The floor of the US House of Representatives broke out in cheers after lawmakers voted to oblige Donald Trump to seek approval from Congress to continue the Iran war or withdraw troops. A small group of Republicans voted with the Democrats for the resolution, which now passes to the Senate. It was the fourth attempt to vote on reining in Trump's powers to continue the conflict. The resolution rejected the White House's argument that it does not need to abide by a legal requirement to seek congressional approval to continue the war beyond 90 days because a ceasefire was agreed in April
Continue reading...Republican-led states growing renewable capabilities at faster rate as Texas emerges as clean-energy leader
Democratic-led states are eroding their climate policies, as red states are scaling up their clean energy deployment.
California on Friday scaled back its cap-and-invest program, offering more than $3bn in free pollution allowances to polluting companies. Earlier the same week, New York weakened its groundbreaking climate law, delaying a plan to regulate carbon from 2024 until 2028 and reducing emissions-slashing targets. Rhode Island’s governor, meanwhile, is attempting to roll back aggressive clean-energy programs.
Continue reading...President says ‘four bad Republicans’ joined Democrats to pass ‘meaningless’ resolution to block him from continuing war against Iran
Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-foe John Bolton is expected to plead guilty over mishandling classified documents, multiple outlets are reporting.
According to CNN, which first reported the news citing three sources, Bolton intends to plead guilty to one count of illegal retention of sensitive national security documents, and has also agreed to pay a more than $2m fine. The New York Times hears the same, adding that he could face anywhere from no prison time to up to five years behind bars when he is sentenced.
Continue reading...joshuark shares a report from The Verge: Apple will introduce age verification in the App Store for users in Texas starting on Thursday, June 4th. The move, as spotted by MacRumors, comes just days after a federal appeals court allowed Texas' App Store Accountability Act to go into effect while a lawsuit against it proceeds. People in Texas who are creating a new Apple account will need to verify they're over 18 using a credit card or government ID. Apple may also automatically verify users' age using the age of their account and whether they have a credit card on file. Despite Apple's attempts to push back on app store-level age verification, the company has announced plans to implement age checks to comply with laws in places like Utah, Louisiana, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and the UK. Google is required to make similar changes to the Play Store and is also introducing age-checking tools for developers. Last December, a judge blocked the App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) from taking effect, but an appeals court has now reversed this decision -- at least while the court figures out whether the law is constitutional. Even if this law gets struck down in Texas, a federal version with the same name is still making its way through Congress and could impose age verification at the app store nationwide.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Justices uphold FCC authority to impose in-house penalties, rejecting AT&T and Verizon jury trial claims
The US supreme court backed the Federal Communications Commission’s system for levying fines, ruling on Thursday against wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon in their challenge to the agency and handing a win to Donald Trump’s administration.
The ruling was 8-1. At issue in the legal dispute was whether the agency’s in-house proceedings for imposing the penalties deprived the companies of their right to a jury trial under the US constitution. Trump’s administration defended the FCC’s system for assessing financial penalties, known as forfeiture orders.
Continue reading...US president alleges there is ‘big cheating’ in elections for governor and Los Angeles mayor as results are pending
Donald Trump has alleged without evidence that Democrats are cheating in California’s primaries and claimed in a late-night social media post that the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles was investigating.
As counting continues in the most populous state in the US, the president’s unfounded remarks are likely to further alarm election observers, who have warned of the risk of escalating misinformation in the absence of a final result.
Continue reading...Nothing does more for your ego than realising you can make a better decision than a bot with all of human knowledge at its digital fingertips
I am not, by nature, an early adopter. There comes a point in our lives where change becomes more irritating than exciting and, I suspect, I reached it sooner than most. But when a workplace recently tasked me with exploring practical applications for AI, I spotted an opportunity to cast off my luddite inclinations.
It turned out AI was very good at mimicking most of the things I could already do. Irrespective of quality, it could churn out articles, reports, presentations, fiction, even podcasts with stammering hosts. That was no use to me. What I wanted help with was all the stuff I was useless at. There was an obvious target: DIY.
Continue reading...Justice department filed charges against Trump’s former adviser in 2025 as part of onslaught against president’s critics
John Bolton, the former US national security adviser who left Donald Trump’s first administration and became a staunch critic of the US president, will reportedly plead guilty over mishandling classified documents.
The US Department of Justice filed federal charges against Bolton in October 2025, one of a string of Trump critics against whom it secured criminal charges in a matter of weeks.
Continue reading...Deletion of the bureau’s website content is just the most recent part of a larger plan to ‘undermine an agency that’s helped people’
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deleted at least 2,200 webpages from its website last month, a move advocates say is part of the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the federal consumer finance watchdog.
The removed content was all published before Trump’s second term, and includes press releases, consumer advisories, congressional testimonies, speeches and blog posts. Some of the material dates back to as early as 2010, when the agency was formed.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: UK regulators today ordered (PDF) Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers' content in its AI-generated search features. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search. "In a world first, publishers will now have effective tools to prevent their content being used to power AI features in search, such as AI Overviews," the CMA said today. "This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google. To boost consumer trust, Google is also now required to make sure that publisher content is properly attributed, using clear links, in AI-generated search results." The CMA ruled that Google may not penalize publishers for opting out of AI, meaning that Google can't downrank opted-out publishers in general search results. The CMA said Google will have nine months to comply with all requirements but that the agency "expects important parts of the controls to become available to publishers well before that deadline. Google will also be required to submit and publish compliance reports, supported by key data and metrics, explaining changes it has made and how it has complied." [...] The CMA applied the rules to Google after determining that it has "strategic market status" in general search services, and has ongoing investigations into Apple and Microsoft. Google today said it will comply with the CMA decision. The News Media Association, a trade group in the UK, said that "the legally enforceable Conduct Requirements for Google Search published today are a significant step towards leveling the playing field and building a fair, transparent digital economy where premium content is properly respected and fairly compensated." The group called on the UK to implement "robust enforcement."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
IPO could raise up to $75bn, giving SpaceX market value of $1.77tn as it sets up Musk for extraordinary wealth
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise $75bn (£55bn) from its blockbuster stock market listing next week as the rocket company aims for the largest initial public offering ever.
If the stock market launch – primed for 12 June – goes as planned, founder Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, could make history as the first trillionaire.
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