Today's recap
Donald Trump was in Georgia, for a speech billed as discussing his policies on manufacturing and taxation. He talked about tariffs and promised lower taxes on corporations – but also meandered to other topics.
Kamala Harris, meanwhile, spoke to a public radio station in battleground state Wisconsin, where the vice-president said she would support repealing the filibuster in the Senate to allow passage of a law restoring the constitutional right to abortion once guaranteed by Roe v Wade.
And at the United Nations in New York, Joe Biden gave his final address as US president to the general assembly, urging the world to defend Ukraine while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the weapons shipments fueling the war in Sudan.
Here’s what else happened today:
Prosecutors filed a charge of attempted assassination against Ryan Routh, who investigators said had camped out, armed, near Trump’s golf course for about 12 hours, before being confronted by a Secret Service agent, the AP reports.
The leader of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a non-profit that represents the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio, has filed criminal charges against Trump and JD Vance over their false statements about migrants.
Local authorities in Tempe, Arizona, have said that someone fired shots at a Democratic party campaign office in a Phoenix suburb, causing damage but no injuries,
Biden, at the UN, also reflected on his decision not to seek a second term, telling global leaders “some things are more important than staying in power”.
Who is leading the presidential race? Nobody, a CNN survey of registered voters nationwide found.
Harris picked up the endorsements of more than 400 economists and experts in the field.
Trump’s push to change Nebraska’s electoral system to winner-take-all failed after a Republican state senator declined to support last-minute changes. The former president pushed allies for the change after Biden in 2020 won one of the state’s six electoral votes, which are currently allocated by congressional district.
A federal judge overseeing Trump’s election interference case will allow special counsel Jack Smith to submit a 180-page brief that could contain new evidence.
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The Enhanced Presidential Security Act, which passed Tuesday evening with unanimous support in the US Senate, will now go to Joe Biden for a signature.
The measure would give Donald Trump and Kamala Harris the same level of security as Joe Biden, following two assassination attempts against Trump. The bill earlier passed the House without opposition.
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Prosecutors charge Ryan Routh with attempted assassination
Prosecutors filed a charge of attempted assassination against Ryan Routh, whom investigators said had camped out, armed, near Trump’s golf course for about 12 hours, before being confronted by a Secret Service agent, the AP reports.
Routh was previously charged with two gun offenses.
Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who oversaw and threw out the federal classified documents case against him, was randomly assigned to oversee this case as well, according to CNN.
The charges for Routh come on the same day that lawmakers approved a bill that will give presidential candidates equal security protection as the sitting president, following two assassination attempts against Trump.
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Biden blasts Trump for dismissing the dangers of climate change
Joe Biden has lauded the US’s progress in fighting the climate crisis during his presidency, while also mocking Donald Trump for his dismissal of the dangers posed by global heating.
The US president was speaking at a Bloomberg event being held as part of Climate Week in New York, a summit that runs alongside the United Nations general assembly, which the US president spoke at earlier today.
Climate Week has already featured stark warnings that the phasing out of fossil fuels is moving too slowly. On Tuesday, the UN’s top climate diplomat called for the proliferation of renewable energy to spread from wealthy to poorer countries more urgently.
Biden said that “virtually nothing” had been done about climate change when he came into office, but that his policies “changed the mindset” about the issue by reframing it as an opportunity to build new jobs in clean energy.
“We passed the most significant climate law in the history of the world,” Biden said of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. “They told me it couldn’t be done, but we did it. Not a single Republican voted for it.”
More than 330,000 jobs and tens of billions of dollars in investments in electric vehicles, battery and renewable energy manufacturing have spread across America since the bill, Biden said, meaning that the “US has reasserted global leadership on climate change”.
This progress is “in stark contrast to my predecessor”, Biden said of Trump. “He says he’d repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, he’d let our factories shut down, he’d move the world backwards. …
“His denial of climate change condemns future generations to a more dangerous world.”
In reference to a baseless conspiracy theory espoused by Trump, Biden added: “And by the way, windmills do not cause cancer.”
Biden said the US was now in prime position to lead the world in dealing with the climate crisis. “The rest of the world looks to us,” he said. “If we didn’t lead, who the hell leads? Who fills the vacuum? That’s our obligation and our incredible opportunity.”
“If more developing countries don’t see more of this growing deluge of climate investment, we will quickly entrench a dangerous two-speed global transition,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “The injustice and imbalance is not only unacceptable, it is self-defeating - for every economy.”
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The Trump campaign is holding a bus tour this week in Wisconsin featuring campaign surrogates and local party activists. The bus stopped in Appleton today, drawing around 100 spectators and featuring a lineup of activists, including an activist with the rightwing organization Moms for Liberty, the president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition – Wisconsin, and Trump loyalist Kash Patel.
During the event, John Pudner of Wisconsin’s chapter of the Faith and Freedom Coalition handed out pamphlets for attendees to hand out to the public and stressed that faith-focused voters could have an outsize impact on the election if the Republican party can turn them out.
“Let me tell you something,” said Pudner. “Florida in 2000 is Wisconsin in 2024.”
In 2000, Florida’s election was decided by roughly 500 votes and a supreme court decision to end the recount there.
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The first ballots have been sent out for the hotly contested November elections that will determine the nation’s future.
What is early voting?
States – with the exception of Mississippi, New Hampshire and Alabama – offer all voters the opportunity to cast a ballot in person at a polling place before election day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In those places, registered voters can head to their polling location within the early voting time frame and cast a ballot. Most states begin counting those ballots on election day, and some require officials to wait until polls are closed to begin counting.
Some states offer a version of early voting called “in-person absentee” voting, in which a voter can obtain and submit an absentee ballot in person at a polling place before election day.
What about absentee voting?
Most states allow for some form of absentee voting, in which a voter requests a ballot ahead of time, which officials then send to them in the mail to fill out and return by mail. Some jurisdictions offer voters the option of returning absentee ballots to a secured dropbox. Fourteen states require an excuse for voters to cast a ballot by mail, such as an illness or work-scheduling conflict. Eight states practice “all-mail” elections – in those places, all registered voters receive a ballot in the mail, whether or not they plan to use it.
Federal law requires states to send absentee ballots to military voters and voters overseas.
States regulate the “processing” and counting of absentee ballots; most states allow officials to immediately process ballots, which typically entails verifying the signature on the ballot with the voter’s signature from when they registered to vote. Other states require officials to wait until election day to begin processing ballots – which can slow the release of election results.
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If Trump wins the election, this is what's at stake
One morning in February, 16-year-old Levi Hormuth took off school as his parents called out of work, and the three began a five-and-a-half-hour drive.
The purpose of the 350-mile trip from their home in St Charles county, Missouri, to Chicago, Illinois, was a routine doctor’s appointment.
Levi, a transgender boy, now 17 and in his final year of high school, had been a patient at the Washington University (WashU) Transgender Center since he was 13. The center, a short drive from home, had helped Levi in his transition, providing counseling and eventually hormone treatments at age 15. The testosterone had profoundly positive impacts, Levi and his parents said, helping him overcome significant mental distress stemming from his gender dysphoria.
But in June 2023, Missouri’s Republican governor enacted a bill banning gender-affirming healthcare for youth under 18. The law had an exception for youth like Levi who were already accessing the care, but WashU, fearing legal liability, stopped prescribing medications to all trans youth.
The best alternative for Levi and his family was to cross state lines.
“The fact that I have to drive five hours both ways for treatment just shows our government in Missouri doesn’t care about things that are actually important,” Levi said one afternoon, sitting on his backyard deck with his parents in St Charles county, which is more conservative than neighboring St Louis. “We have potholes galore that should be fixed, we have horrible crime rates. It’s enraging that they’re not focusing on what matters and listening to our voices.”
The stakes of the presidential election are enormous for people like Levi and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
Donald Trump has promised aggressive attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, with a focus on trans youth, who have been a central target of the GOP’s culture war. The former president’s proposed “plan to protect children from leftwing gender insanity” includes ordering federal agencies to end all programs that “promote … gender transition at any age”; revoking funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to youth and subjecting them to US justice department investigations; punishing schools that affirm trans youth; and pushing a federal law stating the government doesn’t legally recognize trans people.
Read more:
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Judge will allow special counsel to file hundreds of pages of evidence in January 6 case
A federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s federal election interference case will allow special counsel Jack Smith to submit a 180-page brief that could contain new evidence.
The oversized brief contains legal arguments and evidence reflecting how the supreme court’s ruling regarding presidential immunity will affect the case against Trump, which include felony charges for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The supreme court’s ruling regarding presidential immunity affects the charges against Trump, who is facing four felony counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s legal team called the request to submit the brief “fundamentally unfair” in part because it was so much longer than most opening briefs.
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Trump push to change Nebraska's electoral system to winner-take-all fails
Seeking to secure every last electoral vote he can get, Donald Trump had been pushing allies in Nebraska to change the state’s electoral system to a winner-takes-all system. The state currently awards its six electoral votes based on congressional district.
But after a key Republican legislator declined to support the last-minute effort to change the state’s system, the state’s governor has said that he won’t be calling a special legislative session to make the changes.
“My team and I have worked relentlessly to secure a filibuster-proof 33-vote majority to get winner-take-all passed before the November election. Given everything at stake for Nebraska and our country, we have left every inch on the field to get this done,” said Jim Pillen, Nebraska’s governor. “Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators.”
Mike McDonnell, a Republican state senator, announced he wouldn’t support the change. “Elections should be an opportunity for all voters to be heard, no matter who they are, where they live, or what party they support,” McDonnell said in a statement. “I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”
Nebraska has awarded its electoral votes by congressional district since 1991, and since then, Republican candidates have usually secured all of the state’s votes. But in 2008, Barak Obama got the vote from the state’s second congressional district in the Omaha region, and in 2020, Joe Biden took that vote.
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Zelenskyy tells UN security council 'war can't be calmed by talks'
Back at the United Nations, Ukraine’s president spoke before the security council, and suggested that negotiations to end Russia’s invasion would do no good.
“This war can’t be calmed by talks. Action is needed, and I’m grateful to all the nations that are truly helping in ways that save the lives of our people,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“Putin has broken so many international norms and rules that he won’t stop on his own. Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed, forcing Russia into peace as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the UN charter.”
Zelenskyy is also using his visit to the summit of global leaders to press US lawmakers for continued aid that he says will give his military the edge over Russia in the conflict. Here’s more on that:
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Biden to make first US presidential visit to sub-saharan Africa in nine years with Angola trip
Joe Biden will travel to Angola next month, the White House announced, marking the first trip by a US president to sub-Saharan Africa since 2015.
Biden will visit the capital, Luanda, from 13 to 15 October, and meet with João Lourenço, the southern African nation’s president, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
“The president’s visit to Luanda celebrates the evolution of the US-Angola relationship, underscores the United States’ continued commitment to African partners, and demonstrates how collaborating to solve shared challenges delivers for the people of the United States and across the African continent,” Jean-Pierre said.
Barack Obama was the last US president to visit sub-Saharan Africa, with a trip to Kenya and Ethiopia in July 2015. Biden welcomed Lourenço to the White House last year, and promised to visit Angola.
Prior to arriving in Angola, Biden will visit Germany “to further strengthen the close bond the United States and Germany share as allies and friends and coordinate on shared priorities”, Jean-Pierre said.
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Gunfire damages Democratic campaign office in Phoenix suburb
Local authorities in Tempe, Arizona, have said that someone fired shots at a Democratic party campaign office in a Phoenix suburb, causing damage but no injuries, according to the Associated Press.
Tempe police told the Associated Press that the damage was discovered early on Monday and that the incident is being investigated as a property crime. Nobody was in the office at the time the shots were fired.
On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the office is shared by staff for the Arizona Democratic party, the Kamala Harris campaign, and Senate and House campaigns.
This comes as Harris is scheduled to visit Arizona later this week.
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New York’s Climate Change Superfund act was stripped from the state budget this year, but then it passed both chambers of the state’s legislature with bipartisan support in June.
Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, it would require officials to work with scientists to figure out how much climate-related damage to people, ecosystems and infrastructure is attributable to big oil companies’ planet-heating pollution, then establish procedures to collect payments from big oil companies to fund those changes.
At the rally on Tuesday outside the New York governor Kathy Hochul’s office, New Yorkers detailed their own experiences with climate disasters.
Michael-Luca Natt from the New York chapter of the youth-led environmental group Sunrise Movement described how extreme city heat in the summer made it difficult to play outside as a youth.
“It is time for the fossil fuel industry to be held accountable,” he said.
If signed into law, the New York bill would be the largest policy of its kind in the nation. Vermont became the first state to pass a climate superfund bill in May.
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Dozens of climate activists gathered outside Kathy Hochul’s office on Tuesday demanding the New York governor pass the Climate Change Superfund act, which would force big polluters to help the state pay for damages caused by the climate crisis.
“We are being played for suckers by the fossil fuel industry, and Governor Hochul is going along with it,” Bill McKibben, the veteran environmentalist who founded non-profits 350.org and Third Act, said at the rally.
right now: @billmckibben & dozens of activists are gathered outside governor kathy hochul's office calling on her to pass the Climate Superfund Act, which would force big oil to pay for climate action.
— 𝕯𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖆 𝕹𝖔𝖔𝖗 (@dharnanoor) September 24, 2024
"new yorkers are generous, but we are not suckers," mckibben said pic.twitter.com/faSKCjiy4a
The activists from the fossil fuel accountability group Make Polluters Pay coalition, which includes environmental and human rights organizations such as Food and Water Watch, the New York Public Interest Research Group, Fossil Free Media, and Avaaz, carried large boxes filled with more than 127,000 petitions to Hochul’s office. They chanted: “What do we want? Climate justice,” and: “Make polluters pay.”
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A new poll of young voters published on Tuesday shows that among registered voters aged 18 to 29, Kamala Harris is 23 points ahead of Donald Trump, and 31 percentage points ahead among likely voters.
📊NEW TODAY: The 48th Edition of the Harvard Youth Poll finds Vice President Kamala Harris leads Trump by 31 points among likely young voters, and reveals rising Democratic enthusiasm with 74% of young Democrats 'definitely' voting.
— Institute of Politics (@HarvardIOP) September 24, 2024
View full results ➡️ https://t.co/sOT1UURWrU pic.twitter.com/rvw1qxNPqI
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Haitian group in Springfield, Ohio, files criminal charges against Trump and Vance
The leader of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a non-profit that represents the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio, has filed criminal charges against Donald Trump and JD Vance on behalf of the group, according to an announcement from the law firm representing them.
The group is charging the former president and Republican nominee for president, and his running mate and Ohio senator, with disrupting public service, making false alarms, committing telecommunications harassment, committing aggravated menacing and violating the prohibition against complicity per the press release.
The Associated Press is reporting that the group has invoked its private-citizen right to file the charges in the wake of inaction by the local prosecutor.
This comes as the city of Springfield has experienced an onslaught of disruption, harassment, chaos and threats since Trump and Vance began spreading false claims about Haitian immigrants there eating other residents’ pets.
Last week, the mayor of Springfield issued an emergency proclamation following the continued rise in public safety threats.
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A new Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters published on Tuesday has Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 46.61% to 40.48% in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
The Democratic vice-president’s six-point lead is a slight increase from the last Reuters/Ipsos poll from earlier this month, which had her five percentage points ahead of the former president.
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Trump is veering between topics as his speech crosses the one-hour mark.
He brought up the assassination attempt he survived in Pennsylvania in July, a subject he once vowed only to discuss only one time, in a speech to the Republican national convention, but has since talked about repeatedly.
Trump then mentioned last week’s apparent second assassination attempt, which occurred while he was playing golf at his course in Florida. He said it was God’s will that allowed a Secret Service agent to spot the rifle barrel of a gunman hiding in the fence line of his course:
This guy was no games, and he was walking down the middle of that fairway, and he’s looking over and what does he see? He sees a rifle, just a small part of a very big weapon, and he sees a small part of a rifle barrel coming out of very heavy shrubbery. Who’s going to see that? Not a lot of people. And he didn’t say, he’s over there, please, may we talk? No, he took his gun and he started shooting them.
“I’m telling you, that’s God was watching there, too, because you needed somebody really sharp. I give Secret Service a hell of a lot of credit,” Trump said.
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Trump promises deeper tax cut for companies that produce in the US
One of the few major pieces of legislation Donald Trump signed as president was an overhaul of the US tax code that dropped the rate for corporations.
The former president has now told the crowd in Georgia that he would cut taxes even further, if elected to the White House in November.
“The centerpiece of my plan is for a manufacturing renaissance, which will be a 15% Made in America tax rate,” Trump said.
“Now, we’re cutting the business tax from 21% to 15%, which makes us the most competitive tax anywhere on the planet, but only for those who make their product in the USA.”
He linked the lower taxes to the economy’s success during his term – which ended suddenly when the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, causing the steepest economic decline in decades:
It was the greatest economy in the history of our country, and now what we’re doing is taking it one step further, and a bigger step, actually, we’re bringing it down to 15.
The non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy earlier this year found that Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul allowed some of America’s biggest companies to pay little to no corporate taxes:
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Trump makes clear that he believes tariffs as high as 200% on automakers will convince them to reopen factories in the United States.
“I want those plants built here. And that will happen, in fact, when they learn about the 100 or 200% tariff, you know, they’ll probably say, ‘Yeah, let’s stop construction immediately.’ You’ll see a big difference,” the former president said.
It’ll be just like the good old days, Trump continued:
I will bring automobile manufacturing back to the highest level in the history of our country. You know, it used to be, we were the only place, and then it just got chipped away, chipped away, mostly by China and Japan, and all of a sudden, we were down more than 55% from where we were years ago.
But it’ll be like it was 50 years ago, and these jobs, they’ll become roaring back, and … we’re going to be making autos at a level that you’ve never seen before.
Experts aren’t so sure about that:
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Trump made a point to single out auto manufacturers who have moved production to Mexico.
“We will put a 100% tariff on every single car coming across the Mexican border, and tell them, the only way they’ll get rid of that tariff is if they want to build a plant right here in the United States, with you people operating that plant,” Trump said.
“We want American citizens, and we want their plants built here, not two feet over the border, and selling them into our country. We’re not doing that. We don’t do that any more.”
Trump says he'll make American companies bring jobs back from overseas – or else
Donald Trump is onstage now in battleground state Georgia, where he’s told the crowd in Savannah that he will threaten American companies with tariffs if they don’t bring jobs back from overseas.
“I want GE, IBM and every other manufacturer that left us to be filled with regret and come sprinting back to our shores, and they will,” Trump said.
His pitch to these companies was somewhat vague:
So, as your president, here is the deal that I will be offering to every major company and manufacturer on Earth: I will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs and the lowest regulatory burden and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet, but only if you make your product here in America. It all goes away if you don’t make your product here and hire American workers for the job.
For companies that do not reshore positions, Trump said:
If you don’t make your product here, then you will have to pay a tariff, a very substantial tariff, when you send your product into the United States. And by the way, you know, for years they knock the word. The word ‘tariff’, properly used, is a beautiful word, one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard. It’s music to my ears. A lot of bad people didn’t like that word, but now they’re finding out I was right, and we will take in hundreds of billions of dollars into our treasury and use that money to benefit the American citizens, and it will not cause inflation, by the way.
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The day so far
We will soon hear from Donald Trump, who’s in Savannah, Georgia, for a speech billed as discussing his policies on manufacturing and taxation. The big question is whether the former president will remain on topic. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, spoke to a public radio station in battleground state Wisconsin, where the vice-president said she would support repealing the filibuster in the Senate to allow passage of a law restoring the constitutional right to abortion once guaranteed by Roe v Wade. And at the United Nations in New York, Joe Biden gave his final address as US president to the general assembly, urging the world to defend Ukraine while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the weapons shipments fueling the war in Sudan.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Biden, at the UN, also reflected on his decision not to seek a second term, telling global leaders “some things are more important than staying in power”.
Who is leading the presidential race? Nobody, a CNN survey of registered voters nationwide found.
Harris picked up the endorsements of more than 400 economists and experts in the field.
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No clear leader in presidential race, new poll finds
A CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released a few minutes ago finds that the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is deadlocked nationally.
The survey of registered voters found Harris is supported by 48%, and Trump by 47% – findings that lie within its margin of error. Other polls have found a tied race nationwide, though some have found the vice-president with the lead.
If there are any unique insights from the network’s survey, it may be voters’ reasons for backing their candidate of choice. From CNN:
Both Harris and Trump hold positive support from the majority of their backers – 72% of Trump’s supporters say their choice is more for him than against Harris, while 60% of Harris’ supporters say their choice is more for her than against him.
That’s a major shift in voters’ attitudes toward the race compared with earlier this summer. In the last national CNN poll in July, shortly after President Joe Biden ended his campaign for president and Harris threw her hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination, Harris’ backers were evenly divided between affirmative support for her and those driven by anti-Trump sentiment. And Biden’s supporters in earlier polls said they were largely expressing opposition to Trump with their choice.
Harris backs removing filibuster to restore Roe v Wade
In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio today, Kamala Harris said she would support repealing the filibuster in the Senate in order to pass legislation restoring the constitutional right to abortion that Roe v Wade protected prior to its overturning two years ago.
“I’ve been very clear. I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe … 51 votes would be what we actually need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom, and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” Harris said.
While legislation can pass with a simple majority in the House of Representatives, the Senate’s filibuster requires most legislation to receive 60 votes to pass. Repealing it would give Democrats the opportunity to enact a law restoring abortion rights, but they would also need to keep their control of the chamber to do that.
Here’s more on the obstacles the Democrats face to keeping their Senate majority:
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In his final address to the United Nations as US president, and one of his last major speeches before departing the White House in January, Joe Biden made the case for his foreign policy, and reflected on his decision not to seek a second term. Here’s a look back at Biden’s speech, from the Guardian’s Andrew Roth:
Joe Biden has sought to defend his foreign policy achievements on the world stage with an address to the United Nations general assembly against a backdrop of three brutal, intractable wars that have stymied world diplomats seeking an end to the bloodshed.
Addressing the assembly hall in New York on Tuesday, Biden took on the mantle of elder statesman as he alternated between a message of hope and a full-throated defense of his record on foreign policy.
Without giving a clear vision of how the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan might end, he drew on his five decades in government service to exhort leaders to serve their people and find ways to make peace.
“I’ve seen a remarkable sweep of history,” he said. “Things can get better, we should never forget that. I’ve seen that throughout my career.”
Biden first turned his attention to Ukraine, where he once again condemned Vladimir Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion and called for continued support for Kyiv.
“We cannot grow weary,” he said, as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, looked on. “We cannot look away. We will not let up on our support for Ukraine. Not until Ukraine wins a just and durable peace.”
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Speaking at the United Nations right after Joe Biden was Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had strong words for the United States over its support for Israel.
He accused America of continuing to arm Israel so it can continue its “massacre”, when it pretends to look for a ceasefire.
He asked Washington, a fellow Nato member: “How long are you going to be able to carry the shame of witnessing this massacre?”, adding that what has happened in Gaza is a great moral collapse. “Countries that have a say over Israel are openly complicit in this massacre,” Erdoğan said.
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Minutes after Joe Biden finished addressing the UN general assembly, Donald Trump’s campaign released a statement warning, in apocalyptic terms, of the consequences of electing Kamala Harris.
“Under President Donald J Trump, Iran was weak, ISIS was eliminated, Hamas was cut off, historic peace was descending on the Middle East, Russia was under control and there hadn’t been a US service member killed in Afghanistan in 18 months,” the lengthy email read.
“World War III is a certainty in a Kamala Harris presidency. President Trump, meanwhile, will restore stability and peace – and it will be peace through strength.”
The Associated Press has previously fact-checked Trump’s statement regarding Afghanistan, and determined it was false.
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As he wrapped up his address, Joe Biden reflected on his decision not to seek a second term in office.
“This summer, I faced a decision: whether to seek a second term as president. It was a difficult decision. Being president has been the honor of my life. There’s so much more I want to get done. As much as I love the job, I love my country more. I decided, after 50 years of public service, it’s time for a new generation of leadership to take my nation forward,” Biden said.
“My fellow leaders, let us never forget, some things are more important than staying in power. It’s your people,” the president said to applause. “It’s your people that matter the most.”
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Biden calls for world 'to stop arming the generals' in Sudan
Joe Biden also commented briefly on the civil war in Sudan, which has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises but received comparably less attention from foreign governments and the public.
The US president called for countries to stop arming the warring parties, though did not name specific nations. Reports have emerged that the United Arab Emirates has provided a steady stream of weapons to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been battling the Sudanese army in the conflict that began in April 2023.
“Gaza is not the only conflict that deserves our outrage. In Sudan, a bloody civil war unleashed one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Eight million, eight million on the brink of famine, hundreds of thousands already there,” Biden said.
He continued:
The United States has led the world in providing humanitarian aid to Sudan, and with our partners who have led diplomatic talks to try to silence the guns and avert a wider famine. The world needs to stop arming the generals, to speak with one voice and tell them, stop tearing your country apart, stop blocking aid to the Sudanese people, end this war now.
Here’s the latest on the conflict in the country:
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Biden says 'full-scale war is not in anyone's interest' amid crisis in Lebanon
Joe Biden then shifted to the Middle East, where he called for a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza and the release of hostages taken in the October 7 attack.
“Now is the time for the parties to finalize its terms, bring the hostages home and … ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war,” Biden said.
He then shifted to the escalating hostilities in the Middle East, decrying Hezbollah’s rocket attacks and calling for diplomacy:
Since October 7, we’ve also been determined to prevent a wider war than engulfs the entire region. Hezbollah, unprovoked during the October 7 attack, launching rockets in Israel almost a year later, too many on each side of the Israeli-Lebanon border remain displaced.
Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even if the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries to return to their homes and the border safely. And that’s … what we’re working tirelessly to achieve.
Here’s the latest on the crisis in Lebanon:
Biden says 'Putin's war has failed', vows to continue support for Ukraine
Joe Biden went on to address one of the United States and its allies’ top national security priorities: Ukraine and its defense against the Russian invasion.
“The good news is Putin’s war has failed at his core aim,” Biden said.
He then promised to continue to support Kyiv until it achieves a “durable peace”:
He set out to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free. He set out the weaken Nato, but Nato is bigger, stronger, more united than ever before, with two new members, Finland and Sweden, but we cannot let up. The world now has another choice to make. Will we sustain our support to help Ukraine win this war, to preserve its freedom, or walk away and let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed.
I know my answer. We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away and we will not let up on our support for Ukraine, not until Ukraine wins a just and durable peace in the UN charter.
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Biden began by making a now-familiar joke about his age.
“I’ve seen a remarkable sweep of history. I was first elected to office … in 1972. Now, I know I look like I’m only 40. I know that,” the president said, drawing laughs.
Biden then talked about how he has seen the country change over his decades in Washington, and how enemies have become allies. He pointed to the relationship between the United States and Vietnam, which were at war when he took office, but are now friends:
Last year in Hanoi, I … met with the Vietnamese leadership. We elevated our partnership to the highest level. It’s a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity for reconciliation that today, the United States and Vietnam are partners and friends, and it’s proof that even from the horrors of war, there’s a way forward. Things can get better.
Biden to address UN general assembly
Joe Biden is taking the stage now in New York City, where he’ll address heads of state gathered for the United Nations general assembly.
This will be Biden’s final address to the global body as president. We’ll let you know what he has to say.
Kamala Harris has no public events today, but will be back on the campaign trail tomorrow.
She’ll stump for her candidacy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before returning to the White House for her Thursday meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, alongside Joe Biden.
She will be in Arizona on Friday and in San Francisco on Saturday, then will campaign in Las Vegas on Sunday.
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More than 400 economists, experts endorse Harris
Kamala Harris has received the endorsement of more than 400 economists and economic policy experts, who wrote in an open letter that the vice-president “will work relentlessly to build a strong, pro-growth economy for all Americans”.
The group includes former treasury, commerce and labor secretaries; a former vice-chair of the Federal Reserve; and a Nobel laureate, among many others.
Of Donald Trump, the group writes:
Donald Trump’s proposed policies risk reigniting inflation and threaten the United States’ global standing and domestic economic stability. Nonpartisan researchers have predicted that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will lower GDP growth and increase the unemployment rate.
The endorsements of Harris follow similar open letters from a group of more than 100 Republican foreign policy and national security officials, and more than 700 former military and national security officials.
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Biden to make final address to UN leaders as Trump campaigns in Georgia on manufacturing, tax policy
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden will make one of the final big speeches of his presidency at 10am ET today, when he addresses the UN general assembly in New York. The annual gathering of world leaders is a significant moment for any president, but even more so for Biden, because he’s due to depart the White House in January. His administration has not given many hints of what he might say, but in his speech you can expect him to make the case for his handling of everything from climate change to Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and potentially the escalating crisis in Lebanon.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, will be in Savannah, Georgia, to give a speech at 1pm billed as discussing his policy on taxation and manufacturing. The ex-president’s economic proposals have centered on a combination of tariffs and tax cuts that he argues would lower prices for consumer, after several years of high inflation under Biden. Economists aren’t so sure, and chances are Trump veers away from the subject anyway – he’s known to go off topic throughout his speeches. We’ll be keeping an eye on what both men have to say.
Here’s what else is going on:
Antony Blinken may soon become the latest Biden administration official to be held in contempt. The Republican-led House foreign affairs committee has demanded he testify today, but he has reportedly told them he is busy with the UN general assembly, and when the committee meets beginning at 10.15am, they may vote to sanction him.
A scandal brews in New York City’s suburbs. The New York Times reported yesterday that freshman Republican congressman Anthony D’Esposito gave part-time jobs to both his lover and his fiancee’s daughter, which may be a violation of House ethics rules.
A vote in the House on a short-term funding measure to prevent a government shutdown is expected on Wednesday.
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