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Sept. 23, 2025, 6:31 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 23, 2025, 7:07 AM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonMysterious drones that forced the closure of a major European airport were part of a “serious attack,” officials said Tuesday, hours after the latest unsettling incident over the continent’s skies.As U.S. allies weigh a tougher response to suspected Russian incursions, NATO leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly in New York condemned the Kremlin for a spate of “escalatory” incidents in recent weeks and vowed to defend itself.Authorities did not immediately assign blame for the two to three large drones that shut Copenhagen Airport — Scandinavia’s largest — Monday night. But police said a hybrid attack could not be ruled out, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called it “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”Norway’s Oslo airport also reopened Tuesday morning following four hours of airspace closure after a separate drone incident took place the same evening, police told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.Trump: Putin has ‘really let me down’ on Ukraine peace talks01:05“I cannot rule out that it is Russia,” Frederiksen, the Danish leader, told reporters. “We have seen drones over Poland that should not have been there. We have seen activity in Romania. We have seen violations of Estonian airspace,” she added, referring to a series of incidents in eastern Europe during September that have been blamed on Russia. “Russia should be in no doubt,” NATO said in a statement just hours after the latest incidents. “Allies will use all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions.”A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet that took part in the violation of Estonian airspace.Swedish Armed Forces / via ReutersThe Kremlin dismissed what it said were “unfounded accusations” leveled each time there is an incident. It’s got to the point where such statements were “no longer taken into account,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.The drones that shut Copenhagen airport appeared to be flown by a “capable operator,” Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday.“It’s an actor who has the capabilities, the will and the tools to show off in this way,” he said, adding that no suspects had been identified and that it was too soon to tell if the events in Denmark and Norway were linked.Officials chose not to shoot down the drones because the risk was too great because of the airport being full of passengers, the planes on the runways and nearby fuel depots, Jes Jespersen, senior police inspector of the Copenhagen Police, said during a news conference.Passengers queue for new tickets at Copenhagen Airport on Tuesday morning.Sergei Gapon / AFP via Getty ImagesWestern leaders have increasingly vowed a more aggressive defense against what they say is a carefully escalating Kremlin campaign to probe NATO’s defenses and test its resolve. NATO is set to meet Tuesday discuss Russia’s violation of Estonian airspace, after Estonia requested consultations consultations under Article 4 last week — a mechanism that prompts urgent talks among alliesPoland “is ready to react toughly against all airspace violations,” its prime minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday on X. “In such a situation I’m counting on univocal and full support from our allies.”Britain also promised Monday to “confront planes operating in space without permission,” as Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper warned that Russia’s incursions risked triggering an armed conflict.The European Union is also weighing how to create a “drone wall” along its eastern border, Lithuanian foreign minister Kestutis Budrys told Reuters news agency on Monday.Washington’s new envoy to the United Nations, Michael Waltz, vowed Monday to “defend every inch of NATO territory” as he addressed an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting over the incursion into Estonia.NATO has already launched Operation “Eastern Sentry” earlier this month to bolster defenses along Europe’s eastern flank.A French Air Force pilot prepares for takeoff, prior to a joint mission with Polish F16s, as part of Operation “Eastern Sentry.”Thibaud Moritz / AFP via Getty ImagesMeanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy landed in New York Monday for what he said would be an “intense week” of diplomacy, as he tries to drum up support for new efforts to punish the Kremlin and turn rhetoric into action.“We are doing everything to stop the war,” he wrote on X Tuesday, adding that he had two dozen meetings scheduled.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 

- Latest News - September 23, 2025

Mysterious drones that forced the closure of a major European airport were part of a “serious attack,” officials said Tuesday, hours after the latest unsettling incident over the continent’s skies

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Sept. 22, 2025, 6:29 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 22, 2025, 9:53 PM EDTBy Chantal Da SilvaA Palestinian state is getting a powerful new push.Dozens of world leaders gathered Monday to rally support for a two-state solution, with the United States and Israel set to boycott the summit as they find themselves increasingly isolated by a rising tide of traditional allies responding to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the meeting at the United Nations on Monday that France is formally recognizing a Palestinian state.“The time has come. This is why, true to the historic, historic commitment of my country to the Middle East, to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is why I declare that today, France recognizes the state of Palestine,” he said.The summit, convened by France and Saudi Arabia, comes after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal all announced their formal recognition of the state of Palestine on Sunday, with several other nations expected to follow suit at the United Nations General Assembly this week.These Western powers may be hoping to breathe new life into the idea as a way to resolve the conflict, but Israel’s hard-line government has instead vowed to retaliate while pressing ahead with its deadly assault on Gaza City that has forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southward on a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty ImagesIsraeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said both Israel and the U.S. would boycott Monday’s summit, branding it a “circus.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried the moves as a “huge reward to terrorism” and vowed there “will be no Palestinian state.” A source briefed on the Israeli Cabinet’s discussions said Israel would not respond before Netanyahu met with Trump. “He’s not going to do anything without the backing of the U.S., they said. The Trump administration has also warned of possible repercussions for countries taking measures against Israel, including France.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting on Monday that Palestinians have a right to their own state.”Statehood for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward, and denying statehood would be a gift to extremists everywhere,” he said.Hopes for a two-state solution have dwindled in the midst of Israel’s nearly two-year offensive in Gaza — and as efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the war and free the remaining hostages have repeatedly failed.A child trapped under rubble after an Israeli strike hit a residential area in Sheva Square was rescued by civil defense teams in Gaza City on Tuesday.Khames Alrefi / Anadolu via Getty ImagesPalestinian statehood, which would see an internationally recognized state in territories seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War, is now formally recognized by around 75% of U.N. member countries. But that recognition remains largely symbolic. Gershon Baskin, an Israeli who has acted as a mediator with Hamas for decades and a staunch advocate of a two-state solution, said that he welcomed the growing recognition. But without further action, including sanctions against Israel, he said the move will do little to “change the lives of Palestinians” on the ground.”It’s really a step in the right direction,” Baskin said in a phone interview Monday of the summit at the General Assembly. But, calling Israel’s offensive in Gaza “a genocide,” he said, “the most important thing now … is to end the war in Gaza and that comes before everything else.”It is unclear how effective Monday’s summit will be in advancing efforts to end the war in the face of furious opposition from Israel and the U.S., which blocked Palestinian officials from even attending the U.N. gathering.Baskin noted the possibility of retaliation from Israel in response to the diplomatic moves by France, the U.K. and others, with far-right members of Netanyahu’s government pushing for the annexation of part of the occupied West Bank.Speaking with the BBC ahead of Monday’s summit, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said she had directly warned her Israeli counterpart against such a move. Baskin warned that any “annexation steps by Israel, which would be illegal against international law” would only result in further isolation of the country on the international stage.“This conflict has to be resolved — and the only way to resolve it is through the two-state solution,” he said.Palestinians in the West Bank also welcomed the growing international recognition, but said more must be done. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said it “welcomes and thanks the countries that have recognized the State of Palestine,” calling their decisions “courageous and consistent with international law and international legitimacy resolutions.”“Certainly, these successive recognitions raise the morale of the Palestinian people, as they confirm that the blood of our Palestinian people has not been shed in vain,” one resident of Ramallah, Hussam Abu Nasr, told The Associated Press.Fellow Ramallah resident Abdullah Fayad called the latest round of announcements “belated,” but agreed it was a “step in the right direction.”Chantal Da SilvaChantal Da Silva reports on world news for NBC News Digital and is based in London.Matt Bradley and Abigail Williams contributed.

- Latest News - September 23, 2025

The U.K., Canada and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state, sparking fury from Israel ahead of a UNGA summit amid the Gaza war.

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Sept. 22, 2025, 6:14 PM EDTBy Melanie Zanona, Julie Tsirkin and Dareh GregorianWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer this week to discuss funding the government as the specter of a shutdown looms, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.A time and a date have not yet been set. The meeting is expected to take place in Washington.Jeffries and Schumer, both of New York, had requested that the meeting take place ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline.Trump said over the weekend, “I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact.”The Senate voted last week to block dueling Republican and Democratic proposals to keep the government funded past Sept. 30 on a short-term basis.A deal to avert a shutdown and give lawmakers more time to work out a longer-term deal has to be bipartisan to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats.The Democrats’ funding bill would extend Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.The Republican bill would fund the government at current spending levels through Nov. 21 but preserve cuts to previously appropriated spending that have incensed Democrats.The GOP bill fell 16 votes short of the 60 needed, while the Democratic bill fell 13 votes short.The House and the Senate are on recess this week, and Republican leaders have decided not to bring the House back until after the funding deadline.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., last week said the bill Democrats “put on the floor makes it very clear they are very unserious.”Schumer and other Democrats have noted that Trump has publicly called on Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., not to negotiate with Democrats over a funding bill.If there is a shutdown, mandatory services such as the Border Patrol, the Postal Service and Social Security will continue, but many federal workers will go unpaid.Melanie Zanona and Julie Tsirkin reported from Washington and Dareh Gregorian from New York.Melanie ZanonaMelanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Dareh GregorianDareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - September 23, 2025

The president is expected to meet this week with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

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Sept. 22, 2025, 7:46 PM EDTBy Matt BradleyAs Palestinians and much of the Arab and Muslim worlds praised the decision by several European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, Israeli politicians across the political spectrum reacted with anger and spoke of retaliation.“You are giving a huge prize to terrorism,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded address released Sunday night, as countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia began to express their commitments to Palestinian statehood. “It will not happen. There will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.”France formally recognized Palestinian statehood at a United Nations meeting on Monday. The statehood acknowledgements were “a diplomatic disaster,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, a long-standing opponent of Netanyahu, posted on X on Sunday. He added that it was “a harmful step” and a “reward for terror.”Though the fast-moving diplomatic events are mostly symbolic, the resentment across Israel’s political class shows just how isolated the Jewish state has become two years into its war with Hamas that has upended much of the Middle East.The Trump administration has also warned of possible repercussions for countries taking measures against Israel, including France. But European leaders defended their decisions, calling them a strike against Hamas rather than a pledge of support for what Israeli leaders called a potential “terrorist state.”“Recognizing Palestine is a categorical disavowal of Hamas, and it permanently isolates it,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on French channel TF1. “It vindicates those among the Palestinians who have chosen to renounce violence and terrorism.”Netanyahu said that his government’s response would not come until next week after he returns from the United States. His trip will include an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday and a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday.Netanyahu’s choices, reported by Israeli local media, range from a face-saving climbdown to more drastic moves that could threaten Israel’s hard-won partnerships with its Arab and Muslim neighbors.The prime minister faces substantial pressure from his right-wing ideological flank, particularly hard-line ministers in his government, to retaliate by annexing the whole of the occupied West Bank.But the United Arab Emirates, one of a handful of Arab nations that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, already warned Israel earlier this month that annexation would be a “red line.”The UAE did not specify what action it might take, but officials told Reuters they were considering downgrading the UAE’s diplomatic ties with Israel, potentially damaging the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, one of Israel’s most important diplomatic victories in recent memory.British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC that she had warned the Israelis against annexing all or part of the West Bank.Short of taking over the West Bank in full, senior Israeli officials also discussed the possibility of bringing more West Bank territory now governed by the Palestinians under full Israeli control, according to media reports in the country.Israel may also decide to shutter France’s consulate in Jerusalem, which tends to deal with issues related to the Palestinians, the reports said. Israeli leaders are focusing their outrage on France because it was the first in a series of Western countries to announce that it would recognize a Palestinian state last summer.For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the decisions were met with cheer and relief — a sign that the West is finally ready to treat Palestinians as equal.“This is a beginning, or a glimmer of hope for the Palestinian people,” said Fawzi Nour Al-Deen, a displaced person from the north of Gaza. “We are a people who deserve to have a state.”But for others, the lofty, abstract diplomacy unfolding in New York felt a world away from the suffering in the famine-stricken enclave where more than 65,000 people have died in almost two years of war with Israel, which began with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.“Where is the state? In the street? Or in the tents? What state is this that [they] recognize?” said Mohammed al-Yazigi, a displaced person in central Gaza. “Are we able to find something to eat or a place to stay? Leave it to God.”Matt BradleyMatt Bradley is an international correspondent for NBC News based in Israel.

- Latest News - September 23, 2025

As Palestinians and much of the Arab and Muslim worlds praised the decision by several European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, Israeli politicians across the political spectrum reacted with anger.

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Sept. 23, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Katherine DoylePresident Donald Trump will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at a moment of heightened strain with U.S. allies over Palestinian statehood, trade and other flash points as his administration retreats from the global body.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Trump’s remarks, saying he will highlight “the renewal of American strength around the world” and what the White House sees as key accomplishments since he returned to office, including winding down conflicts abroad. Leavitt said Trump would also deliver a “straightforward and constructive” vision of global leadership.After his speech, Trump is scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, as well as leaders from Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also take part in a multilateral meeting with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, Leavitt said.Trump’s speech is expected to recall a U.N. appearance during his first term, when he promised to “reject the ideology of globalism” and urged other countries to join him in a patriotic national embrace. Those remarks drew derisive snickers from the world leaders and dignitaries in the audience.While his relationships with many foreign leaders have improved this time around, Trump has not shied from envisioning an expansionary image of American strength while imposing punishing tariffs on friends and foes alike.At the same time, the administration has accelerated its pullback from the U.N., slashing its contributions to the organization and, until last week, leaving its ambassadorship vacant. On Friday, a State Department spokesperson called for the U.N. to “get back to basics, reorienting the organization to its origins as an effective tool for advancing peace, sovereignty, and liberty.”The retreat was on display Sunday and Monday, after France, the U.K., Canada and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state — with more countries likely to follow this week — breaking with leadership in Washington. Trump “has been very clear he disagrees with this decision,” Leavitt told reporters Monday in a preview of his address.“Frankly, he believes it’s a reward to Hamas,” she said, adding that Trump sees the action as “just more talk and not enough action” from his Western counterparts. Trump has urged European leaders to impose huge tariffs on India and China over their oil purchases to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, and separately, the United States has imposed its own punishing trade tariffs on India and a new $100,000 fee on new H-1 B visas. Other leaders have been locked in negotiations with the administration over the tariff regime.Trump is also grappling with unresolved wars in Gaza and Ukraine, which he has pledged to end, a task that remains vexingly out of reach. Acknowledging his frustrations, he said recently that Putin “really let me down” about a month after they met in Alaska for talks aimed at progress.Michael Waltz, in his first remarks as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned Monday that Washington expects Russia to “seek ways to de-escalate” following airspace violations into Estonia and Poland — both NATO members. The Senate confirmed Waltz, Trump’s former national security adviser, on Friday.Trump is also weighing an offer from Putin for a one-year extension to the nuclear weapons treaty with the United States before it expires early next year, Leavitt told reporters.Katherine DoyleKatherine Doyle is a White House reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - September 23, 2025

President Donald Trump will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at a moment of heightened strain with U.S. allies over Palestinian statehood, trade and other flash points as.

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Sept. 23, 2025, 1:03 AM EDTBy Janis Mackey Frayer and Jennifer JettBEIJING — Washington and Beijing will have to communicate better if they are to resolve their various disagreements — and if they don’t talk, it could be “dangerous,” a U.S. lawmaker said Tuesday during a rare congressional visit to China.This is the first delegation of House lawmakers to visit China since 2019; a group of U.S. senators visited Beijing in 2023. Their trip comes amid tensions between the United States and China over trade, technology and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the leader of the bipartisan delegation, said that they held “robust and very helpful” meetings with Chinese officials and that the objective of the trip was to reopen lines of communication between “the two most powerful countries in the world.”“Our relationship is going to be the most consequential relationship in terms of what the world is going to be like for decades to come,” Smith told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. “It is really important that we work to strengthen that relationship and better understand each other.”The military relationship between the United States and China is of particular concern, he said. The congressional delegation arrived weeks after Beijing showed off its military might and advanced weaponry in a highly choreographed parade.“China is the most rapidly growing military and the most rapidly growing nuclear power in the world. The U.S. has the biggest military in the world and the biggest nuclear arsenal,” Smith said. “It is dangerous for us not to be having regular communications about our capabilities and intentions.”President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke Friday in their first phone call since June. Trump said that they agreed during the call to meet on the sidelines of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 APEC Summit in South Korea and that he would visit China early next year. David Perdue, the new U.S. ambassador to China, said the two leaders had a “great call” and were “looking forward to getting together.” “I would say that the relationship between President Xi and President Trump is actually very good and very encouraging right now,” he said.The other members of the delegation are Reps. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa. They are in China until Thursday.Trump discusses TikTok deal in call with China’s Xi02:47After they arrived Sunday, the lawmakers met with Premier Li Qiang, China’s No. 2 official. On Monday, they met with Vice Premier He Lifeng, who has been leading the Chinese side in trade negotiations with the United States, and Defense Minister Dong Jun.In their meeting with He, the delegation discussed the talks with China, which accounts for the largest U.S. trade deficit, and urged Beijing “to help stem the flow of fentanyl to the U.S. and reduce non-tariff barriers to U.S. companies seeking to do business in China,” according to a congressional readout.The delegation also discussed the future of the video app TikTok, which faces a ban in the United States unless its Chinese parent company sells its U.S. assets to U.S. owners, as well as the issue of critical minerals and the export controls Beijing has sought to impose on them as it leverages its near-monopoly in the industry. In their meeting with Dong, the lawmakers stressed the importance of greater communication between the U.S. and Chinese militaries to avoid miscalculation and conflict. Communications between the militaries were suspended starting in August 2022 after Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House speaker at the time, angered Beijing by visiting Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy that China claims as its territory. They were restored in November 2023 after a meeting in the United States between Xi and President Joe Biden. The lawmakers visiting China said that the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific “should not be construed as a threat to China,” that they sought a peaceful resolution to the issue of Taiwan and that conflict between the United States and China “should not be inevitable.”Speaking before their meeting, Dong said the visit “shows a good phase in strengthening China-U.S. communications, and I believe it is the right thing to do.”Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Beijing and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.Janis Mackey FrayerJanis Mackey Frayer is a Beijing-based correspondent for NBC News.Jennifer JettJennifer Jett is the Asia Digital Editor for NBC News, based in Hong Kong.

- Latest News - September 23, 2025

BEIJING — Washington and Beijing will have to communicate better if they are to resolve their various disagreements — and if they don’t talk, it could be “dangerous,” a U.S..

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