September 12, 2026 · Updated 5:10 pm UTC

Houthis take full control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Putin warns Europe against sending troops to Ukraine

Americas

The United States marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks

The National September 11 Memorial in New York held its 25th-anniversary ceremony Friday, with family members reading the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks and seven moments of silence marking the times each tower was struck and fell, the strike on the Pentagon, and the crash of Flight 93. Additional commemorations followed across the city, including an FDNY ceremony for fallen firefighters and a memorial concert by the New York Philharmonic.

Sources: National September 11 Memorial & Museum, NYC.gov (FDNY)

Chile holds no official ceremony for the 1973 coup anniversary for the first time since democracy returned

For the first time since Chile's return to democracy in 1990, the government held no official commemoration of the September 11, 1973 coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power — President José Antonio Kast, who took office in March, spent the day on a working visit to Valdivia instead of addressing the nation from La Moneda. Former President Gabriel Boric visited Salvador Allende's mausoleum in his place, and demonstrators marched through Santiago to the Plaza de la Constitución; Kast defended the decision by saying he couldn't "ask our fellow citizens to be condemned by our history."

Sources: LatinAmerican Post, Local10.com

Argentina's Milei suspends a London trip as the Falklands dispute with Britain escalates

President Javier Milei called off an October trip to Oxford and London for business meetings, presidency sources confirmed — the first concrete diplomatic cost of Argentina's escalating standoff with Britain over the Falkland Islands, after Buenos Aires brought criminal charges against British-linked oil executives operating near the islands. The rupture is a sharp reversal for Milei, who once praised Margaret Thatcher, and comes as Britain has publicly rebuffed Argentina's renewed sovereignty claim.

Sources: The Spokesman-Review (AP), Rio Times

Europe

Russian strike on a crowded Ukrainian shopping center kills at least five

A Russian strike hit the "Gulliver" shopping center in Pavlohrad, in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, during business hours Thursday, killing at least five people and injuring more than 60, including children, officials said. Reuters later reported the toll from the broader wave of overnight strikes on the area had risen to seven; the attack was part of a wider barrage of drones, artillery, and aerial bombs across Ukraine that also struck a residential building in Kyiv.

Sources: Kyiv Independent, Yahoo News (AP)

Putin warns Europe that sending troops to Ukraine "means war" with Russia

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said any formal deployment of European troops to Ukraine would amount to direct war between Russia and Europe, while saying Moscow has no ambition for a wider regional war. The warning came the same day a Russian drone strike destroyed a home in Zaporizhzhia and killed a woman, part of an intensifying air campaign against Ukraine's power grid ahead of winter that has killed at least five people since Thursday.

Sources: Washington Times (AP), Sunday Guardian

Middle East

Houthi forces complete their takeover of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

Houthi fighters reached Mayyun (Perim) Island in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday after Yemeni government forces withdrew, giving the Iran-aligned group control of both shipping lanes through one of the world's busiest oil chokepoints — the culmination of a rapid advance that also captured the port city of Mocha this week. An adviser to Iran's supreme leader publicly congratulated the Houthis on the "victory," while Saudi Arabia's crown prince is pressing President Trump to take military action against them; Yemeni and regional sources say Iran's Revolutionary Guards have deployed advisers to support the offensive.

Sources: NPR (Reuters), Euronews

Saudi Arabia shuts a major oil pipeline after a drone attack it says was launched from Iraq

Saudi Arabia's foreign and energy ministries said several drones launched from Iraq struck its 1,201-kilometer East-West Pipeline, causing injuries and forcing a precautionary shutdown of the line, which carries crude to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Riyadh said it would hold off retaliating at Baghdad's request; Iraq's government condemned the attack and said its prime minister had ordered an investigation into the militia responsible.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Arab News

Israel says it has destroyed Hezbollah's underground tunnel complex in southern Lebanon

Israel's military said it used more than 1,100 tonnes of explosives to demolish a Hezbollah tunnel network stretching over two kilometers beneath the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatieh, an operation large enough that the U.S. Geological Survey recorded the blast as a magnitude 4.1 tremor. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the operation completed Israeli control over its self-declared security zone in south Lebanon, and that troops would stay until Hezbollah disarms.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya

Africa

Fire kills at least 26 students at two schools in eastern Congo

A fire that started at a house spread into two adjoining schools in the rebel-held city of Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 26 students — 19 girls and seven boys — and injuring dozens more, provincial officials said. A local administrator told The Associated Press the blaze broke out around 8 a.m. in a densely built neighborhood of wooden housing; some students died in a stampede while fleeing, others from smoke inhalation, and officials said the toll could still rise.

Sources: Washington Times (AP), Gulf News

Asia

Nepal's flood death toll passes 1,100, with nearly 4,000 still missing three weeks on

The confirmed death toll from the August 26 flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border climbed to at least 1,114 as of Wednesday, up from 1,003 the day before, Nepali officials said, while the government's missing count stood at 3,916. The floods followed a glacier collapse above the Trishuli River; China separately reported 16 dead and about 546 missing in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and more than 21,000 Nepali security personnel remain deployed on search and rescue.

Sources: ABC News, Al Jazeera

BRICS leaders adopt the New Delhi Declaration, papering over splits on the Middle East war

Leaders of the 11-member BRICS bloc, meeting in New Delhi with Chinese President Xi Jinping on his first India visit in seven years, unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration after diplomats worked to bridge sharp disagreements between Iran and the United Arab Emirates over the Middle East war. The compromise text condemns unilateral warfare without naming any country, and covers food and energy security, trade, and reform of multilateral finance institutions under India's 2026 chairship.

Sources: Prime Minister of India (official), Business Today