🚨 Putin, Xi and Iran's Pezeshkian Descend on India for High-Stakes BRICS Summit 🚨
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian have all landed in New Delhi as the 18th BRICS summit opens, putting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the middle of a balancing act between Washington and the bloc’s other major powers. Xi’s visit is his first to India in seven years, with bilateral talks aimed at normalizing ties after their 2020 border standoff, while Iran is pushing for membership in the bloc’s New Development Bank as it looks for economic lifelines outside U.S. sanctions — all as Putin and Modi, fresh off a Friday meeting, touted what the Kremlin called record levels of Russian energy sales to India, according to Fox News.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history.
President Kennedy stood before a crowd at Rice University on this date in 1962 and declared, “we choose to go to the moon in this decade,” setting the tone for a space race that would put Americans on the lunar surface within seven years.
Four French teenagers stumbled into a hidden cave in the Dordogne region on this date in 1940 and discovered the now-famous Lascaux cave paintings — a trove of tens-of-thousands-of-years-old Paleolithic art that reshaped how historians understood prehistoric human culture.
⛽️ Diesel Prices Break $6 a Gallon for the First Time Ever
The national average price for diesel hit $6.06 a gallon on Friday, up from $5.98 the day before and more than 63% higher than the $3.71 average from a year ago, according to AAA's price tracker.
Diesel-powered trucks hauled 72.7% of domestic freight tonnage in 2024, and trucking groups warn the spike will ripple through prices on everything moved by truck.
USDA economists estimate a doubling of diesel prices could push wholesale produce prices up 20% to 28% in the short term, since diesel made up 64.3% of farm fuel spending in 2024.
The increase comes as fuel markets stay rattled by the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict and the new Houthi offensive against Red Sea shipping lanes.
🗣️ Vance Calls Democrats the ‘Party of Hatred,’ Torches Flag-Waving Heckler at GOP Convention
Vice President JD Vance closed out the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas Thursday night with a blistering speech declaring, “They're not the party of FDR or JFK… The Democrats are the party of hatred,” before turning to a heckler who waved a Mexican flag from the convention floor.
Vance told the protester, “If you love Mexico so much, get your a-- over there. I'll buy you the plane ticket,” as the crowd at the American Airlines Center broke into chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
He also took aim at Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and legislative candidate William Lawrence over their comments on the nuclear family, calling some of the rhetoric a “deep emptiness in the soul.”
Vance closed by honoring Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist killed a year earlier, and reflected on fatherhood after the birth of his own son in July.
📺 Trump Vows to Report NBC's Kristen Welker to the FCC Over ‘Purposeful Inaccuracy’
President Trump said he'll report NBC anchor Kristen Welker to the FCC after she described his primary endorsement record as having “mixed results,” calling it a “purposeful inaccuracy” that should draw “rebuke or punishment.”
Trump countered that his endorsement record is historically strong, claiming a 99% overall success rate — 100% in Senate races and 98% in House races.
He urged FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to take the matter “very seriously,” even as legal experts note the agency can't punish individual journalists absent evidence of deliberate intent to mislead.
NBC News has defended Welker's reporting, adding to a summer of tension between the White House and network anchors over midterm-cycle coverage.
🕯️ One Year After Charlie Kirk's Assassination, Supporters Return to the Site: ‘We Are Still Standing’
Turning Point USA marked the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination with a memorial service at Utah Valley University, where students who witnessed the shooting a year ago unveiled a new statue in his honor.
UVU chapter president Sage Lloyd told the crowd, “the same students who witnessed a political assassination are willing to stand up, speak out and keep moving forward,” adding, “we are still speaking, and we are nowhere near done.”
TPUSA chief field officer Andrew Sypher said the gathering wasn't about the tragedy: “We did not come back to rehearse the crime scene.”
President Trump delivered his own remarks marking the anniversary, while Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, marked the day separately.
💻 Florida's DMV Confirms Data Breach After Officer's Stolen Credentials Exploited
Florida's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles confirmed an international cybercriminal group breached its systems using login credentials belonging to a Plant City police officer, discovered on Sept. 4.
Investigators say the officer's login information was improperly stored on a personal electronic device, giving hackers a way into the state's driver database.
The breach follows a separate, larger driver's-license data exposure earlier this year, raising fresh questions about how Florida secures sensitive DMV records.
State officials haven't yet said how many residents' records were affected or whether other agencies were compromised.