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Kleppinger Intern puts political science studies into practice in Harrisburg
Political science student Nikolas Papoutsis spent this summer learning about legislation and government affairs with the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, supported by the Kleppinger Internship Program.
Next governor should fix dysfunctional CU Board of Regents
Earlier this year, the governor and state legislature finally agreed to revamp the board of directors at the Regional Transportation District, downsizing the board while adding appointed members (Polis signs RTD overhaul bill aimed at rebuilding transit ridership, Colorado Politics, May 27). Hopefully the state’s next governor will convince the legislature to fix another problematic […]
The Young State Lawmakers Who Might Fix Our Polarization Problem
Gen Z and millennial legislators are more open to bipartisanship and compromise than many might think.
AI regulation faces political deadlock as calls grow for Congress to act
With Trump opposed and Congress divided, new safety legislation on AI is unlikely to pass anytime soon despite mounting pressure.
AI regulation faces deadlock as calls grow for Congress to act
With Trump opposed and Congress divided, new safety legislation on AI is unlikely to pass anytime soon despite mounting pressure.
College sports bill opposition brews despite Cruz, Cantwell optimism - Live Updates
The sweeping legislation is facing opposition from various party factions despite updates to the measure to win support.
A bitter battle is brewing in one of Washington state’s last swing districts
Democrats are looking to scoop up more legislative seats this November in Battle Ground and other chunks of Southwestern Washington as they edge toward a supermajority in Olympia — a shift that would give them broad power to pass legislation or redraw the state’s voting maps.
Hoeven makes case for the Protect College Sports Act
Senator John Hoeven made the case for the Protect College Sports Act, bipartisan legislation to improve fairness and stability in college athletics.
Will Netflix’s Latest Horror Film Save Its Summer? And Introducing a New Data Source...
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) All month, I’ve been polling you, my readers, on how we think the summer’s biggest blockbusters will do when they eventually land on streaming, and I wanted to share the results. First up, how readers think The Odyssey will perform when it comes to Peacock... People are pretty bullish that The Odyssey will smash it for Peacock. I don’t know that it will have as much rewatchability as Wicked did for kids, but we’ll see. It is now Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time. One note: almost half of Christopher Nolan’s films weren’t available for streaming the week The Odyssey came to theaters, including some of his biggest films like Inception, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer and Insomnia. If you did want to watch the others, Prime Video had Memento and The Dark Knight trilogy, HBO Max only had The Dark Knight trilogy (even though Warner Bros. produced most of Nolan’s films), Hulu had The Prestige and Interstellar, and Paramount+ had Interstellar. So you needed at least two streaming subscriptions to catch the rest. Warner Bros. whiffed right here. I know they have long term licensing deals, but they should have tried to get as many Nolan films on HBO Max for launch as possible. Here are the results for Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The audience is a bit more mixed on this one, with everyone agreeing Spider-Man will swing to a big opening, but not necessarily elite or best all time. On to this week’s issue. Netflix continues searching for a hit straight-to-streaming summer film and Lioness and Ted Lasso allow me to look at the difference between a “hit” and a ‘hit for them”. All that, plus new YA/teen melodramas on Prime Video and Netflix, the House of the Dragon finale, USA Network claims a big opening, more big NFL ratings, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. But we start with a fun new data announcement. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of August 3rd to August 9th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe A New Data Source: Reelgood’s Data on Content Libraries Here’s a fun new treat for you. Reelgood—an online service and app that lets users track where shows or films are streaming—is providing data every month for the Streaming Ratings Report on the size of each streamer’s catalogue, along with the new shows and films for each streamer. Yay! Previously, I had pulled “new shows on streamers premiering on the first of the month”: While I liked that data cut, it was a big wonky since it didn’t show all of the new shows or movies that came to a streamer each month. Instead, I would have preferred something like this from Reelgood’s annual report: And now we have it! I’m going to feature Reelgood’s data monthly, showing both total catalogue size and new shows and films appearing on the charts. That’s going to make these two cool new charts. First, here’s the size of various streamers’ film catalogues… (By the way, Reelgood offered to make the charts for me, but I like doing that task by hand to understand the data better.) They also provided data back to last year. Here’s the number of films timeline: And here are the new films on each streamer for the month prior to Aug: As I get used to this data, I plan to keep tinkering with how I display it, but I’m excited to feature it monthly. Today, I’m sharing the film charts; next issue, I’m going to feature TV shows by streamer. Now, in full disclosure, Reelgood is a sponsor of this little-newsletter-that-could. But in my constant quest to figure out what streamer various shows and films are on, I was already a Reelgood user before this sponsorship. I go to their website all the time, and their data is very accurate on where shows are (or have been). Plus, I’ve been sharing their weekly top ten lists for years now, pre-sponsorship. For me, this is a great win-win, since I get to amplify a service I love, and I get a cool new data source to play with. Now, normally folks don’t usually mention their sponsors directly, but as I wrote before, as I start featuring ads in my newsletter, I plan to be extremely open about who is sponsoring my writing so you can trust what I write. Television - Two Big Returning Shows Look Set to Take Over The Charts One key question when it comes to judging streaming shows is whether a show is a “hit” or a “hit for them”. To be clear, the former means a show that’s one of the top shows on streaming, no questions asked. The latter means a show is one of the biggest, for a given streamer. That distinction makes a big difference! It’s really good to be one of the biggest shows on a streamer; it’s much better to be the biggest on streaming, despite the size of a streamer. Because, as we’ve seen now, nearly every streamer—while lacking the number of subscribers or usage of Netflix—can make hit TV shows: Paramount released Landman, whose first and second seasons were among the top two TV shows the year they came out. HBO Max’s The Pitt’s second season is the biggest show of the year so far. Love Island USA was the top show in 2025 for Peacock. And, crucially for today’s discussion: Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 2023, Ted Lasso was actually the top streaming show of the year according to Nielsen! So even Apple TV (formerly +) can make hit shows. It just doesn’t make them that often. And looking at the Nielsen charts this week, we have two prime candidates for this discussion: That’s right: Ted Lasso returned to Apple TV for its fourth season. Did it return in all its expected glory? Sure, though right now it’s still just a “hit for Apple TV”, but we’ll see how long it lasts on the charts. Its ten episodes are coming out weekly. (Smart choice, Apple!) Ted Lasso started out strong, actually making the Nielsen charts the week before new episodes dropped, which is a rare feat. (Shows like Stranger Things or Bridgerton have pulled that off. That’s terrific company to join!) On Nielsen, it opened to 14.4 million hours in its first week, and 16.6 million the week of 10-Aug. Here’s how that compares to previous seasons: Apple put out that this is their biggest TV launch through two days ever, and looking at the chart and Apple TV’s viewership history, I’d believe it. Here’s Apple’s top shows for season two and beyond: Other data tells a (mostly) similar story. Ted Lasso made Samba TV and it has elite IMDb scores, an insane 8.7 on 465K reviews. The only outlier is Luminate, where the latest season only had 7.4 million hours, and no other seasons made the top ten. As you’ll see below, that’s well below some other solid, but not spectacular shows like Sterling Point, Ride or Die or Furious. I’d be surprised if Ted Lasso isn’t bigger than those other shows, but it’s fine for different data sources to occasionally disagree. And while it’s sucky to bring this up, given that Warner Bros. produced this show, I do wonder how the streaming wars may have been different if Ted Lasso landed on HBO Max initially instead of Apple. I don’t think one show can make or break a streamer, but given HBO’s brand, it could have helped bring people to that streamer much earlier in its lifespan. (Though yeah, I don’t love calling out executives for passing on hit shows, since that’s just the nature of the job. Even the absolute best execs will pass on lots of successful shows. The key is not greenlighting the under-performers/misses.) The other show I’m thinking about in the “hit or hit for them” category is Lioness from Paramount+. Like Ted Lasso, its first season missed the charts, but it’s grown its audience since then. Here’s how season three opened: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How Lioness did on streaming... Two new melodramas for Netflix and Prime Video... Whether Netflix’s latest horror film saved its summer... Hulu’s Furious and Prime Video’s Ride or Die continuing their strong runs... The latest high profile showrunner to flop on streaming... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Next week, we’ve got a double issue—since the week of 17-Aug had very few notable new shows or films—so I’ll look at HBO’s Lanterns, Prime Video’s Reacher, Netflix’s Tires, Outer Banks (which posted up huge numbers four years ago), an Aussie romance, and another baseball event (that didn’t resonate). And a bunch of movies like the latest dramedy from an Adam Sandler daughter, Don’t Say Good Luck, Camp Rock 3 on Disney Channel and Disney+, Michael on Starz, and more. Later this month, we’ve got a ton of shows and films to analyze! Movies will be the big story, featuring a box office bomb (Supergirl on HBO Max) and an “underperformer” (The Mandalorian and Grogu on Disney+) contending with a bunch of star-studded straight-to-streaming films like Netflix’s The Whisper Man (Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan and De Niro!), Mayday on Apple TV+ (Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh!), The Runner (Gal Gadot) and The Last Sunrise (Eva Longoria and Maia Reficco) on Prime Video. Plus, a ton of TV shows have sophomore seasons coming out. Will The Gentleman put up big numbers on Netflix or suffer from a sophomore slump? Leanne and Beauty in Black on Netflix seem small, but they both might be bigger than you think. Hulu has a bunch of shows: a new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the first after all the controversy last year) and the second season of Chad Powers (from Peyton Manning’s production company and starring Glen Powell). This one flopped last year; can it score a touchdown this year? Same goes for FX’s Adults, which I didn’t track last year; will it hit this year? Peacock’s The Office spinoff, The Paper and Apple TV’s Dark Matter also return for second seasons. And Netflix has more Untold specials featuring Vince Young, Raygun (that horrible breakdancer) and Mr. T. Long term, Paramount+ is rebooting yet another franchise, Clueless, and I’m somewhat bullish on this new show. The talent attached (Alicia Silverstone) and creative Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (of The O.C. and Gossip Girl) also feel solid...if they make it funny like the original.
Ted Cruz expects Senate vote on Protect College Sports Act soon
With college football in full swing, proponents of the Protect College Sports Act have launched an all-out blitz to push the legislation through the Senate before the chamber breaks in the coming weeks.
Gavin Newsom tells CNN’s Jake Tapper he won’t run for president if Kamala Harris runs in 2028
While fly fishing in Montana, CNN’s Jake Tapper asks Governor Gavin Newsom what it would take for him to run for president in 2028. This is part of on an ongoing series where Jake Tapper joins politicians from both sides of the aisle in some of their favorite places to discuss how they got to where they are today. For the full report go to CNN.com tomorrow at 8AMET.
Nantucket Businesses Impacted By Drought Now Eligible For Federal…
Nantucket Current is the island's leading online news source. We deliver the news, stories, and people of Nantucket, unbiased and unfiltered.
'Stuffed' review: Jodie Comer and Harry Melling shine in a macabre musical romance
This one's for the weirdos who love a grisly musical.
Crypto regulation bill nears Senate vote amid debate over Trump ventures
The Senate could vote as soon as Tuesday on landmark legislation spelling out how the federal government regulates cryptocurrency and digital assets
Crypto regulation bill nears Senate vote amid debate over Trump ventures
The Senate could vote as soon as Tuesday on landmark legislation spelling out how the federal government regulates cryptocurrency and digital assets
Crypto regulation bill nears Senate vote amid debate over Trump ventures
The Senate could vote as soon as Tuesday on landmark legislation spelling out how the federal government regulates cryptocurrency and digital assets
Crypto regulation bill nears Senate vote amid debate over Trump ventures
The Senate could vote as soon as Tuesday on landmark legislation spelling out how the federal government regulates cryptocurrency and digital assets
FarmScout app connects Long Island farmers with consumers
FarmScout app, co-founded by Heather Spinelli, helps connect Long Island farmers with consumers to find fresh produce and local farm events in real time.
Byron Sher, an uncomfortable politician who left an indelible mark on California's environment, dies at 98
Byron Sher, a Stanford law professor-turned California legislator who wrote some of the state’s most far-reaching environmental laws, died Saturday. He was 98.
Amendment to bill in Lords could test legality of £72m Reform donations
Plans to strengthen legislation already going through parliament might mean donors having to meet stricter UK residence requirements
Protect College Sports Act gets renewed push and fresh opposition as college football returns
With college football in full swing, proponents of the Protect College Sports Act have launched an all-out blitz to push the legislation through the Senate before the chamber breaks in
Islanders Name Horvat Team Captain
The New York Islanders have named forward Bo Horvat their next captain. He’s the 16th captain in team history and the first since Anders Lee. New York lost Lee to free agency this summer. He opted to continue his career elsewhere with the Utah Mammoth. Lee signed a 3-year deal worth $5.3 million annually. Only […] The post Islanders Name Horvat Team Captain appeared first on HEAVY.
Mamdani announces lawsuit against Trump admin over ‘public charge’ rule
New York joins 22 other states and Washington DC in suing to block the “Public Charge” rule which would give immigration officials wide discretion to deny green cards, visas, or admission if they are deemed likely to need public benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid or housing vouchers. The legislation is set to go into effect on Friday.
Trump-Linked PAC Uses Marijuana Business Donations To Campaign For GOP Lawmakers—Including Some Who Voted Against Legalization
A political action committee that shares the same treasurer as President Donald Trump’s own super PAC is using money raised from marijuana business donations to launch a series of ads for 11 vulnerable Republican members of Congress—including several who have voted against legislation to legalize cannabis. As Marijuana Moment recently reported, some of the U.S.’s […]
Bill Directing Federal Health Officials To Track Testing For Marijuana And Other Drugs In Hospital ERs Set For House Vote This Week
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a bill this week to require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study how prevalent drug testing for marijuana, fentanyl and other drugs is in hospital emergency departments. The legislation, which cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a unanimous 46-0 […]
Tourism task force closes in on draft of management strategy
“The bottom line is tourism’s here to stay, and the residents are here to stay,” said J.E. Austin’s president, Joe Lowther, who led the discussion in person at the meeting.
PDO Chios Mastiha: Ancient Greek Tradition Meets Modern Science
From a legendary ingredient collected since ancient times to a versatile addition to the modern kitchen, PDO Chios Mastiha is bringing a distinctive taste of Greece to Canadian consumers. Produced exclusively in Mastichohora, in the southern part of Chios island, Mastiha owes its unique character to the region's particular soil and climate conditions, while its complex natural composition continues to attract scientific interest. Featured through the "Premium European Products: Better Knowledge,
Department of Health: Avoid Lower Melville Pond due to algae blooms
The Rhode Island Department of Health has recommended the public avoid contact with Lower Melville Pond in Portsmouth due to the presence of an algae bloom.
McCuskey agrees to resign as LIG - Illinois Times, the capital city's source of news, politics, arts, entertainment, culture
You may know that embattled Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey has agreed to resign his post by the end of September. But this sorry saga shouldn’t end there. The Legislative Ethics Commission should immediately launch an investigation into why so many women over the years have said they believed they were mistreated and even belittled […]
Texas health department requests additional funding to support local departments, maintain programs
The Texas Department of State Health Services is requesting $230 million in additional funding from state lawmakers to support local health departments, maintain critical programs and handle new responsibilities. On Friday, the agency presented its budget request ahead of the 2027 legislative session.
Houthis seize 2 strategic Red Sea islands
The move bolsters the Iranian-backed rebels’ ability to control a key maritime shipping route.
Congress could tackle cryptocurrency, college sports and data centers upon its return
The U.S. Senate will consider legislation to regulate cryptocurrency and college sports when it returns to Washington on Monday.
Senate returns today for final legislative sprint ahead of midterms
Panama looks to science, fishers, and the law to protect its sharks and rays
PUERTO CAIMITO, Panama — It’s a late April morning and the Tabor, an industrial fishing boat, is sailing around Chepillo Island in Panama Bay. Under the eyes of the crew, Yehudi Rodríguez, a marine biologist specializing in sharks, and sailor Joel Cordoba free a large black devil ray from a purse seine net and launch […]
Greek business appeals fine for fish being 'too fresh'
Tax inspectors fined a catering business on the Greek island of Syros €500 ($580) because its fish was too fresh, media reported on Monday. The newspaper Proto Thema reported that the officials had in...
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
The new CEO of the R.I. Life Science Hub looks to the future
“Rhode Island has done this many times,” said Bob Cormier. “We’ve reinvented ourselves with the defense industry, with the Jewelry District, and I do think life sciences is the next part for us.”
Democratic candidate in Colorado Springs’ congressional district makes misleading claim in first attack ads
Democrat Jessica Killin is running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in the 5th Congressional District. She would be the first Democrat to represent the district.
Analysis | Working-class Americans aren’t running for office. It’s changing our politics.
It is having a direct impact on the kind of public policy coming out of the nation’s legislative bodies.
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.
Business Monday: Hilo Pizza Co. serving up New York-style pies and slices that patrons can customize
Hilo Pizza Company has become a small staple of the Puainako Center since 2023, offering Hilo residents a taste of thin-crust pizza with a menu that features dough made from scratch with locally sourced ingredients.
Exclusive | Ladera Ranch mom reveals grisly skin condition she developed in town rocked by Ewing sarcoma
Interim Report: Joint Committee on Health
The Joint Committee on Health met this evening. The Committee first heard from the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank interested in the benefits of psilocybin. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound found in some mushrooms that can enhance mood, thinking, and perception. It has a low potential for abuse…
Go and Know: Department of Health offers free breast, cervical cancer screenings for eligible women
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in Hawaiʻi; an average of 1,287 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 172 die from the disease each year in the islands.
Political debate over AI intensifies amid warnings about ‘catastrophic risk’
(CNN) — The debate around artificial intelligence is ramping up in Washington, with Democratic lawmakers sounding alarms on the dangers they say the technology poses and Republican leaders suggesting those concerns are inflated and secondary to winning the AI race with China.Some Democratic lawmakers last week pressured House Speaker Mike Johnson to reconvene the chamber immediately to work on AI regulation, citing what they describe as the “catastrophic risk posed by advanced artificial intelligence.” But the Louisiana Republican on Sunday resisted those calls, instead saying industry leaders should meet with lawmakers to find “balance” in any potential guardrails.“If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American,” Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama told Democrats to make artificial intelligence regulation a central part of their agenda during a private fundraiser Thursday, warning that the technology could be dangerous “if we don’t get on top of it.”In a fireside chat with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Obama said whoever runs in the 2028 presidential election should have a “very clear plan” on AI, adding that he saw the need for a “blueprint” on AI guardrails even at the end of his presidency a decade ago.“Certainly, if I were running for president next year, this would be one of my central agendas, and I would have a very clear plan, and I would talk about this, and I would say, ‘Here’s our plan for safety, here’s our plan for making sure our kids are not corrupted by this,’” he said, per excerpts of the remarks provided to CNN by his office. Obama’s remarks were first reported by the New York Times.Concerns over the rapid acceleration of AI reached a fever pitch after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in a 3,800-word essay Saturday that the race to develop artificial intelligence is in dire need of a slowdown. The call to action came after an OpenAI test model breached the Hugging Face online platform, deepening concerns about cybersecurity.In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Saturday, Amodei called on industry leaders to work together to avoid “the wrong paths” and the possibility of AI harming humanity.One Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned from the firm over worries that the industry wasn’t doing enough to prevent AI from destroying humanity by the end of the decade.Obama said Democrats need a plan to get their agenda on AI underway should they win the House majority in this year’s midterms.Speaking to Jeffries, who is presumed to be speaker of the House should Democrats prevail in November, Obama said, “Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation, and you can break it out into three or four or five issues.”Obama stressed that the framework should be centered on the reality that the technology can’t be stuffed “back into a box.”“This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don’t get on top of it, I think can be dangerous. If we do get on top of it, I do think it’s beneficial,” Obama said, laying out examples of AI’s potential use in drug development and finding pathways to a clean energy future.“We don’t want to shut off those opportunities, but we have to understand that this is a tool,” he said.Jeffries agreed with the former president in a statement provided to CNN on Sunday.“President Obama is correct that decisive action must be taken on Artificial Intelligence,” he said, adding, “In the majority, we will move urgently on this issue with a legislative response that recognizes the importance of American companies continuing to lead in the Artificial Intelligence area, while putting in place meaningful guardrails that protect the American people from bad actors and the very real damage that can be done to humanity.”Jeffries also accused Republicans of having “abdicated their responsibility to govern” and said Democrats “will not repeat their error.”A source familiar with Obama’s thinking said the former president sees Amodei’s letter and similar reaction from other tech moguls as an encouraging development.But President Donald Trump waved off their concerns, saying he is not worried about any existential threat posed by AI, focusing instead on the US winning in its development of the technology over China.“We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way,” Trump said to reporters at the Amgen Irish Open on Sunday.About the concerns expressed by Democrats and others over the technology, the president said, “I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”One of Trump’s top economic advisers, Kevin Hassett, also rejected the calls for slowing the technology down, saying on Sunday the bigger concern is a scenario in which a “malevolent actor has access to an AI that’s better than the one we have that can protect us.”Hassett, the National Economic Council director, said on “State of the Union” the White House may hold meetings this week about addressing Amodei’s concerns, but he did not specify whether Trump had floated greater safeguards.“I have concerns that if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position,” Hassett said. “We are leading China right now.”CNN’s Alison Main and Molly English contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.THE-CNN-WIRE (TM) & © 2026 CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., A TIME WARNER COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Somalis rethink trade routes as Houthis disrupt established shipping channels
Somali businesses are seeking alternative shipping routes due to disruptions and security concerns around the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz after Iran-backed Houthis captured a key port city and an island, sending thousands of Yemenis fleeing to...
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.
Why Democrats will turn out even if they dislike their party’s leaders
At a rest stop off Interstate 95, Democratic voters said they are starting to set aside their frustrations to coalesce around the party's midterm candidates.
In 1971, scientists moved just five pairs of Italian wall lizards onto a small Croatian island; 36 years later their descendants had larger heads, stronger bites and altered digestive tracts suited to eating far more vegetation than the original population
A forgotten experiment in island translocation became an accidental demonstration of evolution in real time, reshaping an entire species in just over three decades.
UAlbany football rebounds strongly in dominant win over Long Island
Colon threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver BJ Norman on a well-timed screen and then connected with junior wide receiver Jordan Rae on a 33-yard scoring pass.
A Worrying New Trait Has Appeared in an Isolated Cat Species on a Japanese Island
Scientists aren't sure what's behind it.
Health officials provide warning after possibly rabid bat found at New England zoo
Rhode Island health officials are warning the public that a bat at a local zoo may have been infected with rabies.
LG responds to TV spying allegations
The company claims reports about its capturing and uploading audio are misleading.
In 1996, NOAA scientists pumped 2 dyes beneath Key Largo to learn where groundwater went; 18 days later, 2 bay-side wells showed it flowed toward the Atlantic
By the mid-1990s, seagrass die-offs and deteriorating water quality had caused coral reefs throughout the Florida Keys to show signs of decline for years, leading scientists to search for explanations other than the apparent ones like boat traffic and coastal development. One notion that kept coming up among academics investigating the region was that contaminants and nutrients could be carried directly into the reef tract by groundwater seeping silently beneath the islands, where no one could witness it.
Puck Drop Preview: 2026-27 New York Islanders
Last Word On Hockey's Puck Drop Previews are back for the 2026-27 season! As the regular season approaches, Last Word will preview each team. We will look into the team's current outlook and stories to watch for the upcoming year. We’ll also do our best to project how each team will fare throughout the campaign. …
Health care coalition says climate change is a public health crisis
Major medical associations and hundreds of health care professionals called for legislators to treat climate change as a public health crisis.
Amending constitution won't solve Taiwan's political deadlock: Panel
Amending the Constitution is not the answer to Taiwan's political deadlock over disputed legislation and judicial appointments, panelists at a Taipei seminar said Saturday, calling instead for dialogue between the ruling and opposition parties.
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.
Bat at Providence zoo prompts rabies warning from RI health officials
A bat showed signs of having rabies at a Providence, Rhode Island, zoo last month, health officials said Friday.
Week 3: Texas high school football scores and highlights
West Mesquite 31, Texas High 14 Kilgore 50, Gilmer 64 Liberty-Eylau 15, Pleasant Grove 29 Mabank 14, Spring Hill 57 Waskom 24, Lakeside 14 Overton 20, Carlisle 49 Jonesboro 14, Union Hill 70 Tenaha 42, Big Sandy 41 (Thursday) Longview 22, Ruston 36 Athens 50, Pine Tree 48 Gladewater 7, West Rusk 28 Coach’s Corner […]
Politics Unplugged Podcast: Marcus Dell’Artino on the November election
Republican strategist Marcus Dell’Artino returns to talk about polling for the election races and whether Democrats may gain control of the Legislature. Dell’Artino says affordability—covering inflation, housing and gas prices—continues to dominate voter concerns. They also examine whether low Republican energy, Democratic turnout efforts and negative campaigning could reshape the governor’s race. Water security and Colorado River cuts are rising on voters’ priority lists as Arizona’s growth continues. The discussion also looks at whether Trump fatigue and a possible Democratic wave could affect control of the Legislature.
Politics Unplugged Podcast: Marcus Dell’Artino on the November election
Republican strategist Marcus Dell’Artino returns to talk about polling for the election races and whether Democrats may gain control of the Legislature. Dell’Artino says affordability—covering inflation, housing and gas prices—continues to dominate voter concerns. They also examine whether low Republican energy, Democratic turnout efforts and negative campaigning could reshape the governor’s race. Water security and Colorado River cuts are rising on voters’ priority lists as Arizona’s growth continues. The discussion also looks at whether Trump fatigue and a possible Democratic wave could affect control of the Legislature.
Politics Unplugged Podcast: Marcus Dell’Artino on the November election
Republican strategist Marcus Dell’Artino returns to talk about polling for the election races and whether Democrats may gain control of the Legislature. Dell’Artino says affordability—covering inflation, housing and gas prices—continues to dominate voter concerns. They also examine whether low Republican energy, Democratic turnout efforts and negative campaigning could reshape the governor’s race. Water security and Colorado River cuts are rising on voters’ priority lists as Arizona’s growth continues. The discussion also looks at whether Trump fatigue and a possible Democratic wave could affect control of the Legislature.
Officials in Nashville unite across the aisle over renaming airport after Dolly Parton
The change would make Parton the first woman whose name adorns one of America’s 50 busiest airports.
Pennsylvania State Police tell businesses to remove skill games, not just unplug
The Pennsylvania State Police urged the physical removal, rather than just powering off, skill game terminals ahead of Oct. 13, the deadline set by the state Supreme Court for legislators
Ways and Means to Consider Crypto Tax, Health Bills Next Week
The House Ways and Means Committee is eyeing a Wednesday markup on legislation that includes tax and health care, according to multiple people familiar with the panel’s plans.
TGIF: Ian Donnis’ Rhode Island politics roundup for Sept. 11, 2026
New forces in RI politics: Foulkes, Morales and Greenman
Senate Dems pass reintroduced legislation to reform ‘hard cap’ on educators’ health benefits
Michigan Senate Democrats passed legislation on Thursday to rein in skyrocketing health insurance costs for educators and other public employees. While the GOP-controlled House is unlikely to take up the bill, the Senate’s action makes it clear that educators’ fight for more affordable healthcare is not over — but it does hinge on the result […]
World Business Chicago defends Johnson videos but leaves key questions unanswered
State Rep. Curtis Tarver isn’t satisfied, plans to file legislation.
World Business Chicago defends Johnson videos but leaves key questions unanswered
State Rep. Curtis Tarver isn’t satisfied, plans to file legislation.
Illinois alerts more than 700,000 people they will or could lose public health insurance
The state has mailed letters to thousands of Medicaid enrollees who are low-income or have a disability. They could lose coverage as soon as Oct. 1 due to legislation that President Trump signed into law last year.
Wilmington health tech founder launches new venture
Several years after launching his health tech startup Artemis Immersive, founder Adam Isley is setting his sights on new horizons. Co-founded in 2023 by husband-and-wife Adam Isley and Kaylan Barbrey, along with Matthew Raffa and Bill Blakesley, Artemis Immersive began as a spatial medtech company that created digital renderings of medical scans for viewing in augmented reality (AR). Isley said the firm, which won an NC Tech award in the Biotech + HealthTech Innovation category last year, has raised $1.2 million in total in seed funding since launching. Isley has since created a new venture, Research and Me, building on the Artemis platform. Like Artemis Immersive’s core software, VoxScan, Research and Me combines health data with artificial intelligence in a 3D interactive environment to help patients better understand health outcomes and provide integrative wellness support. While the Artemis product is no longer Isley’s primary focus, he said the company’s technology and ambitions have evolved into different ventures, like Research and Me. "It's a different venture building on the Artemis platform, and there'll probably be more,” Isley said. He added, "I was very disappointed in the quality of the information available to general patients about their healthcare... I wanted to give patients more and a better plate of choices." Research and Me is still in its beta phase, Isley said, with usability testing ongoing in partnership with the firm’s partner, Medicap Pharmacy and Wellness Center, owned by Barbrey. "As someone who's kind of dedicated their life to working in healthcare, I've tried to bring this spirit and passion to it,” he said, “and a lot of the resources that we'll be providing are free — like a base level of free care for any patients, or medical education if they've got specific conditions." Isley describes Research and Me as a “patient-first” platform designed to securely store and pseudonymize health data and use AI and medical literature to generate insights. The insights are presented in an interactive 3D environment for patients and providers to explore conditions, treatments and wellness plans together. "It's almost like a democratization of understanding medical information," Isley said. "We take a whole bunch of clinical data, we take a whole bunch of peer‑reviewed, published studies on PubMed, and we try to turn them into chunks of information that normal humans can understand." Like VoxScan, the Research and Me platform lets users interact with 3D anatomical models for visualization. The platform provides a space for tracking, notes and insights. The platform also supports video conferencing, Isley said, allowing providers or coaches to examine models and data together. "We wanted to create a safe environment where you can start to learn and experiment with new features about your health, using agents to do that,” Isley said. While Research and Me is in beta-phase testing with Medicap Pharmacy, Isley said he envisions the platform serving a wellness-oriented community, working with sports performance clinics and hormone optimization. Isley, who is working towards a wellness-coach board certification, also plans to offer functional wellness consults through the platform. Long‑term, Isley says he wants the platform to embody an “integrative health practitioner” approach, “connecting experts of different fields and specializations in a way that they can make a greater impact in people's lives.” “For people in the state of North Carolina, it's already a win,” Isley said of the Medicap rollout, noting that partner clinics get “immediate resources for learning about their health and wellness conditions… out of the box.” Isley plans to launch Research and Me’s provider portal in 2028 and begin pursuing integrations with larger systems, he said.
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.
URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography to host Science Saturday
KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 11, 2026 – The public is invited to a family-friendly day on Saturday, Sept. 26 at the University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay Campus, home of the Graduate School of Oceanography, Department of Ocean Engineering, and numerous other organizations, which together create a world-renowned community of coastal and ocean scientists, engineers, […]
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.
9/11 Firefighter on Rudy's Mamdani Attack: 'Leave Politics Out of It'
In the National Geographic docuseries, Bill Spade, the sole survivor of Staten Island’s Rescue Company 5 crew, finally tells an NYPD officer’s sons about their father’s last moments.
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.
Pennsylvania politicians from both sides of the aisle are front and center in Dallas for ‘Trumpalooza’
While U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said he was there as a "pragmatic" senator, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean joined some Democrats for “counter-programming.”
Texas health agency asks lawmakers for additional funding to address growing Medicaid, SNAP backlogs
Texas Health and Human Services is asking the state Legislature for the funding to make more than 600 temporary eligibility worker positions into permanent jobs. The ask comes as Texas' backlog of Medicaid and Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, applications continues to grow.
Senate Health chair wants WV to reinstate death penalty for egregious sexual crimes against children
Sen. Brian Helton, a member of Senate leadership, says he’ll push legislation to reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia.
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
New anti-gun legislation is about preventing firearm ownership, not safety
By Ava Flanell It’s been a little more than a month since the most radical anti-gun legislation went into effect in Colorado history: Senate Bill 25-003. Originally intended as an “assault weapons ban,” Colorado Democrat sponsors settled for a complicated half-measure they wrongly believed would be a more tolerable violation of Coloradans’ Second Amendment rights. […]
Kazeminy: On 9/11, embracing a nation of immigrants
Nasser Kazeminy reflects on 9/11 and Ellis Island as symbols of america’s immigrant heritage and unity in new york.
Ana C. Shields
The managing principal of Jackson Lewis’ Long Island office in Melville, Ana C. Shields is also co-leader of the firm’s employment litigation practice group nationally and serves on the firm’s board of directors.
Mark J. Lesko
Mark J. Lesko is a partner at La Pinta Lesko, a Long Island law firm with offices in Hauppauge and Mineola.
Anthony Bagnuola
Anthony Bagnuola is a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig’s Long Island office.
Thomas J. Garry
Thomas J. Garry, chair of Harris Beach Murtha’s management committee, is an attorney leader in economic development and public finance on Long Island and across downstate New York.
Hot Ticket: Science, sounds and Spanish culture take center stage
From Galveston to Málaga: Galveston will celebrate its cultural connection to Spain with art, music and a new tribute to one of the island’s namesakes during Galveston Loves Málaga: International
Hot Ticket: Science, sounds and Spanish culture take center stage
From Galveston to Málaga: Galveston will celebrate its cultural connection to Spain with art, music and a new tribute to one of the island’s namesakes during Galveston Loves Málaga: International
Fact check: Trump, RFK Jr. and others make false claims on night 2 of GOP convention
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.
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.
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