Ohio Governor Vetoes Bill Banning Gender-Affirming Care for Young People

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine vetoed a bill that would ban any gender transition care for minors on Dec. 29, breaking with his own party’s legislature, which had voted to pass the measure earlier in December. 

Capping a year in which nearly 20 states have restricted gender-affirming care for youth under the age of 18, Ohio’s Republican-majority House and Senate both passed the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act on Dec. 13. The bill aimed to outlaw providing youth under 18 with gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, puberty blocker medication, or gender reassignment surgery. 

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The governor, a Republican, cited the life-saving nature of gender-affirming care at a press conference announcing his veto decision.

“This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio’s children. But for those children who face gender dysphoria, and for their families, the consequences of this bill could not be more profound. Ultimately I believe this is about protecting human life,” DeWine said. “Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio’s children’s hospitals.”

The vetoed measure, Ohio’s House Bill 68, also would have prohibited transgender athletes who weren’t assigned female at birth from playing on sports teams designated for women at the high school and college levels. 

The Ohio measure was one of more than 500 anti-LBGTQ bills that lawmakers across the country introduced or passed in 2023. More than 75 have been passed into law—the majority of which have restricted health care for transgender minors, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. 

Legal attacks on trans youth have intensified over the past two years, says Erin Upchurch, executive director of Kaleidoscope Youth Center (KYC) in Columbus. The center provides community and support, including gender-affirming care, for LGBTQIA+ people ages 12 to 24 in Ohio, and Upchurch says her team witnesses the importance of providing this type of care to trans adolescents. 

“We know what it means when the part of you that’s inside gets to be alive—what it means to be seen. We get to see it every single day because of the space we provide,” Upchurch says. “The idea of taking that light away from somebody is just really cruel.” 

Upchurch says she has been impressed with the strength of young trans people in Ohio as their state lawmakers have tried to invalidate their identities and right to care. 

“They have been so brave, courageous, and resilient,” Upchurch says, though she’s sad that is what the political climate has required of them. “What choices do they have?” 

Many parents of transgender children in Ohio have been distressed as HB68 advanced through committees this year. Upchurch says families she works with have been figuring out whether they should stay in the state if HB68 passed. Some have started taking steps like gathering documents for moving out of Ohio and working elsewhere. She works with multiple young people who have pending gender surgeries scheduled, and as they waited for the governor’s decision, they worried they would lose their upcoming care.

DeWine said he spoke with many recipients of gender-affirming care, their families, and physicians at all five of Ohio’s children’s hospitals in order to make his decision. After talking with trans youth who said they were thriving due to their care, and parents who said gender-affirming treatment saved their children’s life, the governor emphasized the rights of parents to make any choices about their own child’s health care.

“These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them,” DeWine said. “Were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most: the parents.”

Ohio Republicans have a supermajority in the state legislature, which gives them the power to override his veto. DeWine announced actions to support some of the positions of the bill’s sponsors, such as requiring data collection about gender-affirming care for young people and looking into banning gender reassignment surgeries for anyone under 18. 

Despite this, Upchurch says she is elated about DeWine’s veto. But transgender young people and their communities know the threat of anti-LGBT legislation, and the emotional toll it takes remains. 

“What I want to believe is that Governor DeWine is an example of how to lead, how to have a state where people can feel at home, where people can thrive,” she says. “I’m hoping this veto and conversation moving forward can bring the light back to these young folks and their families.”

source https://time.com/6551149/ohio-governor-gender-affirming-care/

Russia Launches the Biggest Aerial Barrage of the War, Ukraine Says

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 30 civilians across the country in what an air force official called the biggest aerial barrage of the war.

At least 144 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. A maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools were among the buildings reported damaged across Ukraine.

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In the capital, Kyiv, broken glass and mangled metal littered city streets. Air raid and emergency service sirens wailed as plumes of smoke drifted into a bright blue sky.

Kateryna Ivanivna, a 72-year-old Kyiv resident, said she threw herself to the ground when a missile struck.

“There was an explosion, then flames,” she said. “I covered my head and got down in the street. Then I ran into the subway station.”

Meanwhile, in Poland, authorities said that what apparently was a Russian missile entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars.

In the attack on Ukraine, the air force intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones overnight, said Ukraine’s military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Western officials and analysts had recently warned that Russia limited its cruise missile strikes for months in an apparent effort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter, hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit.

The result was “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel. It topped the previous biggest assault, in November 2022 when Russia launched 96 missiles, and this year’s biggest, with 81 missiles on March 9, according to air force records.

Fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) line of contact.

Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s Western allies to provide it with more air defenses. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.

“These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy,” Sunak said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “We must continue to stand with Ukraine — for as long as it takes.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack should wake people up to Ukraine’s continuing needs.

“Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions,” he wrote on X. “I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world. In all major capitals, headquarters, and parliaments, which are currently debating further support for Ukraine.”

In Kyiv, the bombardment damaged a subway station that lies across the street from a factory belonging to the Artem company, which produces components for various military-grade missiles. Officials did not say whether the factory was directly hit.

Overall, the attack hit six cities, and reports of deaths and damage came in from across the country. Several dozen missiles were launched towards Kyiv, with more than 30 intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration. Eight people were killed there, officials said.

In Boyarka, near Kyiv, the debris of a shot-down drone fell on a home and started a fire. Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the wreckage landed and was taken to hospital suffering from shock.

“The war goes on, and it can happen to any house, even if you think yours will never be affected,” Korobka said.

Tetiana Sakhnenko lives next door and said neighbors ran with buckets of water to put out the blaze, but it spread quickly. “It’s so scary,” she said.

In the eastern city of Dnipro, four maternity hospital patients were rescued from a fire, five people were killed and 20 injured, officials said.

In Odesa, on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage started a fire at a multistory residential building, according to the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured, he said.

The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said one person was killed there, with three schools and a kindergarten damaged in a drone attack. Local emergency services said 30 people were injured.

In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was subjected to at least three waves of aerial attacks that included S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One person was killed and at least nine injured, officials said.

___

Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed to this story

source https://time.com/6551131/russia-aerial-attack-ukraine/

U.S. Sanctions Money Network Tied to the Yemen Houthi Rebels Blamed for Shipping Vessel Attacks

The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on a group of money exchange services from Yemen and Turkey alleged to help provide funding to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the southern Red Sea.

Included in the sanctions are the head of a financial intermediary in Sana’a, Yemen, along with three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey. U.S. Treasury alleges that the people and firms helped transfer millions of dollars to the Houthis at the direction of sanctioned Iranian financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal.

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The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.

Thursday’s action is the latest round of financial penalties meant to punish the Houthis.
Earlier this month, the U.S. announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis in Yemen.

Brian E. Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Thursday’s action “underscores our resolve to restrict the illicit flow of funds to the Houthis, who continue to conduct dangerous attacks on international shipping and risk further destabilizing the region.”

Nelsons said the U.S. and its allies “will continue to target the key facilitation networks that enable the destabilizing activities of the Houthis and their backers in Iran.”

The Houthis have sporadically targeted ships in the region in the past, but the attacks have increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, spiking after an Oct. 17 explosion at a hospital in Gaza killed and injured many. Houthi leaders have insisted Israel is their target.

In December, the White House also announced that it was encouraging its allies to join the Combined Maritime Forces, a 39-member partnership that exists to counter malign action by non-state actors in international waters, as it looks to push back against the Houthis.

The attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have scared off some of the world’s top shipping companies and oil giants, effectively rerouting global trade away from a crucial artery for consumer goods and energy supplies that is expected to trigger delays and rising prices.

source https://time.com/6551097/us-impose-sanctions-yemen-turkey-money-network/

Football Power Was Always Part of the Plan for Liberty University

On Jan. 1, 2024, Liberty University faces off with the University of Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. 

As millions of Americans tune into the football game, they will be watching the fulfillment of Liberty founder and chancellor Jerry Falwell’s greatest prophecy. Athletic success formed a foundational part of Falwell’s plan for the school, so much so that its founding mission statement promised “Here we Train Champions for Christ.” 

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From the beginning, Falwell declared it a goal for Liberty to be the evangelical equivalent of Notre Dame for Catholics and Brigham Young University for Latter-day Saints, both football powerhouses. Falwell’s vision has had major implications for the country. He infused students with a new, strident, aggressive form of faith that has reshaped American religion and politics over the last half century. In real ways, Liberty has driven the growth of the Christian Nationalism that is at the forefront of American politics today — and it has often used its football team to do so. 

Founded in 1971, Liberty did not field a football team for its first two academic years. In 1973, however, Liberty added football and Falwell immediately began using it as a tool to preach his message that the U.S. had to return to what he argued were its Christian roots.

The football media guide for 1975 signified his vision for the school. The cover displayed three American flags, the word “FLAMES” in star-spangled-banner font, and a bald eagle with arrows in its right talon, an olive branch in its left, and a football in its beak. The media guide praised Falwell as a conqueror. It also interspersed cartoons that illustrated the school’s emphasis on patriotism, America’s founding, and faith with information about the team.

From 1975 to 1988, Falwell stressed the spiritual qualifications of Liberty’s football coaches, but they lost more games than they won. Their record and lower level of competition limited the team’s visibility and Falwell’s platform.

Read More: Theologian Russell Moore Has a Message for Christians Who Still Worship Donald Trump

In 1988, Falwell decided it was time to hire a coach who would bring more attention and wins to his burgeoning football program. He settled on former Cleveland Browns coach and ESPN announcer Sam Rutigliano. In a Sporting News article, Falwell justified the move by declaring that evangelical young people deserved their equivalent of BYU or Notre Dame — “a “world-class university.” Liberty needed to “be about the business of creating a Cadillac program.”

In 1989, Falwell shuttered the Moral Majority — his conservative, Christian political organization. That left Liberty as Falwell’s primary vehicle for expanding his political influence by shaping the faith and politics of young evangelicals. In his estimation, a winning football program promised to attract students from across the country, garner media attention, and grow Falwell’s own reach.

But that wasn’t all. Falwell saw a winning football program as a path for fueling his fight to restore Christian America. In 1995, the NCAA gave him a chance and he seized it. The governing body made all end zone celebrations a 15-yard penalty, including kneeling or pointing to heaven. Liberty, Rutigliano, and four players filed a lawsuit against the NCAA charging that the new rule violated their First Amendment Rights.

The national media descended on Liberty for a press conference with the coach, players, and Falwell. They announced their intentions to continue to kneel in prayer on the field, no matter the penalty. The next day Liberty beat West Virginia Institute of Technology 76-6. Players kneeled after every score. The NCAA quickly amended the rule to allow post-touchdown prayers, handing Falwell a victory in the first major political fight that he waged with his school’s football team.

Falwell brought Rutigliano onto his television program, the Old Time Gospel Hour. The reverend reassured his viewers that he agreed with the new rules aimed at cutting down poor sportsmanship — just not when they interfered with his goal of restoring Christianity to the center of American life. But he insisted that any future football players who kneeled would owe a debt of gratitude to his Liberty team for defending their constitutional freedom. After Falwell’s long, passionate introduction, Rutigliano gave a brief homily, challenging viewers to join Falwell’s cultural war. 

In 2007, Falwell died and his son Jerry Falwell Jr. took over Liberty. Falwell Jr. maintained his father’s commitment to building the school’s political influence and its football program. In 2013, Liberty brought NFL quarterback Tim Tebow to speak. The previous year he had become a cultural icon by kneeling on the field with a clinched fist pressed to his forehead as he prayed. By doing so on the NFL stage with its massive platform, Tebow illustrated how Liberty’s football team could increase the visibility of Falwell’s brand of conservative evangelical Christianity if it could reach the highest echelons of college football.

Five years later, Liberty’s football team jumped back into the political fray, once again over kneeing, but this time on the opposite side. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality, igniting a firestorm. Nike followed with a commercial featuring the quarterback that exhorted, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

While that message could’ve meshed with Liberty’s brand of faith, Falwell Jr. instead saw Kaepernick as unpatriotic — a danger to the Christian nationalism for which Liberty stood. He threatened to break the school’s athletic apparel contract with Nike. Liberty’s football team gave Falwell the platform and power to publicly shape the politics and consumption of conservative evangelicals. His threat to boycott through his football team’s gear codified the pillar of Christian nationalism that sanctified the support of police.

In 2017, the NCAA approved Liberty’s bid to join the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). After 46 years, the Falwells’ dream of building a football program — and a school — that would compete against the likes of Notre Dame and BYU became a reality. 

At the May graduation ceremony that year, it took another step. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barak Obama had all followed victories with trips to South Bend to serve as Notre Dame’s commencement speaker. Donald Trump, by contrast, rewarded evangelical Christians for their overwhelming support by venturing to Liberty instead. Over 50,000 people filled the school’s football stadium. The crowd roared as Falwell Jr. boasted about the president’s slight of Notre Dame.

Read More: Liberty University Students Divided Over President Trump as Commencement Speaker

Trump emphasized Falwell Sr.’s vision for an evangelical university that would shape the minds of young Christians. He declared, “And I want to thank you because, boy, did you come out and vote!” He also praised the school’s commitment to developing a winning athletic program to help it grow. “That is why,” Trump bellowed, “Reverend Falwell’s vision for making Liberty a world-class institution was having a world class football team much like the great teams of Notre Dame.”

Trump’s logic illustrated why the Falwells needed to build a football powerhouse. With a winning, big-time college program, Liberty could spread its brand of conservative Christianity. To continue doing so Falwell Jr. hired Hugh Freeze as coach. The former University of Mississippi coach had been fired for repeatedly calling numbers linked to female escorts from his university phone. At Liberty, however, the possibility of elevating the football program was tantalizing enough that students either defended or ignored Freeze’s previous sins. He went 34-15 as the head coach and led the school to its first bowl game.

While both Liberty football and Christian Nationalism have only recently entered the national consciousness, the two forces have been feeding one another for over half a century. In that time, Liberty’s enrollment has increased exponentially to over 130,000 in 2022 making it the largest private school in the nation. On campus and online, Liberty students imbibe the school’s blend of faith, football, and politics. After graduation, they fill church pulpits and pews across the country.

From the start, Falwell foresaw creating a university that shaped conservative Christians like Notre Dame has Catholics and BYU has Latter-day Saints. The 2023 football season is the culmination of years of work and hundreds of millions of dollars spent. While Notre Dame is playing a lower tier bowl game, and BYU failed to qualify for one, Liberty is on one of the biggest stages in the sport in front of a projected television audience of over 8 million. According to marketing executive Blake Area, the game’s Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), a preferred metric by universities and athletic departments to measure the monetary value of a sporting event, will net Liberty over $30 million in unpaid advertising.

No matter the outcome of the Fiesta Bowl, then, it will be a victory for Jerry Falwell Sr.’s prophetic vision for his Christian Nationalist football program. As Christian Nationalism is increasingly preached by politicians, Liberty football is mainstreaming its beliefs to the American public and instilling its virtues in the next generation of voters.

Hunter M. Hampton is an assistant professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University. His research focuses on religion, sport, and American culture. Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here.

source https://time.com/6549712/liberty-university-fiesta-bowl/

Gypsy Rose Blanchard Released From Prison

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the Missouri woman who persuaded an online boyfriend to kill her mother after she had forced her to pretend for years that she was suffering from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and other serious illnesses, was released Thursday from prison on parole.

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Blanchard was released early in the day from the Chillicothe Correctional Center, said Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections. Blanchard was granted parole after serving 85% of her original sentence, Pojmann said.

Blanchard’s case sparked national tabloid interest after reports emerged that her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who was slain in 2015, had essentially kept her daughter prisoner, forcing her to use a wheelchair and feeding tube. It turned out that Gypsy Blanchard, now 32, was perfectly healthy, not developmentally delayed as her friends had always believed. Her mother had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which parents or caregivers seek sympathy through the exaggerated or made-up illnesses of their children, said her trial attorney, Michael Stanfield.

“People were constantly telling Dee Dee what a wonderful mother she was, and Dee Dee was getting all of this attention,” he said.

Through the ruse, the mother and daughter met country star Miranda Lambert and received charitable donations, a trip to Disney World and even a home near Springfield from Habitat for Humanity.

Stanfield said Gypsy Blanchard’s mother was able to dupe doctors by telling them her daughter’s medical records had been lost in Hurricane Katrina. If they asked too many questions, she just found a new physician, shaving the girl’s head to back up her story. Among the unnecessary procedures Gypsy Blanchard underwent was the removal of her salivary glands. Her mother convinced doctors it was necessary by using topical anesthetic to cause drooling.

Gypsy Blanchard, who had little schooling or contact with anyone but her mother, also was misled, especially when she was younger, Stanfield said.

“The doctors seem to confirm everything that you’re being told. The outside world is telling you that your mother is a wonderful, loving, caring person. What other idea can you have?” Stanfield said.

But then the abuse became more physical, Stanfield said. Gypsy testified that her mother beat her and chained her to a bed. Slowly, Gypsy also was beginning to understand that she wasn’t as sick as her mom said.

“I wanted to be free of her hold on me,” Gypsy testified at the 2018 trial of her former boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn of Big Bend, Wisconsin, who is serving a life sentence in the killing. She went on to add: “I talked him into it.”

When she took the stand at his trial, prosecutors already had cut her a deal because of the abuse she had endured. In exchange for pleading guilty in 2016 to second-degree murder, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The first-degree murder charge she initially faced would have meant a life term.

“Nick was so in love with her and so obsessed with her that he would do anything,” Godejohn’s trial attorney Dewayne Perry argued in court, saying his client has autism and was manipulated.

Prosecutors, however, argued that he was motivated by sex and a desire to be with Gypsy Blanchard, whom he met on a Christian dating website.

According to the probable cause statement, Gypsy Blanchard supplied the knife and hid in a bathroom while Godejohn repeatedly stabbed her mother. The two ultimately made their way by bus to Wisconsin, where they were arrested.

“Things are not always as they appear,” said Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott as the strange revelations began to emerge.

Even Gypsy’s age was a lie. Her mother had said she was younger to make it easier to perpetuate the fraud, and got away with it because Gypsy was so small: just 4 feet, 11 inches (150 centimeters) tall.

Law enforcement was initially so confused that the original court documents listed three different ages for her, with the youngest being 19. She was 23.

Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson described it as “one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen.”

Stanfield recalled that the first time he met Gypsy, she got out of breath walking the 75 yards (69 meters) from the elevator to the room where he talked to her. He described her as malnourished and physically frail.

“I can honestly say I’ve rarely had a client who looks exceedingly better after doing a fairly long prison sentence,” Stanfield said. “Prison is generally not a place where you become happy and healthy. And I say that because, to me, that’s kind of the evidence to the rest of the world as to just how bad what Gypsy was going through really was.”

Gypsy Blanchard later said it wasn’t until her arrest that she realized how healthy she was. But it took time. Eventually, she got married while behind bars to Ryan Scott Anderson, now 37, of Saint Charles, Louisiana.

The bizarre case was the subject of the 2017 HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” the 2019 Hulu miniseries “The Act” and an upcoming Lifetime docuseries “The Prison Confession of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.” Daytime television psychologist “Dr. Phil” McGraw interviewed her from prison. The novel “Darling Rose Gold” draws upon the story for its premise and Blanchard’s own account, “Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom” is set for publication next month.
Amid the media storm, Pojmann, of the corrections department, said no in-person coverage of her release was allowed “in the interest of protecting safety, security and privacy.”

source https://time.com/6551079/gypsy-rose-blanchard-released-prison-murder/

The New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over the Use of Its Stories to Train Chatbots

NEW YORK — The New York Times has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots, saying that copyright infringements at the paper alone could be worth billions.

The paper joins a growing list of individuals and publishers trying to stop OpenAI from using copyrighted material.

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In the suit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft are advancing their technology through the “unlawful use of The Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it” and “threatens The Times’s ability to provide that service.”

OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Media organizations have been pummeled by a migration of readers to online platforms and while many publications have carved out a digital space online as well, artificial intelligence technology has threatened to upend numerous industries, including media.

Artificial intelligence companies scrape information available online, including articles published by media organizations, to train generative AI chatbots. Those companies have attracted billions in investments very rapidly.

Microsoft has a partnership with OpenAI that allows it to capitalize on the AI technology made by the artificial intelligence company. The Redmon, Washington, tech giant is also OpenAI’s biggest backer and has invested billions of dollars into the company since the two began their partnership in 2019 with a $1 billion investment. As part of the agreement, Microsoft’s supercomputers help power OpenAI’s AI research and the tech giant integrates the startup’s technology into its products.

The number of lawsuits filed against OpenAI for copyright infringement is growing. The company has been sued by a number of writers – including comedian Sarah Silverman – who say their books were ingested to train OpenAI’s AI models without their permission. In June, more than 4,000 writers signed a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and other AI developers accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots that “mimic and regurgitate” their language, style and ideas.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday said generative AI tools developed by OpenAI and Microsoft are closely summarizing content from the Times, mimicking its style and even reciting it verbatim. The complaint cited examples of OpenAI’s GPT-4 spitting out large portions of news articles from the Times, including a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation into New York City’s taxi industry that was published in 2019 and took 18 months to complete. It also cited outputs from Bing Chat that it said included verbatim excerpts from Times articles.

The Times did not list specific damages that it is seeking, but said the legal action “seeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.”

The Times, however, is seeking the destruction of GPT and other large language models or training sets that incorporate its work.

In the complaint, the Times said Microsoft and OpenAI “seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investments in its journalism” by using it to build products without payment or permission.

In July, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories.

The New York Times said it’s never given permission to anyone to use its content for generative AI purposes.

The lawsuit also follows what appears to be breakdowns in talks between the newspaper and the two companies.

The Times said it reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise concerns about the use of its intellectual property and reach a resolution on the issue. During the talks, the newspaper said it sought to “ensure it received fair value” for the use of its content, “facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem, and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public.”

“These negotiations have not led to a resolution,” the lawsuit said.

source https://time.com/6551035/new-york-times-sues-openai-microsoft/

Michigan Supreme Court Keeps Trump on the State’s 2024 Ballot

On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear a case looking to assess whether the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment applies to former President Donald Trump, allowing him to remain on the presidential ballot for 2024.

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The court’s order upheld a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling on the matter, saying that it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court” and refusing to comment on whether Trump engaged in insurrection, or whether the insurrectionist ban applies to presidential candidates.  

This comes after the decision made on Dec. 19 in Colorado—where justices ruled that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does apply to presidential candidates and that Trump was ineligible for election because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, removing him from the primary ballot. 

The Colorado Supreme Court said they would stay their ruling until Jan. 4 in case the U.S. Supreme Court wanted to weigh in. The Supreme Court has not yet agreed to hear the case, but their opinion could be instrumental in how the 2024 presidential election plays out given this most recent ruling. 

The Michigan case was filed by Free Speech for People, a nonprofit organization, on behalf of voters. But LaBrant v. Benson was rejected on procedural grounds before it even received a hearing because the state’s higher court agreed that Michigan state law does not allow the secretary of state to exclude a candidate like Trump from the primary election. 

Plaintiffs “have identified no analogous provision in the Michigan Election Law that requires someone seeking the office of President of the United States to attest to their legal qualification to hold the office,” wrote Justice Elizabeth Welch in the court order on Wednesday, saying that Michigan law differs from Colorado’s.

“We are disappointed by the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision,” said Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech For People, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in a Wednesday statement. “The ruling conflicts with longstanding US Supreme Court precedent that makes clear that when political parties use the election machinery of the state to select, via the primary process, their candidates for the general election, they must comply with all constitutional requirements in that process.”

However, Welch said that appellants would still have the chance to bring forward another case regarding Trump’s qualifications as a presidential candidate if he becomes the Republican nominee, or seeks election as an independent. 

Free Speech for the People, which has another lawsuit seeking to remove Trump from the ballot in Oregon, said the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision has no impact on other efforts to disqualify Trump. 

“The Court’s decision is disappointing but we will continue, at a later stage, to seek to uphold this critical constitutional provision designed to protect our republic,” said attorney Mark Brewer. “Trump led a rebellion and insurrection against the Constitution when he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election and he is disqualified from ever seeking or holding public office again.

source https://time.com/6551024/michigan-supreme-court-trump-2024-ballot/