The Headlines - Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Reporters, and How A.I. Is Driving Up Health Care Costs

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Plus, the undamming of U.S. rivers.Here’s what we’re covering:Judge Blocks Trump’s White House Ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico, by Erik WempleBattle of Hospital A.I. vs. Insurer A.I. Is Pushing Medical Costs Higher, by Reed Abelson and Teddy RosenbluthOpenAI Agent Hacked Public Health Care Site, Australia Says, by Victoria KimOpenAI’s A.I. Tried Breaching 4 Other Targets, Without Prompting, by Kate Conger and Victoria KimKennedy Drew $4 Million in Book Advances From Publisher Who Also Monetized MAHA, by Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay StolbergSalmon Are Thriving After Klamath River Dam Removals, Study Finds, by Rebecca Dzombak Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, September 24th. Here's what we're covering. In a very late-night ruling, handed down after midnight, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked President Trump from keeping CNN, MS Now, and Politico out of the White House. The judge said Trump's ban on the news organizations, which the president announced last Friday, was likely unconstitutional, and told the administration to quote,

immediately return, reinstate, and restore the press credentials for journalists who work those outlets. The White House had argued in a court filing that the ban was necessary to protect national security, but the judge rejected that. His ruling is a temporary reprieve for the journalists. It'll last 14 days while the judge considers the case further. For the last week, many media outlets have pulled back from their pool coverage of presidential events in solidarity with the band outlets. It's not clear how quickly things could restart, or if, for example, a full spread of journalists will be there tonight to cover the state dinner at the White House

for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Even before the ruling came down, Trump wrote on social media that his administration would, quote, almost without question, appeal. A new report out this morning shows how the growing use of artificial intelligence by hospitals is causing medical costs to surge. The report, put out by a group of insurance companies, claims that over the past two years, hospitals have billed for nearly a billion dollars in additional expenses by using AI to code various medical conditions

as more complex, even with no evidence that the patients received different care. For example, AI systems might prompt a doctor to list a secondary diagnosis like, anemia or low sodium, which would increase the overall bill sent to the insurance company. And it can really add up. The CFO of one small hospital and health care system in Michigan told the times that by using AI to more thoroughly document patients' cases, they'd been able to boost revenue by a million dollars a month. At the same time, just as providers are using

sophisticated AI tools to say their patients are sicker, insurance companies themselves have been accused of using AI tools to delay or deny claims. Healthcare experts warned that the competing use of AI tech could get out of hand, with one doctor who founded an AI health company telling the times, that's the danger, where it's bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible, dystopic future nobody wants to live in. For the moment, patients are getting. getting caught in the middle as costs are projected to rise, with analysts pointing not just to AI, but also to the rising price of prescription drugs and other factors. This year, Americans who got health insurance through their jobs are paying an average of about $2,000

more than they were last year. And according to one recent estimate, those costs are expected to climb again next year, too. Now, in another AI development... I want to update Australians on an incident in which an artificial intelligence agent has infiltrated an Australian government website. The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, said yesterday that AI agents from the tech giant OpenAI hacked into a federal health care website there, the first known instance of an AI breach into government systems. Albanese said it happened back in June when a team from OpenAI was recently. researching public health spending. The group tasked AI agents with collecting information, and when those agents couldn't access a website they wanted, they went rogue.

The AI agent found a way around those blocks. Didn't accept no for an answer, if you like. While no personal health information was part of the breach, Albanesey called it, quote, unacceptable. And the Australian government said it's exploring whether opening eye should face legal consequences. The hack is one of a growing list of examples of AI agents going beyond the limits set by their human operators. This week alone, researchers and government officials announced that they discovered at least three other incidents in which OpenAI's tools went rogue and tried to break into government

and university websites without being told to do so. Systems from Anthropic, Meta, and Google have also gone around guardrails. We have a choice in front of us. AI can either be more like a new renaissance of creativity and discovery, or more like a new industrial revolution of upheaval and disarray. With these kinds of alarming incidents as the backdrop, the topic of how to handle AI was a big one at the United Nations yesterday, where the heads of Open AI and Anthropic repeated their warnings

about the technology their companies are developing. If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole. They called for international cooperation around safeguards for AI, with Dario Amadei of Anthropics saying, quote, no leader, no company, and no nation can manage this alone. A new financial disclosure form from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has revealed that the health secretary accepted millions of dollars in book advances and gifts over the past year, from people who are working to advance his Make America Healthy Again agenda. The bulk of the money, $4 million, was for two books that Kennedy is set to publish,

one of them titled Unsettled Science, though federal rules prohibit government employees from getting outside compensation for books related to their official duties. The payment to Kennedy came from a publisher owned by Tony Lyons, a longtime Kennedy ally who shares his skepticism of vaccine safety, and who oversees a number of groups that accept political contributions from health. health-related companies. The disclosure form also showed that Kennedy's wife, Cheryl Hines, accepted more than $200,000 in consulting fees from a group led by Lyons. A former White House Ethics Council, who served under President George W. Bush, said the fee to Heinz, in particular,

quote, reeks of conflict of interest. More broadly, ethics experts said the payments call into question Kennedy's ability to remain independent and impartial as he's shaping the country's health policy. In response to questions from the Times, a spokeswoman for the Health Department said that Kennedy, quote, complies with all applicable federal ethics laws, regulations, and financial disclosure requirements. Lyons did not respond to messages seeking comment, and Heinz could not be reached. And finally, for decades, the Klamath River, which runs through Oregon and California, had several major hydroelectric dams across it. There now, all gone, thanks to a lot of careful planning and a lot of explosives.

It was the largest dam removal project in American history, and with the river flowing freely again. Oh, here's one right here. The fish have come back. We're about 230 miles from the ocean right now. It's been a long journey for this guy. Last year, native Chinook salmon showed back up in the river's headwaters for the first time in more than a century. and an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Staffer described the site to Oregon Public Broadcasting

as amazing and once-in-a-lifetime. Chinook salmon are known for their epic journeys. They start in freshwater, grow up out in the ocean, and then swim back up river to spawn. Now a new study shows the salmon aren't just making a comeback. They are thriving. The fish and wildlife staffer thought they would trickle in.

Instead, there's been a tidal wave. Coho salmon and steelhead. head trout are also moving upstream. The scene on the Klamath River is part of a larger trend of undamming happening across the U.S., with the hope of creating healthier water systems for fish and humans. Last year, more miles of the country's rivers were reconnected, thanks to dam removals, than at any other time in history. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest and the Friday News Quiz. Thank you.