Morning Briefing: Wednesday 23 September 2026
- Fuel: American and Iranian officials spent three hours in talks in New York and Brent closed below $100 for the first time since 8 September — six falls in a row. Trump’s promise: “as soon as the war is over the prices are going to come way down.”
- Chagos: Trump called the £101m-a-year Diego Garcia lease-back “terrible” and the Prime Minister agreed to look at it again — a deal paused since April is now formally under review, with the base and the bill both in play.
- Security: Counter-terrorism police say they have disrupted a plot against Manchester’s Jewish community, arresting two men on the eve of Yom Kippur — the threat level stays at severe a year after the Heaton Park attack.
Three Hours of US-Iran Talks in New York; Tehran Names Its Price
The first American-Iranian contact since June’s memorandum collapsed took place on the UN sidelines: Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent about three hours with Iranian officials — “not the highest level, but it’s something”, in Mr Trump’…
Zelensky Offers an Energy Ceasefire After Trump Talks; Rubio Meets Lavrov Today
Forty minutes with Mr Trump produced an offer rather than an answer: “We are ready for energy ceasefire… if they will not attack our energy system, our electricity, heating system, water supplies,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that the preside…
Xi Lands in Washington Today as Beijing Draws Four 'Red Lines'
China’s leader arrives in Maryland today for his first American state visit since 2015, with Thursday’s summit and state dinner reportedly drawing Bezos, Musk, Altman, Cook, Pichai, Zuckerberg and Huang. Beijing set the terms in advance th…
Greenland Text Published: Golden Dome, No End Date, No Non-NATO Bases
The agreement signed at the UN was released overnight: it amends the 1951 defence treaty, allows “an additional Defence Area at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig”, permits the Golden Dome missile-defence system, bars military installations by non-…
Macron's UN Farewell: Gaza a 'Spectacle That Should Shame Us All'
In his last General Assembly speech before leaving office in May, the French president turned on Washington’s Gaza diplomacy: “Some boast of a supposed peace. But that peace has not reopened humanitarian access for a single second. Are we…
Trump Calls Chagos Deal 'Terrible'; Burnham Agrees to Look Again
The first meeting overran its thirty minutes and produced the papers’ unanimous lead: “I don’t support it. I think it’s terrible. It was a terrible deal… I think the prime minister is going to be looking at it,” Mr Trump said of the Diego…
Burnham to the UN: Russia Spends £1.3bn a Year Poisoning Britain's Debate
The Prime Minister used his first General Assembly speech to name Russia’s information war on Britain: “The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information”, forging the branding of 28 British organisations includi…
Police Foil 'Imminent' Plot Against Manchester's Jewish Community; Two Held
Counter-terrorism police say a long-running investigation has disrupted a plot to attack Jewish people in the Manchester area: two men in their thirties were arrested in Newton Street on Sunday afternoon under the Terrorism Act, hours befo…
Migrants Land at Dover After 33 Hours at Sea; Six Held at Gosport
A dinghy that left the Normandy coast on Monday morning reached Dover after midnight, shadowed for more than a day by French coastguard who said its roughly sixty passengers refused help and were “determined to take all risks to reach the…
Reform Falls to 21%, Its Lowest Since January 2025, as Greens Surge
YouGov’s tracker for The Times and Sky put Reform UK on 21%, down two and its worst since the series restarted in January 2025, with Labour on 23%, the Conservatives 21%, the Greens up three at 14% and the Liberal Democrats 12%. Nigel Fara…