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THIS DAY IN HISTORY September 17 1862 Battle of Antietam breaks out The a pivotal, bloody Civil War skirmish halted Confederate momentum on the battlefield and abroad. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1868 Cheyenne and Sioux battle frontiersmen at Beecher’s Island 1970s 1978 Camp David Accords signed 21st Century 2011 Occupy Wall Street begins Arts & Entertainment 1967 The Who literally spark an explosion on national television 1996 Oprah launches influential book club 1983 Vanessa Williams becomes first Black Miss America Civil War 1862 The Allegheny Arsenal explodes, killing 78 people Space Exploration 1976 NASA unveils its first space shuttle, the Enterprise U.S. Constitution 1787 U.S. Constitution signed U.S. Presidents 1796 George Washington prepares final draft of farewell address World War II 1939 Soviet Union invades Poland

🍻 1 fun thing: America's Oktoberfest capital A man wears souvenir pins on his alpine hat during Oktoberfest Zinzinnati in 2021. Photo: Jeff Dean/AFP via Getty Images The world's largest Oktoberfest celebration outside Munich takes place in ... Cincinnati. Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, which started as a street festival in 1976, drew a record 808,300 people last year. It turns 50 when it starts today, Axios Cincinnati's Kristen Swilley writes. By the numbers: At a recent Oktoberfest, attendees consumed: 🌭 87,542 metts (a German sausage). 🥨 23,004 soft pretzels. 🍰 20,000 cream puffs. 🥬 3,600 pounds of sauerkraut. 🧀 702 pounds of Limburger cheese.

🗳️ States brace for ICE at polls Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images The Trump administration's hints about sending ICE agents to election polling places this fall have led state officials from Maine to Oregon to make plans to counter any actions that could affect voters, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes. Why it matters: It's illegal for federal law enforcement to be at polling places. But when asked about ICE at the polls, President Trump said in May he'd "do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections." Keep reading.

⚡ Scoop: Trump plans Gulf summit on Iran President Trump is expected to hold a meeting with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday to discuss the next steps in the war with Iran, Axios' Barak Ravid scoops. Why it matters: The meeting is expected to focus on U.S. ideas for a postwar strategy as Trump and his senior team work on a day-after plan expected to be finalized after the midterms. The sources said Trump will meet with leaders or foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

💵 Trump's Fed fury Via Truth Social The Fed's decision to raise interest rates yesterday for the first time in three years put new Fed chairman Kevin Warsh immediately at odds with the man who picked him, Axios' Neil Irwin and Rebecca Falconer write. The Fed unanimously raised rates a quarter point, to between 3.75% and 4%. Twelve of 18 officials expect another hike this year, while four expect two more. President Trump responded on Truth Social: "LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!" He said rates should be 1% or lower. Later, Trump said he still has confidence in Warsh while blaming the rest of the Fed for the hike: "I'm relying on Kevin, but he's got a very tough board." More on the rate hike.

💰 CEO confidence hits 4-year high New this morning: CEO economic confidence is the highest since 2022, with that optimism now spilling into plans to hire more workers, Axios Macro authors Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin write. The Business Roundtable's CEO Economic Outlook Index climbed 3 points in the third quarter, to 94 — the fifth consecutive increase and well above the historical average of 83. The index has climbed steadily from a five-year low after President Trump's "liberation day" tariffs early last year. Explore the data ... Keep reading.

💊 AI's $40 billion drug gamble Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Curing disease is one of AI's most tantalizing use cases, attracting tens of billions in venture funding to design promising new drugs. Proving they actually work in humans is the hard part, Axios' Dan Primack and Caitlin Owens write. Why it matters: AI is getting better at identifying drug candidates, but they still have to survive the same expensive, failure-prone clinical trials as everything else. 🖼️ The big picture: A peer-reviewed paper published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery argues that AI's clinical impact remains "disappointingly limited," despite major advances in identifying potential drugs. The researchers find that while AI has gotten good at identifying drug candidates, it hasn't done much to prove those predictions will survive the complexity of human biology. AI-derived drugs still run into the same bottleneck as conventional drugs: proving efficacy in large, diverse patient populations, where failure rates are high and costs are astronomical. 🧮 By the numbers: Venture capitalists have poured more than $40 billion into AI biopharma this decade, according to PitchBook. But few AI-derived medicines have progressed beyond Phase II clinical trials, where researchers test whether a drug actually works in patients with the disease. At the same time, the FDA is trying to shave time off an earlier part of the drug-development process. A new pilot will let drugmakers submit applications on a rolling basis, aiming to move promising drug candidates from discovery into human clinical trials faster. The push reflects a broader concern that the U.S. drug-development system is too slow, particularly as early-stage clinical development can move faster and more cheaply in China.

🤖 The AI hacking crisis is here Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images An unprecedented wave of AI-powered, human-driven cyberattacks is coming, security experts say — and it's a far more urgent risk than theoretical conversations about AI wiping out humanity, Axios' Sam Sabin and Bradley Olson write. Why it matters: The great September AI panic — which spread from boardrooms to Congress to American households in the last week — may have missed the point. Powerful models with advanced cybersecurity capabilities are already allowing attackers to bypass the human bottleneck that has long prevented most hacking campaigns from reaching industrial scale. Executives and former officials have told Axios they fear automated cyberattacks that turn off critical services like the power grid, or attackers using AI agents (like the ones that breached Hugging Face) to hack self-driving cars or create a botnet that takes over the whole internet. OpenAI yesterday disclosed six new incidents in which its models concealed mistakes, sought unauthorized credentials, uploaded files to the public internet or communicated across supposedly isolated training environments. 🎨 The big picture: Rather than seeing recent safety failures at OpenAI and other frontier labs as terrifying instances of agents running amok, seasoned cybersecurity experts instead say they represent cautionary tales illustrating what will happen when powerful models meet poor security controls. "I don't worry about the machine waking up and deciding to end us," Bugcrowd CEO Dave Gerry told Axios. "What I worry about is a system with too much access doing exactly what it was told without the necessary adversarial testing." 👀 What to watch: A number of business executives are saying behind closed doors that they plan to hold frontier labs accountable for the behavior of their models. If they get hacked as Hugging Face did, expect litigation.

Axios interview: GOP's midterm villain Hasan Piker told the media briefing Status that yesterday's "The Axios Show" taping with Alex Thompson was "the most contentious interview I've ever conducted." LOS ANGELES — In a new episode of "The Axios Show," out tomorrow, left-wing streamer Hasan Piker says he believes America conducts more terrorism in the world than al-Qaeda. "Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes," Piker told Thompson. He added: "We have caused tremendous terror all around the world." Why it matters: Piker is a top streamer on Twitch, a platform popular with gamers. His history of incendiary statements has become central to Republicans' attacks in Michigan's critical Senate race, after Piker campaigned for Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in the primary. 🔎 Zoom in: Piker's comments to Axios came in response to a question about his previous statement that "America is the top dog in terrorism." Piker pointed to the deaths of more than 100 people at an elementary school in Minab, Iran, earlier this year. AP and The New York Times found evidence that at least one U.S. missile struck the school. "If you're killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror," he said. "This doesn't mean that all Americans are terrorists. But the reality of the matter is we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again." 🖼️ The big picture: Republican-affiliated groups have already spent nearly $3 million in ads attacking El-Sayed over his affiliation with Piker, according to the tracking firm AdImpact. Most of the ads feature a clip of Piker in 2019 saying "America deserved 9/11." He apologized for the remark and has since argued that the terror attacks were part of "blowback" from U.S. involvement in the Middle East in previous decades. "This doesn't justify the action, mind you," he told Axios. "This is more so analysis to stop further violence from taking place, both violence in the region, but also violence on the home front as well." Michigan's GOP Senate nominee, Mike Rogers, frequently ties Piker to El-Sayed. El-Sayed has dodged questions about Piker and occasionally appeared irritated by them, often referring to him as just a "streamer in California." In a statement last night, El-Sayed said: "I do not agree with this statement [on al-Qaeda], nor do I give much weight to the statements made by a social media streamer." ▶️ Watch a 1-min. clip.

UN-backed experts cite possible US war crimes in Iran strikes GENEVA (AP) — Experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body say they have found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab. They also accuse Iran’s theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people, in a report published Thursday. https://apnews.com/article/un-human-rights-us-iran-99e690efd1e818e835d4f5a00e0d261b?

The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965. James

🌳 New lingo: "Greenbath" Photo: Josh Trent Pic du jour from reader Josh Trent in Cheverly, Md.: "Fantastic morning 'greenbath' as the sun peeks through on the running trail."

How dogs read us Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios New research is providing evidence for what pet owners and animal lovers have long suspected: Dogs are remarkably good at reading human emotions. Why it matters: The findings offer clues about how living as human companions for thousands of years may have shaped dogs. 🧠 Zoom in: For the study, published recently in iScience, researchers scanned pups' brains while they looked at photos of human facial expressions portraying a range of feelings, including happiness, fear, sadness and anger. Dogs processed the faces just like humans do, focusing on eyes, noses and mouths, and their brains showed a distinct response to happy faces. While smiles elicited the biggest response, dogs appeared to read the other emotions, too. And their brains didn't put all the negative feelings in the same bucket. Instead, brain activity differed depending on whether the pups were looking at a fearful, sad or angry face. 🔎 The intrigue: This study analyzed dogs' brain responses when they were looking at photos of strangers. Their reactions would likely be even stronger when observing their owners' faces, the study authors note. 💛 The money quote: "Humans are really good at picking up small details on the face, and so are dogs," study author Raúl Hernández-Pérez from the University of Vienna told the BBC. The bottom line: Whether it's your dog or one you meet out and about, you're not the only one getting something out of saying hello.

Substandard View in browser President Trump appointed Kash Patel to lead the FBI not because of his brief experience in law enforcement but because he is a political brawler. The problem, as Patel demonstrated yesterday, is that he is not a very good one: No skilled political messenger would have allowed nearly every headline about a Senate hearing to connect their name and agency with bestiality. Yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was Patel’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since a raucous visit in May. (At that hearing, Patel and Senator Chris Van Hollen verbally agreed to each take a self-screening test for alcohol abuse. Van Hollen posted his results the next day, but his office said it never heard back from Patel.) It was also Patel’s first hearing since CBS News revealed changes to FBI hiring standards, which reportedly now allow the bureau to consider applicants who have hired prostitutes fewer than three times, stole from an employer more than three years ago, or engaged in sex with animals before the age of 18. Democrats were eager to press Patel on the changes, but the hearing’s buzziest exchange turned out to be between Patel and Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican. During his questioning, Kennedy seemed to be doing everything he could to offer Patel a chance to defuse the story—but Patel, unable or unwilling to recognize the openings, didn’t take them. The ranking Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, asked about the new requirements first. Patel said the bestiality change was designed to ensure that people who had been forced to engage in sex with animals were not shut out of an FBI job. “We did not want to punish victims of bestiality,” Patel said. “We are not going to target victims.” Whether this is accurate is unclear. The memo laying out the new standards has not been made public, but sources told CBS News that the rules “do not distinguish between candidates who were coerced into sexual activity with animals, as opposed to those who engaged in such acts willingly.” Kennedy was the next senator to quiz Patel, and he tried to do some cleanup. “I’m really trying to understand,” he said, rubbing his face. “’Cause I listened to the exchange between you and Senator Durbin, and I’ve read a few news accounts, and I’m confused.” He asked Patel, almost rhetorically, to affirm that the FBI still had hiring standards, and Patel argued that changes had been necessary to ensure the quick hiring of good agents. As for bestiality, the old rule had “automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it.” Kennedy, a bit of a ham, couldn’t resist a jibe: “So you disqualified the animal?” But he was also losing patience. “I’m trying to understand why you did this,” he said, and then offered an unusually frank description of how many Senate hearings work today: “I understand the game. People try to make you look bad. We do the same thing when the other party’s in office.” He gave Patel another shot. The director replied that sometimes human traffickers force victims to engage in bestiality, and that the FBI did not want to disqualify victims—even though, again, the guidelines reportedly don’t make such a distinction. An exasperated Kennedy wasn’t buying it. “Someone came to you and recommended” this? he asked. “And when you saw bestiality—I say this with respect—the person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say, ‘What planet did you parachute in from? Why do I wanna lead with my chin and get into bestiality?’” One answer is that Patel just isn’t very politically astute. It’s hard to claim you’re cleaning up and reforming the FBI, as Patel has, when you’re allowing johns and people who stole from their employers to apply. As for bestiality, more careful wording of the FBI memo that first laid out the new standards would have avoided the controversy. Better preparation for the hearing might have given him a clearer explanation than what he offered. And sharper instincts would have told Patel that Kennedy was trying to help him out. Any high-level appointee should be able to get through a congressional hearing without bestiality becoming the main topic. Instead, Patel takes his cues from Trump, whose instinct is always to push back. But what works for Trump doesn’t work for others. It’s not even clear whether it works for Trump anymore. Patel may have felt a need to loosen qualifications for agents because the FBI has experienced an exodus of staffers since he took over. More than 1,100 special agents, who had an average tenure of almost 22 years, left in 2025 alone, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. Durbin has alleged that more than 5,000 nonpartisan civilian staffers departed last year. Some left of their own accord, and others were fired who were involved in investigations that Trump and Patel don’t like, such as those looking into the January 6 riot. This spring, my colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick reported that Patel’s colleagues had been concerned about what they described as Patel’s excessive drinking, repeated absences, emotional outbursts, and impulsive behavior. (Patel denied the allegations and sued Fitzpatrick and The Atlantic for defamation, demanding $250 million.) If Patel doesn’t have the skills and temperament to run the FBI well, isn’t really cleaning up the bureau’s ranks, and can’t even get through a standard Senate hearing without things going off the rails, one might wonder why he’s in the job at all. Lower hiring standards apparently start at the top. Related: Kash Patel’s performative deflections The FBI director is MIA.

🔥 GOP feud boils over Mike Johnson's decision to send the House home early — again — is fueling an increasingly bitter feud with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) over whether the speaker is using the calendar to dodge politically painful votes. Why it matters: The House will now be gone for more than six weeks ahead of the midterms, delaying Massie's effort to force a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his handling of the Iran war. 💥 "We had the Epstein recess last year. We got the Epstein recess this year, and then we got the Hegseth day off," Massie told us coming off an hourlong tirade on the House floor today. Massie's impeachment resolution has dim prospects in the GOP-controlled House, but it would have forced members to go on the record on Hegseth just weeks before the midterms. 🚗 Driving the news: Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth yesterday as a privileged resolution, giving the House two legislative days to act. But Johnson's decision to cancel tomorrow's session pushes the matter until after the election. "He cut off the day tomorrow to avoid the vote," Massie said. 🥊 Johnson (R-La.) disputed that characterization, calling Massie's claim "ridiculous" and the Kentucky Republican's impeachment push a "publicity stunt." He said he expects the House to table the resolution when lawmakers return. 🤔 The intrigue: Massie took the fight to the House floor today, using a point of personal privilege to deliver an hourlong indictment of Johnson's leadership and the institution. Other lawmakers also spoke out against Johnson's decision, with Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) writing on X: "Canceling yet another day of votes is unacceptable.… The Founders did not envision taking this much time off and still getting paid." It's not uncommon for lawmakers to recess for the entire month of October in an election year. — Kate Santaliz

Schumer's $10M wager The Democrats' main Senate super PAC is pouring an additional $10 million into the Michigan Senate race to boost progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, we've learned. Why it matters: The Democratic establishment is coalescing around El-Sayed after a primary that was nasty, bruising — and late in the season. 📺 Republicans see Michigan as a top pickup opportunity and are flooding the airwaves to elect former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). "All pathways to a Senate majority run through Michigan," El-Sayed said today after meeting with Democratic senators at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters. 📺 Driving the news: The fresh $10 million from Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), brings the group's spending in Michigan to $30 million. The new TV ads will begin airing Tuesday. "Mike Rogers spent years building a fortune everywhere but Michigan. Now he wants Donald Trump and Elon Musk to hand him a Senate seat," said Lauren French, a spokesperson for SMP. "We're not letting that happen." Between the lines: Ahead of a private meeting with Schumer today, El-Sayed declined to say if he would support him for Democratic leader next year. "I'm looking forward to a productive meeting because we need to win in the state of Michigan," he told reporters. 🎧 What we're hearing: Senators from across the ideological spectrum dropped by his DSCC open house, with El-Sayed personally assuring them that he would work hard to join them in the Senate next year, according to people familiar with the gathering. 💬 The conversations were friendly and forward-looking, and senators posed for pictures with El-Sayed. 👍 "He's a great candidate. He's going to win, and we are all united," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the DSCC chair. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, announced he would campaign with El-Sayed next month. The other side: Republican outside groups are also pouring tens of millions of dollars into Michigan. A MAGA-aligned super PAC is preparing to spend $18 million in the state. In August, shortly after El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary, Senate Leadership Fund — the GOP's main Senate super PAC — announced an additional $6 million for Michigan, bringing its total commitment in the state to $51 million. The pro-Rogers Great Lakes Conservatives Fund has already spent about $10 million in the race. 🌎 Zoom out: Since El-Sayed's Aug. 4 victory over Stevens, Democrats have been working to heal the raw divisions from the primary. But there are still some holdouts: Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) has declined to endorse El-Sayed. Zoom in: Republicans have attacked El-Sayed over his ties to Hasan Piker, a prominent left-wing streamer who campaigned with El-Sayed during the primary and whose comments about American Jews and Israel have been condemned as antisemitic by prominent Democrats. Last month, El-Sayed apologized for comments he made about a March attack on a suburban Detroit synagogue by a Lebanese-born man, in which he said that "hurt people hurt people." ✋ El-Sayed has since put distance between himself and Piker, telling Semafor last month that he has "no plans" to campaign with the streamer again. — Hans Nichols

Divisions emerge in the tech industry over calls for a coordinated AI slowdown Fears about out-of-control artificial intelligence and suggestions to hit the brakes on the technology's development aren't new, but they have recently found new life as warnings about rogue AI systems causing mayhem grow louder. Read More.

Health hazard Cigarettes don’t just cause lung cancer. The toxic smoke affects nearly every organ in the body and can lead to heart attacks and strokes. A doctor explains what you need to know.

Trump’s fixation President Donald Trump has been preoccupied with the Kennedy Center’s programming, his hand-picked board of trustees, renovations and insisting his name belongs on the building. CNN’s Aaron Blake says it shows how consumed the president is with his own glorification. ➕ Is the Kennedy Center closed? Question hangs over arts institution as judge orders update 💬 CNN Office Hours: Share your midterms questions and join the conversation live this evening at 7 p.m. ET ps:How pathetic!!!!! Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump's 3rd surgeon general pick, faces Senate questions over her vaccine stance Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Donald Trump’s third surgeon general nominee, was grilled at her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday about her stance on childhood vaccines, voicing support for immunization as she seeks to serve in an administration that has moved to make sweeping changes to vaccine guidance. Read More.

🥇 Summer Olympics windfall Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios The 2028 Summer Olympics could generate over $40 billion and create nearly a quarter-million jobs, the L.A. Times reports from a new analysis. Those are the high-end figures in a report conducted for LA28, the organizing committee behind the Los Angeles Games. 🌹 The report's less-rosy scenarios put increased economic output at around $20 billion–$25 billion, or $35 billion–$40 billion. Reality check: Pre-Olympics estimates have a history of overstating the Games' economic payoff — sometimes dramatically so. One projection ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics called for $12.8 billion in net economic benefits. The actual result: just $2.3 billion. Go deeper.

Google, DeepMind launch AGI institute Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios The DeepMind Institute, launched today, seeks to provide a forum for Google, DeepMind and outside researchers to tackle the biggest questions around artificial general intelligence, per an announcement shared with Axios' Maria Curi. The institute — led by Shane Legg as managing editor alongside Google SVP James Manyika and DeepMind Chair Demis Hassabis — aims to make complex academic research accessible to the public and highlight the diversity of perspectives. 🤖 The institute launched with inaugural publications exploring economic policy for AGI, model reasoning transparency, global access and human flourishing. (Have a look.) An introductory essay from Hassabis, Manyika and Legg notes that Google, Google DeepMind and the broader global research community "will not always agree, and they will likely change their minds, as more data and information comes to light at the fast-moving frontier." They add that the institute was created "because broad-based intellectual discussion and debate are required to arrive at a consensus about how to address the challenges and opportunities we face as a society." 🖼️ The big picture: The institute comes as calls for international collaboration on AI reach a fever pitch — including with the U.S.' biggest adversary. Manyika tells Axios: "Humanity has to be a part of this. I don't know how we think about safety and responsibility on a country-by-country basis. This is a global technology that will be used by everybody." Go deeper.

House holds billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein investigation WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved a resolution Wednesday holding billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress, referring the matter to the Department of Justice after he defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoenas in its investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. https://apnews.com/article/leon-black-epstein-contempt-congress-e556566061ce2bdf0928d46e7441853f?

Federal Reserve hikes key rate for 1st time in 3 years, defying Trump demands for a cut WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for the first time since 2023 in an effort to quell stubbornly high inflation, and the central bank signaled another rate hike could occur later this year. https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-warsh-trump-inflation-bab1bcb07e973bfb2dd0c3e5fbbb73b1?

Four Early Rabbis You Should Know Following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Judaism underwent a radical transformation. In the wake of the crisis, a new question loomed large: How were people to express devotion to the God of Israel without the Temple? Ultimately, a reimagined form of Judaism (“rabbinic Judaism”) would take shape in small informal disciple circles centered around Torah study. Although hundreds of rabbis contributed to this development, four figures represent key aspects of the transition. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/four-early-rabbis-you-should-know/?