Dither-free zone. Mr. Trump told the annual United Nations gathering that he’s confronting global challenges while others dither, and he won’t allow the midterm elections to dictate whether he strikes a deal with Tehran or moves to “annihilate” Iran. 

“While others have talked, I have acted. While others have spoken of peace, I have made it. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them,” Mr. Trump said. “While others have talked of courage, America has shown it.”

Mr. Trump threatened to drive Iran “into hell” if Tehran refuses to drop its nuclear ambitions, on a day that included a Greenland security pact and meetings with the leaders of Britain, Japan and Ukraine.

Later in the day, Mr. Trump said the U.S. and Iranian delegations had a “very good meeting.” 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian cast the joint U.S.-Israeli war as an illegal and destructive venture that will fail. He told the U.N. that the Islamic regime was the real “victim of terrorism.” 

A Trump administration agency is paying Flock Group $231,600 a year to host license plate reader cameras on roads around the Washington area, according to government contracting data.

The U.S. Park Police, an agency within the Interior Department, renewed its contract even amid a growing national backlash against the cameras as a step toward a surveillance state.

Big Tech sincerity? Senators who have spent years fighting Big Tech are skeptical about why leading AI companies are banding together to pursue government regulation.

The AI companies say they’re worried that AI is developing too rapidly, is escaping human control and could one day wipe out humanity.

But lawmakers see other possible motivations for the coordinated push for the government to take charge of pacing AI development.

“I think some people want us to come in and lock in these monopolies that the Big Tech giants have. That’s what I’m skeptical of,” Sen. Eric Schmitt said.

His fellow Missouri Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley, said the AI company CEOs seem to be casting themselves as bystanders rather than as those who created the issue.

“They set it up. They’re making billions of dollars on it. They should be responsible,” he said. “And this is why we should not allow them to write the rules.”

Some Republican Senate hopefuls are lining up behind a freeze on diesel exports as the price of the fuel spikes to record levels due to the war with Iran.

Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, locked in a tough reelection fight with former Rep. Mary Peltola, signaled that he hears voters’ frustrations.

“The cost of diesel is just too damn high,” Mr. Sullivan said in a statement. “I’m calling for a temporary pause of American diesel exports so that we can rebuild our reserves ahead of winter and put American and Alaskan families first.”

Former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan and Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa — both running for Senate — rolled out similar proposals this week.

Democrats, however, say Republicans who backed the war can’t unring the bell now that prices have surged. Some energy analysts also warn that restricting diesel exports could backfire and push costs even higher.

Alaska, Iowa and Michigan are all toss-up races. 

Mr. Trump said he is weighing a diesel export pause. 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris made her first major midterm foray, traveling to Michigan to boost Democrat Abdul El‑Sayed’s Senate bid — a high‑profile stop that doubled as a test of her standing as a potential 2028 contender.

Ms. Harris joined Mr. El‑Sayed at a Detroit birth center for a roundtable on Black maternal health, where participants highlighted Black women dying at three to four times the rate of White women in connection with childbirth — and how the Senate race between Mr. El‑Sayed and Mr. Rogers could shape Medicaid funding, Planned Parenthood access and federal research dollars.

Her visit was designed to pull the party together behind Mr. El‑Sayed — particularly Black voters, many of whom had backed his primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, in a competitive and often bitter contest.

The lavish wedding afterparty for Donald Trump Jr. is raising calls for an investigation by Sen. John Curtis of Utah and other Republicans who question whether a Putin-connected Russian businessman should have bankrolled it as a wedding gift.

Mr. Curtis urged the panel to subpoena Mr. Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden to testify about potentially using their names to advance private business interests.

The senator pointed to the eldest Trump son’s private island party wedding gift from Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, who has close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

“A toaster is a wedding gift. A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else,” Mr. Curtis said. “Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. ‘Trust us’ was not enough then, and it is not enough now.”

Press warfare. A federal judge temporarily reinstated CNN, Politico and MS Now after Mr. Trump ejected them from the White House over his claims that they treat him unfairly.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a 14-day temporary restraining order against Mr. Trump’s ban of the three outlets pending additional court arguments in the case.

He ordered the Trump administration to “immediately return, reinstate and restore” the press credentials the White House revoked.

But the Secret Service initially defied the court order to restore their access, prompting the media outlets to seek an emergency hearing with the judge again. Their access was restored hours later. 

The media outlets’ lawyer, Theodore “Ted” Boutrous Jr., argued the sudden White House ban was illegitimate, retaliatory, violated the First Amendment and deprived the organizations of their right to due process.

Justice Department senior counsel Michael Velchik argued that the press has no constitutional right to the non-public areas of the White House and their access can be restricted, even for viewpoint-discrimination reasons. He said the ban, however, is the result of stories they published or aired that contained leaked information that violates national security.

In the midst of the media showdown, the White House debuted its own TV platform, airing unfiltered highlights of Mr. Trump’s activities and live streams of events. 

A federal judge ruled that New York’s attempt to make fossil fuel companies pay up to $75 billion to combat climate change was unconstitutional, delivering a victory to the Trump administration.

Judge P. Kevin Castel, a George W. Bush appointee, said the state trampled on Congress’s powers to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. He issued a permanent injunction against the law.

“The court agrees with the United States that, under decisions binding on this court, the Climate Act impermissibly regulates interstate greenhouse gas emissions and is thus preempted,” he wrote.

New York’s 2024 law had sought to create a “superfund” to pay for climate change mitigation projects in the state, with the money coming from companies that engaged in extracting or refining crude oil this century.

The Trump administration had sued to block the law.

The way to win the war with Iran is for the U.S. to actually declare war, Michael McKenna argues.

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s foreign policy mission of peace lives on, Blanton Newman says.

The glass might look half-empty in Trump’s second term, but Frank Perley writes that the American way is to make the best of it.