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Tag: United Nations

  • Trump to Push Proposal for Elusive Gaza Peace in Netanyahu Talks

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    By Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, with the U.S. president pushing a Gaza peace proposal after a slew of Western leaders embraced Palestinian statehood in defiance of American and Israeli opposition.

    In Netanyahu’s fourth visit since Trump returned to office in January, the right-wing Israeli leader will be looking to shore up his country’s most important relationship as it faces growing international isolation nearly two years into its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

    He can expect a warm welcome compared to the chilly reception he received when he spoke on Friday before the U.N. General Assembly where many delegates walked out in protest.

    Netanyahu went on to deliver a blistering attack on what he called a “disgraceful decision” over the past week by Britain, France, Canada, Australia and several other countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, a major diplomatic shift by top U.S. allies.

    They said such action was needed to preserve the prospect for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and help bring the war to a close.

    Trump, who had criticized the recognition moves as a prize to Hamas, told Reuters on Sunday he hopes to get Netanyahu’s agreement on a framework to end the war in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

    “We’re getting a very good response because Bibi wants to make the deal too,” Trump said in a telephone interview, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Everybody wants to make the deal.”

    He credited leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Jordan and Egypt for their assistance and said the deal aims to go beyond Gaza to a broader Middle East peace.

    “It’s called peace in the Middle East, more than Gaza. Gaza is a part of it. But it’s peace in the Middle East,” he said.

    Asked whether there is now an agreed deal for peace in Gaza, a senior Israeli official said “it’s too early to tell.” The official added that Netanyahu would give Israel’s response to the proposal when he meets Trump on Monday.

    Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from the hostages’ families and, according to public opinion polls, a war-weary Israeli public.

    A 21-point peace plan had been circulated to a string of Arab and Muslim countries on the U.N. sidelines last week.

    It calls for the release of all hostages, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for “peaceful coexistence,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity. Israel angered the Qataris and drew criticism from Trump for an airstrike against Hamas leaders in Doha on September 9.

    Previous U.S.-backed ceasefire efforts have fallen apart due to a failure to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas and Netanyahu has vowed to continue fighting until Hamas is completely dismantled.

    GAZA WAR TAKES CENTER-STAGE

    The White House meeting follows an annual gathering of world leaders in New York in which the Gaza war took center-stage and Israel was often the target. Netanyahu responded that the world leaders recognizing Palestinian independence were sending the message that “murdering Jews pays off.”

    The most far-right government in Israeli history has ruled out acceptance of a Palestinian state as it presses on with its fight against Hamas following the militants’ October 7, 2023, rampage in Israel. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

    Israel’s military response has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, leaving much of the territory in ruins, a humanitarian crisis deepening and hunger spreading.

    The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the Gaza war. Israel rejects the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes.

    While Trump and Netanyahu have mostly been in sync and the U.S. continues to be Israel’s main arms supplier, Monday’s discussions have the potential for tensions to surface.

    Some of Netanyahu’s hardline ministers have said the government should respond to growing recognition of Palestinian statehood by formally extending Israeli sovereignty over all or parts of the occupied West Bank to snuff out hopes for Palestinian independence.

    On Thursday, however, Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for their state, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.

    Analysts say Israeli annexation of the West Bank could unravel the landmark Abraham Accords, a signature foreign policy achievement brokered by Trump’s first administration in which several Arab countries forged diplomatic ties with Israel.

    (Reporting By Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland, writing by Matt Spetalnick, Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Diane Craft)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • U.N. hits Iran with

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    The United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran early Sunday over its nuclear program, further squeezing the Islamic Republic as its people increasingly find themselves priced out of the food they need to survive and worried about their futures.

    The sanctions will again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran, and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. It came via a mechanism known as “snapback,” included in Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and comes as Iran’s economy already is reeling.

    Iran’s rial currency sits at a record low, increasing pressure on food prices and making daily life that much more challenging. That includes meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table.

    Meanwhile, people worry about a new round of fighting between Iran and Israel — as well as potentially the U.S. — as missile sites struck during the 12-day war in June now appear to be being rebuilt.

    Activists fear a rising wave of repression within the Islamic Republic, which already has reportedly executed more people this year than over the past three decades.

    Sina, the father of a 12-year-old boy who spoke on condition that only his first name be used for fear of repercussions, said the country has never faced such a challenging time, even during the deprivations of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and the decades of sanctions that came later.

    “For as long as I can remember, we’ve been struggling with economic hardship, and every year it’s worse than the last,” Sina told The Associated Press. “For my generation, it’s always either too late or too early — our dreams are slipping away.”

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks with Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum during an interview on Sept. 25, 2025, in New York City.

    John Lamparski / Getty Images


    Snapback was designed to be veto-proof at the U.N. Security Council, meaning China and Russia could not stop it alone, as they have other proposed actions against Tehran in the past. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called them a “trap” for Iran on Saturday.

    France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered snapback over Iran 30 days ago for its further restricting monitoring of its nuclear program and the deadlock over its negotiations with the U.S.

    Iran further withdrew from the International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring after Israel’s war with the country in June, which also saw the U.S. strike nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, the country still maintains a stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% — that is largely enough to make several atomic bombs, should Tehran choose to rush toward weaponization.

    Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though the West and IAEA say Tehran had an organized weapons program up until 2003.

    The three European nations on Sunday said they “continuously made every effort to avoid triggering snapback.” But Iran “has not authorized IAEA inspectors to regain access to Iran’s nuclear sites, nor has it produced and transmitted to the IAEA a report accounting for its stockpile of high-enriched uranium.”

    Tehran has further argued that the three European nations shouldn’t be allowed to implement snapback, pointing in part to America’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, during the first term of President Trump’s administration.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the three European nations for “an act of decisive global leadership” for imposing the sanctions on Iran and said “diplomacy is still an option.”

    “For that to happen, Iran must accept direct talks,” Rubio said.

    However, it remains unclear how Tehran will respond Sunday.

    “The Trump administration appears to think it has a stronger hand post-strikes, and it can wait for Iran to come back to the table,” said Kelsey Davenport, a nuclear expert at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “Given the knowledge Iran has, given the materials that remain in Iran, that’s a very dangerous assumption.”

    Risks also remain for Iran as well, she added: “In the short term, kicking out the IAEA increases the risk of miscalculation. The U.S. or Israel could use the lack of inspections as a pretext for further strikes.”

    The aftermath of the June war drove up food prices in Iran, putting already expensive meat out of reach for poorer families.

    Iran’s government put overall annual inflation at 34.5% in June, and its Statistical Center reported that the cost of essential food items rose over 50% over the same period. But even that doesn’t reflect what people see at shops. Pinto beans tripled in price in a year, while butter nearly doubled. Rice, a staple, rose more than 80% on average, hitting 100% for premium varieties. Whole chicken is up 26%, while beer and lamb are up 9%.

    “Every day I see new higher prices for cheese, milk and butter,” said Sima Taghavi, a mother of two, at a Tehran grocery. “I cannot omit them like fruits and meat from my grocery list because my kids are too young to be deprived.”

    The pressure over food and fears about the war resuming have seen more patients heading to psychologists since June, local media in Iran have reported.

    “The psychological pressure from the 12-day war on the one hand, and runaway inflation and price hikes on the other, has left society exhausted and unmotivated,” Dr. Sima Ferdowsi, a clinical psychologist and professor at Shahid Beheshti University, told the Hamshahri newspaper in an interview published in July.

    Iran has faced multiple nationwide protests in recent years, fueled by anger over the economy, demands for women’s rights and calls for the country’s theocracy to change.

    In response to those protests and the June war, Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran put the number of people executed in 2025 at over 1,000, noting the number could be higher as Iran does not report on each execution.

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  • Airstrikes and gunfire kill at least 59 people in Gaza as pressure grows for ceasefire, hostage deal

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    Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire and hostage return deal while Israel’s leader remained defiant about continuing the war.Related video above: Palestinian president speaks by video at UNAmong the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.“The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that the facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building. Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure growsThe attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.A U.N. commission of inquiry recently determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.Hospitals are short on supplies and targeted by airstrikesThe strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital. Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to the Nasser and Al Awda hospitals.Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City. The group said Israeli tanks were less than a kilometer (half a mile) from its facilities, creating an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals. Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.

    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip —

    Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire and hostage return deal while Israel’s leader remained defiant about continuing the war.

    Related video above: Palestinian president speaks by video at UN

    Among the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.

    Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.

    The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.

    “The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

    He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that the facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building.

    Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure grows

    The attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.

    Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.

    International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.

    A U.N. commission of inquiry recently determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

    Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”

    Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.

    Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.

    Hospitals are short on supplies and targeted by airstrikes

    The strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital. Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to the Nasser and Al Awda hospitals.

    Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

    Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.

    On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City. The group said Israeli tanks were less than a kilometer (half a mile) from its facilities, creating an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.

    Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

    Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

    Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.

    Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.

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  • Trump administration official physically assaulted at UNGA by ‘deranged leftist,’ White House says

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    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    EXCLUSIVE: A Trump administration official was physically assaulted by a “deranged leftist” inside the United Nations Thursday afternoon during the gathering of the UN General Assembly, Fox News Digital has learned.

    An official working in international relations for the Department of Health and Human Services was in New York City serving in a support role for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the department’s leadership team at UNGA.

    “An HHS official was followed into a bathroom, recorded, physically assaulted and verbally accosted by a deranged leftist at the UN who somehow entered the venue past multiple layers of security,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital. “Thankfully, the official is safe, and the lunatic was arrested, but this is part of a disturbing and dangerous set of failures by the UN after their sabotage of President Trump ahead of and during his speech.”

    TRUMP SLAMS UN FOR ‘CREATING NEW PROBLEMS,’ QUESTIONS ITS ROLE IN FIERY UNGA SPEECH

    Kelly told Fox News Digital that the U.S. Secret Service will investigate “how this violent protester was admitted into a major national security event.”

    United Nations Headquarters in New York City July 16, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

    “The UN must answer why these highly concerning incidents continue to happen against the president and his staff,” Kelly said.

    “We are outraged that a member of the U.S. delegation was physically assaulted inside of UN Headquarters the afternoon of September 25,” a U.S. UN spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “This attack must be addressed swiftly, and consequences must be felt.”

    The spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “the UN itself recognizes that it has lost its way.”

    WALTZ TO ROOT OUT ANTISEMITISM, ELIMINATE ‘WOKE’ PROGRAMS, GET ‘BACK TO BASICS’ AT THE UNITED NATIONS

    “Now, it has devolved into an arena where an American delegation member is harassed and assaulted,” the spokesperson said. “If you can’t keep people safe in your own building, how can you claim to be the world’s diplomatic center?”

    The spokesperson called the incident “unacceptable,” and told Fox News Digital that the United Nations “will use every available resource to support the U.S. Secret Service into their investigation of this incident.”

    “We know the UN needs dramatic reform and now must also immediately implement a thorough review of the UN’s security operations,” the spokesperson said. “The UN’s failures are evident worldwide, and now in its own halls.”

    The U.S. UN spokesperson added: “Enough is enough.”

    The official recounted her experience of being followed, harassed, and physically assaulted inside the United Nations in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

    The official told Fox News Digital that she was walking down the hallway at the UN when a woman began berating her and shining a bright light in her face.

    Trump UNGA

    President Donald Trump delivers remarks to the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City Sept. 23, 2025.  (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

    “It was very disorienting,” the official said. “Once I took a step back and regained my footing, it didn’t stop. I realized what was happening. I realized I was being yelled at and that the light was also a recording device.”

    The official tried to get away from the woman who was screaming derogatory and pro-Palestinian comments at her as she followed closely behind.

    OUSTED DIRECTOR SAYS AMERICA250 LEADERS ‘HATE TRUMP MORE THAN THEY LOVE AMERICA’ AFTER FIRING FOR KIRK POST

    The official said the woman called her a “fascist” and a “Nazi.” 

    “The insults changed to specific insults,” the official said, telling Fox News Digital that she went into the women’s bathroom to get away, but that the woman kept following her.

    “Her yelling turned into screaming—hyper-aggressive insults,” the official said. 

    The official tried to hide in a bathroom stall, but told Fox News Digital that the woman was pushing and trying to get into the stall. Once the official was able to close the door, the woman put the camera over the door of the bathroom stall to continue filming the official and screaming. 

    The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former national security adviser Mike Waltz, speaks at a Security Council emergency meeting

    The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former national security adviser Mike Waltz, speaks at a Security Council emergency meeting to discuss Russian fighter jet incursions into NATO member Estonia’s airspace at the United Nations as world leaders arrive for the 80th session of the U.N.’s General Assembly Sept. 22, 2025, in New York City.  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

    The official waited for the screaming to stop, and exited the stall, hoping the woman had left, but the woman was waiting for her at the door, and continued to follow her into the hallway, continuing to yell at her and shine the light in her face. Eventually, the official was able to get away.

    The official told Fox News Digital the incident lasted approximately 10 minutes.

    “It felt very political in nature,” she said. “Secretary Kennedy gets a tremendous number of bows and arrows and threats that he deals with, but it seems that it’s not enough, and it is trickling down.”

    RJK Jr speaking at event

    RFK Jr. speaks at the 2025 Rx and Illicit Drug Summit at Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville April 24, 2025. (© Nicole Hester/The Tennessean/USA Today Network)

    She added: “That’s a scary thing for the team. But we’re more empowered, and we have amazing leadership.”

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Fox News Digital has learned that the woman was arrested by the New York City Police Department. It is unclear whether she is still in custody.

    The NYPD did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

    The United Nations did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

    Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

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  • Escalator expert reacts to Trump’s U.N. mishap, as Trump claims sabotage

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    Technicians at the United Nations headquarters inspected the escalator that stalled when President Trump and first lady Melania Trump rode it on Tuesday. Now, Mr. Trump is claiming that the escalator was stopped on purpose to undermine his speech. Jeff Rodriguez, senior consultant of HKA Elevator Consulting, joins CBS News to discuss.

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  • UN Security Council rejects Russia and China’s last-ditch effort to delay sanctions on Iran

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    By FARNOUSH AMIRI, STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN and EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

    NEW YORK (AP) — Iran’s president called the expected reimposition of sanctions over its nuclear program “unfair, unjust and illegal” on Friday as the U.N. Security Council rejected a last-ditch effort to delay them.

    President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke at a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, a day before the deadline for the so-called “snapback” of sanctions to kick in. But the president says that despite previous threats, Iran will not respond by withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, potentially following North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003 and then built atomic weapons.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Friday rejected another last-ditch effort to delay the reimposition of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program a day before the deadline and after Western countries claimed that weeks of meetings failed to result in a “concrete” agreement.

    The resolution put forth by Russia and China — Iran’s most powerful and closest allies on the 15-member council — failed to garner support from the nine countries required to halt the series of U.N. sanctions from taking effect Saturday, as outlined in Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

    “We had hoped that European colleagues and the U.S. would think twice, and they would opt for the path of diplomacy and dialogue instead of their clumsy blackmail, which merely results in escalation of the situation in the region,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, the deputy Russian ambassador to the U.N., said during the meeting.

    Barring an eleventh-hour deal, the reinstatement of sanctions — triggered by Britain, France and Germany — will once again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. That will further squeeze the country’s reeling economy.

    The move is expected to heighten already magnified tensions between Iran and the West. It’s unclear how Iran will respond, given that in the past, officials have threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, potentially following North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003 and then built atomic weapons.

    Four countries — China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria — once again supported giving Iran more time to negotiate with the European countries, known as the E3, and the United States, which unilaterally withdrew from the accord with world powers in 2018.

    “The U.S has betrayed diplomacy, but it is the E3 which have buried it,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after the vote. “This sordid mess did not come about overnight. Both the E3 and the U.S. have consistently misrepresented Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.”

    The European leaders triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism last month after accusing Tehran of failing to comply with the conditions of the accord and when weeks of high-level negotiations failed to reach a diplomatic resolution.

    Lots of diplomacy as deadline nears

    Since the 30-day clock began, Araghchi, has been meeting with his French, British and German counterparts to strike a last-minute deal, leading up to this week’s U.N. General Assembly gathering. But those talks appeared futile, with one European diplomat telling the Associated Press on Wednesday that they “did not produce any new developments, any new results.”

    Therefore, European sources “expect that the snapback procedure will continue as planned.”

    Even before Araghchi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New York on Tuesday for the annual gathering, remarks from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that peace talks with the United States represent “a sheer dead end” constrained any eleventh-hour diplomatic efforts from taking place.

    Iranian officials have defended their position over the last several weeks, saying that they’ve put forward “multiple proposals to keep the window for diplomacy open.” On Friday, Araghchi said in a social media post that “the E3 has failed to reciprocate” efforts, “while the U.S. has doubled down on its dictates.” He urged the Security Council to vote in favor of an extension to provide the “time and space for diplomacy.”

    European nations have said they would be willing to extend the deadline if Iran complies with a series of conditions. Those include resumption of direct negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program, allowing U.N. nuclear inspectors access to its nuclear sites, and accounts for the more than 880 pounds of highly enriched uranium the U.N. watchdog says it has.

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  • Iran expert tells TML international community no longer hostage to talks with Tehran

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    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during an interview in Tehran, Iran, August 28, 2025. (photo credit: IRAN

    Snapback sanctions could collapse the Iranian economy as the Islamic Republic scrambles to rebuild its nuclear facilities

    The European “E3” (United Kingdom, France, and Germany) initiated a 30-day countdown clock when they triggered the United Nations (UN) snapback on August 28—a step that would automatically reimpose the full suite of Security Council sanctions unless a last-minute accommodation is reached by September 27–28. From the UN rostrum this week, President Masoud Pezeshkian said, “Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb.”

    European leaders said only verifiable steps—restoring inspector access and addressing enrichment and monitoring gaps—can avert reimposition.

    If the clock runs out, arms and missile restrictions and nuclear-related bans would return, complicating trade and diplomacy amid inflation and fiscal strain in Iran. UK and UN process briefs outline the August 28 notification and the 30-day window under the dispute-resolution process linked to the nuclear deal. Absent Security Council action that satisfies all veto holders, the pre-deal measures come back into force, and partners are expected to reapply the suspended sanctions.

    International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) figures made public in September show Iran held approximately 440.9 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium as of June 13, keeping pressure high for restored monitoring and transparency.

    While 60% is below weapons-grade, it materially shortens timelines and heightens concerns about access for inspectors. Separately, open-source imagery indicates Tehran is rebuilding missile-production sites damaged in June’s 12-day Iran–Israel war, though analysts note a bottleneck: the apparent absence of large planetary mixers needed for solid-fuel production—equipment whose absence could slow a full return of capacity even as other lines recover.

    Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), speaks at the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, September 15, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/LISA LEUTNER)

    Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), speaks at the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, September 15, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/LISA LEUTNER)

    On September 24, a Houthi drone struck Eilat, injuring about 20 people; Israel hit targets in Sanaa in response. The exchange shows how Gaza-linked tensions stretch from the Red Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean and how peripheral fronts can spike precisely as the snapback clock runs down.

    Mohammad Alzghool, senior researcher and head of the Iranian Studies Unit at the Emirates Policy Center in Abu Dhabi, said, “The most likely scenario is that the European parties will move ahead with the snapback mechanism.” He argued that such a move would mean “the collapse of the nuclear deal as the overarching framework” and could “open the political landscape to escalation scenarios.”

    He added a warning on the economy, stating, “The impact goes far beyond psychology—it risks pushing the economy toward collapse.” Alzghool said plausible cases include oil exports falling to about 700,000 barrels per day, worsening the fiscal deficit and weighing on growth, even if Tehran keeps some crude moving via discounting or gray-market channels.

    Looking to diplomacy, Alzghool said, “The nuclear issue is no longer forcing the international community into immediate talks with Tehran.” He also predicted, “Rather than negotiating on the basis of an established framework, the international community may push Iran into comprehensive talks from scratch, without legal reference points.”

    In his view, the dynamics since June reduced Iran’s leverage and increased the likelihood that any future process would demand deeper transparency on stockpiles and missiles.

    From the UN General Assembly this week, Pezeshkian tied Iran’s posture to Gaza while reiterating that Tehran does not seek nuclear weapons. European capitals countered that verifiable steps—restored inspector access, clarity on stockpiles, and credible de-escalation—are the only way to halt snapback in the closing hours of the 30-day window.

    Daniele Garofalo, an expert on terrorism and armed Islamist insurgent groups in the Middle East, said European debates often miscast the Houthis, noting, “They are not Yemen and not the internationally recognized government.” He added that the movement has leveraged the Palestinian cause to frame itself as a national defender while continuing to benefit from Iranian support, even as some of Tehran’s other partners have lost capacity. “It’s absurd that in 2025 I still have to explain that Yemen—the Yemeni government and the Yemeni army—is someone else,” he said.

    On staying power, Garofalo pointed to a durable force structure—military, political, organizational, and governmental—that leaves the group, “In short, … not an actor that can be easily removed right now.” He said popular support in Shiite areas persists, and he described how identity politics and wartime mobilization sustain the movement even when battlefield costs rise.

    Iranian financing network

    Garofalo also described work-arounds that offset reduced direct Iranian financing, saying, “Even if direct Iranian financing has been interrupted—because of obvious difficulties—the Houthis have found alternative ways over the past year to sustain their military logistics.” He cited intelligence reporting of “collaboration with al-Shabab, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and Somali piracy” in exchanges that sustain logistics, despite public denials. “AQAP denies this, but it is evident the two groups have avoided attacking each other for several years,” he said, adding, “They steer clear of clashes also because, as a reminder, al-Qaida’s leader Saif al-Adel is still in Iran.”

    On proposed partition scenarios, he cautioned that plans often ignore the Southern Transitional Council (STC), United Arab Emirates patronage, and AQAP’s persistence, saying, “Removing them would require substantial military commitment, which no one appears willing to make right now.” He warned that installing a northern authority could “install an enemy government closely aligned with Iran” and “solve one problem and create another.” “Second, are we sure the STC, funded as we know by the Emirates, would accept this?” he asked, noting that over the past year and a half, the STC cooperated with the internationally recognized government against al-Qaida and the Houthis while repeatedly voicing political, military, and economic discomfort under that arrangement.

    If snapback proceeds, Alzghool outlined diverging paths. He said, “Turning east toward China and Russia appears increasingly attractive for Iran,” including interest in Eastern weapons systems, and hard-liners could push to accelerate a pursuit of nuclear weapons—a course some argue would restore deterrence with even a small arsenal.

    He also offered a contrasting path: “On the other hand, Iran could still pivot toward regional and international integration,” which would require scaling back sensitive nuclear activities, reducing militia networks, and tapping the growing influence of moderates in government and in the Supreme National Security Council.

    Over the next news cycle, the UN track will determine whether sanctions snap back and pressure intensifies—or whether a narrow diplomatic lane remains. Either way, Tehran’s near-term calculus rests on three facts: a sizable 60%-enriched uranium stockpile with inspector-access demands, a missile program rebuilding under constraints, and continued Houthi operations that keep the region on edge.

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  • Violet Affleck demands clean air at UN but is ‘powerless over dad getting off cigarettes’: expert

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    Violet Affleck took the stage at the United Nations (U.N.) to demand clean air and as her father, Hollywood star Ben Affleck, wrestles with his smoking habit.

    Wearing a KN95 mask, the 19-year-old Yale freshman addressed the “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action” panel Tuesday in New York.

    Over four minutes, Violet urged governments to bring back mask mandates, invest in clean-air infrastructure and recognize “filtered air as a human right as intuitively as we do filtered water.”

    “We can create clean air infrastructure that is so ubiquitous and so obviously necessary so that tomorrow’s children don’t even know why we need it,” Violet warned delegates.

    ANGELINA JOLIE PLANNING TO SELL LA HOME AND MOVE ABROAD AFTER BRAD PITT CUSTODY RESTRICTIONS LIFT: REPORT

    Violet Affleck wore a KN95 mask during a speech to U.N. delegates in New York on Tuesday. (United Nations)

    But one expert with prior connections to Violet’s famous father suggested her clean-air push could be complicated by his smoking.

    “Violet will never be happy with the air, and she’s a very sensitive girl,” Rocky Rosen, a Los Angeles smoking cessation trainer, told Fox News Digital. “She wants clean air but also wants dad to be healthy. Violet feels powerless over her father getting off cigarettes.”

    Violet is the eldest daughter of Affleck, 53, and his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Garner, 53. The couple, who divorced in 2018 after more than a decade together, also share Seraphina, 15, and Samuel, 12.

    KATE HUDSON ROCKS BIKINI ON ADVENTURE GETAWAY WITH FAMILY IN COLORADO

    Ben Affleck

    Ben Affleck smokes a cigarette on the street in Los Angeles in 2020. (Boaz/Backgrid USA)

    Affleck has reportedly wrestled with nicotine addiction for decades, even as Violet campaigns for healthier air. 

    He’s been photographed smoking in public, including one instance where he pulled down his mask at the height of the pandemic just to light up.

    “Smokers like Ben are afraid of two things. He’s probably afraid he can’t stop. He’s probably afraid that he will stop,” Rosen said. “Ben’s very environmentally concerned but, as far as the cigarettes, they just have control over him.”

    Jennifer Garner leaves Ben Affleck's home on Aug. 15.

    Jennifer Garner is all smiles, waving to photographers as she exits Ben Affleck’s house after wishing him a happy 52nd birthday. (Backgrid)

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    Rosen emphasized the actor does try to be careful around others. 

    “Her dad doesn’t smoke near her. I’m sure, as in the pictures you’ll see of him smoking, he’s by himself. So he’s considerate about the air around him when he’s smoking and doesn’t want anybody exposed to his secondhand smoke,” he added.

    Fox News Digital has reached out to the Affleck family for comment.

    Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture. 

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  • Climate Week underway as Trump calls climate change

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    It’s Climate Week in New York City. The annual event partners with the United Nations Global Assembly and brings together business, political and civil leaders from around the world to collaborate on climate action and police. Bill Ritter, former governor of Colorado, joins “The Daily Report” to discuss.

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  • Trump says he was victim of ‘triple sabotage’ at UN and Secret Service is looking into the matter

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    By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was the victim of “three very sinister events” during his time at the United Nations on Tuesday and that the Secret Service will be looking into the issues.

    The president was attending the U.N. General Assembly, where he gave a speech excoriating the institution for having squandered its potential. He also criticized U.S. allies in Europe for their handling of the Russian war in Ukraine and their acceptance of immigrants as he told fellow world leaders that their nations were “going to hell.”

    On his social media website, Trump indicated that he was in a sour mood at the U.N. because of a trio of mishaps that he suggested was part of a conspiracy against him.

    First, the escalator came to a “screeching halt” with Trump and his entourage on it, an event that Trump called “absolutely sabotage.”

    Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said a videographer from the U.S. delegation who ran ahead of Trump may have “inadvertently” triggered the stop mechanism at the top of the escalator.

    “The people that did it should be arrested,” Trump said on Truth Social.

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  • Seed Global Health CEO Vanessa Kerry reacts to Trump’s U.N. comments about climate change

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    President Trump criticized efforts to fight climate change while addressing the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday. Vanessa Kerry, CEO of Seed Global Health and WHO special envoy for climate change and health, joined CBS News to discuss the president’s remarks.

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  • Trump’s claim on ending 7 wars is still misleading

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    In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Donald Trump said “everyone” is saying he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for ending seven wars.

    “I have ended seven unendable wars,” Trump said Sept. 23 in New York. “They said they were unendable. You’re never going to get them solved. Some were going for 31 years. … I ended seven wars, and in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed.”

    Trump has repeated a version of this claim for months. In his U.N. speech, Trump listed the conflicts: Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

    PolitiFact previously rated a similar statement Trump made about ending “six” wars Mostly False. That was before a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

    The talking point he used at the U.N. remains misleading.

    Trump played a role in a number of peace deals that have recently eased conflicts between some of these countries, sometimes using the threat of tariffs or military action. But many of the agreements are temporary, fragile, or have yet to be implemented. In some cases, leaders dispute that Trump played a deescalatory role. In others, there’s little evidence that a potential war was brewing. Fighting continues between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and Cambodia and Thailand.

    “Brokering an agreement is a first and important step in ending wars, but it is also just the start of a process that needs follow-through,” said Ken Schultz, a Stanford University political scientist who studies international conflict and conflict resolution. “The Armenia-Azerbaijan accord still needs to be implemented. India and Pakistan have had many ceasefires in their decades-long conflict. It will take time, and a commitment to follow through by the United States, before we know if history will see these deals as having ended wars.”

    The White House did not respond to a request for evidence.

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    Cambodia and Thailand

    After U.S.-backed talks, Cambodia and Thailand paused military attacks, but there have been violent clashes since the July 28 agreement of a ceasefire. 

    On July 28, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to a ceasefire after a territorial dispute escalated into an armed conflict July 24, killing dozens and displacing more than 300,000 people. It marked the deadliest conflict between the two nations in more than a decade.

    On July 26, Trump said he was speaking with both countries’ leaders and that the U.S. would not negotiate trade deals with either country unless the fighting stopped. U.S.-backed talks began July 28, the same day the ceasefire was announced. 

    Trump said he instructed his team to restart trade negotiations, and both countries agreed not to deploy more troops to the contested border. Experts questioned how long the deal will last, because it didn’t address the underlying dispute about which country can lay claim to 1,000-year-old Hindu temples along the 500-mile border. 

    They may already have their answer, as both sides have traded accusations of ceasefire violations amid flaring tensions.

    On Sept. 17, a crowd of 200 Cambodians crossed into Thai territory to protest and dismantle new security barriers along the disputed border. Thai police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, injuring dozens of Cambodians. Thailand’s military said a number of its members were injured.

    Thai military leaders later voted to indefinitely close the border with Cambodia and said they would impose Thai laws on Cambodian citizens living in villages along the disputed area, prompting more protests.

    Kosovo and Serbia

    Accounts vary about whether these two countries were headed toward war. Trump says they were, and that he helped head it off. Kosovo backed up Trump’s account; Serbia denied it had any war plans.

    On June 27, Trump said Serbia and Kosovo were on the verge of war. “Serbia was … getting ready to go to war with a group. I won’t even mention, because it didn’t happen, we were able to stop it,” Trump said at an Oval Office press conference. “But I have a friend in Serbia, and they said, ‘we’re going to go to war again.’ And I won’t mention that it’s Kosovo, but it’s Kosovo. But they were going to have a big-time war, and we stopped it. We stopped it because of trade. They want to trade with the United States and I said we don’t trade with people that go to war.” 

    Trump has continued to say he stopped a new conflict without providing more details. 

    Relations in the region remain unsettled. On Sept. 12, Trump’s administration suspended a strategic dialogue with Kosovo, citing unspecified actions and statements by officials from a caretaker government that’s been in office for seven months amid a political crisis, according to the Atlantic Council. 

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, stands with Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, left, and Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Foreign Minister, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, right, after signing a peace agreement at the State Department on June 27, 2025. (AP)

    The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda

    Violence in the region has continued after Trump brokered a deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. 

    On June 27, the foreign ministers of Rwanda and Congo signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to end their deadly conflict that has lasted almost three decades. Trump called the moment “a glorious triumph for the cause of peace.” The agreement also allows for U.S. investment in eastern Congo’s critical mineral reserves, including gold, copper and lithium.

    The deal is part of an effort to stop violence in the eastern part of Congo, where the militia group M23 occupies large swaths of territory. Countries, including the U.S., have accused Rwanda of backing the militia, which Rwanda has denied.

    Foreign policy experts cautioned the early summer agreement was significant but part of a long string of broken agreements between the two countries, including a long-term ceasefire agreement reached in mid 2024 that collapsed months later.

    Despite the Trump-era agreement, violence in the region has continued. CNN reported Sept. 22 that militia groups in the region continue to be trained and are still fighting. In one province, an aid worker told CNN that fighting is “going on every day” and people are still being displaced.

    A Sept. 5 U.N. Human Right Office report detailed violations and human rights abuses committed by the groups in 2025. The report said that a deadly massacre, allegedly by M23 and Rwandan soldiers, took place weeks after the late June agreement signing.

    “In July, M23 members, together with alleged soldiers of the RDF (Rwandan Defense Force) and civilians armed with machetes, massacred hundreds of people — mainly Hutus — in four villages in Rutshuru. This is one of the deadliest incidents recorded since the M23’s resurgence in 2022,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Sept. 9. Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit group, reported on the violence in late August, counting 140 civilian deaths.

    Other reports have said the number of people killed in the conflict since July may exceed 300.

    “During the period of July 9 to 21, at least 319 civilians — including forty-eight women and nineteen children — were killed by the rebels, who are still thought to be backed by members of the Rwanda Defense Force,” Charles A. Ray, chair of the Africa program at the foreign policy research institute, and former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, wrote Aug. 28.

    Pakistan and India

    The two countries ended a period of tit-for-tat military strikes in May, though Trump’s role is in dispute.

    India and Pakistan’s leaders agreed to a ceasefire May 10 after days of military strikes between the two nuclear-armed countries. The conflict centered around the territorial dispute over Kashmir, a region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. India controls the central and southern portions and Pakistan controls the northern and western parts. The countries have fought over the territory since 1947. 

    Trump said the deal was reached after a “long night” of talks mediated by the U.S. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for his “leadership and proactive role.”

    Indian leaders disputed that Trump’s intervention factored into the ceasefire. 

    Hours after Trump took credit for the agreement, India Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri announced May 10 that Pakistan’s director general of military operations had initiated a call with his Indian counterpart and both sides agreed to “stop all firing and military action on land and in the air and sea.” He didn’t mention the U.S.

    On July 28, India Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said the country “halted its operation because all the political and military objectives studied before and during the conflict had been fully achieved. To suggest that the operation was called off under pressure is baseless and entirely incorrect.”

    On July 30, India External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also rejected third-party mediation in the ceasefire, and said no foreign leader asked India to halt its military operations.

    Israel and Iran 

    Long-running hostilities between the two countries erupted into military action earlier this year.

    Israel launched attacks on Iranian military and nuclear facilities June 13 that killed prominent politicians, military leaders and nuclear scientists. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes against Israeli cities and military sites.

    Israel’s goal of eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities led to the U.S. bombing Iran’s heavily reinforced facilities at Fordo, where its uranium enrichment facility is buried deep underground. Just over a week after Israel first attacked, Trump authorized the U.S. military to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordo.

    Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire June 24 mediated by the U.S. and Qatar. Trump announced the deal on Truth Social on June 23.

    Experts said it’s difficult to know how much influence Trump had in the talks but said his decision to bomb Iran likely ended the conflict more quickly.

    A longer-term accord does not seem likely soon. 

    Iran approved a law in early July to end cooperation with the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected new direct nuclear talks with the U.S. in September.

    Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps released a Sept. 21 statement saying that any hostile action, particularly by the U.S. or Israel, against Iran’s national interests or territory will produce a “decisive, crushing, and timely response.”

    A view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia on Sept. 9, 2025. (AP)

    Egypt and Ethiopia

    The Egypt-Ethiopia conflict is a longstanding diplomatic issue that stems from a water dispute. Egypt and Sudan say an Ethiopian-constructed Nile River dam could rob them of their share of water. The disagreement doesn’t seem to be over.

    Ethiopia completed its $4 billion hydroelectric dam in July, capping a 14-year construction project. 

    Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced June 29 that talks with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have officially stalled, according to Egyptian Streets.

    Trump weighed in a few weeks later. “I think if I’m Egypt, I want to have water in the Nile and we’re working on that one, probably, but it’s going to get solved,” he said at a July 14 White House meeting. “It’s a very important source of income and life, it’s the life of Egypt, and to take that away is pretty incredible. But we think we are going to have that solved very quickly.”

    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, a Trump ally, praised Trump’s comment July 16, saying it “demonstrates the seriousness of the United States — under President Trump’s leadership — in exerting efforts to resolve conflicts and end wars.”

    But Ethiopian officials and experts said his remarks risked aggravating the fragile situation and undermining Ethiopia’s right to natural resources. A similar incident occurred in 2020 when Trump said the dam could be “blown up” by Egypt when Ethiopia didn’t make a deal with the downstream nations. “I had a deal done for them, and then unfortunately, Ethiopia broke the deal which it should not have done,” Trump said, referring to his first-term effort to end the conflict.

    Raising the stakes, Egypt has moved to arm Somalia — which has been unhappy with Ethiopian moves to use a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland — as well as deploying troops there.

     

    Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, speaks during a trilateral signing ceremony with President Donald Trump, right, and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, not pictured, at the White House on Aug. 8, 2025. (AP)

    Armenia and Azerbaijan

    With Trump’s involvement, this long-running conflict has produced a peace agreement, though it needs to be finalized, and it remains to be seen whether it brings stability.

    The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan joined Trump at the White House on Aug. 8 to sign a joint peace declaration after nearly 40 years of conflict, including Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region in the area claimed by both countries. The deal is not a final peace agreement, but represents a move in that direction, foreign policy experts said.

    “What paved the way for a deal was the military victories by Azerbaijan, mass displacement of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia’s abandonment by Russia,” said Schultz, of Stanford University. “These events created an opportunity for a deal, and Trump helped broker the actual agreement. This is no small matter, and he deserves credit for helping, but the hard choices were made by the leaders of the states themselves.”

    Trump also got something out of it. The country’s leaders approved a plan for a new road-and-rail connection linking Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani exclave bordered by Armenia, Iran, and Turkey, Foreign Affairs reported. Armenia has given development rights to the corridor across its territory to an American company while maintaining control of the passage, which is to be named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.”

    Both Armenia and Azerbaijan say the ball is in the other’s court, according to the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that researches global crises. Armenia says it’s ready to sign the deal and Azerbaijan says Armenia must remove its claims to Azerbaijani territory from its constitution, which could be rejected by Armenian voters.

    Our ruling

    Trump said he “ended seven unendable wars” around the world. This is exaggerated.

    Trump had a hand in ceasefires that have recently eased conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. But these were mostly incremental accords without a certainty of long-term peace, and some leaders have disputed the extent of Trump’s role.

    The U.S. was involved in forging a temporary peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, but violence in the region has continued, with hundreds of civilians estimated to have been killed since the deal’s signing. Trump also helped broker a deal between Cambodia and Thailand but both sides have accused the other of ceasefire violations that have led to violent skirmishes.

    A long-running standoff between Egypt and Ethiopia over an Ethiopian dam on the Nile remains unresolved. In the case of Kosovo and Serbia, there is little evidence a potential war was brewing.

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  • Trump says Ukraine can win back all of its territory

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    Trump says Ukraine can win back all of its territory – CBS News










































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    President Trump on Tuesday said he believes Ukraine can win back all of its territory from Russia. CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe has more.

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  • Trump in speech to UN says world body ‘not even coming close to living up’ to its potential

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    President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migrationTrump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersTrump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

    UNITED NATIONS —

    President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.

    His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”

    The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.

    “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”

    World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.

    After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.

    Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”

    Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.

    He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.

    The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.

    Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.

    The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.

    Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migration

    Trump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.

    He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.

    “I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”

    Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”

    The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.

    Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders

    Trump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.

    General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.

    “Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.

    Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.

    The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

    He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.

    Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech

    Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.

    France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.

    Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.

    “The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”

    Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.

    European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.

    Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.

    Trump has Oslo dreams

    Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.

    “Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.

    He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.

    “It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”

    Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.

    ___

    AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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  • Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech

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    Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.Watch live video from the United Nations in the video player aboveWorld leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the U.N. last week.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.“This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.“I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.“His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the U.N. and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

    NEW YORK —

    Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.

    Watch live video from the United Nations in the video player above

    World leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.

    After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.

    “There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the U.N. last week.

    The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.

    Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.

    The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.

    “This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.

    Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.

    “The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.

    Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

    He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.

    Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech

    Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.

    France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.

    Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”

    Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.

    “I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”

    Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.

    European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.

    Trump has Oslo dreams

    Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.

    He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.

    Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.

    Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.

    “His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the U.N. and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”

    ___

    AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Trump to address world leaders at United Nations today

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    Rubio says of effort to recognize Palestinian state: “The whole thing is irrelevant”

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday on “CBS Mornings” of the effort by several U.S. allies to ask the U.N. to formally recognize a Palestinian state that “the whole thing is irrelevant” as long as the war continues. He added that “it’s almost a vanity project for a couple of these world leaders who want to be relevant.” He said the effort has “made it even harder to get Hamas to enter into concessions” to bring an end to the war.

    The secretary of state said there’s “a window opportunity right now” to bring an end to war in Gaza.

    “The only leader in the world really that can sort of broker that or bring that together is President Trump,” Rubio said. “That’s why every country in the region, and frankly, every country in the world, including many of those involved in this recognition effort, are begging the president to get involved in this issue.”

    Rubio said “we’ll have a very important meeting today with the majority of Muslim countries, including the Gulf kingdoms and others in different parts of the world, in the hopes of perhaps taking one last shot here at ending the conflict in Gaza, getting all of the hostages, all of them, released and and putting together in place something where humanitarian relief can be provided to people safely without rewarding a terrorist group like Hamas.”


    By Kaia Hubbard

     

    Trump’s speech comes as his administration breaks with U.N.

    As the U.S. hosts leaders from around the world in New York City this week, President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from multiple U.N. agencies, including the Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization. The U.S. has also cut its contributions to the U.N., with the president and his administration critical of their approach to Israel and extensive U.S.-funded reach around the world. 


    By Kathryn Watson

     

    Trump to speak as Russia-Ukraine war remains unresolved

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in New York City for this week’s sessions, as he seeks to rally European allies and the Trump administration to continue backing his military.

    The fact that the war in Ukraine is ongoing continues to be a point of frustration for Mr. Trump, who insisted during the campaign he would be able to resolve the conflict with Russia in one day. 

    “The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin, but he’s let me down — he’s really let me down — was gonna be Russia and Ukraine,” the president said during a press conference last week alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “But we’ll see how that turns out. But that turned out to be, I thought it might be among the easiest of the group.” 

    Meanwhile, Polish President Karol Nawrocki may address the entry of Russian drones into his country’s airspace during his U.N. speech later Tuesday. Mr. Trump has said the incursion may have been a mistake, an idea Polish officials have rejected. 

    Separately, Leavitt told reporters Monday that the White House is aware of Russia’s offer to keep abiding by nuclear warhead limits in the New START treaty with the U.S. when it expires in February, if the U.S. does the same — but only for a year. The nuclear arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia, signed in 2010, calls for halving the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers. 


    By Kathryn Watson

     

    U.S. Secret Service disrupts telecom network that threatened NYC during U.N. General Assembly

    The Secret Service has disrupted a sprawling telecommunications network in the New York tristate area that investigators say could have posed a threat to this week’s General Assembly meetings.

    In the largest seizure of its kind, the Secret Service announced Tuesday that the agency found active SIM farms at abandoned apartment buildings located at more than five sites. In total, law enforcement discovered 300 SIM servers – over 100,000 SIM cards – enabling encrypted, anonymous communication and capable of sending 30 million text messages per minute.

    Officials say the servers were so powerful they could have disabled cell phone towers and launched distributed denial of services attacks with the ability to block emergency communications like EMS and police dispatch.

    “This network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City,” U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool said in a video released by the agency.

    Early analysis shows the network was used for communication between foreign governments and individuals known to U.S. law enforcement, including members of known organized crime gangs, drug cartels and human trafficking rings, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation.

    Read more here.


    By Nicole Sganga

     

    Here’s what President Trump could talk about in his United Nations speech — including Russia-Ukraine and Gaza

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president will tout the renewal of American strength around the world, list his accomplishments and discuss “how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order.” 

    The speech comes as the president hopes to settle Russia’s war in Ukraine by brokering a deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Mr. Trump also called the situation in Gaza a “disaster” over the weekend.

    “The hatred between Putin and Zelenskyy is very substantial,” the president told reporters Sunday, as a peace deal remains elusive. “There’s a lot of bad blood. And of course, Gaza is a basic disaster. We’ve got to get that taken care of. But the big thing will be that I’m going to be speaking at the United Nations, and I hope to do a good job.”


    By Kathryn Watson

     

    Trump administration restricting Iranian leaders’ movement

    One unusual sight at the U.N. General Assembly’s annual sessions is the presence of world leaders who have chilly or even hostile relationships with the United States.

    Under a 1947 agreement, the U.S. is generally expected to grant visas to U.N. delegates — even those from U.S. foes — who wish to travel to the organization’s headquarters in Manhattan. But those can be subject to restrictions.

    The State Department said Monday that Iranian delegates who are in town for this week’s meetings will only be allowed to access “areas strictly necessary to transit to and from the UN headquarters district to conduct their official UN business.” Iranian officials are also barred from accessing luxury goods or club stores, according to a statement from the department.

    “We will not allow the Iranian regime to allow its clerical elites to have a shopping spree in New York while the Iranian people endure poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and dire shortages of water and electricity,” the statement read.

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is expected to travel to New York for this week’s meetings, Iran’s government has said.

    Last month, the State Department said it would deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority, which is a U.N. observer rather than a full-fledged member. The department cited national security and accused the organization of “undermining the prospects for peace.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the General Assembly in a video.


    By Joe Walsh

     

    Israel-Hamas war — and recognition of Palestinian state — could take center stage this week

    The Israel-Hamas war is sure to be a frequent topic in this week’s speeches. Last week, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution that calls for a phased end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and pushes for the creation of a Palestinian state.

    As frustration with the war grows, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada formally recognized a Palestinian state over the weekend, and France followed suit at a U.N. meeting on Monday.

    The Trump administration disagrees, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling those U.S. allies’ recognition of a Palestinian state “just more talk and not enough action.”

    French President Emmanuel Macron announced over the summer that he would recognize a Palestinian state, and he said on Monday that France had done so. In an interview last week with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, he argued the move could disempower Hamas. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called the move “reckless,” a reaction Macron called “excessive.”

    Also, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is set to speak on Tuesday, after Israel targeted Hamas leaders in a strike on the Qatari capital of Doha earlier this month. Qatar condemned the move, and Mr. Trump criticized it.


    By Joe Walsh

     

    Trump’s new U.N. ambassador Mike Waltz was confirmed last week

    This week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting is the first public test for Mike Waltz, who was approved by the Senate only last week to be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. 

    The U.S. has gone without a confirmed ambassador to the U.N. since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term as president. Mr. Trump originally nominated Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who gave up her role in congressional leadership for the job, but the president pulled her nomination in March, saying he needed her in Congress due to the GOP’s razor-thin majority. 

    Waltz previously served as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, but he was replaced in that role by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May.


    By Kathryn Watson

     

    What is the U.N. General Assembly?

    The U.N. General Assembly includes all United Nations member states. As the U.N.’s primary deliberative body, its members consider and vote on recommendations to tackle major world issues, ranging from climate change to human rights. Its resolutions are often nonbinding.

    The body meets every year, starting in September. This year’s sessions are also marked by the 80th anniversary of the United Nations’ founding.

    The U.N. says the theme for the general debate of this session is “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.”


    By Paula Cohen

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  • Trump to address U.N. as divisions with allies deepen over Palestinian statehood and trade

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    President Donald Trump will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at a moment of heightened strain with U.S. allies over Palestinian statehood, trade and other flash points as his administration retreats from the global body.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Trump’s remarks, saying he will highlight “the renewal of American strength around the world” and what the White House sees as key accomplishments since he returned to office, including winding down conflicts abroad. Leavitt said Trump would also deliver a “straightforward and constructive” vision of global leadership.

    After his speech, Trump is scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, as well as leaders from Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also take part in a multilateral meeting with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, Leavitt said.

    Trump’s speech is expected to recall a U.N. appearance during his first term, when he promised to “reject the ideology of globalism” and urged other countries to join him in a patriotic national embrace. Those remarks drew derisive snickers from the world leaders and dignitaries in the audience.

    While his relationships with many foreign leaders have improved this time around, Trump has not shied from envisioning an expansionary image of American strength while imposing punishing tariffs on friends and foes alike.

    At the same time, the administration has accelerated its pullback from the U.N., slashing its contributions to the organization and, until last week, leaving its ambassadorship vacant. On Friday, a State Department spokesperson called for the U.N. to “get back to basics, reorienting the organization to its origins as an effective tool for advancing peace, sovereignty, and liberty.”

    The retreat was on display Sunday and Monday, after France, the U.K., Canada and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state — with more countries likely to follow this week — breaking with leadership in Washington. Trump “has been very clear he disagrees with this decision,” Leavitt told reporters Monday in a preview of his address.

    “Frankly, he believes it’s a reward to Hamas,” she said, adding that Trump sees the action as “just more talk and not enough action” from his Western counterparts.

    Trump has urged European leaders to impose huge tariffs on India and China over their oil purchases to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, and separately, the United States has imposed its own punishing trade tariffs on India and a new $100,000 fee on new H-1 B visas. Other leaders have been locked in negotiations with the administration over the tariff regime.

    Trump is also grappling with unresolved wars in Gaza and Ukraine, which he has pledged to end, a task that remains vexingly out of reach. Acknowledging his frustrations, he said recently that Putin “really let me down” about a month after they met in Alaska for talks aimed at progress.

    Michael Waltz, in his first remarks as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned Monday that Washington expects Russia to “seek ways to de-escalate” following airspace violations into Estonia and Poland — both NATO members. The Senate confirmed Waltz, Trump’s former national security adviser, on Friday.

    Trump is also weighing an offer from Putin for a one-year extension to the nuclear weapons treaty with the United States before it expires early next year, Leavitt told reporters.

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    Katherine Doyle | NBC News

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  • AI Experts Urgently Call on Governments to Think About Maybe Doing Something

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    Everyone seems to recognize the fact that artificial intelligence is a rapidly developing and emerging technology that has the potential for immense harm if operated without safeguards, but basically no one (except for the European Union, sort of) can agree on how to regulate it. So, instead of trying to set up a clear and narrow path for how we will allow AI to operate, experts in the field have opted for a new approach: how about we just figure out what extreme examples we all think are bad and just agree to that?

    On Monday, a group of politicians, scientists, and academics took to the United Nations General Assembly to announce the Global Call for AI Red Lines, a plea for the governments of the world to come together and agree on the broadest of guardrails to prevent “universally unacceptable risks” that could result from the deployment of AI. The goal of the group is to get these red lines established by the end of 2026.

    The proposal has amassed more than 200 signatures thus far from industry experts, political leaders, and Nobel Prize winners. The former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and the former President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, are on board, as are Nobel winners Stephen Fry and Yuval Noah Harari. Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, two of the three men commonly referred to as the “Godfathers of AI” due to their foundational work in the space, also added their names to the list.

    Now, what are those red lines? Well, that’s still up to governments to decide. The call doesn’t include specific policy prescriptions or recommendations, though it does call out a couple of examples of what could be a red line. Prohibiting the launch of nuclear weapons or use in mass surveillance efforts would be a potential red line for AI uses, the group says, while prohibiting the creation of AI that cannot be terminated by human override would be a possible red line for AI behavior. But they’re very clear: don’t set these in stone, they’re just examples, you can make your own rules.

    The only thing the group offers concretely is that any global agreement should be built on three pillars: “a clear list of prohibitions; robust, auditable verification mechanisms; and the appointment of an independent body established by the Parties to oversee implementation.”

    The details, though, are for governments to agree to. And that’s kinda the hard part. The call recommends that countries host some summits and working groups to figure this all out, but there are surely many competing motives at play in those conversations.

    The United States, for instance, has already committed to not allowing AI to control nuclear weapons (an agreement made under the Biden administration, so lord knows if that is still in play). But recent reports indicated that parts of the Trump administration’s intelligence community have already gotten annoyed by the fact that some AI companies won’t let them use their tools for domestic surveillance efforts. So would America get on board for such a proposal? Maybe we’ll find out by the end of 2026… if we make it that long.

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    AJ Dellinger

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  • Live fact-checking Trump’s speech to UN General Assembly

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    President Donald Trump is set to address the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23, two days after key allies recognized a Palestinian state, despite U.S. and Israel opposition. PolitiFact will fact-check the speech on our liveblog, found below.

    The U.N. General Assembly is the global organization’s main policy-making body. Each of the 193 U.N. member states gets an equal vote as the assembly completes tasks such as approving the U.N.’s budget and appointing the secretary general.

    This meeting of world leaders marks the U.N.’s 80th anniversary. The milestone comes as members are at odds.

    In the first months of his second term, Trump has continued his longstanding criticism of the U.N. He didn’t pay member dues, ordered a review of U.N. funding and pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO. 

    On Sept. 21, American allies including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom joined a majority of countries in formally recognizing a Palestinian state. It’s largely symbolic and not expected to immediately change the outlook on the ground. State recognition allows for diplomatic relations such as treaties and ambassadorships. On Sept. 22, France and Saudi Arabia held a conference to rally support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Hamas war. A two-state solution is supported by 142 of 193 U.N. member states. 

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    Citing national security concerns, Trump’s State Department denied visas to the Palestinian delegation, meaning Palestinian leaders including Mahmoud Abbas will be unable to attend the meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York City. 

    The visa denial is part of a wider underlying dispute with the United Nations: It may violate a 1947 U.S.-U.N. agreement that became federal law. It says, in part, “The federal, state or local authorities of the United States shall not impose any impediments to transit to or from the headquarters district.” However, when the agreement became law, U.S. lawmakers also passed legislation saying the agreement couldn’t prohibit the U.S. from safeguarding its national security. 

    The Russia-Ukraine war is another source of international concern. Despite Trump’s pledge to end the war immediately after his inauguration, the war is ongoing. The U.S. repeatedly sided with Russia in U.N. votes, including opposing a resolution condemning Moscow’s actions and supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The 15-member U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked and unable to act during the Russia-Ukraine war because Russia holds a veto. The U.N. Security Council planned to hold an emergency meeting Sept. 22 to discuss Russia’s violation of Estonian airspace, which came on the heels of Russia violating Poland’s airspace earlier this month. 

    Trump has addressed the U.N. before. During his first term, Trump rejected “globalism” in favor of his “America First” ideology, while encouraging international cooperation in some areas of shared interest. 

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  • Netanyahu reacts to U.K., Australia and Canada recognizing Palestinian state

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    The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada announced they would formally recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the shift, calling it a “reward to terrorism.” CBS News foreign correspondent Ramy Inocencio has more details.

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