May, 22 2024, 05:24pm EDT
New FCC Action on AI Meets the Moment
Prominent, real-time disclosure of AI is essential to protect voters from being deceived and defrauded.
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a new proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose when they use AI-generated content in TV and radio ads.
Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:
“Thank you, Federal Communications Commission.
“With deepfake technology fast evolving, the 2024 election is virtually certain to see a wave of political deepfakes that confuse and defraud voters, swing elections, and sow chaos if governmental authorities fail to act. That’s why the FCC action is so important.
“As the proposal is honed and finalized, the FCC should require advertisers to disclose the use of AI in the ads themselves, not just require a note to files maintained by broadcasters. Prominent, real-time disclosure is the essential standard to protect voters from being deceived and defrauded.
“The FCC action is especially crucial because absent a new rule from the FCC, broadcasters believe under existing law they are unable to refuse political ads or demand alterations or disclosures.
“The FCC is modeling how federal regulators should be proactively addressing the threats that deepfakes and artificial intelligence pose to election integrity. We need the Federal Election Commission — and Congress — to follow the FCC’s lead and take aggressive, proactive action. No one wins with deepfake chaos, and we don’t need to sit back and let it happen.”
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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'Our Leaders Are Not Leading': Groups Decry Yet Another G7 Climate Failure
"If these embattled leaders want to leave a lasting legacy, they need to heed the will of voters demanding a safe environment and climate," one campaigner asserted.
Jun 14, 2024
As the Group of Seven summit wrapped up Friday in Italy, climate defenders condemned G7 leaders for their continued failure to take meaningful action to combat the worsening planetary emergency.
Taking aim at what critics called the G7 leaders' largely empty pledge to undertake "concrete steps to address the triple crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss," 350.org U.S. campaigns manager Candice Fortin lamented that "yet another meeting ends without real commitments to revert the situation rich countries like the U.S. put us in."
"As COP29 approaches and the world deals with worsening climate impacts, we can't afford to waste more time," Fortin said, referring to the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan—a major fossil fuel-producing nation—in November. COP29 is set to be chaired by a former oil executive.
"If the U.S. wants to pride itself on being a 'world leader,' it needs to show how it will pay its climate debt to climate-vulnerable countries that bear the most significant climate impacts without the necessary funds for adaptation," Fortin added.
While G7 governments hailed their recent agreement to phase out existing unabated coal power generation in energy systems during the first half of the 2030s, critics took issue with the policy's timeline and banks' continued financing of fossil fuels.
"Our leaders are not leading. In the hottest 12 consecutive months of recorded human history, our leaders are failing us,''
argued Bronwen Tucker, Oil Change International's public finance lead. "G7 countries are adopting an inadequate coal phaseout date and endorsing increased fossil gas production, sending a terrible signal at a time when countries should be focusing on accelerating the phaseout, not delaying it."
Tucker continued:
G7 leaders can't say they're committed to a livable climate while expanding and bankrolling the fossil fuel industry at home and abroad. At the same time, these rich countries should not be congratulating themselves for delivering $100 billion for climate finance two years too late. Trillions are needed to cover climate damages and the G7's finance was largely provided as loans which only worsens unjust debts.
"The G7 must end the billions of dollars in taxpayer finance still flowing to fossil fuel projects abroad and fund the buildout of affordable renewable energy on fair terms," Tucker asserted. "If their oil and gas expansion plans are allowed to proceed, it will lock in climate chaos and an unlivable future."
Greenpeace International climate politics expert Tracy Carty said in a statement that "if these embattled leaders want to leave a lasting legacy, they need to heed the will of voters demanding a safe environment and climate."
"Taxing the billions of dollars in profits of the fossil fuel industry to fund climate action at home and abroad could be their stake in history and a win for people and planet," Carty continued. "G7 leaders need to seize the moment ahead of the U.N. climate talks in Baku and show they will lead the transition away from fossil fuels and build trust they will significantly increase climate finance support to developing countries."
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In Snap Election, French Left Forms Alliance To Counter Far Right and Neoliberals
Leaders of the new alliance vowed to "extinguish the flame" of Marine Le Pen's far-right party and make a "total break" from President Emmanuel Macron's anti-worker policies.
Jun 14, 2024
France's left-of-center parties announced on Thursday a new alliance aimed at countering both the ultranationalism of Marine Le Pen and the neoliberalism of President Emmanuel Macron in parliamentary elections that Macron called unexpectedly on Sunday.
The new alliance, called the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), formed following days of intense negotiations as several parties, most notably the center-left Parti Socialiste (PS) and the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI), joined forces to put forth a common platform and avoid competing candidates in races for the 577 seats in the National Assembly.
NFP leaders said they wanted to create a bulwark against the Rassemblement National (RN), Le Pen's far-right party that is leading in the polls.
"We are going to extinguish the flame of the RN," said Marine Tondelier, the national secretary of Les Écologistes, one of the NFP parties, according toThe Associated Press. "It's either us or them.
The new alliance also announced a push for a "total break" from Macron's policies, such as raising the retirement age.
Calling the formation of the alliance "a considerable political event in France," Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of LFI, said in a statement: "This is such a positive new development!"
Mélenchon suggested that the alliance would surprise Macron, whose party, Renaissance, is often characterized by the media as centrist.
"We thwart the political calculations of Macron who counted on a disunited and isolated left to produce a new debate limited to...his party and the RN in each constituency," the LFI statement said.
Le Nouveau Front Populaire est né. https://t.co/Tz5q6C7OV5
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) June 13, 2024
The National Assembly is the directly elected body in France's parliament, with elections often held shortly after presidential elections, every five years. This snap parliamentary election comes without a coinciding presidential election; Macron is schedule to hold office until 2027. If a party other than Renaissance gains controls of parliament, Macron will be forced to choose a prime minister and cabinet appointments from that party's leadership—an arrangement called "cohabitation."
The far-right RN narrowly leads in the polls at 31% or more, with the new left alliance at 28% and Renaissance at just 18%.
Marine Le Pen has guided RN from Nazi origins and the racist rhetoric of her father, longtime party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, into more mainstream acceptance in recent years. She finished second in each of the past two presidential elections, narrowing the gap substantially in 2022 in gaining more than 41% of the vote.
RN's current candidate for prime minister is Le Pen's 28-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella, whom CNNdescribed as "clean-shaven" and charming, and who has helped lead the party's effort to gain establishment credibility. The center-right establishment has longed shunned Le Pen, but this week one of its leaders flirted with joining forces with the RN, causing an uproar.
Bardella led the RN's campaign in last week's European Union elections, in which RN gained 31% of the French seats, more than twice that of any other party.
The EU results led to Macron's immediate call for a new parliamentary election, the first round of which will be June 30, with runoffs on July 7.
The NFP, whose name comes from the Front Populaire anti-fascist alliance formed in 1936, came together in a hurry amid the chaotic week in French politics. Parties faced a time crunch, as they have to announce their parliamentary candidates by June 16.
NFP has not announced who its prime minister candidate will be. PS leaders have ruled out Mélenchon, whom they see as too far left and too divisive, in public interviews.
Mélenchon remains among the most powerful figures in the alliance, however. He narrowly missed the runoff in the 2022 presidential election, finishing third behind Macron and Le Pen. LFI has held 74 of the roughly 140 seats held by the left-of-center coalition in the outgoing National Assembly.
That coalition, which was the first the left had been able to form in decades, was seen as historic, and helped prevent Macron from gaining a majority in parliament—one reason he may not hesitated to call this snap election—but effectively dissolved last year amid infighting over Gaza and other issues. NFP is essentially a reformation of the 2022 coalition.
Center-left figures, eager to defend their alliance with left-wing parties, said the stakes of the election required it.
"Close your eyes and imagine" 300 RN parliamentarians and French ministries led by the far right, Raphaël Glucksmann, who led what was effectively a PS ticket to a modicum of success in the EU elections last week—the party gained seats after years of struggles—told Inter France, a radio network. It would be "effective and terrifying," he warned.
Glucksmann justifie ainsi son ralliement au nouveau Front populaire: "Fermez les yeux et imaginez : 300 députés RN à l’Assemblée, Bardella Premier ministre, Mariani aux Affaires étrangères, Marion Maréchal à la Culture ou la Famille, Ciotti à l’Intérieur". Efficace et terrifiant pic.twitter.com/57zmNx60Iw
— Nils Wilcke (@paul_denton) June 14, 2024
Some of the NFP's platform is aimed at undoing that which Macron, a former investment banker, has done. The group seeks to undo the president's pension reform that raised the retirement age to 64, reinstitute a wealth tax, and increase taxes on some industrial firms.
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'Scandalous': G7 Nations Spend 62 Times More on Military Than Humanitarian Aid
"More must be invested in eradicating poverty and fostering peace and development, not fueling war and destruction," said one campaigner.
Jun 14, 2024
Despite historic levels of forced displacement due to armed conflict, Group of Seven member countries have increased their military expenditures to record highs while they slash spending on humanitarian aid for people affected by wars that these powerful nations often started or stoked, an analysis published Friday revealed.
According to Birmingham, England-based Islamic Relief Worldwide, military spending by G7 members Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—which wrapped up Friday in Puglia, Italy—rose to $1.2 trillion last year, the overwhelming bulk of that amount attributable to the U.S.' $886.3 billion Pentagon budget.
"Too many governments are putting far more resources towards acquiring weapons of war than helping those suffering the deadly impacts of conflict."
That's a 7.3% increase over 2022 levels, and 62 times what those countries spent on all humanitarian aid in response to wars and disasters.
"From Gaza to Sudan, Ukraine to Myanmar, we see millions of lives destroyed by war," Islamic Relief head of global advocacy Shahin Ashraf said in a statement. "The humanitarian needs today are greater than ever before, so it's scandalous that many wealthy G7 nations are cutting aid while spending more than ever before on weapons."
It's not just the G7. According to this year's Stockholm International Peace Research Institute annual analysis, global military spending increased 6.8% to a record $2.4 trillion in 2023.
"Too many governments are putting far more resources towards acquiring weapons of war than helping those suffering the deadly impacts of conflict," Ashraf asserted. "More must be invested in eradicating poverty and fostering peace and development, not fueling war and destruction."
Islamic Relief Worldwide said:
While some of the discussions at the G7 summit focus on restricting immigration into rich developed nations, most people displaced by conflict remain in war-torn countries and impoverished neighbouring countries. After more than a year of brutal war, Sudan is now the world's biggest displacement crisis with over 10 million people—about a quarter of the population—now forced from their homes. The vast majority of people fleeing the violence in Sudan remain in the country, with many receiving aid from local communities, youth groups, and mosques.
"As rich nations increasingly shut their borders and cut aid, in places like Sudan it is heartening to see the generosity of some of the world's poorest communities taking displaced people into their homes and sharing their food and water with them," said Ashraf. "But they need more international support, especially from the wealthiest countries."
Another analysis published ahead of the G7 summit by Oxfam International revealed that just 3% of the seven countries' 2023 military expenditures would be enough to "help end world hunger and solve the debt crisis in the Global South."
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