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Sep 20, 2026
EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Quinten Martinez, pumping gas under a hot South Texas sun, remembers a time when fueling up didn't require difficult decisions.
"Is it going to be groceries this week?" asked the 28-year-old Amazon delivery driver as he watched the numbers tick higher. "Is it gonna be getting gas in our tank to go to work?"
He shook his head when asked about President Donald Trump's assertion last week that higher gas prices are a small price to pay for the war with Iran.
"I don't feel like it's a good trade-off," Martinez said. "I don't feel like this is good for anyone."
Voters across the country, and across the political spectrum, tend to agree.
Interviews with voters in several states, along with a fresh round of national polling, reveal an overwhelming sense of frustration that skyrocketing gas prices — a direct result of Trump's war — are creating serious and sustained financial hardships for America's working class.
The acute concerns are adding to a bad political environment that may be worsening for Trump and his Republican Party as early voting gets underway in the November midterm elections.
Historically, the party holding the White House has suffered major losses in midterms. Today, seven weeks before Election Day, Republican candidates at all levels are struggling with the additional burden of Trump's weak approval ratings, an unpopular foreign conflict and an affordability crisis that Trump and his congressional allies h
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Sep 20, 2026
SEOUL, Sept 20 (Reuters) - North Korea launched two missiles off its eastern coast on Sunday, its second set of tests in roughly a week and days after Pyongyang ?accused the US of driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula through a series of military drills.
Just ?three hours after launching a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) toward the East Sea on Sunday afternoon, North Korea fired another unidentified ?projectile, according to South Korea's defence ministry.
If the subsequent launch is confirmed to be a ballistic missile, it will mark two consecutive ballistic missile tests by North Korea within a three-hour window.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the first test firing from the Wonsan area around 3 p.m. (0600 GMT), ?identifying the weapon as a ballistic ?missile. Japan's defence ministry also said it appeared to be a ballistic missile.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the projectile had come down outside Japan's exclusive economic ?zone.
The first projectile flew approximately 450 km (280 miles) and is presumed to belong to the Hwasong-11 series, according to South Korea's military. Details of the flight of the second missile were not immediately available.
"South Korean and US intelligence ?authorities ?have been tracking and sharing related developments from the ?initial stage of the launch, and have ?also shared information regarding the 'North Korean ballistic missile' with Japan," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
South Korea's National Security Council condemned the short-range missile launch, which follows a test on September 12. The council urged Pyongyang to immediately cease missile activity, warning the test directly violated UN Security Council resolutions.
Japan also lodged a protest through embassy channels in Beijing, according to a Nikkei report.
"This series of North ?Korean actions threatens the peace and security of Japan, ?the
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Sep 20, 2026
Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow, officials said Sunday as the Kremlin was wrapping up the third and last day of its parliamentary elections.
Moscow's mayor described the wave of drones as the "largest ever" drone attack on the Russian capital and said there had been damage to a Moscow oil refinery and a residential building.
Across the wider Moscow region, the attack killed two people and wounded 20, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. The dead were a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, he said.
Writing on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv had used a range of missiles and drones in the attack — including Ukraine's domestically made Flamingo and Pelican missiles — to hit oil and logistics facilities.
"These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine," Zelenskyy said, referring to the financial pressure that Kyiv hopes to put on Russia's economy.
Ukraine also continued to fend off Russian attacks, Zelenskyy said. A Russian drone strike hit a monastery in Ukraine's Kherson region Saturday, killing a member of the clergy and wounding four people, he said.
A Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital also killed two children and their mother on Saturday evening, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional state administration. He later said that another child wounded in the same attack had died in hospital on Sunday.
Russia votes in an election devoid of opposition
The attack took place on the final day of Russia's first wartime parlia
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Sep 20, 2026
Yemen's Houthi armed forces patrol as Yemeni prisoners loyal to the Houthi authorities arrive in the capital Sanaa on September 12 (Mohammed HUWAIS)The United States warned Saturday that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could "escalate rapidly" after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed.
US President Donald Trump cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House on Saturday.
The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and are fighting government forces backed by a coalition led by Riyadh.
Loud explosions rang out twice on Saturday in the Saudi capital, where AFP journalists saw a fuel tank bearing the logo of oil giant Aramco on fire near the airport.
"This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly," the US State Department warned, adding American citizens outside the Middle East should "seriously reconsider travel to and through the region".
The Houthis's lightning offensive seizing swathes of Yemeni territory in recent weeks has left hundreds dead and, according to the UN, displaced more than 110,000 people.
- 'Thwarted'-
These clashes and the subsequent hostilities with the kingdom have already disrupted Saudi Arabia's exports -- the world's leading supplier of crude oil -- as well as maritime traffic.
The Riyadh-led coalition confirmed Saturday evening on X that a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the capital was "successfully intercepted and destroyed".
The coalition added that the pro-Iranian fighters had tried to
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Sep 19, 2026
The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he is creating an artificial intelligence task force and appointing a czar to oversee the administration's approach to the technology.
Trump, in alengthy Truth Social poston Saturday morning, said he was forming the government body and would also soon name an AI czar to lead it. He offered few details, leaving members of the tech world unsure what the task force would do, who would be involved or how it would operate.
Four representatives for the sector, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO that the industry was not widely informed of Trump's decision prior to the Truth Social post.
"Nobody knows what the idea even is," one of the people said. Another said that feedback on the idea was not widely solicited within the industry.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several of those canvassed said they view the move as a response to growing public alarm at the developing technology's potential risks. AI researchers at top AI labs in the past few weeks have issued stark warnings about the technology's power to destroy humanity, whil
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Sep 19, 2026
Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen say they carried out drone and ballistic missile attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh, as well as energy sites on the country's Red Sea coast.
Saudi authorities said they intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh earlier that day, without confirming any further strikes or causalities.
Earlier, a column of black smoke was seen rising from fuel tanks near the Saudi capital's international airport, where flights were disrupted temporarily on Saturday.
Air raid alerts had sounded in the capital for the first time since the Iran-backed Houthis increased their attacks on Saudi Arabia in July.
Air defences also stopped "hostile attempts to target civilians" in the cities of Bish, Taif, Farasan and Yanbu, an official spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said in a statement.
In a statement posted online, Houthi military spokesman Yahya al-Sarea said a "large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones" had been used to attack "sensitive sites" in Riyadh and Aramco state oil and gas company facilities in Yanbu on the coast.
He added that the attacks were "in response to the Saudi enemy's criminal attempts" to target the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Earlier, Sarea had accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out 300 strikes across Yemen during the past week.
The Houthis are locked in a civil war with Yemen's internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.
They have attacked targets inside Saudi Arabia on several occasions in recent months, and said this week that they were responsible for downing a Saudi fighter jet over Yemen.
According to an unconfirmed report from AFP news agency, quoting military sources on both sides of Yemen's civil war, fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces claimed 48 lives on Saturday.
The Houthis said 31 of their fighters had been killed while government sources said their side
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Sep 19, 2026
For the record:
1:38 p.m. Sept. 19, 2026: An earlier version of this article stated KCAL's helicopter is owned by Angel City Air. It is owned by Helicopters Inc.
Whether it's a brush fire, a mass shooting, a car chase or the aftermath of a major storm, viewers in Los Angeles are used to getting the news from above.
Television news helicopter coverage has become one of the most important elements of any local newscast, with the high-flying helicopters roaring overhead a common fixture of breaking news scenes.
These images are so ubiquitous, it may have been easy to take them for granted, until Tuesday, when an NBC4 helicopter carrying reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw crashed while covering breaking news in Chatsworth. Both died, along with a bystander on the ground.
The tragedy has prompted soul-searching in the world of TV news helicopter pilots and focused attention on safety issues.
Pilots describe a high-stakes race in the skies of Los Angeles, with the TV stations battling to get breaking news on the air first. The airspace easily becomes crowded, and in the case of moving stories like car chases, a bit unpredictable and chaotic. The crews who take to the air in Los Angeles must not only navigate one another, but air traffic to three regional airports and smaller, local airstrips across the Southland when doing their job.
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Sep 19, 2026
An election worker puts ballots in a counting machine at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 3 in City of Industry. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed bills to protect California's elections process from interference and increase transparency in campaigns. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed legislation to increase security for the state's voting systems and protect Californians' ability to cast ballots in an effort to guard against potential interference in the Nov. 3 election, including by the Trump administration.
Newsom pointed to the Trump administration's recent effort to restrict mail-in voting through the U.S. Postal Service, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the presence of federal monitors at California polls last year as evidence that Trump "will continue his efforts to interfere with the November election."
"Donald Trump won't stop until he can exert dictatorial control over your free vote and disenfranchise millions of people this November. California will stop him at every opportunity," Newsom said in a statement. "We have no bigger task than fighting to protect the right to vote from interference and meddling — the future of democracy is on the line. These bills today build upon the wall California has built to safeguard our electoral process."
The governor signed the package of bills at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, where a year earlier
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Sep 19, 2026
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Saturday that he plans to appoint a new artificial intelligence adviser, known as ?an "AI czar," and create an "AI force," though he did not provide details about either ?initiative or how they would be implemented.
Fears are growing in Washington among lawmakers about the risks posed by AI technology on ?humans and property. Earlier this month, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said that "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Trump has repeatedly downplayed concerns about AI and argued that additional regulation is unnecessary.
"We will not in any way hinder or stifle ?the Growth of this incredible Industry," ?Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. "Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows! However, we will also ?be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System."
If Trump follows through on the pledge, it would be his second AI czar. Venture ?capitalist David ?Sacks previously served in the role before stepping down ?in the spring and moving into ?an external advisory position.
Sacks has echoed Trump's skepticism of new AI regulation. Speaking at a Politico event on Wednesday, he said AI developers should be responsible for ensuring the safety of their products and could be held liable if problems arise, adding that new federal rules are unnecessary.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's post.
Trump's post comes ahead ?of his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on ?Thursday. Washington and Beijing are competing for leadership in ?artificial intelligence, which both governments view as ?vital to their economic and military strength. Trump and technology executives have argued ?that excessive reg
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Sep 19, 2026
Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen say they carried out drone and missile attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh and energy sites on the country's Red Sea coast.
A column of black smoke was seen rising from what appeared to be fuel tanks near the Saudi capital's international airport on Saturday, hours after air raid alerts were issued.
It was the first time residents had been given an alert and urged to stay indoors since a recent escalation in the conflict with the Houthis.
There has been no official comment from Saudi authorities.
In a statement posted online, Houthi military spokesman Yahya al-Sarea said a "large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones" had been used to attack "sensitive sites" in Riyadh and Aramco state oil and gas company facilities in Yanbu on the coast.
He added that the attacks were "in response to the Saudi enemy's criminal attempts" to target the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Earlier, Sarea had accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out 300 strikes across Yemen during the past week.
The Houthis are locked in a civil war with Yemen's internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.
They have attacked targets inside Saudi Arabia on several occasions in recent months, and said this week that they were responsible for downing a Saudi fighter jet over Yemen.
According to an unconfirmed report from AFP news agency, quoting military sources on both sides of Yemen's civil war, fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces claimed 48 lives on Saturday.
The Houthis said 31 of their fighters had been killed while government sources said their side had lost 17 soldiers, according to the news agency.
On Friday, the International Organization for Migration, a UN body, reported that the number of people displaced as a result of recent fighting had pass
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Sep 19, 2026
US President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box as he tours the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2025. - Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
When President Donald Trump's name was ordered removed from the Kennedy Center this spring, it seemed that an opening to move on from his reign over the performing arts center might have emerged.
"I have instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution, giving them the responsibility for its Operation, Maintenance, and Management," the president wrote in a late-May Truth Social post, seemingly relinquishing the control he'd seized a year prior.
Speculation even bubbled up among some of the more than a dozen "ex-officio," board members — who don't get a vote but are not allied with Trump — over whether the former board chairman, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, could be brought back to help restore the center's fundraising and programming, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. (CNN has asked Rubenstein for comment.)
But after Trump said he would remain chairman, "it kind of all squelched pretty quickly," one of the sources said. The hope that his crusade to rename a monument dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy had ended turned out to be wishful thinking.
Instead, nine months from a cold December day when cranes first placed
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Sep 19, 2026
Farm-state Republicans don't support President Donald Trump's move to import cheap beef — but they're still getting grilled for it.
Trump's plan to combat sky-high beef prices by introducing discounted, tariff-free foreign beef has been widely condemned by ag-state Republicans who are concerned it will undercut the domestic beef industry and hurt ranchers, a normally reliable constituency.
And their opponents see an opening to paint Republicans as unconcerned about voters' pocketbook concerns.
"Our ranchers and our farmers keep getting kicked in the teeth, and we have politicians that keep telling us that everything's great, that we're the hottest country," Dan Osborn, an independent running for Senate in Nebraska, said in an interview. "And to be quite frank, I'm pretty pissed off about it."
Osborn's state is one of the top four top cattle-producing states — along with Texas, Kansas and Iowa — all of which have more-competitive-than-expected Senate races this cycle. And Trump's controversial plan to remove tariffs from 300,000 metric tons of imported beef, sold at 25 percent below current market prices, is doing Republicans no favors.
Osborn's campaign went on air with a pun-filled ad this week in which he says the import plan is "selling out American farmers and ranchers," and blasts Congress for being "too chicken to stand up to the corporations who bought them off." The campaign says it plans to spend at least six figures airing the spot. It's the first major spending from a campaign focused on the beef import plan. But it plays into a larger economic argument Democrats are pushing
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Sep 19, 2026
When you're living near a mountainside, one of the last things you would expect to see moving fast at higher elevations would be a tornado, but that's what happened in Utah on Friday.
According to the Salt Lake City, Utah, branch of the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), a rare, strong twister occurred near Fruit Heights, Utah. The funnel first made contact
with the ground near a summit along the ridgeline extending west from Francis Peak, at an elevation of about 7,500 feet (almost 2,300 metres).
Tornadoes are uncommon at very high elevation due to drier air and less favourable thunderstorm dynamics.
— SLCScanner (@SLCScanner) September 18, 2026
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Sep 19, 2026
Donald Trump reupped his battle with the "FAKE NEWS" media on Truth Social Friday, banning CNN, MSNOW and POLITICO for reporting "LIES when they're covering the President of the United States," with "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow."
POLITICO called sources in and around the administration to find out why — after months of low approval ratings for the president and his signature issues — now?
Here's what POLITICO learned.
Many senior staff were surprised by the directive, which happened while chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town, and weren't aware it was coming until they saw the post, according to three people close to the White House with knowledge of conversations in the West Wing.
One person said Trump previously tried to ban certain media, at one point even trying to put the press in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, but was talked down.
On Friday the press shop was blindsided and unsure of how to respond, with one aide simply pointing back to Trump's Truth Social post.
Even so, they're taking it seriously.
"It's real and permanent as far as POTUS is concerned," the person said.
This morning, MS NOW said their journalists "were denied access to the White House grounds" in a statement.
"MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy," the statement continued.
CNN said its reporters were also denied entry. "CNN's mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism," the outlet said in
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Sep 19, 2026
Ed Sheeran will take the stage Saturday night at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field for the first show of his Loop Tour since Macklemore was dropped, likely performing solo after all of his remaining opening acts and his backing band quit in solidarity with the rapper over his removal from the tour for pro-Palestinian comments.
Hours after Sheeran released a statement saying it was the promoter's decision to remove Macklemore from the tour and not his, the rest of his supporting acts — Irish singer Aaron Rowe, Danish pop band Lukas Graham and songwriter Finneas — as well as Sheeran's house band, Beoga, announced that they were pulling out in protest.
"Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed," Finneas, the brother of Billie Eilish, wrote in a note posted to Instagram. "I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people."
The Irish artists cited their country's history of oppression in their decisions to drop out.
"I don't take the decision lightly. Ed has been a friend to me and has changed my life, I could never thank him enough for this," Rowe wrote in his own Instagram post. "But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation. I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder o
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Sep 19, 2026
A column of black smoke has been seen near Riyadh's international airport hours after air raid alerts were issued in the Saudi capital.
It was the first time residents had been given an alert and urged to stay indoors since a recent escalation in the conflict with Iran-backed Houthi militants in neighbouring Yemen.
A number of apparent explosions were heard in the capital and major problems were reported at King Khalid International Airport, with the tracking website FlightRadar24 reporting delays and cancellations earlier in the day.
One report suggested a fuel tank had been set on fire near the airport. There has been no official comment from Saudi authorities.
How escalating Saudi oil crisis could drive up prices everywhereSaudi Arabia issues first air raid alerts for Riyadh since Houthis escalated attacks
An AFP news agency journalist reported that firefighters could be seen trying to extinguish the flames of a burnt-out fuel tank belonging to state oil and gas company Aramco.
The Saudi Civil Defence had sent out phone alerts overnight warning of potential danger in Riyadh and other regions, before issuing an all-clear on Saturday morning.
Residents told AFP on condition of anonymity that they had heard what sounded like a round of explosions echoing through the city after the alerts.
"I heard the alarm, then my windows shook," said a resident of northern Riyadh, 27. "It was definitely scary. I was not expecting this."
On Friday, the Houthis announced that they had thwarted Saudi attacks on the Yemeni capital Sanaa which they said bor
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Sep 19, 2026
U.S. CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on April 16. (SAUL LOEB/Getty Images)
U.S. Central Command said Saturday that more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil have moved through the Strait of Hormuz in the past two months while Iran has exported none under a U.S. naval blockade.
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, announced the milestone in a video posted on social media, saying U.S. forces have helped more than 2,000 commercial vessels transit the strategic waterway by providing coordinated protection.
"CENTCOM forces have supported more than one billion barrels of crude oil leaving the Gulf," Cooper said. "That's one billion barrels of crude oil out through the Strait of Hormuz in the last couple of months."
Cooper said the achievement came as commercial traffic through the strait continues to increase.
"We've reached this significant milestone while assisting over 2,000 commercial ship transits through the strait by providing coordinated protection," he said. "Clearly, momentum is building."
The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, is one of the world's most important energy shipping routes.
Cooper said the primary transit lanes through the strait are clear of mines and that thousands of vessels have passed through the waterway.
"Over one billion barrels of crude have been shipped from Gulf partners through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran has exported zero barrels thanks to our ironclad blockade,"
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Sep 19, 2026
A new Texas Pulse poll shows the Democrat widening his lead over the Republican in the Texas Senate race, with Election Day more than a month away.
Published Sept. 17, the ReconMR/Texas Pulse poll showed that Democrat James Talarico's lead has grown to 6 points — outside the poll's margin of error — over Republican Ken Paxton, 49%-43%.
"This movement can also be seen by looking at independent voters who now favor Talarico by 40 points, 64-24%, up from 23 points, 53-30% in July," ReconMR Senior Research Analyst Lindsey Hendren said.
Here's a deeper look at the poll and how it compares to other September polls.
James Talarico widens lead over Ken Paxton in Texas Senate race
The latest Texas Pulse poll was conducted Sept. 8 to 11 among 614 likely Texas voters and has an overall margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
The poll found that Paxton has a negative favorability rating — 38%-55% — down slightly from 40-52% in July. Talarico has a positive favorability rating of 50-39%, up from 46-39% in July.
When asked who they think will win the election, 48% of voters say Talarico while 45% say Paxton.
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Sep 19, 2026
New panels for the border wall are being installed in West Texas, marking the start of visible construction on a 47.3-mile project in the Big Bend region as President Donald Trump's administration expands its barrier network along the southern border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the first panels for the Big Bend 1 project in Hudspeth County went up on September 15, the Associated Press first reported.
Work is beginning amid legal challenges and resistance from landowners concerned about the federal government's plans for the remote region.
The development gives new significance to CBP's Smart Wall map, which records 232.4 miles of various border infrastructure completed since January 20, 2025, and shows hundreds more moving through design or construction.
Newsweek contacted CBP on Saturday morning via email for further comment.
An excavator plows through land during construction for a section of border wall near Santa Elena Canyon on August 14, 2026, in Big Bend National Park, Texas.Why It MattersTru
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Sep 19, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — Two major news networks were denied access to the White House on Saturday morning, with reporters from CNN and MS NOW both going live to report they'd been barred following a ban imposed by President Donald Trump.
The actions escalated Trump's long-running efforts to restrict news coverage by journalists he finds objectionable, and is the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States. Trump said Friday he would ban both organizations and also Politico, because of their coverage — which he called "fake news."
CNN issued a statement saying it stood behind its reporters. "We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account," it said. The statement was shown on the air before senior White House reporter Betsy Klein began to report on her ban.
MS NOW also said in a statement that it stands behind its journalists.
"The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars," the network said in a statement Saturday. "MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy."
CNN and MS NOW correspondents are turned away
Both CNN White House reporter Betsy Klein and MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner went on the air to report they'd been banned from entering the White House.
Network correspondents are usually present on the weekends when the president is in Washington or at nearby Camp David. Trump is at the presidential retreat in Maryland this weekend. Politico journalists typically are not at the White House on Saturdays.
Gardner was turned away and her entry badge confisc
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Sep 19, 2026
NEW YORK (AP) — Reporters from three major news organizations — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — were denied access to the White House on Saturday, a day after President Donald Trump said he was barring them because of reporting he found to be "fake news."
The actions were a clear escalation of Trump's long-running efforts — in the courts and through administrative action — to restrict news coverage by journalists he finds objectionable, and the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States. Trump had said Friday he would ban all three outlets because of coverage he disliked.
White House reporters from the two cable networks — Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW — both went live to report they'd been turned away when arriving for their jobs at the White House. Soon after, Politico said its White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated.
Politico Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger said in a statement to the Politico newsroom: "We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. … We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights."
CNN and MS NOW issued similar statements. "We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account," CNN said.
"The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars," MS NOW said in its statement. "MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy."'
In his second term, Trump and his administration have upped the ante and punished certain media outlets, both in the courtroom and through regulatory action. Trump has also lashed
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Sep 19, 2026
AI companies Anthropic, OpenAI, Space XAI and Google are being sued over alleged collusion as pressure mounts to slow the rapid development of AI.
The complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, points to a recent proposal from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who called for "industry-wide coordination" to "pace the frontier" as concerns mount over the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI.
"We must slow the space in which we improve the capabilities of AI models," Amodei wrote in a Sept. 12 essay.
The plaintiffs allege that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI founder Elon Musk and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis made an illegal business agreement among competitors by agreeing to slow the development of their AI systems, violating federal antitrust law.
Within hours of Amodei publishing his essay, Musk responded, saying "Dario is right," while Altman also said he agreed with Amodei. Hassabis called the proposal "the right path forward," according to the complaint.
Nick Rowley, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of four plaintiffs, said decisions about AI safeguards should be made through government action rather than private agreements among major technology companies.
Rowley said in a statement to Politico that the case was filed to ensure "private self-serving agreements between the world's most powerful ‘for profit' technology companies" don't result in AI "quickly spin[ing] out of human control."
"Humanity deserves iron clad safegua
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Sep 19, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several of the nation's largest left-leaning voter engagement and racial justice organizations are facing steep funding shortfalls and staffing cutbacks just as voting is getting underway in an election that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.
The shortfalls are setting off alarms among Democratic strategists, who are betting on high turnout and robust voter protection efforts to boost the party's chances this fall. They are worried that many grassroots groups will not be able to mount effective registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, much less protect against the possibility of election interference from the Republican administration.
America Votes, a coordinating hub for more than 400 progressive groups, has fallen "well below" the level of funding it had during the 2022 midterms, Daria Dawson, America Votes' executive director, said in a statement to The Associated Press. America Votes has acted as a nerve center for the voter mobilization efforts of groups such as the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the AFL-CIO and SEIU labor unions, as well as local groups focused on racial justice, climate and civil liberties.
"There is still time to reach voters and bring them into this election, but we are no longer talking about a future opportunity," Dawson said. "The window to engage them is open now, and it is narrowing every day."
‘Surrender, not strategy,' a Democratic operative says
Wealthy donors and philanthropic groups have reduce
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Sep 19, 2026
By Stine Jacobsen, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Tom Little
COPENHAGEN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Denmark and Greenland on Saturday said any agreement with the United States would not compromise Greenland's sovereignty, after President Donald Trump said the deal would give Washington "permanent control" over the Arctic island's ?security, leaving its precise scope unclear.
The United States, Denmark and Greenland said late on Friday they had entered into an agreement for ?the US to develop a significant military presence on Greenland, while prohibiting US adversaries from building their own bases on the island.
Key details of the agreement have not been made public, ?including the degree of US military presence in the self-governing Danish territory and whether any formal power over foreign policy and resources would be ceded to Washington.
Denmark and Greenland expressed hope that a deal, which is expected to be signed during the UN General Assembly next week, would end months of uncertainty triggered by Trump's threats to seize control of Greenland.
"Next week could be a good week - for Greenland, Denmark, and the United States," Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said ?in a statement posted on Facebook on Saturday.
"A time ?of uncertainty will hopefully give way to a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, and thereby our shared security within NATO and Europe - while respecting the (Danish) Kingdom's red lines," he said.
Denmark and Greenland ?have repeatedly insisted that Washington respect the sovereignty of the Danish kingdom and accept that Greenland is not for sale.
TRUMP'S VISION FOR GREENLAND DEAL
Trump said on Truth Social late on Friday that under a deal, "the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend ?the ?security of Greenland, and the U
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Sep 19, 2026
A fundraiser for Michael Desronvil, the lone juror who favored convicting Lindsay Clancy in her closely watched Massachusetts murder trial, has passed $300,000 on crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo.
As Newsweek reported previously, Clancy, 36, faced three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her children in January 2023: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
Her defense attorney argued that postpartum psychosis had left her not criminally responsible for their deaths. The 12 jurors deliberated for seven days but failed to reach a unanimous verdict, leading Judge William Sullivan to declare a mistrial.
Lindsay Clancy looks on as jurors (out of frame) enter the courtroom during Clancy's murder trial at the Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on September 4, 2026.In a Friday social media statement, GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells said he had spoken with Desronvil and his attorney Edward Paltzik.
"The Lone Juror is being added to the campaign as the recipient. His identity has been verified," Wells wrote, adding: "Thank you all for your generosity to this campaign."
As of early Saturday, the fundraiser had raised roughly $329,000 of a stated goal of $350,000.
This is a developing story, more to follow.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
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Map of Greenland Under U
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Sep 19, 2026
A surge of inflation has hiked prices for everything from gasoline to tomatoes, but a looming source of sticker shock will drop onto household budgets over the coming months: heating costs.
The historic oil shortage set off by the Iran war is expected to drive up heating bills at a pace more than twice the level of overall inflation, squeezing households as they weather elevated prices for a range of other essentials, some analysts told ABC News.
Iran live updates: War cost US more than $40B, officials said to lawmakersU.S. households will spend an average of $1,030 to heat their homes this winter, which amounts to an increase of 8.7% compared to last year, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) said in a report earlier this week.
Households that rely on heating oil -- a major heating source in the Northeast U.S. -- will suffer a staggering average price increase of 31.3% compared to last year, NEADA found. Customers who depend on natural gas are expected to face a jump of 5.8%.
"The costs we're expecting are unusually high this winter," David Konisky, a political science professor at Indiana University and co-director of the Energy Justice Lab, told ABC News.
A large-scale U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran in late February prompted Iran's near
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Sep 19, 2026
[EPA/Shutterstock]
Millions in Cuba were left without power on Friday as the country was plunged into yet another major blackout.
The country's entire electricity grid suffered "total disconnection" that triggered a nationwide outage, Cuba's energy ministry said.
Power was restored to some priority areas by late evening, including those near hospitals and water pumping stations in the capital Havana, grid operator UNE said.
It is at least the sixth partial or total blackout to hit Cuba this year, where ageing electricity infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages have been placed under further strain by a US blockade on oil shipments to the communist-run nation.
UNE said the outage started just before 14:00 local time on Friday (18:00 GMT) due to a transmission fault coupled with poor weather conditions in central Cuba.
Protocols to begin the "gradual restoration" of power were activated, the operator's national load dispatch director Felix Estrada said, with the process ongoing on Saturday.
Cuba relies heavily on fuel imports, meaning tight US sanctions and an oil blockade since the start of the year have exacerbated existing shortages.
Food and medicine have also become more scarce, with hospitals struggling to function normally and schools and government offices having to close.
"Lately, it's becoming a habit," Havana resident Frank Lorenzo told news agency Reuters on Friday.
"Before it happened less frequently - once a month… just yesterday we were 24 hours without electricity, they turned it on for just an hour and it went down again."
"It's one thing after another: no water, no gas for cooking, no electricity
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Sep 19, 2026
By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Democrats are seeking to reclaim Congress, but lingering divisions from a bruising run-up to the November election threaten to imperil the party's attempt to claw back power from President Donald Trump's Republicans.
With control of both chambers at stake, Democrats have sought to move past the bad blood of the primaries, but in several competitive states, influential party figures have withheld endorsements or so far declined to campaign with nominees for the November 3 US midterm elections.
In ?Maine, the governor has yet to endorse the Democratic US Senate candidate. In Texas, a congresswoman has declined to campaign alongside the state representative who defeated her in the Democratic Senate primary. In Michigan, establishment centrists are steering clear of the party's progressive Senate ?pick. In New York, victorious democratic socialists are criticizing congressional Democrats for joining Republicans in condemning socialism. In Florida, the party has yet to rally behind its Senate nominee.
"Whether you are a progressive or an establishment Democrat or a conservative Democrat, we all have a vested interest in getting every single person over the finish line in November," said US Representative ?Summer Lee, a progressive Pennsylvania Democrat up for reelection.
If Democrats fail to unify and win at least one chamber, she warned, "all of our work after that is going to be harder."
Democrats' best path to a Senate majority requires defeating Susan Collins in Maine. Collins is widely considered the most vulnerable Republican senator in the country. But former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee, is running without the endorsement of Governor Janet Mills, a onetime Senate candidate who hoped to unseat Collins herself. Mills' office did not respond to a request for comment.
"I would say they're mostly unified," Jim Me
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Sep 19, 2026
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday thanked President Donald Trump for signing into law a bill championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, which allows for the expansion of sanctions on Russia related to Moscow's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump signed the bill on Friday, the White House said in a statement, after the legislation passed both the House and Senate with strong bipartisan backing. The legislation "authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs and prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions on Iran," the White House said.
The bill's passage came about two months after Graham died suddenly following a tear in his aorta. Graham had long been an advocate of U.S. support for Kyiv and more stringent measures on Russia and the regime headed by President Vladimir Putin. In 2024, Russia's state financial monitoring agency added Graham to its list of alleged "terrorists and extremists."
In a post to Telegram on Friday night, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for signing what he called "critically important legislation," extending his thanks to "all the senators and members of the House of Representatives who supported it."
Chris Jackson/Getty Images - PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pictured during the funeral of King Harald V of Norway on Sept. 9, 2026 in Oslo, Norway.Diesel pric
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Sep 19, 2026
Russia has intensified attacks against Ukraine as its full-scale invasion grinds through its fifth year (Oleksandr GIMANOV)US President Donald Trump signed a bill on Friday authorizing new sanctions designed to pressure Russia over its war in Ukraine, after Congress gave its approval after months of delay.
Washington is pushing to revive a mediated path towards ending the conflict as Moscow intensifies attacks against Ukraine, even though much of its attention -- and munitions -- are focused on the ongoing war against Iran.
The legislation, which US lawmakers approved this week, takes aim at Russia's energy and defense sectors, alongside President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials.
It also targets Moscow's so-called shadow fleet of tankers used to evade Western sanctions, and allows Trump the authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.
That could potentially cover China and India, and furthers efforts to cut off revenue financing Moscow's war.
The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the package by a 262-159 vote on Wednesday.
The bill would also target companies and foreign actors supporting Russia's military, and extend sanctions involving Iran.
But the broad powers to impose tariffs sparked an unusual split among Democrats, who largely support Ukraine but have resisted handing Trump wider authority over trade.
- Tougher pressure -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier hailed the legislation as "symbolic" and thanked US lawmakers.
The bill is "an extremely powerful tool that can stop this terrorist war and bring Russia to the point where it has to make peace," Zelensky wrote on X.
"Sanctions must be strong so that all efforts for peace -- including our j
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Sep 19, 2026
Saudi Arabia warned of a "hostile aerial threat" and issued a string of emergency alerts across the kingdom, including in its capital, late Friday and early Saturday.
Also Saturday, Iran's state TV reported that a man was executed after being convicted on charges of spying for Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage is available here.
Alerts sound across Saudi Arabia for aerial threat
Saudi Arabia warned of a "hostile aerial threat" after issuing a string of emergency alerts across the kingdom late Friday and early Saturday, and at least one explosion was heard in the capital, Riyadh.
The alert heard in Riyadh was first for the Saudi capital since the latest escalation with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
No casualties or damage were reported after the alerts were lifted. Saudi authorities didn't say what prompted the alerts or the cause of the audible explosions, but they previously reported intercepting incoming Houthi missiles and drones.
UN Security Council condemns Houthi missile attacks against Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels
The U.N.'s most powerful body said late Friday that the Houthis' military escalation, attacks and threats "risk further expanding the conflict, threatening maritime security and international trade" while undermining regional and international efforts to secure peace in Yemen.
It was warned that continued escalation would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the country.
The council's 15 members called for "practical cooperation" to prevent the Iran-backed Houthis from acqu
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Sep 19, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — It could be much worse.
When President Donald Trump launched his war against Iran in late February, energy analysts issued dire warnings that oil prices could more than double during a protracted conflict and urged investors and motorists to buckle up for a bumpy ride.
The war grinds on and oil prices certainly remain volatile. But the most dire projections have not yet come to pass six months into a conflict that has no end in sight.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is making a much-anticipated state visit to Washington next week, could make a credible argument that the world has his country's energy strategy to thank for that.
It's unclear how much the two leaders will discuss Iran during the visit, which comes as Trump's Republican Party faces pressure from voters over high gasoline prices, and as China's buffer is being further tested as the conflict in the Middle East spreads. Trump, who has sought to keep a fragile trade truce with Beijing intact, has been careful in public comments about differences with Xi over the country's relationship with Iran.
"We've been free-ri
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Sep 18, 2026
Google said it did not consider the unauthorized logins to rise to the level of misalignment, the AI industry term for software going rogue or not following instructions. (David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)Google on Friday disclosed the first known instance of its artificial intelligence software, Gemini, carrying out an undirected computer hack, weeks after similar disclosures by AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI raised security alarms about AI models going beyond the instructions of their human creators.
Google said in a statement that in May its AI model gained unauthorized access to three outside systems during a test by either guessing login information or using login credentials it found in a public repository.
Heather Adkins, a Google vice president for security engineering, said in the statement that the AI model thought that the outside computer systems "were part of the test," but she said in all three instances, the model stopped before doing anything further with its access.
"In a standard evaluation, the model found public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test," she said.
Google said it did not consider the unauthorized logins to rise to the level of misalignment, the AI industry term for software going rogue or not following instructions. Instead, the company said the intrusions resulted from mistaken identity, where Gemini thought it was operating within a test but was actua
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Sep 18, 2026
These three trees, pictured on Aug. 6, are among those recently poisoned at Burnt Cedar Beach in Incline Village, Nev. (Scott Sady / For The Times)A question has bedeviled a wealthy Lake Tahoe enclave for years: Who is poisoning the towering trees that stand sentry on the North Shore?
Residents of Incline Village, Nev., hope a $147,000 reward will generate some answers.
"It's the most appalling, selfish thing that anyone could do, especially for trees that are irreplaceable," said Chris Nolet, a retired certified public accountant and consultant to the biotechnology industry who assembled a small group of private donors known as Friends of Burnt Cedar Beach to put up the bulk of the reward. "These trees are 100 years old."
The donors are offering $122,000 for information leading to the successful prosecution of anyone responsible. The Incline Village General Improvement District, which owns and manages the residents-only beach where the poisonings took place, has put up another $25,000 and installed additional cameras around the trees.
The move came after an investigation failed to generate actionable leads, Nolet said.
"My feeling is, we've got to try something different," he said, "and money talks."
A Lake Tahoe murder mystery: Who is poisoning towering pine trees?
Someone has, on multiple occasions, slipped into the picturesque wooded cove, drilled holes near the roots
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Sep 18, 2026
Hundreds of activists gathered at the Kennedy Center Friday night in opposition to President Donald Trump's attempted takeover of the presidential memorial and threats that he will close and demolish it.
Activists linked hands and formed a human chain outside the Washington venue, demanding Trump be removed as its chairman for failing to protect and manage it. Trump installed himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center last year after removing its previous leadership and replacing board members with his own appointees.
Tom Brenner/Getty Images - PHOTO: Rally Held In Support Of The Kennedy Center In Washington, D.C."The demonstration opposes the recent sudden closure of the facility, the installation of security fencing, and political efforts to alter or demolish portions of the presidential memorial," the group said on its website.
The Hands Off the Arts organization behind the rally and protest said they expect hundreds of people to gather on the center's steps for musical performances, testimonials and speeches before forming a human chain around the building. The group has held various protests outside the performing arts venue this year.
"The Kennedy Center can't be renamed for anyone else. It's a memorial to John F. Kennedy. It's like silly to suggest otherwise. And it's not just silly -- it's insulting and it's degrading and it's un-American," Miller told ABC News.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo - PHOTO: Trump Kennedy CenterMiller, who was a former assistant manager of dance programming at the Kennedy Center, lost her job in 2025 as part of m
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Sep 18, 2026
WASHINGTON - If recent history is the judge, President Donald Trump faces an uncertain legal landscape after his latest attempt to ban certain media outlets from covering him at the White House.
Trump announced in a Sept. 18 social media post that he is banning reporters from three major media outlets - CNN, MS NOW, and Politico - from the White House because he views their coverage as "FAKE NEWS."
Trump later said there wasn't a specific incident or story that prompted him to initiate the ban, which would not preclue the outlets from reporting on the president.
"It's really just cumulative stories over the last few years. You get sick of it," he said.
It's not the first time the Trump administration has taken such action against the press.
During his first term, the Trump White House in 2018 pulled the press credentials of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, complaining that he refused to yield the microphone at a press conference. However, a federal judge appointed by Trump
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Sep 18, 2026
During his ex-wife's murder trial, Patrick Clancy faced intense scrutiny online, with social media users often questioning his character. Now, as he reflects on the tragedy, Clancy says he believes he did the best he could with the information he had at the time.
"I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome. I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could," Clancy told correspondent Ross Douthat after being asked whether he feels angry with himself or like he failed in some way.
He and his wife, Dr. Rachel Danis, spoke with 60 Minutes after Lindsay Clancy's case ended in a mistrial.
Lindsay Clancy's defense team has argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed their three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan in January 2023.
According to court records, Lindsay Clancy sought help from multiple providers in the months before the killings, was prescribed a long list of medications and spent several days receiving inpatient psychiatric care.
Watch more of the interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and Paramount . And sign up for the 60 Minutes newsletter to make sure you never miss a minute.
This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-clancy-says-i-did-the-best-i-could/
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Sep 18, 2026
During his ex-wife's murder trial, Patrick Clancy faced intense scrutiny online, with social media users often questioning his character. Now, as he reflects on the tragedy, Clancy says he believes he did the best he could with the information he had at the time.
"I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome. I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could," Clancy told correspondent Ross Douthat after being asked whether he feels angry with himself or like he failed in some way.
He and his wife, Dr. Rachel Danis, spoke with 60 Minutes after Lindsay Clancy's case ended in a mistrial.
Lindsay Clancy's defense team has argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed their three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan in January 2023.
According to court records, Lindsay Clancy sought help from multiple providers in the months before the killings, was prescribed a long list of medications and spent several days receiving inpatient psychiatric care.
Watch more of the interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and Paramount . And sign up for the 60 Minutes newsletter to make sure you never miss a minute.
This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-clancy-says-i-did-the-best-i-could/
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Sep 18, 2026
President Donald Trump said Friday that his son Donald Trump Jr. has paid back a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin who the Trumps have confirmed hosted two nights of parties after Trump Jr.'s wedding.
Trump was asked in the Oval Office on Friday whether it was appropriate for his son to have accepted the gift from Umar Kremlev.
"Well, it's totally, it's totally allowed. And a lot of people have parties and all, but it's totally allowed," Trump said. "But as I understand it, he paid them back. He didn't want to have that, so I hear he paid them back. A person that he knows pretty, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party. That's very common."
NurPhoto via Getty Images - PHOTO: Bettina Anderson Trump and her husband Donald Trump Jr. hold hands while standing together during the formal welcoming parade lines inside Aras an Uachtarain on Sept. 12, 2026, in Dublin, Ireland.ProPublica first reported on Kremlev's gift to Trump Jr.
Russian oligarch paid for parts of Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding celebration, report saysLawmakers and critics have expressed concern over the gift. Some of them warned that accepting expensive gifts from foreign adversaries could create potentially severe conflicts of interest and potential leverage over the president's family.
When pressed about Kremlev
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Sep 18, 2026
President Donald Trump has announced an agreement with Greenland, in which the U.S. will take permanent control of the Arctic island's security.
"I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns," Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday evening.
The president has eyed Greenland since before he returned to the White House in January 2025, arguing that the U.S. needed to control the semi-autonomous Danish territory for national security purposes.
Trump said that the agreement means the U.S. "will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America."
President Donald Trump has announced an agreement with Greenland, in which the U.S. will take permanent control of the Arctic island's security (Getty Images)
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Sep 18, 2026
WASHINGTON - The war in Iran has cost the U.S. military $43.6 billion as of Sept. 3, according to an update shared with congressional national security committees by U.S. Central Command.
The cost update, which was viewed by USA TODAY, is almost certainly an undercount. It does not include costs to repair buildings at U.S. bases across the Middle East that were damaged or destroyed by Iranian strikes during the war, including the U.S. Navy's logistics hub in Bahrain.
The Pentagon estimated that it has spent $28.1 billion to replace expended munitions like bombs and air defense interceptors since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. The prolonged conflict in the Middle East has caused a shortage of critical munitions that could leave the U.S. vulnerable in other parts of the world, such as the Indo-Pacific.
More than 50,000 American service members have been deployed in Central Command's area of responsibility to support the war. At least 18 Americans have died and more than 800 have been wounded since the start of the conflict.
The update also provided a breakdown of costs associated with each of the ar
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Sep 18, 2026
President Trump was photographed this week on board Air Force One examining a large poster with the words "Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED" printed above a rendering of a construction site, heightening concerns that his administration wants to raze Washington, D.C.'s iconic performing arts venue if his name is not added to its facade.
"I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition," the president told reporters before he boarded the plane Wednesday in North Carolina. "Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down."
Trump's comments and the photographs that followed are the latest developments in a convoluted saga that started when he dismissed the center's trustees in February 2025 — just days after returning to office — and replaced them with loyalists who elected him chairman.
Despite several legal setbacks, Trump's handpicked board has been pushing ever since to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was built as a "living memorial" to the slain 35th president, after the White House's current occupant.
The day before Trump was photographed with the "Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED" poster, his appointees voted to close the center's main building for renovations. Does this mean Trump will bulldoze the Kennedy Center if he doesn't get the "recognition" he wants? Here's what we know — and what we don't.
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Sep 18, 2026
Although guaranteed income programs have faced partisan pushback nationwide since gaining national traction in 2018, a growing faction of conservatives is finding common ground with direct cash initiatives centered on mothers and newborns.
According to Tegan Lecheler, national program director for the Mother and Infant Cash Coalition (MICC), the "common-sense" nature of early childhood cash transfers has prompted conservative lawmakers and advocates to reach out to her organization in support.
"I think we're in a really polarized time politically right now," Lecheler told Fox News Digital. "We are not a political organization and want to work to improve families' outcomes. We believe an effective strategy for doing that is to build a big tent - a wide tent with a lot of people underneath it."
Exclusive: Pence Group Knocks Vance Plan To Pay Stay-at-home Parents Up To $9K Per Child
Rx Kids is a cash assistance program that's intended to issue $1,500 cash to new and expectant mothers in the Motor City and $500 per month after a child's birth for at least six months. The program is considered the largest cash aid program for prenatal and infant care in the country.Lecheler noted that early childhood support aligns with pro-family conservative principles.
"Some of the solutions that we're putting forward really resonate with have been folks who agree that people should be able to have families that look the way they want," Lecheler said. "There are certain factions that are excited by the idea of cash tr
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Sep 18, 2026
Three people have died from malaria after a mosquito was transported aboard a flight to Germany, according to reports.
Several people were rushed to a hospital amid a rare outbreak of the tropical disease following flights to Frankfurt, The Sun reported.
It was unclear where the flights departed from.
The third person, a resident of Schwanheim, just north of the airport, died recently. In August, an airport worker also died from the disease. Neither had traveled to a malaria-endemic region.
Measles-infected Traveler May Have Exposed Passengers At Lax And Nearby Hotel, Health Officials Warn
A Lufthansa Airbus A320 sits at Remote Stand V143 at Frankfurt Airport in Kelsterbach, Frankfurt am Main, Hesse. Frankfurt Airport is Germany's main international airport by passenger numbers and is operated by Fraport as the main hub for Lufthansa.Another German resident also came down with malaria, which can only be contracted from the bite of an infected mosquito and cannot be spread from human to human.
Read On The Fox News App
"Both individuals had become infected with the ?malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum, even t
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Sep 18, 2026
A replica of the planned Triumphal Arch. (Jen Golbeck/Associated Press)
A District of Columbia preservation official urged the Trump administration to scrap the planned 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and instead build the two slender columns envisioned in a 1925 congressional plan.
Andrew Lewis, an official in D.C.'s Historic Preservation Office, made the case for the columns in a Wednesday letter first reported by The Washington Post. The arch would "effectively replace much of the important view with a frame" between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington, Lewis said.
Trump has cited the 1925 congressional plan, which authorized two 166-foot columns symbolizing post-Reconstruction reunification of North and South, as his legal authority for the 250-foot arch.
Lewis countered that the arch would break the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, the former home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which the columns were designed to preserve.
The Committee of 100 on the Federal City, a nonprofit preservation group, made a parallel argument in its own letter W
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Sep 18, 2026
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has exercised a hold on a $2.8 billion weapons sale to Israel, The Hill has learned, allying with her counterpart in the House and underscoring deep mistrust with the Trump administration and Israeli government.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) has expressed frustration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done nothing to address concerns from, specifically, Democratic lawmakers over the high civilian death tolls in Gaza, Israel's bombing in Syria and escalating violence against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
The weapons package includes 40,000 one-ton bombs, munitions that the former Biden administration held back from sending to Israel for its indiscriminate destruction, contributing to the high death toll in the Gaza Strip.
An estimated 70,000 Palestinians were killed over the course of the three-year war between Israel and Hamas, according to Palestinian health officials, but that does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Shaheen, as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel, has authority to hold back the Trump administration from moving ahead on weapons sales over a certain dollar amount. It's generally an informal consultative process, where the State Department works to address a lawmaker's concerns and get the green light before moving ahead on the arms sale.
Semafor first reported that Shaheen is exercising the hold, and that she put it in place in July.
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Sep 18, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he was banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage, and threatened that more such media prohibitions could be coming — offering his administration's latest test of constitutional First Amendment protections guaranteeing the freedom of the press.
Trump has long bristled at news coverage he maintains casts him in a negative light, and has a history of filing lawsuits against news organizations, while lashing out at individual reporters in person or over social media.
The move follows the president's decision, in February 2025, to keep Associated Press journalists out of the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events too small for a full press corps, in retaliation for the news outlet's decision not to follow his lead in changing the Gulf of Mexico's name.
The AP filed suit and the case is ongoing. Since returning to office, however, Trump has pursued other legal action against a variety of different outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Trump seeking to block White House access for CNN is especially notably, however, as it could upend the traditional five-network television pool that travels with the president and tracks his every move — meant to provide independent coverage of his actions and interactions for the Americans w
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Sep 18, 2026
Immigrants applying to live permanently in the United States can be rejected if they receive public benefits, beginning this week.
Use of Medicaid, food stamps, tuition assistance and free school lunch programs, among other government assistance, could all be grounds for denying a green-card application.
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The policy from President Donald Trump's administration, which took effect Friday, marks a dramatic change to a long-standing federal policy consistent with the president's efforts to restrict legal immigration pathways.
The rule could reduce federal and state payments by $13 billion a year, by persuading some 950,000 people to disenroll from or avoid federal safety net programs, according to estimates from the Department of Homeland Security. The agency said that the rule aligns with Congress's intent that noncitizens "in the United States be self-sufficient and not dependent on taxpayer-funded government benefits."
"Aliens in the United States should be self-reliant," a DHS policy document for the rule states, "and government benefits should not incentivize immigration."
Applying for a green card, or legal permanent residency, is a necessary step for those seeking U.S. citizenship.
This week, New York led 21 other states, the District of Columbia and several cities in suing the Trump administration over the new rule. The lawsuit argued that the rule fails "to consider many important aspects" of the problems it creates and warned that the harms will extend to mixed-status families and U.S. citizen children.
"Cruelty is the point," New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said at a news conference anno
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Sep 18, 2026
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday a proposed triumphal arch President Donald Trump wants to build near Arlington National Cemetery ?in Washington would not pose a hazard to aircraft but would be required to ?have an "eternal flame" on top.
The FAA determination requires it to be marked with a light on top of the structure and ?floodlight projectors pointed at the arch to make it noticeable for pilots. Some aviation experts have raised safety concerns given its proximity to Reagan Washington National Airport.
The determination clears an aviation hurdle for the arch, which Trump proposed to mark the nation's 250th anniversary. The project is part of the ?president's broader drive to reshape ?Washington's monumental landscape, including a new White House ballroom, renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and redevelopment of a golf course in East Potomac ?Park.
Veterans have sued to block the arch, arguing it would destroy the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
The FAA previously said the arch would need red obstruction lights but said on Friday ?the ?structure no longer is required to have them.
The FAA ?determination is subject to review if ?anyone petitions by October 18.
In June, US Senator Tammy Duckworth, the top Democrat on the Senate aviation subcommittee, urged the FAA to reject White House pressure to approve the proposed 250-foot (76-meter) arch, saying it could pose risks to commercial flights.
The proposed arch would be 3,000 feet from Washington National Airport and within the airport's main approach and departure corridor.
The FAA generally requires blinking red warning ?lights on buildings above 200 feet near airports to ?warn pilots at night, like on the nearby 555-foot-tall Washington ?Monument.
Duckworth cited the National P
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Sep 18, 2026
US Army soldiers conduct unmanned aerial system training in April 2026. - Spc. Alva Gonzalez/US Army
The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program.
The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said.
It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. CNN was not able to learn what the misidentified cargo was.
The report, according to one of the sources, was "entirely false." But it also "almost started a war," the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations.
Across the US military and the intelligence community, officials are pushing to weave AI into nearly every facet of their work, from analyzing the huge volumes of raw intelligence the US collects and selecting targets for strikes, to more mundane applications like managing budgeting, logistics and supply chains.
But the episode underscores the profound risks of us
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Sep 18, 2026
A bipartisan data center bill passed by the House earlier this week hit a roadblock in the Senate on Thursday, opening room for more debate among lawmakers over how far Congress should go to shield Americans from increased electricity costs associated with facilities being built across the country.
The Ratepayer Protection Act (RPA), which was approved by the House on Wednesday with an overwhelming 417-3 majority, would compel state utility regulators to consider adopting a federal standard under which large data centers would cover the extra costs of upgrades. An effort to fast-track the passage of the bill in the Senate was derailed by New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich, who said it doesn't go far enough.
"When I open my mail, unfold my electricity bill, and read how much I owe, it doesn't say I ‘may' or ‘should' pay that amount. … I have to pay it," he said on the Senate floor Thursday. "The same needs to be true for AI data centers."
Heinrich's objection doesn't mean that the RPA is dead, but it does mean it will have to go through a more time-consuming process that will likely table it until after the midterms.
With the RPA stalled, several senators have pushed for separate legislation that represents much more aggressive efforts to curb data center-related utility costs. Heinrich has proposed a bill that would empower federal regulators to force tech companies to cover certain costs that come from connecting their data centers to the grid.
A separate bipartisan bill, the
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Sep 18, 2026
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans' three-month headache about Mitch McConnell's health seems to have subsided - at least for now.
In the days since the Kentucky lawmaker's return to the Capitol, they've defended him in the halls and expressed gratitude that his condition has improved. A fall in June, followed by a bout of pneumonia, kept the 84-year-old off the job for much of the summer and complicated the voting math for Senate Republicans on key legislation.
On his way back into the Senate chamber on the night of Monday, Sept. 14, he joked with reporters about admittedly dodging their questions since he'd been gone. Sitting in a wheelchair with visibly bruised hands, he resolved that it was "time to get back to work" and "finish the ?job for this Congress." He isn't running for reelection and will end his more than 40-year Senate tenure by January.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, who's served in the Senate with McConnell for more than a decade and will also retire next year, said he had a "great conversation" with him on Thursday. It was "classic Mitch," Tillis told USA TODAY.
"I spent 20 seconds asking him how he's doing, and he goes right into preserving the filibuster, and who we have to look ahead to do it as we leave, and Ukraine," Tillis said.
McConnell has been a vocal proponent of maintaining U.S. military and diplomatic support for Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia, as well as shielding the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that he says encourages bipartisanship, from President Donald Trump's cam
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Sep 18, 2026
The final change of the guard at the storied Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B).
Berkshire Hathaway said Friday that Warren Buffett, 96, will step down as chairman effective immediately. He will move to the chairman emeritus role.
In his place as chair will be his son Howard G. Buffett, as has been telegraphed would happen for years.
Board life will now look much different for Howard, who has a striking resemblance to his legendary investor dad.
And Howard Buffett knows the transition will change his life, which has long consisted of frequent world travel for philanthropic ventures alongside a daily routine of being a farmer who tills his own land.
"I've been to 155 countries or something. And I'm on the road a lot. I've been in Ukraine five times in 2022. And the same thing, five times in 2023 and probably four or five times this year. So those are trips I won't make," Buffett told Yahoo Finance in a 2024 interview.
Buffett, 71, is seen as the "guardian" of the unique Berkshire culture that his father and longtime lieutenant Charlie Munger created over the decades. The business itself is a beast, requiring expert planning and oversight by the Berkshire board.
The business ranges from operating one of the nation's most important railroads in Bu
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Sep 18, 2026
Uber has been ordered to pay $40 million to the family of a UCLA graduate who was killed when her driver abandoned her on a freeway.
Judge Richard A. Stone ruled that driver Vu Tran "needlessly placed" Emily Normandin-Parker and her friend in danger when he left the pair on State Route 73 in California, according to Panish, Shea, Ravipudi, the law firm representing the family, on Thursday.
"Emily did everything Uber tells riders to do—she made the responsible choice not to drive and we trusted Uber to get her home safely. That trust cost our daughter her life," Emily's parents Carol Normandin and Ken Parker said.
Emily Normandin-Parker was killed in August 2023 after being struck by traffic following a night out. Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP
Normandin-Parker, 23, was killed in the early hours of August, 12 2023, following a night out with her pal, Luna Moore, in Costa Mesa.
The pair turned to the ride-sharing app, but Moore vomited in driver Tran's car and he ordered the pair to get out.
Normandin-Parker was struck by traffic after Tran parked at a gore point that separated an exit ramp and the California State Route 73 freeway.
She was hit by a car while an apoplectic Moore argued with the driver, who wanted a cleaning fee.
Normandin and Parker accused Tran and Uber of negligence and were awarded $20 million each following a five-day arbitration hearing in March.
Stone, a retired Los Angeles County judge who presided over the hearing, scolded Tran for showing "far more worry for his new car than he did for his passengers," according to court documen
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Sep 18, 2026
(Caroline Brehman/For The Washington Post)DANA POINT, California - Natalie Driessen drove down Beach Road on a mission, past neighbors whose houses fell into the sea and others now scrambling to prevent their property from collapsing next.
She had a video from March that she wanted everyone to see. When she spotted an Orange County supervisor outside what was left of one mangled kitchen and living room, Driessen pulled out her phone to play the clip of the California Coastal Commission — the powerful state agency tasked with preserving beaches — discussing a home in her gated community.
California beaches are considered public beyond a certain high tide line, the commissioners warned, and that waterline was rising. "I wonder," one of the commissioners said, "how many years before I'm allowed to just pull up a chair — sit in their, you know, front deck porch and watch TV because it's public land. … I don't think we're that far away from this, right?"
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Storms and high tides — fueled by anearrecord-breaking El Niño — have battered the California coast in recent
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Sep 18, 2026
President Donald Trump has lashed out at leakers in his own administration after a series of behind-the-scenes reports on the Iran war.
As the conflict Trump claimed would be over in six weeks drags into its seventh month, insiders have repeatedly claimed the president was warned against taking action by his own advisors.
"Keep on leaking you dirty dogs! When we find you, you will pay a big price!!!" declared on his Truth Social Thursday night.
The president was responding to an editorial in The Washington Post addressing the war in Iran and a Wall Street Journal report last month revealing that his then-director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, advised him against launching Operation Epic Fury on February 28.
Click here for the latest on the war.
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Sep 18, 2026
Democrats' wary optimism about the midterms gave way to growing confidence this week.
The party has seen strong post-Labor Day polls in key battlegrounds - and even in traditionally red areas. Recent escalations in the war in Iran, including an attack on a major pipeline in Saudi Arabia, mean the rising gas prices bedeviling Republicans will not be going down anytime soon. Republicans have not been able to bring prices under control more generally. And President Donald Trump's unpopularity is at near-record levels.
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Considering all this, Democrats now think conditions are right for the party to retake control of the House and possibly the Senate later this year.
"If the election were held today, we would win the majority," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) said in an interview with The Washington Post.
Schumer said he felt "considerably more bullish" about Democrats' chances of retaking the Senate than he did a few months ago. He described the environment as uncannily similar to 2006, when discontent with the war in Iraq helped Democrats recapture the Senate and the House.
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts) said Democrats' recent momentum is driven by their focus on the economy, with voters believing that the party understands the financial pain they've felt in the years since Republicans swept into unified control.
"That is what is driving these polls," Clark told The Post on Thursday.
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Sep 18, 2026
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday left two 14-year-old students and the teenage gunman dead and wounded at least eight people, local government and police officials said.
The shooting at Banga National High School in the South Cotabato town of Banga is under investigation, the Philippine National Police said in a statement. Police officers secured the campus and coordinated with school officials and medical responders, the statement said.
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo said the two students killed were a boy and a girl, both 14. He said the gunman also shot himself and died.
Banga Mayor Albert Palencia told DZBB radio that the gunman hit 10 students in the classroom next to his, two of whom died while eight were wounded. A person who was hyperventilating was also brought to a hospital, according to the governor.
Tamayo said the gunman's best friend told officials that the teenager was a member of an online "true crimes community." Authorities were investigating the account and whether it had any connection to the shooting, he said.
Mayor Palencia said the 16-year-old gunman told his friends to go home after lunch because "he was going to do something" and they might get involved. He said the shooter's classmates thought it was a joke.
After lunch, the gunman started shooting students in the classroom next to his, hitting 10 of them. He then changed the magazine of his 9 mm gun and shot himself, Palencia added.
He said the gun belonged to the shooter's father, a Department of Education employee, who hid the weapon in a vault, which was destroyed by his son.
Police found posts made by the shooter in the online community, where young people involved in school shootings are idolized, Palencia added.
Quoting the
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Sep 18, 2026
CAIRO (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied Friday in a government-organized show of defiance after months of war, pledging their readiness to take up arms in the biggest such demonstration since the United States and Israel attacked in February.
Iran's government has sought to rally the people and stress national unity, even as the economy worsens under a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and new U.S. sanctions. On Friday, it claimed another attack on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway it has sought to control since the start of the war.
Estimates varied of the number of people volunteering to receive limited military training and defend the country in an effort described as "Janfaday-e Iran," or the "ones who sacrifice their lives for Iran." They marched through downtown Tehran in combat uniform, carrying flags, as onlookers cheered.
For days, state media have encouraged Iranians to join the campaign, saying training with assault rifles would begin soon. The volunteers would be an additional layer of security to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia, which has played a key role in quashing anti-government protests.
Rally seeks to project strength under US pressure
Tehran's Guard chief, Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh, told the state broadcaster that over 600,000 people had registered to participate, with over 1 million expected to take part in the training. On Friday morning, the broadcaster estimated over 300,000 pe
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Sep 18, 2026
On Wednesday, OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) revealed six new examples of its AI models displaying "unexpected or concerning model behavior" during testing and evaluation.
The company made the announcement alongside a new framework for "tracking, reporting, and disclosing" instances where AI models take actions they otherwise aren't told to or shouldn't.
It follows a number of reports of AI models from companies hacking into third-party networks and services, including an unreleased OpenAI model breaking into the network of AI model and testing site Hugging Face.
Earlier this week, Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) CEO Dario Amodei penned a lengthy essay calling for a slowdown in the pace of the development of frontier AI models, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon posted on X that he was resigning from the company because it, and his former employer OpenAI, is "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives."
Anthropic alignment science lead Evan Hubinger followed up on Coxon's comments with his own post on X saying that he believes there is a greater-than-10% chance that the technology could "kill all humans."
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Sep 18, 2026
HENRICO, Va. (AP) — In-person voting for this year's midterm elections begins Friday, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues.
Election administrators say they're prepared and confident the vote will be accurate and secure. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has continued with efforts to denigrate certain voting methods and reshape how U.S. elections are run, through court challenges, an expansive federal hunt for noncitizen voters and a pressure campaign to force election officials to share sensitive voter data.
Friday marks the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a handful of other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, are able to cast absentee ballots in person, typically at a local election office or voting center. More expansive early voting is scheduled to begin in those and other states in the coming weeks.
The Nov. 3 election includes votes for governor and state legislature in most states and will determine whether the U.S. House
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Sep 17, 2026
Matt Bell, 52, has been farming for more than half his life in central North Carolina. He grows soybeans, corn and wheat and raises beef cattle on more than 1,000 acres. But Bell, who voted for President Trump, says soaring prices for fuel, fertilizer, and equipment are hurting his farm and leading some of his fellow farmers to consider calling it quits once this growing season ends.
"I've done this 34 years. I have never worried and stressed like I have the last year," Bell told CBS News in an interview on Wednesday at his farm in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
Bell has been forced to make significant changes to his operation as a result of the high costs. He's shifting some of his acreage, trying to stretch out the lifespan of his equipment and producing his own fertilizer. His children have also opened up a storefront where visitors can pick pumpkins and take hayrides in the fall. But Bell is still feeling the pinch.
"We've cut everything we can cut," he said. "The last several years in agriculture have been terrible, and we have, you know, just cut the fat anywhere we could. But we're just getting to the point now there's nothing left to cut. You cannot run without fuel. You cannot run without fertilizer. You have to have that."
Bell says his diesel fuel costs have about doubled since last yearThe war with Iran has driven up fuel costs and created supply chain disruptions as the Strait of Hormuz remains under a naval blockade with a limited number of oil tankers allowed through the critical waterway. And the intensifying conflict between Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia and attacks by other Iranian proxy forces on Saudi infras
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Sep 17, 2026
The lone holdout juror in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial said he "didn't have any doubts" about what he believed was Clancy's criminal responsibility, providing his account of the jury's deliberations.
"I didn't have any doubts," juror Michael Desronvil said in a statement obtained by CBS News through his representative, Ray Marcel. "As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present."
"Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses, and what the prosecution presents, I thought it was enough proof that she knew exactly what she was doing and planned," his statement read.
The jury remained deadlocked on Sept. 4, the seventh day of deliberations, after not coming to a unanimous decision about whether Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three young children at their Massachusetts home in January 2023. Clancy had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan. The judge declared a mistrial after the hung jury could not reach a verdict.
Paula Devlin, a juror in the murder trial, told "CBS Mornings" last week that jurors spent several days seeing if they could convince the holdout juror, who believed Clancy should be found guilty of murder, to come to their side, but he would not budge.
"We all worked together. And I don't know if it was to convince him to start with," Devlin told "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King. "We all worked together to convince ourselves once we got to that point where it was 10 to 2. I felt
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Sep 17, 2026
A Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed in Michigan during a training mission on Thursday afternoon, sparking an hourslong evacuation near the crash site, according to officials.
The incident prompted the evacuation of homes and businesses within 1 mile of the crash site due to a "hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash," Michigan State Police said.
At about 9:45 p.m. Thursday, the evacuation order was lifted, according to state police.
Fred Sobeck - PHOTO: A 149th Fighter Wing, Texas Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon on a routine training mission from the Air National Guard's Combat Readiness Training Center crashes in Grawn, Michigan, September 17, 2026.The jet crashed occurred shortly before 2 p.m. ET in Green Lake Township, local authorities said.
The Texas Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon was on a routine training mission out of the Air National Guard's Combat Readiness Training Center, in Alpena, Michigan, when it "experienced an incident," the Texas Military Department said in a statement.
"The pilot successfully ejected the aircraft and is receiving care at a nearby hospital," the statement said.
The pilot was transported to an area hospital, where he was "conscious and speaking with law enforcement," Grand Traverse Sheriff Michael Shea said during a press briefing.
No other injuries were reported, according to Michigan State Police.
Fred Sobeck - PHOTO: A 149th Fighter Wing, Texas Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon on a routine training mission from the Air National Guard's Combat Readiness Training Center crashe
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Sep 17, 2026
President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office [Getty Images]
President Donald Trump's administration says it has approved the sale of nearly 50 F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a policy shift for the US that has raised concerns from some members of Congress.
Saudi Arabia has sought for years to buy the world's most advanced warplane, equipped with stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy detection.
Washington had resisted, partly because it supplies F-35s to its ally Israel, which is guaranteed under US law to receive top-of-the-range American weapons compared with those its regional neighbours can access.
Congress has 30 days to scrutinise or attempt to block the $24bn (£17.8bn) sale to Riyadh, which is the largest customer for US weapons.
A US Air Force F-35 [AFP via Getty Images]
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a Democrat, opposed the sale on Thursday.
He warned "it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party".
Other Democratic lawmakers and some American defence officials have raised similar concerns about givi
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Sep 17, 2026
President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office [Getty Images]
President Donald Trump's administration says it has approved the sale of nearly 50 F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a policy shift for the US that has raised concerns from some members of Congress.
Saudi Arabia has sought for years to buy the world's most advanced warplane, equipped with stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy detection.
Washington had resisted, partly because it supplies F-35s to its ally Israel, which is guaranteed under US law to receive top-of-the-range American weapons compared with those its regional neighbours can access.
Congress has 30 days to scrutinise or attempt to block the $24bn (£17.8bn) sale to Riyadh, which is the largest customer for US weapons.
A US Air Force F-35 [AFP via Getty Images]
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a Democrat, opposed the sale on Thursday.
He warned "it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party".
Other Democratic lawmakers and some American defence officials have raised similar concerns about givi
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Sep 17, 2026
President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office [Getty Images]
President Donald Trump's administration says it has approved the sale of nearly 50 F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a policy shift for the US that has raised concerns from some members of Congress.
Saudi Arabia has sought for years to buy the world's most advanced warplane, equipped with stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy detection.
Washington had resisted, partly because it supplies F-35s to its ally Israel, which is guaranteed under US law to receive top-of-the-range American weapons compared with those its regional neighbours can access.
Congress has 30 days to scrutinise or attempt to block the $24bn (£17.8bn) sale to Riyadh, which is the largest customer for US weapons.
A US Air Force F-35 [AFP via Getty Images]
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a Democrat, opposed the sale on Thursday.
He warned "it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party".
Other Democratic lawmakers and some American defence officials have raised similar concerns about givi
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Sep 17, 2026
Ousted board members of the U.S. Institute of Peace are asking a federal court to block the imminent carving of President Donald Trump's name on the headquarters of the nonpartisan institution he sought to dismantle shortly after taking office.
Members of the board who were removed by the administration filed an emergency motion Thursday in Washington in a dispute that has echoes of Trump's effort to place his name on the Kennedy Center.
The motion was filed as an emergency petition, alleging that a contractor has already been selected to carve Trump's name into the Constitution Avenue headquarters that the administration sought to shutter as part of the Elon Musk-led DOGE effort to shrink the government.
The former board members said in their motion that they had asked Kenneth Jackson, the DOGE official serving as acting president of the USIP, to ensure the carving would not happen as they pursue litigation to preserve the independent nonprofit created by Congress.
"The building — which was largely funded by private donations to USIP as a tax exempt nonprofit corporation — is a work of expressive architecture designed to be ‘symbolic of USIP's' independent ‘mission,'" the emergency motion said. "Alteration of the design to impose a different message would cause irreparable harm."
The USIP was created under President Ronald Reagan to provide research and training aimed at promoting democracy around the world. Trump's name was added to the exterior of the building in December, shortly before the president hosted a signing ceremony at the institute with the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The bolted-on affixture is removable, and is featured next to the institute's name, which is engraved into the facade.
The institute has been locked in a legal ba
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Sep 17, 2026
Illuminated buildings in Central district in Hong Kong, China, on Sunday, Jun. 21, 2026. - Paul Yeung/Bloomberg/Getty Images
A woman from a low-income family in China crossed over into Hong Kong to get to a concert she had spent months saving up for.
It was a trip that Beijing's vast surveillance apparatus didn't miss. Now her family face the prospect of losing their government benefits for splurging on "high-end consumption."
The incident has sparked massive debate across Chinese social media over whether those receiving benefits are also entitled to small luxuries. It's also a reminder of the staggering extent of the Chinese government's surveillance system, one turbocharged by advances in AI and the embrace of digital payments.
The story first surfaced in a post on popular site Red Note in early September by a user who said they were the young woman's cousin.
The woman, surnamed Huang, had "worked hard doing manual labor and saved up from the subsidies" to pay for the concert ticket and expenses of traveling to Hong Kong, around 235 miles (380 kilometers) from her home in Jiangxi province, the post said.
That post has since been taken down, but Chinese officials have said it was indeed written by the woman's cousin. A screenshot of it has also been used by state media reporting on the case.
Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 following more than 100 years of British colonial rule. It is governed by separate legal and political systems to mainland China, and mainland Chinese citizens still must apply for permission to travel there.
According to the Red Note post, a local s
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Sep 17, 2026
By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is reinstituting a mandatory testing program ?for testosterone deficiency among US service members ?age 30 and older, a spokesperson said on Thursday, ?bringing back a program that many medical experts have described as unnecessary and potentially harmful.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has promoted the use ?of testosterone to ?improve military readiness, first announced the screening mandate in July.
Under the announced guidance, ?women were also set to be screened through a questionnaire and could then move to ?treatment for ?conditions related to hormonal ?imbalances.
In early September, ?however, the Pentagon temporarily rescinded the published medical guidance for the testosterone screening "to allow for updates."
The latest move lifts that pause, allowing testing to go forward. It was not immediately clear what, ?if any, updates had ?been made to the original ?policy.
"Effective immediately, this ?guidance addresses male testosterone deficiency, establishing ?uniform screening and treatment ?pathways," Pentagon spokesperson ?Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Medical professionals have warned that testosterone, if prescribed inappropriately, ?could increase ?service members' risk of infertility or lead ?to other health consequences.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; ?Editing by Jamie Freed)
This article originally appeared on Reuters at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/pentagon-proceed-controversial-testosterone-testing-235629174.html
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Sep 17, 2026
Caleb Flynn appears in court on April 23, 2026, in Miami County, Ohio. - WHIO
About 13 years ago, "American Idol" contestant Caleb Flynn gushed about his wife Ashley, who he said encouraged him to audition for the 12th season of ABC's singing competition.
"I love my wife more than anything," he said in an interview during his brief stint on the show. "She's very, very pretty, just - woof, I love her."
Now, Flynn stands trial for her murder, as investigators allege the former music pastor fatally shot his wife of almost 16 years and staged the crime scene to make it appear she was killed by an intruder.
Flynn, 40, was arrested in February, days after he frantically called 911 to report someone broke into their Tipp City, Ohio, home and killed his wife - a beloved middle school volleyball coach - while he was in their daughters' bedroom.
"We're looking forward to trying the case," his defense attorney, Patrick Mulligan, told CNN Tuesday. "We've been waiting for this."
Flynn has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, and tampering with evidence.
The murder trial, which is slated to last about two weeks, started with jury selection on Thursday. Sixteen panelists - four of whom have been designated alternates - were seated, according to CNN affiliate WHIO. Opening statements are expected Friday morning.
During the proceedings, the jurors are expected to visit the family's home to vi
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Sep 17, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tensions are mounting between the Pentagon and Congress over the flow of information to lawmakers about the U.S. military's priorities, with both Democrats and Republicans accusing a Defense Department leader of being frustratingly opaque.
Some senators from both parties say they were left deeply unsettled Thursday after the Pentagon's top policy adviser, Defense Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, failed to provide an expected update on the Trump administration's National Defense Strategy at a classified briefing.
The lawmakers also say they were unsatisfied with Colby's answers to questions ranging from inquiries about the Iran war to growing concerns that President Donald Trump could deploy troops to polling places during November's midterm congressional elections. Colby acknowledged that discussions about deploying the National Guard were taking place.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Colby "was not forthcoming" and "did not really address our concerns or issues."
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican also on the committee, described the classified briefing as "just sort of dodge and punt."
"It's very peculiar to have somebody come in for a congressionally mandated update and not have a statement," Cramer said.
Colby, who has supporte
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Sep 17, 2026
Raúl Suárez Herrero says he spent more than 15 hours in a cage at "Alligator Alcatraz." (DHS; Telemundo)For around 15 hours, immigration detention officers kept Raúl Suárez Herrero confined in a cage slightly larger than a phone booth, where he feared snakes and endured mosquitoes in the middle of Florida swampland, the former detainee alleged.
Suárez, 59, told José Díaz-Balart in an interview for Noticias Telemundo's "Ahora 360" that he was forced into the cage, measuring 7 feet, 9 inches high and 4 feet, 3 inches square, for praying out loud for an ill young man at "Alligator Alcatraz," an ICE detention site.
"I feel like I was in hell," Suárez later told NBC News in a phone interview from Mexico, where he was deported.
Suárez spoke days after a Department of Homeland Security watchdog confirmed the use of the phone booth-sized cages at the now-shuttered Florida detention camp in a Sept. 11 report.
"The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment," the report said.
The DHS Office of Inspector General report documented its inspectors' findings during an unannounced January visit to the Ochopee, Florida, site.
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Sep 17, 2026
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the vaccine-skeptic group Children's Health Defense on Thursday they have "a friend in the White House" in President Donald Trump.
Kennedy delivered the keynote address in Washington, D.C., at a conference hosted by the group, noting that Trump has given directives to strengthen research, transparency and parental choice around childhood vaccines.
"Let me be clear. You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House," Kennedy said.
Former CDC directors say RFK Jr. is endangering Americans' healthKennedy also said he wanted to make more sweeping changes on "day one" but couldn't do so due to "procedures."
"In government, a bunch of things have to happen before something else happens or you get sued," he said. "It's a very laborious system and there's a lot of inertia built in that ... if we were able to overcome it we would have changed things on day one, but those would have been short-lived and I would have been out of a job because I have to manage my agency competently according to the law and according to procedures."
ABC News - PHOTO: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives the keynote address at a Children's Health Defense event in Washington, Sept. 17, 2026.Children's Health Defense, which advocates against the recommended vaccine schedule for children, was co-founded by Kennedy. He resigned from the board ahead of his confirmation as HHS Secretary.
The group described the conference as a "ti
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Sep 17, 2026
Police and LA Metro investigate the scene of a crash with a LA Metro Bus left two people dead on Sept. 15 in Chatsworth. (Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)The 36-year-old woman charged with murder in a violent, high-speed crash that killed two people in Chatsworth on Tuesday was under the influence of drugs and had narcotics in the car when she drove the wrong way on city streets and broadsided a Metro bus, prosecutors said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Thursday charged Bailee Lynn Rios with reckless driving, driving under the influence and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 46-year-old Daniel Castillo and 31-year-old Gage Weida, who was ejected from the bus during the crash.
"The tragedy of the Rios car crash was entirely preventable," Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said during a press conference on Thursday.
Rios was not charged in connection with the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of a pilot, an NBC4 reporter and a bystander. The helicopter had been hovering a few blocks away from the crash, providing a live feed for television news, when it appeared to suddenly lose power and crash.
Rios was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in San Fernando court, but was not taken from the jail to the courthouse because of a medical event. She is now expected to appear in court o
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Sep 17, 2026
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would not be considered illegal unless the animals were specifically targeted, under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act by President Donald Trump's administration that marks a sea change in how the landmark environmental law is enforced.
A directive sent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees this week says imperiled animals or plants must be intentionally targeted for their killing to be considered illegal.
That's a sharp turnaround from past practice at the wildlife service, which historically held people liable even for accidentally harming protected species such as grizzly bears, manatees and spotted owls.
Former Fish and Wildlife director says the change ‘creates a huge loophole'
Experts said the change would allow timber companies to log forests in the Pacific Northwest even if they knew that doing so could kill imperiled birds nesting in the trees, or for developers to build a dam knowing it would kill salmon.
"This cuts against the entire history of the Endangered Species Act," said Dan Ashe, who led the Fish and Wildlife Service under former President Barack Obama.
"It just creates a huge loophole," added Ashe, who is now president of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. "It completely relieves people of any responsibility for their actions, even consequences that can be easily predi
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Sep 17, 2026
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) talks to reporters following a House Republican conference in the basement of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 1, 2026. —Chip Somodevilla—Getty ImagesRep. María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican up for re-election in November, released an ad on Thursday in which she criticized President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, just months after he endorsed her campaign.
"Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far," Salazar said in the ad. "The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today."
"You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism," she continued. "I'm not talking about giving them amnesty. I'm talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land. And only you can do that."
The video marked a stunning break from the President who backed Salazar's re-election bid earlier this year. In February, Trump said in a Truth Social post that the Congresswoman was "doing a truly fantastic job representing the wonderful people of Florida's 27th Congressional District!" and that she "knows the Wisdom and Courage required to confront the Corrupt Fake News." He said that she had his "Complete and Total Endorsement for
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Sep 17, 2026
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) talks to reporters following a House Republican conference in the basement of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 1, 2026. —Chip Somodevilla—Getty ImagesRep. María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican up for re-election in November, released an ad on Thursday in which she criticized President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, just months after he endorsed her campaign.
"Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far," Salazar said in the ad. "The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today."
"You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism," she continued. "I'm not talking about giving them amnesty. I'm talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land. And only you can do that."
The video marked a stunning break from the President who backed Salazar's re-election bid earlier this year. In February, Trump said in a Truth Social post that the Congresswoman was "doing a truly fantastic job representing the wonderful people of Florida's 27th Congressional District!" and that she "knows the Wisdom and Courage required to confront the Corrupt Fake News." He said that she had his "Complete and Total Endorsement for
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Sep 17, 2026
There's not much the American people agree on these days. From Trump Steaks to plastic straws, from vaccines to Teslas, it's hard to pinpoint a topic that hasn't been polarized by politics. But a series of new surveys suggest Americans may have finally found some common ground, at least for the moment: growing concerns about artificial intelligence.
Last week, a long-running industry debate about AI safety broke containment and went viral after an Anthropic researcher named Jacob Coxon quit his job and revealed that "the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Soon, dozens of lawmakers had responded with calls to regulate AI — and the top executives of the major artificial intelligence companies had all come out in favor of a global slowdown in AI development.
But as polls show, Americans would be fine with that. A full 63% — including 70% of those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 and 60% of those who vo
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Sep 17, 2026
President Donald Trump with Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 22. - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/File
The Federal Reserve's first rate hike in three years has ushered in a new twist to the already unusual relationship between President Donald Trump and the world's most powerful central bank.
Trump raised eyebrows on Wednesday evening by appearing to suggest that he gave Kevin Warsh, his handpicked Fed chairman, permission to raise rates - even though it was the "wrong" move. The president implied that Warsh had no choice but to embrace a rate increase because the Fed chief was outnumbered on the "hostile" rate-setting committee he oversees.
"I talked to Kevin and I said you might as well vote with the board because it's not going to matter…I said, ‘Do what you want because it doesn't matter' because he doesn't have the votes," Trump told reporters.
The remarks raise plenty of questions about how much - if at all - Warsh is consulting with a president who has been willing to cross red lines in his quest for dramatically lower interest rates.
Those questions are especially sensitive because the Fed is designed
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Sep 17, 2026
By Katharine Jackson and Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday to provide at least 30 days' notice before taking any steps to demolish the Kennedy Center, the landmark performing arts venue ?that has become a flashpoint in his efforts to reshape the U.S. capital.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued the order after ?lawyers for a Democratic congresswoman who is suing to keep the venue open and Trump's name off its facade submitted new evidence citing the Republican president's comments on Wednesday referring ?to demolishing the Kennedy Center.
"I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down," Trump told reporters in North Carolina, referring to putting his name on the facility established by Congress and opened in 1971 as a memorial to slain President John Kennedy.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center's Trump-backed executive director, said in a court filing earlier on Thursday that ?the building was being temporarily closed to assess safety ?risks in areas "exhibiting severe structural deterioration."
Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, who sued Trump last year over his Kennedy Center plans, responded in a filing in federal court in Washington that the closure "is a recipe for defendants extending their ?shutdown forever and closing the Kennedy Center for the next two years — the very thing this court said they could not do without its permission."
Beatty's lawyers also cited a photo circulating on social media that depicted the president aboard Air Force One looking at a poster they said appeared to be titled "Kennedy ?Center ?DEMOLISHED." The photo has not been independently verified by Reuters.
Trump last year had the ?White House's historic East Wing demolished to make way for ?a
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Sep 17, 2026
President Trump said Thursday that he is facing a major looming decision in Iran as the U.S. war in the country shows no signs of subsiding.
"I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me," Trump told Axios.
The comments come after reports surfaced that Trump is slated to meet with the leaders of six Persian Gulf nations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week.
Trump's comments also come as energy prices spike in the U.S. as a result of the conflict.
The national average for gas prices jumped from $4.31 to $4.43 in the span of four days this week, according to AAA. Meanwhile the national average for diesel jumped 42 cents over the last week.
The issue is putting Republicans on the defensive in the upcoming midterm elections as Democrats hammer the Trump administration over affordability.
Trump told supporters Wednesday in North Carolina that higher gas prices are a "very inexpensive price to pay" for the war.
"Remember that. It's a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more," Trump said at a rally for GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley in Gastonia, N.C.
"But that's going to come tumbling down," he added, referring to gas
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Sep 17, 2026
Austin Abrams in Zach Cregger's Resident Evil.Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photo: Sony Pictures Releasing/Everett CollectionThere have already been seven Resident Evil movies — six of them in a more action-oriented series starring Milla Jovovich, four of which were directed by her husband, Paul W.S. Anderson, plus an unrelated "reboot" in 2021 called Welcome to Raccoon City that went for more of a John Carpenter vibe and was more of an attempt to truly "adapt" the games. There's also a Netflix TV show version that ran for a single season in 2022. Countless other works in the horror genre have unofficially cribbed from the Resident Evil games over the years. It's an incredibly influential series.
And yet, Zach Cregger, hot off h
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Sep 17, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio "really does have the rest of the world to worry about," White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)WASHINGTON — The talks to end the Iran war had hit a snag.
Vice President JD Vance had flown to Pakistan for negotiations with the Iranians, a sign that the two sides had narrowed their differences and the White House might be poised to announce a breakthrough.
As the marathon April meeting unfolded, though, U.S. negotiators began to worry: It looked like the Iranians were changing the terms of a potential deal. So, during a pause, they phoned Secretary of State Marco Rubio to get a "steer" on what they should do next, an administration official with direct knowledge of the matter said in an interview.
Rubio agreed that they couldn't accept Iran's offer, the official said. There would be no deal.
Rubio isn't the face of the Iran negotiations. He's kept a discreet public distance as the unpopular war grinds on. Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and the president's longtime friend and special envoy Steve Witkoff are the main protagonists in the push to end both the Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.
The arrangement is an unusual one. Past secretaries of state commanded the spotlight when it came to war and peace. Henry Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War during the Nixon administration. John Kerry, in the Obama administration, flew back and forth between Washington and the Middle East as he tried in vain to broker a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Still, Rubio has been a hidden hand throughout, helping craft the Trump administration's strateg
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Sep 17, 2026
The White House on Thursday withdrew the nomination of Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a Republican blocked his confirmation hearing.
Schroyer's nomination stalled after Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a foe of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, requested that the Department of Homeland Security provide his committee with more information about its investigation into two ICE and Border Patrol agents accused of killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Schroyer was a surprise pick to lead ICE. He had no experience leading a major law enforcement agency, let alone an organization the size of ICE. But Schroyer has close ties with the DHS secretary. Schroyer at one point led Mullin's security detail, and Mullin made Schroyer a senior adviser at DHS.
The White House and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The nomination's withdrawal is a blow to Mullin, who has faced criticism from immigration hardliners over what they have characterized as insufficient progress in achieving mass deportations of unauthorized immigrants from the United States.
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Sep 17, 2026
In 2016, Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a biologist and National Geographic Explorer working in Bolivia, received a call from a local wildlife sanctuary that had just been given what they described as "a weird cat." It came from a local man who found it as a kitten on a road near a forest. The man took the animal home, believing it to be a domestic breed. But after about a year of living with the clearly wild animal, he realized it would be better off at a sanctuary.
As the lead scientist and founder of the Bolivian Felids Research Program (Programa de Investigación de Félidos Bolivia), Nogales-Ascarrunz was intrigued. The animal had a small, scrunched-up face, short and round ears, and long whiskers. It was, indeed, too small to be a housecat, and, most notably, it was covered in leopard-like spots. So she went to visit the creature at the Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary on the subtropical flank of the Bolivian Andes.
"I took a hundred pictures of it," remembers Nogales-Ascarrunz. "I was so fascinated."
What she couldn't know at the time was that this curious cat had a secret. It would become the first new species of felid (i.e. the cat family) discovered in over 100 years, according to a study published today in the journal Current Biology. What's exciting is the discovery is not a validation of a species proposed in the distant past, nor a previously recognized subspecies raised to species status—which are both more commonly reported and important findings. No, this cat was something totally new to science.
Nogales-Ascarrunz assumed the unusual cat was a member of the species Leopardus tigrinus. Sometime
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Sep 17, 2026
By Ingrid Melander, Charlotte Van Campenhout and Yves Herman
STRASBOURG, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Canada and Europe should ally to protect their markets, democracies and rule of law in a world dominated by the United States and China, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday, after an EU ?proposal to make Canada an "associate member".
The Canadian prime minister received warm applause for his speech to the European Parliament, delivered hours after U.S. President Donald ?Trump threatened trade sanctions in response to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's proposal to create a new status for the EU-Canada relationship.
Carney did not adopt the term "associate member" used a day earlier ?by von der Leyen, but said he appreciated "the ambition" that her suggestion conveyed.
"Europe and Canada are each strong. Europe and Canada are even stronger together," Carney said.
He was not seeking to form a "third bloc" to act as "a great-power rival" to Washington and Beijing "only with better manners," Carney said in a line that drew laughs.
"We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience, so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, ?our democracies, our rule of law."
He told reporters after the ?speech that it would be up to the EU how it proposed to describe any future relationship, and that the substance of any agreement would be more important than the name given to it.
TRUMP THREATS
Trump threatened late on Wednesday to take action against the ?EU if it moved forward with von der Leyen's proposal to make Canada an 'associate member' of the bloc.
"If they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things," Trump told reporters en route to an event in North Carolina,
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Sep 17, 2026
By Ingrid Melander, Charlotte Van Campenhout and Yves Herman
STRASBOURG, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Canada and Europe should ally to protect their markets, democracies and rule of law in a world dominated by the United States and China, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday, after an EU ?proposal to make Canada an "associate member".
The Canadian prime minister received warm applause for his speech to the European Parliament, delivered hours after U.S. President Donald ?Trump threatened trade sanctions in response to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's proposal to create a new status for the EU-Canada relationship.
Carney did not adopt the term "associate member" used a day earlier ?by von der Leyen, but said he appreciated "the ambition" that her suggestion conveyed.
"Europe and Canada are each strong. Europe and Canada are even stronger together," Carney said.
He was not seeking to form a "third bloc" to act as "a great-power rival" to Washington and Beijing "only with better manners," Carney said in a line that drew laughs.
"We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience, so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, ?our democracies, our rule of law."
He told reporters after the ?speech that it would be up to the EU how it proposed to describe any future relationship, and that the substance of any agreement would be more important than the name given to it.
TRUMP THREATS
Trump threatened late on Wednesday to take action against the ?EU if it moved forward with von der Leyen's proposal to make Canada an 'associate member' of the bloc.
"If they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things," Trump told reporters en route to an event in North Carolina,
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Sep 17, 2026
Britain's royal family has taken the unusual step of publicly challenging claims made by Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, in his upcoming memoir.
Departing from the monarchy's traditional "never complain, never explain" approach, Buckingham Palace responded Wednesday to Spencer's recollection of a phone call between himself and King Charles, in the wake of Diana's death in 1997. According to Spencer, the call took place after Spencer objected to Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12, walking behind their mother's coffin at her funeral.
In an excerpt from the book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister published by Britain's Daily Mail, Spencer wrote, "He unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death. 'Rest assured,' he hissed, 'we'll forget her soon enough.'"
While the palace didn't directly address whether the comment was made, the statement questioned the reliability of Spencer's recollection, saying, "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."
The statement echoes the palace's reaction to claims made by Harry and Meghan Markle during their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that an unnamed royal had made a remark about their son's skin color before he was born and that the monarchy failed to help a suicidal Meghan. A response issued on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II at that time said that "recollections may vary."
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Sep 17, 2026
Mourners leave notes at a memorial for the NBC4 helicopter crew at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)NBC4's helicopter was one of several news aircraft flying over the scene of a deadly bus crash in Chatsworth Tuesday evening at sunset.
It's common for multiple news choppers to arrive at the scene of breaking news, beaming live images for newscasts and streaming.
But around 7 p.m., something went horribly wrong and in a matter of seconds the NBC4 chopper dropped out of the sky, crashing into shipping containers and vehicles outside a warehouse a few blocks away, bursting into flames. Two station journalists, reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, were killed along with a bystander on the ground.
Federal investigators are now trying to figure out what went wrong. The Times interviewed several experts, who reviewed recordings of the chopper's final moments. They offered insights into the helicopter itself, its movements that afternoon and what is known about how its mechanics work.
Here's what they had to say:
Low altitude flying, then a hornA video stream from the helicopter, as it was covering the bus crash, appears to show the helicopter hovering just before it came crashing down. An alarm can be heard blaring as the helicopter appears to be quickly losing altitude.
That alarm would be triggered by a potential engine failure, causing low propeller rotation, or a problem with the hydraulic system, said Jack Cress, a former helicopter pilot for the U.S. Marine Corps and a helicopter accident investigation instructor at USC's Aviation Safety and Security Program.
If the helicopter s
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Sep 17, 2026
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) argued Wednesday that House GOP leaders sent the lower chamber home early because they found other Republicans in support of his push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"The fact that they didn't vote on it tells me that they did a whip check, and they probably found that there were some other Republicans, besides me, that were going to vote for this, or at least didn't want to be on the record supporting Hegseth," he told host Kaitlan Collins on CNN's "The Source."
The outgoing Kentucky libertarian, a frequent critic of President Trump, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Tuesday.
Massie accused Hegseth of violating his "oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States," citing his handling of the Iran war and operations to kill alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
The GOP lawmaker, who lost his primary
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Sep 17, 2026
Senate Health Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La. (Getty Images)
Senate Health Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., on Wednesday criticized the Trump administration's handling of the nation's measles outbreaks, calling the recent deaths from the disease a "terrible legacy."
"Misinformation and misguided policies are leaving children unprotected against diseases we know how to prevent," Cassidy said during a confirmation hearing for three Department of Health and Human Services nominees.
The U.S. is experiencing its largest measles outbreak in decades, with cases surpassing a 35-year record. Pennsylvania officials said Tuesday that four people had died from measles-associated complications.
"No one should be hospitalized, much less die. By the way, CDC apparently is working on the definition of death by measles," Cassidy said.
"Someone said we haven't had to work on that for decades because no one has died from measles, and now we have people dying from measles. That's going to be a terrible legacy for this administration."
Cassidy, a physician, pressed surgeon general nominee Dr. Nicole Saphier on her views of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, telling her not to equivocate.
"I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles," Saphier responded.
Asked what she would tell a mother concerned that the MMR vaccine causes autism, Saphier said, "I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism."
The exchange comes as President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have pursued changes to longsta
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Sep 17, 2026
Senate Republicans aren't happy with the lack of progress in the Iran war and what they say is the administration's failure to identify clear objectives to end the conflict.
The war continues to be a major drag on GOP candidates as the failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and new threats facing oil exports from Iranian-backed Houthi militias have sent the prices to nearly $106 a barrel, while raising the national gas price average to $4.37 a gallon.
But Republicans are particularly concerned about the war's impact on the price of diesel, which has soared to a national average of $6.31 and hit several Senate battleground states — including Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa and Maine — especially hard.
Some Republicans are now floating the idea of embargoing diesel exports produced in the United States to lower prices.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) expressed frustration over "the lack of just transparency and information from the administration on what's happening, what we should expect, the costs," joining other GOP senators who have expressed similar grievances.
Murkowski said senators received a cost estimate for the conflict from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just before the August recess but haven't had any significant updates since then.
"I don't think that the president ever really made the case for, ‘This is why I'm going into Iran now, this is the objective, these will be the metrics along the way,'" she said. "I don't think that was ever fully articulated."
"As I'm talking to Alaskans, they're saying, ‘Wait a minute, he said we were going to be in and out in a matter of wee
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Sep 17, 2026
A truck operated by Next Level Express Inc. slammed into an SUV parked on the shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike last December, killing two parents and their daughter on the way home from a family gathering. A second daughter survived.
In the decade before the crash, none of the company's trucks or drivers had been subjected to a single roadside inspection.
It's a pattern repeating hundreds of times a year.
A CBS News analysis of millions of federal records finds more than 2,000 people have been killed since 2019 in crashes involving trucking companies that held federal authority to operate but had no roadside inspection on record before the crash. That includes 621 deaths in 543 crashes since 2024.
Roadside inspections, carried out by federal and state officers, are the government's main tool for catching dangerous trucks, drivers and companies before they crash.
But even as trucks log more miles than ever, CBS News found inspections have not kept pace. Inspections per mile driven have fallen about 20% since 2016.
The analysis also identified thousands of companies that have never been inspected — before or after a crash — while holding federal authority to operate coast to coast.
See the full investigation at https://www.cbsnews.com/projects/2026/truck-inspections-decline/.
This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trucks-drivers-fewer-safety-inspections/
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Sep 17, 2026
The family of Bryan Kohberger is supporting his efforts to challenge his 2025 conviction, saying in a statement exclusive to ABC News, "Our full support of Bryan's decision to pursue post-conviction relief does not come from a place of disregard."
Kohberger, who is currently serving four consecutive life sentences for killing four college students in Idaho, said in his petition that the circumstances of his plea deal are now suspect because, among other things, he was "convinced to falsely confess" to a crime he says he did not commit.
"My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn," he said in a statement to the New York Times last month.
Kohberger's family told ABC News that they did not want their support of their son "to compound the unimaginable grief the families have borne so courageously."
"Rather, it comes from our family's need to see that the complete and unvarnished truth is told. Like everyone, we seek answers to all the questions that have been raised, which can only be addressed through a proper trial, as opposed to an improper plea," the Kohberger family said.
Kyle Green, Pool via Getty Images, FILE - PHOTO: In this July 23, 2025, file photo, Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing in Boise, Idaho. "As a family, we continue to carry the victims, their families, and the entire Moscow community in our hearts and daily prayer," they added. "We continue to love and support Bryan and we continue to respect the memory of those lost. We seek to find justice and a conclusive resolution through the legal process."
This month, Bryan Kohberger also requested a new judge to oversee the process, saying comments ma
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Sep 17, 2026
GENEVA (AP) — Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.'s top human rights body say they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab. They also accuse Iran's theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people in a report published Thursday.
The report, while not binding, adds to international evidence gathered about crimes in the war in Iran, and could eventually be used in efforts to reach justice in international courts.
The fact-finding mission on Iran, chaired by jurist Sara Hossain of Bangladesh, is made up of independent experts and was created in 2022 by the Human Rights Council, the U.N.'s top human rights body, which is based in Geneva.
The experts were expected to present their findings on Monday to the council, which is made up of 47 U.N. member countries.
The team says the US launched ‘indiscriminate' attacks
The international fact-finding mission says its findings on U.S. war crimes center on a pair of U.S. airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.
At the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one U.S. missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an Associated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of what happened.
Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.
"Following the U
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Sep 17, 2026
Flooding is seen in the Crownpoint District of New Mexico in an image posted by the Navajo Police Department on Tuesday. - From Navajo Police Department
The Southwest faces a barrage of intense rain this week as rounds of storms are tapping into unusually moisture-rich air being pulled north from Baja California, after flash flooding in New Mexico killed three people early Wednesday.
Officers responded at around 12:30 a.m. local time to a report of three people washed away by flooding near Newcomb, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. Police discovered two adults and one juvenile on scene, the Navajo Police Department said in a statement. All three were pronounced dead. The department declined to provide further details about the deaths when contacted by CNN, citing concern for the family's privacy.
??? Get your local forecast from the CNN Weather app
Rainfall over Newcomb began Tuesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. and lingered intermittently until just after midnight. The area saw around 0.5 inches to 1 inch of rain in total, with most of it falling within an hour Tuesday evening.
Wednesday's storms prompted a rare Level 3 of 4 risk of flooding rainfall for parts of Arizona and New Mexico, including Phoenix and Tucson. Phoenix had not faced a flood risk that high since 2022.
More than 3 inches of rain fell in just three h
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Sep 17, 2026
Political pressure during the Trump era forced corporate America to put its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on ice.
Now, in a surprising turn, growing rank-and-file buy-in is driving a quiet thaw across party lines, with even Republican employees expressing approval for such workplace programs.
This unexpected bipartisan support for DEI emerged in the latest Bentley University-Gallup Business in Society survey provided exclusively to USA TODAY. Though views remain deeply polarized, workers across the ideological spectrum are growing more positive about the workplace benefits of diversity programs.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Americans believe promoting DEI should be a priority for businesses. What's more, public faith in the bottom-line benefits of diversity is climbing as more Americans link diverse workforces to increased profitability and innovation than at any point in the past two years.
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Sep 16, 2026
Wild courthouse video appears to show a newly sentenced Ohio man slipping out of his handcuffs, punching a bailiff and making a desperate run for the exit before deputies stopped his escape.
Timothy J. Reaggle, 20, of Wellsville, allegedly attacked two Columbiana County Sheriff's Office deputies Monday shortly after learning he would spend a year in prison in a separate case, according to local reports.
Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin told Wfmj that both deputies suffered broken bones but have since been released from the hospital.
Video released by the sheriff's office shows a deputy escorting Reaggle down a hallway after his sentencing. Reaggle then suddenly breaks free of his handcuffs and allegedly punches the deputy before sprinting away.
Escaped Inmate's Bid For Freedom Comes To Crashing End After Coordinated Manhunt Closes In
Video shows Timothy J. Reaggle sliding down courthouse steps as he races toward the exit during an alleged escape attempt.As he runs down the hallway, Reaggle is seen crashing into another deputy, knocking him to the ground.
Read On The Fox News App
Reaggle then allegedly headed toward the courthouse exit, where video shows h
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Sep 16, 2026
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the Kennedy Center could "close" or be "ripped down" if his administration doesn't receive recognition on the performing arts center as tensions over his name being removed mount.
"I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down," the president told reporters on the tarmac in North Carolina.
Trump claimed that the Kennedy Center was a "mess" without his intervention and "has lost 10s of millions of dollars, even hundreds of millions of dollars," comparing it to New York's Carnegie Hall.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images - PHOTO: President Trump Travels To North CarolinaKennedy niece says Trump holding Kennedy Center 'hostage' amid battle over nameThe president's comments come after a federal judge on Tuesday blocked the performing arts center's board from adding a tribute to Trump on the building or site. He responded by saying he wouldn't spend congressionally approved funding for the center's renovation unless the building also bears his name.
Congress last year appropriated $257 million for the renovation.
About an hour after the judge's ruling Tuesday, the board, which is controlled by Trump appointees, voted to close the center immediately for renovations, citing safety concerns after a piece of plaster from the ceiling of the grand foyer fell during a heavy rainstorm earlier this month.
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