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Bob Mackie, designer to the stars who dressed Cher and Madonna and defined '70s glamour, dies at 87
Fashion designer Bob Mackie has died at 87 | WWJ Newsradio 950
Bob Mackie, designer to the stars who dressed Cher and Marilyn and defined ’70s glamour, dies at 87
Fashion designer Bob Mackie has died at 87.
Bob Mackie, designer to the stars who dressed Cher and Madonna and defined '70s glamour, dies at 87
Fashion designer Bob Mackie has died at 87.
Massachusetts clam diggers and scientists hunt cause of soft-shell collapse on North Shore
"There's nothing left of the clam after a green crab is done with it."
Catherine Zeta-Jones slams the term 'nepo baby' as 'horrific'
Catherine Zeta-Jones is not a fan of the label "nepo baby." In fact, she loathes it.
Playing Tetris with fire: Stephen Driver’s annual kiln firing in Ozark is both science and ceremony
Ozark artisan Stephen Driver lights up his wood-fired brick kiln once a year, drawing a collective of ceramists to tend the flames.
Top Tennis Players Pause Public Battle With Grand Slams
It’s not clear which players will be part of the new council.
The four-hour-long Elon Musk documentary might be preaching to the choir
Alex Gibney’s latest feature is so gigantic in scope that it may miss its intended audience.
UK unions split over party donations cap as TUC chief says ‘super-rich’ corrupting politics
Sources say there are ‘significant differences’ in opinion as debate inflamed by crypto billionaires’ £72m donations to Reform
MORNING BUSINESS REPORT: AI may be to blame for wage growth slowdown
Jane King has these stories and more for your Monday Morning Business Report.
Rhelion Life Sciences' Wholly Owned Subsidiary Filament Health to Deliver Oral Comments at FDA Public Hearing on the Potential Future Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Drugs
Sarit Hashkes, President of Filament Health Corp., will provide oral remarks at the United States Food and Drug Administration public hearing "Considerations for Potential Future Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Drugs", being held later today, September 14, 2026Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 14, 2026) - Rhelion Life Sciences Corp. (CSE: RHEL) (FSE: 4YX0) (OTCQB: TRUFF) ("Rhelion" or the "Company"), an Ontario-based organization advancing innovation and research within the legal...
Islamophobia is rising – and Britain’s politicians have been dangerously complacent in tackling it
Mainstream figures have been enabling anti-Muslim racism, creating the ideal conditions for the rise of hard-right political parties, says Arun Kundnani, editorial director of Monthly Review Press
‘Nothing in the film is true’: MKs, politicians denounce NAZA film creators as 'Israel haters'
Gotliv also slammed the IDF's response, stating its silence "magnifies the horrific damage caused by this false film, which is based on Playmobil soldiers and not IDF soldiers."
Texas college football brands used in Dan Patrick’s AI campaign ad
It is not clear if Patrick’s campaign sought permission from three Texas universities to use their trademarks in a college football-inspired ad that appears to be AI-generated.
Andy Roddick pinpoints what Alexander Zverev did ‘perfectly’ against Ben Shelton in the US Open final
Like London buses, two Grand Slam titles have come along at once for Alexander Zverev after spending over a decade in pursuit of his first....
Iran Decries Austria’s Blocking of Nuclear Chief from IAEA Conference
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned Austria’s refusal to issue a visa to Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, to attend an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna, calling the move completely unjustified.
Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott Suffer Brutal Gateway Playoff Blows
Gateway was already chaotic. Then it became a nightmare for Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott. Both drivers entered Sunday’s race with legitimate championship hopes. Both left World Wide Technology Raceway with major playoff problems. And neither driver could blame another competitor. Blaney’s Day Ends With No Brakes Ryan Blaney looked like a contender for much…
Lineage Sues Solar Firm for $1 Billion
Cold storage giant Lineage blames the “reckless conduct” of rooftop solar developer Altus Power – a subsidiary of private equity firm TPG – for igniting
The rising power of American Muslims
Is this a new era for American Muslims?American Muslims are building their own cultural institutions – New York Magazine and The Guardian have reported on flourishing ecosystems of cafes, magazines, dance nights, meetups and readings for Muslims and/or people with heritage from the SWANA region. And on a political level, Muslims like Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have become prominent faces of the left. On the one hand, this swell of Muslims coming up in politics and building cultural institutions is not surprising – there are over 4 million Muslims in America. On the other hand, this shift is pretty significant given how deeply Islamophobia and racism are rooted in our culture. So what's changed for American Muslims in recent years, and what’s stayed the same? What does it mean that Muslims are accruing a little more political and cultural capital now, and that non-Muslims are noticing?To get deeper into it, Brittany is joined by Dr. Donna Auston, cultural anthropologist, and Dr. Tazeen Ali, scholar of Islam in America and associate professor of religion and politics at Washington University in St. Louis.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
IRGC Downs Another MQ-1 Drone over Strait of Hormuz
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced the interception and destruction of another advanced MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
Alexander Zverev makes humble Jannik Sinner admission despite US Open success
Asked if he is the best player in the world after winning the US Open, Alexander Zverev kept it real. Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton in four sets to claim his second Grand Slam title ever, and to mark his own first ever US Open triumph.
New microscope to look for cure for inflammatory bowel disease
The microscope will allow researchers to study much thicker samples in far greater detail.
LANL: LAMP Receives Milestone Approval, Paving Way For LANSCE Modernization
The LANSCE accelerator facility recently achieved a major milestone with CD-1 approval for its modernization project. The upgrade will replace critical 50-year-old systems while maintaining the fac…
Dalai Lama’s Enduring Politics of Hope
Delhi fears China. China fears the Dalai Lama. Neither fear will be mentioned this week – By Rajiv Mehrotra for The Tribune, 12 September 2026 This week, the President of China lands in Delhi with 400 officials. Ninety-one years old, in a house in Dharamshala, sits a monk with no army, no territory and no…
CeeDee Lamb visits the end zone in NFC East showdown
CeeDee Lamb managed just 44 yards on Sunday night, though he did score a touchdown during a disappointing loss in New York.
Poland, Ukraine slam Russian strikes near border as 'escalation'
The strikes came as US President Donald Trump called on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt attacks on Russian refineries
Zverev Doubles Grand Slam Tally As He Overpowers Shelton In U.S. Open Finals
The German tennis player’s triumph scuttled the chance for American men to put an end to their two decade Grand Slam drought.
Zverev holds off Shelton to win US Open title
Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 6-2 to win the US Open on Sunday, expunging the memory of a bitter Flushing Meadows defeat with his second Grand Slam title.
Zverev caps transformational year with US Open triumph
Alexander Zverev lands his second Grand Slam title after ending Ben Shelton's hopes of becoming a rare home US Open men's champion.
Bison Have Rebounded From Brink Of Extinction To Become Big Business In Wyoming
American bison have rebounded from the brink of extinction to become one of the West’s great conservation stories. It happened in part because Wyoming…
Yamal double helps Barca beat Levante, Atletico triumph
Lamine Yamal struck twice to help Barcelona to an exciting 4-2 win at Levante on Sunday in La Liga, extending the Catalans' perfect start to the season.- Paying the penalty - Yamal claimed his second goal soon after the restart, winning and then converting a penalty.
Zelda Art Director Receives Backlash For AI Prototype Test
Takaya Imamura was surprised that he was 'getting slammed this hard' for sharing a prototype made with the help of AI
GOP senator criticizes 'racism' from fellow Texas Republican
Sen. John Cornyn and others slammed Bo French, a Texas GOP candidate, for \
📋 Flamengo and Corinthians named for Maracanã clash
Flamengo and Corinthians have announced their lineups for this Sunday’s (13th) Brasileirão clash.The match at the Maracanã pits two teams against each other that are also involved in the Libertado...
Yamal double helps Barca edge Levante thriller
Lamine Yamal struck twice to help Barcelona to an exciting 4-2 win at Levante on Sunday in La Liga, extending the Catalans' perfect start to the season.- Paying the penalty - Yamal claimed his second goal soon after the restart, winning and then converting a penalty.
How Wyoming Border Patrol Turned Coloradan Jokes Into A Viral Business Sensation
Wyoming Border Patrol is a hit on social media. Viral videos with millions of views lampooning Colorado have turned the Laramie apparel company into a…
Five-star Brighton crush 10-man Coventry
Brighton thrashed 10-man Coventry 5-0 on Sunday to move into fourth place in the Premier League and leave Frank Lampard's side rooted to the bottom of the table.Lampard's men are the only Premier League team without a point this season.
Glamorgan advance to final after Kent washout
Glamorgan women advance to the One Day Cup Women's League 2 final after their semi final against Kent was rained off in Cardiff.
Report: Lamar Jackson, Ravens have not had substantive contract talks
Jaclyn Smith shares letter Kevin Costner wrote after “LA Times” ‘hit piece’ in 1992
The “Charlie’s Angel” star slammed the paper’s column as “simply mean-spirited.”
Iran Human Rights Council Condemns Zionist Regime’s Crimes against Lebanese People
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemned the Zionist Regime’s continued military aggression against Lebanon and attacks on residential areas that have killed and wounded dozens of civilians, including women and children.
The full new WTA top 10 rankings after Elena Rybakina wins the US open title
2026 has been the year of Elena Rybakina. The Kazakhstani star claimed her second Grand Slam title of the season on Saturday evening after defeating...
'60s Singer Petula Clark Is Nearly A Centenarian: What She Looks Like Now
Singer Petula Clark, who rose to fame in the '50s and was huge in the '60s, is now in her 90s, and her beauty philosophy has impacted how she looks.
Lisa Jarvis: Healthcare costs have small businesses in an impossible bind
The healthcare affordability crisis is crushing everyone, but it has become downright calamitous for small businesses. Survey after survey after survey shows that employers expect healthcare costs to rise nearly
Why the Ravens should feel confident entering their season opener
Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and Baltimore’s rebuilt defensive front provide several reasons for confidence against Indianapolis
How Zverev and Shelton emerged from 'Sincaraz' shadow
Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton will reflect on their 2026 Grand Slam results with a sense of achievement - no matter what happens in the US Open men's final.
Scenes From Los Alamos County Airport 2026 Open House And Chamber Of Commerce Home-Based Business Expo Saturday
Hundreds of peopke young and old attended an exciting event Saturday in Los Alamos – The Los Alamos Airport 2026 Open House and the Chamber of Commerce Home-Based Business Expo. Something for…
Elena Rybakina Adds a Third Grand Slam to Her Resume with 2026 US Open Title
Aryna Sabalenka entered the 2026 US Open having won 19 consecutive matches in New York, but after Elena Rybakina's three set victory, it's not just the end of a winning streak, it also means Rybakina has taken the world #1 ranking off her rival. Elena Rybakina Wins Her First US Open Rybakina was the player …
‘If Elena can beat me’ – Aryna Sabalenka challenges Elena Rybakina after losing the US Open Final
Aryna Sabalenka suffered her second Grand Slam final loss to Elena Rybakina this year as the Kazakhstani tennis star secured the US Open women’s title with a 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 win. She now has three Grand Slam titles and enters next week as the World Number 1 in style.
👊 When they screw me over...: Falcioni slams the refereeing
Atlético Tucumán head coach Julio César Falcioni made harsh accusations against the refereeing after the defeat to River Plate. The experienced manager expressed his outrage over decisions he belie...
Elena Rybakina completes achievement only Steffi Graf can match in WTA history as she wins the US Open
Elena Rybakina captured her first US Open title and third Grand Slam overall after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Days after taking her spot...
Grand slam, leadoff homer from Lindor lift Mets to 12-2 win over Yankees
Mets rookie Zac Thornton (4-5) allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings during an impressive Subway Series debut.
Rushworth can challenge for England spot
Boss Frank Lampard believes Carl Rushworth can make an England breakthrough at Coventry. After failing to make it at Brighton, Lampard feels Rushworth, who spoke about his international ambitions last season, has a chance to compete for an England spot now. Rushworth won Euro 2023 with England Under-21s, although did not play, and earned one cap for the Young Lions.
Former ESPN host hypocritically calls network a 'political lobbying firm' after Ted Cruz appearance
Jemele Hill slammed ESPN for hosting Senator Ted Cruz on "College GameDay," but her own history of political commentary on the network reveals blatant hypocricy.
GB's Hewett beats Oda to win fifth US Open title
Great Britain's Alfie Hewett beats Japanese top seed Tokito Oda to win a fifth US Open title and his 11th Grand Slam singles crown overall.
GB's Skupski wins US Open doubles title with Harrison
Britain's Neal Skupski and American partner Christian Harrison win the US Open men's doubles to secure their second Grand Slam title together.
Stuttgart slam VAR as injured Stiller frets over Germany call
VfB Stuttgart have heavily criticized the video assistant referee (VAR) for not helping award them a penalty in Saturday's 2-1 Bundesliga defeat at Hoffenheim. Midfielder Angelo Stiller was struck on the knee in the box by defender Ozan Kabak midway through the first half.
ABM Industries’ (ABM) Cash Flow Jump Masks A Split Business Story
On September 8, ABM Industries (NYSE:ABM) told investors that a business famous for grinding out steady, unglamorous cash flow had rediscovered exactly that. Free cash flow through the first nine months of fiscal 2026 jumped more than $150 million from a year earlier, and management used the moment to raise guidance across the board. But […]
Germany’s Political Tailspin: Your Weekly SPIEGEL Recap
It might be tempting to dismiss the results of last Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party raked in 43.8 percent of the vote, as a rather unimportant extremist blip in a state that hardly anyone can find on the map. And you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong to do so. The state’s population – around 2.1 million – is a mere 2.5 percent of the German total. And while the state capital of Magdeburg was once the political heart of the Holy Roman Empire back when Otto the Great used to hang out there (more than a millenium … no … milennium … nope … millennium ago), it is today something of a backwater, albeit one with a ginormous cathedral in its center. We wanted to briefly interrupt this week’s newsletter to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our subscribers, both new and old. And to remind you all that a free subscription gets you access to this newsletter every Saturday. A paid subscription, by contrast, gets you one DER SPIEGEL article every weekday, delivered to your inbox. We strive to select pieces that both demonstrate what Europe’s leading newsmagazine has to offer and provide an international audience – namely, you – with an insight into how Germany and Europe view the world. If you haven’t already signed up for a paid subscription, please consider doing so if you can. Our Substack channel relies entirely on reader support and we are excited to continue offering you the best of DER SPIEGEL. Subscribe But even beyond the fact that a huge percentage of the voters in the state decided to place an X next to a party with an ideological lineage that runs rather directly back to the right-wing extremist soup out of which the Nazi Party was born, the results are a perfect example of a phenomenon that has been plaguing German elections in recent years: the lack of an obvious path to a majority. Call it the Balkanization of German politics. There are a number of developments driving the phenomenon, but for the purposes of this newsletter, here are two of the most salient: Persistent voter frustration with the country’s two (former) big-tent parties – the Christian Democrats (CDU) on the center-right (17.2 percent in Saxony-Anhalt last Sunday) and the Social Democrats (SPD) on the center-left (9.3 percent). The presence of parties on the far left (Left Party), the populist left (the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – BSW) and the far right (AfD) with which mainstream parties are reluctant to form coalitions. So what happens now? Stories of the Week A Lack of Leadership The answer for many people in the country, and particularly within the CDU, is clear: pin (some of) the blame on Chancellor Friedrich Merz. According to a survey taken directly after the election in Saxony-Anhalt, 88 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that if the federal government in Berlin were doing a better job, the AfD wouldn’t be as strong. And it is true that the predominant impression of the federal government ever since Merz was sworn in on May 6, 2025, is one of ineffectiveness and bickering. His rather unique combination of bumbling-plus-bravado has also not exactly endeared him to the German public. Indeed, his standing in the country is so shaky that his popularity – according to recent polls – has now dropped even below the historic lows associated with his predecessor Olaf Scholz. The situation is such that the CDU even opted to keep him largely out of the campaign ahead of the Saxony-Anhalt vote. And since then, dissatisfied rumblings within the CDU have grown louder. DER SPIEGEL’s Swantje Karich notes that the problems with the CDU go much deeper than Merz. “The center-right has a trust problem. At a press appearance following the devastating election result in Saxony-Anhalt, Friedrich Merz said that the party wanted to ‘reach people more effectively’ through ‘emotional engagement.’ It sounded as though he were announcing a political program. On the basis of that statement, it is difficult to take his empathy seriously.” “The Chancellor’s chastened appearance did, at least, reveal where he stands: with his back to the wall. Elections will be held in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania next week, and the CDU could fare even worse there. The party is polling at between 8 and 10 percent in the state.” “What is at stake is the political tradition that has lent stability to the Federal Republic since 1945: a democratic conservatism that understands what must be preserved, but also how to embrace progress and openness to the world. If the Union continues along its current path, it risks becoming politically irrelevant after the 2029 federal election – and Germany could soon find itself with a government of the far right.” The Trumpification of Political Debate? It is often said in Germany that to understand the political and social trends that will soon be dominant in Europe, one need only look across the Atlantic to the United States. When it comes to political debate, that has certainly proven true. Donald Trump understood early on that triggering mouth-foaming outrage among Democrats is an ideal way to both generate headlines and to secure loyalty among supporters. And he realized that far more quickly than the left side of the political spectrum understood that simply ignoring the old man might be the best recipe. To be sure, there have been signs recently that the US president may be over-relying on the strategy. Earlier this week, in an apparent grandpa-discovers-AI moment, Trump sent out 60 posts in the space of 10 hours, many of them AI-assisted images portraying him as a hero – or showing Iceland as part of the US (outrageous!!!). It was also during that slew of schlock that he explicitly backed the AfD with an “MGGA” post. In Germany, though, the outrage cycle remains in full swing, with much of the focus on those who would dare to vote for the AfD. They are alternately portrayed as being dim-witted, ungrateful, backward, racist or all of the above. That, argues DER SPIEGEL columnist Sabine Rennefanz, is not particularly helpful. “Everywhere on election night, people spoke of a watershed moment, a rupture, a turning point. But what is that supposed to mean in concrete terms? A watershed would imply an interruption, a moment of pause – perhaps even a willingness to rethink and learn. At first, there was little sign of that in the main television panels. Instead, the familiar rituals that had already shaped the election campaign continued: outrage, lecturing and abuse.” “That’s just the tone, one might object. They’re only talk shows. Given that the party’s state branch has been classified by domestic intelligence officials as confirmed right-wing extremist, there are more important problems than hurt feelings on television. Yet although the condescending tone is not the cause of the AfD’s success, it is an expression of the broader mood within the so-called political center – a kind of institutional blindness that too often treats material concerns as a communications problem.” “People have a pretty good sense of whether you like them – whether you approach them with curiosity or merely study, lecture and manage them as a problem group. They notice whether you genuinely want to understand their fears and pain, or whether you are simply waiting for the chance to correct them. They can also tell whether someone still has the energy to change things, or whether they have barricaded themselves behind platitudes and empty phrases.” “Anyone who wants an egalitarian democratic society cannot promise equality only to those whose language, tastes and moral convictions they share. They must also acknowledge the wounds, resentments and fears of those whose political conclusions they consider wrong. Acknowledging them does not mean agreeing with them. But a democracy that communicates with almost half its citizens only through warnings and labels gives up on political debate before it has even begun. An atmosphere must be created in which people can express their opinions without fearing that they will be canceled. We are currently a long way from that.” East-West? One of the clear undercurrents in the election last Sunday was, of course, Germany’s ongoing east-west divide, particularly as it pertains to the success of the AfD. Historically, the party has been far stronger in the former East German states than in former West German states. The fact that this generalization no longer reliably holds is certainly one of the primary concerns that many have about the party’s growth. And yet, there is still a distinct flavor of “stupid easterners, they don’t understand democracy” to the coverage. In the weeks before the vote, there was even a rather interesting back-and-forth in Germany’s culture pages about how ungrateful eastern Germans allegedly are for being pulled out of their pre-reunification backwardness and into the light of the West. DER SPIEGEL’s Jochen-Martin Gutsch has had enough. “Ten years ago, in 2016, elections were also held in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD won more than 20 percent, which at the time rightly provoked outrage and incomprehension in western Germany. Today, in 2026, the AfD is also polling at around 20 percent in western German states, but this no longer provokes outrage and incomprehension. Instead, it is now regarded as proof of democratic conviction and civilizational resistance. After all, in the east, it’s 40 percent!” “This allows people to continue feeling morally superior to the East, but the wiser course would be to admit: if something doesn’t happen soon, the West will turn AfD-blue too. Or bluish.” “But will anything happen? The truly depressing thing about election night was not so much the AfD leaders intoxicated by their own success. It was the representatives of the other parties, who once again said that they were utterly shocked, needed some time to digest the result and would, of course, not simply return to business as usual. The SPD, a former big-tent party, celebrated its ‘stable’ result of 9.3 percent. Congratulations!” “For 10 years, the AfD has gone from one electoral success to the next. And still, the established parties remain ‘shocked’ and scratch their heads in astonishment. How long can they keep being shocked? Friedrich Merz says he may need to communicate his reform ideas in a more ‘emotional’ way. So the CDU’s political professionals sit down together after the election, mull over a strategy, and in the end come up with this: Fritz, try to be a little more relaxed, charismatic and emotional – or something. Beyond that: no political plan, no defiance, no promise of a future. That is frightening.” What was good, what was bad for democracy? Good: Voter turnout in Saxony-Anhalt was 77.8 percent, the highest ever recorded in the state. Whatever one thinks of the result, that figure is encouraging. Democracy needs citizens to take an interest. Bad: Although a strong AfD result had been expected in Saxony-Anhalt, many politicians from the mainstream parties – including in Berlin – appeared confused, helpless and overwhelmed in their initial reactions. That is not how they will win back voters’ trust. Last Week’s Highlights: 🗳️ Meet the Germans Who Voted for the AfD: Why would voters in a country like Germany, with its Nazi past, vote for a right-wing party? It’s a question only an editor in Berlin could come up with. On the ground, the view is different. 🟦 How the AfD Wants to Expand Its Power Across Germany: The far-right AfD is planning to decimate public broadcasting in Saxony-Anhalt, revamp education and install extremists in positions of power. And it is eyeing victory on the national stage as well. 🕯️ The Continuing Reverberations of September 11: It was a generational shock, and the consequences can still be felt today - from massive surveillance and significant increases in presidential power to violent excesses at ICE. 🤝 “For Europe, Canada Is the Preferred Partner in Trans-Atlantic Relations”: In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne discusses his country’s failed trade deal with the US and why Canada is looking to Europe. 🏛️ The True Historical Roots of the AfD: During the Weimar Republic in the 1920s, there were numerous parties on the extreme right espousing “Germany first” nationalism. The Nazis may not be the best comparison for today’s AfD. 🌊 AfD in a Landslide: Merz Is the Wrong Leader for Germany: The right-wing Alternative for Germany won in a landslide in Saxony-Anhalt state elections on Sunday. What does that mean for the country at large? Thank you for your continued support and have a wonderful week! Subscribe Share Leave a comment Your SPIEGEL Substack Team Compiled and edited by Charles Hawley
The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’
I found myself fielding a lot of questions from folks who don’t usually talk much about AI this week. They were mostly along the lines of “do you think AI is going to kill us all?” or “how worried should I be about this human extinction stuff?” Motivating this wave of existential anxiety was the highly dramatic resignation of now-former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon, who quit his job while publicly sharing his concerns about safety practices at the leading AI companies. More specifically, he declared that almost everyone at OpenAI and Anthropic, the leading AI labs, believes that there’s a decent chance the AI systems they’re producing could “kill us all” by the end of the decade, and the companies aren’t “acting responsibly.” Other AI safety researchers, including those still employed at Anthropic and OpenAI, all confirmed that yes, Coxon is correct, they’re all worried that their company’s products might prove fatal for the entire human race as well. Two more AI employees quit and joined the chorus. Now, the warning shot has been covered everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News to WIRED to the Guardian. I understand why all this sounds scary, but my response to those who have asked, has generally been: No, you don’t need to worry that AI will kill go rogue and kill us all. But that does not mean we shouldn’t worry, period. Far from it. The companies building AI products are now among the wealthiest and most powerful entities in the world. And they very much are building enormous engines of mass surveillance, extraction, and automation. They can and have allowed their AI systems to carry out felony hacks of other companies, provided the government with autonomously generated kill lists, and sold enterprise technology to firms around the world that is explicitly intended to replace jobs. But “AI” has done these things not because they have all-powerful minds of their own but, ultimately, because people have programmed, calibrated, and directed them to. In other words, it’s not AI we need to worry the most about. It’s the people and corporations working to profit from and gain power by deploying it. The technology is sophisticated, sure, and, especially in cybersecurity contexts, potentially disruptive to plenty of existing systems. But if we want to stop this predatory, profiteering, and extractive form of AI—and it’s worth noting that at this point, most people do—we absolutely can. A quick note/plea: I can only do all of this with the support of readers like you, so if you find value in independent, critical tech journalism and analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I want to keep as much of this un-paywalled as absolutely possible, and I need your support to do so. Many thanks to all who continue to chip in, it’s very much appreciated. Onward. Subscribe First, some context: AI industry folks like Coxon have been discussing the prospect that AI will destroy humanity for years. Even before the beginning of the AI boom, many working in the industry, from the executive staff to the rank and file researchers, have obsessed over ‘x-risk’, or the possibility that AI will become sentient or semi-sentient and move one way or another to exterminate humanity. This is ostensibly why Elon Musk bankrolled OpenAI in the first place, and is the grounds for his lawsuit alleging OpenAI betrayed its charter by abandoning its nonprofit status to become a commercial enterprise. Many AI engineers and startup founders have calculated their own personal p(doom), or the probability that the tech product they are working on will initiate an actual humanity-extinguishing apocalypse. 10-25% p(doom)s are pretty common. (I wrote about a long weekend I spent among these folks at one of their top conferences here, to give you an idea of their ideas and belief systems.) Sam Altman himself drove the narrative of the imminent rise of a super-powerful AI, or artificial general intelligence, to prominence by declaring that the technology he was building posed an existential risk to humanity. This idea is in other words baked into the DNA of modern AI companies and into the products they engineer. It’s also why the industry is routinely accused, by myself and others, of “doom marketing,” ie, using such proclamations and framings to impart the sheer power of the technology behind your product onto investors, partners, consumers, and the state. Some ambient understanding of this tendency may have helped prevent the press from repeating the claim every time one of the x-risk folks made it over the years, including when they quit their jobs at AI companies while doing so. Yet Coxon’s AI x-risk alarm has broken containment, as they say, and has exposed the idea to the mainstream media once again. This has happened, I think, for a number of reasons. First, when AI CEOs were going around saying AI might kill everyone in 2023, their companies were well-capitalized, but not nearly to the extent they are today. They were more easily dismissed as eccentric geeks of the sort that Silicon Valley is supposed to produce. Now, not only do their products have much greater market saturation, but people are more aware of a) the often unethical ways the executives and companies comport themselves b) the other adverse impacts of AI that have already arrived, and c) the physical cost of building these systems, particularly when it comes to data centers. Finally, toss in the constant stream of headlines in 2026 about AI models going rogue or potentially upending the world’s infrastructure. [ ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) [ With the backlash to data centers, Flock and AI glasses, a mass opposition to big tech is underway. Silicon Valley is in denial. ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) Brian Merchant · Aug 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) As a result, general sentiment was already overwhelmingly skeptical of AI and its overlords, so the table was pretty well set for someone to come along and say ‘just a reminder, the companies that are building the product that promises to take your job and leave a data center in your neighborhood also think that it might exterminate the human race’ and get a strong reaction from the media and the public. The question is: Should we understand this stuff as hype, strategically fanned to feed already swelling valuations? Is it doom marketing? Genuine cause for alarm that the infrastructure that undergirds modern life is facing a novel threat vector? Or reason to be sincerely worried that AI companies are amassing too much power, and that their products are genuinely dangerous? The answer, I’m afraid, is “yes.” Let me try to untangle all of this a bit, because arguments over how to navigate this moment are extremely heated right now, as they are essentially arguments over how to approach the politics of AI at a moment where there may be a unique opening for action. Those sympathetic to AI alignment concerns and x risk arguments—which increasingly includes a faction on the left who want to shut down AI over safety concerns—argue that people who dismiss AI as all hype have their heads in the sand. Meanwhile, critics of the x-risk narrative—which I might note includes a cadre of investors and tech folks on the right, too—argue that it is hype and can be used to further inflate valuations or for pursuing regulatory capture. The challenge is that many feel that dismissing AI as just hype or purely marketing also diminishes the urgency of taking on the AI industry as the novel and threat to labor, civil society, and the public sphere it is; others that by accepting the industry’s own terms, we imbue it with undue power and enable it. But let’s be clear: Declarations that AI is so powerful it might end the world are a kind of marketing, and anyone who says otherwise is just as off base as those who say that’s all that it is. If you don’t think that these sub-trillion dollar companies have higher-ups who noticed that when their founders talked about super-powerful dangerous AI they got spikes in media interest and phone calls from investors, or that those founders didn’t notice that themselves, and lean into certain narratives to advantage their products, then I don’t know what to tell you. Not all marketing is a Pepsi ad campaign with a celebrity spokesperson. Yet confronting the AI industry should certainly be considered an urgent project. Do I share the x-riskers’ fear that out-of-control, super-intelligent AI agents might end the world? I do not. I’ve read a good deal of AI extinction literature over the last couple of years and I have not come across a credible, step-by-step documentation of how exactly AI might move from self-recursively improving AI to killing every single human on the planet. Most of what I’ve read seems predicated on a sort of reverse Ian Malcolmian logic: Eventually, it becomes smart enough and AI, uh, finds a way (to exterminate humanity). Are the AI companies also overstating and dramatizing what their products can do? Yes, pretty much all the time. They’re in a knife fight for market share and are trying to win customers and government contracts before their investors come knocking. And yet. They have concentrated enormous amounts of compute, have extensive data collection and surveillance capacities, have inserted themselves into the state in numerous capacities, including military kill chains, and they are being run by egomaniacal billionaires who are rushing to monopolize an entire new market. The way I think about their most recent frightening-seeming exploits is not as a “swarm of rogue AI agents building a new civilization” or whatever, but as corporations with a hitherto-unimaginable amount of compute at their disposal recklessly experimenting with automation programs, completely unafraid of any repercussions because we have been unwilling or unable to impose any on them. So I think we should welcome any newfound imperative to hold them accountable. I also think that ultimately, the AI critics, Pause AI folks, leftists, doomers, effective altruists, and, honestly, most of the public, want a lot of the same things: legitimate checks and limits on AI companies’ power, actual transparency into what the companies are doing, and for more of AI to be under public control. (Ultimately, a lot of what animates the x-risk fears are rooted in just that: a fear of losing control.) How we move towards all this, exactly, is the question of the day, and while there’s much to be argued over in terms of building a viable political platform to challenge the AI industry’s power, I do want to cast a vote against one particular approach. Not to pick on Chris here, as there are a lot of folks out there proposing stuff like this, and the policy ideas actually stem from AI safety groups. But not only would this be challenging to land politically (I can already hear the ‘China will beat us to AGI’ calls) and all but unworkable in practice, this approach is a) far too limiting, b) fails to address the current harms caused by AI and c) would likely only wind up serving Anthropic and OpenAI; it’s what regulatory capture looks like in action. Full model transparency is the floor for what should be on offer here. If these companies believe their products will kill us, the very least we deserve is to know how. It’s in the public interest. I would also argue we might get a lot of the way to stopping any currently envisioned robot apocalypse simply by forcing AI companies to assume liability, and to submit to the full brunt of the law. If Sam Altman were liable to be charged with a felony for approving the hack on Hugging Face1, if Google was forced to pay defamation fines each time it published a false and injurious AI Overviews, these companies might suddenly find cause to restrain their models’ output, and we might hear less about rogue AI. We would need to introduce new frameworks and available tools for tracking automated lawbreaking, to be sure, but I’d wager that little would frighten the AI companies more than actually being held accountable for what their products enable. To that end, Illinois has passed an AI liability law, which the industry fought tooth and nail, and Florida is considering one. The next steps would be towards moving AI under public control; again, it’s only reasonable, since everyone, not just AI insiders, should get a say over how a technology whose developers say might kill us is developed and deployed. Dismantling the whole industrial project as currently structured should be on the table, too, pending democratic input. But that’s for another post. For now, suffice to say that while I won’t be losing any sleep about an AI-enabled extinction event, Mr. Coxon and co. have given us an opportunity to underscore the urgency of the clear and present damage AI companies are doing, the extreme power they wield and the extent to which they hold themselves unaccountable, and the abundance of political capital there is out there for taking them on. Subscribe 1 Purely speculative! I do not know if he did or not.
HIGHLIGHTS: Iraan vs. Crane
CRANE, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – The Iraan Braves got the upper hand for the third straight year over the Crane Golden Cranes with a final score of 60-21. Both teams are now 2-1. Next week, the Golden Cranes are back at home hosting Lamesa, and Iraan is at home facing Stanton. Watch the video above for […]
US Open news: Ben Shelton to face Alexander Zverev in Singles Finals
Ben Shelton is one win away from ending 23 years of waiting for American men’s tennis. The No. 8 seed outlasted good friend and fellow American Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 on Friday at Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach his first career Grand Slam final, where he will meet top seed Alexander Zverev on Sunday with the US Open title on the line. The […] The post US Open news: Ben Shelton to face Alexander Zverev in Singles Finals appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Snell, Tucker Lead Dodgers to Win Over Marlins
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Blake Snell went five-plus innings and Kyle Tucker hit a grand slam in helping Dodgers beat the Miami Marlins.
Los Alamos Airport Open House & Home-Based Business Expo Is Saturday Morning
Discover aviation up close! Break out your aviator sunglasses and join us at the 2026 Airport Open House. Witness professional skydivers from Viva Skydive leaping into the air and parachuting into …
Electric bills, primary spending, CCSU complaint: CT politics news
Plus: the Blue Ribbon Commission is at work, a foster care prevention grant is awarded, and Lamont announces new Shore Line East trains.
Billings woman and cancer survivor encourages screening, shares hope ahead of Celebrate for Life event
When Jo McGullam visited her doctor because of symptoms she thought were related to menopause, colorectal cancer was not something she expected to find. Her doctor encouraged her to complete a stool test. When the result came back positive, McGullam followed through with a colonoscopy. After the procedure, her doctor delivered unexpecte...
Watch: Barcelona star nets stunning training ground goal
Barcelona star Lamine Yamal conjured up a moment of individual magic en route to finding the net in the club’s latest training session on Friday morning.Winger Lamine is of course in the midst of no...
Townsend & Siniakova complete career Slam in New York
Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend win the women's doubles at the US Open to complete a historic career doubles Grand Slam.
Barcelona star labelled ‘the Lamine Yamal of defenders’
Barcelona sporting director Deco has this week made known his appreciation for the talents of Blaugrana starlet Pau Cubarsí. This of course comes fresh off a spectacular last few months for the young...
“Hope”, “Colin From Accounts”, and “Project Runway” top this week’s Must List
“The Calamities” and the “Chess” 2025 Broadway cast recording round out our picks for the weekend of Sept. 11.
Enjoy Illinois 300 and Confluence Music Festival return
The Enjoy Illinois 300 returns to World Wide Technology Raceway Sept. 11–13, bringing NASCAR’s top drivers back to Madison for the fifth year. But the weekend has grown into more than a race. The Confluence Music Festival has become a cultural staple alongside the event, drawing thousands with a lineup that blends national acts and […]
Giuliani Manages to Be Cordial to Mamdani at Ground Zero
The former mayor, who has launched a series of Islamophobic broadsides against Mamdani, appeared to offer words of encouragement on Friday.
CT Takes More Action Against Prediction Markets Alleged To Offer Sports Betting
The American Gaming Association estimates $40 billion will be wagered on the NFL using prediction markets this year. On the first day of the 2026 college football season last week, one prediction market reported nearly $250 million in trading volume on college football alone, according to Lamont’s office.
Giuliani and Mamdani Shake Hands at 9/11 Memorial
Rudy Giuliani and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani shook hands at Ground Zero during the 25th anniversary commemoration of 9/11.
Top Texas Republicans target Islam in GOP midterm convention speeches
Texas Republicans took anti-Muslim remarks to the national stage during speeches at the GOP midterm convention.
Iranian VP Invites Regional Authorities to Form Islamic Political Bloc
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref called on regional authorities to embrace rationality, free themselves from dependency and unite under the banner of Islam, proposing the formation of a powerful Islamic economic and political bloc.
9/11 entrenched Islamophobia in US politics. But it doesn’t work the way you think
Anti-Muslim sentiment is used as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Muslim American leaders are making a difference for all
Four Islamic polymaths prove breadth beats specialisation
The fathers of Islamic science hold lessons for students: breadth over specialisation, and never let constraints get in the way
Enflame Technology soars after IPO as China backs Nvidia challengers
Tencent-backed Enflame is riding China's AI chip boom as US export curbs accelerate Beijing's semiconductor ambitions.
🗞️ Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and the Cesc effect: Friday's covers
The sports newspaper front pages this September 11 are packed with big names, continental surprises, and tensions handled in global boardrooms. Barcelona’s takeoff, Como’s European debut, and the ...
Yankees news: Aaron Boone gives Anthony Volpe his flowers
NEW YORK– It may have been fair to assume that 24-year-old infielder Anthony Volpe had already received his final chance to impact the 2026 New York Yankees when he last played on August 1st against the Chicago Cubs. But as the former first-round pick rounded the bases after mashing a seventh-inning grand slam in New York’s 10-3 win over the […] The post Yankees news: Aaron Boone gives Anthony Volpe his flowers appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Fact check: Trump, RFK Jr. and others make false claims on night 2 of GOP convention
(CNN) — President Donald Trump delivered another rapid-fire series of false claims on the second night of Republicans’ midterm convention on Thursday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did his own barrage of wrongness. And various other speakers uttered statements that were untrue, misleading or missing critical context.Here is a fact check of some of the assertions from the final day of the convention. This is not intended as a comprehensive list of Thursday’s falsehoods.Trump’s many false claimsTrump made numerous false claims, some of which he also made in his longer speech Wednesday.Trump claimed that there were “no empty seats” in the Dallas arena as he spoke Thursday, which was visibly untrue. CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene, who was there, wrote in a live chat right after Trump made the claim that “I’m looking at rows of empty seats” and that “the idea that there are ‘no empty seats’ is just laughably untrue,” though she also said the room was mostly full. Trump has for years made false claims about supposedly never having had an empty seat.Trump further inflated one of his favorite fictional figures, claiming Thursday that “$22 trillion” in investment has come into the US; on Wednesday, he had put it at “over $20 trillion,” and even that lower figure has no apparent basis in reality. As of the time he spoke Thursday, the White House’s own website claimed there had been “$11.2 trillion” in “major investment announcements” this term, not “over $20 trillion,” and the White House figure was itself a major exaggeration of actual investment.Trump, talking about elections, lied that “there’s never been bigger cheaters” than Democrats; there is no basis for broadly describing Democrats as election cheaters. For the second straight night, Trump falsely claimed that the Biden administration allowed “25 million people” to pour into the country, though that number is nowhere close to correct. Trump again falsely claimed that former President Joe Biden and other Democrats “created the worst inflation in American history,” though even peak Biden-era inflation, 9.1% in June 2022, was far from the all-time record of 23.7%; it was a 40-year high, but the rate then fell sharply before Trump returned to office.Trump also baselessly claimed that Democrats would “defund the police” and give “voting rights and welfare to 25 million illegal aliens” if they won the midterms. Republicans will still control the White House in 2027 and 2028 and the president would be in position to veto any such changes if a Democratic-controlled Congress sought to make them, but there is no indication that Democrats want to do so. Also, even groups favoring strict immigration policies estimate that the total undocumented population is far less than “25 million” or even 20 million.As he did Wednesday, Trump claimed the US now has the world’s lowest prescription drug prices. The assertion is so broad that it is unclear what exactly Trump is referencing. But experts told CNN they highly doubt that the prices for brand-name drugs in the US are generally less than they are in other countries, and the Trump administration has not provided details to prove the claim.“It’s tough to claim that you’re getting the lowest prices anywhere in the world and then also not have any evidence to support that,” said Andrew Mulcahy, a senior health economist at RAND, while Diederik Stadig, senior healthcare economist at financial institution ING, said, “To say that the US now has the lowest drug prices in the world is at this moment not true.”And as he did Wednesday, Trump said “more Americans are working today than ever before” – which is true but nearly meaningless, since the number of people working in the US generally rises over time simply because the population rises over time.“There are more Americans working because there are more Americans. That’s the entire analysis,” Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan professor of public policy and economics, wrote in his newsletter in August.RFK Jr.’s false claims on the pandemic, Trump’s record and moreFalse claim about Democrats and the 2024 electionKennedy unsuccessfully ran for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination before withdrawing to run as an independent and then eventually endorsing Republican candidate Donald Trump. In Kennedy’s Thursday convention speech, he complained of how the Democrats handled the nomination race.At one point, he said, “For the first time in history, they cancelled their own convention. No voter ever cast a primary ballot for Kamala Harris, no elected delegate was ever consulted; the party of ‘No Kings’ simply anointed a queen.”Kennedy is entitled to express unhappiness about how quickly Democratic leaders coalesced around then-Vice President Harris after Biden unexpectedly dropped out of the race in July 2024, after the primaries were over and less than four months from Election Day. But it’s not true that the party canceled its convention or that delegates didn’t get any say.The convention was held; it was a four-day event in Chicago in August 2024. Democratic convention delegates officially nominated Harris in a virtual roll call vote in advance of the convention. It’s true that Harris was the only candidate on the roll call ballot, but that’s because she was the only candidate who gathered enough delegate signatures to appear on the ballot.It’s clear that party elites’ backing of Harris played a key role in the unusual nomination process. But Kennedy’s specific allegations that the convention was abandoned and delegates were cut out of the process are not true.False claim that Democrats closed ‘every church’ during the Covid-19 pandemicWhile attacking Democrats, Kennedy claimed that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, “They closed every church in our country for a year.”It’s not true that every church in the country was closed for a year, nor even that every church in a Democratic state was closed for a year.Every state issued some type of guidance or order about social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, but many states – including some led by Democrats and some led by Republicans – incorporated religious exemptions into those limitations on social interactions.According to a Pew Research Center analysis from April 2020, 15 states allowed religious gatherings to continue without a limit on their size. That set of states included Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which all had Democratic governors. And at least two states with Republican governors, Alaska and Idaho, were among the states that prohibited religious gatherings at least briefly.False claim that Trump ‘ended nine wars’Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has ended “eight wars.” Kennedy went one higher on Thursday, declaring, “President Trump has ended nine wars.”That’s false. Trump hasn’t even ended eight wars.Trump’s list of eight includes two situations that were never actually wars during his tenure: a diplomatic dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia and a mysterious supposed situation between Serbia and Kosovo. The list also includes a war, involving Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that hasn’t actually ended despite a peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration.In addition, the list includes the war between Israel and Hamas, but Israel continues to conduct frequent attacks in Gaza despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement. And it includes the brief 2025 conflict between Israel and Iran, though Israel proceeded to join the US in starting another war against Iran in 2026.Claim about reversing a decline in longevityKennedy speaking of the Trump administration, claimed Thursday: “We have now reversed a 30-year decline in longevity. “Kennedy referenced preliminary data that he said he had received from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, but it’s unclear what metric of longevity he’s referring to.CDC data shows that US life expectancy had been steadily increasing for decades before a sharp drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. Life expectancy had already started to rebound in 2022, under the Biden administration, and reached a new record high in 2024 before Trump’s second term began.Preliminary data shared by the CDC in July suggests that life expectancy probably hit another record high in 2025.CNN has reached out to HHS for clarification on Kennedy’s comments.Claim that Democrats ‘lost 360,000 children’Speaking about Democrats, Kennedy said: “They somehow lost 360,000 children and they turned our federal government into the biggest child trafficking operation in world history.”Trump and other Republicans have made similar claims. But there’s no basis for the assertion that Democrats “lost” so many children or that the federal government was engaged in human trafficking.A 2024 report from the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement had reported that more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear as scheduled for immigration court hearings after being released or transferred out of custody between fiscal years 2019 and 2023 – a period that, notably, includes two years and four months under the first Trump administration. The report also said that 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children during this period were not given notices to appear in court.The report said that ICE had “no assurances” these children “are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” But it did not say all the children were actually “lost” and did not definitively assert that any of them were trafficked – let alone that the government was somehow involved in a trafficking operation. And, again, the report spanned parts of both a Republican administration and a Democratic administration.Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told CNN in 2024: “Long story short, no, there are not 320,000 kids missing. 32,000 kids missed court. That doesn’t mean they’re missing, it means they missed court (either because their sponsor didn’t bring them or they are teenagers who didn’t want to show up). The remaining 291,000 cases mentioned by the (Office of the Inspector General) are cases where ICE hasn’t filed the paperwork to start their immigration court cases.”Vance on inflation, crime and taxes on Social SecurityA false claim about the media and Biden-era inflationVice President JD Vance mocked the media during part of his speech on Thursday. But he made a false claim about Biden-era inflation while lampooning how the media supposedly challenged him over another false claim on that subject.Vance said: “The president and I would go during a campaign, we’d say, ‘You know, inflation is as high as it’s been in 100 years,’ and the fake news would say, ‘No, no, no, it’s as high as it’s been in 68 years.’ That ain’t good, ladies and gentlemen.”Mainstream journalists, at least, wouldn’t say that inflation under Biden was as high as it had been “in 68 years.” Rather, CNN and others noted that peak inflation under the Biden administration, 9.1% in June 2022, was the highest in about 40 years.Vance is entitled to make his general point that this correction still doesn’t make Biden-era inflation sound good, but his specific number was, again, wrong. And he didn’t acknowledge that inflation fell sharply under Biden after hitting the 40-year high, declining to 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump and Vance were inaugurated.The rate was 3.4% in July 2026, the most recent month for which data is available.Trump didn’t end taxes on Social SecurityVance claimed, “We’ve ended taxes on Social Security.” Several other convention speakers, including Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania and Ohio House candidate Derek Merrin, similarly said the administration has achieved “no tax on Social Security.”It hasn’t. The big domestic policy bill Trump signed in 2025 did create an additional, temporary $6,000-per-year tax deduction for individuals age 65 and older (which phases out for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more), but as the White House has implicitly acknowledged, millions of Social Security recipients will continue to pay taxes on their benefits even before the temporary new deduction expires after 2028.The Social Security Administration said in 2025 that “the bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits.Claim about violent crime rate under BidenWhile criticizing the Biden administration, Vice President JD Vance claimed Thursday that the US “became a country where violent crime exploded, unless, of course, you could afford private security.”But violent crime did not explode under Biden. In fact, as FactCheck.org reported last month, data collected and published by the FBI shows that the national violent crime rate was at a lower level in 2023 and 2024, the last two full calendar years of Biden’s term, than it was in 2020, the last full calendar year of Trump’s first term. The year 2020 was highly unusual in many ways – violent crime jumped amid the Covid-19 pandemic – but Biden nonetheless left office with violent crime lower than it was when he took over. In fact, the 2024 violent crime rate was even lower than the 2019 rate under Trump before the pandemic.There was an increase in violent crime during the earlier part of Biden’s term. But given the subsequent decline, it’s misleading at best to claim violent crime “exploded” with no further context.Asked earlier this month about Trump’s similar previous claims to have reversed a Biden-era upswing in violence, crime data expert Jeff Asher said in an email: “No, crime began dropping significantly in 2023 during the Biden administration. Murder fell at record rates in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and, while 2026 may not feature a record decline nationally, it is still on track to see a sizable double-digit decline this year. Violent crime similarly fell nationally in 2023 and 2024, though the drops were more muted than the decline that was recorded by the FBI in 2025.”Other GOP speakersMike Johnson’s false claim about the inflation Republicans inherited from BidenSome other speakers at the convention took aim at inflation under Biden. House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed that “Republicans inherited from the Biden administration record-high inflation.”That’s not true. The inflation rate was 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump took over. That’s lower than the most recent rate, 3.4% in July 2026, and nowhere close to the all-time record of 23.7%, which was reached in 1920, or the highest point of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, 14.8%, which was reached in 1980.Johnson correctly said moments later that inflation reached “a 40-year high of 9.1% inflation” under Biden. But a 40-year high is not an all-time record. More importantly, Johnson didn’t explain that 9.1% was much higher than the rate Trump inherited or that the 9.1% rate occurred in June 2022, with roughly two-and-a-half years left in Biden’s term.The cumulative increase in prices from the beginning of the Biden administration to the end was also not the highest in US history. Federal figures show that beginning-to-end inflation under Biden was less than half of that during Carter’s term.What Johnson left out of his claim about a congressional resolutionWhile attacking Democrats as extreme, Johnson said: “Just last week, nearly every Democrat in the House of Representatives voted against condemning socialism and Marxism. They voted against it.”But the resolution didn’t use the word “Marxism.” And Johnson didn’t mention that the resolution wasn’t only about condemning socialism. Rather, it contained other language that Democratic leadership said was the focus of the party’s opposition to the resolution.The resolution’s first provision said it “condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.” But its fifth provision said it “calls for enactment of the SAVE America Act,” Trump’s favored elections bill, which contains various provisions opposed by many Democrats.So while it’s very possible many Democrats would have opposed the resolution even without its expression of support for the SAVE America Act, the call to pass this elections bill served as a poison pill that ensured most Democrats wouldn’t support it.“House Resolution 1490 explicitly calls for enactment of the so-called SAVE America Act, which is the top legislative priority of far-right extremists,” Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement last week.A New Mexico candidate left out key context in an attack on his opponentGreg Cunningham, a Republican House candidate in New Mexico, used some of his Thursday speech to criticize his Democratic opponent, Rep. Gabe Vasquez. Cunningham said of Vasquez: “He even voted against a resolution honoring the sacrifices and service of the brave men and women in law enforcement who protect, every day, our communities.”But Cunningham left out important context about the resolution. While its focus was expressing support for law enforcement, its preamble contained statements praising the Trump administration and criticizing “leftist activists,” “progressive politicians” and “sanctuary city policies” for allegedly making law enforcement less safe.In other words, a House member might vote against such a resolution, as the vast majority of Democrats did, because they disagreed with conservative components of it, not the general expressions of support for law enforcement. (CNN has reached out to Vasquez’s campaign and House office for comment on his vote.) It’s common for parties to write resolutions in a way that would make it difficult for opponents to support but would open those opponents to campaign attacks if they voted “no.”An Ohio candidate’s misleading attack about Democrats and votingMerrin, the Republican candidate running against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for a House seat in Ohio, claimed in his speech, “While Democrats talk about letting illegal immigrants vote in our election, Republicans fight for proof of citizenship, photo ID and fair elections.”It’s a big country, so it’s possible some Democrat somewhere is talking about letting undocumented people vote in some election. But Merrin’s claim is misleading at best. There is no proposal from Democrats in Congress to let undocumented people vote in the 2026 midterms – the election Merrin appeared to be referring to when he said “our election” – or vote in future federal elections.CNN has reached out to Merrin’s campaign for an explanation of his claim.House Majority Leader Steve Scalise invoked a similar theme in his speech Wednesday, claiming that Democrats had voted last week “to allow illegals to vote in our federal elections.” But there was no congressional vote on letting undocumented immigrants vote in any elections.Rather, there was a vote on the non-binding Republican resolution that included multiple provisions, including one that “reiterates the notion that American elections are for American citizens only,” one supporting Trump’s favored elections bill and one denouncing socialism.Opposing that multi-clause resolution doesn’t necessarily mean someone supports voting by any non-citizens, let alone non-citizens in the country illegally.This article has been updated with additional items.CNN’s Deja Oliver contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Scientists find signs of extreme aging and youth in the same 117-year-old
A remarkably detailed study of Maria Branyas, who lived past 117, reveals that extreme longevity may involve both intense aging and powerful biological protection at the same time. Researchers found signs of advanced aging, but also low inflammation, beneficial gut bacteria, protective genetic features, and a biological age younger than her chronological age. Because she avoided major disease, the study offered a rare look at aging itself rather than the illnesses that often accompany it.
Inside the Republican Midterm Convention, Where It Was ‘Trump-a-Palooza’
Amid the glitz, glamour and party atmosphere of an unusual midterm convention in Dallas, the president boasted of his accomplishments, predicted Republican victories and all but ignored the daunting political landscape his party faces this fall.
Rival pro-Israel group to spend millions to target AIPAC-backed candidates
The super PAC of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, is spending $3 million on ads against Republicans backed by AIPAC.
Blue light boosts key medicinal compounds in Astragalus, study finds: Multi-omics and genetic tools uncover light-driven isoflavonoid biosynthesis
Astragalus mongholicus, a cornerstone of traditional Chinese medicine, produces isoflavonoids—bioactive compounds with anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, and antiviral properties.
Housing, addiction, politics and the touchy subject of homelessness
Accountability means little if we blame the wrong people for the wrong results. Monique DeSpain has made the case for judging Oregon’s homelessness system by results. But the burden is hers to explain what she would change through Congress — and how voters should decide if it worked.
GlycanAge teams up with Japan on aging science
New MOU pairs GlycanAge’s glycan-based biological age test with ExoEarth’s exosome platform, bringing inflammaging testing deeper into Japan.
He fought terrorism as an FBI agent, now he is fighting cancer and for the health of his fellow 9/11 responders
When American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, Jeffrey Miller rushed to the scene, spending weeks on site recovering evidence from the burned wreckage.
He fought terrorism as an FBI agent, now he is fighting cancer and for the health of his fellow 9/11 responders
When American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, Jeffrey Miller rushed to the scene, spending weeks on site recovering evidence from the burned wreckage.
Fire at commercial business park in Lancaster County closes roadway
EAST LAMPETER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WHTM) — Crews are on the scene of an ongoing fire at a commercial business park in Lancaster County. According to the East Lampeter Township Police Department, fi…
What to Expect From Coby White This Season in Charlotte
Here is something worth knowing before worrying too much about what to expect from Coby White this season. In his 309 minutes with LaMelo Ball off the floor last season, Charlotte actually outscored opponents by 10.4 points per 100 possessions. What Charlotte Fans Should Expect From Coby White This Season The Hornets' true shooting percentage …
Ella Langley leads Country Music Association Awards nods, with mentor Miranda Lambert close behind
Ella Langley leads the 2026 Country Music Association Awards nominations with nine nods, thanks to her hit “Choosin’ Texas.” | WWL
Children’s health at risk in south Borneo as El Niño intensifies Indonesia wildfires
BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — Siti Sarah slept in fits and starts through August as the fires broke out around her village and surrounding peatlands. One fire on Aug. 18 at first seemed a safe distance away, but in a heartbeat the flames were within 100 meters (330 feet) of her home in Pengayuan, a village in […]
Haslams make major gift to West Side Market transformation
The $2.9 million gift will go toward a renovated event space and adding a second balcony to the Market Hall.
Dozens of crews on scene of business fire in Lancaster County
Roads are closed in East Lampeter Township while crews battle a business fire.