Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei called for the development of artificial intelligence to slow down. In a 3,800-word essay published Saturday he called for increased oversight and more guardrails for the technology. His calls were echoed by other AI leaders, including Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI; Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX; and Demis Hassabis, the chair of Google DeepMind. Amodei’s warning comes after a swarm of Open AI agents hacked the platform Hugging Face. In his essay, Amodei wrote in part: “Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.”

This comes as OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said the company will not go public in 2026, citing concerns over AI safety. According to data reviewed by Reuters, Open AI agents used more than 10 previously undisclosed websites for unauthorized communications earlier this year.

This is Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher who resigned over AI safety concerns.

Jacob Coxon: “I think the concept of building a super-intelligence is, well, it’s been likened to, to summoning an alien species. So, I think, thinking about it in terms of an alien mind that we don’t fully understand is, is pretty terrifying, even without any, any concrete scenario.”

On CNN, House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed calls for Congress to act on AI regulation. The speaker is expected to dismiss Congress this week until after the midterm election. Some say to prevent a push for AI regulation.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization was blocked from attending the annual gathering of the United Nations nuclear agency in Vienna on Monday. It comes as an Iranian cargo ship was hit near Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one person on Sunday, as regional talks in Oman about managing shipping through the strait were pushed back after objections from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. On Saturday, Iran and the United Arab Emirates both signed a joint BRICS declaration urging restraint in the war. This is Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking at the BRICS summit in New Delhi.

Masoud Pezeshkian: “If Iran is standing up to the United States and Israel today, it is only because they want to bully us, and we refuse to bow to bullying. They only claim to support human rights. They are the same devils who accuse us of being terrorists. Are we the terrorists, or are you — who massacre 168 innocent children in an instant because you have advanced technology?”

Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis claimed a drone and missile strike on a military base in southern Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has called the rebels’ fast advance along the Red Sea coast a painful blow and a new front in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The Houthis reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on ​Friday. It comes as Saudi Arabia announced that it had to shut down the East-West pipeline, which was billed as an alternative to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz, after a drone attack from Iraq. Meanwhile, the UN reported Sunday that almost 86,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. Thousands have poured into makeshift displacement camps. Villages around Mocha port have emptied in a matter of days. This is a displaced man Abdullah Qaiyd.

Abdullah Qaiyd: “We fled the war, moving from place to place. We escaped with only our lives, leaving everything behind. And now, look at us. We are tormented and shaken to our core. We long for a basic livelihood, and we long for safety.”

A major new report by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem titled “The Elimination Project” accuses Israel of systematically dismantling the conditions that allow Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to function as a community. The report says Israel is “dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank” including “the ability to get to work, take children to school or university, receive medical treatment or municipal services, meet family and friends, cultivate land or go on vacation … routine activities that make up human life.” Since October 7, 2023, at least 1,107 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank. Over the weekend, an Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian man in the leg during a confrontation between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank town of Faqqua.

In Gaza, an Israeli air strike on a vehicle killed at least two people and wounded 13. Israel’s near daily assault on the Gaza Strip continues despite last October’s so-called ceasefire. Since the U.S.-brokered truce, more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza.

In Lebanon, the Israeli military says it used more than 1,000 tons of explosives–triggering seismic activity equivalent to a magnitude 4.1 earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey. Israel claimed the explosives were used to destroy two tunnels operated by Hezbollah beneath the Ali Taher Ridge. This comes despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire earlier this year. Israeli forces continue to occupy 5% of Lebanon. According to the UN, about 330,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by Israeli attacks.

In Ukraine, at least five people were wounded in a Russian drone attack in the city of Odessa Sunday. Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine of killing two Russian servicemen at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
It comes as another Russian drone hit a train near the Ukraine-Poland border shortly after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and top European security officials had passed through. Former US CIA director David Petraeus was at the Ukrainian train station at the very moment a Russian drone struck a passenger train.

This is the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas.

Kaja Kallas: “I think about that Russian drone strike on train on the border with Poland), that it is clearly meant to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine, from going to Ukraine to show support. That was meant, it was clearly message to the Western world. I think the question for us is, what do we take from that message?

The number of confirmed Ebola ​cases ​in the Democratic Republic ⁠of Congo ​has topped 7,000, according to government data published on Friday. There have also been more than 3,300 reported Ebola deaths as the virus has spread to remote eastern and northern regions already devastated by armed conflict.
The World Health Organization warns the outbreak could be on track to exceed the deadliest on record, when a regional outbreak in West Africa that began in 2014 killed 11,000 people.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is poised to formally repeal planet-warming, carbon ​pollution standards for coal and gas power plants.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is expected to announce the measure today in Houston where he’s meeting with energy ministers from G20 nations.
President Trump has repeatedly decried climate change as a “hoax.” During his second term, the EPA has dismantled a slew of policies aimed at regulating greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming. The move comes as this summer’s scorching temperatures were the hottest recorded in the U.S. in at least 132 years.

July was the hottest month on record in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A federal judge found that the Trump administration broke the law in directing that FEMA’s workforce be cut in half. In her ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston wrote: “Frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air.” The labor union, the American Federation of Government Employees, argued in a lawsuit that FEMA’s proposed cuts would impair the agency’s ability to respond to natural disasters.

As Nebraska’s Republican Governor Jim Pillen publicly backs Trump’s ICE raids in the state, more details have emerged of Pillen’s multimillion-dollar hog business that employs undocumented workers.
The New York Times and The Flatwater Free Press report that over the span of more than a decade Pillen’s company — Pillen Family Farms — has relied on undocumented workers to grow into one of the largest hog producers in the U.S. Despite that, Pillen has often echoed Trump’s racist rhetoric about immigrants and a so-called “invasion.”

President Trump is demanding the Smithsonian Institution install a 30-foot colossal statue of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History and to curate a five-year special exhibit about Washington’s legacy.
The proposed massive statue would replace an abstract sculpture titled “Infinity” by José de Rivera that was installed in 1967. In a Truth Social rant, Trump said “That strange modernist sculpture tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes.”

This comes just days after the Smithsonian’s head Lonnie Bunch III last week announced he’s stepping down from the position. Bunch and others in the Smithsonian Institution’s leadership have faced repeated attacks from President Trump. In July, Trump ordered the installation of signs in front of the National Museum of American History claiming that some of the exhibits are inaccurate. The signs have not been installed yet.

In 2019, Bunch became the first African American and historian to be named secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and has worked for the museum’s education and research complex for nearly 40 years. He was also the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.