Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Argentine President Javier Milei’s renewed push for the Falkland Islands, clashes between the Houthis and government forces in Yemen, and international airlines halting flights to Russia.
World Brief will be off on Monday, Sept. 7, for the U.S. holiday of Labor Day.
Falklands at the Forefront
In a nationally televised address on Thursday, Argentine President Javier Milei threatened to sanction companies drilling for oil near the Falkland Islands, a British-controlled territory that is also claimed by Argentina. Milei also announced new funding for a naval base in the country’s southernmost province, which would increase Buenos Aires’s military presence near the islands.
“Any further advance on the Malvinas Islands will be considered a violation of our national security,” Milei said, using the Argentine term for the archipelago.
The sanctions threat is aimed at halting development on the Sea Lion project, a deep-sea oil field operated by the U.K.’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum. The companies intend to start drilling in the next few months and begin pumping oil in 2028. Rockhopper said in a statement that it doesn’t expect Milei’s announcement to have a “material effect” on those plans.
U.K. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting, meanwhile, affirmed Britain’s “absolute and unshakeable” commitment to the Falklands on social media. “The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British,” he said, referring to a 2013 referendum in which the islands’ residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining in the United Kingdom.
Britain has ruled the islands almost continuously since 1833. In 1982, the Falklands War erupted when Argentina seized the islands. The British military retook the territory after 74 days, but the dispute over the islands’ sovereignty remains contentious. When Argentina and England met on the soccer pitch during the World Cup this summer, Argentina’s players celebrated their victory by holding a banner reading “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas” (“The Falklands Are Argentine”).
When he took office in 2023, Milei appeared to de-emphasize the Falklands to prioritize a closer relationship with the United States, which has long maintained neutrality on the issue. However, he has increasingly expressed the traditional Argentine position in recent months in what some analysts see as an effort to counter falling domestic ratings.
“Milei’s belated embrace of the Falklands demonstrates why Argentina’s claim to the islands will only grow more insistent going forward: Domestic politicians almost universally use the Falklands to prove their nationalist credentials,” Antonio De Loera-Brust wrote in Foreign Policy in July.
Milei’s move to reignite the Falklands issue was also likely influenced by Britain’s fraying ties with the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump hinted earlier on Thursday that he may not support Britain in a conflict over the islands because of the country’s lack of support for the U.S. war against Iran. During his speech, Milei praised Trump and stressed the leaders’ close relationship.
“Claiming British territory is no longer the obstacle that it once was for Argentina’s ties with Europe and the United States, which means that Argentine leaders no longer have to choose between issues,” writes De Loera-Brust.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Escalating violence. At least 81 people were killed and thousands displaced in Yemen after the Iran-backed Houthis launched a ground assault on Thursday toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key chokepoint for international shipping at the southern end of the Red Sea.
The attack is part of a Houthi effort to sever the government-controlled city of Taiz from the coast, capture the port city of Mokha, and ultimately control all traffic through the strait. Since declaring a blockade on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea in July, the Houthis have continued to attack Saudi ships and facilities, raising concerns that a full-blown war with Riyadh could reignite.
That would add an additional squeeze on global shipping and energy prices. U.S. diesel prices on Friday hit an all-time high at $5.85 a gallon. Experts say fuel prices are likely to stay high until shipping fully resumes in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance insisted on Thursday that the Trump administration is doing “a lot of things” to pressure Iran to stop shooting at commercial ships in the strait, and on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a minor Turkish investment bank and two subsidiaries that do business with Tehran. “While we hope no more banks will need to be sanctioned, that ultimately depends on how quickly the international community comes to its senses and ceases support of the murderous Iranian regime,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Yet repeated U.S. military strikes, an oil blockade, and crushing economic sanctions have so far failed to convince Iran’s leadership to back down.
Treacherous skies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that international airlines are beginning to heed his call to suspend flights to Russia. This follows his announcement earlier this week that Ukraine would be expanding drone attacks near Russian airports in an effort to disrupt Moscow’s economy.
Ninety-seven flights to Russia were canceled on Thursday, according to data from FlightRadar24, including services operated by Turkish, Emirati, Egyptian, Armenian, Kuwaiti, and Tajik airlines. Air Tanzania announced that flights to Moscow would be suspended until Monday.
“[W]e are warning our partners: the safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” Zelensky said in a Tuesday post on X.
Ukraine has intensified its air campaign against Russia in recent months, with a new peak of around 16,000 drones crossing into Russian airspace in August. According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, its forces downed 416 Ukrainian drones between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Fraught forum. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), a six-day gathering of officials from 18 countries and territories, came to a close on Friday. The region has emerged as a primary strategic arena in the past decade amid a battle for influence between global powers such as China and the United States. The meetings, which were held in Palau this year—one of only 11 countries worldwide that recognize Taiwan—were marred by geopolitical tensions.
Addressing China’s ballistic missile test-launch in the South Pacific in July was at the top of the agenda. But although the forum members agreed on Thursday to register their collective “concern” about the launch, the statement was far from a harsh rebuke, and even then it wasn’t unanimous: Nauru, an island nation that severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2024, dissented.
Nevertheless, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters that he thought the assembly had “got to a very good place,” and that even though Nauru “dissociated itself” from the joint statement, “that shouldn’t be a reason for why we shouldn’t be able to express a PIF position or a consensus position.”
Last-minute withdrawals of top leaders from five member nations—Kiribati, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands—overshadowed proceedings from the get-go and prompted suggestions that Chinese influence, stemming from its displeasure over the host location, could be to blame. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters refrained from directly accusing Beijing of interfering, but he said that the collective absence was “highly suspicious.”
What in the World?
Provisional results on Tuesday showed that voters had approved a referendum on a new constitution in Guinea-Bissau. The new charter would expand presidential authority. Which of the below is not one of the powers it would grant to the president?
A. Appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet
B. Create and abolish ministries
C. Unilaterally determine the military’s annual budget
D. Dissolve parliament in a political crisis
Odds and Ends
It may be that “good things come to those who wait,” especially when it comes to the famously long Guinness pour, which takes 119.5 seconds to complete. But thieves wasted no time pulling off a heist of two truckloads of the stout beer this week from a depot near Liverpool in the United Kingdom. British police are now trying to recover the 70,000 pints, worth $155,000. Here’s hoping the thieves don’t plan to drink it all themselves.
And the Answer Is…
A. Unilaterally determine the military’s annual budget
Coup leaders across Africa have changed strategies to retain power, sometimes extending transitional government windows, delaying elections, or using elections to legitimize their continued grip on power, Salah Ben Hammou and Sydney Dobbins wrote in July 2025.
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