President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations, such as large-scale data centers and new clean power facilities, can be built quickly and at scale in the United States.

The executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure development at government sites, while imposing requirements and safeguards on the developers building on those locations. It also directs certain agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centers and new clean power facilities. Those agencies will help facilitate the infrastructure’s interconnection to the electric grid and help speed up the permitting process.

While the tech industry has long relied on data centers to run online services, from email and social media to financial transactions, new AI technology behind popular chatbots and other generative AI tools requires even more powerful computation to build and operate.

A report released by the Department of Energy last month estimated that the electricity needed for data centers in the U.S. tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028, when it could consume up to 12% of the nation’s electricity.

Under the new rules, the departments of Defense and Energy will each identify at least three sites where the private sector can build AI data centers. The agencies will run “competitive solicitations” from private companies to build AI data centers on those federal sites, senior administration officials said.

Biden to remove Cuba from terrorism list

President Joe Biden notified Congress of his intent to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced, as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.

Senior U.S. administration officials, who previewed the announcement on the condition of anonymity, said ”many dozens” of political prisoners and others considered by the U.S. to be unjustly detained would be released by the end of the Biden administration at noon on Jan. 20.

The U.S. would also ease some economic pressure on Cuba, as well as a 2017 memorandum issued by then-President Donald Trump toughening U.S. posture toward Cuba.

The determination by the outgoing one-term Democrat is likely to be reversed as early as next week after Trump, the Republican who is now president-elect, takes office and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio assumes the position of America’s top diplomat.

Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s before the communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, has long been a proponent of sanctions on the communist island.

Bill would bar trans girls from girls’ sports

A divided House on Tuesday approved legislation that aims to bar transgender women and girls from participating in school athletic programs designated for female students.

The bill, approved almost entirely along party lines, would prohibit federal funding from going to K-12 schools that include transgender students on women’s sports teams. It faces a steep challenge in the Senate, where seven Democrats would have to join Republicans to move it past a filibuster and to a final vote.

Republicans on Tuesday presented the legislation as a popular and pragmatic way to level the playing field for female athletes, and as a move to protect women’s spaces and women’s rights.

But Democrats, who dubbed the bill the “Child Predator Empowerment Act,” said it was a dangerous invasion of privacy for young girls that would put them at greater risk.

No federal charges in fatal La. police beating

The Justice Department will not bring criminal charges in the 2019 death of Ronald Greene, a Black driver who was pulled over and beaten by police in Louisiana, officials said Tuesday, bringing an end to a yearslong federal criminal investigation.

It was the last criminal inquiry into the officers who punched and shocked Greene, 49, whom police pursued because of a traffic violation in May 2019.

The Justice Department “found insufficient evidence to support federal crimi

nal charges against surviving Louisiana State Police troopers and officials involved in the incident or its aftermath,” a department spokesperson said. The primary trooper involved in the matter, Chris Hollingsworth, who was placed on administrative leave in 2020, died in a single-vehicle car crash that year.

Dinelle Hardin, Greene’s sister, said that the Justice Department “failed to protect the citizens of Louisiana” in their decision to not bring criminal charges.

N.J. stocking up on abortion medications

New Jersey is going to build up a supply of medication used in abortions, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday during his state of the state address as he both pledged to work with Republican President-elect Donald Trump but warned that the state is ready to push back against the incoming administration.

Murphy is one of among Democratic governors who criticized Trump on the campaign trail yet now say they’re open to cooperation. But Murphy said he will not back down in the face of “anti-choice” policies supported by the Republican majorities in Congress. He said the state will stockpile mifepristone, one of two drugs used in combination to end pregnancies.

Princess of Wales says cancer is in remission

After battling cancer most of last year, Kate Middleton says she’s now in remission.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, who confirmed last March that she had cancer after months of speculation about her health, said Tuesday that she is focused on recovery.

“It is a relief to now be in remission,” she said in a statement on social media. “As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know, it takes time to adjust to a new normal. I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead. Thank you to everyone for your continued support.”

Catherine and husband Prince William, who is first in line to the British throne, on Tuesday were named joint patrons of the Royal Marsden — the cancer hospital where Catherine received treatment last year. Since 2007, William has been president of the Royal Marsden, a position previously held by his mother, the late Princess Diana.

— From news services