Trump rolls out red carpet for Xi; Israel blocks wheelchairs for Gaza’s amputee children; Argentine president threatens Falklands

Palestinian amputee football players who lost limbs in Israeli attacks gather for a training session on a pitch in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Palestine, on September 9, 2026. Photo by Abdalhkem Abu Riash/Anadolu via Getty Images. Thursday, September 24, 2026 – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vows Iran will fight “until our last breath” in UN speech. Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez promises elections "at the right moment" in first UN address. Argentine President Javier Milei threatens unilateral Argentine action on Falklands, calls UN “useless” at General Assembly. AI CEOs urge UN Security Council to regulate technology. Turkey agrees to “gradually” hand over Bashiqa military base to Iraq. Ukraine transfers two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells UN. U.S. pledges additional $267 million to fight central Africa Ebola outbreak. Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted six Ansarallah missiles amid renewed fighting in Yemen. Iran says no U.S. talks until conditions met, Hormuz to remain closed. U.S. Treasury chief says pressure campaign aims at Iranian government split, popular uprising, or deal. Financial Times: War-driven shipping costs hit record highs, forcing refineries to cut production. Israeli attacks kill two Palestinians in central Gaza. Israeli forces raid Palestinian Red Crescent office as settler attacks injure Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. Israel issues tender for 400 new settlement units near Qalqilya. Son of Israeli ambassador to U.S. critically wounded in alleged West Bank ramming attack. Jared Kushner touts Gaza reconstruction plans as Israeli attacks and blockade stall ceasefire implementation. Israel blocks 900 donated wheelchairs for amputee children in Gaza, held in Jordan for over a year. Israeli attacks destroy elderly care center, target solar panels in southern Lebanon amid “ceasefire.” President Donald Trump gives Chinese President Xi Jinping rare airport welcome as high-stakes Washington summit begins. White House preparing 90-day diesel export ban despite internal opposition. Judge dismisses Trump’s election-interference lawsuit against Des Moines Register. ICE explores “mobile detention facilities” in Pennsylvania amid detention expansion. Chicago mayor proposes year-long moratorium on new data centers. CNN: Eight U.S. sailors attempted suicide amid low morale during USS Abraham Lincoln's Iran combat deployment. Reuters: White House blocked State Department condemnation of West Bank import bans. Senate Democrats to introduce bill to sanction Israel's E1 settlement project. Pakistan strikes 10 sites in Afghanistan over drone launches, Kabul says four civilians killed. ICC convicts Central African Republic militia leader of crimes against humanity. OpenAI AI agent breached Australian public health website, PM says. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio conditions discussion with Cuba on regime change. UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warns thousands of displaced Somalis could face famine by year-end. Taiwan upgrades maritime patrols around vulnerable Pratas Islands amid Chinese pressure. North Korea tests upgraded rocket launcher, vows nuclear status “irreversible.” This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday Subscribe UN General Assembly Pezeshkian vows Iran will fight “until our last breath” in UN speech: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly Wednesday that his people have been “victims of terrorism” by the U.S., noting that in the war Iran did not “bend the knee” after the U.S. began its campaign against the country. He also said that Iran remained “ready for negotiations” but would not allow the U.S. to employ “the language of force” against it. During his speech, he held up photos of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and children killed in the war’s opening days. “We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” he said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed the speech, claiming Iran had limited “standing” on the issues of human rights. Venezuela’s Rodriguez promises elections “at the right moment” in first UN address: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez told the UN General Assembly Wednesday, “elections will be held in Venezuela,” saying her government has begun “political dialogue with opposition sectors” toward an “inclusive and transparent process,” while stressing that the Venezuelan people will determine “the right moment” for the vote. Rodríguez, who took power after a January U.S. military raid captured Nicolás Maduro, thanked President Donald Trump “for being willing to resume the course of diplomatic relations” and described strengthening cooperation with the U.S. in the country’s energy industry and related to its security. Trump and Rodríguez met late Tuesday evening during a reception at a New York hotel. Rodríguez wrote on X following the meeting that the two “discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries” and issues “in strategic areas such as energy, mining, security.” Her address was the first by a Venezuelan head of state to the Assembly since 2018. Milei threatens unilateral Argentine action on Falklands, calls UN “useless” at General Assembly : Argentine President Javier Milei told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that Argentina would “take matters into our own hands” over the disputed Falkland Islands, criticizing the UN for looking “the other way regarding the situation” and calling it a “useless organisation whose only purpose is to sustain a cast of faintly arrogant parasites.” Milei particularly condemned the Sea Lion offshore oil project, which has been jointly overseen by a British oil exploration company and an Israeli energy company, calling the drilling an “unlawful act.” He told the body that Argentina’s government had begun sanctions proceedings against more than 60 companies and individuals tied to the drilling. The UN does not recognize either Argentine or British claims on the island, and has encouraged the states to resolve the conflict through bilateral negotiations. AI CEOs urge UN Security Council to regulate technology: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told the UN Security Council Wednesday that AI poses potentially existential risks, with Amodei saying, “if managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” and Altman warning “we could lose control of the future to AI,” urging global safeguards including agreements against AI-built biological weapons and common testing standards. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the U.K. will make AI control central to its G20 presidency next year, but White House Science Adviser Michael Kratsios countered that safety concerns are “not a reason to pause its further development or to constrain it with new global governance structure,” while Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong warned against countries “banding together into a petty us-vs.-them clique” and pushed open-source models instead. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately warned that AI may soon make battlefield targeting decisions without human control, citing a Russian drone that reportedly killed three Ukrainians after autonomously selecting a target. The meeting unfolded alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Washington visit, where U.S. and Chinese officials have discussed a potential AI incident “notification mechanism.” Turkey agrees to “gradually” hand over Bashiqa military base to Iraq: Turkey and Iraq agreed in a joint statement Wednesday that Turkish forces will “gradually hand over” the contentious Bashiqa-Zilkan military base to the Iraqi federal government, following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Zaidi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The handover is linked to Iraq removing “banned foreign armed elements” from the Yazidi region of Sinjar, which Turkey has long accused the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of using as a logistical corridor. The statement said the transition would take place “in line with an agreed mechanism and timetable,” though it did not offer detail on either. Ukraine transfers two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, Zelenskyy tells UN : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that Ukraine has sent two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea. The two soldiers, captured in Russia’s Kursk region in January last year, are reportedly the first North Koreans taken alive since Pyongyang joined the war. Zelenskyy said one of the soldiers “tried to kill himself” upon realizing he would be captured alive and “was shocked that fate did not let him die.” U.S. pledges additional $267 million to fight central Africa Ebola outbreak : The U.S. State Department pledged an additional $267 million Wednesday to combat the Ebola outbreak in central Africa, bringing the Trump administration’s total commitment to $886 million, senior officials announced on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The U.S. has reportedly been pushing other countries at the conclave to commit funds in hopes of reaching a $2 billion funding target. The outbreak, detected in May and already the second most lethal on record, is centered mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka called the outbreak “a major test” for the country during her speech before the General Assembly, claiming that the country’s experience handling 16 previous outbreaks had recently begun yielding “tangible results” “We cannot be silent”: Netherlands calls Gaza conditions a “disgrace,” pledges to evacuate 250 children: Speaking at a Call to Action for Palestinian Children in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, hosted by the EU, Belgium, and Jordan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Netherlands representative Sjoerd Sjoerdsma condemned Israel’s restrictions on aid and called on European governments to take further action. “It’s completely unacceptable. We should call it as it is, it’s a disgrace,” Sjoerdsma said. “While I appreciate the moment of silence, we cannot be silent. We need to speak up and we need to adhere to the call to action.” The Netherlands, Sjoerdsma said, has decided to ban products from Israeli settlements, continue calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel trade and association agreement, and join Jordan’s initiative to medically evacuate 1,000 sick and injured children from Gaza, taking responsibility for at least 250. Watch a video dispatch from the meeting by Drop Site’s Maysa Mustafa here . Yemen Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted six Ansarallah missiles amid renewed fighting in Yemen: The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted six ballistic missiles launched by Ansarallah, as Saudi Civil Defense briefly issued danger alerts for Mecca, Jeddah, Yanbu, Tabuk, and Taif. Separately, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces claimed they had repelled an Ansarallah attack and several infiltration attempts near the road connecting Aden, Taiz, and Lahj. No independent confirmation of the account or reported losses was immediately available. Iran Iran says no U.S. talks until conditions met, Hormuz to remain closed: Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran will not negotiate with Washington or reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. implements seven Iranian conditions conveyed through intermediaries, including ending the war on all fronts, releasing Iran’s frozen funds, and ending the U.S. naval blockade, WANA News reported. He said the conditions must either be implemented in full at once or within roughly three to five days before the strait is reopened, arguing that Washington must first rebuild trust after violations of commitments during previous negotiations. Rezaei said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had conveyed the conditions through intermediaries, including Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq, stressing that the exchanges taking place around the UN General Assembly in New York do not constitute negotiations. “The United States has been seeking negotiations for about a month and a half,” Rezaei said, adding that Tehran had instead “put its conditions in writing” and passed them to mediators. U.S. Treasury chief says pressure campaign aims at Iranian government split, popular uprising, or deal: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Iran is aimed at producing one of three outcomes: divisions within Iran’s government, an uprising by Iranians, or an agreement with Tehran that Washington says Iran would be required to uphold. “The goal here can be one of three states of the world,” Bessent told Fox News. “One, the regime turns on each other—not impossible. Two, we get some kind of uprising from the Iranian people.” The third, he said, is “to get the Iranians, if they want to make a deal, to stick to the deal.” Bessent said Washington was carrying out an unprecedented effort to cut off Iran’s “financial oxygen,” predicting Tehran would eventually “yell uncle.” He also threatened companies and