Why 🐵 UnitedStatesNews-NoOpEd picked: Trump denies offering Iran sanctions relief for nuclear concessions – US politics live
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Source: theguardian.com
<p>President uses social media post to deny reports that he was willing to ease sanctions in return for ‘concrete’ steps over its nuclear program</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/17/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&utm_campaign=BN22326&utm_content=signup&utm_term=standfirst&utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Sign up to the US Breaking News email</a></p><p>Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.</p><p>President Donald Trump said he has offered Iran nothing to end the war, rejecting media reports that cited US officials saying he was willing to ease sanctions and release frozen funds for “concrete” steps regarding Iran’s nuclear program.</p><p>Anthropic will caution investors that artificial intelligence could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” in its IPO prospectus. As Anthropic prepares for an IPO listing, which could value the AI company at a monumental $2tn, it dedicated almost a third of its prospectus to discussing concerns around AI safety. The news comes as OpenAI has halted the release of its next AI model over safety concerns, the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-chatgpt-model-release-cancel-safety-5a2f9f42?mod=hp_lead_pos1" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">reports</a>.</p><p>Trump will be on the campaign trail this week – hosting rallies in Durant, Oklahoma, on Thursday, Mobile, Alabama, on Friday and Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday. The first two states are GOP strongholds, and Trump has pushed voters to turn out to the polls and pretend the president was at the top of the ballot this midterm cycle.</p><p>Pete Hegseth ordered the defense department to “protect and uphold the reliability of America’s voting mechanisms against external manipulation and disruption from foreign actors” in a 22 September <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28693645-fod-election-security-memo/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">memo</a>. Hegseth’s order comes as concerns about artificial intelligence are on the rise, but also as the Trump administration has spread misinformation about voter fraud. In July, Trump <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/trump-tv-address-thursday" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">accused China of interfering</a> in the 2020 election, which he lost.</p><p>Andrew Bailey said he is stepping down as one of the FBI’s two deputy directors after just over a year in the role – a short tenure that unfolded as he helped oversee several of Trump’s election‑related investigations. Bailey was appointed in August 2025 to serve alongside Dan Bongino at a moment of sharp tension between the FBI and justice department leadership over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.</p><p>Pope Leo addressed concerns about artificial intelligence and the war in Ukraine during a press conference onboard the papal plane today. Saying that concerns about AI are not “fake news”, the first US pope appeared to criticize Trump, who called concerns about AI a “hoax” during a UN address last week.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/sep/29/donald-trump-iran-ai-jack-smith-media-white-house-latest-news-updates" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Continue reading...</a>