Trump says Ukraine is able to win back all the land it lost since the beginning of the invasion
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that Ukraine is in a position to “fight and win back” all of the territory it has lost since the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion.
“Why not? 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,” Trump wrote, in a rare full-throated endorsement of Ukraine’s potential.
“Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act,” Trump said in his lengthy social media meditation. He added that the US will continue to supply Nato with weapons for purchase.
Earlier, in a bilateral meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said that the “Russian economy is terrible right now” and Ukraine has done a “pretty amazing” job at staving off the Kremlin’s forces.
Key events
Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
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World leaders met for the 80th United Nations General Assembly today in New York City. In his address to the body, which lasted almost an hour – more than three times the allotted length, Donald Trump issued a stunning indictment of immigration in European countries, clean energy projects, and the efficacy of the United Nations as an organization. French president Emmanuel Macron offered a dramatically different vision of the United Nations, calling for leaders to “restore the state of cooperation that prevailed 80 years ago” rather than “isolating ourselves”.
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Trump held a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskyy at the United Nations, promising US support for Ukraine. When asked by reporters whether Nato countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace, the president said “yes, I do”. And in a social media post later Trump said that Ukraine is in a position to “fight and win back” all of the territory it has lost since the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion. During a meeting of the security council later, secretary of state Marco Rubio said the president was open to levying “additional economic costs” on Russia and selling additional defensive weaponry and “potentially offensive weaponry” to Ukraine. Appearing on Fox News later in the day, Zelenskyy said he believes his relationship with Trump has improved and that Trump can take important steps to end the war in Ukraine.
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Trump held a multilateral meeting with several leaders of Arab and Muslim countries, with a focus on ending the war in Gaza. Although Trump did not answer questions after the meeting ended, he opened the session by saying: “This is my most important meeting.”
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The Secret Service said it had uncovered and dismantled a covert, high-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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Ryan Routh, the man who attempted to assassinate Trump at the president’s Florida golf course last year, was found guilty in federal court today. Routh was convicted on five counts, including attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
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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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Polls in Arizona have closed in a special election to decide who will fill the state’s vacant seventh congressional district seat. Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of the late progressive congressman Raúl Grijalva, is expected to win the seat vacated when her father died this year.
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California and Brazil signed a deal to ‘achieve their climate neutrality goals’ at a meeting during New York City Climate Week on the sidelines of the UN general assembly. The new agreement with Brazil comes ahead of the United Nation’s Global Climate Change Conference (Cop30), which Brazil will host in November.
A former Daca recipient has died in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody, according to an Ice statement. The incident is the 14th such case of a person dying in immigration detention since January.
Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, was a Mexican national who applied for and received immigration status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012. Ayala-Uribe was detained by immigration officials on 17 August. According to an Ice statement, Ayala-Uribe was evaluated by an Ice medical provider on 18 September and transferred to a local hospital on 21 September. Ayala-Uribe died at the medical center while still in Ice custody in the early hours of 22 September.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to the air this evening at 11.35pm ET.
Disney indefinitely suspended Kimmel’s late-night talk show last Wednesday, under pressure from Donald Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission over comments Kimmel made about Maga and the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. The decision sparked outrage from across the political spectrum about freedom of speech. Although Disney announced yesterday that it would reinstate Kimmel’s show, the show’s two largest broadcasters have declined to air the late night comedian.
The escalator that stopped while Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were arriving at the United Nations Headquarters may have been halted by an accidental triggering of its built-in safety function.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a videographer who stepped on the escalator ahead of the president may have accidentally triggered the safety mechanism which “is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing.”
California and Brazil sign deal to ‘achieve their climate neutrality goals’
California signed an agreement with Brazilian leaders today to expand the state and country’s work to reduce pollution and create more green jobs
Earlier this year, California signed a memorandum of understanding with 21 Brazilian states to combat pollution and foster sustainable economic growth. California has undertaken similar environmental collaborations with Canada, New Zealand, Japan, China, the Netherlands and others.
The new agreement with Brazil comes ahead of the United Nation’s Global Climate Change Conference (Cop30), which Brazil will host in November.
“Partnerships with subnational governments, such as the memorandum of understanding signed today with the state of California, are essential to ensure that climate action continues to move forward in the United States, for the benefit of its own population and all of humanity,” said Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister of the environment and climate change. “This commitment will support Brazil and California to achieve their climate neutrality goals by 2050 and 2045, respectively.”
The news came the same day global leaders at the United Nations, including French president Emmanuel Macron, emphasized the need for nations to “restore the state of cooperation that prevailed 80 years ago”, when the UN was founded.
“Our action today emphasizes that global challenges require global cooperation,” California governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a social media post announcing the agreement with Brazil.
The California governor is in New York City today for Climate Week, where he has met with leaders from Australia, the United Kingdom and the European Union on the sidelines of the general assembly.
Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, criticized the Trump administration’s recent strikes on Venezuelan boats during his speech at the UN general assembly.
“They said that the missiles in the Caribbean were used to stop drug trafficking. That is a lie stated here in this very rostrum,” Petro said. “Was it really necessary to bomb unarmed, poor young people in the Caribbean?
The United States struck two Venezuelan boats, first on 2 September and again on 15 September, killing 11 people in the first strike and three in the second.
Arizona votes for special election to fill seventh congressional seat
Polls in Arizona will close in about an hour as voters turn out for a special election to decide who will fill the state’s vacant seventh congressional district seat.
Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of the late progressive congressman Raúl Grijalva, is expected to win the seat vacated when her father died this year.
Raúl Grijalva held the seat for more than two decades, until his death at 77 in March. His daughter would become the first Latina that Arizona has sent to Congress.
Here’s more from my colleague Rachel Leingang – we’ll bring you more news once the polls close:
While world leaders gathered for the United Nations general assembly today, protesters took to the streets in New York City to demonstrate in support of a range of causes: from ending the war in Gaza to opposing Donald Trump’s presidency and drawing attention to the crisis in Sudan.
Here are a selection of images from the day:
Zelenskyy says he and Trump have ‘better relation than before’ on Fox News
Appearing on Fox News this evening, Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskyy said he believes his relationship with Donald Trump has improved and that Trump can take important steps to end the war in Ukraine, without conceding Ukrainian territories.
“I think we have a better relation than before,” Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy faced Trump in a famously heated Oval Office meeting in February. “I think the fact that Putin was lying to President Trump so many times also made a difference between us.”
“I think that President Trump can change the attitude of Xi Jinping to this war,” Zelenskyy added. He said he also believed Trump could manage India’s support for Ukraine.
Hundreds of federal employees at the General Services Administration, who lost their jobs during mass federal layoffs spearheaded by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, have been asked to return to work, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press.
The memo offers fired employees the opportunity to return to work by 6 October after seven months of paid leave.
North Carolina’s legislature has approved a criminal justice bill named in honor of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death on a commuter train last month.
The Republican-backed package will head next to the Democratic governor, Josh Stein..
“Iryna’s law” would eliminate cashless bail for many crimes and offer conditions for when offenders should be evaluated for involuntary commitment. The bill could also help restart executions in the state.
A gathering of the security council focused on the war in Ukraine has ended.
During the meeting, Russia’s deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said Ukrainians are fighting for the “advancement of Western geopolitical interests” and criticized “unsubstantiated allegations” of Russian drones entering Polish and Estonian air space.
Macron urges nations to work together to stop ‘might is right’ from prevailing
The French president Emmanuel Macron offered a dramatically different vision of the United Nations during his general assembly speech today, just hours after Donald Trump railed against the effectiveness of the body.
Acknowledging that this meeting of the general assembly falls on the United Nation’s 80th anniversary, Macron invoked the memory of the UN’s founding – following two world wars.
“Our world today deserves the same resolve we had then in terms of working together,” he said. “We need more than ever before to restore the state of cooperation that prevailed 80 years ago. However, in spite of that, we’re isolating ourselves.”
He noted that “climate change is not under control, biodiversity is collapsing” – just hours after Trump called climate change a “green scam” – and that “global trade is weathering tariff wars”.
While the United Nations’ “harshest critics are those who want to change the name of the game; they want to dominate” Macron emphasized that “we don’t want ‘might is right’ to prevail. That is the risk.”
Trump suggests he will meet Israel after multilateral talks with Arab and Muslim leaders
Donald Trump’s meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders at the United Nations has concluded. The president did not answer any questions, but White House pool reporters noted that he said he had a “very good meeting” and teased his intention to follow up with a meeting with Israel.
The Associated Press also noted that special envoy Steve Witkoff offered a thumbs-up in response to a question about how the meeting went.
China’s representative to the security council criticized the use of sanctions, a strategy that the Trump administration has shown renewed interest in at this meeting of the UN general assembly.
“Abusing unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction under the pretext of the crisis does not contribute to a political settlement,” the representative said.
The US has previously levied sanctions against China, and Chinese companies, for supporting Russia.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, touted Donald Trump’s role in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting of the UN security council, while also noting that the president was open to levying “additional economic costs” on Russia and selling additional defensive weaponry and “potentially offensive weaponry” to Ukraine.
“The president is a very patient man,” Rubio said, “but his patience is not infinite.”
“The United States remains as committed as it has ever been to a peaceful resolution to this dangerous conflict, but there will come a moment where we will have to conclude that perhaps there is no interest in a peaceful resolution,” he added.
