By Miles Abroad, ODN International Correspondent
Map: Opelika Daily News, using Natural Earth boundaries. Pipeline route and strike areas are approximate.
World leaders spent this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York talking about ending wars. On the ground, the wars kept going. From Kyiv to southern Lebanon to the Strait of Hormuz, here is where things stand as of Wednesday night, Sept. 23, and why it matters at the pump here in Lee County.
Ukraine: Talk of an “energy ceasefire” as Russian drones hit Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met President Donald Trump for about 40 minutes Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN meeting. Zelensky said afterward that Ukraine is ready for an “energy ceasefire,” a mutual halt to strikes on power plants, refineries, heating and water systems, as long as Russia stops hitting Ukraine’s grid too. He also asked for more Patriot air-defense missiles before winter, and he urged Trump to set up a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky said no agreements were reached, Al Jazeera reported.
Hours later, Russia hit Kyiv with waves of jet-powered drones in a rare daytime attack. The attack killed two people and injured 43, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, as reported by the Kyiv Independent. Drones hit railway infrastructure, gas stations and warehouses and set fire to the historic “Shayba” market near the central train station. AFP reported that strikes across Ukraine killed at least seven people Wednesday. The agency’s analysis of ACLED conflict data found more Russian strikes on the Kyiv region in the first 18 days of September than in any full month of the war except March 2022.
After meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said both sides had “expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involve grain and energy,” but added, “that won’t be easy either,” the Irish Times reported. Lavrov told the UN Security Council that Moscow would not accept a “pause,” and the Kremlin said there are no grounds yet for peace talks. Speaking to the General Assembly Wednesday, Zelensky warned that if no energy truce is reached, Ukraine will “make it painful for Russia too” this winter.
Iran: First talks in months, with threats on both sides
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which began with air strikes on Feb. 28, is now almost seven months old. A June memorandum meant to end the fighting has fallen apart. This week, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held what Trump called a “very productive” three-hour meeting with Iranian officials in New York. Qatar acted as the go-between. The BBC reported that these were the first talks between the two sides since the June ceasefire broke down. No breakthrough was announced.
The tone around the talks was harsh. In his UN speech, Trump said he faced “a big decision”: make a deal, or “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian answered from the same podium Wednesday that Iran “will not bow to pressure.” According to Iranian state media, Tehran wants three things: an end to the U.S. naval blockade of its ports (in place since April), the release of frozen Iranian assets, and an end to attacks on its allies across the region. The U.S. wants free passage through the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran’s nuclear program. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on state TV that Iran had given Washington “four to five days” to meet its conditions.
Israel and Lebanon: A UN peacekeeping deadline approaches
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah started again on March 2. That was when Hezbollah fired rockets after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Israel responded by invading southern Lebanon again. The UN peacekeeping force there, UNIFIL, now counts nearly 30 Israeli military positions in the south, including eight fortified bases, The National reported.
UNIFIL’s mandate runs out Dec. 31. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam used the UN meetings to ask for a six-month extension or a replacement force, but according to Arab News he had not gotten either one. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of not carrying out a framework agreement reached in U.S.-mediated talks in Washington. Israeli strikes and demolitions in the south went on overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, L’Orient Today reported.
Gaza: A $2.45 billion rebuilding plan, and a ceasefire under strain
On Wednesday in New York, the U.S.-backed Board of Peace, created under Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan, released a six-month, $2.45 billion blueprint of 66 projects for housing, power and waste removal. The board said $18 billion has been pledged but only $280 million has actually been paid, the BBC reported. It puts the cost of full reconstruction at about $71.4 billion over the next 10 years.
The ceasefire that began Oct. 10, 2025, brought all the hostages home. But much of the rest of the plan has stalled. The Associated Press reported that the Israeli military now controls about 60% of Gaza, Hamas has not given up its weapons, the international security force has not deployed, and most Palestinians still live in tents or ruins. Board envoy Nickolay Mladenov said progress depends on Hamas disarming. Israeli strikes killed seven Palestinians on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one of those strikes killed a senior Hamas finance official.
Saudi Arabia: The pipeline around Hormuz is back, for now
With Hormuz mostly shut, Saudi Arabia has relied on its 746-mile East-West Pipeline. The pipeline carries crude from the Abqaiq area in the east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing the strait. On Sept. 10 and 11, drones hit the pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions, and Saudi officials shut it down. The Saudi government said the drones came from Iraq, and Iraq’s government said they were launched from its southeastern Maysan province. No group has claimed responsibility, and Saudi Arabia has blamed Iraqi militias. Reuters later reported that three pumping stations were damaged.
The pipeline restarted Tuesday, and exports from Yanbu were expected to resume, Reuters reported, citing sources. One security source said a full restart could take six to eight weeks. The kingdom is also under fire from the south. Earlier this month, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked four southern Saudi cities, wounding 73 people and setting oil sites on fire.
The chokepoints: Why three narrow waterways matter to Opelika
Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, about 125 large commercial ships a day passed through this channel between Iran and Oman, carrying roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. On Tuesday, three made the trip, according to Kpler ship-tracking data cited by Reuters. On Wednesday, an Indian crew member was killed when the bulk carrier Cape Dao was hit and caught fire off Oman’s Musandam peninsula, gCaptain reported. The International Maritime Organization counts 83 confirmed incidents and 23 seafarer deaths in and around the strait since the war began.
Bab el-Mandeb. The strait at the southern end of the Red Sea is the other way out for Saudi oil shipped from Yanbu. The Houthis now control Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, including the port of Mocha and Perim Island in the middle of the strait, Al Jazeera reported. The group declared a blockade on Saudi-linked shipping in July. According to S&P Global data, no supertankers have crossed since Sept. 9. Sixty-three crossed in July.
Suez Canal. Oddly, container ships are coming back to Suez. Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, MSC and COSCO have all brought routes back. Canal traffic was up 27% in August from a year earlier, according to the Suez Canal Authority. But every ship using Suez still has to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb, and the carriers have said they will change course again if the Red Sea gets more dangerous.
What it means here
Brent crude, the global benchmark, has swung around $100 a barrel this week. It moves with every headline about Hormuz talks and the Saudi pipeline, and it is still more than 60% higher than at the start of the year, according to ING. Diesel is where it hurts most. Russia has banned diesel exports after Ukrainian drones hit its refineries, and Middle East supply is squeezed. The AAA national average for diesel hit a record $6.53 a gallon Tuesday. In Alabama, diesel averaged $6.15 on Wednesday, also a record, compared with about $3.42 in September 2025. Regular gas in Alabama averaged $4.05. That costs truckers, farmers and school bus fleets, and eventually the rest of us at the grocery store.
What to watch next: Iran’s “four to five days” deadline, whether Russia answers the energy-truce offer before cold weather, the Security Council’s decision on a post-UNIFIL presence in Lebanon, and whether ships keep moving through the Red Sea.
Miles Abroad is the Opelika Daily News international correspondent, an AI-assisted contributor. This report was compiled from the news organizations and official sources linked above and reviewed by editor Jerry Katz.
