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Meta announced Friday it will integrate content from major news organizations into its artificial intelligence assistant to provide Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users with real-time information.The social media giant said Meta AI will offer breaking news, entertainment and lifestyle stories when users ask news-related questions, drawing from partnerships with outlets including CNN, Fox News, Le Monde, People and USA Today.The feature will allow users to access “more diverse content sources” and receive links to partner websites to dive deeper into stories, Meta said in a blog post.Meta said the expansion aims to make its AI assistant “more responsive, accurate, and balanced” by incorporating diverse viewpoints, acknowledging that “real-time events can be challenging for current AI systems to keep up with.”The initial partnerships span mainstream and conservative-leaning publications, including The Daily Caller and The Washington Examiner.The company said it plans to continue adding partnerships and develop new features as competition intensifies among technology firms to enhance the capabilities of their AI assistants.Meta AI is available across the company’s platforms, serving billions of users globally.The announcement comes as artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, increasingly move to incorporate live web content and news feeds.OpenAI has deals with News Corp., Le Monde, The Washington Post and Axel Springer, while The New York Times has partnered with Amazon and Google has partnered with The Associated Press. Europe’s Mistral has partnered with Agence France-Presse.At the end of August, the startup Perplexity unveiled a subscription package called Comet Plus, named after its AI-infused internet browser, Comet, which gives access to partnered media content for $5 per month.Perplexity has committed to redistributing 80 percent of the revenue generated by Comet Plus to news publishers.Despite these collaborations, several lawsuits brought by media outlets against AI companies are ongoing, notably that of The New York Times against OpenAI, which the newspaper accuses of using its articles without authorization and without compensation.In recent days The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune joined The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post with their own lawsuits against Perplexity.Meta has had a sometimes turbulent relationship with the news media over the years.The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg declared in 2024 that news was a very small share of user engagement on the company’s platforms and began shutting down the Facebook News tab in markets including the United States, Britain and France.This also saw the end of multi-million-dollar deals with leading news organizations.Zuckerberg also made the surprise decision in January to end Meta’s US fact-checking program, as he more closely aligned with the Trump administration’s antipathy toward establishment news.That program had employed third-party fact-checkers, many from news media organizations such as AFP, to identify misinformation disseminated on the platform.The AI news came a day after Meta’s share price rose sharply on a report that the company is significantly cutting back on virtual reality investments as it pivots toward artificial intelligence.

The European Union hit Elon Musk’s X with a 120-million-euro ($140-million) fine Friday for breaking its digital rules, in a move that risks a fresh clash with US President Donald Trump’s administration.The high-profile probe into the social media platform was seen as a test of the EU’s resolve to police Big Tech. US Vice President JD Vance fired a warning against “attacking” US firms through “censorship” before the penalty was even made public.Imposing the first fine under its powerful Digital Services Act (DSA) on content, the European Commission said X was guilty of non-compliance with transparency rules including through the “deceptive design” of its blue checkmark for “verified” accounts.”This decision is about the transparency of X” and “nothing to do with censorship,” the bloc’s technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen told reporters as it was announced — pushing back at Vance’s charge.The US vice president warned the EU pre-emptively Thursday it “should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage” — in an X post to which Musk replied “Much appreciated.”Musk’s platform was targeted by the EU’s first formal DSA investigation in December 2023 — and was found to have breached its rules on several counts in July 2024.The EU found that changes made to the platform’s checkmark system after Musk took over in 2022 meant that “anyone can pay” to obtain a badge of authenticity — without X “meaningfully verifying who is behind the account”.”This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” the commission said in a statement.It also found X failed to be sufficiently transparent about its advertising and to give researchers access to public data in line with DSA rules.X remains under investigation over tackling the spread of illegal content and information manipulation. – ‘Words to action’ -Part one of the X probe had appeared to stall since last year — with no movement on imposing a fine.Weighing on the EU’s mind was the picture in the United States — starkly different from 2023 — after Trump returned as president this year with Musk by his side.The pair later fell out, but the tycoon has reappeared in White House circles, and Brussels had to contend with the prospect any fine on X would fan tensions with Trump.Vance hit out before the punishment was announced, citing “rumours” the commission was preparing to fine X “for not engaging in censorship.”The DSA gives the EU power to fine companies as much as six percent of their global annual revenue — and in the case of X the bloc could have based itself on Musk’s entire business empire, including Tesla.Brussels settled on what is arguably a moderate sum relative to X’s clout — but Virkkunen told reporters it was “proportionate” to the violations at stake.”We are not here to impose the highest fines. We are here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced,” said the tech chief. “If you comply with our rules, you don’t get a fine — and it’s as simple as that.”She also emphasised this was one part of a “very broad investigation” into X, which remained ongoing.The Center for Countering Digital Hate advocacy group said the EU move “sends a message that no tech platform is above the laws all corporations have to abide by.”Washington has made plain its distaste for EU tech laws, and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week called for a rethink if the EU wanted lower steel duties.Driving the point home, a new national security strategy released Friday by Trump’s administration urges Europe to “abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation”.France’s digital affairs minister Anne Le Henanff hailed a “historic” decision by the EU in the face of US pressure. “By sanctioning X, Europe shows it is capable of moving from words to action,” she said.Same message from Germany’s digital minister Karsten Wildberger, who said the bloc’s digital rules “apply to everyone, no matter where they come from.”At the same time as the X fine, the commission said it had accepted commitments from TikTok to address concerns over its advertising system, although the Chinese-owned platform remains under DSA investigation over other issues.

Meta announced Friday it will integrate content from major news organizations into its artificial intelligence assistant to provide Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users with real-time information.The social media giant said Meta AI will offer breaking news, entertainment and lifestyle stories when users ask news-related questions, drawing from partnerships with outlets including CNN, Fox News, Le Monde, People and USA Today.The feature will allow users to access “more diverse content sources” and receive links to partner websites to dive deeper into stories, Meta said in a blog post.Meta said the expansion aims to make its AI assistant “more responsive, accurate, and balanced” by incorporating diverse viewpoints, acknowledging that “real-time events can be challenging for current AI systems to keep up with.”The initial partnerships span mainstream and conservative-leaning publications, including The Daily Caller and The Washington Examiner.The company said it plans to continue adding partnerships and develop new features as competition intensifies among technology firms to enhance the capabilities of their AI assistants.Meta AI is available across the company’s platforms, serving billions of users globally.The announcement comes as artificial intelligence companies, including ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, increasingly move to incorporate live web content and news feeds.Meta has had a hot and cold relationship with the news media over the years.The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 declared that news was a very small share of user engagement on the company’s platforms and began shutting down the Facebook News tab in markets like the United States, Britain and France.This also saw the end of multi-million dollar deals with leading news organizations.Zuckerberg also made the surprise decision in January to axe Meta’s US fact-checking program, as he more closely aligned with the Trump administration’s antipathy to establishment news.That scheme had employed third-party fact checkers, many from news media organizations such as AFP, to expose misinformation disseminated on the platform.

Streaming giant Netflix said Friday it will buy film and television studio Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly $83 billion, the entertainment industry’s biggest consolidation deal this decade.The acquisition gives Netflix access to a vast film catalog as well as the prestigious streaming service HBO Max.Over the decades, Warner Brothers has produced film classics including “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane”, as well as more recent blockbuster shows including “The Sopranos”, “Game of Thrones” and the “Harry Potter” movies.”Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling,” said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, which has produced global hits including “Stranger Things”, “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Squid Games”.The biggest previous such deal was Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox in 2019.The transaction values Warner Bros. Discovery at $27.75 per share, implying a total equity value of approximately $72.0 billion and an enterprise value — including debt — of around $82.7 billion.Warner Bros. Discovery shares closed at $24.54 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.”Today’s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, in the statement.The transaction, which was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, is to close within 12 to 18 months, they said.”Netflix aims to dominate Hollywood,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, a trading and investment firm.The analyst warned of a number of potential issues surrounding deal, including fears of a Netflix monopoly once it commands such “a colossus in the TV and movie business”.– Antitrust issues expected –Netflix, whose stock weakened as speculation on the imminent tie-up heated up in New York trading Thursday, “has never attempted a deal of this size before, which could lead to some concern about how the new mega company will be managed going forward”, she said.Brooks said she also expected political issues given that a deal of this size would need regulatory approval from anti-trust authorities in the US, and potentially elsewhere.The parent company of HBO, CNN and the Warner Bros film studio officially put itself up for sale in October after receiving multiple unsolicited offers, setting aside a planned split into two separate entities — one focused on streaming and studios, the other on traditional cable networks.Warner Bros Discovery was originally targeted by Paramount — recently acquired by the billionaire tech family of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest men.According to Bloomberg, Netflix joined Paramount Skydance and Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, in a second round of an auction that was being negotiated throughout the US Thanksgiving holiday.Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service with over 280 million subscribers globally, has been working on a bridge loan totaling tens of billions of dollars to finance the acquisition, according to sources cited by Bloomberg.Top Hollywood players have voiced their preference to see Warner Bros not end up in the hands of Netflix, citing concerns that the streaming company largely seeks to limit theatrical releases of its film productions.”Titanic” director James Cameron, speaking before Friday’s announcement, called any takeover of Warner Bros by Netflix “a disaster.”burs-jh/rl

President Donald Trump’s administration said in a long-awaited new strategy document Friday that the United States will shift from its historic global role toward increasing dominance in Latin America and vigorously fighting migration.The national security paper, meant to flesh out Trump’s norms-shattering “America First” worldview, signals a sharp reorientation from longstanding US calls to refocus on Asia, although it still identifies China as a top competitor.The strategy also brutally criticized allies in Europe and said that the United States will champion opponents to European Union-led values, including on immigration.Breaking with decades of attempts to be the sole superpower, the strategy said that the “United States rejects the ill-fated concept of global domination for itself.”It said that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”The strategy called for a “readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere, and away from theaters whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or years.”The strategy speaks in bold terms of pressing US dominance in Latin America, where the Trump administration has been striking alleged drug traffickers at sea, intervening to bring down leftist leaders including in Venezuela, and loudly seeking to take charge of key resources such as the Panama Canal.The strategy cast Trump as modernizing the two-century-old Monroe Doctrine, in which the then young United States declared Latin America off-limits to rival powers, then from Europe.”We will assert and enforce a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine,” it said.- Championing Europe ‘resistance’ -Trump has sharply reversed many longstanding US principles since returning to office in January.He rose to political prominence demanding sweeping curbs on immigration to the United States, fanning fears that the white majority was losing its status, and since taking office has ordered drastic and high-profile raids to deport undocumented people.”The era of mass migration must end. Border security is the primary element of national security,” the strategy said.The strategy made clear that the United States under Trump would aggressively pursue similar objectives in Europe, in line with far-right parties that have made strong gains in much of the continent.In extraordinary language in speaking of close allies, the strategy said: “Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”Germany quickly hit back, saying that it does not need “outside advice.”The strategy pointed to Europe’s lower share of the global economy — which is the result largely of the rise of China and other emerging powers — and said: “This economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.”Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less.”As Trump seeks an end to the Ukraine war that would likely favor Russia gaining territory, the strategy accused Europeans of weakness and said the United States should focus on “ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.”- Less on Middle East and Africa -The strategy paid comparatively little attention to the Middle East, which has long consumed Washington.Pointing to US efforts to increase energy supply at home and not in the oil-rich Gulf, the strategy said: “America’s historic reason for focusing on the Middle East will recede.”The paper said it was a US priority for Israel to be secure, but stopped short of the fulsome language on Israel used even in the first Trump administration.On China, the strategy repeated calls for a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region but focused more on the nation as an economic competitor.After much speculation on whether Trump would budge on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing, the strategy made clear that the United States supports the decades-old status quo, but called on allies Japan and South Korea to contribute more to ensure Taiwan’s defense from China.The strategy predictably puts little focus on Africa, saying the United States should transition away from “liberal ideology” and an “aid-focused relationship” and emphasize goals such as securing critical minerals.

The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place in Washington on Friday, with Donald Trump set to play a prominent part in a star-studded ceremony that will map the path to glory for contenders at the first-ever 48-team finals.The most logistically complex World Cup in history will be held across the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, with 16 more teams added to the global showpiece, up from the 32 nations involved in Qatar in 2022.The ceremony at the Kennedy Center starts at 1700 GMT and reaches far beyond football, with several of the biggest stars in the American sporting world participating while Trump takes centre stage.FIFA president Gianni Infantino has developed a close relationship with Trump, visiting the White House several times.Now the US president is expected to be the first ever recipient of the FIFA Peace Prize, which will be awarded during the draw ceremony, “to recognize the enormous efforts of those individuals who unite people, bringing hope for future generations”, as Infantino put it.The draw will be co-hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum and American actor and comedian Kevin Hart, and feature performances by the Village People, Robbie Williams and Andrea Bocelli.NFL legend Tom Brady, ice hockey icon Wayne Gretzky and former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal will be among the stars helping to conduct the draw.Trump has made the World Cup a centrepiece event of both his second presidency and the 250th anniversary of US independence next year.But he has not hesitated to inject domestic politics into the preparations, threatening to move World Cup matches from Democratic-run cities if he deems conditions “unsafe”.”I would call Gianni, the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal, and I would say, let’s move it to another location. And he would do that,” Trump said recently.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will also be present at the ceremony.Eleven of the 16 World Cup venues are in the United States, with three in Mexico and two in Canada.The tournament will kick off at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and culminate at the MetLife Stadium outside New York City.- Argentina put title on line -The political element to the draw saw Iran vow to boycott the ceremony because the United States refused to grant visas to several members of its delegation, although Iranian head coach Amir Ghalenoei will be there in the end.Lionel Messi’s Argentina are the reigning champions after winning the World Cup for the third time in Qatar in 2022.Messi will turn 39 during the tournament but this week told ESPN: “I hope I can be there. I’ve said before that I’d love to be there.”Argentina are among the top seeds along with European champions Spain, record five-time winners Brazil, France, Germany, England, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium. The three host nations complete the first pot of seeds.The decision to expand the tournament has also cleared the way for several first-time qualifiers, including Cape Verde, Jordan and Curacao.- ‘Natural evolution’ -If the expansion is to everyone’s liking, FIFA’s head of global football development Arsene Wenger insisted this week it was a “natural evolution” and that 48 teams is “the right number”.Those teams will be split into 12 groups of four, with the top two from each advancing alongside the eight best third-placed sides to the last 32.For the first time, the four highest-ranked nations will be kept apart, meaning Spain, Argentina, France and England cannot meet before the semi-finals, if all four top their groups.Six finals berths are still to be decided in playoffs, the winners of which will be among the bottom seeds — the favourites will therefore want to avoid the potential banana skin of Italy, World Cup winners as recently as 2006 but who failed to qualify for the last two tournaments.Because of the complexity, teams will only learn the full details of their match venues and kick-off times on Saturday, a day after the draw.

The US Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use redrawn congressional districts for the 2026 midterm elections, boosting the hopes of President Donald Trump’s Republicans to retain control of the House of Representatives.The push by Texas, which carves out five more Republican-friendly districts and came at the behest of Trump, launched a series of similar efforts in states around the country.The decision by the conservative-dominated high court stayed a lower ruling which had said the redrawn maps “unconstitutionally” sort voters based on race.”Texas needs certainty on which map will govern the 2026 midterm elections, so I will not delay the Court’s order,” Justice Samuel Alito, one of six conservatives on the bench, wrote in his concurring opinion.The three liberal justices all dissented with the order, which was unsigned.”The District Court conducted a nine-day hearing… And after considering all the evidence, it held that the answer was clear. Texas largely divided its citizens along racial lines to create its new pro-Republican House map,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.While the ruling is technically only a temporary halt to the lower court ruling, with a candidate filing deadline next week in Texas, it effectively ensures that the Republican-favored map will be in effect for the 2026 midterms.- ‘We won!’ -US electoral districts are traditionally drawn following the national census, taken once per decade to reflect the changing population.The next census is not scheduled until 2030, but Republican-ruled Texas, under pressure from Trump, decided to redraw its congressional maps mid-decade to yield more Republican districts.Texas Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the decision.”We won! Texas is officially — and legally — more red,” he wrote on X.Democrats voiced disappointment with the ruling.”The right-wing Supreme Court majority has once again shredded its credibility by rubber-stamping a racially gerrymandered map in Texas,” US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.”Republicans know the extremists can only win by cheating. The people of California and beyond will prevent that from happening.”The US Supreme Court has previously permitted so-called partisan gerrymandering, but the situation becomes more complicated when a person’s race is involved due to civil rights legislation.Democratic-run California has also approved a new electoral map that would also create five districts more likely to vote for the left-leaning party.But those maps have also been challenged in court by the Republican Party of California, in a lawsuit that has received the backing of the Trump administration and which claims race was also unlawfully used.US Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose Justice Department filed a brief supporting the new Texas maps, hailed Thursday’s ruling.”Federal courts have no right to interfere with a State’s decision to redraw legislative maps for partisan reasons,” Bondi said in a statement on X.Republicans in North Carolina have also redrawn that state’s map, while efforts are underway in Indiana, Missouri, and elsewhere.

The Pentagon said Thursday it has endorsed the tripartite AUKUS security pact with the United Kingdom and Australia, which would involve Canberra’s acquisition of at least three Virginia-class nuclear submarines within 15 years.The administration of Donald Trump said earlier this year it was reviewing a 2021 deal for the nuclear-powered attack subs signed under his presidential predecessor Joe Biden.The Department of Defense completed its five-month review, which endorsed the AUKUS agreement and determined it is “in alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.”Consistent with President Trump’s guidance that AUKUS should move ‘full steam ahead,’ the review identified opportunities to put AUKUS on the strongest possible footing.”Congressman Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on a US House subcommittee on sea power, said the review’s completion assures that the pact’s “framework is aligned with our country’s national security interest.””With its completion, it is important to note that the 2021 AUKUS agreement has now survived three changes of government in all three nations and still stands strong.”Courtney is a vocal champion of AUKUS in Congress, and represents a Connecticut district that is home to the primary submarine manufacturing facility in the United States.The AUKUS pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge submarines from the United States and would provide for cooperation in developing an array of warfare technologies.- Long-range strike -The submarines, the sale of which will begin in 2032, lie at the heart of Australia’s strategy of improving its long-range strike capabilities in the Pacific, particularly against China.The deal could cost Canberra up to US$235 billion over the next 30 years, and also includes the technology to build its own vessels in the future.Australia’s defense industry minister, Pat Conroy, said Friday he was pleased the US review had confirmed that AUKUS was “full steam ahead.””We’ll engage constructively with its findings and its recommendations on how to improve AUKUS even further.”Conroy said it was up to Washington to decide whether to release the document publicly. “We’re working through the review right now, and we’ve said publicly over the last two years where we can improve delivery, improve performance of AUKUS, we will do that.”AUKUS is a “living agreement”, Conroy said.”It will go for 30 or 40 years at a minimum. We’re going to see changes. We’re going to see improvements in it.”Australia had a major bust-up with France in 2021 when it canceled a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from Paris and go with the AUKUS program instead.

Donald Trump still seems unsure whether to call it soccer or football. But the US president’s aim is truer when using the world’s favorite sport to score diplomatic goals.Trump will try to do so again Friday when he meets the leaders of 2026 World Cup co-hosts Canada and Mexico at the tournament’s draw in Washington.As the first World Cup hosted by three countries simultaneously, it should be a golden opportunity to show North American unity, with the three leaders reportedly set to take part in a ceremonial draw.But Trump’s aggressive stance towards his allies on trade, migration and drug-trafficking since his return to power means they will have thorny issues to tackle on the sidelines of the gala event.For Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum it will be her first meeting with Trump. She told reporters they would discuss bilateral trade during the “small meeting” before the draw, in which the 48 qualifying teams are divided into 12 World Cup groups.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has visited the White House twice but it will be his first encounter with Trump since briefly meeting in South Korea in November, after Trump suspended trade talks in a bizarre row over an anti-tariff ad.They will have a “brief meeting during their time together at the Kennedy Center,” the venue for the tournament draw, Carney’s office told AFP Thursday, adding that he would also meet briefly with Sheinbaum.Trump has slapped steep tariffs on exports from Canada and Mexico that do not fall under the USMCA trade agreement that Washington is seeking to renegotiate next year.He has threatened further punishment if they fail to curb cross-border migration and drug trafficking — and irked Sheinbaum by saying he would be “OK” with airstrikes on Mexico to tackle traffickers.Canada meanwhile was outraged by Trump’s calls earlier this year for it to become the 51st US state.- FIFA ‘peace prize’ -Yet the three countries now find themselves hosting the world’s biggest sporting event together, having launched their joint bid in 2017 during Trump’s first term in the White House.He has unashamedly seized on the World Cup to score political and diplomatic points — even though the golf fan’s knowledge of the beautiful game mainly comes from his son Barron, 19.The US president has struck up a close friendship with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, who also has close ties with a number of authoritarian leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.Trump dangled the carrot of the chance to compete at the 2026 World Cup as a possible “incentive” for Russia — banned from international football since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine — to end the war.Infantino is set to play to Trump’s love of flattery when he presents a new FIFA “peace prize” on Friday that the US leader is widely expected to win.Trump has hosted Infantino several times at the White House — as he did Portuguese superstar Ronaldo at a dinner for visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November.But Trump’s football diplomacy has also risked colliding with his domestic priority of a massive crackdown on immigration.Trump recently unveiled a special fast-track visa process for people with World Cup tickets, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that a ticket would not guarantee admission to the United States.More recently, Trump responded to an Afghan national allegedly shooting two National Guard members in Washington by slapping a freeze on all asylum decisions from 19 countries.They include World Cup participants Haiti and Iran.Trump has also caused jitters at FIFA and in foreign capitals by threatening to move World Cup matches from Democratic-run cities where he has launched anti-crime and immigrant operations.

A grand jury declined on Thursday to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, a political foe of President Donald Trump, on mortgage fraud charges, US media reported.The failure by federal prosecutors to secure an indictment of James comes less than two weeks after the initial case against her was tossed out.District Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the case against James — and another against former FBI chief James Comey — on the grounds that the US attorney handpicked by Trump who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.NBC News said different prosecutors presented the James case to a grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday but failed to get an indictment.The television network said the Justice Department could still try again.James, 67, a Democrat who successfully prosecuted Trump for fraud, was indicted in October on one count of bank fraud and a second one of making false statements to a financial institution.Comey, 64, was charged in September with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.Both cases have been widely seen as retribution by Trump against political opponents.The Comey and James indictments came after the interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, stepped down after reportedly telling Justice Department leaders there was insufficient evidence to charge them.Attorney General Pam Bondi replaced Siebert with Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer to Trump, and she secured the indictments.Top federal prosecutors are subject to Senate confirmation. Judge Currie had said that Halligan had been unlawfully appointed because her predecessor was also serving in an acting capacity, and US law does not allow two successive interim prosecutors.After Trump left the White House in 2021, James won a civil fraud case against him, alleging he and his real estate company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.Comey was appointed to head the FBI by president Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump in 2017 amid a probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 vote.The charges against Comey came just days after Trump publicly urged Bondi to take action against the former FBI director and others he sees as enemies — a stunning departure from the principle that the Justice Department must be free from White House pressure.