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Saudi Arabia Faces Militant Attacks Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen captured two islands in the Red Sea yesterday. The seizure of Greater and Lesser Hanish further compromised Saudi Arabia’s ability to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and deliver oil through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (see more, w/map). The kingdom and allied Gulf states postponed planned talks with Iran Sunday amid the uptick in attacks. Houthis say their recent strikes, including on a Saudi military base yesterday, are retaliation for hundreds of airstrikes by the kingdom. Separately, Saudi Arabia faces attacks from Iranian-backed militants in Iraq, forcing the kingdom to close its East-West Pipeline for weeks amid repairs (see satellite images). The roughly 750-mile-long pipeline reroutes 4% of global oil to the Red Sea, feeding shipments to the Bab el-Mandeb. President Donald Trump reportedly rejected Saudi calls last week to participate in Saudi airstrikes against the Houthis. The dayslong uptick in fighting has reportedly killed more than 500 people and displaced nearly 94,000 others, threatening a return to pre-2022 levels of violence (see history).

The first roller coaster was used to transport coal down a hill. After people found that it could reach speeds up to 50 miles per hour, tourists asked to ride on it for a few cents. James

⛰️ Parting shot! Photo: Daniel J. Schmidt Reader Daniel J. Schmidt of Glenview, Ill., captured this scene after a storm in Keystone, Colo. Look closely, and you'll see it's a double rainbow.

GOP chilly on checks Data: OMB; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Senate Republicans are doubtful — and, in some cases, dismissive — of Trump's proposal to give Americans $5,000 checks if Republicans keep control of Congress. Why it matters: Trump's proposal isn't dead on arrival. But Republicans aren't exactly lining up behind it either. ⚖️ "I am withholding judgment on the bill until I see their list of pay-fors," Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. "I don't support going and borrowing $1.2 trillion to be able to write the checks." 👀 "I would need to see details on it," Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said he wasn't sure about the mechanics of the proposal but that he's "also worrying about $40 trillion in debt." "You know, there's no specific proposal out there," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said. "And obviously, however that were to come together, Congress would have a big role in determining." 🔎 Zoom in: There are two massive unknowns about the "Trump Dividend" the president promised in Dallas last week: eligibility and price tag. Vice President Vance has suggested that wealthy Americans wouldn't receive the payment. If every "every adult citizen in the United States" were eligible, as Trump suggested, it could cost some $1.3 trillion. That would be more than three times what the U.S. collects annually from tariffs and other customs duties and fees. 🤔 The intrigue: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who frequently defers to Trump, said yesterday that Congress would have to approve the payments. Asked in NBC's "Meet the Press" if he'd commit that the checks will be sent, Johnson said, "I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that like they have to do everything else." Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) told us: "Well, if it happens, I'm recommending to people that they put it away in order to pay for the additional inflation. We will see." — Hans Nichols, Stef W. Kight and Erin Davis

🤖 Thune's AI push Majority Leader John Thune is asserting Congress' prerogative to act on AI — but he's urging a "light touch" even in the face of "consequential risks." Why it matters: On his first day back after a five-week break, Thune (R-S.D.) outlined his vision for congressional action on an issue President Trump has dismissed as a "hoax." 👉 "Congress has a job to do," Thune said. "I think there are some potential consequential risks associated with AI," Thune told reporters when asked if he believes AI poses an existential threat to humanity. He added, "Guardrails there make sense to me" about cutting-edge, frontier AI models. 🚨 But Thune also said that "there are always people who are creating a worst-case-scenario-type conversation out there." 🚗 Driving the news: An AI panic is rippling through Congress, but mostly on the Democratic side, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) calling to "slow down the pace of development" of AI to avoid a potentially catastrophic outcome. Publicly, Trump is professing not to be concerned and insists that he should have the sole authority to regulate AI. "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades," he posted on his Truth Social account this morning. 🌎 Zoom out: Republicans aren't questioning Trump's ability to lead the country's approach to AI regulation, but they are suggesting that Congress has a role to play. And they aren't ruling out legislation. "So we may need to do something," Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said. "But there are existing guardrails, and corporate responsibility is a big part of this." Zoom in: Thune said he spoke with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Saturday night about their AI bill, which would force companies creating frontier AI models to guard against catastrophic risks and submit to federal oversight. Thune said he has been working with Commerce chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to reintroduce the bill "hopefully soon." House GOP leaders, meanwhile, have given no indication they plan to keep the chamber in session after this week to work on AI-related legislation. "I don't know that staying in more weeks in September is going to be the catalyst for that," Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), the lead Republican on the FRONTIER Act, told us. Between the lines: Before this weekend, much of the AI debate in Washington — and in Senate races — was focused on data centers and the amount of electricity they consume. 🗳️ Republicans, as well as the White House, are eager to convince voters that they won't face higher utility bills caused by data centers and their need for megawatts. Thune left open the possibility of the Senate voting on a version of the House's Ratepayer Protection Act, which is aimed at ensuring communities are not forced to pay more for increased energy use by data centers. The House is expected to vote on the bill tomorrow. The bottom line: Thune is signaling he's open to some regulation that wouldn't stifle innovation. "I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated," he told reporters. 👟 "I do think we are in a race with China, and I think there's huge upside, obviously, with AI as well." — Stef W. Kight, Hans Nichols and Kate Santaliz

Supreme Court rejects Trump mail ballot restrictions ahead of midterms WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway. https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-executive-order-lawsuit-78a4fbeb48d9c5fd27d1c865529fc65f?

Spin Cycle (Chandan Khanna / AFP / Getty)   View in browser Every president likes to take credit for good news on their watch, but most of them have at least a little shame about it. Not Donald Trump. September 10 is typically the peak of Atlantic Ocean hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expected a relatively restrained year, but as the meteorologist and hurricane specialist Michael Lowry writes, the season “has never gone beyond September 11th in the reliable records (since at least 1950) without a hurricane” in the Atlantic Ocean—until this year. There aren’t even any strong prospects forming. Amid spreading violence in the Middle East, warnings of an AI apocalypse, and high fuel prices, it’s a rare piece of good news, and Trump wants credit. Over the weekend, the White House flagged the news, commenting, “Thank you, President Trump!” This is absurd, though maybe no one should be surprised that a man who believed that marking a map with Sharpie can change a hurricane’s path would take credit for a low-key storm season. (He also reportedly once suggested attacking storms with nuclear weapons, so perhaps, as the journalist Catherine Rampell jokes, this is deterrence in action.) Better explanations than presidential benevolence exist. As my colleague Joshua Partlow has reported, this is an unusual year for the El Niño cycle. In the Pacific Ocean, it has produced very warm water, as well as a number of hurricanes. Hawaii, which is seldom hit, has been struck by two hurricanes so far this year. At least four deaths have been attributed to the storms, and power remains out on some parts of the island of Kauai. But scientists say that El Niño also accounts for the absence of major storms, so far, in the Atlantic. “It’s really staggering, just how inhospitable the Atlantic is to anything that could form a tropical cyclone right now,” Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric science at the University at Albany, told PBS. The lull is especially notable because last year’s hurricane season was also astonishingly mild in the United States. Although parts of the Caribbean endured hurricanes, not a single one hit the U.S. mainland. This is great news for the Americans who are otherwise often in hurricanes’ paths, and who have been slammed by a series of storms in the past decade—including 2024’s Hurricane Helene, the deadliest to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. It is also great news for Trump, who must be one of the luckiest people in history. Hurricanes can help or, more often, badly hurt a president. George W. Bush’s reputation never recovered from Katrina, whereas Barack Obama’s steady hand during Hurricane Sandy seemed to bolster his reelection campaign. Trump’s handling of storms during his first term was poor; he demonstrated little human warmth and, in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, jarring coldness. Trump’s personal behavior aside, his administration has been especially fortunate because under his leadership, FEMA appears to be in no shape to handle a major disaster. In the first months of his second presidency, Trump and then–Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced plans to dismantle FEMA entirely, devolving responsibility for relief to states, an idea panned by most experts. In the meantime, he seemed determined to slowly strangle it, appointing interim leaders with no disaster-relief experience. First came Cameron Hamilton, who was fired after telling Congress that he did not support liquidating FEMA. Next was David Richardson, who, shortly after taking his post in May 2025, acknowledged that he had no completed plan for the impending hurricane season and would reuse the previous year’s. (FEMA employees reported that Richardson said he didn’t even realize such a season existed; a FEMA spokesperson later said he was joking.) Because no storms have since struck the mainland, these failures ended up having much less human and economic cost. FEMA appears to be on a somewhat stronger footing now. Trump has backed off plans to eliminate FEMA, Noem and Richardson are gone, and Hamilton is back as permanent administrator—and has won some tentative praise for working to learn more about disaster relief. He inherits serious challenges, though. A federal judge ruled on Friday that an administration order to lay off half of FEMA’s workforce was illegal. “Frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air,” the judge wrote of the government’s proposal, which included cutting thousands of on-call employees who rush in with aid after a disaster. A report released last month by the Government Accountability Office was even more scathing. The GAO found that FEMA’s personnel decisions had been made “without assessing whether it had the necessary staffing capacity to meet its mission,” including what it is required to do under law, and that “FEMA is not positioned to determine whether it has the right number of people with the right skills in the right positions at the right time to meet its mission.” Furthermore, the report said, “the agency has no overall strategic direction.” Alas, the calm before the storms won’t last indefinitely. Experts who spoke with The New York Times said that it would be premature to assume that no major Atlantic hurricanes will form this year. If the president’s political luck continues, then perhaps the East Coast won’t see a really bad storm until after the midterm elections, or maybe even next year. Given his administration’s approach to hurricane preparedness and the travails of FEMA, though, ordinary Americans along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf Coast are likely to see their weather luck run out. Related: This El Niño will be unlike any in the past eight decades. FEMA is not prepared.

McConnell returns to the Senate for the first time since his June hospitalization WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky returned to the Senate to vote on Monday for the first time in three months, looking noticeably more frail after he was hospitalized for a June fall in his home. https://apnews.com/article/mitch-mcconnell-senate-return-abe03e84e30a174da4076385692b5751?

A Vermont man is on trial for shooting 3 Palestinian students. He claimed the CIA told him to do it Jason Eaton insisted he was acting on orders from the CIA and Mossad when he shot three Palestinian college students who were walking past his home a few days after Thanksgiving. He said the U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies transmitted the messages to him via FM radio and that God was commanding him to protect his Jewish neighbors. Read More.

United Kingdom's unity threatened by pact between Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland The leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland signed a pact Monday that threatens to lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom. Read More.

AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Delaware’s state primary Delaware’s Democratic U.S. senator, U.S. representative and state attorney general will go before voters in a state primary Tuesday as they seek reelection. Voters also will choose nominees for state Legislature and for an open seat for state treasurer. Read More.

America's public data has a trust problem. Now what? Americans are calling for better data and better discourse. How can we answer that call? https://usafacts.org/articles/americas-data-has-a-trust-problem-now-what/? Are AI data centers driving up your electric bill? A USAFacts deep dive. Grab your favorite beverage and comfiest chair, because we’re going to learn some things. https://usafacts.org/articles/are-ai-data-centers-driving-up-your-electric-bill/? One last fact Every state has some form of mail-in voting. And although “voting by mail” and “absentee voting” both often refer to mailed-in ballots and are sometimes used interchangeably, they differ slightly. Voting by mail is a voting method. According to the Census Bureau, 29% of voters nationwide voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election. Eight states mail ballots to every registered voter in their state. In states where in-person Election Day voting is the norm, “absentee” is most commonly used to describe voters who request to submit their ballots by mail, drop-off, or early in-person voting because they are unable to vote on Election Day.

Cosmic clue Did you know that dark matter makes up about 85% of all the matter in the universe? Scientists say they’ve detected an intriguing signal that could shed some light on the elusive substance.

TV’s biggest night Traumatized doctors on “The Pitt.” Conflicted city officials on “Widow’s Bay.” Struggling teachers on “Abbott Elementary.” This year’s Emmy Awards are about regular people trying to keep their heads above water. Follow live updates. ‘Widow’s Bay’ breaks Emmys record with 14 wins including best comedy series, ‘Pitt’ wins best drama LOS ANGELES (AP) — A “Widow’s Bay” wave slammed into the Emmy Awards on Monday night as the Apple TV show set a single-season record for a comedy with 14 wins, including best comedy series and best actor for star Matthew Rhys, who personally took home three trophies. https://apnews.com/article/2026-emmy-awards-b70e33e5cd1ebc43cb968715a8ffe12b? Emmy Awards The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by “Law & Order: SVU” star and three-time Emmy winner Mariska Hargitay, were presented last night. Hargitay was the first woman to host the ceremony in 15 years, following Jane Lynch in 2011. HBO Max's "The Pitt" led all television programs with 25 nominations and won in six categories, including best drama for the second year in a row. The medical drama aims to be TV's most accurate representation of medicine, using real doctors as consultants. The final season of "Hacks," another HBO Max show, took home two Emmys—including best lead actress in a comedy (Jean Smart)—after receiving a record 24 nominations for a comedy series. However, "Hacks" lost best comedy to Apple TV's new horror comedy "Widow's Bay," whose 14 wins broke the comedy series record set by "The Studio" last year. See the full list of winners here; see some of the biggest snubs and surprises here.

Fraying friendship Thanks to a geographic quirk, Louis Patenaude’s freight business straddles the border between the US and Canada. With the once close allies embroiled in a heated trade war, he finds himself caught in the middle.

❄️ Weather traders are betting that a potentially historic El Niño will translate into a relatively mild winter, Bloomberg reports. Gift link. Super status An already-strong El Niño has been ramping up at a breakneck pace since it was first declared in June, and the climate phenomenon is crossing into unprecedented territory. Experts explain what that means for the weather. ⛅ Get your local forecast: Download the CNN Weather app

🎻 The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees is planning to propose adding President Trump's name to the facility's exterior in recognition of his saving the building from its "precarious fiscal position," per a new court filing. Go deeper.

📚 Most-borrowed books Data: OverDrive/Libby. Chart: Sami Sparber/Axios "The Calamity Club" was last month's most-borrowed e-book on Libby, Axios' Sami Sparber reports. Author Kathryn Stockett's bestseller explores poverty and friendship through the eyes of two outcast women in 1930s Mississippi. 🍿 The big picture: Libby's top 20 features several "BookTok" favorites that have already been adapted for the screen, or are slated to be. That includes "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke (a thriller about a tradwife influencer that Anne Hathaway is set to star in and produce) and "The Deal" by Elle Kennedy (the basis for Amazon Prime Video's hit hockey romance series "Off Campus.") Go deeper.

EPA eliminates rule that limits planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas and announced it is taking a separate but related step to prevent future administrations from regulating climate pollution from power plants. https://apnews.com/article/epa-power-plants-trump-coal-gas-climate-cac1c2c75f8656d8eaf5f0a240edae15? 🏭 The EPA is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. Go deeper.

Divorce becomes next battleground as states debate family values Cerina Fairfax, a Virginia dentist and mother of two, spent nearly two years living in the same house as her husband while she was trying to divorce him. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/13/repub/divorce-becomes-next-battleground-as-states-debate-family-values/?

Ectopic pregnancy deaths have nearly doubled. It’s worse in states with abortion bans. The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found. The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/14/repub/ectopic-pregnancy-deaths-have-nearly-doubled-its-worse-in-states-with-abortion-bans/?

Schools, libraries sound alarm over potential changes to federal internet program A multi-billion-dollar federal program that helps schools and libraries afford broadband internet is under review by the Trump administration, leaving education officials and advocates worried about potentially significant cuts. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/12/repub/schools-libraries-sound-alarm-over-potential-changes-to-federal-internet-program/?

Still no answers from DeSantis administration on KidCare disenrollments, challenges The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis is still not giving firm answers on when — or whether — it intends to expand a safety-net healthcare program for low-income children that the Florida Legislature has approved. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/14/still-no-answers-from-desantis-administration-on-kidcare-disenrollments-challenges/? Florida’s leaders ‘honor and commemorate’ heroes of Sept. 11 attacks Gov. Ron DeSantis led Florida in remembering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2002, ordering flags lowered throughout the state. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/11/floridas-leaders-honor-and-commemorate-heroes-of-sept-11-attacks/?

Roman Sanctuary Hidden in “Cave of the Women” Recent discoveries at Cova Dones, in Spain’s province of Valencia, offer a fascinating glimpse into Roman religious practice, and potentially women-centered worship. Archaeologists have identified around 120 Latin inscriptions dating primarily to the first and second centuries CE, several of which invoke a goddess called Domina, “Lady,” while feminine names and objects associated with textile production add further evidence of women’s presence. According to the University of Alicante, the 120 inscriptions make Cova Dones (“Cave of the Women”) the largest known collection of Latin inscriptions in a cave-sanctuary found anywhere in the Roman Empire. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-rome/roman-sanctuary-hidden-in-cave-of-women/?