President Trump cancels a meeting with Democratic leaders as a government shutdown looms, with both sides refusing to budge on health care demands. At the U.N., Trump calls Russia a “paper tiger” and signals Ukraine could reclaim its territory with European help. And Jimmy Kimmel returns to ABC after nearly a week off the air, using an emotional monologue to defend free speech and respond to critics of his comments on Charlie Kirk’s killing.

Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.

Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Tara Neill, Kevin Drew, Matteen Mokalla, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Damian Herring. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Tara Neill, Kevin Drew, Matteen Mokalla, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.

Government Shutdown Looms, UNGA: Trump S...