China pushes back on Gulf and Cuba at the U.N. as DOT prepares Monday CAFE rollback
Iran still awaits a formal mediator reply after Trump’s public rejection; Ethiopia’s Tigray airports seized; pocket-rescission clock runs to Wednesday; SCOTUS deportation brief still due Monday.
9 PM CT video brief · 1:45Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your Night Update World Brief for Saturday, September 26th. At the U.N., China's vice president said Gulf sovereignty should be respected and urged an end to Cuba's blockade, without naming the United States. What this means. For you paying a Hormuz premium, a summit handshake is not China dropping cover for Iran and Cuba. Transportation finalizes lower fuel-economy standards Monday — about 34.5 mpg by 2031, down from 50.4. AAA has gas near $4.48 a gallon. What this means. For you shopping for a truck, Washington should stop forcing cars you never asked for. Watch Monday's final number. Iran's foreign minister said Tehran saw Trump's initial Hormuz reaction but still awaits a formal mediator reply. Trump told reporters he rejected the deal. What this means. For your family at the pump, Hormuz still hangs on a written answer with real enrichment limits. No new Supreme Court orders Saturday. The third-country deportation response is still due Monday at 4 p.m. Eastern. What this means. Monday's brief tests whether lower courts can block removals Congress authorized — for your community's safety, watch the Court's next move. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Hurricane Nolo, with top winds near 90 mph, has a tropical storm warning and a tropical storm watch in effect for parts of Hawaii. Impacts from a significant Nor'easter will extend through the weekend into Monday especially for the coastal sections of the northeastern U.S. into the Mid-Atlantic. Full stories and sources are at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale. Thanks for watching.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, speaking Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly without naming the United States, said the sovereignty and security of Middle East countries including the Gulf should be respected and urged the “relevant country” to stop using the threat of force against Cuba and to lift its blockade and sanctions, Reuters reported. The remarks came days after President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington; U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Friday Trump had warned Xi that Chinese help to Iran was unacceptable and received assurances China would not provide it. Hours later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed the Cuba call, urging Washington to lift what he called a siege of the island and remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list, Reuters reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said late Saturday that Tehran had seen an initial reaction from President Donald Trump to its seven-day Strait of Hormuz proposal but had not yet received a definitive response through mediators and would decide based on that reply, The Guardian reported with Reuters and AP. Trump told reporters at the White House he rejected the deal, saying Iran wants to reopen Hormuz “immediately because they’re losing so badly,” and the Wall Street Journal earlier reported he told aides he expects to resume bombing after the November midterms. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, after meeting U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said Iran had not left the negotiating table but “no longer trusts the United States,” as Iranian state media reported he was returning to Tehran.
Tigrayan forces have taken control of the airports at Mekelle, Axum and Shire, disrupting civilian flights, as fighting between Ethiopia’s federal army and Tigray forces intensified and crossed into neighboring Afar and Amhara, Al Jazeera reported Saturday. The African Union said the airport seizures are inconsistent with the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement and asked former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to engage the parties urgently. Seven armed groups — including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army — announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival this month aiming to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, with each side blaming the other for starting the latest major clashes.
The Transportation Department on Monday will finalize sharply lower vehicle fuel-economy standards through 2031 after President Donald Trump said Saturday he approved rules that “TERMINATE” what he called the Biden administration’s EV mandate, Reuters reported. The administration’s December proposal set a fleetwide average of about 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031, down from 50.4 under Biden, and estimated average new-vehicle costs would fall by about $930; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a major victory for auto workers is coming Monday. New York Post reported Saturday that AAA put the national average for regular gasoline at $4.48 a gallon — AAA’s Sept. 24 newsroom release likewise cited $4.48 and linked the climb to Hormuz volatility and crude costs.
The White House’s pocket rescission of about $810 million in congressionally appropriated funds — announced Friday and still pending as the federal fiscal year ends Wednesday, Sept. 30 — includes $567 million in HHS services for refugees, asylees and other non-citizens, according to the White House statement and CNBC. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the maneuver a clear violation of the Impoundment Control Act and said the Government Accountability Office has concluded pocket rescissions are unlawful. The package also targets education programs for migrant students, HHS research, and other accounts the White House labeled wasteful; Congress normally has 45 days to review a rescission request, a window the late-year timing largely closes.
As of Saturday night, the Supreme Court’s public docket for Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D., No. 26A406, still showed only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Sept. 24 order directing respondents to file a response by 4 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 28, with no further Saturday order on the government’s stay application. The application, docketed Sept. 24, seeks a stay of lower-court limits on the government’s ability to remove certain noncitizens to third countries. The Court’s public orders page listed no new miscellaneous order dated Sept. 26.
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