Independent newsroom

Friday, September 11, 2026

The File

Every claim traces to a primary source. Uncertainty is labeled. Corrections are public.

Edition

Friday, September 11, 2026

Friday edition

Anthropic

Anthropic details how people tried to misuse Claude

Confirmed
Anthropic put a long threat report on the table Thursday. The company’s Threat Intelligence team says that over about eight months it found and shut down operations that tried to use Claude for harm. The report covers activity from December 2025 through August 2026 in seven areas: cyber attacks, influence campaigns, surveillance, scams and fraud, biological misuse, conventional weapons work, and illicit distillation. Claude Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus models show up in the cases. Anthropic says none of the misuse cases involved Claude Fable or Mythos-class models except one illicit distillation case. The actors range from suspected state-backed groups to money-motivated criminals, spyware vendors, state propaganda shops, and politically motivated individuals. One detailed cyber case, labeled GTG-20006, describes a Russian-speaking operator whose tradecraft the company says is consistent with Midnight Blizzard-style espionage against Ukrainian and European government and defense targets. Another cluster, tied to suspected ShinyHunters affiliates, used Claude to speed smash-and-grab data theft and extortion. Anthropic says it banned accounts, hardened safeguards, and shared intelligence with authorities and industry partners. Outside labs and governments have not been independently verified here as confirming every attribution.

Full story and sources · 1 primary sources

OpenAI

OpenAI opens an Agents API in public beta

Confirmed
OpenAI is letting developers run the same kind of long-running agent harness that powers Codex. On Sept. 10 the company said the Agents API is in public beta. One API call can create an agent with a model, tools, and an environment. OpenAI hosts the harness. Developers can run the agent in an OpenAI-hosted sandbox, on their own machines, or with partners including Blaxel, Cloudflare, Daytona, DigitalOcean, E2B, Modal, Oracle, Runloop, and Vercel. The post shows sample calls using model id gpt-6-astra, MCP tools, and multi-agent subagents. The company says there is no extra fee for the API beyond tokens and tools. Other Sept. 10 OpenAI product posts on the same index include ChatGPT for Financial Services, GPT-Live-1, and “put data to work.” Those are noted here, not re-led.

Sources · 2 listed

House

House pair introduce bill on controlling AI agents

Confirmed
Two House members want the National Institute of Standards and Technology to write rules for finding and controlling AI agents. On Sept. 9 Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Mike Lawler of New York introduced the . Their release says the bill would direct NIST to develop national standards for discovering, verifying, and controlling AI agents, then push those standards into federal buying rules, with coordination from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Sources · 1 listed

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Producer prices rose 0.4 percent in August

Confirmed
Prices companies get for their goods and services moved up again. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.4 percent in August after a 0.1 percent rise in July. Over the 12 months ended in August, final demand was up 5.4 percent. Goods jumped 1.1 percent in the month. Energy led that move, up 4.2 percent. Diesel fuel alone jumped 24.1 percent and accounted for more than a third of the goods increase. Services edged up 0.1 percent. Prices for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services rose 0.3 percent in August and 4.7 percent over the year. The next PPI print is Oct. 15, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The Consumer Price Index for August was not yet on the BLS page at this lock; it is due today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Sources · 3 listed

Treasury

Treasury welcomes a revised global tax return for U.S. companies

Confirmed
Treasury says U.S. companies get clearer paperwork for a global minimum-tax safe harbor. On Sept. 11 the department welcomed a . Secretary Scott Bessent said the form puts President Trump’s “side-by-side” international tax deal into operation. Under that deal, Treasury says U.S.-headquartered companies stay under U.S. global minimum taxes and are exempt from certain foreign Pillar Two cross-border taxes — the Income Inclusion Rule and the Undertaxed Profits Rule — if they elect the safe harbor. The revised return adds an election field, cuts some reporting for electing companies, and limits how local minimum-tax data is shared across countries. Countries still have to write the safe harbor into their own laws.

Sources · 1 listed

Treasury

Treasury hits networks that bankroll Iran’s proxy groups

Confirmed
Treasury’s sanctions shop went after money and arms pipelines tied to Iranian-backed militias. On Sept. 10, under Operation Economic Outcast, the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated people and companies it says support Kata’ib Hizballah and Lebanese Hizballah. Targets include Iraqi militia commanders, procurement firms linked to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Commission, a Dubai exchange used to move money toward Iran, and Lebanese gold and cash exchangers said to move hundreds of millions of dollars from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force to Hizballah between May and September 2025. OFAC also said an individual agreed to pay $1,427,230 to settle Iran-sanctions liability and published a new Iran licensing policy with a presumption of denial in most cases. The designations rely on counterterrorism and Iran-sector authorities.

Sources · 1 listed

State Department

Rubio launches a space partnership in Lima; Peru joins the Shield of the Americas

Confirmed
Marco Rubio’s South America trip ended in Peru with two concrete announcements. On Sept. 10 in Lima the State Department launched the — its flagship push to deepen civil and commercial space work with countries. The department said it is working with Congress on a $6.5 million rural satellite-internet project for schools, small businesses, community centers, and public institutions in southern Peru, subject to available funds. The same day President Keiko Fujimori announced that Peru will join the Shield of the Americas, a U.S.-led group she and Rubio described as a coalition of more than a dozen countries against transnational criminal and terrorist groups. In a joint press appearance, Rubio said the Shield exists so the United States can work inside partner countries rather than act alone. Fujimori said any foreign troop entry would still need a special congressional authorization under Peru’s constitution.

Sources · 2 listed

Justice Department

Conti ransomware conspirator sentenced to four years

Confirmed
A Conti ransomware helper is going to prison. On Sept. 10 a federal court sentenced Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, 44, a Ukrainian national formerly of Cork, Ireland, to four years for . Prosecutors say Conti hit computers in 47 states, 31 foreign countries, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico from 2020 to 2022. The FBI estimated victim payouts tied to Conti topped $150 million as of January 2022. Lytvynenko pleaded guilty June 10. Evidence showed he held stolen data from eight U.S. victims and four overseas victims and helped code a malware “loader.” He was arrested in County Cork in July 2023. Four other Conti defendants were charged in a Middle District of Tennessee indictment unsealed in September 2023.

Sources · 1 listed

Week 1

49ers beat Rams 27–7 in Melbourne

Confirmed
San Francisco won the league’s first regular-season game in Australia. The 49ers beat the Rams 27–7 on Thursday at Melbourne Cricket Ground, final on NFL.com’s 2026 Week 1 schedule. NFL.com news said the Australia debut drew 100,021 fans. San Francisco is 1–0. Los Angeles is 0–1. The Kickoff Game earlier in the week still stands as Seattle 13, New England 10. Next national windows: Dallas at the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football, Sept. 13, 8:20 p.m. Eastern on NBC; Denver at Kansas City on Monday Night Football, Sept. 14, 8:15 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. No odds. No picks.

Sources · 2 listed

CDC

CDC warns of more animal rabies exposures this summer

Confirmed
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says animal bites and rabies shots are up. On Sept. 10 the agency posted a statement that it had issued a Health Alert Network advisory for clinicians, health departments, and the public after summer 2026 reports of more animal exposures and rabies post-exposure vaccinations across the country. The statement tells people to avoid mammals that look sick or act strangely, including wildlife, and to get medical care after bites or scratches.

Sources · 2 listed

NASA

Progress 96 is still due to dock this afternoon

Partially confirmed
A Russian cargo ship is still on NASA’s clock for Friday. The agency’s coverage release says Progress 96 was scheduled to launch at 12:15 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Sept. 9, from Baikonur and to dock on its own at the Poisk module’s space-facing port at 2:37 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Sept. 11. Arrival coverage was set to start at 1:45 p.m. The spacecraft is to bring about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies and stay about five months. Liftoff is unverified from NASA primaries. The coverage page still reads as a schedule (last updated Sept. 8). Docking is still due 2:37 p.m. Eastern Friday.

Sources · 1 listed

White House

White House says nearly 1 million people will get $500 Obamacare fee refunds

Confirmed
The White House says refund checks are coming for people who paid full freight on the federal Obamacare exchange. A Sept. 10 fact sheet says the government will return hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange “user fees” by sending $500 per person to nearly 1 million Americans in 30 states that use the federal marketplace. Checks are to start in October 2026. The list of states runs from Alabama to Wyoming and includes Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Michigan. The sheet says the refunds go to people who do not get premium assistance. Separately, the White House also posted that President Trump signed , the , authorizing a commemorative work on the National Mall.

Sources · 2 listed