Mark Poynting and Matt McGrathBBC News Climate and Science
European Photopress Agency
China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming gases, has for the first time committed to an absolute target to cut its emissions.
In a video statement to the UN in New York, President Xi Jinping said that China would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by 7-10% by 2035, while “striving to do better”.
The announcement comes at a time the US is rolling back on its commitments, with President Donald Trump on Tuesday calling climate change a “con job”.
But some critics said China’s plan did not go as far as hoped to keep global climate goals in reach.
“Even for those with tempered expectations, what’s presented today still falls short,” said Yao Zhe, global policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia.
While the year’s big gathering of global leaders will be at COP30 in Brazil in November, this week’s UN meeting in New York has extra relevance because countries are running out of time to submit their new climate plans.
These pledges – submitted every five years – are a key part of the Paris climate agreement, the landmark deal in which nearly 200 countries agreed steps to try to limit global warming.
The original deadline for these new commitments – covering emissions cuts by 2035 – was back in February, but countries are now scrambling to present them by the end of September.
Speaking before the meeting UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the pledges were critical to keep the long-term rise in global temperatures under 1.5C, as agreed in Paris.
“We absolutely need countries to come […] with climate action plans that are fully aligned with 1.5 degrees, that cover the whole of their economies and the whole of their greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
“It is essential that we have a drastic reduction of emissions in the next few years if you want to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit alive,” he added.
As the world’s biggest emitter, China’s plans are key to keeping this goal in sight.
Back in 2021, President Xi announced that China would aim to peak its emissions this decade and reach “carbon neutrality” by 2060.
Today’s pledge marks the first time that China has set actual emissions reductions targets on that path.
“These targets represent China’s best efforts based on the requirements of the Paris agreement,” President Xi said.
It also covers all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide, and will be measured “from peak levels” of emissions – the timing of which President Xi did not specify.
He added China would:
expand wind and solar power capacity to more than six times 2020 levels
increase forest stocks to more than 24bn cubic metres
make “new energy vehicles” the mainstream in new vehicle sales
Off track for 1.5C
Such is the scale of China’s emissions that any reduction would be significant in climate terms.
China was responsible for more than a quarter of planet-warming emissions in 2023, at almost 14bn tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent.
A 10% reduction in China’s emissions would equate to 1.4bn tonnes a year, which is nearly four times the UK’s total annual emissions.
But China’s new target does fall short of what would be needed to meet international climate goals.
“Anything less than 30% is definitely not aligned with 1.5 degrees,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Most scenarios to limit warming to 1.5C – or even well below 2C – would require China to make much greater cuts than that by 2035, he added.
In many cases, that would mean more than a 50% reduction.
It is further evidence of the gap between what needs to be done to meet climate targets and what countries are planning.
Earlier this week, a report by the Stockholm Environment Institute warned that governments around the world are collectively planning to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be in line with keeping to 1.5C.
Ramp-up of renewables
What gives some observers hope is that China has a track record of exceeding many of its international climate commitments.
It had, for example, pledged to reach a capacity of 1,200 gigawatts for wind and solar power by 2030. It smashed through that goal in 2024 – six years early.
“The targets should be seen as a floor rather than a ceiling,” said Li Shuo, director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
“China’s rapid clean tech growth […] could propel the country much further over the coming decade,” he added.
“China’s 2035 target simply isn’t representative of the pace of the energy transition in the country,” agreed Bernice Lee, distinguished fellow and senior adviser at Chatham House.
“There’s a case to be made that Beijing missed a trick in landing a more ambitious goal as it would have won broad global praise – a stark contrast to the US,” she added.
While China ramps up its renewables, it continues to rely heavily on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
Last year saw China’s electricity generation from coal hit a new record – although initial data suggests it has fallen in the first half of 2025 amid a surge in solar electricity.
“There is also mounting evidence that the country’s emissions are plateauing, with this year’s levels expected to be lower than in 2024,” said Li Shuo.
Today’s new target signals “the beginning of decarbonisation after decades of rapid emissions growth”, he added.
In the past week, Russia has ramped up a diplomacy of intimidation in the Baltic Sea using planes, drones and words aimed at Ukraine’s European allies.
After threats towards Finland earlier in September, Russia violated Estonian airspace on Friday and German airspace on Sunday, days after it had flown two dozen drones into Poland.
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Russia’s escalation came ahead of the United Nations General Assembly where it has many sympathisers among the world’s 195 nations, and seemed designed to isolate Europe, Australia and Japan, where support for Ukraine is staunchest.
This diplomatic theatre, during which United States President Trump in a major shift claimed Ukraine could win back its territory, played out against intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine that resulted in territorial losses for Russia in Ukraine’s east and north.
Russia not invincible
Ukrainian commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on September 21 that his defenders had pushed Russian assault forces back from Dobropillia and Pokrovsk, two towns they have been fighting for intensively in the Donetsk region for a year.
“164.5sq km [64sq miles] have been liberated, and 180.8sq km [70sq miles] cleared of enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” Syrskii said. “Control was restored over seven settlements.”
Syrskii first mentioned Ukrainian advances in this direction on September 7, when he revealed that Ukrainian forces had taken back 51.5sq km (20sq miles) in August.
Presumably, his reference to 164.5sq km referred to gains in August and September, and suggested the Ukrainian forces were picking up speed.
Local officials take pictures inside a school that was damaged yesterday in what authorities called a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the town of Foros, Crimea, on September 22, 2025 [Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters]
Russia, too, made gains during the week, claiming it seized the villages Muravka in Donetsk, Novoivanovka in Zaporizhia and Berezove in Dnipropetrovsk.
But Ukraine’s ability to take back territory in some of the most hotly contested battlefields belied the Russian claim to be unstoppable.
“We have an old parable, an old rule: wherever a Russian soldier steps, it is ours,” Russian President Vladimir Putin had told the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum last June.
Russia ‘failed’ in Sumy: Zelenskyy
Russia also retreated from the northern region of Sumy, where it was attempting an incursion after reclaiming its own adjacent region of Kursk from a Ukrainian counteroffensive last March.
This month, Russia redeployed some of its elite paratrooper and marine units from Sumy.
“The Sumy operation has failed. They suffered significant losses, primarily in manpower,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a news conference in Kyiv last week. “Today, they have abandoned this direction.”
Despite these retreats, Russia is still making net gains of Ukrainian territory. In August, it captured 499sq km (190sq miles), according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
Ukraine is trying to cut off the Russian military’s fuel supply, and has scored some successes in recent days.
Ukrainian long-distance drones hit the Salavat and Volgograd refineries on September 18, said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s General Staff said their unmanned systems forces and intelligence services hit a fuel mixing station in Samara, “where high- and low-density oil from different sources is being mixed to form the export grade of Urals oil”.
They also hit a compressor station along the “Steel Horse” pipeline in the border region of Bryansk vital to the supply of the Russian army, and two planes at the Kacha military airbase in Crimea.
Russian air defences reportedly downed 150 Ukrainian drones in various parts of the country, 33 of them headed for Moscow.
Meanwhile, Europe prepared a 19th package of sanctions to cut off Russian revenues from energy exports. At Trump’s behest, it included a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas beginning in 2027.
Europe bought more than $8bn worth of Russian LNG last year, and was to ban it in 2028.
Western powers slam Russia’s ‘extremely dangerous provocation’
On Friday, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, the Estonian General Staff said, flying east to west parallel with Estonia’s north coast. Estonia said its transponders were disabled, preventing communication.
Italian F-35s stationed in Estonia scrambled to intercept them.
NATO spokesperson Alison Hart said it was “irresponsible behaviour” and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it an “extremely dangerous provocation”.
“Russia has violated Estonian airspace four times already this year, which is unacceptable in itself, but today’s violation, during which three fighter jets entered our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen,” Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said.
“Russia’s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,” he said.
The Russian jets also made a low pass over the Petrobaltic oil platform in the Baltic Sea, which belongs to Poland.
Russia denied violating Estonian sovereignty. “The flight was conducted in strict accordance with the International Rules for the Use of Airspace, without violating the borders of foreign states,” said the Russian defence ministry.
The incident came nine days after two dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace and had to be shot down.
“These are not accidental incidents. The Russians will continue trying to spread their aggression, their destabilization, and their interference,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
The next day, Germany scrambled two Eurofighters to intercept a Russian aircraft in its Baltic Sea airspace flying without a flight plan or radio contact. Visual contact confirmed it was an Ilyushin II 20-M reconnaissance aircraft.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper reprimanded Russia at the UN General Assembly, which kicked off on Monday. “Your reckless actions risk direct armed confrontation between NATO and Russia. Our alliance is defensive but be under no illusion we stand ready to defend NATO’s skies and NATO’s territory,” she said.
On the same day, Poland announced it would shoot down unauthorised aircraft in its airspace.
“We will take the decision to shoot down flying objects when they violate our territory and fly over Poland – there is absolutely no discussion about that,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference.
But he cautioned, “When we’re dealing with situations that aren’t entirely clear, such as the recent flight of Russian fighter jets over the Petrobaltic platform – but without any violation, because these aren’t our territorial waters – you really need to think twice before deciding on actions that could trigger a very acute phase of conflict.”
On Tuesday, NATO said it would deploy all means necessary to defend itself.
“Russia should be in no doubt: NATO and Allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions,” the statement said.
Ukraine does not appear to be waiting for NATO. Last week, it announced a joint task force with Poland to coordinate closer cooperation on drone research, training and manufacture.
Zelenskyy on Friday said Ukraine was preparing to export some of its weapons production to create revenue for weapons it still needs.
“We already have certain types of weapons in much larger quantities than we actually need today in Ukraine,” he said. “For example, naval drones that the world counts on and that we have in surplus, as well as antitank weapons and some other types.”
Ukraine would sell to Europe, the US and global partners, Zelenskyy said, but ensure that none of its weapons were re-exported to end up in enemy hands.
Trump told pregnant women to “tough it out” rather than take pain and fever reliever Tylenol
After President Donald Trump told a room full of reporters that taking Tylenol during pregnancy was linked to a “very increased risk” of autism in children, several patients had questions for Dallas Reed, the chief of genetics and an OBGYN at Tufts Medical Center.
“Is this why my child has autism?” Dr Reed said one parent asked her about having taken Tylenol while pregnant.
Dr Reed said she expects to have many more of these conversations with expectant mothers going forward, to reassure them that research does not show a conclusive link between Tylenol and the disorder.
“Anxiety is at an all-time high during pregnancy,” she said.
“I think it’s unfortunate that now there’s another thing on that list of topics that we need to do a deep dive into with our patients.”
Doctors who spoke to the BBC said Trump’s remarks could spark unnecessary fear among pregnant patients and put their health at risk, with few other safe options to treat potentially dangerous fevers and pain.
Anna Langer, a 42-year old Bay Area resident who is 21 weeks pregnant, said Trump’s comments play on pregnant women’s anxiety. She said it’s “very diminishing for women”.
“What makes me the most angry is it’s lying to women, and as part of that lie, saying, ‘just suffer through it,’” she said. “[We’re] wanting the best for the baby and we can’t do that with this advice.”
Dr Reed and other obstetricians say they plan to continue recommending acetaminophen – the main ingredient in Tylenol – to pregnant women when needed, as they say research does not support the claim the pain and fever reliever is linked to autism.
The widely held view of researchers worldwide is that there is no single cause of autism, a complex condition scientists say is caused by a host of genetic and non-genetic factors.
The Autism Science Foundation, a US charity, says that based on existing data there is not enough evidence to support a link between Tylenol and autism.
But it says that taking any medication during pregnancy should be approached with caution and medical advice should be sought.
Anxious phone calls to doctors
Acetaminophen is the main ingredient in the brand Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere in the world. It is one of the only pain relievers recommended for pregnant women, as others like ibuprofen have been linked to birth defects and other adverse outcomes.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday alongside Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump claimed acetaminophen caused autism and told women to “fight like hell” not to take it.
The announcement came just months after Kennedy pledged to find the forces behind rising cases of autism in the US.
But public health experts say the evidence about Tylenol and autism is much less clear than Trump and his health secretary suggest. Part of the reason why rates have risen is because our understanding of autism has increased. More children are tested for it, and more are diagnosed.
While some studies have shown a small link between taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and autism in children, no consistent and reliable group of studies has proven it a cause. Some research has even shown no association at all, including a 2024 study of nearly 2.5 million births in Sweden from 1995 to 2019.
Still, many women have expressed concern following Trump’s announcement.
Emily Oster, a Brown University economist who runs the website ParentData, said she received an outpour of messages from mothers who were panicked because they took acetaminophen during pregnancy and were now looking for signs of autism in their children.
“We are scaring a bunch of people for no reason about things they did in the past and we’re generating more anxiety in an already very anxious population,” she said.
Dr Reed said Trump’s remarks could contribute to a sense of guilt for parents whose children have been diagnosed with autism and have already been searching for answers.
“My feeling, and I think the feeling of other people, is that there’s really nothing that you did to cause this, and that includes taking a safe medication during pregnancy,” she said.
Toughing it out
Doctors said they worried most about Trump’s advice to pregnant women to “tough it out” rather than take Tylenol when in pain or ill. The president advised pregnant women to take the medication only in the case of severe fever.
Experts say that advice is potentially dangerous.
“It is troubling and worrisome,” said Allison Bryant, a high-risk obstetrician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “I do worry that people will try to avoid medications at all costs because of this fear or worry, which may lead to a sort of unintended harm.”
Pregnant women deserve the same treatment for their pain that others receive, said Elizabeth Langen, a maternal foetal medicine specialist at Michigan Medicine.
She said pain can trigger stress responses and other health effects that negatively impact pregnancies. “Leaving people in pain is not a healthy approach to a pregnancy,” she said.
Untreated fevers in pregnant women also poses a danger and has been linked to a host of adverse consequences for maternal and foetal health, including miscarriages, pre-term births and birth defects.
Lucy, a 38-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is 37-weeks pregnant, said Trump’s comments were insulting, adding that women are constantly confronted with advice about what they should be doing during pregnancy.
“Pregnancy is one of the hardest things a woman is ever going to do … so to be told to tough it out is infuriating,” she said.
‘Distracting’ from health care
During his announcement on Monday, Trump said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would notify doctors that acetaminophen taken during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of autism.
A notice from the FDA to physicians used more cautionary language, noting that a causal relationship between Tylenol and autism has yet to be established, and that acetaminophen is one of the only safe fever relievers for pregnant women.
The letter tells doctors to consider limiting the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy for low-grade fevers.
Physicians are already having conversations with pregnant patients weighing the risks and benefits of taking medications against untreated symptoms, said Dr Bryant.
“It is always shared decision making,” she said. “For any medication exposure during pregnancy, we like for pregnant individuals to review with their providers, their midwife, their doctor, what’s going on and what are the best next steps.”
Doctors said that because Trump’s remarks were not evidence based, they bared no weight on how they would advise their pregnant patients. Doctors said they would defer to major medical associations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which says acetaminophen is safe for pain and fever relief in pregnant women.
Dr Langen said she welcomed the chance to reassure patients about the medication and walk them through the science.
But, she said, the more time providers have to spend dispelling myths about Tylenol, the less time they have to discuss other important health issues.
“It really distracts and takes away from the quality of health care that we’re able to provide to people,” she said.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Wednesday to “never bow before aggressors,” as his country faces snapback sanctions over its nuclear program and is still reeling from Israeli and US bombings during the 12-day war in June.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Pezeshkian denied Tehran was seeking nuclear arms, and he slammed “the Zionist regime” over the war in Gaza, as did leaders from Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Spain.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, meanwhile, demanded that Israel cease its strikes and military presence in his country, while Spain’s King Felipe VI claimed pride in the legacy of the Jews his country banished in 1492 as he accused Israeli forces of atrocities in Gaza.
Pezeshkian, in his speech, denounced the “aerial assaults of the Zionist regime and the United States of America against Iran’s cities, homes and infrastructures precisely at a time when we were treading the path of diplomatic negotiations.”
It “constituted a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a subversion of efforts towards the establishment of stability and peace,” he said. “This brazen act of aggression, in addition to monitoring a number of commanders, citizens, children, women, scientists and intellectual elites of my country, inflicted a grievous blow upon international trust and the very prospect of peace in the region. Should we fail to confront such perilous breaches of international norms?”
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Pezeshkian’s address to the high-level forum in New York was his first appearance there since the June war, which began with a surprise Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program, missile production facilities and military leadership. Iran responded with drone attacks and deadly missile launches.
The war, which abruptly ended weeks-long US-Iran nuclear talks, ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on June 24, two days after the US struck three key Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran’s leaders are publicly sworn to destroy Israel and back a so-called Axis of Resistance regional network of anti-Israel proxies, including Gaza’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Israel has said its June 13 strike on Iran came after the Islamic Republic had taken imminent steps toward nuclear weaponization.
While Iran publicly denies seeking nuclear arms, it has enriched uranium to a level far beyond what is needed for civilian use and a short step away from weapons-grade. The US had demanded in the nuclear talks that Iran give up its enrichment capacities altogether — a demand Tehran rejected.
Speaking at the UN, Pezeshkian said the Islamic Republic was religiously barred from procuring nuclear arms.
“We do not seek nuclear weapons. This is our belief, based on the edict issued by the supreme leader and by religious authorities,” he said.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, visits an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements, at his office compound in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Via AP, File)
Iran had been subject to harsh UN sanctions over its nuclear program until a landmark 2015 deal between Iran and world powers.
The US withdrew from the deal in 2018, and the three signatory European nations — France, Germany and Britain — have triggered the deal’s “snapback” mechanism to reimpose the sanctions, accusing Iran of non-compliance. The UN Security Council last week nixed a resolution that sought to block the sanctions being reimposed.
In his speech, Pezeshkian repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza — a charge Israel has rejected. “At the very least,” Pezeskian said, “over 35,000 innocent civilians in Gaza.”
The figure appeared to refer to the number of women, children and elderly that Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has reported. A July report in Hamas-affiliated press agency Safa quoted the health ministry as saying women, children and the elderly constituted over 55% of people killed by Israel in Gaza since war there was sparked when Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.
At the time of the report, just over 60,000 Palestinians were reported dead. The toll has since risen to over 65,000, according to the Hamas health ministry.
The Hamas figures cannot be independently verified and do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 22,000 gunmen in Gaza as of August, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Displaced Palestinians set up a tent at the Qatari-built Hamad City residential complex in northwestern Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on September 24, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Pezeshkian went on to denounce the idea of “Greater Israel,” a concept that has been used to describe a Jewish state spanning all or some of Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that he feels connected to the vision, putting the Arab and Muslim world on edge.
In the UN, Pezeshkian said: “The ludicrous and delusional scheme of a Greater Israel is being proclaimed with brazenness by the highest echelons of that regime. The scheme encompasses vast swaths of the region.”
“The map itself lays bare the true intentions of the Zionist regime, intentions that have of late been openly endorsed by its criminal prime minister,” he said. “None in the world is secure from the aggressive machinations of this regime.”
“It is manifest that the Zionist regime and its sponsors no longer even content themselves with normalization through political means,” said Pezeshkian. “Rather, they impose their presence through naked force and have styled it peace through strength. Yet this is neither peace nor power. It is nothing but aggression, rooted in coercion and bullying.”
Pezeshkian met later Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said a deal was possible to avoid restored nuclear sanctions but that only hours were left.
“An agreement remains possible. Only a few hours are left. It’s up to Iran to respond to the legitimate issues we have raised,” Macron wrote on X.
Spain touts ‘spirit’ of 2015 repatriation law for Sephardic Jews
Spain’s King Felipe VI told the UN General Assembly that his country sees with “full severity” violations of international law in “Palestine, in the Gaza Strip.”
Spain has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in the EU and last year joined Norway, Ireland and Slovenia in recognizing Palestinian statehood, infuriating Israel. This year, ahead of the General Assembly, several more Western nations including Britain, France and Canada have recognized Palestinian statehood.
In criticizing the Gaza war, King Felipe alluded to his country’s 2015 law of return for the descendants of Sephardic Jews, meant to redress the “historic mistake” of the Inquisition in which their Jewish ancestors were expelled from the country, forcibly converted or executed, leading to the destruction of what had been one of Jewry’s most prolific and powerful centers.
“Spain is a nation deeply proud of its Sephardic roots,” said the king. “When we speak to the people of Israel, we speak to a people of brothers and sisters, a people who, when they return to Spain, to Cordoba, Toledo, Seville, Barcelona, and so many other places, come home. This was the spirit behind the 2015 law, which was passed with broad consensus, granting Spanish nationality to descendants of Sephardic Jews, originally from Spain.”
“It is for this reason, and it is so difficult for us to understand, and we are so pained by the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza. We therefore cry out, we implore, we demand, stop this massacre now,” he said. “No more deaths in the name of a people that are so wise and ancient, who have suffered so greatly throughout history.”
“Let us be clear, we unequivocally condemn the heinous terrorism of Hamas, especially the brutal massacre of the seventh of October 2023 against the Israeli population. And we recognize Israel’s right to self-defense, but with equal strength, we demand that the Israeli government fully uphold international humanitarian law throughout Gaza and the West Bank,” said the king, calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to be sent into the Strip.
Lebanese president demands ‘full withdrawal of IDF troops’
Lebanon’s president on Tuesday called for the “immediate cessation of Israeli aggression” in his country, saying this was necessary for the military to assume full control of the country’s borders.
Aoun, whose election in January ended a two-year impasse in the role, has vowed to uphold a state monopoly on arms — a veiled threat against Hezbollah’s extensive arsenal.
Following the war with Hezbollah last year, Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts in southern Lebanon and continued to carry out strikes against the terror group.
Aoun, in his speech, demanded the “full withdrawal of IDF troops” and “the return of our hostages,” Lebanese nationals detained by Israel during the fighting.
“This will be achieved with the help of the mandate given to [the] United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) working in coordination with the Lebanese Army, over a transitional period, to impose peace and stability,” he said. “In this context, allow me to extend my gratitude to the members of the Security Council who adopted the decision to renew the UNIFIL’s mandate, to help us achieve lasting peace and stability.”
Under the November 27 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, weapons in south Lebanon were to be held only by the state, and the IDF was permitted to act against imminent threats by the terror group. Israel has since carried out hundreds of attacks on Hezbollah personnel or assets, the vast majority of them in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese army soldiers stand guard as a truck loaded with weapons leaves the Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi, near the northern city of Tripoli on September 13, 2025 (Fathi AL-MASRI / AFP)
The agreement ended over a year of conflict, which Hezbollah, unprovoked, began on October 8, 2023 — a day after the Hamas onslaught — with near-daily attacks on Israeli border communities, displacing about 60,000 people. In a bid to ensure their safe return home, Israel last September escalated operations in Lebanon, decimating Hezbollah’s leadership.
Aoun also addressed the war in Gaza, calling for “an immediate end to the devastation” there and urging “the revival of a new political track, aimed at finding a just and permanent solution to the Palestinian issue, based on the decisions of the international community and the principle of a two-state solution, ensuring the right of both states to a secure and dignified existence.”
He noted that the principle had been endorsed earlier this month by an overwhelming majority of UN member states, who called for a Palestinian state without Hamas.
Leaders of Iraq, Morocco slam Israel over Gaza
Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that the treatment of Palestinians by Israel is “inhumane” and a “disgrace.”
“The Palestinian civilians are beset by killing, starvation, displacement, and the destruction of infrastructure and state institutions. This is inhumane. It’s a disgrace for humanity. Therefore, this must end,” he said, calling for the international community to take “urgent measures” to ensure a solution to the Palestinian issue.
“This, and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine, is the only pathway to stability and security in the Middle East and the entire world,” he said, adding that the treatment of Palestinians is proof of the world’s “selectiveness” when protecting human rights.
Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch also called Tuesday for a ceasefire and entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, saying his nation “stands in solidarity” with Middle Eastern countries that have been attacked by Israel.
Akhannouch urged the United Nations to work to “save the region from the cycle of violence,” and outlined steps to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“One, an immediate ceasefire (in Gaza) and a return to the negotiating table in order to put a final end to the war. Two, ensuring the entry of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank without any conditions or restrictions. Three, promote the vital role of UNRWA,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has accused of cooperating with Hamas. “And four, implement a clear and comprehensive roadmap for reconstruction,” said Akhannouch.
“We continue to believe that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve sustainable and comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” he said, adding that such a process cannot be delayed.
Morocco is one of a handful of Arab nations that recognized Israel in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords.
Investigation continues as three dead and another in critical conditionpublished at 18:54 BST 24 September
18:54 BST 24 September
We’ll soon be bringing our coverage of the shooting to a close, but before we do, let’s recap the key moments from today.
At 06:40 local time (12:40 BST), Dallas Police Department received a call requesting officer assistance after a shooting at an ICE facility.
The Department of Homeland Security says the gunman opened fire from an elevated position. Three people have died, including two ICE detainees and the attacker, who is said to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No ICE agents or law enforcement were hurt.
While the motive is still unclear, FBI Director Kash Patel said early stages of the investigation point to an “ideological motive” as he shared photos of bullets with “ANTI-ICE” written on them.
Patel said violence towards ICE facilities and officials “has to end”, adding that the FBI and partners will lead investigative efforts.
At the moment, law enforcement is continuing its investigation, and the BBC will share updates with you in our news piece here.
US President Donald Trump all but nominated himself for the Nobel Peace Prize on Tuesday, claiming in his address to the United Nations that he has “ended seven un-endable wars,” which “were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed.”
“I ended seven wars, and in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed. This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda — a vicious, violent war that was — Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Trump said in his remarks.
The two conflicts that Trump has so far put the most efforts into ending – Israel’s war in Gaza and Russia’s war on Ukraine – continue to rage with no signs of easing, despite the myriads of deadlines, threats and promises he has made to get ceasefire agreements.
But the failure to get a deal in the Middle East and Ukraine has not stopped Trump from boasting about the conflicts he said he ended.
Trump has repeated this claim since earlier this summer, and the White House provided a list of the seven claimed bilateral agreements last month.
While he certainly contributed to brokering a couple of agreements between long-standing foes, his role in securing ceasefires in some of the other conflicts he has boasted about ending has been disputed by some of the countries involved.
And then of course there are the wars that were not happening when he claims to have ended them.
Armenia and Azerbaijan
Trump certainly deserves credit for hosting the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House in August, where they finalized a peace agreement, which they first announced some five months earlier.
The two former Soviet republics had been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for almost four decades. The breakaway region in the Caucasus Mountains was home to around 120,000 ethnic Armenians and while it is internationally considered as part of Azerbaijan, it was controlled by Armenian separatists since the fall of the Soviet Union.
That changed in 2023, when a lightning 24-hour assault saw Azerbaijan regain total control of Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting the region’s ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia within a week.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev both praised Trump for his role in getting the deal signed – even if he later, while talking about it, confused Armenia for Albania and called Azerbaijan “Aberbaijan.”
While undoubtedly a step forward, the agreement has not been ratified by either country. Several issues remain to be resolved – most notably, Azerbaijan is demanding that Armenia changes its constitution – a move that would likely be rejected by Armenian voters in a referendum.
Cambodia and Thailand
The 508-mile (817-kilometer) border between Thailand and Cambodia has been prone to flareups of violence for decades.
Cambodia has previously sought a ruling from the UN’s International Court of Justice over disputed areas, but Thailand said it does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and claims that some areas along the border were never fully demarcated.
The most recent round of violence erupted in July when at least 38 people, mostly civilians, were killed and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes.
Trump held separate phone calls with the leaders of the two countries, threatening to stop trade negotiations if they didn’t agree to a ceasefire.
The two sides met in Malaysia within days and agreed to a ceasefire. However, the conflict over the contested border remains unresolved – even though Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said that he nominated the US president for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Israel and Iran
When the US president announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran after 12 days of fighting in June, it looked a bit premature as both countries continued with their final attacks.
However, the two countries did later endorse the ceasefire.
The direct confrontation between the long-times foes started when Israel launched surprise attacks on Iranian military and nuclear facilities that killed prominent politicians, military leaders and nuclear scientists. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes against Israeli cities and military sites.
While Trump made it clear he was initially against Israel attacking Iran directly, the US joined and bombed Iran’s main nuclear facilities with its uniquely powerful “bunker busting” bombs.
Like with many of the other conflicts he claims to have ended, Trump’s role in bringing the violence to an end is unclear. No peace agreement or a firm deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program has been reached and both Iran and Israel have threatened each other since then.
India and Pakistan
India and Pakistan got embroiled in their most intense conflict in decades in May, after India fired missiles across nine sites in Pakistan in response to a massacre of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan.
The conflict was raging for several days when, out of the blue, Trump announced on social media that the US had brokered an end to the fighting.
There are conflicting accounts of how the ceasefire was negotiated. Islamabad praised US involvement and nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for what it said was “decisive diplomatic intervention.”
India downplayed Trump’s involvement, saying instead the ceasefire was agreed “directly between the two countries.” India has fiercely resisted any foreign intervention on the issue of Kashmir, the disputed region over which India and Pakistan fought several wars, insisting it’s not up to other countries to get involved.
Rwanda and the DRC
When the representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda signed a peace agreement brokered by the US in June, it was hailed by Trump as “a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World!”
However, there is little to suggest that the conflict – one of the most protracted and complex conflicts in the world – is easing in any way.
Scores of militia groups that have fought for three decades are still engaging in deadly fighting,
CNN visited the rebel-held city of Goma, home to more than 2 million people, earlier this month. Local people, aid workers and rebel leaders told CNN the fighting and the hardships caused by it continue.
The same week, the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) released a fact-finding report on the escalation of hostilities between January and July 2025 in North and South Kivu, the provinces in eastern DR Congo’s where two of its largest cities Goma and Bukavu are located.
Egypt and Ethiopia
It is unclear how exactly Trump ended this conflict, since Egypt and Ethiopia were not, and are not, actually at war.
However, the two are locked in a bitter dispute over a massive hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia officially opened earlier this month – and there are worried that this rift could escalate.
Sitting on a tributary of the Nile, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, took some 15 years to built and the Ethiopians see it as a key to their future economic prosperity.
Egypt and Sudan have long opposed the dam, arguing that it would negatively impact the availability of water downstream. Egypt has argued that under a colonial-era treaty signed with Britain, it has the rights to veto any projects on the Nile.
Serbia and Kosovo
Another puzzling item on Trump’s list of conflicts he has solved.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO launched a bombing campaign against Serbian forces responsible for a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Serbia and Kosovo signed an economic normalization agreement during Trump’s first term in 2020, but Serbia continues to view Kosovo as a breakaway state and does not recognize its independence.
Tensions between the two continue to flare up every few months, with the European Union – which both countries wish to join – playing a key role in mediation.
For almost an hour on Tuesday, Donald Trump stood at the podium of the UN general assembly, where presidents, kings and statesmen have delivered some of the most important and moving speeches in modern history. But Trump delivered a long and humiliating rant, filled with personal grievances and attacks on the UN, European leaders, migration policies and clean energy.
Trump set a low bar with his often rambling and incoherent campaign speeches, but it was still an embarrassing performance for the US president on the global stage. In his past appearances before the general assembly, Trump generally stuck to his prepared remarks and did not hector US allies sitting in the audience. But this was Trump unfiltered and unleashed – as he has been since the start of his second term, with no domestic or international restraint on his power and no need for even the mildest diplomatic niceties.
Early in his speech, Trump complained that his teleprompter had malfunctioned and that a UN escalator had stalled when he and the first lady, Melania Trump, stepped on it on Tuesday morning. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” Trump joked, drawing laughs from the audience. But it quickly became clear that Trump was nursing a decades-old grudge against the UN: In the early 2000s, he had been denied an opportunity to rebuild the organization’s New York headquarters.
“Many years ago, a very successful real estate developer in New York, known as Donald J Trump, I bid on the renovation and rebuilding of this very United Nations complex,” Trump told his fellow world leaders – in a digression that would have been ridiculed if any other leader had done it. “I remember it so well. I said at the time that I would do it for $500m, rebuilding everything. It would be beautiful.” Trump went on to muse that he had promised UN officials marble floors and mahogany walls, while other contractors would ultimately deliver terrazzo and plastic, as part of a massive renovation that ended up costing over $2bn.
Even at the height of his power, Trump can’t resist being an insecure businessman who whines about losing a construction contract more than 20 years ago.
And that wasn’t the most cringeworthy part of Trump’s performance at the UN. He went on several lengthy tirades against immigration, calling on European countries to emulate US policies and close their borders and expel migrants. He accused the UN of leading a “globalist migration agenda”, and told western leaders that the organization was “funding an assault on your countries”. As he lectured other leaders about how they’re failing, Trump bragged about his own immigration crackdown and foresight as a populist demagogue. “It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now … I’m really good at this stuff,” he said, adding nonchalantly: “Your countries are going to hell.”
As part of his attack on migration, Trump also insulted Sadiq Khan, who was elected London’s mayor in 2016 and became the first Muslim leader of a western capital. “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law,” Trump said, falsely claiming that Khan wants to place the British capital under Islamic religious law.
While Trump’s insult seemed ad-libbed, it’s another example of the president using his platform to settle petty political scores. Trump has held a grudge against Khan since late 2015, when Khan (then a member of parliament and candidate for mayor) called Trump’s campaign pledge to ban Muslims from entering the US “divisive and outrageous”. The feud between the two politicians has continued for years. In an article for the Guardian published last week, shortly before Trump’s state visit to the UK, Khan wrote the US president has “perhaps done the most to fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world.”
As he flew back to the US, Trump said Khan was “among the worst mayors in the world”, and claimed that he had asked UK officials not to invite Khan to a state dinner hosted by King Charles in the president’s honor.
Unfortunately, the long list of grievances Trump laid out in his UN speech was not limited to politicians and global institutions that he believed had wronged him. Trump spent about a quarter of his speech undermining UN-led efforts to address climate change and ridiculing renewable energy policies. He denied the scientific consensus that humans, through the burning of fossil fuels, are causing global warming, calling it “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”. Trump added that warnings of severe floods, widespread droughts, extreme heat waves and other climate-related disasters “were made by stupid people”.
Trump also celebrated his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, which committed nearly all countries in the world to reducing greenhouse emissions and limiting global warming below levels that could lead to catastrophe. He denounced renewable energy sources like solar power and wind farms as a “joke” and praised “clean, beautiful coal”.
By the conclusion of his meandering and unhinged speech, Trump tried to advance a dark narrative: that immigration, along with reliance on clean energy sources, posed an existential threat to western nations. “Immigration and the high cost of so-called green, renewable energy is destroying a large part of the free world and a large part of our planet,” Trump said, warning his fellow leaders that, if they don’t emulate his policies restricting migration and expanding the use of fossil fuels, it would “be the death of western Europe”.
In the end, Trump wanted what he always craves: attention and adoration – even if he has to unleash fear and chaos to get it.
Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University
The gesture may have been more symbolic than decisive, but the move this week by a cluster of leading nations, including Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium, to recognise Palestinian statehood was still significant.
As a backdrop to the United Nations general assembly, it was a reminder to Israel of western revulsion at its assault on Gaza, a warning against alleged moves to annex the West Bank, and an attempt to revive serious progress towards a two-state solution.
Whether it will constrain or antagonise Israel and its key backer the US remains to be seen, with fears that Donald Trump may retaliate by recognising Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
For our big story this week, Jason Burke and Sufian Taha find cautious optimism in the West Bank town of Ramallah, while Jason also reports on the glacial reaction from within Israel. Patrick Wintour and Archie Bland explain what recognition means in practical terms, and commentator Nesrine Malik argues the case that in relation to Gaza, the time for fine words is long past and the need for western action is upon us.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Donald Trump, seen on a stadium screen, speaks at a memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona. Photograph: John Locher/AP
Spotlight | Rightwing America and the free speech paradox Conservatives had long complained of a censorious leftwing “cancel culture”, but in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing seem happy to now reframe that as “consequence culture”. J Oliver Conroy reports
Science | Why the dodo may not be dead after all The flightless bird is a byword for extinction – but now a gene-editing business wants to bring it back to life. Is this a triumph of science, or a moral mis-step? Oliver Milman investigates
Feature | The world-leading AI scientist who left the US for China In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he may hold the key to who wins the global AI race. Chang Che picks up the story
Opinion | Trump’s UK spectacle exposed a country living in the past The grandeur and pageantry surrounding the state visit cannot disguise the fact that Britain has absolutely no vision for its future, argues Simon Jenkins
Culture | From cake talk to catwalk: why Marie Antoinette is back in fashion As a blockbuster London exhibition opens about the last queen of France, Jess Cartner-Morley explains how she became the patron saint of our new gilded age
What else we’ve been reading
I loved Mark Lawson’s ramble through 70 years of ITV – the UK’s free-to-air commercial terrestrial channel. While sometimes criticised for its “broad” appeal, the network offered creative freedom and an alternative to the clipped RP accents of the BBC through dramas such as Coronation Street, Prime Suspect and Mr Bates vs the Post Office. As a child, though, I preferred the wrestling match up of Big Daddy v Giant Haystacks on World of Sport. Neil Willis, production editor
Anyone for dessert? Tim Dowling holds a Sussex pond pudding. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
In the light of a recent report suggesting that Britain’s famously stodgy range of classic puddings is in terminal decline, Tim Dowling set out to recreate a selection of them so that you never have to again. Ardent fans of dishes such as jam roly-poly and flummery should look away now. Graham Snowdon, editor
Other highlights from the Guardian website
Audio| The downfall of Jair Bolsonaro
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Gallery|Gulls, golds and Gout Gout: the World Athletics Championships 2025
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