Today in Our News Briefs: Just Another Day of Madness in 2026
Zelenskyy calls on world leaders at the UN to cut off the money Russia needs to keep fighting its war. Meanwhile, Trump invites Putin to the G20 summit at his golf resort in Miami. In Iowa, a judge throws out Trump's lawsuit against a pollster and a newspaper. Facebook is on trial over the data scandal involving 87 million profiles, and Trump has his diplomats start calling artificial intelligence "super intelligence."
"Limit His Money, Limit His War": Zelenskyy Calls for More Pressure on Russia at the UN
Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the UN General Assembly on Wednesday and talked about money. The money that allows Russia to keep waging its war against Ukraine. "Russia's revenues must remain a target," the Ukrainian president declared. Every country that sends more money to Moscow through trade gives this war more time. That is why Ukraine is calling for trade with the aggressor to be restricted. That is why Ukraine is attacking Russia's sources of revenue itself. Zelenskyy boiled his demand down to 2 sentences: "Limit his money. Limit his war."
Russia has been waging war against Ukraine for more than 4½ years. Front lines in the east and south have barely changed since last year. Meanwhile, drone and missile attacks are reaching ever deeper behind the lines. Russia has used 63,000 attack drones of various types against his country this year alone, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine has proven that it can stand its ground even against a much larger enemy. He called on world leaders to deny Putin additional revenue and foreign fighters. The Ukrainian president also questioned Russia's willingness to end the war. Something always seems to stop Putin from finally saying, "Enough. Peace." Zelenskyy called him "Patient Zero," the one from whom the war keeps spreading. At the same time, he rejected the impression that Ukraine is focused on weapons and sanctions because it wants to be. Ukrainians did not choose this war, he told the assembly. "We choose not to die. We are defending ourselves."
Lavrov Talks About Peace in New York but Rejects a Pause in the Fighting
While Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for further action against Russia's war revenues before the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laid out Moscow's position at the Security Council. Russia is prepared to negotiate a lasting peace, he said Wednesday. The government, however, rejects a mere pause in the war. From Russia's point of view, such a pause would only give Ukraine and its supporters time to bring in more weapons.
That leaves 2 competing views in New York on how to bring the war to an end. Zelenskyy is demanding economic pressure to restrict Moscow's ability to keep fighting. Lavrov warns against a ceasefire that, in his account, could be used to further arm Ukraine. Russia continues to justify its invasion by claiming it is protecting its own security and the interests of Russians and Russian-speaking people in parts of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin will not address the General Assembly himself. He has not traveled to its meetings in years and is leaving Russia's representation there to Lavrov. The foreign minister is scheduled to address the assembly on Saturday. Until then, the gap remains between Russia's stated willingness to negotiate and Ukraine's demand to cut the money funding Russia's war. The fighting continues at the front.
Drones Over Kyiv as Zelenskyy Speaks in New York
Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in broad daylight on Wednesday. 2 people were killed and 23 were wounded. Another attack sparked a major fire at a shopping mall in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, injuring 2 people. While Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking to the UN General Assembly in New York about the continuing war, his government back home was once again reporting deaths and injuries.
Russia's Defense Ministry, for its part, said Russian forces had struck Ukrainian defense industry and energy facilities, as well as logistics centers and ships, overnight. Russian air defenses had intercepted more than 500 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Drones had also been intercepted over the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The ministry's claims cannot be independently verified on the basis of its statement alone.
Military positions in eastern and southern Ukraine have changed little since last year. At the same time, both sides have intensified their long-range attacks. The consequences reach far beyond the front lines: The war is disrupting fuel and grain shipments around the world. Zelenskyy put the number of Russian attack drones used against Ukraine since the beginning of the year at 63,000. On Wednesday, people in Kyiv once again had to seek shelter from them.
Zelenskyy Waits for More U.S. Air Defense Systems and Talks With Trump About Ending the War
Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs more American Patriot air defense systems. But Ukraine has yet to receive clear answers to its efforts to obtain additional systems, the president told reporters in New York on Tuesday. A day later, he told the UN General Assembly that Russia had used 63,000 attack drones of various types against Ukraine this year alone. That same Wednesday, Russian drones struck Kyiv. 2 people were killed and 23 were wounded. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy had also met with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Before the meeting, the American president repeated his belief that Russia and Ukraine would reach an agreement to end the fighting. Zelenskyy expressed hope. During his 2024 election campaign, Trump had already promised to quickly broker an end to the war. More than 4½ years after Russia's invasion began, the fighting continues.
Western experts estimate that more than 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed. They estimate Ukraine has suffered more than 500,000 military casualties, including wounded personnel, with as many as 140,000 killed. Neither country releases its own overall figures. Zelenskyy spoke at the UN about weapons and sanctions. Having to talk about them again and again could make it seem as though Ukraine is focused exclusively on war, he explained. His answer was brief: "Ukrainians did not choose this war."
Trump Renames Artificial Intelligence. His Diplomats Now Have to Call It "Super Intelligence"
Donald Trump has a problem with the word "artificial." It makes intelligence sound fake, he told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. After all, the technology is "actually amazing." So the president announced that American government documents would now use what he considers the more accurate term, "super intelligence." Just a few hours later, the new wording landed in American diplomats' inboxes. A word from Trump's speech had become an official instruction.
Michael Drager, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, instructed his staff by email to replace every reference to "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" in documents and official statements. From now on, the abbreviation "SI" was also to appear in speeches and press materials. The bureau oversees American missions to the United Nations and other international organizations. By Wednesday, U.S. representatives were already using the new term at a UN Security Council meeting that, of all things, was about the risks of artificial intelligence. Whether other State Department bureaus and government agencies had received the same instruction initially remained unclear.
The name change could even affect the "AI Force" Trump announced just this past weekend, which would have to become the "SI Force" under the new directive. While the president changes the name, business leaders and politicians are warning that the technology could advance faster than humans can control it. They are calling for international safeguards. Trump rejects stronger government oversight. He says it must not slow development and that the United States needs to maintain its lead over China. On Monday, he claimed his country was already ahead in artificial intelligence. He would not stifle its growth, he said, because the technology would become bigger than the Industrial Revolution or the internet. It is also expected to play a major role in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whose visit to Washington is scheduled to begin Wednesday. In American government documents, it now has a new name.
Facebook on Trial: 87 Million Profiles, Billions at Stake, and Zuckerberg's Special List
Facebook promised its users that their personal data would be protected. In New Mexico, a court is now examining what that promise was worth. After 2 weeks of evidence, attorneys for the state urged jurors on Wednesday to hold the company accountable for thousands of violations of consumer protection law. At the center of the case is the Cambridge Analytica data scandal: A personality quiz was used to harvest information from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles, and that information was sold to the political consulting firm. Its clients included Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. "We became the product for Facebook," attorney Randi McGinn said. The company had turned its users' dreams into data it could sell to advertisers.
Facebook denies selling user data. Company attorney Dane Butswinkas said suspicious third-party apps had been investigated after the scandal and that safeguards had been significantly improved over the past 5 years. Revenue and product development teams were kept separate, he said. Despite years of investigation, New Mexico had identified only 2 data breaches. McGinn countered that third-party apps had been able to collect personal information without Facebook adequately checking who was behind them. The state estimates that roughly 350,000 residents were directly affected by the data breach. But the allegations go further: Facebook allegedly deceived every user in New Mexico with its statements about privacy and its handling of violent content. At the time, more than 1.3 million people in the state used the platform.
Mark Zuckerberg also had to answer questions. In a recorded deposition, he was questioned about a list containing thousands of accounts whose posts had to go through additional reviews before they could be removed. Zuckerberg had instructed employees by email to add podcaster Joe Rogan's accounts to the list. The prosecution argued that this special treatment had delayed reviews, allowing widely shared posts to reach millions of people before being taken down. Zuckerberg said the company had to be careful when dealing with politically sensitive content. According to Facebook's attorney, the platform protects users from 99 percent of content that violates its rules. Jurors must now decide whether the company violated New Mexico law and, if so, how many times. The state is seeking up to $5,000 per violation, along with a court order to prevent further breaches of user data. That could result in billions of dollars in penalties. While 48 other states reached a settlement with Meta, New Mexico is pursuing this case on its own. In a separate trial, the state has already been awarded a total of $942 million, and additional protections for minors have been ordered. Those rulings are on hold pending an appeal.
Trump Sued a Pollster Over Her Election Poll. A Judge Throws Out the Lawsuit
A poll showed Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump in Iowa just days before the 2024 presidential election. Harris had 47 percent among likely voters, compared with Trump's 44 percent. The actual election result was different: Trump received 56 percent of the vote among nearly 2 million Iowa voters. In December, he sued pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and its parent company. He alleged that the poll had been deliberately manipulated to hurt him and help Democrats. Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former state Senator Brad Zaun also joined the lawsuit. They claimed damage to their reputations, lost campaign time and wasted campaign funds.
On Wednesday, District Judge Scott J. Beattie dismissed the lawsuit. Publishing an election poll and reporting on it are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he ruled. Trump had attempted to apply Iowa's consumer protection law to political speech, stretching it beyond its existing limits. The judge went further: Even if, solely for the purpose of reviewing the lawsuit, he assumed that the poll had been deliberately skewed and its results fabricated, none of the 3 claims came anywhere close to meeting the legal requirements for fraud or consumer deception. Allowing the case to proceed could discourage people from reporting on and debating public affairs, Beattie warned.
Selzer welcomed the decision. Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome. The newspaper and its owner also welcomed the ruling as a reaffirmation of press freedom. Trump's legal team, meanwhile, announced that it would take the case to the Iowa Supreme Court. The ruling came just hours after the hearing in Washington over Trump's exclusion of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. There, Judge Timothy J. Kelly had heard arguments from both sides but had not yet issued a decision. In Iowa, a ruling has already been handed down: Under the legal claims Trump brought, an inaccurate election forecast does not give rise to a valid claim against the newspaper or the pollster.
Trump Invites Putin to Miami. Europe's Protests Against Russia Are Back on the Guest List, Too
Donald Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in December. The venue is Trump's own golf resort in Miami. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the invitation on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. If Putin accepts, Trump will speak with him. The Kremlin had not yet responded publicly. For Putin, it would be his first in-person appearance at a G20 summit since 2019. Russia has been waging war against Ukraine for more than 4½ years. In Miami, its president is now being invited back to the table with the world's leaders.
The G20 finance ministers' meeting in Asheville in August already offered a glimpse of how difficult that could be. The Trump administration had invited Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. European officials protested, and Siluanov was left out of the customary group photo. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil described his presence as troubling in light of Russia's continuing attacks on Ukraine. Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 after its annexation of Crimea in 2014, but it remains a member of the G20. Trump has repeatedly called for Russia to be brought back into the G7.
Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August 2025. No agreement to end the war has been reached since then. Rubio, who as a senator called Putin a war criminal and warned against negotiating with him, now defends Trump's offer of talks. On Tuesday, he sat down with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Wednesday, he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Only a negotiated agreement can end the war, Rubio said. The sooner that agreement is reached, the fewer people will die on both sides.
According to Rubio, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is also expected at the summit in Miami. Trump is also planning to meet Xi in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen during an economic summit in mid-November. Putin, meanwhile, has not traveled to the United States since his 2015 UN visit; he sent representatives to the most recent G20 meetings. Whether he will come this time remains an open question. The invitation stands. And the European governments that already protested his finance minister's appearance must now decide how to handle a possible encounter with the Russian president.
