Trump’s top national security aides held an unannounced meeting at Camp David on Friday to discuss the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen.

Vice President Vance chaired the meeting, joined by Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

The talks came as Trump weighs renewed major military action against Iran and faces Saudi pressure to join planned strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Source: Axios

Chinese officials made unusual requests to accommodate Xi Jinping’s need for rest during his September summit with Trump, significantly cutting into the time available for meetings.

Beijing asked for a private room inside the West Wing where Xi could rest between events, canceled a planned working lunch with Trump and requested more downtime.

The changes created roughly a five-hour gap in the summit schedule. Xi also had no activities scheduled on his first evening and spent only about 10 minutes at the National Archives on the final day.

Source: WSJ

Trump:

I am pleased to announce that my Administration will, immediately, begin sending “Checks” of nearly $100 to over 20 MILLION wonderful Seniors to help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums, which we have already reduced by significant amounts.

This money will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, a pointless “Slush Fund” that has only been used by Dumocrats in Congress to pay for the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse for their Special Interest friends, and drive up Healthcare costs.

Because I delivered on this very important issue for the American People, they can also rest assured the highly popular $5,000 Trump Dividend will be distributed to every U.S. Citizen if, and when, the Republicans win the Midterm Elections!

NEW: The Trump administration is considering measures against Israel over settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Options include restrictions on IDF units accused of serious abuses, limits on the use of U.S.-made weapons, and possible blacklisting of Israeli army and police officers accused of allowing settler attacks.

U.S. officials are reportedly closely monitoring developments, with any action potentially delayed until after elections in Israel and the U.S.

Source: Haaretz

Researchers drove a Chinese NIO electric SUV into a Norwegian mine to cut its connections.

It kept trying to reach servers in China. About 90% of its traffic went there.

The data was encrypted so they couldn't see what was sent, but NIO claims European data stays in Europe.

A separate test on a Chinese-made bus found the manufacturer could remotely access battery and power systems.

Ethiopian federal forces and allied pro-government Tigray militias are closing in on Mekelle, Tigray's capital, after reversing a TPLF-led offensive that began in late September.

Pro-government fighters claim to be within 20 km of the city, senior TPLF leaders have reportedly left, and the TPLF describes its pullbacks as tactical rather than a retreat.

The fighting marks the collapse of the 2022 Pretoria peace deal that ended a war estimated to have killed 600,000.

The crisis has spilled over internationally.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have severed diplomatic ties, and Ethiopia expelled an Egyptian diplomat, with each side accusing the other of backing the rebels.

PewDiePie says OpenAI banned his account twice for using its models to generate training data for his own AI.

He was building Ajax, a local "uncensored" assistant based on Alibaba's Qwen model, and admits he tried to distill from OpenAI's output — which violates their terms.

Ajax is meant to run on home PCs with minimal content filters.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik:

Bosnia and Herzegovina is dead. It is an impossible country. It makes no sense.

It still only represents an empty shell for those who try to maintain it, so that something of theirs would be right. A long time ago,

Bosnia and Herzegovina has never been more divided, it is meaningless.

Zelensky said he has repeatedly asked Trump to sanction Russian and Chinese companies involved in developing “Rassvet,” a satellite network intended to rival Starlink.

According to Zelensky, China is working with Russia on the project, which could become operational by the end of 2026 or early 2027.

Source: FT

Netanyahu attacks Britain again:

The British Government, in order to ingratiate itself with its political base, has gone rogue. Like a rogue state.

Netanyahu:

Islamists and leftists ought to be natural adversaries.

Islamists hang gays and deprive women of any rights.

Netanyahu on Britain:

I think that if Britain doesn't regain control over its borders, you will lose Britain.

Source: Daily Mail

The Trump administration’s Ukraine talks with Russia have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar deal for Lukoil’s international assets.

Putin raised the deal with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during a Sept. 5 Kremlin meeting, presenting it as a way to rebuild U.S.-Russia business ties.

The leading bidder is a group involving Trump donor Todd Boehly, Qatar-based investors with business ties to Kushner, an Abu Dhabi fund linked to Sheikh Tahnoon, and the U.S. government.

There is no indication Kushner or Witkoff would personally profit, but the overlapping business relationships have raised conflict-of-interest concerns.

Source: NYT

Thousands of French high-school students blockaded schools nationwide over teacher shortages, overcrowding, and crumbling buildings.

It turned violent.

Burning barricades, acid thrown at police, a teacher sprayed with petrol — prompting mass riot-police deployments against minors.

A mother's tearful plea to officers went viral:

Stop, they're children. It's disproportionate.

Over 5,000 arrests were made in a week, about 90% of them minors.

The justice minister ordered parents held financially liable for damage, calling it "far more useful than locking them up."

The government accused far-left politicians of fueling the unrest.