Foreign
Divided US Supreme Court stops Trump move to freeze $2bn in aid payments
A divided US Supreme Court handed a legal defeat to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, rejecting his bid to freeze some $2 billion in foreign aid payments.
The top court, in its first significant ruling on a legal challenge to the Trump administration, voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court order requiring that payments be made on aid contracts that have already been completed.
The justices said the federal judge who ordered the resumption of payments for contracts with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department “should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill.”
Conservatives John Roberts, the chief justice, and Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, voted with the three liberals on the nine-member Supreme Court.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissent that was joined by the three other conservatives.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito wrote.
“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” he added.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has backed several legal challenges to moves by the Trump administration, welcomed the Supreme Court decision.
“President Trump’s attempt to halt foreign aid funding was a reckless, cruel, and unprecedented abuse of executive power,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
“The lower court rightly held that President Trump exceeded his authority when he unilaterally declared he was freezing funding for programs Congress had already authorized, stiffing federal contractors who had already done work,” Romero said.
District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, issued a temporary restraining order last month prohibiting the administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance funds.
Trump has launched a campaign led by his top donor Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.
The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organization for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in some 120 countries.
Trump has said USAID was “run by radical lunatics” and Musk has described it as a “criminal organization” needing to be put “through the woodchipper.”
AFP
US President Donald Trump returned to the stage at the United Nations on Tuesday, where he touted his administration’s policies in front of world leaders and issued pointed threats to some of those gathered in the room.
The lengthy speech was wide-ranging, covering the war in Iran, AI, Cuba and the role of America’s military.
The BBC’s correspondents who covered the address have picked five key moments that stood out.
1. Trump pushes message of American power
The US president has no great respect for the United Nations – he accused it of imposing a far-left agenda – but he does relish the global platform it gives him.
He used Tuesday’s speech to tout his achievements, and claim the mantle of a peacemaker, at the same time as he issued a number of pointed threats.
Iran might be annihilated, lethal strikes on small boats suspected of drug smuggling will continue and the Cuban regime may even be toppled.
The clear message was: America is still prepared to use its military might wherever Trump thinks it might be required to secure its national interests.
Trump said he was “reasserting American power” and flexed what he called the country’s “unmatched military might”.
“The United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere,” he said.
Once again, Trump has made the full-throated assertion to the world of “America First”.
2. Cubans walk out as Trump calls nation ‘failed state’
Trump took aim at one of the US’s closest neighbours, Cuba, calling it “an absolutely failed state” and saying his administration has been pursuing “a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba”.
“It will fall,” he said.
The Cuban delegation walked out of the hall as Trump continued his remarks.
Over the last year, the US president become more vocal in criticising Cuba’s communist government. On Tuesday, he said it was under “enormous pressure” and “failing like never before”.
The US has not, however, provided a detailed picture of what it believes change will look like in Cuba.
Cuba’s foreign minister reacted angrily to Trump’s comments and accused the US president of spreading “falsehoods”.
“The US government is incapable of accepting that Cuba is and has the right to be a full sovereign and independent country,” Bruno Rodriguez wrote on X.
3. A direct threat to ‘annihilate’ Iran
Trump presented Iran with a stark choice at the UN General Assembly: reach an agreement with Washington and rebuild the country, or face the rapid “annihilation” of the Islamic Republic.
He then again predicted that a deal to end the war would probably follow the US midterm elections in November.
His remarks illustrated Trump’s familiar strategy of coercive diplomacy – keeping negotiations open while also threatening overwhelming force.
But his language blurred the distinction between destroying the political system and threatening Iran itself.
International law experts have previously expressed concern at what they called “alarming rhetoric” used by US officials, including Trump himself, who has posted that the US might “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
References on Tuesday to leaving “no chance of survival” and “no hope” for future generations will likely have stoked similar alarm. There is also an irony in delivering this warning at the United Nations, an organisation founded to save future generations from war.
Yet the speech was not a declaration that diplomacy has failed.
It was an attempt to define the terms of possible negotiations: the US remains prepared to make a deal, but only under the shadow of an existential threat.
4. Trump hails new Greenland security deal
Trump also praised a new deal with Greenland under which he said the US would build two military bases in the Arctic territory.
“We will have the complete ability to do what is necessary to defend the American continent and also Europe,” he said of the deal, which he first announced on Friday.
He added that it “very much enhances” the defence alliance Nato.
The US, Denmark and Greenland held a joint signing ceremony at the UN shortly after Trump’s address.
Although Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory, it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark which primarily handles its foreign policy.
Trump administration officials are already hailing the agreement as enhancing US security at minimal cost – and with relationships intact.
Denmark and Greenland’s governments, however, will be hoping it ends the long-simmering disagreement that began when Trump threatened to take Greenland by force.
That threat shook the Nato alliance and sorely tested the US-Danish relationship.
Given Trump had tried for months to purchase or annex the semi-autonomous territory, some analysts are viewing it as a quiet win for diplomacy.
5. An attempted rebrand of AI
Trump has a penchant for branding, and in his speech he gave Artificial Intelligence a new name: Super Intelligence.
“The use of the word artificial makes it sound fake,” he said. “It’s not fake, it’s actually amazing. But we have to be careful.”
“Welcome to the new world of Super Intelligence – SI,” he added.
Trump has previously argued that the US must come out on top in the AI development race, saying last week: “Whoever wins AI, wins.”
The president is firmly against government regulation or introducing new guardrails – and that puts him at odds with many of those gathered at the UN.
For those who are calling for regulation, the question is whether the slow pace of diplomacy can keep up with AI’s rapid development.
A Cessna 550 Citation Bravo carrying Brazilian singer Rey Vaqueiro and seven other people has overrun the runway while landing at Parelhas Airport in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
The aircraft, with registration PP-WMO, was involved in the incident during the early hours of Sunday, September 13, according to aviation news platform FL360aero, which reported the incident in a post on X.
The aircraft reportedly ran beyond the runway while landing at the airport and subsequently caught fire, with both engines said to have been engulfed in flames.
Firefighters battled the blaze for approximately five hours before it was brought under control.
All eight people on board, comprising six passengers and two crew members, reportedly evacuated the aircraft.
Some of the occupants were said to have sustained minor injuries, while no serious injuries were reported.
The aircraft was destroyed by the fire.
The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation by Brazil’s Centre for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA).
The incident involved a Cessna 550 Citation Bravo, a business jet commonly used for private and charter flights.
More flights are expected to be delayed in the United Kingdom (UK) after a technical problem with the country’s air traffic control system led to more than 2,000 cancellations.
A total of 291 flights were cancelled on Wednesday after 1,750 were cancelled on Tuesday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Tens of thousands of passengers have been affected by the disruption.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK’s air traffic control provider, blamed the disruption on a technical glitch. Its chief executive, Martin Rolfe, apologised and said a full investigation would be carried out.
He admitted that resolving the problem had taken “longer than hoped”.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described the outage as “unacceptable”, while Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned Rolfe to explain what happened.
The disruption affected several major UK airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. Airports in Ireland also reported disruption.
At Heathrow, departures were initially paused on Tuesday before operations resumed and then faced further disruption later in the day.
Heathrow said its operations were recovering on Wednesday but warned passengers of further delays because aircraft and crew needed to be repositioned.
Gatwick also said flights had resumed but warned that it would take time for operations to return fully to normal.
Passengers have been advised to check directly with their airlines before travelling to airports. Heathrow said passengers should only travel if they have a confirmed flight.
The technical fault affected NATS’ flight data processing system. Rolfe said it was not the same system that failed during a major disruption in 2023.
However, the latest incident is the third technical problem experienced by NATS in three years. A computer shutdown in 2023 caused widespread disruption affecting around 700,000 passengers, while another outage in 2025 resulted in about 150 cancellations.
Airlines including Ryanair and Wizz Air have called for changes to NATS. Wizz Air UK managing director Yvonne Moynihan said the company needed to consider whether NATS was “fit for purpose”.
Despite the disruption, Rolfe defended the UK’s air traffic control system, saying it remained one of the best in the world.
However, former NATS air traffic control manager Doug Maclean said repeated failures were undermining the system’s reputation.
Even though the technical issue has been resolved, passengers are expected to face further disruption because of the backlog of flights, aircraft and crew.
NATS said it was working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
(BBC News)
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