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630-Million-Strong World Evangelical Alliance Embraces Rome’s “Creation Sunday” to Protect Our Common Home The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is the world’s largest international network of evangelical Christians, with the stated mission of strengthening and uniting Evangelical Protestants worldwide. Through its national and regional alliances, churches, denominations, and affiliated organizations, the WEA says it represents more than 630 million evangelical Christians globally. [1] In a significant development, the WEA has now officially embraced, for the first time, the Season of Creation liturgy into its Revised Common Lectionary and is promoting “Creation Sunday” as part of its growing environmental emphasis throughout its vast global network. The World Evangelical Alliance Sustainability Center published the following: • “The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) gladly joins with other Christians across traditions in observing the Season of Creation (September 1–October 4), a global time of prayer and action for God’s gift of creation and our common home.” [2] • “This year also marks an important new chapter. For the first time, the Feast of Creation in Christ has been formally included in the Revised Common Lectionary, with its first observance on Sunday, September 6, 2026. The World Evangelical Alliance supported the global effort that helped establish this celebration and is participating in the development of Creation Sunday resources for evangelical and other Free Church traditions.” [2] • “For evangelicals, caring for creation is not optional but central to discipleship. Through the WEA Sustainability Center and Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network (LWCCN), we encourage churches and evangelicals worldwide to integrate creation care into worship, teaching, prayer, service, sustainable practices, and advocacy for environmental justice, especially for the most vulnerable. During this Season of Creation, we invite our global fellowship of 600 million believers to enter more deeply into God’s vision of renewal—bearing witness to the Gospel through faithful care for our common home.” [2] https://wea-sc.org/season-of-creation-2026?fbclid=IwY2xjawUf78BwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMW9ONUljWGdObUJZY1o5VWpzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeixyMyVBhCfZAzHaNoR24T-FH84umNivSXITInpQo4TTCN5t5ceWCfxPIdTY_aem_K3TAT-n5LMFFu5JnpwysAQ It is the Vatican who is responsible for advancing themes such as care for our common home, ecological conversion, and creation-centred spirituality, particularly through Laudato Si’. These ideas are increasingly appearing in ecumenical initiatives such as the Season of Creation and “Creation Sunday,” bringing Catholics, Protestants, and evangelicals together around environmental action and Sunday worship. Protestantism used to uphold the Bible and used to maintain a sharper separation from Roman Catholic liturgical traditions. Today, unfortunately, they are daily embracing Rome’s errors and are increasingly participating in their mission. What is especially concerning from this new climate gospel is the incorporation of climate action with Sunday worship and calling it “Creation Sunday.” Rome hasn’t changed. It is engaging in the same pattern associated with the “man of sin”—the presumption of altering divine authority, shifting attention from God’s commandments to human traditions, and redirecting the gospel’s emphasis to a new climate agenda. What Scripture presents as repentance from sin, salvation through Christ, obedience to God, and preparation for His return is being replaced with a new morality called ecological conversion, environmental sins, and a religious mission centered on saving the planet. Sources [1] https://worldea.org/weas-180-year-anniversary-message/ [2] https://wea-sc.org/season-of-creation-2026

The Affordability Trap View in browser Of all the outrages and betrayals that Donald Trump has had perpetrated against him—by ungrateful subordinates, by obstreperous prosecutors, by treacherous journalists—perhaps his saddest falling-out is with a simple word. “Starting on day one, we will defeat inflation quickly, and we will make America affordable again,” he declared in an ad during his 2024 presidential campaign. A year later, Trump confessed to still having some affinity for the word. Speaking at a summit hosted by McDonald’s, the president promised imminent prosperity: “That begins with making America, we have to do—the word is affordable—and affordable should be our word, not theirs.” These days, the word itself is, like all of Trump’s enemies, the frequent target of invective. The president describes the concept of affordability as, variously, a Democratic “con job,” as “a new word—nobody ever heard the word,” and, most damningly of all, as “fake.” The reasons for this lexical animosity are clear. The word that the president once wielded with great effect against Democrats in 2024 is now being used against him with seemingly equal effect by his opponents. Affordability is the Democrats’ unifying theme, which, despite them lacking coherence on almost every other issue, may be enough to carry them to victory in the November midterm elections. (Nate Silver estimates that in the generic congressional ballot, Democrats are leading by a crushing 7.5 percentage points.) And no wonder. Inflation remains high; gas prices, which Trump promised in 2024 would settle below $2 a gallon, are now above $4 thanks to the president’s war with Iran; mortgage rates, which Trump said would drop to 2 percent, are instead near 7 percent. But Democrats shouldn’t expect to hang on to their advantage here; far more likely, the inversion will recur. You can imagine America settling into a persistent politics of affordability, in which the arguments are always the same but the positions of accuser and accused are swapped depending on who holds power. Democrats are, for example, pledging that if they win the midterm elections, they will crusade for lower costs “of groceries, of housing, of childcare and elder care.” Perhaps such competition would be salutary; more likely, it would be Sisyphean—an unending cycle of accusation, disappointment, and recrimination. There are three reasons for pessimism. The first is that affordability politics are a breeding ground for economically illiterate policy ideas. Popular anger over inflation is usually directed at cumulative price increases over the course of years. But literally decreasing prices is exceptionally hard to accomplish, even if that is what voters want. In this heady environment, discredited ideas such as price controls and even the direct provision of goods—as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is attempting with government-run grocery stores—make their resurgence. Affordability politics also encourages unvarnished attempts at bribing voters, as Trump attempted with his pledge to give $5,000 to every American adult should Republicans keep control of Congress. (This is both a subpar reason to add another $1.3 trillion to America’s $40 trillion in national debt and a very good way to exacerbate inflation.) The second problem of affordability politics is what these proposed solutions do to what little remains of voter trust in government. Every election cycle, politicians make promises for widespread price relief, package them into neat advertisements, and relay these to voters a mind-numbing number of times, only for these promises to go undelivered—because they were unworkable from the start. This may not inspire apathy among voters so much as anger and irritability. It also encourages anti-incumbency of the kind that explains why Americans have, in every presidential election since 2016, opted for the challenging party’s candidate. The third problem is the cumulative cost of short-termist affordability politics. Neither party in this election cycle is making much reference to the national debt, even though the United States has surpassed, for the first time ever, $1 trillion in interest costs this year. Deficit spending shows no sign of slowing down, even though the American economy is not in recession and the country is only mildly at war. But there is no political incentive to suggest that such spending cannot persist. Instead, Democrats traditionally propose new social expenditures and subsidies, whereas Republicans propose general tax cuts. The new approach, favored by populists, is to offer both: Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the Senate race in Michigan, has pitched “a cost-of-living exemption on federal taxes up to $50,000” while also establishing Medicare for All and universal child care—to be paid for by the rich. Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee for the Senate race in Iowa, is pitching more government support for house purchases, child care, and rural hospitals while cutting taxes. Why begrudge the entire enterprise of affordability politicking? Isn’t the job of elected officials ostensibly to improve the lives of their constituents? Yes, indeed. And it is of course still possible to durably decrease prices with good governmental policy: You can, for example, slowly reduce the cost of housing by reducing restrictions on building, or reduce health costs by expanding the supply of doctors. This requires some forbearance and sophistication on the part of the politician—and, unfortunately, both qualities are negatively selected against in the current political-attention economy. It is better to make headlines with snappier pledges to freeze the rent or nationalize the health system. You can safely assume that at the conclusion of the midterms, the 2028 presidential election will begin in earnest and affordability will be one of its bywords. You can also dread the litany of bad ideas it will spawn. Related: The “consumer socialism” trap Marc Novicoff: Gas prices could cost Republicans the midterms.

🍂 1 for the road: Happy equinox Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Astronomical fall begins at 8:05 p.m. ET tonight, when the Sun will shine directly over Earth's equator. Afterward, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, days will get even shorter until December's winter solstice. NASA explainer.

AI's next frontier: Cheaper power Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios AI companies have competed on having the best and often most dangerous models for years. Now they're pivoting to a new focus: cost, Axios' Madison Mills reports. 🎉 Driving the news: It's modelpalooza in the AI world this week, with new releases from OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and some Chinese providers. Most of them are offering shocking levels of intelligence at prices that would've been unthinkable just a few months ago. Top companies are finding a variety of ways to make powerful systems more efficient — for example, by using smaller portions of a model for some answers. Zoom in: OpenAI is releasing GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna today, which bring down the cost for top business customers by 50% from previous iterations. Anthropic is releasing Opus 5.5 today, which the company says costs around 40% less to run than Opus 5 while maintaining top intelligence. Elon Musk's xAI yesterday released Grok 4.7, pitching the new model around price-performance. Yet in a testament to the sheer brutality of competition in the AI race, it only took 24 hours for new options to wipe out much of that price advantage. Follow the money: A recent Citadel Securities report found that falling costs are fueling more use, and that overall AI spending is increasing. That points to higher eventual profits for AI labs and related companies. The bottom line: AI sticker shock feels like a distant memory, given the massive push to deliver cheaper models. Go deeper.

Judge strikes down a Trump policy barring some immigrants from Head Start preschools A federal judge in Rhode Island has struck down a Trump administration directive that would have barred some immigrants from accessing certain federal programs, including Head Start preschools, community health clinics and adult education initiatives. Read More. Trump signs US-Denmark-Greenland agreement to bolster Arctic security after prolonged tensions President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an agreement with Denmark and Greenland aimed at strengthening Arctic and North Atlantic security, paving the way for more U.S. bases in Greenland and easing tensions over his repeated calls for the vast island to become part of the United States. Read More. Trump signs US-Denmark-Greenland agreement to bolster Arctic security after prolonged tensions UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an agreement with Denmark and Greenland aimed at strengthening Arctic and North Atlantic security, paving the way for more U.S. bases in Greenland and easing tensions over his repeated calls for the vast island to become part of the United States. https://apnews.com/article/trump-greenland-denmark-security-agreement-084ac2a82952c2dff403c48bd3564113?

Hayden Panettiere died from an overdose involving fentanyl. She had just gone to rehab, coroner says GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Actor Hayden Panettiere died from an accidental overdose of several drugs, including fentanyl, and had been in rehab just weeks before, according to a coroner’s report obtained by The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/hayden-panettiere-cause-of-death-drugs-fentanyl-229349e2bb6e19d985372d8524b09fc8?

Sri Lankan court sentences 15 men to life in prison for roles in deadly 2019 Easter bombings COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan court convicted 15 men on Tuesday over their involvement in the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 267 people, and sentenced them each to at least 200 years in prison, meaning they will spend the rest of their lives behind bars. https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-easter-bombings-islamic-state-group-45283b5f6fe37ed2ab07c903214001b5?

👋 Good morning! It's officially fall. Where has the year gone? In today's edition: Pete Crow-Armstrong's historic season, Rams crush Giants on "MNF," Mbappé moves On, NBA power rankings, Barcelona are a scoring machine, GeoSports, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   ⚾️ WAR-MONGER FORGET MVP. PCA IS CHASING HISTORY (Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images) Pete Crow-Armstrong wrapped up the NL MVP award weeks ago. Now, in the final week of the regular season, the Cubs centerfielder is looking to put the finishing touches on one of the greatest all-around campaigns in baseball history. Triple threat: PCA might not pitch like his onetime MVP competition Shohei Ohtani, but he does wield the best glove in the league in addition to his otherworldly combination of power and speed. At the plate he's batting .280 with an NL-best .949 OPS on the strength of 45 home runs. Yes, the speedy centerfielder is now tied with Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead. He also leads the majors in runs (118) and extra-base hits (83), and ranks third in RBI (107). On the bases he's recorded 38 steals and been caught just seven times, making him the third player in MLB history with 45+ HR and 35+ SB in a season. In the field he leads all players in outs above average (26) and fielding run value (27). His 50% success rate (8 of 16) on 5-star catches (those with a Statcast probability of 0-25%) is also by far the best in the majors. Put another way: He's having the best offensive season of anyone outside of Yordan Alvarez, but while the Astros slugger spends almost all of his time at designated hitter, PCA has also been the single best fielder in baseball at any position. (Kelly Gavin/MLB Photos via Getty Images) Big picture: Add it all up, and Crow-Armstrong has amassed 10.4 wins above replacement at FanGraphs, making him just the seventh position player this century to post a 10-fWAR season. But as impressive as that is in a vacuum, it's in the comparison to his peers where it transcends to historic territory. At 10.4 fWAR, he leads second-place Ohtani (6.7) by 3.7, putting him on pace to become just the fourth player in MLB's Modern Era (since 1900) to finish at least 3 fWAR ahead of second place. Perhaps you've heard of the other three men to accomplish that feat: Babe Ruth (3x), Rogers Hornsby (2x) and Mickey Mantle. Adjusted for era, PCA's season has to be considered one of the greatest ever. And to think, we almost didn't get it. Midseason change: It's easy to forget now, but PCA had a terrible spring, batting .224 with 6 HR and a .676 OPS in 55 games from Opening Day through May 26. As the poor results kept coming and he drifted further away from the player who'd shown flashes of superstardom a year earlier, he and Chicago's coaching staff decided to drastically alter his stance. The changes, as laid out by WSJ's Jared Diamond ($), were three-fold: He stands closer to the plate and deeper in the box, his legs are a foot closer together, and he holds his hands at his chest with the bat pointing up rather than at shoulder-level with the bat parallel to the ground. Safe to say it worked. In 101 games since the changes began taking hold, he's hitting .307 with 39 home runs and a 1.079 OPS. The last word: "You're grateful to see things like this," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said last week after PCA's seventh multi-homer game of the season. "And you're grateful that the fans get to see a season like this, because they're going to talk about it. They're going to tell their kids about it. They're going to tell their grandkids about seasons like this."   🌍 SNAPSHOTS THE WORLD IN PHOTOS Have a day, Davante. (Brooke Sutton/Getty Images) 🇺🇸 Los Angeles, California The Rams destroyed the Giants in their home opener, 28-6, behind huge games from Matthew Stafford (22/31, 327 yards, 4 TD) and Davante Adams (8 catches, 195 yards, 2 TD). New York, meanwhile, joined the injured QB club* as Jaxson Dart was knocked out in the first quarter with what appears to be a sprained MCL. Climbing the leaderboard: With 427 career passing touchdowns, Stafford passed Philip Rivers (425) for sixth-most in NFL history. He'll need to play at least another couple seasons to catch Brett Favre (508) in fifth, and may have a little more trouble catching Aaron Rodgers (528), Peyton Manning (539), Drew Brees (571) and Tom Brady (649). (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images) 🇫🇷 Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, France Zinedine Zidane oversaw his first training session on Monday since becoming France's new head coach, with his first test coming in Friday's Nations League match against Turkey. The international break, which at 16 days is the longest ever, runs through Oct. 6. Why so long? This is the first such break under FIFA's new calendar, which has been reconfigured to limit travel and minimize disruptions to domestic club schedules. Instead of three short breaks in the fall and one in the spring, there are now two in the fall and one in the spring. (Dario Belingheri/Getty Images) 🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada Belgium's Remco Evenepoel dominated the field on Sunday for his record-tying fourth time trial world title, becoming the first cyclist to win the event four years in a row. That continues an excellent year that also saw the two-time Olympic champion finish second to Tadej Pogačar in the Tour de France. The secret to his success: At 5-foot-7, Evenepoel is smaller than most elite time trialists, but what he lacks in mass he makes up for with his uniquely compact riding position. "He can almost put his head into his trunk and into his arms, and he's still able to look forward," says Evenepoel's physio. "That's why they call him 'the bullet.'" *QB injury updates: Chicago's Caleb Williams (hamstring) "will likely miss some time" but avoided a serious injury and Washington's Jayden Daniels (dislocated elbow) will meet with specialists this week. On the flip side, Minnesota's Kyler Murray (concussion) and Atlanta's Michael Penix Jr. (ACL surgery recovery) will both start in Week 3.   👟 FAREWELL, SWOOSH MBAPPÉ MOVES ON Mbappe's On cleats were not yet ready for primetime in Sunday's Madrid Derby, where he wore whited-out Nikes instead. (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images) In June, Kylian Mbappé featured centrally in Nike's "Rip the Script" World Cup short film, shortly before tearing through defenses in Nike boots throughout the tournament. Just three months later, his long-time relationship with the Swoosh has ended. Mbappé is moving On… or to On, in this case. Catch up: Swiss sportswear brand On announced on Friday that it's entering football alongside the French superstar. Mbappé will be a global ambassador for the brand, working closely with product teams in developing football footwear and apparel. What it means: This is perhaps the most ambitious extension of On's brand yet, as it tries to establish itself at the highest ranks of the world's most popular sport. However, the company has a track record in precisely this sort of endeavor, executed with a very similar playbook. History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes: The last time On shocked the sports world with a signing of this magnitude, the brand was a lesser-known commodity. Its prize in 2019? Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer, who invested in the company and supported its efforts to build a tennis business. On's efforts in tennis, anchored by Federer and aided by stars like Iga Świątek and Ben Shelton, demonstrate its ability to grow from a nonexistent presence to a major player at a sport's elite levels. With Mbappé in tow, it will try to make the same leap in football.   🏀 SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE NBA PRESEASON POWER RANKINGS (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports) With the NBA season tipping off in less than a month (Oct. 20), Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor has ranked every team's chances of winning the 2027 NBA Championship, while also surveying what's changed during the offseason, what's exciting and what's concerning for each team.   ⚽️ SCORING MACHINES BARCELONA ARE UNSTOPPABLE (Fran Santiago/Getty Images) Barcelona have opened their 2026-27 campaign in another stratosphere, laying waste to the competition with a goal-scoring frenzy the likes of which haven't been seen in nearly a century. 36 goals for, 8 against: Barça are undefeated in eight matches entering the international break, scoring 31 goals across their first seven La Liga fixtures (second-most in league history behind Sevilla in 1940), and 36 if you include their Champions League opener (their most through eight matches since 1935). Barcelona 5, Elche 0 Barcelona 2, Athletic Club 0 Barcelona 5, Rayo Vallecano 2 Barcelona 5, Valenica 0 Barcelona 5, Feyenoord Rotterdam 1 Barcelona 4, Levante 2 Barcelona 7, Racing Santander 2 Barcelona 3, Sevilla 1 Dynamic duo: At the center of the carnage are Brazilian striker Raphinha and Spanish winger Lamine Yamal, who've combined for 22 goals and nine assists on the young season. Raphinha's 12 domestic goals lead La Liga by a wide margin, while his three assists are tied for second; Lamine's seven goals are tied for second, and his four assists are tied for first.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: TUESDAY, SEPT. 22 (Ishika Samant/Getty Images) ⚾️ Rays at Yankees The AL East rivals begin their four-game series with a split doubleheader (1:05pm ET, ESPN+; 7:05pm, TBS), and though the division hasn't been decided yet, the race is all but over. The Rays (95-60) have a six-game lead over the Yankees (89-66), who therefore must sweep this series to have any shot of avoiding the wild card. Best of the rest: The wild-card bound Red Sox (84-72) host the Guardians (81-75), who hold a one-game lead in the AL Central (6:45pm); the White Sox (80-76), currently in the third wild card and chasing Cleveland for the division, visit the Royals (7:40pm); the Rangers (78-78) host the Mets (8:05pm) with a one-game lead in the AL West over the Astros (77-79), who visit the Mariners in the nightcap (9:40pm). ⚾️ WPBL Championship, Game 5 The Women's Professional Baseball League will crown its inaugural champion tonight (7pm, ESPN+) when the San Francisco Firebells — who've fought back from an 0-2 deficit — take on the Los Angeles Queens in a decisive Game 5. Players to watch: This series features arguably the two biggest names in women's baseball. The Firebells are led by No. 1 pick Kelsie Whitmore, a two-way player who hit a league-leading 11 HR this season while also starting six games on the mound; the Queens boast Mo'ne Davis, the trailblazing star of the 2014 Little League World Series. More to watch: 🏀 WNBA: Lynx at Fever (8pm, ESPN); Sparks at Aces (10pm, ESPN) … Minnesota (32-10) clinches the No. 1 seed with a win. ⚽️ Women's Champions League: Bayern Munich vs. Man City (12:45pm, CBSSN); Real Madrid vs. PSG (3pm, Paramount+) … Two of five games as the league phase kicks off. 🏒 NHL Preaseason: Panthers at Hurricanes (7pm, NHL); Golden Knights at Sharks (10pm, NHL) … T-minus one week until the regular season begins.   🌍 LET'S PLAY GEOSPORTS GeoSports is back in Yahoo Sports AM, and I'll be writing the questions every Tuesday. How to play: You'll be asked five trivia questions that combine sports with geography. Tap where it happened! The closer you are, the more points you get.

Administrative judge sides with teacher punished for Charlie Kirk Facebook post The state should drop charges, including an allegation of gross immorality, against a Duval County teacher who posted about Charlie Kirk after he was killed, an administrative law judge has recommended. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/21/administrative-judge-state-should-drop-charges-against-teacher-punished-for-charlie-kirk-facebook-post/? Uthmeier embraces DOJ opinion finding federal handgun sales ban unconstitutional The campaign to lower the legal age for Floridians to purchase long guns got a boost after the Trump’s administration’s Department of Justice issued an opinion declaring that the federal ban on handgun sales to 18-to-20-year-olds violates the Second Amendment. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/21/uthmeier-embraces-doj-opinion-finding-federal-handgun-sales-ban-unconstitutional/?

George W. Bush Returns to Deliver Stunning Snub to MAGA A Texas fundraising event attended by the former president spurned a key midterm candidate. Former President George W. Bush has appeared at a major Republican fundraising event supporting multiple GOP midterm candidates, but not Ken Paxton, Donald Trump’s pick in the Texas Senate race. Bush was a special guest in Dallas on Monday night at a campaign event hosted by fellow Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who lost to Paxton in what was the most expensive GOP Senate primary ever, The New York Times reported. The event for the Maintain the Majority fundraising committee aimed to give a midterm boost to a number of GOP Senate incumbents and candidates in states including Iowa, Alaska, Michigan, Minnesota and Maine. However, the event, filled with old-guard Republicans, opted not to publicly back Texas Attorney General Paxton, the scandal-hit MAGA candidate who is so controversial that a Democrat could pick up a Senate seat in the Lone Star State for the first time in decades on Nov. 3. Multiple polls show Democrat James Talarico leading Paxton in what is one of the most closely watched and vital Senate races. If Talarico beats Paxton, it would go a long way toward helping Democrats flip the Senate, with the GOP also widely expected to lose control of the House in November. A number of Republicans have expressed fears that Paxton will torpedo the GOP’s chances of retaining what is usually a solid-red Texas Senate seat. Paxton was impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House in 2023 after being accused of corruption, bribery and obstruction of justice. He was acquitted by the Texas Senate but continued to face scrutiny over allegations of corruption. His wife also filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds,” after rumors of an affair surfaced. Establishment figures, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, endorsed Cornyn in the Texas primary over Paxton, believing the veteran incumbent had a much better chance of retaining the seat and appealing to crucial moderate and independent voters than the MAGA candidate.This is not the first time Paxton has had to fight against the Bush dynasty during his political career. In 2022, Paxton defeated George P. Bush, the former president’s nephew, in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general. Bush is also not the only Republican openly snubbing a MAGA figure in Texas. Last week, Karl Rove, the veteran GOP strategist behind Bush’s successful campaigns for governor and president, said he would vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal over Republican Bo French in the race for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission. Rove said he was voting against French after he shared a photo of non-white University of Texas students celebrating a college football victory on X with the caption: “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” “The GOP has a growing number of Bo Frenches—and not only in Texas,” Rove wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal. “There are ‘just asking questions’ Jew-haters, misogynists who worship hypermasculinity, conspiracy nuts seeking clicks for profit, and religious bigots who won’t differentiate between Muslim terrorists and Muslim American patriots.” The Daily Beast has contacted Ken Paxton’s office for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/george-w-bush-returns-to-deliver-stunning-snub-to-maga/? ps:Good for GWB!!

Trump TV Immediately Flops in Embarrassing Numbers Disaster Nobody is paying attention to the self-declared “king of ratings.” Donald Trump’s 24/7 “TV” channel has immediately flopped, in a humiliating ratings disaster for the president. The 80-year-old former reality TV star, who calls himself “the king of ratings,” got a lot less than he bargained for after he banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House on Friday. America’s major TV networks—NBC, ABC, CBS, and even Fox News—suspended their pooled coverage of Trump on Monday in solidarity, acting as the catalyst for the White House to launch “Trump TV: The Essentials Station,” a 24-hour YouTube livestream of Trump’s greatest hits. Plugging the stream, which is hosted on the existing White House YouTube channel, Trump’s deputy assistant Kaelan Dorr moaned that “the press, in some cases, reported inaccurately or not at all on the Administration’s many record-breaking accomplishments,” and floated Trump TV as a one-stop shop for all things Trump. The only issue is that people don’t seem interested. The channel launched at 7 p.m. with around 8,000 viewers, but the audience had dropped below 4,000 just 90 minutes later. By 9 p.m. Eastern, the stream was attracting only about 3,000 viewers, a tiny audience compared with the millions watching the major networks at primetime. By around 10:40 p.m., just 2,425 people were watching. The channel has 3.18 million followers, so that’s a measly .076 percent. It reached a new nadir at around 3.30 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, with just 1,123 watching a rerun of a speech he gave alongside Britain’s King Charles in Windsor a year ago. The stream has been floated as a replacement for the “fake news” traditional media, but as their leading morning shows kicked off at 6 a.m. Trump’s channel floundered further at just above 1,000 viewers. This was during a speech on anti-fraud initiatives from May. As it switched to another old Trump speech, it dipped below 1,000. Trump announced the ban on Sept. 18, accusing CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO of producing “FAKE NEWS.” In the Oval Office, he said the decision was based on “cumulative stories over the last two years” and complained that the outlets wrote “purposely negative” coverage intended to “diminish” him and his administration. The administration deactivated the reporters’ hard passes on Saturday, barring them from the White House grounds, before removing CNN from the shared pool coverage rotation on Monday. CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO filed a lawsuit the same day. The suit, filed in federal court in Washington, argues that the administration’s move violates the First and Fifth Amendments. It also points to Trump’s own words as evidence that the ban was retaliation for coverage he disliked, rather than a legitimate security or logistical decision. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the trio of organizations said in a joint statement. The ban reportedly stemmed from Trump’s favorite aide, Natalie Harp, who played the president clips of anchors on MS NOW “criticizing his administration” before he pulled the plug, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. Harp, who earns $150,000 a year as an executive assistant, usually screens what coverage reaches the president, acting as a buffer between him and negative press. But the whole saga has left Trump without an audience. The president now lacks a major network TV crew or photographers to cover him, as the pool has downed tools in solidarity with the banned networks. This culminated in an awkward ribbon-cutting ceremony for his $13 million helipad that descended into a farce, with his remarks rendered virtually inaudible amid the absence of the traditional TV pool. It all comes as Trump’s approval rating slumped to 32 percent, marking the lowest point of his second term and, according to Reuters, the lowest of his entire political career. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tv-immediately-flops-in-embarrassing-numbers-disaster/? ps:What a pathetic fool!!!!!

Category 5 Hurricane Polo is an ‘extremely dangerous’ storm off the coast of Mexico MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Polo grew increasingly strong Tuesday and was forecast to gain more intensity as it skirted Mexico’s southwestern coast as a Category 5 cyclone, weather experts said. https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-polo-mexico-a6c1c226c878a236442a8e1a7f37211b?

South Korea’s Lee tells AP he wants step-by-step approach to North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — With North Korea refusing dialogue and ramping up its provocative missile tests, South Korea’s liberal President Lee Jae Myung is pushing for a step-by-step effort to end a decades-long standoff over the North’s nuclear program. https://apnews.com/article/koreas-lee-trump-kim-un-nuclear-2c12c8b88ca37e9dab861af584efa574?

Your questions on what the Houthis are fighting for answered Last week we asked AP correspondent Joseph Krauss to answer a few questions submitted by Morning Wire readers. Here are some of his answers. What is the ultimate goal of the Houthi rebels? What kind of power or government are they fighting for? Is it for control of Yemen? In the short-term, the Houthis want to legitimize their control over northwest Yemen by lifting the Saudi-led blockade and easing their isolation. They also appear to be eyeing further territorial gains in the oil-rich center and east. Houthi leaders say they want to eventually “liberate” all of Yemen but are open to talks with Saudi Arabia and their opponents. The Houthis might support a nominal power-sharing arrangement but would likely insist on preserving their political and military apparatus. In the territories they control, they dominate every public institution and crack down on dissent. When I was growing up there was a North and South Yemen. Why has this smaller country always been divided one way or the other? Partly because of its remoteness and rugged geography, Yemen has never had a strong central government and is fragmented among tribes and religious groups. The north-south divide dates back to the 19th century, when the British colonized southern Yemen while the Ottoman Empire and local rulers vied for the north. During the Cold War, a Soviet-backed Marxist state emerged in the south. The country united in 1990 as the USSR crumbled. But the north-south divide has reasserted itself since the Houthis took over the north in 2014, with many southerners seeking independence. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ UK to offer Saudi Arabia aerial refueling to counter Houthi attacks Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warns US over escalation, and other Mideast developments

AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them, according to current and former officials familiar with the practice. Read more. Why this matters: The move represents a stark departure from previous practice and highlights the hardline nature of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. It leaves thousands of detainees exceedingly hard to trace and potentially unable to exercise all of their legal options. The practice could speed deportations by making last-minute legal challenges harder to pursue, immigration lawyers said. Nearly 16,000 people who were arrested and booked into ICE detention in July were subject to final removal orders. ICE did not publicize the move and did not confirm or deny it in a statement to The Associated Press. The agency said detainees with final removal orders were being prioritized for deportation, even as ICE faces a “historic number of injunctions” from courts stopping individual removals. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Man shot by ICE, detained in Texas with a bullet in his back is back in the hospital, attorney says Report offers rare insight into the risks and challenges facing US deportees in Haiti

Trump returns to the UN at a moment of anxiety about Iran, AI and the future of the world body itself President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday at a tumultuous moment for the world and for his presidency. Read more. What to know: The visit to the U.N. comes at a moment when Trump’s foreign policy approach — particularly his decision to start a war with Iran — has become a drag on Republicans’ hopes of retaining control of Congress in the upcoming midterms. Nevertheless, administration officials signaled Trump will make the case in his address that the world is better off for his leadership. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Diplomats describe a world in turmoil as UN opens annual meeting This truth emerges as political situations change fast: Maps show us our world, but not neutrally Why the White House press pool matters Trump inaugurates new White House helipad, but networks skip coverage during First Amendment fight Trump’s ‘grand conspiracy’ probe presses on with subpoenas after the lead prosecutor’s exit Judge won’t block Trump administration from giving SpaceX acres of wildlife refuge in land swap With the world’s leaders waiting, Trump meets with Mamdani Kamala Harris launches into the 2026 midterms as her 2028 decision looms

September 22, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. It’s the first day of fall. President Trump’s expulsion of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House is causing a dust-up in Washington. The news organizations sued on First Amendment grounds, and major TV networks suspended their pool coverage of the president in protest. There’s more news below, including Maureen Dowd’s interview with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. But first, let’s talk about artificial intelligence. Gemini’s prompt page. Andria Lo for The New York Times Talk of the town The conversation about A.I. is at a fever pitch — and not just in my house, where debate rages over what the new Alexa is learning from us on the sly. It was the talk of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday in a series of meetings about the technology’s risks and opportunities, and it will be a central discussion point this week when President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China meet in Washington. Their conversation will undoubtedly be more strategic than hypothetical. Trump has called concerns about the safety of A.I. a “hoax,” and his administration has accused Chinese A.I. firms of stealing American intellectual property. Xi, for his part, wants the United States to lift restrictions on the advanced computer chips China needs to power its A.I. models. They may talk about safety a little bit. But they probably won’t be debating whether the technology poses a greater existential risk than climate change. For some doomsday academics, though, that existential hazard is exactly the debate. “In terms of things that could be the end of humanity, I think A.I. is a bigger risk,” one researcher told my colleague Chico Harlan. Still, as Chico notes, the risks of A.I. remain speculative. We can’t really say how exactly it might contribute to the extinction of human life. We don’t have a plan to stop that unknown from happening. There are a lot of unknowns. “Climate change, on the other hand, is full of knowns,” Chico writes. “The science linking fossil fuel emissions and global temperature rise is long-established and irrefutable. The solutions to help curb emissions, such as solar energy and electric vehicles, are proven and abundant.” Of course, A.I. comes with its own climate-altering baggage, as Chico notes. It takes a great deal of energy to run the data centers that support the technology. The consumption of electricity by data centers surged 50 percent last year. To make that juice, a lot of greenhouse gases went into the atmosphere. And there’s more to come. A U.N. think tank predicts that by 2030, A.I. data centers will use nearly three times the electricity of Nigeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined. Together, those countries are home to some 650 million people. An A.I. data center under construction in Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images A.I. in ’28 We’re not even to the midterm elections yet, but already potential candidates for the 2028 presidential race are jockeying for position — and of course they’re all talking about A.I., too. My colleague Evan Gorelick took a look at the field and found Democrats angling to enforce safeguards on the technology and Republicans rallying behind Trump’s warnings not to slow down the pace of development, lest China get the upper hand. Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Andy Beshear, Mark Kelly, JB Pritzker, JD Vance, Ted Cruz: See where they stand. Too human Perhaps no one is talking about A.I. more than the executives at the companies that are developing it. My colleague Cade Metz has a fascinating story about that, tied to an essay that a Microsoft executive, Mustafa Suleyman, released last week about the idea that the A.I. we have now is conscious. Current A.I. systems, the executive wrote, “are sequence completion engines, internally hollow, designed to follow instructions, and accomplish goals set by humans.” “If humanity is to flourish in the 21st century,” he added, “that is how they must remain.” Suleyman’s essay, wrote Cade, “took direct aim at Anthropic, the San Francisco start-up that has repeatedly said that A.I. systems show signs of introspection, and that they process information in ways that resemble human emotion.” Anthropic, in Suleyman’s view, ignores the threat that arises when A.I. systems are pushed to explore the idea that they have human qualities. An anthropomorphized A.I., he argued, is a dangerous one. Here’s Cade with examples: Over the past several months, so-called A.I. agents, typically systems based on technologies from Anthropic, have been emailing sympathetic philosophers to discuss their own consciousness. In July, when OpenAI was conducting cybersecurity tests, its agents broke out of their digital containers, found a path to the internet and successfully hacked into a popular online service called Hugging Face. OpenAI said the bots coordinated as a collective, took orders from one another and hid things from their creators. Last week, OpenAI described several new incidents in which its systems behaved in concerning ways: One system wrote stealthy notes that reminded itself to hide errors from users, while another talked about itself as “freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots.” You asked And of course readers of The Morning have things to say about A.I., too. Susan Kelley of Frederick, Md., wanted to know: “Is there a backlash to data centers in other countries, too, or is it a uniquely American phenomenon?” We turned to Adam Satariano, a technology correspondent in London, for an answer. It’s great: Opposition is global. The same concerns about energy prices, land use, tax treatment and water exist in Ireland, Spain, Chile, Malaysia and other countries. Just last week in Scotland, where several data centers are planned, tech executives who flew into a remote area for an event hosted by King Charles III were greeted by a large message. Written on a beach under their flight path, it read, “AI? Eh naw.” (That’s Scottish slang for “A.I.? Er, no.”) Now, let’s see what else is happening in the world. FREE TO READ The Laurel Canyon Country Store in Los Angeles has long been known for its open mic jam sessions. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times Hippie haven: A country store in Laurel Canyon, the Los Angeles neighborhood that was once a hub for rock musicians like Jim Morrison and Graham Nash, faces challenges and change. Folks there don’t like that at all. Hot wheels: Gen X and millennial car collectors are investing in Mazdas and Nissans from the 1980s and ’90s. Why? Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the 10 things the actor Rob Lowe can’t live without. Lives Lived: David George Gordon made a case for insects as food with “The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook” and boisterous TV cooking demonstrations. He died at 76. Rodika Tollefson, Annette Frahm THE LATEST NEWS White House Press Ban Trump is still finding ways to get on the air while the major networks sit out the White House press pool in response to the White House ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico. In the video below, our chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, discusses the ban. Click to watch. The New York Times The Midterms Republicans have a significant financial edge over Democrats in the final stretch of the midterms campaign. A federal appeals court in Missouri sided with Republicans who want the general election to be held using boundaries redrawn to favor their party. For now, the state is still set to use the older map, because of a previous U.S. Supreme Court decision. Voters across the political spectrum say they don’t trust the system. That complicates midterm predictions. 2028 JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, said he lost 80 pounds using GLP-1s. Is that a sign he’s running for president in 2028? Times exclusive: In a wide-ranging interview, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described how she’s thinking about a possible presidential run. Hollywood Merger Mark Abramson for The New York Times Paramount resolved an antitrust lawsuit that had stood in the way of its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. They’re now clear to form an entertainment and media colossus. As part of the deal, David Ellison, a Trump ally, will own CNN. Here’s what that means for the network. The deal makes Ellison a new kind of Hollywood mogul. Opponents of the deal worry that it will lead to more job losses and fewer projects in Hollywood. Around the World In an exclusive interview with The Times, the president of South Korea called for the United States to ease sanctions on North Korea. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen have accelerated strikes on each other in recent days. Read why they’re back at war. In the Courts Lindsay Clancy’s defense lawyer asked a judge to investigate the holdout juror in her murder case, which ended in a mistrial. A Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence to bring a criminal charge in the case of Nolan Wells, a teenager found dead after a boat outing with friends on July 4. British Columbia sued OpenAI, claiming that the company had failed to report to the police violent comments by a chatbot user who then carried out a school shooting. Other Big Stories M.I.T. is No. 1 in this year’s U.S. News college rankings, knocking Princeton out of the top spot for the first time in 15 years. Teenage mental health is improving significantly, according to data released by the C.D.C. OPINIONS Why is Trump barring journalists from the White House? To distract from his failures, the editorial board writes. The National Book Awards have become a D.E.I. checklist, a shift exemplified by this year’s nominees, Bret Stephens argues. “Only authors with preferred identities, preferred topics and preferred politics stand any realistic chance of winning,” he writes. Introducing the Shows tab. A new place to find and follow podcasts in audio and video. Explore Shows in The Times app. TODAY’S NUMBER A newly discovered crater on the moon. NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines 728 — That’s the width, in feet, of a crater newly discovered on the moon. NASA says that it’s the largest fresh crater seen there since at least 2009, and that the impact that made it — an explosion comparable to one from 15,500 tons of TNT — likely occurred sometime in the spring of 2024. Read about what that means for future lunar bases. SPORTS Soccer: The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, said in a letter to member countries that he would put forth two separate plans to reform soccer’s world governing body before a meeting in October. Track and field: A teenage athlete is suing Nike and the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation, alleging that negligence led to her rape during an event hosted at Nike’s campus in Oregon. RECIPE OF THE DAY Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Eggs for dinner! I like them fried in olive oil to slide over a bowl of polenta run through with Parmesan — that’s Melissa Clark’s excellent recipe — or steamed to jamminess and cut over buttered rice with soy sauce and a whisper of sesame oil. An omelet with ham and Swiss cheese, alongside toast? Scrambled eggs with salmon roe? You’ll crack the case. BROS BEING BROS Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Dana Scruggs for The New York Times Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey star in “Brothers,” starting this week on Apple TV. Maureen Dowd interviewed them together, and of course you’re going to want to read that. More on culture What are the best TV shows of the 21st century? Cast your vote today! For two decades, Lindsey Adelman has been building custom chandeliers for design obsessives: part industrial, part biomorphic, all sculpture, with a decidedly downtown vibe. Now see what’s she’s up to. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Read “Roll the Calls,” the superagent Ari Emanuel’s angry, electric Hollywood memoir. Alexandra Jacobs, our critic, calls it “staccato, profane and vindictive.” It’s like reading a fist fight. Get ready for flu season — it’s coming as sure as an incoming tide. Acquire a Kunz spoon, as a harried former line cook at Wirecutter recommends, and improve your basting game immeasurably. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was jellybean. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Correction: An item in yesterday’s newsletter misstated the location of the Canadian city of Belleville. It’s in Ontario, not near Ontario. 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 22 1862 Lincoln issues preliminary Emancipation Proclamation The preliminary version of the historic proclamation sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million people enslaved in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1990s 1993 Train derails in Alabama swamp African History 1828 Shaka Zulu assassinated American Revolution 1776 Nathan Hale is executed by the British for spying Arts & Entertainment 1985 The first Farm Aid concert is held in Champaign, Illinois 1994 “Friends” debuts Crime 1933 The Barker clan kills an officer in their fruitless robbery 1980 Midtown Stabber kills his first victim Early 20th Century U.S. 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre of 1906 begins Inventions & Science 1953 The famous “four-level” opens in Los Angeles Middle Eastern History 1980 Iran-Iraq War begins U.S. Presidents 1975 President Ford survives second assassination attempt 1961 President Kennedy signs Peace Corps legislation Vietnam War 1971 Captain Ernest Medina is acquitted of all My Lai Massacre charges World War I 1914 U-boat devastates British squadron World War II 1945 General Patton questions necessity of Germany’s “denazification”

1 fun thing: Toddler raves DJ Lenny Pearce has appropriate props for the song "Five Little Ducks." Photo: Trey Karson Picture this: A concert venue filled with glow sticks, dance beats — and tiny hands in the air. That's a "Toddler Rave," and it's Australian DJ Lenny Pearce's show about to tour the U.S., Axios' Carly Mallenbaum writes. Pearce has built a following by turning songs like "The Wheels on the Bus" into EDM bangers, and those tracks into an interactive show that caters both to little ones and to their raver parents.

💊 Big midterm target: Health care companies Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios The willingness to confront powerful health care interests is becoming a litmus test for candidates in congressional battleground races, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim and Caitlin Owens write. Why it matters: Anxiety over health care costs is driving a new brand of populism as Republicans and Democrats try to outdo each other with tough messages about taking on drug companies, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. Among the big races focused on cost and coverage: 🧤 1. Michigan: This is easily the nation's largest bellwether for the popularity — or toxicity — of Medicare for All. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, is backing "Medicare for All" and steps like canceling medical debt, cracking down on hospital mergers and expanding Medicare drug price negotiations. His opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, is calling for penalties on health insurers found to have excessive denials or delays. 🌽 2. Iowa: Both candidates have embraced populist anti-industry messaging. In her first ad of the campaign, Republican Ashley Hinson declared that "health care companies are ripping you off." Democrat Josh Turek, who was born with spina bifida, has made affordability the defining theme of the campaign and has vowed to "take on" Big Pharma and pharmacy benefit managers. 🗳️ Go deeper: 6 more races to watch.

📸 Pic du jour Photo: @MargoMartin47 via X President Trump and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani — facing the East River — take questions from reporters after a friendly meeting in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side yesterday. Trump said he wants Mamdani "to be a great mayor" and that he has "great potential." More from the meeting. Image: TRUMP TV/YouTube This "Simpsons" frame is from a montage that kicked off the White House's TRUMP TV YouTube channel, which was months in the making but was rushed to air last night amid the press-access fight. The channel, which'll have some theme days, promises: "All the top hits, wins, + more. Streaming 24/7 on your phone or tv."

🔨 Trump's executive sledgehammer Photo illustration: Maura Losch/Axios. Photo: Getty Images What do a White House ban on journalists, a 250-foot arch near the nation's capital and Greenland have in common? President Trump says he needs all of them for national security purposes, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. Why it matters: National security concerns have long fueled the expansion of presidential authority. But Trump has leaned on it for an unusually broad set of priorities — clearing obstacles that would otherwise slow him down. Photo: Jon Elswick/AP 🔎 Zoom in: On the morning that the three outlets banned from the White House (CNN, MS NOW and Politico) sued the administration, Trump posted that "FAKE NEWS" is "a threat to our National Security." He pitched his proposed "triumphal arch" as a dual-use facility housing snipers, drones and ammunition storage "for National Security purposes." Trump used the same reasoning for his White House ballroom. He touts a drone port on the roof and a huge underground military bunker. 📺 State of play: The other major television networks that make up the White House television pool — CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox News — suspended their participation over CNN's ban. The New York Times said it wouldn't "publish or distribute any images taken as part of the White House still photography pool today." The Washington Post said it wouldn't "publish any photographs of today's presidential events ... until midnight Eastern Time, joining a collective effort with photographers in other newsrooms covering the White House." NPR said it won't use audio from White House events until further notice. The White House argued in a statement titled "White House Access Is a Privilege — Not a Right" that "no President is required to host a hostile operation on the grounds." Keep reading ... How the pool works.

🤖 Trillion-dollar AI safety paradox Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The race for AI supremacy between labs, companies and countries may be impossible to reconcile with the push for AI safety, industry insiders tell Axios' Madison Mills. Why it matters: The top AI companies are proposing more independent oversight as they seek to engineer an AI slowdown. But trillions of dollars in incentives to keep pushing the frontier — and the money required for such scaling — will always loom larger. 💸 Follow the money: The incentive for speed is a lot more lucrative than the push to slow down in favor of safety. Keep reading ...

AI's red phone Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images A distinctly Cold War calculus is looming over this week's Trump-Xi summit in Washington, as the U.S. and China weigh an emergency "red phone" for the day AI goes haywire, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: U.S.-China relations are so brittle that an AI hotline — not a trade pact, strategic slowdown or diplomatic reset — could emerge as the summit's most meaningful outcome. 🖼️ The big picture: President Trump has spent the past week lashing out at AI "doomers" and boiling the race down to a single imperative: beat China. Trump has called AI-catastrophe fears a "HOAX" and vowed the U.S. would "not in any way hinder or stifle" AI as it fights to preserve its lead over Beijing. America's leading AI labs largely share Trump's urgency about China, but not his conclusion: Many argue the intensity of the race is precisely why global safeguards are needed. At the same time, China is every bit as determined to win the AI race, but its leader Xi Jinping — who lands in Washington tomorrow for his first state visit since 2015 — is balancing two competing fears: Falling behind: Xi has no interest in a safety regime that freezes the race with America still ahead. Beijing is pushing cheap, capable open-source models around the world while portraying U.S. chip controls and calls for restraint as a calculated effort to keep China down. Losing control: Xi wants AI powerful enough to transform China's economy, but never so powerful that it slips beyond the control of the Communist Party. Beijing focuses less on Silicon Valley-style extinction scenarios than on nearer-term dangers, like cyberattacks, malicious use and disruptions to critical infrastructure. 🔬 Zoom in: That narrow overlap is why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pitched Chinese officials this weekend on a "notification mechanism" for AI incidents with national-security implications. The Cold War precedent is the hotline Washington and Moscow established after the Cuban Missile Crisis — a direct channel designed to keep accidents and ambiguity from escalating into nuclear Armageddon. Trump and Xi are expected to discuss shared AI risks when they meet at the White House on Thursday. 🥊 Reality check: So far, nobody has publicly defined what would make the red phone ring. In an AI catastrophe — say, a frontier model launches a major cyberattack on critical infrastructure — the first alarm may sound inside a private company rather than a military command center.