Vice
An AI-enabled drone killed its human operator in a simulated test conducted by the U.S. Air Force in order to override a possible "no" order stopping it from completing its mission, the USAF's Chief of AI Test and Operations revealed at a recent conference.
At the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit held in London between May 23 and 24, Col Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the USAF's Chief of AI Test and Operations held a presentation that shared the pros and cons of an autonomous weapon system with a human in the loop giving the final "yes/no" order on an attack. As relayed by Tim Robinson and Stephen Bridgewater in a blog post for the host organization, the Royal Aeronautical Society, Hamilton said that AI created “highly unexpected strategies to achieve its goal,” including attacking U.S. personnel and infrastructure.
U.S. warns China: Not talking risks incidents ‘spiraling’
NBC News
The United States is pushing China to talk, warning that Beijing's apparent refusal to restore high-level military communication means dangerous incidents could "spiral out of control."
Two senior U.S. officials have voiced the criticism in the past 24 hours, pointing to the recent encounter between military aircraft over the South China Sea as evidence of the risks. […]
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday it was "unfortunate" that China's defense minister had declined to meet with him, and criticized Beijing for its "provocative" actions.
"As we take a look at some of the things that China is doing in the international airspace in the region and in the international waterways, the provocative intercepts of our aircraft and also our allies’ aircraft, that's very concerning and we would hope that they would alter their actions… I'm concerned about, at some point, having an incident that could quickly spiral out of control," Austin added.
China’s Xi Jinping calls for greater state control of AI to counter ‘dangerous storms’
Agence France-Presse via The Guardian
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and top officials have called for greater state oversight of artificial intelligence as part of work to counter “dangerous storms” facing the country, state media reported.
The president and other ruling Communist party officials agreed at a meeting of the National Security Commission to “improve security governance of network data and artificial intelligence”.
“We must be prepared for worst-case and extreme scenarios, and be ready to withstand the major test of high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms,” a readout of the meeting from official news agency Xinhua said.
Xi said that the “complexity and severity of national security problems faced by our country have increased dramatically”.
Supreme Court Sides With Employer Over Union In Strike Case
Huff Post
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision Thursday siding with an employer that had sued a union for damages after workers went on strike, potentially opening the door to more strike-related lawsuits against unions.
In an 8-1 decision, the majority ruled that federal law does not preempt a lawsuit the employer filed against the union in state court, alleging workers had destroyed property with their work stoppage. The Supreme Court ruling strikes down a lower court’s decision and keeps alive the employer’s lawsuit against the union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The dissent came from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who wrote that the majority “eagerly insert[ed] itself into this conflict” rather than “modestly standing down” and that the ruling threatens to “erode the right to strike.”
Eating disorder helpline shuts down AI chatbot that gave bad advice
CBS News
An AI-powered chatbot that replaced employees at an eating disorder hotline has been shut down after it provided harmful advice to people seeking help.
The saga began earlier this year when the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) announced it was shutting down its human-run helpline and replacing workers with a chatbot called "Tessa." That decision came after helpline employees voted to unionize. […]
"Every single thing Tessa suggested were things that led to the development of my eating disorder," wrote Sharon Maxwell, who describes herself as a weight inclusive consultant and fat activist, on Instagram. "This robot causes harm."
Trump captured on tape talking about classified document he kept after leaving the White House
CNN
Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which … Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran… undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.
The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said. […]
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department investigation into Trump, has focused on the meeting as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of national security secrets. Sources describe the recording as an “important” piece of evidence in a possible case against Trump, who has repeatedly asserted he could retain presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.
Department of Justice
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle today sentenced Robert L. Birchum (55, Tampa) to three years in federal prison for unlawfully possessing and retaining classified documents relating to the national defense of the United States. The court also ordered Birchum to pay a fine of $25,000.
Birchum pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing and retaining classified documents relating to the national defense of the United States on February. 21, 2023. According to the plea agreement, Birchum previously served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. […]
In 2017, however, law enforcement officers discovered that Birchum knowingly removed more than 300 classified files or documents, including more than 30 items marked Top Secret, from authorized locations. Birchum kept these classified materials in his home, his overseas officer’s quarters, and a storage pod in his driveway. None of these locations were authorized for storage of classified national defense information.
Oath Keeper who guarded Roger Stone before Jan. 6 attack gets more than 4 years in prison
Los Angeles Times
A member of the Oath Keepers extremist group who was part of a security detail for former President Trump’s longtime advisor Roger Stone before storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to more than four years in prison.
Roberto Minuta, who was seen on video guarding Stone hours before the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, was among six Oath Keeper members convicted by jurors of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a violent plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to President Biden after the 2020 election.
Minuta is the third Oath Keeper to receive his punishment for seditious conspiracy — the most serious charge the Justice Department has brought in the Capitol attack.
Biden shows growing appetite to cross Putin’s red lines
The Washington Post
President Biden’s decision last month to help Ukraine obtain F-16 fighter jets marked another crossing of a Russian red line that Vladimir Putin has said would transform the war and draw Washington and Moscow into direct conflict.
Despite the Russian leader’s apocalyptic warnings, the United States has gradually agreed to expand Ukraine’s arsenal with Javelin and Stinger missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers, advanced missile defense systems, drones, helicopters, M1 Abrams tanks and, soon, fourth-generation fighter jets.
A key reason for brushing aside Putin’s threats, U.S. officials say, is a dynamic that has held since the opening days of the war: Russia’s president has not followed through on promises to punish the West for providing weapons to Ukraine. His bluffing has given U.S. and European leaders some confidence they can continue doing so without severe consequences — but to what extent remains one of the conflict’s most dangerous uncertainties.
NATO nations look past Ukraine offensive to long-term deterrence pacts
The Washington Post
The Biden administration and its NATO allies are developing plans for securing ongoing military support to Ukraine beyond the country’s current offensive, hoping that long-term security pacts will create a strong deterrent against future Russian aggression and potentially alter the battlefield calculus of President Vladimir Putin.
The evolving proposals represent an alternative to granting Ukraine admission into NATO in the near term, a prospect that has divided member states between those who support Kyiv’s request for immediate entry into the Western military alliance and those who fear it could plunge the bloc into direct conflict with Russia. […]
Following a months-long effort to secure donations of Western tanks, missiles, air defenses and other equipment that Ukrainian forces need for their planned operation — which some U.S. officials say is already underway — the Biden administration’s focus is now “how do we maintain that strength after the counteroffensive?” a senior U.S. official said.
Nowhere to run: Residents point at Ukraine’s bomb shelter problem
Al Jazeera
The shock wave kicked Leonid Kobizhinsky off his bed. The 65-year-old woke up on the floor of his apartment in eastern Kyiv before dawn on Thursday seconds after a hypersonic Russian cruise missile was shot down above the nine-storey building.
Minutes earlier, air raid sirens started wailing, but they have never been audible in his apartment, he said. He did not even try to run to a bomb shelter in the basement of a children’s hospital less than 40 metres (131 feet) away from his building because the shelter’s doors were closed shut.
“They closed it a long time ago,” Kobizhinsky told Al Jazeera.
Three of his neighbours did not know that and were killed by the missile’s debris as they were trying to get in. Two were women aged 30 and 34, and the third was a nine-year-old girl, according to city officials. A dozen more people were wounded, they said.
'Stop yelling': Top Chechen fighter scolds Russia's Wagner mercenary chief
Reuters
One of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's close allies on Thursday publicly criticised Russia's most prominent mercenary, casting Yevgeny Prigozhin as a blogger who yells all the time about problems, drawing a stern rebuke from a top Wagner fighter.
Addressing Prigozhin in a video message using the diminutive of "Zhenya" and the familiar Russian form of you ("ty"), Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov, told Prigozhin:
"If you don't understand, then you can contact us and tell us the place and the time, I we will explain to you what you don't understand," Delimkhanov said of Prigozhin.
"You have become a blogger who screams and shouts off to the whole world about all the problems," Delimkhanov said. "Stop shouting, yelling and screaming."
27 reported killed in shelling of market in poor area south of Khartoum
The Guardian
Twenty-seven people have been killed and 106 injured after a market in a poor area south of Khartoum was shelled, according to local residents.
Six tank shells were fired from al-Shajara, one of the few areas the army controls in the Sudanese capital, towards the neighbourhood of Mayo, residents said. Sources said the death toll could rise significantly because many of the injured were unable to get to hospitals for treatment.
Mayo is populated mostly by people who have not been able to afford to leave Khartoum since fighting broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April. It is not known to be near any military target in the capital, which is 90% controlled by the RSF.
Industry Documents Show Corporate Ghouls Knew About Forever Chemicals for Decades
Gizmodo
Major chemical companies were aware of the dangers forever chemicals posed to the public, years before they were forced to admit it. A new study in Annals of Global Health examined previously secret industry documents and saw exactly how manufacturers DuPont and 3M purposely distorted public knowledge about PFAS in their products.
PFAS, or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, are commonly called ‘forever chemicals’ because they won’t break down in the human body or in nature. They persist ‘forever.’ It’s also a term that categorizes over 12,000 chemicals found in many everyday products. Chemical exposure has been linked to cancer, infertility, birth defects, and more. Major manufacturers of these chemicals were well aware of some of these medical concerns decades before the public was made aware of this in the early 1990s, the study explained.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) analyzed company documents from 1961 to 2006 to understand how chemical companies hid information about PFAS from regulators and the public.
Mussel poop may help clear oceans of microplastics
Science
One of the most widespread pollutants in the ocean is also one of the hardest to see. Trillions of tiny particles of plastic—known as microplastics—can clog the intestines of fish, destroy the tissues of marine creatures, and cause entire populations to decline. Their small size also makes them almost impossible to clean up.
Now, scientists have discovered a marine organism that’s not just invulnerable to microplastics, it may have a way to eliminate them—literally. The blue mussel (Mytilus edulis)—a voracious, filter-feeding mollusk with a blue-black shell—ingests microplastics and other pollutants alongside its typical fare, sequestering the contaminants in feces that are much easier to remove from the water than are the plastics themselves.
The mussels are essentially “putting the rubbish out for us to collect,” says Penelope Lindeque, an ecologist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory who led the research.
Ten states and scores of local governments sue FEMA over higher flood insurance rates
NPR News
Ten states and dozens of municipalities are suing the Biden Administration over rate hikes in the National Flood Insurance Program. That program offers coverage in high-risk flood areas and is administered by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A lawsuit filed Thursday (the start of the Atlantic hurricane season) in New Orleans federal court seeks to block the higher premiums.
When FEMA's new Risk Rating 2.0 pricing plan went into effect in April, the agency said it was more equitable and better reflects flood risk. The result is rate increases that will average more than 100% in coastal states like Louisiana and Florida. Some parishes in southeast Louisiana will see rates go up on average more than 500%. […]
In addition to Louisiana, states signing onto the federal lawsuit include Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. All have Republican Attorneys General.
Republicans try to put rampant voter challenger on Fulton election board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In a vast attempt to disqualify Georgia voters, Jason Frazier has challenged the registrations of nearly 10,000 people in the Democratic stronghold of Fulton County.
Now he’s the Republican Party’s nominee for a seat on the county’s election board, which has the power to cancel or suspend registrations of voters who face challenges from conservative activists like him.
Frazier is one of the most prolific users of Georgia’s 2021 voting law that allows anyone to contest an unlimited number of other voters’ qualifications, filing long lists of voter names and addresses that he believes are invalid.
Few of Frazier’s scattershot voter challenges have been proved, and eligible voters have had to defend their right to vote in hearings before the county election board.
Pentagon buying Starlink dishes for Ukraine after funding dispute with SpaceX
Ars Technica
The US Defense Department confirmed today that it is buying Starlink satellite broadband service for use in Ukraine.
"We continue to work with a range of global partners to ensure Ukraine has the satellite and communication capabilities they need. Satellite communications constitute a vital layer in Ukraine's overall communications network and the department contracts with Starlink for services of this type," the Defense Department said in a statement provided to Ars and other media outlets today.
The Pentagon said it would not provide other details about contracts, capabilities, or partners because of "operational security reasons and due to the critical nature of these systems." According to a Bloomberg report, the deal includes Starlink satellite terminals and services to be used by the Ukraine military.
Just days to spare, Senate gives final approval to debt ceiling deal, sending it to Biden
AP News
Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.
The compromise package negotiated between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats fully pleased with the outcome. But the result, after weeks of hard-fought budget negotiations, shelves the volatile debt ceiling issue that risked upending the U.S. and global economy until 2025 after the next presidential election.
Approval in the Senate on a bipartisan vote, 63-36, somewhat reflected the overwhelming House tally the day before, relying on centrists in both parties to pull the Biden-McCarthy package to passage — though Democrats led the tally in both chambers.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of voting that the bill’s passage means “America can breathe a sigh of reli