November 2nd, 2023 • 3h 1m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
AI EO
The politics of Biden’s vast new AI order - POLITICO
While the Biden administration clearly considered all factions when crafting the order, officials said they were driven to act in part by the politics of an earlier tech issue: social media. After many missed opportunities to regulate top tech platforms like Facebook or YouTube, the White House cast its work on AI as an opportunity to shape the direction of the world’s next major technological leap while it’s still in its infancy.
“If we had this many conversations on social media platforms and social media policy before social media was a big thing, we’d be a lot better off,” said one person involved in the administration’s conversations, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
MOST READ
At the core of the effort, officials said, were principles that they hope will connect back to Biden’s broader reelection message: the need to preserve trust in democracy and protect people’s individual rights.
Digital Patriot Act
The Bletchley Declaration by Countries Attending the AI Safety Summit, 1-2 November 2023 - GOV.UK
We affirm that, whilst safety must be considered across the AI lifecycle, actors developing frontier AI capabilities, in particular those AI systems which are unusually powerful and potentially harmful, have a particularly strong responsibility for ensuring the safety of these AI systems, including through systems for safety testing, through evaluations, and by other appropriate measures. We encourage all relevant actors to provide context-appropriate transparency and accountability on their plans to measure, monitor and mitigate potentially harmful capabilities and the associated effects that may emerge, in particular to prevent misuse and issues of control, and the amplification of other risks.
In the context of our cooperation, and to inform action at the national and international levels, our agenda for addressing frontier AI risk will focus on:
identifying AI safety risks of shared concern, building a shared scientific and evidence-based understanding of these risks, and sustaining that understanding as capabilities continue to increase, in the context of a wider global approach to understanding the impact of AI in our societies.
building respective risk-based policies across our countries to ensure safety in light of such risks, collaborating as appropriate while recognising our approaches may differ based on national circumstances and applicable legal frameworks. This includes, alongside increased transparency by private actors developing frontier AI capabilities, appropriate evaluation metrics, tools for safety testing, and developing relevant public sector capability and scientific research.
Definition of Artificial Intelligence & AI Model & AI System
The term “artificial intelligence” or “AI” has the meaning set forth in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3): a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. Artificial intelligence systems use machine- and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments; abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner; and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.
GPT Analysis
The definition provided is quite broad, as it encompasses a wide range of technologies that can be classified under the umbrella term “artificial intelligence.” However, this breadth also makes sense given its legal context. The statute cited in the question (15 U.S.C 9401(3)) defines artificial intelligence as any machine-based system capable of making predictions or decisions that influence real and virtual environments based on human input data. This definition is quite broad, but it also captures a wide range of technologies under its umbrella term “artificial intelligence.” For example, natural language processing (NLP) systems use AI techniques to analyze textual inputs from humans in order to make predictions or decisions about the content being analyzed. Similarly, machine learning algorithms can be used for predictive modeling and decision-making tasks that involve data analysis of real world events such as weather patterns or stock market trends. Overall, while this definition is quite broad it also captures a wide range of technologies under its umbrella term “artificial intelligence.”
The term “AI model” means a component of an information system that implements AI technology and uses computational, statistical, or machine-learning techniques to produce outputs from a given set of inputs.
GPT Analysis
While the definition provided seems quite specific in its focus on “information systems” using artificial intelligence technologies for producing output based on input data through computationally intensive methods such as statistics or machine learning algorithms; it is still broad enough that could encompass many different types and applications of AI technology. For example, an image recognition system might be considered a type of information system with its own unique set of inputs (images) which are processed using statistical techniques to produce outputs in the form of classifications or predictions about what objects appear within each input frame; while another application such as natural language processing could also fall under this definition if it uses machine learning algorithms on textual data from human users for producing output responses based upon their queries. Overall, though specific and focused enough that its scope is limited to certain types of information systems using AI technologies in a particular way; the term “AI model” remains broad enough encompass many different applications within this field due largely because it does not specify any one type or methodology for producing outputs from inputs through computational means.
The term “AI system” means any data system, software, hardware, application, tool, or utility that operates in whole or in part using AI.
GPT Analysis
While this definition seems quite specific as far as its focus on “data systems” and the use of artificial intelligence technology to produce outputs from inputs; it is still broad enough encompass many different types and applications within this field due largely because it does not specify any one type or methodology for producing output responses based upon input data through computational means. For example, an image recognition system might be considered a specific AI application with its own unique set of algorithms that process visual information from human users; while another such as natural language processing could also fall under this definition if it uses machine learning techniques on textual data for producing output responses based upon their queries or other input parameters. Overall, though focused and limited in scope to certain types of AI applications using specific methods within the field; “AI system” remains broad enough encompass many different technologies due largely because its definition does not specify any one type or methodology used for producing output responses based upon inputs through computational means.
Big Tech
Ministry of Truthiness
ARC
Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) - DeSmog
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) was launched by Jordan Peterson1 in 2023 and includes “public intellectuals” Arthur Brooks, Niall Ferguson, and Bjorn Lomborg among the 30 individuals on its initial organizing committee.2 ARC’s CEO and co-founder Baroness Philippa Stroud is the former CEO of the pro-Brexit3 Legatum Institute.4
ARC has a number of ties to the Legatum Institute. In addition to ARC CEO Philippa Stroud’s prior role at Legatum, the Legatum Group’s current CEO, Mark Alan Stoleson, is also listed in Companies House documents as a person with significant control in ARC.14
The Financial Times described The Legatum Institute as the “intellectual heart” of a “‘hard’ Brexit.”15 The Legatum Institute reportedly receives a significant portion of its funding — £3.9m according to a 2017 article — from the Legatum Foundation Limited.
ARC is also connected to the right-wing British broadcaster GB News through the Legatum Group. The Legatum Group part-owns GB News’ parent company, AllPerspectives Ltd, and three of the directors of which, Paul Marshall, Alan McCormick and Mark Stoleson, are persons of significant control of ARC.45
In August 2022, AllPerspectives Ltd secured a £60 million capital injection from Legatum Ventures Limited and Sir Paul Marshall46who bought out Discovery Inc’s commitment.47 Legatum, Paul Marshall, and Discovery Inc. previously invested millions, Reuters reported in 2021.48
Legatum Institute - DeSmog
Stance on Climate Change
December 9, 2015
An article posted on Legatum Institute’s website entitled “Fighting Climate Change with Freedom“ states that:11
“Population growth—not capitalism—is the biggest cause of climate change, and the best way to save the planet is to give women more control over their own fertility.”
Ukraine vs Russia
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight | TIME
The typical salary in the President’s office, they said, comes to about $1,000 per month, or around $1,500 for more senior officials, far less than they could make in the private sector. “We sleep in rooms that are 2 by 3 meters,” about the size of a prison cell, says Andriy Yermak, the presidential chief of staff, referring to the bunker that Zelensky and a few of his confidants have called home since the start of the invasion. “We’re not out here living the high life,” he tells me in his office. “All day, every day, we are busy fighting this war.”
Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” he says. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
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But his convictions haven’t changed. Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. “He deludes himself,” one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”
Jews vs Muslims
Driving fear into Jews possibly to fear TRUMP?
Israel Hamas
Netanyahu may not last, Biden and aides increasingly believe
Does Israel Really Have 'Sponge Bombs' For Sealing Tunnels?
When I was a young Army Officer, I learned from an infantry unit why the use of smoke grenades in tunnel are hazardous the the health of tunnel occupants. As smoke expands, it pushes oxygen out of the tunnels asphyxiating its occupants. Soldiers died in training doing this.
I bring this up to highlight that poison gas isn’t necessary in combating people in tunnels. One has only to remove oxygen to do that.
Also: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/does-israel-really-have-sponge-bombs-for-sealing-tunnels
I’ve been seeing a lot about “sponge bombs” on social media. This article highlights some plausible tech in this arena.
Climate Change
Maine Shooter
High Powered Hearing Aids BOTG
I'm glad you grabbed onto the high power hearing aids. It cought my attention too. I'm a engineering manager at a hearing aid manufacturer, Starkey. I just want to provide a few points of clarification. High powered aids are in fact a category. They output greater than 130db in gain. Over the counter can only output up to a max of 104 DB gain. I've dug through the m5m and can't find more info on what they were.
It's not for veterans only, just very severe hearing loss. I apologize I misspoke its 120DB not 130. These are Power BTE devices for very profound hearing loss. The oversized receiver (speaker) is in the housing of the device and not in the ear itself
Bobby the Op
Transmaoism
Ronda Santis
3 Expert Shoemakers Say Ron DeSantis Is Probably Wearing Height Boosters
Migrant Replacement
Paul Pelosi
(De Pape's ex-wife is working to prove his innocence)
STORIES
'Excess mortality' continuing surge causes concerns - Insurance News | InsuranceNewsNet
Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:27
Despite some signs that excess mortality rates are declining, life insurance executives and actuaries believe the numbers are alarming and could continue to drag earnings and surge death claims for years to come.
Excess mortality is the difference between the total number of deaths for a specific time period and the number that would have been expected. The numbers were naturally forecasted to climb during the pandemic, but some industry and health authorities are concerned the rates haven't greatly diminished as COVID infection rates have declined.
Life insurers paid record levels of claims in 2021 as the pandemic drove mortality higher and the issue was widely cited in earnings reports as the drag on profits. In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, the industry distributed a record $100.28 billion in total death benefits, according to BestLink. The higher-than-normal payouts began in 2020, the first year of the pandemic when insurers saw death benefits rise 15.4% , the biggest one-year increase since the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. The 2021 increase was 10.8%, but fell during the first nine months of 2022, from $74.27 billion in the same period in 2021. But that's still higher than the $59.18 billion paid out during the same period in 2019 before the pandemic hit, according to BestLink.
No standard for measuring excess mortality''There's no standard way to measure excess mortality,'' said Josh Stirling, founder of the Insurance Collaboration to Save Lives, a non-profit organization that seeks mitigate mortality losses by providing life insurers with tests to screen policyholders for health problems. ''But if you use the data that seems most reliable it looks like, generally, we're at 13.9 deaths per 100,000, which is up perhaps 7% from where it should have been. Is that catastrophic? Maybe not, but it should be lower.''
The Society of Actuaries polls of its members found that in August of last year 85% thought excess morality rates would continue to 2025. Two months ago, the same poll found that 79% believed excess mortality rates will continue through 2026.
The issue is clouded because figures vary widely depending on how the data is cut and adjusted for the time period, age, specific pathologies, and many other factors. Some executives think the current numbers are temporary or seasonal and don't require the industry to react.
''We believe that insured population will continue to see declining excess deaths over the next several years reaching about 0% excess deaths by 2030,'' said Fred Tavan, chief pricing officer at Legal & General America, a Maryland-based insurer and major provider of term life insurance in the U.S. ''This is one of the reasons there haven't seen any significant changes in insurance premiums during COVID or even after. A scan of insurance premiums across the industry from different carriers proves this out.''
Younger adult death rate up 20% in 2023Others aren't so sanguine and point to statistics from the U.S. Center of Disease Control that show mortality rates alarmingly rising for different categories. For example, younger adult mortality rates are up more than 20% in 2023, the CDC said. Cause of death data show increased cardiac mortality in all ages. And even as COVID-related causes declined in 2022, others rose, particularly stroke, diabetes, kidney and liver diseases.
''Consider the ripples of COVID-19 and its varying impacts, leading to higher rates of depression, suicide, and increased substance abuse,'' said Samantha Chow, global leader for Life, Annuity and Benefits Sector at Capgemini, the giant multinational Paris-based consulting company. ''This has set off a domino effect. From a life insurer's standpoint, and those dealing in retirement and long-term care solutions, there's a larger conversation at hand. Can the industry handle a sudden spike in claims? The surge in excess deaths caught carriers off guard, and our aging population is becoming more susceptible to illnesses or passing due to natural causes.''
Chow said there's a real question of whether the insurance industry can sustain the enormous payouts the excess mortality rates will dictate.
''The real concern for life insurers lies in preparing for an unexpected wave of death claims and the impact on their assets under management,'' she said. ''Do they have enough reserves to weather these outflows, given the excess deaths? It's not just about death or health. It is about the industry's ability and readiness to manage this monumental outflow.''
Capgemini just published its World Life Insurance Report that revealed the upcoming largest inter-generational wealth transfer in history that is expected to cause a massive outflow of nearly 40% of life insurers' assets under management (AUM), totaling $7.8 trillion, by 2040.
''When we factor in the rise of payouts on death claims, the magnitude of the situation demands urgent attention by the industry,'' the report said.
Industry response questionedSome observers think the industry has been slow to grasp the burgeoning problem, relying on old industry models that say ''mortality rates always give back, and have for nearly 500 years,'' according to one senior executive.
Stirling believes that expanded, aggressive and proactive health screening of policyholders would save lives and be a significant cost benefit for insurers. Though a startup, Stirling says his organization is poised to announce partnerships with major carriers to institute its mitigation programs. Members of his organization's board include current and former executives from Farmers Group, Progressive, the Fortegra Group, the Indiana Public Retirement System, and the life and health actuary for the state of Georgia's Commissioner of Insurance.
''We are led by insurance people trying to drive risk management around health into the insurance industry to empower and engage global insurers to save lives through bracket screening and intervention,'' he said. ''Screen test and triage is sort of our tagline. We would look a lot like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for life insurers, which was funded by the industry and brought airbags and seatbelt to autos year ago. However, we're also trying to disrupt the industry and create an ecosystem of for-profit companies that will make this happen.''
Doug Bailey is a journalist and freelance writer who lives outside of Boston. He can be reached at [email protected] .
(C) Entire contents copyright 2023 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted without the expressed written consent from InsuranceNewsNet.com.
House Clerk Announces Pelosi Served With Subpoenas In Criminal Case | The Daily Wire
Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:54
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been subpoenaed in a criminal case out of California, a U.S. House officer announced on Wednesday.
In the House chamber, Reading Clerk Tylease Alli read a message to the speaker from Pelosi in compliance with the House rules, which dictate how members should deal with judicial subpoenas and orders that are ''properly'' served.
''This is to notify you formally pursuant to Rule 8 of the Rules of the House of Representatives, that I, the honorable Nancy Pelosi, speaker emerita, and U.S. representative for the 11th Congressional District of California, have been served with third-party subpoenas from the prosecution and the defendant to produce documents in a criminal case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California,'' Alli recited.
BREAKING: The U.S. House Clerk just said that Nancy Pelosi was served a subpoena to produce documents in third-party criminal case in California pic.twitter.com/08CrXDleem
'-- Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 1, 2023
''After consultation with the Office of General Counsel, I have determined that compliance with the subpoenas is consistent with the privileges and rights of the House,'' the message added. ''To the extent it requires production of nonprivileged information, the responses to the subpoenas will be identical.''
A specific case linked to the subpoenas was not given. Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman reported that Pelosi's office declined to comment on ongoing legal matters.
The announcement comes as the federal case against David DePape, the man charged in the San Francisco home invasion attack on Pelosi's husband Paul roughly one year ago, is set to go to trial this month. DePape has pleaded not guilty to the federal as well as state charges which could land him decades in prison if he is convicted.
In August, reports said the Pelosis granted lawyers for DePape access to their home for an inspection of the crime scene and sought a court order on the handling of information gleaned from the review.
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Nancy Pelosi has represented the San Francisco area since 1987 and served two stints as House speaker, with the most recent one ending at the start of this current session of Congress when Republicans took control of the chamber. She opted not to stay in leadership, but did receive the designation of ''speaker emerita.'' At the age of 83, Pelosi announced in September that she would run for re-election in 2024.
EDPB issues binding decision banning Meta's targeted advertising practices
Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:50
An unprecedented shakeup in the advertising technology space has arrived in Europe. Changes are coming to adtech's approach to privacy and consent around personalized advertising after the European Data Protection Board issued an urgent binding decision to ban Meta's data processing for behavioral advertising.
The EDPB decision applies to Meta's Facebook and Instagram users across EU member states and European Economic Area countries. It stems from a request from Norway's data protection authority, Datatilsynet, to make a previously-issued interim ban in Norway permanent and extend its reach and impact to all of Europe. Norway's interim ban was applied in July and set to expire 3 Nov.
"Already in December 2022, the EDPB binding decisions clarified that contract is not a suitable legal basis for the processing of personal data carried out by Meta for behavioural advertising," EDPB Chair Anu Talus said in a statement. "In addition, Meta has been found by the (DPC) to not have demonstrated compliance with the orders imposed at the end of last year. It is high time for Meta to bring its processing into compliance and to stop unlawful processing."
Ireland's Data Protection Commission, Meta's lead supervisory authority in the EU, notified Meta of the EDPB binding decision 31 Oct., according to the EDPB. Datatilsynet Head of International Tobias Judin told the IAPP the two-week period for the DPC to serve the ban began 27 Oct. and Meta will be required to comply within a week of receipt.
Ahead of the EDPB decision being published, Meta announced 30 Oct. it is rolling out a subscription model for ad-free Facebook and Instagram services in the EU to comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and commit "to keeping people's information private and secure." The platform also sued Datatilsynet in the Oslo District Court 25 Oct. to remove the targeted advertising ban.
"The option for people to purchase a subscription for no ads balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice and allowing Meta to continue serving all people in the EU, EEA and Switzerland," Meta said in its subscription announcement. "In its ruling, the (Court of Justice of the European Union) expressly recognised that a subscription model, like the one we are announcing, is a valid form of consent for an ads funded service."
Judin indicated Norway does not recognize Meta's subscription initiative as GDPR compliant or sufficient to lift the ban.
"We have strong concerns regarding Meta's proposed 'consent' mechanism," Judin said. "Meta has been informed about these concerns, but for some reason they still chose to make their public announcement, disregarding critical comments already put forth by regulators."
EDPB Head of Information and Communications Greet Gysen told the IAPP Ireland's DPC "is currently evaluating" Meta's new consent approach and "it is too soon" for the EDPB to judge its compliance. The evaluation will occur "in narrow cooperation with concerned (supervisory authorities)," she said.
The changing advertising landscapeThe fate of Meta's business model was sealed when Ireland's DPC issued its 390 million euro fine in January that included binding orders from the EDPB that mirror the complaint by Norway's DPA. The DPC said at the time that the decision focused on how "Meta Ireland is not entitled to rely on the 'contract' legal basis in connection with the delivery of behavioural advertising."
According to privacy technologist Gilbert Hill, CIPM, all adtech companies in the EU have been on unofficial notice since that January decision considering Meta's place and connections in the space.
"Any player in the 'lumascape' of 5,000 European adtech businesses plugs into Meta and/or another of their digital properties," Hill said. "And under GDPR, responsibility is shared among processors so yes, this does concern the entire ecosystem. It should provide an opportunity for all the stakeholders to look at some of the tools and business models suggested by privacy sandboxes in particular."
Meta's reliance on service agreements for user consent to process data is not a practice exclusive to its services. Social news aggregator Reddit, a platform used worldwide, recently announced it would halt its targeted advertising opt-outs with the intention to "simplify our privacy descriptions" and "offer new controls for the types of ads you prefer not to see." The European Commission also cited Google's targeted advertising practices as problematic and reportedly had plans in July to file an antitrust complaint to address the issues and break up the company's adtech business.
"I hope that the Norwegian DPA's decision will be the start of a meaningful, industry-driven change in the digital advertising market," AWO EU Policy Consultant Nick Botton said. "Our study argues that the decentralised nature and complexity of digital advertising means that the GDPR's enforcement structure is inadequate to deal with compliance problems in the market. I would love to be wrong on this though."
European Publishers Council Executive Director Angela Mills Wade said the latest binding decision "provides for consistency across the EU" while noting the January fine and binding order asked Meta to make necessary changes that it did not respond to. Despite discussions to act and reform practices since January, Meta "must now do so if they want to continue to operate within the law," Wade added.
New practice, same problem?Meta spent the months following the DPC's decision pondering its next move to maintain a compliant ad-based business model, with its efforts being ramped up by Datatilsynet's interim ban. The company reportedly began circulating a plan to offer opt-outs to EU users in March before landing on its ad-free subscription model, which it formally proposed to EU regulators at the start of October.
The compliance of the new subscription model is based on a 4 July decision for the Court of Justice of the European Union in a case raised by the German Federal Cartel Office on the validity of Meta's reliance on user contracts for processing.
"Whether 'pay or okay' is acceptable needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and in this case we think that it is not," Datatilsynet's Judin said. "Considering the power imbalance between Meta and its users, which is the primary concern of the CJEU in the Bundeskartellamt judgment, we doubt that the purported consents will be 'freely given' as required by the GDPR."
Subscription as means for consent and maintaining a business model raises questions regarding a perceived shift to "paying for privacy." Wade said DPAs are devising guidance on the matter and ongoing court cases, adding both are "likely to bring further clarity" to whether subscription-based consent is valid.
Botton opined Meta has other avenues it can explore before another "go around the block" with this matter potentially being raised back to the CJEU.
"Meta is one of the richest companies on earth, and could realistically start relying on contextual advertising more," Botton said. "It's unclear what the revenue impact of this would be, but I doubt that they would go bankrupt, given the competitive advantage they get from their large quantities of users."
Biden calls for a 'pause' in the Israel-Hamas war
Thu, 02 Nov 2023 04:24
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that a "pause" was needed in the Israel-Hamas war.
"I think we need a pause," Biden said in response to a question at a campaign reception in Minnesota. Asked to clarify what a pause meant, he said, "A pause means give time to get the prisoners out. Give time."
The comment came after he was interrupted by a protester calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
More from NBC News:The Gaza crisis is stoking antisemitism in the U.S.Why the Israel-Hamas war has soared into the top issues for Iowa GOP votersSen. John Fetterman faces a left-wing backlash over his stance on Israel. He isn't budging.
Biden last week said that the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza needed to "increase," after Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly stated that "humanitarian pauses must be considered" so that food, water, medicine and other essential humanitarian assistance can flow into Gaza.
NBC News reported at the time that according to a U.S. official, the White House supported a "pause" of indeterminate duration to allow for more aid to reach Gaza and to enable those attempting passage out of the enclave to leave safely.
Negotiations to free 239 hostages, including children and the elderly, have continued since Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack killed about 1,400 people in Israel. After Hamas breached Israel's border wall, other groups from Gaza seized additional captives.
Volodymyr Zelensky's Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight | TIME
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 21:20
Volodymyr Zelensky was running late.
The invitation to his speech at the National Archives in Washington had gone out to several hundred guests, including congressional leaders and top officials from the Biden Administration. Billed as the main event of his visit in late September, it would give him a chance to inspire U.S. support against Russia with the kind of oratory the world has come to expect from Ukraine's wartime President. It did not go as planned.
That afternoon, Zelensky's meetings at the White House and the Pentagon delayed him by more than an hour, and when he finally arrived to begin his speech at 6:41 p.m., he looked distant and agitated. He relied on his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, to carry his message of resilience on the stage beside him, while his own delivery felt stilted, as though he wanted to get it over with. At one point, while handing out medals after the speech, he urged the organizer to hurry things along.
The reason, he later said, was the exhaustion he felt that night, not only from the demands of leadership during the war but also the persistent need to convince his allies that, with their help, Ukraine can win. ''Nobody believes in our victory like I do. Nobody,'' Zelensky told TIME in an interview after his trip. Instilling that belief in his allies, he said, ''takes all your power, your energy. You understand? It takes so much of everything.''
Zelensky: Kay Nietfeld'--Picture Alliance/Getty ImagesIt is only getting harder. Twenty months into the war, about a fifth of Ukraine's territory remains under Russian occupation. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and Zelensky can feel during his travels that global interest in the war has slackened. So has the level of international support. ''The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine,'' he says. ''Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: 'I can't watch this rerun for the 10th time.'''
Public support for aid to Ukraine has been in decline for months in the U.S., and Zelensky's visit did nothing to revive it. Some 41% of Americans want Congress to provide more weapons to Kyiv, down from 65% in June, when Ukraine began a major counteroffensive, according to a Reuters survey taken shortly after Zelensky's departure. That offensive has proceeded at an excruciating pace and with enormous losses, making it ever more difficult for Zelensky to convince partners that victory is around the corner. With the outbreak of war in Israel, even keeping the world's attention on Ukraine has become a major challenge.
After his visit to Washington, TIME followed the President and his team back to Kyiv, hoping to understand how they would react to the signals they had received, especially the insistent calls for Zelensky to fight corruption inside his own government, and the fading enthusiasm for a war with no end in sight. On my first day in Kyiv, I asked one member of his circle how the President was feeling. The response came without a second's hesitation: ''Angry.''
The usual sparkle of his optimism, his sense of humor, his tendency to liven up a meeting in the war room with a bit of banter or a bawdy joke, none of that has survived into the second year of all-out war. ''Now he walks in, gets the updates, gives the orders, and walks out,'' says one longtime member of his team. Another tells me that, most of all, Zelensky feels betrayed by his Western allies. They have left him without the means to win the war, only the means to survive it.
But his convictions haven't changed. Despite the recent setbacks on the battlefield, he does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine's ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic. ''He deludes himself,'' one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. ''We're out of options. We're not winning. But try telling him that.''
Zelensky's stubbornness, some of his aides say, has hurt their team's efforts to come up with a new strategy, a new message. As they have debated the future of the war, one issue has remained taboo: the possibility of negotiating a peace deal with the Russians. Judging by recent surveys, most Ukrainians would reject such a move, especially if it entailed the loss of any occupied territory.
Zelensky remains dead set against even a temporary truce. ''For us it would mean leaving this wound open for future generations,'' the President tells me. ''Maybe it will calm some people down inside our country, and outside, at least those who want to wrap things up at any price. But for me, that's a problem, because we are left with this explosive force. We only delay its detonation.''
For now, he is intent on winning the war on Ukrainian terms, and he is shifting tactics to achieve that. Aware that the flow of Western arms could dry up over time, the Ukrainians have ramped up production of drones and missiles, which they have used to attack Russian supply routes, command centers, and ammunition depots far behind enemy lines. The Russians have responded with more bombing raids against civilians, more missile strikes against the infrastructure that Ukraine will need to heat homes and keep the lights on through the winter.
Zelensky describes it as a war of wills, and he fears that if the Russians are not stopped in Ukraine, the fighting will spread beyond its borders. ''I've long lived with this fear,'' he says. ''A third world war could start in Ukraine, continue in Israel, and move on from there to Asia, and then explode somewhere else.'' That was his message in Washington: Help Ukraine stop the war before it spreads, and before it's too late. He worries his audience has stopped paying attention.
Paramedics help a wounded man after a Russian rocket attack in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Sept. 6, 2023. Evgeniy Maloletka'--APAt the end of last year, during his previous visit to Washington, Zelensky received a hero's welcome. The White House sent a U.S. Air Force jet to pick him up in eastern Poland a few days before Christmas and, with an escort from a NATO spy plane and an F-15 Eagle fighter, deliver him to Joint Base Andrews outside the U.S. capital. That evening, Zelensky appeared before a joint session of Congress to declare that Ukraine had defeated Russia ''in the battle for minds of the world.''
Watching his speech from the balcony, I counted 13 standing ovations before I stopped keeping track. One Senator told me he could not remember a time in his three decades on Capitol Hill when a foreign leader received such an admiring reception. A few right-wing Republicans refused to stand or applaud for Zelensky, but the votes to support him were bipartisan and overwhelming throughout last year.
This time around, the atmosphere had changed. Assistance to Ukraine had become a sticking point in the debate over the federal budget. One of Zelensky's foreign policy advisers urged him to call off the trip in September, warning that the atmosphere was too fraught. Congressional leaders declined to let Zelensky deliver a public address on Capitol Hill. His aides tried to arrange an in-person appearance for him on Fox News and an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Neither one came through.
Instead, on the morning of Sept. 21, Zelensky met in private with then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy before making his way to the Old Senate Chamber, where lawmakers grilled him behind closed doors. Most of Zelensky's usual critics stayed silent in the session; Senator Ted Cruz strolled in more than 20 minutes late. The Democrats, for their part, wanted to understand where the war was headed, and how badly Ukraine needed U.S. support. ''They asked me straight up: If we don't give you the aid, what happens?'' Zelensky recalls. ''What happens is we will lose.''
Zelensky's performance left a deep impression on some of the lawmakers present. Angus King, an independent Senator from Maine, recalled the Ukrainian leader telling his audience, ''You're giving money. We're giving our lives.'' But it was not enough. Ten days later, Congress passed a bill to temporarily avert a government shutdown. It included no assistance for Ukraine.
Read More: Inside the Race to Arm Ukraine Before Its Counteroffensive
By the time Zelensky returned to Kyiv, the cold of early fall had taken hold, and his aides rushed to prepare for the second winter of the invasion. Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure have damaged power stations and parts of the electricity grid, leaving it potentially unable to meet spikes in demand when the temperature drops. Three of the senior officials in charge of dealing with this problem told me blackouts would likely be more severe this winter, and the public reaction in Ukraine would not be as forgiving. ''Last year people blamed the Russians,'' one of them says. ''This time they'll blame us for not doing enough to prepare.''
The cold will also make military advances more difficult, locking down the front lines at least until the spring. But Zelensky has refused to accept that. ''Freezing the war, to me, means losing it,'' he says. Before the winter sets in, his aides warned me to expect major changes in their military strategy and a major shake-up in the President's team. At least one minister would need to be fired, along with a senior general in charge of the counteroffensive, they said, to ensure accountability for Ukraine's slow progress at the front. ''We're not moving forward,'' says one of Zelensky's close aides. Some front-line commanders, he continues, have begun refusing orders to advance, even when they came directly from the office of the President. ''They just want to sit in the trenches and hold the line,'' he says. ''But we can't win a war that way.''
When I raised these claims with a senior military officer, he said that some commanders have little choice in second-guessing orders from the top. At one point in early October, he said, the political leadership in Kyiv demanded an operation to ''retake'' the city of Horlivka, a strategic outpost in eastern Ukraine that the Russians have held and fiercely defended for nearly a decade. The answer came back in the form of a question: With what? ''They don't have the men or the weapons,'' says the officer. ''Where are the weapons? Where is the artillery? Where are the new recruits?''
In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky's close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, ''we don't have the men to use them.''
Ukrainian fighters on the frontlines near Bakhmut on March 17, 2023. Maxim DondyukSince the start of the invasion, Ukraine has refused to release official counts of dead and wounded. But according to U.S. and European estimates, the toll has long surpassed 100,000 on each side of the war. It has eroded the ranks of Ukraine's armed forces so badly that draft offices have been forced to call up ever older personnel, raising the average age of a soldier in Ukraine to around 43 years. ''They're grown men now, and they aren't that healthy to begin with,'' says the close aide to Zelensky. ''This is Ukraine. Not Scandinavia.''
The picture looked different at the outset of the invasion. One branch of the military, known as the Territorial Defense Forces, reported accepting 100,000 new recruits in the first 10 days of all-out war. The mass mobilization was fueled in part by the optimistic predictions of some senior officials that the war would be won in months if not weeks. ''Many people thought they could sign up for a quick tour and take part in a heroic victory,'' says the second member of the President's team.
Now recruitment is way down. As conscription efforts have intensified around the country, stories are spreading on social media of draft officers pulling men off trains and buses and sending them to the front. Those with means sometimes bribe their way out of service, often by paying for a medical exemption. Such episodes of corruption within the recruitment system became so widespread by the end of the summer that on Aug. 11 Zelensky fired the heads of the draft offices in every region of the country.
The decision was intended to signal his commitment to fighting graft. But the move backfired, according to the senior military officer, as recruitment nearly ground to a halt without leadership. The fired officials also proved difficult to replace, in part because the reputation of the draft offices had been tainted. ''Who wants that job?'' the officer asks. ''It's like putting a sign on your back that says: corrupt.''
In recent months, the issue of corruption has strained Zelensky's relationship with many of his allies. Ahead of his visit to Washington, the White House prepared a list of anti-corruption reforms for the Ukrainians to undertake. One of the aides who traveled with Zelensky to the U.S. told me these proposals targeted the very top of the state hierarchy. ''These were not suggestions,'' says another presidential adviser. ''These were conditions.''
To address the American concerns, Zelensky took some dramatic steps. In early September, he fired his Minister of Defense, Oleksiy Reznikov, a member of his inner circle who had come under scrutiny over corruption in his ministry. Two presidential advisers told me he had not been personally involved in graft. ''But he failed to keep order within his ministry,'' one says, pointing to the inflated prices the ministry paid for supplies, such as winter coats for soldiers and eggs to keep them fed.
As news of these scandals spread, the President gave strict orders for his staff to avoid the slightest perception of self-enrichment. ''Don't buy anything. Don't take any vacations. Just sit at your desk, be quiet, and work,'' one staffer says in characterizing these directives. Some midlevel officials in the administration complained to me of bureaucratic paralysis and low morale as the scrutiny of their work intensified.
The typical salary in the President's office, they said, comes to about $1,000 per month, or around $1,500 for more senior officials, far less than they could make in the private sector. ''We sleep in rooms that are 2 by 3 meters,'' about the size of a prison cell, says Andriy Yermak, the presidential chief of staff, referring to the bunker that Zelensky and a few of his confidants have called home since the start of the invasion. ''We're not out here living the high life,'' he tells me in his office. ''All day, every day, we are busy fighting this war.''
Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. ''Simon, you're mistaken,'' he says. ''People are stealing like there's no tomorrow.''
Even the firing of the Defense Minister did not make officials ''feel any fear,'' he adds, because the purge took too long to materialize. The President was warned in February that corruption had grown rife inside the ministry, but he dithered for more than six months, giving his allies multiple chances to deal with the problems quietly or explain them away. By the time he acted ahead of his U.S. visit, ''it was too late,'' says another senior presidential adviser. Ukraine's Western allies were already aware of the scandal by then. Soldiers at the front had begun making off-color jokes about ''Reznikov's eggs,'' a new metaphor for corruption. ''The reputational damage was done,'' says the adviser.
When I asked Zelensky about the problem, he acknowledged its gravity and the threat it poses to Ukraine's morale and its relationships with foreign partners. Fighting corruption, he assured me, is among his top priorities. He also suggested that some foreign allies have an incentive to exaggerate the problem, because it gives them an excuse to cut off financial support. ''It's not right,'' he says, ''for them to cover up their failure to help Ukraine by tossing out these accusations.''
U.S. President Joe Biden, right, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the South Portico of the White House on Sept. 21, 2023. Saul Loeb'--AFP/Getty ImagesBut some of the accusations have been hard to deny. In August, a Ukrainian news outlet known for investigating graft, Bihus.info, published a damning report about Zelensky's top adviser on economic and energy policy, Rostyslav Shurma. The report revealed that Shurma, a former executive in the energy industry, has a brother who co-owns two solar-energy companies with power plants in southern Ukraine. Even after the Russians occupied that part of the country, cutting it off from the Ukrainian power grid, the companies continued to receive state payments for producing electricity.
Read More: Inside the Kremlin's Year of Ukraine Propaganda.
The anticorruption police, an independent agency known in Ukraine as NABU, responded to the publication by opening an embezzlement probe into Shurma and his brother. But Zelensky did not suspend his adviser. Instead, in late September, Shurma joined the President's delegation to Washington, where I saw him glad-handing senior lawmakers and officials from the Biden Administration.
Soon after he returned to Kyiv, I visited Shurma in his office on the second floor of the presidential headquarters. The atmosphere inside the compound had changed in the 11 months since my last visit. Sandbags had been removed from many windows as new air-defense systems had arrived in Kyiv, including U.S. Patriot missiles, which reduced the risk of a rocket attack on Zelensky's office. The hallways remained dark, but soldiers no longer patrolled them with assault rifles, and their sleeping mats and other gear had been cleared away. Some of the President's aides, including Shurma, had gone back to wearing civilian clothes instead of military garb.
When we sat down inside his office, Shurma told me the allegations against him were part of a political attack paid for by one of Zelensky's domestic enemies. ''A piece of sh-t was thrown,'' he says, brushing the front of his sweater. ''And now we have to explain that we are clean.'' It did not seem to trouble him that his brother is a major player in the industry that Shurma oversees. On the contrary, he spent nearly half an hour trying to convince me of the gold rush that renewable energy would see after the war.
Perhaps, I suggested, amid all the concerns about corruption in Ukraine, it would have been wiser for Shurma to step aside while under investigation for embezzlement, or at least sit out Zelensky's trip to Washington. He responded with a shrug. ''If we do that, tomorrow everybody on the team would be targeted,'' he says. ''Politics is back, and that's the problem.''
A few minutes later, Shurma's phone lit up with an urgent message that forced him to cut our interview short. The President had called his senior aides into a meeting in his office. It was normal on Monday mornings for their team to hold a strategy session to plan out the week. But this one would be different. Over the weekend, Palestinian terrorists had massacred many hundreds of civilians in southern Israel, prompting the Israeli government to impose a blockade of the Gaza Strip and declare war against Hamas. Huddled around a conference table, Zelensky and his aides tried to understand what the tragedy would mean for them. ''My mind is racing,'' one of them told me when he emerged from the meeting that afternoon. ''Things are about to start moving very fast.''
From the earliest days of the Russian invasion, Zelensky's top priority and perhaps his main contribution to the nation's defense had been to keep attention on Ukraine and to rally the democratic world to its cause. Both tasks would become a lot harder with the outbreak of war in Israel. The focus of Ukraine's allies in the U.S. and Europe, and of the global media, quickly shifted to the Gaza Strip.
''It's logical,'' Zelensky tells me. ''Of course we lose out from the events in the Middle East. People are dying, and the world's help is needed there to save lives, to save humanity.'' Zelensky wanted to help. After the crisis meeting with aides, he asked the Israeli government for permission to visit their country in a show of solidarity. The answer appeared the following week in Israeli media reports: ''The time is not right.''
A few days later, President Biden tried to break through the impasse Zelensky had seen on Capitol Hill. Instead of asking Congress to vote on another stand-alone package of Ukraine aid, Biden bundled it with other priorities, including support for Israel and U.S.-Mexico border security. The package would cost $105 billion, with $61 billion of it for Ukraine. ''It's a smart investment,'' Biden said, ''that's going to pay dividends for American security for generations.''
But it was also an acknowledgment that, on its own, Ukraine aid no longer stands much of a chance in Washington. When I asked Zelensky about this, he admitted that Biden's hands appear to be tied by GOP opposition. The White House, he said, remains committed to helping Ukraine. But arguments about shared values no longer have much sway over American politicians or the people who elect them. ''Politics is like that,'' he tells me with a tired smile. ''They weigh their own interests.''
At the start of the Russian invasion, Zelensky's mission was to maintain the sympathy of humankind. Now his task is more complicated. In his foreign trips and presidential phone calls, he needs to convince world leaders that helping Ukraine is in their own national interests, that it will, as Biden put it, ''pay dividends.'' Achieving that gets harder as global crises multiply.
But faced with the alternative of freezing the war or losing it, Zelensky sees no option but to press on through the winter and beyond. ''I don't think Ukraine can allow itself to get tired of war,'' he says. ''Even if someone gets tired on the inside, a lot of us don't admit it.'' The President least of all. '--With reporting by Julia Zorthian/New York
Correction, Nov. 1:
An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the clothing that Rostyslav Shurma, an economic adviser to President Zelensky of Ukraine, wore during an interview in his office on Oct. 9, 2023. He wore a sweater, not a white shirt.
Warning as bedbug outbreak spreads to library as parents and children forced to leave immediately | The Sun
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:42
BUG ALERT
It comes after bedbugs invaded the London Underground
Published : 10:47, 1 Nov 2023 Updated : 10:47, 1 Nov 2023 A WARNING has been issued after a bedbug outbreak spread to library - forcing parents and children to leave immediately.
Cities across the UK are bracing for an invasion of "super-bedbugs" from Paris, where they have run rampant.
1
Bedbugs have been discovered at Ealing Central Library Credit: GettyEaling Central Library in west London was evacuated on Monday after staff found a "pest infestation".
Book lovers were turned away from the library yesterday while experts sprayed chairs with bug-zapping chemicals.
A sign on its front door read: "Due to a pest infestation, we have temporarily removed soft furnishings from public use.
"These seats are currently being treated with pest control chemicals.
"These chemicals will be applied while the library is closed and are safe for children and adults.
"We apologise for any inconvenience caused."
Ealing Council confirmed that there had been a bedbug outbreak at the library.
One pensioner said a librarian ordered them to leave over the tannoy on Monday afternoon.
They told the Independent: "It was all very strange we've never been turfed out like that so quickly.
"Everyone on the computers had to leave."
Mum-of-one Louise Hamilton said that she was turned away when she arrived to return her child's Harry Potter book on Tuesday.
She said: "They always tell us when we are late handing things back but we have heard nothing.
"I understand it is stressful but everyone is arriving confused as to what is going on."
Ealing Council said: "There were concerns expressed by library staff, which we have addressed by temporarily closing the library.
"The council is working closely with the corporate health and safety and the in-house pest control teams.
"Despite the treatments being safe, the council has decided to temporarily close the library to avoid concerns that library users and library staff might be having."
It comes after bedbugs invaded the London Underground - with a skin-crawling clip showing critters jumping on a woman's leg.
A solicitor says you could win £4,500 in compensation if bed bugs ruin your holiday.
BILL GATES lands a lucrative deal just after meeting RUTO '' See what he will be doing for the president and his government? | DAILY POST
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:29
Monday, October 16, 2023 '' Billionaire Bill Gates has landed himself a lucrative deal in the government of President William Ruto after the two met.
This is after Ruto picked his foundation to advise him on Maisha Namba.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, linked to billionaire Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda, inked a deal with the Kenyan government to advise on the planned rollout of the Digital Identification Document (ID) dubbed Maisha Namba.
Maisha Namba follows the failed attempt by former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration to roll out a similar ID, Huduma Namba.
Maisha Namba will be the third-generation ID with a unique number that will be assigned to every Kenyan at birth, and will be used from birth to death.
''Our role is always as an adviser. We can connect the government to key technical experts and partners, but we're very encouraged by what we see and by the President's commitment,'' the Foundation CEO Mark Suzman told a local paper.
''We have a number of specific investment support on digital identity. We actually provide it to broader platforms.''
The billionaire, who is known to champion GMO foods, has met Ruto in a series of meetings since he came to power with most of the engagements shrouded in secrecy.
According to reports, the deal will connect the government to key technical experts and partners who will offer professional advice to guarantee a smooth rollout.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says it sees ripe opportunities that can be unlocked through tapping the potential of digital identity in Kenya.
Initially, the government planned to launch the Maisha number on October 2 before the plans were shelved, ostensibly to allow proper public participation.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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New donors and Republicans are powering RFK Jr.'s 2024 campaign - POLITICO
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:12
Most of the $10 million Kennedy raised from large-dollar donors through Sept. 30 came from voters who did not make any federal donations during either the 2016 or 2020 election cycles.
Of those who did, 2,100 donors '-- giving nearly $2 million '-- previously made contributions on the Republican donation service WinRed since 2020. Far fewer donors previously gave through the Democratic tool ActBlue: roughly 1,700 contributors who gave $1.4 million.
Kennedy is running as a self-described ''spoiler,'' and the draw that the former Democrat has with both the GOP and those who don't have an obvious political home makes him an unpredictable threat to the establishment of both parties. Some Republicans are already trying to redefine Kennedy as a ''typical Democrat,'' revealing they're worried about his appeal to GOP voters.
Both Kennedy and Trump present a fundamental question to voters, said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio): ''Do you think the country has been well-governed by the bipartisan establishment for the past generation?''
''When Kennedy goes out there and runs against that establishment, he has to appreciate it probably ends up splitting votes off from President Trump,'' said Vance, who has endorsed Trump's 2024 campaign.
Federal law requires campaigns to disclose donations only from donors who give at least $200. The POLITICO examination relies on Federal Election Commission data of those large-dollar donors, who make up about two-thirds of Kennedy's money raised through Sept. 30, the latest campaign finance reporting deadline.
That data shows more than 500 of Kennedy's biggest donors gave to Trump's 2020 campaign, more than three times the number of donors who gave to Biden in that race. And in this cycle, more than 160 donors have given to both Trump and Kennedy, while only a handful have given to both Biden and Kennedy.
It's not just Trump. More than 160 of Kennedy's donors have also given to biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who also brands himself as an anti-establishment candidate. Another 100 also contributed to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has leaned into his anti-vaccine stance on the campaign trail.
''Some members of our party like his positions on vaccines, but other than that he's a liberal,'' said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.). ''That's not going to work.''
The campaign finance data also suggests Kennedy may be sparking something new in the electorate: More than 60 percent of his large-dollar donors have no donation history on either ActBlue or WinRed, the two parties' primary donation platforms, since the start of 2020. His coalition '-- of previously sidelined donors and Republicans, even when he was running in a Democratic primary '-- may help explain Kennedy's decision to run as an independent, which he announced on Oct. 9. (The FEC data covers the period through Sept. 30, before Kennedy's independent bid.)
''No political party or candidate owns votes '... Kennedy welcomes everyone into his coalition no matter who they supported in the past,'' campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said in a statement.
The Trump and Biden campaigns did not respond to a request for comment.
Some Trump allies said they don't see Kennedy posing a real threat come next November, even if some donors have wandering eyes now.
''Oftentimes people can donate to someone that they're not even voting for just to see their argument platforms,'' said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). ''We've seen those calls among the sort of junior varsity slate of Republicans seeking the nomination, so I'm not as concerned about [donors].''
Kennedy, a longtime environmental lawyer, is perhaps best known for his work through the nonprofit Children's Health Defense, which fights against vaccination requirements. While he has sought to not make anti-vaccine activism central to his campaign, he appeared before Congress at the invitation of Republicans this summer to discuss ''censorship,'' where his skepticism of the Covid-19 vaccine was apparent.
Common occupations among his donors included health care professionals such as physicians, nurses and dentists, as well as practitioners of alternative medicine, such as chiropractors and acupuncturists.
''Frankly, I don't know how many voters out there are willing to spend their vote on a candidate they think has no chance to win.''
Twenty percent of Kennedy's newly acquired donors were from California, including several dozen who listed occupations such as ''actor'' or ''producer,'' likely reflecting his Hollywood connections.
Few people believe Kennedy's campaign can come close to winning the presidency, and it faces significant challenges '-- beginning with the task of getting on the ballot in every state without the backing of a party apparatus.
''Really what you're talking about is what impact could he have in five or six states that are going to be competitive, [if he's] on those ballots,'' said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has not yet endorsed in the 2024 race.
''Frankly, I don't know how many voters out there are willing to spend their vote on a candidate they think has no chance to win,'' he said.
In a highly competitive presidential showdown between Biden and Trump, the likely nominees, even small numbers of votes can matter. Political donors are only a small subset of the electorate, but they are among the most highly engaged voters.
''I talk to [Trump] frequently. I think that he is not especially worried about Bobby Kennedy,'' Vance said.''I think he's actually focused on how to persuade voters, which is where he should be.''
All-female Israeli 'lionesses' combat unit of just 13 soldiers 'killed nearly 100 Hamas gunmen as they helped liberate kibbutz' | Daily Mail Online
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:41
An all-female combat unit of just 13 soldiers from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) took on and killed nearly 100 Hamas gunmen when they fought off a terror attack on an army base and helped liberate a kibbutz, it has emerged.
Lieutenant Colonel Or Ben Yehuda and her 12 women soldiers of the Caracal Battalion led the frontline fightback from armoured personnel carriers after racing to a military post on the Egyptian border that was being attacked during the Hamas onslaught.
With rockets raining down all around her, she learned that the terrorists had broken through Israel's border fence with the Gaza Strip and were heading for the Jewish settlements of Shlomit and Bnei Netzer on October 7.
In a final message from the Sufa military base as it came under attack from dozens of Hamas fighters, a colleague who was killed just minutes later warned Lt-Col Ben Yehuda: 'There are several terrorists here. They're heavily armed.'
In a pre-battle address, Lt-Col Ben Yehuda then told the 12-woman unit that they were strong and would not be defeated.
She said: 'We are going to eliminate terrorists. [An] infiltration into Israel is happening and it's spreading. Stay alert. We might cross paths. We are a strong squad.'
Lieutenant Colonel Or Ben Yehuda (pictured) and her 12 women soldiers took on and killed nearly 100 Hamas gunmen when they fought off the terrorists
Lt-Col Ben-Yehuda restrains and blindfolds a Hamas fighter
Lt-Col Ben-Yehuda from the infantry combat Caracal Battalion unit
When the unit arrived at the military base, they discovered that Hamas had overrun the post and taken more than 50 Israeli military personnel hostage.
Some seven gunmen had taken up positions in the dining room armed with anti-tank missiles.
As the officer and her 12-woman squad approached the base from all angles, a band of 50 heavily armed terrorists charged towards them from the surroundings.
But the unit held its ground, shooting some dead and forcing others to scatter.
In one harrowing moment Lt-Col Ben Yehuda was confronted face-to-face by a male terrorist, whom she shot at close range.
An officer from another unit arrived at the military base and proposed an attack on the building where the terrorists holed up.
But Lt-Col Ben Yehuda insisted that she would not put the lives of the hostages at risk and directed her attack fire at the terrorists who had taken up positions around the post.
Over the next four hours, the 12-woman unit engaged in a bitter fire-fight with Hamas, who sent wave after wave of gunmen against them.
Despite some of the soldiers getting wounded, the all-female unit continued to fight.
The Caracal Battalion unit was later reinforced by soldiers from a Navy Special Forces unit and together they continued to engage Hamas for the next 14 hours until the terrorists were either dead or had fled.
Lt-Col Ben Yehuda praised the 'significant contributions' the female soldiers had made to win the battle, save the lives of the wounded and carry out daring helicopter evacuations under fire.
She also acknowledged the bravery of an all-female tank crew under her command that led the attack on Hamas fighters who had ransacked the nearby Holit kibbutz, killing more than a dozen civilians.
Lt-Col Ben Yehuda praised the 'significant contributions' the female soldiers had made to win the battle, save the lives of the wounded and carry out daring helicopter evacuations under fire
Lt-Col Ben Yehuda added: 'There are no more doubts about female combat soldiers, who have triumphed in every encounter with terrorists.'
In total Caracal Battalion units are said to have killed about 100 terrorists - a fact that should dispel any doubts about the ability of female soldiers, she said.
Lt-Col Ben Yehuda said: 'The training and performance [of the female combat units] on the battlefield have erased any doubts [about their ability].
'They fought bravely, saved lives and emerged as heroes.'
She added: 'There are no more doubts about female combat soldiers, who have triumphed in every encounter with terrorists.
'At present, we are responsible for 11 towns and are preparing for any potential ground manoeuvres to ensure the safety of the southern Gaza border area and the Egyptian border.'
The all-female tank crew has also been praised for leading the attack on Hamas terrorists who had overrun the Holit kibbutz.
An officer, who cannot be named for security reasons, told the Yetznews website: 'The female tank crew members were stationed close to our team, and they were amazing. They fought like lionesses. They are heroes.
'I could hear them on the radio, including their commander, Or Ben Yehuda, operating at the highest level.
'They broke through the fence and engaged with the terrorists that were there by the dozens.
'They deserve to be decorated. They operated like a well-oiled machine, at a professional level that's expected from a tank crew.'
The IDF has approximately 50,000 female combat troops out of a total of 200,000 active soldiers. Women must carry out military service alongside men and are called back to serve in the Army Reserve in times of crisis.
The Caracal Battalion is made up of 70 per cent female soldiers and has all-women units. It is based in southern Israel.
In 2014 Lt-Col Ben Yehuda was injured in a terrorist attack on the border with Egypt but she managed to return fire, killing one militant in the battle.
Now another McDonald's is hit by pro-Palestine mice attack: Rodents painted in red, white and green are released into second Birmingham restaurant after chain was accused of being pro-Israeli - as police probe sick pranks | Daily Mail Online
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:37
A second McDonald's has been hit by a pro-Palestine mice attack on Tuesday after the restaurant chain was accused of being 'Pro-Israeli'.
Shocking video shared on social media shows restaurant workers desperately scrambling to contain dozens of rodents that had been left in a container in the middle of the restaurant - the latest in a slew of attacks against the fast food chain.
The mice can be seen scurrying frantically as horrified customers watch on at the Perry Bar McDonald's in Birmingham, with a small child heard in the background saying: 'That's a lot of rats'.
The man recording the video, who claims to have stumbled upon the unfolding chaos, says behind the camera: 'Oh my days. Look at this! They've just dropped this off at McDonald's. All these rats.
'Somebody just took that in. Oh my days', he adds.
The man then turns the camera around to reveal his face, as he gathers among other scared customers outside.
Do YOU know who was behind it? Email jack.wright@mailonline.co.uk
It comes just a day after a pro-Palestine activist emptied another box of mice into another McDonald's in Birmingham before walking off and shouting 'f*** Israel', as horrified diners fled the infested restaurant.
A McDonald's in Birmingham has been hit in a second mice attack in as many nights in a pro-Palestine stunt on Halloween this evening
A video posted online shows the aftermath of what appears to be another protest against the fast food chain as dozens of mice are frantically seen scurrying on the floor of one restaurant
At one point in the video, the person recording, who appears to have just stumbled across the unfolding chaos, can be seen on camera. He claims someone had just 'dropped off' the mice, sending them scurrying inside the restaurant
It is unclear which Birmingham McDonald's was the location of this latest attack, however, it is clearly a separate chain as it has a notably different layout to the one videoed last night.
In the footage of Tuesday's attack one of the workers is seen holding a wooden broom as they look on in shock at the mice scurrying along the floor as another tries to manoeuvre a plastic bag underneath the box.
A child's voice can then be heard saying: 'that is a lot of rats' as the man filming continues to react in shock, adding: 'look at that'.
Later, another voice can be heard asking: Did somebody just chuck that in?' to which the man filming replies: 'Yeah'.
It comes a day after shocking footage of a seperate attack shared on social media showed a man throwing a box of mice over the floor of a different McDonald's on Monday.
Diners were waiting for meals in the branch at the Star City leisure complex in Birmingham as the mice - spray painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag - were sent scurrying across the floor.
McDonald's confirmed on Monday that a 'number of mice' were released into the restaurant and it insisted the branch, now reopened, was 'fully sanitised' after the rodents were removed.
The clip, captioned 'enjoy your rat burgers', begins with a man holding onto fake number plates that read 'PAIISTN' and 'Free Palestine' as he arrived in his car.
The one-man protest was part of wider calls to boycott McDonald's - who have offered free meals to IDF soldiers - along with Starbucks and Disney, for allegedly favouring Israel during the ongoing conflict.
The man, wearing a Palestinian flag around his head, opened the boot of his car and grabbed the box of rodents before walking into the fast food chain, spilling them onto the ground.
In the footage, two women run away in horror as the mice scuttle across the restaurant floor. The activist can be heard repeatedly shouting 'Free f***ing Palestine' as he walks back to his car, later adding 'Boycott Israel' and 'F*** Israel' before driving off.
At the end of the footage, a block of text on the screen reads: 'Targeted boycott. The Big Three. Start by boycotting these brands that are directly involved in supporting the Israeli apartheid.'
Towards the end of the video, a recording of a phone call is also played as one man can be heard bragging: 'All the alarms and going off and that 'the doors are closed'. A second voice then adds: 'Successful mission'.
Footage posted on social media shows dozens of mice that have been painted green, black, white and red, representing the four colours that make up the Palestinian flag
The video later shows a man arriving at the fast food chain's Star City restaurant yesterday evening with a huge box of mice
The man, who is also wearing a Palestinian flag on his head, can be seen throwing the box of miceon the floor towards two women who immediately run away in horror
A spokesperson for McDonald's told MailOnline: 'We are aware of an incident in our Birmingham Star City restaurant this evening. The restaurant has been fully sanitised and our pest control partners have been called out to conduct a full inspection.'
West Midlands Police said it is investigating the case after 'live rodents were thrown into a restaurant'.
A statement on X added: 'We understand the distress this will have caused and it's not acceptable in any circumstances.
'This is currently being treated as a public nuisance offence and we've active lines on enquiries to identify, and then arrest, who was involved'.
It is currently unclear who exactly has been behind the McDonald's mice stunts - and whether they are they same person - as the man who originally posted a video of the incident on Monday denied responsibility.
Former limousine hire company worker and convicted fraudster Aamir Khan, 32, told MailOnline he had been sent the clip of the incident on Monday evening anonymously.
His brother Zahid, a fugitive who fled to Dubai before the pair were convicted over an exclusive car number plate scam five years ago, told us Mr Khan had merely re-posted the clip on TikTok which then went viral.
Mr Khan's TikTok and Instagram accounts '' where friends congratulated him on the stunt '' have now been deleted and police have launched an investigation to trace the person who emptied a box.
Mr Khan's Instagram page included numerous pictures of him posing on the driveway of what was once the Khan family home in Moseley, Birmingham, with one as recently a fortnight ago.
Former limousine hire company worker and convicted fraudster Aamir Khan, 32, (pictured) told MailOnline he had been sent the clip of the incident on Monday evening anonymously
Mr Khan's TikTok and Instagram accounts '' where friends congratulated him on the stunt '' have now been deleted and police have launched an investigation to find the person who emptied a box full of live mice
Mr Khan's (pictured) Instagram page suggested he worked at Royal Limos, a luxury hire car company in the city
Mr Khan's (pictured) Instagram page included numerous pictures of him posing on the driveway of what was once the Khan family home in Moseley, Birmingham, one as recently as a fortnight ago
Neighbours said the address, once said to be house with an indoor swimming pool, has been turned into a house of multiple occupancy but was still within the Khan family. Land Registry documents show it was bought by a Basharaf Khan in March.
One neighbour said Aamir Khan still visited regularly, adding: 'I saw him go off with friends recently in a blue Range Rover'. Another said he had noticed a Palestinian flag in the porch of the property just a matter of days ago, while a tenant at the address said she believed he kept a first floor flat there.
Occupants at the address also recognised pictures of Mr Khan, with one tenant saying: 'His name is Aamir and he is the owner. He comes around in the evenings sometimes.'
A Vauxhall Corsa said to belong to Mr Khan was amongst the vehicles parked in the gated driveway this afternoon.
Neighbours at another address linked to the Khan family in the Hall Green suburb said Aaamir sometimes 'turned up at the wheel of a supercar' to visit the occupants.
Mr Khan's Instagram page suggested he worked at Royal Limos, a luxury hire car company in the city.
But a man answering the phone at the limo company claimed Mr Khan left the firm four years ago, and now had a loose relationship whereby he was paid commission for attracting customers through publishing the firm's vehicles on his social media.
The man, who called himself Adam, denied having anything to do with the McDonald's incident.
When he was contacted via social media, Mr Khan said the McDonald's video was 'sent to me anonymously so I don't know who did it.'
In 2018, Birmingham Crown Court heard that Aamir's brother, Zahid Khan was the ringleader of a West Midlands gang - which included Aamir and Ayan Ahmed plus cousin Zubair Ahmad - who stole the rights to high-value personalised registration plates and sold them on for tens of thousands of pounds.
Just days before the trial was due to finish Zahid, then 31, fled the country. He was given a 10-year prison sentence after being found guilty in his absence.
The jury in June failed to reach a verdict on his three co-defendants, but all were found unanimously guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud after another trial.
Zahid went on to taunt police and the judge from his Dubai bolthole, where he posted videos of himself carousing with rapper Busta Rhymes at a VIP party.
Speaking to MailOnline from Dubai via WhatsApp yesterday, Zahid said his brother had only reposted a video he had been sent.
West Midlands Police said was treating the McDonald's incident as a 'public nuisance offence'.
The force added in a statement: 'We understand the distress this will have caused and it's not acceptable in any circumstances'...we've active lines on enquiries to identify, and then arrest, who was involved'.
The Bletchley Declaration by Countries Attending the AI Safety Summit, 1-2 November 2023 - GOV.UK
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:11
Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents enormous global opportunities: it has the potential to transform and enhance human wellbeing, peace and prosperity. To realise this, we affirm that, for the good of all, AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used, in a manner that is safe, in such a way as to be human-centric, trustworthy and responsible. We welcome the international community's efforts so far to cooperate on AI to promote inclusive economic growth, sustainable development and innovation, to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to foster public trust and confidence in AI systems to fully realise their potential.
AI systems are already deployed across many domains of daily life including housing, employment, transport, education, health, accessibility, and justice, and their use is likely to increase. We recognise that this is therefore a unique moment to act and affirm the need for the safe development of AI and for the transformative opportunities of AI to be used for good and for all, in an inclusive manner in our countries and globally. This includes for public services such as health and education, food security, in science, clean energy, biodiversity, and climate, to realise the enjoyment of human rights, and to strengthen efforts towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Alongside these opportunities, AI also poses significant risks, including in those domains of daily life. To that end, we welcome relevant international efforts to examine and address the potential impact of AI systems in existing fora and other relevant initiatives, and the recognition that the protection of human rights, transparency and explainability, fairness, accountability, regulation, safety, appropriate human oversight, ethics, bias mitigation, privacy and data protection needs to be addressed. We also note the potential for unforeseen risks stemming from the capability to manipulate content or generate deceptive content. All of these issues are critically important and we affirm the necessity and urgency of addressing them.
Particular safety risks arise at the 'frontier' of AI, understood as being those highly capable general-purpose AI models, including foundation models, that could perform a wide variety of tasks - as well as relevant specific narrow AI that could exhibit capabilities that cause harm - which match or exceed the capabilities present in today's most advanced models. Substantial risks may arise from potential intentional misuse or unintended issues of control relating to alignment with human intent. These issues are in part because those capabilities are not fully understood and are therefore hard to predict. We are especially concerned by such risks in domains such as cybersecurity and biotechnology, as well as where frontier AI systems may amplify risks such as disinformation. There is potential for serious, even catastrophic, harm, either deliberate or unintentional, stemming from the most significant capabilities of these AI models. Given the rapid and uncertain rate of change of AI, and in the context of the acceleration of investment in technology, we affirm that deepening our understanding of these potential risks and of actions to address them is especially urgent.
Many risks arising from AI are inherently international in nature, and so are best addressed through international cooperation. We resolve to work together in an inclusive manner to ensure human-centric, trustworthy and responsible AI that is safe, and supports the good of all through existing international fora and other relevant initiatives, to promote cooperation to address the broad range of risks posed by AI. In doing so, we recognise that countries should consider the importance of a pro-innovation and proportionate governance and regulatory approach that maximises the benefits and takes into account the risks associated with AI. This could include making, where appropriate, classifications and categorisations of risk based on national circumstances and applicable legal frameworks. We also note the relevance of cooperation, where appropriate, on approaches such as common principles and codes of conduct. With regard to the specific risks most likely found in relation to frontier AI, we resolve to intensify and sustain our cooperation, and broaden it with further countries, to identify, understand and as appropriate act, through existing international fora and other relevant initiatives, including future international AI Safety Summits.
All actors have a role to play in ensuring the safety of AI: nations, international fora and other initiatives, companies, civil society and academia will need to work together. Noting the importance of inclusive AI and bridging the digital divide, we reaffirm that international collaboration should endeavour to engage and involve a broad range of partners as appropriate, and welcome development-orientated approaches and policies that could help developing countries strengthen AI capacity building and leverage the enabling role of AI to support sustainable growth and address the development gap.
We affirm that, whilst safety must be considered across the AI lifecycle, actors developing frontier AI capabilities, in particular those AI systems which are unusually powerful and potentially harmful, have a particularly strong responsibility for ensuring the safety of these AI systems, including through systems for safety testing, through evaluations, and by other appropriate measures. We encourage all relevant actors to provide context-appropriate transparency and accountability on their plans to measure, monitor and mitigate potentially harmful capabilities and the associated effects that may emerge, in particular to prevent misuse and issues of control, and the amplification of other risks.
In the context of our cooperation, and to inform action at the national and international levels, our agenda for addressing frontier AI risk will focus on:
identifying AI safety risks of shared concern, building a shared scientific and evidence-based understanding of these risks, and sustaining that understanding as capabilities continue to increase, in the context of a wider global approach to understanding the impact of AI in our societies. building respective risk-based policies across our countries to ensure safety in light of such risks, collaborating as appropriate while recognising our approaches may differ based on national circumstances and applicable legal frameworks. This includes, alongside increased transparency by private actors developing frontier AI capabilities, appropriate evaluation metrics, tools for safety testing, and developing relevant public sector capability and scientific research.In furtherance of this agenda, we resolve to support an internationally inclusive network of scientific research on frontier AI safety that encompasses and complements existing and new multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral collaboration, including through existing international fora and other relevant initiatives, to facilitate the provision of the best science available for policy making and the public good.
In recognition of the transformative positive potential of AI, and as part of ensuring wider international cooperation on AI, we resolve to sustain an inclusive global dialogue that engages existing international fora and other relevant initiatives and contributes in an open manner to broader international discussions, and to continue research on frontier AI safety to ensure that the benefits of the technology can be harnessed responsibly for good and for all. We look forward to meeting again in 2024.
AgreementThe countries represented were:
Australia Brazil Canada Chile China European Union France Germany India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kenya Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Netherlands Nigeria The Philippines Republic of Korea Rwanda Singapore Spain Switzerland T¼rkiye Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland United States of AmericaReferences to 'governments' and 'countries' include international organisations acting in accordance with their legislative or executive competences.
Rumor: "Nuclear Bomb" Full Of Emails And Notes Detailing Kathleen Kennedy And Lucasfilm Story Group's "Disgusting" Behavior To Be Released - Bounding Into Comics
Wed, 01 Nov 2023 04:18
In the wake of Gina Carano putting Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm on blast, a new rumor details that a ''nuclear bomb'' of emails and notes about Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm story group members revealing their bad behavior will be made public in the near future.
LONDON, ENGLAND '' APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
This rumor comes in the wake of Kathleen Kennedy being lampooned by South Park and recent comments by Gina Carano summarizing how Kennedy treated her when she was fired from The Mandalorian.
Reacting to a clip from South Park: Joining the Panderverse, Carano wrote, '' This is the part where KK demands any YouTubers get censored off of YouTube for sharing and laughing at this hilarious episode, she'll have YouTube disable the thumbs down option because of the ratio she'll receive, then she'll have her publicist ghouls make sure Variety and Hollywood Reporter run hit pieces about the South Park creators and their families smearing their names through every useful idiot she has under her thumb who would sell their soul to work for Lucas film.''
Pedro Pascal is the Mandalorian and Gina Carano is Cara Dune in THE MANDALORIAN exclusively on Disney+
RELATED: Gina Carano Reveals Disney And Lucasfilm Tried To Force Her To Apologize To The Pronoun Gang
''She'll activate her online mob to repeat that the South Park creators are racist, bigot, transphobes, and demand the South Park creators publicly apologize by only using words she approves of,'' Carano continued. ''And finally she'll demand they subject themselves to a re-education course of 45 people in the lbgtq community zoom call to sit there and listen of how badly they got their feelings hurt all over a little boop of a South Park episode.''
She concluded, ''But maybe just maybe the jig is up.''
This is the part where KK demands any YouTubers get censored off of YouTube for sharing and laughing at this hilarious episode, she'll have YouTube disable the thumbs down option because of the ratio she'll receive, then she'll have her publicist ghouls make sure Variety and'... https://t.co/CMgASHQBgz
'-- Gina Carano ð¯ (@ginacarano) October 28, 2023
RELATED: Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy Made It Clear She Wanted To Fundamentally Change The Star Wars Brand
Carano would reveal in another post that under Kennedy's leadership at Lucasfilm she was asked to unfollow people on social media ''because they 'said bad thing about Kathleen Kennedy.'''
Gina Carano on X
In the wake of these two posts, YouTuber Drunk3PO noted on Culture Casino's Late Night Culture this ''nuclear bomb'' would soon be made public.
RELATED: Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy Admits The Company Has Taken The Fun Out Of Star Wars
Drunk3PO asserted, ''The day is coming. The day is coming and I know the day is coming where there is a lot of emails, there is a lot of notes that someone has collected. And when you see this it will blow your face off as to how disgusting this woman is, Kathleen Kennedy and the people that running Lucasfilm especially over there at the storyboard group.''
''So you guys just got a little taste of what's to come,'' he added.
A little bit later during the stream, he added, ''Again, there's something, there's a nuclear bomb that's coming and just be ready. All of our YouTube channels will benefit once this stuff hits.''
Gina Carano is Cara Dune and Carl Weathers is Greef Karga in Lucasfilm's THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. (C) 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & '. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of this new rumor?
NEXT: Kathleen Kennedy Says New Films Will Move Star Wars Past George Lucas' Original Vision, Will ''Introduce New Characters and Start With Something Fresh''
Does Israel Really Have 'Sponge Bombs' For Sealing Tunnels?
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:10
Israeli forces are prepared to employ "sponge bombs" that produce quick-hardening foam to seal off tunnels used by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, according to a recent report. Though unconfirmed, there is some precedent for the use of devices that create hard or at least very sticky foam by military and other security forces.
Israeli forces at one end of a tunnel that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas dug from the Gaza Strip into Israel in 2014. IDF The Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom published a story about the purported Israeli foam-dispensing 'bombs' on Wednesday. It is important to note up front that, at the time of writing, the Telegraph's piece does not appear to cite any sources, on the record or anonymous, and explicitly says "the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has not commented on the use" of these devices.
As described by the Telegraph, the devices contain a binary chemical mixture that only blends together when the device is activated. The system is reportedly small and light enough to be emplaced, or even thrown, by a single individual.
Israeli "soldiers were seen deploying the devices during exercises in 2021," according to the Telegraph, but no further details or imagery are provided. "The [Israeli] army has set up a mock tunnel system at the Tze'Elim army base near the border with Gaza."
Tze'Elim is publicly known to host a mock Palestinian village with an underground tunnel network specifically to help prepare IDF personnel for ground operations in places like Gaza. To this point, this training site is even nicknamed "Little Gaza."
Israeli forces rest in concrete pipes while training at Tze'Elim army base's "Little Gaza" in 2018. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images "The 'sponge bomb' '' technically a liquid emulsion '' is hazardous to work with, and some Israeli soldiers have lost their sight through mishandling the mixture," the Telegraph reported, again without providing any substantiating information.
Whether or not the IDF's sponge bombs exist or not, a device like the one the Telegraph's report describes does not seem impossible to develop. Various grades of quick-hardening and expanding foam are in widespread use in commercial construction and might be able to provide a useful seal, at least temporarily. One U.S. manufacturer of commercial urethane foam, U.S. Composites, Inc., says that its "16LB density foam is essentially as hard as a rock" and "you would need a hammer in order to make any dents in this product."
Construction is, of course, a very different context from military operations in tunnels, where it would also be very important for any foam to be applied as quickly as possible. Still, a more specialized mixture could conceivably be derived from existing commercial formulations that could offer something more suitable for military use.
It is also worth noting that many commercial-available chemical foams, including types not designed to harden and that are used for entertainment purposes, can cause various degrees of eye injuries. This is at least broadly in line with the mention of 'lost sight' in the Telegraph's report, which could refer to temporary or more serious losses of vision from mishandling the foam.
On top of all this, there are multiple known examples of spray foams that become extremely sticky, even glue-like, being used, or at least tested, by military and security forces, including in the United States.
The U.S. Marine Corps fielded devices designed to shoot streams of sticky foam as a non-lethal tool for immobilizing hostile individuals at least on a limited basis in the past. At least some Marine units sent to Somalia in the 1990s notably had this capability on hand. It is unclear whether or not this system is still in the Corps' inventory.
In 2009, the U.S. Army awarded a contract for work on a similar-sounding capability to what the Marines used, which was also intended primarily to be used for non-lethal crowd control. It is unknown how far the service pursued this project. The company the Army hired to provide those systems, Adherent Technologies of Albuquerque New Mexico, claimed at the time to offer foam strong enough that it could be used to stop commercial cars and trucks in their tracks.
Dispensers full of super-sticky immobilizing foam are also known to be among the defensive features found on heavily modified tractor trailer trucks that the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) uses to move nuclear weapons and other related sensitive cargoes. You can read more about these specialized trucks and their potentially James Bond-esque self-defense capabilities here.
A 'bomb' full of quick hardening and expanding foam could be very useful for Israeli forces in any impending ground operations in Gaza. Hamas and other terrorist groups there make use of an extensive tunnel network that has been dubbed the "Gaza Metro."
The War Zone recently highlighted the challenges tunnels pose in a larger piece on the dangers Israeli forces would face in Gaza, writing:
"Tunnels give combatants a seemingly magical ability to pop up out of nowhere just to quickly disappear again. Just finding the tunnels themselves can be a huge challenge and destroying all of them in such a way they can't easily be reconstituted is another major undertaking."
...
"Subterranean combat is extremely perilous. With movements totally restricted '-- a fatal funnel may be around every turn '-- no support from the air and limited communications, unique tactics are needed not just to succeed, but to survive when fighting in such conditions. The enemy has a massive upper hand as they know the underground layout and are prepared to capitalize on every advantage that it offers."
With all this in mind, being able to rapidly seal tunnels, even just certain portions of a specific network, would reduce the total number of vectors for potential threats to flow through and otherwise limit their utility. Enemy forces might find themselves trapped within, too. Even if the foam only offers a temporary seal, it would also still suck up enemy time and resources to reopen blocked passages.
A member of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad moves through a tunnel in the Gaza Strip in 2022. MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images There are other ways at Israel's disposal to seal tunnels in Gaza, including teams on the ground emplacing explosive charges and airstrikes. However, those means present additional risks for collateral damage, including secondary explosions from weapons and ammunition inside passages detonating following an initial blast. The "sponge bomb," at least as described, would seem to offer a more immediate and exponentially less invasive option.
Regardless, of course, it remains possible that the 'sponge bomb' report is false, either in part or in full. The War Zone has previously highlighted how unsupported claims about "secret" or "unusual" military capabilities can evolve organically, as well as be fabricated deliberately, in a piece discussing still curious reports in 2017 about U.S. forces using "electricity bombs" in Syria.
In this particular instance, it is perhaps interesting to note that the Telegraph's 'sponge bomb' story came out the same day as an extremely dubious and entirely unsubstantiated report from Middle East Eye claiming that the U.S. military is preparing to help Israeli forces flood Gaza's tunnels with nerve gas. A single anonymous "senior Arab source familiar with the Palestinian groups" is cited in that story, which has already been altered in its key details at least once since publication.
With the information available now, The War Zone just cannot conclusively say whether or not Israeli forces actually have foam-dispensing 'bombs' to seal up tunnels. At the same time, relevant capabilities are known to exist and to have been tested and employed by military and other security forces before.
If and when a major Israeli ground incision into Gaza finally comes, harder evidence of these reported foam-spewing devices, which could be very useful in temporarily neutralizing tunnel networks, may finally emerge.
Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com
'Gender-Affirming Care Is Dangerous. I Know Because I Helped Pioneer It.' | The Free Press
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:08
Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, 58, is a Finnish-born and trained adolescent psychiatrist, the chief psychiatrist in the department of adolescent psychiatry at Finland's Tampere University Hospital. She treats patients, teaches medical students, and conducts research in her field'--publishing more than 230 scientific articles.
In 2011, Dr. Kaltiala was assigned a new responsibility. She was to oversee the establishment of a gender identity service for minors, making her among the first physicians in the world to head a clinic devoted to the treatment of gender-distressed young people. Since then, she has personally participated in the assessments of more than 500 such adolescents.
Earlier this year, The Free Press ran a whistleblower account by Jamie Reed, a former case manager at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital. She recounted her growing alarm at the effects of treatments that sought to transition minors to the opposite sex, and her escalating conviction that patients were being harmed by their treatment.
Although a recent New York Times investigation largely corroborated Reed's account, many activists and members of the media continue to dismiss Reed's claims because she is not a physician.
Dr. Kaltiala is. And her concerns are likely to get more attention in the U.S. now that a young woman who medically transitioned as a teenager has just sued the doctors who supervised her treatment, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to the suit, the AAP, in advocating for youth transition, has made ''outright fraudulent statements'' about evidence for ''the radical new treatment model, and the known dangers and potential side effects of the medical interventions it advocates.''
Here, Dr. Kaltiala tells her own story, describing her increasing worries about the treatment she approved for vulnerable patients, and her decision to speak out.
Early in my medical studies, I knew I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I decided to specialize in treating adolescents because I was fascinated by the process of young people actively exploring who they are and seeking their role in the world. My patients' adult lives are still ahead of them, so it can make a huge difference to someone's future to help a young person who is on a destructive track to find a more favorable course. And there are great rewards in doing individual therapeutic work.
Over the past dozen or so years there has been a dramatic development in my field. A new protocol was announced that called for the social and medical gender transition of children and teenagers who experienced gender dysphoria'--that is, a discordance between one's biological sex and an internal feeling of being a different gender.
This condition has been described for decades, and the 1950s is seen as the beginning of the modern era of transgender medicine. During the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first, small numbers of mostly adult men with lifelong gender distress have been treated with estrogen and surgery to help them live as women. Then in recent years came new research on whether medical transition'--primarily hormonal'--could be done successfully on minors.
One motivation of the medical professionals overseeing these treatments was to prevent young people from facing the difficulties adult men had experienced in trying to convincingly appear as women. The most prominent advocates of youth transition were a group of Dutch clinicians. They published a breakthrough paper in 2011 establishing that if young people with gender dysphoria were able to avoid their natural puberty by blocking it with pharmaceuticals, followed by receiving opposite-sex hormones, they could start living their transgender lives earlier and more credibly.
It became known as the ''Dutch protocol.'' The patient population the Dutch doctors described was a small number of young people'--almost all male'--who, from their earliest years, insisted they were girls. The carefully selected patients, apart from their gender distress, were mentally healthy and high-functioning. The Dutch clinicians reported that following early intervention, these young people thrived as members of the opposite sex. The protocol was quickly adopted internationally as the gold standard treatment in this new field of pediatric gender medicine.
Concurrently, there arose an activist movement that declared gender transition was not just a medical procedure, but a human right. This movement became increasingly high profile, and the activists' agenda dominated the media coverage of this field. Advocates for transition also understood the power of the emerging technology of social media. In response to all this, in Finland the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health wanted to create a national pediatric gender program. The task was given to the two hospitals that already housed gender identity services for adults. In 2011, my department was tasked with opening this new service, and I as the chief psychiatrist became the head of it.
Even so, I had some serious questions about all this. We were being told to intervene in healthy, functioning bodies simply on the basis of a young person's shifting feelings about gender. Adolescence is a complex period in which young people are consolidating their personalities, exploring sexual feelings, and becoming independent of their parents. Identity achievement is the outcome of successful adolescent development, not its starting point.
At our hospital, we had a big round of discussions with bioethicists. I expressed my concern that gender transition would interrupt and disrupt this crucial psychological and physical developmental stage. Finally, we obtained a statement from a national board on health ethics cautiously suggesting we undertake this new intervention.
We are a country of 5.5 million with a nationalized healthcare system, and because we required a second opinion to change identity documents and proceed to gender surgery, I have personally met and evaluated the majority of young patients at both clinics considering transition: to date, more than 500 young people. Approval for transition was not automatic. In early years, our psychiatric department agreed to transition for about half of those referred. In recent years, this has dropped to about twenty percent.
As the service got underway starting in 2011, there were many surprises. Not only did the patients come, they came in droves. Around the Western world the numbers of gender-dysphoric children were skyrocketing.
But the ones who came were nothing like what was described by the Dutch. We expected a small number of boys who had persistently declared they were girls. Instead, 90 percent of our patients were girls, mainly 15 to 17 years old, and instead of being high-functioning, the vast majority presented with severe psychiatric conditions.
Some came from families with multiple psychosocial problems. Most of them had challenging early childhoods marked by developmental difficulties, such as extreme temper tantrums and social isolation. Many had academic troubles. It was common for them to have been bullied'--but generally not regarding their gender presentation. In adolescence they were lonely and withdrawn. Some were no longer in school, instead spending all their time alone in their room. They had depression and anxiety, some had eating disorders, many engaged in self-harm, a few had experienced psychotic episodes. Many'--many'--were on the autism spectrum.
Remarkably, few had expressed any gender dysphoria until their sudden announcement of it in adolescence. Now they were coming to us because their parents, usually just mothers, had been told by someone in an LGBT organization that gender identity was their child's real problem, or the child had seen something online about the benefits of transition.
Even during the first few years of the clinic, gender medicine was becoming rapidly politicized. Few were raising questions about what the activists'--who included medical professionals'--were saying. And they were saying remarkable things. They asserted that not only would the feelings of gender distress immediately disappear if young people start to medically transition, but also that all their mental health problems would be alleviated by these interventions. Of course, there is no mechanism by which high doses of hormones resolve autism or any other underlying mental health condition.
Because what the Dutch had described differed so dramatically from what I was seeing in our clinic, I thought maybe there was something unusual about our patient population. So I started talking about our observations with a network of professionals in Europe. I found out that everybody was dealing with a similar caseload of girls with multiple psychiatric problems. Colleagues from different countries were confused by this, too. Many said it was a relief to hear their experience was not unique.
''Medicine, unfortunately, is not immune to dangerous groupthink that results in patient harm,'' Dr. Kaltiala writes.But no one was saying anything publicly. There was a feeling of pressure to provide what was supposed to be a wonderful new treatment. I felt in myself, and saw in others, a crisis of confidence. People stopped trusting their own observations about what was happening. We were having doubts about our education, clinical experience, and ability to read and produce scientific evidence.
Soon after our hospital began offering hormonal interventions for these patients, we began to see that the miracle we had been promised was not happening. What we were seeing was just the opposite.
The young people we were treating were not thriving. Instead, their lives were deteriorating. We thought, what is this? Because there wasn't a hint in studies that this could happen. Sometimes the young people insisted their lives had improved and they were happier. But as a medical doctor, I could see that they were doing worse. They were withdrawing from all social activities. They were not making friends. They were not going to school. We continued to network with colleagues in different countries who said they were seeing the same things.
I became so concerned that I embarked on a study with my Finnish colleagues to describe our patients. We methodically went through the records of those who had been treated at the clinic its first two years, and we characterized how troubled they were'--one of them was mute'--and how much they differed from the Dutch patients. For example, more than a quarter of our patients were on the autism spectrum. Our study was published in 2015, and I believe it was the first journal publication from a gender clinician raising serious questions about this new treatment.
I knew others were making the same observations at their clinics, and I hoped my paper would spark discussion about their concerns'--that's how medicine corrects itself. But our field, instead of acknowledging the problems we described, became more committed to expanding these treatments.
In the U.S., your first pediatric gender clinic opened in Boston in 2007. Fifteen years later there were more than 100 such clinics. As the U.S. protocols developed, fewer limitations were put on transition. A Reuters investigation found that some U.S. clinics approved hormone treatments at a minor's first visit. The U.S. pioneered a new treatment standard, called ''gender-affirming care,'' which urged clinicians simply to accept a child's assertion of a trans identity, and to stop being ''gatekeepers'' who raised concerns about transition.
Around 2015, in addition to the very psychiatrically ill patients, a new set of patients started arriving at our clinic. We began to see groups of teenage girls, also usually from 15 to 17 years of age from the same small towns, or even the same schools, telling the same life stories and the same anecdotes about their childhoods, including their sudden realization that they were transgender'--despite no prior history of dysphoria. We realized they were networking and exchanging information about how to talk to us. And so, we got our first experience of social contagion''linked gender dysphoria. This, too, was happening in pediatric gender clinics around the world, and again health providers were failing to speak up.
I understood this silence. Anyone, including physicians, researchers, academics, and writers, who raised concerns about the growing power of gender activists, and about the effects of medically transitioning young people, were subjected to organized campaigns of vilification and threats to their careers.
In 2016, because of several years of growing concern about the harms of transition on vulnerable young patients, Finland's two pediatric gender services changed their protocols. Now, if young people had other, more urgent problems than gender dysphoria that needed to be addressed, we promptly referred those patients for more appropriate treatment, such as psychiatric counseling, rather than continuing their gender identity assessment.
There was a lot of pressure against this approach from activists, politicians, and the media. The Finnish press published stories of young people dissatisfied with our decision, portraying them as victims of gender clinics that were forcing them to put their lives on hold. A Finnish medical journal ran a piece that took the perspective of dissatisfied activists titled, ''Why do trans adolescents not get their blockers?''
But I was trained that medical treatment has to be based on medical evidence, and that medicine has to constantly correct itself. When you are a physician who sees something is not working, it is your duty to organize, research, inform your colleagues, inform a big audience, and stop doing that treatment.
Finland's national healthcare system gives us the ability to investigate current medical practices and set new guidelines. In 2015 I personally asked a national body, called the Council for Choices in Health Care (COHERE), to create national guidelines for treatment of gender dysphoria in minors. In 2018 I renewed this request with colleagues, and it was accepted. COHERE commissioned a systematic evidence review to assess the reliability of the current medical literature on youth transition.
Around this same time, eight years into the opening of the pediatric gender clinic, some previous patients started coming back to tell us they now regretted their transition. Some'--called ''detransitioners'''--wished to return to their birth sex. These were another kind of patient who wasn't supposed to exist. The authors of the Dutch protocol asserted that rates of regret were miniscule.
But the foundation on which the Dutch protocol was based is crumbling. Researchers have shown that their data had some serious problems, and that in their follow-up, they failed to include many of the very people who may have regretted transition or changed their minds. One of the patients had died due to complications from genital transition surgery.
There is an oft-repeated statistic in the world of pediatric gender medicine that only one percent or less of young people who transition subsequently detransition. The studies asserting this, too, rest on biased questions, inadequate samples, and short timelines. I believe regret is far more widespread. For example, one new study shows that nearly 30 percent of patients in the sample ceased filling their hormone prescription within four years.
Usually, it takes several years for the full impact of transition to settle in. This is when young people who have entered adulthood confront what it means to possibly be sterile, to have damaged sexual function, to have great difficulty in finding romantic partners.
It is devastating to speak to patients who say they were naive and misguided about what transition would mean for them, and who now feel it was a terrible mistake. Mainly these patients tell me they were so convinced they needed to transition that they concealed information or lied in the assessment process.
I continued to research the issue and in 2018, with colleagues, I published another paper, one that investigated the origin of the surging numbers of gender-dysphoric young people. But we didn't find answers as to why this was happening, or what to do about it. We noted in our study a point that is generally ignored by gender activists. That is, for the overwhelming majority of gender dysphoric children'--around 80 percent'--their dysphoria resolves itself if they are left to go through natural puberty. Often these children come to realize they are gay.
In June of 2020 a major event happened in my field. Finland's national medical body, COHERE, released its findings and recommendations regarding youth gender transition. It concluded that the studies touting the success of the ''gender-affirming'' model were biased and unreliable'--systematically so in some cases.
The authors wrote: ''In light of available evidence, gender reassignment of minors is an experimental practice.'' The report stated that young patients seeking gender transition should be instructed about ''the reality of a lifelong commitment to medical therapy, the permanence of the effects, and the possible physical and mental adverse effects of the treatments.'' The report warned that young people, whose brains were still maturing, lacked the ability to properly ''assess the consequences'' of making decisions they would have to live with for the ''rest of their lives.''
COHERE also recognized the dangers of giving hormone treatments to young people with serious mental illness. The authors concluded that for all these reasons, gender transition should be postponed ''until adulthood.''
It had taken quite a while, but I felt vindicated.
Fortunately, Finland is not alone. After similar reviews, the UK and Sweden have come to similar conclusions. And many other countries with national healthcare systems are re-evaluating their ''gender-affirming'' stance.
I felt an increasing obligation to patients, to medicine, and to the truth, to speak outside of Finland against the widespread transitioning of gender-distressed minors. I have been particularly concerned about American medical societies, who as a group continue to assert that children know their ''authentic'' selves, and a child who declares a transgender identity should be affirmed and started on treatment. (In recent years, the ''trans'' identity has evolved to include more young people who say they are ''nonbinary'''--that is, they feel they don't belong to either sex'--and other gender variations.)
Medical organizations are supposed to transcend politics in favor of upholding standards that protect patients. However, in the U.S. these groups'--including the American Academy of Pediatrics'--have been actively hostile to the message my colleagues and I are urging.
I attempted to address the rising international concerns about pediatric gender transition at this year's annual conference of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. But the two proposed panels were rejected by the academy. This is highly disturbing. Science does not progress through silencing. Doctors who refuse to consider evidence presented by critics are putting patient safety at risk.
I am also disturbed by how gender clinicians routinely warn American parents that there is an enormously elevated risk of suicide if they stand in the way of their child's transition. Any young person's death is a tragedy, but careful research shows that suicide is very rare. It is dishonest and extremely unethical to pressure parents into approving gender medicalization by exaggerating the risk of suicide.
This year the Endocrine Society of the U.S. reiterated its endorsement of hormonal gender transition for young people. The president of the society wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal that such care was ''lifesaving'' and ''reduces the risk of suicide.'' I was a co-author of a letter in response, signed by 20 clinicians from nine countries, refuting his assertion. We wrote that, ''Every systematic review of evidence to date, including one published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, has found the evidence for mental health benefits of hormonal interventions for minors to be of low or very low certainty.''
Medicine, unfortunately, is not immune to dangerous groupthink that results in patient harm. What is happening to dysphoric children reminds me of the recovered memory craze of the 1980s and '90s. During that period, many troubled women came to believe false memories, often suggested to them by their therapists, of nonexistent sexual abuse by their fathers or other family members. This abuse, the therapists said, explained everything that was wrong with the lives of their patients. Families were torn apart, and some people were prosecuted based on made-up assertions. It ended when therapists, journalists, and lawyers investigated and exposed what was happening.
We need to learn from such scandals. Because, like recovered memory, gender transition has gotten out of hand. When medical professionals start saying they have one answer that applies everywhere, or that they have a cure for all of life's pains, that should be a warning to us all that something has gone very wrong.
Watch whistleblower Jamie Reed talk about her own experiences at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital with Emily Yoffe, senior editor at The Free Press.
And to support more of our work, become a Free Press subscriber today:
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New details released after man found dead at Colorado amusement park | 9news.com
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:48
The sheriff's office said the 20-year-old man from Carbondale had a semi-automatic rifle, semi-automatic handgun and loaded magazines for both weapons.
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. '-- A 20-year-old man found dead in a bathroom at an amusement park in Glenwood Springs on Saturday was armed with multiple guns, loaded magazines and explosive devices. Words on written on a bathroom stall where he was found said, "I am not a killer," according to authorities.
The Garfield County Sheriff's Office responded Saturday morning to a report of a deceased man at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. Based upon a preliminary investigation, it appeared he illegally entered the park after hours.
At a news conference Monday, Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said the man was found in a women's bathroom, near a stall. The man's motive was unclear, but Vallario said there was writing in a bathroom stall that said, "I'm not a killer. I just wanted to get into the caves." The sheriff could not confirm whether the man wrote that.
The Garfield County Coroner's Office identified the man as Diego Barajas Medina and said he died of a gunshot wound. The coroner's office said it was investigating his death as a suicide.
Earlier Monday, the sheriff's office said that the man, from the Carbondale area, was dressed in black-colored tactical clothing, bearing patches and emblems that gave the appearance of being associated with law enforcement. He was heavily armed with a semi-automatic rifle, a semi-automatic handgun, multiple loaded magazines for both weapons and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He was wearing body armor and what appeared to be a ballistic helmet.
Vallario said the man had pipe bombs and that his firearms were ghost guns. He said the man had a combination of real and fake weapons.
"While this investigation is still ongoing and very active it is important to realize that given the amount of weapons, ammunition and explosive devices found, the suspect could have implemented an attack of devastating proportions upon the community and first responders," the Garfield County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
It wasn't clear how he entered the park. Typically, a gondola is used to get to the park, but the sheriff said the man drove up the service road.
The man lived with his mom and brother. Vallario said authorities made contact with the family to be able to search his room. He said they couldn't find any history of a criminal record and that the man was "completely under the radar."
The park was given an all clear by authorities and it appears that the park is now open to the public, Vallario said.
The Grand Junction Bomb Squad and Garfield County All Hazard Response Team (AHRT) swept the Glenwood Adventure Caverns property Saturday and Sunday to ensure no IED's had been planted around the park or rides.
The sheriff's office said the investigation so far indicates that nobody in the public was at risk, and it would appear that the man's actions were limited to the property of the Glenwood Caverns.
"The initial two days of the investigation have been carried out in a slow, methodical manner in order to search the property, as well as the suspect's residence to ensure the safety of the public and to begin to determine the extent of his criminal activity," according to a sheriff's office news release. "The safety of the public, bomb disposal personnel, law enforcement and other first responders was the priority as well as making sure the Caverns were safe to reopen."
Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park released a statement saying the man was found dead during the park's pre-opening maintenance and security inspections. Emergency Medical Services was contacted, and local authorities responded.
Glenwood Caverns said multiple security programs are in place to keep guests safe, including an extensive network of security cameras, alarms, fencing, gates and posted signage. Lockout protocols provide protection for engineering, ride operation and ride restricted areas, as well as sensitive buildings.
''This very sad and tragic incident reminds us how much our Glenwood Springs community means to us,'' said general manager Nancy Heard. ''We appreciate the swift action and thorough work of the Garfield County Sheriff's Department and Coroner's Office, as well as the Garfield County All Hazard Response Team and other authorities assisting in the investigation, working together to ensure the park is safe to reopen. Thank you for all you do.''
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Makhachkala - Wikipedia
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:32
City in Dagestan, Russia
Makhachkala
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Top-down, left-to-right: View of Makhachkala, The Government Building of Dagestan, Dagestan State Russian Gorki Drama Theater, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Dormition, the Grand Mosque of Makhachkala, Aerial view of Makhachkala and the Caspian Sea
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Coordinates: 42°58'²N 47°29'²E >> / >> 42.967°N 47.483°E >> / 42.967; 47.483 CountryRussiaFederal subjectDagestanFounded1844[2]City status since1857[2] ' BodyAssembly of Deputies ' HeadSalman Dadaev[3] ' Total468.13 km2 (180.75 sq mi)Elevation10 m (30 ft) ' Total572,076 ' Estimate 596,356 ( +4.2% ) ' Rank27th in 2010 ' Density1,200/km2 (3,200/sq mi) ' Subordinated to City of Makhachkala[1] ' Capital of Republic of Dagestan[1] ' Capital of City of Makhachkala[1] ' Urban okrug Makhachkala Urban Okrug[7] ' Capital of Makhachkala Urban Okrug[7]Time zoneUTC+3 (MSK [8])Postal code(s)[9]367000-367999
Dialing code(s)+7 8722OKTMO ID82701000001Website www.mkala.ru Makhachkala[a] previously known as Petrovskoye (ÐеÑÑовÑкое ; 1844''1857) and Port-Petrovsk (ÐеÑÑовÑк-ÐоÑÑ ; 1857''1921), or by the local Kumyk name of Anji,[10] is the capital and largest city of Dagestan, Russia. The city is located on the Caspian Sea, covering an area of 468.13 square kilometres (180.75 square miles), with a population of over 623,254 residents,[11] while the urban agglomeration covers over 3,712 square kilometres (1,433 square miles), with a population of roughly 1 million residents. Makhachkala is the fourth-largest city in the Caucasus, the largest city in the North Caucasus and the North Caucasian Federal District, as well as the third-largest city on the Caspian Sea. The city is extremely ethnically diverse, with a minor ethnic Russian population.
The city's historic predecessor is the port town of Anji (Andzhi), which was located in Kumykia, and which was a part of possessions of Tarki state, the capital of Kumyks known from the 8th century.[12][13]
The city was named Petrovskoye after Peter the Great. After gaining city status in 1857, the Petrovskoye fortress was renamed Petrovsk-Port. After the Russian Revolution, Petrovsk-Port was renamed Makhachkala on May 14, 1921, after Bolshevik revolutionary Makhach Dakhadaev [ru] . On the same day, it became capital of the newly formed Dagestan ASSR. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the city became the capital of the Republic of Dagestan.
Makhachkala is an important economic, educational, scientific, and cultural centre of the North Caucasus. The city is a major Russian seaport on the Caspian Sea, and a transport hub. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in Russia, and is currently[when? ] going through a construction boom.
History [ edit ] Makhachkala's historic predecessors were the towns of Tarki and Anji (or Andzhi, or Anji-kala), dating their history, according to some sources, back to Khazar times.[14][15] Some chronicles suggest that it was the name of a citadel of Khazarian capital of Semender, which was called Anji-kala.[16]
During the first Muslim conquests of Dagestan, it was exposed to an influx of Muslims. During the reign of Umayyad Caliph Hisham b. Abd¼lmelik (724-743), the caliph's brother Maslama succeeded in establishing Islamic dominance in the region with his conquests. In the following years, one of the Umayyad commanders, Marwan b. Mohammed also organized successful raids to Dagestan. However, the Islamic domination in the region ended in 796 (180 AH) when the Khazars captured Derbend. In the early days of the Abbasids, the struggle against the Khazars continued. This struggle, which lasted for two centuries, ended with the victory of the Muslim Arabs. In 815, Sheikh Abu Ishaq and Sheikh Mohammed al-Kindi entered Dagestan with a volunteer army of about 2000 people and tried to spread Islam. In the second half of the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks took a part of the region under their control. Dagestan was invaded by the Mongols in 1222. The Cumans (Kipchaks), who ruled in the north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus, played an important role in the Turkification of the region. Later on, the Ilkhanids, Golden Horde Khanate, Timurids, Shirvanshahs and Safavids dominated Dagestan respectively. Dagestan came under Ottoman rule between 1578 and 1606.[17]
The Safavids started operations to spread Shiism in Dagestan at the beginning of the 19th century but were met with fierce resistance of Dagestanis. Shah Abbas II established a significant influence in Dagestan in 1639. It started to attract the attention of the Russians from the 17th century onwards. It remained the scene of a struggle for influence between Iranians, Russians and Ottomans from the beginning of the 17th century.[17]
When the Safavids began to lose their power at the beginning of the 17th century, the people of Dagestan united under the leadership of olak Surhay Khan of the Gazikumukh Khanate, and they won a victory against Iran in 1712. In order to continue their success, he took the people of Dagestan, who asked for help from the Ottoman administration, under his protection by sending gifts to the sultans of the Sublime Porte.[17]
Russian Tsar Peter the Great visited what is now Makhachkala in 1722, and the settlement bore his name from 1844 to 1921Although the Russians could not hold on to the interior of Dagestan, they expanded their sovereignty towards the Caspian coast and could only be stopped in front of Baku with the help of the Ottoman forces under the command of Mustafa Pasha. With a treaty signed between Russia and Iran in 1724, Derbend, Baku and some other places in the region were left to Russia. As a result of his struggles against the Russians, Nadir Shah captured the south of Dagestan, Derbend and Baku with the Rasht Treaty signed in 1732, and some lands between the Sulak and Kura (K¼r) rivers with the 1735 treaty. After 1747, the Russians regained influence in Dagestan.[17]
In the 1840s, after Russian Empire seized the Kumyk plateau, Anji-kala became the place where fort Petrovskoye was founded.[18] A town status was granted to the fortress in 1857.[2] The Russian name of the city was Petrovskoye (ÐеÑÑоÌвÑкое )'--after the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, who waged war in the region in 1722[19][20] during his Persian Campaign. However, among the local Kumyks the city was still known as Anzhi-Qala, The Pearl Fortress (Qala means fortress or a city with walls, while Anzhi / Inzhi / Inji means pearl in Kumyk). There is also still a hill called Anji-arqa, meaning the hill of Anji.[12]
After gaining town status in 1857, the Petrovskoye fortress was renamed Petrovsk-Port (ÐеÑÑоÌвÑк-ÐоÑÑ ), sometimes simply Petrovsk.[21]
In 1894, a railway line linked the city to Vladikavkaz (in present-day North Ossetia-Alania) and Baku (in present-day Azerbaijan). However, despite the development, a report from 1904 detailed the spread of malaria and unsuitable drinking water in the city.[22]
In January 1919, during the Russian Civil War, the British No. 221 Squadron Royal Air Force based themselves at Petrovsk. In March they were joined by No. 266 Squadron and both squadrons were involved in bombing operations against Bolshevik forces in Astrakhan and elsewhere. In August 1919 both squadrons were withdrawn from Petrovsk.[23] The city was invaded by the Red Army in March 1920.[22]
As part of the Soviet revolution, place names relating to monarchy or religion were changed, and thus on 14 May 1921, Petrovsk was renamed Makhachkala, after Dagestani revolutionary Magomed-Ali 'Makhach' Dakhadaev. On the same day, it became capital of the newly formed Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.[22] The city incurred major damage during an earthquake on 14 May 1970.[24] The city was briefly renamed Shamilkala during the disintegration of the Soviet Union in honor of the Dagestani freedom fighter Imam Shamil.
The area was used as a Soviet-era naval testing station, leaving behind a curious sea fort off nearby Kaspiysk ( 42°53'²48'"N 47°40'²53'"E >> / >> 42.896598°N 47.681274°E >> / 42.896598; 47.681274 ).[25]
A report of the International Crisis Group from 2013 describes the city as being "a city of almost one million and gained spectacular economic resources due to a construction boom, skyrocketing land prices, substantial federal funds for reconstruction, infrastructure, transport, housing, courts and administrative services. But even a short visit revealed acute problems, including dirty streets, dilapidated buildings, inadequate utilities, hectic construction, lack of planning and poorly organised public transport".[26]
Deportation of the Kumyk population and expansion of Makhachkala [ edit ] On April 12, 1944, a decision was made[by whom? ] to resettle the inhabitants of Kumyk villages of Tarki, Kyakhulay and Alburikent, which owned the surrounding areas, to the settlements of the deported[when? ] Chechens. Most of the released land was distributed to the Makhachkala city council (6243 out of 8166 hectares), in addition to the collective farms of the mountainous regions and industrial enterprises of Makhachkala.
After the return of the Kumyk population in 1957, the lands of the collective farms were not restored, personal property was also lost, many houses were occupied by people resettled from mountainous areas. The historical monuments of the ancient city were destroyed and used as construction materials for the infrastructure of Makhachkala.[27][28][29][30][31]
21st century [ edit ] Protests and violent police clashes occurred in Makhachkala, as was the case in other Russian cities, in response to the 2022 Russian mobilization, as well as a call-up of 110 men from the village of Endirey to be conscripted into the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the BBC, 301 Dagestani soldiers had died in Ukraine as of September 2022.[32] This was ten times greater than the corresponding figure in Moscow region, which has a population five times larger than Dagestan.[33]
On 14 August 2023, a fire at a gas station in Makhachkala led to a series of explosions, causing at least 25 deaths and 66 injuries.[34][35]
On the evening of 29 October 2023, antisemitic riots occurred at the Makhachkala airport causing 500 police officers of the Russian federal police (MVD) to take control of it and forcing its temporary closure until the morning of 30 October 2023.[36][37][38][39][40][41][42] On October 28 and 29, Morning of Dagestan, also transliterated as Utro Dagestana (Russian: УÑÑо Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана>> ) began publishing false reports its Telegram channel about "refugees from Israel" who were allegedly fleeing from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and arriving in the North Caucasus. Later, this grew into calls for a pogrom. Sergei Melikov, who is the governor of Dagestan, stated that Morning of Dagestan participated in the riots and falsely accused persons in Ukraine, which he called Banderovites also transliterated as Bandеrovetsy (Russian: бандеÑовÑÑ ), and Ilya Ponomarev, who denied any connection to Morning of Dagestan on his facebook page, as the instigator of the pogrom.[43][44][45][46] Both Maria Zakharova, who is the Director of the Information and Press Department at the Russian foreign ministry, and Dmitry Peskov, who is Vladimir Putin's personal press secretary, supported Sergey Melikov's false accusations of participation from Ukrainian provacateurs for the cause of the pogrom.[40]
Economy [ edit ] The most important industrial sector is the oil refineries, as well as mechanical engineering and textile factories. Numerous administrative and educational institutions are based in the city, including a regional research centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences with around 20 research departments. The city is also the media centre of the region. Numerous newspapers are published in Makhachkala, including Dagestanskaya Pravda and the Islamic As-Salam. In addition, several regional television stations are based in the city.
Administrative and municipal status [ edit ] Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with eight urban-type settlements and six rural localities, incorporated as the City of Makhachkala'--an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[1] As a municipal division, the City of Makhachkala is incorporated as Makhachkala Urban Okrug.[7]
City divisions [ edit ] View of MakhachkalaFor the purposes of administration, the city is divided into three city districts, from west to east: Kirovsky, Sovetsky and Leninsky. In May 2015, these three city districts were granted municipal status.[7]
Symbols [ edit ] The coat of arms and flag of Makhachkala were adopted on 15 December 2006. The coat of arms shows the city's historic fortress in silver on a red field, with flames coming from either tower and a solar symbol above. It is supported by a golden eagle on each side, a crown on top, and crossed anchors (representing its maritime history) entangled with grapevines at the bottom.
A street in MakhachkalaIn proportions of 2:3, the flag displays the main shield of the city's coat of arms.[47]
Unrest [ edit ] Makhachkala is close to areas of fighting and therefore it and the surrounding region has a heavy security service presence. On 25 November 2011, a protest took place in Makhachkala attended by up to 3,000 people demanding an end to illegal activities perpetrated by the security services.[48]
On December 15, 2011, Gadzhimurat Kamalov, a Russian investigative journalist and founder of the independent Chernovik newspaper was shot dead in an apparent assassination.[49]
Demographics [ edit ] Historical populationYearPop.±%1897 10,000'-- 1926 33,552+235.5%1939 86,836+158.8%1959 119,334+37.4%1970 185,863+55.8%1979 251,371+35.2%1989 317,475+26.3%2002 462,412+45.7%2010 572,076+23.7%2021 623,254+8.9%Source: Census dataThe population of Makhachkala includes (2021 Census data):[50]
Avar nations (25.6%)Kumyks (18.9%)Dargin nations (15.5%)Lezgins (13.9%)Laks (11.8%)Russians (5.9%)Tabasarans (2.3%)Rutuls (1.2%)Nogais (1.0%)Aghuls (1.0%)Transportation [ edit ] Makhachkala StationThe city is served by Uytash Airport, a regional airport providing connections to other Russian cities. Russian Railways via the North Caucasus Railway provides freight and passenger traffic to and from Makhachkala.[citation needed ]
The Caspian Sea International Port handles crude oil, petroleum, construction materials, grain, cargo and timber and operates 24 hours a day. The port offers communications with the rest of Russia, as well as with Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia. A railyard at the port connects the port to the North Caucasus Railway network.[51]
Sports [ edit ] Dynamo Stadium is home of FC Dynamo MakhachkalaThe city's main football team, FC Dynamo Makhachkala, currently plays in the second division Russian First League. They play in the 15,200 Dynamo Stadium.
FC Anzhi Makhachkala, the city's former top team, played at Dynamo Stadium before moving to Anzhi Arena. Anzhi were purchased by Dagestani commodities billionaire Suleyman Kerimov in 2011,[52] whose investments allowed the club to sign players such as Brazilian World Cup winner Roberto Carlos[53] and Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o who, during his time at the club, became the world's highest paid player.[54] The club lived its golden era, finished in the Top 5 for two consecutive seasons (2011-12 and 2012-13) and qualified for the UEFA Europa League, reaching the round of 16 on both occasions. However, after 2013, due to unrest in the region, the players moved to live and train in Moscow, while the local matches in Makhachkala were guarded by armed patrols.[55] This situation, followed by severe budget cuts, made the club lost most of its key players and went on to finish bottom of the table in the 2013''14 Season, later folding in 2022 after having fallen to the third division.
Climate [ edit ] Makhachkala has a cold semi-arid climate (K¶ppen: BSk) with warm, relatively dry summers and, cool relatively moist winters. The strong rain shadow of the Caucasus and the ability of the Siberian High to freely move westwards from its source in the Tibetan and Mongolian plateaus makes the climate quite dry, although frequently overcast throughout the winter, which is owing to the relatively low latitude and nearness to the Caspian Sea very mild by Russian standards. Summers are sunnier but also dry as the region is exposed to steep descending vertical velocity from the Indian monsoon, and the greatest rainfall occurs in the autumn season from September to November. October 1987 with 245 millimetres or 9.65 inches has been the wettest month, whilst no precipitation occurred in February 1958, October 1974 and April 1986.
The coldest month since records began in 1882 has been February 1929 with a mean monthly temperature of ''9.5 °C or 14.9 °F, whilst the hottest have been July 2010 and August 2014 with means of 27.1 °C or 80.8 °F each, although 9 August 2017 is the hottest day, reaching 40.2 °C or 104.4 °F. The coldest night was on February 9, 2012, when the mercury fell to ''26.9 °C or ''16.4 °F, beating the previous record of ''26.5 °C or ''15.7 °F from December 28, 1888.
Climate data for Makhachkala (1991''2020 normals, extremes 1882''present)MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYearRecord high °C (°F)19.2(66.6)20.9(69.6)28.8(83.8)33.5(92.3)35.1(95.2)36.8(98.2)39.5(103.1)40.2(104.4)37.4(99.3)28.9(84.0)23.1(73.6)19.9(67.8)40.2(104.4)Average high °C (°F)4.1(39.4)4.6(40.3)8.6(47.5)14.4(57.9)20.9(69.6)26.5(79.7)29.3(84.7)29.3(84.7)24.3(75.7)17.9(64.2)10.7(51.3)6.0(42.8)16.4(61.5)Daily mean °C (°F)1.0(33.8)1.4(34.5)5.2(41.4)10.3(50.5)16.5(61.7)22.0(71.6)24.8(76.6)24.9(76.8)20.3(68.5)14.2(57.6)7.4(45.3)2.9(37.2)12.6(54.7)Average low °C (°F)''1.7(28.9)''1.5(29.3)2.3(36.1)6.9(44.4)12.8(55.0)17.7(63.9)20.6(69.1)20.6(69.1)16.6(61.9)10.7(51.3)4.2(39.6)0.0(32.0)9.1(48.4)Record low °C (°F)''25.1(''13.2)''26.8(''16.2)''13.5(7.7)''5.1(22.8)0.0(32.0)5.8(42.4)9.7(49.5)8.0(46.4)0.7(33.3)''6.6(20.1)''19.7(''3.5)''26.5(''15.7)''26.8(''16.2)Average precipitation mm (inches)36(1.4)28(1.1)23(0.9)19(0.7)34(1.3)27(1.1)22(0.9)29(1.1)51(2.0)38(1.5)46(1.8)38(1.5)391(15.4)Average extreme snow depth cm (inches)2(0.8)2(0.8)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)1(0.4)1(0.4)2(0.8)Average rainy days11101211121191011131312135Average snowy days91040.2000000.13632Average relative humidity (%)84838379767170727580838578Mean monthly sunshine hours747110517124627828227019415181671,990Source 1: ÐоÐ"ода и ÐÐ>>имаÑ[56]Source 2: NOAA (sun, 1961''1990)[57]Economy and culture [ edit ] Makhachkala LighthouseLighthouse [ edit ] Makhachkala Lighthouse is an operating lighthouse. Landmark of the city.[58]Notable people [ edit ] Shamil Zavurov, Eagle sports president and former MMA lightweights championRuslan Agalarov, former association football playerMalik Akhmedilov, editorKamalutdin Akhmedov, association football playerEduard Akuvaev, artistGasret Aliev, Soviet heroAli Aliyev, amateur boxerAbdulla Alishayev, TV hostHizgil Avshalumov, Soviet novelist, poet and playwrightMishi Bakhshiev, writer and poetAli Gadzhibekov, association football playerShamil Gitinov, wrestlerAli Isayev, wrestlerGadzhimurat Kamalov, editorRustam Khabilov, mixed martial artistKuramagomed Kuramagomedov, wrestlerShamil Lakhiyalov, association football playerGadzhimurad Nurmagomedov, Olympic Armenian wrestlerHasbulla Magomedov, internet personalityJamaladdin Magomedov, Azeri wrestlerKhadzhimurad Magomedov, Olympic Azeri wrestlerRashid Magomedov, mixed martial artistIslam Makhachev, mixed martial artist, current UFC Lightweight ChampionAleksandr Maslov, former association football playerMagomed Musaev, Olympic Kyrgyz wrestlerSharif Mukhammad, Afghan football playerMarid Mutalimov, Olympic Kazakh wrestlerVladimir Nazlymov, sabre fencer and coachKhabib Nurmagomedov, mixed martial artist, former UFC Lightweight ChampionEduard Puterbrot, artistMuslim Salikhov, kickboxerSerder Serderov, association football playerSharif Sharifov, Olympic Azeri wrestlerRuslan Sheikhau, Belarusian wrestlerIlyas Shurpayev, television journalistNikita Timoshin, association football playerAnatoly Yagudaev, sculptor. He held an honorary title of People's Artist of the Russian FederationZalimkhan Yusupov, Olympic Tajik wrestler Twin towns '' sister cities [ edit ] Makhachkala is twinned with:[59]
Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ a b c d e Law #16 ^ a b c "General Information" (in Russian). Republic of Dagestan. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020 . Retrieved September 3, 2017 . ^ "Ð'овÑм мÑÑом Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>Ñ ÑÑаÐ>> ÑкÑ-Ð"Ð>>ава ÑÐÑÐ°Ð²Ñ ÐаÑманноÐ"о Ñайона Ð'оÑÐºÐ²Ñ Ð--адаев". ria.ru. January 31, 2019. ^ ÐодÑÑиÑано Ðо базе даннÑÑ
мÑниÑиÐаÐ>>ÑнÑÑ
обÑазований РФ на 2008 Ð"од ^ Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). Ð'ÑеÑоÑÑийÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÐеÑеÐиÑÑ Ð½Ð°ÑеÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ 2010 Ð"ода. Ðом 1 [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Ð'ÑеÑоÑÑийÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÐеÑеÐиÑÑ Ð½Ð°ÑеÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ 2010 Ð"ода [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. ^ "26. ЧиÑÐ>>енноÑÑÑ ÐоÑÑоÑнноÐ"о наÑеÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð Ð¾ÑÑийÑкой ФедеÑаÑии Ðо мÑниÑиÐаÐ>>ÑнÑм обÑазованиÑм на 1 ÑнваÑÑ 2018 Ð"ода". Federal State Statistics Service . Retrieved January 23, 2019 . ^ a b c d Law #6 ^ "Ðб иÑÑиÑÐ>>ении вÑемени". ÐÑиÑиаÐ>>ÑнÑй инÑеÑнеÑ-ÐоÑÑаÐ>> ÐÑавовой инÑоÑмаÑии (in Russian). June 3, 2011 . Retrieved January 19, 2019 . ^ ÐоÑÑа РоÑÑии. ÐнÑоÑмаÑионно-вÑÑиÑÐ>>иÑеÐ>>ÑнÑй ÑенÑÑ ÐÐÐУ Ð ÐÐ. (Russian Post). ÐоиÑк обÑекÑов ÐоÑÑовой ÑвÑзи (Postal Objects Search) (in Russian) ^ "Ð Ñд 5. ÐиÑÑ Ð | Ð'еоÐоÑÑаÐ>> Ð ÑÑÑкоÐ"о Ð"еоÐ"ÑаÑиÑеÑкоÐ"о обÑеÑÑва". ^ "ÐÑенка ÑиÑÐ>>енноÑÑи ÐоÑÑоÑнноÐ"о наÑеÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ðо ÑÑбÑекÑам РоÑÑийÑкой ФедеÑаÑии". Federal State Statistics Service . Retrieved September 1, 2022 . ^ a b ÐниÐ"а "Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан: ÐÑÑеводиÑеÐ>>Ñ Ñ ÐºÐ°ÑÑой" ÐаÐ>>инин ÐÐ>>екÑей, ÐÑкÑ-ÐÑеÑÑ, 2021 ^ ÐовеÑÑÐºÐ°Ñ Ð¸ÑÑоÑиÑеÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÑнÑикÐ>>оÐедиÑ. '-- Ð'.: ÐовеÑÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÑнÑикÐ>>оÐÐµÐ´Ð¸Ñ . Ðод Ñед. Ð. Ð'. ÐÑкова. 1973'--1982. ^ Ð.Ð.ÐÑемÑн. Ð'оиÑей ÐаÐ>>анкаÑÑйÑкий о ÐоÑоÐ>>ÑÑÑве аÐ>>банÑкоÐ"о кнÑÐ·Ñ Ð'аÑаз ÐÑдаÑа к Ñ
азаÑÑÐºÐ¾Ð¼Ñ Ñ
Ð°ÐºÐ°Ð½Ñ ÐÐ>>Ð-ÐÐ>>иÑвеÑÑ. "ÐаÐиÑки ÐнÑÑиÑÑÑа Ð'оÑÑÐ¾ÐºÐ¾Ð²ÐµÐ´ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ ÐÐ' ÐÐÐÐ ", Ñ. VII, Ð'.-Ð, 1939. ^ ÐавÑов Ð.Ð. УÑенÑе заÐиÑки ÐнÑÑиÑÑÑа иÑÑоÑии, ÑзÑка и Ð>>иÑеÑаÑÑÑÑ Ð--Ф ÐÐ' ÐÐÐÐ ", Ñ. 4. 1958 ^ ÐÑÑоÑиÑеÑкие ÑоÑÐ¸Ð½ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана: на ÑÑÑкÑкиÑ
ÑзÑкаÑ
: G. M.-R. Orazaev · 2003 ^ a b c d "DAÄISTAN - TDV Ä°slm Ansiklopedisi". TDV Ä°slam Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish) . Retrieved August 8, 2022 . ^ ÐонÑÑиÑÑÑÐ¸Ñ Ð ÐµÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан: наÑÑно-ÐÑакÑиÑеÑкий и иÑÑоÑико-ÐÑавовой комменÑаÑий, Arslan Magomedsoltanovich Khalilov, Yakub Bakhmudovich Gamzatov, Ð--аÐ"еÑÑанÑкий Ð"оÑ. Ñн-Ñ, 2002 - 460, page 445 ^ Ð'оÐ>>иков Ð. Ð. Ð--еÑÐ½Ð¸Ñ ÐеÑÑа Ð'еÐ>>икоÐ"о, мÑдÑоÐ"о ÐÑеобÑазиÑеÐ>>Ñ Ð Ð¾ÑÑии, ÑобÑаннÑе из доÑÑовеÑнÑÑ
иÑÑоÑников. '-- Ðзд. 2-е, Ð'.: ÐиÐоÐ"ÑаÑÐ¸Ñ Ð'. ÐÑеÐанова, 1838. ^ ruce P. H. Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, esq., a military officer in the services of Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain: Containing an account of his travels in Germany, Russia, Tartary, Turkey, the West-Indies'... London, 1782. ^ "Makhachkala". ^ a b c "Ð'аÑковин Ð'. Ð. Ð--оÑоÐ"ами и ÑÑоÐами Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана". Archived from the original on November 20, 2012 . Retrieved October 26, 2012 . ^ Bowyer, Chaz (1988). RAF Operations 1918-1938. London: William Kimber. pp. 40, 41. ISBN 0-7183-0671-6. ^ Gorbunova, I. V.; Kondorskaya, N. V. (1973). "Comparison analysis of magnitude values for the daghestanian and Kirghiz earthquakes by observations of Soviet and American stations". Pure and Applied Geophysics. 103 (1): 381''386. Bibcode:1973PApGe.103..381G. doi:10.1007/BF00876415. S2CID 129856658. ^ Abandoned Places: Soviet naval testing station in Makhachkala, Russia Archived July 13, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, distractify.com, accessed 12 July 2014 ^ The North Caucasus: The Challenges of Integration (III), Governance, Elections, Rule of Law, p. 23 Archived September 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine ^ ÐдиÐ>>Ñ-Ð'еÑей Ð'аджиев, Ð--окÑÐ¾Ñ Ð¸ÑÑоÑиÑеÑкиÑ
наÑк, ÐаÑки, ÐÑÑ
ÑÐ>>ай, ÐÐ>>ÑбоÑÐ¸ÐºÐµÐ½Ñ (иÑÑоÑиÑ, ÐÑобÐ>>емÑ, ÐÑÑи ÑеÑениÑ), бÑоÑÑÑа 1999 ^ Ðдиев Ð. Ð. ÐемеÐ>>ÑнÑй воÐÑÐ¾Ñ Ð¸ ÑÑноÐоÐ>>иÑиÑеÑкие конÑÐ>>икÑÑ Ð² Ð--аÐ"еÑÑане. '-- Ð -н-Ð--: ÐÐÐ'Ð... Ð'Ш ЮФУ, 2011. '-- 143 Ñ. '-- ISBN 978-5-87872-601-6 ^ ÐÑманов, Ð. Ð. ÐÐ"ÑаÑнÑе ÐÑеобÑÐ°Ð·Ð¾Ð²Ð°Ð½Ð¸Ñ Ð² Ð--аÐ"еÑÑане и ÐеÑеÑеÐ>>ение Ð"оÑÑев на ÑÐ°Ð²Ð½Ð¸Ð½Ñ (20-70-е Ð"Ð¾Ð´Ñ XX в.). '-- Ðн-Ñ Ð¸ÑÑоÑии, аÑÑ
еоÐ>>оÐ"ии и ÑÑноÐ"ÑаÑии Ð--Ð'Ð... Ð ÐÐ', 2000. '-- 333 Ñ. ^ ÐбÑаÐ"имов Ð'.-Ð . Ð. Ð--еÐоÑÑаÑÐ¸Ñ Ð½Ð°ÑеÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана в Ð"Ð¾Ð´Ñ Ð'еÐ>>икой ÐÑеÑеÑÑвенной Ð²Ð¾Ð¹Ð½Ñ (1941'--1945 Ð"Ð".) и ÐµÑ ÑÑнокÑÐ>>ÑÑÑÑнÑе ÐоÑÐ>>едÑÑÐ²Ð¸Ñ // Ð'еÑÑник Ð--аÐ"еÑÑанÑкоÐ"о наÑÑноÐ"о ÑенÑÑа : наÑÑнÑй жÑÑнаÐ>>. '-- Ð--Ð'Ð... Ð ÐÐ', 2011. '-- 5 декабÑÑ (' 43). '-- Ð. 84''90. '-- ISSN 1684-792X. ^ Ð'иÑзабеков Ð'. Я. Ð'иÐ"ÑаÑионнÑе ÐÑоÑеÑÑÑ Ð¸ Ð¸Ð·Ð¼ÐµÐ½ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð² ÑаÑÑеÐ>>ении наÑеÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана в Ð"Ð¾Ð´Ñ Ð'еÐ>>икой ÐÑеÑеÑÑвенной Ð²Ð¾Ð¹Ð½Ñ (1941'--1945) // Ð'анÑÑкÑиÐÑ>> : наÑÑнÑй жÑÑнаÐ>>. '-- Ðамбов: ÐÐÐ Ð'ÑамоÑа>>, 2014. '-- ' 1. '-- Ð. 129''136. '-- ISSN 1997-292X. ^ "Ukraine war: Protests in Russia's Dagestan region against new draft". BBC News. September 25, 2022 . Retrieved August 6, 2023 . ^ "Anti-mobilization protest in Russia: Warning shots fired in Dagestan". Deutsche Welle. dpa, Reuters. September 25, 2022 . Retrieved September 27, 2022 . ^ "Fire at Russian gas station kills 25, injures 66". Reuters. August 15, 2023 . Retrieved August 15, 2023 . ^ "Russia: Deadly fire erupts at gas station in Dagestan". Deutsche Welle. August 15, 2023 . Retrieved August 15, 2023 . ^ Godfrey, Paul (October 30, 2023). "9 Russian police injured, 60 people arrested as mob invades airport in search of Israelis". UPI . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ Godfrey, Paul (October 30, 2023). "Putin calls meeting after mob storms Dagestan airport looking for Israelis on jet from Tel Aviv". Associated Press . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ Lebedev, Filipp (October 30, 2023). "Russia's dwindling 'Mountain Jews' in spotlight after Dagestan airport riot". Reuters . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ Olson, Emily (October 30, 2023). "Hundreds stormed an airport in Russia's Dagestan, looking for passengers from Israel". NPR . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ a b Sauer, Pjotr; Roth, Andrew (October 30, 2023). "Russia blames Ukraine for antisemitic riot at airport in Dagestan: Foreign ministry says Kyiv played 'direct and key role' after mob stormed planes in search of Israeli passengers". The Guardian . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ Nechepurenko, Ivan; Santora, Marc; Kershner, Isabel (October 30, 2023). "Mob storms plane arriving in Russia from Tel Aviv, authorities say. The Russian authorities announced that the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, was temporarily closed and riot police were dispatched to the scene". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. ^ "Police Take Control of Russia's Dagestan Airport After Antisemitic Riot: The unrest in the region is a headache for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is keen to maintain stability at home. Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said the incident was a gross violation of the law, even as Dagestanis emphasize with the 'suffering' of Palestinian victims". Reuters. October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023 '' via Haaretz. ^ Ð'ÑÑ
ин, Ð'акÑим (Mukhin, Maxim) (October 30, 2023). "РоÑÑÐ¸Ñ Ð¶Ð´ÑÑ Ð²ÑÑÑÑÐÐ>>ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ ÑÑÑÑкиÑ
ÐÑоÑив мÑÑÑÐ>>Ñман, '' "оÑÐ"анизаÑоÑ" бÑнÑа в Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>е ÐÐ>>ÑÑ ÐономаÑев" [Russia is waiting for Russians to protest against Muslims, - Ilya Ponomarev, the ''organizer'' of the riot in Makhachkala]. ФокÑÑ (focus.ua) (in Russian). Kyiv. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023 . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . {{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ "Ð'еÐ>>иков: к беÑÐоÑÑдкам в аÑÑоÐоÑÑÑ ÐодÑаÐ>>киваÐ>>и ÐÑовокаÑоÑÑ Ñ Ð£ÐºÑаинÑ. Ð'еÐ>>иков: канаÐ>> "УÑÑо Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана", ÑазжеÐ"Ñий беÑÐоÑÑдки, ÑÐÑавÐ>>ÑÐ>>ÑÑ Ñ Ð£ÐºÑаинÑ" [Melikov: provocateurs from Ukraine pushed for riots at the airport. Melikov: the Morning of Dagestan channel, which incited unrest, was controlled from Ukraine]. RIA Novosti (in Russian). October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023 . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ "ÐоÐ"Ñом в аÑÑоÐоÑÑÑ Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>Ñ. Ð'Ð>>авное к ÐоÐ>>ÑÐ´Ð½Ñ ÐонедеÐ>>Ñника: Ð'еÑеÑом в воÑкÑеÑенÑе ÑоÐ>>Ðа ÐÑоÑваÐ>>аÑÑ Ð² здание аÑÑоÐоÑÑа Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>Ñ, а заÑем и на Ð>>еÑное ÐоÐ>>е, ÑÑÐ¾Ð±Ñ Ð½Ðµ доÐÑÑÑиÑÑ ÐÑибÑÑÐ¸Ñ Ð±ÐµÐ¶ÐµÐ½Ñев из ÐзÑаиÐ>>Ñ>>. ÐнÑоÑмаÑÐ¸Ñ Ð¾ Ñом, ÑÑо иÑ
ÑÐºÐ¾Ð±Ñ ÑобиÑаÑÑÑÑ ÐоÑеÐ>>иÑÑ Ð² Ð--аÐ"еÑÑане, ÑаÑÐÑоÑÑÑанÑÐ>>аÑÑ Ð² меÑÑнÑÑ
ÑеÐ>>еÐ"Ñам-канаÐ>>аÑ
. Ð' иÑоÐ"е бÑÐ>>и задеÑÐ¶Ð°Ð½Ñ 60 ÑеÐ>>овек, Ð"Ð>>ава ÑеÑÐÑбÐ>>ики обвиниÐ>> в беÑÐоÑÑдкаÑ
ÐÑедаÑеÐ>>ей>> и бандеÑовÑев>>" [Pogrom at Makhachkala airport. The main thing by Monday afternoon: On Sunday evening, a crowd broke into the Makhachkala airport building and then onto the airfield to prevent the arrival of ''refugees from Israel.'' Information that they were allegedly going to be settled in Dagestan was disseminated in local telegram channels. As a result, 60 people were detained; the head of the republic blamed ''traitors'' and ''Bandera supporters'' for the unrest.]. BBC (in Russian). October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on October 30, 2023 . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ "ÐеÑÐоÑÑдки в аÑÑоÐоÑÑÑ Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>Ñ. ЧÑо ÑÑаÐ>>о извеÑÑно к ÑÑÑÑ ÐадеÑÐ¶Ð°Ð½Ñ 60 ÑеÐ>>овек, ÐоÑÑÑадаÐ>>и девÑÑÑ ÐоÐ>>иÑейÑкиÑ
, Ð"Ð>>ава Ð--аÐ"еÑÑана обвиниÐ>> в ÐÑоизоÑедÑем вÑаÐ"ов и бандеÑовÑев>>" [Riots at Makhachkala airport. What became known by morning : 60 people were detained, nine police officers were injured, the head of Dagestan blamed ''enemies and Bandera'' for the incident.]. Meduza (in Russian). October 30, 2023 . Retrieved October 30, 2023 . ^ "ÐоÑÑановÐ>>ение Ð¾Ñ 15.12.2006 ' ' 27-2 ÐобÑание деÐÑÑаÑов Ð"оÑодÑкоÐ"о окÑÑÐ"а "Ð"оÑод Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>а" Ðб ÑÑвеÑждении ÐоÐ>>Ð¾Ð¶ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¾ Ð"еÑбе и ÑÐ>>аÐ"е Ð"оÑодÑкоÐ"о окÑÑÐ"а "Ð"оÑод Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>а" ". Archived from the original on May 23, 2013 . Retrieved October 26, 2012 . ^ Russian journalist gunned down in violent republic of Dagestan, Guardian, retrieved 16/12/2011 ^ Newspaper chief's murder in Dagestan adds to toll of Russian journalists, Guardian, retrieved 16/12/2011 ^ "Ð'аÑионаÐ>>ÑнÑй ÑоÑÑав наÑеÐ>>ениÑ". Rosstat . Retrieved August 16, 2023 . ^ "Port of Makhachkala traffic up 15.7 percent in Q1". April 19, 2012. ^ "Five Reasons You Should Look Out for Anzhi Makhachkala | CaughtOffside". Archived from the original on July 26, 2015 . Retrieved October 26, 2012 . ^ "Roberto Carlos joins Russian side Anzhi - ESPN Soccernet". Archived from the original on December 10, 2011 . Retrieved October 26, 2012 . ^ "Samuel Eto'o in £21.8m move from Internazionale to Anzhi Makhachkala". TheGuardian.com. August 23, 2011. ^ "Blackburn Rovers defender Chris Samba joins Anzhi Makhachkala". Manchester: BBC. February 24, 2012. ^ "Climate Makhachkala". Pogoda.ru.net . Retrieved November 8, 2021 . ^ "MAHACKALA 1961''1990". NOAA . Retrieved November 2, 2021 . ^ Guide to Makhachkala ^ "Ð'оÑода''ÐобÑаÑÐ¸Ð¼Ñ Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>Ñ". prodji.ru (in Russian). Makhachkala. September 24, 2012 . Retrieved February 4, 2020 . Ð'аÑодное ÐобÑание РеÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан. Ðакон '16 Ð¾Ñ 10 аÐÑеÐ>>Ñ 2002 Ð". Ðб админиÑÑÑаÑивно-ÑеÑÑиÑоÑиаÐ>>Ñном ÑÑÑÑойÑÑве РеÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан>>, в Ñед. Ðакона '106 Ð¾Ñ 30 декабÑÑ 2013 Ð". РвнеÑении изменений в некоÑоÑÑе законодаÑеÐ>>ÑнÑе акÑÑ Ð ÐµÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан>>. Ð'ÑÑÑÐиÐ>> в ÑиÐ>>Ñ Ñо Ð´Ð½Ñ Ð¾ÑиÑиаÐ>>ÑноÐ"о оÐÑбÐ>>икованиÑ. ÐÐÑбÐ>>икован: "Ð--аÐ"еÑÑанÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÐÑавда", '81, 12 аÐÑеÐ>>Ñ 2002 Ð". (People's Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan. Law #16 of April 10, 2002 On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of the Republic of Dagestan, as amended by the Law #106 of December 30, 2013 On Amending Various Legislative Acts of the Republic of Dagestan. Effective as of the day of the official publication.).Ð'аÑодное ÐобÑание РеÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан. Ðакон '6 Ð¾Ñ 13 ÑнваÑÑ 2005 Ð". Ð ÑÑаÑÑÑе и Ð"ÑаниÑаÑ
мÑниÑиÐаÐ>>ÑнÑÑ
обÑазований РеÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан>>, в Ñед. Ðакона '43 Ð¾Ñ 30 аÐÑеÐ>>Ñ 2015 Ð". Ð ÑÑаÑÑÑе Ð"оÑодÑкоÐ"о окÑÑÐ"а Ñ Ð²Ð½ÑÑÑиÐ"оÑодÑким деÐ>>ением "Ð'оÑод Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>а", ÑÑаÑÑÑе и Ð"ÑаниÑаÑ
внÑÑÑиÐ"оÑодÑкиÑ
Ñайонов в ÑоÑÑаве Ð"оÑодÑкоÐ"о окÑÑÐ"а Ñ Ð²Ð½ÑÑÑиÐ"оÑодÑким деÐ>>ением "Ð'оÑод Ð'аÑ
аÑкаÐ>>а" и о внеÑении изменений в оÑдеÐ>>ÑнÑе законодаÑеÐ>>ÑнÑе акÑÑ Ð ÐµÑÐÑбÐ>>ики Ð--аÐ"еÑÑан>>. Ð'ÑÑÑÐиÐ>> в ÑиÐ>>Ñ Ñо Ð´Ð½Ñ Ð¾ÑиÑиаÐ>>ÑноÐ"о оÐÑбÐ>>икованиÑ. ÐÐÑбÐ>>икован: "Ð--аÐ"еÑÑанÑÐºÐ°Ñ ÐÑавда", '8, 15 ÑевÑаÐ>>Ñ 2005 Ð". (People's Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan. Law #6 of January 13, 2005 On the Status and Borders of the Municipal Formations of the Republic of Dagestan, as amended by the Law #43 of April 30, 2015 On the Status of the "City of Makhachkala" Urban Okrug with Intra-Urban Divisions, the Status and the Borders of the Intra-City Districts Comprising the "City of Makhachkala" Urban Okrug with Intra-Urban Divisions, and on Amending Various Legislative Acts of the Republic of Dagestan. Effective as of the day of the official publication.).Bibliography [ edit ] External links [ edit ] Makhachkala organizes charity iftarsBadkhen, Anna. "Everyone in Makhachkala Packs a Gun." The Moscow Times. May 31, 2001.Capitals of European states and territories
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Yemen's Houthis say they launched missiles, drones at Israel | Reuters
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:32
DUBAI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group said it launched a "large number" of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Tuesday, after Israel's military said it downed an approaching "aerial target" off the Red Sea city of Eilat.
The operation was the third targeting Israel and there would be more, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement.
Saree said the attacks would continue until "Israeli aggression" stopped, referring to the war against Hamas in the Gaza strip.
After an initial warning of a possible "hostile aircraft intrusion", which sent residents of the tourist resort of Eilat running for shelter earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military had said its "systems identified an aerial target approaching Israeli territory".
"There was no threat or risk to civilians," and the defensive action was successful, it added. There were no reports of any missiles or drones hitting Israeli territory from the Red Sea on Tuesday.
Yemen's Houthi leader, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, said on Oct. 10 that if the U.S. intervenes in the Gaza conflict directly, the group will respond by firing drones and missiles, and take other military options.
The Houthis see themselves as part of the so-called "Axis of Resistance" which encompasses Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim factions in Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah group.
The movement has battled a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. During the fighting the Houthis targeted strategic assets in the Gulf, most notably energy facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Separately, the Israeli military said it used the "Arrow" aerial defence system for the first time since the Oct. 7 outbreak of the war with Hamas to intercept a surface-to-surface missile in the Red Sea fired towards its territory.
A spokesman told Reuters the two aerial incidents were separate. In the second incident, Israeli fighter jets intercepted other aerial targets, he added.
Last week, Israel accused the Houthi movement of sending drones that caused explosions in two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea, saying they were intended to strike Israel.
The Pentagon said a U.S. Navy warship on Oct. 19 intercepted three cruise missiles and several drones launched by the Houthi movement from Yemen potentially toward Israel.
Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Maytaal Angel; additional reporting by Maha El Dahan; editing by Jason Neely, Ed Osmond, Tomasz Janowski and Andrew Heavens
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Aides believe Zelensky is 'delusional' '' Time '-- RT World News
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:13
The Ukrainian leader is now reportedly looking for scapegoats after his failed counteroffensive, the magazine reports
Top officials in Kiev believe that the increasingly ''messianic'' President Vladimir Zelensky has become delusional, Time magazine reported on Monday.
The Western-backed leader is expected to launch a ''major shake-up'' of the country's military and political leadership, the US publication added, citing his aides.
The looming reshuffle is intended to demonstrate ''accountability'' for the lack of progress in the stalled counteroffensive against Russia, as well as deal with the apparently growing opposition to Zelensky's desire to continue the hostilities no matter what.
Zelensky remains adamant in his desire to 'defeat' Russia on the battlefield, but his ''stubbornness'' has become borderline ''messianic,'' one of the president's advisers said, on condition of anonymity. ''He deludes himself. We're out of options. We're not winning. But try telling him that.''
The reality on the ground, however, is very different from Zelensky's vision of scoring an ultimate victory over Moscow, and dissent is apparently growing. According to one of his aides, ''some front-line commanders '... have begun refusing orders to advance, even when they came directly from the office of the president.''
''They [the military] just want to sit in the trenches and hold the line. But we can't win a war that way,'' the aide said, admitting the troops were not actually ''moving forward.''
In addition, the country is not very well-prepared for the upcoming winter, the aides suggested, adding that pinning failing infrastructure and other hardships exclusively on Russia might not work this time.
''Last year, people blamed the Russians,'' one of them said. ''This time, they'll blame us for not doing enough to prepare.''
To fix the situation, Zelensky is expected to launch a major reshuffle of his team shortly, with the ''shake-up'' affecting both military and civilian leadership. ''At least one minister would need to be fired, along with a senior general in charge of the counteroffensive,'' the article suggested, citing the aides, who did not provide the exact names of the potential scapegoats. The move is primarily meant to create ''accountability'' for the lack of progress on the frontline, they said.
Kiev launched its counteroffensive against Russian forces in early June, but it has so far neglected to achieve any tangible results. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the counteroffensive had effectively failed, resulting in minor gains and heavy losses for the Ukrainian military. According to Moscow's estimates, the push cost Kiev more than 90,000 troops, as well as hundreds of military hardware, including assorted Western-supplied tanks and armored vehicles.
Missed chances to stop Maine mass shooter Robert Card: Every police department in the state received this alert describing his 'psychotic' plans and his family reported their fears to cops in May | Daily Mail Online
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:10
Police in Maine had multiple opportunities to stop mass shooter Robert Card before he murdered 18 people in a bowling alley and bar last week, newly-released documents have revealed.
In addition to a September alert that was issued to every police force in the state describing Card as 'armed and dangerous' and 'psychotic', his own son and ex-wife also reported their fears to police in May.
The police bulletin - known as a File 6 - was previously reported on but can now be revealed in full today by DailyMail.com.
It was canceled on October 18 - a week before Card slaughtered 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, before killing himself after a three-day manhunt.
It was issued by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Department on September 15th at 5.11pm, after Card's colleagues at the Army Reserve training base reported concerns about him.
Robert Card, 40, on October 25, committing mass murder in a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine. A police alert describing him as 'armed and dangerous' had been canceled just a week before
This is the alert every police department in Maine received about Robert Card in September. Two attempts were made to contact him and security was added to the army base, but it was canceled on October 18th
It reads: 'Caution officer safety - known to be armed and dangerous. Robert has been suffering from psychotic episodes and hearing voices. He is a firearms instructor and made threats to shoot up the National Guard Armory in Saco.
'He was committed over the summer for two weeks due to his altered mental health state but then released. He also drives ME/MC 82MW Blue 2020 Yamaha WR250R. Multiple addresses have been checked with negative contact so far.
'If located, use extreme caution, check mental health wellbeing and advise Sagadahoc Sheriff's Department.'
The sheriff's department tried unsuccessfully to find him twice and security at the base was increased for two weeks, but that appears to be all that was done despite the concerning language used in the alert.
The Maine State Police washed its hands of the alert yesterday, telling DailyMail.com: 'The Maine State Police was not the primary investigative agency into this incident and we do not oversee other law agencies in their primary jurisdictions.'
In May, Card's ex-wife Cara and their son Colby visited police to report their concerns about his mental health and his gun ownership
In May, Cara and Colby Card - Robert's ex wife and son - visited police to report their concerns
No department or force took it upon themselves to find him. The message in September was the second warning police had about Card.
In May, his teenage son Colby and his ex-wife Cara visited police to report their concerns. Colby told the Sagadahoc Sheriff's County Deputy that his father was convinced strangers were always talking about him, calling him a pedophile.
Cara Card, Robert's ex-wife, said she no longer wanted her son spending time with his father at his home, where he kept 10-15 guns and rifles.
He'd recently taken the firearms from his brother Ryan's house, she said, and kept most of them locked up but also kept one in his vehicle.
When contacted by police, Ryan told police he was unaware his brother's mental condition was deteriorating so drastically.
He said he was also unaware that he'd been in the home to retrieve the weapons, and that he believes the problems and paranoia began when he started wearing hearing aids.
No police department or official in Maine has admitted there were missed opportunities to stop the shooting. Above, officials giving an update on October 27 while Card was still on the run
Card, 40, told his son he was convinced people were calling him a pedophile behind his back. His brother said his mental health troubles became worse with his hearing aids
The Sagadahoc Sheriff's Deputy who responded to the family's concerns also contacted the Army Reserve to alert Card's bosses to his deteriorating mental health.
They said they were unaware of the true extent of the problem, but were glad to have been told.
Months went by before he was committed to a psychiatric facility.
After being released, Card tried to buy a silencer for one of his weapons but he was turned down after checking a box to admit having spent time in a mental health facility.
It's unclear though if anything was done to strip him of his many weapons after he was discharged from the facility.
Sagahadoc County Sheriff Joel Merry released the police files yesterday.
In a statement, he said he believed his department acted 'appropriately' given the information at hand.
The families of the 18 people killed by Card have not yet reacted.
Elon Musk says X posts with misinformation are now 'ineligible for revenue share' | The Independent
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:09
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Posts on X carrying any misinformation that is corrected by the platform's crowd-sourced fact-checking system will now be ''ineligible for revenue share'', the social media company's owner Elon Musk has said.
''Any posts that are corrected by Community Notes become ineligible for revenue share,'' the multibillionaire posted on X on Sunday.
Mr Musk said the change aims to ''maximise the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism''.
The Tesla titan also noted that any attempts to ''weaponise Community Notes to demonetise people will be immediately obvious, because all code and data is open source.''
Some users were quick to criticise the change, observing that the feature is used not just to correct misinformation, but also to add essential context even if there is nothing wrong with the initial post.
The Community Notes feature was first launched by Twitter co-founder and former chief Jack Dorsey in 2021 as a way to debunk misleading tweets.
Currently, eligible users on the social media platform can sign up to contribute to Community Notes, which involves sharing a short note of context for any post, including correcting an error or providing essential information that has been omitted.
An account can sign up for Community Notes, according to X, if the user has not recently violated the platform's rules and has been on the platform for at least 6 months.
Other users who view the note can then rate the helpfulness of notes with the note garnering the largest consensus surfacing to the top.
Then earlier this year, Twitter/X started paying creators on the platform for the first time via a revenue-sharing program that provided them compensation for the ads appearing in their reply threads.
But the social media platform has come under increasing scrutiny for its handling of misinformation since Mr Musk bought Twitter for $44bn last year and cut nearly two-thirds of the company's workforce.
The platform's handling of misinformation has particularly been on focus following the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
The European Union also raised concerns that amid the conflict Twitter was not quick to take down problematic content even when it had been flagged by relevant authorities.
EU commissioner Thierry Breton noted that Twitter was hosting ''fake and manipulated images and facts ... such as repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games''.
The EU has also opened an investigation into X on the issue, while the company maintained that it has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts in response to the concerns.
British Jews are 'full of fear, like I've never seen before' - BBC News
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:08
Image source, BBC Image caption, "The fears are never ending at this point," says Justin Cohen, news editor and co-publisher of Jewish News
By Aleem Maqbool
Religion editor
"The Jewish community at the moment is full of dread, full of fear, like I've never seen before," says Justin Cohen, news editor and co-publisher of Jewish News.
He talks of this anxiety playing out with a backdrop of intense trauma caused by the Hamas killings and kidnappings on 7 October.
More than 70% of British Jews have family living in Israel and 90% have visited the country at least once, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
But the fact the Metropolitan Police reported a 15-fold increase in antisemitic incidents over the past three weeks, when compared with the same period last year, means hatred has been at the forefront of the minds of many.
"If people who are so boiling over with rage in these demos see Jewish people as inextricably linked with Israel, they will inevitably target those Jewish people. The fears are never-ending at this point," says Mr Cohen.
The demonstrations in the UK, attended by tens of thousands of people calling for an end to Israel's bombing of Gaza, have been viewed by him as hostile, threatening and unsettling.
In the most recent marches, he points to some being filmed calling for "intifada", the term given to violent Palestinian uprisings.
"We've seen calls for an intifada where, in the past, suicide bombings have targeted civilians, in cafes and restaurants and in nightclubs. Whether it's one person saying this stuff or 10 or 10,000, the chilling effect on British Jews is the same," says Mr Cohen
Although protest organisers insist the focus has been on Israel's massive bombing campaign in Gaza - and that antisemitism has not played a part - that is not how many British Jews see the marches.
"It's chilling. It's upsetting. And it makes you feel unsafe in the place that you call home," says Londoner Benjamin Bell, 41, of the size of the pro-Palestinian gatherings.
Image caption, "A lot of social media content is stirring up hatred," says Benjamin Bell
In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, Mr Bell wrote a blog post that went viral in which he publicly expressed his Jewish identity, after years of being cautious about doing so, because of concerns about antisemitism. He talked of wearing a star of David pendant for the first time since his bar mitzvah.
Three weeks later, Mr Bell says he is once again having to weigh up whether he wears that pendant depending on the situation.
"Unfortunately a lot of social media content is stirring up hatred and making people feel that the place that they call home may not be safe," he says.
Mr Bell talks of Jewish friends feeling anxious about antisemitism, particularly at work where they are worried about expressing support for Israel.
Although he was born and raised in the UK, he says he was profoundly affected by the killings and kidnappings in Israel.
"The Holocaust cast a long shadow over the Jewish spirit and we feel that the state of Israel provides that sanctity, that safe haven, that last resort - it goes to the very heart of my being," he says.
It is why Mr Bell says he feels unnerved by the demonstrations and particularly by the use of slogans like "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," referring to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. He feels it can only mean the destruction of the Israeli state in its current form.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which helps organise the demonstrations, contests this interpretation of that particular chant, saying the slogan refers to "the right of all Palestinians to freedom, equality and justice".
Activists also point to the make up of the pro-Palestinian protests as evidence they are not antisemitic.
"There are hundreds of Jews on the demonstration. In fact, I've never experienced the more beautiful energy. I saw no hate, just a kind of a wonderful caring for humanity," says Alexei Sayle who is both Jewish and also a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Actor, comedian and author Alexei Sayle says criticising Israel's actions has cost him friendships
The 71-year-old actor, comedian and author - whose mother was Jewish and grew up in an Orthodox, Yiddish-speaking household - has been a long-time campaigner for Palestinian rights. It is a contingent that represents a small minority of British Jews.
Mr Sayle says Jews who choose to publicly criticise Israel's actions sometimes feel a sense of guilt and often pay a price for their stance.
"It's cost me friendships, it's made relationships with people difficult, sometimes it's made me feel uncomfortable to speak out for the Palestinian people. It's painful," Mr Sayle says.
Referring to the "river to the sea" chant, he insists it is not meant to mean the eradication of Jews in the region.
But while he fully understands the need for Jews to have somewhere they feel safe, he acknowledges that he, and other campaigners, are calling for a change in the way Israel sees itself as a Jewish country.
"I think that to have a state called Israel, which has a right of return and is a state in which Jews live in beautiful harmony with everybody else, is fine," Mr Sayle says.
"But if that safe haven depends on brutalising other people, stealing other people's land, then it's not a safe haven," he says, challenging Israel's assertion that its actions are necessary to maintain security.
More on Israel-Gaza war
While there is debate over the nature and intent of some slogans at demonstrations, a huge rise in incidents of anti-Jewish hate in the UK of the past few weeks is irrefutable. Similar spikes in antisemitic incidents accompanied Israel-Gaza violence in 2009, 2014 and 2021.
"We are unfortunately used to it to some extent, but we do feel that we should be feeling safer here in England, children should feel comfortable to come to school in the morning and not get harassed," says Abraham Schechter, headteacher of the Beis Chinuch Lebonos Jewish Girls School in north London.
Image source, Shomrim Stamford Hill
Image caption, Red paint thrown over a door at a Jewish school in London
Staff and students arrived at school one morning to find red paint had been thrown at the front gates. Another Jewish school close by was also vandalised in a similar way.
"Everybody's very tense, very worried, especially the pupils. We had discussions telling them not to loiter around on the streets and just to go straight home [after school], but they should not suffer here for what is happening over there," Mr Schechter says.
There are concerns that the longer the conflict goes on, the more intensely and profoundly it will affect British Jews right across the spectrum.
Additional reporting by Harry Farley
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"This was his theatric warning": Matthew Perry Baneberries conspiracy theory erupts in wake of viral Batman posts
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:08
Friends star Matthew Perry passed away on October 28 at the age of 54 in his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles, California. As reported by many news outlets, including Page Six, he was found unresponsive in his hot tub by his assistant. Later, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) pronounced him dead from an apparent drowning.
In the week leading up to his death, Matthew Perry published seven Instagram posts, all of them referring to Batman. In each of the posts, he also called himself Mattman, an amalgamation of his first name, Matthew, and Batman.
Following his demise, his back-to-back Batman posts have come under scrutiny, with many believing he was sending a bat signal, aka, calling for help and support. Others speculate that he knew that his death was close and put out hints for his friends, family, and fans.
In this regard, his video post where a hand is seen placing what appears to be three cranberries on a table has been a topic of interest. Its caption has even been deemed alarming.
''This is what I've had to eat today. I'm Mattman.''Meanwhile, an X (formerly Twitter) user with the handle @PatriotsNCtrl has dug out that the berries in Matthew Perry's post presumed to be cranberries, were, in fact, baneberries, a kind of poisonous berries that, if ingested can prove to be fatal.
Since this bombshell revelation, fans of the actor-comedian have been speculating that Perry may have taken his own life or somehow knew that his death was imminent and thus left signs on social media as a distress call. An X user commented under @AwakenedOutlaw's tweet in this regard.
Netizens engage in conspiracy theory as Matthew Perry's Baneberries video goes viralBefore his demise, Matthew Perry posted seven Instagram posts, all related to Batman. While all of them are significant, a particular post has stood out. In the clipping, a hand is seen dropping some berries on a table-like surface.
Initially, they were presumed to be cranberries, however, a fan on X figured out that they were really baneberries, a kind of highly toxic berries, native to North America.
According to Matthew Perry's caption on the post, he ate those berries. If that was indeed the case, it could have poisoned him, meaning that he may have died by suicide.
For those uninitiated, one baneberry has the power to burn the mouth and throat of a person, as per Gardening Know How. It can also exhibit symptoms such as dizziness, stomach cramps, headaches, nausea, and diarrhea, among others.
The website also cites that, as per research conducted by the Utah State University, eating multiple baneberries (six or more) together can even prove fatal, causing respiratory failure and even cardiac arrest. However, they are often untraceable in an autopsy.
If this wasn't all, many netizens, such as @AwakenedOutlaw on X, have also revealed another eerie link to his baneberries post. It says that in September 2018, the lead vocalist of the band The Cranberries drowned in her bathtub due to alcohol intoxication, as also reported by Yahoo! Now, since baneberries are often easily confused as cranberries, fans speculate that Matthew Perry may have wanted to warn everyone that his death would be similar.
Whatever the case, netizens are now almost certain that Perry's death was unnatural'--he either died from suicide or knew someone else who would be involved in his death.
Meanwhile, an Instagram user with the handle @somebody_1999_1 commented on Perry's last post with a detailed analysis.
A netizen analyzes Perry's demise from his recent Instagram posts. (Image via Instagram/somebody_1999_1)According to the user, Perry's first Batman post in which he shared a video with several projectors on the walls and the ceiling revealing the glaring text ''The Batman'' was a distress call just like the Batman animation in which people called for Batman's help by projecting the bat signal on the sky. The next post with the image of the Batman emblem with red lights was also Perry's way of asking for help, again, as per the netizen.
As for the pickleball post, the user speculates that he wanted to convey that the day he plays pickleball, he would meet his end. It is important to note that many media sources including Page Six reported that the day Perry died, he played pickleball in the morning.
The cranberries/baneberries post, as per this user was a warning that he too like The Cranberries singer Dolores O' Riordan would die in the bathtub under similar circumstances.
The post where Matthew Perry shared the image of a pumpkin with the bat signal engraved may have symbolized that he would die around Halloween and the reel with the moon illuminating the night sky perhaps indicated that he would choose to die on the day of the full moon (October 28).
His last post with him sitting in his hot tub wearing headphones, and the crescent moon up in the sky was perhaps Matthew Perry's final attempt to communicate exactly where and how he was going to die.
It is important to note that so far, the LAPD has not revealed any foul play and has not stated the actual cause of death, except that it may have been drowning. However, whether it was suicide or homicide remains undisclosed. The case is currently under investigation, and the toxicology report is also awaited.
Meanwhile, dismissing all speculations, Wendy Naugle, the editor-in-chief of People magazine, told Today on Monday that the Mattman/Batman references were linked with Matthew Perry's upcoming project and that he was ''writing a little script.'' Naugle also said that the Friends icon was ''doing very well'' and even ''signed on to a new drama film" before his untimely and tragic demise.
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Greta Thunberg and her Gen Z friends owe Baby Boomers an apology over climate change
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:01
Who's to blame for climate change? Ask the more militant members of Generation Z '' i.e., those born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s '' and you'll be left in little doubt.
It's the old.
That's right: those selfish, entitled, ignorant, gas-guzzling Baby Boomers. It's all their fault. Or so Gen Z has long believed. In January 2020, for example, Greta Thunberg and a group of other leading ''youth climate activists'' co-wrote a scathing public statement in which they declared that, when it comes to the climate, ''Young people are being let down by older generations and those in power.'' (''Those in power'', of course, are almost invariably members of ''older generations'' themselves. So in effect the old were being blamed twice over.)
Greta and friends were far from alone in this view. Around the same time, Billie Eilish, one of the world's most successful young pop stars, told the NME that ''old people'' must ''start listening to us so that we don't all die''. The old, she fumed, ''don't really care if we die, but we don't wanna die yet''.
Of course, both Greta and Billie were mere teenagers when they made these comments. Now that they're older and wiser '' Greta is 20, Billie 21 '' perhaps they'll be mature enough to admit that they got it wrong. Because, according to a fascinating new poll by YouGov, the old actually seem to be doing more to tackle climate change than the young.
In the poll, those aged 18-24 claimed to be the most worried about climate change. When it came to doing something other than moan, however, it was a different story. Almost 90 per cent of the over-65s said they recycled ''as much as possible'', compared with only half of the young. The old were also more likely to save water, turn down the heating, wash their clothes at low temperatures, buy locally produced food, avoid excessive packaging, buy energy-efficient appliances, switch off the lights when leaving a room, and repair things rather than throw them away. On top of that, more of them had cut down on the number of flights they took.
Greta's generation were more likely to have given up meat. But otherwise, it seemed to be the old doing most of the work.
What are we to make of this mysterious discrepancy? Perhaps Greta's generation is in such deep despair about the future of the planet that some of them have simply given up trying to save it. There is, however, an alternative possibility '' which is that they care more about being seen to have the ''right'' opinion on climate change than they do about tackling it. A type of behaviour that older people like to call ''virtue-signalling''.
Which could it be? We can only speculate. Either way, the results of the poll shouldn't come as a surprise. Anyone who has been held up by a Just Stop Oil protest will have noted that an extraordinary number of the protesters are pensioners.
This, I suspect, is the real reason why the Government is so anxious to get older people back into work. It's got nothing to do with boosting the economy. It's purely to stop them glueing their bottoms to roads.
Why Tories should look on the bright side of defeatThe near certainty of a Labour election win has left many Tory members sunk in gloom. For the life of me, though, I can't think why. If anything, they should be overjoyed.
Winning elections may be nice. But running the country isn't. It's unrelieved misery. Soon enough, everyone in the land despises you, and blames you for everything that goes wrong in the world, whether it's your fault or not.
Being in Opposition is much more fun. Now you get the pleasure of watching everyone blame your political enemies for everything, instead. Meanwhile, you can smugly lecture your enemies on where they're going wrong, and ridicule them for their hilarious ineptitude.
This is a treat that Tories can already look forward to. A new report by the Institute for Government concludes that, since the Tories took office in 2010, public services have deteriorated dramatically. But it also says that if Sir Keir Starmer sticks to current spending plans '' as he has pledged to do '' public services under Labour would likely not improve.
Tories, therefore, will soon be able to enjoy seeing Labour get roundly savaged over the hopeless state of the NHS, schools etc. After all these years of Labour grandstanding and finger-wagging, what a nice change it will make.
There's only one downside. In due course, voters will hate Labour so much that they forget how much they hate the Tories. In fact, they may even decide that the Tories weren't so bad, after all.
As a result, the poor old Tories will find themselves being forced to run the country again.
Way of the World is a twice-weekly satirical look at the headlines aiming to mock the absurdities of the modern world. It is published at 7am every Tuesday and Saturday
Pfizer looks beyond COVID as Paxlovid charge sparks swing to quarterly loss | Reuters
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:59
Paxlovid, Pfizer's anti-viral medication to treat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is displayed in this picture illustration taken October 7, 2022. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Oct 31 (Reuters) - Pfizer (PFE.N) on Tuesday urged investors to focus on growth in its non-COVID products such as its new RSV vaccine Abrysvo, after weak demand for its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment pushed the drugmaker to its first quarterly loss since 2019.
As announced earlier this month, the company recorded a $5.6 billion one-time charge to account for the U.S. government returning millions of doses of its antiviral treatment Paxlovid, as well as inventory of its vaccine Comirnaty.
A drop in the use of vaccines and products as the pandemic receded has fueled a 40% drop in Pfizer's shares this year and could remain a drag going forward, analysts have said. The stock fell about 2% in early trading.
With the sharp decline in COVID demand, Pfizer is still going to be under pressure to meet its sales guidance for 2023, said BMO Capital analyst Evan Seigerman.
Sales of the COVID-19 treatment and the vaccine it makes with German partner BioNTech SE had boosted Pfizer's revenue to record levels in the last two years. However, annual vaccination rates have dropped sharply and demand for treatments has dipped as population-wide immunity has increased.
In a statement ahead of a conference call with investors, Pfizer said it continued to expect revenue growth of 6%-8% from its non-COVID products for the year, with a majority of it occurring in the second half.
Sales of its recently launched respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, Abrysvo, came in at $375 million for the quarter.
Even so, Pfizer's shot looks to be lagging behind in sales to a rival product from GSK (GSK.L), which is the only vaccine being carried by the top U.S. pharmacy chain CVS Health (CVS.N).
Pfizer provided an update on its experimental messenger-RNA influenza vaccine showing that it worked about as well as a licensed flu vaccine in a late-stage study in 18-to-64-year-olds.
It said the vaccine hit secondary immunogenicity goals for influenza A strains, but not B strains of the virus.
Shares in Moderna, which also makes a COVID vaccine and is developing an mRNA flu shot, were last down marginally in choppy trading. It reports financial results on Nov. 2.
Pfizer is also hoping for growth from its $43-billion deal for cancer-therapy specialist Seagen (SGEN.O) to bolster its product portfolio. The deal, cleared in Europe, is being reviewed by U.S. regulators.
Paxlovid sales slumped 97% in the third quarter to $202 million, while vaccine revenue came in at $1.31 billion, down from $4.4 billion a year earlier.
Analysts had expected sales of $1.44 billion for the vaccine and $618.20 million for Paxlovid, according to LSEG data.
Pfizer, which announced a $3.5 billion cost-cutting program earlier this month, slashed $9 billion off its 2023 sales forecast after agreeing to take back nearly 8 million Paxlovid courses from the U.S. government.
Pfizer expects Paxlovid to still be available for free to Americans through the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the company reaffirmed its full-year sales and profit forecast given earlier this month.
Pfizer posted a loss of 42 cents per share for the third quarter. It had reported a profit of $1.51 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Overall revenue was $13.23 billion, compared to $22.64 billion a year earlier.
Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Bhanvi Satija reports on pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industry in the United States. She has a postgraduate degree in International Journalism from City, University of London.
Women's groups accuse UN of promoting ''rape culture'' by saying trans women can be lesbians
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:59
Women's groups have accused the United Nations of promoting a ''rape culture'' by saying trans women can be lesbians.
Earlier this week UN Women '' the branch of the UN working for the empowerment of women '' posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: ''Remember, trans lesbians are lesbians too. Let's uplift and honour every expression of love and identity.''
The organisation Women's Declaration International (WDI) said this was ''offensive and degrading to women'' because it told lesbians they should consider approaches from biological men.
Sally Wainwright from WDI said: ''It is almost beyond belief that the UN is promoting the homophobic and misogynist ideology that pretends men can be women and therefore lesbians.
''Lesbians are same-sex attracted females and suggesting that they should accept heterosexual men as 'lesbians' is not only offensive and degrading to women, but also endorses a rape culture.
''UN Women, of all organisations, should be protecting lesbians '' and other women '' from men's unwanted sexual demands.''
She said the tweet contravened the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979.
''CEDAW makes clear that women's rights are based on our sex,'' she said. ''It's time the UN started upholding that.''
'People waking up to the dangers of gender ideology'It comes as a new book reveals that women's rights across the world have come under threat by the growth of gender ideology. Women's Rights, Gender Wrongs, looks at how gender ideology has affected women in 35 countries.
In the Australian state of Tasmania, it is illegal for lesbian events to exclude biological males. While in New Zealand, the official data agency, Statistics NZ, has made 'gender' the default for data collection in place of 'sex'. In Canada, a women prisoner and survivor of childhood sexual abuse endured weeks of repeated rapes by a male prisoner incarcerated with her. In Brazil a tribunal ruled that affirmative policies intended to assure women's participation in politics apply on the basis of 'gender' rather than 'sex'.
Feminist academic Sheila Jeffreys, a director of WDI, said, ''In the last decade, women's rights have come under a serious global threat from the replacement of the category of sex by the notion of 'gender'.
''People are fast waking up to the dangers of gender ideology within their own countries, but may not be aware of the extent to which it has captured much of the rest of the world. This landmark book provides that critical global perspective and will be a sobering but important read for anyone who wants to understand what is happening internationally.
''Never have the dangers for women that will occur if we are not successful in fighting back against gender-identity ideology been more clear.''
UN Women was approached for comment.
The politics of Biden's vast new AI order - POLITICO
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 05:03
Those camps are often at odds, competing for attention and program funding as Washington starts to address AI in earnest. But this week, each has something to love about Biden's executive order on AI. ''I think it's trying to do all of the things,'' said Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School. ''This has a lot of facets. I think they're trying to move all the facets forward.''
But the White House's all-of-the-above approach to AI may also reflect a desire to avoid upsetting different constituencies in the constellation of AI governance '-- whether that's progressive voters and organizations key to the Democratic grassroots, or the top tech companies like OpenAI, or hawkish voices like Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) and former Google executive Eric Schmidt.
The debate over AI has been waged mostly in policy circles, but ''sadly, this issue has been politicized already,'' said Nathan Sanders, a data scientist affiliated with the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.
In part, that's because of the increasing participation of Elon Musk and other polarizing figures in AI debates. But Sanders said there are also clear ''political implications to the very same factions'' now fighting for dominance in Washington '-- progressives, hawks and the tech-funded worriers about long-term risks.
While its breadth might make it more politically palatable '-- an ''all of the above'' approach rather than a compromise '-- the executive order's sweeping set of provisions has some worried the White House has bitten off more than it can chew.
''Our only concern '-- and I don't think we're alone in this '-- it's a lot of work,'' said Chandler Morse, vice president of corporate affairs at software giant Workday. Especially headed into an election year, Morse worried agencies might be so overwhelmed at the flood of AI directives that the White House might ''drop the [executive order] and nothing happens.''
Daniel Ho, associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, noted that Washington has in the past struggled to implement previous executive orders related to AI.
Three goals at onceKey provisions in Monday's executive order seem tailor-made to appease various factions in the AI landscape.
Many pages of the order detail how federal agencies can take steps to minimize the real-world problems posed by AI. Among other things, it directs the Department of Labor to drill down on the potential for AI to cause rampant job losses; tasks the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development to address how AI could worsen discrimination in the banking and housing sectors; and requires the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies to determine how the government can use AI without undermining data privacy.
In a Monday statement, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), a leading progressive voice on AI, praised the order for ''emphasizing new standards for equity and civil rights.'' The representative said she believes ''bias in AI will be the civil rights issue of our time,'' and said she looked forward to continuing work with the Biden administration.
The White House cast its work on AI as an opportunity to shape the direction of the world's next major technological leap while it's still in its infancy.|Michael Dwyer/AP
The order also pushes a key priority for those worried about the existential risks of cutting-edge AI models. It requires companies developing the most advanced AI systems to provide regular reports to Washington on their progress, including detailed information about the microchip clusters they're using to train the AI.
The proposal is similar to one floated at a September congressional hearing by Jeff Alstott, a researcher at the RAND Corporation. Both Alstott and RAND are closely linked to the ''existential risk'' approach to AI governance.
And the order delivers plenty for the national security crowd. In addition to a raft of new cybersecurity directives, it tasks the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal departments with boosting the number of immigrants who possess advanced science and technology skills. The order also takes additional steps to enhance America's global competitiveness in AI, with an eye on the growing high-tech rivalry with China.
In a statement, Warner said he was ''happy to see a number of sections that closely align with my efforts around AI safety and security.''
Behind the orderWhile the Biden administration clearly considered all factions when crafting the order, officials said they were driven to act in part by the politics of an earlier tech issue: social media. After many missed opportunities to regulate top tech platforms like Facebook or YouTube, the White House cast its work on AI as an opportunity to shape the direction of the world's next major technological leap while it's still in its infancy.
''If we had this many conversations on social media platforms and social media policy before social media was a big thing, we'd be a lot better off,'' said one person involved in the administration's conversations, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
At the core of the effort, officials said, were principles that they hope will connect back to Biden's broader reelection message: the need to preserve trust in democracy and protect people's individual rights.
But the order's scope ultimately went far beyond those issues '-- something Ho said was indicative of the technology's all-encompassing impact.
''America needed to act on a broad-range of AI-related priorities because AI innovation has outpaced strategic action on AI,'' Ho said. ''I don't see the EO as attempting to please all sides, but instead do the necessary work to begin addressing the multi-faceted issues.''
And while Sanders said politics likely played some role in the administration's directives, he noted that many of the provisions are backed by more than one faction in the AI fight.
''I was struck by some of the provisions around immigration, which I think a lot of people would welcome on the grounds of justice and opportunity for people who are migrating to the U.S., in addition to the benefits that I think they clearly do have for large companies that are trying to lower the cost of hiring talent,'' Sanders said.
''There are just natural areas of overlap between these communities, and it can be productive to implement some of these solutions that affect all three.''
But despite enthusiasm from the three AI factions, none of them appear to view Monday's executive order as a substitute for congressional action.
''I applaud them for trying to use the extent of their executive authority to take action in the face of a Congress that is not moving forward on this issue,'' said Sanders. ''But I think it should remind all of us that we need a functioning Congress that can be more active in this area.''
Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.
CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story incorrectly paraphrased Daniel Ho on the impact of prior AI executive orders.
Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence | The White House
Tue, 31 Oct 2023 03:59
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. Artificial intelligence (AI) holds extraordinary potential for both promise and peril. Responsible AI use has the potential to help solve urgent challenges while making our world more prosperous, productive, innovative, and secure. At the same time, irresponsible use could exacerbate societal harms such as fraud, discrimination, bias, and disinformation; displace and disempower workers; stifle competition; and pose risks to national security. Harnessing AI for good and realizing its myriad benefits requires mitigating its substantial risks. This endeavor demands a society-wide effort that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society.
My Administration places the highest urgency on governing the development and use of AI safely and responsibly, and is therefore advancing a coordinated, Federal Government-wide approach to doing so. The rapid speed at which AI capabilities are advancing compels the United States to lead in this moment for the sake of our security, economy, and society.
In the end, AI reflects the principles of the people who build it, the people who use it, and the data upon which it is built. I firmly believe that the power of our ideals; the foundations of our society; and the creativity, diversity, and decency of our people are the reasons that America thrived in past eras of rapid change. They are the reasons we will succeed again in this moment. We are more than capable of harnessing AI for justice, security, and opportunity for all.
Sec. 2. Policy and Principles. It is the policy of my Administration to advance and govern the development and use of AI in accordance with eight guiding principles and priorities. When undertaking the actions set forth in this order, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, adhere to these principles, while, as feasible, taking into account the views of other agencies, industry, members of academia, civil society, labor unions, international allies and partners, and other relevant organizations:
(a) Artificial Intelligence must be safe and secure. Meeting this goal requires robust, reliable, repeatable, and standardized evaluations of AI systems, as well as policies, institutions, and, as appropriate, other mechanisms to test, understand, and mitigate risks from these systems before they are put to use. It also requires addressing AI systems' most pressing security risks '-- including with respect to biotechnology, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and other national security dangers '-- while navigating AI's opacity and complexity. Testing and evaluations, including post-deployment performance monitoring, will help ensure that AI systems function as intended, are resilient against misuse or dangerous modifications, are ethically developed and operated in a secure manner, and are compliant with applicable Federal laws and policies. Finally, my Administration will help develop effective labeling and content provenance mechanisms, so that Americans are able to determine when content is generated using AI and when it is not. These actions will provide a vital foundation for an approach that addresses AI's risks without unduly reducing its benefits.
(b) Promoting responsible innovation, competition, and collaboration will allow the United States to lead in AI and unlock the technology's potential to solve some of society's most difficult challenges. This effort requires investments in AI-related education, training, development, research, and capacity, while simultaneously tackling novel intellectual property (IP) questions and other problems to protect inventors and creators. Across the Federal Government, my Administration will support programs to provide Americans the skills they need for the age of AI and attract the world's AI talent to our shores '-- not just to study, but to stay '-- so that the companies and technologies of the future are made in America. The Federal Government will promote a fair, open, and competitive ecosystem and marketplace for AI and related technologies so that small developers and entrepreneurs can continue to drive innovation. Doing so requires stopping unlawful collusion and addressing risks from dominant firms' use of key assets such as semiconductors, computing power, cloud storage, and data to disadvantage competitors, and it requires supporting a marketplace that harnesses the benefits of AI to provide new opportunities for small businesses, workers, and entrepreneurs.
(c) The responsible development and use of AI require a commitment to supporting American workers. As AI creates new jobs and industries, all workers need a seat at the table, including through collective bargaining, to ensure that they benefit from these opportunities. My Administration will seek to adapt job training and education to support a diverse workforce and help provide access to opportunities that AI creates. In the workplace itself, AI should not be deployed in ways that undermine rights, worsen job quality, encourage undue worker surveillance, lessen market competition, introduce new health and safety risks, or cause harmful labor-force disruptions. The critical next steps in AI development should be built on the views of workers, labor unions, educators, and employers to support responsible uses of AI that improve workers' lives, positively augment human work, and help all people safely enjoy the gains and opportunities from technological innovation.
(d) Artificial Intelligence policies must be consistent with my Administration's dedication to advancing equity and civil rights. My Administration cannot '-- and will not '-- tolerate the use of AI to disadvantage those who are already too often denied equal opportunity and justice. From hiring to housing to healthcare, we have seen what happens when AI use deepens discrimination and bias, rather than improving quality of life. Artificial Intelligence systems deployed irresponsibly have reproduced and intensified existing inequities, caused new types of harmful discrimination, and exacerbated online and physical harms. My Administration will build on the important steps that have already been taken '-- such as issuing the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, the AI Risk Management Framework, and Executive Order 14091 of February 16, 2023 (Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government) '-- in seeking to ensure that AI complies with all Federal laws and to promote robust technical evaluations, careful oversight, engagement with affected communities, and rigorous regulation. It is necessary to hold those developing and deploying AI accountable to standards that protect against unlawful discrimination and abuse, including in the justice system and the Federal Government. Only then can Americans trust AI to advance civil rights, civil liberties, equity, and justice for all.
(e) The interests of Americans who increasingly use, interact with, or purchase AI and AI-enabled products in their daily lives must be protected. Use of new technologies, such as AI, does not excuse organizations from their legal obligations, and hard-won consumer protections are more important than ever in moments of technological change. The Federal Government will enforce existing consumer protection laws and principles and enact appropriate safeguards against fraud, unintended bias, discrimination, infringements on privacy, and other harms from AI. Such protections are especially important in critical fields like healthcare, financial services, education, housing, law, and transportation, where mistakes by or misuse of AI could harm patients, cost consumers or small businesses, or jeopardize safety or rights. At the same time, my Administration will promote responsible uses of AI that protect consumers, raise the quality of goods and services, lower their prices, or expand selection and availability.
(f) Americans' privacy and civil liberties must be protected as AI continues advancing. Artificial Intelligence is making it easier to extract, re-identify, link, infer, and act on sensitive information about people's identities, locations, habits, and desires. Artificial Intelligence's capabilities in these areas can increase the risk that personal data could be exploited and exposed. To combat this risk, the Federal Government will ensure that the collection, use, and retention of data is lawful, is secure, and mitigates privacy and confidentiality risks. Agencies shall use available policy and technical tools, including privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) where appropriate, to protect privacy and to combat the broader legal and societal risks '-- including the chilling of First Amendment rights '-- that result from the improper collection and use of people's data.
(g) It is important to manage the risks from the Federal Government's own use of AI and increase its internal capacity to regulate, govern, and support responsible use of AI to deliver better results for Americans. These efforts start with people, our Nation's greatest asset. My Administration will take steps to attract, retain, and develop public service-oriented AI professionals, including from underserved communities, across disciplines '-- including technology, policy, managerial, procurement, regulatory, ethical, governance, and legal fields '-- and ease AI professionals' path into the Federal Government to help harness and govern AI. The Federal Government will work to ensure that all members of its workforce receive adequate training to understand the benefits, risks, and limitations of AI for their job functions, and to modernize Federal Government information technology infrastructure, remove bureaucratic obstacles, and ensure that safe and rights-respecting AI is adopted, deployed, and used.
(h) The Federal Government should lead the way to global societal, economic, and technological progress, as the United States has in previous eras of disruptive innovation and change. This leadership is not measured solely by the technological advancements our country makes. Effective leadership also means pioneering those systems and safeguards needed to deploy technology responsibly '-- and building and promoting those safeguards with the rest of the world. My Administration will engage with international allies and partners in developing a framework to manage AI's risks, unlock AI's potential for good, and promote common approaches to shared challenges. The Federal Government will seek to promote responsible AI safety and security principles and actions with other nations, including our competitors, while leading key global conversations and collaborations to ensure that AI benefits the whole world, rather than exacerbating inequities, threatening human rights, and causing other harms.
Sec. 3. Definitions. For purposes of this order:
(a) The term ''agency'' means each agency described in 44 U.S.C. 3502(1), except for the independent regulatory agencies described in 44 U.S.C. 3502(5).
(b) The term ''artificial intelligence'' or ''AI'' has the meaning set forth in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3): a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. Artificial intelligence systems use machine- and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments; abstract such perceptions into models through analysis in an automated manner; and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.
(c) The term ''AI model'' means a component of an information system that implements AI technology and uses computational, statistical, or machine-learning techniques to produce outputs from a given set of inputs.
(d) The term ''AI red-teaming'' means a structured testing effort to find flaws and vulnerabilities in an AI system, often in a controlled environment and in collaboration with developers of AI. Artificial Intelligence red-teaming is most often performed by dedicated ''red teams'' that adopt adversarial methods to identify flaws and vulnerabilities, such as harmful or discriminatory outputs from an AI system, unforeseen or undesirable system behaviors, limitations, or potential risks associated with the misuse of the system.
(e) The term ''AI system'' means any data system, software, hardware, application, tool, or utility that operates in whole or in part using AI.
(f) The term ''commercially available information'' means any information or data about an individual or group of individuals, including an individual's or group of individuals' device or location, that is made available or obtainable and sold, leased, or licensed to the general public or to governmental or non-governmental entities.
(g) The term ''crime forecasting'' means the use of analytical techniques to attempt to predict future crimes or crime-related information. It can include machine-generated predictions that use algorithms to analyze large volumes of data, as well as other forecasts that are generated without machines and based on statistics, such as historical crime statistics.
(h) The term ''critical and emerging technologies'' means those technologies listed in the February 2022 Critical and Emerging Technologies List Update issued by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), as amended by subsequent updates to the list issued by the NSTC.
(i) The term ''critical infrastructure'' has the meaning set forth in section 1016(e) of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, 42 U.S.C. 5195c(e).
(j) The term ''differential-privacy guarantee'' means protections that allow information about a group to be shared while provably limiting the improper access, use, or disclosure of personal information about particular entities.
(k) The term ''dual-use foundation model'' means an AI model that is trained on broad data; generally uses self-supervision; contains at least tens of billions of parameters; is applicable across a wide range of contexts; and that exhibits, or could be easily modified to exhibit, high levels of performance at tasks that pose a serious risk to security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters, such as by:
(i) substantially lowering the barrier of entry for non-experts to design, synthesize, acquire, or use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons;
(ii) enabling powerful offensive cyber operations through automated vulnerability discovery and exploitation against a wide range of potential targets of cyber attacks; or
(iii) permitting the evasion of human control or oversight through means of deception or obfuscation.
Models meet this definition even if they are provided to end users with technical safeguards that attempt to prevent users from taking advantage of the relevant unsafe capabilities.
(l) The term ''Federal law enforcement agency'' has the meaning set forth in section 21(a) of Executive Order 14074 of May 25, 2022 (Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices To Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety).
(m) The term ''floating-point operation'' means any mathematical operation or assignment involving floating-point numbers, which are a subset of the real numbers typically represented on computers by an integer of fixed precision scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base.
(n) The term ''foreign person'' has the meaning set forth in section 5(c) of Executive Order 13984 of January 19, 2021 (Taking Additional Steps To Address the National Emergency With Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities).
(o) The terms ''foreign reseller'' and ''foreign reseller of United States Infrastructure as a Service Products'' mean a foreign person who has established an Infrastructure as a Service Account to provide Infrastructure as a Service Products subsequently, in whole or in part, to a third party.
(p) The term ''generative AI'' means the class of AI models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data in order to generate derived synthetic content. This can include images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.
(q) The terms ''Infrastructure as a Service Product,'' ''United States Infrastructure as a Service Product,'' ''United States Infrastructure as a Service Provider,'' and ''Infrastructure as a Service Account'' each have the respective meanings given to those terms in section 5 of Executive Order 13984.
(r) The term ''integer operation'' means any mathematical operation or assignment involving only integers, or whole numbers expressed without a decimal point.
(s) The term ''Intelligence Community'' has the meaning given to that term in section 3.5(h) of Executive Order 12333 of December 4, 1981 (United States Intelligence Activities), as amended.
(t) The term ''machine learning'' means a set of techniques that can be used to train AI algorithms to improve performance at a task based on data.
(u) The term ''model weight'' means a numerical parameter within an AI model that helps determine the model's outputs in response to inputs.
(v) The term ''national security system'' has the meaning set forth in 44 U.S.C. 3552(b)(6).
(w) The term ''omics'' means biomolecules, including nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolites, that make up a cell or cellular system.
(x) The term ''Open RAN'' means the Open Radio Access Network approach to telecommunications-network standardization adopted by the O-RAN Alliance, Third Generation Partnership Project, or any similar set of published open standards for multi-vendor network equipment interoperability.
(y) The term ''personally identifiable information'' has the meaning set forth in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-130.
(z) The term ''privacy-enhancing technology'' means any software or hardware solution, technical process, technique, or other technological means of mitigating privacy risks arising from data processing, including by enhancing predictability, manageability, disassociability, storage, security, and confidentiality. These technological means may include secure multiparty computation, homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, federated learning, secure enclaves, differential privacy, and synthetic-data-generation tools. This is also sometimes referred to as ''privacy-preserving technology.''
(aa) The term ''privacy impact assessment'' has the meaning set forth in OMB Circular No. A-130.
(bb) The term ''Sector Risk Management Agency'' has the meaning set forth in 6 U.S.C. 650(23).
(cc) The term ''self-healing network'' means a telecommunications network that automatically diagnoses and addresses network issues to permit self-restoration.
(dd) The term ''synthetic biology'' means a field of science that involves redesigning organisms, or the biomolecules of organisms, at the genetic level to give them new characteristics. Synthetic nucleic acids are a type of biomolecule redesigned through synthetic-biology methods.
(ee) The term ''synthetic content'' means information, such as images, videos, audio clips, and text, that has been significantly modified or generated by algorithms, including by AI.
(ff) The term ''testbed'' means a facility or mechanism equipped for conducting rigorous, transparent, and replicable testing of tools and technologies, including AI and PETs, to help evaluate the functionality, usability, and performance of those tools or technologies.
(gg) The term ''watermarking'' means the act of embedding information, which is typically difficult to remove, into outputs created by AI '-- including into outputs such as photos, videos, audio clips, or text '-- for the purposes of verifying the authenticity of the output or the identity or characteristics of its provenance, modifications, or conveyance. Sec. 4. Ensuring the Safety and Security of AI Technology.
4.1. Developing Guidelines, Standards, and Best Practices for AI Safety and Security. (a) Within 270 days of the date of this order, to help ensure the development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in coordination with the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Commerce may deem appropriate, shall:
(i) Establish guidelines and best practices, with the aim of promoting consensus industry standards, for developing and deploying safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems, including:
(A) developing a companion resource to the AI Risk Management Framework, NIST AI 100-1, for generative AI;
(B) developing a companion resource to the Secure Software Development Framework to incorporate secure development practices for generative AI and for dual-use foundation models; and
(C) launching an initiative to create guidance and benchmarks for evaluating and auditing AI capabilities, with a focus on capabilities through which AI could cause harm, such as in the areas of cybersecurity and biosecurity.
(ii) Establish appropriate guidelines (except for AI used as a component of a national security system), including appropriate procedures and processes, to enable developers of AI, especially of dual-use foundation models, to conduct AI red-teaming tests to enable deployment of safe, secure, and trustworthy systems. These efforts shall include:
(A) coordinating or developing guidelines related to assessing and managing the safety, security, and trustworthiness of dual-use foundation models; and
(B) in coordination with the Secretary of Energy and the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), developing and helping to ensure the availability of testing environments, such as testbeds, to support the development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI technologies, as well as to support the design, development, and deployment of associated PETs, consistent with section 9(b) of this order.
(b) Within 270 days of the date of this order, to understand and mitigate AI security risks, the Secretary of Energy, in coordination with the heads of other Sector Risk Management Agencies (SRMAs) as the Secretary of Energy may deem appropriate, shall develop and, to the extent permitted by law and available appropriations, implement a plan for developing the Department of Energy's AI model evaluation tools and AI testbeds. The Secretary shall undertake this work using existing solutions where possible, and shall develop these tools and AI testbeds to be capable of assessing near-term extrapolations of AI systems' capabilities. At a minimum, the Secretary shall develop tools to evaluate AI capabilities to generate outputs that may represent nuclear, nonproliferation, biological, chemical, critical infrastructure, and energy-security threats or hazards. The Secretary shall do this work solely for the purposes of guarding against these threats, and shall also develop model guardrails that reduce such risks. The Secretary shall, as appropriate, consult with private AI laboratories, academia, civil society, and third-party evaluators, and shall use existing solutions.
4.2. Ensuring Safe and Reliable AI. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this order, to ensure and verify the continuous availability of safe, reliable, and effective AI in accordance with the Defense Production Act, as amended, 50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq., including for the national defense and the protection of critical infrastructure, the Secretary of Commerce shall require:
(i) Companies developing or demonstrating an intent to develop potential dual-use foundation models to provide the Federal Government, on an ongoing basis, with information, reports, or records regarding the following:
(A) any ongoing or planned activities related to training, developing, or producing dual-use foundation models, including the physical and cybersecurity protections taken to assure the integrity of that training process against sophisticated threats;
(B) the ownership and possession of the model weights of any dual-use foundation models, and the physical and cybersecurity measures taken to protect those model weights; and
(C) the results of any developed dual-use foundation model's performance in relevant AI red-team testing based on guidance developed by NIST pursuant to subsection 4.1(a)(ii) of this section, and a description of any associated measures the company has taken to meet safety objectives, such as mitigations to improve performance on these red-team tests and strengthen overall model security. Prior to the development of guidance on red-team testing standards by NIST pursuant to subsection 4.1(a)(ii) of this section, this description shall include the results of any red-team testing that the company has conducted relating to lowering the barrier to entry for the development, acquisition, and use of biological weapons by non-state actors; the discovery of software vulnerabilities and development of associated exploits; the use of software or tools to influence real or virtual events; the possibility for self-replication or propagation; and associated measures to meet safety objectives; and
(ii) Companies, individuals, or other organizations or entities that acquire, develop, or possess a potential large-scale computing cluster to report any such acquisition, development, or possession, including the existence and location of these clusters and the amount of total computing power available in each cluster.
(b) The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall define, and thereafter update as needed on a regular basis, the set of technical conditions for models and computing clusters that would be subject to the reporting requirements of subsection 4.2(a) of this section. Until such technical conditions are defined, the Secretary shall require compliance with these reporting requirements for:
(i) any model that was trained using a quantity of computing power greater than 1026 integer or floating-point operations, or using primarily biological sequence data and using a quantity of computing power greater than 1023 integer or floating-point operations; and
(ii) any computing cluster that has a set of machines physically co-located in a single datacenter, transitively connected by data center networking of over 100 Gbit/s, and having a theoretical maximum computing capacity of 1020 integer or floating-point operations per second for training AI.
(c) Because I find that additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency related to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities declared in Executive Order 13694 of April 1, 2015 (Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities), as amended by Executive Order 13757 of December 28, 2016 (Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities), and further amended by Executive Order 13984, to address the use of United States Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Products by foreign malicious cyber actors, including to impose additional record-keeping obligations with respect to foreign transactions and to assist in the investigation of transactions involving foreign malicious cyber actors, I hereby direct the Secretary of Commerce, within 90 days of the date of this order, to:
(i) Propose regulations that require United States IaaS Providers to submit a report to the Secretary of Commerce when a foreign person transacts with that United States IaaS Provider to train a large AI model with potential capabilities that could be used in malicious cyber-enabled activity (a ''training run''). Such reports shall include, at a minimum, the identity of the foreign person and the existence of any training run of an AI model meeting the criteria set forth in this section, or other criteria defined by the Secretary in regulations, as well as any additional information identified by the Secretary.
(ii) Include a requirement in the regulations proposed pursuant to subsection 4.2(c)(i) of this section that United States IaaS Providers prohibit any foreign reseller of their United States IaaS Product from providing those products unless such foreign reseller submits to the United States IaaS Provider a report, which the United States IaaS Provider must provide to the Secretary of Commerce, detailing each instance in which a foreign person transacts with the foreign reseller to use the United States IaaS Product to conduct a training run described in subsection 4.2(c)(i) of this section. Such reports shall include, at a minimum, the information specified in subsection 4.2(c)(i) of this section as well as any additional information identified by the Secretary.
(iii) Determine the set of technical conditions for a large AI model to have potential capabilities that could be used in malicious cyber-enabled activity, and revise that determination as necessary and appropriate. Until the Secretary makes such a determination, a model shall be considered to have potential capabilities that could be used in malicious cyber-enabled activity if it requires a quantity of computing power greater than 1026 integer or floating-point operations and is trained on a computing cluster that has a set of machines physically co-located in a single datacenter, transitively connected by data center networking of over 100 Gbit/s, and having a theoretical maximum compute capacity of 1020 integer or floating-point operations per second for training AI.
(d) Within 180 days of the date of this order, pursuant to the finding set forth in subsection 4.2(c) of this section, the Secretary of Commerce shall propose regulations that require United States IaaS Providers to ensure that foreign resellers of United States IaaS Products verify the identity of any foreign person that obtains an IaaS account (account) from the foreign reseller. These regulations shall, at a minimum:
(i) Set forth the minimum standards that a United States IaaS Provider must require of foreign resellers of its United States IaaS Products to verify the identity of a foreign person who opens an account or maintains an existing account with a foreign reseller, including:
(A) the types of documentation and procedures that foreign resellers of United States IaaS Products must require to verify the identity of any foreign person acting as a lessee or sub-lessee of these products or services;
(B) records that foreign resellers of United States IaaS Products must securely maintain regarding a foreign person that obtains an account, including information establishing:
(1) the identity of such foreign person, including name and address;
(2) the means and source of payment (including any associated financial institution and other identifiers such as credit card number, account number, customer identifier, transaction identifiers, or virtual currency wallet or wallet address identifier);
(3) the electronic mail address and telephonic contact information used to verify a foreign person's identity; and
(4) the Internet Protocol addresses used for access or administration and the date and time of each such access or administrative action related to ongoing verification of such foreign person's ownership of such an account; and
(C) methods that foreign resellers of United States IaaS Products must implement to limit all third-party access to the information described in this subsection, except insofar as such access is otherwise consistent with this order and allowed under applicable law;
(ii) Take into consideration the types of accounts maintained by foreign resellers of United States IaaS Products, methods of opening an account, and types of identifying information available to accomplish the objectives of identifying foreign malicious cyber actors using any such products and avoiding the imposition of an undue burden on such resellers; and
(iii) Provide that the Secretary of Commerce, in accordance with such standards and procedures as the Secretary may delineate and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, may exempt a United States IaaS Provider with respect to any specific foreign reseller of their United States IaaS Products, or with respect to any specific type of account or lessee, from the requirements of any regulation issued pursuant to this subsection. Such standards and procedures may include a finding by the Secretary that such foreign reseller, account, or lessee complies with security best practices to otherwise deter abuse of United States IaaS Products.
(e) The Secretary of Commerce is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq., as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of subsections 4.2(c) and (d) of this section. Such actions may include a requirement that United States IaaS Providers require foreign resellers of United States IaaS Products to provide United States IaaS Providers verifications relative to those subsections.
4.3. Managing AI in Critical Infrastructure and in Cybersecurity. (a) To ensure the protection of criticalinfrastructure, the following actions shall be taken:
(i) Within 90 days of the date of this order, and at least annually thereafter, the head of each agency with relevant regulatory authority over critical infrastructure and the heads of relevant SRMAs, in coordination with the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the Department of Homeland Security for consideration of cross-sector risks, shall evaluate and provide to the Secretary of Homeland Security an assessment of potential risks related to the use of AI in critical infrastructure sectors involved, including ways in which deploying AI may make critical infrastructure systems more vulnerable to critical failures, physical attacks, and cyber attacks, and shall consider ways to mitigate these vulnerabilities. Independent regulatory agencies are encouraged, as they deem appropriate, to contribute to sector-specific risk assessments.
(ii) Within 150 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue a public report on best practices for financial institutions to manage AI-specific cybersecurity risks.
(iii) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce and with SRMAs and other regulators as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall incorporate as appropriate the AI Risk Management Framework, NIST AI 100-1, as well as other appropriate security guidance, into relevant safety and security guidelines for use by critical infrastructure owners and operators.
(iv) Within 240 days of the completion of the guidelines described in subsection 4.3(a)(iii) of this section, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall coordinate work by the heads of agencies with authority over critical infrastructure to develop and take steps for the Federal Government to mandate such guidelines, or appropriate portions thereof, through regulatory or other appropriate action. Independent regulatory agencies are encouraged, as they deem appropriate, to consider whether to mandate guidance through regulatory action in their areas of authority and responsibility.
(v) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish an Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board as an advisory committee pursuant to section 871 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-296). The Advisory Committee shall include AI experts from the private sector, academia, and government, as appropriate, and provide to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Federal Government's critical infrastructure community advice, information, or recommendations for improving security, resilience, and incident response related to AI usage in critical infrastructure.
(b) To capitalize on AI's potential to improve United States cyber defenses:
(i) The Secretary of Defense shall carry out the actions described in subsections 4.3(b)(ii) and (iii) of this section for national security systems, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall carry out these actions for non-national security systems. Each shall do so in consultation with the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security may deem appropriate.
(ii) As set forth in subsection 4.3(b)(i) of this section, within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, consistent with applicable law, each develop plans for, conduct, and complete an operational pilot project to identify, develop, test, evaluate, and deploy AI capabilities, such as large-language models, to aid in the discovery and remediation of vulnerabilities in critical United States Government software, systems, and networks.
(iii) As set forth in subsection 4.3(b)(i) of this section, within 270 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall each provide a report to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs on the results of actions taken pursuant to the plans and operational pilot projects required by subsection 4.3(b)(ii) of this section, including a description of any vulnerabilities found and fixed through the development and deployment of AI capabilities and any lessons learned on how to identify, develop, test, evaluate, and deploy AI capabilities effectively for cyber defense.
4.4. Reducing Risks at the Intersection of AI and CBRN Threats. (a) To better understand and mitigate the risk of AI being misused to assist in the development or use of CBRN threats '-- with a particular focus on biological weapons '-- the following actions shall be taken:
(i) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), shall evaluate the potential for AI to be misused to enable the development or production of CBRN threats, while also considering the benefits and application of AI to counter these threats, including, as appropriate, the results of work conducted under section 8(b) of this order. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
(A) consult with experts in AI and CBRN issues from the Department of Energy, private AI laboratories, academia, and third-party model evaluators, as appropriate, to evaluate AI model capabilities to present CBRN threats '-- for the sole purpose of guarding against those threats '-- as well as options for minimizing the risks of AI model misuse to generate or exacerbate those threats; and
(B) submit a report to the President that describes the progress of these efforts, including an assessment of the types of AI models that may present CBRN risks to the United States, and that makes recommendations for regulating or overseeing the training, deployment, publication, or use of these models, including requirements for safety evaluations and guardrails for mitigating potential threats to national security.
(ii) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Director of OSTP, shall enter into a contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct '-- and submit to the Secretary of Defense, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, the Director of OSTP, and the Chair of the Chief Data Officer Council '-- a study that:
(A) assesses the ways in which AI can increase biosecurity risks, including risks from generative AI models trained on biological data, and makes recommendations on how to mitigate these risks;
(B) considers the national security implications of the use of data and datasets, especially those associated with pathogens and omics studies, that the United States Government hosts, generates, funds the creation of, or otherwise owns, for the training of generative AI models, and makes recommendations on how to mitigate the risks related to the use of these data and datasets;
(C) assesses the ways in which AI applied to biology can be used to reduce biosecurity risks, including recommendations on opportunities to coordinate data and high-performance computing resources; and
(D) considers additional concerns and opportunities at the intersection of AI and synthetic biology that the Secretary of Defense deems appropriate.
(b) To reduce the risk of misuse of synthetic nucleic acids, which could be substantially increased by AI's capabilities in this area, and improve biosecurity measures for the nucleic acid synthesis industry, the following actions shall be taken:
(i) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Director of OSTP, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, and the heads of other relevant agencies as the Director of OSTP may deem appropriate, shall establish a framework, incorporating, as appropriate, existing United States Government guidance, to encourage providers of synthetic nucleic acid sequences to implement comprehensive, scalable, and verifiable synthetic nucleic acid procurement screening mechanisms, including standards and recommended incentives. As part of this framework, the Director of OSTP shall:
(A) establish criteria and mechanisms for ongoing identification of biological sequences that could be used in a manner that would pose a risk to the national security of the United States; and
(B) determine standardized methodologies and tools for conducting and verifying the performance of sequence synthesis procurement screening, including customer screening approaches to support due diligence with respect to managing security risks posed by purchasers of biological sequences identified in subsection 4.4(b)(i)(A) of this section, and processes for the reporting of concerning activity to enforcement entities.
(ii) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of NIST, in coordination with the Director of OSTP, and in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of HHS, and the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Commerce may deem appropriate, shall initiate an effort to engage with industry and relevant stakeholders, informed by the framework developed under subsection 4.4(b)(i) of this section, to develop and refine for possible use by synthetic nucleic acid sequence providers:
(A) specifications for effective nucleic acid synthesis procurement screening;
(B) best practices, including security and access controls, for managing sequence-of-concern databases to support such screening;
(C) technical implementation guides for effective screening; and
(D) conformity-assessment best practices and mechanisms.
(iii) Within 180 days of the establishment of the framework pursuant to subsection 4.4(b)(i) of this section, all agencies that fund life-sciences research shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, establish that, as a requirement of funding, synthetic nucleic acid procurement is conducted through providers or manufacturers that adhere to the framework, such as through an attestation from the provider or manufacturer. The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Director of OSTP shall coordinate the process of reviewing such funding requirements to facilitate consistency in implementation of the framework across funding agencies.
(iv) In order to facilitate effective implementation of the measures described in subsections 4.4(b)(i)-(iii) of this section, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Homeland Security may deem appropriate, shall:
(A) within 180 days of the establishment of the framework pursuant to subsection 4.4(b)(i) of this section, develop a framework to conduct structured evaluation and stress testing of nucleic acid synthesis procurement screening, including the systems developed in accordance with subsections 4.4(b)(i)-(ii) of this section and implemented by providers of synthetic nucleic acid sequences; and
(B) following development of the framework pursuant to subsection 4.4(b)(iv)(A) of this section, submit an annual report to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, and the Director of OSTP on any results of the activities conducted pursuant to subsection 4.4(b)(iv)(A) of this section, including recommendations, if any, on how to strengthen nucleic acid synthesis procurement screening, including customer screening systems.
4.5. Reducing the Risks Posed by Synthetic Content.
To foster capabilities for identifying and labeling synthetic content produced by AI systems, and to establish the authenticity and provenance of digital content, both synthetic and not synthetic, produced by the Federal Government or on its behalf: (a) Within 240 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Commerce may deem appropriate, shall submit a report to the Director of OMB and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs identifying the existing standards, tools, methods, and practices, as well as the potential development of further science-backed standards and techniques, for:
(i) authenticating content and tracking its provenance;
(ii) labeling synthetic content, such as using watermarking;
(iii) detecting synthetic content;
(iv) preventing generative AI from producing child sexual abuse material or producing non-consensual intimate imagery of real individuals (to include intimate digital depictions of the body or body parts of an identifiable individual);
(v) testing software used for the above purposes; and
(vi) auditing and maintaining synthetic content. (b) Within 180 days of submitting the report required under subsection 4.5(a) of this section, and updated periodically thereafter, the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall develop guidance regarding the existing tools and practices for digital content authentication and synthetic content detection measures. The guidance shall include measures for the purposes listed in subsection 4.5(a) of this section.
(c) Within 180 days of the development of the guidance required under subsection 4.5(b) of this section, and updated periodically thereafter, the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; the Attorney General; the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of NIST; the Secretary of Homeland Security; the Director of National Intelligence; and the heads of other agencies that the Director of OMB deems appropriate, shall '-- for the purpose of strengthening public confidence in the integrity of official United States Government digital content '-- issue guidance to agencies for labeling and authenticating such content that they produce or publish.
(d) The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation to take into account the guidance established under subsection 4.5 of this section.
4.6. Soliciting Input on Dual-Use Foundation Models with Widely Available Model Weights. When the weights for a dual-use foundation model are widely available '-- such as when they are publicly posted on the Internet '-- there can be substantial benefits to innovation, but also substantial security risks, such as the removal of safeguards within the model. To address the risks and potential benefits of dual-use foundation models with widely available weights, within 270 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall: (a) solicit input from the private sector, academia, civil society, and other stakeholders through a public consultation process on potential risks, benefits, other implications, and appropriate policy and regulatory approaches related to dual-use foundation models for which the model weights are widely available, including:
(i) risks associated with actors fine-tuning dual-use foundation models for which the model weights are widely available or removing those models' safeguards;
(ii) benefits to AI innovation and research, including research into AI safety and risk management, of dual-use foundation models for which the model weights are widely available; and
(iii) potential voluntary, regulatory, and international mechanisms to manage the risks and maximize the benefits of dual-use foundation models for which the model weights are widely available; and (b) based on input from the process described in subsection 4.6(a) of this section, and in consultation with the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Commerce deems appropriate, submit a report to the President on the potential benefits, risks, and implications of dual-use foundation models for which the model weights are widely available, as well as policy and regulatory recommendations pertaining to those models.
4.7. Promoting Safe Release and Preventing the Malicious Use of Federal Data for AI Training.To improve public data access and manage security risks, and consistent with the objectives of the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act (title II of Public Law 115-435) to expand public access to Federal data assets in a machine-readable format while also taking into account security considerations, including the risk that information in an individual data asset in isolation does not pose a security risk but, when combined with other available information, may pose such a risk: (a) within 270 days of the date of this order, the Chief Data Officer Council, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall develop initial guidelines for performing security reviews, including reviews to identify and manage the potential security risks of releasing Federal data that could aid in the development of CBRN weapons as well as the development of autonomous offensive cyber capabilities, while also providing public access to Federal Government data in line with the goals stated in the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act (title II of Public Law 115-435); and
(b) within 180 days of the development of the initial guidelines required by subsection 4.7(a) of this section, agencies shall conduct a security review of all data assets in the comprehensive data inventory required under 44 U.S.C. 3511(a)(1) and (2)(B) and shall take steps, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to address the highest-priority potential security risks that releasing that data could raise with respect to CBRN weapons, such as the ways in which that data could be used to train AI systems.
4.8. Directing the Development of a National Security Memorandum. To develop a coordinated executive branch approach to managing AI's security risks, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy shall oversee an interagency process with the purpose of, within 270 days of the date of this order, developing and submitting a proposed National Security Memorandum on AI to the President. The memorandum shall address the governance of AI used as a component of a national security system or for military and intelligence purposes. The memorandum shall take into account current efforts to govern the development and use of AI for national security systems. The memorandum shall outline actions for the Department of Defense, the Department of State, other relevant agencies, and the Intelligence Community to address the national security risks and potential benefits posed by AI. In particular, the memorandum shall:
(a) provide guidance to the Department of Defense, other relevant agencies, and the Intelligence Community on the continued adoption of AI capabilities to advance the United States national security mission, including through directing specific AI assurance and risk-management practices for national security uses of AI that may affect the rights or safety of United States persons and, in appropriate contexts, non-United States persons; and
(b) direct continued actions, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to address the potential use of AI systems by adversaries and other foreign actors in ways that threaten the capabilities or objectives of the Department of Defense or the Intelligence Community, or that otherwise pose risks to the security of the United States or its allies and partners.
Sec. 5. Promoting Innovation and Competition.
5.1. Attracting AI Talent to the United States. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this order, to attract and retain talent in AI and other critical and emerging technologies in the United States economy, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps to:
(i) streamline processing times of visa petitions and applications, including by ensuring timely availability of visa appointments, for noncitizens who seek to travel to the United States to work on, study, or conduct research in AI or other critical and emerging technologies; and
(ii) facilitate continued availability of visa appointments in sufficient volume for applicants with expertise in AI or other critical and emerging technologies.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State shall:
(i) consider initiating a rulemaking to establish new criteria to designate countries and skills on the Department of State's Exchange Visitor Skills List as it relates to the 2-year foreign residence requirement for certain J-1 nonimmigrants, including those skills that are critical to the United States;
(ii) consider publishing updates to the 2009 Revised Exchange Visitor Skills List (74 FR 20108); and
(iii) consider implementing a domestic visa renewal program under 22 C.F.R. 41.111(b) to facilitate the ability of qualified applicants, including highly skilled talent in AI and critical and emerging technologies, to continue their work in the United States without unnecessary interruption.
(c) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State shall:
(i) consider initiating a rulemaking to expand the categories of nonimmigrants who qualify for the domestic visa renewal program covered under 22 C.F.R. 41.111(b) to include academic J-1 research scholars and F-1 students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); and
(ii) establish, to the extent permitted by law and available appropriations, a program to identify and attract top talent in AI and other critical and emerging technologies at universities, research institutions, and the private sector overseas, and to establish and increase connections with that talent to educate them on opportunities and resources for research and employment in the United States, including overseas educational components to inform top STEM talent of nonimmigrant and immigrant visa options and potential expedited adjudication of their visa petitions and applications.
(d) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
(i) review and initiate any policy changes the Secretary determines necessary and appropriate to clarify and modernize immigration pathways for experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies, including O-1A and EB-1 noncitizens of extraordinary ability; EB-2 advanced-degree holders and noncitizens of exceptional ability; and startup founders in AI and other critical and emerging technologies using the International Entrepreneur Rule; and
(ii) continue its rulemaking process to modernize the H-1B program and enhance its integrity and usage, including by experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies, and consider initiating a rulemaking to enhance the process for noncitizens, including experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies and their spouses, dependents, and children, to adjust their status to lawful permanent resident.
(e) Within 45 days of the date of this order, for purposes of considering updates to the ''Schedule A'' list of occupations, 20 C.F.R. 656.5, the Secretary of Labor shall publish a request for information (RFI) to solicit public input, including from industry and worker-advocate communities, identifying AI and other STEM-related occupations, as well as additional occupations across the economy, for which there is an insufficient number of ready, willing, able, and qualified United States workers.
(f) The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, consistent with applicable law and implementing regulations, use their discretionary authorities to support and attract foreign nationals with special skills in AI and other critical and emerging technologies seeking to work, study, or conduct research in the United States.
(g) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Director of OSTP, shall develop and publish informational resources to better attract and retain experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies, including:
(i) a clear and comprehensive guide for experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies to understand their options for working in the United States, to be published in multiple relevant languages on AI.gov; and
(ii) a public report with relevant data on applications, petitions, approvals, and other key indicators of how experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies have utilized the immigration system through the end of Fiscal Year 2023.
5.2. Promoting Innovation. (a) To develop and strengthen public-private partnerships for advancing innovation, commercialization, and risk-mitigation methods for AI, and to help promote safe, responsible, fair, privacy-protecting, and trustworthy AI systems, the Director of NSF shall take the following steps:
(i) Within 90 days of the date of this order, in coordination with the heads of agencies that the Director of NSF deems appropriate, launch a pilot program implementing the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), consistent with past recommendations of the NAIRR Task Force. The program shall pursue the infrastructure, governance mechanisms, and user interfaces to pilot an initial integration of distributed computational, data, model, and training resources to be made available to the research community in support of AI-related research and development. The Director of NSF shall identify Federal and private sector computational, data, software, and training resources appropriate for inclusion in the NAIRR pilot program. To assist with such work, within 45 days of the date of this order, the heads of agencies whom the Director of NSF identifies for coordination pursuant to this subsection shall each submit to the Director of NSF a report identifying the agency resources that could be developed and integrated into such a pilot program. These reports shall include a description of such resources, including their current status and availability; their format, structure, or technical specifications; associated agency expertise that will be provided; and the benefits and risks associated with their inclusion in the NAIRR pilot program. The heads of independent regulatory agencies are encouraged to take similar steps, as they deem appropriate.
(ii) Within 150 days of the date of this order, fund and launch at least one NSF Regional Innovation Engine that prioritizes AI-related work, such as AI-related research, societal, or workforce needs.
(iii) Within 540 days of the date of this order, establish at least four new National AI Research Institutes, in addition to the 25 currently funded as of the date of this order.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, to support activities involving high-performance and data-intensive computing, the Secretary of Energy, in coordination with the Director of NSF, shall, in a manner consistent with applicable law and available appropriations, establish a pilot program to enhance existing successful training programs for scientists, with the goal of training 500 new researchers by 2025 capable of meeting the rising demand for AI talent.
(c) To promote innovation and clarify issues related to AI and inventorship of patentable subject matter, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO Director) shall:
(i) within 120 days of the date of this order, publish guidance to USPTO patent examiners and applicants addressing inventorship and the use of AI, including generative AI, in the inventive process, including illustrative examples in which AI systems play different roles in inventive processes and how, in each example, inventorship issues ought to be analyzed;
(ii) subsequently, within 270 days of the date of this order, issue additional guidance to USPTO patent examiners and applicants to address other considerations at the intersection of AI and IP, which could include, as the USPTO Director deems necessary, updated guidance on patent eligibility to address innovation in AI and critical and emerging technologies; and
(iii) within 270 days of the date of this order or 180 days after the United States Copyright Office of the Library of Congress publishes its forthcoming AI study that will address copyright issues raised by AI, whichever comes later, consult with the Director of the United States Copyright Office and issue recommendations to the President on potential executive actions relating to copyright and AI. The recommendations shall address any copyright and related issues discussed in the United States Copyright Office's study, including the scope of protection for works produced using AI and the treatment of copyrighted works in AI training.
(d) Within 180 days of the date of this order, to assist developers of AI in combatting AI-related IP risks, the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, and in consultation with the Attorney General, shall develop a training, analysis, and evaluation program to mitigate AI-related IP risks. Such a program shall:
(i) include appropriate personnel dedicated to collecting and analyzing reports of AI-related IP theft, investigating such incidents with implications for national security, and, where appropriate and consistent with applicable law, pursuing related enforcement actions;
(ii) implement a policy of sharing information and coordinating on such work, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; United States Customs and Border Protection; other agencies; State and local agencies; and appropriate international organizations, including through work-sharing agreements;
(iii) develop guidance and other appropriate resources to assist private sector actors with mitigating the risks of AI-related IP theft;
(iv) share information and best practices with AI developers and law enforcement personnel to identify incidents, inform stakeholders of current legal requirements, and evaluate AI systems for IP law violations, as well as develop mitigation strategies and resources; and
(v) assist the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in updating the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement to address AI-related issues.
(e) To advance responsible AI innovation by a wide range of healthcare technology developers that promotes the welfare of patients and workers in the healthcare sector, the Secretary of HHS shall identify and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law and the activities directed in section 8 of this order, prioritize grantmaking and other awards, as well as undertake related efforts, to support responsible AI development and use, including:
(i) collaborating with appropriate private sector actors through HHS programs that may support the advancement of AI-enabled tools that develop personalized immune-response profiles for patients, consistent with section 4 of this order;
(ii) prioritizing the allocation of 2024 Leading Edge Acceleration Project cooperative agreement awards to initiatives that explore ways to improve healthcare-data quality to support the responsible development of AI tools for clinical care, real-world-evidence programs, population health, public health, and related research; and
(iii) accelerating grants awarded through the National Institutes of Health Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) program and showcasing current AIM-AHEAD activities in underserved communities.
(f) To advance the development of AI systems that improve the quality of veterans' healthcare, and in order to support small businesses' innovative capacity, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall:
(i) within 365 days of the date of this order, host two 3-month nationwide AI Tech Sprint competitions; and
(ii) as part of the AI Tech Sprint competitions and in collaboration with appropriate partners, provide participants access to technical assistance, mentorship opportunities, individualized expert feedback on products under development, potential contract opportunities, and other programming and resources.
(g) Within 180 days of the date of this order, to support the goal of strengthening our Nation's resilience against climate change impacts and building an equitable clean energy economy for the future, the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Director of OSTP, the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, the Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor, and the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Energy may deem appropriate, shall:
(i) issue a public report describing the potential for AI to improve planning, permitting, investment, and operations for electric grid infrastructure and to enable the provision of clean, affordable, reliable, resilient, and secure electric power to all Americans;
(ii) develop tools that facilitate building foundation models useful for basic and applied science, including models that streamline permitting and environmental reviews while improving environmental and social outcomes;
(iii) collaborate, as appropriate, with private sector organizations and members of academia to support development of AI tools to mitigate climate change risks;
(iv) take steps to expand partnerships with industry, academia, other agencies, and international allies and partners to utilize the Department of Energy's computing capabilities and AI testbeds to build foundation models that support new applications in science and energy, and for national security, including partnerships that increase community preparedness for climate-related risks, enable clean-energy deployment (including addressing delays in permitting reviews), and enhance grid reliability and resilience; and
(v) establish an office to coordinate development of AI and other critical and emerging technologies across Department of Energy programs and the 17 National Laboratories.
(h) Within 180 days of the date of this order, to understand AI's implications for scientific research, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology shall submit to the President and make publicly available a report on the potential role of AI, especially given recent developments in AI, in research aimed at tackling major societal and global challenges. The report shall include a discussion of issues that may hinder the effective use of AI in research and practices needed to ensure that AI is used responsibly for research.
5.3. Promoting Competition. (a) The head of each agency developing policies and regulations related to AI shall use their authorities, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to promote competition in AI and related technologies, as well as in other markets. Such actions include addressing risks arising from concentrated control of key inputs, taking steps to stop unlawful collusion and prevent dominant firms from disadvantaging competitors, and working to provide new opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs. In particular, the Federal Trade Commission is encouraged to consider, as it deems appropriate, whether to exercise the Commission's existing authorities, including its rulemaking authority under the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 41 et seq., to ensure fair competition in the AI marketplace and to ensure that consumers and workers are protected from harms that may be enabled by the use of AI.
(b) To promote competition and innovation in the semiconductor industry, recognizing that semiconductors power AI technologies and that their availability is critical to AI competition, the Secretary of Commerce shall, in implementing division A of Public Law 117-167, known as the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act of 2022, promote competition by:
(i) implementing a flexible membership structure for the National Semiconductor Technology Center that attracts all parts of the semiconductor and microelectronics ecosystem, including startups and small firms;
(ii) implementing mentorship programs to increase interest and participation in the semiconductor industry, including from workers in underserved communities;
(iii) increasing, where appropriate and to the extent permitted by law, the availability of resources to startups and small businesses, including:
(A) funding for physical assets, such as specialty equipment or facilities, to which startups and small businesses may not otherwise have access;
(B) datasets '-- potentially including test and performance data '-- collected, aggregated, or shared by CHIPS research and development programs;
(C) workforce development programs;
(D) design and process technology, as well as IP, as appropriate; and
(E) other resources, including technical and intellectual property assistance, that could accelerate commercialization of new technologies by startups and small businesses, as appropriate; and
(iv) considering the inclusion, to the maximum extent possible, and as consistent with applicable law, of competition-increasing measures in notices of funding availability for commercial research-and-development facilities focused on semiconductors, including measures that increase access to facility capacity for startups or small firms developing semiconductors used to power AI technologies.
(c) To support small businesses innovating and commercializing AI, as well as in responsibly adopting and deploying AI, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration shall:
(i) prioritize the allocation of Regional Innovation Cluster program funding for clusters that support planning activities related to the establishment of one or more Small Business AI Innovation and Commercialization Institutes that provide support, technical assistance, and other resources to small businesses seeking to innovate, commercialize, scale, or otherwise advance the development of AI;
(ii) prioritize the allocation of up to $2 million in Growth Accelerator Fund Competition bonus prize funds for accelerators that support the incorporation or expansion of AI-related curricula, training, and technical assistance, or other AI-related resources within their programming; and
(iii) assess the extent to which the eligibility criteria of existing programs, including the State Trade Expansion Program, Technical and Business Assistance funding, and capital-access programs '-- such as the 7(a) loan program, 504 loan program, and Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program '-- support appropriate expenses by small businesses related to the adoption of AI and, if feasible and appropriate, revise eligibility criteria to improve support for these expenses.
(d) The Administrator of the Small Business Administration, in coordination with resource partners, shall conduct outreach regarding, and raise awareness of, opportunities for small businesses to use capital-access programs described in subsection 5.3(c) of this section for eligible AI-related purposes, and for eligible investment funds with AI-related expertise '-- particularly those seeking to serve or with experience serving underserved communities '-- to apply for an SBIC license.
Sec. 6. Supporting Workers.(a) To advance the Government's understanding of AI's implications for workers, the following actions shall be taken within 180 days of the date of this order:
(i) The Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers shall prepare and submit a report to the President on the labor-market effects of AI.
(ii) To evaluate necessary steps for the Federal Government to address AI-related workforce disruptions, the Secretary of Labor shall submit to the President a report analyzing the abilities of agencies to support workers displaced by the adoption of AI and other technological advancements. The report shall, at a minimum:
(A) assess how current or formerly operational Federal programs designed to assist workers facing job disruptions '-- including unemployment insurance and programs authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (Public Law 113-128) '-- could be used to respond to possible future AI-related disruptions; and
(B) identify options, including potential legislative measures, to strengthen or develop additional Federal support for workers displaced by AI and, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Education, strengthen and expand education and training opportunities that provide individuals pathways to occupations related to AI.
(b) To help ensure that AI deployed in the workplace advances employees' well-being:
(i) The Secretary of Labor shall, within 180 days of the date of this order and in consultation with other agencies and with outside entities, including labor unions and workers, as the Secretary of Labor deems appropriate, develop and publish principles and best practices for employers that could be used to mitigate AI's potential harms to employees' well-being and maximize its potential benefits. The principles and best practices shall include specific steps for employers to take with regard to AI, and shall cover, at a minimum:
(A) job-displacement risks and career opportunities related to AI, including effects on job skills and evaluation of applicants and workers;
(B) labor standards and job quality, including issues related to the equity, protected-activity, compensation, health, and safety implications of AI in the workplace; and
(C) implications for workers of employers' AI-related collection and use of data about them, including transparency, engagement, management, and activity protected under worker-protection laws.
(ii) After principles and best practices are developed pursuant to subsection (b)(i) of this section, the heads of agencies shall consider, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, encouraging the adoption of these guidelines in their programs to the extent appropriate for each program and consistent with applicable law.
(iii) To support employees whose work is monitored or augmented by AI in being compensated appropriately for all of their work time, the Secretary of Labor shall issue guidance to make clear that employers that deploy AI to monitor or augment employees' work must continue to comply with protections that ensure that workers are compensated for their hours worked, as defined under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. 201 et seq., and other legal requirements.
(c) To foster a diverse AI-ready workforce, the Director of NSF shall prioritize available resources to support AI-related education and AI-related workforce development through existing programs. The Director shall additionally consult with agencies, as appropriate, to identify further opportunities for agencies to allocate resources for those purposes. The actions by the Director shall use appropriate fellowship programs and awards for these purposes.
Sec. 7. Advancing Equity and Civil Rights.
7.1. Strengthening AI and Civil Rights in the Criminal Justice System. (a) To address unlawful discrimination and other harms that may be exacerbated by AI, the Attorney General shall:
(i) consistent with Executive Order 12250 of November 2, 1980 (Leadership and Coordination of Nondiscrimination Laws), Executive Order 14091, and 28 C.F.R. 0.50-51, coordinate with and support agencies in their implementation and enforcement of existing Federal laws to address civil rights and civil liberties violations and discrimination related to AI;
(ii) direct the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division to convene, within 90 days of the date of this order, a meeting of the heads of Federal civil rights offices '-- for which meeting the heads of civil rights offices within independent regulatory agencies will be encouraged to join '-- to discuss comprehensive use of their respective authorities and offices to: prevent and address discrimination in the use of automated systems, including algorithmic discrimination; increase coordination between the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and Federal civil rights offices concerning issues related to AI and algorithmic discrimination; improve external stakeholder engagement to promote public awareness of potential discriminatory uses and effects of AI; and develop, as appropriate, additional training, technical assistance, guidance, or other resources; and
(iii) consider providing, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, guidance, technical assistance, and training to State, local, Tribal, and territorial investigators and prosecutors on best practices for investigating and prosecuting civil rights violations and discrimination related to automated systems, including AI.
(b) To promote the equitable treatment of individuals and adhere to the Federal Government's fundamental obligation to ensure fair and impartial justice for all, with respect to the use of AI in the criminal justice system, the Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of OSTP:
(i) within 365 days of the date of this order, submit to the President a report that addresses the use of AI in the criminal justice system, including any use in:
(A) sentencing;
(B) parole, supervised release, and probation;
(C) bail, pretrial release, and pretrial detention;
(D) risk assessments, including pretrial, earned time, and early release or transfer to home-confinement determinations;
(E) police surveillance;
(F) crime forecasting and predictive policing, including the ingestion of historical crime data into AI systems to predict high-density ''hot spots'';
(G) prison-management tools; and
(H) forensic analysis;
(ii) within the report set forth in subsection 7.1(b)(i) of this section:
(A) identify areas where AI can enhance law enforcement efficiency and accuracy, consistent with protections for privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties; and
(B) recommend best practices for law enforcement agencies, including safeguards and appropriate use limits for AI, to address the concerns set forth in section 13(e)(i) of Executive Order 14074 as well as the best practices and the guidelines set forth in section 13(e)(iii) of Executive Order 14074; and
(iii) supplement the report set forth in subsection 7.1(b)(i) of this section as appropriate with recommendations to the President, including with respect to requests for necessary legislation.
(c) To advance the presence of relevant technical experts and expertise (such as machine-learning engineers, software and infrastructure engineering, data privacy experts, data scientists, and user experience researchers) among law enforcement professionals:
(i) The interagency working group created pursuant to section 3 of Executive Order 14074 shall, within 180 days of the date of this order, identify and share best practices for recruiting and hiring law enforcement professionals who have the technical skills mentioned in subsection 7.1(c) of this section, and for training law enforcement professionals about responsible application of AI.
(ii) Within 270 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, consider those best practices and the guidance developed under section 3(d) of Executive Order 14074 and, if necessary, develop additional general recommendations for State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies and criminal justice agencies seeking to recruit, hire, train, promote, and retain highly qualified and service-oriented officers and staff with relevant technical knowledge. In considering this guidance, the Attorney General shall consult with State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies, as appropriate.
(iii) Within 365 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall review the work conducted pursuant to section 2(b) of Executive Order 14074 and, if appropriate, reassess the existing capacity to investigate law enforcement deprivation of rights under color of law resulting from the use of AI, including through improving and increasing training of Federal law enforcement officers, their supervisors, and Federal prosecutors on how to investigate and prosecute cases related to AI involving the deprivation of rights under color of law pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 242.
7.2. Protecting Civil Rights Related to Government Benefits and Programs. (a) To advance equity and civil rights, consistent with the directives of Executive Order 14091, and in addition to complying with the guidance on Federal Government use of AI issued pursuant to section 10.1(b) of this order, agencies shall use their respective civil rights and civil liberties offices and authorities '-- as appropriate and consistent with applicable law '-- to prevent and address unlawful discrimination and other harms that result from uses of AI in Federal Government programs and benefits administration. This directive does not apply to agencies' civil or criminal enforcement authorities. Agencies shall consider opportunities to ensure that their respective civil rights and civil liberties offices are appropriately consulted on agency decisions regarding the design, development, acquisition, and use of AI in Federal Government programs and benefits administration. To further these objectives, agencies shall also consider opportunities to increase coordination, communication, and engagement about AI as appropriate with community-based organizations; civil-rights and civil-liberties organizations; academic institutions; industry; State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments; and other stakeholders.
(b) To promote equitable administration of public benefits:
(i) The Secretary of HHS shall, within 180 days of the date of this order and in consultation with relevant agencies, publish a plan, informed by the guidance issued pursuant to section 10.1(b) of this order, addressing the use of automated or algorithmic systems in the implementation by States and localities of public benefits and services administered by the Secretary, such as to promote: assessment of access to benefits by qualified recipients; notice to recipients about the presence of such systems; regular evaluation to detect unjust denials; processes to retain appropriate levels of discretion of expert agency staff; processes to appeal denials to human reviewers; and analysis of whether algorithmic systems in use by benefit programs achieve equitable and just outcomes.
(ii) The Secretary of Agriculture shall, within 180 days of the date of this order and as informed by the guidance issued pursuant to section 10.1(b) of this order, issue guidance to State, local, Tribal, and territorial public-benefits administrators on the use of automated or algorithmic systems in implementing benefits or in providing customer support for benefit programs administered by the Secretary, to ensure that programs using those systems:
(A) maximize program access for eligible recipients;
(B) employ automated or algorithmic systems in a manner consistent with any requirements for using merit systems personnel in public-benefits programs;
(C) identify instances in which reliance on automated or algorithmic systems would require notification by the State, local, Tribal, or territorial government to the Secretary;
(D) identify instances when applicants and participants can appeal benefit determinations to a human reviewer for reconsideration and can receive other customer support from a human being;
(E) enable auditing and, if necessary, remediation of the logic used to arrive at an individual decision or determination to facilitate the evaluation of appeals; and
(F) enable the analysis of whether algorithmic systems in use by benefit programs achieve equitable outcomes.
7.3. Strengthening AI and Civil Rights in the Broader Economy. (a) Within 365 days of the date of this order, to prevent unlawful discrimination from AI used for hiring, the Secretary of Labor shall publish guidance for Federal contractors regarding nondiscrimination in hiring involving AI and other technology-based hiring systems.
(b) To address discrimination and biases against protected groups in housing markets and consumer financial markets, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are encouraged to consider using their authorities, as they deem appropriate, to require their respective regulated entities, where possible, to use appropriate methodologies including AI tools to ensure compliance with Federal law and:
(i) evaluate their underwriting models for bias or disparities affecting protected groups; and
(ii) evaluate automated collateral-valuation and appraisal processes in ways that minimize bias.
(c) Within 180 days of the date of this order, to combat unlawful discrimination enabled by automated or algorithmic tools used to make decisions about access to housing and in other real estate-related transactions, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, and the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is encouraged to, issue additional guidance:
(i) addressing the use of tenant screening systems in ways that may violate the Fair Housing Act (Public Law 90-284), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (Public Law 91-508), or other relevant Federal laws, including how the use of data, such as criminal records, eviction records, and credit information, can lead to discriminatory outcomes in violation of Federal law; and
(ii) addressing how the Fair Housing Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (title X of Public Law 111-203), or the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Public Law 93-495) apply to the advertising of housing, credit, and other real estate-related transactions through digital platforms, including those that use algorithms to facilitate advertising delivery, as well as on best practices to avoid violations of Federal law.
(d) To help ensure that people with disabilities benefit from AI's promise while being protected from its risks, including unequal treatment from the use of biometric data like gaze direction, eye tracking, gait analysis, and hand motions, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board is encouraged, as it deems appropriate, to solicit public participation and conduct community engagement; to issue technical assistance and recommendations on the risks and benefits of AI in using biometric data as an input; and to provide people with disabilities access to information and communication technology and transportation services.
Sec. 8. Protecting Consumers, Patients, Passengers, and Students. (a) Independent regulatory agencies are encouraged, as they deem appropriate, to consider using their full range of authorities to protect American consumers from fraud, discrimination, and threats to privacy and to address other risks that may arise from the use of AI, including risks to financial stability, and to consider rulemaking, as well as emphasizing or clarifying where existing regulations and guidance apply to AI, including clarifying the responsibility of regulated entities to conduct due diligence on and monitor any third-party AI services they use, and emphasizing or clarifying requirements and expectations related to the transparency of AI models and regulated entities' ability to explain their use of AI models.
(b) To help ensure the safe, responsible deployment and use of AI in the healthcare, public-health, and human-services sectors:
(i) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of HHS shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, establish an HHS AI Task Force that shall, within 365 days of its creation, develop a strategic plan that includes policies and frameworks '-- possibly including regulatory action, as appropriate '-- on responsible deployment and use of AI and AI-enabled technologies in the health and human services sector (including research and discovery, drug and device safety, healthcare delivery and financing, and public health), and identify appropriate guidance andresources to promote that deployment, including in the following areas:
(A) development, maintenance, and use of predictive and generative AI-enabled technologies in healthcare delivery and financing '-- including quality measurement, performance improvement, program integrity, benefits administration, and patient experience '-- taking into account considerations such as appropriate human oversight of the application of AI-generated output;
(B) long-term safety and real-world performance monitoring of AI-enabled technologies in the health and human services sector, including clinically relevant or significant modifications and performance across population groups, with a means to communicate product updates to regulators, developers, and users;
(C) incorporation of equity principles in AI-enabled technologies used in the health and human services sector, using disaggregated data on affected populations and representative population data sets when developing new models, monitoring algorithmic performance against discrimination and bias in existing models, and helping to identify and mitigate discrimination and bias in current systems;
(D) incorporation of safety, privacy, and security standards into the software-development lifecycle for protection of personally identifiable information, including measures to address AI-enhanced cybersecurity threats in the health and human services sector;
(E) development, maintenance, and availability of documentation to help users determine appropriate and safe uses of AI in local settings in the health and human services sector;
(F) work to be done with State, local, Tribal, and territorial health and human services agencies to advance positive use cases and best practices for use of AI in local settings; and
(G) identification of uses of AI to promote workplace efficiency and satisfaction in the health and human services sector, including reducing administrative burdens.
(ii) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of HHS shall direct HHS components, as the Secretary of HHS deems appropriate, to develop a strategy, in consultation with relevant agencies, to determine whether AI-enabled technologies in the health and human services sector maintain appropriate levels of quality, including, as appropriate, in the areas described in subsection (b)(i) of this section. This work shall include the development of AI assurance policy '-- to evaluate important aspects of the performance of AI-enabled healthcare tools '-- and infrastructure needs for enabling pre-market assessment and post-market oversight of AI-enabled healthcare-technology algorithmic system performance against real-world data.
(iii) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of HHS shall, in consultation with relevant agencies as the Secretary of HHS deems appropriate, consider appropriate actions to advance the prompt understanding of, and compliance with, Federal nondiscrimination laws by health and human services providers that receive Federal financial assistance, as well as how those laws relate to AI. Such actions may include:
(A) convening and providing technical assistance to health and human services providers and payers about their obligations under Federal nondiscrimination and privacy laws as they relate to AI and the potential consequences of noncompliance; and
(B) issuing guidance, or taking other action as appropriate, in response to any complaints or other reports of noncompliance with Federal nondiscrimination and privacy laws as they relate to AI.
(iv) Within 365 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of HHS shall, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, establish an AI safety program that, in partnership with voluntary federally listed Patient Safety Organizations:
(A) establishes a common framework for approaches to identifying and capturing clinical errors resulting from AI deployed in healthcare settings as well as specifications for a central tracking repository for associated incidents that cause harm, including through bias or discrimination, to patients, caregivers, or other parties;
(B) analyzes captured data and generated evidence to develop, wherever appropriate, recommendations, best practices, or other informal guidelines aimed at avoiding these harms; and
(C) disseminates those recommendations, best practices, or other informal guidance to appropriate stakeholders, including healthcare providers.
(v) Within 365 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of HHS shall develop a strategy for regulating the use of AI or AI-enabled tools in drug-development processes. The strategy shall, at a minimum:
(A) define the objectives, goals, and high-level principles required for appropriate regulation throughout each phase of drug development;
(B) identify areas where future rulemaking, guidance, or additional statutory authority may be necessary to implement such a regulatory system;
(C) identify the existing budget, resources, personnel, and potential for new public/private partnerships necessary for such a regulatory system; and
(D) consider risks identified by the actions undertaken to implement section 4 of this order.
(c) To promote the safe and responsible development and use of AI in the transportation sector, in consultation with relevant agencies:
(i) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Transportation shall direct the Nontraditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council to assess the need for information, technical assistance, and guidance regarding the use of AI in transportation. The Secretary of Transportation shall further direct the NETT Council, as part of any such efforts, to:
(A) support existing and future initiatives to pilot transportation-related applications of AI, as they align with policy priorities articulated in the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Innovation Principles, including, as appropriate, through technical assistance and connecting stakeholders;
(B) evaluate the outcomes of such pilot programs in order to assess when DOT, or other Federal or State agencies, have sufficient information to take regulatory actions, as appropriate, and recommend appropriate actions when that information is available; and
(C) establish a new DOT Cross-Modal Executive Working Group, which will consist of members from different divisions of DOT and coordinate applicable work among these divisions, to solicit and use relevant input from appropriate stakeholders.
(ii) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Transportation shall direct appropriate Federal Advisory Committees of the DOT to provide advice on the safe and responsible use of AI in transportation. The committees shall include the Advanced Aviation Advisory Committee, the Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee, and the Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Advisory Committee.
(iii) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Transportation shall direct the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure (ARPA-I) to explore the transportation-related opportunities and challenges of AI '-- including regarding software-defined AI enhancements impacting autonomous mobility ecosystems. The Secretary of Transportation shall further encourage ARPA-I to prioritize the allocation of grants to those opportunities, as appropriate. The work tasked to ARPA-I shall include soliciting input on these topics through a public consultation process, such as an RFI.
(d) To help ensure the responsible development and deployment of AI in the education sector, the Secretary of Education shall, within 365 days of the date of this order, develop resources, policies, and guidance regarding AI. These resources shall address safe, responsible, and nondiscriminatory uses of AI in education, including the impact AI systems have on vulnerable and underserved communities, and shall be developed in consultation with stakeholders as appropriate. They shall also include the development of an ''AI toolkit'' for education leaders implementing recommendations from the Department of Education's AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning report, including appropriate human review of AI decisions, designing AI systems to enhance trust and safety and align with privacy-related laws and regulations in the educational context, and developing education-specific guardrails.
(e) The Federal Communications Commission is encouraged to consider actions related to how AI will affect communications networks and consumers, including by:
(i) examining the potential for AI to improve spectrum management, increase the efficiency of non-Federal spectrum usage, and expand opportunities for the sharing of non-Federal spectrum;
(ii) coordinating with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to create opportunities for sharing spectrum between Federal and non-Federal spectrum operations;
(iii) providing support for efforts to improve network security, resiliency, and interoperability using next-generation technologies that incorporate AI, including self-healing networks, 6G, and Open RAN; and
(iv) encouraging, including through rulemaking, efforts to combat unwanted robocalls and robotexts that are facilitated or exacerbated by AI and to deploy AI technologies that better serve consumers by blocking unwanted robocalls and robotexts.
Sec. 9. Protecting Privacy. (a) To mitigate privacy risks potentially exacerbated by AI '-- including by AI's facilitation of the collection or use of information about individuals, or the making of inferences about individuals '-- the Director of OMB shall:
(i) evaluate and take steps to identify commercially available information (CAI) procured by agencies, particularly CAI that contains personally identifiable information and including CAI procured from data brokers and CAI procured and processed indirectly through vendors, in appropriate agency inventory and reporting processes (other than when it is used for the purposes of national security);
(ii) evaluate, in consultation with the Federal Privacy Council and the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, agency standards and procedures associated with the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, and disposition of CAI that contains personally identifiable information (other than when it is used for the purposes of national security) to inform potential guidance to agencies on ways to mitigate privacy and confidentiality risks from agencies' activities related to CAI;
(iii) within 180 days of the date of this order, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and the Director of OSTP, issue an RFI to inform potential revisions to guidance to agencies on implementing the privacy provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-347). The RFI shall seek feedback regarding how privacy impact assessments may be more effective at mitigating privacy risks, including those that are further exacerbated by AI; and
(iv) take such steps as are necessary and appropriate, consistent with applicable law, to support and advance the near-term actions and long-term strategy identified through the RFI process, including issuing new or updated guidance or RFIs or consulting other agencies or the Federal Privacy Council.
(b) Within 365 days of the date of this order, to better enable agencies to use PETs to safeguard Americans' privacy from the potential threats exacerbated by AI, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of NIST, shall create guidelines for agencies to evaluate the efficacy of differential-privacy-guarantee protections, including for AI. The guidelines shall, at a minimum, describe the significant factors that bear on differential-privacy safeguards and common risks to realizing differential privacy in practice.
(c) To advance research, development, and implementation related to PETs:
(i) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Director of NSF, in collaboration with the Secretary of Energy, shall fund the creation of a Research Coordination Network (RCN) dedicated to advancing privacy research and, in particular, the development, deployment, and scaling of PETs. The RCN shall serve to enable privacy researchers to share information, coordinate and collaborate in research, and develop standards for the privacy-research community.
(ii) Within 240 days of the date of this order, the Director of NSF shall engage with agencies to identify ongoing work and potential opportunities to incorporate PETs into their operations. The Director of NSF shall, where feasible and appropriate, prioritize research '-- including efforts to translate research discoveries into practical applications '-- that encourage the adoption of leading-edge PETs solutions for agencies' use, including through research engagement through the RCN described in subsection (c)(i) of this section.
(iii) The Director of NSF shall use the results of the United States-United Kingdom PETs Prize Challenge to inform the approaches taken, and opportunities identified, for PETs research and adoption.
Sec. 10. Advancing Federal Government Use of AI.
10.1. Providing Guidance for AI Management. (a) To coordinate the use of AI across the Federal Government, within 60 days of the date of this order and on an ongoing basis as necessary, the Director of OMB shall convene and chair an interagency council to coordinate the development and use of AI in agencies' programs and operations, other than the use of AI in national security systems. The Director of OSTP shall serve as Vice Chair for the interagency council. The interagency council's membership shall include, at minimum, the heads of the agencies identified in 31 U.S.C. 901(b), the Director of National Intelligence, and other agencies as identified by the Chair. Until agencies designate their permanent Chief AI Officers consistent with the guidance described in subsection 10.1(b) of this section, they shall be represented on the interagency council by an appropriate official at the Assistant Secretary level or equivalent, as determined by the head of each agency.
(b) To provide guidance on Federal Government use of AI, within 150 days of the date of this order and updated periodically thereafter, the Director of OMB, in coordination with the Director of OSTP, and in consultation with the interagency council established in subsection 10.1(a) of this section, shall issue guidance to agencies to strengthen the effective and appropriate use of AI, advance AI innovation, and manage risks from AI in the Federal Government. The Director of OMB's guidance shall specify, to the extent appropriate and consistent with applicable law:
(i) the requirement to designate at each agency within 60 days of the issuance of the guidance a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer who shall hold primary responsibility in their agency, in coordination with other responsible officials, for coordinating their agency's use of AI, promoting AI innovation in their agency, managing risks from their agency's use of AI, and carrying out the responsibilities described in section 8(c) of Executive Order 13960 of December 3, 2020 (Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government), and section 4(b) of Executive Order 14091;
(ii) the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officers' roles, responsibilities, seniority, position, and reporting structures;
(iii) for the agencies identified in 31 U.S.C. 901(b), the creation of internal Artificial Intelligence Governance Boards, or other appropriate mechanisms, at each agency within 60 days of the issuance of the guidance to coordinate and govern AI issues through relevant senior leaders from across the agency;
(iv) required minimum risk-management practices for Government uses of AI that impact people's rights or safety, including, where appropriate, the following practices derived from OSTP's Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework: conducting public consultation; assessing data quality; assessing and mitigating disparate impacts and algorithmic discrimination; providing notice of the use of AI; continuously monitoring and evaluating deployed AI; and granting human consideration and remedies for adverse decisions made using AI;
(v) specific Federal Government uses of AI that are presumed by default to impact rights or safety;
(vi) recommendations to agencies to reduce barriers to the responsible use of AI, including barriers related to information technology infrastructure, data, workforce, budgetary restrictions, and cybersecurity processes;
(vii) requirements that agencies identified in 31 U.S.C. 901(b) develop AI strategies and pursue high-impact AI use cases;
(viii) in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the heads of other appropriate agencies as determined by the Director of OMB, recommendations to agencies regarding:
(A) external testing for AI, including AI red-teaming for generative AI, to be developed in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency;
(B) testing and safeguards against discriminatory, misleading, inflammatory, unsafe, or deceptive outputs, as well as against producing child sexual abuse material and against producing non-consensual intimate imagery of real individuals (including intimate digital depictions of the body or body parts of an identifiable individual), for generative AI;
(C) reasonable steps to watermark or otherwise label output from generative AI;
(D) application of the mandatory minimum risk-management practices defined under subsection 10.1(b)(iv) of this section to procured AI;
(E) independent evaluation of vendors' claims concerning both the effectiveness and risk mitigation of their AI offerings;
(F) documentation and oversight of procured AI;
(G) maximizing the value to agencies when relying on contractors to use and enrich Federal Government data for the purposes of AI development and operation;
(H) provision of incentives for the continuous improvement of procured AI; and
(I) training on AI in accordance with the principles set out in this order and in other references related to AI listed herein; and
(ix) requirements for public reporting on compliance with this guidance.
(c) To track agencies' AI progress, within 60 days of the issuance of the guidance established in subsection 10.1(b) of this section and updated periodically thereafter, the Director of OMB shall develop a method for agencies to track and assess their ability to adopt AI into their programs and operations, manage its risks, and comply with Federal policy on AI. This method should draw on existing related efforts as appropriate and should address, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, the practices, processes, and capabilities necessary for responsible AI adoption, training, and governance across, at a minimum, the areas of information technology infrastructure, data, workforce, leadership, and risk management.
(d) To assist agencies in implementing the guidance to be established in subsection 10.1(b) of this section:
(i) within 90 days of the issuance of the guidance, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of NIST, and in coordination with the Director of OMB and the Director of OSTP, shall develop guidelines, tools, and practices to support implementation of the minimum risk-management practices described in subsection 10.1(b)(iv) of this section; and
(ii) within 180 days of the issuance of the guidance, the Director of OMB shall develop an initial means to ensure that agency contracts for the acquisition of AI systems and services align with the guidance described in subsection 10.1(b) of this section and advance the other aims identified in section 7224(d)(1) of the Advancing American AI Act (Public Law 117-263, div. G, title LXXII, subtitle B).
(e) To improve transparency for agencies' use of AI, the Director of OMB shall, on an annual basis, issue instructions to agencies for the collection, reporting, and publication of agency AI use cases, pursuant to section 7225(a) of the Advancing American AI Act. Through these instructions, the Director shall, as appropriate, expand agencies' reporting on how they are managing risks from their AI use cases and update or replace the guidance originally established in section 5 of Executive Order 13960.
(f) To advance the responsible and secure use of generative AI in the Federal Government:
(i) As generative AI products become widely available and common in online platforms, agencies are discouraged from imposing broad general bans or blocks on agency use of generative AI. Agencies should instead limit access, as necessary, to specific generative AI services based on specific risk assessments; establish guidelines and limitations on the appropriate use of generative AI; and, with appropriate safeguards in place, provide their personnel and programs with access to secure and reliable generative AI capabilities, at least for the purposes of experimentation and routine tasks that carry a low risk of impacting Americans' rights. To protect Federal Government information, agencies are also encouraged to employ risk-management practices, such as training their staff on proper use, protection, dissemination, and disposition of Federal information; negotiating appropriate terms of service with vendors; implementing measures designed to ensure compliance with record-keeping, cybersecurity, confidentiality, privacy, and data protection requirements; and deploying other measures to prevent misuse of Federal Government information in generative AI.
(ii) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Administrator of General Services, in coordination with the Director of OMB, and in consultation with the Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee and other relevant agencies as the Administrator of General Services may deem appropriate, shall develop and issue a framework for prioritizing critical and emerging technologies offerings in the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program authorization process, starting with generative AI offerings that have the primary purpose of providing large language model-based chat interfaces, code-generation and debugging tools, and associated application programming interfaces, as well as prompt-based image generators. This framework shall apply for no less than 2 years from the date of its issuance. Agency Chief Information Officers, Chief Information Security Officers, and authorizing officials are also encouraged to prioritize generative AI and other critical and emerging technologies in granting authorities for agency operation of information technology systems and any other applicable release or oversight processes, using continuous authorizations and approvals wherever feasible.
(iii) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall develop guidance on the use of generative AI for work by the Federal workforce.
(g) Within 30 days of the date of this order, to increase agency investment in AI, the Technology Modernization Board shall consider, as it deems appropriate and consistent with applicable law, prioritizing funding for AI projects for the Technology Modernization Fund for a period of at least 1 year. Agencies are encouraged to submit to the Technology Modernization Fund project funding proposals that include AI '-- and particularly generative AI '-- in service of mission delivery.
(h) Within 180 days of the date of this order, to facilitate agencies' access to commercial AI capabilities, the Administrator of General Services, in coordination with the Director of OMB, and in collaboration with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the head of any other agency identified by the Administrator of General Services, shall take steps consistent with applicable law to facilitate access to Federal Government-wide acquisition solutions for specified types of AI services and products, such as through the creation of a resource guide or other tools to assist the acquisition workforce. Specified types of AI capabilities shall include generative AI and specialized computing infrastructure.
(i) The initial means, instructions, and guidance issued pursuant to subsections 10.1(a)-(h) of this section shall not apply to AI when it is used as a component of a national security system, which shall be addressed by the proposed National Security Memorandum described in subsection 4.8 of this order.
10.2. Increasing AI Talent in Government. (a) Within 45 days of the date of this order, to plan a national surge in AI talent in the Federal Government, the Director of OSTP and the Director of OMB, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, the Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor, and the Assistant to the President and Director of the Gender Policy Council, shall identify priority mission areas for increased Federal Government AI talent, the types of talent that are highest priority to recruit and develop to ensure adequate implementation of this order and use of relevant enforcement and regulatory authorities to address AI risks, and accelerated hiring pathways.
(b) Within 45 days of the date of this order, to coordinate rapid advances in the capacity of the Federal AI workforce, the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, in coordination with the Director of OSTP and the Director of OMB, and in consultation with the National Cyber Director, shall convene an AI and Technology Talent Task Force, which shall include the Director of OPM, the Director of the General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services, a representative from the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, the Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel, members of appropriate agency technology talent programs, a representative of the Chief Data Officer Council, and a representative of the interagency council convened under subsection 10.1(a) of this section. The Task Force's purpose shall be to accelerate and track the hiring of AI and AI-enabling talent across the Federal Government, including through the following actions:
(i) within 180 days of the date of this order, tracking and reporting progress to the President on increasing AI capacity across the Federal Government, including submitting to the President a report and recommendations for further increasing capacity;
(ii) identifying and circulating best practices for agencies to attract, hire, retain, train, and empower AI talent, including diversity, inclusion, and accessibility best practices, as well as to plan and budget adequately for AI workforce needs;
(iii) coordinating, in consultation with the Director of OPM, the use of fellowship programs and agency technology-talent programs and human-capital teams to build hiring capabilities, execute hires, and place AI talent to fill staffing gaps; and
(iv) convening a cross-agency forum for ongoing collaboration between AI professionals to share best practices and improve retention.
(c) Within 45 days of the date of this order, to advance existing Federal technology talent programs, the United States Digital Service, Presidential Innovation Fellowship, United States Digital Corps, OPM, and technology talent programs at agencies, with support from the AI and Technology Talent Task Force described in subsection 10.2(b) of this section, as appropriate and permitted by law, shall develop and begin to implement plans to support the rapid recruitment of individuals as part of a Federal Government-wide AI talent surge to accelerate the placement of key AI and AI-enabling talent in high-priority areas and to advance agencies' data and technology strategies.
(d) To meet the critical hiring need for qualified personnel to execute the initiatives in this order, and to improve Federal hiring practices for AI talent, the Director of OPM, in consultation with the Director of OMB, shall:
(i) within 60 days of the date of this order, conduct an evidence-based review on the need for hiring and workplace flexibility, including Federal Government-wide direct-hire authority for AI and related data-science and technical roles, and, where the Director of OPM finds such authority is appropriate, grant it; this review shall include the following job series at all General Schedule (GS) levels: IT Specialist (2210), Computer Scientist (1550), Computer Engineer (0854), and Program Analyst (0343) focused on AI, and any subsequently developed job series derived from these job series;
(ii) within 60 days of the date of this order, consider authorizing the use of excepted service appointments under 5 C.F.R. 213.3102(i)(3) to address the need for hiring additional staff to implement directives of this order;
(iii) within 90 days of the date of this order, coordinate a pooled-hiring action informed by subject-matter experts and using skills-based assessments to support the recruitment of AI talent across agencies;
(iv) within 120 days of the date of this order, as appropriate and permitted by law, issue guidance for agency application of existing pay flexibilities or incentive pay programs for AI, AI-enabling, and other key technical positions to facilitate appropriate use of current pay incentives;
(v) within 180 days of the date of this order, establish guidance and policy on skills-based, Federal Government-wide hiring of AI, data, and technology talent in order to increase access to those with nontraditional academic backgrounds to Federal AI, data, and technology roles;
(vi) within 180 days of the date of this order, establish an interagency working group, staffed with both human-resources professionals and recruiting technical experts, to facilitate Federal Government-wide hiring of people with AI and other technical skills;
(vii) within 180 days of the date of this order, review existing Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) for Senior Executive Service (SES) positions informed by data and AI literacy competencies and, within 365 days of the date of this order, implement new ECQs as appropriate in the SES assessment process;
(viii) within 180 days of the date of this order, complete a review of competencies for civil engineers (GS-0810 series) and, if applicable, other related occupations, and make recommendations for ensuring that adequate AI expertise and credentials in these occupations in the Federal Government reflect the increased use of AI in critical infrastructure; and
(ix) work with the Security, Suitability, and Credentialing Performance Accountability Council to assess mechanisms to streamline and accelerate personnel-vetting requirements, as appropriate, to support AI and fields related to other critical and emerging technologies.
(e) To expand the use of special authorities for AI hiring and retention, agencies shall use all appropriate hiring authorities, including Schedule A(r) excepted service hiring and direct-hire authority, as applicable and appropriate, to hire AI talent and AI-enabling talent rapidly. In addition to participating in OPM-led pooled hiring actions, agencies shall collaborate, where appropriate, on agency-led pooled hiring under the Competitive Service Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-137) and other shared hiring. Agencies shall also, where applicable, use existing incentives, pay-setting authorities, and other compensation flexibilities, similar to those used for cyber and information technology positions, for AI and data-science professionals, as well as plain-language job titles, to help recruit and retain these highly skilled professionals. Agencies shall ensure that AI and other related talent needs (such as technology governance and privacy) are reflected in strategic workforce planning and budget formulation.
(f) To facilitate the hiring of data scientists, the Chief Data Officer Council shall develop a position-description library for data scientists (job series 1560) and a hiring guide to support agencies in hiring data scientists.
(g) To help train the Federal workforce on AI issues, the head of each agency shall implement '-- or increase the availability and use of '-- AI training and familiarization programs for employees, managers, and leadership in technology as well as relevant policy, managerial, procurement, regulatory, ethical, governance, and legal fields. Such training programs should, for example, empower Federal employees, managers, and leaders to develop and maintain an operating knowledge of emerging AI technologies to assess opportunities to use these technologies to enhance the delivery of services to the public, and to mitigate risks associated with these technologies. Agencies that provide professional-development opportunities, grants, or funds for their staff should take appropriate steps to ensure that employees who do not serve in traditional technical roles, such as policy, managerial, procurement, or legal fields, are nonetheless eligible to receive funding for programs and courses that focus on AI, machine learning, data science, or other related subject areas.
(h) Within 180 days of the date of this order, to address gaps in AI talent for national defense, the Secretary of Defense shall submit a report to the President through the Assistant to the President forNational Security Affairs that includes:
(i) recommendations to address challenges in the Department of Defense's ability to hire certain noncitizens, including at the Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratories;
(ii) recommendations to clarify and streamline processes for accessing classified information for certain noncitizens through Limited Access Authorization at Department of Defense laboratories;
(iii) recommendations for the appropriate use of enlistment authority under 10 U.S.C. 504(b)(2) for experts in AI and other critical and emerging technologies; and
(iv) recommendations for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to work together to enhance the use of appropriate authorities for the retention of certain noncitizens of vital importance to national security by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
Sec. 11. Strengthening American Leadership Abroad. (a) To strengthen United States leadership of global efforts to unlock AI's potential and meet its challenges, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, the Director of OSTP, and the heads of other relevant agencies as appropriate, shall:
(i) lead efforts outside of military and intelligence areas to expand engagements with international allies and partners in relevant bilateral, multilateral, and multi-stakeholder fora to advance those allies' and partners' understanding of existing and planned AI-related guidance and policies of the United States, as well as to enhance international collaboration; and
(ii) lead efforts to establish a strong international framework for managing the risks and harnessing the benefits of AI, including by encouraging international allies and partners to support voluntary commitments similar to those that United States companies have made in pursuit of these objectives and coordinating the activities directed by subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e) of this section, and to develop common regulatory and other accountability principles for foreign nations, including to manage the risk that AI systems pose.
(b) To advance responsible global technical standards for AI development and use outside of military and intelligence areas, the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the heads of other relevant agencies as appropriate, shall lead preparations for a coordinated effort with key international allies and partners and with standards development organizations, to drive the development and implementation of AI-related consensus standards, cooperation and coordination, and information sharing. In particular, the Secretary of Commerce shall:
(i) within 270 days of the date of this order, establish a plan for global engagement on promoting and developing AI standards, with lines of effort that may include:
(A) AI nomenclature and terminology;
(B) best practices regarding data capture, processing, protection, privacy, confidentiality, handling, and analysis;
(C) trustworthiness, verification, and assurance of AI systems; and
(D) AI risk management;
(ii) within 180 days of the date the plan is established, submit a report to the President on priority actions taken pursuant to the plan; and
(iii) ensure that such efforts are guided by principles set out in the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and United States Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology.
(c) Within 365 days of the date of this order, to promote safe, responsible, and rights-affirming development and deployment of AI abroad:
(i) The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the director of NIST, shall publish an AI in Global Development Playbook that incorporates the AI Risk Management Framework's principles, guidelines, and best practices into the social, technical, economic, governance, human rights, and security conditions of contexts beyond United States borders. As part of this work, the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall draw on lessons learned from programmatic uses of AI in global development.
(ii) The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, in collaboration with the Secretary of Energy and the Director of NSF, shall develop a Global AI Research Agenda to guide the objectives and implementation of AI-related research in contexts beyond United States borders. The Agenda shall:
(A) include principles, guidelines, priorities, and best practices aimed at ensuring the safe, responsible, beneficial, and sustainable global development and adoption of AI; and
(B) address AI's labor-market implications across international contexts, including by recommending risk mitigations.
(d) To address cross-border and global AI risks to critical infrastructure, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State, and in consultation with the heads of other relevant agencies as the Secretary of Homeland Security deems appropriate, shall lead efforts with international allies and partners to enhance cooperation to prevent, respond to, and recover from potential critical infrastructure disruptions resulting from incorporation of AI into critical infrastructure systems or malicious use of AI.
(i) Within 270 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State, shall develop a plan for multilateral engagements to encourage the adoption of the AI safety and security guidelines for use by critical infrastructure owners and operators developed in section 4.3(a) of this order.
(ii) Within 180 days of establishing the plan described in subsection (d)(i) of this section, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a report to the President on priority actions to mitigate cross-border risks to critical United States infrastructure.
Sec. 12. Implementation. (a) There is established, within the Executive Office of the President, the White House Artificial Intelligence Council (White House AI Council). The function of the White House AI Council is to coordinate the activities of agencies across the Federal Government to ensure the effective formulation, development, communication, industry engagement related to, and timely implementation of AI-related policies, including policies set forth in this order.
(b) The Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy shall serve as Chair of the White House AI Council.
(c) In addition to the Chair, the White House AI Council shall consist of the following members, or their designees:
(i) the Secretary of State;
(ii) the Secretary of the Treasury;
(iii) the Secretary of Defense;
(iv) the Attorney General;
(v) the Secretary of Agriculture;
(vi) the Secretary of Commerce;
(vii) the Secretary of Labor;
(viii) the Secretary of HHS;
(ix) the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;
(x) the Secretary of Transportation;
(xi) the Secretary of Energy;
(xii) the Secretary of Education;
(xiii) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs;
(xiv) the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(xv) the Administrator of the Small Business Administration;
(xvi) the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development;
(xvii) the Director of National Intelligence;
(xviii) the Director of NSF;
(xix) the Director of OMB;
(xx) the Director of OSTP;
(xxi) the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs;
(xxii) the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy;
(xxiii) the Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor;
(xxiv) the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Vice President;
(xxv) the Assistant to the President and Director of the Gender Policy Council;
(xxvi) the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers;
(xxvii) the National Cyber Director;
(xxviii) the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and
(xxix) the heads of such other agencies, independent regulatory agencies, and executive offices as the Chair may from time to time designate or invite to participate.
(d) The Chair may create and coordinate subgroups consisting of White House AI Council members or their designees, as appropriate.
Sec. 13. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
THE WHITE HOUSE, October 30, 2023.
Google Brain founder says big tech is lying about AI extinction danger
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 21:17
''It's been a weapon for lobbyists to argue for legislation that would be very damaging to the open-source community,'' he said.
In May, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Altman co-signed a letter saying that ''mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority'', and in March, more than 1100 industry leaders including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called for a six-month moratorium on training powerful AI models.
''Sam [Altman] was one of my students at Stanford. He interned with me. I don't want to talk about him specifically because I can't read his mind, but '...I feel like there are many large companies that would find it convenient to not have to compete with open-sourced large language models,'' he said.
''There's a standard regulatory capture playbook that has played out in other industries, and I would hate to see that executed successfully in AI.''
Professor Ng declined to comment on the risk-based regulation of AI being proposed by the Labor government, but agreed that AI should be regulated.
''I don't think no regulation is the right answer, but with the direction regulation is headed in a lot of countries, I think we'd be better off with no regulation than what we're getting,'' he said.
''But thoughtful regulation would be much better than no regulation,'' he said.
''Just to be clear, AI has caused harm. Self-driving cars have killed people. In 2010, an automated trading algorithm crashed the stock market. Regulation has a role. But just because regulation could be helpful doesn't mean we want bad regulation.''
High on the list of ''good'' regulations, he said, was the need for transparency from technology companies, which would have helped avert the social media disaster caused by big tech at the start of the century, and which will help avert AI disasters caused by big tech in the future.
Big Tech Is Lying About AI's Risk to Humanity: Google Brain Cofounder
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 21:17
Big Tech is lying about some AI risks to shut down competition, a Google Brain cofounder has said.Andrew Ng told The Australian Financial Review that tech leaders hoped to trigger strict regulation.Some large tech companies didn't want to compete with open source, he added. Loading Something is loading.
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A leading AI expert and Google Brain cofounder said Big Tech companies were stoking fears about the technology's risks to shut down competition.
Google Brain was a deep-learning AI research team that merged with the DeepMind division earlier this year.
Andrew Ng, an adjunct professor at Stanford University who taught OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, told The Australian Financial Review that the biggest tech companies hoped to trigger strict regulation with the "bad idea that AI could make us go extinct."
"There are definitely large tech companies that would rather not have to try to compete with open source, so they're creating fear of AI leading to human extinction," he told the news outlet. "It's been a weapon for lobbyists to argue for legislation that would be very damaging to the open-source community."
In May, AI experts and CEOs signed a statement from the Center for AI Safety that compared the risks posed by AI with nuclear war and pandemics. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei all put their names to the public statement.
Other AI heavyweights have issued several warnings about the accelerated development of advanced generative AI models, with many urging regulators to act quickly.
Governments around the world are looking to regulate AI, citing concerns over safety, potential job losses, and even the risk of human extinction. The European Union will likely be the first region to enforce oversight or regulation around generative AI.
Ng said the idea that AI could wipe out humanity could lead to policy proposals that require licensing of AI, which risked crushing innovation. Any necessary AI regulation should be created thoughtfully, he added.
Ng did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.
r/detrans | Detransition Subreddit
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 19:51
Discord ServerThe discord server is back open, it's open to anyone but particularly focused on supporting questioners and detransitioners, ultimately it is a support space.
Discord Rules 1 Be civil (don't label or antagonize individual users here).
You will see words you like and dislike. Degrading or dehumanizing terminology toward self is permitted. Language applied to other members must be considerate of any views they hold and respectful of Reddit policies. Character attacks are not permitted, nor are derogatory labels for other users. Even if you yourself think an expression is neutral, don't call another user here by anything that could be taken the wrong way. Address action more than actors and always say "I" more than "you."
2 Be tolerant (no bigotry/tribalism against individual users here).
This subreddit was created for all detrans folk. Users may express differing philosophical and political theories and beliefs, lightly or passionately, without disparaging other users for merely belonging to a group (especially groups into which we are born, eg sex, race, nationality, generation). Moderation is to be unbiased. Please respect freedom of thought, speech, and association while you are here.
3 Be on topic.
Posts should be of interest in some way to detransitioners and those questioning. cMembers must follow post flair request or will be confronted have their post deleted and warned. Detrans folk may discuss controversial issues, but this isn't a debate space for persons without personal experience in detransition. Outsiders will be banned if seen giving advice or suggestions.
4 Never promote cross-sex hormones or surgery.
Cross-sex hormones and surgery affect the body in ways that are not fully understood nor easily reversed. Many detransitioners report having felt pressure to pursue HRT and/or surgery in the past. Therefore, because this is a detransition-focused sub, advising others to start, continue or pursue further transitional care is discouraged here. Those with severe distress are advised to seek a professional opinion. (Reporting strictly positive experiences with treatments does not violate this rule)
5 Respect users' privacy (no doxxing).
Content is posted here voluntarily and in good faith. However, all users should exercise appropriate care when sharing personal information to this or any subreddit. This forum is visible to the public, and bots regularly copy all Reddit content to third-party sites beyond moderators' control. Users who share personally identifying information about others users of this subreddit to this subreddit or to any other location without express permission of the other users are subject to ban.
6 Posters must be detrans or questioning their gender transition with flair
Our subreddit is reserved for detransitioners/desisters and those questioning their own transition; your user flair must clearly indicate that you fall into this group. Healthcare or legal practitioners can apply for exception by messaging the moderators. User flair helps mods keep this forum on Reddit for all detransitioners. Violating content will be removed. Violators will be banned. If you need help setting user flair, do not hesitate to ask a moderator.
7 Give space to detransitioners (no outsider soap-boxing).
Detrans folk and self-questioners may express controversial views here; those who haven't detransitioned or who aren't considering detransition may not. This is not a debate forum for the general public to prop their egos, promote their views, or evangelize. Please take it to another subreddit or be banned.
Outsiders are also free to post on r/ask_detransition which is open to those who are questioning, and are either trans or not.
8 Advice giving should not have an ulterior motive
Members are encouraged to give advice to their fellow member here but there are unfortunately individuals who set a user flair and then strictly give advice only with no clarity on their own situation or status of their questioning/detransition status. These members with questionable post history will be investigated and subject to punishment if found to be exploiting the rules.
9 Anti-detrans activism and tropes are unwelcome.
This subreddit puts detransitioners' rights, needs, and interests first. Detransitioners have for years experienced a culture of detransphobia, victim-blaming, and censorship. Users who belittle or blame us for our existence or experiences as detransitioners, users with a history of doing so anywhere online, and moderators of anti''detrans subreddits may be banned swiftly, long-term, or permanently.
10 Spam is unwelcome.
Users who post the exact same content in three or more subreddits are usually bots and/or are being off-topic; they are therefore subject to immediate and permanent ban. Users who promote their own products and services must be related to the topic of detransition, must not break any other subreddit rule, and should not be posted more than once a week (and if they're repeatedly downvoted, they should take it elsewhere entirely).
11 Clutter-making bots are unwelcome.
This sub is for humans. Bots that add automated content of little or no value may be banned permanently.
12 Be forgiving and fair.
Censorship isn't our goal. Please vote, empathize, agree to disagree, or ignore and move onward. Please report content only if a rule is broken. Mods may delete content and ban users for short or long periods based on a person's history or association if it is deemed inherently harmful to any minority group.
13 Polls must be moderator approved
Due to previous abuse and various acts of soapboxing and flair abuse polls that are posted will be automatically deleted and then later looked through by a moderator and possibly approved if given the okay. Moderators are not obligated to provide reason for not restoring polls.
14 Cross-Posting from unapproved sources is forbidden
Crossposting posts from other subreddits is now forbidden unless you specifically seek out and gain permission to post about it on here. Other rules still apply but we will not tolerate any brigading whatsoever on our end.
Origin StoryIn late 2017, the founder of this subreddit noticed that "r / detransition" was quietly deleting posts (https://archive.vn/2kWMf). It was then discovered that the creator of that sub was deceased (https://archive.is/rr7sb), the other three moderators had become mods hours after this death's announcement (https://archive.is/oA51m), and their profiles, histories, and activity showed a bias against detransition. The mods were contacted, as were Reddit admins for violation of the sitewide "no camping" rule, to no reply.
This newer subreddit seeks to put detransitioners' rights, needs, and interests first, while respecting all viewpoints in a civil environment.
Keywordsbisexual, community, de-trans, de-transgender, de-transition, de-transitioner, de-transitioners, de-transitioning, desist, desistance, desistence, detrans, detransgender, detransition, detransitioner, detransitioners, detransitioning, gay, gender, GLB, GLBT, GNC, help, lesbian, LGB, LGBT, non-conforming, non-conformist, non-conformists, non-conformity, nonconforming, nonconformist, nonconformists, nonconformity, queer, questioning, regret, support, trans, trans-sexual, transexual, transgender, transgenderism, transsexual
Thousands of young people regret their 'gender transitions,' and their stories are gut-wrenching - LifeSite
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 19:50
Fri Oct 27, 2023 - 11:57 am EDTFri Oct 27, 2023 - 6:02 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) '-- Over the past several years, the mainstream press has been working overtime to debunk the testimonies of ''de-transitioners'' '' the men and women, most of them very young, who underwent various transgender interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and ''sex change'' surgeries. Those of you who read this blog regularly will have read many of their stories; there are now so many de-transitioners speaking out that an entire genre of dissident documentaries has sprung up featuring their stories (I reviewed one of them at length here ).
These stories are important '' they emphasize the human cost of the so-called ''gender-affirming care'' constantly pushed by the press and promoted by politicians such as President Biden, who insists that ''sex change'' surgeries for minors are a ''human right.'' Chloe Cole, who shared her own heartbreaking story of de-transition with Jordan Peterson some time ago and frequently testifies in favor of bans on transgender procedures, recently shared a comment posted on the Reddit forum ''r/MtF'''--a thread for those who ''transitioned'' from male to ''female.'' This is not a forum for de-transitioners, mind you. It is titled '' Regret Everything .'' Read it and weep:
I feel like I'm in some sort of a sick joke nightmare.
I'm 21 years old, 4 years HRT [Hormone Replacement Therapy], 7 months post-op [sex change surgery]. I look good, pass ok and have a serious relationship with my boyfriend, my family is supportive as well as my friends. But I just feel like I regret everything. No matter what I do or how good my transition goes I feel different, I feel like I will never be accepted by society and I'll always be that weird trans girl. I actually thought that I'll transition and that's it I'm not a trans girl anymore which is obviously stupid.
I wish I could just go back to being a boy and forget about everything. I honestly don't feel better now than before transitioning and everyday feel like a struggle.
I was pretty good at being a boy, had lots of friends was reasonably happy and I blend flawlessly into society. Never had major dysphoria and everything was so normal. Life is so easy being cis [a transgender term for identifying with your sex]. (Or pretending being one. I feel like I did SRS [sex change surgery] just because my insurance paid for it and I just said to myself meh ok let's do it, it free.
I feel like I f___d up big time and I want my previous life back so much and feel like I didn't fully understand how serious SRS is and how irreversible this surgery was. I feel like I didn't fully understand what and why I was doing for the past 4 years and just did everything a trans girl supposed to do.
There is no going back now and I'm so scared it's going to feel like that forever. I was too young, I messed up'...Pls don't hate me.
This was a boy from California, sold on transgender ideology at a young age, told it was reversible '' and had castration and removal of his genitals funded by the state. Now, he can't go back '' even though ideologues promise kids that this is all ''reversible.''
That story was posted on a pro-transgender Reddit forum. The stories on the '' r/detrans '' Reddit forum '' which currently has more than 50,000 members '' are gut-wrenching to read through. One post, from six hours ago at time of writing:
I am a piece of s__t for forcing my friends and family to go along with this b___t
I never passed. I made them pretend like I was passing and pretend like I wasn't a clown. I forced them to take a side in a political issue
Men can never be women and women can never be men. End of. Period
I'm killing myself in a few weeks because I cannot figure out how to ever recover from this. I have ruined my f____g life. I hate what I have done to myself and my family
Somebody responded:
I can feel you. After getting of hormones it was like wake up from a dream. I don't know what did I think? How did I get to idea to take hormones? How much did I hate myself that I could not accept reality? How could I think that I can be opposite sex?? How could I be a clown for so long time? Spend so much money, time? But I will not give up. I will get out from this madness. So will you. Do not give up.
She replied:
I couldn't stop taking hormones. I tried and I felt so much worse. As much as I hate to admit it the hormones made me feel better. I don't have body dysphoria anymore and when I stopped taking hormones and my body started to revert, I felt disgusted with myself. Hormones didn't turn me into the opposite sex though. I was born female and I still look completely female. I am trying to quit again but I do not want to go back to how my body used to look. My body starts to feminize and it feels like it's not my body anymore. I have tried to find a therapist who can help but they don't exist. Everyone is just affirm, affirm, affirm. I don't want to be trans anymore but I cannot stop taking the hormones. I don't know what to do
What have we done to these kids? What has our society put them through? This '' this is the reality behind the trans flags everywhere; the pronouns in social media bios; the politicians babbling about their commitment to ''human rights.'' Tens of thousands of lives destroyed '' and counting.
Another comment, from a 20-year-old ''detrans woman,'' one day ago:
It has been three years since I detransitioned. I socially transitioned at 13, was put on lupron at age 14, testosterone at age 15, would have gotten top surgery at age 16 if covid hadn't hit. I detransitioned at age 17, and I genuinely think if covid hadn't hit I would never have realized what a horrible mistake I was making. All I can say is that I suddenly felt like everything was crashing, and I just kept thinking,'¯ I am only seventeen years old. And I already have so many permanent changes. Why did I do this to myself?
'...I don't know what the future holds for us. I am scared into silence, most of the time. I am afraid that if I speak about what happened to me, I will not be able to get a job. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I don't think I am. I have seen the way detransitioners get treated. I was in the trans community for four years. I know how they treat us, as if we are traitors, or a threat to their ideology. Somehow liars and also not real, all at once. I am afraid that I cannot have friends and talk about my life as a detransitioned woman at the same time. They cannot coexist in this political climate.
I am not on any social media because it is what made me transition in the first place. I will probably not check this post again. I just had to say somewhere that I am real. That I am not a ''right wing talking point,'' I am not part of some ''bigoted agenda.'' I am a human being. My desire to talk about my pain is not part of a political agenda. My desire to talk about my pain is because I am hurting.
I have to live the rest of my life with a man's voice, acne scars, joint pain, severe cramps, hot flashes, sore ribs, and shave my face once a week, because when I was fifteen I would have rather died than be a woman. I may never be able to have a baby because of a stupid mistake I made when I was fifteen. I don't know how to ever trust a therapist or doctor again. This is my life forever.
Those are just a couple of examples of thousands upon thousands of comments. Many talk about sexual dysfunction and lack of normal sexual function post-''transition.'' Many mourn the loss of breasts and genitals and express horror at thinning hair and permanently changed voices. Others struggle to understand why once-healthy body parts such as breasts now look deformed and beg other commenters for advice. All have been profoundly damaged by their journey and are struggling to find others to help them through their brokenness.
If you have friends or family who support the transgender movement, send them this forum . Ask them to read through the posts for an hour '' or even 15 minutes. And then ask them if they've changed their minds.
Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator and others. He has received an award for combating anti-Semitism in print from the Jewish organization B'nai Brith. His commentary has been featured on CTV Primetime, Global News, EWTN, and the CBC as well as dozens of radio stations and news outlets in Canada and the United States.
He speaks on a wide variety of cultural topics across North America at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions. Some of these topics include abortion, pornography, the Sexual Revolution, and euthanasia. Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Simon Fraser University, and is the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.
Jonathon's first book, The Culture War, was released in 2016.
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How each House member voted for Mike Johnson as speaker - Washington Post
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:35
The House elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker on Wednesday, ending a weeks-long stalemate following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) three weeks ago. Two-hundred and twenty Republicans voted in favor of Johnson, delivering him the majority of votes needed to win. All Democrats present voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
Vote results
Late Tuesday, Johnson became the fourth Republican pick for the post since McCarthy's ouster. Johnson is the vice chair of the House Republican Conference and a staunchly conservative Republican, but unlike the previous GOP picks for speaker, he has maintained a lower profile since his election to Congress in 2016.
Explore how your representative voted for speaker below.
Republicans Robert B. Aderholt
Ala. 4th
JohnsonMark Alford
Mo. 4th
JohnsonRick Allen
Ga. 12th
JohnsonMark Amodei
Nev. 2nd
JohnsonKelly Armstrong
N.D.
JohnsonJodey Arrington
Tex. 19th
JohnsonBrian Babin
Tex. 36th
JohnsonDon Bacon
Neb. 2nd
JohnsonJim Baird
Ind. 4th
JohnsonTroy Balderson
Ohio 12th
JohnsonJim Banks
Ind. 3rd
JohnsonGarland "Andy" Barr
Ky. 6th
JohnsonAaron Bean
Fla. 4th
JohnsonCliff Bentz
Ore. 2nd
JohnsonJack Bergman
Mich. 1st
JohnsonStephanie I. Bice
Okla. 5th
JohnsonAndy Biggs
Ariz. 5th
JohnsonGus M. Bilirakis
Fla. 12th
JohnsonDan Bishop
N.C. 8th
JohnsonLauren Boebert
Colo. 3rd
JohnsonMike Bost
Ill. 12th
JohnsonJosh Brecheen
Okla. 2nd
JohnsonVern Buchanan
Fla. 16th
JohnsonKen Buck
Colo. 4th
JohnsonLarry Bucshon
Ind. 8th
JohnsonTim Burchett
Tenn. 2nd
JohnsonMichael C. Burgess
Tex. 26th
JohnsonEric Burlison
Mo. 7th
JohnsonKen Calvert
Calif. 41st
JohnsonKat Cammack
Fla. 3rd
JohnsonMike Carey
Ohio 15th
JohnsonJerry L. Carl
Ala. 1st
JohnsonEarl L. "Buddy" Carter
Ga. 1st
JohnsonJohn Carter
Tex. 31st
JohnsonLori Chavez-DeRemer
Ore. 5th
JohnsonJuan Ciscomani
Ariz. 6th
JohnsonBen Cline
Va. 6th
JohnsonMichael Cloud
Tex. 27th
JohnsonAndrew S. Clyde
Ga. 9th
JohnsonTom Cole
Okla. 4th
JohnsonMike Collins
Ga. 10th
JohnsonJames Comer
Ky. 1st
JohnsonEli Crane
Ariz. 2nd
JohnsonEric A. "Rick" Crawford
Ark. 1st
JohnsonDan Crenshaw
Tex. 2nd
JohnsonJohn Curtis
Utah 3rd
JohnsonWarren Davidson
Ohio 8th
JohnsonMonica De La Cruz
Tex. 15th
JohnsonScott DesJarlais
Tenn. 4th
JohnsonAnthony P. D'Esposito
N.Y. 4th
JohnsonMario Diaz-Balart
Fla. 26th
JohnsonByron Donalds
Fla. 19th
JohnsonJohn Duarte
Calif. 13th
JohnsonJeff Duncan
S.C. 3rd
JohnsonNeal Dunn
Fla. 2nd
JohnsonChuck Edwards
N.C. 11th
JohnsonJake Ellzey
Tex. 6th
JohnsonTom Emmer
Minn. 6th
JohnsonRon Estes
Kan. 4th
JohnsonMike Ezell
Miss. 4th
JohnsonPat Fallon
Tex. 4th
JohnsonRandy Feenstra
Iowa 4th
JohnsonDrew Ferguson
Ga. 3rd
JohnsonBrad Finstad
Minn. 1st
JohnsonMichelle Fischbach
Minn. 7th
JohnsonScott Fitzgerald
Wis. 5th
JohnsonBrian Fitzpatrick
Pa. 1st
JohnsonCharles J. "Chuck" Fleischmann
Tenn. 3rd
JohnsonMike Flood
Neb. 1st
JohnsonVirginia Foxx
N.C. 5th
JohnsonC. Scott Franklin
Fla. 18th
JohnsonRussell Fry
S.C. 7th
JohnsonRuss Fulcher
Idaho 1st
JohnsonMatt Gaetz
Fla. 1st
JohnsonMike Gallagher
Wis. 8th
JohnsonAndrew R. Garbarino
N.Y. 2nd
JohnsonMike Garcia
Calif. 27th
JohnsonCarlos A. Gim(C)nez
Fla. 28th
JohnsonTony Gonzales
Tex. 23rd
JohnsonBob Good
Va. 5th
JohnsonLance Gooden
Tex. 5th
JohnsonPaul A. Gosar
Ariz. 9th
JohnsonKay Granger
Tex. 12th
JohnsonGarret Graves
La. 6th
JohnsonSam Graves
Mo. 6th
JohnsonMark Green
Tenn. 7th
JohnsonMarjorie Taylor Greene
Ga. 14th
JohnsonH. Morgan Griffith
Va. 9th
JohnsonGlenn Grothman
Wis. 6th
JohnsonMichael Guest
Miss. 3rd
JohnsonBrett Guthrie
Ky. 2nd
JohnsonHarriet Hageman
Wyo.
JohnsonAndy Harris
Md. 1st
JohnsonDiana Harshbarger
Tenn. 1st
JohnsonKevin Hern
Okla. 1st
JohnsonClay Higgins
La. 3rd
JohnsonFrench Hill
Ark. 2nd
JohnsonAshley Hinson
Iowa 2nd
JohnsonErin Houchin
Ind. 9th
JohnsonRichard Hudson
N.C. 9th
JohnsonBill Huizenga
Mich. 4th
JohnsonWesley Hunt
Tex. 38th
JohnsonDarrell Issa
Calif. 48th
JohnsonRonny Jackson
Tex. 13th
JohnsonJohn James
Mich. 10th
JohnsonMike Johnson
La. 4th
JohnsonBill Johnson
Ohio 6th
JohnsonDusty Johnson
S.D.
JohnsonJim Jordan
Ohio 4th
JohnsonDavid Joyce
Ohio 14th
JohnsonJohn Joyce
Pa. 13th
JohnsonThomas Kean Jr.
N.J. 7th
JohnsonTrent Kelly
Miss. 1st
JohnsonMike Kelly
Pa. 16th
JohnsonJen A. Kiggans
Va. 2nd
JohnsonKevin Kiley
Calif. 3rd
JohnsonYoung Kim
Calif. 40th
JohnsonDavid Kustoff
Tenn. 8th
JohnsonDarin LaHood
Ill. 16th
JohnsonNicholas J. LaLota
N.Y. 1st
JohnsonDoug LaMalfa
Calif. 1st
JohnsonDoug Lamborn
Colo. 5th
JohnsonNick Langworthy
N.Y. 23rd
JohnsonRobert E. Latta
Ohio 5th
JohnsonJake LaTurner
Kan. 2nd
JohnsonMichael Lawler
N.Y. 17th
JohnsonLaurel Lee
Fla. 15th
JohnsonDebbie Lesko
Ariz. 8th
JohnsonJulia Letlow
La. 5th
JohnsonBarry Loudermilk
Ga. 11th
JohnsonFrank D. Lucas
Okla. 3rd
JohnsonBlaine Luetkemeyer
Mo. 3rd
JohnsonAnna Paulina Luna
Fla. 13th
JohnsonMorgan Luttrell
Tex. 8th
JohnsonNancy Mace
S.C. 1st
JohnsonNicole Malliotakis
N.Y. 11th
JohnsonTracey Mann
Kan. 1st
JohnsonThomas Massie
Ky. 4th
JohnsonBrian Mast
Fla. 21st
JohnsonKevin McCarthy
Calif. 20th
JohnsonMichael McCaul
Tex. 10th
JohnsonLisa C. McClain
Mich. 9th
JohnsonTom McClintock
Calif. 5th
JohnsonRich McCormick
Ga. 6th
JohnsonPatrick T. McHenry
N.C. 10th
JohnsonDan Meuser
Pa. 9th
JohnsonMary E. Miller
Ill. 15th
JohnsonMax Miller
Ohio 7th
JohnsonCarol Miller
W.Va. 1st
JohnsonMariannette Miller-Meeks
Iowa 1st
JohnsonCory Mills
Fla. 7th
JohnsonMarcus Molinaro
N.Y. 19th
JohnsonJohn Moolenaar
Mich. 2nd
JohnsonAlex Mooney
W.Va. 2nd
JohnsonBarry Moore
Ala. 2nd
JohnsonBlake D. Moore
Utah 1st
JohnsonNathaniel Moran
Tex. 1st
JohnsonGreg Murphy
N.C. 3rd
JohnsonTroy E. Nehls
Tex. 22nd
JohnsonDan Newhouse
Wash. 4th
JohnsonRalph Norman
S.C. 5th
JohnsonZach Nunn
Iowa 3rd
JohnsonJay Obernolte
Calif. 23rd
JohnsonAndy Ogles
Tenn. 5th
JohnsonBurgess Owens
Utah 4th
JohnsonGary Palmer
Ala. 6th
JohnsonGreg Pence
Ind. 6th
JohnsonScott Perry
Pa. 10th
JohnsonAugust Pfluger
Tex. 11th
JohnsonBill Posey
Fla. 8th
JohnsonGuy Reschenthaler
Pa. 14th
JohnsonCathy McMorris Rodgers
Wash. 5th
JohnsonMike D. Rogers
Ala. 3rd
JohnsonHarold Rogers
Ky. 5th
JohnsonJohn Rose
Tenn. 6th
JohnsonMatthew M. Rosendale
Mont. 2nd
JohnsonDavid Rouzer
N.C. 7th
JohnsonChip Roy
Tex. 21st
JohnsonJohn Rutherford
Fla. 5th
JohnsonMaria Elvira Salazar
Fla. 27th
JohnsonGeorge Santos
N.Y. 3rd
JohnsonSteve Scalise
La. 1st
JohnsonDavid Schweikert
Ariz. 1st
JohnsonAustin Scott
Ga. 8th
JohnsonKeith Self
Tex. 3rd
JohnsonPete Sessions
Tex. 17th
JohnsonMike Simpson
Idaho 2nd
JohnsonJason T. Smith
Mo. 8th
JohnsonAdrian Smith
Neb. 3rd
JohnsonChristopher H. Smith
N.J. 4th
JohnsonLloyd Smucker
Pa. 11th
JohnsonVictoria Spartz
Ind. 5th
JohnsonPete Stauber
Minn. 8th
JohnsonMichelle Steel
Calif. 45th
JohnsonElise Stefanik
N.Y. 21st
JohnsonBryan Steil
Wis. 1st
JohnsonGreg Steube
Fla. 17th
JohnsonDale Strong
Ala. 5th
JohnsonClaudia Tenney
N.Y. 24th
JohnsonGlenn Thompson
Pa. 15th
JohnsonTom Tiffany
Wis. 7th
JohnsonWilliam Timmons
S.C. 4th
JohnsonMichael R. Turner
Ohio 10th
JohnsonDavid G. Valadao
Calif. 22nd
JohnsonJeff Van Drew
N.J. 2nd
JohnsonBeth Van Duyne
Tex. 24th
JohnsonAnn Wagner
Mo. 2nd
JohnsonTim Walberg
Mich. 5th
JohnsonMichael Waltz
Fla. 6th
JohnsonRandy Weber
Tex. 14th
JohnsonDaniel Webster
Fla. 11th
JohnsonBrad Wenstrup
Ohio 2nd
JohnsonBruce Westerman
Ark. 4th
JohnsonBrandon Williams
N.Y. 22nd
JohnsonRoger Williams
Tex. 25th
JohnsonJoe Wilson
S.C. 2nd
JohnsonRob Wittman
Va. 1st
JohnsonSteve Womack
Ark. 3rd
JohnsonRudy Yakym
Ind. 2nd
JohnsonRyan Zinke
Mont. 1st
JohnsonDerrick Van Orden
Wis. 3rd
AbsentDemocrats Alma Adams
N.C. 12th
JeffriesPete Aguilar
Calif. 33rd
JeffriesColin Allred
Tex. 32nd
JeffriesJake Auchincloss
Mass. 4th
JeffriesBecca Balint
Vt.
JeffriesNanette Barragn
Calif. 44th
JeffriesJoyce Beatty
Ohio 3rd
JeffriesAmi Bera
Calif. 6th
JeffriesDon Beyer
Va. 8th
JeffriesSanford D. Bishop Jr.
Ga. 2nd
JeffriesEarl Blumenauer
Ore. 3rd
JeffriesLisa Blunt Rochester
Del.
JeffriesSuzanne Bonamici
Ore. 1st
JeffriesJamaal Bowman
N.Y. 16th
JeffriesShontel Brown
Ohio 11th
JeffriesJulia Brownley
Calif. 26th
JeffriesNikki Budzinski
Ill. 13th
JeffriesCori Bush
Mo. 1st
JeffriesYadira Caraveo
Colo. 8th
JeffriesSalud Carbajal
Calif. 24th
JeffriesTony Crdenas
Calif. 29th
JeffriesAndr(C) Carson
Ind. 7th
JeffriesTroy Carter
La. 2nd
JeffriesMatthew Cartwright
Pa. 8th
JeffriesGreg Casar
Tex. 35th
JeffriesEd Case
Hawaii 1st
JeffriesSean Casten
Ill. 6th
JeffriesKathy Castor
Fla. 14th
JeffriesJoaquin Castro
Tex. 20th
JeffriesSheila Cherfilus-McCormick
Fla. 20th
JeffriesJudy Chu
Calif. 28th
JeffriesKatherine M. Clark
Mass. 5th
JeffriesYvette D. Clarke
N.Y. 9th
JeffriesEmanuel Cleaver II
Mo. 5th
JeffriesJames E. Clyburn
S.C. 6th
JeffriesSteve Cohen
Tenn. 9th
JeffriesGerald E. Connolly
Va. 11th
JeffriesJim Costa
Calif. 21st
JeffriesJoe Courtney
Conn. 2nd
JeffriesAngie Craig
Minn. 2nd
JeffriesJasmine Crockett
Tex. 30th
JeffriesJason Crow
Colo. 6th
JeffriesHenry Cuellar
Tex. 28th
JeffriesSharice Davids
Kan. 3rd
JeffriesDanny K. Davis
Ill. 7th
JeffriesDon Davis
N.C. 1st
JeffriesMadeleine Dean
Pa. 4th
JeffriesDiana DeGette
Colo. 1st
JeffriesRosa L. DeLauro
Conn. 3rd
JeffriesSuzan DelBene
Wash. 1st
JeffriesChris Deluzio
Pa. 17th
JeffriesMark DeSaulnier
Calif. 10th
JeffriesDebbie Dingell
Mich. 6th
JeffriesLloyd Doggett
Tex. 37th
JeffriesVeronica Escobar
Tex. 16th
JeffriesAnna G. Eshoo
Calif. 16th
JeffriesAdriano Espaillat
N.Y. 13th
JeffriesDwight Evans
Pa. 3rd
JeffriesLizzie Fletcher
Tex. 7th
JeffriesBill Foster
Ill. 11th
JeffriesValerie Foushee
N.C. 4th
JeffriesLois Frankel
Fla. 22nd
JeffriesMaxwell Frost
Fla. 10th
JeffriesRuben Gallego
Ariz. 3rd
JeffriesJohn Garamendi
Calif. 8th
JeffriesRobert Garcia
Calif. 42nd
JeffriesJesºs "Chuy" Garcia
Ill. 4th
JeffriesSylvia Garcia
Tex. 29th
JeffriesJared Golden
Maine 2nd
JeffriesDaniel Goldman
N.Y. 10th
JeffriesJimmy Gomez
Calif. 34th
JeffriesJosh Gottheimer
N.J. 5th
JeffriesAl Green
Tex. 9th
JeffriesRaºl M. Grijalva
Ariz. 7th
JeffriesJosh Harder
Calif. 9th
JeffriesJahana Hayes
Conn. 5th
JeffriesBrian Higgins
N.Y. 26th
JeffriesJim Himes
Conn. 4th
JeffriesSteven Horsford
Nev. 4th
JeffriesChrissy Houlahan
Pa. 6th
JeffriesSteny H. Hoyer
Md. 5th
JeffriesVal Hoyle
Ore. 4th
JeffriesJared Huffman
Calif. 2nd
JeffriesGlenn Ivey
Md. 4th
JeffriesJonathan Jackson
Ill. 1st
JeffriesJeff Jackson
N.C. 14th
JeffriesSheila Jackson Lee
Tex. 18th
JeffriesSara Jacobs
Calif. 51st
JeffriesPramila Jayapal
Wash. 7th
JeffriesHakeem Jeffries
N.Y. 8th
JeffriesHank Johnson
Ga. 4th
JeffriesSydney Kamlager
Calif. 37th
JeffriesMarcy Kaptur
Ohio 9th
JeffriesWilliam R. Keating
Mass. 9th
JeffriesRobin L. Kelly
Ill. 2nd
JeffriesRo Khanna
Calif. 17th
JeffriesDaniel Kildee
Mich. 8th
JeffriesDerek Kilmer
Wash. 6th
JeffriesAndy Kim
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JeffriesRaja Krishnamoorthi
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JeffriesAnn Kuster
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JeffriesGreg Landsman
Ohio 1st
JeffriesRick Larsen
Wash. 2nd
JeffriesJohn B. Larson
Conn. 1st
JeffriesBarbara Lee
Calif. 12th
JeffriesSusie Lee
Nev. 3rd
JeffriesSummer Lee
Pa. 12th
JeffriesTeresa Leger Fernandez
N.M. 3rd
JeffriesMike Levin
Calif. 49th
JeffriesTed Lieu
Calif. 36th
JeffriesZoe Lofgren
Calif. 18th
JeffriesStephen F. Lynch
Mass. 8th
JeffriesSeth Magaziner
R.I. 2nd
JeffriesKathy Manning
N.C. 6th
JeffriesDoris Matsui
Calif. 7th
JeffriesLucy McBath
Ga. 7th
JeffriesJennifer McClellan
Va. 4th
JeffriesBetty McCollum
Minn. 4th
JeffriesMorgan McGarvey
Ky. 3rd
JeffriesJim McGovern
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JeffriesGregory W. Meeks
N.Y. 5th
JeffriesRobert Menendez
N.J. 8th
JeffriesGrace Meng
N.Y. 6th
JeffriesKweisi Mfume
Md. 7th
JeffriesGwen Moore
Wis. 4th
JeffriesJoseph Morelle
N.Y. 25th
JeffriesJared Moskowitz
Fla. 23rd
JeffriesSeth Moulton
Mass. 6th
JeffriesFrank Mrvan
Ind. 1st
JeffriesKevin Mullin
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JeffriesJerrold Nadler
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JeffriesGrace F. Napolitano
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JeffriesRichard E. Neal
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JeffriesJoe Neguse
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JeffriesAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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JeffriesIlhan Omar
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JeffriesFrank Pallone Jr.
N.J. 6th
JeffriesJimmy Panetta
Calif. 19th
JeffriesChris Pappas
N.H. 1st
JeffriesBill Pascrell Jr.
N.J. 9th
JeffriesDonald Payne Jr.
N.J. 10th
JeffriesNancy Pelosi
Calif. 11th
JeffriesMary Peltola
Alaska
JeffriesMarie Gluesenkamp Perez
Wash. 3rd
JeffriesScott Peters
Calif. 50th
JeffriesBrittany Pettersen
Colo. 7th
JeffriesDean Phillips
Minn. 3rd
JeffriesChellie Pingree
Maine 1st
JeffriesMark Pocan
Wis. 2nd
JeffriesKatie Porter
Calif. 47th
JeffriesAyanna Pressley
Mass. 7th
JeffriesMike Quigley
Ill. 5th
JeffriesDelia Ramirez
Ill. 3rd
JeffriesJamie B. Raskin
Md. 8th
JeffriesDeborah Ross
N.C. 2nd
JeffriesRaul Ruiz
Calif. 25th
JeffriesC.A. Dutch Ruppersberger
Md. 2nd
JeffriesPatrick Ryan
N.Y. 18th
JeffriesAndrea Salinas
Ore. 6th
JeffriesLinda T. Snchez
Calif. 38th
JeffriesJohn Sarbanes
Md. 3rd
JeffriesMary Gay Scanlon
Pa. 5th
JeffriesJan Schakowsky
Ill. 9th
JeffriesAdam B. Schiff
Calif. 30th
JeffriesBradley Schneider
Ill. 10th
JeffriesHillary Scholten
Mich. 3rd
JeffriesKim Schrier
Wash. 8th
JeffriesDavid Scott
Ga. 13th
JeffriesRobert C. ''Bobby'' Scott
Va. 3rd
JeffriesTerri A. Sewell
Ala. 7th
JeffriesBrad Sherman
Calif. 32nd
JeffriesMikie Sherrill
N.J. 11th
JeffriesElissa Slotkin
Mich. 7th
JeffriesAdam Smith
Wash. 9th
JeffriesEric Sorensen
Ill. 17th
JeffriesDarren Soto
Fla. 9th
JeffriesAbigail Spanberger
Va. 7th
JeffriesMelanie Stansbury
N.M. 1st
JeffriesGreg Stanton
Ariz. 4th
JeffriesHaley Stevens
Mich. 11th
JeffriesMarilyn Strickland
Wash. 10th
JeffriesEric Swalwell
Calif. 14th
JeffriesEmilia Sykes
Ohio 13th
JeffriesMark Takano
Calif. 39th
JeffriesShri Thanedar
Mich. 13th
JeffriesMike Thompson
Calif. 4th
JeffriesBennie Thompson
Miss. 2nd
JeffriesDina Titus
Nev. 1st
JeffriesRashida Tlaib
Mich. 12th
JeffriesJill Tokuda
Hawaii 2nd
JeffriesPaul Tonko
N.Y. 20th
JeffriesNorma J. Torres
Calif. 35th
JeffriesRitchie Torres
N.Y. 15th
JeffriesLori Trahan
Mass. 3rd
JeffriesDavid Trone
Md. 6th
JeffriesLauren Underwood
Ill. 14th
JeffriesJuan Vargas
Calif. 52nd
JeffriesGabriel Vasquez
N.M. 2nd
JeffriesMarc Veasey
Tex. 33rd
JeffriesNydia M. Velzquez
N.Y. 7th
JeffriesDebbie Wasserman Schultz
Fla. 25th
JeffriesMaxine Waters
Calif. 43rd
JeffriesBonnie Watson Coleman
N.J. 12th
JeffriesJennifer Wexton
Va. 10th
JeffriesSusan Wild
Pa. 7th
JeffriesNikema Williams
Ga. 5th
JeffriesFrederica S. Wilson
Fla. 24th
JeffriesBrendan Boyle
Pa. 2nd
AbsentJ. Luis Correa
Calif. 46th
AbsentVicente Gonzalez
Tex. 34th
AbsentNote: There are two vacancies in the House.
Legatum's Portfolio of Network Organisations '' The Legatum Group
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:38
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Legatum Institute - DeSmog
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:36
BackgroundThe Legatum Institute ( LI ) was founded in 2007 by the Legatum Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dubai-based investment firm the Legatum Group.1''Londoner's Diary: Love's Legatum Lost in battle over Brexit,'' Evening Standard, December 8, 2016. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/GE92d According to financial disclosures, in 2014 The Legatum Institute transferred activities from the Legatum Institute to the Legatum Institute Foundation, ''a fully functioning educational charity and a non-partisan global think tank, focused on researching, understanding and promoting prosperity in its broadest sense.''2''THE LEGATUM INSTITUTE FOUNDATION Trustees' Annual Report and financial statements'' (PDF), Legatum Institute Foundation, December 31, 2014. Retrieved from charitycommission.gov.uk. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
LI press materials describe the Legatum Institute Foundation as an ''independent, non-partisan, global think tank'' founded in 2009.3''Baroness Philippa Stroud Appointed as CEO of the Legatum Institute,'' Legatum Institute, September 12, 2016. Archived January 24, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/dCSZw
In late 2017, the UK 's charity commission began an investigation into The Legatum Institute Foundation after being ''made aware of some concerns reported in the media about the charity's independence and received complaints that it was political and acting to promote the views of 'pro-Brexiteers'.'' With respect to a specific pro-Brexit report put out by the Legatum Institute's ''Special Trade Commission ( STC ),'' the commission found LI had ''crossed a clear line'' with the publication, and that it was ''not consistent with the requirements associated with the advancement of education for the public benefit.''4''Decision: Legatum Institute Foundation: case report,'' Gov.uk, June 1, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/82YEM
The Legatum Institute was run by Baroness Philippa Stroud,5''Leadership,'' Legatum Institute. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/GGVvj a Conservative politician who vocally supports a hard Brexit.6Cynthia O'Murchu and Henry Mance. ''Legatum: the think-tank at intellectual heart of 'hard' Brexit,'' Financial Times, December 4, 2017. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/v537E Baroness Stroud was appointed CEO in 2016,7''Baroness Philippa Stroud Appointed as CEO of the Legatum Institute,'' Legatum Institute, September 12, 2016. Archived January 24, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/dCSZw and stepped down in March 2023.8''Philippa Claire STROUD,'' Gov.uk. Archived August 9, 2023.
Former chief of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliott, became a Senior Fellow of the Legatum Institute in 2017. He was also the founder of the Taxpayers' Alliance, one of the organisations pushing for deregulation and operating out of 55 Tufton Street. Elliott announced he would be leaving the Legatum Institute in May 2018.9''Matthew Elliott says farewell to the Legatum Institute,'' Legatum Institute, May 11, 2018. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/qdLZh
Also linked to the Legatum Institute is controversial lobbyist Shanker Singham, who worked there for a year before leaving for a role at 55 Tufton Street organisation Institute of Economic Affairs ( IEA ). Singham also has links to US -based climate science denial organisations.10''Leadership,'' Legatum Institute. Archived September 15, 2017. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/naogM
Stance on Climate ChangeDecember 9, 2015
An article posted on Legatum Institute's website entitled ''Fighting Climate Change with Freedom'' states that:11''Fighting Climate Change with Freedom,'' Legatum Institute, December 9, 2015. Archived January 23, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/T8B82
'' Population growth'--not capitalism'--is the biggest cause of climate change, and the best way to save the planet is to give women more control over their own fertility.''
FundingAccording to its website, ''The Legatum Institute is part of a global community of organisations founded and supported by Legatum Foundation.''12''How We Are Funded,'' Legatum Institute. Archived January 23, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/Eacrb
In December 2017, The Financial Times reported that most of the group's income '-- £3.9m of a total of £4.3m '-- came from the Legatum Foundation Limited as well as an additional 40 donors who it does not disclose.
Koch FundingAccording to publicly available 990 tax forms, the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation gave the Legatum Institute a grant of $77,000 in 2018.
Key Documents & FinancialsThe Legatum Institute Foundation (Company # 07430903)
The Legatum Institute Foundation (Charity No. 1140719)
Key PeopleSearch or view the Legatum Institute's people below, based on data retrieved from the Internet Archive.You can also download a spreadsheet of the Legatum Institute's people year over year (.xslx).
ActionsJanuary 6, 2021
The Legatum Institute's parent organisation, the Legatum Group, was announced as a leading investor in GB News, a new British television network chaired by Andrew Neil, chairman of The Spectator.13''Investors give go-ahead for GB News,'' Legatum, January 6, 2021. Archived January 11, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/4zOor GB News describes its intended audience as the ''vast number of British people who feel underserved and unheard,'' according to The Guardian.14Jim Waterson. ''Andrew Neil launches 24-hour news network to rival BBC and Sky,'' The Guardian, September 25, 2020. Archived January 11, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/oMYgw
July 2018
DeSmog mapped the connections between the Legatum Institute and Shanker Singham, and how this provides privileged access to the UK government in order to push a hard Brexit. Singham's links to climate science denial are also exposed, as Singham was at one point a policy expert for the US -based Heartland Institute, which has received at least $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998.15Mat Hope and Richard Collett-White. ''Mapped: How Brexit Lobbyists Give Climate Science Deniers Privileged Access to the UK Government,'' DeSmog, July 3, 2018.
Singham's connection to the organisations that occupy 55 Tufton Street continues, with Singham meeting Michael Gove in June 2017.16Mat Hope and Richard Collett-White. ''Mapped: How Brexit Lobbyists Give Climate Science Deniers Privileged Access to the UK Government,'' DeSmog, July 3, 2018.
Singham's colleague at the Legatum Institute, Alden Abbott, also has ties to US climate science denial through authoring a report for the Heartland Institute,17''FDA Reform: A Prescription for More and Better Drugs and Medical Devices'' (PDF), Legal Memorandum (The Heritage Foundation publication) No. 182 (June 20 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. and his former position as Deputy Director of the Heritage Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.18''Alden Abbott,'' Heritage Foundation. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/5cO9s
The Heritage Foundation sits at the heart of transatlantic network of lobbyists pushing climate science denial and for a hard Brexit, which DeSmog has previously mapped.19Mat Hope and Richard Collett-White. ''Mapped: How Brexit Lobbyists Give Climate Science Deniers Privileged Access to the UK Government,'' DeSmog, July 3, 2018.
February 2018
Representatives from the Legatum Institute were present at ''shadow trade talks'' with other organisations known for spreading misinformation about Climate Change. The talks were hosted by IFT and intended to mobilise the groups to lobby the British government for their ideal US '' UK post-Brexit trade deal.20Mat Hope. ''Trans-Atlantic Network of Hard Brexit Climate Science Deniers Plotting 'Shadow' US-UK Trade Talks,'' DeSmog, February 18, 2018.
December 2017
Environment Secretary Michael Gove met with the Legatum Institute. This continues the connections DeSmog UK has previously mapped between Brexit lobbyists and climate science denial/free market organisations, since Gove is on the advisory board for The New Culture Forum, one of the organisations of 55 Tufton Street.21Mat Hope and Richard Collett-White. ''Mapped: How Brexit Lobbyists Give Climate Science Deniers Privileged Access to the UK Government,'' DeSmog, July 3, 2018.
Along with Boris Johnson and Michael Hintze, who funds the UK 's premier climate science denial campaign group the Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ), Gove was a member of Liam Fox's doomed transatlantic think tank, The Atlantic Bridge. The group formed a special partnership with another free-market lobby group, but the group was dissolved in September 2011 following a Charity Commission investigation that found it was engaged in overtly political work, which was against its rules.22Graham Readfearn. ''Michael Hintze revealed as funder of Lord Lawson's climate thinktank,'' The Guardian, March 27, 2012. Archived January 8, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/uKrgA
Related OrganisationsLegatum Institute Foundation | Company number 07430903 | Charity number 1140719
The Legatum Institute Foundation, separate from the Dubai-based group The Legatum Foundation, was set up in 2010 order to advance ''education in the charitable sense rather than simply promoting a particular point of view.'' The Financial Times reported the Legatum Foundation had ''longstanding ties with key Conservative politicians.''23Cynthia O'Murchu and Henry Mance. ''Legatum: the think-tank at intellectual heart of 'hard' Brexit,'' Financial Times, December 4, 2017. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/v537E
In 2014, The Legatum Institute transferred activities to the Legatum Institute Foundation.24''THE LEGATUM INSTITUTE FOUNDATION Trustees' Annual Report and financial statements'' (PDF), Legatum Institute Foundation, December 31, 2014. Retrieved from charitycommission.gov.uk. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
The Legatum FoundationThe Legatum Foundation, based in Dubai,25''Our Offices,'' Legatum Foundation. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/74oiT describes itself as the ''development arm'' of the Legatum Group, ''allocating capital at the bottom of the Prosperity Ladder to projects, people and ideas that create sustainable prosperity.''26''Who We Are,'' Legatum Foundation. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/hslo8
The Legatum Institute website notes that ''Our building is provided and our core costs are covered by the generosity of our founders, through the Legatum Foundation.''27''SUPPORT US,'' Legatum Institute. Archived January 24, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/84ds6
Legatum Institute (Overseas Company, Terminated Summer 2018) | Company number FC028686 An ''oversees company'' entitled the Legatum Institute has also been listed at Companies House, with a shared UK address at 11 Charles Street. Notably, the group was terminated due to insolvency on June 2018. It is unclear its precise relationship with The Legatum Institute foundation.
Contact & Address11 Charles Street,28''How We Are Funded,'' Legatum Institute. Archived January 23, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/Eacrb London, W1J 5DW United Kingdom T: +44 (0) 207 148 5400 (Switchboard) E: [email protected] W3W : range.wisdom.ideas
Social Media@LegatumInst on TwitterLegatum Institute on LinkedInLegatum Institute on YouTubeOther Resources''Legatum Institute,'' SourceWatch profile.''Legatum Institute,'' Littlesis profile.Resources 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 APCO WorldwideBackgroundAPCO has been described as ''one of the world's most powerful PR firms.''''Public Relations Firms Database: APCO Worldwide,'' O'Dwyers. Archive.is URL: https://arc...
Hugh W. EllsaesserCredentialsPh.D., Meteorology.''Re: Global warming: It's happening,'' Letter to NaturalSCIENCE, January 29, 1998. Archived July 28, 2011. Archive.fo URL: https://arch...
Alfred (Al) PekarekCredentialsPh.D., University of Wyoming (1974).''Faculty/Staff,'' St. Cloud State University. Archived May 28, 2010. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/dA53K...
Benny Josef PeiserCredentialsPh.D. , University of Frankfurt (1993). Peiser studied political science, English, and sports science. [1], [2]BackgroundBenny Peiser is a sports ...
Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) - DeSmog
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 17:31
Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC)
BackgroundThe Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) was launched by Jordan Peterson1''An Invitation to the Future,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' February 2, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. in 2023 and includes ''public intellectuals'' Arthur Brooks, Niall Ferguson, and Bjorn Lomborg among the 30 individuals on its initial organizing committee.2''ARC launch announcement,'' ARC, March 10, 2023. Archived March 9, 2023. ARC's CEO and co-founder Baroness Philippa Stroud is the former CEO of the pro-Bexit3''Decision: Legatum Institute Foundation: case report,'' Gov.uk, June 1, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/82YEM Legatum Institute.4''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt
From February to April 2023, near the time of ARC's launch, Jordan Peterson interviewed several key individuals downplaying the need for action on climate change including Judith Curry,5''The Models Are OK, the Predictions Are Wrong | Dr. Judith Curry | EP 329,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' February 6, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at Desmog. Bjorn Lomborg,6''12 Ways the Planet Could Truly Be Saved | Bj¸rn Lomborg | EP 345,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' April 3, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Alex Epstein,7''The Great Climate Con | Alex Epstein | EP 312,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' December 8, 2022. Archived .mp4 on file at Desmog. and Steven E Koonin.8''Unsettled: Climate and Science | Dr. Steven Koonin | EP 323,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' January 16, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. In a his interview with Judith Curry, Peterson expressed the view that ''one of the consequences of extra carbon dioxide output is that the planet has greened 15% since the dawn of the millennia.''9''The Models Are OK, the Predictions Are Wrong | Dr. Judith Curry | EP 329,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' February 6, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at Desmog. Speaking with Lomborg, who is also on the ARC organizing committee, Peterson commented: ''I see the climate apocalyptic catastrophizing as a form of religious striving. I think it's unsophisticated and ill-aimed and contaminated with a fair bit of malevolence.''10''12 Ways the Planet Could Truly Be Saved | Bj¸rn Lomborg | EP 345,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' April 3, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
According to its launch announcement, ''ARC will focus initially on six fundamental questions, ranging from the proper nature of our orienting stories to the role of family, free exchange, environmental stewardship, and productive governance.''11''ARC launch announcement,'' ARC. Archived May 24, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/PHBTM
According to its privacy policy, Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Limited is incorporated in England and Wales under company number 10519995.12''The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Limited '' Privacy Notice,'' ARC. Archived April 10, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/R86Cw
UK Companies House documents show a company matching that number originally operated under the name Prosperity UK 2017 Limited until it was renamed Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Limited on January 20, 2023. A number of the directors of the original organization stayed on, and are also closely tied to the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank with ties to the United-Arab-Emirates-based Legatum Group.13''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED,'' Gov.uk. Accessed May 17, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
Legatum Institute TiesARC has a number of ties to the Legatum Institute. In addition to ARC CEO Philippa Stroud's prior role at Legatum, the Legatum Group's current CEO, Mark Alan Stoleson, is also listed in Companies House documents as a person with significant control in ARC.14''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED,'' Gov.uk. Accessed May 17, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
The Financial Times described The Legatum Institute as the ''intellectual heart'' of a '''hard' Brexit.''15Cynthia O'Murchu and Henry Mance. ''Legatum: the think-tank at intellectual heart of 'hard' Brexit,'' Financial Times, December 4, 2017. Archived January 24, 2019. The Legatum Institute reportedly receives a significant portion of its funding '-- £3.9m according to a 2017 article '-- from the Legatum Foundation Limited.
DeSmog mapped the connections between the Legatum Institute and the ''Brexiteers' brain,''16Alex Spence. ''The Definitive Story Of How A Former Washington Lobbyist Became ''The Brexiteers' Brain'','' Buzzfeed, May 22, 2018. Archived July 16, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/vGhJi Shanker Singham, and how this provided privileged access to the UK government in order to push a hard Brexit. Singham was at one point a policy expert for the US-based Heartland Institute, which has received at least $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998.17Mat Hope and Richard Collett-White. ''Mapped: How Brexit Lobbyists Give Climate Science Deniers Privileged Access to the UK Government,'' DeSmog, July 3, 2018.
A search of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)'s Offshore Leaks Database reveals the Legatum Foundation Limited has ties to both Bermuda and the UAE, and lists two directors also associated with ARC.18''ENTITY: Legatum Foundation Limited,'' International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/0yy4S
Screenshot from ICIJ Database, ARC directors circled in red by DeSmogSeveral of the listed ''officers'' listed in ARC's UK registration documents19''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED: Company number 10519995,'' Gov.uk. Archived April 25, 2023. and also online as part of its ''Advisory Board''20''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt have close ties to the Legatum Group, the Dubai-based investment firm behind the Legatum Institute.
NameARC PositionLegatum TiePhilippa Stroud''Co-founder''21''Over the coming weeks we will be introducing our Organising Committee,'' Tweet by user ''@arc_forum'', March 11, 2023. Archived .png on file at DeSmog. Former CEO22''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Alan McCormickMember, ARC advisory board. Also listed in corporate registration as managing director of ARC since February 9, 2023, as well as a person with significant control based in the UAE.23''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED: Company number 10519995,'' Gov.uk. Archived April 25, 2023. Partner with Legatum where ''With his partners he founded and now plays a governance role for organisations including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, the Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT and the Legatum Institute Foundation.''24 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQthave close ties to the Legatum Group, the Dubai-based investment firm behind the Legatum Institute. Christopher ChandlerMember, ARC advisory board.25 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Founding partner of Legatum, and ''as worked with his partners to establish a number of the firm's key philanthropic endeavours, including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, and the Legatum Institute Foundation in London.''26 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Mark Alan StolesonPerson with significant control, listed only in ARC's company registration in the UK.27''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED: Company number 10519995,'' Gov.uk. Archived April 25, 2023. Chief executive officer and partner of Legatum.28''Mark Stoleson,'' Legatum. Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Upjlf Danny KrugerMember, ARC advisory board.29 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Former senior fellow (2017 '' 2018 according to his LinkedIn account).30''Danny Kruger,'' LinkedIn. Accessed May 2023. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. Colin BrazierMember, ARC advisory board.31 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Joined Legatum-funded GB News in 2021.32Chris Burn. ''Colin Brazier on swapping Sky for Andrew Neil's GB News: 'It feels freeing to stop pretending you don't have an opinion','' Yorkshire Post, May 26, 2021. Archived April 3, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/F669C Arthur C. BrooksMember, ARC advisory board.33 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Trustee of the Legatum Institute Foundation, appointed September 2, 2019.34''THE LEGATUM INSTITUTE FOUNDATION: Charity number: 1140719,'' Charity Commission for England and Wales. Archived May 5, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/W4Vev Richard DouglasPerson with significant control in ARC.35''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED: Company number 10519995,'' Gov.uk. Archived April 25, 2023. Has been listed as a director of Senate Limited, formed in The Cayman Islands.36''EX-99.A 2 h55970a4exv99wa.htm SCHEDULE OF REPORTING PERSONS,'' SEC.gov. See full SEC filing, April 21, 2008. The Legatum Foundation Limited is linked as a shareholder of Senate Limited in Offshore Leaks data.37''ENTITY: Legatum Foundation Limited,'' International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/0yy4S Bjorn LomborgMember, ARC advisory board.38 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt The Legatum Institute hosted Bjorn Lomborg in London for a screening of his film, Cool It.39''Testimonials,'' Bjorn Lomborg. Archived May 5, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/f8ajV Paul MarshallMember, ARC advisory board.40 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Paul Marshall was the co-lead investor in GB News along with Legatum.41''GB News announces major shareholder investment, new talent and programmes,'' Legatum, August 18, 2022. Archived May 5, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dSA1O Marshall also reportedly funded a Legatum Institute program.42Peter Geoghegan. ''Legatum: the Brexiteers' favourite think tank. Who is behind them?'' openDemocracy, November 26, 2017. Archived May 5, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/YCneQ Winston MarshallMember, ARC advisory board.43 ''Advisory Board''''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt Son of Paul Marshall, who has funded and co-invested with the Legatum Institute.44Zoe Strimpel. ''Winston Marshall: 'Quitting Mumford & Sons let me keep my integrity, my dignity and my soul','' The Telegraph, October 23, 2022. Archived May 5, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Kddqj GB News TiesARC is also connected to the right-wing British broadcaster GB News through the Legatum Group. The Legatum Group part-owns GB News' parent company, AllPerspectives Ltd, and three of the directors of which, Paul Marshall, Alan McCormick and Mark Stoleson, are persons of significant control of ARC.45''ALL PERSPECTIVES LTD,'' Gov.uk, Accessed June 19, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
In August 2022, AllPerspectives Ltd secured a £60 million capital injection from Legatum Ventures Limited and Sir Paul Marshall46Audited Financial Statements for ALL PERSPECTIVES LTD, for year ended May 31, 2022 via Companies House. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. who bought out Discovery Inc's commitment.47''GB News announces major shareholder investment, new talent and programmes,'' Legatum, August 18, 2022 Archived June 23, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dSA1O Legatum, Paul Marshall, and Discovery Inc. previously invested millions, Reuters reported in 2021.48''New TV channel seals funding to challenge British media 'consensus','' Reuters, January 6, 2021. Archived June 23, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/WXOZ8
Two ARC advisory board members are also connected to GB News. Helena Morrissey is also a director of AllPerspectives, and Colin Brazier who was a former presenter of GB News. Another of GB News' major funders, Christopher Chandler, is also a person of significant control of ARC.49''ALL PERSPECTIVES LTD,'' Gov.uk, Accessed June 19, 2023. Archived .pdfs on file at DeSmog.
ARC LaunchJordan Peterson announced the launch of ARC on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.50''An Invitation to the Future,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' February 2, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Peterson said the group would be structured around several key ''questions'' in the segment. A few notable quotes below:
''We're trying to put together something like an alternative vision of the future, say an alternative to that kind of apocalyptic narrative that's being put forward, at least implicitly, by organizations like the WEF, you know, and that's the virginal planet, rapacious tyrant, you know, all devouring consumer religion,'' Peterson said.
He suggested the group would have a ''Pro-human view on environmental stewardship front.''
''If you want to develop alternative energy sources, no problem. You know, because, hey man, the more energy sources we have, the better. But you don't get to impose your utopian vision in the service of your narcissism on the poor. We're going to try to make the poor rich. Going to try to alleviate absolute poverty.''
According to Peterson, ''The fourth question is what do we put forward as a vision on the family policy front to facilitate the what would you call it, the encouragement and the maintenance of long-term monogamous couples who are child centered, and to make increasing the birthrate part of that policy.''
''To put policies in place that would support long term, stable, monogamous families, two parent families and child centered. You know, because in the West, because we're very immature, we think that the purpose of a marriage is the happiness of the people who are involved in the marriage, the husband and the wife. And that's just not the purpose of marriage at all. The purpose is long term facilitation of their psychological and spiritual development and the establishment of an environment that's beneficial to children. Now, it's a responsible way of thinking about it. And so we need to have a serious conversation about what that means. And, you know, it's tricky because, like, I think the ideal has to be long term, committed, monogamous, heterosexual relationships.'' (Emphasis added).
Peterson also discussed ARC in a session running over one hour on his YouTube channel.51''The Future: Vision and Invitation | EP 339,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' March 13, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
Discussing the group's ''vision,'' which Peterson said would be better approached as ''a discussion that centered on a number of questions,'' he noted:
''We should be exhaustively searching through the universe of possible sources of energy so that we can provide a diversity of possibilities on the energy front. But we do not believe that anyone has the right to compel people into absolute poverty by increasing energy prices to hypothetically achieve some environmental goal.''
He went on: ''Maximize the short term return and you're going to produce environmental devastation. That's exactly what happened, by the way, in Sri Lanka and certainly happened to Germany to some degree as they pursued idiot green policies.''
Stance on Climate ChangeApril 2023
According to the ''ARC Survey,'' as posted on Twitter, responding to its question: ''How do we provide the energy and other resources upon which all economies depend in a manner that is inexpensive, reliable, safe and efficient, including in the developing world?''
''Easy answer: nuclear + petrochemicals. This will keep us going for at least the next hundred years and probably longer.''
FundingKey DocumentsThe following documents are publicly available at the UK's Companies House for company number 10519995.
Key PeopleThe following directors have been listed at Gov.UK for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Limited (Company number 10519995) formerly known as Prosperity UK 2017 Limited:52''ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP LIMITED: Company number 10519995,'' Gov.uk. Archived April 25, 2023.
OfficersFull NameOccupationStatusRoleAppointedResignedCountry of residencePaul Roderick Clucas MarshallInvestment ManagerActiveDirector12 December 2016EnglandAlan James MccormickManaging DirectorActiveDirector9 February 2023United Arab EmiratesOliver PlunkettCompany DirectorResignedSecretary15 January 201719 January 2017EnglandJonathan Hopkin HillSelf-EmployedResignedDirector31 January 201810 February 2023EnglandPersons with Significant ControlTitleStatusNotified onCountry of residenceNature of controlRichard Edward DouglasActive10 February 2023Cayman IslandsHas significant influence or controlMark Alan StolesonActive10 February 2023United Arab EmiratesHas significant influence or controlChristopher Lincoln ChandlerActive10 February 2023United Arab EmiratesHas significant influence or controlAlan James McCormickActive10 February 2023United Arab EmiratesHas significant influence or controlPaul Roderick Clucas MarshallActive12 December 2016EnglandOwnership of shares '' More than 25% but not more than 50%; Ownership of voting rights '' More than 25% but not more than 50%Advisory BoardThe following people were listed on the ARC website as of May 2023.53''ARC's Advisory Board,'' ARC, Archived May 4, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bIJQt
NameARC's Provided DescriptionDeSmog NotesAgu IrukwuAgu Irukwu is the Senior Pastor of Jesus House for all Nations, London. He is a former investment banker and partner in a law firm as well as Co-Founder of a children's charity called Bright Futures for African Children.Alan McCormickAlan McCormick is a Partner of the investment group Legatum. With his partners he founded and now plays a governance role for organisations including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, the Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT and the Legatum Institute Foundation. He is also the co-creator of the Legatum Prosperity Index and Chairman of GB News, Britain's newest television news network.DeSmog reported in 2022 how United Arab Emirates-based investment manager Alan McCormick had ''tweeted articles questioning climate science and chairs a foundation that has received funding from fossil fuel interests''54Adam Barnett. ''GB News Appoints Chairman Who Spent Years Promoting Climate Denial,'' DeSmog, May 12, 2022. Amanda StokerAmanda Stoker is a company director, columnist for the Australian Financial Review and host of the Sunday with Stoker program on Sky News Australia. She is a distinguished fellow of the Menzies Research Centre and was formerly the Assistant Minister for Women and Industrial Relations and the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General whilst serving as a Liberal National Party Senator for Queensland in the Australian Parliament.Stoker formerly served as a director of the Australian Institute for Progress (AiP),55''Directors,'' AiP. Archived February 14, 2017. Archive URL: https://archive.phrdZdW a group that hosted a Brisbane visit of climate change denier Patrick Moore.56Graham Readfearn. ''The climate science denial promoters behind Queensland's energy scare election headlines,'' Renew Economy, November 22, 2017. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/roeuF AiP was also listed by The Guardian among groups that opposed plain packaging on tobacco products.57''Free-market groups and the tobacco industry '' full database,'' The Guardian, January 23, 2019. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/cTGFu Andrew HastieAndrew Hastie is the Australian Shadow Minister for Defence, having served in the Parliament since 2015. He chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee for Intelligence and Security (2017-2020) and was the Assistant Minister for Defence (2020-2022). Prior to public life, he was an Army officer, serving in the Special Air Service RegimentAndrew Hastie has come out in support of the coal industry. In 2022, he made a speech opposing a Climate Change Bill in front of a crowd of coal workers:58Andrew Hastie. ''Speech: Climate Change Bill 2022,'' Andrew Hastie, August 3, 2022. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/lOFqE''We've rushed through renewables. We've made power expensive, not just for industry but for working families and seniors, and you guys have paid the price, with people trying to negotiate down your pay and conditions,'' he said. ''We cannot trust this government when they promise that not one Australian job will be lost as a result of their climate change policies.''
Arthur C BrooksArthur C Brooks is the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness.Brooks is the former president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI),59''Arthur C. Brooks,'' AEI. Archived August 26, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qZfMe a group that has received millions in donations from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, ExxonMobil, and the ''dark money'' group Donors Capital Fund.Barry StraussBarry Strauss is a military historian with a focus on Ancient Greece and Rome and their legacy. He is the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies at Cornell University, Director of Cornell's Program in Freedom and Free Societies and Corliss Page Dean Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution.According to SourceWatch, Straus's department at Cornell University received funding from DonorsTrust. Strauss is listed on the Academic Advisory Council of the Jack Miller Center, a group that has received Koch funding.60''Academic Advisory Council,'' Jack Miller Center. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/NNAmW The Hoover Institution has also received funding from the Charles Koch Foundation, as well as over $13.7 million from the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Individuals at The Hoover Institution have argued mitigating GHG emissions to slow climate change ''will be costly today with little payout over the next 100, if not 1000, years.''61Terry Anderson. ''Hot Air on Climate Change,'' Defining Ideas (Hoover Institution Journal), June 12, 2014. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/ZxT1R Bjorn LomborgDr Bjorn Lomborg researches the smartest ways to do good. With his think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus, he has worked to find and promote the most effective solutions to the world's greatest challenges, from disease and hunger to climate and education.Bjorn Lomborg is a political scientist and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, two books that downplay the risks of global warming.Christopher ChandlerChristopher Chandler is the Chairman and Founding Partner of Legatum. In addition to a career in international investment, he has worked with his partners to establish a number of the firm's key philanthropic endeavours, including the END Fund, Freedom Fund, Luminos Fund, and the Legatum Institute Foundation in London.Christopher Chandler is a New-Zealand-born billionaire who lives in Dubai. Chandler has denied that Legatum had a firm stance on Brexit.62Luke Harding. ''Billionaire Christopher Chandler denies spy claims,'' The Guardian, May 15, 2018. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/wkqGp Colin BrazierColin Brazier is an Emmy and BAFTA winning journalist. He is currently working towards the establishment of what would be Britain's first think-tank dedicated to the study and promotion of 'procreativity' '' the positive case for pronatalism.Brazier has spoken in praise of Jordan Peterson, describing ''a sense of professional kinship'' in his recent interview with Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News. Commenting on Peterson's book, Brazier suggests ''character formation of 'snowflakes' starts with 'helicopter parents' and is finished off by the trigger warnings of university. But this is the first time I've seen such a direct causal link drawn between shrinking family size and generational temperament.''63Colin Brazier. ''Colin Brazier: I've had tougher guests than Jordan Peterson,'' Catholic Herald, February 15, 2018. Archived May 15, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aFUAi''As I've been arguing for a decade and more, pro-natalism is a concept deserving rehabilitation. Singing the praises of larger families need not make one a head-banger. Don't let all that debate-stifling stuff about bad men '' Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon '' ordering women to breed, eclipse the possibility that society might benefit from the chemistry of bigger broods,'' Brazier wrote at the Catholic Herald.64Colin Brazier. ''Colin Brazier: I've had tougher guests than Jordan Peterson,'' Catholic Herald, February 15, 2018. Archived May 15, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aFUAi
Brazier was a presenter of Sky News Today for a number of years, however stepped down to join GB News in 2021. Brazier reportedly spoke out against Sky News for claiming not to have an agenda on climate change.65Hannah McGreevy. ''Colin Brazier takes a pop at Sky News 'No agenda? It has a daily climate show!''' Express, November 28, 2021. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/WqyTh
Brazier joined the British talk radio station LBC in 2023.66''Former Sky News & GB News presenter Colin Brazier joins LBC,'' OnTheRadio, April 20, 2023. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/DQjSL Dan CrenshawRep Dan Crenshaw was elected to represent the people of Texas's second Congressional District in November 2018 and serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In September 2016, he was medically retired after ten years as a Lieutenant Commander in the SEAL Teams.Dan Crenshaw is listed among 2018 ''Koch candidates'' by SourceWatch, noting a $5,000 donation by KochPAC to his campaign for Congress.67''Koch candidates, 2018,'' SourceWatch. Accessed May 2023. He received another $3,500 in 2020.68''Koch Candidates, 2020,'' SourceWatch. Accessed May 16, 2023. Crenshaw has claimed to embrace ''market-based solutions to reduce carbon emissions,'' and described the Green New Deal among ''ever-more-extreme 'solutions'.'' ''We can fight back against the alarmism with tangible solutions based on reason, science, and the free market,'' he wrote in the National Review. He proposed a solution involving carbon capture and natural gas, claiming ''the system produces zero net emissions.69''Dan Crenshaw. ''It's Time for Conservatives to Own the Climate-Change Issue,'' National Review, March 3, 2020. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qJL5p Danny KrugerDanny Kruger was elected a Member of the UK Parliament in 2019. He previously served as Political Secretary to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as chief speechwriter to David Cameron as Leader of the Opposition, and as chief leader-writer at The Daily Telegraph.Kruger supported Brexit in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum.70''Danny Kruger: 'Leaving the EU is about more than Global Britain. It is a response to the call of home,''' Conservativehome, February 3, 2020. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/EDrdr He was also a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute before leaving the think tank in 2018.71Kirsty Weakley. ''DCMS appoints charity founder to work on civil society strategy,'' Civil Society, March 20, 2018. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/loyFS Kruger has also been director of research at the Centre for Policy Studies.72''DANNY KRUGER,'' Centre for London. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/a6qmz The Centre for Policy Studies is a free-market think tank co-founded by Margaret Thatcher promoting small government and economic liberalism.Erica KomisarErica Komisar is a clinical social worker, author, psychoanalyst, psychological consultant and parent guidance expert who has been in private practice in New York City for over 30 years.Komisar is a contributing editor to the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), a conservative think tank that operates as an associate member of the State Policy Network (SPN).73''About Erica,'' Erica Komisar, LCSW. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/MMIza According to its website, IFS's mission is to ''strengthen marriage and family life, and advance the well-being of children through research and public education.''74''Our Mission,'' IFS. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/fQBMv Gudrun KuglerDr Gudrun Kugler is a Member of the Austrian Parliament for the Austrian People's Party and is the human rights spokesperson and the spokesperson of displaced people of her party. She is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE where she serves as the vice chair of the committee on migration and the rapporteur of the committee on economic affairs, science, technology and environment.Gudrun Kugler is a lawyer, ''religious liberty advocate,'' and founder of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.75''Religious liberty advocate faces jeers at EU meeting,'' The Christian Institute, May 17, 2011. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/CYYwb The group lists its mission as ''To contribute to a Europe where Christians may fully exercise their fundamental rights to freedom of religion, conscience, expression, and association, without fear of reprisals, censorship, threats, or violence.''76''Our Mission,'' Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xT9glKugler was listed as one of the organizers of Agenda Europe, a group seeking to influence abortion policy across Europe, The Guardian reported:
''The aim of the group was to 'restore the natural order' by devising ways to gradually erode abortion rights, gay rights and policies on combating violence against women, as well as to reduce access to contraceptives.''77Angela Giuffrida and Flora Garamvolgyi. ''The network of organisations seeking to influence abortion policy across Europe,'' The Guardian, May 26, 2022. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/asRcU
Helena MorrisseyBaroness Helena Morrissey is a British financier, campaigner, Member of the House of Lords and current Chair of the Board of Directors at the Fidelis Insurance Group. She founded the 30% Club, a campaign for more gender-balanced boards and is Chair of the investment industry's Diversity Project.Morrissey faced controversy in 2021 after suggesting the Covid-19 pandemic was sparked by Chinese ''fake videos.'' ''The data shows we are NOT in a pandemic,'' she tweeted. ''If we were would we need constant propaganda & the biggest gov ad spend ever! If people were dropping dead in the street we would notice & not go to M&S and have all those football matches. CCP fake videos started this. It is ridiculous,'' she said in the tweet, commenting on another tweet by American actor and climate change denier Kevin Sorbo.78Rob Merrick. ''Boris Johnson urged to sack Tory peer who denied Covid pandemic and said Chinese 'fake videos started this','' Independent, April 4, 2021. Archived March 27, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aFAxTAccording to her bio at Gov.uk, Morrissey is an advisory board of the PR firm Edelman,79''Baroness Helena Morrissey,'' Gov.Uk. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/C19Uw a group criticized for its role as ''the dominant PR firm for trade associations that promote an anti-environmental agenda,'' according to the Climate Investigations Center.80''Edelman PR,'' Climate Investigations Center. Accessed February 2023.
James OrrJames Orr is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge, UK Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, and Director of UK Programs for Trinity Forum Europe.SourceWatch describes the Edmund Burke Foundation as both fiscally and socially conservative, and it supports ''supports strong free-market reforms in healthcare and education and is opposed to abortion, euthanasia, and gay marriage ['...] and holds that the evidence for global warming is shaky.'' Its funders include the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.81''Edmund Burke Foundation,'' SourceWatch. Accessed May 16, 2023. DeSmog reported on a three-day summit organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation in 2023 and found ''climate denial and a hostility to net zero to be a common feature among many of the individuals speaking.''82Joey Grostern and Adam Barnett. ''Cabinet Ministers Join Outspoken Climate Science Deniers at National Conservatism Conference,'' DeSmog, May 15, 2023.
John AndersonThe Hon John Anderson AC FTSE is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia from an era of uniquely successful government. John now serves in a broad variety of civic and community pursuits and hosts Australia's pre-eminent politico-cultural video podcast.Reviewing a book by Steve Koonin, John Anderson commented, ''The net economic impact of human-induced climate change will be minimal through at least the end of this century.'' He described the book, Unsettled, as a ''much-needed fact check on the ream of anxiety-inducing climate change media articles and pronouncements by policymakers, climate scientists and activists.''83''Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters,'' John Anderson, October 18, 2021. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/7UdiA John HowardJohn Howard is the second longest serving Australian Prime Minister '' having been in office from 1996 to 2007. He introduced national gun control laws and his government delivered major economic reform in the areas of taxation, workplace relations, privatisation and welfare.John Howard was named one of Australia's climate change ''dirty dozen'' by Clive Hamilton, director of the Australia Institute, in a 2006 speech.84''The Dirty Politics of Climate Change'' (PDF), The Australia Institute, February 20, 2006. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.''The Prime Minister has consistently taken the side of the fossil fuel lobby and dismissed the interests of other industries,'' Hamilton said.
In 2013, Howard said he was ''agnostic'' on the issue. In 2022, he said during an interview, that ''some aspects of the [climate] debate have become greatly exaggerated,'' The Guardian reported.85Graham Readfearn. ''John Howard's climate doubts reveal more about conservative identity politics than anything else,'' The Guardian, August 3, 2022. Archived May 16, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/MoIPl
Howard has been criticized by opposition for taking out ads in major newspapers calling for people to vote 'No' in a survey on same-sex marriage. Australian Labour party politician Terri Butler commented: ''It was, as you know, the Howard government which changed the marriage act a long time ago to explicitly say the marriage is between a man and a woman.''86''John Howard criticised for 'vote no' ads,'' 9News, September 30, 2017. Archived November 30, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/zQ1dV
Jonathan PageauJonathan Pageau is an artist, writer and public speaker. He is a pioneer in the revival of Liturgical Art for the 21st century. Through his podcast The Symbolic World he fosters the rediscovery of symbolic thinking and a vision for re-enchantment in the world.Pageau has been described as a carver of Orthodox Christian icons and YouTuber who has ''been able to collaborate and speak with several of the largest voices in online Christian thought'' including Jordan Peterson.87Tyler Hummel. ''Interview: Jonathan Pageau '' Orthodox Icon Carver, Artist, and Co-Creator of God's Dog,'' Geeks Under Grace, November 26, 2021. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/BU9eE Jordan B PetersonDr Jordan B Peterson is an author, psychologist, online educator, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He has written three books, Maps of Meaning, an academic work, presenting a new scientifically-grounded theory of religious and political belief, and the bestselling 12 Rules for Life, and Beyond Order, which have sold more than seven million copies.In 2023, The Guardian reported Jordan Peterson was promoting '''zombie' climate contrarianism'' by promoting the views of climate change deniers in a series of interviews. Recent interviews include titles with names such as ''The World is not Ending'', ''Unsettled: Climate and Science'' and ''The Great Climate Con,'' and have included interviews with Richard Lindzen.88Graham Readfearn. ''Jordan Peterson's 'zombie' climate contrarianism follows a well-worn path,'' The Guardian, February 1, 2023. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/QbUQUThe Financial Times has described Peterson as ''the anti-#MeToo, the anti-1968, the defender of old-school masculinity.''89Henry Mance. ''Jordan Peterson: 'One thing I'm not is naive','' Financial Times, June 1, 2018. Archive.is URL: http://archive.is/R5rax
The Guardian reported Peterson's celebrity began with his 2016 YouTube series called ''Professor Against Political Correctness,'' writing that ''Peterson was troubled by two developments: a federal amendment to add gender identity and expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act; and his university's plans for mandatory anti-bias training.''90Dorian Lynskey. ''How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who 'hit a hornets' nest'?'' The Guardian, February 7, 2018. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/jpQgY
Katy FaustKaty Faust is founder and President of Them Before Us, a global non-profit defending children's rights in matters of marriage and family.While working with Them Before Us, Faust has written in opposition of what she describes as ''abandonment of the traditional marital structure'' in same-sex marriage. According to Faust, ''what an adult wants is simply not as important as what a child needs, and the fact remains that children need both a mother and father '-- and depriving them of one or the other affects their identity and development.'' She also co-authored an amicus brief where she ''speculated on exactly how gay marriage would infringe on the rights of children.''91Katy Faust. ''Regardless of the congressional vote on gay marriage, children need both a mother and father,'' Them Before US, July 30, 2022. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/rubzR Leslyn LewisDr Leslyn Lewis is a Canadian Parliamentarian who made history when she ran for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2020 and won the popular vote on the second ballot. She is currently the Opposition Critic for Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure, and Communities.Leslyn Lewis has described Net Zero ambitions as ''lies that are destroying our country'' and an infringement on freedom. ''Currency and monetary value will be measured by carbon footprint in the future, and it will be digitized,'' Lewis warned on her website.92''The truth about Net-Zero,'' LeslynLewis. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qpK54 Lewis has promoted conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum93''Let's talk about the WEF,'' LeslynLewis, July 24, 2022. Archived September 17, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/kFjYL and ''The Great Reset'' and has described climate change as a ''source of wealth redistribution.''94''People distrust climate change bc our gov uses it as a source of wealth redistribution ['...]'' tweet by user ''@LeslynLewis,'' February 4, 2020. Archived .png on file at DeSmog. Louis GaveLouis Gave founded Gavekal in 1999 with Charles Gave and Anatole Kaletsky, he is now the is the non-executive chairman of ROBO Global LLC and a non-executive director at Evergreen Gavekal, a Washington-based private wealth manager. Louis also sits on the visiting board of Trinity College in Duke University.Louise PerryLouise Perry is a journalist, author, and director of The Other Half, a non-partisan feminist think tank based in London, UK. Her bestselling book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution was published in 2022.Magatte WadeMagatte Wade is an entrepreneur and advocate for African dignity and prosperity. She serves as the Director for The Centre for African Prosperity of Atlas Network. Throughout her career, she has created retail brands inspired by diverse African traditions, most recently SkinIsSkin.com. Her first book, A Bright Future for Africa, will be published in in the Autumn 2023.The Atlas Network has been described the ''The Johnny Appleseed of antiregulation groups ['...] on a mission to populate the world with new 'free market' voices.''95''Atlas Economic Research Foundation,'' SourceWatch profile. As of 2021 it listed more than 400 partner organizations across the world.The Atlas Network's profile on the Center notes: ''Atlas Network's Center for African Prosperity focuses on the role that free markets, property rights, and the rule of law have in creating the conditions for people to thrive.''96''Center for African Prosperity,'' Atlas Network. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xADcP
According to Wade, ''Africa's relative poverty is rooted in bad policies that make it costly, risky, and frustrating to create a business on the continent.''97''Center for African Prosperity,'' Atlas Network. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xADcP
Mike JohnsonCongressman Mike Johnson is currently serving his fourth term representing Louisiana's 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is Vice Chairman of the House Republican Conference, a Deputy Whip, a leader on the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees and appointment on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponisation of the Federal Government.Mike Johnson has been described as a ''Superman for Louisiana's religious right.''98''Religious freedom bill sponsor Rep. Mike Johnson: Superman for Louisiana's religious right?'' NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, July May 15, 2015. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/sHs8X Johnson brought forward a bill that ''would protect people from government actions against individuals or businesses with religious convictions, including those that endorse traditional views of marriage,'' however denied any connection to a similar Indiana law that has faced criticism from LGBT advocates.99Maya Lau. ''Bossier legislator mulls religious freedom bill,'' The News Star, April 1, 2015. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/1N23QIn 2022, Johnson introduced the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, described by critics as the ''Don't Say Gay'' bill, which would ''prohibit the use of Federal funds to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10, and for other purposes.''100Laurel Wamsley. ''What's in the so-called Don't Say Gay bill that could impact the whole country,'' NPR, October 21, 2022. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/tZhu5
Johnson formerly worked as an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, which later became Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). 101''New York fails to stop ADF lawsuit protecting free speech on license plates,'' Alliance Defending Freedom, January 5, 2005. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/rej5O ADF describes itself as ''committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights.'' It described the June 24, 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade as ''Victory!''102''Every Life is Worth Defending,'' Alliance Defending Freedom. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/2L8uM
Johnson appeared on an episode of Jordan B Peterson's podcast where they discussed several topics including ''the trumped up climate crisis.''103''Oil, Inflation, and the Way Forward | Congressman Mike Johnson | EP 309,'' YouTube video uploaded by user ''Jordan B Peterson,'' November 28, 2022. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
Maurice GlasmanLord Maurice Glasman is a political theorist, academic, and Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He is founder of the Blue Labour political movement and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University. He is also the director of the Common Good Foundation.Listed as of August 2023.104''Advisory Board,'' ARC. Archived August 15, 2023. According to Sourcewatch,105''Baron Glasman,'' Sourcewatch. Accessed August 15, 2023. Glasman is best known as the originator of ''Blue Labour'' a term he coined in 2009.106Allegra Stratton. ''Labour: Now it's kind of blue,'' The Guardian, April 24, 2009. Archived August 15, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dYU6o''Glasman says a Blue Labour party needs to reform around the family, faith and work, and place,'' The Guardian reported.
The Common Good Foundation, where Glasman is a director, published ''A manifesto for nature and re-enchantment'' (PDF) in November 2021 that discusses climate change and environmentalism.107''A manifesto for nature and re-enchantment'' (PDF), The Common Good Foundation, November 2021.
Michael ShellenbergerMichael Shellenberger is an energy expert, a best-selling author, and a leading intellectual of the pro-human environmental movement. He is a co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute and the California Peace Coalition, and founder of Environmental Progress. He has also broken major stories including the 'Twitter Files'.Listed as an Advisory Board member as of August 2023.108''Advisory Board,'' ARC. Archived August 15, 2023. Shellenberger has written that while ''climate change is happening'' it's ''just not the end of the world,'' and ''not even our most serious environmental problem.''109''On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare,'' Environmental Progress, June 29, 2020. Archived June 30, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/Lzu7I Mike LeeMike Lee was elected as Utah's 16th Senator in 2010. Senator Lee serves as the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, and on the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Senator Lee continues to lead Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee as the Ranking Member and also serves on the Budget Committee.Mike Lee has been reportedly among those who attended a private Koch donor network meeting in California.110Sally Ho. ''Muted political tone at largest Koch donor network meeting,'' AP News, January 26, 2019. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/rBZ1B Mike Lee was among 22 Republican senators who signed a letter to President Trump in 2017 urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. 111''Senators Send Letter to President Trump Calling for Withdrawal Withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement,'' U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, May 25, 2017. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/XDMiKLee has suggested that the solution to climate change is ''human flourishing'' and increasing the population:
''The solution to climate change is '... the serious business of human flourishing,'' Lee said. ''The solution to so many of our problems, at all times and in all places, is to fall in love, get married and have some kids.''112Katie Bernard. ''Sen. Mike Lee says solution to climate change 'is to fall in love, get married and have some kids','' CNN, March 26, 2019. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/2PjS7''Problems of human imagination are not solved by more laws, they're solved by more humans,'' he said.113Katie Bernard. ''Sen. Mike Lee says solution to climate change 'is to fall in love, get married and have some kids','' CNN, March 26, 2019. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/2PjS7
Miriam CatesMiriam Cates was elected as the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in 2019. Miriam campaigns on issues around children and families, with particular focus on safeguarding, issues of age-appropriate sex education and gender ideology in schools.Cates, writing at The Telegraph, suggested ''by saying that trans women are women '... we erase the rights of women.''114Miriam Cates. ''The cancellation of women is bigger than a 'culture war','' The Telegraph, October 11, 2021. Archived October 17, 2021.She wrote:
''Women's rights have been won on the basis that there is such a thing as a woman, that females are different to males, not just in terms of our biology, but in the challenges we face, our psychology, our role as mothers, and the life experiences we have.If we erode the very concept of women '' for example by saying that trans women are women, or by denying the importance of biological sex '' we erase the rights of women. I for one can't stand by and let that happen.''115Miriam Cates. ''The cancellation of women is bigger than a 'culture war','' The Telegraph, October 11, 2021. Archived October 17, 2021.
Cates opposed LGBTQ rights charities Stonewall and Mermaids from providing counselling services, saying she felt they taught ''dangerous and contested extreme ideologies that don't have a basis in science.''116Megan Hinton. ''MP condemns LGBT charities teaching 'dangerous and extreme ideologies' in schools,'' LBC, November 9, 2021. Archived May 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Sdk0k
Nicholas Boys SmithNicholas Boys Smith is the founding Director of Create Streets and an influential writer on the design and history of our towns and cities. He was co-chair alongside the late Sir Roger Scruton of the influential Building Better Building Beautiful Commission and is chair of the Advisory Committee of the Government's new Office for Place.Niall FergusonNiall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, where he served for twelve years as the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History.The Hoover Institution has received funding from Koch and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. The primary tenets of Hoover are representative government, private enterprise, and to ''limit government intrusion into the lives of individuals.''117''Mission Statement,'' Hoover Institution Stanford University. Archived April 5, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/p4UGy Nims ObungeRev Nims Obunge MBE DL is a Deputy Lieutenant for the Lord Lieutenant to the HM King Charles III. He is CEO of The Peace Alliance and Senior Pastor of Freedom's Ark. He serves as a faith and community leader with a passion for justice, peace, young people, equality, and social cohesion.Paul MarshallSir Paul Marshall is CIO and Chairman of Marshall Wace LLP, founder and owner of UnHerd Media and a main shareholder of GB News Ltd. He is a founding Trustee of Ark, the children's charity, and Chairman of Ark Schools, which manages 39 primary and secondary academies across England.Paul Marshall supported Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum118William Schomberg and Guy Faulconbridge. ''Hedge fund managers Crispin Odey and Paul Marshall say Brexit would help London,'' Reuters, April 29, 2016. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qpDsN and donated £100,000 to the Leave campaign.119Lindsay Fortado. ''Sir Paul Marshall, co-founder Marshall Wace, backing Brexit,'' Financial Times, April 23, 2017. Archived April 23, 2017. Philippa StroudBaroness Philippa Stroud is co-founder and CEO of ARC, Member of the House of Lords, and Chair of the Social Metrics Commission. Prior to this, she was the CEO of the Legatum Institute and Co-Founder and Chief Executive of the Centre for Social Justice. She served as Special Adviser to the Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP from 2010-15 and also to the Prime Minister from 2012.The Centre for Social Justice, which Stroud co-founded in 2004,120''Leadership Unscripted: A Conversation with Baroness Stroud and Lucy Bassett,'' UVA, December 2021. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xOYSb has'--according to one analysis'--''been engaged in agnotology, the 'production of ignorance' on the subject of welfare reform, 'to manufacture doubt with respect to the structural causes of unemployment and poverty, and to give the impression that 'welfare' is a lifestyle choice made by dysfunctional families despite the fact that considerable social scientific evidence shatters that impression'.''121Ian Cole. ''Is a little knowledge about welfare a dangerous thing? A small scale study into attitudes towards, and knowledge about, welfare expenditure,'' People, Place and Policy, 9 (1), 48-64, April 23, 2015. Rebeccah L HeinrichsRebeccah L Heinrichs is a senior fellow and director of the Keystone Defense Initiative. She specialises in US national defense policy with a focus on strategic deterrence.Heinrichs is senior fellow at the Hudson Institute,122''Rebeccah L. Heinrichs,'' Hudson Institute. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/6RGi1 a think tank named by The Guardian in 2015 as among ''US climate denial groups'' that ''worked to defeat climate bills in Congress and are mobilising against Environmental Protection Agency rules to reduce carbon pollution from power plants '...''123Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson. ''Secretive donors gave US climate denial groups $125m over three years,'' The Guardian, June 9, 2015. Archived September 25, 2015. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/KqMx1 The Keystone Defence Initiative is a project of the Hudson Institute. The Hudson Institute has also received funding from Koch foundations.124''Hudson Institute,'' Conservative Transparency. Accessed June 2023. Rick GeddesRick Geddes is a Professor in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and a Professor of Economics at Cornell. He is Founding Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy and a Non-Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.Geddes is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) where he ''focuses on infrastructure public and private partnerships, the US postal system and postal delivery policy, and corporate governance.''125''R. Richard Geddes,'' AEI. Archived June 22, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/BwYghAEI has received millions in donations from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, ExxonMobil, and the ''dark money'' group Donors Capital Fund. Benjamin Zycher, previously head of AEI's energy studies, suggested the science was not settled regarding man-made climate change.126Benjamin Zycher. ''The Fact-free Opposition to Keystone XL,'' The American Enterprise Institute, February 5, 2014. Archived August 20, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/BLmIi
Riva Melissa TezRiva Tez has a background in technology and finance, including co-founding an AI-focused venture fund and as an angel investor. She is currently working closely with Praxis on building a city.Robin BatterhamRobin Batterham is Emeritus Kernot Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne and is a former Chief Scientist of Australia. He chairs the Net Zero Australia project.Batterham has held positions at multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto including as its VP of Resource and Processing Developments and VP of Research and Development. He has served as non-executive director of the Australian public unlisted company MBD Energy Limited, ''which proposes to recycle waste CO2 emissions from coalfired power stations and other forms of heavy industry into commercial production of algae biomass.''127(Press Release). ''Eminent Australian Scientist, Robin Batterham AO, joins CO2 innovator's board,'' MBD Energy Limited, February 1, 2012. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.In 2004, Australian Senator Trish Crossin submitted a report on behalf of the chair of the Employment, Workplace Relations and Educational References Committee discussing ''serious conflict of interest allegations arising
from [Batterham's] dual part-time roles as Chief Scientist for the Commonwealth and chief technologist for Rio Tinto.128''Senate Official Hansard No. 9, (August 5, 2004), Commonwealth of Australia. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. Stephen BlackwoodStephen Blackwood is the founding President of Ralston College, a new university in Savannah, Georgia, dedicated to the revival of humanistic inquiry. He has co-founded and helped to direct several non-profit organisations, from inner-city education to cancer research.Stephen Blackwood is a staunch opponent of Obamacare,129Michael Hiltzik. ''Who really cost Mrs. Blackwood her cancer medicine?'' Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2014. Archived June 22, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/TN8EA and once claimed in the Wall Street Journal that it had caused his mother to lose access to her cancer medications.130''Stephen Blackwood: ObamaCare and My Mother's Cancer Medicine,'' The Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2014. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/gdu6XBlackwood moderated a discussion between Jordan Peterson and Roger Scruton on November 2, 2018.131''Sir Roger Scruton & Dr. Jordan Peterson hosted by the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism,'' University of Cambridge, December 15, 2018. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Q6pb1
Tony AbbottThe Hon Tony Abbott AC served as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia. He continues to contribute to public life on the board of Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, the council of the Australian War Memorial, and as an adviser to the UK Board of Trade. He's patron to several charities, including Soldier On, the International Sports Promotion Society and Worldwide Support for Development.Abbott has opposed measures to combat climate change in the past, and advocated for the ultimately successful repeal of Australia's carbon tax in 2014. In 2017, he gave a lecture entitled ''Daring to Doubt'' to the UK-based climate science denial group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).132Karl Mathiesen. ''Climate change 'probably doing good', says former Australian PM Abbott,'' Climate Home News, October 9, 2017. Archived January 10, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.md/wip/QVksqAbbott joined the board of trustees of GWPF in 2023, claiming ''it's consistently injected a note of realism into the climate debate.''133(Press release). ''Tony Abbott, former Australian prime minister, joins the GWPF,'' Global Warming Policy Foundation, February 6, 2023. Archived February 6, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/XEeRH
While GWPF has claimed to be independent from the fossil fuel industry, The Guardian reported in 2022 that tax documents showed one of its donors had $30 million worth of shares in 22 companies working in coal, oil, and gas. Much of the group's funding is channeled through the GWPF's US arm, the American Friends of the GWPF, which has received funding from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and DonorsTrust.134Helena Horton and Adam Bychawski. ''Climate sceptic thinktank received funding from fossil fuel interests,'' The Guardian, May 4, 2022. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Zr8wr
''It is disturbing that the Global Warming Policy Foundation is acting as a channel through which American ideological groups are trying to interfere in British democracy,'' said Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.135Helena Horton and Adam Bychawski. ''Climate sceptic thinktank received funding from fossil fuel interests,'' The Guardian, May 4, 2022. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Zr8wr
Victor Davis HansonVictor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and chairs the Military History Working Group. He is an American scholar of ancient and modern warfare and has been a commentator on contemporary politics for various media outlets. He is a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno, and is also a farmer and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism.Hanson has been listed as a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness.136''VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The green immoralists,'' Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 12, 2022. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/knSmS The Center has published authors like Dennis Prager, who wrote a 2023 piece on how ''Hatred of whites is the most prevalent'--certainly, the most acceptable'--hatred in America today.''137Dennis Prager. ''A Biblical Law That Would Change American Life,'' American Greatness, May 15, 2023. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/TxDF6 Hanson has written a range of publications himself at the Center including one claiming ''there is nothing 'unprecedented''' about challenging the 2020 US election results.138Victor Davis Hanson. ''Who Denies Election Results?'' American Greatness, October 19. 2022. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/shhRDHanson has promoted the debunked ''Climategate'' conspiracy, claiming ''many of the world's top climate scientists were knee-deep in manipulating scientific evidence to support preconceived conclusions and personal agendas.'' According to Hanson, ''We simply don't know positively whether recent human activity has caused the planet to warm up to dangerous levels. But we do know that those who insist it does are sometimes disingenuous, often profit-minded, and nearly always impractical.''139''Victor Davis Hanson: Cranking up the climate fear,'' The Orange County Register, October 27, 2011. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/XHWa1
Vivek RamaswamyVivek Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur, political and cultural thought leader, and author. In 2022, he founded Strive Asset Management, an Ohio-based firm, that has a mission to restore the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by leading companies to focus on excellence over politics.Ramaswamy is a member of the board of directors of the Philanthropy Roundtable and the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a group that has been listed as a ''client'' of the Koch Network recruitment agency Talent Market. According to his bio, ''Conservative leaders have called Vivek Ramaswamy 'the most compelling conservative voice in the country.'''140''Vivek Ramaswamy,'' Vivek Ramaswamy. Archived June 4, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/wRHufThe Philanthropy Roundtable's president, Adam Meyerson, has argued that ''dark money'' isn't necessarily a bad thing.141Adam Meyerson. ''President's Note: Misconceptions about 'Dark Money','' Philanthropy Roundtable, Fall 2013. Archived April 9, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/M8JWb
The Roundtable has received more than $300,000 in Koch funding, and millions from the Donors Capital Fund, while itself donating to groups such as the Federalist Society and Institute for Humane Studies.The New Yorker profiled Ramaswamy in a 2022 article titled ''The C.E.O. of Anti-Woke, Inc.'' describes how Ramaswamy was ''on a crusade against E.S.G. [Environmental, Social, and Governance],'' noting his recent book titled ''Woke, Inc.''
The Washington Post noted that while Ramaswamy has said he is ''not a climate denier,'' he also sees global warming as ''not entirely bad,'' and that the goal of limited carbon emissions is ''flawed.'' He said, ''people should be proud to live a high-carbon lifestyle.142''Steven Mufson. ''He wrote the book on crushing 'wokeism.' Now he's running for president,'' The Washington Post, April 3, 2023. Archived May 18, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/lQsLc
Warren FarrellDr. Warren Farrell was chosen by The Financial Times as one of the world's top 100 Thought Leaders. He is author of The New York Times bestseller, 'Why Men are the Way they Are', as well as 'The Myth of Male Power' and 'The Boy Crisis'. His forthcoming 'Role Mate to Soul Mate' book emanates from 30 years of teaching courses on couples' communication.Winston MarshallWinston Marshall is a Grammy award-winning musician, writer and host of the podcast 'Marshall Matters'. He is co-founder of the non-profit organisation Hong Kong Link Up.ActionsAugust 4, 2023
ARC board members Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg published a piece in the New York Post announcing ARC's intention to ''help ensure that a broader range of perspectives can be heard globally, including to push back against ''the alarmist treatment of climate change.'' They accused climate campaigners of ''Fear-mongering and the suppression of truly inconvenient truths'' which they argue has resulted in a push for the ''wrong solutions'' like net zero, which they characterise as producing little benefit at great cost.143Bjorn Lomborg and Jordan Peterson. ''Stop the panicked fearmongering if we want to make the world better,'' New York Post, August 4, 2023. Archived August 6, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/kEf9L
Variations of the piece were subsequently published in the The Telegraph on August, 6144Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg. ''Elite groupthink put the West on the path to despair '' but there's another way,'' The Telegraph, August 6, 2023. Archived August 6, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/FnKFM , The National Review on August, 10145Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg. ''Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg: How to save critical thinking and constructive debate,'' National Post, August 10, 2023. Archived August 10, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/kHPNT and The Jakarta Post on August 11.146Bjorn Lomborg and Jordan Peterson. ''Enough panicked fear-mongering on climate change,'' Jakarta Post, August 11, 2023. Archived August 12, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/L4bv9
May 15, 2023
Five members of ARC's advisory board spoke at the National Conservatism conference in London in May 2023, a conference organised promising to bring about a ''revival'' of ''national identity and culture'' alongside ''god and country'', which featured outspoken climate deniers on the roster of speakers such a Jacob Rees-Mogg, Sherelle Jacobs, Toby Young and David Frost amongst others. ARC members speaking at the event included MPs Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger and John Hayes, UnHerd columnist Louise Perry and James Orr, who chairs the Edmund Burke Foundation, which organized the conference.147Joey Grostern and Adam Barnett. ''Cabinet Ministers Join Outspoken Climate Science Deniers at National Conservatism Conference,'' DeSmog, May 15, 2023. Archived May 15, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/VrISZ
March 8, 2023
According to the group's launch announcement, ''In late 2023, ARC will be holding its inaugural international conference of more than a thousand high level leaders from politics, culture, business and academia across three days in London.''148''ARC launch announcement,'' ARC. Archived May 24, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/PHBTM
Related OrganizationsLegatum Institute '-- Multiple overlaps in directors and advisory board members.Contact & Address2022
A few weeks before it was renamed the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Limited, Prosperity UK 2017 Limited changed its address on December 12, 2022 to the following:
17 Grosvenor Street London England W1K 4QG
2019
Prosperity UK 2017 Limited changed its address on March 4, 2019 to the following:
6 Grosvenor StreetLondonUnited KingdomW1K 4PZ
2017
Prosperity UK 2017 Limited changed its address on December 18, 2017, according to documents filed at Companies House:
20 Eastbourne TerraceLondonEnglandW2 6LG
2016
When the group was first incorporated on December 12, 2016, it listed the following address:
C/O WPO Limited, First Floor6 Grosvenor StreetLondonUnited KingdomW1K 4PZ
A number of UK corporations have listed 6 Grosvenor Street in London as their address, which corresponds with the London office of the law firm Boodle Hatfield LLP.149''London, Mayfair,'' Boodle Hatfield. Archived May 24, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/haIEv
Social Media@arc_forum on YouTube@arc_forum on Twitterarc_forum on InstagramThe Alliance for Responsible Citizenship on Facebook Other ResourcesResources 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30''
Danny Kruger,''
LinkedIn. Accessed May 2023. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80''
Edelman PR,''
Climate Investigations Center. Accessed February 2023.
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 APCO WorldwideBackgroundAPCO has been described as ''one of the world's most powerful PR firms.''''Public Relations Firms Database: APCO Worldwide,'' O'Dwyers. Archive.is URL: https://arc...
Hugh W. EllsaesserCredentialsPh.D., Meteorology.''Re: Global warming: It's happening,'' Letter to NaturalSCIENCE, January 29, 1998. Archived July 28, 2011. Archive.fo URL: https://arch...
Alfred (Al) PekarekCredentialsPh.D., University of Wyoming (1974).''Faculty/Staff,'' St. Cloud State University. Archived May 28, 2010. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/dA53K...
Benny Josef PeiserCredentialsPh.D. , University of Frankfurt (1993). Peiser studied political science, English, and sports science. [1], [2]BackgroundBenny Peiser is a sports ...
Cruise pauses self-driving car operations in Austin, Texas
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:43
Self-driving car company Cruise has halted driverless car operations nationwide, including in Austin, in an effort to rebuild public trust around the technology.
The California-based company, which is a subsidiary of General Motors, announced the change Thursday evening in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The announcement came just two days after the company paused services in California after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company's testing and deployment permits.
The suspended permits followed a high-profile incident and spat between the California department and the self-driving company after the DMV accused the company of withholding information about a hit-and-run incident earlier this month, an accusation the company denied, according to a report from USAToday. The permit suspension only impacted the company's ability to operate fully autonomously. Cruise can still test with a human safety driver.
More:Cruise's self-driving car operations cease in California
On Thursday evening, the company said it was proactively pausing driverless operations across its other locations. Cruise, which has been offering driverless rideshare in Austin since last year, also offers rideshare services in Houston and Phoenix, and previously San Francisco.
''The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust. Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult,'' the company posted. ''In that spirit, we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we take time to examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust.''
The company also clarified in the same post thread that the decision was not related to any new on-road incidents and that supervised autonomous vehicle operations will continue.
''''We think it's the right thing to do during a period when we need to be extra vigilant when it comes to risk, relentlessly focused on safety, & taking steps to rebuild public trust,'' the company said.
Friday morning, a Cruise spokesperson confirmed rideshare was paused in Austin. The Cruise app also read "We've temporarily paused our service," with an option to be notified once it restarted.
Cruise's operations in AustinCruise first announced it would expand to Austin in September 2022 and began offering fully autonomous rideshare services in December. Its rideshare service operates similarly to other rideshare services such as Uber or Lyft where users are able to request a ride in Cruise's app and then be picked up and dropped off at specific locations. In Austin, Cruise has been operating in select areas of downtown, Central and East Austin between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. with plans to expand over time.
But the company has also been subject of an increasing number of viral videos in Austin in recent months showing the vehicles in traffic jams and stopped in intersections, leading people, including City Council member Zohaib ''Zo'' Qadri, to raise concerns about the company's operations in Austin.
During a City of Austin Mobility Committee meeting on Friday, Qadri said he was pleased to hear that Cruise decided to suspend their operations.
''I've said from the beginning that I don't think this technology is ready for primetime,'' he said.
He pointed to Cruise's tendency to avoid larger streets, special events, higher volume traffic and inclement weather.
''That tells us the company didn't have enough faith in their own technology to operate in the basic urban driving conditions humans deal with every single day,'' Qadri said.
Qadri, along with Council Members Paige Ellis and Vanessa Fuentes, received a briefing on self-driving vehicle activity Friday afternoon during the committee meeting.
All three council members expressed concerns related to public safety, complaints from the community and the city's inability to regulate the vehicles.
''It's important for autonomous vehicle companies to realize that these driverless cars can be dangerous and that our public roads should not be a test playground," Ellis said. "We should not be treated like guinea pigs."
What incident occurred in California? The California DMV announced in a Tuesday statement that it was suspending the permitting for an indefinite amount of time, saying it has the ability to pull permits when there is ''an unreasonable risk to public safety.''
The DMV's dispute with the company relates to an Oct. 2 hit and run incident, after which the DMV accused Cruise of withholding information about.
In a statement Tuesday, Cruise said the hit-and-run incident occurred when a human driver of a Nissan Sentra collided with a pedestrian who was crossing the street against a red light. The pedestrian was then launched in front of a Cruise autonomous vehicle, which braked but ''still made contact with the pedestrian'' and pulled over after stopping, ''pulling the individual forward approximately 20 feet.'' The unknown driver of the Nissan fled the scene.
The California DMV accused Cruise of not disclosing or showing full footage of the incident, including its pullover maneuver, according to the USAToday report. Cruise denied that it omitted information, the report said.
Cruise is also the subject of a new federal probe from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that aims to determine if the self-driving vehicles are using appropriate precautions around pedestrians after the Oct. 2 incident and another unrelated incident.
What other companies are testing self-driving technology in Austin?Cruise is far from the only autonomous car company testing in Austin. The region, which has been a testbed of self-driving technology, is currently being used by Waymo and Volkswagen to test its vehicles.
The city was also previously being used by Ford and Argo AI to test self-driving technology including rideshare and delivery services, before Argo AI shut down last year.
Under a state law that passed in 2017, autonomous vehicles can operate in Texas without a driver inside and can be used on highways as long as they can follow traffic laws. The cars also are required to have insurance like other cars and be equipped with video recording equipment. Manufacturers are considered responsible for any broken laws or collisions.
Under a separate state law, passed in 2021, political subdivisions of the state, such as cities, are also forbidden from regulating automated driving systems or automated motor systems.
USA Today reporter Bailey Schulz contributed to this report.
The dangers of 'decolonisation' - spiked
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:22
As the Sun rose on Israel on 7 October and a terrible darkness descended, Western commentators, activists and academics quickly took to social media. Not to condemn Hamas's massacring of Jewish people, but to justify the violence as part of a 'progressive' karmic payback on the part of the world's oppressed. This, they argued, is what 'decolonisation' looks like.
Hamas, the 'elected leadership in Gaza', has finally broken out of its 'open-air prison and cross[ed] Israel's southern border, striking at military targets and settler populations', wrote veteran leftist Tariq Ali on the New Left Review on 7 October. Hamas fighters, Ali continued, 'are rising up against the colonisers'.
As the extent of the slaughter across southern Israel was still emerging, journalist Najma Sharif said it represented 'decolonisation' in action '' the most spectacular attempt yet to 'free' the Palestinian people from the effects of 'colonisation'. 'What did y'all think decolonisation meant?', Sharif tweeted. 'Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.'
Academics soon joined in. Mahvish Ahmad, assistant professor in human rights and politics at the London School of Economics, said of the Hamas massacre that decolonisation 'is not a metaphor'. And an associate professor at McMaster University in Canada, Ameil J Joseph, also seemed to think Hamas's massacre was decolonisation in action. 'Post-colonial, anti-colonial and decolonial are not just words you heard in your EDI [equity, diversity and inclusion] workshop', he tweeted.
Indeed, it has been striking just how many working in and orbiting higher education have been willing to justify the sadistic actions of an ultra-bigoted, anti-Semitic group of Islamists in terms of 'decolonisation'. This illustrates the grip the narrative of decolonisation has over the leftist, academic imagination. To understand how this has happened it is worth looking at the ways in which the academic 'decolonisation' movement '' as a simple-minded narrative setting up evil Western colonisers against virtuous non-Western victims '' has been inculcated in universities over several decades.
Decolonisation on campusTo be clear, it's important to distinguish between decolonisation as movement in the academy and decolonisation as the historical process that led to the end of Europe's empires. When academics talk about decolonisation, they are generally not referring to the 20th century's many national-liberation movements. They are talking about ridding the institutions in their own countries '' usually the university or education system '' of Western (aka 'colonial') influences.
The roots of decolonisation as a theory lie in the tumultuous world of French philosophy during the 1960s and 1970s. The work of philosopher Michel Foucault was particularly influential on what would become decolonisation theory, complete with its perverse romanticisation of an anti-modern, reactionary politics. Although openly homosexual, Foucault eulogised the less than gay-friendly Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. He saw it as a radical challenge to Western forms of rationality and modernity. Even the Ayatollah Khomeini's systematic liquidation of the revolution's former left-wing allies did not stop Foucault from penning articles in support of Iran's theocratic regime. He saw the Islamic Republic of Iran as an attempt to liberate humanity from the grip of materialism and capitalism.
Iranian Islamic Republic Army soldiers carry posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini during the revolution of 1979.
Frantz Fanon also played a central role in the development of decolonisation theory. The Wretched of the Earth, first published in 1961, was one of the first significant works to draw out the intersection between an anti-colonial politics antithetical to the West and an emergent identity politics. For Fanon, the Third World anti-colonial movements of the postwar era were challenging both imperialism and racism. He presented violence against Europeans as the self-realisation of the nations of the global South. To 'shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone', wrote Jean Paul-Sartre in his foreword to The Wretched of the Earth. It makes it possible to 'destroy an oppressor and the man he oppresses simultaneously: there remain a dead man and a free man'.
In their very different ways, both Foucault and Fanon romanticised the anti-colonial movements of the mid-to-late 20th century, projecting their anti-Western, anti-modern visions on to the likes of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution. In the decades since, purportedly liberal institutions across the Anglophone world have become increasingly sympathetic to Fanon and Foucault's anti-Western, anti-capitalist worldview. Indeed, many have given this worldview, expressed in the caricatured form of decolonisation theory, their seal of approval. Nowhere has this been more apparent than within British universities, especially since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. As part of a post-BLM 'liberatory agenda', decolonisation has become a new orthodoxy.
On campus, decolonisation has largely been pursued culturally. Its advocates have sought to 'free' their higher-education institutions from the putative effects of 'colonisation', usually by purging reading lists of too many dead white Europeans. In doing so, decolonisation activists, like good Foucault scholars, have tended to reject notions of reason, civilisation and modernity as Western impositions.
Take Keele University's Decolonise network. As its members argued in a 2019 document, decolonisation is not simply the 'token inclusion of the intellectual achievements of non-white cultures'. Rather, it also 'involves a paradigm shift from a culture of exclusion and denial to the making of space for other political philosophies and knowledge systems'. These self-styled radicals complain that too much of what is taught at university 'remains largely Eurocentric and continues to reinforce white and Western dominance and privilege'. They want their university to confront the ways it 'structurally reproduces colonial hierarchies; confronting, challenging and rejecting the status quo; and reimagining them and putting alternatives into practice for the benefit of our academic integrity and our social viability'.
Approval of decolonisation as a narrative, theory and practice comes right from the top of universities. In 2019, Ed Byrne, the then principal of King's College London (KCL), committed to 'decolonise the curriculum and liberate education at King's'. And Baroness Amos, the former director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), herself a prominent advocate of decolonisation, said in 2019 that decolonisation should apply as much 'to science subjects as it does to arts and humanities subjects'.
Universities UK, which represents 142 universities in the UK, has also fully embraced the decolonisation agenda. In November 2020, it called on young undergraduates to audit their professors' courses to ensure diverse representation within materials used in lectures and tutorials. And it urged universities to train staff in the 'the concepts of white privilege and white fragility, white allyship, microaggressions and intersectionality, as well as racialised unconscious-bias training'. In so doing, senior university managers will inaugurate a truly 'anti-racist' university, it stated. UUK also asked universities to 'commit' to making sure that there will be 'consequences' when this drive for inclusivity is in any way 'breached'.
The effect of the decolonisation narrative on universities' curricula has been profound. Many universities are now battling the so-called Western colonisers' perspective by incorporating 'indigenous worldviews' into their teaching, be it in the sciences or the humanities. So, as part of its decolonising journey, the Open University stated in 2019 that it will focus on 'indigenous knowledge and ways of learning', rather than 'the colonisers' perspective'. Also in 2019, KCL announced that it is developing its 'indigenous-led' research and teaching in an effort to include indigenous perspectives alongside 'white, Eurocentric' views, on areas such as medicine and traditional healing. One lecturer said this focus on indigenous-led research was 'informed by the objective to decolonise at least part of the medical knowledge we rely on today'.
As part of its decolonisation effort, the University of Leicester even dropped its English language and medieval literature modules in 2021. Decolonisation activists said that the old curriculum had normalised and privileged 'white history, cultural values, norms, practices, perspectives, experiences and voices', and marginalised 'other forms of knowing'. As Leicester University put it, decolonisation is the 'beginning of a revolutionary process which seeks to create a higher-education system that is fully and racially inclusive and fit for the 21st century'.
Launched in 2019, the University of Kent's Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies is even more expressly political. It says it wants to 'decolonise curricula, with particular emphasis on pedagogical and methodological practice', and 'disrupt the colonial structures of settler states' through the 'centring of indigenous voices and anti- / decolonial activism'.
Then there's the oldest staff-led decolonisation working group in Cambridge, 'Decolonise Sociology'. It presents itself as a challenge to white Westerners. It claims it is seeking the 'inclusion' and 'prioritisation' of 'authors from the global south across the curriculum' and 'in the required reading'. This will help 'standardise' the 'use of whiteness as a concept, thus racialising white people'. This, it says, will help draw 'attention to the problem of the extreme whiteness of Cambridge and the curriculum, and more emphasis on disrupting the reproduction of whiteness'.
Students demonstrate outside Oxford University's Oriel College for the removal of the Cecil Rhodes statue on March 9, 2016.
'Decolonisation', despite its radical posturing, is a thoroughly elitist project, which commands little in the way of public support. Given the publicly funded nature of the UK university system, this is a big problem. In 2021, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) found that only 23 per cent of the British public supported universities' efforts to move away from a so-called white, Eurocentric curriculum. But this has only encouraged decolonisation advocates. Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), saw HEPI's findings as evidence of the need to push on with the decolonisation agenda. 'The level of hostility towards decolonising activity in UK higher education shows just how far we have to go to tackle systemic racism', she said. HEPI itself was more cautious. It suggested that universities find a new way to dress up the decolonisation of teaching and curriculums as something else. It said that people 'are more inclined to support changes to the curriculum when it is framed as a broadening of perspectives, rather than the removal of Western-centric viewpoints'.
The turn against the WestHigher-education institutions' eager advocacy of 'decolonisation' has been a sight to behold over the past few years. Activists and academics have embraced this simplistic binary logic of coloniser-colonised, of evil West versus the virtuous non-Western other, and turned it into a moral crusade. And in doing so, they have cast aside so much knowledge and culture as the product of colonial oppression and white privilege.
In The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism, French philosopher Pascal Bruckner captures well the impulse driving the embrace of decolonisation within the academy. Nothing is more Western, he writes, than 'hatred of the West'. The critical spirit, he continues, 'devours itself in a kind of self-cannibalism and takes a morose pleasure in annihilating itself'.
As Bruckner argues, this gleeful self-loathing is really a surreptitious way of asserting a sense of moral superiority. That's why so many highly privileged individuals, working and studying in Western universities, take a 'strange pride in being the worst'. Their self-denigration is a form of self-glorification. 'Evil can come only from us; other people are motivated by sympathy, good will, candour', writes Bruckner of this attitude. 'This is the paternalism of the guilty conscience: seeing ourselves as the kings of infamy is still a way of staying on the crest of history.'
As such, the decolonial critique, denigrating the West and elevating the poor 'colonised' other, provides its advocates with a sense of crude moral superiority. At the same time, it deprives those living in the non-Western world of agency. Indeed, it erases the complex ways in which non-Western states and civilisations have shaped their own history; and how they have pursued colonialism, extra-territorial conquest and engaged in brutal, barbaric behaviour themselves '' in the past and, as we saw all too recently with Hamas's terror attack, the present.
Literary critic Edward Said, himself a Palestinian, was an influential postcolonial theorist and contributed in no small way to the decolonisation narrative. But even he admitted to the blindspot of anti-Westernism, stating in Culture and Imperialism (1993) that there 'are several empires that I do not discuss'. This included the Ottoman Empire, which dominated what we now know of as the Middle East up until the First World War.
People watch on as Hamas terrorists take part in a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017 in Gaza City, Gaza.
In her criticism of Said, sociologist Jyoti Puri argued that solely focussing on 'Western European imperialism and American neo-imperialism with dedicated fury is not representative of the full range of imperial legacies that still matter'. Were Europe's colonial empires 'in a different category of insidiousness from the Chinese, Russian, Ottoman and others?'... The West did not have a monopoly over empire since empires emerged on all continents for thousands of years.'
Said's selectivity indicates a broader historical myopia on the part of the decolonisation movement. It reduces world history and politics to Western villainy versus non-Western saintliness. And in doing so, it reproduces a patronising parent-child dyad, in which the West becomes endlessly responsible for all sins.
For much of the past few years, decolonisation theory has been confined to the cultural politics of universities. The effects on academic knowledge and learning may have been dire, but at least they've been confined to reading lists and curricula, canons and staff training. Tragically, as we've seen this month, this simple-minded logic is now being applied to wider world affairs. It has led assorted academics and the countless students they've taught to demonise Israel as a Western outpost and elevate Hamas as some sort of voice of the oppressed.
It is all too reminiscent of Foucault's celebration of Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. Those immersed in the logic of decolonisation see Hamas and the broader Palestinian cause as a rejection of Israeli and therefore Western 'colonialism'. Indeed, they see it as a radical rejection of the West in general. They show little interest in the actual political and social views of those they deem 'oppressed'. They are merely using the likes of Hamas and the Palestinians to ventriloquise their anti-Westernism.
The inhumanity on display from so many immersed in decolonisation theory is an indictment of today's academic culture. Too many have shown themselves incapable of seeing the Hamas atrocities for what they were '' acts of anti-Semitic barbarism. They see everything through the narrow, abstract lens of decolonisation, categorising whole groups of people, from Jews to Arabs, as oppressors or oppressed according to intersectional ideology.
Academia needs to wake up. The radical chic of the decolonisers and the broader politics of repudiation is having profound and terrible effects on the world. Tolerance and mutual respect must be learnt and transmitted anew to each generation through our institutions and broader culture. If we fail to do so, we put our multi-ethnic, multi-racial society in grave peril.
Professor Doug Stokes holds a chair in international security at the University of Exeter and is a senior adviser at the Legatum Institute. His latest book is Against Decolonisation: Campus Culture Wars and the Decline of the West, published by Polity. Follow him on X: @profdws.
Pictures by: Getty.
To enquire about republishing spiked's content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.
EWG's Food Scores | Natural vs. Artificial Flavors
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:21
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Synthetic ingredients in Natural Flavors and Natural Flavors in Artificial flavorsby David Andrews, Senior Scientist
If you cook food at home, odds are you have a spice rack with 10, 20 or maybe even 50 different herbs and spices. I know I do.
But processed food doesn't rely just on those simple ingredients for its flavor. ''Natural flavor'' is the fourth most common ingredient listed in EWG's Food Scores, which rates more than 80,000 foods on their degree of nutrition, ingredient concerns and processing concerns.
In other words, ''natural flavor'' finds its way into more than a fifth of that roster of 80,000 foods, with only salt, water and sugar mentioned more frequently on food labels.
But what is ''natural flavor'' exactly? Are natural flavors really better than artificial flavors? The simple fact that McDonald's says its ''natural beef flavor'' is derived from wheat and milk should make you wonder.
I have always felt partial to natural flavors because I tend to prefer the outdoors, nature and things and people who are not artificial. But I have never really had any solid information to back up my instincts. After digging into some food chemistry and food engineering tomes about natural and artificial flavors, I found the results very surprising.
The bottom line: natural and artificial flavors really aren't that different. And those ''natural flavors'' can actually contain synthetic chemicals! You're right to be skeptical of the word ''natural'' '' it's often thrown around loosely. I avoid both ''synthetic'' and ''natural'' flavors when I can, by minimizing my consumption of processed foods.
Why flavor food?A great deal of scientific engineering and design time goes into crafting flavors for processed foods. This specialized work is done by just 500 professional flavorists who are responsible for the majority of flavors in nearly all food processed in the U.S.
How a food tastes is largely determined by the volatile chemicals in the food. Chemicals that give food a specific smell are extremely important because smell makes up 80 to 90 percent of the sense of taste. In processed food, this mixture of chemicals is called ''flavor.'' The same mixture of chemicals would be called ''fragrance'' if it were found in cleaning products, perfumes or cosmetics. The difference between the two is small, and the companies that produce these secret mixtures are often exactly the same.
The cost of the flavors in a food can be around half a penny per serving, but processed food is such a big market that flavoring has become big business too. The annual sales of the fragrance and flavor industry is estimated at $24 billion. It is controlled by a few large flavor houses, notably Givaudan, Firmenich, IFF and Symrise.
Food products are flavored to increase sales by making mouthwatering tastes, making packaged food taste fresh, giving a processed food a bolder taste than a comparable natural food and making the taste short-lived so that you eat more. In a 2011 interview with Morley Safer of 60 Minutes, two flavor scientists from Givaudan said that one of their goals was making food addictive.
(Givaudan) Streich: In our fruit flavors we're talking about, we want a burst in the beginning. And maybe a finish that doesn't linger too much so that you want more of it.(Givaudan) Hassel: And you don't want a long linger, because you're not going to eat more of it if it lingers.(60 Minutes) Safer: Aha. So I see, it's going to be a quick fix. And then--(Givaudan) Hassel: Have more.(60 Minutes) Safer: And then have more. But that suggests something else?(Givaudan) Hassel: Exactly.(60 Minutes) Safer: Which is called addiction?(Givaudan) Hassel: Exactly.(60 Minutes) Safer: You're tryin' to create an addictive taste?(Givaudan) Hassel: That's a good word.
There are other reasons to flavor foods. When foods are pasteurized for safety, many of the volatile chemicals evaporate or degrade. To make a product like orange juice taste fresh after pasteurization, these chemicals have to be restored. They dupe your taste buds and smell receptors into believing you are drinking fresh orange juice when it really may be rather old.
What about the chemical difference?Flavors are complex mixtures that sometimes comprise more than 100 chemicals. In addition to flavors themselves, these mixtures contain chemicals that have other functions. Solvents, emulsifiers, flavor modifiers and preservatives often make up 80 to 90 percent of the mixture.
The main difference between a natural and artificial flavor is the origin of the flavor chemicals. Natural flavors must be derived from plant or animal material.[1] Artificial flavors are synthesized in the lab. The actual chemicals in these two kinds of flavors may be exactly the same: the chemical structures of the individual molecules may be indistinguishable.
The Food and Drug Administration defines natural flavors as substances derived from animals or plants and artificial flavors are those that are not. An artificial flavor must be comprised of one of the nearly 700 FDA-allowed flavoring chemicals or food additives categorized as ''generally recognized as safe,'' or any of 2000 other chemicals not directly regulated by FDA but sanctioned for use by an industry group, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States. Most of these chemicals exist as natural flavors or can be extracted from them.
From a food manufacturer's perspective, the difference between a natural and artificial flavor often comes down to cost and consumer preference. A natural flavor almost always costs much more than an artificial flavor. Still, food makers are often willing to pay because they know that some consumers prefer ''natural'' flavors.
Interestingly, the chemical mixtures that comprise artificial flavors are often simpler than ''natural'' flavors. The reason: artificial flavors contain fewer chemicals than natural ones, which can be mixtures of several hundred chemicals.
But are those artificial flavors safe? The flavor industry argues that artificial flavors undergo stricter safety evaluations than natural flavors. The truth is that safety evaluations for all food additives and flavor additives are not as thorough as they should be.
Artificial preservatives and solvents in ''natural'' flavorThe natural or artificial emulsifiers, solvents and preservatives in flavor mixtures are called ''incidental additives.'' That means the manufacturer does not have to disclose their presence on food labels. Food manufacturers can use a natural solvent such as ethanol in their flavors, but the FDA also permits them to use synthetic solvents such as propylene glycol. Flavor extracts and food ingredients that have been derived from genetically engineered crops may also be labeled ''natural'' because the FDA has not fully defined what the term ''natural'' means.
Paradoxically, the FDA requires a natural flavor to be labeled as an artificial flavor if it is added to a food not to reinforce a flavor already present but to lend a new taste. For instance, adding naturally-derived blueberry flavor to a plain muffin would require that the blueberry flavor be labeled ''artificial flavor.''
What exactly is in a flavor?Take apple flavor. It can be quite complex and vary from one apple variety to another. While the solvent, emulsifier and preservatives make up the majority of the ingredient, it is the flavoring substances that provide the characteristic taste and smell. Fenaroli's Handbook of Flavor Ingredients lists a large number of chemicals that can be used to approximate the taste of an apple.[2]
When you see the word ''flavor'' on a food label, you have no clue what chemicals, carrier solvents or preservatives have been added to the food. For people with unusual food allergies (the eight most common food allergens must be labeled when used in flavorings) or those on restricted diets, this can be a serious concern. EWG has pressed for greater disclosure in personal care products and cleaners containing secret mixtures of chemicals hidden on the label as fragrance. We plan to campaign for transparency on the ingredients used in foods.
What about ''organic'' natural flavors? For ''organic foods,'' the natural flavor must have been produced without synthetic solvents, carriers and artificial preservatives. According to the Natural Flavor Questionnaire from a large organic certifier, the additives not allowed in natural flavor in organic foods include propylene glycol, polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, mono- and di-glycerides, benzoic acid, polysorbate 80, medium chain triglycerides, BHT, BHA, triacetin. In ''foods made with organic ingredients,'' food processors have greater leeway to use synthetic extraction or carrier solvents.
How EWG scores flavoringEWG thought long and hard about whether to score natural and artificial flavors differently. Ultimately we saw little basis for a sharp scoring distinction and decided to give the same score to both ''natural'' and ''artificial flavors,'' with one exception. We gave a slightly better score to the natural flavors found in certified organic food since these are required to be produced without synthetic solvents, carrier systems or preservatives.
All ingredients containing the generic term ''flavor'' are classified as food additives of ''lower concern'' in the EWG's Food Scores database because they don't disclose specific flavor chemicals and solvents.
Certain chemicals used in both natural and artificial flavors or in artificial flavors alone are very toxic at higher doses. These specific chemicals are not a higher health concern because very low concentrations occur in finished foods.
Overall, thousands of flavor chemicals are being added to foods without FDA oversight or review of the available safety information or the concentration used. The food additive review system is broken.
We at EWG believe food companies should make full disclosure of their ingredients and should not use vague terms like ''flavors'' or ''fragrances.'' People have a right to know what is in their food. We believe processed food makers should not manipulate flavors to whet people's appetites for unhealthy foods nor encourage people to overeat.
What kind of flavor do I look for? I plan to use my spice rack as much as possible.
Federal Food and Drug Administration defines a natural flavor as ''the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.''These flavor mixtures often include amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, ethyl butyrate, various aliphatic acid ester, ethyl acetate, ethyl valerate, ethyl isovalerate, ethyl pelargonate, vanillin, lemon essential oil, citral, citronellal, rose absolute, geraninol, orange essential oil, geranium essential oil, aldehyde C10, ethyl heptanoate, acetaldehyde, aldehydes C14 and C16, styralyl acetate, dimethyl benzyl carbinyl acetate, benzyl formate, phenyl ethyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl isovalerate, anise essential oil, esters of colophony and benzaldehyde and may contain terpenyl isovalerate, isopropyl isovalerate, citronellyl isovalerate, geranyl isovalerate, benzyl isovalerate, cinnamyl formate, isopropyl valerate, butyl valerate, methyl allyl butyrate and potentially the synthetic ingredients cyclohexyl acetate, allyl butyrate, allyl cyclohexylvalerate, allyl isovalerate and cyclohexyl butyrate.
FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence | The White House
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 15:03
Today, President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The Executive Order establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans' privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more.As part of the Biden-Harris Administration's comprehensive strategy for responsible innovation, the Executive Order builds on previous actions the President has taken, including work that led to voluntary commitments from 15 leading companies to drive safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI.
The Executive Order directs the following actions:
New Standards for AI Safety and Security
As AI's capabilities grow, so do its implications for Americans' safety and security. With this Executive Order, the President directs the most sweeping actions ever taken to protect Americans from the potential risks of AI systems:
Require that developers of the most powerful AI systems share their safety test results and other critical information with the U.S. government. In accordance with the Defense Production Act, the Order will require that companies developing any foundation model that poses a serious risk to national security, national economic security, or national public health and safety must notify the federal government when training the model, and must share the results of all red-team safety tests. These measures will ensure AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy before companies make them public. Develop standards, tools, and tests to help ensure that AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy. The National Institute of Standards and Technology will set the rigorous standards for extensive red-team testing to ensure safety before public release. The Department of Homeland Security will apply those standards to critical infrastructure sectors and establish the AI Safety and Security Board. The Departments of Energy and Homeland Security will also address AI systems' threats to critical infrastructure, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cybersecurity risks. Together, these are the most significant actions ever taken by any government to advance the field of AI safety.Protect against the risks of using AI to engineer dangerous biological materials by developing strong new standards for biological synthesis screening. Agencies that fund life-science projects will establish these standards as a condition of federal funding, creating powerful incentives to ensure appropriate screening and manage risks potentially made worse by AI.Protect Americans from AI-enabled fraud and deception by establishing standards and best practices for detecting AI-generated content and authenticating official content. The Department of Commerce will develop guidance for content authentication and watermarking to clearly label AI-generated content. Federal agencies will use these tools to make it easy for Americans to know that the communications they receive from their government are authentic'--and set an example for the private sector and governments around the world.Establish an advanced cybersecurity program to develop AI tools to find and fix vulnerabilities in critical software, building on the Biden-Harris Administration's ongoing AI Cyber Challenge. Together, these efforts will harness AI's potentially game-changing cyber capabilities to make software and networks more secure.Order the development of a National Security Memorandum that directs further actions on AI and security, to be developed by the National Security Council and White House Chief of Staff. This document will ensure that the United States military and intelligence community use AI safely, ethically, and effectively in their missions, and will direct actions to counter adversaries' military use of AI.Protecting Americans' Privacy
Without safeguards, AI can put Americans' privacy further at risk. AI not only makes it easier to extract, identify, and exploit personal data, but it also heightens incentives to do so because companies use data to train AI systems. To better protect Americans' privacy, including from the risks posed by AI, the President calls on Congress to pass bipartisan data privacy legislation to protect all Americans, especially kids, and directs the following actions:
Protect Americans' privacy by prioritizing federal support for accelerating the development and use of privacy-preserving techniques'--including ones that use cutting-edge AI and that let AI systems be trained while preserving the privacy of the training data. Strengthen privacy-preserving research and technologies, such as cryptographic tools that preserve individuals' privacy, by funding a Research Coordination Network to advance rapid breakthroughs and development. The National Science Foundation will also work with this network to promote the adoption of leading-edge privacy-preserving technologies by federal agencies.Evaluate how agencies collect and use commercially available information'--including information they procure from data brokers'--and strengthen privacy guidance for federal agencies to account for AI risks. This work will focus in particular on commercially available information containing personally identifiable data.Develop guidelines for federal agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of privacy-preserving techniques, including those used in AI systems. These guidelines will advance agency efforts to protect Americans' data.Advancing Equity and Civil Rights
Irresponsible uses of AI can lead to and deepen discrimination, bias, and other abuses in justice, healthcare, and housing. The Biden-Harris Administration has already taken action by publishing the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and issuing an Executive Order directing agencies to combat algorithmic discrimination, while enforcing existing authorities to protect people's rights and safety. To ensure that AI advances equity and civil rights, the President directs the following additional actions:
Provide clear guidance to landlords, Federal benefits programs, and federal contractors to keep AI algorithms from being used to exacerbate discrimination.Address algorithmic discrimination through training, technical assistance, and coordination between the Department of Justice and Federal civil rights offices on best practices for investigating and prosecuting civil rights violations related to AI.Ensure fairness throughout the criminal justice system by developing best practices on the use of AI in sentencing, parole and probation, pretrial release and detention, risk assessments, surveillance, crime forecasting and predictive policing, and forensic analysis.Standing Up for Consumers, Patients, and Students
AI can bring real benefits to consumers'--for example, by making products better, cheaper, and more widely available. But AI also raises the risk of injuring, misleading, or otherwise harming Americans. To protect consumers while ensuring that AI can make Americans better off, the President directs the following actions:
Advance the responsible use of AI in healthcare and the development of affordable and life-saving drugs. The Department of Health and Human Services will also establish a safety program to receive reports of'--and act to remedy '' harms or unsafe healthcare practices involving AI. Shape AI's potential to transform education by creating resources to support educators deploying AI-enabled educational tools, such as personalized tutoring in schools.Supporting Workers
AI is changing America's jobs and workplaces, offering both the promise of improved productivity but also the dangers of increased workplace surveillance, bias, and job displacement. To mitigate these risks, support workers' ability to bargain collectively, and invest in workforce training and development that is accessible to all, the President directs the following actions:
Develop principles and best practices to mitigate the harms and maximize the benefits of AI for workers by addressing job displacement; labor standards; workplace equity, health, and safety; and data collection. These principles and best practices will benefit workers by providing guidance to prevent employers from undercompensating workers, evaluating job applications unfairly, or impinging on workers' ability to organize.Produce a report on AI's potential labor-market impacts, and study and identify options for strengthening federal support for workers facing labor disruptions, including from AI.Promoting Innovation and Competition
America already leads in AI innovation'--more AI startups raised first-time capital in the United States last year than in the next seven countries combined. The Executive Order ensures that we continue to lead the way in innovation and competition through the following actions:
Catalyze AI research across the United States through a pilot of the National AI Research Resource'--a tool that will provide AI researchers and students access to key AI resources and data'--and expanded grants for AI research in vital areas like healthcare and climate change.Promote a fair, open, and competitive AI ecosystem by providing small developers and entrepreneurs access to technical assistance and resources, helping small businesses commercialize AI breakthroughs, and encouraging the Federal Trade Commission to exercise its authorities.Use existing authorities to expand the ability of highly skilled immigrants and nonimmigrants with expertise in critical areas to study, stay, and work in the United States by modernizing and streamlining visa criteria, interviews, and reviews.Advancing American Leadership Abroad
AI's challenges and opportunities are global. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue working with other nations to support safe, secure, and trustworthy deployment and use of AI worldwide. To that end, the President directs the following actions:
Expand bilateral, multilateral, and multistakeholder engagements to collaborate on AI. The State Department, in collaboration, with the Commerce Department will lead an effort to establish robust international frameworks for harnessing AI's benefits and managing its risks and ensuring safety. In addition, this week, Vice President Harris will speak at the UK Summit on AI Safety, hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.Accelerate development and implementation of vital AI standards with international partners and in standards organizations, ensuring that the technology is safe, secure, trustworthy, and interoperable.Promote the safe, responsible, and rights-affirming development and deployment of AI abroad to solve global challenges, such as advancing sustainable development and mitigating dangers to critical infrastructure.Ensuring Responsible and Effective Government Use of AI
AI can help government deliver better results for the American people. It can expand agencies' capacity to regulate, govern, and disburse benefits, and it can cut costs and enhance the security of government systems. However, use of AI can pose risks, such as discrimination and unsafe decisions. To ensure the responsible government deployment of AI and modernize federal AI infrastructure, the President directs the following actions:
Issue guidance for agencies' use of AI, including clear standards to protect rights and safety, improve AI procurement, and strengthen AI deployment. Help agencies acquire specified AI products and services faster, more cheaply, and more effectively through more rapid and efficient contracting.Accelerate the rapid hiring of AI professionals as part of a government-wide AI talent surge led by the Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Digital Service, U.S. Digital Corps, and Presidential Innovation Fellowship. Agencies will provide AI training for employees at all levels in relevant fields.As we advance this agenda at home, the Administration will work with allies and partners abroad on a strong international framework to govern the development and use of AI. The Administration has already consulted widely on AI governance frameworks over the past several months'--engaging with Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the UAE, and the UK. The actions taken today support and complement Japan's leadership of the G-7 Hiroshima Process, the UK Summit on AI Safety, India's leadership as Chair of the Global Partnership on AI, and ongoing discussions at the United Nations.The actions that President Biden directed today are vital steps forward in the U.S.'s approach on safe, secure, and trustworthy AI. More action will be required, and the Administration will continue to work with Congress to pursue bipartisan legislation to help America lead the way in responsible innovation.
For more on the Biden-Harris Administration's work to advance AI, and for opportunities to join the Federal AI workforce, visit AI.gov.
###
Doomscrolling: What bad news does to us '' DW '' 10/27/2023
Mon, 30 Oct 2023 14:32
A notification here, a news alert there, and we grab our phones almost automatically.
Even when we try to take a break from our devices, we're often quickly drawn back into a spiral of bad news: violence, war and crises dominate our news feeds.
And the transition from one to another is practically seamless: the COVID pandemic was followed by the war in Ukraine, followed by earthquakes, natural disasters and war in the Middle East.
The news is full of distressing and depressing stories and images.
What is doomscrolling?Doomscrolling is what we do when we keep scrolling through bad news, even when it distresses us.
The term comes from the words "doom" '-- which signifies disaster, destruction, the end, fear '-- and "scrolling" '-- what we do on our phones when we surf the net.
It's come into common usage to describe the way people endlessly consume bad news. But it really came into its own as a word during the pandemic.
A relic of the stone ageDoomscrolling is all about negativity bias. Humans have an inclination toward negativity.
Criticism, for example, has a stronger influence on behavior and cognition than praise. And the same is true for bad news over good news.
"The brain processes negative words faster, better and more intensively [than positive words], and that means we remember them more," said neuroscientist Maren Urner.
It makes sense, certainly from the perspective of evolutionary biology.
In the time of saber-toothed cats or mammoths, said Urner, the last thing you would have wanted was to miss the memo that you were in danger.
Our ancient brains are still trying to help us beat uncertainty by systematically gathering information. We want to be prepared for the threats that await us. And the more bad news we consume, the better prepared we feel.
But it's a fallacy. That kind of thinking may have worked with mammoths but it's useless in the age of apps and news feeds.
Apps designed like a bag of chipsOur news apps are designed to keep us hanging on. That idea of the "infinite scroll" was no mistake.
It's a psychological trick that was illustrated by researcher Brian Wansink's "Bottomless Soup Bowl Experiment" in the early 2000s.
In the experiment, one group of participtants got bottomless bowls of soup '-- the bowls kept refilling without the diners noticing. They ate 73% more soup than the participants in another group, who only got one portion of soup.
Those in the first group could neither tell that they had eaten more soup, nor did they say they felt fuller as a result.
Researchers today see parallels between Wansink's experiment and our uncontrolled consumption of news.
But there's another trick app designers use: the function "Pull-to-Refresh", which was lifted from the casino. You pull down, the page reloads and you wait with excitement because you have no idea what's coming.
It's like pulling the arm down on a fruit machine. As we wait for the anticipated win, our brains express the happiness hormone dopamine. And we crave more of it.
Constant stress in the brainWatching and reading distressing news negatively affects our serotonin levels. We feel exhausted, tense, irritable, moody and can suffer disturbed sleep.
It's here that the stress hormone cortisol kicks in. When we feel stressed, cortisol can help us feel productive and active, temporarily.
But raised levels of cortisol can be damaging, because we're essentially in a permanent state of stress.
Doomscrolling affects different people differently, but studies have observed a link between excessive consumption of bad news and higher rates of depression, stress and other symptoms that are similar to those found among people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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A collaborative study by psychologists and the news outlet Huffington Post showed that participants who had spent three minutes reading bad news in the morning were 27% more likely to say they'd had a bad day six to eight hours later.
Another group in the same study read so-called "solutions-based" news, and 88% of them said they had gone on to have a good day.
Media's role in feeding bad newsMedia companies know they can generate more clicks with bad news. And more clicks mean more circulation, more ad revenue and more engagement.
But if doomscrolling is so unhealthy for us, what can '-- or should '-- media outlets do to improve the situation?
Researcher Maren Urner said journalists should ask themselves 'What's next?' while reporting stories '-- describing a problem is important, but looking for solutions should be part of the research process, too.
Reflect on your news consumptionYes, it's important to stay up to date and know what's happening in the world, but you don't have to follow developments 24/7.
There's no magic formula, but a good way to start the day is to avoid turning on every device in the house the moment you get out of bed.
Try to reflect on how much news you consume and when it's appropriate to do it.
Fight the urge to doomscroll by choosing trustworthy sources, background stories and fewer clickbait headlines.
Set yourself a time and duration for reading news, such as 20-30 minutes in an afternoon. Try to avoid scrolling endlessly throughout the day.
And turn off notifications and breaking news alerts. Read a daily summary instead.
This article was originally written in German.
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'But the British pilots missed and instead of the Gestapo headquarters they hit a children's hospital nearby and I think 84 children were hardly (?) burned to death that is not a war crime, that is not something you blame Britain for doing - that was a legitimate act of war with tragic consequences that accompanied such legitimate actions - and you didn't tell the allies.. don't stamp out Nazism because of such tragic consequences.
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He said Hamas was responsible for the high death toll in Gaza, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields.
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Netanyahu also told a press conference that other countries must give more help in the struggle to free more than 230 hostages seized by Hamas in its October 7 attacks (pictured: IDF ground operations in the Gaza Strip in the night from October 29 to 30)
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A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday shows an Israeli military vehicle driving in the north of the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles with Hamas
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Smoke billows into the air during Israeli bombardment in the north of the Gaza Strip on Monday
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Israel has since launched an intense bombardment of Gaza, prompting fears for the safety of the hostages, many of whom are thought to be being held in Hamas' tunnel network.
Relatives concerned about Israel's escalating attacks in Gaza demanded to know the government's plans for the rescue of their loved ones in a tense meeting with Netanyahu yesterday.
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The hostages were seized when hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border into southern Israel and attacked kibbutz communities, towns and military bases.
Authorities believe they are being held in a giant network of underground tunnels built by Hamas in the besieged territory.
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IDF soldiers are seen carrying out an operation in the West Bank in a video posted online
Palestinians are seen in a video throwing rocks at Israeli armoured vehicles in the West Bank
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The signs that the Jewish state was stepping up its military operations in the region came as a UN official warned the Gaza Strip was on the brink of social collapse, with mobs looting warehouses for food and families forced to drink dirty water.
Fears for the more than 2.2 million living in the small territory are rising rapidly as Israel presses on with the 'second stage' of its war to eliminate Hamas.
The Israeli military said it had killed 'dozens' of the terror group's fighters overnight in clashes inside Gaza. Hamas also said its fighters were engaged in 'heavy fighting' with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.
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