Texas halts executions, Flydubai 'hero,' and AI Big Mac pricing (Updated)

Hi, I'm Kim Vannell, in Wanganui, New Zealand. And I'm Christopher Walgesper in Chicago. It's Thursday, October 1st, today. Tennessee is halting all executions after a botched lethal injection. A passenger describes how he pulled up a nose-diving plane after one pilot stabbed the other on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Iowans ask mid-term candidates to address rising cancer rates. And McDonald's defends algorithmic pricing, meaning your Big Mac costs more, depending on where you buy it. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in ten minutes seven days a week. More details are emerging from the fly Dubai plane incident, where the co-pilot stabbed his fellow pilot and tried to crash the plane, that's according to Israeli officials. Yannov Hayun, a passenger on board, spoke to the media, his clothes stained with blood. He says he heard screaming and ran to the cockpit, where he helped pull the attacker out. He says he then noticed no one was flying the plane, so he grabbed the steering controls and pulled up, just like he'd seen in the movies. Two other pilots who were on board took control and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Many of the 174 people on board were Israeli, with the flight bound for Tel Aviv. Most passengers have since taken flights home, and for Yannov Hayun, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting for him at the airport. Still in his blood stained clothes, Hayun apologises for his attire, but Netanyahu calls him a hero and a lion. Fly Dubai says the reasons for what happened aren't known and worn against premature speculation. The attacker, who is an Amani national, according to an Israeli official, was arrested when the plane landed. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is halting all executions in the state through the end of the year, that after the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike, which he's calling a tragedy. Pike survived after two lethal injection attempts at a Nashville prison late Wednesday night. Her condition is still unclear. Governor Lee says there will be an investigation into the incident. Pike's botched execution is the second this year in Tennessee, and highlights the difficulties U.S. states face in carrying out lethal injections. She was sentenced to death in the 1990s after a jury convicted her of a murder she carried out when she was 18. Iowa will see some of the most competitive races in the upcoming U.S. midterms. And as candidates criss-cross the state, they're talking a lot about the issues you'd expect, like the economy and inflation. But there's another issue voters in Iowa keep bringing up. Cancer. Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in the U.S. And reporter Leah Douglas says people are looking to candidates for answers. A lot of IONs are concerned that the rise in cancer is linked to nitrate pollution in their drinking water. Nitrate runoff can happen from fertilizer on that's applied to farmland, and about 85 percent of Iowa is farmland, very farm-heavy state. So there's concern in the state and has been for a long time that rising nitrate levels in the drinking water in the state's waterways may be tied to the rise in cancer rates. I should say that there's no scientific consensus that there is a link there, but sort of regardless of that underlying science, we've seen a lot of discussion about this from candidates in both parties. On the democratic side, candidates are really using the opportunity to attack if they're running against a Republican incumbent, or a Republican who's currently serving in Congress, to attack them for their vote supporting Trump's 2025 tax and spending law, which made cuts to Medicaid and some rural health care programs, because they're tying that to the amount of health care that people need and concerns about declining insurance coverage. On the Republican side, there's discussion of the money they've brought to the district for incumbents on cancer research and screening, and what they pledged to do about bringing more treatment options. We are looking for cancer and we'll treat it when we find it. SpaceX has launched a four-person crew to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 rocket, topped with an autonomously operated crew dragon capsule, carried two American astronauts, a Canadian and a Russian cosmonaut. It's the 13th long-duration space station crew that NASA has sent via a SpaceX rocket since the company began launching U.S. astronauts back in 2020. The crew will conduct biomedical and health research, including studies on how microgravity affects blood circulation and clotting. NASA says it's committed to keeping the space station operational through 2030. So, for the time I'm here on the ship, this is my room right here. Royces journalist Ed O, aboard the USS George Washington, one of two huge aircraft carriers the U.S. has stationed in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Ed spent days with the Navy and the wake of damning reports about low morale and even suicide attempts on board a different warship, the USS Abram Lincoln. The U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said those reports were misrepresented. President Trump dismissed concerns and the Abram Lincoln has since returned to port. Ed's embed is now also a short documentary, taking you inside U.S. operations. So, this is what an aircraft carrier looks like when it's operating in an active conflict. I'm sure it's the flight deck of the USS George Washington. He speaks with everyone from the cooks. So, we have about 5,000 people on board and our food inventory kind of usually runs anywhere from maybe about four and a half million up to about six million dollars. To the chaplain. Huge percentage of the ship are between the ages of 19 and 24 years old so they're trying to figure out being an adult while they're out here. You can watch the full documentary on Royces.com. There's a link in the description. To the war in Ukraine, where Kiev says Russia is launching its largest coordinated attack on energy infrastructure in months. Overnight strikes hit power facilities in and around the Ukrainian capital. Seven people were killed across the country, including a child. With winter approaching, officials fear these kinds of attacks could seriously impact heating and electricity. Finally, if you are a fan of the Big Mac, this one is for you. Could I get a Big Mac, please? Thank you. How much? 717? Thanks. That's fast food reporter Whalen Cunningham, visiting a McDonald's in New York. Two miles up the road, he ordered the same thing, but when he paid, that 11% difference is down to McDonald's new AI guided pricing, a plan aimed at boosting profits. It generates the optimal price for each item largely based on what it thinks the customer is willing to pay. Whalen has been analyzing McDonald's own documents to understand how the system works. It analyzes millions of transactions every day. This AI pricing engine also shows the prices of nearby competitors at Burger King and at Wendy's Chick-fil-A. McDonald says this is a normal part of business operations and that businesses have been doing this for a very long time, trying to determine what the right price is. However, the advent of AI and the advancement of computer technology has allowed businesses to supercharge these calculations. And in recent years, we've seen a lot of consumer backlash against what's being called "algorithmic pricing." Now, we asked McDonald's and they said that franchises are always free to choose the price for their restaurants. However, franchises have told us that they come into a lot of pressure from McDonald's to adopt the engine's output. Some say they get phone calls when they don't adopt the prices. I've also seen documents that show that every deviation from the prices is recorded in detail, and McDonald's has a lot of power over these franchises. For more on any of the stories from today, As well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.