Wednesday morning news: September 16, 2026

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Trump says 2024 assassination attempt a “Democrat plot” » President Trump says the 2024 attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania was a political plot. In a social media post Tuesday, he wrote that the shooting was—quote—“all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed.”

He also blamed the FBI under President Biden, and said—quote—“new info[rmation] was just found.” But he did not say specifically what he was referring to.

A Secret Service sniper killed the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Crooks. The FBI concluded last year that he acted alone. And current Director Kash Patel told senators Tuesday:

PATEL: We looked at some twenty-seven devices, um, uh, exfiltrated all the data off of them, looked for connections to individuals in America and overseas, and we found no evidence, um, that that individual was literally even speaking, uh, to any other human being other than his parents who he resided with.

Investigators say they still don’t have a motive for the shooting. A bullet struck Trump in the ear and killed a man seated behind him at the campaign event.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released a batch of FBI records Tuesday. One, an interview with Crooks' father, says an anonymous donor paid to have his body cremated. Those records also stated that the gunman’s father gave him a rifle the morning of the attack, believing he was going to a shooting range.

Patel testimony » Kash Patel during Tuesday testimony, also touted what he said are the administration’s accomplishments in cracking down on crime.

PATEL:  This has been the most prolific run of crime reduction in the United States history. The FBI has arrested 54,000 violent crime- criminals. That's up 90% from the 18-month year period prior to that.

But Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee weren’t impressed with the FBI’s record under Patel. The top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Dick Durbin:

DURBIN:  Under Mr. Patel's failed leadership, decades of efforts to modernize and reform the FBI are being undone, and the Bureau has been reshaped as a political weapon against President Trump's political enemies

Republicans say it’s just the opposite that Patel has been undoing the politicization of the agency that took place under the Biden administration.

Trump criticizes SCOTUS » President Trump is blasting the Supreme Court over mail-in voting. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The Supreme Court this week refused to lift a lower court block on a new Postal Service rule for this year's elections. It would have put unique barcodes on ballot envelopes and voter names in a federal portal. Trump said the rule was aimed at detecting voter fraud.

The Supreme Court’s decision not to lift the block was unsigned, and said the government is unlikely to succeed.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. But none of the three justices that Trump appointed joined them in that dissent.

The president wrote: These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

The case continues, but the block runs through Election Day.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

U.S. acknowledges space weapons » The United States has put weapons in orbit. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said so at a conference in Maryland. No American official had ever said the weapons were already up there.

Meink called them on-orbit space control weapons, able to defend American satellites from attack. He would not say what they are, or whether they've ever been tested.

Weapons in orbit are not illegal. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bars only nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction.

The Pentagon has warned for years that China and Russia are developing satellite-killers.

NATO jet shoots down drone over Lithuania » Russia's war with Ukraine has seen a dangerous escalation.

Some are worried that several recent incidents risk pulling NATO countries into the war.

The European Union's top diplomat Kajav Kallas outlined those incidents:

KALLAS: Russian warship fired flares at Danish helicopter. NATO jets had to shoot down a drone over Lithuania. Russia struck a passenger train near the border with Ukraine. And Poland pulled a drone from its waters. We need to be clear-eyed. Those are not accidents.

She called those attempts to test and weaken the resolve of NATO, which she says will not be shaken.

She also called for new sanctions against Russia and continued targeting of Russia's so-called shadow fleet responsible for illegal oil shipments.

Ukraine-Russia, diesel » Meanwhile:

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's willing to heed President Trump's calls to hold off any further strikes against Russian energy infrastructure if Moscow agrees to do the same. Trump says those strikes are causing a global diesel shortage.

PESKOV: [Speaking Russian]

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia is also prepared to stand down attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, but later added that a mutual moratorium won't be enough to solve the diesel shortage.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up: state elections in Germany this weekend will test the reach of the country’s right-wing surge. Plus, an All-American road trip to mark the nation’s 250th.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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