ABOARD THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER’S PLANE (AP) — Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that Britain has agreed to provide limited military support to Saudi Arabia to repeal attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Burnham told reporters as he flew to the United Nations General Assembly in New York that he had agreed the Royal Air Force will provide air-to-air refueling of Saudi planes. The agreement is for a matter of weeks, but Burnham said it will be kept under review.
The conflict between the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has reignited, with Houthis aiming missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia, including one that targeted Riyadh on Saturday before being intercepted. The Houthis also declared a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, attacking Saudi-linked vessels and oil facilities inside the kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter.
The Houthis advanced inside Yemen earlier this month, seizing the crucial port city of Mokha and key Red Sea islands allowing them to better monitor shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb, through which some 12% of world trade normally passes.
Burnham said he was “acting to secure the interests of Britain and the wider region, because of course Saudi Arabia has been experiencing attack, is looking at potential further disruption, and we need to keep those pathways (for oil) open.”
Britain has condemned the Houthi attacks and said the U.K. will “work with partners to support regional stability, protect civilians and support humanitarian access.”
U.K. officials had previously declined to comment on “operational matters” but noted that Britain and Saudi Arabia have a close defense partnership.
The U.S., which bombed the Houthis under the Biden and Trump administrations, has shown no interest in getting involved military this time around. one more sentence:
U.K. officials say the agreement will start in the coming days, and involve one RAF Voyager refueling Saudi planes on “defensive” missions.
The Associated Press reported last week that Saudi Arabia has asked its allies, including France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt to deploy air-defense support to the region to help defend against missiles and drones fired by Houthis and other Iran-backed groups on the kingdom.
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham gives a speech during a reception at 10 Downing Street, London, Monday Sept. 21, 2026, to recognise the contribution of organisations and volunteers who supported communities across the UK this summer, through the recent heatwaves, wildfires and other emergencies. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Venezuelan man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was in custody Monday at an ICE detention center in Texas after he was released from a hospital with a bullet still lodged in his back, the man's attorney said.
Speaking by phone during a news conference, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez said doctors didn’t remove the bullet because it’s near his spine. He said ICE pressed for him to be released quickly from the hospital so it could move him to a detention center. He said he had received no pain medication or treatment there, and had slept on the floor, before eventually being given a “pill” by a nurse on Monday.
Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was “sideswiped” twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told reporters Monday. He was taken to a hospital, she said, but was released later Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still inside him.
Perez said ICE officers didn’t ask him to stop or turn on any flashing lights until after they had sideswiped him. He said he did a U-turn and was trying to park when the officers rammed his car and shot him in the back of the neck.
“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” Perez said, speaking in Spanish over the phone as a member of his attorney's staff translated during the news conference.
Perez was being detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said Perez told her in a prior phone call that he was being interrogated.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released little information and has not said what prompted the shooting. In a statement early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally who “had a final order of removal.”
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to email messages seeking further comment on the shooting.
Perez entered the U.S. legally in 2024 after using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that set up appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.
Perez's attorneys said he was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said a judge issued a deportation order for Perez after he missed a hearing in immigration court because the hearing notice was sent to a former address.
“Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said of the shooting in a social media post.
The shooting occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement across the U.S. during Trump's second term. During the summer, it reported more than 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August — a first for the agency.
Immigration officers have come under intense scrutiny amid a series of shootings during the crackdown. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.
Local advocates, leaders of the civil rights group the League of United Latin American Citizens and two Democratic congressmen who represent parts of Austin called during the news conference for the creation of an independent body to review use-of-force incidents by ICE and refer suspected crimes to prosecutors.
They also urged Congress to ban ICE officers from making traffic stops, saying the officers are undertrained and too quick to resort to violence.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, has said he wants local police to have a role in investigating the shooting. Watson said it wouldn’t be appropriate for ICE to investigate on its own.
The area beneath an overpass where a large crowd of protesters had gathered Sunday near the shooting scene was quiet Monday. Trash-filled plastic bags were left below concrete pylons marked with anti-ICE graffiti.
Amid discarded police tape, people left candles, flowers and a sign that read “Justice for Wilber.”
Associated Press journalist Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.
People speak during a demonstration where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Authorities deploy non-lethal weapons near a demonstration where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
A man photographs a spray-painted surface that reads "death to immigration enforcement" near the site where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer the day before in Austin, Texas, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Flowers and candles are seen near the site where a Venezuelan man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer in Austin, Texas, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn)
People protest where local authorities say a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (ICE) shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn)
