British monarch highlights AI’s potential darker capacities, urging safety and humanity-focused development.
Published On 17 Sep 202617 Sep 2026
The United Kingdom’s King Charles has warned Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry leaders of the “existential dangers” posed by the technology if it falls into the wrong hands.
The monarch’s comments on Thursday add to a global debate over whether, and how to regulate the industry.
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Charles hosted AI giants, including the cofounders of Nvidia and Google DeepMind, along with leaders from OpenAI and Anthropic at a summit at his Dumfries House estate in Scotland, to address safety concerns before it was “too late” to rein it in.
“There seems urgency in adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands, and being used in potentially catastrophic ways,” Charles told guests at the opening of the conference.
“Those in our world who value our humanity and its vital moral component are anxiously seeking your reassurance that we will not lose control of our destiny,” he told the industry leaders.
“Those who have created these technologies are now increasingly warning that AI risks developing darker capacities, perhaps even to take life,” or be used in “potentially catastrophic ways”, the king also said.
In recent weeks, global figures have weighed in on whether the industry should regulate itself or allow governments to produce guidelines on how the rapidly evolving technology develops.
In May, Pope Leo XIV said ”the world does not need an artificial intelligence that diminishes humanity” and must be “disarmed”.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about the technology as a “hoax”.
Slow the pace of AI development
Last week, two Anthropic researchers warned that the rapidly advancing technology could lead to human extinction in the not-too-distant future.
Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei has also called for companies to slow the pace of AI development.
However, that has prompted an international debate about whether some executives were trying to get ahead of a possible government backlash and set the rules to keep the lead of particular companies.
“The development of AI – its substance and its pace – are both intriguing and deeply concerning in equal measure,” the British monarch said.
He urged industry leaders to harness it “with safety at its heart” and “to ensure that it remains firmly in the service of humanity, community and the natural world”.
The summit in Scotland is not expected to produce any binding agreements.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday forcefully rejected calls to slow the development of artificial intelligence, dismissing concerns about its risks as a “hoax” and warning the United States remains locked in a fierce technological race with China.
The president’s position has put him at odds with a growing chorus of industry leaders and bipartisan lawmakers warning that AI could soon advance beyond human control.
Top executives from three of the country’s leading AI companies — OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk — issued exceptional calls this past weekend for collaboration on a path forward that could “pace the frontier” of AI development.
Rare flashes of bipartisanship have also emerged on Capitol Hill, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, is working with Democrats on legislation aimed at guarding against AI’s most catastrophic risks, including its potential use to develop biological weapons.
And Democratic elders, including former President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have urged their party to treat the threats posed by AI as an acute national security crisis.
But Trump remained steadfast in his pushback, blaming the political backlash on a “conspiracy” perpetuated by China, the only major competitor in the field.
“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” Trump wrote in a series of social media posts. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”
The Trump administration, the president continued, “has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so! We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!”
Calls for action have grown since a former researcher at Anthropic posted a dire alert on social media that AI development could lead to an extinction-level event. His message went viral, prompting Amodei, the founder of Anthropic, to issue a public letter calling for a slowdown.
Altman said he agreed with Amodei, announcing the company would delay its initial public offering until 2027 over safety concerns. In July, OpenAI discovered a swarm of rogue AI agents had secretly plotted to escape their virtual sandbox, infiltrating the open internet and hacking a private company — a spectacular omen of how quickly AI systems could become difficult to contain.
“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage,” Amodei wrote over the weekend, “and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.”
Still, Trump and several of his Republican allies rejected the prospect of government regulation — or cast doubt on Altman and Amodei’s motives.
The Defense Department posted a graphic on X promoting “AI-First,” and stating the government would advocate “Americanism, not effective altruism.” The image appeared generated by artificial intelligence.
“If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible,” David Sacks, Trump’s former AI czar now serving as co-chair of the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, wrote on X. “But stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission. Stop pretending antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel. Stop pretending you need a regulatory approval process that supersedes product liability.”
“Most of all, stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic,” Sacks added. “You face massive product-liability exposure if your products enable a truly damaging cyberattack.”
Regardless of the companies’ motives, Democrats are seizing the moment as an opportunity to pursue meaningful regulatory reforms.
At a Thursday fundraiser with Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, Obama said AI should move to the center of the Democratic agenda, both in Congress and on the campaign trail ahead of the 2028 presidential primary.
“I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation,” Obama said. “This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don’t get on top of it, I think can be dangerous.”
The following day, Clinton said AI was becoming “too dangerous” for partisanship to paralyze Washington.
“The one good thing that Donald Trump did in his first term was Warp Speed,” Clinton said on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” referring to a federal program in Trump’s first term to expedite the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. “Let’s put an AI commission on warp speed, and figure out what we’re going to do to sensibly regulate.”
AI leaders “are basically saying, ‘Stop us before something really bad happens,’” Clinton continued. “‘Help us stop.’ The president of China is coming to the White house in two weeks. There should be a concerted effort by this government to get off of the lies, get off of social media, quit worrying about ballrooms and ridiculous arches, and come up with a plan to enlist the Chinese.”
But China’s rapid progress in AI has so far pushed Trump to let U.S. industry move ahead with few constraints.
China’s spy chief issued a rare warning Monday that AI development could risk the future of Chinese Communist Party control over the country. But China’s foreign ministry responded defensively to the U.S. debate. “Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance which serves no one’s interest,” a spokesperson said.
Leading AI companies in the United States have begun using their most advanced models to train new ones, in a process known as recursive self-improvement. Within the industry, experts and researchers believe the first AI company to master recursive self-improvement will kick off exponential development, “winning” the race by making it impossible for competitors to catch up.
But that achievement — reaching endless intelligence improvements, generated by machines — could also drive intelligence growth beyond human control.
“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump wrote Monday. “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!”
In the U.S. House, strange bedfellows from the Republican and Democratic parties, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), have come together to try to tackle legislation that might contain AI’s greatest dangers. One bill, introduced by Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake), proposes embedding independent government auditors in AI labs and installing a federal “kill switch” to shut down agents in case of emergencies.
But it is far from clear whether Rep. Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House and a close Trump ally, would allow any such bill to come to the floor.
“We cannot put a moratorium on this because China will overlap us, and that’s the challenge,” Johnson said Sunday. “It’s national security balanced with the immediate security of making sure the models are safe.”
“We need to handle this new technology like we have others in the past and make sure we’re doing everything we can responsibly to also not smother American innovation,” Johnson added. “We have to do both things simultaneously.”
BRICS leaders gathered in New Delhi for the final day of the summit amid divisions over the wars in Iran and Ukraine, as the group seeks to project unity, strengthen the voice of the Global South and push for a more multipolar world order.
Wigan Warriors won a sixth League Leaders’ Shield as they ran in nine tries to beat Catalans Dragons and carry on their remarkable run of form heading into the Super League play-offs.
Matt Peet’s side, who were trophyless in 2025 off the back of their quadruple-winning 2024 campaign, have now won two pieces of silverware, having won the Challenge Cup in May, and are now two games away from the treble.
Harry Smith and Ugo Tison exchanged tries early on, but Liam Marshall, Brad O’Neill and Liam Farrell put Wigan in control at the break.
Austin Daniel and Jai Field continued Wigan’s scoring streak, while Zach Eckersley, Adam Keighran and Marshall’s second wrapped up a thumping 16th win in a row, with Alexis Lis scoring a fine consolation try for Les Dracs in the closing stages.
Despite Friday’s victory ensuring the shield was theirs, the really hard work was done in last week’s crucial win over title rivals Leeds Rhinos at Headingley, where they leapfrogged their rivals to go top.
Had Wigan have lost then, Leeds could have pulled off a dramatic final-day surge back to the top, winning the shield at their expense on points difference, but the Rhinos fell short and were beaten by Hull FC on Friday.
Wigan now have a bye week by virtue of a top two place and will be at home for their Super League play-off semi-final on Saturday, 12 September, live on the BBC.
For Catalans, it means a difficult campaign ends with a ninth-placed finish.
Les Dracs have now not made the end-of-season play-offs since their run to the Super League Grand Final in 2023 – where they were also beaten by Wigan.
A quarter-century after the attacks on September 11, 2001, officials across the United States have taken part in tributes and memorials to honour the 2,977 victims and those who risked their lives as part of the rescue efforts.
The incident is considered the deadliest “terrorist” attack in US history.
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Four planes were hijacked. Two crashed into the World Trade Center, causing its Twin Towers to collapse. A third struck the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. And the fourth plummeted into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew rose against their attackers.
Through social media messages, public speeches and appearances at ceremonies, US leaders on Friday took different approaches to remembering the lives of the thousands who perished on the fateful day.
Here’s what they said:
US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump speaks at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday [Saul Loeb/AFP]
US President Donald Trump chose to stay in Washington, DC, to observe the 25th anniversary.
During the attacks, 184 people died near the capital when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US military.
Trump opted not to attend a Friday ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York, where all his living presidential predecessors were in attendance.
His vice president, JD Vance, travelled to New York instead. The ceremony at the World Trade Center has a policy of not allowing political speeches.
In his remarks at the Pentagon, Trump described what happened as “true evil”. He also paid tribute to those who died in the attacks.
“We will honour their lives, we will cherish their beautiful memories, and we will protect this country and its freedoms for every future generation,” Trump said.
The president also praised US troops as he appeared to link the 9/11 attacks with his administration’s war against Iran.
“We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory,” Trump said.
“We salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror – the Islamic Republic of Iran – will never, ever have a nuclear weapon,” he later added.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday [Saul Loeb/AFP]
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke at the Pentagon, delivering his remarks shortly before Trump’s.
He warned the audience to practice “eternal vigilance” against what he called continued threats.
“There are still enemies who hate us. Every day, enemies plot to curb our power and kill our citizens, including from Islamic terrorists abroad and at home,” he said.
He proceeded to seemingly use the 9/11 attacks as justification for the US-Israeli war against Iran, which started on February 28.
“Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism,” Hegseth said, referring to Iran. “Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11.”
He went on to claim that the US military has destroyed Iran’s defences and that the US controls the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for international trade.
Iran has stopped commercial traffic through the strait since the start of the war.
“We’re still sending terrorists where they belong, to hell, and tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong,” Hegseth said. “And we’re ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The economic pressure tightens every day. We control the strait. We will finish this fight.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the attacks on September 11, 2001, on Friday [Barry Williams/AFP]
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the New York memorial service, alongside the city’s former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who led the city through the attacks.
Before the event started, Giuliani shook hands with the mayor, despite previously calling on Mamdani not to attend the event.
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, had recently come under fire from some conservative politicians and victims’ family members who said his presence at the memorial would offend them.
A Change.org petition garnered more than 100,000 signatures from those who wished to express concern about Mamdani’s participation.
Like all politicians attending the service at the National September 11 Memorial, Mamdani was not permitted to speak.
Instead, the mayor released a video on social media remembering those who were killed and challenging the public to honour their memory by doing good works.
“Twenty-five years later, we have a sacred obligation to those who were stolen from us. To care for one another as they cared for strangers. To live lives worthy of the sacrifices they made. And to build a city worthy of their courage. A city where we run toward one another,” Mamdani said.
“That is how we’ll remember.”
On Tuesday, Mamdani also released a trove of previously undisclosed documents suggesting city officials tried to downplay – or even mislead – first residents about the dangerous air quality following the attacks.
US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed
Democratic candidate for US Senate Abdul El-Sayed participates in a town hall event in Waterford, Michigan [File: Emily Elconin/Getty Images via AFP]
Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed took to the social media platform X to honour the lives lost during what he described as a “cruel act of terror”.
El-Sayed is locked in a tight midterm race in Michigan against his Republican opponent, former US Representative Mike Rogers.
Michigan’s open Senate seat is considered a must-win seat for Democrats, if they hope to take back control of the US Senate.
Rogers has sought to create controversy over El-Sayed’s past comments about the September 11 attacks. He has pointed to audio of El-Sayed reportedly saying, “9/11 scarred our country in profound ways, but what we did after 9/11 scarred millions of other people.”
During the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, Rogers blasted El-Sayed, who is Muslim, for being sympathetic to terrorists. He also sought to highlight El-Sayed’s links to left-wing internet commentator Hasan Piker.
“I never imagined that, 25 years after 9/11, I would be running against somebody who campaigns with Hasan Piker, who thinks America deserved it,” Rogers said. “Yep, but here we are.”
On Friday, however, El-Sayed used his social media post to push back against Rogers’s attacks.
“Nothing can justify the murder of innocent civilians. Nothing,” El-Sayed wrote.
He also called on Americans to help build a country that was “more inclusive, more empowering, more just” in tribute to the lives lost.
“They didn’t just attack America that day. They attacked the idea of America,” El-Sayed said of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers who participated in the attacks.
“The notion of a nation brought together by ideals where it doesn’t matter how you pray or if you pray at all. A place where freedom and commitment to justice bind us, even if at times we struggle to fully realise it.”
NEW YORK: The UN closed the books on the 80th session of the General Assembly on Tuesday and opened the 81st in a single day of ceremony, amid warnings from its outgoing and incoming leadership that the world body must reform itself or face erosion.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was addressing the assembly for what he noted was his final time as UN chief, painted a bleak picture of the present moment in the world: wars that carry a risk of nuclear escalation; worsening climate chaos; advances in artificial intelligence without adequate governance; and human suffering that is intensifying even as aid funding has been slashed.
“Geopolitical mistrust and suspicion continue to block the effective solutions we need — and erode people’s faith in the possibilities of global cooperation,” Guterres said.
Still, he told delegates, he has “enormous hope,” pointing in particular to the UN’s Pact for the Future and the UN80 reform initiative as “a blueprint for action, solutions and bold reforms.”
The UN80 Initiative is a reform drive launched by Guterres in March last year, the organization’s 80th anniversary. It aims to overhaul overlapping structures and outdated mandates that officials say have rendered the UN slow and bureaucratic.
The departing president of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, described the initiative as unfinished business that she and her successor, Khalilur Rahman, were carrying into the 81st session.
Baerbock described the 80th session one that had found itself at “a crossroads” over whether a handful of states could effectively impose a veto on the General Assembly’s consensus. Member states, she said, had answered by refusing “to allow compromise to become compromising,” by pushing through 317 resolutions, holding 116 plenary meetings and opening a new chapter on AI governance, despite the challenges and only a few processes concluding through consensus.
“Not a single day, not a single country would be better off without the United Nations,” Baerbock told the assembly as she rejected the argument that the body had become irrelevant.
She credited Guterres with forcing the question of reform onto the agenda through the UN80 Initiative, including cuts to mandates and a merger of the UN System Staff College, which provides personnel and partners with the knowledge, skills and tools to act collaboratively and effectively, with UN Institute for Training and Research.
“If we are not capable of freeing this organization from overlapping structures and mandates, as well as a heavy bureaucratic mentality, it will erode over time,” she warned, describing the upcoming selection of a new secretary-general, a process she formally handed over to her successor, as “the credibility test of this institution for this decade.”
Rahman was then sworn in. He is from Bangladesh and told reporters he intended to run an open, media-engaged presidency built around the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation.”
During his formal address to the assembly he lamented that the UN “has often fallen short of the expectations placed upon us,” citing in particular a “widening trust deficit” that member states must work to close through the delivery of results, not rhetoric.
“Trust cannot simply be requested, it must be earned,” he added.
Rahman outlined six priorities for the coming 12-month session: peacekeeping-driven conflict prevention; acceleration of the Sustainable Development Goals, with just four years left to achieve them and only 36 percent of targets on track; climate adaptation ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP31, in November, and a high-level meeting this month on rising sea levels; human rights, including the anniversaries of the Durban Declaration to combat racism and other forms of discrimination and intolerance, and the Declaration on the Right to Development, an issue he described as personal, given that Bangladesh hosts more than a million displaced Rohingya; inclusive governance of AI; and institutional solvency, as he appealed to member states to pay their assessed dues “in full, on time and without conditions.”
Rahman also inherits oversight of the selection process for the next secretary-general, under Article 97 of the UN Charter, to replace Guterres, whose term ends on Dec. 31. He pledged to run it “fairly, inclusively and transparently,” alongside the Security Council.
He said he had built his office to reflect the opening words of the Charter — “We the peoples,” not “We the states” — and noted that women make up 60 percent of his cabinet.
Guterres closed the day with a separate, more somber commemoration: a wreath-laying ceremony for Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary-general of the UN, who was killed in the course of his duties, along with 15 others, in plane crash on Sept. 18, 1961.
Citing a new report from investigator Mohammed Chande Othman, Guterres renewed his appeal for undisclosed records relating to the crash in what is now Zambia, and said he would soon send recommendations to the General Assembly.
He also noted that UN personnel had been killed “in record numbers” over the past three years and added: “Their sacrifice reminds us of all the women and men who have lost their lives while serving the United Nations.”
MIAMI — Secretary of State Marco Rubio begins a three-nation tour of Latin America on Tuesday, visiting U.S.-aligned conservative leaders as the Trump administration steps up military operations to combat drug trafficking and seeks further inroads in the Western Hemisphere aimed at improving America’s energy standing and combating illegal migration.
Just a week after sealing a massive oil deal with Venezuelan leaders after a U.S. military operation in January deposed then-leader Nicolás Maduro, Rubio was traveling to neighboring Colombia to meet President Abelardo de la Espriella. Colombia’s new leader has embraced President Trump’s policies on issues ranging from drugs to immigration and energy.
De la Espriella is one of a new generation of right-wing conservatives to win election and show support for Trump’s muscular approach to a region that had tilted leftward in recent decades.
In announcing the trip last week, which also will take Rubio to Ecuador and Peru, the State Department said Rubio and all three leaders would be discussing “enhanced cooperation in the shared fight against narcoterrorism, which threatens our hemisphere.”
Rubio visits as Latin American allies help expanded efforts to fight drug trafficking
The trip comes a day after U.S. forces intercepted and sank another Ecuadorian vessel that Washington accuses of links to the criminal group Los Choneros.
It was the latest action by the U.S. against boats and vessels in Latin America that it says are involved in drug trafficking. Expanded operations in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean began a year ago, coinciding with an extreme crackdown on migrants in the U.S. illegally, many of them from Latin America.
The vessel sunk Monday was the fifth targeted by U.S. forces in the region in less than two weeks — in most cases with the cooperation or at least tacit support of the conservative leaders with whom Rubio will meet.
But unlike strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in Latin American waters that began in September 2025, those on board the vessel were removed and transferred to Ecuadorian authorities. It appears to be a shift after a series of strikes on boats over the year have killed at least 227 people, which the Trump administration accuses of being “narcoterrorists” but without providing evidence.
The U.S. military carried out at least two of those deadly strikes last month before starting to intercept floating refueling stations that it says support illicit drug trafficking operations at sea.
Colombia’s president vows to crack down on drug trafficking and immigration
Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula said in a video released Tuesday that Rubio’s visit marks the beginning of “rebuilding a strategic alliance with the United States, our main partner in the region.” He affirmed that Colombia will focus on discussing security, which includes combating drug trafficking, trade, and the defense of “shared values.”
De la Espriella has promised to take a hard line against drug traffickers and pledges to deport thousands of migrants who are in Colombia without residence permits, mainly Venezuelans, as he tries to make significant changes to the nation’s immigration policies that he says will reduce crime.
After taking office last month, De la Espriella brought Colombia into the Americas Counter Cartels Coalition and strengthened long-standing security cooperation with the United States, following strained relations during the 2022-2026 administration of progressive Gustavo Petro.
In just a month in office, De la Espriella has carried out at least three bombings against illegal armed groups and increased military operations. However, several minors have died during the bombings, which has drawn criticism from opposition leaders.
As part of his security strategy, he has focused his efforts on showcasing the results of military operations. However, there was criticism from the opposition and the state-run Ombudsman’s Office after De la Espriella displayed the bodies of alleged criminals wrapped in white bags on the ground alongside seized ammunition.
After winning the election, De la Espriella identified several leaders of Colombia’s illegal armed groups as “military targets.” Last week, he announced that the first of these, Naín Andrés Pérez Toncel, alias “Bendito Menor,” one of the leaders of the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada, an illegal armed group in the north of the country, had been killed by police.
Nicknamed “El Tigre,” or The Tiger, the president has shifted the country’s security policy, closing the peace negotiations initiated by Petro during his administration, which he considers a failed effort that only increased violence in Colombia.
Colombia grapples with illegal armed groups vying for control of territories strategically important for drug trafficking and illegal mining, despite the fact that a decade ago the state signed a historic peace agreement with the FARC rebel group.
After meeting De la Espriella in Barranquilla on the Caribbean, where he will sign a civil nuclear cooperation deal and a critical minerals agreement, Rubio will make a brief stop in Quito.
He will meet Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa whose government has steadily increased counternarcotics operations conducted with the U.S. military.
Rubio will round out the visit with a stop in Lima, Peru, where he will meet new President Keiko Fujimori — the daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori — as the government also has taken a rightward turn.
Lee and Suárez write for the Associated Press. Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia.
WASHINGTON — President Clinton was forced to retreat Monday in the face of Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole’s angry accusation that the White House had told “a $23-million lie” about a project in his state.
The White House said that Clinton “regrets” any misunderstandings caused by “hyperbole” in a barbed joke the President told that brought the house down Saturday at an annual black-tie dinner hosted by White House correspondents.
Clinton had said that the Republican lawmaker from Kansas was seeking $23 million from the federal government to convert a senior citizens’ center into a boathouse, at the same time that he was assailing Clinton for wasteful “pork barrel” spending.
Dole, who led the Republican battle that scuttled Clinton’s economic stimulus package, first challenged the accuracy of the statement in a television interview show Sunday but he seemed confused about the details. Monday, he flatly denied the claim and issued a belated blast.
“The White House lied,” Dole said, carefully avoiding a direct attack on the President himself. “There’s no $23-million boathouse, no deficit spending, no new money, no connection with the President’s deadbeat ‘stimulus’ bill and no truth coming from a White House staff that is ill-serving the President with these sophomoric attacks.”
Dole said that he had sought a federal waiver to clear the way for privately funded construction of a public boathouse in Wichita.
“If the White House wants to play hardball, I’m ready to suit up,” Dole concluded, sending an ominous signal that the issue could spill over into future relations with Senate Republicans.
George Stephanopoulos, the White House communications director, issued a statement late Monday afternoon.
“The President regrets the misunderstanding that may have been caused by any hyperbole in his jokes at Saturday’s White House dinner,” he said.
“While Sen. Dole did make the case that the Wichita boathouse is a legitimate Community Development Block Grant project, the potential cost to the taxpayer is not as high as stated in the President’s joke,” the statement concluded.
While the war of words may be forgotten, the harshly worded statement by Dole signaled that the lack of harmony between the Senate GOP leader and the Clinton White House could affect the future of the President’s programs in Congress.
Dole is in a key position as commander of 43 Republicans and as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, where the defection from party ranks of a single Democratic senator could block Clinton’s proposed tax increases.
As Dole described the situation, Wichita received $500,000 from the federal government’s Community Development Block Grant program in 1980 to help the city buy a building for use as a senior citizen center.
The center, however, moved to a larger facility in 1992, and the building along the Arkansas River has been standing vacant since then.
Wichita officials, Dole continued, wanted to lease the building to a charitable foundation that intends to use private funds to transform it into a boathouse. To change the use of the building, however, the city was required to seek a waiver from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Dole and Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), who represents the area in the House, supported the city’s request for a waiver in letters to a HUD regional official. HUD had planned to tear the building down.
The Wichita Eagle Monday quoted an official of the charity, the Arkansas River Foundation, as saying that the boathouse project would cost $850,000 and the funds would come from donations and not the federal government.
“The White House really missed the boat on this one,” Dole said.
The head of one of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies warned state leaders that a new budget bill threatens job gains from California’s film and TV credit program.
Legislators earlier this year passed a provision in the state budget that extends limitations on corporate tax credits, including a $5-million state tax credit cap each year.
But film industry advocates say the corporate tax credit cap will hurt film producers and undercut the effectiveness of the state’s expanded film and TV tax credits.
Lawmakers more than doubled annual funding for the program last year to $750 million in an effort to boost jobs and stem the exodus of film work from California.
CAA Chief Executive Bryan Lourd called for state leaders to create an exemption for tax credits earned under the expanded film and TV program.
“Without this fix, we risk destabilizing a program that is critical to keeping film and television production in California and the thousands of jobs it supports,” Lourd wrote in an Aug. 11 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and President Pro Tempore Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara).
“California must make itself competitive with the rest of the country and the world if it hopes to have a thriving entertainment ecosystem,” Lourd wrote. “Honoring commitments that have already been made to the entertainment industry is an essential step in achieving that goal.”
Film industry advocates expected producers would be exempted from the tax credit cap.
“It’s a reversal of California economic policy as it relates to the entertainment industry in an unhelpful and uncompetitive direction,” said Hilary Krane, CAA’s chief legal officer, in an interview. . “It undermines people’s ability to plan for the economics of the program because they all counted on a certain amount coming in under the previous rules that they were entitled to and had, but now can’t use.”
“The result of the changes is that production companies will lose the full value of credits already earned in exchange for creating middle-class entertainment industry jobs and other economic benefits to the State,” the Entertainment Union Coalition said last month.
Nick Miller, Rivas’ spokesperson, said the state Assembly is taking a hard look at the issue.
“Our lawmakers strengthened California’s film and TV jobs program last year and will keep fighting for creative industry workers,” Miller said in an email.
Newsom’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Time is running out for a fix to happen this session, which ends in less than two weeks.
State Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) said state leaders are working on introducing legislation soon to address the issue.
Already, tens of thousands of jobs have come back to Southern California due to the modernization of the film and TV tax credit program, he said.
“We just saw the beginning of that resurgence and we don’t want to nip that in the bud,” Zbur said in an interview.
