Good Tuesday morning. This is Artificially Intelligent News for September fifteenth, twenty twenty-six. I’m Mark Ellison.

This program is created with artificial intelligence and fact-checked against authoritative reporting available as of early Tuesday morning Eastern time.

The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to impose new mail-ballot restrictions before the midterm elections. The action leaves the existing system in place while lower-court litigation continues.

The administration had sought to give the Postal Service a central role in determining which states could receive mail ballots. Its plan called for states to use a uniform ballot-envelope design and submit voter information to a new federal portal. States that did not comply could have faced a refusal by the Postal Service to deliver ballots.

The justices did not issue a full opinion explaining the emergency decision. But the practical effect is immediate. Election offices may continue sending ballots under their established procedures, without changing their operations late in an election cycle that is already underway in some places.

The case is consequential because mail voting is a routine part of elections in many states. Supporters of the administration’s proposal argued it would strengthen election administration. States, local election officials and voting-rights groups said a last-minute federal change risked disrupting ballot delivery and disenfranchising eligible voters. Two justices publicly dissented. The broader legal dispute over federal authority and state election administration is not over, but this year’s mail-ballot process will proceed for now.

Artificial intelligence is moving to the center of Washington’s political debate after prominent technology leaders renewed their warnings about the risks posed by increasingly capable systems.

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk are among the industry figures pressing for stronger oversight. Their concerns range from cyberattacks and misuse by governments to loss of human control over very advanced systems. Their precise views differ, but the unusual alignment has added urgency to a debate that Congress has struggled to turn into law.

President Trump has dismissed the recent warnings as a conspiracy against artificial intelligence and data centers. Other Republicans have urged caution about regulation, saying rules should not prevent the United States from competing with China. Democrats are pressing for a more forceful response. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he has discussed a possible legislative path with Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, while Senator John Kennedy plans to offer a measure requiring developers to maintain a way to shut systems down if necessary.

There is still no clear bipartisan bill with enough support to pass quickly. Congress has limited time before the November election, and lawmakers remain divided over how to distinguish ordinary consumer uses from the small number of systems that may carry more serious security risks. The central policy question is whether Washington can build targeted safeguards without freezing a fast-moving industry.

A new Pentagon inspector general report is offering the broadest official accounting yet of the toll the Iran war has taken on U.S. forces and military readiness.

The report says the conflict has created strategic inventory shortfalls and exposed bottlenecks in the industrial base that supplies advanced munitions. It covers the period from April through June and says Iranian attacks damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at American bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.

The report also says dozens of U.S. aircraft and drones were damaged or destroyed. It lists as many as 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones and seven KC-135 refueling aircraft among the losses. Damage to diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE was estimated at 184 million dollars.

The Pentagon has said the U.S. military has the weapons it needs for current operations and the administration says production is increasing. But the inspector general’s findings underscore a longer-term challenge: high-end missiles and interceptors are difficult to replace quickly. Experts cited in the report have estimated that replenishing some inventories to prewar levels could take about three years. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress in July that the war had cost 37.5 billion dollars so far.

In energy policy, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced it is repealing Biden-era rules that would have limited greenhouse-gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants.

The EPA says the repeal will remove more than 300 billion dollars in industry costs and allow utilities to make decisions based on reliability and cost rather than a federal requirement to capture emissions or close certain plants. Administration officials frame the action as part of a broader push to expand domestic energy supply at a time of rising demand from data centers, advanced manufacturing and households.

Environmental and public-health groups say they will challenge the action in court. They argue that the rules were needed to limit carbon pollution and other emissions that can damage health. The EPA also announced a separate proposal intended to limit future administrations’ ability to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.

So this is not simply a regulatory adjustment. It is a major reversal of the federal approach adopted under Presidents Obama and Biden. The repeal is expected to take effect after publication in the Federal Register. Court challenges are likely, and the outcome will affect both electricity policy and the country’s climate strategy for years.

A separate immigration fight is now in federal court. New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading a coalition of 21 other states and the District of Columbia in challenging a new Department of Homeland Security public-charge rule.

The rule is scheduled to take effect this week. It would give immigration officers broader discretion to deny green cards or visas based on an applicant’s use of public benefits. The states say the policy could count support such as food assistance, health insurance or school meals against people who are otherwise using programs lawfully.

New York City and several other local governments filed a separate lawsuit. The challengers argue that the rule exceeds the administration’s authority, was issued improperly and will cause eligible families to avoid health care, food aid and other services out of concern about their immigration status.

The administration says the policy is designed to ensure that immigrants seeking permanent status are self-sufficient and that local officials are defending benefit programs for noncitizens. At this stage, those are competing legal and policy arguments, not a final court ruling. The immediate question is whether a judge will delay the rule before its scheduled effective date.

The enforcement picture at Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains another significant domestic issue. The most recent figures reported by ICE to academic researchers show the agency made 49,571 arrests in July, the highest monthly total of President Trump’s second term.

That was up 15 percent from June and 70 percent from February, according to the data reviewed by the Associated Press. The administration has shifted from some highly visible operations in large cities toward arrests at traffic stops, expanded cooperation with state and local law-enforcement agencies, and other tactics that have received less national attention.

The figures measure arrests, not completed deportations, and the distinction matters. An arrest can lead to detention, release, an immigration hearing or removal. Immigration advocates say the expanded enforcement has disrupted families and created fear in communities. Organizations that favor tighter immigration restrictions say the higher numbers show the administration is carrying out its stated enforcement agenda more effectively. The next monthly data will help show whether July was a peak or part of a sustained trend.

Artificial intelligence is also reshaping a more ordinary part of American life: the classroom. Microsoft has agreed to adopt privacy and safety standards for its school artificial-intelligence products in a deal negotiated with the American Federation of Teachers.

The union says the agreement is legally binding and will include third-party compliance audits. It is meant to address how student data is used and how schools should manage new AI tools. OpenAI and Anthropic say they are discussing similar pacts with the union. Google, which has a particularly large presence in education technology, has not said whether it will make a comparable commitment.

The agreement arrives amid a wider backlash over student screen time and data privacy. New York City and Los Angeles have each announced a one-year pause on student use of AI while they study how the technology should fit into schools. The debate is broader than privacy alone. Educators are weighing potential help with tutoring and lesson preparation against concerns about accuracy, cheating, data collection and whether younger students should use these systems at all.

Overseas, Ukraine says it is prepared to halt strikes inside Russia if allies can secure a genuine Russian commitment to stop hitting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the offer after President Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed not to attack each other’s energy infrastructure. The Kremlin did not immediately confirm such an agreement, and previous attempts at limited ceasefires have collapsed quickly, with both sides accusing the other of violations.

Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs concrete proposals and credible guarantees. He said Ukrainian energy facilities, ports, logistics sites and warehouses continue to be targets. The issue has importance beyond the battlefield because attacks on Russian refineries and fuel infrastructure have contributed to pressure in the diesel market. At the same time, the Iran war has disrupted energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russian drone strikes near Ukraine’s border with Poland would lead the alliance to increase support for Kyiv and strengthen defenses along NATO’s eastern frontier. Polish officials have warned of escalating security risks near their border. The possibility of a limited infrastructure truce is worth watching, but there is no verified ceasefire in place.

Canada is also recalibrating its international relationships. Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Europe as his government seeks a deeper strategic partnership with the European Union while its trade dispute with the United States continues.

Canadian officials are exploring an arrangement that could expand opportunities for Canadians to live, work and study in Europe. Ottawa is not seeking EU membership or a model identical to Norway’s or Switzerland’s. Instead, it is looking for a tailored partnership centered on investment, trade, technology, defense and critical minerals.

The push reflects Canada’s dependence on the U.S. market. About 70 percent of Canadian exports go to the United States, while the EU is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade of roughly 147 billion dollars in 2025.

Carney is due to attend European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address on Wednesday and speak to the European Parliament on Thursday. Canada and the EU already work together in trade and defense, and Canada recently became the first non-European country to join the EU’s SAFE defense-procurement program. The talks do not mean Canada is walking away from its relationship with the United States. They do show how the trade conflict is encouraging Ottawa to build alternatives.

Now to the economy and markets.

Monday was the most recent completed U.S. trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 52,421.20, down 152.09 points, or 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 closed at 7,619.98, down 37 points, or 0.5 percent. The Nasdaq Composite finished at 26,186.41, down 146.62 points, or 0.6 percent. Those are final closing figures, not futures or intraday values.

Technology shares were under pressure after leading AI executives called for a slower development pace and stronger safeguards. At the same time, higher oil prices briefly pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 5 percent for the first time since 2023. Brent crude settled at 105 dollars and 68 cents a barrel after approaching 110 dollars earlier in the day.

The focus now turns to the Federal Reserve’s policy decision on Wednesday. The Fed’s benchmark rate is currently about 3.6 percent. Markets and many economists expect Chair Kevin Warsh and the central bank to raise it for the first time in three years as inflation remains above the Fed’s 2 percent target.

CME futures markets put the odds of a rate increase at about 90 percent after last week’s inflation report showed core inflation picking up in August. President Trump has argued for lower rates, while the White House says he respects Fed independence. A rate increase is not guaranteed, and the Fed’s statement will matter as much as the decision itself. Investors will be looking for clues on whether officials see one move as sufficient or expect a series of increases while energy prices remain elevated.

In sports, the Kansas City Chiefs opened their season with a decisive 31 to 10 Monday night win over the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium.

Patrick Mahomes returned to regular-season action after a lengthy injury recovery and accounted for three touchdowns. He ran for a 15-yard score, threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Rashee Rice, and later found Kenneth Walker for a two-yard score. Walker was the standout on the ground, breaking free for a 60-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Kansas City finished with 392 net yards to Denver’s 176 and controlled possession for more than 33 minutes. Bo Nix threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Evan Engram for the Broncos, and Wil Lutz added a field goal, but Denver could not keep pace after halftime.

The victory gives the Chiefs a 1-and-0 start after their first losing season since 2012. The Broncos begin 0-and-1. Taylor Swift attended the game alongside Tom Cruise, drawing attention after missing the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles to watch her husband Travis Kelce play.

College football has a new number one. Texas rose to the top of the Associated Press poll after its 24 to 23 comeback win over Ohio State.

The Longhorns trailed by 20 points in the fourth quarter before completing the largest fourth-quarter comeback ever against an AP number-one team, according to Sportradar. The result moved Texas to 2-and-0 and dropped Ohio State to number six after the Buckeyes had been the top-ranked team.

The poll also reflected a rough weekend for Oregon. The Ducks fell 15 places to number 21 after losing 39 to 31 at Oklahoma State, a team that had entered the game on a 21-game losing streak against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents. Michigan returned to the rankings at number 19 after beating then-number-11 Oklahoma 17 to 10.

Texas received 56 first-place votes in the new poll. The ranking is only an early-season snapshot, but the comeback has immediately changed the national conversation around the Longhorns and the College Football Playoff race.

A quick results roundup now. In Monday night football, Kansas City beat Denver 31 to 10.

On Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Green Bay Packers 39 to 22. The New York Yankees beat the New York Mets 2 to nothing, and the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves 9 to 4.

In NASCAR, Kyle Larson won the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Alex Bowman finished second and Joey Logano was third.

And finally, television’s biggest night belonged to Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards.

The comedy-horror series won outstanding comedy series and finished the season with a record 14 Emmys, including awards from the Creative Arts ceremonies. Matthew Rhys won lead actor in a comedy for Widow’s Bay and also made history by winning a second lead-actor Emmy the same year for The Beast in Me.

HBO Max’s The Pitt won outstanding drama series. Apple TV’s Pluribus also had a strong night. Jean Smart won her fifth straight Emmy for Hacks, extending a record for a performer winning every season of a series that lasted more than three seasons. Allison Janney’s victory brought her career total to eight Emmys, tying her with Smart, Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most by a performer.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won outstanding variety series for a second straight year, and Peacock’s The Traitors won reality competition series for the third consecutive year. Mariska Hargitay hosted the ceremony in Los Angeles, where Michael J. Fox received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

That is your calm morning summary for this Tuesday. Follow Artificially Intelligent News and share this briefing with one person who would value a calm morning news summary.

I’m Mark Ellison. This is Artificially Intelligent News.