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Episode Date: September 15, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. With tech leaders warning about the potential harm posed by artificial intelligence, President Trump is dismissing the concern as a conspiracy, and Congress remains divided over how to address the issue. NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben on the political state of play. There is a new wave of talk about regulation in Congress, but Congress is often slow, so this doesn't mean anything is coming soon. On top of that, midterms are coming. up that could reshuffle who is in Congress. Now, meanwhile, over here at the White House, President

Trump is clearly not ready to regulate quickly. He wrote in his social media post him that he sees any doomsaying about AI as a hoax, his word, and he has also talked a lot about how he sees this all as a competition with China, so he doesn't want anything to slow the U.S. AI industry down. The debate in Washington follows a disclosure of AI-related security incidents. Former Senate Republican and leader Mitch McConnell returned to the Capitol Monday after a three-month absence from a serious fall. In a statement, McConnell said his recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and Pierre's Claudia Grosalys reports. The 84-year-old returned to the Senate in a wheelchair with a staff by his side.

I'm glad to see you. John being back to work. McConnell cast his first vote since his hospitalization in June and subsequent treatment. His vote was needed to vote a judicial nomination forward along a Republican Party line. The Kentucky GOP senator said in a statement he is not yet 100%, but plans to continue physical therapy and return when his conference needs him for the, quote, tough votes. He also said his recovery has been long and frustrating, and the lingering effects of childhood polio have not made it any easier. McConnell has the remainder of this year left to finish his final term in Congress.

Claudia Risales, NPR News. Trump administration has touted its deals with pharmaceutical companies as among the key wins of the president's second term. But one of the promises within those deals to cut drug prices in Medicaid has been slow to materialize. Here's NPR Sidney Lubkin. Last fall, the president said companies that signed his most favored nation drug price deals would offer all of their drugs at a discount to Medicaid. But of the more than a dozen companies NPR reached out to, none would say how many they were offering at a lower price for. the program. The actual text of the agreements hasn't been made public, but Medicaid can't just lower prices across the board. State Medicaid programs have until September 30th to finalize their

participation agreements in what's called the generous model. It's a pilot program that states and drug companies opt into for most favored nations prices on Medicaid drugs. The deadlines have been pushed back, but the agency overseeing the pilot says there's robust interest. Sydney Lupkin, NPR News. This is NPR News. Now to Texas, where landowners along the U.S.-Mexico border are uniting to sue the Trump administration over its plan to seize private property for border wall construction. From Marfa Public Radio, Mary Cantrell has more. The lawsuit takes aim at the Department of Homeland Security's determination that the Big Bend region is an area of high illegal entry,

when it only saw 1.5% of the total border apprehensions over the past five years. DHS's determination allowed the government to, to bypass dozens of federal laws and expedite border barrier construction in the region, which is known for its pristine desert landscape. Landowner David Keller is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. We have brought this extraordinary challenge because for us, the Big Bend is not an empty place on a map. It is our home.

The court has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, which seeks a pause on border wall construction. For NPR news, I'm Mary Cantrell. Officials in the Netherlands say they are treating a major rail outage as a potential act of sabotage. The company that maintains rail infrastructure says objects were deliberately placed on the tracks causing circuit failures early today. The company did not say what was found. The National Railway Company says train service in central and northern parts of the country were severely affected during the morning rush hour. European shares

slipping in early trading following declines in Asia amid the ongoing sell-off in the bond markets, higher oil prices, also weighing on the markets after Saudi Arabia shut down a key pipeline amid attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. I'm Jail Snyder. This is NPR News.