Monday, Sept. 26

• The United States aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan participated in joint military exercises with South Korea off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast. “The Ronald Reagan Strike Group’s visit is of strategic importance to the U.S. and Republic of Korea relationship,” said Navy Rear Admiral Buzz Donnelly, the strike group’s commander.
• Responding to the news that Russia granted citizenship to former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, “Mr. Snowden should return to the United States where he should face justice as any other American citizen would.” Snowden has been living in Russia since 2013 after leaking classified documents detailing domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the National Security Agency.
• NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos in a test designed to prevent asteroid collisions with Earth. “Impact confirmed for the world’s first planetary defense test mission,” said NASA while the event was being livestreamed.

Tuesday, Sept. 27

• A Coast Guard vessel patrolling the Bering Sea off Alaska reported an encounter with a Chinese guided missile cruiser, later discovered to be traveling with two other Chinese vessels and four Russian Navy ships. “While the formation has operated in accordance with international rules and norms,” said Rear Admiral Nathan Moore, “we will meet presence-with-presence to ensure there are no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska.”
• The administration of President Joe Biden released a plan to end hunger in the U.S. by 2030. The plan includes expanding monthly benefits for low-income Americans and expansions to Medicaid and Medicare.
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the U.S. military’s sale of a $450 million F-16 fighter jet to Pakistan. “These are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It’s sustaining what they have,” said Blinken. “Pakistan’s program bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan or from the region. It’s in no one’s interests that those threats be able to go forward with impunity.”
• The U.S. announced that it would keep its cap on refugee admissions at 125,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.
• The Defense Department released a report claiming that it found only 12 “credible” cases of civilians killed by the U.S. military worldwide in 2021. The department figure is far lower than what journalists and activists on the ground have reported.
• The U.S. embassy in Moscow reiterated its call for U.S. citizens to “immediately” leave Russia after Russia announced that it was drafting soldiers to fight in Ukraine. “Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals’ U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia, and conscript dual nationals for military service,” an alert said.

Wednesday, Sept. 28

• Biden hosted a two-day summit with leaders from Pacific island nations, the first time such a meeting has been held in the White House. “This is a very sustained effort that will involve almost all the key players in the U.S. government that have interests in the Indo-Pacific,” said Biden’s Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell. The White House announced it would invest over $860 million in to aid the islands.
• Biden warned oil and gas companies against increasing prices ahead of Hurricane Ian’s landfall in Florida. “Do not, let me repeat, do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” Biden said.

Thursday, Sept. 29

• The Senate passed a short-term government funding bill that will keep the government from shutting down until mid-December. It also provides $12.3 billion in aid to Ukraine.
• Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to halt its plan to forgive student loan debt for millions of borrowers, an act that the states claim oversteps the president’s executive powers.
• Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was interviewed by the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Virginia Thomas said she attended a pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6 but claims she played no role in the riot.
• The Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against Iran targeting firms and “front companies” based in China, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and India that the U.S. accuses of selling or abetting the sale of Iranian oil and petrochemical products.
• Vice President Kamala Harris visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on a visit to Seoul. “I cannot state enough that the commitment of the United States to the defense of the Republic of Korea is ironclad,” Harris said.
• Biden warned that Hurricane Ian could be the deadliest storm to hit Florida in the state’s history and promised that the federal government would do everything it could to support Florida residents.
• The U.S. and 14 Pacific island nations ended their two-day White House summit by signing the Declaration on US-Pacific Partnership, a promise to work together toward peace and democracy in the region. The document also makes climate change the “highest priority” because “it remains the single greatest existential threat to the livelihoods, security, traditional and customary practices, and well-being of people in the Pacific region.”

Friday, Sept. 30

• The Treasury Department sanctioned nearly 300 firms and officials that the U.S. accuses of having links to Russia’s military. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called the sanctions a “swift and severe” action to “further weaken Russia’s already degraded military industrial complex and undermine its ability to wage its illegal war.”
• The Food and Drug Administration unveiled a plan to allow foreign baby formula manufacturers to stay in the U.S. market long term as long as they comply with federal standards for nutrition, labeling and manufacturing by October 2025, to prevent future formula shortages.
• Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo said Nicaragua will not allow the new U.S. ambassador Hugo Rodriguez to enter the country due to his “interfering” attitude.

Saturday, Oct. 1

• Venezuela and the U.S. performed a prisoner swap in which Venezuela freed seven Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, in exchange for the release of two men — nephews of President Nicholas Maduro’s wife — who had been jailed for years on drug smuggling convictions. This is the largest trade of detained citizens thus far carried out by the Biden administration.

Sunday, Oct. 2

• No news to report.