Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at what to expect at this year’s BRICS leaders’ summit, the legacy of 9/11 a quarter century later, and the Houthis’ lightning offensive on the Red Sea coast.
Vying for Influence
In a world long dictated by U.S. hegemony, who leads the other side? That is the issue defining this weekend’s BRICS summit, as the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other member countries gather in New Delhi to discuss what a counterweight to Washington’s influence should look like.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at what to expect at this year’s BRICS leaders’ summit, the legacy of 9/11 a quarter century later, and the Houthis’ lightning offensive on the Red Sea coast.
Vying for Influence
In a world long dictated by U.S. hegemony, who leads the other side? That is the issue defining this weekend’s BRICS summit, as the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other member countries gather in New Delhi to discuss what a counterweight to Washington’s influence should look like.
BRICS was established in 2009 as a direct response to the U.S. dollar’s dominance in international trade as well as Washington’s leverage over the United Nations and what was then the G-8. But the bloc’s ability to make significant headway has long been stymied by internal dissent, especially between India and China. This weekend, New Delhi and Beijing will jockey for dominance over the bloc’s agenda going forward.
On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the mood for the two-day summit by agreeing to strengthen his country’s special relationship with Russia. According to India’s foreign ministry, Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Russia-Ukraine and Iran wars as well as vowed to continue negotiations over defense and energy issues.
India is the second-largest buyer of Russian oil after China. New Delhi previously vowed to increase bilateral trade with Moscow from nearly $70 billion in 2025 to $100 billion by 2030, despite repeated U.S. threats against countries that trade with the Kremlin or continue to purchase Russian crude. At the same time, New Delhi has managed to maintain its close ties with Washington in a way that most other BRICS governments, including Beijing, have failed to do.
Meanwhile, experts say Chinese President Xi Jinping will aim to push his own agenda during what will be his first visit to India in seven years. Over the weekend, he is expected to hold a sidelines conversation with Modi to discuss a long-running border dispute, opportunities for greater Chinese investment, and their shared roles in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. He is also likely to push India on its massive trade deficit with China, as Beijing is New Delhi’s biggest business partner.
But dissent between the bloc’s two wealthiest nations will not be the group’s only schism. The U.S.-Iran war—and Tehran’s attacks on U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf—has also increased tensions among the group’s members. During a BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in May, also held in India, the bloc failed to come to a consensus on how to address the conflict. Then in August, the United Arab Emirates (a BRICS member) suspended all trade with fellow member Iran over its continued attacks on Emirati soil.
Despite the theme of this year’s summit being “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability,” BRICS nations may find it difficult to achieve the level of collaboration needed to craft a cohesive message amid growing internal disunity.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Remembering 9/11. Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, considered the deadliest foreign assault on U.S. soil in history. Seven moments of silence were observed at a memorial ceremony in New York City to mark the times when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.
The silences also recognized when both New York City buildings collapsed as well as all those who later died from cancer or other illnesses from inhaling toxic dust in the attack’s aftermath. More than 2,900 people were killed, including hundreds of first responders, on Sept. 11, 2001, and at least 9,500 others have died from 9/11-related diseases.
“Twenty-five years on, it’s still hard to grasp the significance of 9/11 because it remains a moving target,” FP columnist Michael Hirsh argues. The attacks led then-U.S. President George W. Bush to launch a “war against all those who seek to export terror and a war against those governments that support or shelter them.” A quarter of a century later, the United States continues to contend with the legacy of that global war on terrorism, including the fallout of its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the continued fight against Iran and its proxy groups.
“We will never, ever forget,” U.S. President Donald Trump said at a separate ceremony at the Pentagon on Friday. “That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice.” He thanked active service members fighting in the Middle East for “working right now to ensure the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror—the Islamic Republic of Iran—will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.”
Major Houthi victory. Houthi rebels in Yemen seized control of several strategic Red Sea islands and port cities on Friday, solidifying their grip on the Bab el-Mandeb strait. “Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen,” said a military official with the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed Yemeni government. That includes the Houthis’ takeover of Perim Island, the Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands, and Zuqar Island as well as the coastal Yemeni town of Dhubab.
Fighting between Houthi and Saudi-led forces has escalated in recent weeks, as the Iranian proxy group has carried out a lightning offensive on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. On Thursday, Houthi rebels claimed the critical port city of Mokha in a major blow to Riyadh’s military efforts. However, Friday’s victories may be even more detrimental to Saudi Arabia’s ambitions in the country, as it gives Iran leverage over another crucial waterway.
Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz has severely hampered the global economy, disrupting supply chains, raising oil prices, and injecting greater insecurity into the region. With the Bab el-Mandeb now under the thumb of an Iranian ally, experts expect these problems to only grow. Still, Tehran confirmed on Friday that it would meet with Iraqi and Gulf state representatives in Oman on Monday to resume negotiations on reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic.
Eroding democracy. A Hong Kong court sentenced three local activists to prison on Friday in a case seen as symbolic of the city’s declining democratic freedoms since Beijing imposed its strict national security law in 2020. Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and Albert Ho were convicted this year of inciting subversion under that law by organizing annual vigils to commemorate China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. All three individuals were leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and have been in custody for years.
“Even when the defendants believed their agenda of ‘end one-party dictatorship’ might breach the constitution and the national security law, they acted recalcitrantly after the national security law took effect and vigorously promoted their cause,” the three-judge panel wrote.
Both Lee and Chow had pleaded not guilty; they were given a seven-year and seven-year, three-month sentence, respectively. Their loved ones confirmed on Friday that they planned to appeal. Ho, however, pleaded guilty and was therefore given a reduced five-year, two-month prison term.
What in the World?
The far-right Alternative for Germany party won a state election on Sunday but fell short of the majority needed to form a government without a coalition. If the party succeeds in coalition- building, it would be the first far-right party to lead a German state since when?
A. The fall of the Berlin Wall
B. World War II
C. The Soviet consolidation of East Germany
D. The Weimar Republic
Odds and Ends
When road rage threatens to get the best of you, Kenyan street performers are ready to help. Acrobats, jugglers, and other entertainers have recently taken on Nairobi’s busy roads by performing for motorists stuck in the capital’s notorious traffic jams. “There are no opportunities for us that we can go to,” street acrobat Jackson Okoth told The Associated Press, referring to Kenya’s high unemployment rate. “So we like it when we are here because it keeps us busy and it keeps us fit also.”
And the Answer Is…
B. World War II
The rise of the far right in Germany signals the end of German postwar democracy as we know it, John Kampfner argues.
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