Democratic attorneys general from California and New York have sued the Trump administration over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.
California attorney general Rob Bonta said he was suing over removal of a project off his state’s coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June it was buying back the company’s US offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the east and west coasts.
New York attorney general Letitia James, meanwhile, led seven states in suits seeking to block the Invenergy deal and another proposal with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast.
The deals would hand energy companies $1.4bn in taxpayer dollars in exchange for the cancellation of multiple projects. In all, the Trump administration has pledged nearly $4bn to companies to walk away from projects across the country.
Here’s our full story:
Another prominent Florida Republican has publicly distanced himself from Donald Trump, days after María Elvira Salazar called out the US president’s immigration-enforcement policy targeting law-abiding undocumented immigrants.
Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor in November’s US midterm elections, launched an updated campaign website on Tuesday that was stripped of almost every mention of Trump and removed a photograph of the congressman and his wife, Erika, posing with the president, the Miami Herald reported.
Until now, Donalds has proudly touted his close ties with the president, running a Republican primary campaign themed largely on Trump’s endorsement, and displaying a large banner on his website advertising his support.
The move comes as Trump’s overall approval rating fell below 30% for the first time, dragged down by dissatisfaction over his handling of the US economy and the Iran war, and Republicans brace for heavy losses in November, including the possible loss of the party’s majorities in the US House of Representatives and Senate.
Republican National Committee sues New Jersey election officials for refusal to turn over voter records
The Republican National Committee has sued top election officials in New Jersey, alleging they failed to produce public voter roll records, including the addresses of noncitizen voters.
The lawsuit follows New Jersey governor Mikie Sherril’s announcement in July that “a software error” in the state’s motor vehicle registration system added 6,600 noncitizens to the state’s voter registration list beginning in 2023. According to the state, 400 votes were cast by noncitizens – although Donald Trump claimed that “thousands of votes” were cast by noncitizens in the state, in an effort to drum up support for his SAVE America Act.
In 2024, Kamala Harris won New Jersey by more than 252,000 votes – meaning that even if all voters were registered as Democrats, which they were not, their votes would not have swung the presidential election.
In Tuesday’s lawsuit, the RNC states that, New Jersey “objected to or denied” several of its records requests “including the request for records of address confirmation notices”.
In July, assistant attorney general for civil rights Harmeet Dhillon wrote to Sherril requesting the “full names, dates of birth, nationalities, residential addresses, and registration dates and locations” of all 6,600 noncitizen voters.
Sherrill has said she will not provide that information. “We now have certain people that, through no fault of their own, have been registered to vote,” she said at a press conference. “It may imperil their immigration status.”
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Kamala Harris joined Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed for a roundtable on Black maternal health and mortality in Detroit today. The two spoke with local leaders for more than an hour at Birth Detroit, a Black-led birth center.
The roundtable marked Harris’s first campaign trip of the midterms.
“I’m here to support Dr. El-Sayed because on this subject, I know he will be a champion,” Harris said.
El-Sayed struggled to gain the support of Black voters in his primary election last month. While in Michigan, Harris will also attend a local NAACP event.
The Trump administration will accept 17,500 refugees in fiscal year 2027, CNN reports, citing a copy of the report to Congress.
The vast majority of the refugees are expected to be white South Africans, including Afrikaners. Earlier this year, the administration raised the cap for South African refugees, setting a limit of 17,500 refugees from the country.
“The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners,” the report states.
US president Donald Trump called on all Latin American and Caribbean countries aligned with his administration to designate cartels as narco-terrorists and “apply crushing sanctions” against them.
During a meeting of the Shield of the Americas – an anti-drug cartel coalition formed by 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries governed by rightwing or far-right presidents – Trump said that “for years, cartels have waged war on the people of this hemisphere. Now, we’re waging war on them”.
He added: “So, today, I’m asking all nations in the Shield of the Americas to formally designate narco-terrorists as common threats to stability and apply crushing sanctions against all 24 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations.”
The group, which includes countries such as Argentina, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, met in New York after Trump said in his speech to the UN General Assembly that “the cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere” and that “like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release”.
In a speech lasting just over 10 minutes to members of the coalition, Trump added: “You probably noticed that the drugs, the fentanyl being delivered by sea, by ocean and sea, it’s down 97 per cent coming into the US” – although many experts have repeatedly pointed out that there is no evidence of fentanyl being produced in or trafficked by sea to the US from South America.
The US president also used the meeting to boast that candidates he had backed had won every election in the region since he took office for a second term.
“There’s been a big shift in your countries, a big shift to the right. That’s a good thing,” said Trump, who particularly celebrated the victory in Colombia of the far-right millionaire former lawyer and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella – who was not present and sent his vice-president instead because he pledged not to leave the country during his four-year term.
“He was a big Trump fan,” said Trump of De la Espriella’s campaign. “All he did was talk about Trump, Trump, Trump. And I said, I like that guy. Let’s endorse him.”
Although the US president said that, after his endorsement, De la Espriella “went from number 10 to number one and won in a landslide”, Trump only endorsed him in the second round, after the Colombian had already won the first round – in which Trump had not backed any candidate.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has criticized Donald Trump’s remarks on Iran at the UN general assembly today, and called for Senate Republicans to join with Democrats in passing a War Powers Resolution this week.
“Only Trump could try to present himself as a peacemaker and then threaten to ‘annihilate’ an entire country in the same breath – that’s what he did at the UN this morning,” Schumer said in a statement.
“This week, Senate Democrats will force another vote on our War Powers Resolution to end this war and get our troops’ out of harm’s way,” he said. “Every Republican who votes against ending the war this week is choosing to pander to the president instead of protecting our troops and our country.”
The United States is withholding a visa for Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ahead of his scheduled Thursday appearance at the United Nations general assembly, Reuters reports, citing Sudanese and other sources who believe the move is tied to Burhan’s opposition to a US-backed ceasefire proposal.
“We in the Sudanese government express our deep regret because this is a violation of the UN Convention and international law,” a senior Sudanese source told Reuters, adding that Burhan had postponed his trip as he awaited official notice of the visa denial.
The country’s UN ambassador has asked UN secretary-general António Guterres to intervene. Although Burhan, Sudan’s army chief, has attended the UN general assembly before, the country is preparing to have foreign minister Mohieldin Salem stand in for him on Thursday.
In a statement, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told Reuters that Guterres is “deeply concerned that a visa has reportedly not yet been issued.”
Speaking at the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Donald Trump said his diplomatic representatives – real estate investor Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner - had “a very productive meeting today” with Iranian mediators.
While addressing a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council – a security alliance comprised of leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman – Trump suggested his team could reach a peace deal with Iran. Trump has claimed that the war with Iran, which began in February, would only last a few weeks.
According to Iranian state media, the country’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met Witkoff to discuss conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
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Trump's FBI killed corruption probe into Susan Collins' campaign: report
The FBI under Trump killed an anti-corruption probe into Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, stemming from a convicted former defense contracting executive’s claims that he’d paid off Collins’ campaign in exchange for government contracts, ProPublica reported Tuesday.
The report by ProPublica presents evidence that Kao contributed campaign funds in return for Collins steering funds toward Kao’s company, Navatek. Kao, facing criminal charges, began sharing details on an alleged scheme with the FBI to skirt campaign finance laws to contribute to Collins’ campaign treasury, ProPublica reported.
Annie Clark, Collins’ deputy chief of staff, denied the allegations in a post to social media.
“The seven-year-old allegations made against Senator Collins and her staff in this piece are categorically false,” Clark wrote. She said that Collins’ campaign cooperated fully with the FBI, and that ProPublica was amplifying false and “outlandish” allegations Kao made while trying deflect blame for his own crimes. “There have never been any allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator campaign, and the campaign was never the target of the FBI investigation.”
Trump strikes warm tone in meeting with UK prime minister
Trump also met earlier this afternoon with the the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, with whom he appeared to enjoy a solid rapport – a divergence from his at-times testy relationship with Burnham’s predecessor in the role, Keir Starmer.
“I think he’s going to be a great prime minister,” Trump said of Burnham. “I think he’s got a lot of assets on his side.”
Trump added: “We talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy, immigration. We covered a lot.”
One point of tension in an otherwise cordial exchange: the Chagos Islands deal, a proposal by Keir Starmer’s goverment to give Mauritius sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, on condition that the US and the UK can continue to operate the Diego Garcia military base there for at least another 99 years.
“I don’t support it,” Trump said. “I think it’s a terrible deal.”
At one point the relationship between Trump and Starmer was good. But it worsened as Starmer started to criticize Trump publicly on issues like his proposal to annex Greenland, and his claim British troops avoided frontline action in Afghanistan. And the full rupture came when Keir Starmer refused to allow the US to use British airbases for attacks against Iran at the start of the war.
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Members of US delegation met Iranian leadership at UN, Trump says
During a press conference alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said some members of his team met today with the Iranian delegation, a meeting that he said lasted three hours and “went very well.”
Trump left the exact nature of the exchange – what was discussed, and what progress, if any, was made toward a deal – unclear, but said it was a “a very good meeting.” He then repeated his threat delivered to the assembled world leaders in an address earlier that morning that Iran had to choose between “potential greatness or obliteration.”
“They had a very good meeting, and they have another one scheduled in the near future,” Trump said, teasing future conversations with Iran.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law-turned-Middle East diplomat, sat alongside the president. Both declined to share specifics of the meeting.
“I feel very good right now,” Witkoff said when asked how he felt after the initial meeting.
“How will you feel tomorrow?” a reporter pressed him.
“I think very good,” he said.
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Trump endorses a US embargo on diesel exports in conversation with Zelenskyy
President Trump appeared to support the increasingly loud calls from some members of his party to halt the export of US diesel fuel, whose skyrocketing price has begun to ripple out through the American economy and stung Republicans ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
“I’ve called for that too, I’ve said, ‘let’s not send out the diesel’,” Trump said, when asked about the outcry from his fellow Republicans.
He then turned to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, sitting at his side, who said the Trump administration is evaluating the feasibility of a full or partial plan. Trump declined to share a timeline for when such a ban could come down.
The subject was raised after a reporter mentioned Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, which Trump was quick to point out had damaged global diesel supplies. (The conflict between the US and Iran, which Trump launched in February alongside Israel, has also strangled global energy markets.)
“It is a serious hit on the Russians,” Trump said. “It’s also a very serious hit on the price of diesel.”
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Trump, Zelenskyy speak to reporters at the United Nations
Trump is now fielding questions from reporters alongside Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine.
“I think they’re going to make a deal,” Trump said, when asked what, if anything, Ukraine would have to give up to end the war. “I think’s somethings’ going to happen.”
The Ukrainians, Trump said, were “very capable people” with – and a nod here to the man sitting beside him – “very capable leadership.”
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Vance, Oz announced removal of 760,000 Obamacare enrollees, alleging fraud
At a joint press conference on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced that the federal government was removing 760,000 enrollees from Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces.
Those 760,000 marketplace enrollees – representing 4 percent of all Americans who obtain coverage there – were allegedly receiving benefits they weren’t qualified to get, or were not real people at all, per Vance. The vice president said the action will save $2.2 billion “for the essential services for which is meant to go.”
The removals, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were carried out by Vance’s White House task force aimed at eliminating fraud. Critics have accused that group of primarily targeting blue states.
“This is what the fraud task force is all about,” he said.
Vance said that an additional 419,000 enrollees suspected of similar violations were undergoing further review. He accused the previous Biden administration of incentivizing healthcare brokers to enroll more people in the program while inadequately vetting for fraud.
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Donald Trump to CNN at UN general assembly: 'You shouldn't be here'
Donald Trump told a CNN reporter at the UN general assembly on Tuesday that he was “surprised” the outlet was covering him, saying it ‘shouldn’t be here’ after he banned the network alongside Politico and MS Now from the White House on Friday.
“The United Nations allowed us in, sir,” a CNN reporter replied, when Trump began to protest the outlet’s presence.
“You should not be here covering me,” Trump shot back. “You said you weren’t gonna cover me, you shouldn’t be covering me.”
CNN, alongside MS Now and Politico, have sued the Trump administration for the White House ban, and other outlets in the president’s standard TV pool have paused their duties in solidarity.
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Trump praises Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim president, before their planned meeting
In his remarks to the UN earlier, Donald Trump hailed his new relationship with Nicolás Maduro’s successors in Venezuela, after the capture of the South American dictator during the US raid on 3 January.
“In January, at my direction, the United States military conducted a massive military operation penetrating deep into the Venezuelan capital, Caracas .... and arrested the outlaw dictator - a real criminal, Nicolás Maduro,” Trump said, as Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, sat listening in the audience.
Rodríguez, formerly Maduro’s vice president, has been a more pliant partner to the US in Venezuela, helping broker a lucrative deal granting the Trump administration access to the country’s immense oil wealth.
“We’re working closely with the leaders of Venezuela to forge a much better future for the Venezuelan people. Last month we signed the largest oil deal in history - covering 65 billion barrels of oil which will benefit both Venezuela and the United States enormously,” Trump added.
Trump is slated to meet personally with Rodríguez later today.
Trump hails 'tremendous' relationship with Denmark, Greenland as he signs Greenland deal
At the Greenland deal signing ceremony, Trump said it “has been an amazing journey with tremendous people” with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s PM Jens-Frederick Nielsen.
“We’re going to have a tremendous relationship, a secure relationship,” he said.
He thanked them for the deal, and says they will be working “very hard” on its implementation.
He said the deal has been “long in the making” – “many decades, probably centuries” – and it will be “tremendous for Europe and for the US and for everybody.”
Speaking next, Denmark’s Frederiksen said “This deal is good for the United States. It’s good for Greenland, for Denmark, for the Nato alliance, and therefore also good for Europe.”
Frederiksen said any adversaries “will not be allowed to get any control or significant influence in Greenland,” adding that the agreement “underlines the importance of the Nato alliance.”
In tricky, carefully worded paragraphs, she said the agreement “recognises the US defining historical and ongoing contributions to the security and defence of Greenland,” but it also “respects the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, as well as Greenland’s right to self-determination.”
“I think everybody knows that we live in difficult times where we have to show our strength. If we let ourselves be divided as allies, then we do our votes a favour. We will do everything we can to prevent that from happening.”
Then, Greenland’s Nielsen said it is “a very important day for our security” that “builds on 85 years of security cooperation” since the second world war.
He stressed that “this is not only an agreement about us, but an agreement with us” and called it “a win-win”.
“It takes into account the people of Greenland, our rights, our livelihoods and the development of our country. This has been a key priority for us throughout this process,” he said, saying this is why Greenland “insisted on engaging in a constructive dialogue.”
“Greenland matters for North American security and for transatlantic security. And this agreement reflects that we understand our responsibility and act accordingly,” he said.
He continued:
“Nato matters. We believe that it is vital to keep Nato strong, also in the Arctic, where the alliance has a key role to play.
This agreement should put to rest any doubt today and in the future about where Greenland’s loyalty lies.
Our commitment to this alliance and to the security we build together is not in question. We are, have been, and will remain a steadfast friend of the United States and a part of the western alliance. Your security is our security, and our security is your security.”
Trump's UN remarks - in summary
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Trump opened his speech to the UN by commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary and focusing not on international issues, but touting his domestic record. Tax cuts, stock market highs, crime rates, and immigration enforcement, to name a few.
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He once again framed the war he launched on Iran earlier this year with Israel the same way he has to his domestic audience — as a necessary conflict to addressing a long-ignored threat. The United States, Trump said, had acted to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, while other countries ignored the issue.
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Trump then re-issued his threat to “annihilate” Iran and “drive them into Hell” if the regime didn’t capitulate and make a deal.” He touted his version of the war: one in which the US had defanged Iran militarily and driven the country to the brink of economic collapse. And hedged by saying he was confident Iran would make a deal after the US midterm elections – an argument he’s made to US voters.
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Trump said he was “working closely with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine” to end the disastrous war. “It’s going to happen, I think, more quickly than people understand,” he said. The US president said he had signed into law “a powerful new law” on sanctions, and “if necessary, I will have to use them.” He added: “It’s time to stop the killing.”
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Trump defended his administration’s actions in Latin America – including the midnight raid to arrest former Venezuelan president Nicólas Maduro, and the oil deal he struck with his more US-friendly successor, Delcy Rodriguez. “To the victor belong the spoils,” Trump declared, justifying the deal that will funnel a share of the nation’s immense oil wealth into the US treasury.
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Defending his drone strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Trump equated the cartels he claims to be fighting with Islamist terrorist organizations. “The cartels are the ISIS of the western Hemisphere – not good people,” he said. “Like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release, which is what we’re doing.”
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He accused Mexico of being effectively controlled by the cartels, and said it was “unacceptable” for the US to share a border with a nation under such conditions. “So Mexico must reclaim control of its soil from the enemies of humanity,” Trump said.
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Trump also pointed to regime change in Cuba. “My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba, where the communist regime is under great pressure, the biggest pressure they’ve ever been under,” he said. “It’s an absolutely failed state. It’s failing.”
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Trump said the US has reached “an unprecedented agreement” on Greenland, with the Kingdom of Denmark. He said the deal – to be formally signed shortly after his speech – “gives the US permanent control over security and all of the needs on that territory” and that the US will build two “very major” military bases in Greenland.
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Trump said he would reject any calls for a “globalist scheme” to control artificial intelligence, and made an impromptu pitch to world leaders to call the technology “super intelligence” or “SI”. Amid mounting fears over the dangers of AI as some, including leaders in the industry, call for international regulation on the technology, Trump said he would not hinder its growth. He said he believes will be “bigger than the industrial revolution,” and vowed the US would lead on AI. “We’re only going to encourage superintelligence.”
Trump, Danish and Greenlandic leaders to speak at Greenland deal signing ceremony
We’ll hear from Donald Trump, Denmark’s PM Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s PM Jens-Frederick Nielsen shortly, as their (delayed) event on the Greenland deal is about to get under way.
My colleague Jakub Krupa is covering that over on our Europe live blog, and I’ll bring you all the key developments here too. You can also watch along here:
US will build two 'very major' military bases as part of new Greenland deal, Trump says
There wasn’t much targeted criticism of Europe in Trump’s speech this year – no doubt, much to the relief of many European leaders in attendance or following from overseas.
His comments on European security (through the Greenland deal), Nato and plans to push for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine will likely be seen as a positive development – even if they lack any much detail.
But let’s not celebrate too early and see what he says when he appears with the Danish and Greenlandic leaders shortly.
To recap, Trump spoke about the “northern frontier”, which seems to be his new phrase for Greenland.
He said the US has reached “an unprecedented agreement” on this, with the Kingdom of Denmark, “an incredible, beautiful country.”
He said the deal – to be formally signed shortly after his speech – “gives the US permanent control over security and all of the needs on that territory.”
“We will have the complete ability to do what is necessary to defend the American continent, and also Europe and other places. No US adversary will ever be permitted to establish a military presence in Greenland any more, or make sensitive investments there without our express written approval.”
He said the US will build two “very major” military bases in Greenland.
“By expanding America’s footprint in the Arctic and North Atlantic, this deal also protects Europe in addition to America and greatly protects them.”
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Trump has concluded his address to the United Nations.
Trump said he would reject any calls for a “globalist scheme” to control artificial intelligence.
He also made an impromptu pitch to world leaders to call the technology “super intelligence,” or “SI,” rather than artificial intelligence.
This comes as mounting fears over the dangers of AI has prompted some, including leaders in the industry, to call for international regulation on the technology.”
But Trump said he would not hinder the growth of technology he believes will be “bigger than the industrial revolution,” and vowed the US would lead on AI.
“We’re only going to encourage superintelligence.”
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‘Time to stop the killing’ in Ukraine, Trump says
Quickly going through a number of issues in short succession, Trump also says he is going to “continue to seek to end the disastrous war between Russia and Ukrainee.”
He says he signed into law “a powerful new law” on sanctions, and “if necessary, I will have to use them.”
“It’s time to stop the killing,” he says.
He pays tribute to the First Lady’s work on “securing the safe return of many displaced Ukrainian and Russian children back home to their families.”
Trump points to goal of regime change in Cuba
“My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba, where the communist regime is under great pressure, the biggest pressure they’ve ever been under,” Trump said. “It’s an absolutely failed state. It’s failing.”
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Trump on Venezuela: 'To the victor belong the spoils'
Trump turns now to Latin America, where he defended his administration’s actions – including the midnight raid to arrest Venezuelan President Nicólas Maduro, and the oil deal he struck with his more US-friendly successor, Delcy Rodriguez.
“To the victor belong the spoils,” Trump said, justifying the deal that will funnel a share of the nation’s immense oil wealth into the US treasury.
He continued: “Our actions in Venezuela are proof that the United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, and if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States.”
Defending his drone strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Trump equated the cartels he claims to be fighting with Islamist terrorist organizations.
“The cartels are the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere – not good people,” Tump said. “They’re enemies at war with civilization, using murder, rape, torture, and extortion as instruments of terror. Like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release, which is what we’re doing.”
He accused Mexico of being effectively controlled by the cartels, and said it was “unacceptable” for the US to share a border with a nation under such conditions.
“So Mexico must reclaim control of its soil from the enemies of humanity,” Trump said.
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‘It’s going to happen ... more quickly than people understand,’ Trump says on ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
He says “it’s going to happen, I think, more quickly than people understand.”
(It’s not the first time he says this, but the war is very much still ongoing.)
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Before his remarks threatening to annihilate Iran, Trump had touted his version of the war: one in which the US had defanged Iran militarily and driven the country to the brink of economic collapse.
He also took a moment to deflect the claim that the war had depleted the US strategic munitions reserves, a subject he took time out of his morning to post about to Truth Social.
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Trump threatens to 'annihilate' Iran and 'drive them into Hell' if regime doesn't cave
After sharing his version of the Iran war, Trump issued a threat to “annihilate” Iran and “drive them into Hell” if the regime didn’t capitulate and make a deal.”
“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” Trump said, describing the choice he said was before him. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
Trump then hedged by saying he was confident Iran would make a deal after the US midterm elections – an argument he’s made to US voters.
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Trump touts actions against Iran in address to UN General Assembly
Trump turns now to his war in Iran, framing the war he launched earlier this year the same way he has to his domestic audience — as a necessary conflict to addressing a long-ignored threat.
“I do not believe in letting problems fester,” Trump said. “They only become harder to solve. So while others have talked, I have acted while others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them. While others have talked of courage, America has shown it.”
The US, Trump said, had acted to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, while other countries ignored the issue.
“For 51 years, the fanatical Iranian regime has ruled by bloodshed and mass murder, spreading death and carnage and chaos across the entire Middle East and beyond,” Trump said, adding: “From the first day I entered the political arena, I’ve been unwavering. I will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
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Trump has opened his speech to the UN by commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary and focusing not on international issues, but touting his domestic record. Tax cuts, stock market highs, crime rates, and immigration enforcement, to name a few subjects.
“Before I took office, we had the worst and most dangerous border on earth, and now we have the most secure border in American history,” Trump said on immigration. “Nobody comes in unless they’re invited, unless they have permission. In the past 16 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States. And that’s done by some very sophisticated people. It’s not done by the Trump administration. Zero.”
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Trump addressing world leaders at the United Nations
Donald Trump has taken the stage to address the world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York, who together comprise the international order he has deeply rattled in his second term in office.
Their meeting today takes place in the shadow of a war in Iran he launched alongside Israel, which has since spiraled into a crisis that has engulfed the entire region and strangled energy markets worldwide. He has yet to put to rest a Russian invasion of Ukraine that he vowed to end upon taking office. And his relationships with the US’s historic allies, including Europe and Canada, have frayed under a series of diplomatic provocations and his liberal use of tariffs against friends and foes alike.
He’s also demonstrated US aggression in the western hemisphere more than any president in recent memory. He’s threatened Denmark, a NATO ally, to hand over Greenland. He’s launched a campaign of drone strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, which his administration labels an anti-drug smuggling campaign, and that critics have branded as a war crime. He’s raided Venezuela and arrested its autocratic leader, replacing him with another autocrat more pliant to US interests, including in the nation’s abundant oil reserves. And he’s enacted withering sanctions on Cuba aimed at forcing regime change there.
Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is speaking before Trump takes the stage at the UN. And so far, he’s not making it easy for Trump to follow.
In his address, he’s criticized world powers (the US presumably among them) carving up the world into spheres of influence.
“The division of the world into spheres of influence and neocolonial drives for strategic resources constitute anachronistic gestures,” he said.
And he took aim specifically at Trump’s new interventionism in Latin America, including the administration’s toppling of Venezuela’s former president in favor of a US-friendly successor, and its withering sanctions on Cuba aimed at taking down the anti-US government there.
“The Venezuelan people deserve to define their own destiny,” Lula said.
He continued: “In Cuba, the world watches in horror as collective punishment is imposed on 10 million people by an illegal economic and energy embargo.”
Toward the end of his speech, the Brazilian president struck indirectly at claims of US meddling in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election.
“We will not allow the enemies of democracy – internal or external – to attack the will of the people,” Lula told the assembly.
“Brazilian democracy belongs to the Brazilians. Brazil will continue to be a sovereign country. No one – no one – will make us deviate from this path,” he concluded to applause.
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Trump's message to Putin: "settle the war"
Trump is arriving at the UN HQ right now.
After very brief doorstep comments – almost exclusively mocking CNN - he answers a reporter’s very loud question by saying his message to Putin is: “settle the war.”
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Head of the United Nations warns of spiraling global conflict ahead of Trump's address
In his address to the world leaders gathered at the UN general assembly in New York, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said the world must work together in “interdependence” to solve problems.
“The fault lines in our world are widening,” Guterres, who leaves office at the end of the year, said, citing geopolitical conflicts, the climate crisis and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
But instead of letting the future continue to veer toward fragmentation, transactionalism and mistrust, he called for “a world built on interdependence – and sustained by a dense web of economic, political, social and technological connections.”
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Republican senator calls for probe into Trump Jr's oligarch-funded wedding, crypto
Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, on Tuesday published a letter calling for a key Senate committee to investigate Donald Trump’s son over his personal and business dealings with foreign governments, as well as his shady ventures in cryptocurrency and predictions markets.
Curtis’ letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee follows a bombshell report from ProPublica earlier this month that found Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had helped bankroll Trump Jr.’s lavish Bahamas wedding earlier this year.
In a post to social media that unveiled the letter, Curtis appeared to criticize his party for ignoring Trump Jr.’s conduct after having relentlessly investigated similar allegations against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
“A toaster is a wedding gift,” Curtis wrote in a post to social media revealing the letter. “A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else. Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. ‘Trust us’ was not enough then, and it is not enough now.”
Curtis’ letter represents a rare Republican break from Trump, close to a midterm election over which alleged corruption by the president and his family is one of several issues weighing on the party.
But Curtis’ concerns over Trump Jr.’s dealings stated in his letter go beyond the wedding, citing his pursuit of real estate deals abroad that have included meetings with foreign heads of state, his stake in defense contractors, and his promotion of Trump family-backed cryptocurrency ventures that have generated immense wealth for the president and his family.
He also took aim at Trump Jr.’s deep investment in the nascent and dubiously legal prediction market industry, most notably through his ties to Polymarket, that depend on a lenient hand from federal regulators his father has power over.
“These reports raise legitimate questions about foreign access to members of a sitting president’s family and whether such relationships can create actual or perceived expectations of favorable treatment,” Curtis wrote. “They also may create expectations of a returned favor that would not be in the best interests of the American people or our allies, and could even create national security vulnerabilities.”
Curtis called on the leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee, currently headed by Republican Chuck Grassley, to subpoena both Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden as part of a sweeping inquiry into how presidents’ family members have leveraged their ties to the office for personal enrichment.
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Trump on concerns about depleted US munitions: 'It's not true'
After months of mounting concerns that the campaign against Iran has critically depleted the US supply of munitions, Trump took to social media – not long before he was set to address world leaders at the United Nations – to dismiss the fears.
“The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It’s not true. We have more munitions than we could ever possibly think of using, and are building them up now at levels we have never seen before.”
(Several outlets, citing officials within the Trump administration, have reported that a critical shortage of key munitions, including missile interceptors, is shaping decision-making around the war. In a report published earlier this month, the Defense Department’s inspector general acknowledged the supply constraints, writing that the missile expenditure in Iran has “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.”)
The US and Iran have been at war since February, when Trump, alongside Israel, launched a series of missile strikes that killed the country’s supreme leader. Since then, the remains of Iran’s hardline leadership have dug in, blockading the vital Strait of Hormuz, a key artery of oil shipping, and launching waves of drones and missiles at US bases and ships in the region.
The US has retaliated by striking Iranian targets and oil tankers, and by imposing withering economic sanctions aimed at forcing the regime back to the bargaining table.
Those efforts, so far, have not yielded the kind of capitulation that Trump has demanded to end the war.
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A series of top Republicans heading to Iowa and New Hampshire – key states in the presidential primary – have raised the possibility of a contentious 2028 field for the GOP nomination, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Senator Ted Cruz, a onetime 2016 primary opponent of Trump’s, and John Kennedy, a senator from Louisiana, have both visited Iowa in recent weeks. Senator Rick Scott of Florida headlined a party event in New Hampshire.
Add to them senator Rand Paul, the longtime libertarian from Kentucky who has often clashed with Trump, and representative Thomas Massie, a congressman from the state who Trump helped oust via a primary challenge. Neither has ruled out a presidential run.
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Democrat says ICE blocked her oversight visit to country’s largest detention camp
Federal immigration officials in Texas prevented US representative Veronica Escobar from fully conducting her congressional oversight duties at a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, the lawmaker said in an interview with the Guardian.
Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso and surrounding areas on the US-Mexico border in west Texas, conducted an oversight visit last month at the Camp East Montana ICE tent facility housed in the Fort Bliss military base, after two separate “disturbances” had been reported there in recent weeks.
But when she arrived to scrutinize conditions at the camp, the largest ICE detention center in the country, she said she was not allowed to speak with any of the detained immigrants. She also requested surveillance footage of the reported incidents but said she has not received it.
“The administration obviously has attempted to block congressional oversight,” Escobar said in a telephone interview with the Guardian. “It’s been very challenging at times. And that has depended on, to a large extent, what the directive has been from the administration.”
The constraints placed on Escobar is one of the latest instances in which the Trump administration has limited members of Congress’s ability to conduct oversight visits into federal immigration detention centers.
Escobar and other federal lawmakers sued the Trump administration last year for blocking such access. Despite a federal judge ruling in favor of the lawmakers last December, there have been subsequent reports of ICE officials placing limits on or turning away members of congress when attempting to conduct oversight visits.
“Oversight, during the second Trump administration, has certainly been significantly more challenging than during the first Trump administration,” Escobar added.
Trump seeks ‘massive’ Belarus fertiliser deal amid Canada trade war
President Donald Trump has said he is working on a “massive” deal to buy fertiliser from Belarus, pivoting away from main supplier Canada amid an escalating trade dispute, and moving instead toward an ally of Russia.
“The United States is working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our farmers and ranchers.”
In recent weeks Trump has stepped up his trade war with Canada, a long-term US ally and the country’s biggest supplier of potash.
The announcement on Monday shows Washington’s willingness to pursue dialogue with Minsk despite its repression of dissidents and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US imports most of its potash – a chemical salt used to manufacture fertiliser – and prices soared after the Ukraine war began in 2022.
In 2024, 79% came from Canada, 11% from Russia and 4% from Belarus, according to the US Geological Survey.
Trump and Mamdani appear friendly after ‘wide-ranging’ meeting at Gracie Mansion
Donald Trump said on Monday that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms.
At a news conference following their closed-door meeting at Gracie Mansion, Trump and Mamdani appeared friendly as they have in previous meetings. Mamdani said he and Trump held a “wide-ranging” discussion, which touched on affordable housing and immigration, but did not offer extensive details regarding any disagreements between them.
Asked whether he challenged Trump over his decision to ban CNN, MS Now, and Politico from White House grounds, Mamdani said: “I told the president that we’re going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn, and that is something that I believe in.”
“It’s interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn’t very worried about that,” Trump chimed in, pointing to the large assembly of press on the lawn.
The visit to Gracie Mansion, ahead of the president’s speech to the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, was a measure of Trump’s apparent respect for the 34-year-old mayor of his native New York. It was the first presidential visit to the historic riverside residence in 45 years, following Ronald Reagan, who met there with Ed Koch in 1981.
US TV networks suspend White House pool coverage over Trump media ban
The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.
The collective decision came after the barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights.
The ban was an extraordinary escalation of Trump’s battle against news outlets. After a coalition of networks including ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC – which along with CNN form a press “pool” that share the responsibilities of capturing and distributing footage of the president carried by news outlets worldwide – announced they would cease coverage in solidarity with the barred outlets, the White House promoted its own feed online, branding it “Trump TV”. The channel purported to show “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place”.
“Get real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone,” the White House posted on social media. “No noise. Just the news that matters most – straight from the Trump Administration.”
It is extremely rare for a president to travel or make public appearances without the accompaniment of a representative from the White House television pool. Network cameras have provided coverage of the president since 1950.
On Monday, the ban against CNN meant that no broadcaster was covering Trump’s midday ribbon-cutting to unveil a new White House helipad. Although the White House provided a livestream, without professional boom mics and audio setup, the president’s remarks were inaudible over the sounds of a helicopter’s engine running in the background.
The president abruptly announced his ban against outlets this weekend in a Truth Social post, saying he had enough of “purposely negative stories” about him. Journalists had their press badges confiscated by Secret Service on Saturday.
Trump set for UN meetings with war on agenda as speech looms
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump is expected to start the day with a speech to assembled delegates at the UN General Assembly, before meeting with no fewer than 11 world leaders, bilaterally or in group settings.
While the contents of his speech are unknown, Trump last year caused a stir with a combative address, telling the audience that their countries were “going to hell” for, among other things, climate policy and mass migration.
The president is then set for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with leaders from four continents on Tuesday. It comes against the backdrop of an unstable Middle East and a four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine that shows no signs of abating.
Trump will meet with British prime minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the representatives of the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
In the evening, he may meet dozens more leaders, albeit briefly, during a leaders’ reception. Trump met with French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday and additions to his Tuesday schedule are possible.
Here, my colleague Robert Tait provides some analysis on what may be expected from Trump’s address:
In other developments:
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The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds. Newsrooms including the New York Times and the Washington Post also decided to hold off on publishing or distributing still photographs taken as part of the White House pool coverage on Monday until midnight as part of the collective effort. More here.
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The barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights. The parties are seeking a temporary restraining order that would immediately lift the ban – and return access for the journalists – while the case plays out. More here.
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Trump is bracing for a loss in the lawsuit brought by the three media organizations, as he considers that the judge presiding over the case – his own appointee – previously ordered the White House to restore credentials for journalist Jim Acosta. “In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal,” he wrote on Truth Social.
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Trump said that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms. More here.
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The Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas on Sunday spoke out from detention on Monday afternoon when he was able to call his lawyer, in the middle of a press conference, and plead for better medical care. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was taken from a hospital in Austin into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, even though he apparently still has a bullet lodged near his spine and is in much discomfort. More here.
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Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican subject of a House ethics complaint that she had sex with three staff members, and paid one to keep quiet, has said the allegations are untrue – and part of a “politically motivated” campaign against her. More here.
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