Ferguson's enforcement-focused AI regulation approach may limit innovation but aims to prevent monopolistic practices and protect consumers.
CryptoBriefing•Editorial Team3h ago
FBI data allegedly stolen by the hacking group ShinyHunters carries granular detail about scores of bureau officials’ job assignments, including sensitive work against Chinese spies, Russian intelligence, drug cartels and more, Reuters has found.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has publicly opposed calls for a ban on US diesel exports, arguing on Wednesday that the measure would backfire by increasing gasoline and jet fuel prices. "The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn't work," Wright said at an event in New York, as reported by Reuters. Wright said restricting exports would leave refiners with excess diesel inventories, forcing them to cut refinery output. Lower refinery runs, he warned, would tighten supplies of other fuels, ultimately driving up costs…
Glencore committed $500 million to VaultCo, the Export-Import Bank public-private partnership sourcing critical minerals for a US government stockpile, Reuters reported Wednesday. The commitment makes Glencore the fourth supplier named to Project Vault, joining Hartree Partners, Mercuria Americas and Traxys seven months after EXIM's board approved the program's underlying loan. EXIM's board approved a $10-billion direct loan for Project Vault on February 2, 2026, paired with roughly $2 billion in private capital for a $12-billion total that finances…
Only three commodity vessels moved through the Strait of Hormuz in the past day, preliminary tanker-tracking data by Kpler showed on Wednesday, as the oil market weighs the potential resumption of U.S.-Iran talks against continued disruptions in the Middle East. The three commodity vessels, which included one Panamax oil tanker, transited the Strait of Hormuz outbound, according to Kpler’s data cited by Reuters. The observable traffic on Tuesday was below Monday’s four vessels that transited Hormuz, and well below the 10-day moving…
NAGOYA, Japan: Here's a quick look at 13-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi, who is tipped to become the sport's next big star after winning three gold medals in individual events at the Asian Games. She swept the 200-meter butterfly, the 200 individual medley and the 400 IM. She could already be the swimmer to watch at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years when she is likely to face off against Canadian Summer McIntosh who swims the same events as Yu. Ditto for the world championships next year in Budapest, Hungary. McIntosh won three gold medals two years ago at the Paris Olympic and holds the world records in all three of Yu's main events: 200 fly (2 minutes 1.65 seconds), 200 IM (2:05.70) and the 400 IM (4:23.65). Zidi Yu celebrates after winning the Women's 200m Individual Medley Final (Reuters) Yu is closing in on those times. She swan the 200 IM on Monday at the Asian Games in 2:06.10, which is the event where she's closest to McIntosh. McIntosh just turned 20. By comparison, Yu at 12 was swimming roughly 15 seconds faster in the 400 IM than McIntosh did at 12, and about 12 seconds faster in the 200 IM. In a 50-meter pool, 12 to 15 seconds would be a half-lap of the pool, depending on the event. If the progression continues Yu seems set to shatter all three records. And maybe more if she tackles another event and distance. McIntosh and others will have something to say about that. As a 12-year-old - that's a sixth or seventh-grade student - at the world championships last year in Singapore, Yu finished fourth in her three races, just barely short of winning a medal. She did get a bronze medal in a relay, though she did not swim in the final. China's Zidi Yu in action during the Women's 200m Individual Medley Final (Reuters) "I think it’s a great story. I don’t know where it will lead,” Greg Meehan, the national team director for the Americans in Singapore, said at the time. Yu is from the city of Baoding in Hebei province, which is located about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the capital Beijing. Most of China's top swimmer come from areas further south in China. She began swimming at 6 and was spotted by a local coach. That forced her to quit piano and dance lessons, Chinese media has reported. He mother, Liu Hui, and her father, Yu Tao, have both been in Tokyo watching her swim at the Olympic pool being used for the Asian Games. Yu was asked last year by Chinese television if she was a genius. She replied: "I'm not a genius, I'm just a hard-working person.”
Congress has so far done little to rein in the AI industry even as some of its most prominent leaders warn about potentially catastrophic risks Sign up for US Breaking News emails The Trump administration is refusing to work with the newly appointed deputy head of the United Nations refugee agency, Reuters reported. Tressa Rae Finerty, an American who took up the role of deputy high commissioner at UNHCR earlier this month, has taken leave as she seeks a waiver from the US government that would allow her to carry out aspects of her duties, according to seven diplomatic sources. Speaking at the UN general assembly, Donald Trump re-issued his threat to “annihilate” Iran and “drive them into Hell” if the regime didn’t capitulate and make a deal.” He also said he was “working closely with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine ” to end the disastrous war, defended his administration’s actions in Latin America – including the midnight raid to arrest former Venezuelan president Nicólas Maduro , defended his drone strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, accused Mexico of being effectively controlled by the cartels, and said it was “unacceptable” for the US to share a border with a nation under such conditions, pointed to regime change in Cuba and said he would reject any calls for a “globalist scheme” to control artificial intelligence. Shortly after his UN address, Trump signed a Greenland deal, which Greenland’s prime minister Jens-Frederick Nielsen said “underlines the importance of the Nato alliance.” In tricky, carefully worded paragraphs, she said the agreement “recognises the US defining historical and ongoing contributions to the security and defence of Greenland,” but it also “respects the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, as well as Greenland’s right to self-determination.” Trump told a CNN reporter at the UN general assembly on Tuesday that he was “surprised” the outlet was covering him, saying it ‘shouldn’t be here’ after he banned the network alongside Politico and MS Now from the White House on Friday. At a joint press conference on Tuesday, vice-president JD Vance and Mehmet Oz , administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced that the federal government was removing 760,000 enrollees from Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces. Continue reading...
The Guardian•Tom Ambrose11h ago
WASHINGTON: America's aging air traffic control system - reliant on outdated telecom systems, decades-old Compaq computers and replacement parts bought on eBay - keeps failing. In the latest example, thousands of flights across the densely populated Northeast were delayed or canceled on Monday due to the dual failures of a circuit at a Philadelphia air traffic facility and the accidental cut of a fiber-optic cable near New Brunswick, New Jersey, by a construction crew. "The architecture of our telecom is still a 40-year-old architecture, which means you could have a switch go down and a line be cut yesterday and the Northeast goes down," U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Tuesday. The disruption underscores how fragile the nation's air traffic control network has become after decades of delayed modernization efforts, underfunding and piecemeal fixes. Despite billions already spent or approved, the Federal Aviation Administration still relies on aging, often incompatible systems that can turn a single equipment failure or severed cable into flight chaos - a risk officials warn will persist without a far larger overhaul. In January 2023, all flights departing the U.S. were grounded for the first time since the September 11, 2001, attacks after a contractor accidentally deleted computer files, affecting a key pilot messaging database. The outage disrupted 11,000 flights before the issue was solved. In September 2025, more than 2,000 flights were delayed and hundreds were canceled at two Dallas-area airports due to a telecom outage after a contractor cut fiber lines, impacting communication systems at the Dallas airports. It disrupted flights for 100,000 American Airlines passengers alone. There have been repeated serious technology issues, which last year convinced Congress to approve $12.5 billion to modernize air traffic control systems. Duffy said on Tuesday he wants another $30 billion to complete upgrades and fix facilities. "These incidents will continue to happen unless we get the resources and actually build the architecture fit for the 21st century," Duffy said. Across the Atlantic, Britain has also suffered major air traffic control outages this month that have led airlines to question the resilience of its systems. Aging technology The FAA has been forced to use 3D printing or to go to eBay for replacement parts for some of its aging systems. In other cases, the FAA can no longer get spare parts. The Government Accountability Office in 2024 said the FAA needed to take "urgent action" to address aging air traffic control systems, noting that one-third are unsustainable. The FAA's more than 300 air traffic facilities cannot talk to one another and operate on individual analog computers. "Every facility is a silo," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters in a recent interview. "We're behind 20 years." He said effectively the FAA's towers are run on individual Compaq computers. The brand, which was acquired by HP, stopped producing computers in 2013. The FAA still has aging telephone systems and three telecom systems that are not interoperable and have a "clunky connection" that often forces delays, Bedford said. At the same time, the US has the world's most complex airspace and faces a shortage of several thousand air traffic controllers. One big step is expected in late 2027 when air traffic control will move from analog to digital communications. The FAA will later shift all of the facilities from running on individual computers to the cloud. The FAA has tried for decades to modernize the system, but those efforts have repeatedly fallen short. In 1982, the FAA first released a comprehensive plan for improving air traffic control services, estimating it would cost about $10 billion by the late 1990s. The Government Accountability Office in 1995 said the cost had ballooned to at least $36 billion on the effort to consolidate facilities and standardize computer hardware and software. Another FAA reform effort dubbed "NextGen" launched in 2004 was pegged at $15 billion, but a report last year said it has faced numerous delays and cost overruns and is less ambitious than what was envisioned more than 20 years ago. "FAA has delivered a delayed, over budget, and less transformational NextGen than originally planned," said the Transportation Department Office of Inspector General. The FAA has also been working for years to end a long-ridiculed, decades-old practice of air traffic controllers using paper flight strips to keep track of aircraft. But adopting the change, which started in 2022, at 49 major airports will take the FAA until at least 2028. The FAA said 18 major airports have already gotten rid of the paper strips.
Trump to ask Xi to free detained US seismologist, his wife tells Reuters
A district judge in Grand Rapids has dismissed a lawsuit brought against several oil supermajors that accused the companies of conspiring to interfere with competition in alternative energy and electric cars. The lawsuit was filed by Michigan Attorney General Dan Nessel, alleging Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute colluded to try to “restrain the emergence of electric vehicles and renewable primary energy technologies in the United States,” as quoted by Reuters. According to Judge Jane Beckering, however,…
South Korea will try to cut its reliance on Middle East crude imports to 50% by 2035, Reuters has reported, citing the country’s industry ministry. The ministry has drafted a 10-year natural resource security plan, which envisages a “fundamental shift” in the way South Korea sources its imports. The plan also calls for a boost in oil reserves by some 20 million barrels by 2030. South Korea imports as much as 70% of its crude oil from Middle Eastern producers, and most of it must pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the ministry…
NEW YORK: Earlier in the month, President Donald Trump warned voters that democratic socialists - extreme, crazed, lunatics, he called them - were threatening to transform America into "a communist country.” This week, a smiling Trump patted on the shoulder one of the nation's best known democratic socialists, shook his hand, and said he was "off to a start” to being a great mayor of the country's largest city. Trump's cozy relationship with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, which began last year, has confounded people across the political spectrum. But with the midterms approaching, Republicans are increasingly frustrated by the unexpected bromance, which threatens the party's message about Democratic radicalism. US President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speak to reporters during a press conference following their meeting at Gracie Mansion in New York City, US, September 21, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. (Reuters) "You’re trying to say, ‘Here’s how extreme they are,' and the president’s saying, ’I love this guy,” said veteran Republican strategist Doug Heye. "It doesn’t help.” It's hard to overstate the extent to which Republicans are focused on the rise of democratic socialism in the midterm season. At a moment when the party is saddled with Trump's weak approval ratings on virtually every major issue - the economy and the war in Iran chief among them - Republicans from Georgia and Texas to New York and Michigan are working to scare voters away from Democratic candidates by warning that the party is controlled by far-left extremists. At Trump's unusual midterm convention in Texas earlier in the month, Mamdani's name was evoked over and over again. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the New York Mayor "Comrade Mamdani.” Rep. Tom Emmer, the No. 3 House Republican, called him "Mamdani the commie.” Trump sent a similar message although he didn't mention Mamdani. "They call themselves Democrat socialists, but actually they’re communists,” he said in his keynote address. "They’re crazy.” In all, the words socialist or socialism were referenced dozens of times during the convention. Trump did not mention those words while standing alongside Mamdani in New York on Monday, however. The president was in town for the United Nations General Assembly and made time to swing by Gracie Mansion. Instead, the president highlighted efforts underway to work together, noting that he's worked with numerous mayors over the years - "some great ones and some not so great ones.” "Hopefully you’re going to be a great one,” Trump said while looking at Mamdani. "I’ll be able to say you’re going to be a great one. And you’re off to a start.” Trump grew up in Queens, which Mamdani represented in the New York Assembly before running for mayor and winning a startling upset. He has since expanded his political power in the city, helping to push three candidates to victory in Democratic congressional primaries earlier this year. It's possible that Trump's tone on Mamdani will shift again. After they had two surprisingly convivial meeting in the Oval Office, Trump started criticizing the mayor again. "Sadly, Mayor Mamdani is DESTROYING New York! It has no chance!,” Trump wrote on social media in April in apparent response to a plan to create a new tax on luxury second homes in the city. "The United States of America should not contribute to its failure. It will only get WORSE. The TAX, TAX, TAX Policies are SO WRONG.” US President Donald Trump, riding in "The Beast”, departs Gracie Mansion after a meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York, US, September, 21, 2026. (Reuters) Republicans in New York were quick to downplay the latest example of Trump's friendliness with Mamdani. David Laska, a spokesperson for the New York Republican Party, said "President Trump is the greatest dealmaker in history, and he has proven repeatedly that he can deal from a position of strength with America’s enemies, be they foreign dictators or the mayor of New York City.” Mamdani faced his own questions about why he was playing nice with a president that he's previously described as a fascist. "The president and I have both been very frank about the many disagreements that we have,” he said Monday. "I will continue to have conversations with the president, and frankly, anyone who can deliver relief to the people of this city."
President Trump has declared his support for a potential ban on diesel fuel exports amid record-breaking prices at the pump. “I've said let's not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel ... I've called for it. I've called for it within my people,” Trump said, as quoted by Reuters, on the sidelines of this week’s UN General Assembly. The comment follows a statement by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the administration was mulling over the effectiveness of such a ban on exports, and whether it would be partial or total.…
A spike in AI agents operating outside human instruction has prompted Washington to propose an emergency hotline with Beijing. Andrew Chang breaks down why the U.S. is opting to keep an open line on AI despite a longstanding rivalry and distrust. Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock and Getty
After the U.S. president revoked White House media access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, other major U.S. networks including Fox News pulled out of the TV pool coverage in solidarity. Andrew Chang breaks down what the coverage boycott could mean for Trump's media reach. (Photo credits: The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock, De Nederlandsche Bank and Getty Images)
India’s imports of Russian crude fell 16.5% in August and are expected to decline again in September, just as a new U.S. sanctions law gives Washington authority to hit major Russian oil buyers with tariffs of up to 100%. Russian shipments to India dropped to about 2.1 million barrels per day in August from July’s record levels, according to trade data cited by Reuters. Preliminary Kpler data puts September imports at 1.9 million bpd. Russia remains India’s largest crude supplier. The August decline predates the new U.S. law,…
Nearly three-quarters of Americans are worried that artificial intelligence companies have not done enough to prevent the technology from causing serious harm, according to a new survey released Tuesday. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 73 percent of respondents did not agree that the technology companies have implemented safeguards to prevent serious harm, sharing in the rising…
The Hill•Finya Swai22 Sept
Saudi Arabia has restarted its East-West oil pipeline, restoring at least some flow through the 4-million-barrel-per-day route that had become the kingdom’s main escape hatch around the Strait of Hormuz. The pipeline is running at a low rate for now, according to Reuters sources, with Aramco working to return flows to roughly 4 million bpd. A full restart could still take weeks. One cargo was scheduled to load at the Red Sea port of Yanbu Tuesday for China. Oil traders didn’t wait for full capacity. Brent saw a temporary dip of more…
LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning R&B singer Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, professionally known as H.E.R., was transported back to the Filipino folktales her mother used to tell her while discussing DreamWorks' upcoming animated film "Forgotten Island," which arrives in theaters on Friday. The Black and Filipino American singer, who voices one of the movie's lead characters, told Reuters that her mother often focused on the fearsome Manananggal, a creature from Filipino folklore known for splitting its body in two. "When I was a kid, that was the one that my mom would always tell," she said. "She'd be like, 'The Manananggal is gonna get you!' We went to the Philippines, and I saw the bats, and she'd be like, 'Look, it's the Manananggal!' The Manananggal is one of many mythological creatures featured in "Forgotten Island," which is co-directed by Januel Mercado and Joel Crawford and the first major Hollywood feature-length animated film inspired by Filipino culture and mythology. The film follows two best friends - Jo, voiced by H.E.R., and Raissa, voiced by Liza Soberano - who become stranded in the mystical world of Nakali, where their only escape could cost them a lifetime of memories. The cast also features Lea Salonga, who voices Manang, the feared Manananggal. For Mercado and Crawford, inspiration came from the Filipina women in their lives. Crawford's wife is Filipina, while Mercado looked to his sister Joann, for whom the character Jo is named, to help shape the project. "Strong women have affected me and made me the person I am," Mercado said. Mercado, H.E.R. and Soberano said the film reflects growing recognition for Filipino stories in Hollywood. In September, Salonga became the first Filipina to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "There has always been Filipinos in Hollywood, kind of paving the way for all of us," Soberano said. "But it's only now that there's really been a spotlight shown on Filipinos and Filipino culture. So, it's really exciting to see other people embracing the culture and also the amazing talent that comes with being Filipino," she added. Daniel Loria, senior vice president of content strategy for the Boxoffice Company, which provides data services for the industry, said it was forecasting around $20 million for the movie's opening weekend.
Toyota Motor estimates that expanding automation across its factories, group companies, and major suppliers could require around 400,000 robots and annual spending of about 1 trillion yen ($6.4 billion) from 2028. The potential investment was discussed with investors earlier in September, according to Reuters. Toyota has not said whether the full investment will proceed or […]
AI News•Muhammad Zulhusni22 Sept
