# Wednesday 16th September 2026. Russia-Denmark flare. Lithuania, Germany drones. Panama reduction. Australia 'pervert glasses' bans. Kenya...

An episode of [Simple English News Daily](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505603790), 15 Sep 2026, 8:09.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/op3.dev/e/adbarker.com/stream/K1GF85x83ZWP88Cz18NfA8bx/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75155371/16_09_26.mp3

Become a SEND7 supporter at send7.supercast.com World news in 7 minutes. Wednesday 16th September 2026. Today: Russia-Denmark flare. Lithuania, Germany drones. Ukraine attacks. Romania farmers. Panama reduction. Brazil tie. US NYC sues. Trump AI 'hoax'. Yemen displacement. Australia 'pervert glasses' bans. DRC Ebola peak. Kenya WAC winners. 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 7 minutes.
[0:06] Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Devincenzi. We don't use AI for anything. Today
[0:12] Speaker 1: is Wednesday the 16th of September, 2026. Starting in Europe today,
[0:23] Speaker 1: a Russian warship fired flares at a Danish helicopter yesterday.
[0:31] Speaker 1: the Danish government said. The ship and helicopter were in
[0:35] Speaker 1: international waters in the Baltic Sea, close to Denmark. Danish
[0:40] Speaker 1: Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen said that Russia was gradually shifting
[0:45] Speaker 1: the boundary for what they consider acceptable behaviour. Russia said
[0:51] Speaker 1: that it was investigating the incident, but also said that
[0:54] Speaker 1: the helicopter was performing provocative actions. In Lithuania, an Italian
[1:00] Speaker 1: NATO fighter jet shot down a drone yesterday. Lithuania's military
[1:06] Speaker 1: said that the drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. It's
[1:10] Speaker 1: not clear where the drone originally came from, although some
[1:15] Speaker 1: long-range Ukrainian drones targeting Russia have been rerouted by Russian
[1:20] Speaker 1: electronic warfare over the last few months, causing them to
[1:24] Speaker 1: enter the Baltic states. German authorities are searching debris from
[1:30] Speaker 1: a drone which crashed on Monday close to a German airbase.
[1:35] Speaker 1: In Ukraine, a Russian attack on a farm warehouse killed
[1:39] Speaker 1: three people in the northern Chernihiv region yesterday, according to
[1:44] Speaker 1: the police. Deaths were also reported from Russian attacks on
[1:48] Speaker 1: the capital Kiev in the southern city of Zaporizhia and
[1:52] Speaker 1: in the northeastern town of Izium. In Romania, there were
[1:57] Speaker 1: clashes between protesting farmers and police yesterday. The farmers are
[2:03] Speaker 1: protesting the extension of a ban on exporting live sheep
[2:08] Speaker 1: imposed by the European Union because of cases of a
[2:12] Speaker 1: highly contagious disease, the ruminant plague. Americas In Panama, the
[2:21] Speaker 1: number of ships passing through the Panama Canal will be
[2:26] Speaker 1: cut again because of an ongoing drought caused by the
[2:30] Speaker 1: El Nino weather phenomenon. The number of ships crossing the
[2:35] Speaker 1: canal daily was cut from 36 to 32 last month,
[2:40] Speaker 1: and the average will now be cut to 29.5. Although
[2:45] Speaker 1: the Panama Canal connects the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean,
[2:49] Speaker 1: it uses fresh water to fill many of its locks.
[2:54] Speaker 1: The passage of one ship uses around 200 million litres
[3:00] Speaker 1: of fresh water. The Panama Canal provides around a quarter
[3:04] Speaker 1: of Panama's government income. In Brazil, opinion polls for the
[3:10] Speaker 1: presidential election in two weeks are showing a statistical tie
[3:15] Speaker 1: between President Lula da Silva and opposition leader Flavio Bolsonaro,
[3:21] Speaker 1: the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Jair Bolsonaro was
[3:25] Speaker 1: sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn
[3:30] Speaker 1: democracy after he lost the 2022 election to Lula. Flavio
[3:36] Speaker 1: Bolsonaro is expected to attempt to pardon his father if
[3:40] Speaker 1: he becomes president. In the United States, New York City
[3:45] Speaker 1: Mayor Zoran Mamdani has announced that New York City and
[3:50] Speaker 1: some Democrat-led states are suing the Trump administration over a
[3:55] Speaker 1: new rule which could deny immigrants permanent residency documents based
[4:01] Speaker 1: on their use of public benefits such as Medicaid and
[4:05] Speaker 1: food stamps.
[4:06] Speaker 2: New York City is leading a coalition of cities and counties,
[4:09] Speaker 2: including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Clara County, and King County,
[4:14] Speaker 2: to sue the federal government for the gross illegality of
[4:17] Speaker 2: their new public charge rule and the irreparable damage that
[4:20] Speaker 2: it will cause.
[4:22] Speaker 1: Also in the United States, President Donald Trump has said
[4:26] Speaker 1: that artificial intelligence does not need to be slowed down
[4:30] Speaker 1: or controlled, calling anxieties about AI being dangerous, a hoax
[4:37] Speaker 1: and a conspiracy on the truth social platform that he owns.
[4:41] Speaker 1: This weekend, leaders of the AI companies Anthropic, OpenAI and
[4:46] Speaker 1: XAI said that it was necessary to slow down AI
[4:50] Speaker 1: progress because of safety concerns, which could be existential for humanity.
[4:56] Speaker 1: Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, the AI hoax being
[5:01] Speaker 1: perpetrated by the radical left Democrats is reminiscent of their
[5:06] Speaker 1: global warming scam. In another post, Trump said, concerning AI,
[5:15] Speaker 1: when in the history of business did anyone see the
[5:18] Speaker 1: leaders of an industry call for regulation that, if strongly implemented,
[5:23] Speaker 1: will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy. AI taking over
[5:28] Speaker 1: the world, destroying humanity and all other things bad is
[5:33] Speaker 1: a hoax. Asia and Oceania. In Yemen, around 100,000 people
[5:42] Speaker 1: have been displaced by recent fighting between the Houthis and
[5:46] Speaker 1: the internationally recognised government. according to the United Nations. Over
[5:51] Speaker 1: the last week, the Houthis have captured more territory on
[5:55] Speaker 1: the West Coast. Houthis now appear to control the narrowest
[5:59] Speaker 1: point of the Strait of Mandam, which separates Yemen from
[6:03] Speaker 1: Djibouti in Africa, and analysts have suggested that this could
[6:07] Speaker 1: affect global shipping. In Australia, some councils have banned the
[6:13] Speaker 1: use of AI smart glasses in certain areas. The cities
[6:18] Speaker 1: of Brisbane and Yarra and Sydney's largest council of Canterbury-Bankstown
[6:23] Speaker 1: have all voted to ban AI glasses at swimming pools,
[6:28] Speaker 1: in changing rooms or outside schools. The mayor of Canterbury-Bankstown
[6:33] Speaker 1: described the glasses using the common nickname pervert glasses. Africa
[6:42] Speaker 1: In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ebola epidemic
[6:46] Speaker 1: has reached its peak, according to local authorities. For the
[6:50] Speaker 1: first time since the outbreak was declared an epidemic in May,
[6:55] Speaker 1: the number of new infections is slowing down. Over 7,200
[7:00] Speaker 1: cases have been confirmed and almost 3,500 deaths. And Kenya's
[7:07] Speaker 1: capital city, Nairobi, has been chosen as the host of
[7:11] Speaker 1: of the 2029 World Athletics Championships, the first time that
[7:16] Speaker 1: the World Athletics Championships will take place in Africa. Nairobi
[7:20] Speaker 1: beat London and Rome in the bidding process. That's your
[7:25] Speaker 1: World News in 7 minutes. If you enjoyed this podcast,
[7:29] Speaker 1: then you should become a Send7 supporter. As well as
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[7:44] Speaker 1: news quiz every Friday. And we give 10% of our
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[7:52] Speaker 1: at send7. org or find the link in the episode description.
[7:57] Speaker 1: If you're not sure, or you've got a question about something,
[8:00] Speaker 1: send me an email to podcast at send7. org. Tomorrow, you'll
[8:05] Speaker 1: be with Ben Mallett. Have a great day.

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