Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey.
Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullin, is warning state officials that if
“they don't implement the Trump administration's election security measures, they could”
face penalties. And PR's Jude Jaffee Block reports, his remarks, followed the president's speech Thursday evening. Mullin says DHS will roll out an updated election infrastructure plan for states, and they will lose access to grants if they don't follow it.
The Trump administration wants states to use a federal data system known as Save to check voter roles for non-citizens and deceased voters. Mullin had a warning for state officials that don't participate. We will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states and hold then the election officials accountable.
That could mean fines or even prison time, Mullin said.
He says DHS found 250,000 non-citizens on the public voter roles of four states, but how
DHS arrived at that number is unknown. And election experts say that figure is likely highly inaccurate. Jude Jaffee Block and PR news.
“President Trump says he will call Canada's prime minister tomorrow about the wildfires burning”
there. On social media, Trump accused Canada of poorly managing their forests and said the U.S. is "holding Canada" responsible. The air and large swath of the U.S. is unhealthy from North Dakota to the Carolinas. NDR's Ava Berger says there are more than 900 wildfires burning in Canada.
These regions will have fires, caused by things like lightning strikes, thunder storms. But in the province of Ontario, where most of the smoke we're seeing is actually coming from, the number of fires are still increasing.
And they're not expected to get under control until maybe the beginning of August.
Ontario now has the most active fires by province. There are nearly 200 burning. Rich areas of the U.S. will stay smoky in the coming days depends on wind directions. China has launched a new multilateral organization on artificial intelligence. And Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, says countries need to collaborate to improve AI governance
worldwide. And PR's John Ruich reports.
“Speaking of the start of the world AI conference in Shanghai, Xi Jinping did not mention”
the U.S. by name, but made some targeted comments. He said AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, rather he said it should be a symphony of global collaboration. While the U.S. has pulled back from multilateral organizations under the Trump administration, China has stepped up.
And on Friday, it launched the World AI Cooperation Organization with the participation of nearly 30 other countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, and Russia. Xi pledged support from China for AI development in the developing world through training and other programs and urged the creation of laws, as well as monitoring and warning systems around AI to keep it safe.
John Ruich and PR news. The national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose today to $3.98 a according to AAA. This is NPR. Federal health officials have identified lettuce grown in Mexico and served by Taco Bells
across five U.S. states as a source of the outbreak of cyclospora, a diarrhea causing parasite. A group of evangelical leaders is urging Congress to allow more than 300,000 Haitian refugees to remain in the U.S. They're responding to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows the Trump administration
to end temporary protected status for Haitians. NPR's Jason Daro's reports. In a letter addressed to the House and Senate, the evangelical groups remind Congress that Haitians had been covered by TPS since 2010 after a devastating earthquake there. They call on Congress to "exercise their power as a co-equal branch of government and
past legislation that would allow the Haitian refugees to stay." The letter says it remains unsafe to return to the beleaguered island nation, which has been struck by one humanitarian crisis after another. Natural disasters, disease outbreaks, gang violence, and political upheaval. Among those signing the letter, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals
and the head of the National Hispanic Baptist Network. Jason Daro's NPR news. The Federal Aviation Administration says Boeing will be allowed to take responsibility for certifying all of its 737 max and 787 planes as airworthy starting next week. The FAA took over 737 max approvals seven years ago after two crashes that were blamed
on a new software system, Boeing installed on the aircraft. The FAA ended the company's right to self-sortify the 787 dream liners in 2022 citing production quality issues. It's NPR. This time Antonio May's senior heard from his son, it was in a note the 16-year-old left
in the family's garage. "He told me he was going to make me cry." Antonio Junior left home to join a protest in Seattle. A week later, he was shot and killed there. "I need some a ref me, just as for my son."
