🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
President Trump has told aides he's rejecting Tehran's latest overture to end the nearly seven-month-old war, according to a Wall Street Journal report making the rounds this morning, after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi laid out a seven-day timeline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz if Washington accepts Tehran's terms — an offer the president reportedly believes buys Iran time rather than ends the fight, with bombing expected to resume once the midterms are behind him. The rejection comes as retired Gen. Jack Keane warned that China's military support for Iran is accelerating, with Beijing supplying intelligence and materiel for Tehran's ballistic missile program, even as Turkey and Pakistan met with Saudi officials on defending against Houthi attacks and France prepared to send troops to the kingdom's Red Sea port of Yanbu. Crude prices fell more than 2% Friday on the renewed negotiating chatter, with West Texas Intermediate slipping below $92 a barrel, even as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he does not believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history: presidential politics moved into America's living rooms for the first time on this date in 1960, when Sen. John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon squared off in a Chicago studio for the first televised presidential debate, watched live by roughly 70 million Americans. Nixon was still recovering from a knee infection that had cost him 20 pounds and a hospital stay, and he refused makeup and visibly perspired under the studio lights, while a tanned, rested-looking Kennedy came across as vibrant on screen — a contrast radio listeners barely noticed but that television viewers said helped tip a race Kennedy would go on to win by less than two-tenths of a percentage point.
Fifty-eight years earlier, on this same date in 1918, American troops were part of the largest offensive the United States had ever mounted, as Gen. John J. Pershing sent 37 French and American divisions and more than 700 Allied tanks against German lines in France's Meuse-Argonne region in a bid to cut off the German 2nd Army entirely. A bombardment of nearly 800 mustard-gas and phosgene shells preceded the infantry assault, and within two days the advancing troops, backed by roughly 500 aircraft, had captured 33,000 German prisoners and pushed up to six miles into enemy territory.
⚖️ Supreme Court Blocks Missouri's GOP-Favored 2025 Map, Locks In Older District Lines for the Midterms
The Supreme Court sided unanimously with Missouri's original congressional map Friday, issuing an unsigned emergency order requiring the state to use its 2022 district lines — which give Republicans a 6-2 advantage — rather than a newer 2025 map redrawn to favor the GOP 7-1. The per curiam ruling, handed down roughly five weeks before Election Day, reversed a lower appeals court and instructed courts to neither block the 2022 map nor force adoption of the 2025 version, ending a monthslong legal fight over which lines will govern Missouri's House delegation this fall.
The fight traced back to a Republican-drawn map designed to convert Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-area seat into more reliably conservative territory
A voter referendum petition with more than 300,000 signatures had already forced the newer map to a public vote before Missouri's own Supreme Court first intervened
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway's office had asked the justices to overturn the block and let the 2025 map stand for this cycle
🪖 Pentagon Stands Up New 'FAST' Team to Hunt Down Wasteful, Duplicate Defense Spending
The Department of War announced Thursday it has created the Force Agility and Streamlining Team, a new internal watchdog tasked with rooting out duplicative programs and wasteful bureaucracy across the military and redirecting the savings toward the warfighting front lines. The team, ordered into existence by Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg, reports directly to Under Secretary of War (Comptroller) Jules W. Hurst III, who said the effort will be judged “by results, not by another layer of process.”
Hurst said “every dollar we spend should make our military stronger, more ready, and more lethal”
FAST will work with the military branches, the Joint Staff and defense agencies to recommend eliminating, consolidating or restructuring programs
The office is the latest in a string of Pentagon efficiency pushes since the department was renamed the Department of War
🤝 Xi Calls State Visit 'Perfection,' Trump Touts 'Very Productive' Summit as Chinese Leader Heads Home
Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his three-day state visit to Washington Friday with tea at the White House and a joint stop at the National Archives, where he and President Trump viewed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights together. “Everything is down to the highest order of perfection, and there is thought in every little detail,” Xi said of the visit, while Trump called the talks “very productive” and said the two sides had “made great strides” on trade, even as disputes over tariffs, technology and Taiwan remained unresolved.
Trump joked about the two nations' histories at the Archives, telling Xi “ours goes 250 years... theirs goes 6,000 years”
The two leaders also discussed Iran, and Trump said he was optimistic about reopening the Strait of Hormuz
Xi and Trump are expected to meet again in November at the APEC summit in China and in December at the G20 in Miami
🐘 GOP Senators Blast Trump's 'Lavish' Red-Carpet Welcome for Xi, Citing China's Ties to Iran
Senate Republicans openly broke with President Trump this week over the pomp surrounding Xi Jinping's Washington visit, warning that a red-carpet welcome for the Chinese leader undercuts the GOP's own midterm message on standing up to Communist China. Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker said he “would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome,” while other Republicans pointed to intelligence reports that China has been supplying Iran's military as reason for skepticism.
Sen. Thom Tillis said rolling out the red carpet for “a despot... is kind of not good,” given Trump's own campaign rhetoric on China
Sen. John Cornyn called China part of an “axis opposed” to U.S. interests and questioned whether the summit's warmth was well-advised
Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended the visit as a necessary part of managing the U.S.-China relationship
🗳️ Supreme Court Lets Trump Administration Use Revamped Voter-Verification Database Ahead of Midterms
The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Trump administration to use an expanded version of DHS's SAVE citizenship-verification database while a legal challenge over the system continues, handing down a 6-3 emergency order over the dissent of the Court's three liberal justices. The majority found that “the Federal Government has an obligation to respond to requests from state and local election officials seeking to verify the citizenship of voters,” reversing a lower court that had blocked the expanded database over privacy and procedural concerns.
The revamped SAVE system, expanded in 2025 to include Social Security records and bulk queries, had been blocked by a federal judge in June
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning the ruling could “cause harm to lawful voters”
Supporters cast the ruling as a win for election integrity ahead of a closely watched midterm cycle