France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot:

There is one nation in Europe that is the driving force behind this strength and independence: ours. France.

Either our country remains the driving force pushing Europe toward greater independence and thereby allows it to open up this third path, or France turns its back on this unprecedented political construction in our history, and the entire edifice will falter.

Hegseth:

If you know your Book of Isaiah, Chapter 6, Verse 8, the Lord said, “Who will I send?” And Isaiah says, “Lord, I’m here. Send me. Send me.”

Across the 250 years of our country, there have been men and women who raised their right hand and said, “Send me. Send me to go fight the Redcoats. Send me to go fight the communists. Send me to go fight the Islamists.”

And you are saying, “Send me to go fight whatever threats threaten our nation for the next 250 years.”

EXCLUSIVE: Sudan Army’s AKINCI drone scored another air-to-air kill, downing a Chinese-made CH-95 drone operated by UAE-backed RSF terror group.

The engagement took place in Al Kweki area.

Q: Are you going to respond to Trump, who recently showed Saint Pierre and Miquelon on a map as U.S. territory?

Macron: It is obvious to us that this is French territory, and a territory attached to France. It is proud to be French, just as we are.

We are deeply attached to it. There is no debate. There is no discussion.

Q: Why wait until now to reaffirm it?

Macron: We are not going to reaffirm it every morning just because people have strange ideas or say strange things. It is obvious.

BIG: Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya HQ warns the US and regional countries:

Any attack on Iran will trigger "continuous, effective, and painful" strikes on all US bases and interests in the region "without any limitation."

Regional states that side with US aggression will be considered partners in the attack and should not expect Iranian restraint.

Iran claims the US is planning new actions against Iran with regional allies' green light, coordinated at a European summit.

French President Macron:

We have to be extremely vigilant, and we do not want to run short. We have rebuilt our gas stocks, and we are securing our supplies.

For example, when it comes to diesel, we consume around 600,000 barrels a day and import half of it. So we are securing those supplies.

We should not frighten people. We have to tell the truth about geopolitical instability and what it creates in our country, and we have to prepare for it.

That is exactly what France is doing and what it has accelerated in recent weeks.

French President Macron:

In recent months, we managed to ease the pressure by finding alternative export routes, including Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. That pipeline was struck in recent days.

So today, we are at a very low level, with less than half of what is produced actually getting out.

Winter is coming, and some countries are now buying much more, whereas last spring those same countries reduced their consumption in order to adapt.

NEW: Ukraine's steel industry is effectively dead after Russian ballistic missile strikes knocked out all three remaining large steelworks (Zaporizhstal, Kametstal, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih) since August.

Metinvest:

As of today, Ukraine no longer has a steel industry.

The plants produced ~90% of remaining output, employed 15,000+, and had already shrunk from 21Mt pre-war to 7.4Mt in 2025.

August output crashed 57% year-on-year; September will be worse.

The sector once contributed 7% of GDP and 15% of exports — now approaching zero.

EU quota cuts, port closures, and loss of coking coal had already crippled the industry before the strikes.

Source: FT

NEW: Iranian MP Haji Deligani submitted a triple-urgency bill to withdraw from the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), saying "staying in the NPT brings us nothing but harm" given enemy attacks in two periods.

Triple-urgency means it's fast-tracked for immediate parliamentary debate.

NEW: 28 kamikaze drones attacked a Sudan Army base today with no damage reported.

The drones are Chinese-made ARES-TMID-0014, classified as drone/surface-to-surface with blast and fragmentation warheads.

They were supplied by the UAE to RSF terror group via Ethiopia — the same type also used by Yemen’s Houthis.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico:

I do not want a military conflict between NATO and Russia, and I will do everything to ensure that Slovakia is not dragged into any irresponsible military adventure.

Under my government, nobody will send Slovak soldiers outside the territory of Slovakia under some fabricated pretext to fight against Russia or any other country.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on NATO’s Article 5:

Article 5 of the NATO treaty, even in the event of a genuine aggressive armed attack against one or more NATO member states, provides broad possibilities regarding the form of assistance given to the attacked countries.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Ukraine:

Donald Tusk said yesterday that his Ukrainian partners had confirmed to him the growing number of Ukrainian soldiers killed and wounded, and that this number reaches 27,000 in a single month.

I have no right to question this figure, although deliberately exaggerating the scale of human losses could serve as a factor in pushing the Western world to provide even more military and financial assistance to Ukraine.

Dear friends, that is a terrible number.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico:

I cannot speak for our Czech friends, but we Slovaks have our own experience with Munich in 1938, when democratic powers bound to us by treaty deceived us, betrayed us and threw us to Hitler like a roasted chicken.

The US notified Congress of a possible $2.68 billion air defense sale to Ukraine, paid through European contributions and leftover Biden-era funds via the reconstruction fund.

The key item: "S-300 Clone missiles", not Soviet replicas, but new US-developed interceptors designed to fire from Ukraine's existing S-300 launchers, replacing Russian-origin missiles Ukraine can no longer get.

Also included: GAM-67 cheaper mass-producible SAMs, laser-guided anti-drone rockets, counter-UAS radars, and mobile launcher kits.

No quantities or delivery dates yet.

Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez signed an oil-sector memorandum of understanding with French energy giant TotalEnergies on September 19.

Italian PM Meloni:

If there is just one child in a class who does not understand Italian, that child will probably manage, with classmates and teachers, to learn the language and integrate quickly.

But if the children who do not understand the language of the lesson become many, or even become the majority, that is no longer integration. That is abandonment.

And the only thing those children risk learning is marginalization.

Italian PM Meloni:

It cannot happen — it cannot happen — that in an Italian classroom, Italian children are the ones who feel pushed into a corner because they have become the minority. That cannot happen.

Calling all of this "integration" is another lie — a convenient lie for those who live by ideology, for those who lecture us from their drawing rooms and then send their own children to schools where this problem does not exist.

Not for us. For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, know our culture and respect our rules.

That is the only serious way to welcome people.

Italian PM Meloni:

The proposed measure will introduce an obligation for the parents of foreign students with serious school-integration problems to learn Italian, and it will introduce a ban on the burqa and niqab at school.

In Italy, nobody, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself.

Equality between men and women is not negotiable. It is not negotiable on our streets and it is not negotiable in our schools.