Impostor uses AI to impersonate Rubio and contact foreign and US officials

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using AI-driven technology. That’s according to two senior officials and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates. The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had tried to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor. Those details were laid out in a July 3 cable first reported by The Washington Post. The recipients of the scam messages weren’t identified in the cable shared with The Associated Press. The State Department says it’s investigating.

Travelers no longer have to remove their shoes during security screenings at US airports

(AP) — For the first time in almost 20 years, travelers will no longer have to take off their shoes during security screenings at certain U.S. airports. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the new nationwide policy on Tuesday, effective immediately. It puts an end to a security screening mandate put in place almost 20 years ago, several years after “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001. Noem says a pilot program showed the Transportation Security Administration had the equipment needed to keep airports and aircraft safe while allowing people to keep their shoes on.

Supreme Court clears the way for Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce. The order comes despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs. The justices on Tuesday overrode lower court orders that temporarily froze the cuts. The court said in an unsigned order that no specific cuts were in front of the justices, only an executive order issued by Trump and an administration directive for agencies to undertake job reductions. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only dissenting vote, accusing her colleagues of a “demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.”

Trump says he’s ‘not happy’ with Putin and blames him for ‘killing a lot of people’ in Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s “not happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Trump says Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine is “killing a lot of people” on both sides. “I’m not happy with him, I can tell you that much right now,” Trump said of Putin during a meeting Tuesday with his Cabinet. Of his onetime suggestions that he might be able to cajole Russia’s president into quickly ending the war in Ukraine upon reclaiming the White House, Trump acknowledged that bringing fighting to a close has “turned out to be tougher.”