Top Stories — Thursday, September 11, 2025
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Trump ally Charlie Kirk shot at Utah Valley University, suspect still at large — CNBC
- Klarna's stock jumps 15% in NYSE debut after pricing IPO above range — CNBC
- Air India CEO says carrier embracing 'new normal' of safety focus after deadly crash — CNBC
Trump ally Charlie Kirk shot at Utah Valley University, suspect still at large
Source: CNBC • Published: 9/11/2025, 2:06:58 AM
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot on Wednesday while speaking to a large crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Kirk, 31, was shot at least once in the neck just after noon local time, about 20 minutes into his event, according to statements from UVU.
A university spokeswoman said he was shot by a rifle from the Losee Center, about 200 yards away from where Kirk had been speaking.
A suspect was not in custody, according to UVU's spokeswoman. Students earlier had described an older man being taken into custody.
UVU closed its campus and cancelled classes, telling people still on campus to "secure in place until police officers can escort you safely off campus."
Kirk, who is married and has children, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was in surgery, according to UVU.
His condition was not available.
Kirk is the co-founder of Turning Point USA and head of multiple related political organizations. HIs movement aimed at young conservatives has raised hundreds of millions of dollars.
He was at Utah Valley University on Wednesday for the first stop on Turning Point's "American Comeback Tour," according to the group's website.
The event featured Kirk seated at his "prove me wrong table," a format in which he debates with people who challenge his views.
UVU is Utah's largest public university, with nearly 47,000 enrolled students as of fall 2023.
Jason Chaffetz, a former Republican congressman from Utah, in an interview with Fox News said he was at the event, and that Kirk had been asked a question about "transgender shootings, mass shootings."
"As soon as this shot rang out, everybody hit the deck, and then everybody started scattering and yelling and screaming, as you might imagine," Chaffetz said. "I can't say I saw blood. I can't say I saw him get shot, but as soon as that shot went out, he fell back into his left and everybody hit the deck."
Kirk's wife, Erika Kirk, tweeted a biblical verse after the shooting.
"Psalm 46:1 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble," Erika Kirk wrote.
A supporter of President Donald Trump, Kirk promoted the president's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen in favor of Joe Biden, and his group reportedly worked with the Trump campaign during the 2024 cycle.
"We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
"A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!" wrote Trump, who met with Kirk in the Oval Office in late May.
FBI Director Kash Patel said, "Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected."
FBI agents and Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms agents were at the shooting scene, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Shortly before the news of the shooting broke, Kirk's official X account tweeted about the event.
"WE. ARE. SO. BACK," Kirk wrote. "Utah Valley University is FIRED UP and READY for the first stop back on the American Comeback Tour."
Kirk was scheduled to return to Utah on Sept. 30 for a similar event at Utah State University.
An online petition seeking to bar Kirk from speaking at that school garnered nearly 6,900 signatures.
"Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and young father," Vice President JD Vance said in a tweet.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that he is "praying for my friend Charlie Kirk during this difficult time."
Blanche said the Department of Justice "is actively investigating this senseless act of violence."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, "The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible."
"In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form," Newsom wrote.
— CNBC's Erin Doherty contributed to this story.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
Klarna's stock jumps 15% in NYSE debut after pricing IPO above range
Source: CNBC • Published: 9/11/2025, 1:37:07 AM
Shares of Klarna rose 15% in their New York Stock Exchange debut Wednesday, closing at $45.82 after the Swedish fintech priced its IPO above its expected range.
Klarna, known for its popular buy now, pay later products, priced shares at $40 on Tuesday, raising $1.37 billion for the company and existing shareholders.
The IPO marks the latest in a growing list of high-profile tech listings this year, suggesting increased demand from Wall Street for new offerings. Companies like stablecoin issuer Circle and design software platform Figma soared in their respective debuts. Meanwhile, crypto exchange Gemini is expected to go public later this week.
"To me, it really just is a milestone," Klarna's co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday. "It's a little bit like a wedding. You prepare so much and you plan for it and it's a big party. But in the end — marriage goes on."
The stock opened at $52 before dropping as the day progressed. At the close, the company was valued at about $17.3 billion.
Klarna's entry into the public markets will test Wall Street's excitement about the direction of its business. The company has in recent months talked up its move into banking, rolling out a debit card and personal deposit accounts in the U.S.
Klarna has signed 700,000 card customers in the U.S. so far and has 5 million people on a waiting list seeking access to the product, Siemiatkowski told CNBC. He added that Klarna Card represents a different proposition to rival fintech Affirm's card offering, which has attracted 2 million users since its launch in 2021.
"We're attracting a slightly different audience maybe than the Affirm card," Siemiatkowski said. "I get the impression that is more a card where people use it simply to be able to have financing with interest on slightly higher tickets."
In addition to Affirm, Klarna also competes with Afterpay, which was acquired for $29 billion in 2021 by Square, now a unit of Block.
Klarna faces some potential regulatory headwinds. In the U.K., the government has proposed new rules to bring BNPL loans under formal oversight to address affordability concerns regarding the market.
The IPO is poised to generate billions of dollars in returns for some of Klarna's long-time investors. Existing shareholders are offering the bulk of Klarna shares — 28.8 million — on the public market. At its IPO price of $40, that translates to almost $1.2 billion. Meanwhile, Klarna raised $222 million from the IPO.
Sequoia, which first backed Klarna in 2010, has invested $500 million in total. The venture firm sold 2 million of its 79 million shares in the IPO, meaning it's generated an overall return of about $2.65 billion, based on the offer price.
Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia, told CNBC that he was still in college when the firm made its first investment in an "alternative payments company in Stockholm." The early work, he said, was around expanding in Europe.
"Being here in New York 15 years later with over 100 million consumers and over $100 billion of GMV [gross merchandise value] and close to a million merchants, it is staggering what one year after another of execution and growth and Sebastian's long-term vision can do," Reed said.
Another Klarna investor hasn't been so lucky. Japan's SoftBank led a 2021 funding round in Klarna at a $46 billion valuation and has since seen the value of its stake plunge significantly.
Air India CEO says carrier embracing 'new normal' of safety focus after deadly crash
Source: CNBC • Published: 9/11/2025, 1:28:10 AM
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the carrier has embraced a "new normal" and a stepped-up safety focus following the crash of one of its planes in June, the deadliest aviation disaster in a decade.
All but one of the 242 people on board Air India Flight 171 on June 12 were killed when the Boeing Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India. Another 19 other people were killed on the ground.
A preliminary report released in July showed confusion in the cockpit when fuel cutoff switches were flipped off. The cockpit voice recording captured one pilot asking the other why he cut off the fuel and the other responding that he did not.
"The investigation is still ongoing, so I can't comment too freely, but this has been an absolutely devastating event for the people involved, for families, for the company, for staff, and our focus over the last two months has been very much to support them in every way possible," Wilson said at the Airline Passenger Experience Association's conference and expo in Long Beach, California, on Tuesday.
"We continue to work with the regulator on the investigation and ensuring that whatever learnings come about from that investigation are put into play. For the moment, the preliminary report indicates nothing wrong with the aircraft, nothing wrong with the engines, nothing wrong with the airlines operation, but we've taken a significant safety pause to ensure all of our practices and procedures are fully embedded, and people are fully embracing a new normal of even extra focus on safety, and the focus continues to be on the people that were affected," he said.
Air India had been in the middle of a massive modernization effort to better compete with other carriers and gain new customers in India's fast-growing aviation market at the time of the crash. The refresh began after Tata Group privatized the 93-year-old carrier from the government three years ago.
That revamp is continuing with new cabins and better technology, said Wilson, an airline veteran who has previously served as CEO of Scoot, Singapore Airlines' low-cost carrier. The carrier has placed orders for some 570 aircraft.
"Once Air India was privatized [we] could adopt more normal private sector practices, could make long-term decisions, had the capital to invest," he said.
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