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ST Engineering IDirect Advances Intelligent Satellite Operations With New AI Capabilities
HERNDON, Virginia, Sept. 12 -- ST Engineering iDirect, a satellite communications company, issued the following news release on Sept. 10, 2026:
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ST Engineering iDirect Advances Intelligent Satellite Operations with New AI Capabilities
New capabilities for AI governance, operational control and rapid onboarding help operators simplify complexity, strengthen compliance and scale automation with confidence
Herndon, Va. - ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satellite communications, today announced new capabilities for Foresight, its AI-driven orchestration and intelligence platform ... Show Full Article HERNDON, Virginia, Sept. 12 -- ST Engineering iDirect, a satellite communications company, issued the following news release on Sept. 10, 2026: * * * ST Engineering iDirect Advances Intelligent Satellite Operations with New AI Capabilities New capabilities for AI governance, operational control and rapid onboarding help operators simplify complexity, strengthen compliance and scale automation with confidence Herndon, Va. - ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satellite communications, today announced new capabilities for Foresight, its AI-driven orchestration and intelligence platformdesigned to help satellite operators simplify increasingly complex multi-orbit and multi-service network environments. The new capabilities introduce enhanced AI governance, operational controls, and guided onboarding tools that help operators adopt AI responsibly, maintain oversight of operational changes and accelerate deployment.
"Satellite operators are under increasing pressure to deliver services faster, manage growing operational complexity and adopt AI responsibly," said Sridhar Kuppanna, CEO of ST Engineering iDirect. "With these new Foresight capabilities, we're extending the intelligence, automation and governance that operators need to confidently modernize their operations. From accelerating onboarding to governing AI-assisted workflows, Foresight provides a practical path toward more intelligent and automated satellite operations."
With support for air-gapped deployments, strong data governance and secure AI operations, Foresight enables operators to accelerate automation while maintaining control of their networks and data, helping them move from reactive management toward autonomous network operations.
Foresight's latest AI capabilities include:
* Agentic Governance: Delivers oversight, auditability and risk controls for AI agents through governance policies, audit trails, operational safeguards and compliance-focused controls.
* Governed Change Management: Enables approval-based workflows with review, risk assessment and authorization before AI-driven operational changes are applied.
* AI Usage Visibility and Cost Controls: Provides monitoring, budgeting and policy-based controls to help operators manage AI consumption and maintain operational oversight.
* Accelerated Onboarding: Simplifies deployment by automatically discovering network inventory, deploying required platform components and guiding administrators through privacy, data and deployment configuration options.
First introduced in March 2026, Foresight represents ST Engineering iDirect's vision for more intelligent and automated satellite operations, bringing together automation, orchestration and AI-driven insights in a unified operational environment.
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Original text here: https://www.stengg.com/en/newsroom/news-releases/st-engineering-idirect-advances-intelligent-satellite-operations-with-new-ai-capabilities
[Category: TelecommunicationsBiz]
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ST Engineering iDirect Advances Intelligent Satellite Operations with New AI Capabilities
New capabilities for AI governance, operational control and rapid onboarding help operators simplify complexity, strengthen compliance and scale automation with confidence
Herndon, Va. - ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satellite communications, today announced new capabilities for Foresight, its AI-driven orchestration and intelligence platform ... Show Full Article HERNDON, Virginia, Sept. 12 -- ST Engineering iDirect, a satellite communications company, issued the following news release on Sept. 10, 2026: * * * ST Engineering iDirect Advances Intelligent Satellite Operations with New AI Capabilities New capabilities for AI governance, operational control and rapid onboarding help operators simplify complexity, strengthen compliance and scale automation with confidence Herndon, Va. - ST Engineering iDirect, a global leader in satellite communications, today announced new capabilities for Foresight, its AI-driven orchestration and intelligence platformdesigned to help satellite operators simplify increasingly complex multi-orbit and multi-service network environments. The new capabilities introduce enhanced AI governance, operational controls, and guided onboarding tools that help operators adopt AI responsibly, maintain oversight of operational changes and accelerate deployment.
"Satellite operators are under increasing pressure to deliver services faster, manage growing operational complexity and adopt AI responsibly," said Sridhar Kuppanna, CEO of ST Engineering iDirect. "With these new Foresight capabilities, we're extending the intelligence, automation and governance that operators need to confidently modernize their operations. From accelerating onboarding to governing AI-assisted workflows, Foresight provides a practical path toward more intelligent and automated satellite operations."
With support for air-gapped deployments, strong data governance and secure AI operations, Foresight enables operators to accelerate automation while maintaining control of their networks and data, helping them move from reactive management toward autonomous network operations.
Foresight's latest AI capabilities include:
* Agentic Governance: Delivers oversight, auditability and risk controls for AI agents through governance policies, audit trails, operational safeguards and compliance-focused controls.
* Governed Change Management: Enables approval-based workflows with review, risk assessment and authorization before AI-driven operational changes are applied.
* AI Usage Visibility and Cost Controls: Provides monitoring, budgeting and policy-based controls to help operators manage AI consumption and maintain operational oversight.
* Accelerated Onboarding: Simplifies deployment by automatically discovering network inventory, deploying required platform components and guiding administrators through privacy, data and deployment configuration options.
First introduced in March 2026, Foresight represents ST Engineering iDirect's vision for more intelligent and automated satellite operations, bringing together automation, orchestration and AI-driven insights in a unified operational environment.
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Original text here: https://www.stengg.com/en/newsroom/news-releases/st-engineering-idirect-advances-intelligent-satellite-operations-with-new-ai-capabilities
[Category: TelecommunicationsBiz]
Politico: Full Transcript - Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation With Dasha Burns"
ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sept. 12 -- Politico issued the following transcript of a podcast involving Sen. Ted Cruz:
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Full Transcript: Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns"
This is a full unedited transcript of POLITICO's interview with Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns":
Sen. Ted Cruz: The message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot. If he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate.
Dasha Burns: Hello, hello, ... Show Full Article ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sept. 12 -- Politico issued the following transcript of a podcast involving Sen. Ted Cruz: * * * Full Transcript: Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns" This is a full unedited transcript of POLITICO's interview with Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns": Sen. Ted Cruz: The message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot. If he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate. Dasha Burns: Hello, hello,and welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, and every week on this show, I talk to some of the most compelling and sometimes unexpected power players in Washington and beyond. And this week, I sat down with Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Dallas at the Republican Midterm Convention.
The funny thing about a midterm convention is that it's, well, unconventional. Usually, these major party events are reserved for presidential elections.
[Audio clip playing - For some reason, when a president wins, even if he's really a good president or a great president, there aren't too many of them, they don't win the midterms. And nobody quite knows why.]
Dasha Burns: President Trump called for this convention to rally the base, to rally Republicans going into November. He headlined the two-day event with a bunch of other speakers, including Senator Cruz. But we did talk to him before he gave his big speech. With the convention setting the backdrop for our conversation, I talk to Cruz about the state of his party, how he sees Republicans performing in this election, and where things go from here post-midterms. That's right, we talk 2028.
This interview is one of a bunch that you're not going to want to miss because we're hitting the road for the midterms. We'll be talking to candidates and other power brokers in politics. Make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast to catch it all. And now, here is my conversation with Senator Ted Cruz.
Texas Senator...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Welcome.
Dasha Burns: ...Ted Cruz, thank you for having us in Dallas. Thank you for joining The Conversation. We are here in Dallas, first ever Republican midterm convention. We're eight weeks out...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...from election day, which is crazy. You know, earlier this year Axios reported some recordings of you speaking with donors where you warned that tariffs, higher prices, and falling retirement accounts could lead Republicans into a "bloodbath" in the midterms; a bloodbath you said. Now months later, do you think that still applies?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well my advice to the President at the time...this was right after April 2nd, when he had launched all of the new tariffs. And my advice to him at the time...
Dasha Burns: Liberation day.
Sen. Ted Cruz: was to announce...so...so we spent an hour on the phone with him. It was late Tuesday night, and it...and it was seven senators that we spent an hour on the phone with him urging him at the time...what I suggested is...is that tomorrow, the next day, that he announce...pick a country. I said pick any country and announce that we're cutting the tariffs to that country and they're cutting their tariffs to us. And I said what that will do is calm the markets 'cause the markets at the time were in free fall. And it will also give people confidence that the path we're on...that these tariffs are leverage to get our trading partners to lower their tariffs. And...and that...I fully support that. What I don't support...
Dasha Burns: So are you taking credit for art of the deal or are you taking credit for the taco?
Sen. Ted Cruz: So...well, I...look, people criticized it. So that night we're on the phone and he was in a bad mood. He did not like...'cause all seven of us were saying this to him.
Dasha Burns: He didn't want to hear it.
Sen. Ted Cruz: He did not want to hear it, and...and at one point when...when I said this, and I actually said the bloodbath line, which I did in fact say, his response was F you, Ted, although he did not abbreviate F.
Dasha Burns: Yeah, he doesn't mince words like that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: No. No, no, no, and it was..you know, it was a...what...what is the Washington euphemism? A candid and frank conversation?
Dasha Burns: Sure. Sure, sure.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So we hung...
Dasha Burns: You got a beating. [Laugh]
Sen. Ted Cruz: So we hung up the phone. It was past midnight and...and one of the folks on the call was Lindsey Graham, and Lindsey goes well, that didn't go well. The next day, Wednesday, at noon, he announced the pause and paused all the tariffs. And the seven of us looked at each other and said well, I guess it went better than we thought because that was what we were advising him. And 12 hours later, that's what he implemented. And I think it was good advice. You know, I...as I was mentioning then, people's 401ks were way down. Today people's 401ks are way, way up. That was exactly the right thing to do, and it produced...actually, I saw him the next day, on Thursday, he was signing a bill that I had just passed and I congratulated him. I said Mr. President, congratulations on producing the single largest gain in the stock market in American history, which is when he paused those tariffs, the stocks took off. So I think that was good advice and I was glad that he followed it.
Dasha Burns: Well, a lot's happened since then, and the tariff fight is still ongoing, and now we're...we're in this tit for tat with Canada. He's escalated this fight. Canada's retaliating. Do you think this is a good thing for Republicans, especially heading into the midterms?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Listen, I...I think it will end soon, and I hope it ends soon.
Dasha Burns: That doesn't seem to be the direction it's going. It kind of keeps escalating every week.
Sen. Ted Cruz: You know, it's interesting. Even tonight in the President's speech, he was saying how much Canada wants to end this, and. listen, what...
Dasha Burns: Canada's not saying that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But the tariffs that he's imposing put a real cost on Canada, and I will say there is an aspect in which Donald Trump has changed my views on trade.
Dasha Burns: Hmm.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Which is that ten years ago the tariffs he announced on April 2nd, I...I would've been horrified by. I wasn't horrified when he did them because he has demonstrated that the threat of tariffs may be the single greatest incentive the President has to bring our trading partners to the table, to get them to make concessions. And what I've seen is when he threatens or imposes tariffs, I see foreign countries that we do a lot of business with come rushing to D.C. offering to slash their tariffs massively in a way they never have before. You know, you look back to when George W. Bush was President. We didn't have our trading partners offering to remove non-tariff barriers, to slash their tariffs. And there is an irony, Dasha. Donald J. Trump might go down as the greatest free trade President the country's ever seen if, and this is a big if, we take yes for an answer; that we cut the deals, that we use the threat of tariffs and tariffs as leverage to open up foreign markets. And we've done some of that. There are voices in the administration that don't want to do that. There are voices in the administration that just want to see high tariffs forever, and I think those voices are mistaken.
Dasha Burns: You've given the administration an A grade for its handling of the economy. You said that on The View this week.
[Audio clip playing - What grade from A to F would you give the President on the economy and prices?
During the four years Biden was President, median family income did not move at all.
So is that like a D?
No, it's...no, it's not a D. I...I actually think if you look at the biggest tax cut in American history that was passed, if you look at trillions of dollars of new investment, and I'll tell you, look, facts matter. If you...
C?
I would give him an A.
No. No.]
Dasha Burns: Given what...what we're seeing in this moment, right, high prices, high gas prices, high diesel prices, increasing prices because of some of these tariffs that...that have not been settled yet, do you think that...that voters understand why you'd give him that grade; voters that are telling Republicans, Republican voters, Trump voters, that are saying ow, we're not feeling good right now?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, there...there is no doubt that affordability is a real concern that...that voters are worried about. If you look at the economy though, and I think the media, particularly going into an election, has not presented a fair picture of it. So some basic facts, number one, median income; for four years of Biden stagnated. It went nowhere. In the last two years of Trump, median income in America's gone up $2000.00, and that's after inflation. That is a real and material change. The President talked tonight about $20 trillion in new investments in the United States, new factories. He talked about Toyota. I was at Toyota in...
Dasha Burns: That 20 trillion number is disputed, by the way. The White House website even has a different number there.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So if the number...so 20 trillion has not yet been invested. Those are the...
Dasha Burns: Sure.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...commitments that are made, but I was just last month at the launch of a massive expansion of the Toyota truck factory here in Texas, and there's no doubt we're seeing major investment in Texas and in the United States. That produces jobs. And I will say, look, gas prices...gas prices impose real cost on people, but actually, you mention The View, the point I made on The View; gas prices are objectively significantly lower than they were under Biden. Under Biden...
Dasha Burns: Not significantly.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, under Biden they were...
Dasha Burns: And diesel prices are at an all-time high.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Under Biden, gas prices were over five bucks a gallon. When Trump first came to office, they dropped to three bucks a gallon. So that was a massive...and even less than three bucks a gallon. They're now at about four bucks a gallon so they're higher than they were the first year of Trump, but they're still a dollar a gallon less than they were under Joe Biden.
Dasha Burns: Well, and you were hammering Biden during those years. I mean, do you think if...if this was a Democratic President presiding over this economy you would be sitting by saying things are...things are doing okay?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well I will say also, and this is where the media is not covering, and the President talked about this tonight. If you look at the tax cuts, the tax cuts that we passed that the President signed, no tax on tips is producing thousands of dollars of benefits for waiters, waitresses...
Dasha Burns: But a lot of people are saying that the...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...taxicab drivers.
Dasha Burns: ...rising prices...
Sen. Ted Cruz: No tax on overtime, no tax...
Dasha Burns: ...in gas and other sectors are off...offsetting that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But. that's simply not right. That is no tax on social security is a massive benefit to seniors.
Dasha Burns: But respectfully, Senator, the Biden administration made this mistake, and Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that this was a mistake, to tell voters that things are good when that's not how they were feeling. And it's not just the media talking points. I mean, over and over again we're seeing in polling that voters are saying they are not happy with this economy. So is there a danger in spouting stats at voters when that's not what their daily life reflects?
Sen. Ted Cruz: The reality is the economic picture, there are a lot of things that have gotten materially better. Gas prices...actually funny, the President talked about egg prices 'cause the media was obsessed with egg prices. Now egg prices have fallen, and you're not talking about egg prices anymore. Now it's just...it's all gas, and never mind...
Dasha Burns: Well, eggs were actually a really specific issues that I don't want to go down the rabbit hole on.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Okay, but my point is the media was obsessed with egg prices until they dropped, and then suddenly egg prices don't matter. And so there is a little bit of cherry-picking going on. And it's not complicated why gas prices are higher. Any time you have a middle...military conflict in the Middle East, gas prices are going to be higher. And the President made a determination that the national security imperatives of stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon were significant enough that it...that it was worth enduring some short-term economic costs. I think that was a decision that was a responsible decision that made America safer.
Dasha Burns: One of the ways that the President is trying to address affordability is with this announcement he made in his speech on Wednesday night that if Republicans win in November, he will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States for $5000.00.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yes.
Dasha Burns: You traditionally have been a Reagan Republican. Where is fiscal conservatism? What's going on here?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, there's no doubt that that is a lot of money. I...I will say I pulled up...
Dasha Burns: One...over $1 trillion.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah, I pulled out my phone and did some quick...
Dasha Burns: Yeah, you did a...did the calculator, yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...quick math and it was 1.3 trillion...
Sen. Ted Cruz: just adding that up. That's a lot of money. Now, I will say there are different ways you can frame that, and this was a proposal. We'll see the specifics of what actually...
Dasha Burns: Is Reagan not rolling in his grave right now?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, I will say this, there are, according to the quick Google I did, 270 million adult American citizens...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...is what...what Google came back with. A very significant percentage of those adult citizens are working, and people who are working are paying taxes. They're paying income taxes. They're paying payroll taxes. And so one way to frame what the President said is a tax rebate. Personally, I would rather see it tied to work because as a conservative and a Republican, I believe incentives matter. And I want to incentivize work. I think what the Democrats frequently do is they incentivize not working and they get more people not working. And so I would prefer to see it framed that way.
But I will say uh, two things. Number one, the virtue of what the President said is it has absolute clarity that every voter can say you know what? If my Republican Senator's reelected, if my Republican House member's reelected, I'm getting five grand. I mean, that..
Dasha Burns: That sounds like buying votes a little bit.
Sen. Ted Cruz: It does and the Democrats do it all the time. Uh, and...and...and I will say um...
Dasha Burns: So Reagan Republican Ted Cruz says yeah, let's give everyone five grand?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, I didn't make this proposal. The President did. I'm just saying it does have the virtue of clarity. As I said, I'd rather see it tied to work and framed as a tax rebate because I think those incentive produce more economic growth. I think we ought to be implementing policies that are focused on growth. I will also say, look, $1.3 trillion is a massive amount of money, but it is less money than would be spent if the Democrats take the House and Senate because the Democrats will spend like drunken sailors and that's not fair to the sailors. So I...listen, I would like to see fiscal conservatism come back. I would like to see spending go down. Our debt is now $40 trillion. But that is not going to happen any time in the next two years. It's not going to happen with this Congress. It's not going to happen with this President. And I do think that the amount the President's proposing spending is a heck of a lot less than Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries would spend if they had majority.
And by the way, I'd rather see the money go to Americans let's take, for example, healthcare. One of the things the President proposed on healthcare was right now the Democrats actually shut the government down in order to continue I think it's $50 billion in payments directly to giant healthcare companies, massive subsidies to giant health insurance companies. And I will tell you, actually on the phone with the President, I urged the President...it was actually a group of Senators, a different group of Senators, but same sort of late night conversation on the phone with the President. And on healthcare, I urged him to put out a Truth Social that says we're going to take the money that we're giving right now to giant health insurance corporations and instead give it to individual citizens in a health savings account so they can use it for their own healthcare expenditures. That empowers the individual citizen, and actually, I sent him a chart, and he...and he sent out the Truth that had the profits of the biggest health insurance companies. From when Obamacare was passed to today, their market caps had exploded. And the Democrats are spending massive amounts of money subsidizing giant corporations. I would much rather, if we're going to spend money, spend it directly empowering individual citizens. Remember, I'm the person who wrote the legislation that is the Trump Accounts. I'm the author of the Trump Accounts. That is one of the biggest signature achievements of President Trump's second term, and that is about empowering kids. And I'm much more in favor of empowering individual citizens than giant corporations.
Dasha Burns: The President also has said at this event, his major message is pretend I'm on the ballot.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: Do you think that is something Republicans should take to heart, even though his poll numbers are not looking good right now and there is some dissatisfaction with the administration?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah, I'm very glad of that message. I think that was the right message. This election's going to come down to turnout. It is...midterms historically are turnout elections. The left I think is baked. The left is angry. There's a reason the out of power party usually gains seats...
Dasha Burns: That's the historic trend.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...in the midterm.
Dasha Burns: Yep.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Because whoever's out of party is typically angry. They don't like the guy that's in power and so they're motivated to show up. And that...
Dasha Burns: So you think it's less about winning over independents or swing voters and more about juicing the base, which is the goal of this?
Sen. Ted Cruz: I want Trump voters to come out and vote.
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And there is a danger because when...when Donald Trump is not on the ballot, historically a number of Trump voters have stayed home. And so I think the message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot, if he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate.
Dasha Burns: Let's talk about what's happening here in Texas...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...because Democrats feel like they have a real chance here. This is a very close race between...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yes.
Dasha Burns: ...Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton. Why is this so close?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, look, it's the dynamic I discussed nationally in the midterms is playing out very much here in Texas. The left is really angry. They hate President Trump.
Dasha Burns: The left's been angry before, but it hasn't resulted in places like Texas and Iowa and Kansas...
Sen. Ted Cruz: To be fair...
Dasha Burns: ...on the brink.
Sen. Ted Cruz: To be fair, if you go back and look at 2018, which was two years into the first Trump term, that's when I had my first reelect, and I was running against Beto O'Rourke.
Dasha Burns: We all remember the Beto days, but...
Sen. Ted Cruz: But...
Dasha Burns: ...it wasn't...Beto never really led in the polls consistently in the way that Talarico is.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But can I give you some numbers?
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...because data...you know, facts matter.
Dasha Burns: Sure, sure. We like facts here.
Sen. Ted Cruz: If you look at what Democrats did in 2018, they more than doubled Democrat turnout. So they took Democrat turnout from 1.8 million all the way to 4 million. That was unprecedented. It had never happened before that you see this massive jump in Democrat turnout. Now, my campaign, and you...you know the members of my campaign team. We are intensely data driven. We are very focused on the numbers. We saw what was happening. It was not a surprise to us. We saw that it...that it was developing for weeks and months before that. So we leaned in aggressively to driving up Republican turnout. I did a 50-stop bus tour all over the state of Texas, leaned in heavily in east and west Texas rural areas that historically stay home in midterms. And we drove Republican turnout from 2.8 million - we used to have a million vote advantage - up to 4.2 million.
Dasha Burns: Ken Paxton's not doing that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, we have two months to go, and...and I will say, look, some of the criticism of Ken Paxton...I think Ken is running hard and...and there are a lot of people who are sort of sitting in the cheap seats criticizing him. I think Ken is running hard.
Dasha Burns: Including the President talking about his suits and his look and his...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Boy, that was really something else.
[Audio clip playing - He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly. And he may not be the best looking guy I've ever seen, but you know what he is? He's the greatest attorney general in America. And he deserves to be your next senator.]
Sen. Ted Cruz: I saw Ken so I...so I was doing Hannity right afterwards and Ken was after me, and I was laughing, boy, and that uh...
Dasha Burns: He's really...Trump is leaning into that. He's said it a few times now.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And I was like well, the President was praising you and roasting you at the same time, but you know...you know, what was it uh...uh, P.T. Barnum said; all publicity's good publicity.
Dasha Burns: How did Ken take it?
Sen. Ted Cruz: He was laughing and he was like I think my suit looks pretty nice. And I said well, he did praise your suit tonight. He said you had a good-looking blue suit tonight. So...so Ken, to his credit, was laughing about it. But listen, I think to win in November in Texas, we've got to get conservatives to show up. We've got to get Trump voters to show up. And we've also got to get just...just the common sense middle, like the regular, ordinary common sense Texan. If they show up, we'll do fine. I think Ken Paxton's going to be the next Senator from Texas.
But I'll tell you, I'm putting real time. So I've raised millions of dollars for Ken Paxton. The super-PAC that supports me has spent $2 million already supporting Ken Paxton in this campaign because it is a real fight, and at least to date, Talarico is massively outspending the Republicans. That needs to change. I think it will in the next two months.
Dasha Burns: Should that be some red warning sign for the GOP?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Oh, look, liberals across the country have always loved the idea of turning Texas blue, and you're seeing left-wingers, you're seeing them from California, you're seeing them from New York flooding money. Reid Hoffman, you know, the buddy of Jeffrey Epstein, has given $15 million to Talarico's super-PAC. Now that tells you something when you have Silicon Valley billionaires dropping $15 million into a tech campaign, and by the way, someone who's deep connections to Jeffrey Epstein have been much discussed.
Dasha Burns: I don't think I can go down the Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole because we will be here all night, but there are a lot of Republican ties to Jeffrey Epstein as well. I'll just...I'll just say that. But I do want to ask you, you talked about tech, and I want to dig into AI a little bit. And I've been seeing all over my feed this week, this ad from Ken Paxton that features an AI-generated video of Talarico. It feels like the first sign of what might be an entirely new category of attack ads in future elections.
[Audio clip playing - In the beginning, God was nonbinary, and he wasn't a Christian. And God said let there be six genders and there were. Then God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son who was a radical feminist and never asked people to worship him. Look, I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.
James Talarico, wrong for Texas.
America is not a Christian nation.
And wrong for America, too.]
Dasha Burns: Does that cross any ethical boundaries in your eyes? Should the, you know, you're the chair of the committee overseeing AI policy in the Senate. Is this a concern?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, it is important that ads be truthful and that they not deceive people. I don't think the Paxton ad is deceptive at all. I think people know this is not real. And I'd say there was a precedent before that; Spencer Pratt who ran for uh...
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...mayor of LA did some great AI ads that were fantastic and they were funny. And no one really thought that like, you know, Karen Bass was, I think, riding a motorcycle and like laughing like, you know...Gavin Newsom was laughing like the Joker in Batman. I mean, everyone knew that was AI. So I think as long as...as it is clear...AI can...you can make an ad and communicate a message as long as you're not deceiving people. And I think that line's important.
Dasha Burns: Right. Should there be some sort of regulation make clear, to make sure people are fully aware and to be transparent when there is AI used in an ad?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, I will say, we need substantially more regulation when it comes to AI, and I am the only senator who has actually drafted legislation and passed it into law that regulates AI. The only bill that regulates AI, I wrote. It was called the Take It Down Act. The Take It Down Act deals with using AI to create nonconsensual intimate images to create deepfakes. And...and it's a pattern we're seeing where over 90% of the people targeted are women or teenage girls, and people using AI to create deepfakes that appear to be either naked pictures or videos. And the Take It Down Act, number one makes it a federal crime, a felony, to do that, but number two, puts a legal obligation on the tech companies to take it down.
Dasha Burns: So that's super important, Senator, but you know...but this...that is like the tip of the iceberg...
Sen. Ted Cruz: I agree.
Dasha Burns: for...for all of the concerns around AI. And you know, more broadly, you've argued that there's a problem with over-regulating AI. We're in this race with China. Um, and you've pushed to stop states from creating their own patchwork of AI rules. But since then, we've seen autonomous AI agents escape containment...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah. Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...and hack outside systems. Just this week, I mean, everyone's...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...freaking out about this, an Anthropic researcher warned that a greater than 10% chance...there's a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade. I mean, do you take that warning seriously?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, I do. Last year on my podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, I had Elon Musk there, and I asked him the question; Elon, what are the chances that...that AI destroys humanity? And he paused and said 10-20%. And I was like holy cow. Like that's a...
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And I...and I asked in what timeframe. He said the next ten years. Look, that is concerning. It's deeply concerning. What...
Dasha Burns: It just feels like the urgency in government leadership is not necessarily matching the five-alarm fire that we're hearing from these folks.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So listen, I think this is moving really fast. And government and the private sector are all trying to figure out what the rules should be, but it is changing so quickly. So for example, I'm working with Amy Klobuchar and John Thune on legislation dealing with catastrophic risk from AI; things like AI being used on nuclear matters or biological matters that you could create a biological agent that could do massive damage. I think there needs to be government regulation there. There needs to be guardrails that prevent those kind of risks.
Dasha Burns: Are guardrails enough though? I mean, there are...there's a bipartisan cohort of voices right now, Republicans and Democrats, saying whoa, we need to pause. We need to really slow this thing down.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Here's the problem, we can't. That is an impossible endeavor 'cause you know who's not pausing? China. They are not going to stop. If you look at where the US is...
Dasha Burns: So if AI's going to kill us, it should be US AI, not Chinese AI?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Listen, I've...I've actually joked that if...and this is somewhat tongue in cheek but it's not entirely, if they're going to be killer robots, I'd rather they be American killer robots and not Chinese killer robots. And what I mean by that is the Chinese are putting no guardrails. They're going full-speed ahead. Most tech leaders estimate the United States is about six months ahead. We're not a year ahead. We're about six months ahead. We could have government step in and just shut down the AI industry in America, and you know what would happen? China would catch up in six months and soar ahead, and we wouldn't have the tools to defend ourselves.
Look, one of the things to realize is as the Chinese communist government, which by the way, I think bears massive culpability for the COVID pandemic, for I believe the overwhelming weight of the evidence suggests that the COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab. China with AI tools that could impose massive harm to human life without America knowing how to fight it would be an incredibly dangerous situation. And so...
Dasha Burns: Can Congress keep up with the pace of this though?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, that is a great question. It is a challenging question. I am trying to work with my colleagues...
Dasha Burns: It sounds like a no.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...to do...look, we will see. My hope is this month to do a mark-up, in the commerce committee on.. AI measures and in fact, the catastrophic bill that I talked about with Klobuchar and Thune is one of the bills I hope to mark up. It's not clear to me we'll get bipartisan agreement on that. We may not be able to do that. We are two months out from an election, and I will say more bipartisan legislation has come out of the commerce committee, which I chair, than any committee in the Senate. So it is hard. You can move bipartisan legislation. In a week, the Senate is going to be taking up on the floor my Protect College Sports act, which is, I think, incredibly important legislation to try to bring some order to the chaos of college sports because it is such an important institution in America and such a great avenue of opportunity for young men and women. So it is possible to move in a bipartisan way...
Dasha Burns: But the killer robots are moving faster, let...let me...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, it would be a terrible outcome if we stifle US innovation and China pulls ahead. That would be dangerous for Americans. So you've got to have a balance here. I mentioned, for example, nuclear or biologics. If you decide in your back yard right now you want to build a nuclear reactor, you can't do that. There is regulation if...if you're working with...with radioactive isotopes and...and nuclear technology. I think those principles should apply to AI as well, that if there are things that have real risks of catastrophic damages, there needs to be rules and guardrails. How you design them is complicated because this...we've never done this before and so I'm trying to work with my colleagues to determine the best way to protect against this. But listen, I read that same thread from that Anthropic engineer and that was scary as hell. I read it and was like I don't like this outcome. I don't want this to happen.
Dasha Burns: I think everybody got pretty freaked out, and I do think that this is going to be a pretty defining political issue in...going into 2028. And I do want to talk to you about that because the future of the party is such a massive topic of conversation. I'm hearing the buzzing about it here. You know, Vice President J.D. Vance is obviously a voice a lot of Republicans are looking to. As Vice President, he has a prime speaking slot here. He's been putting up big fundraising numbers. He's been stumping for candidates. As all of the 2028 stuff percolates, do you think he is the heir apparent to Trump?
Sen. Ted Cruz: I think there will be plenty of time to focus on that after the midterms. We are 55 days out from the midterm elections. I believe these are the most consequential midterms of our lifetime. And so from my perspective. I'm spending every waking moment crisscrossing the country campaigning to hold onto and grow our majority in the Senate and hold onto and grow our majority in the House. And I will say, in the last decade, there's not...not another Republican who has campaigned for more senators, House members, and gubernatorial candidates than I have. And I think the stakes here are massive.
Dasha Burns: I'm sure you saw this, but Vance was asked about you and 2028.
[Audio clip playing - You know, on Ted Cruz, I mean look, man, he's...just clearly Ted is a very authentic and likeable guy, and I'm sure he'll do great.]
Dasha Burns: Is that sentiment reciprocal?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, look, I appreciate the kind sentiments that he expressed. And listen, I like J.D. I campaigned with J.D. all over Ohio, had to barnstorm the state of Ohio for him to help him win his Senate race. And so I...
Dasha Burns: You take some credit there?
Sen. Ted Cruz: No. I helped. I'm happy to help, and I've helped a lot of candidates, and if I can help candidates win and help grown our majority, I'm going to do that.
Dasha Burns: Is there a lane for a challenger to J.D. Vance, do you think, in 2028?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Listen, I will say this, I think we are in the midst of a discussion and a debate...
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...about who the Republican Party is and what we believe. And I think that debate has an economic dimension. I think it has a foreign policy dimension. On the economic dimension, the question is are we a small government, free market, conservative party or are we a big government, nanny state party? I think that's a really big divide, and I think we're going to have that debate over the next several years. On foreign policy, I think there's a real divide. Are we an isolationist party that wants to withdraw from the world or do we believe in American leadership in the world? And both of those, I think, really go to the identity of who Republicans are and also who the country is. I fully believe that debate is going to play out over the next couple of years.
Dasha Burns: You know, I am actually old enough to remember when you were the sort of antiestablishment insurgent candidate. I think President Trump in 2015 and '16, you know, took...took that lane from you, and now a lot of Republicans I talk to see you as an establishment candidate. So where does Ted Cruz fit into this version of the Republican Party, and into the faction that you just laid out?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, listen, I will say, I've spent ten years as Donald Trump's strongest ally in the US Senate and fighting alongside him and winning some major historic victories side-by-side. No tax on tips, almost every speaker spoke about it tonight; I wrote that legislation, no tax on tips. The Trump Accounts, a bunch of speakers tonight spoke about the Trump Accounts; I wrote that legislation. School choice, we passed the single biggest federal school choice proposal program that has ever been enacted. I wrote that legislation. That'll kick in next year so it's less of an election year this year, but it is going to unleash tens of billions of dollars of new scholarships for kids across the country.
Dasha Burns: So when you take some credit for he President's policies and his agenda, what are you trying to say there? What is your message?
Sen. Ted Cruz: That I have been proud to be a partner working hand in hand with President Trump. I speak to him every week and sometimes every day and...and have worked with him incredibly closely going right back to...to election day 2016, when President Trump was first elected. The very next week, I got on a plane. I flew to New York. I went to Trump Tower, and I said Mr. President, we have been given an historic opportunity. The voters have entrusted us with a Republican White House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House. We can't blow this. History teaches that's very rare, and I told him then...I spent four and a half hours with President Trump and his senior team. I said I want to roll up my sleeves and go to work leading the effort to deliver on our promises. I think I've done that for ten years.
Now in terms of you know, the establishment versus insurgent, let's be very clear. You mentioned the 2016 campaign; if you look at that race, do you know what the single...the number one determinant of 2016 was?
Dasha Burns: Hm?
Sen. Ted Cruz: It was blue collar voters. If you look at blue collar voters...if you remember, when 2016 started, there were 17 Republicans who ran. And conventional wisdom, if you were laying odds in...if Politico were putting out a story, who's likely to win, nobody would've bet on Donald Trump when that race started.
Dasha Burns: Mhm.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And nobody would've bet on me. We might've been 16 and 17 in the D.C. odds or the New York odds. First, it was Jeb Bush. He was the unbeatable juggernaut. Then it was Scott Walker. Then there was a two to three-week little bomblet for Ben Carson; then Marco Rubio. Remember Marco Rubio took third in Iowa, and the press had heart palpitations, the phrase bronze is the new gold. All these other candidates were supposed to win. The number one determinant of what happened in 2016 in those primaries is blue collar voters. In almost every state in the country either Trump was one and I was two or I was one and he was two, and it's almost perfectly correlated. The states where I was one and he was two are the 12 states I won. And no other Republican won more than a single state. Kasich won Ohio, Rubio won Minnesota, and Trump and I won every other state in the country.
Dasha Burns: A lot has changed since 2016.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: And a lot of factions of the Republican Party have shifted in surprising ways. Um, I think you know there are some divisions within your party, and you've been pretty...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Sure.
Dasha Burns: ...outspoken about one person that's leading one of those factions, which is Tucker Carlson...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yes.
Dasha Burns: ...who has largely turned against Donald Trump over the Iran war. J.D. Vance recently defended his friendship with Carlson despite what he called disagreements. Do you think that the vice president should still be aligning himself with...with Carlson?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, that's a decision J.D. is going to make for himself. I have said multiple times I think Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous demagog in America. I think he is peddling lies. I think he is number one, obsessed with Israel and Jews, and he attacks, he blames, Jews for everything. He is, number two, obsessed with defending jihadists who want to kill us. He had the president of Iran on and had a lovefest with him. He's defended Sharia law. Just in the past two weeks, Tucker Carlson has called for Donald Trump to be removed from office 'cause he hates Trump with a burning passion. And he has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed, who is an outright Islamist running for Senate from Michigan. That's who Tucker Carlson is, and then in the really like weird and loopy sense, he put out a show where he blamed Jews for algebra. It was the weirdest damn thing. He had this weird guest on, and they were talking about...Tucker says who needs algebra? Have you ever used algebra in your life? It's completely unnecessary. Why do we put letters in for numbers? And I'm sitting there thinking okay, well, how do you think planes fly? How do you think rockets go into space? How do you think any technology works? Like that's just weird that you look at algebra and say it's the damn Jews like that is...and...and I think...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...the Republican Party needs to unequivocally reject Tucker Carlson's antisemitism, his Israel hate, his Donald Trump hate, and his embrace of Sharia law.
Dasha Burns: He has a massive following though. Do you think Tucker Carlson and his following belong in the Republican tent?
Sen. Ted Cruz: You know, actually his following is not as big as you think it is. A lot of his following are bots. They are fake. They are foreign bots. There's a lot of money. Cutter spends a lot of money, and so his following is a lot less real than you think it is. But that being said, he and his acolytes, you have a handful of self-declared influencers online, and they are getting some traction with young people, particularly teenagers and 20-somethings. And I think this is an existential fight in the Republican Party because antisemitism is the gateway drug to anticapitalism and anti-Americanism. Look at Comrade Mamdani, look at Abdul El-Sayed. We're seeing the red-green alliance. We're seeing the communists and Islamists coming together because they hate the same people.
Dasha Burns: Well, Senator, we're also seeing a complicated debate about Israel play out within both the Democratic and Republican Party, and really globally. I mean, we just saw some major European allies, the UK and France and Canada, impose new trade sanctions on Israel. How should the United States respond to that?
Sen. Ted Cruz: I think we have been unequivocally a friend and ally to Israel, and we should continue to be. I think Donald Trump has been the most pro-Israel President America's ever seen. He's exactly right to do so. And Israel...the reason we support Israel is because it is unambiguously in America's national security interest to support Israel. If you look at an America-first foreign policy...
Dasha Burns: Do you think though that policy and that idea and your staunch support of Israel is out of step with a lot of voters?
Sen. Ted Cruz: No. No, and in fact, I think it is overwhelmingly where Republican Party voters are. You have these influencers that have self-declared, but listen, when Tucker is endorsing Abdul El-Sayed, that's not Republican. That's not conservative. That is...he is...and by the way, Tucker has also praised Mamdani. I mean, he's completely gone off the deep end. That is dangerous, and...and I believe we need to stand unequivocally against it. I believe...and...and...and I will say, look, when I said we support Israel because it's in our national security interests, the people who hate Israel, hate Americans. The people who are murdering Israelis are...are murdering Americans. When President Trump acted against the ayatollah, the ayatollah chants death to Israel and death to America. The ayatollah calls Israel the little Satan and America the great Satan. And I will say, by the way, when Israel is killing Hamas terrorists or Hezbollah terrorists or IRGC terrorists, it is making America safer. We do this not as an act of charity, not to help out another country. We do it because it's...it makes Americans safer. And I believe that is a debate...and by the way, the Democrat Party is not having this debate. The Democrat Party has gone full-on anti-Israel, antisemitic. There is, and I wish this were not the case...there is a real...
Dasha Burns: I do think we need to distinguish...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...pro-Hamas contingency.
Dasha Burns: ...anti-Israel and...and antisemitic. Those are...those are not...not one in the same.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So that...that is a...a frequent talking point. And...and you're right that you can criticize the government of Israel and not be an antisemite. But I'll tell you what, one hundred percent of antisemites are anti-Israel, and when you look at the people that hate Israel, that attack Israel for everything and then employ a double-standard that they only apply to Israel and they don't apply to any other country on Earth, it's because they're antisemites. When Tucker every other episode is blaming the Jews for something horrible...and by the way, he's also platforming crazy, quack professors who defend Nazis and say...on one episode, he had a professor who said that...that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II, and another episode he had a different uh, kook professor who said there's a good argument America should've intervened on behalf of the Nazis in World War II. No, there isn't. These people are kooks. They're lying to young people, and I believe we have a time for choosing. Every American needs to stand up and decide what do you believe and what are you willing to defend. And I'm encouraging all of my colleagues in the Republican Party to stand up against these lies.
Dasha Burns: I just have to know before I let you go that this interview is coming out on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. You know, the Republican Party that responded to 9/11 believed pretty deeply in projecting American power abroad. The Republican Party, and the American public as a whole, has now become much more skeptical of intervention. How do you persuade your current party that...that your approach to American power fits the lessons of the last 25 years?
Sen. Ted Cruz: So I think that over-simplifies the discussion on foreign policy. For a long time, there's been a common perception that Republican foreign policy is essentially binary, that you are either an interventionist who wants to intervene all over the world or you're an isolationist and wants to withdraw from the whole world. I've always believed both of those were wrong. That's not what I believe. That's not what Donald Trump believes. That's not what the vast majority of Americans believe.
I have long described my foreign policy as a third point on the triangle in that I consider myself a non-interventionist hawk. What does that mean? It means we should be very, very reluctant to use military force, and we should do so only when it is to protect the vital national security interests of the United States. But it doesn't mean isolationism, and I'll give you two examples. Number one, let's go back to 2016, to that presidential race. There were 17 candidates that ran for President as Republicans. Set Rand Paul aside with his views being something of a fringe in the Republican Party. Of the remaining 16 candidates who ran for President, there were two and only two Republicans who opposed the Iraq war, me and Donald Trump. I think the Iraq war was unequivocally a mistake. We went in there. It wasn't defending US national security. We engaged in nation-building. We lost far too many of our sons and daughters in that war, and the mission became trying to turn a foreign country into a Democrat utopia. That is not the job of our military. The Iraq war was a mistake.
I am very much a non-interventionist, but that doesn't mean that I'm a isolationist. And President Trump acting decisively to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, I very much support him in doing that because if the ayatollah had nuclear weapons, I think the risks are unacceptably high he would use them to murder Americans. And I will say my foreign policy that I believe, I think is almost exactly where Donald Trump is. He would not articulate it as a non-interventionist...
Dasha Burns: I don't know that he would agree with that but...
Sen. Ted Cruz: So I will say this, for the last ten years, I've agreed with virtually every foreign policy decision President Trump has made, and it's not accidental because most of those decision I have been energetically urging him to make those decisions. Donald Trump is not an isolationist any way, shape, or form, which is part of why Tucker Carlson lost his mind.
Dasha Burns: Well, I think some voters are frustrated with that idea.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But let's be clear also, Donald Trump is not an interventionist in the style of a John McCain or a Lindsey Graham. Donald Trump...and by the way, I think the same views that I have are also what Reagan had. He called it peace through strength. In eight years, do you know the biggest country Reagan ever invaded? Grenada. Reagan didn't send our boys over to fight and go get engaged in long ground wars. He didn't invade countries. What he did do though was rebuild our military, bankrupt the Soviet Union, and win the Cold War without firing a shot. That's peace through strength, and that's what Donld Trump is doing.
Look, you...you look at Iran. The chances of Donald Trump putting hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground like we did in Iraq, engaging in an occupation to try to turn Iran into a Democrat utopia, the chances of that are zero. Trump is not going to do so. He shouldn't do so. I'm urging him not to, but I don't have to fight that 'cause he doesn't want to do that. What he is doing is employing American power right now principally in an economic blockade against Iran. And my point is it is far too simplistic to say you're either an interventionist or an isolationist. I think most Americans disagree with both of them, and I certainly disagree with both of them.
Dasha Burns: I have so many more follow-ups, but we are all out of time for today. Thank you so much, Senator Cruz, for joining The Conversation.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, thank you. It was a lot of fun.
Dasha Burns: This has been The Conversation with Dasha Burns. And we are hitting the road for the midterms. Who do you want to hear from? What issues matter to you and to your vote? Let us know by texting or calling the number in the description below. We'll be back next week. To make sure you never miss an episode of The Conversation, make sure you click that subscribe button below. Thanks for watching.
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Original text here: https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-press/2026/09/11/full-transcript-sen-ted-cruz-on-the-conversation-with-dasha-burns-01072973
[Category: BizMedia]
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Full Transcript: Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns"
This is a full unedited transcript of POLITICO's interview with Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns":
Sen. Ted Cruz: The message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot. If he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate.
Dasha Burns: Hello, hello, ... Show Full Article ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sept. 12 -- Politico issued the following transcript of a podcast involving Sen. Ted Cruz: * * * Full Transcript: Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns" This is a full unedited transcript of POLITICO's interview with Sen. Ted Cruz on "The Conversation with Dasha Burns": Sen. Ted Cruz: The message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot. If he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate. Dasha Burns: Hello, hello,and welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, and every week on this show, I talk to some of the most compelling and sometimes unexpected power players in Washington and beyond. And this week, I sat down with Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Dallas at the Republican Midterm Convention.
The funny thing about a midterm convention is that it's, well, unconventional. Usually, these major party events are reserved for presidential elections.
[Audio clip playing - For some reason, when a president wins, even if he's really a good president or a great president, there aren't too many of them, they don't win the midterms. And nobody quite knows why.]
Dasha Burns: President Trump called for this convention to rally the base, to rally Republicans going into November. He headlined the two-day event with a bunch of other speakers, including Senator Cruz. But we did talk to him before he gave his big speech. With the convention setting the backdrop for our conversation, I talk to Cruz about the state of his party, how he sees Republicans performing in this election, and where things go from here post-midterms. That's right, we talk 2028.
This interview is one of a bunch that you're not going to want to miss because we're hitting the road for the midterms. We'll be talking to candidates and other power brokers in politics. Make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast to catch it all. And now, here is my conversation with Senator Ted Cruz.
Texas Senator...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Welcome.
Dasha Burns: ...Ted Cruz, thank you for having us in Dallas. Thank you for joining The Conversation. We are here in Dallas, first ever Republican midterm convention. We're eight weeks out...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...from election day, which is crazy. You know, earlier this year Axios reported some recordings of you speaking with donors where you warned that tariffs, higher prices, and falling retirement accounts could lead Republicans into a "bloodbath" in the midterms; a bloodbath you said. Now months later, do you think that still applies?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well my advice to the President at the time...this was right after April 2nd, when he had launched all of the new tariffs. And my advice to him at the time...
Dasha Burns: Liberation day.
Sen. Ted Cruz: was to announce...so...so we spent an hour on the phone with him. It was late Tuesday night, and it...and it was seven senators that we spent an hour on the phone with him urging him at the time...what I suggested is...is that tomorrow, the next day, that he announce...pick a country. I said pick any country and announce that we're cutting the tariffs to that country and they're cutting their tariffs to us. And I said what that will do is calm the markets 'cause the markets at the time were in free fall. And it will also give people confidence that the path we're on...that these tariffs are leverage to get our trading partners to lower their tariffs. And...and that...I fully support that. What I don't support...
Dasha Burns: So are you taking credit for art of the deal or are you taking credit for the taco?
Sen. Ted Cruz: So...well, I...look, people criticized it. So that night we're on the phone and he was in a bad mood. He did not like...'cause all seven of us were saying this to him.
Dasha Burns: He didn't want to hear it.
Sen. Ted Cruz: He did not want to hear it, and...and at one point when...when I said this, and I actually said the bloodbath line, which I did in fact say, his response was F you, Ted, although he did not abbreviate F.
Dasha Burns: Yeah, he doesn't mince words like that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: No. No, no, no, and it was..you know, it was a...what...what is the Washington euphemism? A candid and frank conversation?
Dasha Burns: Sure. Sure, sure.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So we hung...
Dasha Burns: You got a beating. [Laugh]
Sen. Ted Cruz: So we hung up the phone. It was past midnight and...and one of the folks on the call was Lindsey Graham, and Lindsey goes well, that didn't go well. The next day, Wednesday, at noon, he announced the pause and paused all the tariffs. And the seven of us looked at each other and said well, I guess it went better than we thought because that was what we were advising him. And 12 hours later, that's what he implemented. And I think it was good advice. You know, I...as I was mentioning then, people's 401ks were way down. Today people's 401ks are way, way up. That was exactly the right thing to do, and it produced...actually, I saw him the next day, on Thursday, he was signing a bill that I had just passed and I congratulated him. I said Mr. President, congratulations on producing the single largest gain in the stock market in American history, which is when he paused those tariffs, the stocks took off. So I think that was good advice and I was glad that he followed it.
Dasha Burns: Well, a lot's happened since then, and the tariff fight is still ongoing, and now we're...we're in this tit for tat with Canada. He's escalated this fight. Canada's retaliating. Do you think this is a good thing for Republicans, especially heading into the midterms?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Listen, I...I think it will end soon, and I hope it ends soon.
Dasha Burns: That doesn't seem to be the direction it's going. It kind of keeps escalating every week.
Sen. Ted Cruz: You know, it's interesting. Even tonight in the President's speech, he was saying how much Canada wants to end this, and. listen, what...
Dasha Burns: Canada's not saying that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But the tariffs that he's imposing put a real cost on Canada, and I will say there is an aspect in which Donald Trump has changed my views on trade.
Dasha Burns: Hmm.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Which is that ten years ago the tariffs he announced on April 2nd, I...I would've been horrified by. I wasn't horrified when he did them because he has demonstrated that the threat of tariffs may be the single greatest incentive the President has to bring our trading partners to the table, to get them to make concessions. And what I've seen is when he threatens or imposes tariffs, I see foreign countries that we do a lot of business with come rushing to D.C. offering to slash their tariffs massively in a way they never have before. You know, you look back to when George W. Bush was President. We didn't have our trading partners offering to remove non-tariff barriers, to slash their tariffs. And there is an irony, Dasha. Donald J. Trump might go down as the greatest free trade President the country's ever seen if, and this is a big if, we take yes for an answer; that we cut the deals, that we use the threat of tariffs and tariffs as leverage to open up foreign markets. And we've done some of that. There are voices in the administration that don't want to do that. There are voices in the administration that just want to see high tariffs forever, and I think those voices are mistaken.
Dasha Burns: You've given the administration an A grade for its handling of the economy. You said that on The View this week.
[Audio clip playing - What grade from A to F would you give the President on the economy and prices?
During the four years Biden was President, median family income did not move at all.
So is that like a D?
No, it's...no, it's not a D. I...I actually think if you look at the biggest tax cut in American history that was passed, if you look at trillions of dollars of new investment, and I'll tell you, look, facts matter. If you...
C?
I would give him an A.
No. No.]
Dasha Burns: Given what...what we're seeing in this moment, right, high prices, high gas prices, high diesel prices, increasing prices because of some of these tariffs that...that have not been settled yet, do you think that...that voters understand why you'd give him that grade; voters that are telling Republicans, Republican voters, Trump voters, that are saying ow, we're not feeling good right now?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, there...there is no doubt that affordability is a real concern that...that voters are worried about. If you look at the economy though, and I think the media, particularly going into an election, has not presented a fair picture of it. So some basic facts, number one, median income; for four years of Biden stagnated. It went nowhere. In the last two years of Trump, median income in America's gone up $2000.00, and that's after inflation. That is a real and material change. The President talked tonight about $20 trillion in new investments in the United States, new factories. He talked about Toyota. I was at Toyota in...
Dasha Burns: That 20 trillion number is disputed, by the way. The White House website even has a different number there.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So if the number...so 20 trillion has not yet been invested. Those are the...
Dasha Burns: Sure.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...commitments that are made, but I was just last month at the launch of a massive expansion of the Toyota truck factory here in Texas, and there's no doubt we're seeing major investment in Texas and in the United States. That produces jobs. And I will say, look, gas prices...gas prices impose real cost on people, but actually, you mention The View, the point I made on The View; gas prices are objectively significantly lower than they were under Biden. Under Biden...
Dasha Burns: Not significantly.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, under Biden they were...
Dasha Burns: And diesel prices are at an all-time high.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Under Biden, gas prices were over five bucks a gallon. When Trump first came to office, they dropped to three bucks a gallon. So that was a massive...and even less than three bucks a gallon. They're now at about four bucks a gallon so they're higher than they were the first year of Trump, but they're still a dollar a gallon less than they were under Joe Biden.
Dasha Burns: Well, and you were hammering Biden during those years. I mean, do you think if...if this was a Democratic President presiding over this economy you would be sitting by saying things are...things are doing okay?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well I will say also, and this is where the media is not covering, and the President talked about this tonight. If you look at the tax cuts, the tax cuts that we passed that the President signed, no tax on tips is producing thousands of dollars of benefits for waiters, waitresses...
Dasha Burns: But a lot of people are saying that the...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...taxicab drivers.
Dasha Burns: ...rising prices...
Sen. Ted Cruz: No tax on overtime, no tax...
Dasha Burns: ...in gas and other sectors are off...offsetting that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But. that's simply not right. That is no tax on social security is a massive benefit to seniors.
Dasha Burns: But respectfully, Senator, the Biden administration made this mistake, and Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that this was a mistake, to tell voters that things are good when that's not how they were feeling. And it's not just the media talking points. I mean, over and over again we're seeing in polling that voters are saying they are not happy with this economy. So is there a danger in spouting stats at voters when that's not what their daily life reflects?
Sen. Ted Cruz: The reality is the economic picture, there are a lot of things that have gotten materially better. Gas prices...actually funny, the President talked about egg prices 'cause the media was obsessed with egg prices. Now egg prices have fallen, and you're not talking about egg prices anymore. Now it's just...it's all gas, and never mind...
Dasha Burns: Well, eggs were actually a really specific issues that I don't want to go down the rabbit hole on.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Okay, but my point is the media was obsessed with egg prices until they dropped, and then suddenly egg prices don't matter. And so there is a little bit of cherry-picking going on. And it's not complicated why gas prices are higher. Any time you have a middle...military conflict in the Middle East, gas prices are going to be higher. And the President made a determination that the national security imperatives of stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon were significant enough that it...that it was worth enduring some short-term economic costs. I think that was a decision that was a responsible decision that made America safer.
Dasha Burns: One of the ways that the President is trying to address affordability is with this announcement he made in his speech on Wednesday night that if Republicans win in November, he will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States for $5000.00.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yes.
Dasha Burns: You traditionally have been a Reagan Republican. Where is fiscal conservatism? What's going on here?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, there's no doubt that that is a lot of money. I...I will say I pulled up...
Dasha Burns: One...over $1 trillion.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah, I pulled out my phone and did some quick...
Dasha Burns: Yeah, you did a...did the calculator, yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...quick math and it was 1.3 trillion...
Sen. Ted Cruz: just adding that up. That's a lot of money. Now, I will say there are different ways you can frame that, and this was a proposal. We'll see the specifics of what actually...
Dasha Burns: Is Reagan not rolling in his grave right now?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, I will say this, there are, according to the quick Google I did, 270 million adult American citizens...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...is what...what Google came back with. A very significant percentage of those adult citizens are working, and people who are working are paying taxes. They're paying income taxes. They're paying payroll taxes. And so one way to frame what the President said is a tax rebate. Personally, I would rather see it tied to work because as a conservative and a Republican, I believe incentives matter. And I want to incentivize work. I think what the Democrats frequently do is they incentivize not working and they get more people not working. And so I would prefer to see it framed that way.
But I will say uh, two things. Number one, the virtue of what the President said is it has absolute clarity that every voter can say you know what? If my Republican Senator's reelected, if my Republican House member's reelected, I'm getting five grand. I mean, that..
Dasha Burns: That sounds like buying votes a little bit.
Sen. Ted Cruz: It does and the Democrats do it all the time. Uh, and...and...and I will say um...
Dasha Burns: So Reagan Republican Ted Cruz says yeah, let's give everyone five grand?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, I didn't make this proposal. The President did. I'm just saying it does have the virtue of clarity. As I said, I'd rather see it tied to work and framed as a tax rebate because I think those incentive produce more economic growth. I think we ought to be implementing policies that are focused on growth. I will also say, look, $1.3 trillion is a massive amount of money, but it is less money than would be spent if the Democrats take the House and Senate because the Democrats will spend like drunken sailors and that's not fair to the sailors. So I...listen, I would like to see fiscal conservatism come back. I would like to see spending go down. Our debt is now $40 trillion. But that is not going to happen any time in the next two years. It's not going to happen with this Congress. It's not going to happen with this President. And I do think that the amount the President's proposing spending is a heck of a lot less than Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries would spend if they had majority.
And by the way, I'd rather see the money go to Americans let's take, for example, healthcare. One of the things the President proposed on healthcare was right now the Democrats actually shut the government down in order to continue I think it's $50 billion in payments directly to giant healthcare companies, massive subsidies to giant health insurance companies. And I will tell you, actually on the phone with the President, I urged the President...it was actually a group of Senators, a different group of Senators, but same sort of late night conversation on the phone with the President. And on healthcare, I urged him to put out a Truth Social that says we're going to take the money that we're giving right now to giant health insurance corporations and instead give it to individual citizens in a health savings account so they can use it for their own healthcare expenditures. That empowers the individual citizen, and actually, I sent him a chart, and he...and he sent out the Truth that had the profits of the biggest health insurance companies. From when Obamacare was passed to today, their market caps had exploded. And the Democrats are spending massive amounts of money subsidizing giant corporations. I would much rather, if we're going to spend money, spend it directly empowering individual citizens. Remember, I'm the person who wrote the legislation that is the Trump Accounts. I'm the author of the Trump Accounts. That is one of the biggest signature achievements of President Trump's second term, and that is about empowering kids. And I'm much more in favor of empowering individual citizens than giant corporations.
Dasha Burns: The President also has said at this event, his major message is pretend I'm on the ballot.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: Do you think that is something Republicans should take to heart, even though his poll numbers are not looking good right now and there is some dissatisfaction with the administration?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah, I'm very glad of that message. I think that was the right message. This election's going to come down to turnout. It is...midterms historically are turnout elections. The left I think is baked. The left is angry. There's a reason the out of power party usually gains seats...
Dasha Burns: That's the historic trend.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...in the midterm.
Dasha Burns: Yep.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Because whoever's out of party is typically angry. They don't like the guy that's in power and so they're motivated to show up. And that...
Dasha Burns: So you think it's less about winning over independents or swing voters and more about juicing the base, which is the goal of this?
Sen. Ted Cruz: I want Trump voters to come out and vote.
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And there is a danger because when...when Donald Trump is not on the ballot, historically a number of Trump voters have stayed home. And so I think the message of President Trump tonight, pretend I'm on the ballot, if he can get those voters to come out, I think that could easily be the difference between Republicans winning the House and Senate versus Republicans losing the House and Senate.
Dasha Burns: Let's talk about what's happening here in Texas...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...because Democrats feel like they have a real chance here. This is a very close race between...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yes.
Dasha Burns: ...Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton. Why is this so close?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, look, it's the dynamic I discussed nationally in the midterms is playing out very much here in Texas. The left is really angry. They hate President Trump.
Dasha Burns: The left's been angry before, but it hasn't resulted in places like Texas and Iowa and Kansas...
Sen. Ted Cruz: To be fair...
Dasha Burns: ...on the brink.
Sen. Ted Cruz: To be fair, if you go back and look at 2018, which was two years into the first Trump term, that's when I had my first reelect, and I was running against Beto O'Rourke.
Dasha Burns: We all remember the Beto days, but...
Sen. Ted Cruz: But...
Dasha Burns: ...it wasn't...Beto never really led in the polls consistently in the way that Talarico is.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But can I give you some numbers?
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...because data...you know, facts matter.
Dasha Burns: Sure, sure. We like facts here.
Sen. Ted Cruz: If you look at what Democrats did in 2018, they more than doubled Democrat turnout. So they took Democrat turnout from 1.8 million all the way to 4 million. That was unprecedented. It had never happened before that you see this massive jump in Democrat turnout. Now, my campaign, and you...you know the members of my campaign team. We are intensely data driven. We are very focused on the numbers. We saw what was happening. It was not a surprise to us. We saw that it...that it was developing for weeks and months before that. So we leaned in aggressively to driving up Republican turnout. I did a 50-stop bus tour all over the state of Texas, leaned in heavily in east and west Texas rural areas that historically stay home in midterms. And we drove Republican turnout from 2.8 million - we used to have a million vote advantage - up to 4.2 million.
Dasha Burns: Ken Paxton's not doing that.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, we have two months to go, and...and I will say, look, some of the criticism of Ken Paxton...I think Ken is running hard and...and there are a lot of people who are sort of sitting in the cheap seats criticizing him. I think Ken is running hard.
Dasha Burns: Including the President talking about his suits and his look and his...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Boy, that was really something else.
[Audio clip playing - He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly. And he may not be the best looking guy I've ever seen, but you know what he is? He's the greatest attorney general in America. And he deserves to be your next senator.]
Sen. Ted Cruz: I saw Ken so I...so I was doing Hannity right afterwards and Ken was after me, and I was laughing, boy, and that uh...
Dasha Burns: He's really...Trump is leaning into that. He's said it a few times now.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And I was like well, the President was praising you and roasting you at the same time, but you know...you know, what was it uh...uh, P.T. Barnum said; all publicity's good publicity.
Dasha Burns: How did Ken take it?
Sen. Ted Cruz: He was laughing and he was like I think my suit looks pretty nice. And I said well, he did praise your suit tonight. He said you had a good-looking blue suit tonight. So...so Ken, to his credit, was laughing about it. But listen, I think to win in November in Texas, we've got to get conservatives to show up. We've got to get Trump voters to show up. And we've also got to get just...just the common sense middle, like the regular, ordinary common sense Texan. If they show up, we'll do fine. I think Ken Paxton's going to be the next Senator from Texas.
But I'll tell you, I'm putting real time. So I've raised millions of dollars for Ken Paxton. The super-PAC that supports me has spent $2 million already supporting Ken Paxton in this campaign because it is a real fight, and at least to date, Talarico is massively outspending the Republicans. That needs to change. I think it will in the next two months.
Dasha Burns: Should that be some red warning sign for the GOP?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Oh, look, liberals across the country have always loved the idea of turning Texas blue, and you're seeing left-wingers, you're seeing them from California, you're seeing them from New York flooding money. Reid Hoffman, you know, the buddy of Jeffrey Epstein, has given $15 million to Talarico's super-PAC. Now that tells you something when you have Silicon Valley billionaires dropping $15 million into a tech campaign, and by the way, someone who's deep connections to Jeffrey Epstein have been much discussed.
Dasha Burns: I don't think I can go down the Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole because we will be here all night, but there are a lot of Republican ties to Jeffrey Epstein as well. I'll just...I'll just say that. But I do want to ask you, you talked about tech, and I want to dig into AI a little bit. And I've been seeing all over my feed this week, this ad from Ken Paxton that features an AI-generated video of Talarico. It feels like the first sign of what might be an entirely new category of attack ads in future elections.
[Audio clip playing - In the beginning, God was nonbinary, and he wasn't a Christian. And God said let there be six genders and there were. Then God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son who was a radical feminist and never asked people to worship him. Look, I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.
James Talarico, wrong for Texas.
America is not a Christian nation.
And wrong for America, too.]
Dasha Burns: Does that cross any ethical boundaries in your eyes? Should the, you know, you're the chair of the committee overseeing AI policy in the Senate. Is this a concern?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, it is important that ads be truthful and that they not deceive people. I don't think the Paxton ad is deceptive at all. I think people know this is not real. And I'd say there was a precedent before that; Spencer Pratt who ran for uh...
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...mayor of LA did some great AI ads that were fantastic and they were funny. And no one really thought that like, you know, Karen Bass was, I think, riding a motorcycle and like laughing like, you know...Gavin Newsom was laughing like the Joker in Batman. I mean, everyone knew that was AI. So I think as long as...as it is clear...AI can...you can make an ad and communicate a message as long as you're not deceiving people. And I think that line's important.
Dasha Burns: Right. Should there be some sort of regulation make clear, to make sure people are fully aware and to be transparent when there is AI used in an ad?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, I will say, we need substantially more regulation when it comes to AI, and I am the only senator who has actually drafted legislation and passed it into law that regulates AI. The only bill that regulates AI, I wrote. It was called the Take It Down Act. The Take It Down Act deals with using AI to create nonconsensual intimate images to create deepfakes. And...and it's a pattern we're seeing where over 90% of the people targeted are women or teenage girls, and people using AI to create deepfakes that appear to be either naked pictures or videos. And the Take It Down Act, number one makes it a federal crime, a felony, to do that, but number two, puts a legal obligation on the tech companies to take it down.
Dasha Burns: So that's super important, Senator, but you know...but this...that is like the tip of the iceberg...
Sen. Ted Cruz: I agree.
Dasha Burns: for...for all of the concerns around AI. And you know, more broadly, you've argued that there's a problem with over-regulating AI. We're in this race with China. Um, and you've pushed to stop states from creating their own patchwork of AI rules. But since then, we've seen autonomous AI agents escape containment...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah. Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...and hack outside systems. Just this week, I mean, everyone's...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: ...freaking out about this, an Anthropic researcher warned that a greater than 10% chance...there's a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade. I mean, do you take that warning seriously?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, I do. Last year on my podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, I had Elon Musk there, and I asked him the question; Elon, what are the chances that...that AI destroys humanity? And he paused and said 10-20%. And I was like holy cow. Like that's a...
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And I...and I asked in what timeframe. He said the next ten years. Look, that is concerning. It's deeply concerning. What...
Dasha Burns: It just feels like the urgency in government leadership is not necessarily matching the five-alarm fire that we're hearing from these folks.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So listen, I think this is moving really fast. And government and the private sector are all trying to figure out what the rules should be, but it is changing so quickly. So for example, I'm working with Amy Klobuchar and John Thune on legislation dealing with catastrophic risk from AI; things like AI being used on nuclear matters or biological matters that you could create a biological agent that could do massive damage. I think there needs to be government regulation there. There needs to be guardrails that prevent those kind of risks.
Dasha Burns: Are guardrails enough though? I mean, there are...there's a bipartisan cohort of voices right now, Republicans and Democrats, saying whoa, we need to pause. We need to really slow this thing down.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Here's the problem, we can't. That is an impossible endeavor 'cause you know who's not pausing? China. They are not going to stop. If you look at where the US is...
Dasha Burns: So if AI's going to kill us, it should be US AI, not Chinese AI?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Listen, I've...I've actually joked that if...and this is somewhat tongue in cheek but it's not entirely, if they're going to be killer robots, I'd rather they be American killer robots and not Chinese killer robots. And what I mean by that is the Chinese are putting no guardrails. They're going full-speed ahead. Most tech leaders estimate the United States is about six months ahead. We're not a year ahead. We're about six months ahead. We could have government step in and just shut down the AI industry in America, and you know what would happen? China would catch up in six months and soar ahead, and we wouldn't have the tools to defend ourselves.
Look, one of the things to realize is as the Chinese communist government, which by the way, I think bears massive culpability for the COVID pandemic, for I believe the overwhelming weight of the evidence suggests that the COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab. China with AI tools that could impose massive harm to human life without America knowing how to fight it would be an incredibly dangerous situation. And so...
Dasha Burns: Can Congress keep up with the pace of this though?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, that is a great question. It is a challenging question. I am trying to work with my colleagues...
Dasha Burns: It sounds like a no.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...to do...look, we will see. My hope is this month to do a mark-up, in the commerce committee on.. AI measures and in fact, the catastrophic bill that I talked about with Klobuchar and Thune is one of the bills I hope to mark up. It's not clear to me we'll get bipartisan agreement on that. We may not be able to do that. We are two months out from an election, and I will say more bipartisan legislation has come out of the commerce committee, which I chair, than any committee in the Senate. So it is hard. You can move bipartisan legislation. In a week, the Senate is going to be taking up on the floor my Protect College Sports act, which is, I think, incredibly important legislation to try to bring some order to the chaos of college sports because it is such an important institution in America and such a great avenue of opportunity for young men and women. So it is possible to move in a bipartisan way...
Dasha Burns: But the killer robots are moving faster, let...let me...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, it would be a terrible outcome if we stifle US innovation and China pulls ahead. That would be dangerous for Americans. So you've got to have a balance here. I mentioned, for example, nuclear or biologics. If you decide in your back yard right now you want to build a nuclear reactor, you can't do that. There is regulation if...if you're working with...with radioactive isotopes and...and nuclear technology. I think those principles should apply to AI as well, that if there are things that have real risks of catastrophic damages, there needs to be rules and guardrails. How you design them is complicated because this...we've never done this before and so I'm trying to work with my colleagues to determine the best way to protect against this. But listen, I read that same thread from that Anthropic engineer and that was scary as hell. I read it and was like I don't like this outcome. I don't want this to happen.
Dasha Burns: I think everybody got pretty freaked out, and I do think that this is going to be a pretty defining political issue in...going into 2028. And I do want to talk to you about that because the future of the party is such a massive topic of conversation. I'm hearing the buzzing about it here. You know, Vice President J.D. Vance is obviously a voice a lot of Republicans are looking to. As Vice President, he has a prime speaking slot here. He's been putting up big fundraising numbers. He's been stumping for candidates. As all of the 2028 stuff percolates, do you think he is the heir apparent to Trump?
Sen. Ted Cruz: I think there will be plenty of time to focus on that after the midterms. We are 55 days out from the midterm elections. I believe these are the most consequential midterms of our lifetime. And so from my perspective. I'm spending every waking moment crisscrossing the country campaigning to hold onto and grow our majority in the Senate and hold onto and grow our majority in the House. And I will say, in the last decade, there's not...not another Republican who has campaigned for more senators, House members, and gubernatorial candidates than I have. And I think the stakes here are massive.
Dasha Burns: I'm sure you saw this, but Vance was asked about you and 2028.
[Audio clip playing - You know, on Ted Cruz, I mean look, man, he's...just clearly Ted is a very authentic and likeable guy, and I'm sure he'll do great.]
Dasha Burns: Is that sentiment reciprocal?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, look, I appreciate the kind sentiments that he expressed. And listen, I like J.D. I campaigned with J.D. all over Ohio, had to barnstorm the state of Ohio for him to help him win his Senate race. And so I...
Dasha Burns: You take some credit there?
Sen. Ted Cruz: No. I helped. I'm happy to help, and I've helped a lot of candidates, and if I can help candidates win and help grown our majority, I'm going to do that.
Dasha Burns: Is there a lane for a challenger to J.D. Vance, do you think, in 2028?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Listen, I will say this, I think we are in the midst of a discussion and a debate...
Dasha Burns: Yeah.
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...about who the Republican Party is and what we believe. And I think that debate has an economic dimension. I think it has a foreign policy dimension. On the economic dimension, the question is are we a small government, free market, conservative party or are we a big government, nanny state party? I think that's a really big divide, and I think we're going to have that debate over the next several years. On foreign policy, I think there's a real divide. Are we an isolationist party that wants to withdraw from the world or do we believe in American leadership in the world? And both of those, I think, really go to the identity of who Republicans are and also who the country is. I fully believe that debate is going to play out over the next couple of years.
Dasha Burns: You know, I am actually old enough to remember when you were the sort of antiestablishment insurgent candidate. I think President Trump in 2015 and '16, you know, took...took that lane from you, and now a lot of Republicans I talk to see you as an establishment candidate. So where does Ted Cruz fit into this version of the Republican Party, and into the faction that you just laid out?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, listen, I will say, I've spent ten years as Donald Trump's strongest ally in the US Senate and fighting alongside him and winning some major historic victories side-by-side. No tax on tips, almost every speaker spoke about it tonight; I wrote that legislation, no tax on tips. The Trump Accounts, a bunch of speakers tonight spoke about the Trump Accounts; I wrote that legislation. School choice, we passed the single biggest federal school choice proposal program that has ever been enacted. I wrote that legislation. That'll kick in next year so it's less of an election year this year, but it is going to unleash tens of billions of dollars of new scholarships for kids across the country.
Dasha Burns: So when you take some credit for he President's policies and his agenda, what are you trying to say there? What is your message?
Sen. Ted Cruz: That I have been proud to be a partner working hand in hand with President Trump. I speak to him every week and sometimes every day and...and have worked with him incredibly closely going right back to...to election day 2016, when President Trump was first elected. The very next week, I got on a plane. I flew to New York. I went to Trump Tower, and I said Mr. President, we have been given an historic opportunity. The voters have entrusted us with a Republican White House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House. We can't blow this. History teaches that's very rare, and I told him then...I spent four and a half hours with President Trump and his senior team. I said I want to roll up my sleeves and go to work leading the effort to deliver on our promises. I think I've done that for ten years.
Now in terms of you know, the establishment versus insurgent, let's be very clear. You mentioned the 2016 campaign; if you look at that race, do you know what the single...the number one determinant of 2016 was?
Dasha Burns: Hm?
Sen. Ted Cruz: It was blue collar voters. If you look at blue collar voters...if you remember, when 2016 started, there were 17 Republicans who ran. And conventional wisdom, if you were laying odds in...if Politico were putting out a story, who's likely to win, nobody would've bet on Donald Trump when that race started.
Dasha Burns: Mhm.
Sen. Ted Cruz: And nobody would've bet on me. We might've been 16 and 17 in the D.C. odds or the New York odds. First, it was Jeb Bush. He was the unbeatable juggernaut. Then it was Scott Walker. Then there was a two to three-week little bomblet for Ben Carson; then Marco Rubio. Remember Marco Rubio took third in Iowa, and the press had heart palpitations, the phrase bronze is the new gold. All these other candidates were supposed to win. The number one determinant of what happened in 2016 in those primaries is blue collar voters. In almost every state in the country either Trump was one and I was two or I was one and he was two, and it's almost perfectly correlated. The states where I was one and he was two are the 12 states I won. And no other Republican won more than a single state. Kasich won Ohio, Rubio won Minnesota, and Trump and I won every other state in the country.
Dasha Burns: A lot has changed since 2016.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yeah.
Dasha Burns: And a lot of factions of the Republican Party have shifted in surprising ways. Um, I think you know there are some divisions within your party, and you've been pretty...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Sure.
Dasha Burns: ...outspoken about one person that's leading one of those factions, which is Tucker Carlson...
Sen. Ted Cruz: Yes.
Dasha Burns: ...who has largely turned against Donald Trump over the Iran war. J.D. Vance recently defended his friendship with Carlson despite what he called disagreements. Do you think that the vice president should still be aligning himself with...with Carlson?
Sen. Ted Cruz: Look, that's a decision J.D. is going to make for himself. I have said multiple times I think Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous demagog in America. I think he is peddling lies. I think he is number one, obsessed with Israel and Jews, and he attacks, he blames, Jews for everything. He is, number two, obsessed with defending jihadists who want to kill us. He had the president of Iran on and had a lovefest with him. He's defended Sharia law. Just in the past two weeks, Tucker Carlson has called for Donald Trump to be removed from office 'cause he hates Trump with a burning passion. And he has endorsed Abdul El-Sayed, who is an outright Islamist running for Senate from Michigan. That's who Tucker Carlson is, and then in the really like weird and loopy sense, he put out a show where he blamed Jews for algebra. It was the weirdest damn thing. He had this weird guest on, and they were talking about...Tucker says who needs algebra? Have you ever used algebra in your life? It's completely unnecessary. Why do we put letters in for numbers? And I'm sitting there thinking okay, well, how do you think planes fly? How do you think rockets go into space? How do you think any technology works? Like that's just weird that you look at algebra and say it's the damn Jews like that is...and...and I think...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...the Republican Party needs to unequivocally reject Tucker Carlson's antisemitism, his Israel hate, his Donald Trump hate, and his embrace of Sharia law.
Dasha Burns: He has a massive following though. Do you think Tucker Carlson and his following belong in the Republican tent?
Sen. Ted Cruz: You know, actually his following is not as big as you think it is. A lot of his following are bots. They are fake. They are foreign bots. There's a lot of money. Cutter spends a lot of money, and so his following is a lot less real than you think it is. But that being said, he and his acolytes, you have a handful of self-declared influencers online, and they are getting some traction with young people, particularly teenagers and 20-somethings. And I think this is an existential fight in the Republican Party because antisemitism is the gateway drug to anticapitalism and anti-Americanism. Look at Comrade Mamdani, look at Abdul El-Sayed. We're seeing the red-green alliance. We're seeing the communists and Islamists coming together because they hate the same people.
Dasha Burns: Well, Senator, we're also seeing a complicated debate about Israel play out within both the Democratic and Republican Party, and really globally. I mean, we just saw some major European allies, the UK and France and Canada, impose new trade sanctions on Israel. How should the United States respond to that?
Sen. Ted Cruz: I think we have been unequivocally a friend and ally to Israel, and we should continue to be. I think Donald Trump has been the most pro-Israel President America's ever seen. He's exactly right to do so. And Israel...the reason we support Israel is because it is unambiguously in America's national security interest to support Israel. If you look at an America-first foreign policy...
Dasha Burns: Do you think though that policy and that idea and your staunch support of Israel is out of step with a lot of voters?
Sen. Ted Cruz: No. No, and in fact, I think it is overwhelmingly where Republican Party voters are. You have these influencers that have self-declared, but listen, when Tucker is endorsing Abdul El-Sayed, that's not Republican. That's not conservative. That is...he is...and by the way, Tucker has also praised Mamdani. I mean, he's completely gone off the deep end. That is dangerous, and...and I believe we need to stand unequivocally against it. I believe...and...and...and I will say, look, when I said we support Israel because it's in our national security interests, the people who hate Israel, hate Americans. The people who are murdering Israelis are...are murdering Americans. When President Trump acted against the ayatollah, the ayatollah chants death to Israel and death to America. The ayatollah calls Israel the little Satan and America the great Satan. And I will say, by the way, when Israel is killing Hamas terrorists or Hezbollah terrorists or IRGC terrorists, it is making America safer. We do this not as an act of charity, not to help out another country. We do it because it's...it makes Americans safer. And I believe that is a debate...and by the way, the Democrat Party is not having this debate. The Democrat Party has gone full-on anti-Israel, antisemitic. There is, and I wish this were not the case...there is a real...
Dasha Burns: I do think we need to distinguish...
Sen. Ted Cruz: ...pro-Hamas contingency.
Dasha Burns: ...anti-Israel and...and antisemitic. Those are...those are not...not one in the same.
Sen. Ted Cruz: So that...that is a...a frequent talking point. And...and you're right that you can criticize the government of Israel and not be an antisemite. But I'll tell you what, one hundred percent of antisemites are anti-Israel, and when you look at the people that hate Israel, that attack Israel for everything and then employ a double-standard that they only apply to Israel and they don't apply to any other country on Earth, it's because they're antisemites. When Tucker every other episode is blaming the Jews for something horrible...and by the way, he's also platforming crazy, quack professors who defend Nazis and say...on one episode, he had a professor who said that...that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II, and another episode he had a different uh, kook professor who said there's a good argument America should've intervened on behalf of the Nazis in World War II. No, there isn't. These people are kooks. They're lying to young people, and I believe we have a time for choosing. Every American needs to stand up and decide what do you believe and what are you willing to defend. And I'm encouraging all of my colleagues in the Republican Party to stand up against these lies.
Dasha Burns: I just have to know before I let you go that this interview is coming out on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. You know, the Republican Party that responded to 9/11 believed pretty deeply in projecting American power abroad. The Republican Party, and the American public as a whole, has now become much more skeptical of intervention. How do you persuade your current party that...that your approach to American power fits the lessons of the last 25 years?
Sen. Ted Cruz: So I think that over-simplifies the discussion on foreign policy. For a long time, there's been a common perception that Republican foreign policy is essentially binary, that you are either an interventionist who wants to intervene all over the world or you're an isolationist and wants to withdraw from the whole world. I've always believed both of those were wrong. That's not what I believe. That's not what Donald Trump believes. That's not what the vast majority of Americans believe.
I have long described my foreign policy as a third point on the triangle in that I consider myself a non-interventionist hawk. What does that mean? It means we should be very, very reluctant to use military force, and we should do so only when it is to protect the vital national security interests of the United States. But it doesn't mean isolationism, and I'll give you two examples. Number one, let's go back to 2016, to that presidential race. There were 17 candidates that ran for President as Republicans. Set Rand Paul aside with his views being something of a fringe in the Republican Party. Of the remaining 16 candidates who ran for President, there were two and only two Republicans who opposed the Iraq war, me and Donald Trump. I think the Iraq war was unequivocally a mistake. We went in there. It wasn't defending US national security. We engaged in nation-building. We lost far too many of our sons and daughters in that war, and the mission became trying to turn a foreign country into a Democrat utopia. That is not the job of our military. The Iraq war was a mistake.
I am very much a non-interventionist, but that doesn't mean that I'm a isolationist. And President Trump acting decisively to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, I very much support him in doing that because if the ayatollah had nuclear weapons, I think the risks are unacceptably high he would use them to murder Americans. And I will say my foreign policy that I believe, I think is almost exactly where Donald Trump is. He would not articulate it as a non-interventionist...
Dasha Burns: I don't know that he would agree with that but...
Sen. Ted Cruz: So I will say this, for the last ten years, I've agreed with virtually every foreign policy decision President Trump has made, and it's not accidental because most of those decision I have been energetically urging him to make those decisions. Donald Trump is not an isolationist any way, shape, or form, which is part of why Tucker Carlson lost his mind.
Dasha Burns: Well, I think some voters are frustrated with that idea.
Sen. Ted Cruz: But let's be clear also, Donald Trump is not an interventionist in the style of a John McCain or a Lindsey Graham. Donald Trump...and by the way, I think the same views that I have are also what Reagan had. He called it peace through strength. In eight years, do you know the biggest country Reagan ever invaded? Grenada. Reagan didn't send our boys over to fight and go get engaged in long ground wars. He didn't invade countries. What he did do though was rebuild our military, bankrupt the Soviet Union, and win the Cold War without firing a shot. That's peace through strength, and that's what Donld Trump is doing.
Look, you...you look at Iran. The chances of Donald Trump putting hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground like we did in Iraq, engaging in an occupation to try to turn Iran into a Democrat utopia, the chances of that are zero. Trump is not going to do so. He shouldn't do so. I'm urging him not to, but I don't have to fight that 'cause he doesn't want to do that. What he is doing is employing American power right now principally in an economic blockade against Iran. And my point is it is far too simplistic to say you're either an interventionist or an isolationist. I think most Americans disagree with both of them, and I certainly disagree with both of them.
Dasha Burns: I have so many more follow-ups, but we are all out of time for today. Thank you so much, Senator Cruz, for joining The Conversation.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Well, thank you. It was a lot of fun.
Dasha Burns: This has been The Conversation with Dasha Burns. And we are hitting the road for the midterms. Who do you want to hear from? What issues matter to you and to your vote? Let us know by texting or calling the number in the description below. We'll be back next week. To make sure you never miss an episode of The Conversation, make sure you click that subscribe button below. Thanks for watching.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-press/2026/09/11/full-transcript-sen-ted-cruz-on-the-conversation-with-dasha-burns-01072973
[Category: BizMedia]
Littler: Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sept. 12 -- Littler, a law firm, issued the following news wrap-up entitled "Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026":
* * *
Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026
Congressional and Administrative News
At a Glance
The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler's Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI's updates on federal legislation, regulations, and congressional activity affecting the workplace.
By Shannon Meade, Jim Paretti, Alex MacDonald, and Maury Baskin
House Subcommittee to Hold Oversight Hearing on Union Political Activities
The House ... Show Full Article SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sept. 12 -- Littler, a law firm, issued the following news wrap-up entitled "Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026": * * * Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026 Congressional and Administrative News At a Glance The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler's Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI's updates on federal legislation, regulations, and congressional activity affecting the workplace. By Shannon Meade, Jim Paretti, Alex MacDonald, and Maury Baskin House Subcommittee to Hold Oversight Hearing on Union Political Activities The HouseSubcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA), will hold a hearing titled, "Out of Touch: When Union Politics Leave Workers Behind," on Tuesday, September 15 at 10:15 a.m. ET. You can watch the hearing here.
Teamsters Endorse Republican Senator Roger Marshall (KS) for Re-election
In a press release issued on September 8, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 696 announced its endorsement of Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) for re-election to the U.S. Senate. The release characterizes Marshall as a "Pro-Labor Candidate" and notes his co-sponsorship of pro-labor legislation. Most notably, Marshall is a co-sponsor of the controversial "Faster Labor Contracts Act," which would impose mandatory binding arbitration to speed up first union contracts, as well as the "Warehouse Worker Protection Act," which would not only hold employers responsible for injuries that happen outside of the workplace, but would resurrect an ergonomics standard previously invalidated by the Congressional Review Act, among other provisions. Senator Marshall, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), may be next in line to chair the Committee given Chair Cassidy's departure from the Senate at the end of the year.
U.S. DOL's Wage and Hour Division Issues New Opinion Letters
On Labor Day, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division announced three new opinion letters, as listed below, to provide compliance assistance to the regulated community regarding the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to specific workplace situations.
* FLSA2026-11: Whether an uncompensated 60-minute lunch break, during which employees spend 6 to 14 minutes walking to and from the employer's designated break area, constitutes a bona fide meal period. For Littler's analysis, read here.
* FLSA2026-12: Whether FLSA-exempt employees of a nonprofit organization may volunteer, outside of their normal work hours, to perform services for their employing organization.
* FLSA2026-13: Whether the FLSA allows restaurant supervisors who also work as bartenders to keep a portion of other employees' tips and the extent to which they may participate in a tip pool.
Reported EEOC Procedural Changes May Shorten Employer Response Times
Employers responding to discrimination charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may soon face significantly shorter deadlines, according to reports of an upcoming nationwide procedural change. While the agency has not yet publicly released the policy, the expected changes could dramatically affect how employers and counsel respond to EEOC investigations. For Littler's analysis, read here.
NLRB Appoints Five New ALJs
On September 8, the NLRB announced the appointment of five new administrative law judges (ALJs) to the Division of Judges, bringing the agency's total to 30 judges.
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Original text here: https://www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/policy-week-review-september-11-2026
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
* * *
Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026
Congressional and Administrative News
At a Glance
The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler's Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI's updates on federal legislation, regulations, and congressional activity affecting the workplace.
By Shannon Meade, Jim Paretti, Alex MacDonald, and Maury Baskin
House Subcommittee to Hold Oversight Hearing on Union Political Activities
The House ... Show Full Article SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sept. 12 -- Littler, a law firm, issued the following news wrap-up entitled "Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026": * * * Policy Week in Review - September 11, 2026 Congressional and Administrative News At a Glance The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler's Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI's updates on federal legislation, regulations, and congressional activity affecting the workplace. By Shannon Meade, Jim Paretti, Alex MacDonald, and Maury Baskin House Subcommittee to Hold Oversight Hearing on Union Political Activities The HouseSubcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA), will hold a hearing titled, "Out of Touch: When Union Politics Leave Workers Behind," on Tuesday, September 15 at 10:15 a.m. ET. You can watch the hearing here.
Teamsters Endorse Republican Senator Roger Marshall (KS) for Re-election
In a press release issued on September 8, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 696 announced its endorsement of Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) for re-election to the U.S. Senate. The release characterizes Marshall as a "Pro-Labor Candidate" and notes his co-sponsorship of pro-labor legislation. Most notably, Marshall is a co-sponsor of the controversial "Faster Labor Contracts Act," which would impose mandatory binding arbitration to speed up first union contracts, as well as the "Warehouse Worker Protection Act," which would not only hold employers responsible for injuries that happen outside of the workplace, but would resurrect an ergonomics standard previously invalidated by the Congressional Review Act, among other provisions. Senator Marshall, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), may be next in line to chair the Committee given Chair Cassidy's departure from the Senate at the end of the year.
U.S. DOL's Wage and Hour Division Issues New Opinion Letters
On Labor Day, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division announced three new opinion letters, as listed below, to provide compliance assistance to the regulated community regarding the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to specific workplace situations.
* FLSA2026-11: Whether an uncompensated 60-minute lunch break, during which employees spend 6 to 14 minutes walking to and from the employer's designated break area, constitutes a bona fide meal period. For Littler's analysis, read here.
* FLSA2026-12: Whether FLSA-exempt employees of a nonprofit organization may volunteer, outside of their normal work hours, to perform services for their employing organization.
* FLSA2026-13: Whether the FLSA allows restaurant supervisors who also work as bartenders to keep a portion of other employees' tips and the extent to which they may participate in a tip pool.
Reported EEOC Procedural Changes May Shorten Employer Response Times
Employers responding to discrimination charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may soon face significantly shorter deadlines, according to reports of an upcoming nationwide procedural change. While the agency has not yet publicly released the policy, the expected changes could dramatically affect how employers and counsel respond to EEOC investigations. For Littler's analysis, read here.
NLRB Appoints Five New ALJs
On September 8, the NLRB announced the appointment of five new administrative law judges (ALJs) to the Division of Judges, bringing the agency's total to 30 judges.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/policy-week-review-september-11-2026
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
Fisher Phillips Issues Insight: School is in Session - How Your Business Can Comply With Child Labor Rules This Fall
ATLANTA, Georgia, Sept. 12 -- Fisher Phillips, a law firm, issued the following Insight on Sept. 11, 2026:
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School is in Session: How Your Business Can Comply With Child Labor Rules This Fall
It's back to school time, ushering in a busy season for many hospitality and retail businesses and placing more restrictions on when certain teenagers can work. Since many teenagers have more flexibility during breaks, it's important for employers to review and potentially revise work schedules for minors that stay onboard after summer. Here's everything you need to know about what federal youth labor ... Show Full Article ATLANTA, Georgia, Sept. 12 -- Fisher Phillips, a law firm, issued the following Insight on Sept. 11, 2026: * * * School is in Session: How Your Business Can Comply With Child Labor Rules This Fall It's back to school time, ushering in a busy season for many hospitality and retail businesses and placing more restrictions on when certain teenagers can work. Since many teenagers have more flexibility during breaks, it's important for employers to review and potentially revise work schedules for minors that stay onboard after summer. Here's everything you need to know about what federal youth laborrules say, potential changes coming from the Trump administration, as well as state law considerations to help you stay compliant throughout the year.
Who is Allowed to Work and When?
Federal child labor restrictions apply based on the age of the worker, with more flexibility as they get older. While youth under 16 face the most restrictions, all minors are completely banned from doing certain tasks under the DOL's "Hazardous Occupations Orders."
For non-agricultural jobs, when it comes to the hours minors can be on the clock:
16- and 17-year-olds can work for unlimited hours in any occupation other than those deemed hazardous.
14- and 15-year-olds can work outside of school hours in non-manufacturing and non-hazardous jobs. They also have specific work time limits:
* During the summer (as defined by DOL): no more than eight hours in a single day, no more than 40 hours a week, and only between 7 am and 9 pm.
* During the school year: no more than three hours on a school day (including Fridays), no more than 18 hours a week when school is in session, and only between 7 am and 7 pm.
Minors under 14 may not work in non-agricultural jobs covered by the FLSA. Permissible employment for such children is limited to work that is exempt from the FLSA: examples provided by the DOL include casual babysitting in private homes, delivering newspapers to the consumer, and acting.
What Counts as a "School Day?"
When it comes to restrictions for 14- and 15-year-olds, federal rules focus on whether school is in session, not simply whether the minor personally attends class that day.
*
* A school day is generally a day on which the public school district where the minor resides is in session, including a partial day. For minors who are homeschooled, attend private school, or do not attend school, the DOL generally looks to the schedule of the local public school where the minor lives.
* A school week is a week in which that school is in session for at least one day.
* Therefore, a Saturday, Sunday, holiday, teacher-workday, or other day without classes can be a "non-school day," allowing a 14- or 15-year-old staffer to work up to 8 hours. However, keep in mind the 18-hour weekly ceiling still applies if the week is otherwise a school week.
One Thing to Keep an Eye On
Changes to these restrictions could be on the horizon from the federal government. The Department of Labor is preparing a new proposal to address the limitations around work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds. The proposed change is expected to be announced before the end of the year. While the details of the proposal are limited, some members of the hospitality industry have expressed frustration with the lack of clarity on these provisions of the FLSA. You can read more about the DOL's plans here.
States have also attempted to set their own rules around youth work hours. Florida and Washington, for example, enacted legislation in recent years to allow some minors to work later during the school year. And legislation has been introduced in both New Jersey and Illinois to loosen some work-hour restrictions for certain minors.
Important caveat: Federal law is the floor, not the ceiling. Employers must comply with the standard that provides the greatest protection. That includes applicable state-law hour restrictions, curfews, meal/rest requirements, work-permit rules, school-release requirements, and occupation prohibitions. Some states impose more restrictive rules for minors, while some have loosened their standards in recent years. It's critical to know what jurisdiction you're operating in and the applicable rules. For example, some states further restrict the number of hours, require break times, etc. Consult with legal counsel about which rules you're subject to.
Steps Your Business Can Take Now
1. Determine which rules apply to your business. Most companies are subject to both federal and state rules, so ensure you are applying the most protective standard. If you're operating in states that have passed less restrictive child labor rules, this may mean following federal requirements. Meanwhile, if you're located in a state that's enacted additional restrictions for minors, you will likely need to follow the more stringent state standard. Consult legal counsel for assistance with understanding your child labor compliance obligations.
2. Consider posting clear signage or labels around and on machinery and in work areas that are banned for certain minors. For example, clear signage will ensure your staff knows that 14- and 15-year-olds may not work in freezers or meat coolers.
3. Train managers and staff on what the applicable laws allow and prohibit. Employees and managers should know the limits on how long of a shift they can work. Educate managers on the law so they can identify and correct violations before they happen.
4. Keep detailed records that include minor employees' names, ages, addresses, as well as start and end times for each workday and meal period.
5. Consider a ban on hiring workers under age 18. While this isn't realistic for all businesses, it eliminates your legal risk and presents fewer HR compliance headaches when it comes to determining scheduling and job duties for staff.
6. Consult with legal counsel to ensure your policies align with both state and federal requirements and to identify any unique risks your business may present for minor workers, like tasks that are considered hazardous occupations. Your attorney can help you build a compliance checklist that accounts for the nuances in your locations.
* * *
Related People
Megan L. Janes
Partner
mjanes@fisherphillips.com
954/847-4717
* * *
Original text here: https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/insights/insights/how-your-business-can-comply-with-child-labor-rules-this-fall
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
* * *
School is in Session: How Your Business Can Comply With Child Labor Rules This Fall
It's back to school time, ushering in a busy season for many hospitality and retail businesses and placing more restrictions on when certain teenagers can work. Since many teenagers have more flexibility during breaks, it's important for employers to review and potentially revise work schedules for minors that stay onboard after summer. Here's everything you need to know about what federal youth labor ... Show Full Article ATLANTA, Georgia, Sept. 12 -- Fisher Phillips, a law firm, issued the following Insight on Sept. 11, 2026: * * * School is in Session: How Your Business Can Comply With Child Labor Rules This Fall It's back to school time, ushering in a busy season for many hospitality and retail businesses and placing more restrictions on when certain teenagers can work. Since many teenagers have more flexibility during breaks, it's important for employers to review and potentially revise work schedules for minors that stay onboard after summer. Here's everything you need to know about what federal youth laborrules say, potential changes coming from the Trump administration, as well as state law considerations to help you stay compliant throughout the year.
Who is Allowed to Work and When?
Federal child labor restrictions apply based on the age of the worker, with more flexibility as they get older. While youth under 16 face the most restrictions, all minors are completely banned from doing certain tasks under the DOL's "Hazardous Occupations Orders."
For non-agricultural jobs, when it comes to the hours minors can be on the clock:
16- and 17-year-olds can work for unlimited hours in any occupation other than those deemed hazardous.
14- and 15-year-olds can work outside of school hours in non-manufacturing and non-hazardous jobs. They also have specific work time limits:
* During the summer (as defined by DOL): no more than eight hours in a single day, no more than 40 hours a week, and only between 7 am and 9 pm.
* During the school year: no more than three hours on a school day (including Fridays), no more than 18 hours a week when school is in session, and only between 7 am and 7 pm.
Minors under 14 may not work in non-agricultural jobs covered by the FLSA. Permissible employment for such children is limited to work that is exempt from the FLSA: examples provided by the DOL include casual babysitting in private homes, delivering newspapers to the consumer, and acting.
What Counts as a "School Day?"
When it comes to restrictions for 14- and 15-year-olds, federal rules focus on whether school is in session, not simply whether the minor personally attends class that day.
*
* A school day is generally a day on which the public school district where the minor resides is in session, including a partial day. For minors who are homeschooled, attend private school, or do not attend school, the DOL generally looks to the schedule of the local public school where the minor lives.
* A school week is a week in which that school is in session for at least one day.
* Therefore, a Saturday, Sunday, holiday, teacher-workday, or other day without classes can be a "non-school day," allowing a 14- or 15-year-old staffer to work up to 8 hours. However, keep in mind the 18-hour weekly ceiling still applies if the week is otherwise a school week.
One Thing to Keep an Eye On
Changes to these restrictions could be on the horizon from the federal government. The Department of Labor is preparing a new proposal to address the limitations around work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds. The proposed change is expected to be announced before the end of the year. While the details of the proposal are limited, some members of the hospitality industry have expressed frustration with the lack of clarity on these provisions of the FLSA. You can read more about the DOL's plans here.
States have also attempted to set their own rules around youth work hours. Florida and Washington, for example, enacted legislation in recent years to allow some minors to work later during the school year. And legislation has been introduced in both New Jersey and Illinois to loosen some work-hour restrictions for certain minors.
Important caveat: Federal law is the floor, not the ceiling. Employers must comply with the standard that provides the greatest protection. That includes applicable state-law hour restrictions, curfews, meal/rest requirements, work-permit rules, school-release requirements, and occupation prohibitions. Some states impose more restrictive rules for minors, while some have loosened their standards in recent years. It's critical to know what jurisdiction you're operating in and the applicable rules. For example, some states further restrict the number of hours, require break times, etc. Consult with legal counsel about which rules you're subject to.
Steps Your Business Can Take Now
1. Determine which rules apply to your business. Most companies are subject to both federal and state rules, so ensure you are applying the most protective standard. If you're operating in states that have passed less restrictive child labor rules, this may mean following federal requirements. Meanwhile, if you're located in a state that's enacted additional restrictions for minors, you will likely need to follow the more stringent state standard. Consult legal counsel for assistance with understanding your child labor compliance obligations.
2. Consider posting clear signage or labels around and on machinery and in work areas that are banned for certain minors. For example, clear signage will ensure your staff knows that 14- and 15-year-olds may not work in freezers or meat coolers.
3. Train managers and staff on what the applicable laws allow and prohibit. Employees and managers should know the limits on how long of a shift they can work. Educate managers on the law so they can identify and correct violations before they happen.
4. Keep detailed records that include minor employees' names, ages, addresses, as well as start and end times for each workday and meal period.
5. Consider a ban on hiring workers under age 18. While this isn't realistic for all businesses, it eliminates your legal risk and presents fewer HR compliance headaches when it comes to determining scheduling and job duties for staff.
6. Consult with legal counsel to ensure your policies align with both state and federal requirements and to identify any unique risks your business may present for minor workers, like tasks that are considered hazardous occupations. Your attorney can help you build a compliance checklist that accounts for the nuances in your locations.
* * *
Related People
Megan L. Janes
Partner
mjanes@fisherphillips.com
954/847-4717
* * *
Original text here: https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/insights/insights/how-your-business-can-comply-with-child-labor-rules-this-fall
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
FICO Score 10T Available for FHA Mortgage Underwriting January 1, 2027
SAN JOSE, California, Sept. 12 -- FICO, an analytics software company, issued the following news:
* * *
FICO Score 10T Available for FHA Mortgage Underwriting January 1, 2027
FICO applauds Federal Housing Administration's implementation of FICO Score 10T, the most predictive credit score available for mortgage underwriting
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- FICO(R) Score 10T, the most predictive modern credit score available for mortgage lending, will be available for use by Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved lenders beginning January 1, 2027. The availability of FICO(R) Score 10T will enable lenders ... Show Full Article SAN JOSE, California, Sept. 12 -- FICO, an analytics software company, issued the following news: * * * FICO Score 10T Available for FHA Mortgage Underwriting January 1, 2027 FICO applauds Federal Housing Administration's implementation of FICO Score 10T, the most predictive credit score available for mortgage underwriting BOZEMAN, Mont. -- FICO(R) Score 10T, the most predictive modern credit score available for mortgage lending, will be available for use by Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved lenders beginning January 1, 2027. The availability of FICO(R) Score 10T will enable lendersto make more accurate lending decisions while helping consumers gain access to more favorable mortgage terms and sustainable homeownership.
FICO(R) Score 10T leverages trended credit and rental payment data to provide a more comprehensive view of borrower behavior over time. Multiple independent analyses have found FICO Score 10T to be the most predictive credit score available for mortgage lending. On FHA first-time homebuyer mortgages, a critical pathway for borrowers with lower down payments, FICO Score 10T outperforms competing models by more than 10%. The performance gap is even greater during origination periods with higher default rates, underscoring FICO Score 10T's ability to help lenders responsibly expand access to credit while effectively managing risk.
"FHA's announcement provides valuable clarity for the industry and allows stakeholders to continue preparing for implementation in a thoughtful and deliberate manner," said Julie May, vice president and general manager of B2B Scores at FICO. "We support efforts that give lenders access to more predictive risk assessment tools, and we believe FICO Score 10T will help improve underwriting accuracy, expand confidence in lending decisions, and strengthen outcomes across the mortgage ecosystem."
FICO embraces competition as it raises the bar for the entire industry and gives lenders better tools to serve borrowers. As lenders increasingly adopt modern credit scoring models, FICO(R) Score 10T stands apart as the most predictive credit score available for mortgage lending, helping lenders more accurately assess risk and support sustainable homeownership.
Through the FICO(R) Score 10T Free Access program, FICO Score 10T is available at no cost alongside Classic FICO.
For more information on how to sign up for the FICO(R) Score 10T Free Access Program, visit the FICO Score 10T Migration Resource Center (https://www.fico.com/en/ficoscore10).
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About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 U.S. and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 4 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO(R) Score, used by 90% of top U.S. lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the U.S. and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency.
Learn more at https://www.fico.com
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Original text here: https://www.fico.com/en/newsroom/fico-score-10t-available-fha-mortgage-underwriting-january-1-2027
[Category: BizComputer Technology]
* * *
FICO Score 10T Available for FHA Mortgage Underwriting January 1, 2027
FICO applauds Federal Housing Administration's implementation of FICO Score 10T, the most predictive credit score available for mortgage underwriting
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- FICO(R) Score 10T, the most predictive modern credit score available for mortgage lending, will be available for use by Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved lenders beginning January 1, 2027. The availability of FICO(R) Score 10T will enable lenders ... Show Full Article SAN JOSE, California, Sept. 12 -- FICO, an analytics software company, issued the following news: * * * FICO Score 10T Available for FHA Mortgage Underwriting January 1, 2027 FICO applauds Federal Housing Administration's implementation of FICO Score 10T, the most predictive credit score available for mortgage underwriting BOZEMAN, Mont. -- FICO(R) Score 10T, the most predictive modern credit score available for mortgage lending, will be available for use by Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved lenders beginning January 1, 2027. The availability of FICO(R) Score 10T will enable lendersto make more accurate lending decisions while helping consumers gain access to more favorable mortgage terms and sustainable homeownership.
FICO(R) Score 10T leverages trended credit and rental payment data to provide a more comprehensive view of borrower behavior over time. Multiple independent analyses have found FICO Score 10T to be the most predictive credit score available for mortgage lending. On FHA first-time homebuyer mortgages, a critical pathway for borrowers with lower down payments, FICO Score 10T outperforms competing models by more than 10%. The performance gap is even greater during origination periods with higher default rates, underscoring FICO Score 10T's ability to help lenders responsibly expand access to credit while effectively managing risk.
"FHA's announcement provides valuable clarity for the industry and allows stakeholders to continue preparing for implementation in a thoughtful and deliberate manner," said Julie May, vice president and general manager of B2B Scores at FICO. "We support efforts that give lenders access to more predictive risk assessment tools, and we believe FICO Score 10T will help improve underwriting accuracy, expand confidence in lending decisions, and strengthen outcomes across the mortgage ecosystem."
FICO embraces competition as it raises the bar for the entire industry and gives lenders better tools to serve borrowers. As lenders increasingly adopt modern credit scoring models, FICO(R) Score 10T stands apart as the most predictive credit score available for mortgage lending, helping lenders more accurately assess risk and support sustainable homeownership.
Through the FICO(R) Score 10T Free Access program, FICO Score 10T is available at no cost alongside Classic FICO.
For more information on how to sign up for the FICO(R) Score 10T Free Access Program, visit the FICO Score 10T Migration Resource Center (https://www.fico.com/en/ficoscore10).
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About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 U.S. and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 4 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO(R) Score, used by 90% of top U.S. lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the U.S. and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency.
Learn more at https://www.fico.com
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Original text here: https://www.fico.com/en/newsroom/fico-score-10t-available-fha-mortgage-underwriting-january-1-2027
[Category: BizComputer Technology]
Dentons Wins Two Major Awards at Infra Global Awards 2025 MENA
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- Dentons, a law firm, issued the following news:
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Dentons wins two major awards at Infra Global Awards 2025 MENA
Dubai--Dentons has received two awards at the Infra Global Awards 2025 (previously IJ Global Awards), recognising the firm's role in two landmark renewable energy projects across the MENA region:
* Solar Deal of the Year, MENA - Al Masa'a and Al Henakiyah-2 Solar Plants, Saudi Arabia
Dentons advised a consortium led by EDF Power Solutions and SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., in partnership with Saudi Aramco Power Company, on the successful ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- Dentons, a law firm, issued the following news: * * * Dentons wins two major awards at Infra Global Awards 2025 MENA Dubai--Dentons has received two awards at the Infra Global Awards 2025 (previously IJ Global Awards), recognising the firm's role in two landmark renewable energy projects across the MENA region: * Solar Deal of the Year, MENA - Al Masa'a and Al Henakiyah-2 Solar Plants, Saudi Arabia Dentons advised a consortium led by EDF Power Solutions and SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., in partnership with Saudi Aramco Power Company, on the successfulfinancial close of the 1,000 MW Al Masa'a and 400 MW Al Henakiyah-2 solar projects. The projects form part of the fifth round of Saudi Arabia's National Renewable Energy Programme and support the Kingdom's Vision 2030 objectives to diversify its energy mix and expand clean-power generation.
* BESS Deal of the Year, MENA - Ibri III Solar PV IPP + BESS, Oman
Dentons advised Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Bank Muscat on the project financing of Ibri III, Oman's first utility-scale solar and battery storage project. The sponsors' consortium comprises Masdar, Al Khadra Partners, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd (KOMIPO) and OQ Alternative Energy (OQAE). The approximately US$300 million project combines a 500 MW solar PV plant with a 100 MW/100 MWh battery energy storage system and is expected to power approximately 33,000 homes while avoiding an estimated 505,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Stephen Knight, Partner and Head of Middle East Banking & Finance at Dentons, added: "It's a pleasure for the Dentons projects team to be awarded twice by IJ Global. Both awards demonstrate the increasing trust clients are placing in the Dentons global platform, and the strength and depth of our team. We are extremely grateful to our clients for entrusting us with these transactions and proud of the cross-border teams that helped bring them to successful financial close."
Kanishka Singh, Partner, Projects at Dentons, said: "We are delighted to be recognised by the Infra Global Awards for our work on complex and strategically important PPP transactions across the region. This recognition reflects our ability to navigate challenging, high-value deals and deliver solutions that are vital to our clients and the markets in which they operate. Thank you to our clients for placing their faith and trust in Dentons.
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About Dentons
Redefining possibilities. Together, everywhere. For more information visit dentons.com
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Original text here: https://www.dentons.com/en/about-dentons/news-events-and-awards/news/2026/september/dentons-wins-two-major-awards-at-infra-global-awards-2026
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
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Dentons wins two major awards at Infra Global Awards 2025 MENA
Dubai--Dentons has received two awards at the Infra Global Awards 2025 (previously IJ Global Awards), recognising the firm's role in two landmark renewable energy projects across the MENA region:
* Solar Deal of the Year, MENA - Al Masa'a and Al Henakiyah-2 Solar Plants, Saudi Arabia
Dentons advised a consortium led by EDF Power Solutions and SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., in partnership with Saudi Aramco Power Company, on the successful ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- Dentons, a law firm, issued the following news: * * * Dentons wins two major awards at Infra Global Awards 2025 MENA Dubai--Dentons has received two awards at the Infra Global Awards 2025 (previously IJ Global Awards), recognising the firm's role in two landmark renewable energy projects across the MENA region: * Solar Deal of the Year, MENA - Al Masa'a and Al Henakiyah-2 Solar Plants, Saudi Arabia Dentons advised a consortium led by EDF Power Solutions and SPIC Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., in partnership with Saudi Aramco Power Company, on the successfulfinancial close of the 1,000 MW Al Masa'a and 400 MW Al Henakiyah-2 solar projects. The projects form part of the fifth round of Saudi Arabia's National Renewable Energy Programme and support the Kingdom's Vision 2030 objectives to diversify its energy mix and expand clean-power generation.
* BESS Deal of the Year, MENA - Ibri III Solar PV IPP + BESS, Oman
Dentons advised Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Bank Muscat on the project financing of Ibri III, Oman's first utility-scale solar and battery storage project. The sponsors' consortium comprises Masdar, Al Khadra Partners, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd (KOMIPO) and OQ Alternative Energy (OQAE). The approximately US$300 million project combines a 500 MW solar PV plant with a 100 MW/100 MWh battery energy storage system and is expected to power approximately 33,000 homes while avoiding an estimated 505,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Stephen Knight, Partner and Head of Middle East Banking & Finance at Dentons, added: "It's a pleasure for the Dentons projects team to be awarded twice by IJ Global. Both awards demonstrate the increasing trust clients are placing in the Dentons global platform, and the strength and depth of our team. We are extremely grateful to our clients for entrusting us with these transactions and proud of the cross-border teams that helped bring them to successful financial close."
Kanishka Singh, Partner, Projects at Dentons, said: "We are delighted to be recognised by the Infra Global Awards for our work on complex and strategically important PPP transactions across the region. This recognition reflects our ability to navigate challenging, high-value deals and deliver solutions that are vital to our clients and the markets in which they operate. Thank you to our clients for placing their faith and trust in Dentons.
* * *
About Dentons
Redefining possibilities. Together, everywhere. For more information visit dentons.com
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Original text here: https://www.dentons.com/en/about-dentons/news-events-and-awards/news/2026/september/dentons-wins-two-major-awards-at-infra-global-awards-2026
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
Dentons Wins Finance Deal of the Year at Asia Legal Awards 2026 for Groundbreaking Philippine Asset-backed Financing
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- Dentons, a law firm, issued the following news:
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Dentons wins Finance Deal of the Year at Asia Legal Awards 2026 for groundbreaking Philippine asset-backed financing
Dentons is pleased to announce that the Atome Financial Philippine Cross-Border Asset-Backed Deal has been named Finance Deal of the Year at Law.com International's Asia Legal Awards 2026.
The award-winning transaction broke new ground as the Philippines' first cross-border structured finance transaction involving the issuance of US dollar-denominated bonds backed by a revolving pool of Philippine-Peso ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- Dentons, a law firm, issued the following news: * * * Dentons wins Finance Deal of the Year at Asia Legal Awards 2026 for groundbreaking Philippine asset-backed financing Dentons is pleased to announce that the Atome Financial Philippine Cross-Border Asset-Backed Deal has been named Finance Deal of the Year at Law.com International's Asia Legal Awards 2026. The award-winning transaction broke new ground as the Philippines' first cross-border structured finance transaction involving the issuance of US dollar-denominated bonds backed by a revolving pool of Philippine-Pesodenominated consumer loans. It also pioneered an innovative security structure under the country's newly enacted legal framework, creating a pathway for future cross-border asset-backed financings in the market.
Dentons advised Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Management Limited, CITIC Securities CLSA Capital Partners (HK) Limited and Puma Asia VIII (RB) Limited on the transaction. The transaction was led by Jeff Chen with assistance of Nicholas Chua, both of Dentons Hong Kong LLP. Pearl Cabali of Puyat Jacinto & Santos, a Dentons member firm in the Philippines, advised on matters of Philippine law. Janice Ngeow and Lee-Min Lau, both of Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP, advised on matters of Singapore law.
Dentons is grateful to its clients for their trust, collaboration and support in successfully delivering this pioneering transaction.
The recognition underscores Dentons' leading role in delivering innovative financing solutions and advising on complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions across Asia-Pacific.
Organised by Law.com International, the Asia Legal Awards recognise the most significant transactions, cases and legal achievements across the region.
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About Dentons
Redefining possibilities. Together, everywhere. For more information visit dentons.com
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Original text here: https://hongkong.dentons.com/en/news-and-recognition/2026/september/dentons-wins-finance-deal-of-the-year-at-asia-legal-awards-2026
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]
* * *
Dentons wins Finance Deal of the Year at Asia Legal Awards 2026 for groundbreaking Philippine asset-backed financing
Dentons is pleased to announce that the Atome Financial Philippine Cross-Border Asset-Backed Deal has been named Finance Deal of the Year at Law.com International's Asia Legal Awards 2026.
The award-winning transaction broke new ground as the Philippines' first cross-border structured finance transaction involving the issuance of US dollar-denominated bonds backed by a revolving pool of Philippine-Peso ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- Dentons, a law firm, issued the following news: * * * Dentons wins Finance Deal of the Year at Asia Legal Awards 2026 for groundbreaking Philippine asset-backed financing Dentons is pleased to announce that the Atome Financial Philippine Cross-Border Asset-Backed Deal has been named Finance Deal of the Year at Law.com International's Asia Legal Awards 2026. The award-winning transaction broke new ground as the Philippines' first cross-border structured finance transaction involving the issuance of US dollar-denominated bonds backed by a revolving pool of Philippine-Pesodenominated consumer loans. It also pioneered an innovative security structure under the country's newly enacted legal framework, creating a pathway for future cross-border asset-backed financings in the market.
Dentons advised Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Management Limited, CITIC Securities CLSA Capital Partners (HK) Limited and Puma Asia VIII (RB) Limited on the transaction. The transaction was led by Jeff Chen with assistance of Nicholas Chua, both of Dentons Hong Kong LLP. Pearl Cabali of Puyat Jacinto & Santos, a Dentons member firm in the Philippines, advised on matters of Philippine law. Janice Ngeow and Lee-Min Lau, both of Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP, advised on matters of Singapore law.
Dentons is grateful to its clients for their trust, collaboration and support in successfully delivering this pioneering transaction.
The recognition underscores Dentons' leading role in delivering innovative financing solutions and advising on complex, multi-jurisdictional transactions across Asia-Pacific.
Organised by Law.com International, the Asia Legal Awards recognise the most significant transactions, cases and legal achievements across the region.
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About Dentons
Redefining possibilities. Together, everywhere. For more information visit dentons.com
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Original text here: https://hongkong.dentons.com/en/news-and-recognition/2026/september/dentons-wins-finance-deal-of-the-year-at-asia-legal-awards-2026
[Category: BizLaw/Legal]