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Episode Date: September 9, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. President Trump now says the Iran war will not end until after the midterm elections. And as NPR's Franco Ordonez reports, Trump also says gas prices will not come down until it does. President Trump said gas prices will remain high until after the midterm election. Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. Most experts, however, say it will take months for gas prices to come down. The U.S.-Israel war with Iran is now in its seventh month. with no sign of ending soon, but President Trump insists it will, quote, end immediately after the election.

Because they can't hold out any longer if they're desperate to try and affect the election. The midterms are nearly two months away on November 3rd. Franco, Ordojanez, NPR News, the White House. A congressional committee is recommending the Pentagon develop a program to address brain injuries. NPR's Claudio Grisalis reports it's part of an investigation into suicides among Navy pilots. The House Oversight Committee said it found the Navy has not taken the necessary steps to determine if it is systematically exposing their pilots to long-term brain injury. A probe found the Navy ignored warnings that on the job, physiological and psychological injuries could put pilots at risk of mental health struggles and suicide. They also found Navy culture discouraged aviators from seeking mental health care.

The congressional effort was launched after the New York Times found a pattern of suicides and related difficulty. among pilots. The House Committee recommended a new Pentagon program dedicated to aviator brain health, cutting barriers to care in ramping up long-term health care studies of Navy pilots. Claudia Di Salis, NPR News. Today, an appeals court heard Louisiana's challenge of how the abortion pill Miffa Pristone is distributed. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports the judges seemed skeptical of the case against the FDA. Louisiana has a total abortion ban, and it's suing the FDA over its decision to allow Mipipristone to be prescribed over telehealth and sent to patients through the mail. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is considered one of the most conservative courts in the country.

But two of the three judges assigned to this abortion pill case are Democratic appointees. Here's one of them, Judge Stephen Higginson, who was appointed by President Biden, questioning the attorney for Louisiana. That sounds like it's really just asking the federal government to help you impose your criminal laws. There's no set timeline for a decision in the case. It will very likely end up back at the Supreme Court. Salinas Simon Steffen and PR News. An anthropic researcher is resigning over concerns about irresponsible development of AI.

In his statement, Jacob Coxon says he's worried about unsafe development practices and underestimating AI's capabilities. He warns that AI models could soon become superhuman systems and threaten human life, both Anthropic and Open AI, faced scrutiny this summer. It's NPR news. Spain's intelligence agency issued multiple warnings about a potential mass crossing of people from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Seuta in North Africa before it happened in late July. Declassified documents show that the agency warned about social media groups, encouraging a wave of entries at the fence and by sea. A spokesperson for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says that the documents do not provide enough

information to anticipate the scale of the crisis. The federal government plans to remove wild horses from public lands in Colorado this month. Despite state leaders asking to freeze operations, Rachel Cohen with the Mountain West News Bureau has more. Members of Colorado's congressional delegation and governor Jared Polis are asking the federal government to stop using helicopters to gather wild horses on public lands. The immediate concern is the inhumane nature of these helicopter roundups in which horses are terrified. injured and scared. The plea comes after the Bureau of Land Management removed nearly 900 horses in Colorado in August and nine animals died in the operation. The agency says its roundups

protect the animals in range lands when populations are above target levels. It plans to remove 245 more horses in Colorado starting next week. For NPR News, I'm Rachel Cohen in Boulder. Girl Scouts says its first cookies for dogs will go on sale in January. The blueberry muffin-flavored cookies were developed with dog treat and toy company bark. The patch pals will be sold online. Also joining the lineup are Sparkables, the Girl Scouts' first allergy-friendly cookie. This is NPR News from Washington.