This week, Saudi Arabia sought military support from its allies as Iran-backed Houthi rebels tightened their grip on Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab el Mandeb shipping choke point, while drone attacks on the Kingdom’s oil infrastructure deepened an emerging energy crisis. In Russia, voters headed to the polls for a tightly controlled parliamentary election with little meaningful opposition, as Putin insisted there would be no new mobilisation. Meanwhile, warnings about the risks of AI came from inside the industry itself, with Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman warning against treating AI models like humans and raising the prospect of a new “silicon species” competing with us for resources. In Britain, the royal family was back on the defensive as Earl Spencer’s new claims about Princess Diana’s funeral prompted an unusually pointed response from Buckingham Palace.