Live updates: Trump announces $54 billion Alaska LNG investment from South Korea
This version of Rcrd120939 - Politics and Government | NBC News Clone was adapted by NBC News Clone to help readers digest key facts more efficiently.
Senate Democrats block bill on data centers, led by Jon Husted, R-Ohio, calling it “toothless.”
What to know today
- TRUMP LNG ANNOUNCEMENT: President Donald Trump announced a plan for South Korea to invest $54 billion to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.
- DATA CENTERS: Senate Democrats blocked legislation aimed at protecting consumers from paying higher prices when data centers are built in their communities. The vote was 57-43, short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.
- FED RENOVATION: The Federal Reserve’s independent watchdog found no reasonable grounds to believe a multibillion-dollar renovation project that drew criticism from Trump violated federal law. It did identify problems with contracts for the project, though.
- NBC NEWS POLL: A plurality of likely California voters support a proposal on the state’s November ballot that would impose a one-time wealth tax on the richest Californians, but the measure is still short of majority support, a new NBCUniversal Local/Telemundo Station Group poll has found.
Man accused in plot to attack Texas Capitol building is released on bond
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed today that officers foiled a plan to attack the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
According to Texas DPS, officers received credible information about a person planning a violent attack on the Texas State Capitol on Thursday.
Texas DPS said its Criminal Investigations Division special agents worked alongside the FBI to investigate the validity of the threat and the circumstances surrounding the planned attack.
At around 3 a.m. Wednesday, DPS SWAT arrested 40-year-old Benny Caldera Jr. at his residence in Converse, about 15 miles northeast of downtown San Antonio, Texas DPS said.
Justice Department files complaint against judges over immigration enforcement surge comments
The Justice Department filed a complaint today against federal judges in Minnesota over their remarks to the media about the pressure on their courthouse during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge.
The complaint alleges the seven judges — nominated by Democratic and Republican presidents — violated judicial ethics by speaking to The New York Times about their experience dealing with a flood of cases during last winter’s Operation Metro Surge crackdown, which led to thousands of arrests in the Twin Cities.
The complaint escalates the department’s battle with the federal judiciary, which has halted administration priorities, dismissed high-profile prosecutions and accused government lawyers in some cases of failing to comply with court orders.
The department is demanding that the judges recuse themselves from all criminal or civil cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters, because of what he described as “obvious bias they have shown” in their remarks to the newspaper.
Judge in Georgia rejects Trump administration's efforts to obtain voter rolls
A federal judge in Georgia today dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit that sought unredacted copies of the state’s voter registration list.
The order made U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert the 26th judge to reject the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain voter roll information from states. The administration has yet to persuade a judge to allow it to access voter rolls.
“Defendant Raffensperger’s efforts demonstrate that it is possible to comply with both Georgia’s voter privacy law and federal laws related to voter records. Therefore, federal law does not preempt Georgia’s voter privacy law,” Calvert wrote.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, celebrated the ruling in a statement, writing that he will “always protect the sensitive personal information of Georgians, in accordance with the law and the Constitution.”
“I will not give in and break the law for anyone. Period,” Raffensperger said.
Trump on how he'll secure a deal with Iranian officials: ‘Maybe you blow them up’
Trump reiterated his claims that the war with Iran will end “very soon” today in the Oval Office, saying his administration has to make the decision on how to end the conflict.
Asked by a reporter how he will negotiate a peace deal with Iranian officials when he thinks of them as “crazy,” Trump responded: “Maybe you blow them up. Maybe you blow them up. We have to make that decision.”
He continued: “We blow them up, make a deal. But the time is coming. It’s going to end very soon, one way or the other.”
It's not the first time Trump has threatened or hurled insults at Iranian leadership during the monthslong war. He wrote on Truth Social on Easter morning that Iranian officials should “Open the F---in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
Trump referred to Iranian leadership as “scum” and “sick people” in response to an ABC News reporter’s question at the July NATO summit in Turkey.
Republican senators call for investigation into China's role in U.S. hemp, cannabis industries
Four Republican senators who protested a White House-backed delay of a looming ban on intoxicating hemp want the Justice Department to investigate China’s role in American cannabis and hemp markets.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment found that Chinese transnational criminal organizations dominate marijuana cultivation and distribution in the United States, especially in states with legal cannabis markets,” Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Susan Collins, R-Maine and Ted Budd, R-N.C., wrote today in a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“These organizations purchase and lease American land for illegal grow operations, traffic foreign workers, and use toxic pesticides and fertilizers shipped from China, including chemicals banned in the United States,” they added.
Last year, Congress closed the so-called hemp loophole, which allowed unregulated, intoxicating hemp and THC products to flood the market after the Republican-led 2018 farm bill legalized hemp cultivation.
But after a push from the White House, including Trump’s top aides, Congress agreed to a three-week delay on a ban of those products, as well as CBD tinctures used for sleep and inflammation, that was set to take effect in November. The new deadline is Dec. 11.
“Leaving the loophole unaddressed would give these networks additional time to flood American commerce with synthetic products,” the senators wrote. “This would also further entrench their operations on American soil, fund their enterprises with illicit revenue, and expose consumers to unregulated, dangerous synthetic products masquerading as legal hemp.”
Trump defends new ads boosting him, saying they're not political
Asked about criticism of the government’s new pro-Trump ads, Trump said they don’t violate federal propaganda laws because he is not running for office.
“I’m not running for office, and I don’t talk about anybody,” he said. “If I was talking about anybody behind me that’s a politician ... that’s a political ad. But when I’m talking about making America great, making our country great, that’s a countrywide ad. That’s an ad for the spirit of our country.”
Some of the ads, which the White House has called public safety announcements, are nearly identical to ads Trump ran during his 2024 presidential campaign.
NBC News reported that the ads were paid for with funds intended for Customs and Border Protection.
“Now, if somebody said that that’s wrong. I’ll gladly pay the money, but these are ads for the country,” Trump told reporters today. “I’m not promoting a candidate. I’m not promoting myself, because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country.”
Jeffries criticizes voluntary AI accord as 'not the right response at this moment'
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York criticized the voluntary accord tech leaders signed at the White House yesterday, saying it was “not the right response at this moment” regarding artificial intelligence.
“I mean, the notion of entering into a voluntary agreement that is entirely unenforceable and that allows the industry writ large to police itself is not the right response at this moment, given the potentially grave harm and danger that industry leaders themselves are now flagging for the American people,” Jeffries told reporters outside the Capitol.
Asked what Democrats plan to do to regulate AI, he said there are "ongoing conversations with different members of the House Democratic Caucus as it relates to the urgent need to take decisive action in order to protect the American people from the possible harms that can be visited upon them when AI agents go rogue."
Trump calls double Dan Sullivan race in Alaska a 'crooked deal'
Trump today mentioned the Dan Sullivan saga in the Alaska Senate election, in which two Republicans named Dan Sullivan will face each other and the Democratic nominee, Rep. Mary Peltola.
Trump praised Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, R-Alaska, who stood alongside him as he announced the multibillion-dollar South Korean investment in a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.
Sullivan is running against Dan J. Sullivan, a registered Republican and former schoolteacher who made it onto November’s ranked choice voting ballot. Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy has faced legal challenges from Republicans who have claimed he is on the ballot as a spoiler candidate.
“I have to tell you this because he has an election,” Trump said of Dan S. Sullivan. “It’s a crooked deal. It’s crooked as hell. I’ll say it. When they put up a man with his exact name, they picked him out of a hat. They said, ‘Anybody named Dan Sullivan in Alaska?’ And they put somebody up against him because they know they can’t win without cheating.”
State and federal investigators are probing whether Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy is part of a conspiracy to confuse voters. Dan J. Sullivan has denied that’s why he’s on the ballot.
The president also called Alaska’s voting system, which has been in place since 2022, “crazy.”
“I’m very concerned about that crazy voting system they have up there. That bothers me,” Trump said.
Alaska uses a jungle primary system in which the top four vote getters advance to a ranked-choice general election.
AI researcher tells Senate there are 'minus 12 months' until AI agents create their own language
Asked by Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., how far away AI agents are from creating their own language that humans "would not be able to distinctly understand," Marius Hobbhahn, the CEO of Apollo Research, said, "Minus 12 twelve months."
"Last year, we studied the chain of thought of one OpenAI model in collaboration with OpenAI, and what we found was that the model was already using language that is not English and not perfectly understandable by humans, and I think we’re currently on a trajectory where things like this could be more," Hobbhahn added.
Gallego pressed him further, asking how humans could "detect, observe, block or anything like that" if AI agents created their own language.
Hobbhahn said, "From a scientific perspective, it is unclear how to do this, and we do not have a solution for this yet."
AI researcher casts doubt that a 'kill switch' is possible
Marius Hobbhahn, the CEO of Apollo Research, told Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., that there are “no technical measures that could guarantee something like a 'kill switch'" for AI.
Seeking to regulate the pace of AI development, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would mandate AI companies have a "kill switch," which would halt AI operations in the event of a dangerous situation.
"As far as I know, there are currently no technical measures that could guarantee something like a kill switch. There are, because of the complexity of these AI models, you know, there’s sort of many data centers involved and so on. So currently we cannot guarantee that," Hobbhahn said.
AI researcher: 'We've seen plenty of evidence that would suggest' China has infiltrated U.S. utility infrastructure
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., questioned AI researchers about China's ability to hack certain U.S. infrastructure.
"Do you think the Communist Party of China has basically infiltrated most of our electrical grid or water, all these things, to just use it at the right time to, you know — when they want to decimate our economy?" Scott asked Kurt Gaudette, senior vice president of Dragos.
"I think we’ve seen plenty of evidence that would suggest that, sir," Gaudette answered.
Pressed about how to combat cyberattacks against U.S. utilities and infrastructure led by China, Gaudette called for certain "critical controls," including "securing remote access, getting visibility of the environments, having an incident response plan, building a defensible architecture, doing those things that are known controls to stop these things before something like AI can accelerate it even further."
Scott's questions come over two years after federal agencies reported that Chinese hackers had at times secretly hidden in U.S. infrastructure for up to five years. The FBI said this year that cyberattackers targeted municipal water systems in at least seven states in one week.
Researchers in Senate hearing warn that humans are on track to lose control of AI agents
Artificial intelligence researchers told a Senate committee that humans are starting to lose control of AI models.
Asked whether humans can maintain control over AI models at their current rate of development, Daniel Kokotajlo, the executive director of the AI Futures Project, told Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., "I believe that if we vastly improve our practices and reform the way that we do things, including improving our cybersecurity, we might be able to maintain control of current systems like today's AIs."
He added, "However, I think that the AIs are getting very powerful very quickly, and we are not currently on track to keep up as they dramatically improve."
Answering a separate question about whether humans can build strong enough "sandboxes" to contain AI models in training, Marius Hobbhahn, the CEO of Apollo Research, said he wasn't sure it would be possible.
"I would say it is currently unknown whether that is possible," Hobbhahn said. "So even if humans could think that the sandbox is fully proofed, it could still be possible that a smarter model in the future might be able to find a way out of it." AI systems "often have strong motivations to try to break out of their sandbox, and they're getting increasingly powerful."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents
OpenAI leaders declined to attend a congressional hearing today to examine Rogue artificial intelligence models and their impact on homeland security, according to the subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
Hawley invited OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to testify in a letter last week, writing: “We believe your testimony would help shed light on the Subcommittee’s ongoing investigation into recent rogue AI incidents involving OpenAI models.”
Sen. Josh Hawley floats penalties for the leaders of AI labs whose products cause harm
In his opening remarks ahead of a Senate hearing about how to stop attacks by AI agents, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., floated instituting penalties for companies that build dangerous models.
"Everyday you turn on the television and it seems like AI is doing something else bad," the senator said, adding later, "the reports of cyberattacks just continue to metastasize."
Hawley cited the infamous Hugging Face attack this past summer, where rogue agents from OpenAI hacked a company called Hugging Face without being instructed to do so by humans. Since then, OpenAI has disclosed several other incidents of rogue AI agents hacking organizations or taking over defunct websites.
Earlier this week, officials for the company said they were pausing the training of their latest models after they revealed agents previously searched federal government websites in unexpected ways.
The latest developments come among broad calls for the federal government to regulate the nation's leading frontier AI labs. Leaders of some of the labs have said they can self-regulate effectively.
"If you break it you pay for it ... that's been the basic principle of American law for 250 years now," Hawley added in his opening remarks before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Disaster Management. "I wonder if it's not time to get back to that with AI."
"If you make that product in a reckless kind of way ... then it's the people who made it that should be responsible. I think it's time we talk about that," the Missouri senator said.
'We have to turn this around': Trump suggests he and GOP are poorly communicating their accomplishments
Trump suggested today that he and Republicans are not doing a strong enough job of communicating his administration's accomplishments to the public.
"I’ve done a very bad job of explaining," he said at a White House Hispanic Heritage Month event. "I’ve done a very bad job of explaining how good the country is doing. We’re doing better than any country in the world economically."
Trump said that since he took office, there have been more than 1 million new private sector jobs. "There are, by a lot, more Americans working today than at any time in the history of our country," he said.
“That’s a stat, but nobody knows it. That’s why I’m doing it myself. That’s why I’m doing it myself," he said about his planned campaign events across the country over the next month. "Can you believe it? I’m going out because nobody’s selling it. I’m doing. We’re doing an extremely poor job of promotion, and an extremely great job of running the country."
Trump said he thought he was "finished campaigning," but he said he's doing more of it "in order to help Republicans, because we need the votes, we have to have the votes. Otherwise, we have these lunatics with the open borders."
During the event, he urged attendees to vote in the midterm elections.
"We got to get out and vote. You've got to spread the word how well we’re doing," Trump said. "We have to turn this around. For some reason, presidents — Democrat or Republican — they just they don’t win the midterms. I don’t know why."
Recent polls have shown Trump with a lower approval rating. An NBC News average of polls measuring presidential approval this week finds that 39% approval of Trump’s job as president while 59% disapprove.
Trump speaks at length about White House renovations at Hispanic Heritage Month celebration
Trump spoke at length about his White House renovations at a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration this afternoon.
“I’m thrilled to welcome you to the great White House, where I spend a lot of time fixing it and making it better. It was falling down. I hate to say it. I refuse to say the White House was a dump, but I’ll tell you, it was in bad shape," Trump said.
He said he has an "obligation" to renovate the White House, because it's "a symbol of our country."
"When you have a White House where the walls on the outside are broken, cracked, in horrible conditions, and you have somebody that’s really good at fixing them, I know the right people. We’ve had some tremendous talent involved in this little situation," he said.
At the beginning of his remarks, he said he would invite attendees to be the first people to step onto the floor of the White House ballroom, whose construction had been tied up in litigation but has been allowed to proceed for now.
U.S. ends ISIS-fighting mission in Iraq as regional security fears mount
The last American troops assigned to fight ISIS in Iraq pulled out of the country today, ending the mission that dismantled the extremists’ self-declared caliphate but raising fears about what might fill the vacuum as the Iran war grinds on.
A U.S. Army soldier on a reconnaissance patrol near a coalition outpost in western Iraq in 2018. Susannah George / AP
Though the Iraqi government welcomed the end of Operation Inherent Resolve, Kurdish officials in the north of the country said they were concerned the Biden-era decision was being carried out even after Iranian missiles have pummeled them after the start of the war in Iran.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq have attacked U.S. personnel and diplomats, as well as regional allies such as Saudi Arabia. And there are fears Tehran could seek to capitalize on the U.S. withdrawal, with its proxies already celebrating the move, coupled with concerns about a potential resurgence in attacks by the remnants of the Islamic State terrorist group itself.
Senate Democrats block Sen. Husted-led bill on data centers, calling it ‘toothless’
Senate Democrats blocked legislation today aimed at protecting consumers from paying higher prices when new data centers are built in their communities.
The vote was 57-43, short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images file
Watchdog finds no criminality in Fed renovation that drew Trump’s scrutiny
The Federal Reserve’s independent watchdog said Wednesday it found no reasonable grounds to believe there was a violation of federal law in a multibillion-dollar renovation project that drew criticism from President Donald Trump and short-lived scrutiny from federal prosecutors.
But the central bank’s board “had not effectively executed” a contract and its cost-management provisions, according to a 120-page report from the Office of the Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Trump points to a cost sheet as he tours the Federal Reserve with then-Chair Jerome Powell in 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP - Getty Images
Controversy grows over taxpayer-funded Trump ads
Many Democrats and a growing number of Republicans are demanding answers about campaign-style pro-Trump ads that, according to a U.S. official and a top Republican senator, were paid for by the administration using money intended for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Critics say the ads amount to propaganda and are likely illegal. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports for the "TODAY" show.
Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna to rally in support of California billionaire tax
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., will headline a pair of rallies in the coming days in support of a November ballot measure that would impose a one-time tax on the wealthiest Californians.
The progressive lawmakers will lead one rally in San Francisco on Saturday and another in Los Angeles on Monday.
“We are so happy to see Senator Sanders return to California as the campaign enters the home stretch,” said Debru Carthan, the vice president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, the large California healthcare workers union leading the effort. “Senator Sanders recognizes better than anyone the threat that extreme wealth inequality poses to our state and our nation.”
A NBCUniversal Local/Telemundo Station Group poll released today found that a plurality of likely California voters (48%) supported the billionaire tax proposal, with 38% saying they would vote against it and another 14% saying they were undecided.
Senate committee advances Dr. Nicole Saphier’s nomination for surgeon general
Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Donald Trump’s third nominee for surgeon general, moved a step closer to confirmation after a Senate committee voted to advance her nomination on Wednesday.
Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, was advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on a 12 to 11 vote to serve as surgeon general after she was grilled at her confirmation hearing earlier this month about her stance on childhood vaccines.
Nicole Saphier at her confirmation hearing on Sept. 16. Daniel Heuer / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Trump to announce South Korean investments in an Alaskan natural gas pipeline and other energy infrastructure
Trump is expected to announce a plan this afternoon for South Korea to invest $54 billion to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, a White House official said.
It is part of a broader South Korean investment of $200 billion as part of the U.S.-Korea trade and investment agreement announced last year. The money will also go toward eight large-scale nuclear plants and a power facility in Texas, the official said. South Korea pledged a total of $350 billion in the trade and investment deal.
The Alaska gas pipeline would stretch more than 800 miles, connecting Alaska's North Slope to natural gas export terminal in southern Alaska, the official said, adding that it would lower energy prices for Alaskans by providing a reliable supply of natural gas.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said the energy infrastructure investments "deliver on [Trump's] day one promises to unleash American energy, unlock Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential, and accelerate America’s nuclear energy renaissance."
Intelligence chief says U.S. will take a 'whole-of-government approach' to AI regulation
Following the president’s meeting yesterday at the White House with some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said the Trump administration will be taking a “whole-of-government approach” to regulating the technology.
"I think what you heard yesterday and what you saw in that room, including the government officials that were in that room, is that we are taking a whole-of-government approach across the industry verticals,” Clayton said in an interview this morning with CNBC.
Clayton during his confirmation hearing in July. Aaron Schwartz / Getty Images file
Clayton applauded the AI industries for also taking what he called a “whole-of-private-sector approach” to addressing some of the risks that come with AI development while recognizing opportunities as well.
“Superintelligence is a national security issue, and that was something that was recognized yesterday by not just the industry leaders, but everybody in the room,” Clayton said, using the term the Trump administration has newly adopted to refer to AI.
The comments come as the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee holds a hearing today on protecting the U.S. from “AI agent attacks” with leaders in AI research and cybersecurity.
Yesterday, Trump told reporters that he believes there should be “tremendous self-regulation” by the AI companies themselves.
When asked if he would agree to be Trump's "AI czar" if the president asks him to take on the role, Clayton did not directly answer. Trump told Axios recently that he thought Clayton would a good person for the position.
Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has spent over $1 million on private jet expenses in race for Ohio governor
In Ohio's race for governor, GOP nominee Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has spent over $1 million on private jet expenses, according to an NBC News analysis of campaign finance filings.
The expenditures by Ramaswamy's campaign include line items totaling tens of thousands of dollars at a time to companies like V Leasing LLC, Coshocton Air Ltd, TVPX Aircraft Solutions and Citation Management LLC. The disbursements to these companies from the campaign are labeled as "aircraft lease" or "travel" in campaign finance reports from last year and earlier this year.
In 2025, Ramaswamy pledged to spend $30 million of his own fortune on his campaign. Campaign finance filings from earlier this year show that he’s already loaned his campaign $25 million.
Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur, is running against former public health official Amy Acton in the state's open race for governor. In recent weeks, he's faced criticism from both sides of the aisle about his affinity for traveling to campaign and fundraising events via private jet.
"Park the damn jet," one former county Republican chair in Ohio told NBC News last week about Ramaswamy's campaign amid concerns that he may appear out of touch to voters struggling with a rising cost of living.
Ramaswamy speaks at a steel manufacturing plant last month. Brian Kaiser / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Last week, Ramaswamy demurred when asked about the criticism at a campaign event, telling NBC News, “Amy Acton likes to talk a lot about my bank account. She doesn’t like to talk about helping yours. I wasn’t born into my wealth. I wasn’t born a millionaire or a billionaire or an anything-aire.”
In a statement Wednesday, Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Evan Machan told NBC News, “Amy Acton likes to pretend that the Governor of Ohio doesn’t have access to state-owned planes to reach Ohioans. The only difference is that when Vivek is governor, he won’t be asking taxpayers to foot the bill for it. She should show up for a debate with Vivek instead of planting these lame stories.”
Trump and tech leaders sign ‘morally binding’ AI agreement
After an extraordinary meeting at the White House, the United States’ biggest tech giants are now attempting to present a united front despite sharp disagreements over whether AI needs more guardrails. Trump rejected calls for more regulation, instead releasing a signed document in which tech leaders agreed to “partner with an independent external auditor” to maintain safety. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports for "TODAY."
Newsom signs a bill to ban electric shock gloves
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., signed a bill yesterday to ban law enforcement from using electric shock gloves, a rebuke to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies.
The legislation also bars state and local law enforcement from using state money to buy the gloves. NBC News has previously reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was adding shock gloves as an enforcement tool.
Newsom said in a video statement that the state was "banning the Orwellian practice of using shock gloves in enforcement activity."
"We may not be able to dictate federal immigration enforcement policy, but we can make clear that activities taking place in California will be subject to California law," he said, referring to the shock gloves bill and other legislation he signed yesterday. "This is about stepping up, stepping up where the federal government has failed our diverse communities."
After reports emerged that ICE was planning to use the gloves, the Department of Homeland Security said that the gloves were an important nonlethal option. NBC News has also previously reported that the gloves have already been in use in some police departments and correctional facilities.
After Trump rebrands AI as ‘super intelligence,’ most tech executives stick to calling it artificial intelligence
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Trump’s announcement yesterday that he’s “officially” renaming artificial intelligence as “super intelligence” isn’t catching on with the country’s biggest tech CEOs.
“We are going to have to create new technologies to advance the capabilities of AI, but we’re also creating new technologies to advance the safety of AI,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters yesterday afternoon. He made no mention of super intelligence.
Greg Brockman, the president and a co-founder of OpenAI, talked about how “we build artificial intelligence to benefit everyone.” He also didn’t refer to it as SI.
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei told reporters, “I will say what I’ve always said, which is that AI has incredible benefits. I’ve talked about the medical benefits of the technology. As the president has said, you know, whoever wins AI wins.” There was no mention of super intelligence.
Only one tech leader cited super intelligence, after having called it AI.
“SI. Pardon me, super intelligence,” SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said.
Trump thanked Musk for the self-correction.
Jack Smith defends investigations of Trump at heated hearing
Weeks before the midterm elections, Senate Republicans turned up the heat, unloading their anger on former special counsel Jack Smith. Trump and his allies allege Smith abused his power and sought to hurt the president politically. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports for "TODAY."
Supreme Court allows Trump’s ‘third country’ deportation policy
The Supreme Court yesterday removed obstacles to the Trump administration deporting certain immigrants to “third countries” where they have no connections.
The justices, with the court’s three liberals dissenting, granted an emergency request filed by the government seeking to block an appeals court ruling that said the current process is unlawful because the affected people are not given a proper chance to raise concerns about safety risks in violation of federal immigration law.
In the brief unsigned order, the court also said it would hear oral arguments in December and issue a definitive ruling on the legal questions raised in the litigation.
Key DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says
The Trump administration’s far-reaching criminal probe of law enforcement officials involved in investigations into the president is apparently stumbling, with several of the personnel assigned to the “grand conspiracy” case departing just weeks before the midterm elections.
Democrats eye Nebraska as an opportunity to take away a Senate seat from Republicans
Marine Corps veteran Gunner Arellano is a Trump man — he voted for the president three times — but, he said, he won’t be casting a ballot for Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., in November.
Dan Osborn, an independent who has the backing of the state’s Democratic Party, is “more for the people” than Ricketts, Arellano, a 35-year-old tobacconist, said in an interview at the S.G. Roi cigar shop in downtown Omaha late last month.
While Arellano is familiar with Ricketts, a former two-term governor who ranks high on the list of wealthiest senators, he said that the senator isn’t present enough.
“All those politicians, they want to come around when it’s election time, right?” he said. “Come down on a Wednesday in the middle of your term, you know.”
Arellano said he’ll vote for Osborn, and voters like him are the reason that Democrats in Nebraska and at the national level hope they might be able to swipe a Senate seat in this heavily Republican state. They’re even more optimistic about flipping the state’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024 and Republican Rep. Don Bacon is retiring.
California poll: Voters back a billionaire tax, but the proposal falls short of majority support
A plurality of likely California voters support a proposal on the state’s November ballot that would impose a one-time wealth tax on the richest Californians, but the measure is still short of majority support, according to a new NBCUniversal Local/Telemundo Station Group poll released today.
In the poll, 48% said they would vote “yes” on the proposal, while 38% said they would vote “no.” Another 14% said they were undecided.
