Trump press ban, Saudi stealth jets, drugs in space (Updated)

Hi, I'm Kim Vannell in Wanganui, New Zealand. And I'm Christopher Walgisper in Chicago. It's Friday, September 18th, today. The U.S. State Department authorizes stealth fighter jets for Saudi Arabia. The Bank of Japan raises rates to their highest in three decades. And the International Space Station winds down while the race to make drugs in space gets going. This is Royce's World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in ten minutes, seven days a week. President Trump says he's banning three major news outlets, CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House, effective immediately. Trump announced the ban on truth social, calling the outlets, quote, "fake news" and threatening more news organizations could follow. It's the administration's latest test of constitutional first amendment protections of free speech and the press. It comes more than a year after he banned the Associated Press for refusing to recognize his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, a move that could reshape the military balance in the Middle East. The deal, which still needs congressional approval, is worth an estimated $24 billion and would include 48 Lockheed Martin's Stealth aircraft. Now Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to operate the F-35 for the past decade. The potential sale comes as Riyadh has called on Washington this week to intervene in its conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis, who have launched fresh attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure. While President Trump has been "non-committal" about widening U.S. military engagement in the region, China has stepped in to use its influence in Iran to ease tensions around the Red Sea. The fighting has moved closer to shipping routes around the Barbel Mandibs straight, one of the world's most important waterways for global trade and energy supplies. And China depends heavily on oil and trade flowing through the region, giving it its own stake and keeping those shipping lanes open. Timor Azari is covering the situation from Riyadh. So the Houthis control the entire Western coast of Yemen. They're all along the Red Sea. That means that at the closest point with Africa, they're about 20 kilometers away. And that means that they're in control of the choke point. And it means that most of international shipping is in their sights. So out before they needed complex drones and missiles and other technology to hit international shipping, they can probably do it with a mortar now or even an RPG if they're on a boat. And these developments come at a tricky time for Saudi Arabia, which is on depression from multiple directions. This Houthi advance is really a disaster for Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is being attacked from the east, you know, from Iran, from the north, from Iraq, and from the west, from Yemen. Our reporting shows that the US has said is it will not rush to at least a military intervention year. Essentially, after the Houthis did this lightning advance in Yemen, they then held an in-person meeting with American diplomats in Muskat in Oman. So I mean, you have to imagine in Riyadh, this will not be received well. Not only is the US not supporting you, they are meeting and thereby sort of legitimizing your enemy at the moment where you're being hurt the most. So for the US, you know, it's gotten a bloody nose in Ormuz and is still dealing with the fallout of that. And Trump clearly does not want to get involved in another conflict in another strait, you know, right when he's looking at midterms. Japan's central bank is raising its policy rate to one and a quarter percent, a 31 year high. Governor Kazuo Yueita says the Bank of Japan is no longer trying to spur inflation up to its 2 percent target, instead guarding against overheating the Japanese economy. The BOJ still lags its peers. The European central bank's rate is at 2.5 percent, while the US Federal Reserve just raised its benchmark rate this week to between 3.75 and 4 percent. Now to Russia, which is counting down to the country's first parliamentary elections since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. And one candidate is risking jail with her campaign. That's Polina Lerman, handing out flyers to passes by, urging Russians to vote for peace as a billboard behind her, urges them to sign up to fight in Ukraine. Polina's is a risky enterprise. The 24-year-old has accounted it for Russia's liberal Yabloko Party, the only registered political force in the country to oppose the war in Ukraine. She says she is afraid, in a country where discrediting the army or spreading what authorities regard as fake news are punishable with long jailterms. And she says she believes it's important to tell people that there's a chance to vote for peace. Western political analysts say Polina and Yabloko's chances are slim, and the outcome in Russia's tightly controlled system is not in any real doubt, and will be used as a fresh endorsement of Putin and his actions towards Ukraine. And while the war in Ukraine has halted much of the flow of Russian gas into Europe, Germany's far-right AFD party is reportedly planning talks with a top Kremlin adviser about bringing Russian gas back to Germany. The meeting could happen as early as next spring, but only if a peace deal framework is agreed to between Russia and Ukraine. The AFD says cheaper Russian energy could help Germany's struggling economy. But critics warned reopening Russian gas flow could make Europe once again dependent on Moscow and pose a risk to European security. While the AFD isn't a part of Germany's ruling government, it's currently the country's most popular party in voter Poland. In Washington, a federal judges ordering the Trump administration to give at least 30 days notice before taking any steps toward demolishing the Kennedy Center. The legal fight escalated after lawyers cited an unverified social media photo that appeared to show the president reviewing a document labeled "Canody Center demolished." Trump has also suggested the building could be ripped down. That issue, a proposed two-year shutdown, for a $257 million renovation. Critics say Trump is turning the Kennedy Center into a personal legacy project, but supporters say major repairs are overdue. Warren Buffett is stepping away from his role as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, handing the reins to his son, Howard Buffett. The move comes after Greg Abel already took over as CEO of the company earlier this year. 96-year-old Warren Buffett will remain chairman Emeritus after leading Berkshire for more than 60 years. The International Space Station is nearing the end of its run, but for some drug makers, the work happening in orbit is just beginning. Things like Merck say research aboard the ISS has helped shape products used on Earth, and now a new group of startups are looking to take that a step further, betting that commercial space stations could make drug research faster, cheaper, and easier to scale. Health editor Nancy Lapid has more. So in back in July, I spoke with one such company or the Zillium is developing, they are using the International Space Station to try to develop liver and kidney tissues using human cells, and they explained that this is very difficult to do on Earth, because the cells have to be assembled in a certain order in certain ways, but on the International Space Station where there's no gravity, they can get the cells aligned in the order that they want. As for what these newer platforms could offer, some of the companies say that they can offer more manufacturing space, and with the rocket industry expanding, there'll be more opportunities for travel to and from these commercial platforms. So the companies are really predicting that this is an industry that's potential to become a human industry. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.