Evening Wire: Day Two of President Xi’s U.S. Visit & The Biden School Bus Blunder | 9.24.26

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So for all investors, CalShe products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshe.com slash regulatory. Tired of your car insurance rate going up even with a clean driving record? You're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease. Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls. No. No hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1,300 a year. Switch with confidence. Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.ai slash wire. It's day two of President Xi's three-day visit to Washington. Russia may have attacked a Polish Starlink station and a Biden-era school bus contract failed to deliver even half of what was paid for by taxpayers. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, September 21st. This is Evening Wire. A U.S. District Judge has told the Trump administration to respond in writing after journalists from CNN, MSNOW, and Politico were blocked from the White House on Thursday. The reporters were denied entry hours after Judge Timothy Kelly granted their outlets a 14-day restraining order against President Trump's decision to ban the outlets last week. The news group sued the administration on Monday, claiming that revoking their White House access violated their First Amendment rights. Kelly seemed to agree with them, writing that Trump's ban was, likely, unconstitutional and that the lawsuit would probably succeed. The president has said the ban is not an attack on the First Amendment or free press, but against fake news journalists. Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington has entered its second day and is packed with ceremonial pageantry. The schedule includes an elaborate state dinner with a menu of sea bass, White House honey ice cream, and other dishes prepared with Chinese influences and served on the famous gold and red Ronald Reagan China. On Friday, Trump and Melania will host Xi and his wife for a private tea before the two couples visit the National Archives to view historic records tied to the U.S. and China. The three-day visit marks Xi's return to the White House more than a decade after his last visit and comes as the two countries navigate trade, AI, national security, and Taiwan. A top Polish official says Russia is likely to blame after a fire broke out at a Starlink station that in part served Ukraine's military. Daily Wire contributor Tim Pearce has more. The fire that engulfed a Starlink station in central Poland on Wednesday evening damaged its power system and backup generator. Poland's deputy prime minister said that the fire was a clear act of sabotage deliberately designed to disable the station. He didn't blame Moscow outright, but he said that many signs suggest this aligns with Russia's new doctrine of attack. Repairs have since been made and the station is back online and functioning normally. Ukraine's military has used Starlink to connect to the internet since Elon Musk gave it access in 2022. Its Starlink subscription is being paid for by Poland. President Trump met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky this week and suggested that a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine could be close. Zelensky joined Trump at the U.N. General Assembly in New York and said his hope is that the U.S. can help end the war. Here he was speaking to reporters after the meeting. So you're prepared to meet President Putin in a trial? I'm ready. You're ready? I'm ready. I said it. I'm ready any time when all the signs will be ready. I think that we all, need to move as quick as possible. The two leaders also discussed recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. The U.S. has urged Ukraine to pause attacks on Russia's oil and gas refineries and pipelines to stabilize global energy markets. But Zelensky disagreed. He said the attacks are necessary to put pressure on Russia to end the war. Just prior to the 25th anniversary of 9-11, a Virginia school district reportedly issued shocking new guidelines to teachers, on how to discuss the attacks. The guidance reportedly instructed teachers not to associate the terrorist attacks with, quote, Islam or Muslims. Teachers were told to, quote, combat anti-Muslim bias and focus on building safe spaces for Muslim students. The district, just outside of Washington, D.C., is located only miles away from where Islamic hijackers affiliated with al-Qaeda crashed a plane into the Pentagon, killing over 180 people. A conservative legal group, America First Legal, announced Wednesday that it would be required to stop the attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. The district, just outside of Washington, requesting all communications and documents related to the creation of the guidance. The public records request filed earlier this month seeks to determine how the guide was created and whether there were any outside influences. My colleagues know I have a few favorite clothing items I wear on rotation, and I feel very mature saying it actually gives me a little thrill when I feel like I'm getting a great value out of an item. And I'm always excited to talk about quints because so many of my favorite most worn items are from there. Quints, makes high quality, classic clothing items made of real premium materials like cashmere, silk, leather, European linen. Plus, they've expanded into a bunch of other product lines like shoes, home items, jewelry, almost everything at this point. 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That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash wire. Less than 40% of the electric school buses purchased through the Biden-era EPA's $5 billion clean school bus program have actually been delivered. That's according to new EPA data. Daily Wire homepage managing editor Jordan Schroeder has the story. The program has already distributed about $2.7 billion, roughly 90% of that money going toward the purchase of electric buses. But delays, mechanical problems, and concerns over reliability have prevented full delivery. The EPA estimates that about 46,000 children will not be riding on new buses this year because of delivery failures, while the agency says about one-third of school districts have pulled out of the program. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has frozen remaining funds and said the agency is reviewing other fuel options entirely. He said, quote, over five years later, there are very few tangible buses to show for it. He said, quote, In essence, American taxpayer dollars vanished into thin air, and our children were left without school buses. In an update to our reporting from yesterday, The View co-host Sunny Hostin, who claimed she was the lone holdout juror who forced a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict for the notorious New York City killer Daniel Rakowitz, well, contemporaneous reporting and multiple people involved in the case are directly contradicting her story. Jurors told The Post, Newsday, The Daily News, and the Associated Press at the time that the holdout juror was an unemployed, who wanted to keep collecting his $15 a day jury stipend for free meals. Hostin was publicly identified as a juror in contemporaneous reports, but never claimed to be the holdout. And her own comments to Newsday appear to conflict with the story she's telling now. Hostin said at the time, quote, we had to compromise, but it is obvious to me he butchered the body and he literally got away with murder. He attempted to commit the perfect crime, end quote. Despite that evidence, Hostin doubled down this week, insisting, quote, I was the holdout juror. He said, quote, I was the holdout juror. I was the holdout juror. Chaos has erupted among the clientele of a queer bar in Massachusetts after the venue slightly relaxed its mask mandate. Reporter Drew Berkmeyer has the story. The last ditch in Greenfield, Mass. has always maintained a stringent mask mandate, requiring KN95 masks or better at all times, even now, in 2026. Due to financial struggles, the bar, which in their words caters to dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, and their family members, has made the monumental decision to relax their mandate, designating Saturday nights as mask optional. While most of society was shocked that the rules were still in place this long, to the clientele of the bar, the change was unacceptable. One commenter wrote, just say you're being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with. Other commenters drafted long manifestos regarding the ongoing pandemic and the grave dangers presented by unmasked social gatherings. The comments took a darker turn when one individual suggested that the bar should be removed from the bar. The bar was removed from the bar, but the venue should be firebombed. Many vowed never to return to the bar. Greenfield, by the way, has not had a reported case of COVID in months. Mark Zuckerberg is rejecting calls from other AI leaders to coordinate a slowdown in the development of advanced artificial intelligence, arguing that individual companies should decide for themselves when their system needs to pause for safety reviews. In an interview with NBC News, the meta CEO pushed back on proposals from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropix's Dario Amadei to pace AI development, saying there's enough commercial incentive for companies to build safe products without industry-wide coordination. Zuckerberg also defended meta's rapidly expanding AI agents, including Muse, which can book flights, answer emails, and conduct research, while a separate meta system called Sentinel monitors Muse and can require human approval if it detects the agent is exceeding its limits. Zuckerberg dismissed predictions that AI could soon cause human extinction, saying he is quite optimistic about the technology's potential to improve people's lives. And Starbucks is closing another 250 underperforming stores as the coffee chain continues its restructuring. The company announced the latest move after closing 627 locations last year. Starbucks said in a statement that the closures will cost the company about $300 million in restructuring costs, but will save the company more in the long term. Although revenue has risen company-wide every quarter so far in 2026, the stores were targeted for closure if they were losing money or provided a negative customer experience. Market analysts had mixed feelings about the closures, with one telling Reuters that although the move was on paper sensible, it was also costly and investor patience could fade quickly if sales and margins stall. Those are your drive home updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And in case you missed it earlier today, we covered some major stories, including the U.S. walking out on Iran's U.N. speech, President Trump blasting the U.K. over land agreements, and California's shadow welfare system for illegal immigrants. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire. 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