
The Take: Trump's ‘Woke AI' ban – Can AI be free of bias?
In this episode:
Alejandra Montoya-Boyer (@alejandramontyb) – Senior Director, Center for Civil Rights and Technology
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Diana Ferrero, Chloe K. Li, Marcos Bartolomé and Julia Muldavin with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Marya Khan, Kisaa Zehra and our guest host, Manuel Rápalo. It was edited by Kylene Kiang.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.
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13 hours ago
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US museum denies political pressure in removal of Trump impeachment display
The parent organisation of a top-visited history museum in the United States has denied that political pressure played a role in the removal of a display about the impeachments of US President Donald Trump. The Smithsonian Institution, which runs the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, said on Saturday that it removed the 'temporary' placard for failing to meet the museum's standards in 'appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation'. 'It was not consistent with other sections in the exhibit and moreover blocked the view of the objects inside its case. For these reasons, we removed the placard,' the institution said in a statement. 'We were not asked by any Administration or other government officials to remove content from the exhibit.' The Smithsonian Institution, which runs 21 museums and the National Zoo, said the impeachment section of the museum would be updated in the coming weeks to 'reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation's history'. The statement comes after The Washington Post on Thursday reported that the museum removed an explicit reference to Trump's impeachments last month, resulting in its exhibit about impeachment incorrectly stating that 'only three presidents have seriously faced removal'. The Post, citing an unnamed person familiar with the exhibit plans, said the display was taken down following a 'content review that the Smithsonian agreed to undertake following pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director'. The museum's removal of the display drew swift backlash, with critics of Trump casting the development as the latest capitulation to the whims of an authoritarian president. 'You can run, but you cannot hide from the judgment of history,' Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Friday. 'So, here's my message to the president: no matter what exhibits you try to distort, the American people will never forget that you were impeached – not once, but twice.' Trump has, with lightning speed, moved to exert greater control over political, cultural and media institutions as part of his transformative 'Make America Great Again' agenda. In March, the US president signed an executive order to remove 'improper ideology' from the Smithsonian Institution's properties and deny funding for exhibits that 'degrade shared American values' or 'divide Americans based on race'. During his first term, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives twice, in 2019 and 2021, but the Senate failed to convict him on both occasions. He was the third US president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and the only US president to be impeached twice. Former President Richard Nixon faced near-certain impeachment before his resignation in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal.


Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as DC top prosecutor
The United States Senate has confirmed former Fox News television personality Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor in the nation's capital, Washington, DC, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Edward Martin Jr. Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed on Saturday, with a vote of 50-45. Before becoming the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show The Five on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump. Trump yanked Martin's nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin's outspoken support for rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department's pardon attorney. Other hires from cable news include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, a former reality TV show competitor and Fox Business co-host. Pirro briefly entered politics in ill-fated attempts to run for the US Senate and for the New York attorney general, losing the latter race to Democrat Andrew Cuomo. She began earning wider public exposure by hosting a weekday television show, Judge Jeanine Pirro, from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, she joined Fox News Channel to host Justice with Judge Jeanine, which ran for 11 years, and today, she is a co-host of the network's show, The Five. Pirro has also authored several books, including Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy, which was published in 2018. The Washington Post described the book as 'sycophantic' in its support for Trump. After promoting unfounded conspiracy theories alleging election fraud in 2020, Pirro was named a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which said that Fox had broadcast false statements about the company. Fox News settled the case for nearly $800m. Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro's nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove's nomination to become a federal appeals court judge. Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York's Westchester County Court in 1990, before serving three terms as the county's elected district attorney. In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro's ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.


Qatar Tribune
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