FARA FRIDAY: The United Arab Emirates’ state-owned renewable energy company has brought on a new PR firm specializing in crisis management to push back on critics and boost the wealthy oil state’s environmental creds ahead of a UAE-hosted round of United Nations climate talks in November.

— The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, or Masdar, inked a new contract within the past few weeks with First International Resources to spin negative press and criticism of Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the chief executive of the Emirati state-owned oil company and president of the upcoming COP28 talks, according to a copy of the contract filed with the Justice Department.

— The hire amounts to a messaging pivot for the UAE after abruptly parting ways with Edelman and BCW, two PR giants Abu Dhabi had enlisted specifically to help polish the country’s — and al-Jaber’s — reputation with the climate talks in mind, POLITICO reported in June.

— The six-month contract comes with a $100,000-per-month retainer, plus another $132,000 for the U.S. portion of the polling project, DOJ filings show. As part of the deal, First International Resources’ Zev Furst, Donny Furst and Joe Shwirtz will conduct polling in seven Western European countries and the U.S. to craft a messaging strategy that will, among other things, “[i]ncrease global support and understanding for COP28 and its specific policy goals and objectives” and emphasize “the strategic value of the UAE in the global fight to address climate change.”

— FIR then aims to use that burnished reputation to “inoculate” al-Jaber and the climate summit “from any potential criticism and generate increased Western support” for the talks’ hosts and deflect negative press, all the while serving “as a personal sounding board” to al-Jaber.

— The firm will also seek out “politically influential individuals” to act “as independent, third-party endorsers and supporters of the UAE, Dr. Al Jaber and COP28,” according to the contract.

— The firm offers a variety of different avenues for accomplishing that goal, which include leveraging think tanks and international groups such as the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institutions and the Heritage Foundation to “spread favorable perceptions” of the summit and arranging meetings with members of Congress and the Biden administration. “If appropriate,” the contract adds, the firm will work to “activate or mobilize our connections inside the ‘US Jewish Establishment’ to help support the campaign’s overall objectives.”

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GETTING UP TO SPEED: As Washington races to get its arms around all the various considerations of formulating federal AI regulations, more than two dozen policy analysts, lawyers and congressional aides headed to Silicon Valley this week for a bootcamp on the technology.

— The event, hosted by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI, offered a “crash course on AI’s benefits and risks for information-starved staffers staring down the possibility of legislating a fast-moving technology in the middle of a gold rush,” per The Washington Post’s Nitasha Tiku.

— “Hundreds of Capitol Hill denizens applied for the camp’s 28 slots, a 40 percent increase from 2022. Attendees included aides for Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), as well as policy analysts and lawyers for House and Senate committees on commerce, foreign affairs, strategic trade with China and more.”

— The curriculum, which has shifted from a cybersecurity focus to AI over the years, “covered AI’s potential to reshape education and health care, a primer on deepfakes, as well as a crisis simulation where participants had to use AI to respond to a national security threat in Taiwan.” One of the institute’s leaders insisted that the event was not meant to advocate for a particular policy point of view.

— “But for an academic event, the camp was also inextricably tied to industry.” Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, who spoke at the boot camp, “has done stints at Google Cloud and as a Twitter board member. Google’s AI ambassador, James Manyika, spoke at a fireside chat. Executives from Meta and Anthropic spoke to the audience Wednesday afternoon for the camp’s final session, discussing the role industry can play in shaping AI policy. HAI’s donors include LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, a Democratic megadonor whose start-up, Inflection AI, released a personalized chatbot in May.”

— “The boot camp is one of many behind-the-scenes efforts to educate Congress since ChatGPT launched in November. Chastened by years of inaction on social media, regulators are trying to get up to speed on generative AI.”

STOP US IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE: “After a freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg secured what seemed like a significant victory. Following years of resistance, the nation’s largest freight railroads agreed to participate in a federal safety program that allows employees to confidentially report safety issues,” The New York Times’ Mark Walker writes.

— “But five months after that commitment, none of the railroads have formally joined the program. Though they say they still intend to participate, the companies have raised concerns about the initiative, saying it is flawed and needs to be overhauled, according to government and industry officials.”

— “The railroads’ hesitation raises questions about whether a key step to improve rail safety that Mr. Buttigieg hailed in the wake of the East Palestine derailment will come to pass. And it illustrates the steep challenge looming over federal officials and lawmakers as they push for safety changes after the Ohio accident, sometimes against the wishes of the freight rail industry. In Congress, a rail safety bill with bipartisan support faces an uncertain fate.”

— One key dispute within a working group at the Federal Railroad Administration reportedly stems from freight railroads’ insistence that they retain the ability to discipline employee whistleblowers if they believe that misconduct has occurred — potentially undermining the reporting program’s focus on anonymity.

ANNALS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE: The FEC has voted unanimously to slap Ohio gun manufacturer Ohio Ordnance Works with a $19,000 fine for a six-figure donation it made to the Club for Growth’s super PAC last year, despite restrictions on political contributions by government contractors, Raw Story’s Mark Alesia reports.

— “The company admitted making money from the U.S. government as a contractor and, later, making a $100,000 donation to a right-wing super PAC,” according to a settlement made public by the FEC this week. Federal election law bars “contributions to political committees by any person who enters into a contract with the United States or its departments … if payment on such contract is to be made in whole or in part from funds appropriated by Congress.”

— “A complaint to the FEC said Ohio Ordnance Works made the donation in 2022 to the Club for Growth Action, which lists as a priority ‘defeating big-government Democrats in red seats and swing districts and replacing them with pro-growth conservatives. Club for Growth Action refunded the $100,000 contribution in May of this year, and the FEC did not penalize the super PAC.”

— “Ohio Ordnance Works had argued that while it did have a ‘master contract’ with the Defense Logistics Agency, an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense, it wasn’t a federal contractor because there were no active purchase orders when it made the donation to Club for Growth Action. But the FEC’s legal office disagreed, and the agency’s six commissioners — three Republicans, three Democrats — unanimously voted to approve the $19,000 fine.”

— Vanessa Gonzalez is now vice president of government and political affairs at Giffords. She previously was executive vice president of field and member services at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and is an Obama Education Department alum.

— Bryson Gillette has added Adrian Eng-Gastelum and Michael Kurtz as directors and Lennon Torres and Ashley French as managers. Eng-Gastelum previously was a senior media adviser to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, and is a Biden campaign alum. Kurtz is a Bloomberg 2020, DNC and Obama campaign alum. Torres previously was at the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. French previously was a digital strategist for Mothership Strategies.

— America’s Voice and America’s Voice Education Fund are adding Joe Liu as managing director of America’s Voice Education Fund and Kenny Sandoval as senior adviser to the executive director. Liu previously was director of campaign strategy and management at AARP. Sandoval previously was vice president for campaigns and partnerships at Voto Latino.

End Citizens United — Urgent 2024 (Reps. Mike Levin, Chris Pappas, Jared Golden, Susan Wild, End Citizens United)

Brightspeed PAC of Connect Holding II LLC (Brightspeed PAC) (PAC)
Clearway Energy Inc PAC (PAC)
Dark Brandon for President (Super PAC)
The Grassroots Freedom PAC (PAC)
JumpStart Action Fund (Super PAC)
we the people for william isgar (Super PAC)

None.

Garen Fowler: Secular Strategies
Garen Fowler: Secular Strategies
The Normandy Group, LLC: Lowe Syndrome Association