Tuesday, September 29, 2026 · Evening Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. Trump's war on Iran is going badly. Iranian forces have seized another American unmanned submarine in the Strait of Hormuz and inflicted casualties on US sailors and marines this month — and yet the administration is turning the knife inward: officials say Hegseth is targeting the military's top brass for deeper cuts, with no clarity on whether so dramatic a reduction amid the fighting would disrupt operations. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has gone over the administration's head to ordinary Americans, writing in a letter, "People all around the world are looking to Americans to stop their government. Now is the time." Meanwhile Washington is reportedly weighing a bargain with Moscow, offering Russia sanctions relief for the release of political prisoners.

The same machinery of force is aimed at migrant workers. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Venezuelan delivery driver with assault, accusing him of striking an officer with a side mirror as he tried to drive away — after an immigration agent shot him in his car in Texas. In California, Gavin Newsom signed a ban on electrical shock gloves, a "pain compliance" tool ICE recently bought about 6,000 pairs of.

Landlords got their win in New York, where a Staten Island judge ruled against Mayor Zohran Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax on second homes — faulting the rollout, not the principle.

The administration's grip looks shakier by the day. Jack Smith defended his criminal investigations before Senate Republicans; a Marist poll shows Democrats pulling ahead in Ohio's Senate and governor races; and a former Republican strategist warns the party is caught in a trap as Trump's own campaign stops drag it down further. At an A.I. event, with polls showing him sinking on the issue, Trump simply asked Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft to police themselves, extracting voluntary safeguards and a rebrand to "super intelligence."