The Rest of the World Report | September 23, 2026 — Morning Edition
The View From Everywhere Else
Weekday morning and evening editions. Saturdays once. Good news on Sundays. All sources labeled.
TRADED STRIKES
Russia launched a multi-pronged overnight attack across at least four Ukrainian regions. It fired anti-ship missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and 161 attack drones. Ukrainian air defenses say they shot down or jammed 119 of the drones. The strikes killed at least 10 people and wounded 53 across Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, and Sumy regions, according to a Sept. 23 update from Ukrainian officials. A separate strike hit a commercial cargo ship flying the Antigua and Barbuda flag in Odesa. “A fire broke out and the ship’s captain, a Ukrainian citizen, was killed,” said Oleh Kiper, the regional governor. The rest of the crew was evacuated.
Ukraine struck back at Russia’s energy infrastructure. Its forces hit the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, southeast of Moscow, with drones, sparking a large fire. The Rosneft-owned facility produces gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil for central Russia. One person died in that strike and four were wounded.
The exchange came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He met separately with President Trump and with US senators. He thanked the senators for what he called strong bipartisan support for Ukraine. Trump told reporters afterward that Ukraine and Russia had already agreed to stop hitting each other’s energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy pushed back on that framing the next day. “We are ready for energy ceasefire if they will not attack our energy system,” he said. But he said there had been no agreement for Ukraine to unilaterally stop striking Russian oil facilities. Any halt has to run both ways, he said. He also said conditions were not right to discuss easing sanctions on Russia. Ukrainians “live every day under the threat of missile and drone attacks,” he said.
Zelenskyy separately said he was ready to sit down with Putin and Trump together. “I’m ready. I’m ready any time when they all decide,” he said. He framed his willingness as a sign he was ready to end the war. Trump told reporters he expected a deal soon. “I think they’re going to reach a deal,” he said. He added that he did not want to say what the deal would be. He said he and Putin discuss the war often. French President Emmanuel Macron used his own UNGA remarks to propose a narrower truce. It would halt strikes on energy infrastructure and impose a moratorium on Black Sea attacks, short of a full ceasefire.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: Trump described an energy-strikes deal as done. Zelenskyy said the next day that no such one-sided deal exists, only a conditional offer that depends on Russia reciprocating. That gap, not the UN photo opportunities, is what will actually move oil markets and set the terms for winter.
Sources: Kyiv Independent (Ukraine — Sept. 23 casualty and drone figures, Kiper quote); KSAT/AP (US wire — strike details, Kuibyshev refinery strike); Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — Zelenskyy’s Sept. 23 quotes disputing Trump’s deal claim); TRT World (Turkey, state-funded — Zelenskyy trilateral-meeting quote); The Jerusalem Post/Reuters (Israel/US wire — Trump’s deal and Putin-meeting quotes); Local 10/AP (US wire — Macron truce terms)
BAB EL-MANDEB
Houthi fighters are battling forces loyal to the Yemeni government’s Presidential Leadership Council for control of the Kahboub Mountains. The range sits roughly 40 kilometers from the Bab el-Mandeb strait, overlooking Mayyun Island in the Red Sea. The fighting has intensified since the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha on September 10 and 11. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the advance covered roughly 2,100 square miles of territory.
Analysts said the mountains matter less as a launch point than as cover. “The mountains are the natural wall that protects the Houthis’ rear on the coast,” said Faozi Al-Goidi, a Yemen analyst. Holding the peaks would block government forces from hitting Houthi coastal positions from behind. It would also let the group threaten supply lines into the contested city of Taiz, analysts said.
The toll has been severe. At least 674 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 wounded since August 6, according to World Health Organization and United Nations figures. Between 125,000 and 158,000 people have been displaced since the fall of Mocha alone, per the International Organization for Migration. “Some kids were hit in their spines and are facing a lifetime of disability,” said Shaef al-Jabri, a Yemeni aid worker in Taiz. A local official with Yemen’s Human Access said the city now holds more than 30 displacement camps. Those camps house some 10,000 families. Saudi Arabia has responded with hundreds of its own airstrikes. The World Food Programme’s Carl Skau said earlier this month that women in Houthi-held areas were already going a full day or more without eating. That was before this latest round of fighting even began.
The New York Times reported that President Trump ordered the Pentagon to prepare airstrikes on the Houthis. The order came after a call last Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Military commanders approved target lists and troops began loading bombs onto aircraft. Trump then reversed the decision by Sunday midday, calling off the strikes before they launched. Reuters separately confirmed the basic facts of the reversal. It said it could not independently verify every detail in the Times’s account.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: The Houthis now hold ground overlooking one of the world’s busiest oil shipping routes. The World Food Programme says that route carries twelve percent of global trade. Washington came close to striking the Houthis this week before pulling back at the last minute. That reversal has not been explained publicly.
Sources: Al Jazeera and Al Jazeera (Qatar, state-funded/editorially independent — Kahboub fighting, casualty and displacement figures, analyst quote); NPR (US — Mocha capture details, displacement figures, aid-worker quote); WFDD/NPR (US — Carl Skau remarks, Sept. 8); The Jerusalem Post (Israel — New York Times strike-order and cancellation reporting, Reuters partial confirmation)
THE MOVE
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham gave his debut address to the UNGA this week. He announced a new “National Centre for Information Defence” and accused Russia of running a large-scale disinformation campaign against Britain. Burnham said the Kremlin spends roughly £1.3 billion a year on the effort, using bots, fake websites, and forged branding from 28 British organizations. He also alleged Russia tried to interfere in the UK’s 2019 general election. Russian agencies had “used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation,” Burnham said, preying on people’s fears. He said Britain would help other nations, citing Moldova, build similar defenses.
Separately, at the same UN gathering, Trump was asked about a UK-led sanctions push against Israeli settlements while meeting with Burnham. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband had unveiled the sanctions on September 8, outlawing trade with West Bank settlements. Miliband cited what he called unchecked settler violence and Israel’s advancement of the E1 settlement construction project. Eleven other Western governments joined the measure.
Asked about the sanctions in front of Burnham, Trump told reporters, “I don’t know about the move. Do you know about the move?” His own administration had already said otherwise. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said days earlier that Washington had been made aware the UK was planning the move. Rubio said the US had heard London’s reasoning in advance. A Western official went further. The official told the Times of Israel that Burnham called Trump personally before the sanctions were announced. Trump made no request that London hold off, the official said. Israel has pressed Washington to intervene against the sanctions since they were unveiled two weeks ago. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee had earlier warned the UK would face “significant consequences” for the move. No American action against the sanctions has followed.
🇺🇸 What American readers need to know: Two separate accounts say the administration knew about the settlement sanctions before they landed. One is Trump’s own secretary of state. The other is a British official describing a direct call with Burnham. Trump’s public claim of ignorance came in front of the ally whose government gave that notice.
Sources: LBC (UK — Burnham’s disinformation speech and quote); Times of Israel (Israel, right-centre — sanctions timeline, Trump quote, Huckabee warning); Times of Israel (Israel, right-centre — Rubio account, Western official’s account of the Burnham-Trump call)
BRIEFS
Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan on September 21 that it said killed 28 militants. Kabul said the strikes killed three civilians instead. Sources: NBC News (US wire); Business Standard (India)
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola epidemic has surpassed 7,600 confirmed cases and 3,699 deaths across seven provinces, health authorities confirmed this week. Sources: Africanews (Pan-African)
North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles off its east coast within a three-hour span on September 20, South Korea’s military said. The launches came amid rising tensions with the United States, according to South Korean officials. Sources: CNN (US wire)
NUMBERS AT PUBLICATION
🇮🇷 Iran: 3,684 killed
🇱🇧 Lebanon: 8,953 killed, 30,643 wounded
🇮🇱 Israel: 1,200+ killed, ~5,400 wounded
🇺🇸 US military: 23 killed, 794 wounded
🇵🇸 Gaza: 74,015+ killed, 4,839 wounded (since ceasefire)
🇵🇸 West Bank: 322 killed (incl. 74 children), 5,927 wounded (incl. 946 children) since January 2025
🛢️ Brent crude: $99.28/barrel
⛽ US gas: $4.47/gallon
Sources: HRANA (Iran); Lebanon MOPH; INSS (Israel); DCAS (US); OCHA (West Bank); gazacasualties.org (Gaza total); Al Jazeera (Gaza since ceasefire); OilPrice.com (Brent); AAA (US gas).
“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1789