Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket reached orbit for the first time despite an unexpected engine shutdown mid-flight on Monday. But it exploded in a ball of flames when it touched down in a controlled landing over the Pacific Ocean.
Published On 28 Sep 2026
Tether then highlighted several freeze occurrences where the company worked with law enforcement officials to stop illicit flows. Additionally, Tether said it works with Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF).
“Together, those actions amount to approximately $550 million in Iran-linked $USDT frozen in 2026 alone,” the company claims.
The subcommittee’s analysis also notes that in addition to $USDT, Iran-based groups are also leveraging bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), TRX, and other altcoins. Circle’s $USDC stablecoin was a different story, the report details.
“$USDT’s largest competitor, $USDC—the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by the second-largest stablecoin issuer Circle—was extremely limited in the Subcommittee’s analysis,” the 24-page study declares.
While the report does discuss bitcoin, other altcoins, and stablecoins, it is largely focused on Tether’s $USDT stablecoin. In the company blog post posted on Monday morning, Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino appeared to wholeheartedly disagree with the report’s premise.
“Tether has consistently demonstrated that $USDT is not a haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations or criminal networks,” Ardoino insisted in the Tether blog post.
The official poverty rate in the U.S. hit an all-time historical low in 2025.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2025 official poverty rate was the lowest since records began in 1959. The bureau also publishes a supplemental poverty measure rate. The 2025 supplemental poverty rate was not the lowest since records began in 2009.
A claim (archived) circulated online in September 2026 that the poverty rate in the U.S. hit an all-time low in 2025.
The claim came from a video that social media users (archived, archived) said showed Trump saying the U.S. had “the best poverty numbers ever in the history of our country.”
For example, one X user shared the video with a transcription that read, “Trump: ‘We have the best, uhh, I guess you could say poverty. They talk poverty. We have the best poverty numbers ever in the history of our country.’”
According to a video posted on the White House YouTube channel, Trump did make the statement (time code 00:37) in question while talking to reporters on Sept. 27, 2026.
Trump’s full comment about poverty in the U.S. read:
We have the best, I guess you could say poverty, they talk poverty. We have the best poverty numbers ever in the history of our country. In other words, there’s less poverty now than at any time in the history of our country.
The statement is true according to the official poverty measure rate, one of two poverty rates published annually by the U.S. Census Bureau.
A White House Press Office spokesperson confirmed to Snopes via email on Sept. 28 that Trump was referring to a Sept. 16, 2026, report by the Census Bureau that found the official poverty measure rate in 2025 was 10.2%, which is the lowest rate since records began in 1959.
The official poverty rate of 10.2% in 2025 was lower than the previous all-time low of 10.5% in 2019. The Census Bureau’s annual poverty reports cover calendar years, meaning the 2025 report covered the first 11 months (and 10 days) of Trump’s second presidency.
The bureau calculates official poverty measures by comparing a family’s income to the poverty threshold for its size. For example, the bureau considers a family of four with two children under the age of 18 to be below the poverty threshold if that family’s pre-tax income is below $32,649 per year (Page 11).
The bureau sets the thresholds using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, which tracks price changes for many household goods and utilities. Family income includes cash benefits like Social Security or child support but excludes non-cash benefits like food stamps (Page 17).
An official poverty measure rate of 10.2% means that in 2025, for every 100 people in the U.S., 10.2 people fell below the poverty threshold the bureau determined for their family size. (In this case, it might be easier to think of the poverty rate as 51 people in every 500 falling below the poverty threshold, as people of course cannot be divided into parts of a whole.)
Besides the official poverty measure rate, the bureau also tracks what it calls the supplemental poverty measure rate. According to that second measurement, poverty rates had not seen meaningful changes between 2024 and 2025 and were not at an all-time low in 2025.
The supplemental poverty measure considers more factors than the official poverty measure when determining whether an individual or family falls below the poverty threshold. The bureau wrote in its 2025 report on poverty that (Page 3):
The SPM includes noncash benefits, accounts for income and payroll taxes, subtracts other necessary expenses, uses a more inclusive resource sharing unit, and accounts for geographic differences in housing costs.
The 2025 poverty report found that the supplemental poverty measure rate in 2025 was 13.1%, “not statistically different” from 2024.
A graph within the report (Figure 4, Page 6) showed that the supplemental poverty measure had generally trended downwards from 15.1% since records began in 2009 until it hit an all-time low of 7.8% in 2021. The supplemental poverty measure rate then rose to 12% by 2022 and 13.1% by 2024.
Social media users frequently attribute all manner of quotes to the president, not all of them correctly. For further reading, Snopes previously debunked a collection of fake Trump quotes.
In late September 2026, people shared a screenshot purportedly showing a Reddit post, titled, “ICE has detained my Indian wife.” According to the alleged post, a U.S.-born citizen who voted for President Donald Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained their wife several years after the couple’s U.S. marriage.
Social media users shared screengrabs of the post — attributed to an account with the handle u/Significant-Lake8126 — on Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived) and Threads (archived).
(@radical.rachelvr/Threads)
The purported Reddit post reads as follows:
Ice has detained my Indian wife.
I am a US born citizen, my wife is from India. I met her back in 2018 while traveling in Asia. We legally married here in the US in 2022. But yesterday, for some reason, ICE detained my wife. They don’t answer my calls, nor want to give any reason as for why they detained her. We are legally married, so I have no idea why. I’m actually scared for her.
I even voted for Trump, I voted republican for a better economy, for them to take care of the criminals and ILLEGALS in our streets, NOT for them to take my wife away. I am so f*in sorry for voting for him.
What can I do? Why are they doing this??
Snopes received reader mail asking whether the post, if real, featured an authentic story. One reader asked, “Is this true?”
In sum, it was not possible to locate credible information about the supposed post or the alleged detainment story. The purported screenshot does not show any obvious signs of fakery, though it also does not provide any key identifying information beyond the pair’s ethnicity, when they met and the year they got married. As such, it was not possible to rate this unproven claim.
Snopes emailed ICE and Reddit, and also messaged the r/Advice subreddit’s moderators. In our messages to Reddit and the subreddit’s moderators, we requested any details, such as a link, that might help us at least confirm the user truly shared the post. Regarding the authenticity of the story itself, bearing in mind the lack of key identifying details, we asked ICE whether officials recalled seeing the post circulating online in 2025 or 2026 and internally had discussions about which detained person it may have been referencing. We will update this article if we receive further information.
As of this writing, Reddit has removed (archived) a user with the handle u/Significant-Lake8126. The account’s main page reads, “This account has been banned.” The page does not show any past content. It was therefore not possible to confirm the veracity of the alleged post.
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, X and Yahoo failed to locate any additional identifiable information about this rumor. The searches uncovered numerous stories about immigration agents reportedly detaining or deporting Indian-origin women, though none appear to match the details of the claim. Extensive searches of website-archiving tools Internet Archive Wayback Machine and archive.today also found no records of the supposed old Reddit post.
A reverse image search revealed that the oldest known iteration of the screenshot of the alleged Reddit post was uploaded to Facebook (archived) on Jan. 15, 2026. That Facebook user told us via Messenger that he found the image elsewhere on Facebook and did not capture the screengrab himself.
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on whether a video truly shows Black children protecting their Latino neighbors from an ICE officer.
Anonymous participant. “Need Help. My Wife Crossed Border from Canada, She Is Indian Citizen…” Facebook, Immigration USA Asylum Seeker, 22 Aug. 2026, https://www.facebook.com/groups/402434537227767/?multi_permalinks=2484595325678334&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen.
ET Online. “Indian-Origin Woman, Living in US since 1994, Detained by ICE from Green Card Interview.” The Economic Times, 16 Dec. 2025, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/indian-origin-woman-living-in-us-since-1994-detained-by-ice-from-green-card-interview/articleshow/125998125.cms.
Mollan, Cherylann. “Woman, 73, Deported by ICE to India after Three Decades in US.” BBC News, 26 Sept. 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jqvz24llyo.
Padhiana, Kultaran Singh. “Punjabi Woman with Son in US Army Held by ICE for Deportation.” Facebook, 16 Apr. 2026, https://www.facebook.com/Kultarn/posts/pfbid02sHyLP3K9yWG7CRNrnMoDzQgZi6M5FsVyFWxJugD6EoMX1NYFFQUxwnwESsUjQs6tl.
A bill to establish a 20% federal film and TV tax credit has added eight new co-sponsors in the Senate, a boost to the legislation as backers pin their hopes on passage during Congress’ lame duck session.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) have signed on to the bill, called the Motion Picture, Television and Entertainment Revitalization Act. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced the bill in the Senate last week, concurrently with a House version that also has a slate of bipartisan supporters.
The bill has the support of President Donald Trump, who urged lawmakers to establish such a credit in a Truth Social post late last month.
The credit would be available to projects with a minimum spend of $1 million and with at least 75% of the principal photography days occurring in the U.S. There also are additional 5% bonus credits for productions in rural opportunity zones and disaster recovery areas, as well as to independent productions and multi-state producers. Bonuses also are available to producers who bring production back to the U.S. in a measurable way. The incentive also will be a supplement to state credits.
With the House out until the midterms and the Senate leaving this week, the bill won’t advance before the November election. But backers are aiming for later in the year, perhaps as an attachment to year-end spending legislation.
Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, is getting a divorce because of an affair with Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat.
In 2026, a rumor spread that former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney was getting a divorce because of her supposed affair with Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat.
The story spread on X and Facebook (screenshot). The claims referenced Cheney and Raskin serving together on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
(X user Larry Dean)
Some users seemed to interpret the rumor about the alleged affair as true. Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.
This rumor originated as a satirical post (screenshot) from a Facebook account called America’s Last Line of Defense. Snopes has debunked
“Nothing on this page is real,” the account’s description reads. America’s Last Line of Defense included the above tagline on the image attached to its post about Cheney, as well as a credit that read, “ALLOD SATIRE.” The post then spread to X without that image and context.
The header of the America’s Last Line of Defense Facebook page is a screenshot of a community note that says it “was created by the well known internet troll Christopher Blair aka Busta Troll.”
“It was created to monetize content from gullible MAGA and right-wing Facebook users,” the community note said.
The posts circulating online claim there are public documents in lawsuits that indicate Cheney is getting a divorce. If that were the case, journalists with reputable news outlets would have widely reported on those documents. Searches using DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo returned no evidence of that. (Yahoo’s AI overview, however, cited the Facebook post to claim that Cheney was reportedly having an affair with Raskin, which is a good example of why AI tools are not trustworthy fact-checkers.)
There does not appear to be an official online website to search for divorce cases in Wyoming, the state Cheney used to represent and where she reportedly married her husband, Philip Perry.
Snopes has previously debunked other claims related to Cheney — the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney — including a false rumor that she wrote a letter urging the Democratic Party to fight U.S. President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian machine.”
Because the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use “originated as satire” or “labeled satire” ratings based on creators’ description of their work. It’s your call on whether you agree.
Dennis Haskins, who for more than a decade played the lovable but stern Principal Richard Belding on Saved by the Bell, has died, his agent, Jay Schachter, announced in a statement. He was 75.
“It’s a tragic loss. Everyone loved Mr. Belding, and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more,” Schachter said. “He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans. He always had time for them, no matter what. He was my client and dear friend for over 20 years, and I will miss him terribly.”
Details of his death were not provided.
Haskins played Principal Belding first on the Disney Channel show Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was retooled after one season and became Saved by the Bell on NBC, running from 1989-93. He then reprised the character on Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which aired from 1993-2000.
Haskins would go on to play Belding one final time in February 2015 when he reunited with Bell stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen for a sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The Chattanooga, Tennessee-born actor appeared in numerous TV shows and films throughout his decades-long career, including Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), Mad Men, Hot in Cleveland and New Girl. He also was on the Showtime series I’m Dying Up Here, Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken and FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Haskins made his onscreen debut in 1979 when he showed up on an episode of CBS’ The Dukes of Hazzard.
He played basketball for a year at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and in 2000 was honored with the school’s Most Distinguished Alumni Award. He also had a regional high school academic decathlon named after him, The Dennis Haskins Open.
Also a musician, Haskins in 2000 participated in two USO tours for troops in Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia and again in 2002 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman and Kyrgyzstan. He also flew with the Blue Angels.
He is survived by his son, Dustin.
The Tokyo International Film Festival will honor filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mipo O with its Kurosawa Akira Award at the event’s 39th edition next month.
Named for the Japanese master, the award recognizes directors whose work has made an impact on cinema and who are expected to help shape its future. It was revived in 2022 after a 14-year hiatus with support from Capcom. Last year’s recipients were Chloé Zhao and Lee Sang-il.
This year’s honorees were selected by a committee comprising filmmakers Yoji Yamada and Lee Sang-il, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama.
Rasoulof, one of Iran’s leading dissident directors now living in exile in Europe, won Berlin’s Golden Bear for There Is No Evil (2020), while The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) received a special prize at Cannes before earning an international feature Oscar nomination as Germany’s submission.
The committee singled out the two films for “their humanist perspective, which portrays even those who perpetrate oppression as ordinary citizens.” It also praised Rasoulof’s “unwavering commitment to creative expression despite relentless pressure.”
“Receiving the Kurosawa Award is a great honor for me. His films are profound explorations of the human condition and the moral choices we make in moments of crisis. Kurosawa was a dynamic and inquisitive visual storyteller whose unique perspective on humanity, nature, and the world has made his work an enduring source of inspiration in cinema,” Rasoulof said.
O, a Japanese-born filmmaker of Korean descent, made her feature debut with The Sakais’ Happiness in 2006. Her credits include The Light Shines Only There (2014), Japan’s Oscar submission that year, and Being Good (2015), an ensemble drama exploring child abuse, bullying and the possibility of breaking those cycles through human connection.
After a nine-year break from feature filmmaking, she returned with Living in Two Worlds (2024), a family drama starring Ryo Yoshizawa as the hearing son of deaf parents, whose desire for independence complicates his relationship with his mother. Her latest, How Dare You? (2025), takes a more comic approach to childhood, following three elementary school students whose budding environmental activism — mixed with a classroom crush — leads to unintended consequences.
The selection committee praised her “multifaceted perspective on individuals living on the margins of society” and her avoidance of “a simple lens of good vs. evil,” while highlighting her work with child performers.
“To receive such an extraordinary honor on the 20th anniversary of my directorial debut fills me with immense gratitude and deep humility,” O said. “Winning the Shindo Kaneto Award in 2010 provided me with the vital support to keep making films. Though my progress has been slow, reaching the Kurosawa Akira Award is a stroke of fortune that makes me truly savor what a happy cinematic journey I have had. This recognition is by no means mine alone. My heartfelt thanks go to all the cast and crew members I have met along the way, the audience who stepped into the theaters, and the selection committee—led by director Yamada Yoji—who discovered my films.”
Tokyo will also screen 4K restorations of Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata (1943) and Ikiru (1952), alongside Charles Chaplin’s The Circus (1928) and Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987).
Separately, the festival named Alice in Borderland actor Hayato Isomura president of its Ethical Film Award jury. Launched in 2023 with Sumitomo Corporation, the prize recognizes films addressing social issues including the environment, poverty and discrimination. Three members of TIFF’s Student PR team will join Isomura on the jury.
The nominees are Brazil’s Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World, the German-Ukrainian feature I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming and Australia’s Time and Tide. The award ceremony and a talk with Isomura are scheduled for Nov. 2.
“Today, we absorb vast amounts of information in seconds through a small screen. I often feel we fall into the trap of believing we understand something instantly, constantly searching for quick answers. Yet, when it comes to deepening our awareness and understanding of social issues, the process of reaching those answers is what truly matters,” Isomura said. “Cinema possesses the unique power to pause our hurried pace, allowing us to experience that very process through the lives and emotions of others. I am committed to taking the thoughts, hopes, and wishes woven into these films by each filmmaker deeply to heart, and to reflecting on them together with everyone.”
The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 26-Nov. 4, with the TIFFCOM market taking place Oct. 28-30.
Dennis Haskins, the actor best known for portraying Principal Richard Belding on “Saved by the Bell,” has died. He was 75.
Haskins’ longtime agent, Jay Schachter, confirmed the news to Variety. A cause of death and further details have not been released at this time.
“It’s a tragic loss,” said Haskins in a statement. “Everyone loved Mr. Belding and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more. He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans. He always had time for them, no matter what. He was my client and dear friend for over 20 years, and I will miss him terribly. I’m heartbroken.”
Haskins played the iconic principal in the long-running series from start to end. The show ran from 1989 to 1992, and Haskins appeared in nearly 90 episodes. He also played the role in “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” the TV movie “Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style” and the precursor to the main series, “Good Morning, Miss Bliss.”
His character famously used the catchphrase, “Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?” when trying to discipline students Zack Morris, A.C. Slater and Screech Powers. He starred alongside Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Dennis Haskins, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez.
Haskins also appeared in a number of other films and television shows, including “Abstruse,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” “A Bennett Song Holiday,” “Trailer Park Shark,” “Jennifer Falls” and more.
Dimples Karaoke, a bar in Burbank, Calif., shared a tribute on Instagram to the actor, who was a regular at the establishment.
The caption reads: “Dennis was a staple at Dimples. A lot of people thought he owned it, but he didn’t. He just loved the place and its people. He enjoyed singing for people, meeting them, and taking selfies with his fans. Dimples closed down about 11 years ago, and people still associate him with his beloved ‘second home.’ He was known to most as Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell, but to us, he was much more than that.”
“Late last night, that journey ended for him. He is now at peace and is probably entertaining the people in the sky. Just know that if you tried to reach out to him in the last few years, I did read your messages to him, and you were heard.”
Jeff Probst said “nothing has changed” on Survivor when it comes to the reality show’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, despite Paramount rolling back DEI policies when Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The long-running host and showrunner recently told The New York Times that it was “one of the biggest positive changes ever,” referring to when CBS launched a DEI initiative in 2020, post-Black Lives Matter, that required unscripted reality shows to have at least 50 percent of castmembers be people of color.
“If you watch our show, you know that we’re so diverse — and it’s not just skin color or ethnicity. It goes much deeper than that,” the Emmy winner said. “It’s one of the biggest positive changes ever. Our stories are so much more interesting now because we have people from completely different walks of life.”
The Hollywood Reporter reported last year that Paramount was among companies across the entertainment industry stepping back on policies aimed at boosting diversity amid a larger crackdown on DEI programs driven by the Trump administration. David Ellison’s Skydance also committed to eliminating all DEI initiatives last year as it sought the FCC’s approval for Skydance’s merger with Paramount.
Probst added to the Times, “I feel no pressure. No one ever says, can you count the numbers again? But Jesse Tannenbaum, who runs our casting team, knows: There’s no stopping, not because we’re told to do it. This is what we need. We need diversity. It’s for narrative. All those differences matter in the story when you throw people together and force them to rely on each other while conspiring against each other. The more diverse, the more interesting.”
As Survivor returned for its 51st season last Wednesday, Probst previously told THR that he felt “enormous pressure” heading into the new season following the show’s milestone 50th season.
“We felt pressure before we shot 50,” the host said. “We were already feeling like, ‘What are we going to do after 50, even though we have not even produced 50?’ And I think that pressure was really good because it focused us on 50 and the minute 50 was over, everybody was thinking, ‘OK, what’s next?’ That’s really what led to this idea of the ‘Open Era’ — the pressure of needing something new to really birth us into the next decade.”
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams live on Paramount+.
