BRIEFLY

INTELLIGENCE: President Donald Trump said Wednesday that acting spy chief Bill Pulte has wide permission to declassify records, including any tied to the 2020 election, even though his close ally is at the intelligence helm for only a short time. "Bill's there, just, you know, for maybe a month or two months or something," Trump told reporters. "But while he's there, I said, 'You can declassify whatever you want'."

MAIL-IN VOTING: A federal judge blocked the U.S. Postal Service's proposed restrictions on mail-in voting Wednesday, finding that they violated a settlement with a leading civil rights group that required expedited mail-in ballot handling.

CHATBOTS: The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that AI companies whose chatbots produce responses that reflect "ideological objectives" may violate federal law, as part of a proposed policy on how the FTC will apply its authority to the sector.

CENTRAL BANK: Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said Wednesday he will stick firmly to the U.S. central bank's 2% inflation target and will "disappoint" anyone who expects loose monetary policy despite President Donald Trump's call for interest rate cuts.

TAIWAN: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the U.S. to handle matters related to Taiwan with "the utmost caution" during a phone call Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Wang's ministry said Wednesday.

GOOGLE: A Swedish court on Wednesday ordered Alphabet's Google to pay about $1.5 billion in damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison business owned by payments platform Klarna, for favoring its own shopping service in search results.

— Reuters