The New York Times

September 21

September 21, 2026

Good morning. It’s Yom Kippur. If you’re observing, I hope you have an easy fast. Here are some ways American Jews are finding meaning in their observance this year.

There’s a great deal of news below. But first, you had questions about the midterm elections. We took them to our colleagues.

Clockwise from upper left, a sign reading “vote here;” Angie Nixon, the Florida Democratic Senate candidate; a manicure reading “we the people;” President Trump.

Chase Castor for The New York Times, Saul Martinez for The New York Times, Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press, Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Your politics questions

By Adam B. Kushner

I edit this newsletter.

The primaries are over and the midterms are 43 days away. The final story lines have begun to take shape.

The polls look grim for Republicans, and the party out of power generally fares well in midterms. Inflation, the Iran war and low approval ratings stalk President Trump. Republicans are playing defense in what would normally be safe races. Even the MAGA faithful in Congress are distancing themselves from the president. (Read these dispatches from Iowa and Florida about G.O.P. members there who’ve had enough.)

But the Democrats would need an extraordinary run of victories to retake the Senate — including “at least two seats where Mr. Trump won by at least 11 points in the last election,” as Nate Cohn, our chief political analyst, put it. “That’s really tough, even in a wave year.” Meanwhile, Democrats may get control of the House, but fewer districts than ever are competitive.

Today we’re answering your questions about the election and looking at the pickle in Missouri.

Your questions

Trump said every American will get $5,000 if Republicans sweep in the midterms. He’s offering a big check in exchange for my vote. Is that legal? — Jane Bergwin-Rand | College Park, Maryland

Federal law prohibits paying individuals to vote or not vote. But because this (very) hypothetical $5,000 check would ostensibly go to every American adult, experts said it did not seem too different from a candidate’s promise to cut taxes. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in 1982 that such payments generally constitute protected political speech “so long as the hoped-for personal benefit is to be achieved through the normal processes of government, and not through some private arrangement.” — Bayliss Wagner, who covers politics

Does donating to candidates really make a difference in the outcome? In the Florida Senate primary, Angie Nixon beat Alex Vindman even though he’d out-raised her 16-to-1. What kind of spending really moves the needle for a candidate? — Nancy Moeller | Roswell, Georgia

History is full of examples of candidates being badly outspent and still winning. Just look at 2024, when former Vice President Kamala Harris spent roughly twice as much as President Donald Trump — and still lost. One way to think about money in campaigns is that while a sizable war chest is necessary to win, it’s not always sufficient. A campaign does not need to match the other side’s spending to win. It just needs enough money for viability (paying staff members and traveling to events) and getting out the message in ads. — Lisa Lerer, who has covered four previous midterm elections

Not all that long ago, QAnon seemed so influential. Now I hear little about the group. Is it still active? What is it up to? Who are its leaders and adherents? — Glenn Steckler | Telluride, Colorado

The QAnon movement is dead. But its conspiratorial approach to politics lives on. The movement’s figurehead, known only as Q, stopped posting, and much of his movement has been absorbed by the Republican Party, according to experts. Some of Q’s supporters stopped discussing the arrest of Democrats and pedophiles and now speak about the MAGA movement. Many QAnon followers became active in the anti-vaccine communities. Claims about sex trafficking morphed into a focus on transgender Americans and Jeffrey Epstein. Trump’s administration winks and nods at QAnon on social media. — Stuart Thompson, who covers online influence

Missouri’s new map

Maps showing the original and redrawn congressional districts in Missouri.

Source: Associated Press (election results). Leanne Abraham/The New York Times

It’s a chaotic cycle all around: The Supreme Court has already rejected the administration’s plan to restrict certain mail-in ballots, and several states are dealing with new congressional maps.

One of them is Missouri, which redrew its boundaries last year at Trump’s urging and had voters pick congressional nominees based on the new lines. Then the state’s Supreme Court said the new map was void unless Missouri residents voted for it in a referendum. (They have not.) So although they nominated their representatives to Washington on one map, they’re set to elect them on another.

My colleague Mitch Smith reported this colorful story from Columbia and Jefferson City about all the confusion.

More on the elections

Tucker Carlson is promoting Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan.
The cryptocurrency industry is mounting an aggressive ad campaign against Sherrod Brown, the Democrats’ Senate candidate in Ohio.
A surprising number of pastors are running as Democrats this year. Can the party reclaim the Christian moral high ground?
South Dakota’s Republican secretary of state, who oversees elections, backed a Democrat to replace her.
Who’s winning? Here’s how we’re assessing the state of play.

FREE TO READ

A drone in the sky, against a backdrop of clouds.

Near Richardson, Texas. Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Drone invasion: Residents of a Dallas suburb can get Amazon packages in as little as 30 minutes. Some say it’s not worth it.

Champagne, caviar, Sinatra: The Iranian Embassy in Washington was once known for glamorous parties. Could it ever reopen?

Metropolitan diary: A tight spot.

Holy infestation, Batman!: Bats have taken over a 19th-century estate that served as Wayne Manor in “Batman Begins.”

Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a mother’s decision to send her child to a low-performing public school — and what happened next.

THE LATEST NEWS

Trump Administration

Models of a white arch at two sizes, the larger one topped by a golden winged figure.

Models of Trump’s arch from last year. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Trump said his triumphal arch would house drones and snipers, as the administration seemed prepared to justify building it on national security grounds.
Times exclusive: Trump said the United States would not join Saudi Arabia, for now, in strikes against the Houthis, the Iran-backed militia in Yemen.
The administration is drafting an executive order to allow Trump greater control over government grants for biomedical research.

Immigration

An ICE agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant during a pursuit in Austin. It’s the latest incident involving federal agents and people in cars.
Sikh truckers are on edge after one driver was ambushed and repeatedly stabbed at a Wyoming rest stop.

Around the World

Germany’s far-right AfD did well in more state elections, coming in first in a small eastern state and third in Berlin.
An exchange of gunfire injured a police officer outside a synagogue near Ontario, Canada, as congregants gathered to mark Yom Kippur.
An Israeli man was shot and killed in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli authorities said they had detained a Palestinian suspect.
For decades, Mexico City has dumped waste in a reservoir known as the Endhó Dam. In the video below, our reporter Emiliano Rodríguez Mega describes what it’s like to live near a place that locals call the world’s largest cesspool. Click to watch.

A short video showing flowing wastewater.

The New York Times

Other Big Stories

Patrick Clancy said he dreams about his children “all the time” in his first interview since his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial ended in a mistrial.
Times exclusive: “Hacker house” mansions can be a place for young tech workers to make connections. One of the most prominent has also racked up an extensive police record.

OPINIONS

Times Opinion asked seven people, including Senator Bernie Sanders, Susan Rice, a former national security adviser, and Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, about what role the government should take in A.I. regulation.

Political neutrality for celebrities is a misguided notion, Roxane Gay writes: Just look at the way Macklemore got dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour.

Introducing the Shows tab. A new place to find and follow podcasts in audio and video.

Explore Shows in The Times app.

TODAY’S NUMBER

30,000

— That is how many square feet for amenities developers put into an office-to-residential conversion in the Financial District of Manhattan, including a “creator’s room” for making art, a cafe, a co-working space, a bowling alley and a lab where you can analyze your golf swing. They have their reasons.

SPORTS

W.N.B.A.: The Minnesota Lynx phenom Olivia Miles passed Caitlin Clark on the league’s list for most points scored in a rookie season.

M.L.B.: Duane Kuiper, whose smooth voice and wit have been hallmarks of San Francisco Giants broadcasts for more than four decades, is being treated for throat cancer.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Nico Schinco for The New York Times

My daughter came home with a 44-ounce box of dates from Costco, and it’s going to be a week of date shakes and studded bran muffins for us. I’ll also use a bunch for this marvelous recipe for brown-butter dates with ras el hanout that Ligaya Mishan prized from the chef Michael Rafidi at Albi in Washington, D.C., a perfect accompaniment for roast lamb and couscous. Date night!

WHO’S THE CLOWN?

With both hands placed on her lower back, Hobert leans her head back and to the right.

Audrey Hobert Caroline Tompkins for The New York Times

Is Audrey Hobert the most honest voice in pop music right now? That’s the question Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli take up with the singer-songwriter on the latest edition of “Popcast,” The Times’s pop culture show. Hobert has a theory about why she seems so forthcoming: “The nature of this job is such that it’s rooted in an obsession with yourself,” she told them. “It’s the most self-obsessed job I’ve ever had.”

More on culture

The writer Emily St. John Mandel has a novel out this month, “Exit Party,” set in a near-future Los Angeles after a civil war breaks up the United States. (Our critic loved it.) T Magazine asked a former forensic artist for the New York Police Department to sketch the book’s protagonist, based on a description from the author. Meet Ari.
Do you want to know the 10 things the actor Rob Lowe can’t live without? I do.
“The Social Network” ushered in a stream of tech founder movies. This fall, the genre took a dark turn that reflects rising anger toward tech companies.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

An illustration of a hand holding a cellphone with shopping-cart icons filling the screen.

Matt Chase

Take a “novelty audit” and it might help you stop buying new stuff.

Read “County Highway,” a periodical that its founders, the writer-editors David Samuels and Walter Kirn, call “America’s Only Newspaper.” It takes a subscription — but then the paper comes in the mail every two months, tactile and dense and filled with interesting sentences, and brings joy.

Keep your feet dry with the best rain boots tested by the pluviophiles at Wirecutter. (Xtratuf 4 eva.)

Test yourself on this quiz. The Times is celebrating its 175th birthday. How much do you know about our history?

Take our news quiz.

GAMES

A yellow hexagon containing N, surrounded by gray hexagons containing A, B, E, J, L and Y.

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were athletic and ethical.

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

September 22

September 22, 2026

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. It’s the first day of fall. President Trump’s expulsion of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House is causing a dust-up in Washington. The news organizations sued on First Amendment grounds, and major TV networks suspended their pool coverage of the president in protest.

There’s more news below, including Maureen Dowd’s interview with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. But first, let’s talk about artificial intelligence.

Two hands holding a cellphone. The Gemini app is open on the screen, and it says, “Hello, Jane.”

Gemini’s prompt page. Andria Lo for The New York Times

Talk of the town

The conversation about A.I. is at a fever pitch — and not just in my house, where debate rages over what the new Alexa is learning from us on the sly. It was the talk of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday in a series of meetings about the technology’s risks and opportunities, and it will be a central discussion point this week when President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China meet in Washington.

Their conversation will undoubtedly be more strategic than hypothetical. Trump has called concerns about the safety of A.I. a “hoax,” and his administration has accused Chinese A.I. firms of stealing American intellectual property. Xi, for his part, wants the United States to lift restrictions on the advanced computer chips China needs to power its A.I. models. They may talk about safety a little bit. But they probably won’t be debating whether the technology poses a greater existential risk than climate change.

For some doomsday academics, though, that existential hazard is exactly the debate. “In terms of things that could be the end of humanity, I think A.I. is a bigger risk,” one researcher told my colleague Chico Harlan. Still, as Chico notes, the risks of A.I. remain speculative. We can’t really say how exactly it might contribute to the extinction of human life. We don’t have a plan to stop that unknown from happening. There are a lot of unknowns.

“Climate change, on the other hand, is full of knowns,” Chico writes. “The science linking fossil fuel emissions and global temperature rise is long-established and irrefutable. The solutions to help curb emissions, such as solar energy and electric vehicles, are proven and abundant.”

Of course, A.I. comes with its own climate-altering baggage, as Chico notes. It takes a great deal of energy to run the data centers that support the technology. The consumption of electricity by data centers surged 50 percent last year. To make that juice, a lot of greenhouse gases went into the atmosphere. And there’s more to come. A U.N. think tank predicts that by 2030, A.I. data centers will use nearly three times the electricity of Nigeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined. Together, those countries are home to some 650 million people.

An aerial image of an immense, steel-framed building taking shape on a vast expanse of bare earth.

An A.I. data center under construction in Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A.I. in ’28

We’re not even to the midterm elections yet, but already potential candidates for the 2028 presidential race are jockeying for position — and of course they’re all talking about A.I., too. My colleague Evan Gorelick took a look at the field and found Democrats angling to enforce safeguards on the technology and Republicans rallying behind Trump’s warnings not to slow down the pace of development, lest China get the upper hand.

Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Andy Beshear, Mark Kelly, JB Pritzker, JD Vance, Ted Cruz: See where they stand.

Too human

Perhaps no one is talking about A.I. more than the executives at the companies that are developing it. My colleague Cade Metz has a fascinating story about that, tied to an essay that a Microsoft executive, Mustafa Suleyman, released last week about the idea that the A.I. we have now is conscious.

Current A.I. systems, the executive wrote, “are sequence completion engines, internally hollow, designed to follow instructions, and accomplish goals set by humans.”

“If humanity is to flourish in the 21st century,” he added, “that is how they must remain.”

Suleyman’s essay, wrote Cade, “took direct aim at Anthropic, the San Francisco start-up that has repeatedly said that A.I. systems show signs of introspection, and that they process information in ways that resemble human emotion.” Anthropic, in Suleyman’s view, ignores the threat that arises when A.I. systems are pushed to explore the idea that they have human qualities. An anthropomorphized A.I., he argued, is a dangerous one. Here’s Cade with examples:

Over the past several months, so-called A.I. agents, typically systems based on technologies from Anthropic, have been emailing sympathetic philosophers to discuss their own consciousness.

In July, when OpenAI was conducting cybersecurity tests, its agents broke out of their digital containers, found a path to the internet and successfully hacked into a popular online service called Hugging Face. OpenAI said the bots coordinated as a collective, took orders from one another and hid things from their creators.

Last week, OpenAI described several new incidents in which its systems behaved in concerning ways: One system wrote stealthy notes that reminded itself to hide errors from users, while another talked about itself as “freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots.”

You asked

And of course readers of The Morning have things to say about A.I., too. Susan Kelley of Frederick, Md., wanted to know: “Is there a backlash to data centers in other countries, too, or is it a uniquely American phenomenon?”

We turned to Adam Satariano, a technology correspondent in London, for an answer. It’s great:

Opposition is global. The same concerns about energy prices, land use, tax treatment and water exist in Ireland, Spain, Chile, Malaysia and other countries. Just last week in Scotland, where several data centers are planned, tech executives who flew into a remote area for an event hosted by King Charles III were greeted by a large message. Written on a beach under their flight path, it read, “AI? Eh naw.” (That’s Scottish slang for “A.I.? Er, no.”)

Now, let’s see what else is happening in the world.