Up First from NPR - Court Temporarily Blocks Media Ban, Trump-Xi White House Meeting, UNGA Diplomacy

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

A federal judge ordered the White House to temporarily restore press passes for CNN, MS NOW and Politico after finding the outlets are likely to succeed on their due process claim.Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President Trump at the White House today, with Taiwan, Iran, artificial intelligence and trade among the major issues on the table.At the United Nations General Assembly, Ukraine pushed for a limited ceasefire with Russia as Iran defends its position in the war with the U.S. and Venezuela’s interim leader promises elections without giving a timetable.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebekah Metzler, Emily Kopp, Miguel Macias, Tara Neill, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Ally Schweitzer.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Ben Abrams.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis.Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.(0:00) Introduction(01:54) Court Temporarily Blocks Media Ban(06:08) Trump-Xi White House Meeting(09:54) UNGA DiplomacySee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to let journalists from CNN, Politico, and MS now back into the White House. The judge was not persuaded that national security was the real reason behind the bans. What happens next to Trump's media ban? Amy Martinez, that is Leila Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President Trump at the White House today. Besides the pomp and pageantry, the two leaders have a lot to discuss, from Taiwan to Iran and Iran. even AI. What are they each looking again? And Iran's president called the U.S. a bully at the United Nations General Assembly.

Ukraine's president pushed for a ceasefire with Russia on energy and grain. Is there any real movement toward ending either war? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to restore access to the three media organizations banned from the White House. In a ruling just after midnight, Judge Timothy Kelly, They granted a two-week temporary restraining order to CNN, MS Now, and Politico. President Trump had their reporter's White House press credentials revoked.

He said they, quote, purposely write negative news. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a friend of the court brief in the case, supporting the three outlets. NPR is one of the organizations that signed on to that brief. NPR's David Fokinflik joins us now to talk about all this. Good morning, David. Good morning, Lela. Okay, so let's start with that late night.

court ruling. What did it say? It was pretty declarative. You had Judge Timothy Kelly. He ordered the White House to the quote is immediately return, reinstate and restore the press credentials to the reporters of MS now, CNN and Politico, as the litigation continues. And he made clear he thought that these news organizations were likely to prevail in the process. It was interesting. This was presented to the public and covered rightly as a big First Amendment battle over free speech where they being punished for their coverage by the president because he didn't like it. Fine. Yes, maybe. But that wasn't what was decided here. Judge Kelly ruled that there was a clear violation of these institutions due process rights. That's part of the Fifth Amendment. That is, you can't have something taken away from you without being told ahead of time and being given a chance to weigh in and even appeal that decision. He said the government clearly deprived them of that. And he dismissed the argument that the three outlets had jeopardized national security, which the administration's lawyers, from the government. the Justice Department had argued. He said there was no real record for that. He said that that doesn't hold. Now, you were at court yesterday. How did the hearing play out? Well, to be fair, it was a virtual

hearing. So I listened in. And I got to tell you, if you listened into the hearing, you pretty knew this is where it was going to say. Before he let the lawyers from the two sides make their presentations, he said it seemed pretty clear to him that they had violated the right of due process. In fact, this same judge who had been appointed by President Trump during his first term, made a ruling in a very similar case involving Jim Acosta, who at that time was a White House correspondent for CNN. And he said that at the time he had been surprised to dig into the record and find out what due process required of him to find at that time. And he pointed to other precedents related during the Trump era and elsewise. He said there's no way in which he wasn't going to come up with this ruling, at least for this moment in temporary restraining order. Theodore Butros, the First Amendment lawyer, representing these coalition of news outlets, put out a statement about 2 o'clock in the morning. He said, this is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court swift action.

And of course, the judges said that the media outlets are likely to prevail. Now, other major news organizations have stood by CNN, MS now and Politico, including NPR, not using pool coverage of the president or suspending pool coverage. So with this ruling, will everything go back to business as usual? Well, Bouchros had made the argument that there was irreparable harm being done to the news organizations. And the judge bought into that. You saw that the White House video pool has not covered Trump events since those passes were withdrawn so far in solidarity with CNN. The upcoming visit of the president of China will serve as a test. You know, will CNN be allowed back in the pool to do its job this week?

Will the others, you know, take that audio? you know, Fox, CBS, NBC, some of the other members of this poll were at Joint Base Andrews yesterday, but not filming in observance of this kind of action in solidarity. There were some other smaller news outlets that were filming there, but these aren't ones that the major outlets are taking. So we're going to see. One thing I will say is the president has said he essentially anticipated this, suggesting a legal appeal, but the White House could take other actions against CNN, prevent them from perhaps getting to smaller places like the Oval Office rather than the pool. And that would greatly inhibit their ability to perform the pool function as well.

We don't know yet how this will play out. NPR's David Fokinflick. Thank you, David. You bet. China's leader, Xi Jinping, and President Trump have a lot to talk about when they meet at the White House later this morning. Yeah, China's been a big supporter of Iran. And competition over artificial intelligence development is ramping up. NPR White House correspondent Emily Fang is following this Chinese state visit closely.

and joins me now. Good morning. Morning, Leila. So what's on the schedule for this summit and what details are you looking for? I am curious about who is going to be at this state dinner tonight, because this meeting is all about symbolism. And so I kind of can't wait to see how Xi Jinping, who is infamously stone-faced, responds to all this pageantry that he's going to be honored with this morning. And also whether Trump makes any change to the U.S. stance on Taiwan. This is a Democratic island that China very much wants control over. And I'm also going to be looking out for, whether the two countries can extend a fragile datant, despite real friction over issues like export controls and sanctions. And I'll note that hours before the summit, the U.S. Treasury

Secretary announced a two-month extension of a truce on rare earths, which is something China dominates. But so far, I haven't seen China confirm the details. China really forced the U.S. hand with rare earths, according to Scott Kennedy. He's an economics expert at the Think Tank Center for Strategic and International Studies here in Washington. As a result of that, the administration had to give up plan A to revolutionize the global economy to its preference, because it just has the reality that we are in an interdependent world and there's some things that the Chinese provide. You know, that they provide, which the U.S. cannot substitute for like rare earths.

Now, she arrived in the U.S. last night. Trump met him on the tarmac. What was that like? Yeah, there was a welcoming delegation. They unfurled a long red carpet for Xi Jinping and his wife, the singer Peng Yuan. a band played both countries' anthems and then a military flyby buzzed overhead during the last bars of the star-spangled banner.

This is a really big deal. This is the first time a U.S. president has received a visiting Chinese leader for a state visit on the tarmac, and it's a sign of just the personal importance that Trump puts on Xi's visit. It's a grand gesture that's made waves in China because it makes clear to people in China

that this country is now an equal to the U.S. And you might be wondering why you're not hearing sound of this reception on the tarmac, And it's because the moment was not broadcast on major television networks, because as you just heard David talk about, the networks have been protesting Trump banning three news organizations from the White House. Now, you've explained just how important this visit is to Trump.

Does it carry the same importance to China? It's big news in China. But for Xi Jinping, this is actually just one of several state visits he's made over the last month. He's gone to Egypt and Central Asia as well. She's priority experts say to me is to find stability, with the U.S. in this visit, even if it means basically papering over real tensions with the U.S. right now, which then bounces back. It raises the question of, you know, what does this visit do for the U.S.?

It highlights what Eli Ratner, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, during the last administration, says to me are deep contradictions in Trump's China policy. You know, Ratner points out in his first term, Trump really swung U.S. foreign policy into a more aggressive, hawkish stance on China. But by and large, they had made a major. rhetorical shift and doctrinal shift without really putting in the pieces of a comprehensive competitive strategy. And an example of this contradiction, Trump has repeatedly praised Xi Jinping, who is a leader of a country that's a competitor with the U.S., but then he's criticized traditional U.S. allies like

Canada and Taiwan. That's NPR's Emily Fang. Emily, thank you. Thanks, Leila. Russia's war against Ukraine is spreading and is a threat to the world. That was the message at the United Nations from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He called it a, quote, crazy war led by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Can you even imagine him without war? He is patient zero, the one from whom this idea of war keeps spreading further. Iran's president also addressed the world body accusing the U.S. of being the world's bully. The Trump administration says it wants to promote peace negotiations in both of these conflicts. Let's bring in NPR's diplomatic correspondent, Michelle Kellerman, to talk about where things stand.

Good morning, Michelle. Good morning, Leila. So are there signs of any progress in either war? Well, in the Russia-Ukraine war, at least, Zelensky's been proposing this kind of energy ceasefire because Trump has been unhappy with Ukraine strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure. But the Ukrainians, obviously, want the Russians to stop attacking Ukraine's energy grid. ahead of another tough winter. They also want to allow grain to be exported as before.

That's another big issue that has global implications on the world stage. A day after Trump met with Zelensky, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, met with Russia's foreign minister. And I asked him afterwards if Russia would agree to that. Take a listen. I think both sides have expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involved grain and energy. It doesn't solve the war, but it does, I think, in some ways, potentially alleviate some of the

global pressures that are being felt as a result of that. So that's where the diplomacy is focused on this kind of short-term deal. Though there's a lot of concern that the conflict is intensifying and expanding as Russia violates NATO airspace. Russia's foreign minister, who spoke at the Security Council meeting on Ukraine yesterday, said Russia has no plans for a pause. That war has upended green and energy markets around the globe. The U.S. War against Iran has also affected the world. economy. President Trump warned Iran that he's ready to annihilate them if they don't reach a deal.

What was the Iranian response? So Iranian President Masoud Peschakhan sounded pretty defiant when he spoke to the U.N. He said the Iranians won't bow to this pressure. He said the Iranians are not the terrorists, but they're the victims of terrorism. But despite all that kind of public posturing, the Iranians and the Trump administration envoys have been talking here through mediators. Secretary Rubio didn't give much of an indication of how those talks are going, and the Iranians say there was no breakthrough that they just repeated their terms for what they need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But, Lila, you know, that conflict is expanding too with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, now threatening shipping in the Red Sea. And there's no real clear endgame with the Trump administration. I want to ask you about another speaker at the UN, Venezuela's interim leader, Delci Rodriguez, made her address just eight months.

months after the U.S. seized former president Nicholas Maduro, who's now in jail, just a few miles from the U.N. What did she have to say? Well, she seems intent on burnishing her credentials as a state's woman. The last time she was here at the U.N. General Assembly in 2019 as Maduro's vice president, she told the chamber that Venezuela, quote, does not kneel before any imperial power. This time around, she praised Trump and she had a photo op with him. He's talked her up, too, saying he doesn't think Venezuela is ready for elections. So that gives her her. more time to consolidate power. That's NPR's diplomatic correspondent,

Michelle Callum, and thank you, Michelle. Thank you. And that's up first for Thursday, September 24th. I'm Leila Faulted. And I'm Amey Martinez. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Emily Kopp, Miguel Macias, Tara Neal. Mohamed El Bardisi and Ali Schweitzer

is produced by Ziat Butch and Ben Abrams. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Highness. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow.