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President says Washington will develop ‘large military presence’ in territory
The mission also said Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on recent protests
The attacks came after Iran targeted commercial ships and American service personnel in the Middle East
The governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland might have overpromised and underdelivered on their recent independence push, signing a memorandum with bellicose language but few concrete promises for withdrawal from the United Kingdom. Scottish First Minister John Swinney, Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth, Northern Irish First Minister Michelle O’Neill, and Sinn Fein leader […]
President Trump is as all-in on AI as a politician could be: all gas, no brakes, and zero interest in hand-wringing about dystopian risks or public disdain. Democrats are as conflicted on AI as a party could be: skeptical of the labs, spooked by their warnings, but split on whether to shut it all down. Why it matters: This staggering divide makes consensus on federal AI regulation almost unimaginable this year — and probably through early 2029, regardless of who wins control of Congress. Zoom in: Trump has governed as the AI president from Day 1, applying the same doctrine to models and the data centers that power them — build faster, regulate less, beat China. Speaking in Ireland on Sunday, he dismissed new safety warnings as the work of "a lot of negative forces . bringing up things that won't happen" — and reduced the stakes to one line: "Whoever wins AI wins."It's unclear which "negative forces" Trump has in mind: Calls to slow the race — or "pace the frontier" — are now coming from the leaders of America's premier AI labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google. Between the lines: Trump's accelerationist allies, including venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, see the safety alarms as a cynical ploy by the field's dominant players to lock in favorable regulations. David Sacks, Trump's former AI czar and a leading voice for the administration's hands-off approach, has a simple answer: Slow yourselves down.If OpenAI and Anthropic truly think the frontier is moving too fast, Sacks argues, they can decelerate on their own without using Washington to force competitors to do the same. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) echoed Sacks' argument that the labs don't need Congress to slow themselves down — and rejected calls for an emergency moratorium. Johnson said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he'd recall the House and put AI regulation to a vote "if we had the solution," but warned Congress against rushing into rules it doesn't yet understand.His preferred fi
President Trump's proposal to send adult U.S. citizens $5,000 dividend checks would require congressional approval, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Sunday. Why it matters: Trump and his top officials claim they can send the checks without Congress — even with the prospect of them costing upward of $1.3 trillion. What they're saying: "He'd need Congress to act," Johnson said in a CNN interview. Asked by NBC's ""Meet the Press" if he'd commit that the checks will be sent, Johnson said "I commit that Congress will work through it and find consensus on that like they have to do everything else." This is breaking news. Check back for updates
Census plan would exclude undocumented immigrants and non-green-card holders, deeming them not 'true inhabitants'
The new Federal Reserve chair’s first speech at the Jackson Hole conference featured surprising candor about his views of inflation. Whether he acts is another matter
A Russian government-operated news outlet reported that President Donald Trump’s special envoys will hold a meeting at the Kremlin before their planned arrival in Ukraine this weekend. Tass claimed in a Friday article that special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff “expect to arrive in Moscow and then Kyiv on September 5-6,” citing an unnamed […]
President Trump issued an executive order Monday calling for fewer childhood vaccinations, splitting the childhood MMR vaccine into three shots and delivering vaccines at separate medical visits. Why it matters: Controversial vaccine policy changes appear to be roaring back ahead of the midterms. The executive order states that "the combined MMR vaccine should be administered in three separate single-disease shots once such products are domestically available and that, to the maximum extent feasible, all childhood immunizations should be administered at separate medical visits." The big picture: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handpicked vaccine advisers last fall called for splitting up the MMR shot and overhauling a central component of childhood immunizations. But the White House urged Kennedy to back off of such contentious policymaking earlier this year. And yet, President Trump has recently questioned Kennedy about the lack of momentum on childhood vaccine policy, per the Wall Street Journal, signaling his continued strong personal interest in the topic. What he's saying: "You have the MMR. We want it in three separate vaccinations, given at separate times," Trump said at an Oval Office signing event. He suggested the MMR vaccine could be "quite lethal" when administered all at once, and likened the volume to "a bottle of soda." Reality check: The CDC says there's "no published scientific evidence [that] shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots." It says there can be a "very small risk" of febrile seizures and extremely rare cases of serious allergic reactions, but that getting the MMR vaccine "is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella."In addition, vaccine safety experts at CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree the MMR shot is not responsible for recent increases in autism diagnoses. "I'm a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make the
U.S. officials are defending their work with Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt in the unprecedented White House move to effectively gain control over huge oilfields in the country. Why it matters: Betancourt is the colorful and controversial figure who heads North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), the oil company partnering with the administration in the agreement that gives the U.S. preferential access to output from 17 major fields. The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital is taking a 35% equity stake in the company.The U.S. also has the rights to buy 20% of the oil at cost after the company pays its taxes to Venezuela. Driving the news: At a briefing with reporters Tuesday, a U.S. official talked up Betancourt as a "proven operator" in the country's oil sector that has been vetted by the administration. The official also bluntly acknowledged the realpolitik in the effort to boost output in the country, which has vast reserves but modest oil production after years of mismanagement and underinvestment. "There's a reality here, okay, and that is that not just here, but in other parts of the world, you have to deal with the dynamics sometimes that are in place in order to get to where you want to get to," the official said. "I'm being blunt: we make choices like this all over the world.""Geopolitics is often not the choice between the ideal and the imperfect. It is often, you're trying to navigate what's the best outcome, and you have to work with the factors that you have in place."In prior conversations with Axios, two other senior administration officials acknowledged the troubles Betancourt has faced, but said they were worth the risk. Catch up quick: Betancourt, 46, is the linchpin to Trump's plan to increase U.S. access to oil and strengthen its dominance in the hemisphere, which became clear after the Jan. 3 removal of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. His ties to the first Trump administration, anti-Maduro activity in 2019 and his help in