Trump Reaches Contentious New Nuclear Deal, and A.I. Models Go Rogue
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Wednesday, July 22nd. Here's what we're covering. U.S. officials tell The Times that the Trump administration plans to announce a broad new nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that's highly controversial. Under the agreement, which will be formally announced and signed today, Saudi Arabia will be able to move towards a civilian nuclear energy program. In exchange, American officials estimate that the U.S. nuclear industry, which makes reactors that are sold abroad, will get billions of dollars. The deal could also serve to shore up U.S.-Saudi relations, which have been strained by the war with Iran. While this kind of nuclear agreement has been talked about for years, it's faced opposition from some U.S.
lawmakers and from Israeli officials, who worry that Saudi Arabia could eventually develop nuclear weapons. The new U.S.-Saudi agreement will have to be reviewed by Congress. It will likely get through, but it's expected to spark a fierce debate given how many concessions President Trump gave Saudi Arabia to secure the deal. That includes opening the door for Saudi Arabia to potentially enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel on its own soil. as well as terms that could limit inspections of future nuclear sites there, the kind of inspections that would determine if the country was diverting that fuel to build nuclear weapons. For the U.S., it's a retreat from the kinds of restrictions pushed by previous administrations during similar nuclear negotiations.
The Times has learned that the agreement also includes two secret documents known as side letters. The Trump administration is expected to argue that they contain proprietary business information and deal with sensitive national security issues. But some members of Congress may not be willing to vote for the agreement until those letters are made public.
Do you have a new estimate about what the war has cost us so far in this, the fifth month of the first year of this war in Iran?
Senator, the estimate we have as of today is $37.5 billion.
In a Senate hearing yesterday, lawmakers questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the price tag of the ongoing war. It comes as the Pentagon is requesting as much as $70 billion in emergency military spending, in part to cover the cost of the conflict.
Why this kind of spending is needed is because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden administration inside our department.
Hegseth railed against how the previous administration ran the Pentagon and said the new funding is needed for, quote, modernization, given how drone warfare has reshaped the battlefield.
The problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning. So I'll be blunt. The truth is your request does not make a lot of sense.
Senate Democrats, however, expressed doubts about the ask, saying Hegseth hasn't provided a sufficient explanation for why the military needs the funds. In his comments, Hegseth also used the war in Iran as justification for an increase in overall Pentagon spending. The Department of Defense is asking Congress to approve an unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget, which is a more than 50 percent increase in one year.
Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.
New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani released a video last night calling on the federal government to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
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