Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s military chief say Russia’s 2025 offensives have failed
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Kamala Harris has a five-word response to the Comey indictment
Kamala Harris is touring the U.S. for her new book. She spoke exclusively to CNN about the FBI Director James Comey’s indictment. The former vice president spent her professional life as a prosecutor. She warned during the campaign that Trump would go after people he considered his political enemies. The Justice Department bringing charges against Comey came after Trump publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi and replaced the US attorney for the district where Comey was indicted.
“It’s frustrating, but more than that, it’s painful to see,” Harris said, speaking exclusively to CNN on Friday afternoon during a break in the Washington swing of her tour, when asked what she made of Trump’s term so far. “It’s painful to see. I mean what’s happening with Comey: Are you fucking kidding me? The United States Department of Justice?”
Before being elected to the Senate in 2016, the former vice president spent her professional life as a prosecutor, including her time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, and issues of the law hit hard for her.
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Harris warned during the campaign that Trump would go after people he considered his political enemies. The Justice Department bringing charges against Comey came after Trump publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi and replaced the US attorney for the district where Comey was indicted.
“He said it; we knew he would do it,” Harris said. “But it is every day unrelenting.”
Harris said she had seen the Truth Social post from last week addressed to “Pam,” as in Bondi, demanding the prosecution, and had heard the speculation that it might have been intended as a direct message to the attorney general.
Either way, Harris told CNN, Trump’s intent seemed clear, and that means a president who has ordered the prosecution of a person against whom he has long sought vengeance.
Asked whether she sees the indictment as the crossing of a Rubicon, or a boundary, Harris said, “I don’t know. Define Rubicon.”
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The federal government could shut down soon. Here’s what you need to know
Congress must provide funding for many federal departments and functions every fiscal year, which begins on October 1. If lawmakers fail to pass a spending package for the full year or extend funding for a shorter period, then many agencies and activities must shutter. Since 1980, there have been 14 government shutdowns, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The most recent one occurred during his first term, starting in late December 2018 and lasting 35 days, the longest on record. Some government functions can continue – at least for a certain period of time – if they are funded through fees or other types of appropriations. If the impasse is not resolved, the coming government shutdown could be unlike any other in recent memory. The White House Office of Management and Budget has already signaled that they are willing to use a totally different playbook — urging agencies to downsize workers in programs whose funding has lapsed and which don’t align with Trump’s priorities. But in an unusual move, OMB this time is not posting agencies’ shutdown contingency plans on its website.
Although Republicans control Capitol Hill and the White House, they need at least seven Democrats in the Senate to join them to pass a spending package under the chamber’s rules. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, however, is demanding any funding bill contain an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, along with several other items, to get his party’s support. GOP leaders want an extension of funding for seven weeks, with additional money for security for the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
President Donald Trump does not appear interested in working out a compromise. He canceled a meeting this week with Democratic leaders and said Thursday that their demands were “totally unreasonable.”
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If the impasse is not resolved, the coming government shutdown could be unlike any other in recent memory. While no two shutdowns are exactly the same, Trump and the White House Office of Management and Budget have already signaled that they are willing to use a totally different playbook — urging agencies to downsize workers in programs whose funding has lapsed and which don’t align with Trump’s priorities.
Trump is no stranger to government shutdowns. The most recent one occurred during his first term, starting in late December 2018 and lasting 35 days, the longest on record.
Here’s what we know about the looming government shutdown:
What is a government shutdown?
Congress must provide funding for many federal departments and functions every fiscal year, which begins on October 1. If lawmakers fail to pass a spending package for the full year or extend funding for a shorter period, known as a continuing resolution, then many agencies and activities must shutter until Congress appropriates more money.
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Lawmakers have yet to pass through both chambers any of the 12 appropriations bills that make up the federal discretionary spending budget. So the coming shutdown would be considered a full shutdown.
During prior impasses, Congress approved annual funding for certain agencies, which allowed them to continue operating while other federal departments went dark. That situation is known as a partial shutdown.
Since 1980, there have been 14 government shutdowns, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
What is the shutdown deadline?
The shutdown will begin on October 1, first thing Wednesday morning, if Congress doesn’t act before that.
What programs and payments will stop?
Every government shutdown differs somewhat, but typically functions that are critical to the protection of lives and property are deemed essential and remain open. Agencies file what are known as contingency plans that detail what operations will continue and how many employees will remain on the job, many of them without pay.
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However, in an unusual move, OMB this time is not posting agencies’ shutdown contingency plans on its website. Instead, the plans are hosted only on each agency’s site — making it harder to assess how the Trump administration will handle the shutdown and which activities it will deem essential. (OMB noted in a memo earlier this week that it had not yet received updated contingency plans from every agency.)
Previous shutdowns have stalled food inspections; canceled immigration hearings; and delayed some federal lending to homebuyers and small businesses, among other impacts.
In the most recent shutdown, students had trouble getting needed tax documents from the Internal Revenue Service to get financial aid for the spring semester, and the US Department of Agriculture warned that it could only guarantee to provide food stamp benefits through February.
Notably, important benefit programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, will continue. Also, key services — including law enforcement and border patrol — are typically deemed essential and aren’t affected.
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Some government functions can continue – at least for a certain period of time – if they are funded through fees or other types of appropriations. For instance, when a shutdown loomed in the fall of 2023, the Internal Revenue Service said it could use some of the funding it received from the Inflation Reduction Act to keep preparing for the upcoming filing season – updating tax forms and technology systems and hiring and training staff. Its contingency plan showed that all workers would have continued to be paid through IRA funding.
If the government shuts down next month, it’s likely that immigration, border patrol and defense activities funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July, would continue. The relevant agencies’ contingency plans should specify what functions would remain operational.
“Thankfully, H.R. 1 provided ample resources to ensure that many core Trump Administration priorities will continue uninterrupted,” OMB wrote in its memo to agencies about preparing mass layoff plans, referring to the president’s domestic agenda package.
Most Veterans Affairs medical services and the Veterans Crisis Line would continue to operate in a shutdown, according to the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. However, the VA would not be able to collect copayments, provide suicide prevention grants to community providers or provide services to veterans with serious mental illness or those experiencing homelessness.
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Agencies and administrations have some amount of choice in which services they deem essential, said Molly Reynolds, interim director of the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution.
In Trump’s first term, Reynolds noted that the administration took some measures to make the shutdown less painful, such as allowing the IRS to process tax refunds — a departure from prior shutdowns.
But that may not be the case this year.
“The OMB memo threatening wide-scale federal layoffs if there is a shutdown suggests that this time around, they might be looking to make the shutdown more painful,” she said.
Will national parks stay open?
A National Park Service Ranger conducts a walking tour in Shark Valley, part of the Everglades National Park, on April 17, 2025 in Florida. – Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The impact of shutdowns on the 400-plus national park sites has differed greatly in recent shutdowns.
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In 2013, an estimated 8 million recreation visits and $414 million were lost during the 16-day shutdown, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, citing National Park Service data. During the most recent shutdown in 2019, many parks remained open though no visitor services were provided. The Park Service lost $400,000 a day from missed entrance fee revenue, according to the association’s estimates. What’s more, park visitors would have typically spent $20 million on an average January day in nearby communities.
States have also stepped in to keep some national parks open using their own funds. When a shutdown loomed in the fall of 2023, Utah said it would keep the Mighty 5 parks – Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion – open, while Arizona planned to keep the Grand Canyon operational. Colorado also said it would also keep its four national parks and other federal lands open.
What’s the impact on airline travel?
Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers are typically deemed essential and must remain on the job, though they are not paid. But staffing shortages during past shutdowns have snarled flights.
The decision by 10 air traffic controllers to stay home in January 2019 helped end that shutdown. Their absence temporarily shut down travel at New York’s LaGuardia airport and caused delays at other major hubs, including in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Atlanta, driving Trump to agree to a temporary government funding measure.
How about the impact on federal workers?
Federal workers bear the brunt of government shutdowns. Some are furloughed, while others are considered essential and have to continue working. But many don’t get paid until the impasse ends.
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In March, the last time a federal government shutdown loomed before being averted, more than 1.4 million employees were deemed essential, according to Rachel Snyderman, managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. About 750,000 of them would have continued to be paid since their salaries were funded through other sources.
Another nearly 900,000 workers would have been furloughed without pay. (Snyderman noted that the estimates did not include the layoffs and departures that occurred in the early weeks of the Trump administration.)
The Defense Department informed active duty and reserve military members, as well as civilian employees, on Thursday that they will not be paid after September 30 until Congress approves funding for the agency, according to a memo viewed by CNN. Active duty members will have to continue to report for work.
This week, judiciary officials warned that federal courts could be affected by a shutdown within days, much sooner than in previous occurrences, because of tight budgets. While judges and Supreme Court justices would continue to be paid, many other judicial employees would not.
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Federal workers are guaranteed to receive their back pay after the impasse is resolved. However, the same is not true for federal contractors who may be furloughed or temporarily laid off by their employers during a shutdown.
What does a shutdown do to the economy?
Shutdowns can have real consequences for the economy since federal spending is delayed, and many federal workers pull back on their purchases while they aren’t receiving paychecks.
The five-week shutdown in 2018-2019 resulted in a $3 billion loss in economic growth that would not be recovered, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate. It noted that some private sector businesses would never make up their lost income.
Also, because the IRS reduced its compliance activities during the shutdown, CBO estimated that tax revenues would be roughly $2 billion lower — much of which would not be recouped.
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The impact stretches beyond the federal government.
The US Travel Association wrote a letter to congressional leaders in late September urging them to avoid a shutdown, which it said would result in flight delays, longer airport security lines and canceled trips.
“A shutdown is a wholly preventable blow to America’s travel economy — costing $1 billion every week — and affecting millions of travelers and businesses while placing unnecessary strain on an already overextended federal travel workforce,” wrote Geoff Freeman, the association’s CEO. “The consequences of inaction and immediate and severe.”
CNN’s John Fritze, Camila DeChalus and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.
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While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 27, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply denounced Western countries on Sept 26 for embracing Palestinian statehood. He accused them of sending the message that “murdering Jews pays off’ Scores of delegates exited the hall as Mr Netanyahu took to the stage while some attendees in the balcony gave him a standing ovation. A judge jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous’ and “sadistic” attacks on babies. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commander said that Russian offensives had failed to meet their goals and Moscow was suffering heavy losses on the battlefield. Malaysian footballers banned over forged documents and seven players handed a 12-month suspension from all football-related activities. A US judge rejected a bid by China-based DJI, the world’S largest drone maker, to be removed from a list of companies allegedly working with Beijing.
Scores of delegates exited the hall as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the stage to address the UN General Assembly on Sept 26.
Message in backing Palestinian state: Killing Jews pays
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply denounced Western countries on Sept 26 for embracing Palestinian statehood, accusing them of sending the message that “murdering Jews pays off”.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, the Israeli leader pushed back in his harshest terms yet against a flurry of diplomatic moves by leading US allies that deepened Israel’s international isolation over its conduct of a nearly two-year-old war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
“This week, the leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries unconditionally recognised a Palestinian state,” he said. “They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on Oct 7 – horrors praised on that day by nearly 90 per cent of the Palestinian population.”
Scores of delegates exited the hall as Mr Netanyahu took to the stage while some attendees in the balcony gave him a standing ovation.
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Russia’s 2025 offensives failed: Zelensky, army chief
PHOTO: PRESIDENT.GOV.UA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commander said on Sept 26 that Russian offensives had failed to meet their goals and Moscow was suffering heavy losses on the battlefield.
Mr Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ukrainian forces had inflicted heavy casualties on Russian troops in a counter-offensive near Dobropillia in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi told reporters that “the Russians’ spring and summer campaign has effectively been disrupted.”
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China drone maker DJI loses US Pentagon lawsuit
PHOTO: AFP
A US judge on Sept 26 rejected a bid by China-based DJI, the world’s largest drone maker, to be removed from the US Defence Department’s list of companies allegedly working with Beijing’s military.
In his ruling, US District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, DC, said the Defence Department had substantial evidence supporting its finding that DJI, which sells more than half of all US commercial drones, contributes to the “Chinese defence industrial base”.
DJI had urged the court to order its removal from the Pentagon list designating it as a Chinese military company, saying it “is neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military.”
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‘Sadistic’ nursery worker jailed for abusing 21 babies
PHOTO: METROPOLITAN POLICE
A judge on Sept 26 jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous” and “sadistic” attacks on babies.
In one incident, Londoner Roksana Lecka, 22, kicked a little boy in the face several times.
Lecka, who blamed cannabis for her crimes, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted after a trial of another 14 counts.
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Malaysian footballers banned over forged documents
PHOTO: AFP
Fifa’s disciplinary committee has imposed sanctions on the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven players, after the world governing body found that doctored documentation had been used so that they could play in an Asian Cup qualifier for Malaysia against Vietnam.
The seven footballers – Deportivo Alaves’ Facundo Garces, Gabriel Arrocha (Unionistas de Salamanca), Rodrigo Holgado (America de Cali), Imanol Machuca (Velez Sarsfield), Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel (all Johor Darul Takzim) – were handed a 12-month suspension from all football-related activities.
Fifa said in a statement on Sept 26 that the FAM had submitted eligibility enquiries and used doctored documentation to be able to field the seven players, breaching Article 22 of the organisation’s disciplinary code that is concerned with forgery and falsification.
Trump asks Supreme Court to decide whether he can end birthright citizenship
The administration says the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on people born in the U.S. The Supreme Court handed down an important decision in June that dealt with birthright citizenship. But that case was focused on a more procedural question of how much power lower courts had to stop a policy implemented by a president. A series of new rulings have continued to keep Trump’s policy on hold, and the ad ministration is now asking the justices to take up those cases to settle the issue once and for all. The administration has long expressed confidence that the high court would approve Trump’s policy. But it’s not entirely clear whether four justices will ultimately vote in favor of hearing the cases, as is required.“This executive order is illegal, full stop, and no amount of maneuvering from the administration is going to change that,” says an ACLU attorney who argued the New Hampshire case. “We will continue to ensure that no baby’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this cruel and senseless order.”
Despite more than a century of understanding that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on people born in the United States, the Trump administration told the Supreme Court in an appeal that notion was “mistaken” and that the view became “pervasive, with destructive consequences.”
“The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the president and his administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” wrote Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the administration’s top appellate attorney. “Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”
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CNN reviewed a copy of the appeal, which has not yet been docketed at the high court.
While the Supreme Court handed down an important decision in June that dealt with birthright citizenship, that case was technically focused on a more procedural question of how much power lower courts had to stop a policy implemented by a president. A 6-3 majority of the court essentially limited – but did not completely rule out – the power of courts to block those policies.
That decision sent states and individuals who were challenging Trump’s birthright order scrambling to file new cases to shut down the birthright policy through other means, including class-action lawsuits. The Supreme Court implicitly allowed those other types of nationwide blocks to continue.
A series of new rulings have continued to keep Trump’s policy on hold, and the ad ministration is now asking the justices to take up those cases to settle the issue once and for all.
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The administration has long expressed confidence that the high court would approve Trump’s policy. But it’s not entirely clear whether four justices will ultimately vote in favor of hearing the cases, as is required.
At issue are two of several lower-court rulings that have held up implementation of Trump’s policy since the high court’s more procedural ruling this summer. In July, a San Francisco-based federal appeals court upheld a Seattle judge’s ruling that blocked Trump’s policy nationwide in a case brought by a group of Democratic-led states.
A separate decision issued earlier that month by a judge in New Hampshire barred enforcement of Trump’s order against any babies who would be impacted by the policy in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The administration filed its appeal in both of those cases on Friday.
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“The government has a compelling interest in ensuring that American citizenship – the privilege that allows us to choose our political leaders – is granted only to those who are lawfully entitled to it,” the administration wrote in those appeals.
The administration has in recent weeks appealed the ruling from New Hampshire to a Boston-based federal appeals court, but the intermediate court has not yet had a chance to weigh in on the matter.
“This executive order is illegal, full stop, and no amount of maneuvering from the administration is going to change that,” said Cody Wofsy, an ACLU attorney who argued the New Hampshire case. “We will continue to ensure that no baby’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this cruel and senseless order.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Signed by Trump on January 20, the executive order, titled “PROTECTING THE MEANING AND VALUE OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP,” said that the federal government will not “issue documents recognizing United States citizenship” to any children born on American soil to parents who were in the country unlawfully or were in the states lawfully but temporarily.
Three decades after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, the Supreme Court ruled in US v. Wong Kim Ark that people born in the United States – in that case, the son of Chinese immigrants – are entitled to US citizenship, with a few narrow exceptions. But the administration argued in its appeal that the precedent has long been misunderstood.
The Wong Kim Ark decision recognized citizenship for people born in the United States who enjoyed “permanent domicil and residence” in the country, US Solicitor General Sauer argued.
“That limit,” Sauer wrote, “was central to the analysis.”
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But those arguments have had no purchase in lower courts thus far.
The 9th Circuit said in a 2-1 ruling in July that Trump’s order contradicts the citizenship clause of the Constitution, Wong Kim Ark and decades of executive branch practice.
“The district court correctly concluded that the Executive Order’s proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many persons born in the United States, is unconstitutional. We fully agree,” appeals court Judge Ronald Gould wrote for the majority.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen’s World War II combat pilots, dies at 100
Lt. Col. George Hardy was among the first Black military pilots in the nation. Hardy flew 21 missions over Germany during World War II and also served in the Korean War and Vietnam War. Hardy became the youngest Tuskegee fighter pilot when he completed the Army Air Corps pilot training program in 1942. Nearly 1,000 Black pilots completed training and earned their commissions.
He was 100 years old.
“His legacy is one of courage, resilience, tremendous skill and dogged perseverance against racism, prejudice and other evils, said Leon Butler, national president of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. “We are forever grateful for his sacrifice and will hold dear to his memory.”
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At 19, Hardy became the youngest Tuskegee fighter pilot when he completed the Army Air Corps pilot training program in 1942, earning his wings and a commission as a second lieutenant.
He was among the first Black military pilots in the nation. Hardy flew 21 missions over Germany during World War II and also served in the Korean War and Vietnam War.
The U.S. military was segregated during World War II and created what was then called the Tuskegee Experiment to test whether Black Americans could command and maintain complex aircraft in battle.
Nearly 1,000 Black pilots completed training and earned their commissions. More than 300 served overseas during the war. Thousands of support personnel, including women, who were also part of the so-called experiment also earned the right to call themselves Tuskegee Airmen, serving with distinction and ultimately helping to integrate the military.
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There are 13 “Documented Original Tuskegee Airmen” still alive, according to the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., an organization started in 1975 to preserve legacy of the Airmen.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com