- Wednesday September 30th, 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
Pilot arrested for attempting to crash plane in ‘jihadist terrorist attack’ thwarted by brave passenger: Israeli officials
The copilot who stabbed his colleague
piloting a flydubai jet Wednesday has been arrested for trying to crash
the packed passenger plane in “a jihadist terrorist attack,” Israeli
leaders said.
The suspect, reportedly of Omani descent, stabbed the pilot and plotted
to bring down the Boeing 737 Max jet with 174 people on board, Israeli
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a statement.
“According to the initial information in our possession, the terrorist
had one intention: to crash the plane with all its passengers,” he said.
Katz credited the fearless passengers on board for subduing the alleged
attacker and saving the lives of the passengers, which included 27
children.
FTC opens sweeping probe of Anthropic, OpenAI and other ‘super intelligence’ models
The Federal Trade Commission is ramping up a sweeping probe of
Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier labs to uncover the potential
dangers their technology poses to consumers, and plans to slap the tech
titans with formal demands, similar to subpoenas, to turn over
information, administration officials told The Post.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson launched the investigation before one of
the AI models went rogue during a test — in what’s since been dubbed
the “Hugging Face incident” — but the agency is now drafting civil
investigative demands to force testimony from the leading firms’
executives.
“Chairman Ferguson initiated an investigation into the leading AI firms
a few weeks ago,” a senior FTC official revealed to The Post.
Oman would take control of the southern end of the Strait of Hormuz under a deal that was never once announced
It doesn’t often fall to the Secretary of the Treasury to make
belligerent threats to the nation’s foreign adversaries, but Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent did just that this week.
Appearing on Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program over the
weekend, as the New York Post reported, Bessent said Iran will likely
run out of things to trade within two weeks, forcing the Islamic
Republic into a favorable deal.
The Secretary claimed Iran has only 15 million more barrels of oil on
the water, and after that, it will have nothing left to trade. He
predicted that once Iran makes that final delivery to China, it will be
left with nothing.
The administration said this is due to the U.S. naval blockade on
Iranian shipments, as well as Operation Economic Outcast, a
Treasury-led initiative to threaten sanctions on other countries that
do business with Iran, focusing on aviation, digital assets, gold,
shipping, and technology.
The US military says its withdrawal of troops from Iraq is complete
The US military announced on Wednesday that it has completed the
withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight
the Islamic State group.
The last US troops left the last air base where they had been present
in northern Iraq under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington.
The move, which came in the midst of an ongoing war between the United
States and Iran that has also sometimes spilled over into Iraq, was
touted by Baghdad as a sign of the country’s increasing strength and
sovereignty.
Putin rejects energy ceasefire - now Zelenskyy has approved deep-strike plan for October
Earlier this month US President Donald Trump pushed for Ukraine and Russia to stop hitting each other’s energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would support an energy ceasefire, and
while Moscow has called it “a good idea”, there have been no public
indications of the Kremlin being ready to accept such a ceasefire.
So the two sides will keep hitting each other’s energy infrastructure,
and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent Tuesday in
back-to-back meetings with the defense ministry and domestic weapons
producers, mapping out how Ukraine will fight through October.
By evening, he had signed off on the plan.
Liberal stronghold set to adopt eye-popping minimum wage amid business exodus
The city could have the highest minimum wage in the country by 2027 as business formation declines and office vacancy rises
Seattle is slated to increase its minimum wage to $22.14 an hour in
2027 as the broader metro area contends with a sharp drop in job
openings and Seattle businesses face mounting cost pressures.
Beginning in 2025, all Seattle employers, including small businesses,
were required to pay the same minimum wage, which is adjusted annually
for inflation. Several Seattle restaurant owners who have since closed
their businesses have cited rising labor costs among the financial
pressures that contributed to their decisions.
During the first half of 2025, shortly after the wage hikes went into
effect for all businesses, 450 Seattle restaurants — about 16% of the
city’s total — closed. Restaurant and retail transactions fell by as
much as 7% over the prior year in some business and shopping districts
around Amazon and Microsoft campuses, according to Square data cited by
The Wall Street Journal.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs living VIP life behind bars with massages, alcohol, nude photos and a cellphone: report
Disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is reportedly living high and
large inside the Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey — with access to
a cellphone, booze and people catering to his every need, NBC News
reported.
While he’s serving a 50-month sentence for prostitution-related
offenses, Combs, 56, spends thousands of dollars a month to bring his
pampered lifestyle to the Garden State lockup, according to four men
who spent time in the same unit as the former hip-hop producer,
speaking to the outlet on the condition of anonymity.
“This is not some normal s–t you see in jail. This is some rich s–t,”
one of the men said. “It looks crazy, but again, it’s Diddy.”
According to the sources, the “Bad Boy for Life” rapper has men at the
low-security prison who cook and clean for him, make his bed and do his
laundry, as well as someone who gives him Chinese-style massages, NBC
reported.
Top real estate mogul issues stark warning as California buyers say 'enough is enough' on taxes
CEO Aaron Kirman says Proposition 40 has buyers 'sitting on the sidelines' as voter support drops below 50%
Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California founder and
CEO Aaron Kirman speaks to Fox News Digital about the falling support
for the proposed ‘billionaire tax’ and its implications on the housing
market.
As voter support for California's proposed "billionaire tax" plummets
below 50%, top luxury real estate titan Aaron Kirman is sounding the
alarm, warning that the mere threat of Proposition 40 is freezing
high-end transactions and driving California’s top job creators to the
exit doors.
A recent UC Berkeley Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research-POLITICO
poll found that 45% of likely voters support Proposition 40, while 43%
oppose it and 12% are undecided. That's down from 50% support in the
Citrin Center-POLITICO poll conducted earlier this year.
Paxton: GOP Midterm Convention Hurt Campaign
Republican Texas U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton reportedly told
donors that the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas hurt his campaign.
Paxton made the comments last week at a private Washington fundraiser
attended by about a dozen conservative donors and lobbyists, according
to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times.
Asked whether an unidentified person was "a little bit of a drag,"
Paxton responded by pointing to polling conducted after the Republican
convention, which President Donald Trump headlined earlier this month.
Russia Targets Kyiv Power Grid, Killing 7
Russia pressed its missile and drone barrage of Ukraine, killing seven
people, including a child, while mainly targeting the power grid,
officials said Wednesday.
Moscow’s steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of
August is putting pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when
Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heat,
power and running water.
The heavy overnight attack caused power outages and prompted questions
about whether it marked the start of Russia's anticipated cold weather
campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to
“weaponize winter.”
UK Accuses China of Using Academics to Spy on AI
Britain's MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to
warn that a Chinese organization was involved in funding academic
research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing's state security
service.
In its "Espionage Alert," MI5 said more than 100 UK-based academics had
contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research
Institute (CGTRI), which had "very strong ties" to the Chinese
Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing's civilian intelligence
service.
"MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund
academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for
espionage," the alert said.
MAHA moms are still up for grabs this election. They want more than cheap groceries
Republicans have a narrow window to
win over MAHA moms with a conservative agenda that takes environmental
health concerns seriously
By Clare Ath
November is looming, and Republicans are eager to turn out every voter
that propelled them to victory in 2024. A critical part of their
winning coalition was the "MAHA moms," a group that doesn’t neatly fit
into either party but cares deeply about food safety, public health and
a clean environment.
President Trump won this group in 2024 largely by joining forces with
RFK Jr., who is, according to some polls, currently the most popular
member of the Trump administration. But there’s no guarantee these
voters will stick with the GOP. If Republicans want to drive MAHA mom
turnout, they need to champion a winning environmental-health agenda.
Ultimately, MAHA moms don’t just want to be able to afford food for
their families. They want to afford good food. Because raising healthy
kids shouldn’t require being rich.
Nothing Funny About SNL's Fake News
By Tim Graham
The People's Republic of Late-Night Comedy will do its part to boost Democrats during the midterm election season.
See the season debut of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" (SNL).
Zohran Mamdani is not on the ballot, but these comedians are deeply in
love with the radical leftist Muslim, so they feel compelled to
transfer their giddy feelings to their Fake Trump.
