News Review 30/09/2026

France and the UK Scramble to Help Saudi Protect Yemen’s Government While the US Turns its Back

On 29 September, UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg said he had met Ansar Allah negotiators in Muscat, and Saudi and Yemeni-government representatives in Riyadh, seeking to stop the escalation that prompted France’s deployment. Recent fighting has reportedly killed at least 838 people, wounded more than 3,640 and displaced over 145,000 inside Yemen. The Ansar Allah advance along the Red Sea coast and attacks on Saudi facilities have placed both energy exports and the Bab el-Mandeb trade route under pressure, but the US repeatedly ignored Saudi cries for help, but following the UK, France now plans to send personnel, radar and air-defence systems to protect Yanbu. The terminal is the Red Sea endpoint of Saudi Arabia’s East–West pipeline and permits oil exports that bypass the Strait of Hormuz. France has not disclosed troop numbers, deployment timing or the exact systems involved. Britain has separately provided aerial-refuelling and air-defence support, while Italy has discussed deploying aircraft. The central risk identified in the video remains unresolved: if French personnel are killed or France intercepts Houthi attacks, a supposedly defensive mission could create pressure for retaliation and draw Paris further into the Yemen–Saudi confrontation. The UK has sent an RAF Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker to support Saudi air defence operations with PM Burnham saying, the UK is "acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region" and that "we need to keep those pathways open" for oil shipments. In reality, Britain shares considerable responsible for the disaster in Yemen, which is not oil supply threats, but the disastrous humanitarian crisis, stemming from the massive supplies of weapons it sent to prop-up Yemeni government forces worth over $30 billion. It is estimated that 85,000 children under five died from starvation between 2014 and 2018, and both the UK and France sent a trickle of humanitarian aid, almost entirely to government-controlled areas, which is dwarfed by the scale of the military intervention funded by them.

Russia Backs India’s Security Council Bid but Rejects Germany and Japan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s 26 September UN General Assembly address endorsed permanent Security Council seats for India and Brazil while opposing additional seats for Western-aligned states, specifically Germany and Japan. Lavrov presented this as correcting the underrepresentation of Asia, Africa and Latin America in an institution still shaped by the post-1945 balance of power. The statement followed a tense meeting between the German and Russian foreign ministers the day before. Russia had already supported a larger Indian and Brazilian role in the 2026 BRICS New Delhi Declaration, but the complication for Russia is that India campaigns through the G4 alongside Brazil, Germany and Japan. The four jointly demand expansion in both permanent and elected membership categories and plan further official-level discussions in New Delhi. Russia’s selective support therefore strengthens India rhetorically but divides the coalition through which it has pursued reform. Any addition to Security Council membership would require ratification by all five existing permanent members, and hence Russia’s endorsement is just diplomatic positioning, and further illustrates the inequity of 5 countries setting themselves up as judge and jury over the rest of the world.

Russia’s Mobilization Panic was Western Propaganda

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 28 September decree adding 15,500 authorized military posts raised Russia’s ceiling to 1,550,500 service personnel and 2,441,630 total armed-forces staff. It is the fourth authorized increase since March, producing a combined rise of 47,860 military positions. This is far less than the rumours from Western sources of another compulsory wave to follow Russia’s September parliamentary election that strengthened Putin’s hold on power. It seems that Russia will continue its gradual war of attrition without a massive new offensive, and will wait to see how long the West’s support for Ukraine will hold in the hope that shifting political forces and increasing economic woes in Western Europe over the months ahead will work in Russia’s favor.

Spain’s Housing Protests

On 29 September one elderly victim of the interest-based banking system got a reprieve, but the suffering continues for the rest of Spain which saw a 27.5% year-on-year increase in mortgage foreclosures on their homes. After huge street protests, the Spanish government approved eviction protections until 2030 for María del Carmen “Maricarmen” Abascal, 87, who now will be allowed to return to her Madrid apartment once she leaves hospital after police had forcibly carried her out on a stretcher on 23 September from the home her family rented since 1956. Housing is becoming less affordable for ordinary Spaniards with estimates indicating approximately 33,000 people were living on the streets in 2025-2026, up from around 23,000 in 2023. These difficulties are driven by relentless price growth. The average advertised rent rose from €7.6 per square metre in 2015 to €15.1 in August 2026, nearly doubling in a decade. Purchase prices increased 12.2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026.

Trump and Technology Executives Sign a Voluntary AI “Constitution” in the Race Against China

On the 29 September a Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities was signed by US President Donald Trump and executives including Google’s Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Elon Musk. Trump described it as “morally binding” and compared it to a constitution, but it is not legislation and contains no legal enforcement mechanism. It is an effort to allow US companies to keep ahead against China in the AI race without governmental restriction.