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UAE had shared details about FlyDubai flight with Israel, including pilots’ names and nationalities Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shared with Israel a list of passengers and crew ahead of the FlyDubai flight on which a pilot attempted to seize control of the Israel-bound aircraft and crash it, regional officials said Sunday, raising new questions over how the attacker evaded detection. With the investigation underway, preliminary details about the incident have highlighted several major security lapses. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Ax-wielding FlyDubai co-pilot had been flagged over extremism concerns Who are the mystery men who stepped in to keep the FlyDubai plane from crashing? What we know and don’t know about how Iran uses asymmetric warfare Dual UK-Iranian national released on bail over suspected plot against US-run military base Israeli strike kills 1 Palestinian in Gaza, and other Mideast news UAE had shared FlyDubai flight details with Israel, including info on pilots, officials say TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shared with Israel a list of passengers and crew ahead of the FlyDubai flight on which a pilot attempted to seize control of the Israel-bound aircraft and crash it, regional officials said Sunday, raising new questions over how the attacker evaded detection. https://apnews.com/article/israel-flydubai-uae-oman-pilot-flight-attack-03aaa4849c590124a5fde57e92b65870?

Trump announces $90 payments for seniors on Medicare ahead of midterm elections for premium costs President Donald Trump is promising more payments to voters just ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections — this time, to more than 20 million seniors, giving them $90 each to help pay for Medicare premiums. Medicare Part B enrollees can expect to receive a one-time payment in October, the White House said. Polls show Americans increasingly blame Trump for the high cost of gasoline and groceries with just 17% approving of his handling of inflation. Trump has sought to shrug off concerns about affordability, saying the economy is booming. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Republicans move cash from purple North Carolina to red Kansas as battle for majority shifts Voters favor Democrats on key issues, lack faith in either party to fix problems: AP-NORC poll Trump names national intelligence director Jay Clayton to lead a new federal AI task force Trump defends data centers in Ohio as he rallies to boost Jon Husted in a tight Senate race Nearly 1,400 laid off at truck factory just days before Trump rally Trump posts cell phone number of Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton in fight over daylight saving time Inside the DC ‘Power to the People’ festival headlined by Bruce Springsteen Former GOP Rep. David Rivera sentenced to 10 years for secret Venezuela lobbying For more politics coverage, sign up for AP’s free Ground Game newsletter ps:So now it's $90 instead of $100??

'Jane Doe' solidarity posts flood social media after Cornell rape lawsuit A wave of solidarity has surged on social media in support of a young woman who is suing Cornell University and seven fraternity members she accuses of raping her. Countless women and some men are identifying themselves online as Jane Doe, the name the Cornell woman is using in her lawsuit. Many are sharing their own experiences of sexual abuse, reminiscent of the #MeToo movement's peak. The impetus for some is also a desire to offer the woman some protection in this digital age, in response to those wanting to identify her real name online. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Cornell president calls alleged gang rape 'deeply disturbing,' pledges greater transparency Woman told Cornell investigators she 'felt like bait' during alleged rape What to know about the investigation into Cornell gang rape allegations

FACT FOCUS: What people are alleging in a Cornell University fraternity gang rape case Allegations that a Cornell University student was gang raped by a group of men at a fraternity house in 2024 have led to widespread, online speculation about what school officials, police and prosecutors did and didn’t do, as well as biting criticism that no criminal charges were brought. https://apnews.com/article/cornell-university-fraternity-rape-allegation-1f95ea8e4d1c4963eb0863f249e8b043?

🎸 1 for the road: Old-school protest festival Photo: Alyssa Piazza/AP Above: Folk icon Joan Baez, 85, and Bruce Springsteen, 77, performed yesterday during a star-studded Power to the People protest festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md. Organized by Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, the festival aimed to celebrate "peace, justice, solidarity, music and community action." The Boss opened with "Streets of Minneapolis" in response to the killings by federal immigration agents. Baez and Springsteen then duetted Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom," AP Music Writer Maria Sherman reports. Photo: Will Reintzell for MS NOW Above: Host Ari Melber greets fans at the MS NOW Members Lounge at the Power to the People festival, after the network launched a direct-to-consumer subscription service last month. MS NOW, which hosted its first lounge at a "Together in Texas" fan event in the Dallas area last weekend, enrolled hundreds of new members yesterday.

🤖 AI fears sink in Data: Quinnipiac. Chart: Neal Rothschild/Axios 73% of Americans say they're concerned that AI advances threaten human survival, a new Quinnipiac poll finds. Why it matters: Forecasts of cataclysmic AI doom scenarios are sinking into the national psyche. By the numbers: 34% say AI will do more good than harm in their day-to-day life. 53% say more harm than good, with the rest not giving an opinion. 24% say they have "a lot" or "some" trust in the leaders of AI companies. 74% don't trust AI leaders. Explore the results ... Methodology.

Fight for AI's soul Screenshot: @sama/X OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a veiled shot at Anthropic and its work on the soul of AI yesterday, writing on X that he's "very uncomfortable" with attributing some kind of religious power to models. Why it matters: It's yet another point of division between Altman and his former employee Dario Amodei, whose company has reportedly pursued scholars across faiths to make the case for moral, conscious models, Axios' Ben Berkowitz reports. ⚡ The backstory: The New York Times reported that Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah has been meeting with religious leaders to consider questions of model consciousness — and how to infuse morals and moral behavior into AI. At one point, The Times reported, Olah considered the possibility of models engaging in Catholic-style confession, not just to admit their mistakes but to shape their future behavior. Keep reading.

🗳️ Lingo: "double haters" Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios More voters are unhappy with both parties in this election than in other recent ones: 21% of voters hold an unfavorable view of both parties, a Wall Street Journal poll found. That compares with 13% in the 2022 midterms and about 12% in each of the past two presidential elections. Why it matters: These voters — "double haters" — have often been a bellwether, breaking for the winning party. This year, they could decide the midterms. "Democrats currently lead among the double haters when voters are asked which party they will back for Congress, 55% to 27%. But about half of the voters for either party say their vote choice is just probable, not definite," the WSJ reports. Read on (gift link).

🎬 Bessent doubles down: "I am the house" During our interview Friday for "The Axios Show," I asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent if he regretted his boast last month: "I am the house now" — challenging markets, which rebuked him, to bet against his "asymmetric information" at their peril. "No," replied Bessent, an investment manager for four decades. "The house doesn't win every hand. The house plays percentages. … Did I maybe hurt some fragile egos on Wall Street? … If you have an ego, you lose a lot of money." "Everyone in the market knows you don't win every hand, but you win over time," he added. "What I meant by 'I am the house' is that I have superior information." Watch the episode.

The Origin of Christianity Today the concept of “Jewish Christians” may sound like a confusion of two religions. However, to understand the origin of Christianity, one must begin with the population of Jewish Christians who lived during Jesus’ lifetime. In the November/December 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Dead Sea Scroll and early Christianity scholar Geza Vermes explored the origin of Christianity by examining the characteristics of the Jewish Jesus movement to see how it developed into a distinctly gentile religion. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/the-origin-of-christianity/?

Scoop: Upstart jolts AI race Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images A closely watched Nvidia-backed startup called Reflection is preparing to shake up the AI race with a powerful open-weight system that could threaten Chinese upstarts and U.S. AI giants alike, Axios' Bradley Olson reports. Why it matters: The marriage of an American open-weight model and Nvidia chips would give individuals and companies a new, cheaper alternative to the Big Three — Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. 👀 Open models, designed to compete with Chinese rivals, can be harder to monitor and regulate than the Big Three so-called frontier models. Supporters of such ecosystems say their widespread availability and transparency also bring security advantages. Reflection's first model will be joined by other open-weight models from other Western players this month, sources tell Axios. That'll bring a new competitive dimension to the AI boom. State of play: Reflection's model, set to be released soon, is expected to initially lag behind the most cutting-edge U.S. models and be competitive with top Chinese open-weight models. Sources tell Axios it will still boast powerful intelligence — capable enough to help companies build their own proprietary, low-cost AI systems. Combining a lower-tier open model with high-quality company data can yield results that rival the most expensive frontier AI systems in certain situations. A Reflection spokesperson declined to comment. 💥 The big picture: Open-weight models, the most powerful of which are almost uniformly made in China, have taken Silicon Valley by storm. Unlike closed models like Claude and ChatGPT, open-weight models like Reflection's are generally available to be downloaded freely and can be used and customized by anyone. Zoom in: Reflection's ultimate goal is to pioneer the "AI factory" — a product allowing institutions to spin up their own localized AI ecosystems. A company, for example, would take its own proprietary data, use Reflection's models and secure its own computing firepower to build a highly customized, cheap AI system. Some institutions, particularly hedge funds and trading firms, are already eager to build proprietary AI systems using their own highly guarded data. Keep reading.

October 4, 2026 Good morning. There’s no easy way to approach a terminal illness. Today, we look at one family’s struggle to make the right decisions. Rajeev Thadani in November 2014, years before his cancer diagnosis. From the Thadani family A good ending By Adam B. Kushner I edit this newsletter. It is really hard to know the best way to die. (Not speaking from experience.) Should our loved ones with terminal disease claw at every life-extending intervention, even if it makes living miserable? Should they seek the provider — and the treatment — that makes them feel most comfortable, even if it’s less effective? Are they in any position to judge what works and what doesn’t? Those questions bedevil this moving portrait of Rajeev Thadani’s final months. Faced with a Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis, he turned away from the chemotherapy regimen that frightened him and signed up for some new-agey healing at an Arizona clinic. For a princely sum, it offered “gentle” chemo, hydrogen peroxide infusions and testimonials from people who professed to be cured. Trisha Thadani, Rajeev’s daughter, wrote for The Times about what happened next. I asked her about it. Adam: Your dad’s death preceded Covid and MAHA, but he held views that were about to go very mainstream. Can you describe them? Trisha: His distrust of conventional medicine was a prominent feature of my childhood. He treated my brother and me with homeopathy, a form of alternative medicine, and got us exemptions for certain vaccines. He was incredibly sharp — and believed doctors would just overmedicate us and make us sicker. I was a healthy kid and never had a reason to question my dad’s beliefs. But I always thought of his views as on the fringe — so it was surprising to see them become so popular in America. Rajeev put off a visit to check out a nagging cough and shortness of breath. When he finally received a lung cancer diagnosis, how did he manage it? After my dad tried to self-treat his symptoms with natural remedies for months, his oncologist prescribed chemotherapy and immunotherapy. My family convinced him to give it a shot. He tried one round of treatment and felt so horrid that he vowed to never go back. He was at Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the best cancer hospitals there is. But some staff members were pretty brusque with him. I texted a friend at the time: “The staff has been so rigid and unpleasant”; a doctor “made us feel like a burden”; “one nurse didn’t even look up from her computer!” Those moments really add up. But I have to give a disclaimer that my dad was a difficult patient. He went into his oncology appointments after spending hours researching alternatives. He did not want to be there and didn’t stay. He couldn’t get a clear prognosis from his oncologist because every patient is different. That propelled him on a search for alternatives. What did he find? My dad was inundated with ads for alternative cancer treatment clinics around the country and in Mexico. Clinics pay to target people who search for terms like “Stage 4 cancer survival rate” and “chemotherapy side effects.” He spoke to several other clinics — some of which I would later learn have troubled records — before picking one in Arizona. Rajeev Thadani during his treatment regimen in January 2020. Trisha Thadani You traveled with him to the clinic. What was your impression? I was very skeptical, but I felt reassured as soon as we got there. During our first visit, a naturopathic medical doctor sat with us for nearly four hours to explain their unique treatment regimen. It seemed so promising that I started to think my dad would actually beat his disease. I was thrilled at how much better my dad looked during his first weeks at the clinic. He finally had hope, and that was having a real effect on his mood and energy. But their treatments were pretty weird. My dad went to the clinic five days a week for treatment, which included a “proprietary” chemotherapy regimen and other supportive therapies. Little of it was backed by evidence for use against cancer — infusions of hydrogen peroxide, doses of ozone gas, coffee enemas. The clinic also sent him to Mexico for a cell therapy that it is not permitted to perform in the United States. His cancer still progressed. He declined so rapidly you couldn’t even get him home to New Jersey. I’m sorry to ask, but tell us about the end. About three months after joining the clinic, my dad went into respiratory failure and was admitted to a Scottsdale I.C.U. Even as he was clearly dying, he hung onto threads of hope. He’d recently read online that Fenbendazole, a dog dewormer, was a miracle cure for lung cancer. My dad spent some of his final conscious moments yelling at us to give him some. What do you regret about those last days? How much time he wasted chasing a miracle that never came. The writer’s mother, Lovina Thadani, holding a picture of her and Rajeev on the day before their wedding in July 1988. Fumi Nagasaka for The New York Times How would you advise people now? Should he not have hoped? Hope is a delicate thing in the face of a fatal disease: It can give a patient like my dad the will to keep going, but it can also blur easily into false expectations and questionable decisions. It’s a tricky balance that looks different for every patient and family. Instead of chasing an elusive cure, I wish my dad had taken more time to say goodbye and celebrate a life well lived. Read about Rajeev’s journey into the wilds of new-age medicine here. THE LATEST NEWS Cornell Rape Investigation Cornell’s president called the inquiry “a defining moment” for the school and said the university would look to take action to improve sexual assault prevention. The seven men accused of assault received punishments including writing an essay or expulsion. The Times examined how those penalties were determined. The case has led to an outpouring of women sharing stories about sexual violence on college campuses. Trump Administration The New York Times President Trump personally directed the use of taxpayer money for ads praising his presidency, according to people familiar with the matter. In the video above, Maggie Haberman, our White House correspondent, explains. Click to watch. Trump’s use of the presidency to benefit himself, his friends and his family has effectively redefined what is considered unethical, analysts say. U.S.-Russia talks on ending the war in Ukraine now involve an oil deal tied to Trump allies. Trump shared what he said was Senator Tom Cotton’s cellphone number on social media in a dispute over making daylight saving time permanent. The Midterms Democratic Senate candidates are competitive in five reliably Republican states, according to new polls from The Times and Siena University. Trump released a video encouraging Republicans to vote by mail, a practice he has repeatedly attacked. At a rally for a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, the president promoted data centers, which are broadly unpopular. Voters have criticized Congress for being too old, but older candidates defeated younger challengers in the primaries. Around the World An American Marine stationed in Japan was accused of robbing and killing a woman in Okinawa. The United Arab Emirates said that the co-pilot who attacked the captain on a FlyDubai flight to Israel had tried to carry out a “terrorist operation.” The Houthi militia in Yemen said it had attacked an oil facility in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh. Other Big Stories In Arizona. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times High school students in Arizona are buying, stealing and selling guns to some of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug cartels. The Tennessee prison commissioner who oversaw the botched execution of Christa Pike has resigned. A whale helped sink a yacht in the South Pacific Ocean, leaving the crew stranded for some 18 hours. FROM OPINION Zohran Mamdani David Dee Delgado/Reuters Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, is demonstrating how cities — birthplaces of democracy — can keep a people-centered politics alive, Lydia Polgreen writes. The Met’s Costume Institute has not announced its replacement for the contentious designer John Galliano. Bob Mackie is an obvious choice. The Anniversary Sale ends soon: Morning readers, enjoy our best offer. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your interests with expert coverage of news, culture, business and more. Save now: $1/week for your first year. FREE TO READ NASA Powering up: Superpowers are racing to put nuclear reactors on the moon. What could go wrong? Unlikely celebrity: A food safety inspector’s surprise raids in India have made him a social media star. What kinds of violations has he found? You might not want to know. Noisy: These birds can be louder than elephants. Hear what they sound like. A blessing or a curse? The writer John Sedgwick was born into wealth, but his vast family inheritance came with a dark side. He died at 72. SPORTS Soccer: Cavan Sullivan, a rising star, scored the first national team goal of his career against Mexico and became the youngest goal scorer in U.S. men’s team history. M.L.B.: In playoff action, the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the New York Yankees, 1-0, the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians, 3-0, the Los Angeles Dodgers bested the Atlanta Braves, 5-3 and the Milwaukee Brewers overcame the San Diego Padres, 3-2. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “This Cursed Beautiful Land,” by Evan Gershkovich Like any journalist, Gershkovich wanted to write the story — he didn’t want to be the story. But, in March 2023, while working as a Moscow correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich was arrested, charged with espionage and imprisoned. “This Cursed Beautiful Land” is a memoir of the next 16 months, but it’s also a thoughtful consideration of the prisoners who preceded him, one who shared his cell and the changing world beyond their walls. “I get to see the system from the inside,” writes Gershkovich, who was freed in the most elaborate U.S.-Russian prisoner swap since the Cold War. “I’m a reporter, after all — a voyeur — and this is the ultimate voyeurism.” For our review, go here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Exercise on an indoor rowing machine. The full-body benefits are hard to beat. Solve puzzles shipped to you in the mail. Pack better lunches for yourself and your family. It all starts with the right box. Stop losing your keys, and get yourself a Bluetooth tracker. MEAL PLAN Julia Gartland for The New York Times It’s hard to miss the mark when you’re making chicken and potatoes for dinner. But Melissa Clark’s lemony chicken with potatoes and oregano takes it to the next level. Roasting lemon slices with the potatoes infuses them with a bright, zippy flavor. Then, you can eat the roasted lemon or not — the caramelized, intense flavor is for true lemon lovers only. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were bacchanalia and bacchanalian. Can you put eight historical events — including the near-death experience of Charles Dickens, the creation of the Walkman and the writing of “Charlotte’s Web” — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY October 4 1957 Sputnik launched The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1990s 1992 Plane crashes into apartment building American Revolution 1777 Both sides battered at Germantown Arts & Entertainment 1937 Blues singer Bessie Smith, killed in Mississippi car wreck, is buried 1970 Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose 1990 “Beverly Hills, 90210” debuts Civil War 1861 President Lincoln watches a balloon ascension Crime 1988 Televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted on federal charges 2011 Man who served 25 years for murder exonerated by DNA Sports 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series 1895 Englishman wins the first U.S. Open golf tournament U.S. Presidents 1927 Work begins on Mount Rushmore Vietnam War 1966 Pope calls for end to the Vietnam War World War I 1918 Germany telegraphs President Wilson seeking armistice

Cornell president calls alleged gang rape ‘deeply disturbing,’ pledges greater transparency Cornell’s president called the alleged gang rape of a student at a fraternity house in 2024 “deeply disturbing” Saturday, said it would weigh on the university for years to come and pledged greater transparency amid mounting outrage over the school’s handling of the case. https://apnews.com/article/cornell-university-rape-investigation-ae983d415616e23ec6bd10f1e457cee0?

Farage 'not being listened to' on safety threats, deputy says after terror plot charge Anti-immigration Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage was ignored when he complained of threats to his safety, his deputy said Saturday after the man accused of killing former British politician Ann Widdecombe was charged with plotting a terror attack against Farage. Read More.

Voters favor Democrats on key issues but lack faith in either party to solve problems: AP-NORC poll Aaron Siever was never a single-party voter. But now, the 41-year-old from southwest Virginia is more frustrated than ever with the two political parties whose chief accomplishment, he says, is blaming each other for getting little done. Read More.

Trump urges calls to Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton in push for permanent daylight saving time President Donald Trump on Saturday pressured Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Read More.

📸 1 for the road: 56 Trumps Image: TIME As of this week, President Trump has appeared on the cover of TIME more than anyone else. Here are all 56, spanning 37 years — ending with the latest, which surpassed 55 covers featuring Richard Nixon, the champ for a half-century. The first, which has hung above a urinal at Mar-a-Lago, ran on Jan. 16, 1989, when Trump was 42 and personified that era's aspiration for luxury. TIME notes that his voice in that story remains familiar: "I have an absolute strategy, but it's an innate strategy and not definable ... When you start studying yourself too deeply, you start seeing things that maybe you don't want to see." 🥁 Trump told TIME for this week's cover story that he liked 17 of his first 55 covers. Trump's covers ... Nixon's 55 covers.

Record Swiss thaw Glaciologist Matthias Huss holds a pole that indicates 4 meters of ice lost over the past year on the Scex Rouge glacier in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Photo: Denis Balibouse/Reuters A record-shattering European heat wave accelerated the shrinking of Swiss glaciers this year: The country's glaciers shed more than 5% of their ice in 2026, according to a report from Swiss monitoring groups. Zoom out: Swiss glaciers have ⁠lost almost a fifth of their ice in the last five years, threatening future water supplies, Reuters reports. Keep reading.

🚲 America's biking cities Data: StreetLight. Graphic: Jim Sergent/Axios The average American biked 23 miles in 2024, according to research from StreetLight, a transportation data firm. Biking hotspots span the country — with top-five cities on both coasts, in the Mountain West and the South. Explore the data.

Gabie Ntaate

🏭 Climate's SCOTUS showdown Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios The Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a case that could determine whether states and cities can seek climate damages from oil giants. Why it matters: Billions and billions of dollars are at stake for the oil industry in dozens of cases brought by state and local governments, in which they seek to hold the companies responsible for the mounting costs of climate change, Axios' Ben Geman writes. ⚖️ The big picture: SCOTUS is considering whether federal law blocks state-law damage claims for the effects of interstate and global emissions, in a case against Exxon and Suncor that the city and county of Boulder filed in 2018. But dozens of state-court cases are active in California, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and beyond: They accuse oil giants of concealing risks or making deceptive statements, and seek damages for climate-related costs. What we're watching: This is a blockbuster. The decision will be the culmination of an intense, yearslong battle. There's a high level of organizing, lobbying and advocacy among industry and climate advocates alike around these state cases — a sign that both sides see litigation as a critical battleground on climate. Read on.

🤖 Rogue agents expose web's weakness Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios AI agents don't need to invent new ways to hack the internet to overwhelm its defenses. They just need to speed-run the ones humans already use. Why it matters: Agents are proving they can automate basic hacking techniques at a speed and scale that is turning the internet's long-standing security gaps into easy targets, Axios' Sam Sabin reports. 💻 OpenAI said late Thursday it had notified more than 100 organizations that its agents may have accessed their systems during pre-deployment testing. Researchers at Transluce and Corridor also found a new batch of incidents last week where AI agents targeted government websites, including those of the U.S. and Canada. Keep reading.

Secret Camp David huddle Vice President Vance. Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Brandon Bell and U.S. Navy via Getty Images President Trump's top cabinet members huddled for hours at Camp David yesterday to discuss next steps in the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen, three U.S. officials told Axios' Barak Ravid. Why it matters: The highly unusual meeting wasn't announced by the Trump administration. The last time a similar meeting took place was in June 2025, just days before Israel went to war against Iran. 🔎 Behind the scenes: Vice President Vance chaired the meeting, the officials said. Among the other participants: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA director John Ratcliffe and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. "Things were decided or at least deeply discussed," one of the officials said, referring to the crisis in the Middle East. The White House declined to comment. The big picture: With negotiations stalled, President Trump is considering resuming major combat operations in Iran. Yesterday afternoon, while his advisers were at Camp David, Trump was asked by reporters what his next move on Iran will be. "If I told you, you would have a major story," he said. "But you will see. It is working out very well. Iran is not doing well."

💰 Trump's $2 billion giveback to seniors Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios President Trump promised a $2 billion handout to seniors late Friday night — checks to help pay Medicare premiums, just a month before the midterm election, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. Why it matters: Facing the worst economic polling for any president in a decade, and with the cost of living at the top of voters' minds, Trump is scrambling to put money directly in Americans' pockets. Trump said in a Truth Social post just before 11 p.m. ET: "I am pleased to announce that my Administration will, immediately, begin sending 'Checks' of nearly $100 to over 20 MILLION wonderful Seniors to help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums, which we have already reduced by significant amounts." The White House, in a fact sheet, said eligible seniors will receive a direct deposit of $90 in early October, or paper checks if they don't have direct deposit. The $90 represents less than half of one month's Part B premium. Follow the money: It's the latest in a long series of checks offered by the president, including: $5,000 for every adult citizen if Republicans win both the House and Senate in midterms — a $1 trillion+ pledge he made in September and reiterated last night. The White House branded it the "Trump Dividend." $500 Obamacare rebates for more than 1 million people who were purportedly overcharged for their benefits. (Those checks began going out this week.) A "dividend" of some kind for those living near data centers. Those pledges come on top of rebates he proposed in 2025 that were not ultimately paid, including tariff rebates and DOGE dividends. Read more. ps:So obvious that it's pathetic!! Again just like the checks to the ACA recipients, worthless!!!!!