The attacks come at a precarious moment for public trust in the media, with more Americans saying limits on the press can be justified to combat misinformation.

The summit's stark lack of substance surprised even the closest China watchers.

Xi Jinping, president of China, issued a call from the White House on Thursday that artificial intelligence remain "under human control" as the world's two superpowers race for technological supremacy.

The president's remarks at the United Nations come more than six months into a war that has grown increasingly unpopular at home.

Ahead of the meeting, rhetoric from Washington and Beijing has underscored only deepening acrimony and distrust over their rush to dominate the technological frontier.

The strikes put the Trump administration in a newly precarious position less than two months before the November midterms.

Top executives from three of the country's leading AI companies issued exceptional calls for collaboration on a path forward that could "pace the frontier" of AI development.

Alarm mounted throughout the summer as researchers at leading AI labs found the pace of development far outstripping their expectations.

The promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country's nearly $1.8-trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.

Ottawa's latest measures are a response to tariffs imposed by President Trump last month on Canadian exports.

The president, who won reelection based on a promise to turn the economy around, now faces a reckoning in midterms centered largely on his economic record.

Trump's White House ballroom will be built with mostly private funds and without approval of Congress.