🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
The Federal Reserve unanimously raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to a range of 3.75% to 4.00% on Tuesday, the first hike since 2023, with newly installed Chair Kevin Warsh calling it a step toward a “timelier return” to the Fed’s 2% inflation goal. The move came over President Trump’s public objections to higher rates, and Warsh made a point of drawing a line between the Fed and the White House afterward, declining to discuss any conversations he’s had with the president, according to Fox Business.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th, 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 fell on this date in 1862, when Union and Confederate forces collided along Antietam Creek in Maryland, leaving more than 23,000 men dead, wounded or missing by nightfall — a toll Fox News still calls the costliest of the entire Civil War.
Sixteen years later, Egypt and Israel took a very different turn toward the history books: on September 17, 1978, the two countries signed the Camp David Accords at the White House, a framework that led directly to the first peace treaty ever signed between Israel and an Arab nation.
⚖️ Kirk Family Moves Toward Suing Utah Valley University
Charlie Kirk’s family filed a notice of claim against Utah Valley University, the state of Utah, and campus police chief Jeffrey Long on September 9th — the required first step before filing a wrongful-death lawsuit over security failures the family says allowed his assassination a year ago.
A text exchange in the filing shows a Turning Point USA staffer warning Chief Long about uncontrolled rooftop access before the event, to which Long replied, “I got you covered” — the rooftop was never secured.
The claim lists six alleged failures, including sending only six campus officers to an outdoor event expecting thousands and ignoring TPUSA’s specific request for added coverage.
The filing calls the university’s conduct “a series of stunning failures and reckless decisions” and names Kirk’s estate, widow Erika Kirk, and his minor children as plaintiffs.
🎖️ New Footage Reveals Daring Rescue of Downed Airman in Iran
The U.S. military released newly declassified video this week documenting the roughly 50-hour operation that pulled an injured Air Force weapons officer out of Iranian territory after his F-15E was shot down in April — the first American boots on Iranian soil since 1980.
The airman, call sign “Bravo,” suffered a broken back, arm and shoulder after a damaged parachute forced a hard landing on a 7,000-foot ridgeline.
Roughly 92 troops went in on the ground, backed by hundreds more in the air, while bombers and drones struck nearby Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions to clear the way.
“Little Bird” helicopters extracted Bravo as the sun came up on Easter Sunday, capping what the Pentagon has called a textbook combat search-and-rescue mission.
🔍 New Thomas Crooks Details Emerge as Patel Faces the Senate
FBI Director Kash Patel told a Senate Oversight Committee hearing this week that investigators have found no evidence Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Crooks communicated with anyone besides his parents, even as newly disclosed documents paint an increasingly troubling picture of his final weeks.
Acquaintances described Crooks pacing and dancing alone at night two or three times a week, talking to himself, and growing more agitated as he aged.
Former FBI agent Jonathan Gilliam called the pattern consistent with someone “spiraling into almost a manic or delusional state.”
Patel’s testimony pushed back on lingering suggestions that Crooks coordinated with anyone beyond his immediate family in planning the attack.
🌍 Trump Calls Canada’s EU Bid ‘Laughable,’ Threatens New Tariffs
President Trump dismissed a European proposal to make Canada the EU’s first-ever “associate member” as “laughable” Tuesday night, warning he’d hit Europe with “very heavy tariffs” if the arrangement is meant to hurt the United States.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the associate-member concept in her State of the Union address, describing it as a partnership “stopping just short of membership.”
Trump called Canada a “terrible trade partner” in the same remarks and said he’d treat any EU move he views as hostile as grounds for cutting off trade “on many things.”
The proposal is still in the planning stages, but it lands amid an already-strained trade relationship between Washington and both Ottawa and Brussels.
🤖 Rand Paul Kills Fellow Republican’s AI ‘Kill Switch’ Bill
Sen. Rand Paul blocked a measure from fellow Republican John Kennedy that would have required AI companies to build an emergency “kill switch” into their most advanced models, arguing Congress doesn’t yet understand the technology well enough to regulate it.
Kennedy introduced the bill by unanimous consent, telling the Senate floor: “I’m not standing here today suggesting to you I have all the answers… What I am suggesting to you is there are risks to artificial intelligence.”
Paul countered by asking whether search engines and drug-prescription software would also need kill switches under the bill’s language, and proposed a study panel instead.
Kennedy accused Paul of taking the “weenie way out,” making this the latest of several AI regulation efforts to stall in the Senate this year.