Houthis target Saudi, Moscow drone attack and Ed Sheeran

Hi, I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool. It's Sunday, September 20th. Today, a major escalation in the Gulf as Yemen's Houthis say they've attacked Saudi capital, Riyadh. The White House turns away CNN, MSNOW and Politico reporters after Trump's ban. Ukraine launches its largest drone attack yet on Moscow as Russians vote in parliamentary elections. And Ed Sheeran apologizes for the Macklemore controversy. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. So you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are, including these places. Make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel. Age and location restrictions apply. Product availability varies by market. See FanDuel.com for eligibility. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. A large plume of smoke rises near Riyadh's main airport as Yemen's Houthis say they attacked sensitive sites in the Saudi capital. The Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sariah says operations targeted Riyadh and an Aramco facility in the Red Sea city of Yanbu, a key Saudi oil export hub. They say the operation came as a response to an attack on the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. The fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia has developed into a war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. The war has developed as a new theater of conflict in the wider war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran at the end of February. U.S. President Donald Trump has rebuffed Saudi requests for direct U.S. military intervention against the Houthis. Now to Washington, where media crews from CNN and MSNOW reported from outside the White House on Saturday after they and journalists from Politico were denied access. The incident follows President Trump's announcement that he would ban them from the building's grounds. All three news outlets separately said their team's press passes were confiscated on Saturday morning when their journalists went to the White House. They've signaled that they may contest the ban on the grounds that it conflicts with the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press. A social media post by Trump on Friday accused the outlets of, quote, reporting fake news and added other fake news media outlets to follow. I am making mistakes and I'm so, so sorry. Pop star Ed Sheeran apologizing at a gig in Philadelphia for his handling of a controversy that erupted this week when rapper Macklemore was removed as an opening act after saying, quote, free Palestine at a concert. The tour's other supporting acts subsequently quit to show solidarity with Macklemore. Sheeran's speech is a stark change from his statements earlier in the week when he posted on Instagram that his concert audiences do not expect a political forum. What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is a catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. Ukraine has launched what Moscow's mayor is calling the biggest ever drone attack on the Russian capital, saying it's an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the final day of a parliamentary election. President Vladimir Putin has cast the vote as a test of support for Russia's war in Ukraine. It's the first such election since Russia launched its full-scale war in February 2022 and is expected to see the ruling United Russia Party easily retain its dominance, in a political system critics say does not tolerate dissent. At a polling station in Moscow, 76-year-old university lab head Anatoly Somanenko says war entails expenses, but that it's necessary. There is a war. These are expenses, these are costs for defense. Ukrainian strikes have knocked out a significant part of Russia's oil refining capacity, triggering oil product shortages, fuel price increases, and long queues. He says the U.S. economy is on the rise, and the U.S. economy is one of the world's leading oil companies. The U.S. everywhere so you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are including these places make this your most rewarding season ever with fan duel age and location restrictions apply product availability varies by market see fanduel.com for eligibility gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER the u.s military says it killed four people in a strike on a vessel in the caribbean alleging it was involved in drug trafficking the attack is the latest in a campaign dating back to last year that targets what the trump administration describes as quote narco-terrorists since the campaign started u.s strikes on vessels in the caribbean and the eastern pacific have been more frequent than ever since the attack on a vessel in the caribbean have killed more than 200 people france's president emmanuel macron is meeting canada's prime minister mark carney in the french territory of san pierre and michelon weeks after president trump posted an image on social media showing the archipelago covered by an american flag located off canada's atlantic coast san pierre and michelon is france's only remaining territory in north america macron's stop there is en route to the the annual united nations general assembly gathering of world leaders and carries symbolic weight after trump posted that map depicting the u.s canada greenland iceland mexico central america and the caribbean draped in a u.s flag and labeled united states of america for their part denmark and greenland have said that any agreement with the u.s will not compromise greenland's sovereignty after president trump said a deal struck on friday would give washington quote permanent control over the arctic island's security leaving its precise scope unclear ruta's chief denmark correspondent jacob granjo pedersen explains this means that trump will not get ownership over greenland as he has said numerous times that he would like to denmark has been very much pushing this diplomatic track it seems to if it goes through that this this will continue to include sort of a major uh a diplomatic crisis for uh for governing jacob says that while the deal lacks detail it seems to allow the u.s to build up a major troop presence on greenland and prevent other countries from building their own bases there you can say that uh under the uh the defense agreement dating back to 1951 um the u.s already had de facto or some sort of an agreement with the u.s to build up a major troop presence on greenland but in the end the deal was made by denmark and that's where it gets a bit unclear and that's where it gets a bit unclear uh but trump's comments and that's where it gets a bit unclear suggests that uh washington will have some sort of formal control over which countries can make investments into sensitive and sensitive areas in greenland and which countries can have military presence in greenland so if that's true then denmark would policy, power and resources to Washington, which is obviously highly unusual for a country to do. So in that sense, it can be seen as a real win for Trump. North Korea launched two missiles off its eastern coast early on Sunday, its second set of tests in roughly a week. The first projectile flew approximately 280 miles and is presumed to belong to the Hwasong-11 series. Japanese public broadcaster NHK says the projectile came down outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. If the subsequent launch is confirmed to be a ballistic missile, that will mark two consecutive ballistic missile tests by North Korea within a three-hour window. Pyongyang recently accused the U.S. of driving tensions the Korean Peninsula through a series of military drills. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet on Thursday with a big new issue, artificial intelligence, on the agenda. There'll be plenty to discuss on the more traditional tensions, like Taiwan, a US ally which China claims is its own. And that's making US allies in the region nervous, according to correspondent John Geddy. The reason they're concerned about this is because Trump said when he met Xi in May that arms sales to Taiwan were a negotiating chip with China. And this has unnerved US allies in Asia who fear that Trump may be willing to soften Washington's stance towards Taiwan in order to get economic wins with Xi. Officials in Tokyo and Taipei are sure that Xi is likely to raise the issue of Taiwan with Trump. He did in May. He has repeatedly raised it with previous US presidents. And they're concerned that if Trump says something that sort of implies that US resolve to defend Taiwan is weakening in some way, that could embolden China, who's constantly holding war games around the island and putting more pressure on the people of Taiwan. FanDuel is now available everywhere in the US. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 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