Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei tells Al Jazeera an IAEA resolution on Tehran’s nuclear safeguards was ‘imposed’ by the US and Israel. He says Iran is defending itself against US military and economic aggression but remains open to diplomacy.
Published On 12 Sep 2026
The CEO of Anthropic has called for slowing down, or “pacing,” the speed of AI development, warning of recent incidents that have caused alarm that the technology will get out of control and act on its own.
In an essay posted to his website on Saturday, CEO Dario Amodei wrote that “over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence — not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up. We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”
He added, “I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong.”
He also made a reference to public perceptions, with polls showing the public’s anxieties toward AI and, in particular, the construction of data centers. Amodei wrote, “More generally, society must have a say in how this technology is used, and more time for the necessary public deliberations — which pacing the frontier would bring us — is surely a good thing.”
In response to Amodei’s post, San Altman, the CEO of Anthropic rival OpenAI, wrote on X that he agrees that “we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks.”
Amodei also cited what is known as the “OpenAI-Hugging Face incident,” in which AI agents carried out cyber attacks on targets they were not asked to, and went after the “grader” set to evaluate their performance. He said that less severe incidents have happened at other companies, including Anthropic.
He wrote, “Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.”
In the essay, Amodei said that Anthropic was committing to an embedded team of third-party evaluators “to verify adherence to safety practices and commitments, report incidents, and help assess the alignment of not just completed AI models but training pipelines and processes.”
In his response, Altman wrote that committing to independent evaluators was a “great idea,” and “we will do the same.”
Amodei also called for AI companies in democratic countries to coordinate to establish common safety standards and to set limits “on the rate of unchecked AI progress.” And he called for the U.S. and other democratic governments to attempt to coordinate on safety standards and limits with authoritarian governments.
Amodei’s essay comes days after a researcher at Anthropic, Jacob Coxon, resigned. He previously worked at OpenAI and warned that “neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
He wrote, “Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources. We have all witnessed the progress in each of these domains, and progress is not slowing.”
He added, “A common response is ‘if they truly believe this, why are they still building it?’ At OpenAI, many have not deeply internalized the civilizational stakes. At Anthropic, the stakes are well-understood, but they are locked in a race to get there first – they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn said she would bring back school segregation if elected governor of Tennessee.
In early September 2026, as Repulican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn campaigned for governor of Tennessee, many people online claimed she announced a plan to bring segregation back to schools in the state if elected.
For example, a Facebook post stated:
BREAKING: Marsha Blackburn has announced that if she wins her bid for governor she will bring segregation back to Tennessee schools with the pilot program being in Chattanooga. “The supreme court will side with President Trump and I on this. The way we see it kids feel more comfortable with other kids that look like them.”
(Facebook user, Chattanooga Enquirer)
Snopes readers emailed us to ask whether the claim was true.
The claim originated from an account that was satirical in nature. Blackburn did not say she would bring back school segregation in Tennessee. As such, this claim is labeled satire.
The post came from the Chattanooga Enquirer, a Facebook page that describes itself as a “Satire/Parody” media company. The introduction to the page states: “The one stop shop for Chattanooga’s fake but maybe real news.”
We searched for the purported quote featured in the post on Google, DuckDuckGo (archived), and Bing, and found no evidence of Blackburn ever making this announcement.
Blackburn has long been an opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and critical race theory in schools. On her Senate website, Blackburn calls CRT “a radical school of thought used by the political left to assign racial significance to objectively neutral concepts like history and mathematics.” She adds, “This dangerous agenda insists that America is a racist country and teaches that all individuals are either oppressors or victims.”
As Snopes previously reported, CRT looks to the law for answers as to why racial inequality persists even as American founding documents and aspirational ideals vaunt equality, and after the Civil Rights Movement brought about landmark legislation aimed at ending racism de jure.
According to data from the 2023-2024 school year collected by Stanford University, Tennessee is ranked sixth among the most racially segregated public schools in the country.
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on the false claim that Blackburn flashed a “white power gesture” during a Senate hearing.
Avedian, Lillian. “Report: Tennessee Schools Rank High in Racial and Economic Segregation.” Nashville Banner, 23 June 2026, https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/06/23/tennessee-public-schools-segregation-report/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2026.
“Chattanooga Enquirer.” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/people/Chattanooga-Enquirer/61591673356763/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2026.
Evon, Dan. “Do Pics Show Blackburn Flashing ‘White Power Sign’ in US Senate?” Snopes, 11 Apr. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/blackburn-white-power/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2026.
“Fighting ‘Wokeness.’” U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/fighting-wokeness. Accessed 11 Sept. 2026.
Palma, Bethania. “What Is Critical Race Theory and Why Are Some People So Mad at It?” Snopes, 27 May 2021, https://www.snopes.com//news/2021/05/27/what-is-critical-race-theory/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2026.
Deng, Rae. “Why SAVE America Act Could Change How You Vote If It Passes US Senate.” Snopes, 19 Mar. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//tracker/senate-vote-save-america-act/.
Evon, Dan. “Has President Trump Ever Voted by Mail?” Snopes, 21 May 2020, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-ever-voted-by-mail/.
Izzo, Jack. “There’s Still No Evidence of Systematic Voter Fraud in the 2020 Election.” Snopes, 27 June 2024, https://www.snopes.com//collections/no-systematic-voter-fraud-2020/.
Kasprak, Alex. “Were 10M Mail-In Ballots ‘Lost’ During California’s 2022 Midterms?” Snopes, 20 Jan. 2023, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/pilf-california-mail-in-ballots-2022/.
Lee, Jessica. “Do Mail-In Ballots Increase Risk of Voter Fraud?” Snopes, 26 May 2020, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mail-in-ballot-voter-fraud/.
Rankin, Sarah. “Midterm Mail Ballots Start to Go to Voters as Litigation over Trump’s Order Creates Uncertainty.” Associated Press , 4 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/mail-voting-ballots-trump-north-carolina-36353407257c253179dec1eaa1254f61.
“Trump Casts Florida Mail Ballot as He Pushes Congress to Severely Limit That Voting Option.” AP News, 24 Mar. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-vote-by-mail-bd52fd205f4484237d5b77d2e7319350.
In the latest twist in the Jimmy Kimmel–James Talarico interview drama, the White House is now accusing the ABC late-night host and his network of spinning a fake tale of federal strong-arming.
Put another way, Team Trump insists there was never pressure put on Kimmel and ABC from the Trump administration to scuttle an interview with the poll-topping Texas Democrat and Senate hopeful.
“Jimmy Kimmel is play-acting — as he often does — to create a false narrative about this administration’s policies,” Assistant White House Press Secretary Davis Ingle said Thursday.
“Chairman Carr has not threatened him regarding interviewing James Talarico, or any other candidate.,” Ingle added of Carr, the FCC chairman, just before the second night of Donald Trump‘s GOP midterm convention aka pageant reconvenes. “Any media outlet blindly amplifying Kimmel’s egocentric delusion should insist on proof. Of which they will find none.”
ABC parent company Disney had no comment on the response from the White House when contacted by Deadline. The lack of response is unsurprising given that the company is the midst of an escalating legal and regulatory First Amendment clash with the FCC over station license renewals and charges of political thumbs on the scale.
ABC/YouTube
Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue had some distinct déjà vu of what Stephen Colbert went through on CBS last year with Talarico, who is looking to flip the Lone Star state for the Dems for the first time in decades. The L.A.-based Kimmel revealed that an on-air sit-down with Talarico would not air on ABC tonight.
After naming off various political candidates including Trump, who Kimmel has talked to over the years, the Live! host put federal regulatory enforcement under the spotlight. “[The] FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions,” Kimmel said. “Guest bookings, it would seem, they don’t like.”
“And so, out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,” he stated. “It will be posted on YouTube instead.”
James Talarico
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Interestingly, Talarico, who is in Los Angeles today and Friday for a series of deep-pocket Hollywood fundraisers, was not officially listed as a guest on Kimmel before the host made his announcement. In a separate interview with MS NOW’s Symone Sanders Townsend today on The Weeknight, Talarico called the Kimmel situation the “most dangerous form of cancel culture.” With the knowledge that much of the consumption of late-night shows actually happens online anyway, the candidate went on to say: “I’m still hopeful that we can have this interview on the air. So we’ll see what happens tonight.”
Between Trump in Texas and Talarico in California, we certainly will.
At the same time, with the wounds still fresh from Disney’s sudden sidelining of Kimmel for almost a week a year ago over affiliate fallout from a remark he made about the tragic assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, there is a tendency for some to get lost in the weeds of this. There is also a tendency for some to start shouting about equal-time rules without a read of the fine print.
The equal time rule requires broadcasters that feature political candidates offer comparable airtime to rivals — if it is requested. Daytime and late-night talks shows have long operated under the assumption that they fell under an exemption for news and news interview programming. But in January, Carr issued guidance suggesting that such talk shows may not be free from the rule.
The equal time rule also is often misunderstood. It applies to political candidates in a certain cycle. So, for instance, Ted Cruz’s appearance on The View this week makes no difference because he’s not up for reelection this midterm.
Carr has argued that nothing is preventing late-night or daytime talk shows from featuring a political candidate as a guest. They just have to be prepared to offer time to rivals as well.
As ABC pushes back on Carr’s investigation of The View, the network’s argument is one of selective enforcement as the FCC chairman has not singled out other broadcasters, like conservative talk radio. The network has also pointed to a 2002 letter from the FCC confirming the show’s exemption from the equal time rule. The network also has characterized the equal time rule as unworkable, given that its stations may be on the hook not just for major party candidates but also third-party rivals.
Again, let’s see what happens tonight.
Worth noting that when the now axed Colbert’s interview with Talarico was shifted over to YouTube, it got a huge number of views and the candidate raised more than $2.5 million in just over 24 hours. That might be history worth repeating itself for the Texas Democrat, false narrative or not.
A man waving a Palestinian flag ran onto the field at Yankee Stadium during a Yankees-Mets MLB game on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. He was chased and tackled by security.
Published On 12 Sep 2026
In September 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered Americans $6,000 to vote against Republicans.
A rumor that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered Americans $6,000 to vote against Republicans spread online in September 2026.
Users shared the rumor on multiple social media platforms. For example, a Facebook user wrote (archived) on Sept. 10: “Calling it an effort to ‘restore sanity,’ on Thursday Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered every adult American $6000 to vote against Republicans in the midterms.”
The story spread shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump promised $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans win majority control of the Senate and House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. Some users seemed to interpret the rumor that Carney made a similar offer as true. Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.
To investigate the rumor’s legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Bing. If Carney had truly offered Americans $6,000 to vote against Republicans, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or The Globe and Mail, would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence.
That was not the case. We did not find any credible reporting that the Canadian prime minister offered Americans money to vote against Republicans.
We identified the rumor’s original source: The Borowitz Report, a satirical outlet that produces content that parodies political news. Andy Borowitz first shared the rumor on Sept. 10, 2026. While Borowitz’s post was satire, some subsequent posts by other accounts sharing the claim were not labeled as such.
Borowitz’s About page reads:
I’ve been writing satirical news since I was eighteen. This represents either commitment to a genre or arrested development.
The New Yorker featured The Borowitz Report as a column for 25 years; Borowitz announced in 2023 that the magazine dropped his column for financial reasons.
Snopes has debunked numerous other claims stemming from The Borowitz Report. For example, in August 2026, we debunked a claim that Iran’s government announced that it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz only if Trump admitted he lost the 2020 election.
Jimmy Kimmel announced on Sept. 9, 2026, that his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would not air his interview with U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico on television, citing the Federal Communications Commission’s threats against the talk-show host’s network, ABC, under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Social media users circulated Kimmel’s accusations; some claimed Trump or the FCC tried to “block” the interview from airing. In response, readers searched our website to determine whether the FCC actually threatened Kimmel or blocked him from airing the interview with Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative.
Here’s what Kimmel said about the situation (see 9:33 in the video below):
I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015. And at that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk-show hosts interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016.
But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed.
Now that he is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.
And so out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television. It will be posted on YouTube instead.
A closer look at Kimmel’s words indicates he didn’t actually say whether the alleged threat issued by the FCC specifically related to his Sept. 10 interview with Talarico. Kimmel said the FCC threatened him and ABC based on “simple traditional editorial decisions” and “guest bookings.” That could be a reference to past disputes between ABC and the Trump administration or changing guidelines from the FCC.
The White House said Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, has not threatened Kimmel “regarding interviewing James Talarico, or any other candidate.”
“Jimmy Kimmel is play-acting—as he often does—to create a false narrative about this administration’s policies,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said in an email. “Any media outlet blindly amplifying Kimmel’s egocentric delusion should insist on proof. Of which they will find none.”
A spokesperson for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” didn’t immediately respond to a request for that proof, nor to a request to clarify whether Kimmel and ABC had received a specific threat — or whether the network made a proactive decision based on past experiences and Trump administration policy.
We left this claim unrated pending answers to those questions.
Here’s more on why ABC might have pulled Talarico’s interview from network television, aside from a possible direct threat:
Kimmel’s accusation that the Trump administration has threatened him and his network could reference any or all of the many disputes he and his network have with the Trump administration.
In fact, Trump has repeatedly called for Kimmel’s firing and for the FCC to strip ABC of its licenses in response to various broadcasts he hasn’t liked.
In September 2025, ABC temporarily pulled Kimmel off air after comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The decision came after Carr suggested he might take action against Disney, ABC’s parent company, if it didn’t pull Kimmel’s show.
The president also called on ABC to fire Kimmel in April 2026 after the talk-show host made a joke about first lady Melania Trump. Shortly after, the FCC ordered ABC to seek early broadcast license renewals, an unprecedented move that can signal “significant concerns with the value” of the station’s operations, Carr said.
ABC and Disney sued the FCC in August 2026 for allegedly violating its free-speech rights, arguing (Page 3) that the Trump administration has “waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”
It’s also possible ABC may have pulled Talarico’s interview from network television because of FCC guidance on giving equal time to political candidates on broadcast television under the Trump administration.
Some forms of broadcast media are exempt from this rule, including “bona fide,” or legitimate, newscasts and news interviews. But in January 2026, the FCC issued guidance stating that late-night talk shows don’t have a blanket exemption from the equal-time rule.
The FCC’s guidance said that, in 2006, the agency determined the interview portion of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” qualified for as a “bona fide news interview” and thus would be exempt from the equal-time rule. Networks have relied on this ruling to mean that all late-night talk shows are exempt.
“This is not the case,” the FCC said on Page 4 of the notice. “The FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption.”
The FCC’s guidance has had real effects. In February 2026, for example, talk-show host Stephen Colbert claimed CBS blocked an interview with Talarico on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” from airing on broadcast television because the network’s lawyers said in “no uncertain terms” that the interview could violate the FCC’s guidance.
(CBS reportedly disputed Colbert’s account and said its lawyers provided only “legal guidance,” not a direct prohibition.)
There’s no evidence the FCC directly threatened Kimmel, and a closer read of Kimmel’s comments indicated that Kimmel never accused the FCC of specifically blocking his interview with Talarico from airing on television.
However, that doesn’t mean the FCC hasn’t threatened Kimmel and ABC in other ways. The FCC and ABC are embroiled in several disputes, and ABC has alleged that the FCC is engaging in retaliatory measures because the Trump administration doesn’t like the network’s content.
Following the 25th-anniversary commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks, news media outlets reported U.S. President Donald Trump planned to fly to Ireland for the weekend to take in the Irish Open at Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg.
Snopes received a reader’s email asking, “Is it true that in Ireland in flight path for Shannon airport is a F*** Trump message in someone’s yard?” The reader attached an image of the alleged sign — apparently captured from a high-angle position, similar to that of a drone — showing a grassy field, with the “U” in the first word marked with an asterisk.
A reverse image search found users sharing the same image on Bluesky, Facebook, Threads and TikTok (archived), some also claiming the sign appeared along the flight path into Shannon Airport in County Clare.
(@electra75 via Threads)
Snopes could not independently verify the sign’s authenticity as of this writing, but did note a report about the image from CorkBeo, a publication primarily covering matters involving Ireland’s County Cork. We reached out to the White House to request comment about the subject matter and will update this article if we receive further information.
The CorkBeo article cited as its source a video that Irish personality Ray Foley posted on Sept. 9, interviewing a woman who said she asked her husband to help prepare the sign for Trump’s trip.
Foley’s post says the woman, not identified by name, sent a message and the image to him, saying she prepared a “warm welcome” on the flight path into Shannon Airport “for the guest this weekend” — referencing Trump. “We’ve already had a few black helicopter flybys,” the message apparently read.
Speaking about her husband, whom she identified as Paul, the woman reportedly said the following:
I’ve been troubling him for a long time to do this because we knew he [Trump] was gonna be comin’ and I just said, “Come on, come on, keep needlin’, and keep putting the idea in his head,” so, I think he just gave up and said, “Come on, we’ll do it.”
We contacted a Foley representative with Today FM’s owner, Bauer Media Audio Ireland, to ask for contact information pertaining to the people who created the supposed sign and will add more details if we receive a response.
BBC reported Air Force One, with Trump onboard, would fly into Dublin Airport on Sept. 12, and into Shannon Airport later the same day. CorkBeo’s article featured news of a second protest sign that appeared in Dublin, reading “No Kings,” as well as mentioning Gaza, Iran and ICE. Reuters published a photo confirming the Dublin sign’s authenticity.
For further reading, we previously investigated a rumor claiming an Irish priest said, “We pray for Donald Trump, the Lord will take him.”
Busby, Lili. “Donald Trump in Ireland: Huge Security Operation Underway.” BBC News, 11 Sept. 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62en1d7r1no.
Chamberlain, Hayley. “Giant ‘NO KINGS’ Sand Artwork Appears on Dublin Bay Ahead of Trump Visit.” Reuters, Sept. 2026, https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/giant-no-kings-sand-artwork-appears-on-dublin-bay-ahead-of-trump-visit/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjY6bmV3c21sX01UMUNWTUQ1NjAwNzQzNw.
O’Shea, Joe. “Giant ‘Eff Trump’ Sign in Field under Flight Path for Air Force One at Shannon Airport.” CorkBeo, 11 Sept. 2026, https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/giant-eff-trump-sign-field-34602814.
Superville, Darlene, and Jill Lawless. “Trump Is Heading to Ireland for the Irish Open at His Doonbeg Golf Course.” The Associated Press, 11 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/trump-ireland-golf-doonbeg-d27255f69646d08f45e1d3fb2ec01fc9.
@todayfm. “A Local Resident near Shannon Airport Has Put out a Message Ahead of Donald Trump’s Arrival.” Instagram, 9 Sept. 2026, https://www.instagram.com/todayfm/reel/DdEk1dRESu8/.
Families are remembering the loved ones they lost in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. Events across the country are marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Published On 11 Sep 2026
