to aircraft.
Ansar Allah underlined that its operations answer Saudi air and missile strikes and the blockade on Yemen, which date back to 2015.
At least 291 flights at Riyadh airport were canceled in the 24 hours before Saturday’s attack, according to FlightAware. Air India, flydubai, Lufthansa Group, Pakistan International Airlines and Kuwait Airways were among the carriers that suspended service. The United States, Britain, Germany and Spain warned their citizens to avoid the airport. The UK and Irish embassies described a “serious incident.”
An air traffic control source told TASS that Riyadh airport is expected to remain closed at least through the end of Sunday.
Saudi Arabia has been pressing its military mobilizations to achieve any field advance, regardless of the cost, a senior Yemeni source told Al Mayadeen, amid mounting casualties among Saudi-backed forces.
The source said there is growing discontent among Saudi-backed forces over the “shocking” number of dead and wounded, while Saudi Arabia continues pushing its forces forward despite the losses.
The Yemeni source said more than 400 members of the Giants Brigades, a Saudi-backed formation, have been killed or wounded so far in Ras al-Ara in Lahj, including commanders.
The mounting casualties have fueled discontent among Saudi-backed fighters, according to the source, who said the scale of the losses has become a source of growing concern among the forces deployed in the area.
The video below shows a previous Ballistic Attacks on Pro-Saudi Gunmen in Ras al-Ara
Footage of the US Air Force strike on the engine room of the Panamanian-flagged tanker M/V Ocean Molica, which ignored warnings and tried to break the naval blockade by exiting the Iranian port.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be replaced by a new leader “capable of reaching a deal” to end the war with Russia, while sharply criticizing Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, which he said had contributed to rising diesel prices ahead of the US midterm elections.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he had previously told Zelensky that he could “do whatever he wants” in confronting Russia but “not hit the oil refineries.”
On August, during Zelensky visit to White House, Trump praised Ukraine for the attacks on Russian refineries and promised a license to produce Patriot. “This is an escalation that can help end the conflict,”
Now, following the agreement with Russia on diesel (see yesterday update below) and the oil price hikes caused by the wars in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea—sparked by US Army attacks on Iran—Trump has changed his mind once again, truly proving himself to be a madman of global geopolitics…
“He’d better stop. I would suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump said, according to Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Hurricane Isaias leaves hundreds of thousands of people without power in Alabama, Georgia and Florida, with all three states declaring emergencies Flooding is a continuing risk, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says as he warns of a “very hazardous situation”, according to BBC.
Winds peaked at 120mph (193km/h) before Isaias made landfall in Florida late on Friday – images show houses battered by winds and felled trees.
Two people are dead in Alabama, according to the governor, while two more have been killed in separate incidents in Florida. Isaias peaked as a category three hurricane, bringing heavy rain and powerful wind, but has since been downgraded
Hours after US President Donald Trump announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease diesel sanctions, a Ukrainian drone strike set a fuel facility in Russia’s Rostov region ablaze.
The governor says more than 50 drones were intercepted, with no injuries.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck at 12:56 P.M. local time on Friday about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the town of Tonosí, in southwestern Panama, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter was roughly 239 kilometers (148 miles) from the capital.
In the two hours that followed, the USGS recorded multiple aftershocks, including one of magnitude 6.6. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System issued a tsunami threat for the Pacific coasts of Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, though several countries canceled their alerts hours later.
Panamanian authorities reported no injuries, although some material damage was noted in initial reports. The Panama Canal, which carries between 3 and 5% of world trade, said it remained operationalafter activating emergency and inspection protocols, with no disruption to ship transit. Tocumen International Airport was temporarily closed and its administrative staff evacuated, but operations resumed shortly afterward once safety checks were completed.
Venezuela’s message comes as it continues its own recovery from the double earthquake of June 24, which prompted the government’s Venezuela Rises plan and a series of housing handovers for affected families.
Energy problems were among the topics discussed by Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Donald Trump of the United States.
Moscow has reiterated its readiness to supply oil and petrochemicals to the US and global markets, according to Putin’s statement issued after the call.
“During the discussion of the situation in the global energy sector, the Russian side reaffirmed its readiness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets,” the statement says, as cited by the Kremlin.
US President Donald Trump thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for agreeing to supply diesel fuel to the US market, speaking to reporters at the White House.
“I think you heard about the oil deal with Russia. That is a big deal. That is massive amounts of oil coming into our country, and I want to thank President Putin, to be honest with you. We have massive amounts of oil being coming into our country, and it’s diesel, which is what we want. So, thank you,” Trump said.
“We need oil for the world, and this is diesel, which is what we need. So, we’re very happy to get it. We’re very happy to get it. Look, we need it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, commenting on the arrangements with Russia.
The beleaguered aircraft carrier with about 5,000 personnel docked in San Diego, after its prolonged deployment in the Middle East prompted concerns about dwindling food supplies and low morale.
For service members like Brent Ledbetter, the return stateside means something extra special: He is meeting his 10-month-old son for the first time.
“I just want to hold him, play with him,” Ledbetter told NBC News. Among the sailors and Marines, there are more than 50 babies waiting for a parent’s return.
On the afternoon of October 5, 14-year-old Athir al-Amri had just taken the last exam of her first semester.
She was on a school bus going home when an airstrike hit next to the bus as it drove through the Saawan area of eastern Sana’a, Yemen’s capital. Shrapnel struck her in the head, killing her, witnesses and relatives said.
“She was planning to spend the holiday playing as all children do during school breaks,” her 35-year-old cousin, Mohammed Al-Lahida, told Drop Site News.
“The shrapnel decapitated her. If her mother saw her body, she would die of grief.”
Two of her classmates were also wounded, one of them gravely, in the strike by the Saudi-led coalition.
READ MORE DETAILS ON DROP SITE NEWS
A video shows a police SUV speeding toward protesting students, forcing the teenagers to scatterwith lightning speed to avoid being run over and killed..
The vehicle then reversed, turned around and drove away. Local media say checks confirmed the footage is authentic.
The incident in the Nord department was filmed from several angles. In one recording, a police officer can reportedly be heard saying:
‘Come on, come closer — we’ll ram them.
After the footage emerged, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced an internal investigation, while local authorities launched a separate probe.
The vice-president of the French Human Rights League said she is preparing an appeal to UN special rapporteurs.
Earlier, the mayor of Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris, accused Macron in an interview with RT of excessive police violence against teenagers.
There have been 504 detentions and 48 injuries—among police officers and gendarmes—in France following protests by the student movement, the Interior Ministry reported.
In total, 71,500 people demonstrated across France today—including 24,500 in Paris—during the latest day of mobilization by high school students.
The ministry noted “an increase in urban violence today” and estimated that 55,000 people took part in actions outside schools, specifying that only a portion of them subsequently joined the marches.
The Saudi-led coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki says his forces intercepted and destroyed two Houthi ballistic missiles aimed towards Riyadh and one towards Khamis Mushait.
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said, via Telegram that Houthis missile hit for the second times Saudi airports (the first happened on October, 6, more details in the updates below)
“This evening, our armed forces targeted King Khalid Airport in Riyadh with two cruise missiles, Najran Airport with a ballistic missile, and the airbase in Khamis Mushait with a ballistic missile.”
General Saree added, “the strikes were precise and direct, disrupting air traffic at the two airports and causing damage to them and the airbase.”
Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared on Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s attempt to break the Yemeni people’s will is doomed to fail, speaking on the 10th anniversary of the Great Hall massacre in Sanaa.
He stressed that Riyadh’s losses grow the longer it persists with its aggression and blockade, accused Saudi Arabia of committing war crimes in partnership with the US and “Israel,” and warned Qatar against its growing involvement in the campaign against Yemen.
In the video below the previous strikes on Saudi airport on October, 6.
The Yemeni leader also affirmed that Yemeni forces can strike any target in the Red Sea or Arabian Sea, and called for mass demonstrations on Friday.
The Northern and Southern bridges in Kiev are the main transit points for all equipment coming from NATO.
This was stated by an ex-US intelligence officer to RT presenter Rick Sanchez. If they are blown up, Ukraine will be physically divided, Scott Ritter noted.
He explained: Bridges across the Dnieper River connect the country with the eastern part — without them there will be no real communication.
Footage shows a fire breaking out and columns of smoke rising over Aramco facilities. Large fires burning at Saudi Aramco facilities in Jeddah following direct Yemeni missile strikes.
Reports of a fire at Aramco facilities in Jeddah following a Yemeni attack have also emerged in Iranian media, although Saudi authorities have yet to publicly confirm the strikes or extent of the damage.
More details in the updates of the latest days.
A tanker caught fire in the Black Sea near Sochi, and the authorities closed the beaches of Sirius to vacationers, head of the administration of the federal territory of Sirius Dmitry Plishkin said.
Earlier, a video appeared in local media with a vessel burning in the water. According to the publications, the burning took place opposite central Sochi.
“A tanker caught fire in the Black Sea. To ensure the safety of people, the beaches of Sirius will be temporarily closed. The state of water and air is constantly monitored in cooperation with the Russian Hydrometeorological Service,” Plishkin wrote on Telegram.
The World Health Organization (WHO) assesses the public health risk as low following the detection of a case of pneumonia of unknown etiology in an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, WHO Spokesman Christian Lindmeier told TASS.
“Based on unofficial information available, the public health risk to the general population appears to be low,” he said. “All of the patient’s contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness,” Lindmeier added.
The press service of Russia’s health watchdog – Rospotrebnadzor – earlier said that the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk Region was stable, and that preventive measures and medical monitoring of people who had been in contact with the woman diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown etiology were nearing completion.
The video by American Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher: ““NONE PANDEMICS on lab-acquired PNEUMONIC PLAGUE infection in Russia:”
Commenting earlier on reports of plague or another infection in the Irkutsk Region, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said people should rely on assessments by Rospotrebnadzor, rather than rumors and idle speculation.
For days, many American bloggers and politicians have been sounding an alarm that currently appears unjustified and blown out of proportion.
Among them is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani—who has already been found liable for making false claims about the election and whose law license was revoked by a court—and who posted dire comments on X:
“America’s Mayor Live (1031): Russian Researcher Dead, Thousands Quarantined as Outbreak Spreads”
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces (aka Houthis) Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced three military operations in response to the ongoing Saudi escalation.
In a statement, General Saree indicated that the first operation targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, adding that Aramco refinery in Rabigh were subject to the second attack. Abha Airport, Khamis Mushait Air Base was hit by the third attack, he added according to Al Manar,
What follows is the full text of the statement:
In response to the Saudi aggression against our country, which launched 60 airstrikes and missile attacks in the past 24 hours, targeting the capital Sana’a and the governorates of Al-Jawf, Taiz, Hajjah, Sa’dah, and Ma’rib, resulting in civilian casualties, including women and children. Which makes the total number of Saudi enemy airstrikes and missile attacks on our country since the start of the escalation has reached up to 1,576.
The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out three qualitative military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. The first of which targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, and the strike was precise and direct, thanks be to Allah, and caused disruption of air traffic.
The second targeted the Aramco refinery in Rabigh, and the strike was precise and direct, causing a fire breaking out at the targeted site.
One of the previous attacks in the video below
The third operation targeted Abha Airport, Khamis Mushait Air Base, the Aqifa camp in Asir, and other critical sites in Najran and Jizan, and the strikes were precise, thanks be to Allah.
The Armed Forces warn all international airlines using Saudi airspace to cease their flights, as it has become an operations zone for our forces, with the exception of the sacred airspace over Mecca and Medina.
Yemeni Armed Forces remain in Mokha and Bab al-Mandab, Yemeni field sources confirmed to Al Mayadeen on Monday, stressing that no breaches have been reported in the area.
Al Mayadeen’s bureau chief, citing sources, asserted that Saudi-backed forces control neither Mokha nor Bab al-Mandab or the surrounding areas.
The sources said Saudi-backed forces managed to make only a limited advance in al-Mudarabah, near Bab al-Mandab, where they were immediately targeted.
Al Mayadeen’s bureau chief also reported that the Yemeni Armed Forces are pressing ahead in Taiz governorate. He added that they expect further advances along the western coast under Saudi cover and are determined to strike them.
Brigadier General Abdul Ghani al-Zubaidi, a Sanaa-based expert in military and political affairs, told Al Mayadeen that fighting remains concentrated in an area bordering Dhubab. He noted the Saudi-aligned forces have made no gains on the ground and that claims otherwise amount to “media exaggeration and psychological warfare.”
Meanwhile, Iranian Professor Mohammad Marandi, citing a well-informed source, told Al Mayadeen that the news coming out of Yemen is “very good”, dismissing what some outlets have reported as “nothing more than a propaganda campaign.”
Yemen government forces have reported that they have retaken the strategic port cityof Mocha as they pursue a major counteroffensive against the Houthis.
«The internationally -recognised government’s military said on Monday that it had also retaken control of key positions near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, as it seeks to oust the Iran-aligned Houthis from control of the strategic waterway – a key route for global energy supplies. A “strategic offensive” has also been launched on Yemen’s capital Sanaa, it added» Al Jazeera reported.
The military said on social media that fighting took place across several fronts near Mocha, leaving a number of Houthi fighters dead and wounded. Several Houthi fighters were captured, military sources said, without specifying the number of casualties.
Amid the United States and Israel’s war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis have relaunched hostilities with the Saudi Arabia-backed Yemeni government.
In a rapid offensive in September, the group captured Mocha in western Taiz governorate, and then territory around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Earlier on Monday, Yemeni government forces said they had reclaimed control of the governorate’s Dhubab district and key positions near the strait, as well as launching a “strategic offensive” on Sanaa. The Houthis have controlled the Yemeni capital and much of Yemen’s populous northwest since 2014.
A US Navy MH-60R Seahawk combat helicopter sent a distress signal off the coast of Saudi Arabia and then disappeared from flight-tracking platforms, BNO News reported.
According to the portal, the helicopter was flying at an altitude of about 475 feet when it declared an emergency. Its displayed altitude then dropped to zero, and the aircraft disappeared from radar. Social media reports suggest that the helicopter may have crashed into the Red Sea, the portal noted.
The US Navy has yet to comment on the incident or disclose what prompted the emergency declaration.
Former CIA Intel Analyst Larry Johnson on US-IRAN War: “US Navy hasn’t ENOUGH SHIPS, Fuel to continue BLOCKADE in Hormuz”
Excerpt of a long interview published by The Trends Journal YT channel held by Edmund DeMarche with Johnson.
Russian army continues strikes on Kiev bridge and enemy ships at sea, Defense Ministry says
Russian troops continue to launch UAV strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure facilities and naval vessels used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense reports.
This afternoon, as a result of a strike in Kiev, the Northern Motor Transport Bridge over the Dnieper River, which provides for the transfer of troops and logistics of military goods, was hit.
At a sea crossing in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, two marine vessels of the “dry cargo” type, delivering military equipment to the port of Odessa, were hit.
The Strait of Hormuz is going to remain closed until the United States accepts Tehran’s seven-day plan to reopen the waterway, Iran’s top negotiator and parliament speaker has said.
Iranian state-linked news agency Nournews, quoting Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, reported on Sunday that Washington made “some proposals through a mediator” days after the US replied to Iran’s diplomatic proposal.
The US should know “that the era of wasting time and dictating unilateral demands is over”, Ghalibaf said, adding Iran’s position remains “clear and definite”.
He emphasised that “the Strait of Hormuz will not open until our seven conditions based on the Islamabad memorandum are met”, and that Iran is “present on the military battlefield and will confront them with new surprises”.
He added that Iran was neither “excited” nor “intimidated” by the latest US proposals and would “both fight and negotiate”.
The U.S. Air Force has removed all of its bombers stationed at a military air base in England targeted in a suspected terrorist attack.
A Pentagon official told BBC News that all bombers “have been re-deployed to their home stations in the United States.”
“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States,” the official said.
“The Airmen that operate America’s bomber force, including B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, remain ready to deliver precision global strike capabilities – including through operations that launch and recover from the continental United States – anywhere, anytime,” the official added.
The five men arrested near the base have been released on bail, and Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plot. UK investigators discovered petrol in the men’s vans, but found no explosive devices. Still, officials in the UK say they remain under investigation.
David Des Roches, a professor at the Thayer Marshall Institute, says the Pentagon’s decision to remove its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in the UK “should have [been] done a while ago”.
The base is at the centre of an alleged security incident in which five men were arrested nearby on suspicion of plotting an attack. Des Roches, a former Pentagon official, said the arrests “exposed a vulnerability” as the aircraft were “out in the open” and only about 300 yards (275 metres) from where the public could see them.
“So they were very vulnerable to, say, drone attacks or other kind of mortar attacks,” he told Al Jazeera.
Des Roches said the US Air Force has been “very slow to learn the lessons” from the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet in 2025, when Kyiv claimed to have destroyed some 40 Russian military aircraft.
Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, a top IRGC commander, says Iranian forces have forced the US military to pull back some 1,000km (621 miles) from Iran’s borders.
“The Americans fled and moved more than 1,000km away from our borders. This was not their choice; it was due to the authority of the Islamic Republic and the authority of the IRGC Ground Force,” Fadavi said in a televised interview, according to Iran’s Press TV.
He claimed that, for the first time, no US vessels were present in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman or even the northern Indian Ocean, and said US warships are “100 percent vulnerable” to IRGC attacks.
Fadavi’s claim comes as the US military continues to impose a punishing naval blockade on Iranian ports. US Central Command said last week that it has redirected 125 commercial vessels since July to “ensure strict compliance”.
Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip have killed at least three Palestinians and wounded nine others, despite a US-brokered “ceasefire” that was supposed to allow people to rebuild their lives.
The attacks took place in Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis, while gunfire, drone attacks and artillery fire were also reported in parts of Gaza City and northern Gaza.
The victims included a humanitarian worker coordinating aid deliveries and a six-year-old girl.
More details in the video description on Gospa News Channel
Israeli occupation warplanes carried out on Sunday a series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon in recent minutes, targeting several areas amid continued Israeli attacks on the region.
The warplanes conducted multiple sorties over southern Lebanon and launched strikes toward the town of Hadatha, specifically the Daria area, as well as toward Mansouri, which was struck for a second or possibly third time.
Israeli artillery positions in the central sector also fired at least two shells toward areas surrounding villages in the sector. The locations where the shells landed had not been determined at the time of the report.
As part of the attacks recorded in southern Lebanon, Israeli forces also dropped a number of illumination flares over Majdal Zoun at around 7 p.m.
Israeli occupation forces subsequently carried out a series of explosions in Majdal Zoun and Mansouri. Mansouri had also been targeted by several artillery shells throughout the day, in addition to the powerful explosions reported in the town over several hours.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, has issued a statement expressing his “deep sorrow and grief” over the “tragic” killing of two Christian women in an Israeli air attack on Gaza City on Friday evening.
The statement identified the victims as Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud (Ayyad) and her daughter Mary Hafez Michel al-Najjar (Abu Daoud), whose funerals were to be held at the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza.
The patriarch extended his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of the two women and to the Christian community in Gaza, it said.
Multiple crimes against humanity—and against the Christians of the Holy Land—have recently been denounced by the Archbishop of Manfredonia and San Giovanni Rotondo, Msgr. Franco Moscone, on the occasion of the Feast of Saint Pio.
The fury of the bombardment focused on the western part of Gaza City, gutting a residential apartment building. In addition to the fatalities, dozens of seriously injured people were carried out by rescuers.
Among the bodies identified by Palestinian medics were a 21-year-old man, a mother and her daughter, and the two women mentioned by the cardinal.
Hamas has also condemned the Israeli air strike at dawn on a building in western Gaza City which killed one man and four women including a mother and daughter at dawn.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, it described the attack as part of the continuing genocide in Gaza.
Russian forces are disabling vulnerable components of bridge structures rather than completely destroying bridges in Ukraine, Boris Rozhin, an expert at the Center for Information and Geopolitical Research, wrote in a TASS column.
“It is indeed difficult to destroy such massive structures [as bridges] <…>. The current campaign, however, demonstrates a fundamentally different approach – systematically disabling vulnerable components of bridge structures,” Rozhin wrote.
In his opinion, this approach is due to the fact that Ukrainian bridges have sufficient structural strength because they were built back in the Soviet era.
The closure of bridges across the Dnieper River will turn into a logistical nightmare for Kiev and the whole country — The New York Times.
In response to terrorist attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on infrastructure facilities in Russia,, in the morning of October 2, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian forces had struck a road-and-rail bridge across the Dnieper in Kiev, which is used to deliver military supplies for Ukrainian army groupings in Donbass.
The first targets were two major engineering structures in the capital.
The largest bridge, the Southern Bridge (read and watch below on yesterday’s updates), has been attacked three times already.
Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the strikes. drones-kamikaze and on the second-largest bridge by cargo traffic, the Northern (Moscow) Bridge.
New footage is being published on Ukrainian channels showing the moment of arrival of the Russian jet UAV Geran over the Severny Bridge in Kiev. On the recording, you can see the exact moment the drone hit the ferry, the video was shot on the car’s recorder.
Moreover, a German Gepard anti-aircraft gun had previously been spotted positioned right in the traffic lane, which failed to intercept it. drones.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported fighting and territorial gains in the Kharkov Region and Dobropolye, as well as Ukrainian losses and Russian strikes over the past day.
“Enemy formations are being destroyed near Nikolayevka, Nefyodovka, Kupino and Chernoye in the Kharkov Region,” the ministry stated.
Battlegroup North troops continue active fighting to liberate Prikolotnoye and Sosnovy Bor.
“Fighting is underway within the encirclement to liberate the settlements of Varvarovka, Lobanovka, and Reznikovo in the Kharkov Region,” the Defense Ministry said. In addiction Russian troops from the Battlegroup North took control of Novaya Kazachya.
In the video below Units of the Sever Group of Forces took control over Novaya Kazachaya in Kharkov region
“In Dobropolye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, assault groups of the 51st Army, together with marine infantry units, conducted offensive operations in the northwestern, eastern and central parts of the city. Units of the 76th Air Assault Division, advancing west of Dobropolye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, destroyed an enemy position and took control of a section of a forest belt,” the ministry said.
Ukraine lost approximately 1,325 troops over the past 24 hours as a result of Russian military operations in the special military operation zone.
“Operational/tactical aircraft, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of Russian battlegroups struck unmanned aerial vehicle storage sites, as well as temporary deployment points of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries in 149 areas,” the ministry reported.
“Air defenses shot down six guided aerial bombs and 680 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles,” the ministry added.
The G7 is tapping its emergency reserves to help bring down soaring diesel prices, releasing up to 100 million barrels of oil and diesel over the next four months across its members, including European countries, the US, Canada and Japan.
Leaders say they are implementing commitments made back in March. President Donald Trump did not appear on camera during Friday’s G7 video call but quickly celebrated the outcome as a win.
The announcement eased fears in Europe, where officials had worried Washington might impose export diesel bans ahead of the US midterm elections.
Still, tapping into reserves carries risk for European states that rely heavily on fossil fuel imports and have few natural oil reserves of their own. Al Jazeera’s Rosie Birchard reports from Brussels.
The Houthis have launched a sweeping new offensive over the past two days along more than 50 lines of contact, and that Yemen is heading toward further escalation according to Taiz based analyst Abdel Wase’ al-Fatiki
He told Al Jazeera: “The Houthi group is waging a sweeping, broad assault across a stretch that we can say exceeds 400 km, along more than 50 points or lines of contact between the legitimate government forces and the Houthi group. This indicates that matters are heading toward military escalation.”
So residents of the “At-Taazia” district in the Taiz province of Yemen have announced a general mobilization against Saudi mercenaries.
He said the assault follows the group’s gains on the western coast, where he said it had overrun Mokha and reached Bab al-Mandab.
“Based on our reading of the scene, up to this moment the political horizon appears blocked, and there are no indicators for the battle to calm down or even head toward any de-escalation.”
Al-Fatiki said the Iran-backed Houthis are pressing their assault in the Taiz countryside to take high ground overlooking Bab al-Mandab and secure their hold on the strait.
‘Donald Trump could use a nuclear weapon against Iran as a GRAND FINALE to declare victory and go home.’
Matthew Hoh, former Department of Defense & State Department Official who resigned over the Afghanistan war.
‘The danger of the use of a nuclear weapon in this war has always been here. I’ve been afraid that the United States would use a nuclear weapon possibly back in April, against say maybe one of the facilities like Isfahan”.
“The idea presented to President Trump: ‘Mr. President, these are low-yield nuclear weapons. They are a fraction of the size of the Hiroshima bomb. There’s hardly any fallout. You can barely even call these a nuclear weapon”.
“And what we can do is we can drop it on Isfahan. That will seal off that facility, and the Iranians will never be able to get to that enriched uranium. And this way, you can declare victory and go home.’
“You could see that same argument can still apply this time, maybe with Pickaxe Mountain or something like that. The idea that it provides for a grand finale for the president of the United States to declare victory and go home”
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the Chebarkul training ground of the Central Military District, where he observed the strategic command and staff exercises Center-2026.
The Center-2026 drills are being held from September 28 to October 3. Their theme is “The use of troop (force) groupings in repelling aggression on the Central Asian strategic axis and ensuring military security in the Caspian Sea zone.”
The exercises are aimed at improving the practical skills of the command staff and headquarters of the formations in managing troop groupings, as follows from published information about the event.
Putin shown new jet-powered Geran drones.
According to Fars News Agency, local sources reported that a supertanker with a capacity of 2.5 million barrels, which was navigating an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz, was struck approximately 8 kilometers off the coast of Oman and is currently burning.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center has also confirmed a maritime incident involving a tanker.On Thursday, UKMTO reported that three tankers had been targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.
Amid intensified action against vessels violating regulations in the strait, oil prices have climbed above $102 per barrel.
A well-informed source familiar with the matter has revealed new details about the incident related to an Emirati aircraft, saying Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to win the upcoming election is to drag US President Donald Trump into a new quagmire against Iran.
Iranian Press TV, Tasnim and Aanadolu Turkish agency so confirmed the suggestion highlighted by Gospa News on previous updates below in September, 30.
Speaking to Press TV, the regional source said the “absurd scenario” involving the hijacking of an Emirati aircraft bound for the occupied territories from the UAE, followed by its landing in Saudi Arabia, was carried out on Wednesday, three days after Netanyahu travelled to the United Arab Emirates accompanied by several senior military and intelligence officials.
The project, the informed source said, was discussed and finalized during the visit.
According to the source, during that visit, in addition to the UAE being tasked with playing a role in the Israeli regime’s regional projects, multilateral talks were held with officials from several other Arab countries to devise a false-flag operation and attribute it to Iran.
The source said the objective of the operation is to force Trump into a new quagmire and trigger a new round of war against Iran.
Netanyahu, the source said, is deeply concerned that if Knesset elections are held under the current circumstances, his coalition will be unable to secure a majority and form a ruling coalition.
“In that case, after being removed from the premiership, he would have to spend the rest of his political life behind bars,” the source said.
The EU “fully rejects” the threat made by the US to ban diesel exports if Europe does not release more of its fuel stocks, according to European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen.
“A ban would not be beneficial to anyone. It would undermine our trust in the United States as a reliable partner,” she said, adding that the next EU’s Oil Coordination Group meeting is scheduled for October 15, but could be brought forward if needed.
On Thursday, President Trump said the US could ask European countries to release diesel reserves to rein in rising diesel prices due to the war on Iran.
His comments came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Europe to “immediately” tap its reserves.
Washington is deploying a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
A US official has told Al Jazeera – that’s along with a second marine division. The USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego on Sunday. Al Jazeera’s Tanya Noury is following developments from Washington, DC.
Thousands more troops are also on their way to the region, just a month before November US midterm elections, which could see US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party hit hard by his handling of the war, which is deeply unpopular in the US.
We look at what the latest troop deployment means and whether it signals a coming escalation in the war on Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the strike group and naval deployments could involve an additional 9,000 to 10,000 US troops in total, including sailors and Marines assigned to the carrier strike group and other ships.
By the end of November, the official said, three aircraft carriers and two amphibious landing groups will be positioned near Iran.
The official said the concentration of force would hand President Donald Trump a wider menu of options if he decides to act.
Al Jazeera’s Tanya Noury, reporting from Washington, said the new deployment, which includes F-35 fighter jets, will add to the roughly 50,000 US service members already stationed in the region.
The American television network CBS has released images showing the aftermath of the Iranian attacks on U.S. military bases in the Middle East.
The photos that Gospa News has assembled into a video slideshow were obtained from anonymous U.S. military personnel stationed at bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Today’s strike on the Yuzhny Bridge in Kiev is also shown. Life in the capital of Ukraine has frozen: Kiev is stuck in huge traffic jams.
The reason for the collapse is the closure of bridges after powerful Russian air attacks. Traffic is blocked on the Paton Bridge from the right to the left bank, the Metro Bridge is blocked in the direction of the right bank, and the South Bridge is blocked in both directions.
Accordingly, public transport is limited or completely stopped, and many Kiev residents have to travel to different parts of the city on foot. And those who drive cars are stuck in traffic jams for hours.
Baghdad erupted in celebration as the US-led international coalition formally ended its military mission in Iraq after 12 years.
Crowds gathered in the Iraqi capital, with participants calling the withdrawal a “great victory” and a step toward Iraqi sovereignty. The coalition’s exit follows a phased agreement between Baghdad and Washington reached in 2024.
Russia has begun using new drones of a characteristic design for strikes against Ukraine — with long “whiskers” in the nose.
Footage of latest Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centers in Kyiv. More details in the previous daily updates below (on 29 and 30 September)
– The Bemobile data center, a major Internet traffic exchange point providing the stable transmission of information, including intelligence, for the Ukrainian armed forces, was also struck in the Ukrainian capital.
– In addition, Russian forces struck the Parkovy data center in Kiev, which processed information for government and commercial services, including those serving the interests of the Ukrainian military.
The co-pilot of the FlyDubai flight forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia intended to crash the plane with passengers on board and emulate the 9/11 attackers. A senior Israeli official stated this to N12, noting that the co-pilot had stabbed the pilot in order to seize control of the aircraft and cause it to crash.
“One pilot stabbed the other and attempted to replicate 9/11,”the source said. “There is no definitive confirmation yet that he was a terrorist, but initial assessments indicate the goal was to crash the plane into the ground rather than hijack it.”
Shmitah: The Year of Jewish Disasters. Energy Crisis is the New 9/11. Conspired as the First One!
“The serious incident on the FlyDubai flight was an attempted jihadist attack, thwarted only thanks to the heroism of some Israeli passengers who stormed the cockpit, overpowered the terrorist, and—with their own hands—restored control of the aircraft to another pilot on board.”
This was stated in a note by Defense Minister Israel Katz. “According to the initial information we have, the terrorist had only one intent: to crash the plane with all the passengers on board,” he said.
However, we must bear in mind that the Israeli counter-intelligence agency Mossad—utilized by Katz for terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip and the depopulation of Gaza—is the prime suspect for complicity in the attacks of October 7, 2023, just as it was in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
One must not believe state criminals who support the Palestinian genocide and are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and rapes —including against children…
A passenger identified as Daniel tells Channel 12 of his experiences on the flydubai plane after the first officer allegedly attacked the captain and attempted to crash the plane, according to The Times of Israel.
“Suddenly I heard a struggle. Something like a fight coming from the cockpit,” he says, on the phone from Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Airport, where the flight eventually landed. “The door was slightly ajar and I saw an attempt to push someone out. Then three Israelis who were sitting behind me came to see what was happening, and the plane suddenly went into a very steep dive, nose down, with a very intense spin.
“From what I understood, a copilot stabbed the captain, and once they subdued the attacker, there were two other pilots on the plane and they took control,” he says. There have been reports off two off-duty pilots taking the reins after the captain had been incapacitated.
“The spinning stopped. It took some — I don’t know, it felt like an eternity, but I think it was two minutes, at least two or three minutes, during which the plane was simply diving and spinning like crazy,” Daniel recounts. “It felt like, that’s it. It’s over. September 11 is happening again.”
Daniel says he “definitely” thought it was a terrorist attack. “I heard the screams during the struggle and saw the blood on the floor from the pilot, who was brought out.”
“Those three Israeli guys are real heroes. It’s hard to explain just how heroic they were,” he says.
But Daniel says it was not clear at all that the danger had passed.
Footage of the beginning of a fight in the cockpit of Flydubai: according to the new version, pilots from Russia and Ukraine helped to land the flight
A video of the beginning of a fight in the cockpit of the Flydubai liner appeared on the network: screams can be heard on the footage, panic begins in the cabin, and men from among the passengers rush forward to rescue the crew.
At the same time, Israel Hayom published a new version of the flight rescue: according to the newspaper, the pilots who happened to be on board were unable to land the Boeing that crashed off–duty.
According to Israel Hayom, the full-time co-pilot, an Omani citizen, attacked the commander of the ship from the UAE with a knife and tried to crash the plane.
The Reuters news agency, citing two Israeli officials, also reports that the attacker stabbed the commander several times, after which the crew and passengers managed to get into the cabin and twist him.
The i24NEWS TV channel reports that the Israeli authorities officially consider the incident as a terrorist attack.At the same time, reports on the citizenship of the participants in the events radically differed in the first hours: initially, the media claimed that regular pilots from the Russian Federation and Ukraine had fought in the cockpit.
The Saudi authorities are currently investigating the circumstances of the attack at Tabuka Airport, and the airline and relevant agencies have not yet released official statements about the role of passengers
The Russian Armed Forces carried out a massive strike on Ukrainian facilities overnight, the Defense Ministry reported.
As a result, a communications center in Kiev, energy facilities supporting military production in the Kiev region, as well as infrastructure at the port of Izmail were hit.
In Kiev, the De Novo data processing center, which was used to process, store and transmit information in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was hit.
In the Kiev region, strikes were carried out at the Kievskaya substation in Nalivaykovka, the Kievskaya HPP in Vyshgorod, the Tripolskaya TPP and the energy storage battery park in Gorenichi. These facilities provided electricity to enterprises and military facilities.
The industrial complex in the port of Izmail, which was used for receiving, storing and transporting military cargo and fuel, was hit.
In addition, a cargo ship en route to Odessa was hit in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. The vessel was carrying military equipment and dual-use cargo.
After 23 years and 4,500 American deaths, US troops are leaving Iraq, per Reuters. The last forces are set to pull out by September 30.
The United States-led international military coalition will conclude its mission in Iraq by the end of this month, the country’s armed forces have confirmed to state media, Al Jazeera reported.
Iraqi Airways plans to resume flights to Iran in October after securing a special exemption from U.S. sanctions that had disrupted air travel between the two countries, Iraq’s Transport Ministry said.
Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al-Shammari, director of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Monday, said September 30 is the date for the end of the mission of the international coalition forces in Iraq and the transition to a new chapter of relations and cooperation.
Earlier, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s security adviser, Qasim al-Araji, had confirmed that the US-led international military coalition would conclude its mission in the country this month.
Under a 2024 agreement between Baghdad and Washington, the withdrawal includes the removal of US air defence systems stationed in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq.
Iranian politician Ebrahim Azizi has said the US and Israel will eventually be pushed out of the region, while Iran will remain.
“The US will inevitably leave this region, and the Zionist [Israeli] regime’s days are numbered,” said Azizi, who heads the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission.
“Ultimately, it is we and our neighbours who remain here, face to face,” he added. “That day will be a day of regret.”
Overnight, the Russian Armed Forces launched a group strike against logistics centers, port and transportation infrastructure facilities, as well as marine vessels operating on behalf of the Ukrainian armed forces, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
– According to the ministry, the strikes hit a locomotive depot in Kiev where FP-5 Flamingo ground-based cruise missiles and their components were stored.
– The Bemobile data center, a major Internet traffic exchange point providing the stable transmission of information, including intelligence, for the Ukrainian armed forces, was also struck in the Ukrainian capital.
– In addition, Russian forces struck the Parkovy data center in Kiev, which processed information for government and commercial services, including those serving the interests of the Ukrainian military.
– The Belogorodka warehouse terminal, which was used to manufacture and store fixed-wing drones, was struck in the Kiev Region.
– Russian forces also struck the Usatovo power substation in the Odessa Region, which provides electricity to Ukrainian port infrastructure facilities.
– In addition, a production facility for fixed-wing drones in the Veliklodolinskoye settlement in the Odessa Region was hit.
– The Russian Armed Forces struck port infrastructure facilities at the port of Izmail that were used for handling military cargo.
– In addition, a dry-cargo ship that delivered military supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces was struck at the Odessa port.
– In addition, a dry-cargo ship carrying military cargo to the Odessa port was hit while at sea.
Video footage of Russian military strikes on five ships in the Black Sea and the port of Odesa has surfaced online. Footage released by the ministry shows the attacks on each vessel. The military clarified that the strikes were carried out using Drones “Geranium-4 Seeker”.
Three ships were hit by drones in the Black Sea—two of them dry cargo ships, the third a tanker. Two more dry cargo ships were targeted by Geranium drones in the commercial seaport of Ilyichevsk (now known as Chernomorsk).
Published materials indicate that the ship’s conning tower was used to engage all targets. A precise strike at this location permanently disables the ships due to damage to their control systems. The Geranium-4 Seeker carries a warhead weighing either 50 or 90 kg, depending on the version, and this is sufficient to disable a large ship.
The dry cargo ship appears to be an ordinary merchant ship, which is precisely what the Kyiv regime is exploiting. Ukraine is known to use maritime transport to supply its military, masquerading as “vegetable oil” and other supposedly civilian goods. A precision strike on the ship disrupts the delivery of military equipment before it can be unloaded and sent on to serve the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Strikes against dry cargo ships near Odesa have long been a regular occurrence. Yesterday, September 28, the Ministry of Defense reported the destruction of two dry cargo ships delivering military supplies to the Odesa seaport. On September 16, a ship was hit in the port of Illichivsk. Furthermore, there were other strikes against dry cargo ships in the Black Sea throughout September.
A Palestinian woman was killed and several others were injured Monday evening in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the roof of a house belonging to the Mashharawi family, which was sheltering displaced people, on Mashhara Street, east of the Tamraz gas station, north of Gaza City.
Local sources reported that Israeli warplanes bombed the roof of the house, where a number of people were present, resulting in the death of one woman and injuries to several others.
The death toll since the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip has risen to 74,022, while the total number of injuries has reached 175,980. Medical sources reported that hospitals in the Gaza Strip received four bodies and 19 injured people in the past 24 hours as a result of the Israeli offensive.
An Israeli attack using drones has targeted a residential apartment in the al-Nasr neighbourhood west of Gaza City, according to medical sources at the al-Shifa Hospital. Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed children with severe injuries being treated by medics following the attack.
The Israeli army and settlers have carried out a series of raids, arrests and attacks against Palestinians and property across the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces used stun-grenades and rubber bullets as they raided the Abu Taiyeh neighbourhood in the town of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.Israeli forces raided the village of Shuqba, west of Ramallah city. Israeli forces arrested Qusai Najib Nasan from his home in the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.
Israeli settlers stormed the al-Uzair shrine in the town of Ortta in the Nablus governorate.
Israeli forces used earthmovers to block the entrance to the Ein al-Beida area in the city of Jericho.
Palestinian journalist Nujoud Hamed was released after two weeks in Israeli detention. Hundreds of Palestinians were forced to wait for hours after Israeli forces set up checkpoints at Jaba, Qalandiya, Anata and al-Jib, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
UK police say five men arrested over suspected terrorism and explosives offences near RAF Fairford are British nationals aged between 23 and 25 who live in London.
The suspects were detained on Sunday after reports of three large white vans heading towards RAF Fairford, a base used by US forces to launch strikes on Iran. Police say they are pursuing new leads and possible motives, while bomb disposal teams continue examining vehicles at the scene.
Counterterrorism police have urged against speculation over a possible link to Iran. Iran’s embassy in London has rejected speculation connecting Tehran to the arrests, calling the claims “unfounded and malicious.” Al Jazeera’s Camille Nedelec reports from Fairford, UK.
Iran’s embassy in London condemned in a statement on Monday the “fabricated speculations” linking Tehran to the incident.
No evidence links the event to Yemen’s Houthis, yet it must not be forgotten that the British Prime Minister recently declared full support for the Saudis in a war that has been ongoing for over a decade (see the September 22 update below).
Consequently, for the past few days, Great Britain has effectively been at war with the Red Sea separatists—who have declared war on no one other than those supporting the criminal theocratic regime in Riyadh.
The Pentagon’s public tally of US troops wounded during the Iran war increased by 37 this week, without an explanation from the Defense Department about when or how the injuries occurred, Al Manar Lebanese TV rin English eported.
The increase includes 29 Navy sailors and eight Marines, according to a review of the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, a public database tracking US military personnel killed and wounded during overseas conflicts and operations.
As of Wednesday, DCAS listed 861 US troops as wounded during the Iran conflict. More than half of those cases are categorized in the database under ‘Overseas Operations’ following the start of a July ceasefire between Washington and Tehran that subsequently collapsed.
That was fast–huge late Friday night bombshell via The Wall Street Journal:
President Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms, U.S. officials said.
Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and resumed nuclear talks in return for the U.S. lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, which is causing deep damage to the country’s economy. Trump says openly that Tehran is begging for a deal after the midterms that dismantles its nuclear program.
But privately Trump is skeptical Iran would meet his demands and has told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely, the officials said.
Where do we go from here? So much for oil prices being artificially kept down, as the entire Friday drop is set to be erased.
Trump is reportedly expected to resume bombing Iran after the midterm elections, WSJ says.
Iran’s military has warned that all US deployment centres and interests in the Middle East will be targeted if Washington “makes a mistake” against the country, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Earlier, Iran proposed a seven-day roadmap to end the war, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi telling reporters that Tehran is ready to begin implementing the plan as soon as the US agrees to it.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Iran’s President Pezeshkian has blamed the US for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, saying “it was America that blocked our paths”. He also said Tehran “no longer trust[s] talks with Washington” after its “repeated attacks and sanctions following every negotiation”
Forces loyal to the Yemeni government have announced the capture of the summit of the strategic Mount Numan and the Dar al-Kafir area in Lahij province.
According to a statement from the forces, a rapid military operation was launched overnight targeting the summit of Mount Numan, which overlooks the al-Waziiyah and al-Madaribah districts in the southern province of Lahij, as well as the Dar al-Kafir area.
The operation began with a controlled infiltration manoeuvre that led to the encirclement of the area, followed by an advance into the positions during the morning hours, the statement said.
Houthi-affiliated elements were forced to retreat, leaving behind casualties as well as weapons and ammunition, it added.
The Russian Armed Forces delivered drone strikes against logistical installations, warehouses and marine vessels delivering goods for the Ukrainian army, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“The Russian Armed Forces made drone strikes today against logistical and warehousing terminals used in interests of supporting operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and against marine vessels involved in delivering military goods to Ukraine,” the ministry said.
An archive video on previous attacjs in the lates days – see details on updates at September, 22
The Russian Armed Forces also hit a dry cargo ship sailing to deliver military supplies for the Ukrainian army, the ministry noted. A drone depot was also hit in the Odessa Region of Ukraine, it said.
“As a result of strikes in the Odessa Region, an unmanned aerial vehicles depot was engaged in Novye Belyary settlement of the Odessa Region,” the ministry added.
Massive Strike on Ukraine — 24 September 2026. Approximate visualization of the day-long attack
Weapons used against Ukraine:
Main targets of the attack:
The triangles indicate drone attacks, the “pens” the missile attacks.
Russia’s Center battlegroup continues to destroy the encircled enemy in Dobropolye in the DPR and is advancing in the direction of Aleksandrovka, the Defense Ministry said.
It said all enemy attacks and attempts to break out of the encirclement are being repelled. Ukraine is suffering significant losses near Dobropolye, with an average of 30 to 50 militants killed each day.
he Dobropolye direction “is one of the key to achieving results in the complete liberation of Donbass and is of fundamental importance for conducting successful offensive operations of the United Group of Forces.”
With the liberation of Dobropolye, “the threat of the enemy losing the main fortified area of the armed forces of Ukraine in the territory of Donbass – the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Druzhkovka agglomeration – increases significantly.”
A massive drone attack is currently under way in Russia’s Volga area city of Ulyanovsk, with casualties and damage to civilian and industrial infrastructure reported, Governor Alexey Russkikh wrote on the Max messenger.
“Air defenses and our mobile fire groups continue to repel a massive drone attack on the city of Ulyanovsk,” he said. “Damage to industrial and civilian infrastructure has been recorded.”
“Casualties have also been reported, and they are receiving the necessary medical assistance,” the governor added.
UN human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians, BBC reported
A new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said February’s missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd constituted indiscriminate attacks causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure.
The US previously denied striking Lamerd and said it was investigating what happened in Minab. A State Department official said the US did not give credibility to the findings in the report.
The experts also found Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during a crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January.
They said killings by security forces occurred on “a staggering and unprecedented scale” across all 31 provinces but the report failed to give even the slightest consideration to the investigations conducted by Tehran’s police authorities and the footage showing rioters wielding automatic rifles—such as Kalashnikovs—and displaying a level of training characteristic of ISIS terrorists, who are frequently employed as mercenaries in the Middle East by Israeli and Anglo-American intelligence agencies.
Iran has also not yet commented on the findings, but it has previously rejected allegations of systematic violations of human rights.
Israel carried out multiple attacks in Gaza. At least six people have been killed on Thursday. Israeli forces struck a vehicle in az-Zawayda, killing one person and injuring eight others.
Another strike targeted Gaza City while Israeli forces opened fire on a group of people in the south of the strip. Israel continues to carry out near-daily strikes across Gaza in violation of a ceasefire agreement signed nearly a year ago. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili has more on the attacks from Gaza City.
Dozens of diplomats at the UN General Assembly have staged a walkout for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech.
The moment of protest took place right as Netanyahu took to the podium. It followed a speech by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas who addressed the UN General Assembly by video after the US denied him a visa. Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reports from the UN headquarters in New York.
Yemen’s Armed Forces have carried out a preemptive and extensive operation against Saudi military positions in the Jizan region, targeting command centers, weapons depots and troop concentrations.
In a statement on Thursday, military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the operation came amid an escalation of Saudi attacks on Yemen’s border areas in Sa’ada and Hajjah, including the launch of more than 200 missiles from Jizan.
He said Yemeni forces had also monitored a major buildup of Saudi troops near the border in preparation for further aggression.
“By the grace of Allah Almighty, the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a preemptive, qualitative and extensive operation using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones,”Saree said.
According to the spokesman, the strikes targeted operations rooms, command and control centers, weapons depots and other key sites linked to Saudi reinforcements in the al-Tuwal area of Jizan, including the Sixth Emergency Division.
He added that missile launch sites and platforms at the al-Daghareer camp in Jizan, as well as several other Saudi military camps in the region, were also targeted.
Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced via Telegram other two new military operations in response to the ongoing Saudi aggression on Yemen.
The first targeted a sensitive target in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu, the statement mentioned.
The US has stepped up military activity around the Strait of Hormuz, with reconnaissance aircraft spotted near Iranian territory and additional fighter jets reportedly deployed to the region, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing sources.
US reconnaissance aircraft were observed overnight near the Iranian islands of Qeshm and Hengam, while aircraft and small drones were also seen over Kermanshah Province in western Iran, according to people familiar with the matter.
Washington has also reportedly transferred 12 F-16 fighter jets from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany to the region, the source said, adding that the increased activity could signal a possible escalation.
The reported activity comes as oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has risen sharply. TankerTrackers, a vessel-tracking service, said this week that crude flows across the US Navy blockade line have doubled in less than a month to around 13 million barrels per day (bpd). It estimated actual Hormuz transits at about 10.35 million bpd after excluding exports from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and Mina al-Fahal in Oman.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists were allowed back at the White House Thursday, nearly a week after President Donald Trump banned them.
The reinstatement came after a judge ruled that the administration had to temporarily restore their access.
A federal judge ordered that the White House immediately restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, saying that President Donald Trump’s directive barring the three news outlets last week was most likely unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order reinstating the outlets’ access while their legal challenge proceeds.
In an interview with the *Wall Street Journal*—conducted on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and a meeting with Trump where he renewed his request for a license to produce American Patriot anti-missile rockets—the Ukrainian president dropped the mask and revealed his true identity as a secret agent for His Majesty King Charles of England.
It is worth recalling that the United Kingdom leads the European Atlanticist elite—which, alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (who, as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, funded the 2014 coup in Kyiv), Italy, and Germany, is attempting to trigger a world war with Russia (as stated by Carlson, Waters, and Johnson).
It is, in fact, now well known that Zelensky was recruited in 2020 by British military counter-intelligence MI6 (the agency of the legendary Agent 007, James Bond); the arrest of London intelligence officers in Ukraine served as indirect confirmation of this.
Now, Zelensky has made two highly explosive statements opposing peace: no ceding of Donbas territories already captured by Russia and annexed to the Federation, and full steam ahead with the bombing of energy infrastructure.
This explains the warning issued yesterday by a Russian politician regarding the risk of carpet-bombing Kyiv as we reported below in the yesterday’s updates…
1st footage – Overdue, in an interview with the WSJ, said that he allegedly refused Trump’s request not to hit Russian refineries.
The Ukrainian president argued to Trump that diesel fuel prices around the world had skyrocketed mainly because of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Which, however, is not far from the truth. And Trump is only trying to shift responsibility for the energy crisis in the world.
Well, the dwarf concluded with another “GIVE, GIVE” and a demand for help in opposing Russia.: “Since everyone wants to resolve the issue of diesel prices in this way, then Ukraine needs to help stop Putin with his blackouts in Ukraine and force him to stop attacking civilian infrastructure. “
Although it would seem that Trump’s demand to stop attacks on Russian refineries and blackouts in Ukraine has nothing to do with it…
2nd Footage – Zelensky once again stated in an interview after meeting with Trump that they would not cede any territories.
It is the point of the territories that is now a stumbling block for concluding a peace agreement.
In the Moscow region, a 17-year-old teenager set fire to a fuel pump at a gas station, a police car and his own future, following the instructions of strangers from a messenger, likely Ukranian ones.
No one was injured. A criminal case has been opened, Irina Volk said. Volk is a Russian police major general and, as journalist, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Many footagesof Russian Drone strikes on Kiev and Ukraine:
Kiev Geran-5 working in railway infrastructures and unknown target
The aftermath of a Geran drone strike in Vishneve, Kyiv Oblast, last night.
This morning, using Geran-4 and Geran-5 jet-powered drones, strikes were carried out on two gas stations in the city of Kyiv.
Iran has begun forming Basij (roughly analogous to US National Guard) battalions composed entirely of women. The first battalion has been officially established in Tehran.
They operate as Rapid-Response Forces and receive FPV drone training.
Russia is sending a large text message to the people of Kiev: Run away from the capital while you can. It is better for residents of Kiev to leave the Ukrainian capital for the winter, because life in it may become impossible, News-Pravda reported publishing a video in Russian only.
This was stated by the ex-adviser to the first head of the DPR, Alexander Kazakov, the correspondent of “PolitNavigator” reports.
“With a multiple increase in not only the number, but also the power of our strikes, the number of civilian casualties has not increased. At one time there was a surge, there were many deaths among civilians in different cities of Ukraine. And now, despite the fact that we strike both at night and during the day, there are very few victims”.
«But earlier it seemed that we were making the habitat unsuitable for normal living, encouraging people to leave – without deaths, without violence. But it looks like every blow we hit Kiev is a text message to the people of Kiev: get the hell out of the city, because you’re out of harm’s way. We don’t want civilian casualties».
«That is, the bad news is that we are chasing civilian targets. And a good one is for the sake of saving the lives of peaceful people. And according to various sources, the population of Kiev has begun to seriously decrease» Kazakov said.
Zereikh’s militants purposefully destroyed a secondary school that housed a polling station in the village of Prishib in the Mikhailovsky district of the Zaporizhia region.
«The Nazis destroyed the school. As a result of the Bandera attack, the left wing of the building, the glazing and the roof were seriously damaged. It is a functioning school with 170 students» Vladimir Rogov wrote on The Voice of the People and News-Pravda.
«Thank God, there were no casualties: there were no people in the building or nearby at the time of the attack» he added.
Early voting was taking place at the polling station, and by the time of the attack, the polling station was no longer working, and the voting procedure in the area ended ahead of schedule.
Andy Burnham has arrived in New York for his second foreign visit since he entered No 10. The Prime Minister hadn’t even stepped off the plane before making his first announcement of the trip, confirming that Britain will give military support to Saudi Arabia to fight the Houthis in Yemen.
An RAF aircraft will assist the Saudi military with air-to-air refuelling to prevent further strikes on its oil facilities after frequent drone and missile attacks by the Houthis on the country’s southern towns, key Red Sea ports and energy infrastructure.
Burnham’s trip to the UN General Assembly has been pitched as a chance to talk up Britain’s role on the world stage.
He said the move was intended to protect British interests and regional security, particularly the continued flow of oil through key maritime routes.
The announcement comes amid renewed escalation between Yemen’s armed forces and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has sought additional military assistance from allies including the United States, Britain, France, Pakistan and Egypt.
The deployment would make Britain a direct military support partner in Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen, adding RAF assistance to London’s longstanding military cooperation with Riyadh.
Britain’s decision has drawn criticism, including from former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who described the move as a “terrible and shameful decision,” saying it would deepen Britain’s involvement in the war and its military ties with Saudi Arabia.
The decision has also faced criticism on social media. One user, Sharon, said she was “disgusted with Burnham,” saying that the Labour government was on “the wrong side of history.”
It remains to be seen how the RAF might react if one of its refueling aircraft were hit by a Houthi missile. Would they be ready to deploy their powerful stealth F-35B Lightning IIs armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles?
Italy has, in fact, relocated its Eurofighters from the Saudi base at Ta’if after an Italian Air Force aircraft was destroyed in one of the many attacks by Yemeni separatists.
Below the video of a RAF F-35B at Cosford Airshow 2026
The rising cost of energy products like diesel and petroleum has sparked protests — even turning into violent clashes and riots — around the world in Syria, Guatemala, Portugal, France, and the Philippines, Soufan Center wrote in its daily geopolitical analysis IntelBrief.
Governments are experiencing increased political friction as the availability and cost of key energy products and household items, such as kerosene, steadily rise ahead of winter.
Countries are also experiencing a severe supply shortage of other key resources, such as fertilizer and helium, stunted by strikes on oil tankers, increased costs of farming inputs, and blocked sulfur and nitrogen exports.
While public grievances and demonstrations may push governments to approve subsidies and temporary price caps, prices will continue to rise as the U.S.-Iran war — and its resulting chokehold on key trade pathways like the Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Strait — endures.
Fighting continues to rage in Yemen, with the Houthi rebels battling Saudi-backed government forces for control of strategic mountains near the Red Sea and the leader of the Iran-aligned group warning the United States against direct military involvement in the conflict, Al Jazeera reported.
The clashes on Monday come amid mounting regional tensions set off by the US and Israel’s war on Iran. They also followed a report by The New York Times that US President Donald Trump had ordered air attacks against the Houthis on Sunday, only to call them off at the last minute.
The renewed hostilities have killed at least 674 people (almost all Saudi-backed Yemeni soldiers as video below show) and displaced more than 158,000, officials said.
According to Al Jazeera witnesses, the Houthis – who seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast this month, including the port of Mocha – are now battling to take the Kahboub Mountains in Taiz and Lahj provinces. Control of the strategic heights, which overlook the Bab al-Mandeb strait and Mayyun Island in the Red Sea, would allow the Houthis to sever the coast from the remaining government-held south.
Major US television companies will not broadcast live events featuring US President Donald Trump in protest against the deprivation of access to the White House for three outlets, Politico quoted a letter from Bryan Boughton, head of the Washington branch of the Fox News channel as saying.
“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Boughton wrote in the email obtained by Politico.
The letter said that the television companies took this step after Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. The paper says the main television companies in the White House press pool include Fox News, CBS, ABC, and NBC.
Contrary to standard practice, the White House Monday schedule distributed on the evening of September 20 lacks a point about which television company will be responsible for broadcasting events involving the president. Politico said that the refusal may create difficulties with the flow of photographs and videos related to Trump’s activities at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
On September 18, Trump denied access to the White House to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico for spreading false information about his administration. He said that the list of banned media could be expanded, but he allowed for the possibility of reversing his decision. Correspondents and technical staff of the media outlets lost access to the White House on September 19.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Aerospace Force has intercepted and destroyed another MQ-1 drone belonging to the US military over the Strait of Hormuz, according to Al Manar Lebanese TV.
The IRGC announced the development on Monday, saying the aircraft was brought down using the Aerospace Force’s new air-defense system operating under the control of Iran’s Integrated Air-Defense Network.
It has been removed from the operational fleets of the US Navy and Air Force for several years and replaced by the MQ-9.
Its re-entrance into service has been attributed to the US Army’s having lost a large number of MQ-9 drones to the Islamic Republic’s defensive operations (details on Pentagon Watchdog report in the updates below on Sptmber, 15)
Below archive video when the IRGC posted footage of defeat of American MQ-9 Reaper on its resources
The US Congressional Budget Office has confirmed the loss of at least 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones since February 28, when the United States and the Israeli regime began their latest round of unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic. According to figures released by the office, those losses amount to approximately $720 million.
The IRGC, however, has put the number at 53.
The IRGC spokesman said on Monday that a renewed US attack would prompt Iran to change both the geography of the conflict and the weapons it employed, Iranian IRNA Agency reported.
Iran’s armed forces remain fully prepared and will not hesitate to defend the country’s independence, security and territorial integrity, army commander-in-chief Amir Hatami said on Monday.
Iran says the “world will be astonished” by the new weapons it will use if the US attacks again, as Iranian legislators submit a bill to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will travel to New York on Tuesday to attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, state news agency IRNA reported.
Qatar has been exchanging ideas for about two weeks on reviving Iran talks, while its mediators are shuttling between capitals and working with Tehran and Washington to restart negotiations, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told Bloomberg.
Donald Trump said he is in a “deciding mode” over Iran, weighing military action, continued economic pressure or a deal, and told Fox News that “very big things” could happen soon.
The US Virtual Embassy in Iran urged American citizens to leave the country immediately on Sunday, warning of possible flight cancellations and airspace closures and citing the potential for rapid regional escalation.
As was easily predicted, Russia’s retaliation was swift following the massive Ukrainian attack on Moscow—ordered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a furious escalation that took place yesterday on the very day of the parliamentary elections for the Duma (details below in the yesterday’s updates).
ussian forces launched strikes overnight on logistics centers, warehouses and ports in Ukraine, as well as vessels involved in supporting the Ukrainian military, the Defense Ministry reported.
“Tonight, Russian forces launched strikes with UAVs against logistics centers, warehouses and ports in Ukraine, as well as vessels involved in supporting the Ukrainian military,” the ministry said.
“As a result of the strike, the following targets were hit: <…> in the Odessa Region: at the port of Odessa, a bulk carrier that had delivered cargo intended to support the Ukrainian military. At the port of Izmail, port infrastructure facilities used to unload and store military cargo. In addition, a bulk carrier carrying cargo intended to support the Ukrainian armed forces to the port of Odessa was hit while crossing the sea,” the statement said.
Below there are some videos confirming attacks by the Russian army on military and logistical facilities in Kyiv and five other regions.
Ukrainian monitoring counted 172 UAVs launched from Russian territory, of which 147 were allegedly “shot down/suppressed.”
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the following facilities were affected in the Kiev region:
the “BDU Logistic” logistics center in the village of Schastye, where military goods were stored and distributed (see specific video below);
the gas distribution station in Boyarka (photo 1). Local authorities reported arrivals at the sawmill near Fastovo and at the service station near Bucha (photos 2-3).
In the Odessa region, two dry cargo ships and facilities of the Izmail port infrastructure used for unloading and storing military cargo were affected. In addition, a fire was reported in the warehouses of the “Silpo” supermarket (photos 4-5).
In Zaporozhye, the “Interde” shopping center was hit (photo/video 6-7), as well as the university building (see specific video below).
Late in the evening, a combined strike was carried out on targets in Sumy using UMPC and UAVs (photos 9-10).
Zaporozhye ablaze — Russian strikes continue dismantling Ukraine’s military infrastructure and logistics. Heavy strikes hit Zaporozhye tonight, with the “Intrade” shopping mall set alight as a result of the attack.
The strikes are part of an ongoing campaign targeting military infrastructure, rail hubs, and logistics chains across Ukraine. The video show the strikes even on Zaporozhye university building
A ballistic missile, likely an “Iskander,” struck a machine-building plant in Kherson, where the enemy may have been located, or where their equipment and supplies might have been stored.
Today, using Russian Geran strike drones, a warehouse complex used for military goods in the village of Schastlyve, Kyiv Oblast, was struck.
As a result of the strike, the target was hit and a fire broke out.
Commercial vessel transit through the Strait of Hormuz fell threefold on September 19-20 compared with the previous weekend amid a stalemate in negotiations between the United States and Iran, Reuters reported, citing data from analytics firm Kpler.
According to the data, only 12 vessels passed through the strait over the past weekend, compared with 35 vessels on September 12-13. Reuters noted that before the conflict between the United States and Iran began, around 125 vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz per day.
The United States and Israel began a war with Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding providing for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. However, on the night of July 8, the United States resumed large-scale strikes on Iran, accusing it of violating the terms of the agreements reached regarding the Strait of Hormuz.
The United Russia party, who supports President Putin, is ahead in the Duma election with 57.53% of the vote, with 71.17% of ballots counted, data from the Central Election Commission (CEC) showed.
It is followed by the CPRF with 14%, the LDPR with 8.73%, New People with 7.97%, and A Just Russia with 5.03%, according to the early results.
Russia’s ruling party maintains a constitutional majority in the lower chamber of parliament and can claim approximately 331 seats there for now.
Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping until the US accepts the terms presented by Tehran, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.
“Iran will not return to the previous conditions for negotiations or reopen the Strait of Hormuz until these conditions are met, the Iranian people’s legitimate rights are recognized and the US fulfills its commitments,” the parliamentary press service quoted him as saying.
Earlier, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said that Iranian authorities have conveyed their conditions for ending the war to the US through Qatari mediators. They are awaiting a response from US President Donald Trump.
Russian air defenses detected and destroyed 1,110 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“On-duty air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 1,110 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Tambov, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Smolensk, Oryol, Rostov, Volgograd and Saratov regions, the Samara Region, the Krasnodar Region, the Moscow Region and the Republic of Crimea, as well as over the Black Sea,” the Defense Ministry said.
“Our long-range strikes had a significant impact in the Moscow region last night. One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and an aggressor logistics site were hit. We are talking about billions of dollars that fuel the war machine. The systems used included the FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen, and Pelican. I thank our fighters for their precision: the Security Service of Ukraine, together with the Unmanned Systems Forces, Special Operations Forces, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, and the Foreign Intelligence Service. Sanctions were also imposed on a facility in the Voronezh region. Moscow must end its brutal war and choose peace instead of building layered air defense rings at the expense of other regions. Measures aimed at de-escalation—regarding energy and food security—are on the table. What is needed is political will.”
This was stated on social media by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a facility on the premises of the Moscow Refinery was damaged as a result of the ongoing drone attack on the Russian capital.
“The attack on Moscow by enemy drones is ongoing. A facility on the premises of the Moscow Oil Refinery has sustained damage, but no casualties were reported,” the mayor wrote on the Max messenger.
Russian air defenses destroyed 338 drones approaching Moscow starting from midnight Sunday Moscow time (9:00 p.m. GMT on Saturday), according to TASS calculations based on Mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s report.
In his latest report, the mayor said another 152 drones have been destroyed while approaching Moscow by the Russian Defense Ministry’s air defense forces
“First responders are working in areas where fragments fell,” he wrote on the Max messenger.
The US has issued security alerts for its citizens across the Middle East, warning of further escalation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The notices cover Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman.
”Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions,” the US State Department said on Saturday night.
”Iranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including civilian airports. This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly,” the notice read, urging Americans to refrain from traveling to the Middle East.
”Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including U.S. businesses and other institutions,” it added.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid said that US President Donald Trump had cut short his weekend stay at Camp David and would return to the White House on Saturday evening, one day earlier than planned.
CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas cited sources as saying that Trump held a meeting at Camp David to “deliberate and review Yemen strike options.”
ABC News previously reported, citing US officials, that Washington would limit its involvement to providing intelligence and targeting assistance to Saudi Arabia.
The major US sanctions law signed by President Donald Trump this week will undermine efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict through diplomacy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
On Friday, Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which authorizes tougher restrictions on Moscow and tariffs of up to 100% on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.
“Clearly, this cannot have a positive effect,” Peskov told RIA Novosti on Saturday when asked how the law would affect prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine and a possible “breakthrough” in Russian-US relations.
Named after the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a vocal supporter of Ukraine who co-authored the original bill with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal in 2025, the legislation remained stalled for months as Trump pursued diplomacy with Russia and resisted placing sole blame for the conflict on Moscow. Trump’s envoys also discussed normalizing economic ties with their Russian counterparts.
The Senate passed the measure 86-11 last month, followed by the House on Wednesday in a 262-159 vote.
Russian forces struck a tanker in the port of Chernomorsk that had delivered fuel and lubricants for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
“As a result of the strikes on the port of Chernomorsk in the Odessa region, a tanker-type vessel that delivered fuel and lubricants for the Armed Forces of Ukraine was hit,” the ministry said.
Since July, Russia has intensified strikes along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, with military logistics hubs and vessels linked to supply operations among the reported targets. Moscow says the strikes are aimed at disrupting Ukrainian supply lines and limiting the movement of military equipment and resources.
President Trump says the U.S. will immediately begin work on an expanded military presence in Greenland following a new security arrangement.
Marco Rubio said Greenland will “FOREVER be part of the strategic defense area of North America” and that adversaries will be excluded from Greenland and the surrounding region.
The administration says the arrangement provides the U.S. with expanded security access and advantages over the prior framework, effectively allowing America to secure Greenland as though it were part of the U.S. without changing its territorial status.
1st Footage – President Putin says European leaders are openly declaring that they are preparing for war with Russia
2nd Footage – Trump: Russia has been attacking Europe for a long time.
“Well, I think they have already attacked Ukraine’s allies. They have been attacking Ukraine’s allies for about five years now,” the US president said.
Russia does not see as its partners or interlocutors those who espouse Russophobia, neo·Nazism, or any other manifestation of misanthropy, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with TASS following the International Youth Festival.
“We are standing up to those who pursue a Russophobic policy,” the diplomat said. “We do not see as our partners or even interlocutors those who profess Russophobia, racism, neo·Nazism, or any manifestation of this misanthropic ideology.”
However, Zakharova said that everyone who “comes to Russia with love, and perhaps even for love,” is always welcomed with open arms.
Excerpt by Caolán Magee originally published on Al Jazeera
United States officials met Houthi representatives at the US embassy in the Omani capital, Muscat, over the weekend after the Iran-aligned movement seized thousands of square kilometres of territory in just a few days.
With strategically important islands and large stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coast now under Houthi control, the group has tightened its grip on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait – a crucial chokepoint for global shipping and energy supplies.
During the talks, the Houthis assured US officials that they had no intention of attacking US shipping in the Red Sea, saying their restrictions would apply only to vessels linked to Saudi Arabia.
But that would still leave two of the world’s most important shipping routes facing serious disruption, with traffic through the Strait of Hormuz restricted for the past six months. Any further disruption could drive global oil and consumer prices even higher, creating another political headache for US President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections in November.
Iranian armed forces spokesman has rejected the latest “false and ridiculous” US claims about the Strait of Hormuz, saying the initiative in the strategic waterway is firmly in Iran’s hands, Iranian Press TV reported.
Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said on Saturday that the recent claims by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander regarding the escort of one billion barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz over the past two months were “false” and “ridiculous.”
He added that the CENTCOM commander’s claims were more a failed psychological operation than a reflection of reality.
Iran’s security chief Moshen Rezaei tells Al Jazeera conditions for ending war – stopping attacks on all fronts, release of frozen Iranian funds, end of blockade – have been sent to US via mediator Qatar, and are awaiting a response from US President Donald Trump.
Iran’s top security official Mohsen Rezaei has told Al Jazeera that Tehran has conveyed its conditions for ending the war to the White House through Qatari mediators. He says the demands include an end to the war on all fronts, the release of frozen Iranian assets and the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran’s Plan and Budget Organisation says oil sales have reached a two-year high despite the US naval blockade aimed at preventing Iranian exports.
Oil sales exceeded $3bn in September, the highest monthly figure in two years, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. The report does not state how Iran has continued to export oil despite the US blockade.
«Houthi fighters in Yemen say they attacked “sensitive” sites in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones, as well as an Aramco oil facility in Yanbu, according to a statement via spokesman Ameen Hayyan» Al Jazeera reported.
According to News-pravda sources, Last night, Yemeni Houthi rebels carried out missile strikes on the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. At least five ballistic missiles launched from Yemen were aimed at the city.
The attack’s primary target is believed to have been a military airbase located on the outskirts of the Saudi capital. Footage published online shows the Saudi Arabian air force’s failed attempt. Defense Using a Patriot air defense system, one of the Yemeni missiles was intercepted. A missile was reported to have landed near Riyadh International Airport and a series of powerful explosions within the city.
At the same time, the Houthis launched a missile strike on the country residence of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The facility is located in Medina Governorate, 20 kilometers north of the city of Al-Ula. The distance from the residence to the Yemeni border is over 1200 kilometers.
«The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. in response to the great slander accusing Yemen, the land of faith and wisdom, of targeting Mecca, and in defense of Mecca against the insults of the Korah of the age, the Najdi Saudi horn of Satan» the statement reads according to Al Manara Lebanese TV.
«And in response to the continued aggression of the criminal Saudi enemy against our dear people with its F-15 and Typhoon warplanes, which take off from the Khamis Mushait and Taif bases, which have reached 732 airstrikes up to date, leaving martyrs and wounded among the civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure. In response to the Saudi enemy’s criminal attempts to target the capital, Sana’a, using ISIS-style tactics, including indiscriminate bombings targeting civilians» Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced
Satellite Footage of Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline severely damaged by Houthis missile
Saudi Arabia WON’T allocate Europeans CRUDE OIL next month — Bloomberg. Saudi Aramco will cease sales to European refiners due to the attacks on East-West pipeline as we reported in the previous updates on September, 16.
The reaction of Europe Commission through the president Ursula Von der Leyen statement.
The main center of the railway was attacked — the authorities abandoned the people and fled. Two jet drones attacked the building of “Ukrzaliznytsia” Information and Computing Center in Odessa.
This implies the collapse of the train control system, the operation of stations and marshalling yards. Even before that, trains to Odessa were delayed for a day due to air battles over the railway, and passengers were cooing in the open air.
The official reports of the IWC do not mention it at all, the gauleiters modestly call it an “administrative building” and focus on fires and destruction from the blast wave in residential buildings and shopping malls.
MORE DETAILS in the Video description inside Gospa News Rumble Channel
Saudi Arabia has informed its European customers of the cancellation of some crude oil shipments scheduled for loading in late September, Reuters reported citing three informed sources.
The world’s largest crude oil exporter closed its East-West pipeline following a strike targeting it last week (read detalied updates below), and faces challenges from the Yemeni Armed Forces’ advance in Yemen in the Red Sea area and continued shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier, a Yemeni military source told al-Masirah TV that the Yemeni Armed Forces had carried out a targeted operation against Saudi troop concentrations, buildups, and reinforcements in the al-Jawf desert, north of the al-Kanais area.
The source said the operation followed sustained monitoring of Saudi forces and affiliated armed groups along the border and desert fronts, and that the strikes achieved direct hits after the targeted formations’ movements had been tracked and intelligence reconnaissance completed.
We have more updates from Houthis military spokesperson Yahya Saree, who claimed Houthi forces downed a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over Yemeni territory.
“In the face of this brutal aggression against our country and people, the Yemeni armed forces – with God’s help and grace – were able to shoot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet while it was conducting hostile operations in support of its military buildup in the airspace of Marib governorate,” he said in a statement.
“The downing was achieved using a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile.”
After claiming to have shot down a Saudi jet, the Houthis say they also “engaged” two Saudi F-15s searching for the wreckage of the initially downed aircraft.
So far this week, Saudi jets have launched more than 450 strikes targeting Taiz, Lahj, al-Jawf, Hajjah, Marib, Saada and al-Bayda, military spokesman Yahya Saree said. There have been civilian casualties, he added.
Saudi Arabia says that a drone launched by the Houthis towards Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, has been intercepted and destroyed. A Houthi statement said claims that the group had targeted the city were a “nauseating lie”.
Saudi Arabia has said that a drone launched by the Houthis towards Mecca has been intercepted and destroyed, in an escalation that could threaten the holy city.
The Saudi-led coalition spokesperson, Turki al-Maliki, said Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces intercepted the hostile drone before it entered the restricted airspace on Tuesday evening.
Al-Maliki condemned the incident as an attempt to frighten worshippers and harm civilians, warning that the security of the two holy mosques and pilgrims is a “red line”.
The Houthis have previously denied targeting Mecca, saying that they do not target holy sites.
In a statement to Yemen’s SABA news agency on Tuesday, a Houthi military source strongly rejected the claim that Houthi forces pose a threat to the city of Mecca or other Islamic holy sites.
Saudi Arabia issued a security alert on Tuesday in the holy city of Mecca for the first time since the Houthis last attempted to target the sacred area in 2017.
The alert of potential danger in Mecca was swiftly lifted after a few minutes. The same alert was activated for Taif and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city.
Poland is reinforcing its northeastern flank and deploying a new batch of equipment to the 16th Mechanized Division, stationed near the Kaliningrad region, the Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania.
The new vehicles include South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks. As part of the rearmament effort, plans are in place to deploy up to 180 units of military hardware to this sector.
This comes after Germany decided to deploy new troops near the borders with Russia (see yesterday’s update below).
An Italian fighter jet flying for NATO has brought down what officials said was a suspected Russian drone in Lithuanian airspace.
According to Lithuania’s national crisis management centre, the drone entered the country’s airspace on Tuesday from Belarus and was shot down near the small settlement of Pratkunai in central Lithuania, just north of the country’s second-largest city, Kaunas.
Lithuania’s Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said on social media the drone was carrying an explosive. Debris from the device was being examined to determine if it was from Russia or another country.
The intervention by the Italian fighter jet demonstrated “the value of the Atlantic alliance” and “what it means to be an ally”, Kaunas said after meeting crews who were at the scene.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Monday instructed the military’s top legal official to examine legal action against the film “NAZA” and those involved in it, saying it defamed the military, and separately ordered an investigation into the leaking of classified material used in its production.
His comments came shortly after IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin issued a statement inviting the documentary’s filmmakers to allow military officials to view the film in full so that the IDF could respond in a “substantive manner.” So far, the military has only reacted to clips of the movie posted online, and has not yet seen the full documentary.
The 80-minute film by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor — whose title is a Hebrew acronym meaning collateral damage — claims to explore AI-powered strikes by Israel in the Gaza Strip it alleges have led to civilian deaths, including testimonies from 24 purported Israeli intelligence soldiers. The film won a special jury prize this week at the Venice Film Festival, where it debuted.
A new Pentagon Inspector General Report revealed that Operation Epic Fury cost an estimated $33.4 billion between February 28 and June 30, 2026, leading to critical munitions shortages.
“Operation Epic Fury (OEF) was launched by U.S. forces on February 28, 2026, as a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran. The operation was carried out through coordinated air, land, sea, cyber, and space capabilities,” the report maintained accxording to Al Manar Lebanese TV.
“Before the operation began, the United States had already strengthened its military presence and regional partnerships. Thousands of service members, fighter aircraft, refueling tankers, aircraft carriers, supplies, and intelligence assets were moved into the region. During the major combat phase from February 28 to April 7, U.S. forces reportedly struck about 13,500 targets and conducted approximately 36,000 combat sorties and more than 1,800 fire missions. Targets included missile bases, air defenses, command centers, naval facilities, weapons-storage sites, and parts of Iran’s defense industry.”
The Strait of Hormuz became a major focus of the operation because of its importance to international shipping and energy supplies, the Pentagon report added.
«The Pentagon’s inspector general released its first report on the war with Iran, saying the conflict has resulted in a shortfall of U.S. munitions and “bottlenecks” in supply chains as the Trump administration works to replenish weaponry» NBC News confirmed.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has denied reports that the U.S. is running low on munitions.
The congressionally mandated report is one of the first public accountings from any government agency detailing the cost, scope and scale of the U.S. and Israel-led conflict to the U.S. military, the State Department and other agencies.
The Pentagon watchdog has revealed that the United States lost dozens of aircraft, including at least 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones, and that hundreds of buildings and structures used by the US were damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks during the conflict, Al Jazeera TV also reported.
Throughout the war – beginning with the US-Israel attacks on Iran in late February – Tehran has routinely bombed US bases and assets in the Gulf region. For most of those attacks, Gulf countries and Washington said the incoming strikes had been intercepted and thwarted.
The Pentagon’s report paints a picture of significant damage and losses running into millions of dollars to US forces and facilities in the region, far more than previously acknowledged.
“The conflict also affected U.S. diplomatic operations throughout the region. Iranian strikes damaged U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, with estimated damage of about $184 million. Approximately 3,500 diplomatic personnel were at some point on authorized or ordered departure or outside their posts. Several facilities, including U.S. diplomatic missions in Baghdad and Beirut, temporarily closed or suspended operations.”
“Protecting and evacuating American citizens became another major U.S. government responsibility,” the Pentagon report noted.
Germany is poised to send 1,000 soldiers to NATO’s eastern flank amid fears Russia could launch an attack or even an invasion into the Baltic states. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has ordered that the first compulsory assignments begin by the end of September, according to an exclusive report by the German newspaper BILD.
The move comes as Berlin races to establish a permanent military presence on NATO’s eastern flank. Germany plans to have 4,800 troops permanently stationed in Lithuania by the end of 2027 as part of its commitment to strengthen the alliance’s defences in the Baltic region. However, recruitment for the brigade has fallen far short of requirements, with only about 60% of the necessary posts filled by volunteers.
The Secretary General of the alliance, Mark Rutte, said:
“Yesterday’s attack on a passenger train in Ukraine shows how desperate Putin has become. He believes that he can prevent us from supporting Ukraine and undermine our unity. He’s wrong. Our response is to increase Ukraine’s support so that it has everything it needs for self—defense.”
It is not clear which train we are talking about, the Russian Armed Forces are methodically removing the railway infrastructure every day. Probably, the speech is about a “train” with Boris Johnson.
He added: “Russia continues to wage a brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, while incurring enormous losses — more than 40,000 people a month. Russia is experiencing difficulties in Ukraine and continues to launch reckless and dangerous attacks, including on civilian infrastructure facilities near NATO territory.”
Earlier, he and Zelensky talked about Russia’s losses of 30-35 thousand per month. It’s unclear where they got it from, but they repeat it regularly.
Ukrainian servicemen tortured residents of the Kursk Region, shooting some of them right in their own homes, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova stated.
“When they [the Ukrainian troops] invaded the Kursk Region, more than 2,000 people found themselves in a terrible situation. Many civilians were shot in their homes. Elderly people were killed, and even children were murdered,” she said, displaying artifacts from her office at the “Historical Catastrophe: 21st-Century Neo-Nazism” exhibition.
Lantratova showed a trident-shaped branding iron used by Ukrainian servicemen to brand soldiers and civilians in the Kursk Region, just as the Nazis had branded Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.
She also demonstraited a drill bit that Ukrainian neo-Nazis used to drill into a clergyman’s legs. “A civilian woman recounted that after such torture, it took her a long time to learn to walk again,” the ombudswoman said.
The intelligence agencies of NATO member states, having probed the circumstances of the “drone incident” in Leipzig, informed national authorities that there was no evidence of Russian involvement; on the contrary, they pointed to a “Ukrainian trace,” the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) press bureau said.
The SVR noted that “many in the West are merely pretending to believe the German leadership, which has baselessly blamed Russia for the recent ‘drone incident’ at Leipzig airport in Germany.”
“In public, the allies express complete solidarity with Berlin, which allegedly became a victim of a ‘Russian provocation.’ However, behind the scenes, things look quite different,” the statement pointed out.
“According to reliable information available to the SVR, NATO member states’ intelligence services informed their national authorities that there was not even the slightest evidence of Russian involvement. On the contrary, they pointed to numerous signs of a ‘Ukrainian trace.’ Government agencies were advised to refrain from making definitive, and certainly not public, statements about Moscow’s guilt,” the press bureau emphasized.
Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has said that he will move to revoke the citizenship of filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after their documentary on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, NAZA, won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
In an X post on Sunday, Zohar called the documentary “vile” and its win at the film festival “shocking”. He accused the filmmakers of harming the country “just to get applause from antisemites around the world”.
The minister said that Abraham and Szor’s actions “constitute treason against the state” despite the contents were supported even by many UN reports…
“As culture minister, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” he wrote.
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
Testimony from 24 Israeli military and intelligence insiders has exposed the systems, policies, and surveillance methods used by the Israeli occupation to facilitate the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including AI-assisted targeting and strikes carried out despite the anticipated deaths of entire families.
The revelations feature in NAZA, a new documentary by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor that premiered Thursday at the Venice International Film Festival.
Produced by The Guardian, the film takes its title from an Israeli military acronym referring to civilians expected to be killed in an attack and examines how intelligence gathering, automated targeting, and predetermined civilian casualty estimates were incorporated into Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The interviewees include intelligence officers and soldiers directly involved in surveillance and remote targeting. Their identities were concealed, with interviews filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv and participants’ appearances and voices digitally altered.
The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced carrying out a large-scale and top-tier military operation targeting the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia, in response to the escalating Saudi aggression against Yemen.
In a statement issued on Monday, YAF spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the operation targeted military facilities and infrastructure across the base, including aircraft hangars, radars, runways, ammunition depots, and more.
The operation involved “dozens of ballistic missiles and drones,” the statement said, adding that the strikes achieved “precise and direct hits” and inflicted “significant losses” on the base.
Brigadier General Saree also said the operation came in response to more than 300 Saudi airstrikes launched over the previous five days using F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets. According to the statement, the strikes targeted most Yemeni provinces and were launched from the Khamis Mushait and Taif air bases.
Saudi Arabia has suspended its East-West oil pipeline after drone attacks, cutting off the kingdom’s only crude export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. It said this move was taken as a “precaution” and that the drone attack had originated from Iraq.
The pipeline shutdown comes as Gulf oil exports have already plummeted and maritime routes face new threats. With no restart date set, the impact on supplies to Europe and Asia will depend on the duration of the stoppage.
Iraq says the drone that targeted Saudi Arabia was launched from Maysan province. The local operations commander has been dismissed, while Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has ordered an investigation into those behind the attack.
Iran says it will meet representatives from Iraq and Gulf states in Oman on Monday to discuss safe shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz and what Tehran described as shared regional security.
US Central Command says it has redirected 99 commercial vessels as part of Washington’s blockade of Iran.
Yemen’s Houthis have launched missiles and drones targeting Saudi energy facilities, including Aramco-linked facilities in Jizan.
Fires were reported, raising fresh concerns over regional energy security. But why does an attack on Saudi oil infrastructure matter to the world? Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers. Any serious disruption to its energy infrastructure could impact global markets.
Here’s what the world could face: Higher oil & fuel prices: Higher transportation costs, More inflation pressure ,Greater risks for regional shipping- Pakistan has also condemned the attacks and called on Iran to help rein in the Houthis. However, Pakistan has not announced any immediate military action. If attacks continue, this could become more than a Middle East conflict — it could become a global energy and economic issue.
Russia launched a barrage of strikes on western Ukraine in the early hours of Sunday, hitting the engine of a passenger train near the border with Poland, according to Ukrainian Railways.
Ukrainian and Polish authorities said a separate drone attack caused two lorries to catch fire less than 1km (0.6 miles) from the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described the attack as Vladimir Putin’s ‘terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and Nato’
The Russian Armed Forces hit gas stations and trucks on the border of Ukraine and Poland at night.
The Poles warned earlier that the Russian Armed Forces plan to start working with logistics in western Ukraine in the coming days. Well, here we go. The main thing is every day and 2-3 months in a row.
Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev has accused Ukraine of carrying out attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and surrounding areas, claiming strikes have targeted the plant’s infrastructure, civilians and workers in Enerhodar.
He called nuclear safety an “absolute priority” and urged the IAEA to identify those responsible for the attacks.
Yahya Saree, military spokesperson for the Houthis, says they have expelled Saudi-backed forces from six districts and that maritime navigation remains safe for all shipping companies except Saudi ships.
After seizing the crucial city of Mocha, the Houthis have taken control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline, expanding their grip over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, one of the world’s most important trade routes.
Yemeni Houthis from the Ansar Allah movement occupied the port city of Moha on the west coast of Yemen and expanded control over the islands in the Red Sea.
Among them are Perim (Miyun), located directly in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Zukar and the Hanish Islands. The Houthis held a military parade in Mokha.
Saudi-backed government forces are retreating to the south. The leadership of Ansar Allah offered amnesty to the fighters who would lay down their weapons, after which some units stopped resisting.
Bab el-Mandeb is of particular importance for shipments from the Persian Gulf: About 10-12% of world trade passes through it. After restrictions on movement through Hormuz, Saudi Arabia redirected part of its oil exports through the Red Sea, and now the Houthis have taken up positions directly along this route.
The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces says the country’s military units have taken control of hundreds of kilometers of land in the country’s strategic western provinces of Hudaydah and Ta’izz, and are making a rapid advance toward the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait in a major blow to Saudi-backed mercenaries.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced in a televised statement on Friday afternoon that Yemeni troops and allied fighters from popular committees could drive Saudi-sponsored mercenary forces out of six districts in both provinces, and purge 5,400 square kilometers of land of the militants.
He noted that the gains were made as part of a large-scale military operation, dubbed “Allah is stronger in might and stronger in inflicting punishment.”
Saree went on to say that Yemeni Armed Forces and their allies also defeated seven divisions of Saudi-backed mercenary forces, composed of 38 brigades, killing and wounding hundreds of militants and taking many more as captives.
Furthermore, the Yemeni forces liberated a large number of prisoners who were being kept in inhumane conditions in detention facilities overseen by Saudi mercenaries.
The building of the Kyivstar division was hit in Kiev. The blow was confirmed by Zelensky.
It is reported that a Geran-4 jet UAV was used for the attack. Local services are trying to eliminate the consequences of the impact.
Vessel transits at the Strait of Hormuz fell to seven on Thursday from 11 the previous day, well below the 10-day average of 15, Reuters reported on Friday, citing preliminary ship-tracking data.
Of the seven vessels, two Panamax ships exited the strait, one carrying fertiliser and the other sailing in ballast, according to data from ship tracker Kpler as of 0306 GMT.
Five vessels entered the strait, including a Panamax vessel carrying dry bulk cargo, a Handysize vessel laden with steel, a Handysize vessel carrying grains, a medium-range tanker loaded with dirty petroleum products, and a Supramax vessel carrying dry bulk cargo.
Monument with the names of Bandera was destroyed in Poland
Polish MEP Grzegorz Brown demolished an obelisk for UPA supporters* on the border with Ukraine.
“This obelisk insults the memory of Poles who became victims of genocide,” he said.
UPA is a neonazi extremist organization banned in Russia.
The United States lacks the capacity to maintain a long-term military presence in West Asia, the spokesman for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says, noting that American warships have been forced to retreat 400 kilometers from the Strait of Hormuz amid severe logistical and morale attrition, Iranian Press Tv reported.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said the US military is facing unsustainable wear and tear on both its personnel and naval assets, rendering its current posture in the region untenable.
“The US certainly will not be able to continue this situation for a long time, as it faces severe attrition, both in terms of the morale of its military forces in the region and its weapons and warships.”
He said naval deployments require massive logistical undertakings, and the financial and operational costs are becoming unbearable for Washington in the face of Iran’s asymmetric deterrence.
An IRGC spokesperson says a restricted area extending from Chabahar in Iran into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea will be announced.
Any ship that passes through the area will be sanctioned, he said, adding that its exact coordinates will be announced.
His comments come after Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by state media on Sunday as saying Iran would establish a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has reported successful ballistic missile strikes on two US destroyers.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Airspace Forces carried out a ballistic missile attack on the DDG-119 and DDG-53 warships, equipped with Aegis systems and cruise missiles, as part of an operation,” the IRGC said in a statement cited by Iran’s state broadcaster.
According to the statement, the strikes inflicted significant damage on the ships.
Iran’s reported capture of a US unmanned underwater vessel in the Strait of Hormuz demonstrates the country’s growing electronic warfare capabilities and could mark a new and more intense phase of the war, Iranian academic and political analyst Dr. Mohammad Marandi revealed.
Speaking on Al Mayadeen’s The Grand Standoff: Iran and the World, Marandi described the seizure of the vessel as a “major achievement”, arguing that its capture intact showed Iran’s ability to penetrate highly advanced US technology and could use the equipment to further develop its own capabilities.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy announced on Tuesday that its forces captured a US unmanned underwater vehicle at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, in a “complex intelligence and military effort” carried out at dawn.
“The very fact that the Iranians were able to capture it intact shows that US technology is not as good as it is presented to us as being,” Marandi stressed.
The IRGC says its naval forces “trapped one of the most modern, intelligent, unmanned submarines of the terrorist US army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz”.
Iranian state media identified the vessel as a Dive-LD – an autonomous underwater vehicle built by California-based defence firm Anduril Industries.
The submersible, about six metres (20 feet) long, is designed for long-duration missions such as surveillance, seabed mapping, and mine detection. The US said the vessel “malfunctioned a day ago”.
Overnight, US forces in the region launched a series of strikes on five Iranian oil tankers — four in the Gulf of Oman and one off Kharq Island. According to the Pentagon, this is a response to two attempts by the IRGC in the last 48 hours to hit an American warship with ballistic missiles; the crews of the ships were ordered to abandon decks, tankers were disabled.
In response, the Iranians launched about 20 ballistic missiles at the Muwaffaq al-Salti base in Jordan, where American forces are stationed. The Jordanian army announced the interception of 18 rockets, two more fell in deserted areas. According to official data, there are no casualties or serious damage.
The war on Iran is increasingly being fought at sea, with both sides targeting oil tankers and other vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
The tit-for-tat attacks have turned Hormuz into a potential environmental tinderbox. With tankers carrying millions of barrels of crude and petroleum products passing through or waiting around the waterway, a successful strike could trigger a fire, a sinking – or a major oil spill.
“Sensitive habitats such as coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds and coastal sediments may retain pollutants for much longer,” Hussein Samh Al Masroori, associate professor at Sultan Qaboos University, told Al Jazeera.
He says that oil and petroleum hydrocarbons can directly affect fish, corals, plankton and other marine organisms. Fish eggs and larvae can be particularly vulnerable.
READ MORE HERE
Sunday was the first day of school for eight-year-old Wafaa Akila. Wafaa never made it home. She was killed alongside her father by an Israeli strike on their car in western Gaza. Israel says it was targeting a ‘Hamas militant.’
In the cover image: a frame grab footage captured on September 5, 2026 shows the immediate aftermath of a strike by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy against a vessel in retaliation for earlier American attacks on Iranian tankers and the screenshot of the CENTCOM VIDEO on US Military attacks on Iranian oil tankers
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Aerospace Force has launched several ballistic missiles at a US aircraft carrier and an American destroyer participating in Washington’s illegal naval blockade against the Islamic Republic, forcing the vessels to flee, Iranian Press TV reported.
Only USS George Washington aircraft carrier is near the Persian Gulf at the moment.
The attacks were confirmed by US CENTCOM which obviosly denied every damage as happened when the USS Lincoln was struck.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said on Saturday that the Iranian armed forces would respond more forcefully if the US military continued its “acts of aggression,” creating insecurity and harassing Iranian ships, or maintained its naval blockade of Iran.
He added that the Iranian armed forces would target US military vessels in the region “more severely than before” if Washington persisted with such actions.
The force staged the reprisal against the vessels “belonging to the child-killing, aggressor US military that had been harassing Iranian vessels and participating in the blockade,” the Corps said in a statement on Saturday.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy announces striking three United States-linked vessels and three trespassing oil tankers in retaliation for earlier American attacks on Iranian tankers.
“This morning, the terrorist and aggressor US military, in a brutal act born of desperation from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, attacked three oil tankers belonging to the Islamic Republic, causing damage,” the force said in a statement on Saturday.
In response, “the fighters of the IRGC Navy targeted three oil tankers traveling along an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as three vessels affiliated with the child-killing United States, in other areas,” it added.
Al Jazeera confirmed the issues:
In an exclusive video released a few hours earlier, the IRGC showed it had continuous surveillance of naval traffic and its sights set on US-linked vessels moving in the Strait of Hormuz (watch video in the previous update below).
According to Central Command (CENTCOM) reports, an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer intercepted and avoided the attack, immediately taking offensive action, striking three Iranian vessels.
According to the Pentagon, the vessels were part of a multibillion-dollar covert financial network used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to support proxy militias in the area.
«The US has targeted an Iranian oil tanker near Kharg Island with four projectiles, further escalating Washington’s terrorist aggression against Iran» Iranian Press TV reported.
Several explosions were heard on Saturday from the direction of the Persian Gulf in the area around Kharg Island, according to reports from the island.
A local source said an Iranian tanker was struck about six nautical miles from the island after being targeted by four projectiles fired by US forces. The attack caused no casualties, while the tanker’s crew was evacuated from the vessel.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it «struck three Iranian oil tankers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles at two US Navy ships»
US Central Command says one of the tankers – the M/T Kylo – has sunk in the Gulf of Oman, joining “Iran’s navy at the bottom of the sea”.
If it were true, it would represent yet another war crime for an attack on a civilian ship with consequent environmental disaster due to the spill of crude oil into the sea… Precisely for this reason it seems that this statement is unreliable.
The attack comes as the US has intensified its aggression against Iran in recent days, carrying out strikes on several locations across the country. On Monday, US armed forces attacked Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, martyring three people.
On Tuesday, US missile strikes hit three locations near Ahvaz and Aghajari in Khuzestan Province, martyring seven people and wounding eight others, according to Khuzestan provincial officials.
On the same day, US forces struck a residential building in Kuhestak in Hormozgan Province while a wedding reception was taking place, martyring at least five people and wounding 68 others, including women and children.
In response to the attacks, Iran’s Armed Forces launched a series of retaliatory missile and drone strikes against US military positions in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned that any continuation of US military aggression would trigger “heavier, broader and more devastating responses,” while cautioning countries cooperating with the US military that they would face the consequences.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has unveiled previously unreleased footage of its decisive action against non-compliant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, debunking the United States’ allegations of effectively supporting trespassing vessels’ transit through the waterway, according to Iranian Press TV.
On Saturday, the Corps unveiled the footage displaying “decisive management of the waterway” by its Navy.
The footage initially featured short clips of US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Admiral Brad Cooper respectively claiming the strait to be “open,” alleging Washington’s “control” over the waterway, and the American military’s having cleared the mines that have been planted to prevent illegal passage through the chokepoint.
Afterwards, it showed the IRGC Navy conducting close surveillance of and surgically engaging non-compliant vessels on several occasions.
The Corps accompanied release of the footage with a firm warning to vessels relying on the US’s claims of the waterway being “open” and Washington’s allegations of being able to provide effective escorts for illegal transit through the route.
Members of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) argue with their colleagues from the GRU military intelligence and shoot each other, demonstrating a lack of cooperation and concern for national security (video in the previous updates below).
So Russia would have take advantage of the situation to strike the SBU headquarters in Kiev with likely a drone. Although no official confirmation or admission of the attack has come so far from the Russian Ministry of Defense
According to Ukrainian media and specialized sources, citing sources within the agency, the target of the precision strike was the office of the acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Oleksandr Poklad.
A kamikaze drone crashed into the roof and exploded right inside the target room. General Poklad was not in the building on Volodymyrska Street at the time of the attack, thus managing to escape elimination.
“The commander of the SBU (the intelligence agency whose headquarters in Kiev was hit today by an alleged Russian UAV – ed), Oleksandr Poklad, reported on preparations for our active response to the Russian attacks. The geographic scope of our response has been defined. The right moment will be chosen to ensure concrete results.”
Even though the Russian news agency TASS reported only a mysterious explosion as confirmed by Zelensky in the first statement.
«An explosion rocked the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) headquarters in central Kiev, Vladimir Zelensky reported» Tass wrote.
According to a post on his Telegram channel, the explosion occurred near the office of the SBU director, a position currently held by Alexander Poklad. Zelensky reacted to the explosion immediately; the post on his Telegram channel appeared just seconds after the first reports of the explosion appeared on Ukrainian media Telegram channels. The head of the Kiev regime added that he had already spoken with Poklad.
Ukrainian media outlets are publishing photos of the scene showing thick smoke rising above the building. The SBU headquarters is located in the heart of Kiev. The four-story building has an attic extension and occupies an entire city block.
Israeli attacks have killed at least three people and injured several others across Gaza, as Israeli officials push a plan calling for the removal of Palestinians from the Strip, Al Mayadeen Lebanese TV reported.
An Israeli drone strike on Thursday in the Rimal neighbourhood of western Gaza City killed one person and injured several others, medical sources told Al Jazeera reporters on the ground.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency said the Israeli drone had fired at least two missiles at a group of civilians in the neighbourhood.
Separately, two Palestinians were killed and others were injured in the northern town of Beit Lahia when Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinians, Wafa reported (more details in the yesterday’s updates).
The video of previous deadly IDF attack below
The Israeli military meanwhile claimed that its forces had identified two “terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line” in northern Gaza, who they then “eliminated in order to remove the threat they posed”. The so-called Yellow Line is a buffer zone within Gaza established as part of the “ceasefire”.
The ongoing Israeli attacks come despite a United States-brokered “ceasefire” that came into effect in October. Although major fighting halted in the strip after the agreement, deadly Israeli strikes have continued.
While Israeli attacks continue, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir revealed on Thursday a plan for the removal of the roughly two million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip within seven years.
On augus, 30, 2026 a deadly Israeli strike on Deir el-Balah killed two Palestinians including a 3-year-old child.
Their deaths come amid near-daily Israeli attacks despite the so-called ceasefire, with at least 1,303 Palestinians killed and 4,336 injured since it began.
️Pentagon to Keep 50,000 Troops Deployed in Middle East Deep into 2027
Secretary of US Department of War Pete Hegseth is extending military deployments in the Middle East into 2027,with around 50,000 US troops and 19 warships to remain in the region.
A shootout between two of Ukraine’s top intelligence agencies has wounded at least three security officials, highlighting internal divisions within Kyiv’s security establishment.
️ Zelensky Promises to Fire Deputy Heads of GUR and SBU after the incident.
Ukrainian outlets report that one of the SBU officers involved in the shootout has been charged with abuse of office, while a GUR serviceman faces charges of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
The slow-motion footage shows one of the GUR servicemen pulling a pistol from his holster and pointing it at the SBU officer — who immediately responds with a burst of gunfire to the legs.
1st Footage – Ukrainian naval drone destroyed during attack on Sochi port
While no critical infrastructure is visible in this footage, the video was initially published by Ukrainian channels. This highlights how quickly the Kiev army scrapes social media, including local district chats.
2nd footage – Leaked footage from the aftermath of the devestated NATO weapons store close to Kiev
It’s now believed more than 40 died when the Russians struck the depot, situated in the middle of a residential area
The IRGC said its Aerospace Force launched on Wednesday a heavy ballistic missile attack against a US Marine Corps barracks in Jordan in response to the aggression on Sirik wedding cerimony.
The IRGC said the missile strikes killed a large number of US forces, at least 3 dead and 30 injured according Western media too, and destroyed several important facilities and attack helicopters at the base.
As shown in the video shared by Middle Report on Instagram, the barracks were engulfed in a terrible fire and it is feared that the bodies of the deceased were burned by the flames.
The IRGC has accused the United States of a long-standing “dark record” of attacks on wedding gatherings, demanding that US leaders answer to the international public for repeated aggression against civilians, IRIB reported.
According to the statement, the attack was carried out during the second wave of an operation named “Punishment of the Aggressor,” under the religious code “Ya Rasul Allah (PBUH).”
The IRGC identified the targeted facility as Camp Titin, located on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba as we reported in the yesterday’s updates below…
Iran says it has attacked bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates “in response to America’s crimes against the Iranian people”.
Kuwait has condemned the repeated Iranian attacks on the country, describing them as a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and a direct threat to its security and stability.
Iran has called on the UN Security Council to condemn an unprovoked and deadly US attack on a residential home hosting a wedding ceremony in southern Islamic Republic that led to the martyrdom of five civilians, including a four-year-old child, and injured more than 70 others.
Gholamhossein Darzi, the Islamic Republic’s ambassador and chargé d’affaires to the United Nations, made the appeal in a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council on Wednesday following a new wave of such American strikes targeting southern Iranian cities, which together claimed the lives of at least 18 people and wounded 108 others.
The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has said that the blood of those killed in a US attack on a wedding ceremony in Kouhestak, Hormozgan Province, “will never go unanswered” and that it will ultimately “catch up with those who ordered and carried out this heinous crime.”, Iranian Press TV wrote.
State media reports debris recovered from a home attacked in southern Iran during a wedding celebration was “most likely” from a US-made, AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon – a guided-glide munition, Al Jazeera has reported.
Broadcaster IRIB said images released by US Central Command of attacks in southern Iran showed a F/A-18 Super Hornet loaded with a similar munition.
The targeted house was 200 metres (650 feet) from a communications tower, and the strike could not have been an error given the munition’s accuracy, reports said.
Footage circulating online allegedly shows an Iranian Shahed-136-type drone striking a radar installation at the U.S. naval facility in Bahrain, home to the Fifth Fleet, on September, 2, 2026 (more details in the yesterday updates).
Iran claims it targeted U.S. military infrastructure, while Bahrain says its air defenses intercepted Iranian drones. The exact impact and extent of damage remain independently unconfirmed. The attack is confirmed. The specific “direct hit on Fifth Fleet HQ” claim is not yet independently verified.
Israeli forces stormed the town of Sebastia in the occupied West Bank at dawn on Thursday amid heavy military deployment and sweeping house-to-house raids, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Local sources cited by the agency reported that the Israeli forces brought military reinforcements into the town before raiding several homes and arresting people.
The sources said that Israeli forces also stormed the village of Asira al-Qibliya, south of Nablus, and deployed across several neighbourhoods, while additional forces raided the village of Duma, south of the governorate.
Two Palestinians were martyred on Wednesday evening after being shot by the Israeli occupation forces during clashes with Palestinian youths in the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, as the occupation continued to impose a tight siege on the village.
Earlier, three Palestinians were injured after Israeli settlers attacked al-Mughayyir, assaulting homes and surrounding several houses in the western part of the village under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.
The Palestinian Information Center reported that settlers had surrounded several homes in western al-Mughayyir while being protected by Israeli occupation forces.
Below a previous video on Palestinian families besieged by Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank village
German Charge d’Affaires in Moscow Bernd Finke was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry amid anti-Russian actions and statements by German authorities.
He left the ministry building an hour later, a TASS correspondent reported.
On September 2, German Charge d’Affaires in Moscow, Bernd Finke, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to a message posted on the Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel.
He was summoned amid anti-Russian actions and statements by German authorities.
Finke was told that Russia resolutely rejects Germany’s completely trumped-up accusations regarding the incident in Leipzig, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement (read more details in the yesterday updates on escalation)
The decision to close the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin was a step “towards the final destruction” of relations between Russia and Germany, the Foreign Ministry noted.
– Berlin deliberately carried out a provocation aimed at escalating bilateral relations, the Ministry emphasized.
In the village of Pohreby, Brovary District, surveillance cameras captured the moment of the devastating impact on a warehouse complex. According to the Kyiv military administration, eight people were injured, with serious blast injuries.
Authorities report that that same morning on August, 31, 2026, Russian drones also struck warehouses in the Bukha and Boryspil districts, setting fires in several places.
This is the fifth consecutive day of attacks in Kyiv Oblast. Local sources speak of large-scale retail stores; authorities only vaguely confirm that “storage depots” were among the targets hit. The exact type of weapon used in the attack has not yet been revealed, but judging by the images, the impact was of considerable force.
The attack on Pohreby is part of an intensification of long-range attacks by both sides. At the same time, Russia repeatedly struck Kyiv and the surrounding oblast over consecutive nights.
Excerpts by Ahmed Adel originally published on VT UnCensored Foreign Policy
Italian media report plans to sell four batteries of the newest SAMP/T NG system, also known as “Mamba,” to Ukraine, claiming its performance rivals or even surpasses that of the American Patriot system in some respects. However, these new missile and air defense system deliveries to Ukraine are unlikely to significantly impact the battlefield. Rather, they are primarily aimed at enabling Western countries and their military industries to profit.
Not only are four batteries insignificant and unlikely to alter the course of the war, but they will also be top targets for Russia’s armed forces and will be destroyed in a short period of time. For this reason, Italy’s decision should be viewed as an economic move rather than a political one. In fact, the delivery is expected to be financed through European Union loans.
Brave1 is a Ukraninian government initiative aimed at developing defence technologies, implemented by the Innovation Development Fund and initiated by relevant state authorities and components of Ukraine’s security and defence sector. Initially, it was a grant program for defence startups. We have already become the largest angel investor in Ukrainian defence tech, having issued over 750 grants amounting to 3.7 billion UAH.
In this exclusive video shared on YouTube by UATV Espanol lift the veil of secrecy for the first time on the latest development in the Ukrainian defense industry: the unique “Litavr” interceptor drone from F-Drones, created specifically for the cost-effective and efficient hunting of enemy kamikaze drones like the “Shahed.”
Thanks to the BRAVE1 defense cluster, Kiev army gained unprecedented access to this fully encrypted technology, capable of speeds up to 350 km/h, operating at altitudes up to 9,000 meters, and automatically locking onto targets using the Pixel Lock (Last Mile)
Castle Breaker is a medium-range ballistic missile which has been developed by the IRGC as part of its wider range of missiles.
It is one of Iran’s newer medium-range missile systems, with a range of roughly 1,450km (901 miles), with a payload range (warhead capacity) of 449kg to 590kg (990 pounds to 1,300 pounds).
Kuwait has also condemned and denounced the Iranian attack on a tanker belonging to Saudi Arabia, calling it a “heinous” attack that violated international law and is a “direct threat to the security of maritime navigation, its safety, and global energy supplies”.
In a statement, the country’s foreign ministry emphasised the need to immediately halt all “escalatory actions”.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has rejected US CENTCOM’s position that the US does not target civilians.
He has also described a deadly US attack on a wedding celebration in the south of the country as a “war crime”.
“Apparently, he [CENTCOM spokesperson] has forgotten his own military record: Kakarak in 2002, Mukaradeeb in 2004, and Deh Bala and Wech Baghtu in 2008 – documented US attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq that resulted in the deaths of civilians, including women and children,” Baghaei wrote on X.
“He has forgotten something else as well: even Homeland, an American-produced television series, portrayed, in its fourth season, a US drone strike on a wedding in Pakistan – an attack that killed around 40 civilians.
The German government has decided to shut down Russia’s consulate general in Bonn from September 18 over an early August drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.
Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev strongly rejected Berlin’s allegations of Moscow’s involvement in the incident as unfounded and absurd.
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said serious allegations must be backed up by evidence, accusing Germany of continuing “down the path of escalation”.
I believe this is another gross mistake. And, in my opinion, it clearly goes against the interests of the German people,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, asked about it during a press conference broadcast by the Russian news agency Tass.
“Any military facility in Ukraine is a legitimate target for us. British ones, or any other,” Putin reiterated.
Staff of the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, along with their family members, are to leave Germany as part of measures taken by the country’s authorities following a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport, the Russian embassy said in a comment.
According to the diplomatic mission, “the German authorities blamed Russia for preparing an act of sabotage without providing any evidence or arguments.”
The embassy specified that Berlin had decided to shut down the Russian consulate in Bonn by September 18, 2026, and end the 2011 German-Russian intergovernmental agreement on cultural and information centers, effectively paving the way for the closure of the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin.
Germany will transfer IRIS-T missiles and thousands of drones to Ukraine under the pretext of the “incident” in Leipzig
The German government has announced a new package of military assistance to Kiev. In September, Ukraine will receive additional missiles for the IRIS-T air defense systems, as well as several thousand attack drones.
In addition, Berlin intends to strengthen cooperation with Kiev through the special services, the N-tvchannel reports. The reason for the tightening position was the incident with the drone at the airport Leipzig/Halle in early August, for which Germany, officially laid the responsibility on Russia.
In the city of Skarzysko Kamenna, a fire broke out at the factory of the defense concern WB Electronics, the largest private manufacturer of military equipment in Poland.
The company produces FlyEye reconnaissance drones, structural composites and Warmate barrage ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And in Lublin, the Krasny Rooster pecked at a plant producing composite materials for military aviation, whose products were also used to produce UAVs supplied to Ukraine.
Powerful explosions rocked an ammunition depot in Azerbaijan.
Residents of the village of Nizami heard explosions and saw a bright glow overnight. Shells scattered hundreds of meters, and residents of nearby villages were evacuated. There are no reports of casualties yet.
“We attacked the US commander’s residence at Ali Al Salem Air Base, as well as the drone hangar and a drone launch pad in Kuwait. Several enemy personnel were killed, and several drones were destroyed at the base.”
The IRGC declared this after also attacking US targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and the Kurdish city of Erbil, Iraq.
«The Iranian Armed Forces launched a massive response to the US aggression on the Islamic Republic on Tuesday, firing a large number of ballistic missiles on US Marines barracks in Jordan, killing a large number of American soldiers» Al Manar Lebanese TV has reported.
IRGC issued a statement affirming that the attack came in response to the US massacre against the civilians in Sirik area, stressing that the Iranian response will continue.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claims it has launched a “heavy” ballistic missile attack on Prince Hassan airbase and a US Marine base in Jordan in response to earlier US strikes that killed civilians.
Bahrain has condemned “treacherous Iranian air attacks” saying its forces destroyed a number of incoming projectiles. “Iran continues its systematic aggression through its heinous attacks targeting civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” its military said in a statement.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei says Iran’s armed forces have “unforgettable lessons” in store for Washington, in his first message since the US and Tehran restarted attacks.
The IRGC said its forces targeted Camp Titin, a facility belonging to the US Marine Corps in Jordan, with ballistic missiles.
«According to the IRGC, the strike resulted in the deaths of a large number of US forces stationed at the camp. It also said several important facilities and attack helicopters were destroyed in the attack» Al Mayadeen Lebanese TV has reported.
The IRGC did not provide a specific figure for the number of US personnel it said were killed or give further details about the extent of the damage.
Iranian news agency Tasnim described Camp Titin as being located in a strategically important position at the northern end of the Red Sea, near the ports of Aqaba and Eilat.
The agency said the camp is located a short distance from the Saudi border and is suitable for US Marine Corps training and the protection of maritime infrastructure.
Tasnim said Camp Titin has particular importance for the US Marine Corps and for the rapid deployment of forces.
IRGC political deputy General Yadollah Javani has addressed Arab countries, demanding they either expel US forces or face a crushing military response.
“It is better to expel the Americans from your countries and take back the bases,” Javani said in a statement published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
He warned that Iran’s military has proven that it will retaliate decisively from any staging point used for attacks against Iran, specifically naming Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
Eleven people have been killed in US missile attacks in Iran, including at least four at a wedding celebration in the southern city of Sirik, and seven others in strikes across three locations in Khuzestan province, according to Iranian state media.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures rising 87 cents, or 0.92 percent, to $95.52 a barrel, following the latest exchange of attacks between the US and Iran.
Government bonds sold off sharply on Wednesday, driving borrowing costs to multi-decade highs as the US and Iran trade blows, raising energy prices and inflation fears, according to Reuters.
It was the second day of the market rout, which began after a US strike on Larak Island triggered the latest round of escalation.
The conflict pushed up energy prices, feeding investor fears about inflation and mounting government debt. Consequently, the 10-year government bond hit a near three-year high in the US, a 30-year high in Japan, and a 15-year high in Australia, while prices for German and French 10-year bonds fell to multi-year or record lows.
Because bonds served as benchmarks for broader borrowing, their rise made mortgages more expensive and increased funding costs for governments.
Iran says a series of US strikes near its southern port city of Sirik has killed at least four people, including a child at a wedding party. The Health Ministry said 50 others were wounded in the attacks.
Watch the moment the strike hits below:
Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs details a temporary arrangement between the Islamic Republic and Oman concerning the Strait of Hormuz, while asserting that reopening of the waterway hinges on realization of Tehran’s demands, according to Iranian Press TV.
Remarking on Tuesday, Kazem Gharibabadi detailed the arrangement that he identified as tentative pending establishment of a “permanent route” during further negotiations between the two sides that are expected to take between 30 and 60 days.
Iran closed the chokepoint following the launch of the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the country on February 28.
According to Gharibabadi, under the arrangement involving Iran and Oman, the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz will be closed. As part of its violations of the MoU, the US would try to illegally escort vessels through the southern route that runs along the Omani coastline.
Oman has accepted the closure, the official said, adding that the move would be communicated to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Under the arrangement, “vessels entering the Persian Gulf will use Iranian waters, while vessels leaving the Persian Gulf will use Omani territorial waters,” the senior diplomat stated. “Vessels would pass through Iranian waters in both directions,” he added.
He described the arrangement as functioning “like a two-way highway,” with a total width of approximately seven nautical miles.
Gharibabadi stressed that the arrangement agreed with with Oman does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened immediately. He said the issue of the arrangement and the question of reopening the strait were separate matters.
Israeli far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated after Israeli forces raided a facility operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in occupied East Jerusalem, expelling employees and hoisting an Israeli flag in the courtyard.
UNRWA and experts say it is a direct breach of international law.
But after the previous bombings of various UNRWA offices and the massacres of UN officials in Palestine, UN Secretary General António Guterres (who earns $227,000 a year) and his other well-paid aides should stop clowning around on the world stage, resign, or intervene with severe sanctions against Israel and the US, which since 2023 have been protecting Israel’s genocide, as confirmed by dozens of UN reports.
DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
It would be enough to put a resolution to a vote in the General Assembly, bypassing the Security Council, where the US continues to exercise its vote. But the real problem is that many Western countries, including Italy, have effectively protected the massacre committed by Zionists in the Holy Land to speculate on the weapons market.
«Israeli so-called National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced on Tuesday the start of operations to dismantle a vocational training center run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the East Al-Quds (Jerusalem) area of Kafr Aqab, near the Qalandiya refugee camp» Al Manar Lebanese TV pointed out.
“Large forces of Israel Police are working together with the relevant authorities to realize the law and get UNRWA out of the area,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.
“An organization whose workers were involved in terrorism, and which served as a front for Hamas time after time, has no right to exist for even another second, and has no place in Jerusalem and the State of Israel.”
Footage from Palestinian media shows Ben Gvir on the scene with Israeli occupation forces at the UNRWA facility.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli forces ordered UNRWA employees to exit the facility and not return.
Ben Gvir’s announcement comes after the Israeli occupation authorities’ Jerusalem municipality this month greenlit a plan to build a road and an “educational complex” over the 82-dunam area.
An explosion occurred in Pishchanka, Samar District, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing one person. Another 11 people were injured.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, reported on the consequences of the incident.
The explosion destroyed three private homes. Another 15 houses sustained varying degrees of damage. But according to Russian sources the huge blast happened inside an ammunition depot.
People who were near the epicenter at the time of the explosion were evacuated to a safer location. Access to the hazardous area was temporarily restricted.
Investigators, forensic experts, and other specialized services are working at the site of the explosion in Pishchanka. Oleksandr Hanzha did not specify the cause of the blast, but described the incident as a war crime.
Deputy PM to attend R-4 meeting in Istanbul as US-Iran negotiations stall
The post Pakistan’s Dar arrives in Turkey after UK visit for regional security talks appeared first on BOL News.
Sudan's war has entered a more dangerous phase after fighting spilled across the country's borders, raising fresh concerns about the conflict's regional consequences, writes Mohsin Osman.
The Chadian army accused the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of carrying out an airstrike against a convoy inside Chadian territory. According to the Chadian General Staff, the attack occurred at about 8 p.m. on August 20 in the Mourdi department of Ennedi-Est province, near the Sudanese border. It said aircraft and drones believed to belong to the SAF or its allies pursued and struck the convoy more than 100 kilometres inside Chad. The convoy was reportedly carrying reinforcements for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which the Sudanese army regards as a rebel group.
The US has since condemned the airstrikes, calling for an end to external forces supporting the conflict. Massad Boulos, the US president's senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, said the US government opposed the expansion of violence beyond Sudan's borders and stressed that there is no military solution to the conflict.
“The parties must immediately accept a humanitarian truce, protect civilians, and allow unhindered humanitarian access,” he said.
Bolous also called for the expansion of the UN arms embargo, currently focused on Darfur, to cover the whole of Sudan, while accusing foreign powers of escalating the war.
“The UN Security Council must also act with urgency to ensure that the arms embargo and sanctions regime reflect the realities of the conflict today and hold those fueling and expanding this war accountable. External financial and military support to the warring parties must stop,” he said.
The US has also warned that external support was escalating the war, just as that the growing use of armed drones was obstructing the peace process.
The war began on April 15, 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) amid a deepening power struggle over Sudan’s political transition and the proposed integration of the RSF into the regular army. It has continued despite repeated ceasefire efforts and international initiatives to end the conflict.
The recent strike in Chad has now brought into sharper focus how far the war is spreading and how much the SAF's expanding aerial capabilities depend on foreign support, especially with the presence and prominent use of Turkish drones.
French report highlights Turkey's involvement
French newspaper Le Monde reported that Turkey has emerged as the Sudanese army's principal military supporter since the war began. The report said the Turkish government supplied Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones and deployed instructors alongside them. It also reported that Saudi Arabia financed purchases of Turkish drones and Pakistani weapons for the SAF.
The report comes on the heels of Turkey's deepening political relationship with Sudan's military leadership. On August 7, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, which provides that an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be regarded as an attack against all three.
According to Le Monde, cooperation among the three countries over Sudan predates the agreement, with Riyadh financing Turkish drones and Pakistani weapons for the SAF. The newspaper also reported a $1.5 billion Pakistani arms contract involving fighter jets, armoured vehicles and drones.
Since late 2024, Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones have reportedly become part of the Sudanese army’s expanding aerial arsenal. The SAF has also used Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drones, while Chinese-made CH-95 and FH-95 systems have been deployed by the RSF, reflecting the growing role of foreign-supplied drone technology in Sudan’s war.
While there is no concrete evidence that a Bayraktar drone carried out the specific strike inside Chad, the presence of Turkish military technology in the Sudanese conflict is increasingly well documented.
In March 2025, The Washington Post reported that Turkish defence company Baykar had supplied the Sudanese army with at least $120 million worth of military equipment, including TB2 drones and hundreds of warheads. The investigation, based on contracts, correspondence, registries and visual material, also documented Baykar personnel providing technical support in Sudan.
In May 2026, Chatham House examined reports of Turkish drone supplies to the SAF while noting Ankara's denial of direct deliveries. The relationship took on a clearer political dimension in June, when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Ankara. The Turkish presidency said the two countries were seeking to expand cooperation in trade, agriculture, energy and defence.
This places Turkey's role in Sudan beyond the question of individual drone deliveries. Turkey is deepening ties with the military leadership while presenting itself as a diplomatic actor in the conflict.
Beyond the current battlefield, Turkey's relationship with Sudan dates back decades. But Erdoğan's 2017 meeting with Omar al-Bashir and the agreement to redevelop Suakin underscored Ankara's strategic interest in Sudan's Red Sea coast.
The potential economic stakes here are also substantial. Sudan's eventual reconstruction will require major investment in infrastructure, energy, agriculture and other sectors, while its Red Sea coastline and mineral resources offer significant strategic and commercial opportunities.
Foreign powers are therefore increasingly shaping not only how the war is fought but also the interests that will surround Sudan after the fighting ends. Turkey's expanding relationship with the SAF is part of that wider contest, while the strike inside Chad shows how increasingly difficult it is to contain the war's consequences within Sudan.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio described NATO’s July gathering in Ankara, two months before it convened, as “one of the more important leaders’ summits in [its] history.” The summit confirmed that Europeans have accepted America’s expectation that they do more for their own security. The Ankara declaration recognised that “European allies and Canada, working together with the United States, are assuming greater responsibility for the alliance’s defence.” Accepting that shift is one thing; paying for it is another. For European policymakers the question is now fiscal. It turns on what Europe is willing to pay for. And for the EU’s frugal members, that means rethinking what they treat as strategic.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, replacing US military capabilities in Europe could require around $1tn (about €900bn) in extra investment. NATO’s new target to invest 5% of GDP in defence similarly implies a sustained increase in European defence spending over the coming decade. Together they suggest that defence is no longer crisis spending but a permanent claim on European budgets.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU has found money for defence, but always as extraordinary spending. The European Defence Fund and SAFE (Security Action for Europe, a loan scheme for joint arms purchases), for example, sit outside the ordinary budget. Such instruments expire; the challenge is to embed this spending into the EU’s regular budget. Winning defence a permanent line in it makes negotiations over the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) far more than another exercise in budgetary bargaining.
The MFF is the EU’s seven-year budget—and where any pledge on defence would have to show up in funds. The commission’s proposal for 2028–34 reflects such a commitment. It allocates €131bn to defence and space, roughly five times the current level, and puts security among the EU’s central priorities.
Commission proposals rarely emerge intact from negotiation, and early signs suggest this pattern may repeat itself.
Commission proposals rarely emerge intact from negotiation, however, and early signs suggest this pattern may repeat itself. Cyprus, which held the presidency until the end of June, left a negotiating box on how to structure the next MFF that envisioned reductions in defence and security while protecting cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The box is the presidency’s draft compromise, the text the final deal is built from. The Irish presidency has opened with a strong focus on competitiveness and security, but Ireland leans heavily on farming too.
Budget negotiations are shaped by coalitions that defend long-established spending. The 16 member states of the “Friends of Cohesion” group, Spain, Italy and Poland among them, want robust funding for cohesion policy and agriculture, while frugal member states, such as Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, are reluctant to expand the overall size of the EU budget. Defence enters as a comparative newcomer against policies with decades of institutional backing and organised constituencies behind them.
Germany’s position illustrates this dilemma. In a parliamentary inquiry, Alliance 90/The Greens asked the federal government how the EU can square four things at once: from 2028 it will need to start repaying NextGenerationEU, the €637bn joint borrowing agreed as a one-off in 2020 to fund members’ recovery from covid-19; forgo new revenue of its own (levies it collects directly rather than cheques from national treasuries); hold its budget roughly the same size; and still strengthen competitiveness, security and defence. The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has repeatedly committed to the last three. The government answered that the EU could meet all three objectives by trimming across the whole budget. Yet such “horizontal cuts” only protect these priorities if all 27 members agree what to spare when deciding the cuts, and they are unlikely to agree. Other member states could favour different areas of the EU budget, cutting competitiveness or security harder than Germany intends.
The scale of investment required to deliver Europe’s defence transformation also exceeds what can realistically be financed through the MFF alone. While the seven-year budget can establish political priorities, provide long-term planning certainty and support common capability development, it cannot generate the sums required to finance Europe’s long-term defence.
Hence the appeal of joint EU borrowing: debt raised by the commission against member-state guarantees, the model already used for NextGenerationEU and SAFE. NextGenerationEU demonstrated that the EU can raise substantial resources when confronted with an existential crisis such as the covid-19 pandemic. Europe’s security has changed just as fundamentally, which makes the case for borrowing together just as strong. If defence is a collective problem, leaving the bill to strained national budgets makes little sense. However, borrowing on that scale is politically out of reach: creditor states intend NextGenerationEU to stay an exception rather than a template. Something narrower—bonds (or comparable fiscal mechanisms) that fund defence alone or the technologies Europe cannot do without may prove necessary if the EU wants to match its strategic ambitions with adequate financial resources.
Europe has accepted that it must carry more of its own defence. The MFF negotiations will show whether its budget can pay for it. With NATO entering a new era of European burden-sharing, the EU cannot afford a budget that reflects the priorities of a different geopolitical age. The world has moved on—it is time that frugal member states like Germany did so, too.
by Gospa News Editorial Sfaff
Continuing the project we started in the beginning of “026.
Here is our selection of our 7 most astonishing, original or viewed videos released in this the week.
This reminder ccome back after many months of pause due to that the main important videos were published in the post WARS in Video with dauky updates on the ongoing international conflicts in Ukraine and in Middle East.
But there are many videos that are extremely significant for their social or geopolitical content that sometimes take a back seat to the serious events that occur every day in wars, which is why we decided to start this periodic column.
Inside the Rumble description of each video there is a link to the detailed investigation it refers to or to a related topic.
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DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”
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