• Sen. Bob Menendez was hit with bribery charges by federal prosecutors in a newly-unsealed indictment.
• Prosecutors claim that he used his influence to cut deals for the Egyptian government and businessmen.
• He accepted over $480,000 in payments that included gold bars, prosecutors alleged.

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife took bribes from Egyptian officials, discussing arms deals in private conversations, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Friday.

In the unsealed indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Menendez accepted at least $480,000 in bribes from New Jersey businessmen, and Egyptian government officials were given exclusive access to Menendez.

Prosecutors claimed that Menendez provided sensitive US government data to Egypt, to which in one instance, Egyptian officials responded to a weapons deal with a thumbs-up emoji, per the indictment.

In 2018, Menendez met with Egyptian officials, where the senator expressed his support for foreign military aid for Egypt. Prosecutors claim that Menendez worked with New Jersey businessman and friend Will Hana and Menendez's wife, in his corrupt dealings.

"Tell Will Hana I am going to sign off this sale to Egypt today. Egypt: 46,000 120MM Target Practice Rounds and 10,000 Rounds Tank Ammunition: $99 million," Sen. Bob Menendez texted his wife, Nadine, per the indictment.

The text was forwarded to Hana, and then to the officials, prosecutors allege.

"Egyptian Official-1 replied with a 'thumbs up' emoji," prosecutors said in the indictment. 

In June 2022, prosecutors said that federal agents executed search warrants and found the cash hidden in Menendez's home, along with gold bars, that they claimed he received in exchange for the information and access he gave to Egypt.

It's the second bribery case Menendez has faced in six years, although the first set of charges were dropped. 

Prosecutors also claimed that Menendez plotted to give IS EG Halal Certified, a New Jersey-based food export company, a monopoly on US food products exported to Egypt. His wife, Nadine, was offered a"low-or-no-show job" at the company by Hana. 

Egyptian outlet Mada Masr first raised red flags about the company's monopolization of halal certification in a 2019 investigation.

On Friday, Menendez responded defiantly, calling the indictment a "smear campaign," that misrepresented his official work. Both Hana and Nadine Menendez are also charged in the indictment.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer later said that Menendez was stepping down as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Rupert Murdoch stepped down as chair of Fox Corporation and News Corp on September 20. The 92-year-old billionaire amassed a global media empire but was racked with scandals over his seven-decade career.

• Amazon announced that ads will be introduced to Prime Video in early 2024.
• Users can go ad-free by paying an additional $2.99 per month. 
• The new subscription tier is indicative of a shifting streaming landscape.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers should consume as much content as possible this weekend before they'll have to pay more for that privilege. 

The streaming service announced on Friday that advertisements will be introduced to its library of shows and movies beginning in early 2024 across the US, UK, Germany, and Canada. This change will then roll over to France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia, later that year.

Of course, with the introduction of ads, comes the introduction of a new ad-free subscription — Prime Video users can opt to pay $2.99 more per month for an ad-free membership, the company said in a statement.

Amazon said that Prime Video subscribers will receive an email in the weeks leading up to introduction of ads with information on how to switch over to the ad-free option. 

This price hike arrives as the streaming market finds itself struggling to turn a profit, after years of relatively low prices. Accordingly, consumers should prepare themselves to potentially pony up for their favorite services. 

"For a decade in streaming, an enormously valuable amount of quality content has been given away well below fair-market value, and I think that's in the process of being corrected," Gunnar Wiedenfels, Warner Bros. Discovery's CFO said at a media conference a little over a week ago. 

Currently a standalone Prime Video subscription costs $8.99 per month. The $2.99 increase is in line with other services that have raised prices recently. Both Peacock and and Paramount+ raised their ad-free subscription prices by $2, from $9.99 to $11.99, this past July. 

At the end of August, Mark Schilsky, a sales specialist at Bernstein Research, a Wall Street firm, put the increased cost of streaming into perspective. 

When grouped together, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and Apple TV+ subscriptions went from $76.43 a month to $94.43 a month in the past year. 

Of course, as Insider's Nathan McAlone puts it — the end of cheap streaming is not here yet, but rather the end of cheap, ad-free streaming. 

For those willing to endure the interruption, it is still possible to put together a bundle of the top services — including Netflix, Hulu/Disney+, and MAX — for just under $50. 

• A Pennsylvania school sent students home early this week after receiving an anti-trans bomb threat.
• Perkiomen Valley School District is embroiled in a debate over bathrooms and transgender students.
• An email claimed "bombs" had been planted at the school and a Target to punish "perverted freaks."

A school district outside Philadelphia sent thousands of students home early on Thursday after officials there received an emailed threat promising death and destruction if trans students were allowed to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

In a post on Facebook, Perkiomen Valley School District, located about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, said it had been forced to carry out an early dismissal after receiving threats "specific" to the district.

The school district has been mired in debate over transgender students. About 17 out of 1,700 of the district's students identify as transgender, according to administrators, and the school board has been debating whether they and other students should be able to use bathrooms of their choosing, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That debate has attracted national attention from conservative and right-wing media outlets. A recent walkout by some students who want the school board to bar transgender students from deciding where to relieve themselves — sparked, in part, by a parent who said on social media that his daughter saw someone who might not have been a biological female in the bathroom — was covered by Fox News, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Signal, among others, in the days ahead of Thursday's incident.

"Pennsylvania teens dead right on Perkiomen Valley trans bathroom insanity — and pols need to listen," The New York Post editorial board opined on Wednesday.

A copy of the threat officials were sent was shared by The Pottstown Mercury, which reported that the district had made the decision to close after consulting with local law enforcement. Classes resumed Friday.

"We placed a bombs at Perkiomen Valley High School, district buildings and a target [sic]," the email stated. (Tara Parr, supervisor of communications and technology systems at the school district, confirmed to Insider that the reported message was the one the school received.)

Target, which operates a store a few miles from the school — and was the target of a right-wing boycott over its in-store LGBTQ+ Pride displays — did not immediately confirm whether it had received or was otherwise made aware of the threat.

The emailed threat accused the school of having "failed to create a safe learning environment for its students" and accused staff of being "willing to put girls at risk of being sexually assaulted and raped, disregarding their comfort so that you can assert yourself as being progressive woke heroes."

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Amazon recently announced that its Prime Big Deal Days event will be held on October 10 and 11. The massive sale is basically another Amazon Prime Day that's set to be packed with exclusive discounts. And to help shoppers prepare, Amazon is offering subscribers an early Prime Day gift card credit deal.

In years past, we've seen Amazon welcome its Prime Day sales by offering shopping credits for buying Amazon gift cards or using certain services. These promotions basically translate to free money for those planning to shop during Prime Day.

From now through October 7, members can grab $15 worth of credits to spend during Amazon's October Prime Day sale just by using the retailer's Amazon Photos service. And though there aren't any discounts on actual gift card purchases right now, Amazon is selling gift cards in limited-edition packaging to celebrate the upcoming sale. We'll keep this page updated as new discounts go live, so be sure to check back often to see if new gift card deals are available.

How to get a $15 Amazon gift card credit 

Now through October 7, Prime members who are new to Amazon Photos can score $15 of Amazon credit for Prime Day when they back up their photos using the free app. The service is one of many Amazon Prime benefits, and it lets members store and sort through their photos for free. 

Here's how to get the deal: just download the Amazon Photos App on your computer or smartphone. Sign into your Amazon Prime account and back up at least one photo to the app. Amazon will send an email within four days confirming the promotional credit has been applied to your account along with instructions on how to use it. 

The $15 credit can only be used toward the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event coming on October 10 and 11. It can also only be applied to orders of $30 or more. 

The best Amazon gift card deals you can buy today

Prime Day gift card deals buying advice

Is Prime Day good for gift card deals?

Prime Day is a great time to find gift card deals from a variety of retailers and restaurants, including Amazon itself. In the past, we've seen price drops from companies like Applebees, Gap, Panera, and more. 

When it comes to gift card deals, any discount is a worthwhile discount so long as you are planning on shopping at the intended retailer anyway. Getting $50 to spend at your favorite store while only paying $40 is a steal.

In the past, we've also seen Amazon offer credit promotions in the lead-up to its deal events. For previous Prime Days, Black Fridays, and Cyber Mondays, the retailer has given shoppers credit opportunities in exchange for activities like buying from small businesses, purchasing gift cards, and utilizing Prime benefits (like Amazon Photos). All we've seen so far for the Big Deal Days event is the Amazon Photos promotion that ends on October 7. 

Do I need to be a Prime member?

In order to shop the deals during Amazon's October Prime Day sale you'll need to be a prime member. The event is another one of the exclusive benefits that come with a membership.

The Amazon Photos $15 promotion is also limited to Prime members only.

• Sen. Bob Menendez took bribes of cash, gold, and other luxury items, according to a new indictment.
• But there's a way more legal way to make money as a senator — just write a best-selling book!
• Menendez did write a book back in 2009, but he hasn't disclosed any significant income from it.

Sen. Bob Menendez has been indicted for the second time in 10 years on bribery charges — and the fruits of that alleged bribery are nothing to sniff at.

According to the indictment unsealed on Friday, the New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine, received the following gifts in exchange for enriching a trio of New Jersey businessmen and steering US policy to benefit the government of Egypt:

• A Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible.
• $566,221 in cash, some of which was "stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing."
• Lots of gold bars, some of which weighed an entire kilogram.
• Other items including mortgage payments, an exercise machines, a recliner, and an air purifier.

The problem for Menendez, of course, is that bribery is illegal. He has denied the validity of the charges, arguing in a statement that "those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a US senator."

But there's a totally legal way to make extra money — sometimes way more money than the $174,000 salary — as a sitting member of Congress.

It's called writing a book.

Six of Menendez's colleagues more than doubled their salaries via book royalties and advances. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia reported earning more than $650,000 — even going on a mini book tour as he fought for his political life against Republican Herschel Walker.

Even Sen. Bernie Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, managed to double his income by writing a book railing against capitalism.

The other totally legal way to make some extra money as a member of Congress is by trading stocks, though doing so might lead to accusations of insider trading.

Still, insider trading by members of Congress is fairly difficult to prove, and the enforcement for violating disclosure laws is pretty lax, so that probably still would've been a better route than allegedly accepting bribes.

Interestingly enough, Menendez has written a book — "Growing American Roots: Why Our Nation Will Thrive as Our Largest Minority Flourishes" — in which he offers a "step-by-step plan" in which America's future "will be made brighter and more successful" by the "burgeoning influence of the Hispanic population."

The New Jersey senator once presented Eva Longoria with a copy of the book at a 2009 Capitol Hill press conference about establishing the National Museum of the American Latino. The "Desperate Housewives" actress even contributed a jacket review for the book.

According to Menendez's financial disclosures, he signed a contract in 2009 to receive at least $50,000 from the book, splitting the proceeds with his co-author, Peter Eisner. He has not, however, disclosed received any royalty payments in the years since then.

That would seem to indicate that Menendez's book wasn't exactly a cash cow for him.

Perhaps if he had run for president, as many of the top book-sellers in the Senate have, he could've written another book and made more money, the legal way.

• During Climate Week, politicians and execs arrive often promise big wins for the planet.
• Yet global emissions have continued to climb since 2015 when countries agreed to curb warming.
• This year, there have been nascent signs of progress on climate action.
• This article is part of Insider's weekly newsletter on sustainability. Sign up here.

It's easy to be cynical about Climate Week. 

Year after year, politicians and executives pour into New York City touting big promises to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet global emissions have kept growing since 2015, when nearly 200 countries struck the Paris Agreement aimed at averting the most catastrophic effects of a warming planet.

As of June, 929 large, publicly traded companies had net-zero-emissions targets, though few are backed up by a credible plan to get there.

Given the trends, many Climate Week attendees understandably question the significance of it all. But even in just the two years I've participated, there are subtle changes afoot that indicate some progress.

For one, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres tried to cajole countries into more ambitious plans by excluding those that don't step it up. Speaker slots at his Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday were for "first movers and doers," and the world's top five polluters were notably absent, including the US, China, India, Russia, and Japan. 

That was by design. There were strict criteria to get a slot, such as accelerating emissions cuts, spending more on climate finance for developing nations, or boosting renewable energy, said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at E3G, a climate think tank. 

"By saying that leaders need to come and deliver results and commitments — not just rhetoric — the secretary general has rightly raised the stakes," Meyer told reporters. "But that has made it more difficult for some leaders to get over those hurdles."

Colombia, the sixth-largest coal exporter in the world, made the cut. Colombia and Panama agreed to phase out existing coal plants and stop new ones from being built, unless they are paired with carbon-capture technology. Brazil reinstated emissions-reduction targets that are slightly more aggressive than the US's.

There's also more willingness to name the main driver of climate change: fossil fuels. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the only state-level official invited to speak at the summit, delivered the strongest criticism.

"This climate crisis is a fossil-fuel crisis," he said to loud applause. "It's not complicated. It's the burning of oil. It's the burning of gas. It's the burning of coal. And we need to call that out."

Sultan Al Jaber, an energy executive from United Arab Emirates and president of the UN climate summit in Dubai later this year, said the "phase down of fossil fuels is essential. It is in fact inevitable."

His statement was notable because Al Jaber is also chief executive of UAE's state-owned oil company, which is planning to spend $150 billion through 2027 to boost oil and gas production. The UAE is also investing up to $54 billion over the next seven years to triple its renewable-energy capacity, the Associated Press reported.

Climate activists worry Al Jaber's appointment as president of this year's UN climate conference, known as COP28, will undermine global efforts to crack down on fossil fuels. But his defenders argue that oil and gas companies should be at the table because they can deploy technology like carbon capture and storage, which UN-backed climate scientists say is key to solving the crisis.

President Joe Biden didn't attend the Climate Ambition Summit and instead sent the nation's climate envoy, John Kerry. Yet activists questioned whether Biden would've even secured a speaking slot. Even though the Inflation Reduction Act is spurring billions of dollars of investment in cleaner technologies like solar, wind, batteries, and carbon capture and removal, the administration has also approved new oil and gas drilling in Alaska and struck a deal with Republicans to expedite the Mountain Valley pipeline. 

Meanwhile, city and state leaders — many of whom are women — also have a more prominent role. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have headlined events. Their presence is a preview of what's to come at COP28, where a summit for local officials is being organized for the first time.

City leaders are at the forefront of the climate crisis and many are cutting emissions faster than national governments, said Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, the vice chair for Africa at C40 Cities, a global network of nearly 100 mayors. 

"We don't have the luxury of making policy statements, putting them on a shelf, and forgetting about them," she said during an event announcing the local summit planned for COP28. "Whether it's a flood, it's a fire, it's a drought, the impact of that is directly felt by the residents that come to our door, and for whom we are responsible."

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Fall is here, and that means it's almost time for Amazon's latest sales event: Prime Big Deal Days. Just like Amazon Prime Day earlier this year, Prime Big Deal Days is an exclusive event for Amazon Prime subscribers. Thousands of items will be on sale from October 10 to 11 from popular brands. It's a great chance to get an early start on holiday shopping, and we expect to see some notable discounts on tech products, including plenty of Prime Day gaming deals

The sale should offer gamers an opportunity to save on popular video games, consoles, and accessories — including some of the best gaming headsets and best PC gaming controllers. During previous Prime Day sales, we saw an Xbox Series S bundle for $50 off, a $40 discount on Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade, the Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro mouse for a record low $52, and more. Whether you're a Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, or PC gamer, you're sure to find a good deal.

Although Prime Big Deal Days doesn't start for another few weeks, you can already find solid discounts on some of our favorite gaming accessories. We'll be updating this guide regularly as Amazon's October Prime Day event approaches. Keep an eye out for discounts as they come in — once the sales start, they're sure to sell out fast.

The best gaming deals you can buy today

• See more gaming deals at Amazon.

Prime Day gaming deals buying advice

Do I need to be an Amazon Prime member?

Yes! Just like Amazon Prime Day, the official deals that pop up during Prime Big Deal Days are only open to Amazon Prime subscribers. Prime subscribers also have access to free expedited shipping, movies and shows through Prime Video, discounts at Whole Foods, and more.

Gamers might be particularly interested in the Prime Gaming perks, which give you free games and in-game items every month.

Should I wait to shop until Black Friday?

Black Friday has been the holiday shopping event for years, and Amazon's new habit of holding Prime sales events in the Fall is clearly meant to compete. In our experience, Black Friday is a better shopping holiday in general, since more items are on sale from more stores, and usually for cheaper prices.

But that doesn't mean that events like Prime Big Deal Days are useless. It's still more than a month before Black Friday, and we're sure to see hundreds of great deals — that's never a bad thing. You should especially keep your eye on Amazon-made products like Fire TV streaming devices and the best Kindles, which tend to hit record low prices during Amazon sale events.

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Are you ready for some football? To ensure you don't miss primetime NFL football every Sunday, get familiar with your options in this guide on how to watch Sunday Night Football. The Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Las Vegas Raiders this week, and you can keep reading for a complete schedule and ways to watch every Sunday Night game for the rest of the season.

• Read more: How to watch NFL games without cable
• More football: How to watch Thursday Night Football
• And: Free Rugby World Cup live stream

Your Sunday Night Football commentary team includes the familiar expert analysis of Cris Collinsworth meshing with play-by-play from Mike Tirico. Melissa Stark is reporting from the sideline, and Terry McAulay will weigh in on referee rulings. You can catch Sunday Night Football on your local NBC station via over-the-air antenna, cable, or satellite. You can stream the game live via Peacock or a live TV streaming service if you don't have any of those. Not in the US? We'll show you how to use a VPN to access affordable live streams below.

How to watch Sunday Night Football from anywhere

If you're in the US, Sunday Night Football airs on NBC stations nationwide promptly at 8:20 p.m. ET. You can tune into your local NBC affiliate using an over-the-air TV antenna, cable, or satellite box. You can stream the game via the web using your provider's credentials if you won't be near a TV. 

If none of those options work for you or you're viewing from locales outside the United States, consider Peacock and NFL+ - you must be in the US or use a VPN (learn how below) to see the US version of the site, otherwise, you'll be redirected to you local bundle equivalent). Peacock will show every Sunday Night Football game for the 2023 NFL season, starting at just $5.99 per month. You can also access the NBC channel using live TV streaming services like Sling Blue, which is usually $40 per month, but you can get your first month for just $20.

NFL+ might be better if you're not interested in Peacock's other sporting live streams, shows, and movies. For $6.99 per month, NFL+ offers live streams for all local broadcasts and primetime games, including Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football. You'll also get NFL Network access, which has exclusive broadcast rights to eight games for the 2023 season. The only catch is that your choice of playback device for local and primetime games is limited to smartphones and tablets. NFL Network and NFL RedZone are viewable on all supported devices.

In addition, to live game streams, you can tune into local radio broadcasts for any game, access advanced fantasy football analysis tools with Fantasy+, enjoy NFL Films content, and watch ad-free highlights from every game weekly. If you go for the $14.99 NFL+ Premium subscription, you can add full game plays, NFL RedZone, and cash in on exclusive offers from NFL Shop.

International viewers can try a VPN to use these affordable options to watch Sunday Night Football outside the US. This tool lets you trick sites into thinking you're visiting from within a supported country, so you can sign up for Peacock and watch Sunday Night Football that way (you may need to acquire a US payment method and zip code).

If you need a VPN, there's a great risk-free offer on the best VPN we've tested. Insiders have been using ExpressVPN for years for streaming and beefing up our online security. You can pick up Express VPN, save 49% on the usual price, and get three months for free. If you're unsatisfied, there's a hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. Want to know more about the app? We've got you covered with a detailed ExpressVPN review.

How to watch Sunday Night Football with a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don't have one.
• Install it on the device you're using to watch the game.
• Turn it on and set it to a US location.
• Go to Peacock.
• Watch Dolphins vs. Patriots on Sunday Night Football.
• Pre-game coverage every Sunday at: 7 p.m. ET / 12 a.m. (Monday) BST / 1 a.m. (Monday) CEST / 9 a.m. (Monday) AEST.

How to watch Sunday Night Football in the UK

UK viewers can watch full US broadcasts of every game of the 2023 NFL season by subscribing to NFL Game Pass via DAZN. It's £37.75 for the month (£151 annually), and you can also pay week-to-week for £14.99. The monthly rate is the most economical over the long haul if you plan to watch lots of games.

NFL Game Pass on DAZN also includes post-season games (including the Super Bowl), NFL Network and NFL RedZone, NFL Originals content, highlights, and more.

Sunday Night Football schedule

Here's a list of all upcoming Sunday Night Football games for the 2023 NFL season. Unless otherwise noted, each broadcast below starts each week with pre-game commentary at 7 p.m. ET before the 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff. 

• Week 3: Steelers vs. Chiefs, Sept. 24 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 4: Chiefs vs. Jets, Sept. 24 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 5: Cowboys vs. 49ers, Oct. 1 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 6: Giants vs. Bills, Oct. 8 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 7: Dolphins vs. Eagles, Oct. 15 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 8: Bears vs. Chargers, Oct. 22 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 9: Bills vs. Bengals, Oct. 29 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 10: Jets vs. Raiders, Nov. 5 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 11: Vikings vs. Broncos, Nov. 19 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Thanksgiving Game: 49ers vs. Seahawks, Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. ET (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 12: Ravens vs. Chargers, Nov. 26 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 13: Chiefs vs. Packers, Dec. 3 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 14: Eagles vs. Cowboys, Dec. 10 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 15: Ravens vs. Jaguars, Dec. 17 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 16: Bengals vs. Steelers, Dec. 23 at 3 p.m. ET (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Week 16: Bills vs. Chargers, Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. ET – ($5.99, only on Peacock)
• Week 17: Packers vs. Vikings, Dec. 31 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)
• Wildcard Playoff Game: TBA vs. TBA, Jan. 7 (NBC, $5.99 on Peacock)

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

• US stocks ended slightly higher Friday to close out a losing week.
• Bond yields climbed on the week following the Fed's hawkish signaling Wednesday.
• Policymakers did not adjust interest rates this week, but another hike is on the table before 2024.

US stocks closed lower on Friday to cap off a losing week that saw the Federal Reserve choose to keep interest rates unchanged but maintained a hawkish outlook for the rest of the year. 

Major indexes ended their fourth consecutive day in the red Friday. Both oil prices and bond yields surged over the course of the week, with the 10-year Treasury hitting 4.49%, its highest mark since 2007.

The two-year Treasury, meanwhile, also climbed to its highest since 2006.

Policymakers at the central bank signaled that another rate hike remains on the table before 2024, sowing doubt among investors that this year's stock market rally can last. Add in a potential government shutdown, which could weigh on consumer confidence and hurt the economy, and there's even more reason for concern. 

"While September is living up to its reputation as being a weak month for stocks, seasonality cannot take all the blame for the selling pressure," Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial said. "In addition to a rally in crude oil, a nine-week winning streak in the dollar, and a 'hawkish pause' from the Federal Reserve this week, stocks have had to contend with nearly a 40-basis point surge in 10-year yields this month, which are now trading near 4.50%. Once again, the move in rates has proven to be too much too fast for equity markets to handle."

Here's where US indexes stood as the market closed 4:00 p.m. on Friday: 

• S&P 500: 4,320.00, down 0.23%

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,964.31, down 0.31% (-106.38 points)

• Nasdaq Composite: 13,211.81, down 0.09%

Here's what else is going on: 

• Dollarization would eliminate Argentina's future inflation risk, a former IMF board member said.
• Investors pulled $19 billion from stocks in the last week, the highest outflow all year.
• 'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary warned of more pain coming for the economy.
• Falling job openings raise red flags for the stock market.
• Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham called Elon Musk a 'wonderful propagandist.'

In commodities, bonds, and crypto: 

• Oil prices climbed, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.9 to $90.46 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, inched higher 0.45% to $93.72 a barrel.
• Gold edged higher 0.27% to $1,944.90 per ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield fell four basis points to 4.432%.
• Bitcoin inched lower 0.07% to $26,573.

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The latest Amazon Prime Day sales event is coming on October 10 and 11 in the form of a "Prime Big Deals Day" sale, and it should bring another round of great Prime Day Apple deals.

The Prime Day event in July saw considerable discounts on MacBooks, Apple Watches, AirPods, and some of the best iPads, among other Apple products. Several of those Apple deals remain available ahead of the October sales event. 

The best Apple deals you can buy today

Prime Day Apple deals buying advice

When is Amazon Prime Day 2023?

The next Amazon Prime Day sales event in 2023 is set to take place on October 10 and 11. Amazon is calling the two-day event "Prime Big Deal Days."

Last year, Amazon held a similar mid-October sales event called "Prime Early Access Sale."

The main Prime Day sales event of 2023, which had the traditional "Amazon Prime Day" designation, took place on July 11 and 12.

Is Prime Day good for Apple deals?

Prime Day sales events often bring solid discounts to Apple products like MacBooks, Apple Watches, AirPods, iPads, and a range of related accessories, but you won't typically see deals of note on any of the best iPhones. 

Do you need a Prime membership to get access to deals? 

Yes, Prime Day deals, including those in October's coming "Prime Big Deals Day" event, are exclusive to people and households with Amazon Prime subscriptions. If you're interested in trying out the service, you can sign up for an Amazon Prime free trial. 

• A disgraced ex-FBI agent just pleaded guilty in a second criminal case against him.
• Charles McGonigal, once a top intelligence operative in NYC, admitted he hid $225,000 in secret payments.
• McGonigal previously pleaded guilty to helping a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

Charles McGonigal, the former FBI spyhunter whose indictments shocked the intelligence community, has again pleaded guilty — this time to hiding secret payments from a man with connections to Albanian intelligence.

McGonigal admitted in Washington DC federal court to one count of falsifying records and making false statements about the $225,000 he got while working sensitive cases for the FBI. 

The disgraced FBI special agent pleaded guilty to one count of concealment of material facts as part of a deal with federal prosecutors.

McGonigal has now admitted to illicitly working for Oleg Deripaska — a sanctioned Russian oligarch with longstanding ties to Vladimir Putin — after leaving the FBI. He has also admitted to taking cash payments and undertaking private business efforts in Albania while he was still in a senior position at the FBI's New  York Field Office.

What remains unclear is whether McGonigal and Deripaska had any contact while McGonigal was still employed by the bureau. The FBI's investigation began after British authorities learned that McGonigal was secrety meeting with a Russian oligarch in London in 2018, the same year he retired.

In court on Friday, McGonigal said that the $225,000 was lent to him by a "friend and prospective business partner" and that the money was intended to help start a business that he was setting up without the FBI's knowledge while still working for the bureau. That individual has been identified by several news outlets as Agron Neza, a former Albanian intelligence official who now lives in New Jersey. Neza's loan to McGonigal, delivered in three cash payments, had no written terms and was never paid back. McGonigal's former girlfriend has told Insider that she observed some of the cash in a bag on the floor of their Brooklyn apartment.

The money had "no conditions or strings attached" in the words of Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. According to a statement of the offense, the money was connected to a web of relationships he developed with Albanian officials, including Prime Minister Edi Rama. McGonigal agreed that he had counseled Rama to avoid awarding state energy contracts to Russian companies, advice that benefited another Albanian official who was working for Rama as an informal advisor even as he consulted for a Chinese energy company. That official was to the friend who had lent McGonigal the money. 

In court, McGonigal described this conflicted intermingling of public and private interest as his "personal business development efforts."

Seth DuCharme, one of McGonigal's attorneys, told reporters outside the courthouse that his client wanted to "hit the ground running" with his business efforts after retiring from the bureau in September 2018. 

McGonigal was indicted twice in January — once in Washington DC and also in New York — after a grand jury investigated the ex-counterintelligence chief. Insider was first to report on the grand jury investigation which led to written questions to the FBI from members of both parties on Capitol Hill.

McGonigal was charged with money laundering and making false statements in his required employee disclosures as an FBI agent, Insider previously reported.

In addition to the Washington, DC, case, McGonigal faced charges in New York for working with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, which violated sanctions against the Putin-aligned billionaire.

McGonigal pleaded guilty last month in the New York case to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions. His sentencing is scheduled for December 14.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in Washington on the concealment charge on February 16, 2024.

• House-flipping profits continued to rebound in the second quarter, according to ATTOM.
• That's as home prices grew between the time a property was purchased and sold.
• But the volume of home-flipping activity fell, accounting for 1 of every 13 sales.

Surging US home prices this year have pushed profits up for house flippers in the second quarter, ATTOM reported on Thursday. 

Gross profit on a typical house flip increased to $66,500 in the second quarter, up 18% from $56,250 in the first quarter, though that's well below the all-time high of $102,063 in 2022. 

That translated to a 27.5% return on investment, still well off the 61% record high, but up from 22.9% in the first quarter and 22.3% in the fourth quarter.

"Fortunes for investors who flip homes for quick profits are showing more signs of turning around after a long and unusual period when they went down while the rest of the market went up," ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in the report.

The rebound came as the median price for a single-family home spiked 10% during the spring buying season.

High demand and low inventory in the housing market have helped drive residential prices up through this year.

And though mortgage rates have also surged, current homeowners are reluctant to sell and give up their low rates, aggravating the supply shortage and locking many middle-income homebuyers out of the market.

But while home-flipping profits grew, activity decreased through the quarter. Flips represented about 8% of all home sales, down from 9.9% in the first quarter and hitting the lowest share since 2021.

• Priscilla Chan and husband Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to eradicate human disease by 2100.
• Their project plans to use 1,000 GPUs to build a massive database of healthy and diseased cells.
• One researcher's excited by the potential, but said it'll likely take lots of time and money to complete.

On Tuesday, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg announced their plans to help eradicate human disease by 2100. 

They aim to develop a computing system that researchers can use with AI to catalog cells and predict how they act when diseased. The data could be used to make new discoveries that completely eliminate human disease, Chan and Zuckerberg said in a statement.

"I'm always excited to see more computing power available to biologists. So I was very excited to see this news," Anne Carpenter, who uses computing to develop pharmaceuticals at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, told Insider.

She said that though this seems promising, the project is still in its early days.

'They're not announcing like, 'We have created a model that does a particular thing.' Instead, they're saying 'We are planning to create a resource that is going to be available for biologists to create new models,'" Carpenter said.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the couple's LLC, told The Register that they plan to have their product running by 2024. The company also declined to tell the Register how much it'll have to spend to make its product.

It could be a hefty bill, considering that the computer parts it wants to use are in high demand and low supply, The Register reported.

How it could work

The company said it plans to make a computer system made of 1,000 graphics processing units — electronic circuits designed for image processing. These GPUs can visually analyze both healthy and diseased cells from databases.

Then, the company said, it wanted to make the tool available to the public so that researchers could use it collaboratively to make new discoveries. This is why Carpenter is excited about their proposal.

She said labs across the US don't have equal access to computing power for their biotechnology research.

Essentially, she said, if this proposal is accurate, it would help level the playing field for researchers who are using AI to look for new therapeutics.

How AI is revolutionizing healthcare

Since CZI was founded in 2015, it has mainly funded local San Francisco community and education projects. But Zuckerberg's other companies have forayed into the biotech territory before.

Meta produced an AI tool in 2022 called ESMFold, which was created with similar AI processing techniques that Zuckerberg and Chan say could be used on their new database.

ESMFold is essentially a faster version of the program AlphaFold, which Forbes called "the most important achievement in AI" for solving a decades-old scientific problem about how to efficiently predict the shape of proteins using AI.

The AI was fed data about proteins and the amino acids that make them. By training the model on how known proteins are made, the computer was able to predict how other, unknown proteins were folded and shaped.

"AlphaFold has sparked a wave of innovation by showing people what's possible," Chris Bahl, the chief scientist at AI Proteins, previously told Insider.

The program behind AlphaFold is called a large language model, and it's the same type of program that CZI said it hopes can be used with its new proposal.

Large language models are AI tools trained on large datasets available online. This is also the theory that powers ChatGPT.

"LLMs have done an impressive job at helping us understand protein structure, and we think they will be equally great at helping us understand more complex structures like cells," Jeff MacGregor, vice president of communications at CZI, told Engadget.

• Congress has yet to reach an agreement on avoiding a government shutdown by September 30.
• A group of lawmakers are pushing to permanently end government shutdowns.
• Per Politico, they're supporting a bill that would automatically fund the government short-term.

Congress is tiptoeing towards a potential government shutdown, as Republicans can't seem to formulate a plan to fund the government. Now, some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to do away with the concept of a shutdown completely.

Politico reported that legislators in the House and Senate are passing around a letter calling for a vote on legislation to get rid of shutdowns. The letter specifically pushes for a vote on the "Prevent Government Shutdowns Act of 2023," introduced by Republican Senator James Lankford and Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, and co-sponsored by an array of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

Under that law, a two-week extension of funding would automatically kick in should Congress not pass appropriations bills in time. And Congress would not be able to move on any matters other than getting funding passed once that stopgap kicks in — although they could start considering SCOTUS nominees after 30 days of shutdown. Congress would also not be allowed to recess or adjourn for over 23 hours during that shutdown period.

Lankford told Politico that he's aware of the push to bring his legislation to the floor for a vote. "There's Democrats talking to Democrats, Republicans talking to Republicans about the bill. There's lots of conversations that are going out there. This letter is just one more of them," he said.

This effort comes as lawmakers have headed home for the weekend without a solution to fund the government before September 30. After that deadline, Americans will face a federal government shutdown — and both Democrats and Republicans are scrambling for a solution as the clock continues to tick.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, for example, even said that he might have to move forward with a Senate funding bill, given Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has been unable to corral enough members of his party to vote for any funding legislation.

"Leader McConnell and I are talking and we have a great deal of agreement on many parts of this. It's never easy to get a big bill, a CR bill done, but I am very, very optimistic that McConnell and I can find a way and get a large number of votes both Democratic and Republican in the Senate," Schumer told CNN.

But even some Republicans are saying they'd rather reach across the aisle than let the government shut down. That comes after Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was twice unable to rally enough votes from his party to pass a defense spending bill, another sign of discord on the right that illustrates just how shaky McCarthy's slim majority is.

While a range of ideas are swirling among lawmakers to avoid a shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget on Friday reportedly asked all federal agencies to submit their plans to operate their programs on limited appropriations. Every agency has a contingency plan in the event of a shutdown, but some of them are currently outdated.

"Without a federal budget in place before the end of the month, the vast majority of the 2.2 million federal employees who keep our government running will find themselves either locked out of their jobs or forced to go to work without a paycheck," Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents 750,000 government workers, said in a statement. "Federal employees and every single American who depends on the government for vital programs and services deserve better from our elected leaders."

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Amazon is having another huge sale day, kind of like Prime Day part two.

Called Prime Big Deal Days, this sale is due to kick off on October 10 and last through October 11. 

What we've learned from past deal days is that beauty products are one of the best things to stock up on. You'll find tons of deals on everything from drugstore essentials to high-end brands. If you have products you use regularly – like cotton rounds, pimple patches, dandruff shampoo, makeup remover, eyelash serums, lip balm, and more – this is one of the few days of the year when you can reliably get them for a discounted price. 

For example, last year we saw incredible deals like:

• $50 off the Drybar Blow Dryer Brush, our pick for the best blow dryer brush for all hair types.
• A near all-time-low price on the super popular Crest 3D Whitestrips.
• Discounts on TikTok favorite products like Mighty Patches and NOONI Korean Lip Oils.
• Cult-favorite Mario Badescu Facial Spray on sale for under $10.
• A 25% discount on workhorse makeup remover Garnier SkinActive Micellar Water.

Though we don't know exactly what will be on sale this year, we know there will be deals on thousands of products. In the meantime, here's some current deals that you don't have to wait to score.

Amazon beauty deals on sale now

• Lawyers for New York's attorney general and Donald Trump sparred in a Manhattan courtroom Friday.
• Each invoked "through the looking glass" references, saying each other's arguments distorted reality.
• The AG civil lawsuit, accusing Trump of business fraud, is scheduled for trial next month. 

Donald Trump so obviously misled banks with distorted, Alice-In-Wonderland exaggerations of his worth that a good portion of New York's fraud lawsuit against the former president should be decided pretrial, a lawyer for the state's attorney general said in court Friday.

Attorney General Letitia James wants Trump banned from doing business in New York for allegedly inflating his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year in a decade's worth of financial statements, a fraud allegation she plans to take him to trial on next month.

In sarcasm-tinged arguments before a Manhattan judge, one of her lawyers attacked on Friday what he called a "through the looking glass" defense that Trump plans to roll out at trial:  that as a real-estate "visionary" he deserves wide latitude in telling banks what his properties are worth.

Some of Trump's exaggerations are so untethered from reality, so indisputably false, they can be decided before the case is even argued at next month's civil trial, Amer countered.

"The defendants have clearly stepped through the looking glass," Amer told the judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.

"But on this side of the looking glass,"Amer said, a property's value can't be "whatever Mr. Trump decides is the number he wants to see in his statement."

Trump's lawyer quickly parried his opponent's "looking glass" reference, telling the judge that it is James who distorts reality by questioning what the former president – "an investment genius" – believes his properties are worth.

Trump is "probably one of the most successful real estate developers in the country," attorney Christopher Kise told the judge, insisting Trump's disputed property valuations "are actually low."

"We're through the looking glass here, too," Kise, who Trump has paid a $3 million retainer, promised the judge. "You're going to hear of a very different world."

And in the defense's world, Trump is not exaggerating the value of his properties at all.

Instead, "President Trump is a master at finding value where others see nothing," Kise argued.

"I'll tell you this," Kise said of the attorney general's far lower numbers. "If I had money to invest in real estate, I'm not going to ask the attorney general."

Amer, in asking for an early, partial trial win for the AG's side, walked the judge through what the attorney general says are Trump's most obvious exaggerations of property values, including for 40 Wall Street and the family's Seven Springs estate in upstate New York.

First on Amer's list was Trump's triplex penthouse, an apartment atop Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. 

For five years of his financial statements, from 2012 through 2016, Trump tripled the apartment's square-footage, fraudulently claiming it was 30,000 square feet when it was only 10,996 square feet, the AG alleges.

Trump used that inflated square footage to claim the triplex was worth $327 million, a valuation James has called "absurd."

But Trump is arguing in court papers that the square-footage error was an innocent mistake, and that even the calculation of square footage can be, somehow, a subjective process, Amer complained to the judge.

"In the defendant's world, there is no objective truth," Amer told the judge.

During his own turn at the podium, Kise doubled down on the subjectivity of real-estate valuations.

He also accused James' side of "hyperbole," and brushed aside the significance of that sentence in each of Trump's financial statements that promise, "assets are stated at their estimated current values."

"We agree on what the standard is here," Kise said. "We just disagree on how that standard is applied. 

The judge said he will hand down a decision Tuesday on both sides' requests for pre-trial wins in their favor.

He'll also decide Tuesday, he said, on a separate request by the AG for $10,000 sanctions against all 15 defendants and their lawyers – penalties James hopes he'll set for their alleged repetitive filing of "frivolous" arguments in court papers.

James hopes to take Trump, the Trump Organization, his two eldest sons, and his senior management to trial in two weeks on a year-old civil lawsuit that seeks to bar them from ever running a company in New York again.

She's also asking the judge to ban Trump and Trump Org for five years from buying real estate in the state.

Her lawsuit centers on the annual "Statements of Financial Condition," that Trump Organization issued for each year from 2011 to 2021, documents that she says exaggerated the value of his real-estate and golf-resort empire.

Each statement promises that "assets are stated at their estimated current values," meaning any of his skyscrapers, or golf courses, or even Mar-a-Lago, could be sold for that value.

"But his perspective is light years away from what the estimated value really is," Amer told the judge.

• Fellow Democrats have yet to come to Sen. Bob Menendez's side in the wake of a stunning indictment.
• When Menendez faced similar corruption charges in 2015, his party was quick to rally around him.
• Federal prosecutors allege that this time he accepted bribes to secretly benefit the Egyptian government.

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez is facing an embattled political future as he stares down a federal indictment related to an alleged bribery scheme to secretly benefit the government of Egypt.

This time, even his once self-proclaimed sidekick is not immediately coming to the rescue.

As Politico's Matt Friedman pointed out, in 2015 New Jersey Democrats were quick to rally around their senior US senator.

"If you want an idea of where NJ Dem support for Menendez stands, consider this: The day of his 2015 indictment, he had statements of support from them immediately lined up. Today, they've all so far been publicly silent," Friedman, who has been covering Garden State politics for decades, wrote on Twitter.

Arguably, few did so with more gusto at the time than Sen. Cory Booker, the state's junior senator, who was star was continuing to rise in Washington. At the time, Booker vowed, " I won't waver in my commitment to stand alongside my senior Senator to serve our great state." Months before the 2015 indictment, Booker had deemed himself "the Robin to his Batman." 

It's not even clear if the senator himself is ready for another round. Stories about his 2015 indictment feature accounts of a IStandwithBob.com and an accompanying Twitter account that reposted signs of support. The site is now dead and the account last posted a tweet in 2016.

"To my supporters, friends and the community at large, I ask that you recall the other times the prosecutors got it wrong and that you reserve judgement," Menendez said in a statement after the charges were announced. "I am confident that this matter will be successfully resolved once all of the facts are presented and my fellow New Jerseyans will see this for what it is."

Federal prosecutors allege that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, accepted "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in bribes in exchange for using his position to try to help Egypt.

Booker is far from the only one silent so far. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy hasn't reacted yet. Ditto Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. At the time of the 2015 indictment, Schumer's predecessor as top Senate Democrat, Sen. Harry Reid, encouraged people to let Menendez have his day in court. So far, the most notable Democrat to come to his defense is Rep. Rob Menendez, his son.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says the White House would not comment on the situation "because it's an active matter."

It is expected that like in 2015, Menendez may have to step down from his perch on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Only this time, he's now the leader of the powerful panel. 

It makes sense why Democrats are more cautious this time. In 2015, then-Gov. Chris Christie could have appointed a Republican to the seat if Menendez were to have resigned. Now, Democrats can easily tap one of their own. But that might not be the only factor. Menendez's 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial and he was easily reelected that same year. He's potential reelection this November looks far more dicey.

A recent Monmouth University poll found the senator is now less popular than he was during the 2015 ordeal. Unlike that experience,  Menendez is unlikely to have the case resolved if he were to run for reelection next November. The same poll found that the earlier news of a federal investigation had tanked his numbers, which were above water last year. Now, 35% of New Jerseyans approve of his performance versus 44% that disapprove. In comparison, Booker is sitting much better.

Not every Democrat was quiet on Friday. Menendez famously clashed with the Obama administration over the Iran nuclear deal and reapproaching relations with Cuba. A former top Obama aide saw an opportunity to strike back.

"Menendez has had a de facto veto on US Cuba policy, piling sanction after sanction on an impoverished people wrapped in the language of democratic values while apparently supporting the Egyptian dictatorship for personal gain. A little too on the nose," Ben Rhodes, a former Obama deputy national security advisor and speechwriter, wrote on Twitter.

Menendez can only hope that Robin will still come to his aid. The bat signal is clearly flashing.

• Home prices could climb even higher over the next year, Zillow economists said. 
• The real estate listing company predicted a 5% home price increase, lower that 6.5% is previously predicted. 
•  

Home prices could jump as much as 5% over the next year, thanks to higher mortgage rates prolonging the deep freeze of the US housing market, according to Zillow economists.

The real estate listings site revised its 12-month outlook for home prices, predicting a 4.9% increase by August 2024. That's slightly down from its 12-month home price outlook in July, when the firm predicted a 6.5% increase in home prices by July of next year.

Meanwhile, the firm expected total home sales to clock in around 4.1 million this year, slightly down from the previously anticipated 4.2 million.

"Zillow's forecast of the nation's typical home value was revised downward this month due to the anticipation of higher mortgage rates and a slight decrease in market tightness," economists said in a note published Monday.

The Fed didn't help the outlook for rates this week. At the conclusion of its September policy meeting on Wednesday, chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank wouldn't hike rates again this month but warned that they could remain elevated for longer. 

That's tough news for prospective home buyers, who have watched mortgage rates march steadily higher for over a year, partly as a result of the Fed's tightening of monetary policy.

While borrowing has become more expensive, high mortgage rates also discourage homeowners from listing their properties for sale as they cling to low rates secured years ago, exacerbating the shortage of supply and pushing up prices.

According to Bankrate, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed 24 basis points in the last week to 7.75%. Meanwhile, the latest Case-Shiller home price data shows home values climbing back to near all-time-highs during the month of August.

Inventory levels, though, have increased slightly, which was a cited as the reason why Zillow chose to downgrade its home price forecast. New listings jumped 4% last month, which could help ease supply pressures and cap home price increases over the next year.

"To be clear, August's new listings total – as well as total for-sale inventory – remains well below typical levels seen prior to the pandemic, and inventory conditions remain very tight.That said, this  unusual late-summer uptick helped to ease the market conditions some, causing our outlook for home values to cool," economists added.

Experts have warned housing affordability is unlikely to improve until mortgage rates dial back more significantly. That could unlock more inventory to hit the housing market, but it's unlikely to happen anytime soon, with experts forecasting mortgage rates to end the year around 6%.

• A Navy pilot ejected from his F-35 stealth fighter jet over South Carolina during an apparent "mishap" on Sunday. 
• The jet went missing for sometime before officials discovered a debris field caused by the crash.
• The 911 call made by a resident and the pilot has been released. Listen to it below. 

"Ma'am, I'm a pilot in a military aircraft and I ejected. So, I just rode a parachute down to the ground. Can you please send an ambulance?"

That's just an excerpt of the bizarre 911 call that came in after a Marine pilot parachuted into a South Carolina backyard on Sunday. At the time, Joint Base Charleston reported the pilot had ejected from his F-35B Lightning II fighter jet during a mishap but didn't elaborate on what caused the incident or whether or not the pilot self-ejected or was auto-ejected, a feature unique to the US Marine Corps version of the craft. 

The entire 911 call can be heard below. 

In the 911 call, the homeowner first tells the dispatcher, "I guess we've got a pilot in our house, and he says he got ejected." 

The pilot then jumps in. "We have a military jet crash. I'm the pilot. We need to get rescue rolling, I'm not sure where the airplane is, it would've crash landed somewhere. I ejected." 

The dispatcher sounds confused, asking for further details.

"Ma'am, I'm a pilot in a military aircraft, and I ejected. So, I just rode a parachute down to the ground. Can you please send an ambulance?" the pilot says. The dispatcher says help is already on the way.

The 911 call, released by the Charleston County EMS Friday, sheds some light on what happened in the immediate aftermath of Sunday's mysterious incident but doesn't say much about what caused the mishap. When the dispatcher asks the pilot about the cause of his 2,000-foot fall, he responds: "An aircraft failure." 

At the time, the whereabouts of the missing F-35B were unknown. Authorities later confirmed the discovery of a debris field matching the aircraft on Monday. "The mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process," Joint Base Charleston added in a press release.