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👋 Good morning! Or shall I say, "G'day, mate!" as the NFL prepares for kickoff in Australia. In today's edition: The death of the one-handed backhand, Seahawks win opener, Coco advances, NFL off-field storylines, baseball's iron men, College Football Challenge (make your picks!), and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 Team USA into final four: While you were sleeping, the Americans walloped Hungary, 108-56, to secure their spot in the FIBA Women's World Cup semifinals in Berlin, where they're seeking their fifth straight gold medal. ⚾️ Ohtani to the IL: After missing six of the Dodgers' last seven games (knee), Shohei Ohtani will be placed on the 15-day injured list. In a corresponding move, the team will reportedly call-up top prospect Josue De Paula from Double-A Tulsa. 🏈 NCAA enacts timing protocol: In the aftermath of Saturday's Michigan debacle, the NCAA has enacted "a standard timing protocol that ensures consistency in the administration of all college football games." 🎤 Brunson to host SNL: Jalen Brunson's magical summer is about to get an encore when the newly-minted NBA champion hosts the Season 52 premiere of "Saturday Night Live" on Sept. 26. The Finals MVP is just the fifth NBA player ever tapped for this role, joining Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and LeBron James. ⚽️ Messi expands portfolio: Lionel Messi has reached a preliminary agreement to become the majority owner of Eldense, a club in Spain's Segunda División. He already owns or has stakes in Cornellà (Spain), Deportivo LSM (Uruguay), Leones de Rosario FC (Argentina) and Inter Miami.   2026 NFL MELBOURNE GAME Watch the 49ers take on the Rams LIVE from Melbourne tonight at 8:35pm ET on Netflix, and also stream on mobile with NFL+.   🎾 END OF AN ERA THE DEATH OF THE ONE-HANDED BACKHAND (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports) The one-handed backhand has been going out of style for decades. This year brought the clearest sign yet that it might be nearing extinction. 149 years later: This is the first year in tennis history, dating to the inaugural Grand Slam in 1877 (Wimbledon), that no man with a one-handed backhand reached a major semifinal. Stefanos Tsitsipas was the streak's last hope, but he fell on Sunday in the Round of 16. Age of extinction: From 1970-90, players with one-handed backhands won more than 60% of Grand Slams, utilizing the signature shot of Rod Laver, Roger Federer and others to great effect. In the early 2000s, they made up roughly half the men's top 100, and eight years ago Federer won his 20th slam while relying heavily on "the shot that made [him] famous." Now? It's all but disappeared from the top of the sport. Just five men ranked in the current ATP Top 100 use a one-handed backhand: No. 14 Lorenzo Musetti, No. 48 Denis Shapovalov, No. 53 Tsitsipas, No. 57 Daniel Altmaier and No. 84 Aleksandar Kovacevic. And they're joined by just 45 additional ranked men. The shot is even more scarce on the WTA Tour, where just 14 ranked women use one hand, led by No. 31 Diane Parry. What gives? Tennis is simply a different sport now than it was even a couple decades ago, as Federer himself explained on the eve of the US Open. The game, which used to be a relatively even split between baseline and net play, has shifted almost exclusively to the baseline, where the power and control afforded by a two-handed grip is crucial. And the shift has become self-perpetuating, Federer added: As one-handed backhands disappear, so do the coaches who teach them. "My coaches when I was growing up were, I would say, 90% one-handers. So I think when your coach is a one-handed tennis player, you will most likely be a one-handed tennis player too. Nowadays, probably the coaches are mostly double-handed players, and it's just easier to teach a kid to have two hands on the backhand side." "One of my kids is switching from a double-hander to a one-hander, and I just see how hard it is for him to hit it and control it. Sure, eventually you get control, but it just takes time, and nowadays we don't have time. Everything has to happen immediately." Bottom line: Tennis has long been a delicate balance between power and finesse. But as the pendulum swings inexorably toward the former, one of the sport's signature shots has all but faded from the game it once dominated.   📸 SNAPSHOTS THROUGH THE LENS Josh Jobe celebrates with teammates after sealing the win with a pick. (Jane Gershovich/Getty Images) 🏈 Seattle, Washington The Seahawks rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Patriots, 13-10, in the NFL season opener despite losing QB Sam Darnold to a hip injury just five plays into the game. Throwing the game away: "We want to be aggressive and just not reckless," said Pats head coach Mike Vrabel after Drake Maye threw three interceptions on New England's final three drives, including an egregious game-sealing pick in the end zone. Coco is moving on. (Julian Finney/Getty Images) 🎾 Queens, New York No. 4 Coco Gauff came back from a set down to beat No. 5 Mirra Andreeva, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, and advance to her second career US Open semifinal. Last time she made it this far, she won the tournament (2023). More quarterfinals: No. 2 Elena Rybakina beat Qinwen Zheng (and clinched the WTA No. 1 ranking); Top-seeded Alexander Zverev cruised in straight sets; Unseeded Karen Khachanov advanced in a walkover. Schwarbomb No. 44 was worth four runs. (Matt Slocum/AP Photo) ⚾️ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Kyle Schwarber blasted a towering grand slam to lift the Phillies to an 11-7 victory over the Astros and increase his lead in the MLB home run race. He now has 44 dingers on the season, three more than Pete Crow-Armstrong. Chasing the Babe: Schwarber has hit 231 homers since joining the Phillies in 2022. Five more this month and he'll pass Babe Ruth (235) for the most home runs in a player's first five seasons with a team.   🏈 SEASON KICKOFF THE OFF-FIELD GRIDIRON GAMES A giant NFL football outside Melbourne Cricket Ground, site of today's game between the Rams and 49ers. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images) The NFL is back, and the stakes extend well beyond wins and losses. As the action gets underway on the field, here are some of the key off-field business storylines worth monitoring this season, courtesy of Yahoo Sports Biz author Dylan Dittrich. 🌎 The league goes (even more) global. The NFL will play a record nine international games this season, beginning "tonight" in Melbourne in perhaps its most ambitious global venture to date. In total, the schedule takes teams to seven different countries, including a first visit to France. Just getting started: The NFL has already approved a move to 10 international games next season, and an 11th will likely follow, though that will require negotiations with the players. In addition, Roger Goodell said this summer that he has "no doubt" that there will eventually be an NFL franchise based internationally. 📺 Who blinks first in media rights staring contest? Just under a year ago, Goodell suggested the NFL could look to enter media rights negotiations in 2026, well ahead of schedule. Fast forward a year, and all momentum on that front has been replaced by abundant uncertainty among the league's partners as Paramount navigates the Warner Bros. acquisition, NBCUniversal faces life after Comcast and Fox voices a desire to negotiate closer to the end of its current deal.* Also worth watching: The league rebuked Nielsen's new methodology rollout, which it cautions could be negative for sports. Meanwhile, the boost from last year's Big Data switch is in the rear view. Could more apples-to-apples annual comparisons cast doubt on the NFL's up-and-to-the-right viewership trends? Workers install the pitch at MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets, ahead of the World Cup this summer. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images) 🏟️ The grass versus turf debate rages on. Seven NFL stadiums switched from artificial turf to natural grass to host World Cup matches. But that switch was only temporary, inciting an outcry from players who believe their well-being and preferences are #WorthTheCost of using natural grass. Though 92% of players prefer a natural surface, the situation is not black-and-white, even as the stadium split between turf and grass is nearly 50/50. Both the Patriots (turf) and Bills (natural grass) were forced to replace their fields this preseason. Ear to the ground: You'll never hear more about field quality, particularly in relation to non-contact injuries, than you will this season. In the players' eyes, the World Cup proved that using natural grass is feasible, and the choice of field is a matter of safety versus financials. While grass and turf surfaces must conform to NFL and NFLPA protocols, injuries on turf will be dissected under a more powerful microscope. 👋 So long, Sunday afternoon? The NFL season began on a Wednesday. The Packers will face the Rams in the league's first Thanksgiving Eve game. Santa will bring another Christmas Day triple-header down the chimney. Each year, the league seems to extend its reach further into non-traditional days of the week, diluting the Sunday slate. In 2006-07, Sunday afternoon games accounted for 83% of the total slate. This season? Just 72%. Reality check: For all the handwringing about the dilution of Sundays, this year's Sunday slate lost just one game relative to last season. The primary loser was Monday, with doubleheaders nixed (will anyone miss them?). Wednesday windows will dredge up the dilution discourse, but at least in the short term, the league's vice grip on Sundays hasn't weakened. *There's also the matter of the looming U.S. Court of Appeals decision on $14.1 billion in potential Sunday Ticket damages, as well as the reported DOJ probe into the league's broadcast distribution practices. Those, too, could impact the media rights state of play, though uncertainty will persist even if the legal status quo prevails.   ⚾️ IRON MEN THE PURSUIT OF 162 (Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports) Not taking days off has always been a point of pride around the game of baseball, where the best ability, it is often said, is availability. This season, MLB players are proving that sentiment is still true. Jake Mintz, Yahoo Sports: Four MLB players have started every one of their clubs' games this season: Atlanta's Matt Olson, Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero, Baltimore's Pete Alonso and Philadelphia's Bryce Harper. Another four — Chicago's Pete Crow-Armstrong, Pittsburgh's Bryan Reynolds, Cincinnati's Sal Stewart and Atlanta's Ozzie Albies — have appeared in every game. That's eight players on pace to finish the year with 162 games played, which would be the highest tally since 2005. Since the move to a 162-game season in 1961, there have been just four seasons (1962, 1964, 1974, 1980) in which more players appeared in 162 games. It's a fascinating trend, one seemingly at odds with the contemporary discourse about load management. Only four hoopers, for instance, started all 82 games during the most recent NBA season. But any baseball old heads, the ones starting sentences with "back in my day" and griping about the softness of the modern position player, are not standing on factual ground. Off-days have always been part of the sport. Today's game is not, in fact, poisoned with an over-abundance of entitled lollygaggers looking to do the least. This season's eight iron men are a testament to that. Keep reading: Why MLB players appearing in every game is trending up   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: THURSDAY, SEPT. 10 (Dillon Minshall/Yahoo Sports) 🏈 Rams vs. 49ers Two NFC West foes go head-to-head "tonight" (8:35pm ET, Netflix) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the NFL's first-ever game in Australia, where the Rams are 3.5-point favorites over the Niners. Local time at kickoff? 10:35am tomorrow morning. Not back yet: Three-time DPOY Aaron Donald didn't make the trip with the Rams, so his return to the field following his 2024 retirement will have to wait. "I think he'll be ready to go sooner rather than later," said head coach Sean McVay. 🎾 US Open, Semifinals The women's final four take the court today with No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Jessica Pegula getting things started (7pm, ESPN), followed by No. 2 Elena Rybakina vs. No. 4 Coco Gauff. All chalk: This is the first time since 2009 that the top four women's seeds reached the semifinals at any Grand Slam, and the first time since 1975 they did so at the US Open. The final four that year? No. 1 Chris Evert, No. 2 Virginia Wade, No. 3 Martina Navratilova and No. 4 Evonne Goolagong. More to watch: ⚽️ Champions League: Bayern Munich vs. Bodø/Glimt (3pm, Paramount+) … One of six games to wrap up Matchday 1. 🏈 NCAAF: Florida A&M at No. 7 Miami (8pm, ACC) … Miami's Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney will look to stay hot after connecting 12 times for 234 yards and 3 scores in the opener. 🏀 FIBA Women's World Cup: China vs. France (8:30am); Belgium vs. Germany (11:45am); Australia vs. Spain (2:45pm) … Quarterfinals on HBO Max. 🚴 Vuelta a España: Stage 18 (8:45am, Peacock) … Riders compete in a 20-mile time trial from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez de la Frontera.   ⚾ LET'S PLAY TRIVIA TIME Altuve hits a double in the third inning. (Houston Astros/Getty Images) Jose Altuve notched his 2,500th career hit on Wednesday, becoming just the second active MLB player to reach the milestone. Question: Who is the only other active player with 2,500+ hits? Hint: First baseman. Answer at the bottom.   🏈 WHO YA GOT? MAKE YOUR PICKS! (Dillon Minshall/Yahoo Sports) College Football Challenge is back for another week! Over 2,300 of you submitted entries for Week 1, and it's not too late to join in on the fun ahead of Saturday's slate. How it works: Each week, you'll make 10 picks against the spread regarding Saturday's best matchups. Among your choices for Week 2: No. 1 Ohio State (+1.5) at No. 4 Texas No. 11 Oklahoma (-5.5) at Michigan No. 6 Oregon (-22.5) at Oklahoma State No. 18 Tennessee (-13.5) at Georgia Tech Arkansas (+12.5) at No. 20 Utah Make your picks.   Trivia answer: Freddie Freeman

Donalds, Luna to speak at ‘multi-millionaire-palooza’ in Dallas Wednesday Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters says tonight’s first midterm Republican convention in Dallas has one mission: to defy history and grow Republican majorities in both the House and Senate in November. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/09/donalds-luna-to-speak-at-multi-millionaire-palooza-in-dallas-wednesday/? ps:Well they did a lot of gerrymandering, I'd be very surprised if they didn't keep both the house and senate!! Pathetic!!!!

Trump doesn’t have the power to limit mail-in voting, lawmakers tell US Supreme Court The hotly contested U.S. Postal Service rule restricting mail-in voting usurps Congress’ authority, as well as states’ power to administer elections, more than 250 current and former members of Congress said in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/09/repub/trump-doesnt-have-the-power-to-limit-mail-in-voting-lawmakers-tell-us-supreme-court/?

Angie Nixon says there are ‘$10 million reasons’ to oppose Ashley Moody ST. PETERSBURG — Three weeks after her double-digit victory in the Florida Democratic U.S. Senate primary, Angie Nixon is making her case to general election voters by linking GOP incumbent Ashley Moody to Donald Trump, saying she “rubber-stamps everything he does.” https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/09/angie-nixon-says-there-are-10-million-reasons-to-oppose-ashley-moody/? Doctors ask state for hearing on new proposed vaccine rule Florida physicians want a formal hearing on the DeSantis administration’s latest effort to weaken vaccine requirements for Florida schoolchildren. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/09/doctors-ask-state-for-hearing-on-new-proposed-vaccine-rule/? TikTok wants state’s suit dismissed, responds to state ban on minor social media use TikTok wants to scroll past Florida’s claim it isn’t complying with the state’s social media ban for minors, seeking to dismiss a lawsuit Attorney General James Uthmeier brought earlier this summer. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/10/tiktok-wants-states-suit-dismissed-responds-to-state-ban-on-minor-social-media-use/?

However, after reading Hobie's post, " NIV changes, from 'ta hagia' to 'hagia haggiwn'. ", I can see there is a difference. I highly recommend people read that.

I have often wondered, if Ellen White was alive today, what would her opinion be about how people have treated her writings. I think she would be shocked.

It's very interesting. This is the first time I have seen this. Thank you for posting it.

This is a great discussion. You said: KING JAMES BIBLE 'By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I WILL DESTROY THEE, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire...Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore WILL I BRING FORTH A FIRE from the midst of thee, IT SHALL DEVOUR THEE, and I WILL BRING THEE TO ASHES UPON THE EARTH in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people SHALL BE ASTONISHED at thee: THOU SHALT BE A TERROR AND NEVER SHALT THOU BE ANY MORE.' Ezekiel 28:16, 18,19. Here, the King James Bible clearly speaks of a FUTURE judgment to fall upon Satan. NIV VERSION 'Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. [verse stops here]..By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I MADE A FIRE COME OUT FROM YOU, AND IT CONSUMED YOU, and I REDUCED YOU TO ASHES ON THE GROUND in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you ARE APPALLED AT YOU: YOU HAVE COME TO A HORRIBLE END AND WILL BE NO MORE.' Ezekiel 28: 16,18,19. Ezekiel 28:16 New American Standard Bible 1995 16 “By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. 18 “By the multitude of your iniquities, In the unrighteousness of your trade You profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you. 19 “All who know you among the peoples Are appalled at you; You have become [j]terrified And you will cease to be forever.”’” I like the NASB 1995 so much better.

There are errors anytime men are involved as many preconceived ideas and wrong teachings can be brought in and have been, even by well meaning men and become tradition, but not be true. We see this in the idea that the wicked will continue to live eternally in hell, or that man is immortal, etc.. But these is a way to clearly understand and see the truth of the matter. So we have to look at what was brought in from outside of the scriptures, and being picked up although not its true meaning. In the case of this preconception, it actually led to the word being changed from its original meaning, to "Easter". The Greek word that the King James Version translates as “Easter” is actually the word “Pascha” (Hebrew: פסח—Pesach) which means “Passover”. It was during an annual Passover celebration that Jesus was crucified at Jerusalem. Here is the text in question: Acts 12:4 King James Version "4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." We find it was translated incorrectly because the bible scholars preconceived ideas led them to this. If we look at the text from previous versions we find it was correctly translated... Acts 12:4 1599 Geneva Bible "4 [a]And when he had caught him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to be kept, intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people." Acts 12:4 Wycliffe Bible "4 And when he had caught Peter, he sent him into prison; and betook him to four quaternions of knights, to keep him, and would after pask bring him forth to the people [willing after pask to bring him forth to the people]." And others.. Acts 12:4 Complete Jewish Bible "4 so when Herod seized him, he threw him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each, with the intention of bringing him to public trial after Pesach." Acts 12:4 Young's Literal Translation "4 whom also having seized, he did put in prison, having delivered [him] to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him, intending after the passover to bring him forth to the people."

A NYC firehouse was first to respond on 9/11. 25 years on, Sal Argano is the last still on staff Six members of the small Manhattan firehouse — nicknamed Ten House — were among the 343 New York City firefighters killed in the World Trade Center's collapse. New York City firefighter Sal Argano was on loan to another station that day. He got lucky. Read more. Why this matters: Almost 25 years later, Argano, now 65, is still on duty at the firehouse — the last of the firefighters assigned there in 2001 who still works there. Today, the crews at the firehouse respond to emergency calls but also serve as a de facto part of the 9/11 memorial, visited by crowds of tourists daily. Robert Favata, who joined Ladder 10 in 2008, considers the approaching 25th anniversary as likely one of his last before retirement. He worries, though, if he’s done enough to keep the memories of Ten House alive. “When I got here, so many of the guys worked 9/11 and they told me their stories of that day,” Favata said, choking on tears. “I just hope I can give like a percentage of what they’ve told me to the younger guys.” RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Associated Press journalists who witnessed Sept. 11 remember what they saw, 25 years later TSA brings back gate access for some people without plane tickets 25 years after 9/11

Trump says oil prices that spiked because of Iran war likely won’t come down until after midterms “Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” President Donald Trump said in an exchange with reporters before traveling to Dallas. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.” Read more. Why this matters: The comments were a striking acknowledgment from Trump about the conflict as his Republican administration faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran grinds on with no conclusion in sight. Oil prices on Wednesday jumped more than 3%, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July. Trump added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ UN nuclear watchdog board reports Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years Israeli strike in Gaza kills 4 including children and other Mideast developments

Trump, hoping to salvage midterms, promises to give every US adult $5,000 if GOP wins “It will be called the Trump Dividend,” President Donald Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. He has discussed the possibility before but has never tied it to his party’s electoral fortunes. Read more. Why this matters: Trump likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically." However, the dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation. Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance appeared to try to walk back Trump’s proposal — at least in part — by suggesting the dividend payments would not go to the wealthy. Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures. The White House did not respond to a message seeking details. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Criminal defense attorney says dividend promise is lawful, but not without challenges Democratic Sen. Fetterman speaks at GOP convention, fueling party-switch fears Democrats say Trump’s ‘bizarre’ convention is a distraction from his faltering presidency Trump defends Iran war, slams Democrats and more at the convention WATCH: ‘New America,’ ‘Trump Strait': Trump goes on a naming spree Photos of the convention Foulkes defeats Rhode Island’s Gov. McKee. He’s the first governor in 8 years to lose a primary Missouri’s congressional map is back before the U.S. Supreme Court, sowing still more confusion Rubio says US is working with allies to counter drugs but will ‘still blow up ships if need be’ Alcohol, whey and motorcycles are in the crosshairs of the US import ban on Canada products

Would a $5,000 check sway your vote? President Donald Trump vowed to pay every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win November’s midterm elections — an unprecedented offer as he tries to keep his party in power. He made the promise Wednesday night in Dallas as he headlined the GOP’s first midterm convention. But the announcement was short on specifics, with no clear explanation of how the pledge would be funded. In the current economy, a $5,000 check is an undeniably enticing proposition for households with already stretched budgets. For now, though, there’s no clear path from the promise to a payment. And Trump’s history of unfulfilled campaign pledges gives reason to be skeptical. His 2024 campaign alone offers two notable examples: Trump repeatedly vowed to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of returning to office, or even before being inaugurated, and to end inflation. During his 2016 campaign, he famously vowed that Mexico would pay for his border wall, which also did not happen. + Read more: Trump vows $5K payments to US adults if GOP keeps control of Congress but doesn’t say how + Fact check: Trump makes numerous false claims in Republican convention speech + Photo gallery: The first-ever Republican midterm convention ps:Nope!!

New clues from black box data Officials stand near a destroyed wing and engine as they inspect an Amazon cargo plane two days after it overshot a runway at Miami International Airport. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP) Newly released black box data is offering a clearer picture of the final moments aboard the Amazon Air Boeing 767 that overran a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday and struck vehicles, killing five people. As the plane descended, automated warnings repeatedly alerted the pilots that the aircraft was dropping too quickly and flying dangerously low. One pilot also expressed concern that the plane was going “too fast,” but investigators said there was no consistent verbal response from the other pilot. The National Transportation Safety Board has not explained why the crew failed to correct course, a question investigators are now examining as they interview the two pilots. + Read more: Cockpit voice recorder reveals Amazon pilot warned of plane’s speed before the deadly crash + Video: Pilots applied full power seconds before crash

Trump’s immigration crackdown, by the numbers Over the last year, the Trump administration’s immigration offensive has shifted considerably in both scope and intensity. Detentions are up nearly 70% since early 2025, while deportations are accelerating. The administration says immigration authorities are focusing their arrests on major criminals it calls “the worst of the worst.” But new data from Syracuse University shows that just 31% of ICE detainees have prior criminal convictions. At the same time, the crackdown has grown more aggressive and moved deeper into the US, with at least 20 people shot by on-duty ICE and Border Patrol agents since the second Trump administration began in January 2025. + Read more: Tracking the numbers behind Trump’s immigration offensive + Plus: Another group of immigrants may be on the verge of losing deportation protections

It’s officially the hottest summer on record The US just endured its hottest summer in 132 years of recordkeeping, surpassing even the infamous Dust Bowl summer of 1936, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. August and the June-through-August period both set all-time records, while July was the hottest month ever recorded in the country, with many cities enduring triple-digit temperatures. In all, a staggering 1,541 monthly heat records were tied or broken nationwide. This comes amid a strengthening El Niño in the tropical Pacific and the intensifying effects of climate change. + Read more: This is the hottest US summer on record, beating the Dust Bowl era + Video: What’s behind this summer’s extreme heat and what comes next + Stay ahead: Get your local forecast from the CNN Weather app ps:What is it now? The 3rd, 4th, etc. in a row that they say it is the hottest summer on record??

September 10, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning from London, where people are streaming into the British Museum to see the Bayeux Tapestry, over 220 feet of embroidery illustrating William the Conqueror’s invasion of England. It is on display to the public here for the first time since its creation nearly 1,000 years ago. Folks are stoked. In a speech last night at an unusual Republican midterm convention, President Trump told voters to “pretend that I am running.” He also promised to give every adult American $5,000 if Republicans win the House and Senate. (That would cost the government more than $1.3 trillion.) The convention continues today in Dallas. The midterms are looking like a mess. My colleague Evan Gorelick explains. John Tully for The New York Times What could go wrong? By Evan Gorelick The midterm elections are already uncommonly chaotic. Several states have redrawn their congressional maps. President Trump and his allies want to change how America handles mail-in ballots. Democrats accuse them of trying to cheat. And this week brought dueling legal opinions about which map Missouri can use on Election Day. Voters have already nominated candidates based on boundaries redrawn, at Trump’s insistence, to benefit Republicans. But the state’s Supreme Court later said those gerrymandered districts were invalid unless Missourians explicitly approved them, and a justice from the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. (No such vote has taken place.) Then a federal judge said Missouri could use Trump’s preferred map anyway. What is happening?? The answer lies partly in our increasingly polarized approach to elections. Trump claims elections are rigged against Republicans — both to rationalize his own defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 and now to impose new rules before midterm contests that may not go his way. And there are some reasons for suspicion. Russia and China have tried to influence our elections. Polls keep missing the mark. And screw-ups aren’t totally unheard-of: Many Americans remember 2000, when Florida’s voting machines failed to tabulate tens of thousands of ballots. Yet widespread cheating is a fiction. After multiple investigations, officials have found no evidence that fraud has affected any outcome. Trump’s false claims of cheating, however, are having an impact. Here’s how November 3 could be different this year. Voting by mail Nearly a third of voters cast mail-in ballots. Trump wants to control that process by patching together a huge list of U.S. citizens and then refusing to mail ballots to voters whose names aren’t on it. (The Constitution grants states and Congress the authority to administer elections, but the president controls the Postal Service, which would maintain the relevant screening system, my colleague Eileen Sullivan reports.) The U.S.P.S. has proposed not to deliver mail ballots in states that don’t turn over their voter rolls for the master list. That would make voting much more difficult, if not impossible, for tens of millions of Americans — especially Democrats, who vote by mail in higher numbers than Republicans. The Trump administration already said it would toss ballots that arrive after the deadline, and more ballots are coming in late this year. A whistle-blower alleged last week that the verification process could reject thousands of ballots that arrive in a batch if “even one bar code on one single ballot” fails to scan properly. The plan, including printing bespoke new ballot envelopes, would be virtually impossible for states to implement in time. A judge has blocked it, warning of chaos and “major disenfranchisement.” But the president has asked the Supreme Court to bless the idea for this cycle while challenges work their way through the legal system. Contested results Chase Castor for The New York Times Trump is the only president in U.S. history to try overturning an election. His ongoing assertion that elections are “rigged” creates a potential pretext for officials — a growing number of whom back the president’s election denialism, my colleagues Nick Corasaniti and Alexandra Berzon report — to question the outcome of this year’s midterms. If Democrats win enough seats to retake one or both chambers of Congress, then officials could: Claim they saw polling-site irregularities. The Justice Department has been deploying election monitors this primary season. It could do the same in November. (Trump has claimed that loads of undocumented immigrants vote, for instance, even though a database managed by the conservative Heritage Foundation identifies only about 100 cases of noncitizen voting over the last quarter century, or roughly two instances per U.S. state.) Claim voting machines lie. The president says they are “extremely exposed to attack” and has spread baseless allegations that they once “deleted” millions of votes. Trump told The Times he regretted not seizing voting machines after the 2020 election, and his administration has explored bringing criminal charges against election officials whom it believes did not sufficiently safeguard their computer systems. (Cyber experts have identified security flaws, but there’s no evidence they have ever been exploited to flip election results.) Claim there was foreign interference. Trump often complains, falsely, that China sabotaged him in 2020. This summer, he made a prime-time speech resurfacing that exaggerated narrative. There’s a grain of truth: Beijing collected American voter data. But such data is publicly available and often purchased by domestic political campaigns. On the other hand, Russian meddling might have helped Trump in 2016. Refuse to certify the results, or sue to challenge them. The Justice Department could unleash a torrent of post-election litigation. The agency has already demanded that states turn over voters’ confidential Social Security and drivers’ license data. Dozens of states have resisted, and the Justice Department sued them. It has lost every case so far. Still, election officials and Democrats worry the battle over voting records may be used to discredit or spread disinformation about midterm results. (Read The Times’s profile of the gladiatorial Trump official leading these efforts.) More on the midterms The fight over Missouri’s redrawn congressional map bounced back to the U.S. Supreme Court. The map has been in flux over the past few days, with conflicting orders from the state Supreme Court and a federal judge. Dan McKee, the governor of Rhode Island, lost his re-election bid. He’s the first sitting governor to lose a primary since 2018. Republican voters in Texas are turning against data centers pushed by their party leaders. Some have even joined with Democrats to fight the projects. THE LATEST NEWS Republican Convention Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times Trump’s plan to give $5,000 tells voters: We’ll pay you to keep my party in power. His departure for the convention was delayed after an aide accidentally deployed an inflatable emergency slide on the new Air Force One. Read takeaways from the convention. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, addressed the convention crowd via video, adding to speculation that he might switch parties. Trump’s two-day extravaganza is more like a made-for-TV parade than a traditional convention. It’s full of expensive photo ops. More Politics Trump gave his executive assistant Natalie Harp and two other aides $45,000 each in cash last year as a “gift for the holidays,” financial disclosure forms show. Jimmy Kimmel said that his planned interview today with James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee from Texas, would be posted on YouTube rather than aired live because of what Kimmel described as threats from the F.C.C. Trump went on a social media barrage over the long weekend, posting images of himself intimidating Canada’s prime minister with a hockey stick, bombing enemy targets and patrolling dark streets with robots. His feed shows his vision of reality, Peter Baker writes. Tech A researcher at Anthropic quit the company and warned that the A.I. industry was rushing to create “superhuman systems” that could lead to doomsday scenarios. Apple revealed its first foldable iPhone, called the iPhone Duo, starting at $1,999. The technology has so far failed to catch on with Americans. See the phone. Other Big Stories Last month tied July 2023 as the planet’s hottest month on record, as climate change heats the Earth. Ukraine wants $27 billion more to fight Russia this year. Europe would like to know why. Ask The Morning: Do you have questions about the news? Let us know here, and we’ll go find answers. OPINIONS Trump is abusing the Patriot Act, additional authority granted after Sept. 11, 2001, to target political enemies and violently crack down on protesters, an investigative journalist writes. New York Fashion Week kicks off today. It’s time for governments to limit the industry’s enormous waste, one writer argues. The Anniversary Sale is on: Morning readers, enjoy our best offer. Celebrate 175 years of The Times with savings on unlimited news, puzzles, recipes, sports and more. $1/week for your first year. Save now. MORNING READS Zunaira Saieed/The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. You just need to log in. Cloud seeding: Wildfire smoke in Malaysia is so bad that firefighters are trying to make rain. Stoned Age: Humans were getting high on betel nuts at least 16,000 years ago, according to evidence found in ancient teeth. It’s the earliest known use of a mind-altering substance. Rebranding: So long, Eurail. The flexible train ticket changed its name. (Gen X is sad.) Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a giant sinkhole at Nicolas Cage’s home. TODAY’S NUMBER Camille McOuat for The New York Times 9,974 — That is the number of square feet in the Funnel Suite aboard the Four Seasons I, a luxury cruise ship. The suite has its own gym, spa, plunge pool and multiple bedrooms, all with unobstructed ocean views. While the price is available only upon request, the suite has sold for more than $300,000 on past journeys. Looks pretty nice. SPORTS N.F.L.: The 2026 season opened last night in Seattle, where the defending champion Seahawks beat the New England Patriots, in a rematch of this year’s Super Bowl. Tennis: Coco Gauff came from behind to beat the 19-year-old French Open champion, Mirra Andreeva. RECIPE OF THE DAY Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Liza Jernow. Marian Burros’s recipe for plum torte, one of the most popular recipes The Times has ever published, turns 43 this year. You can make it with other stone fruits, with berries, with different flours, with spices and tinctures and herbs. I make mine, always, in a cast-iron skillet. But any oven-safe pan will do. READ TO ME Vincent Tullo for The New York Times The Times spent seven months following the production of a single audiobook — “Switzy,” the latest novel by Emma Cline. (Here’s our review.) Watch and listen as the casting comes together, the recording commences, the tongue-twisters are dealt with, and the quality is kept high. It’s pretty cool. More on culture I tried to get a ticket to see the Bayeux Tapestry, but it’s sold out through the end of the year. For those desperate to see it, though, there are several replicas around the world that are often free — and available — to view. We’ve rounded them up here. Have you seen the new uniforms that Trump proposed for the U.S. Space Force? Vanessa Friedman, our fashion critic, calls them telling: “Think sci-fi Hitler by way of Hollywood, and you will get the idea.” See for yourself. In the World Tango Championships, dancers glittered and dipped in Argentina. See these excellent photos in The Guardian. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Dana Davis/NYT Wirecutter; source photos by Justin Baltzer, AJ Maiorana, Wayne Rogers via Facebook, AdobeStock Tailgate like these football maniacs. Their tips for parking lot gastronomy are excellent. (I might get an electric hot dog roller for the office.) Prevent memory loss: Memorize your shopping list. Navigate without a G.P.S. Play games. The Well desk has even more tips. Eat eggs and soldiers for breakfast — that’s soft-boiled eggs served alongside crisp, buttered toast cut into thin strips for dipping. Do so at Bar Finch in London, if you can manage it. Very civilized. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was purloin. 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 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 10 1897 First drunk driving arrest A London cab driver was arrested after driving into a building. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1846 The struggling Donner Party sends ahead to California for food 1813 The Battle of Lake Erie Arts & Entertainment 1981 Picasso’s “Guernica” is returned to Spain 1991 Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is released as a single Colonial America 1608 John Smith elected to lead Jamestown Crime 1921 Silent film star Fatty Arbuckle arrested for murder European History 1977 The guillotine falls silent Inventions & Science 2008 CERN Large Hadron Collider is powered up Natural Disasters & Environment 1960 Hurricane Donna batters the Florida Keys World War I 1919 New York City parade honors World War I veterans World War II 1940 British War Cabinet reacts to the Blitz in kind

🏈 Pic to go Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images Vinod Khosla — the new owner of the Seattle Seahawks — waves a rally towel before the NFL season opener against the New England Patriots in Seattle last night, a rematch of last season's Super Bowl. Seahawks rallied for a 13-10 victory. Week 1 picks.

🗳️ GOP revives 9/11 playbook Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports from the GOP convention at American Airlines Center in Dallas: Republicans are invoking 9/11 to bash left-wing Democrats in a growing number of midterm races, seizing on the 25th anniversary of the attacks to portray them or their supporters as anti-American and sympathetic to terrorists. Why it matters: It marks the return of a controversial political tactic that was common in the years after the 9/11 attacks but had largely faded from campaigns over the past quarter-century. 👓 Between the lines: The GOP's 9/11-focused barrage is part of a broader effort to brand Democrats as extreme and increasingly influenced by the party's left wing, and turn midterms into a "Who's worse?" election. The strategy is playing out most prominently in Michigan, where Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is expected to use his speech at the GOP's midterm convention to assail Democrat Abdul El-Sayed over 9/11, Axios has learned. Rogers aims to contrast El-Sayed's relationship with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker — who said in 2019 that "America deserved 9/11" (a comment Piker now disavows) — with Rogers' own background as an FBI agent, according to a person familiar with his prepared remarks. 🔭 Zoom out: In New York, the National Republican Congressional Committee attacked Democratic House candidate Effie Phillips-Staley over an appearance she made with Piker, and called on her primary rivals to condemn her. In Colorado, Republicans have assailed Democratic House candidate Melat Kiros for saying 9/11 was "inevitable" because of America's policies in the Middle East.

Trump plans $500 Obamacare rebates The Trump administration plans to send $500 rebate checks to as many as 1 million people who it says were overcharged for coverage under Obamacare, Axios' Marc Caputo has learned. The direct-deposit payment would be sent to people in 30 states before the Nov. 3 midterm election, as President Trump touts savings from his tax-cut legislation and prescription drug plan. The plan underscores a tenet of Trump's idea for remaking the health care system, which involves subsidizing more Americans directly for their coverage instead of paying health insurers. Keep reading. 💰 Another cash promise ... In a new wrinkle during his marathon speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last night, President Trump said: "If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate — both of them ... because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000 ... It will be called the Trump Dividend." He likened the payments to a successful company's distributions to shareholders. Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance suggested the dividend payments wouldn't go to the wealthy. Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures. (AP) 🥊 Joe Lonsdale, venture capitalist and Trump ally, wrote on X in response to Trump's bonus idea: "For the record, I am hugely in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin, but am strongly against bread and circus bribes." ps:What a crock of Bull Manure!!

The AI twilight zone Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Two seemingly contradictory realities are true at once, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column with Zachary Basu: Most people find AI only modestly useful, a more clever Google search. Many people building AI or using it obsessively worry it could severely damage or destroy humanity. Why it matters: We're living in an AI twilight zone. For many, the technology is simultaneously underwhelming in daily use and terrifying in its trajectory. The gap between these two realities helps explain why confusion and fear are exploding across politics, AI labs and business. 💡 State of play: The AI labs are in full panic. They worry the public dislikes AI and despises data centers — and that's before Anthropic insiders went public with their latest warnings that AI could end humanity this decade. They're uncertain how to showcase potential benefits of AI when X and now mainstream media are lit up with horror stories about rogue or ruinous AI. The data center backlash showed how fast public opinion turned against them. Their worst-case scenario: They lose full control of the politics, with both parties rushing to slow or stop AI in the run-up to the election. Between the lines: The past 36 hours show how fast politics and public opinion are moving. A low-level Anthropic employee for all of four months drove the national conversation — and 142 million views on X alone — by warning AI could end humanity. Numerous people, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have issued similar warnings to us for years. But the tone and timing struck a nerve — and stirred countless members of Congress to call for new AI regulations. 🔎 Zoom in: Let's look at this tale of two worlds through two different sets of eyes — a mid-career manager and an Anthropic data scientist. The average manager has limited time to experiment with AI, worries it might threaten their job, and mostly uses the models as a search engine and for writing better emails or presentations. It's a nice-to-have, sometimes delightful, other times unimpressive. They don't understand the hype. The Anthropic employee spends all day, every day, staring at rapidly improving AI, often mesmerized, even spooked, by what it does. They see it exceeding even the most optimistic benchmarks, then spend their nights and weekends with similar AI obsessives discussing how it could cure cancer — or go rogue and destroy humankind. To them, this is truly civilizational and existential — a clear reality, not hype. The catch: AI companies have to explain both realities at once. But almost every version of the pitch sounds suspicious. Tell Americans today's AI will transform their lives, and many look at their own experience and wonder what the fuss is about. Tell them tomorrow's AI could become vastly more powerful, and the obvious response is: Then why are you racing to build it? Warn about catastrophic risk while spending hundreds of billions to accelerate development, and critics hear either hypocrisy or fear-based marketing. But keep in mind that the big AI labs are working with unreleased models weeks before the public sees them — plus early training data on future models, months in advance. So they are often warning about progress invisible to the public and government. 🖼️ The big picture: The politics are shifting fast. Until now, much of the AI backlash centered on tangible costs — lost jobs, deepfakes, power bills and data centers. Then on Tuesday, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit and accused frontier labs of "gambling with our lives." Anthropic's alignment-science lead — who still works at the lab — responded by agreeing that AI could kill humanity, and said his personal odds of that happening in the next decade are over 10%. By yesterday afternoon, the alarm had gone bipartisan in a Washington already rattled by OpenAI's Hugging Face incident: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described AI companies as being in a "blind race to build a death machine first." Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) renewed his push for a bipartisan AI kill switch. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has already proposed a data center moratorium and ban on superintelligence, is convening senators next week for a briefing on AI's "extraordinary dangers." Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, tweeted: "I hope warnings like these will help my colleagues understand how important it is to take broad action on AI regulation, and to do it swiftly." Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of Washington's loudest advocates for beating China in the AI race, called the risks "dangerous and frightening" and said guardrails are needed. The bottom line: The AI twilight zone has created fertile ground for a generational populist backlash. The industry requires Americans to absorb enormous disruption today for a future its own builders describe as miraculous or apocalyptic — sometimes in the same breath.

Vernor’s Ginger Ale is the oldest soda still being sold. It was created by Detroit pharmacist James Vernor in 1866. James

Down the shore Photo: Joan Fine A show-stopping late-summer sunset at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park in N.J., snapped by reader Joan Fine.

There's a book club for that Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios Americans may be reading less, but bookstores are thriving and book clubs are bringing people together. Book club events on Eventbrite jumped 33% during the first half of this year compared with the same time last year, Axios' Sami Sparber reports. 👀 The intrigue: The book club boom has been largely driven by "hyper niche" meetups that bring together readers who love the same genres or have the same hobbies, Eventbrite says. Readers are lacing up corsets and attaching prosthetic fairy ears to gather with fellow fans of the red-hot "romantasy" genre. They're reading together silently, sometimes not even the same book. Indie bookstores are hosting clubs for people who want to craft while they discuss books. 👻 Case in point: At Atlanta bookstore Offbeat Books, each book club has its own vibe, owner Lindsi Bollinger tells Axios. The horror club spills into movie talk, while the nonfiction club is run "pretty much like a classroom," with PowerPoints, a projector and discussion questions. There's also a "weird girl" reading group — part of a literary trend celebrating books with messy, strange, complicated female protagonists. 👥 Between the lines: Book clubs are also getting a lift as younger people get more into offline hobbies and in-person hangouts. "One of my favorite parts of book club is when we have ended the book club and people are just talking to each other … maybe making plans outside of the book club," says Hannah Mathews, a bookseller at Offbeat Books who facilitates the "weird girl" club.