The Latest: Trump administration loosens fuel economy standards
The Trump administration on Monday released new fuel economy standards that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks.
The new rules were released shortly after President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring.
Also, Trump has justified the pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan to Chinese President Xi Jinping by downplaying it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world — even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for U.S. arms, Trump’s ambassador to China said Sunday.
Here's the latest:
FBI Director Kash Patel is praising Andrew Bailey, his outgoing deputy director who is leaving his post at the end of the week.
In a post on X, Patel said Bailey may be leaving the bureau but “his fantastic contribution instituting critical reforms which resulted in our historic success will live on.”
Bailey was named co-deputy director in August 2025 to serve alongside Dan Bongino, who also held the title. Bongino resigned months later but Bailey remained in the job even after the FBI added another co-deputy director, veteran agent Christopher Raia.
Bailey said he was returning to Missouri, where he served as the Republican state attorney general, to be with his family.
An investigation of 60 registered voters in Arizona who were suspected of being noncitizens has concluded that 52 were U.S. citizens.
The remaining eight were noncitizens who were in the United States legally, said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, whose office hasn’t yet decided whether to charge the eight with a crime.
The problem is attributed to a flaw in Arizona’s motor vehicle division system that was discovered in 2024. People who got their first driver’s licenses before proof of citizenship was required in order to vote were later grandfathered as if they had provided such proof when they renewed their licenses.
Mitchell examined the voter registrations after County Recorder Justin Heap informed her of 207 registered voters who were suspected of being noncitizens.
In February, Heap’s office used a controversial federal voter database in a bid to confirm voter eligibility of the registered voters in question.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted restrictions on the SAVE database before November’s elections. It’s a program that has drawn scrutiny for its tendency to wrongly flag some eligible voters as noncitizens.
Pope Leo XIV said Monday that concerns about artificial intelligence going rogue are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, insisting that safety issues raised by AI experts should be discussed and acted on.
Leo, who dedicated his first encyclical to AI and protecting humanity in its wake, was asked during a press conference about what the United States and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity. President Donald Trump has called concerns about AI going rogue a “hoax.”
Trump has been a champion of AI, often warning that the United States must remain ahead of China in the technological arms race. He has said efforts to limit the technology were part of a “conspiracy” by his political opponents.
Several AI giants, including Anthropic, have called for a slowdown in development to give safety measures time to catch up to the fast-moving technology.
A federal court judge on Monday blocked the authority of President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold some federal counterterrorism funding from states that don’t meet its election administration demands.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, D.C., wrote in a 24-page opinion that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t have the authority from Congress to make such demands on the grants, and that the demands it made didn’t meet legal thresholds requiring it to be related to the underlying grant purpose.
The plaintiffs were Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, El Paso and Harris counties in Texas and Columbus, Ohio.
Over the summer, a Federal Emergency Management Agency antiterrorism grant announcement included a list of election-related requirements, saying that 20% of grants for states and urban areas would be withheld until they comply.
The list of items for states includes verifying the citizenship of all registered voters and election workers.
Places that use electronic voting systems that use bar codes or QR codes to count votes would have to submit plans to switch to hand-marked paper ballots. Every jurisdiction would have to show it audits results.
Trump said he was “surprised” that the five young British men arrested Sunday on explosives and terror charges near the base in England were allowed to be released.
A U.K.-owned base, RAF Fairford has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including this year’s war with Iran.
The men were released on bail on Monday, and counterterror detectives said they were investigating “multiple lines of inquiry,” including whether there was a link to Iran.
“I know the answer,” Trump said, when asked if there were a connection to Iran. “I can be very specific, but I’d rather not say it.”
Asked about ’David Perdue’s comment on Fox News Channel’s “Fox News Sunday,” Trump said, “I never heard of that one.”
On Sunday, Perdue said that Trump had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wanted to buy weapons from the United States. Such an offer would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and expose U.S. technology to a potential foe.
Perdue’s remark came days after Trump hosted Xi for a state visit in Washington. Perdue didn’t specify when the offer was made.
On Monday, Trump said he was “going to have to ask” Perdue about the comment, trying to correct the reporter who asked about it — and suggesting that surely Perdue had meant arms sales to Taiwan, not China.
“I’m going to come to Iowa,” Trump said in the Oval Office announcing a new $15 billion steel plant there, after talking with Rep. Ashley Hinson about her Senate campaign there.
“We’re going to do a great rally and we’ll all be there together,” Trump said. “We have to get you all elected.”
Both Trump and Vance have already campaigned with GOP candidates in Iowa, and their continued attention on the state reflects the administration’s understanding that governor and Senate races have become competitive.
Trump has vowed to campaign in 35 of the most competitive battleground races in the final sprint to November’s midterm elections. He plans on Saturday to visit Ohio in support of Sen. Jon Husted, following stops in Oklahoma and Alabama in the preceding days.
“I love Iowa,” Trump said.
In the room as Trump announced a new $15 billion steel plant in Iowa being built with backing from an Indian conglomerate were a veritable phalanx of Republican officials from the state that’s drawn elevated focus from the White House this midterm cycle.
Trump was joined by outgoing Sen. Joni Ernst, who’s not running for reelection. Trump said he’s “really going to miss Ernst,” his longtime ally. Trump said he had seen some “good polls” for the GOP nominee to replace her, Rep. Ashley Hinson, who was also in the room, as was Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both touched down in the state this year to shore up Republican enthusiasm, trying to energize voters ahead of governor and Senate races that have become competitive.
The president touted the 50% tariffs on steel imports that he imposed last year as the impetus for the steel plant that officials were announcing Monday will be built in Iowa by Mesabi Metallics.
“Our steel industry is roaring back to life. Everyone is building their plants here because they don’t want to pay tariffs,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s really not that complicated.”
The Trump administration is revoking the visas of 27 Latin American officials, former officials and their families, including Bolivia’s current attorney general, on corruption charges.
The officials and their families come from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – the last three of which Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited earlier this month. The administration says the revocations are part of broader efforts to clamp down on corruption, particularly related to the drug trade and human trafficking, by the so-called “Shield of the Americas” bloc, which President Donald Trump created earlier this year.
The State Department announced the revocations on Monday.
The 27 targeted include Bolivian Attorney General Roger Mariaca and several other Bolivian prosecutors and judges. Two Colombians, a business mogul and a lawmaker, along with two Ecuadorians, and one Peruvian judge are also affected.
The U.S. is having talks with Iran through mediators that are seen as positive and constructive, but it will not reach a deal with Tehran until nuclear issues are addressed, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment directly to the media.
Trump is willing to grant sanctions relief to Iran, along with the release of some frozen funds, for concrete progress on nuclear issues, and Iran has indicated it is flexible on nuclear issues, but the sides remain far apart on timing and which side makes the first moves, according to the official.
The official said the U.S. is skeptical of promises from Iran after it broke the memorandum of understanding by firing on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, so Washington is looking for signs that Iran is serious this time. It was not immediately clear what those signs might be.
U.S. officials feel their position is getting stronger as Tehran feels the impact of sanctions.
—By Michelle Price
Mediators are still working with Iran and the United States on brokering a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz — even after Trump publicly rejected Iran’s latest proposal, four officials familiar with the matter, including a senior U.S. official, told The Associated Press.
The indirect talks were expected to resume Monday and come as the conflict that’s caused global economic damage and badly battered Iran enters its eighth month. Multiple efforts to allow safe shipping on one of the world’s most crucial waterways have failed.
The officials divulged that the behind-the-scenes efforts continue even after Trump spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in a week if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, releases frozen Iranian assets and waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.
— Samy Magdy and Matthew Lee
The leader of the Democratic effort to retake control of the U.S. House insists the party is well positioned heading into the final stretch of the campaign even as President Trump and his allies begin to unleash a massive amount of cash.
“This isn’t about having the most money,” Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told reporters Monday.
She said it was more important that Democrats have enough money to get their message out “and we do.”
Still, she said “we take nothing for granted.”
“Democrats across the battlefield are going to run hard until the very last moment,” she said.
The Trump administration on Monday released new fuel economy standards that relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The new rules were released shortly after Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring.
Fuel economy requirements set out how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline. The change furthers Trump’s promise to revoke policies that encouraged or created incentives for the production of electric vehicles.
The Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that the finalized standards would correspond to a combined industry fleetwide average of roughly 34.9 miles per gallon for passenger cars and light trucks in the 2031 model year, down from a projected 50.4 miles per gallon in 2031 under rules put in place by the Biden administration.
And he says he’ll be returning to Missouri to be with his family.
Bailey made the announcement in a post on X on Monday morning in which he thanked President Trump, Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel for the opportunity to serve. He says the FBI has “delivered historic results.”
Bailey was named in August 2025 to be a co-deputy director, the No. 2 job, at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. He initially served alongside Dan Bongino and, once Bongino resigned, remained in his position as the FBI named another deputy director, Christopher Raia.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about Bailey’s departure.
The White House said Trump on Monday will announce a new steel plant in eastern Iowa that would be one of the largest in the United States.
The president is expected to host steel executives at the White House for the event at 2 p.m. ET.
The mill is being built by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota company owned by India-based Essar Group. The announcement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The White House is framing it as part of Trump’s push to revitalize American steel. It comes as Trump is trying to energize Republican voters as his party faces challenging midterm elections. Iowa has found itself with competitive races for the Senate and the governor’s mansion this year.
Former Army Sec. Dan Driscoll has written a 3,400-word essay in Foreign Affairs magazine that delves deeply into how the U.S. military can better prepare for the modern battlefield, including drone warfare.
But Driscoll’s article sheds no more light on why he resigned as the Army’s civilian leader in early September. Tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were widely reported, but Driscoll praises the leadership of Hegseth and President Trump in his article.
Driscoll argues the U.S. still needs to build nuclear submarines and stealth fighters. But he says the military must get better at rapidly producing cheaper weapons, such as the drones used by Iran and Ukraine. The solution lies in private industry innovation, Driscoll writes, with “software developers in the mud with soldiers.”
The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about $30 billion each that will see tariff cuts, from American hair products to Chinese toys, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade.
The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the U.S. since 2015. The U.S. had already reduced tariffs against China after Trump’s tariffs reached as high as 145% at one point last year, as tensions between the two countries eased.
China’s commerce ministry said in a statement the agreement will help strengthen trade cooperation.
Iran’s embassy in London on Monday denied any involvement in a suspected plot targeting a U.S. operated air base in England.
The embassy said in a statement that it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations” surrounding the arrest of five men near the base in western England.
Five British men have been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack.
The men were detained early Sunday after three vans were spotted near RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that’s been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East.
Trump has justified the pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan to Chinese President Xi Jinping by downplaying it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world — even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for U.S. arms, Trump’s ambassador to China said on Sunday.
David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that, if consummated, would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and potentially expose U.S. technology to a potential foe. Perdue, speaking to Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” didn’t specify when the offer was made.
Bream had cited concerns from Republican and Democratic lawmakers over delayed aid packages and weapons orders to Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy, to defend itself from China. Bream asked if the U.S. is denying arms to Taiwan to appease the Chinese president, who visited Trump last week. Perdue pushed back on the suggestion, stating that Trump “is as strong on Taiwan as I’ve ever seen anybody” and has sold it plenty of weapons.
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