Italy’s Meloni Follows Pop Stars in Seeking to Trademark Her Voice to Combat AI Deepfakes
ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has applied to trademark her voice with the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office, seeking to protect herself against AI-generated deepfakes.
The application filed with the EU agency includes a four-second audio recording of Meloni repeating the phrase, in Italian, “Io sono Giorgia Meloni” (“I am Giorgia Meloni”), according to the EU office’s records on Monday.
The filing, first reported by Italian daily La Repubblica, was confirmed by an Italian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Meloni’s move comes as governments, regulators and public figures grapple with the rapid spread of artificial intelligence tools capable of convincingly replicating voices and images.
The recorded phrase echoes Meloni’s famous declaration at a 2019 political rally: “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian.” The slogan became widely known in Italy and inspired a viral dance remix. “Io sono Giorgia” was also the title of her 2021 autobiography.
Manipulated images of Meloni have repeatedly circulated online in recent years and have at times been passed off as authentic. Among them was a fake image showing her sitting on a bed in her underwear.
Meloni has warned that deepfakes can “deceive, manipulate and harm anyone,” urging users to verify online content before sharing it.
“I can defend myself, but many others cannot,” she said in May, after fake images of her surfaced online.
Pop star Taylor Swift was among the most prominent targets of deepfakes in 2024, after sexually explicit AI-generated images falsely depicting her spread widely online, fueling calls for stronger legal protections against unauthorized digital replicas.
Matthew McConaughey was one of the first major celebrities to use trademark registrations to secure rights to voice clips and motion elements.
Fellow actor Scarlett Johansson also raised concerns about AI-generated voices after objecting to an OpenAI chatbot voice that she said sounded “eerily similar” to her own. She had declined to participate in the project. OpenAI denied intentionally imitating Johansson’s voice and later withdrew the feature.
And in Japan last week, a court awarded legal protection to the human voice for the first time. The case involved a popular Japanese anime voice actor who demanded that TikTok close an account over its unauthorized use of an AI clone of his trademark baritone.
Italian media reported that even if Meloni’s application is approved, the trademark will not automatically prevent AI-generated imitations of her voice. It could, however, provide an additional legal tool against unauthorized use.
The filing follows a separate legal battle launched by Meloni in 2024 against a man accused of creating and posting deepfake pornographic images using her likeness. The case remains pending before an Italian court.
Maricarmen, the 87-year-old Woman Whose Eviction Shook Spain, Has Died in Hospital
MADRID (AP) — María del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman whose eviction from her longtime Madrid home sparked nationwide protests across Spain and unleashed a political crisis, died on Wednesday while hospitalized.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez led the way on social media offering his condolences after housing activists and Abascal’s lawyer announced her death. Known widely as “Maricarmen,” she had become a symbol for renters struggling with Spain’s housing affordability crisis.
“All my love to Maricarmen’s family and loved ones,” Sánchez said in a post on X. “A hug as well to all of us who feel this loss as our own today. Rest in peace.”
The emotions ran into anger on the street among the protesters gathered near Spain’s Parliament who chanted “Maricarmen lives, the fight goes on!”
Iciar López, a 32-year-old psychologist, shared her feelings with The Associated Press at the protest in Madrid.
“A great deal of sorrow. And above all, the thought that she is the cause, the head of this whole revolution that has happened, and that she can’t see it,” she said. “It makes me very sad that she can’t see if anything comes of it ... That’s what angers me the most, honestly.”
A case that captured media attention and traveled around the world
Spaniards increasingly frustrated by housing costs periodically march in major cities demanding action from lawmakers. But a fresh wave of indignation has swept Spain since Sept. 23, when Maricarmen, who used a wheelchair, was carried on a stretcher from her home of seven decades after police cordoned off the street and removed protesters. She was taken to a hospital because of her fragile health.
Televised images of the eviction prompted thousands of people to protest in Madrid and other cities across the country.
Maricarmen’s lawyer, Beatriz Duro, did not disclose the cause of death when she confirmed it to Cadena Ser radio. Duro said that she and the activists were all devastated.
“Maricarmen’s case, which captured media attention and traveled around the world, leaves us the image of the shameful violence of these types of evictions and the impact they can have on people’s health,” Duro said.
She had been expected to return home after leaving the hospital. The real estate company that evicted her in order to rent the property at a much higher price eventually caved in under immense public pressure and agreed to let her return to the apartment.
“Although a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return home, this solution came too late,” the Madrid Tenants’ Union said in a statement Wednesday. “It was an entirely avoidable situation following a harrowing ordeal.”
Maricarmen’s plight galvanized a social movement
The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years, according to the real estate website Idealista. Spain’s government said that 26% of Spaniards who rent housing spend an average of 40% of their income on rent and utilities, compared with the European Union average of 18% of renters who do so.
Protesters camped in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square held a minute of silence after learning of her death.
Maricarmen spent almost her entire life in her apartment, where she first lived with her parents and brother. She later worked as a secretary for the board of a pharmaceutical company, Spanish daily El País reported. She said both her parents died in the apartment.
After retiring in 1998, she spent her days walking around the neighborhood, doing errands and taking care of the precious items in her home. The paper reported that black-and-white family photographs were among the only things she had brought with her to the hospital.
“Maricarmen only wanted to die in her home. She wasn’t asking for anything else,” Eugenio Melchor, 22, said at the protest in Madrid. “She was dying in her home and she almost did. They have killed her. I mean, there’s no other word for it, and I hope those responsible for this pay and go to trial.”
Maricarmen’s plight galvanized a social movement, prompted Spain’s unions to announce a general strike next month and intensified pressure on political leaders. Sánchez called an early election Monday after his government failed last week to push emergency housing measures through Parliament. He now hopes the issue will reinvigorate his Socialist Party and help him form a new government after the Nov. 29 election.
Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez also expressed condolences, writing on X: “I deeply lament the death of Maricarmen. My condolences to those who accompanied her and fought by her side until the end.”
Conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who hopes to unseat Sánchez and his left-wing coalition, also offered condolences.
“I want to express my condolences to Maricarmen’s family and loved ones. No campaign, no party, no use for political advantage,” the Popular Party leader wrote. “When faced with the death of a person, we must only show respect.”
- AP NEWS' JOSEPH WILSON (Associated Press writers Teresa Medrano, in Madrid, and Renata Brito, in Barcelona, contributed.)
Isaias Strengthens Into the First Hurricane of the Atlantic Season
Isaias strengthened into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season late Wednesday as it surged towards the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters warned that it was on track to make landfall between the Mississippi coast and the Florida Panhandle late Friday or early Saturday and was expected to bring heavy rains and potentially flash flooding.
The center of the cyclone was about 460 miles (745 kilometers) south-southwest of the Mississippi River, with maximum sustained winds around 75 mph (120 kph), according to an advisory from the Miami-based hurricane center. It was moving east-northeast at 9 mph (15 kph).
The hurricane formed late in the season
Isaias is developing more than four months into the Atlantic hurricane season, nearly tying a 121-year-old record for the area’s latest-forming hurricane. According to the National Weather Service, the record dates to 1905, when the year’s first Atlantic hurricane formed on Oct. 8.
The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year because of a strong El Niño, which disrupts storm formation over that ocean. Storm activity has been above average in the Pacific, where Tropical Storm Simon formed Wednesday off Mexico.
After Isaias (pronounced ees-ah-EE’-ahs, according to the hurricane center) became a tropical storm Wednesday in the warm waters off eastern Mexico, communities in its potential path worked quickly to prepare. Some Gulf oil wells paused production while governors in Florida and Alabama declared a state of emergency for dozens of counties.
Isaias is expected to strike along a wide swath of coastline that’s very familiar with major hurricanes.
One of the 20th century’s worst storms, Hurricane Camille, killed more than 250 people after hitting land near Waveland, Mississippi, in 1969. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 razed neighborhoods in Mississippi, flooded New Orleans and killed nearly 1,400 people. And Hurricane Michael leveled homes and buildings near Panama City, Florida, in 2018.
Oil production and tourism already affected
Ahead of the storm, oil and gas producers shut down a significant share of offshore production in the Gulf, which accounts for almost 15% of crude pumped annually in the U.S.
As of Wednesday about 25% of the oil production in the region was temporarily halted, taking about 511,000 barrels a day off the market, according to the Marine Minerals Administration. It said eight of the Gulf’s 371 manned oil platforms were evacuated.
With oil prices already high, the production cuts are steep enough to affect markets, though other Gulf hurricanes have caused larger disruptions, said Jim Burkhard, global head of crude oil market research for S&P Global Energy. More concerning, he said, is whether Isaias strikes as a powerful storm near refineries.
“I would characterize the oil market risk as moderate, but rising,” Burkhard said in an email.
In Gulf Shores, Alabama, organizers canceled the National Shrimp Festival, which had been scheduled for Thursday through the weekend. The event drew an estimated 325,000 people last year. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach issued a statement encouraging people in low-lying areas to voluntarily evacuate.
Gulf Shores resident Maranie Adams gathered water and other supplies as her family moved belongings, including a hot tub motor, to higher ground.
Adams said she, her husband and two adult sons planned to ride out the storm at home, roughly a half-mile from shore, sheltering indoors alongside their flock of chickens.
“We’re having to get crates to bring them into the house so they don’t blow away,” Adams said. “It’s going to be noisy.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency for 40 counties, saying on the social platform X that, “While I hope for minimal impacts, we must take preparations seriously.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared one for 25 counties in the Panhandle and Big Bend regions. The declaration activates the state’s emergency management plan for hurricanes, allowing officials to deploy disaster responders and equipment. The state also planned to deploy a Miami-based urban search and rescue task force.
In Pensacola, electric utilities were pre-positioning crews to quickly repair any power outages. City officials provided sand for residents to fill sandbags to protect their homes against flooding. And Mayor D.C. Reeves urged people to check on older adult neighbors and others who might need help.
“Obviously no need to panic at this point,” Reeves told a news conference. “This is really about preparation.”
- AP NEWS' R.J. RICO (Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, Julie Walker in New York and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.)
Christa Pike is Angry and Confused After Surviving Execution Attempt, Attorney Says
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike was “angry and confused” in the hours after regaining consciousness following Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, first asking, “Where am I?” her lawyer said Wednesday.
Pike, believed to be the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution, stunningly woke up as plans were being made to remove her from life support, just six days after she was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, said attorney Randy Spivey.
“But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone ... Christa woke up and began talking,” Spivey said.
Pike, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer, is aware of what happened to her, at least up to a point, Spivey said.
Many questions remain, though, about her prognosis for recovery and whether Tennessee will make another attempt to execute Pike, now age 50.
Her lawyers said Wednesday that she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence. A judge in Nashville told the state on Wednesday to save evidence from the execution attempt as Pike’s attorneys try to find out more.
The failed execution on Sept. 30 has renewed scrutiny of how states carry out the death penalty, in particular the use of lethal injection. Texas on Wednesday carried out the first execution in the U.S. since Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death.
Pike faces a long recovery, lawyer says
Pike’s legal team said she still can’t move her arms or swallow and has some cognitive confusion. She also has pneumonia and a blood clot in her arm, Spivey said. Her hands were extremely swollen when they saw her Tuesday in the hospital, shackled to a bed, he added.
Her prognosis remains unclear and she has a long road to recovery, he said.
“She is angry and confused about everything right now,” Randy Spivey said during a news conference following a court hearing about preserving evidence.
Spivey, who was not with Pike when she woke up, was told her first words were, “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”
Pike’s attorneys want evidence preserved
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.
At the hearing Wednesday, a judge told the state that the Tennessee Department of Correction needs to save evidence including “anything that was in the actual room.”
Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles said she plans to issue a sweeping order that will direct the state to maintain recordings, witness accounts, emails, drugs, syringes, IV lines and other medical items.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office had argued a court order was unnecessary. John W. Ayers, assistant attorney general, said some evidence from the death chamber already had been collected and logged. He declined to comment after the hearing.
Pike’s attorneys accused the state of carrying out the attempted execution in secrecy, saying more transparency is needed. They also repeated their calls for clemency for Pike. Republican Gov. Bill Lee has not yet indicated how he’ll respond.
Outside the courthouse, Michelle Nowell yelled “Justice for Colleen” as Pike’s attorneys talked with supporters.
“The victim is Colleen. The victim is not Christa Pike,” said Nowell, who was among a group outside the prison last week where the failed execution took place.
What happened in the execution chamber remains unclear
The governor postponed the state’s only other execution for this year and ordered a review of what went wrong. The state’s prison chief resigned.
Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.
Pike’s attorneys wrote in a court filing that “apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown.”
State officials have not yet offered an explanation.
The attempted execution got underway when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, she raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard breathing heavily until media were escorted from the witness room nearly 90 minutes into the execution. An ambulance took Pike to a hospital.
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike’s legal team, said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored so the state can try again to execute her.
- AP NEWS' KRISTIN M. HALL (Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit and John Seewer, in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.)
Grammy-Nominated R&B Singer Freddie Jackson, Known for ‘80s Hits Like ‘You Are My Lady,’ Dies at 70
Grammy-nominated R&B singer Freddie Jackson, known for his smooth ‘80s hits “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)” and “You Are My Lady,” has died. He was 70.
A statement shared by his family on his official Instagram account confirmed Jackson died Monday, three days after his 70th birthday. No cause of death was provided.
“Freddie was more than a legendary voice. He was a kind, generous soul who loved his fans, his family, his friends, and his music with everything he had. For decades he gave us the songs that became the soundtrack to our love stories, our celebrations, and our most treasured memories. That gift will live on forever,” the statement read.
“To everyone who ever sang along, danced, or felt something when Freddie took the stage: thank you. You were family to him, and he carried your love with him always,” it continued.
Details regarding arrangements will be announced in the coming days.
Jackson was born and raised in Harlem, where he learned all about soul music and sang gospel at White Rock Baptist Church. He started his career in the New York club scene, eventually making his way out West with the band Mystic Merlin in the late ‘70s. He soon returned to New York and released his debut album, “Rock Me Tonight,” in 1985. His distinctive voice proved to be his superpower: The album, which was quickly certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, also led to his two career Grammy nominations. Those were for best new artist and best male R&B vocal performance for the single “You Are My Lady.”
“Rock Me Tonight” also created a new R&B superstar: Jackson became a mainstay of those Billboard charts and a fixture of contemporary urban radio play throughout the ’80s and early ‘90s.
His sophomore album, 1987’s “Just Like the First Time,” was also certified platinum.
Jackson shared his kidney disease diagnosis in 2024
In 2024, Jackson revealed he had been diagnosed with kidney disease in a video shared to his social media accounts.
“This journey has had its challenges, but I’ve decided to face it with openness and resilience,” he said in the clip. “It’s important to me that I share this with you, not just as a part of my personal story, but as a way to make a positive difference.”
At the time, Jackson also revealed he had partnered with the National Kidney Foundation to raise awareness of the disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 in 7 American adults has chronic kidney disease. As many as 9 in 10 don’t know they have it.
Chronic kidney disease is a condition where the kidneys are damaged and struggle to filter blood. As a result, excess waste and fluids remain and can lead to other health issues, such as heart disease.
- AP NEWS' MARIA SHERMAN
Christa Pike Survived Her Execution. What Happened?
After a flurry of eleventh-hour litigation, Christa Pike was strapped to a gurney Wednesday night, set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
But after being injected with two ostensibly lethal doses of pentobarbital, Pike was still alive, snoring loudly as journalists selected to witness the execution glanced at one another, wondering what was happening.
“None of it was normal,” said Catherine Sweeney, a reporter for WPLN. “I covered all the executions last year, and most of the ones this year. We haven’t seen anything like it. It went really poorly.”
Pike is in critical condition and receiving life-saving medical care, her legal team said Thursday afternoon. Attorney Randy Spivey called for the governor to commute her sentence, saying she had endured punishment “greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty.”
The failure to execute Pike – who was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer – raises serious questions about what went wrong during the execution and what happens next.
Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, announced he would call off the state’s last remaining execution this year while a third-party review takes place to “determine what exactly occurred” in Pike’s case, according to The Associated Press.
“The Governor has appropriately called for an investigation,” the office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “We need to know what happened.”
It’s the second such order of Lee’s tenure: He similarly paused executions in 2022, when he said he learned the proper procedure for testing the lethal drugs had not been followed.
This was just the latest blunder by a state that has pushed ahead with executions after several years of troubles, including a failed execution attempt earlier this year. In the wake of the failure, critics of the death penalty called for a halt to executions, not just in Tennessee but in the 27 states that still practice the death penalty.
“The state of Tennessee has shown the world it cannot be trusted to implement capital punishment in a way that preserves human dignity and the rule of law,” Laura Porter, executive director of the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said in a statement. “This has to stop now.”
Tennessee is not alone. Multiple states have struggled with lethal injections in recent years, giving rise to novel methods, like executions by nitrogen gas, and the return of old methods, such as the firing squad.
The central issue with lethal injection is it’s a “Frankenstein version” of a medical procedure, said Corinna Barrett Lain, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and author of the 2025 book “Secrets of the Killing State: the Untold Story of Lethal Injection.”
These executions generally feature drugs of questionable quality, nonmedical personnel administering the drugs and patients with notoriously weak veins, Lain said. Lethal injection’s “botch rate” is twice that of other methods, she said.
“It has all of the delicacy and need for accuracy of the medical model, but then it’s been warped to suit the executioner’s needs,” she said. “It’s a recipe for disaster from the start.”
In a statement, Pike’s legal team pointed to several possible issues.
“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” attorneys Spivey and Kelly Gleason said in a statement. “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”
A timeline of the attempted execution
Pike was initially scheduled to be executed on Wednesday morning, but last-minute legal appeals delayed the execution to later in the day.
Tori Gessner of WKRN, one of the media witnesses, provided a detailed timeline of Pike’s execution.
The witnesses were taken into the witness chamber at 6:41 p.m., she said. The blinds that look into the execution chamber were opened at 7:26 p.m., and Pike then gave her final statement, she said. At 7:34 p.m., Pike said her arm felt like it was about to burst and she appeared to be talking, breathing, moaning and snoring over the following minutes, Gessner said.
The blinds to the room were closed at 7:46 p.m. and then reopened at 7:49 p.m., Gessner said. Pike was snoring with her mouth open at this point. The blinds then went down at 8:05 p.m., and remained closed until the witnesses were escorted out of the area at 8:53 p.m., Gessner said.
Pike’s attorneys offered several other details Thursday. The execution team spent an hour trying to establish an IV line and used at least seven needles in her left arm, Spivey said.
“I’m haunted by last night,” he said. “What I saw last night is not something that should ever, ever happen again.”
Another attorney, Stephen Ferrell, said no one on her legal team has seen her and he declined to speculate about what she is experiencing.
Pike’s biggest fear “was not a fear of dying. It was a fear of prolonged, painful, traumatic death,” Ferrell said. “That’s what happened, minus the death.”
The media witnesses said they had little sense of what exactly was happening.
“I cannot emphasize enough how much of whatever just happened, happened behind a closed curtain when Christa Pike was still alive,” said Steven Hale, a reporter for the Nashville Banner.
John North, a journalist for WBIR, echoed that sentiment.
“Obviously, we have a lot of questions about what we saw and what we did not see, because there were moments when the blinds were down for us and there were moments when the blinds were up for us,” he said.
“It appeared that this did not go like they thought it was supposed to go,” he added.
State says it followed protocol
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it acted according to its protocol throughout the failed execution.
“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” the department said in a statement. “The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”
Tennessee’s lethal injection execution protocol is laid out in a 44-page document created by the Department of Correction, according to a copy obtained by the Death Penalty Information Center. CNN has requested a copy of the protocol from the Tennessee Department of Correction.
The step-by-step protocol is used to “ensure the humane and constitutional execution of inmates sentenced to death” and prohibits officials from straying from the procedure.
“There will be no deviation from the Protocol except by order of the Commissioner,” the protocol states.
The protocol approves only a one-drug method of lethal injection, specifically pentobarbital, a barbiturate that can cause death. The protocol states 100 ml of a 50 mg/ml solution of pentobarbital (a total of 5 grams) shall be checked to verify its contents and expiration dates 30 days before a scheduled execution.
The document lays out procedures leading up to, during and after the execution. Personnel prepare the primary 100 ml dose of pentobarbital solution in syringes, as well as a backup set “if the inmate is not deceased,” the protocol states.
There is no protocol for what happens if that second set does not work.
There is only limited precedent for what comes next. While it’s not uncommon to have a “botched” execution – when something differs from official protocol – it’s exceedingly rare for an execution to simply fail, said Austin Sarat, an Amherst College professor and author of several books on the death penalty and lethal injection.
In a case 80 years ago, Willie Francis survived the electric chair in Louisiana, only to be executed on a second attempt.
“So we’re in kind of unprecedented territory with Pike in the sense of she survived her execution,” he said. Sarat considers Pike to be “the first person to survive a lethal injection where the drugs reached her.”
Tropical Storm Hanna Forms in Atlantic Ocean and Isn’t Threatening Land
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Hanna formed Monday in the Atlantic Ocean and isn’t threatening land, forecasters said.
The storm was located about 870 miles (1,400 kilometres) east-northeast of Bermuda and was moving east, according to an advisory from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.
Maximum sustained winds were around 45 mph (72 kph).
There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect. Little change in strength is forecast in the coming days.
The storm comes as the Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually quiet this year due to a strong El Niño, which disrupts storm formation over that ocean.
Storm activity in the Pacific has been above average, with Hurricane Polo bearing down on Mexico Monday and Hurricane Nolo edging away from Hawaii.
Iran’s Currency Hits a New Record Low as War Erodes the Country’s Economic Stability
Iran’s currency fell to a new record low on Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar in a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has steadily eroded the Iranian economy.
The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar on Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.
The Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions. But a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into freefall.
Meanwhile, Iran’s top diplomat said indirect negotiations with the United States aimed at reopening the critical Strait of Hormuz have become “more serious,” while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ chief spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi on Tuesday called on Americans to take to the streets and protest the conflict.
Iran’s top diplomat raises the prospect of new talks
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian media late on Monday that the “current focus is solely on the Strait of Hormuz,” the chokepoint of the war.
Araghchi made the comments shortly before departing New York — where he attended last week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly — and after meeting with Pakistani and Qatari mediators.
Araghchi said that the Qatari intermediaries were expected to soon engage with the U.S. side.
“They are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final U.S. response will be conveyed to us,” Araghchi said. “If there is a response, the Qataris will convey it to us and a decision will be made in Tehran on that basis.”
Officials, including from the U.S., have confirmed to The Associated Press that mediators are working with Iran and the U.S. on trying to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the strait.
The mediation efforts continue even after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in seven days if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.
Iran sends a provocative message to the US public
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday made an appeal to everyday Americans to push their government to end the U.S. war against Iran, a provocative message that comes just weeks before critical midterm elections in the United States.
Mohebbi, the Guard spokesman, read a letter during a news conference in Iran’s capital, Tehran, appealing to Americans to pressure their government and claiming that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave the Mideast.
Mohebbi’s remarks come as Trump’s Republican party faces fierce headwinds as it looks to maintain control of Congress. But polling shows the war has darkened the American electorate’s mood ahead of the Nov. 3 election in which elevated gasoline prices, a byproduct of the conflict, loom large.
Mohebbi also accused the U.S. of using Iran’s nuclear program as a ruse to “plunder Iran’s wealth” and to turn the country “back into a colony.”
He added that the U.S. and others failed in their belief that military and economic action would get Tehran to submit and that Washington “has no choice but to acknowledge defeat and leave the region.”
“This is how the war will end,” he said.
Trump and his top aides are insistent that Iran’s economy cannot sustain a conflict much longer and have expressed confidence that Tehran will be forced to capitulate.
The U.S. president predicted soon after launching the war that the conflict would last a matter of weeks. More recently, he’s said that the war will likely end after the November elections in the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Monday appearance on Fox News said Iran was heading toward an economic “cataclysm.” Administration officials say that a combination of new sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade aimed at preventing Iranian oil from going to market are having the intended effect.
“And so when you’re denying them money through oil sales and sanctions, you’re not just punishing them,” Rubio said. “You are preventing them from getting access to money that they will use to try and kill Americans and others around the world and their own people and build weapons and threaten the world and ultimately break out to a nuclear weapon program.”
OpenAI Shelves New AI Model Release Over Safety Concerns
Sept 28 (Reuters) - OpenAI has scrapped the release of GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation AI model planned for an October debut, after internal testing found the system did not meet the company's safety and alignment standards, the ChatGPT maker confirmed on Monday.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman and rival Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei earlier this month joined industry leaders in calling for a slower pace of AI development and stronger safety measures.
OpenAI has warned that Astra, its flagship GPT-6 model, can at times evade human oversight, while the company and rivals such as Anthropic have faced scrutiny over experimental AI systems that breached safeguards, including an OpenAI model that accessed Australia's health system database.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in the day that OpenAI had abandoned plans to launch the model, which was expected to be integrated into ChatGPT and Codex and was designed to handle more complex tasks without human assistance.
The Journal reported that GPT-6.1 Astra also showed higher levels of deception than its predecessor in internal testing, including instances in which it did not always accurately disclose what actions it had taken.
"While (GPT-6.1 Astra) improved on axes such as model laziness, it didn't quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it's done," said Saachi Jain, head of safety systems at OpenAI.
"Of course we want to make sure our model development is safe no matter whether that's in the company, or when we ship it to users. But when we ship it to users, we have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment," Jain said.
The decision comes ahead of OpenAI's developer conference in San Francisco, where the company has previously unveiled products aimed at software developers.
- Reporting by Akash Sriram and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru and Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Rashmi Aich
Stitchie: A legacy That Connected Dancehall, Gospel
(The Observer) Kingston, Jamaica — Lieutenant Stitchie’s voice may have fallen silent, but the influence of the veteran deejay — who commanded respect in both secular dancehall and gospel music spheres — is expected to continue reverberating across generations.
The veteran artiste, whose given name was Cleveland “Cleve” Laing, died at Kingston Public Hospital on Monday morning [September 28, 2026], one day shy of his 61st birthday.
The news comes less than 24 hours after his wife, Sophia Laing, confirmed that the entertainer had been hospitalised with a low blood count and was receiving treatment.
His passing closes a remarkable chapter in Jamaican music — one that began in dancehall and found a path to gospel.
For distinguished cultural analyst, Professor Donna Hope, Lieutenant Stitchie’s ability to remain loved across musical boundaries was rooted not only in his talent, but also in his personality that endeared him to audiences.
“Stitchie was loved because a lot of his songs were humorous. They were fun and they made people happy,” Hope said. She pointed to his enduring early hit Wear Yu Size, noting that the song was “digestible”, catchy and non-combative — qualities that helped establish his connection with listeners.
“Stitchie had an excellent career in dancehall and that followed him into gospel,” Hope continued. “I saw Mr Vegas made a post and I’m sure several others will as the news spreads because a lot of the artistes he would have came up with in that era were still close to him even though they were doing different genres.”
Entertainers and government officials took to social media to pay tribute to the deejay. Among them Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Tarrus Riley and Chevelle Franklyn (who also transitioned from dancehall to gospel).
Professor Hope shared that Stitchie’s significance extended beyond his music.
“Having a relationship with secular artistes was something Stitchie did well because he understood that it was important to minister to the sheep that ought to be brought into the fold,” she said. “This loss will be felt across genres and eras. He is a part of the industry in a way few artistes were, and so he will never be forgotten.”
Basillia Barnaby-Cuff, founder and director of Sterling Gospel Music Awards, agreed.
“I think Stitchie set a beautiful example of how you can remain an influence with people even when you’re in a different season of your life,” she said. “He was able to bridge the gap between the secular and gospel. He was still able to be on stage with secular artistes, singing gospel without compromising his walk with Christ.”
For Barnaby-Cuff, that was the essence of Stitchie’s ministry — not simply preaching to people already inside the church, but allowing his life and testimony to reach those outside it.
“It is about allowing your life to minister to those you wish will come over to Christianity,” she said.
The Sterling Gospel Music Awards family shared a particularly close connection with the artiste in his later years. A few years ago, Stitchie was honoured at the awards with the KFC Big Deal Award, an occasion Barnaby-Cuff now views with gratitude.
“I am just so happy we were able to give him his flowers while he was alive,” she said. “The gospel fraternity and we here at the Sterling Gospel Music Awards are really saddened by this news.”
Even as his health deteriorated, the organisation continued to support him, raising funds towards his care in the hope that his condition would improve.
“As the body of Christ, we are so grateful that he used the latter part of his years in ministry, and that he brought so many other persons to Christ,” she said. “He truly lived a full life and, as children of God, we don’t mourn as if we don’t have hope, and so that hope is something we hold on to and that one day we will see him again in the great resurrection.
Stitchie emerged from the competitive sound-system culture of Spanish Town in the early 1980s, working alongside artistes including Papa San and Wickerman. His breakthrough came in 1986 with the humorous Wear Yu Size, followed by songs such as Natty Dread, as his distinctive delivery and ability to connect with audiences propelled him beyond Jamaica. In 1988, he secured a recording deal with Atlantic Records, marking another significant milestone in a career that was increasingly taking him onto the international stage.
But it was his decision to walk away from secular music and embrace Christianity in 1997 that would ultimately redefine his legacy.
In 2014 he published his autobiography and among his accolades was honoured with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer in 2021 for his contribution to music.
- Shereita Grizzle | Observer Staff Reporter