9.16 | Washington Wednesday: Pressure test

Lindsay Mast (0:05)

Good morning. Today on Washington Wednesday, a wider war, a stalemate over AI speed limits, and a more European Canada.

Nick Eicher (0:13)

That and a lightning round with Hunter Baker.

Also today, World Tour, voters in Germany signaled they want a change. Later, making American history come alive for the next generation.

SPEAKER_3 (0:24)

Three, two, one, huzzah!

Nick Eicher (0:27)

And world commentator Cal Thomas on wild predictions that never came to be.

Lindsay Mast (0:38)

It's Wednesday, September 16th. This is The World and Everything In It from listener-supported World Radio. I'm Lindsay Mast.

Nick Eicher (0:45)

And I'm Nick Eicher. Good morning.

Lindsay Mast (0:48)

Up next, Kent Covington with today's news.

Kent Covington (0:52)

President Trump says the 2024 attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania was a political plot. In a social media post on 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 was just found, though 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 Cash Patel told Senators Tuesday.

Cash Patel (1:25)

We looked at some 27 devices, exfiltrated all the data off of them, looked for connections to individuals in America and overseas, and we found no evidence that that individual was literally even speaking to any other human being other than his parents who he resided with.

Kent Covington (1:44)

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 a campaign event. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released a batch of FBI records on Tuesday. One, an interview with Crook's 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 that he was going to a shooting range.

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

Cash Patel (2:18)

This has been the most prolific run of crime reduction in the United States history.

The FBI has arrested 54,000 violent criminals. That's up 90% from the 18-month-year period prior to that.

Kent Covington (2:32)

But Democrats on the Judiciary Committee were not impressed with the FBI's record under Patel, including the top Democrat on the panel, Senator Dick Durbin.

Dick Durbin (2:41)

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.

Kent Covington (2:55)

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

President Trump is blasting the Supreme Court over mail-in voting. World's Kristin Flavin has more.

Kristen Flavin (3:12)

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.

Kent Covington (3:56)

The United States has put weapons in orbit. Air Force Secretary Troy Mink said so at a conference in Maryland. No American official had ever before confirmed US weapons in space. Mink called them on-orbit space control weapons able to defend American satellites from attack. He would not say exactly what they are or whether they've 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.

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, Kaya Khalis, outlined those incidents.

Kaya Khalis (4:45)

Russia 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.