Anthropic and the Gates Foundation are teaming up on a $200 million AI push for global health; Quartz, May 14, 2026

  

Cris Tolomia , Quartz; Anthropic and the Gates Foundation are teaming up on a $200 million AI push for global health

"Anthropic and the Gates Foundation are committing $200 million over four years to deploy AI across global health, education, and economic mobility programs, the organizations said on Thursday.

Under the terms of the arrangement, the Gates Foundation will bring grant funding, program design, and expertise, while Anthropic's contribution takes the form of Claude AI usage credits and support from its technical staff, Reuters reported. Anthropic said the partnership is central to its efforts to extend AI's benefits in areas where markets alone will not.

The largest portion of the funding will focus on improving health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, where about 4.6 billion people lack access to essential health services, Anthropic said. Specific initiatives include using Claude to screen potential drug and vaccine candidates for neglected diseases such as polio, HPV, and eclampsia, as well as working with the Gates Foundation's Institute for Disease Modeling to improve forecasts for where treatments for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis are deployed."

Transportation Secretary Duffy filmed a reality show, funded by firms he regulates; NPR, May 12, 2026

Rachel Treisman, NPR; Transportation Secretary Duffy filmed a reality show, funded by firms he regulates

"On Monday, the nonprofit government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with Transportation's Office of Inspector General, accusing Duffy of violating federal gift and travel rules, and calling on the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General to investigate.

"You have everyday Americans who are struggling with the price of gas, struggling with the costs of everyday items, and you have the cabinet secretary announcing that he is going on a trip with his entire family, which appears to have been funded by the industries that his department is overseeing," CREW president Donald Sherman tells NPR...

As the trailer made the rounds on social media, many commenters asked how the trip was paid for. Some worried it was costing taxpayers, while others said its product placement — like the Toyota car, a Japanese brand, prominently featured in the video — raised questions of corruption. Sherman, of CREW, agrees.

"One has to wonder whether the decision to prominently feature Toyota in this project is because Toyota paid for a sponsorship or because the secretary actually thinks that promoting Toyota is in the best interest of the American public, American automakers and the people that work for that industry," he said."...

The Great American Road Trip Inc. describes itself as an independent nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization, "fully funding its own efforts to celebrate and share America's story." (An IRS database search did not yield any results for an organization by that name, and Barnes did not respond to NPR's requests for an identification number.)

The nonprofit's website lists over a dozen sponsors "powering America's road trip," most of which are in the travel or transportation industry. They include Toyota, Boeing and Royal Caribbean, which Sherman says have been subject to investigation — and in some cases, fines — by the Department of Transportation in recent years "and certainly could be in the future."

"[The nonprofit] has become a vehicle for providing access, to its sponsors, to a cabinet secretary, which should make everyday Americans who cannot pay for similar access really concerned," Sherman adds."

Senators Defend Copyright Office Independence as AI and Executive Overreach Dominate Oversight Hearing; IP Watchdog, May 13, 2026

 ROSE ESFANDIARI , IP Watchdog; Senators Defend Copyright Office Independence as AI and Executive Overreach Dominate Oversight Hearing

"Defending the Legislative Branch

The tension surrounding the Trump v. Perlmutter case surfaced during questioning. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) directly addressed the controversy, noting that while Perlmutter could not discuss pending litigation, she wanted to understand the historical value of the Copyright Office remaining within the legislative branch. Hirono referenced the fact that “President Trump tried to illegally fire you.”

Perlmutter responded carefully, highlighting the immense value of the Copyright Office acting as non-partisan expert advising Congress. She noted the Library of Congress serves as a natural home for the office given their overlapping missions, cautioning that moving the office to the executive branch would inevitably result in additional costs and disruption.

Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), speaking as the ranking member of the Rules Committee, defended the agency’s independence. He reminded the subcommittee that Trump had not only attempted to fire Perlmutter but had also fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, attempting to install his own Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, in her place. Padilla characterized this as a failed “power grab” and a “clear assault” on the legislative branch. He emphasized that as Congress considers legislation to change appointment structures, it must ensure the Copyright Office remains protected from political interference.

Artificial Intelligence Challenge

Chairman Thom Tillis (R-NC) emphasized the delicate balance required in the artificial intelligence environment, as “there would not be anything to ingest for the training of AI models if it had not been for copyright law, which has encouraged the creation of content…and while there’s no question that the U.S. is in an AI race with China, the U.S. should not be in a race to the bottom.”"

Public Knowledge Opposes Blatant Move To Steal Copyright Office for Executive Branch; Public Knowledge, May 14, 2026

 Shiva Stella , Public Knowledge; Public Knowledge Opposes Blatant Move To Steal Copyright Office for Executive Branch

"Today, the House Administration Committee marked up the “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act,” a bill introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) to make the Register of Copyrights a position appointed by the president instead of the Librarian of Congress. The bill follows President Trump’s attempt to terminate the Register of Copyrights in 2025.

The following can be attributed to Meredith Rose, Senior Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge:

“This bill is a naked power grab on behalf of the White House. It claims to solve the very real problem of the Copyright Office’s constitutional authority – but its solution to the complex administrative and constitutional issues is to simply say, ‘haha, mine now,’ and snag it and the Register’s role for the executive branch.

“The one comfort is that this bill – the product entirely of House leadership and the White House working behind closed doors – has no chance of success. At a moment when Congress has a full suite of issues it could be addressing, it chooses to waste time on a pointless, unclear bill that is dead on arrival.”"

U.S. Set to Drop Charges Against Indian Billionaire Accused of Fraud; The New York Times, May 14, 2026

Nicole HongBen ProtessWilliam K. Rashbaum and Devlin Barrett, The New York Times ; U.S. Set to Drop Charges Against Indian Billionaire Accused of Fraud

"When the Justice Department indicted India’s richest man in the final weeks of the Biden administration, prosecutors described an “elaborate” bribery scheme involving “corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors.”...

Another slide also offered the government a sweetener: If prosecutors dropped the charges, Mr. Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs, echoing a pledge he made in the wake of Mr. Trump’s election.

While prosecutors later told Mr. Giuffra that the $10 billion investment would play no role in the resolution of the case, his offer received a favorable response from at least one senior Justice Department official at the meeting, according to the people familiar with the meeting."

Duffy’s ‘Great American Road Trip’ Prompts Ethical Concerns; The New York Times, May 13, 2026

Karoun Demirjian, The New York Times; Duffy’s ‘Great American Road Trip’ Prompts Ethical Concerns

"On May 1, Sean P. Duffy was in New Orleans, touring its container terminals in his official capacity as the secretary of transportation.

Then, he climbed behind the wheel of a car with his family on the final, all-expenses paid stop for “The Great American Road Trip,” a slickly produced YouTube series that has raised questions about self-promotion and gifts his family may have accepted as he conducted official business as a prominent member of the Trump administration.

The series, filmed across 10 states and Washington, D.C., over the course of seven months, is part of the department’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States this year. But it doubled as a set of family excursions for Mr. Duffy, his wife and his children, who traveled to national parks and major landmarks paid for by Great American Road Trip Inc., a nonprofit that names among its sponsors Toyota, United Airlines and Boeing.

Mr. Duffy has said that ethics and budget officials in the department cleared the project. But the corporate ties — and the show’s timing, with gas prices rising — drew immediate blowback on social media when the trailer was released, announcing that it will air beginning in June. The average price of gas has gone up more than 40 percent since the war with Iran started in February."

Trump’s plan to use his library as a hotel sparks lawsuit; The Washington Post, May 14, 2026

Dan Diamond

 and 

Aaron Schaffer

, The Washington Post; Trump’s plan to use his library as a hotel sparks lawsuit

"A group of Miami residents sued President Donald Trump, Florida officials and trustees of Miami Dade College on Tuesday over Trump’s planned presidential library, claiming that the college’s decision to hand over a coveted parcel of land for the project constitutes an illegal benefit for the president.

The litigants — who include a current Miami Dade College student — allege that the land transfer violates the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause, which bars states from attempting to influence a president by giving him gifts. They argue that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his handpicked board of trustees at the state-operated college were wrong to give a nearly three-acre parcel in downtown Miami to Trump’s library foundation last year in exchange for $10. The county’s property appraiser had said the land was worth more than $67 million...

“I don’t believe in building libraries or museums,” Trump said in the Oval Office the day after posting the renderings, as he discussed plans for his own library. “It’s most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.”"

Maker of Canvas Learning Platform Strikes Deal for Hackers to Return Data; The New York Times, May 12, 2026

Qasim Nauman, The New York Times; Maker of Canvas Learning Platform Strikes Deal for Hackers to Return Data

[Kip Currier: How confident are you that the stolen data and personal information from more than 275 million students and teachers at more than 9,000 colleges and universities around the world has been returned and that copies of that data have been destroyed?]

"The maker of Canvas, the software used by thousands of schools and universities around the world, said on Monday that it had reached a deal with the hackers that recently breached its systems for the return of stolen data and the destruction of any copies.

ShinyHunters, a hacking group, had claimed responsibility for the attack on Instructure, the Salt Lake City-based company that provides Canvas to about half of all colleges and universities in North America.

The hackers said they had accessed the data of more than 275 million users at nearly 9,000 schools worldwide, including private conversations between students and teachers as well as personal identifying information such as names and email addresses. Canvas was shut down for hours after the cyberattack on Thursday.

The agreement, Instructure said in a statement, involved the return of the stolen data and confirmation that the data had been destroyed at the hackers’ end. Instructure added that it had been informed that none of its customers would face extortion as a result of the theft."

'AI has no soul': Pope Leo expected to address AI's ethical challenges; USA TODAY, May 13, 2026

Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY ; 'AI has no soul': Pope Leo expected to address AI's ethical challenges

"Is thinking basically computing? Are humans just biological versions of machines – only less efficient than their AI counterparts?

The concept that people may develop such a mindset is a major concern for Catholic observers given the breakneck pace at which AI is developing.

“As soon as you start thinking of yourself as a machine, only not as good, then you’re just a commodity and have no other reason to live,” said John Cavadini, director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. “It’s a pathway to desolation.”

That’s why Cavadini and others are looking forward to the imminent release of Pope Leo XIV’s first major encyclical, expected to address the growing ethical and moral challenges of artificial intelligence.

The treatise will be Leo’s most authoritative document to date, as topical as it is symbolic: Though the Vatican has set no specific date, a May 15 release would come 135 years to the day that Pope Leo XIII, with whom the current pontiff shares his name, issued what is considered the first social encyclical of modern times, Rerum Novarum...

As the term implies, an encyclical is a "circular letter" designed to be shared among a community...

The overarching concern, Daly said, is whether AI will be leveraged to promote human flourishing or whether efficiency and productivity will become the focus, leaving patients behind...

Another overlooked but important risk of AI, Daly said, is that technological advances tend to favor those already represented in such settings – in other words, those adept with new technology and who have electronic health records...

Hayes-Mota hopes the papal document can place the church, especially in the U.S., at the forefront of an emerging and urgent public conversation. The pope, he said, can play a leading role in fostering that conversation and ensuring it’s “anchored in moral values” and the fundamental questions AI is raising."

UCF commencement speaker met with boos over pro-AI remarks during ceremony: ‘Struck a chord’; New York Post, May 13, 2026

  Nicholas McEntyre, New York Post; UCF commencement speaker met with boos over pro-AI remarks during ceremony: ‘Struck a chord’

"A Florida real estate bigwig faced mockery and boos for proclaiming that “artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution” during her commencement speech at the University of Central Florida last week.

Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Orlando-based Tavistock Development Company, made the highly ridiculed remark in front of communication and media graduates at the university’s Addition Financial Arena on Friday night.

“The rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution,” Caulfield said as a loud chorus of boos rained down on her."

The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly; The Atlantic, May 13, 2026

 Lila Shroff, The Atlantic ; The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly

"A version of this has played out before: Silicon Valley is fond of likening AI to the Industrial Revolution. In such comparisons, the tech industry likes to point to the immense wealth that industrialization unlocked. Over the long run, it’s true that the Industrial Revolution radically boosted economic growth. But living through it was another matter entirely. Many people saw their wages stagnate and working conditions deteriorate as factory owners and industrialists came into immense wealth. (Just read a Charles Dickens novel, and you’ll get the idea.) This led to riots and, occasionally, attacks on the industrialists themselves...

In much the same way, during an economic downturn of any kind, AI’s reputation seems likely to decline...

Silicon Valley is waking up to the resentment. Tech insiders have spent recent weeks exchanging tactics on X with advice on how to better sell AI. Perhaps, if data centers were beautiful, people would like them more? In particular, there’s been an effort to change the narrative around AI job loss. The venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz recently published an essay declaring the “job apocalypse” to be a baseless fantasy. “The macro story is not a jobless future, where we retire fat and complacent to our Netflix-scooters,” it read. In 2023, after ChatGPT came out, Altman told my colleague Ross Andersen that “jobs are definitely going to go away, full stop.” Now he appears to have changed his tune: “Jobs doomerism is likely long-term wrong,” Altman wrote earlier this month...

“Disruption has winners and losers,” Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor and AI expert, told me. “For many Americans, they’re not convinced they’re going to be the winners, and they base that conclusion on the history of technology over the last 20 years.” If the tech industry truly believes that a simple change in messaging will quell the backlash, then they are misunderstanding the problem entirely."

Most U.S. doctors are quietly using this AI tool. Few patients know about it.; NBC News, May 13, 2026

 Jared Perlo, NBC News; Most U.S. doctors are quietly using this AI tool. Few patients know about it. 

"Almost two-thirds of physicians — or roughly 650,000 doctors — in the U.S. actively use OpenEvidence, while another 1.2 million use it internationally, OpenEvidence representatives said. With its quick and tailored replies, OpenEvidence has become an AI-era equivalent of consulting a colleague for their expert opinion, though the software can also write patient discharge notes and provide custom study tools for doctors’ medical exams.

“Sixty percent of all the searches are about how to make clinical decisions,” said Jena, who is currently examining 90 million OpenEvidence queries submitted since 2024 as part of a new research project. “The physicians are asking: For this particular patient, or with this profile, this condition, maybe other comorbidities that they have, what’s the right treatment?”

Yet with OpenEvidence’s skyrocketing popularity, some experts worry about potential hallucinations or incomplete answers, a lack of rigorous scientific studies on the tool’s patient impact, and the potential for doctors’ critical thinking and evaluation skills to erode with increased OpenEvidence use and dependence.

But many in the medical world see OpenEvidence as a time-saving tool that can improve patient care."

Canada Targets AI Copyright Rules While Weighing Social Media Age Restrictions — Web Summit; Deadline, May 12, 2026

 Stewart Clarke , Deadline; Canada Targets AI Copyright Rules While Weighing Social Media Age Restrictions — Web Summit

"The Canadian government is preparing new rules on how copyright holders should be compensated when their work is used by AI systems, as it also weighs age restrictions on social media and tighter regulation of AI chatbots.

Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, was speaking at Web Summit Vancouver."

I Forgave My Mother, but It Was Too Late; The New York Times, May 10, 2026

Molly Jong-Fast, The New York Times; I Forgave My Mother, but It Was Too Late

"When my children were small, two of them had developmental issues that meant spending hours and hours with therapists. I stopped writing so I could take them from physical therapy to speech therapy to occupational therapy. The therapists’ waiting rooms became my second home, and sometimes my mother would come and sit with me. It was weird because she wouldn’t do that kind of thing with me when I was a kid. I’d beg her to pick me up at school, but she never could. Sometimes when we were sitting in those waiting rooms staring at our phones, she would apologize. I could have told her it was OK, but I didn’t want to let her off the hook.

I regret that now. I should have forgiven her. I’ve forgiven her now, but she won’t ever know."

Celebrities are filing trademarks to combat AI clones. Should you?; The Washington Post, May 8, 2026

 Ethan Beck, The Washington Post ; Celebrities are filing trademarks to combat AI clones. Should you?

"The lawyers The Post spoke with for this article said that more celebrities might follow McConaughey and Swift in registering trademarks of their likenesses. If they’re using their likenesses or voices in a commercial context — a requirement to claim a trademark — these registrations could act as a safeguard. Pollack said a lot of his clients have asked about filing trademarks as a protection in the AI age.

“McConaughey and Swift registered sound clips, which is not entirely novel,” said Jennifer Rothman, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “That will probably cause more of a trend of people who are actors and singers using those voice clips to claim that their voice itself is a mark.”"

Mayor Mamdani restores library funding after public outcry; Gothamist, May 12, 2026

Elizabeth Kim , Gothamist; Mayor Mamdani restores library funding after public outcry

"Mayor Zohran Mamdani is turning the page on a plan that would have cut funding to New York City libraries...

But library supporters wasted no time mobilizing against the cuts. NYC PLAN, which is made up of library patrons and staff members, held a rally for libraries in March. They also launched an online campaign describing the mayor’s preliminary budget as “terrible” for the city’s libraries."

At the AAP’s Annual Meeting, Talk of AI, Copyright, and ‘Ripples of Hope’; Publishing Perspectives, May 12, 2026

  Andrew Albanese, Publishing Perspectives; At the AAP’s Annual Meeting, Talk of AI, Copyright, and ‘Ripples of Hope’

"The Association of American Publishers hosted its annual meeting on May 7, with a program that used the 250th birthday of the United States to celebrate the central role of publishing and copyright in the nation’s history.

The 90-minute virtual program featured Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and presidential biographer Jon Meacham, in conversation with his editor, Andy Ward, Executive Vice President and Publisher at Random House, and Stanford University copyright scholar and author Paul Goldstein, who joined AAP president and CEO Maria Pallante, for a conversation about copyright law on the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Copyright Act."

How AI Killed a 133-Year-Old Princeton Tradition; The Atlantic, May 12, 2026

 Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic ; How AI Killed a 133-Year-Old Princeton Tradition

The school’s famous Honor Code was no match for chatbot-enabled cheating.

"Much of higher education’s value rests on the assumption that cheating is an exception, not the rule. A diploma is meaningless if employers and graduate programs can’t trust that graduates learned something in college. Prospective students and their families must believe that their tuition dollars will purchase a good education. And taxpayers need to trust that public-school students are getting something from their four years of subsidized education. Rampant AI use breaks down these signals. “It is bad policy to suspect a man of being a rogue in order to be sure that he is a scholar,” The Princetonian warned in 1876. Perhaps so. But the alternative is even worse."

Authors Guild Issues Updated AI Best Practices for Writers; Publishers Weekly, May 12, 2026

 Jim, Milliot, Publishers Weekly; Authors Guild Issues Updated AI Best Practices for Writers

What palm readers and chatbots have in common; The New York Times, May 12, 2026

Herbert Lin, The New York Times; What palm readers and chatbots have in common

Artificial intelligence doesn’t understand humans. It reflects them back to themselves. 

"A Pew Research Center survey conducted last fall found that around 1 in 8 American teenagers turn to artificial intelligence chatbots for emotional support — for the simple human need to feel heard. A 2025 Common Sense Media study went further: Thirty-one percent of teens said their conversations with AI companions were at least as satisfying as talking with real friends. Famed evolutionary biologist and science communicator Richard Dawkins spent many hours chatting with Anthropic’s Claude, after which he felt he had gained a new friend — a reaction that says less about Claude’s consciousness than about people’s readiness to find it.

But this is not only about technology. It’s an ancient human story. 

Chatbots are just programs running on computers. Yet we speak of them with a reverence that has little to do with engineering. AI “knows.” It “understands.” It “sees” patterns invisible to the rest of us. It delivers judgments on health, relationships, careers, grief — questions where facts and logic fall short. What makes these machines seem wise is a simple combination: fluency, confidence and frequent usefulness. That is enough. 

It is also the grammar of the occult...

None of this is an argument against using AI or chatbots. These systems are genuinely useful — for analysis, synthesis, translation, coding and cognitive reframing of problems that resist easy solutions. The concern here is not capability but epistemology: not what AI can do, but how we reason about what it is."

I’m a Doctor. Here’s What A.I. Cannot Do.; The New York Times, May 5, 2026

Danielle Ofri, The New York Times; I’m a Doctor. Here’s What A.I. Cannot Do.

"There’s an ocean of distance between the “patient” that A.I. is analyzing and the patient that the human doctor or nurse is assessing."

Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright; The Guardian, May 11, 2026

 Kim Willsher, The Guardian; Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright

"Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.

Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.

L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.

The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.

While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat).

A group of researchers at the Sorbonne worked on the project, called Molière Ex Machina, for two and a half years. The team included a three-person group of artists and researchers called Obvious."

Google Says Criminal Hackers Used A.I. to Find a Major Software Flaw; The New York Times, May 11, 2026

Dustin Volz, The New York Times ; Google Says Criminal Hackers Used A.I. to Find a Major Software Flaw

"A criminal hacking group recently attempted to launch a widespread cyberattack that appeared to rely on artificial intelligence to detect a previously unknown bug, Google said in research published Monday, highlighting the potential threat that A.I. poses to digital security.

Security experts have feared for years that malicious hackers could eventually rely on A.I. models to identify undisclosed flaws in computer code to launch crippling attacks that are difficult to guard against. That fear was largely theoretical until now.

“We have high confidence that the actor likely leveraged an A.I. model to support the discovery and weaponization of this vulnerability,” the report said.

The tech giant did not say precisely when the thwarted attack happened, whom it was targeting or which A.I. platform the hackers used, but the company added that it did not believe it was its own Gemini chatbot."

This Bookstore Gets Good Mileage; The New York Times, May 9, 2026

 Visuals and Text by Ruth Fremson, The New York Times; This Bookstore Gets Good Mileage

"Saint Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore Textual Apothecary (its name painted on the sides and back of the van) is a vehicle for the cross-pollination of people and conversation. That’s what has evolved since Collins, now 74, began imagining her retirement dream more than a decade ago — not just selling high quality, inexpensive books, but setting her love of people, places and the wonders of a good read all in motion together."

They Were Promised New Septic Tanks. Trump Called It ‘Illegal DEI.’, May 11, 2026

 Bernard Mokam, The New York Times ; They Were Promised New Septic Tanks. Trump Called It ‘Illegal DEI.’

The Justice Department ended a deal that had helped fund a solution to the sewage crisis in rural Alabama. “Almost like we are starting all over again,” one activist said.

"It is a plight that has long plagued residents across Alabama’s Black Belt, a stretch of largely rural counties so named for its dark soil and history of slavery. Cotton flourished in the region for the same reasons that conventional septic tanks fail there: The soil is dense and holds onto water. Today there are more than 50,000 people in the region who pipe raw sewage into open trenches and pits.

Now, a seeming solution to the public health problem has been stymied by an unlikely force: the Trump administration’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Three years ago, the Biden administration concluded in its first-ever environmental justice investigation that Alabama officials had failed to adequately address the sanitation crisis disproportionately affecting the Black residents of Lowndes County. The state agreed to an interim agreement that unlocked millions of dollars in federal funding to provide homeowners with septic tanks that could handle the difficult soil.

But soon after President Trump returned to office last year, the Justice Department ended the settlement, calling it “illegal DEI.”

The administration also scuttled a separate $14 million E.P.A. grant that had been earmarked to install new systems and provide work force training across Lowndes, Hale and Wilcox Counties.

Community activists fear the region may be doomed to enduring wastewater challenges forever."

Shein accuses Temu of copyright infringement on 'industrial scale'; Quartz, May 11, 2026

 Colleen Cabili , Quarz; Shein accuses Temu of copyright infringement on 'industrial scale'

"Shein accused rival Temu of copyright infringement "on an industrial scale" as a two-week trial opened Monday at London's High Court, with Temu firing back that the lawsuit was designed to stifle competition rather than protect intellectual property."

Sean Duffy Slammed Over Road Trip Reality Show Filmed Over Seven Months; Forbes, May 10, 2026

Zachary Folk , Forbes; Sean Duffy Slammed Over Road Trip Reality Show Filmed Over Seven Months

"Speaking to “Fox and Friends” on Friday, Duffy, a former reality television star of MTV’s “The Real World” and “Road Rules: All Stars,” said he spent the last seven months intermittently filming a road trip reality television show with his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy.

The trip with some of their nine children is “a civic experience” to highlight destinations across the U.S. as part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration, according to Duffy, who encouraged Americans to “gas up the car, pack up the kids, get behind the wheel and get out and see America.”

Duffy’s announcement was quickly met with criticism from Democrats and other online commentators—with Duffy’s predecessor Pete Buttigieg calling the show“ brutally out of touch” due to rising gas prices caused by disruptions in the oil market from the Trump administration’s war in Iran.

In response, Duffy insisted the program was funded by the Great American Road Trip nonprofit organization and that “zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family.”

Duffy and Campos-Duffy, also a former “Real World” and “Road Rules” cast member, said the program was filmed in “short” production windows like weekends and their childrens’ breaks from school, and that their family would not receive a salary or royalties from the show."

Dua Lipa sues Samsung for $15 million for allegedly using her image to sell TVs; Reuters, May 11, 2026

 Rhea Rose Abraham , Reuters; Dua Lipa sues Samsung for $15 million for allegedly using her image to sell TVs

"British pop star ‌Dua Lipa has filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics seeking at least $15 million in damages, accusing the South Korean tech giant of using her image without permission to market its television sets.

The lawsuit ​alleges that Samsung featured a copyrighted image of the pop star on ​the front of cardboard boxes containing televisions for retail sale, enabling the company ⁠to benefit from what seemed like her endorsement of the product."

Forget the AI job apocalypse. AI’s real threat is worker control and surveillance; The Guardian, May 11, 2026

Nazrul Islam , The Guardian; Forget the AI job apocalypse. AI’s real threat is worker control and surveillance

"The real danger that artificial intelligence poses to work is not just job loss – it is the growing divide between people who use AI to extend their skills and those whose working lives are increasingly shaped by opaque, AI-powered systems of surveillance and control.

The debate about artificial intelligence and how it will affect workers is stuck in the wrong place. On one side are warnings that machines are coming for millions of jobs. On the other are claims that AI will turbocharge productivity. Both stories miss what is already happening in workplaces across the world, from Britain to Kenya to the United States.

For some, AI can help remove the drudgery from daily work. These are often people in better-paid, higher-autonomy roles: analysts, consultants, lawyers, academics, managers. In these jobs, provided AI is being rolled out to augment workers rather than replace them, it can feel like a copilot. It can support human judgment, speed up routine tasks and create space for more creative thinking.

For many others, though, AI is not an assistant. It is a boss.

It appears in scheduling and monitoring tools, route optimisation software and automated performance dashboards – all systems that decide who gets what shift, how long a task should take and whether someone is performing at their maximum capacity. In these workplaces, AI is not something you use. It is something that watches and rules you.

That is the new divide we should all be paying attention to."