Trump signs order aimed at curbing state AI laws

President Donald Trump shows a signed executive order on AI in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S. December 11, 2025. (Reuters)()
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Updated 12 December 2025
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Trump signs order aimed at curbing state AI laws

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order on artificial intelligence that will attempt to preempt a growing number of state laws governing the technology with a national standard.
“We want to have one central source of approval,” Trump told reporters, flanked by top advisers, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The order will give the Trump administration tools to push back on the most “onerous” state regulations, said White House AI adviser David Sacks. The administration will not oppose rules governing AI and kids safety, he added.
Major AI players including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz have said the federal government, not states, should regulate the industry.
Yet state leaders from both major political parties have said they need the power to put guardrails around AI, particularly as Congress has consistently failed to pass laws governing the tech industry.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has proposed an AI bill of rights that includes data privacy, parental controls and consumer protections. California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state is home to several major AI companies, signed off on a bill this year requiring major AI developers to explain plans to mitigate potential catastrophic risks.
Other states have passed laws banning AI-generated nonconsensual sexual imagery and unauthorized political deepfakes.


More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US

Updated 24 January 2026
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More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US

  • “Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X

DALLAS: More than 9,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a major storm expected to wreak havoc across much of the country threatens to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England. 
The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X. 
Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 24 Celsius.
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted. 
Temperatures reached minus 34 C just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.