General news

• US-backed fighters launch final push to defeat IS in Syria

  09-02-2019 19:22 via news.yahoo.com
  BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces said Saturday they have launched a final push to defeat the Islamic State group in the last tiny pocket the extremists hold in eastern Syria.
  
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• ICE agent shoots and wounds man in Austin, authorities say

  20-09-2026 23:18 via yahoo.com
  AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and wounded a man Sunday afternoon in Texas' capital of Austin, local authorities said.The unnamed man was in serious but stable condition at a hospital after being shot once in the torso on the city's north side, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a news conference with the city's mayor and other officials present. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not participate in the news confer
  
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• NYC Mayor Mamdani and President Trump to meet Monday

  20-09-2026 20:04 via abcnews.com
  
  New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will meet with President Donald Trump at New York's Gracie Mansion on Monday, Sept. 21, the mayor's office announced Sunday."The meeting will focus on issues affecting New York City and New Yorkers," according to the announcement.No further details were immediately provided.Trump and Mamdani have met twice before. The first meeting was in November of last year at the White House, when Mamdani was mayor elect, and the second was in February, also at the White Ho
  
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• Iran and U.S. trade threats after Houthi attacks escalate regional conflict.

  20-09-2026 19:27 via yahoo.com
  By Jana Choukeir and Doina ChiacuDUBAI/WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Iran and the United States exchanged new threats on Sunday, with President Donald Trump warning Iran would fail economically or face its leadership being wiped out if it didn't make a deal, and the Iranian ‌military saying it would retaliate harshly to any fresh attack.The conflict has looked stalemated for months, with no sign either side was ready ‌for concessions even as it has deepened a global energy crisis, cr
  
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• Lauren Boebert denies alleged relationships with staffers: 'I'm not a lesbian or bisexual'

  20-09-2026 18:33 via advocate.com
  
  Rep. Lauren Boebert is publicly refuting a complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics on September 17 which alleged that the Colorado congresswoman had sexual relationships with three staffers she supervised, including two women, and paid $200,000 in hush money in an attempt to keep one of the relationships secret.“Congresswoman Lauren Boebert rejects these allegations as utterly false and there is no truth to them whatsoever,” a representative for the lawmaker wrote in a sta
  
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• Over a dozen states are closer than ever to making daylight saving time permanent

  20-09-2026 17:00 via thehill.com
  (NEXSTAR) – The days getting shorter serve as a reminder that we're barreling toward the end of our seasonal observation of daylight saving time, but the wheels may be in motion to stop that – a move more than a dozen states have been waiting to happen.Earlier this year, the House passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent throughout the U.S., with few exceptions. It's been held up in the Senate since July but, now that the chamber has return
  
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• Sen. Barrasso downplays concerns that Trump's media ban violates constitution

  20-09-2026 16:31 via nbcnews.com
  Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on Sunday downplayed concerns that President Donald Trump may have violated the Constitution when reporters from Politico, MS NOW and CNN were banned from covering the White House on Saturday.Asked directly whether the president had violated the Constitution, Barrasso said, “No, I believe the press has an obligation to report fairly.”Pressed again on whether he agreed with Trump’s ban, Barrasso said, “We all respect and value the freedom of the
  
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• Gov. Pritzker says AI is dangerous 'on the level of nuclear weapons'

  20-09-2026 16:30 via abcnews.com
  
  With calls to regulate AI growing, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker urged Congress to pass federal guardrails on the technology. “You can't do this state by state. This needs to be a national effort as well as an international endeavor, especially together with our allies, because AI is not going to go away,” Pritzker told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that aired Sunday.Pritzker touted legislation he signed in Illinois in July requiring A
  
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• U.S. embassies across Middle East issue security alerts for Americans

  20-09-2026 16:20 via cbsnews.com
  
  What to know about the Iran war today:The U.S. military has escorted one billion barrels of oil and over 2,000 commercial vessels out of the Persian Gulf in the last couple of months, the leader of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, said in a video released Saturday.The Iran-back Houthi militia in Yemen expanded attacks on Saudi Arabia on Saturday, targeting oil storage at the Riyadh international airport and Aramco oil facilities in Yanbu, both deep into Saudi territory. Saudi officials la
  
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• State Dept. issues alert to U.S. citizens across the Middle East as tensions rise

  20-09-2026 16:00 via newsmax.com
  U.S. State Department is seen on Nov. 29, 2010. (Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images)President Donald Trump cut short a weekend stay at Camp David and returned to the White House on Saturday evening, hours after the State Department issued a security alert warning that escalating hostilities in the Middle East could worsen rapidly.
  Trump arrived at the Ellipse aboard Marine One shortly before 8 p.m., according to the White House press pool. His public schedule had called for him to remain at Camp David u
  
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• GOP donors say Trump missed the mark with latest AI comments

  20-09-2026 16:00 via yahoo.com
  President Donald Trump dismissed concerns over artificial intelligence this week. Republican donors wish he hadn’t.Some donors, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly without reprisal, told POLITICO that Trump’s learn-to-love-it broadsides about AI are the latest example of a president who can at times seem out of touch with voter anxieties, likening it to his glibness around cost of living concerns.Trump has now called both affordability and fears over AI’s disru
  
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• Housing costs rise as 30-year mortgage rates jump before midterms

  20-09-2026 15:30 via finance.yahoo.com
  
  (Bloomberg) -- Barely six weeks out from the midterm elections, housing costs that many Americans have long said are too high are looking even more out of reach. Most Read from BloombergSaudis Give European Oil Buyers No Supplies for Next MonthZuckerberg Has an AI Empire to Build. Meet the Adviser Who Handles the DetailsBlackstone Sees India Nearing Tipping Point for Foreign CapitalTrump Drops a Legal Bid to Block Funding of Gateway TunnelAir India CEO Weighs Folding Budget Unit Into Group
  
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• New poll suggests gloomy GOP outlook for midterms

  20-09-2026 15:00 via nbcnews.com
  President Donald Trump’s sinking ratings threaten to drag down Republicans in November’s midterm elections, as voters blame him for high prices and a shaky economy, according to a new NBC News poll.The president’s approval rating stands at 41% among registered voters, a second-term low in the poll, with a majority (55%) of voters saying they believe Trump’s policies have hurt the economy. That’s up from 48% in March, before the Iran war pushed up prices on gas and o
  
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• Trump says his planned arch will double as a military complex housing drones and snipers

  20-09-2026 14:53 via yahoo.com
  President Donald Trump on Sunday said his proposed 250-foot triumphal arch will now be a "top grade" military complex that will house drones, snipers and ammunition.In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he has agreed to convert the arch "at the strong request" of the U.S. military, and "for National Security purposes."Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.The "Military Complex/Triumphal Arch" near Arlington National Ce
  
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• Obama rips White House's approach to AI after Trump dubbed security fears a 'hoax'

  20-09-2026 13:52 via thehill.com
  Former President Obama on Friday slammed President Trump over his handling of how to approach artificial intelligence amid "doomsday" warnings coming from some in the tech industry about the technology's potential existential threat to humanity.
  Obama said during an interview at Colgate University in New York that the federal government must regulate AI, before referring to comments made by one Trump adviser.
  "I heard one of Donald Trump’s main advisers on this make the argument that, 'Th
  
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• Gas prices are squeezing voters as Trump calls the increase a small price to pay

  20-09-2026 13:25 via yahoo.com
  EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Quinten Martinez, pumping gas under a hot South Texas sun, remembers a time when fueling up didn't require difficult decisions.“Is it going to be groceries this week?" asked the 28-year-old Amazon delivery driver as he watched the numbers tick higher. "Is it gonna be getting gas in our tank to go to work?”He shook his head when asked about President Donald Trump's assertion last week that higher gas prices are a small price to pay for the war with Iran. &
  
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• North Korea launches 2 missiles within hours of each other as tensions rise

  20-09-2026 11:47 via yahoo.com
  SEOUL, Sept 20 (Reuters) - North Korea launched two missiles off its eastern coast on Sunday, its second set of tests in roughly a week and days after Pyongyang ‌accused the US of driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula through a series of military drills.Just ‌three hours after launching a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) toward the East Sea on Sunday afternoon, North Korea fired another unidentified ​projectile, according to South Korea's defence ministry.If the subse
  
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• Ukraine targets Moscow with hundreds of drones in ‘largest ever’ attack

  20-09-2026 09:23 via yahoo.com
  Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow, officials said Sunday as the Kremlin was wrapping up the third and last day of its parliamentary elections. Moscow’s mayor described the wave of drones as the “largest ever” attack on the Russian capital and said there had been damage to a Moscow oil refinery and a residential building.Across the wider Moscow region, the attack killed two people and wounded 20
  
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• U.S. fears rapid escalation in the Mideast after Houthis attack Riyadh

  20-09-2026 06:53 via yahoo.com
  Yemen's Houthi armed forces patrol as Yemeni prisoners loyal to the Houthi authorities arrive in the capital Sanaa on September 12 (Mohammed HUWAIS)The United States warned Saturday that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could "escalate rapidly" after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed.US President Donald Trump cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to th
  
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• U.S. military strikes alleged drug-trafficking vessel in Caribbean, killing 4 people

  20-09-2026 05:55 via foxnews.com
  
  The U.S. military on Saturday carried out a lethal strike on a vessel in the Caribbean that it said was involved in drug trafficking, killing four alleged "narco-terrorists," according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)."On September 19, under the direction of #SOUTHCOM, Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere executed a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean," SOUTHCOM said in a statement."Confirmed intelligence revealed the
  
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• 'Devoted' father and grandfather-to-be swimming at popular beach killed in suspected fatal shark attack

  20-09-2026 03:32 via foxnews.com
  
  A "devoted" father and grandfather-to-be was reportedly killed by a shark this week while swimming at a beach in Australia.Greg O'Neill, 63, was swimming at Sorrento Beach in the northern suburbs of Perth in Western Australia on Friday when the attack happened in front of horrified beachgoers."I couldn’t believe there was that much blood (that had) come out of a human body," Ryan Rowe, a resident who went to the beach soon after the attack, told The West Australian newspaper.AUSTRALIAN SUR
  
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• Trump's surprise 'AI Force' leaves tech industry searching for answers

  19-09-2026 22:39 via yahoo.com
  The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he is creating an artificial intelligence task force and appointing a czar to oversee the administration's approach to the technology.Trump, in alengthy Truth Social poston Saturday morning, said he was forming the government body and would also soon name an AI czar to lead it. He offered few details, leaving members of the tech world unsure what the task force would do, who would be involved or
  
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• Houthis say they targeted Saudi capital and energy sites with ballistic missiles

  19-09-2026 22:20 via bbc.com
  
  Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen say they carried out drone and ballistic missile attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh, as well as energy sites on the country's Red Sea coast.Saudi authorities said they intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh earlier that day, without confirming any further strikes or causalities. Earlier, a column of black smoke was seen rising from fuel tanks near the Saudi capital's international airport, where flights were disrupted temporarily on S
  
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• In chaotic L.A. skies, news helicopter pilots juggle competition, camaraderie, risk

  19-09-2026 21:22 via yahoo.com
  For the record:
  1:38 p.m. Sept. 19, 2026: An earlier version of this article stated KCAL's helicopter is owned by Angel City Air. It is owned by Helicopters Inc.Whether it's a brush fire, a mass shooting, a car chase or the aftermath of a major storm, viewers in Los Angeles are used to getting the news from above.Television news helicopter coverage has become one of the most important elements of any local newscast, with the high-flying helicopters roaring overhead a common fixture of breaking n
  
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• Trump says he’s creating an AI force and appointing a czar amid concerns over the rapidly developing tech

  19-09-2026 21:20 via nbcnews.com
  
  President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will appoint a czar to take point on artificial intelligence and will also create an AI task force.
  
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• Newsom signs California election safeguards aimed at Trump administration

  19-09-2026 20:40 via yahoo.com
  An election worker puts ballots in a counting machine at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 3 in City of Industry. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed bills to protect California's elections process from interference and increase transparency in campaigns. (Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed legislation to increase security for the state’s voting systems and protect Californians’ ability to cast ballots in an effort to guard aga
  
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• Trump says he’ll name an AI czar and create an ‘AI force’

  19-09-2026 20:33 via yahoo.com
  WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Saturday that he plans to appoint a new artificial intelligence adviser, known as ‌an "AI czar," and create an "AI force," though he did not provide details about either ‌initiative or how they would be implemented.Fears are growing in Washington among lawmakers about the risks posed by AI technology on ​humans and property. Earlier this month, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon s
  
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• Comedian Carrot Top hospitalized and recovering, representative says

  19-09-2026 19:57 via nbcnews.com
  
  Comedian Carrot Top has been hospitalized and is recovering, his representative said Saturday.
  
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• Houthis claim attack on Saudi capital after smoke seen rising near Riyadh airport

  19-09-2026 19:50 via bbc.com
  
  Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen say they carried out drone and missile attacks on the Saudi capital Riyadh and energy sites on the country's Red Sea coast.A column of black smoke was seen rising from what appeared to be fuel tanks near the Saudi capital's international airport on Saturday, hours after air raid alerts were issued.It was the first time residents had been given an alert and urged to stay indoors since a recent escalation in the conflict with the Houthis.There has been no offi
  
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• FBI warned immigration authorities about fake tradwife dating profiles

  19-09-2026 18:14 via nbcnews.com
  
  An FBI memo said that a small group of women were posing with a “traditional wife” esthetic as a tactic to lure immigration authorities.
  
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