US Politics AS IT HAPPENED: ‘Do I annihilate them?’: Trump weighs ending Iran war with one major strike

That wraps our live rolling coverage of US politics today, Monday the 21st of September.

President Trump has revoked the press passes of a number of large media outlets, including CNN.

He has also hinted at one final strike to end the war with Iran for good.

The price of oil continues to skyrocket.

Thank you for reading.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says she has spoken with her counterpart from the Palestinian National Authority, reiterating that Hamas must not dictate the territory's future.

Wong said in a post on X on Monday during her discussion with Varsen Aghabekian, that she restated Australia’s commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East.

“Hamas must play no role in the State of Palestine,” she said.

Trump will host Chinese President Xi Jinping when the superpower leaders hold a summit in Washington on Thursday.

The US president plans to welcome his Chinese counterpart personally, before feting him with a state dinner, reports The Associated Press.

The summit is being held as China and the United States are in a contest for global leadership, with some of America’s traditional allies rethinking their strategies.

China has expanded its dominance in manufacturing and pushed into new technologies such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles that create risks for western economies.

Trump’s continued tariffs on China have not curbed its manufacturing sector, with its exporters finding new markets.

Evan Medeiros, a professor at Georgetown University, says it is hard to pinpoint any potential results from the Trump-Xi summit.

“We have this idiosyncratic president who believes in personal relationships and just wants to get along with Xi Jinping for the optics of getting along with him.”

The ruling parties in Russia and Germany have fared very differently after elections in the two countries.

In a widely predicted result, the ruling United Russia dominated the nation’s first parliamentary election since the Ukraine war started, according to early returns released on Monday.

With some 58 per cent of the precincts counted, United Russia had nearly 58 per cent of the vote for the 225 deputies apportioned by party lists, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.

The tightly controlled balloting included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began in February 2022.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a bruising electoral setback in two state elections on Sunday, in what he admitted was a “disaster” for his CDU party.

Projections by public broadcaster ARD indicated that Merz’s centre-right CDU came in with just 4.9 per cent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - the lowest result since World War II for the party in any state.

The anti-migration, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party made significant gains.

In early trading, Australian shares are down as investors react to the increasing likelihood of an interest rate rise this month.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped by 0.5 per cent on Monday morning, despite a solid performance on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq put on 0.4 per cent, and the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent.

Australian traders are increasingly confident the Reserve Bank will lift rates to 4.6 per cent when its board meets on September 28-29.

Protesters in Texas are gathering at the scene of a shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer that left a man wounded.

The unidentified man was in serious but stable condition at a hospital after being shot once in the torso on Sunday (Monday AEST) in the state capital Austin, reports The Associated Press.

City police officers were not involved in the operation or the shooting, which occurred after a traffic stop, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

A dark blue Toyota Corolla was parked under an overpass with damage to its passenger-side door and what appeared to be bullet holes. It was later towed away.

Ukrainian ⁠President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday (Monday AEST) he had spoken to Donald Trump and the two agreed to hold talks in New York this week.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that the pair’s planned discussions “could change a lot” in terms of achieving a peace deal in the war with Russia.

“An important conversation, and we got through a lot. We agreed to meet in New York, and this meeting could change a lot. There is diplomatic momentum.“

The meeting would likely be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which both leaders are scheduled to attend.

Earlier in September, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy in a renewed push to clinch a peace deal.

Continuing Middle Eastern unrest has been cited by Australia's largest bank in its changed forecast of an interest rate hike next week.

The CBA previously tipped a rise in November.

But on Monday it said market pricing and comments by Reserve Bank officials backed a rates rise to 4.6 per cent.

The CBA also highlighted the impact of the Middle Eastern conflict and rising oil prices.

"The damage to the East‑West pipeline in Saudi Arabia, the increased activity of the Houthis and continued restraint of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has raised the price of oil and refined products.

"Higher diesel and petrol prices locally do raise the risk of higher inflation in Australia both immediately and through second round pass through."

A majority of American voters believe Donald Trump is harming the national economy, according to a new poll.

The rising cost of fuel and other essentials since the start of the Iran war remains the biggest challenge for Republicans approaching the midterm election, the NBC survey of 1000 voters revealed.

A majority (55 per cent) of those surveyed said they believe Trump’s policies have damaged the economy. That’s up from 48 per cent in March, before the Iran conflict triggered the price of consumer goods to spike.

But even with voters increasingly unhappy about Trump, the Democrats are no shoo-in to seize control of Congress in November.

The poll showed the Democratic Party hold a five-point lead, way less than the 12-point advantage the party enjoyed at this point before the 2018 election during Trump's first term.