Iran awaits a U.S. reply on Hormuz as Saudi defenses down Houthi missiles overnight
Beijing and Washington open a “super intelligence” incident channel after the Xi summit; Zelenskyy presses Trump to enlist China on Ukraine; Army Reserve readiness checks continue for possible Cuba contingencies; third-country deportation briefs remain due Monday.
6 AM CT video brief · 1:46Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Saturday, September 26th. Iran is still waiting for an official U.S. response to its seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, after the Wall Street Journal reported President Trump had rejected the deal. What this means. For you and your family, already paying the Hormuz premium, a deal that reopens oil lanes only after America lifts its blockade is Tehran naming the price of relief, not a verified peace. You deserve a clear official answer. Overnight, the Saudi-led coalition says its air defenses intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles fired toward Khamis Mushait, and two drones headed for the Riyadh area. What this means. Missiles aimed at Saudi cities are how Tehran's partners try to raise the price of American resolve at your gas pump. As Americans, we need energy security that doesn't depend on Houthi launchers. At the White House, officials say the U.S. and China will open a super intelligence dialogue and an incident channel after President Xi's state visit, and China will import at least 10 million metric tons of U.S. coal in 2027. The Army Reserve is assessing whether it could provide military police, medical and engineer units to Southern Command as part of Cuba planning. Officials stress these are not deployment orders. What this means. Readiness checks are not invasion orders, and you should expect any use of force to rest on the Constitution's war powers, not a slide deck alone. And at the Supreme Court, the government's request to restore third-country deportations is still pending, with a response due Monday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Full stories and sources are at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale. Thanks for watching.
Iran on Saturday was still awaiting an official U.S. response to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and pause regional fighting within seven days after the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump had rejected the deal, Reuters reported from Cairo and the United Nations. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that if Washington is serious, “everything is now prepared,” while a senior Iranian official told Reuters Tehran would show “no flexibility” over its nuclear program even if the United States accepted the plan. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in comments aired on CBS’s Face the Nation, said Tehran was ready for talks but would not accept “bullying or coercion,” and Araghchi’s ministry said early Saturday he briefed Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on an Iran-Oman understanding about safe shipping routes in the strait.
Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition said early Saturday that air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels toward Khamis Mushait in southwestern Saudi Arabia and two drones headed toward the Riyadh area, according to coalition statements reported by Euronews and The National. Coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Maliki said forces were “monitoring and tracking missile and drone threats directed at the Kingdom,” and Saudi civil defense had sent overnight alerts for Khamis Mushait and Abha. The Houthis have attacked Saudi cities, energy infrastructure and shipping since declaring a maritime blockade against the kingdom in July, adding pressure on global oil supplies while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains largely blocked.
Hours before the Saturday intercepts, military chiefs of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey reviewed threats facing the kingdom at a meeting in Riyadh under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement the three countries signed last month, The National reported, citing Saudi statements. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman said early Saturday he had met Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in Riyadh to discuss continued joint efforts against attacks on the kingdom under the pact, which treats an armed attack on one signatory as an attack on all. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that any threat to the safety of Islam’s two holiest mosques in Makkah and Madinah was “a red line that must never be crossed.”
The U.S. Army Reserve is examining whether it can provide military police, medical, engineer and sustainment units to U.S. Southern Command within 90 to 120 days as part of continued military planning related to Cuba, according to an internal Army message reviewed by CBS News and confirmed by U.S. officials speaking anonymously. Officials stressed the message does not constitute deployment orders and that President Trump has not made a final decision on military action; the document itself does not name Cuba, though multiple officials said the request is tied to Cuba planning. At the U.N. General Assembly this week, Trump said his administration was seeking a “fundamental change” on the island, predicted Cuba’s communist government “will fall,” and said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “deep into negotiations” with Havana, CBS reported.
After hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping for a reciprocal state visit that ended Friday, the White House said the United States and China established a U.S.-China Super Intelligence (SI) Dialogue to exchange views on risks and benefits, with the next exchange due by November 2026, and agreed to a bilateral communication channel for SI incidents. The two leaders also agreed to use the term “super intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence” for the applicable technologies, and the fact sheet said they agreed Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and that no country or institution can impose tolls on international waterways. On trade, the White House said the Board of Trade reached consensus on more favorable tariff treatment for $30 billion of non-sensitive goods in each direction and that China will import at least 10 million metric tons of U.S. coal in 2027 and again in 2028.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday he asked President Trump to press Chinese President Xi Jinping to use Beijing’s influence over Moscow to help end Russia’s invasion, and that he had not yet received White House feedback on the Trump-Xi talks, according to Associated Press reporting carried by Arab News. Zelenskyy said Washington is pushing for technical three-way talks among U.S., Ukrainian and Russian delegations — without the leaders — and that American officials suggested the United Arab Emirates as a venue, while Ukraine awaits a proposed date. He also said Trump confirmed a final decision that Kyiv would get licenses to produce Patriot air-defense systems, and that Trump signed a Russia sanctions bill last week but has not yet enacted the measures.
The Supreme Court posted no new overnight orders on the emergency applications decided Friday. On the still-pending application in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D., No. 26A406 — the government’s request for a stay seeking to restore third-country deportations — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Sept. 24 order continues to direct respondents to file their response by 4 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 28, according to the Court’s public docket. The application was docketed Sept. 24 after being submitted to Justice Jackson; as of Saturday morning the docket showed no further order on the merits of the stay.
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