Bill Clinton to be grilled about flights on Epstein's private plane
Other high-ranking federal officials, including former Attorney General William Barr and Merrick Garland, are also set to testify under subpoena.
Bill Clinton 's appearance is linked to his flights on Epstein's private plane, while Hillary Clinton will be questioned about Maxwell's nephew working on her campaign and at the State Department.
Maxwell's subpoena is on hold pending her appeal, with her lawyers indicating she would testify in exchange a clemency deal.
Controversy surrounds the Justice Department's claim that no 'Epstein Client List' exists, contradicting previous statements and leading to speculation after Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security facility.
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The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Schools are using AI surveillance to protect students. It also leads to false alarms — and arrests
Lesley Mathis knows what her daughter said was wrong. But she never expected the 13-year-old girl would get arrested for it. The teenage girl made an offensive joke while chatting online with her classmates, triggering the school's surveillance software. Before the morning was even over, the Tennessee eighth grader was under arrest. She was interrogated, strip-searched and spent the night in a jail cell, her mother says. Earlier in the day, her friends had teased the teen about her tanned complexion and called her ' Mexican,' even though she's not. When a friend asked what she was planning for Thursday, she wrote: 'on Thursday we kill all the Mexico's.' Mathis said the comments were 'wrong' and 'stupid,' but context showed they were not a threat. 'It made me feel like, is this the America we live in?' Mathis said of her daughter's arrest. 'And it was this stupid, stupid technology that is just going through picking up random words and not looking at context.' Surveillance systems in American schools increasingly monitor everything students write on school accounts and devices. Thousands of school districts across the country use software like Gaggle and Lightspeed Alert to track kids' online activities, looking for signs they might hurt themselves or others. With the help of artificial intelligence, technology can dip into online conversations and immediately notify both school officials and law enforcement. Educators say the technology has saved lives. But critics warn it can criminalize children for careless words. "It has routinized law enforcement access and presence in students' lives, including in their home,' said Elizabeth Laird, a director at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Schools ratchet up vigilance for threats In a country weary of school shootings, several states have taken a harder line on threats to schools. Among them is Tennessee, which passed a 2023 zero-tolerance law requiring any threat of mass violence against a school to be reported immediately to law enforcement. The 13-year-old girl arrested in August 2023 had been texting with friends on a chat function tied to her school email at Fairview Middle School, which uses Gaggle to monitor students' accounts. (The Associated Press is withholding the girl's name to protect her privacy. The school district did not respond to a request for comment.) Taken to jail, the teen was interrogated and strip-searched, and her parents weren't allowed to talk to her until the next day, according to a lawsuit they filed against the school system. She didn't know why her parents weren't there. 'She told me afterwards, 'I thought you hated me.' That kind of haunts you,' said Mathis, the girl's mother. A court ordered eight weeks of house arrest, a psychological evaluation and 20 days at an alternative school for the girl. Gaggle's CEO, Jeff Patterson, said in an interview that the school system did not use Gaggle the way it is intended. The purpose is to find early warning signs and intervene before problems escalate to law enforcement, he said. 'I wish that was treated as a teachable moment, not a law enforcement moment,' said Patterson. Private student chats face unexpected scrutiny Students who think they are chatting privately among friends often do not realize they are under constant surveillance, said Shahar Pasch, an education lawyer in Florida. One teenage girl she represented made a joke about school shootings on a private Snapchat story. Snapchat's automated detection software picked up the comment, the company alerted the FBI, and the girl was arrested on school grounds within hours. Alexa Manganiotis, 16, said she was startled by how quickly monitoring software works. West Palm Beach's Dreyfoos School of the Arts, which she attends, last year piloted Lightspeed Alert, a surveillance program. Interviewing a teacher for her school newspaper, Alexa discovered two students once typed something threatening about that teacher on a school computer, then deleted it. Lightspeed picked it up, and 'they were taken away like five minutes later,' Alexa said. Teenagers face steeper consequences than adults for what they write online, Alexa said. 'If an adult makes a super racist joke that's threatening on their computer, they can delete it, and they wouldn't be arrested," she said. Amy Bennett, chief of staff for Lightspeed Systems, said that the software helps understaffed schools 'be proactive rather than punitive' by identifying early warning signs of bullying, self-harm, violence or abuse. The technology can also involve law enforcement in responses to mental health crises. In Florida's Polk County Schools, a district of more than 100,000 students, the school safety program received nearly 500 Gaggle alerts over four years, officers said in public Board of Education meetings. This led to 72 involuntary hospitalization cases under the Baker Act, a state law that allows authorities to require mental health evaluations for people against their will if they pose a risk to themselves or others. 'A really high number of children who experience involuntary examination remember it as a really traumatic and damaging experience — not something that helps them with their mental health care,' said Sam Boyd, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Polk and West Palm Beach school districts did not provide comments. An analysis shows a high rate of false alarms Information that could allow schools to assess the software's effectiveness, such as the rate of false alerts, is closely held by technology companies and unavailable publicly unless schools track the data themselves. Gaggle alerted more than 1,200 incidents to the Lawrence, Kansas, school district in a recent 10-month period. But almost two-thirds of those alerts were deemed by school officials to be non-issues — including over 200 false alarms from student homework, according to an Associated Press analysis of data received via a public records request. Students in one photography class were called to the principal's office over concerns Gaggle had detected nudity. The photos had been automatically deleted from the students' Google Drives, but students who had backups of the flagged images on their own devices showed it was a false alarm. District officials said they later adjusted the software's settings to reduce false alerts. Natasha Torkzaban, who graduated in 2024, said she was flagged for editing a friend's college essay because it had the words 'mental health.' 'I think ideally we wouldn't stick a new and shiny solution of AI on a deep-rooted issue of teenage mental health and the suicide rates in America, but that's where we're at right now,' Torkzaban said. She was among a group of student journalists and artists at Lawrence High School who filed a lawsuit against the school system last week, alleging Gaggle subjected them to unconstitutional surveillance. School officials have said they take concerns about Gaggle seriously, but also say the technology has detected dozens of imminent threats of suicide or violence. 'Sometimes you have to look at the trade for the greater good,' said Board of Education member Anne Costello in a July 2024 board meeting. Two years after their ordeal, Mathis said her daughter is doing better, although she's still 'terrified' of running into one of the school officers who arrested her. One bright spot, she said, was the compassion of the teachers at her daughter's alternative school. They took time every day to let the kids share their feelings and frustrations, without judgment. 'It's like we just want kids to be these little soldiers, and they're not,' said Mathis. 'They're just humans.' ___ This reporting reviewed school board meetings posted on YouTube, courtesy of DistrictView, a dataset created by researchers Tyler Simko, Mirya Holman and Rebecca Johnson. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
The Guardian
18 minutes ago
- The Guardian
New Trump tariffs come into force against dozens of countries
Good morning. Dozens of countries have been hit with higher taxes on their exports to the US after Donald Trump's latest wave of tariffs came into effect on Thursday morning. The levies announced by the White House a week ago came into force at a minute past midnight Washington time on Thursday, shortly after Trump claimed on social media that the tariffs would send billions of dollars into US government coffers. The rates, which range from 41% for war-torn Syria to 10% for the UK, are being levied in addition to the usual tariffs applying to US imports. Since last week's announcement, governments around the world have been scrambling to try to make deals to avert tariffs they fear could scare off investors and lead to job losses. Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, said it expected its operating profits to drop by 16% in its financial year to March 2026 due to the levies. Has anyone been spared from double tariffs? The EU is the only trading partner whose baseline rate – fixed at 15% after a deal – will include previous tariffs. Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine war as early as next week, White House officials have said, although senior aides warned that significant 'impediments' remained to securing a ceasefire. Asked late on Wednesday when he would meet the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, the US president told reporters at the White House: 'There's a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.' But he added that there was no specific advancement leading to talk of a meeting. The New York Times and CNN, citing sources familiar with the plan, reported that Trump planned to meet Putin as soon as next week. Trump reportedly then wants a three-way meeting with the Russian leader and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. When did the US and Russian leadership last meet? In June 2021, in a Geneva meeting between the then president, Joe Biden, and Putin. More than 1,500 civilians may have been killed in an attack on Sudan's largest refugee camp in April, in what would be the second-biggest war crime of the country's devastating civil war. A Guardian investigation into the 72-hour attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on North Darfur's Zamzam camp discovered repeated testimonies of mass executions and abductions. Hundreds of civilians remain unaccounted for in the attack. The war between the Arab-led RSF and the Sudanese military, which has been raging since April 2023, has been characterised by repeated atrocities. How has the number been arrived at? A committee created to investigate the death toll has so far counted more than 1,500 killed in the attack, in which it was previously believed that 400 non-Arab civilians had been killed. The former Superman actor Dean Cain has said he has enlisted to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in support of Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration. JD Vance's team raised the water level of a lake in Ohio to accommodate the vice-president's recent boating vacation with his family, the Guardian can reveal. US police have charged a British man with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law after he allegedly tried to drown her in a swimming pool in Florida. Israel's bombardment of Gaza has left starving Palestinians with just 1.5% of farmland that is accessible and able to be cultivated, figures from the UN show. This has fallen from 4% in April, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), indicating that Israel has continued to target Palestinian croplands since it began its total blockade in early March, while Gaza is now on the brink of a 'full-scale famine', the FAO director general said. From Silicon Valley billionaires to posters on Reddit's r/collapse forum, survivalism, or prepping, is undeniably having a moment. The term 'survivalist' goes back to a 1975 novel by the same name – but authors have been telling the stories of those who persist against the odds for centuries. 'The difference between a survivor and a survivalist is that one is a temporary condition and the other a permanent identity,' writes Dorian Lynskey as he charts their depiction in culture. In January, scientists traced the route charted by Carsten Borchgrevink's Southern Cross, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Discovery and Capt Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition between 1898 and 1913. Aiming to measure how global heating is affecting the marine life in the world's southernmost waters, their findings contained a mix of 'sweet and sour', the lead oceanographer said. While they recorded 'crazy levels' of wildlife, including 150 whales, in the world's only area largely untouched by plastic pollution and the fishing industry, planetary heating means waters are increasingly acidic. As a result, the sea urchins they collected were fragile and crumbled easily – a worrying indication for marine life. Leroy Carter was happily surprised to get the news that he had been selected for the All Blacks squad to play in Argentina in the opening rounds of the Rugby Championship. But soon after, he made a less-than-ideal discovery: his dog had eaten his passport. Luckily, he seems to have sorted out an emergency one and kept a cool head: 'I thought it would happen to me, something like that, so no point getting stressed about it.' First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you're not already signed up, subscribe now. If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@
BreakingNews.ie
19 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Harris ‘eager' to progress trade talks to avoid further tariffs
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris has said he is 'eager' to see further progress on trade talks around certain sectors, including the drinks industry, as a wave of US tariffs takes effect. Mr Harris said that while some areas have been agreed as exempt from tariffs between the European Union and the US, he wants to 'tease through the detail' of other areas, citing the pharma sector in particular. Advertisement US President Donald Trump's tariffs took effect from Thursday, with exporters in Ireland facing a new 15 per cent rate applying to imports to the US. It is not yet clear whether the drinks industry will be exempt from the new wave of tariffs. The Tánaiste said it is 'absolutely essential' to maximise the number of areas that can apply zero-for-zero tariffs. 'Whilst there are some areas that have already been agreed as exempt from tariffs between the US and the EU, I'm very eager to see more progress made in more areas, including for the drinks industry, which is an important part of the Irish economy,' Mr Harris said in a statement on Thursday. Advertisement 'We'll also need to continue to work in the time ahead to tease through the detail in relation to particular sectors. 'From a pharma point of view, my position remains the same, as does the position of the European Union. 'There is huge potential and scope for the EU and the US to work together in the interests of patients, their economies, and the pharma industry. 'In many ways, the EU and the US are interdependent when it comes to pharma. In the very first instance, it's vital that the US keeps its agreement in terms of a tariff rate of no higher than 15 per cent on the pharma industry. Advertisement 'But actually, in the time ahead, it's important that we seek to further improve that. US pharma companies need to have a base in the European Union – and Ireland has been a very constructive, very good home for those businesses. They've done very well in Ireland. Freight trucks at Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford, Ireland. Photo: Niall Carson/PA. 'We need to continue to make sure that nothing happens that causes disruption to the industry or to global supply chains. So, there's much work to do in the weeks and months ahead. World Trump's broad tariffs go into effect Read More 'We also must continue to control what we can control and continue to make our country, and our European Union, as competitive as possible, as good a location as possible to invest in and create jobs. 'We must also look for other opportunities to diversify markets for Irish business. While we want to continue to do business with the US and indeed want to grow business. It is important that we take every opportunity to identify new markets.' Advertisement He said the Government will publish a new Market Diversification Action Plan this month.
