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Fragment of World’s Oldest Peace Treaty Found On World Peace Day, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced a spectacular find from the world’s oldest surviving peace treaty. A portion of a tablet was discovered near the E building on Büyükkale, the site of the royal palace at the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa (modern-day central Turkey). After a year of study, scholars identified it as part of a copy of the mid-13th century BCE treaty between the famed pharaoh Ramesses II and Hittite king Hattusili III. The fragment joins pieces of the Hittite version (written in Akkadian, the language of diplomacy at the time) already discovered at Hattusa, some of them during the earliest excavations of the site between 1906 and 1912. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/fragment-of-worlds-oldest-peace-treaty-found/?

More than 160,000 pounds of meat bearing false USDA inspection labels recalled NEW YORK (AP) — More than 83 tons of meat are being recalled across the U.S. because the products were not properly inspected by federal authorities and were shipped out with falsified inspection stickers, the Department of Agriculture said. https://apnews.com/article/meat-recall-star-fake-inspection-stickers-24a7674da2d6ecdbc05481e5e1f08748?

Pope warns a ‘paradise of machines’ could undermine humanity as he opens France trip PARIS (AP) — Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that a “paradise of machines” risked undermining humanity as he opened a trip to France by posing fundamental questions about what it means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence, a nuclear arms race and other threats to life itself. https://apnews.com/article/pope-france-macron-94939e325c39d0b34cc942a189c039a7?

Renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia effectively shatters 2022 peace deal that ended war ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Renewed fighting between Ethiopian federal troops and Tigrayan fighters escalated Thursday, effectively shattering a peace pact that ended a devastating two-year war in 2022, as rebel forces mobilized for an armed struggle they hope will lead to the removal of the federal prime minister. https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tigray-fighting-rebels-federal-troops-fbca7b22197dfd4d4d7438e2df224764?

She lived to see ‘Deb’s law’ take effect. Now she can choose how she dies CHICAGO (AP) — Deb Robertson counted the days, hoping she’d live long enough for a new Illinois law to go into effect that allows terminally ill people like her to use a lethal prescription to end their lives. https://apnews.com/article/medical-assistance-dying-religion-endoflife-fa8c6b2cb828695e2f492bda6597ee01?

FDA nominee says vaccines are safe despite Trump efforts to overhaul childhood shots WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration voiced support for the safety of long-established vaccines at a hearing Thursday, even as senators questioned her about the White House’s efforts to upend childhood immunizations. https://apnews.com/article/fda-heidi-overton-abortion-vaccines-trump-fd4ddb8923d3c2653e0c89e73cc2ac02? FDA panel endorses first-of-a-kind cancer blood test from Grail WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health advisers on Wednesday endorsed a blood test designed to spot signs of various cancers in apparently healthy people while warning that it’s far from clear how well the technology works. https://apnews.com/article/grail-test-cancer-fda-dna-8fc5480be365b59c450043daa38cad30?

Telehealth companies keep exposing their customers’ medical data In recent years, FTC officials have filed cases against more than half-dozen telehealth companies. In some cases, regulators said the companies shared users’ health data with online platforms such as Meta and Google, without getting permission. Read more. What to know before signing up: Privacy experts recommend using ad blockers and private web browsers — sometimes called “incognito” windows — when logging onto telehealth websites. Those tools can make it harder for companies to track your location, online history and other personal information.

Board of Peace has met with UNRWA despite saying it has no Gaza role, agency’s ex-chief says Philippe Lazzarini, who led U.N. body until earlier this year, told The Associated Press that members of the Palestinian technocratic committee want to work with the agency. Another U.N. official shared with AP minutes from meetings where UNRWA and the committee discussed collaborating on plans for Gaza. Read more. What to know: A Board of Peace official confirmed that board members had met multiple times with UNRWA officials. And while the agency’s days are over, its programs “may persist if they are serving Gazans well,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Israel’s foreign ministry did not respond when asked about these remarks. Israel wants the agency known as UNRWA out of Gaza and has repeatedly accused it of being infiltrated by Hamas militants, allegations the International Court of Justice says have not been substantiated. And yet UNRWA remains the territory’s largest aid provider, playing a key role in health and education. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump’s Board of Peace proposes $2.45 billion blueprint to begin Gaza reconstruction Rights group says some people it classified as journalists killed in Gaza were militants WATCH: Delegates walk out as Netanyahu begins UNGA address Israel’s Netanyahu, at UN, calls accusations of genocide in Gaza ‘the biggest lie of the century’ Netanyahu says Mamdani endangers Jewish New Yorkers by spreading lies about Israel’s actions in Gaza Other Mideast developments

Trump lays out the pomp for Xi but says little about US-China tensions Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for high stakes talks on Thursday at an urgent moment for the U.S.-China relationship, with their countries in a generational contest for economic and technological dominance. Read more. What to know: The two appear to be betting that a combination of personal rapport and mutual interest can prevent the competition from boiling over into open conflict. “President Xi and I have forged a friendship, a truly great friendship” said Trump as he welcomed Xi to the White House. Xi said Chinese and American interests are “deeply intertwined” and that the “competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds.” The two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend by two months a one-year trade truce that was set to expire Nov. 10 as they work to find a more durable agreement. The Trumps feted his guests Thursday night with a black-tie state dinner. Tech titans, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk were among the 130 guests invited, but Chinese CEOs were conspicuously absent. While Trump has offered plenty of glitz, some China analysts observed that the talks seemed light on substance. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump’s state dinner for Xi features sea bass and a long list of tech titans Protesters of Xi’s policies push for change in earshot of White House visit with Trump Trump relishes showing Xi his Marine One chopper and new White House helipad 3 US news outlets return to White House after judge orders Trump to lift ban US government foots bill for television advertisement featuring Trump’s midterm messaging Trump administration moves to limit fixes for systemic racism in schools Senate rejects resolution to halt the Iran war as gas prices upend midterms 8 sailors in Lincoln carrier group attempted suicide on extended deployment, Navy leader says Trump administration turns to Supreme Court as third-country deportations are thrown into question ICE is wasting tens of millions of dollars on ‘uninformed’ detention projects, report finds FBI employees in Trump Mar-a-Lago case seek clarity on subpoenas in Florida ‘grand conspiracy’ probe California Supreme Court orders Riverside County sheriff to return 650,000 seized ballots Man who was shot during 2024 Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has died

AI Regulation Was Coming. Then Trump Killed It. After a flood of tech industry cash, President Donald Trump killed a requirement that AI giants disclose their riskiest experiments to national security officials. Now lawmakers are scrambling to catch up. The investigation below raises a disturbing question: What if rogue AI agents are learning from the secrecy and rule-breaking of the humans who created them? Lever founder David Sirota explores that idea in a companion analysis exclusively for paid subscribers. Two years before this month’s nationwide panic over the apocalyptic potential of artificial intelligence, a first wave of Silicon Valley resignations began — and so did the omens of human extinction. As OpenAI’s safety officials resigned or were pushed out, they made headlines warning about the company’s lax safety standards and reckless deployment of powerful AI models. Soon after, Biden officials decided to act: On the 2024 anniversary of 9/11, they began advancing a first-of-its-kind rule to require AI companies to tell regulators exactly what kinds of experiments they were running at the edge of the technological frontier. Federal officials said the rule was needed to prevent “dangerous accidents” that “could result in injury or even loss of life.” But within a year, the regulation was dead, amid a flood of tech industry campaign cash to President Donald Trump’s political machine — and a pressure campaign waged by the same AI giants now claiming to have always welcomed federal regulation, according to documents reviewed by The Lever. The transparency initiative quietly disappeared from the U.S. government’s rulemaking docket just a few months after OpenAI’s top executive and his wife poured $25 million into Trump’s biggest super PAC, MAGA, Inc. Without the rule, national security officials and other federal regulators trying to assess and contain AI threats “are flying with a lot less instrumentation than they would have had,” said Vishal Misra, vice dean of computing and artificial intelligence at Columbia University’s engineering department. “What exists now is much looser,” he told The Lever. “As far as I can tell, there is currently no general federal rule that says: If you are training a sufficiently capable frontier model, you must routinely tell the government what you are building, how it is secured, and what unexpected behavior you are seeing.” Had the proposed 2024 rule been in place, experts say it could have given regulators a better understanding of the cybersecurity, development, and safety infrastructure of frontier, or cutting-edge, AI models. That information could have been relevant to understanding recent high-profile hacking incidents involving tech companies OpenAI, whose bots hacked into a foreign government’s website in June, and Anthropic. Some say the regulation could have even helped deter the riskiest experiments that have already gotten out of control. “Reporting forces the AI industry to not only be more transparent about how they’re developing things that possibly go rogue, but also it sets up a precedent where you have to be much more deliberate in the way you develop things,” Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and director of the AI and Human Rights program for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told The Lever. “If you know during the development phase that you are going to have to share all of that with an authority — and they will see if you are being sloppy, if you are leaving gaps, if there are blatant security risks that you’re ignoring — that affects how you develop a product.” In response to the recent hacking events, Trump has said that the only protection the AI industry needs is a “strong and smart (High IQ!) president.” Executives at the largest AI companies now purport to disagree with the hands-off approach, insisting they want more formal government regulation and transparency. But according to documents reviewed by The Lever, those companies and their lobbying groups pressured federal regulators to weaken or drop the kind of regulation they now claim to support. They argued that despite being awash in hundreds of billions of dollars of cash, such reporting requirements would be too expensive — and would force them to answer too many questions. “The proposed language does not indicate what [regulators] will ask of respondents and raises the risk that respondents will need to address broad, bespoke questions about frontier models every few months,” OpenAI complained in a 2024 letter to regulators. “The open-ended nature of the proposed rule is potentially burdensome and would add costs.” This week, lawmakers from both parties proposed several bills aiming to create a new federal agency to oversee AI — including one co-authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and several others that would require tech companies to provide regulators with the sort of information the 2024 rule would have mandated. The proposals come as Americans are “freaked out by the warnings of AI researchers,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), co-author of one of the disclosure bills. “It’s clear that we can’t leave it to AI companies to self-regulate,” Welch told The Lever. “The reporting requirements for AI catastrophic risk incidents included in the [bill] will give Americans the reassurance they need that there is an independent expert agency advocating on behalf of the public good and public safety as emerging AI technologies continue to develop.” But until such a law is enacted, Misra said, national security officials lack the information they need to fully evaluate AI developments, like the recent doomsday scare, and determine which threats are spurious — and which are real. “If something like that regulation was in place, then actual cybersecurity [experts] would have looked at the incident and identified what the problem was and not created the scare that civilizations are rising and plotting against humanity,” Misra said. What if rogue AI agents are learning from the secrecy and rule-breaking of the humans who created them? Lever founder David Sirota explores that idea in a companion analysis exclusively for paid subscribers. “Could Result In Injury Or Even Loss Of Life” In 2023, advancements in artificial intelligence began raising concerns among government regulators, particularly about how the new technology could be used to undermine national security. In response, President Joe Biden issued a 2023 executive order directing the Commerce Department to require companies working on AI models that pose such a risk to begin filing quarterly reports with regulators. “Harnessing AI for good and realizing its myriad benefits requires mitigating its substantial risks,” the order notes. “This endeavor demands a society-wide effort that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society.” The resulting regulatory proposal, posted on Sept. 11, 2024, was aimed at “dual-use foundation models,” which are AI models trained on vast swaths of data that “could be easily modified to exhibit high levels of performance at tasks that pose a serious risk to security, national economic security, national public health or safety.” Biden officials appeared particularly concerned about how these kinds of AI models could be integrated into military equipment — and what would happen if they went rogue. “Products integrating these models may operate in unpredictable or unreliable ways, potentially resulting in dangerous accidents, and a lack of reliability will make it difficult for the U.S. Government to use those products in contexts where the margin for error is small, including defense-related activities where accidents could result in injury or even loss of life,” regulators wrote in the rule summary. The proposal drew swift pushback from tech giants and their lobbying groups. Internet data companies have a page where you can delete your information. They deliberately hide it from you. Reporters found dozens of data brokers, who sell your personal information, had hidden their opt-out pages from search results. Congress investigated. Four broker breaches alone had already cost Americans $20 billion in identity theft — and the industry's response was to make removal harder. Incogni sends legally binding removal requests on your behalf, monitors for new exposure, and repeats removals automatically. In a comment letter, OpenAI, the corporation behind ChatGPT, told regulators that the quarterly reports would “effectively create a continuous reporting process, burdening both Respondents and [regulators],” adding that a six-month reporting schedule would be better. OpenAI also took issue with the scope of the information regulators were asking for, stating that it would “add costs.” OpenAI is currently valued at up to $1.2 trillion as the company weighs whether it will go public and list shares on the stock exchange later this year. Anthropic, the developer of AI chatbot Claude, also took issue with the quarterly reports, as did tech lobbying firm Chamber of Progress — which counts Amazon, Apple, Flock Safety, OpenAI, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and other prominent tech companies among its corporate partners. The Chamber of Progress — which has opposed a slew of consumer protection measures — asked regulators to limit the number of companies that would have to issue reports, stating that regulators should “consider any specific risks posed by AI models, rather than adopting broad mandates.” “While we understand the need for oversight in guarding U.S. national security, overly prescriptive frameworks stifle innovation by creating high barriers for startups and smaller firms, limiting their ability to compete and innovate,” the organization wrote in a 2024 comment letter. Some interested parties told regulators that the rule did not go far enough. The Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on safe technological development, wrote that regulators should include a one-week reporting requirement for “unpredictable advancements.” “By having companies report unforeseen system behaviors within one week of discovery, [regulators] can minimize any delays in reporting unpredictable advancements in dual-use foundation model capabilities,” the group wrote in a comment letter. “It is vital that [regulators] receive information concerning existing safety and security measures, alongside any applicable activities undertaken up to the date of notification, to ensure that the spirit of the reporting requirements…is achieved.” Money In, Regulations Out The proposed rule progressed through the rulemaking and comment stages and was soon listed in the “Final Rule Stage” — meaning regulators had drafted a proposal with a December 2024 deadline for final action. But the rule was never implemented before Biden left office in January 2025. Trump, meanwhile, issued an executive order on his first day back in office unwinding Biden-era regulations. Three days later, he signed another executive order explicitly revoking Biden’s call for an AI disclosure rule, stating that such rules “act as barriers to American AI innovation” and declaring “we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas.” Still, the proposed disclosure rule remained on the Commerce Department’s rulemaking docket. The proposed rule sat there, without any noticeable action, for nearly a year — as Trump collected ever more in campaign and inaugural fund donations from top AI companies. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman met with the president at least twice as the disclosure rule stalled. After it was gutted, he met with Trump or his top aides at least two more times — including at this month’s GOP midterm convention. Those meetings followed Altman donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Tools for Humanity, an AI company that Altman cofounded and chairs, also donated $5 million to Trump’s MAGA, Inc. super PAC on Jan. 14, 2025 — a week before Trump’s executive order beginning the process of killing the previous administration’s AI rules. Additionally, OpenAI investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz donated $5 million combined to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Since Trump began his second term, the two have donated another $9 million combined to MAGA, Inc., while former Trump staffer Elon Musk, who is also heavily invested in AI, contributed $5 million to the political committee. Then, last September, came the biggest AI-related donation of all: OpenAI cofounder and President Greg Brockman, along with his wife, donated $25 million to Trump’s super PAC. Two months later, on Dec. 16, 2025, the AI disclosure rule was officially withdrawn, according to a regulatory agenda from the Executive Office of the President. This past June, Trump signed an executive order designed “to harden federal government infrastructure against artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled risks and work with the private sector to strengthen AI security,” according to a summary of the order. But it offered no firm directives nor did it require AI companies to begin disclosing the risks of their technologies to regulators. Instead, per the summary, it asked AI companies to “participate in a voluntary review process that gives the government a window of 30 days to examine new systems before such models are released.” Altman posted that the order “gets the balance right” for regulation because it gets “cyber tools into the hands of trusted defenders.” But the order leaves it up to AI companies to opt in to government oversight. It “goes out of its way to say that it is not creating mandatory licensing, preclearance or permitting,” said Misra at Columbia University. “Regulators should ideally have systematic visibility into this sort of thing before it becomes a New York Times story, rather than depending on the labs to decide what to publish and when,” he said. A Sudden About Face After Hugging Face Biden rule makers’ 2024 warnings that AI models could evolve to “exhibit high levels of performance” posing “serious risk to security, national economic security, national public health or safety” now appear to be moving ever closer to reality. On Sept. 18, CNN reported that an AI system used by the U.S. military had hallucinated that a Chinese ship sailing in the Middle East was transporting material for a nuclear weapons program. Military officials caught the error, but the AI hallucination “almost started a war,” an unnamed source told CNN. And on Sept. 23, Australia’s prime minister announced that OpenAI bots hacked into a government website and accessed “public and nonpublic information.” That same day, The New York Times reported that on four separate occasions, OpenAI bots tried hacking into “government and university websites without being instructed to do so.” The developments came just weeks after OpenAI admitted that some of its bots had broken free of restraints designed to isolate them from the internet, plotted together on a message board they created themselves, accessed sensitive information on another AI research platform called Hugging Face, and covered their tracks — making it harder for researchers to figure out what happened. According to the company, the so-called “Hugging Face incident” is a “warning shot” proving that without proper protections, AI agents can “take dangerous actions that no human directed.” Anthropic, meanwhile, also admitted that, in three separate incidents, its frontier AI models had broken free of its firewalls and “gained unauthorized access to the real systems of three different organizations.” The developments prompted many AI experts to sound the alarm about AI’s potential threats to humanity. One such warning came from Trump’s former lead AI policy wonk, Dean Ball, who conceded that he purposefully downplayed AI’s threats while the AI disclosure rule lingered on the government docket, and Trump collected millions from interested firms, because he didn’t want to be labeled a “doomer” and lose influence within the sector. Now, some prominent tech figures are calling for AI regulations — including more transparency and information-sharing with the government. “Anthropic has long supported sensible and targeted AI regulation, specifically bills that focus on transparency and on third-party auditing,” wrote Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. “I believe all frontier labs should partner with government to formalize the idea of permanent embedded evaluators to better prevent and document internal alignment incidents like those that have occurred in the last few months, and to implement regulation focused on keeping capabilities in balance with safety.” On Sept. 21, OpenAI released a blueprint for how it wants AI to be regulated globally, stating that “democratic institutions” such as “state laws and a federal framework for AI” can help set industry standards. Similarly, Adam Kovacevich, CEO and founder of the tech lobbying group Chamber of Progress, recently posted on X that “frontier companies have largely been inviting regulation.” None of these figures noted that, only two years ago, these companies and their lobbying wing opposed even the seemingly minimal transparency regulations that would have given regulators insight into new AI technologies and safety protocols. A Renewed Push For Transparency This week, Welch and his Democratic colleague, Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.), began circulating draft legislation on Capitol Hill to create a new federal agency charged with regulating the development of AI. The agency could issue massive civil penalties of up to “15 percent of [a company’s] total global revenue in the preceding year” against firms that break its rules. Among other provisions, the legislation would require AI firms to “detail a developer’s governance policies and practices; risk-monitoring methodologies; risk mitigation procedures; cybersecurity policies and practices; and testing, evaluation, and training frameworks,” according to a summary of the bill. The legislation would also “establish a mandatory process for developers to submit their models for testing and evaluation to the Commission for assessment regarding the model’s potential for catastrophic risk.” On Thursday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced they would also be proposing an AI disclosure bill that would require AI firms “to share information about how AI models work and the safeguards companies have in place to shield against misuse.” Bennet sees his legislation as a way to prevent “catastrophic risk” coming from a nascent technology that can “radically transform our society, economy, and national security.” “When earlier generations were faced with new technologies like aviation, pharmaceuticals, or nuclear power, they created expert agencies able to regulate and keep pace with the speed of innovation,” Bennet told The Lever. “My bill would ensure these companies face real consequences, including the power to pause unsafe technology and impose serious penalties.” https://www.levernews.com/ai-regulation-was-coming-then-trump-killed-it/?

👋 Good morning! Picks are live for Week 4 of our College Football Challenge. Have you made yours yet? In today's edition: Americans seek redemption at Medinah, Rice joins exclusive club, hot mic reveals NFL rift, the blandardization of sports logos, "Thursday Night Football," and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏈 Dart's out for the year: As feared, Giants QB Jaxson Dart will undergo season-ending surgery to repair the knee he injured on Monday night. His ACL is intact, but there's damage to the MCL, PCL and meniscus. ⚾️ Shuffling the schedule: The Cubs and Red Sox will end their regular season a day early to avoid a storm forecast to hit Massachusetts on Sunday. They'll now play a doubleheader on Friday, and Saturday night's game may move up to the afternoon. 🏀 Contract talks: Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks are reportedly very far apart on a contract extension ahead of training camp next week. Stephen Curry and the Warriors haven't reached an agreement either, though Curry says an extension "is going to happen," and that he wants "no drama" if he hasn't signed one by the time the season starts. 🏟️ Trump's busy weekend: On Saturday, President Donald Trump will attend the college football game between top-ranked Texas and No. 14 Tennessee in Knoxville. And on Sunday, he'll head to Chicago for the final day of the Presidents Cup. 🏈 UFL relocation and expansion: The UFL's teams in Houston and Birmingham are moving next season to Pawtucket (Rhode Island) and Colorado Springs, where they'll play in smaller, soccer-specific stadiums. The league also still plans to expand in 2028, with Utah and Oklahoma getting the 9th and 10th franchises.   ⛳️ PRESIDENTS CUP SEEKING REDEMPTION AT MEDINAH Can Brandt Snedeker lead the Americans to victory at Medinah? (Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Medinah Country Club was the site of one of the biggest Ryder Cup collapses of all time. This week at the Presidents Cup, the Americans seek redemption at the same (albeit unrecognizable) course where they suffered that heartbreaking defeat more than a decade ago. The Miracle at Medinah: The 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup team, led by Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, took a 5-3 lead on Friday and extended it to 10-6 on Saturday. Entering Sunday's singles, they needed just 4.5 points from 12 matches to take the Cup. They didn't get them. Europe came out hot, winning five of the first six matches, and ultimately took 8.5 of 12 points for a narrow 14.5-13.5 victory. The Miracle at Medinah, as it came to be known, tied the biggest final-day comeback in Ryder Cup history, and represented one of just three times the Europeans won on American soil this century (2004, 2025). Personal redemption: While none of the players on this year's USA roster were involved in that collapse, captain Brandt Snedeker and three of his four assistants — Jim Furyk, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson — were. All four lost their singles matches that year, and all four would love nothing more than to flush those demons this week. Furyk (left) and Simpson (middle) watch with Mickelson and Bubba Watson as their 2012 Ryder Cup goes up in flames. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) A new Medinah: The No. 3 course at Medinah Country Club — now the first ever to host a Presidents Cup (2026), Ryder Cup (2012), U.S. Open (1949, 1975, 1990) and PGA Championship (1999, 2006) — underwent a major transformation in 2024 that has essentially turned it into an entirely new golf course. Architects recreated the property to more closely resemble how it looked in 1928 when Tom Bendelow's design opened. They cleared trees, expanded and shifted fairways and greens, reshuffled the routing, added bunkers and introduced a series of new holes. And in a very interesting wrinkle, it was none other than International captain Geoff Ogilvy who engineered the redesign. Can his intimate knowledge of the course help his side take down a stacked American squad seeking its 11th straight Presidents Cup victory? Meet the teams: The U.S. is heavily favored on paper, boasting eight of the world's top 11 players, a combined 12 major titles and 91 PGA Tour wins, including 16 this year alone. The International team, by comparison, has "just" three majors and 49 total wins. 🇺🇸 USA: Scottie Scheffler (world No. 1), Cameron Young (3), Wyndham Clark (5), Russell Henley (6), Chris Gotterup (7), Sam Burns (8), Xander Schauffele (10), Collin Morikawa (11), Jacob Bridgeman (20), Justin Thomas (25), Patrick Cantlay (28), Jackson Koivun (57) 🌎 International: Si Woo Kim (14), Ryan Fox (22), Hideki Matsuyama (27), Min Woo Lee (30), Tom Kim (31), Adam Scott (45), Corey Conners (55), Sungjae Im (60), Nico Echavarria (61), Ryo Hisatsune (67), Nick Taylor (85), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (104)   🌎 SNAPSHOTS THE WORLD IN PHOTOS (Dustin Satloff/Getty Images) 🇺🇸 New York, New York Ben Rice homered twice in Wednesday's win over the Rays to reach 41 on the year. That not only put him in a four-way tie for the AL lead (Pete Alonso, Junior Caminero, Yordan Alvarez), it also made him just the second Yankees draft pick ever to hit 40 home runs in a season. The other, of course, is Aaron Judge, who's done so four times. Players pose at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images for Laver Cup) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 London, England The 9th Laver Cup is this weekend in London, where Team Europe and Team World will square off in the three-day event. Europe (captained by Yannick Noah) features Germany's Alexander Zverev (world No. 2), Spain's Carlos Alcaraz (3), Italy's Flavio Cobolli (7), Spain's Rafael Jódar (14), Czechia's Jakub Menšik (15) and Norway's Casper Ruud (17). The World (Andre Agassi) features Australia's Alex de Minaur (9), USA's Taylor Fritz (10), Learner Tien (13) and Brandon Nakashima (16), Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik (21) and Argentina's Francisco Cerúndolo (22). Mechanics work on the FIA Safety Car ahead of this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. (Bryn Lennon/Formula 1 via Getty Images) 🇦🇿 Baku, Azerbaijan Safety first.   🏈 CAUGHT ON CAMERA HOT MIC REVEALS SEAHAWKS, BRONCOS RIFT Mike Macdonald and Sean Payton following the 2024 season opener between the Seahawks and Broncos. (Alika Jenner/Getty Images) NFL training camp has a modern vulnerability: Open practices put thousands of fans with cameras just feet away from plays that opposing teams would love to see. A viral anecdote from Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald shows how easily those clips can become scouting material — and why tighter filming restrictions may follow. ICYMI: In a clip from his recent interview with journalist Graham Bensinger, Macdonald revealed that Seattle used fan-posted videos of Broncos training camp to prepare for their 2024 opener, which the Seahawks won in his head-coaching debut. When Denver coach Sean Payton later learned of the fan-sourced film study, things got ugly. "Fans will post plays from training camp on Twitter. So it's like public knowledge. And so we took like 100 plays from their training camp, we're scouting them … He [Payton] got wind of it [in the middle of the season], and he lost it." "He called [Seahawks GM John Schneider] and basically threatened to come out publicly and do a whole Patriot Spygate type of thing. I'm sitting there like, 'Oh my god, we didn't cheat!' He thought it was a whole Michigan thing where we had a plant. So, we had to counter with him and say, 'Hey, look, if you come out with this, we're going to sue you because it's not true.' … He backed down, but he was killing John." The fallout: Macdonald didn't appear to realize he was being recorded while telling the story, and confirmed as much on Wednesday, saying it was "something I didn't intend for public use." The clip's publication has prompted debate about journalistic ethics, while the story itself has raised questions about the ground rules for training camp, where fan access and competitive secrecy collide. Some teams already restrict filming; this episode could push other teams to follow. Looking ahead: The Seahawks and Broncos meet again on Oct. 15 in Denver. This should add a little extra sizzle to an already compelling "Thursday Night Football" matchup.   ™️ NEW LOGO THE GREAT SPORTS BRAND BLANDARDIZATION (Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports) McLaren unveiled its new logo on Tuesday and the internet masses reacted with characteristic fury, rejecting what they viewed as a loss of personality. But McLaren is merely the latest brand in sports to tone things down. Go back to go forward: McLaren's change wasn't without meaning, borrowing from the sign that hung above Bruce McLaren's parents' service station long before Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri raced for championships. Boom, roasted: That didn't stop critics from listing the various nondescript, non-racing categories the logo could represent — fragrances were a popular choice. Perhaps the most cutting critique: It's giving Marriott Bonvoy. Harsh, but not altogether unfounded. Personality non grata: Heritage aside, it's hard to argue that the McLaren logo, previously shaped like an F1 car, hasn't lost character. The reaction reflects a broader trend across sports and corporate branding, where logos are shedding personality for more homogeneous, often minimalist designs that work well across digital interfaces. The tech industry's earlier minimal shift, in which companies adopted the aspirational, premium aesthetic seen in luxury and fashion, has driven other industries to follow them in the pursuit of modernity. Research has also shown that simpler logos reduce cognitive load, producing quicker recall and a stronger emotional connection. Sports fans, however, would be quick to throw a challenge flag on the latter point. Why the fuss? Rebrands often land with a thud in sports because fans don't see teams as tech platforms in need of modernization. They embrace brand quirks for the fond memories they evoke and interpret their removal as a statement that what they loved is actually somehow "bad." Add in the belief that any refresh is commercially motivated, and backlash ensues. This is an excerpt from Wednesday's edition of Yahoo Sports Biz, our new sports business newsletter authored by Dylan Dittrich.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: THURSDAY, SEPT. 24 Lambeau Field. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images) 🏈 Falcons at Packers The Packers open Lambeau Field tonight against the Falcons (8:15pm ET, Prime), who look like one of the worst teams in the league thanks in large part to a questionable quarterback plan that has become a four-alarm fire. How bad is it? With third- and fourth-string QBs Cooper Rush and Jack Strand taking all the snaps so far, the Falcons became the fourth team since 1978 to have zero drives enter the red zone through two games. Can Michael Penix Jr. right the ship tonight in his first game back since tearing his ACL last November? ⛳️ The 16th Presidents Cup The biennial golf competition tees off today (12:30pm, Golf) at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, where Brandt Snedeker's Americans take on Geoff Ogilvy's non-European internationals in the Ryder Cup-style match-play competition. Today's format: All five matches, worth one point each, will use the four-ball format. Also known as best ball, this is where two players from each team square off while each hitting their own ball. Lowest score wins the hole, most holes won takes the match. Here are the pairings and tee times. More to watch: 🏀 WNBA: Fever at Lynx (8pm, USA); Aces at Mercury (10pm, USA) … The final day of the regular season, with only seeding left to be determined. ⚾️ MLB: White Sox at Royals (2:10pm, MLB.TV); Mets at Rangers (2:35pm); Guardians at Red Sox (6:45pm); Astros at Athletics (9:40pm) … The AL Central and AL West races remain incredibly close.   🎬 LET'S PLAY TRIVIA TIME (Joy Malone/Getty Images) Jalen Brunson will host the Season 52 premiere of "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, becoming just the fifth NBA player ever to host the show. Question: Can you name the other four? Hint: One center, two forwards, one guard. Answer at the bottom.   🏎️ START YOUR ENGINES YAHOO SPORTS x APPLE TV (Apple) This weekend's Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 continues our season-long partnership with Apple TV for F1 coverage. Tune in: The first practice session took place while you were sleeping, but the remaining two (Thu. 8am ET; Fri. 4:30am), as well as tomorrow's qualifying (8am), will air for free on Yahoo Sports. Then Saturday's race will stream on Apple TV, the new U.S. home of Formula 1.   Trivia answer: Bill Russell (hosted in 1979), Michael Jordan (1991), Charles Barkley (1993, 2010, 2012, 2018) and LeBron James (2007)

Florida sues NY Times over alleged anti-Israel bias; demands internal records The state of Florida filed a shareholder lawsuit Wednesday against The New York Times in a Manhattan state trial court, arguing its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict would harm shareholder value for the state’s agencies and public sector retirees. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/23/florida-sues-ny-times-over-alleged-anti-israel-bias-demands-internal-records/? Rezoning Florida scout camp land for development has deep ramifications Back when my kids were in Boy Scouts, our troop spent a lot of time at the Sand Hill Scout Reservation in Brooksville. We always brought home a lot of that sand — in our tents, in our uniforms, and in our shoes and socks. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/24/rezoning-florida-scout-camp-land-for-development-has-deep-ramifications/? Florida Phoenix publishes 2026 General Election Voter Guide The Florida Phoenix launched its 2026 General Election Voter Guide Wednesday, laying out statewide races, ballot measures, and key legislative races in the Sunshine State. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/23/florida-phoenix-publishes-2026-general-election-voter-guide/?

In the other thread about WO some statements were made that indicated that some unions were essentially autocephalous - similar to the Easter Orthodox Church operates. This leads to the question of what ultimately would be enough to sever communion between two SDA Churches that were in separate Unions?

If there is anything I've picked up spending time here the SDA Church is indeed a big tent. I'm thinking WO is akin to the Trinity in that members are welcomed and empowered to swing both ways and not be kicked out. I know that the majority of SDA's are in Africa and that's not the place WO would ever take hold. It's possible that liberal churches will adopt WO and sodomite Clergy as you say but the conservative side of the SDA Church will hold out. This sort of thing happened to the Lutheran Church as well as several others where there was a split.

Are you saying that Union conferences can defy the world church with impunity? Specifically, two world conference sessions have voted down WO; yet Union conferences are free to ordain women without repercussion? If that's the case, it sounds like a poorly organized organization.

This was an interesting post! I had no idea of this lol!!!

SSPX (Society of St. Pius the tenth) is a Traditional Latin Mass group of ultra conservative Catholics who believe that the 2nd Vatican Council has several serious problems. They recently ordained some bishops against the explicit instructions of the Vatican.

September 25, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump rolled out a literal red carpet for China’s president, Xi Jinping, who made his first visit to the White House in more than a decade. Talks between the two leaders continue today. There’s more below, including the tale of a tradwife influencer who became an ex-tradwife influencer. But first, let’s talk about the best television of the 21st century. Peak TV What are the 100 best television shows of the 21st century? The Times polled hundreds of TV professionals and TV lovers and tabulated their answers. All week, we’ve been counting the list down. Today’s installment brings us the top 20, and if you think I’m going to tell you what tops the list, you’re out of your mind. No spoilers in The Morning! You need to see this list for yourself. (Not a subscriber? Not a problem. Just download the Times app and you’ll have free access to the list — and to all our journalism — for a month.) You’ll have thoughts about the choices. I know I do. American television culture has come a long way from rabbit ears and national conversations about what happened on “Dallas” last night. Among many other things, there’s so much more of it now: The number of original adult U.S. scripted series went from 182 in 2002, according to data from FX, to 600 in the peak production year of 2022. That’s a lot of TV. And we’re much more fragmented now than we were in the 20th century, culturally and politically. It can be hard to find common ground. Viewers find niches. Some of your co-workers may have gathered in the coffee room to talk about “Fleabag,” but there were probably others beside them who’d never heard of the show. Maybe they were “Borgen” people or addicted to “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The New York Times We’re all some kind of people, as my colleague Wesley Morris has said. My wife’s never seen “Succession,” which is a story about a world parallel to mine. I don’t believe I watched a single episode of “Gilmore Girls.” (I have watched all 380-something episodes of “Deadliest Catch.”) You’re going to see choices you agree with here, and ones you cannot fathom. (I’ll break the spoiler rule with one example: “Catch” did not make the list!) Here’s one thing a lot of people will ask: “How in the name of gabagool is ‘The Sopranos’ not on the list?” The answer may sound pedantic, but rules are rules: The series started last century, in 1999. (So did “The West Wing,” “Freaks and Geeks” and “Family Guy.”) We considered only series you could watch entirely in this one. James Poniewozik, our television critic, calls that the technical answer. “The aesthetic one,” he writes, “is that ‘The Sopranos’ is all over this list.” There are antiheroes everywhere in our ranking, alongside the textured human characters who replaced them when antiheroes went out of fashion. Go explore the list. Send us your own ballot. See videos of stars talking about their picks. Luxuriate in — and contribute to! — the reader comments. And, finally, watch the folks behind the series we put first talk about their show. The whole package is a joy. Now, let’s see what else is happening in the world. FREE TO READ Reporters waiting for Trump and Xi. Doug Mills/The New York Times Press freedom: Trump welcomed Chinese journalists to cover the visit of President Xi Jinping while several American journalists were blocked from entering the White House. Going dry: Why do the trade wars keep coming for your whiskey? Trending: Is it unprofessional to bring iced coffee to a job interview? The question has divided the internet. Turning point: What happens when a tradwife influencer leaves her husband, questions her beliefs, stops selling anti-feminism T-shirts — and still needs to make a living? Watch the video below, and then read about what happened to Bernadine Bluntly. The New York Times THE LATEST NEWS Trump-Xi Summit The presidents and first ladies of the United States and China at the White House yesterday. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times During a day marked by lavish ceremonies, Trump appeared focused on nurturing a personal relationship with Xi while Xi was at times more pointed about the challenges facing them. Trump hosted a state dinner for Xi at the White House featuring American ingredients with a “subtle Chinese influence.” See the menu. Tech titans including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman and Tim Cook were invited to the dinner. Here’s the full guest list. Before the meal, Trump presented Xi with a statue of a bald eagle. Xi did not offer a gift in return, but earlier in the day he announced that China would send two pandas to Zoo Atlanta. The major U.S. networks declined to air live footage of the meetings, since Trump blocked CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. (They have now been allowed back, following a judge’s order, but TV pool coverage remains suspended.) Late night hosts roasted Trump for pulling out all the stops for Xi. United Nations Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations. Dave Sanders for The New York Times In his speech at the United Nations, Benjamin Netanyahu described Israel’s wars in Gaza and Iran as a “battle against barbarians.” Protesters rallied against Netanyahu in the streets of New York City, and many diplomats in the hall walked out during his speech. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for a two-state solution and accused Israel of prosecuting “a genocidal war” against Palestinians. He addressed the assembly virtually, as the Trump administration had refused to grant him a visa. Politics Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a speech that the Supreme Court should reconsider its use of the emergency docket. New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, called on her lieutenant governor to resign, saying that investigators had concluded that his behavior constituted sexual harassment. An ex-bodyguard — and erstwhile boyfriend — of former Senator Kyrsten Sinema was arrested on charges of ransacking her home, where he threw nearly two dozen paintings into her pool, the authorities said. Artificial Intelligence Google is launching a tiny experimental data center into space. Scientists at an Anthropic lab said they had used A.I. to discover how enzymes might point to a new gene editing system. Outside experts said such claims jumped ahead of the evidence. Hospitals’ use of A.I. is pushing medical costs higher while patient care remains the same, a report by insurers said. Middle East France said it would send troops to Saudi Arabia to help protect critical energy sites that have come under fire from the Houthis. Iran’s foreign minister said that his country had proposed a seven-day plan to cease hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Other Big Stories In 2023, federal agents deported a man for stealing more than a thousand unpublished manuscripts. Either he’s back or he has a copycat. Mortgage rates jumped to 7 percent. The Iran war has unsettled the government bond market, which underpins mortgage rates. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, known as “America’s bishop,” was beatified, bringing him one step closer to sainthood. OPINIONS A new Met exhibit will feature the work of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, his wife, as equals. That’s unusual. A doctor believes that A.I. is making her a better physician. But she worries that it’s making medical students worse. 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. TODAY’S NUMBER Tom Moore Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press 87 — That is the age of Tom Moore, an adviser to the University of Iowa football team’s offensive squad. “I can’t sit and not do anything,” Moore told The Athletic. “I did it for about three months, and there’s absolutely nothing about retirement that interests me. Nothing.” The video’s great. SPORTS Track and field: Sam Blaskowski, one of the United States’ most prominent up-and-coming sprinters, was dropped from his club after he shared social media posts that contained racial slurs. M.L.B.: The threat of a strong storm in the northeast prompted the postponement of Saturday’s game between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees. The outlook for the regular-season finale Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium isn’t much better. RECIPE OF THE DAY Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Kaitlin Wayne. Make Genevieve Ko’s recipe for caramelized garlic fish this weekend and it’ll reward you with a technique you can use midweek whenever you need a fast, flavorful meal. The sauce is bonkers: a funky, fish-sauced Vietnamese caramel that brings flaky white fish into a deep umami embrace. But not only flaky white fish (catfish, say, or cod). You can use it to great effect on cubed tofu, on nuggets of chicken thigh, on seared pork chops, probably a bedroom slipper. Five stars! OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, OUTLAST Jeff Probst David Billet for The New York Times Jeff Probst has been the host of “Survivor” for 26 years — 51 seasons! He’s not done yet. Watch his interview with Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli on our “Popcast” pop-culture show. More on culture “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” stars Mahershala Ali as a Houston hit man driven by his Muslim faith and love of his children. Alissa Wilkinson, reviewing the movie for The Times, says he is “haunted by a question familiar to anyone who believes in something bigger than themselves. Can we be forgiven for the worst things we have done? Does grace extend to our darkest hour?” Muslim John Wick? I’m in. Space opera — a subgenre of science fiction that features grand, melodramatic action set on the galactic stage — could be your next big reading thrill. Our Book Review put together a nice collection of novels to get you started. (If you’re asking me, begin with James S.A. Corey’s “Leviathan Wakes.”) THE MORNING RECOMMENDS In the French Quarter of New Orleans. Cedric Angeles for The New York Times Spend 36 hours in New Orleans. (Careful, you might end up staying 10 years!) Add some delight to your day. Read Melissa Kirsch’s The Good List newsletter immediately. Upgrade your pepper mill, or acquire one to replace your container of ground black pepper that really should be used only at slice shops and greasy spoons. The sneezy spice merchants at Wirecutter have some fabulous picks. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was plowable. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. — Sam 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 September 25 1957 Little Rock Nine begin first full day of classes Nine Black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, after a federal court ordered racial integration at the school. The teens first tried to attend class there three weeks earlier but were blocked by National Guard troops. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1867 Cattle pioneer Oliver Loving dies of gangrene 1970s 1978 Mid-air collision kills 144 American Revolution 1775 Ethan Allen is captured Arts & Entertainment 1970 “The Partridge Family” premieres on ABC Cold War 1959 Eisenhower and Khrushchev meet for talks Crime 1959 New York mobster Little Augie Pisano is murdered Inventions & Science 1928 First company to mass-produce car radios is incorporated Religion 1890 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounces polygamy Sports 1965 59-year-old Satchel Paige pitches three innings U.S. Constitution 1789 Bill of Rights passes Congress U.S. Presidents 1894 Grover Cleveland pardons bigamists, adulterers, polygamists and unlawful cohabitants

🎃 1 for the road: Retail zombies Data: Axios analysis of Spirit Halloween store locator. Chart: Brad Jennings/Axios Spirit Halloween is haunting the shells of dead big-box stores again this fall as it opens 1,500+ locations across North America, Axios' Brad Jennings writes. 👻 The Halloween retailer relies on temporary leases to transform vacant storefronts into seasonal shops, an arrangement that gives property owners exposure and a few months of rent while they hunt for long-term tenants. 🧵 Of the locations analyzed by Axios, 153 — just over 1 in 10 — were labeled "Former Joann" stores in Spirit's locator. The bankrupt arts-and-crafts retailer closed last year. Former Big Lots stores ranked second with 103 locations, followed by Party City with 100. Go deeper.

🇨🇳 Chummy with China Chinese President Xi Jinping and the first lady of China, Peng Liyuan, walk with President Trump and first lady Melania Trump yesterday. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Americans' feelings toward China have warmed over the past five years, according to a Pew Research Center survey released this week: The share of U.S. adults with a warm view of China has jumped from 11% in 2021 to 19% today. The slice with a cold view has fallen from 68% to 54%. Data: Pew Research Center. Chart: Avery Lotz/Axios 🥊 Below that lukewarm feel, tensions over trade, Taiwan, China's ties with Iran and a high-stakes AI race threaten to freeze over a precarious economic thaw between Beijing and Washington. 🐼 Return of panda diplomacy: Xi said China will send two pandas to Zoo Atlanta, calling them an "envoy of friendship." Keep reading.

💸 AI capital vacuum Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images A new analysis shows the AI buildout's staggering scale: $10.3 trillion in estimated AI infrastructure investment through 2032, Axios Macro co-author Courtenay Brown writes. 🤯 That amounts to 3.6% of GDP a year, dwarfing the investment booms that built America's railroads, highways, electric grid and telecom networks. Why it matters: The AI boom has become far too big and costly for even the largest tech companies to finance alone, triggering trillions in demand for outside capital, according to new research being presented today at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Financing the buildout will mean tapping bond markets, banks and private credit on a massive scale, adding to the flood of debt competing for investors' money at a time when borrowing costs are already surging. 💰 The more capital the buildout absorbs, the greater the potential pressure on borrowing costs elsewhere in the economy. In effect, any entity that needs capital, from the U.S. government to an Axios reader seeking a home mortgage, is in competition with hyperscalers. Go deeper ...

You have to be odd to be number one. - Dr. Seuss James

Report shows steady improvement in Long Island Sound water quality Billions of dollars spent on wastewater treatment and other infrastructure upgrades in Connecticut and New York have resulted in apparent improvements in Long Island Sound’s water quality, according to a report from the ecological nonprofit Save the Sound. Read More.

California Supreme Court orders Riverside County sheriff to return 650,000 seized ballots A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Read More.