Reuters World News - Fed hikes rates, Canada EU, AI leaders divided (Updated)
Episode Date: September 16, 2026The U.S. Federal Reserve raises rates. Top AI leaders are split over how fast to push development as safety fears clash with the race to stay ahead. The EU proposes Canada become its first "associate ...member." Montana pushes to ban corporate cash in elections. UN peacekeepers prepare to exit Lebanon, leaving residents anxious about what fills the void. Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source. Download the Reuters app here. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi, I'm Kim Vinell in Wonganui, New Zealand.
And I'm Christopher Walgessper in Chicago.
It's Wednesday, September 16th, today.
The Federal Reserve raises interest rates in an effort to tackle inflation,
despite President Trump's demands for a cut.
Leaders of the AI world split on how the industry should advance.
The European Union proposes Canada as its first associate member.
And as the end of a UN peacekeeping mission in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon nears,
residents fear for what comes next.
This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates.
The quarter percentage point increase brings the benchmark rate to the 3.75 to 4% range.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh supported the decision acknowledging the need to bring inflation under control.
The move comes as President Donald Trump has, since he took office, promised to lower rates and
pushed for interest rate cuts, though his economic and foreign policy decisions have largely
had the opposite effect.
A split is emerging among the most powerful players in artificial intelligence over whether
the technology is moving too fast and who is ultimately responsible for keeping it safe.
Appearing at a San Francisco tech conference, fresh after penning his essay pleading for the industry
to pace its advance, Anthropics Dario Amode reiterated his concerns.
AI models get smarter and smarter, the more compute you throw into them. And so we had a
prediction of just how capable these models would be. But I think what we didn't appreciate is that it
would lead to these companies growing so fast.
Open AI's Sam Altman echoing that sentiment.
And we have to be willing to pace our development of capabilities such that
capabilities always, such that alignment, safety and monitoring are always ahead of capabilities.
But one of the other AI giants, meta-founder Mark Zuckerberg, is pushing back.
In a social media post, he says an industry-wide slowdown isn't needed and that it's
up to the individual companies to ensure their technology is safe, adding that meta already
does so. The disagreement comes as concerns grow that AI is advancing faster than humans can
keep up with, with some even warning that AI could wipe out humanity in the not too distant future.
I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate
member of the European Union.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, proposing in her state of the union address
that Canada become the EU's first associate member.
It would be a new category aimed at deepening ties among ally nations.
We will work on energy-critical minerals and batteries on AI, quantum cyber and economic security.
This is not a partnership against anyone else.
but for our common strength.
The move comes as both the EU and Canada face pressure from Trump's trade policies and an assertive
China. The proposal caught even EU diplomats off guard. It's unclear if member states will
back the plan and trade obstacles remain, including Canada's protected telecom and dairy sectors.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada wants a unique alliance, not membership. Formal talks are set
for October.
The U.S. is planning an almost $3 billion weapon sale to Israel.
According to an official, the package would include tens of thousands of 2,000-pound bombs,
munitions that Israel used in Gaza and Lebanon.
The proposed sale has been informally communicated to members of Congress
who review major arms transfers.
To Saudi Arabia now, where Riyadh says it's shot down a Houthi drone near the Muslim
Holy City of Mecca. The Houthis deny targeting Mecca, calling it Saudi propaganda.
Saudi Arabia has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Yemen this week after Houthi fighters
attacked Saudi cities and oil infrastructure along the Red Sea. The fighting threatens global
energy supplies. Brent Crude is hovering near $108 a barrel, and key Saudi pipelines remain
offline. To the Hague, now, where former Kosovo-Pres,
President Hashim Tachi has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes.
The tribunal found him guilty of murder, torture, and illegal detention during Kosovo's
war with Serbia in the 90s.
Tachi commanded the Kosovo Liberation Army and was convicted in the deaths of 96 people,
as well as the detention and torture of hundreds more civilians or non-combatants.
He's denied the charges and can appeal.
The verdict sparked protests in Kosovo, where Tachi is a revered figure among many Kosovo Albanians.
Montana voters will decide this November whether to make their state the first in the nation to ban corporate money in elections.
The U.S. has seen an explosion in this kind of outside funding since the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.
with corporate contributions going from $13 million in 2010 to $600 million this year.
And what happens in Montana could set a critical precedent.
Reporter Brad Brooks has been speaking with legal experts and voters.
The state has a long history of fighting against corruption in politics, money in politics,
dating back more than a century.
And I spoke with, you know, over a dozen voters across the western half of the state and of various ideological stripes and not a single one of them said that they want corporate money in politics.
They all said that they would vote in favor of banning that money from entering the state's politics.
What this is trying to do is go around citizens united, not smash into it head on.
And it's doing that by saying that states, through the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,
have the right to regulate corporations.
They can determine what powers corporations have.
Experts are watching this closely, legal experts and others,
thinking that it could set a tremendous legal precedent
and could be something that will eventually go before the Supreme Court and have to be decided.
In southern Lebanon, there's a swelpherson.
of land now occupied by Israel.
It's where, during the war with Iran, its troops advanced to fight Hezbollah.
Necessary, Israel said, to protect its border.
Now, much of it is a ghost landscape.
To get there, we basically just drove along this very desolate road
that runs parallel to the Lebanese-Israeli border,
and buildings on both sides of the road were completely smashed to pieces.
That's Beirut Bureau Chief.
Maya Jabali, who got rare access during an embed with the UN Peacekeeping Force Unifil.
It almost felt like a very trippy scene because you had things kind of flipped around in ways
that felt unnatural. And there was not a single thing moving inside.
And we were moving along this road. It was just dust and slabs of concrete and twisted
metal. But deeper into the zone, there are those who stayed, 6,000 or so people living in a
cluster of villages and who rely on Unifil for food and fuel, basically to survive.
But the forces mandate runs out at the end of this year, and it's not clear what happens next.
They're discussing the possibility of a multinational force, the possibility of a European
union supported kind of training program for the Lebanese army, and the possibility of a new
UN Security Council resolution. But all of these options take time. It takes time to set up the
budget for these forces. And that's what has residents freaked out as the clock ticks with about
three and a half months left in Unifil's mandate. And Meyer says it's not just Unifil's humanitarian
role that's at stake. So for the past 20 years, Unifil has really been the eyes and ears of
the international community. So for that to disappear, for the access that they've been able to grant
not just journalists, but war crimes investigators and others in southern Lebanon, that's another
major resource that we're going to lose by the end of this year.
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