Today’s Top Stories from NBC News
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In today’s newsletter: The Senate confirms Todd Blanche as attorney general. Extreme drought prompts strict water-rationing measures in Puerto Rico. And a pastor’s wife kicks him out after learning he’s linked to two of his former wives’ deaths.
Here’s what to know today.
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(Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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After weeks of uncertainty, Todd Blanche was confirmed as U.S. attorney general early Saturday in a mostly party-line vote.
Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, was confirmed by a vote of 50-49, with only two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voting against him.
The vote was held after 4 a.m. on Saturday, as a late-night session ran over into the early hours ahead of a planned Senate recess.
“I am deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice as our great nation’s 88th Attorney General,” Blanche said in a post on X, adding: “I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process.”
His confirmation had been in jeopardy, largely because of concerns about his handling of the so-called anti-weaponization fund, established as part of a purported settlement between private citizen Trump and the federal government he now controls.
The fund could have been used to compensate Trump allies who claimed they were victims of government overreach, including people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Blanche also signed off on another part of the deal that gave Trump, his family members and his businesses immunity from tax audits.
The Senate also voted 90-6 early Saturday to pass a short-term funding bill to remove the threat of a government shutdown before the midterm elections.
Read more about Blanche's confirmation.
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A federal appeals court affirmed a U.S. judge’s ruling to block President Trump’s planned construction of a White House ballroom, finding that whether “a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help.” The order, however, allows below-ground work to move forward.
Trump blasted the decision on social media and vowed to “immediately” appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing the project was “required” for national security as the construction includes an underground complex that would house military and security facilities. But appeals court judges said the administration directly caused some of the security concerns and delays it is now complaining about.
What else the judges said about Trump’s ballroom.
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Water rationing efforts in Puerto Rico began yesterday, forcing 180,000 residents in the greater San Juan area to be split into two zones and alternate potable water service every two days. July was the driest month in the capital in more than 120 years, and the weather exacerbated long-standing issues with the territory’s deteriorating water infrastructure.
On Friday morning, water trucks known as “oasis” lined the roads, providing a lifeline for residents. One resident said she stopped at three different “oasis” that had already run out of water before finding one that still had a supply. Another, an 84-year-old woman who lives alone and uses a walker, said she has to rely on neighbors to bring her water. “I have never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.
What other residents said about the crisis.
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When detectives from Oregon showed up to the Missouri home of John Bridges, a retired Seventh-day Adventist pastor, to investigate the death of his second wife, Bridge’s current wife — his fifth — sent him packing. “I am not afraid of him and I don’t think he would come back to hurt me,” Janice Sue Grote said in a phone interview with NBC News. “But I don’t want to sleep with a man who is under suspicion of murder. I don’t want to be stupid.”
All four of Bridges’ previous wives are dead. Recently, authorities reopened investigations into the deaths of his first two wives — Joyce Bridges and Astrid Bridges — as possible homicides.
How Bridges’ first four wives died.
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- Cars
- Phones
- Humanoid robots
- Counterfeit purses
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Find out the answer and test your knowledge of this week's most-read stories. (The answer to the question is also at the bottom of this newsletter.)
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One of the biggest questions surrounding the current generative AI boom is how well and how quickly the technology will be able to tackle problems in the real world. AI is amazing at crunching spreadsheet data and controlling virtual computer interfaces, but it’s much less clear how well today’s commercial AI systems can operate in the physical world, where about 80% of global economic activity takes place, according to various consultancies.
Andon Labs, a small Bay Area start up, seeks to demystify AI’s progress and translate growth in AI capabilities to a wider public audience. They build and perform experiments, like Drone-Bench, that showcase how AI succeeds and falls short of human-level performance on a variety of real-world activities. For example, I covered their project to put AI in charge of a boutique store in San Francisco earlier this year.
So when I heard that the Andon team was going to evaluate how well off-the-shelf AI systems could control consumer drones, it seemed like a great way to show how quickly the technology is progressing. Drone-Bench shows that consumer-facing AI systems can already match human performance on most tasks required to control a drone. It sounds like sci-fi, but having been chased around the Andon Labs office by the buzzing device, I can assure you it’s not.
Drones will be a key part of our future tech landscape, and Americans have been largely insulated from the latest advances. It seems likely that drone swarms could soon become a national security threat, making this high-flying experiment both eye-opening and, paradoxically, very grounding.
— Jared Perlo, tech reporter
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- For subscribers: Europe’s key rivers are drying up, fueling economic disruption, forcing energy-saving measures and even exposing sunken World War II ships.
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Over 1 million cartons of eggs have been recalled for salmonella. Here’s what you should know to stay safe. Plus, cyclosporiasis cases have now been reported in 47 states. Here’s what to do if you have the lettuce linked to it.
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Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Elizabeth Robinson and Delia Sara Rangel.
By the way, the answer to the quiz question above is C. Humanoid robots.
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