DNC vice chair Malcolm Kenyatta slammed President Trump and GOP during an interview with Fox News Digital, saying Democrats are'not part of a cult.' MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta is among the party's leaders calling for Democrats to become "more aggressive in making life better for people." It was a common theme as more than 400 DNC committee members from all 50 states and seven territories huddled this past week for their summer meeting, which was held in Minnesota's largest city. As Democrats hunger for more forceful resistance against President Donald Trump's sweeping and controversial agenda, DNC Chair Ken Martin kicked off the three-day confab by targeting the president, arguing Trump's acting as "a dictator-in-chief" and that his second administration is "fascism dressed in a red tie." Martin, pointing to the forceful response by Democrats to moves this summer by Trump and Republicans to create more right-leaning U.S. House seats in states across the country through rare mid-decade congressional redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections, told committee members that he's "sick and tired of this Democratic Party bringing a pencil to a knife fight." Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta addresses the DNC's summer meeting, on August 27, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Pentagon conducted its first successful tests of Army and Navy fighter jets tactically controlled by AI through Rafts Starsage this month. MACHINE WINGMAN: For the first time, U.S. fighter pilots took direction from an AI "air battle manager" in a Pentagon test that could change how wars are fought in the skies. STAR-POWERED TECH: Google kicked off its Made by Google event last week with blockbuster energy. Jimmy Fallon played host, bringing humor and star presence. Steph Curry highlighted how the Pixel 10 empowers creators and athletes to capture and share their stories.

Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and NFL tight end Travis Kelce announced their engagement on Instagram after two years of dating. I bet you thought bunnies were nice, normal, cuddly critters -- except for the vorpal bunny of "Monty Python" fame. Turns out, we were all wrong. According to The Associated Press, there's a group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque horn-like growths that may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film. Hide your kids, hide your wives and dig out your VHS copy of "Night of the Lepus."

Public sector workers have voiced "deep concern" after Coventry city council signed a 500,000-a-year artificial intelligence contract with the US data technology company Palantir. The deal is the first of its kind between a UK local authority and the Denver-based company, which supplies technology to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and to help Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts. The contract follows a pilot scheme in the council's children's services department, including using AI for case-note transcription and to summarise social workers' records. The council is planning to extend the Palantir system to processes for providing support to children with special educational needs. The council's chief executive, Julie Nugent, said it aimed to "improve internal data integration and service delivery" and "explore the transformative opportunities of artificial intelligence".

As students returned to school this week, WIRED spoke to a self-proclaimed leader of a violent online group known as "Purgatory" about a rash of swattings at universities across the US in recent days. The group claims to have ties to the loose cybercriminal network known as The Com, and the alleged Purgatory leader claimed responsibility for calling in hoax active-shooter alerts. Researchers from multiple organizations warned this week that cybercriminals are increasingly using generative AI tools to fuel ransomware attacks, including real situations where cybercriminals without technical expertise are using AI to develop the malware. And a popular, yet enigmatic, shortwave Russian radio station known as UVB-76 seems to have turned into a tool for Kremlin propaganda after decades of mystery and intrigue. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn't cover in depth ourselves.

As SpaceX's Starship vehicle gathered all of the attention this week, the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket continued to hit some impressive milestones. Both occurred during relatively anonymous launches of the company's Starlink satellites but are nonetheless notable because they underscore the value of first-stage reuse, which SpaceX has pioneered over the past decade. The first milestone occurred on Wednesday morning with the launch of the Starlink 10-56 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first stage that launched these satellites, Booster 1096, was making its second launch and successfully landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship. Strikingly, this was the 400th time SpaceX has executed a drone ship landing.

This week: Fed governor Lisa Cook is suing the Trump administration over her dismissal. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck, along with guest Kashmir Hill of The New York Times, discuss the weak fraud case being used to oust the Biden-appointed Fed governor and its significance in the fight to preserve the independence of the Federal Reserve. Then, Kashmir goes in depth on the many stories she's reported on lately of people forming intense relationships with AI chatbots that lead to dire consequences including psychosis and death. She and the hosts discuss the role of this new technology in our society, the unknowable consequences of its unchecked ubiquity, and what can be done to protect users from potential dangers. PLEASE NOTE: There is discussion of suicide in this episode.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, R-Fla., joins'America's Newsroom' to discuss Florida's crackdown on illegal immigrant truck drivers after the death of three Americans. In an apparent effort to address the millions of backlogged immigration cases, the Justice Department made a rule change to allow attorneys without immigration law experience to act as temporary immigration judges. The DOJ's Office of Immigration Review published the rule in the federal register Thursday, which removes the requirement that temporary immigration judges have substantive prior experience in immigration law. Jurists who are approved by Attorney General Pam Bondi may serve as immigration judges, which represents a tide change after more than 100 judges were fired or bought out by the Trump administration earlier in 2025. The DOJ hopes that by expanding the net as to who may hear immigration-related cases, the more than three million case backlog may finally be assuaged.

The White House appears to have instructed leaders at the General Services Administration (GSA) to add xAI's Grok chatbot to a list of approved vendors "ASAP," according to an email sent by agency leadership earlier this week, which WIRED obtained. "Team: Grok/xAI needs to go back on the schedule ASAP per the WH," states the email, sent by the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Josh Gruenbaum. "Can someone get with Carahsoft on this immediately and please confirm?" Carahsoft is a major government contractor that resells technology from third-party firms. "Should be all of their products we had previously (3 & 4)," the email continued, seemingly referring to Grok 3 and Grok 4. The subject line of the email was "xAI add Grok-4." Sources say Carahsoft's contract was modified to include xAI earlier this week.

Tokyo is seeking another record-busting defense budget -- including spending to build a drone "shield" to defend Japan's southwestern periphery -- amid rising concerns over the Chinese military's moves near and inside the country's waters and airspace. The Defense Ministry said Friday that it is seeking a budget exceeding 8.8 trillion ( 60 billion) for fiscal 2026, up 4.4% from last year's record 8.5 trillion initial request. The budget is the fourth in a five-year spending plan of around 43 trillion, as Japan zeroes in on its target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense by 2027. Most prominent in this year's request is a 128.7 billion plan to build a multilayered coastal defense system covering the air, sea, and waters that incorporates unmanned assets as well as strengthened standoff defense capabilities to attack from outside an enemy's range.