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Five takeaways from Trump’s summit with Xi in Washington

2026-09-24T20:51:12.994Z / https://www.reuters.com/world/china/four-takeaways-trumps-summit-with-xi-washington-2026-09-24/

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday, with talks on trade and ​artificial intelligence and the growing strategic rivalry between the countries all in the spotlight during an elaborate state visit.

Here are some major takeaways from the talks:

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TRADE DEAL EXTENDED, ‌FOR NOW

The US secured an extension of its trade truce this week – but only a short one.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides agreed to extend by two months a trade agreement that ended last year’s trade war and was due to expire in November. The extension would give Washington and Beijing “more time to see what we can do on the economic front,” he said.

But rather than locking in a durable agreement, the extension appears to push ​the central questions — tariffs, Chinese purchases, rare-earth supplies and technology restrictions — into the next round of negotiations.

Bessent said on Wednesday that Beijing was meeting its requirement in the earlier agreement to buy ​25 million tons of soybeans but was lagging on its pledge to buy $17 billion in other agricultural goods. US officials have said rare-earth deliveries were ⁠also falling short, another sign that significant gaps remain.

For companies, the result is a familiar form of instability: tariff rates remain lower for now, but decisions must still be made against a shifting policy ​backdrop.

DRESS TO IMPRESS

For Trump, Xi’s White House visit was an opportunity to show off a Washington being remade in his image.

After Xi treated Trump in Beijing to a tour around a Ming dynasty temple ​and a walled-off garden retreat rarely opened to foreigners, the US president returned the favor with a different kind of spectacle: Troops wearing wigs and tri-corner hats marched in formation and played music in a Rose Garden redesigned to look like a Trump golf club.

Fighter jets and bombers roared overhead during ceremonies staged on Wednesday and Thursday, one so loud it caused Trump to flinch.

When the White House press corps was called to cover the two leaders, it ​wasn’t to hear them talk about the weighty affairs of state. Instead, it was to watch them tour the Marine One helicopter and the recently redesigned South Lawn of the White House, replete ​with a large helipad emblazoned with the presidential seal.

Speaking to reporters, Trump brushed away questions about their policy discussions.

“He loves good granite,” Trump said of Xi. “Great meeting.”

XI WANTS US ‘PRUDENCE’ OVER TAIWAN

As expected, Xi pressed Trump on the Taiwan ​issue, saying, ⁠according to China’s official news agency, that China hoped the United States would “handle the Taiwan question with prudence.”

The agency’s English-language service also wrote that Xi hoped the US would oppose Taiwan independence.

That would be a tougher version of Washington’s long-standing formulation that it does not “support” independence. There are no signs that the Trump administration plans to change its wording.

There was no immediate White House readout of the exchange, but US officials have long avoided explicitly stating opposition to Taiwanese independence. Any shift in language would raise questions about Washington’s resolve to defend the island and provoke opposition in Congress.

STRATEGIC RISK

Xi, not for the first ​time while meeting Trump, invoked the “Thucydides Trap”, an ​academic theory that competition between a rising ​power and an established one tends toward war.

While the Chinese leader said the risk “can be overcome,” his reference underscored how concerns about a potential US-China military conflict continue to shadow relations between the world’s two largest powers.

Xi argued that both nations stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, and he called for ​regular military dialogue and stronger crisis-prevention mechanisms.

Trump, for his part, drew on the two nations’ shared history to emphasize the potential for cooperation. They ​could accomplish much by ⁠pursuing common interests, he said, invoking their wartime alliance against Japan.

DIFFERENCES ON AI

The two leaders expressed diverging views about artificial intelligence.

Trump, who has declared that AI should be called super intelligence, or SI, said in a social media post that he wants to “to leave it exactly where it is” and rely on the US Department of Justice rather than impose any new guardrails. He insisted that China held the same position.

But Xi ⁠said on ​Thursday that, as leading nations on AI, China and the US must manage its growth.

“We have both the capability and responsibility ​to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people,” Xi said.

Some of the biggest names in AI were expected to attend Trump’s state dinner at ​the White House on Thursday for Xi, including Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Nvidia’s (NVDA.O) Jensen Huang.

Adds takeaway on AI

Reporting by Simon Lewis, David Brunnstrom and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Ross Colvin, Alistair Bell and Sanjeev Miglani

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Agents involved in Mar-a-Lago search ask Judge Aileen Cannon whether gag order blocks testimony

2026-09-24T22:33:50.346Z / CNN

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Tierney Sneed, Evan Perez

PUBLISHED Sep 24, 2026, 6:33 PM ET

A view of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, a day after the FBI conducted a search of the property in August 2022.

Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images/File

FBI agents who probed Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home asked Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday whether they could testify before a grand jury — or even consult their lawyers — as part of an investigation into whether former government officials conspired against the president.

According to the filing, the current and former agents were subpoenaed to testify about their work in the the sweeping South Florida investigation into whether federal officials who criminally investigated Trump participated in a coordinated effort to deprive him of his rights.

But the agents said they were unsure what they could disclose because Cannon restricted disclosure of special counsel Jack Smith’s report and non-public information associated with it.

The former agents describe being in a bind. If the agents share information that Cannon has prohibited from disclosure, they risk being held in contempt of that order, according to the filing. But they could also find themselves in legal trouble for not providing information that the grand jury is requesting, their attorneys said.

The agents’ filing adds to the uncertainty surrounding the “grand conspiracy” investigation, one of the president’s top priorities at the Justice Department.

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Earlier this month, Joe diGenova, the attorney who oversaw the probe, resigned after clashing with senior department officials over its pace, CNN reported. His departure surprised officials who had expected charges within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Related article Joseph diGenova attends a news conference in November 2020. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Trump admin pick to oversee a conspiracy investigation into president’s foes resigns after DOJ clashes 6 min read

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh last week traveled to Florida for a meeting scheduled before diGenova’s resignation, two of the sources said. Instead, after his resignation, they met with US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones and his deputy, Yara Klukas, to discuss the investigation’s future.

The meeting produced few answers, the people said. Quiñones and Klukas would oversee the probe for now, they agreed, with assistance from McCotter and Singh in Washington, the sources said. The prosecution team continues to pursue possible individual cases against Trump political critics, sources told CNN, though charges in the immediate future were very unlikely, the officials agreed during the Florida meeting.

Still, investigators have sent grand jury subpoenas to multiple officials involved in past investigations of the president, including the agents on the Mar-a-Lago case. Former CIA Director John Brennan also received a subpoena to testify as part of the probe, his lawyers have said.

And a former supervisor in the FBI’s Russia 2016 election interference investigation recently sat for an interview with investigators, CNN previously reported. That person was given immunity by prosecutors.

Trump administration urges Supreme Court to revive third-country deportation policy

2026-09-24T17:07:00-0400 / CBS News

By Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Camilo Montoya-Galvez Immigration Correspondent
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the Immigration Correspondent at CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple programs and platforms, including national broadcast shows, CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and the organization’s social media accounts.

Read Full Bio

Updated on: September 24, 2026 / 5:12 PM EDT / CBS News

In an emergency request Thursday, the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to revive its policy of deporting some migrants to places other than their country of origin, a practice that was struck down by a lower court on the grounds that it violates deportees’ due process rights.

The Justice Department asked the high court to pause a February 2026 order from a federal judge, largely upheld by an appellate court last week, that requires federal immigration officials to give deportees more due process. The courts said deportees need to get notice and a chance to challenge their deportation before any attempt to remove them to a so-called “third country” where they have no ties.

Such a pause would allow the Department of Homeland Security to continue a policy that empowers officials to send detainees to third nations, without providing them notice or a chance to challenge that deportation, if the receiving country has made blanket assurances that they will not persecute or torture the deportees.

Justice Department lawyers said DHS already had to cancel a flight to three third countries for 70 would-be deportees, some of whom have criminal records, in the wake of the adverse rulings from Boston-based judges.

In the emergency appeal, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that the third-country removal policy has allowed the Trump administration to remove “thousands” of individuals in recent months. He estimated that “thousands more” are eligible to be deported to third countries.

“These include some of the worst of the worst criminal aliens — whose home countries refuse to take them back,” he wrote. “The order below would again obstruct DHS from efficiently removing aliens — this time under a policy that has been in force for 15 months” because of earlier court orders.

Sauer also said that the lower court’s decision “undermines our standing abroad.”

“Finding third countries willing and able to accept aliens is a delicate diplomatic endeavor,” Sauer wrote. “By interjecting itself in that process, and potentially disrupting those carefully negotiated arrangements, the lower courts’ actions ‘will cause significant and irreparable harm to U.S. foreign policy.’”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency appeals from Massachusetts and other states in the region, gave lawyers for the immigrants challenging the policy until Monday afternoon to respond.

Sauer asked Jackson to provide the administration with temporary relief while it considers the emergency appeal.

As part of its far-reaching crackdown on illegal immigration, the Trump administration has brokered agreements with dozens of countries around the globe, mainly in Africa and Latin America, that have agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. who are not their citizens.

Some of the African nations that have agreed to such deportations include countries plagued by repressive governments, armed conflict, human rights abuses and widespread poverty, such as Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

While some countries, like Eswatini and South Sudan, have received deportees from the Trump administration who have violent and serious criminal histories, other nations, like Liberia, have accepted deported migrants from Latin America and other places across the world with no known criminal records, beyond immigration violations in the U.S.

In Liberia, CBS News interviewed men and women from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela who were deported to the West African country last month and described feeling stateless. All of them said they were deported to West Africa without being notified in advance or given an opportunity to challenge the deportation.

Immigration officials have mainly targeted two categories of individuals in their third-country deportation campaign: immigrants who won limited legal protections in U.S. immigration courts barring ICE from deporting them to their homelands, and detainees whose home countries limit or reject U.S. deportations.

The dispute over the third-country removals has already been before the Supreme Court, though during an earlier stage in the case.

In a divided decision last year, the high court allowed the Trump administration to resume deportations to third countries while legal proceedings continued. Then, the Supreme Court lifted an order from the federal judge in Boston overseeing the challenge that had prevented the administration from removing immigrants without first giving them the chance to raise fears of torture or persecution.

WATCH: Mass walkout before Netanyahu speech prompts fiery response from Israeli prime minister

2026-09-24 4:09pm EDT / Fox News

Dozens of delegates streamed out of the New York City chamber as the Israeli prime minister took the stage

By Peter Pinedo, Efrat Lachter Fox News

Published September 24, 2026 4:09pm EDT

UN General Assembly empties as Netanyahu gives address

Dozens of United Nations delegates streamed out of the General Assembly chamber on Thursday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech.

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A mass walkout of delegates before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations General Assembly prompted a fiery response from the Israeli leader.

As Netanyahu took the stage, dozens of delegates from across the globe could be seen streaming out of the chamber in New York City. Chants of protest could also be heard in the hall as the U.N. president called the assembly to order.

After taking the stage, Netanyahu said, “Before I begin, just a quick announcement, if there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now,” as cheers erupted from the remaining delegates in the chamber.

THE TOP MOMENTS FROM IRAN PRESIDENT’S TENSE VISIT TO US SOIL AS WAR RAGES

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on Sept. 24, 2026, in New York City. World leaders gathered in New York for the annual session, with global issues ranging from the threat of artificial intelligence to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.(Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)

The Israeli leader did not let up for the rest of his address. He began by laying out what he described as the stakes of the conflict in Iran. He proclaimed that “devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard, it was very hard to do, but for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”

“Now, you want to hear the ultimate irony?” he continued. “In defending itself, Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall. In fact, I want you to know that many of the leaders even thanked us privately for taking out Iran’s nukes.”

“It’s hard to imagine more mind blowing hypocrisy, but that’s exactly what it is,” said Netanyahu.

MELANIA TRUMP’S HOME-COUNTRY LEADER RIPS UN ‘DOUBLE STANDARDS’ AS TRUMP PROMISE IS REVEALED

Delegations walk out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Sept. 26, 2025.(Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

The protests came as conflict in the Middle East continued and Israel faced criticism over its actions in the region. Netanyahu’s address drew protests from delegates inside the U.N. chamber and demonstrators outside the building, including Hollywood celebrities Elliot Page and Susan Sarandon.

Despite the protests, the prime minister delivered a defiant message, telling critics, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He cast Israel’s fight as one for its own survival and the survival of all the world’s nations against “barbarians.”

“For the past three years, our heroic soldiers have fought day in an day out in a seven front war. Do you know any other country the size of New Jersey capable of fighting a seven front war? And for three years, seven fronts Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, militias in Iraq, militias in Syria, Palestinian terrorists in Judea, Samaria, they all ganged up on us to wipe us off the face of the earth, they failed. Because instead of collapsing, we delivered crippling blows to all of them, with our great American friends.”

“To the protesters outside, to the hypocritical delegates who left this hall. I ask, ‘Where were you when the Iranian tyrants butchered and maimed tens of thousands of unarmed Iranian civilians? When they butchered and maimed thousands of their own people? Where were you? Did you organize mass rallies, hunger strikes? Did you protest outside the Iranian mission to the UN? Did you speak out for that matter, for Christians persecuted in Iran and throughout the Middle East?’ No, no, you didn’t, because you’re phony human rights protesters,” he said.

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Anti-Israel supporters march during a rally marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or the “catastrophe” of the creation of Israel, in Dearborn, Michigan, on May 13, 2023.(Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

He also thanked President Donald Trump for ordering U.S. action against Iran.

“In this battle against the barbarians, we’ve had no greater partner than President Trump,” said Netanyahu. “I thank him. I thank him for his bold leadership. He boldly confronted an enormous danger to America, Israel and the world.”

“He understood that if left unchallenged, the fanatic ayatollahs who chant, ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’ would eventually carry out their mad fantasies. So, Israel and America acted together not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization,” he said.

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Netanyahu also criticized detractors in what he called “the eigth front in this war,” which he said is “the war for truth.” He said that this “war” is “waged in the world’s media and most perniciously, in social media.”

Turning to criticism from U.S. figures, Netanyahu called out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a socialist, whom he called “anti-semitic,” as well as influencer Hasan Piker. Addressing Mamdani directly, Netanyahu said, “Mr. Mamdani, you try to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can’t silence me. You can’t silence the truth.”

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

A key Republican defends Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola after reports of abusive behavior

2026-09-24T20:08:47.836Z / CNN

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan criticized his Democratic opponent Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, over allegations of abusive behavior toward members of her staff, which he described as “very disturbing.”

But Sullivan’s Republican colleague, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, offered a notable defense of Peltola.

The New York Times on Wednesday detailed allegations made by several former Peltola aides, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation or professional repercussions. The Times reported the aides said the former congresswoman engaged in angry and profane outbursts and at times used inappropriate language, including slurs used to describe gay people or individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The report also described one tense prep session when Peltola grew frustrated and allegedly berated one of the staff members. Another moment described in the reports alleged Peltola shoved a male employee in the chest when she could not find a memo for a meeting. The Times also said Peltola required “aides to feed live crickets to her family’s pet chameleon.”

Peltola’s campaign denied some of the allegations in the Times story but acknowledged others, saying she at times struggled to deal with the grief of losing her mother and her husband over a short time period in 2023 while serving in Congress.

“At the time of their passing, Mary was parenting kids through their own grief, serving full-time in the U.S. House of Representatives thousands of miles from home, and running a competitive re-election campaign – all while shouldering the enormous burden of grief,” said Peltola campaign spokesperson Harry Child. “Like any person who has gone through multiple personal tragedies in the span of a few months, Mary sometimes struggled to deal with her grief.”

“Exaggerating and outright lying about moments from the hardest period of her life, and falsely presenting them as a pattern of behavior, is wrong,” he added.

Peltola was first elected to Congress in a 2022 special election to complete the term of GOP Rep. Don Young following his death. She beat former GOP Gov. Sarah Palin in the race and then was elected to a full term in Congress that year. She lost her re-election bid in 2024.

On Capitol Hill Thursday, Sullivan described Peltola’s alleged behavior as a “character issue” and said he did not buy the former congresswoman’s explanation for her behavior.

“I think it’s very sad, very disturbing that so many Alaskans had to get put through that kind of severe abuse, which is very disturbing, but not surprising,” he said.

Asked by CNN if she felt the Times report accurately described Peltola, Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, “I think there are many parts of it that I find inflammatory.”

Murkowski, who supported Peltola in a past campaign but is siding with Sullivan in this race, also described the difficult situation the former congresswoman faced following the loss of her close family members. Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., Mary Peltola’s husband, died in a 2023 plane crash in Alaska.

“I do acknowledge that while she was here in her first term, she was not only thrown into a very challenging situation immediately running for campaign, but then to lose her husband in that airplane crash and to deal with all of that. That’s pressure that is hard for anybody to bear,” she said.

On Wednesday, Peltola ignored questions from reporters about the matter following a town hall in Anchorage, according to a local report.

It’s unclear how these allegations will play with voters in the state, but the outcome of Alaska’s Senate race could determine which party controls the upper chamber next year. Democrats have eyed Alaska as a potential pick-up opportunity heading into November.

Democratic Party leaders view Peltola as a top recruit and are hoping souring voter sentiment toward President Donald Trump over the economy and other issues will work in their favor.

But Democrats are also operating in difficult political terrain. Trump, who has floated campaigning for Sullivan this year, won Alaska in 2024 by 13 points, and the state has not elected a Democratic senator since 2008.

In last month’s all-party primary, Peltola emerged at the top of the pack earning 49.5% of the vote while Sen. Sullivan trailed behind her at 41.4%. But that’s not necessarily predictive of an outcome in November. In the 2024 primary for her House seat, Peltola earned 51% of the vote but still lost the general election later that year.

In addition to Peltola and Sen. Sullivan, the general election in November, which will use a ranked-choice voting system, will also feature Dan J. Sullivan, a former schoolteacher who filed to run as a Republican, and Gerald Heikes, another Republican. There is some GOP concern having two same-named Sullivans on the ticket could lead to confusion and split the vote in the highly competitive race.

CNN’s Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Logan Schiciano contributed to this report.

Pentagon probing how shipment of F-35 fighter jet parts was diverted

September 24, 2026 / 5:30 PM EDT / CBS News

The Pentagon is investigating how a shipment of F-35 fighter jet parts on its way to the U.S. from overseas was diverted, and the military is now trying to retrieve the parts, a defense official confirmed to CBS News.

A source briefed on the incident told CBS News a shipment was diverted to Hong Kong. According to Bloomberg News, the parts are now in China’s hands, although the Pentagon declined to confirm this.

A defense official said in a statement, “The F-35 Joint Program Office and Department of War are aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components.” The parts were in transit to the U.S. from Australia either for replacement or repair when they were diverted.

“We are actively working with U.S. authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence,” the defense official said.

The F-35A Lightning II is the newest version of the plane and the most advanced fighter jet in the military’s arsenal. It travels up to 1,200 miles per hour and can carry a payload of 18,000 pounds.

The missing parts are said to be related to the plane’s canopy and weapons bay door. If this is the case, they do not contain the kind of advanced avionics that would be advantageous for an adversary to obtain. Nonetheless, they could provide information about the F-35’s stealth technology: Even the canopy contains elements of the stealth systems — it’s coated with radar-absorbent material that helps the plane hide from enemy radar.

It’s not clear whether the U.S. raised the missing plane parts with China during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit with President Trump on Thursday, but military issues almost certainly came up during their meeting. Xi was expected to press Mr. Trump to curb U.S. support for Taiwan. China wants the U.S. to halt all arms sales to the self-governed island and oppose Taiwanese independence.

Doing so would effectively end the longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity, that is, refusing to state whether the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to attack Taiwan.

After their summit in May, Mr. Trump said he had made “no commitment either way” on whether to move forward with a pending arms sale to Taiwan. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have urged him to approve the arms package, but it has remained in limbo since Mr. Trump and Xi last met.

On Wednesday, Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and Lisa Murkowski wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ask why the State Department did not obligate $300 million in foreign military financing Congress had approved for 2026 and the Defense Department did not provide Taiwan with $1 billion appropriated by Congress for security cooperation. They also wanted to know why the administration did not approve the $14 billion in military sales to Taiwan that Congress passed earlier this year.

The senators said in their letter that the appropriations “are critical to the kind of deterrence by denial that will prevent conflict,” and said “it is especially confusing that the Administration would withhold approval of the very arms purchases it aggressively pushed Taiwan to make.”

Ed O’Keefe and Anna Coren contributed to this report.

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Saudi foreign minister warns Houthi threat goes global as Trump holds fire

September 24, 2026 4:51pm EDT / Fox News

Foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan tells Fox News Digital international cooperation is needed to protect Red Sea shipping routes

By Efrat Lachter Fox News

Prince Faisal bin Farhan tells Fox News Digital that Saudi Arabia is working with the US and international partners to counter Houthi attacks and protect critical Red Sea shipping routes.

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UNITED NATIONS —Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister warned Thursday that the growing threat from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis extends far beyond his country’s borders, calling for international cooperation to protect critical shipping routes after Saudi forces intercepted six ballistic missiles launched toward the kingdom.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told Fox News Digital that Riyadh was coordinating with Washington and other international partners as Houthi attacks threatened Saudi territory and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The Saudi-led coalition said Thursday that its air defenses had intercepted six ballistic missiles allegedly launched by the Houthis toward the Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu, according to Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks caused casualties or damage.

AMERICANS WARNED AGAIN TO RETHINK TRAVEL AS MISSILE ATTACK RATTLES HISTORIC REGION

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, co-chairs of a United Nations high-level international conference hosted by France and Saudi Arabia to work towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, listen to a question during a press briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York City, July 28, 2025.(REUTERS/Kylie Cooper)

Saudi authorities also issued emergency warnings across several areas, including Jeddah and Mecca, before announcing that the immediate danger had passed. Yanbu, a major Red Sea oil export hub, has become particularly important as the war with Iran disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked by Fox News Digital whether Saudi Arabia was receiving the support it needed from the US following reports that President Donald Trump had declined Saudi requests for direct military intervention against the Houthis, Prince Faisal emphasized the kingdom’s ability to defend itself while calling for a broader international response.

“So we are, of course, defending ourselves. And we are responding as necessary to the attacks by the Houthis. But we are also, of course, coordinating with all of our international allies, because this is not just about Saudi Arabia,” he said.

IRAN’S PROXY MONEY MACHINE: HOW THE HOUTHIS BUILT A MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR NETWORK DESPITE US SANCTIONS

Satellite imagery shows Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping waterway and the gateway to the Red Sea, as Iran threatens using Yemen’s Houthi allies to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, in this handout picture dated July 12, 2026.(Nasa Worldview/Handout via Reuters)

“The fact that the Houthis are threatening the Bab el-Mandeb, threatening international shipping, is a risk to international security stability. That means that the responsibility to dealing with this threat is not just on Saudi Arabia, it is also on the whole international community.”

The foreign minister thanked countries already working with Riyadh and confirmed that discussions with Washington were continuing.

“And we are obviously continuing to work with our partners in the U.S., to address the issue of this conflict as well,” he said.

HOUTHIS ENTER US ‘KILL BOX’ AFTER SEIZING RED SEA ‘CORK,’ FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS

Yemen’s Iran-backed armed Houthi group has warned they will move to shutter the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait through missile-drone attacks if Gulf nations join the US-Israel war on Iran.(Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

His remarks came as the Trump administration faced renewed requests from Saudi Arabia to take military action against the Houthis.

According to a Sept. 21 Axios report, Trump considered ordering strikes against the group over the weekend but ultimately decided against them. The report said Saudi officials had again sought American military assistance as Houthi forces advanced in Yemen, while the U.S. continued providing intelligence and targeting support without directly entering the fighting.

The Houthis’ territorial advances have intensified concerns over control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic passage connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and a crucial route for international trade and Saudi oil exports.

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Members of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces react during what they say to be clashes with Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a location given as near Al-Hazm, Yemen, in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released September 9, 2026.(Media Centre Of The Yemeni Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)

The group has expanded its control along Yemen’s western coastline in recent weeks, reaching the shores of the strategic waterway as fighting with Saudi-backed government forces escalated.

Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability.She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events.

Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in political science.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6405566116112

New bill would lower Social Security retirement age for some workers

2026-09-24T17:11:00-0400 / CBS News

By

Updated on: September 24, 2026 / 5:17 PM EDT / CBS News

Among the various proposals for bolstering Security is raising the retirement age at which Americans can claim full benefits. One lawmaker instead wants to lower it.

Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, on Thursday introduced the Blue Collar Social Security Fairness Act, which would reduce the retirement age for workers in construction, nursing, manufacturing and other physically demanding jobs to age 60. That would allow them to claim full Social Security benefits seven years earlier than they can under the law today.

Currently, Americans born after 1960 may claim full Social Security benefits at age 67. Workers may start collecting as soon as they turn 62, but with a 30% reduction in benefits (the benefits cut gradually decreases each year between ages 63 and 66).

Stevens has said that lowering the retirement age for blue-collar workers is necessary to help those who may struggle working into their 60s, given that such jobs are often physically demanding.

“Michiganders who work with their hands shouldn’t be forced to wait until their bodies give out to retire,” she said in a statement on Thursday in unveiling the legislation in Washington, D.C. In August, Stevens lost to Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic Senate primary.

The bill’s introduction comes amid wider public debate about how to fund Social Security as the program’s outlays continue to outpace its revenue. The most recent Social Security trustees report projected that a key trust fund that pays benefits to retirees and survivors of deceased workers would become insolvent by the end of 2032, earlier than previously forecast.

That could trigger a cut of more than 20% in Social Security recipients’ benefits, according to the trustees.

The average retired worker received $2,071 a month in Social Security benefits as of January, according to the Social Security Administration.

How would the bill work?

Stevens’ bill would create a system that awards blue-collar workers a set number of points based on the number of years they worked in a physically demanding job and their age at the time. Workers would be awarded one point for each year worked between the ages of 35 and 44, for example.

To qualify for retirement at 60, workers would need to earn at least 15 points or have worked at least 20 years in certain jobs, such as manufacturing or roofing.

According to the bill, the commissioner of the Social Security Administration would compile a list of qualifying professions, which the agency would be required to update every three years.

A job would have to “impose on an individual substantial physical demands that may be reasonably expected to diminish the ability of the individual to perform such occupation, or other occupations imposing substantial physical demands, at an advanced age,” according to the bill.

Experts note there are other ways to shore up Social Security. Those include eliminating the cap on the amount of individual income subject to the Social Security tax, currently $184,500, and raising the payroll tax.

In July, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, called for lifting the payroll tax cap, which they say would create a fairer system in which high-income earners pay the same share of their income into the program as low- and middle-class workers.

A 2025 poll of more than 4,000 Americans from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that 65% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans supported lifting or removing the cap. A majority of households earning more than $200,000 a year also backed the idea, the poll found.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Mother of man wounded by ICE in Texas describes video call moments after shooting

2026-09-24T20:31:18.934Z / Reuters

BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The last time Wilber Rafael Garces Perez’s mother heard his voice was on Sunday afternoon, moments after he had been shot by a federal ​immigration agent in his car in Austin, Texas, she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“They crashed into my car and shot me,” Flor Perez recalled her son telling ‌her over a video call as she tried to calm him down from her home in Venezuela. Then she saw an officer pulling her son out of the vehicle by his arm.

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Four days later, Garces Perez, 28, remains in detention with a bullet still in his back and his mother said she has not been able to speak with him.

Federal immigration agents have shot at least 20 people since Republican President Donald Trump returned to office, 7 fatally, sparking protests across the US. Critics contend ​that Trump’s push to ramp up deportations has led to an increasing number of violent confrontations, and accuse the administration of resisting accountability for the agents involved.

The sequence of events leading up to Sunday’s shooting ​remains unclear.

Garces Perez, who is from Venezuela, said he was working as a food delivery driver on Sunday when his car was sideswiped by agents with ⁠Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He said they did not identify themselves or turn on their emergency lights until after the collision.

ICE has not offered its own version of events or explained why Garces Perez was shot ​while sitting in his car. Its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in a Tuesday statement that Garces Perez was the subject of a “targeted vehicle stop” and that “resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous ​for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public.”

Videos of the incident do not show the shooting, but do show Garces Perez injured in the car. The federal officer who shot him was not wearing a body camera, according to a person familiar with the incident. The officer, who has not been identified, was hired by ICE last year and had formerly worked for US Customs and Border Protection, the person said.

After the fatal shootings of two men six days apart during July ​traffic stops in Texas and Maine, US border czar Tom Homan said ICE agents would be required to record vehicle stops with at least one body-worn camera. ICE’s acting director vowed to equip each officer with a body-worn ​camera by the end of August.

Asked for comment about the officer involved and the account of Garces Perez’s mother, DHS sent an information sheet that did not address Reuters’ questions.

‘INTENSE PAIN’

Speaking from her home in Barquisimeto in northwestern Venezuela, ‌Flor Perez, 51, ⁠said she was sleepless worrying about her son, hoping he would be allowed to see a doctor to remove the bullet and relieve his pain.

“What matters to me is that they take him to a hospital and treat him,” she said.

Garces Perez’s wound is currently stuffed with gauze that fills with blood and has to be changed two or three times a day, causing him “intense pain,” Democratic US Representative Greg Casar of Texas said at a press conference on Wednesday night, hours after visiting him at an ICE detention facility.

“If you saw Wilber, just like if you saw anybody that had been shot three days ago, you would say ​this person needs a doctor, not a deportation or ​a detention center,” said Casar.

Video released by Austin ⁠police on Tuesday from a body camera worn by one of its officers who responded to the incident shows Garces Perez inside his car with two ICE agents standing nearby. Garces Perez tells them his shoulder hurts, whereupon he is told to exit the vehicle and placed in handcuffs. A police officer then uses ​shears to cut away his shirt, revealing a gunshot wound to his upper back.

In its information sheet, DHS said ICE “does not and would not advise, ​nor be the authority on, a ⁠medical procedure” and said Garces Perez was “receiving medical care around the clock.”

Perez said her son entered the United States from Mexico in December 2023 using CBP One, an app used by former President Joe Biden’s administration to allow migrants to lawfully cross the border by scheduling an appointment with CBP.

DHS has said Garces Perez’s work permit expired in 2025, making him eligible for deportation.

Garces Perez’s “dream” in the US was to earn money to support his 7-year-old son, who was ⁠born with cerebral ​palsy and requires costly treatment in Venezuela. The family has not yet told him about what happened to his father.

“We’re going ​to have to tell the boy little by little,” Perez said, “because he asks to talk to his dad every day.”

Garces Perez’s attorneys have filed a legal petition asking that he be released from custody so he can participate in the investigation into the shooting ​and pursue legal status.

His first hearing before a federal immigration judge in Texas is set for next Wednesday.

Reporting by Keren Torres, Kristina Cooke and Julia Harte. Writing by Julia Harte. Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage and Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.