French Presidential Candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon:

We learned almost in passing that we are going to send equipment and troops to Saudi Arabia to protect a pipeline.

Well, we say no — we do not agree. When did the National Assembly vote on a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia to protect its pipelines in the desert?

JD Vance:

This is not the time to sort of gripe about all the little things.

We need to get more done, which is why you need to give us two more years to get more great results for the American people.

JD Vance:

Under Trump’s leadership, Americans are finally actually pocketing more money than the government and inflation is taking away.

JD Vance:

Now, people will say there is so much more work to do. Of course there is.

Biden put us in an atrocious hole, but we’ve made so much progress and we can make so much more progress if we keep on working at it.

JD Vance on Epstein:

When you look at the Epstein files, Trump didn’t just throw him out of the club; he turned Jeffrey Epstein into the local police for being a creep.

There was probably no person in the world that Epstein hated more than Trump.

JD Vance:

The thing that maybe I’m most proud of is that poverty number.

When you talk about historically low poverty numbers — people who grew up in families like mine are having a shot at the American dream.

JD Vance:

Rome was not built in a day. That $19 trillion investment, that doesn’t become immediately obvious.

Ukraine says an intercepted Russian plan outlines a major winter campaign to cripple the country’s power, heating and water systems using up to 1,000 missiles, drones and bombs.

The plan reportedly calls for attacks on power and water infrastructure, including facilities linked to Ukraine’s three operating nuclear plants, potentially forcing them offline.

Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa are listed as key targets, while strikes on infrastructure linked to Ukraine’s nuclear plants could force them offline.

Source: NYT

Trump:

They said, "Sir, I think we’re going to have to cancel Oklahoma. The weather is terrible."

I said, "Get your asses in that car. We’re going to Oklahoma."

Trump:

Pretend I’m running, please. Just pretend, because I am on the ballot.

If we don’t win, they’ll end up impeaching me.

Trump:

We’ve handled everything else. We’ve handled inflation. We’ve got prices way down. They gave us the prices. They gave us all of that.

Trump:

I say, "you know, tariff is my favorite word." And the press just went crazy. "What about God? What about your wife? What about your family? What about religion?"

So now I make tariff the fifth favorite word.

Trump:

We are right now in the golden age of America. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world.

We’re not going back to that hell hole that we lived in for so long.

Trump:

The King of Saudi Arabia said to me, “You know, sir, just a short time ago, your country was a dead country. We thought it was dead. And today, you have the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

NEW: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung threatened “further action” unless Ukraine publicly apologises for revealing that two North Korean prisoners of war had been transferred to South Korea.

Zelensky disclosed the transfer at the UN General Assembly, angering Seoul, which says it was supposed to remain secret partly to protect the soldiers’ families. Kyiv denies there was any confidentiality agreement.

Ukraine called the dispute a “diplomatic misunderstanding,” but Lee rejected that explanation and accused Kyiv of attempting to “bring war on the Korean Peninsula.”

Trump:

They’re going for communism. They skipped socialism. They have the worst people I’ve ever seen running.

But if the Republicans win the House and the Senate, I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States a check for $5,000 each.

Trump:

I wish we could have more of the media support in what they call the elite. We’re the elite. They’re not the elite.

They’re all going out of business.

Trump on the June 2025 strikes on Iran:

They were doing drugs, but they were doing the nuclear. But these drug factories, nuclear factories, were hit so hard.

Iran has continued near-daily attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, even as Middle East oil exports recover.

Since early August, Iran has launched about 30 drone attacks and 10 anti-ship missile attacks per week, according to confidential data shared with The New York Times.

At least four commercial ships were hit in the past 10 days, while British Navy monitoring recorded at least 13 ships struck by projectiles or debris since Sept. 10.

Source: NYT

NEW: Taiwan received the first two of 66 new F-16V Block 70 fighter jets ordered from the U.S. in 2019, after months of delays caused partly by software issues.

The $8 billion deal will bring Taiwan’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 aircraft.

Taiwan’s defense minister said more F-16Vs are expected to arrive before the end of 2026.

Source: Reuters