The Latest: DHS says 475 people were detained during an immigration raid in Georgia

Thursday’s raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, touted by the governor and other officials as the largest economic development project in the state’s history.

Here's the latest:

US set to ease travel restrictions on African leader accused of corruption

The Trump administration is set to allow a West African leader accused of flagrant corruption to travel to the United States for this month’s U.N. General Assembly and cities outside New York that he has previously been barred from visiting.

Two officials familiar with the matter said the State Department is processing a temporary sanctions waiver for the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro “Teddy” Obiang, following recommendations that it is in the U.S. national interest to blunt growing Chinese influence in the country and boost American business interests there. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

Obiang has been accused, and in some cases convicted, of pilfering his impoverished country’s resources to feed a lifestyle of luxury cars, mansions and superyachts.

— By Matthew Lee

McConnell pushes for more military funding

As Trump spoke about the Pentagon rebrand, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used the moment to call for more military spending.

“If we call it the Dept. of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars,” McConnell wrote on X. “Can’t preserve American primacy if we’re unwilling to spend substantially more on our military than Carter or Biden.”

McConnell, who is spending the twilight of his Senate career focused on promoting hawkish defense policies, added: “‘Peace through strength’ requires investment, not just rebranding.”

Trump says US will work out Ukraine security guarantees

The president was asked about plans to help Ukraine in its war with Russia and said, “We’ll work that out. We’ll help them.”

He said he wants to save lives and that when it comes to security guarantees, “Europe will be first in by far.”

He didn’t offer more details but said, “It’ll end all of a sudden. It’s going to come together. You watch.”

Trump says Department of War rebrand won’t be costly

The president insisted that the cost of the Department of Defense name change will be “not a lot.”

He noted that things like official stationary would have to be changed, but without spending too much in federal funds.

“We know how to rebrand without having to go crazy,” Trump said.

Trump signs order changing Department of Defense to Department of War

“This is something we thought long and hard about,” Trump said, adding, “We’ve been talking about it for months.”

Pete Hegseth, who will now be known as the secretary of war, noted that since the U.S. changed the name in 1947, “We haven’t won a major war since.”

Hegseth said the move is about “restoring the warrior ethos” and that the department would fight “decisively” and not “endless wars.”

That prompted Trump to blame being too politically correct and “wokey” in the past for the U.S. not having more military success.

The president said the rebranding sends a key signal to the world.

“I think it sends a message of victory, really a message of strength,” Trump said.

Former Biden aide testifies before House Oversight Committee as part of age inquiry

Andrew Bates, a former deputy press secretary in the Biden White House, testified before lawmakers behind closed doors for more than four hours.

Bates appeared as part of House Republicans’ inquiry into former President Joe Biden’s mental state and alleged cognitive decline while in office.

Bates did not respond to reporter questions, but instead told the crowd: “I want to know why Ghislaine Maxwell is in minimum security.”

The House Oversight Committee last month conducted an interview with Maxwell, a convicted sexual predator, as part of a separate investigation into the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

At issue in the Biden health investigation are allegations from oversight Republicans that Biden was not aware of his administration’s actions. Biden has strongly denied such accusations and called them distracting insults.

Defense officials a no-show after abruptly canceling Hill briefing on Venezuelan vessel strike

Top staff from the national security committees in the Senate and leadership offices had been expecting the morning briefing and some had already assembled in a secure facility at the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the private meeting and unauthorized to discuss it.

But the Pentagon officials never showed and sent word the meeting was being canceled.

Congressional leaders have pressed for more information on why the Trump administration took the military action.

A defense official said the meeting will be rescheduled.

— By Lisa Mascaro and Konstantin Toropin

Judge blocks administration’s ending of legal protections for 1.1M Venezuelans and Haitians

A federal judge on Friday ruled against the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco for the plaintiffs means 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire Sept. 10 have status to stay and work in the United States.

Trump will use tariffs against EU if it keeps fining US tech companies

The president on his social media site said it was “very unfair” that the European Union was fining Google $3.5 billion.

Trump said he would use Section 301 tariffs from the 1974 Trade Act if the EU continues to penalize U.S. companies.

The president on Thursday had dinner at the White House with several tech titans, including executives and founders from Apple, Google and Microsoft.

The president also objected to a fine the EU charged to Apple.

“They should get their money back!” Trump wrote. “We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies.”

▶ Read more about the EU’s fine on Google.

Eric Trump’s “Under Siege” comes out next month

The latest book on the president is a memoir by his son, adviser and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Eric Trump.

Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Friday that Eric Trump’s “Under Siege” will be published Oct. 14. Threshold is calling the book “a raw, unflinching insider account of life under a global spotlight” that includes “behind-the-scene moments” of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns. “Under Siege” will include a foreword by the president, whose “Crippled America” (later retitled “Great Again”) was published by Threshold in 2015.

In a statement Friday, Eric Trump said “Under Siege” was “the story of a family that refused to back down.”

He’s not the first of President Trump’s children to have a book deal. Donald Trump Jr.’s books include “Triggered” and “Liberal Privilege” and Ivanka Trump has released “The Trump Card” and “Women Who Work.”

FCC taking steps to allow US prisons to jam prisoners’ cellphone signals

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday during a news conference in Arkansas said his agency would vote at its Sept. 30 on a proposal to lift a restriction that prohibits state and federal prisons from jamming signals of phones that prisoners aren’t allowed to have.

Prisons officials have long said the devices are dangerous, allowing inmates to run criminal enterprises while behind bars. The debate over using technology to block calls and messages has gone on for years, and federal legislation to allow jamming has repeatedly failed.

A message was left seeking comment from CTIA, a wireless industry group that opposes jamming.

Attorney says 2 people detained in raid had visa waivers

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck said both of his clients who were detained arrived from South Korea under a visa waiver program that enables them to travel for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.

“They were both engaging in normal visa waiver activities,” Kuck said, adding that his clients haven’t been able to call him yet. “Still lawfully here doing the activities that are lawful for a visa waiver to do.”

One of his clients, he said, has been in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, while the other arrived about 45 days ago. He did not provide details of the kind of work they were doing.

“They were planning to go home shortly,” Kuck said.

Rubio reshuffles senior State Department leadership team: AP source

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reshuffling his senior staff in Foggy Bottom as he takes on an increasingly influential role in the Trump administration’s national security leadership.

A senior State Department official says that his current chief of staff, Mike Needham, will become the department’s new policy planning chief, a post that has often has an outsized role in formulating policy.

Needham, who will retain his position as State Department counselor, will replace Michael Anton, who plans to leave government later this year after completing a review of a new National Security Strategy. Anton will hold a different title until he departs, the official said.

Rubio’s current deputy chief of staff, Dan Holler, will replace Needham in the chief of staff position, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement of the changes set to be made on Monday.

Both Needham and Holler are former high-level Rubio aides from his days in the Senate.

— By Matthew Lee

Battery plant was the focus of the Georgia immigration raid

The plant is still under construction. It’s where Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce batteries that power electric vehicles.

Some of the detained employees worked for the battery manufacturer, while others were employed by contractors and subcontractors at the construction site, Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations, told reporters Friday.

Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson. Hyundai Motor Company said in a statement Friday it was “working to understand the specific circumstances” of the raid and detentions.

“As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company,” the company’s statement said.

Georgia to send more than 300 guard members to Washington

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp says he’s sending the Georgia National Guard later this month.

It’s the latest indication that President Donald Trump’s law enforcement operation in the nation’s capital will drag on.

Kemp said he will mobilize roughly 300 guard members in mid-September to relieve soldiers from other states. Seven other states have sent National Guard troops so far.

Kemp said Georgia’s soldiers may be armed and will support law enforcement. Kemp said he already sent 16 soldiers this week to perform non-policing support roles.

Jeffries blasts August jobs report as sign of ‘dangerous one-man command economy’

“The August jobs report is the latest indication that Donald Trump is crashing our economy in real time and driving us toward a recession,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, said in a statement.

The U.S. added about 22,000 jobs in August, a recent low, while the employment rate rose to its highest since 2021.

President Trump has criticized the jobs data, which are collected by the Bureau for Labor Statistics. Trump last month fired the head of the nonpartisan agency and appointed an economist affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Jeffries continued that “life is becoming increasingly more expensive while unemployment is the highest in years.”

The New York Democrat also criticized the Republicans’ signature tax and spending law as “saddling the economy with trillions of dollars in debt” and cutting health and social welfare programs “in order to enact massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors.”

Pentagon-funded research at colleges has aided the Chinese military, a House GOP report says

Over a recent two-year period, the Pentagon funded hundreds of projects done in collaboration with universities in China and institutes linked to that nation’s defense industry, including many blacklisted by the U.S. government for working with the Chinese military, a congressional investigation has found.

The report, released Friday by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, argues the projects have allowed China to exploit U.S. research partnerships for military gains while the two countries are locked in a tech and arms rivalry.

“American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation — not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor,” Republicans wrote in the report.

“Failing to safeguard American research from hostile foreign exploitation will continue to erode U.S. technological dominance and place our national defense capabilities at risk,” it said.

The Pentagon and didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

▶ Read more about the Pentagon-funded research projects

Canada’s Carney to delay EV mandate as country deals with Trump’s tariffs

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is delaying a requirement for automakers to begin hitting minimum sales levels for electric vehicles next year, an official familiar with the matter said Friday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly ahead of Carney’s announcement.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set the target, requiring that in 2026 20% of passenger vehicles sold should be zero-emission vehicles.

Removing the requirement comes as automakers deal with the impact of President Trump’s tariffs.

Carney is set to announce later Friday measures for workers and businesses in those sectors most impacted by the U.S. tariffs and trade disruptions.

▶ Read more about Canada’s EV mandates

— Rob Gillies

Top congressional leaders have demanded briefing on Venezuelan vessel strike

Pentagon officials were slated to brief congressional national security staff on Friday but no top-level session for Hill leaders was expected.

Congress has already adjourned for the week and many lawmakers have left town. House Speaker Mike Johnson is in Canada attending the G7 summit of global leaders.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman James Risch has acknowledged being in touch with the administration about the military strike, but provided no further details.

But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries had called on the Trump administration to provide a full briefing for Congress.

Homeland Security official says 475 people were detained during an immigration raid in Georgia

They were detained during an immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles, according to the Homeland Security official.

Steven Schrank, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, spoke at a news briefing in Savannah on Friday. No charges were immediately announced.

“This operation underscores our commitment to jobs for Georgians and Americans,” Schrank said.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong described the number of detained South Koreans as “large” though he did not provide an exact figure.

US employers added just 22,000 jobs last month amid uncertainty over Trump’s policies

The Labor Department said Friday that hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, the Labor Department reported.

When the department put out a disappointing jobs report a month ago, an enraged President Trump responded by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her.

Talking to reporters Thursday night at a dinner with wealthy tech executives, Trump had seemed to shrug off whatever hiring numbers would come out Friday. “The real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now,’’ the president said.

▶ Read more about the U.S. jobs report