DRC politician beaten to death after radio appearance about Ebola outbreak Marie-Celestin Karondwa was attacked on Sunday after promoting measures to prevent spread of disease, his party saysA senior member of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's ruling party was beaten to death on Sunday after appearing on a radio programme to raise awareness about the Ebola outbreak, a party representative has said.Marie-Celestin Karondwa, the acting president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party's federal executive committee in Butembo, a new hotspot for the outbreak, was attacked after taking part in a radio show during which he promoted prevention measures for the disease, the UDPS federation in the city said in a statement, Reuters reported. Continue reading...
At least 27 dead after two mass shootings in South Africa, police say Seventeen people killed near Johannesburg in suspected 'illegal goldmining turf war', as 10 killed in separate incident at barbecue venue near Cape TownTwo separate mass shootings near South Africa's two biggest cities killed at least 27 people, as the country grapples with one of the world's highest murder rates amid investigations into corruption and criminality within the police.The South African police service said on Sunday that 17 people were killed on Saturday night when eight suspects armed with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols opened fire at a bar in Wedela township, about 50 miles south-west of central Johannesburg. At least 15 other people sustained gunshot injuries in that attack, police said. Continue reading...
'It's hard to sell a house when it's covered in baboon faeces': Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answerCape Town's city council has said it will "imminently" round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents. The animals will be sterilised and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary. The plan has been fiercely criticised by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered.Cape Town's baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point. A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops. Continue reading...
Rebel offensive against Ethiopian army stokes fears of return to civil war Fighting escalates after Tigrayan rebels form new coalition aimed at overthrowing Abiy Ahmed governmentThere are growing fears of a return to civil war in Ethiopia after an offensive by fighters from Tigray into the neighbouring states of Afar and Amhara and the formation of a new rebel alliance aimed at overthrowing the government of the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.About 600,000 people died between 2020 and 2022 during a devastating war between the Ethiopian army and the political party and paramilitary group the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Both sides are now accusing the other of triggering a return to open conflict. Continue reading...
Mighty Sparrow, the Trinidad and Tobago singer known as the 'calypso king of the world', dies aged 91 Slinger Francisco, who performed as the Mighty Sparrow, died on Sunday surrounded by family in New YorkSlinger Francisco, known on stage as the Mighty Sparrow and dubbed the "calypso king of the world", has died aged 91.Francisco, who got his breakthrough in calypso music with his 1956 hit song Jean and Dinah, died peacefully surrounded by his family in New York on Sunday, his family said in a statement. Continue reading...
Homeland Security uses $20 million in taxpayer funds for pro-Trump ads Homeland Security uses $20 million in taxpayer funds for pro-Trump adsWASHINGTON (AP) - The Department of Homeland Security has tapped $20 million to pay for the campaign-style ads glorifying President Donald Trump that have drawn widespread criticism from Republicans and Democrats as a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars that likely runs afoul of anti-propaganda law. In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, two top Democratic senators said that the money is being drawn from Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" and was supposed to go for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars," wrote Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that handles Homeland Security funding. The senators demanded answers within the next 48 hours about "how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself." They asked the secretary if the department plans to use additional federal funds to air these ads or create new ones, and if so to share contracting information with Congress. They also asked Mullin if he had spoken to Trump about using the taxpayer funds for the ads. The political uproar over Trump's hagiographic ads, which started running last week during popular TV shows, including college and National Football League programming, has not abated as critics on the left and right raise alarms about the use of taxpayer funds, particularly so close to the midterm elections. The White House has defended the advertisements, which disclose that they are funded by the U.S. government, as public service announcements. Asked for a request for comment Tuesday on the senators' letter, Homeland Security referred to the earlier White House response.
Ad spend is up to $2.5m as criticism and legal scrutiny grow
The unusual commercials, which echo the GOP's midterm election slogans, against imagery of Trump's tenure in office - one with a "Love me, Love me" song refrain in the background - appear to violate a law against congressionally appropriated funds being used for propaganda. Experts also have said the ads, which are airing on network and cable TV and streaming, differ from other administrations' PSAs because they aren't designed to help Americans access any specific program. Over the weekend, a new ad promoting the president resembles a black-and-white video from his own 2024 campaign that shows Trump walking down a hallway as his voice can be heard warning of a "final battle" against "globalists" and "warmongers." It ends with Trump staring straight into the camera lens with the "Paid for by the U.S. Government" message printed. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, has compared Trump's ads to those used by authoritarian former leader Viktor Orban of Hungary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said it "shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer dollars." Data from the outside firm AdImpact shows more than $2.5 million was spent on the three ads over the past seven days. The actual amount spent could be significantly more, depending on whether networks classified the ads as political. The senators said in their letter that DHS has committed $20 million to the campaign. A person who was not authorized to discuss the situation and who was granted anonymity confirmed the findings, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Trump's ads use taxpayer dollars, likely skirting the law
The unusual ad campaign comes as Republicans face an increasingly volatile midterm election season with their control of the House and Senate - and Trump's future agenda - all at risk. Voters say they are struggling with high prices of gas and groceries, and are concerned about the lengthy U.S. war against Iran, now in its seventh month. Democrats are gearing up for vast oversight of Trump and his administration if they seize power, and impeachment is not off the table. House Democrats said Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, moved $20 million from Homeland Security resources to the ad campaign on Sept. 19. The next day, a $20 million contract for a "National Media Campaign" was awarded to the Maryland-based LMD Agency, Inc., according to federal data. LMD Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Homeland Security funds are part of a whopping $175 billion Congress gave the department in the "Big, Beautiful, Bill" as part of Trump's immigration enforcement and deportation agenda. Democrats voted against that package, which Trump signed into law last summer, in part because of its steep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security subcommittee, said that after gutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and social services and "more than quadrupling funding for mass deportations, it turns out the Trump administration used Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill to pay for President Trump's political ads." They said if the Democrats regain control, they "will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable." What's also striking about the administration's use of taxpayer dollars for the ads is that Trump's own political campaign committee, MAGA Inc., is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of funding that could be used during the midterm season. Groups aligned with MAGA Inc. have started shelling out funds for the House and Senate races. The administration has defended the use of taxpayer dollars for the ads and shown no signs of changing course.This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/homeland-security-taps-20m-taxpayer-183543865.html
Sept 29 (Reuters) - The US Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump's administration resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them the chance to show the harms they may face, bolstering a tool his administration has used for rapid expulsions as part of his immigration crackdown.
The court granted the Justice Department's emergency request to put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy's ruling that the Department of Homeland Security's policy to remove migrants to so-called third countries is unlawful. The court also agreed to hear arguments in the dispute in December, with a formal ruling on the policy to follow.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices dissented from the decision to let the deportations immediately resume pending the final outcome of the litigation.
Murphy's ruling came in a class-action lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups on behalf of migrants seeking to prevent the US government from sending them to third countries without notice and a chance to assert the harms they could face.
More than 25,000 migrants have been deported to 29 countries under the policy implemented last year, according to a tally by human rights groups, with the vast majority going to Mexico.
The policy is one of a number of measures the administration has taken in its pursuit of Trump's goal of mass deportation. The Republican president has enforced a sweeping crackdown on immigration - among his top priorities - since returning to office last year.
The administration has carried out third-country deportations to politically unstable South Sudan, which the US State Department urges Americans to avoid due to the risks of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict, as well as Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, the Central African Republic, and other nations.
Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival welcomed the court's decision.
"A bad day for criminal illegals and open-borders activists alike," Percival wrote on social media.
Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the court has "allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they face persecution or torture. That is a devastating result for people who may be put on a plane before they ever have notice or an opportunity to raise a fear claim."
In February, Murphy ruled that the policy violates immigration law procedures and due process protections under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment. Due process generally requires the government to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions.
The Supreme Court, which has allowed a number of Trump's hardline immigration policies, previously sided with the administration in the legal challenge, suspending a preliminary order that Murphy issued earlier in the case halting the removals. In another win for the administration, the Supreme Court subsequently lifted limits the judge had imposed to protect a group of men from being sent to South Sudan.
The case began in 2025 after the Department of Homeland Security moved to step up deportations of migrants who cannot be returned to any country listed on their deportation orders.
SWIFTLY REMOVED
The policy provided that migrants could be swiftly removed without notice to third countries that have provided credible diplomatic assurance that they will not persecute or torture the individuals. For countries that have not provided such assurance, deportees would be notified of their destination and US authorities would assess the likelihood of persecution or torture only if the individual raises such fear on their own.
In its emergency filing to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said third-country deportations are "an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens."
But both Murphy and critics of the administration said the policy is also targeting migrants who had been granted legal protection from being sent back to their home countries.
The policy has resulted in deportees being unlawfully transferred by third countries back to their home countries from which the US had already granted them protection, while others have been beaten, sexually assaulted, detained or have disappeared, the plaintiffs said in a court filing.
The administration is ignoring "the significant harm resulting from deporting thousands of longtime US residents, many with no criminal history, to third countries without regard to the persecution or torture they face there," the plaintiffs said.
The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of the judge's ruling on September 18.
The case has been hotly contested since it began, and included findings by Murphy that the administration "repeatedly violated, or attempted to violate" his orders. Murphy in 2025 found that the administration had violated another order he issued requiring additional steps before attempting to send a group of migrants to South Sudan.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)This article originally appeared on Reuters at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/supreme-court-lets-trump-resume-190857993.html
Ex-Trump prosecutor Smith tells senators he won't 'be silenced' by threats of prosecution Ex-Trump prosecutor Smith tells senators he won't 'be silenced' by threats of prosecutionWASHINGTON (AP) - Former special counsel Jack Smith forcefully defended his prosecutions of President Donald Trump and his investigative tactics, pushing back against repeated Republican criticism in a congressional hearing Tuesday that featured a senator's bungled attempt to accuse him of lying about a basketball game. The hearing offered a forum for Republicans to try to paint Smith as a political operative and assail him anew for what they contend were politicized prosecutions that unfolded during the 2024 presidential race. Democrats rallied in defense of Smith, eliciting testimony on the legal and factual basis for the criminal cases against the then-candidate and decrying the Trump administration's firing of prosecutors involved in the investigations. Smith, for his part, defended his work in an hours-long Senate Judiciary Committee hearing - the latest congressional effort to revisit federal cases that accused Trump of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 race and of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both were abandoned after Trump's 2024 election win. "Anybody who has worked with me and knows me during the course of my career knows that I would not let politics play a role. And I would just add that if you knew the people I worked with, they would not either," Smith said. He lamented what he called an unprecedented assault on the rule of law by the Trump administration, along with terminations of his team that he said had deprived the government of crucial expertise and made the country less safe. "That has never happened in my career. I have never seen anything remotely like it in any Republican or Democratic administration," he said.
An effort to accuse Smith of perjury backfires
The testimony did nothing to appease Smith's Republican critics, including Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, who called Smith a "dirtbag." In the hearing's most memorable moment, Schmitt asked Smith whether he recalled attending a professional basketball game in Atlanta in February 2024, around the time a local district attorney also prosecuting Trump over election interference was under scrutiny for a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor in the case. Smith appeared perplexed by the question, which tried to make an unsubstantiated link between the federal and state prosecutions of Trump. "I do not have a recollection of going to Atlanta," Smith said. "I definitely did not go to a Hawks game. I'm sure of that." At that point, staffers held up posterboard displaying a series of text messages that, according to Schmitt, purported to show communications about Smith's attendance at an NBA game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors. "I think you've already perjured yourself," Schmitt said. The confusion was hashed out minutes later when Smith volunteered that he indeed had gone to a basketball game in February 2024 - an Iowa Hawkeyes women's matchup at the University of Maryland that had nothing to do with the Atlanta Hawks. "Could it then be that the University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes? Could that be it?" Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said as she chided Schmitt. "That might be the confusion over the names of the team. But perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully."
The hearing focused heavily on subpoenas for lawmakers' phone records
Smith was pressed by Republican senators about his access to the phone records of GOP lawmakers as he investigated Trump's efforts to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors issued subpoenas for toll records of numerous Republican members of Congress who were contacted by Trump or his aides on Jan. 6, 2021, the day supporters of the president rioted inside the U.S. Capitol. Smith has said such subpoenas are common in investigations and were necessary in this instance to understand the "scope of the conspiracy" between Trump and his Republican allies. The subpoenas, he said Tuesday, provided corroborating evidence that Trump and his alleged co-conspirators sought to exploit the violence of the day by invoking it to try to further delay the congressional certification of Biden's win. "They were taking the fact that law enforcement officers had been brutally assaulted at this institution and using that to seek to delay the proceedings further in violation of the law," Smith said. Toll records reveal the date, time and duration of phone calls between two parties but not the content of the communications. There is no legal prohibition against obtaining the toll records of members of Congress, and Democrats noted that the first Trump administration Justice Department had sought records for representatives of their party during an investigation. Nonetheless, the revelation that Smith's team secretly obtained the records has animated Republican lawmakers, who consider it proof of overreach by the Biden administration Justice Department and the hard-charging prosecutor it picked as special counsel. Smith pointed out that he had consulted with and received approval from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. In July, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, referred Smith to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on allegations he lied at a previous hearing about the records collection - something Smith and his attorneys have vigorously disputed. "I stand by my testimony before the House of Representatives," Smith said Tuesday. "I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others."
Smith faced bitingly personal criticism from Republicans
Smith was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead investigations into Trump's efforts to reverse his election loss and Trump's retention of classified documents. Smith abandoned the prosecutions after Trump's 2024 win, citing Justice Department opinions that sitting presidents cannot be federally indicted. Smith has remained a top target of retribution for Trump. Republicans on the committee followed that lead, confronting him in a hearing that frequently devolved into partisan sniping and name-calling and broke along familiar party lines. They sought to cast the prosecutions as a political fishing expedition, accusing Smith of bending procedures in pursuit of Trump. "The Smith election case ultimately wasn't just about Trump," said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the committee chairman. "It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus." During one tense exchange, Republican Sen. John Kennedy grew exasperated as he asked whether the Biden White House instructed the Justice Department to prosecute Trump. Smith said he had "no idea about that," and that the decision to prosecute Trump was his own. In an effort to show Smith was being evasive, Kennedy asked Smith whether he believed in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny. Smith said no. "You make me want to throw up in my mouth," Kennedy said. Democrats, by contrast, used the hearing to affirm the legitimacy of the Trump investigations and draw out testimony on the scope of criminal conduct that Smith says he and his team found. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee's top Democrat, accused Republicans of spreading "baseless conspiracy theories" about Smith's investigations in an effort to "whitewash" the history of Trump's election loss and the subsequent Capitol attack. "The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith, nonstop, are petty, personal and political. They are nothing but a smoke screen to distract from the president's own clear, unlawful conduct," Durbin said.This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/ex-trump-prosecutor-smith-tell-102828759.html
Mamdani's plan to tax luxury 2nd homes hits snag as judge orders redo Mamdani's plan to tax luxury 2nd homes hits snag as judge orders redoNEW YORK - Striking a blow to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's rollout of his pied-à-terre tax on the rich, a Staten Island judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of owners of high-value second homes who sued the city and ordered the city to start the process over.Justice Wayne Ozzi found that notices the city mailed to property owners informing them that they may be subject to the surcharge were unlawful and had to be canceled and re-sent. He also ruled that the controversial supplemental property tax roll posted online must be taken down."No crime is involved here, but homeowners are being substantially harmed and penalized needlessly," Ozzi wrote in a 22-page decision, referring to the city's method of implementing the tax law on high-value second homes.The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The second-home surcharge is a key source of revenue for the city, expected to raise a whopping $500 million to help close what ahd been a massive budget gap.Randy Mastro, representing the homeowners in the case, said the city had botched the rollout and wasted taxpayers' time."The fact is that this administration failed to follow state law when it burdened New York City homeowners with proving they live in their own homes or be on the hook for paying a new surcharge," Mastro said. "Now the administration must go back and do what it should have done from the start: use all the information at its disposal to make an individualized 'initial determination' about who truly owes this surcharge before demanding that they pay it."The city and the state have estimated that the number of properties impacted will be around 10,000. A larger net was cast in July when the city wrote to approximately 17,000 luxury property owners, saying they may be subject to the tax and could file for an exemption. Around 900,000 pricey properties were described in an online public database as potentially related to the surcharge.The initial letters were based in part on information culled from homeowners' 2024 personal tax returns. After those notices went out, the city obtained more recent tax forms from the state six months ahead of schedule and contacted hundreds of people to notify them that they were not, after all, subject to the pied-à-terre tax.The wife and father of Republican Staten Island Councilmember Frank Morano, Rachel O'Brien and Carmine Morano, were among the homeowners who sued the city over the rollout of the surcharge, which targets luxury second homes owned by non-New York City residents valued over $5 million, or co-ops and condos with a market value over $1 million.Though the Moranos and their co-plaintiff Simon Hedley later learned they weren't subject to the charge, Mastro - a frequent defender of well-heeled New Yorkers and Mamdani critic who served in top roles under mayors Rudy Giuliani and Eric Adams - had claimed they were put through "hell" when the city informed them they might have to pay it over the summer.The homeowners' suit did not challenge the statute, but rather the manner in which the process had been carried out."It is so offensive!" Mastro argued during heated oral arguments before Ozzi last month, claiming homeowners suffered untold harm from having to consult lawyers and accountants and from having their tax data shared with the city.City Law Department chief Steve Banks had argued to Ozzi that the suit should be tossed because the homeowners who brought it hadn't been harmed and there was thus no relief to grant."This is a case about nobody with a live claim," Banks said at last month's hearing. "The case before your honor is not an actual case in controversy - it's a policy dispute dressed up as a case in controversy."Corp. counsel Banks countered that Mastro and the homeowners had manufactured claims to fight a policy they didn't like after receiving a non-final agency determination that ultimately did not impact them. He said the process was an iterative one and that no laws had been violated.Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law in May, aims to use money from wealthy people with primary residences elsewhere to help fund his affordability agenda. Homeowners who permanently live in the city, or have an immediate family member living there, are among those who qualify for exemptions.More than 2,000 people have challenged their status, with the city recently extending the deadline to submit proof of residency to Oct. 6.In a video announcing the tax in April, Mamdani held up as an example the $238 million penthouse on Billionaires' Row belonging to Chicago-based hedge funder Ken Griffin, which was the most expensive home ever purchased in the U.S. when he bought it in 2019."This pied-à-terre is specifically designed for the richest of the rich - those who store their wealth in New York City real estate, but who don't actually live here," Mamdani said."Most of the time, these units are sitting empty since, again, they don't actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers.""I believe everyone has a role to play in contributing to our city. And some, a little bit more than others."_____This article originally appeared on NY Daily News at https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/09/29/ny-judge-strikes-down-mayor-mamdanis-pied-a-terre-tax-rollout-forcing-city-to-start-over/?utm_term=latest%20headlines,local%20news,new%20york%20politics,news,politics,zohran%20mamdani&utm_medium=WEB_notification&utm_source=pushly&utm_campaign=204563720
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), antifa and the Muslim Brotherhood will be labeled domestic terrorist organizations under a new state law, after Florida leaders OK'd the designations at their Sept. 29 meeting. These designations were in a 427-page packet submitted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for approval by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Cabinet members: Attorney General James Uthmeier, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia. The packet also named numerous other groups labeled by the federal government as foreign terrorist organizations. Although the Governor and Florida Cabinet approved these notices without any discussion, these designations don't come as a surprise. Weeks earlier, the governor and Cabinet approved an emergency rule setting procedures under a new state law (HB 1471) allowing them to designate terror groups. Additionally, the day this law took effect, DeSantis announced his intentions to declare CAIR, the country's largest Muslim advocacy group, and antifa as domestic terror groups. The law not only allows the state to issue these designations, but also mandates universities to expel students who "promote" these groups. It also restricts schools affiliated with domestic terror groups from participating in the state's school voucher program, which grants taxpayer-funded scholarships for parents to enroll their child in a school of their choice. Now, the organizations have seven days after receiving the notice to object to the designation. The group can also petition FDLE to remove the designation, or it can appeal the designation in the 2nd Judicial Circuit. A statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents CAIR in existing legal challenges against the governor, said they plan to fight CAIR's designation in court. "There are simply no legitimate grounds to brand our clients with a reviled label, impose crippling criminal penalties, and force them to shut their doors in Florida," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's national security project, in a statement. "As the country's leading Muslim civil rights group, CAIR is being targeted not because it poses a threat to public safety, but because doing so serves a political agenda at the expense of Floridians' rights. CAIR and all U.S. nonprofits have the right to criticize the government, protect religious freedom, and advocate for the causes they believe in."
Summary findings referred to CAIR as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a case involving a Muslim organization called the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was shut down in the 2000s. DeSantis previously had called this case the "largest terrorism-financing case in American history." On CAIR's website, it noted that being "unindicted" has no legal implication and that it was an "untested allegation." Additionally, CAIR's designation findings included a multi-page timeline starting in 1928, when it was founded, to now, along with a "web" with images of cofounders and leaders in CAIR suggesting a connection to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. It doesn't include further descriptions on these linkages in the diagram.
Terror designations still under judicial scrutiny
DeSantis currently faces two active lawsuits from CAIR:
One is challenging the state law empowering the designation of domestic terror groups, which hasn't had much movement in the courts.
On CAIR's foreign terror designation, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker struck it down while also criticizing the governor for "using an executive office to make a political statement at the expense of others' constitutional rights." The governor quickly appealed and requested the appeals court remove Walker from the case. That decision is pending.
(This story was updated to add new information.)Stephany Matat's role covering First Amendment issues at the USA TODAY Network - Florida is made possible by a collaboration among Freedom Forum, Journalism Funding Partners and the USA TODAY Network. Freedom Forum does not provide editorial input. Reach Matat at smatat@usatodayco.com and @StephanyMatat on X.This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida OKs terror designations for CAIR, antifa, Muslim Brotherhood
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post at https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/state/2026/09/29/cair-antifa-muslim-brotherhood-now-labeled-terrorists-in-florida/92001957007/
President Trump gathered top artificial intelligence leaders in Washington on Tuesday and doubled down on his opposition to government intervention, suggesting that "self-regulation" is the answer to growing worries about the technology getting out of human control.
"There's a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation," the president said after meeting with the assembled CEOs. "There was a lot of commonality in this room."
Trump said he and the CEOs signed a "morally binding" accord that would keep the companies in line through "self-policing and group policing."
Trump posted a copy of the accord to his Truth Social account with a one-page document that called for each participating company to implement four different measures to safeguard the technology and added that, later on, "it might make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."
Some executives on hand said the accord included commitments to a combination of technological controls to detect problems with new models, internal risk review efforts, external auditors, and other measures.
Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the accord "a start," while others suggested some details still needed to be worked out.
"The mechanism, how we address those risks, is still under discussion," Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) CEO Dario Amodei said. Progress had been made toward both the US winning AI and also winning safely, he said, though he emphasized that the technology still poses "real dangers."President Trump speaks with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and others during a meeting with technology executives about artificial intelligence in the East Room of the White House on Sept. 29. (Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images)
KENT NISHIMURA via Getty Images
Amodei published an essay earlier this month titled "We Must Pace the Frontier," which set off a fierce debate about the need for a cooperative slowdown in AI capability.
The accord also formally changed the name of the technology in government record-keeping to Super Intelligence.
"We've changed the name officially to SI," Trump said.
The "meeting and luncheon on Super Intelligence," as the White House described the event, took place in the East Room, with Trump even posting the seating chart. The location was the same spot where just a few days ago, many of the same AI leaders gathered for a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Elon Musk of Tesla (TSLA), Jensen Huang of Nvidia (NVDA), and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) were all at the head table with Xi last Thursday and again received prominent spots near Trump.
After the meeting, Trump also said he was "very close" to a decision on an AI czar and would announce it in the next three to four days.
Other notable guests included Google (GOOGL, GOOG) CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) president Greg Brockman, Palantir (PLTR) CEO Alex Karp, Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, and others.President Donald Trump holds a press briefing with AI executives following a meeting on artificial intelligence at the White House on September 29. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
The gathering came as the US continues to digest a raft of alarming new AI disclosures in recent days, such as an Axios report that OpenAI, Anthropic, and security researchers were sifting through thousands of incidents of problematic actions by AI agents.
And in Florida, the attorney general unveiled a new state-level challenge asking a court to halt OpenAI's training of new models unless it puts outside safeguards in place.
But that skepticism didn't change the tenor of the gathering in Washington.
Trump repeatedly brushed off worries about the technology, saying after the meeting that he believes AI will make the world a safer place and that fears about data centers driving up costs were overblown.
He said instead that these new facilities "are going to make communities very happy."
At an event earlier in the day to launch a new government website powered by AI, Trump promised that AI is "going to mostly be put to great use and we'll stop the bad use," through the Department of Justice and FBI.President Trump speaks during a meeting with technology executives about artificial intelligence on Sept. 29. (Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images)
KENT NISHIMURA via Getty Images
He added he would "never stifle the growth of technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution."
This story has been updated.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance at https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/trump-gathers-with-ai-leaders-floats-self-regulation-as-the-way-to-deal-with-the-technologys-dangers-193745293.html
