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MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 216.

• Reports cite unnamed U.S. officials as saying that, after little progress in weekend meetings between Iranian and Qatari mediators on the sidelines of the U.N General Assembly, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation to leave New York earlier than planned. Iran's delegation to the U.N. denies it was ordered out, saying it left on a schedule it had given the U.S. State Department in advance. [more]

NATO AND RUSSIA | Russia has warned NATO that it is prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its western exclave of Kaliningrad if any NATO members try to cut it off from the rest of the country, a NATO spokesperson confirmed yesterday. The warning echoes statements by several Russian embassies in Europe this week claiming that NATO is preparing an air and naval blockade of Kaliningrad. NATO spokesperson Allison Hart denounced the "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric," saying that NATO is a defensive alliance and is not targeting Kaliningrad. [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | Police say a man shot three co-workers during an altercation yesterday at an equipment rental business in Manassas, Virginia, killing two of them, before fatally shooting himself during a standoff with state police after fleeing the scene of the incident. The motive behind the shooting remains unclear. [more]

U.S. EDUCATION | According to regulations proposed by the Trump administration today, nearly all schoolchildren in at least 30 states can apply next year for a new federal scholarship to help pay for private school, homeschooling, and other educational expenses. The program, which launches January 1, allows public school students to use scholarships for tutoring and selected therapies and also gives taxpayers who donate to scholarship organizations a federal tax credit. [more]

U.S. MEASLES | Pennsylvania health officials reported a fifth measles-associated death in the state yesterday, in an unvaccinated person from Lancaster County. The state's outbreak of the disease has grown to 943 cases across 39 counties this year, and the U.S. has now reported eight measles-associated deaths in the last two years – more than in the previous three decades combined. [more]

U.S. MILITARY | In his "State of the Force" speech before military service members yesterday in Quantico, Virginia, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans for a new drone command and a 20% cut in the number of the nation's generals and admirals. Hegseth also announced the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs and an effort to study the future of warfare, to be led in part by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. [more]

U.S. ABORTION | The attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana filed a pair of abortion-related lawsuits yesterday: one challenging "shield laws" that protect out-of-state providers who prescribe abortion pills via telehealth and fill the prescriptions by mail, and another accusing providers of harming patients in states with abortion bans. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | More than 30 groups that advocate for noncitizens filed a petition yesterday asking a United Nations working group on enforced disappearances to declare that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's removal of more than 16,000 detainees with final deportation orders from its online detainee locator database violates international law. The agency made the change on September 15 without announcing or explaining it, a move that critics say interferes with detainees' ability to challenge their deportations by keeping attorneys and families from locating them. [full petition] [more]

MORE U.S. IMMIGRATION | Citing foreign policy grounds, an immigration judge ruled yesterday that the U.S. can deport Salah Sarsour, the president of Wisconsin's largest mosque, who has lived in the country for more than three decades and is an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights. Sarsour, who claims he has been targeted for deportation for his views, has said he intends to appeal the ruling. [more]

TENNESSEE | Governor Bill Lee has ordered a review and halted the state's one remaining scheduled execution this year following the failed execution yesterday of Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of a 1995 murder and would have been the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years. [more]

ALASKA | U.S. President Donald Trump announced yesterday that South Korea plans to invest about $54 billion in a natural gas pipeline project in Alaska. South Korean officials said after the announcement, however, that South Korea's participation in the project has not been finalized and that a decision will come only after a review of the project's commercial viability. [more]

U.S., FRANCE, AND GERMANY | Citing unnamed sources close to the discussions, Reuters reports that the U.S. has told France and Germany to draw down emergency diesel stocks to help ease global fuel prices or face a potential U.S. diesel export ban. [more]

U.S. AND SYRIA | Following a months-long easing of U.S. sanctions on Syria's new government, the State Department removed Syria from the list of countries barred from purchasing U.S. weaponry, effective today. The move follows the U.S.' removal of Syria's state sponsor of terrorism designation in August. [full notice] [more]

GLOBAL ECONOMY | Government bonds saw heavy selling worldwide today, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rising to 5.34%, its highest since 2002, and borrowing costs in countries including France, Britain, and Japan also climbing to levels not seen in decades. Yields have surged as soaring energy costs fan inflation and traders expect central banks, including the Federal Reserve, to keep raising interest rates. [more]

SWITZERLAND | According to a statement today from the Swiss glacier monitoring service GLAMOS and the Swiss Academy of Sciences, glaciers in Switzerland, amidst heat waves and low winter snowfall, lost 5.5% of their ice volume in 2026 – the second-largest drop on record after 2022. The statement warns that Alpine glaciers have "no chance of surviving in the long term" under such conditions, and notes that Switzerland's ice volume has fallen by nearly a fifth over the past five years. [full report] [more]

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN | Amidst repeated cross-border clashes, Afghanistan's Taliban government says nine people were killed in overnight Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Helmand and Kunar provinces. Pakistan claims to have targeted militant hideouts in the strikes. [more]

SYRIA | The state-run SANA news agency reports that at least seven people were killed, and four others were wounded, when attackers opened fire late yesterday on a passenger bus in Syria's western province of Homs. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. [more]

FRANCE | Amidst increasingly violent student protests across the country over staff shortages and facilities in need of repair, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office held a crisis meeting on the demonstrations today. Officials say the protests, which began last week, have left dozens of people injured and led to hundreds of arrests, most of them teenagers. [more]

BANGLADESH | Experts warn that Bangladesh's dengue outbreak could worsen in October, as recent rainfall and changing weather patterns help sustain the spread of the disease. The Bangladeshi health ministry says at least 245 people have died and 79,620 patients have been hospitalized with dengue since January. [more]

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY | A federal judge yesterday approved Paramount's settlement with 12 states that sued to block its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the way for the companies to close their $81 billion merger, which they now expect to complete on October 6. The settlement requires Paramount to increase U.S. film production and to form an editorial board to monitor news operations at CBS and CNN. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1949, with most of the Chinese mainland held by the communist People's Liberation Army, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. [more history]