The Headlines - Trump’s ‘Armed Conflict’ Against Cartels, and the Rise of Hyperrealistic A.I. Videos

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Plus, your Friday news quiz. Here’s what we’re covering:Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told by Charlie Savage and Eric SchmittDeepfakes, Insults and Job Cuts: A Government Shutdown Like No Other by Erica L. GreenF.D.A. Approves Generic Abortion Pill as Opponents Push Trump for New Restrictions by Pam BelluckDeadly Attack Outside U.K. Synagogue on Yom Kippur Is Declared Terrorism by Michael D. Shear, Lizzie Dearden, Stephen Castle, Emma Bubola and Thomas FullerOpenAI’s Sora Makes Disinformation Extremely Easy and Extremely Real by Tiffany Hsu, Stuart A. Thompson and Steven Lee MyersOn ‘Showgirl,’ Taylor Swift Has a Lust for Love (and Her Foes) by Jon CaramanicaTune in every weekend morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, October 3rd. Here's what we're covering. In a confidential notice sent to Congress this week, President Trump said he decided that the U.S. is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels, that he's designated as terrorist groups.

The Times obtained a copy of the notice. In it, Trump reformed. referred to suspected drug smugglers working for cartels as, quote, unlawful combatants. To every terrorist thugs smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence. That's what we're doing. We have no choice. The notice fills in some of the administration's legal rationale

for why its recent strikes on boats from Venezuela were legal and not murder. Last month, the U.S. military blew up three boats, killing 17 people. In an armed conflict, as defined by international law, a country can lawfully kill enemy fighters, even when they pose no threat. But Jeffrey Korn, who was formerly the U.S. Army's senior advisor for law of war issues, told the times that the actions of the cartels do not meet the standard Trump is citing for an armed conflict. Essentially, selling a dangerous product like drugs is different from staging an attack. and he described the president's move as an abuse that crossed a major legal line. Previously, the administration called the strike's self-defense saying the boats were smuggling drugs and stressing that tens of thousands of Americans die annually from overdoses.

The surge of overdose deaths in recent years, however, has been driven by fentanyl, which drug trafficking experts say comes from Mexico, not South America. Now, two more quick updates out of Washington. Well, there could be firings, and that's their fault. And it could also be other things. I mean, we could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they'd be permanently cut. President Trump is continuing his threats to slash what he called Democrat agencies in the wake of the government shutdown. Trump wrote on social media, quote,

I can't believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity, as his administration has terminated funding for projects in states with Democratic governors and senators. Still, Democrats showed little sign of budging from their demands. In exchange for helping Republicans pass any kind of stopgap measure to reopen the government, they want to reverse cuts to Medicaid, and extend subsidies for health insurance for millions of Americans. The Senate is due back at the Capitol today. And this week, the Food and Drug Administration approved a generic version of the abortion pill, Mifapristone. The decision will expand the supply of the medication at a time when groups opposed to abortion

have been pressuring the Trump administration to restrict access to abortion pills. At the moment, nearly two-thirds of abortions in the country are carried out with medication, and access to abortion pills, especially through telehealth appointments, is a major reason that the number of abortions has not decreased nationwide since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Some anti-abortion advocates have condemned the FDA's decision and said they would urge the administration to take action, including banning the delivery of such medications through the mail. On Yom Kippur, the holiest day for the Jewish community, a vile individual committed a terrorist attack that attacked Jews because they are Jews, and attacked Britain because of our values. In Manchester, England, two people are dead and at least four were injured

after a man rammed his car into people outside of a synagogue and went on a stabbing spring. Police arrived within minutes and shot and killed the attacker. This attack has been officially declared as a terrorist incident, and the investigation is now being led by counterterrorist police. Authorities identified the man as a British citizen of Syrian descent, who emigrated to the UK as a young child. They said he was wearing a vest that resembled an explosive device, though later investigators said they determined it was not capable of causing any explosion.

Three other people have also been arrested on suspicion of helping plan or commission the assault. After the attack, authorities stepped up security at other Jewish cultural and religious sites across the country as people gathered for Yom Kippur. In the nearly two years since the Hamas-led attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, Britain has seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. Prime Minister Kier-Starmer acknowledged that yesterday, saying, quote, we must be clear that it is a hatred that is rising once again, and Britain must defeat it once again. My colleagues and I have been playing around with SORA,

and what we found is that it's very easy to use. The videos are incredibly realistic, and that raises the concern that it could become breeding ground for disinformation. My colleague Tiffany's shoe has been trying out a new app that uses artificial intelligence to generate videos. It's called Sora, and it's out in limited release this week from OpenAI. Just for disclosure, the New York Times has sued Open AI over copyright infringement. Tiffany says that Sora looks and feels a lot like TikTok. You can scroll endlessly, you can follow friends, but with Sora, you can easily turn out video after video of anything you can possibly

imagine, like you ballroom dancing with your dog or shooting lasers out of your eyes. Almost anything, anyway, opening eye says it has put some safeguards in place so users can't make deep fakes of political leaders or some famous people. The company also says it won't generate videos of graphic violence. Even still, Tiffany says experts have concerns about how quickly this could fill the internet with even more misleading content. Some of the scenes that we managed to produce out of thin air involved an attack on a city street or an ice arrest on the steps of a building or examples of ballot fraud. There were other videos that showed satanic rituals that showed a protest that showed famous people who are dead. Children, scenes of war, scenes of

crimes. To be clear, none of these things ever happened. They were purely generated by artificial intelligence. SOR is not the only app that can do this. There's V-O-3 from Google. There's GROC, the chatbot that Elon Musk owns. But what experts are noticing is that these tools are getting easier to access. They're getting easier to use. The quality is getting much more convincing.

And so disinformation experts are concerned that people are not going to be able to tell fact from fiction, that their trust in the truth, which is already fraying quite a bit, is going to deteriorate. further. We talked to one professor who also runs a company whose sole purpose is to spot fabricated images, who told us that, honestly, it's hard for him even to figure out what's real and what's fake, to spot the difference between reality and artificial intelligence. And finally. Taylor Swift's 12th album dropped today, The Life of a Showgirl.

The Pop Juggernaut, whose eras tour wrapped up as the most profitable ever in history, continues to be prolific. Counting both her new releases and her re-recordings and all the bonus tracks, she has now put out nearly 200 new songs in the last five years. In the past, Swift has notoriously mined her personal life for the lyrics, with fans guessing which song is a reference to which past relationship and who wronged her. The Times pop music critic John Caramonica says on this album, she still has plenty of targets. Given how it has rolled out, you might think,

this is the engagement album, this is the love album. And yes, when you are listening to the first few songs on this album, This is a woman in love who wants to share those feelings. But as you get deeper into the record, and it is, I should say, a very good album. What you hear is Taylor bringing other chapters of her life to a close. Those might be romantic chapters. They might be business chapters. They might be interpersonal chapters.

There's a fair amount of score settling on this record, a sort of surprising amount. But my takeaway at the end is she's tying up a lot of loose ends because she sees a bright future and she wants to go in that direction. For John's full review of the album, go to n.Y.times.com. Those are the headlines. If you want to play the Friday news quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits.

This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzker, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Susan Lee, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Katie O'Brien, Paula Schumann, and Jill Taylor. Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you answer them all? Okay, first up. So, Mr. President, here we are.

It looks like we're going to have a shutdown. The government shutdown is now in its third day. Hundreds of thousands of workers are likely to be furloughed. And others who've been designated as essential, like air traffic controllers and federal law enforcement agents, they have to keep working. They'll get back pay, but not until later. Your question, during a shutdown, do federal lawmakers, so senators and representatives get paid. The answer? Yes, lawmakers still get a paycheck, though this time, like in past shutdowns, some have said they plan to donate their salary or try and forego getting paid.

There have even been efforts in years past to change the law so that senators and reps do not get paid during a shutdown, but those efforts haven't gone anywhere. Okay, next question. This job is life or death. Standards must be met. This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of military commanders for a meeting in Virginia, where he criticized the Pentagon for what he called lax standards on troops' physical fitness and grooming. And that's why today at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over. A lot of his comments were about one particular part of troops' appearance. We'll play it for you here. No more long hair. The era of rampant and ridiculous is done.

What did Hegseth say will no longer be tolerated in the military? The answer? No more beardoes. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done. Hegsteth said, beards are out. Secretary Hegsaf made an edict about no more beardos in the military. After the event, a reporter asked the notably bearded J.D. Vance, about the news.

Sorry, what did he say? No, meados. Beard. Beard. I didn't see that particular comment. He said when he was a Marine, he did not have a beard, but, quote, I am now the vice president, so I get to do what I want to do. Okay, last question. This week, the NFL announced that Bad Bunny will headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show.

The Latin superstar, who is one of the most streamed artists on Earth, is just the latest big-name act to get this gig. But the Super Bowl has not always featured pop stars and celebrities. Originally, the halftime show featured a lot of marching bands, drill teams, dancers, and some creative entertainment. I'm going to describe four Super Bowl halftime shows. All of these happened except one. Can you pick out which one is fake? A. A. A. A Disney-themed show complete with Mickey Mouse marching out to It's a Small World After All. B. A reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg complete with fake soldiers playing dead on the field. C. In Indiana Jones themed performance

featuring Tony Bennett. And D. A salute to the Winter Olympics with figure skaters performing on ice set up on the field. So again, that is, it's a small world, Gettysburg reenactment, Indiana Jones tribute, and live figure skaters. The answer? B. They did not reenact Gettysburg. But that is not to say that they never did a reenactment. In 1970, the halftime show was a reenactment of the Battle of New Orleans from the War of 1812.

When the smoke cleared, the British had lost 1,975 men's kill. The show included real antique cannons. Though, after some cannon-related injuries at another NFL game, just a few months later, the league really cut back on antique weaponry. That is it for the news quiz. Our email, as always, is The Headlines at NYTimes.com. If you want to send us your score, or challenge a friend, share the quiz with them see how they do. I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back on Monday hosted by my

colleague Will Jarvis.