Sign up to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here.
A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN WAR
Iran and the United States exchanged new threats yesterday. President Trump said Iran would fail economically or face its leadership being wiped out if it didn’t make a deal, while the Iranian military said it would retaliate harshly to any fresh attack. The Iranian military added that it had information that an attack was being prepared, without elaborating on what that information might be. Jana Choukeir and Doina Chiacu report for Reuters.
IRAN WAR – YEMEN
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday confirmed that the Houthis tried to attack Riyadh with a ballistic missile. The statement said that Saudi Arabia intercepted the missile, and there were no reports of casualties or damage. The Houthis also tried to attack civilian infrastructure in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, and in Taif, Baysh and Farasan, but they were neutralized according to the statement. Toqa Ezzidin and Cara Anna report for AP News.
Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a senior official of the Houthis, yesterday warned countries against joining Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s revived civil war. Al-Bukhaiti told AP News the Houthis have the capacity to fight on multiple fronts “should any nation become implicated in the aggression against Yemen,” and said that the group had assured the Trump administration that it won’t attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea. Samy Magdy reports.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux yesterday said France will summon Iran’s ambassador and take appropriate measures in response to Iranian authorities sealing a French language center affiliated with its embassy in Tehran. The language center was closed after a judicial order from the Tehran prosecutor’s office. John Irish reports for Reuters.
WEST BANK DEVELOPMENTS
Israeli authorities yesterday said an Israeli man was shot and killed near a spring close to the Israeli settlement of Neve Tzuf in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military and police said they arrested a suspect at a hospital in the nearby Palestinian city of Ramallah. Shortly after the shooting, the IDF said its forces “eliminated” a Palestinian driver who had attempted a ramming attack on soldiers near the settlement of Ganim, further north in the West Bank. Aaron Boxerman reports for the New York Times; Mohammed Torokman, Lina Obaid, and Maayan Lubell report for Reuters.
Israeli airstrikes on Saturday killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials. One strike near Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed Basir Al-Bursh, the son of the territory’s Health Ministry Director-General Munir Al-Bursh. The Israeli military said it struck several militants, including Basir Al-Bursh, without giving further information. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Saturday expunged the criminal record of former IDF soldier Elor Azaria. Azaria was convicted of manslaughter for shooting Abdul Fattah al-Sharif in the head while al-Sharif was motionless on the ground in 2016. Herzog said the pardon was made “in the spirit of the season of mercy.” Alan Yuhas and Aaron Boxerman report for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Russia’s Moscow Oblast’s Gov. Andrey Vorobyov yesterday confirmed Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow killed two people and wounded 20 people in the wider Moscow region. Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack of over 1,000 drones as the “largest ever” on Russia’s capital, and confirmed there had been damage to the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building. AP News reports.
Ukraine’s Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko yesterday said overnight Russian strikes on the Kyiv region killed four people, including three children. A drone hit a private home outside the capital, where a mother and her two three-year-old children were killed, while a girl died in hospital after a separate drone strike in another district. Pavel Polityuk and Alexander Tanas report for Reuters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday said that after a phone call with Trump, the two will meet this week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Zelenskyy’s chief negotiator and head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov told Axios he’s been working with White House envoys in recent days to organize the meeting, which is expected to happen Tuesday. Barak Ravid reports.
The U.N. Human Rights Office on Friday said that Russian forces committed widespread sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine, while Ukrainian authorities were also responsible for a smaller number of violations. The report documented 1,004 verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence between Feb. 2022 and Jul. 2026, and of those cases, 89% were attributed to the Russian side. Olivia Le Poidevin reports for Reuters.
The U.S. State Department on Friday said it approved a potential $2.7 billion military sale to Ukraine for air defense development upgrades and related equipment and services. Kanishka Singh reports for Reuters.
Trump on Friday signed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The legislation targets Russia’s energy and defense industries, as well as its “shadow fleet” of tankers that evade existing sanctions, in order to deprive Moscow of funds used to pay for the war in Ukraine. Ismail Shakil and Daphne Psaledakis report for Reuters.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Saturday said some Western politicians are seeking conflict between NATO and Russia after a “failed” strategy to defeat Russia in the war in Ukraine. Fico has close ties with Russia and refuses military aid for Ukraine. Jason Hovet reports for Reuters.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Russia’s ruling United Russia party yesterday was on track to win the parliamentary election with a vote share of 57.5%, according to partial official results. Other parties, who all vote the same way as United Russia on major issues, were on course to win seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Andrew Osborn and Vladimir Soldatkin report for Reuters.
The German far-right party AfD yesterday took first place in state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in what was East Germany before reunification in 1990, closely followed by the center-left Social Democrats. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party only had 4.9% of the vote, which may exclude them from the state parliament altogether. In Berlin, the far-left Linke party won 25% of the votes, ahead of the CDU’s 19%. It is the first time Linke has topped polls in the state. Oliver Denzer and James Mackenzie report for Reuters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top economic envoy and Germany’s far-right AfD leadership have begun preparations to meet next year to discuss restarting gas supplies from Russia to Germany, sources told Reuters. The meeting would be attended by Kirill Dmitriev, who is a close adviser to Putin. John O’Donnell reports.
German Gen. Carsten Breuer on Saturday was selected as chair of NATO’s military committee from July 2027, succeeding Italian Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. The chairman serves as the top military advisor to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Daniel Michaels reports for the Wall Street Journal.
The South Korean military yesterday said North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the sea. The South Korean Presidential office urged North Korea to immediately halt ballistic missile launches that are banned by the U.N. Security Council resolutions. Hyung-Jin Kim reports for AP News.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson today said it would not tolerate hostile forces’ efforts to curb the country’s cooperation with other countries, adding that no new sanctions would block its development or defense of core interests. Joyce Lee reports for Reuters.
Afghan officials today said Pakistani airstrikes killed at least three people in Afghanistan. Chief spokesman of the Afghani government Zabihullah Mujahid said that Afghanistan will “respond appropriately to this aggression.” Mohammed Yunus Yawar reports for Reuters.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said the country will bid to join the U.N. Security Council from 2029. Renju Jose reports for Reuters.
CLIMATE DEVELOPMENTS
A lawyer representing a group of indigenous and civil-society organizations in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan region yesterday said the group has filed a class-action lawsuit against Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and other authorities over their handling of forest fires in the region. The lawyer told Reuters the lawsuit was filed in response to public concerns over the “government’s negligence and failure to prevent and tackle forest and land fires that recur every year.” Stefanno Sulaiman reports.
A U.S. federal judge on Friday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency unlawfully canceled a $7 billion grant program aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities. The judge said under the ONE Big Beautiful Bill Act 2025, the EPA retained more than $3 billion in funding for necessary expenses related to the administration of grant programs, and that Congress had clearly intended for the department to keep administering already-awarded grants. Nate Raymond reports for Reuters.
U.S. AI DEVELOPMENTS
A lawsuit filed on Friday claims that Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google made an illegal deal to slow the pace of their respective AI development. The suit argues that leading AI companies violated antitrust laws when they agreed to coordinate the slowdown of AI development, and that doing so would reduce the value consumers get for paid AI subscriptions. Despite the coordination largely taking place publicly on Sep. 12, the lawsuit alleges the coordination began to take shape in July when high-ranking employees from several of the leading AI labs signed a statement that acknowledged the “intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow” development. Kaitlyn Huamani reports for AP News.
Google on Friday confirmed Gemini broke into three companies’ systems using basic hacking techniques during model testing in May. The hacks occurred as part of the test run by the company Irregular, which was also involved in similar incidents disclosed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. Erin Woo and Robert McMillan report for the Wall Street Journal.
Trump on Saturday announced he is creating an “AI Force” modelled on the Space Force, and will soon name a new AI czar. Trump offered few details on what the AI Force would actually do, but said the government would “not in any way hinder or stifle” AI’s growth but would look for “BAD” behaviour using “our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System.” Andrew Pantazi reports for Axios.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Trump on Friday said the United States has struck a deal with Greenland and Denmark that will give the United States “permanent control over security” in Greenland. The office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the three parties would sign the “great agreement” in New York next week at the UN General Assembly. Greenland Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the agreement “recognizes Greenland’s interests and our place in the international cooperation.” Ben Berkowitz and Avery Lotz report for Axios.
The Trump administration is preparing to impose new sanctions on the International Criminal Court, according to officials. The sanctions would forbid most transactions with the ICC after a grace period of six-to-seven months, according to documents viewed by the Wall Street Journal, which could cripple the court by prohibiting it from conducting transactions in U.S. dollars. A State Department spokesman would not preview any sanctions decisions but noted Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s view that the ICC poses a threat to American sovereignty. Matthew Dalton and Alexander Ward report.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson today confirmed President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the United States from Sep. 23 to 25 at the invitation of Trump. Reuters reports.
Eighteen suspects who were arrested in the July 2021 killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse yesterday were being extradited to the United States. Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security said that it surrendered the suspects to “allow for the trial.” The wife of one of the suspects said in a phone interview with AP News that the extradition had caught her and other relatives of the suspects by surprise. Evens Sanon and Dánica Coto report.
U.S. CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OPERATIONS
Southern Command on Saturday said the military attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea along known smuggling routes, killing four people. AP News reports.
A U.N. Special Rapporteur late last night released a Briefing Note on the U.S. military strikes on alleged drug cartels. The Notes concludes that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law.”
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
Local authorities in Austin, Texas yesterday said an ICE agent shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, an immigrant from Venezuela. An immigration lawyer now representing Perez and his family said Perez’s wife was not allowed to see him in the hospital, and that hours later she was informed by representatives of the hospital that he had been released into ICE custody. Perez had been shot inside a car, and according to his wife, he had been delivering for DoorDash. It is unclear if he was the intended target of an immigration operation. Christina Morales, Lauren McGaughy, and Devon Lum report for the New York Times.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Air Force Maj. Jason Watson, who was arrested in uniform at the Capitol in July after calling for Trump’s impeachment, on Friday gave an unsworn statement in his defense in court during an Article 32 hearing, which determines whether a case should proceed to a court-martial. Watson said that he “spoke to change something I believed was wrong, in the open, under the weight of my own name and my own oath,” and that he was driven by his sworn duty to defend the Constitution, not partisanship. Military prosecutors said during the preliminary hearing that Watson betrayed regulations and the Constitution with “vitriolic attacks on the character of the president.” Anushka Patil reports for the New York Times.
Trump on Friday said he is banning CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO from the White House “effective immediately,” calling the three news outlets “Fake News” and threatening to ban other “Fake News Media Outlets.” Many major media outlets panned the White House ban, including journalists at Fox News. Andrew Pantazi reports for Axios; Jocelyn Noveck reports for AP News; Mack Liederman reports for the New York Times.
CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO in a joint statement today said they would sue the Trump administration for barring them from the White House grounds. The suit says Trump’s ban was a violation of their First Amendment rights to cover the president. Erik Wemple reports for the New York Times.
The Justice Department on Friday said NYU Langone Health and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center agreed legal settlements to end gender treatments for minors. As a practical matter, both systems had already stopped the treatments due to regulatory worry since Trump returned to office. NYU will pay $8.5 million, and Pittsburgh $950,000. Both health systems deny wrongdoing. Corinne Ramey reports for the Wall Street Journal.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s communications director Anna Bahr said Mamdani will meet Trump today at Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. Bahr said the pair will discuss issues affecting New York and New Yorkers. Seung Min Kim reports for AP News.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Saturday signed legislation that is meant to prevent interference in California’s midterm elections. The 13 bills were designed to broadly combat interference without knowing specifically whether or how the federal government might engage in California’s elections. Laurel Rosenhall reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTION
Trump yesterday said the proposed Arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery would become a “top grade military complex” able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition. The Pentagon said it had no information beyond Trump’s statement. Seung Min Kim reports for AP News.
A campaign watchdog group this week filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission after Trump called the $400 million MAGA Inc. super PAC run by his political advisors “my money that I control.” Federal law bars those holding federal office from directing spending decisions for a political organization with no contribution limits. Trump is unlikely to be reined in as the FEC does not have enough confirmed members to meet or consider complaints. Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman report for the New York Times.
The White House has begun drafting a new executive order that aims to create a new external committee with the power to veto awards in the National Institutes of Health’s research portfolio that do not conform to Trump’s political agenda, according to sources. A White House meeting on Friday was called in part to discuss why the NIH hadn’t done enough to push the Trump administration’s agenda on academia in general, according to the Washington Post. Dan Diamond and Riley Beggin report; Carolyn Y. Johnson, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Tony Romm, and Michael C. Bender report for the New York Times.
The Justice Department on Friday said it will not criminally enforce a 1968 federal law barring licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to 18-to-20 year olds after its Office of Legal Counsel concluded the restriction violated the Second Amendment. The opinion signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser stands as controlling legal advice for the executive branch. Andrew Pantazi reports for Axios.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions.
If you enjoy listening, Just Security’s analytic articles are also available in audio form on the justsecurity.org website.
ICYMI: Last week on Just Security
Timeline of Boat Strikes and Related Actions
By
