NPR News: 07-16-2026 3PM EDT
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The White House says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are still conducting vehicle stops.
Here's Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt.
What did the White House say about ICE vehicle stops and body camera rollout?
The President and the Secretary of Homeland Security are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need in order to continue their deportation campaign of the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals from our country.
Levitt says DHS has issued verbal guidance to field offices nationwide. This week, the department said it would pause non-urgent vehicle stops following two deadly shootings in less than a week in Maine and in Texas. In both cases, the ICE officers were not wearing body cameras. Today, Levitt said more than half of all ICE field offices now have body cams, and the remainder are expected to have them within 60 days. She says the rollout has been slower than the administration's hoped She attributed that to the previous week's long DHS shutdown, which she blamed on the Democrats. A key Republican senator says he will not vote to advance Todd Blanche's nomination to serve as attorney general until Blanche meets with victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
North Carolina's Tom Tillis made the statement during the second day of hearings on Blanche's nomination. Here's NPR's Ryan Lucas.
Epstein survivors say they have been trying to meet with Blanche for months, but to no avail. Now, Senator Tom Tillis, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will vote on Blanche's nomination, says Blanche needs to meet with Epstein survivors to get his support.
I expect that meeting to occur before I'm willing to vote out of this committee. And I'm trying to get to yes, but this is a very important part of getting to yes.
Tillis gave Blanche two weeks to make it happen. With Democrats united in opposition, Blanche needs the support of every committee Republican to advance his nomination to the full Senate. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
A year after catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country prompted lawmakers to overhaul the state's flood preparedness laws, residents are again watching rivers rise. The latest floods are blamed for at least one death, according to Governor Greg Abbott. The Texas Newsroom's Blaise Ganey has the latest.
Last summer, Governor Greg Abbott and lawmakers promised changes that would better prepare communities before the next disaster struck. That disaster struck this week when more than 20 inches of rain fell in areas across south central Texas. One of those laws helped place weather alert sirens along the Guadalupe River, which were activated Thursday during the downpour and rising waters. Other legislation put tighter regulations on overnight camps, Senator Charles Perry says he got texts from parents saying that their children were evacuated as a result of the measure.
One of the parents actually texted me and said the kids are safer today because of that bill.
The Texas Hill Country floods last year killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July weekend.
That's Blaise Ganey reporting. It's NPR News. In China, several big artificial intelligence companies have suspended their AI companionship features. This comes as Beijing introduces new regulations on AI chatbots. From Hong Kong, Jan Kamensen-Broomby has more.
The new regulations state that AI tools should not, quote, induce emotional dependence or addiction. The news has been met by shock from online users as companies pull the plug on what, for many, had become virtual relationships. Regulators further suggest they want to prevent subversion of state power and prevent AI tools from damaging real-life interpersonal relationships. China's AI industry is valued at more than US$170 billion, with more than 6,000 companies working on AI-related tech. The move comes as Beijing battles with demographic challenges, including a declining population. In 2025, China's birth rate hit a record low of just 5.63 per 1,000 people. For NPR News, I'm Jan Cummins in Brimby, in Hong Kong.
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