OpenAI to offer remedies to resolve Italy’s ChatGPT ban

By KELVIN CHAN

The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen displaying output from ChatGPT, on March 21, 2023, in Boston. The Italian government’s privacy watchdog said Friday March 31, 2023 that it is temporarily blocking the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT in the wake of a data breach. 

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

LONDON (AP) — The company behind ChatGPT will propose measures to resolve data privacy concerns that sparked a temporary Italian ban on the artificial intelligence chatbot, regulators said Thursday.

The Italian data protection authority, known as Garante, last week blocked San Francisco-based OpenAI’s popular chatbot, ordering it to temporarily stop processing Italian users’ personal information while it investigates a possible breach of European Union data privacy rules.

Experts said it was the first such case of a democracy imposing a nationwide ban on a mainstream AI platform.

In a video call late Wednesday between the watchdog’s commissioners and OpenAI executives including CEO Sam Altman, the company promised to set out measures to address the concerns. Those remedies have not been detailed.

The Italian watchdog said it didn’t want to hamper AI’s development but stressed to OpenAI the importance of complying with the 27-nation EU’s stringent privacy rules.

The regulators imposed the ban after some users’ messages and payment information were exposed to others. They also questioned whether there’s a legal basis for OpenAI to collect massive amounts of data used to train ChatGPT’s algorithms and raised concerns the system could sometimes generate false information about individuals.

So-called generative AI technology like ChatGPT is “trained” on huge pools of data, including digital books and online writings, and able to generate text that mimics human writing styles.

These systems have created buzz in the tech world and beyond, but they also have stirred fears among officials, regulators and even computer scientists and tech industry leaders about possible ethical and societal risks.

Other regulators in Europe and elsewhere have started paying more attention after Italy’s action.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it’s “following up with the Italian regulator to understand the basis for their action and we will coordinate with all EU Data Protection Authorities in relation to this matter.”

France’s data privacy regulator, CNIL, said it’s investigating after receiving two complaints about ChatGPT. Canada’s privacy commissioner also has opened an investigation into OpenAI after receiving a complaint about the suspected “collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent.”

In a blog post this week, the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office warned that “organizations developing or using generative AI should be considering their data protection obligations from the outset” and design systems with data protection as a default.

“This isn’t optional — if you’re processing personal data, it’s the law,” the office said.

In an apparent response to the concerns, OpenAI published a blog post Wednesday outlining its approach to AI safety. The company said it works to remove personal information from training data where feasible, fine-tune its models to reject requests for personal information of private individuals, and acts on requests to delete personal information from its systems.

Polish-Ukrainian friendship masks a bitter, bloody history

By VANESSA GERA

April 5, 2023

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lays a wreath of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during his visit to Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland has emerged as one Ukraine’s most ardent supporters during Russia’s invasion despite historical grievances between the neighboring nations that stir up bad feelings to this day.

The tensions between the country at war and its staunch ally were acknowledged Wednesday when Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a state visit to Poland, where he was welcomed with honors.

President Andrzej Duda promised that Poland would keep helping Ukraine fight off Russia’s aggression, but he also acknowledged at a joint news conference with Zelesnkyy that the relationship was complicated.

“There are still open wounds in the memory of many people,” Duda said, an obvious reference to the massacres of some 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during the 1940s. Poland considers the killings genocide.

The difficult past in Poland-Ukraine relations goes back even further than that. In a part of Europe where entire nations have disappeared from maps for generations before returning from the ashes of collapsed empires, sometimes at the expense of neighbors, Poles and Ukrainians share a history of existential rivalry.

Ukrainians, for example, harbor resentment from centuries spent under Polish rule, a period which is not remembered as completely benign.

This is the very rare English version of the Italian film Taras Bulba Il cosacco. The film was released in 1962 and immediately fell into obscurity being overshadowed by the popular American film, with the same title, released the same year. Taras Bulba Il cosacco was a widescreen Italian costume drama and did not make it to the US until about 1970 and then only in this "pan and scan" version for late night TV. In the US, it was known as The Plains of Battle or The Fighting Cossacks. You can also see the slightly modified French version Sons of Taras Bulba on this channel also. Popular European actor, at the time, Vladimir Medar, is Taras Bulba.

As the two presidents delivered public addresses to a crowd of Ukrainians and Poles in Warsaw, Duda acknowledged that both nations had made a lot of mistakes “for which we paid the ultimate price.”

“We are sending a clear message to the Kremlin today: You will never succeed in dividing us again,” he said.

Polish and Ukrainian officials have mostly avoided addressing the old grievances openly as they remain focused on Ukraine’s survival and worry that Russian could exploit any divisions. It is, after all, a war whose outcome will determine Ukraine’s very existence and Poland’s own security for decades to come.

“In the future, there will be no borders between our peoples: political, economic and — what is very important — historical,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram message before his meeting with Duda. “But for that we still need to gain victory. For that, we need to walk side by side a little more.”

By raising the matter now, the leaders seemed to acknowledge that thorny issues could not be swept under the rug forever, even with the war dragging on.

Duda and other nationalist authorities face political pressure to make sure Polish suffering at Ukrainian hands is not forgotten, especially with the growing strength of a far-right party, Confederation, that has sometimes expressed anti-Ukrainian views. A parliamentary election in Poland before the end of the year will be a test for the ruling party, Law and Justice, and determine whether it wins a third term.

On Wednesday, though, Zelenskyy was met with red carpets and pomp. Duda bestowed on his visitor Poland’s oldest and highest civilian distinction, The Order of the White Eagle. “You are surely one of the most outstanding people who has received the distinction,” the Polish president said.

Zelenskyy called Duda a friend and said Polish-Ukrainian relations have never been so good. At the same time, Duda insisted the past must not be forgotten and now was the right time to confront it.

“We cannot forget those who have perished in the past,” Duda said. “There are no taboo themes between us.”

NOT A HERO A TRAITOR

Probably the touchiest point of contention is how to remember one of Ukraine’s national heroes, Stepan Bandera, the far-right leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists who briefly allied himself with Germany’s Nazis.

Efforts by Bandera-led forces to carve out an independent territory for Ukraine led them to perpetrate atrocities against Poles, Jews and Soviets.

Such subjects were off-limits during the Soviet era, when Ukraine was a Soviet republic and Moscow also controlled Poland.

Historians say that more than 100,000 Poles, including women and young children, perished at the hands of their Ukrainian neighbors in areas that were then located in southeastern Poland and are mostly in Ukraine now.

The peak of the violence was on July 11, 1943, known as “Bloody Sunday,” when the Ukrainian insurgent fighters carried out coordinated attacks on Poles praying in or leaving churches in more than 100 villages, chiefly in the Volhynia region.

Polish officials insist that only the full truth can strengthen the nations’ ties.

Poles were angered in January when Ukraine’s parliament commemorated Bandera on the 114th anniversary of his birth by tweeting an image of the current commander of the Ukrainian armed forces against a portrait of Bandera. The post was later deleted.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said then that his government took “an extremely critical stance toward any glorification or even remembrance of Bandera.”

After meeting with Zelenskyy on Wednesday, Morawiecki said the two spoke about the crimes and Poland’s request to carry out exhumations on the Polish victims, something Ukraine has so far banned.

“We had a very difficult history and today there is a chance to rewrite this history and base it on the truth,” Morawiecki said.

___

Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed.

MONOPOLY CAPITALISM

Amazon’s $1.7B iRobot purchase faces UK antitrust scrutiny


FILE - An Amazon company logo is seen on the facade of a company's building in Schoenefeld near Berlin, Germany, on March 18, 2022. British antitrust regulators have started investigating Amazon's purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot, adding further scrutiny to the $1.7 billion deal. The Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday April 6, 2023 that it's considering whether the deal will result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the United Kingdom. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

LONDON (AP) — British antitrust regulators have started investigating Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot, adding further scrutiny to the $1.7 billion deal.

The Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday that it’s considering whether the deal will result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the United Kingdom. In an initial step, the U.K. watchdog invited comments on the deal from “any interested party.”

The acquisition is already facing a review in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission amid worries about Amazon’s growing market power. Consumer groups had voiced concerns after the deal was announced last year that it would further the e-commerce giant’s dominance in the smart home market.

Amazon said it’s “working cooperatively with the relevant regulators in their review of the merger.”

Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, which makes the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, said it “continues to work cooperatively with both the U.S. FTC and other regulatory agencies in their review of the Amazon-iRobot merger.”

Justice Thomas reportedly took undisclosed luxury trips


Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. Thomas has for more than two decades accepted luxury trips nearly every year from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms, ProPublica reports. 

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has for more than two decades accepted luxury trips nearly every year from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms, ProPublica reports.

In a lengthy story published Thursday the nonprofit investigative journalism organization catalogs various trips Thomas has taken aboard Crow’s yacht and private jet as well as to Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. A 2019 trip to Indonesia the story detailed could have cost more than $500,000 had Thomas chartered the plane and yacht himself, ProPublica reported.

Supreme Court justices, like other federal judges, are required to file an annual financial disclosure report which asks them to list gifts they have received. It was not clear why Thomas omitted the trips, but under a judiciary policy guide consulted by The Associated Press, food, lodging or entertainment received as “personal hospitality of any individual” does not need to be reported if it is at the personal residence of that individual or their family. That said, the exception to reporting is not supposed to cover “transportation that substitutes for commercial transportation” and properties owned by an entity

A Supreme Court spokeswoman acknowledged an email from the AP seeking comment from Thomas but did not provide any additional information. ProPublica wrote that Thomas did not respond to a detailed list of questions from the organization.

Last month, the federal judiciary beefed up disclosure requirements for all judges, including the high court justices, although overnight stays at personal vacation homes owned by friends remain exempt from disclosure.

Last year, questions about Thomas’ ethics arose when it was disclosed that he did not step away from election cases following the 2020 election despite the fact that his wife, conservative activist Virginia Thomas, reached out to lawmakers and the White House to urge defiance of the election results. The latest story will likely increase calls for the justices to adopt an ethics code and enhance disclosure of travel and other gifts.

In a statement, Crow told ProPublica that he and his wife have been friends of Thomas and his wife since 1996, five years after Thomas joined the high court. Crow said that the “hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends” and that the couple “never asked for any of this hospitality.”

He said they have “never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”

 Harlan Crow attends a book release reception by The George W. Bush Institute for "The 4 Percent Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs," on July 17, 2012, in Dallas. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has for more than two decades accepted luxury trips nearly every year from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms, ProPublica reports. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

ProPublica’s story says that Thomas has been vacationing at Crow’s lavish Topridge resort virtually every summer for more than two decades. During one trip in 2017, other guests included executives at “Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank,” ProPublica reported.

Crow wrote that he is “unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that.”

The disclosure of the lavish trips stands in contrast to what Thomas has said about his preferred methods of travel. Thomas, who grew up poor in Georgia, has talked about enjoying traveling in his motorcoach and preferring “Walmart parking lots to the beaches.”

OLDE FASHIONED CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Ex-head of Michigan marijuana board admits he took bribes

By ED WHITE

 Rick Johnson chairs the committee as it meets before a capacity crowd in Lansing, Mich., June 26, 2017, at the first open meeting of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Board. Federal authorities said Thursday, April 6, 2023, that Johnson, the former head of a Michigan medical marijuana licensing board, accepted more than $100,000 in bribes and has agreed to plead guilty. 

(Dale G Young/Detroit News via AP, File)

The former head of a Michigan medical marijuana licensing board has agreed to plead guilty to accepting $110,000 in bribes when he led the panel over a two-year period, authorities said Thursday.

Rick Johnson acknowledged in a signed court filing that he acted “corruptly” when he accepted cash and other benefits to help businesses get licenses.

Charges against Johnson and three other men were announced by U.S. Attorney Mark Totten at a press conference near the Capitol in Lansing.

Johnson, 70, was chairman of the marijuana board for two years until spring 2019. The Republican years earlier also was a powerful lawmaker, serving as House speaker from 2001 through 2004.

“Public corruption is a poison to any democracy. ... That poison is especially toxic here,” Totten said. “The marijuana industry has been likened to a modern-day gold rush, a new frontier where participants can stake their claim and just maybe return big rewards.”

The marijuana board reviewed and approved applications to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes.

A message seeking comment from Johnson’s attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

Agreements with Johnson and others to plead guilty were filed simultaneously with charges in federal court in Grand Rapids. All are cooperating with investigators, which could help them at sentencing.

Johnson accepted $110,200 in cash and benefits from at least two companies while voting in favor of granting them marijuana licenses, according to the bribery charge.

Johnson “provided valuable non-public information about the anticipated rules and operation of the board and assistance with license application matters,” the court filing states.

John Dalaly, who got a marijuana business license, has agreed to plead guilty to providing at least $68,200 in cash and other benefits to Johnson, including two private flights to Canada, according to court documents.

Two lobbyists, Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown, have agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to pass bribes to Johnson, filings show.

Brown voluntarily spoke to federal agents for hours in 2020 before he had a lawyer, defense attorney David Griem said.

“I only fight cases that I can win at trial or the government gives me no choice, the offer is so bad. We’re not going to fight this,” Griem told The Associated Press.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer abolished the medical marijuana board in 2019, a few months after taking office, and put oversight of the industry inside a state agency.

Michigan voters legalized marijuana for medical purposes in 2008. A decade later, voters approved the recreational use of marijuana.

SCOTUS: Trans girl can run girls track in West Virginia

today



The Supreme Court building is seen on Capitol Hill, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a 12-year-old transgender girl in West Virginia to continue competing on her middle school’s girls sports teams while a lawsuit over a state ban continues.

The justices refused to disturb an appeals court order that made it possible for the girl, Becky Pepper-Jackson, to continue playing on her school’s track and cross-country teams, where she regularly finishes near the back of the pack.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would have allowed West Virginia to enforce its law against Pepper-Jackson.

Pepper-Jackson is in the middle of the outdoor track season. She had filed a lawsuit challenging the law, the Save Women’s Sports Act, which West Virginia lawmakers adopted in 2021. A federal appeals court had allowed her to compete while she appealed a lower court ruling that upheld the West Virginia law.

Two weeks ago, track and field banned transgender athletes from international competitions. West Virginia is among 20 states that ban transgender athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, according to Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBTQ rights think tank.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, also recently signed legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors, part of an effort in Republican-led states across the country to curb LGBTQ+ rights this year.

West Virginia’s law on schools sports competition bars transgender athletes from female teams. Signed by Justice, the law defines male and female by looking to the student’s “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” It applies to middle and high schools, as well as colleges.

Under the law, male athletes can play on male or co-ed teams and female athletes can play on all teams.

Tennis great Martina Navratilova was among dozens of female athletes backing West Virginia at the Supreme Court, along with Republican attorneys general in 21 states.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin initially barred West Virginia from enforcing its law and allowed Pepper-Jackson to compete on the girls’ teams while the case continued.

But Goodwin ultimately found that the law does not violate the Constitution or Title IX, the landmark 1972 gender equity legislation. Goodwin, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, ruled the law could remain in place as appeals continued

Lawyers for the girl, known in the lawsuit by the initials B.P.J., appealed. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1, without issuing any opinion, to put the law on hold while it considers the case.

The two appeals court judges who voted to put the law on hold were Pamela A. Harris, an appointee of former President Barack Obama’s, and Toby J. Heytens, an appointee of President Joe Biden’s. Judge G. Steven Agee, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, dissented.

The Supreme Court provided no justification for its action Thursday.

In dissent, Alito wrote, “I would grant the State’s application. Among other things, enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation.” Thomas joined the dissent.

In asking the high court to allow the law to take effect while the case plays out, West Virginia told the justices that: “This case implicates a question fraught with emotions and differing perspectives. That is all the more reason to defer to state lawmakers pending appeal. ... The decision was the West Virginia Legislature’s to make. The end of this litigation will confirm that it made a valid one.”

Pepper-Jackson is identified in court documents by her initials because of federal rules that prohibit identifying minors. But Pepper-Jackson and her mother have spoken out repeatedly about the issue.

Biden review of chaotic Afghan withdrawal blames Trump

By ZEKE MILLER and NOMAAN MERCHANT

Biden review of chaotic Afghan exit blames Trump

President Joe Biden's administration laid the blame on his predecessor, President Donald Trump, for the deadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that brought about some of the darkest moments of Biden’s presidency. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday laid the blame on his predecessor, President Donald Trump, for the deadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that brought about some of the darkest moments of Biden’s presidency.

The White House publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the so-called “ hotwash ” of U.S. policies around the ending of the nation’s longest war, taking little responsibility for its own actions and asserting that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.

It does acknowledge that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but blames the delays on the Afghan government and military, and on U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.

The brief document was drafted by the National Security Council, rather than by an independent entity, with input from Biden himself. The administration said detailed reviews conducted by the State Department and the Pentagon, which the White House said would be transmitted privately to Congress on Thursday, were highly classified and would not be released publicly.

“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” the White House summary states, noting that when Biden entered office, “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”

Trump responded by accusing the Biden administration of playing “a new disinformation game” to distract from “their grossly incompetent SURRENDER in Afghanistan.” On his social media site, he said, “Biden is responsible, no one else!”

The report does fault overly optimistic intelligence community assessments about the Afghan army’s willingness to fight, and says Biden followed military commanders’ recommendations for the pacing of the drawdown of U.S. forces.

“Clearly we didn’t get it right,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, but sidestepped questions about whether Biden has any regrets for his decisions and actions leading up to the withdrawal.

Kirby said of the report that “the purpose of it is not accountability,” but rather ”understanding” what happened to inform future decisions.

The White House asserts the mistakes of Afghanistan informed its handling of Ukraine, where the Biden administration has been credited for supporting Kyiv’s defense against Russia’s invasion. The White House says it simulated worst-case scenarios prior to the February 2022 invasion and moved to release intelligence about Moscow’s intentions months beforehand.

“We now prioritize earlier evacuations when faced with a degrading security situation,” the White House said.

In an apparent attempt to defend its national security decision-making, the Biden administration also notes that it released pre-war warnings over “strong objections from senior officials in the Ukrainian government.”

Republicans in Congress have sharply criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal, focusing on the deaths of 13 service members in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport, which also killed more than 100 Afghans.

Shawn Vandiver, a Navy veteran and founder of #AfghanEvac, an effort to resettle Afghans fleeing the country, called the NSC report an “important next step.”

“We are glad to see acknowledgement of lessons learned and are laser focused on continuing relocation and resettlement operations,” Vandiver said in a statement.

But Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted Thursday that the withdrawal was “an unmitigated fiasco,” adding, “Passing the buck in a blame-shifting report won’t change that.”

The administration’s report appears to shift any blame in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, saying it was the U.S. military that made one possibly key decision.

“To manage the potential threat of a terrorist attack, the President repeatedly asked whether the military required additional support to carry out their mission at HKIA,” the report said, adding, “Senior military officials confirmed that they had sufficient resources and authorities to mitigate threats.”

Kirby credited U.S. forces for their actions in running the largest airborne evacuation of noncombatants in history during the chaos of Kabul’s fall.

“They ended our nation’s longest war,” he told reporters. “That was never going to be an easy thing to do. And as the president himself has said, it was never going to be low grade or low risk or low cost.”

Since the U.S. withdrawal, Biden has blamed the February 2020 agreement Trump reached with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, saying it boxed the U.S. into leaving the country. The agreement has been blamed by analysts for undercutting the U.S.-backed government, which collapsed the following year.

Under the Doha agreement, roughly 5,000 Taliban prisoners were released as a condition of peace talks between the Kabul government and the Taliban. Kirby noted that release and other examples of what he said was a “general sense of degradation and neglect” inherited by Biden.

But the agreement also gave the U.S. the right to withdraw from the accord if Afghan peace talks failed — which they did.

The U.S. was to remove all forces by May 1, 2021. Biden pushed a full withdrawal to September but declined to delay further, saying it would prolong a war that had long needed to end.

Since the withdrawal, the U.S. carried out a successful operation to kill al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri — the group’s No. 2 leader during the Sept. 11 attacks — which the White House has argued is proof it can still deter terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

But the images of disorder and violence during the fall of Kabul still reverberate, including scenes of Afghans falling from the undercarriages of American planes, Afghan families handing infants over airport gates to save them from the crush and violence of the crowd, and the devastation after the suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate.

A February report by the U.S. government’s special inspector general for Afghanistan placed the most immediate blame for the Afghan military’s collapse on both the Trump and Biden administrations, and cited the speed with which Biden insisted on carrying out the withdrawal: “Due to the (Afghan security force’s) dependency on U.S. military forces, the decision to withdraw all U.S. military personnel and dramatically reduce U.S. support to the (Afghan security forces) destroyed the morale of Afghan soldiers and police.”

Pressed by reporters Thursday afternoon, Kirby repeatedly defended the U.S. response and effort to evacuate American citizens and argued with reporters who referred to the withdrawal as chaotic. At one point, he paused in what appeared to be an effort to gather his emotions.

“For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it, not from my perch,” said Kirby, who was the Pentagon spokesman during the withdrawal. “At one point during the evacuation, there was an aircraft taking off full of people, Americans and Afghans alike, every 48 minutes, and not one single mission was missed. So I’m sorry, I just won’t buy the whole argument of chaos.”

The release of the NSC review comes as the State Department and House Republicans battle over documents for classified cables related to the Afghanistan withdrawal. Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called Kirby’s comments “disgraceful and insulting.”

—

AP writers Josh Boak, Ellen Knickmeyer, Seung Min Kim, Lolita C. Baldor and Farnoush Amiri contributed.

IRS pledges more audits of wealthy, better customer service

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

 Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing to be the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, Feb. 15, 2023, in Washington. The IRS released details Thursday, April 6, on how it plans to use the $80 billion it's getting to improve operations, promising investments in new technology, hiring more customer service representatives and expanding its ability to audit high-wealth taxpayers. Contrary to unfounded alarmist talk from Republicans, it won't include spending for new IRS agents with guns, says IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel. 

(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS released details Thursday on how it plans to use an infusion of $80 billion for improved operations, pledging to invest in new technology, hire more customer service representatives and expand its ability to audit high-wealth taxpayers.

While some Republicans have suggested without evidence that the money from the Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill would help create a mob of armed auditors to harass middle-class taxpayers, new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said it will not include spending for new agents with guns.

The agency’s newly released strategic operating plan lays out the specifics of how the IRS will allocate the $80 billion, through fiscal year 2031, that was approved in that legislation.

Some improvements have been long expected, such as bringing more paper-based systems online and answering taxpayers’ phone calls promptly. Others are more ambitious: continuing to explore ways to create a government-operated electronic free-file tax return system, for example.

No hiring boost is foreseen for the criminal investigation unit, which represents 3% of the agency’s workforce and employed roughly 2,077 special agents as of the 2022 budget year, according to the IRS’ annual report. Those are the agents who may be armed.
Biden vetoes bill that sought to toss EPA water protections

There are “no plans to increase” that division, Werfel said during a call with reporters. “That will stay at its current rate.”

Since President Joe Biden signed the measure, known as the “ the Inflation Reduction Act, ” in August, some Republicans have claimed the IRS would use the new money to hire an army of 87,000 tax agents with weapons.

That claim comes from a plan the Treasury Department proposed in 2021 to bring on that many IRS employees over the next decade if it got the money. At least 50,000 IRS employees are expected to retire over the next five years.

The strategic plan does not include final numbers on long-term hiring.

During the call with reporters, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the plan “is heavily driven by the fact that we need to make technology investments that will improve productivity, which will mean that over time the number of employees and the mix of employees at the IRS will change.”

After Congress passed the legislation last summer, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed the IRS to develop a plan outlining how the tax agency would overhaul its technology, customer service and hiring processes. Her memo sent instructions to IRS leadership not to increase audit rates on people making less than $400,000 a year annually.

Officials are promising not “to raise audit rates on small businesses and households making under $400,000 per year, relative to historic levels.” The report says more than half of the new money — $45.6 billion — will be devoted to pursuing high-wealth individuals and companies.

“Given the size and complex nature of these tax filings, this work often requires specialized approaches, and we will make these resources available,” the report said. “We will use data and analytics to improve our understanding of the tax filings of high-wealth individuals.”

Treasury and IRS officials have in recent months promoted the impact of the new spending on internal processes.

Robert Nassau, director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Syracuse University College of Law, said he has seen some noticeable differences.

“The phone line is amazingly improved, that part of the IRS is working amazingly better,” he said. “But I can see the processing time of written submissions is not back to pre-pandemic sufficiency.”

Additional money for the IRS has been politically controversial since 2013, when the agency during the Obama administration was found to have scrutinized political groups that applied for tax-exempt status. A report by the Treasury Department’s internal watchdog found that both conservative and liberal groups were chosen for close review.

Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, wrote in a blog post that the while plan focuses disproportionately on enforcement, “for the first time in my 40 years as a tax professional, the tax administration stars seem to be aligning,” with the newly released plan.

Jean Ross, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said in an emailed statement that “the funding will more than pay for itself by ensuring that the IRS can hold the very wealthy and large corporations accountable.”

New exhibit explores significance of Mexica’s lunar goddess

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ

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A monolith depicting Coyolxauhqui is exhibited at the Museum of Templo Mayor, marking the 45th anniversary of the circular stone’s discovery, in Mexico City, Wednesday, March 29, 2023. 

 (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A new exhibit hosted by Museum of Templo Mayor in Mexico City marks the 45th anniversary of the discovery of a monolith depicting Coyolxauhqui, the Mexica lunar goddess. The finding was a milestone for Mexican archaeology, as it shed light on Mexica civilization before the Spanish conquest.

“Coyolxauhqui: The star, the goddess, the discovery” displays more than 150 archaeological objects focused on the mythology, symbolism and scientific research around this deity (whose name is pronounced Koy-ol-shauw-kee). The exhibit runs through June 4.

For almost 500 years, the exact location of Templo Mayor remained a mystery. The religious complex was demolished shortly after Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés ordered the destruction of every building in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Mexica empire, around 1521.

Patricia Ledesma, archaeologist and director of Museum of Templo Mayor, said that her predecessors undertook the task of rescuing the traces of the Mexica civilization after the colonial era, in 1821. For more than a century, though, they made little progress.

When the country regained its independence, the heart of the capital was densely populated, which complicated any excavation plans. But then Coyolxauhqui appeared.

In 1978, near Mexico City’s cathedral where many thought the ruins of Templo Mayor were buried, an electrical worker hit something with his shovel. It was Coyolxauhqui, carefully portrayed in stone as the dismembered lunar goddess who lost a battle against her brother, the Sun.

The discovery was a turning point.

“We thought that we were no longer going to find anything about the Mexicas,” Ledesma said. “And then, there she was, signaling us where Templo Mayor might be”.

Coyolxauhqui’s location was crucial. Since the circular stone where she was carved in 1469 was found near a flight of stairs, it soon became clear that she had laid hidden for centuries at the base of Templo Mayor, dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the solar god.

These hints prompted national and international interest, which led the National Institute of Anthropology and History to greenlight an archaeological project that is still ongoing.

“The temple reproduces the myth of the birth of the solar god,” Ledesma said. “It represents that a world of night and darkness is defeated at the feet of the house of the triumphant Sun.”

The myth goes as follows: Coatlicue, mother of the gods, sweeps outside her temple when a ball of feathers falls from the sky. She holds it in her bosom and becomes pregnant.

Soon after, Coyolxauhqui -- her daughter and goddess of the Moon -- finds out. She becomes enraged and convinces her 400 brothers -- the stars -- to collaborate on a plan to kill their mother.

When they try to assassinate Coatlicue on top of a hill, she gives birth to Huitzilopochtli (prounced wee-tsee-loh-poch-tlee), the solar and war deity, who is born fully dressed and ready for battle.

After facing his sister in combat, Huitzilopochtli triumphs. He decapitates Coyolxauhqui and throws her remains to the base of the hill, where she lays dismembered. This is why the Mexicas placed her stone near the stairs they built to homage Huitzilopochtli, their patron and most beloved god.

“This myth isn’t about her murder,” Ledesma said. “The message is that we are children of the Sun.”

According to her, the treasured monolith where the broken body of Coyolxauhqui remains untouched by time survived the fury of Cortés because it was out of sight. There were many Coyolxauhqui sculptures, Ledesma said.

When the Mexicas won an important battle, they renovated their temple and its sculptures. The old ones were probably kept under the new ones, which remained visible and were destroyed by the Spaniards.

To date, archaeologists have discovered five Coyolxauhquis. The best-preserved sculpture is the one that the electrical worker found 45 years ago.

Since she was found, Coyolxauhqui has overwhelmed Mexican hearts. After the excavation project in Templo Mayor was launched, the chief archaeologist, Eduardo Matos, opened the excavation to the public once a week and people lined up to visit their ancestors’ lunar goddess.

“People came and presented her with flowers, with gifts” Ledesma said. “It was like a rediscovery of a society that we had thought lost to the war.”

 

“Coyolxauhqui: The star, the goddess, the discovery” exhibition displays more than 150 archaeological objects focused on the mythology, symbolism and scientific research around the Mexica lunar goddess. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

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Associated Press religion coverage 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.

US Native activist LaDuke resigns from environmental group

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Winona LaDuke speaks out against the Enbridge Energy Line 3 decision, June 28, 2018, in St. Paul, Minn. Nationally known Native American activist LaDuke has resigned as executive director of the Indigenous-led environmental group Honor the Earth after the organization lost a sexual harassment lawsuit to a former employee. LaDuke announced her resignation in a Facebook post on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Native American activist Winona LaDuke has resigned as executive director of the Indigenous-led environmental group Honor the Earth after the organization lost a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former employee.

LaDuke announced her resignation Wednesday in a Facebook post, saying she failed Margaret Campbell by not responding sufficiently to her allegations of sexual harassment by a coworker in 2014 and 2015. A Minnesota jury awarded Campbell $750,000 last week in the suit against Honor the Earth.

“I take personal responsibility for the mistakes made,” LaDuke wrote. “I was the executive director, and it was my job to create a good foundation to heal and move forward.”

LaDuke, 63, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is best known for leading opposition to Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota in 2021 and participated in protests against the Dakota Access pipeline near North Dakota’s Standing Rock Reservation in 2016. She also ran for vice president as Ralph Nader’s running mate on the Green Party ticket in 1996 and 2000. She founded Honor the Earth 30 years ago with members of the musical duo Indigo Girls.

LaDuke, who owns an industrial hemp farm, said she planned to take some time off and is already is busy with preparations for spring planting and maple syrup gathering.

Krystal Two Bulls, who had been co-executive director since December, will now lead Honor the Earth.