Reuters World News - Trump's mail-in voting defeat, self-improving AI and possible rate hike

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

The Supreme Court hands U.S. President Donald Trump a defeat on mail-in voting. Researchers sound the alarm over AI that can improve itself. The Fed looks set to raise rates, putting new chair Kevin Warsh on a collision course with Trump. Houthi forces push further into Yemen as Saudi Arabia asks for help Washington won't give. And a look at the winners and the losers at the Emmys. Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download the Reuters app here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch the latest On Assignment: ⁠⁠Under siege in the West Bank⁠⁠ 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

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Tuesday, September 15th. Today, the US Supreme Court hands Trump a defeat on mail-in voting. AI fares are growing over machines which can improve themselves. The Fed looks to raise interest rates, putting new Fed chair, Kevin Wash, in a tight spot. And we've got all the latest from the Emmys. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. We start with a blow to US President Donald Trump's campaign against mail-in voting.

The US Supreme Court has rejected his administration's attempt to enforce new restrictions on mail-in voting, ahead of the mid-term elections. It means the Postal Service must continue operating as usual, while challenging. to a Trump-backed plan to tighten male voting rules play out in court. The political stakes are high, with Republicans battling to keep control of Congress, and surveys showing Democratic voters are more likely to cast their ballots by mail. Critics say the rule could have disrupted the delivery of legitimate ballots, while the administration argues it's needed to prevent voter fraud.

A new Reuters Ipsos poll shows, Democrats opening their widest lead over Republicans in the midterms since President Trump returned to office. When asked which party they would vote for, if elections were held today, 44% of respondents picked Democrats, 37% picked Republicans. Trump's approval rating ticked up two points from his record low of 33%. But Americans are souring on his agenda and 60,000. 33% disapprove of his proposed $5,000 payout to every American, should Republicans keep control of Congress. Senator Mitch McConnell is back on Capitol Hill, returning to work in a wheelchair.

He was absent for three months, following a fall at his Washington home that left him briefly unconscious. He was later hospitalized with pneumonia. President Trump is doubling down on his assessment that doomsday predictions over artificial intelligence are exaggerated, saying on Truth Social that the US already has guardrails for the technology in place. And an unlikely alliance is pushing back. Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump ally Steve Bannon will share a stage later to date to call for restrictions on AI, a sign of how concerns about the tech are cutting across political lines. And those concerns are growing.

Some leading AI researchers say recent breakthroughs have made the risks harder to ignore. Reuters technology correspondent Aditya Soney has more on two of the big changes driving those concerns. One is recursive self-intelligence or the moment at which AI is good enough to improve on its own without needing humans. We've had the idea of RSI in science fiction for years and decades, but a lot of tech executives, experts, and researchers now believe that we have that insight. Timelines range from three to five years, but we've already seen evidence that AI is now powering its own development. Anthropics says that a significant chunk of the code that its engineers are shipping is now written by AI. AI is also being used to help design studies that actually test its abilities.

The other reason is the big hacks that we've seen by AI agents lately. These agents that broke out of their testing environments in search of solving their goals have shown what can happen if AI is misaligned with human goals. Let's look at how the artificial intelligence fares are impacting the markets now with host of our sister podcast MorningBid, Mike Dolan. So all the calls for a slowdown in AI development did have a market impact yesterday. We saw us 5% drop in the SOX index, which is the main new. chip index.

And that is the biggest drop since July. So there is some nerves that all these industry calls for a break on AI development will perhaps slow down some of the gigantic build-out in AI infrastructure. But President Trump is very clear that he thinks there's enough guardrails in place. And the word from China is that they feel the same too and that they think this is all some Cold War conspiracy. So if this is a geopolitical strategic issue. for countries, it's very hard to see it slow down because one country slowing down allows another

one to catch up. Morning bid is available wherever you get your podcasts. Efforts to expand the energy needed to power AI, meanwhile, are ramping up. The Trump administration has announced its repealing Biden-era limits on carbon emissions from coal and gas power plants and is blocking future climate regulations on those facilities. The EPA says the move will help build new generating infrastructure to meet soaring electricity demand, especially for AI. Environmental groups are slamming the proposal, saying it will cause serious damage to public health

at a time when the power sector accounts for nearly a quarter of US greenhouse gas pollution. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates tomorrow after inflation came in hotter than expected in August, and oil climbed above $100 a barrel. For Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, the decision is particularly significant. Raising rates would put him at odds with President Trump's repeated calls for lower borrowing costs. But failing to act could raise questions about the Fed's commitment to keeping inflation under control. Reuters Fed correspondent Howard Schneider has more.

Now, this is not what was expected when Kevin Warsh took over his Fed chair. President Trump has said he's clear. He's said many times, Kevin wants to lower rates. I think we should have lower rates. Well, here we are hiking rates. And it's because inflation has been sticky. And it's also because globally rates are rising and at the long end of the curve. And for reasons that kind of make a short-term hike important for him to

follow at this point because if he were to go against that market expectation, people would start to wonder, is he really serious about inflation? A lot of thinking that would backfire and rates at the long end would go up even faster and higher. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have launched a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia and are digging into positions on the west coast of Yemen. And in Riyadh, there are urgent talks on how to deal with their lightning advance. People forced from their homes by the Houthi advance along the coast

gather food in their makeshift camps. Among them, Aisha Mohamed. She left her five children behind, and now they are unable to leave. Saudi and Yemeni Air Forces have responded by stepping up aerial attacks on Houthi targets. Despite the Houthi moves strengthening Tehran hand, sources have told Reuters that Washington has resisted Saudi requests for direct military

help. American rapper McElmore says he's been dropped from singer Ed Sharon's US tour. The move comes after McElmore called out Free Palestine during a New Jersey concert earlier this month. The tour's promoter told Rolling Stone that venue owners said they wouldn't allow a gig to take place with McElmore on the supporting lineup, while McElmore says Patriots are owner, Robert Kraft, was behind the push to pressure Sharon. Kraft says he was standing up against anti-Semitism. Ed Sharon's team has not issued a comment. And finally, to the Emmys, TV's biggest night and the hospital drama that can't

stop winning. HBO's The Pit, taking home the top prize for the second year in a row. For everything you need to know about last night, here's Lisa Richwine. The big winner tonight was Widows. Bay. Widdows Bay won best comedy. It also set a record with 14 wins the most ever for our comedy in a single year. And it's a really kind of offbeat show. It's a horror comedy and people thought it was really original. So it gained a lot of buzz late in the Emmy season. It won Best Comedy Over Hacks, which had a final season that a lot of people really applauded. The biggest snub was

probably Harrison Ford. He was nominated for supporting actor for shrinking. He was widely praised for That role, he's beloved in Hollywood. He has never won a major acting award. He's never won an Oscar N Emmy, and he did not win tonight. He was upset by Stephen Root in Widdles Bay, which just came in and stormed almost all of the comedy categories. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source.

Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back this afternoon with an update.