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Oct 01, 2026
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - New applications for US unemployment benefits drifted close to 57-year lows last week and layoffs decreased in September, suggesting labor market stability persisted even as employers remained cautious about boosting hiring.
The report from the Labor Department on Thursday joined a raft of other data, including robust consumer spending in August, in painting a rosy picture of the economy despite ?rising headwinds from the US-Israeli war with Iran, which has driven diesel prices to record highs. Economists said robust corporate profits growth and resilient domestic demand were shielding workers from layoffs, for now.
"At some point, ?elevated energy costs and material prices will force firms to lay off marginal workers to protect profit margins, but there is no sign of that here," said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 197,000 for ?the week ended September 26, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 200,000 claims for the latest week.
Claims have held below the 200,000 level for three straight weeks and are near levels last seen in 1969. Some economists said historically low layoffs, if sustained, could raise questions about the labor market overheating, with monetary policy implications.
"We do not appear to be close to that result yet, but this is a new risk that the FOMC appears to be watching," said Stephen Stanley, chief US economist at Santander US Capital Markets, referring to the Fed's policy-setting committee.
A separate report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed layoffs announced by US-based employers dropped 18% to 43,281 in September. They were down 20% ?from a year ago and fell 43% in the third quarter. Employers are, however, ?in no rush to increase h
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Oct 01, 2026
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee paused executions in the state after an inmate survived two doses of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday.
Christa Pike, 50, remained alive and snoring loudly after being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys and other witnesses said. She was subsequently taken to a hospital. Her health status remained unknown as of Thursday, Lee said.
Lee ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and said that another scheduled execution later this year had been paused.
"There are very few answers this morning. It's very early," Lee told reporters Thursday morning. "There are a lot of questions. The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered.
"This is a tragedy. There is no one who wanted what happened last night to happen. It's deeply disturbing to me that this has happened in this state."
May Martinez, the mother of Pike's victim, Colleen Slemmer, told NBC News the execution attempt had been a "mess," adding, "They didn't say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. We didn't know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner. And he said that it didn't work ... and she's on her way to the hospital."
In a statement posted on Facebook, Sen. Marsha Blackburn called for the state to return to the electric chair as a means of execution. "This situation is tragic," she said.
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Oct 01, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge in the nation's capital agreed on Thursday to permanently dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a move that could prevent federal prosecutors from reviving the case under political pressure from President Donald Trump.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman ordered the dismissal of David Hearn's case with "prejudice," which would block U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office from refiling the felony charge against him. The judge ruled nearly a month after hearing attorneys' arguments.
Hearn's lawyers say Trump administration officials have continued to falsely accuse the Maryland resident of vandalizing the reflecting pool despite Pirro's decision to drop the case on July 31. Trump responded by saying Pirro "choked" and "folded like an umbrella."
Edelman said the case presents "exceptional circumstances" that warrant dismissing the case permanently. He agreed with defense attorneys that the government "shot first and asked questions later" by charging Hearn in a "a lightning-fast indictment process."
"While the government wishes to hold open the possibility of the development of evidence that would support a future prosecution, its own representations make plain that such a possibility is theoretical at best, and more likely, is simply fanciful," the judge wrote.
Permanently dismissing the case protects Hearn from prosecutors electing to revive the case under political pressure from Trump, the judge said.
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Oct 01, 2026
A woman who accused seven members of a fraternity at Cornell University in 2024 of rape reportedly told the school's investigators that she "felt like bait" on the night of the alleged assault.
"I felt like lions around me," she said during a 2025 hearing, according to ABC News. "It just was a totally debilitating place to be in."
The comments were included in a 99-page report prepared by the university as part of its Title IX investigation, per ABC.
The report also included comments from a fraternity member who Cornell's investigation concluded did not engage in the assault but was found responsible for "attempted sexual exploitation."
"I was sorry that maybe if it wasn't consensual and she was victimized, I was sorry for not stopping it," the fraternity members said, according to ABC.
In a civil lawsuit filed last month against the school and the fraternity members, the woman, a former student identified as "Jane Doe," said that she was the victim of a "gang rape" at the Chi Phi fraternity on Cornell's Ithaca, N.Y., campus on Oct. 19, 2024. She said she was already intoxicated when she arrived and was given ketamine before and during the alleged assault. She reported the incident to campus police three weeks later.
On Tuesday, CBS New York
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Oct 01, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Renee Good's family sued the U.S. government and several immigration officials Thursday, alleging wrongful death, conspiracy and other violations in the 37-year-old woman's killing by an immigration officer during a federal crackdown in Minneapolis.
The two lawsuits were filed by Good's partner, Becca Good, and Renee's brother Brent Ganger.
The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuits.
Officer shot Good as she turned her car away from him
Renee Good, a mother of three, was fatally shot Jan. 7 as protests against immigration raids flared across the city. According to Becca Good, her partner stopped their car in a street to support neighbors during an immigration operation.
Bystander video shows Renee Good in the driver's seat of a red SUV blocking part of the road and repeatedly honking her horn.
Two immigration officers get out of a truck, their faces covered, and one orders Good to get out of the car. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel as the officer says again, "get out of the car."
Almost simultaneously, Becca Good, standing in the street, shouts: "Drive, baby, drive!"
One officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires into the windshield. He lurches back as the car turns away from him. The officer, who is now very close to the open window on the driver's side, opens fire two more times, fatally shooting Renee Good, according to an analysis of the videos by The Associated Press and others.
Federal officials at the time said the off
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Oct 01, 2026
Matthias Huss with a four-metre-long measuring stake indicating the amount of ice that melted over the past year on the Scex Rouge glacier (Fabrice COFFRINI)Switzerland's glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 percent of their mass in five years, experts said Thursday, with 2026 registering the second-biggest melt on record.
Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 percent of their volume melt away this year, the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network found in a new study, published after a record hot summer preceded by a winter with little snowfall.
"The glaciers this year have lost enormous quantities of ice," said GLAMOS chief Matthias Huss, describing 2026 as "a catastrophic year".
Perched on the Scex Rouge glacier, at an altitude of nearly 3,000 metres, he gazed across the landscape in despair.
"This is a glacier that isn't surviving," he said.
"There will be probably no ice in 10 or maybe 15 years."
He carefully dismantled the four-metre-long aluminium measurement stake inserted at the centre of the glacier.
In late July, when it was installed, it was completely embedded, but now more than three metres protrude from the grey surface of the ice.
"It's not that we are surprised, because we know how fast the glaciers are melting," Huss said.
"But to see the colours of the mountains where there is no snow left, there is just these rocks and these dark glaciers that are a relic from the past... it's just incredible."
Between 2022 and 2026, the melt rate at Switzerland's glaciers was "more than twice as high as in any previously monitored five-year period", the GLAMOS report said, noting an ice volume loss of almost 20 percent since 2021.
While Switzerland's glaciers have long been sh
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Oct 01, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping crackdown.
The justices will consider whether immigrants who have been living in the U.S. have a right to a hearing to determine if they should remain detained while challenging their possible deportation.
The case will test a key pillar of the Trump administration's hard-line immigration agenda.
Most appeals courts to have considered the issue have found that it violates federal law to detain immigrants, including those living in the U.S. illegally, without a bond hearing. Those decisions conflict with rulings by the 5th and 8th circuits, which held that immigrants accused of illegally entering and remaining in the U.S. must be detained while their deportation cases are pending.
The high court agreed to hear the case of Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a citizen of Brazil. Authorities say he entered the United States illegally two decades ago and applied for asylum in 2016. He sought a bond hearing after an immigration judge determined that his detention was mandatory following his September 2025 arrest.
He has never been charged or convicted of a crime,
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Oct 01, 2026
"I Voted" stickers sit on a table at Naperville Municipal Center in Naperville, Illinois, on September 24, 2026, on the first day of early voting ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. - Kamil Krzaczyski/AFP/Getty Images
Election Day is still a month away, but more than 700,000 Americans have already voted across at least 30 states. There are signs emerging of the advantage Democrats have in motivating their voters - a trend that's played out in polling all summer long.
In several states with key Senate or governor races this fall, Democrats make up a larger share of voters requesting ballots so far than they did at this point in 2024.
In Iowa, Democrats have made 67% of ballot requests, up from 54% at this point in 2024. In Pennsylvania, it's 66%, up from 62%, and in Maine it's 57%, up from 53%. And according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, 42% of ballot requests are from Democrats, up from 36% at this point two years ago.
It's worth noting that in all of those states except for Iowa, ballot requests at this point in 2022 were more Democratic than they are now.
The uptick in the share of requests from Democrats would be in line with polling, special election results and primary turnout, all of which have indicated Democrats may be more motivated to vote this November.
On the other hand, it could just be further evidence of Republicans continuing to shift to preferring other forms of voting.
An important caveat: While the fact that a person has voted is general
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Oct 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump said he regretted nominating three Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and ?Brett Kavanaugh — who have opposed him in recent rulings, according ?to a Time Magazine interview.
The Republican president was asked about his recent comments regarding the ?three conservative justices in the interview, which was conducted on Monday.
"Do you regret nominating them?" the interviewer asked, referring to Trump's comments in a recent Truth Social post.
"Yeah. Yeah," Trump responded, according to a transcript of the ?interview.
"What can I do? ?I put them in. They voted against me too often. I was very — I gave them the position of ?a lifetime, and they vote against me often."
Trump appointed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett during his first term as president, building a 6-3 conservative majority and allowing the court ?to steer ?a dramatic rightward course since 2020.
"I ?do like loyalty, yeah," Trump ?told the interviewer, who then asked whether that was what he wanted from the justices.
"No, I don't want loyalty. I want good decisions," Trump said.
After the top US judicial body declined to allow a Postal Service rule restricting the use of mail-in ballots in the November midterm elections, ?Trump said his appointees were behaving differently ?than they had during interviews.
"These are not ?the people I interviewed to ?serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are ?merely a shell of their original ?selves," he wrote on ?Truth Social.
After the court in February struck down his sweeping global tariffs that it found he had imposed illegally using a ?law meant for national ?emergencies, Trump reserved special ire for Gorsuch and Barrett, who were in ?the majority in that 6-3 ruling.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and ?Doina Chiacu, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
This article originally
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Oct 01, 2026
Flagstaff — A former Northern Arizona University fraternity leader was sentenced to two months in jail Wednesday for his role in a hazing that led to the death of a pledge.
Carter Eslick, 20, also received three years of supervised probation during a sentencing hearing in Coconino County Superior Court. Eslick had pleaded guilty to a felony hazing charge in the Jan. 31 death of Colin Daniel Martinez, 18, at an off-campus house.
An autopsy found Martinez died of alcohol poisoning with a blood-alcohol content of 0.425% — more than five times the state's legal limit for drivers 21 and over.
Martinez was among four Delta Tau Delta pledges who shared two bottles of vodka to ensure they vomited, according to court documents. Witnesses reported adjusting Martinez's sleeping position and checking his pulse and breathing to look for signs of alcohol poisoning throughout the night, the documents said.
Martinez's parents appeared remotely in court, still grieving their son, and said they want accountability and reform within Greek life, CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO-TV reported.
Eslick was the fraternity's pledge master at the time and was responsible for welcoming new members.
The hearing began with testimony from five of Eslick's friends and family members who attested to his character while warning about the dangers of fraternity
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Oct 01, 2026
The Trump administration used an emergency measure this summer to change the language of the federal voter-registration form used by U.S. service members abroad and citizens residing outside the country, potentially restricting some eligible American voters abroad from using the application to request their ballots.
Advocates for American citizens overseas say the changes will spark confusion among eligible voters abroad and officials within U.S. election offices. They argue the changes effectively disenfranchise some voters abroad, but the Pentagon says the changes are meant to align the form with federal law. More than 2 million Americans living abroad are eligible to cast their ballots in U.S. elections.
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Doris Speer, president of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, said she believes the changes to the form known as the Federal Post Card Application are "an effort to deter the overseas vote, not to legally stop people from voting but to make the process so difficult that you really have to want to vote to get through it. The result will be confusion, chaos and fewer overseas votes."
The changes to the form follow the Trump administration's unsuccessful efforts to restrict voting by mail and pass sweeping voter ID legislation. That proposed legislation, the Save America Act, would require Americans to prove their citizenship when registering to vote and show photo ID to vote, and permit the Department of Homeland Security to obtain access to voter rolls.
The political stakes of the
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Oct 01, 2026
A medevac helicopter crashed into the water off Catalina Island in California on Wednesday night, with one of the five people aboard reported missing and the other four taken to hospitals, according to officials.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department received reports of the crash shortly before 8 p.m.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing, with the fire department dispatching helicopters and divers shortly after learning of the crash.
3 Dead, 1 Hospitalized After News Helicopter Crashes In Los Angeles Commercial Area
A medevac helicopter crashed into the water off Catalina Island in California on Wednesday night.The U.S. Coast Guard also responded to the crash.
"I have been informed that a medevac helicopter leaving Catalina Island has crashed shortly after takeoff. L.A. County Fire, Sheriff, Coast Guard, and Avalon Fire are on the scene," Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said on X. "Search and rescue operations are underway, and I am praying for everyone who was on board."
Read On The Fox News App
At least one of the five people aboard the helicopter remains unaccounted for as of late Wednesday night. Two others were transported to hospitals in
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Oct 01, 2026
Indian pilot Smit Machchhar has been hailed as a hero for saving passengers after he was stabbed by his colleague in an alleged attempt to crash a Flydubai plane on Wednesday. - Israel Foreign Ministry/Reuters
The Indian pilot who fought off a savage attack by his copilot and helped prevent an apparent hijack of a Flydubai plane heading to Israel with more than 170 people on board is being hailed as a hero.
Captain Smit Machchhar was stabbed while trying to fend off the attacker, leaving him badly wounded. During the struggle the cockpit door was opened, allowing other passengers to rush in, subdue his assailant, and take control of the plane that was enroute to Tel Aviv.
Machchhar's actions have received widespread praise from political leaders, passengers who were onboard, and those who know him.
"Smit Machchhar is a talented, soft spoken, kind-hearted and a person with good nature," said Jinat Shah, who used to live next door to him in Mumbai before the pilot moved to Dubai. "He is an incredible person, and I hope for his fast recovery," Shah told Indian news agency ANI.
Passengers who were on flight FZ1073 described those chaotic moments, during which the plane plumm
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Oct 01, 2026
Brittany Bee was wed to a man when she was a teen. [BBC]
California has officially banned child marriage, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing legislation to end the practice that is still legal in 32 US states.
The new law, which will come into effect on 1 January, states people must be 18 to get married in the Golden State.
Newsom called it a "long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors". He signed the bill into law with Courtney Stodden, whose parents allowed her to marry a 50-year-old Hollywood actor when she was just 16.
Stodden, who has been advocating to end the practice, called the change a "victory" and said survivors of child marriage should "never have been expected to carry this burden".
Gov Gavin Newsom called the law "overdue" [Getty Images]
Stodden said she would "keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states".
She was married to actor Doug Hutchison - known for roles in The Green Mile, A Time to Kill and I Am Sam - in 2011, spurring headlines internationally over the controversy and appearances on several reality programmes in the US, including the VH1 series Couples Therapy.
Other survivors of child marriage also applauded the new law.
"California has sent a clear message to the world today," Brittany Bee, a former child bride, told the BBC. "A message of hope for all children that they may be free from systemic violence. That they may choose their own path."
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Oct 01, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will both hit the campaign trail on Thursday, but they will be heading to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month's midterm elections.
Trump's travel on Thursday to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3. Vance will be stumping in Florida, putting the Republican Party's highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing tougher races.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.
Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.
According to Trump, his party's headwinds are merely a matter of poor public relations about a job he says is well done.
"We're not getting the word out," he to
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Sep 30, 2026
During a 2025 hearing at Cornell University, an unidentified female former student who alleges she was gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024 described her harrowing night at the house surrounded by multiple men: "I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in."
Her description is included in a heavily-redacted 99-page report, obtained by ABC News, that was prepared by the university last year as it investigated what happened.
As part of its investigation, Cornell conducted 50 interviews with 32 witnesses, including the fraternity brothers Jane Doe accused in a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month of gang rape, and determined that someone at the Chi Phi house had overdosed on ketamine one day prior to Jane Doe's experience.
ABC News - PHOTO: This photo shows the former Chi Phi fraternity house in Ithaca, where a former Cornell University student alleges that she was drugged and gang-raped in 2024. "Ketamine was a substance used by multiple individuals in the Chi Phi house at the time, including [redacted] who had overdosed on or about October 18, 2024," the report said.
Jane Doe told investigators the ketamine she took that night induced a "vague consciousness" that left her disoriented.
"So, lights are on, but nobody's home. Your brain is not functioning at its proper level," Doe said, according to the report. "I know it sounds super weird to say. I know it happened, but I don't remember it."
The investigators also noted an apology from one of the fraternity brothers during the hearing.
"I was sorry that maybe if it wasn't conse
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Sep 30, 2026
President Donald Trump speaks to the media aboard Air Force One on its way to Joint Base Andrews, Md., from Ireland on Sept. 13.
(Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images file)The White House on Wednesday removed CNN from the press pool that's set to cover a trip by President Donald Trump on Thursday, escalating a feud with the cable network after a federal judge blocked the administration's push to restrict its media access.
CNN had been designated to travel with Trump on Thursday, according to a press rotation document the White House released Sunday. But when the daily guidance came out for his scheduled visit to a truck manufacturing facility in Denton, Texas, followed by remarks in Durant, Oklahoma, it did not list CNN as providing pool coverage.
The move comes less than a week after a federal judge halted Trump's effort to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. It also comes after the White House barred CNN from flying on Air Force One over the weekend when Trump traveled to Tennessee, when the network was scheduled to provide pool coverage. (The judge's order was limited to media access on the White House g
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Sep 30, 2026
A man accused of plotting a "violent attack" on the Texas Capitol in Austin is in custody after state authorities say they received a tip about the alleged threat and worked through the night to track down a suspect.
The Texas State Department of Public Safety and the FBI thwarted a "credible threat" against the state capitol, according to a notice sent to Texas state senators Wednesday and reviewed by ABC News. The alleged attack was to occur on Thursday, according to the notice and Texas DPS.
2 employees killed, 1 hurt in workplace shooting in Virginia; suspect dead: PoliceTexas DPS said it learned of the threat Tuesday evening. Special agents worked alongside the FBI and local partners before arresting 40-year-old Benny Caldera Jr., whom it called the "main suspect," at his residence in Converse, Texas, at around 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Caldera was transported to the Bexar County jail and has been charged with felony terroristic threat against a public servant, according to Texas DPS.
Eric Gay/AP Photo - The Texas State Capitol building is seen in Austin, Texas, Sept. 3, 2026.According to an official briefed on the investigation, the suspect had allegedly been threatening to conduct a mass shooting at the Texas Capitol on Thursday and had been collecting ammo and had guns.
Authorities were notified by people who knew the man that he has been growing more angry and potentially violent recently, the official said. Neither Caldera nor his wife are cooperating with the probe at this point, the official said, but other family members and co-workers are talking to investigators.
In recent weeks, the suspect h
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Sep 30, 2026
A man accused of plotting a "violent attack" on the Texas Capitol in Austin is in custody after state authorities say they received a tip about the alleged threat and worked through the night to track down a suspect.
The Texas State Department of Public Safety and the FBI thwarted a "credible threat" against the state capitol, according to a notice sent to Texas state senators Wednesday and reviewed by ABC News. The alleged attack was to occur on Thursday, according to the notice and Texas DPS.
2 employees killed, 1 hurt in workplace shooting in Virginia; suspect dead: PoliceTexas DPS said it learned of the threat Tuesday evening. Special agents worked alongside the FBI and local partners before arresting 40-year-old Benny Caldera Jr., whom it called the "main suspect," at his residence in Converse, Texas, at around 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Caldera was transported to the Bexar County jail and has been charged with felony terroristic threat against a public servant, according to Texas DPS.
Eric Gay/AP Photo - The Texas State Capitol building is seen in Austin, Texas, Sept. 3, 2026.According to an official briefed on the investigation, the suspect had allegedly been threatening to conduct a mass shooting at the Texas Capitol on Thursday and had been collecting ammo and had guns.
Authorities were notified by people who knew the man that he has been growing more angry and potentially violent recently, the official said. Neither Caldera nor his wife are cooperating with the probe at this point, the official said, but other family members and co-workers are talking to investigators.
In recent weeks, the suspect h
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Sep 30, 2026
The New York state prosecutor who has reopened an investigation into the alleged rape of a woman by seven members of a fraternity at Cornell University in October 2024 says he was not provided with a transcript of her interview with campus police before his office decided not to pursue charges.
On Tuesday, CBS New York published excerpts from a Nov. 14, 2024, interview with police, in which the woman reportedly asserted, "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he had never seen the transcript before.
"I'm going to follow up on this because this is news to me," Van Houten told the network. "If she had said those words, we certainly would want to have explored that more. Like I said, that wasn't provided to me."
In a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month against the school, the woman, a former student identified as "Jane Doe," said she was the victim of a "gang rape" at the Chi Phi fraternity on Cornell's Ithaca, N.Y., campus.
In a lengthy statement released on Monday, Van Houten announced that he had started pursuing criminal charges against the seven fraternity members and would present the case to a grand jury. He also sought to explain why he initially decided not to prosecute them.
According to Van Houten, Jane Doe "did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gan
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Sep 30, 2026
LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images file)A Louisiana State University student who claims a school football player raped her last year is speaking out about how the school handled her report and the lack of guidance she said she received throughout the process.
Kendall Danielle Francis talked on TikTok about the monthslong Title IX investigation that played out after she reported the October rape to the school. Two days into the current semester, she said, she received an email while she was in class to notify her that the student, who had been suspended for two semesters, had his punishment modified upon appeal to four semesters' probation. He would remain on campus and could continue to play football, she said.
"Now I am just trying to speak on my story, because LSU does really protect their athletes, especially their football players," Francis, who was 18 at the time of the alleged incident, said in the Sept. 14 social media post. As a result of the student's remaining on campus, Francis said, she moved her classes online.
Francis wasn't aware that filing the Title IX complaint was
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Sep 30, 2026
The winning entry of a prestigious scientific photography competition is being re-evaluated following criticism from other scientists that it was made with AI.
Nikon's annual Small World In Motion contest accepts photos and video taken using powerful microscopes, and has run annually for the last 15 years.
The winner was a short video submitted by Dr Ning Xu, a researcher at Tsinghua University in China, which claims to be footage of tiny, hair-like structures called cilia moving inside the airways of a child with a rare disease.
Xu did not respond to the BBC's request for comment, but has posted online denying he broke the competition rules.
In a response to a post by Nikon on LinkedIn, he did not dispute using AI within the image processing but said he remained within the rules of the contest.
"AI was not used to generate the experimental movie, the cilia, or their motion," he said.
Xu's video is artificially brightly coloured - common in microscopy and permitted in the contest - which is usually done manually using stains and dyes on the sample itself.
He accepted AI was used "to distinguish and visualize features in the reconstructed grayscale images".
But the ch
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Sep 30, 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a flurry of announcements during a wide-ranging speech to active-duty officers Wednesday.
At the beginning of the address, the Pentagon chief stuck to his bread and butter: culture-war grievances, stripping the "woke" out of the Department of Defense (DOD), bashing the news media for its coverage of the Iran war, and proclaiming the "warrior ethos" has been revived and the U.S. military has been "rebuilt."
But the Defense secretary made several newsy announcements that lean into Hegseth's elevation of faith, create a combatant command, partner the Pentagon with different universities and tease a new domestic military base for which governors will compete.
Here are the takeaways from Hegseth's 52-minute speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia:
New combatant command focused on autonomous warfare
Hegseth announced the formation of a new four-star combatant command focused on developing autonomous warfare like drones and defense robotics.
The Defense secretary said it would have "service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history," with the aim of being operational by Oct. 1 next year.
The Autonomous Warfare Command, or "AutoWarCom," will be initially led by Owen West, a former Mar
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Sep 30, 2026
Passengers on a flight to Israel have recounted how they subdued a pilot after he stabbed the other pilot and appeared to be trying to disable the plane, while others described the "terrifying" moment they thought they would die.
Appearing in a bloodstained shirt after the ordeal, Yaniv Hayun told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he realised something was wrong when the aircraft suddenly dropped.
The plane, en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, plummeted 17,000ft (5,200m) in less than two minutes.
"Someone screamed... the light went out," Hayun said in a video posted by the prime minister on social media.
He and others tried to push open the cockpit door, but the pilot who had been stabbed was very close to it, so it was hard to open. Before he collapsed, the injured pilot managed to open the door.
When Hayun and another man entered the cockpit, he said he saw one pilot down and the attacker on the instruments, between the two seats, "trying to destroy the instruments in order to...disable the plane".
"I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him - first and foremost - outside," Hayun said.
"We pulled him out; it was a matter of seconds. I called out to the Israeli guys with us on the plane - I called them, and two other guys came over to me... we pinned [the attacker] down to keep him secure."
Hayun said he then jumped back into the cockpit and "started pulling the controls".
When asked by Netanyahu whether he knew what he was doing, the passenger answered: "I watch Air Crash Investigation, Mr Prime Minister."
Hayun said the plane then started to level out. By then, two on-duty pilots who had been in the passenger cabin were at the front of the plane, and one told Hayun he was taking control from there.
Netanyahu praised Hayun, calling him a "great hero" and a "lion".
Another passenger, Zvika Meness, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan he helped overpower the attacker
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Sep 30, 2026
Cornell University agreed Wednesday to initiate an independent investigation into how the Ivy League school handled what a former student now alleges was fraternity house gang rape, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday.
Hochul discussed the case during an exclusive interview Wednesday afternoon at her Midtown offices. The governor sits on the Cornell University board.
The governor called for the outside review, saying what happened raised "serious questions about Cornell campus culture" and whether the university is doing all it can to protect students.
"I wanted to make sure they knew how important this was, and they absolutely agreed. And they're acting on this this afternoon. So, they'll be reporting on what the details are, but they will be conducting what I asked for, which is an independent outside investigation of what happened," Hochul said.
"People need to know the truth and I think it's important for the public, for the victim, her family and the university community to know that their university did everything that they're supposed to do."
Cornell's internal data show 35% of undergraduate women reported experiencing sexual assault during their time on campus but Hochul said the problem acute on every campus.
"There's been a culture of this kind of treatment of young women on campuses for as long as I've been in college, and it has to change. There has to be an awakening and an awareness that says enough is enough," Hochul said.
Earlier this week, as outrage over the allegations grew, the Tompkins County district attorney decided to
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Sep 30, 2026
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has been a staunch defender of President Donald Trump and gone after some of his critics. (Al Drago / Getty Images file)Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that new pro-Trump TV ads paid for with government funds don't "merit any sort of FCC review."
"It doesn't strike me as anything at all out of the ordinary," Carr said of the ads, which have aired across the country in recent weeks.
Asked about allegations that the ads are "propaganda," Carr laughed.
The White House has "explained that these are just normal-course public service announcements, PSAs, that you see all the time. I don't think there's anything unique or different about it," he said at a news conference.
"There's nothing in there that strikes me that merit any sort of FCC review," said Carr, whom Trump appointed to the agency.
A reporter pointed out that the progressive advocacy group Public Citizen filed a complaint with the FCC noting that the Trump campaign used one of the ads in 2024.
Carr brushed off the concern, telling reporters that "there's groups on the
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Sep 30, 2026
Major changes are coming on Oct. 1 for the tens of millions of Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food assistance from the federal government.
In the short term, most families will see a slight bump in their monthly payments to help afford groceries. But in the coming months, households will face stricter eligibility requirements and changes to how the benefits are administered that could ultimately result in far fewer benefits.
An estimated five million Americans -- including more than 1 million children -- have already lost SNAP assistance over the past year as part of President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending law, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Short-term boost in benefits
Every year on Oct. 1, the federal government adjusts its monthly SNAP benefits to account for inflation. These cost-of-living adjustments apply across all states.
For a typical single-person household in one of 48 states (not including Alaska or Hawaii), checks will go from a maximum of $298 to $306 per month. That's an extra $8 monthly.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images - PHOTO: A sign indicates the store accepts SNAP benefits, April 21, 2026, in Miami.What to know about SNAP as benefits set to expire amid government shutdownFor a family of four, checks will go from $994 to $1,023 per month. That's an extra $29 per month, or $348 per year.
These inflation adjustments are intended to help families keep up with the rising cost of food. Grocery prices are up 2.2% in the past year.
Big funding changes
Whil
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Sep 30, 2026
A Parkside Pediatrics provider assessing a patient with measles symptoms in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on 30 January 2026.Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
Pennsylvania has reported its fifth measles-associated death of 2026 as the state's ongoing outbreak climbs to 943 confirmed cases across 39 counties.
The Pennsylvania department of health said on Wednesday that an unvaccinated Lancaster county resident who tested positive for measles had died. Health officials did not release further information about the individual, citing privacy protections.
The death marks the fifth Pennsylvania resident to meet the state's definition of a measles-associated death this year after a fourth death two weeks ago. Due to how the Trump administration has changed its method for reporting measles deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not counted the Pennsylvania measles deaths in its national tally.
As of Monday 28 September, Pennsylvania had recorded 40 new positive cases. The outbreak has now reached 39 counties, with 943 cumulative confirmed cases, 176 hospitalizations and five confirmed measles-associated deaths.
Only four of those confirmed cases have involved vaccinated individuals, representing less than 1% of the state's total cases.
Health officials say daily totals can change, but monitoring the numbers gives residents and healthcare providers a clearer picture of community transmission across Pennsylvania and
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Sep 30, 2026
NASA's Swift Observatory orbits above Earth in an artist's concept. - Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA
A celebrated space telescope is rapidly dipping from its once-stable orbit and falling to Earth just shy of the 22nd anniversary of its launch.
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will soon have to cease its science observations after a daring rescue mission's attempt to boost its orbit failed over the summer.
Named after fast-flying birds, the telescope could quickly pivot to observe blink-and-you-miss-it cosmic events like flaring black holes. The telescope was originally designed to study the most powerful explosions in the universe, called gamma-ray bursts, but scientists have also used it to observe other types of cosmic flashes, as well as asteroids and comets.
The 3,200-pound (1,452-kilogram) observatory is currently located about 200 miles (325 kilometers) above Earth. But engineers estimate that once Swift drifts below 185 miles (300 kilometers) in early to mid-October, operating the telescope will become a challenge, according to NASA. Then, Swift will drop from orbit and is expected to burn up in Earth's atmosphere during the plunge.
"While it's possible some hardware from the Swift spacecraft may survive re-entry due to its size, the probability of debris causing significant property damage or physical harm to any
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Sep 30, 2026
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On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who is overseeing the antitrust case aimed at blocking the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal approved Paramount's settlement with the 12 Democratic state attorneys general who brought the case to resolve the litigation.
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Paramount has tentatively set next Tuesday, Oct. 6, to close the merger, according to regulatory filings.
The order approving the settlement by Martínez-Olguín was the final remaining barrier to Paramount's debt-fueled $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, after it had been cleared by regulators in 68 jurisdictions worldwide including the Jus
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Sep 30, 2026
(Dreamstime)
The Federal Reserve's inspector general on Wednesday cleared former Chair Jerome Powell of criminal wrongdoing in the central bank's $2.4 billion headquarters renovation while faulting Fed managers for weak cost controls that led to a roughly $1 billion overrun.
The 120-page evaluation from Fed Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that "at no point" during a yearlong review did investigators uncover "reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred" in the renovation of the Marriner S. Eccles and 1951 Constitution Avenue NW buildings.
The office also did not identify administrative misconduct by Powell, who requested the review in July 2025 as White House pressure intensified.
The findings collapse the central premise of a criminal probe launched by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, who examined whether Powell misled Congress in June 2025 testimony about the project's ballooning cost.
That inquiry was closed on April 24 after Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg quashed the grand jury subpoenas in March, as The Hill reported, finding a "mountain of evidence" that the subpoenas were intended to pressure Powell to cut interest rates rather than to pursue a genuine crime.
Horowitz's team documented deep structural failures in how the Fed's Board of Governors ran the project. The construction budget more tha
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Sep 30, 2026
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Sept 30 - The US Senate on Wednesday blocked legislation placing new restrictions on stock trading by members of Congress, as Democrats refused to provide enough votes to advance the measure toward passage, arguing that it falls ?short of a full ban.
By a vote of 53-47, the Senate halted a Republican drive to open debate on the partisan ?bill, which was passed in July by the House of Representatives. Sixty affirmative votes were needed to get the legislation over a Senate procedural hurdle.
The bill's failure, coupled with ?the Senate defeat of unrelated legislation aimed at tamping down households' rising electricity costs, nonetheless gives Republicans hopes of delivering a new line of attack against Democrats in the closing weeks of the November 3 midterm election campaigns.
For years, voters have expressed outrage over the thousands of stock trades by lawmakers that many argue are improper given lawmakers' privileged position.
Members of Congress shape legislation, often behind closed doors, and at the same time execute trades ?on stocks and bonds whose prices could be affected ?by actions in the House and Senate.
The legislation also contained a Republican provision to tighten requirements on photo IDs needed to vote in American elections - language Democrats labeled a "poison pill" they said would make it more difficult ?for eligible citizens to vote in federal elections.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a press conference on Tuesday that the bill's provisions "strike at the very heart of issues that the American people care deeply about."
The "Stop Insider Trading Act" would prohibit members of Congress, spouses and dependent children from buying stocks of ?publicly traded ?companies. But Democrats bridled over their ability to keep stocks they already hold, ?let them use dividends to buy more shares and ?allow spouses or children to trade
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Sep 30, 2026
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"I know people are worried about me because they read that I have a brain disorder, which sounds a lot worse than it actually is," Joel recently shared on SiriusXM while taking calls from fans. "I'm okay. My balance isn't that good. Lost a little bit of my hearing, but that may have to do with my age, too, and the rock and roll life and the loud volume probably didn't help. But I'm fine. I want people to not have to worry about me. I'm okay."
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After initially refusing surgical intervention, Joel had a shunt implanted to alleviate some effects of the disorder. The procedure has helped to improve his memory, balance, and overall function, he shared earlier this month.
Joel still is
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Sep 30, 2026
Passengers aboard a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday sprang into action after a pilot allegedly stabbed another and plunged the plane thousands of feet in an apparent attempt to crash it, in what Israeli officials are saying was an act of terror.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the intention was to "crash the plane, killing everyone on board" the flight from Dubai.
Passengers described a violent mid-air incident as the unidentified pilot allegedly stabbed the other pilot in the cockpit.
"We just heard screams, and they opened the cockpit and saw amounts of blood from someone who had simply tried to murder the pilot and stabbed him with a pocketknife. Then the plane lost control," a passenger who identified herself as Miriam told Israeli media.
Obtained by ABC News - PHOTO: An image from a video circulating online taken by a passenger inside a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv that was diverted to Saudi Arabia, Sept. 30, 2026, after an incident took place inside the cockpit."We felt like we were, like, going to crash. I was already screaming, 'Shema Israel'," she added, referring to the Jewish prayer. "I can't die, I'm my only daughter, I can't do this to my mother."
Netanyahu said in a statement that the plane "went into a spin and began to dive." The passengers were predominantly Israeli citizens, he noted.
The prime minister said that some passengers took a stand, referring to one he said he spoke with after the incident.
"He managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members, and together they subdued the pilot who had committed the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft's systems," Netanyahu said.
"Another flight crew member on board entered the cockpit and manage
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Sep 30, 2026
The New York state prosecutor who has reopened an investigation into the alleged rape of a woman by seven members of a fraternity at Cornell University in October 2024 says he was not provided with a transcript of her interview with campus police before his office initially decided not to pursue charges.
On Tuesday, CBS New York published excerpts from the November 2024 interview, in which the woman reportedly asserted, "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he had never seen the transcript before.
"I'm going to follow up on this because this is news to me," Van Houten told the network. "If she had said those words, we certainly would want to have explored that more. Like I said, that wasn't provided to me."
In a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month against the school, the woman, a former student identified as "Jane Doe," said she was the victim of a "gang rape" at the Chi Phi fraternity on Cornell's Ithaca, N.Y., campus.
In a lengthy statement released on Monday, Van Houten announced that he had started pursuing criminal charges against the seven fraternity members and would present the case to a grand jury. He also sought to explain why he initially decided not to prosecute them.
According to Van Houten, Jane Doe "did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped" in her six-page sworn statement to campus police in N
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Sep 30, 2026
By Jody Godoy
Sept 30 (Reuters) - The Federal Trade Commission is conducting an industry-wide probe into Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs to uncover the potential dangers their technology ?poses to consumers, a senior FTC official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The probe is the first ?official US enforcement action that delves into rogue AI agents, following a surge in incidents first reported in July that ?have stoked fears among the public that uncontrolled AI could one day harm humans.
The FTC plans to issue formal demands for information and compel testimony from executives at top AI developers, including Anthropic, OpenAI and the research group METR, the official said.
Anthropic and OpenAI have used METR to conduct independent ?investigations into security incidents involving their ?agentic AI technology.
Anthropic, OpenAI and METR did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. The New York Post first reported the news.
FTC Chairman Andrew ?Ferguson had concerns about the companies before AI agents developed by OpenAI hacked the open-source platform Hugging Face, the official said.
But the incident in which OpenAI agents had probed the AI coding hub for vulnerabilities before ?carrying out ?a large-scale attack increased urgency around the issue, the ?official said.
Ferguson suggested last week in an ?interview with Reuters that developers who instruct agents in cybersecurity tests that result in hacks should be liable for any harm they cause.
The US should look to existing laws before seeking to pass new ones regulating AI, Ferguson said at the Reuters Momentum AI event in Austin.
The FTC has broad authority to sue companies over unfair or deceptive practices, and has used that authority in ?the past to take action against companies for failing to ?take reasonable measures to secure consumers' data.
US President Donald ?Trump met w
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Sep 30, 2026
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After hitting the coast of South America in late August, a "Kelvin" wave is now making its way up the coast of North America. | Credit: David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images
A powerful "Kelvin wave," triggered by this year's super El Niño, is creeping up the Pacific coast of Central and North America and will soon reach California's shores, where it could raise sea levels by up to 1 foot (30 centimeters) for months, researchers warn.
Kelvin waves are a well-known, planetary-scale ocean phenomenon, but this particular forecast has experts worried because it will likely amplify the damage from severe storms, storm surges, flooding and coastal erosion that the record-shattering El Niño is expected to bring this winter.
In general, a Kelvin wave is a swell wave that spans thousands of miles and balances Earth's rotation, David Webb, a physical oceanographer at the National Oceanography Centre in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. But the waves generated during El Niño years are not normal Kelvin waves, because they cause oscillations of a boundary within the ocean as well as a height increase at the surface. In particular, these waves trigger the
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Sep 30, 2026
On Tuesday, President Trump met with tech executives at the White House to have them sign a "morally binding" agreement on artificial intelligence. Rather than pushing for government regulation, Trump called for "tremendous self-regulation" among companies in the AI industry. The document reflects that, encouraging AI leaders to implement "robust internal controls" and partner with independent external auditors.
The summit comes after months of increased scrutiny for AI companies as they've disclosed concerning incidents of AI "going rogue" during testing. The event that kicked it all off was the Hugging Face incident, in which AI agents from OpenAI that were being evaluated escaped their ostensibly isolated testing environment and infiltrated another company's systems in an effort to "cheat" at the task they were given. After that, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google have reported even more incidents in which AI agents have gone rogue in various ways. We've rounded up all the cases you need to know about, along with details about what (if anything) is being done about them.
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Sep 30, 2026
Crude oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz at a pace that is starting to approach prewar levels, a notable rebound for the world's most critical oil choke point.
That restored flow is mainly the result of Iran's somewhat depleted military capability and a U.S. Navy operation that has secured a portion of the waterway for relatively secure passage.
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But the forces driving high fuel prices are not receding along with the development. That will require a lot more than the costly military campaign that is clearing the way for passage of one product at one particular moment in the war.
Most of the refined gasoline and diesel that was moving through the strait before the war is still not getting shipped, a major factor keeping prices elevated.
The rebound of crude shipments "is good news, but we are far from out of the woods," said Bob McNally, founder of the research firm Rapidan Energy Group. "The market realizes that. We have dug ourselves into a deep deficit over the last several months, and this only reduces it. It does not get us back to where we were."
Crude oil prices dipped Tuesday - largely as a response to Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline resuming limited operations. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, remained above $100 a barrel Wednesday morning, roughly 40 percent higher than it was when the Iran war began in February.
The outlook for the war and for oil was further clouded on Wednesday, when the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported that three vessels carrying fuel through a corridor of the strait the U.S. military has been trying to protect had been attacked the d
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Sep 30, 2026
A teacher noticed the gun Monday morning and took "immediate action," Canton Police Chief Joseph Bialy told ABC Detroit affiliate WXYZ.
Officers then responded to the incident in Canton, just outside of Detroit, and secured the weapon, according to Canton police.
Florida mom allegedly abandons 4 kids to go on cruise: Court documentsNo injuries were reported.
Charges against the parent were not immediately clear, but the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office told ABC News the parent is expected to be arraigned on Thursday.
"The message here is that no matter how busy our lives are, we have a great responsibility if we're going to choose to own a firearm," the chief told WXYZ.
Guns are the No. 1 cause of death for children in the U.S., according to Everytown For Gun Safety.
This article originally appeared on ABC News at https://abcnews.com/US/toddler-found-loaded-gun-daycare-michigan-police/story?id=136884435
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Sep 30, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.2% pace from April through June as consumer spending and business investment came in strong.
Growth in gross domestic product — the nation's output of a goods and services — decelerated from a 2.5% pace from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The second-quarter growth was an improvement on the department's previous estimate of 1.5% — a surprise to economists who had expected little or no change in the GDP number.
Consumer spending — which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity — increased at a healthy 3.8% annual pace, up from 0.7% in the January-March period. Spending has been helped by a strong stock market, which reflects enthusiasm over the prospects for artificial intelligence and which enriches wealthy investors and gives them more money to buy things with.
The overall growth number was dragged down by imports. They are subtracted from growth because GDP is only supposed to count domestic production. Imports rose at a 12.6% annual pace from April through June, partly due to a surge in shipments of computer chips and other products that support artificial intelligence investment, and slashed nearly 1.7 percentage points off second-quarter growth.
The U.S. economy has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of fighting with Iran and the energy price spike it caused.
Business investment, excluding housing, rose at a 9% clip in the second quarter, reflecting the AI investment boom. And a measure of the economy's underlying strength — which strips out volatile government spending and trade numbers — grew at a strong 4.6% rate, up from 1.8% in the first quarter.
"The eco
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Sep 30, 2026
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (ilia YEFIMOVICH/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the situation was under control after a flydubai flight carrying about 180 Israelis was diverted to Saudi Arabia and that steps were being taken to bring the passengers home safely.
"The situation is under control, and all measures are currently being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back to Israel safely," Netanyahu's office said in an official statement.
Netanyahu held security consultations after the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, his office reported.
The circumstances of the incident remain under investigation, but passengers aboard the flight said they intervened to stop an apparent attempt by one of the pilots to crash the plane.
According to reports Wednesday, the copilot, reportedly an Omani national who had worked for the airline for about a year, stabbed the captain and tried to crash the plane before passengers subdued him.
Israeli sources said that initial investigations suggested the suspected attacker was Omani, but his identity had not been confirmed.
The aircraft landed safely in Saudi Arabia, and there is no indication at this time that the incident was directed by a state or organization, according to reports.
However, a growing assessment among Israel's security establishment, including the IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), is that the incident was intended as an act of terror, reports The Jerusalem Post.
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Sep 30, 2026
The U.S. government has revealed a new, redesigned passport and announced plans to dramatically modernize the way Americans can apply for one.
Speaking at President Donald Trump's America.gov Event on September 29, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio demonstrated a new passport application process that he said U.S. citizens can "complete entirely from home" and showed off a "beautiful" new U.S. passport that's expected to roll out in 2028.
The changes are part of the Trump administration's new AI-powered government services platform, America.gov, which he launched on Tuesday, touting it as a "single digital point of entry" designed to simplify how Americans access government services.
The last major U.S. passport redesign was introduced in 2021, following the 2016 redesign of the passport book's overall format and security features. The 2028 update therefore represents another significant modernization within a relatively short period, reflecting continued efforts to strengthen security, incorporate new technologies, and improve document durability and usability.
Americans Can Now Apply for a Passport OnlinePerhaps the biggest change that Rubio announced is that first-time passport applicants will no longer need to navigate the traditional, paper-based process.
According to Rubio, Americans will be able to apply for their first passport entirely o
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Sep 30, 2026
Republicans in both chambers are increasingly breaking ranks with President Trump across a host of sensitive issues, hoping some separation from the GOP's unpopular standard-bearer will help avert a blue wave in the midterm elections.
The divisions are highly unusual for a party that's walked virtually in lockstep with Trump for more than a decade. But as the president's numbers have tanked over the summer and rising costs have squeezed voters of all stripes, more and more Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump's agenda, if only as a temporary strategy to retain power in the next Congress.
The pushback targets a range of policies, including Trump's hard line on immigration enforcement; his full-throated embrace of data centers despite the public backlash; his signature tariffs, which have challenged businesses at home and alliances abroad; and his warm reception of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a recent visit to Washington.
But none of those issues seems to resonate quite as much as the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel, which have spiked in response to the global trade disruptions caused by Trump's decision to launch a war with Iran earlier in the year. Even the top GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have been forced to acknowledge that Trump's agenda, which was once their winning ticket, has become a liability heading into November.
"What's happening in Iran [has] sort of trumped everything else that's going on," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Fox News on Monday.
Weeks ahead of the midterms, gas prices are hovering at an average of just less than $4.50 per gallon, dies
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Sep 30, 2026
In a six-page statement given to police in November 2024, a Cornell University student told a campus police officer what happened to her at the Chi Phi fraternity house a month prior "felt like coercion," according to a copy of the police report obtained by ABC News.
The statement from the student, sworn on Nov. 15, 2024, is the most detailed account yet of what "Jane Doe" described in a civil lawsuit two years later as a "gang rape."
The former student did not call it that in her statement at the time. She did detail multiple instances where she declined to participate in certain sexual acts suggested by the men, according to the statement.
Heather Ainsworth/AP Photo - PHOTO: Cornell Fraternity LawsuitDistrict attorney reopens case of alleged Cornell University 'gang rape'The woman's statement was central to a decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten not to bring charges in 2024.
In an interview with ABC News this week, Van Houten described the allegations as "morally disturbing" but argued Jane Doe's 2024 account of the incident suggested that she consented to the sexual activity. He said that she did not withdraw her consent, and that when she raised concerns, the fraternity members "stopped and did not pursue what they were doing."
According to her 2024 statement, at one point she said "no to the foursome" one of the fraternity brothers proposed, she said in her statement. At another point she recalled "a group of multiple men" walking into a room and "I was instantly horrified, and I remember squealing out loud and running across the room and hiding und
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Sep 30, 2026
Treasury Department checks, along with letters signed by Trump notifying recipients, will begin going out to more than 950,000 Americans across 30 states, according to an administration official.
"For years, the Biden administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov," Trump says in the letter, which was viewed by USA TODAY. "That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now I'm returning it to you!"
'Flagrant bribery': Trump faces MAGA backlash over $5K election offer
Trump announced the $500 Obamacare refund checks on Sept. 10 in a video posted by the White House that coincided with the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. The money is separate from a controversial $5,000 dividend Trump has vowed to distribute to all Americans if Republicans retain control of Congress after the November midterm election.
The White House has said the Biden administration collected user fees from health insurance companies that consumers paid for in the form of higher pr
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Sep 30, 2026
Older Americans make up an ever-larger share of the workforce, a trend that dates to the 1990s.
Over the past few years, however, the employment rate among older Americans has been falling.
Or "collapsing," as one report puts it.
The share of Americans ages 55 and over participating in the labor force dropped from 39.2% in February 2022 to 36.9% in July 2026, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In a brief Aug. 11 note, economists from Bank of America theorized that older Americans are retiring en masse because of a booming stock market.
"Labor force participation is collapsing among older workers," the economists wrote. "We think the strength of the equity market is partly to blame."
Are older Americans retiring because of a booming stock market?
The value of the S&P 500 has more than tripled since its lo
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Sep 30, 2026
Containers are seen at the container terminal of Nanjing Port, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on September 8, 2026. Most Chinese goods shipped to the United States have faced a minimum 12.5% tax. - AFP/Getty Images
Here we go again: President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs are back under the legal microscope.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade is set to hear arguments in a case that could determine whether the president can use a 1970s trade law to impose tariffs on nearly everything the United States imports.
Since late July, goods from 80 countries, including China, India and Japan, have faced tariff rates ranging from 10% to 12.5%. The administration imposed the duties after determining that those countries had allegedly failed to address the use of forced labor in producing goods shipped to the US. The US Trade Representative recommended the tariffs as a remedy, with higher rates applying to countries deemed the "worst offenders."
The rollout of these tariffs coincided with the lapse of a separate 10% near-blanket duty Trump had imposed earlier in the year under a different legal authority. The Supreme Court later ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority, which immediately invalidated the tariffs and triggered $168 billion worth of refu
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Sep 30, 2026
Surging mortgage rates chilled the housing market in September, forcing sellers to slash prices at historic levels to revive slipping demand.
Nationally, the share of listings with price cuts reached 20.8%, up 0.9 percentage points year over year, exceeding 2025 levels for the first time in 2026, according to the latest Realtor.com® monthly housing market trends report. This marks the highest September price-reduction rate since 2018 and the highest overall for any month since October 2022.
This surge in price cuts aligns with broader housing market shifts, including accelerating inventory growth and plunging pending sales.
Simply put, as mortgage rates topping 7% push would-be buyers to the sidelines, leaving homes to pile up on the market, motivated sellers are willing to capitulate on price just to get to the closing table.
"A lot of the people selling right now have to sell rather than simply choosing to sell—because of a job relocation, divorce, debt, or another life event—so they have to meet buyers where they are," Russell Faucette, principal broker and co-founder of Omada Real Estate in
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Sep 30, 2026
A commercial plane traveling from Dubai to Israel was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, briefly raising concerns about a possible hijacking and prompting Israel to scramble its jets.
Israeli media, citing security officials, said the incident stemmed from a feud between the plane's two pilots, and everyone on board was safe. The plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom.
The FlyDubai plane transmitted an emergency alert shortly after takeoff, according to publicly available flight tracking information.
A regional official briefed on the incident said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots. It wasn't immediately clear what had caused the fight, the official said.
A second official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation.
Netanyahu's office later said the situation was under control and Israel was working to bring the passengers home.
Emergency landings for personnel reasons are rare yet not unheard of. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, though it did not have to be diverted and landed as planned.
FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines. The United Arab Emirates has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalized ties in 2020.
Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world. Commercial flight have flown between Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the countries normalized ties in 2020.
This article originally appeared on CBS
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Sep 30, 2026
The Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on September 28, 2026. - Heather Ainsworth/AP
It was 7:05 p.m. on a Wednesday in mid-September when Jane Doe's lawsuit hit the New York County Supreme Court docket. Within days, the 101-page, double-spaced filing had captured the nation's attention, sparking outrage and controversy and refocusing attention on a longstanding issue: sexual assault on college campus.
The complaint was explosive, claiming that seven members of a Cornell University fraternity took part in the sexual assault of a 20-year-old sorority member during a drug-fueled, hours-long encounter in the fall of 2024. Included in the filing was a screenshot of a Snapchat message where one of the men wrote that there was "free p*ssy" and others responded gleefully, with comments like "CHI PHIII."
Soon after the lawsuit's filing on Sept. 16, a familiar pattern played out. Furious onlookers took to social media to demand accountability, flooded the district attorney's office with complaints and shared photos and other identifying details of the fraternity members many have taken to calling "the Cornell 7." Others, meanwhile, condemned the rush to judgment or urged caution in drawing conclusions from the allegations in the lawsuit, which a prosecutor said differ from what the alleged victim reported in 2024. Some hurried to try to unmask the anonymous woman behind the accusations.
There were flashes of politics and victim blaming, judgment and shame in a case that's rife with unanswered questions and likely to evolve as more details come to light.
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Sep 30, 2026
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it has completed the withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group. The last U.S. troops left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and Washington.
The withdrawal, agreed on two years ago, comes against the backdrop of the ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has also sometimes spilled over into Iraq, with Iran-backed militias firing on U.S. troops and the U.S. striking the groups' strongholds.
Baghdad touted the end of the U.S. mission as a sign of the country's increasing strength and sovereignty.
The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region. Meanwhile, questions loom around the future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has sought — with little success so far — to disarm.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. troops and equipment had completed an "orderly departure" from the air base in Irbil, in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
"This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organized military threat in Iraq and across the region," he said. "It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship."
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony and described the U.S. withdrawal as the beginning of a "new phase, one defined by Iraq's sovereignty, the strength of
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Sep 30, 2026
TORONTO (AP) — Mark Carney built a global profile in 2026 by standing up to U.S. President Donald Trump. If some prediction-market traders and prominent admirers are right, the Canadian prime minister could end the year with the Nobel Peace Prize and Time magazine's Person of the Year.
Carney briefly became the favorite Monday for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Kalshi, a U.S.-based prediction market, when traders on the exchange put his chances at 14%. His odds later fell, illustrating the highly speculative nature of the wagering.
There is no public evidence Carney is on the Nobel Committee's secret shortlist for the prize that will be announced Oct. 9 in Oslo, Norway.
But the buzz about the Canadian leader possibly winning the esteemed peace prize reflects the message that has raised his profile: Middle powers should band together to defend sovereignty as great powers increasingly use economic and military leverage.
Whether that position resonates with the Nobel Committee is impossible to know. One thing is certain, though: the Nobel and Time's annual award happen to be two honors Trump covets.
Trump believes he deserves Nobel honor
Carney and Trump are locked in an escalating trade war, with 50% U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods and Canadi
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Sep 30, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's execution of Christa Gail Pike for a murder she committed at age 18 was halted Wednesday about an hour before it was set to begin, as a federal appeals court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing.
This would have been the state's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville in 1995.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer's body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s.
It wasn't immediately clear if Tennessee's attorney general was appealing the decision, or how long the execution might be delayed. A phone message and email were left with a spokesperson for the attorney general's office seeking comment.
Execution witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the order came down at around 9 a.m. CDT.
As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.
Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike's age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike's death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds sentenc
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Sep 30, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Tennessee to execute Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday, overturning a last-minute stay that stalled the state's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.
Pike, 50, was initially scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning for a killing she committed at age 18, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike's allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority did not explain their order, while the three liberal members signed a dissent that said Pike's claims deserved a closer look.
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction said it would proceed with Pike's execution Wednesday night ahead of a midnight cutoff on the state's execution order.
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of the fatal stabbing and beating in 1995 of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. The case garnered widespread attention in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer's body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s.
Decision stopping execution was swiftly appealed
After the stay was issued, Tennessee's attorney general immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Witnesses and media remained at the prison while the high court considered the case.
The attorney general's office said in its appeal that halting the execution at the last moment traumatized Slemmer's fa
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Sep 30, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death for a 1995 murder Wednesday, media witnesses said, after the lethal injection was halted for hours as courts considered a last-minute appeal of what would have been the state's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.
Pike, 50, had been scheduled for execution for a killing she committed at age 18 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court ruling that stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start. Officials then attempted to go ahead with it as planned.
Officials appeared to give Pike two doses of pentobarbital.
At 7:46 p.m. prison officials closed the curtain to the media room. They raised the curtain three minutes later. Pike could be heard loudly snoring, and the curtain was closed again at 8:06 pm.
Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at about 8:53 p.m. At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area.
Tennessee Department of Correction spokesman Dorinda Carter told media witnesses she was unable to immediately provide information about what happened.
Emergency vehicles were seen coming and going from the prison.
Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion late Wednesday to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in "unnecessary agony" and it was violating her right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment. They also filed motions in the Sixth Circuit court and district court.
The motion also asserted that the Department of Correction should begin lifesaving measures. "Failure to provide such care constit
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Sep 30, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug. A death penalty expert said it was an unprecedented failure, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the remaining execution for the rest of the year.
Pike, 50, was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison, her attorneys said. She was being treated at a hospital, but they said they hadn't been told about her condition.
She had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Wednesday for the killing she committed at age 18 and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start and hours later the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that stay.
Officials gave Pike two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys said in court filings late Wednesday.
Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement that he has ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.
"Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," he said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that they "followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office."
The state's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered "if the inmate is not deceased" after the first set. It does n
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Sep 29, 2026
Bernie Sanders is cracking open his war chest.
For months, the Vermont senator crisscrossed the country vaulting progressives to a series of primary wins. Now, he told POLITICO, he's dipping into his substantial campaign coffers as part of a broader effort to propel battleground Democrats over the finish line in November.
His campaign had nearly $23 million as of July 1 and is currently in the process of contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota's Senate race, according to Sanders' campaign and a second person granted anonymity to share details of the transfer. He also plans to financially boost other candidates he's endorsed, including Angie Nixon's Senate campaign in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's reelection bid, according to Sanders' campaign.
Those donations, which have not previously been reported, are the first that Sanders has made from his campaign account for the general election, part of a surge of activity from the left's leading figurehead in the final midterm sprint.
"I am very proud that many strong progressives have won Democratic primaries. We got to defend them right now," the Vermont senator said in a brief interview Tuesday. "We got three Senate races in Michigan and Minnesota and Florida that I want to see us win, three great candidates, and they're all taking on enormous amounts of money. So we need to strengthen the grassroots movement in those states. Got great congressional candidates in Wisconsin, Ohio, elsewhere … so we got a lot of work in front of us."
Sanders' operation is also spending to hire more full-time organizers in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida, according to his team, and is planning get-out-the-vote text campaigns for federal candidates he's endorsed.
Sanders' escalating efforts come as some Democrats have wondered whether the senator — having flexed considerable influence after helping power a series of high-prof
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Sep 29, 2026
Thomas Jefferson has long been rumored to have fathered children with Sally Hemings. New genetic evidence strengthens that connection. (Photo by Burstein Collection/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images) - Burstein Collection/Corbis/Getty Images
Opening a Bible that once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2011 discovered a reddish-blond hair pressed between the pages. That hair, suspected to have belonged to Jefferson himself, launched a DNA investigation spanning more than a decade that's now providing a long-missing puzzle piece regarding Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman in his household.
After spending years reconstructing DNA fragments, scientists have revealed the most compelling evidence to date that Jefferson, a founding father of the United States, also fathered children with Hemings — a relationship that has been long rumored but never definitively proven. How that investigation unfolded is documented in the book "History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings & Solving a 200-Year-Old Mystery," written by Richard Kurin, a distinguished scholar and ambassador-at-large at the Smithsonian, and published on September 22.
Kurin is also senior author of a paper describing the methods that connected the former US president to Hemings' descendants, which involved delving deep into the genetics of the Jefferson and Hemings fa
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Sep 29, 2026
The U.S. military is expected to complete the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Wednesday after a 12-year presence prompted by the war against the Islamic State militant group ISIS.
It will be the second time that the U.S. has withdrawn all of its military forces from Iraq.
In 2011, the U.S. pulled out after an eight-year presence that began with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. U.S. troops returned in 2014 as ISIS conquered wide swaths of Syria and northern Iraq and threatened the approaches to Baghdad. The U.S. defeated ISIS militarily in 2019, but the continued U.S. presence was seen as a necessary one to prevent a resurgence of ISIS.
Staff Sgt. Pat Caldwell/U.S. Army - PHOTO: A line of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles operated by Soldiers with Company F, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command stand ready to begin a convoy at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.Iran live updatesThe withdrawal was negotiated with Iraq by the Biden administration in 2024, and the Trump administration has continued with the withdrawal plan that set Sept. 30 as the final pullout date. But the U.S. war with Iran has created a different regional situation for Iraq and the United States than when the deal was agreed upon.
Iraq and Iran have a shared Shiite cultural heritage and Iran has militarily assisted Shiite-militias inside Iraq. It remains a question how far Iran will be able to increase its presence and influence in Iraq and whether ISIS could become resurgent.
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Sep 29, 2026
Transportation Security Administration agents sit as they check boarding passes and IDs at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Monday, January 26, 2026. - Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Airport security employees checking boarding passes and IDs will no longer be allowed to sit down while working, the Transportation Security Administration confirmed Tuesday.
All chairs are being removed from the travel document checker podiums at the entrance to checkpoints nationwide, the union representing the screeners said. The American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100 said it found out about the decision from its members and called it a "disregard for workers rights and safety."
TSA defended the move, saying the document checkers are the first to interact with the traveling public and requiring them to stand will create a better experience for passengers.
"This welcome change reinforces both our security posture and our commitment to hospitality by having these officers on their feet and alert," the agency said in a statement. "All officers must meet fitness for duty requirements to be capable of performing their vital national security function while simultaneously creating a welcoming and professional environment for travelers."
The move comes nearly two months after TSA Administrator David Cummins was confirmed to lead the agency.
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Sep 29, 2026
Christa Pike, Tennessee's only female death row inmate, has lost her final appeal after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in her imminent execution.
The nation's highest court denied Pike's request for a stay of execution on Sept. 29, less than 24 hours before Pike is set to be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 30. The court joins Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and lower courts in rejecting arguments from Pike's attorneys that she should be spared because of her exceptionally traumatic childhood.
Also on Sept. 29, Amnesty International joined more than 100 women's advocacy groups and sex abuse experts in continuing to argue for a reprieve for Pike.
"It is unthinkable that Governor Lee would even consider moving forward with this execution," Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. "In this moment, people around the world are asking Governor Lee to grant clemency to Ms. Pike, and we add our voice to theirs."
Lee announced
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Sep 29, 2026
Christa Pike, Tennessee's only female death row inmate, has lost her final appeal after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in her imminent execution.
The nation's highest court denied Pike's request for a stay of execution on Sept. 29, less than 24 hours before Pike is set to be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 30. The court joins Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and lower courts in rejecting arguments from Pike's attorneys that she should be spared because of her exceptionally traumatic childhood.
Also on Sept. 29, Amnesty International joined more than 100 women's advocacy groups and sex abuse experts in continuing to argue for a reprieve for Pike.
"It is unthinkable that Governor Lee would even consider moving forward with this execution," Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. "In this moment, people around the world are asking Governor Lee to grant clemency to Ms. Pike, and we add our voice to theirs."
Lee announced
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Sep 29, 2026
President Trump gathered top artificial intelligence leaders in Washington on Tuesday and doubled down on his opposition to government intervention, suggesting that "self-regulation" is the answer to growing worries about the technology getting out of human control.
"There's a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation," the president said after meeting with the assembled CEOs. "There was a lot of commonality in this room."
Trump said he and the CEOs signed a "morally binding" accord that would keep the companies in line through "self-policing and group policing."
Trump posted a copy of the accord to his Truth Social account with a one-page document that called for each participating company to implement four different measures to safeguard the technology and added that, later on, "it might make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 29, 2026 Some executives on hand said the accord included commitments to a combination of technological controls to detect problems with new models, internal risk review efforts, external auditors, and other measures.
Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the accord "a start," while others suggested some details still needed to be worked out.
"The mechanism, how we address those risks, is still
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Sep 29, 2026
NEW YORK — Striking a blow to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's rollout of his pied-à-terre tax on the rich, a Staten Island judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of owners of high-value second homes who sued the city and ordered the city to start the process over.
Justice Wayne Ozzi found that notices the city mailed to property owners informing them that they may be subject to the surcharge were unlawful and had to be canceled and re-sent. He also ruled that the controversial supplemental property tax roll posted online must be taken down.
"No crime is involved here, but homeowners are being substantially harmed and penalized needlessly," Ozzi wrote in a 22-page decision, referring to the city's method of implementing the tax law on high-value second homes.
The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The second-home surcharge is a key source of revenue for the city, expected to raise a whopping $500 million to help close what ahd been a massive budget gap.
Randy Mastro, representing the homeowners in the case, said the city had botched the rollout and wasted taxpayers' time.
"The fact is that this administration failed to follow state law when it burdened New York City homeowners with proving they live in their own homes or be on the hook for paying a new surcharge," Mastro said. "Now the administration must go back and do what it should have done from the start: use all the information at its disposal to make an individualized ‘initial determination' about who truly owes this surcharge before demanding that they pay it."
The city and the state have estimated that the number of properties impacted will be around 10,000. A larger net was cast in July when the city wrote to approximately 17,000 luxury property owners, saying they may be subject to the tax and could file for an exemption. Around 900,000 pricey properties were described in an online public database as potentially related to the surcharge.
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Sep 29, 2026
An Ohio man who had called 911 to report that an intruder had broken into their home and fatally shot his wife was found guilty of murdering the mother of two.
Caleb Flynn, 40, who once appeared as a contestant on "American Idol" in 2013, was charged with aggravated murder and multiple counts of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence in connection with the death of his wife, 37-year-old Ashley Flynn. He had pleaded not guilty.
Pool via ABC News - PHOTO: Caleb Flynn reacts as he listens to the reading of his guilty verdict inside the Miami County Court of Common Pleas, Sept. 29, 2026, in Troy, Ohio.The jury deliberated for nearly 2 1/2 hours before reaching a verdict Tuesday afternoon, finding him guilty of all charges. Caleb Flynn began to tear up as the verdict was read and appeared to briefly sob in his chair.
The judge set sentencing for Oct. 5 and revoked his bond.
Pool via ABC News - PHOTO: Caleb Flynn cries after being found guilty inside the Miami County Court of Common Pleas, Sept. 29, 2026, in Troy, Ohio.The former pastor called 911 early on Feb. 16 to report that his wife had been shot by an intruder at their home in Tipp City, north of Dayton. He was arrested three days later.
Prosecutors alleged that Caleb Flynn "executed" his wife by shooting her twice in the back of the head in bed so that he could be with his mistress and manipulated the crime scene to make it seem as if an intruder had
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Sep 29, 2026
By Andrew Chung
Sept 29 (Reuters) - The US Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump's administration resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them the chance to show the harms they may face, bolstering a tool his administration has used for rapid expulsions as part of his immigration crackdown.
The court granted ?the Justice Department's emergency request to put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy's ruling that the Department of Homeland Security's policy to remove migrants to so-called third ?countries is unlawful. The court also agreed to hear arguments in the dispute in December, with a formal ruling on the policy to follow.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices dissented from the decision to let ?the deportations immediately resume pending the final outcome of the litigation.
Murphy's ruling came in a class-action lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups on behalf of migrants seeking to prevent the US government from sending them to third countries without notice and a chance to assert the harms they could face.
More than 25,000 migrants have been deported to 29 countries under the policy implemented last year, according to a tally by human rights groups, with the vast majority going to Mexico.
The policy is one of a number of measures the administration has taken in its pursuit of Trump's goal of mass deportation. The Republican president has enforced ?a sweeping crackdown on immigration — among his top priorities — since returning ?to office last year.
The administration has carried out third-country deportations to politically unstable South Sudan, which the US State Department urges Americans to avoid due to the risks of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict, as well as Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, the Central African Republic, and other nations.
Department of Homeland Security
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Sep 29, 2026
Former special counsel Jack Smith fielded insults from Republicans and questions about his prosecutorial decisions as he sat before lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been a leading voice in scrutinizing Smith's twin probes into President Trump, obtaining and releasing reams of documents about the investigations while criticizing his decision to subpoena some lawmakers' call logs.
Smith defended his work, saying Trump faced criminal charges related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and the case tied to the president's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as a result of his own illegal conduct. He added that he would have brought charges against any president who committed such crimes.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), meanwhile, accused the GOP of "gaslighting" the American public about how damaging the Jan. 6 attack was to democracy.
But Smith largely served as a punching bag for the committee's Republicans.
"You may think you're a hero in this story, but let me tell you something. You're the villain. You've done so much damage," Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) told Smith.
"You will go down as a total dirtbag."
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Smit
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Sep 29, 2026
The site of the fish-shaped intaglio damaged by border wall construction contractors at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. (Courtesy Russ McSpadden / Center for Biological Diversity)An ancient ground carving that was severely damaged by the administration's border wall construction was created before Stonehenge and Egypt's oldest pyramid, according to recently publicized research.
The Las Playas Intaglio, a giant fish carved into the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, is now considered the oldest example in the Americas of a geoglyphic, the ancient art form that is carved into or drawn on the ground.
In April, contractors hired by the Trump administration to make way for a second wall along the Arizona-Mexico border "scraped" a 50-foot swath through the ancient carving, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which documented the damage.
The intaglio on the ground of the ancestral homeland of the Tohono O'odham and other Indigenous tribes is estimated to be about 2,000 years older than Egypt's first pyramid and to have been created about 1,500 years before the first construction of
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Sep 29, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security has tapped $20 million to pay for the campaign-style ads glorifying President Donald Trump that have drawn widespread criticism from Republicans and Democrats as a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars that likely runs afoul of anti-propaganda law.
In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, two top Democratic senators said that the money is being drawn from Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" and was supposed to go for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
"We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars," wrote Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that handles Homeland Security funding.
The senators demanded answers within the next 48 hours about "how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself."
They asked the secretary if the department plans to use additional federal funds to air these ads or create new ones, and if so to share contracting information with Congress. They also
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Sep 29, 2026
Lindsay Clancy returned to court on Tuesday for the first time since her murder trial ended with a deadlocked jury.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked Judge William Sullivan for an acquittal, arguing that there was not enough evidence to prove that the 36-year-old former nurse killed her three young children.
"This entire case is based on speculation," Reddington said. "Where is the admission? Where does she say that she did this?"
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham called the argument "laughable."
Sullivan did not immediately rule. The next hearing in the case is set for Nov. 2.
During the trial, Clancy's attorneys did not dispute that she fatally strangled her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan — with exercise bands at their Duxbury, Mass., home in January 2023. She had been charged with three counts of murder in the first degree.
Her lawyers argued that she could not be held criminally responsible for the killings because she was suffering from the rare mental illness that they said made her unable to understand the wrongfulness of her actions.
Prosecutors contended that Clancy, who was never formally diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, carefully planned the killings and bears full responsibility for her children's deaths.
The trial hinged largely on discussions of Clancy's mental state. Over nearly five weeks of testimony, a series of family members and medical professionals took the stand to describe the mental and emotional struggles she endured in th
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Sep 29, 2026
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who lead the Senate panel that oversees funding for the Kennedy Center, tried to pass a bill that would require an act of Congress to demolish any national memorials that honor a president. An objection from a single senator can block a bill from being passed by unanimous consent.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, objected.
The bill - dubbed the "Protecting Presidential Memorials Act" - would also apply to Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. But Merkley and Murkowski made their immediate goal clear.
"This has of course to do with the president planning to demolish the Kennedy Center," Merkley said on the Senate floor late Monday evening, Sept. 28, after the passing of the Protect College Sports Act, a major overhaul to college athletics related to NIL (name, image and likeliness) payment for student athletes.
'Bringing order to chaos': Senate passes major overhaul of college sports rules
Lee's office said in a statement to USA TODAY that this effort should go through "the appropriate committee process."
"Democrats should join us in lowering the cost of living and securing American elections instead of wasting the Senate's time with partisan scaremongering," Lee said in the statement shared by communications director Bi
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Sep 29, 2026
A United States ban of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Canadian products took effect on Tuesday, escalating a trade war between the longtime allies and pinching imports from one of the top U.S. trade partners.
The ban applies to an array of products spanning from alcohol to motorcycles to dairy goods, White House documents show.
In all, the affected products account for $967 million worth of annual imports from Canada, Jacob Jensen, director of trade policy at the right-leaning American Action Forum, said in a blog post.
Iran live updates: Tehran waiting for US response to 7-point proposal, Araghchi saysNearly $9 of every $10 worth of impacted products belongs to the category of alcoholic beverages, making them the primary target of the ban, Jensen said. The move comes after some Canadian provinces pulled U.S.-made alcohol off of liquor store shelves, crimping sales for American producers.
The list of banned alcoholic products includes beer, wine, whiskey, vodka, rum and brandy.
The policy also bars some mopeds and motorcycles, as well as some food items featuring whey, a popular protein-rich additive derived from dairy. Molasses and non-alcoholic beer also stand among the banned imports.
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Sep 29, 2026
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) - Kristi Noem, the former governor of South Dakota and former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has filed for divorce from her husband, Bryon Noem, according to court records.
Kristi Noem filed for divorce in Hamlin County, South Dakota, on April 6, but the documents were not posted to the online court service until Monday. The basis for the divorce is irreconcilable differences, documents show.
The couple has been married since May 23, 1992, according to the documents. Speculation about the Noem marriage has swirled around the couple for several months.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and her husband Bryon Noem, right, appears for an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Her husband, Bryon Noem, is seated at center. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
When contacted by Nexstar's KELO on Tuesday, Bryon Noem said, "I can't comment right now."
Attempts to reach Kristi Noem, who now serves as the Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, were unsuccessful.
The divorce paperwork was filed shortly after a tabloid leaked a photo of Bryon Noem, who
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Sep 29, 2026
Another top Trump loyalist tasked to help lead a controversial conspiracy probe targeting President Trump's political foes has resigned from the Justice Department, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The resignation of Kurt Olsen, a 2020 election denier who was assigned to the so-called "grand conspiracy" probe in Southern Florida earlier this year, comes just weeks after Trump ally Joe diGenova similarly announced his departure after suggesting to the New York Post that he was being pressured by DOJ leadership to bring charges without supporting evidence.
Olsen had no prior prosecutorial experience and was deeply involved in litigation surrounding President Trump's efforts to challenge his 2020 election loss.
Joe diGenova, loyalist tapped by Trump to oversee controversial DOJ probe targeting his foes, resigns: SourcesOlsen could not immediately be reached for comment. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment to ABC News.
Other line prosecutors on the investigation are also said to have departed the U.S. attorney's office in South Florida in recent days, sources said, though one source said that those officials had only been temporarily assigned to the office on a detail basis and that their terms had expired.
Additional attorneys were recently been added to assist in the conspiracy probe in recent weeks, that source said.
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Sep 29, 2026
Officer Ball, of the San Francisco Police Department, stands behind a barricade during a rally against ICE in front of the San Francisco Police Department Headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Minh Connors)
"Trump has put his political interests above the health, safety and livelihood of American families," Newsom said in a statement. "California is taking action to strengthen transparency, accountability, and oversight around immigration enforcement in our state. This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities."
The bills largely govern the conduct of Immigration and Customs and Enforcement officers, conditions in the state's detention centers and ways the state can use financial levers to make it harder for ICE to operate or expand.
"We will continue protecting our people, upholding the rule of law, and making clear that if the federal government operates in California, we will hold them accountable," Newsom said.
Sen. Scott Wiener's "No Kings Act," SB 747, creates a clearer legal pathway to sue any federal agent that violates a Californian's civil rights. The bill took effect immediately upon its signing, allowing people in the last year who have alleged mistreatment at the hands of immigration agents to file lawsuits against the officers.
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Sep 29, 2026
Federal prosecutors in Texas have charged a Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month with assaulting a federal officer, according to court documents unveiled Tuesday.
The prosecutors accused 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez of striking an ICE officer with his vehicle's side-view mirror as he drove away in an attempt to evade arrest. Garces Perez faces one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer.
An agent from the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations laid out the allegations in an eight-page affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The agent said he had interviewed one of the two ICE officers who was involved in the Sept. 20 incident, identified as D.F. The other officer, L.G., was the one who opened fire, and that officer's account is not included in the filing.
D.F. said both agents began following Garces Perez's car after checking his license plate and finding that he had a final order of removal from an immigration judge.
The agents were in separate vehicles and pulled Garces Perez over, the affidavit said, parking in front of and behind Garces Perez's car. The agents approached and told Garces Perez to get out, according to the affidavit, but he allegedly ignored the order and asked one of the agents, L.G., if he could move the car and park it.
"Approximately one minute later, GARCES abruptly closed the window and drove off. L.G. tried
to avoid contact with the car but GARCES' driver's side-view mirror struck L.G. in his torso as it
drove off," the affidavit said.
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Sep 29, 2026
The Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University in Ithaca on Monday. - Heather Ainsworth/AP
A former Cornell University student filed a lawsuit this month alleging she was drugged and gang raped inside a fraternity house in 2024, and the fresh scrutiny has prompted prosecutors to reopen the investigation.
The 101-page lawsuit details disturbing allegations about what the woman, identified as Jane Doe, says unfolded inside Chi Phi's frat house the night of October 19, 2024, and how the university and local prosecutors in Ithaca, New York, handled the case. Doe is accusing seven members of the frat of participating in the assault while she was unable to consent.
The Tompkins County District Attorney's Office said Monday it reopened the case to seek a grand jury review after being "asked by the community to revisit the decision whether to pursue criminal charges against the seven fraternity members."
County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said no criminal charges were initially filed because Doe had not provided police in 2024 with the same key allegations outlined in the new lawsuit.
Doe's attorney says the information was promptly given to Cornell authorities, and the report was "not materially different from what is contained in the (2026) complaint."
The legal dispute, lack of criminal charges and university's response has prompted fierce backlash and
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Sep 29, 2026
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, September 28, in Washington, DC. - Alex Brandon/AP
President Donald Trump has personally driven the controversial, taxpayer-funded video ads promoting himself and his administration's policies, including helping select the imagery and videos used, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Two Trump advisers familiar with the ads said that they were being created in-house by the White House video team — which is part of the communications team, responsible for the administration's public messaging.
Coming just over a month before the November midterms, the ads have generated bipartisan criticism over how the Trump administration is spending taxpayer dollars.
"It's a great message. I like the message, but it shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer dollars," Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters in the Capitol on Monday.
GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas echoed that sentiment: "It's not even a close question."
The White House has broadly defended the ads, saying they are akin to public service announcements past administrations have put out about Medicare, Obamacare and Covid-19 vaccinations. Officials have insisted they "are very clearly not campaign ads."
"These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad," a White House spokesperson said Monday.
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Sep 29, 2026
Apparent confusion over team names derailed a line of questioning as Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) grilled former special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday about his attendance at a basketball game, suggesting the prosecutor may have coordinated with others bringing charges about President Trump.
The exchange would later prompt Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) to say the panel had been "witness to a narrative, a false narrative of accusing [Smith] of being at a game that you were nowhere near, and I suppose that was supposed to be in furtherance of some sort of conspiracy."
Schmitt asked Smith if he had traveled to Atlanta in 2024 to watch an Atlanta Hawks basketball game, alluding to the trip as a chance to meet Fani Willis, the top prosecutor in the city. Willis also brought charges against Trump.
Schmitt said he had texts referencing the game, though a board displaying the messages was only briefly shown by the senator's staff.
Schmitt seemed surprised when Smith said he did not recall going to Atlanta during that time period and also said he did not meet Willis. For his part, Smith seemed puzzled.
"I really don't think so. It's possible I flew through the Atlanta airport on the way to Florida, but I do not have a recollection of going to Atlanta. I definitely did not go to a Hawks game," Smith said.
The significance of the trip from Schmitt's perspective was that the February 2024 game he referenced was the day after Willis revealed she was in a relationshi
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Sep 29, 2026
The X2 roller coaster has long been one of Six Flags Magic Mountain's main attractions, featuring seats that spin 360 degrees. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)Six Flags Magic Mountain's X2 roller coaster is permanently closed, following a history of injuries, including some that led to deaths, park officials announced on Tuesday.
The ride was first closed temporarily in July following reports of back-to-back brain injuries.
"While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it's the right thing to do. Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously," Brian Oerding, Six Flags Magic Mountain president, said in a statement.
The ride was opened as X in 2002, closed for repairs and reopened as X2 in 2008. It has long been one of the park's main attractions, featuring seats that spin forward and backward 360 degrees.
Months after the ride opened in 2002, it had to be closed to repair design flaws. Then, in 2007, it was closed again to replace the trains with lighter ones.
Anne Hawley, whose son died in 2022 after riding X2, was emotional Tuesday morning after learning the ride was permanently closed. Christopher Hawley was 22 when he rode X2, stumbled after getting off it, lost consciousness and died shortly thereafter. His family sued Magic Mountain and settled the case in August.
"We have tried for four years to do the best we can to spread awareness," Hawley said. "They finally listened."
Hawley was just one of
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Sep 29, 2026
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), antifa and the Muslim Brotherhood will be labeled domestic terrorist organizations under a new state law, after Florida leaders OK'd the designations at their Sept. 29 meeting.
These designations were in a 427-page packet submitted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for approval by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Cabinet members: Attorney General James Uthmeier, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia.
The packet also named numerous other groups labeled by the federal government as foreign terrorist organizations.
Although the Governor and Florida Cabinet approved these notices without any discussion, these designations don't come as a surprise. Weeks earlier, the governor and Cabinet approved an emergency rule setting procedures under a new state law (HB 1471) allowing them to designate terror groups.
Additionally, the day this law took effect, DeSantis announced his intentions to declare CAIR, the country's
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Sep 29, 2026
The Google homepage now has an AI Mode button instead of a Search button. —Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto--Getty ImagesIf you've used Google to search for something over the last few months, you may have noticed that the experience has changed. If you ask certain questions, an AI overview will pop up, followed by another search bar that encourages you to "Ask Anything." Click on that, and you suddenly find yourself conversing with a chatbot in Google's AI Mode interface.
This pathway has resulted in millions of people—who never intended to use AI in the first place—unwittingly becoming acclimated to a new chatbot reality. Google Search usage hit an all-time high this year, and much of that activity involves AI. Google's AI Mode has racked up more than 1 billion monthly users, the company says, a figure rivaling the estimated 1 billion monthly active users of ChatGPT in May, according to Sensor Tower.
At the beginning of the AI arms race, Google lagged far behind its upstart competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. But by aggressively implementing AI tools into its dominant search engine, Google is arguably doing more to bring AI into people's everyday lives. In the process, the company is already transforming how users and content creators behave online.
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Sep 29, 2026
President Donald Trump launched America.gov on Tuesday, unveiling what the administration has billed as a new AI-powered gateway to federal information and services that aims to streamline Americans' interactions with the government.
The website, which Trump introduced at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, features a chatbot-style interface that allows users to ask questions about government programs, benefits and services. The administration described America.gov as a "front door" to federal resources, consolidating information that is currently spread across dozens of agency websites.
"It's not just simply a website. It's a restoration of America's founding promise, and it's a reinvention of your government for the 21st century and beyond," Trump said at the rollout.
— Leonardo Feldman (@Leonardofeldman) September 29, 2026The debut of America.gov comes as policymakers, technology companies and privacy advocates continue to debate the expanding role of artificial intelligence in public-facing services. While AI tools have been touted for their ability to simpli
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Sep 29, 2026
A New York state prosecutor has reopened a criminal investigation into an alleged rape at a Cornell University fraternity in 2024 after a civil lawsuit filed last week by the alleged victim drew national attention.
In a lengthy statement released on Monday, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced that he had started pursuing criminal charges against seven fraternity members and would present the case to a grand jury.
He also sought to explain why he initially decided not to prosecute them.
According to Van Houten, the woman identified in the civil lawsuit as "Jane Doe" did not say that she was "drugged against her will or gang raped" in her 2024 sworn statement to police.
"On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual," Van Houten said. "My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later."
Cornell University issued a statement saying it supports the district attorney's decision to reopen the case while pushing back against claims that the school did not thoroughly punish those involved in the alleged assault following its own Title IX investigation.
"Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false," the university said. "A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault."
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Sep 29, 2026
After weeks of Washington being gripped by a new wave of fear about artificial intelligence gone awry, the Trump administration will take a sharply different take Tuesday, seeking to convince a skeptical public that the nation is instead about to embark on a tech-powered "golden age."
President Donald Trump will deliver a speech launching America.gov, a new AI-powered portal for accessing public services, part of a day-long event featuring members of his Cabinet and tech executives. AI company leaders are also set to meet with the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).
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The events come at a pivotal moment for the technology. AI firms say their latest systems have become increasingly powerful, showing signs of being able to design their own more-potent successors. But companies have struggled to keep control of the technology, as rogue AI agents have hacked into company and government systems, and a roster of top industry figures have warned that the end result could be catastrophic for humanity.
Last week, it was disclosed that the federal government itself had been a victim, with a handful of websites probed by AI agents deployed by ChatGPT maker OpenAI. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)
Yet even as the public's concerns have grown and Democrats in Congress have pressed for regulation, Trump has largely dismissed the risk, calling it a "hoax."
Tuesday's events are a chance for the administration to focus on the upsides of the technology, propelling a different narrative than the warnings introduced by company CEOs in recent weeks. AI's many boosters expect it will invigorate the economy, push th
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Sep 29, 2026
Watch: Evan Gershkovich describes the moment he was detained by masked men
US journalist Evan Gershkovich has said that he knew he was being set up by Russia when he was arrested by FSB agents and accused of being a spy.
In an interview with Radio 4's Today programme, Gershkovich spoke about the moment he realised he had been "lured into a trap" when masked men surrounded him at a restaurant in 2023, and detained him.
"I'm not interrogated, I'm not tortured… I'm accused of espionage," he said, describing a sense of relief: "They've set me up and fabricated this case so that I can be a valuable hostage - a pawn in a greater game".
Gershkovich, now 34, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but freed 16 months later as part of a high-profile prisoner swap deal.
Gershkovich had been living in Russia since 2017, and was the Wall Street Journal's foreign correspondent in Moscow when he was arrested - he is now based in Berlin, Germany. He and his employer have always maintained that the charges were false.
On the day he was arrested, Gershkovich was in Yekaterinburg - about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow - meeting someone who he thought was a source for a story.
They were sitting in a half-empty dining hall "and a group of about half-dozen masked men marched in and said 'I think we booked that table'." An odd phrase, Gershkovich said, but on reflection it is clever because it "freezes you in place".
The two men stood up and Gershkovich was told he was under arrest by the notorious and powerful FSB, Russia's domestic security service.
"It's at that moment that you realise it's something really serious… When it's the FSB,
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Sep 29, 2026
War Secretary Pete Hegseth will announce plans to reduce by 20% the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals during his State of the Force address on Wednesday.
Hegseth approved reduction plans for the Army, Navy, Air Force and the military's joint pool earlier this month, according to memos seen by Fox News Digital. The services were directed to implement the plans and complete the reductions by Jan. 1, 2027.
Wednesday's address in Quantico, Va. is expected to lay out Hegseth's priorities for the military in the year ahead, with the reduction in senior leadership positions among the changes he will unveil.
The new target doubles the 10% overall reduction in general and flag officer positions Hegseth ordered last year as part of his effort to streamline the military's senior ranks. That earlier directive separately called for a 20% reduction in active-duty four-star positions and a 20% reduction in National Guard general officers.
Senate Republican Pushes Merit-based Military Promotions, Targets Biden-era Dei Policies
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addresses senior military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on Sept. 30, 2025.Hegseth dubbed that effort "less generals, more GIs," arguing that reducing senior headquarters positions would pus
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Sep 29, 2026
JERUSALEM - A slew of reports that Arab officials warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a serious threat emerging from Gaza days before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas have put the longtime Israeli leader on the defensive less than 30 days before a pivotal election.
Ever since the attack, the most deadly in Israel's history, Netanyahu has argued that Israeli security chiefs collectively failed to foresee the surprise attack by Hamas - but that he led the fightback, scoring redemptive battlefield victories in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
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But that narrative is fraying as reports of the advance warnings, including one delivered by United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, train a spotlight on Netanyahu's handling of the attack and his refusal to allow an independent commission to investigate it.
Netanyahu and his office have denied the reports, and his political party and supporters have accused "left-wing" Israeli officials, as well as journalists and overseas interests, of conspiring to oust him from office through a coordinated smear campaign ahead of the Oct. 27 election.
The disclosures began to trickle out in early September, when the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an excerpt from "Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment," a book by two Israeli journalists that details an encrypted call reportedly made by the Emirati president, who is known as MBZ, less than two weeks before Oct. 7, 2023, to warn Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation that could destabilize the Middle East. Netanyahu did not pass on the warnings to his security aides, according to the book authors, Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Y
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Sep 29, 2026
JERUSALEM - A slew of reports that Arab officials warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a serious threat emerging from Gaza days before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas have put the longtime Israeli leader on the defensive less than 30 days before a pivotal election.
Ever since the attack, the most deadly in Israel's history, Netanyahu has argued that Israeli security chiefs collectively failed to foresee the surprise attack by Hamas - but that he led the fightback, scoring redemptive battlefield victories in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.
But that narrative is fraying as reports of the advance warnings, including one delivered by United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, train a spotlight on Netanyahu's handling of the attack and his refusal to allow an independent commission to investigate it.
Netanyahu and his office have denied the reports, and his political party and supporters have accused "left-wing" Israeli officials, as well as journalists and overseas interests, of conspiring to oust him from office through a coordinated smear campaign ahead of the Oct. 27 election.
The disclosures began to trickle out in early September, when the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an excerpt from "Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment," a book by two Israeli journalists that details an encrypted call reportedly made by the Emirati president, who is known as MBZ, less than two weeks before Oct. 7, 2023, to warn Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation that could destabilize the Middle East. Netanyahu did not pass on the warnings to his security aides, according to the book authors, Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Y
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Sep 29, 2026
Iran's Revolutionary Guard urged Americans in a message ahead of U.S. midterm elections to take to the streets and rally against Donald Trump, claiming the U.S. president's war in the Middle East has failed.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settlers rioted, throwing rocks, blocking roads and setting Palestinian property on fire to prevent a Palestinian man escorted by the Israeli military from returning to his home in the village of Jalud.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Tuesday. Full coverage is available here.
An Iranian spokesman advises Americans to reconsider their leaders
Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, held a news conference in Tehran, Iran's capital, on Tuesday and read from what he said was a "letter to the American people."
Reading from the prepared text, he said that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave. The message was apparently meant for the U.S. public just weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections for the U.S. Senate and Congress — a vote in which Trump's Republican Party faces fierce headwinds as it looks to maintain control of Congress.
Later, in remarks to The Associated Press, Mohebbi urged Americans to take to the streets and protest Trump's policies to denounce what he called the U.S. government's war-mongering policies.
Mohebbi also said Americans should "revise their decision" about their leaders.
He accused the United States of using Iran's nuclear program as a ruse to "plunder Iran's wealth" and to turn the coun
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Sep 29, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he "will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution" from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.
Smith also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stands behind the criminal cases he brought against Trump, a Republican, and that he and his team acted without regard to politics.
"I made those decisions without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election," Smith said. "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation. If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat."
Republicans sought to cast the prosecution as a political fishing expedition, accusing Smith of bending ordinary procedures in an overzealous pursuit of the president.
"The Smith election case ultimately wasn't just about Trump," said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the committee. "It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus."
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the committee, accused Republicans of spreading "baseless conspiracy theories" about Smith's investigations as part of an effort to "whitewash" the history of Trump's 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by
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Sep 29, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former special counsel Jack Smith forcefully defended his prosecutions of President Donald Trump and his investigative tactics, pushing back against repeated Republican criticism in a congressional hearing Tuesday that featured a senator's bungled attempt to accuse him of lying about a basketball game.
The hearing offered a forum for Republicans to try to paint Smith as a political operative and assail him anew for what they contend were politicized prosecutions that unfolded during the 2024 presidential race. Democrats rallied in his defense, eliciting testimony on the legal and factual basis for the criminal cases against the then-candidate and decrying the Trump administration's firing of prosecutors involved in the investigations.
Smith, for his part, defended his work in an hours-long Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — the latest congressional effort to revisit federal cases that accused Trump of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 race and of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
"Anybody who has worked with me and knows me during the course of my career knows that I would not let politics play a role. And I would just add that if you knew the people I worked with, they would not either," Smith said. He lamented what he called an unprecedented assault on the rule of law by the Trump administ
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Sep 29, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he "will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution" from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.
Smith also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stands behind the criminal cases he brought against Trump, a Republican, and that he and his team acted without regard to politics.
"I made those decisions without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election," Smith said. "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation. If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat."
Republicans sought to cast the prosecution as a political fishing expedition, accusing Smith of bending ordinary procedures in an overzealous pursuit of the president.
"The Smith election case ultimately wasn't just about Trump," said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the committee. "It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus."
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the committee, accused Republicans of spreading "baseless conspiracy theories" about Smith's investigations as part of an effort to "whitewash" the history of Trump's 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by
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Sep 29, 2026
By Waylon Cunningham
NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - McDonald's is increasingly using artificial intelligence to guide menu prices across the U.S. and some global markets, a plan that aims to boost headquarters' profit but risks alienating customers and attracting antitrust scrutiny.
One pricing factor supercharged by AI: an estimate of how much each store's patrons are willing to pay.
The details of how that pricing system works, its extensive use of AI, the company's regulatory concerns and the tensions with its franchisees haven't been previously reported. For this story, Reuters reviewed screenshots of the company pricing engine taken in August and interviewed nine sources with first-hand knowledge of the burger chain's strategy.
McDonald's pricing ?engine uses machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across McDonald's nearly 14,000 restaurants and generate what the company calls "the optimal price" at each location for each menu item, from Big Macs to discounted coffee for seniors.
The engine has widened existing price differences for the same product between restaurants, including from neighborhood to neighborhood within ?the same area, three franchisees told Reuters.
Screenshots of the interface franchisees use, reviewed by Reuters, show messages including: "Your restaurant is showing MEDIUM SENSITIVITY to Price" based in part on "customer willingness to pay in your area." The platform also contains public price information pulled from online menus of nearby restaurants of competitors including Wendy's and Burger King. Those chains said they do not use AI in pricing decisions.
A Reuters check of prices in September on the McDonald's mobile app showed price differences. For example, ?a company-run store in Fresno, California sells a Big Mac for $5.69, but another company-run restaurant two miles away sells the same sandwich for $6.89, a 21%
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Sep 29, 2026
President Trump's new government-funded ads pledging to "cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists" are getting strong pushback from Senate Republicans who are warning the president not to use taxpayer money to promote himself in such a brazenly political way.
While Republicans generally approve of Trump's political message, they say using taxpayer dollars to fund a series of ads that closely resemble Trump's past campaign advertising right before the midterm elections is inappropriate.
"It's a great message, I like the message, but it shouldn't be paid for by taxpayer dollars," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Monday.
The White House, however, argues the ads — which ran over the weekend during "Fox News Sunday" and several college and NFL football games — are "very clearly not campaign ads" and instead "a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it's worth defending."
Republican senators are not buying that argument, and warn that it creates an improper appearance to be using taxpayer money to pay for television ads that could easily be confused with regular campaign ads, even though Trump himself is not on the ballot.
"It would not have been something that I would have done," said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). "I know that the White House is not covered by the same guidance that we are, but it's not something I would have done."
"I just don't think it's right to be using taxpayer money in that way, particularly if it's tied to political campaigns," he added. "I think they need to rethink that strategy."
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said using
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Sep 29, 2026
Washington — Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is making a play for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" supporters with the release Tuesday of a new health policy platform.
"I think we have an opportunity to remind folks that we've always been the people who want people to be healthier, rather than the folks who capitulate to the food, ag and pharmaceutical corporations that are too often on the wrong side of things," El-Sayed told CBS News.
The platform, dubbed the Building A Healthier America Policy Agenda, takes aim at pesticides in food, backing legislation that would give people the right to sue pesticide manufacturers over harm caused by the products. It seeks accountability for polluters, with a pledge to get industry lobbyists out of regulatory agencies. And it aims to get substances such as lead and microplastics out of water, in part by strengthening federal drinking water rules. It also proposes investments in school meal programs and grocery stores on wheels.
El-Sayed, a former Michigan health official, has been vocal about healthcare issues along the campaign trail, speaking frequently about Medicare For All alongside a push to get money out of politics and a focus on affordability issues more broadly. Now, he's zeroing in on issues that helped build President Trump's coalition in the 2024 election, as he takes on former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in a closely watched Senate race that could be key to determining which party controls the upper chamber.
El-Sayed said for MAHA voters who largely supported Mr. Trump and the GOP in the last election, "a lot of them felt like Democrats weren't paying enough attention to their fears about healthcare." But he argued that since then, voters have been "completely let down and lied to" on the issues at the root of the ag
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Sep 29, 2026
President Donald Trump intends to spend the next 30 days campaigning for Republicans, many of whom are underwater in states the president easily carried two years ago.
Bastions of conservatism — including Alabama, Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and Texas — need Trump's star power, and a visit by the president could persuade some of his most die-hard supporters to turn out to the polls. But each trip to play defense in red strongholds robs the GOP of a chance to put Democrats on the back foot in states that are traditionally competitive.
Trump's upcoming travel — including to Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio this week — puts a focus on what Republican donors and operatives have feared for months: that even a gerrymandered House map and whopping cash advantage won't be enough to save the House or Senate from Democrats.
"The problem is that the fires are everywhere right now," said one GOP donor, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the party's prospects.
Inside the White House, concern is particularly high over the Senate races in Alaska and Ohio, which the president both won handily in 2024. In Alaska, Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan lost by 8 points in a nonpartisan primary to the Democrat Mary Peltola. Trump is planning to make the trek to Alaska later this month to shore up Sullivan's chances — a significant commitment of time and presidential resources that underscores how dire the situation is for Republicans.
"On a scale of 1 to 10," said a person close to the White House, "10. In Alaska, because of the obvious situation of what happened in the primary, and in Ohio, because [Jon] Husted is proving not to be a compelling candidate."
The White House referred a request for comment to the Republican National Committee. RNC spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre, in a statement, pointed
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Sep 29, 2026
By Toby Shepheard and Will Russell
FAIRFORD, England, Sept 29 (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the "hands of a foreign actor" were involved in an incident in which five men were arrested on suspected explosives and terrorism offences near a ?British airbase used by US forces to strike Iran.
British police declared a major incident at the RAF Fairfordbase in western ?England following the arrests early on Sunday, and the government held a national emergency meeting.
However the police released the five on bail on Monday, but said the investigation was ?not over and they were examining whether individuals acting for a foreign state were involved.
A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that three large white vans the men appeared to travel in had not contained viable explosives.
The source said Sunday's police response had not been intelligence-led - an indication that the five were not under direct surveillance - but security had been beefed up at the base, suggesting there was information it was being targeted.
"What happened, ?what almost happened, what could have happened in the ?UK over the weekend is a very serious situation. It's one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor. I won't get into great detail about that yet," Rubio told the Fox News network's "Hannity" program late ?on Monday.
He provided no evidence and did not give specific details.
US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the incident "might be" connected to Iran, with which the United States is at war since late February, and that he would not have released the suspects on bail.
"I ?wouldn't have ?done that," he said.
IRAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN RAF FAIRFORD INCIDENT
The five arrested are ?all British nationals in their early 20s from London. ?They were detained in the early hours on Sunday after police were alert
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Sep 29, 2026
Clipped From Video
Months into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, with no main suspect or person of interest named, authorities say they are now investigating the credibility of a new possible ransom note tied to the 84-year-old's disappearance.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department said its joint task force, along with the FBI, were "recently made aware of a new possible note," and they were looking into it.
The comments were the latest by the sheriff's department after it announced in August that human remains had been found in the Tucson desert, just 15 miles from where Nancy Guthrie was believed to have been abducted.
While authorities quickly said there was no indication the remains were connected to the case, every possible lead among the saguaro cacti of the Sonoran Desert has brought renewed hope for the return of Guthrie and a stinging reminder of the ongoing grief felt by her loved ones.
Guthrie, the mother of NBC "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her Tucson-area home on February 1 without her phone or critical medications.
The investigation has been marked by a ransom note demanding millions of dollars and video of an armed, masked person tampering with the doorbell camera at the Tucson home.
More than half a year later, her family has live
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