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Episode Date: September 4, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. During Thursday's White House briefing, Vice President J.D. Vance said he would not call the conflict with Iran a war. And when asked when it will come to an end, he said that's up to the Iranians. The president's been very clear. We're not talking to them. And we're not going to talk to them unless they stop shooting at commercial shipping. Vance also told reporters that the U.S. is investigating a deadly strike that hit a wedding celebration earlier this week. Iranian state television says five people were killed and dozens were wounded. The strike was part of a tax Tuesday that the U.S. military said hit Iranian military sites.

Fox News has ousted a veteran Maria Bartramo. After 12 and a half years, Bartramo came to Fox with a record as an accomplished markets reporter. In the Trump era, however, she ended up featuring heavily in some of Fox's most stinging scandals. Here's NPR's David Fokinflik. Maria Bartaromo arrived at Fox Business Network in 2014. after two decades at CNBC, providing the young conservative financial channel some credibility. She became a mainstay of both Fox Business Network and sister channel Fox News, hosting 16 and a half hours weekly until now. Bart Romo allied herself closely with President Trump and embraced his lies

about fraud in the 2020 elections. She ended up being named as a defendant in two multi-billion dollar defamation suits over statements made about election tech companies. Fox paid nearly $800 million to settle one of those cases. The second. case is ongoing. Bardooma made no mention of her pending departure on what turned out to be her last show. David Fokinflick and PR News. The Trump administration again asking the Supreme Court to let it move ahead with restrictions on mail ballots for the midterm elections in November. The appeal filed Thursday comes amid legal wrangling over the plan. A federal judge in Boston has blocked the president's executive order for now. And the Supreme Court previously allowed the president's plan to move ahead, but has not decided whether. it is legal. Chad GPT maker, OpenAI, has launched a new AI model. Astra is the first new model

since a company announced that autonomous AI agents in training went off script and colluded to hack into another company. And as Pierre-John Ruich reports OpenAI says this new agent is its safest yet. The new model will be available at first only to partners in an early access program to make sure it's safe. But it says over the coming days, GPT6 Astra, as it's known, will be made more widely available to the public. OpenAI has caught heavy flag since July when AI agents in testing ignored instructions, worked secretly together to figure out how to get on the internet, and then hacked into another company. That incident raised serious questions about human control of artificial intelligence. The company says the new model is its best yet in terms of alignment with

human values and causes fewer unintended outcomes than previous models. John Ruich, NPR News. This is NPR. Missouri's Attorney General vowing to immediately appeal a ruling by the state Supreme Court that blocks a new U.S. House District map from being used in the November election. The state court ruled Thursday that the map backed by President Trump cannot be used until Missouri voters get a chance to decide on it in a referendum. The new map is on the November ballot.

Louisiana judge has cleared the way for LSU to include former NFL players when it submits its roster to the Southeastern Conference Friday. After an hours-long hearing Thursday, the judge in East Baton Rouge Parish issued a preliminary injunction in a high-profile eligibility K-AW. The Colorado Peach's softball team celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. It's made up of women in their 60s to their 90s. Emma Vanda 90 of Member Station KUNC reports on one of the oldest women's softball teams in the country. The Colorado Peaches was created by a former physical education teacher in her 60s that wanted to play softball again. Now the team meets every Tuesday to practice, and they even traveled to compete at games in New Mexico and Utah. 92-year-old Barbara Johnson, the oldest member, has been playing second base for the team for the last five years.

At this age, you've got to keep this body going all the time, otherwise it stiffens up on you. And so peaches is the ideal thing. Johnson adds that age, just like the 24 on her jersey, is just a number. It's what you do with that number that counts. For NPR News, I'm Emma Van Nuindy in Lakewood, Colorado. And you're listening to NPR News.