NPR News: 09-14-2026 3PM EDT

0:00This message comes from Synchrony Bank, who can help you get your do-nothing savings off the couch and working hard. No more sleeping late and needing all the chips. Time to start earning your keep in a big way, with their high yield savings account that has a great rate, easy access to your funds, and no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Put your lazy savings to work. Go to Synchrony.com slash NPR. Remember FDIC. Lie from NPR News, Amlak Shmi Singh. Congress is divided over how to address dire warnings about the rapid development of artificial intelligence. The debate was thrust to the forefront after leaders of top AI companies urged a slow down for safety. Here's NPR Sam Greenglass. Send a minority leader Chuck Schumer is calling for an immediate all-sendators briefing. Here's House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries on ABC. We should take decisive action now so that we can slow down the pace of development in order to protect the American people and ensure that AI is proceeding safely.

1:03House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that AI companies should take the lead. We need to handle this new technology like we have others in the past, and make sure we're doing everything we can responsibly to also not smother American innovation. After this week, the House will recess until after the midterms, making sweeping legislation extremely unlikely anytime soon. Sam Greenglass and PR News Washington. Vice President J.D. Van says there are downsides to anything but that's certainly not true of AI. I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse. So I think we just have to be careful about this. Like Washington, Beijing also rejects the tech executives warnings about AI of which development is a central part of competition between the world's two biggest economies. A federal judge in Washington DC has blocked a U.S. Postal Service Plan for President Trump's attempt to restrict mail-in voting for the midterm elections.

2:06Here's NPR's Hansi Lohong. This latest ruling is by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a nominee of President Trump. Nichols found the U.S. Postal Service has no authority to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to voters and states where election officials do not turn over voter lists to the mailing agency and do not have certain barcodes in their ballot envelopes. We should note U.S. PS is a financial support of NPR. The Supreme Court has been reviewing a similar order by a federal judge in Boston and the high court may issue its ruling at any time. NPR's Hansi Lohong reporting. A meeting between Iran and Gulf Arab states set for today has been put off indefinitely according to Oman's Foreign Minister. We have the latest from NPR's Hediel Al-Shalchi. The Omani Foreign Minister said in a post online that the meeting between Gulf states and Iran was postponed, quote, in the interests of consensus. The Gulf depends on the straight of hormones for its oil export and imports. Oman and Iran have been trying to reach an agreement to temporarily reopen the key waterway, but nothing has materialized yet. Iran has been responding to U.S. strikes by attacking U.S. bases in Gulf countries and the Gulf sees itself as collateral damage in this conflict.

3:11The U.S., which the Gulf states have relied on for their security, has signaled the war could drag on, pushing Arab states to negotiate with Iran to get off its target list. Hediel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Istanbul. It's NPR. Abbott Laboratories is expected to pay more than $384 million to settle allegations that violated federal health and safety requirements in the making of baby formula. The Justice Department cites failures at facilities in Michigan and Arizona. Under the settlement, Abbott does not admit fault or liability. The investigation to baby formula contamination led to supply shortages in 2022. The Biden administration airlifted formula from Europe and invoked federal emergency rules to prioritize U.S. production during the shortage. The 78th Emmy Awards air tonight NPR's Chloe Veltman has this preview.

4:11Popular series like Hax, Abbott Elementary and the Bear are all nominated for the top comedy award alongside newcomers Widow's Bay and Margot's Got Money Troubles. On the drama side, last year's winner, the Pitt, is facing off against Pluribus, Slow Horses, the diplomat and more. The television academy already gave out some honors earlier this month. Rob Reiner was posthumously awarded his third Emmy for a guest appearance on the bear. I have consulted for everything from Fortune 500 companies to strip more laundromats. Hogate, the event's host won two awards for her documentary, My Mom Jane, about her late mother, Hollywood's 1950 star Jane Mansfield, Chloe Veltman and PR News. And again, the event will be hosted by a lot in order SVU star, Mariska Hargate. U.S. stocks trading lower with the Dow down 70 points, you're listening to NPR News. This message is from Synchrony Bank, who wants to remind you to stay flexible. Not the yoga-bending circus performing kind of flexible, financially flexible, like with their high yield savings account.

5:16Stay flexible at synchrony.com slash NPR. Remember FDIC.