Twins conjoined at the head are separated in 25-hour surgery at St. Louis hospital

2026-09-18 12:32 PM EDT / CBS News

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Ian Lee
Ian Lee is a CBS News correspondent based in London, where he reports for CBS News, CBS Newspath and CBS News 24/7. Lee is a multi-award-winning journalist whose work covering major international stories has earned him some of journalism’s top honors, including an Emmy, Peabody and the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ Tom Renner award.

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Kerry Breen
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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A pair of 2-year-old conjoined twins are seeing each other face to face for the first time after being successfully separated during a complex medical procedure at a St. Louis children’s hospital.

The girls, Hiyab and Wuhbto, were born in Ethiopia with an extremely rare condition called craniopagus, where they were joined at the head facing in opposite directions. This occurs in less than 6% of all conjoined twins cases, according to the National Library of Medicine — only about once in every 2.5 million live births.

For nearly two years, the girls could hear each other’s voices but could not see each other’s faces. Leaving them conjoined posed significant risks to their long-term health, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital said in a news release.

The twins traveled from Ethiopia to Missouri in 2025. At the hospital, a team of nearly 30 medical specialists spent almost a year planning a complicated, high-stakes operation to separate them.

The twins before and after their separation surgery. SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital / CBS News

The girls’ parents were not able to get visas to travel from Ethiopia, so they remained in their home country and the girls traveled with a guardian. The hospital said the efforts were supported by a global network of pediatric providers and charity organizations.

Hospital officials announced the successful outcome on Wednesday. The surgery itself, conducted in February, took 25 hours, the hospital said. Surgeons had to delicately separate their shared blood vessels.

Dr. Joanna Kemp, the leader of the surgical team and the first female neurosurgeon in the United States to perform this surgery, said that while their brains “were mostly separate,” doctors had to plan for a few “small areas that were fused” together. At the end of the operation, Kemp said it was “quite wild” to see the girls separated, “even a few feet apart in that operating room.”

“I think all of us kinda had this moment of pause,” Kemp said.

The hospital says the girls have reached a “major milestone in their surgical journey” — Wuhbto recently had a successful cranioplasty to complete the repair of her skull, and a similar operation will be performed on Hiyab later this fall.

The twins are continuing to receive care and rehabilitation at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital, in Maryland Heights, Missouri, according to the hospital news release.

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital told CBS News it hopes to send the girls home to their family in Ethiopia in the near future.

This week on “Sunday Morning” (Sept. 20)

2026-09-18T13:31:00-0400 / CBS News

By David Morgan

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. “Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.)

Hosted by Jane Pauley

COVER STORY: The addiction of online sports gambling: “Like crack in the ’80s”The money legally wagered on sports gambling has surged to $167 billion a year since it was legalized beyond Nevada in 2018. But data show, in states where online gambling has been made legal, bankruptcies and credit card delinquencies go up 25%. Correspondent Jim Axelrod talks to a gambler who wagers his annual income; and examines how the online betting platforms FanDuel and DraftKings – now the subjects of lawsuits regarding their design – interact with their customers.

ALMANAC: Sept. 20“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

An aerial view of the 300,000-sq.-ft. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, September 2, 2026. Founded by filmmaker George Lucas and wife Mellody Hobson and designed by the architect Ma Yansong, it is billed as the “first museum dedicated to the universal human tradition of visual storytelling.” Mario Tama/Getty Images

ARTS: Illustrating myths: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opensThe art of illustrators, that tells mythic narratives and stories of our shared humanity, is at the core of a new Los Angeles institution: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, showcasing works featured in magazines, comics, fantasy stories, and motion picture design. CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell talks with the museum’s founders, George Lucas, the creator of “Star Wars,” and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, about the emotional draw of storytelling art that shapes our world.

For more info:

• The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles opens Sept. 22

TECH: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang on artificial intelligenceThe Atlantic recently called Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang “the most powerful man in AI.” He talks with correspondent Jo Ling Kent at Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., about the latest developments in artificial intelligence and the ongoing debate over safety and regulations.

For more info:

• Nvidia

Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz with Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, CEO and executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings Inc., and executive chairman of WME Group. CBS News

BOOKS: Superagent Ari Emanuel: Born to fightHollywood dealmaker Ari Emanuel is telling his life story in a raw, raunchy and rollicking new memoir, “Roll the Calls.” He talks with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz about his rise from the agency mail room to becoming executive chairman of WGE Group and executive chair and CEO of TKO. He also talks about growing up a bullied, dyslexic kid in the suburbs of Chicago; becoming the inspiration for Ari Gold in the HBO series “Entourage”; and explains why he is never afraid of confrontation.

For more info:

• “Roll the Calls: A Memoir” by Ari Emanuel (Random House), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available Sept. 22 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

PASSAGE: Artist Peter Max“Sunday Morning” looks back at the life and psychedelic creativity of 1960s pop artist Peter Max.

ARTS: A spectacle of puppetry: Buffalo parade through New York CityThis past week, a herd of 40 buffalo roamed the concrete canyons of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn – life-size puppets that are part of a public arts project by St. Ann’s Warehouse, a Brooklyn theater company. Correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

For more info:

• “Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi,” by St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Walk Productions, & KBH Arts
• St. Ann’s Warehouse
• Ukwanda Puppets and Designs Art Collective, South Africa

HARTMAN: TBD

ROYALS: Charles Spencer’s striking claims about the royal fallout following Princess Diana’s deathIn his first interview about his new book, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” Charles Spencer talks with correspondent Mark Phillips about his attempt to set down what he calls the true history of the life of his sister, Princess Diana. He also talks about Prince Harry’s grief after Diana’s death, suggesting that a “more understanding treatment” of the young prince at the time might have led to “a happier course ahead.”

PREVIEW: Princess Diana’s brother claims Prince Charles seemed “upbeat” after she died (Video)

For more info:

• “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” by Charles Spencer (Penguin Press), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available Sept. 22 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• charles-spencer.com (Official site)

Lonnie Bunch III, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, pictured in 2019 inside the Fossil Hall of the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

HISTORY: Retiring Smithsonian head Lonnie Bunch: “You can run from history, but you can’t hide”In 2019, Lonnie Bunch became both the first historian and the first African American to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Now 73, Bunch has announced he is retiring. He talks with correspondent Mo Rocca about fulfilling and enriching the Smithsonian’s mandate. He also talks about pressure from the Trump White House questioning the patriotism of Smithsonian staff, and why the museums’ mission – to protect history – includes giving America a full picture of itself.

For more info:

• Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

CBS News’ Robert Costa with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. CBS News

POLITICS: Andy Beshear’s advice to Democrats wooing voters: “Just be real”Two-term Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear advises his fellow Democrats to speak like “normal people” and not shy away from progressive politics or religious faith. Beshear shares that recipe for success in a deep-red state with “Sunday Morning” national correspondent Robert Costa, and discusses his book, “Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country,” which teaches how Democrats can change minds by winning hearts.

For more info:

• Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky
• “Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country” by Andy Beshear (St. Martin’s Press), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available Sept. 22 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

NATURE: TBD

WEB EXCLUSIVES:

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Bob Mackie on being dressmaker to the stars (Video)Nine-time Emmy-winning costume designer Bob Mackie, who clothed such musical and comedic talents as Cher, Carol Burnett, Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli, died on Sept. 14, 2026 at age 87. In this Sept. 21, 2003 “Sunday Morning” profile, Mackie talked with correspondent Rita Braver about how a star-struck kid growing up outside Hollywood became a dressmaker to the stars, and what fascinates him about divas. He also talked about the tragic death of his son, Robin, from AIDS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iag_8kxayio

From Pickleball to the Olympics: A look back at Sunday Mornings’ most thrilling sports stories by CBS Sunday Morning on YouTube

MARATHON: From Pickleball to the Olympics (YouTube Video)A look back at “Sunday Morning”‘s most thrilling sports stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-azG1Llehq8

From the archives: Diane von Furstenberg on “Sunday Morning” by CBS Sunday Morning on YouTube

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Diane von Furstenberg on “Sunday Morning” (YouTube Video)Watch these interviews with fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg from the “CBS Sunday Morning” vault, including:

• a 2003 profile by Rita Braver, in which DVF talks about her decades-long career;
• a 2011 profile by Anthony Mason, in which she discusses life, love, and fashioning a brand; and
• a 2021 Martha Teichner story about New York’s Little Island, an oasis along Manhattan’s shoreline created by von Furstenberg and her husband, Barry Diller.

LIVE:

Actor Sylvester Stallone and CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith. CBS News

“CBS Sunday Morning” launches new series of live events at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, debuting with Sylvester Stallone
America’s #1 Sunday morning news program announces a new collaboration beginning Sept. 28 to bring conversations with the biggest newsmakers in the arts, politics and culture to the stage, and streamed online.

For more info:

• Tickets are on sale at www.92ny.org.

Obama’s brother-in-law rejects civil rights, racism argument against college sports overhaul

NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus argue the bill would strip agency from Black athletes and benefit White coaches

September 18, 2026 1:27pm EDT / Fox News

By Alex Miller, Fox News

Opponents of the bipartisan college sports bill argue that the legislation is a civil rights issue, but former President Barack Obama’s brother-in-law and others say that position is ‘misguided.’

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While a bill to add a new swath of regulations to college sports is generating a swell of bipartisan support, some opponents are suggesting that the bill itself is racist.

The Protect College Sports Act, pushed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has so far survived two key hurdles in the Senate and is on its way to a final vote in the coming week.

However, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, the Congressional Black Caucus and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., one of a handful of Senate Democrats pushing against the bill, have argued that the bill would disproportionately affect Black student-athletes and put their newfound agency in decision-making granted by name, image and likeness (NIL) back into the hands of White coaches and college presidents.

SENATE MOVES TO REIN IN COLLEGE SPORTS ‘WILD WEST’ WITH SWEEPING NEW RULES FOR PLAYERS, SCHOOLS

Former coach Jay Wright, special assistant to the president of Villanova University, and Craig Robinson, executive director of the National Association of Coaches, discuss the campus and coaching climate with author and moderator Dana O’Neil during a roundtable on the future of college basketball sponsored by the Big East Conference at the Empire State Building Oct. 20, 2025, in New York City.(Getty Images)

“It’s a civil rights issue. That’s the reason the NAACP is strongly opposing this bill, because they see it as a civil rights issue,” Murphy told Fox News Digital. “I didn’t make that up. That’s the reality.

“The athletes who will be most affected by this bill are largely Black athletes, and the people who will be helped by this bill are largely White coaches and White college sports executives,” he continued. “I’m not the one who sees this as a civil rights issue. The NAACP opposes it because they see this as a civil rights issue.”

The Protect College Sports Act would broadly add restrictions to the transfer portal for student-athletes and create a uniform eligibility framework of five years, recruiting and tampering guardrails that establish when schools or agents can contact or recruit a student-athlete, a federal standard for NIL rules and a revenue-sharing cap.

Proponents of the bill, including former President Barack Obama’s brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, who is the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, argued that the bill did not disenfranchise Black athletes.

SENATE ADVANCES LANDMARK PROTECT COLLEGE SPORTS ACT, IGNORING SEC AND BIG TEN OPPOSITION WITH CLOCK TICKING

“Well, you know everybody is entitled to their interpretation of what’s going on,” Robinson told Fox News Digital. “I would disagree with that, and I would point out that if we don’t fix this system, the same student-athletes they’re talking about are not going to be college educated, because you cannot get educated by transferring to four or five different schools. You can’t get a college degree doing that, so that’s what I would say.”

Robinson was one of several former coaches who made the trip to Washington, D.C., this week to promote and support the bill.

Craig Bohl, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, told Fox News Digital the assertion that the legislation had racist undertones was “the farthest thing from the truth.”

CRUZ AND CANTWELL REFUSE TO BEND TO SEC AND BIG TEN CONCERNS IN REVISED COLLEGE ATHLETICS LEGISLATION

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., talks to reporters as he leaves a Republican Caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol Nov. 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

“You know, one of the things that has been good for me, you know, working 43 years, coaches care deeply about all our players,” Bohl said. “And while I appreciate their convictions on it, it’s a misguided statement.

“What we’re looking at is opportunities for all. We want players to have an opportunity for compensation,” he continued. “We want players to be able to have the ability to transfer. We also are looking for some stability with eligibility. We don’t need NFL players coming back playing in our game.”

The Congressional Black Caucus has argued against the bill for months and charged that its members would not support the legislation after the Supreme Court’s decision on the Voting Rights Act earlier this year.

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“Honestly, some of those concerns initially were over redistricting, and, you know, I’m not solving that problem with this bill,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., one of the co-leads of the bill, told Fox News Digital.

“We’re just trying to address the chaos that exists right now in college athletics, where 27-year-olds are playing against 17-year-olds, unlimited transfers, graduation rates are plummeting.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

ICE agent pleads not guilty to lying about Minneapolis shooting

2026-09-18T16:47:28.404Z / Reuters

By Jonathan Allen

September 18, 2026 4:47 PM UTC Updated 3 hours ago

[1/3]Christian Castro, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge, arrives for a criminal hearing related to the incident at the Warren E. Burger Federal Courthouse in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Tim… Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tabRead more

• Agent is first to face federal charges for actions during Minneapolis ICE sweep
• Prosecutors says agent Castro lied that he was attacked with snow shovel
• Court appearances follow long extradition battle

Sept 18 (Reuters) – A US immigration agent pleaded not guilty on Friday to ​federal charges of lying to the FBI that he was attacked before shooting a Venezuelan man in ‌the leg in Minneapolis at the height of President Donald Trump’s deportation sweeps in January.

Christian Castro, who has been suspended without pay from his job as a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, is the first federal law enforcement officer to be charged by the US Justice Department with ​wrongdoing in Operation Metro Surge, which saw thousands of armed, masked agents deployed to Minnesota’s cities last winter.

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Federal prosecutors ​say that Castro lied when he told investigators that Julio Sosa-Celis, 24, and others were attacking ⁠him with a broom and snow shovel when he fired his gun.

Castro’s plea in the US District Court in Saint Paul ​comes a day after he answered to separate state charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and falsely reporting a ​crime brought by Hennepin County prosecutors in neighboring Minneapolis.

The court appearances follow an extraordinary months-long legal battle to have Castro, who lives in Texas, returned to Minneapolis. The state charges were filed in May, but Castro, 52, spent 90 days in a county jail in Texas after Governor Greg ​Abbott, a Republican, refused to sign extradition papers sent down by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat.

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A few days after his ​release earlier this month, he was arrested again after a federal grand jury handed down an indictment of six counts of making materially false ‌statements, which ⁠carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Castro drove from Texas to Minneapolis on Wednesday to surrender himself, his lawyers said, and spent the night in the Hennepin County jail before being released on bail.

After the nonfatal shooting on January 14, Castro told investigators that he fired at Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan delivery driver, when Sosa-Celis and another man attacked him in a struggle ​on the ground. His account was ​repeated by then Homeland ⁠Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials as they defended the widely protested surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota.

Prosecutors say Castro’s account was disproved by video evidence, forcing the Justice ​Department to drop its prosecution of Sosa-Celis and open a criminal investigation into Castro.

Hennepin County Attorney ​Mary Moriarty said ⁠the video evidence showed Castro was standing and fired from a short distance through the front door of Sosa-Celis’s home, wounding the man in the leg.

“Mr. Castro invented a story to justify shooting through a front door into a house with multiple people in ⁠it,” Moriarty ​told reporters after Thursday’s state court hearing. “The bullet he fired lodged in the ​wall of a child’s bedroom.”

A lawyer for Castro, Daniel Gerdts, declined to comment.

Moriarty’s office is continuing to investigate the federal immigration officers who fatally shot Renee ​Good and Alex Pretti, both US citizens, in January.

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Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage and Alistair Bell

Trump says he’s ‘banning’ CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House

3:47 PM EDT, Fri September 18, 2026 / CNN

Trump says he’s ‘banning’ CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House

President Donald Trump claimed Friday that he is “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico “from the White House.” The president said it was “effective immediately,” but there was no indication his administration had taken any steps to follow through. CNN’s team remained at the White House Friday afternoon reporting the news. The news organizations named by the president had no immediate comment on the president’s claim.

3:33 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/video/trump-ban-threat-truth-social-post-cnn-digvid

Increased ICE enforcement in 2025 hurt local employment, analysis finds

September 18, 2026 2:59 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch

Employment fell last year in U.S. cities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests surged the most, according to a recent study.

In cities where ICE arrests increased fastest in 2025, employment fell 0.4% below its expected trajectory both immediately after those detentions and for up to one year after a metro area was targeted, researchers with the Brookings Institution said in the report. On average, each arrest in cities where ICE’s presence significantly increased was associated with four lost jobs, the nonpartisan think tank said.

“We found that employment fell in the cities where ICE activity surged, and not just among immigrants, but there were broader effects, including for Americans,” Marcela Escobari, the report’s lead author and a former special assistant to the White House National Security Council during the Biden administration, told CBS News.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis dismissed claims that ICE enforcement tactics led to reduced employment in cities where arrests spiked.

“The surge in illegal immigration under President Biden threatened the long-run fiscal health of the country, contributed to record high inflation and suppressed the wages of American workers,” she said in a statement to CBS News. “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration’s commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws.”

Border security has been a top priority during the second Trump administration. Stronger immigration enforcement policies “protect American workers, reduce strain on local communities, and reinforce the nation’s right to control its borders and determine who enters the United States,” according to a White House statement.

The Trump administration ramped up its immigration crackdown in 2025. In January, thousands of federal agents were deployed to Minneapolis-St. Paul to investigate alleged fraud, leading to mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.

In July, ICE detentions set a monthly record high for Mr. Trump’s second term, with the agency taking into custody more than 46,000 individuals facing deportation because of alleged immigration violations, like entering the U.S. illegally or overstaying their visas, CBS News has reported.

Businesses disrupted

Increased ICE arrests in U.S. cities last year drove job losses in three ways, Escobari told CBS News. First, some workers stopped reporting for work because they feared encountering ICE.

“Fear drove workers to withdraw from the labor force even when they weren’t arrested,” she said.

This led to labor disruptions for some businesses, leading them to reduce their operating hours, delay expansion, freeze hiring, or, in some cases, lay off staff or shut down, according to Brookings.

“We spoke to people in the field who explicitly said, if their framing crew is led by immigrants and they stop working or get arrested, they can’t hand off the project to their roofing crew, and the project stalls,” Escobari said, referring to the impact of increased ICE enforcement in the construction sector. “The company still needs to pay its debts, and many close altogether. When they close, the project manager or equipment operator and other occupations that tend to be occupied by American workers also lose their jobs.”

Rising ICE arrests in cities in 2025 also reduced employment by sapping consumer demand and spending, hurting local businesses, according to the Brookings researchers.

“These [ICE] operations engender widespread fear, and when people stop going out, they stop spending, and that forces businesses to close,” Escobari said.

Other research has also found a negative impact of increased ICE enforcement on local economies. A 2026 study from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that economic activity and consumer spending dropped last year in metro areas where ICE conducted raids.

“Effects intensify near raid sites, do not dissipate over time and are remarkably general: Declines occur regardless of neighborhood demography, affect workplaces and consumer-facing stores across myriad industries, and trigger no substitution to online shopping,” Exequiel Hernandez, an expert on global and corporate strategy, wrote. “The breadth of the local economic damage mirrors the breadth of the enforcement approach.”

Another 2026 analysis, by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, found that customer visits to businesses in Los Angeles County fell by as much as 11% in the weeks following ICE enforcement operations in the region.

Swing state mayor sued as city’s Muslim holiday displays ignite religious-favoritism fight

2026-09-18T13:40:44-04:00 / Fox News

The civil rights suit claims the city expanded Ramadan displays while ignoring equal treatment requests

By Elaine Mallon Fox News

Published September 18, 2026 1:40pm EDT

Video

‘We are not a nation of Muslims’: Black pastor rails against what he believes is the implementation of Sharia law

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell challenges city councilmembers in Dearborn, Michigan to denounce Muslim religious code. (Credit: City of Dearborn)

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A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the city of Dearborn spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on public displays celebrating Muslim holidays while ignoring a Christian resident’s repeated requests for Easter and Passover recognition.

Margot Cleveland, a journalist with The Federalist, filed a civil rights lawsuit with the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) against the city of Dearborn and Democratic Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, alleging the city violated her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, including protections involving religious establishment, free speech and equal protection.

“The City of Dearborn spent taxpayer money to light up its streets and parks for Ramadan while stonewalling a resident who simply asked that Easter, Passover, and other Christian and Jewish holy days be treated the same way,” Robert J. Muise, AFLC co-founder and senior counsel, said in a statement. “That is a straightforward Establishment Clause violation, and the retaliation our client faced for speaking up about it only compounds the constitutional harm.”

PASTOR UNLEASHES ON DEARBORN AS RELIGIOUS TENSIONS ERUPT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING: ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’

Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, speaks during a press conference held by Listen to Michigan campaign one day after the Michigan presidential primary in Dearborn, Michigan, on February 28, 2024.(Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Dearborn is home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country. The city had 109,976 residents in the 2020 Census, and 54.5% reported Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Michigan Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare, is lined with businesses featuring Arabic-script signs and Middle Eastern cuisine. There are ten mosques within the city limits, according to an online directory.

Hammoud was first elected mayor in November 2021, becoming the first Muslim and Arab American to lead the city of Dearborn.

“What makes this case especially troubling is that City officials, up to and including the Mayor, responded to a citizen’s respectful request for equal treatment with silence, stonewalling, and outright hostility — including the Mayor’s own words telling a Christian resident he is ‘not welcome’ in his own city,” David Yerushalmi, an attorney on the case, said. “Our client is simply asking the City to treat Christians and Jews as equal citizens.”

Lawyers for Cleveland pointed to a September exchange between Hammoud and Christian pastor Ted Barham as evidence of what they allege is the city’s hostility toward Christians. Barham had raised concerns during a City Council meeting over the city’s decision to rename a street after Usama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, who has made statements expressing support for Hezbollah.

TRUMP INAUGURATION PASTOR SAYS DEARBORN CHRISTIANS ‘AFRAID’ TO SPEAK OUT IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY CITY

Ted Barham, a Christian minister, speaks during the Dearborn City Council meeting on Sept. 23, 2025, weeks after his clash with Mayor Abdullah Hammoud drew national attention.(City of Dearborn)

In the exchange, Hammoud called Barham a “bigot” and an “Islamophobe.”

“And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here,” Hammoud told the Christian pastor. “And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city… because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.”

But Cleveland’s lawsuit alleges that city leaders ignored her requests for the city to also recognize Christian and Jewish holidays after she began seeing “Ramadan Kareem” banners and large crescent moons displayed across the city in spring 2025. A FOIA request revealed that the city had spent $1,500 on Ramadan banners and $5,000 on the crescent-moon display. The Dearborn Police Department was also selling Ramadan-themed T-shirts.

In emails to the city, Cleveland said she did not want the city to stop celebrating Muslim holidays but wanted equal recognition for Christian and Jewish holy days.

“I much prefer to ensure equality of faith traditions, as opposed to a challenge to the display,” Cleveland wrote in an email.

MASSACHUSETTS HIGH COURT BLOCKS CITY FROM DISPLAYING CATHOLIC SAINT STATUES HONORING FIRST RESPONDERS

The welcome sign for the city of Dearborn is pictured at the city’s entrance in October 2024.(Charly Triballeau/Getty Images)

Not only did the city allegedly ignore Cleveland’s requests, but in February 2026, it expanded its Ramadan displays, commissioning crescent-and-star lights that were displayed on municipal streetlights across the city.

“This initiative reflects who we are as a city,” Hammoud said in a statement.

Tensions between Cleveland and city officials continued in April, when Cleveland alleges she was told she could attend a community meeting as a resident but not as a journalist. The lawsuit also alleges Hammoud made what it describes as a “snide comment” about residents who criticize the city on social media to monetize their posts.

The lawsuit also alleges that in February 2026, the city expanded its Ramadan displays, commissioning crescent-and-star lights for municipal streetlights across the city.

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Cleveland pushed back, according to the lawsuit, saying she was simply “a concerned resident who was ignored when I asked for the City to treat Christians and Jews equally.”

“Despite the repeated requests, they treated her as if she were an outsider and not a full member of the political community,” Muise told Fox News Digital.

The lawsuit comes during Michigan’s closely watched 2026 U.S. Senate race, with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim and the son of Egyptian immigrants, facing Republican nominee Mike Rogers for the state’s open Senate seat. Religion and antisemitism have become points of dispute in the race, with Republicans and some Democrats criticizing El-Sayed over his association with streamer Hasan Piker, who said the U.S. was worse than al Qaeda “pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths,” while arguing that U.S. military actions that kill civilians can amount to acts of terror.

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At the same time, El-Sayed and his supporters have accused opponents of targeting him with anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hammoud’s office and Cleveland’s attorneys for comment.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403774710112

Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say

2026-09-18T16:55:50.899Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship

The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program.

The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode. According to two of the sources, armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said.

It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. CNN was not able to learn what the misidentified cargo was.

The report, according to one of the sources, was “entirely false.” But it also “almost started a war,” the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations.

Across the US military and the intelligence community, officials are pushing to weave AI into nearly every facet of their work, from analyzing the huge volumes of raw intelligence the US collects and selecting targets for strikes, to more mundane applications like managing budgeting, logistics and supply chains.

But the episode underscores the profound risks of using this powerful, new and relatively poorly understood technology for targeting in the middle of a war. Analysts have long feared that AI could lead to a catastrophic miscalculation if nation states are relying on poor or corrupted data — the kind of miscalculation that might lead the United States to fire on a Chinese ship based on inaccurate information.

In this particular instance, the analyst queried a chatbot about some intelligence reporting on the ship’s manifest that originated with US Special Operations Command Pacific, based in Hawaii. It was not clear whether the chatbot was a commercially available one or a US government product.

“The internal tools are mostly just copies of the commercial stuff wearing lipstick,” a former senior US official familiar with the AI systems used by military and intelligence analysts.

The bot fused together open-source intelligence with secret signals intelligence in government holdings and reached its fateful conclusion about the material the ship was carrying.

The analyst then used AI again to package the findings into a standard intelligence report — the kind that is trusted by military officials — and disseminated it.

US Special Operations Command Pacific and the Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

The rationale for the rapid adoption of AI is that it can help the military make battlefield decisions, like which targets to strike or which military assets to move where, faster. Officials say the US can’t afford to fall behind in integrating AI in case it must one day fight China or another adversary who would potentially be able to stay one step ahead of the US.

In January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released his agency’s “Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy” in a bid to speed up the military’s use of AI.

“We will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus our investments and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI,” Hegseth said in a speech announcing the strategy.

The strategy also pushes for its broad use across the military, ordering the department to make AI available via several programs with the aim of “democratizing AI experimentation and transformation across the Department by putting America’s world-leading AI models directly in the hands of our three million civilian and military personnel, at all classification levels,” a memo announcing the strategy said.

But the effort is decentralized, multiple US officials familiar with the dynamic said, with different parts of the government using different tools under different orders and safety standards. There’s no one set of standards for how the US verifies the information generated by these tools. The constellation of different AI systems being deployed by disparate corners of the military and intelligence community means that the relative reliability and functionality vary widely.

For weeks, Washington policymakers have been intensely debating AI after a series of dire warnings from Silicon Valley engineers and tech CEOs of the possibility that AI could break free of human constraints, with potentially civilization-ending consequences.

But the episode with the Chinese ship underscores a different, and more immediate risk: human beings making disastrous decisions based on inaccurate or misleading information generated by AI or other automated systems. Sources said that the military is rapidly turning to AI to help with targeting, an area which holds the obvious risk of fatal mistakes.

“AI in targeting is definitely something that is ramping up and there is no real guidance for how having a human in the loop will prevent civilian casualties or fratricide,” another source familiar with the military’s current policies said.

The kind of “hallucination” that the tool used by the analyst in this case conjured has not been an isolated incident across the intelligence community since these tools began proliferating across government, according to one of the sources.

For some older intelligence officials — even those who broadly support the use of AI inside the military — AI has put pressure on analysts to produce and disseminate intelligence faster, opening the door for mistakes. Young analysts in particular, several sources said, are natives on these tools and more likely to trust them uncritically.

“AI allows you to get to a bad idea faster,” one of the sources said.

Mortgage rates are nearing 7%. One house hunter says he’s “despondent.”

September 18, 2026 / 3:42 PM EDT / CBS News

Thomas Louis and his wife have tried everything to clinch a deal to buy a home: offering above the asking price, waiving inspections, and considering properties that tick some, but not all, of their boxes. Three years and 15 offers later, they’re still looking.

This year’s sharp rise in mortgage rates, which are now approaching 7%, has only made their search more difficult. Louis, 34, told CBS News he feels “despondent” about the long struggle to find an affordable home.

“It still seems like we’re trying to climb out of a hole somebody else is digging,” said the Asbury Park, New Jersey, resident, who co-owns a graphic design studio with his wife.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate reached 6.95% on Thursday, according to Freddie Mac, up from 6.76% the previous week and the highest since January 2025. Rates have climbed for 11 consecutive weeks as the Iran war fuels inflation, driving volatility in the bond market and influencing borrowing costs.

The spike in rates has put both sides of the market in a bind. Buyers must contend with higher costs, while sellers find fewer takers, forcing them to cut their asking price or take a home off the market.

Rising mortgage rates make it “harder for folks to be able to afford a house in an already challenging time,” Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, told CBS News. “It’s not a great thing for anybody.”

Mortgage rates are closely tied to the 10-year Treasury note, which earlier this week hit its highest level since 2007 amid growing investor concerns about inflation, heightened geopolitical tensions and soaring U.S. government debt.

According to Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com, in recent years, about 80% of the weekly movement in the cost for a conventional 30-year loan has tracked changes in the 10-year Treasury yield. For most of 2026, the typical “spread” between the 10-year note and a 30-year mortgage has been 2%, he said.

“Mechanically, the Treasury yield is doing the lion’s share of the work when it comes to changes in mortgage rates,” Krimmel said in an email.

Mortgage rates follow bond yields higher

Bond yields climbed ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday, when the central bank raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage-points for the first time in three years. Fed officials also signaled that they may raise rates again later this year, depending on inflation’s path.

Some economists predict two additional quarter-point hikes this year at the Fed’s scheduled policy meetings in October and December (no meeting is scheduled for November).

The Fed’s benchmark rate — what banks charge each other for short-term loans — doesn’t directly impact mortgage rates, but can still influence home loans by raising the cost of borrowing more broadly.

Krimmel said lenders were pricing in a Fed rate hike ahead of the meeting, which could have contributed to this week’s spike in mortgage rates.

“On magnitude, I would estimate that of the [0.19%] jump in mortgage rates this week, a little less than half was probably due to changing expectations throughout the week on the Fed’s rate hike, and a little more than half was due to other factors like oil prices going up and geopolitical uncertainty,” he said.

Home sales slide

The housing market has been plagued for years by high prices and low supply, issues that lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have tried to tackle in part through bipartisan legislation passed earlier this year. But experts say even if new housing is built, it will take time for price pressures to ease.

According to an April Gallup poll, 25% of people without a home expect to purchase one in the next five years, down from nearly 50% in 2017.

As more people pull back, activity in the housing market has slowed. Data from the National Association of Realtors shows existing home sales have fallen for four consecutive months. In August, sales dipped 2% from the previous month to 3.98 million, the lowest since June 2025.

“Mortgage rates hovering around 7% continue to weigh on affordability and dampen borrower demand, particularly among prospective homebuyers,” Bob Broeksmit, the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement.

“Almost untenable to stay”

Louis said he and his wife earn around $250,000 a year combined, more than double New Jersey’s median household income of $103,556. They thought that would be enough to find a home in their price range of roughly $500,000. Prices in Monmouth and Ocean counties, the areas in the state they are focusing on, have eased slightly, he said.

Yet other obstacles also make it hard to find a home. Louis said lower prices have attracted more buyers to the market, fueling competition from people who can outbid them — sometimes with all-cash offers.

“It’s actually almost getting worse because more people with more money are buying the houses cheaper because they’re not worried about the rates,” Louis said.

For now, Louis and his wife continue to focus their house hunting on New Jersey. But they have also considered leaving the state altogether, given how “crazy expensive” it is, he said.

“We both work as artists, and have some freedom and fun that way,” Louis said. “But it’s just becoming almost untenable to stay here.”

By Michael Williams, Sunlen Serfaty

Updated 30 min ago

Updated Sep 18, 2026, 3:35 PM ET

PUBLISHED Sep 18, 2026, 3:22 PM ET

A model of President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary is seen on the Resolute Desk as President Trump holds a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House on October 15, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday gave its approval for President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch, saying it will not interfere with aircraft flying into the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The arch, which is expected to stand at around 250 feet, will have no “substantial adverse effect on the safe and efficient utilization of the navigable airspace,” the FAA wrote in their report.

Critics have condemned the arch over its massive size – it will loom over the nearby Lincoln Memorial – and its planned location, a traffic circle near a bridge that connects Washington, DC, with Virginia, and near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, which will block historically significant sight lines from the city into the cemetery.

Pilots have also expressed concern over the planned size of the arch given its proximity to Washington’s national airport. Even if the structure does not pose a direct safety threat in their flight paths, it is yet another obstacle that they will have to be aware of in a corridor that requires careful navigation around restricted airspaces and complex turns, some have told CNN.

The FAA report says the arch will be placed just within 4,000 feet from the airport.

President Donald Trump stands near models for a proposed “Independence Arch” as he speaks during a dinner with ballroom donors in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on October 15, 2025.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

The report released Friday indicates that the planned structure just meets FAA standards for structures that may interfere with navigable airspace – in some cases, exceeding those standards by a little over 40 feet.

In June, the FAA released a preliminary feasibility study, concluding the arch would have “no significant adverse effect on airspace and visual/instrument procedures” at the airport.

However, evaluators determined at the time its height would mean it would need “to be lit with red obstruction lights” to help with flight safety.

The final go-ahead the FAA gave in its report on Friday is a significant – but not final – step in the president’s quest to break ground on the arch that he has said he envisions as the largest in the world.

The National Capital Planning Commission – one of two key federal agencies that reviews and approves major changes on government property in Washington, DC — has only given preliminary approval for the project.

Tammy Stidham, Associate Regional Director of Lands and Planning National Park Service, said the administration is eyeing the commission’s November meeting to give final approval.

The other agency, the Commission on Fine Arts, previously gave its final approval.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced on X in early September that his agency would start breaking ground for the excavation work in the upcoming two weeks.

That same day, government lawyers seemed to backtrack, saying in a court filing that week what’s currently planned is archeological survey work that’s needed to “ensure compliance with statutes such as the National Historic Preservation Act.”

The work would start no later than Sept. 21, and the land would be restored by Oct. 31, according to the filing.

“This activity is not construction, or demolition in preparation for construction, of an arch,” the lawyers said in the filing.

This rendering shows the design for President Donald Trump’s proposed “Triumphal Arch” in Washington, DC.

US Commission of Fine Arts

The analysis, known as a Section 106 review, which is required for agencies to consider how projects will affect historical properties, is still not completed. At the NCPC’s most recent meeting in early September, consulting parties expressed concern and said they were not yet ready to give their approval for the project.

Even so, the administration has signaled they intend to fast-track Section 106 approval by asking consulting parties to sign onto a draft Memorandum of Agreement that emerged earlier this week. At least one consulting party has said it will not do so.

The arch is separately being challenged in an ongoing court case by veterans and preservation groups.