President Trump told reporters that Iran has reached out to Washington directly and "very much" wants a deal, saying he hopes the nearly seven-month war winds down soon. Vice President Vance says the US has achieved "substantial destruction" of Iran's nuclear program and conventional military, but warns Iranian forces are still hitting commercial shipping even during peace talks. Trump also told Axios he faces a "big decision" on whether to escalate against the regime.
The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark rate a quarter point to 3.75–4.0 percent, its first hike in over three years and the first policy move under Chairman Kevin Warsh. The vote was unanimous, with Warsh saying the economy "appears to be strengthening" and pledging the Fed will "stay in our lane." Trump responded that rates should be "1 percent or less," setting up a collision with his own midterm economic message.
South Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican Trump has endorsed, released an ad telling the president directly that "some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far." The spot cites July figures showing roughly half of 50,000 detainees had no criminal record, and pushes her Dignidad Act. It's a rare on-camera GOP break from the administration with the midterms 47 days out.
Reporter Eliana Moreno, known on air as "Eli in the Heli," and pilot George Marciniw were identified as victims after NewsChopper4 went down in Chatsworth while covering a deadly bus crash downtown. The aircraft lost altitude and exploded between two commercial buildings, killing a third person on the ground and setting nearby vehicles ablaze. The NTSB and FAA are investigating.
The president announced "major progress" toward a permanent US Army base expansion in Poland, with a site to be named soon if the deal closes. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office called it "great news for Poland," though Moscow is likely to read it as escalation. It lands days after a Russian drone struck a Ukrainian train near the Polish border.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told visiting Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Beijing that "all parties" must reopen the strait "at an early date" and return to the June memorandum with the US. Araghchi walked away with little more than a vague pledge to safeguard Iran's "legitimate rights." Beijing buys the bulk of Iran's oil, making this one of the loudest signals yet that Tehran's biggest customer wants the shipping lane open.
The House passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 by 262 to 159, with 53 Democrats joining 203 Republicans. The bill authorizes tariffs of up to 500 percent on Russian imports and targets oligarchs, banks, and Iran's energy sector. It's named for the late senator, who died suddenly in July, and cleared the Senate 86 to 11 last month.
The Commerce Department finalized $300 million for D-Wave, Rigetti, and Quantinuum — $100 million each, with the federal government taking a minority stake in all three. It follows two Trump executive orders directing roughly $2 billion in CHIPS Act money toward domestic quantum fabs and post-quantum cryptography, plus a direct investment in an IBM facility. NASA and other agencies were also tasked with developing quantum-enabled sensors for defense use.
Administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed NASA holds imagery of unidentified objects that its own analysts cannot account for, saying flatly, "we don't know what it is." He also teased that Martian samples already collected have, in his words, a very high probability of pointing to microbial life once returned to Earth. The comments come as NASA targets its first three uncrewed moon base missions before year's end.
Siddharth Jawahar was sentenced to 11 years for a $35 million Ponzi scheme that pulled in professional athletes including Travis Kelce. Prosecutors say he marketed himself as a sophisticated money manager to a client list built on locker-room referrals. Federal officials confirmed he was in the country illegally, adding an immigration wrinkle to what was already an eyebrow-raising fraud case.
