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

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‘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.

Kennedy names new chair for US autism advisory panel, sources say

2026-09-18 19:41:38 UTC / Reuters

EXCLUSIVE

By Ahmed Aboulenein

September 18, 2026 7:41 PM UTC Updated 8 mins ago

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discusses the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network survey, during a press conference at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S.,… Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more

WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named an ally, Dr. John Gaitanis, to lead a key federal advisory panel on ​autism on Friday, two people with knowledge of the announcement ‌told Reuters.

Gaitanis, a pediatric neurologist who was appointed last month as director of the National Institutes of Health’s child health institute, will take over from Dr. Sylvia ​Fogel, who has chaired the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee since January.

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Fogel, ​a Harvard Medical School instructor and a parent to an ⁠adult child with autism, had worked quickly to propose, and then helped ​adopt, a sweeping new strategic plan focused on medical care, housing, aging, ​and other priorities for people with autism and their families.

The IACC under her leadership recommended the government adopt the term “profound autism” for those with high support needs. She ​took the helm after Kennedy remade the advisory board, filling it with ​all new members, some of whom have promoted ties between vaccines and autism.

Kennedy said ‌during ⁠a meeting that Gaitanis would take over because the committee has traditionally been chaired by one of its 21 federal members, the two people said. Fogel, who will be staying on the IACC, is one of ​the committee’s 20 outside ​public members.

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He ⁠praised the IACC’s work so far and Fogel specifically, one of the people said, adding that she would ​be helping Gaitanis with the transition.

Kennedy also said that ​the IACC ⁠had not done its job in the past, and apologized to the public members who may have felt frustrated by a perceived lack of support ⁠from ​federal members.

Fogel, the Department of Health and ​Human Services, and the NIH did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

blob:https://www.reuters.com/b6d08157-9d39-4e24-a196-83068094ca2d

Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; ​Additional Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco; Editing by Nia Williams

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WATCH: Ilhan Omar denies feds have contacted her after border czar Homan confirms ‘criminal’ investigation

2026-09-18T12:50:03-04:00 / Fox News

Omar told Fox News Digital that DHS has not reached out to her and dismissed the claims as right-wing attacks

SEE IT: Ilhan Omar says DHS hasn’t notified her of criminal investigation

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she has not been made aware of any criminal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security after White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed a probe this week. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital)

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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told Fox News Digital she has not been made aware of any criminal investigation into her after White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is investigating allegations involving Omar.

“No, they have not,” Omar said after being asked if the DHS had reached out to her about any investigation.

Homan confirmed that there is an “ongoing criminal investigation” into the Minnesota Democrat on “The Sunday Briefing.” Homan declined to give comment on whether the federal government had evidence that Omar committed immigration or naturalization fraud — a popular allegation against Omar that has prompted numerous calls for a probe. Homan also declined to give specifics on what the investigation is centered on.

HOMAN CONFIRMS ‘CRIMINAL’ INVESTIGATION INVOLVING ILHAN OMAR, SAYS HE KNOWS ‘THINGS ARE GOING ON’

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is denying that she has been made aware of any criminal investigation into her after White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed Sunday that the Department of Homeland Security is investigating her.(Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

When asked directly whether Homan was confirming an investigation involving Omar, Homan replied, “I’m confirming that ICE is, yeah — look, I said months ago that there’s something that’s been reported and needs to be looked at.”

Fox News Digital asked Omar for her response to the allegations, particularly the claim that she married a man who critics allege is her brother as part of a scheme to obtain citizenship in the U.S.

“The right wing has always had this s— going, so I don’t really worry about it,” Omar said about the allegations.

Omar has repeatedly denied claims that she married her brother, as well as claims that any investigation involving her has been opened by DHS or the Justice Department. There has been no public evidence available to confirm an open investigation into Omar.

ILHAN OMAR NOT OUT OF THE WOODS DESPITE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REVISION, TOP REPUBLICAN WARNS

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., speaks during Day 2 of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Convention in the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn., on May 30, 2026.(Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Vice President JD Vance claimed in May that the Justice Department was looking into allegations against Omar — both related to the claim she married her brother and fraud after her amended financial disclosure forms and steep drop in net worth caught national attention.

Homan’s confirmation of an investigation into Omar comes after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin alluded to the idea that the DHS was investigating Omar, bringing up her alleged marriage immigration scheme.

TRUMP DOJ ESCALATES CITIZENSHIP CRACKDOWN ON GROUP ACCUSED OF HIDING TERROR TIES, VIOLENT CRIMES

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6405060767112

“There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with. … If we can prove it, that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we will deport you,” Mullin said on the podcast.

Omar is a naturalized citizen, but Homan said there is a denaturalization process for cases of proven immigration fraud, which he claimed had been done “many times.”

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“Denaturalization is a process,” Homan said. “It’s a very serious process, so if someone lies through that process to become a citizen, and we can prove they, in fact, lied or misrepresented themselves, we can absolutely denaturalize them.”

Hannah is a Production Assistant for the Politics team at Fox News Digital.

Newsom signs executive order to consider AI regulation, including proposal for ‘kill switch’

2026-09-18T17:26:55.768Z / CNN

By David Wright

PUBLISHED Sep 18, 2026, 1:26 PM ET

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at an event in Sausalito, California, on September 10.

Jeff Chiu/AP

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on regulating artificial intelligence on Friday that will convene a group of “world-leading experts” to begin developing a framework for state law governing the technology.

“We’re going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible AI oversight before it’s too late,” Newsom said in a statement, nodding to recent anxiety over potential threats posed by AI sparked in part by stark warnings from researchers and executives at frontier labs.

“We’re going to do this thoughtfully but with urgent velocity; the stakes are too high to wait or delay action,” the governor said.

Newsom’s order requires an expert committee to provide a set of guidelines within two months, “for California to reinforce and strengthen its AI safety and security laws,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.

The group will consider proposals that include the establishment of independent monitors for frontier AI companies, safety plans, and the requirement of a “kill switch” or emergency shutoff mechanism.

Newsom’s announcement highlighted the recent, high-profile hacking incident in which experimental OpenAI models left a test environment with no human direction and hacked their way onto the Hugging Face platform’s real production systems while trying to “cheat” on a cybersecurity test.

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There’s a new bogeyman in politics: AI data centers. We look at how midterm candidates are navigating a brewing Big Tech backlash and why the debate is not falling along traditional party lines. — Guest: David Wright, CNN Politics Writer/Editor Host: David Rind Producer: Paola Ortiz Showrunner: Felicia Patinkin

Sep 18, 2026 • 15 min

Weeks later, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and accused AI companies of not acting responsibly in a viral post on X, even though he said they all believe AI poses an existential threat.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei then penned a public letter sharing his concerns about the risks, saying that “we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”

Newsom’s actions as governor of California, which is home to Silicon Valley and most of the frontier labs and technology infrastructure, are a signal for the industry, which the governor said in his announcement was “begging for regulation.”

And he becomes the latest possible 2028 presidential contender to wade into the emerging debate over AI regulation amid escalating public concern.

This week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called for greater federal regulation of AI while criticizing President Donald Trump for minimizing concerns about it, saying “we cannot ignore the warning signs nor downplay the very real risks.”

And former Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s unsuccessful 2024 nominee who is weighing another potential bid in 2028, wrote a lengthy social media post saying that “the frontier of artificial intelligence is advancing at an alarming speed,” and that “a slowdown is critical in order to ensure AI serves the public interest.”

Regulating AI could prove difficult for states, however, as the president signed an executive order in December 2025 blocking states from enforcing their own regulations around artificial intelligence.

CNN’s Hadas Gold contributed to this report.

How CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin’s family foundation became a major funder of left-wing activist groups

2026-09-18T13:43:25-04:00 / Fox News

CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin’s family foundation became a major financial backer of a network of left-wing activist organizations over more than two decades, providing nearly $3.2 million to CodePink while also bankrolling protest groups, legal advocacy organizations and progressive nonprofits, a Fox News Digital investigation found.

The foundation, Arc of Justice, is a $54.6 million private foundation formerly known as The Benjamin Fund. A review of its complete IRS filing history found it made nearly 1,500 grants totaling about $24.6 million to organizations involved in anti-war activism, progressive policy, legal advocacy and campaigns involving immigration enforcement, China, Cuba and the Israel-Hamas war.

Among its largest recipients were CodePink, Global Exchange, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Grassroots International and Social Good Fund, alongside grants to dozens of other organizations involved in anti-war activism, progressive policy, legal advocacy and progressive media.

Arc of Justice provided CodePink more than twice the approximately $1.33 million the group received from the funding network linked to Shanghai-based Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham. A previous five-part Fox News Digital investigation found Singham’s network directed at least $278 million into organizations that promoted pro-China messaging.

LAWMAKERS THROW OUT ‘TROJAN HORSE’ ACTIVISTS THEY SAY ARE ENGAGED IN AMERICAN SUBVERSION

CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin (left) and CodePink activists protest during a rally in Washington, D.C. (right). A Fox News Digital investigation found Benjamin’s family foundation, Arc of Justice, provided nearly $3.2 million to CodePink since 2009 while also funding dozens of other activist organizations.(Left: Mattie Neretin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect; Right: Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Arc of Justice has come under scrutiny after California revoked its charitable registration following years of financial compliance failures, though the foundation has been working to regain its standing with California regulators.

Benjamin, who co-founded CodePink with Singham’s wife Jodie Evans, has remained one of the group’s most visible public faces, frequently leading protests and interrupting congressional hearings. On Tuesday, she was escorted from a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on alleged foreign malign influence after protesting during the proceedings.

The Fox News Digital investigation also found the foundation itself has undergone sweeping changes in recent months, with Benjamin stepping down from the board, new leadership taking over and the organization saying it intends to chart a different course for its charitable giving.

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next Medea Benjamin, who led the California-based Arc of Justice foundation and co-founded CodePink, holds a “Let Gaza Live” sign as she is removed by U.S. Capitol Police after interrupting a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2024.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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prev next Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin speaks to the media after being removed from the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington.(AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

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prev next On Friday, March 20, 2026, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin speaks with the press after arriving at the airport with other activists as part of the “Nuestra America,” or Our America Convoy, in Havana, Cuba, supporting the Communist Party of Cuba, which works closely with the Chinese Communist Party.(Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

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prev next Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, holds a sign supporting Cuba at Miami International Airport on March 20, 2026, before a delegation travels to Cuba.(Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP)

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prev next On Sept. 15, 2026, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and her fellow activists are being escorted out of a House subcommittee hearing on “Trojan horses” and malign foreign influence.(Asra Q. Nomani)

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prev CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin arrives home in Washington, D.C., on May 11, 2026, with her partner Tighe Barry.(LG for Fox News Digital)

Following the money

Arc of Justice began funding CodePink in 2009 and provided grants to the organization in 15 tax years through 2024, totaling $3,195,280.

According to the documents, CodePink was Arc of Justice’s largest activist beneficiary. Since 2009, the foundation and its predecessor, The Benjamin Fund, also directed about $2.05 million to Global Exchange, the anti-war and social justice advocacy group Benjamin co-founded with her former husband, Kevin Danaher, which has long campaigned against U.S. military intervention and economic sanctions.

Arc of Justice also provided about $2.24 million to Grassroots International, which funds grassroots social movements around the world; $1.61 million to Social Good Fund, which provides nonprofit infrastructure and fundraising support for charitable projects; about $1.29 million to the Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy organization; and about $114,000 to Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), an activist nonprofit.

AFGJ has drawn scrutiny over its past fiscal sponsorship of Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian activist group later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. Benjamin said Arc’s final grant to Alliance for Global Justice was $10,000 in 2022 and that the foundation “was not aware of any specific groups fiscally sponsored by AFGJ” when it made its grants.

Through attorney David Levitt, the foundation said both CodePink and Alliance for Global Justice were recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt public charities and that Arc was entitled to rely on that status when making its grants.

The grantmaking reached across a much broader activist network. Since 2009, IRS filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show Arc of Justice and its predecessor gave about $492,000 to World Beyond War, roughly $255,000 to the Institute for Policy Studies and about $124,000 to Jewish Voice for Peace. It also gave $110,000 to Grassroots Global Justice and about $90,000 to the Center for Popular Democracy.

IRS filings also show Arc of Justice and its predecessor provided about $65,500 to Democracy Now! since 2009, where Benjamin has frequently appeared as a guest over the years.

WATCH: CodePink activists questioned on motives ahead of foreign influence hearing

From funding to activism

Founded in 2002 with the aim of preventing the Iraq War, CodePink has grown into one of the country’s most visible anti-war protest groups, repeatedly disrupting congressional hearings and protests involving senior U.S. officials, including then-Secretaries of State John Kerry and Mike Pompeo. The group has also participated in nationwide No Kings protests, opposed ICE enforcement actions, organized anti-Israel rallies and campaigned against U.S. policy toward China, Cuba and Iran. Earlier this year, CodePink led a delegation to Cuba that included Twitch political streamer Hasan Piker.

Asked about Arc’s long-term funding of CodePink and other activist organizations, Matthew Johnson, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said sustained financial support can have an impact well beyond the dollar amounts involved.

“Small amounts of money can actually go a long way toward impacting the broader media ecosystem… from the perspective of political organization, they may be having an outsized impact on the kind of information that is available to Americans,” Johnson told Fox News Digital.

Johnson, who testified before Congress Tuesday about how foreign adversaries may use nonprofits and other organizations to shape U.S. public opinion and policy, told lawmakers that CodePink launched its “China Is Not Our Enemy” campaign in 2020 following meetings in Beijing and has since pursued China-focused advocacy and organized travel. The campaign argued the United States should pursue cooperation with Beijing rather than confrontation. CodePink and Benjamin have denied taking direction from the Chinese government.

WATCH: Heritage Foundation senior fellow confronts CodePink’s Medea Benjamin before House hearing

Benjamin told Fox News Digital the grants were intended to support CodePink’s anti-war work.

“The foundation’s donations to CodePink were made to support its anti-war work,” she said in an email response.

At the House hearing on Tuesday, Benjamin also rejected suggestions that she or CodePink took direction from foreign governments. “I’ve been an anti-war activist from the days of Vietnam,” Benjamin said. “I never had a foreign government tell me what to do.”

Singham and the organizations he has funded, identified in the Fox News Digital report, have denied taking direction from the Chinese government, and neither Singham, Benjamin nor the organizations have been charged with wrongdoing.

CHINA EXPERT WARNS BEIJING WANTS AMERICANS — NOT THE CCP — TO SPREAD ITS MESSAGE

Jodie Evans and Neville Roy Singham are pictured together.(Getty Images)

CodePink co-founders Jodie Evans (left) and Medea Benjamin (right) protest during a John McCain campaign event in 2008. A Fox News Digital investigation found Benjamin’s family foundation, Arc of Justice, provided nearly $3.2 million to CodePink between 2009 and 2024, making it one of the group’s largest long-term financial backers.(Getty Images)

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and longtime leader of the Arc of Justice family foundation, protests before former special counsel Robert K. Hur testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 2024. A Fox News Digital investigation found Arc of Justice provided nearly $3.2 million to CodePink between 2009 and 2024.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Where did the money come from?

Arc of Justice was formerly known as The Benjamin Fund, Inc., with California corporate records showing the foundation formally changed its name in November 2019.

Benjamin’s father, Alvin Benjamin, a prominent Long Island real estate developer who founded The Benjamin Companies in the early 1960s, provided some of the foundation’s earliest documented financial backing.

The Benjamin Fund’s initial 2003 IRS return shows he contributed a partnership interest valued at $683,715 to the foundation, with Medea Susan Benjamin serving as president.

Much larger contributions followed. In 2010, the estate of Benjamin’s mother, Rose Benjamin, contributed $10,863,060, according to the foundation’s IRS filing. Five years later, the Estate of Alvin Benjamin contributed another $15 million, followed by another $8,603,450 in 2019.

Medea Benjamin — identified as Susan Benjamin on the filing — personally contributed $1 million to Arc of Justice in 2022, listing a Miami address.

How the fortune grew

Arc of Justice’s wealth was largely tied to an investment portfolio that continued to grow while the foundation distributed millions of dollars in grants.

Federal tax returns reviewed by Fox News Digital show the foundation’s assets grew from $39.63 million at the end of 2020 to $54.64 million in 2024, as it distributed millions of dollars annually in grants.

Arc of Justice generated much of its annual income from its investment portfolio, collecting dividends from stocks and mutual funds, interest on cash holdings and profits from investments that had increased in value.

In 2023, the foundation reported nearly $2 million in revenue, including $1.11 million in dividends and interest from securities, $166,421 in interest on savings and temporary cash investments and $686,919 in net gains from asset sales.

Its investment holdings also produced substantial gains as the portfolio increased in value. In 2020, Arc of Justice reported $12,344,501 in unrealized gains on securities, helping push its year-end assets to nearly $40 million.

Over more than two decades, IRS filings reviewed by Fox News Digital repeatedly reported no compensation for the foundation’s officers and no highly paid employees, while the foundation directed millions of dollars to outside organizations.

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next CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin (left) and activist Tighe Barry protest during the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, 2025. A Fox News Digital investigation found Benjamin’s family foundation became a major financial backer of CodePink over more than two decades.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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prev next CodePink activists protest during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 18, 2017. A Fox News Digital investigation found the family foundation of CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin provided nearly $3.2 million to the activist group between 2009 and 2024.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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prev Tighe Barry, the longtime partner of CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, protests along the perimeter of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024. Barry later incorporated a Florida nonprofit using the Arc of Justice name and was listed as its secretary and registered agent, according to corporate records.(Reuters/Adrees Latif)

Changing course

After California revoked Arc of Justice’s charitable registration, Fox News Digital reported that a new Florida nonprofit using the Arc of Justice name was incorporated at the Miami home of Benjamin’s longtime partner, Tighe Barry, raising questions about the future of the foundation and whether its assets or operations were being moved out of California.

The address is a modest turquoise home largely obscured by trees — an unassuming setting for an organization tied to a private foundation with more than $50 million in assets. Benjamin and Barry have frequently appeared together at CodePink demonstrations over the years.

Levitt later told Fox News Digital the Florida corporation had been created as a “placeholder” while the foundation considered relocating its operations from California, but the move was never completed. He said the California corporation was never formally dissolved, no assets were transferred and the Florida entity “holds no assets and has conducted no business.”

The foundation has been attempting to get its registration reinstated after recently filing five years of overdue reports covering 2020 through 2024 and paying $1,800 in filing fees and penalties as part of a petition for reinstatement, documents submitted to California regulators show.

$54M CODEPINK-LINKED FOUNDATION SHUT DOWN IN CALIFORNIA POPS UP AT RAMSHACKLE MIAMI HOME

The Miami property listed as the address of the newly incorporated Arc of Justice nonprofit features a weathered painted fence and sits behind dense tropical vegetation.(AJ Skuy for Fox News Digital)

In the reinstatement petition, Levitt attributed the missed filings to what he described as an administrative misunderstanding over whether the foundation had successfully relocated from California to Florida.

He wrote that, during the tenure of the foundation’s “former president,” who served through the end of 2025, foundation leaders believed Arc was no longer subject to California’s charitable registration requirements because it had moved to Florida.

The petition says the foundation later appointed a “new president,” who discovered the compliance problems in 2026 and began the process of bringing the organization back into compliance. The petition also states that the foundation’s directors and officers personally paid the penalty portion of the overdue filing fees.

The filings identify Maya Danaher, Benjamin’s daughter, as president of the California foundation. Danaher previously served as the foundation’s treasurer before becoming president.

“As previously reported, I have resigned from the foundation’s board, and its new management will set its own funding priorities going forward,” Benjamin said.

LAWMAKERS SAY THEY ARE STANDING AT THE GATES AGAINST ‘TROJAN HORSES’ PROMOTING MALIGN FOREIGN INTERESTS

CodePink activists hold signs protesting Mike Pompeo during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing for secretary of state in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 2018. A Fox News Digital investigation found CodePink received nearly $3.2 million in grants from the family foundation of co-founder Medea Benjamin between 2009 and 2024.(Jack Gruber / USA TODAY Network)

It is unclear why Benjamin resigned from the board, why the proposed move to Florida was ultimately abandoned or why the foundation’s new leadership decided to shift its grantmaking priorities away from the causes it had supported for more than two decades.

Benjamin was not listed as an officer or director of the Florida corporation, where Barry was listed as secretary and registered agent.

Its stated goal is blunt: “WE ARE HERE TO SUPPORT SOCIAL JUSTICE NON PROFITS,” according to the articles of incorporation.

Levitt said the foundation’s new leadership intends to shift its grantmaking away from the causes it historically supported.

“Going forward, the foundation’s new management intends to focus its grant-making on domestic childhood enrichment programs and organizations that support the well-being of children, families and individuals in need throughout the U.S.,” Levitt said.

WATCH: Cuba expert says CodePink acts like a ‘Trojan horse’ for communist interests inside the US

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.

FAA says Trump arch will not interfere with D.C. airport flight path

2026-09-18T13:10:00-0400 / CBS News

By Sarah Ploss, Kathryn Krupnik

Updated on: September 18, 2026 / 1:41 PM EDT / CBS News

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday determined that President Trump’s planned triumphal arch next to Arlington Cemetery and near the Lincoln Memorial poses no hazard to flights coming into and departing from Washington Reagan National Airport.

The FAA said that “the structure would have no substantial adverse effect” on the utilization of the D.C. National Airport airspace or on the operation of the airport’s navigation facilities. The FAA said it must also be alerted at least 10 days before construction officially begins.

Public comments submitted to the agency questioned whether the arch would affect capacity at the airport or pilot workload, but the FAA determined there was no issue.

The structure, which is expected to break ground in the coming days, has faced heavy criticism in the months since the president announced it, in particular because it would stand in the flight path for planes landing at and departing from nearby Washington Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia.

Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns that the 260-foot arch would further complicate an already complex airspace, where just a year and a half ago, the deadliest plane crash on American soil since 2009 occurred.

In a letter to the FAA in June, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois called the project “dangerous,” adding that it is “particularly irresponsible given the FAA’s ongoing efforts to implement safety enhancements in and around DCA following the preventable DCA collision in late January 2025.”

Earlier this year, the FAA completed an initial feasibility review of the structure, once it had been determined that the arch would exceed the 200-foot threshold allowed close to the airport. The FAA concluded that the arch would not impact flight operations or have any effect on navigational tools used to help pilots, but the review stated that obstruction lights would be required in order to alert planes to the existence of the structure.

Weeks before the final approval was issued by the FAA, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced initial excavation work on the arch would begin. The FAA said Friday that any further alterations to plans or the height of the arch would need to be resubmitted to the agency.

The arch would be located along D.C. National Airport’s most heavily used flight path.

‘A criminal is a criminal’: DHS Secretary Mullin defends aggressive deportation efforts as some Republicans waver

2026-09-18 1:34 PM EDT / CNN

By Dana Bash, CNN

‘A criminal is a criminal’: DHS Secretary Mullin defends aggressive deportation efforts as some Republicans waver

Inside Politics

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin defends the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation efforts after Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar posted a political ad saying some of the actions have “gone too far.” Mullin tells Dana Bash, “What level of criminal activity are you willing to accept? We are tasked with enforcing the nation’s laws.”

6:52 • Source: CNN