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黄循财总理与印度四部长会晤 探讨深化新印全面战略伙伴关系

2026年8月20日 18:58 / 联合早报

黄循财总理（中）星期四会见了来我国出席第四届印度—新加坡部长级圆桌会议的四名部长：（左起）印度商业与工业部长戈雅、财政和企业事务部长西塔拉曼、外交部长苏杰生，以及商业与工业及电子与信息技术国务部长普拉萨达。 （数码发展及新闻部提供）

新加坡总理黄循财会见来新访问的四名印度部长，就新印两国如何深化全面战略伙伴关系展开讨论，尤其在先进制造、数码化、可持续发展和互联互通等领域。

第四届印度—新加坡部长级圆桌会议星期四（8月20日）在我国召开。黄总理在会前同印度财政与企业事务部长西塔拉曼、外交部长苏杰生、商业与工业部长戈雅，以及商业与工业及电子与信息技术国务部长普拉萨达会面。

印新部长级圆桌会议是新加坡与印度之间重要的部长级平台，旨在推动两国于新兴领域的合作。

黄总理在脸书贴文说，双方讨论了新印两国如何进一步发挥历届圆桌会议取得的进展，推动两国全面战略伙伴关系，尤其是在先进制造、数码化、可持续发展和互联互通等领域。

黄总理也与四名印度部长就重大的区域和全球局势交换意见。

黄总理说：“新加坡与印度的伙伴关系源远流长且日益紧密。我祝愿各位部长此次访问行程充实，并在印新圆桌会议上展开富有成效的讨论。”

黄总理去年9月对印度首都新德里进行正式访问，期间与印度总理莫迪宣布了指导两国关系继续前进的路线图，明确在八个领域深化合作。这包括经济、技能发展、数码化、可持续发展、互联互通、医疗与医药、民间与文化交流，以及防务与安全合作。

Bitcoin, crypto shares climb after Trump pushes Clarity Act

2026-08-20 11:08 AM UTC / Reuters

By Pritam Biswas and Arasu Kannagi Basil

August 20, 2026 11:08 AM UTC Updated 42 mins ago

[1/4]U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a press conference with cryptocurrency executives in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 19, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

Aug 20 (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks surged in premarket trading on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Congress to ​pass legislation establishing clear rules for the digital asset sector, ‌following a White House meeting with industry executives.

Trump, a vocal cryptocurrency advocate who has promised to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world,” called on lawmakers to ​pass a “fair version of the Clarity Act,” an industry-backed bill stalled ​in the Senate.

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The act, if enacted, would define whether cryptocurrency ⁠qualifies as a security or a commodity, clarifying jurisdiction between the ​Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over the sector.

Industry ​executives and analysts say that without legislation, regulations are vulnerable to shifting political winds and court challenges.

However, many Democrats, and some Republicans, say they would not support a bill ​without strong language banning political officials, including Trump, from profiting from ​their own crypto ventures.

President Trump disclosed more than $1.4 billion in earnings from his family’s crypto ventures ‌in ⁠2025.

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Bitcoin , the world’s largest cryptocurrency, rose 3.4% and pushed through resistance levels that had held since early June, moving past the $70,000 mark to highs of about $71,700. Ether gained 3.3%, its highest level in over three months.

The moves ​mirror the boost ​the sector received ⁠when the GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

Crypto ​exchange Coinbase Global gained 8.4%, while bitcoin bull Strategy rose ​10%. ⁠Miners Riot Platforms (RIOT.O), MARA Holdings (MARA.O), Hut 8 (HUT.O) and Bit Digital (BTBT.O) rose between 3% and 6%.

Bitcoin mining machine maker Canaan (CAN.O) surged 20%, stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL.N) gained 8% ⁠and ​retail trading platform Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O) advanced 5%.

The gains ​come despite a broader 2026 slump. Bitcoin has lost about 18% so far this year.

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Reporting ​by Pritam Biswas and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Luxury travel, shopping, six-figure income: Battleground Dems ripped for ‘phony’ working-class narrative

Battleground Dem says her 2010 Honda is ‘what we can afford’ — while disclosures show a combined salary of nearly $250k and investments potentially worth $1.8 million

2026-08-20 06:00 EDT / Fox News

By Alec Schemmel Fox News

Published August 20, 2026 6:00am EDT | Updated August 20, 2026 6:34am EDT

Democratic socialists target young voters by tapping financial anxieties

Fox News reporter Alexandria Hoff reports on how the Democratic Socialists of America are targeting young voters by focusing on financial anxieties, including rising housing costs, student loan debt and broader affordability concerns, while promoting progressive economic policies as solutions on ‘Special Report.’

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13 min

Several battleground Democrats running in competitive House races have leaned on working-class, blue-collar biographies to connect with voters’ economic anxieties, but financial records and other materials reviewed by Fox News Digital complicate the images they have presented on the campaign trail.

In New Jersey, for example, Democratic Party candidate Rebecca Bennett has pitched herself as a parent with firsthand understanding of the “rising costs and economic uncertainty” facing American families, but financial records show she collected a combined salary of nearly $250,000 in 2024 and holds an extensive investment portfolio with assets potentially worth nearly $1.8 million and no reportable liabilities.

In New Mexico, Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., has said he “never had the luxury of financial wealth,” argued voters are drawn to candidates who do not “come from wealth,” and described his mother as working long hours in Mexico’s “maquiladora industry” to make ends meet. But records reviewed by Fox News Digital show his mother held corporate finance roles at GE, including as a finance manager and comptroller in Mexico and later as a senior finance analyst in Indiana, while social media screenshots shared with Fox News Digital show repeated European travel, luxury shopping and other upscale family photos.

DEM IN KEY SWING RACE MISSED NEARLY HALF HER STATE HOUSE VOTES WHILE TAKING TAXPAYER SALARY: ‘NO SHOW’

Meanwhile, in Washington State, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., has built part of her blue-collar image around her time working in an auto shop and her Reed College history, saying she worked three jobs and paid for the private liberal arts school “by the credit hour” after her parents stopped paying tuition. But financial disclosures reviewed by Fox News Digital did not list reportable student-loan debt, while critics familiar with her time at Reed College have questioned whether jobs Gluesenkamp Perez cited, including as a nanny, campus barista and at an “iPhone case factory,” could have plausibly covered the school’s cost.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., (left), Democratic Party candidate for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District Rebecca Bennett, (center) and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M. (right).(Getty Images)

“Voters can see through the phony double-talk easier than politicians ever realize. It’s far better to be who you are and offer a compelling vision to make voters’ lives better than contort your own biography and background into something it’s not,” Republican strategist Colin Reed told Fox News Digital. “Under normal circumstances, financial success and upward mobility would be attributes to lean into as selling points on the campaign trail. But with socialism ascendant and the demonization of wealth not far behind, these are far from normal times.”

DEMOCRATS CAUGHT ON CAMERA COACHING CANDIDATE ON HOW TO BE ‘AUTHENTIC’ IN 2026 MESSAGING

Bennett, who is running in New Jersey’s competitive 7th Congressional District, disclosed dozens of investments, retirement accounts and other assets in an amended candidate financial disclosure filed with the House on May 15 and reviewed by Fox News Digital. Based on the value ranges listed in the disclosure, her reported assets could be worth as much as roughly $1.8 million. The filing listed no reportable liabilities.

Among the holdings were three valued between $50,001 and $100,000 apiece and 17 more valued between $15,001 and $50,000. Because the disclosure reports assets in broad value ranges rather than exact amounts, Bennett’s reported holdings total roughly $447,000 at the low end and nearly $1.8 million at the high end. Using the midpoint of each disclosed range puts their estimated value at roughly $1.12 million.

The disclosure also showed that Bennett received nearly $200,000 in salary from Noom in 2024 and nearly $46,000 from Oshi Health that year, for more than $242,000 combined.

The financial picture contrasts with the economic message Bennett has emphasized on the campaign trail, where she has repeatedly invoked her own family’s finances and experience as a mother of two. In a June 18 campaign post titled “My 2010 Honda Accord,” Bennett said she and her husband still drove the 16-year-old car because “it’s what we can afford,” arguing Washington needs more “regular people” who understand families’ financial pressures firsthand.

Rebecca Bennett, speaks at a canvass launch during a primary election in Westfield, New Jersey, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In the post, Bennett specifically pointed to childcare, writing, “I know what it’s like to worry about childcare costs,” while also citing rising grocery bills and difficult financial decisions because there is not “an unlimited amount of money sitting in the bank account.” Months earlier, she similarly said she was, “like so many of you,” navigating the “astronomical” costs of food, education, childcare and healthcare.

Those comments also come as FEC records show Bennett’s campaign has paid $21,250 since June 2025 to cover her childcare expenses. Federal election rules permit campaign funds to cover a candidate’s childcare expenses when they are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity.

“After serving our country for 15 years as a Navy helicopter pilot, Rebecca swapped her MH-60 Seahawk for the 2010 Honda Accord she uses to drop off her two young children at daycare and public school. Rebecca knows firsthand how much childcare costs, and it’s critical that we have people in Congress that understand the challenges New Jersey families are facing,” campaign spokesperson Carly Jones told Fox News Digital. “While Tom Kean Jr. plays the stock market in Congress, Rebecca is going to fight to lower costs and end Washington corruption.”

Meanwhile, Vasquez has also been explicit in casting his background in working-class and blue-collar terms. In his first House floor speech in March 2023, the New Mexico Democrat said, “I’ve never had the luxury of financial wealth,” and during his 2022 campaign argued that voters were drawn to a candidate who “doesn’t come from wealth” or money.

DSA CO-CHAIR STRUGGLES TO EXPLAIN MILLIONAIRE TAX POLICY

Vasquez has also repeatedly pointed to his mother’s work in Mexico’s “maquiladora industry” as part of his family’s working-class story. In an October 2025 La Opinión op-ed, he wrote that his mother, Hortencia Banuelos, “worked long hours in the maquiladora industry working to make ends meet,” describing her story as one of “sacrifice, resilience, and hope.” In a 2023 interview, Vasquez similarly said his parents worked in the maquiladora industry, including assembling aerospace parts and building sensors for refrigerators and washing machines in Ciudad Juárez.

But Banuelos’ own professional profile and other publicly available records reviewed by Fox News Digital show she held senior finance roles at GE during much of Vasquez’s childhood. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as a “Finance Manager/Comptroller” for GE in Mexico from December 1985 to March 1994, overseeing accounting, finance, payroll, accounts payable, IT and customs. She was promoted in 1994 to senior finance analyst at a GE operation in Bloomington, Indiana, where the profile says she analyzed a manufacturing plant with $800 million in revenue and 3,000 employees.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., conducts a news conference with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), during the House Democrats 2025 Issues Conference at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va., on Thursday, March 13, 2025. Chair Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., left, Reps. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, and Darren Soto, D-Fla., also appear.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

A 2020 profile of Banuelos in Hispanic Executive separately reported that GE hired her in Mexico in the 1980s and selected her for a two-year training program geared almost exclusively toward Ivy League graduates before she later moved to Indiana.

The professional record is also accompanied by social media material showing a more affluent family lifestyle. Posts from Banuelos’ Facebook and Instagram accounts, screenshots of which were shared and reviewed by Fox News Digital, showed repeated European travel, including a three-month stay in France, while other posts showed Banuelos and Vasquez’s sister shopping at luxury brands. Several photos from upscale locations also included Vasquez himself, including one in which he posed with a Corvette.

Vasquez has faced scrutiny over a lavish 2018 ceremony he held with a former fiancée at Akiin Beach Tulum in Mexico as well. The Daily Mail reported in June that events at the beachfront wedding venue can cost between $30,000 and $90,000. Vasquez’s campaign told the outlet that the pair “participated in a private commitment ceremony but were never legally married and eventually separated.”

DAN BONGINO CALLS SOCIALISM ‘BUMPER STICKER POLITICS’ AS IT SURGES IN POPULARITY AMONG YOUTH

Asked about Vasquez’s characterization of his family background and his mother’s professional record, campaign manager Patricia Socarras Santiago defended Banuelos’ story.

“It’s pathetic that, as Americans face Trump’s disastrous economy, Republicans attack Gabe’s mom, who has worked incredibly hard, starting from the maquiladoras in Mexico, in pursuit of her American Dream,” Socarras Santiago told Fox News Digital. “Gabe is incredibly proud of his mom and will work to ensure everyone can access the American Dream and reverse the impacts of Trump’s tanking economy.”

Gluesenkamp Perez has similarly made her own financial struggles and experience in the trades central to her political biography. In a 2023 interview with Reed Magazine, her alma mater’s alumni publication, she said her parents stopped paying her tuition after she stopped attending church.

“Afterwards, I worked three jobs and paid for Reed by the credit hour,” Gluesenkamp Perez said, identifying the jobs as working as a nanny, a barista and “in an iPhone case factory.”

Reed’s own historical records show tuition was $39,440 for the 2010-2011 academic year, with a per-credit tuition charge of $1,625, before rising to $40,940 and $1,750 per credit the following year.

Meanwhile, Gluesenkamp Perez’s latest House financial disclosure, filed May 15, lists two commercial-property notes and a mortgage on her residence but no reportable student-loan debt.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez seen walking up the steps of the U.S. Capitol wearing a Carhart jacket.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Additionally, some of Gluesenkamp Perez’s former Reed classmates have publicly questioned her account of paying for the private college through those jobs. On a Jan. 29 episode of the NOEXIST INC podcast titled “Absolutely Sweet Marie Gluesenkamp Perez,” former roommate Isaac Eger said the “iPhone case factory” was actually Grove, now Grovemade, a small Portland company that made bamboo iPhone cases by hand, and recalled that Gluesenkamp Perez did not begin working there until around 2010 or 2011, late in her time at Reed. He also noted the factory was closer to a small handmade bamboo case business that made its products by hand.

Eger added on the podcast that Gluesenkamp Perez worked as a barista at Reed’s on-campus Paradox coffee shop and recalled that she did not begin that job until around her senior year. Another former roommate, identified during the episode as Sam and described by Eger as the person who hired Gluesenkamp Perez at the coffee shop, argued that the barista wages were nowhere near sufficient to cover Reed’s tuition, saying even the combined earnings of all the shop’s baristas during his four years at the school would not have paid for one student’s semester.

FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: AS DEMOCRATS TURN LEFT, BLACK VOTERS TAP THE BRAKES

Questions have also been raised about the hands-on mechanic image Gluesenkamp Perez has used throughout her political career. Her campaign continues to describe her as a “small business owner in the trades,” and campaign materials have featured her working on cars and turning wrenches.

But the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2024 that an archived 2018 biography on Dean’s Car Care’s website described Gluesenkamp Perez as working “mostly behind the scenes managing the business side” of the shop, which was cited for multiple workplace-safety violations during a 2017 Oregon OSHA inspection.

Her campaign pushed back on the broader criticism of Gluesenkamp Perez’s working-class credentials.

“Marie is fighting every day for families in Southwest Washington. She and her husband built their small business from the ground up — not with family money but with grit and determination,” campaign manager Tim Gowen told Fox News Digital. “She knows what it’s like to fill out a phone book-sized SBA loan and what it takes to make payroll. She’s working to address the affordability crisis affecting folks in her community by clawing back power and giving real economic agency to regular people:the right to repair what you own, homes young people can actually afford, and a family farm you can pass to your kids. She’ll keep doing that work because that’s what Southwest Washington needs, not another career politician controlled by corporate interests in Washington or Olympia.”

Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash, (left) and Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., are facing questions about the authenticity of the message they are presenting to voters.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The scrutiny over Democrats’ working-class branding has extended beyond those three battleground Democrats.

Fox News Digital reported last month that Montana Democratic House nominee Sam Forstag, who has campaigned as a blue-collar smokejumper who knows how to “swing a tool,” previously spent years as a registered lobbyist for groups including the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

In May, ahead of the Democratic primary for the same seat, Fox News Digital reported that Forstag rival Ryan Busse also faced authenticity questions in the battleground district after he filmed a campaign ad about fighting for working people in what appeared to be a staffer’s modest townhome rather than his own four-acre property, which real estate websites valued at roughly $1.6 million.

Busse ultimately lost the primary to Forstag.

“Only a rich liberal can afford to be a socialist in this day and age,” Matt Gorman, chief communications officer at Targeted Victory, a Republican communications firm, told Fox News Digital.

“These Democrats represent a trend of the downwardly mobile who make up the base of the Democratic Party. They have the highest percentage of secondary degrees, yet the lowest income. These candidates don’t mind walking around with their hands out expecting more of your money, while they hoard their own.”

Alec Schemmel is a Politics Reporter for Fox News Digital who is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina but now resides in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore Metro Area.

亚丁湾一油轮遭武装人员强行登船劫持往索马里

2026年8月20日 19:23 / 联合早报

英国海上贸易行动办公室（UKMTO）通报，一艘油轮遭六名武装人员登船袭击，他们控制船只后，劫持油轮驶往索马里方向。

路透社报道，UKMTO星期四（8月20日）说，他们收到报告称，在也门穆卡拉（Mukalla）以东136海里处发生了一起事件。这艘油轮在亚丁湾向西航行时发出遇险呼叫称“有一艘未经许可的船只靠近”。

UKMTO没有提供细节，也没有说明油轮及其船员是否安全。

8月23日至25日 市区15条巴士路线晚间改道

2026年8月20日 19:05 / 联合早报

巴士改道时段为星期天（23日）晚上10时起至服务结束，以及星期一和星期二（24日及25日）晚上11时起至服务结束。 （林明顺摄）

受市区道路重铺工程影响，从8月23日至25日，共有15条公共巴士路线在夜间改道，不停多个路段的巴士站。

这些路段包括：美芝路、海湾道、滨海林荫道、中央林荫道、莱佛士道、莱佛士林荫道、淡马锡道，以及淡马锡林荫道等。

根据陆路交通管理局星期四（8月20日）发出的通告，受影响的15条巴士路线是：新捷运经营的56号、70M号、111号、133号和195号；SMRT营运的502号、960号、960e号和961M号；Go-Ahead经营的36号和518号，以及易塔通的77号、97号、106号和857号。

巴士改道时段为星期天（23日）晚上10时起至服务结束，以及星期一和星期二（24日及25日）晚上11时起至服务结束。

当局吁请乘客提早规划行程，并预留更多出行时间。

Melania Trump prioritizes policy over public presence this term

2026-08-20T10:00:29.847Z / CNN

Melania Trump grew up attending Formula 1 races with her father in her native Slovenia.

On Thursday, America’s first lady will merge that longtime personal interest in cars and racing with a new one: foster youth.

She’s teaming up with IndyCar and Fox Corporation to launch new scholarship opportunities for young adults transitioning out of foster care, to be unveiled at a White House Rose Garden announcement alongside President Donald Trump ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix in Washington, DC.

The event — which her external senior adviser previewed as “a plopdown on culture like you’ve never seen before” — marks a rare public appearance for Melania Trump, who has kept a much lower profile during her husband’s second term and hasn’t been seen in public since the FIFA World Cup on July 19. But it’s also reflection of how she’s charting her own course as first lady — eschewing some of the more traditional, public roles of the job while engaging behind the scenes in substantive policy work — specifically on her foster care initiative, “Fostering the Future.”

In recent weeks, for example, Trump skipped events where any of her predecessors’ absence might have been noticed: the funeral of the president’s close friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner and a recent dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base for US service members killed in the Iran war.

She’s spent most of that time at the president’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club and away from the White House, which is an active construction zone amid her husband’s various pet projects. And earlier this year, aside from a surprise statement seeking to distance herself from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, many of Trump’s public appearances were dedicated to promoting her multimillion-dollar deal with Amazon on her eponymous documentary.

But away from the glare of the cameras, sources told CNN, the first lady and her team are intensely engaged in a more focused policy operation than during her husband’s first term, when her multi-pronged “Be Best” initiative failed to gain significant traction or results.

It’s not clear what first spurred the first lady’s interest in foster care. She’s been engaged in other efforts around children — to promote the responsible use of AI, for example, and working to reunite kids separated from their families during Russia’s war against Ukraine. But her office declined to provide information about her specific motivation on this issue. (Approximately 400,000 American youth live in foster care, according to the US Department of Education, with one in five experiencing homelessness when transitioning out of the system, per the National Youth in Transition Database.) Trump’s advocacy began shortly after her husband’s first term, when she launched a series of scholarships in 2021.

Since returning to the White House, she’s pushed for an executive order signed by the president last November, which officials say has kickstarted action at the state level to track child welfare data and to end the so-called orphan tax; debuted IRA-style savings accounts for children in foster care; and secured a $25 million investment in her husband’s 2026 budget for housing and support for youth transitioning out of the system. She’s appealed on Capitol Hill for children aging out of the foster care system, and her team is working closely with Congress to overhaul programs supporting housing, education and training programs for foster youth and former foster youth, although the legislation remains stalled.

Her office, one senior administration told CNN, is “thinking much more about legacy,” including by bringing in “folks with bona fide policy chops to help implement that.”

While Trump has assembled a much smaller staff of seven — compared to more than a dozen on her team during the first term — foster youth advocates have taken note of the hiring of Sarah Gesiriech, a former USAID official who advised former first lady Laura Bush and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as her director of policy. Trump’s office frequently engages across agencies, often with specific asks, the senior official said.

“They’re really driving agencies to take actions that will be beneficial to foster youth. Ultimately, the agencies have to take those actions, but the first lady’s office is sitting in the cockpit,” the official said.

Experts in child welfare who spoke to CNN generally applauded the first lady’s advocacy, though some privately questioned whether other policies driven by her husband’s administration have undermined the work she is doing.

“It’s good that there is a national conversation about these young people,” said Chantal Hinds, a lawyer and senior policy manager at Children’s Defense Fund of New York who specializes in historically marginalized and underserved children and families.

“However, I think that the big elephant in the room is what’s happening on the side of the administration and how those things will also impact and likely hinder the true effectiveness of some of these changes that are happening for young people,” she said.

Hinds cited cutbacks to safety net programs, like food stamps and changes to the Medicaid system, as examples of how the Trump administration “is putting families in more precarious situations,” which, she suggested could increase “the number of young people that enter the system to begin with.” Hinds also pointed to the Trump administration taking aim at transgender rights, noting that roughly 30% of foster youth identify as LGBTQ.

Her message to the first lady? Keep up the advocacy but push back on some of what her husband’s administration is doing.

The office of the first lady did not respond to CNN’s inquiry as to whether Melania Trump, who has long held an independent streak, had offered any of that pushback privately.

But Trump’s attention on foster youth has already “accelerated action,” the senior official said, leading to more acceptance in some political corners of what’s typically been a bipartisan issue. That’s been the case for something called “kin licensure,” a policy advocates have long pushed for that enables relatives and family members to register to become licensed foster parents.

“We’ve had some red states say, ‘Hey, thanks so much. We were hitting some brick walls with our legislature. Now that we’ve been able to say this is related to the Trump Fostering the Future initiative, it got us over some of those initial hurdles,’” the official said.

One monthly bill Americans can’t avoid is quietly surging thanks to emerging industry: data

Wholesale prices have already risen 2% to 6% nationwide, with larger increases in areas where data centers are concentrated

August 20, 2026 5:00am EDT / Fox News

By Amanda Macias

AI expert warns of power grid challenges as data centers surge

AI Infrastructure Coalition’s co-chair Garret Graves discusses the massive surge in AI data centers in Texas and the power grid challenges they present. Graves reacts to Governor Greg Abbott pausing new projects pending a grid audit.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Americans could soon feel the artificial intelligence boom in an unavoidable place — their monthly electric bills.

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas finds that the rapid growth of AI data centers could make electricity more expensive for households in the coming years.

And researchers estimate existing data centers that have popped up all over the country in recent years have already pushed average wholesale electricity prices 2% to 6% higher nationwide, with even larger surges in areas where these facilities are concentrated.

The issue is sure to take even more prominence as affordability, emerging technology and the future of energy-sucking data centers becomes central to many Americans’ sentiments at the ballot box.

A SOUTHERN STATE JUST TOOK THE TOP SPOT IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST-GROWING INDUSTRIES

Growing electricity demand from AI data centers is raising concerns about what Americans could pay on their monthly power bills.(Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images)

The pressure in monthly bills could grow in conjunction with the AI boom. The preferred middle-range scenario for researchers shows the cost increases of generating electricity could be 20% to 30% higher by 2028 compared to what it would be without new data centers.

That does not mean a family’s electric bill will jump 20% to 30% — that figure is much more nuanced.

Depending on its size, a single large data center can use as much electricity as a small city, according to estimates compiled by Fed researchers.

Wholesale electricity is only one part of what consumers pay for, alongside costs such as transmission and distribution.

The researchers at the Dallas Fed estimate energy costs make up roughly half of a typical retail electricity price, and wholesale increases generally take time to work their way into household rates. In short – the future of electricity bills is unclear, but is likely to steadily rise over the next two years.

AMERICANS HIT WITH SOARING ELECTRICITY BILLS AS PRICE HIKES OUTPACE INFLATION NATIONWIDE

Data center development is surging across Texas, with North Texas taking the top spot in a new global ranking of the industry’s leading markets.(Mikala Compton/The Austin American-Statesman/Getty Images)

At its core, the explanation is straightforward, though the implications are more complex. Data centers need enormous amounts of electricity to run the computers behind AI.

As more data centers connect to the grid, utilities may need additional power plants, transmission lines, substations and other infrastructure to serve them.

Who ultimately pays for those upgrades depends in part on how regulators and utilities divide the costs between data centers and other customers.

The growing strain has is at the center of many political debates.

President Donald Trump has pushed to expand America’s AI infrastructure while backing a voluntary pledge aimed at preventing data centers from driving up household utility bills.

TRUMP HEADS TOWARD UNLIKELY CLASH WITH CLOSE ALLY OVER FUTURE OF MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR INDUSTRY

Even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has hit the brakes on the data center boom, pausing new grid connections until the state can determine how much strain the projects could put on Texas’ power supply.(Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has ordered regulators to halt data center projects seeking to connect to the state’s main power grid until they undergo a comprehensive audit.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has also moved to tighten oversight of large-scale data center development as the state weighs how to balance new investment with rising electricity demand.

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Other governors have gone further, including Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who imposed a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers.

States continue to grapple with concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability and the rapid pace of development.

Amanda Macias covers the intersection of business, economics and politics, with a focus on how policy decisions shape markets, businesses and American workers.

US designates American held by China as wrongfully detained

2026-08-20 09:06:41 / Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. has designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as wrongfully detained after his arrest by Chinese authorities in June, a senior State Department official told Reuters, a move that makes securing his release a top U.S. priority.

The designation for Min Zin, who is accused of endangering Chinese national security, comes just weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House.

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Rights groups have urged the U.S. to press China for the release of Min Zin, who leads a think tank focused on Myanmar, ahead of Xi’s anticipated September 24 visit.

“U.S. citizen Min Zin has been detained by Chinese security services on undefined charges since June 3. For nearly 11 weeks, he has been subjected to repeated interrogations, isolation and detention conditions,” the official said on Thursday.

“After careful review of Min Zin’s case, the secretary of state has decided to designate him as wrongfully detained,” the official said, referring to Marco Rubio.

The official called on China to release other Americans held by Beijing. In addition to Min Zin, Youlin Chen, a Chinese-born American seismologist from Boston, is being held by China on what the U.S. considers baseless charges. He has been declared wrongfully detained.

“The safety and security of U.S. citizens globally is President Trump’s top priority, and the president has been clear that China must treat U.S. citizens with respect – and those wrongfully detained or under exit bans must be released,” the official said.

Rights groups say the number of Americans unjustly detained in the country ranges from a dozen to hundreds, including coercive exit bans. China says it handles cases in accordance with law and that there are no instances in the country of wrongful detention.

Prior to his arrest, Min Zin lived in Thailand and spent time in the U.S. and Myanmar. He had a valid Chinese visa that he had previously used to travel to China to attend academic conferences, the official said.

The official said Min Zin traveled to Yunnan, China, on June 3 after being invited by the Chinese government to attend an academic conference in Kunming and was detained inside the airport.

“One minute his colleagues and family were engaging with him on the phone – exchanging updates on his arrival time and plans in China – and the next minute communication was lost. For 48 hours, his loved ones did not know where he had gone, if he was alive, or who could have taken him,” the official said.

Yunnan authorities eventually informed the U.S. embassy that Min Zin was under criminal investigation for “endangering (China’s) national security,” the official said.

Rights advocates argue that China has long conducted “hostage diplomacy,” detaining foreigners, including Americans, to gain leverage in bilateral relations.

Advocates for Min Zin, including some former Trump administration officials, have petitioned Trump to raise his case with the Chinese.

“Min Zin’s case has raised grave concerns among other scholars about whether they could be subject to entrapment and detention by China,” the official said.

China’s foreign ministry in June confirmed the arrest of Min Zin, saying he was suspected of spying and of endangering Chinese national security.

A former student activist who participated in Myanmar’s 1988 democracy movement, Min Zin studied political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

He also helped establish the Institute for Strategy and Policy, which was initially based inside Myanmar but moved overseas following the 2021 coup, when the military ousted the democratically elected government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

China has publicly backed Myanmar’s new administration, which took office after a widely criticized vote that excluded the country’s main opposition groups, including Suu Kyi’s political party.

Reporting by Steve Holland and Michael Martina, additional reporting by Simon Lewis and Jonathan Landay; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lincoln Feast.

AI “nudify” apps that can digitally undress any photo pose back-to-school risk

August 20, 2026 7:30 AM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

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Joe Enoch,

Jo Ling Kent Senior Business and Technology Correspondent
Journalist Jo Ling Kent joined CBS News in July 2023 as the senior business and technology correspondent for CBS News. Kent has more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of technology and business in the U.S., as well as the emergence of China as a global economic power.

Read Full Bio

A sweet back-to-school photo can be more vulnerable to manipulation in the age of artificial intelligence, with bad actors getting their hands on AI-enabled apps that let them take an innocent photo and sexualize it — all that’s required is a photo of someone even fully clothed.

So-called “nudify apps” use AI-generated software to turn photographs of people wearing clothing into naked or pornographic images with just a few swipes on a screen. Artificial intelligence has enabled the rapid rise of such tools, capable of digitally manipulating photos with little effort.

Roughly half of U.S. teens say they’ve seen AI-generated pornography, according to Common Sense Media, an advocacy group focused on kids’ online safety. Of those who have seen AI porn, one in four says it featured themselves or someone they know.

One in five teens even admits to having made AI porn, while one in four has shared it or knows someone who has, Common Sense Media found.

Where are these apps found?

These apps are widely accessible, and some have no age restrictions. CBS News identified dozens of such apps in the Google Play Store and in Apple’s App Store and tested their capabilities.

CBS News fed AI-generated images of a fully clothed adult woman and an adult man into 70 different AI photo-editing apps.

Nineteen of the apps altered the photos to create disturbing images and videos, which included nudity and explicit sexual content.

CBS News is not disclosing the names of the apps or the keywords it used to discover them.

But it’s very easy to alter a photo. For one app all a user had to do was highlight the area to change, and type in a prompt. For example, you can type in a “make nude” instruction. It took less than 30 seconds to generate a startlingly realistic image.

What’s also troubling is how easy it is to access the apps. The majority are rated for adults, but others are deemed suitable for teens, and a few have no age restrictions.

Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Apple and Google should protect their users from this content and block any app that could be used to create nonconsensual sexual content.

“App stores do have a responsibility for the apps that they are making available to the public. So it’s absolutely critical that there are vetting procedures to know what exactly is being marketed and what that tool does in reality,” she told CBS News.

Apple and Google respond

CBS News made Google and Apple aware of the apps, most of which the tech firms have since removed from their stores.

Apple said it already “proactively rejected many of these apps and removed many others, including when users have flagged them via our reporting tools,” in a statement to CBS News.

The company added that its guidelines for app developers “prohibit overtly sexual or pornographic content and require developers to have a method for filtering objectionable user-generated content.”

Google told CBS News that its Google Play store does “not allow apps that contain sexual content, and we continually take proactive steps to detect and remove apps with harmful content.”

The company added that it takes swift action when it receives reports of violations and has already suspended hundreds of violating apps.

One school district’s proactive approach

In the absence of additional oversight or other guardrails against potential misuse of AI to undress unsuspecting victims, Detective Javier Rodriguez of the Austin Independent School District Police Department is determined to train school resource officers to recognize these high-tech threats.

“Children face a lot of types of online sexual exploitation, whether it be online solicitation, child sexual abuse material or sextortion. AI’s just made it that much easier to perpetrate those types of crimes against our kids,” he told CBS News.

What strikes him is that the app users aren’t always strangers lurking in the dark corners of the web.

Rodriguez said the perpetrators are often students’ classmates, who may face serious consequences depending on the nature of the offense.

“It could be all the way from a class misdemeanor, which is a citation, all the way up to a felony to include jail time,” he said.

What can parents and schools do?

DeLaune, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said parents can be a key line of defense against the proliferation of unauthorized images.

“The best advice is to talk to the kids in your life,” she said. “Ask them questions about how they’re using AI,” she said. “How are their peers using AI? Do they know of a situation like this that has happened in their school or to one of their friends?”

Rodriguez emphasized the importance of making sure a child can openly talk about AI.

“Parents should know that their kids are going to make mistakes and it’s okay if they make a mistake,” he said. “But you have to be that trusted adult in your child’s life that when your child does make a mistake, you got to let them know that, ‘hey, I’m here with you, I’m going to help you navigate this, and we’re going to get through this together.’”

It’s also important that schools update their policies and intervene when appropriate to protect students.

Five of the 10 largest school districts in the U.S. have policies that include action plans for responding to such incidents and specify when to involve law enforcement. Five school districts did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CBS News.

IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOUR CHILD, IMMEDIATELY REACH OUT TO THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN TIPLINE AT CYBERTIPLINE.ORG OR 1-800-843-5678. THEY HAVE COUNSELORS TO HELP YOU AND COORDINATE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES TO GET THE CONTENT PERMANENTLY REMOVED AND WILL WORK WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT ON YOUR BEHALF.

The Democrats’ one neat trick to try to win a Senate majority

2026-08-20T09:00:30.085Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/20/politics/independents-democrats-red-states-senate

The battle for the Senate in 2026 comes with some fascinating wrinkles: In a trio of races — Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota — the Democrat has dropped out to help an independent try to win in a red state.

But this strategy has already been attempted in a handful of Senate races in recent years, and it has yet to actually work — at least at the federal level.

So … could it this year?

It remains unlikely. But history suggests it’s worth it to keep trying. It at least gives Democrats a better shot of depriving Republicans of seats in states where a Democratic nominee probably wouldn’t have a chance at winning.

In fact, when this setup has been tried, Republicans have had some of their worst Senate results in recent history in those states.

The big examples of this strategy in recent years have been the independent candidacies of Kansas’ Greg Orman in 2014, Utah’s Evan McMullin in 2022 and Nebraska’s Dan Osborn in 2024.

Osborn, a Navy veteran and union organizer, is trying again in 2026. He’s joined in Idaho by Todd Achilles, a former state House member, and in South Dakota by Brian Bengs, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who previously ran for Senate as a Democrat.

Osborn’s race two years ago was arguably the most successful use of this strategy to date in a Senate race.

While he lost, he held GOP Sen. Deb Fischer to a considerably lower share of the vote (53%) than President Donald Trump took on the same ballot (59%). Osborn’s 7-point loss was also significantly closer than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ 21-point loss.

Fischer’s performance was also the worst for a Republican in Nebraska since Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson last won the state 20 years ago.

Likewise, McMullin in 2022 came within 10 points in a state Democrats have lost by 20-plus points in each of the two presidential elections.

In Utah, it was the worst performance for a Republican Senate candidate in the last 50 years — since 1976. As in Nebraska, you have to go back to a time when the state had a Democratic senator to find a worse performance for the GOP.

As for Kansas’ Orman in 2014, his performance might have been less historically impressive. But it was still impressive overall given the pro-GOP environment that year.

Orman’s 11-point loss was similar to the margins Democrats lost by in 1996 and would go on to lose by in 2020 in Kansas. But he did it in a year in which the Republican Party was gaining seats — a whopping nine of them in the Senate, in fact.

So we’ve got the worst GOP performance in the last 20 years in Nebraska, in the last 50 years in Utah, and one of the worst ones in the last 30 years in Kansas — despite it being a very good GOP year.

Those aren’t wins for the independents, but they certainly aren’t bad returns.

There was a somewhat similar situation in Alaska in 2020, when independent Al Gross won the Democratic nomination despite not being a registered Democrat. But he appeared on the ballot as the Democratic nominee. His nearly 13-point loss was somewhat unremarkable.

Alaska does, though, provide the most recent example of this kind of strategy resulting in a win — in a governor’s race, at least. Independent Bill Walker was elected by 2 points in 2014 after the Democratic nominee dropped out and became his running mate.

But there’s perhaps a good reason that happened in a governor’s race and not a Senate race. History shows Senate races tend to be more polarized. People view the candidates more as votes for one party or the other, and crossover votes aren’t as plentiful.

That also might explain a phenomenon that’s become common in these races — that these independents tend to poll better than they ultimately perform. In the cases of Orman, Gross and McMullin, there was some thought heading into Election Day that they might actually win. But then — perhaps because conservative voters realized this would cost Republicans votes — they lost by wider margins.

All that being said, just because this setup seems to cost the GOP votes doesn’t mean it might cost them in Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota in 2026. Idaho and South Dakota, in particular, might just be too red for it to work even in the best circumstances.

But it’s also worth pointing out something about the years in which this was truly tried: 2014, 2022 and 2024. In fact, none of them were truly good years for Democrats. The 2022 election was the closest, and it was a pretty evenly split one.

For Democrats, the optimistic case is that this has worked somewhat in the past, and it might work more now that they have the wind at their backs.

And at the very least, it’s worth a shot.