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Topo Chico mineral water is returning to store shelves after a monthslong shortage. Texas grocery giant H-E-B confirmed the drink is back.

He's now due for arraignment in the case on Oct. 28.

Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant admitted he "sold" a controversial pass interference penalty that led to a Rams loss.

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Long Island's famed venue will sell to the highest bidder next month.

"BigMacGPT": McDonald's Uses AI To Figure Out How Much Your Next Burger Will Cost Depending On Location

One week after McDonald's held its investor day at its Chicago headquarters, Wall Street has soured on a near-term turnaround effort, with Deutsche Bank analysts saying it has effectively been delayed. 

Now, a new report says the quick-service restaurant chain behind the Big Mac is rapidly expanding its use of artificial intelligence to recommend menu prices based partly on what customers in each restaurant's area are willing to pay.

Reuters details exactly how and what AI expansion at the QSR means for customers:

The details of how that pricing system works, its extensive use of AI, the company's regulatory concerns and the tensions with its franchisees haven't been previously reported. For this story, Reuters reviewed screenshots of the company pricing engine taken in August and interviewed nine sources with first-hand knowledge of the burger chain's strategy.

McDonald's pricing engine uses machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across McDonald's nearly 14,000 restaurants and generate what the company calls "the optimal price" at each location for each menu item, from Big Macs ‌to discounted coffee for seniors.

The engine has widened existing price differences for the same product between restaurants, including from neighborhood to neighborhood within the same area, three franchisees told Reuters.

Screenshots of the interface franchisees use, reviewed by Reuters, show messages including: "Your restaurant is showing MEDIUM SENSITIVITY to Price" based in part on "customer willingness to pay in your area."

The platform also contains public price information pulled from online menus of nearby restaurants of competitors including Wendy's and Burger King. Those chains said they do not use AI in pricing decisions.

McDonald’s is using artificial intelligence to help set menu prices across the US and some global markets, a plan that aims to boost profit but risks alienating customers and attracting antitrust scrutiny https://t.co/FI5dBN4luP pic.twitter.com/D1Rd1RMGJf

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 29, 2026

McDonald's pricing engine is operated by Tiger Analytics and follows corporate parameters as well as transaction data, the outlet said, citing former employees. Those parameters have included avoiding summer price increases on ice cream and drinks and targeting items whose prices have remained unchanged for at least two years.

The bet on using AI appears part of a major overhaul the burger chain is making as a way to regain marketshare in the QSR space and continue its affordability war with competitors. However, there is a collision because customers want cheaper meals, franchisees face higher costs, and management wants to squeeze every restaurant to boost revenue to drive the stock price higher. 

"It's in the interest of the company to know where there's (customer) demand and to get that feedback in real time," said Brooklyn resident Diane Bezucha. But if that AI engine is used to raise prices simply because of more demand, "that doesn't really help me as a customer."

The other question is whether McDonald's pricing engine can determine each customer's economic status and generate different prices on a customer-by-customer basis.

This all comes as the stock has slid to a four-year low, with shares on track for their worst annual performance since 2002.

Deutsche Bank's Lauren Silberman warned last week, shortly after Investor Day, that any turnaround inflection point for the QSR behind the Big Mac has been delayed

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/30/2026 - 12:20

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Signs Of Fresh Houthi Attack On Saudi Aramco Facilities

Update(1159ET): While very unconfirmed at this early stage, the Houthis have reportedly attacked the Abqaiq oil city in eastern Saudi Arabia this afternoon (local), reports IRNA citing anonymous news sources. Abqaiq is at the heart of of Saudi crude processing, and it has been struck previously in the context of the Saudi-Yemen conflict. However, there have been conflicting reports, with some open-source accounts offering satellite imaging saying there are signs of a large fire at the site:

The smoke plume identified by OSINT sources doesn't seem to originate from the main Abqaiq oil processing facility.

NASA FIRMS confirms the smoke originates from the following coordinates: 25°50'21.3"N 49°13'36.3"E -

Near a processing facility south of the Ayn Dar oil field. pic.twitter.com/bmijACyuhX

— OilPrice.com (@OilandEnergy) September 30, 2026

Aramco Pumping station west of Abqaiq on fire at ~ 0700Z today, with no statements by Houthi terrorists as of now. #KSA 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/Xcea3ybROn

— Shin (@hey_itsmyturn) September 30, 2026

No official sources have confirmed a Wednesday attack as of yet.

Early purported images circulating:

🚨🇸🇦 BREAKING:

Reports of rising smoke at the North Ghawar Oil Producing Complex operated by ARAMCO.

North Ghawar is part of Saudi Arabia’s giant Ghawar oil field (the world’s largest conventional oil field), located west of the critical Abqaiq processing complex in the Eastern… pic.twitter.com/srT6mhTl7w

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 30, 2026 CBC news

*  *  *

At a moment there are widespread reports that Persian Gulf exports are fast recovering, there are simultaneous emerging albeit delayed reports of new tanker attack incidents that happened Tuesday.

On apparent crude transit recovery amid continued deep uncertainty, "For now, that reduces fears of an immediate crude shortage and explains why prices can fall even though talks between the US and Iran have made no clear progress," Simon-Peter Massabni from XS.com says. "The market's main question is whether this faster pace of shipments can be sustained through October."

But the UK's Maritime Trade Operations agency has announced more vessel incidents which looked to have happened on Tuesday. Three distinct incident advisories detailing strikes on vessels within the region. The affected ships included a liquefied natural gas carrier and a crude oil tanker, both of which were reportedly impacted by unidentified projectiles - with little other details known.

via cntraveler

We reported earlier on one of the three assaults, which involved a Very Large Crude Carrier in the Strait of Hormuz getting hit by a drone, after which a fire briefly erupted but was extinguished, and the tanker traversed on, and with no casualties.

In the meantime Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Hossein Mohebbi has proclaimed that there is a "military conflict" in the Strait of Hormuz on a daily basis but that the US is not responding.

"We have been hitting small ships and preventing them from passing for a long time, but America does not respond," Mohebbi told semi-official Fars news agency.

Axios late in the day Tuesday had cited "little progress" in US-Iran indirect talks, with on Wednesday an Al Jazeera correspondent saying that Washington has submitted a counter-proposal to Tehran. Here's more from Axios which basically contradicts much of their own earlier in the week reporting:

Efforts this week by Qatari mediators to broker a diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Iran have made little progress, with neither side willing to budge, according to three sources familiar with the talks. The stalemate bolsters the belief on both sides that a renewed military conflict is becoming more likely. U.S. officials think President Trump could order a return to major combat operations after the midterms.

Iran has hit atleast 3 tankers today crossing the strait of hormuz. One of them an lng tanker!
Largest number of hits in a single day. Us is likely to respond https://t.co/OJ824xqajP pic.twitter.com/1SBfWT1fwA

— Ali (@MerruX) September 30, 2026

On the counter-proposal: "So far, we have no idea what Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi received from the US through Qatari mediators," Al Jazeera writes. "But we know he has received a proposal and presented it to the Iranian cabinet, opening it up for discussion."

According to more:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the U.S. response to President Masoud Pezeshkian at a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told the state-run IRNA news agency.

"We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people," Pezeshkian said. "The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy."

Some additional, though scant details:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi received U.S. feedback via Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday on a seven-day plan aimed at building trust between Washington and Tehran, with sequencing the main sticking point, Reuters reported. Reuters said the Qatari mediators conveyed the feedback they had received from Washington on Monday, meeting Araghchi and his team on their way back from the United States.

President Trump had over last weekend made clear he he was rejecting Iran's initial proposal for a 7-day ceasefire plan and roadmap to peace. But clearly there's still some important messaging taking place via Qatar, and now that the Iranian officials who traveled to New York for the UN General Assembly are back in Tehran.

Qatar also feeling deep economic pain:

🇶🇦 Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called the war on Iran one of the biggest crises in Qatar's history, telling Piers Morgan that LNG exports through Hormuz are "barely happening."

He was asked about a reported $24 billion in lost gas sales, an IMF… pic.twitter.com/wdpSmIv4WB

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 29, 2026

Al Jazeera has some solid commentary from a regional watcher on the big picture and where things stand, also as the Iranian economy is obviously taking big hits:

The United States and Iran are under intense pressure to end the conflict with Tehran’s economy reeling from expanding US sanctions and President Trump looking for a political victory ahead of midterm elections in November, an analyst says.

“Both sides are suffering pressure,” said Luciano Zaccara, an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

“Iran needs to get something in exchange for lifting the blockade [of the Strait of Hormuz]. They need the release of sanctions, they need to get money or else the economy will be totally devastated.”

The US, meanwhile, needs to “get out of this mess” in a way in which Trump can plausibly claim to have “won something”, added Zaccara.

The alarming alternative, which could be unleashed at any moment, is that either side could attempt to further bomb their way out of the standoff while seeking to impose new red lines toward getting what they want.

More Latest Developments

via Newsquawk...

• The Iranian government spokesperson said Foreign Minister Araghchi presented President Pezeshkian with a US proposal following his New York trip, which included discussions on Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, IRNA reported. This followed a Reuters report, which also highlighted that the main dispute between the US and Iran does not concern the components of the plan itself, but rather the order of operations and the stages of implementation of the seven-day framework.
• US White House is reportedly tempering expectations of an imminent breakthrough between US-Iran, Semafor reported, with a source suggesting that "the bar is being raised very high."
• A senior source said mediators are working to return negotiations to a broader track that includes the nuclear issue, Al Hadath reported.
• US-Iran talks and efforts by mediators this week yielded little progress, raising the odds of renewed combat, while Qatar will continue efforts despite growing frustrations with both sides, according to Axios.
• IRGC aerospace advisor said Iran can sustain current missile firing rates for years and the era of attacks without response is over.
• UKMTO said that a crude oil tanker was struck on the port side by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on September 29th. Following this, UKMTO separately reported that an LNG tanker was struck by an unknown projectile on September 29th within the Strait of Hormuz.
• An incident was reported on a plane flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with recent reporting suggesting that the incident was a terrorist attack, Al Jazeera reported. The report suggested that the co-pilot who stabbed the other pilot was of Omani origin.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/30/2026 - 11:59

Four California high school girls posted a TikTok meme of themselves posing in blackface within the walls of an African-American studies room, forcing their school to enforce consequences.

It's a must-see for Star Wars fans — and art lovers, too.