Trump media ban ruling lands overnight; Xi Jinping makes rare Washington visit

A federal judge orders the White House to restore access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, temporarily blocking President Donald Trump’s media ban while the larger court fight continues.

Plus, Chinese President Xi Jinping gets the red-carpet treatment in Washington before talks with Trump, as the two rivals extend their trade truce through January and try to hammer out a broader deal.

And an FDA advisory panel backs a blood test that screens for dozens of cancers at once, despite questions about how well it detects cancer in its earliest stages.

These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.

Judge temporarily restores White House press access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico

A federal judge has ordered the White House to immediately restore access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, just days after Trump banned all three from the White House.

The ruling came down just before 1 a.m ET Thursday morning.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, said the White House did not give journalists the due process required before revoking their press credentials. The order allows reporters from all three outlets to return to the White House, at least for now. Kelly’s temporary order lasts 14 days while the larger case continues.

Kelly also directly challenged one of the White House’s main arguments for the ban. The administration said the outlets published reporting that raised national security concerns. But Kelly said the record doesn’t support that.

“Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” Kelly wrote.

Kelly pointed out that when Trump first announced the ban, he didn’t cite national security. He complained about what he called the outlets’ untruthful and negative reporting.

The ban also disrupted the White House TV pool. After CNN was blocked from its scheduled pool duties, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC joined CNN in suspending coverage.

The three outlets argued Trump punished them for coverage he didn’t like.

In its filing, the Justice Department said the president has the authority to restrict access, citing national security concerns.

Kelly sided with the outlets for now, saying they’re likely to succeed on their due process claim.

US, China extend trade truce through January as Xi arrives for Trump talks

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Washington, and Thursday, he and Trump will get down to business.

Trump and the first lady gave Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, a rare planeside welcome at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, complete with a red carpet and a military flyover.

The two presidents will sit down to talk, but before that, the U.S. and China have already bought themselves more time on trade.

In an interview on Fox News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two sides agreed to extend their current trade truce by two months, from Nov. 10 through Jan. 10.

“We have agreed today that we will extend what we call the Busan agreement, the economic détente between the two countries that was scheduled to end on Nov. 10,” Bessent said. “That is going to be extended until Jan. 10 to give us more time to see what we can do on the economic front.”

The deal gives both sides two more months to see whether they can reach a larger trade agreement. Xi, for his part, arrived saying China and the U.S. should be partners, not rivals.

And there’s plenty else on the table Thursday.

The two leaders are expected to discuss AI, fentanyl and trade, with China’s control of rare earth minerals also a major issue between the two countries. 

Iran’s president defies Trump at UN, rejecting limits on nuclear program

Iran’s president used the U.N. stage Wednesday to push back directly against Trump, just one day after Trump threatened to “annihilate” his country.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran has “only defended ourselves” since the U.S. and Israel attacked in February. His message to Trump was direct: “Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.”

Pezeshkian said Iran remains open to negotiations with the U.S. but rejected U.S. demands to restrict its nuclear program.

At one point, he held up photos of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren killed during the war’s opening days.

During the speech, a U.S. delegate walked out, but it’s unclear why.

The White House responded afterward, saying, “The Iranian regime has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz and launched indiscriminate attacks against its neighbors in the region.”

It defended Trump’s approach, saying he is “courageously ensuring that such an evil country never possesses a nuclear weapon, which will make the entire world safer and more stable.”

AI rivals Altman, Amodei say they want common testing standards in call for global rules at the UN

Two major leaders in the artificial intelligence race recently approached the U.N. with a warning: it’s urgent to establish some rules.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei both spoke to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday. They run rival AI companies, but they’re essentially saying the same thing: the technology is advancing fast enough that countries need to work together to keep it safe.

“We’ve been talking about artificial intelligence (AI) for years, but it feels different in recent weeks and months. Rapid model progress has made the timeline feel more compressed, the upside more tangible, but also the stakes and the risks more immediate. We have a choice in front of us. AI can either be more like a new renaissance of creativity and discovery, or more like a new Industrial Revolution of upheaval and disarray.”

Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO

Altman wants countries to come up with common ways to test these models, what they can do, where the risks are and whether the safeguards actually work.

Amodei went further, saying poorly managed AI could become a risk to humanity.

“We should establish common global standards for testing AI models for loss of control risks and misuse risks,” Amodei said. “And a notification system for AI incidents that are significant to global security.”

Nothing was actually agreed to here. That wasn’t the point of this meeting. And Trump has already made clear he doesn’t want global rules slowing AI development. He told the U.N. this week the U.S. is going to “encourage it, not rein it in.”

Navy confirms 8 suicide attempts during extended USS Lincoln deployment

Editor’s Note: This story contains descriptions of suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, help is available. Visit the National Crisis Line website or call or text 988 for immediate support.

The Navy said that eight U.S. service members attempted suicide during the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group’s extended deployment. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed the number in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., this week.

The eight attempts have occurred across the Lincoln strike group since it departed San Diego last November, including two during active fighting with Iran. No suicides have occurred aboard the ship.

The Lincoln has now been deployed for more than nine months, far longer than originally planned, with much of that time spent supporting the war with Iran.

For months, families have raised concerns about conditions onboard, including food and supply problems, faulty plumbing and the mental health of the crew.

The Pentagon has pushed back on reports of a mental health crisis, saying it has not seen an increase in suicide attempts and that counselors, chaplains and other support are available. The Navy also sent additional counselors and social workers to the ship last month.

The Lincoln has now been replaced in the Middle East by the USS George Washington and continues its journey back toward San Diego after stops in Thailand and Guam.

FDA panel backs Galleri blood test that screens for dozens of cancers

A blood test designed to screen for dozens of cancers at once just received a major boost from a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel.

It’s called Galleri, and with a single blood draw, it looks for DNA signals linked to more than 50 cancer types. The test is intended for people 50 and older. In a large study of more than 140,000 people, it detected about one-third of the cancers that were eventually diagnosed.

But there are limitations.

The test was much better at finding later-stage cancers than early ones, and FDA reviewers also worry that a negative result could give some people false reassurance and lead them to skip routine screenings.

Galleri is already available in the U.S., but it’s not yet FDA-approved, and patients generally have to pay for it themselves. Full approval could make insurance coverage more likely.

The FDA doesn’t have to follow the panel’s recommendation and hasn’t said when it will make a final decision.

More from Straight Arrow:

Trump and Xi meet today. Don’t expect any major breakthroughs

Honor guards from every military branch were lined up, America’s most advanced jets were on display and President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were there to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping. The scene was similar to when Trump visited Beijing in May, but with one major difference: Trump was actually there to shake the incoming foreign leader’s hand, a courtesy Xi didn’t extend to Trump. 

Wednesday’s arrival kicked off a three-day visit that continues today, when Trump and Xi meet for the first time since May to discuss a wide range of topics.

Two fights are playing out between the world’s biggest economies right now: a race to build artificial intelligence and a Chinese lock on the rare-earth minerals that power it. Neither is expected to get settled today. Washington and Beijing are already building rival coalitions to control AI’s future, and the rare-earth clock resets to a November deadline regardless of what gets discussed at the White House. 

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