Iran

• Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China push for renewed U.S.-Iran diplomacy; Tehran demands return to MOU: Russia and Saudi Arabia are seeking “compromise solutions” to implement the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
  • Lavrov said the two countries “regret” that Arab states have been “dragged against their will” into the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
  • Separately, Qatar said it is working with China and other countries to revive U.S.-Iran talks.
  • Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the Gulf conflict is threatening regional security and disrupting energy markets, shipping and supply chains. “Pressure through guns and cannons is not the way out. Dialogue and negotiation are the right path,” Wang said.
  • Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, blamed Washington’s “regrettable” violation of the MOU. “The solution is simple; the return and adherence of the American side to its commitments and signing of the memorandum of understanding will pave the way for a return to normalcy,” Araghchi said.
• Iran hikes gas prices for heaviest consumers: Iran introduced a price hike for its heaviest gasoline users, according to state media, as the economy continues to suffer as a result of the U.S. blockade, the second such increase since December. Under the new regulations, people buying more than their quota of 110 liters (29 gallons) of gas a month—roughly 15% of consumers—must now pay twice as much.
• Amnesty: U.S.-Israeli attacks on Tehran in March may amount to war crimes: U.S.-Israeli attacks on three neighborhoods in Tehran in March that killed and wounded dozens of civilians may amount to war crimes, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The investigation into air strikes on Niloofar, Resalat, and Javadieh neighborhoods in Tehran between March 1 and 13, 2026 found evidence that “explosive weapons with wide area effects were used in densely populated areas, killing and injuring civilians” and causing widespread and extensive damage to homes.
  • “The civilian death toll, the scale of destruction, the timing of the attacks, the impact on nearby civilian structures and the lack of effective advance warnings point to alarming failures by the U.S.-Israeli coalition…to minimize civilian harm and spare civilian objects,” Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in a statement. “The U.S./Israeli strikes in Teheran investigated by Amnesty International, may constitute indiscriminate attacks and amount to war crimes.”
  • Drop Site covered two of the three March attacks investigated in the Amnesty investigation. Read our reports on the U.S.-Israeli bombings of Nilofoor and Resalat.
• Iranian Basij commander killed in “terrorist attack”: Abdolrauf Eshaghi, a commander in Iran’s paramilitary Basij forces, was killed in an attack on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media. Authorities described the incident as a “terrorist attack,” but it was not immediately clear who was responsible.

Palestine

• Elderly Palestinian man injured by Israeli fire in Gaza; Israel issues forced displacement orders: Israeli forces shot and injured an elderly Palestinian man south of Khan Younis on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.
  • Since Tuesday morning, Israeli forces have issued at least five forced displacement orders across Gaza. Orders were reported in Al-Bureij, Nuseirat, Gaza City near Al-Shifa Hospital, and at two locations in Al-Shati refugee camp. One of the warned sites, a home near Al-Shifa Hospital, was subsequently hit with three missiles.
• Israeli forces kill four Palestinians, carry out raids and closures across occupied West Bank: In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in Qalqilya, Nablus, and Tulkarem governorates, bringing the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year to 100, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
  • Bethlehem: Israeli forces detained two Palestinian teens during a raid in central Bethlehem, according to WAFA. Soldiers also assaulted and injured one of the boys’ mothers.
  • Nablus: An Israeli settler was reportedly stabbed multiple times near Aqraba. Israeli forces subsequently closed all entrances to Aqraba and neighboring villages and launched a search for the suspect.
• UK announces ban on Israeli settlement goods; France and Canada to follow: The UK announced a ban on trade in goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and sanctions targeting individuals and companies involved in settlement expansion on Tuesday, with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband calling the move “the beginning of a new approach, to call out injustice and to act.” He added, “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.”
  • In a statement, the British Palestinian Committee said, “Today’s announcement, while welcome, will ultimately be judged not by its rhetoric, but by its enforcement both within and beyond this current government.”
  • According to Bloomberg, British diplomats “privately told the US that the sanctions are largely symbolic and will have no material impact on the UK’s wider relationship with Israel on trade or security, in a bid to soothe the Trump administration’s response.” Reuters reported that the impact of the policy move on bilateral trade with Israel is “likely to be ⁠minimal, with details unclear of how the UK will differentiate between goods originating in West Bank settlements [and] products made in Israel.”
  • France said it would begin its own process to ban settlement products, while Canada is also expected to join the action.
  • “Why are we doing this? Because the West Bank is close to exploding,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote on X, continuing, “there is frenzied expansion of the settlements, a flare-up of violence against Palestinians by extremist settlers, and acts of terror which have been attacked by Israeli authorities themselves.”
• Haaretz: UAE warned Netanyahu before Oct. 7, but Netanyahu didn’t tell security chiefs: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed personally warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a 45-minute call roughly a week and a half before October 7, 2023, that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation, according to a Haaretz investigation.
  • Netanyahu reportedly reacted calmly, insisted Hamas intended to strike the West Bank, and never briefed the heads of Shin Bet, Mossad, or the IDF about the warning.
  • In the months preceding MBZ’s warning, Hamas leadership reportedly indicated that it was planning an operation, using a secret backchannel for discussions (through a Fatah intermediary) to warn Israel of a coming “zilzal,” or earthquake. That message reached the Shin Bet on September 15 and prompted a security meeting, though no action was taken.
  • Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and former IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi both said they were never informed of MBZ’s warning. Bin Zayed did not respond to Haaretz’s request for comment.

Yemen

• Yemeni Saudi-backed forces launch attacks on Ansarallah positions, vow to retake Sana’a: Forces aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government launched attacks against Ansarallah positions, as Deputy Defense Minister Samir Al-Sabri said “the decision has been made to retake Sana’a.”
  • Fighting intensified in Al-Bayda and Al-Jawf governorates, which lie on routes towards the Ansarallah-held capital.
  • Ansarallah said seven people were killed in a strike on a prison in Al-Hazm, Al-Jawf.

• Ansarallah attacks injure 73; hit Saudi energy facilities: The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said recent Ansarallah attacks on Saudi Arabia injured 73 people, including women and children. Coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Maliki said its forces would take measures to “deter” Ansarallah and counter further threats.
  • Separately, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said several energy facilities in the south were hit on Tuesday, causing injuries and fires and temporarily disrupting operations at some sites. Satellite imagery showed plumes of smoke rising from Aramco’s Jizan refinery.
• Report: Yemen clashes displace 18,500: Renewed fighting across Yemen’s Taiz and Hodeidah governorates displaced about 18,500 people since hostilities escalated on September 3 with the number “increasing by the hour,” according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), putting further pressure on already overstretched communities in southern Taiz and along the west coast. “Families are arriving with nothing: no shelter, no food, no way to know if it’s safe to go back,” IOM Yemen chief Abdusattor Esoev said, noting that many have been displaced multiple times.
  • The agency said ongoing clashes and disrupted telecommunications are hampering aid access, while emergency food and shelter stocks have been severely depleted by recent flood responses.

Lebanon

• Israeli attacks kill 12 in southern Lebanon as attacks continue despite “ceasefire”:
  • In Kfar Remman, an Israeli airstrike after midnight Monday destroyed a three-story residential building killing 11 members of the same family, including two children and four women, and wounded eight others.
  • An Israeli drone also struck a vehicle in Kfar Remman, killing one paramedic from the Islamic Risala Scout Association and wounding two others.
  • Israeli forces raided Kfarchouba at dawn and raised an Israeli flag on one of the surrounding hills in the Hasbaya district, according to Lebanon 24.
  • Israeli attacks killed 4,381 people and wounded 12,402 between March 2 and September 7, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

U.S. News

• Socialist wave headed for Providence: State Rep. David Morales is threatening to become the third socialist to sweep into power in an American city this year, after New York City and Seattle. Incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley trailed the Bernie Sanders-backed Morales in the most recent survey, sponsored by an ally of Morales. The local DSA has not endorsed fellow DSA member Morales; their bylaws ban them from endorsing a candidate running as a Democrat.
  • A November ballot initiative has featured prominently in the race. The measure does not mention Israel but would bar the city from making investments in “foreign countries conducting ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation or genocide.” Israel supporters in the city have launched a campaign in opposition to the referendum; Mayor Smiley opposes it, while Morales supports it.
  • The race has otherwise played out along familiar lines, with Morales backing off his previous pledges to “defund the police” while promising to focus on making Providence more affordable for working people, while Smiley has maintained the support of the city’s landlords, developers, and major business owners. Watch Morales’s interview on Breaking Points.
• New Hampshire Senate, House primaries Tuesday: In the Senate primary, insurgent challenger Karishma Manzur, a refugee from Bangladesh whose father was assassinated after helping win the nation’s independence, is challenging Rep. Chris Pappas, who is facing a closer-than-expected contest as Manzur has highlighted her opposition to genocide and aligned herself with the Mamdani wing of the party. A recent internal Pappas poll had him ahead by more than 50 points, but a University of New Hampshire survey found Manzur behind by just 13 points. In the race to replace Pappas, two center-left candidates, including the daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, are leading in polls.

• Armed man attacks Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton: An armed individual attacked Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton on Sunday at the Canfield Fair near Youngstown, according to her campaign and the state highway patrol, though Acton was not harmed in the incident.
  • The suspect, 38-year-old Patrick Havas, knocked over multiple people while trying to reach Acton and was carrying a taser and two pistols. Police charged him with disorderly conduct and two counts of assault.
• Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. goods take effect: New Canadian tariffs on roughly $20 billion in U.S. imports, including clothing, cheese, metal parts, and wood products, took effect Tuesday, mirroring earlier U.S. duties imposed after trade talks between the two countries collapsed last month.
  • Hours before the tariffs took effect, President Donald Trump attacked Canadian plane maker Bombardier on social media, declaring “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!”
  • Bombardier noted in response that it employs “tens of thousands” of American workers and manufactures wings in California and Texas.
  • A new round of U.S. tariffs on additional countries is expected as soon as this week. The Supreme Court previously struck down Trump’s duties in February.
• New York residents misled about air quality following 9/11, documents show: New York City officials found evidence of asbestos and other contaminants in Lower Manhattan for months after the September 11 attacks, even as the city publicly assured residents the air was safe, according to 170,000 pages of previously hidden air quality reports and internal correspondence released by Tuesday.
  • The documents were discovered last year and released by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to coincide with the attacks’ 25th anniversary.
  • Rep. Jerrold Nadler, whose district included the World Trade Center, said of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, “they knew about the air quality, and they essentially did nothing about it… I suspect that all they cared about was getting Wall Street reopened.”
• Mamdani creates Mayor’s Office of Worker Power to boost labor organizing: Mamdani signed an executive order on Monday creating an Office of Worker Power to support private-sector labor organizing in New York City.
  • The office will be led by Tony Perlstein, a former UAW organizing director, who said its goal is to help workers “stand up and speak up” against wealthy employers who can “afford to pay their workers more.”
  • Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, to whom Perlstein will report, clarified that the office “will not be directly going into workplaces and organizing workers” but instead will hold hearings, share information on worker rights, and refer participants to unions and worker centers.
• ICE granted permission to force-feed Cuban detainee via surgical stomach tube: A federal judge in Texas approved ICE’s request to force-feed a Cuban hunger striker held at the privately run Montgomery ICE processing center, including through a rare, nonconsensual surgical procedure involving a permanent gastric feeding tube, according to court records reported on by The Guardian.
  • Judge Andrew Hanen initially authorized the force-feeding on August 19 and extended the order this week, though DHS said Thursday the man had “resumed eating and drinking again” and was not currently being force-fed.
  • The man, arrested by ICE on July 22 and declared a hunger striker three days later, lacks legal representation.
  • Since January 2025, the agency has received court approval at least 19 times for involuntary medical procedures on hunger strikers.
• U.S. forces raid vessel in Eastern Pacific and detain crew: U.S. forces raided a vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, detaining everyone on board, according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which posted a video of the attack and saying the vessel was “supporting illicit at-sea drug trafficking” without providing evidence. “After clearing the vessel and disembarking the crew, U.S. forces sank it,” SOUTHCOM said.

Other International News

• Far-right AfD party wins state election in eastern Germany: The Alternative for Germany party won elections in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state while securing 39 of 83 seats, leaving it three short of a governing majority. If the AfD succeeds in forming a government, it would become the first far-right party to control a German state since World War II, gaining authority over areas including policing, education, and culture.
  • Several parties ruled out cooperation with the AfD, raising the possibility of a minority government, defections from other parties, or another election.
  • The AfD’s state branch is officially classified as a right-wing extremist organization by Germany’s domestic intelligence and the party has been criticized within Germany for alleged support for Russia.
• Nine killed in explosion at Bolivian military base: Bolivian authorities said that nine people were killed in a weekend explosion at a military barracks in Viacha, near La Paz, while an unspecified number remain missing.
  • President Rodrigo Paz said the blast appeared to be an accident caused by the improper handling of explosives stored at the facility, though an investigation is continuing.

• IAEA says Syrian reactor was designed to produce material for nuclear weapons: International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said a North Korean-built reactor in the Syrian city of Deir Az Zor had been configured to efficiently produce fissile material that could be used directly in nuclear weapons.
  • Israel destroyed the undeclared facility in a 2007 airstrike, after which Bashar al-Assad’s government leveled the site and reportedly failed to answer the UN watchdog’s questions.
  • Invited by Syria’s new authorities, Grossi said that IAEA inspectors returned in August and uncovered concealed nuclear material by breaking through walls and navigating narrow passages. The material is now under IAEA safeguards and inspectors are also examining a fuel-fabrication plant, a nuclear-fuel storage facility, and another previously undeclared location.

• Cuba says talks with Washington have ended over blockade: Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said Havana is not negotiating with the United States and has no agenda for future talks, though diplomatic contacts remain open amid an ongoing U.S. blockade on the country.
  • Cuba estimates that the U.S. embargo caused a record $8.1 billion in losses between March 2025 and February 2026—up 7% from the previous period—and says that figure excludes Washington’s more recent energy restrictions and secondary sanctions. Reuters
  • Rodríguez described the policy as “collective punishment,” saying Cubans have endured months with only two or three hours of electricity a day or less, disrupting refrigeration, schools, internet access and family life.
  • The dispute will move to the UN General Assembly on October 27–28, when member states are expected to vote again on Cuba’s annual resolution demanding an end to the embargo.
• Kenya offers amnesty to undocumented East Africans amid crackdown fears: Kenya’s government offered a temporary registration amnesty to undocumented East African nationals Monday after hundreds of Burundians flocked to their embassy in Nairobi, with the refugees fearing a crackdown on small-scale foreign traders. There are roughly 16,000 Burundian refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya, many working in small businesses selling coffee and used clothes.
  • Kenyan President William Ruto called on authorities last week to close all foreign-operated small businesses starting Monday following a meeting with Kenyan traders who had protested his tax reforms.
  • A spokesperson for Ruto’s administration said the government maintains “absolute zero tolerance toward any form of harassment, intimidation, or xenophobia” and that those registering during the amnesty window “will be presumed legally present.”

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