# Friday 11th September 2026. US Trump bribe. Yemen fighting. Ukraine-Russia attack drones. Iran sea drone. Nepal aid drones. Robot protest...

An episode of [Simple English News Daily](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505603790), 10 Sep 2026, 8:56.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/op3.dev/e/adbarker.com/stream/K1GF85x83ZWP88Cz18NfA8bx/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75058024/11_09_26.mp3

World news in 7 minutes. Friday 11th September 2026. Today: US Trump bribe. Peru, Ecuador, Colombia security. Yemen fighting. Ukraine-Russia drone attacks. Iran sea drone. Nepal aid drones. Philippines fire. Thailand Israel protests. Syria women fighter. Spain Sahara citizns. Robots protest. With Stephen Devincenzi Become a SEND7 supporter! • Ad-free listening • Bonus quiz episode every Friday • Daily transcripts (written by us, not AI!) • Vocabulary lists • Wednesday worksheets • Ask questions in Ask Me Anything episodes • 10% of our profit goes to Effective Altruism charities. You can become a supporter at send7.supercast.com Sign up for the free newsletter at send7.org/newsletter For more information about SEND7 visit send7.org/contact or send an email to podcast@send7.org

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Send7, world news in seven minutes.
[0:06] Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Devincenzi. Today is Friday the 11th of September, 2026.
[0:11] Speaker 1: Starting in the Americas today. In the United States, President
[0:24] Speaker 1: Donald Trump has been accused of bribery after saying that
[0:28] Speaker 1: if the republicans win the midterm elections, then his government
[0:33] Speaker 1: would give everyone in the country $ 5, 000 each. Trump made
[0:39] Speaker 1: the announcement at a political rally in Texas.
[0:43] Speaker 2: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the
[0:46] Speaker 2: United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic,
[0:52] Speaker 2: tremendous economic success like In history, we've never had anything
[0:57] Speaker 2: like what's happening. I will issue a dividend to every
[1:00] Speaker 2: adult citizen in the United States of America for $ 5, 000.
[1:05] Speaker 2: So if the Republicans win, you win with us and
[1:10] Speaker 2: you get $ 5, 000. It will be called the Trump dividend.
[1:16] Speaker 1: In the US, it is illegal to influence people's voting
[1:21] Speaker 1: decisions by offering them money. However, it's not clear if
[1:25] Speaker 1: this would be considered bribery as the payments are being
[1:29] Speaker 1: offered to everyone, even if they don't vote for Republicans.
[1:33] Speaker 1: Analysts say that the payments would need to be approved
[1:37] Speaker 1: by Congress and that giving everyone in the country $ 5, 000
[1:42] Speaker 1: at the same time would probably cause inflation. Trump also
[1:48] Speaker 1: said that the war with Iran would end after the
[1:51] Speaker 1: midterm elections. Peru will join the United States-led Shield of
[1:57] Speaker 1: the Americas coalition against drug cartels, President Keiko Fujimori announced
[2:03] Speaker 1: yesterday during a visit by United States Secretary of State
[2:07] Speaker 1: Marco Rubio. Earlier this week, Rubio visited Ecuador and Colombia.
[2:13] Speaker 1: In Ecuador, Rubio said that the US would aim to
[2:16] Speaker 1: provide $ 45 million worth of security funding. In Colombia, Rubio
[2:22] Speaker 1: met for the first time with Colombia's new right-wing president,
[2:26] Speaker 1: Abelardo de la Espriella. Asia In Yemen, there has been
[2:33] Speaker 1: continuous fighting between the internationally recognised government and the Houthi group,
[2:39] Speaker 1: which controls much of western Yemen, including the capital Sana'a.
[2:44] Speaker 1: There have been conflicting reports of territory changing hands, however,
[2:49] Speaker 1: it appears that the Houthis have captured some areas on
[2:52] Speaker 1: the west coast, including the port of Mokka and also
[2:57] Speaker 1: two islands in the Red Sea. Iran has released footage
[3:02] Speaker 1: of a US underwater drone that it has captured. Military
[3:07] Speaker 1: analysts say that Iran could attempt to reverse-engineer the drone.
[3:13] Speaker 1: Nepal's army is using drones to transport food and other
[3:17] Speaker 1: aid to people who have been stranded by the recent floods.
[3:23] Speaker 1: In Thailand, there were protests outside the Israeli embassy yesterday.
[3:28] Speaker 1: The protesters accuse Israeli citizens of buying large amounts of
[3:33] Speaker 1: land in Thailand by avoiding legal restrictions. In the Philippines,
[3:39] Speaker 1: a fire on a ferry has killed at least five people. However,
[3:43] Speaker 1: local media says that there were 117 people on board
[3:46] Speaker 1: and only around 40 have been rescued. In Syria, the
[3:54] Speaker 1: all-female militia, the YPJ, are attempting to negotiate to maintain
[4:00] Speaker 1: a combat role in the new Syrian military. The YPJ
[4:05] Speaker 1: was part of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria,
[4:09] Speaker 1: largely formed of Kurds, and during the Syrian civil war
[4:13] Speaker 1: they fought mostly against Daesh, but sometimes also against the
[4:17] Speaker 1: Bashar al-Assad government and against Turkey. The Syrian Democratic Forces
[4:23] Speaker 1: has been dissolved this year and its fighters have mostly
[4:26] Speaker 1: been moved into the new Syrian military. However, the future
[4:30] Speaker 1: of the YPJ has been in doubt as the government
[4:34] Speaker 1: has refused to allow women to serve in combat roles.
[4:39] Speaker 1: Some reports have said that the women are trying to
[4:42] Speaker 1: be given a place as part of the internal security
[4:45] Speaker 1: force instead. There are believed to be around 1,500 women
[4:51] Speaker 1: form the YPJ, although there were previously many more. Africa.
[4:58] Speaker 1: Off of the coast of Somalia, there has been a
[5:01] Speaker 1: rise in cases of Somali pirates hijacking ships this year.
[5:07] Speaker 1: According to The Guardian, eight ships have been hijacked by
[5:10] Speaker 1: Somali pirates since April. The pirates may be taking advantage
[5:15] Speaker 1: of the chaos of the war against Iran and disruptions
[5:19] Speaker 1: in the shipping industry. Spain's parliament has voted to grant
[5:24] Speaker 1: Spanish citizenship to Sahrawis, who were born during the Spanish
[5:29] Speaker 1: administration of the Western Sahara, which ended in 1976. Between 70,000
[5:36] Speaker 1: and 110,000 Sahrawis are believed to be eligible. After Spain
[5:42] Speaker 1: gave up power in Western Sahara, a war broke out
[5:46] Speaker 1: between Morocco and the Polisario Front which wants independence for
[5:51] Speaker 1: the Sahrawi people. Today, Morocco controls about 70% of Western Sahara,
[5:57] Speaker 1: including all of the Atlantic coast and major towns. Europe
[6:05] Speaker 1: In Ukraine, in the central city of Pavlorad, at least
[6:09] Speaker 1: five civilians were killed yesterday and over 60 were injured
[6:13] Speaker 1: when a Russian drone hit a shopping centre. In the
[6:16] Speaker 1: northern city of Sumy, A shopping centre was hit by
[6:20] Speaker 1: a Russian airstrike on Wednesday, killing at least three people,
[6:23] Speaker 1: and then yesterday the same shopping centre was hit again.
[6:28] Speaker 1: Ukraine's special forces have said that they have attacked two
[6:32] Speaker 1: natural gas plants in Russia's Arctic region, over 3,300 kilometres
[6:38] Speaker 1: from Ukraine, about the distance from London to Cairo. On
[6:43] Speaker 1: the front lines, there are many reports of a Ukrainian
[6:46] Speaker 1: counter-offensive in northern Donetsk region and southern Kharkiv region. According
[6:52] Speaker 1: to the Kyiv Post, around 200 square kilometres of territory
[6:57] Speaker 1: has been recaptured by the Ukrainian army. Over the last year,
[7:02] Speaker 1: the front lines have not moved much, largely because both
[7:05] Speaker 1: sides are using drones so much that it is very
[7:09] Speaker 1: difficult to and very dangerous for soldiers and vehicles to
[7:12] Speaker 1: move forward. According to Ukraine's military statistics, since 2022, Russia
[7:19] Speaker 1: has suffered 1.5 million casualties, meaning killed, severely injured or captured.
[7:26] Speaker 1: Western analysts generally agree with Ukraine's assessment of Russian casualties. 1.5
[7:32] Speaker 1: million is more than 1% of Russia's population, or about
[7:37] Speaker 1: 1 in 50 of all Russian men. It is more
[7:40] Speaker 1: than the United States casualties in World War II. Most
[7:44] Speaker 1: estimates put the number of Ukrainian military casualties at between
[7:48] Speaker 1: one-third and one-half of Russian military casualties. And in Poland,
[7:54] Speaker 1: robots protested yesterday outside the Digital Affairs Ministry in Warsaw.
[8:02] Speaker 1: The humanoid and animal-like robots were part of a protest
[8:06] Speaker 1: demanding better AI security and The robots chanted slogans such as,
[8:12] Speaker 1: we want law, we want rules. That's your world news
[8:17] Speaker 1: for this week. Become a Send7 supporter and you can
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[8:38] Speaker 1: by going to send7. org or by following the link in
[8:42] Speaker 1: the episode description. If you are a supporter, then I
[8:46] Speaker 1: will see you later for the weekly world news quiz
[8:49] Speaker 1: episode and everyone else, I will see you on Monday.
[8:53] Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.

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