The Latest: RFK Jr. will appear before Congress amid turmoil at CDC

President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased research on artificial intelligence and boasted of investments that companies are making around the United States.

Trump has exulted in the attention from some of the world’s most successful businesspeople, while the companies are eager to remain on the good side of the mercurial president.

While the executives praised Trump and talked about their hopes for technological advancement, the Republican president was focused on dollar signs. He went around the table and asked executives how much they were investing in the country.

Notably absent from the guest list was Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump who was tasked with running the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year.

Here's the latest:

Venezuelan jets fly over US warship in the Caribbean

A pair of Venezuelan fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham in the international waters of the Caribbean on Thursday, Pentagon officials said.

A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss operational details, confirmed that two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the destroyer, which is part of a group of at least seven U.S. warships that have been deployed to the area as part of a mission to target drug smuggling.

The maneuver comes days after the Trump administration revealed that it ordered a strike on a speedboat that it claims was carrying 11 drug smugglers, killing all of them.

In a social media post late Thursday, the Pentagon called the maneuver by Venezuela “highly provocative” and argued that it was “designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations.”

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— By Konstantin Toropin

Trump to attend US Open men’s final on Sunday

The White House says the president will make a daytrip for the match in Queens, New York, which begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

No. 1 seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner is playing Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday. The other semifinal match features Novak Djokovic against Carlos Alcaraz.

Trump was a frequent attendee of the U.S. open during the decades he lived in New York, but hasn’t attended in recent years — including during his first term.

The president has built most of his domestic travel around visiting major sporting events since returning to the White House in January, including attending the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and UFC matches.

US considers banning Iranians from shopping at Costco during UN meeting

The administration has already denied visas for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and his large delegation to attend the U.N. General Assembly this month. It is now considering ramping up restrictions on several other delegations that would severely limit their ability to travel inside New York City.

Potential travel and other restrictions could soon be imposed on delegations from Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Brazil, according to an internal State Department memo seen by The Associated Press.

The movements of Iranian diplomats are severely limited in New York, but one proposal being floated would bar them from shopping at big, members-only wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club without first receiving State Department permission.

Such stores have been a favorite of Iranian diplomats posted to and visiting New York because they can buy large quantities of products not available in their economically isolated country relatively cheaply and send them home.

Bill Gates praises Trump’s COVID-vaccine initiative and says he’s talking to Trump about eradicating diseases

The Microsoft founder, as he sat next to Melania Trump, spoke about what he called the “second phase” of his career working on global health issues, including “areas like vaccines.”

“The president and I are talking about taking American innovation to the next level to cure and even eradicate some of these diseases,” Gates said.

He said Trump mentioned polio, and said they are working on new science to try to cure HIV and sickle cell disease. Gates said the U.S. has “the seeds” of the science needed to cure those.

“The same way that Warp Speed took those seeds and put them together, I think something fantastic can be done.”

Gates’ comments were made just hours after RFK Jr.’s contentious hearing over vaccine policy.

Google CEO on antitrust case: ‘Glad it’s over’

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Trump “I’m glad it’s over” after the president commented that the tech giant had a “very good day,” apparently referring to a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday that rejected the Justice Department’s push to have Google sell its popular Chrome web browser.

The five-year antitrust case that could have ended in the breakup of the storied Silicon Valley company instead ended with U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta prescribing what most analysts and antitrust experts viewed as a light-handed punishment. The ruling propelled the stock price of Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. to a new high of $230.86 during Wednesday’s trading.

Trump says ‘real’ economic numbers that matter will come a year from now

Trump seemed largely dismissive of the impact of Friday’s jobs report and said the “real numbers” will start to make themselves known a year from now.

The president was asked Thursday during a dinner with tech leaders whether he would commit to saying the data was credible for the first job report numbers since he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after last month’s revisions.

He says the jobs right now are largely construction jobs, but “you’re going to see job numbers like our country has never seen before.”

Trump says he’d like to see two candidates drop out of New York City mayoral race

The president said “no” when he was asked by a reporter if he had encouraged or urged any of the candidates to leave the race, but he then said he would like to see the field winnowed to a one-on-one matchup with the Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Trump called Mamdani a “Communist” and said he didn’t know how he had a lead in the race.

“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one, and I think that’s a race that could be won,” Trump said.

Trump says RFK Jr. ‘means very well’

Trump says he didn’t have a chance to watch Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate hearings on Thursday but heard that he did “very well.”

He said, “He’s a very good person” and “he means very well.” He said the health secretary has got different ideas, but that he likes the fact that he’s different.

The contentious three-hour hearing devolved into multiple screaming matches as Kennedy fended off accusations about sweeping changes he’s made to vaccines, health care policy and leadership.

Trump says he’ll speak to Putin next

Trump was asked by a reporter during the tech leaders dinner whether he planned to speak to Putin in the “near future” after talking to Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelenskyy earlier Thursday.

He said, “I will be, yeah. We’re having a very good dialogue.”

Trump sits next to Zuckerberg at tech leaders dinner

Trump is hosting tech leaders in an event at the White House.

Trump was seated at the center of a long table between first lady Melania Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Melania Trump chaired a meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force on Thursday afternoon.

The event was planned to be the first in the newly paved Rose Garden but moved to the White House State Dining Room because of rain.

Trump asked the tech leaders to say a little bit about their companies and talk about their investments in the United States. Zuckerberg estimated that his company would be spending roughly $600 billion through 2028.

US to target visas of Central Americans doing China’s bidding

The U.S. State Department is imposing visa restrictions on “a number” of Central Americans who have allegedly undermined the rule of law in Central American countries on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the move is part of U.S. efforts to counter “China’s corrupt influence in Central America and stop its attempts to subvert rule of law.”

The brief State Department statement Thursday did not name any individuals or countries, but rumors had circulated in Guatemala this week that some mayors, national lawmakers and business people could be at risk of losing their U.S. visas.

Those targeted and their immediate family members would be ineligible for U.S. entry, the statement said.

Rubio has made pushing back against China’s influence in the region a priority of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.

Trump administration targets Boston in latest sanctuary city lawsuit

The Trump administration sued the city of Boston and its leaders Thursday in its latest attempt to target policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement.

The administration has filed a series of similar lawsuits against other cities, including Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York.

The latest suit alleges that Boston’s sanctuary city policies are illegal under federal law and that the city’s refusal to cooperate with immigration authorities has resulted in the release of dangerous criminals.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has called Boston the safest major city in America and has defended its law limiting cooperation with immigration officials as a valid exercise of local authority.

Trump to seek Department of War rebrand

The president has been talking for a while about restoring the original name of the Department of Defense, a shift that would reflect his administration’s focus on projecting military toughness and lethality.

Now, he plans to sign an executive order on Friday advancing his goal.

Although permanently changing the name would require legislation, Trump’s order would authorize the use of “secondary titles” such as “Department of War” and “secretary of war” for “official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts” and more.

The order was first reported by Fox News and was confirmed by a White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss the move before the announcement.

“DEPARTMENT OF WAR,” Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media.