Random News: September 11, 2025

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s September 11, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. We obviously have a lot to talk about today, and I find it likely that no matter who you are, you’re going to find a reason to disagree with at least some of my sentiments below, and that’s okay. It’s okay for us to not all be exactly alike. Keep that in mind.

• So let’s start with the date. Yes. It’s 9/11. It’s likely you’ll read many peoples’ memories of that day. You’ll see a bunch of news analysis. 
• My story is pretty typical. On my way to work, went by a Starbucks, heard some chatter about a plane hitting a building in New York City, which I erroneously assumed was an accident involving a small Cessna-type aircraft.
• Got back in the car, got on the freeway, turned on NPR, and… yeah. Got the full story as it was happening. It was a horrible and surreal day. Called my coworkers once I arrived at the office and told them not to come in.
• You don’t need other peoples’ recaps to remember that 24 years ago, four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorist attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States.
• 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. They crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C.
• The third terrorist-commandeered plane crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania — instead of hitting its target of the White House — following a revolt by brave passengers.
• The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, injured thousands more, and instigated the multi-decade global war on terror, and was probably a major turning point in nearly every American’s life.
• A musician friend of mine named Dan worked in the World Trade Center every day. That morning, he awoke with an upset stomach and in a very rare moment, decided to take a sick day.
• Hate crimes skyrocketed after 9/11. Anti-terrorism policies of the US government impacted the privacy and freedom of our own citizens. Entire communities of 9/11 conspiracy theorists were born, and many still are thriving today.
• Iraq and Afghanistan were scapegoated and invaded, while places like Saudi Arabia — the home of the actual 9/11 terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden — were left alone.
• 9/11 was a terrible event and will live forever in infamy. But if nothing else, we Americans united against the attackers that were coming from outside of our borders.
• Since then, we’ve had many instances of the USA turning on itself, from the failed coup attempt on January 6 to the ongoing use of our military against the residents of our own country.
• And that current war is present and ongoing.
• Let's do some news.
• Yesterday, far-right conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University. Kirk was 31.
• I’ll start by saying that unedited video of the shooting immediately went out across social media, mere seconds after it happened, and it was one of the most gruesome things I’ve ever seen in my life. I really wish I hadn’t inadvertently watched it.
• And if you haven’t seen it, I certainly advise that you don’t seek it out. Kirk was shot in the neck through a main artery or vein, and most of the blood in his body seemed to exit in a few seconds. It was fucking awful. Do not look.
• There are people today who are reporting their own PTSD-like symptoms merely from having watched the Charlie Kirk death video. perhaps it’s a good thing that we’re not so collectively desensitized to extreme violence that most folks can’t just shrug it off.
• Anyone who saw that video knew there was no way a human could have survived such an assault.
• I’ll make it very clear right now: I despised Charlie Kirk and everything he stood for. I’m not going to list those things; anyone who knows me or reads this news is already aware that I very strongly believe in equality between genders, races, people of different nationalities and sexual orientations, and other topics that make my views the polar opposite of a person like Kirk.
• And now let me say that despite that, violence is the very worst solution. It’s less than a solution; there will be a dozen more Charlie Kirks popping up to fill his void, and he’ll be martyred by his MAGA community.
• And I find it extremely likely that there will be other people killed in supposed retribution to Kirk’s murder.
• To die as a result of expressing your views — no matter how deplorable and heinous and disgusting those views may be — is never what we want to have happen in the USA, or anywhere.
• As the First Amendment nut that I am, I know that people have fought and died to give a person like Charlie Kirk the right to spout whatever political and societal views her wants, to anyone who wants to listen, regardless of the message being abhorrent.
• His getting shot is no more acceptable than any political assassination or other targeted murder attempt, be it JFK or MLK or Gabby Giffords or Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman. It should never be glorified or celebrated, and nothing good ever comes of it.
• Kirk — a close ally of Dump — had been speaking to students for about 20 minutes from an outdoor tent when an audience member asked, “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?”
• Kirk responded, “Too many.”
• Moments later, a single shot was fired. 
• Minutes before his murder, he had posted on social media, "Utah Valley University is FIRED UP and READY for the first stop back on the American Comeback Tour." The post was removed soon after.
• Much more ironic was the timing of Kirk’s staffer Alex Cole, who just before the event posted, “Why did we get rid of public executions? We would be a better country if we had never done away with them.”
• Wow.
• As many of you are aware, Kirk was a big gun proponent. After one of the many school shootings in this country, Kirk posted, "It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
• Another well-known and much-shared Charlie Kirk quote read, “We already have the right to healthcare. It’s called owning a gun.”
• And now, sadly but ironically, he is the victim of his own strong Second Amendment views. In the state of Utah where he was killed, anyone 21 and over can carry firearms openly or concealed without a permit, a law known as Constitutional Carry, that’s been in effect there since May 2021.
• Perhaps Dump will send the National Guard into Utah to protect its people against such egregious violence. Right?
• One thing I will not allow myself to do is to become jaded to the point that I can’t have sympathy for this person, or feel for his wife and young kids who’ve lost their husband and father, or his parents who lost a son.
• As does every person who is killed via gun violence. Every one of them is a daughter or son, someone’s loved one. Someone’s friend.
• What would Charlie have said about his own murder? Would he feel badly about it? Another of his quotes reads: “I think empathy is a made up New Age term that does a lot of damage.”
• In spite of his outlook, I remain empathetic. I will not let myself become like them.
• We need to report on the shooter, who is still at large.
• Authorities detained two different men before releasing them almost immediately; they were the wrong guys.
• Here’s the thing: that shooter was about 200 yards away, on a campus rooftop, looking down on the event. He took a single shot that was 100% lethal.
• That tells me the shooter was a highly trained marksman. There’s no way some casual gun owner — say a random angry guy who had a vendetta against Kirk — makes that shot.
• Whoever this person is, they’re a professional killer.
• The FBI recovered the high-powered bolt-action rifle in a wooded area where authorities believe the shooter fled. The only only info they’re released is that the killer may be college-aged, making it easy for him (I”m assuming it’s a male) to blend in with the crowd afterwards.
• A slew of liberal political figures immediately condemned the shooting even before Kirk was declared dead.
• Kamala Harris wrote, “I am deeply disturbed by the shooting in Utah. Doug and I send our prayers to Charlie Kirk and his family. Let me be clear: Political violence has no place in America. I condemn this act, and we all must work together to ensure this does not lead to more violence.”
• Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), whose wife Gabby Giffords was shot in the head, wrote, “The news that Charlie Kirk was shot while speaking in Utah is shocking and horrible. It’s an example of political violence that has no place in our country. Gabby and I are thinking of him and his family.”
• Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) wrote, “Horrified to see reports that Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah today. It's just awful. The increasing degree of political violence in this country is a threat to everyone. And it must end. My thoughts are with the Kirk family.”
• And Barack Obama added, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
• So no matter where you’re at on the political spectrum, I’m going to remind you that murder is terrible no matter the target. There is no justification for it.
• As the saying goes, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. People who are incapable of finding other ways to address problems in their lives and in the world. Let’s have less violence. Let’s not act like the fools we despise.
• Moving on. There are other very important things going on, and yesterday’s assassination at least momentarily stopped every single person from talking or thinking about Russia’s invasion of Poland, and about the Epstein files.
• It should be obvious, to any follower of international relations, what Russia is up to next.
• Wednesday’s drone attack on Poland was testing the waters… seeing what and how the international community would respond.
• If that response is not severe enough, they will take that as a sign to keep going. I find it likely that Russia’s next targets are the Baltic states… Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.
• How is the USA reacting?
• Well, 12 full hours after the attack, Dumplestiltskin finally made a social post, saying, “What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!”
• What the fuck does “Here we go!” mean, you moronic asshole?
• Russia claims it did not plan to attack any targets in Poland, which is utter bullshit.
• Europe is doing the smart thing. They are planning new economic measures against Moscow to try to force Putin to negotiate an end to the conflict.
• Yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc intends to accelerate efforts to phase out all purchases of Russian fossil fuels and to crack down on Moscow’s shadow oil shipping fleet.
• However, one thing Russia learned in this test attack: Europe is not ready to defend against them. It required very high-value defense tools (like F-35s) to stop some relatively low-value attack methods (cheap Iranian drones).
• We will keep monitoring Putin and his desire to takeover Europe and then the rest of the world.
• Let’s move on.
• An activist group sending a flotilla of aid boats to try to reach Gaza — the Global Sumud Flotilla — said a second one of its vessels was attacked by a drone while docked in Tunisia one day after it reported a similar strike.
• The group shared a video clip that it said showed the moment of the second attack, with a fireball hitting the deck of the boat from above. It’s almost certainly Israel who is attacking these people providing aid to dying Palestinians.
• Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who took part in a separate Gaza flotilla that was stopped by Israeli forces earlier this year, is among those traveling with the GSF flotilla.
• I wish them luck.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected a request by South Carolina officials to bar a transgender boy from using the boys' restrooms at his school.
• The court denied an emergency request filed by the state, which has recently enacted measures aimed at forcing schools to bar transgender students from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
• Three of the largest assholes of the court — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — said they would have granted the request.
• The ninth grade student, named in court papers as John Doe, can use the boys' restrooms at his school while litigation continues.
• His parents sued on his behalf, saying that the measures violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires that the laws apply equally to everyone, as well as Title IX, the federal law that bars discrimination in education.
• This is by no means resolved. In the Supreme Court's new term, which begins next month, the justices will consider a major case on state laws that ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's school and college sports.
• Sigh.
• In other news…
• The more than 300 South Korean workers who were arrested in an immigration raid are being home on a chartered flight from Atlanta.
• The sight of ICE goons handcuffing and chaining the wrists, waists, and ankles of skilled technicians shocked South Koreans.
• This clusterfuck is now a huge obstacle to South Korea's contribution to Dump's plans to revive American manufacturing.
• South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung said, "This could significantly impact future direct investment in the US.”
• Lawmaker Yoon Hu-duk put it more bluntly, saying, “The U.S. has encouraged investments in negotiations. And then it stabbed us in the back, to be frank.”
• That’s correct.
• Moving on.
• Today, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired the U.K. ambassador to the United States after officials said “additional information” came to light about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
• The British Embassy in Washington said that emails written by Peter Mandelson showed “that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.”
• The statement followed reports in the British press this week that Mandelson had expressed his support for the financier in an email correspondence from 2008, shortly before Epstein was jailed on charges of soliciting prostitution. Mandelson has since expressed his regret for any support.
• I’ll bet he does indeed regret it.
• Let’s move on.
• Inflation rose last month as the price of gas, groceries, and airfares jumped, while a measure of layoffs also increased.
• Consumer prices increased 2.9% in August from a year earlier, the Labor Department said this week, up from 2.7% the previous month and the biggest increase since January.
• There’s a name for when things are more expensive and jobs are scarce: stagflation.
• Dumpy’s amateurish economic policies are tanking this whole country. I promise, if you’re feeling the squeeze of this shitty economy — where prices are higher and jobs are less available — you’re not alone.
• Remember that when you vote.
• From the “It Sounds Like Good News But Is Actually Irrelevant News” Desk…
• As of yesterday, Elon Musk is no longer the world’s richest person. Yay!
• He’s been relegated to second place by Oracle co-founder and MAGA asshole Larry Ellison. Boo!
• How did that happen? Ellison’s net worth soared yesterday when his company’s stock closed 35 percent higher than a day earlier.
• And how the fuck did that happen? 
• Oracle and OpenAI had signed a $300 billion cloud computing deal, one of the largest such contracts in history. Ellison himself got $100 billion more wealthy in a day.
• Oh.
• Ellison is a close friend of both Musk and Dump. As I said, this news is only relevant from the standpoint that a handful of people have all the fucking money, and the rest of us are fucked.
• But you knew that.
• And now, The Weather: “Daydream” by Alicia Clara
• RIP going out to actress Polly Holliday, who died Tuesday at 88.
• Holliday was best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress Flo on the 1970s sitcom “Alice,” and then somehow got a short-lived spin-off called “Flo.” Her character had a popular catchphrase: ”Kiss my grits!”
• In the ‘80s, Holliday won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Ruby Deagle in the film “Gremlins.”
• Let’s do a chart.
• We’re heading back 29 years to September 1996, when I was a 27-year-old director of advertising and marketing communications for a music/audio equipment company. In retrospect, it was probably too big of a job for my abilities or experience at the time, but I muddled through pretty well.
• Sometimes, not knowing what you don’t know can actually be beneficial. You can just bulldog your way through and figure shit out as you go along, hopefully not making too many big mistakes along the way. I did alright.
• And at the time, as part of my job, I wrote about and interviewed a number of the artists on this very chart… the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time.
• 1. No Code (Pearl Jam). 2. Falling Into You (Celine Dion). 3. ATLiens (OutKast). 4. Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette). 5. Blue (LeAnn Rimes). 6. Tragic Kingdom (No Doubt). 7. Keith Sweat (Keith Sweat). 8. E. 1999 Eternal (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony). 9. It Was Written (Nas). 10. Secrets (Toni Braxton). 11. The Score (Fugees). 12. 311 (311). 13. Load (Metallica). 14. The Crow: City Of Angels (Soundtrack). 15. New Beginning (Tracy Chapman). 16. Jock Jams Vol. 2 (Various Artists). 17. Unplugged (Alice in Chains). 18. Crash (Dave Matthews Band). 19. The Woman In Me (Shania Twain). 20. Signs Of Life (Steven Curtis Chapman).
• From the Sports Desk… I promise we’re not only going to talk about NFL football for the next five months.
• The season is still just new, and we fans are trying to figure out how good or bad our teams are. Tonight is the start of Week 2, with what should be a good game. The Washington Commanders are visiting the Green Bay Packers… both teams that look pretty strong.
• Vegas odds have the home team Packers as a favorite at -3.5.
• Today in history… The Roman Empire suffers the greatest defeat of its history and the Rhine is established as the border between the Empire and the so-called barbarians for the next four hundred years (9). Henry Hudson arrives on Manhattan Island and meets the indigenous people living there (1609). Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first United States Secretary of the Treasury (1789). Escaped slaves led by William Parker fight off and kill a slave owner (1851). United States Marine Corps invades Honduras (1919). Construction begins on The Pentagon (1941). Charles Lindbergh's Des Moines speech accusing the British, Jews and FDR's administration of conspiring for war with Germany (1941). Hurricane Edna hits New England (1954). Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast (1961). San Francisco’s BART begins passenger service (1972). General Augusto Pinochet leads a coup in Chile and topples the democratically elected president Salvador Allende (1973). Hurricane Iniki devastates the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai and Oahu (1992). The September 11 terrorist attacks kill 2,996 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda (2001). The U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya is attacked, resulting in four deaths (2012).
• September 11 is the birthday of organist William Boyce (1711), lens maker Carl Zeiss (1816), astronomer Mary Watson Whitney (1847), writer O. Henry (1862), writer D. H. Lawrence (1885), football coach Bear Bryant (1913), film producer Ed Sabol (1916), politician Ferdinand Marcos (1917), NFL coach Tom Landry (1924), film director Brian De Palma (1940), percussionist/composer Mickey Hart (1943), guitarist/composer Leo Kotke (1945), singer-songwriter/guitarist Tommy Shaw (1953), actress Roxann Dawson (1958), actress Virginia Madsen (1961), songwriter/composer/DJ Moby (1965), singer-songwriter/pianist Harry Connick Jr. (1967), rapper Ludacris (1977), NFL player Ed Reed (1978), MLB player Mike Moustakas (1988), and NFL player Zay Flowers (2000).

That was a lot of stuff, and unfortunately, sometimes the immediate importance of one story takes up so much time and space that I”m forced to leave off other things that may also be of high importance. But that’s the way of the world sometimes. Try to be kind of other people, and animals, and the planet on which you live. Things are just better that way. Enjoy your day.