Latest News
- Journalist investigates life of 9/11 victim Michael J. Armstrong
- Trump’s proposed $5,000 dividend for U.S. adults could increase deficit and inflation, economists warn
- Astronomers detect 84 new hypersoft X-ray sources behaving unusually in space
- Coach overturns in eastern Switzerland, leaving multiple fatalities and injuries
- Jimmy Kimmel moves Senate candidate interview to YouTube amid FCC scrutiny
- Saskatchewan received wildfire report months before public release, claims NDP
- George W. Bush reflects on 9/11, urges Americans to heed its lessons
- Israel conducts military invasion in southern Syria amid ongoing conflict
LIVE German 2025 Election Results as they come in and analysi on who will be the next German Chancellor.
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Journalist investigates life of 9/11 victim Michael J. Armstrong
1:00 am
Get you up to speed: A 9/11 victim shared a name with a WTX News journalist. Who was he?
Michael J. Armstrong, who shares his name and middle initial with the man killed on September 11, 2001, has been the subject of a report by a WTX News journalist. The report details his life and family background.
The investigation into the life of Michael J. Armstrong is ongoing, focusing on his family background and personal connections. Authorities have yet to provide a timeline for the completion of the investigation.
The family of Michael J. Armstrong, who was killed on September 11, 2001, expressed their continued anguish over the loss during recent remarks. In a statement, they emphasised the importance of remembering victims like Michael and called for ongoing efforts to promote peace and unity.
What remains unclear — It is unknown whether there are any other individuals with the same name and middle initial as Michael J. Armstrong who were affected by the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Journalist investigates life of 9/11 victim Michael J. Armstrong
A WTX News reporter uncovers the life and family of Michael J. Armstrong, the man killed on Sept. 11, 2001, who shares his name — right down to the middle initial.
Trump’s proposed $5,000 dividend for U.S. adults could increase deficit and inflation, economists warn
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Get you up to speed: Trump’s $5,000 dividend would reignite inflation and swell the U.S. deficit, economists say
President Trump proposed a one-time payment of $5,000 to each U.S. adult during a speech at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention, asserting that the funding would come from tariff revenues. Economists have warned that this plan could increase the federal deficit significantly and exacerbate inflation.
Economists estimate that implementing President Trump’s proposal could increase the federal deficit to $3 trillion, up from the current $1.8 trillion. The U.S. government is already spending more on servicing its debt than on national defence or Medicare, as interest costs continue to rise amid fears over inflation and the country’s substantial debt burden.
Economists have warned that President Trump’s proposal for $5,000 payments to U.S. adults would drive up the federal deficit and increase inflation, with Maya MacGuineas describing it as “fiscally dangerous.” As consumer prices remain high, Trump suggested additional measures to lower living costs, though analysts believe the dividend plan is unlikely to gain traction in Congress.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how the proposed $5,000 payments would be implemented without Congressional approval and what the political ramifications would be.
Trump’s proposed $5,000 dividend for U.S. adults could increase deficit and inflation, economists warn
President Trump’s vow to send $5,000 to every U.S. adult if the Republican Party keeps control of Congress in the midterm elections would drive up the federal deficit, reignite inflation and alarm investors, according to economists.
After Mr. Trump raised the idea of such a dividend on Wednesday night at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that the U.S. would fund the payment using tariff revenue collected by the Trump administration, and that it would be aimed at the middle class.
Those tariffs are generating about $125 billion in annual revenue — one-tenth of the $1.25 trillion that would be required to pay $5,000 to each of the nation’s roughly 245 million U.S. adults, Erica York, senior economist with the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy, told WTX US News.
Because tariff revenue would fall short, the U.S. would likely need to issue government debt to pay for the dividends, raising the federal deficit to $3 trillion, up from its current level of about $1.8 trillion, York estimated.
Why the dividend would drive inflation
The one-time payments would also likely stoke inflation by fueling a surge in consumer spending, as did the multiple federal stimulus checks during the pandemic.
Economists say those payments contributed to consumer prices reaching a 40-year high in June 2022.
A $5,000 giveaway would also rattle financial markets, York said. With the nation’s debt recently surpassing $40 trillion for the first time, Treasury bond buyers would likely demand higher yields to offset increased fiscal risks, she added.
“If financial markets are already concerned about U.S. budget deficits, which are historically large and are projected to grow, and the message that you’re giving is, ‘We don’t really care. We’re almost going to double our deficits’ — that’s madness,” York said of Mr. Trump’s proposal.
Offering such a payment to Americans would be “fiscally dangerous,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank that favors reducing the U.S. deficit, said in a statement on Thursday.
“It’s hard to understand how anyone could look at our current fiscal and economic situation and think we need to borrow another $1.2 trillion to send everyone cash,” she said.
The White House said that Mr. Trump has “consistently proven his doubters wrong.”
“The doomers and naysayers have consistently doubted President Trump: when he pledged to create the historic Trump Accounts, lowered prescription prices with Most Favored Nations, secured the border with no crossings, cleaned up our streets, ended taxes on tips, grew real wages, renegotiated broken trade deals and reshored key manufacturing back to the United States,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement to WTX US News.
Piling on debt
Many fiscal hawks have urged lawmakers to start addressing the mounting federal debt, which has doubled in less than a decade due to multiple tax cuts and COVID-related spending, among other factors.
Adding $1.25 trillion in debt to the nation’s ledger is “completely detached from fiscal reality,” York said.
Rising U.S. debt has pushed up the nation’s interest costs, with the U.S. government now spending more on servicing its debt than on national defense or Medicare. Investors are demanding higher Treasury yields due to the worsening federal fiscal outlook. That, in turn, is pushing up borrowing costs for consumers, including mortgages, auto loans and personal loans.
“The bond market is already nervous about inflation and America’s $40 trillion debt,” Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in an email. “This would likely cause borrowing costs to jump even further.”
Long added that because of those issues, Wall Street is “largely ignoring” the Trump administration’s dividend plan, writing it off as unlikely to gain traction with Congress, which would need to approve it.
In an exclusive interview with WTX US News Texas, President Trump said on Thursday that he doesn’t think lawmakers would need to approve the $5,000 payments.
During his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Trump also proposed other ways to lower the cost of living for Americans, which polls show is a key campaign issue ahead of the November elections. That includes possibly eliminating credit card swipe fees, which he said could save the typical family about $1,200 a year.
But the $5,000 payment has garnered the most attention, likely because many consumers say they’re struggling with the cost of living, with gas prices remaining above $4 a gallon and inflation still elevated.
Consumer Price Index data for August, set to be released on Friday, is expected to show inflation rose at an annual pace of 3.3%, well above the Federal Reserve’s annual target of 2%.
While a $5,000 payment might initially help struggling consumers, such a program would soon backfire by driving inflation even higher, York told WTX US News. The COVID stimulus checks caused inflation to rise by 2.6% during the pandemic, according to 2023 research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
“We would be stimulating the economy in a really massive way with $5,000 payments, when the economy is not really calling for that,” she said. “You’re really kind of worsening the problem that you’re supposedly trying to address with this proposal.”
Astronomers detect 84 new hypersoft X-ray sources behaving unusually in space
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Get you up to speed: ‘Mysterious objects’ discovered in space – and they’re like nothing scientists have seen | News World
Researchers have identified 84 “hypersoft X-ray sources” emitting low-energy X-rays and high levels of ultraviolet radiation in six different galaxies. The study was led by Mustafa Muhibullah from the University of Alabama using data from NASA’s Chandra archive.
Researchers are planning further observations to determine the nature of the hypersoft X-ray sources and their potential role in galaxy formation. The study, led by Mustafa Muhibullah from the University of Alabama, suggests these objects may help address longstanding questions about Type Ia supernovae and the mechanisms behind electron stripping in interstellar gas.
Researchers from the University of Alabama announced plans for further observations to determine the nature of the newly discovered hypersoft X-ray sources and their role in the formation of galaxies. Mustafa Muhibullah, who led the study, stated, “Of course, the next step was to try to figure out what these things are,” underscoring the urgency of these investigations.
What remains unclear — The precise nature of the hypersoft X-ray sources and their role in cosmic mysteries has yet to be determined.
Astronomers detect 84 new hypersoft X-ray sources behaving unusually in space
Researchers found 84 so-called hypersoft X-ray sources (Picture: Nasa/CXC/U Alab/Muhibullah et al)
New ‘mysterious objects’ behaving unlike anything else astronomers have ever seen have been detected in space for the first time.
Astronomers observed the objects giving off unusually low-energy X-rays but intense levels of ultraviolet radiation.
The researchers found a total of 84 of these ‘hypersoft X-ray sources’ – named because of the low-energy X-rays they emit – in six different galaxies.
They used data openly available to the public in the Chandra archive, an archive of all X-ray data collected by NASA’s Chandra observatory.
They suggest these newly spotted objects in other galaxies may help solve not one, but two long-standing questions in astrophysics.
The first is what stars eventually become: Type Ia supernovae.
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The researchers said the objects are among the ‘most energetic’ in galaxies (Picture: NSF)
The second is what causes the stripping of electrons from gas between stars in some galaxies.
Mustafa Muhibullah of the University of Alabama, who led the study, said: ‘We’ve never encountered a group of objects that act like this. Of course, the next step was to try to figure out what these things are.
‘These clandestine X-ray sources are actually among the most energetic objects in galaxies, and they could be solving two cosmic mysteries at once.’
Scientists think some white dwarf systems pulling material from companion stars may eventually explode as a supernova — known as a Type Ia — that is critical for measuring the expansion of the universe.
These supernovae played a key role in discovering that this expansion is accelerating. Astronomers have been looking for the stars that turn into Type Ia supernovae for many years, so far without success.
Study co-author Jimmy Irwin, also of the University of Alabama, said: ‘If we could find a way to spot these Type Ia supernova explosions before they go off, that would be really important.
‘Right now, we study them after they’ve exploded, and astronomers have struggled to understand what is actually ignited.’
The other mystery these hypersoft X-ray sources might explain is what strips electrons from gas between the stars in some galaxies.
This stripping of electrons is important to probe because it can affect how quickly stars form and influence the life cycles of galaxies.
Hot, massive stars play a role, but they do not completely explain what is causing this stripping. The intense levels of ultraviolet radiation from the hypersoft X-ray sources may play a vital role.
Researchers said further observations are now planned to pinpoint the nature of the objects and test their role in shaping galaxies.
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Coach overturns in eastern Switzerland, leaving multiple fatalities and injuries
9:00 pm
Coach overturns in eastern Switzerland, leaving multiple fatalities and injuries
Coach Overturns
Authorities have confirmed that a tour coach carrying 48 passengers from the Netherlands overturned on a mountain road in the Graubünden canton of Switzerland.
Authorities have confirmed that a tour coach carrying 48 passengers from the Netherlands overturned on a mountain road in the Graubünden canton of Switzerland.
Fatalities Confirmed
At least several fatalities have resulted from the coach accident involving 48 Dutch passengers, highlighting the severe risks associated with mountainous travel in the region.
At least several fatalities have resulted from the coach accident involving 48 Dutch passengers, highlighting the severe risks associated with mountainous travel in the region.
Official statement
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident involving our coach and express our condolences to the victims and their families,” stated the Dutch Federation of Travel Agencies (ANVR).
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident involving our coach and express our condolences to the victims and their families,” stated the Dutch Federation of Travel Agencies (ANVR).
Several dead as Dutch tourist coach overturns in eastern Switzerland
By Simon Ormiston & EU News
Published on •Updated
A tour coach has overturned on a mountain road in the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden, leaving several people dead and a number of others injured, authorities have confirmed.
The crash took place on Thursday on the stretch of road linking the villages of Susch and Zernez, deep in the Engadine valley.
Local police confirmed the fatalities via a post on X, though they have not yet released the number of victims, their nationalities, or any explanation for what caused the vehicle to leave the road.
The Dutch Federation of Travel Agencies (ANVR) told AFP that the coach belonged to the tour company Oad and was carrying 48 passengers, all of them from the Netherlands.
Television footage from Swiss broadcasters showed emergency crews swarming the scene, working around the coach as it lay overturned on an embankment beside the carriageway. Helicopters were seen landing nearby to assist with the response.
A police spokesman told AFP that the force did not wish to provide a more detailed toll until the victims’ families had been informed.
According to the ANVR, the coach left the Netherlands on Monday and was on a day trip to Switzerland from Austria when the crash happened.
Zernez sits at the gateway to the Swiss National Park, a rugged Alpine reserve covering more than 100 square kilometres across the Engadine region, and is a popular starting point for visitors exploring the region.
Police say the investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.
Jimmy Kimmel moves Senate candidate interview to YouTube amid FCC scrutiny
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Get you up to speed: Jimmy Kimmel moves Senate interview to YouTube in latest collision with FCC
Jimmy Kimmel has announced that his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not be broadcast on ABC due to increased scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding political candidate appearances. The interview will instead be released on YouTube on Thursday.
The interview with James Talarico is scheduled to be released on YouTube on Thursday, following Kimmel’s decision to bypass traditional network broadcasting due to increased scrutiny from the FCC. This regulatory pressure, particularly concerning equal time rules, has prompted fears over editorial independence among networks like ABC and has led to inquiries that could affect programming decisions.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has increased scrutiny of political coverage by television programs, which has led to criticism regarding the potential chilling effect on editorial independence. In response to these regulatory challenges, Jimmy Kimmel has opted to release his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on YouTube instead of airing it on ABC, highlighting the ongoing tension between media organisations and the regulatory body.
What remains unclear — The exact impact of the FCC’s recent regulatory changes on the ability of television shows to host political candidates remains unspecified.
Jimmy Kimmel moves Senate candidate interview to YouTube amid FCC scrutiny
News|MediaJimmy Kimmel moves Senate interview to YouTube in latest collision with FCC
The decision follows a year of surging regulatory hurdles over candidate appearances on the Disney-owned network.
Published On 10 Sep 202610 Sep 2026
Published On 10 Sep 202610 Sep 2026ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has said that an interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on the network, citing growing intrusion from the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over political candidates’ “equal time” rules.
Talarico is running in Texas against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that could decide control of the US Senate in November.
On Wednesday’s broadcast, Kimmel said that he would be interviewing Talarico under “unusual circumstances”, adding that, over the show’s more-than-two-decade run, he had been “interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all”.
But in January, the Republican-led FCC said that daytime and late-night TV talk shows are no longer considered “bona fide” news programmes that are exempt from the equal time rules that require them to give airtime to opposing candidates.
Kimmel noted that for decades talk shows have been free to interview political candidates without being subject to those rules, including interviewing United States President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“Now that he is president, [Trump’s] FCC threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple traditional editorial decisions — guest bookings it would seem they don’t like,” Kimmel said.
The interview with Talarico is instead set to be released on YouTube on Thursday.
The Cook Political Report and University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rate the Texas Senate race as a toss-up. An August poll by the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University showed Talarico nosing narrowly ahead of Paxton, 47 percent to 45 percent, among likely voters.
Republicans have stepped up efforts to shore up the seat. Earlier this week, MAGA Inc, the political group aligned with Trump, committed $10m to advertising against Talarico, in what has been described as the first advertisement buy that Trump’s well-heeled political machine has made for a general election.
The move underscores just how much the party’s usually safest bastion, Texas, has emerged as an Achilles’ heel in Republicans’ effort to retain the Senate.
Talarico, 37, is a former public-school teacher who has built his political identity around a progressive interpretation of Christianity.
Democrats see the eighth-generation Texan as a promising vehicle for breaking their decades-long Senate drought in the state. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the chamber since 1988.
The ABC episode unfolds just as Republicans gather in Dallas for the closing ceremony of a highly unorthodox midterm convention — unprecedented in its timing — in what many observers have called a “Trump-a-palooza” parade, with the president commandeering the spotlight as the party seeks to galvanise its base.
The FCC becomes a pressure point
Over the past year, The View, Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and other programmes have been subjected to heightened FCC supervision over whether their political coverage and candidate appearances comply with federal equal-time rules.
Critics say the agency’s expanding reach into programming decisions risks chilling broadcasters’ editorial independence.
That precarity is compounded by the consolidation of US media ownership. In August, the FCC voted to scrap its 39 percent cap on local television ownership, a move critics warned could concentrate still more control over the country’s broadcast news in fewer corporate hands. That was followed in January by changes to the equal time rules.
The shift has already ensnared Talarico.
The FCC opened an inquiry into his appearance on ABC’s The View in February, while CBS declined to broadcast an interview he had recorded for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert subsequently released the interview online.
In April, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr ordered early licence reviews for eight ABC-owned stations — an extraordinary step given that their licences were not due for renewal until 2028.
Network parent company Disney and ABC assailed the probe, arguing it threatened protected speech and upended longstanding constitutional precedents, separately accusing the FCC of using its regulatory authority to intimidate media organisations critical of Trump.
The intimidation tactics had already made the leap from regulatory threats to targeted reprisal in September of last year for Kimmel, as ABC shelved his show indefinitely, before resuming it six days later.
It came as Kimmel’s remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk drew criticism from FCC’s Carr, who urged local broadcasters not to air the programme.
Saskatchewan received wildfire report months before public release, claims NDP
7:00 pm
Get you up to speed: Sask. had wildfire report months before release: Opposition
Saskatchewan‘s NDP released emails obtained through a freedom of information request that contradict the timeline of the province’s independent review into its 2025 wildfire response. The information suggests discrepancies in the handling of the wildfire situation by provincial officials.
Saskatchewan’s NDP has indicated that emails obtained through a freedom of information request reveal discrepancies in the timeline of the province’s independent review regarding its 2025 wildfire response. The government has not disclosed when the final report will be made available to the public.
Saskatchewan’s NDP has highlighted discrepancies in the timeline of the independent review into the province’s 2025 wildfire response, as revealed by emails obtained through a freedom of information request. The party is urging the provincial government to prioritise transparency and accountability in the wake of these findings.
What remains unclear — The discrepancy between the timeline provided by the NDP and the findings of the independent review has not been explained.
Saskatchewan received wildfire report months before public release, claims NDP
Saskatchewan’s NDP say emails received through a freedom of information request paint a different timeline on the province’s independent review into its 2025 wildfire response.
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