The Emperor Penguins Are Telling Us Something We Don’t Want to Hear: Half Could Be Gone by 2080 — Because of Us

September 30, 2026

By Mars Strangelove Jr. and Yiannis Damellos

The oceans are warming, the Antarctic ice is disappearing, and an extraordinary species is losing the habitat it needs to survive. We are watching what is happening to their world in real time. We know why. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

There is something almost obscene about watching a catastrophe unfold when the victims cannot possibly understand what is happening to them. The emperor penguin did not cause climate change. It did not burn coal, drill for oil, build highways, or fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. It simply evolved in one of the most demanding environments on Earth and learned, over thousands of generations, how to survive there. Now the environment itself is changing beneath its feet.

Millions of Americans are losing SNAP benefits: "It feels as though people are being punished"

By Aimee Picchi, Mary Cunningham

Updated on: September 30, 2026 

12:38 PM EDT / CBS News

Lori Covelli, 53, an unemployed social worker in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who last year was collecting $760 per month in food stamps, recently lost all her benefits after failing to find a job and running afoul of the program's work requirements. She had hoped to regain that aid on her 54th birthday, when she would age out of those restrictions, but then learned that a new federal law had extended the program's work requirement to 64.

Iran confirmed it has received a U.S. counterproposal over a 7-day ceasefire plan previously turned down by Trump

By Yiannis Damellos

Date: September 30, 2026

Iranian authorities have announced that they are currently reviewing a U.S. counterproposal to a recent Iranian offer for a seven-day ceasefire. This latest diplomatic effort comes after continuous tensions marked by a seven-month war, with Iranian officials reiterating that the hostilities will only cease should the U.S. acknowledge its defeat and withdraw its forces from the region.

BREAKING NEWS: Execution of US murderer Christa Pike halted shortly before it was due to happen

20 minutes ago

Stephanie Hegarty, World Service correspondent 

and Grace Eliza Goodwin

The execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike has been halted just over an hour before it was due to happen.

Pike, 50, has been awaiting execution since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.

Independent Football Regulator chief: Man City guilty verdict 'raises serious issues'

Sep 30, 2026 

10:34 AM ET

Manchester City's guilty verdict for breaching Premier League financial rules "raises serious issues," according to the chair of English football's independent regulator.

An independent commission has concluded City "clearly intended to circumvent Premier League rules" by inflating revenue and hiding costs over a nine-season period.

Spain proposes ban on evictions as ousted 87-year-old accepts offer to return home

Hundreds of people remained camped in one of Madrid’s main squares Tuesday to protest Maricarmen Abascal’s removal from her home on a stretcher last Wednesday

Sept. 29, 2026, 4:49 PM PDT

Source: Reuters

MADRID — Spain’s coalition government said it had agreed to proposals including banning evictions until 2030 to address the country’s housing crisis, as the 87-year-old woman whose forced removal last week triggered protests accepted an offer to return home.

A Metaphysical Hegemony is Like a Wish Sandwich

By Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.

September 30, 2026

According to Elwood Blues in the song "Rubber Biscuit," a wish sandwich is made of two slices of bread, and you wish you had some meat (to put between them). Logistically speaking, America has found itself in a similar quagmire since Trump started the Iran War. It may still possess the world's most formidable military machine. The question is whether it can still afford to keep that machine physically present everywhere its interests demand. If the answer is no, like in Iraq these days, then “American hegemony” is clearly metaphysical and by all means not a grand strategy anymore, just an adaptation to a constraint. Like a Wish Sandwich.

How Trump Became Mob Boss of the United States

The most corrupt president in American history has been preparing his entire life to co-opt the government for personal gain

Sean Wilentz/Rolling Stone

29 September 26

On the evening of May 22, 2025, Marine One lifted off from the South Lawn of the White House and flew 25 miles northwest to Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C., the president’s private club in Sterling, Virginia, overlooking the Potomac River. Donald Trump landed shortly before seven. He had come to dine with the top holders of a cryptocurrency bearing his name. More than a hundred protesters had gathered outside the club. They held signs that read “Stop Trump’s Crypto Corruption,” “America Is Not for Sale,” and “Release the Guest List.” Inside, more than 200 guests were waiting for him. They had qualified for admission by buying the president’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency.

Trump announces vague ‘morally binding’ AI deal among tech CEOs for ‘tremendous self-policing’

US president also issues an executive order officially rebranding ‘artificial intelligence’ 

as ‘superintelligence’

Nick Robins-Early

Wed 30 Sep 2026 00.21 BST

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the heads of the largest US tech and AI companies had signed on to a “morally binding” agreement to put controls on artificial intelligence. He announced the deal, called the Joint Commitment On Frontier Responsibilities, following a White House luncheon with top tech executives.

Jack Smith clashes with senators over Trump probes, says he will not be silenced

Courts & Law

The former special counsel defended his scrutiny of the president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and handling of classified documents. Republicans are pressing for a Justice Department inquiry of his conduct

September 29, 2026 at 2:46 p.m. EDT

By Jeremy Roebuck

Former special counsel Jack Smith forcefully defended his derailed efforts to prosecute President Donald Trump on Tuesday, telling lawmakers he would not “be silenced by continued threats of prosecution” from the president.

Why Did Netanyahu Fly to Abu Dhabi to Chase an Old Warning?

September 30, 2026

By Mars Strangelove Jr. and Yiannis Damellos

Three years after October 7, 2023, a strange trail has led back to the beginning

It starts with an article in Haaretz. On Sept. 8, the Israeli newspaper reported that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu roughly 10 days before the Hamas attack and warned him that Yahya Sinwar was preparing a major operation. According to the report, the Emirati leader warned that the attack could cause bloodshed, destabilize the region and damage the Abraham Accords. Netanyahu, Haaretz reported, reacted calmly and said Israel was prepared for possible scenarios, while apparently believing any major threat was more likely to emerge from the West Bank. Netanyahu’s office called the story an “absolute lie,” saying he had not spoken with Sheikh Mohamed during that period and had received no warning from him. That might have been the end of the story — one explosive allegation, one emphatic denial — had Netanyahu not quietly boarded a plane.

Laurie Anderson’s Farewell to Lou Reed: A Rolling Stone Exclusive

'For 21 years we tangled our minds 

and hearts together'

By Laurie Anderson

November 6, 2013

Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed. Guido Harari/Contrasto/Redux

Rolling Stone pays tribute to Lou Reed, the outsider who changed the course of rock & roll, on the cover of our new issue. In an exclusive essay for RS, Laurie Anderson reflects on her 21-year relationship with Reed and his final moments.

A new anti-ICE compilation album benefits immigrants rights organizations

September 28, 20265:00 AM ET

 Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Last year, a well-known street vendor in Los Angeles' Culver City neighborhood was detained by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Ambrocio "Enrique" Lozano had been selling ice cream in the area for decades — a photo of his abandoned paletero cart soon went viral on social media, a striking representation of beloved community members being targeted by heightened immigration raids. Artist and activist Dali Colorado, who grew up in LA and now lives in Oregon, saw the photo as a call to action.

ICE agent who shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston identified

Houston ICE Shooting

The federal government has withheld his identification, even as major state and local law enforcement agencies across the country typically identify officers involved in shootings on the job soon after the incident.

By Lomi Kriel and Eddie Gaspar

Sept. 28, 2026, 8:45 p.m. CentralStory

Editor’s note: In recent shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the federal government has withheld the names of the officers involved. This is a departure from the practice of many law enforcement agencies — including Texas’ biggest police departments — and contradicts advice the federal government has reportedly given local agencies in the past.

Today, we are publishing the name of the officer who allegedly shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston this summer. In recent weeks, local law enforcement and members of Congress have said their questions about the shooting have not been answered. We are publishing because we believe transparency in the case is of vital public interest as investigators, lawmakers and the public seek to understand what happened and how ICE operates more broadly in this state.

Taxpayers have funded nearly $1.5M in pro-Trump ads. Criticism is mounting, including from the GOP

By ALI SWENSON
Updated 3:57 PM PDT, September 28, 2026

The White House has spent days fiercely defending three taxpayer-funded advertisements that glorify President Donald Trump and are nearing at least $1.5 million in public spending, calling them public service announcements like those used in past administrations.

“Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our Epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on TV,” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X on Sunday.

SpaceX Starship splashes down after reaching orbit in unprecedented test flight

Updated 5:50 PM EDT
Mon September 28, 2026

What we covered here

• Mission wins: SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever made, launched from Starbase, Texas, Monday, and the ship portion of the launch system reached orbit. All 26 operational Starlink satellites were deployed.
• Engine trouble: Because one of the Starship spacecraft’s Raptor vacuum engines shut down prematurely, SpaceX decided to cut the mission short.
• Dramatic splashdown: The Starship spacecraft survived its scorching journey back through Earth’s atmosphere before practicing a controlled landing burn in the Pacific Ocean. The splashdown wasn’t as soft as the one seen in July during the previous flight, causing a massive fireball over the water.
• Looking ahead: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on its success so far following the launch. SpaceX is facing intense pressure to get Starship ready for a crucial NASA test flight next year that could pave the way for the next moon landing.

‘I want public executions’: Texas GOP candidate’s extreme posts extend beyond racism

Bo French, Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, attends the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, March 27. Daniel Cole/Reuters
By Andrew Kaczynski
Updated 9 hr ago

Bo French, the Republican nominee for one of Texas’ most powerful statewide offices, is facing bipartisan criticism over a racist post about the crowd at a University of Texas football game.

Trump criticizes UK for releasing suspects in alleged terror plot targeting base used by US

World / United Kingdom
6 min read
By Nic Robertson, Tim Lister and James Frater CNN
Updated 1 hr 43 min ago

Fairford, England — US President Donald Trump criticized the United Kingdom’s response to a suspected terror plot to attack a UK airbase used by the US military, saying he was “surprised” the five suspects were released on bail on Monday afternoon.