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Straits Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
US Supreme Court won't review assault weapon, high-capacity magazine bans
FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an AR-15 rife at an exhibition booth during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 18, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to the legality of state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, passing up for now cases that offered the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The justices turned away two appeals after lower courts upheld a ban in Maryland on powerful semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s and one in Rhode Island restricting the possession of ammunition feeding devices holding more than 10 rounds. The lower courts rejected arguments that the measures violate the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms." Three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the court's decision not to hear the cases. A fourth, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a statement accompanying the Maryland case expressed sympathy for the argument made by the challengers that semiautomatic AR-15s are in common use by "law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment." Kavanaugh said the issue will return to the Supreme Court, which "presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon." In a nation bitterly divided over how to address firearms violence including numerous mass shootings, the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, often has taken an expansive view of the Second Amendment. The court broadened gun rights in landmark rulings in 2008, 2010 and in a 2022 case that made it harder to defend gun restrictions under the Second Amendment, requiring them to be "consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." The challengers in the two cases turned away on Monday by the Supreme Court contended that states and courts are flouting precedents that make clear that the Second Amendment protects weapons that are in "common use." Maryland in 2013 enacted its ban on military-style "assault weapons" such as the AR-15 and AK-47 after a shooter used such a firearm in the 2012 mass killing of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The law carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. A Maryland resident who is seeking to purchase one of the banned guns, as well as three gun rights organizations including the Firearms Policy Coalition, sued in 2020, claiming the ban violates the Second Amendment. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2024 rejected the challenge because it said assault weapons "are military-style weapons designed for sustained combat operations that are ill-suited and disproportionate to the need for self-defense." As such, the "excessively dangerous" firearms are not protected by the Second Amendment, the 4th Circuit decided. The 4th Circuit said it refused "to wield the Constitution to declare that military-style armaments which have become primary instruments of mass killing and terrorist attacks in the United States are beyond the reach of our nation's democratic processes." The plaintiffs told the Supreme Court that the term "assault weapon" is a political term that is designed to exploit public confusion over machine guns and semi-automatic firearms. The banned weapons, they said, are "identical to any other semiautomatic firearm - arms that are exceedingly common and fully protected by the Second Amendment." Rhode Island's law, passed in 2022 as a response to mass shootings, bars most "large-capacity feeding" devices such as a magazine or drum that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The state calls it a "mild restriction on a particularly dangerous weapons accessory" and that in mass shooting situations, "any pause in fire, such as the pause to switch magazines, allows for precious seconds in which to escape or take defensive action." The law applied retroactively, meaning residents had to surrender or alter any banned magazine that they owned, and carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Four gun owners and a registered firearms dealer sued, claiming the ban violated their Second Amendment rights, and that having to forfeit the magazines they owned violated the Constitution's prohibition on the government taking property without compensation. In 2024 the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the claims and refused to block the law. The Rhode Island plaintiffs told the Supreme Court that instead of abiding by the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling, the state's law "can only be understood as protest legislation imposing more restrictive bans on long-common arms." The Supreme Court has been buffeted in recent years by challenges to gun restrictions. On March 26, the court upheld a regulation targeting largely untraceable "ghost guns" imposed by Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration. The court last year struck down a federal ban on "bump stock" devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
6 days ago
- Automotive
- The Star
Amazon's Zoox issues second software recall this month after San Francisco crash
FILE PHOTO: Zoox, a self-driving vehicle owned by Amazon, is seen at the company's Headquarters during a test drive in Foster City, California, U.S. October 15, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (Reuters) - self-driving unit Zoox has issued a second software recall this month to improve how its vehicles track nearby pedestrians and prevent movement when someone is close, following a crash in San Francisco earlier this month. The recall covers 270 vehicles equipped with its Automated Driving Systems software, which had versions released prior to May 21, Zoox said in a report with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday. Zoox has updated the software. On May 8, an unoccupied Zoox robotaxi was struck by an electric scooter while turning at low speed at a San Francisco intersection, the company said last week. The rider sustained minor injuries and fell next to the vehicle, which continued turning and then stopped without making further contact, it said. Earlier this month, Zoox had issued a software recall for 270 driverless vehicles after an unoccupied robotaxi was involved in an April 8 crash with a passenger car in Las Vegas. In April, NHTSA closed a probe into 258 Zoox vehicles over a braking issue after the company issued a recall to update their software. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
The Star
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Exclusive-OnlyFans owner in talks to sell to investor group at about $8 billion value, sources say
FILE PHOTO: A logo for OnlyFans is seen in this illustration picture, February 29, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -OnlyFans owner Fenix International Ltd is in talks to sell the porn-driven company to an investor group at a valuation of around $8 billion, three sources familiar with the matter told group is led by the Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, the sources said. Reuters could not identify the investors in the group. The investor group and current deal value have not previously been reported. OnlyFans, which exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, is best known as an online platform that enables porn creators to charge subscribers for content. OnlyFans takes 20% of creators' earnings. In the year ended November 2023, the company generated $6.6 billion in revenue, according to a filing with British regulators. That is up from $375 million in 2020, and this rapid growth has attracted investor interest. Some executives at Forest Road were part of a special purpose acquisition company that was in talks to take OnlyFans public in 2022, according to sources and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. OnlyFans and Forest Road declined to comment. One of the three sources and another source familiar with sale discussions said Fenix International Ltd is also in talks with other potential suitors. The London-based company has drawn interest from several suitors in recent months. Talks have been held at least since March, the people said. Three sources said a deal could be reached in the next week or two. The sources also cautioned that there was no certainty a deal will be struck and requested anonymity ahead of an official announcement. An initial public offering is also being considered, three of the sources said. The company's sole shareholder is Leonid Radvinsky, a Ukrainian American whose location could not be confirmed. He bought OnlyFans in 2018 and has paid himself at least $1 billion in dividends over the past three years, British filings showed. Last year, Reuters published a series of investigative stories on OnlyFans that documented complaints in U.S. police and court records that child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual pornography has appeared on the site since 2019. The series also identified cases of sex traffickers using the platform to abuse and exploit women. Porn makes OnlyFans untouchable for many big banks and investors, sources have told Reuters, because due diligence might find illegal content such as child sexual abuse material, trafficking victims and nonconsensual porn. The New York Post reported on Wednesday the company was exploring a potential sale. Founded in 2017, Forest Road is an investment firm interested in media, renewable energy and digital assets, according to its website. Its ventures have included a Formula E racing team and it in 2024 expanded its advisory business by acquiring a majority stake in ACF Investment Bank. (Reporting by Linda So in Washington D.C., Echo Wang and Milana Vinn in New York and Andrew Marshall in London; editing by Kenneth Li and Cynthia Osterman)
The Star
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Google faces DoJ probe over deal for AI tech, Bloomberg Law reports
FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department is probing whether Alphabet's Google violated antitrust law in its agreement with that allows the tech giant to use the AI startup's technology, Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday. Antitrust enforcers have recently told Google they are examining whether it structured an agreement with to avoid formal government merger scrutiny, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Google last year signed a licensing deal with that granted the search engine giant a non-exclusive license to the chatbot maker's large language model technology. The company also hired co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, both former Google employees. "We're always happy to answer any questions from regulators," a Google spokesperson said. "We're excited that talent from joined the company but we have no ownership stake and they remain a separate company." and the DoJ did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The DOJ can scrutinize whether the deal itself is anti-competitive even if did not require a formal review, the report said, adding the antitrust probe was in early stages and may not lead to an enforcement action. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Sriraj Kalluvila)
The Star
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Andreessen Horowitz-backed studio Promise partners with Google on AI, adds investors
FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo (Reuters) -Generative AI studio Promise, backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said on Tuesday that it had partnered with Alphabet's Google to use its AI technologies. The startup has also expanded its investor base, with new backing from Google's AI Futures Fund, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and others, the company said in a blog. Former News Corp President Peter Chernin's firm, North Road Company, a co-lead investor, has invested additional capital in this round. Promise will integrate Google's AI technologies into its production pipeline and workflow software, MUSE, while also collaborating with researchers from DeepMind. Hollywood studios have been exploring ways to incorporate GenAI tools to reduce costs and speed up the content creation process. Founded by Fullscreen CEO George Strompolos, former YouTube executive Jamie Byrne and AI artist Dave Clark, Promise aims to capitalize on the GenAI boom and is working with Hollywood stakeholders to develop a multi-year lineup of content. Production of its first feature-length film is slated to begin this year. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
