Trump’s envoy John Coale is pushing a plan under which Russia would release political prisoners in exchange for eased U.S. sanctions, potentially opening the way for trade deals with Moscow even before the Ukraine war ends.

Trump has approved the initiative, modeled on a similar approach with Belarus.

Source: The Atlantic

Senior Iranian MP Ebrahim Azizi:

The U.S. will inevitably leave this region, and the Zionist regime’s days are numbered.

Ultimately, it is we and our neighbors who remain here, face to face.

That day will be a day of regret.

Andy Burnham:

We led the world’s first Industrial Revolution from the Midlands and the north of England, so why can’t we lead the next?

We can and we will.

Trump and Mike Johnson will meet with 31 tech leaders and government officials for a White House AI lunch focused on regulation and industry oversight.

Attendees include Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia, Google, Meta, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Anthropic, Palantir, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.

Government officials attending include Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton.

Source: Axios

Andy Burnham:

It is always in my mind that I’m the seventh prime minister in 10 years. It is why I want to underpin our plan for Britain with a new politics.

In past years, you have voted twice to support electoral reform.

I hear you. I agree with you. And today, I am announcing a new National Commission on electoral reform.

Andy Burnham gets emotional:

The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in: a union of nations that gave trade unions and the cooperative movement to the world, the National Health Service, a country that stood up to fascism, a country of solidarity, not separation.

That’s the Britain that my dad represented.

Andy Burnham:

I’m going to use this job to build the kind of Britain my dad wanted to see and fight with everything I’ve got to keep it together.

Not the last prime minister of the United Kingdom, rather the first to rewire it to make it work for all people and places.

Driving power out of Whitehall and into every postcode of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England, and closing divides between people and places.

Andy Burnham:

Brexit hasn’t given us control.

We’ve lost some of the control we had over our economy, as a decade of low growth has put us in a weaker position. And we’ve lost some of our control over immigration.

At its most fundamental level, this is a debate about fairness, so I understand the anger about what’s happening in the Channel.

Trump:

I don't take my salary. Do I get thanks for it? None. Nobody says, "Thank you very much, sir." Oh boy, oh boy.

Trump:

Government has been broken for many, many decades. You could say probably centuries. We don't go back that long. And the Trump administration is fixing it.

Trump:

Forget about "fake news." Now I am going to call them "artificial news." I like that.

Trump on Iran:

In the years to come, they will be writing the history of our country, and they will say the Iran war is one of the most important things that we did.

China has become an increasingly important source of supplies for the Houthis.

Chinese companies are providing dual-use goods that can serve both civilian and military purposes, particularly components critical to Houthi drone technology.

This gives the Houthis another supply channel beyond Iran. For years, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard used small fishing boats to smuggle weapons, missile parts and drone components to Yemen, but many shipments were intercepted. The Houthis have also used routes through Djibouti and Somalia, while supplies now also arrive from China.

Iranian technology still forms the core of the Houthis’ arsenal, but Chinese dual-use components are becoming increasingly important for sustaining and expanding their drone capabilities.

Source: WSJ

Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid are set to meet at 11:30 p.m. over an alleged pre-election security threat.

Netanyahu had warned of an unspecified plot to attack Israel and is also holding talks with security chiefs.

Zohran Mamdani unveiled a plan to combat antisemitism and hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers, including increased security funding for synagogues, expanded Jewish history education in public schools and greater support for hate-crime prevention groups.

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the country’s first woman prime minister after her liberal-centrist party won the most seats in the Sept. 23 parliamentary election.

Manchester City have been found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

An independent commission found the club used “sham contracts” and agreements to artificially inflate revenues and reduce costs, as part of a disguised funding scheme worth about £830.7 million.

City were also found guilty of almost all charges relating to failure to cooperate with the Premier League investigation.

Potential sanctions have not yet been announced.

JD Vance:

A lot of the problems that exist in American society would be solved just by deporting illegal aliens.

Lower housing prices, lower rents, lower violent crime statistics.

The Sahel has gold, uranium, oil and lithium.

For decades, much of that wealth left the region.

Now Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger want to keep more of it at home.

JD Vance:

If you are in the country illegally, you are subject to deportation.

Coming into the United States illegally is a crime, and we treat it as such.