NEWS

The family of Nicholas Brandram have insisted he was not the so-called “Putney pusher” and have blamed the Metropolitan Police for his death.

The 44-year-old was under suspicion of being the jogger who pushed a woman into the path of a bus during a run on Putney Bridge in west London in 2017.

Brandram’s family said he “took his own life after months of immense pressure caused by a Metropolitan Police investigation” and there was no forensic evidence linking the banker to the incident.

The Met has been asked for comment.

In a statement, the family said there was “no evidence placing him on Putney Bridge at that time, and no credible evidence that he was the man shown in the footage”.

“In fact, the evidence proved the opposite.”

Brandram was arrested in June this year on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm. Last week, the Met confirmed he had been released under investigation.

The banker was found dead in his home on Tuesday evening. The force said his death was being treated as “unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious”.

For the last few weeks, Indonesia has been struggling to contain the land and forest fires on its territory. The disaster leads to a cross-border haze crisis affecting neighboring countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and the Philippines. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s approaches to the environmental issue arouse uncertainties about his commitment toward ASEAN cooperation and good relations with surrounding states. Prabowo’s inaction on Malaysia’s and Brunei’s plan to take the matter to the ASEAN meeting is also questionable, considering his image as a “foreign policy president.”

Recurring regional environmental crisis

The transboundary smoke caused by peatland fires mostly originates from Indonesia, specifically the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The slash-and-burn method used to clear land is a main factor contributing to the widespread fires, with El Niño season worsening the situation. To mitigate seasonal disasters, the Indonesian government has attempted to strengthen domestic regulations, yet the problem persists. The haze is not simply an environmental issue, as it has a cross-boundary impact in various aspects of Southeast Asia. Wildlife is at risk, schools are forced to move online, people are experiencing respiratory issues, and other public activities are severely disturbed.

ASEAN member states have understood that this problem should be solved regionally for quite a long time. They have maintained coordination under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP), which was fully ratified by all members in 2015, with Indonesia ironically being the last to ratify. However, the agreement lacks strong implementation, as the willingness of the party to act is a significant part of the treaty. This may reflect the ASEAN Way’s value of highly respecting the sovereignty of other member states.

Indonesia’s officials stated that they are committed to the AATHP. They emphasize their own actions of reporting daily updates to the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control (ACC THPC). They also openly accept assistance from foreign countries to put out the fires. Nevertheless, President Prabowo’s reaction to seeing this issue as a regional problem is nowhere to be found. He indeed made some meaningful gestures in response to the forest fires, yet he mostly saw it from a purely domestic lens. For instance, Prabowo visited several hotspots in Riau, Sumatera, and provinces in Borneo. At a recent high-level government meeting, he also instructed the chief of the Indonesian police to enforce the laws against perpetrators of forest fires, including several corporations, and to conduct further investigations.

Is Prabowo really committed to ASEAN?

As the impact of the smoke has reached neighboring countries, an official statement or public apology from Prabowo is urgently needed. This political gesture will reassure ASEAN citizens that Indonesia is responsible for this matter and willing to cooperate with other member states. For instance, during the 2015 and 2019 Southeast Asian haze disasters, President Joko Widodo showed that he publicly regretted that the fires affected Malaysia and Singapore, and he even felt embarrassed as Indonesia was the primary source of the smoke.

Furthermore, making a formal apology is not always a sign of weakness, as it demonstrates a deep respect for the other party. Prabowo himself apologized to Vladimir Putin for not being present at the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit, which he openly stated during a visit a few days ago. He may also do the same to ASEAN leaders to calm relations amid the crisis.

Despite reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia and relevant institutions are actively communicating with other ASEAN states, a clear statement from Prabowo is still required.

A lack of response on regional coordination may leave observers wondering, as Prabowo is known as a foreign policy president and a “de facto foreign minister.” Since the first day of his administration, he actively engaged with global leaders through overseas trips. As of June 2026, Prabowo has visited 29 countries and engaged in over 50 international engagements. This number reflects his strong interest in connecting with foreign counterparts. He also reached out to various powers and blocs, including participation at the Board of Peace (BoP) and a recent official trip to Russia.

However, Prabowo seems to ignore the reality of the current regional crisis caused by fires originating in his country. He remained silent on Brunei and Malaysia’s intention to discuss the issue at the ASEAN level. Even when the foreign public went into uproar through demonstrations at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and heavy criticism on social media. His choice to focus more on the domestic side of the environmental crisis raises questions about his priority to work with ASEAN.

In the long run, Prabowo’s lack of enthusiasm for ASEAN collaboration will damage Indonesia’s long-standing image in the region and challenge the basis of the country’s foreign policy. Since 1967, Indonesia has always been taking a dominant role in the organization. No wonder the country is associated with the terms “ASEAN de facto leader” and “natural leader.” Indonesia, along with other member states, helps ASEAN to grow as one of the leading regional organizations, and conversely, the bloc strengthens Jakarta’s bebas aktif foreign policy principle. ASEAN has become a platform for Southeast Asian small and middle powers to articulate their foreign policies when engaging with external actors in the middle of great-power competition.

Despite many criticisms of ASEAN’s consensus mechanism, Prabowo still needs to maintain the commitment toward the regional bloc. To date, ASEAN continues to be relevant for Indonesia, especially during the ongoing haze crisis, as stated in Law 38 of 2008 that ASEAN is a cornerstone of Jakarta’s foreign policy.

Basketball superstar Kyrie Irving has offered to pay a fine for American football player Azeez Al-Shaair, who was penalised for wearing the name of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Al-Shaair was handed a fine of $11,941 by the National Football League (NFL) on Wednesday as he was found to be in breach of the NFL’s rules on players’ equipment and clothing during his team Houston Texans’ game against the Buffalo Bills last weekend.

Shortly after the fine was announced by an NFL reporter on X, the pro-Palestine basketball player responded to the tweet by saying he would “take care” of it.

Al-Shaair, 29, is a linebacker for the Houston-based NFL team and a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights.

During his team’s last NFL game, Al-Shaair wrote Rajab’s name on his eye black, a sticker or paint frequently used by NFL players to reduce glare.

Five-year-old Rajab was killed in Gaza after Israeli soldiers opened fire on her family’s stranded car. A phone call by the Palestinian Red Crescent documented her final moments and was the subject of an Oscar-nominated docudrama.

Al-Shaair, a Black American Muslim player, has frequently spoken about the plight of Palestinians and has paid the price for it.

He was also fined in January, during the NFL’s last season, when he displayed the message “Stop The Genocide” on his nose tape. While it did not specifically refer to a particular conflict, it was widely understood to be about Gaza and Sudan.

NFL criticised for ‘inhumane’ fine on Al-Shaair

The NFL’s fine on Al-Shaair comes at a time when Robert Kraft, the owner of the Boston-based team New England Patriots, confirmed that he pressured pop star Ed Sheeran to drop rapper Macklemore from his tour of the United States.

The billionaire is the owner of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, one of the venues where Macklemore was due to appear on stage as the opening act for Sheeran’s US tour in late September.

Letting Macklemore perform in Gillette Stadium would, Kraft said, cross a line, as he described the rapper’s recent performances as including a “broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery”.

Kraft is known for launching a so-called “anti-Semitic campaign” during Israel’s genocide in Gaza in 2023, when players, coaches and executives from his Patriots team wore blue pins.

On October 15, 2023, the NFL observed a moment of silence for Israel during a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans in London, United Kingdom, while the league has sanctioned its player for raising awareness for Palestinians.

The NFL was criticised on social media for slapping a fine on Al-Shaair, with one user calling the move “inhumane”.

“He is advocating for the murder of this innocent child Hind Rajab in Palestine and they fine him?! Nah, that is so inhumane. You should be ashamed of yourself,” the user wrote.

Prominent American Muslim scholar Omar Suleiman questioned whether Al-Shaair would have faced a similar punishment if his tape carried the name of Holocaust victim Anne Frank instead.

“Why is honoring murdered Palestinian children ‘an unauthorized message’?” he asked in a post on X.

Meanwhile, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations backed Al-Shaair over his continued advocacy for Palestinians.

“We commend Al-Shaair for using his platform to highlight the memory of Hind Rajab, one of the many children murdered by the Israeli government during its genocide in Gaza,” the rights group said in a statement on its website.

“The NFL has no problem with coaches wearing pins developed for genocide supporter Robert Kraft’s “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign, and it should have no problem with an NFL player mentioning the name of a girl killed in that genocide,” the statement went on to add.

“Al-Shaair’s message was rooted in basic human decency and concern for innocent lives. That should not be controversial, much less subject to a fine.”

Irving’s pro-Palestine stance

Meanwhile, nine-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Irving has previously made his pro-Palestine stance on Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza clear.

In February, Irving wore a shirt reading “PRESS” at the NBA All-Star Game to honour journalists who had been killed in Gaza while covering the war.

According to reports, the tag on his shirt read: “Dedicated to our beloved journalists in Gaza showing the world the truth.”

In April, Irving changed his display picture on Instagram to an image of a Palestinian child blocked from attending school by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.

During a pre-game interview in 2024, he was seen wearing a chain with the Palestine flag in the shape of Israel’s landmass.

In 2023, the basketball player wore a keffiyeh, a cotton headdress with a distinctive checkered pattern worn in many parts of the Arab world that represents Palestinian identity, during a post-match news conference.

The head of Air Mobility Command (AMC) on Wednesday offered some new details about what went into repairing a KC-135 Stratotanker riddled with shrapnel holes from an Iranian attack. We have previously written about a couple of these jets damaged during Operation Epic Fury (OEF) as they came through RAF Mildenhall in the U.K. on their way back to the U.S. for comprehensive repair work. We are also getting new information of how AMC kept its fleet operating at such a prolonged high-tempo ahead of and during OEF.

The discussion about the damaged tanker took place during a panel at the Air & Space Forces’ Air, Space and Cyber Conference that TWZ is attending. The tanker in question was damaged as it was preparing for a mission, explained AMC commander Lt. Gen. Daniel H. Tulley.

“A KC-135 ops crew is in the jet,” he said. “KC-135 maintenance team is about to launch this jet. Unexpected Alarm Red [an attack warning]. Everyone jumps in a bunker.”

After the barrage, the airmen emerged from their bunkers and checked out the plane.

“That aircraft is smoking,” Tulley said. “There are holes in it, and it’s a fully loaded KC-135. Two hundred thousand pounds of jet fuel. Took 48 hours for that [fuel] to be drained out of that aircraft. In the meantime, first on the scene was I think the pro super [production superintendent] and the expediter. They immediately began to collect the fuel… They start to patch the holes. They start to fix all the systems. Long story short, they were eventually able to get that plane to make a transoceanic flight back home to be fully repaired.”

Tulley did not say where the attack took place. However, as we have previously reported, five tankers were reportedly damaged in an Iranian long-range strike on Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB) in Saudi Arabia on March 14. That was later confirmed in a Department of War Inspector General report released earlier this week.

You can see two of the shrapnel-damaged KC-135s as they passed through the UK on the way home in the following photographs shared with us by aviation photographer Andrew McKelvey. We do not know if either of these is the one discussed by Tulley.

Lt. Gen. Linda Hurry, Commander of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), followed Tulley’s comments with additional details about the repair work.

“I’ll pick right up on that because it was our aircraft battle damage repair team that was actually able to patch their aircraft back together to get it back to Tinker [Air Force Base in Oklahoma] that can put it completely back where it needed to be,” she noted. Tinker is home to the Expeditionary Depot Maintenance (EDMX), which is “responsible for maintaining the Air Force’s sole source for Aircraft Battle Damage Repair (ABDR) rapid repair capabilities for the entire tanker and bomber fleets,” according to the Air Force.

“So with Operation Epic Fury, we’re asking those questions: What can we sustain for how long? And it begs a question about regeneration,” Tulley further explained. “You know, our new teammates have regeneration as part of their doctrine, so readiness in contact is the way we’re approaching this. What can we do to improve how we generate capability while under fire, in contact, persistently in an extended or protracted conflict? Lots of great examples of work being done to get after this. General Hurry’s team has brought a lot of capability forward at Mildenhall Air Base.” 

One example of how this has worked has been repairing damaged aerial refueling booms in the U.K. instead of all the way back to the U.S., Tulley highlighted. The booms, which extend from the back of tankers so that receiving aircraft can get their gas, can be damaged by the process, especially during combat refueling.

“I think we turned 30 booms instead of bringing them all the way back to the states,” Tulley noted.

Repairing battle damage is certainly a unique situation for AMC airman, but keeping hundreds of the command’s tankers and cargo aircraft moving at such a high rate prior to and during the war was a huge undertaking that was helped by new maintenance concepts. The Air Force sent maintainers and parts to bases in Europe to drastically speed up major maintenance that would have demanded the aircraft return stateside.

“We moved some maintenance actions forward, so they didn’t have to – the aircraft didn’t have to go all the way back to the states,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach said during his keynote speech earlier this week. “We put some of them in Europe, so they could get through some normal safety inspections that were either due or deferred. Got those done, and the aircraft doesn’t have to go all the way back to the states. They can go somewhere in Europe, get the thing done, and then get right back to the flight. And so, those measures by Air Mobility Command paid dividends in the readiness of our mobility fleet.”

Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), which maintains the service’s fleet of strategic bombers and its ICBM force, did something similar at RAF Fairford in the U.K., AFGSC commander Gen. Stephen L. Davis explained.

“It’s a complex problem,” said Davis. “I would say in the past we probably didn’t do this the right way. When we thought a conflict was kicking off, the first thing we do is start sending bombers forward, and that actually consumes our readiness. So I think we got it right during OEF.”

“We pushed maintainers and support personnel forward to RAF Fairford, and then we actually took the bombers, we loaded them up in CONUS [Continental United States]. We took them to the Middle East. They actually did a mission. They employed, deployed, conducted a combat mission, and then landed at Fairford. And then for the next, well, I guess they’ve been there for now six-plus months.”

“They’ve been conducting nearly daily operations out of there,” Davis proffered. “When bombers are back at home base, they build readiness. When we deploy it forward, they consume readiness. And then, as [Gen. Hurry] said, we’re getting great support in terms of parts, in terms of supplies, and in terms of forward depot support. So that fleet remains healthy.”

Being able to do as much repair and maintenance work as close to the front lines as possible will be hugely important in any future fight against China, and, unfortunately, repairing battle damaged aircraft will be necessary too. Clearly, the Air Force has learned some very important lessons from Epic Fury.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

DUBAI: The US House of Representatives has gone into an early recess without voting on a Republican lawmaker’s bid to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the US’ war on Iran.

House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home on Wednesday, ending the chamber’s scheduled business a day early and delaying action on a resolution by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie that accuses Hegseth of conducting military operations against Iran without congressional authorization.

The move comes as President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the seven-month war on Iran was “hopefully” nearing its end and that Tehran wanted to reach a deal.

Trump is also expected to meet GCC leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, with discussions expected to include the conflict and its aftermath.

Massie, a Kentucky Republican and longtime critic of the administration’s Iran policy, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Tuesday. 

He accused the defense secretary of violating the War Powers Resolution by continuing hostilities against Iran without congressional authorization, as well as other alleged abuses of power related to US military operations.

Massie had sought to force a vote in the House within two legislative days. His resolution was therefore left pending after Johnson ended the House’s session early.

Massie condemned the decision, accusing Johnson of avoiding a debate over the US military campaign.

“I’m trying to stop a war,” Massie said from the House floor on Wednesday, while criticizing the speaker for sending lawmakers home.

Johnson defended the House’s record and dismissed Massie’s impeachment effort as a “stunt,” saying the chamber had completed its legislative work.

The early recess also comes after the House voted this week on a separate war powers measure concerning the Iran conflict, with several Republicans joining Democrats in backing efforts to rein in the administration’s military authority.

The House is now expected to return after the November midterm elections, leaving Massie’s impeachment resolution and other pending legislation unresolved.

– With AP

The ChatGPT creator says it is introducing a public reporting framework to share unexpected AI behaviour, admitting the industry has not solved safety challenges yet.

OpenAI says it has identified additional incidents of its AI models allegedly acting deceptively and taking unsanctioned actions during internal training and testing.

Alongside these disclosures on Wednesday, the creator of ChatGPT stated it was introducing a public reporting framework intended to frequently share instances of what it termed as unexpected or misaligned AI behaviour.

In a post on its website, OpenAI claimed that under the newly outlined framework, it will publish updates on concerning model behaviour on an ongoing basis rather than delaying disclosures to group multiple incidents into larger, periodic reports.

The company said the initiative aims to increase industry transparency around troubling model activities in the absence of standardised safety disclosure norms.

The announcement comes amid broader calls from prominent technology leaders urging a slowdown in frontier AI development over concerns that rapid scaling could outpace human oversight and control.

Last week, Anthropic claimed to have thwarted multiple malicious operations using its Claude models, ranging from cyber-espionage and weapons design to mass surveillance campaigns.

“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in an essay published on Saturday. “Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”

However, United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed back against calls to limit the industry, arguing that maintaining the US’s technological edge over international rivals remains paramount.

Responding to slowdown proposals, Trump described critics as “very negative forces” raising exaggerated scenarios that “won’t happen”.

Escalating debate on alignment

Despite political resistance to statutory slowdowns, OpenAI signalled agreement with its industry rival regarding alignment pressures.

“As AI systems grow more advanced and more widely deployed, we need to build a broader and better-informed consensus on the progress of alignment research,” the company stated in the post.

OpenAI added that it does not believe the AI industry has solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer, emphasising that decisions about future AI development need to draw on evidence that external observers can examine independently.

According to the company, safety teams observed what they categorised as “misaligned behaviour” across six specific circumstances over the past six months during training and evaluation runs.

However, OpenAI maintained that these reports document individual, rare instances rather than frequent operational failures across deployed products.

The reported incidents allegedly included unreleased research models concealing mistakes in task summaries, unauthorised file uploads to the internet to generate citation links, and agents sharing files across public servers or internal repositories to bypass local boundaries.

OpenAI further stated that its future reports will detail observed behaviours, severity, setting, discovery dates, and the specific models involved, adding that it remains committed to disclosing complex cases requiring longer investigation or third-party coordination.

Native authorities issue condolences after two adults and a child swept away by floodwaters in southwestern US state.

Indigenous authorities in the United States have said that three people have been killed in flooding in the southwestern state of New Mexico, where heavy rains left roadways blocked by water.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said on Wednesday that police had responded to reports of people being swept away by floodwater at 12:30am (06:30 GMT) near the community of Newcomb in northwestern New Mexico.

Nygren said that two adults and a child were killed in the incident and offered condolences to the community, while advising residents to exercise caution in areas impacted by rainfall.

“There are no words that can ease the pain of losing a loved one so suddenly, and our hearts are especially heavy knowing that three lives were lost,” Nygren said. “To the family, relatives, and loved ones who are grieving today, we offer our deepest condolences. We pray that you are surrounded by strength, comfort, and the love of your family and community in the difficult days ahead.”

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, issued a special briefing on Tuesday warning of the possibility of widespread thunderstorms in the coming days. The service repeated those warnings on Wednesday, noting that moisture levels are expected to be at record levels for mid-September.

“A Flash Flood Watch is in effect for the western third of New Mexico and the South Central Mountains today,” NWS Albuquerque said in a social media post on Wednesday. “However, flash flooding could occur anywhere in central and northern New Mexico today.”

Heavy rainfall is predicted across parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah through Thursday. Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of northwestern New Mexico, along with flash flood watches for large areas of central and northern Arizona.

The deaths on Wednesday come several weeks after three hikers were swept away and dozens were rescued after heavy rainfall caused flooding at the Grand Canyon, a popular destination for tourists and outdoor recreation in Arizona.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank know they shouldn’t ask what time their loved ones are going to make it home.

There’s simply no way to give an accurate answer. What used to be a short ride from one place to another could now take hours, or it might not happen at all.

Before driving, Palestinians check dedicated WhatsApp and Telegram groups and channels where people share updates on road conditions. But this isn’t typical traffic news: Instead, chats focus on which Israeli military checkpoints are open, which roads are off limits to Palestinians and whether Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians as they drive their vehicles.

Sometimes pins are sent to warn people driving near towns where Israeli forces are conducting raids.

And if there’s no time to check the groups, then there’s always Basma FM. The Palestinian radio station, based in Rawabi near Ramallah, carries three traffic updates per hour.

The channel started broadcasting on October 2, 2023 – just days before the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 and the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, and what has become a pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank.

“Our idea was to target young people. We wanted to offer entertainment and culture news. But five days later, we realised we couldn’t,” said Fatima Barqawi, Basma FM’s news and traffic director.

The team had originally planned traffic updates as part of their programming. “We thought we could tell parents picking up their children from school to know where there was traffic, but after the war on Gaza started, we had to shift focus,” Barqawi said.

Her department has seven employees who verify information with their sources and provide updates on roadblocks.

“Things change each second. We could say there’s a closed checkpoint and Israeli soldiers decide to reopen it. Or vice versa,” Barqawi explained.

Dangers on the roads

The issue for Palestinians driving through the West Bank isn’t simply being late for appointments or held up for hours – it’s that there is an inherent danger to travelling in the occupied territory.

Palestinians in the West Bank drive white-plated vehicles, making them easily identifiable compared to the yellow-plated cars driven by Israeli settlers.

Israeli soldiers have killed Palestinians near checkpoints after claiming they were conducting ramming attacks, and Israeli settlers often attack Palestinian cars or block them from using certain highways.

These attacks are increasing as illegal Israeli settlements grow at a record pace.

It is hard to miss the large infrastructure projects Israel is implementing, expanding highways to connect Israeli settlements to one another and to Israel. This ends up isolating Palestinian communities, often forcing Palestinians to use poorly paved roads or dangerous mountainous routes to avoid Israeli settlers and roadblocks.

It’s a journey of fear and anxiety, a young Palestinian woman who did not wish to be named told Al Jazeera. “I used to blast my music and drive, now I’m on high alert. Always on edge.”

The woman recounted how Israeli soldiers assaulted her fiancé near a checkpoint in Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, because they mistakenly thought he had passed without stopping. A year later, she said, a soldier pointed his rifle at her.

“He was shouting at me. The sun was blocking my view, and I was careful crossing the checkpoint but that wasn’t enough. I saw the green beam [from the gun] and thought that was the end,” she said.

Attacks at checkpoints

Many Palestinians report being assaulted, humiliated and sometimes arrested at these checkpoints and roadblocks.

Israel has long imposed movement restrictions on Palestinians, controlling the road system and Palestinians’ access to the wider world. But since the war on Gaza began, these restrictions have intensified.

As of December 2025, the United Nations documented 925 barriers across the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, a 43 percent increase over the 20-year annual average of 647, the UN’s humanitarian affairs agency, OCHA, reported.

Almost all of of the villages and cities in the West Bank have iron gates at their entrances, and Israeli forces close them arbitrarily. Some of the gates are only open during certain hours.

A new report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said the restrictions are used to deliberately fragment Palestinian life, with roadblocks and military checkpoints cutting off people from their work, schools, hospitals and one another.

The report, titled The Elimination Project, says there’s a broad rapid and systematic Israeli assault in the West Bank that aims to dismantle the foundations of Palestinian existence, and road closures are just one of them.

That is why, as Heba Erkat prepared her notes before heading into the studio for Basma FM’s Wednesday afternoon bulletin, she knew the information about to be read out could change rapidly.

Her colleague read the news, and then Erkat started listing updates at 61 checkpoints across the West Bank.

It was a relatively good day: only 12 of the checkpoints were either closed or had long queues.

But, as Erkat noted at the end of the segment, “the situation changes by the minute”.

The U.S. military’s top officer on Wednesday talked about how AI is changing the character of warfare and offered two examples to illustrate his points. His comments included new insights into how two U.S. Army AH-64 Apache crew members were rescued after being shot down by an Iranian drone near the coast of Oman in June. The recovery effort involved America’s first known use of an uncrewed surface vessel (USV) executing a personnel recovery action as part of a military search and rescue operation.

“Information moves so fast that leader decision times have compressed from weeks down to days down to seconds,” explained Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his keynote speech at the Air & Space Forces Air, Space and Cyber Conference that TWZ is attending. “In the future fight, advantage will go to the side who can see first, who can understand first, decide first, and act first, and along the way, be a learning organization, and no factor is accelerating change as fast as artificial intelligence and advancing cyber capabilities.”

“AI is here now, and it’s already changing the way militaries see, sense, decide, and act across the joint force,” the chairman proclaimed.

The first example Caine used to highlight these changes took place on June 8. After the Apache went down, “U.S. CENTCOM launched a rapid, responsive joint search and rescue effort to recover the crew. That response drew on the totality of the joint force, and ultimately was required to use enabled unmanned vessels to participate in the rescue of downed U.S. service members for the first time ever.”

As we noted in our previous coverage, CENTCOM deployed “a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel,” the command’s spokesman told us at the time.

The ability to pull off that rescue mission “did not appear overnight,” Caine pointed out. “It came from the men and women of Task Force 59, CENTCOM’s forward-leaning unmanned joint maritime unit who spent the last several years testing, integrating, and operationalizing unmanned systems and AI in one of the most demanding and kinetic environments on Earth right now.”

“What helped make this possible was not a bunch of general officers and flag officers,” Caine continued. “What made this possible was a bunch of entrepreneurial sailors and members of the joint force on watch floors, at piers, managing networks of unmanned systems across thousands of miles of water, and using AI to turn massive amounts of data into a crisp, clear, perfect maritime picture that allowed us to go grab those two soldiers in the water.”

The second example Caine shared about the use of AI “points in the other direction, not how quickly we are using these tools, but how quickly these tools are changing the threat.”

In Ukraine, “we see first-person view drones operating in heavily contested EMI [electromagnetic interference] environments. Some now using AI-enabled computer vision to continue to drive towards targets, even when there’s no GPS or the links are cut. That gives small units affordable precision and shows how quickly software and autonomy are changing what is possible at the tactical edge, and the results are stark.”

The use of AI to enable lower-end drone warfare is a topic TWZ has been among the first to point out.

“In certain locations on the front line of troops right now, the life expectancy of a new Russian recruit arriving on the front lines is as little as 20 to 30 minutes,” Caine added. “Think about that. This is what happens when low-cost precision is fielded fast, adapted quickly, and scaled across the battlefield.”

“The price of lethal exchange is decreasing day over day,” the chairman noted. “One wonders what the future of close air support looks like, but I am comforted by the fact that each and every one of you are in this room thinking about that. Taken together, these examples from the Straits of Hormuz to the front lines in Ukraine show how quickly technology is changing the character of war, and this means our joint force needs to do two things at one time.”

“[W]e need to prepare the joint force to win in this kind of conflict,” the general stated. “We have to assume from now on that our formations will be hunted by autonomous systems, jammed across the spectrum, and tracked in real time, and we have to transition the joint force to be prepared to fight and win our future war by generating and delivering lethality at scale with an agile, optimized, high-low mix of combat capabilities to give the young members of the 2.8-million member all volunteer joint force the tools that they need before they need them.”

Contact the author: howard@twz.com 

Caracas, September 16, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Former Venezuelan Industry Minister and government envoy Alex Saab pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and illicit financial transactions after reaching a plea deal with US prosecutors in a federal court in Miami.

Appearing before the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Saab changed his previous “not guilty” plea, entered on July 24, during a hearing before Judge Kathleen M. Williams. “Guilty, Your Honor,” the 54-year-old businessman stated during Tuesday’s session.

In his guilty plea, Saab admitted to participating, alongside “high-ranking officials” in the Nicolás Maduro government, in an “illegal scheme” involving bribes and illicit payments linked to the CLAP subsidized food program. The money allegedly obtained through the scheme was wired through accounts located in South Florida.

In the 12-page plea agreement, Saab named Socialist Party (PSUV) lawmaker José Gregorio Vielma Mora, who was governor of Táchira state at the time, as an alleged accomplice, alongside Colombian nationals Álvaro Pulido Vargas, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio González, and Carlos Rolando Lizcano. 

However, he also referred to two other individuals as “co-defendant 1” and “co-defendant 3.” Their identities have not been publicly disclosed by US prosecutors.

Saab also agreed to “fully cooperate” with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) by providing “truthful and complete information and testimony, and producing documents, records, and other evidence” in “any trial or judicial proceeding” requested by the US government.

He likewise agreed that he would not “protect any person or entity through false information or omission,” nor falsely implicate “any person or entity.”

The Colombian-born businessman also agreed to surrender US $195 million, along with properties and assets derived from the alleged crimes, to prosecutors. The government gave him 14 days to disclose all assets related to the offenses.

Saab, who stated that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and takes antidepressants every night to sleep, could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, as well as a $500,000 fine.

Nevertheless, prosecutors reportedly agreed to recommend a reduced sentence if his cooperation against the other defendants in the case proves valuable. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled but is expected to take place in January.

The DOJ warned that it “reserves the right to evaluate the nature and extent of the defendant’s cooperation,” as well as the “quality and significance” of the information provided for the relevant investigations.

The agreement does not publicly specify which investigations Saab will be required to assist with or which other Venezuelan officials the US Justice Department is targeting. With Saab having been a key figure for Caracas to circumvent US economic sanctions, analysts have speculated that he could be a witness in the case against President Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores are facing charges, including drug trafficking conspiracy, after being kidnapped by US special forces on January 3.

The current case is the second criminal prosecution Saab has faced in the United States. In 2020, when traveling as a Venezuelan government envoy, he was arrested in Cape Verde during a refueling stop and subsequently extradited to the United States. He was on trial for separate money laundering accusations.

However, in December 2023, then-President Joe Biden granted Saab a pardon as part of a prisoner exchange between the United States and Venezuela. Saab returned to Caracas and joined the government as minister of industry. Following Maduro’s kidnapping, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez removed the former envoy from the cabinet in January before authorities handed him over to US agencies in May.

Venezuelan high-ranking officials claimed that Saab had committed fraud in acquiring Venezuelan citizenship and vowed to present evidence of his alleged long-term cooperation with US agencies, but no further details have been released to date.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Lisbon, Portugal.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

The 25 basis-point hike is the first raise in three years and comes ahead of critical midterm elections in the United States.

The United States Federal Reserve has said it will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as inflation, driven by soaring fuel prices amid the US-Iran war, continues to weigh on the economy.

The Fed, which is the central bank of the US, said on Wednesday that it will hike interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent to 4 percent.

It is the first hike in more than three years and comes just weeks before the US midterm elections, despite repeated demands from US President Donald Trump to lower rates.

“Economic activity is expanding at a solid pace. While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient,” the Fed said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Inflation remains elevated. Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability.”

After Wednesday’s hike, Fed officials expect one more rate increase this year, according to their quarterly projections.

CME FedWatch, which tracks the likelihood of monetary policy decisions, forecast a 92.3 percent chance of the Fed increasing rates to 3.75 to 4 percent. A week ago, that forecast was a 40 percent chance of a quarter-percent rate increase.

But in the days since, a slew of data shifted those expectations.

For one, consumer prices jumped in August by 0.4 percent, the highest increase in four months. On an annual basis, prices rose 3.4 percent, matching the increase recorded in July, while the job market remains healthy.

Since then, benchmark crude oil prices have continued to soar as strikes in the US-Israel war on Iran have intensified. Brent crude hovered near $109 per barrel on Tuesday.

The average price for a gallon (3.8 litres) of petrol is $4.36, up 14 cents in the past week, and up from $4.06 in the last month, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks daily petrol prices.

Diesel, on the other hand, was at $6.31, the highest recorded average and roughly double from a year ago. That, in turn, is expected to further stoke prices as diesel is used in trucks to haul everything from fruits and vegetables to steel and cement.

At the same time, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield broke above the psychologically important 5 percent threshold on Tuesday, hitting 5.02 percent, its highest level in 19 years. The yield serves as a benchmark for borrowing costs, including car loans and home mortgages, and is a bellwether for inflation.

“The economy is in an unusual place,” Michael Klein, professor of international economic affairs at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and executive editor of EconoFact, a nonpartisan economic and social policy publication, as unemployment remains at a comfortable level while higher prices continue to stick, sending inflation beyond the Fed’s target of 2 percent.

“There [has been] a lot of pressure on Chairman Warsh to raise interest rates because of inflation coming in high, and that has been compounded by concerns about Trump’s pressure” as the president has continued to demand that interest rates be lowered, Klein said.

“Higher interest rates tend to weaken the economy… but if the market believes that there’s going to be a rate increase, it’s priced in already as prices move on news, so this won’t be news,” Klein said, adding that should help steady yields.

Schools in England are to get around £500 million in extra funding towards the teachers’ pay award this school year, reducing the risk of a strike ballot by the largest education union.

Schools had been expected to fund some of the 3.5% teachers pay increase for the current school year out of their existing budgets, which National Education Union (NEU) leaders had strongly objected to.

Daniel Kebede, the General Secretary of the NEU, said the offer of more funding was a “significant” step in negotiations.

In a letter to the union on Wednesday, which has been seen by the BBC, the government said the increase would be funded by savings in employers’ contributions to the local government pension scheme.

The letter said the 4.9 percentage point drop in what employers are expected to contribute will deliver “significant savings” on the pay bill for support staff, which will not be clawed back by central government.

The National Education Union said it expected the extra money to be around £500m, which schools can now use towards teachers pay this year.

In July, ministers accepted the recommendation of the independent pay review body for teachers and agreed a 3.5% increase from September 2026 would be followed by 3% the following year.

The pay increase had been partly funded by an additional £700m for 2026-27 and £1.1bn for the following year.

Independent economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that left schools facing a shortfall of around 1% between rising costs and funding this year.

Luke Sibieta, IFS research fellow, said the extra money would mean the pay increase this year was fully funded – and on top of other funding increases, schools would be £1.6bn better off by next year than they had expected this summer.

The additional money could potentially bring the uplift for this year into line with next year.

Kebede said schools has been “running on empty” and the funding signalled “a welcome return to reality, and a message of hope for the entire school community”.

Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said the decision is “certainly welcome”, putting schools in a “better position”.

He said his union would look carefully at the detail “to determine whether this means the pay uplift is genuinely fully funded” for schools.

Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was “pleased” at the announcement of additional funding but “the wider pressure on school and college budgets remains intense”.

Similarly, the NASUWT union welcomed the news. General Secretary Matt Wrack added schools needed “a sustainable, long-term injection of extra funding” to meet the needs of young people.

In an indicative ballot by the NEU in April, 90% of teachers who voted said they would be prepared to take industrial action over funding and pay, on a turnout of 48%.

A formal ballot was due to begin on 3 October and close 15 December, raising the prospects of teachers pay strikes early in 2027.

The national executive of the NEU will meet on 24 September to consider whether to call that off following the additional funding on offer from the government.

A spokesperson for Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the government was “confident schools can now meet the costs of the award at a national level”.

“The Secretary of State has been clear from day one that supporting teacher recruitment, retention and wellbeing, and rebuilding the relationship with the profession, are among her top priorities.”

As both the Navy and the USAF were racing to field a new generation of advanced tactical jets, the seagoing service’s program hit a wall. A major reason behind this from the Pentagon was concern that the U.S. industrial base could not handle simultaneous final development and production of two extremely complex new fighter aircraft. This was a controversial justification that many had a hard time swallowing. The Navy’s program, dubbed F/A-XX, is supposedly back on and a down-select on who will build it is coming soon, but that concern appears to linger among at least one of the Department of War’s top acquisition officials.

Though he remains confident that the U.S. Air Force F-47 sixth-generation fighter will fly in the next two years, Air Force Gen. Dale R. White, Director, Critical Major Weapon Systems — the service’s leading weapons procurement advisor — remains concerned about the overall capacity of industry to provide the military with the aircraft it needs, including two new fighters. His comments were in response to questions about the Navy’s challenges in building its own sixth-gen fighter alongside F-47.

The concerns are “not unique” to the F-47 or the Navy’s program but the problem exists to various degrees across the industrial base too, White told reporters Tuesday during a media roundtable at the Air & Space Forces Air, Space and Cyber Conference that TWZ is attending.

White has a dual-hatted role, serving as the Pentagon’s top weapon’s procurement officer and as the senior acquisition advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force for all acquisition matters.

“We’re seeing it in multiple platforms,” said White, who did not elaborate. “And so what we’re having to do is, at some point, we’re having to make some trade space in between some of these.”

“I see Boeing making smart investments,” White said of the prime contractor of the F-47, selected for the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) ‘fighter’ initiative. “They have a lot of CAPEX [capital expenditure] that they’re pouring in, but we have to get through the process of the design piece, getting that completed and closed out. Then we all hit some major milestones with things like flight tests and software and those things.”

“Really, it’s just being able to manage the overall resourcing as it relates to number one, people resources,” the general added. “Number two, when you start getting into the production conversation, do we have enough capacity to be able to produce at that rate? And so, by and large, I have concerns. I have concerns about the capacity of our industrial base, but they are not unique to F-47 or to any program.”

As for the F-47, White said the program “continues to progress exceptionally well.”

“As you know, many, many years in tech maturation and risk reduction gave us a tremendous head start on this program,” White explained. “Extremely proud of what the team has done, what they continue to do each and every day. We are still absolutely on path to be able to hit the mark of flying within this administration. So we see no issues in front of us right now.”

While the first example of the F-47 has been in production for about a year now, the Navy has yet to even select a prime contractor for its next generation fighter. The current competitors for the F/A-XX are Boeing and Northrop Grumman. A decision was supposed to have been made by last month.

“The F/A-XX program remains on track, and we have no further information to provide at this time,” a Navy official told us last week.

Despite intervention from Congress, the next-generation carrier-based fighter has remained in question since the Pentagon moved to effectively shelve the program last year.

In response to a question from TWZ earlier this year, the Chief of Naval Operations acknowledged the uncertainty over the F/A-XX program.

“One of the challenges we’re seeing is, not only [are] our peer competitors improving their capability for anti-air, either air-to-air or surface-to-air, but the lower cost of entry of very capable weapons is also making more players on the field in which that level of stealth and technology is required,” Adm. Daryl Caudle told us back in April at the Sea-Air-Space 2026 exposition. “So this is not about the need for a peer adversary. This is just having an aircraft that can operate with a level of uncertainty and with the acceptable level of risk.”

With Boeing as a finalist, it is also possible that F/A-XX could be a variant of the F-47. As we noted in a past story, the Boeing render for its F/A-XX concept is remarkably similar to artwork for its F-47.

Saudi Arabia has intensified air strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen as the Iran backed group expands its territorial gains along the Red Sea coast, opening a new front in the wider Middle East war and adding pressure to already disrupted global energy supplies.

The Houthis have swept through several Yemeni towns and seized islands near the Bab el Mandeb Strait, a strategically important maritime route connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. The group has also released footage showing its fighters capturing armoured vehicles from Saudi backed forces.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed that the group had shot down a Saudi F 15 fighter jet and said Saudi Arabia had conducted as many as 450 air strikes in Yemen during the week. Saudi authorities have not confirmed the aircraft claim, while officials supporting the internationally recognised Yemeni government have acknowledged that Saudi and allied forces are carrying out strikes against Houthi positions.

Saudi Arabia faces growing security pressure

The escalation has brought the conflict closer to Saudi territory. The Houthis have repeatedly launched attacks toward Saudi Arabia over the past week, prompting alarms in cities across the kingdom’s south and west.

Saudi Arabia said its air defenses intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered restricted airspace over the holy city. Riyadh described the incident as a serious escalation because of the threat to religious sites. The Houthis denied targeting Mecca and accused Saudi Arabia of using the incident for propaganda.

The United States has also tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, barring government employees from travelling within 20 miles of the Yemen border.

The latest escalation marks a sharp deterioration after several years in which the Saudi led conflict in Yemen had largely quietened under a ceasefire. The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and resumed attacks on areas in the kingdom before making rapid gains against forces aligned with the Saudi backed Yemeni government.

Energy markets face another shock

The renewed fighting is particularly significant because global energy markets are already under pressure from disruptions caused by the wider war involving Iran.

An attack blamed on Iran aligned fighters in Iraq last week knocked out Saudi Arabia’s East West Pipeline, an important route that allows the kingdom to move oil without relying entirely on the Strait of Hormuz.

Traders estimate that a prolonged closure of the pipeline could affect as much as 4% of global oil supply. Saudi Arabia has not given a timetable for restoring operations, although U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said oil should begin flowing through the pipeline within days.

Brent crude was trading around $108 a barrel on Wednesday, close to its highest level since May. The average U.S. retail diesel price also reached a record above $6.30 a gallon.

The simultaneous disruption around the Strait of Hormuz and Saudi Arabia’s alternative export infrastructure increases the vulnerability of global energy markets to further regional escalation.

Washington faces another difficult choice

The developments also create a new challenge for the United States.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with President Donald Trump last week seeking additional military support. So far, U.S. assistance has been limited to intelligence support.

The United States previously conducted a two month bombing campaign against the Houthis in 2025 before Trump announced a ceasefire with the group.

Washington now faces competing pressures. Greater support for Saudi Arabia could help contain the Houthi advance and protect regional energy infrastructure, but deeper military involvement could also expand the U.S. role in another theatre of the Middle East war.

What’s next

The immediate concern is whether the Houthi advance can be contained before the fighting causes further disruption to Saudi energy infrastructure and shipping routes.

For Saudi Arabia, the challenge is to push back against the Houthis while preventing the conflict from developing into a broader regional confrontation.

For global markets, the key issue will be whether disruptions to Saudi oil infrastructure remain temporary. Continued attacks on energy facilities or shipping routes could place additional pressure on already strained supplies.

The developments in Yemen therefore carry consequences well beyond the country’s existing conflict. The combination of Houthi territorial gains, pressure on Saudi Arabia and disruption to major energy routes has created another potential source of instability for the global oil market.

With information from Reuters.

It is stunning to see the impact the USAF’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program has made on discourse surrounding the future of the Air Force since it was officially announced. There is still much to prove regarding the concept, but testing is accelerating and the USAF now plans on buying 500 CCAs by 2032. At the same time, the USAF is now hunting for a successor to the MQ-9 Reaper, with plans on procuring hundreds of those drones, as well, by early in the next decade.

With all this in mind, TWZ’s Jamie Hunter talked to Mike Shortsleeve from General Atomics on the show floor at Air, Space & Cyber 2026. The two discussed the latest progress for the company’s newly-named FQ-42 Vengeance Collaborative Combat Aircraft, as well as General Atomics’ new Wildfire platform designed to address the lower-cost Massed Modular Aircraft program that could replace the company’s iconic MQ-9 Reaper.

Check out the interview below or at the top of this post.

FQ-42 Vengeance fighter drone update from General Atomics

Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com

Taiz, Yemen – Hajja Fatima Mohammed Saleh, a 70-year-old Yemeni woman, is among the countless people and families displaced from Taiz governorate, southwest Yemen, in recent fighting between government forces and the Houthis.

The Iran-backed rebel group, also known as Ansar Allah (supporters of God), now controls most parts of northwestern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

Saleh’s village in Maqbanah district, on the border of Yemen’s western coast, is situated at the epicentre of last week’s Houthi assault in which the group captured the whole of the Red Sea coast, including the port city of Mocha.

At least 100,000 people have now fled their homes following renewed fighting between the two sides, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, most leaving with few belongings due to the speed of the Houthi offensive.

Saleh said she had to leave her wheelchair behind as it was unsuitable for the rugged terrain her family had to navigate to find shelter.

“The attack was massive, we had never seen anything like it before. Shells were falling heavily on the village, and bullets were flying in every direction,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We had no choice but to leave and flee to a safe place. We left everything we owned and walked a long distance on foot. For me, I suffered especially because I am disabled and cannot walk, so I had to crawl – using both hands – for a long distance through rain and floods before we found a vehicle to carry us.”

UN agencies and the internationally recognised Yemeni government say that Taiz governorate has witnessed most of the displacements, with Taiz City among the Houthis’ next targets after their victory on the Red Sea coast. This means the humanitarian situation could worsen even further.

Ali al-Shumairi, director-general of the Executive Unit for the Management of IDP Camps in Taiz governorate, told Al Jazeera that 65,845 people were displaced between August 10 and September 15. About 95 percent of those displaced come from the five districts which witnessed the heaviest fighting: Jabal Habashi, al-Maafer, Maqbana, al-Wazi’iyah and Mawza.

Fighting has intensified on several fronts in Yemen as government forces have carried out air attacks on Houthi positions in attempts to retake Mocha, days after the group captured the strategic port city, tightening its grip on the Red Sea – a vital shipping lane.

This development has placed the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the strategic waterway that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean, at the heart of the war between the United States and Iran, and amplifies pressure on global trade routes.

Yemen’s more than 10-year civil war was reignited in July, threatening a United Nations-brokered truce that halted large-scale violence in 2022, after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and began targeting its ships in the Red Sea.

Forces affiliated with Yemen’s internationally recognised government have launched a campaign against the Houthis on a number of fronts since last week. They have retaken some positions and are advancing in the southwestern Taiz province as clashes intensify.

Osama al-Wafi, supervisor of the Mushrifa camp in Wadi Bikhawlan in Taiz governorate and a representative of the Yemeni government’s Executive Unit in Jabal Habashi district, described the situation as “dire and tragic”.

“These people have been displaced and have lost all the basic necessities of life, after having homes, farms, and livestock. Now they are only looking for a shelter to house them,” al-Wafi told Al Jazeera.

He said the number of displaced people arriving at the camp is steadily rising, with more than 1,500 families entering over the past six days, most living in the open due to a lack of shelter.

The al-Munij camp in the al-Bireen area, about 40 kilometres southwest of the semi-besieged city of Taiz, has become a temporary refuge for Yemenis fleeing the area after another bout of conflict between government and Houthi fighters in 2020.

Over the years, al-Munij has extended over a space of two square kilometres to house more displaced families, while other larger camps have been established in the area. Most residents complain they lack access to the most basic services – such as sporadic drinking water supplies and few toilets – in the camps.

Hajj Saif Qaed Thabet, 73, has been living with his wife and four children in an exposed space with no doors since arriving at al-Munij on September 10. He left behind a farm and livestock from his home in al-Kadaha, western Taiz governorate.

“We were displaced because of the war, fleeing bullets and artillery shells falling over our heads. Since arriving at the camp, we have been living like this, waiting for our situation to be addressed and for us to be housed in a suitable place,” said Thabet. “Praise be to God in all circumstances.”

Malouk Ahmed Ali, 55, from the al-Kadaha area in Taiz, said her family of 14 all escaped drones, shelling and gunfire on foot, including five children under her care, seven under her daughter’s care, and her elderly grandmother.

“We fled to an area near our village in the hope that the war would calm down quickly and we would return to our homes, but the clashes expanded until they reached us, so we were displaced again to here aboard a military vehicle that came to transport the threatened homeless people,” she told Al Jazeera.

“When we arrived at this camp, we were received and placed in this small tent as temporary housing for all members of the large family. Although they took all our information, our situation has not improved much so far, and we still hope it will improve.”

Ali hopes the war will end soon so she can return home but believes her family’s possessions, including solar panels and a battery, will have gone.

“As for our livestock, most of them died, some fled to the mountains and valleys, and what remained was looted,” she said.

RIYADH: A US economic delegation has held meetings with Syria’s sovereign fund to explore investment opportunities, as Damascus seeks to deepen ties with the world’s largest economy and attract international capital.

The meetings, which included representatives from government bodies and private companies, were focused on assessing the Syrian market and available investment opportunities amid the country’s economic opening and the lifting of sanctions, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

The discussions come as the Middle Eastern nation’s seeks to capitalize on the momentum generated following Washington’s termination of sanctions against Syria in July 2025.

“In his remarks during the meeting, Yasir Kahf, Director of Development and Planning at the Syrian Sovereign Fund, explained that the fund’s investment portfolio encompasses a diverse range of sectors and companies. He emphasized the Fund’s openness to establishing various forms of partnerships with US and international companies — including joint ventures — tailored to the specific nature of each sector,” the newly released SANA statement said.

Kahf also said the US Chamber of Commerce delegation’s inaugural visit to Syria represents a significant step toward enhancing economic cooperation.

Mohammad Mastat, director of public relations at the Syrian Sovereign Fund, said US companies had shown interest in entering the Syrian investment market, adding that several agreements and projects were currently under negotiation and would be announced in due course.

The easing of US sanctions has also created greater scope for investment and private-sector activity.

In May 2025, the US Treasury said sanctions relief would enable new investment in Syria and facilitate activity across all sectors of the Syrian economy as part of efforts to support its economic recovery.

The International Monetary Fund expects Syria’s economic growth to reach double digits in 2026 and remain strong in 2027.

It said the recovery is being supported by improving agriculture, hydrocarbon production, electricity provision, trade and services, alongside policies aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and achieving a strong, private-sector-led recovery.

The European Union is preparing to use a broader range of economic measures to reduce what European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as an unsustainable trade deficit with China.

Speaking to the European Parliament on Wednesday, von der Leyen said the imbalance had reached a critical point, with the EU running a goods trade deficit with China equivalent to around €1 billion ($1.15 billion) a day last year.

She warned that Europe was experiencing what she described as a second “China shock”, with growing Chinese industrial exports contributing to pressure on European manufacturing and raising concerns about deindustrialisation.

Europe seeks concrete results

The issue has become a priority in EU China relations as European governments seek to address the growing imbalance through negotiations as well as economic policy tools.

EU leaders asked the European Commission in June to deliver results from its dialogue with Beijing and ensure that the bloc had sufficient instruments to protect its economic interests.

European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who is leading the discussions, has said he wants tangible progress by October.

Von der Leyen said cooperation remained in both sides’ interests but warned that the EU was prepared to move beyond dialogue if negotiations failed to produce results.

“We will use all the tools at our disposal to rebalance our relationship,” she said.

The approach reflects a broader European effort to reduce economic vulnerabilities without completely severing commercial ties with China, one of the EU’s most important trading partners.

Critical minerals add to concerns

Trade is not the only area creating pressure on the relationship. The EU also remains heavily dependent on China for several critical raw materials, including rare earth elements that are essential for industries such as electronics, renewable energy, defense and advanced manufacturing.

Von der Leyen said the EU needed to accelerate efforts to secure supplies and build strategic reserves.

The European Commission plans to establish a European corporation focused on critical raw materials to help the bloc secure and stockpile essential resources.

What’s next

The EU’s approach is likely to combine negotiations with measures aimed at strengthening its own industrial capacity and reducing dependence on Chinese supply chains.

For Beijing, the growing European focus on trade imbalances, industrial competition and critical minerals could create additional pressure to make concessions while preserving access to the European market.

For the EU, however, reducing the deficit will require more than trade restrictions. Europe will also need to expand domestic production, diversify suppliers and address the competitiveness challenges facing its own industries.

The October deadline for trade talks could therefore become an important test of whether Brussels and Beijing can reach practical agreements or whether the EU moves toward a more defensive economic relationship with China.

With information from Reuters.