Justice Department Unseals Indictment Charging Five With Financing Terrorism Over Alleged Russian Intelligence Murder Plots; All Five Are at Large
Prosecutors in Manhattan say a network tied to Russian intelligence recruited a Brooklyn resident to track a Russian dissident near Washington and offered $40,000 to kill the person; the recruit turned the money down, and Russia has previously denied running such plots.
U.S.
FAA's Bedford Tells House Appropriators Phase One of Air Traffic Overhaul Now Costs $16 Billion, Above the $12.5 Billion Congress Approved
At a September 15 oversight hearing, the FAA administrator asked for at least $10 billion more for a later phase, while lawmakers in both parties pressed him on a 2.8% controller pay raise he has not paid out.
Lawyers Begin Filing Federal Tort Claims for More Than 300 South Korean Workers Detained in 2025 Georgia Hyundai Raid
Attorneys have started filing administrative claims with nine federal agencies — the required first step before suing the U.S. government — over the September 4, 2025 immigration raid at the Hyundai-LG battery site in Ellabell, Georgia.
Kansas Man Held Without Bond in Florida on 25 Felony Counts Over Online Threats to Kill Ben Shapiro
Korby Strube, 29, was arrested Sept. 12 on Palm Beach County charges; a separate Secret Service inquiry in Kansas involved posts about President Trump and the Obamas, and no federal charges have been reported.
White House Marks One Year of the Memphis Federal Task Force, Citing a 36% Crime Drop; Missouri Officials Say No St. Louis Guard Deployment Is Planned
The administration credits roughly 12,000 arrests and a 36% fall in overall Memphis crime to its federal surge, while crime analysts say the decline started before troops arrived and Missouri officials say no formal St. Louis order exists.
Senate Votes 74-24 to Advance College Sports Bill With Limited NCAA Antitrust Exemption
The procedural vote clears a filibuster on the motion to proceed to the Protect College Sports Act; more votes in the Senate and action in the House are still required.
Senators Release Whistleblower Account Alleging DHS Officers Were Told to Pose as Voters on State Lookup Sites
An anonymous USCIS employee's disclosure, published September 14 by Sens. Alex Padilla and Chuck Schumer, says fraud officers were given about 12 minutes per voter; DHS says it used publicly available voter data to find noncitizens.
N.C.
NWS Wilmington Issues Coastal Flood Advisory for Lower Cape Fear River on Sept. 15; Separate Flash Flood Warning Covers Part of New Hanover County
The advisory warned of up to a half-foot of tidal inundation in downtown Wilmington, while a separate warning cited 2 to 4 inches of rain in north-central New Hanover County.
Trump Rallies for Senate Candidate Whatley in Gastonia; Sept. 10 Elon Poll Put Cooper Ahead 49%-38%
President Trump held an evening campaign event at Gastonia Municipal Airport for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley, six days after Elon University released a likely-voter poll showing Democrat Roy Cooper leading by 11 points.
Fourth Circuit Hears Arguments Over North Carolina's Ballot-Selfie Ban
A three-judge federal appeals panel heard argument Sept. 15 in Libertarian voter Susan Hogarth's First Amendment challenge to five North Carolina laws barring photos of marked ballots.
Son of Huntersville Commissioner Charged With First-Degree Murder in Charlotte Teen's Death
Police say Evin Quarles, 21, shot 17-year-old Cameron Brice on Kittansett Drive early Sunday; he is held without bond, and a second man killed nearby the same night remains an open case with no charges announced.
NC State Health Plan and Atrium Health Agree to Move 12 Hospitals Into Middle "Access" Tier for 2027
The deal keeps costs roughly flat at a dozen mostly rural Atrium hospitals and three children's hospitals, while Atrium's largest hospitals in Charlotte, Concord, Pineville and Winston-Salem stay in the higher-cost "non-preferred" tier.
Finance
Fed's Two-Day Meeting Ends Wednesday, With Rate Decision Set for 2 p.m. ET and Futures Pricing Above a 90% Chance of a Quarter-Point Hike
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and the FOMC announce their decision Wednesday afternoon; a quarter-point increase would be the first since July 2023 and would run against President Trump's public demand for lower rates.
House Panel Takes Up Bitcoin Reserve Bill a Day After Senate Blocks Crypto Market-Structure Bill 50-49
The House Financial Services Committee is marking up H.R. 8957 on Sept. 16; bitcoin, Coinbase and Circle all fell on Sept. 15 after the Senate's CLARITY Act cloture vote failed.
Lennar Reports Third-Quarter Results the Same Day as the Fed's Rate Decision
Lennar releases fiscal third-quarter numbers after Wednesday's close, hours after the Federal Reserve's September 16 announcement. FedEx, sometimes grouped into this week's earnings coverage, does not report again until its fiscal first-quarter results on October 28.
10-Year Treasury Yield Rises Above 5% on Sept. 15, Edging Past Its October 2023 Peak as the Fed's Two-Day Meeting Opens
The benchmark U.S. government borrowing rate reached about 5.02%-5.04%, its highest since July 2007, as traders priced high odds that the Federal Reserve will raise rates on Sept. 16 for the first time since 2023.
Baldwin Group Agrees to $32.50-a-Share Take-Private Deal Valued at $7.7 Billion With Sequence Holdings and Michael Dell's Family Office
The Tampa-based insurance brokerage said on September 14, 2026 that an entity formed by Sequence Holdings and DFO Management will buy a majority stake in an all-cash deal, with employees rolling over equity and closing targeted for the first quarter of 2027.
Chip and AI Stocks Fall in Seoul, Tokyo and U.S. Premarket After Amodei, Altman and Musk Call for Slowing Frontier AI Development
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on Sept. 12, 2026 urging labs to "pace the frontier"; Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed it, and AI-linked shares fell on Monday, Sept. 14.
World
Iraq's Sept. 30 Deadline for Armed Groups to Hand Over Weapons Nears as Last U.S. Troops Withdraw
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi says all weapons must come under state control by Sept. 30, but the largest Iran-aligned factions have refused or set conditions, and Iraqi officials disagree over whether the date is a hard deadline at all.
Saudi-Led Coalition Says Houthi Attacks Wounded 13 Civilians in Three Saudi Cities; Houthis Claim Strike on King Khalid Air Base and Report 54 Coalition Raids in Yemen
The coalition confirmed damage in Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif and vowed a firm response; the air base damage and the count of retaliatory raids come from the two sides' own statements and are not independently verified.
Belarus Opens Four-Day Military Exercise Near Poland and Lithuania Borders, Hours After NATO Downs Drone Over Lithuania
Belarus says the Sept. 15-18 drills are defensive; Lithuania is running its own exercises, and Poland's border crossings remain open, unlike during last year's Zapad drills.
Syria's Post-Assad Assembly Seated With 137 of 140 Elected Seats Filled; Sweida's Three Remain Vacant
Indirect voting by regional electoral colleges ran from October 2025 through May 2026, President Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed the other 70 members on July 1, and the chamber first met on July 12, 2026.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry Logs Four PLA Aircraft and Six Navy Ships Around the Island on Sept. 13-14, as Beijing Warns Over a Pending U.S. Arms Sale
Taiwan's military reported routine-scale Chinese air and naval activity in mid-September, while China's Foreign Ministry said a $14 billion U.S. arms package for Taiwan could cost Beijing's participation in a Sept. 24 Trump-Xi summit.
EU Ambassadors Extend Russia Sanctions List for One Week After France and Slovakia Block Six-Month Renewal
The bloc's roughly 2,600-name blacklist was due to expire September 15; envoys pushed the deadline to September 22 while Paris and Bratislava press to remove businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman.
Analysis
Unbiased, evergreen deep-dives on the bigger questions — not breaking news.
What Fauci's Released Diary Documents About the U.S. COVID-19 Response — and What It Leaves Unresolved
A 1,141-page personal diary released by Sen. Rand Paul's committee is roughly one-third routine administrative logging; a minority of entries bear directly on contested questions, and a few conflict with contemporaneous public statements.
Eight Months of Mamdani: What New York's Record Actually Shows, and What It Cannot Yet Show
A claim-by-claim audit of what Zohran Mamdani has delivered, how New Yorkers judge it, and what the evidence does and does not license anyone to conclude about the rest of the country.