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President Trump confirmed Saturday that he turned down an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for US concessions, along with a floated seven-day ceasefire, saying Tehran "outsmarted themselves." He touted CENTCOM's blockade of Iranian ports under Operation Epic Fury, claiming the regime is "losing so badly," and posted an image on Truth Social relabeling the waterway the "Trump Strait."
The administration invoked the rarely used pocket rescission maneuver to cancel roughly $810 million in spending Congress had already approved, targeting programs serving illegal immigrants and diversity initiatives. It's a direct test of executive power over the purse, and it's almost certainly headed for a legal and constitutional fight on Capitol Hill.
Diesel is sitting around $6.48 a gallon after peaking Tuesday above $6.52, an all-time high, with regular gas near $4.47. Consumer sentiment fell about seven percent in September and year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.6 percent, making pump prices the top-tier issue for Republicans defending their majorities in November.
A powerful nor'easter is pounding the East Coast with major coastal flooding, high winds and storm surge across multiple high-tide cycles. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency for eight counties, and more than 37,000 New Jersey customers were without power by mid-morning. Forecasters don't expect the system to weaken until Sunday night.
Washington and Beijing agreed to reciprocal tariff cuts on about $30 billion in what both sides called "non-sensitive goods," capping a three-day Trump-Xi summit in Washington. Trump told reporters afterward the warm meeting changes nothing about the technology race, saying America "is not going to be putting on brakes."
Russian missiles, glide bombs and jet-powered drones killed civilians across Ukraine Saturday as Kyiv struck back, with at least seven dead in the exchange. Front-line movement has largely stalled four and a half years in, even as the air war escalates. Trump said he spoke with President Zelenskyy recently and wants the fighting ended soon.
Germany's Johann Wadephul and Russia's Sergey Lavrov held a rare face-to-face on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, believed to be the first since the 2022 invasion. Wadephul urged Moscow off its "dangerous path of escalation" toward Europe and NATO. Lavrov separately offered Russian help stabilizing the Gulf and condemned the US strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.
Administrator Jared Isaacman flashed a slide of a dark, unidentified aircraft during an All-In Summit talk titled "Rebuilding our X-plane portfolio," then declined to explain it. NASA says only that it wants to fly "higher, farther, and faster" than it has in decades, signaling a revival of the experimental plane program that produced the X-15.
Researchers re-examined a 300-million-year-old fossil from the Mazon Creek beds in northeastern Illinois and found it was misclassified for decades. The tell was in the teeth: eleven per row, well above the seven or nine typical of octopuses, which pegs the creature as a nautilus relative instead.
A local man sheltering from a storm in the Vietnamese jungle found an opening that turned out to lead into the largest cave passage on the planet, a chamber big enough to hold a skyscraper, complete with its own jungle, river and weather system. Explorers describe stepping inside as something out of "Jurassic World."
