Global Express | September 10, 2026 Yemen's Perim Island becomes a strategic prize in the widening Iran war

1. Yemen's Perim Island becomes a strategic prize in the widening Iran war

Source: CNN

Perim Island, a small Yemeni island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait also known as Mayyun, has become a strategic prize in the widening Iran war. With US President Donald Trump's war against Iran effectively shuttering the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia diverted its oil exports to the Red Sea, and Perim now sits at the narrow gateway linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, CNN reported Thursday.

The Houthi rebels, Iran's most powerful regional proxy, have launched an offensive that could give them control of Perim — and with it the ability to block ships passing through. Tarik Saleh, a vice president in Yemen's internationally recognized government, told CNN that if the Houthis seized the island and the strait, "then a massive (international) force and the navies will be needed" to dislodge them.

The Houthis already control the capital Sanaa, swaths of the northwest and much of the Red Sea coastline. The offensive that began in July ruptured a tacit four-year truce with Saudi Arabia, and the group has declared a naval blockade against the kingdom, threatening ships carrying Saudi exports.

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2. Ukrainian sea drone strikes Russia's Sochi port

Source: The Kyiv Independent

A Ukrainian sea drone struck a port in the Russian Black Sea resort town of Sochi on September 9, local Russian officials claimed, with a fire breaking out on a port embankment and eight people injured. Sochi Mayor Andrey Proshunin urged residents to seek shelter and remain calm.

Known as Russia's "Second Capital" and home to President Vladimir Putin's official summer residence, Sochi lies roughly 650 to 700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The strike also interrupted a nearby concert by Russian singer Tatyana Bulanova, with footage showing attendees being evacuated. The Kyiv Independent said it could not independently verify the reports or the extent of the damage.

The strike came about a week after Ukraine's last major attack on the resort city. Overnight on September 3, Ukrainian forces launched several waves of attacks targeting Sochi, reportedly damaging a Russian naval vessel with a sea drone.

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3. Norway's PM says Zelenskyy's plane was almost hit by a drone

Source: DW.com

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Wednesday that a plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Moldova to Oslo — for the funeral of Norway's recently deceased King Harald V — was almost hit by a drone as it was taking off from Moldova.

Moldova's government spokesperson later said the flight was delayed when the country's airspace was closed over a drone alert, and that Zelenskyy's plane was able to depart after a Russian drone came down on Moldovan territory. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a Shahed drone entered Moldovan airspace from Ukraine on Tuesday, flew over Romania, and then returned to Moldova where it crashed.

Neither Ukrainian authorities nor Zelenskyy himself have commented on the incident. In Oslo, Zelenskyy held talks with Norway's foreign and finance ministers on military aid, before leaving for Canada to meet leaders in Ottawa.

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4. Netanyahu to sue Haaretz over claims UAE warned him before October 7 attack

Source: Al Jazeera

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will sue the Haaretz newspaper over a report claiming that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed warned him about a possible Hamas attack some 10 days before October 7, 2023. In a statement on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu called the report "fabricated" and "false," and said he had instructed his lawyers to sue Haaretz and the report's authors, Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yaval.

The Haaretz report claimed bin Zayed, also known as MBZ, warned Netanyahu by phone, but that Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet dismissed the threat and Netanyahu brushed it aside. The UAE's foreign ministry said the government does not comment on media stories or speculation about conversations between leaders.

The report comes as Netanyahu seeks to secure his position in October's Knesset elections. Netanyahu called the report "politically motivated" and part of the "left's election campaign," and denied any phone call with MBZ took place.

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5. Stock futures edge higher as traders brace for wholesale inflation report

Source: CNBC

S&P 500 futures were little changed Thursday as investors awaited the first of this week's two inflation reports — August's producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a monthly gain of 0.3% and a 5.3% year-over-year advance; the closely watched consumer price index follows Friday, with consensus calling for a 0.4% monthly rise and a 3.4% 12-month increase.

Rising Treasury yields and oil prices have kept the market under pressure, with the major averages coming off a three-day slide and the Dow losing more than 400 points Wednesday. International benchmark Brent crude futures rose 3.4% to $101.21 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude gained 3.3% to $96.05, both the highest settlements since May. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to a session high of 4.857%, its highest since November 2023.

The oil gains follow escalating US-Iran tensions. The US military on Tuesday destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers in retaliation for attempted attacks on an American warship.

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6. Trump pledges $5,000 'Trump dividend' for every adult if Republicans win midterms

Source: Cailian Press

President Donald Trump pledged on Wednesday that if Republicans win the midterm elections and keep control of the House and Senate, he would send $5,000 to every American adult. The plan is estimated to cost more than $1 trillion, would require congressional approval, and would further widen the country's roughly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and stoke inflation concerns.

Less than an hour later, Vice President JD Vance appeared to walk back part of the proposal, suggesting the dividend would not go to the wealthy. Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget noted that Trump has no power to distribute money without Congress, and that "we have no surplus to distribute" — with an annual deficit of $2 trillion and debt that topped $40 trillion last month for the first time.

Trump said the move aims to reverse the Republican Party's flagging momentum heading into November, insisting "we have tremendous economic strength and success."

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7. Fire on cargo ship in Qingdao causes significant casualties

Source: BBC

At least 20 people have been killed in a fire on a foreign-flagged cargo ship docked at a port in eastern China, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Of the 42 people on board, 12 were evacuated and five are in hospital in stable condition.

President Xi Jinping earlier called for "all out" search and rescue efforts, while Premier Li Qiang called for those trapped to be rescued and stressed the need to "prevent secondary disasters." The vessel was undergoing maintenance at a shipyard in Qingdao when the blaze erupted at around 11:15 local time (03:15 GMT), and was put out just over three hours later.

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8. August declared the hottest month ever recorded

Source: politico.eu

August was the joint-hottest month on record globally, official EU data shows. Average temperatures worldwide temporarily soared to 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels last month, according to Copernicus, the EU's earth observation unit — a level previously reached only in July 2023.

Copernicus said the record temperatures were "due to global heating from burning fossil fuels," combined with rising sea surface temperatures in the Pacific linked to a strong El Niño climate pattern. Global surface air temperatures in August hit 16.96°C, and the average sea surface temperature reached 21.07°C, both the joint-hottest on record.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said the observations "show how climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans." The European Commission said Monday that global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities rose 0.7% last year to a record 54 billion tons of CO2 equivalent.

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9. AI agents solve a Millennium Prize problem in 88 hours, sparking controversy

Source: Bauhinia Magazine

According to OpenAI, a next-generation model stronger than GPT-6 Astra and not yet public organized about 10,000 AI agents that, in 88 hours, produced a proof of the existence and smoothness of Navier–Stokes solutions, publishing a 166-page paper and Lean verification code. The problem is one of the Clay Mathematics Institute's seven Millennium Prize problems, carrying a $1 million reward that OpenAI said it will not claim.

OpenAI disclosed that the internal model began training on August 28, and the system reached a solution on September 5. The result has sparked controversy: New York University professor Tristan Buckmaster said he and an Anthropic researcher had made progress in a similar direction earlier, and questioned whether OpenAI models had been exposed to his conversations. OpenAI said its researchers and AI agents had not seen their results.

Fields Medalist and Chinese-American mathematician Terence Tao commented on September 9 that "good questions will be scarcer than good answers."

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10. Canadian economist says Canada-US trade war stems from America's structural woes

Source: Bauhinia Magazine

Canadian economist Julian Karagezian told Xinhua in an interview that the roots of the current Canada-US trade war lie in the structural difficulties caused by the long-term deindustrialization of the US economy, and that tariffs can neither solve America's deficit and debt problems nor avoid deep harm to the two countries' supply chains.

A former special adviser to Canada's finance ministry, Karagezian argued that the current US administration is capitalizing on public disillusionment with the economy, adopting broad high tariffs under the slogan of "bringing manufacturing jobs back to America." He said another motive is to raise much-needed revenue to fill the widening budget deficit.

Karagezian said the main reason talks broke down was excessive US demands, including requiring Canada to unilaterally accept tariffs without retaliation, demanding priority access to key resources, and even attempting to intervene in Canada's international trade policy. The vulnerable sectors are broad, covering manufacturing, metals and derivatives, dairy, and lumber and wood products.

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