Plus: Major League Baseball inches toward robot umpires.
• That escalated slowly.
• A man who sought to instill “real terror” in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents orchestrated a targeted attack on an ICE facility in Dallas on Wednesday. Suspect Joshua Jahn, 29, sat atop a building adjacent to the facility and shot at an unmarked van that was transporting ICE detainees. Jahn, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot, killed one detainee and injured two others. But it was clear he meant to assassinate federal immigration agents. Authorities found shell casings with anti-ICE messages next to Jahn’s body. The FBI also determined after a search of Jahn’s devices and personal writings that the shooter searched for apps that track ICE activity and hoped federal agents would be left looking over their shoulders. This week’s attack is the latest in a string of anti-ICE incidents in Texas—including a planned ambush on an Alvarado ICE facility in July, a targeted shoot-out at a McAllen Border Patrol annex in July, and a bomb threat at a Dallas facility in August. ICE agents are doing jobs that are lawfully given to them by our elected government. The rules and regulations guiding their activity provide for humane treatment of their detainees. Proceedings in our courts are generous to a fault. The terror campaign against ICE is a threat to the American system.
• For months, the Trump administration has defied federal law requiring it to ban ByteDance from operating TikTok in the United States unless President Trump grants the company a one-time, 90-day extension if an imminent deal includes “binding legal agreements” to divest ByteDance’s ownership. Trump has granted multiple extensions without complying with these conditions. By executive order Thursday afternoon, Trump approved a deal he says has been approved by Xi Jinping and will make TikTok “American operated all the way.” Reportedly, the company will be sold to an American investor consortium, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and other big tech and media names. The devil is in the details, and there is plenty of devilry to suspect here. Formal U.S. control—a majority of shares and an American board—is good. But will the algorithm, once licensed from ByteDance, be exclusively controlled and modified from the United States—as the law requires? Would the new U.S. entity be barred from sending user data back to China? ByteDance took the position, in challenging the law, that the algorithm simply cannot work unless it is continually given feedback from American user data, and that this function cannot be relocated out of China. If so, then this deal is a sham. If not, then the law should have been enforced months ago. More oversight will be needed. Congress should ask some hard questions.
• A packed football stadium in Glendale, Ariz., heard Erika Kirk say she forgives her husband’s killer in a stark, moving statement of Christian faith. The memorial service was part revival meeting, part political convention—and all MAGA. President Trump and other MAGA luminaries remembered Kirk at an event that featured Turning Point USA’s characteristically high production values. The overwhelming sense of the memorial was that an act of destruction and hate would result in a greater commitment to build and to love. This sentiment was heartening and admirable, even if the usual suspects found reason to cavil (the event was supposedly an expression of “Christian nationalism” or alien to American traditions). The memorial cemented Kirk’s status as a legend on the right. It is now up to those he inspired to ensure that the galvanizing moment lasts.
• In his address to the mourners who gathered on Sunday to celebrate the life and work of Charlie Kirk, Trump veered off course. “I think we found an answer to autism,” the president told the bewildered crowd. “I think you’re going to find it to be amazing.” It was, indeed, amazing. The following day, the president announced that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services would allege that taking acetaminophen, the active ingredient in over-the-counter pain medicines such as Tylenol, could result in a “very increased risk” of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism in children. “Don’t take it,” Trump exclaimed. But the clinical evidence that the administration produced to support this conclusion was scant, and it was met with skepticism from those who are familiar with the research into this thoroughly studied molecule. “HHS should release the new data that it has to support this claim,” wrote Senator Bill Cassidy (R., La.). “The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case.” He added that, given the guidance that recommends pregnant women avoid other pain relievers like aspirin or ibuprofen, this new initiative would leave expectant mothers with no relief from the everyday pain they so often experience. And it’s unclear whether this abstemious directive is warranted. Given RFK Jr.’s lifelong quest to find the autism’s cause in the trappings of modern life, Americans should be skeptical.
• A Florida federal jury swiftly convicted Ryan Routh of attempting to assassinate Trump in September 2024 while the then-candidate was playing golf at his West Palm Beach club. The attempt came only a few weeks after Trump was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet at a rally in Butler, Pa. The evidence against Routh was overwhelming. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh pointing a rifle through a fenced area and opened fire at Routh, who fled. The loaded rifle was recovered with a scope, spare ammunition, and the safety off. Routh tried to get away in a car he’d parked nearby but was apprehended after a chase. Cellphone records showed that he’d surveilled the site, and he wrote a letter confessing intent to kill Trump. Routh represented himself at the trial, which he tried to use as a soapbox and to convey instability (suggesting the matter be settled by a golf match against the president). Judge Aileen Cannon reined in these antics but couldn’t prevent Routh from trying to stab himself in the neck with a pen when the jury announced its verdict. He is scheduled for sentencing in December and faces life imprisonment without parole.
• On September 15, Jimmy Kimmel, the host of ABC’s late-night comedy show, delivered a monologue in which he attacked the forces of “MAGA” for “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” This led the next day to pointed threats from both Donald Trump—who argued that ABC should have its broadcast license revoked—and Trump’s FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who announced to ABC that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” ABC immediately suspended Kimmel from the air—and claimed that it was really pressure from its local affiliates that drove the decision. The administration took credit anyway. A week later, on Tuesday, September 23, Kimmel returned to the airwaves, minus several of ABC’s local networks—those owned by Sinclair and Nexstar, both of which coincidentally currently have business before the FCC. It is a victory for nobody. Kimmel’s show may well be destined for cancellation next year in any event, as the late-night TV format continues to die off.
• The Trump administration is advancing measures to fix America’s widely abused skilled-worker program, so-called H-1B visas. The most attention-getting proposal would require employers to pay $100,000 for new H-1B visa-recipients coming from overseas. Proponents of the H-1B program traditionally justified it as a program to attract high-skilled labor to America. In practice, it has always functioned as a loophole in American labor law, in which foreigners are brought in to create cost savings for American firms. The problem with the $100,000 fee is that employers will easily be able to evade it. The fee will only apply when workers first come to the United States, and it won’t be levied every year. Moreover, it won’t apply at all to H-1B petitions involving aliens already here on other visas, and that’s the majority of them. But the fee is a step in the right direction, and the administration is also changing the ridiculous H-1B lottery program and attempting to better police the system overall. The H-1B program has long been a disgrace. The Trump administration deserves applause for working to reform it.
• On September 20, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning ICE officers and other federal agents from wearing masks while on duty in the state. Newsom described ICE’s crackdown on illegal immigration as “like a dystopian sci-fi movie—unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing.” His prosaic hyperbole and continued opposition to Trump’s supposedly fascistic use of federal forces will be well-received by the Democratic base. But his brazen disregard for the fact that ICE officers conceal their identities to protect themselves from violence and harassment has already attracted the ire of the Department of Homeland Security. The ban on face coverings is scheduled to begin on January 1, 2026. On this past Monday, however, the DHS stated in a post on X that it will “NOT comply” and rightly branded the ban “unconstitutional.” A state or local authority has no power to change how federal agents dress, and the bill will obviously be struck down if challenged in court. But that doesn’t bother Newsom, who is getting into costume as a Democratic presidential candidate.
• If it weren’t terrifying reality, it would make for a great season of the counterterrorism thriller 24. The U.S. Secret Service dismantled a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York tristate area that were “used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials.” The agency found and seized more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites, warning that “in addition to carrying out anonymous telephonic threats, these devices could be used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks.” ABC News reported that “agents were first tipped off last spring, and officials believe the plot is connected to the Chinese government.” While it’s possible that this elaborate network is tied to criminal scams and other profit-motivated forms of cybercrime, the scale of the effort suggests some hostile force is putting the pieces in place to take down the cellular network around New York City. We must hope that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies follow the trail and get answers—fast.
• “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN,” Trump declared in a Truth Social post. The U.S. of course evacuated Bagram and the rest of Afghanistan four years ago. There were good reasons to not give up that strategic air base in the heart of Central Asia in particular—or abandon our Afghan allies to the mercies of the Taliban in general. But that ship has long ago sailed, and we ought to remember that Trump’s first administration was committed to withdrawing from Afghanistan even before Joe Biden’s debacle of an execution. In any case, the Taliban have rejected Trump’s demand. We’re not getting Bagram back unless we invade Afghanistan again, and a presidential tweetstorm is not a substitute.
• The recent incursion by Russian jets into Estonian airspace was not unique. Its longer duration and its timing so soon after 19 Russian drones crossed into Poland, however, sent a clear message—as did the incursions by Russian drones into Romania and, it seems, Denmark and Norway. These incursions are, for Moscow, worth the price of a few protests from the West. They are a form of psychological terrorism, and they also provide useful information on the state of NATO’s defense systems. This would be valuable if the Kremlin tried anything more ambitious, which is why such probing must be deterred. Trump has indicated that he’s open to shooting down Russian jets. But downing drones that enter NATO airspace carries less political and military risk—although NATO’s ability to do so is clearly inadequate and cost-ineffective, as it relies so much on pricey airborne missiles to see off cheap drones. The alliance’s drone defenses need a major upgrading, incorporating, probably, a drone “wall”—which, despite its name, would be no Maginot 2.0.
• Support partial-birth abortion. Refuse to protect the lives of babies who survive botched abortions. Surely, this is the record of a public official who should not be honored by the Catholic Church. Not so in Cardinal Blaise Cupich’s Chicago. The raising of a native son to the Chair of Saint Peter has perhaps emboldened Cupich to not only honor retiring Catholic Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, but to double down in defense of the lifetime achievement award he wants to bestow on him. Durbin, we ought to remember, entered politics as a staunch pro-lifer—he voted for a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution and emceed the annual statewide pro-life dinner multiple times—before the demands of the modern Democratic Party turned him away from his Catholic beliefs. But abortion isn’t the only issue, after all, Cupich says, celebrating Durbin’s immigration positions. One might have hoped that the moral nonsense about being personally opposed to abortion would have died with New York Governor Mario Cuomo. At this writing, at least five bishops, including Durbin’s own, have criticized Cupich for creating scandal with the Durbin award. Truth and clarity are charity to a soul—and to all the souls who may be deluded by one cardinal into celebrating lies.
• Sometimes, the death of a tradition is an unavoidable consequence of technological superiority. In such cases, we can still mourn them at their passing. So it is with the news that Major League Baseball is introducing robot umpires for balls and strikes in 2026. The decision is, for now, just a camel’s nose in the tent, allowing a few challenges per game to human umpire ball/strike calls. But it is pregnant with the assumption that the judgment of the machines is more reliable than that of the men in uniform. From such an embryo, the development is predictable. Robot umps have been tested in the minor leagues and ultimately found satisfactory. They will not soon displace the rest of an umpire’s job at the bases. But the end of a grand tradition is in sight. Ten umpires are in the Hall of Fame, from Cal Hubbard (the only man in both baseball’s and football’s Halls of Fame) to Doug Harvey (who commanded such respect that he was nicknamed “the Lord.”) Managers kicked dirt on umps; catchers framed pitches to try to bend the strike zone their way. Contestation of close calls has long been part of the game. But the machines can bring precision—and they won’t unionize.