World, in brief

The military chiefs of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met in Riyadh on Friday and agreed to share more intelligence, coordinate their forces and work on combining their capabilities, the Saudi and Pakistani militaries said. [2]

It was the first meeting of the three under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed on 7 August, which says an armed attack on one of them counts as an attack on all three. [4][3]

France confirmed the same day that it is sending soldiers, radars and air-defence systems to guard Yanbu, the Red Sea port where Saudi Arabia stores and refines oil. [1] President Emmanuel Macron said the troops are there to protect the site, not to join any conflict. [1]

Hours after the generals met, the Saudi-led coalition said it shot down two ballistic missiles and two drones fired from Yemen; the drones were aimed at Riyadh. [5][6]

The Houthis, the Iran-backed group that controls much of northern Yemen, said on Thursday they had fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets, including Aramco's plant at Yanbu. [3][6] Saudi air defences said they intercepted six ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu. [3]

Saudi Arabia had been using the East-West pipeline to Yanbu, which can carry up to seven million barrels a day, to export oil around the closed Strait of Hormuz. The Houthi strikes have forced some exports back through Hormuz. [1]

Pakistan and Turkey have not said they will send troops. Pakistan's foreign minister described the New York meeting that set up Friday's talks as a review of the pact's committees, and Turkey's state media called it technical negotiations. [3]

A member of the Houthis' political bureau, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, warned that Pakistan and Turkey would be met with an iron fist if they entered the war. [3]

A retired Pakistani brigadier told Al Jazeera that Pakistan's army is stretched by its border war with Afghanistan, tensions with India and attacks at home, and that Turkey has NATO duties and an unsettled Syrian border. [3]

Saudi Arabia's grand mufti called on soldiers to be ready to give their lives against the Houthis, and King Salman said the group had tried to strike Mecca. [1][3]

The pact's permanent secretariat will sit in Riyadh, and Pakistan named a retired general, Nauman Mahmood, as its first secretary general on Wednesday. [4]

Brent crude briefly topped $108 a barrel on Thursday and eased to $105.77 on Friday morning. [1]

Why it matters. The next test is whether the pact is formally triggered and what Pakistan and Turkey actually send, a radar crew or a brigade, after a meeting whose statements named only intelligence sharing and coordination.

Trump has rejected Iran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and halt fighting across the region within seven days, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed US officials. [9] He told aides he expects to resume bombing after the US election on 3 November, the paper said; Reuters could not confirm it. [9][6] Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said at the UN on Friday that the choice now rests with the US. [6][56] Under the plan, fighting would stop on all fronts, the US would lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen funds and waive oil sanctions, and the strait would reopen on the seventh day. [13][10] It closely resembles the June memorandum that fell apart within weeks. [10][11]

Why it matters. About a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passed through the strait before the war, so a rejection keeps oil above $100 a barrel in every country that imports it. [12][1]

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz stays closed until all of Iran's conditions are met, and that Iran will make no nuclear concessions even if the US accepts its plan. [13] That includes enriching uranium and keeping its highly enriched stock at home, which the US wants shipped out. [13] The UN nuclear agency estimates Iran held 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to 60% when its sites were struck in June 2025. [13] An official in Trump's administration told Reuters that Trump holds all the cards and would rather let Iran's economy collapse than be played. [14] President Masoud Pezeshkian told Fox News that Iran does not want a bomb. [15]

Why it matters. The US wants the nuclear question settled in the same deal as the strait, and Iran wants the strait settled first, so the two plans do not fit together. [11]

France is working on a draft Security Council resolution backing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, a UN diplomat told AP on Friday. [8] It would recall the Law of the Sea and support peaceful efforts to secure safe passage, and Trump and Macron discussed it on the sidelines of the UN week, as did Arab governments and Iran. [8] Separately, Araqchi briefed Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on an understanding between Iran and Oman, which holds the other shore of the strait, about safe shipping routes. [6]

Why it matters. The same diplomat said the disruption of the strait has become a political problem for Trump and his party before November's vote. [8]

Calls and internet on Ethio Telecom, Ethiopia's state-owned network, stopped across Tigray late on Thursday, and Reuters and AFP could not reach people there by phone on Friday. [16][19] NetBlocks, which tracks outages, confirmed the shutdown; the much smaller private network Safaricom still works in some places. [17][16] Residents of Mekelle, the regional capital, said the cut also blocked mobile money, in a region where people have had almost no cash from banks for eight months. [16][17] Each side blames the other; a note shared with diplomats this month said the TPLF had removed Ethio Telecom transformers in several towns. [16]

Why it matters. During the 2020-22 war the same blackout, with a blockade of food, cash and medicine, pushed hundreds of thousands of people towards famine, and about 600,000 people died. [16][21]

There was heavy fighting overnight into Friday around Abala, a town in Afar region on the Tigray border, and federal forces used a drone to stop Tigrayan fighters entering it, a humanitarian source told AFP. [19] Clashes on Thursday reached North Wollo in Amhara, around Lalibela, whose rock-cut churches are a UNESCO World Heritage site; flights to Lalibela were suspended. [19][16] Analysts say the TPLF is repeating its plan from the last war: push south through Amhara towards Addis Ababa and cut the route from Djibouti, which carries almost all of Ethiopia's trade and fuel. [19] Ethiopia's army has about 500,000 soldiers, many drones and support from the UAE. [19]

Why it matters. If the road from Djibouti is cut, almost all of Ethiopia's imports and fuel stop with it, which is why the fighting in Afar matters more than the airports. [19]

The US embassy said this week it was disappointed to see the TPLF launch a large-scale offensive. [19] The war returned a week after the US let its Ethiopia-related sanctions lapse on 18 September, saying the national emergency had expired, and removed Eritrean officials and firms from its sanctions list. [22][20] Analysts told DW that the US needs Eritrea, whose coast faces Yemen across the Bab al-Mandeb strait, in the fight against the Houthis. [22] Ethiopia's government accuses Eritrea of funding the TPLF and its allies, which Eritrea denies; Eritrean troops fought beside the federal army in the last war. [20][22]

Why it matters. Eritrea helped Ethiopia's army in 2020-22 and is now accused of helping the rebels, so the neighbour most able to widen this war has just had its US sanctions lifted. [22][20]

The Alliance for Survival, announced on 20 September, joins the TPLF with Amhara's Fano militia, the Oromo Liberation Army and four smaller movements, and aims to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. [23] Fano fought beside the federal army against Tigray in the last war and took western Tigray, which the TPLF still wants back; Ethiopia's government says a referendum must decide it. [18][21] The groups' coordination meetings were held with Eritrean and Sudanese security officers present, an Al Jazeera opinion piece says. [23] Ethiopia's new parliament, elected without any vote in Tigray, opens on 5 October. [23]

Why it matters. The alliance agrees on one thing, removing Abiy, and its two biggest members still disagree over the land they fought each other for four years ago. [21][23]

Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, called on Friday for a general mobilisation and promised a pardon to any Houthi fighter who defects. [7] It was his first speech since government forces were driven off the western Red Sea coast by the Houthis this month. [7] He said the aim is to retake Sanaa, the capital the Houthis have held since 2014. [7] Yemen's vice president told the UN that the Houthis are using shipping security as a tool of blackmail. [1]

Why it matters. The Houthis now hold most of the coast facing the Bab al-Mandeb strait, which normally carries about 12% of global oil trade, and Yemen's government has just lost the coast it would need to fight from. [1][7]

Russia's Novoshakhtinsk refinery, which makes fuel mainly for export and can process about 100,000 barrels a day, suspended operations on Friday after a drone attack, the regional governor said. [24] The same day the Perm refinery, 1,460 km north-east of Moscow and owned by Lukoil, halted after an attack; it processed about 252,000 barrels a day in 2024 and had already been hit on 21 August. [25] Ukraine recently struck two major refineries in Moscow and Yaroslavl. [24] Zelensky has warned that if there is no truce on energy targets before winter, Ukraine will make the winter painful for Russia. [24]

Why it matters. Each refinery that stops cuts the fuel exports that pay for Russia's war, and adds to a world oil market already above $100 a barrel. [24][1]

A Russian jet-drone strike on an apartment block in Kyiv's Pecherskyi district at about 8am on Friday killed five people, among them Daniel Umansky, 14, who also held Israeli citizenship, and injured at least 20. [27][28] Zelensky said Russia has widened its attacks to data centres and internet providers; about 100,000 households in and around Kyiv lost internet on Wednesday, and a Datagroup centre was hit on Friday. [26] Russia's defence ministry said the site served Ukrainian military intelligence. [26] In Lutsk, bus-stop information boards went dark because of the Kyiv strike. [26]

Why it matters. Ukraine's air-raid alerts travel over these networks, so a strike on a data centre is also a strike on the warning that gets people into shelters. [26]

Zelensky said on Friday he had asked Trump to press China's leader, Xi Jinping, to use his influence on Russia to end the war, and that he was waiting to hear what came of Trump's talks with Xi. [29] He said the US wants technical talks between US, Ukrainian and Russian officials, probably in the UAE, and that Trump confirmed Ukraine will get licences to build Patriot air-defence systems. [29] Trump signed a strong Russia sanctions bill last week but has not put the measures into effect. [29] Rubio said both sides had voiced interest in a limited ceasefire on grain and energy targets; Russia's foreign minister showed no sign of engaging. [30]

Why it matters. Patriots have been short since the Iran war began on 28 February, and they are what stops Russia's ballistic missiles. [29]

Poland's prosecutors opened an investigation on Friday into the arson at a Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska on Wednesday, saying there is reasonable suspicion that the attackers acted on the orders of Russian special services. [26] The station carries internet traffic through Poland to Ukraine and other countries. [26] Germany blamed Russia this month for an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle airport, and France has ordered a plan to protect key sites. [26]

Why it matters. A prosecutor's file that names Russia's services turns a fire into a criminal case, and that is the step Poland took on Friday. [26]

Russia produced around 5,500 drones a month in March, by one Washington think-tank estimate, and Ukrainian intelligence put August output at about 3,000 Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones plus 2,800 Geran-2 a month, Euronews reported on Friday. [31] Most are built at the Alabuga zone in Tatarstan, 1,200 km from the border, where Ukrainian strikes have pushed much of the work underground. [31] A drone costs 25,000 to 40,000 euros; an interceptor missile can cost a million dollars. [31] The CIA has warned that Russia could launch drones at Spain, France or Italy from container ships in the Mediterranean. [31]

Why it matters. A defender that spends a million dollars to stop a 30,000-euro drone runs out of money before the attacker runs out of drones. [31]

Afghanistan's Taliban government denied sending the eight small drones that Pakistan says flew in from Afghan territory on Thursday, four of them near Kohat, and said the seven Afghans killed in Pakistan's strikes this week were all civilians. [32][33] Pakistan struck ten sites it said were used to launch and store the drones. [33] The two were allies when the Taliban took power in 2021; Pakistan now accuses Kabul of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, whose attacks killed at least 30 people in north-west Pakistan last week. [32] Talks in Belarus this summer failed because Kabul would not force the militants to stop. [33]

Why it matters. A ceasefire brokered by China in March held for nearly three months, and this is what ended it. [32][33]

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, postponed its march from Peshawar to Islamabad from 27 September to 4 October, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Friday. [34] Punjab has banned gatherings for 13 days, Islamabad for two months, and Pakistan's federal government has deployed paramilitary Rangers until 5 October. [34] All three of Khan's sisters have been detained, and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the mass pre-emptive arrests of party workers. [34] The information minister called the party the Pakistani Taliban's B-team. [34]

Why it matters. Punjab also asked for mobile internet to be cut in Rawalpindi and Attock on the march day, which lands on everyone in those districts, not only the marchers. [34]

The US Supreme Court on Friday refused to let Missouri use a new congressional map backed by Trump for November's elections, leaving in place a state ruling that voters must approve the map in a referendum first. [35] Republicans had hoped the map would win them one more seat in the House. [35] The same day the court let states use a federal database to check voters' citizenship, a temporary win for Trump; Nevada's officials said 185 people the database flagged as non-citizens were all citizens. [35] A judge also struck down Trump's ban on three news outlets from the presidential complex this week. [35]

Why it matters. Absentee voting for the midterms has already begun, so a map decided this week decides the districts people are voting in now. [35]

The Trump administration said on Friday it will withhold $800 million that Congress had approved, for programmes including refugee assistance, minority business development and overseas conservation, using a rarely used method called a pocket rescission that bypasses Congress. [36] Senator Susan Collins, the Republican who chairs the US Senate's spending committee, called it illegal. [36] The US constitution gives Congress the power over spending. [36] The US Supreme Court last year declined to stop Trump using the same tactic on $4.9 billion of foreign aid. [36]

Why it matters. The last time this method was used the money was foreign aid; this time some of it was for refugees inside the US. [36]

Xi Jinping ended his three-day state visit to the US on Friday by saying he will meet Trump twice more before the end of the year. [35] Critics in the US called the visit heavy on ceremony and light on substance. [35] Zelensky said he was still waiting to learn what Trump and Xi said about Ukraine; NATO countries call China the decisive enabler of Russia's invasion. [29] Xi skipped the UN General Assembly for the visit and sent Vice President Han Zheng, who speaks there on Saturday. [51]

Why it matters. Nothing concrete was announced, and the promise of two more meetings is what the visit produced. [35]

The number of people crossing from Sudan into Chad has risen twenty-fold, the UN refugee agency said on Friday, as they flee aerial bombing and drone attacks in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile. [37] Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been at war for more than three years. [37] The agency said its funding is failing to keep up after the Trump administration and other donors cut billions in aid, and that many refugees who cannot meet basic needs in Chad move on towards Europe. [37]

Why it matters. The UN calls Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis, and its army chief was kept away from the UN this week by a withheld US visa. [30]

The UN human rights office on Friday added 61 companies to its database of firms operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which the UN considers illegal, bringing the total to 214. [38] New names include ADAMA, an Israeli pesticide maker owned by China's Syngenta, the property firm Alony Hetz and Spain's Salvat Logistica; Airbnb and Expedia were already listed. [38] About 60 other firms were assessed and left off. [39] Israel's mission in Geneva called the database a distorted mechanism built to persecute Israel. [38] Britain, France and Canada blocked settlement imports this month. [38]

Why it matters. A listing can be used for boycotts and divestment, so the database is where a UN opinion becomes a cost for a company. [38]

Abbas Kamel, then head of Egyptian intelligence, flew to Israel on 26 September 2023 to warn that Hamas was preparing an attack, The Atlantic reported, citing Israeli, Egyptian, Arab, US and European officials. [40] His plane stayed 67 minutes at Ben Gurion airport, and it is unclear whom he met. [40] He recommended economic concessions to Hamas and warned that Gaza would blow up in Israel's face, a former Israeli official said. [40] Israel's national security adviser at the time, Tzachi Hanegbi, denied any visit or warning; Netanyahu has called earlier reports of a Kamel warning fake news. [40]

Why it matters. It adds a third warning to the record before 7 October, after the UAE president's call and the message carried by the go-between Sufian Abu Zaida. [40][43]

Six days before the Hamas attack, at a security meeting on 1 October 2023, Netanyahu said Israel's goal should be to keep Gaza calm, the New York Times reported, citing the minutes. [41][42] He did not want to derail a normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia. [41] He pushed back on officials who wanted strikes on Hamas leaders. [41] He did not tell the meeting that the UAE's president had personally warned him days earlier of a possible Hamas attack, a call Netanyahu denies and several outlets have confirmed. [41] Sufian Abu Zaida, the Palestinian go-between, said this week he relayed Sinwar's warning of a coming earthquake 22 days before the attack. [44][43]

Why it matters. Hamas documents captured in the war showed the attack was partly meant to stop the Saudi deal that Netanyahu was protecting. [41]

The Israeli military has halted proactive arrests of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students accused of evading the draft in their own neighbourhoods, several police sources told Haaretz. [45] The arrest operations, and the protests against them, stopped last month; the army cited operational needs. [45] The High Court noted that fewer than 10% of those arrested for draft evasion in the first half of 2026 were ultra-Orthodox. [45]

Why it matters. Fewer than one in ten of those arrested were the students the operations were named for, and that is the number the court pointed at. [45]