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Key events
The Kremlin on Wednesday brushed off a comment by US president Donald Trump describing Russia as a “paper tiger”, and said president Vladimir Putin valued his efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was a bear, not a tiger, and “there is no such thing as a paper bear”.
Trump said on Tuesday that he believed Ukraine could retake all of the territory captured by Russia and that Kyiv should act now, with Moscow facing “big” economic problems, Reuters reported. His comments marked a sudden and striking rhetorical shift in Ukraine’s favour.
Peskov, responding in a radio interview to Trump’s comments, said the Russian army was advancing in Ukraine and the dynamics on the frontline were obvious.
President Donald Trump will meet Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese on 20 October in Washington, the White House and Albanese said on Tuesday, the first summit between the security allies since Trump’s second election.
The two leaders have much to discuss, including the multi-billion dollar Aukus project, also involving Britain, to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. The project is now under Pentagon review.
“Australia and the United States are great partners. I expect it to be very constructive,” Albanese told reporters in New York on Tuesday, confirming the meeting.
The US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, pushed back hard against claims the central bank allows politics to drive decisions, in the midst of an extraordinary battle over its independence.
Donald Trump, who is seeking to increase his administration’s control over the Fed, has branded Powell “a very political guy” after he declined to bow to the president’s public demands for drastically lower interest rates.
The White House has launched an unprecedented campaign to overhaul the Fed’s rate-setting board of governors, installing an administration official and trying to fire a Biden appointee over unconfirmed claims of mortgage fraud.
But on Tuesday, Powell, who is typically diplomatic when speaking publicly, roundly dismissed one of the common allegations made by Trump and his allies: that the Fed is somehow political when making key decisions about the world’s largest economy.
“Many people don’t believe” the Fed is simply allowing economic data to drive its decisions, Powell acknowledged at an event in Rhode Island. “But the truth is, mostly people who are calling us political, it’s just a cheap shot.”
He did not mention Trump by name. But the president has become the most prominent critic of the Fed and Powell since returning to office.
Rachel Leingang
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, ended an advisory committee on women in the armed services Tuesday, saying it was putting forth a “divisive feminist agenda”.
“The Committee is focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness, while Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department,” said Kingsley Wilson, press secretary for the Pentagon.
The defense advisory committee on women in the services started in 1951 and gathered information to provide recommendations to the defense secretary on issues related to women in the military.
Of those recommendations, “the majority … have been either fully or partially implemented”, a website for the committee says. “The Committee’s recommendations have been instrumental in effecting changes to law and policies pertaining to the service of women in the US military.”
Chris Stein
Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would not meet with top congressional Democrats to discuss their demands for keeping the federal government open, prompting Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer to accuse the president of “running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there”.
Congress is up against a 30 September deadline to authorize more funding or spark a shutdown that would see many federal agencies close their doors and furlough workers. While Republicans have proposed continuing funding through 21 November to allow passage of legislation authorizing spending for the rest of the fiscal year, Democrats have seized on the deadline to demand their healthcare priorities be addressed.
Schumer together with his House counterpart, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, had called for a meeting with Trump to discuss the impasse, and on Tuesday morning announced the president had agreed to sit down.
“In the meeting, we will emphasize the importance of addressing rising costs, including the Republican healthcare crisis. It’s past time to meet and work to avoid a Republican-caused shutdown,” they said in a joint statement.
Hours later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would not be meeting with the Democrats.
“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” the president said.
He dangled the possibility of future talks with the Democrats “if they get serious about the future of our Nation”.
Oliver Holmes
Global health agencies and regulators have dismissed unscientific advice from Donald Trump that made an unproven link between autism and the use of everyday painkillers and vaccines.
In a sign of how worried foreign governments are about the US president’s comments, the health secretary of the UK, which is one the US’s closest allies, told the British public they should not “pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine”.
On Monday, Trump told pregnant women to avoid taking acetaminophen, which is sold in the US as Tylenol and known internationally as paracetamol, adding that those who could not “tough it out” should limit their intake.
He also said, in comments that risk exposing children to fatal diseases, that parents of young children should delay or avoid some vaccines. “Don’t let them pump your baby up with the largest pile of stuff you’ve ever seen in your life,” he said.
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that questioning the value of lifesaving vaccines was misguided and that evidence linking paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism was “inconsistent”.
“We know that vaccines do not cause autism,” said the WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević. “Vaccines, as I said, save countless lives. So this is something that science has proven, and these things should not be really questioned.”
Patrick Wintour
Donald Trump has said he believes Ukraine can regain all the land that it has lost since the 2022 Russian invasion in one of the strongest statements of support he has given Kyiv.
The US president delivered his upbeat assessment by claiming Russia was in big economic trouble in a post on Truth Social after meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in New York.
He wrote: “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.
“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, Nato, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not?”
Trump added: “Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years, a war that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win.”
Rachel Leingang
Late-night television hosts credited people who boycotted Disney for getting Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night TV show back on the air after the corporation had indefinitely suspended Kimmel amid pressure from the Trump administration.
“We got word that our long national late-nightmare is over,” Stephen Colbert said during his show on Monday night.
“Once more, I am the only martyr in late night, unless … CBS, you want to announce anything?” Colbert joked, referencing CBS’s decision to cancel his show earlier this year. “Still no? Because the money thing, I forgot.”
Protests against Disney’s suspension of Kimmel and canceled subscriptions to Disney products mounted as concern over free speech rights grew. High-profile people joined in the calls to boycott. Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said he wouldn’t do a town hall on a local ABC channel, reversing course after Kimmel’s reinstatement.
Some Republicans, including Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, also spoke out against the Federal Communications Commission’s chair pressuring Disney.
“Here’s why Disney folded after Kimmel was suspended: Google searches for cancel Disney+ and cancel Hulu spiked,” Colbert said, “which explains why the other trending search was ‘how to entertain my child without Bluey’. So Disney put Kimmel back on because you, the American people, were upset.”
Comedian Jon Stewart credited the boycott campaign with “pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of Only Murders in the Building” on his show on Monday night.
Democrat Adelita Grijalva wins special election for southern Arizona congressional seat
Rachel Leingang
Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of the late progressive congressman Raúl Grijalva, won a special election on Tuesday to fill the seat left open when her father died earlier this year.
Grijalva faced Republican challenger Daniel Butierez in the heavily blue seventh district in Arizona, which covers the southern parts of the state and the borderland areas.
Raúl Grijalva held the seat for more than two decades, until his death at 77 in March. His daughter will become the first Latina that Arizona has sent to Congress.
Filling the seat narrows Republicans’ advantage in the House, where Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passed by only one vote.
Adelita Grijalva, a longtime local elected official in southern Arizona, fended off Democratic challengers in a primary that attracted national attention amid an ongoing debate over the future of the Democratic party, and in particular its ageing candidates, as Raúl Grijalva was one of multiple Democratic lawmakers to die in office this year.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of US politics as Donald Trump has made clear his displeasure at the return of late-night talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel.
Before Tuesday’s broadcast, Trump opined on his Truth Social online platform that he “can’t believe” ABC gave Kimmel back his show, and hinted at further action against the network.
“Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Trump wrote.
“He is yet another arm of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this.”
He added: “Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative,” seemingly referring to the settlement he reached with ABC News last year in a defamation lawsuit.
In his show last night – the first since his suspension over comments about the shooting of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk – Kimmel called government threats to silence comedians “anti-American”.
Kimmel said he had not intended to make light of Kirk’s murder and he understood his comments could have been seen as “ill-timed or unclear”.
Later in the monologue, Kimmel hit out against Trump, saying that the president “did his best to cancel me” but that “instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show.”
Kimmel added that “the president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”
You can read our report here:
Stay with us for more on this story, and in other developments:
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Donald Trump has said he believes Ukraine can regain all the land that it has lost since the 2022 Russian invasion in one of the strongest statements of support he has given Kyiv. Writing on Truth Social after meeting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the UN on Tuesday, the US president said “Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form”.
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Donald Trump launched a full-on assault on the UN during his general assembly speech, describing it as a feckless, corrupt and pernicious global force that should follow the example of his own leadership. In an inflammatory speech on the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Trump called for countries to close their borders and expel foreigners, accused the UN of leading a “globalist migration agenda”, and told national leaders that the world body was “funding an assault on your countries”.
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Meanwhile, Trump was accused by a UK cabinet minister of “misreading” London after the US president claimed the city wants to “go to sharia law”. The president renewed his feud with London mayor Sadiq Khan, calling him a “terrible, terrible mayor”. The British work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden dismissed the president’s attack and said Trump had had “a beef” with Khan for years.
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The Secret Service said it had uncovered and dismantled a covert, hi-tech operation in the New York area, which had the capability to disrupt cellular networks. Authorities revealed that the hidden communications system included over 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers.
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The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on his West Palm Beach golf course two months before Trump clinched his second presidency in the 2024 White House election has been found guilty by a jury in Fort Pierce, Florida. Ryan Routh – who now faces up to life in prison at a later sentencing hearing – reportedly tried to use a pen to stab himself in the neck as the guilty verdict was read in court. Officers quickly swarmed him and dragged him out of the courthouse.
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After promising to meet with Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, on Thursday, 25 September, Trump shared in a social media post that he would no longer meet with the top Democratic lawmakers. The negotiations had been intended to secure a government funding measure, before it expires at the end of this month.
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Defense secretary Pete Hegseth decided to close a defense department advisory committee dedicated to recruiting and retaining women in the military. In a social media post announcing the closure of the defense advisory committee on women in the services a Pentagon spokesperson wrote: “The Committee is focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness, while Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department.”
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