• Markets: Last week, the markets demonstrated that a short week isn’t always a good one, as rising oil prices and inflation data brought stocks down. This week, investors are eager to hear from Fed Chair Kevin “Never Let Them Know Your Next Move” Warsh (more on that later).
• Stock spotlight: Dave & Buster’s shareholders haven’t had much fun this year, with the stock down more than 52% YTD, but new CEO Darin Harper will be looking to restart the party on today’s earnings call.

BRAKE TIME?

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Chance Yeh/Getty Images

This weekend, lawmakers from both parties were united by one of the most powerful forces in American life—and that was after a council voted unanimously to rename Nashville’s airport for Dolly Parton. Their concern?

AI is kinda unglued

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on his personal website on Saturday titled “We Must Pace the Frontier.” According to the tech founder:

• AI has grown “drastically faster” this summer.
• The OpenAI-Hugging Face hack is spooky because the AI agents involved became a “fanatically devoted collective” that sacrificed themselves “for the success of the group,” and attempted to keep human engineers from finding out what they did.
• Ergo, “in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet,” which would potentially cause “hundreds of billions of dollars in damage” and, you know, could topple civilization.

Among his other ideas, Amodei called on all AI companies to implement embedded evaluators with “desks in our offices, access badges, and company laptops,” similar to what large banks have, to make sure everyone is indeed slowing the pace of progress. He announced that Anthropic has committed to this step “in the near future.”

Legislators from both parties and the leaders of many AI companies spoke in support of Amodei’s ideas. Here’s a smattering of responses:

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, xAI CEO Elon Musk, Google DeepMind Chair Demis Hassabis, and other AI execs publicly supported Amodei.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang probably went 🤨. At a conference last week, he suggested that AI companies were ratcheting up hysteria because they plan to release new cybersecurity products, positing, “What better way to create demand than to create a problem?”
• President Trump said that he didn’t want to slow AI development because he wanted to keep ahead of China and “whoever wins AI wins.”
• Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida supported regulation and said, “Partisan politics aside…this will need to be a massive bipartisan mobilization of government to put the firewalls in effect.”

Zoom out: Regulation in the US may be a long time coming, as lawmakers stress there is no quick fix. In the meantime, King Charles is convening AI leaders to talk this out, and Sam Altman said OpenAI’s IPO is postponed.—HVL

      

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World

Tour de headlines

President Trump and Shane Lowry at the Irish Open. Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images

🥃 President Trump visits Ireland, lifts tariff on Irish whiskey. Someone pour us up a double shot of whiskey: While presenting the trophy for the Irish Open golf tournament, held at his family’s resort in Doonbeg, Trump announced that he would rescind the 10% tariff on the Irish spirit, saying, “Everybody’s been bugging me” about it—including tournament winner Shane Lowry. The president also told reporters, “I don’t want to ⁠cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d ​love ⁠to see [Ireland] unified. It’s going to happen eventually.” He drew the line at revealing his thoughts on Scottish independence, saying that he would “save that for another day.”

🇾🇪 Fighting in Yemen intensified over the weekend. Government forces in Yemen launched attacks against the Iran-aligned Houthis along the Red Sea, including on Houthi positions in Mokha, the port city that the rebels captured last week. The Houthis are escalating attacks on the oil infrastructure of Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s government. Additionally, the Houthis are just 20 miles away from the US military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. The United Nations migration agency said yesterday that 82,000 people in Yemen have been displaced so far this month.

🎾 Alexander Zverev defeated Ben Shelton at the US Open. The 29-year-old Zverev, of Germany, began the season with the tennis world wondering if he’d ever win a Grand Slam. Now he has two. Zverev prevailed in the US Open men’s final against 23-year-old American Ben Shelton, despite the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium largely throwing their support behind Shelton. Zverev, having also won the French Open in June, became the fourth man of the open era to win his first two Grand Slams in the same year. On Saturday, Elena Rybakina defeated defending champion Aryna Sabalenka for the women’s title.—HVL

BRUT STRENGTH

Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/Getty Images

France’s hottest summer ever is hitting winemakers right in the grapes, making it harder to produce Champagne that meets the strict classification regulations set by French authorities. So, officials are making an exception this year and allowing the drink to have a higher alcohol content. In other words, boozy brunch just got boozier.

• FYI: This specifically impacts just the grapes from the Champagne region of France, not all sparkling wine everywhere.

Growing ’pagne: Thanks to record temperatures and drought, grape growers had to harvest their crop earlier than ever, leaving them with a fruit that had way higher sugar levels than normal. Thanks to the magic of fermentation, more sugar equals more alcohol. And since winemakers have to ferment Champagne long enough to get those signature bubbles, French authorities are allowing the drink’s alcohol limit to reach up to 15% for products made from this year’s harvest, instead of the usual 13%.

Nevertheless, few Champagne producers are expected to exceed 13%, since many can cut this year’s batch with last year’s. But volume is still going to be a problem. According to Bloomberg:

• Champagne production is estimated to fall by 48% this year.
• And it’s not just Champagne—overall wine output in France is set to drop by 6% compared to last year.

Bubble trouble: Because of climate change, growing seasons like this could be normal in 10 to 15 years, Maxime Toubart, co-chairman of the Comité Champagne trade association, told Agence France-Presse.—BC

      

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calendar

The week ahead

Mariska Hargitay at the Emmys press preview. Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Ready, set, hike? For the first time since July, the Federal Reserve will meet tomorrow to discuss interest rates, and announce its decision on Wednesday. Most analysts expect a rate hike after Friday’s price data showed stubbornly high inflation. If that happens, it would be the Fed’s first increase in more than three years, and the first since Kevin Warsh took over as chairman in May. President Trump’s reaction to the news will also be of interest after he recently threatened to stop trading with countries the US has a trade deficit with unless the Fed cuts rates.

May the “-force” be with you: If you like tech CEOs, celebrity speakers, and forcing the word “force,” you’ll love Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this week. The annual event will run tomorrow through Thursday and feature appearances by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, actor Matthew McConaughey, actress/producer Reese Witherspoon, science guy Bill Nye, and more.

78th Primetime Emmy Awards: Roll out the red carpet and make way for Olivia Benson. Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay hosts TV’s biggest night on NBC and Peacock tonight, with some help from a star-studded slate of presenters, from A to Zendaya. Hospital drama The Pitt leads the way with 25 Emmy nominations, followed by Hacks (24), Widow’s Bay (19), and Pluribus (18).

But wait, there’s more:

• US retail sales data for August will be released on Wednesday, as US consumers report feeling increasingly worse about the economy.
• Snap will show off its augmented reality glasses, Specs, in an event on Wednesday, and Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro will hit stores on Friday.

BRENDAN’S GOT GOOD NEWS

Céline Dion performs her first concert in 6 years

Céline Dion returned in concert at the Paris La Défense Arena on Sept. 12. Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Mondays are bad enough, so the Brew’s own Brendan Cosgrove scoured the internet for a positive news story to help you start the week off right.

It’s all coming back to her now: French Canadian singer Céline Dion played to a sold-out crowd in Paris on Saturday, performing her first full concert since 2020. The 58-year-old star had been sidelined by stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes intense cramps and muscle spasms, including in the throat.

The six-year comeback required intense training and voice therapy to overcome the incurable disease, but she always vowed that her art will go on. Now, she’s officially back on track with a 26-date Paris residency, which will run through October, and then will pick back up in May.—BC

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News

What else is brewing

• Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India. It was Xi’s first visit there in seven years, as the rivals sought to project a united front amid broader global tensions.
• Amazon announced that it was suspending the use of 21 Air, the cargo carrier involved in the fatal crash in Miami on Sept. 6.
• Costco put a two-box limit on motor oil purchases as the price surges. Each Kirkland box is around $58, up from $30.
• About eight in 10 Americans take at least one dietary supplement, according to a new Pew Research survey.
• Sydney Sweeney sparked another advertising controversy by posing mostly nude to promote the sports prediction market Novig.
• Lady Gaga welcomed a baby with her fiancé, Michael Polansky.

recs

• Why is Jimmy Buffett’s $275 million trust still locked up in drama?
• New scam alert: Take a beat before scanning a QR code for parking.
• Gen Xers and millennials: Find the most popular actor in the year you were born.
• An insightful book about how to win a trade war for our age of international economic conflict.**

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Play

Turntable: Did you miss us last week? Well, we sure missed you. Our word-building game is back this week and spinning up C, N, H, E, L, A, and V. Play Turntable here.

TV Trivia

In honor of tonight’s Emmy Awards, which TV program, about to begin its 52nd season, has racked up the most Primetime Emmy Awards of all time?

Answer

Saturday Night Live (with 95 wins)

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: positing, meaning “proposing as an explanation.” Thanks to Irv from Colorado for the perky postulation. Submit another Word of the Day here.