Miami's decision to postpone 2025 election without voter approval unconstitutional, judge says
Earlier this year, former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez filed a lawsuit against the City of Miami, claiming officials are unlawfully blocking his bid to run for mayor by postponing the scheduled November 2025 election and giving current elected officials an extra in office.
González had asked the court to find the city's ordinance "unlawful and invalid."
On Monday, Judge Valerie Manno Schurr issued a written opinion on his lawsuit. She noted in her opinion that the general law statutes do not grant the city the authority to enact the ordinance.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner, and Miami mayoral candidate, Eileen Higgins praised the judge's decision to restore the November 2025 municipal election.
"Today's court decision is a clear victory for democracy and for every Miami resident who believes elections should be decided by the people — not politicians. I've said from the start: moving elections must be done the right way, through a transparent process and with voter approval," she said in a statement.
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TechCrunch
a few seconds ago
- TechCrunch
Trump's ‘anti-woke AI' order could reshape how US tech companies train their models
When DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese firms released their AI models, Western researchers quickly noticed they sidestepped questions critical of the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. officials later confirmed that these tools are engineered to reflect Beijing's talking points, raising concerns about censorship and bias. American AI leaders like OpenAI have pointed to this as justification for advancing their tech quickly, without too much regulation or oversight. As OpenAI's chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane wrote in a LinkedIn post last month, there is a contest between 'US-led democratic AI and Communist-led China's autocratic AI.' An executive order signed Wednesday by President Donald Trump that bans 'woke AI' and AI models that aren't 'ideologically neutral' from government contracts could disrupt that balance. The order calls out diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) calling it a 'pervasive and destructive' ideology that can 'distort the quality and accuracy of the output.' Specifically, the order refers to information about race or sex, manipulation of racial or sexual representation, critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism. Experts warn it could create a chilling effect on developers who may feel pressure to align model outputs and datasets with White House rhetoric to secure federal dollars for their cash-burning businesses. The order comes the same day the White House published Trump's 'AI Action Plan,' which shifts national priorities away from societal risk and focuses instead on building out AI infrastructure, cutting red tape for tech companies, shoring up national security, and competing with China. The order directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget along with the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, the Administrator of General Services, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, to issue guidance to other agencies on how to comply. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW 'Once and for all, we are getting rid of woke,' Trump said Wednesday during an AI event hosted by the All-In Podcast and Hill & Valley Forum. 'I will be signing an order banning the federal government from procuring AI technology that has been infused with partisan bias or ideological agendas, such as critical race theory, which is ridiculous. And from now on the U.S. government will deal only with AI that pursues truth, fairness, and strict impartiality.' Determining what is impartial or objective is one of many challenges to the order. Philip Seargeant, senior lecturer in applied linguistics at The Open University, told TechCrunch that nothing can ever be objective. 'One of the fundamental tenets of sociolinguistics is that language is never neutral,' Sergeant said. 'So the idea that you can ever get pure objectivity is a fantasy.' On top of that, the Trump administration's ideology doesn't reflect the beliefs and values of all Americans. Trump has repeatedly sought to eliminate funding for climate initiatives, education, public broadcasting, research, social service grants, community and agricultural support programs, and gender-affirming care, often framing these initiatives as examples of 'woke' or politically biased government spending. As Rumman Chowdhury, a data scientist, CEO of the tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence, and former U.S. science envoy for AI, put it, 'Anything [the Trump administration doesn't] like is immediately tossed into this pejorative pile of woke.' The definitions of 'truth-seeking' and 'ideological neutrality' in the order published Wednesday are vague in some ways, and specific in others. While 'truth-seeking' is defined as LLMs that 'prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity,' 'ideological neutrality' is defined as LLMs that are 'neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as DEI.' Those definitions leave room for broad interpretation, as well as potential pressure. AI companies have pushed for fewer constraints on how they operate. And while an executive order doesn't carry the force of legislation, frontier AI firms could still find themselves subject to the shifting priorities of the administration's political agenda. Last week, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI signed contracts with the Department of Defense to receive up to $200 million each to develop agentic AI workflows that address critical national security challenges. It's unclear which of these companies is best positioned to gain from the woke AI ban, or if they will comply. TechCrunch has reached out to each of them and will update this article if we hear back. Despite displaying biases of its own, xAI may be the most aligned with the order — at least at this early stage. Elon Musk has positioned Grok, xAI's chatbot, as the ultimate anti-woke, 'less biased,' truthseeker. Grok's system prompts have directed it to avoid deferring to mainstream authorities and media, to seek contrarian information even if it's politically incorrect, and to even reference Musk's own views on controversial topics. In recent months, Grok has even spouted antisemitic comments and praised Hitler on X, among other hateful, racist, and misogynistic posts. Mark Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University, told TechCrunch the executive order is 'clearly intended as viewpoint discrimination, since [the government] just signed a contract with Grok, aka 'MechaHitler.'' Alongside xAI's DOD funding, the company announced that 'Grok for Government' had been added to the General Services Administration schedule, meaning that xAI products are now available for purchase across every government office and agency. 'The right question is this: would they ban Grok, the AI they just signed a large contract with, because it has been deliberately engineered to give politically charged answers?' Lemley said in an email interview. 'If not, it is clearly designed to discriminate against a particular viewpoint.' As Grok's own system prompts have shown, model outputs can be a reflection of both the people building the technology and the data the AI is trained on. In some cases, an overabundance of caution among developers and AI trained on internet content that promotes values like inclusivity have led to distorted model outputs. Google, for example, last year came under fire after its Gemini chatbot showed a black George Washington and racially diverse Nazis – which Trump's order calls out as an example of DEI-infected AI models. Chowdhury says her biggest fear with this executive order is that AI companies will actively rework training data to tow the party line. She pointed to statements from Musk a few weeks prior to launching Grok 4, saying that xAI would use the new model and its advanced reasoning capabilities to 'rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors. Then retrain on that.' This would ostensibly put Musk into the position of judging what is true, which could have huge downstream implications for how information is accessed. Of course, companies have been making judgement calls about what information is seen and not seen since the dawn of the internet. Conservatives like David Sacks – the entrepreneur and investor whom Trump appointed as AI Czar – has been outspoken about his concerns around 'woke AI' on the All-In Podcast, which co-hosted Trump's day of AI announcements. Sacks has accused the creators of prominent AI products of infusing them with left-wing values, framing his arguments as a defense of free speech, and a warning against a trend towards centralized ideological control in digital platforms. The problem, experts say, is that there is no one truth. Achieving unbiased or neutral results is impossible, especially in today's world where even facts are politicized. 'If the results that an AI produces say that climate science is correct, is that left wing bias?' Seargeant said. 'Some people say you need to give both sides of the argument to be objective, even if one side of the argument has no status to it.'
Bloomberg
a few seconds ago
- Bloomberg
Tesla Warns of Pain From Trump's Tax Bill That Elon Musk Blasted
Tesla Inc. warned that provisions in President Donald Trump's $3.4 trillion fiscal package will pose meaningful challenges for the EV maker in the next several months. The legislation eliminated civil penalties that automakers had been required to pay US regulators that oversee US fuel economy requirements. That will hurt Tesla's sales of regulatory credits to rival automakers — long a key source of revenue and profit for the EV maker — and 'lead to lower earnings,' Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said during the company's second-quarter earnings call Wednesday.
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Travel + Leisure
a few seconds ago
- Travel + Leisure
U.S. Announces Exit From UNESCO—Here's What It Means for Travelers
On July 22, the U.S. Department of State announced it would withdraw from UNESCO. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization—founded after World War II with the goal of 'promoting peace through its cooperative endeavors"—has since built an invaluable database of cultural and natural landmarks, many of which are among the world's most iconic travel destinations. Now, the U.S. involvement in funding, selecting, and supporting these endeavors is going to come to an end. Secretary of State Tammy Bruce said the decision to withdraw was made because continued involvement 'is not in the national interest of the United States.' 'UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy,' Bruce said in the official statement. This isn't the first time the U.S. has parted ways with the organization. The Trump administration withdreaw in 2018, and the country only rejoined in 2023 under former President Joe Biden. Before that, U.S. funding halted under former President Barack Obama in 2011 and the country full withdrew once before, in 1984 under former President Ronald Reagan. While this latest departure isn't without precedent, it could still lead to ripple effects for travelers. Here's what to know: The withdrawal will take effect on Dec. 31, 2026. Until then, the U.S. remains a full participating member of the organization. UNESCO includes 194 member states (nations), each contributing financially and appointing national representatives. The organization collectively sets global standards and leads initiatives focused on the preservation of history, culture, education, and the environment. There are 26 World Heritage Sites and 28 biosphere reserves in the US. In the world, there are 1,248 sites across 170 countries. U.S. sites include landmarks like Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Everglades, as well as Independence Hall in Philadelphia, San Antonio Missions in Texas, and the Statue of Liberty. As one of the largest member states of the organization, the U.S. supplied significant funding for UNESCO projects, including the world heritage sites. In response to the withdrawal announcement, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said they "deeply regret" the Trump administration's decision to withdraw, but affirmed the organization's commitment to its mission. 'However regrettable, this announcement was anticipated, and UNESCO has prepared for it,' Azoulay said. While the organization used to heavily rely on funding from the U.S., it has since 'undertaken major structural reforms and diversified our funding sources,' according to Azoulay. While there still might be some changes, UNESCO does not anticipate reducing staff or operations at this time, which means that for now, you can continue planning travel to UNESCO sites as usual. As for whether or not Americans have anything to worry about when they visit UNESCO sites, Azoulay said that the policy of an open door for everyone will continue. 'UNESCO's purpose is to welcome all the nations of the world, and the United States of America is and will always be welcome.'
