- Friday September 18th, 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
Trump says he has a ‘big decision’ coming up on Iran: ‘Do I want to go in and annihilate them?’
President Trump said Thursday that he was at a crossroads over whether
to renew attacks in Iran to wipe out the regime and bring the war to an
end.
“I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate
them or do I not?” he told Axios. “It’s a big decision. Anything could
happen with me.”
Trump’s comments echo previous threats he’s levied against Tehran since the war began.
South Korea rules out military involvement in US-Iran war: report
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Friday that his country will
not deploy military assets to the Middle East in a way "that would
involve or enter war," a report said.
"There won't be deployment that would involve or enter war. I can tell
you that very clearly," Lee said, according to Reuters. "We won't
deploy military assets in any form to that end."
He reportedly added that it "is also clear that we must do the minimum
as other countries do to protect our commercial shipping and crude
shipments, and also the safety of our people."
The remarks come after President Donald Trump said in mid-August that
he personally reached out to South Korea's president to request support
for U.S. operations against Iran, but that Lee had declined.
Early Voting Begins in US Midterm Elections
In-person voting for this year's midterm elections begins Friday,
ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they trust
to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in
Iran and other pressing issues.
Election administrators say they're prepared and confident the vote
will be accurate and secure. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has
continued efforts to challenge certain voting methods and reshape how
U.S. elections are run, through court challenges, a federal effort to
identify noncitizen voters and efforts to obtain voter data from state
election officials.
Friday is the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a handful of
other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, are able to
cast absentee ballots in person, typically at a local election office
or voting center. More expansive early voting is scheduled to begin in
those and other states in the coming weeks.
Ex-Dem fundraiser claims internal polling showed Harris ‘dead last’ among Biden replacements
Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched her party
affiliation over unheeded warning signs about President Joe Biden's
decline in the 2024 election, says Democrats had internal polling
showing that Kamala Harris was far from the party’s best shot at
beating Donald Trump.
But that polling wasn’t convenient.
"The polling numbers went directly against the narrative that the party wanted to espouse," Li said.
"They knew that skipping over Kamala Harris would be a slap in the face
to the bedrock of the party, which is Black women in particular, and
they just wouldn't have it," Li told Fox News Digital in an exclusive
interview.
Li is chronicling the months leading up to Biden's withdrawal from the
race in her new book, "Unburdened," revealing that the party’s internal
thinking behind why Harris was made the nominee and how many of the
party’s top figures had long known that Biden’s age had created an
unavoidable political liability.
Microsoft, OpenAI workers privately worried their work is ‘largest theft of labor in human history’
Microsoft and OpenAI workers privately shared concerns that their use
of millions of news articles to develop AI bots could represent the
“largest theft of labor in human history,” according to newly unsealed
court docs.
One internal Microsoft document from 2023 warned that millions of
people would consider LLMs “hoovering up” their work to be “an
astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” according to legal
filings revealed as part of the New York Times’ case against the two
firms.
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, meanwhile, acknowledged that the company’s
products pose an “existential threat” to publishers, according to
another internal document.
Ukraine war latest: Russian general eliminated in occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, military says
Russian Major General Anton Grunis, commander of Russia's 4th Separate
Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in
the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, commander
of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, confirmed on Sept. 16.
"The general Grunis was eliminated on Sept. 12, 2026, in his nighttime
lair in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast," "Madyar"
said.
The 427th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade "Rarog" carried out the strike with their drones, Brovdi said.
Apti Alaudinov, commander of Russia's Akhmat special forces and deputy
head of the Russian Armed Forces' Main Military-Political Directorate,
also confirmed Grunis's death, according to Russian independent outlet
Astra.
Why Ilhan Omar can't be kicked out of the US for marrying brother: Immigration officials
Oh, brother!
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s marriage to her alleged brother won’t get
her kicked out of the US, but other matters in her immigration file
might, sources told The Post.
In 2009, Omar wed self-described ‘dirty dandy’ Ahmed Elmi, a UK
national long rumored to be her brother. But the federal probe into
Somalia-born Omar’s past is more likely to focus on how she became as
US citizen as a teenager and paperwork filed by her father.
The father, Nur Said Mohamed Elmi was long identified as an “educator”
before his death in 2020, at which point his military record emerged.
Jasmine Crockett torched for honoring singer with notorious history of violence: 'Completely vile'
The Texas Democrat entered a member statement recognizing Brown and Usher Raymond despite Brown's history of violence
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who recently lost her Senate bid, is
facing online backlash after she honored music artist Chris Brown by
entering him into the congressional record this past weekend.
"Now, y’all know, I tend to get in trouble every once in a while. I’m a
make this real quick. I need to know who run it! So is Dallas in the
building?" Crockett said as she took the stage alongside Brown on
Saturday evening.
"Let’s give it up for Chris Brown," she added to applause from the audience.
The moment drew scrutiny from viewers online, raising questions about
Crockett’s status as a lawmaker and whether it should be used to
celebrate Brown, someone with a history of domestic violence.
Dave Rubin breaks down Hasan Piker's transition from Twitch streamer to political player
The right-wing commentator and former Young Turks colleague traces Piker's rise from loud newcomer to progressive icon
Hasan Piker may be a major name in online political media now, but when
he got his start at The Young Turks, a network co-founded by his uncle,
Cenk Uygur, he was a young, loud guy looking to make a splash in the
online political discourse. Dave Rubin, who formerly worked on The
Young Turks, recalls Piker as "a big dude" who was "really loud."
"[Cenk] just put Hasan on air, even though virtually everyone there
wanted to be on air," Rubin recalled in a conversation with Fox News
Digital. Rubin said that most of the staff at The Young Turks wanted to
be on camera, but "once [Hasan] just showed up, he just got on camera.
Cenk just gave him the keys to the kingdom and I guess he became some
sort of personality since then."
While Piker has continued to profess anti-capitalist and progressive
views while building an audience of loyal followers, Rubin later had a
political epiphany and realigned himself with the right. In a 2017
PragerU video, Rubin explained that the left had gone from being
"progressive to regressive," pointing to cancel culture and calls for
censorship, among other things.
Flock CEO, tech rivals called to testify before senators over AI camera privacy concerns
Senator Josh Hawley says he is investigating who has access to hundreds of millions of Americans' data
The CEOs of four companies, including Flock Safety, are being called to
testify before a Senate panel next week as lawmakers look to crack down
on AI-powered surveillance camera tracking Americans’ movements, Fox
News Digital has learned.
A number of lawmakers and several governors have called for
investigations into alleged privacy violations regarding the handling
of images and data generated by AI-backed surveillance cameras.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism will
hold a hearing titled "Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI
Surveillance Network" on Sept. 23.
Trump Drug Pricing Plan to Cover All 50 States
The Trump administration plans to announce that all 50 states will have
access to most-favored-nation pricing for certain drugs through
Medicaid, Semafor reported Friday.
President Donald Trump is expected to highlight the initiative at the
White House alongside the governors of South Dakota, Mississippi, and
Arkansas as his administration focuses on prescription drug costs ahead
of the November midterms.. . .
The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that the effort
will generate $27.6 billion in net savings for state governments and
$36.6 billion in federal savings over 10 years, according to Semafor.
The administration argues that tying prices for certain Medicaid drugs
to those paid in other countries can reduce government spending while
expanding access.
Pape: US Strategic Reserve Running Dry, China Gains Strategic Leverage
America is rapidly depleting one of its most important defenses against
the global energy crisis, leaving Washington with dramatically less
flexibility to contain another surge in oil prices, respond to a major
supply disruption or help cushion allies from shortages, writes analyst
Robert Pape.
At the same time, China has entered the crisis with a vastly larger
estimated oil stockpile and has demonstrated an ability to slash
imports and consumption — a disparity that could take on added
geopolitical importance as President Donald Trump prepares for
high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
University of Chicago political scientist Pape warns in a new analysis
that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to approximately
285 million barrels, its lowest level since 1982.
Supreme Court that Left calls ‘biased’ was near unanimous 62% of the time
By Jonathan Turley
The Supreme Court is once again under attack from those calling for
packing, or even eliminating, the institution as hopelessly ideological
and divided.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently proclaimed that “The Supreme Court’s
conservative majority keeps choosing ideology over impartiality.”
Other media outlets reported “devastating” polling showing the Court as unpopular and losing institutional respect.
Looking at the actual rulings disproves the argument of a “biased” court.
The Court ruled unanimously in more than 44% of cases, slightly up from the prior year.
When you add the roughly 11% of opinions that were 8-1 and 6% that were
7-1 or 7-2, the rate of unanimous or nearly unanimous jumps to 62%.
In over 77% of cases, there was no ideological split in the resulting opinions.
We should use Reagan as a guide in handling our modern arms race with China
Trump should use meeting with Xi Jinping to turn America's chip advantage into negotiating leverage
By Chris Stewart
I can still remember, as a young Air Force officer, sitting in the
cockpit of my B-1 bomber knowing that we could deliver nuclear weapons
virtually anywhere in the world.
I also remember watching President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986 to negotiate
nuclear arms reductions. The whole world was watching. The nuclear arms
race was a global threat, and the world’s two most powerful nations had
a responsibility to confront it.
Now imagine that, as Reagan sat across the table from Gorbachev,
American companies were selling Moscow the technology it needed to make
its nuclear arsenal even more powerful.
The idea would have been absurd.
