Live updates: US accused of war crimes in UN report

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has given a speech to an anti-vaccine group, pledging to “stay in this fight” amid the worst measles outbreak in the US in decades.

Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic who promised to not restrict access when seeking confirmation as Trump’s health secretary, gave the keynote address at the Children’s Health Defence conference - an organisation he founded before going into politics.

He called Trump a “strong and steadfast friend” to vaccine skeptics.

“President Trump will not allow the government to treat parents who question vaccine orthodoxies as lepers,” he said, as reported by CNN.

“We have not taken vaccines away from anyone. We have preserved access, but we have started asking the questions that you and millions of American parents have been asking for years.“

The current administration has rejected multiple established vaccine norms, including immunisation schedules, and has tried to circumvent the CDC.

Kennedy claimed these efforts were being hampered by “entrenched interests”.

“I didn’t come to Washington to protect institutions from uncomfortable questions,” he said.

“I came to make those institutions answer those questions, and I intend to stay in this fight as long as I am able.“

A lapse in vaccination rates has been blamed for a current measles outbreak in the US.

The disease was declared eliminated in the country in 2000, but there have been more than 3200 cases, including several deaths, in the US this year.

The US has approved the potential sale of $US24.3 billion ($34.18 billion) of super-advanced fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom has long sought to acquire the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet, which until now has only been operated by Israel among Middle Eastern countries.

The US State Department said it had approved a possible sale after Saudi Arabia had asked to buy 48 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, and 49 engines.

The F-35 possesses stealth capabilities that allow it to escape detection.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major non-NATO ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf region,” the department said in a statement.

“The proposed sale will improve Saudi Arabia’s capability to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defence, and improving interoperability with US forces, and other regional and NATO forces.“

The US maintains a position of ensuring it supplies Israel with more advanced weaponry than other Middle Eastern partners.

“The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the military balance in the region,” the department said.

Donald Trump remains beloved by his faithful followers and for better or worse, a political giant for everybody else.

But even as he seeks to plant his name on everything from new warships to the Kennedy Centre, there’s one group of people trying very hard not to talk about Trump - his fellow Republicans.

CNN has published a new analysis that shows Trump is barely mentioned in TV advertising by Republicans campaigning ahead of the mid-term elections.

More than 500 Republican ads aired on US TV from September 1 to September 15, representing an investment of more than $US160 million ($225 million).

Just 12 mentioned Trump, equivalent to $US1 million ($1.4 million) of that spending.

“The president is not the best message or our best messenger at this point,” a Republican strategist told CNN anonymously.

Trump just last week urged voters “pretend I’m on the ballot” at the Republican National Convention in Dallas.

Polls have opened in Russia’s legislative election, though it’s unlikely President Vladimir Putin is worried about being ousted from the Kremlin.

Russian elections under Putin are tightly controlled and his United Russia party is projected to preserve its majority in the Duma.

The election will be held across three days, from September 18 to September 20, which allows voting officials to manipulate the count.

European and other international observers have historically noted large-scale fraud in Russia’s elections, while persecution of opponents limits political opposition to Putin.

Most parties on the ballot have been handpicked by the Kremlin to support Putin.

But the election could still show signs of weakening support for the government.

“To me, the real indicators of public support for the government are the vote margin for Putin’s party and the extent to which the Kremlin places its thumb on the scale to maintain its party’s two-thirds majority of parliamentary seats,” political science Professor Regina Smyth wrote in The Conversation.

Houthi rebels in Yemen have released a video they claim shows a downed F-15 fighter jet that had belonged to Saudi Arabia.

The footage shows a field of burning wreckage, followed by fighters displaying a tailfin with what appears to be a Saudi flag emblazoned on it.

The video has not been independently verified, but Reuters said no version had been found online earlier than September 16.

CNN military analyst and retired US Air Force colonel Cedric Leighton said the markings on the tail were “consistent” with Saudi Arabian F-15 aircraft.

The rebel group claimed to have brought the US-made fighter down with a locally-crafted surface-to-air missile.

The Saudi F-15 jets are based on the F-15E Strike Eagle which in today’s dollar terms costs over $US65 million ($91.4 million) to manufacture.

The US has approved visas for senior Iranian leaders to visit the country for next week’s high-level UN General Assembly meeting in New York, despite the ongoing war.

The US State Department confirmed it had approved visas for a “core delegation” and staffers.

Anonymous officials told AP that core delegation would include President Mahmoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“Consistent with our host country obligations, the core delegation from the Iranian regime will be able to attend UN General Assembly High Level week,” the State Department said.

“The delegation will be under travel restrictions and will face prohibitions on the purchase of luxury and other goods per our policy. The delegation is smaller than last year.“

However, an application to attend by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was denied.

US stocks rose overnight and recovered most of their losses for the week.

Falling oil prices and easing pressure from the bond market on Thursday local time helped Wall Street reverse many of its moves from the prior day, when the Federal Reserve hiked its main interest rate for the first time in years and suggested more may be on the way.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.1 per cent, its second rise in the past nine days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.7 per cent.

Stocks got a boost after the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil slid 1 per cent to settle at $US104.82 ($147.41).

That’s down from the nearly $US110 ($154.70) it reached earlier in the week on worries that the war with Iran will keep oil bottled up in the Middle East instead of going to customers worldwide.

Trump says the US is making “major progress” on a new US military base in Poland, in a surprise announcement.

“GREAT NEWS! Thanks to the bold leadership of my friend, Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland, major progress is being made toward establishing a US Army base in Poland,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“If this happens, the location will be announced very soon. This will be a historic step for our Great US/Polish Alliance.“

Further US military investment in Europe under the Trump administration comes as a bit of a twist after the White House drew down troop numbers on deployment in countries such as Germany earlier this year.

Not to mention, an enhanced US military presence so close to Russia is unlikely to be welcomed at the Kremlin, despite Trump’s friendliness towards Vladimir Putin.

Canadian PM Mark Carney has landed another verbal blow on erstwhile friend the US, as he pushes for stronger ties with the European Union.

In a speech to the European parliament, Carney said he wasn’t seeking to build a new superpower.

“I’m not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners,” Carney told EU lawmakers in France.

“We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience so no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.”

Donald Trump nonetheless said yesterday that he could impose heavier tariffs if he deemed a new EU-Canada arrangement to be “hostile”.

A UN fact-finding mission has levelled heavy accusations at both the US and Iran in a to-be-presented report.

Associated Press said the mission, carried out by commissioned experts, found the US likely carried out a war crime in the shape of “indiscriminate” missile strikes early in the war in Iran.

The Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab was hit by a missile in the early days of the war, with at least 168 people killed according to Iranian media.

Many of the victims were said to be women and children. The US has not released its findings from an investigation into the attack.

Meanwhile, the report, which is to be presented to the UN next week, also found the Iranian regime had likely carried out crimes against humanity on a “staggering scale” in killings and arrests targeting its own people.

The White House damned the report in no uncertain terms, with a spokesperson telling AP that the UN Human Rights Council had “accomplished nothing”.