France and Luxembourg stopped the European Union from agreeing new sanctions on Russia, on the same day US President Trump was due to meet Ukraine's President Zelenskyy at the United Nations in New York.
On 21 September 2026, three stories stood out.
NATO shot down a drone over its own territory for the first time, and EU officials proposed a crisis tool similar to NATO's Article 4 consultation process, showing Europe building new emergency systems that don't need every NATO member to agree.
Poland's president and prime minister say Vladimir Putin is preparing a direct attack on a NATO member state and hybrid attacks on Ukraine's neighbors, the clearest warning yet that the war could spread onto NATO soil.
Congress passed a bill letting Trump punish big buyers of Russian oil and gas, and India warns this could hurt its ties with Washington since it still buys Russian oil.
Saudi Arabia has raised its alert level after the Houthis, an armed group from Yemen, threatened Mecca, Islam's holiest city, and warned of a red line.
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone over Lithuania, the first time the alliance has destroyed an aircraft over a member country's own territory, after a series of similar Baltic airspace incidents that NATO blames on Russia.
A strike on a cargo ship near Iran's coast killed one person and wounded four, then rattled stock and currency markets as far as Taiwan and Singapore in the following days.
Yemen's war has flared up again, with the Houthis, a Yemeni armed group, claiming a strike on a Saudi base as fighting kills hundreds and displaces tens of thousands, after Saudi Arabia shut a pipeline over a Red Sea island seizure.
Saudi Arabia shut a major oil pipeline after a drone attack from Iraq, and Yemen's Houthi fighters seized a Red Sea island, raising fears for oil supplies and ships passing through the region.
Russia and China are blocking the UN Security Council body that enforces sanctions on Iran, so the sanctions remain official but cannot be applied.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has referred Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council after a US-backed vote.