Zelenskyy says he and Trump share ‘common view’ on Ukraine war
Joanna Walters
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has spoken after his meeting in New York with Donald Trump and says the two men had a “very productive” talk.
He said the two “thoroughly reviewed” the situation in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion more than two and a half years ago, Reuters reports.
We share the common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. Putin cannot win. Ukrainians must prevail.
It’s unclear if he and Trump reached a genuine consensus behind the scenes. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has been making magic-wand type claims that if he wins the White House he’ll have a peace agreement that all sides will like very quickly.
But he has previously talked in terms that implied he would allow Russia to prevail over what it has already claimed.
Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival for the White House, warned yesterday after meeting with Zelenskyy that he should not accept “proposals of surrender”, without mentioning Trump but clearly signaling in his direction.
Key events
DOJ files lawsuit against state of Alabama for last-minute voter purges
The justice department is suing Alabama for what it alleges is an illegal attempt to remove voters from the voter rolls too close to November’s election.
My colleague Sam Levine reported earlier this Month that the DOJ had issued a very public warning to states about why last-minute voter purges are illegal. Here’s the fact sheet on the law.
“As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the justice department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “Officials across the country should take heed of the National Voter Registration Act’s clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election. The Quiet Period Provision of federal law exists to prevent eligible voters from being removed from the rolls as a result of last-minute, error-prone efforts.”
We’ll have more context on this soon. Meanwhile, some early reporting from NPR:
If you’re getting confused about Trump’s campaign events today, you’re probably not the only one: Trump spoke in Walker, Michigan, earlier today. Walker is close to Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the western side of the state. Now Trump is headed to Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, where he’s holding a town hall at Macomb Community College.
David Smith
Trump was supposed to talk about the economy. Instead, he ranted about the border.
Eager to deflect attention from Kamala Harris’s border visit, Donald Trump proved unable to resist turning a campaign stop in Michigan – ostensibly focused on inflation – into a rant about immigration.
The former US president seized on data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made public on Friday by the House of Representatives’ homeland security committee.
According to the committee, the data shows that as of 21 July “nearly 650,000 criminal illegal aliens were currently on ICE’s Non-Detained Docket (NDD) and roaming free in communities throughout the United States. This figure includes roughly 15,000 individuals convicted of or charged with murder, more than 20,000 of sexual assault, and more than 105,000 of assault.”
Trump told supporters in Walker, Michigan: “For the first time ever, we have specific numbers that were just released and it’s about the people that crossed the border illegally under Kamala Harris. That she’s even running is frankly ridiculous. That’s not a president. That’s not a president. She went to the border today because she went to see if she could – she’s getting killed on the border.”
Studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native born Americans. But Trump said: “They just pour into our country. She has no idea where they’re from. From parts unknown. She’s responsible for every bloody crime scene, every funeral, every orphan child.”
He added; “She delivered these horrors, she unleashed these atrocities, and blood is on her hands at a level that probably nobody’s ever seen in this country before. But on November 5th, Kamala Harris will be held accountable for these crimes. She will be sent back to California and we will close the border, we will stop the invasion, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Trump again referenced Springfield, Ohio and, although he did not specifically mention a baseless conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating pets, he said: “Those people have to be taken out and brought back to their country from where they came. I’m sorry.”
Trump supporters applaud snipers at Michigan town hall
In the wake of two attempted assassination attempts against Donald Trump, his supporters applauded the appearance of counter-snipers at a town hall event in Warren, Michigan, where Trump is slated to speak later today, the New York Times reported.
A local Twitter account appeared to have a photograph of the snipers heading up to the roof:
Donald Trump threatens to prosecute Google for ‘displaying bad stories’ about him
In the middle of a busy day of presidential campaign events in Michigan, a key swing state, Donald Trump posted on his social media platform that, if elected president, he plans to prosecute Google for, he alleged, “only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J Trump” while “only revealing Good stories about Kamala Harris”.
It’s not immediately clear what prompted this threat against Google, or why Trump believes that this supposed behavior would be a crime that his justice department would be able to prosecute.
I’ll update with a response from Google as soon as we have it.
As US politicians focus on border security, heat deaths are hitting record numbers
As my colleague Lauren Gambino is reporting, from somewhere near Tombstone, Arizona, Kamala Harris is currently heading to the border between the US and Mexico, where her comments are expected to focus on the US border with Mexico, and on presenting herself as a leader who is willing, like Donald Trump, to embrace tough, punitive border policies, as a response to Americans who want to shut US borders to migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing violence and economic and environmental disasters elsewhere in the world.
But as Gabrielle Canon, our extreme weather correspondent, has just reported, one of the growing deadly threats to residents of states like Arizona isn’t other people: it’s extreme heat, which has already killed hundreds of people in Arizona so far this year.
Brutal heat continues to plague the south-west US, with excessive heat alerts lingering long into September as parts of the region set grim new records for deaths connected to the sweltering temperatures.
In Arizona’s Maricopa county, home to Phoenix, 664 fatalities are believed to have been linked to the heat this year , according to public health officials, who are still working to confirm more than half of them. Southern Nevada, where Las Vegas is located, has seen more deaths this year than in any year prior, with officials confirming this week that there have been 342 fatalities linked to the heat. This surpassed last year’s record, which marked an 80% increase over 2022.
Harris expected to call for tougher border stance towards asylum seekers in Arizona visit
Lauren Gambino
Kamala Harris has arrived in Tucson, Arizona, ahead of a visit to the border town of Douglas, which is about a two-hour drive south-east.
During her remarks later this afternoon, Harris is expected to call for tougher actions that would keep the border closed to asylum seekers attempting to cross between legal ports of entry.
According to a campaign official, she intends to call for making it harder to lift the emergency order by requiring the average number of border crossings to fall below the current level of 1,500 before the rule can be lifted.
During her visit, Harris will meet with border patrol agents and tour the US Customs and Border Protection’s Raul H Castro port of entry, between Douglas and Agua Prieta, Mexico. According to a campaign official, she will receive briefings on the port of entry and efforts to stop the flow of drugs into the United States. Arizona senator Mark Kelly, who flew with Harris from Washington on Air Force Two, and state attorney general Kris Mayes will join the vice-president.
At Trump’s Michigan rally, some supporters leave before the former president is done speaking
According to multiple news outlets, some Trump supporters at the former president’s rally in Walker, Michigan, left the event early, as Trump was still speaking.
An NBC News reporter posted video of supporters walking out:
📍Walker, MI
Attendees appear to be leaving Trump’s remarks in Walker, Michigan early as they exit the building while the former President is still on stage. pic.twitter.com/Vdp68Quo9C
— Alex Tabet (@AlexanderTabet) September 27, 2024
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Trump addressed the early exits in his speech, claiming that “those leaving early were headed backstage to take photos”. That “may be true of some of them, but the crowd behind the press riser had already thinned out well before he made that remark”, reporter Michael Gold noted.
More on the Arizona border town that Harris will visit today
This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live US politics coverage from Los Angeles. While Trump is holding campaign events in Michigan, Kamala Harris is headed to Arizona to visit the US border, as Trump and other Republicans have been criticizing her for not doing since she became the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Associated Press has more context on the town Harris is visiting:
Douglas, where Harris will appear, is an overwhelmingly Democratic border town in GOP-dominated Cochise County, where the Republicans on the board of supervisors are facing criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 election results. Trump was in the area last month, using a remote stretch of border wall and a pile of steel beams to draw a contrast between himself and Harris on border security.
The town of 16,000 people has strong ties to its much larger neighbor, Agua Prieta, Mexico, and a busy port of entry that’s slated for a long-sought upgrade. Many locals are as concerned with making legal border crossings more efficient as they are with combatting illegal ones.
Interim Summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has spoken after his meeting in New York with Donald Trump and says the two men had a “very productive” talk. He said the two “thoroughly reviewed” the situation in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion more than two and a half years ago, Reuters reports.
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In a video address on Friday, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, spoke of the indictment of three Iranian nationals for their role in a “wide-ranging hacking campaign sponsored by the government of Iran”. Wray said: “These individuals, employees of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted a US political campaign, current and former US officials, and members of the American media, all in an attempt to sow discord and undermine our democracy.”
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Later this afternoon, Kamala Harris will arrive in Arizona for election campaign events. She’s currently en route from Washington DC to Tucson. Shortly after landing in Tucson, the US vice-president and Democratic nominee for president will make her way to the US-Mexico border.
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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are tied among voters in North Carolina, a new poll shows. The CNN poll released today and conducted from 20 to 25 September, shows Harris and Trump both receiving 48% of the support among likely voters in North Carolina.
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The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, pleaded not guilty to corruption charges when he appeared in court in Manhattan. He denies federal bribery and fraud charges. The mayor’s arraignment began just after noon local time at a federal courthouse in New York. It is the first time that a sitting mayor of the city has been charged with crimes.
JD Vance is scheduled speak at an event on Saturday hosted by a self-declared prophet who believes Kamala Harris practices witchcraft.
The Guardian’s Alice Herman reports:
JD Vance will speak at an event on Saturday hosted by the self-styled prophet and political extremist Lance Wallnau, who has claimed Kamala Harris practices witchcraft and has written that the US is headed toward bloody internal conflict.
The campaign announced earlier this week that the Republican vice-presidential candidate will participate in a “town hall” as part of the Courage tour, a traveling pro-Trump tent revival, during a stop in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.
Wallnau, who hosts the tour and broadcasts its speakers on his online show – drawing hundreds in-person and sometimes tens of thousands virtually – is a proponent of the “seven mountains” mandate, which commands Christians to seek leadership in seven key areas of society – the church, the education system, the family, the media, the arts, business and government.
For the full story, click here:
Here is a courtroom sketch of New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, during his arraignment on Friday morning:
Adams has been federally charged with bribery, wire fraud and illegal acceptance of foreign donations. He has pleaded not guilty.
FBI director on Iran hacking investigation: ‘We’re going to disrupt you’
In a video address on Friday, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, spoke of the indictment of three Iranian nationals for their role in a “wide-ranging hacking campaign sponsored by the government of Iran”.
Wray said:
These individuals, employees of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted a US political campaign, current and former US officials, and members of the American media, all in an attempt to sow discord and undermine our democracy.
He added that the individuals impersonated US government officials via fake personas.
Wray continued:
What we’re talking about here – attempts by a hostile foreign government to steal campaign information from one presidential candidate and then shop it around both to that candidate’s opponent and the media. And while there’s no indication that any of the recipients of the stolen campaign information actually replied, Iran’s intent was clear – to sow discord and shape the outcome of our elections.
In a warning to Iran, Wray said:
If you try to attack our infrastructure or commit violence against our citizens, we’re going to disrupt you. And as long as you keep attempting to flout the rule of law, you’re going to keep running into the FBI.
If you’re keeping an eye on the other big news in the US today, so are we. We’re liveblogging the aftermath of Hurricane Helene as, still a very dangerous storm, it roars through North Carolina. At least 20 people have been reported dead since the hurricane made landfall in Florida late last night and, now a tropical depression, it is leaving a trail of destruction and bringing major storm hazards to a huge area. Flooding is particularly acute across parts of the south-east, from Tennessee to Georgia. You can follow Helene news as it happens, here.
And in New York, as well as Donald Trump meeting Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the United Nations general assembly amid protests. We’ve been blogging that and covering the sudden escalation of conflict in Lebanon, too.
Netanyahu had not long finished speaking before fresh airstrikes were delivered by Israeli military forces against Lebanon on the outskirts of the capital, Beirut, in Israel’s latest wave of counterattacks on militant group Hezbollah.
Iran, which backs Hezbollah, called the latest explosions, which targeted Hezbollah’s Lebanese headquarters, a “dangerous gamechanging escalation”, according to Reuters just now. The US said it was not given a heads-up by Israel before the latest explosions. International leaders have been putting on pressure at the UN this week for de-escalation and ceasefires by Israel in Lebanon and Gaza. We have all these developments in our global Middle East live blog, here.
In what appeared to be a slightly awkward moment between Donald Trump and Voldymyr Zelenskyy after their meeting, the former president said, “We have a good relationship,” adding: “I also have a very good relationship with President [Vladimir] Putin.”
“If we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” Trump said, referring to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
Zelenskyy, who stood alongside Trump, then interjected and said, “I hope we have more good relations with us,” gesturing between him and Trump.
In 2019, Trump threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine as he put pressure on Zelenskyy to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine, which ultimately resulted in Trump’s impeachment.
The two men have had a fraught relationship, with Trump saying earlier this week at a campaign event in North Carolina: “The president of Ukraine is in our country. He is making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me … We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy.”
Zelenskyy says he and Trump share ‘common view’ on Ukraine war
Joanna Walters
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has spoken after his meeting in New York with Donald Trump and says the two men had a “very productive” talk.
He said the two “thoroughly reviewed” the situation in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion more than two and a half years ago, Reuters reports.
We share the common view that the war in Ukraine must be stopped. Putin cannot win. Ukrainians must prevail.
It’s unclear if he and Trump reached a genuine consensus behind the scenes. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has been making magic-wand type claims that if he wins the White House he’ll have a peace agreement that all sides will like very quickly.
But he has previously talked in terms that implied he would allow Russia to prevail over what it has already claimed.
Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival for the White House, warned yesterday after meeting with Zelenskyy that he should not accept “proposals of surrender”, without mentioning Trump but clearly signaling in his direction.
