NPR News: 09-14-2026 7AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corv. Coolman, President Trump is promising to visit dozens of Republicans as they campaigned for office ahead of the midterm elections. He made this promise at last week's GOP convention. That's where he also vowed to give every American adult $5,000 for Republicans to keep control of Congress after the election. And Piers-Marie-Liesin says there doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for the payouts. The response has been surprisingly tepid even among Republicans. Some Republicans worry that even if Congress would approve such a payout because the President can't just send those checks himself. It would cost more than a trillion dollars, and that would add to the historically high national debt, unless it was paid for by raising taxes or budget cuts. NPR is Marie-Liesin reporting. President Trump is downplaying calls from the leaders of artificial intelligence companies for a slowdown in AI research. He says he does not want to give China any advantage.

1:00And Piers Windsor-Johnston reports some experts agree with Trump. The CEO of Anthropic is warning AI companies to slow the development of their most advanced models citing major safety concerns. The leaders of OpenAI and SpaceX AI are also backing the call. But Cornell University Technology Policy expert Sarah Krepp says any plan must extend beyond American companies. And not just other companies, but other countries. And I think the one I think we all have in mind or should have in mind is China. They are very much on the heels of US Frontier AI and at a fraction of the cost. Krepp says slowing American developers without a global agreement could allow foreign competitors to benefit from US restraint. Windsor-Johnston and PR News. The Kremlin says Russia is not ruling out additional US broker peace talks with Ukraine, beginning this fall. The comments follow renewed US mediation efforts and weekend fighting that left at least 11

2:03people dead. And Piers Charles Main's reports from Moscow. With Ukraine's air defenses largely depleted, Russia has carried out nearly daily drone and missile attacks on civilian energy and shipping infrastructure across the country. The port city of Odessa has been a particular target as Russia attempts to block exports of grain crucial to Ukraine's economy. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has called the attacks and attempt to break Ukraine's resistance. Yet Kiev is also a targeted Russian civilian infrastructure in a bid to bring the war home to Russians. In the latest, Ukrainian drones struck an apartment building in the Republic of Tatarstan and targeted an oil facility in the Krasnodar region, part of a pattern of attacks that have caused fuel shortages throughout the summer. The Krasnodar region is a country of Ukraine. Russia's Russian drones hit a Ukrainian rail line today near the border with Poland, one missed former CIA director David Petreus who was safely evacuated. This is NPR. Reports from Yemen say Houthi rebels have captured more islands in the southern Red Sea.

3:06It gives them more control over a key waterway used to export Saudi Arabian oil. The Saudis have already shut down their main pipeline that sends oil to the Red Sea after the pipeline was attacked. Singer Selene Dion returned to the stage this weekend in France. It's been nearly four years since she announced she was battling a rare and painful medical condition. NPR Shandali's Duster reports. Selene Dion kicked off her 16-show residency in Paris at the plenitude arena on Saturday, wearing a black dress, the Grammy award-winning singer opened the concert with the French song on a shawl in Japa, which means we don't change in English. Videos posted on social media by Variety show Dion performing hits such as Power of Love, and my heart will go on an iconic classic from the Titanic movie soundtrack. Emotional and with tears in her eyes, Dion thanked the audience throughout the night.

4:09And was her first performance nearly four years after announcing she had been battling stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological condition that causes stiff limbs and severe muscle spasms. Shandali's Duster and P.R. News. This year's Emmy Awards will be presented tonight in Los Angeles for the best in television. Fans are waiting to see how popular series such as The Pit and Widow's Bay could be honored. The Emmy Awards airs live on NBC. This year's Emmy Awards is in P.R. As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, we're all vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our eye off the ball. Our weekly politics series, if you can keep it, is here to help where our focus is not the horse race, but the state. We tackle the big political stories of the day and why they matter for our democracy. Join me Todd Zwilland and me Jen White on the 1A podcast from WAMU and NPR.