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Trump signs executive order to block state AI regulations
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at blocking states from crafting their own regulations for artificial intelligence, saying the burgeoning industry is at risk of being stifled by a patchwork of onerous rules while in a battle with Chinese competitors for supremacy. Members of Congress from both parties, as well as civil…
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Reddit challenges Australia’s world-first law banning children under 16 from social media
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Global online forum Reddit on Friday filed a court challenge to Australia’s world-first law that bans Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on the world’s most popular social media platforms. California-based Reddit Inc.’s suit filed in the High Court follows a case filed last month by Sydney-based rights group…
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Ottawa hands corporate leaders 50 roles in government
Ottawa plans to embed 50 corporate leaders in key government roles after adopting a business group’s proposal — even naming the program after them, a briefing note reveals. Build Canada, funded by major Canadian tech and industry players, proposed changes to a federal program that would quickly embed 50 business executives in the federal public…
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Seattle officers who attended Jan. 6 rally ask US Supreme Court to keep their identities anonymous
SEATTLE (AP) — Current and former Seattle police officers who attended President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” political rally on Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol are asking the nation’s highest court to keep their identities anonymous in public court records. Using “John Doe” pseudonyms, they sued over whether the investigation into their activities…
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Dutch leader of party in fragile ruling coalition quits politics, citing burnout
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch centre-right leader Pieter Omtzigt announced Friday evening he is quitting both the fragile four-party ruling coalition and national politics. Citing his mental health, the 51-year-old said in a social media video that he is unable to recover from burnout in the current political climate. “It was a huge honor…
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IRS whistleblower on Hunter Biden is out as acting commissioner just days after getting the job
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just days after being promoted to acting IRS commissioner, the whistleblower who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Biden’s taxes is out of the job, according to three people familiar with the decision. Gary Shapley, who previously testified to Congress as Republicans reviewed the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son, will be…
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Trump moves to invoke Schedule F to make it easier to fire some federal workers
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has begun making one of the controversial personnel changes for government employees that was spelled out in the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for his second term. He’s starting the process of reclassifying 50,000 federal employees under what’s known as Schedule F, which can make civil servants into political appointees…
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Judges warn Congress that more money is needed for security at a time of escalating threats
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judiciary is warning that Congress is not providing enough money for judges’ security, at a time of escalating threats and chilling efforts at intimidation. More than five dozen judges handling lawsuits against the Trump administration are receiving “enhanced online security screening” that typically includes scrubbing their personal information from the…
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10,000 pages of records about Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination are released, on Trump’s order
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 10,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were released Friday, including handwritten notes by the gunman, who said the Democratic presidential candidate “must be disposed of” and acknowledged an obsession with killing him. Many of the files had been made public previously, while others…
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Judge dismisses lawsuit against Mormon church over how it uses donations
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit alleging that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arm misused hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations by investing it instead of using it for charitable purposes. U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby said a three-year statute of limitations on fraud claims in Utah passed before…
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Why Elon Musk installed his top lieutenants at a federal agency you probably haven’t heard of
WASHINGTON (AP) — On the rooftop patio of the General Services Administration headquarters, an agency staffer recently discovered something strange: a rectangular device attached to a wire that snaked across the roof, over the ledge and into the administrator’s window one floor below. It didn’t take long for the employee — an IT specialist —…