The Rest of the World Report | September 9, 2026 — Evening Edition

Weekday morning and evening editions. Saturdays once. Good news on Sundays. All sources labeled.US / Iran War UpdateThe United States destroyed five Iranian oil tankers Tuesday. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at a US base in Jordan and attacking ships near the Strait of Hormuz.CENTCOM said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted a US Navy warship twice over two days. The warship evaded both attacks. No American personnel were harmed. In response, US forces struck and destroyed five crude carriers: M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, and M/T Riesco in the Gulf of Oman, and M/T Derya near Kharg Island. American forces directed crews to abandon ship before the strikes.The IRGC launched retaliatory missile attacks on the Al-Azraq base in Jordan. The Jordanian Armed Forces said their air defenses intercepted 18 of 20 ballistic missiles. Two missiles fell in unpopulated areas. No casualties were reported. The IRGC also claimed strikes on US Navy destroyers DDG-119 and DDG-53, saying the attacks caused “significant damage.” The US has not confirmed this.Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the tanker strikes a “war crime” and a violation of the UN charter. CENTCOM released video showing the M/T Riesco sinking in the Gulf of Oman.Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Colombia that Washington will not back down. “Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Rubio said.President Trump told reporters Wednesday to expect more attacks on Iranian tankers.This is the second round of tanker strikes. The US hit three Iranian tankers on September 5, sinking one. At the time, Trump threatened to strike Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected Iranian nuclear site, “very soon.”Brent crude rose to $100.19 on Wednesday, its highest level since July 24, when a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran was still in place.The IRGC also claimed capture of an unmanned US submarine at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. The US military said the submersible drone had “malfunctioned” and carried no classified equipment.Translator’s note: Al Jazeera frames this as escalation in a six-month-old conflict, noting the US is “finding different targets, new targets” in response to Iranian attacks. The outlet’s Middle East editor Mike Hanna writes the attacks “would have an economic impact on Iran” and fit what the administration has declared as its strategy of “economic strangulation.” Antiwar.com leads with the reciprocal nature: US bombs tankers, IRGC hits Jordan base. The IRGC’s warning that tankers near Bahrain and Kuwait will also be targeted adds a layer US coverage has not emphasized.What American readers need to know: This is now the eighth day of direct US-Iranian exchange since the MOU collapsed. The pattern is clear: Iran attacks US forces or threatens shipping, the US destroys Iranian tankers, Iran retaliates against US bases in the region. Oil is back above $100. The question is not whether this escalates further. The question is what form it takes.Sources: Al Jazeera, CENTCOM (via Antiwar), AP, Reuters (via US News) Tasia FortuneJackson police are investigating the death of Tasia Fortune as a homicide. The city’s police chief says investigators still do not have an autopsy report, four weeks after the examination was completed.Fortune, 29, was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home on the Road of Remembrance in west Jackson on July 31. Police Chief RaShall Brackney told the city council Tuesday that the department has been treating the case as a homicide from the start. She said the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office conducted the autopsy four weeks ago but has not yet provided results.A person of interest was identified early in the investigation. Terence Anderson was arrested August 8 on an unrelated felon-in-possession charge.Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, last saw her daughter on July 26 at a family reunion in Kentucky. She chose burial over cremation, hoping developments in the investigation might warrant exhumation. Brackney said she remains in contact with Spivey.The case has drawn attention because it is the third in less than a year involving Black people found hanging from trees in Mississippi. An online petition calling for an independent investigation into Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Staci Turner has gathered more than 50,000 signatures. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett wrote to the Department of Justice describing recent Mississippi deaths as “possible cases of modern-day lynchings.”Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes said he has reached out to federal prosecutors and the FBI with no response. Mississippi Department of Public Safety Press Secretary Alex Gibert said autopsy reports “can take time to complete” and are not considered backlogged until they exceed 90 days.What American readers need to know: A mother watches an autopsy sit in a filing cabinet for a month. She chooses burial over cremation because she wants the option to exhume if something changes. This is a story about what happens when the institutions meant to deliver answers stall. The petition against the chief medical examiner has 50,000 signatures. The FBI has not responded to a city councilman’s request for help. These are not details that make the story bigger. They are the story.Sources: WLBT, Mississippi Today, SSBCrackFrench Foreign Legion SoldierJosé Olger Melo Charry walked four days through rebel-controlled territory after escaping his captors in Colombia. He presented himself to police in the Andean town of Policarpa Thursday.Melo Charry, a corporal in the French Foreign Legion in his mid-thirties, was taken hostage on August 6 by a dissident faction of the FARC while traveling on a highway in Nariño department. The Central General Staff (EMC), the largest FARC dissident group, claimed responsibility. They demanded no ransom but warned Colombia’s new president against a rescue operation.According to French and Colombian reporting, Melo Charry overpowered a guard and jumped into a river with his hands still tied. After freeing himself, he traveled for four days through the Andes, hiding from motorcyclists and fearing he would be reported. He contacted his family by phone, and relatives alerted authorities.He was transferred to a hospital in Pasto, capital of Nariño, where he is “doing well” and receiving psychological support. He has been placed under security forces protection. The Colombian army said his “military training and his membership of the French Legion” kept him alive.France’s Defense Ministry said Melo Charry had no authorization to travel to Colombia. He joined the Legion four years ago.Colombia is experiencing its worst upsurge in violence since the FARC disbanded a decade ago. President Abelardo De la Espriella, who took office a month ago, has launched a full-scale war against the rebels, ordering airstrikes on camps that have killed dozens of suspects.Translator’s note: French outlets lead with the escape itself — the overpowering of the guard, the river jump with hands tied, the four-day trek. Le Monde and France 24 both note he was in Colombia without authorization, a detail that complicates the narrative. AFP emphasizes the role of his Legion training in his survival. The story is being covered as a dramatic individual escape rather than as part of Colombia’s broader guerrilla violence crisis, which is receiving less attention in French media than the hostage episode itself.What American readers need to know: A French soldier on unauthorized leave in Colombia gets kidnapped by FARC dissidents. He escapes by overpowering a guard and walking four days through rebel territory. This is the kind of story that runs on the wire and gets a paragraph in American coverage. The French press gives it the lead. That is the difference.Sources: AFP, Le Monde, France 24 (YouTube description), SOFXRussia / Ukraine WarUkrainian drones struck a natural gas facility 3,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border on Wednesday. It is the deepest strike into Russia of the war.Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces attacked the Novy Urengoy Gas Condensate Treatment Plant in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in northwestern Siberia. The strike also hit the nearby Purovsky Gas Condensate Processing Plant. The facility processes 19.5 million tons of crude oil and natural gas annually and produces diesel for the Russian military. The SSO wrote on Telegram that “until today, this area was considered completely safe territory for the aggressor.”Dmitry Artyukhov, governor of the Yamalo-Nenets region, confirmed the attack. Footage from residents showed fires and smoke from the plant, with excess gas being released through flare stacks to prevent explosions. Ukrainian weapons manufacturer Fire Point said its FP-1 drone model was used.The previous deepest strike was an oil refinery in Omsk, nearly 2,500 kilometers from the border, in July.Separately, a Russian drone nearly hit the plane carrying President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as it took off from Moldova Tuesday en route to Oslo for the funeral of Norway’s King Harald V. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told public broadcaster NRK the drone came close during takeoff. A Moldovan government spokesperson confirmed the incident, saying airspace was closed over a drone alert and the aircraft was cleared once the drone had come down on Moldovan territory. A source in Zelenskyy’s office called the Norwegian account exaggerated.Zelenskyy attended the funeral in Oslo alongside German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. While there, he met with Store and defense industry executives to discuss the FREYJA European anti-ballistic missile system.Germany also announced it will send PAC-2 Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine from Bundeswehr stocks. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius made the commitment at a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.Translator’s note: Kyiv Independent leads with the record distance of the strike, framing it as evidence of Ukraine’s expanding drone capability. Al Jazeera pairs the deep strike with the Zelenskyy drone incident, connecting them through the theme of Russian airspace becoming increasingly contested. Norwegian reporting emphasizes the near-miss as evidence of what Zelenskyy’s daily reality looks like. German media focuses on the PAC-2 missile delivery as a tangible commitment from Berlin.What American readers need to know: Ukraine can now hit targets 3,200 kilometers inside Russia. The president’s plane almost gets hit by a drone on the way to a funeral. Germany is pulling Patriot missiles from its own stockpile. Sources: Kyiv Independent, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Defense MattersYemenForces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government launched a counteroffensive against the Houthis Wednesday, vowing to retake the capital.Fighting intensified in the provinces of Taiz, al-Bayda, and al-Jawf. Government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, carried out rocket and drone strikes against Houthi positions and reported ground battles. Deputy Defense Major-General Samir Al-Sabri said on state television that the government has decided to “retake Sanaa.”This is the most serious escalation since a UN-brokered truce halted large-scale fighting in 2022. The fighting resumed in July when government forces struck the Houthi-controlled airport in Sanaa. Last week, the Houthis launched their own offensive toward Taiz and Hodeidah, advancing toward the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.The WHO said at least 728 people have been killed or wounded since August 23, with the majority in Taiz and along the western coast. An estimated 21,000 people — roughly 3,000 families — have been displaced from Taiz alone.The Houthis said they repelled the offensive in al-Jawf. They accused Saudi Arabia of killing seven people in an air strike on a prison in al-Hazm. Saudi Arabia said 73 civilians, including women and children, were wounded in recent Houthi attacks on its southern provinces.Translator’s note: Al Jazeera frames the offensive as the most serious escalation since the 2022 truce, connecting it to the broader US-Israel war on Iran that disrupted diplomatic efforts. What American readers need to know: Yemen was quiet for two years. The US-Iran war changed that. Now both sides are fighting for Sanaa. The WHO says 728 people have been killed or wounded in less than three weeks. American coverage of this conflict is minimal. The fighting in Yemen is a direct consequence of the war in the Gulf, and it is accelerating.Sources: Al Jazeera, Time.newsMail BallotsThe number of ballots rejected for late postmarks has soared in Washington and Oregon ahead of the midterm election.In 2022, late postmarks accounted for 22 percent of rejected ballots in Washington. By 2026, that figure rose to 73 percent. Washington rejected more than 20,000 mail ballots during its May primary, up from about 16,000 during the comparable period in 2022. Michigan rejected more than 10,000 ballots that arrived after its Election Day deadline during its August primary — nearly twice the number rejected in 2024.State officials blame recent changes in US Postal Service operations. Mail ballots for the November midterm began going out to voters in early September.What American readers need to know: Late postmarks went from 22 percent of rejections to 73 percent in four years. This is not a natural trend. Something changed in how the Postal Service handles mail. The midterms are seven weeks away.Sources: AP, SaveThePostoffice.org, News4JaxNUMBERS AT PUBLICATION🇮🇷 Iran: 3,684 killed 🇱🇧 Lebanon: 4,346 killed, 12,301 wounded 🇮🇱 Israel: 1,200+ killed, ~5,400 wounded (includes 472 killed, 3,004 wounded in Gaza) 🇺🇸 US military: 18 killed, 756 wounded 🇵🇸 Gaza: 1,344 killed, 4,464 wounded since the October 10, 2025 “ceasefire” 🇵🇸 West Bank: 316 killed (incl. 73 children), 5,641 wounded (incl. 915 children), since January 2025🛢️Brent crude: $101.60 | oilprice.com⛽️US gas (AAA): $4.23/gal“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1789JPD chief awaits Tasia Fortune autopsy results amid homicide investigationJackson PD calls Tasia Fortune’s death a homicide but still awaits autopsy - Mississippi TodayJPD investigating Tasia Fortune death as homicide, police chief saysJackson Police Investigate Tasia Fortune Death as Potential Homicide - MemesitaPolice Chief calls Tasia Fortune’s death a homicide but says investigators are still awaiting autopsy report ...Middle EastFrench legionnaire escapes Colombian captors, makes... - YouTube+4 more Get full access to The Rest of the World Report at www.restoftheworldreport.com/subscribe