Top 5 US news stories

Trump Reverses Stance, Says Ukraine Can Win Back All Territory from 'Paper Tiger' Russia

OECD Predicts Three More Fed Rate Cuts by Spring

Kimmel Returns with Emotional Monologue, Defends Free Speech After Controversy

Secret Service Dismantles 'Imminent' Telecommunications Threat Network Near UN in New York

Amid Global Crises, UN Seen as 'Mere Spectator' as Influence Wanes

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1. Trump Reverses Stance, Says Ukraine Can Win Back All Territory from 'Paper Tiger' Russia

A. After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not? 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. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like “a paper tiger.” When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War, the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, 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. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!

@realDonaldTrump

B. President Trump said for the first time that Ukraine could win back all of its territory and encouraged allies to shoot down Russian aircraft if they entered North Atlantic Treaty Organization airspace, an extraordinary shift that raised pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin as world leaders gathered Tuesday at the United Nations. After meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.N., Trump in a social-media post said Moscow’s conduct of the war was aimless.

WSJ

2. OECD Predicts Three More Fed Rate Cuts by Spring

The Federal Reserve has scope to cut its key interest rate another three times despite above-target inflation, the OECD has said, as it predicted a slowdown in the US economy and labour market. The OECD expects the US policy rate will be trimmed to 3.25 per cent to 3.5 per cent by spring next year, as high trade tariffs sap the country’s economic momentum. The US central bank lowered the federal funds target range by a quarter point last week to 4 per cent to 4.25 per cent, in its first reduction since December [2024]. The cut in borrowing costs followed data suggesting that hiring in the US was cooling sharply while, at the same time, US President Donald Trump’s tariffs were still having only a subdued impact on inflation.

FT

3. Kimmel Returns With Emotional Monologue, Defends Free Speech After Controversy

Jimmy Kimmel broke his silence on Tuesday night in an emotional return to ABC’s airwaves, by turns defiant, joking and somber as he addressed the controversy that temporarily sidelined his late-night show and set off a national debate over free speech. His voice breaking at times, Mr. Kimmel said he understood why his comments last week about the suspected shooter of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk seemed “ill-timed, or unclear, or maybe both.” He added, “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” But Mr. Kimmel also had harsh words for President Trump and the government regulator who suggested that the Trump administration would punish ABC because of his remarks, saying that “a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.” “This show is not important,” Mr. Kimmel said in his opening monologue. “What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.” Executives at Disney, ABC’s parent company, pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air last week, shortly after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, suggested that his agency could take action against the network. Not everyone in the country was able to watch the return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Two large station groups, Nexstar and Sinclair, pre-empted the episode from the ABC affiliates they own — and said they would continue to do so going forward. Those two station groups represent a little more than 20 percent of ABC’s national reach combined.

NYT

4. Secret Service Dismantles 'Imminent' Telecommunications Threat Network Near UN in New York

NEW YORK – The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials, which represented an imminent threat to the agency’s protective operations. This protective intelligence investigation led to the discovery of more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites. In addition to carrying out anonymous telephonic threats, these devices could be used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks. This includes disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises. While forensic examination of these devices is ongoing, early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement. “The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” said U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran. These devices were concentrated within 35 miles of the global meeting of the United Nations General Assembly now underway in New York City. Given the timing, location and potential for significant disruption to New York telecommunications posed by these devices, the agency moved quickly to disrupt this network.

Secret Service

5. Amid Global Crises, UN Seen as 'Mere Spectator' as Influence Wanes

Since the UN was founded in October 1945 amid a burst of idealism in the aftermath of the second world war, its cannier leaders have understood that their principal power stemmed from the pulpit: they can publicly shame and scold the member states. Dag Hammarskjöld, the flamboyant second secretary-general, who died in a mysterious plane crash in 1961 while mediating in the Congo, was the most artful exponent of this approach. When he spoke, the world listened. It was he who uttered the words that on the UN’s better days still enshrine its mission. “The UN was created not to lead mankind to heaven,” he said. “But to save humanity from hell.” The current secretary-general, the more cautious António Guterres, likes on occasion to maintain that tradition of speaking out. Last week he summoned a press conference at the UN headquarters and lacerated Israel over its offensive in the Gaza Strip. His language was stark and stripped of trademark UN diplomatese. “We are seeing massive killing of civilians . . . And we are seeing dramatic obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid,” he said. “The truth is that this is something that is morally, politically and legally intolerable.” The world, however, seems no longer to be listening. The wars raging in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan have underlined an impression that the order enshrined in the UN charter is in tatters, current and former UN officials concede. The UN often appears a mere spectator to a world where increasingly might is right.

FT

September 24 1906: President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower, a massive rock formation in Wyoming, the country's first national monument. He calls the “lofty and isolated rock” a “natural wonder.”

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Sources

1. https://www.wsj.com/world/trump-says-ukraine-can-take-back-all-lost-territory-6d8e7be7?mod=hp_lead_pos10
2. https://www.ft.com/content/d264df16-58ce-43da-8fff-d70e6584b9a1
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/business/media/jimmy-kimmel-return-monologue.html
4. https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2025/09/us-secret-service-dismantles-imminent-telecommunications-threat-new-york
5. https://www.ft.com/content/ef26562c-4534-473e-abc9-bda24e1f58da