Iran

• Iran says it received U.S. response to Hormuz proposal: Iran received a U.S. proposal amid indirect talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a government spokesperson said, without disclosing details.
  • Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the proposal to President Masoud Pezeshkian during a cabinet meeting after briefing officials on his meetings in New York, Mohajerani said.
• U.S. sanctions ten entities in China, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia over Iran arms procurement: The Treasury Department sanctioned ten individuals and companies, including representatives and technology firms based in China, Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia (and three based in Iran), accusing them of procuring weapons and parts for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.
  • The sanctions targeted Hong Kong-based EC Mojo Technology Co Ltd, which the U.S. has accused of supplying electronic components and evading export controls.
  • The U.S. also sanctioned the Saudi-based Cavalier Dynamics for Technologies Company.
• U.S. offers 40 million barrels from strategic reserve: The Trump administration offered to lend up to 40 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on Tuesday, as fuel prices remain near record highs seven months into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
  • The barrels are the last tranche of the 172 million the U.S. pledged in March to an International Energy Agency release of 400 million barrels coordinated among about 30 countries.
  • The release is structured as an exchange, not a sale: companies borrow the oil and later return it with additional barrels as a premium. Bids are due on October 6.
  • The reserve held 283.8 million barrels as of September 25, its lowest level in 44 years, according to Energy Department data.

• Qatar PM says Iran war pushed country into budget deficit: Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called the war on Iran one of the biggest crises in Qatar’s history, telling Piers Morgan that LNG exports through Hormuz are “barely happening.”
  • He was asked about a reported $24 billion in lost gas sales, an IMF forecast of more than 8% contraction this year, an 80% drop in visitors and hotels 60% empty, and said “many of those numbers” were accurate.
  • He said after an Iranian missile hit Qatar’s LNG facility the country now faces a budget deficit. It has cut secondary projects but not salaries, leaning on its sovereign wealth fund.
  • “It’s not a structural contraction for our economy,” he clarified, saying LNG output will return once damaged trains are repaired.
• Three tankers struck by unknown projectiles in Strait of Hormuz: Three tankers were struck by projectiles of unknown origin while transiting the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, according to incident reports from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). One of the crude oil tankers was hit while transiting inbound.
• No explosives found in vans near RAF Fairford, UK police say: No explosive devices were found in three vans linked to five men arrested near RAF Fairford, the British airbase used by U.S. forces for strikes on Iran, UK counterterrorism police said. Police said a quantity of petrol was recovered and the investigation remains ongoing.
  • The five British nationals were arrested Sunday on suspicion of terrorism before being released on bail Monday.
  • U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the suspects’ release and suggested they “might be” connected to Iran. Iran has denied involvement, and UK authorities have not publicly established a foreign link.
• Iran executes two more over January protests: Iran executed two men on Wednesday on charges related to violence during nationwide anti-government protests in January, according to state news.
  • The men took part in protests in the northeastern city of Mashhad that left four security officers dead and confessed to setting fires, the judiciary determined, damaging public property, and stabbing a member of Iran’s paramilitary force.
  • Iran has executed dozens of people on charges related to the January protests in what Amnesty International has said followed “torture-tainted grossly unfair trials by Revolutionary Courts.”

Yemen

• UAE vice president visits Saudi Arabia for first time since rift: UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Saudi Arabia Tuesday and met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, the first senior UAE official to visit the kingdom since a rift emerged last December.
  • It remains unclear whether Saudi Arabia’s push for international support against Ansarallah extends to reengaging the UAE, once its main partner in the Yemen war.
  • The two countries’ tensions emerged after UAE-backed southern Yemeni separatists advanced near Saudi borders, prompting a Saudi airstrike on a UAE-linked weapons shipment at Mukalla port. The UAE subsequently announced a full withdrawal of its forces from Yemen.
• Ansarallah ballistic missiles strike Saudi-backed forces’ camps in southern Yemen: Nearly 20 soldiers and officers are believed to be among the dead and wounded, according to OSINT reports, after an Ansarallah ballistic missile struck a Saudi-backed Homeland Shield Forces military camp in the Al-Qawah area on the southern Yemeni coast on Tuesday.
  • Three ballistic missiles also struck the camp of the Fourth Mountain Infantry Brigade, south of Al-Turbah.
  • Saudi-backed forces claimed to have carried out 414 strikes targeting Ansarallah positions over the past 24 hours, according to the armed forces spokesperson.

Palestine

• Israeli strike on vehicle kills six in Gaza City as death toll since Tuesday reaches 13:
  • Six Palestinians were killed and 15 others wounded on Wednesday when an Israeli strike hit a vehicle in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, according to WAFA.
  • A woman was killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment near Al-Shifa Medical Complex.
  • Four Palestinians, including two children, were wounded when an Israeli drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people west of Khan Younis, while two others were critically wounded by Israeli gunfire southeast of Deir al-Balah.
  • At least 13 Palestinians have been killed and 42 wounded in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since Tuesday.
• Israeli forces raid homes, settlers attack Palestinian property across the occupied West Bank:
  • Tulkarm: Israeli forces launched widespread raids across the governorate, storming homes in Kafr Zibad, Kafr Jammal, Kafr Abbush, Kafr Sur, Far’un, Attil, Deir Al-Ghusun, Shuweika, and several neighborhoods of Tulkarm city on Wednesday, WAFA reported. Forces converted some homes into military posts, set up checkpoints and detained several Palestinians, including former prisoners.
  • Jenin: Israeli forces ordered families out of homes in Jenin’s Old City and Marah Saad and converted several buildings into military posts. Forces were deployed across the city and along the Jenin-Nablus road and closed iron gates at entrances to nearby towns and villages.
  • Ramallah and Al-Bireh: In Taybeh, settlers attacked a family home, beating family members and spraying them with pepper spray, injuring a teenage boy.
  • Bethlehem: Settlers destroyed a drinking-water pipeline supplying a Bedouin community of around 800 Palestinians in Al-Rashaydeh, southeast of Bethlehem.
  • Nablus: Israeli forces raided several neighborhoods of Nablus and the town of Deir Sharaf, firing stun grenades and tear gas. An 80-year-old man was hospitalized after soldiers beat him, while Palestinians were detained, including three 14-year-old boys in Deir Sharaf.
• Gaza child mortality more than doubled in 2025 amid Israeli attacks: The mortality rate for children under five in Gaza more than doubled to 33.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2025, up from 13.6 in 2022, according to the Health Ministry’s first official mortality report since 2022.
  • The ministry estimates the rate would be 15.8 without deaths caused by the war.
  • Israel’s direct attacks were the leading cause of death in Gaza in 2025, accounting for 70.1% of the 24,650 recorded deaths.
• Qatar PM: Hamas agreed to release all civilian hostages on October 7: Hamas agreed on the first day of the war on Gaza to “release all civilian hostages,” asking only for a ceasefire window to get them out, and Israel refused to even “entertain the idea,” Qatar’s Prime Minister confirmed.
  • “We got an agreement” to release “all the civilian hostages,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Piers Morgan. Israeli officials replied that if Hamas wanted to free them, it should do so without a pause in fighting, he said.
  • His on-record account follows a Haaretz report this month that he relayed the offer to then-Mossad chief David Barnea on the evening of October 7.

Lebanon

• Lebanese soldier, civilians wounded in Nabatieh as Israeli ceasefire violations continue across south: A Lebanese soldier and at least three civilians were wounded in an explosion in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa on Wednesday.
  • Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, an Israeli Merkava tank fired two shells toward a home in Bra’shit early Wednesday, the state’s National News Agency reported. Israeli artillery also struck Haddatha, Kfar Tebnit, Zawtar Al-Sharqiyah, Bra’shit, and Wadi Al-Salouqi overnight, while Israeli forces carried out two explosions near Beit Yahoun and Aita Al-Jabal.
• Four in five Lebanese households struggle to afford basic needs as conflict deepens crisis: Four in five households in Lebanon are struggling to afford basic necessities, with 22% reporting their children had gone to bed hungry in the previous two weeks and 14% reporting at least one child working, according to a new UNICEF report.
  • Since March 2, at least 261 children have been killed and 1,056 injured in Israeli attacks, averaging seven children killed or wounded each day over six months, UNICEF said.
  • Some 436 schools have been damaged or destroyed, putting around 100,000 children at risk of being without a classroom, while an estimated 770,000 children have experienced psychological distress.

U.S. News

• Senate blocks resolution on occupied West Bank: The United States Senate voted to block a resolution on Tuesday that would have forced the State Department to report on the killings of American citizens by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank. It would have required a report within 30 days on investigations into the killings of U.S. citizens by settlers or Israeli forces. If the administration failed to deliver the report, most U.S. security assistance to Israel would have been cut off.
  • The resolution failed 47-53. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote against the resolution, while Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky joined Democrats in supporting it.
  • Nine American citizens have been killed in the West Bank since 2022, the resolution noted; none of their killers have been held to account by either the Israeli or U.S. government.

• Supreme Court allows Trump’s third-country deportation policy to resume: The Supreme Court granted an emergency request Tuesday allowing the Trump administration to resume deporting immigrants to “third countries” where they have no ties. Oral arguments are scheduled for December to issue a definitive ruling.
  • The order reverses a 1st Circuit Court of Appeals decision that sided with plaintiffs arguing people deserve a “meaningful opportunity” to raise safety concerns before removal to a third country.
  • Roughly 25,000 people were deported to third countries since February of 2025, according to court records.
• ICE plans to hire 5,000 more officers by year’s end: ICE is preparing to hire 5,000 new employees, according to the New York Times, expanding its workforce by roughly 17% after growing by about 8,000 to reach 29,000 employees since Trump took office.
  • Most recruits are expected to become “deportation officers,” who conduct arrests and manage deportation cases. Their hiring will draw on the more than $100 billion in new funding granted the agency by Congress.
  • During last year’s rapid hiring surge, hundreds of recruits were removed after being let in with limited or no initial vetting. One of these recruits, David Brouillette, was identified as the agent who fatally shot Colombian immigrant Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine in July.
• California passes law banning shock gloves for law enforcement: California passed a law banning local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people.
  • ICE awarded a nearly $17 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs last month. The ban on the gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030.
• DHS confirms $20 million in taxpayer funds spent on pro-Trump ads, drawing bipartisan criticism: The Department of Homeland Security committed $20 million from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”—funds intended for Customs and Border Protection—to fund campaign-style ads glorifying the president, according to a Tuesday letter from Sens. Patty Murray and Chris Murphy, who called the ads “a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars” and demanded answers within 48 hours. The ads, which began running last week during NFL and college football broadcasts, have drawn criticism from both parties.
• Tech executives sign “morally binding” AI accord at White House lunch with Trump: Tech executives, including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk, signed a “morally binding” constitution on AI governance during a White House lunch Tuesday. At the meeting, Trump also floated forming a 10-person oversight committee for the industry.
  • President Donald Trump claimed that the tech leaders showed evidence of “tremendous self-policing,” and that they assured him they were putting the “appropriate guardrails” on their models, which have been the subject of recent hacking controversies in the U.S. and Australia.
  • Zuckerberg told reporters that the Tuesday framework centers on companies maintaining “robust internal controls,” including internal risk reviews and third-party audits reviewed by company boards, calling it “a start and an accord that the whole industry could come to.”
• IRS to add citizenship question to tax forms: The IRS is preparing to add a citizenship and work-authorization question to next year’s Form 1040, though tax experts say the change serves no clear administrative purpose since existing tax benefits already require valid Social Security numbers.
  • “The only reason you have that attestation is to deter people,” a former IRS official told the New York Times when asked about the policy change.
• Trump administration preparing to auto-enroll all children in Trump Accounts before midterms: The government is preparing to use IRS data to automatically enroll all children under 18 in tax-advantaged “Trump Accounts,” aiming to reach up to 60 million additional children weeks before the midterms. Only 5% of eligible middle- and lower-income families had voluntarily enrolled by summer, sources told The Washington Sun.
  • It is unclear what advantages would accrue to those enrolled, given that most families remain ineligible for the program’s flagship $1,000 benefit for babies born 2025-2028.
• Trump’s ban on $1 billion in Canadian imports takes effect: President Trump’s ban on nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian goods, including dairy products, motor vehicles, and alcohol, took effect Tuesday, the latest escalation in an ongoing trade war.
• Federal prosecutors charge Wilber Garces Perez with assaulting ICE officer in Austin shooting: Federal prosecutors in Texas charged Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, the Venezuelan delivery driver shot by an ICE agent in Austin, with assaulting a federal officer, alleging in an eight-page affidavit that his car’s side-view mirror struck agent “L.G.” as he drove away to evade arrest.
  • The affidavit, based on an interview with another agent whose body camera captured the incident and Garces Perez himself, describes a short pursuit that ended when an SUV struck his car, after which Garces Perez said L.G. fired his pistol through the back-right window, striking him in the upper back. That bullet remains lodged near his spine and had not been removed as of last week. L.G., who was not wearing a body camera, gave no account in the filing.
• Senate GOP leaves Trump’s $350 billion defense funding request in limbo before recess: Senate Republicans are set to leave Washington for recess without approving President Trump’s $350 billion defense reconciliation request, part of a broader push toward a $1.5 trillion total defense budget, as party members remain divided over financing.
  • Defense hawks, including Sen. Kevin Cramer (N.D.), want the full amount to fund priorities including the Golden Dome missile shield. Deficit hawks like Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), chair of the Budget Committee, have objected, with Johnson saying he won’t move a reconciliation package until after the midterms without identified spending offsets.
  • Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst said Congress may incorporate some priorities, particularly munitions investments, into the regular discretionary budget instead, though that process is also stalled, with government funding only secured through December 11.

Other International News

• Commercial plane traveling from UAE to Israel forced to land in Saudi Arabia after fight between pilots: A fight between pilots on a commercial FlyDubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel forced the aircraft to make a dramatic emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
  • Around two and a half hours after departing from Dubai on its way to Tel Aviv, the plane descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet within a minute, before turning close to the Jordanian border and eventually landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
  • An Israeli official told the AP a fight broke out between two pilots, one of whom was armed with a knife. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fight. The aircraft’s captain and the first officer were injured and taken to the hospital upon landing.
  • During the incident, Israel scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Saudi Arabia had arrested the pilot who allegedly stabbed the other one. Netanyahu claimed passengers and crew members on the flight managed to subdue the pilot, preventing a “major disaster.”
• Scandal rocks Flávio Bolsonaro campaign ahead of first round election in Brazil: Right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro faces a new corruption scandal days ahead of the October 4 election following a report published by Brazilian outlet PlatôBR. Leaked messages, photos, and financial records from disgruntled former business partner Alexandre Santini link Bolsonaro to lavish gifts, including a $60,000 Rolex, sex parties allegedly paid for with suspect funds, and an attempt to lobby a Supreme Court justice.
  • A fresh AtlasIntel poll shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading 45.3% to 42.2%.
• Amnesty: Mali army, Wagner mercenaries killed at least 34 civilians in seven incidents: An Amnesty International report accuses forces from Russia’s Wagner Group and the Malian army of killing at least 34 civilians across Mali’s Segou, Mopti, and Timbuktu regions, in seven incidents between June 2023 and December 2025.
  • The victims, according to the report, were mostly pastoralist community members targeted based on their ethnicity or killed because they lived in areas with active jihadist groups.
  • Describing the incidents as war crimes and “deliberate,” the report noted that “victims were shot, had their throats cut, or were burned alive.” It also provided accounts of torture by Wagner members during patrols and detentions.
• UN renews Haiti security force mandate: The UN Security Council extended the Gang Suppression Force’s mandate in Haiti by six months to March 31, 2027. Twelve member states voted in favor of the extension, though China, Russia, and Pakistan abstained over concerns about insufficient funding, personnel and efficacy.
  • The force, meant to provide security ahead of Haiti’s Dec. 13 elections, is currently deployed at less than 30 percent of its intended size.
• Russian strikes kill four, including a child, in Kyiv region overnight: Russian air strikes killed four people, including a child, and injured seven more in and around Kyiv early Wednesday, with Kyiv City Military Administration reporting two dead and four injured in the capital itself.
  • Neighboring NATO members Romania and Poland scrambled military jets to protect their airspace amid the attacks.
  • Separately, a Ukrainian drone strike damaged private houses in Russia’s Samara region, an oil-producing hub roughly 1,100 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
• Belgium to transfer three F-16s to Ukraine by year’s end, Zelenskyy says: Belgium agreed to transfer three F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end of the year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, noting that Ukraine has already received urgent F-16 ammunition deliveries from Belgium and Spain.
• Russian Tu-95 bomber crashes during training, killing six crew: A Russian nuclear-capable Tu-95 strategic bomber crashed Tuesday during a training mission in the country’s far east, killing six crew members, with one survivor hospitalized, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
  • The unarmed aircraft went down in an unpopulated area near the village of Krasnoyarovo on the Zeya River, close to the Chinese border, with regional officials saying the pilots “did all they could to steer the plane away from residential buildings.”
• Lithuania offers to pay for permanent U.S. troop presence, PM says: Lithuania “ready to pay the bill” for a permanent U.S. military base, its prime minister told Bloomberg TV: “We would definitely go for it if they’re ready, and we would ensure the best possible conditions for the troops.”
  • The push comes as Trump separately announced “major progress” last week toward establishing a permanent base in neighboring Poland—which President Karol Nawrocki suggested calling “Fort Trump.”
  • Lithuania, located about 67 miles from mainland Russia, prepares to hold the EU’s rotating presidency in early 2027.
• UN says North Korea violated armistice; North Korea dismisses DMZ mine blast findings as “farce”: On Wednesday, North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, called a South Korean investigation into last week’s DMZ mine blast “low and dirty” and a “farce,” accusing Seoul of fabricating evidence. South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul said North Korean mines caused the explosion that wounded three South Korean soldiers and warned of “corresponding” action.
  • The UN Command, which oversees the Korean armistice, found another active North Korean anti-personnel mine during a joint on-site investigation with South Korean authorities on Wednesday, and determined “an Armistice Agreement violation occurred.”
• Afghanistan says it killed 41, captured 62 insurgents crossing from Pakistan in three days: Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Wednesday its forces killed 41 alleged insurgents and captured 62 more over three days this week, claiming the fighters crossed from Pakistan “with the support” of Islamabad and that the group included members of the Islamic State group. Pakistan did not immediately comment, though it has rejected similar claims.
• Somali pirates kill five crew members before tanker rescue by Puntland forces: Somali pirates killed five crew members—three Pakistanis, one Myanmar national, and one Indian national—aboard the hijacked tanker MT Honour 25 before Puntland security forces rescued the ship and captured 16 pirates, Puntland’s information ministry said Tuesday, marking the apparent first deaths at the hands of Somali pirates in over a decade.
  • Drop Site contributor Mohamed Gabobe reports on the seizure of the Honour and another vessel, the MT Eureka, in a piece published Tuesday. Gabobe’s report is available in full here.
• Fighting between SPLM-N, Otoro tribe kills over 500 in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains: More than 500 people from the Otoro ethnic group have been killed and over 25,000 displaced in months of fighting around Kauda in Sudan’s South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains region, Otoro acting chief Koko al-Degeil Damgala told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday. Fatalities continue to mount daily, he said, while displaced residents are sheltering in caves without humanitarian aid.
  • Damgala rejected accusations that the Otoro rebelled against the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), saying that the tribe remained invested in the group’s political project, but that it had recently rebelled against “systemic marginalization and misrule” in the region. He claimed that the SPLM-N had begun a wave of arbitrary detentions of prominent Otoro in April, sweeping up aid workers, civil servants, military personnel, and local traders.
• Malaysia begins sending nearly 1,500 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar despite safety concerns: Malaysia began transporting nearly 1,500 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar Tuesday under police escort, describing the returns as “voluntary” despite UN warnings that “conditions for safe and dignified returns” to Myanmar do not exist for the Rohingya.
  • Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reached an agreement with Myanmar’s military government in July to return 5,000 refugees; the 1,500 returned on Tuesday are part of this group. Doctors Without Borders and more than 160 civil society organizations called for the returns to be halted.
• 300,000 join French civil servant strikes; student protests turn violent nationwide: Roughly 300,000 civil servants, including teachers, firefighters, and healthcare workers, joined a one-day nationwide strike Tuesday demanding higher pay and better conditions, with police estimating 30,000 marched in Paris. Separate student protests over school conditions turned violent, injuring 10 students and staff and 48 law enforcement officials, with 440 people detained.
  • General Confederation of Labor general secretary Sophie Binet called the demonstrations “a red alert,” giving the government 48 hours to reverse planned budget cuts, including a proposed annual salary freeze for state workers.
• UK’s Burnham vows sweeping public service expansion in first conference speech as PM: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first Labour conference speech Tuesday to promise a “new path” for Britain, pledging to create a “National Care Service,” “free…at the point of use” to give UK residents access to state-funded caregivers, to make adjustments to the “pension triple lock” (which sets the rate by which pensions are raised) by April 2030, and to reduce deposit requirements for young homebuyers.
  • He also promised drastic changes to British utility provisions, saying he would reverse a Thatcher-era “ban on public ownership of water companies,” and that his government would seek to create a new publicly owned “Great British Grid” to challenge private electricity operators.
  • Regarding Britain’s foreign relations, Burnham pledged to “stand up to” Russian and Iranian threats and continue its “principled leadership” in support of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.