Latest news with #JoshHawley
New York Post
an hour ago
- Business
- New York Post
US senators introduce bipartisan bill to make it easier to sue tech companies over AI copyright theft
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) rolled out bipartisan legislation to make it easier for people to sue tech companies for pirating their data to train artificial intelligence models — calling the rampant practice 'the largest intellectual property theft in American history' The proposed AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act — which follows a recent hearing in which the US lawmaker accused companies including Meta and OpenAI of pirating vast amounts of protected material — would bar AI companies from training on personal data or copyrighted works. 'AI companies are robbing the American people blind while leaving artists, writers, and other creators with zero recourse,' Hawley said in a statement. 'It's time for Congress to give the American worker their day in court to protect their personal data and creative works.' Advertisement 3 Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is teaming up with a Democratic colleague to rein in Big Tech. Getty Images The bill would allow people to sue for use of their personal data or copyrighted works without giving consent. It would also require companies to disclose which third parties will be given access to data if consent is granted, and provides for financial penalties and injunctive relief. The Post has sought comment from Meta and OpenAI. Advertisement Hawley added that the 'bipartisan legislation would finally empower working Americans who now find their livelihoods in the crosshairs of Big Tech's lawlessness.' 3 Hawley and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) rolled out bipartistan legislation on Monday. Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images Blumenthal, his Democratic partner on the bill, underscored privacy risks and the need for legal recourse. 'Tech companies must be held accountable — and liable legally — when they breach consumer privacy, collecting, monetizing or sharing personal information without express consent,' he said. Advertisement In recent years, tech firms have been sued by content creators and publishers who allege that their copyrighted material was 'scraped' for use by AI models. Thomson Reuters successfully sued Ross Intelligence, saying Ross used Westlaw's copyrighted legal headnotes to build its legal research AI. In February, a federal court agreed, ruling that Ross was guilty of copyright infringement. 3 Several tech firms have been sued for allegedly using pirated material to train their large language models. AFP via Getty Images The news agency is seeking unspecified damages. Advertisement In December 2023, the New York Times filed suit against OpenAI and Microsoft alleging that its articles were used to train systems such as GPT‑4 without permission. That case is ongoing. Last month, a federal judge said Anthropic's use of books to train its AI model was 'highly transformative' and counted as fair use, but that keeping direct copies ('pirated' versions) in a central library was 'direct infringement.' The fight over damages and remedies is still ahead. Authors including Richard Kadrey say Meta used their books without permission to train LLaMA and other large language models. A court said Meta's use was also 'highly transformative' and fair use, but the case continues over whether any stored 'pirated' materials create liability.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
GOP lawmakers advocate for US condemnation of persecution against Christians in Muslim-majority nations
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is pushing a resolution that would indicate that the Senate denounces the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority nations, while Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.V., and several other House Republicans are pushing a House version that would declare the lower chamber's condemnation of such persecution. The resolutions urge the president to prioritize the defense of persecuted Christians in America's foreign policy, including via "diplomatic engagement with Muslim-majority countries" as well as "efforts to stabilize the Middle East." The proposed resolutions also urge the president to leverage the diplomatic toolkit "to advance the protection of persecuted Christians worldwide and within Muslim-majority countries." AMERICANS LOOK AT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND SEE A 'DUMPSTER FIRE': SEN. JOSH HAWLEY Fox News Digital reached out to the White House, which did not provide comment. "Our country was founded on religious liberty. We cannot sit on the sidelines as Christians around the world are being persecuted for declaring Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We must condemn these heinous crimes," Hawley said, according to press releases issued by the offices of Hawley and Moore. "Year after year, the number of Christians murdered by extremists in Nigeria has numbered in the thousands. Millions more have been displaced. We cannot allow this to continue. I urge my colleagues to join me in condemning the persecution of Christians around the world by supporting this resolution." CHRISTIANS INCREASINGLY PERSECUTED WORLDWIDE AS 'MODERN AND HISTORICAL FACTORS CONVERGE' Original cosponsors in the House included GOP Reps. Greg Steube of Florida, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, Addison McDowell of North Carolina, Brandon Gill of Texas, Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. While not an original cosponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, is a cosponsor of the resolution in the House, according to FEARS REMAIN THIS EASTER THAT CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA ARE BEING 'WIPED OUT' BY MUSLIM EXTREMISTS CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "Around the world, our brothers and sisters in Christ face rampant persecution for simply acknowledging the name of Jesus. That is unacceptable. In Nigeria alone, more than 50,000 Christians have been martyred and more than 5 million have been displaced simply for professing their faith. During a Divine Liturgy in Damascus last month, an islamic jihadist opened fire on worshippers and detonated an explosive device — killing at least 30 and wounding dozens more. These examples illustrate the violence and death Christians face on a daily basis," Moore said, according to press releases. "Unfortunately, decades of U.S. foreign policy blunders have exacerbated this crisis, with ethno-religious cleansing accelerating in Iraq after our failure to stabilize the country following the 2003 invasion. We as lawmakers cannot continue to sit idly by. I urge my colleagues to join me in condemning the persecution of Christians across the globe."
Axios
7 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: Contentious power line's developer plans gas connection
Invenergy, the company behind a huge proposed Kansas-to-Indiana transmission project facing political headwinds, will seek to connect a gas-fired power plant it's developing to the line, per a source close to the company. State of play: Invenergy is also in active discussion with a company to bring existing coal-fired generation onto the proposed Grain Belt Express project, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Why it matters: Such fossil fuel-based connections could change how the line is perceived. It currently would connect large wind resources in Kansas to points eastward and has long been viewed as a major boost to renewables. In late November, the Energy Department's loan office that backs low-emissions tech announced a conditional $4.9 billion loan guarantee for the project's first phase. Invenergy has touted the project's ability to "unlock access to one of the strongest combined wind and solar energy resources in the United States." The intrigue: Prominent Missouri GOP opponents of the line have criticized it as a green energy project and emphasized Biden-era federal support. GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said on X this month that he secured a pledge from Energy Secretary Chris Wright that he'll be "putting a stop to the Grain Belt Express green scam." Hawley said he had spoken directly with President Trump. Missouri AG Andrew Bailey — a Republican who has launched a probe of the project — has similarly called it part of the Biden-era "green new scam." Missouri GOP officials also have argued that Grain Belt Express runs against the interests of farmers and other landowners and criticized use of eminent domain. DOE did not provide comment but has broadly said it is reviewing Biden-era loan commitments. It said Hawley is trying to kill a massive project that's "aligned with the President's energy dominance agenda." Zoom in: Under FERC rules, Grain Belt Express LLC is currently managing its own interconnection process until the project becomes operational, but it's open to all generators, the source explained.
New York Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Regret, Thy Name Is Hawley. And Murkowski. And Musk.
Is Senator Josh Hawley having second thoughts? Sure looks that way. Last week, a mere 14 days after the Missouri Republican did as he was told and voted for President Trump's megabill, he introduced legislation that would counter that monstrosity's cuts to Medicaid and repair the very damage he'd just endorsed. It redefines the flip-flop. And reeks of regret. So does Senator Thom Tillis's recent decision not to seek re-election. Both in and after his announcement of that, the North Carolina Republican wrestled with what Congress under Trump had become, with the president's broken promises and bad judgment, with his own indulgence of that. He told the CNN anchor Jake Tapper that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who ascended to that position by dint of Tillis's final-hours capitulation to Trump's bullying — was 'out of his depth.' If only that had been predictable! I salute Tillis's candor, no matter how belated. But I see it as something else, too: atonement. There's a lot of that going around, as politicians and others who submitted to Trump reckon with the toll of that obeisance. The president may well be notching legislative victory after victory as a meek Congress abdicates its responsibilities and a cowardly Supreme Court looks the other way. But I sense a countervailing current. 'What have I done?' are the words in the thought bubbles above more and more people who have grudgingly and not so grudgingly supported Trump. To judge by some polling, that includes voters; in a recent, fascinating Gallup survey, they gave him poor marks even for his handling of immigration, and that's his signature issue. They wanted a more secure border, yes. But suspending civil liberties and feeding migrants to swamp creatures? That wasn't high on their wish lists. Lowering the cost of living was, and yet, as Colby Smith recently noted in The Times, 'Inflation accelerated in June as President Trump's tariffs started to leave a bigger imprint on the economy.' Started is the key word there. 'The June data still reflects only the initial impact of Mr. Trump's global trade war,' Smith added. Of course, the conspiracy theorists who reveled in Trump's encouragement of their wildest fantasies feel jilted by his sudden command that they erase Jeffrey Epstein from their cognitive hard drives. As the tawdry twists in the Epstein tale keep coming, Trump's most obliged defenders are being driven to exhaustion. Vice President JD Vance responded to The Wall Street Journal's report that Trump had once written and doodled a special smutty, predators-in-arms birthday greeting to Epstein with a social media post that asked: 'Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?' Does anyone honestly believe it doesn't? We're talking Mr. Grab-Them-By-The-You-Know-What here. And Vance is giving off more than a whiff of panic, which is kissing cousins with regret. It's the Vances and Hawleys and Tillises who interest me most. The buyer's remorse that more than a few voters feel is a common condition when politicians don't deliver; some of Trump's allies are in the grip of a different ailment. Theirs was a willed gullibility — they have always known deep down who Trump is. They wagered that they could live with that. They made a Faustian bargain, abetting him so that he didn't eviscerate them. They just didn't understand the full price they'd pay. Elon Musk miscalculated. Thought his billions and his brilliance (in his own mind) inoculated him in a way unavailable to lesser mortals. Persuaded himself that Trump, who is steadfast and disciplined about exactly nothing, was steadfast about fiscal discipline. Musk's regret is so intense he's plotting a new political party to flex it. To console and redeem themselves, Republican lawmakers are creating a whole new Kama Sutra of contortions, whereby they justify (or even nullify) yes votes with postscripts and asterisks such as Hawley's newly proposed legislation and Lisa Murkowsi's plea — after she, too, voted for Trump's big beautifulness — that the House perform major surgery on it. Sorry, Senator Murkowski, that patient was dead, and you knew it: Remorse and shame were etched on your face as you sought to explain yourself. Tillis last week imagined pulling a Hawley himself. 'I suspect we're going to find out there are some things that we're going to regret,' he said on the Senate floor in the course of joining all but two other Senate Republicans to vote for a rescissions package that allowed Trump to claw back billions of dollars that Congress had previously appropriated. 'And I suspect that when we do we'll have to come back and fix it.' So regret is now baked in? Pacify the president now, mitigate the fallout later? Unfortunately for Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, there's no do-over for blessing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appointment as secretary of health and human services. Cassidy, a physician, grilled Kennedy during his confirmation hearing, then pronounced himself satisfied that Kennedy was trustworthy on vaccines. Oops. Kennedy went ahead and fired all 17 members of the C.D.C.'s vaccine advisory panel. Their replacements included prominent vaccine critics. And Cassidy was left to sputter on social media that the new group's first meeting 'should be delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation — as required by law — including those with more direct relevant expertise.' I'm not sure whether to be heartened that Cassidy and Tillis have snapped to (at least somewhat) or heartsick that they suffocated their better judgment in the first place. I do know that the regrets — and the ranks of the regretful — will only grow from here. For the Love of Sentences In The Autopian, Matt Hardigree explained one carmaker's advantage: 'You don't buy a Subaru so much as you ascend into your final form as an outdoorsy Subaru owner when a ray of light beams down from the nearest REI, and all your clothes vanish from your body and are replaced by Patagonia.' (Thanks to Carol Goland of Granville, Ohio, for spotting this.) In The Wall Street Journal, Rich Cohen remembered his excitement, as a boy, when the ice cream bonanza of Mister Softee jingled into his life: 'The truck was a revelation, great in the way of the bookmobile but without the pain of learning. What thrilled me was the idea that this sweet thing could turn up like a messiah amid the blast furnace of summer, that you could join a crowd of kids giving it chase, that it could redeem an otherwise aimless day.' (Henry Pinkney, Farmington Hills, Mich.) In The London Review of Books, Patricia Lockwood qualified her feelings about Sylvia Plath's husband, the poet Ted Hughes, after reading some of Plath's reflections: 'It is not that I have no sympathy for Hughes. I have immense sympathy for him when Plath describes her shrimp casseroles.' (William Wood, Edmonton, Alberta) In The Dallas Morning News, Robert Wilonsky reported on the tensions when a developer met with residents of the northwest Dallas area where he wants to put up scores of new townhouses: 'It took, like, three minutes for the town hall to devolve into shouts, accusations, murmurs, boos. Three minutes for friends and neighbors to start speaking in fluent Internet Comment.' (Dorit Suffness, Dallas) In The Athletic, Jayson Stark identified the special purpose of the Philadelphia Phillies player Kyle Schwarber as 'whomping baseballs' that always threaten 'to land either in somebody's cheesesteak or in a crater on the moon — whichever gets in the way first.' (Leslie Ferreira, Studio City, Calif.) In The Dispatch, Jonah Goldberg fretted the automotive implications of an A.I. chatbot's recent Nazi-friendly meltdown (and made clever reference to an old Stephen King novel and, separately, a classic Disney movie): 'Elon Musk announced this week that all Teslas will be equipped with the new version of Grok. I don't think this means Teslas will start targeting Jews in intersections, like a souped-up Christine or Goebbels-Mode Herbie the Hate Bug, to deal with the 'problem' it sees 'every damn time.' But I do think Grok encouraged a lot of people who think that way. And some of those people drive.' (Michael Smith, Georgetown, Ky.) In The New Yorker, Hanif Abdurraqib explored the scrutiny of Zohran Mamdani: 'I tend to find Islamophobia unspectacular. That doesn't mean I don't also find it insidious and of serious consequence. I simply imagine it, like other prejudices, as a kind of ever-present static in the American psyche, tuned lower at times and then growing cacophonous with even a light touch of the volume dial.' (Hollis Rose Birnbaum, Chicago) In The Times, John McWhorter questioned evolutions of language that are driven by political correctness: 'Again and again we create new terms hoping to get past negative associations with the old ones, such as 'homeless' for 'bum.' But after a while the negative associations settle like a cloud of gnats on the new terms as well, and then it's time to find a further euphemism. With no hesitation I predict that 'unhoused person' will need replacement in about 2030.' (Wim Kimmerer, Berkeley, Calif., and Lisa O'Melia, Norwalk, Conn., among many others) Also in The Times, David Litt described the cultural and partisan divide between him and his brother-in-law: 'It was immediately clear we had nothing in common. He lifted weights to death metal; I jogged to Sondheim.' Litt recommended communication, not contempt, in the face of such differences. 'In an age when banishment backfires, keeping the door open to unlikely friendship isn't a betrayal of principles — it's an affirmation of them,' he wrote. (Kate Rosenbaum, Richmond, Va.) Alissa Wilkinson remarked that the ranting of an old man in the new movie 'Eddington' makes sense when the date is stamped onscreen — and situates him in the middle of pandemic lockdowns: 'By late May 2020, even the most unflappable among us felt one raisin short of a fruitcake.' (Phillip Schulz, Brooklyn, N.Y.) Lisa Lerer recognized the 'long and storied history of over-interpreting New York elections as barometers of the national mood.' The Democratic Party, she added, 'should spend more time thinking about the Upper Peninsula of Michigan than the Upper West Side.' (Carol Henton, San Mateo, Calif.) Finally, in The Santa Barbara Independent, Nick Welsh distilled his objection to Trump's megabill: 'It shreds the safety net for the poor in order to give added bounce to the trampolines of the wealthy.' (Tom Hinshaw, Santa Barbara, Calif.) To nominate favorite bits of recent writing from The Times or other publications to be mentioned in 'For the Love of Sentences,' please email me here and include your name and place of residence. On a Personal (By Which I Mean Regan) Note The rain is coming down with the kind of ferocity that set Noah in motion. The thunder is twice as loud. And I'm driving. Not because I'm going anywhere. Because I have a companion whose quirks, most of them delightful, include sheer terror during summer storms. Our Honda is her haven. There's no discussing meteorology with a dog, no assuring her that she's safe at home in her bed and the world isn't ending. Regan knows an apocalypse when she hears one — and she has great ears. Whenever the skies open and lightning strikes, she paces furiously. Whines at me, incessantly. Nudges me, over and over. It's painful to behold. It's impossible to ignore. Forget writing. Forget reading. She won't allow it. Her panic can last anywhere from 20 minutes to four hours, depending on the storm and on whether I've given her the sedatives that the vet prescribed. But those doggy downers work only some of the time, and I don't want to administer too many too often. I've tried squeezing her into one of those thunder shirts, to no avail. I've tried loud, clangorous music to drown out the cacophony of the weather. Doesn't work. Then, about two and a half weeks ago, when we were getting serious thunder and significant rain in my area of North Carolina on a daily or near-daily basis, I had a thought. The car! It's cavelike, so Regan might feel protected. The vibration of its movement, coupled with the hum of its engine, might somehow distract or console her. I suppose I had some buried memory of friends telling me that they'd pacified howling infants with such vehicular therapy, though I wasn't conscious at the time of the parallel. I put Regan in the back seat. I drove into the downpour. Within a minute, she was miraculously still. Magically silent. So I've repeated the trick, including last Monday evening, which I described at the start of this confession. I forgot to mention that during that Regan-shushing drive and a few before it, I listened to the audio version of the recent best seller 'This Dog Will Change Your Life,' by Elias Weiss Friedman. Seemed fitting. I'm not sure if my automotive accommodation of Regan makes me a chump or a champ, but I lack other ideas, and I can't see exiling her to some distant room in the house and thus exacerbating her grief just so I'm spared it. I've found a way, albeit somewhat kooky and cumbersome, to relieve a beloved's distress. Shouldn't I use it? I deny Regan and am stern with her in plenty of other circumstances. She doesn't need that when the heavens rage. Thank you for being a subscriber Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. Have feedback? Send me a note at bruni-newsletter@
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans keep voting for bills they say they don't like
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after he cast a decisive vote to pass a sweeping domestic policy bill that cuts Medicaid by about $1 trillion, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill to repeal some of those cuts. 'Now is the time to prevent any future cuts to Medicaid from going into effect,' Hawley said in a statement. It sparked mockery from the normally mild-mannered Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who posted on X: 'Just so I'm clear… he's introducing a bill….to repeal the bill… he voted for….two weeks ago?' Hawley said he feared the party's megabill would cause long-term harm if the Medicaid cuts are fully implemented, but still voted for it because it will deliver more hospital money for Missouri in the first four years. 'You can't get everything you want in one piece of legislation. I like a lot of what we did. I don't like some of it,' he told reporters after unveiling his own measure on Tuesday. The move represents a trend in Congress during President Donald Trump's second term. Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum keep casting votes in favor of bills even while warning that they're deeply flawed and may require fixing down the road. In some cases, lawmakers explicitly threaten to vote 'no' on bills before eventually folding and voting 'yes.' It isn't unusual for lawmakers to back legislation they call imperfect. But this year, that contrast has become more stark. It comes as Trump has solidified his grasp over the GOP base, resulting in lawmakers growing increasingly leery of crossing him and risking their political futures. Nowhere has that dynamic been more pronounced than with the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have repeatedly threatened to oppose bills before acquiescing under pressure from Trump. With Trump's megabill, they complained about red ink: It's expected to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 'What the Senate did is unconscionable,' Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said in a Rules Committee meeting, vowing that 'I'll vote against it here and I'll vote against it on the floor.' He ultimately voted for that bill, unamended, after conservatives were told Congress would consider future bills to lower the debt. In the House, a faction of swing-district Republicans voted for clean energy cuts in the "big, beautiful bill" while voicing their hope that the Senate would undo them. That didn't happen, and nearly all of them voted for the legislation regardless. Across the Capitol, after Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, cast another key vote to approve the megabill, she said she 'struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country, when you look to Medicaid and SNAP,' and called on the House to make changes. They didn't. The House passed it as written and sent it to Trump to become law. "Do I like this bill? No. But I tried to take care of Alaska's interests,' Murkowski told NBC News after the Senate vote earlier this month. 'But I know, I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don't like that,' she added. In another case, Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., who represents a battleground district with a high share of Medicaid recipients, threatened to vote against the entire Senate bill if it maintained the steeper cuts to the program. 'I will not support a final bill that eliminates vital funding streams our hospitals rely on, including provider taxes and state directed payments,' he said in a statement, urging the Senate to 'stick to the Medicaid provisions' in the earlier House version of the bill; 'otherwise, I will vote no.' Valadao's request was ignored. Five days later he voted for the Senate bill when it returned to the House, securing final passage. (His office didn't respond to queries about the contradiction.) In the end, just three Republicans who expressed concerns about Medicaid voted against the bill: Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who had just announced he wouldn't seek re-election, as well as Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick R-Pa., who are set to face tough races in next years midterms. And Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who consistently voted against the megabill throughout the process over deficit concerns, is now facing the threat of a Trump-backed primary challenge. A similar trend occurred on the $9 billion package of spending cuts to NPR, PBS and foreign aid that passed Congress this week and was sent to Trump's desk. In the run-up to the votes, multiple Republicans expressed serious concerns with the substance of the bill, its deference to the executive branch and the damage it could do to bipartisan dealmaking on government funding if one side can undo the parts it doesn't like on a party-line basis. 'I suspect we're going to find out there are some things that we're going to regret. Some second and third order effects. And I suspect that when we do we'll have to come back and fix it,' said Tillis, before voting in favor of the bill. Tillis told NBC News that he was 'trying to have a positive view about how this rescission is going to be implemented' and that if he's unsatisfied it will change his attitude to future rescission bills. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chair of the Armed Services Committee, said he was troubled that Congress wasn't detailing which programs were cut and deferring to the White House. 'It concerns me — as perhaps approaching a disregard for the constitutional responsibilities of the legislative branch under Article I,' said Wicker, who voted for the bill. 'And in this situation it will amount to the House and Senate basically saying: We concede that decision voluntarily to the executive branch.' This article was originally published on
