Pike has been on death row for 3o years.
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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Good morning! It’s Thursday. Here are today’s top stories. |
- Publishers are increasingly using tools that can identify AI-written content, but are the analyses accurate? Our reporter put the tools to the test.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced six new directives for the U.S. military during an address on the state of the armed forces.
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Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill previously passed by the House that would encourage states to require data centers to pay for their own energy costs. They also blocked a House-passed bill that would have limited members of Congress from trading stocks.
- A FlyDubai flight carrying primarily Israeli passengers from Dubai to Israel was diverted on Wednesday after a co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain and tried to crash the aircraft. Here’s what we know about the attack.
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🍵 Health: The surprising benefits of eating spicy food.
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(Tennessee Department of Correction via AP) |
The Supreme Court late on Sept. 30 cleared the way for Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years.
Earlier in the day—just one hour before Christa Gail Pike was scheduled for lethal injection—a federal appeals court paused the execution to buy time to determine whether Pike's history of childhood sexual abuse was fully presented when a jury in 1996 returned a guilty verdict.
Pike has been on death row since 1996, when, aged just 18, she and her then-boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating to death a classmate. |
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Writing generated by artificial intelligence is becoming a familiar headache for publishers, educators, and other professionals amid widespread calls to protect and prioritize human-authored content.
AI writing detectors have stepped up to the challenge; some tool makers say they can identify human versus AI prose with up to 99 percent accuracy.
But attorneys say caution is needed. Educators, publishers, and employers using an AI detection score as the basis of their decision-making over questionable writing could face serious legal consequences. AI experts—even those who’ve built detection tools—say that these services are meant to offer useful clues, but that they aren’t infallible. In fact, they seem to share a common blind spot. Researchers have been evaluating AI detection tools for some time, and studies and experts have emphasized one key point: Humans still need to be part of the assessment process.
In a 2026 study published in the International Journal for Educational Integrity, researchers wrote, “While detection tools can provide useful initial flags, they should not be used as sole evidence in high-stakes decision-making but should be implemented in a broader evaluation strategy.”
Studies and experts have also raised concerns about the accuracy of these tools and their potential to flag human writing as AI. “A detection result is a signal, not a verdict. It should open an inquiry, never close one,” a spokesperson for GPTZero told The Epoch Times.
In a professional setting, two things matter more than the detector itself. “First, an organization needs a written AI-use policy before it needs a detector. Detection can help enforce a standard; it cannot substitute for having one,” the spokesperson said.
“Second, look for patterns rather than single instances, and pair detection with process evidence.” The Epoch Times tested three leading AI writing detection tools—Pangram, GPTZero, and Originality.AI—over the course of two weeks. The results were eye-opening. (More) |
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President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, on September 26, 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images) |
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President Trump said he will begin a 32-day tour to support Republican nominees in their campaigns ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, when voters will decide control of the House and Senate.
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The president ordered federal agencies to reduce invasive mosquito populations by 90 percent and tick populations by 50 percent on federally controlled land in Washington, D.C., by 2028.
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The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court’s stay of execution for Christa Gail Pike, clearing the way for Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years.
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South Korean investors are pouring $200 billion in energy and infrastructure investments into the United States, U.S. President Donald Trump announced.
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The Federal Reserve failed to use key cost controls and adequately oversee a headquarters renovation whose approved budget grew by more than $1 billion, according to an inspector general report.
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The Department of Justice announced grand jury indictments against 10 foreign nationals who allegedly registered and voted illegally in Minnesota in the 2022, 2024, and 2026 elections.
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A Senate panel advanced President Trump’s latest nominee for surgeon general.
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Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday sued former special counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice (DOJ) over a subpoena Smith’s office issued for her phone records during his investigation of President Trump’s actions around Congress’s certification of the 2020 election. Blackburn alleged Smith violated her constitutional rights and was unlawfully appointed. She asked the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to order the Justice Department to destroy the records or return them.
- The Department of Justice has filed a judicial misconduct complaint against federal judges in Minnesota who granted interviews to The New York Times about the immigration enforcement surge there.
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- On your feet, TSA agents. Transportation Security Administration officers will not be permitted to sit while checking identification at U.S. airport checkpoints, the agency and a major union said Tuesday.
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Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models may be less than a year away from inventing and deploying unique languages that humans would struggle to understand, a frontier AI researcher told Congress.
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California will start labeling pesticides that contain “forever chemical” perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS, in its public use-reporting database after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a scaled-back bill this week.
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The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure came in firmly below economists’ expectations last month, new government data show.
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Carnegie Mellon University has announced a $3 billion gift from hedge fund titan Ken Griffin, the largest single donation by an individual in the history of U.S. higher education.
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U.S. Soldiers with 2nd Platoon, Bravo Battery, 2-15 Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division conduct an artillery live fire exercise at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Dec. 1, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Quince Lanford/Public Domain) |
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The U.S. military completed its withdrawal of the remaining troops and equipment from Erbil Air Base in Iraq more than 20 years after the United States first launched the Iraq War.
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The United States sanctioned 13 individuals and entities accused of helping Iran obtain weapons and components on Tuesday. Targets include parties based in Russia, China, Hong Kong, and Pakistan.
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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the UK should consider options for its future relationship with the European Union, including “going all the way” and applying to rejoin the bloc.
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Spain’s socialist-led government approved a decree that pauses evictions in investment-fund-owned flats until 2030. The decision, which also lets tenants of small landlords stay longer and caps rent rises at 2 percent, followed protests triggered by the forced removal of 87-year-old woman Maricarmen Abascal from her home.
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The UK believes Iran played a part in a suspected terrorist plot last weekend at an airbase in England used by the U.S. Air Force.
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- Let Local Franchise Owners Run Their Own Businesses—by Alex Ciccone (Read)
- What Chance Do Men and Women Have?—by Mollie Engelhart (Read)
- The Faculty Are Not Entirely in Charge—by Mark Bauerlein (Read)
- Education in Upheaval—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read)
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When the weather turns cool, a hot, satisfying dinner made in one pan is hard to beat. This tamale pie combines seasoned ground beef, sweet corn, green chiles, and warm spices with a golden homemade masa topping that bakes up soft and cornbread-like. It takes less than an hour of active cooking time, making it an easy choice for a weeknight dinner. Serve warm with avocado and sour cream. |
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“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it.” |
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