Good morning, it's Thursday, Sept. 24. The Iran war has been taking center stage at the UN General Assembly. First time reading? Join millions of insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.

Also in today's Digest: a blood test to detect cancers (Need To Know), Earth's days get milliseconds shorter (Sci. & Tech.), a startup to detect bioweapons (Bus. & Mkts.), vomiting fish (Etc.), and much more. 

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 Need To Know 

Iran in New York

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly yesterday Tehran would not surrender its nuclear program under US pressure. His address was the first before the assembly by the president of a country at war with the US.

The speech followed the US and Tehran's first talks since June, which came after President Donald Trump threatened to "annihilate" Iran without a deal. Tehran is reviewing a US response to its peace proposal, and Pezeshkian characterized his speech as a response to Trump. He opened with photos of children killed in a US airstrike (watch here—warning: sensitive); the UN last week said the February attack may constitute a war crime. He also insisted Tehran's nuclear program is for civilian purposes, though a UN watchdog reported Iran to the Security Council this month over alleged noncompliance. 

Meanwhile, a cargo ship was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, killing at least one person and forcing 27 others to evacuate.

Cancer Detection Test

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted yesterday to endorse a blood test designed to detect up to 50 forms of cancer in people aged 50 or older. The decision suggests full FDA approval may be forthcoming, opening the door to Medicare and private insurance coverage. 

The DNA-based Galleri test uses a single blood draw to assess if a user may have tumors caused by cancers missed by current screenings, like ovarian and thyroid cancers. FDA panelists noted that one-third to one-half of the test’s positive results may be false but concluded its benefits outweighed the risks. There is no large-scale randomized data finding Galleri reduces cancer mortality. Biotech company Grail states the test should be used to complement existing screenings, not replace them. It retails for $949 online.

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the US behind heart disease. See a breakdown of 2026 case numbers and demographics here.

The Heart of Ancient Paris

Archaeologists have unearthed what may be a section of the walls surrounding ancient Paris, France’s culture ministry said yesterday. The finding is the strongest signal yet in search of Lutetia, the Latin name for Paris referenced in Julius Caesar’s “Gallic Wars.” Watch an auto-dubbed interview recorded at the dig.

Researchers discovered a roughly 70-foot-wide, stone-and-wood wall on the Île de la Cité, an island on the Seine River also hosting the Notre-Dame cathedral (scroll for bird's eye view). The wall was buried beneath Paris’ oldest working hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, and discovered alongside a Gallic spearhead. Carbon analysis suggests it is about over 2,000 years old, overlapping with the eight-year Gallic wars chronicled by Caesar; burnt sections also align with Caesar’s descriptions, whereby the Romans won decisively but Gauls torched the city to avoid capture.

About 1% of Americans think about ancient Rome daily, with almost 20% considering it at least monthly. The writer of 1440’s Ancient Rome page thought about it daily while he wrote it.

 In The Know 

Science & Technology

> Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) introduces legislation to ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal Department of AI; employees of leading AI companies endorse the bill (More) | What is superintelligence? (More)

> Earth's rotation changes every few decades due to gravitational, electromagnetic, and topographic interactions within its core; days shortened by several milliseconds from the early 1970s to 2021 (More) 

> Scientists develop enzyme-based, more cost-effective method to produce next-generation antibiotics for drug-resistant tuberculosis (More) | How do diseases become drug-resistant? (More)

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.8%, Dow -0.7%, Nasdaq -1.1%) as crude oil prices rise for the first time in five days and 10-year Treasury yield hits 5.1%, the highest level since 2007 (More) 

> Federal Reserve is projected to raise interest rates again this year by a quarter of a percentage point and hold throughout 2027, a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development suggests (More) 

> Pilgrim, a startup building hardware to detect airborne viruses, draws investments from Anthropic leaders amid growing concern AI could endanger humanity through bioweapons (More) | How likely are AI-driven catastrophes? (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> President Donald Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping today at the White House, with talks planned on AI, fentanyl after countries' top trade officials agree to extend trade truce to January (More) 

> Federal judge considers White House decision to rescind access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico journalists; hearing follows Justice Department's allegation the outlets pose a national security threat by sharing classified information (More)

> Rebels in Ethiopia's Tigray region seize airports, raising concerns of return to 2020-2022 civil war, which ranked among the century's deadliest (More) | See 101 (More) 

Socialism hits a new high in US polling. 

What a 3,400-year-old peace treaty looks like. 

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America's most popular cat names. 

What if all of Earth's water suddenly disappeared?

Watch a cow get the helicopter ride of its life. 

... and see otters furiously chuck their own oysters. 

The bizarre pillows Kleenex sold in 1967. 

In partnership: This private-stage flying car company just reserved their Nasdaq ticker.*

Clickbait: The dolphin that bullies fish into vomiting. (w/video) 

Historybook: Author F. Scott Fitzgerald born (1896); American astronomer Charlotte Moore Sitterly born (1898); Devils Tower in Wyoming is proclaimed the first American national monument (1906); "Muppets" creator, Jim Henson, born (1936); More than 2,000 die in crowd crush in Saudi Arabia (2015). 

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