- Friday September 25th, 2026
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
CIA Reportedly Warns Russia Preparing Drone Attacks Across Europe
Intelligence
agencies including the CIA are reportedly warning of possible
sea-launched strikes against France, Spain, and Italy as European
governments say Moscow is escalating its hybrid campaign against NATO.
The CIA has
reportedly warned European governments that Russia may be preparing
drone attacks against targets in France, Spain, and Italy, potentially
marking a dangerous expansion of Moscow's alleged campaign of sabotage
and hybrid warfare beyond NATO's eastern flank.
The warning was
first reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo and subsequently
detailed by The Independent, which said several European governments
had received information about possible Russian plans to escalate
operations in Europe.
Ukraine agrees to full ceasefire and expects same from Russia: UN statement
Ukraine has
agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire. UN member states have called
on Russia to take the same step, according to the Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry.
"Since March
2025, Ukraine has agreed to a full, immediate, and unconditional
ceasefire. We call on Russia to finally do the same as a necessary step
towards meaningful diplomacy and negotiations leading to peace," said a
joint statement signed by 51 UN member states.
In addition,
the UN called on Moscow to immediately return to Ukraine "all detained,
forcibly transferred or deported Ukrainian civilians, including
children."
US Secretary of
State Marco Rubio said today that Russia has expressed interest in a
ceasefire with Ukraine that would include a limited halt to mutual
strikes on energy infrastructure.
Trump revives Supreme Court immigration showdown after Hochul pardon torpedoed first case
The dispute centers on whether criminal aliens facing deportation are entitled to bond hearings when custody drags on
The Trump
administration is asking the Supreme Court to revive a major
immigration fight over whether criminal aliens can be held without bond
throughout removal proceedings or are entitled to a hearing when their
detention drags on.
Solicitor
General John Sauer asked the Supreme Court on Monday to take up Genalo
v. D.C., reviving a constitutional fight the justices had been set to
hear this term in Genalo v. Black before New York Democratic Gov. Kathy
Hochul’s pardon rendered that case moot.
At the center
of the dispute is D.C., a Dominican national who is facing removal
after a criminal history that includes drug trafficking and domestic
violence charges. He had previously been removed from the United States
on six occasions, according to ICE.
Trump Continues Voter Data Push Despite Repeated Setbacks
President
Donald Trump is pressing forward with an unprecedented push for his
administration to obtain sensitive voter data ahead of the US midterm
elections, despite repeated losses in court, in a hunt for noncitizens
illegally registered to vote, though there has been no evidence of
widespread fraud of this kind.
Responding to a
legal challenge to a key element of Trump's plans, Justice Department
lawyers are set to ask a federal judge in Maryland on Friday not to
block the Department of Homeland Security from creating lists of US
citizens who are eligible to vote. Trump's fellow Republicans are
fighting to keep control of Congress in the November 3 midterms.
Greenbelt,
Maryland-based US District Judge Paula Xinis is holding a hearing in a
lawsuit by privacy advocates seeking to block the department's plans to
implement an executive order Trump signed in March. The order directed
DHS to create the citizen lists using data housed throughout the
federal government and share them with state election officials. Under
the order, state officials could face criminal prosecution if
ineligible people are found to have voted in their states.
Yemen tells UN that Houthi rebels' moves on key strait threaten global economy
Yemen's
internationally recognized government pressed world leaders anew
Thursday for help defeating the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, saying that
their new perch along one of the world's busiest waterways presents an
international economic risk.
The Houthis —
who have controlled Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's
north for over a decade — stormed down Yemen's coast this month and
seized the crucial port city of Mokha and key Red Sea islands. That
gives them better surveillance of ships passing through the Bab
el-Mandeb Strait, at the sea's southern end. About 12% of the world’s
trade usually passes through the waterway.
The rebels have
declared a blockade on Saudi shipping. While asserting there's no other
threat to commercial shipping on the Red Sea, they have warned other
nations not to get involved.
But the vice
president of the internationally recognized government council urged
world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly not to trust the Houthis'
assurances — and to see a bigger picture in the strife around the
strait.
Netanyahu Praises Trump's 'Bold Leadership' at UN
Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Donald Trump's "bold
leadership" in a speech before the United Nations on Thursday,
crediting the president and the United States with playing a decisive
role alongside Israel in confronting Iran and crippling its military
and nuclear capabilities.
Speaking before
the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu portrayed the
U.S.-Israel partnership as essential to stopping what he described as
an existential danger posed by Tehran.
"In this battle
against the barbarians, we've had no greater partner than President
Trump," Netanyahu said. "I thank him. I thank him for his bold
leadership."
Canada PM Mark Carney confirms he’s prepped for US invasion: ‘Would be irresponsible not to’
Canadian Prime
Minister Mark Carney confirmed in an interview this week that his
government had prepared for the possibility of the US launching an
invasion of Canada amid ongoing trade tensions.
“I think you
have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,”
Carney told the New York Times in an interview Wednesday while in town
for the United Nations General Assembly. “That’s just risk management.
That’s not a base case, but it would be irresponsible not to.”
The
61-year-old, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of
England, spoke one week after European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen proposed making Canada an associate member of the 27-nation
bloc, a move President Trump suggested could be a “hostile act.”
Mike Lee explodes on voting error that 'keeps happening' as huge number of noncitizens found on rolls
The Utah senator says current laws against noncitizen voting are 'rendered difficult and essentially impossible to enforce'
Firebrand
conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, slammed both Democrats and
Republicans who have resisted passage of the SAVE America Act after a
report found that 30,000 noncitizens were "mistakenly" registered to
vote in states across the country since 2000.
Reuters
reported on Wednesday that more than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens
have been added to U.S. voter rolls since 2000. The outlet attributed
the erroneous registrations to "software glitches and clerical errors"
and said that its review suggested "inadvertent bureaucratic failures,
rather than organized efforts to register immigrants illegally." The
outlet said that this raised "questions about whether legislative
efforts to require proof of citizenship for voter registration would
eliminate the issue."
However, while
speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Lee, who introduced the SAVE
America Act earlier this year, said that "even though we have laws that
prohibit things like noncitizen voting, those laws have been rendered
difficult and essentially impossible to enforce."
"That thing
that they claim never happens, voter fraud or noncitizen voting, just
keeps happening over and over and over again," he railed.
Iranian president blames US for Middle East conflict while denying nuclear ambitions, offers to dilute uranium
Masoud Pezeshkian also addressed secondary sanctions, Hormuz and the breakdown in US-Iran negotiations on 'Special Report'
Iranian
President Masoud Pezeshkian flatly denied Thursday that Tehran wants a
nuclear bomb while claiming Iran is willing to submit its nuclear
program for international inspection, blaming Washington for the nearly
seven-month war in the Middle East and accusing it of blocking
diplomacy.
Asked
point-blank during an exclusive interview on Fox News’ "Special
Report," "Do you want a nuclear bomb or not?" Pezeshkian firmly
rejected the premise.
"Not at all.
Not at all. Our martyred, esteemed supreme leader had announced several
times that, from a religious decree, it is unholy. It is illegal," he
told Bret Baier, referencing religious edicts issued against weapons of
mass destruction.
The Iranian
leader's public denial came amid long-term international scrutiny of
Iran’s nuclear program and its enrichment of uranium to levels well
beyond those typically used for civilian nuclear power.
Former Democratic fundraiser pulls back curtain on party practices for raising money
Lindy Li, a
former Democratic fundraiser who switched her party affiliation over
unheeded warning signs of President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024
election, believes the party badly misallocated its fundraising, misled
donors and rewarded party operatives who propped up Biden’s image.
"It was:
‘maintain this very obvious lie in return for access,’" Li recalled in
an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, referring to assertions
that Biden was not experiencing cognitive decline.
"And whoever
maintained, whoever was most strident in propounding that lie got the
most access. And whoever subverted it or dared to ask questions would
see their access quickly diminish."
Liberal justice hammers Supreme Court for fast-tracking emergency docket cases
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warns emergency docket could become 'end run around the standard review process'
Supreme Court
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ripped her colleagues for fast-tracking
cases on the high court’s emergency docket, saying "it has been
noticeably less restrained, especially with respect to pending cases
that involve controversial matters."
The emergency
docket, sometimes known as the shadow or interim docket, allows parties
to ask the Supreme Court to quickly intervene in lawsuits and
temporarily pause lower court rulings. The process can take a couple of
days, weeks or months, and is viewed as a much speedier, although
temporary, way to secure court relief than when the court fully
considers the merits of a case, which can include a long briefing
schedule and oral arguments.
"Why is it that
one party should get a fast pass to the Supreme Court of the United
States, when so many other parties are queued up, waiting patiently for
the court’s attention?" Jackson said Thursday during a speech at the
University of the District of Columbia’s law school, according to The
Hill.
Netanyahu entered a hostile environment — and met the moment with a speech that can only be called a success
By Michael Goodwin
It is a given
that many media and political descriptions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s
speech to the United Nations will call it fiery and defiant.
And so it was — and so it had to be.
Both the content and the sometimes-harsh tone were essential if he was to capture the moment and the point of his appearance.
Once again and
always, Israel is in a fight for its existence, and finds itself being
abandoned by former allies in Europe and increasingly isolated on the
world stage.
Given those
circumstances, nobody of sane and fair mind could seriously expect the
Jewish state’s leader to come to a hostile United Nations bearing a
bouquet of olive branches.
McLaughlin Poll: Danger As Voters Embrace Socialism
The
battle for Congress remains close, but our latest national survey
contains a clear warning for Republicans: Democrats continue to lead on
the generic congressional ballot, while the Republican advantage on the
capitalism-versus-socialism question has narrowed sharply.
Our national
survey of 1,000 likely general-election voters, conducted Sept. 16–22,
finds Democrats leading Republicans 48% to 43% on the generic
congressional ballot, with 9% undecided.
Generic Congressional Ballot
Democrat: 48%
Republican: 43%
Undecided: 9%
But when voters
are given an ideological and economic choice — “a Republican candidate
who supports free-market capitalism” versus “a Democratic candidate who
supports big-government socialism” — Republicans perform better.
Greenland triumph is Trump’s ‘art of the deal’ in action — and it drives his haters crazy
By Josh Hammer
In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million.
The deal was widely ridiculed: Critics called it “Seward’s Folly,” after secretary of state and lead negotiator William Seward.
In hindsight,
given the state’s immense natural resources and strategic location,
it’s tough to think of Alaska as anything other than one of America’s
most important territorial expansion since Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana
Purchase.
Yet many have
still not learned their lesson about the Monroe Doctine, which warned
foreign powers not to meddle with the United States in our hemisphere.
