List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

The fallout from a global hacking incident tied to Russian cybercriminals widened on Thursday as US insurance provider Genworth Financial revealed that 2.5 million of its policyholders and customers had their data accessed in the hack, while California's public pension fund said 769,000 of its members were affected.

President Joe Biden huddled in the Oval Office with several of his top advisers in early April as an aide typed prompts into ChatGPT: Summarize the Supreme Court's New Jersey v. Delaware ruling and turn it into a Bruce Springsteen song.

A group of Florida students and the authors of an award-winning children’s picture book about the true story of a penguin family with two fathers have argued that a Florida school district unconstitutionally restricted access to the book under what opponents have called the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. A lawsuit filed in federal court on 20 June argues that the Lake County school district’s decision to pull And Tango Makes Three “cited no legitimate pedagogical reason for its decision” and was restricted only for “illegitimate, narrowly partisan and political reasons.” Last year, Lake County officials announced that the title was “administratively removed due to content regarding sexual orientation/gender identification” prohibited under the “Parental Rights in Education Act,” what critics have called the “Don’t Say Gay” law. That measure, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis last year, broadly prohibits “classroom instruction” on issues related to “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade” or “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” in other grades. Mr DeSantis signed a measure this year that explicitly expands the law to cover all school grades. Opponents have warned its broad scope could effectively block discussion of LGBT+ people, history and events from state schools, and be weaponised against students, staff and their families under threat from potential lawsuits against school districts over perceived violations. The lawsuit from the book’s authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and the families of several young students argues that such restrictions violate First Amendment protections, including the authors’ right to freedom of expression and students’ rights to receive information. And Tango Makes Three “tells a true and heartwarming story, and it teaches students about animal behavior, adoption, diversity among family structures, and responsible family values,” the lawsuit states. “The authors wrote Tango to spread a message of tolerance and equal treatment. They have a sincere and strongly held desire to ensure that Tango is available to children learning about animal behavior, adoption, and family structures, whether similar to or different from their own – and the student plaintiffs wish to read Tango to learn about those very subjects,” the plaintiffs wrote. The book was listed among free expression group PEN America’s most-banned picture books of the last school year. Last year, a record high of more than 1,200 attempts to remove books from schools and libraries were reported to the American Library Association. There were at least 1,477 attempts to ban 874 individual book titles within the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, according to PEN America. The figures mark a nearly 30 per cent spike from book challenges over the previous year. Book ban attempts have largely targeted books by and about LGBT+ people, titles written by or involving people of colour, or materials featuring honest discussions of race and racism, according to PEN America. Mr DeSantis and his administration have repeatedly rejected characterising such restrictions as “book bans” and have accused media outlets of manufacturing a “hoax” and a “fake narrative” surrounding them. The state has been at the centre of book challenges and legal battles over school and library materials as the DeSantis administration implements a sweeping agenda targeting public education and lessons and speech he deems objectionable. PEN American and Penguin Random House, one of the largest book publishers in the world, and several prominent authors and families have also sued a separate school district and school board in Florida’s Escambia County. A lawsuit filed in US District Court last month argues that school officials have pursued an “ideologically driven campaign to push certain ideas out of schools” against the recommendation of experts. “This disregard for professional guidance underscores that the agendas underlying the removals are ideological and political, not pedagogical,” the lawsuit states. The Independent has requested comment from the state’s Department of Education. Read More A zoo, Black History event and university funding: Ron DeSantis under fire after vetoing local funding because lawmakers didn’t endorse him DeSantis wants to model America after Florida. Civil rights groups are sounding the alarm on his ‘hostile’ agenda The school librarian in the middle of Louisiana’s war on libraries ‘They were trying to erase us’: Inside a Texas town’s chilling effort to ban LGBT+ books Biden condemns ‘hysterical’ threats to LGBT+ Americans as White House pushes back on book bans Florida mom who tried to ban Amanda Gorman’s book has ties to far-right groups

Millions of people in Louisiana and Oregon have had their data compromised in the sprawling cyberattack that has also hit the US federal government, state agencies said late Thursday.

As the Supreme Court races to issue all outstanding opinions by a self-imposed early July deadline, there is little doubt that the conservative majority is prepared to continue the right-ward trajectory on areas of the law.

"Several" US federal government agencies have been hit in a global cyberattack that exploits a vulnerability in widely used software.

Georgia election officials have been aware of existing vulnerabilities in the state's voting software for more than two years but continue to insist the system is safe and won't be updated until after 2024, according to a report that was unsealed this week as part of a controversial court case in Georgia.

Millions of borrowers may learn soon whether they could receive up to $20,000 in debt relief under President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program. The fate of the debt cancellation program lies with the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in late June or early July.

The vast amount of personal data for sale online is an "increasingly powerful" tool for intelligence gathering by US and foreign spying agencies but also represents a privacy risk to ordinary people, according to a newly declassified US intelligence report.

A hospital in Illinois will close on Friday due in part to a cyberattack -- a rare case of a health care provider publicly linking a hack incident to its closure.

Gov Ron DeSantis’ campaign has been accused of using fake, AI-generated images of former President Donald Trump hugging ex-White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci in an attack ad. Mr DeSantis and Mr Trump have been trading barbs for weeks about their respective Covid responses, with Mr Trump’s campaign and surrogates arguing that Mr DeSantis’ initial lockdown measures in Florida were too harsh and Mr DeSantis’ campaign arguing that Mr Trump was too acquiescent to medical professionals like Dr Fauci in crafting his administration’s response. Now, in the ad shared by the the “DeSantis War Room” Twitter account, the Florida governor’s campaign is accused of crossing an ethical line. The adveritsement begins with clips of Mr Trump firing people on his reality television show before pivoting to clips of Mr Trump telling reporters that he would not or could not fire Dr Fauci, who was seen as the symbol of a public health response to the crisis some Republicans disagreed with. Towards the end of the ad, the screen shows a split with six images of Mr Trump and Dr Fauci — three of which experts believe were generated by artificial intelligence. AFP first reported the presence of the allegedly fake images. The three images experts believe are fake are located in the top left, bottom centre, and bottom right of the screen. All of them feature Mr Trump and Dr Fauci embracing and cannot be found elsewhere on the internet, a sign that they may be AI-generated. There are other signs as well. The Verge noted that the potentially AI-generated images are glossier and have more blurred textures than the other images and show Mr Trump and Dr Fauci in physically improbable poses. The reproduction of the White House press briefing room in one of the images also looks unrealistic. Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, told the AFP he believed it is “highly likely” that the images are fake. The Independent has reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment. So far, the DeSantis campaign is not exactly denying those allegations. After The Verge’s story was published, DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw tweeted an image Mr Trump had put out of Mr DeSantis on a rhinoceros and wrote “I think this might be an AI-generated image. Who knows?” Mr Trump has indeed used AI several times in recent months, including posting a deep fake mocking Mr DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch. “No campaign has pushed more misleading deepfakes, false photoshops, and outright fabrications than the Trump campaign,” Matt Wolking, a spokesperson for the DeSantis-aligned Never Back Down PAC, told The Verge. “It is 100% true that Donald Trump empowered and embraced Fauci — he even gave him a presidential commendation.” Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement DeSantis news – latest: Florida governor most popular with rich Republicans as he defends move to fly migrants to California Mike Pence news - live: Ex-VP contradicts himself on Trump charges at CNN town hall launching 2024 campaign Trump news – live: Grand jury indictment looms as Trump protests innocence over classified documents

The Biden administration on Monday announced a goal to produce 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen fuel by 2050 -- an ambitious roadmap that, if successful, would cut around 10% of the country's planet-warming pollution by the same date.