🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
A Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed during a routine training mission Thursday afternoon in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, sending black smoke pouring from a fiery debris field near County Road 633 and forcing residents within a mile to evacuate. The pilot, with the 149th Fighter Wing out of Lackland Air Force Base, ejected safely and was reported in stable condition, and air traffic control audio suggested the jet's wingman may have struck a bird just south of Traverse City moments before impact, according to Fox News.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history. The bloodiest single day in American military history reached its grim conclusion on September 18, 1862, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army withdrew back across the Potomac following the Battle of Antietam, as History.com recounts.
A very different kind of history landed on September 18, 1947, when the National Security Act took effect, creating the position of Secretary of Defense and reorganizing the nation's military and intelligence agencies for the Cold War ahead — Fox News has the full rundown.
🕵️ Russian Intelligence Network Charged in DC-Area Murder-for-Hire Plot
The Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging five Russian intelligence operatives with orchestrating a plot to assassinate a Kremlin critic living in the Washington, D.C. area, allegedly offering a U.S.-based recruit $40,000 to carry out the killing.
The recruit, a Venezuelan national based in the U.S., surveilled two D.C.-area locations tied to the target but ultimately refused to go through with the murder, prosecutors say.
Operatives allegedly used coded language — “construction” for assassination and “measuring a plot of land” for surveillance — and noted they had “people in Mexico” on standby.
The same network is accused of recruiting a separate U.S. citizen in Lithuania to target another Kremlin critic for roughly $25,000, and of coordinating sabotage attacks on infrastructure in countries supporting Ukraine.
— via Fox News and Washington Examiner.
🇪🇺 Carney Welcomes EU's ‘Associate Member’ Pitch for Canada, Trump Calls It ‘Laughable’
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the European Parliament in Strasbourg Wednesday that he's open to Canada becoming the bloc's first “associate member,” a proposal floated by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as Ottawa's relationship with Washington frays.
Lawmakers in the chamber interrupted Carney's remarks with chants of “USA, USA” as he made the case for closer EU-Canada ties.
Carney insisted the move wouldn't create “a third bloc” meant to rival the U.S., framing it instead as “mutual advantage.”
President Trump dismissed the idea as “laughable” and warned that if he judged it “at all a hostile act,” he'd respond with “very serious tariffs” or cut off trade with Europe entirely.
— via Breitbart and Washington Times.
⚖️ DOJ Sues San Jose Over $1,600 Concealed-Carry Permit Fee
The Justice Department sued San Jose, California, Wednesday, arguing the city's roughly $1,591 fee to obtain a concealed-carry license is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen decision.
DOJ's Civil Rights Division argues the fee is designed to make gun ownership “impractical for middle class citizens and impossible for low-income citizens.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said no other constitutional right — like speech or religion — would be allowed to carry that kind of price tag, calling the fee “illogical” and unconstitutional.
The suit is the latest in a string of DOJ challenges to blue-city and blue-state gun restrictions since the Bruen ruling reset the legal standard for firearm laws nationwide.
🤖 Rand Paul Blocks Kennedy's AI ‘Kill Switch’ Bill in Senate Clash
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., blocked fellow Republican Sen. John Kennedy's bill requiring AI companies to build in a “kill switch” for shutting down rogue systems, arguing the Senate shouldn't regulate “something so pervasive as AI” without deeper industry input and debate.
Kennedy countered that his bill was narrowly targeted, saying it “doesn't put government in charge” and would only require a way to shut a system down “if you're gonna sell this thing... that has the potential to turn into an independent species, like the Terminator.”
Kennedy acknowledged his own conference isn't fully behind him, saying there's “no appetite in my caucus to do anything.”
The standoff comes as lawmakers in both parties debate how fast — and how far — to go in regulating fast-moving AI development.
— via Fox News and Daily Caller.
📊 Fox News Poll: 60% Say Iran Strikes Were the Wrong Call
A new Fox News poll finds 60% of voters believe U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, with the margin against the strikes widening from 17 points in June to 23 points now.
Seventy percent of voters say the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy to end the conflict, including 43% of Republicans.
Just 4% of voters name Iran as the most important issue facing the country, even as 47% say the war has made the U.S. less safe — up from 39% in April.
Trump's foreign-policy approval sits at 37%, a 24-point deficit the poll's authors describe as a “second-term low.”
— via Fox News.