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MIDDLE EAST WAR | Day 209.

• Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly in New York City yesterday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted that his country's people had been "victims of terrorism" carried out by the United States in the ongoing Middle East war and that Iran "did not bend the knee" in response to U.S. aggressions. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,671 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, urged the International community to continue to pressure Russia to end its years-long invasion of Ukraine by choking Russia's revenues and actively impeding its war efforts. [more]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly yesterday that his country has transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea after the soldiers were captured in Russia’s Kursk region in 2025. South Korea's Foreign Ministry declined to directly confirm Zelenskyy's comments and called the circumstances a "sensitive matter concerning the safety of the soldiers and their families." [more]
• Ukrainian officials say at least eight people were killed, and 12 others were injured, in overnight Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the country's northeastern Kharkiv region. Reports note that among the targets struck in the Russian strikes were a maternity clinic and a farm. [more]

U.S. PRESS FREEDOM | U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's ban of media outlets CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House grounds early today, ordering the Trump administration to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the three outlets’ access. Kelly ordered the ruling to remain in effect for 14 days while additional court proceedings play out. Reports cite representatives of the three media outlets as saying some of their staff members were denied entry to the White House this morning, just hours after the court ruling. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | According to Labor Department data released today, initial claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 197,000 in the week ended September 19 and the number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid – a proxy for hiring – increased 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.719 million during the week ended September 12. [full report] [more]

TEXAS | Election officials in multiple Texas counties say an error at the state level has resulted in tens of thousands of voter registration applications and updates not being delivered for verification and processing beginning last October. Reports note that early in-person voting starts in Texas on October 19 and cite election officials as saying workers are scrambling to process the backlog of applications prior to that date. [more]

HAWAII | Public schools and state and county offices are closed on Hawaii's Big Island today and tomorrow as Tropical Storm Nolo approaches the state. Forecasters say the storm is expected to become a hurricane by tonight and to drop as much as 20 inches of rain on some areas. [more]

U.S. AND CHINA | Upon the arrival of Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the U.S. for a three-day state visit, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent yesterday announced the extension of a trade truce with China through January 2027. Under the truce, according to Bessent, the two countries agreed to scale back tariffs and refrain from imposing new trade restrictions. [more]

U.S. AND ARGENTINA | The U.S. State Department announced yesterday that the Trump administration plans to make up to $7 billion available through 2027 for loans to support energy, mining, and infrastructure projects in Argentina. The U.S. Export-Import Bank loans, according to the State Department, would be used to help Argentine companies buy American equipment and hire U.S. firms to expand the country’s railways, pipelines, ports, and power networks. [more]

GLOBAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | In testimony before the U.N. Security Council yesterday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, while touting the benefits of the technology, warned of potential dangers to "humanity as a whole" from uncontrolled artificial intelligence and urged the international community to establish regulatory safeguards to prevent AI from getting too powerful to rein in. [more]

PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN | Pakistan carried out airstrikes early today on 10 sites in Afghanistan that Pakistani officials say were used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan yesterday. Afghan authorities called the Pakistani airstrikes "shameless acts of aggression" and said there would be an "appropriate response." [more]

TURKEY AND IRAQ | Following a meeting between the leaders of Turkey and Iraq on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, the two countries announced an agreement under which Turkey will gradually withdraw forces from a strategic military base in northern Iraq and hand over its control to the Iraqi government and Iraq will remove armed groups that Turkey considers security threats from the region of Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq. [more]

GAZA | Following a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, the board of the U.S.-backed Board of Peace proposed a $2.45 billion plan to begin reconstruction and governance in Gaza. Reports note that earlier plans to begin reconstruction in the Palestinian enclave were contingent on multiple conditions that have not yet been met, including additional Israeli military withdrawals from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas, and the arrival of an international peacekeeping force. [more]

ITALY | Nearly 40 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster prompted Italy to abandon atomic energy, Italian lawmakers voted yesterday to give final approval to legislation establishing a legal framework for the use of next-generation nuclear technologies in the country. [more]

COLOMBIA | A day after an outbreak of violence blamed on a drug-trafficking gang, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered the deployment of military troops to the Caribbean resort city of Santa Marta yesterday to restore order. [more]

CONGO | The World Health Organization said yesterday that there is a shortage of healthcare workers needed to staff treatment centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo amidst the African country's ongoing Ebola outbreak, which has seen 7,773 confirmed cases and 3,759 deaths, according to the latest government data. [more]

AUSTRALIA | Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that an OpenAI artificial intelligence agent gained unauthorized access to files in Australia's government health data portal in June and that investigations into the incident are ongoing. In a new statement regarding the incident, OpenAI said its AI models "took actions we did not intend" while accessing several Australian government websites and services in an attempt to look up ​answers. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1906, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declared Devils Tower – a butte in the Black Hills of northeastern Wyoming – the first national monument in the United States. [more history]