The 2 people killed after a leak at a Texas oil refinery worked for a maintenance subcontractor


Emergency personnel arrive at oil refinery after hydrogen sulfide leaked Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024 in Houston. (KTRK via AP)

October 11, 2024

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — Two employees killed when hydrogen sulfide leaked at a Houston-area oil refinery were employees of a subcontractor performing maintenance work, the director of Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company that operates the plant, said Friday.

The two “were in the zone directly affected, and who received the direct impact of the gas,” Pemex Director Victor Rodriguez said during a news briefing in Mexico City. Both bodies have been recovered.

Mexican Energy Secretary Luz Elena Gonzalez said “there is no longer any risk” as a result of the leak and that the cause of the leak is under investigation.

Pemex previously said in a statement that operations had been “proactively halted” at two units of the oil refinery with the aim of mitigating the impact.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said the two workers were killed and nearly three dozen others were either transported to hospitals or treated at the scene following the leak of hydrogen sulfide Thursday at the facility in Deer Park.
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No names have been released, and Gonzalez said the remains of the two dead workers were taken by the Harris County medical examiner.


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Hydrogen sulfide is a foul-smelling gas that can be toxic at high levels. Gonzalez said that the gas release happened during work on a flange at the facility, which is part of a cluster of oil refineries and plants that makes Houston the nation’s petrochemical heartland.

City officials issued a shelter-in-place order but lifted it hours later after air monitoring showed no risk to the surrounding community, Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said.

“Other than the smell, we have not had any verifiable air monitoring to support that anything got outside the facility,” Mouton said.


The leak caused the second shelter-in-place orders in Deer Park in the span of weeks. Last month, a pipeline fire that burned for four days forced surrounding neighborhoods to evacuate.

Head of international shipping regulator says industry must do more to cut carbon pollution


 A cargo ship sails toward the Pacific Ocean waiting to transit the Panama Canal in Panama City, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

 A boater passes between cargo ships on the harbor, in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 16, 2024. 

(Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP, File)


BY PETER PRENGAMAN
October 9, 2024

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — For years, the international shipping industry has been criticized for making little progress in reducing the carbon-belching pollution released from the fuels that vessels use in moving most of the cargo that people use every day, such as food, cars and clothing.

Now, the new head of the International Martime Organization, charged with regulating international shipping, is subtly calling out inaction and nudging companies to work harder. “What I’m finding is that there is more that can be done,” said Arsenio Dominguez, who gave a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference in Germany this week. “The low hanging fruit is there.

Dominguez, who took over as secretary general at the beginning of this year, said that includes using satellites to chart routes according to weather, to waste less fuel, cleaning the hulls of ships to reduce friction in the water and what is often referred to as slow steaming, reducing ship speed, which also uses less fuel and thus pollutes less.

Dominguez was careful to note that many companies are working to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change. But getting to the IMO’s goal of a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030 will require immediate implementation of every possibility.

A focus on the fuels that power ships

Ultimately, major decarbonizing will mean an overhaul of shipping fuel, said Dominguez, a point industry leaders agree on.

Today, most ships run on heavy fuel oil, which releases carbon dioxide along with sulfur, nitrogen and other pollutants. Much cleaner fuels already exist, and many more are being developed, such as hydrogen, ammonia and biofuels. But they are more expensive, not yet available at scale and only better for the planet when made in clean ways. For example, hydrogen can be made from water and clean energy via a process called electrolysis, and that does not release greenhouse gases. It’s considered “green” hydrogen. However, nearly all hydrogen today is made out of methane, meaning natural gas, using steam-methane reforming, which releases carbon dioxide.

“Fuels, fuels, fuels,” Bud Darr, executive vice president for maritime policy and government affairs for MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, said when asked during a panel at the sustainability conference on Monday what the biggest challenges were to decarbonizing.



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“We need a massive scaling up of both production and shoreside infrastructure in order to deliver what we will need to operate the new generation of ships and equipment that we are investing in,” Darr said in a followup email.

Currently, the shipping industry is responsible for about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Their total emissions are expected to go up sharply in future decades unless major changes are made.

Other parts of the world economy have made strides in decarbonizing, including electricity and ground transportation, thanks to electrification. Comparatively little has happened in shipping.

“The IMO has been very slow,” said Bastien Bonnet-Cantalloube, an expert on shipping and aviation decarbonization with non-profit Carbon Market Watch. “There was no progress in 10 or 15 years. Now things are starting to pick up.”

Last year, the IMO set a target to reach net zero emissions by or around 2050, a goal that is a potential catalyst while also putting a spotlight on just how far the industry has to go.

The IMO is being pushed to move toward a carbon tax in part to be in line with what is already happening in some places, like the European Union.

Starting this year, large ships coming in and out of European ports pay taxes on their carbon dioxide emissions. In 2026, they will also pay for emissions of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide. Some industry leaders hope that a carbon levy from the IMO, which would effectively be the world’s first global carbon tax, could allow shipping companies to simply pay one carbon tax, instead of taxes in multiple jurisdictions.

Still, there is wide disagreement, both among countries and shipping companies over a tax, how much it should be and what revenue would be used for.


IMO moving toward potentially big decisions next year

During meetings earlier this month in London, the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee continued drafting text on mandates to phase in cleaner fuels and set a greenhouse gas pricing mechanism. But what those principles will translate into is far from clear.

“I don’t call it a tax. I know that is a way of referring to it,” said Dominguez, underscoring the sensitivity of the issue.

Dominguez said delegates, member countries of the IMO, considered multiple scenarios for rating the carbon efficiency of ships, setting fuel standards and gathering revenue for emissions.

The committee next meets in April, when it’s expected to approve the measures. Formal adoption would take place in the fall, and whatever is decided wouldn’t take effect until 2027, giving countries and companies time to adjust.

In the meantime, Dominguez said that shipping companies needed to do all they could to cut emissions, which for some included using liquid natural gas as a fuel.

Ship engine manufacturers had shown that using LNG in engines increased efficiency, which led to lower emissions, he said.

“If we stop LNG right now without an alternative, then we go back to Square 1,” he said, adding that he knew it “was a divisive point.”

Indeed, scientific studies have shown that leaks of LNG, which is mostly methane, itself a potent greenhouse gas, can cancel out any advantage gained from burning more cleanly compared to other fossil fuels. Environmentalists have long argued that using LNG is simply a way for major oil and gas producers to continue business as usual, thus postphoning a major transition to renewable energies.


___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A kitchen staffed by trans women is a refuge for Mexico City’s LGBTQ+ community


Victoria Sámano, center, Karolina Long Tain González Rodríguez, right, and Yamileth Adriano — all trans women — serve meals at Casa Lleca, the LGBTQ+ shelter they operate in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. Samano founded the shelter in 2020 in an effort to help LGBTQ+ people and sex workers who were unhoused or at risk of losing their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Karolina Long Tain González Rodríguez, a trans woman, retrieves ingredients from a refrigerator before opening the community kitchen at Casa Lleca, an LGBTQ+ shelter in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Karolina Long Tain González Rodríguez, a trans woman, prepares dough to make gorditas in a kitchen at Casa Lleca, an LGBTQ+ shelter in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Victoria Sámano adjusts a menu while opening the community kitchen at Casa Lleca, an LGBTQ+ shelter in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. Sámano, a trans woman, founded the shelter in 2020 in an effort to help LGBTQ+ people and sex workers who were unhoused or at risk of losing their homes. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

BY MARIANA MARTÍNEZ BARBA
October 8, 2024

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Karolina Long Tain González Rodríguez plops another corn cake into the piping hot oil of a large pan. As she grabs a set of tongs to flip them one by one, she yells across the kitchen realizing she’s pressed for time.

“We open in 15 minutes!” she shouts over the cumbia music playing in the background.

At Casa Lleca, an LGBTQ+ shelter in Mexico City’s Peralvillo neighborhood, a community kitchen was founded two months ago to provide employment opportunities to transgender women — and serve surrounding residents in the area.

As González, 36, reaches over for more of the corn cakes to fry, Thalia Trejo busies herself stuffing shredded pork into small masses of dough. While they’ve only worked together for a short time, González says she runs a kitchen based on mutual respect and communication.

“We know how to talk to each other… and we know how to find a solution. We’re a really united trans community, we’re really understanding,” she said.

The community kitchen was born after Casa Lleca received approval from city authorities to open through a social welfare program, as many trans women in the shelter were having trouble finding work.


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Casa Lleca’s founder and human rights activist Victoria Sámano, 30, had brought up the idea to González, who came from a culinary background.

“She (Victoria) saw the opportunity to employ our friends who arrived unhoused and gave them dignified work,” González said.

Much of the funding for the kitchen came from the women themselves, who purchased appliances, chairs and tables to create an authentic dining experience.

González, a native of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, arrived at Casa Lleca seven months ago seeking refuge and a fresh start as a trans woman. She had studied cooking in middle and high school, but then dropped out, and after working in a kitchen in Oaxaca, she left for Mxico City to begin her transition.

Once in the capital, she was recommended to a plastic surgeon who gave her faulty breast implants and, after one of them ruptured, he refused to give her a warranty — or operate her again.

That’s when she said her life began to spiral.

“I acquired lots of bad vices, lots of bad habits, and that took me to a lot of dark places,” she recalled. “But God always has a plan for us.”

When she arrived at Casa Lleca, things began to turn around.

Sámano approached her after noticing her active involvement in the shelter and strong work ethic. She thought González could be a good fit to lead the kitchen. Along with her other helpers, González runs a tight crew. All kitchen employees are up by 7 a.m. to bathe and drink coffee. They start cooking at 8:30 a.m. and prepare for customers’ arrival at 1 p.m.

For González, the kitchen has become a safe space where she can also use all of her culinary knowledge. “Now that I found this kitchen, this project and this rhythm of life, I’ve found a way to fulfill my dreams as a young person,” she said.

Though the kitchen initially began as an idea to serve and employ their community, as soon as it opened, residents in the surrounding neighborhood started to flock in. Out in front of Casa Lleca, Sámano guides customers into the small dining room set up for the community kitchen. Etched onto a whiteboard hung on a steel door, the menu reads in big black letters, “chicharrón gorditas, soup, beans and dessert.” A full meal for only 11 pesos (about 50 cents).

They cook lunch for up to 150 people a day, including workers like 31-year-old Alan Olivares, who has become a regular. Olivares, a cleaner who works in the nearby Cuauhtemoc neighborhood, has been eating at the kitchen for the past couple of weeks.

“In addition to saving some money, the food is delicious,” he said, adding that he was happy to see the shelter thriving in its new business. “Mexico needs to have a more open mind, we’re all human and it’s part of our diversity,” he said.

Sámano founded Casa Lleca in 2020, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, in an effort to help LGBTQ+ folks and sex workers who were unhoused or at risk of losing their homes. As hotels remained shut down, many had been left without a home or workplace. She said many of the shelters that were opened by the government at that time didn’t know how to address the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.

“When they arrive in these spaces, they are often violated or discriminated against,” said Sámano. “In part by other residents, but (also) by the staff who don’t know where to place them because of their gender identity.”

“One day, when we leave this place, we’re going to say ‘thank you, Casa Lleca’ for showing me how to live,” said González. “Thank you for showing me new progress in my life.”

Still, many trans individuals like González are not given the space and support to embrace who they are, and are often vulnerable to dangerous situations.

Mexico’s trans community continues to face challenges, and transgender individuals continue to be killed, sparking protests and anger. So far this year, 36 trans people have been killed in Mexico, according to an August report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Karolina Long Tain González Rodríguez, a trans woman, walks past the kitchen at Casa Lleca, an LGBTQ+ shelter where she works, located in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Some progress has been made. At least 20 Mexican states have passed legislation to protect trans people. Mexico City in July passed the Paola Buenrostro law, named after a trans woman and sex worker killed in 2016, making transfemicides a crime punished by a prison sentence of up to 70 years.

Sámano believes adopting laws to support trans individuals is crucial. She points at laws passed recently in Spain and Colombia that cover everything, from access to medical services to labor protections for trans people.

“(These laws) address many areas of life for a trans person, and put emphasis on the tools for them to overcome and — in some cases — to survive,” said Sámano.

For residents of Casa Lleca, the community kitchen has also helped to raise awareness about who they are and what role they play in the neighborhood.


“Now that they’ve tried the food, and they saw we opened the kitchen with a really nice atmosphere, people started to approach us,” said González. “How should I refer to you all? They ask… ‘We’re trans women,’ I would tell them. People have been really accepting.”

Karolina Long Tain González Rodríguez, a trans woman, gives instructions to Yamileth Adriano, not pictured, before opening the community kitchen at Casa Lleca, an LGBTQ+ shelter in the Peralvillo neighborhood of Mexico City, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Volunteers bring solar power to Hurricane Helene’s disaster zone



Henry Kovacs, left, and Hayden Wilson, right, volunteers with the Footprint Project, load two Tesla Powerwall batteries to deliver to communities impacted by Hurricane Helene in Mars Hill, N.C. on Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Gabriela Aoun Angueria)

Footprint Project co-founder Jamie Swezey, left, volunteer Hayden Wilson, center, and co-founder Will Heegaard, right, review the delivery schedule before taking mobile power units to Helene-impacted communities in Mars Hill, N.C. on Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Gabriela Aoun Angueria)


Julie Wiggins, left, talks with Hayden Wilson, center, and Henry Kovacs, right, about the mobile power system just delivered to her makeshift distribution hub in Bakersville, N.C. on Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Gabriela Aoun Angueria)


Julie Wiggins stands in front of the makeshift distribution hub staged in front of her home in Bakersville, N.C. on Oct. 9, 2024.on Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Gabriela Aoun Angueria)


BY GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA
Updated 10:02 PM MDT, October 12, 2024Share


BAKERSVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene downed power lines and washed out roads all over North Carolina’s mountains, the constant din of a gas-powered generator is getting to be too much for Bobby Renfro.

It’s difficult to hear the nurses, neighbors and volunteers flowing through the community resource hub he has set up in a former church for his neighbors in Tipton Hill, a crossroads in the Pisgah National Forest north of Asheville. Much worse is the cost: he spent $1,200 to buy it and thousands more on fuel that volunteers drive in from Tennessee.

Turning off their only power source isn’t an option. This generator runs a refrigerator holding insulin for neighbors with diabetes and powers the oxygen machines and nebulizers some of them need to breathe.

The retired railroad worker worries that outsiders don’t understand how desperate they are, marooned without power on hilltops and down in “hollers.”

“We have no resources for nothing,” Renfro said. “It’s going to be a long ordeal.”

More than 43,000 of the 1.5 million customers who lost power in western North Carolina still lacked electricity on Friday, according to Poweroutage.us. Without it, they can’t keep medicines cold or power medical equipment or pump well water. They can’t recharge their phones or apply for federal disaster aid.


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Crews from all over the country and even Canada are helping Duke Energy and local electric cooperatives with repairs, but it’s slow going in the dense mountain forests, where some roads and bridges are completely washed away.

“The crews aren’t doing what they typically do, which is a repair effort. They’re rebuilding from the ground up,” said Kristie Aldridge, vice president of communications at North Carolina Electric Cooperatives.

Residents who can get their hands on gas and diesel-powered generators are depending on them, but that is not easy. Fuel is expensive and can be a long drive away. Generator fumes pollute and can be deadly. Small home generators are designed to run for hours or days, not weeks and months.

Now, more help is arriving. Renfro received a new power source this week, one that will be cleaner, quieter and free to operate. Volunteers with the nonprofit Footprint Project and a local solar installation company delivered a solar generator with six 245-watt solar panels, a 24-volt battery and an AC power inverter. The panels now rest on a grassy hill outside the community building.

Renfro hopes his community can draw some comfort and security, “seeing and knowing that they have a little electricity.”

The Footprint Project is scaling up its response to this disaster with sustainable mobile infrastructure. It has deployed dozens of larger solar microgrids, solar generators and machines that can pull water from the air to 33 sites so far, along with dozens of smaller portable batteries.

With donations from solar equipment and installation companies as well as equipment purchased through donated funds, the nonprofit is sourcing hundreds more small batteries and dozens of other larger systems and even industrial-scale solar generators known as “Dragon Wings.”
Will Heegaard and Jamie Swezey are the husband-and-wife team behind Project Footprint. Heegaard founded it in 2018 in New Orleans with a mission of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of emergency responses. Helene’s destruction is so catastrophic, however, that Swezey said this work is more about supplementing generators than replacing them.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Swezey said as she stared at a whiteboard with scribbled lists of requests, volunteers and equipment. “It’s all hands on deck with whatever you can use to power whatever you need to power.”

Down near the interstate in Mars Hill, a warehouse owner let Swezey and Heegaard set up operations and sleep inside. They rise each morning triaging emails and texts from all over the region. Requests for equipment range from individuals needing to power a home oxygen machine to makeshift clinics and community hubs distributing supplies.

Local volunteers help. Hayden Wilson and Henry Kovacs, glassblowers from Asheville, arrived in a pickup truck and trailer to make deliveries this week. Two installers from the Asheville-based solar company Sundance Power Systems followed in a van.

It took them more than an hour on winding roads to reach Bakersville, where the community hub Julie Wiggins runs in her driveway supports about 30 nearby families. It took many of her neighbors days to reach her, cutting their way out through fallen trees. Some were so desperate, they stuck their insulin in the creek to keep it cold.

Panels and a battery from Footprint Project now power her small fridge, a water pump and a Starlink communications system she set up. “This is a game changer,” Wiggins said.

The volunteers then drove to Renfro’s hub in Tipton Hill before their last stop at a Bakersville church that has been running two generators. Other places are much harder to reach. Heegaard and Swezey even tried to figure out how many portable batteries a mule could carry up a mountain and have arranged for some to be lowered by helicopters.

They know the stakes are high after Heegaard volunteered in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria’s death toll rose to 3,000 as some mountain communities went without power for 11 months. Duke Energy crews also restored infrastructure in Puerto Rico and are using tactics learned there, like using helicopters to drop in new electric poles, utility spokesman Bill Norton said.

The hardest customers to help could be people whose homes and businesses are too damaged to connect, and they are why the Footprint Project will stay in the area for as long as they are needed, Swezey said.

“We know there are people who will need help long after the power comes back,” she said.
___

Green Party presidential candidate files suit over Ohio decision not to count votes for her

 October 12, 2024


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has filed a lawsuit in federal court over the decision of Ohio election officials not to count votes for her after her running mate was named by the national party after a state administrative deadline.

Cleveland.com reports that the lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. district court in Columbus by Stein, the person named as her running mate on the state ballot and three Ohio voters. It alleges that the decision infringes on their constitutional rights to free speech, association, and equal protection and the voting rights of the Ohio-based plaintiffs.

Stein filed as an independent presidential candidate in Ohio because the Green Party lost state recognition several years ago. She listed Anita Rios — the Green Party’s 2014 nominee for Ohio governor — as her running mate as a placeholder until the Green Party nominated Butch Ware to run with Stein at their national convention in August.

The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office granted a request to remove Rios from the ballot but said Ware’s name couldn’t be added because the state deadline to replace an independent vice presidential candidate on the 2024 ballot had passed. Office spokesperson Dan Lusheck told Cleveland.com that Stein’s name will still appear on state ballots, which were already being sent to overseas and military voters, but votes for her would not count

The lawsuit asserts that the withdrawal letter was written and delivered by a local party official without the knowledge or consent of Rios. The plaintiffs are asking the federal court to issue a preliminary injunction and restraining order to ensure that any votes for Stein and Rios are counted.

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, Lusheck said in an email that “Our previous view of this issue still stands,” Cleveland.com reported.

As the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2016, Stein got 46,271 votes in Ohio, or 0.84% of the statewide vote.

AI is having its Nobel moment. Do scientists need the tech industry to sustain it?


 Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, who studies neural networks used in artificial intelligence applications, poses at Google’s Mountain View, Calif, headquarters on Wednesday, March 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Researcher John Jumper, left, and Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind Technologies, the AI division behind Gemini, speak to Associated Press at the Google DeepMind offices in London, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 after being awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind Technologies, the AI division behind Gemini, poses for a photo at the Google DeepMind offices in London, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 after being awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

View at the Google DeepMind logo at the office building in London, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their breakthrough work predicting and designing the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. Hassabis and Jumper both work at Google Deepmind in London. 

(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

BY MATT O’BRIEN
 October 11, 2024

Hours after the artificial intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton won a Nobel Prize in physics, he drove a rented car to Google’s California headquarters to celebrate.

Hinton doesn’t work at Google anymore. Nor did the longtime professor at the University of Toronto do his pioneering research at the tech giant.

But his impromptu party reflected AI’s moment as a commercial blockbuster that has also reached the pinnacles of scientific recognition.

That was Tuesday. Then, early Wednesday, two employees of Google’s AI division won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for using AI to predict and design novel proteins.

“This is really a testament to the power of computer science and artificial intelligence,” said Jeanette Wing, a professor of computer science at Columbia University.

Asked about the historic back-to-back science awards for AI work in an email Wednesday, Hinton said only: “Neural networks are the future.”

It didn’t always seem that way for researchers who decades ago experimented with interconnected computer nodes inspired by neurons in the human brain. Hinton shares this year’s physics Nobel with another scientist, John Hopfield, for helping develop those building blocks of machine learning.

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Neural network advances came from “basic, curiosity-driven research,” Hinton said at a press conference after his win. “Not out of throwing money at applied problems, but actually letting scientists follow their curiosity to try and understand things.”

Such work started well before Google existed. But a bountiful tech industry has now made it easier for AI scientists to pursue their ideas even as it has challenged them with new ethical questions about the societal impacts of their work.

One reason why the current wave of AI research is so closely tied to the tech industry is that only a handful of corporations have the resources to build the most powerful AI systems.

“These discoveries and this capability could not happen without humongous computational power and humongous amounts of digital data,” Wing said. “There are very few companies — tech companies — that have that kind of computational power. Google is one. Microsoft is another.”

The chemistry Nobel Prize awarded Wednesday went to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper of Google’s London-based DeepMind laboratory along with researcher David Baker at the University of Washington for work that could help discover new medicines.

Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014, told the AP in an interview Wednesday his dream was to model his research laboratory on the “incredible storied history” of Bell Labs. Started in 1925, the New Jersey-based industrial lab was the workplace of multiple Nobel-winning scientists over several decades who helped develop modern computing and telecommunications.

“I wanted to recreate a modern day industrial research lab that really did cutting-edge research,” Hassabis said. “But of course, that needs a lot of patience and a lot of support. We’ve had that from Google and it’s been amazing.”

Hinton joined Google late in his career and quit last year so he could talk more freely about his concerns about AI’s dangers, particularly what happens if humans lose control of machines that become smarter than us. But he stops short of criticizing his former employer.

Hinton, 76, said he was staying in a cheap hotel in Palo Alto, California when the Nobel committee woke him up with a phone call early Tuesday morning, leading him to cancel a medical appointment scheduled for later that day.

By the time the sleep-deprived scientist reached the Google campus in nearby Mountain View, he “seemed pretty lively and not very tired at all” as colleagues popped bottles of champagne, said computer scientist Richard Zemel, a former doctoral student of Hinton’s who joined him at the Google party Tuesday.

“Obviously there are these big companies now that are trying to cash in on all the commercial success and that is exciting,” said Zemel, now a Columbia professor.

But Zemel said what’s more important to Hinton and his closest colleagues has been what the Nobel recognition means to the fundamental research they spent decades trying to advance.

Guests included Google executives and another former Hinton student, Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder and former chief scientist and board member at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Sutskever helped lead a group of board members who briefly ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last year in turmoil that has symbolized the industry’s conflicts.

An hour before the party, Hinton used his Nobel bully pulpit to throw shade at OpenAI during opening remarks at a virtual press conference organized by the University of Toronto in which he thanked former mentors and students.

“I’m particularly proud of the fact that one of my students fired Sam Altman,” Hinton said.

Asked to elaborate, Hinton said OpenAI started with a primary objective to develop better-than-human artificial general intelligence “and ensure that it was safe.”

“And over time, it turned out that Sam Altman was much less concerned with safety than with profits. And I think that’s unfortunate,” Hinton said.

In response, OpenAI said in a statement that it is “proud of delivering the most capable and safest AI systems” and that they “safely serve hundreds of millions of people each week.”

Conflicts are likely to persist in a field where building even a relatively modest AI system requires resources “well beyond those of your typical research university,” said Michael Kearns, a professor of computer science at the University of Pennsylvania.

But Kearns, who sits on the committee that picks the winners of computer science’s top prize — the Turing Award — said this week marks a “great victory for interdisciplinary research” that was decades in the making.

Hinton is only the second person to win both a Nobel and Turing. The first, Turing-winning political scientist Herbert Simon, started working on what he called “computer simulation of human cognition” in the 1950s and won the Nobel economics prize in 1978 for his study of organizational decision-making.

Wing, who met Simon in her early career, said scientists are still just at the tip of finding ways to apply computing’s most powerful capabilities to other fields.

“We’re just at the beginning in terms of scientific discovery using AI,” she said.

——

AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed to this report.

MATT O’BRIEN
O’Brien covers the business of technology and artificial intelligence for The Associated Press. He is based in Rhode Island and focuses on how AI technology is built and the people it affects.

Documents show OpenAI’s long journey from nonprofit to $157B valued company

THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE IS TO MAKE AI SELF-AWARE & AUTONOMOUS


 The OpenAI logo appears on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen with random binary data, March 9, 2023, in Boston.

 (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

BY THALIA BEATY
 October 12, 2024

Back in 2016, a scientific research organization incorporated in Delaware and based in Mountain View, California, applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt charitable organization by the Internal Revenue Service.

Called OpenAI, the nonprofit told the IRS its goal was to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”

Its assets included a $10 million loan from one of its four founding directors and now CEO, Sam Altman.

The application, which nonprofits are required to disclose and which OpenAI provided to The Associated Press, offers a view back in time to the origins of the artificial intelligence giant that has since grown to include a for-profit subsidiary recently valued at $157 billion by investors.

It’s one measure of the vast distance OpenAI — and the technology that it researches and develops — has traveled in under a decade.

In the application, OpenAI indicated it did not plan to enter into any joint ventures with for-profit organizations, which it has since done. It also said it did “not plan to play any role in developing commercial products or equipment,” and promised to make its research freely available to the public.


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A spokesperson for OpenAI, Liz Bourgeois, said in an email that the organization’s missions and goals have remained constant, though the way it’s carried out its mission has evolved alongside advances in technology. She also said the nonprofit does not carry out any commercial activities.

Attorneys who specialize in advising nonprofits have been watching OpenAI’s meteoric rise and its changing structure closely. Some wonder if its size and the scale of its current ambitions have reached or exceeded the limits of how nonprofits and for-profits may interact. They also wonder the extent to which its primary activities advance its charitable mission, which it must, and whether some may privately benefit from its work, which is prohibited.

In general, nonprofit experts agree that OpenAI has gone to great lengths to arrange its corporate structure to comply with the rules that govern nonprofit organizations. OpenAI’s application to the IRS appears typical, said Andrew Steinberg, counsel at Venable LLP and a member of the American Bar Association’s nonprofit organizations committee.

If the organization’s plans and structure changed, it would need to report that information on its annual tax returns, Steinberg said, which it has.

“At the time that the IRS reviewed the application, there wasn’t information that that corporate structure that exists today and the investment structure that they pursued was what they had in mind,” he said. “And that’s okay because that may have developed later.”

Here are some highlights from the application:

Early research goals

At inception, OpenAI’s research plans look quaint in light of the race to develop AI that was in part set off by its release of ChatGPT in 2022.

OpenAI told the IRS it planned to train an AI agent to solve a wide variety of games. It aimed to build a robot to perform housework and to develop a technology that could “follow complex instructions in natural language.”

Today, its products, which include text-to-image generators and chatbots that can detect emotion and write code, far exceed those technical thresholds.
No commercial ambitions

The nonprofit OpenAI indicated on the application form that it had no plans to enter into joint ventures with for-profit entities.

It also wrote, “OpenAI does not plan to play any role in developing commercial products or equipment. It intends to make its research freely available to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.”

OpenAI spokesperson Bourgeois said the organization believes the best way to accomplish its mission is to develop products that help people use AI to solve problems, including many products it offers for free. But they also believe developing commercial partnerships has helped further their mission, she said.
Intellectual property

OpenAI reported to the IRS in 2016 that regularly sharing its research “with the general public is central to the mission of OpenAI. OpenAI will regularly release its research results on its website and share software it has developed with the world under open source software licenses.”

It also wrote it “intends to retain the ownership of any intellectual property it develops.”

The value of that intellectual property and whether it belongs to the nonprofit or for-profit subsidiary could become important questions if OpenAI decides to alter its corporate structure, as Altman confirmed in September it was considering.

Changing OpenAI’s nonprofit structure could have big consequences


OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an Apple event announcing new products in Cupertino, Calif., June 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

BY THALIA BEATY
October 12, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — The artificial intelligence maker OpenAI may face a costly and inconvenient reckoning with its nonprofit origins even as its valuation recently exploded to $157 billion.

Nonprofit tax experts have been closely watching OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, since last November when its board ousted and rehired CEO Sam Altman. Now, some believe the company may have reached — or exceeded — the limits of its corporate structure, under which it is organized as a nonprofit whose mission is to develop artificial intelligence to benefit “all of humanity” but with for-profit subsidiaries under its control.

Jill Horwitz, a professor in law and medicine at UCLA School of Law who has studied OpenAI, said that when two sides of a joint venture between a nonprofit and a for-profit come into conflict, the charitable purpose must always win out.

“It’s the job of the board first, and then the regulators and the court, to ensure that the promise that was made to the public to pursue the charitable interest is kept,” she said.

Altman recently confirmed that OpenAI is considering a corporate restructure but did not offer any specifics. A source told The Associated Press, however, that the company is looking at the possibility of turning OpenAI into a public benefit corporation. No final decision has been made by the board and the timing of the shift hasn’t been determined, the source said.

In the event the nonprofit loses control of its subsidiaries, some experts think OpenAI may have to pay for the interests and assets that had belonged to the nonprofit. So far, most observers agree OpenAI has carefully orchestrated its relationships between its nonprofit and its various other corporate entities to try to avoid that.

However, they also see OpenAI as ripe for scrutiny from regulators, including the Internal Revenue Service and state attorneys general in Delaware, where its incorporated, and in California, where it operates.

Bret Taylor, chair of the OpenAI nonprofit’s board, said in a statement that the board was focused on fulfilling its fiduciary obligation.

“Any potential restructuring would ensure the nonprofit continues to exist and thrive, and receives full value for its current stake in the OpenAI for-profit with an enhanced ability to pursue its mission,” he said.

Here are the main questions nonprofit experts have:
How could OpenAI convert from nonprofit to for-profit?


Tax-exempt nonprofits sometimes decide to change their status. That requires what the IRS calls a conversion.

Tax law requires money or assets donated to a tax-exempt organization to remain within the charitable sector. If the initial organization becomes a for-profit, generally, a conversion is needed where the for-profit pays the fair market value of the assets to another charitable organization.

Even if the nonprofit OpenAI continues to exist in some way, some experts argue it would have to be paid fair market value for any assets that get transferred to its for-profit subsidiaries.

In OpenAI’s case, there are many questions: What assets belong to its nonprofit? What is the value of those assets? Do they include intellectual property, patents, commercial products and licenses? Also, what is the value of giving up control of the for-profit subsidiaries?

If OpenAI were to diminish the control that its nonprofit has over its other business entities, a regulator may require answers to those questions. Any change to OpenAI’s structure will require it to navigate the laws governing tax-exempt organizations.

Andrew Steinberg, counsel at Venable LLP and a member of the American Bar Association’s nonprofit organizations committee, said it would be an “extraordinary” transaction to change the structure of corporate subsidiaries of a tax-exempt nonprofit.

“It would be a complex, involved process with numerous different legal and regulatory considerations to work through,” he said. “But it’s not impossible.”
Is OpenAI carrying out its charitable mission?

To be granted tax-exempt status, OpenAI had to apply to the IRS and explain its charitable purpose. OpenAI provided The Associated Press a copy of that September 2016 application, which shows how significantly the organization’s plans for its technology and structure have changed.


OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said in an email that the organization’s missions and goals remained constant, though the way it’s carried out its mission has evolved alongside advances in technology.

When OpenAI incorporated as a nonprofit in Delaware, it wrote that its purpose was, “to provide funding for research, development and distribution of technology related to artificial intelligence.” In tax filings, it’s also described its mission as building, “general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) that safely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”

Steinberg said there is no problem with the organization’s plans changing as long as it reported that information on its annual tax returns, which it has.

But some observers, including Elon Musk, who was a board member and early supporter of OpenAI and has sued the organization, are skeptical that it has been faithful to its mission.

The “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton, who was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday, has also expressed concern about OpenAI’s evolution, openly boasting that one of his former students, Ilya Sutskever, who went on to co-found the organization, helped oust Altman as CEO before bringing him back.

“OpenAI was set up with a big emphasis on safety. Its primary objective was to develop artificial general intelligence and ensure that it was safe,” Hinton said, adding that “over time, it turned out that Sam Altman was much less concerned with safety than with profits. And I think that’s unfortunate.”

Sutskever, who led a team focused on AI safety at OpenAI, left the organization in May and has started his own AI company. OpenAI for its part says it is proud of its safety record.

Will OpenAI board members avoid conflicts of interest?

Ultimately, this question returns to the board of OpenAI’s nonprofit, and the extent to which it is acting to further the organization’s charitable mission.

Steinberg said that any regulators looking at a nonprofit board’s decision will be most interested in the process through which it arrived at that decision, not necessarily whether it reached the best decision.

He said regulators, “will often defer to the business judgment of members of the board as long as the transactions don’t involve conflict of interests for any of the board members. They don’t stand to gain financially from the transaction.”

Whether any board members were to benefit financially from any change in OpenAI’s structure could also be of interest to nonprofit regulators.

In response to questions about if Altman might be given equity in the for-profit subsidiary in any potential restructuring, OpenAI board chair Taylor said in a statement, “The board has had discussions about whether it would be beneficial to the company and our mission to have Sam be compensated with equity, but no specific figures have been discussed nor have any decisions been made.”
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The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

TikTok was aware of risks kids and teens face on its platform, legal document alleges


The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

BY HALELUYA HADERO
 October 11, 2024

TikTok was aware that its design features are detrimental to its young users and that publicly touted tools aimed at limiting kids’ time on the site were largely ineffective, according to internal documents and communications exposed in lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky.

The details are among redacted portions of Kentucky’s lawsuit that contains the internal communications and documents unearthed during a more than two year investigation into the company by various states across the country.

Kentucky’s lawsuit was filed this week, alongside separate complaints brought forth by attorneys general in a dozen states as well as the District of Columbia. TikTok is also facing another lawsuit from the Department of Justice and is itself suing the Justice Department over a federal law that could ban it in the U.S. by mid-January.

The redacted information — which was inadvertently revealed by Kentucky’s attorney general’s office and first reported by Kentucky Public Radio — touches on a range of topics, most importantly the extent to which TikTok knew how much time young users were spending on the platform and how sincere it was when rolling out tools aimed at curbing excessive use.

Beyond TikTok use among minors, the complaint alleges the short-form video sharing app has prioritized “beautiful people” on its platform and has noted internally that some of the content-moderation metrics it has publicized are “largely misleading.”


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The unredacted complaint, which was seen by The Associated Press, was sealed by a Kentucky state judge on Wednesday after state officials filed an emergency motion to seal it.

When reached for comment, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said: “It is highly irresponsible of the Associated Press to publish information that is under a court seal. Unfortunately, this complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.”

“We have robust safeguards, which include proactively removing suspected underage users, and we have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16,” Haurek said in a prepared statement. “We stand by these efforts.”

TikTok use among young users

The complaint alleges that TikTok has quantified how long it takes for young users to get hooked on the platform, and shared the findings internally in presentations aimed at increasing user-retention rates. The “habit moment,” as TikTok calls it, occurs when users have watched 260 videos or more during the first week of having a TikTok account. This can happen in under 35 minutes since some TikTok videos run as short as 8 seconds, the complaint says.

Kentucky’s lawsuit also cites a spring 2020 presentation from TikTok that concluded that the platform had already “hit a ceiling” among young users. At that point, the company’s estimates showed at least 95% of smartphone users under 17 used TikTok at least monthly, the complaint notes.

TikTok tracks metrics for young users, including how long young users spend watching videos and how many of them use the platform every day. The company uses the information it gleans from these reviews to feed its algorithm, which tailors content to people’s interests, and drives user engagement, the complaint says.
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TikTok does its own internal studies to find out how the platform is impacting users. The lawsuit cites one group within the company, called “TikTank,” which noted in an internal report that compulsive usage was “rampant” on the platform. It also quotes an unnamed executive who said kids watch TikTok because the algorithm is “really good.”

“But I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities. And when I say other opportunities, I literally mean sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and looking at somebody in the eyes,” the unnamed executive said, according to the complaint.

Time management tools

TikTok has a 60-minute daily screen time limit for minors, a feature it rolled out in March 2023 with the stated aim of helping teens manage their time on the platform. But Kentucky’s complaint argues that the time limit — which users can easily bypass or disable — was intended more as a public relations tool than anything else.

The lawsuit says TikTok measured the success of the time limit feature not by whether it reduced the time teens spent on the platform, but by three other metrics — the first of which was “improving public trust in the TikTok platform via media coverage.”

Reducing screen time among teens was not included as a success metric, the lawsuit said. In fact, it alleged the company had planned to “revisit the design” of the feature if the time-limit feature had caused teens to reduce their TikTok usage by more than 10%.

TikTok ran an experiment and found the time-limit prompts shaved off just a minute and a half from the average time teens spent on the app — from 108.5 to 107 minutes per day, according to the complaint. But despite the lack of movement, TikTok did not try to make the feature more effective, Kentucky officials say. They allege the ineffectiveness of the feature was, in many ways, by design.

The complaint says a TikTok executive named Zhu Wenjia gave approval to the feature only if its impact on TikTok’s “core metrics” were minimal.

TikTok — including its CEO Shou Chew — have talked about the app’s various time management tools, including videos TikTok sends users to encourage them to get off the platform. But a TikTok executive said in an internal meeting those videos are “useful” talking points, but are “not altogether effective.”

TikTok has ‘prioritized beautiful people’ on its platform

In a section that details the negative impacts TikTok’s facial filters can have on users, Kentucky alleges that TikTok’s algorithm has “prioritized beautiful people” despite knowing internally that content on the platform could “perpetuate a narrow beauty norm.”

The complaint alleges TikTok changed its algorithm after an internal report noted the app was showing a high “volume of ... not attractive subjects” in the app’s main “For You” feed.

“By changing the TikTok algorithm to show fewer ‘not attractive subjects’ in the For You feed, Defendants took active steps to promote a narrow beauty norm even though it could negatively impact their young users,” the complaint says.

TikTok’s ‘leakage’ rates

The lawsuit also takes aim at TikTok’s content-moderation practices.

It cites internal communication where the company notes its moderation metrics are “largely misleading” because “we are good at moderating the content we capture, but these metrics do not account for the content that we miss.”

The complaint notes that TikTok knows it has — but does not disclose — significant “leakage” rates, or content that violates the site’s community guidelines but is not removed or moderated. Other social media companies also face similar issues on their platforms.

For TikTok, the complaint notes the “leakage” rates include roughly 36% of content that normalizes pedophilia and 50% of content that glorifies minor sexual assault.

The lawsuit also accuses the company of misleading the public about its moderation and allowing some popular creators who were deemed to be “high value” to post content that violates the site’s guidelines.

AP FACT CHECK

FACT FOCUS: A look at the false information around Hurricanes Helene and Milton


A tattered American flag flies above flooded homes, from Hurricane Milton along the Alafia river Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Lithia, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

Connecticut Army National Guard members, accompanied by civilian volunteers, deliver supplies to residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Burnsville, N.C. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera)

President Joe Biden, from left, joined by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi, and on screen from left, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks about the federal government’s response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Washington. Listening from right are White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall.

 (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)


BY MELISSA GOLDIN
October 11, 2024

Back-to-back hurricanes that brought death and devastation to parts of the South were made worse by a wide range of false and misleading information, some of which still circulates even though they have been conclusively proven false.

Coming in the closing weeks of a hard-fought presidential election, the false information became political fodder, particularly in swing states hit hard by Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton. Former President Donald Trump has pushed a litany of false claims at campaign events and on social media with his supporters helping give voice to the information.

Federal, state and local officials, including several Republicans, have condemned the false information, noting that it has made it more difficult to address the needs of those hurt by the hurricanes.

Here’s a look at the facts around some of the most pervasive misinformation.

The government cannot create or manage hurricanes

CLAIM: The government used weather technology to create Hurricanes Helene and Milton, deliberately targeting Republican voters.

THE FACTS: Both hurricanes were natural phenomena. Humans do not have the technology to control such vast weather systems. Hurricanes are hitting many of the same areas they have for centuries.

Fully developed hurricanes release massive amounts of heat energy — the equivalent of a 10-megaton nuclear bomb every 20 minutes, according to National Hurricane Center tropical analysis chief Chris Landsea.

“If meteorologists could stop hurricanes, we would stop hurricanes,” said Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany. “If we could control the weather, we would not want the kind of death and destruction that’s happened.”

Historical efforts to control hurricanes have failed. For example, between the 1960s and ‘80s, the federal government toyed with the idea of making storms bigger in size but weaker in intensity. But tests were inconclusive and researchers realized if they made storms larger they would put more people at risk. A 1947 attempt by General Electric and the U.S. military in which dry ice was dropped by Air Force planes into the path of a hurricane in an attempt to weaken it also didn’t work.

The federal government was falsely accused of a lack of response following Helene

CLAIM: The federal government did not respond to Hurricane Helene and intentionally withheld aid to victims in Republican areas.

THE FACTS: Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, have actively supported recovery efforts.

Biden approved major disaster declarations for Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, allowing survivors to access funds and resources to jumpstart their recovery immediately. The White House announced that the president spoke by phone on Sept. 29 with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp; North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper; Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and Florida Emergency Management Director John Louk. Kemp confirmed on Sept. 30 that he spoke to Biden the night before and that the state was getting everything it needed.

Harris visited FEMA headquarters in Washington on Sept. 30. She called Helene’s devastation “heartbreaking” and vowed that she and Biden would make sure the impacted communities “get what they need to recover.”

The president and vice president have both been to areas impacted by Helene.
Federal officials do not have plans to seize some hard-hit communities

CLAIM: The federal government plans to seize and bulldoze some especially hard-hit communities like Chimney Rock, North Carolina, and prevent residents from rebuilding on their own property.

THE FACTS: That’s not true, according to local officials. Shortly after Chimney Rock was devastated by Helene’s floods, posts began circulating on social media claiming the federal government planned to seize all of the community’s property through eminent domain and not let residents return or rebuild. Some versions of the claim suggested authorities weren’t even going to allow residents to reclaim the bodies of storm victims, or that communities were being seized as part of a federal scheme to gain control of valuable lithium mines nearby.


Far-right extremists and white-supremacist groups picked up the claim on platforms like Telegram and sought to link false claims about the lithium mines to efforts to fight climate change by boosting electric vehicles, which use lithium in their batteries. Officials from both parties who represent the area and are overseeing recovery efforts said none of that is true.

FEMA cannot arbitrarily seize private property or condemn whole communities, and the federal government has no plans to seize mines or force entire towns to relocate.

“I encourage you to remember that everything you see on Facebook, X, or any other social media platform is not always fact. Please make sure you are fact checking what you read online with a reputable source,” U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican, wrote to his constituents in a message debunking several viral claims about the storm.

FEMA assistance of $750 is a starting point for those in need. It does not have to be repaid

CLAIM: Hurricane survivors will only get a $750 loan from FEMA, which will seize their land if they don’t pay it back.

THE FACTS: That’s not true. Keith Turi, acting director of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, said that this figure refers to help the agency can give someone in an affected area for immediate needs, like clothing or food.

FEMA wrote on its “Hurricane Rumor Response” page that such payments are called Serious Needs Assistances and can be used while the agency assesses an applicant’s eligibility for additional funds.

The maximum amount for initial Serious Needs Assistance was raised to $770 on Oct. 1. Serious Needs Assistance is a grant that does not need to be repaid. Jaclyn Rothenberg, a FEMA spokesperson, confirmed in an X post that the agency does not “ask for this money back.”

Certain FEMA grants may need to be paid back, although this is less common. For example, if a survivor receives duplicate benefits from insurance or another source.
FEMA is not short of hurricane assistance because it went to other causes

CLAIM: FEMA doesn’t have enough money for hurricane victims because it is being used to help immigrants in the country illegally or going to foreign funding for Israel and Ukraine.

THE FACTS: That’s incorrect. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said Wednesday on MSNBC, “There is the money in my budget — the Disaster Relief Fund — to continue the response efforts for Hurricane Helene and Milton.” She added that the agency will need to assess how much money will be left to continue recovery projects and respond to future storms this season.

FEMA’s disaster relief fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters. Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects. It funds foreign military aid separately.

No money from FEMA’s fund has been diverted to support border issues or international concerns and is only being used for disaster-related efforts, according to the agency.
The helicopter that blew supplies around a North Carolina distribution center was attempting to make a delivery

CLAIM: The federal government is flying unmarked helicopters into Hurricane Helene staging zones and purposely destroying aid meant for victims in western North Carolina.

THE FACTS: These claims are based on a video that showed a helicopter flying above a parking lot where hurricane aid was being collected. As it hovered above the area, it kicked up debris and supplies at the site and toppled canopies.

The North Carolina National Guard said in a statement issued on Tuesday that the video shows one of its helicopters attempting to make a generator delivery requested by a local civilian organization to power their supply distribution site. As the helicopter descended into a Burnsville parking lot being used for assistance efforts, it kicked up debris and supplies at the site and toppled canopies. The landing was aborted for safety reasons.


Megan George, a dog trainer and former Coast Guard veteran who first posted the video, told The Associated Press that she did not intend for it to be used as proof of government maleficence, but rather as documentation of a dangerous situation about which she wanted answers.

According to the National Guard statement, the helicopter’s crew has been grounded until an investigation into the incident is complete.
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Associated Press writer David Klepper in Washington contributed to this article.
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

MELISSA GOLDIN
Goldin debunks, analyzes and tracks misinformation for The Associated Press. She is based in New York.
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Marriott agrees to pay $52 million, beef up data security to resolve probes over data breaches

A person walks past the San Francisco Marriott Union Square hotel on July 11, 2019, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

BY ALEX VEIGA
 October 9, 2024

Marriott International has agreed to pay $52 million and make changes to bolster its data security to resolve state and federal claims related to major data breaches that affected more than 300 million of its customers worldwide.

The Federal Trade Commission and a group of attorneys general from 49 states and the District of Columbia announced the terms of separate settlements with Marriott on Wednesday. The FTC and the states ran parallel investigations into three data breaches, which took place between 2014 and 2020.

As a result of the data breaches, “malicious actors” obtained the passport information, payment card numbers, loyalty numbers, dates of birth, email addresses and/or personal information from hundreds of millions of consumers, according to the FTC’s proposed complaint.

The FTC claimed that Marriott and subsidiary Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s poor data security practices led to the breaches.

Specifically, the agency alleged that the hotel operator failed to secure its computer system with appropriate password controls, network monitoring or other practices to safeguard data.

As part of its proposed settlement with the FTC, Marriott agreed to “implement a robust information security program” and provide all of its U.S. customers with a way to request that any personal information associated with their email address or loyalty rewards account number be deleted.

Marriott also settled similar claims brought by the group of attorneys general. In addition to agreeing to strengthen its data security practices, the hotel operator also will pay $52 million penalty to be split by the states.

In a statement on its website Wednesday, Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott noted that it made no admission of liability as part of its agreements with the FTC and states. It also said it has already put in place data privacy and information security enhancements.

In early 2020, Marriott noticed that an unexpected amount of guest information was accessed using login credentials of two employees at a franchised property. At the time, the company estimated that the personal data of about 5.2. million guests worldwide might have been affected.

In November 2018, Marriott announced a massive data breach in which hackers accessed information on as many as 383 million guests. In that case, Marriott said unencrypted passport numbers for at least 5.25 million guests were accessed, as well as credit card information for 8.6 million guests. The affected hotel brands were operated by Starwood before it was acquired by Marriott in 2016.

The FBI led the investigation of that data theft, and investigators suspected the hackers were working on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the rough equivalent of the CIA.