Russia hits Ukraine power grid; State revokes 250,000 visas; $15B Iowa steel plant
Moscow's heaviest energy strike in months forces Kyiv outages. Rubio's State Department marks 250,000 visa revocations. Trump announces a $15 billion Mesabi Metallics steel complex in Iowa. No new Supreme Court order Wednesday; the D.V.D. stay holds ahead of December arguments.
5 PM CT video brief · 1:53Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your Evening World Brief for Wednesday, September 30. Russia hits Ukraine energy grid; Kyiv emergency power cuts; seven dead. Hormuz talks continue; U.S. wants nuclear steps first; Brent above $108. State Department: more than 250,000 visas revoked under Trump and Rubio. Trump announces $15B Mesabi Metallics steel plant for Iowa. No new Court order; third-country stay holds; Suncor still Oct. 5. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Tropical Storm Nolo, with top winds near 50 mph, may bring impacts to parts of Hawaii. Heavy rainfall spreads southeast this week; impactful flash flooding continues over portions of the Central and Southern Plains through Friday. Our opinion. Ukraine endgame; nuclear limits before Hormuz; enforce visas; American steel; Court merits on removals. That's your Evening World Brief. I'm Nora Vale. See you in the morning.
Russia hit Ukrainian power facilities around Kyiv and other regions on Wednesday in what Ukrainian officials called the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months, Reuters reported, with officials saying seven people were killed, including a child. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the assault included nearly 190 drones and ballistic missiles aimed mainly at energy infrastructure in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast; Ukrenergo imposed emergency power cuts in Kyiv and three surrounding regions — the first such measure in the capital since spring, Reuters said. By evening, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said emergency outages also covered Chernihiv and Zhytomyr oblasts, and presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said Russia used for the first time a jet-powered drone with a shaped-charge warhead designed to cut high-voltage pylons, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Mediators are still working with Iran and the United States on a deal to end fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, three regional officials and two U.S. officials told the Associated Press on Wednesday, even after President Donald Trump publicly rejected Tehran's seven-day proposal. A senior U.S. official told AP the administration will not reach a deal until nuclear issues are addressed and is willing to grant some sanctions relief and frozen-fund releases for concrete nuclear progress, while the sides remain far apart on sequencing. Iran said Wednesday it had received a U.S. response via Qatari mediation, Reuters reported; an official briefed on the talks said the sides largely agree on steps but disagree on order. Brent crude was above $108 as the conflict enters its eighth month, AP reported.
The State Department has revoked more than 250,000 visas since President Donald Trump took office, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital in an exclusive published Wednesday afternoon. Pigott said the revocations cover visa holders who violated terms of stay, committed crimes, called for violence against Americans, defrauded Americans, abused the immigration system, or endangered national security, and called the milestone historic under Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Among them were about 2,300 visas tied to birth tourism; Fox also noted Monday's revocation of visas for 27 Latin American officials and family members over corruption accusations, and summer plans to target large numbers of B-1/B-2 holders who later sought asylum.
President Donald Trump announced a $15 billion Mesabi Metallics steel complex coming to Iowa, described by the White House on Wednesday as the largest steel plant ever built in the United States. The project is projected to create 1,750 permanent jobs, support up to 6,000 construction jobs, and generate an estimated $95 billion in U.S. economic output over construction and the first decade of operations, according to the White House release. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and members of Iowa's congressional delegation praised the investment; Mesabi Metallics Chairman Rewant Ruia said the Iowa mill would complete an integrated American supply chain from mine to mill.
Treasury Department $500 checks, with letters signed by President Donald Trump, began going out Wednesday, Sept. 30, to more than 950,000 Americans across 30 states that use the federal Affordable Care Act exchange, USA TODAY reported, citing an administration official and updating its story Wednesday evening. Trump's letter, viewed by USA TODAY, says the Biden administration "overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov" and that "that money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government." A Sept. 10 White House fact sheet described the refunds as returning what the administration calls Biden-era exchange user-fee overcharges to enrollees who largely paid full premiums without premium assistance.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 30, the Supreme Court had posted no new miscellaneous order dated today on its orders page; the latest listed actions remain Tuesday's Sept. 29 orders, including the stay in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. that lets third-country removals resume while the Court hears the case in the December 2026 session. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied that stay, according to the Court's official order. Arguments in Suncor Energy (U.S.A.), Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County remain set for Monday, Oct. 5, with Justice Samuel Alito not participating after the Clerk's Sept. 28 letter to counsel.
SpaceXAI, the artificial intelligence arm of SpaceX that was formerly called xAI, released version 0.3 of Grokipedia, its AI-written online encyclopedia, on Wednesday afternoon. The official Grokipedia account on X posted “Introducing Grokipedia v0.3” at 4:44 p.m. CT, 46 seconds after tech commentator Sawyer Merritt wrote that “SpaceXAI has just released Grokipedia v0.3, which includes improved visuals.” Benji Taylor, head of design at X and SpaceXAI, called it “the newly refreshed Grokipedia.” Elon Musk reposted Merritt’s post without comment about 50 minutes later. As of 5:47 p.m. CT, SpaceXAI had not published release notes listing what changed beyond the new design.
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