Yemen's Houthis take Mocha, and with it the gate to the Red Sea

The rest of the day

35 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Ukraine hits gas plants deep in the Arctic

   Ukrainian drones struck two Arctic gas condensate plants on Wednesday, at Novy Urengoy and in the Purovsky district of western Siberia, more than 3,000km from Ukraine's border. [5] It is the deepest strike Ukraine has made into Russia in four and a half years of war. Videos posted online showed heavy smoke and fire at Novy Urengoy, and the regional governor, Dmitry Artyukhov, said falling drone debris started it. [5] Nobody was reported hurt, and Ukraine's president called the attack completely justified. [5]

   Why it matters — Ukraine has been spending its cheap drones on refineries, factories and warehouses to make ordinary Russians feel a war their government has kept away from them. [7] The strike came days after two US envoys left Moscow and Kyiv with nothing agreed. [5]

2. 03

   Russian drone kills four at a shopping mall

   A Russian drone hit a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, a city in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, killing four people and wounding 60. [8] Ukraine's interior minister, Ivan Vyhivskyi, said it came in daylight with the streets full of people; two of the injured were emergency service workers and a child was hurt. [8] Malls in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy were also hit this week. [8] Al Jazeera counted at least 11 people killed across Ukraine on Thursday, including four in Mykolaiv and two Azerbaijani crew on a tugboat off Odesa. [6]

   Why it matters — Pavlohrad is a logistics hub near Dnipro that has been struck before, and the targets this week were places people shop rather than places they fight. [8] Ukraine's president says the raids since mid-August have become longer and more frequent. [50]

3. 04

   Russia's jet drones now fly every day

   Russia launched its upgraded jet-powered Geran drones against Ukraine on every single day of August, the first time daily use has shown up in Ukrainian Air Force data. [9] Attacks by these drones rose from 350 in June to 1,600 in July and 2,800 in August. [9] They cruise at more than 300mph, faster than Ukraine's interceptors can fly, and Ukrainian military intelligence says some of the turbojet engines come from China. [9] Four Ukrainian companies are testing missiles that could catch them. [9]

   Why it matters — Ukraine was intercepting 94% of long-range drones earlier this year, and speed is what broke that. [9] Every night the new drones outrun the old defences is a night Ukraine has to buy a newer one.

4. 05

   Russia pushes at Ukraine's fortress cities

   Police in Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, the two biggest cities still fully under Ukrainian control in the eastern Donbas, have begun forced evacuations of families with children. [10] Pavlo Dyachenko of the Donetsk police said Slovyansk used to be hit by glide bombs about once a week and is now hit almost daily. [10] Russia already holds nearly all of Luhansk region and about 80% of Donetsk region, and claims full control of nearby Kostyantynivka. [10]

   Why it matters — The three cities form Ukraine's fortified defence line in the east. [10] Taking the whole of Donbas is Russia's stated war aim, and these are the towns standing between it and the open ground further west. [10]

5. 06

   Zelensky goes to Canada for air defence

   Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, met Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, on Thursday to ask for more help protecting Ukraine's skies before winter. [11] Russia has been bombing Ukraine's power grid ahead of the cold months. [11] Canada and European countries now buy American weapons for Ukraine through a scheme called the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, because the United States has stopped donating weapons of its own. [11]

   Why it matters — Ukraine's supply now depends on other governments being willing to pay an American bill on its behalf. [11] Zelensky's trip came the day after his flight out of Moldova was delayed by a drone. [11]

6. 07

   A drone shut Moldova's airspace as Zelensky flew

   Moldova's military spotted an unidentified drone at 4:20pm on Tuesday and closed the country's airspace ten minutes later, delaying three departures and four arrivals. [12] By 4:37pm the drone had crossed into Romania, a NATO member, and two Spanish F-18 fighter jets took off to watch it without intercepting. [12] It came down and exploded near Mihailenii Vechi at about 5:20pm. [12] Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store, later said Zelensky's plane had almost been hit. [12]

   Why it matters — Moldova is not in NATO and is not fighting this war, and its airport has now been closed by it. [12] Romania scrambled jets over its own territory and did not shoot. [12]

7. 08

   NATO turns back Russian cable submarines

   Britain, Norway and the United States tracked three Russian submarines on a month-long covert operation in Arctic waters near Norway's Svalbard islands, and turned them back before they finished. [13] Two Western officials told Reuters the submarines were rehearsing a way to cut undersea cables that leaves no trace. [13] The unit involved was GUGI, Russia's undersea warfare directorate. [13] No cable was damaged, and Russia's defence ministry did not comment. [13]

   Why it matters — Undersea fibre-optic cables about as thick as a garden hose carry almost all of the world's internet traffic and its financial transactions. [13] Norway's defence minister, Tore Sandvik, said the point of going public was to tell Russia it cannot work unseen. [13]

8. 09

   Germany asks for stronger powers over drones

   Germany's interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, defended plans to give security agencies wider investigative powers during a debate on his ministry's 2027 budget. [14] He pointed to an explosives-laden drone found at Leipzig/Halle airport, said Russia was clearly behind it and called it not an isolated event. [14] His ministry's budget is set to rise by more than 950 million euros to 16.7 billion euros, with extra staff for the federal police. [14]

   Why it matters — A new joint drone defence centre and a centre for countering hybrid threats have both opened this year. [14] German inflation also rose to 2.9% in August, its highest since late 2023, driven mainly by fuel and heating oil. [14]

9. 10

   Black Sea grain route under attack

   Russia and Ukraine are attacking each other's cargo ships in the Black Sea to cut off grain exports, and hundreds of vessels have been hit, with many sunk and lives lost. [15] Istanbul's dockyards now spend much of their time repairing damaged ships, according to the yard manager Omer Butun. [15] Ship owners are increasingly refusing to send vessels at all, says the owner Ziya Uzel, and the grain broker Can Atbasoglu warns of a looming food crisis. [15]

   Why it matters — More than a quarter of the world's wheat passes through that sea. [15] Turkey brokered a safe-passage deal early in the war, but the former Turkish ambassador Mithat Rende says the situation is much harder now. [15]

10. 11

    Israel blows up a Hezbollah tunnel network

    Israel's military destroyed an underground network at the Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon on Thursday evening, about 15km from the Israeli border. [16] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the operation completed a security zone there and that troops would stay to stop Hezbollah rebuilding. [16] The military said the network ran more than 2km and held rockets, missiles, drones, mines and a central command complex. [16][17] Lebanon's state news agency said the blast was felt across Nabatieh. [16]

    Why it matters — Israel's military says it took operational control of the ridge, above and below ground, before tearing the network out. [16] Netanyahu called the site a strategic Hezbollah stronghold. [18] Hezbollah is the Iran-aligned armed movement in Lebanon.

11. 12

    An Israeli strike kills a family of four in Gaza

    An Israeli air strike killed a man, his wife and their daughters aged 8 and 12 in a house in northern Gaza on Thursday, health officials said. [19] The military said it hit a military structure and had killed Muamen Ahmed, whom it described as a fighter who had recently been advancing attacks on Israeli forces. [19] It made no mention of a wife or children. [19] At least six homes across Gaza have been struck in two days. [19][21]

    Why it matters — More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed since the October 2025 ceasefire, according to Gaza health officials. [19] Relatives confirmed Ahmed's death and would not comment on what Israel said he did. [19]

12. 13

    Netanyahu sues a newspaper over an October 7 warning

    Benjamin Netanyahu instructed lawyers to begin defamation proceedings against Haaretz over a report that the United Arab Emirates warned him about a coming Hamas attack days before 7 October 2023. [22] The report said the UAE president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, telephoned Netanyahu that September. [22] Netanyahu's office says no warning was given and called the story a sinister plot; Haaretz says the suit exists to silence criticism. [22]

    Why it matters — Israel votes on 27 October in an election widely read as a verdict on Netanyahu's leadership, and he has resisted an independent public inquiry into what happened. [22][23] The attack killed about 1,200 people; at least 73,670 people have been killed in Gaza since, according to the Hamas-run health ministry whose figures the UN considers reliable. [22]

13. 14

    Red Cross visits a prison and sees no prisoners

    A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross toured an Israeli military detention facility on Wednesday and was not allowed to meet any of the Palestinian detainees held there. [24] Julien Lerisson, the head of the ICRC in Israel, said the talks were positive and a step towards resuming visits. [24] Israel halted such visits nearly three years ago; Israel's High Court ruled this year that Israel's government cannot prevent them but set no date. [24]

    Why it matters — An Israeli television report said Israel's government is working to delay the ruling until after next month's election. [24] The Red Cross is the body whose job is to see people in detention, and it has now been inside the building without seeing anyone. [24]

14. 15

    Iran pays China in oil to get around sanctions

    Iran has used a barter arrangement to get billions of dollars of Chinese goods in exchange for oil, sidestepping sanctions on its oil sales, two senior Iranian sources and three other people told Reuters. [25] The goods included millions of dollars' worth of air-defence equipment. [25] China has long been Iran's main oil customer. [25] Neither government has confirmed the arrangement or published a figure. [25]

    Why it matters — Sanctions block the banks, not the trade, so what changes is what Iran hands over rather than whether it buys. [25] Iran and the United States are trading air strikes, and air-defence equipment is what a country in that position needs. [3]

15. 16

    US names 21 Latin American groups as terrorists

    The Trump administration has now labelled 21 criminal groups in Latin America and the Caribbean as foreign terrorist organisations, adding an Ecuadorian group on Wednesday. [26] The announcement came while the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, toured Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. [26] The label was previously kept for groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaida, which use violence for political ends rather than money. [26] Mexico has eight groups on the list, more than any other country. [26]

    Why it matters — The policy has been the stated basis for the capture of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro and for dozens of attacks on boats said to carry drugs, killing more than 200 people. [26] Guatemala and Argentina have since made similar designations of their own. [26]

16. 17

    Twenty-five die in a Qingdao shipyard fire

    Fire broke out at 11:15am on Thursday aboard the Ocean Melody, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier under repair at the state-owned Qingdao Beihai shipyard in eastern China. [27][28] Forty-two people were on board; 17 got off, five of them injured, and 25 were killed. [27] The flames were out by about 2:30pm. [27] President Xi Jinping ordered an urgent search and a swift investigation, a rare public instruction attached to an accident report. [28][29]

    Why it matters — Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding belongs to the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the country's state shipbuilder. [27] Xi told every region to draw lessons from the blaze and check for fire hazards. [27]

17. 18

    Japan flies firefighting helicopters to Borneo

    A Japanese landing ship, the JS Kunisaki, docked at Mempawah in West Kalimantan on Thursday carrying 300 crew and three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to fight forest fires on Borneo. [30] It is the first known overseas firefighting operation by Japan's Self-Defense Forces. [30] A long dry season and an intensifying El Nino have made this year's fires worse, and the smoke has reached the Philippines, more than 800km away. [30]

    Why it matters — Malaysia declared an emergency last week in a town in Sarawak state after air pollution passed its threshold, and the haze has kept more than 1.4 million Indonesian students out of school. [30] Japan and Indonesia are also discussing the sale of used Japanese destroyers. [30]

18. 19

    Sudan loses 36 more clinics to aid cuts

    Thirty-six health facilities run by the International Rescue Committee in Sudan are closing this year because their funding has gone, cutting off an estimated 473,700 people. [31] Grants ended in June after US aid cuts announced last year, and some European donors also spent less. [31] A small number are limping along on other money until the end of September. [31] Sudan's health system once numbered 6,500 primary facilities and 300 public hospitals. [31] The war began in April 2023. [31]

    Why it matters — By September 2024 the World Health Organization said 70 to 80% of facilities in the worst-hit areas were already closed or barely working. [31] The war has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced about 13 million. [31]

19. 20

    665,000 people at Tawila are short of tents

    More than 665,000 displaced people are sheltering at Tawila in North Darfur, and relief teams have put up 3,000 new tents in recent months. [32] Turkey allocated 30,000 tents for Darfur and Kordofan through the International Organization for Migration; 3,000 of 6,000 expected have gone up at the Daba Naira camp. [32] The rainy season has started, camp fires have broken out, and cholera is spreading where there is no clean water. [32]

    Why it matters — Most of the people there fled el-Fasher, the North Darfur city the Rapid Support Forces took last year. [32] Sudan's regional social welfare coordinator, Abdelbagi Mohamed Hamid, said famine could kill more than the fighting. [32]

20. 21

    Israel supplied the Sudan chemical weapons dossier

    The New York Times and the Washington Post reported at the weekend on a dossier of evidence that Sudan's army produced chlorine bombs. [33] Both said it came from a Middle Eastern intelligence agency. Sudanese and US sources have told Middle East Eye that the agency is Israel's. [33] It contains about 150 documents, bomb blueprints, images, videos and thousands of text messages, much of it apparently from senior Sudanese officers' phones. [33] Sudan's army-backed government denies the allegations. [33]

    Why it matters — Israel handed the US government a very similar dossier before it sanctioned the army's leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in January 2025. [33] Who collected evidence, and why now, shapes how much weight anyone gives it. [33]

21. 22

    Congo's ceasefire gets its first monitors

    The first mission to verify the ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, agreed in November 2025, began work in South Kivu on 24 August. [34] The body, the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus, came out of talks in Switzerland in August between Congo's government and the AFC/M23 rebel alliance, mediated by Qatar, the United States and the African Union. [34] Both sides are still contesting ground with drone strikes and new recruitment. [34]

    Why it matters — The ceasefire sets no lines between the forces, no withdrawals and no buffer zones, so a monitor can record a violation without anything separating the fighters. [34] Its first site, Minembwe, is one of the hardest places in the country to establish facts in. [34]

22. 23

    North Korea spends its Ukraine war windfall

    Kim Jong Un is spending what North Korea earned by sending men and equipment to Russia's war on projects he could not previously afford. [35] South Korea's National Intelligence Service estimated in May that Russia handed over at least $7.7bn in aid and economic value over three years, and possibly as much as $14bn. [35] North Korea's national output in 2024 was $26.6bn. [35] On Tuesday the two countries opened their first road bridge across the Tumen River. [35]

    Why it matters — Part of the money goes to a scheme to build industrial facilities in 20 regional cities a year for ten years, though observers say most of the new civil projects favour Pyongyang's elite. [35] Sanctions did not stop the trade; they changed what was traded.

23. 24

    Japan wants its abductees raised with North Korea

    Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, said on Thursday that a summit is being planned between Japan and North Korea. [36] He said Japan aims to raise firmly the case of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents decades ago. [36] Kihara was speaking at his regular press conference in Tokyo, and gave no date for the meeting. [36] North Korea admitted in 2002 to seizing Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, and the fate of those still unaccounted for has blocked normal relations ever since. [36]

    Why it matters — The two countries have no normal relations, and the abductions are why. North Korea comes to any such meeting richer than it has been in years, having taken billions from Russia for sending troops to Ukraine. [35]

24. 25

    BRICS leaders gather in New Delhi

    Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is due in New Delhi on Friday morning for the 18th BRICS summit, held over the weekend at Bharat Mandapam. [37] He is expected to meet India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, within hours to discuss defence. [37] China's Xi Jinping, Egypt's Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed and Indonesia's Prabowo Subianto are also expected, along with the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres. [37] India hosts on 12 and 13 September. [38]

    Why it matters — Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is due to attend, making the war that began in February when Israel and the United States attacked Iran one of the summit's main subjects. [37] The meeting sits against a global squeeze on energy and food supply chains caused by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. [37]

25. 26

    Myanmar's coup leader tours the neighbourhood

    Min Aung Hlaing, who led Myanmar's 2021 coup and became president in April, finished a three-day state visit to Vietnam on Sunday, where the two countries promised closer defence and security ties. [39] It was his sixth foreign trip in five months, after India, China, Laos, Thailand and Russia, and he goes to Cambodia on Friday. [39] He was voted in by a parliament filled with loyalists after military-run elections widely seen as a sham. [39]

    Why it matters — Hunter Marston of the Lowy Institute says the trips show an acceleration in Myanmar's push to normalise relations one country at a time. [39] Recognition from other governments is the one thing a parliament of loyalists cannot vote him. [39]

26. 27

    Vietnam and Russia deepen energy ties

    Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and Vietnam's leader, To Lam, agreed in Moscow this week to work more closely on energy, including nuclear power and oil and gas, according to the Vietnam News Agency. [40] It was the first state visit by a Vietnamese leader to Russia since 1991, and the two sides also discussed defence and trade. [40] They shook hands on it at the Kremlin on 9 September. [40]

    Why it matters — A nuclear power station is a commitment measured in decades, not a single purchase, and it ties the buyer to whoever builds and fuels it. A country that sends Russia no soldiers can still be part of what keeps its economy moving.

27. 28

    Thousands protest as Israel opens a Slovenian embassy

    Thousands of people marched in Ljubljana on Wednesday against the opening of Israel's first embassy in Slovenia, carrying banners reading that genocide is not self-defence. [41] Slovenia's nationalist prime minister, Janez Jansa, who took office in July, has reversed the policy of his predecessor Robert Golob, whose government called Israel's war in Gaza a genocide. [41] A June poll for the newspaper Delo found 56% of Slovenians opposed closer ties with Israel and 14% in favour. [41]

    Why it matters — Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, invited Israel Einhorn to the ceremony; Einhorn is a suspect in the Qatargate and BibiLeaks affairs and faces an active arrest warrant. [42] Jansa took office in July and the embassy opened in September, which is how fast a country's foreign policy can turn when one government replaces another. [41]

28. 29

    Morocco refuses to be Spain's scapegoat

    Morocco's foreign ministry said on Thursday that no evidence establishes any Moroccan involvement in the mass crossing of more than 70,000 people into the Spanish city of Ceuta in July. [43] It asked why unaccompanied minors are being kept from families it has offered to take back. [43] Spain released reports on Wednesday showing its own intelligence and security agencies had warned both Spain and Moroccan counterparts that a mass crossing was possible. [43]

    Why it matters — More than 100 people died in the crossing, and thousands including children are still in Ceuta in makeshift camps. [43] Spain's opposition has made the Spanish government's relationship with Morocco an election issue, with national elections due by mid-2027. [43]

29. 30

    Hefei booms and its shopkeepers do not

    Hefei, the flagship city of China's high-tech industrial push, turns out electric vehicles, display panels and semiconductors, and has become one of the country's fastest-growing cities. [44] Its city-centre shops are close to empty. [44] Sarah Meng, who runs a jewellery store there, expects sales to fall 10 to 20% this year. [44] The city's model is heavy state investment in national champions, and the chipmaker CXMT's stock market listing has just handed it a large windfall. [44]

    Why it matters — Incomes and spending have not kept pace with the factories, which pushes Chinese firms to sell abroad instead. [44] That is where a domestic problem turns into a trade dispute with everyone else. [44]

30. 31

    Clean hydrogen investment passes $130bn

    Committed global investment in clean hydrogen projects has topped $130bn across more than 570 projects, the Hydrogen Council said on Thursday in a report released alongside a ministerial meeting in Tokyo. [45] About 90% of those projects are being built or already running, supporting roughly 6.9 million tonnes a year of production. [45] China holds more than half the world's committed renewable hydrogen capacity. [45]

    Why it matters — Governments are now buying hydrogen for energy security rather than only to cut emissions. [45] Oil went past $100 this week, which is what turns an energy plan into a security question. [2] Developers have still been scrapping projects, because steelmaking and long-distance transport find the fuel too expensive. [45]

31. 32

    A Gaza documentary gets a 25-minute ovation

    NAZA, a documentary by the Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, received a record 25-minute ovation at its premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. [46] The title is the Hebrew acronym for collateral damage. [46] The film interviews 24 Israeli soldiers, mostly intelligence officers, about what the filmmakers call the premeditated and calculated mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. [46] Israel says it tried to avoid killing civilians. [46]

    Why it matters — The film is built on reporting in +972 Magazine, Local Call and the Guardian, some of which Israel's military has challenged. [46] Shouts of both Free Palestine and Free Israel came from the crowd on the red carpet. [46]

32. 33

    Israel's new envoy starts work in Turkey

    Joel Lion presented his credentials to Turkey's foreign ministry in Ankara on Wednesday and will serve as Israel's acting charge d'affaires, its top diplomat there. [47] He replaces Irit Lillian, ambassador from 2022, who left Turkey after October 2023 for security reasons and retired this summer. [47] Turkey recalled its own ambassador from Israel and Israel's embassy in Turkey remains closed. [47]

    Why it matters — The two countries were once close security partners, and relations collapsed over the Gaza war and Syria. [47] Lillian kept a working channel open from Israel for three years, and this is the first envoy to sit in Ankara since. [47]

33. 34

    Israel says it killed a Hamas commander

    Israeli security bodies confirmed on Thursday that they killed Farah Hamed in a strike on the Sheikh Ijlin neighbourhood of Gaza City the day before. [48] Hamas said Hamed was a commander in its military wing and a member of its West Bank military council. [48] Israel says he took part in fighting in Gaza during the recent war and helped recruit and direct attacks in the West Bank, and holds him responsible for a 2003 shooting. [48]

    Why it matters — Israel is still conducting targeted strikes in Gaza City almost a year after the ceasefire. [48][19] The naming of a 2003 attack shows how far back the list of people being hunted reaches. [48]

34. 35

    An Israeli firm's software tracks protesters

    An investigation into the Israeli company CyberGlobes found its software uses social media data to track and map protesters, government critics, political activists and LGBTQ people, and that it has been sold to authoritarian governments. [49] The reporting starts with Nigeria in the summer of 2024, where security forces fired on cost-of-living protesters; Amnesty International later found at least 24 civilians killed and more than 1,200 arrested. [49] CyberGlobes says the report is distorted and misleading and that it operates lawfully. [49]

    Why it matters — Software that sorts people by what they post does not care which group it is sorting. Dozens of those arrested in Nigeria were held for months and then tried in Abuja on charges including treason. [49]

35. 36

    Israel to shut the Kerem Shalom crossing

    Israel will close the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Sunday for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, its military liaison body announced on Thursday. [51] Aid already inside will still be collected from the Gazan side that day. [51] After Sunday the crossing will keep running at what the body calls a stable volume, with hundreds of aid lorries entering daily. [51]

    Why it matters — Hundreds of aid lorries a day pass through Kerem Shalom, into a territory where more than 1,300 people have been killed since the October 2025 ceasefire. [51][19] A one-day closure is a small thing anywhere else and is not small there.