Thursday, September 24, 2026 · Morning Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. The administration's deportation machine has found a new method. [Trump and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller have transformed America's immigration system into an astonishingly cruel deportation machine, and have found a new way to disappear ICE detainees](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/09/trump-disappear-ice-detainees-horror-stephen-miller.html?via=rss). It is the backdrop to Benjamin Netanyahu's arrival in New York today to address the UN general assembly — [his first visit to the city since Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to arrest him for war crimes, and it comes as support for Israel among US voters is undergoing an unprecedented shift](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2026/sep/24/netanyahu-israel-stateside-podcast).

Abroad, the streets are moving. In India, [the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party, which spearheaded one of the country's biggest student protests in years, has demanded the chief election commissioner resign within 48 hours and threatened fresh protests if he does not step down](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-24/india-s-cjp-gives-chief-election-commissioner-48-hours-to-resign). In Washington the deference runs the other way: Xi Jinping was received at Joint Base Andrews with a red carpet lined by American and Chinese soldiers in dress uniforms — a carpet members of the U.S. military had cleaned before he arrived.

At home the culture war grinds on. The Smithsonian has become the latest front in Trump's culture war. His FDA pick, [Dr. Heidi Overton, faces scrutiny over abortion pill access at her confirmation hearing and is expected to address Trump's claim labeling the measles vaccine "lethal"](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trumps-fda-pick-face-scrutiny-abortion-pill-access-confirmation-hearin-rcna599455). And the free press is treated as an enemy: [a federal judge ordered the White House to immediately restore press credentials for reporters at CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling Trump's ban likely violated their constitutional due process rights](https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6108012-judge-orders-white-house-to-immediately-restore-access-to-cnn-ms-now-politico).

Follow the money and the pattern holds: capital preying on the vulnerable. [State attorneys general are threatening action against a company earning millions off disabled veterans, after a bankruptcy filing in the face of civil lawsuits, falling revenues and impending debt payments](https://www.npr.org/2026/09/24/nx-s1-5978816/va-mortgages-trajector-bankruptcy-investigations). Meanwhile Democratic timidity persists — [Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon says a noncommittal Chuck Schumer reflects a broader reluctance among Democratic leaders to back Black women candidates, and that the party could do a lot more](https://www.ms.now/news/angie-nixon-florida-senate-schumer) — even as [Pennsylvania Republicans worry their lopsided governor's race is dragging down four of the nation's most competitive House races](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/09/24/one-republican-could-hold-back-partys-candidates-pennsylvania-its-not-trump).