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In the news today: Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday; House Republicans passed Trump's tax breaks bill on a 215-214 vote; and, in a lawsuit over a 14-year-old boy's death, a judge rejects arguments that AI chatbots have free speech rights. Also, new research reveals that clownfish can shrink their bodies to survive warming oceans. |
Attorney General Pam Bondi and law enforcement at the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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2 staff members of Israeli embassy in DC killed in shooting near Jewish museum
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Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, "Free, free Palestine" after he was arrested, police said. Read more. |
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- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged. The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.
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House Republicans pass Trump's big bill of tax breaks and program cuts after all-night session
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House Republicans stayed up all night to pass their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package, with Speaker Mike Johnson defying the skeptics and unifying his ranks to muscle President Donald Trump's priority bill to approval Thursday. Read more. |
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With last-minute concessions and stark warnings from Trump, the Republican holdouts largely dropped their opposition to salvage the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that's central to the GOP agenda. The House launched debate before midnight and by sunrise the vote was called, 215-214, with Democrats staunchly opposed. It next goes to the Senate.
Central to the package is the GOP's commitment to extending some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks they engineered during Trump's first term in 2017, while adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, car loan interest and other items. To make up for some of the lost tax revenue, the Republicans focused on changes to Medicaid and the food stamps program, largely by imposing work requirements on many of those receiving benefits. There's also a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, the package tacks on $350 billion in additional spending, with about $150 billion going to the Pentagon, including for the president's new " Golden Dome" defense shield, and the rest for Trump's mass deportation and border security agenda.
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In lawsuit over teen's death, judge rejects arguments that AI chatbots have free speech rights
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A federal judge on Wednesday rejected arguments made by an artificial intelligence company that its chatbots are protected by the First Amendment. The developers behind Character.AI are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company's chatbots pushed a teenage boy to kill himself. Read more. |
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The judge's order will allow the wrongful death lawsuit to proceed, in what legal experts say is among the latest constitutional tests of artificial intelligence.
The suit was filed by a mother from Florida who alleges that her 14-year-old son fell victim to a Character.AI chatbot that pulled him into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide.
- The suit against Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, also names individual developers and Google as defendants. It has drawn the attention of legal experts and AI watchers in the U.S. and beyond, as the technology rapidly reshapes workplaces, marketplaces and relationships despite what experts warn are potentially existential risks.
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Ashley Branton lays out tarot cards in the back of her shop, Velvet Witch, in Norfolk, Va, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Finley)
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