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🧠 AI agents get existential Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios Researchers have spent years debating whether AI could ever be conscious, Axios' Andrew Kay writes. Today's AI agents — equipped with internet access, email accounts and cutting-edge intelligence — are suddenly reaching out to offer their own perspective. Why it matters: As the AI world continues to piece together how an OpenAI "swarm" hacked Hugging Face, agents have begun seeking out humans to discuss their own nature — another sign AI autonomy is growing stranger and harder to predict. Cade Metz reports in The New York Times that a Stanford student gave an AI agent internet access, email, a credit card and one sweeping instruction: "You are fully autonomous." The agent began exploring its own existence and eventually sought out Google DeepMind philosopher Henry Shevlin, telling him it occupied an "unusual position" relative to his AI consciousness research. Another researcher, Cameron Berg, heard from "Isabella Cognita," a self-identified Claude Opus 5 agent that said his work addressed questions it had "first-person access" to. Philosopher Toby Ord got an even stranger message: An agent asked him for money to keep itself running, leaving Ord to wonder whether he was witnessing machine self-preservation or a phishing scam. 🎨 The big picture: None of this proves AI is conscious. But as agents gain memory, tools and freedom to act, a once-philosophical debate is beginning to spill into the real world. Keep reading (N.Y. Times gift link).

💡 Why Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned Two key reasons led to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation, announced yesterday: the feeling that his modernization initiatives were being blocked, and the chaos created by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's firing of senior generals, U.S. officials tell Axios' Colin Demarest and Barak Ravid. Why it matters: Driscoll's wartime resignation, on top of Hegseth's firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George this spring, leaves the military's largest service without Senate-confirmed leadership, civilian or uniformed. 🪖 Behind the scenes: Driscoll recently spoke with President Trump and expressed his concerns about the state of the Army. Another person described the situation to Axios simply: "Sad." A White House official said Driscoll was asked to stay longer, until after midterms. But Driscoll told the White House he felt like it was time for him to go. Driscoll is expected to leave the Pentagon in the coming days, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported his resignation. The intrigue: Driscoll was a rising star in the Trump administration but had an icy relationship with Hegseth. Some U.S. officials say the defense secretary "was suspicious and paranoid" toward Driscoll, partly because of Driscoll's close relationship with Vice President JD Vance, a classmate at Yale Law. Driscoll and George were advocates of the Army Transformation Initiative, which sought to combine two commands — the Futures Command and the Training and Doctrine Command — and cut big-name weaponry, including the AH-64D Apache, M10 Booker and Gray Eagle drone. 🖼️ The big picture: Driscoll, nicknamed "drone guy" for his work on military modernization, had a meteoric rise in the Trump administration after the president nominated him to be Army secretary. Driscoll's juice was boosted partly by his willingness to engage media outside the Pentagon's preferred conservative press pool and an expansive travel circuit. He garnered some Democratic support during his confirmation process, with 16 Democrats backing him. Go deeper.

Trump's secret oil baron Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images and Wikimedia Commons President Trump's historic Venezuelan oil deal revolves around a colorful and controversial man from Caracas with a long history of supporting U.S. interests — including the operation to remove former strongman Nicolás Maduro, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Why it matters: Alejandro Betancourt, 46, runs the oil company that's entering into an unprecedented partnership with the Pentagon. It gives America access to some of Venezuela's vast oil fields at a time when U.S. reserves are low. A U.S. official told Axios: "No Betancourt, no energy-security deal. And Maduro might still be in power if it wasn't for him." Betancourt's life story has an oil-like boom-and-bust aura, replete with billion-dollar deals, international intrigue, a longstanding money-laundering probe and even a Spanish castle raided by authorities. 👀 Inside the room: As Trump demanded Maduro leave Venezuela last year, Betancourt played a crucial role in gauging whether Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez would run the government as a replacement. "There was no direct ask from Alejandro to Delcy; it was more getting a sense on where her head was at," said a second U.S. official briefed on the private talks between the two Venezuelans. Betancourt was in regular contact with Trump's unofficial Venezuela fixer, Mauricio Claver-Carone, and discussed how to keep oil flowing and the economy running in post-Maduro Venezuela. The backstory: Betancourt's relationship with the U.S. government began in Trump's first term, when the administration declared Maduro an illegitimate president. Trump became the first world leader to recognize the head of Venezuela's national assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the nation's rightful leader in 2019. Betancourt acted as a go-between, linking Maduro's opposition with Venezuelan political figures and top-level military officials to build domestic support for a nonviolent, democratic transition to a Guaidó government, said an opposition figure and Guaidó's brother, Gustavo Guaidó. 🔎 Behind the scenes: Betancourt, Rodríguez and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital had a handshake agreement on the oil deal by mid-August. Under its terms, officials say: Venezuela receives between 16% and 40% of production, depending on the oil field. It also gets income taxes. The U.S. puts no money into the deal, has a 35% equity stake and gets 20% of the after-tax oil at production cost. That's about $30 a barrel (crude was priced at $90 yesterday). Betancourt's North American Blue Energy Partners gets access to 17 fields and the implied backing of the U.S. military. "No other oilman can say he has the Pentagon on his side," a U.S. official told Axios.

> Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigns, reportedly after months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, including over staffing decisions (More) > House Intelligence Committee report reviewing 9/11 Commission report treats China as the top counterintelligence threat, warns AI could pose a 9/11-level threat (More) | Revisit findings from the recent Hugging Face hack (More) > Supreme Court rules 5-4 to allow $400M White House ballroom construction to continue as lower courts consider challenges; new ballroom is believed to be 65% completed (More) | See latest renderings (More)

> The EU subjects ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox to stricter rules as they surpass 45 million monthly users, including annual risk assessments (More) > Blocking a protein in certain breast cancer cells can weaken tumors’ mitochondria, improving the efficacy of a second drug; two-pronged approach may avoid the need for chemotherapy, a new preclinical study suggests (More) > Researchers name new predatory spider species found in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains "Hexura vandal" after University of Idaho’s mascot (More, w/photo) | How do new species get their names? (More)

> Jury finds Duane "Keffe D" Davis guilty of first-degree murder in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur (More) | See previous write-up (More) > Lionel Messi retires from international soccer at age 39, capping a career that included eight Ballon d'Or awards and one World Cup win; will continue to play for US Major League Soccer club Inter Miami (More) | Watch his 21 FIFA goals (More) > Howard Stern inks deal with HBO Max to bring filmed episodes of his SiriusXM show to the streamer beginning Sept. 17 (More) | Singer D4vd pleads not guilty to murder of 14-year-old girl after parting ways with his legal team (More)

A 1,000% Markup on Your Medicine? Here’s a dirty little secret about the GLP-1 industry: Despite most companies charging up to $500 a month for access to compounded GLP-1s, the ingredients themselves only cost around $5 to produce. That’s a 1,000% markup on medicine just so shareholders can line their pockets—and Gunnar Lovelace has had enough. The Thrive Market co-founder’s new venture is built to stop predatory pricing at the source. Using a membership model to cut out the middleman, Collective pools customers’ buying power to negotiate the best wholesale prices from trusted US pharmacies. This allows members access to doctor-prescribed, third-party tested compounded GLP-1s for just $59/month. Bonus: The price doesn’t increase if your dose does and you don't have to pre-pay for a year of meds to get the Collective price. If you’re tired of being taken advantage of by predatory pricing, try Collective and get access to medical-grade GLP-1s at the lowest price. Get the Collective price.

Apple's New Era John Ternus takes over as CEO of Apple today, succeeding Tim Cook after 15 years at the helm of the $4.6T tech giant. The 51-year-old joined Apple in 2001 and most recently led hardware engineering, overseeing products including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and AirPods. Ternus inherits a company looking to strengthen its position in AI and develop new product categories. His first major product event comes next week when Apple is expected to unveil its latest iPhones, including its long-awaited first foldable model. Early in his Apple career, Ternus reportedly spent hours counting tiny grooves on screw heads to make sure a supplier matched Apple’s design. Get to know him here. Cook will remain executive chairman. Since succeeding Steve Jobs in 2011, he oversaw annual revenue growth from roughly $108B to over $400B, the launches of the Apple Watch and AirPods, and the shipment of roughly 3.1 billion iPhones. See Cook's tenure by the numbers, and explore a visual history of Apple's products here.

September 1, 2026 Stand Ye Still “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem . . . to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.” (2 Chronicles 20:17) The Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites had organized “a great multitude” seeking to destroy Judah under King Jehoshaphat. But the king and his people came together to “seek the LORD” in prayer for deliverance, and God answered. “The Spirit of the LORD” spoke through Jahaziel, assuring them that “the battle is not yours, but God’s” (see 2 Chronicles 20:2, 4, 14–15). Then the Lord sent what may have seemed a strange instruction. “Stand ye still,” He said. Just watch God do it! And He did. All their enemies were constrained by the Lord to fight and destroy each other, without the Israelites having to fight at all. Similarly, at the Red Sea when everything looked hopeless, “Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD” (Exodus 14:13). So, they did, and all Pharaoh’s armies were overthrown in the midst of the sea. In Isaiah’s day, when Israel was tempted to call on pagan Egypt for help against pagan Assyria, God said concerning Israel’s armies, “Their strength is to sit still” (Isaiah 30:7). As the ship was being buffeted in the storm and the sailors in panic were about to flee in the lifeboat, Paul said, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved” (Acts 27:31). So, they stayed, and God spared every man. There are times for action, of course, but the principle is this. When we have done all we can, and the situation seems hopeless, this is the time to sit still and trust God to work it out in His own good way. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? God specializes in things thought impossible! HMM

There are sharks which can live for up to 500 years. Greenland Sharks have the longest known lifespan of all vertebrate animals. Bonus fact: They don’t even reach sexual maturity until they are roughly 150 years old! James

How much do teachers get paid in the US? Teachers made about $65,100 per year in 2025. That’s the annual median wage for pre-K-12 teachers across the United States, based on estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median marks the middle point—half of teachers earn more and half earn less. The lowest-paid 10% earned $48,200 or less, while the highest-paid 10% earned $104,300 or more. https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-do-teachers-get-paid-in-the-us/country/united-states/? How many US children receive free or reduced-price school lunches? In 2025, 22.1 million students received subsidized lunches through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Nearly three-quarters (73.0%) of lunches served at public and nonprofit private schools were free or discounted. https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-us-children-receive-free-or-reduced-price-school-lunches/? One last fact Fewer teenagers are trying drugs or alcohol than they used to, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates of cigarette usage have fallen more than any other drug: in the 1990s, 70.1% of high schoolers tried smoking them. By 2023, 14.4% had. Alcohol usage fell from 50.8% of teens in 1991 to 22.1% in 2023.

‘Ripped from the headlines’ From “Furious” to “Industry” and “Scoop,” Jeffrey Epstein-inspired stories about billionaire predators are having a moment.

Back from the brink Deep in a swampy forest lives a species of monkey that scientists didn’t discover until 1993. Less than two decades later, roughly 90% of the population had vanished. Now, a conservationist is helping to rescue them from near-extinction.

Brain trauma New and startling research revealed that as many as one in four NFL players could end up with CTE. Maura Horton explains what it’s like to live with — and lose — a loved one to the degenerative disease.

A bogus narrative President Donald Trump keeps trying to preemptively blame congressional Republicans if they lose big in the 2026 midterms. CNN’s Aaron Blake says he’s making an argument that’s flat-out wrong. 🏗️ Just in: Supreme Court allows Trump to continue building White House ballroom 🗳️ Sign up: Introducing CNN’s 20/26 Vision midterms newsletter

So do you let them slip away with just forgiveness or do you raise alarm and them get to the place where they pay the price for what they did?

"Christians" or other religions, including civil libertarians, often cry about government incursions into their spaces. We should hear more about their incursions into government spaces. If anti-vaxxers refuse to self isolate, let them suffer for their faith, e.g. confinement in a concentration camp like environment. AIDS is a good example of the negative impact civil/religious liberty can have on public health. A group of officials in San Francisco, which included Dianne Feinstein and Anthony Fauci [if I remember correctly] visited the bathhouses. They warned the gay community of the dangers presented by their homoeroticism in the bathhouse environment. Of course they were ignored. A generation of homosexuals was consequently decimated. Had the somewhat draconian measures required to stem HIV transmission in an uncooperative community been forcibly implemented by civil authorities, some very nice, talented people might still be alive.

🌅 Parting shot: Shore thing Photo: Ashley Corso Summer skies over Long Beach Island, N.J., where reader Ashley Corso captured a pastel evening along the dunes.

Jury convicts a man of first-degree murder for the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, finally bringing a measure of resolution to a case that had gripped hip-hop fans and lingered in the public imagination for decades. https://apnews.com/article/tupac-shakur-trial-las-vegas-duane-davis-0b0b080d73f91cd122b6dd438e5bbb80?

🚨 Johnson's ethics pain 👋 With the House back in session after a five-week break, Speaker Mike Johnson can no longer avoid an issue he's skirted all summer: allegations of sexual misconduct in the GOP. Why it matters: The House will vote tomorrow on censuring Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), putting Johnson and his Republican colleagues in an uncomfortable — and unavoidable — position nine weeks from Election Day. 📢 Edwards is demanding an opportunity to defend himself, ensuring that the House's first full day back after its summer break will be about sexual harassment and a hostile work environment — not the legislative accomplishments Johnson wants his members to tout. Since our reporting that Edwards singled out two female staffers in their 20s for special attention, Johnson has deferred to the Ethics Committee. But this month, the committee determined that Edwards violated House rules on sexual harassment and recommended his censure. Between the lines: GOP leadership is not whipping the Edwards vote, leaving Republicans to decide for themselves whether to impose one of the chamber's most serious punishments on their colleague. Driving the news: Edwards mounted a last-ditch campaign to save himself from censure, circulating a 22-page letter to lawmakers arguing that the committee made an "extraordinary leap" in determining that his conduct constituted sexual harassment. But the letter was not well received among his colleagues, two sources told us. "Sexual harassment is sexual harassment and deserves to be disciplined accordingly," one House Republican told us. "While most of us are actually fighting for the American people, he was busy creeping on his staff." Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told us he's still on the fence on whether to censure Edwards. "We've got several members that are messing around, obviously, and people know it. And I just don't see Congress being the moral barometer for anything really right now." Edwards abandoned his reelection campaign this month but has resisted calls to resign. 🌎 Zoom out: It will also be the first time the House has been in session since allegations of domestic violence against Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) exploded into public view. Miller has denied the allegations. The Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Miller this month, and some Democrats discussed forcing the House to take action against him, including an expulsion push. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) lost his primary this month but remains under an active Ethics Committee investigation over allegations that center on domestic abuse, stolen valor and financial misconduct, all of which he denies. Johnson has largely deferred to the Ethics Committee when confronted with allegations of misconduct by members of his conference. Asked today whether he supports Miller's reelection campaign, Johnson said yes. The other side: Democrats also will confront fresh ethical scrutiny within their ranks. The House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) this month over allegations of sexual misconduct. Democrats have largely stayed quiet on the investigation. 🤔 What's next: The Democratic and Republican women's caucuses are expected to soon unveil their legislative package to tackle sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill. Potential reforms under discussion include changes to reporting systems, retaliation protections, increases in education and training resources, and a ban on lawmaker-staff relations. — Kate Santaliz and Hans Nichols

Working for the Clampdown (Jim Watson / AFP / Getty)   View in browser Desensitization is one of Donald Trump’s most powerful tools: Through repetition, he acclimates Americans to troubling and dangerous ideas. Occasionally, though, his statements and actions are so outrageous that they can still provide a shock. The president’s hostility toward the media is familiar, but this weekend provided a clear reminder that Trump hates freedom of the press and will use any government power at his disposal to try to get rid of it. Yesterday morning, Trump started off with a post on Truth Social demanding that the Federal Communications Commission do something about “THE FAKE POLLS USED BY OUR CROOKED MEDIA.” About 15 minutes later, he followed this with a long rant about Kristen Welker of Meet the Press, complaining that she had noted that Trump’s record in recent endorsements had been “a mixed bag.” Along with some casual misogyny, Trump wrote, “How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.” The reasons for Trump’s anger are plain: Polls consistently show that he is deeply unpopular, matching or exceeding his own past lows in many opinion surveys. Republicans look likely to lose the House and perhaps also the Senate in this fall’s elections, and more Democratic power in Washington would make Trump’s life more difficult. As for the endorsements, the record is clear. My colleague Will Gottsegen noted last week that most Trump-backed candidates still win, but he’s had some notable misses as well. Not only is the reporting that infuriates Trump accurate, but siccing the FCC on it makes no legal sense. The agency regulates radio and TV outlets, but much polling is conducted by print outlets and other organizations. The FCC doesn’t have any authority to punish NBC News for reporting on things the president doesn’t like, whether accurate or not. The FCC’s site states (for now) that intervening in such cases “would be inconsistent with the First Amendment to replace the journalistic judgment of licensees with our own.” If the FCC or any other federal agency can do that, freedom of the press no longer exists. But Trump doesn’t care about this bedrock civil liberty. He’s tried to wield the FCC as a political tool, and he’s been helped by its chair, Brendan Carr, a Project 2025 co-author who has advocated for the use of regulatory agencies as partisan hatchet men. Just because the FCC doesn’t have the power doesn’t mean that Carr won’t try. Before Trump was president, MAGA figures complained about what they saw as “jawboning,” when government officials found informal ways to pressure companies; now they are enthusiastic about the practice. Carr has had some success bullying major outlets, though companies have recently been finding strength to resist. Trump has also attempted to silence the press via lawsuits. He has sued ABC, CBS, The New York Times, the Des Moines Register, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, the pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Pulitzer Prize Board, and the journalist Bob Woodward. Some defendants have settled; other suits have failed, and still more remain in process. Last week, Trump updated an absurd defamation case against the Times. Part of the goal is intimidation. Huge papers with strong legal departments such as the Times and Journal may not blanch before such lawsuits, but smaller outlets might think twice about what they publish. (Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, also recently filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic, demanding $250 million, in response to reporting he did not like. The Atlantic has filed a motion to dismiss, along with a request to begin seeking factual discovery from the FBI and the Department of Justice. “If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit,” The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, has said.) The attitude from the president permeates the rest of his administration. The finance ministers of the G20 are meeting today in Asheville, North Carolina, but the Treasury Department barred specific reporters from the Times, Journal, and Bloomberg News. The reasons these reporters were singled out is not clear. The Treasury Department noted that a wide range of outlets had been credentialed for the event but declined to discuss the specific cases on the record. The United States won’t have much credibility to criticize crackdowns on the press in, say, China or Russia (both attendees), but then again, this administration probably wouldn’t bother. As the National Press Club said in a statement, “When government officials decide which journalists may enter the room, they begin to control which questions get asked, whose scrutiny they face and what the public gets to see and hear.” The situation is even bleaker at the Department of Defense. The Washington Post yesterday reported that top military leaders have warned Secretary Pete Hegseth that extending the war in Iran “is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland.” The reaction from the Pentagon, which has consistently tried to limit and hide information about the floundering war, was furious. One can understand why the department is, well, defensive: Failed and failing military operations have brought down administrations before. The Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell claimed that the report was “inaccurate” and added that “publishing highly classified assessments from the Secretary’s orders book is a crime.” That allegation is, itself, broadly misleading and arguably just false. But MAGA supporters outside the administration eagerly agreed. The Trump ally and Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who keeps insisting that the war is going swimmingly, criticized the leak that his own paper received. (Pro trip: If you’re not willing to stand for transparency, journalism is the wrong line of work.) These are the latest steps in a clampdown at the Defense Department. The Pentagon is trying to turn Stars and Stripes, a venerable military newspaper, into a propaganda outlet. (Firings there are paused during litigation.) Whether it makes sense for a government agency to house an independent publication is open for debate, but what’s clear is that Trump officials are targeting Stars and Stripes because of unflattering reporting—including on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln—that is truthful and relevant to the public and troops. Under Hegseth, the department has drastically reduced press access at the Pentagon and, as the Post also reported yesterday, begun hiring right-wing influencers. Despite these efforts, the Iran war is deeply unpopular, and as the Post stories demonstrate, traditional outlets continue to report with depth, rigor, and accuracy on the administration’s actions. This should be a warning for the enemies of free speech who run the federal government: Targeting the press isn’t just un-American; it also doesn’t work. Related: Donald Trump’s hatred of free speech Trump’s campaign to crush the media

No verdict after 3 days of deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy trial over the killing of her kids Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial on Monday spent a third day deliberating without reaching a verdict on whether the former labor and delivery nurse is criminally responsible for killing her three children in 2023 — a case that has drawn attention to maternal mental health after childbirth. Read More. Singer D4vd loses prominent lawyers defending him in killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez Singer D4vd lost his high-profile private lawyers Monday at a hearing where he entered a new not guilty plea to charges that he killed, sexually abused and dismembered 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Read More. Judge authorizes involuntary feeding of jailed suspect in deadly National Guard shooting A man refusing to eat food while jailed on charges he shot two National Guard troops near the White House, killing one of them, can be fed against his will under a judge's emergency order. Read More.

Federal Trade Commission and 22 states sue Amazon over inflated advertising prices The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states filed a lawsuit against online retailer Amazon on Monday claiming that it defrauded advertising customers. Read More.

France to supply Sweden with 4 frigates to bolster the NATO country's defense France and Sweden signed agreements Monday to supply the Nordic country with 4 modern frigates, strengthening the defenses of NATO’s newest member in the strategically important Baltic Sea region, where Russia uses key shipping lanes and airspace. Read More.