Watch live: Donald Trump welcomes Xi Jinping to Washington in historic state visit
Maira Butt24 September 2026 14:58
Trump warned over Tehran’s ‘dangerous alliance’ with China during Xi Jinping’s state visit
“The Chinese assistance to the Iranian regime has actually expanded on a number of fronts,” he warned, citing the provision of drone parts and motors, dual use chemicals, alleged assistance with targeting and an economic relationship.
Schanzer said that China is “keeping the Islamic Republic afloat while it continues to hammer away at the economy worldwide”.
Maira Butt24 September 2026 14:50
Gulf nations keep oil flowing despite Iran war as costs mount
Instead, nearly seven months on, oil is expensive but not exorbitant, and analysts suggest current supply is sufficient to meet current global needs, even as the higher prices cause political problems for U.S. President Donald Trump and others.
That’s because Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers quickly found alternative routes and reached for unused pipeline capacity. When Iran and its militant allies targeted those, the oil exporters and the U.S. military found further workarounds in an often clandestine game of whack-a-mole.
Maira Butt24 September 2026 14:23
Iranian and Ukrainian foreign ministers meet in New York, Mehr news agency reports
The Iranian and Ukrainian foreign ministers held a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, the first such meeting since tensions rose in July following a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea.
Maira Butt24 September 2026 13:45
Indian sailors urge Modi to send naval escorts to Hormuz
Indian sailors have urged prime minister Narendra Modi to deploy naval escorts for Indian crews in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf waters following the death of another Indian sailor.
Forward Seamen’s Union in a letter to the PM said Suraj Yadav, 26, was working as a wiper aboard the MV Cape Dao, which was sailing from Mina Saqr in the United Arab Emirates toward India.
The vessel was struck twice on its port side.
“Our sons who move the world’s trade must not be slaughtered in silence,” the union wrote
Maira Butt24 September 2026 13:30
Thousands flee Yemen as war escalates – leaving Djibouti ‘overwhelmed’ with refugees
Thousands of Yemenis displaced by intensified fighting have fled across the Red Sea to Djibouti, with aid agencies “more than overwhelmed” by new arrivals amid the fallout from abrupt cuts to international aid.
More than 120,000 people have been displaced by a surge in fighting along Yemen‘s coast in recent weeks, according to the United Nations, with more than 3,200 arriving in Djibouti over the past few days.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told The Independent its displacement facilities in Djibouti are already over capacity as they have received waves of people fleeing bombings across the sea on fishing boats, and later commercial vessels.
Maira Butt24 September 2026 13:00
Saudi civil defense sends alerts on potential danger in Mecca, Tabuk, Jeddah and Yanbu
The Saudi civil defence issued alerts on Thursday warning of potential danger in the holy city of Mecca, the northwestern area of Tabuk, the Red Sea areas of Jeddah and Yanbu, and the southern area of Taif.
The alerts were the first of the day to be issued by Saudi authorities.
They were removed shortly after as the Saudi civil defence said the “danger has passed”.
Maira Butt24 September 2026 12:30
Iran hits out at Canadian PM Carney for defending Trump speech as ‘language of war’
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has hit out at Canadian prime minister Mark Carney for saying that Donald Trump’s threats to “annihilate” Iran were part of the “language of war”.
He accused Carney of “reframing a threat” when he should have been “condemning US blatant aggression and warmongering”.
“Mark Carney must understand that time is too ruthless to let the shelter of illusion & hypocrisy endure forever,” he wrote in a post on X on Thursday.
“A day will surely dawn when those who sought refuge in the long shadow of American bullying—believing that mimicking the language of the mighty could shield them from the claws of power—will stand bare before the truth.
“They will learn, too late, that averting their eyes from reality and bartering away their dignity and self-respect buys no salvation. It only strips them naked, leaving them utterly defenceless before the very force that demands their submission.
“Perhaps, in that hour of reckoning, they will look upon Iran and finally comprehend. They will see that the nation they once conspired with empires to crush was the solitary guardian of a sacred flame.
“By standing unyielding against coercion, it kept a torch burning in the dark—a torch that, if allowed to die, would leave humanity with nothing but the cold embrace of naked force, burying the civilised and humane altars of reason beneath the brutal logic of might.”
Maira Butt24 September 2026 12:04
Traffic through Strait of Hormuz almost halves
Ten commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, up from seven a day earlier and below the 10-day moving average of about 17, preliminary shipping data showed on Thursday.
The figures could change as some ships switch off their transponders during the voyage.
Maira Butt24 September 2026 11:30
Watch: US walks out as Iranian president accuses them of ‘terrorism’ for ‘bombing girls school’US walks out as Iranian president accuses them of ‘terrorism’ for ‘bombing girls school’
Maira Butt24 September 2026 11:02