“Transit and environmental advocacy groups in New York filed lawsuits Thursday challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to block a plan to reduce traffic and raise billions for the city’s ailing subway system through a new toll on Manhattan drivers. The groups argue in two separate state Supreme Court suits that the Democrat violated the state’s laws and constitution when she indefinitely paused the fee, citing economic concerns. The program, which was set to begin June 30, would have imposed on drivers entering the core of Manhattan a toll of about $15, depending on vehicle type. The fee was projected to generate some $1 billion annually for transit improvements. The Riders Alliance, the Sierra Club and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, in their lawsuit, said Hochul’s decision violated the part of the state constitution that guarantees New Yorkers the right to ‘clean air and water, and a healthful environment.'” (07/25/24)
“Researchers at Google DeepMind have trained a new type of AI system capable of solving complex math problems from this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad, reaching a score equivalent to a silver medalist for the first time, the company said on Thursday. The IMO is the world’s hardest math competition for high school students. Teams of six of the brightest young mathematicians around the world are given six problems, which they each have to try and crack over two days. They can earn a maximum of 7 points for each problem, with a perfect score totaling 42 points. The USA Math team won first place this year with five out of six teenagers bagging at least 29 points, the minimum required to win a gold medal. Google DeepMind’s latest system, dubbed AlphaProof, wasn’t too far behind.” (07/25/24)
“A man who severely injured author Salman Rushdie in a frenzied knife attack in western New York was motivated by a Hezbollah leader’s endorsement of a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing new terrorism charges. The three-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo offered for the first time a potential motive for the 2022 attack on ‘The Satanic Verses’ author. Hadi Matar, a U.S. citizen from New Jersey, was attempting to carry out a fatwa, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kruly said. According to the prosecutor, Matar believed the call for Rushdie’s death, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah.” (07/25/24)
“The gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump appears to have used the controversial alt-right favored social media platform Gab to spread messages ‘in support of President Biden,’ according to the platform’s founder. Gab CEO Andrew Torba said he learned Wednesday that Thomas Matthew Crooks ‘may have had an account on our platform’ after getting ‘an emergency disclosure request from a law enforcement agency.’ The account @epicmicrowave — which the CEO stressed he has been ‘unable to confirm’ was definitely Crooks’[s] — ‘posted on the site nine (9) times total,’ Torba tweeted just 30 minutes after getting the law enforcement request. ‘While the account made very few posts on the site, the majority of them were in support of President Biden,’ said the CEO of the platform launched in 2016 as a completely free-speech alternative to Twitter.” (07/25/24)
“A 10-year-old boy died Wednesday in a drone attack targeting soldiers in Colombia, the first death of its kind in the country that has struggled to rein in guerrilla violence. The defense ministry’s press office said it was the first drone death in Colombia and blamed the attack on a group of dissident guerrillas who broke away from the FARC armed group when it signed a peace deal with the government years ago. ‘Young Dylan, age 10, was killed following the launching of grenades by drones targeting’ soldiers in the restive southwest department of Cauca, the regional military commander, General Federico Mejia, said in a video on social media. The grenade fell on a soccer field in the town of El Plateado, a stronghold of the Central General Staff (EMC) rebel group which broke away from FARC. The explosion also left six wounded, according to the army.” (07/25/24)
“Hungary borrowed €1 billion — the largest loan ever taken out by Budapest — from three Chinese banks this spring, data from the government’s debt agency website revealed. The loan, provided by the China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Hungarian branch of the Bank of China, was fully drawn on April 19 and must be repaid within three years. Budapest itself did not announce the agreement. It was first reported on Thursday by Hungarian business publication Portfolio, then confirmed by the government agency. The sizable borrowing comes as Budapest is deepening its ties with Beijing. Chinese companies, such as the electric car maker BYD or the technology giant Huawei, have so far invested a total of some €16 billion in the country, according to Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjarto.” (07/25/24)
“Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Thursday introduced legislation that would tighten the rules on private equity firms in the healthcare industry. The Health Over Wealth Act would increase the powers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to monitor and block private equity deals in the healthcare industry. It would require private equity firms buying healthcare providers to set up escrow accounts large enough to fund five years of operations, and would require more transparency on debt, executive pay, and other financial data, while prohibiting the ‘stripping’ of assets. ‘Private equity firms and greedy corporate executives are using the healthcare system as a piggybank,’ Markey (D-MA), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, said in a statement.” (07/25/24)
“The Federal Communications Commission has advanced a proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads, though it is unclear whether new regulations may be in place before the November presidential election. The proposed rules announced Thursday could add a layer of transparency in political campaigning that some tech watchdogs have called for to help inform voters about lifelike and misleading AI-generated media in ads. ‘There’s too much potential for AI to manipulate voices and images in political advertising to do nothing,’ the agency’s chairwoman, Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, said Thursday in a news release. ‘If a candidate or issue campaign used AI to create an ad, the public has a right to know.’ But the FCC’s action is part of a federal turf war over the regulation of AI in politics.” (07/25/24)
“Wildfire reached the Canadian alpine resort town of Jasper on Wednesday evening, where thousands have fled their homes after an evacuation order earlier this week. Firefighters are ‘working to save as many structures as possible and to protect critical infrastructure,’ Jasper National Park said in a post on social media, as more than 170 wildfires burn across the western province. … As of Wednesday afternoon, 59 of the fires were classified as ‘out of control’ and more than 17,500 people were estimated to be under evacuation orders, according to the Alberta government. This summer’s outbreak of blazes comes after an unprecedented wildfire season in Canada last year, during which more than 45 million acres burned and smoke affected air quality in the country as well as large swaths of the United States.” (07/25/24)
“The FBI and area law enforcement carried out a massive bust early Wednesday, arresting 50 Houston-area residents as the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced a series of wire fraud indictments stemming from an alleged fraudulent bail bond scheme. The arrests came after a first-of-its-kind investigation that had been in the works for at least two years, according to a news release. Staff involved with the investigation said AABLE Bonds falsified financial documents to secure temporary release for individuals who would not have otherwise met the requirements. … Authorities said AABLE Bonds recruited individuals who co-signed bond agreements and falsely stated they were employed or had incomes that met the threshold necessary to serve as a co-signer. According to the news release, these fraudulent documents resulted in at least 11 individuals receiving bonds they were not qualified for.” (07/24/24)
