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Sarah Johnson is a house byline for InfoHandle’s Politics desk.
Aleksandar Vucic said he would hand the presidency to parliament speaker Ana Brnabic on Monday and lead his party into an election student protesters have demanded since the Novi Sad station disaster.
Homeland Security rejected reports that agents were told to stop picking up immigrants without criminal records, sending fresh guidance after a week of confused verbal orders about collateral arrests.
President Trump signed a continuing resolution on September 2 that funds federal agencies through December 11, pushing the next shutdown fight past the November 3 midterms but leaving TSA and other accounts on a short leash again.
Johann Wadephul pressed Sergey Lavrov on grain corridors and the Leipzig airport drone case in the first German-Russian ministerial contact since the 2022 invasion, while Lavrov told reporters Berlin could have skipped the meeting and read his public statements instead.
After an estimated 800,000 people filled the Champs-Élysées on Saturday, Leo XIV moved to Lourdes for a meadow Mass, a bishops' session and closed-door talks with clergy abuse survivors.
President Donald Trump moved Friday to claw back roughly $810 million in domestic programs, using a timing tactic that leaves Congress little room to block the cuts before the fiscal year ends.
The zero-rate window for most patented drug imports closes Sept. 29 at 12:01 a.m. ET. Generics stay exempt, but customs brokers and importers now face a new HTS code and a 100% duty on covered entries.
H.Con.Res. 89 fails 49-50 as Collins, Murkowski, Paul and Tillis cross over; Fetterman votes no, leaving Congress's war powers fight unresolved in the seventh month of the Iran campaign.
Lebanon's prime minister demands an Israeli pullout to the 1949 line and detainee release at the UN, but shelling along the Blue Line continues and June framework talks remain stalled.
Xi’s state visit closed with a National Archives tour, tea and warm words, but the concrete results were thin. Trump says the next meetings are set for November in China and December in Miami.
Kyiv says Washington has proposed a UAE-hosted technical trilateral with Ukrainian and Russian officials, but no date is set and Moscow has not announced participation.
Federal fraud audits put $867.5 million in California Medicaid payments and $199 million in Minnesota on hold in July. Both states want the money moving again before clinics and enrollees absorb the cost — and before the fall enrollment window gives the fight an audience.
Xi Jinping's state visit ends with a White House tea and a National Archives tour of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, leaving a two-month extension of the tariff truce as the only dated deliverable and no new trade or AI agreement on paper.
Trump's UN address and Xi Jinping's state visit produced one tangible result — a two-month extension of the trade truce — while Iran, Ukraine and Middle East diplomacy stayed stuck, and the November midterms now set the tempo on everything else.
Iran’s president used a U.N. General Assembly press meeting to ask Washington to return to the collapsed June memorandum before the November midterms, a deadline the White House has already said it will not meet — with Trump, Congress and gasoline prices all pointing the other way.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called for a full and immediate ceasefire in Ukraine starting on the Black Sea, saying Russian attacks on ports are blocking grain that could ease global food prices as diplomats trade competing peace formulas at the United Nations.
King Felipe VI told the United Nations General Assembly that bombings of hospitals and schools in Gaza are abhorrent and urged member states to stop the violence, as Spain's government enforces a total arms embargo on Israel that blocks exports of weapons, dual-use technology, and aviation fuel with military applications.
President Javier Milei told the United Nations that the body had drifted into supranational overreach, outlined four reform principles centered on peace and subsidiarity, praised Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, and demanded Britain resume talks on the Falkland Islands while calling for the release of an Argentine detainee in Venezuela.
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters the Trump administration could release written Gaza framework terms before the UN General Debate ends, as Security Council members schedule consultations and Israeli operations in Gaza City continue to complicate hostage mediation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday as protests mount in New York over the Gaza war, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks by video after Washington denied him a visa, and European allies that once shielded Israel face fresh friction over West Bank sanctions.
U.S. officials circulated a 21-point Middle East peace framework at the United Nations while envoy Steve Witkoff said he was hopeful a Gaza breakthrough could land within days, even as Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Gaza City and European and Arab diplomats floated a parallel post-war initiative.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly that Damascus is ready to rejoin the international community while accusing Israel of hundreds of strikes since December and calling for a return to the 1974 Golan buffer agreement.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used his first wartime address to the United Nations on Wednesday to call the United States a terrorist power, reject Donald Trump's annihilation threat, and insist Tehran will negotiate only without coercion as U.S. and Israeli delegations boycotted the speech.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Vladimir Putin remained open to meeting Donald Trump in New York but reiterated that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have to come to Moscow for any bilateral summit, a condition Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.
Senate Finance Committee Democrats demanded a written Commerce rare-earth refinery and magnet timeline before President Xi’s state dinner, threatening to hold trade-nominee votes unless the administration publishes verifiable separation milestones tied to Defense stockpile targets.
President Donald Trump plans a rare planeside welcome for Chinese leader Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday afternoon, kicking off a three-day state visit that will test trade, technology and Taiwan arms sales before a November tariff deadline.
Qatari mediators spent hours shuttling proposals between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in New York on Tuesday, the first diplomatic contact since a June ceasefire memorandum collapsed and Hormuz traffic stalled under a U.S. naval blockade.
Qatar’s emir told the United Nations General Assembly that the Gulf is living through one of its most dangerous phases as U.S. and Iranian envoys held mediated talks in New York on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to meet in New York on Wednesday, Moscow diplomats told TASS, as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately presses Donald Trump for an energy truce during a General Assembly week already crowded with Middle East diplomacy.
Donald Trump praised Andy Burnham as a natural businessman after their first face-to-face talks at the United Nations, then publicly slammed Britain’s Chagos Islands handover as a terrible deal that threatens the joint Diego Garcia base Washington uses for Middle East operations.
As lawsuits and court deadlines pile up, President Donald Trump is invoking national security to defend a White House press ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico and to justify a planned triumphal arch complex, legal scholars told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Senate Banking Committee scheduled a Fed vice chair nomination hearing for late September after the FOMC’s rate decision, setting up a partisan test of how much latitude the next supervisor will have on bank capital and fintech charter questions.
EU ambassadors missed two Monday night deadlines to renew sanctions on nearly 3,000 Russia-linked people and firms after Latvia blocked a French-backed compromise to delist Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, leaving the blacklist hours from lapse as Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to meet Donald Trump in New York.
President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in New York on Monday for the UN General Assembly and a same-day meeting with Donald Trump as Washington pressed Kyiv to pause strikes on Russian diesel refineries and Moscow answered with overnight missiles on Dnipro.
Foreign ministers from all seven G7 governments issued a joint demand in New York that Iran stop arming Yemen’s Houthis, hours before Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged a single RAF Voyager tanker from Akrotiri for defensive Saudi air-to-air refueling as fighting nears Bab el-Mandeb.
French President Emmanuel Macron said after meeting Donald Trump in New York that both governments would pursue a Hormuz navigation push and a moratorium on energy-infrastructure strikes, while Qatari mediators worked to secure a short pause so U.S.–Iran talks could resume and Washington floated a multibillion-dollar regional rebuild fund.
Secretary-General António Guterres told Al Jazeera on Monday that a “dramatic geopolitical divide” has paralyzed the Security Council as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East deepen, in what may be his last General Assembly opening week before his term ends.
President Donald Trump is expected to meet Gulf Cooperation Council leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week to chart postwar Iran strategy, Axios reported, as Tehran warns of retaliation and Hormuz shipping stays thin.
Gaza medics said Israeli fire killed three Palestinians on Monday, including 11-year-old Ismail al-Bardawil after tanks shot at tents in al-Mawasi, as shootings in central and northern Gaza deepened strain on the October 2025 truce.
ICE shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, a Venezuelan DoorDash driver, during a north Austin traffic stop Sunday; he was hospitalized then moved to detention in Pearsall with a bullet still in his back as DHS opened an HSI-led probe and protesters gathered.
Sudan’s army struck RSF positions in western North Kordofan on Monday while Sunday drone attacks on El Obeid killed two people and injured 22, according to Ahram Online and Radio Tamazuj, intensifying fighting around the Kordofan capital.
The Executive Yuan says a KMT-led freeze on Premier Cho Jung-tai’s pay through December violates Constitutional Interpretation No. 601, as lawmakers use the budget to pressure the Cabinet over countersigning disputes.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pushed her Haneda departure to 11 p.m. on Sept 21 as Typhoon Dujuan disrupted flights, keeping a four-day U.S. trip that includes UN remarks and a Trump meeting on Tuesday.
With more than 95% of ballots counted, Vladimir Putin’s party took 57.83% in a three-day vote he framed as a referendum on the Ukraine war, handing United Russia a wider margin than in 2021.
Military Committee chair Giuseppe Cavo Dragone said allied staffs have mapped regional responses from hybrid probes to collective-defense triggers, as Poland warns of drone tests along the eastern border.
Nearly 130 heads of state and government are heading to New York as Secretary-General António Guterres opens a high-level week shadowed by wars in Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine and a new Security Council session on runaway artificial intelligence.
Beijing confirmed Monday that Xi Jinping will travel to Washington for a state visit September 23–25 instead of joining world leaders at the UN General Assembly, setting up a White House summit focused on trade, AI, and Taiwan.
Tehran’s central military command said Sunday it had intelligence that Washington is preparing renewed attacks, threatening retaliation across the Middle East as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell sharply.
The New York Times reported that the White House prepared Sunday strikes on Houthi targets after Saudi pleas, then called them off as crews were loading bombs, while fighters pressed toward strategic highlands in Taiz province.
The three news organizations asked a federal judge in Washington to immediately restore hard-pass access after reporters were turned away Sept. 19, arguing Trump’s ban is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
Former battlefield rivals including the TPLF and Amhara Fano signed a transitional charter Sunday, pledging coordinated pressure to replace Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
Hsiao Bi-khim told Sky News Taipei will not trade democracy for calm as CSIS data show record Chinese coast guard activity east of Taiwan ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting.
Kyiv sent hundreds of drones toward the capital as voting ended Sunday, damaging a Moscow refinery and killing at least two people in the wider region, officials on both sides said.
The Trump administration has prepared sanctions that would bar most U.S. persons and companies from transacting with the International Criminal Court after a six- to seven-month grace period, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported, escalating a campaign that until now targeted individual judges and prosecutors.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is traveling to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday with a year-old tariff truce and export surge in the balance, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice Premier He Lifeng finish preparatory talks on extensions rather than new market openings.
Seven Ethiopian armed and political movements announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival on Sunday, pledging to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and open an inclusive transitional administration after more than a year of talks.
DPP legislative caucus leaders advanced markup on the indigenous submarine program's supplemental budget before final reading, trading audit disclosure timelines against opposition demands for per-hull cost caps in closed-door coordination sessions.
The labor ministry published draft rules tightening second-floor fire exits and night-lock policies at technical-intern dormitories after audits found chained escape routes in Hyogo and Shizuoka.
Partial official results and exit polls on Sunday put Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party near 58 percent of the vote as three days of wartime parliamentary balloting closed, even after Ukrainian long-range drones struck Moscow on the final day of polling.
Journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were turned away at the White House gate on Saturday morning and had press badges confiscated, one day after President Donald Trump said he was banning the outlets for reporting he called fake news.
Labor Minister Hung Sun-han departed Taipei on Sunday for Nanjing to join an APEC labor meeting, the first minister-level trip to China since President Lai Ching-te took office as Beijing keeps military pressure on the strait.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2013 follow-on transparency rules requiring California agencies to publish AI training summaries for state contractors, tightening procurement questionnaires vendors must answer before cloud and analytics renewals.
Beijing’s Commerce Ministry reserved the right to take “all necessary measures” after President Donald Trump signed H.R. 5334, a statute that can put 100% tariffs on the largest buyers of Russian oil—China first among them—30 days before a planned White House meeting with Xi Jinping.
The State Department told Congress it had approved a potential $2.68 billion Foreign Military Sale of air-defense upgrades to Ukraine, including S-300-clone missiles and counter-drone radars, financed with leftover Biden-era FMF and European cash and still subject to congressional review.
The Executive Yuan outlined contingency steps for Taiwan citrus growers after mainland customs slowed several cross-strait fruit entry routes, pairing export diversification aid with local procurement talks ahead of council budget sessions.
Okinawa Prefecture opened two regulated drone corridors for type-O blood flights to remote islands after Silver Week ferry gaps left hospitals below transfusion buffers, setting a September 30 cabinet briefing on whether MLIT will extend BVLOS rules nationwide.
The Federal Election Commission adopted disclaimer language for AI-generated political video ads, setting calendar deadlines before fall broadcast buys and leaving enforcement fights to complaint dockets.
The Legislative Yuan set a late-September hearing on agricultural trade after Taipei paused mainland citrus imports, pitting southern fruit cooperatives against processors who want clarified quarantine rules before Mid-Autumn gifting season.
The Lower House IT strategic panel set a September 24 hearing on METI chip-tool export permit backlogs, inviting Rapidus and equipment vendors after lawmakers said six-month queues risk missing fab tool install windows.
White House energy officials briefed governors on legal options to tap Northeast gasoline reserves and coordinate waivers as retail prices spike on Gulf supply fears, stopping short of announcing a drawdown.
The Legislative Yuan’s Defense Committee ordered the ministry to itemize loitering-munition stockpiles and resupply timelines before the autumn budget session, as caucuses dispute whether drone lines belong in readiness or procurement accounts.
A ¥4.8 billion slice of the autumn supplementary budget will fund Immigration Services Agency housing spot checks on Specified Skilled Worker sponsors before Silver Week travel strains shared dormitories.
The Senate Banking Committee scheduled a hearing on whether fuel retailers and card networks pass wholesale spikes to consumers faster than they pass subsequent declines.
A Economics Committee hearing ordered Taipower to deliver a week-by-week energization chart for round-two wind farms after developers cited cable delays.
A House of Councillors labor panel reopened hearings on Technical Intern Training Program abuses in automotive and electronics plants, citing unpaid overtime and passport confiscation cases from Aichi and Gunma.
Twenty-two Republicans joined Democrats as the House passed a war powers resolution demanding an end to offensive strikes on Iran, setting up a veto fight the White House says it will win.
Traders fixate on Brent’s daily settle near $106, but Petroline weld crews and Yanbu storage math will decide whether this shock becomes a fleeting spike or a quarter-long squeeze.
The Supreme Court blocked USPS ballot restrictions, but the fight already scrambled election planning—and trust—in several states.
The justices left a lower court injunction in place, keeping new Postal Service ballot rules on hold while challenges proceed.
S&P Friday 7,656.98 still last. Pirates won 4-3. Monday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Friday 64,011.34 still last. Chunichi won 1-0 in eleven. Monday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Friday 7,656.98 still last. Cubs won 4-3. Sunday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Friday 64,011.34 still last. Giants won 1-0. Sunday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Friday 7,656.98. Cubs won 12-2. Saturday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Friday 64,011.34. Friday NPB was dark. Saturday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Thursday 7,591.70. Thursday had no Cubs. Friday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Thursday 65,270.95. Thursday was a second rainout. Friday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Wednesday 7,636.36. Brewers won 8-6. Thursday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Wednesday 65,142.78. Hiroshima took 3-1. Thursday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Tuesday 7,673.52. Brewers won 4-3 in ten. Wednesday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Tuesday 65,269.33. Tuesday was a rainout. Wednesday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Friday 7,718.60. Brewers won 4-3. Tuesday 9:30 Eastern has not opened.
Nikkei Monday 66,399.84. Monday had no NPB. Tuesday 9:00 JST has not opened.
S&P Friday 7,718.60. Marlins won 10-3. Labor Day 9:30 Eastern has not opened.