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Mediators are working to broker a U.S.-Iran deal, but major hurdles remain

CAIRO — Mediators are working with Iran and the United States on trying to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz, three regional officials and two U.S. officials told the Associated Press, but major hurdles remain between the sides.

The indirect talks come as the conflict, which is entering its eighth month, has caused global economic damage and badly battered Iran. Multiple efforts to allow safe shipping on one of the world’s most crucial waterways have failed.

The officials divulged that the behind-the-scenes efforts continue even after U.S. President Donald Trump initially said he spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in a week if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets, and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — who stayed in New York after last week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly — will meet with Qatari mediators Monday about the latest discussions, Iranian state media reported Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as saying.

Despite Trump’s often bellicose rhetoric, he is open to pursuing a nonmilitary resolution to the conflict if one can be achieved, a senior U.S. official said.

But the Trump administration will not reach a deal with Tehran until nuclear issues are addressed, another U.S. official said. Trump is willing to grant sanctions relief to Iran, along with the release of some frozen funds, for concrete progress on nuclear issues, and while Iran has indicated it is flexible on nuclear issues, the sides are far apart on timing and which side makes the first moves, the official said.

All the officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity about the behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations.

Deal would first reopen strait and lift U.S. blockade

Two of the regional officials speaking to the AP confirmed that mediators are working with both sides on a proposal that would include reopening the strait and lifting the U.S. blockade, and then removing sanctions.

According to the draft text being discussed, the strait would reopen in accordance with a separate deal that Iran has been discussing with Oman, on the other side of the strait, and it would include no tolls — something Tehran has pursued. That deal seeks to temporarily manage shipping traffic on what was seen as an international waterway before the war.

One regional official said the U.S. is seeking Iranian concessions on nuclear issues that include allowing inspectors to enter the country. Under the memorandum of understanding the two sides signed in June that collapsed within days, Iran’s nuclear program was meant to be discussed over a 60-day period.

The U.S. officials say the United States is skeptical about whether Iran can be persuaded to ultimately reach Trump’s conditions for a deal and would be serious about any promises it makes, especially after it broke the interim deal by firing on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. officials feel their position is getting stronger as Tehran feels the impact of sanctions.

Iran’s latest proposal seeks faster action

While Iran’s latest proposal echoes the June deal, a key difference is speed.

Araghchi told a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last week that Tehran had pitched the deal as benefiting Trump in the midterm elections. Araghchi later told journalists that “the seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also planned to meet Araghchi on Monday in a bid to help mediators, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Both the U.S. and Iran have been hurting economically — the U.S. from high oil prices as Iran attacks ships on the strait, and Tehran from the naval blockade and a growing number of U.S. sanctions that bottle up its oil sales. Brent crude, the international standard, is above $108.

For months, the two sides have been trying to outlast the other, while regional countries endure missile and drone attacks as Tehran claims to target U.S. military assets in the region.

Reflecting Iran’s impatience, a rare statement on Monday attributed to the theocracy’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei noted the “painful blows” that enemy forces have received near the strait. “Before long, the Arabian Sea, too, will be rid of them,” the statement added.

Tehran’s latest proposal again sought to end the fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon. But a new front has emerged in recent weeks as Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are now perched on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. That has further pressured global energy markets.

Iran argues that the Houthis have their own demands, and that their conflict with neighboring Saudi Arabia is separate from the U.S.-Iran war, but Iranian officials said they are willing to help in finding a settlement between the Houthis and the Saudis, one of the officials said.

September 28, 2026
Residents brace for a possible Russian hybrid attack on Poland’s border with Ukraine

DOROHUSK, Poland — Three times in one day, phones lit up across this Polish border community with a warning: A drone or a missile could cross from Ukraine, and residents should stay vigilant in case they might need to take cover.

Above the village of Dorohusk in eastern Poland, vapor trails cut across the pale blue sky and military helicopters rumbled overhead. Just 1.24 miles away, traffic at the border crossing into Ukraine was suspended three times, and staff were even evacuated once.

The alerts and disruptions on Thursday came as the Associated Press was visiting the village. They reflected a new reality along Poland’s eastern frontier, where the war in Ukraine — now 4½ years old — has felt increasingly close.

Russia isn’t at war with Poland, but over the past few years European leaders say it’s mounted a series of so-called hybrid attacks to pressure to pressure adversaries in the West and NATO that include sabotage, disinformation, and cyberattacks. Poland is worried that the drones or missiles strikes could spill over from Ukraine, whether by accident or as part of a Russian strategy of ambiguous attacks.

The anxiety intensified after two Russian drones exploded on the Ukrainian side of the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing in the early hours of Sept. 13. The explosions could clearly be heard in Dorohusk.

“There is new restlessness and fear because you could hear those explosions very well on that night in our village,” said Wojciech Sawa, the Dorohusk mayor. “We had never had something like that before. This was the first time the sirens wailed.”

Poland is preparing for a more serious Russian hybrid attack

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Sept. 17 that Russia was planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, among them Poland, and regions bordering Ukraine would be especially vulnerable in the coming months. Other European leaders and intelligence services have shared his warnings that Russia is likely to step up its hybrid campaign.

In Dorohusk, people have lived in the shadow of the war for years. They watched Ukrainian refugees flee across the frontier in the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion and, this July, had a Russian missile pass through airspace in eastern Poland before crashing some 56 miles inside the country.

But the recent drone attacks and the Polish government’s efforts to prepare the population for further serious incidents have brought a new sense of apprehension — and also confusion — among locals.

Kids in border regions have to evacuate when sirens sound

Jarosław Wójcicki, the Dorohusk school’s director, said staff, including the school psychologist, now discuss with students “practically every day” how to stay safe.

The school had to be evacuated once so far and Wójcicki showed the two rooms in the basement of the school building where the kids took cover. Windows had been boarded up to avoid glass shards hurting anyone in case of an explosion.

“The older children had no problem at all, without showing any particular emotion,” the director said. “You could see a little fear among the younger children, but they were well looked after by their teachers.”

Wójcicki is responsible for the safety of hundreds of children who travel from nearby villages to attend school in Dorohusk, and his voice wavered as he described the extent of the task.

Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz visited the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing on Sept. 22 and announced new air defense elements were being brought to the border region. He added that Patriot batteries were deployed in the two Polish regions bordering Ukraine, including the one where Dorohusk is located.

More work to be done on civil preparedness

While the government’s warnings are stark, even communities closest to Ukraine are still catching up on civil defense preparedness.

“We are at the beginning of the process of building civil resilience and the resilience of the state to threats,” said Mirosław Sokal, head of resident safety for the city of Lublin, west of Dorohusk. “We have to remember that over the past 40 years we thought we would be living in peace.”

He said, given the lack of more solid infrastructure, Poles should respect one minimal rule when there’s an air threat: get inside and put two walls between them and any window.

Sawa, the Dorohusk mayor, said villagers typically live in individual homes with basements and that is the obvious place to hide in case of air threats. “If I don’t have a basement myself, my neighbor likely does,” he said.

But people on the streets of Dorohusk seemed more confused about their options in case of a real attack.

“For now, I sleep well at night, so I don’t really hear it,” said Irena Popek, a woman in her 80s. If planes are coming, she said, her basement was not an option as it was flooded. ”I simply have nowhere to hide, and that’s it.”

Renata Pastuszo, a local shop employee, said she continued working through the recent siren alarm because it’s better to keep a positive spirit in front of the Russian threat.

Krzysztof Rulka, another resident, complained that alerts were now coming too often, leaving people confused about their meaning.

“If someone told me that a drone was going to explode in the center of Dorohusk, then I would know what to do,” he said. “But this kind of confusion — there’s an air attack somewhere in Ukraine — well, what am I supposed to do now? Run to Germany?”

September 28, 2026
Secretive group’s latest anti-Trump artwork placed in D.C. — and Greenland

The mysterious art collective responsible for more than a dozen installations mocking President Donald Trump and his administration over the past two years struck again on the National Mall in Washington on Monday morning, this time with an international twist.

The group, Secret Handshake, created Operation Epic Furious: Nuuk ’Em All, a satirical video game playable on three video game cabinets placed under the dome of D.C.’s World War I Memorial near the under-repair Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The game, according to a news release sent by Secret Handshake, “turns all of Trump’s latest Greenland ambitions into an unhinged Arctic adventure.” Nuuk, a city of about 20,000 people, is the capital of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

In the game, the group says, the president “battles unthinkable evils like Fully Vaccinated Children, Woke Yetis, and the happiest people on Earth, the Danish. All the while, the player’s greatest challenge is trying to keep President Trump from falling back asleep.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new installation. It has previously dismissed the group’s work. In response to a mocking Iran War Participation Trophy that Secret Handshake installed on the National Mall in July, the White House said, “These untalented ‘artists’ should stick to their ugly ‘art’ and refrain from weighing in on foreign policy — which they clearly know nothing about, given the fact that the United States Military achieved all of its objectives during Operation Epic Fury.”

A fourth video game cabinet for Operation Epic Furious: Nuuk ’Em All appears to have been placed in Nuuk over the weekend, according to photos posted on Secret Handshake’s Instagram account. The photos show a console on a hillside overlooking the coastal town.

Representatives of Greenland’s government in Washington declined to comment on the installation.

The four video game consoles take aim at positions held by the Trump administration in regard to the United States’ relationship with Greenland. They are decorated with cartoon images of Trump as well as Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There are also images of cartoon penguins wearing ammunition belts and American flag patches and a map of Greenland with made-up names and a large section of it labeled “Future Golf Course.”

Numerous quotes attributed to Trump adorn the consoles, including “That’s Our Territory. All we’re asking for is to get Greenland,” and “We need Greenland very badly. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

On Monday morning, a few visitors happened upon the video games. Shantha Tellambura, 62, and his wife, tourists from Australia who were spending their first day in Washington, said they were surprised to see the installations in a public setting.

“I think it’s very interesting and it signifies freedom of expression,” Tellambura said. “It’s important that ordinary people are allowed to express their opinions.”

The message the work delivered, he said, was necessary.

“We are headed toward a problematic time especially with the possibility of nuclear war,” he said.

Secret Handshake members have declined in phone interviews with the Washington Post to provide any identifying information. The group has previously placed installations and artwork critical of Trump at locations across Washington.

They include a statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands, a mock tribute to Trump from the world’s authoritarian leaders, and a reproduction of the desk of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) with a pile of fake excrement on it that ridiculed the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who sought to overturn the 2020 election.

In May, the group installed its first video game project. A playable game titled Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell targeted the war with Iran.

Previous installations by the group, all of which had a National Park Service permit for temporary display, were at prominent spots on the Mall, including directly in view of the Capitol’s west side. The group has also installed works in Philadelphia and Portland, Ore.

September 28, 2026
Congo’s Ebola outbreak tops 8,000 confirmed cases as disease remains out of control

BUNIA, Congo — The number of confirmed cases of Ebola virus in Congo has surged past 8,000, as the country runs out of health workers to contain the deadly disease.

Congo announced an outbreak on May 15, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no known treatment or vaccine, and has struggled to contain it.

The latest data from Congo’s health ministry released Sunday showed that 8,067 cases have been confirmed, with 3,901 deaths as of Sept. 26 across 63 health zones in seven of the country’s 26 provinces, with a fatality rate of more than 48%.

“The continuously high crude case fatality ratio, and especially the continuously high rate of deaths occurring in communities, highlights the seriousness of the disease and the persistent challenges in timely case detection and access to early and adequate patient care,” the World Health Organization said in its latest report.

It means that a large percentage of those infected were dying, without taking into account factors like delays in seeking help or hidden cases.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that the outbreak has begun to have an impact on other essential services in the hot spots as resources are mobilized toward fighting Ebola. According to OCHA’s report, routine primary healthcare services fell by 13% between April and June in Ituri province alone.

“The indirect impact of the outbreak reflects both reduced health service availability — as a result of staffing and operational pressures — and reduced demand, as fear of infection and isolation discourages care-seeking,” OCHA said.

Last week, WHO said that Congo was running out of health workers to contain the disease. Health workers have complained about delayed or missing payments, triggering several strikes. According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50 health workers have died since the outbreak was announced.

Some areas have shown signs of improvement, with fewer confirmed cases in the past several weeks, including in Ituri province and Haut-Uele, but officials say the disease is spreading further in other areas, expanding its geographical reach.

According to data from the Africa CDC, the current outbreak has outpaced the two-year West Africa regional outbreak in terms of spread in the same time. By week 19, the regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016 recorded 3,781 cases, while the current outbreak recorded 7,840. WHO said that it’s on track to surpass the regional outbreak, which killed 11,000 people.

Containment efforts have been hamstrung by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike, and intense population movements.

September 28, 2026
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow transgender medical care restrictions in prison

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce, for now, restrictions on gender-affirming care in federal prison.

The emergency appeal comes after lower courts blocked officials from immediately carrying out the policy adopted after an executive order from President Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the government to continue providing gender-affirming care like hormone therapy.

The Trump administration argues that the policy was properly adopted and the judge overstepped. It halts surgeries, hormones, and social accommodations like wigs while allowing mental health therapy to continue.

It was adopted after an executive order required the Bureau of Prisons to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

The government asked the high court to freeze Lamberth’s order while the lawsuit continues to play out, saying the Bureau of Prisons had “determined that sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone interventions in general, and social accommodations could no longer be justified as treatment for gender dysphoria.”

The agency said in 2025 that it was providing hormone therapy to more than 600 inmates.

The bureau doesn’t dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, Lamberth wrote. The Washington-based judge was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan.

A divided appeals court panel left the order in place.

ACLU attorneys for the inmates said the policy is “a direct threat to the well-being of transgender people in federal custody and an open violation of their fundamental rights,” and withholding necessary gender-affirming healthcare constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court has previously upheld state laws banning certain medical treatments for transgender youth, and restricting sports participation by transgender athletes in women’s sports.

It has also handed down shorter term decisions allowing the Trump administration to move ahead for now with other policies rolling back protections for transgender people serving in the military and holding a passport consistent with their gender identity.

September 28, 2026
Trump administration lowers fuel economy standards, critics say at a significant environmental cost

DETROIT — The Trump administration on Monday released new fuel economy standards that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The new rules were released shortly after President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring.

The change furthers Trump’s promise to revoke policies that encouraged or created incentives for the production of electric vehicles and, ultimately, will expose Americans to more planet-warming pollution from vehicles.

Mileage standards, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, requirements, have been implemented since the 1970s energy crisis, and set out how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. Over time, automakers have gradually improved their vehicles’ average efficiency.

The Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that the finalized standards would correspond to a combined industry fleetwide average of roughly 34.9 miles per gallon for passenger cars and light trucks in the 2031 model year. That’s up from 30.1 miles per gallon for model year 2024, but down from a projected 50.4 miles per gallon in 2031 under rules put in place by the Biden administration.

“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we have finally ended the illegal mandate that forced automakers to produce more expensive electric vehicles that American families didn’t want,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a statement touting vehicle affordability.

NHTSA had projected last December that the new standards would hover at roughly 34.5 miles per gallon.

The news comes amid ongoing tensions as the war in Iran persists, with Trump refusing a deal with Iran to open the strait as recently as Saturday, impacting the world’s oil supply.

Environmental groups concerned over rollback

News of the revised standards immediately drew rebukes from environmentalists.

The DOT said Monday that the rule would cut yearly oil consumption in 2050 by about 1.3 billion barrels as compared to yearly oil consumption in 2024.

But when the 2024 standards went into effect, NHTSA estimated they would save 14 billion gallons of gasoline from being burned by 2050. The agency also said that while new fuel-efficient vehicles cost more up front, savings on gasoline over the lifetime of the car or truck would more than make up for that.

Environmental groups estimate now, without stricter standards, cars could produce 22,111 more tons of carbon dioxide per year than under the Biden-era rules in 2035.

The rule also translates to an extra 90 tons a year of deadly soot particles and 4,870 additional tons a year of smog components such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emitted into the air in coming years, experts say.

Transportation already accounts for much of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet: 28% as of the last estimate in 2022.

It “ignores the feasibility of clean technology and the millions of fuel-efficient cars already on the road,” Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign, said of the rule.

Since taking office, Trump has also pulled back auto tailpipe emissions rules, repealed fines for automakers that do not meet federal mileage standards, and terminated consumer credits of up to $7,500 for EV purchases.

The president has repeatedly pledged to end what he falsely calls an EV “mandate,” referring incorrectly to former President Joe Biden’s target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. No federal policy has mandated auto companies to sell EVs.

According to data from Cox Automotive, EVs accounted for 5.7% of total new-vehicle sales in August, down from 7.4% for all of 2025.

Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, vowed the environmental group would fight the rule.

“Less fuel-efficient cars mean more gas burned, spending more at the pump, and dirtier air in our communities,” Garcia wrote in a statement.

The state of the industry

Automakers and industry groups have said the new rules will increase Americans’ access to the full range of gasoline vehicles they need and can afford.

“NHTSA made the right call to better align fuel economy standards with the law and current market conditions,” John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents the domestic auto industry, said in a statement. He said the previous standards “effectively required a switchover to electric vehicles that was out of step with market realities and customer demand. Today’s final rule is an appropriate course correction.”

“What the industry needs is long-term regulatory stability that includes balanced, durable, and achievable fuel economy standards that continue to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy,” Bozzella added. “This is the formula for preserving consumer vehicle choice and keeping the U.S. auto industry globally competitive.”

A spokesperson for Ford Motor Company, maker of the top-selling pickup truck, the F-150, said: “We appreciate Secretary Duffy and the Administration’s work to align regulations with market realities. As we evaluate the final rule’s full impact on our business, we’ll continue working with the Administration to build a strong American auto industry.”

A General Motors spokesperson said in a statement the company supports the goals of the rule “and its intention to better align fuel economy standards with market realities.”

Stellantis also welcomed the changes.

“These standards will allow us to offer our customers the freedom to choose from a range of vehicles and powertrains that meet their needs, from brands they love and trust,” a Stellantis spokesperson said in a statement.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social media account Saturday that the less stringent mileage requirements would “take the waste out of building cars in America” and save families “thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car,” while boosting auto production in the U.S.

The DOT reiterated on Monday that the changes will cut the average cost of a new vehicle by $1,300, and save Americans $138 billion over the next five years.

Americans, however, are spending more on gas as Washington’s war with Iran disrupts the global flow of fuel; gasoline prices averaged $4.47 on Monday, according to the AAA motor club, up from $3.13 a year ago. The rising cost of oil weighed on U.S. stocks to start the week.

“Trump is tanking sensible mile per gallon standards at the worst possible time for consumers, who are getting hit with sky-high prices at the pump,” the Center for Biological Diversity’s Becker said. “Consumers will pay the price for these reckless rollbacks while Trump’s Big Oil and Big Auto buddies reap the short-term profits.”

Experts have also said that less stringent rules do not necessarily translate to more consumer purchases of new vehicles that may have more safety features.

The average new car in America sold for $50,089 in August, crossing over the $50,000 line for the first time since last December, according to Kelley Blue Book data.

September 28, 2026
Senate Republicans make a final legislative push ahead of the midterms

Barely five weeks before November’s midterm elections, Senate Republicans are rushing to pass more legislation that they can run on as polling shows Democrats within striking distance of retaking the chamber.

The Senate is expected to vote on legislation this week meant to protect consumers from high electricity costs caused in part by the data center building boom. And some Republicans are pushing to take up other bills to address voters’ frustrations with the cost of living.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) decided against sending senators home early last week to campaign, opting instead to keep the Senate in session to try to bolster Republicans’ legislative record. This week is the last that the Senate is scheduled to be in session before Election Day.

Republicans are confronting the once-unthinkable prospect that they could lose the Senate. Democrats are running competitively even in some states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024, giving the party a shot at picking up the four seats they need to recapture the chamber.

Almost no Republican is in more danger of losing his seat than Sen. Jon Husted (Ohio), who introduced the data center bill that Republicans are set to take up.

Former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown, who is challenging Husted, has spent millions of dollars on ads attacking Husted over his support for data centers, which the ads blame for “causing electric bills to spike by thousands of dollars.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a memo last month that the ads are effective, describing data centers as an “anchor hanging around Husted’s neck.”

Sixty-nine percent of likely voters in Ohio say data centers — enormous warehouses filled with servers that power the artificial intelligence boom and the rest of the internet — are mostly bad for home energy costs, according to a Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll conducted this month.

Husted has defended his record on data centers and criticized Brown for supporting them in the past. He described his bill as a way to “show the American people that we’re serious about driving down electric prices and making life more affordable for them” — and he almost dared Democrats to block it.

“If Senate Democrats want to be the lone obstacle to passage, then shame on them,” he told reporters. “That shows that they don’t really care about affordability.”

It is not clear whether Husted’s bill will pass.

The House approved it overwhelmingly, but Sen. Martin Heinrich (D, N.M.) blocked Husted from fast-tracking its passage this month, arguing that it did not go far enough. Heinrich sought to pass his own bill to force data centers to shoulder the costs of upgrading the electric grid, which Republicans blocked.

Husted’s bill does not take full effect for two years and would not bring down electricity prices before the midterms. Some Democrats have argued that it would do little to address affordability at all.

“Senator Husted’s bill is a fraud,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told reporters last week. “It’s voluntary. No company has to do it.”

Republicans say Democrats are just trying to deny them victories. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) accused Democrats of blocking Husted’s bill “so they can just put up another TV ad to say that electricity prices are high so that they can win an election.”

Senate Republicans have spent much of the past two weeks working to pass legislation from Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) to overhaul regulation of college sports. Cruz has argued the bill is crucial to “protect an American institution that millions of people love,” but some Republicans have groused that it is hardly the most pressing issue for the party to tackle right before the midterms.

“With gas at over $4 a gallon, a persistent war with Iran, $40 trillion in debt, the Senate has decided that the most urgent thing now is to dictate how college sports are run from Washington,” Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said on the Senate floor.

Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) said he was prepared to support the bill if he secures an amendment vote but argued it is not a priority for voters, describing it as a way “to make the football coaches happy.”

“I haven’t met a single person on the campaign trail, when they lie down to sleep and can’t, who are worried about the football coaches,” Kennedy told reporters.

Husted is not the only Republican senator facing a tough race who has pushed to pass legislation that can be campaigned on before heading home.

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), who is seeking a sixth term in a Democratic-leaning state, has pressed Senate Republican leadership to take up a bipartisan bill to force insurers to cap the cost of insulin at $35.

Another vulnerable Republican, Sen. Dan Sullivan (Alaska), tried to pass legislation last week meant to protect salmon in his state. He was blocked by Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), who said he needed more time to seek feedback from fishermen in his state.

Husted and other Republicans are campaigning on the tax and domestic policy bill that Trump signed into law last year, which cut taxes on tips and overtime. But some Senate Republicans have pushed for months to do more to address voters’ affordability concerns.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said he had urged Senate leadership to take up the insulin bill, along with legislation to suspend the federal gas tax and other bills to make life easier for working families.

“My view is that ought to be our sole focus,” Hawley said. “If we’re not going to do that, it’s not clear to me what we’re doing here.”

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R), who is facing a tight race for an open Senate seat in Iowa, last week called on the House to return to Washington to vote on suspending the federal gas tax as well as other steps to reduce fuel prices. The House adjourned earlier this month and has no plans to return before Election Day.

Thune has faulted Democrats for obstructing his party’s agenda. Republicans and Democrats have spent months negotiating over legislation to overhaul the federal permitting process, which could bring down energy costs by making it easier to build power lines and other infrastructure. Thune said the Senate could take up such a bill before the midterms if the two sides were to reach a deal, but he acknowledged Thursday that it would not happen, which he blamed on Democrats.

“While they may acknowledge the need for permitting reform, what they really care about is denying Republicans another legislative win” ahead of the midterms, Thune said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Heinrich, the Democrats leading permitting negotiations, said Friday that they wanted to give senators more time to review the legislation and warned that trying to pass it before the midterms could kill the bill.

“We are talking about major changes to how America builds energy and infrastructure,” they said in a statement. “Getting that right has to matter more than election-year deadlines.”

September 28, 2026
Trump asked China’s president if he wanted to buy U.S. arms, ambassador says

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States, the U.S. ambassador to China said.

David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that if consummated would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and expose U.S. technology to a potential foe. Perdue, speaking to Shannon Bream on Fox News Channel’s Fox News Sunday days after Trump hosted Xi for a state visit in Washington, didn’t specify when the offer was made.

But the State Department on Monday looked to distance the Trump administration from Perdue’s comments, saying that “U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.”

Perdue said Sunday that Trump, a Republican, was downplaying longstanding U.S. arms sales to Taiwan — which have drawn protest from Beijing for years — by couching it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world — and even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for U.S. weaponry.

Bream had cited concerns from Republican and Democratic lawmakers over delayed aid packages and weapons orders to Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that seeks to defend itself from China’s threat to invade the island. Bream asked if the U.S. is denying arms to Taiwan to appease the Chinese president, who visited Trump last week.

Perdue pushed back on the suggestion, stating that Trump “is as strong on Taiwan as I’ve ever seen anybody” and has sold it plenty of weapons. Perdue also said Trump and Xi continue to talk about future U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.

“But President Trump continues to say, ‘Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,’” Perdue said. “He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some, at one point.”

The offer “speaks to (Trump’s) treatment of China in almost exclusively commercial terms, even at the potential expense of the U.S. military position in Asia,” said Evan Sankey, an analyst focused on U.S. policy toward China at the Cato Institute.

He said the U.S. last sold arms to Beijing in the 1980s and resuming those sales would be “a shocking policy change.”

The U.S. is bound by its own laws to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. While not recognizing Taiwan as a country, the U.S. is the island’s strongest informal backer and arms provider. But multiple U.S. leaders have left ambiguous whether they would commit military force to defend the U.S. ally should China invade.

China has pressed Washington to halt the arms sales, most prominently during a previous summit in May between Trump and Xi in Beijing. After that meeting, the United States paused the sale of a record-breaking $14 billion package — and Trump described arms sales to Taiwan as a “very good negotiating chip” with China.

In their private talks at the White House last week, Xi pressed Trump to oppose Taiwan independence, according to Chinese state media.

In Beijing, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun did not confirm Perdue’s remarks when asked about the matter on Monday. But he told reporters that China has always strengthened its national defense capabilities based on its needs and is committed to maintaining world peace and stability.

September 28, 2026
At every turn, Trump’s ideas for aiding U.S. consumers run into resistance

First came a proposal to permit tariff-free beef imports, but that immediately angered America’s farmers and ranchers.

Then came a plan to ban exports of domestic diesel fuel, but that met with pushback from major oil companies.

In between, President Donald Trump pitched the idea of simply cutting $5,000 checks to adult Americans frustrated, polls show, by high food and gas prices — if the GOP maintains control of Congress. But that idea, too, has come under fire, even from some Republican lawmakers concerned about the potential hit to the budget deficit.

With just five weeks until Election Day, the White House has thrown out multiple ideas for combating persistent inflation, which has outpaced wage growth. But experts say it is unclear whether Trump can execute any policy that would placate inflation-weary voters and help the GOP maintain control of Congress.

“These are symptoms of panic in the administration about problems that they have in part created,” said David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Inflation has been running over the Federal Reserve’s target rate since 2021, but an array of Trump policies have fed the problem, economists say. Trump’s decision to join Israel in going to war with Iran has disrupted the global oil supply, leading to elevated energy rates. His tariffs have produced higher prices for some imported goods. And his administration’s immigration crackdown has made low-cost labor harder to find, keeping price pressures on domestic companies high.

Consumer frustration is reflected in polling. The gap has steadily widened between voters who approve of and disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, and 73% of Americans said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy in a recent poll conducted by SSRS for CNN. Only 27% approved — his lowest approval rating on the issue ever recorded by the survey.

Against that backdrop, Trump has floated a parade of ideas for cutting prices.

“President Trump pledged to lower costs and raise real wages for everyday Americans, and the Administration continues to rigorously evaluate every option on the table to deliver,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.

On top of the political hurdles, however, these policies have been “small in the grand scheme of things … if they’re helpful at all,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “So it’s not like it’s moving the dial on the affordability crisis.”

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a conservative-leaning think tank, said it’s not uncommon for politicians to try to bring down prices in the run-up to elections, especially when their party’s control of Washington is at risk.

President Joe Biden did the same ahead of the 2022 midterms, notably by calling for a federal gas tax holiday and releasing millions of barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to bring down sky-high gas prices.

“This whack-a-mole with particular prices is something the Biden guys tried,” said Holtz-Eakin, who was a senior economic adviser to President George W. Bush and the 2008 presidential campaign of then-Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.). “It doesn’t solve the economic problem, and it doesn’t seem particularly politically successful.”

For Trump, time is running out, said Rebecca Patterson, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The U.S. economy is so big and so complex that improving affordability “is simply not something anyone can do in a month,” Patterson said. “Actions taken today might help in the medium and longer term. But between now and the election, the best you can hope for is that voters appreciate that you’re trying.”

One idea the administration has executed is buying back Treasury bonds. But so far, the payoff has been minimal.

In part because of the competition for cash from massive private-sector spending on artificial intelligence, investors are demanding higher interest rates for Treasury bonds. Higher bond yields, in turn, raise interest rates for consumer loans such as mortgages. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 7% last week for the first time since January 2025.

In August, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced he would intervene in the bond market by buying back longer-term Treasury bonds to try to slow the rise in yields. That has not yet worked in bringing down yields, though Bessent contended in a recent congressional hearing that it is nonetheless a success because “we then proceeded to have the two most successful Treasury auctions that we’ve had in 20 years.”

While Bessent was wrestling with the bond market, Trump decided to tackle meat prices.

In late August, the president signed a proclamation that rolled back tariffs on foreign beef trimmings for 90 days in an effort to boost imports and lower ground beef prices, which have risen almost 25% since the beginning of Trump’s second term.

But that drew rare pushback from farm-state Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Sen. Pete Ricketts (Neb.), Sen. Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (Iowa), who is running in a competitive Senate election in her state.

The lawmakers argued that a flood of cheap foreign beef would undermine American farmers and ranchers, who are already struggling with high fuel, grain, and fertilizer prices due to the Iran war and other factors.

Trump issued a follow-up executive order aimed at helping ranchers, and the Agriculture Department announced new policies aimed at supporting American beef producers. The administration is now reportedly considering reversing course on beef imports — though the White House has denied that.

Then came the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where Trump made his biggest pitch yet: If Republicans keep both the House and Senate on Nov. 3, Trump said, he would give every adult American a $5,000 dividend to spend within the United States.

Some Republican lawmakers applauded the idea, but others were skeptical, saying the checks not only could exacerbate inflation but also could increase historically large budget deficits. The proposal could cost more than $1 trillion at a time when concern is growing about the nation’s outsize debt, which recently surpassed $40 trillion.

Public interest groups blasted the idea; Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the left-leaning consumer watchdog Public Citizen, called it an “explicit and desperate attempt to buy votes.”

And voters largely have not been swayed: A YouGov poll released earlier this month found that 64% of U.S. adults felt they would probably or definitely not receive the dividend if Republicans were to win the election.

So far, there have been few signs of interest on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers would have to draft legislation to authorize the checks and vote to approve it.

Last week, after diesel prices hit a record high, Trump and Bessent announced a new idea for tackling soaring fuel prices: a ban on diesel exports. Their theory was that a ban would boost the diesel supply for American consumers, lowering the price at the pump.

Several Republican candidates in competitive congressional races supported the idea. But major oil companies and Energy Secretary Chris Wright objected, arguing that such a policy would incentivize companies to lower diesel production, which would further raise fuel prices.

By midweek, the fate of the diesel export ban, too, seemed uncertain: Wright said any new limits on diesel exports were likely to be voluntary.

September 28, 2026
Prosecutor reopens probe into Cornell gang rape allegations after accuser files lawsuit

A New York prosecutor has reopened an investigation into gang rape allegations at a Cornell University fraternity in response to a lawsuit filed by a woman who says she was sexually assaulted in 2024 by seven students after being plied with alcohol and drugs.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said Monday that his office will present evidence to a grand jury as he faces questions from the public about why there were no criminal prosecutions in the case.

The woman, identified only by a pseudonym in the lawsuit, filed the complaint Sept. 16, saying she was sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity house on Cornell’s campus in October 2024 after being pressured into snorting ketamine, smoking marijuana, and drinking alcohol. She’s suing seven men, the Chi Phi fraternity, the university, an Ithaca bar, and others, seeking undisclosed damages.

The woman went to campus police at the time, but Van Houten said the accuser did not make any claims of being gang raped or drugged in her initial sworn statement to authorities. The prosecutor also said he has never been contacted by the woman’s attorney about her statement or about reconsidering the decision not to prosecute.

“While I generally refrain from commenting publicly on criminal investigations, the community outrage stemming from the incomplete news and social media coverage requires that I provide an answer to why the investigation resulted in a lack of criminal charges,” Van Houten said in a statement.

Cornell said in a statement that it supports the district attorney’s decision to reopen the investigation. The school said it conducted its own investigation and issued sanctions, including expelling some students and suspending others. It also said the on-campus Chi Phi chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus.

School officials on Monday did not immediately respond to a message seeking more information, including how many students were expelled and suspended.

“Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” the university said. “A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.”

The national chapter of Chi Phi did not immediately return phone and email messages Monday.

The school said it conducted an internal disciplinary investigation in 2024. It said a panel of trained faculty and staff heard evidence over multiple days, and both the woman and the people accused had the opportunity to testify and present evidence.

The woman’s attorney did not immediately respond Monday to messages seeking comment on the prosecutor’s decision to reopen the investigation.

The lawsuit contains allegations about what started as a night of celebrating at a sorority and a local bar. It also accuses the university of not preventing the alleged assaults and includes a photo that it says shows a group chat between frat members discussing sex with the woman.

Since the lawsuit was filed, Van Houten said, his office has been flooded with phone calls, voicemails, and emails about the case from people seeking answers and others making insults and threats.

September 28, 2026