Previously: September 4’s roundup covered Netanyahu calling the toppling of Iran’s regime “within reach,” Katz’s capture of Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher ridge, Russian strikes killing at least three in Ukraine as Estonia’s defense minister resigned over a shell-procurement scandal, and OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra launch alongside Nvidia’s roughly $13 billion purchase of Hugging Face.
Middle East — Iranian Tanker Struck Near Kharg Island, Israeli Strikes Kill 3 in Lebanon After Drone Attack on Troops
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB said Saturday that four US missiles struck an Iranian oil tanker roughly six miles (10 km) from Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf, after multiple explosions were heard overnight. Iranian media reported the tanker was being evacuated with no casualties reported so far, and there had been no official comment from US or Iranian officials at the time of reporting. The strike is the latest escalation in the conflict that resumed last Sunday, coming days after CENTCOM’s wave of strikes on IRGC air-defense, radar, and mine-laying sites in retaliation for Iran’s attempted mining of the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint that has been central to the war since it began in late February.
Separately, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least three people were killed and 23 wounded late Friday in Israeli strikes that hit five locations across the Tyre and Nabatieh districts and the eastern Beqaa Valley, including the villages of Mayfadoun and Kfar Rumman. The Israeli military said the strikes targeted Hezbollah after the group launched a drone at Israeli troops in Israeli-held territory in southern Lebanon — the first reported Hezbollah drone attack since Katz’s capture of the Ali al-Taher ridge covered in September 4’s roundup, and a sign the ceasefire arrangement remains fragile months after it was brokered.
Sources: Euronews — Iranian media report US strike on Iranian oil tanker near Kharg Island · CNBC — Iranian tanker reportedly hit by US attack near Iran’s Kharg Island, Tasnim says · The Times of Israel — 3 said killed in IDF strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah drone attack on troops · KSAT/AP — Months after ceasefire, Israel and Hezbollah battle over a strategic hill in Lebanon
Ukraine — Witkoff and Kushner Arrive in Moscow With a Peace Plan Before First-Ever Kyiv Visit, Putin Orders 3-Day Halt on Kyiv Strikes
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday carrying what President Trump called a “proposal to end the war,” ahead of their first-ever visit to Kyiv on Sunday — a renewed push to break the diplomatic deadlock that has persisted through the near-nightly bombardment covered in September 4’s roundup. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the planned Kyiv leg on social media, writing “we need to look for real options for how to move this war toward an end” and that Ukraine would “see what proposals Steve and Jared bring and what they are told in Moscow in response.”
Zelensky said Ukraine would hold off on strikes for the duration of the envoys’ trip and called on Russia to do the same; the Kremlin responded by announcing that Vladimir Putin had ordered a three-day halt on strikes against Kyiv, starting Saturday night, which spokesman Dmitry Peskov said was “connected with the preparation for and conduct of the Americans’ contacts in Kyiv.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov struck a more skeptical note, telling state media that Washington “must take into account the realities on the ground in the matter of Ukrainian settlement, where the situation is changing not in Kyiv’s favor” — signaling Moscow isn’t entering the talks ready to compromise.
Sources: CNN — Witkoff and Kushner arrive in Moscow with plan to end war ahead of visit to Kyiv · CNBC — US envoys Witkoff and Kushner are in Moscow in a new push for peace between Russia and Ukraine · Euronews — US peace envoys Witkoff and Kushner to visit Kyiv and Moscow with plan to ‘end the war’ · Axios — Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner to travel to Moscow and Kyiv this weekend
Tech & AI — Tesla’s Driverless Cybercab Draws a Federal Probe Hours After Austin Launch, Anthropic’s Claude Formalizes Fermat’s Last Theorem
Hours after Tesla began commercial rides in its steering-wheel-and-pedal-free Cybercab on the streets of Austin, Texas, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit query into whether roughly 1,000 deployed Cybercabs were properly certified. NHTSA said it will examine the process and technical data Tesla used to determine that certain federal motor vehicle safety standards — including requirements for physical brake and steering controls — don’t apply to the vehicle; Tesla has said it believes the Cybercab complies with all applicable federal standards. The probe lands as the Department of Transportation has separately proposed loosening those same manual-control requirements for purpose-built autonomous vehicles, and follows footage of erratic Cybercab driving during the Austin pilot.
Anthropic said Claude produced the first complete, computer-checked proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem in the Lean 4 proof assistant, working largely autonomously over 11 days on Prove2Me, a collaborative formalization platform built by Columbia University’s Tianyi Peng and collaborators. The formalization spans roughly 13 million lines of Lean code and about 29,500 new intermediate theorems — more than five times the size of Lean’s own core math library — and consumed about six billion output tokens from an internal research model with capabilities roughly comparable to Claude Fable 5.1. Anthropic said the proof uses only Lean’s standard axioms with no placeholders or omitted steps, and mathematician Kevin Buzzard, who has worked for years on formalizing Fermat’s Last Theorem himself, called it “extraordinary” and far faster than experts had predicted.
Sources: TechCrunch — Feds launch investigation into Tesla’s Cybercab deployment · Detroit News — NHTSA opens probe into Tesla Cybercab compliance with safety rules · ABC News — Feds launch probe into Tesla’s deployment of Cybercab vehicles with no brakes and steering wheels · Anthropic — Formalizing Fermat’s Last Theorem · SiliconANGLE — Anthropic uses Claude to formalize proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem