Europe Passes World’s First Law Regulating AI

Getty Images.

Dear Commons Community,

The European Union made history yesterday, passing the world’s first comprehensive law regulating artificial intelligence. The AI Act is expected to officially become law by May or June, pending formal approval from EU member countries, with provisions starting to take effect six months after the rules enter the lawbooks.

Rules for general-purpose AI systems like ChatGPT will start applying a year after the law takes effect. The complete set of regulations is expected to be in force by mid-2026.  As reported by The Hollywood Reporter and CNBC.

The EU has taken a risk-based approach to its AI regulation, ranking the use of artificial intelligence according to the potential damage it could do. The law bans AI systems that carry “unacceptable risk,” including using biometric data to detect a person’s ethnicity or sexual orientation. High-risk applications, including the use of AI in hiring or law enforcement, will be more tightly regulated, with developers required to show that their models are safe and transparent and adhere to privacy regulations.

For lower-risk AI tools, there will be little to no regulation but developers will still be required to label AI-generated deepfake pictures, video, or audio of existing people, places, or events as artificially manipulated. The law applies to models operating in the EU and any firm that violates the rules risks a fine of up to 7 percent of its annual global profits.

When it comes to enforcement, each EU country will set up its own AI watchdog, and citizens will be able to file complaints if they think their rights have been violated. Brussels will create a stand-alone AI Office tasked with enforcing and supervising the law for general-purpose AI systems.

There will be extra scrutiny for the biggest and most powerful AI models that the EU judges to pose “systemic risks,” which include OpenAI’s GPT4 and Google’s Gemini. Companies providing these systems will have to assess and mitigate the risks, put cybersecurity measures in place, report any serious incidents as a result of their systems and disclose how much energy their models use.

All general-purpose AI systems will have to draw up a policy showing that the content used for training their models respects European copyright law.

As with other digital regulations — like last year’s Digital Services Act, which targeted abuse on social media or the Digital Markets Act, which went into effect March 7 and has the goal of combating market dominance by so-called digital “gatekeepers” — the EU’s AI act aims to be the global default legislation. Similar laws are on the way in countries from Brazil to Japan.

I don’t know how the EU will be able to enforce this law given the global nature of AI companies.

Tony

House passes a bill that could lead to a TikTok ban if Chinese owner refuses to sell – Now It Goes to the Senate!

Credit…Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Dear Commons Community,

The House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat.

The bill, passed by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.

TikTok, which has more than 170 million American users, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

The lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok’s consumers in the U.S. whenever it wants. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering.  As reported by The Associated Press.

“We have given TikTok a clear choice,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. “Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. The choice is TikTok’s.”

House passage of the bill is only the first step. The Senate would also need to pass the measure for it to become law, and lawmakers in that chamber indicated it would undergo a thorough review. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’ll have to consult with relevant committee chairs to determine the bill’s path.

President Joe Biden has said if Congress passes the measure, he will sign it.

The House vote is the latest example of increased tensions between China and the U.S. By targeting TikTok, lawmakers are tackling what they see as a grave threat to America’s national security — but also singling out a platform popular with millions of people, many of whom skew younger, just months before an election.

In a video posted on Wednesday evening, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said that the company has invested to keep user data safe and the TikTok platform free from outside manipulation. If passed, he said the bill would give more power to a handful of other social companies.

“We will not stop fighting and advocating for you. We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you,” Chew said in his message to the app’s users.

In anticipation of the vote, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, accused Washington of resorting to political tools when U.S. businesses fail to compete. He said the effort would disrupt normal business operations and undermine investor confidence “and will eventually backfire on the U.S. itself.”

Overall, 197 Republican lawmakers voted for the measure and 15 against. On the Democratic side, 155 voted for the bill and 50 against.

Some Republican opponents of the bill said the U.S. should warn consumers if there are data privacy and propaganda concerns, but the final choice should be left with consumers.

“The answer to authoritarianism is not more authoritarianism,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. “The answer to CCP-style propaganda is not CCP-style oppression. Let us slow down before we blunder down this very steep and slippery slope.”

“We have a national security obligation to prevent America’s most strategic adversary from being so involved in our lives.”

Democrats also warned of the impact a ban would have on users in the U.S., including entrepreneurs and business owners. One of the no votes came from Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee.

“One of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We do not,” Himes said. “We trust our citizens to be worthy of their democracy. We do not trust our government to decide what information they may or may not see.”

The day before the House vote, top national security officials in the Biden administration held a closed-door briefing with lawmakers to discuss TikTok and the national security implications. Lawmakers are balancing those security concerns against a desire not to limit free speech online.

“What we’ve tried to do here is be very thoughtful and deliberate about the need to force a divestiture of TikTok without granting any authority to the executive branch to regulate content or go after any American company,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, the bill’s author, as he emerged from the briefing.

“Not a single thing that we heard in today’s classified briefing was unique to TikTok. It was things that happen on every single social media platform.”

TikTok has long denied that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if it is asked. To date, the U.S. government also has not provided evidence that shows TikTok shared such information with Chinese authorities.

Republican leaders moved quickly to bring up the bill after its introduction last week by Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. A House committee approved the legislation unanimously, on a 50-0 vote, even after their offices were inundated with calls from TikTok users demanding they drop the effort. Some offices even shut off their phones because of the onslaught. Supporters of the bill said the effort backfired.

“(It) provided members a preview of how the platform could be weaponized to inject disinformation into our system,” Gallagher said.

Lawmakers in both parties are anxious to confront China on a range of issues. The House formed a special committee to focus on China-related issues. And Schumer directed committee chairs to begin working with Republicans on a bipartisan China competition bill.

Schumer is likely to feel some pressure from within his own party to move on the TikTok legislation. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner announced after the House vote that he would work to “get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.”

In a joint statement with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the intelligence panel, Warner said that “we are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok — a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, who chairs another panel with jurisdiction on the issue, said she would “try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties.”

Roughly 30 TikTok influencers and others who traveled with them spoke out against the bill on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. They chanted phrases like “Keep TikTok” ahead of the vote. They also held signs that read “TikTok changed my life for the better” and “TikTok helped me grow my business.”

Dan Salinger, a Sacramento, California-based TikTok creator in attendance, said he started creating content on the app during the COVID-19 pandemic purely out of boredom. But since then his account, which features videos about his life and his father, who suffers from dementia, has grown in popularity. Today, he has 2 million followers on the app.

“I’m actually appalled for many reasons,” Salinger said. “The speed with which they’re pushing this bill through does not give enough time for Americans to voice their concerns and opinions.”

Former President Donald Trump has spoken out against the House effort, but his vice president, Mike Pence, is urging Schumer to bring the House bill to a vote.

“There can be no doubt that this app is Chinese spyware and that a sale to a non-foreign adversary company is in the best interests of the American people,” Pence said in a letter to Schumer.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the Senate!

Tony

Robert Hur Hearing Fizzles as Former Special Counsel Deflects Questions about Biden’s Age!

Robert Hur.    NBC News

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.  I started watching it but after an hour, I could not take it anymore as members of the Congress tried to get Hur in an “aha” moment. Here is a brief recap courtesy of The Huffington Post.

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) asked former Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur point-blank: Is Joe Biden “senile”?

In a February report declaring that no charges were warranted against Biden for mishandling classified documents, Hur had described the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory” — but at a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill, he wouldn’t go any further.

“That conclusion does not appear in my report, congressman,” Hur said, later explaining that his description of Biden’s “memory gaps” only mattered for how the president would seem to a jury.

Hur deflected dozens of questions from lawmakers in similar fashion, declining to play along with their hypotheticals or make damaging statements about either Biden or former President Donald Trump — who, unlike his successor, does face charges for mishandling classified material, as well as obstructing federal investigators.

Republicans complained over and over that Biden should have been charged with a crime, while Democrats emphasized Biden’s cooperation with Hur’s investigation and occasionally criticized Hur for calling Biden old. They also played a clip reel of Trump, who’s seeking to retake the White House from Biden, stumbling over his words and saying that he couldn’t remember things.

Hur insisted that politics played no part in his decisions, noting that the law required him to prepare a confidential report for the attorney general about his prosecutorial decisions.

“You say it wasn’t political and you must have understood the impact of your words,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said. “You must have understood the impact of your decision to go beyond the specifics of a particular document to go to the very general, to your own personal, prejudicial, subjective opinion of the president, one you knew would be amplified by his political opponent, one you knew that would influence a political campaign.”

Hur shot back: “What you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the attorney general for political reasons. That is nowhere in the rules.”

One anecdote that was used by Hur’s report to show Biden’s forgetfulness involved the president not remembering what year his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer — a pivotal event in 2015 that contributed to Joe Biden’s decision not to run for president in the following year’s election.

A transcript of the interview between Hur and Biden, released by the Justice Department on Tuesday morning, showed that when he was asked about a time period after his vice presidency in 2017 and 2018 — when he was writing a memoir and living in Virginia — Biden had described his son as either “deployed or is dying.”

As Hur put it, “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said that Hur needed to “correct the record” about the anecdote, since the transcript showed that Biden did remember the month and day of his son’s death, if not the year. (Dean initially claimed, incorrectly, that Hur had asked Biden what month his son died; it was Biden who brought it up.)

“What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30th,” Biden had said, before several aides chimed in to say it was 2015.

In response to a question from House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Hur suggested that Biden’s attorneys repeatedly helping him answer certain questions reflected poorly on the president.

“It was a wealth of details about being there in the moment with the president, including his inability to recall certain things, and I’ll also say, as reflected in the transcript, the fact that he was prompted on numerous occasions by members of the White House counsel’s office,” Hur said.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) complained that Hur’s report omitted a statement that Hur made to Biden in their interview during a somewhat offhand conversation about Biden’s lake house in Wilmington, Delaware.

“You said, to President Biden, ‘You appear to have a photographic understanding and recall of the house,’” Swalwell said, with a poster bearing Hur’s remark behind him.

“That word does appear on page 47 of the transcript,” Hur said.

“Never appeared in your report, though, is that correct?” Swalwell asked.

“It does not appear in my report,” Hur said.

Swalwell then played another video of Trump slurring his words.

Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) said Hur’s report made him concerned that Biden needed a court-appointed legal guardian to handle his personal finances. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), meanwhile, suggested that Biden may be less senile and “a little craftier, a little more devious, and perhaps a little more intentional than we might otherwise think.”

Toward the end of the hearing, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) tried to get Hur to say if he thought Biden needed a legal guardian or if he thought Biden was unfit for office.

“My report did not include any opinions on those issues,” Hur said.

Dull, dull, dull!

Tony

Republican group planning $50M campaign to block Trump from reelection!

Dear Commons Community,

An anti-Trump Republican group is planning to spend $50 million in a campaign to stop the former president from winning a second term in the White House.

Republican Voters Against Trump plans to share testimonial videos of Trump’s past backers who will share why they won’t be supporting the former president come November.

The campaign is orchestrated by Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who has long been critical of Trump. The plan is to target “moderate Republican” and Republican-leaning voters in swing states with videos. The group had a similar strategy in 2020, when they shared more than 1,000 testimonials during an election that President Biden won.

The ads featuring the former Trump voter testimonials will be deployed on TV, streaming platforms, billboards, radio and digital media. They will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Longwell believes the anti-Trump coalition built up in 2020 was one of the determining factors in that contest, and that expanding the demographic in 2024 could be a determining factor in whether Trump returns to the White House.  As reported by The Hill.

“Former Republicans and Republican-leaning voters hold the key to 2024, and reaching them with credible, relatable messengers is essential to re-creating the anti-Trump coalition that made the difference in 2020,” Longwell, the president of the group’s Republican Accountability PAC, said in a statement yesterday.

“It establishes a permission structure that says that — whatever their complaints about Joe Biden — Donald Trump is too dangerous and too unhinged to ever be president again. Who better to make this case than the voters who used to support him?”

The voters who are sharing their testimonies are generally not applauding Biden or arguing why he should be reelected in 2024, but mostly sharing which incidents made them oppose the former president.

“I voted for Donald Trump in 2020. January 6 was the end of Donald Trump for me,” Ethan, a Wisconsin resident, says in the video. He will be voting for Biden. “The peaceful transfer of power is one of the defining pieces of our democracy, and I could not believe that someone I had formerly supported would get behind an effort that would throw that under the bus … There is no choice.”

Here’s hoping this movement is successful!

Tony

 

Virginia becomes second state to ban university legacy admissions!

Dear Commons Community,

Virginia will become the second state to ban legacy admissions at public colleges and universities after Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a bill on Friday that unanimously cleared the state legislature.

The bill says public universities cannot give preferential admissions to college applicants based on their familial relationship to the school. Virginia joins Colorado as the only states to ban the practice.   As reported by Scripps News.

Applicants at the University of Virginia were “invited” to share their family’s relationship to the university. The new law says the university can no longer use that information to accept an applicant.

Legacy admissions came under greater scrutiny after the Supreme Court ruled last year in Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard that affirmative action programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. This largely meant that universities could no longer consider an applicant’s race in admissions.

Affirmative action policies were put in place by a number of universities to boost admissions among historically underserved and discriminated groups. Several states had since banned the practice, but it remained widely used at some of the nation’s top academic institutions.

National Center for Education Statistics data indicates that 32% of all selective four-year colleges and universities said they consider “legacy status” in admissions. These schools are ones that don’t have open enrollment policies.

By comparison, over 40% of universities considered an applicant’s work experience if provided. Nearly 2 out of 3 schools considered personal essays if provided.

In the wake of last year’s ruling on affirmative action, several universities said they would end legacy-based admission considerations. Among them was Wesleyan University in Connecticut, which said the practice had a “negligible role” in decisions.

“We still value the ongoing relationships that come from multi-generational Wesleyan attendance, but there will be no ‘bump’ in the selection process. As has been almost always the case for a long time, family members of alumni will be admitted on their own merits,” university President Michael Roth said.

Two down and forty-eight to go!

Tony

 

Republican National Committee Fires Dozens of Staff after Trump Leadership Team Takes Control

Dear Commons Community,

Just days after installing his new leadership team at the Republican National Committee, Donald Trump’s lieutenants cut dozens of staff across key departments in an aggressive move that further cements the former president’s takeover of the GOP’s political and fundraising machinery.

More than 60 people were fired in all, including senior staff in the political, data and communications departments inside the committee’s Washington headquarters. The cuts also included staff that ran the committee’s celebrated community centers, which were focused on building relationships with minority groups in some Democratic-leaning states.  As reported by The Associated Press.

The sweeping overhaul was confirmed by multiple people with direct knowledge of the cuts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the moves publicly.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., celebrated news of the staffing cuts, suggesting they send a clear message about the direction of the GOP.

“MAGA is now in control of the Republican Party!!” Greene wrote on X, referencing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. “We will continue to need everyone’s help all the way across the finish line! Do not grow weary.”

Trump’s lieutenants telegraphed major changes late last week as Republican National Committee members gathered in Houston to approve his hand-picked leadership team, which includes his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as the committee co-chair. Michael Whatley, a former North Carolina GOP chairman, replaced Ronna McDaniel as the chair.

The cuts are designed to eliminate duplication as the Trump campaign and the RNC work to become essentially one organization, said Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign senior adviser who who took over as the RNC chief of staff after Friday’s vote.

“This is Republicans streamlining,” LaCivita said Monday night.

Staffers were notified of the cuts in an email yesterday afternoon from the committee’s new chief operating officer, Sean Cairncross, who offered people an opportunity to reapply for their jobs.

The email, obtained by The Associated Press, indicated that those who choose not to reapply for their jobs would need to leave by the end of March. Some staffers were told to leave their positions immediately on Monday afternoon, however.

“Chairman Whatley is in the process of evaluating the organization and staff to ensure the building is aligned with his vision of how to win in November,” Cairncross wrote in the email.

News of the shakeup was first reported by Politico.

The Trump campaign and the RNC have worked closely in past elections, but the new overhaul marks an unprecedented level of integration between the former president’s campaign and the GOP’s formal political and fundraising apparatus, which is tasked with helping Republicans win elections up and down the ballot. The size and scope of the new changes within the GOP’s formal political and fundraising apparatus may take several weeks to become clear.

Aware of internal concerns about the level of the committee’s commitment to Trump, LaCivita said last week that “not a penny of the RNC’s money” would go to pay Trump’s mounting legal fees.

In her farewell address Friday, McDaniel insisted that the Republican Party must come together in order to defeat President Joe Biden this fall. She said she worries most about “internal cohesion” heading into the election.

“We have to stop the attacking other Republicans,” she said. “If we spend our time attacking each other, we guarantee the Democrats are going to win.”

Republicans have to do more than just stop attacking other Republicans.  They need a capable, honest leader.

Tony

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli: New York’s Public and Private Colleges and Universities Face Significant Challenges in Years Ahead

Dear Commons Community,

A new report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli highlights the challenges New York’s higher education sector is facing, including a looming enrollment cliff, growing costs of attendance, and rising student debt. The report examines both public and private institutions of higher education.

“New York has a robust higher education sector that attracts students and investment to our colleges and universities, which benefits our state and local economies,” DiNapoli said. “Declining enrollment over the last decade has already hurt the finances of several public and private institutions, forcing a few to downsize or close their doors. New York’s future depends on our institutions of higher education staying competitive by ensuring they are affordable, are diverse, and nurture a spirit of innovation and community in their students.”

Falling Enrollment and Looming Enrollment Cliff

In large part due to demographic changes, attracting potential students has become more competitive, and New York’s share of enrollment has decreased. In Fall 1970, New York’s higher education institutions enrolled about 1 in 11 students nationally; in Fall 2010, when enrollment peaked nationwide, it was 1 in 16. New York’s share of national enrollment remained stable at 6.2% between 2010 and 2020.

In Fall 2022, there were 896,000 students enrolled across all postsecondary institutions in the state. This was the lowest total enrollment over a 15-year period, a decline of approximately 73,000 full-time students, or 7.6% since Fall 2008. The decline was led by the nearly 14% drop in enrollment at public institutions, driven by decreases at community colleges that began in 2011.

In Fall 2023, 367,542 students were enrolled at the State University of New York (SUNY), its first year-over-year increase since Fall 2010. Most of the growth (nearly 75%) occurred at community colleges. Still, total enrollment was lower than in Fall 2021 and not all SUNY institutions experienced increases.

The college-age population that drives enrollments at postsecondary institutions has been dropping as a share of the total population nationally, and is forecast to undergo a precipitous drop beginning in 2025 – a looming “enrollment cliff.” The impact of enrollment declines over the last decade has impacted the finances of several public and private institutions, with a handful of institutions downsizing or closing.

While higher education enrollment typically grows during or immediately after a recession, the COVID-19 pandemic had the opposite impact, with enrollment declining in 2020 and 2021. Social distancing restrictions and a strong job market as the economy recovered may have played a role. The pandemic also spurred a rise in student transfers and withdrawals, or “stop-outs”, and declines in the upward transfer of community college students to higher degree programs, particularly for disadvantaged students.

Additional Challenges

For AY 2020-21, New York’s public and private average undergraduate charges were both higher than the national average, particularly for in-state costs at two-year public institutions. Private four-year tuition, fees, room and board of $58,423 in New York was 26% higher than the national average of $46,313. Public two-year, or community college, in-state tuition and fees of $5,576 in New York were 59% higher than the national average of $3,501. Public four-year out-of-state tuition and fees were 26% below the national average of $27,091.

Growing college costs nationwide have led to unprecedented growth in student loan debt in New York and the country. Federal Reserve Bank of New York data indicates that in the third quarter of 2023 New York’s per capita student loan debt was $5,830, higher than the national average ($5,370) and peer states like Texas ($5,170) and Florida ($4,960).

Student diversity varies by system and campus. According to SUNY’s data, the proportion of “minority” students in Fall 2022 was 37.2%, up from 33.2% in Fall 2017. At CUNY, 76.1% of all students in Fall 2022 identified as a race or ethnicity other than white, up more than six percentage points from Fall 2010.

DiNapoli’s report examined options to facilitate growth and innovation in the higher education sector, including setting strategic goals, implementing additional approaches to spur applications and enrollment, addressing costs and financial aid gaps, and considering partnerships to keep up with innovation.

The entire 40-page report is worth a read.  I thank my colleague, Anthony Rini, for alerting me to it.

Tony

“Oppenheimer” Night at the Oscars!

2024 Oscar winners list
(L-R) Robert Downey Jr., winner of the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award for “Oppenheimer”, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, winner of the Best Supporting Actress award for “The Holdovers”, Emma Stone, winner of the Best Actress in a Leading Role award for “Poor Things”, and Cillian Murphy, winner of the Best Actor in a Leading Role award for “Oppenheimer”, pose in the press room during the 96th Annual Academy Awards.    John Shearer/WireImage

 

Dear Commons Community,

“Oppenheimer” won big last night at the 2024 Oscars, coming in with 13 nominations and earning seven awards including best director, best actor, best picture, and best supporting actor.

“Barbie,” earned eight nominations, but only got one win last night for best song.

Other big winners at the 96th Academy Awards were “Poor Things” — which won awards for hair and makeup, production design and costume design — and Cillian Murphy, who won best actor, continuing his winning streak after taking home comparable awards at the 2024 Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards for the title role in “Oppenheimer.”

Emma Stone, in what some consider an upset win, took home best actress for her role in “Poor Things,” beating out Lily Gladstone, who became the first Native American to be nominated for best actress for her role as Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

This year’s ceremony took place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel returned to host the Oscars for the second year in a row and his fourth time overall.

The full list of Oscar winners and nominees is below.

Hooray for “Oppenheimer” and all the winners!

Tony

 

—————————————————————————————

Cillian Murphy
Oppenheimer
Best Actor
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
Best Picture
Emma Stone
Poor Things
Best Actress
What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”]
Billie Eilish, FINNEAS
Best Original Song
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
The Holdovers
Best Supporting Actress
The Boy and the Heron
Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki
Best Animated Feature
Christopher Nolan
Oppenheimer
Best Director
Robert Downey Jr.
Oppenheimer
Best Supporting Actor
The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer
Best International Feature Film
20 Days in Mariupol
Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson-Rath, Michelle Mizner
Best Documentary Feature
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Wes Anderson, Steven Rales
Best Live Action Short Film
Oppenheimer
Ludwig Göransson
Best Original Score
Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Best Original Screenplay
American Fiction
Cord Jefferson
Best Adapted Screenplay
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
Brad Booker, Dave Mullins
Best Animated Short Film
Godzilla Minus One
Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, …
Best Visual Effects
Oppenheimer
Hoyte van Hoytema
Best Cinematography
The Last Repair Shop
Kris Bowers, Ben Proudfoot
Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Poor Things
Holly Waddington
Best Costume Design
Oppenheimer
Jennifer Lame
Best Film Editing
Poor Things
Mark Coulier, Nadia Stacey, Josh Weston
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Poor Things
Shona Heath, Zsuzsa Mihalek, James Price
Best Production Design
The Zone of Interest
Johnnie Burn, Tarn Willers
Best Sound

Pope Francis sparks anger after saying Ukraine should have the ‘courage of the white flag’ and negotiate!

Dear Commons Community,

Pope Francis sparked anger after saying Ukraine should have the “courage of the white flag” and negotiate to end the war with Russia.

In an interview with Swiss broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) published on Saturday, Francis was asked whether he thinks negotiations would “legitimize the stronger party.”  As reported by CNN.

“That is one interpretation,” he replied. “But I believe that the stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate.” The pope added, “and today, negotiations are possible with the help of international powers.”

The comments brought a swift response from Kyiv, which has seen tens of thousands killed and is seeking to recapture all its territory seized by Russia.

“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post on social media Sunday.

“The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’,” he said.

Speaking to Ukrainians in New York on Saturday, the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, said “Ukraine is wounded, but unconquered” and that no one is thinking about making concessions.

“I want to tell you one thing from the people of Ukraine,” Father Sviatoslav said, according to a statement from the Greek Catholic Church. “Ukraine is exhausted, but it is standing and will stand! Believe me, no one even thinks of surrender, even in the places where fighting is ongoing today,” he said.

Later on Saturday, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, clarified to journalists the pope’s comments, saying “the Pope picked up the image of the white flag, proposed by the interviewer, to indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation,” and not surrender as some may have interpreted his remarks, Vatican News reported.

Other European leaders also condemned Francis’s comments.

“How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine,” Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Sunday in a post on X. “Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.”

“My Sunday morning take: One must not capitulate in [the] face of evil, one must fight it and defeat it, so that the evil raises the white flag and capitulates,” Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkēvičs said in a post on X.

Alexandra Valkenburg, the head of the EU delegation to the Holy See, said on X on Sunday that “Russia started an illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine two years ago” and Russia “can end this war immediately” by respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Pope Francis misspoke here!

Tony

Paul Krugman Reminds Us that Trump’s Last Year in Office Was a National Nightmare!

 

Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Dear Commons Community,

Paul Krugman, The New York Times columnist and colleague at CUNY, reminds us this morning that 2020, Trump’s last year in office, was a disaster for the country.  Trump’s inability to deal with the coronavirus resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions seriously ill.  Here is an excerpt.

“2020 — the fourth quarter, if you will, of Trump’s presidency — was a nightmare. And part of what made it a nightmare was the fact that America was led by a man who responded to a deadly crisis with denial, magical thinking and, above all, total selfishness — focused at every stage not on the needs of the nation but on what he thought would make him look good.

….he denied, dithered and delayed at nearly every step of the way.”

Krugman’s conclusion:

“There’s no real question that thousands of Americans died unnecessarily because of Trump’s dereliction of duty in the face of Covid-19.

He responded to the only major crisis of his presidency with self-serving fantasies — with utter indifference to other Americans’ lives in an effort to boost his image.

Are we now really supposed to feel nostalgic about 2020?”

In sum, in a time of a national crisis, Trump was a “dithering” idiot who caused people to die.

The entire column is worth a read!

Tony