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In a sign of how unusual this week’s Federal Reserve meeting is, the decision it will make on interest rates usually the main event is just one of the key unknowns to be resolved when officials gather Tuesday and Wednesday.For now, it’s not even clear who will be there. The meeting will likely include Lisa Cook, an embattled governor, unless an appeals court or the Supreme Court rules in favor of an effort by President Donald Trump to remove her from office. And it will probably include Stephen Miran, a top White House economic aide whom Trump has nominated to fill an empty seat on the Fed’s board. But those questions may not be resolved until late Monday.Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is mired in uncertainty. Hiring has slowed sharply, while inflation remains stubbornly high.So a key question for the Fed is: Do they worry more about people who are out of work and struggling to find jobs, or do they focus more on the struggles many Americans face in keeping up with rising costs for groceries and other items? The Fed’s mandate from Congress requires it to seek both stable prices and full employment.For now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed policymakers have signaled the Fed is more concerned about weaker hiring, a key reason investors expect the central bank will reduce its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point on Wednesday to about 4.1%.Still, stubbornly high inflation may force them to proceed slowly and limit how many reductions they make. The central bank will also release its quarterly economic projections Wednesday, and economists project they will show that policymakers expect one or two additional cuts this year, plus several more next year.Ellen Meade, an economics professor at Duke University and former senior economist at the Fed, said it’s a stark contrast to the early pandemic, when it was clear the Fed had to rapidly reduce rates to boost the economy. And when inflation surged in 2021 and 2022, it was also a straightforward call for the Fed, which moved quickly to raise borrowing costs to combat higher prices.But now, “it’s a tough time,” Meade said. “It would be a tough time, even if the politics and the whole thing weren’t going on the way they are, it would be a tough time. Some people would want to cut, some people would not want to cut.”Amid all the economic uncertainty, Trump is applying unprecedented political pressure on the Fed, demanding sharply lower rates, seeking to fire Cook, and insulting Powell, whom he has called a “numbskull,” “fool,” and “moron.”Loretta Mester, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said that Fed officials won’t let the criticisms sway their decisions on policy. Still, the attacks are unfortunate, she said, because they threaten to undermine the Fed’s credibility with the public.“Added to their list of the difficulty of making policy because of how the economy is performing, they also have to contend with the fact that there may be some of the public that’s skeptical about how they’ve gone about making their decisions,” she said.David Andolfatto, an economics professor at the University of Miami and former top economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said that presidents have pressured Fed chairs before, but never as personally or publicly.“What’s unusual about this is the level of open disrespect and just childishness,” Andolfatto said. “I mean, this is just beyond the pale.”There are typically 12 officials who vote on the Fed’s policies at each meeting the seven members of the Fed’s board of governors, as well as five of the 12 regional bank presidents, who vote on a rotating basis.If a court rules that Cook can be fired, or Miran isn’t approved in time, then just 11 officials will vote on Wednesday. Either way, there ought to be enough votes to approve a quarter-point cut, but there could be an unusual amount of division.Miran, if he is on the board, and Governor Michelle Bowman may dissent in opposition to a quarter-point reduction in favor of a steeper half-point cut.There could be additional dissenting votes in the other direction, potentially from regional bank presidents who might oppose any cuts at all. Beth Hammack, president of the Fed’s Cleveland branch, and Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, have both expressed concern that inflation has topped the Fed’s 2% targer for more than four years and is still elevated. If either votes against a cut, it would be the first time there were dissents in both directions from a Fed decision since 2019.“This degree of division is unusual, but the circumstances are unusual, too,” Andolfatto said. “This is a situation central banks really don’t like: The combination of inflationary pressure and labor market weakness.”Hiring has slowed in recent months, with employers shedding 13,000 jobs in June and adding just 22,000 in August, the government reported earlier this month. And last week a preliminary report from the Labor Department showed that companies added far fewer jobs in the year ending in March than previously estimated.At the same time, inflation picked up a bit last month and remains above the Fed’s 2% target. According to the consumer price index, core prices excluding food and energy rose 3.1% in August compared with a year earlier.With inflation still elevated, the Fed may have to proceed slowly with any further cuts, which would likely further frustrate the Trump White House.“When you get to turning points, people can reasonably disagree about when to go,” Meade said. Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
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Its a big day for iPhone owners around the world today. Thats because Apple will release the iPhones new iOS 26 operating system to the public. iOS 26 sports the most significant redesign to the iPhones software in more than a decade, thanks to its new Liquid Glass design language, which makes the iPhones interface elements look like they are made of glass. But iOS 26 features more than just a visual redesign. The new operating system is packed with everything from new AI capabilities to a revamped calling experience. And best of all, iOS 26 is a free download. Heres what you need to know about iOS 26, including which iPhones support it and what time you can download it in countries around the world. When does iOS 26 come out? Apple never confirms an exact time that its new software will be made available to download on its devices. The company has only confirmed the date. To that end, when Apple announced the new iPhones at last weeks annual iPhone event, the company also announced that the iPhones new iOS operating system would become available today, Monday, September 15. However, based on Apples past software release schedules, we can also make a pretty good educated guess as to what time Apple will release iOS 26 to the public. Apple generally likes to release its major software updates at 10 a.m. Pacific. We expect Apple to stick to this timeline today. What time can I download iOS 26? If Apple does indeed release iOS 26 at 10 a.m. PT today, most users in America will be able to install the update before the afternoon is over, if they so wish, since 10 a.m. PT on the West Coast is 1 p.m. ET on the East Eoast. But if youre located outside of the continental United States, iOS 26 will become available at a later local time due to the time zone differences between Cupertino and other countries around the world. With that in mind, here are the times iOS 26 should release to the public in other time zones and countries around the world: Hawaii: 7 a.m. Alaska: 9 a.m. U.S./Canada Pacific (California, Arizona, Vancouver, etc.): 10 a.m. U.S./Canada Mountain (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, etc): 11 a.m. U.S./Canada Central (Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, etc): 12 noon Columbia, Ecuador, Puru: 12 noon U.S./Canada East (New York, North Carolina, Florida, Toronto, etc.): 1 p.m. Bolivia; Manaus, Brazil; Venezuela: 1 p.m. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina: 3 p.m. Iceland: 5 p.m. United Kingdom, Portugal, Mali, Guinea: 6 p.m. Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Algeria, Angola: 7 p.m. Moscow, Russia; Finland; Turkey; Zambia; South Africa: 8 p.m. Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Kenya: 9 p.m. India: 10:30 p.m. Laos, Cambodia, Thailand: 12 midnight, Tuesday, September 16 China; Singapore; Hong Kong; Perth, Australia: 1 a.m. Tuesday, September 16 Japan, South Korea: 2 a.m. Tuesday, September 16 Adelaide, Australia: 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 16 Sydney, Australia: 3 a.m. Tuesday, September 16 New Zealand: 5 a.m. Tuesday, September 16 What iPhones can I download iOS 26 on? As long as you have a compatible iPhone, youll be able to install iOS 26 on it today. But before you do so, check out Fast Company‘s guide on how to get your iPhone ready for iOS 26. Once youve done that, you can install iOS 26 via your iPhones software update mechanism. iPhones that support iOS 26 are: iPhone 17 iPhone Air iPhone 17 Pro iPhone 17 Pro Max iPhone 16e iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhone 14 Plus iPhone 14 Pro iPhone 14 Pro Max iPhone 13 iPhone 13 mini iPhone 13 Pro iPhone 13 Pro Max iPhone 12 iPhone 12 mini iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max iPhone 11 iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max iPhone SE (3rd generation) iPhone SE (2nd generation) Is Apple releasing other software today besides iOS 26? iOS 26 isnt the only operating system that Apple is releasing to the public today. The company is also releasing updated operating systems for its other devices besides the iPhone. These operating systems include: iPadOS 26 for the iPad macOS 26 Tahoa for the Mac tvOS 26 for the Apple TV visionOS 26 for the Apple Vision Pro watchOS 26 for the Apple Watch You can download the above operating systems on their supported devices by running Software Update on those devices. These new OS’s should also become available at the same time that the iOS 26 update launches.
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Nearly 9 out of 10 AI tools inside enterprises are invisible to IT. Thats the finding of a LayerX study that should send shivers down the spine of any executive: AI is shaping decisions, summarizing meetings, and analyzing data without the knowledgeor controlof the very teams meant to secure it. What sounds like a technical oversight has become a board-level crisis, worsened by new global regulations. Last month, the EUs AI Act entered its next enforcement stage, forcing enterprises to document how general-purpose AI tools process data and threatening penalties of up to 35 million or 7% of global turnover. Yet weeks later, many organizations remain unprepared, struggling even to inventory which AI features are active in their environments. As regulators demand transparency, most enterprises cant meet the basic threshold of visibility. That gap is where the real danger lies. AI isnt only the domain of headline-grabbing tools like ChatGPT; its embedded in the everyday software stack. Zoom can transcribe and summarize meetings, Salesforce can auto-generate reports, Slack can analyze conversations. These features arrive through silent updates, slipping under ITs radar while handling sensitive data. The shadow AI crisis Call it AI sprawl. Platforms ship smart features by default, leaving enterprises with dozenssometimes hundredsof parallel AI apps. IT teams often monitor only a fraction. A report from security platform Zluri found that four out of five AI tools inside enterprises are unmanaged, leaving leaders unsure what data they touch, whether they comply with retention rules, or if theyve been activated at all. The danger lies in how AI arrives. It doesnt show up as new software IT can review. It slips in through automatic updates inside trusted apps. One day Slack is just a messaging platform; the next, its summarizing conversations and suggesting actions by default. Salesforce, Zoom, and Microsoft 365 are all adding similar capabilities, with little fanfare and no guarantee that compliance teams are aware. Gal Nakash, cofounder and chief product officer at the SaaS security company Reco, warns that the real danger isnt in sanctioned AI tools but in the hidden ones that slip into everyday workflows. He notes that vendors regularly roll out new features inside apps like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Slack, often without fanfare or IT oversight. “The real challenge isnt governing AI you know about,” he says. “Its discovering and securing the AI you dont even realize is there. That discovery gap is what turns AI from productivity booster to liability. When features activate silently, they bypass procurement and security reviews. Sensitive data can be processed without oversight. If you cant see where AI lives in your stack, you cant govern its behavior or its output, Nakash says. Why traditional governance is failing Enterprise security tools werent built for this. They track software inventories and run quarterly reviews, but embedded AI arrives silently, as toggles and background features inside already-approved apps. The risk isnt new software; its new capability. Search that combs entire databases. Copilots that draft messages or summarize private docs by default. New Reco data underscores the scale: 91% of AI tools inside enterprises operate without IT oversight, and 8.5% of employee prompts involve sensitive business data. That includes personal identifiers, customer details, even financials, all of which are processed by features security teams may not know are in fact turned on. “Traditional security tools operate on static inventories and periodic assessments,” Nakash notes. “They were built for the pre-AI era where changes happened slowly and visibly.” In other words, the very tools companies trust to protect them are ill-equipped for a world where SaaS vendors can transform the capabilities of an approved app overnight. By the time traditional reviews catch up, sensitive data may already have been exposed. Governance-first AI Some companies are responding by embedding AI inside governance controls from the outset. LeapXperts communications intelligence solution, Maxen, is one such example. Instead of layering an LLM onto consumer chat apps, Maxen functions within enterprise guardrails. That means access is enforced at the user level, outputs are explainable and retained, and data stays within compliance perimeters. Dima Gutzeit, CEO of LeapXpert, argues that many AI assistants are rushed into products as afterthoughts, prioritizing ease of use over accountability. Gutzeit says his company took the opposite approach, building AI into its compliance framework from the very start, with controls for access, explainability, and retention. We view AI as an integral part of the communications governance fabric, not an add-on, he adds. For highly regulated industries like finance or healthcare, the stakes are high. A vague queryWhats the status of our largest deal?could cause an unsanctioned assistant to surface material nonpublic information to someone without clearance. Gutzeit says Maxens controls prevent that. This governance-first model complements discovery tools. Enterprises still need visibility across SaaS platforms to spot hidden toggles and plug-ins. But assistants designed to respect audit and retention rules reduce the chance of sensitive data spilling into the wrong hands. A transparency filled future? The EUs enforcement cadence makes the risk unavoidable. The AI Act now requires transparency, documentation, and risk assessments for general-purpose AI, with even tougher obligations for models deemed systemic risks. And regulators have also introduced a voluntary code of practice, according to The Wall Street Journal, offering a preview of stricter enforcement ahead. LeapXpert’s Gutzeit believes this will trigger a fundamental shift in how enterprises adopt AI. Silent AI features will no longer be tolerated,” he says. “Enterprises will require vendors to disclose how AI is being used, what data it draws on, and how outputs are retaine. Compliance-first strategies will replace AI-first adoption. For executives, the message is clear: Waiting for perfect standards or a finalized audit checklist is not a strategy, and discovery must instead be continuous. And controls have to be built in from the start, not patched on after rollout. The enterprises that will succeed with AI are those that treat governance as a competitive advantage, not a compliance burden, says Reco’s Nakash. When you build visibility and control into your AI strategy from day one, you’re not just managing risk; you’re creating the foundation for sustainable innovation at scale.” The future depends on making AI transparent. If you cant see where its running or what its touching, you cant safeguard customers, comply with the law, or trust the insights it generates. The good news is that a path forward is emerging: real-time discovery across SaaS platforms combined with governance-first assistants that keep data contained. Thats how enterprises can embrace AI without losing control.
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