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FBI Director Kash Patel is engaged to his country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, the pair announced in a post to X on Sunday evening.

Wilkins, 27, posted a black-and-white photo of herself standing with Patel, 46, flashing her hand in front of them to show off her ring with the caption, “Went and got the law involved.” The two have been dating since before Patel took over as head of the FBI in 2025, when she attended his swearing in.

The country singer and political commentator released her debut album in 2023. Wilkins has been affiliated with conservative groups and writes on her website that she “honors country tradition while adding relevance and current commentary.”

Patel, who reposted Wilkin's photo, has faced criticism for traveling on government aircraft on trips that have no known or apparent law enforcement purpose, including using an FBI jet to fly to State College, Pennsylvania, for a pro wrestling event where Wilkins performed the national anthem. Photos posted to social media by Wilkins afterward showed the couple smiling while she held an oversized golden championship belt.

Wilkins also made headlines as a performer at President Donald Trump's Great American State Fair on the National Mall as part of America 250, as other artists pulled out of the event after finding out it was not a non-partisan celebration.

This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/fbi-director-kash-patel-gets-005549284.html

The FBI arrested a suspected Chinese agent at Los Angeles International Airport after she allegedly surveilled the Taiwanese president's U.S.-based son, law enforcement sources told CBS News.

Wanying "Heather" Zhang, an Irvine, California, realtor, was cuffed by federal law enforcement on Sunday before she boarded a flight to Shanghai, China, from LAX, on a charge of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Zhang's husband Edric Ding, a realtor at the same firm, told CBS News when reached by phone Sunday: "I don't know anything yet," and declined to comment further.

It was not immediately clear if Zhang has an attorney.

A criminal complaint, filed in federal court by a member of the FBI's counterintelligence squad in L.A., accused Zhang and an accomplice of traveling to Seattle, Washington, in September 2025 and taking pictures at the suburban home of a top Taiwanese official's family.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the target was Ting-Yu Lai, the son of Taiwanese President Ching-Te Lai.

Ting-Yu, an engineer in his 30s, attended college in America and has a young U.S.-born son with his wife, Hsiao Chen, according to Taiwanese media reports. He now works for the Dutch multinational electronics firm Philips.

"If the PRC [People's Republic of China] wish to obtain leverage over the President of Taiwan during any potential conflict, the location and pictures of the close relatives of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official, including pictures of their homes and cars, could be useful to the PRC," wrote FBI Special Agent Kevin Holt in the Oct. 3, 2026, criminal complaint.

Taiwan has been the focus of high geopolitical tensions for decades. It asserts its independence, while the Chinese government claims it is part of China. The island is in a key position astride major shipping lanes, and is where many of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips are manufactured.

CBS News reached out to the Taiwanese consulate for comment.

The complaint said Zhang, 34, and a man named only as "Individual 1" flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on Sept. 1, 2025, rented a black Nissan Rogue and drove to their target's home.

Images from a neighbor's security camera included in the complaint allegedly show the two "appearing to film" Ting-Yu, his wife and their child as they arrived home that evening.

CBS News matched the images to an address near Seattle owned by Ting-Yu.

Zhang allegedly texted her Chinese government handler: "Saw him. Young male. It's that young one," and "I am videorecording," followed by two license plate numbers, according to the complaint.

The FBI agent wrote that the texts from the Chinese messaging app WeChat were obtained from a search warrant on Zhang's iCloud account.

"Zhang was in contact with at least two people whom she appeared to acknowledge worked for the PRC government," the agent wrote.

The complaint claims  Zhang was introduced in June 2025 to one of the Chinese government officials by a classmate from her alma mater, Beijing's University of International Relations, which Holt said has close ties to the Ministry of State Security.

Holt's affidavit claims  Zhang booked a private room in Changsha, China, during a June 2025 trip, where she allegedly met the government official and received her surveillance mission.

She later texted the official, "I can take care of this thing," according to the complaint.

On Aug. 26, 2025, Zhang wrote: "I will be busy with work in L.A. this week. I will probably go to Seattle next week," and the official replied: "Ok. Thank you for your hard work," the complaint said.

Zhang is a licensed California realtor with JC Pacific Capital Inc. Her Zillow profile says she has 130 sales and listings around Los Angeles and neighboring counties. 

Ting-Yu received his bachelor's in electrical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2012; a master's in Bioengineering Innovation and Design from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the following year; then a PhD from the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, according to a profile from one of his academic publications.

Taiwan TV news station SETN reported that he met his Taiwanese wife while studying for his doctorate. They married in 2018 and had a child in the U.S. in 2020, according to CNA, Taiwan's national news agency.

Chinese government agents have previously been caught spying on and harassing Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists in the U.S.

Federal prosecutors said Shujun Wang, 75, infiltrated and informed on a Chinese pro-democracy group in Queens, New York, for the Chinese Ministry of State Security for 17 years. He was convicted in 2024 of acting as a foreign agent.

Two people were arrested in April 2023 for their involvement in an unofficial Chinese police station in Manhattan set up to monitor Chinese dissidents.

The Justice Department has warned of a plan by the Chinese security services called Operation Fox Hunt aimed at repatriating wanted Chinese nationals around the world, which targets enemies of the regime.

New York-based Quanzhong An, who prosecutors say is a leader of the U.S. wing of Operation Fox Hunt, was sentenced in March 2025 after harassing a Chinese dissident in an attempt to bring them back to China.

In California, former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang was charged with acting as a Chinese agent in May. She admitted to being paid to spread pro-Chinese government propaganda in the U.S., including an essay on her blog denying "forced labor" in China.

This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-agent-arrested-lax-taiwan-president-son/

As Sen. Thom Tillis exits the Senate, he's blasting many of the advisers President Trump has surrounded himself with as "sycophants, and calling on his colleagues to stand up to executive power like the co-equal branch of government they are."

The 66-year-old senior senator from North Carolina unloads on what he calls the "WTF moments" of the second Trump Administration in a new book, "How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents." Having served in the Senate during the Barack Obama, Joe Biden and both Trump presidencies, Tillis said he's increasingly worried about how the nation's system of checks and balances is being tested by the outsized influence of the executive branch.

"We will have a sort of dictator king if we're not careful," he said.

Make the Senate great again?

Every recent White House has been eager to govern by executive order, something that's been especially true during the current Trump administration, Tillis said. Presidents, he said, fail to understand that Congress is a coequal branch that should be treated as a peer, and that Congress needs to act as such.

"I would say the same thing for Democratic-controlled Senate under Biden and Obama," he said. "We always make the mistake when our guy's in office of conveying power to the White House. And I've had a real problem with that because it almost always comes back to bite you."

He writes in his book of the risks of authoritarianism. Tillis said there's been "constant escalation" across four administrations of presidents ignoring Congress. 

"I want checks and balances. I want all three branches to have their individual role and continue to check power as they have for 250 years," he said. "I think because we've been such a successful democracy for so long, it's hard for the American people to understand how quickly we can lose it all."

The Tillis tightrope act

Tillis was first elected to the Senate in the 2014 midterm elections, just before the rise of Mr. Trump and his Make America Great Again populist movement took over the Republican Party. He said he's the same kind of conservative now that he was back then: "pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, limited government, fiscal restraint."

"The only difference between me and a lotta people that call themselves true conservatives is I got a long list of things that were ratified and they don't," he said. 

The senator is now exiting Washington after a series of fights with the White House. The breaking point, he says, came in June 2025, after Tillis announced he would vote against Mr. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, arguing that it would push too many low-income North Carolinians off Medicaid. 

Mr. Trump responded by calling Tillis "a talker and complainer, not a doer," and threatening to back a primary challenger against Tillis. The senator decided he would retire instead of fighting for his seat. 

"I respect the president. I still feel like we have an odd relationship, where I've clearly made him angry," Tillis said recently. That was before details of his profanity-laced private texts with Trump about what prompted his retirement leaked, because Tillis included them as part of his upcoming book.  

Tillis said he is not done fighting, recently calling for Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

It should be noted that Tillis voted to confirm all of Mr. Trump's Cabinet nominees, including Hegseth.  But he now calls  that vote at the start of the second Trump Administration his "biggest regret." 

While Tillis said he is glad "the president went in" to Iran, he thinks "they got so caught up after the immense success of the first strike that Hegseth probably didn't listen to his best military advice and say, 'Now we should probably move to a different posture.'"

It's not the first time Tillis has gone after a member of Trump's cabinet. Last March at a senate hearing, he leveled a blistering critique of Department of Homeland Security Advisor Kristi Noem, calling out, among other things, the way she handled the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.  that went viral, Tillis ripped into Noem. "I was thinking about her calling people that were shot, potentially domestic terrorists," he said. "That's proven not to be true."

Two days later, the president fired her.  

"I think Noem and Hegseth are probably the poster children for men and women who should never have the authority they've been granted," Tillis said. 

It's one example of the tightrope that Tillis has walked in the second Trump administration: saying how much he wants the president to succeed, while heaping blame on his advisers and subordinates. Besides Noem and Hegseth, Tillis s also highly critical of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, for "not looking around corners for" Mr. Trump.

Tillis' balancing act in Washington also extends to the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The senator is still angry about the attack on the Capitol, and threat to the peaceful transfer of power, calling what happened that day "despicable." Still, Tillis elected not to convict Mr. Trump after he left office during his second impeachment trial, criticizing the process as rushed and politicized.

"Cheapening the impeachment process to prevent somebody from running in the future, I just don't buy it," he said.

An "electoral bloodbath" in the midterms

Asked if he fears a Jan. 6-like reaction if Trump-supported candidates lose their elections during the midterms, Tillis was somber. 

"I think there's a risk. I really do," he said, adding, "It would be another unforced error if we do that."  

Tillis predicts Republicans are about to suffer an "electoral bloodbath" in the upcoming midterm elections, with bread-and-butter affordability issues a main concern. Still, he said many of his colleagues are afraid to break with the White House.

In his book, Tillis writes that at least 30 Republican senators have expressed reservations about many of Mr. Trump's actions, but usually are only willing to speak up privately, fearing that if the president decides to target them, their days will be numbered. 

"They don't want to bear the weight of the president. I get that. You're up for reelection? He'll target you in a primary. And so look, you know what all martyrs have in common? They're dead," Tillis said. "There were probably a few instances where if [you] kind of ripped the bandaid off early, then I think we'd have had a lot better midterm environment than we're confronted with now."

Read the full transcript of the segment.

This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senator-thom-tillis-60-minutes/

The State Department is monitoring reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia and is urging Moscow to share accurate information quickly as details remain unconfirmed.

A State Department official told Fox News that the U.S. is aware of reports of a death in Irkutsk Oblast, a region in southeastern Siberia, and is watching the situation closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. The official stressed that many details have not been confirmed and called on Russian authorities to reveal what they know.

Former CIA officer Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital that the U.S. intelligence community is likely to be collecting all-source intelligence on the incident.

Scientists Crack The Code On New Vaccine For Deadly Plague Bacteria

A man has his nose swabbed. The State Department is monitoring reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia.

"I would also expect our embassy in Moscow to be engaging with their diplomatic counterparts at an official level because we might have people in Russia who might be at risk," Hoffman warned.

"Washington will be speaking to all of our allies and partners in the region and sharing what we know."

Read On The Fox News App

Deadly Bacteria That Doomed Napoleon's Army Discovered 213 Years After Russian Retreat

Plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) causes bubonic plague and is carried in the pathogen of rats, and there are still many regions of the world where the disease occurs.

Pneumonic plague can be treated with common antibiotics, especially when treatment begins early, the official said. Appropriate therapy should begin as soon as plague is suspected, and patients can be treated with intravenous or oral antimicrobials depending on the severity of illness and other factors, according to the CDC.

A State Department official says the U.S. is tracking reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia while pressing Moscow for timely, accurate information.

Click Here To Download The Fox News App

Cases of pneumonic plague occur naturally in many parts of the world, according to the State Department official.

The official said the safety and security of U.S. citizens remains the department’s top priority and encouraged Americans traveling overseas to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, to receive updates.

Original article source: US monitoring suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia, State Department official says

This article originally appeared on Fox News at https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-monitoring-suspected-fatal-pneumonic-plague-case-russia-state-department-official-says

The U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday suspended the search for six people in a medical jet that went missing near Nantucket, Massachusetts, a day after debris from the plane was found.

Search and rescue crews operated for approximately 66 hours to locate four Canadians and two Bermudian nationals on the plane that was traveling to Boston from Bermuda early Saturday morning, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Canadian-registered air ambulance jet had four crew members and two passengers aboard. Their next of kin have been notified, the Coast Guard said.

Earlier, the Coast Guard confirmed that a debris field belonging to the missing Gulfstream G-100 was found Saturday night. The search for the missing passengers continued overnight off the coast of Nantucket, according to the Coast Guard's Northeast District, and spanned 4,445 miles before it was suspended.

The Coast Guard outlined the extensive assets involved in the search, including an HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane, an HC-130 Hercules airplane, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat and the FRC William Sparling, a Sentinel-class fast response cutter.

"Suspending a search is not an easy decision," Rear Adm. Matthew Lake, Commander of the Northeast District, said in a statement. "We express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones affected by the tragedy and our gratitude for our partner agencies who helped support search efforts."

The plane took off from Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport at about 11:40 p.m. ET on Friday, according to data from FlightAware. It went missing after about 1 hour and 45 minutes in the air. FlightAware data show it quickly dropped from about 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet before losing contact. It had been set to land at Boston's Logan International Airport at about 1:30 a.m. local time.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed it had lost contact with the plane around 1 a.m. local time Saturday and issued a Search and Rescue Alert Notice for the Gulfstream.

Canada's foreign policy department said it was "deeply concerned by the disappearance" of the plane in a statement Sunday.

"Our thoughts are with everyone on board and their loved ones," the statement said. "We thank the U.S. Coast Guard and all those involved in the search for their tireless efforts."

Officials haven't been able to identify the aircraft components found among the debris, said Kastriot Kastrati, coordinator of the Coast Guard's search and rescue mission, at a briefing Sunday.

"It's very difficult at this point to identify exactly what those components are," he said. "The debris that we have recovered, we've safeguarded and kept for future investigative efforts."

The National Transportation Safety Board told CBS News on Sunday that it is monitoring the situation.

"My thoughts are with everyone on board, as well as their families, loved ones and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time," Steve MacKinnon, Canada's minister of transport, said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on CBS News at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/medical-plane-missing-nantucket-six-on-board/

More than 35 million people are under heat alerts on Sunday afternoon as a dangerous multi-day October heat wave continues across nearly all of California.

Temperatures are expected to soar up to 20 degrees above normal for this time of year, into the 90s and 100s, from Northern California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, to the Mexico border.

Anadolu via Getty Images - PHOTO: People flock to Baker Beach near the Golden Gate Bridge as a heat advisory is issued in San Francisco, California, October 3, 2026.

In some areas of California, especially urban areas, warm nights will provide little to no relief.

Los Angeles and San Diego remain under an extreme heat warning, with heat advisories posted on Sunday for San Francisco and Sacramento.

ABC News - PHOTO: The high-temperature forecast for California, October 4, 2026.

Temperatures Sunday afternoon once again soared into the 90s across much of California, with some areas surpassing 100 degrees.

High temperatures on Sunday afternoon will be near 104 in downtown Los Angeles, 103 in Bakersfield, and will climb well into the 90s in San Diego and Sacramento.

ABC News - PHOTO: Afternoon temperatures, October 4, 2026, are expected to top 100 degrees in multiple Southern California cities.

The extreme heat warnings in Southern California will remain in effect until 8 p.m. local time on Thursday.

ABC News - PHOTO: A dangerous heat wave in Southern California is expected to extend into the work week.

The heat will expand over much of the West over the next 24 hours, with temperatures running well above average for early October across a large part of the region.

Highs on Monday will reach the upper 80s as far north as southern Idaho and Montana, challenging daily record highs in Boise and Billings.

ABC News - PHOTO: Tracking the California heat wave through Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

It will also be heating up in Denver on Monday, with afternoon temperatures in the upper 80s, potentially challenging a daily record high as well.

On Saturday, at least eight Southern California cities broke daily high-temperature marks, including Anaheim and San Diego, which both reached 105 degrees, and Santa Ana, which hit 107 degrees.

Southern California under extreme heat warning, increased fire risk

Meanwhile, Vista, Calif., north of San Diego, reached a high temperature of 108, breaking a daily temperature record and tying an all-time record high set on June 30, 1985.

Rounds of heavy rain across parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast

Flood watches remain in effect from southeastern Louisiana to southern Georgia, including New Orleans; Mobile, Alabama; Tallahassee, Florida; and Brunswick, Georgia.

ABC News - PHOTO: Flash-flood risk through Monday, October 5, 2026, in the Southeast from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida.

There is a level 2 of 4 risk on Sunday afternoon for excessive rainfall and flash flooding from southeastern Louisiana to the Florida panhandle and up into South Carolina.

ABC News - PHOTO: Tracking rainfall in the Southeast from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida, through Monday morning.

Torrential rain could also trigger potentially significant flash flooding across portions of South Texas on Sunday afternoon and into the evening.

The biggest rainfall totals will occur along portions of the northern Gulf Coast, the Florida Panhandle, and from Mobile, Ala., and Biloxi, Miss., to Pensacola and Panama City, Fla., and Brownsville, Texas. In these areas, 2 to 6 inches of rain is forecast, with localized totals of 8-10 inches possible.

This article originally appeared on ABC News at https://abcnews.com/US/37-million-people-alert-dangerous-temperatures-october-heat/story?id=136984812

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has brought home its bombers stationed at a U.S.-run military air base in England used to strike Iran following an investigation into a planned terror attack at the RAF Fairford base.

The bombers were redeployed to their home bases in the United States, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.

Aviation watchers such as the Military Air Tracking Alliance have observed dozens of B-52 and B-1 bombers operating out of RAF Fairford since the opening days of the Iran war. Observers noticed a host of B-1 bombers fly out of the base on Sunday.

The move comes as President Donald Trump weighs options for his war on Iran — including new strikes — despite his initial promises to Americans that the campaign would last a matter of weeks.

“We have decisions that I’ll make about Iran. Iran’s been decimated. So the only question is — it’ll either be the easy way, or the hard way,” Trump told reporters on Saturday as he left the White House for a rally in Ohio.

A dual British-Iranian national was arrested in central London last week on suspicion of plotting a terror attack, following a security incident at RAF Fairford in late September. In total, six people have been taken into custody and then released on bail during the investigation.

British authorities have linked the incident to Tehran. Iran has denied involvement, but it has previously said it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

U.K. officials say proxies linked to Iran have been behind a string of arson and other attacks in Britain and other countries, many of them targeting the Jewish community and intended to sow fear. They have previously warned that Tehran could expand its targets in the U.K. if conflicts in the Middle East continue.

RAF Fairford, located 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London, has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East.

The U.S. military still maintains a sizable presence in the Middle East. On Thursday, a U.S. official said the recently deployed USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, as well as the USS Malkin Island amphibious readiness group — a group of ships that together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines — are heading for the region. The official said the move could result in three carriers in the region as early as the end of October.

___

AP writer Melissa Goldin contributed from New York.

This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/us-air-force-removes-bombers-205946225.html

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said there remains a fundamental difference in worldview between his company and rival Anthropic on artificial intelligence regulation, arguing in an exclusive interview with Decoded by POLITICO that the technology’s benefits justify accepting some risks — and that AI should remain broadly accessible to the public.

“I think there's a lot of daylight,” Altman told Decoded co-author and POLITICO senior tech reporter Brendan Bordelon. Asked specifically where he diverges from Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei, Altman said, “we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”

Anthropic has long been viewed as the strongest proponent of AI regulations within the industry, a stance that until recently was at odds with the lighter-touch approach favored by OpenAI. But the policy differences between the two leading AI firms have narrowed in recent months, with OpenAI backing tougher rules as it grapples with high-profile hacking incidents and rogue behavior by its models.

Altman agreed with Amodei’s call last month to slow the development of the most advanced AI models. His company has followed Anthropic in endorsing new state laws that impose stricter safety requirements than what the maker of ChatGPT had previously supported — a subtle shift from its prior state strategy. And OpenAI lobbyists recently endorsed a bipartisan House proposal that would require top AI companies to embed outside safety evaluators.

Despite the convergence, Altman tried to distinguish his firm’s regulatory stance from Anthropic’s, referencing a criticism about regulatory capture that tech advisers close to President Donald Trump have applied to Anthropic.

“I disagree, but I understand the perspective of people who are like, ‘This technology is going to get so powerful, and it’s so dangerous, that a single lab in San Francisco should have it and make sure nothing bad happens, and kind of figure out how to dole out the benefits,’” said Altman. He called it “a completely unacceptable trade-off” that runs counter to the “lighter-touch regulatory stance” backed by OpenAI.

“I wouldn't take a trade of saying, ‘We'll make sure there's no major hacks, there's no misuse of this technology, there's zero scams, there's zero all the other bad things that will happen,’” said Altman. “Because I think people will do tremendously — orders of magnitude more — good stuff than bad stuff.”

The OpenAI CEO later added that he does not accept “the really catastrophic risks,” including the potential for “a serious loss of control to AI.”

Asked to respond, an Anthropic spokesperson said that its “regulatory proposals apply only to frontier models.” The company also referred to an August social media exchange that Amodei had with an investment manager, addressing criticisms around regulatory capture and impacts on smaller companies.

“Anthropic has always made its policy proposals very carefully,” Amodei said at the time. “We try very hard to make proposals that disadvantage (slow down) frontier AI companies while *advantaging* smaller competitors.”

The Altman interview, appearing in Monday’s debut edition of Decoded and its accompanying daily podcast, also delved into Trump’s new AI accord with top tech firms and his attempted “superintelligence” rebrand; the rash of autonomous hacking incidents carried out by OpenAI models and whether the company should face legal liability; Altman’s thoughts on the AI industry money swamping U.S. politics; the influence of so-called effective altruists inside OpenAI; and his views on key political power players including French President Emmanuel Macron and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Decoded by POLITICO — produced by Brendan, Christine Mui, Calder McHugh and Sam Sutton — draws on the reporting of some 50 POLITICO journalists around the world to cover not just where tech is going, but the personalities, policy fights and political battles taking it there. Subscribe to the newsletter and to the podcast.

This article originally appeared on Politico at https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/04/sam-altman-decoded-interview-ai-01106217

A 12-year-old girl was killed in Baltimore over the weekend during an apparent disagreement over a parking space, police in the US city said.

The girl was caught in the crossfire of bullets between two men who police said were allegedly fighting over a parking space in a park where children were playing American football.

In addition to the young girl, a woman was also found with gunshot wounds when police arrived on the scene. Two men also visited area hospitals for injuries believed to be related to the shooting, police said.

Police are now searching for at least two suspects, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a news conference. No arrests have been made.

"What we know is there was some type of argument between two cowards," Worley said. "They both opened fire on each other. In the crossfire, a 12-year-old little girl, who was probably down there watching football, was shot and killed."

Worley said the girl, who police have not named, was not a target of the shooting.

The girl was pronounced dead in hospital. The other three individuals who were injured have non-life-threatening injuries, Worley said.

The incident happened after 18:00 EDT (23:00 BST) on Saturday.

Authorities are still investigating the shooting and have asked any witnesses to bring information to police.

It remains unclear how many shots were fired, Worley said.

"Two grown men got into an argument, and now a 12-year-old is gone," Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said at the news conference.

"We never should have to say something like that. What happened out here today is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life."

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This article originally appeared on BBC at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwr5y48p89vvo?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D

Kevin Hassett (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett insisted to CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that he doesn't believe in recent polls that show the public's negative feelings about the economy.

"Ahead of an election cycle, the fact that there's, you know, possibly partisan pollsters telling us that the people are really, really depressed, it's a classic Democrat move, and I just don't buy it," Hassett said.

"Because if it were true, if the polls were any value for thinking about what's going on with consumers, then we should look at the consumption data and say, Jeez, yeah, that's right. People aren't spending. But, in fact, the retailers are doing well."

Hassett added that he's often put in a double bind by the type of questions asked by opponents of the Trump administration.

"If I say, 'Oh, people are wrong, the economy's great,' then it looks like I'm insensitive. And if I then go into why the economy is great, then it looks like I'm insensitive," he said. "And so let's just unpack it and start with, well, people are saying that the economy's not great.

"It's true that the polls, which have gotten the president's success wrong every time, have been saying that people are looking a little bit depressed about the economy. But if you look at their actions, the actions speak way louder than words."

Hassett explained that "what we know from the economic literature is that, if people are worried about whether they're going to lose their job, if they're worried about whether they're going to get a pay cut, then they start reducing their consumption and increasing their savings. It's called the buffer-stock theory of savings.

"And so what we see right now is that people are really, really optimistic about the future, about their future incomes, because they're spending really, really at record levels. They're defaulting at their credit card debt at really, really low levels.

Hassett emphasized that "the consumer information data came out [this past week] that showed that consumption was up year over year at the highest rate in years. We have got GDP now for the third quarter running 4 to 5%."

He insisted that people are saying, they are confident with their jobs, and that they remained confident GDP growth was coming.

Hassett added, "And the polls are different from that. And so then the question is, Are the people wrong or the pollsters wrong? And I would say the pollsters are wrong."

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.This article originally appeared on Newsmax at https://www.newsmax.com/politics/kevin-hassett-polls-economy/2026/10/04/id/1271661

Even with bond yields hovering at more than 20-year highs, the stock market has barely flinched.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose Friday to sit less than 1% from its record high while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was near an all-time high as a weak jobs report lowered expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike this year.

Up until now, elevated oil prices, AI-related risks, and deteriorating market breadth have suggested a pullback may be just around the corner.

"The market has had every reason to sell off, and it hasn't sold off yet, and to me it feels like it's running out of time," Sean McLaughlin, chief options strategist at All Star Charts, told Yahoo Finance. "The path of least resistance appears to be higher."

Seasonality also leans bullish as October, while traditionally volatile, has posted a 63% win rate over the past 20 years.

And looking at the four-year presidential cycle, the S&P 500 has posted an average return of 18.3% over the next seven months during the past 50 years, McLaughlin noted.

"We've got earnings season coming up, and if we get any glimmer of good news, I think the market is going to be caught offside, and we could have a really significant rally over the next three to six months," McLaughlin said.

That doesn't mean the market's resilience hasn't been a head-scratcher, particularly as the 10-year Treasury yield has climbed to its highest level since 2002.

Wall Street anticipates yields on the 10-year can climb higher before they begin to weigh on valuations.

"Historical data show that valuations start compressing after 5.5%, and everyone from investors to corporations to consumers would have to redo the math on their investments," Fundstrat economic strategist Hardika Singh wrote in a note last week.

UBS strategists last week noted that yields become more concerning for stocks when economic growth begins to falter. That's not the case with a booming AI build-out in the US.

"We forecast S&P 500 earnings growth of 25% this year and 14% in 2027, which should help equities absorb moderately higher interest rates," Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, chief investment officer Americas and global head of equities at UBS, wrote.

To spread risk, Hoffmann-Burchardi recommends buying stocks across global markets such as the US, Europe, and Asia.

At the same time, she suggests targeting major growth trends such as AI, power and resources, and healthcare (XLL).

The stock market is still near record highs despite surging bond yields. REUTERS/Jordan Tovin/File PhotoReuters / REUTERS

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance.

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This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance at https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/the-market-has-had-every-reason-to-sell-off--and-it-hasnt-184848621.html

Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to a mass shooting from early Sunday morning, leading to two deaths and dozens injured.

Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls told WALB and WMAZ that two people were dead, a 20-year-old man and a 23-year-old man in Vienna, two hours south of Atlanta.

Channel 2 Action News has a reporting team in Vienna to bring you the latest information, LIVE on Channel 2 Action News at 6.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that they were assisting with response to the incident on Pine Street, working with the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Walls said the scene was “horrific.”

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Sheriff Craig Peavy told WALB and WMAZ that the Vienna shooting happened during a homecoming celebration from Saturday night and into early Sunday.

Peavy told WMAZ the celebration had about 1,000 people attending and during the festivities, shots were fired at about 50 people.

Police there told WALB that the number of injured was high but could not provide a specific count, at the time.

The sheriff told WMAZ that as many as 25 people were taken to the hospital for treatment of their injuries.

On Sunday morning, the GBI said 35 people were injured.

It is still unclear if any suspects are being sought or in custody, nor is a possible motive for the shooting known.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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This article originally appeared on WSB Cox at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/2-dead-multiple-injured-south-143631377.html

The woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Cornell University fraternity members has received threats pressuring her to drop her lawsuit, her attorney said Sunday.

Thomas Giuffra told CNN’s “State of the Union” that people attempting to unmask his client’s identity had also targeted at least three women mistakenly identified as her. The former Cornell student is identified as Jane Doe in court documents.

“She’s received multiple threats, and women who aren’t even Jane Doe receive threats,” Giuffra said. He added that he had received a threat Sunday morning.

Giuffra did not identify those responsible or say whether the threats had been reported to law enforcement. He did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for more information about the threats.

Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month against Cornell and seven Chi Phi fraternity members, alleging she was sexually assaulted over the course of hours on Oct. 19-20, 2024, while she was under the influence of ketamine, alcohol and marijuana.

The allegations have sparked renewed scrutiny of the university’s and local authorities’ handling of the allegations. Gov. Kathy Hochul last week appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor to consider whether criminal charges are appropriate.

NBC News reported Friday that Cornell police interviewed witnesses and received anonymous tips during their investigation in 2024, but Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten did not review that additional information before deciding not to pursue charges at the time. He has defended his decision, saying that Jane Doe’s initial six-page statement to police did not allege criminality.

Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff said Saturday that the university must do better and that its board of trustees would announce an independent review of its handling of the case next week.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

This article originally appeared on NBC News at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cornell-jane-doe-receive-threats-rcna601417

A Russian drone struck a major bridge in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Sunday as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in the city to the sound of air raid sirens, explosions and air defense systems being activated.

Merz is in Kyiv to display support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Russia’s escalation of strikes on the city.

“Ukraine needs all our support in the coming weeks,” Merz said.

Highlighting attacks on Ukraine’s towns, residential buildings and energy, he said: “If Russia is not stopped, sooner or later its war machine will turn ⁠against us.”

Video footage from Sunday morning’s strike showed the moment the city’s Northern Bridge was attacked, sparking a huge plume of fire and black smoke while cars were still traveling across. Two people were injured, the city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko said.

It is the second time the Northern Bridge has been hit in as many days. On Thursday and Friday, Kyiv’s Southern Bridge, which serves ground transportation and the city’s subway system, was hit five times in less than 24 hours.

Ukrainian officials have said that Russian strikes on the capital’s infrastructure are attempting to cut the capital into two, as Kyiv is split along the Dnipro River, with businesses offices and government institutions on the right back, and the left bank mostly residential.

Kyiv plans to start building several alternative crossings over the Dnipro in case the attacks on the bridges continue, the minister of infrastructure said Sunday.

Russia’s defense ministry said it struck the Northern Bridge on Sunday, saying that it was targeting a route used for transporting troops and military equipment. It added that two cargo vessels carrying military equipment to the port of Odesa were struck. On Saturday the Russian Ministry of Defense said that it also targeted a logistics center in the Kyiv region.

‘Decisive weeks ahead’

Merz visited Kyiv alongside his Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Katarina Reiche, despite warnings from Russia on Saturday that foreign visitors and dignitaries to the Ukrainian capital are not safe amid an onslaught of Russian attacks.

Zelensky and Merz are tying up a significant defense and industrial partnership, which will see the two countries finalize a deal for the production of drones and missiles.

Berlin is also expected to release €1 billion ($1.13 billion) in military aid and €350 million ($390 million) for repairs to Ukraine’s damaged energy infrastructure, German government officials said.

Zelensky has warned that Ukraine’s defensive need is expanding amid Russia’s accelerated air campaign, which has seen Moscow fire high-speed, jet-powered Shahed-type drones that can bypass some of Ukraine’s air defense systems and exploit its lack of interceptors.

Earlier on Sunday, Merz said that Ukraine “is facing decisive weeks ahead.” Writing on X, he said: “I have traveled to Kyiv today with the message: You can rely on us.”

Meanwhile, there appears to be no immediate respite for Kyiv’s three million residents, with Moscow on Sunday saying that it will only intensify its strikes targeting the capital and other cities.

“Strikes by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation against military and military-industrial facilities, as well as associated infrastructure in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine, will be intensified,” the ministry said.

Russia’s renewed threat follows an interview Zelensky gave to Reuters news on Saturday, where he outlined that he plans to double down on attacks on oil refineries.

“We have to respond in any way (we can). With their attacks on our energy, we have to respond on their energy. First of all, oil refiners, etc. – what gives money to them for this war,” Zelensky said.

His comments come despite the urging of US President Donald Trump, who recently asked Ukraine to stay away from attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, claiming it was sending global oil prices surging.

CNN’s Kara Fox and Farida Elsebai contributed reporting.

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This article originally appeared on CNN at https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/04/europe/russian-drone-kyiv-merz-ukraine

Two of the seven men accused of sexually assaulting a Cornell University student at a fraternity house in 2024 were expelled, while others were ordered to take sexual harassment training and write "reflection papers," according to university disciplinary records obtained by the New York Times.

The records offer the most detailed look yet at how Cornell handled the case, which has drawn national outrage and is now under criminal investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

On Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that a woman who alleges she was drugged and raped by multiple members of a Cornell University fraternity in 2024 was "failed" by those obligated to protect her.

Hochul's comments came a day after announcing she had lost faith in the district attorney overseeing the Cornell University rape case and signed an executive order appointing James as a special prosecutor to lead the investigation.

"In what world would the police learn from a victim that she'd been literally gang raped while intoxicated by five men in a fraternity house and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney?" Hochul said at a press conference with James in New York. "In what world does the district attorney not even interview her or anyone else involved or even request the full transcript?

"At every turn, she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her," Hochul said.

James said that the case is "now an active criminal investigation."

"We will review the facts, gather evidence, interview witnesses and, if warranted, pursue prosecutions," James said, adding: "I know that you want answers. I do too."

The local district attorney and Cornell both said they support James taking over the case.

Read more from Yahoo: A timeline of the Cornell rape case, from the alleged 2024 incident to the appointment of a special prosecutor to oversee the criminal investigation

New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference with New York Attorney General Letitia James in New York on Friday.AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has come under intense scrutiny in recent days over his decision not to prosecute anyone when the initial allegations were made in 2024.

In a civil lawsuit filed last month against the school and seven current and former fraternity members, a former student identified as "Jane Doe" alleged that she was the victim of a "gang rape" at the Chi Phi fraternity on Cornell's Ithaca, N.Y., campus on Oct. 19, 2024. She said she was already intoxicated when she arrived and was given ketamine before and during the alleged assault. She reported the incident to campus police three weeks later.

Van Houten said last week that Jane Doe's sworn statement to police didn't include allegations that she was "drugged against her will or gang raped."

"On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual," Van Houten said. "My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later."

On Tuesday, CBS New York published excerpts from Jane Doe's Nov. 14, 2024, interview with Cornell police, in which she asserted, "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped." 

"Shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell police sent to prosecutors," Hochul said Friday.

Van Houten said he was not provided with a transcript of her interview before his office decided not to pursue charges.

"I'm going to follow up on this because this is news to me," Van Houten told CBS. "If she had said those words, we certainly would want to have explored that more. Like I said, that wasn't provided to me."

Records obtained by the New York Times show the district attorney's office declined to look at additional evidence gathered by Cornell police beyond Jane Doe's six-page statement. A Cornell police investigator wrote in a note that prosecutors had already decided, based on that statement, that "criminal charges would not be pursued in this case."

Van Houten told the Times in an email that the other records were "not pertinent to our analysis because we had Jane Doe's comprehensive account of the events."

Cornell initially said its police "shared all investigatory information" with the district attorney's office. The university later revised its statement to say police shared "the victim's sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot," CNN reported.

Cornell University Police vehicles are seen on campus on Sept. 29.Reuters / REUTERS

According to ABC News, Jane Doe told the school's investigators that she "felt like bait" on the night of the alleged assault. 

"I felt like lions around me," she said during a 2025 hearing. "It just was a totally debilitating place to be in."

The comments were included in a 99-page report prepared by the university as part of its Title IX investigation, per ABC.

The report also included comments from a fraternity member who Cornell's investigation concluded did not engage in the assault but was found responsible for "attempted sexual exploitation." 

"I was sorry that maybe if it wasn't consensual and she was victimized, I was sorry for not stopping it," the fraternity member said, according to ABC.

That student, who was allowed to stay at Cornell, has asked a New York court to throw out the disciplinary finding against him, the Associated Press reported. His punishment included a no-contact order, a class on sexual harassment and bystander intervention, and a reflection paper.

Two of the men have released statements through their lawyers denying they participated in a sexual assault, according to the Associated Press.

Cornell University issued a statement pushing back against claims that the school did not thoroughly punish those involved in the alleged assault.

"Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false," the university said. "A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault."

Hochul announced on Wednesday that Cornell had agreed to initiate an independent review of its initial response to the allegations.

The governor also said she would work to close a loophole in New York law, which states that someone who was voluntarily intoxicated cannot claim they were mentally incapacitated during an assault, unless they can show they were "physically helpless" and unable to communicate consent.

"If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol," Hochul said. "Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape. Period."

What does the lawsuit allege?The Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., is seen on Sept. 28.AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth

On Sept. 14, Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against Cornell University and seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, alleging that she was the victim of a "gang rape" at the fraternity house when she was incapable of consent — and that the school failed to protect her from "sexual predators" on its campus.

The defendants named in the lawsuit include Cornell, the seven fraternity members, the Chi Phi fraternity, the woman's own sorority, Delta Delta Delta, and an off-campus bar that allegedly served her alcohol.

She is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages resulting from "sustained psychological injuries, severe emotional distress, along with pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life."

According to her lawsuit, Jane Doe was a 20-year-old student at the school in October 2024 when she went to visit a friend at the fraternity house on Cornell's Ithaca, N.Y., campus while intoxicated. Shortly after arriving, Jane Doe alleged that she was pressured by two fraternity brothers into snorting what they said was ketamine before sexually assaulting her. One of the men then allegedly sent a message to the fraternity's Snapchat group suggesting that she was available for sex. A screengrab of part of the chat was included in the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, multiple other members of the fraternity showed up, and she was raped for hours.

"The Snapchat was disgusting and vulgar and immoral," Van Houten told ABC News. "But the question that we analyzed was, did Jane Doe consent to what happened? And the law in New York state is clear: That if you are voluntarily intoxicated, or under the influence of drugs such that your judgment is impaired, that does not legally under the penal law constitute your inability to consent."

During the alleged assault, the fraternity members "began pouring lines of Ketamine all over her body and snorting them," according to the complaint.

"At around 5:45 AM, this assault concluded and Plaintiff lost consciousness," the lawsuit stated.

About three weeks later, on Nov. 8, 2024, Jane Doe reported the incident to the university's police department.

According to ABC News, Jane Doe told police in a sworn statement on Nov. 15, 2024, that the incident "felt like coercion," and that at one point she said "no to the foursome" one of the fraternity brothers had proposed. She also stated: "I felt like I was unable to make any decision because of how intoxicated I was."

According to the New York Times, she told Cornell's Title IX investigators that she did not consider herself a victim until she saw the incident being discussed in an online forum.

"Are Chi Phi brothers Crips or Bloods because I hear they have been doing hell Gang Banging?" one user wrote.

"They do drugs and gang r*ped a sophomore," wrote another.

"That's the first time I had ever heard the narrative change that I wasn't a whore and that I was assaulted," Jane Doe told investigators, per the Times.

What was Cornell's response?A student walks past a Cornell University sign in Ithaca, N.Y., on Sept. 28.AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth

Cornell's months-long Title IX investigation included at least 12 hearings, according to the lawsuit, which said that the accused fraternity members were "afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell."

The panel's sanctions varied widely, according to the records obtained by the Times:

• Two men were expelled. The panel found one responsible for sexual assault, concluding he had manipulated and endangered Jane Doe. The other had been accused of assault and of sending the Snapchat message that drew other fraternity members to the room.

• Two were suspended, one for two years and one for three semesters, followed by probation. Both were barred from contacting Jane Doe and ordered to complete sexual harassment training and write reflection papers.

• One, who had already graduated, was barred from campus for three years. Jane Doe had accused him of forcibly kissing her.

• Two received lighter sanctions: no-contact orders, training on sexual harassment, social media use and bystander intervention, and reflection papers.

Cornell has denied that essays were the only punishment for any of the men. All seven deny wrongdoing, and none has been criminally charged. Jane Doe dropped out of school.

In a video message Saturday, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff said the university's board would name an outside law firm this week to review how the school handled the case. He also promised "a serious look" at fraternities and sororities, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.

On Sept. 21, Cornell issued a statement saying that it had concluded its Title IX investigation but would not disclose individual sanctions, citing federal privacy laws.

"The Cornell Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards investigated and adjudicated the allegations consistent with university policies. The Xi chapter of Chi Phi fraternity remains barred from our campus," the statement said: "Federal privacy law prohibits Cornell from disclosing specific information regarding individual students and we therefore are unable to make a public statement on any other disciplinary response. Violations of university policies could lead to sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion. We will respond in detail through the legal process."

The university also pointed out that it launched a task force on campus sexual assault in the wake of the incident and issued a report in March with recommendations for "an environment that fosters sexual health and safety."

"Several of the recommendations have already been implemented, while others are in development with oversight by a university implementation committee," Cornell said.

According to USA Today, more than 1,200 incidents of sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking were reported to Cornell University's Title IX from 2018 through 2024. Of those, 14 cases resulted in suspensions, while seven ended in expulsion or dismissal, per the paper.

"Cornell takes each report seriously and, to the greatest extent possible, honors a complainant's decision not to pursue resolution," Rebecca Valli, a Cornell spokesperson, said in a statement to USA Today. "The university provides support and resources regardless of whether the respondent is subject to our conduct processes, and regardless of whether a complainant consents to an investigation."

Reactions to the allegationsFlorence Pugh attends an event for Netflix's "East of Eden" in New York City on Sept. 27.Jason Mendez via Getty Images

The harrowing allegations revealed in Jane Doe's lawsuit prompted reactions from several celebrities, including Florence Pugh, who posted a lengthy response on Instagram calling for men to speak out against sexual violence.

"This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us," Pugh wrote. "You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it's 'not all men' when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?"

In an expletive-laden Instagram post, actor Josh Gad tore into Cornell, seizing on allegations in the civil lawsuit that the fraternity members were required to write essays as part of the adjudication process.

"When we start setting a precedent that our girls and women can be brutally raped, and the resulting disciplinary action is to hand out (checks notes) ESSAYS (like it's Bart Simpson being a lil' rascal), about why it was wrong to brutally violate an innocent girl, we have lost our f***ing minds," Gad wrote.

Toby Morton, a former South Park writer, launched a website, TheCornell7.org, dedicated to holding the school and the accused fraternity members accountable.

"Accountability is coming," Morton wrote on Instagram.

Mariska Hargitay posted a joint statement on Instagram with the Joyful Heart Foundation, which supports survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, with a quote from a scathing editorial by the Cornell Daily Sun.

View this post on Instagram

"Arrest them," Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams wrote in an Instagram story while sharing a photo of the seven accused men, according to Variety.

"F*** them and f*** Cornell, too!" he added.

At a town hall in Ithaca, N.Y., last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said that "the culture of rape, sexual assault and pedophilia is protected in elite institutions across the United States, including Cornell."

Ocasio-Cortez recalled her own experience as a freshman at Boston University.

"Within maybe 10 seconds of me walking into a party — at a gym, at a school facility — someone had touched me inappropriately," Ocasio-Cortez said.

"Jane Doe, that survivor, lost her education because you can't stay in school when something like that happens to you," Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd. "She had to lose her education, and those men were protected by an institution and granted an Ivy League degree as a reward. Never again."

The congresswoman said she had a message to Jane Doe and other survivors of sexual assault.

"I want you to know that you are not defined by the things that have happened to you," Ocasio-Cortez said. "You are bigger than that. You are stronger than them. And they will never define you for your entire life. And that you can achieve anything that you want to achieve, from one survivor to another."

This article originally appeared on Yahoo News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/cornell-rape-case-how-the-university-reportedly-punished-each-of-the-7-men-accused-from-expulsion-to-reflection-papers-183826467.html

The ongoing global energy crunch doesn't just cause pain at the gas pump: As winter approaches, millions of Americans are facing dramatic spikes in their home heating costs.  

The price of heating oil, which some 4.8 million households, mostly in the Northeast and Alaska, use to heat their homes, is approaching all-time highs as two wars strain global supply. 

Heating oil costs are expected to jump 50% this winter, according to one estimate from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, adding nearly $900 to the average home's heating bill. The jump is catching consumers by surprise at a time of year when many households fill their tanks for winter, and it's stoking concern that the high prices will force low-income families to make tough choices between warming their homes and paying for necessities. 

Read more: What an extended war with Iran could mean for gas prices

"There's a lot of sticker shock," said Chris Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, a trade group for local fuel providers and other energy companies in the state. 

Heating oil is nearly identical to diesel, and diesel prices have continued to rise while crude oil prices have plateaued as higher seasonal demand collides with ongoing supply shocks. The Iran War has disrupted exporters' ability to reliably pass through the Strait of Hormuz, while escalating Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries have limited another key source of supply. 

Read more: How to protect your money as Mideast turmoil fuels market volatility

Record-high prices

In recent weeks, diesel prices have topped $6.50 a gallon, breaking an all-time record. And across the Northeastern states, heating oil prices have either recently broken or are just short of the highest levels on record. 

"Diesel and heating oil are basically directly tied now," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. "Diesel setting all-time records is certainly very worrisome for home heating oil expenses this winter." 

Heating oil costs are expected to jump 50% this winter, according to one estimate from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A gallon of heating oil now averages around $5.96 in Maine, where more than half the state relies on oil, the highest share anywhere in the country. Prices are $5.87 in Vermont and $5.91 in Connecticut, meaning 100 gallons, a common minimum order threshold, comes out to nearly $600. 

During the winter months, a typical home relying on heating oil alone can run through 100 gallons in a few weeks. 

Homeowners have been making tough choices: Fill up now, or hold off in hopes that prices fall in the months ahead? Look into alternative heating sources that might be pricey up front but deliver savings in the long-term? Lower the thermostat and shiver to stretch a tank's worth of oil longer? 

'Do I order? Do I hold off?'

In Connecticut, Herb said suppliers were seeing more business than is typical for September, perhaps a sign that households who had been waiting in vain for prices to go down after February's Iran war shock didn't want to risk another price jump later in the season. 

KC, who lives near Augusta, Maine, and asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, recently made a similar calculation. She was just quoted $5.99 per gallon for her 100-gallon order and could end up paying even more if prices are higher when her delivery arrives. In a typical year, she pays closer to $3 a gallon. 

"I was shocked, honestly, to find out that oil was this much," the 51-year-old said. She knew prices had been rising, but didn't realize the extent of the jump until a month ago, when a colleague at her healthcare job mentioned paying around $5 a gallon. 

"That's when I started thinking, 'Do I order? Do I hold off?'" she said. "I really didn't think it would get this bad." 

Meanwhile, she's taking several other steps to reduce her heating costs. She'll set her thermostat to 50 — the lowest she thinks she can go without risking a pipe freeze — and rely primarily on her two pellet stoves for heat. She's also looking into sealing her windows with plastic insulation and adding fans to help heat circulate more evenly throughout her home. 

Weatherization measures and system tune-ups can shave up to 10% off a typical bill, Herb said. 

"Ten percent at these levels is meaningful, meaningful money back in your pocket," he said. 

Options also exist for those who need help with rising energy bills. The federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program provides grants to qualifying households, and many states also have similar programs for low- and moderate-income families. 

But with costs so high this year, politicians, industry watchers, and worried neighbors alike have all expressed concerns about how lower-income households and elderly people who rely on fixed incomes will manage, and if the existing programs are enough. 

A bipartisan group of senators is pressuring the Trump administration to release this year's assistance funds early, and several bills aimed at expanding the program have been introduced.  

Meanwhile, Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have requested that President Trump tap the federal government's 1 million-barrel emergency supply of heating oil "to protect Mainers from the very high prices that are imposing a difficult financial burden."

Claire Boston is a Senior Reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance.

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This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance at https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/article/a-lot-of-sticker-shock-home-heating-costs-soar-for-millions-amid-oil-crisis-160853971.html

Christa Pike remains unconscious and critically ill four days after surviving Tennessee's attempt to execute her, and doctors don't yet know whether she will recover, her lawyer said Sunday.

"We don't know the prognosis and may not know for several days," attorney Stephen Ferrell told CNN's "State of the Union." Ferrell said he has not been allowed to see her and doesn't know of her speaking or regaining consciousness.

"I think at the very least the governor should commute Ms. Pike's death sentence to a life sentence," he said. "We don't know what her physical state will be, but it is clear that she has endured a torturous attempt at executing her."

On Saturday, Gov. Bill Lee announced that Tennessee's top prison official is stepping down.

In a statement, Correction Commissioner Frank Strada said resigning was "in the best interest of Tennesseans" while an independent review examines what happened Wednesday, when Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital.

Strada said he still believes the state "carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol."

Strada will leave at the end of October, and an interim commissioner will be named later, Lee said.

Pike's lawyers said the resignation "is justified, but it does nothing to help Christa now." "What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person," they said in a statement, according to ABC News.

Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996, was unconscious, intubated and breathing with help from a ventilator at a Nashville-area hospital as of Thursday night, her lawyers said in a court filing Friday. Hospital staff were trying to save her life and flush the pentobarbital from her system, the filing said.

Lee has also paused executions in the state for the rest of the year.

Pike, 50, remained alive and snoring loudly after being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys and other witnesses said. She was subsequently taken to a hospital.

Both of Pike's arms were "swollen, burned, and blistered" when she arrived at the hospital, her lawyers wrote. They believe the IV lines were placed incorrectly or her veins burst, so that some or all of the drug went into the tissue of her arms instead of her bloodstream.

The filing asks a state court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence from the execution attempt.

"Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel, and it was torturous," attorney Randy Spivey said Thursday. "It was also predictable."

Spivey said Pike's legal team warned the state of Tennessee and the courts that her medical condition of thrombocytosis "would cause her to suffer an agonizing death." They said it could increase clotting and pain during the execution process and that her veins are difficult to access. Pike's attorneys said the state and the court dismissed their client's concerns.

"She was not seeking to delay her execution," attorney Stephen Ferrell told reporters Thursday. "She was seeking to have that execution performed humanely and as quickly and as painlessly as possible."

Lee ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and said that another scheduled execution later this year had been paused.

"There are very few answers this morning. It's very early," Lee told reporters Thursday morning. "There are a lot of questions. The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered.

"This is a tragedy. There is no one who wanted what happened last night to happen. It's deeply disturbing to me that this has happened in this state."

Pike's attorneys said Thursday that the governor's independent review doesn't go far enough after being in solitary confinement for more than 20 years and the botched execution attempt.

"Christa has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty," Spivey said. "The governor must commute Christa's sentence now."

Spivey said the execution team tried to establish an IV line for over an hour and that he counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled after an unsuccessful attempt.

May Martinez, the mother of Pike's victim, Colleen Slemmer, told NBC News the execution attempt had been a "mess," adding, "They didn't say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. We didn't know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner. And he said that it didn't work ... and she's on her way to the hospital."

In a statement posted on Facebook, Sen. Marsha Blackburn called for the state to return to the electric chair as a means of execution. "This situation is tragic," she said. "Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer. While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly."

Lee said he had paused another execution scheduled for Dec. 3 this year. "Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," he said.

What happens next?

Tennessee officials have not said whether they will try to execute Pike again, or explained what went wrong.

Her condition could complicate any future attempt. Under Supreme Court precedent, a person can't be executed unless they have a "rational understanding" of why they are being put to death, the New York Times reported. Dr. Joel Zivot, an Emory University anesthesiologist retained by Pike's defense team, told the BBC it is "very possible" she suffered a brain injury because resuscitation was delayed.

Pike's lawyers have asked Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison. Lee had denied her clemency before the execution attempt.

President Trump questioned how the execution could have failed, telling reporters it "shouldn't be very difficult," according to AFP. United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk urged Tennessee not to try again.

What happened during the execution attempt?

Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Wednesday for killing Slemmer in 1995, at the age of 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start, a stay that was subsequently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Media witnesses said officials raised the curtains to the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney. "I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love," she said in her "last" words.

However, Pike remained conscious after the first dose. Nashville Banner reporter Steven Hale said she lifted her head off the gurney at 7:54 p.m. She also reportedly asked prison officials if her arm was supposed to feel that way.

Tori Gessner, a journalist with WKRN News 2 in Nashville, said Pike was seen pointing at her arm and asking, "Does this happen like that?"

By 8:26 p.m., witnesses reported that the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered.

Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m. At that time, an announcement was made to escort media witnesses out of the area.

Christa Pike, pictured in January 2023.Tennessee Department of Correction via AP

Pike's legal team said in a statement to the Tennessean newspaper on Wednesday night, "We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy."

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said what Pike experienced was "singular and unparalleled."

Seven other people have survived medical problems caused by an execution team's failure to access a vein to administer lethal injection drugs, but no one has remained alive after receiving the drugs used in such executions, she said.

"I've witnessed, I believe, five executions in Tennessee," Gessner said. "Nothing about today was normal, typical at all, and the court delay was just the tip of the iceberg."

A source told NBC News that there was no medical oxygen or mask in the execution chamber, meaning they had to be brought in from a prison clinic. Some of the medication had worn off by the third time staff checked on Pike, the source added.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said that it "followed every step of the state's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the attorney general's office."

The state's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered "if the inmate is not deceased" after the first set. It does not specify what happens if the subject is still alive after the second set.

Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion late Wednesday with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in "unnecessary agony" and that the execution was violating her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. They also filed motions in the Sixth Circuit and a district court.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of first-degree murder of Colleen Slemmer the previous year on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus.

According to legal documents filed with the Supreme Court, Pike "tortured, and killed Colleen Slemmer" on Jan. 12, 1995 because Pike "just felt mean that day." Pike is reported to have cut Colleen's throat multiple times and crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.

Pike was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder after trying to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones in 2001.

Who is Frank Strada?

Strada took over Tennessee's Department of Correction in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of Arizona's prison system. In late 2024, he announced Tennessee would switch to a single execution drug, pentobarbital.

Death penalty lawyers told the Guardian that Pike's was the fifth "botched" execution Strada has overseen in two states since 2022. That count includes Tennessee's failed attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May, when staff couldn't find a vein, and three 2022 executions in Arizona in which teams struggled to place IV lines.

Kit Thomas, a death row attorney, told the Guardian that training requirements for execution teams were loosened under Strada. "He reduced the training requirements and we've seen disastrous results," Thomas said.

A day before announcing the resignation, Lee defended the department, telling reporters, "So far as we know, the department of correction followed exactly the protocol that was outlined."

How common are botched executions?

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there were 75 botched lethal injections between 1982 and 2010. Compared to other methods, lethal injections face complications at a significantly higher rate. There have been a number of botched executions since 2010 that don't appear in the DPIC's tally.

Most of these were executions that went wrong in some way, but still ended in death. But there are seven known instances in which an execution failed entirely. One of them was earlier this year in Tennessee, when staff were unable to find a vein to administer the lethal drugs to inmate Tony Carruthers.

Tony Carruthers was scheduled to be executed on May 21, 2026.Tennessee Department of Correction via AP

More than 20 pharmaceutical companies have also refused to have their products used in executions, which has left states struggling to find the drugs they need to perform lethal injections. In some cases, they have experimented with unproven alternatives, with disastrous results.

An Oklahoma prisoner named Michael Lee Wilson said he could feel his "whole body burning" as he was being executed using a controversial drug cocktail in 2014. There have also been instances of prisoners gasping for air, heaving and coughing, convulsing and being subjected to "three hours of pain" before finally dying.

In April 2022, Tennessee called off the execution of Oscar Smith about an hour before it was scheduled to begin after the state discovered that its lethal injection drugs had not been properly tested. An independent investigation found that the state had repeatedly failed to follow its own drug-testing protocols between 2018 and 2022.

Tennessee then revised its protocol, resuming executions in May 2025 and using a single, lethal drug: pentobarbital.

There's also growing evidence that lethal injection may not provide a peaceful death even when everything appears to go right.

Difficulties with lethal injections have led some states to revive previously discarded execution methods. South Carolina carried out three executions by firing squad last year. There had been three total firing squad executions in the U.S. in the previous half-century combined.

There were 47 executions in 2025, according to the DPIC, higher than the recent average of fewer than 30 per year. These included the lethal injection of South Carolina inmate Marion Bowman, who received twice the intended drug dose, and Tennessee inmate Byron Black, who reportedly showed sustained cardiac activity for nearly two minutes after prison staff pronounced him dead.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/tennessee-death-row-inmate-christa-pike-survives-2-doses-of-execution-drugs-081613268.html

VIENNA, Ga. (AP) — Law enforcement officials are still working to determine just what happened when a chaotic homecoming party spanning a four-block radius of a southern Georgia town erupted in gunfire early Sunday, leaving two people dead and nearly three dozen others injured.

Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy identified the two people killed as 21-year-old Jaquevion Jackson of Cordele and 23-year-old Macaleb Jackson of Hawkinsville, Georgia. He did not say if the two were related.

Some of the three dozen injured had gunshot wounds, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Chris Hosey said Sunday evening, but he could not provide a number.

“We’re still trying to work through that,” Hosey said during a news conference Sunday evening.

No arrests had been reported hours later, and authorities gave no possible motive for the gunfire.

The injured ranged in age from 14 to 51, and they were taken to several regional hospitals, Peavy said. Some were in critical condition Sunday evening and others were stable, he said.

More than 1,000 people attended the party

More than 1,000 people had gathered at the site, and more than 50 shots were fired in at least two locations about a block apart in Vienna, Peavy told WMAZ-TV. Vienna is a small, rural community about 130 miles (about 210 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

Deputies were near the scene when the shooting began, Peavy said, and after they arrived more gunfire erupted about a block away.

“We don’t know if it’s coming at us or someone else,” he said. “You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and hope you don’t get hit by gunfire.”

The incident took place over homecoming weekend for Dooly County High School.

One woman recalled rapid-fire shots and people running

Ashley Gee, 30, who lives in nearby Turner County and came to Vienna for the party, described to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution a constant barrage of gunfire, imitating the sound of rapid-fire shots.

“Like a machine gun,” she said. “One person ran, and everybody started running.”

The AJC said the party drew in people from other surrounding counties in south Georgia following a local high school football team’s victory at a homecoming game Friday night.

The shooting was not at a school-sponsored event, said Sherrod Willaford, superintendent of the Dooly County School System.

“We recognize that its impact may reach many of our students, families, and staff,” he said in a statement. Schools will open Monday, he said, but additional safety measures have been put in place. He did not specify what they are.

Peavy said the festivities began Friday night, and that it had “gone well” with “respect from the community” that evening as deputies patrolled the event.

Sheriff says deputies were on hand as shots were still being fired

But the party Saturday night was a “different story,” he said.

“We’re still working through the investigation to see what went wrong. But at large parties with people from different places, not just your locals, sometimes problems come,” he said.

“Our deputies were just about on the scene when it happened. They were at the end of each, most directions of where the block party was being held. But it was so many people. And it was just hard to figure out what was going on,” he said.

Peavy said the shooting was “a learning experience,” for his law enforcement team.

“There's just hardly no way to know how to operate when something like that happens on the scene,” he said. He later continued, “We thought we'd been involved with a lot of stuff. But sometimes it surprises, and it was overwhelming.”

Vienna is about a 50-mile (80-kilometer) drive south on the Interstate 75 corridor from the central Georgia city of Macon, where authorities say 12 teens were wounded by gunfire during a confrontation between people at a birthday party the previous weekend a city park.

Deputies in Vienna found two people dead at the scene and multiple others who had been shot, officials said. Police also did not specify how many of the injured had been shot. The victims were taken to several hospitals for treatment, the GBI said.

Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls said the two men were pronounced dead at the scene with fatal gunshot wounds. He said multiple other people were also shot, calling the scene “horrific.”

Walls told the AJC that multiple people were struck by bullets and roughly a dozen others were hurt while trying to flee.

“This doesn’t — it’s not supposed to — happen in a small town like that. It’s something you hear on the news in bigger cities,” Walls told the newspaper, adding hospitals were flooded with the injured. “And even in bigger cities, you don’t hear that kind of a number.”

Investigators are seeking suspects and a motive

Authorities have not said whether any suspects are in custody or being sought. No motive has been given for the shooting.

Vienna Mayor Eddie Daniels said the shooting was about a block from his house and he “saw a lot of blue lights.” Daniels said he hadn’t spoken with law enforcement officials yet and had no details about what had happened.

Daniels said the city hadn’t issued any kind of permit for the block party and he didn’t know if it was a homecoming party.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Lydia Bullard declined to answer questions about the shooting, saying it was an ongoing investigation.

___

Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press reporters Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/2-shot-dead-dozens-injured-155033581.html

President Trump on Sunday named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as his new "AI czar," adding a different category of intelligence, the "artificial" kind, to the U.S. spy chief's portfolio.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Clayton will lead a newly formed "Super Intelligence Force" alongside Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. The group will report directly to Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Its goal, Trump wrote, is "to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and the Internet, and will protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Americans."

Clayton will keep his job as DNI, which oversees the nation's 18 intelligence agencies.

Trump's announcement follows meeting last Tuesday at the White House where top AI executives signed what he called a "morally binding" agreement to police themselves in order to prevent their increasingly powerful models from going rogue and harming humanity.

"There's a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation," the president said at the meeting. "This is going to be all for the good, and we're going to have it be nice and safe."

Despite new polls showing that 86% of Americans want AI companies to meet independent safety standards even if doing so slows development — with 74% largely mistrusting the leaders of those companies — Trump insisted in recent days that federal regulations are unnecessary and that those who say otherwise are "Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers." 

"The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!" he wrote on social media. Elsewhere, Trump has said that regulation would handicap the U.S. in its race to "win" AI.

"Whoever wins AI ... that's the group that wins," Trump told the United Nations General Assembly last month. "We're leading now over China by a lot and everyone else, and we're going to keep it that way." 

According to the Guardian, Trump's previous AI and crypto czar, billionaire tech investor David Sacks, consistently "counseled the president to give a soft touch to AI regulation, helping push executive orders and other measures aimed at loosening restrictions on the technology." Sacks also "maintains direct financial stakes in multiple AI companies," the paper reported, though he took steps to divest some of his holdings last year while serving in the administration. He stepped down in March. 

Will Clayton follow Sacks's lead? Or will he chart a new course? Here's what we know so far.

Who is Jay Clayton? 

Clayton, 60, is a registered independent with degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (engineering, law) and the University of Cambridge (economics). As a lawyer in private practice, he focused mostly on Wall Street: mergers and acquisitions, market offerings and regulatory proceedings. During Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2020, Clayton chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. From March 2021 to April 2025, Clayton served as chair and "lead independent director" of the board of Apollo Global Management. (Apollo has owned a 90% majority stake in Yahoo since September 2021.)

In late 2024, Trump nominated Clayton to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, his first prosecutorial job; Trump later appointed Clayton to serve in an acting capacity after New York Sen. Chuck Schumer blocked his appointment. Reports suggest Clayton was also considered for roles as secretary of the treasury, attorney general and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In November 2025, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to investigate Democrats associated with Jeffrey Epstein, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi assigned Clayton to lead the probe. 

After former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned in May 2026, Trump tapped Clayton to replace her. "He's very qualified," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said at the time. But Clayton sidestepped questions over who won the 2020 election during his July confirmation hearings, and he was confirmed without Democratic support.

"I'm not an election denier," Clayton told the Senate. "He went through our processes, and Joe Biden became the president of the United States." 

What has Clayton said about AI?

During his DNI confirmation hearings, Clayton described AI as "a game changer," warning that it represents "not only an opportunity but a threat."

"We should just all recognize that," he continued. "When something is both an opportunity and a threat, you better get your arms around it." 

On Tuesday, Clayton attended Trump's White House meeting with top AI executives. Speaking afterward to CNBC, he used the president's new preferred term for AI — i.e., "superintelligence" — while pushing back against lawmakers who have called for regulating or pausing U.S. AI development. 

"Super intelligence 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. "But to, in some way, not try to drive forward inside the United States, with companies that are regulated in the United States ... to somehow say we should back away from this and let the rest of the world develop these models and implement these models? I don't think anybody in that room, and I don't think any American, should think that that's a good strategy."

Asked to respond to criticism from Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts that Trump's current policy of letting AI companies police themselves will prove to be "a recipe for disaster," Clayton suggested that the U.S. government's existing regulatory framework could also help keep AI in check. 

"My response to the American people on that front is we have a Federal Trade Commission, we have a Department of Justice," Clayton said. "I know the leaders of both those organizations, and they're committed to protecting the American people in this regard."

What will Clayton do as AI czar? 

According to Trump's post, the Super Intelligence Force will coordinate the federal government's dealings with AI companies, infrastructure providers, consumers, public interest groups and religious organizations, CNN reported.

Last month, Trump wrote on social media that he would "be announcing, in the near future, the AI 'Czar.'

"Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!" he added. 

In the same post, the president again dismissed concerns about AI safety as a "hoax" perpetrated by "Radical Left Democrats." He also wrote that going forward, his administration would not "in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry," which he described as "the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet" — only "even larger and more impactful." 

"Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!" Trump explained. As for reining in "bad" actors, he wrote, "we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System."

Clayton, it seems, will now be in charge of cherishing, helping and watching over the AI industry as it grows. He's "a good man," Trump told Axios when the outlet asked last week if Clayton was being considered for the job. "He's right here. That's a good idea."

It's unclear what happened to a separate idea Trump floated last month, which he called "the AI Force."

"I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term," Trump wrote in his September social media post about naming an AI czar. 

According to Axios, Trump's AI Force idea "caught advisers by surprise," setting off "a mad dash" within the administration "to imagine what AI Force would look like." 

What did Trump's previous AI czar do? 

When Sacks served as AI czar, he repeatedly persuaded the president and his administration to resist new AI restrictions, including state laws to limit AI. Since leaving the White House, Sacks has "maintained close ties with the president," according to the Guardian, and "in May, he successfully urged Trump to scrap an executive order that would've subjected AI models to government review."

The Wall Street Journal recently reported the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles were "caught off guard and unhappy" with Trump's decision after they "spent months negotiating to increase oversight of AI and had consulted a range of industry executives on the order." According to the Journal's sources, Wiles "told others that Sacks had persuaded Trump" to back down "in a last-minute call," leaving Bessent "worried that AI-led cyberattacks could wreak havoc on the nation's banking system."

This article originally appeared on Yahoo News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/trump-names-jay-clayton-as-ai-czar-who-is-americas-new-artificial-intelligence-chief--and-how-will-he-address-growing-safety-concerns-152448937.html

Democratic House members are writing bills to rein in a president’s emergency powers. Lawyers are strategizing about how to insulate the Justice Department from presidential influence. A House measure would block a president from unilaterally remodeling the White House. Ethicists are writing rules to prevent a future first family from self-dealing.

Throughout Washington and beyond, President Donald Trump’s opponents are scrambling to ensure that after he leaves office, the changes he has imposed on the presidency, and the country, will fade with him.

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Whether they succeed could determine whether Trump’s aggressive exercise of executive powers will be limited to a finite stretch of U.S. history or will instead become a model for every president to come.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that Trump’s uses of presidential power can and must be reversed - but doing so will take decades.

“We have a massive reconstruction task ahead of us,” Raskin said in an interview. “Fortunately, reconstruction has a great history in our country, and when it’s allowed to work, it has been a lot more successful than either authoritarianism or revolution. … We will have to go department by department, subject by subject, and public purpose by public purpose to determine what we salvage and what we re-create.”

From the beginning of the republic, the three branches have jostled for control over spending, war-making, immigration and virtually every other government function. Trump is hardly the first president to try to sharply elbow the other branches out of the way.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan startled critics by firing more than 11,000 air traffic controllers. George W. Bush, jolted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, secretly approved tactics against prisoners that many considered torture.

Barack Obama, initially critical of such actions, went on to expand presidential authority in his own right. He created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012 by executive order, prompting GOP complaints that he was simply making up a law. He used drone strikes to target and kill suspected terrorists far from traditional battlefields. And he put numerous “czars” over areas like energy and health care, which Republicans charged was a way to avoid confirmation fights.

Tiffany Justice, executive vice president of the conservative group Heritage Action, pointed to this history to dismiss talk of post-Trump reforms, saying the president is doing nothing Democratic presidents have not done and predicting that Democrats’ plans will go nowhere.

“They are full of baloney - I don’t think Democrats would ever limit the power of a Democratic president,” Justice said. “The idea of Democrats saving democracy, it’s nonsense.”

Administration officials argue that Trump has changed the country forever and followed established procedures for everything he has done. “The Trump administration has abided by all legal decisions and gone through the appellate process with great success,” said a White House spokesman. “His successes on behalf of the American people will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and will be felt by every other White House that comes after him,” said White House communications director Steven Cheung.

But Trump’s critics say that in the scale, sweep and sheer aggressiveness of his actions - from demolishing the East Wing of the White House to pursuing legal actions against political opponents - Trump has pushed executive authority far beyond any previous modern president.

With a possible recapture of Congress just one month away, Democrats’ efforts to limit the staying power of those changes are heating up.

Several lawmakers are crafting bills to curtail a president’s ability to declare emergencies, which Trump has used in novel ways, declaring about a dozen emergencies to justify policies as varied as imposing tariffs, accelerating deportations and deploying the National Guard. Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington) and Don Beyer (D-Virginia) have introduced a bill forbidding a president from levying tariffs under the guise of a national emergency unless Congress agrees.

Raskin has drafted bills to ban a president from accepting payments from foreign governments without Congress’s consent and require a public review for renovations of the White House. Another measure would block a president from entering monetary settlements with his own government, which a federal judge scolded Trump and the Justice Department for this summer, saying they had attempted to “use” and “manipulate” the court to legitimize a deal that would have shielded Trump from IRS scrutiny and set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund for alleged victims of politicized prosecutions.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and potential Democratic presidential candidate, recently released an ethics proposal for all three branches of government that would ban trading stocks and betting in prediction markets, require a blind trust for anyone worth more than $1 million, and forbid individuals from accepting foreign gifts. Trump has traded millions of dollars worth of individual stocks since taking office and famously accepted the gift of an aircraft from the Qatari government.

And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) has introduced a No Political Enemies Act, forbidding executive branch officials from prosecuting or punishing individuals or groups for their speech, something Trump has done relatively openly.

Some of these proposals may be partly symbolic, aimed at galvanizing voters and showing resistance to Trump rather than serving as strict blueprints for reform. Democrats themselves do not know when, if ever, they may have the public support to push them through. They have no guarantee of success; Trump survived two impeachments, prosecutions and investigations before winning the White House a second time.

Still, the Democrats say they see little alternative to trying.

The Partnership for Public Service, which trains government employees and advocates for ways to improve the public workforce, has crafted proposals to strengthen civil service protections, making it harder for future presidents to fire employees en masse as Trump and his ally Elon Musk did. Congress, for example, could strengthen rules requiring that hiring and firing must be based on merit and due process - and then confront an administration that violates those rules.

Would-be reformers argue that periods of excess in U.S. history often prompt waves of reform. The Gilded Age of the late 1800s gave way to the Progressive Era. The corruption of Watergate in the 1970s generated a slew of new ethics laws.

It is not clear whether Americans support a new wave of reform laws. But a Pew poll last year found that 78 percent of Americans had concerns about expanding presidential power.

“Throughout American history, reform follows scandal,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, a liberal-leaning think tank that focuses on law and democracy. “It does not always follow scandal, but that’s when it happens. I think there will be a real hunger, I hope from both parties, to write into law some of the protections that were assumed to be there before.”

Some historians say many of Trump’s actions will be hard to reverse. It is far easier to smash through guardrails, they say, than to rebuild them. Most modern presidents have expanded executive power at the expense of Congress. Whether that trend continues could depend in large part on whether the legislative branch begins to reassert itself as a counterweight to the presidency.

“Once we get through this nightmare, the rest of our careers will have to be devoted to reviving American progress and building institutions that endure and succeed,” Raskin said. “That is going to be the work of the rest of our lives.”

The temptation for revenge - or acquiescence

The midterm campaigns have spawned numerous Democratic candidates with sharply combative anti-Trump messages. If they win majorities in Congress, some Democrats could well be tempted to turn the president’s hardball tactics against him and his followers once he leaves the scene.

A post-Trump president could, for example, prod the Justice Department to investigate his own political adversaries, as Trump has.

“It will be very tempting for Democrats to say, ‘Oh, you think we are going to limit our abuse of the Justice Department? We don’t want to be suckers,’” Waldman said. “But I think that would be a big mistake. Everybody benefits when the rule of law is in play across the government.”

More immediately, the next administration will have to decide whether to prosecute Trump officials who may have broken the law by misusing their authority. Some Democrats, for example, say the way Justice Department officials have targeted Trump’s enemies is illegal and could expose those officials to charges.

Trump, in an effort to counteract such moves, has promised that before he leaves office he will preemptively pardon anyone who has come “within 200 feet” of the Oval Office, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Some liberals say Democrats should take a lesson from Trump on how to govern with force and purpose. Trump does not hesitate to take actions that skirt the edges of legality, happy to let the courts sort it out. He pressures private firms to back his policies. He issues sweeping executive orders rather than trying to persuade Congress to act.

“This president litigates the way he bargains: He makes some very far-out claims, not expecting to win them all, but sort of ‘what the hell’ - that’s his theory,” said William A. Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. “If you lose cases no other president would have dreamed of bringing, and you win a few big ones, you’re ahead of the game.”

It may be tempting for future presidents to act the same way. “There has been an overcautiousness in some Democratic and some Republican administrations that will seem quite quaint after this administration,” said Ben Olinsky, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank.

That is especially true of executive orders and actions, which Trump has refashioned as all-purpose policy and communications weapons. He has issued more than 280 so far in his second term, far outpacing his recent predecessors, according to figures compiled by the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

“A new administration will do a lot of governing through executive order,” said Richard Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University. “They will want to show that they can act decisively.”

Even while they plot a post-Trump future, many Democrats say they cannot simply return to a status quo that voters hated. Yet it is far from clear what their new agenda will be.

Max Stier, president of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, said the damage Trump has inflected on the current system opens up new possibilities. Stier has suggested slashing the roughly 4,000 political appointees in the government, saying they can be unqualified and unaccountable.

“There is opportunity in this madness, the opportunity to reexamine some of the basic expectations around our government,” Stier said. “Because the status quo has been disrupted, the ability to think larger and bigger is there.”

Tiffany Justice, of Heritage Action, challenged that entire narrative. Trump is not wielding the presidency in some new way, she said, but rather using it as Democrats always have - and that is what truly upsets the left.

“President Trump is using his power in a way that Democrats have in the past,” Justice said, citing, for example, President Joe Biden’s order protecting gender transition care. “Republicans always in the past have been uneasy about using power. Democrats are never uneasy about using power.”

Another Watergate?

If there is anything that gives would-be reformers hope, it is the aftermath of the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard M. Nixon.

Nixon, like Trump, stretched presidential authority in ways that challenged the law and the Constitution. After his 1974 resignation, a previously quiescent Congress roared back to action, as lawmakers rushed to make sure Watergate could not happen again. Congress passed bills restricting a president’s ability to misuse private data, spy on Americans, misspend campaign cash, declare emergencies, control spending and more.

Some critics envision a post-Trump America swept up in a similar reform fever, with lawmakers scrambling to score political points amid widespread public revulsion over Trump’s self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment.

For example, Congress could make it illegal to do what Trump’s firebrand housing official Bill Pulte has done - accuse the president’s critics of mortgage fraud with little evidence. Or it could restrict the ability of a Federal Communications Commission chairman, like Trump’s Brendan Carr, to target outlets disliked by the president.

The Justice Department is a particular focus of the would-be reformers, many of them former department lawyers frustrated by the way Trump has used DOJ to pursue his adversaries. Under Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly Trump’s personal attorney, and his predecessor Pam Bondi, many experienced attorneys have fled the department or been forced out.

Vanita Gupta, who served as associate attorney general under Biden, said Justice Department veterans of both parties are discussing how to restore the department to its former ethos of independence.

“Rebuilding will be challenging, no doubt, but former DOJ officials from Republican and Democratic administrations are already thinking about how to get it done,” Gupta said. “Seasoned career leaders have told me that they would return to rebuild the department, even knowing lifetime tenure may be a thing of the past.”

Historians concede the Watergate analogy has its limits. The 1974 scandal propelled Democrats to overwhelming majorities of 61-39 in the Senate and 291-144 in the House; those margins are unthinkable today. Americans have become more polarized in the past 50 years, a trend that works against any broad-based reform crusade.

A powerful executive has gained additional theoretical backing in recent decades, as conservative legal scholars have advanced a “unitary executive” theory, arguing the U.S. Constitution gives the president nearly unfettered, unreviewable control over the executive branch.

What the people want

Ultimately, the shape of the post-Trump future will be determined by how Americans feel when he exits the stage: Will they applaud his exercise of power and attacks on long-standing structures? Or will they recoil?

“The president and the courts are staring at one another over the mostly supine body of the Congress of the United States, and it’s very dangerous for constitutional government,” Galston said.

The Supreme Court’s path is unclear as well. Some Democrats privately echo a sentiment voiced by Clinton - that the justices may not give future presidents the same leeway they have accorded Trump. The court has already been far more deferential to Trump than it was to Biden, these Democrats say.

“I have a sinking suspicion if our party wins the White House in the next election, there will be a hallelujah moment and the Supreme Court will rediscover the Constitution,” Clinton said on ABC’s “The View” last year.

Even if some curbs on presidential power are reestablished, Trump’s demonstration that they can be dismantled is likely to have long-term effects.

Young people might be less willing to work for a government whose policies vacillate wildly from one president to another, and where long tenure is not guaranteed. Foreign allies have made it clear they are far less trusting of Washington’s commitments. Businesses and nonprofits could be less interested in accepting funding they fear could be abruptly withdrawn.

“It’s not like a toggle switch that you can just turn it on and off,” Waldman said. “Much of the federal government took a century to build.”

Some historians note Trump’s unique qualities, saying his combination of celebrity, aggressiveness and disregard for tradition is unlikely ever to be replicated. That suggests future presidents cannot simply repeat his performance, they say.

“Any thought that [Vice President] JD Vance or [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio gets to be president and do the same thing with the same abandon - I don’t see that happening,” said John Lawrence, a historian and former top aide to former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). “He has created his own unitary executive theory, and I don’t know how it works outside the size and force of the personality of Donald Trump. But that doesn’t mean a Republican successor wouldn’t try.”

In the Progressive Era, Americans took to the streets by the thousands to demand reform, Stier said, and if Trump’s changes are ultimately reversed, it will be because of a similar groundswell.

“The most important question we face is whether we can return to a consensus that we had among Republicans, Democrats and independents for 140 years that an operating government of our values requires leaders committed to the public good, not the private interests of the officeholder of the day,” Stier said. “Can we get back to that? I think the answer is yes. But we need a public that demands it.”

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This article originally appeared on Washington Post at https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/10/04/democrats-are-making-plans-clean-up-government-post-trump-era/