National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard blindsided CIA leaders last week when she disclosed the name of an undercover CIA officer on a list of people she stripped of security clearances, multiple current and former intelligence sources said.
The move, which alarmed the agency’s workforce, sources said, is the latest example of simmering tensions and crossed signals between Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The two have clashed previously over her decisions, including this month when Gabbard declassified a lightly redacted document related to Russian election interference.
Two former government officials said their read of the situation is that Gabbard is under pressure to regain President Donald Trump’s confidence. Gabbard fell out of favor with Trump and his aides this year when she posted a video and delivered testimony about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
But the tensions seem to have subsided for now. On Tuesday, as he presided over a Cabinet meeting before television cameras, Trump praised Gabbard. “You found some interesting things, Tulsi,” he said. “She’s becoming a bigger and bigger star every day.”
Trump faces a hurdle in banning mail-in voting: His own party
Trump has continued his long-running calls to do away with mail-in voting, but people inside his own party aren’t so sure that’s a good idea.
Voter turnout by mail exceeded 30% in at least 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the most recent data available. Trump won half of those states, most of which have Republican governors or secretaries of state overseeing elections. Others, like Arizona and Michigan, have Democrats overseeing elections but are major electoral battlegrounds.
Michigan state House Majority Leader Bryan Posthumus, a Republican who endorsed Trump last year, is among those with concerns over calls to scrap mail-in voting, though he has proposed amending the state constitution to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.
In South Dakota, a state with high vote-by-mail turnout, GOP Chair Jim Eschenbaum expressed concern that a ban could unfairly disenfranchise military personnel.
“If anybody deserves a vote in our elections, it’s the people that are willing to die for us,” Eschenbaum said. “So we can’t ban it, but I think it should be limited in the respect that it is somewhat ripe for fraud.”
Meet the Press
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook should release her mortgage documents but accused Trump of “following Richard Nixon’s playbook to interfere with” the Fed.
Khanna made the remarks Sunday in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” Trump moved to fire Cook last week, pointing to allegations of mortgage fraud; she is challenging the move in a lawsuit.
Khanna was referring to President Richard Nixon’s pressuring the Fed chair to keep interest rates lower before the 1972 election, which Nixon won. He resigned two years later because of the Watergate scandal.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., declined Sunday to say he had 100% confidence in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying instead that Kennedy has not “gone a wrong direction” on vaccines.
Politics in brief
- Deportations paused: A federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of a group of Guatemalan children who had crossed the border without their families.
- Summer showdowns: Trump and the Republicans may have full control of Washington, but protesters spared neither party boos, jeers and tense confrontations at congressional town halls this summer.
- VOA cuts: Kari Lake announced more than 500 people have been cut from Voice of America and its parent agency, which could ratchet up a monthslong legal challenge over the news outlets’ fate.
- Tariff effects: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting China for the first time in seven years in an effort to mend ties, days after the Trump administration raised tariffs on Indian imports to 50%.
Bullet fragment found in neck of boy who went viral for saying friend shielded him from school shooting
Doctors discovered a bullet fragment in the neck of a 10-year-old boy who went viral for recounting how his friend jumped on top of him to shield him during a mass shooting that killed two at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis.
Weston Halsne, a fifth grade student, described running under a pew and covering his head during the attack and said his friend Victor was shot while as he was shielding him.
“I think I got, like, gunpowder on my neck,” he said. But doctors later discovered it was a bullet fragment. Weston’s father told NBC News that the fragment was just shy of his carotid artery, which a doctor described as a “miracle.”
More on the shooting:
- Young survivors Pablo and Pilar Maldonado are leaning on faith and friends as they navigate healing.
- An art teacher who had the Minneapolis church shooter in her class in 2017 said she saw signs of self-harm on her then-student.
- The Rev. Dennis Zehren wept during the first Mass since the attack as he recalled the congregation being told to stay down as rounds rang out.
- Pope Leo XIV called for an end to the “pandemic of arms, large and small,” as he prayed publicly for the victims.
Humans are being hired to punch up AI slop
The same artificial intelligence technology that was supposed to replace content creators is now giving some of them new jobs.
Writers are asked to spruce up ChatGPT’s writing. Artists are being hired to patch up wonky AI images. Even software developers are tasked with fixing buggy apps coded by AI assistants.
New technology means anyone can generate content. The problem is it’s not always good. A recent MIT report found that 95% of businesses’ generative AI pilots are getting zero return on investment. The issue lies in AI’s inability to “retain feedback, adapt to context, or improve over time” the way a human can, the report says.
Half of freelance writer Kiesha Richardson’s jobs nowadays come from clients who hire her to tweak or rewrite AI-generated articles that “don’t look remotely human at all.” And while fixing AI’s mistakes isn’t an ideal job for some, she said, it helps pay the bills.
Notable quote
We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order aimed at curbing the power of federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops Trump has threatened to deploy to the city.
In case you missed it
- Israel’s latest assault on Gaza killed at least 70 people across the strip Saturday, 47 of them in Gaza City alone, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry told NBC News.
- Dominican artists and activists are telling the stories of women who’ve died from high-risk pregnancies in a push to change the Dominican Republic’s total abortion ban.
- Jeremy Lin, who sparked a global craze when he led the New York Knicks to a career-defining winning streak, announced his retirement from basketball.
- British celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay disclosed that he was diagnosed with skin cancer.
- A silent heart disease risk factor may explain why some women end up having heart attacks and strokes despite appearing healthy, a new study suggests.
- The English flag is popping up across the country as part of a new grassroots campaign, which some critics say is rooted in anti-immigration sentiment instead of patriotism.
- Lil Nas X’s father opened up about the pressures his son faces and visiting him in jail after the singer’s arrest in Los Angeles.
- Outbreaks of rabies seem to be rising across the United States, CDC surveillance shows, with six deaths reported over the last 12 months.