Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
During his confirmation hearing today, acting attorney general Todd Blanch failed face
“some tough questions even from Republicans.”
Much of the scrutiny focused on a highly controversial fund that would have funneled taxpayer dollars to Trump allies who have been prosecuted for crimes. NPR's Jacqueline Diaz has more.
The nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund was created earlier this year.
It was part of a settlement with Trump to end his lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns. The fund was killed after bipartisan pushback, but Blanch still faced a ton of questions on it during his hearing. Republican Senator John Cornend pointed out that Trump has not agreed in writing to officially
kill the fund, and so the settlement is still technically an enforceable contract. Blanch confirmed that, but said no matter what, the fund is debt. There's no fund. So the results of such litigation, whatever it would be, wouldn't be revive all of the fund.
“But Cornend said he is not convinced, and that he's not sure he will vote to confirm”
Blanch.
Jacqueline Diaz and PR News.
Being Governor Janet Mills called on Congress to dramatically reform immigration and customs enforcement after 25-year-old Johan Sebastian Durran Guerrero was shot by agents in the city of Bitterford this week. In public's Michael Livingston has more. In a letter sent to Maine's congressional delegation this week, Mills claimed Congress has failed
to pass any substantial oversight of ICE despite numerous killings by agents. She suggested reforms such as banning ICE agents from covering their faces, requiring them to identify themselves where body cameras and implement better training. That doesn't happen, she wrote the agency should be abolished. We'd like to see more aggressive action on the part of the Congress to protect the lives
of people across this country, not just in Bitterford, not just in Maine, but everywhere. Several Democrats seeking to challenge Maine's Senator Susan Collins for her seat say, "They'll work to abolish the agency if elected. Federal and state law enforcement are still investigating the shooting as of Wednesday. For NPR News, unlike a Livingston in Portland, Maine."
Inflation at the wholesale level, cool last month, if you're Scott Horsley reports on the latest inflation data from the Labor Department. Prices at the wholesale level in June were up five and a half percent from a year ago. That's a smaller annual increase than the previous month. Horsel prices actually dip between May and June by three tens of percent.
Retail prices showed a similar decline last month, thanks in part, to falling gasoline prices. Renewed tensions in the straight-of-war moves, however, are once again pushing gas prices higher, triple-ases the average price of regular gas rose three cents a gallon overnight, while diesel prices jump by nickel a gallon. Scott Horsley, in PR News, Washington.
While street higher by the closing bell, the Dow up 150 points NASDAQ up 162. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Artificial intelligence has become one of, if not, the fastest growing costs for US businesses ever. To survive, some tech companies are switching from American models to cheaper Chinese AI.
And Pierce John Ruich has more. Flow Crevello runs a San Francisco-based company called Lindi that creates AI assistance. The company had been using Anthropics Frontier Leading Edge AI models to develop its products, but that became his company's number one expense, Crevello says, more even than payroll. So last month, he announced that Lindi had migrated entirely to the Chinese AI deep-seek.
It's really simple. It was just the next Uber and actually the next Uber. Chinese AI models have been growing in popularity, and Crevello says no one beats China when it comes to open-source models, which anyone can download and adapt. And later this week, China hosts the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, where Chinese leaders Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote address, John Ruich and PR News.
Astronomers have discovered a faint elusive planet that's orbiting a young star. This after more than a decade of star-style, heightened seek. Researchers found the new planet around the star beta-pictaurus, which was overshadowed by its considerably brighter star and to companion planets. The new planet is slightly bigger than Jupiter.
It takes 91 years to orbit its star, which is a little longer than it takes Uranus to orbit our Sun.
It was born into a system that's barely 20 million years old compared to the Sun's 4.5 billion
year-old neighborhood. I'm Jeanine Herbst and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Everyone wants to know if AI is conscious, but consciousness is really hard to define. It's the experience we're having right now.
“What it is like to eat chocolate or to look at the blue sky?”
So how do we know who or what is conscious? Check out the new way scientists are finding to measure the elusive phenomenon on shortwave.
