People protesting against Germany’s far-right AfD party in Berlin on Sept 12, after the party won the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt by a landslide on Sept 6.BERLIN - Tens of thousands of protesters took part in demonstrations across Germany on Sept 12 against the far-right AfD, after the party scored a crushing victory in a state election last week.The Alternative for Germany (AfD) topped the vote in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt, and is now seeking to form the first extreme-right state government in Germany since World War II.About 150,000 demonstrators took to the streets in around 20 cities nationwide, including Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, in protests that were called by Pruef, which advocates for a ban on the AfD, organisers said.They waved signs emblazoned with slogans that read “Ban the AfD now,” and “Democracy needs no alternatives”.“A broad cross-section of civil society is taking to the streets to prevent the enemies of the constitution, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, from gaining government power,” said Christoph Bautz, head of campaign group Campact, also involved in the demonstrations.The rise of the AfD has unnerved many who feel Germany has a special responsibility to atone for its Nazi past, and calls have grown for mainstream parties to seek to ban the group.But hurdles for a formal ban are high in Germany, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of the centre-right CDU party, remains sceptical about taking such an approach.In Berlin, police said several thousand protesters took part in several demonstrations.The AfD held a counter-demonstration in the capital, attended by Kristin Brinker, its lead candidate in next weekend’s regional elections in Berlin.Campact said there were around 25,000 demonstrators in Hamburg and 12,000 in Munich.The anti-immigration, Russia-friendly party took almost 44 per cent of the vote in a Sept 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt, against 17 per cent for the CDU.It fell three seats short of an absolute majority, and has started talks with other groups and MPs in an effort to form a state government. AFP
Read briefing Air traffic in Brussels was disrupted for half an hour on Sept 11, officials said on Sept 12, after a drone was spotted.BRUSSELS - Traffic at Brussels airport was disrupted for half an hour on the evening of Sept 11 after a drone was spotted, air traffic control operator Skeyes said on Sept 12, almost a year after a string of similar sightings caused major concern in the country.The drone procedure was launched, which includes an interruption of traffic at the runway until 30 minutes after the last sighting, spokesperson Kurt Verwilgen said.He declined to give any details on the kind of drone it was or how many flights were diverted.In November 2025, Belgian authorities announced the purchase of defensive kamikaze drones from a Latvian company after a string of such incursions near civilian airports, military bases and a nuclear power plant in the previous weeks caused disruptions and raised safety concerns.Belgian officials at the time had said the incursions bore the hallmark of Russian interference, while acknowledging they had no proof. Russia denied any involvement. REUTERS
Read briefing KYIV, Sept 12 - Ukraine is bracing for a brutal winter as intensified Russian attacks on the country's infrastructure and key export industries compound a deepening budget crisis, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.Economy Minister Oleksandr Kravchenko said that damage to infrastructure and fixed assets from Russian air strikes was estimated at close to $10 billion this year, while the broader economic costs of the attacks and the de facto blockage of its ports were seen at about 1.5 percentage points of gross domestic product."We anticipate a very difficult winter in terms of both critical infrastructure, which is being destroyed every day by Russian attacks, but also in terms of overall economic conditions in the country," Kravchenko said."This all comes when the budget and the fiscal space are very constrained," he told investors, officials and diplomats at a YES conference in Kyiv.With fighting on the front line largely stalled more than 4-1/2 years into the war in Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine have increasingly targeted logistics networks and other economic assets in an effort to undermine each other's war effort.For more than two weeks, Russia has carried out near constant attacks on Kyiv using faster jet-powered drones, disrupting life, business and government operations.Moscow has also effectively blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports by intensifying its air attacks on the country's southern regions.About $40 billion in export revenue is at risk as a result of the blockade, Kravchenko said. Ukraine's main exports - agricultural products and iron and steel - are shipped via its Black Sea ports.As Russian attacks damage infrastructure and industry, domestic budget revenue has begun to come under pressure.Domestic revenue underperformed by $1.35 billion in the first eight months of the year, with a quarter of those losses recorded in August alone, said Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the parliamentary budget committee.She said the war was becoming increasingly expensive and Ukraine could no longer fully finance its defence needs from domestic resources, as it had in previous years.Ukraine spent about $42 billion on its defence in the first eight months of the year, excluding in-kind military support. However, domestic revenue generation and local borrowing yielded only $39 billion in this period, Pidlasa said."Unfortunately, this year the war has gotten so expensive that we can't even cover our share of the costs," she said at the conference.The daily cost of the war grew to about $190 million this year compared with $140 million in 2024 due to inflation, expanded troop numbers, mounting social payments for families of fallen soldiers, and higher ammunition consumption, she added.Ukraine faces an additional funding gap through the end of this year for its defence. The government is looking for ways to cut or postpone non-military budget spending and is negotiating with its Western partners on more financial support, but so far no clear and fast solution has been found. REUTERS
Read briefing A police officer standing near the body of a resident who was killed in his car by a Russian drone strike, in the front-line city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Sept 12.KYIV - Russian air strikes in several Ukrainian regions on Sept 12 killed six people, injured dozens and damaged residential buildings and infrastructure across the country, officials said.The civilian death toll has risen sharply in Ukraine over the past two months as Russia steps up attacks on power plants and other infrastructure. Ukraine has hit energy facilities and warehouses in distant parts of Russia and both sides have targeted each others’ shipping.The governor of Ukraine’s Zhytomyr Region, west of Kyiv, Vitaliy Bunechko, said a Russian strike on a grocery store killed two people in the town of Zvyahel. Two petrol stations also came under attack as well as an unidentified “enterprise with foreign investment”, he said.Firefighters dealing with the aftermath of a Russian drone strike at a railway station in Lutsk, Ukraine, on Sept 12.Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and in his home town of Kryvyi Rih.Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov said two people were killed and 11 injured in assaults on Zaporizhzhia and other localities.A residential building targeted by a Russian air strike, in Odesa, southern Ukraine, on Sept 12.Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih’s military administration, said two people had been killed in overnight attacks on the city by drones and missiles.The Russian military said its forces hit Ukrainian steel maker Zaporizhstal in the city of Zaporizhzhia, an Interpipe Steel complex in Dnipro, and several plants in Kryvyi Rih, including the Northern Iron Ore Beneficiation Works complex.Police experts examining the remains of a private home in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, where two people died in an air strike early on Sept 12.In the Odesa region, governor Oleh Kiper, said 37 people, including an infant, had been injured in a series of overnight attacks. Two people were missing.The Russian Defence Ministry said Moscow’s forces had maintained their strikes on Ukrainian ports, hitting a cargo ship in Odesa it said was carrying goods for military use.Earlier in the day, the ministry said its forces had struck two cargo vessels overnight in the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.Ukraine’s military said it hit one of Russia’s largest synthetic rubber producers in Togliatti in the Samara region, causing a fire. The Togliattikauchuk plant specialised in the production of synthetic rubbers and fuel additives that are used in fuel for Russian missiles, it said.Russian regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said industrial facilities in Samara region had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, without specifying which they were or whether they had been damaged, Interfax news agency reported.Ilya Sukhikh, mayor of the city of Togliatti in Samara region, said several residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.In a separate attack, four commercial properties were set ablaze in the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region, local mayor Svetlana Kambulova said, according to TASS. REUTERS
Read briefing Houthi supporters celebrating the advances made by Iran-backed Houthi forces, in Sana’a, Yemen, on Sept 11. After a week-long offensive, the Houthis have seized the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.SANA’A - The Iran-backed Houthis seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast and captured three strategic islands on Sept 11, in a lightning offensive that cemented their hold on a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia.The developments are likely to deepen the Middle East war’s impact on international commerce, as Saudi Arabia shut down an oil pipeline following attacks, and after months of Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.Following a week-long offensive that has left hundreds dead, government officials said the Houthis seized the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.A local official with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said on Sept 11 that the Houthis had “completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island”.A government military official later reported the group had also seized Greater and Lesser Hanish, the last two islands in the narrow waterway not under their control, as well as all of the neighbouring Red Sea coastline.“Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen,” the military official added.A witness told AFP that gunmen were “deploying along the Bab al-Mandab shore and are driving around in military vehicles”.The capture of the islands, particularly Mayyun in the middle of the strait, heightens the Houthis’ ability to attack Saudi tankers, which they have been targeting since July.Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea ever since Iran’s Hormuz blockade choked off its shipments via the Gulf.Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, congratulated the Houthis on their “resounding victory” on Sept 11.Farea Al-Muslimi, research fellow at Chatham House, told AFP: “Now the Iranians don’t only control... the Strait of Hormuz, but they control the other most strategic chokepoint in the Middle East.”Oil prices have soared past US$100 a barrel this week, while average US diesel prices topped US$6 (S$7.60) for the first time on Sept 11 – a potential headache for President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections.The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait was “safe” for all but Saudi Arabia following the latest advances.Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea delivering a televised statement in Sana'a, Yemen, on Sept 11.The Houthi offensive has killed more than 500 people, according to sources on both sides.It has also displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Sept 11.It is part of renewed hostilities in Yemen’s civil war that began with the group’s takeover of the capital Sanaa in 2014.Houthi supporter Abdulhamid Dhaifallah lauded the group’s “great victories” in and along the strait.“They have been preparing for this front for four years,” the Sanaa resident said.A video screengrab from Sept 10 shows Houthis inspecting wreckage which they say is an armed Saudi Arabian reconnaissance drone, in a location given as Hajjah, Yemen.Satellite images from Copernicus Sentinel Data taken on Sept 10 showed black smoke billowing near Medina, along the general route of the east-west pipeline that carries Saudi oil to its Red Sea coast.The Saudi energy ministry on Sept 11 announced that attacks led to the closure of the pipeline – which it had been increasingly using to bypass Hormuz – adding that injuries were recorded.“The East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions was subjected to several attacks on Thursday morning,” a ministry official told the SPA news agency, adding: “The pipeline was stopped as a precaution, and the attacks resulted in some injuries.”Before the Red Sea offensive, the Houthis already controlled a large part of Yemen’s north.They have recently attacked government-held areas in Hodeida and Taiz provinces and swept down the coast, seizing the port city of Mokha and Zuqar Island, north of Bab al-Mandab, on Sept 10.Mohamed, 46, who fled Mokha in the middle of the night, told AFP there was an “apocalyptic” atmosphere in the historic city.On Sept 11, the spokesman for the Yemeni government forces, Majed Abdullah Al-Nazili, said they had begun shelling areas along the Taiz-Mokha road, while residents told AFP they heard airstrikes.While Saudi Arabia has also hit back with airstrikes and ordered troop reinforcements from Aden, where the internationally recognised government is based, it has failed to stop the Houthis’ advance.Houthi media said two Saudi strikes hit Mokha’s airport on Sept 11, while a local official said the city’s seaport was hit by six missiles of unknown origin.“I think the Saudis have tried everything they can to avoid this war, but I don’t think they have any more choice,” said Al-Muslimi.
Read briefing RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 11 - Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, will renew his push for the United States to reinstate sanctions on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act during a Washington visit next week, he told Reuters on Friday.The move comes amid an unusually close election campaign for president in Brazil, where Eduardo's brother Flavio Bolsonaro is statistically tied in run-off polls against incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Eduardo Bolsonaro has been actively promoting his brother's campaign."The Magnitsky matter itself is something we have been working on for over a year now. So, it is not an election-related issue," said Eduardo Bolsonaro, declining to disclose details of his agenda during the visit.The younger Bolsonaro, a former Brazilian congressman, has led a campaign against the justice, pushing for him to face sanctions for his role in overseeing the trial that led to his father's conviction and imprisonment for attempting a coup after losing his 2022 re-election bid.The Global Magnitsky Act allows the U.S. to impose economic penalties against foreigners it considers to have a record of corruption or human rights abuses. In July of last year, U.S. President Donald Trump sanctioned Moraes, calling the trial against former President Jair Bolsonaro a "witch hunt."Moraes' wife was later sanctioned, but in December the sanctions were lifted after a diplomatic push by Brazil's government.Eduardo Bolsonaro, living in the U.S. and convicted by Moraes in a separate case, now sees room for a reinstatement of the sanctions after an investigation raised suspicions that Moraes made improper contact with a banker who allegedly led a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Read briefing PARIS, Sept 11 - A train derailed between Rouen and Caen in northern France, injuring around 20 people on Friday evening at around 7:54 p.m., French authorities said.The train was carrying 180 passengers and went off the rails near to the town of Cleon in Normandy, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said in a post on X.There are 140 firefighters at the scene to help the injured and the passengers, he added.The local authority, the prefecture of Seine-Maritime, advised the public to avoid the area. REUTERS
Read briefing Sept 11 - An Afghan woman accused of supporting the Islamic State has been deported from the United States in the first case to be pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice through a little-known court created 30 years ago to deport "alien terrorists."Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old who had been residing in Texas as a lawful permanent resident of the United States, was deported after agreeing not to continue to fight against her removal in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court following her arrest in July, the department said on Friday.The Justice Department had accused her of helping conceal a failed, Islamic State-inspired plot to commit a mass shooting on Election Day 2024. She was never charged with any crime, but her son and son-in-law pleaded guilty to related charges last year.Her case had been filed in a court that had gone unused in the decades since its creation by Congress in 1996. That court allows the government to rely on classified evidence in deportation cases.Her attorney initially argued the secretive process violated her due process rights. Defendants in such cases are not allowed to review the classified evidence used against them.But according to court documents unsealed on Friday, Haji Zada agreed last month that she was an "alien terrorist" subject to removal. The court's chief judge, Joan Ericksen, subsequently approved her deportation.“This landmark case, resulting in the prompt removal of this alien terrorist to her country of origin, is a win for national security and the rule of law," U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.The case marked the latest in a series of aggressive moves by President Donald Trump's administration to carry out deportations as part of an immigration crackdown.It was unclear, though, whether the Justice Department would use the obscure court again anytime soon.Matthew Farley, a public defender who represented Haji Zada, in a statement said her "choice to consent to removal should not be seen as an endorsement of this court's legitimacy.""Dragging lawful permanent residents into court but refusing to show them or their attorneys the evidence that will be used against them is a plain violation of due process," he said. "We are confident that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court will be struck down as unconstitutional as soon as a judge is asked to address the issue." REUTERS
Read briefing Sept 11 - Anthropic said in a threat intelligence report on Thursday that several actors had used its Claude AI models for activities ranging from weapons development and cyber operations to surveillance and fraud.Here are some of the most notable cases described in the report as alleged by Anthropic.• CHINA-TAIWAN AIR DEFENSES: Anthropic said a China-based actor used Claude to develop an electronic-warfare and air-defense suppression software suite that ranked targets and modeled radar jamming. During the project, the actor changed a simulation to include 12 targets in Taiwan, including early-warning radar, Patriot and Tien Kung missile batteries, air bases and a command bunker. Anthropic said account information linked the actor to Chinese research institutions including the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences. Anthropic banned accounts linked to the actor.China's foreign ministry said it was not aware of the Anthropic report and that the government maintains that AI should be developed for good and opposes distortion of facts and smears against the country.China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.• CHINA ANTI-TORPEDO SYSTEM: Anthropic said another China-based actor used Claude to help develop specifications and fire-control software for an anti-torpedo system intended for the Chinese navy. The actor used Claude to produce a technical proposal of more than 200 pages, compare the system with U.S. Navy technology and simulate hostile technical reviews to improve the proposal. "We assess the actor was associated with a Chinese defense industry manufacturer aiming to produce a weapons specification and acquisition proposal for the People’s Liberation Army Navy," Anthropic said.• CHINESE RESEARCH INTO MICROWAVE WEAPONS: A China-based defense-intelligence actor used Claude to research foreign high-power microwave weapons, identify components and suppliers and trace supply chains, Anthropic said. The actor sought information that could help reverse-engineer the weapons and develop countermeasures, and drafted restricted briefings for senior Chinese Communist Party, military or state-security officials, the company said.• YEMEN MISSILE DEVELOPMENT: Anthropic said a cell of threat actors in northern Yemen used Claude to help develop software for a guided rocket, a planned ballistic missile with a range of more than 2,000 km and a missile variant incorporating a hypersonic glide vehicle. The actors used Claude for coding, simulation and troubleshooting, including after a guided-rocket test appeared to fail. Anthropic said it had no evidence they successfully fielded an operational weapon. "Our safeguards blocked many of their requests, but not all of them," Anthropic said.The disclosure comes as the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, have intensified attacks on Saudi Arabia and its energy infrastructure. The Anthropic report did not identify whether or not the threat actors were Houthis.• RUSSIAN DRONE SWARM: Anthropic said likely freelance Russia-based actors used Claude to develop software for an autonomous swarm of first-person-view attack drones, including terminal guidance, target selection and coordination between multiple aircraft.Small FPV attack drones have become a central weapon in the war in Ukraine, where Russia and Ukraine have deployed them on a vast scale for reconnaissance and strikes.The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to questions about specific allegations made by Anthropic or the report overall.• RUSSIA DUAL-USE COMPONENT PROCUREMENT: Anthropic said a Russia-based procurement manager used Claude to identify intermediaries in China and Hong Kong to acquire European-made goods with potential military uses and work out routes through third countries that could obscure their destination.Items sought included German-made magnetometers, space-grade photovoltaic wafers and aviation oxygen systems, Anthropic said. Russia has increasingly relied on intermediaries and alternative trade routes to obtain foreign technology since Western countries imposed sweeping sanctions and export restrictions following its invasion of Ukraine.Anthropic detailed five case studies of people attempting to use "our models in ways that could support biological weapons development."The attempts included efforts to get Claude assistance on drafting a grant application for funding research on modifying the chikungunya virus in a location where Anthropic does not offer its services. In another case, also in a location where the company does not operate — requiring users to obfuscate their location to utilize the services — Anthropic said it detected efforts to research highly pathogenic avian influenza. Other examples included research related to orthopoxvirus and non-transmissible novel venoms and toxins, Anthropic said.
Read briefing Sept 10 - Anthropic on Thursday said it had disrupted several alleged malicious uses of its Claude models over the past eight months, including a suspected Russia-linked cyber espionage campaign and efforts by Chinese AI firms it accused of trying to extract and replicate Claude's capabilities.Cybercriminals and state-backed hackers were increasingly using AI not just to assist with tasks but to orchestrate and execute large portions of cyberattacks, Anthropic said in its latest Threat Intelligence report, adding that humans were often overseers rather than hands-on operators in the campaigns."A majority of the operations ... were enabled by AI via direct execution or orchestration. The use of AI went beyond simple questions and responses from a chatbot but rather involved the use of multi-agent frameworks executing" tasks, Anthropic said.Anthropic said it had disrupted what it described as attacks from seven China-based labs during that period. Among the labs Anthropic named were tech giant Alibaba, Moonshot, DeepSeek and Xiaomi.Operators it linked to Alibaba ran what Anthropic called the largest "illicit distillation" attack, allegedly aimed at extracting capabilities of Claude models and using them to improve the Chinese tech firm's Qwen models, the company said.Anthropic said it observed more than 151 million exchanges it attributed to Alibaba between May and July 2026, peaking at nearly 3 million per day from more than 3,500 accounts it described as fraudulent.Distillation refers to the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive models in a bid to lower the costs of training a new AI tool.Rather than running bulk queries, Kimi chatbot creator Moonshot and DeepSeek allegedly routed live customer conversations, which sometimes included sensitive information, through Claude and used its responses as training data, Anthropic alleged.A hacking group whose tradecraft was consistent with Russia-based threat actor Midnight Blizzard allegedly ran phishing, hotel Wi-Fi hijacking and WhatsApp-takeover operations against Ukrainian government, military and diplomatic targets, using AI at nearly every stage, Anthropic said.The group allegedly used AI to build a system that automatically detected when its malware was flagged by security defenses and rewrote the code until it evaded detection again REUTERS
Read briefing Sept 10 - The Israeli military destroyed Hezbollah underground infrastructure at the Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday, adding that the operation completed the consolidation of a security zone in the area.Israeli forces would remain in the area to prevent the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militant group from re-establishing its presence and rebuilding its capabilities, the two officials said in a joint statement.The Ali al-Taher ridge, about 15 km (10 miles) from the Israeli border, has become one of the most contested areas of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores there, according to Lebanese security sources who spoke to Reuters in July.Lebanon's state news agency NNA said the Israeli military carried out a powerful blast at the ridge, with tremors and the sound of the explosion felt across Nabatieh and surrounding areas.The Israeli military said its forces had established "operational control" over the ridge, both above and below ground, before dismantling the infrastructure. The network extended for more than 2 km (1.24 miles) and contained dozens of rockets, missiles and drones, as well as anti-tank missiles, mines and explosive devices, it said.The military said a central command complex belonging to Hezbollah's Badr unit was located within the underground infrastructure. The complex contained command centres, weapons storage rooms and living quarters that allowed fighters to remain underground for extended periods, it said.Israel has pushed into southern Lebanon and seized several strategic positions since the conflict erupted on March 2.The ridge has been one of Israel's main operational focuses and lies within an expanded, self-declared Israeli buffer zone in southern Lebanon.A U.S.-brokered framework agreed after a June ceasefire called for Israeli forces to gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon while Lebanese troops disarm Hezbollah. The process has stalled, however, with Hezbollah refusing to give up its weapons and Israel saying it will not withdraw until the group disarms. REUTERS
Read briefing WASHINGTON - The US government announced new sanctions on Sept 10 against firms and individuals that it says are aiding Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in the Middle East as it intensified its campaign to isolate Iran economically.The latest sanctions are part of the Treasury Department’s “Operation Economic Outcast,” first announced on Aug 24, which aim to cut off the revenues that Tehran is using to fund the war, build missiles, conduct cyberattacks and support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.The Sept 10 actions by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit entities and individuals in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey that Washington said supported Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group under the command of the IRGC, and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia party, Treasury said in a statement.Treasury also announced a settlement with a US citizen who agreed to pay US$1.43 million (S$1.8 million) to settle their potential civil liability for 39 apparent violations of sanctions on Iran, and issued a broad whistleblower appeal for tips on any sanctions evasion or money laundering by Iran.OFAC also issued a bulletin making clear that it would deny most Iran-related licensing requests, except in exceptional circumstances, and said its licensing division had immediately begun denying “the vast majority” of outstanding Iran-related specific license requests.“OFAC will maintain this licensing policy until Iran changes its behavior, including obstructing the Strait of Hormuz, attacking US personnel and partners in the Gulf, and pursuing nuclear and conventional weapons,” Treasury said.“Operation Economic Outcast is targeting those who continue to stand with the failing Iranian regime,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.“Whether they finance terror, launder money, or help Iran evade sanctions, we will find them, cut them off from the US financial system, and dismantle the networks keeping the regime afloat.” REUTERS
Read briefing WASHINGTON, Sept 10 - President Donald Trump's administration has brought a number of high-profile cases, some of which have been dropped, dismissed or blocked by judges or juries.The Justice Department dropped its case against former U.S. Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, part of Trump's efforts to remake Washington. In a July 31 court filing, federal prosecutors said evidence pointed to a flawed installation, not vandalism, as causing the liner of the newly renovated pool to peel.Trump, facing criticism over the $14.7 million renovation, had repeatedly blamed the problems on vandals he alleged had sabotaged the project.Hearn, 67, pleaded not guilty to felony destruction of property. He had acknowledged reaching into the pool to touch a section of already detached liner, but denied ever removing a piece. Lawyers for the former Olympic canoeist accused the Trump administration of using the case to provide "political cover" for mismanagement of the project.Christian Garcia was charged with assaulting a federal officer in June 2025 immigration protests in Santa Ana, California. He admitted to throwing a plastic water bottle toward officers but said the wind blew it back onto him.Garcia, 32 at the time, was arrested and held for three days, then lost both his jobs after his bosses told him they had been called by investigators.The Trump administration has brought criminal charges against at least 851 people accused of attacking or impeding federal officers, only to abandon them at an unusually high rate.A Reuters review of federal court records completed in July found that 31% of completed cases had ended in dismissal. That compares to 8% of all federal criminal cases, according to Federal Judicial Center data.Separately, former Justice Department staffer Sean Dunn, who hurled a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent in fury over Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington, was cleared of misdemeanor assault charges in November 2025 after a three-day trial.Prosecutors initially sought felony charges against Dunn, but downgraded the case to a misdemeanor after a grand jury declined to return an indictment, one of several cases in which grand juries refused to indict.New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime Trump critic, was charged in October 2025 with lying on a mortgage application. A federal judge dismissed the criminal charges the following month, saying the Trump-picked U.S. attorney who brought the case was unlawfully appointed.In December, a federal grand jury in Virginia refused to indict James on allegations of mortgage fraud for the second time, according to sources familiar with the matter.James, an elected Democrat, characterized the case as an abuse of the criminal justice system designed to punish her for her criticism of Trump and a lawsuit she led against Trump and his family real estate business.Former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017 as the bureau investigated possible collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, became a harsh critic and frequent target of the president.The Justice Department filed criminal charges against Comey in September 2025 alleging false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation over Comey's 2020 testimony when he addressed Republican criticism of the Russia investigation.In November, a federal judge dismissed charges against Comey, saying the U.S. attorney who brought the case was unlawfully appointed.In April, the Justice Department charged him with threatening Trump by posting a 2025 photo of seashells arranged on a North Carolina beach to show the numbers "86 47."In U.S. parlance, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar, while 47 could be seen as code for Trump, the 47th president. Comey's lawyers said the case was a vindictive prosecution. REUTERS
Read briefing RABAT, Sept 10 - Morocco's foreign ministry said on Thursday that no evidence established involvement of Rabat in the mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July, adding it rejected being drawn into Spain's domestic political battles.More than 70,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, fueling criticism in Spain of both Rabat and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.While most have since returned, over 100 died according to NGOs. Local authorities say thousands, including unaccompanied minors, remain in the enclave, living in makeshift camps or on the streets and beaches, fuelling near-daily protests by residents angry at the Spanish government's handling of the crisis.Spain's opposition parties have since targeted Pedro Sanchez's government's relationship with Morocco and accused Rabat of facilitating or orchestrating the crossing."Why continue to level accusations against Morocco when no evidence, facts, or reports establish any involvement on the part of Moroccan authorities?" the ministry said in a statement."Why are illegal migrants not being returned, even though the Moroccan government has officially committed to readmitting them? Why are unaccompanied minors being kept away from their families, when Morocco has urgently requested their return?" the ministry said.Reports released by the Spanish government on Wednesday showed that Spanish intelligence and security agencies had warned both Madrid and Moroccan counterparts about the possibility of a mass crossing."Morocco refuses to be used as a pre-election political pawn, nor does it accept being made the scapegoat in political score-settling," the ministry said. National elections are due in Spain by mid-2027.The ministry highlighted the close security, migration and economic cooperation established between Rabat and Madrid since Sanchez backed in 2022 Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara.Morocco does not recognise Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and the other enclave of Melilla. REUTERS
Read briefing Migrants arriving on small boats from mainland Europe has become a politically toxic issue in Britain.LONDON - Anti-immigration demonstrators in southern England massed outside a hotel where Pakistan’s Under-19 cricket team were staying after mistaking them for asylum seekers, British media reported on Sept 9.The incident on the evening of Sept 8 in a northern suburb of Portsmouth occurred some 48 hours after protesters disrupted the disembarkation of scores of migrants near the port city and confronted police in widely condemned scenes.Immigration and the arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers annually on small boats from mainland Europe has become a politically toxic issue in Britain, sparking numerous protests in recent years, some turning violent.The Sept 8 incident came after reports online about a coach with young Asian men on board being seen at a Marriott Hotel in the Portsmouth suburb of Cosham drew protesters to the venue, according to media reports.A councillor from anti-immigration party Reform UK went to the scene and helped disperse the crowd after confirming the men were in fact members of Pakistan’s teenage cricket team, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said.The senior Pakistan men’s side are currently involved in the third Test against England at Birmingham’s Edgbaston ground.A spokesman for Hampshire Police – which is responsible for the region – said the force “were notified that a group of people were starting to congregate” near the hotel on the evening of Sept 8.“Officers subsequently attended and spoke to members of the public that had gathered who were expressing concerns about a coach that had been seen in the area,” the spokesman added.“The officers explained that their concerns were not correct,” the spokesman said, without confirming the Pakistani cricketers were the mistaken target.He noted the crowd of around 30 people dispersed a short time later and no offences were identified.Michael Bradley, a national organiser from the Stand Up To Racism organisation, condemned the incident as showing “where the scapegoating of refugees and migrants can lead”.“When a Pakistan U-19‘s team is faced by protests because it ‘might’ in fact be a group of migrants it means that effectively any group of black or Asian people coming into the city are being seen by the far right as a potential target,” he said.“It’s obvious where all this is going to end – racist attacks and more violence.” AFP
Read briefing FILE PHOTO: Michael Cohen, former lawyer for Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump, departs his home in Manhattan to testify in Trump's criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in New York City, U.S., May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File PhotoSept 9 - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would consider a pardon for Michael Cohen, his former fixer whose testimony contributed to a 2024 conviction against Trump, but who has more recently said that he "felt pressured and coerced."Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he would consider a pardon for Cohen, who is seeking one, Trump said: "If everything is checking out, it's something I would consider.""I appreciate that at least he came out, although late, he came out and rectified the situation," he said.In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison — and served more than a year — for a $130,000 hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election — as well as for other crimes, including cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress.Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 counts of falsification of business records to conceal the Daniels payment, in part due to Cohen's testimony. He has denied the encounter with Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, and is appealing the ruling. REUTERS
Read briefing Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, September 5, 2026. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERSWASHINGTON, Sept 9 - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had a "great" conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the week and that the Russian leader wanted to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine."He is wanting to make a deal, and if (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy is wanting to make a deal, that'd be very nice," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One en route to Dallas for the Republican National Convention.Trump spoke over the phone with Putin on Tuesday, shortly after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, returned from a diplomatic swing through Moscow and Kyiv. The duo, who are in charge of most major peace negotiations for the U.S., discussed potential proposals to bring the war to a close.Last month, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe met with intelligence officials in Moscow, in part to encourage Russian officials to end their invasion.Despite those efforts and Trump's statements, intelligence officials in the U.S., Ukraine and throughout Europe continue to doubt Putin is seriously interested in ending his ongoing war, now in its fourth year."The holdup is two people who hate each other," Trump told reporters, referring to Putin and Zelenskiy."I think more than anything else, it's two people that hate each other." REUTERS
Read briefing KAMPALA, Sept 9 - A traditional Ugandan kingdom selected a television news anchor on Wednesday to succeed King Oyo Nyimba, who died last month aged 34 after becoming the world's youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne at age 3.Oyo Nyimba died on August 27 in the United States where he was receiving treatment for cancer. While Uganda is a constitutional republic, Oyo Nyimba ruled Tooro in western Uganda, one of the former British colony's ancient kingdoms, which wield enormous cultural and social influence.At a press conference in the kingdom's capital of Fort Portal, the royal clan's succession committee announced it chose Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at the state-run broadcaster UBC, as monarch.Oyo Nyimba, a U.N. goodwill ambassador championing the fight against HIV and AIDS, became the youngest reigning monarch in 1995 when he was crowned at age 3, according to Guinness World Records.A video of his coronation shows a little boy sitting in his chair playing with a toy, his small body almost disappearing underneath the royal crown and robes.Kijanangoma's selection contradicted an earlier announcement by the kingdom's Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire, who said the unmarried Oyo Nyimba had left behind a child who was his heir.Oyo Nyimba's body was returned to Uganda from the U.S. on Friday and preparations are under way for his burial on Saturday at the royal tombs near his palace in Fort Portal. REUTERS
Read briefing WASHINGTON, Sept 9 - U.S. President Donald Trump departed Washington for Texas on Wednesday aboard the Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar after an emergency slide deployed and was removed.The evacuation slide appeared to have accidentally activated shortly before Trump was due to board for a flight to Dallas for the first-ever Republican midterm convention. The issue briefly delayed Trump's departure.Asked by a journalist whether he was sure that the plane was safe to fly, Trump said: "Yeah, I am, or I wouldn't be on it."The Boeing 747-8 typically has 12 emergency inflatable evacuation slides. The slides are designed to allow passengers to reach the ground safely from a height of about 30 feet.Trump started flying aboard the jumbo jet on July 1 after accepting the plane as a gift last year. There was an accelerated effort to renovate the 747 before Trump started using it.Trump said last week the 747 would be taken out of service in October for unspecified security upgrades that would take about 60 days. REUTERS
Read briefing BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, Sept 8 - The United States was hoping to wrap up "good, solid" trade deals in the foreseeable future with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday, as he began a tour of the three Latin American countries whose leaders are closely aligned with President Donald Trump's administration.Washington is stepping up security engagement with the region on issues including migration and drug trafficking amid an effort to reassert U.S. influence across Latin America that has seen U.S. forces capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro during a raid on Caracas early this year and ramp up economic pressure on Communist-led Cuba.Rubio, speaking to reporters in Florida before embarking on the trip, defended U.S. involvement in Venezuela's oil sector, saying energy fields previously held by Chinese, Russian and Iranian companies could generate revenue for Venezuelans through partnership with the United States under a future democratically elected government.Rubio later on Tuesday stepped off a plane, along with his wife, in the Colombian coastal city of Barranquilla, where he will meet right-wing President Abelardo De La Espriella before traveling later this week to Ecuador to meet President Daniel Noboa and then to Peru for talks with President Keiko Fujimori, who was inaugurated on July 28.The visit comes at a moment of growing ideological alignment with all three nations, which Rubio said was part of a trend in the Western Hemisphere toward support for Washington's goals."We have a lot of common interests with them, both taking on regional transnational criminal terrorism and also economic engagements. We’re hoping to wrap up good, solid trade deals with all three of these countries in the foreseeable future," Rubio said.The discussions come as Colombia is seeking relief from U.S. tariffs of 12.5% that took effect in July, which officials have said could affect Colombian exports.De La Espriella, an anti-establishment figure who refers to himself as "The Tiger," was endorsed by Trump, and has asked the U.S. leader to suspend the tariff after a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the west of the country in August, just days after De La Espriella was sworn in.The U.S. has said that it plans to provide $1 billion in security assistance to the new government.De La Espriella, who has pledged a widespread crackdown on crime and drug trafficking and canceled peace talks with armed groups pursued by his leftist predecessor, has added Colombia to Trump's "Shield of the Americas," a military alliance of right-wing leaders pledging to fight drug trafficking.U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has floated the possibility of joint strikes on Colombian armed groups, saying the South American country had authorized operations to destroy "terrorists and terror networks" including rebel groups like the National Liberation Army (ELN), which the U.S. designates as a terrorist group, and remnants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. REUTERS
Read briefing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arriving in Gardermoen, Norway, on Sept 8, ahead of King Harald V's funeral.OSLO - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Norway on Sept 8, the eve of the funeral of King Harald V, in a visit that will also allow talks with Oslo on air-defence support.Zelensky is due to meet Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store “this evening”, the premier’s office said in a statement.“We will discuss continued support for Ukraine. The main issue is strengthening air defence and assistance in other areas that are important for getting through the winter,” Zelensky said, in a post on X.The Ukrainian leader said he and his wife would “express our gratitude to Norway at the farewell ceremony for His Majesty King Harald V”, who died in August aged 89 and will be buried in Oslo on Sept 9.“Ukraine has a critical need for air defence systems and other forms of military support, and it is preparing to face a difficult winter,” Store’s office said.“The talks will focus in particular on how Norwegian military and civilian assistance can best meet Ukraine’s current needs,” it added.“Our weak point is anti-ballistic capabilities. We will grow stronger. I will have meetings in both Norway and Canada,” Zelensky said on Sept 6.Norway is one of the main providers of military and civilian aid to Kyiv following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. AFP
Read briefing FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy greets Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere before a Ukraine-Nordic-Baltic summit (NB8), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2026. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File PhotoSTOCKHOLM, Sept 8 - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Norway on Tuesday to attend the funeral of King Harald V, the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said.Tens of thousands of people as well as leaders from around the world are expected to be in Oslo for the funeral on Wednesday of King Harald, who died on August 28 at the age of 89.Stoere said in a statement that he would meet Zelenskiy on Tuesday evening, with their discussions to focus on Ukraine's air defence. Russia has resumed its near-constant drone and missile attacks on Kyiv after a brief halt for the visit of U.S. peace negotiators.Russian strikes killed five people in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday, and other fatalities were reported in various parts of the country, officials said."Ukraine has a critical need for air defence and other military support, and they are facing a demanding winter," Stoere said."The topic of the meeting is, among other things, how Norwegian military and civilian support can best meet Ukraine's needs right now".Zelenskiy, posting on the Telegram messaging app, said he wanted to express his gratitude at the funeral for Norway's help during the 4-1/2-year war with Russia.He said talks with Stoere would focus on air defence and efforts to help Kyiv face Russian attacks through another winter.There would also be discussions with companies taking part in the Freyja initiative to create a European anti-ballistic system, Zelenskiy said. REUTERS
Read briefing Meta’s Muse agent is designed to access a person’s apps across categories like email, calendar, payments, health, shopping and the smart home.NEW YORK - Meta rolled out on Sept 8 a long-touted AI assistant that can autonomously send emails, sell a car and book travel on a person’s behalf, despite internal concerns that the technology mismanages its access to sensitive personal data.The company’s Muse agent, known internally as Hatch, is the centrepiece of chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to offer “personal superintelligence” to the billions of people who use Meta’s services daily.The product will be available only in the US initially, via a dedicated Muse app or Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service, Meta said in its announcement.Meta said it plans to add the agent to its line of smart glasses “soon,” without elaborating.Modelled on the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, Muse is designed to access a person’s apps across categories like email, calendar, payments, health, shopping and the smart home, Meta said. People choose which apps it connects to and can revoke access at any time.Each Muse agent runs on its own virtual machine, a cloud-based emulation of a personal computer, which enables it to keep carrying out requests in the background even when a person is not actively using it.Syncing up with apps containing a person’s real data increases the agent’s potential utility, while also significantly raising the stakes for safety and reliability issues, both for the users who have entrusted it with their information and others who may be on the receiving end of agent misbehavior.Vishal Shah, vice-president of AI products at Meta, said the company had initially delayed the release of the product in April to make it more secure. Meta determined that work had allowed it to “cross the threshold” and meet its minimum requirements for product safety, security, privacy, model performance and other metrics.“It is impossible to say that there is never going to be a mistake, but every single part of the architecture has been designed to make this as safe, as secure, as private as we can possibly make it,” Shah said.As recently as this week, Meta employees testing the tool internally have reported cases of Muse successfully arranging vacation logistics, disconnecting without explanation and uploading sensitive information without permission, according to internal posts seen by Reuters.One person wrote that the product had been so useful in arranging itineraries and ground transportation for them that they described it as “the third participant” on their recent three-week honeymoon in Indonesia.In another post, an employee who had prompted Muse to monitor for tickets and other items that sell out quickly reported encountering “many failure modes that made it unreliable.” The product stopped refreshing the page after about 15 minutes, silently ignored other errors and at times disabled monitoring “for no apparent reason,” the person said.Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth posted that he kept getting logged out and needing to log back in, sometimes several times within a few minutes.Others flagged serious security flaws, like an agent routing around guardrails to expose a person’s personal iCloud photos after being prompted to identify toys visible in pictures from a child’s birthday party.Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the specific incidents. REUTERS
Read briefing Stranded passengers at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 in London, Britain, on Sept 8, after a technical issue disrupted hundreds of flights at key airports around the country.LONDON - European budget carriers Wizz Air and Ryanair called on Sept 8 for an overhaul of Britain’s air traffic control provider NATS following a new technical issue that disrupted hundreds of flights at key airports in the country.“A critical national infrastructure provider should not repeatedly bring the aviation system to a standstill. NATS is simply not fit for purpose in its current form,” a spokesperson for Wizz Air said.Rival Ryanair also criticised the agency and called for the resignation of its chief executive officer, Martin Rolfe.“Following the 2023 collapse, we were told lessons would be learned. We were told ‘resilience would improve’. We were told the systems had been fixed. Yet here we are again,” Ryanair chief operations officer Neal McMahon said.NATS said it had implemented a fix to the latest issue and was working with airlines and airports to get things back to normal.“We are continuing to work closely with our airline and airport customers on recovery. We apologise sincerely for the disruption to people’s journeys today, and they should continue to check with their airline,” a spokesperson said in a statement.In 2024, Britain’s aviation regulator said NATS needed to review its contingency plans for outages after the automatic processing of flight plans malfunctioned a year earlier, causing chaos across Britain’s airports.The Civil Aviation Authority said on Sept 8 it had been in touch with NATS over the incident and expects the latter to share a full report.“We will then consider whether any further steps need to be taken to help secure the safe reliability of the UK’s air traffic control system,” a CAA spokesperson said. REUTERS
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