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Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box," Bessent added, "How do we do that? That if they land, you cannot provide them with fuel. You cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system."

The Treasury Secretary said that Washington was pressuring Iran "like never before," saying that the U.S. was putting a stop to Iran's enablers around the world, such as sanctioning banks.

Last week, the Treasury announced new sanctions on Russia's state-controlled VTB Bank as part of its effort to economically isolate Iran by targeting its business partners and other financial "enablers."

G7 condemns Houthi strikes

Separately, the G7 group of nations have called for an end to attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against Yemen and Saudi Arabia on Monday stateside, condemning the "unacceptable continued strikes" by the group.

The bloc also called on the Houthis to cease all military actions, attacks against civilian shipping and for Iran to end its support for the rebel group.

The Houthis reportedly said they attacked "sensitive" sites in the Saudi capital Riyadh on the weekend, with fire and smoke seen near the city's airport.

Houthi rebels also recently seized Yemen's Perim Island on the Red Sea, tightening their grip on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which puts Iran and its proxies on course to exercise control over two critically important oil choke points: that and the Strait of Hormuz.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is an important alternative for oil exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, especially for Saudi Arabia, whose East-West pipeline allows the kingdom to divert some oil flows to be exported from the Red Sea.

Topographic map showing the Middle East region and Arabian Peninsula with focus on critical maritime chokepoints for international commerce. The Strait of Hormuz is marked in the northeast, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. Bab-al-Mandeb Strait is highlighted in the southwest, linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.

Rbkomar | Moment | Getty Images

The G7 statement comes after the U.K. reportedly said it will support Saudi Arabia against Iranian backed Houthi rebels, with the Royal Air Force providing air to air refueling of Saudi planes.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told reporters that the arrangement will be for a matter of weeks, and will be kept under review.

The move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump refused Riyadh's request for help against the rebels on the weekend, reportedly cancelling a planned airstrike.

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," according to the Associated Press.

Last week, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte signaled that European nations could also provide support to Saudi Arabia, telling a BBC interview that "I would not be surprised if some phone calls were taking place between European allies — 'hey, how are we going to deal with this?'" %!s()

He highlighted the Spanish capital’s breadth of locations, from its historic center and iconic Gran Vía to neighborhoods including Lavapiés, Malasaña, Carabanchel, Vallecas and Tetuán.

“Madrid is a city for telling great stories,” he declared.

“The city offers a mix of historic architecture, contemporary urban environments, residential districts and green spaces, while the wider Madrid region adds rural, natural and heritage locations,” he added.

Production in the city remains strong. According to Madrid Film Office figures, more than 1,025 medium- and large-scale projects were filmed in the city in 2025 with permits for occupation of public space. The city was also home to at least 71 feature films, 52 series and more than 410 advertising productions. Madrid City Council processed 11,001 filming applications during the year, while Madrid Film Office provided 4,115 specific support services to productions, almost 7% more than in 2024.

Behind the production numbers is an extensive municipal support network involving the Municipal Police, mobility services, culture, parks and gardens, the city’s 21 districts, EMT and other public bodies. Madrid Film Office assists productions with location scouting, permits and coordination between the different authorities involved in a shoot.

Funding is another key element of the city’s strategy, Torquemada pointed out. Since 2021, Madrid’s audiovisual support programs have allocated more than €15 million ($17.4 million) to the sector, including €10 million ($11,6 million) for production and €5 million for promotion and distribution. The city has also introduced support for the development of series, complementing funding available from the Community of Madrid.

Madrid is using those initiatives to encourage co-production and international business. Madrid Film Office supports industry events including the Platino Awards and Iberseries & Platino Industria, while also organizing meetings with international delegations and networking events designed to connect producers and creators with potential partners.

The economic case is also becoming clearer. A study developed with support from the Autonomous University of Madrid found that films and series shot in the city between 2021 and 2024 generated more than €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) in economic output and approximately 10,100 jobs, Torquemada pointed out.

The city is also investing in the next generation of projects and talent through initiatives including the Film Academy’s Residency Programme, SeriesLab Torino and ECAM Forum. The city’s message to producers is straightforward: Madrid wants to be not only a place to shoot, but a place where audiovisual projects can be developed, financed, connected to international markets—and ultimately brought to the screen.

Torquemada was followed by Iberseries co-director Samuel Castro, who said: “In just six years, I believe we have become a reference point—not only nationally, but also as an international-facing B2B business event. We have become a place where Spanish and Portuguese-language content can find a springboard to global expansion.”

“We started out with an ambitious focus on the Ibero-American market, but we have now gone beyond that. Last year, our international focus was Korea, and this year we are continuing that initiative with a major program dedicated to Korean content.”

Iberseries CFO Jesus Prieto expected registered attendees to surpass last year’s figure of 2,700.

“But the event is not measured simply by the number of people attending; it is also about the quality of those participants,” he stressed adding that of those more than 2,000 participants, around half are from outside Spain, and they expected a great number of participants from Mexico, the Focus Country this year.

Said Xiomara Garcia, general coordinator of the Madrid Film Region: “We are currently celebrating Spain’s submission of ‘La Bola Negra’ – a production from Madrid and with Madrid talent – for the upcoming [Oscar] awards and we hope to see it recognized.”

“The regional government is making a clear commitment to the audiovisual sector. At the most recent State of the Region debate, three audiovisual initiatives were put forward: support to encourage younger audiences to attend cinemas; the creation of the Carlos Saura Cinema House in Collado Mediano; and the creation of a network of filming destinations across the Community of Madrid.”

“These are three clear and decisive measures demonstrating a commitment to supporting the sector.”

The 6th Iberseries & Platino Industria runs from Sept. 29 – Oct. 2 at the Matadero Madrid.

El Bulli’s celebrity chef Ferran Adrià, along with the film’s cast and crew – director David Pujol and actors Miquel Fernández, Carlos Cuevas and Joana Vilapuig – are attending the festival to present it.

The dramatic series focuses on its key players led by Adrià, its manager-co-owner, the late Juli Soler and his brother Albert Adrià as well as highlights the 3-Michelin Star restaurant’s transformative impact on global haute cuisine while positioning it within Catalonia’s culinary traditions and cultural legacy.

To that end, it also features prominent figures in Catalan gastronomy led by Oriol Castro, Santi Santamaría, Fermí Puig, and Christian Escribà, without whom the scope of El Bulli’s legacy cannot be truly appreciated.

The series was conceived in 2025 to coincide with Catalonia’s designation as a World Gastronomy Region.

“Gènesi” is a 3Cat series co-produced with Minoria Absoluta and Fishcorb Media, in collaboration with the Government of Catalonia, with support from the Catalan government’s ICEC. Netflix will distribute it throughout the rest of Spain, Europe, Latin America and the U.S. International sales are handled by New Regency.

Adrià and Pujol elaborated on the series and the restaurant’s enduring legacy in an interview with Variety:

Ferran, it must have been strange to see yourself portrayed by the actor, Miquel Fernández. What did you make of his performance? Do you think he captured your essence and your charisma? Did you give him any notes?

Ferran Adrià: I’ve been portrayed many times and I love it, but playing someone is very different from embodying a real person. One of the hardest things to capture about me is my voice and the way I speak, and Miquel did an incredible job. His performance feels so authentic because he never slips into satire or caricature. Before filming, we spent several days with the actors, giving Miquel the chance to observe how I move, speak, express myself, eat and taste food. The entire cast did the same with their characters, immersing themselves in who we were and how we operated. You can really feel that commitment in the series.

David Pujol: The truth is, our main challenge was finding an actor to play Ferran Adrià. His unique way of speaking and being made him a complex character to cast. With Juli Soler, I always knew I wanted Iván Massagué, having worked with him before; he had the same energy and spark. Ferran was different. We auditioned many actors, both known and unknown, until Miquel Fernández came in. He had clearly done his homework, studying my documentaries and the script. His restrained delivery, pronunciation, tone and expression immediately stood out. Something happened: everyone saw it immediately – Miquel felt made for this role.

Ferran, what was it like recreating your signature dishes for the series? I believe there were around 70 of them.

Adrià: One of the most spectacular things about this series is the care and precision that went into recreating El Bulli’s cuisine. It was essential that the dishes were represented accurately and stayed true to what we created. That’s why we brought in chefs who had worked at El Bulli and knew our cuisine inside out: Marc Cuspinera, Alain Devhaive and Eduard Bosch-Lalo. They did a wonderful job. Ultimately, the dishes are characters in their own right. They couldn’t simply be props; they had to be authentic El Bulli creations.

Episode 1 raises the question that still lingers for many of us: why did El Bulli close at the height of its popularity? Is that something you can answer?

Adrià: Actually, the series doesn’t offer a single explanation at the end. Instead, it gradually reveals the different reasons that led us to make that decision. There wasn’t one single reason; it was a combination of factors. We felt we had reached the limits of what a gastronomic experience could be at that time. We had pushed the El Bulli model as far as we could and needed to begin a new chapter. There was also Juli’s situation, as we sensed he was becoming ill, while Albert was developing projects of his own. We didn’t close because El Bulli was failing. Quite the opposite—we closed at the height of our success, transforming ourselves so we could keep creating.

Pujol: Yes, the question of why El Bulli closed is addressed in the series. We frame it as a mystery, but ultimately the answer is revealed, as it was in real life. Ferran had repeatedly said he had reached his limits as a creator and didn’t want to repeat himself. After being named the world’s best restaurant five times, he felt it was time for something new. Juli was also ill, and the creative team had grown older, started families and found the pressure increasingly difficult to sustain. Yet Ferran and Juli made the decision at the height of El Bulli’s success – when more than two million reservation requests were coming in for just 8,000 available places each season. Closing then was an incredibly brave decision…. and a huge shock to the world.

Ferran, in Episode 2, you take your brother Albert to a place run by your friend, Rafa. You once said it was your favorite restaurant because he focused on the essence of the ingredients. Is it still your favorite place?

Adrià: Yes, absolutely. Sadly, Rafa passed away but his wife has continued to run the place, and she’s doing a spectacular job.

It has always been a very special place for me because it represents something fundamental in cooking: when you have an exceptional ingredient, the most important thing is knowing how to respect it. Rafa had an incredible sensitivity for that – he knew how to get to the essence of an ingredient without needing to overcomplicate it.

And that’s why that scene with Albert makes sense. We were immersed in a world of creativity, techniques and constant experimentation, but going there was also a way of reminding ourselves that great cooking can lie in the greatest complexity, but also in the greatest simplicity. And that remains just as relevant today.

What do you think sets Catalan cuisine apart?

Adrià: Catalonia has an extraordinary gastronomic culture, with incredible diversity in landscapes and ingredients, a strong culinary tradition and a remarkable capacity for innovation and creativity. But the revolution we experienced wasn’t created by El Bulli alone. It may have been one of its main driving forces, but countless chefs, restaurants, producers and professionals made it possible. Without them, El Bulli would have been only an anecdote. What sets Catalan cuisine apart is this combination of territory, tradition, knowledge, creativity and innovation—and, above all, an entire gastronomic ecosystem capable of evolving and moving forward together.

Pujol: Catalan cuisine is deeply shaped by its territory, with Mediterranean roots and influences that combine seafood, mountain produce and traditions that have evolved over centuries. The Empordà, for example, is known for its celebrated surf-and-turf dishes. In recent years, El Bulli’s influence has helped inspire a remarkable generation of restaurants, including Can Roca, Disfrutar and others that have been named the best restaurant in the world. Within a 150-kilometre radius, no other region has produced three such winners. I think that achievement reflects something fundamental about Catalan cooking: a mindset rooted in understanding the territory, respecting ingredients and traditions, while constantly finding new ways to combine and reinterpret them. %!s()

The Witch premiered in 2015, serving as a calling card for Taylor-Joy as a rising star and Robert Eggers as a director to look out for. It also turned Black Phillip the goat into a contemporary horror icon almost overnight. More than a decade later, the film remains just as invigorating. It’s currently streaming on Netflix, but only until Oct. 1 — so you’ve got a matter of days left to watch it.

What is The Witch about?

Image: A24

The Witch follows a devout, isolated Puritan family in 1630s New England, a time when witches, myth, and folklore quietly stood at the root of most people’s everyday fears. Following their exile from the religious community due to a dispute with the church, a family of seven is forced to relocate to the outskirts of society, with the dark, unmapped woods mere feet away.

The film is steeped in its historical setting, and its characters speak a dense form of archaic English, with religion at the very center of their lives. That can be a tough watch for modern viewers, but The Witch ultimately tells a simple story about a family hitting its breaking point.

Image: A24

With no animals left to hunt and their crops rotting, William (Ralph Ineson) and his wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) are desperate. They spend their days bitterly arguing in their cramped home and blaming each other for everything that goes wrong. Their younger kids absorb the tension (and perhaps Black Phillip's devilish whispers), acting out in ways that make everyone's lives more difficult. Things boil over when the family’s newborn, Samuel, disappears under the watch of their eldest daughter, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy).

What follows is a haunting and violent tragedy.

Note: Spoilers follow for The Witch.

Living deliciously

Image: A24

Thomasin quickly becomes the family’s scapegoat. Blamed for the loss of Samuel, she becomes the target of everyone’s projections. Katherine, consumed by grief, sees her daughter’s developing body as the devil’s work. Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), her younger brother, is drawn to her out of loneliness and a newly awakened sexuality. The twins’ overactive imaginations prompt them to accuse her of witchcraft. Even her father, who claims to be utterly devout and devoted, fails her. He sets her up to take the blame for the silver cup that he sold without telling his wife.

Spoiler warning, but when the imposing goat Black Phillip reveals his true demonic nature to Thomasin, she has nothing left to lose. The moment comes almost as a relief.

“Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” is an iconic and chilling line, not only due to the tone and pitch of voice actor Daniel Malik, but also because it’s Thomasin’s only offer to let go. She signs his book, takes off her clothes, and walks into the woods that have been haunting her family since the start of the film.

It’s an ending that can be interpreted in numerous ways: as a tragedy in which Thomasin succumbs to the evil that destroyed her family, or as a positive tale of Thomasin’s liberation, in which she finds a community of like-minded women who were also cast out by a puritanical society that pitted them against each other. The typical final girl survives by defeating evil; in the case of Thomasin, she embraces it.

Image: A24

While the film served as a major debut for Taylor-Joy, it also introduced the world to Robert Eggers, a director with a unique and distinctive cinematic voice. Known for his atmospheric, meticulously crafted productions and obsessive attention to period detail, every Eggers film expands his vision of cinema, whether it’s the myths of the Vikings in The Northman (also a reunion with Taylor-Joy) or his most recent adaptation, Nosferatu, a key entry in the vampire canon and a reminder that these ancient creatures are far more than the sexy anti-heroes we’ve grown used to.

Eggers returns to theaters on Dec. 25 with Werwulf, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a cursed man in 13th-century England. Whatever he does next with the myth, it’s worth revisiting where it all began: with a girl, a goat, and a choice.

The Witch is streaming on Netflix until Oct. 1. %!s()