Sept. 17, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: 1787, the United States Constitution is signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, bringing the Constitutional Convention to an end.
QOTD: "We knew there was always a chance that we would be punished after these four years of (government) cooperation, but I didn't think the drop would be this big," party veteran Richard Jomshof, 57, who has just written a book on Islam called "Kafir" or infidel in Arabic, told Reuters as a DJ pumped music in vain.
GIFT LINK: See How Jet Power Is Giving Russia the Edge in the Drone War
https://www.wsj.com/world/see-how-jet-power-is-giving-russia-the-edge-in-the-drone-war-5329dfab?st=jz32sJ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The latest revolution in drone warfare is jet powered.
Russia’s one-way attack drones—known as Gerans—are now equipped with turbojet engines. Relatively inexpensive to make, they are evading Ukrainian air defenses and hunting down their targets more quickly than their propeller-powered predecessors.
One struck a train in a station near the Ukrainian border with Poland over the weekend, just after high-level European officials had passed the same stretch of track and as former Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus was in the rail station.
To counter the fast-flying drones, Kyiv is racing to develop jet-powered interceptor drones that travel at high speeds to knock them off course. But its military so far hasn’t deployed them and is getting beaten by Russia meanwhile.
CANADA/EU/PIPE DREAMS - Carney embraces EU associate membership proposal as Trump pushes Canada closer to Europe
https://apnews.com/article/carney-canada-eu-trump-parliament-speech-ef4559ce5972abb47444e469f42005bb
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday embraced the prospect of his country becoming the European Union’s first associate member, saying closer ties with the continent would ensure no country could control Canada’s markets or undermine its sovereignty.
Carney’s speech to the European Parliament repeatedly extolled cooperation between Europe and Canada — but the relationship with the U.S., which has defined Canada’s economy for decades and has increasingly soured, hung over the address.
Trump’s tariffs, demands for economic concessions, and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have pushed Ottawa to reduce its dependence on its neighbor and seek a far deeper economic, security and political relationship with Europe.
Carney told the parliament that he welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal, unveiled Wednesday, though he acknowledged that “associate membership” remains to be defined.
[At its core, this proposed arrangement has the EU and Canada answering questions that neither is really asking—and avoiding the most important one: what does ‘associate membership’ even really mean? -mnno]
US/IRAN/GCC/MIL/PIPE DRAEMS - Trump says U.S. ‘hopefully’ nearing end of Iran war as Saudi Arabia, Houthis trade strikes
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/17/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz.html
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the country is “hopefully” toward the end of its nearly seven-month war with Iran, as fighting continues to escalate between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
“Well, hopefully we are toward the end of the war. They want to make a deal, we’ll see how that works out,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina on Wednesday evening.
The U.S. president also said he had spoken with Tehran “directly,” without providing further details. His comments come as the sprawling Middle East conflict, which started on Feb. 28, expands into Yemen, further disrupting energy exports and rattling oil markets.
The Houthis have ramped up attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia and launched a lightning ground offensive to exercise control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital oil choke point that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and to global markets.
Trump is planning to meet Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next Tuesday to discuss next steps for the war with Iran, Axios reported Thursday.
SWEDEN/POL/ARE THE LIGHTS STILL ON IN GEORGIA? - The night Sweden's far-right stopped winning
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/the-night-swedens-far-right-stopped-winning-2026-09-17/
When the far-right anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats won a record one-fifth of the vote in a 2022 election, Viking rock player and party leader Jimmie Akesson led supporters in an impromptu celebratory conga.
On Sunday, the dance floor was largely empty.
Instead, party veterans at their hotel HQ near Stockholm's city centre sombrely absorbed something they had never seen before: a decline in support at a parliamentary vote.[…]
The usually buoyant Akesson departed quietly after a six-minute speech to supporters without talking to reporters, having seen his party shed about 3 percentage points, more than any other party.
The SD's vote fall was the decisive factor in giving the centre-left opposition a projected tight victory – by about 42,500 votes and two seats - over the right-wing governing bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
PERSIAN GULF/ENERGY - Number of ships transiting Strait of Hormuz falls to three on Wednesday, data shows
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/number-ships-transiting-strait-hormuz-falls-three-wednesday-data-shows-2026-09-17/
Commodity vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz dwindled to just three ships on Wednesday, down from 12 a day earlier and well below the 10-day average of about 17, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Thursday.
The figures exclude any vessels that might have passed through the waterway with their Automatic Identification System transponders turned off to avoid detection.
Of the three vessels, an empty Supramax dry bulk ship entered the strait via the Iranian route, while an empty petroleum product tanker entered through a dark route, shipping data from Kpler showed at 0445 GMT.
IRAN/TRADE/US - Iran’s Attempts to Get Around the Hormuz Blockade Are Hitting a Wall
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/irans-attempts-to-get-around-the-hormuz-blockade-are-hitting-a-wall-c1f42cbe?mod=world_lead_pos2
Iran vowed to respond to a U.S. blockade by pushing more trade overland. On the ground, it isn’t going according to plan.
Hundreds of Iranian truck drivers are currently stuck at Iran’s border with Pakistan, unable to send their goods into Tehran’s neighbor. They say they are facing worsening bureaucratic hurdles and costs, many caused by their own government. The same thing is happening at Iran’s land borders with Turkey, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining economic release valves.
Tons of stranded apricots have been spoiled because of the delays. Lucrative cargoes of iron ore, cement and bottled gas are stuck at entry points to the Pakistani and Afghan borders, truckers say.
“Neither Iran is taking responsibility for the situation, nor is Pakistan allowing us to unload our cargo,” one driver says in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran over the weekend.
The economic war in the Persian Gulf is dictated as much by how much the countries in the region can move their exports over land rather than through the Strait of Hormuz. Some have found workarounds. Saudi Arabia is moving more of its oil west across the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. Navy is helping some of the Gulf nations shift their oil through the strait.
Iran’s attempts are faltering. The U.S. is isolating its economy with new sanctions and launching strikes on Iranian tankers in reprisal for Tehran’s attacks on its Navy, collapsing seaborne exports.
US/IRAN/ENERGY/TECH - U.S. Probes Iran Link to Cyberattacks on Texas-Bound Energy Tankers
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-probes-cyberattacks-on-energy-tankers-bound-for-american-coast-33d92f3a?mod=world_feat1_middle-east_pos1
The U.S. is investigating whether Iran is behind the cyberattacks of two energy tankers bound for American ports, said U.S. officials familiar with the probe, which has sparked concerns that Tehran is looking for novel ways to widen the war in the Middle East.
The two tankers were transiting the Strait of Gibraltar in early August when they were hit by the attacks. The ships—an oil tanker and a liquefied petroleum tanker—were making their way to ports in Texas at the time, according to tracking data and one of the officials.
The location of the attacks and the destination of the tankers has raised the prospect that Iran or an Iran-aligned actor could be seeking to disrupt another key maritime chokepoint or blow up a U.S. port. Ships run on integrated systems that, if compromised, could result in an explosion, a collision or an oil spill.
A specialized team led by the U.S. Coast Guard that included agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation boarded the two tankers in August after they arrived in the Gulf of Mexico, the officials said.
Rear Adm. Amy Grable, commander of Coast Guard’s Cyber Command, declined to discuss specific ships but told The Wall Street Journal that the service’s cyber control teams spent three to four days conducting incident responses aboard the vessels to address their vulnerabilities and ensure they could transit safely.
“Unfortunately, many ships’ IT systems are interconnected with other systems on a ship—the systems that control the engineering plant, propulsion, navigation, et cetera,” Grable said. “So if those systems can be breached and controlled, then the crews could lose control of the vessel and it could cause a mishap or a collision. And that’s what we’re looking for.”
INDIA/TECH/CHIPS/PIPE DREAMS - India’s New Chip Plan Draws $12 Billion in Investment Pledges
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-17/india-s-new-chip-plan-draws-12-billion-in-investment-pledges?srnd=homepage-americas
India has received investment pledges of as much as $12 billion from global and local investors within months of launching it’s new semiconductor policy, marking an acceleration in its efforts to become a chip-making nation.
The commitments come from companies including those producing chip equipment, materials and chemicals manufacturers, Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at the country’s top chip industry event in New Delhi Thursday. The interest comes after India in July announced a fresh $13.4 billion semiconductor fund, stepping up efforts to build a domestic chip industry. It seeks to boost a previous $10 billion subsidy program that’s helped the likes of the Tata Group and Micron Technology Inc. to set up fabrication and assembly plants in the South Asian country.
Vaishnaw did not disclose company names but said the investments will be made over the next two to three years.
Some of the companies approved under the previous chip policy, such as Micron and Murugappa Group’s chip unit, are already in commercial production. “So far whatever production is there is already booked and capacity, which is getting created, is already booked,” said Vaishnaw.
Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a charm offensive for global investors at the chip conference that’s drawn commitments from US firms Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. for billions of dollars in outlays.
Marking India’s ambitious bid to win a seat at the global chip-making table, Modi touted the country’s vast pool of engineering graduates and semiconductor-friendly policies as assets international companies should take advantage of.
[India has tried for decades to attract investment into any kind of meaningful chip production facilities, with historically bad results. A mix of a lack of domestic skill/training—a hallmark of Indian brain-drain—regulatory issues, costs, and India’s endemic challenges to high-stakes foreign investment. I struggle to see that changing anytime soon. -mnno]
ISRAEL - What Is E1, Where Israel Is Pushing a Disputed Settlement Plan?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/world/middleeast/e1-israel-west-bank-settlement.html
Israel’s hard-line government is pushing forward contentious plans for construction in a strategically significant area of the occupied West Bank. Critics say the effort, which defies international censure, aims to lock in the plans on the ground before elections next month.
Previous American administrations vehemently opposed Israeli housing construction in the area, a patch of land east of Jerusalem that is about 4.5 square miles and is known as E1.
But Israel’s current right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has made moves suggesting construction there may begin soon, bucking the internationally accepted parameters for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Here’s what to know about E1.
Where does the project stand?
The settlement project, which plans for about 3,400 housing units, stalled for years under international pressure. But the Israeli government granted final approval for it about a year ago.
KSA/ENERGY/SEC - From Yanbu to Sohar: Tracking Saudi Arabia’s alternative oil routes
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/17/from-yanbu-to-sohar-tracking-saudi-arabias-alternative-oil-routes
Saudi Arabia’s oil exports took another blow last week when drone attacks knocked out part of the country’s East-West pipeline, halting oil flow and removing 4-5 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from global supply.
It is unclear how long repairs will take, although The Associated Press estimates three to five weeks, citing two regional officials.
The 1,200km (746-mile) pipeline connects the kingdom’s main oil-producing fields in the east of the country with Yanbu port on the Red Sea coast in the west, allowing Saudi crude to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, which has largely remained closed since the United States-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.
As the world’s second-largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia’s ability to keep crude flowing has significant consequences for global energy markets. Al Jazeera asked experts what alternatives remain, how the disruption could affect buyers worldwide, and what it means for the kingdom’s revenues.
[Al Jazeera is free to read, and this article has some characteristically good info graphics for those who are interested. -mnno]
YEMEN/A BIT OF HISTORY - How Yemen's Houthis went from a small mountain militia to a big regional threat
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-yemens-houthis-went-small-mountain-militia-big-regional-threat-2026-09-17/
A lightning advance by Yemen's Houthi group has brought the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait under its control, making the once ragged highland militia a regional player with global clout.
This is how the group evolved into a formidable fighting force with Iranian support that can disrupt vital shipping and strike critical oil and gas facilities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
WHO ARE THE HOUTHIS?
Starting out in the late 1990s as a Zaydi Shi'ite Muslim revival movement in north Yemen under the Houthi family, the group waged six wars against the government, building a strong local militia.
When Yemen's central state disintegrated during the 2011 Arab Spring, the Houthis took advantage, gaining more ground and developing a relationship with Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
In 2014 they seized the capital Sanaa, ousting the government, and halting a Gulf-backed political transition.
That prompted a Saudi-led military intervention to support the government, leading to years of civil war that ground to a stalemate and a 2022 ceasefire.
The Houthis fired missiles and drones at Israel and international shipping in the Red Sea during Israel's war in Gaza from 2023-25 in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians.