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Sept. 11 (UPI) — President Donald Trump spoke at the Pentagon Thursday giving his condolences and telling the stories of those who died in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In his speech, Trump mentioned that the Pentagon was built 84 years ago, and “On Sept. 11, 2001, those same walls built with the sweat and muscle blood of our parents and grandparents were scarred by flame and shaken by terror as our country came face to face with pure evil on that fateful day, savage monsters attacked the very symbols of our civilization.”

“That terrible morning, 24 years ago, time itself stood still,” he went on. “The laughter of school children fell silent. The rush of our traffic came to an absolute halt, and for 2,977 innocent souls and their families, the entire world came crashing down so suddenly. … To every member that still feels a void every day of your lives, the first lady and I unite with you in sorrow and today, as one nation, we renew our sacred vow that we will never forget Sept. 11, 2001.”

Trump also mentioned the “Department of War,” what he’s renamed the Department of Defense, though it hasn’t yet been approved by Congress.

“In the years that followed, America’s warriors, avenged the fallen and sent an unmistakable message to every enemy around the world, ‘If you attack the United States of America, we will hunt you down, and we will find you, go all over the sometimes-magnificent Earth. We will crush you without mercy, and we will triumph without question.’

“That’s why we named the former Department of Defense the Department of War. It will be different. We won the first World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to change the name. Well, now we have it back to where we all want it. Everybody wanted it. Everybody is so happy to have it back. You will fail, and America will win, win, win. The enemy will always fail.”

He then went back to telling stories of those killed in the 9/11 attacks and the families of those killed.

At the beginning of his speech, Trump mentioned the “heinous assassination” of political commentator Charlie Kirk who was shot and killed while hosting an event in Utah on Wednesday.

“Charlie was a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty. Our prayers are with his wonderful wife Erika [Frantzve] and his beautiful children. Fantastic people, they are,” Trump said.

He then announced that he will posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Before Trump spoke, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — introduced as Secretary of War — spoke, mentioning that “Islamist terrorists” attacked the United States.

“War is an enduring aspect of the human condition, a tool that, when wielded wisely, punishes enemies intent on terrorizing or subjugating our nation,” he said. “War must not become a mere tool for global social work eager to risk American blood and treasure for utopian fever dreams. We should hit hard, reap vengeance and return home.”

According to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, 2,977 people died during the attacks, including 2,753 in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 on Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.

The president is expected to travel to New York later Thursday to attend a Yankees game. The Yankees are expected to have a pregame ceremony to recognize the victims and heroes of 9/11.

Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to attend a ceremony in New York, but changed his schedule to head to Utah to offer condolences to the family of Charlie Kirk.

Towards the end of his spell at Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou was embattled, despite guiding Spurs to the Europa League final.

After beating Bodo/Glimt in Norway in May, he was combative in response to questions about whether winning the competition would save Spurs’ season.

Those who have worked with him feel that was down to the pressure. He dealt with it by firing back to his critics and doubters.

Fast forward to now, and the 60-year-old was relaxed in the City Ground press room, joking about how his birthday celebrations at the weekend were interrupted by negotiations with Forest and how the school run was the best motivator to return to work.

But there was the importance of winning – and winning trophies. It will not have escaped anyone’s attention owner Evangelos Marinakis referenced winning trophies in his statement announcing Postecoglou’s arrival.

So the pressure at Forest will be there – maybe not to the extent it was at Spurs – but he has been brought to the City Ground to progress the team and club.

Forest have not spent £180m this summer and installed Postecoglou in order to go backwards after last season’s seventh-place finish.

While winning the Premier League is out of reach, the Europa League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup will all be seen as legitimate targets.

Forest have not won a major trophy since lifting the League Cup in 1990.

Postecoglou has pedigree. He has won trophies throughout his career, including two Scottish titles with Celtic and the Asian Cup with Australia, and there will be an immediate expectation for Forest to challenge for silverware again.

Satellite images show how Israel is obliterating large areas of Gaza City as its offensive intensifies, forcibly displacing one million Palestinians in its campaign of destruction.

With the current growing tensions between Venezuela and the United States, it’s worth recalling a little-known aerial mission that the U.S. military launched to interdict narcotics coming out of Central and South America back in the 1990s. Most notably, the announcement earlier this week that 10 F-35s will deploy to Puerto Rico startled some, but it is actually far from unprecedented. In fact, something similar was happening for years, decades ago. This was Coronet Nighthawk, which employed U.S. Air Force fighters to patrol against suspected drug traffickers.

Starting with the current situation, the deployment of F-35s has been taken by some as evidence that the United States is planning to go to war directly with Venezuela. However, as we have previously pointed out, these stealth jets could also be used for a range of other relevant tasks. In particular, their advanced sensors make them ideal intelligence-gathering platforms. You can read more about that here.

We are still waiting to hear more about the F-35 deployment. Currently, it remains unclear where they will come from, when they arrive, and what they will do once they get there.

However, the deployment does have some parallels with Coronet Nighthawk, a counterdrug operation that began in the early 1990s and employed fighter aircraft to patrol the skies of Central America and the Caribbean and detect suspected drug-running aircraft. This was at a time of huge concern around drug trafficking and smuggling into the United States, which had begun to peak during the era of the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s.

The main facility for Coronet Nighthawk was Howard Air Force Base in Panama, although assets would eventually also be rotated into other airfields in the Caribbean and Central America.

This mission was initially undertaken by Air Combat Command before transitioning from the active-duty component to the Air National Guard. Fighters were on 24/7 alert to intercept possible drug-trafficking aircraft and to provide overwatch to dissuade such flights. On receiving coordinates of a suspect flight, fighters were expected to scramble within 15 minutes and would then go and investigate them.

F-15s and F-16s were involved, with an example of the former pictured at the top of this story. Dated 1993, the original caption describes it as an F-15 sent to identify an aircraft that was possibly hauling drugs as detected by the Southern Regional Operations Center.

A Washington Post article from 2000, detailing the 113th Wing’s activities in Curaçao provides an idea of how the mission worked:

“The fast, agile F-16s would quickly intercept the suspect planes in international airspace as they flew over open water. The aircraft would be identified and tracked along their route and then followed again after making suspected deliveries. Information on the planes’ actions and location would be passed on to law enforcement agencies and local civil authorities for possible arrests and seizures.”

It appears the U.S. Air Force fighters flew their missions unarmed, serving as the ‘eyes in the sky’ to locate suspect aircraft as well as to dissuade them from being in the airspace in the first instance.

However, intercepting ‘slow-movers’ was and remains a challenge for a jet fighter.

“The drug runners aren’t running at high noon,” Col. Mike Redman, the 113th Wing vice commander, told the Washington Post. “They’re doing it very early in the morning, and they’re flying low over the water.” Typically, the drug-runners would try and fly at low speed, just below the clouds.

The Coronet Nighthawk mission was wound up in 2001, due to the implementation of the Panama Canal Treaty, which handed the canal back to the Panamanian government at the end of December 1999, together with U.S. military bases in the country. (In 2002, the Coronet Nighthawk name would be resurrected for the deployment to Europe of Air Force F-117 stealth fighters).

Clearly, however, the mission had been successful in terms of its original remit.

As of the early 1990s, 75 percent of the drugs in the region were assessed to be transported by air, according to an official history from the 142nd Wing, one of the units that provided fighter jets. By the time the mission ended, the percentage of drugs transported in the region by air had been reduced to 25 percent, as the drug traffickers changed their approach accordingly.

According to one publicly available account, between September 1994 and the end of the decade, Coronet Nighthawk fighters were credited with ensuring the disruption or seizure of over 33,000 metric tons of cocaine.

“We didn’t go over there expecting to completely stop the flow of cocaine coming into the country,” Maj. Conal J. Brady III, a 199th Fighter Squadron F-15 pilot, said in one contemporary account. “But we did make a dent in it and made it a lot harder for the drug runners.”

As far as the 142nd Wing and its F-15s were concerned, they made six deployments to Panama for Coronet Nighthawk, first in 1992, twice in 1993, again in 1994, over the New Year 1995–96, and lastly in 1999. A typical deployment involved five F-15s and around 50 airmen, with personnel rotating every two weeks.

“It’s a real-world mission, but at least the weather’s nice and you’re working under the palm trees near white sand beaches,” Redman explained to the Washington Post.

It should be recalled that, during the same timeframe, an overseas F-16 assignment might otherwise take airmen to a desert base in the Middle East, to fly long-duration ‘no-fly’ zone missions over Iraq.

The current F-35 deployment is a fairly clear indication that the situation in the region is currently heating up.

Back in the 1990s, most of the narcotics traffic was underway in the air. The pulse-Doppler lookdown radars on the F-15s and F-16s were key to finding aerial targets, which were mainly active at night.

Now, most of the drugs in the region are moved on the surface of the water. Modern fighters have even more powerful radars paired with electro-optical systems that can detect and investigate targets on the surface and do so very quickly. With the U.S. military now also engaging suspected drug traffickers at sea, fighters would also be able to attack those targets themselves. The air threat from Venezuela is also not nonexistent. While the token fleet of aging F-16s is not a huge concern, Venezuela does have 21 more potent Su-30MK2V Flanker multirole fighters.

For the time being, at least, it seems that the favored option for counter-narcotics missions involves the MQ-9 Reaper drone, at least two of which have recently been noted in Puerto Rico. Although these are among a number of different aircraft now involved, MQ-9s can carry a variety of missiles as well as sensors for surveillance and can loiter for more than 24 hours over a target, making them an ideal platform for these missions. What they cannot do is respond anywhere near as rapidly as a fighter.

Meanwhile, although Coronet Nighthawk was just one of many military efforts by the U.S. government to try to stop the flow of drugs into the country from Central and South America, it appears to have been one of the more successful ones.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Sept. 11 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance will travel to Utah Thursday to pay respects to the family of Charlie Kirk.

The vice president changed his previous plans to visit New York City to honor the victims of the Sept. 11. 2001, terrorist attacks, according to sources reported by USA Today, The Hill and Politico.

Political activist and author Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, which is about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

About 3,000 people attended the event, and Kirk was responding to a question about mass shootings when a single shot was heard at about 12:20 p.m. MDT, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason told reporters during a late-afternoon news conference.

Kirk placed his right hand on his neck as he fell. He was picked up by his private security team, which took him to Intermountain Health Utah Valley Hospital, which is near the university.

He was pronounced dead soon after.

The vice president was a close friend of Kirk.

President Donald Trump still plans to attend a 9/11 observance at the Pentagon and then a New York Yankees–Detroit Tigers baseball game at Yankee Stadium.

Vance eulogized Kirk in a long post on X late Wednesday.

“Charlie Kirk was a true friend,” Vance wrote. “The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him. I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other’s chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life.”

“I was in a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats started lighting up with people telling Charlie they were praying for him,” he continued. “And that’s how I learned the news that my friend had been shot. I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in.”

Spain’s Vuelta cycling event has added extra security following pro-Palestine protests against Israel-Premier Tech.

Spanish Sports Minister Pilar Alegria has said Israeli teams should be banned from sport in the same way that Russian sides broadly were in 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine, highlighting a “double standard”.

The presence of a team named Israel-Premier Tech at the Vuelta a Espana cycling grand tour has led to huge protests in Spain. The Spanish government has described Israel’s offensive in Gaza as “a genocide”.

Israel-Premier Tech is a private outfit owned by billionaire Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams, not a state team, but has been hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to quit the Vuelta despite vehement protests.

“It is difficult to explain and understand that there is a double standard,” Alegria told Spanish radio station Cadena SER.

“Given that there has been such a massacre, a genocide, such an absolutely terrible situation we are living through day-by-day, I would agree that the international federations and committees should take the same decision as in 2022,” she added.

“No team, no club from Russia participated in an international competition, and when the individuals participated, they did it under a neutral flag and without a national anthem.”

Alegria said she would like Vuelta organisers to block Israel-Premier Tech from competing, but accepted that such a decision could only be taken by the cycling world governing body, UCI.

Various stages of the Vuelta have been affected by protests, with stages 11 and 16 shortened during racing, while Thursday’s stage 18 time trial has also been cut short in advance for security reasons.

Alegria said she hopes the race can be completed, with Sunday’s final stage heading into Madrid expected to be targeted by various protests.

“It would not be good news if the race cannot finish,” said Alegria.

“However, what we’re seeing these days with the protests is, in my opinion, logical,” she added.

“[The protests] are a clear representation of what the people feel, sport cannot be distanced from the world that surrounds it.”

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing coalition government has taken one of Europe’s strongest pro-Palestinian stances, straining ties with Israel.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive in October 2023 in retaliation for an unprecedented cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people, most of whom were civilians.

Israel’s bombardment has killed at least 64,600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health in Hamas-run Gaza.

“[Israeli forces] have killed more than 60,000 people; children, babies [are] starving to death, hospitals destroyed,” added Alegria.

“So it is important that sport, given this situation, takes a position at least similar to what it did against Russia.”

Sept. 11 (UPI) — The relationship between King Charles III and Prince Harry may be on the mend as the two met and spent a short time together in London on Wednesday.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed that both father and son were at Clarence House in London together for tea for about 50 minutes, their first such gathering since February of 2024.

Charles made a trip into London Wednesday from Scotland, while Harry, who has lived in the United States since 2020, was already in Britain to attend charity events.

The last time they were together was shortly after the king was diagnosed with cancer last year, at which time the prince met with his father briefly.

Harry had spoken with the BBC in May and said he wanted reconciliation with his family.

After the meeting concluded, the palace said that no more information regarding the meeting would be provided.

The relationship between Harry and Charles has been tense since Harry and his wife Meghan Markle ceased to take part in key royal duties in 2020 and moved to California.

Harry has said we wouldn’t bring either his wife or their two children on the trip without guaranteed security. Once he stopped having royal responsibilities, his protection by the palace in Britain was reduced from full-time to a case-by-case situation.

The English Football Association charges Premier League club Chelsea with 74 breaches of payment rules between 2009-2022.

England’s Football Association has brought 74 charges against Premier League club Chelsea, alleging breaches of its football agents’ regulations, its regulations on working with intermediaries and third-party investment in players’ regulations.

“The conduct that is the subject of the charges ranges from 2009 to 2022 and primarily relates to events which occurred between the 2010-11 to 2015-16 playing seasons,” the FA said in a statement.

The FA did not elaborate on the charges but Chelsea said the matters were “self-reported” by the club after the change in ownership in May 2022.

At the time, the London club was owned by Roman Abramovich, but the Russian billionaire put Chelsea up for sale in 2022 following sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He completed the sale to an investment group led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.

“During a thorough due diligence process prior to completion of the purchase, the ownership group became aware of potentially incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions and other potential breaches of FA rules,” Chelsea said in a statement.

“Immediately upon the completion of the purchase, the club self-reported these matters to all relevant regulators, including the FA.

“The club has demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the club’s files and historical data.

“We will continue working collaboratively with the FA to conclude this matter as swiftly as possible.”

SEOUL, Sept. 11 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Thursday that last week’s “perplexing” immigration raid at a Hyundai electric battery plant in Georgia, which led to the detention of more than 300 South Korean workers, could prevent firms from making future investments in the United States.

“Companies will have to worry about whether establishing a local factory in the United States will be subject to all sorts of disadvantages or difficulties,” Lee said at a press conference in Seoul marking his 100th day in office.

“That could have a significant impact on future direct investment,” he said.

Multiple agencies led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 475 people, most of whom are South Korean nationals, at a Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions battery plant near Savannah, Ga., last Thursday.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations officials said those who were detained are not authorized to work in the United States. The raid was the largest single-site operation so far under U.S. President Donald Trump‘s mass deportation agenda.

The roundup, which came less than two weeks after Lee met with Trump in the White House, has sparked widespread public shock and anger in South Korea. In July, Seoul and Washington reached a trade deal to lower Trump’s threatened tariffs from 25% to 15%, while South Korea pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States.

“The situation is extremely perplexing,” Lee said, noting that South Korean firms regularly send skilled workers for short stays to help establish overseas factories.

“These are not long-term workers,” he said. “When setting up facilities and equipment, you need skilled technicians. You need to install the machinery and the U.S. doesn’t have the workforce locally.”

Lee added that Seoul is currently negotiating with Washington to address the visa situation through potential waivers, additional quotas or new visa categories for Korean workers.

“If the United States sees a practical need, I think the issue will be resolved,” he said. “Under the current circumstances, Korean companies will be very hesitant to make direct investments in the United States.”

Some 316 South Korean nationals and 14 foreigners will return to Seoul on a charter plane departing at 1 a.m. local time on Friday, Lee said.

The flight, initially planned for Wednesday, was delayed due to U.S. officials insisting on transporting the workers in handcuffs, Lee added. He said Seoul protested and Washington reversed its stance, citing an “instruction from the White House.”

The island of 10 million’s worsening energy and economic crisis has led to a series of ‘frustrating’ grid collapses.

Another total electricity blackout has struck Cuba, the latest in a string of grid collapses that have rocked the island of 10 million over the past year.

The island-wide outage, which hit just after 9am local time on Wednesday, is believed to be linked to a malfunction at one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said.

The ministry said crews had been dispatched to build a microsystem capable of providing basic services, and were prioritising the return of electricity to essential sites such as hospitals and food production plants.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero also made an appearance on state TV at Cuba’s state-run power company, asking Cubans for their trust and promising that electricity would be restored gradually.

Cuba’s worsening economic and energy crisis has led to repeated daily blackouts and full grid outages. In March, a breakdown at a substation in the capital, Havana, led to rolling blackouts across the island, with three more blackouts occurring late last year.

Across Havana, traffic lights were down as people scurried around to buy groceries and basic goods before dark. Pumps supplying the capital’s apartments with water rely on electricity.

Havana resident Danai Hernandez told Al Jazeera she had left work to prepare her home for the blackout. “We just have to wait. There’s no other choice,” she said.

“We’re cooking with wood and charcoal, so we have to adjust our schedules,” resident Ernesto Gutierrez told Al Jazeera. “It’s complicated, stressful, and frustrating, too.”

Cuba’s energy supply crisis has deteriorated in recent years because of US sanctions, which prevent it from holding sufficient foreign currency to upgrade or repair fast-ageing plants that have been in use for more than three decades.

Havana has tried to fill the gap by renting floating Turkish power ships and installing Chinese-funded solar parks. Some wealthier families have installed rechargeable devices and solar panels in their homes.

Still, the blackouts have prompted rare protests, with crowds flooding the second-largest city of Santiago last year.

Roughly 200,000 Palestinians have fled besieged Gaza City in recent weeks, according to Israeli military estimates reported by Israeli media, with tens of thousands departing in recent days as military operations intensify.

Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have denounced Israel’s escalating offensive in northern Gaza, warning of “catastrophic and irreversible consequences” for Palestinian civilians.

Israel has issued renewed forced evacuation directives for approximately one million people to evacuate Gaza City, where it has stepped up bombardment of high-rise buildings while preparing for the next phase of military action in what it claims is Hamas’s final stronghold. On Wednesday, the Israeli military announced imminent increases in targeted strikes near Gaza City.

Palestinians are being forced to move southward, where hundreds of thousands already endure overcrowded tent settlements that Israel periodically strikes.

Many residents decline to leave, citing exhaustion and a lack of resources.

“There is no safe zone in the Gaza Strip,” said Fawzi Muftah, as people travelled with vehicles loaded with possessions. “Danger is everywhere.”

Amal Sobh, displaced with 30 family members, including 13 orphans, recounted being stranded after their vehicle broke down without fuel.

“We do not have good blankets or good bedding, and winter is coming. What do we do for our children? We do not even have a proper tent to shelter us,” said Sobh, whose husband was arrested during the conflict.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 126 Palestinians, including 26 children, have died from malnutrition-related conditions since famine was declared in Gaza City on August 22. Throughout the war, 404 people, including 141 children, have perished from malnutrition.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,656 people and wounded 163,503 since October 2023, with tens of thousands more believed to be trapped beneath rubble.

Sept. 11 (UPI) — A coalition of House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle has voted to repeal laws authorizing the United States’ use of force in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, which critics say has been abused by presidents.

The bipartisan amendment attached to the annual National Defense Authorization Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives in a 261-167 vote on Wednesday. Forty-nine Republicans joined 167 Democrats to pass the bill.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., a sponsor of the bill, described the decades-old authorizations as “long obsolete” and at risk of abuse by administrations of either party.

“It’s time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority over matters of war and peace,” the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force was originally passed by Congress following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. However, it has been used by administrations since to justify military strikes, including during the first Trump administration to justify the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

The vote also comes on the heels of President Donald Trump using the military to attack a drug smuggling vessel earlier this month and Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this summer.

The proposal to repeal the AUMF was part of the $892.6 billion NDAA, which passed the House on Wednesday in a 231-196 vote, with only 17 Democrats giving it their approval.

Planet Labs has collected satellite images that show just the level of precision in yesterday’s unprecedented Israeli airstrike on a Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar. The IAF hit a compound where negotiators for the terror group were meeting to consider a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by the U.S. government. You can read our initial reporting on that incident here.

The images offer views of what that compound looked like before and after the attack. The one taken after the attack shows it was confined to a cluster of five buildings without damage to surrounding structures. The building in the lower right corner of the compound appears to have suffered the most damage, but other areas of the compound are clearly affected too. This includes a small structure that sits near a pool being destroyed. The buildings right next to the compound seemed to have emerged largely unscathed.

You can see a street view of the strike in the following video.

Israeli officials said the Doha strike was carried out by 15 Israeli fighter jets, firing 10 precision munitions against a single target, the BBC reported, citing Israeli media. We don’t know at the moment what weapons were used.

Qatar and its U.S. guests have very advanced air defense systems and sensors that would provide prior alert to an impending attack, in most circumstances. With standoff munitions launched at distance the most likely means of attack, why there was no attempt to intercept these weapons if they were of unknown origin isn’t clear. The use of F-35s is possible here, as well, which may have been able to make closer proximity standoff attacks, but Israel has F-15 and F-16-launched weapons capable of reaching hundreds of miles and strike with pinpoint accuracy.

The U.S. military spotted Israeli jets flying east toward the Persian Gulf but had little time to react, according to Axios.

“The U.S. sought clarification, but by the time Israel provided it, missiles were already in the air,” the publication reported, citing three U.S. officials.

At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump “was informed of the impending strike by his military and alerted Qatar’s leadership,” White House spokesperson Karonline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

So exactly what the U.S. knew about the impending strike and when, and when Qatar was informed, remains disputed at this time.

Qatari officials complained that they only found out about the attack after it took place. Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said notification from the U.S. only came after explosions were heard in Doha. He did not address why his nation’s air defense system did not pick up the Israeli jets.

The statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless. The call from a U.S. official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha.

— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) September 9, 2025

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, however, said Israeli jets went undetected by radar.

Israel used weapons that were not detected by Qatari air defence radar, says Qatari PM Al Thani: 

“US officials notified Qatar of Israeli attack 10 minutes after the attack began”

pic.twitter.com/X3m22vnOGs

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) September 9, 2025

The Iranian Press TV news outlet questioned why “with many air defense systems present”…the U.S. hadn’t “fired a single shot to defend Qatar against the Israeli invasion.” The U.S. military’s largest salvo of Patriot interceptors took place at Al Udeid back in June, defending against an Iranian missile barrage. You can read more about that here.

As we previously reported, the widely condemned strike targeted Hamas leadership but killed five lower-level Hamas negotiators instead. Now it appears some Israeli officials are trying to distance themselves from that attack.

“Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who has led Israel’s ceasefire negotiations for months, told U.S. officials that he was unaware of the specific strike plan when he met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff one day earlier, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous officials.

“David Barnea, the Mossad director who has played a key role in ceasefire talks, told US and Qatari mediators that he had no prior knowledge of the strikes and learned about them as they took place,” the network added. “But two other Israeli sources familiar with the discussions told CNN that Barnea was aware of the plans and had questioned the wisdom of carrying out the strikes at the same time as the U.S. was launching a new attempt to restart negotiations.

As the cable network noted, it is “highly unlikely that either official would have been unaware of the planning and decision-making to carry out such a high-profile strike.”

In an exclusive interview with CNN on Wednesday, Al Thani expressed outrage at the attack, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to be brought to justice,” and that Arab nations were working on what steps to take next.

“There is a response that will happen from the region,” he told the network. “This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” Al Thani said. An Arab-Islamic summit will be held in Doha in the coming days, where the participants will decide on a course of action.”

Qatar’s PM to CNN:

There will be a “collective response” to Israel’s strike on Hamas officials in Doha.

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 10, 2025

Al Thani added that Netanyahu is “trying to undermine any chance of stability, any chance of peace” by attacking Hamas’ leadership in Doha. All this leaves the future of negotiations between Israel and Hamas in doubt. Israel is planning a full-scale ground assault on the Palestinian enclave, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in constant bombardment. These attacks follow the surprise Hamas incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 and resulted in the capture of hundreds of hostages, some still in Gaza.

Meanwhile, a day after the Qatar strike, Israel said it carried out airstrikes on targets in Yemen belonging to the Houthi rebels.

“A short while ago, the IAF struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen,” the IDF said on Telegram. “Among the targets struck are military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Houthis’ Military Public Relations Headquarters, and a fuel storage facility that was used by the terrorist regime for terrorist activity.”

⭕️The IDF struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen.

Among the targets struck:
• Military camps in which the Houthi regime gathered intelligence, and planned & executed terrorist attacks against Israel.
• A…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 10, 2025

The IDF claimed that the airstrikes were “conducted in response to attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, including launching UAVs and surface-to-surface missiles toward Israeli territory.”

Israel justified its attack by saying that the Houthis’ public relations department is “responsible for distributing and disseminating propaganda messages in the media, including speeches of Houthis leader Abd al-Malik and spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree’s statements. During the war, the headquarters led the propaganda efforts and the terrorist regime’s psychological terror.”

The military camps that were struck “served the Houthi regime to plan and execute terrorist attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF claimed. “Additionally, the military camps included operation and intelligence rooms.”

The Houthis claim without proof that they deflected most of the attack.

“Our air defenses were able to launch a number of surface-to-air missiles during the confrontation of the Zionist aggression on our country, forcing some combat formations to retreat before carrying out their aggression, and thwarting the majority of the attack, thanks to God,” Saree, a target of the airstrike, stated on X. You can read more about the Houthis’ air defenses in our deep dive here.

دفاعاتُنا الجوية تتصدى في هذه الأثناء للطائرات الإسرائيلية التي تشن عدوانا على بلدِنا.

— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21yemen) September 10, 2025

Video and images emerged on social media showing explosions in the Yemeni capital, followed by flames and trails of smoke.

⚡ Israel bombs houthis

An airstrike was carried out on the Houthi government complex in the capital of Yemen, Sana’a. Media reports indicate hits on the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff buildings.

“Israel’s long arm will reach and strike terrorism anywhere it… pic.twitter.com/v9cHMFClDl

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 10, 2025

🇮🇱🇾🇪 WATCH: Multiple Israeli Airstrikes against Houthis in Sana’a

Footage captures the moment an Israeli strike targeted the area near the Presidential Palace in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, controlled by the Houthis.

The strikes reportedly target military and government buildings… pic.twitter.com/wC0y3gLLRo

— Conflict Dispatch (@ConflictDISP) September 10, 2025

This is the latest in a series of attacks Israel has carried out against the Houthis in response to the Iranian-backed rebel group’s firing missiles and drones at Israel. The Houthis say they are supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and on Sunday, sent a drone that breached Israel’s vaunted multilayered air defenses and slammed into the country’s southern airport. You can see a video of that incident below.

The mystery as to how Israel pulled off its strike in Qatar remains unsolved at this time, but hopefully we will learn more in the coming days about what was truly an unprecedented and highly controversial operation.

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West Africa is becoming a silent powder keg that could explode into a cataclysmic situation in the next few years. As the world’s attention remains focused on Europe and the Indo-Pacific, Islamic extremist organizations are gaining traction and territory along Africa’s “coup belt.”

Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, all ruled by pro-Russian military juntas, are facing military defeats and setbacks by al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates. A spillover of the conflict could create a domino effect not only on the African continent but also in Europe and among various regional and world powers, all of which have vested interests in Africa.

Jihadist Foothold in the Maghreb

The Sahel region is haunted by a lack of political leadership, miscommunication amongst regional neighbors, and persistent military coups that have allowed extremist organizations to flourish. In the early 2010s, al-Qaeda’s Maghreb branch, AQIM, suffered degradation from counterterrorism operations in Algeria but found reinvigorated life from Mali’s instability.

Taking advantage of the 2012 Tuareg rebellion in Mali, jihadist groups affiliated with AQIM rapidly captured major Malian cities in the North and threatened to march South. In response to the jihadist threat, the West would conduct two major French-led interventions in Serval and Barkhane that pushed the al-Qaeda-led extremist factions back but did not defeat them fully.

Several Islamist militia factions and AQIM would formally merge to form Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) in 2017 to combat Malian, West African (ECOWAS), and Western forces, along with consolidating their remaining held areas. Using a lack of control on other neighboring borders, JNIM and later ISIS would spill over the insurgency into Burkina Faso, Niger, and others.

Rise of the Russian-Backed Juntas and Wagner Group Atrocities

The fight against JNIM and ISIS would take a major turn due to the rise of the coup belt, which is a domino effect of unstable governments being ousted by military officers, which led to hostile juntas across West Africa. Since 2020, coups have frequently taken place in Mali, Niger, Chad, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Gabon.

The blowback from the repeated coups became detrimental to countering ISIS and JNIM, as the military juntas refused cooperation with Western states that had the capabilities to target jihadists, train fledgling African militaries, and provide valuable intelligence. The Malian junta particularly ended collaboration with France and demanded a French withdrawal from their country, which Paris started in 2022, while the government denied being forced to leave.

Furthermore, the United States would lose its largest drone base on the continent in Niger as the Nigerian junta broke off military cooperation with Washington and demanded a withdrawal. The drift between the junta and the West left a powder keg that Russia would soon exploit.

The Kremlin dispatched the Wagner Group/Afrika Corps to prop up the juntas in the coup belt in a deal to provide ‘protection’ in return for resources. Outside of gas and oil, Russia also uses the black-market illicit resource trade from Africa to help fund its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian mercenaries are enshrined in atrocities along the coup belt, such as wholesale massacres of villages in Mali, sexual assaults, and using locals as slave labor to extract minerals. Furthermore, the presence of Russian mercenaries is turning Africa into another front of the Russo-Ukrainian War as Kyiv’s special forces conduct clandestine operations against the Afrika Korps in the region.

The Russian-backed Juntas Are Rapidly Losing Control

The aforementioned drift between regional blocs such as ECOWAS and Western states capable of providing resources that West African nations don’t have is having a detrimental effect on combating extremism in the region. In Mali, the brutality of the military junta and aligned African Corps mercenaries is now having a blowback, as both forces have attempted to subdue Tuareg separatists unsuccessfully.

In late July of 2024, several dozen Wagner and Malian junta soldiers were ambushed by Tuareg militia in Tinzaouaten, marking the deadliest ambush for Russian mercenaries in Africa in several years. Further losses have led to one-third of Malian territory either being contested or controlled by JNIM or ISIS as of 2025.

Niger’s junta government is also facing setbacks from extremist militias. Without U.S. advisors and the drone base supplementing local Niger forces, ISIS’s Sahel-affiliated IS-GS now has a foothold that encompasses Western Niger’s territory. Digressing from ECOWAS and having a diplomatic conflict with Nigeria, Niger no longer has cross-border cooperation on counterinsurgency operations, which Boko Haram, IS-GS, and JNIM are taking advantage of.

Burkina Faso’s security situation is rapidly deteriorating under Ibrahim Traore, the most pro-Russian junta leader in West Africa. Currently, 40% of Burkina Faso’s territory is under the control of or contested by JNIM.

Russia has been unable to stop the advance of the Islamist extremist groups through its Wagner and Africa Corps mercenaries due to several factors. With the war in Ukraine causing a plethora of equipment losses to the Russian military, Moscow has been unable to fulfill defense contracts of weapon exports to their allies and interests in Africa. After losing influence in Syria, the South Caucasus, and, to a lesser extent, Central Asia, the Kremlin could also lose its key West African juntas as their invasion of Ukraine ties down critical assets.

Implications for Africa and Europe

Growing regional instability in West Africa will have looming negative effects for outlying countries in the region. With the junta’s disengagement in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations with more experienced countries, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other extremist groups will continue to grow or perhaps even take over key provincial capitals, as seen with decades of combating extremism in Somalia.

Jihadist groups historically implemented archaic forms of sharia law that include frequent executions for minor infractions. Because of fears of what JNIM and ISIS will implement, along with atrocities committed by the junta, a brewing, exacerbated refugee crisis could unfold in both Africa and Europe.

Russia has used armed conflicts in Africa to its advantage, particularly due to the refugee crisis, which plays into Moscow’s hybrid warfare strategy. Using Islamist insurgencies that fuel the refugee crisis towards Europe plays into the Kremlin’s strategy of attempting to prop up pro-Russian political parties under the guise of anti-migration, as seen in Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, France, and others.

Regional security and stability are crucial to the interests of Africa, the West, and the East. The lack of governance enacted by the juntas, along with their failures in counterinsurgency, is now having negative consequences on the continent. Unless the coup-belt officers turn course and allow regional coordination to combat al-Qaeda and ISIS, the jihadists will continue to gain ground and perhaps create a major base of operations not seen since ISIS’s ‘caliphate’ that stretched across large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Sept. 11 (UPI) — At least three people are dead and 90 are injured following the explosion of a gas tanker in Mexico City, officials said.

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada Molina announced the casualty toll online, listing all 90 people who were injured and the hospitals where they were being treated. Ages of the victims ranged from 6 months to 60 years old.

At least 10 people have been discharged from the hospital, she said.

Earlier, before any fatalities had been reported and when only 57 people were known to be injured, she said 19 were listed in serious condition.

The tanker exploded under Concordia Bridge, resulting in a fire.

“The roadways remain closed to traffic and there are disruptions in public transportation of the area,” she said on X, while posting pictures showing victims being loaded onto police helicopters and the smoking wreckage of the tanker.

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo of Mexico expressed her “solidarity and support” to the families of the three deceased victims and to those of the injured.

“Likewise, I express my recognition to the emergency services that are supporting in this unfortunate incident,” she said in a statement, adding federal agencies were responding to the explosion.

Here are the key events on day 1,295 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Thursday, September 11:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched a “massive” attack across Ukraine, with 415 drones and 40 cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Wednesday.
• Ukrainian forces destroyed more than 380 Russian drones, including at least 250 Shahed drones, Zelenskyy added in a later post.
• Russia’s TASS state news agency said that a man who was injured by a Ukrainian drone while driving a truck has died in hospital, according to Ruslan Khomenko, the head of the Kherson region’s Aleshkinsky district.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said that its forces shot down 225 Ukrainian drones and a guided missile in a 24-hour period, TASS reported.

Regional security

• Poland’s state news agency PAP reported that the remains of a third drone were found in the country’s Swietokrzyskie province after Polish and NATO forces shot down suspected Russian drones that entered Poland’s airspace on Wednesday.
• United States President Donald Trump offered his first reaction to Russia’s drone incursion into Poland, posing the question: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?” and exclaiming: “Here we go!” on his Truth Social platform.
• Trump also spoke with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday afternoon, “regarding the repeated violation of Polish airspace by Russian drones, which occurred last night”, according to a post on X by the Polish leader.
• US ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker went on X to write: “We stand by our NATO Allies in the face of these airspace violations and will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the Polish allegations as “myths” while Moscow’s Defence Ministry stressed that “there were no plans to hit any targets in Poland”, and expressed readiness to hold consultations with Polish counterparts.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he has received “proposals for concrete support for the air defence of our country”, after speaking with the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Ukraine and NATO.
• French President Emmanuel Macron said that the intrusion of “numerous” Russian drones into Polish airspace was “unacceptable” and showed “further evidence of Russia’s escalatory stance”.
• Macron also said he had an “excellent phone call” with President Trump, about the “troubling developments in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, particularly following Russian drone incursions into Poland”.

Military aid

• David McGuinty, Canada’s minister of national defence, said his country delivered eight Armoured Combat Support Vehicles (ACSVs) to Poland, which “are on their way to Ukraine”.
• The UK said it would mass-produce Ukrainian-designed interceptor drones to help Ukraine counter Russian missiles and one-way attack drones.

Sanctions

• President Zelenskyy said that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had informed him about work with the US on strengthening sanctions against Russia.
• US Republican Congressman Joe Wilson introduced a bill to reimpose Soviet-era trade restrictions on Russia, “after the attack on Poland”.
• The European Commission is considering listing some independent Chinese oil refineries in its 19th package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, with the possibility of the proposal coming as soon as Friday.

Israeli forces killed more than 70 people in Gaza on Wednesday and launched deadly attacks on Yemen after earlier strikes on Hamas delegation in Doha, Qatar.