Jimmy Kimmel slams FCC after chair demands changes to talk shows: 'Doing everything he can to shut us up'; Entertainment Weekly, January 23, 2026

Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly; Jimmy Kimmel slams FCC after chair demands changes to talk shows: 'Doing everything he can to shut us up'

"Jimmy Kimmel is fighting with the FCC once again.

The comedian used his Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue on Thursday night to draw attention to the organization's chair, Brendan Carr, after he demanded that talk shows like Live and The View give an equal amount of time to political candidates on both sides of the aisle.

"[Carr] is doing everything he can to shut us up, the easy way or the hard way," Kimmel said in the monologue.

The FCC released new guidance on Wednesday that argued that talk shows and late-night shows should not be considered "bona fide" news programs, and thus should not continue to receive exemption from the equal time rule. That night, President Trump posted a link to a Los Angeles Times article with the caption, "FCC takes aim at The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live in fight over ‘equal time’ rules for politicians."

The new guidance effectively states that shows like Jimmy Kimmel Liveand The Late Show With Stephen Colbert must now give equal time to all political candidates running for the same office.

"They're reinterpreting long-agreed-upon rules to stifle us," Kimmel said. "And this one's a little bit complicated. It's not as easy as what happened the last time.  So I want to break it down.""

Philadelphia sues US government for removal of slavery-related exhibit; The Guardian, January 23, 2026

Marina Dunbar , The Guardian; Philadelphia sues US government for removal of slavery-related exhibit

"Philadelphia is taking legal action against the Trump administration following the National Park Service’s decision to dismantle a long-established slavery-related exhibit at Independence National Historical park, which holds the former residence of George Washington.

The city filed its lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, naming the US Department of Interior and its secretary, Doug Burgum, the National Park Service, and its acting director, Jessica Bowron, as defendants. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the exhibits to be restored while the case proceeds.

The display stood at the President’s House site, once home to George Washington and John Adams, and included information recognizing people enslaved by Washington, along with a broader chronology of slavery in the US...

The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, sharply criticized the decision to take down the signs, arguing that Trump “will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history”

“But he picked the wrong city – and he sure as hell picked the wrong Commonwealth,” Shapiro added in a message posted on X. “We learn from our history in Pennsylvania, even when it’s painful.”...

Congress had encouraged the National Park Service in 2003 to formally acknowledge the enslaved people who lived and worked at the President’s House. The lawsuit states that in 2006, the city and the agency agreed to collaborate on creating an exhibit for the site, which opened in 2010 with a memorial and informational panels focused on slavery.

The removal of the exhibit is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to eliminate cultural content that does not align with his policy agenda."

How the National Park Service Is Deleting American History; The New York Times, January 23, 2026

Maxine Joselow and Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times; How the National Park Service Is Deleting American History

[Kip Currier: Trump 2.0's ongoing efforts to censor and erase history and science are appallingly Orwellian, yet also childishly regressive and unevolved.

When this modern Dark Age of willful ignorance and information suppression has passed, the uncomfortable truths, silenced voices, and inescapable facts will need to be restored to our collective historical record and cultural heritage institutions.]

[Excerpt]

"At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the Trump administration took down an exhibit on the contradiction between President George Washington’s enslavement of people and the Declaration of Independence’s promise of liberty.

At Muir Woods National Monument in California, the administration dismantled a plaque about how the tallest trees on the planet could help store carbon dioxide and slow the Earth’s dangerous warming.

And at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, Trump officials ordered the National Park Service to stop showing films about the women and immigrants who once toiled in the city’s textile mills.

Across the country, Park Service workers have started taking down plaques, films and other materials in connection with a directive from President Trump to remove or rewrite content that may “disparage Americans” or promote “corrosive ideology.”"

Actors And Musicians Help Launch “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” Campaign To Protest Big Tech’s Use Of Copyrighted Works In AI Models; Deadline, January 22, 2026

 Ted Johnson , Deadline; Actors And Musicians Help Launch “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” Campaign To Protest Big Tech’s Use Of Copyrighted Works In AI Models

"A long list of musicians, content creators and actors are among those who have signed on to a new campaign to protest tech giants’ use of copyrighted works in their AI models.

The list of signees includes actors like Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett, music groups like REM and authors like Brad Meltzer. 

The ‘Stealing Isn’t Innovation” campaign is being led by the Human Artistry Campaign. It states that “respect and protect” the Creative community, “some of the biggest tech companies, many backed by private equity and other funders, are using American creators’ work to build AI platforms without authorization or regard for copyright law.”"

Generating a love that’s more fierce than the harms that confront us; Presbyterian News Service, January 23, 2026

Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian News Service; Generating a love that’s more fierce than the harms that confront us

"The Rev. Paul Roberts, who leads the Justice Center for Sacred Theological Studies — formerly known as Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary — delivered the opening plenary Wednesday as part of the Annual Event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education."

White House posts digitally altered image of woman arrested after ICE protest; The Guardian, January 22, 2026

Sam Levine, The Guardian; White House posts digitally altered image of woman arrested after ICE protest

"The White House posted a digitally altered image of a woman who was arrested on Thursday in a case touted by the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to make it seem as if she was dramatically crying, a Guardian analysis of the image has found.

The woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, also appears to have darker skin in the altered image. Armstrong was one of three people arrested on Thursday in connection to a demonstration that disrupted church services in St Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. Demonstrators alleged that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director of the St Paul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. Bondi announced the arrests on social media on Thursday morning.

The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, posted an image of Armstrong’s arrest at 10.21am on Thursday, less than an hour after Bondi’s announcement. The image shows a law enforcement agent, face blurred out, escorting Armstrong, who appears to be handcuffed. Armstrong, dressed in all black, appears to be composed in the picture.

A little more than 30 minutes later, the White House posted another image of Armstrong’s arrest in which she is crying. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, reposted the image. The image posted by the White House is altered, a Guardian analysis found."

A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.; The New York Times Magazine, January 22, 2026

Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser ; Photographs by Stephen Voss, The New York Times Magazine; A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.: Forty-five current and former employees on the changes they say are undermining the agency and making America less safe."When he returned to office last year, President Trump called the F.B.I. a “corrupt” agency in need of overhaul. He had by then been the subject of three F.B.I. investigations: Agents examined his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Though all three inquiries took place in part or entirely under Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director Trump appointed, he repeatedly accused the bureau of mounting a partisan attack against him.To replace Wray, Trump chose Kash Patel, a former public defender and intelligence official who had never worked for the F.B.I. and had spun conspiracy theories about the bureau. Since Patel’s confirmation last February, the F.B.I. has undergone a transformation that has upended its nonpartisan rules and norms, deeply rattling many of its 38,000 employees.Patel has fired agents who worked on the Trump investigations and radically changed the bureau’s mission. More than 20 percent of the F.B.I.’s work force has been assigned to immigration enforcement, pulling agents and analysts away from investigating public corruption, cybercrime, white-collar crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. Patel has also been embroiled in controversies over his use of government resources, his temperament and missteps in high-profile investigations.We interviewed 45 employees who work at the F.B.I. or who left during Trump’s second term, as well as many other current and former government officials. Beginning with Trump’s selection of Patel, our sources narrated the events that most troubled them over the last year. Many details of what we learned are reported here for the first time.The F.B.I. is a rule-bound and tight-lipped institution. Bureau policies prohibit active employees from speaking to the news media without authorization. Even for former employees, speaking out is a sign of serious alarm. Some of our sources shared their stories anonymously because they feared retribution from the administration. (To protect their identities, we are not indicating whether the people we quote anonymously are still employed by the F.B.I.) We corroborated their descriptions of specific events and conversations with colleagues, contemporaneous notes and internal records. Patel and other F.B.I. leaders named in this article declined our requests for interviews, and we followed up with a detailed list of questions. In response to a request for comment, Ben Williamson, an F.B.I. spokesman, wrote: “This story is a regurgitation of fake narratives, conjecture and speculation from anonymous sources who are disconnected from reality. They can whine and peddle falsehoods all they want — but it won’t change the facts that the F.B.I. under this administration worked with partners at every level and delivered a historic 2025.”We also asked the White House for comment. “President Trump and F.B.I. Director Kash Patel are restoring integrity to the F.B.I. by returning its focus to fighting crime and letting good cops be cops,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.Many current and former employees fear, however, that the F.B.I. has become a weapon of the White House, and that the firings and the diversion of resources to immigration enforcement have left the country vulnerable to attack."

What images of a detained five-year-old boy reveal about Trump’s draconian ICE crackdown; The Guardian, January 22, 2026

Robert Tait, The Guardian; What images of a detained five-year-old boy reveal about Trump’s draconian ICE crackdown

"One recent image shows the innocent figure of Liam Ramos, a five-year-old preschooler wearing a blue bobbled winter hat, standing next to a black vehicle with a dark-clad adult figure standing behind him, whose hand is proprietorially placed on his backpack.

A second picture depicts the same child at the door of a house, with what appears to be a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent standing behind him.

The exact circumstances of the photos – or their provenance – remains unclear. The homeland security department has insisted that Liam was being held for protective purposes after his father absconded when agents tried to detain him.

Yet officials from the Columbia Heights public school district, which circulated both pictures, say the latter conjures a dark and disturbing reality – of an unsuspecting Liam being exploited as bait to lure adults in his family home to open the door so ICE agents can arrest them."

ICE Detained a 5-Year-Old Minnesota Boy and Used Him As “Bait”; Mother Jones, January 22, 2026

 KATIE HERCHENROEDER, Mother Jones; ICE Detained a 5-Year-Old Minnesota Boy and Used Him As “Bait”

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a 5-year-old on his way home from school on Tuesday and used him as “bait” to knock on his front door to see if anyone was home, according to school officials in Minnesota. 

Liam Conejo Ramos, a preschooler, is one of at least four children from the Columbia Heights Public Schools district in suburban Minneapolis who have been detained this month, Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for the district, said in a press conference Wednesday."

Copyright Law Set to Govern AI Under Trump’s Executive Order; Bloomberg Law, January 23, 2026

 Michael McLaughlin , Bloomberg Law; Copyright Law Set to Govern AI Under Trump’s Executive Order

[Kip Currier: I posted this Bloomberg Law article excerpt to the Canvas site for the graduate students in my Intellectual Property and Open Movements course this term, along with the following note:

Copyright law is the potential giant-slayer vis-a-vis AI tech companies that have used copyrighted works as AI training data, without permission or compensation.

Information professionals who have IP acumen (e.g. copyright law and fair use familiarity) will have vital advantages on the job market and in their organizations.]

[Excerpt]

"The legal landscape for artificial intelligence is entering a period of rapid consolidation. With President Donald Trump’s executive order in December 2025 establishing a national AI framework, the era of conflicting state-level rules may be drawing to a close.

But this doesn’t signal a reduction in AI-related legal risk. It marks the beginning of a different kind of scrutiny—one centered not on regulatory innovation but on the most powerful legal instrument already available to federal courts: copyright law.

The lesson emerging from recent AI litigation, most prominently Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, is that the greatest potential liability to AI developers doesn’t come from what their models generate. It comes from how those models were trained, and from the provenance of the content used in that training.

As the federal government asserts primacy over AI governance, the decisive question will be whether developers can demonstrate that their training corpora were acquired lawfully, licensed appropriately (unless in the public domain), and documented thoroughly."

Anthropic’s Claude AI gets a new constitution embedding safety and ethics; CIO, January 22, 2026

John E. Dunn, CIO; Anthropic’s Claude AI gets a new constitution embedding safety and ethics

"Anthropic has completely overhauled the “Claude constitution”, a document that sets out the ethical parameters governing its AI model’s reasoning and behavior.

Launched at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Summit, the new constitution’sprinciples are that Claude should be “broadly safe” (not undermining human oversight), “Broadly ethical” (honest, avoiding inappropriate, dangerous, or harmful actions), “genuinely helpful” (benefitting its users), as well as being “compliant with Anthropic’s guidelines”.

According to Anthropic, the constitution is already being used in Claude’s model training, making it fundamental to its process of reasoning.

Claude’s first constitution appeared in May 2023, a modest 2,700-word document that borrowed heavily and openly from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Apple’s terms of service.

While not completely abandoning those sources, the 2026 Claude constitution moves away from the focus on “standalone principles” in favor of a more philosophical approach based on understanding not simply what is important, but why.

“We’ve come to believe that a different approach is necessary. If we want models to exercise good judgment across a wide range of novel situations, they need to be able to generalize — to apply broad principles rather than mechanically following specific rules,” explained Anthropic."

While not completely abandoning those sources, the 2026 Claude constitution moves away from the focus on “standalone principles” in favor of a more philosophical approach based on understanding not simply what is important, but why.“We’ve come to believe that a different approach is necessary. If we want models to exercise good judgment across a wide range of novel situations, they need to be able to generalize — to apply broad principles rather than mechanically following specific rules,” explained Anthropic."

While not completely abandoning those sources, the 2026 Claude constitution moves away from the focus on “standalone principles” in favor of a more philosophical approach based on understanding not simply what is important, but why.“We’ve come to believe that a different approach is necessary. If we want models to exercise good judgment across a wide range of novel situations, they need to be able to generalize — to apply broad principles rather than mechanically following specific rules,” explained Anthropic.

It Makes Sense That People See A.I. as God; The New York Times, January 23, 2026

 Joseph Bernstein , The New York Times; It Makes Sense That People See A.I. as God

"More and more, when it comes to our relationships with A.I. and the complex algorithms that shape so much of our modern subjectivity, we have slipped into the language and habits of mind we normally reserve for deities. And even people who do not make an explicit connection between A.I. and religion engage a kind of religious mode around the new technology."

Rollout of AI may need to be slowed to ‘save society’, says JP Morgan boss; The Guardian, January 21, 2026

John Collingridge and Graeme Wearden , The Guardian; Rollout of AI may need to be slowed to ‘save society’, says JP Morgan boss

"Jamie Dimon, the boss of JP Morgan, has said artificial intelligence “may go too fast for society” and cause “civil unrest” unless governments and business support displaced workers.

While advances in AI will have huge benefits, from increasing productivity to curing diseases, the technology may need to be phased in to “save society”, he said...

Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the semiconductor maker Nvidia, whose chips are used to power many AI systems, argued that labour shortages rather than mass payoffs were the threat.

Playing down fears of AI-driven job losses, Huang told the meeting in Davos that “energy’s creating jobs, the chips industry is creating jobs, the infrastructure layer is creating jobs … jobs, jobs, jobs”...

Huang also argued that AI robotics was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity for Europe, as the region had an “incredibly strong” industrial manufacturing base."

Sergeant Bluff library utilizes virtual reality to showcase preserved Holocaust survivors’ stories; KTIV.com, January 21, 2026

Taylor Deckert , KTIV.com; Sergeant Bluff library utilizes virtual reality to showcase preserved Holocaust survivors’ stories

"The Sergeant Bluff Public Library is preserving one of history’s darkest chapters for a generation that will never meet a Holocaust survivor face-to-face. 

They’re using virtual reality. The headsets are from the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, a trunk full of technology that brings history to life with a 360-degree view...

When visitors come to try the virtual reality experience at the Sergeant Bluff Public Library, they have multiple options of stories with different time lengths for different experiences...

“We’re at a time where most of the survivors are gone. And we’re really down to very, very few. And we are at a desperate place where we need to remember what happened because it’s so easy to repeat the past,” Torgerson said. “So it was really important to me because I feel like we are, it’s so easy to forget what has happened in the past.”

While the library has a selection of books on the Holocaust, it’s hoped the virtual reality experience will bring a new perspective on this time in history."

They’ve outsourced the worst parts of their jobs to tech. How you can do it, too.; The Washington Post, January 20, 2026

Danielle Abril, The Washington Post; They’ve outsourced the worst parts of their jobs to tech. How you can do it, too.

"Artificial intelligence is supposed to make your work easier. But figuring out how to use it effectively can be a challenge.

Over the past several years, AI models have continued to evolve, with plenty of tools for specific tasks such as note-taking, coding and writing. Many workers spent last year experimenting with AI, applying various tools to see what actually worked. And as employers increasingly emphasize AI in their business, they’re also expecting workers to know how to use it...

The number of people using AI for work is growing, according to a recent poll by Gallup. The percentage of U.S. employees who used AI for their jobs at least a few times a year hit 45 percent in the third quarter of last year, up five percentage points from the previous quarter. The top use cases for AI, according to the poll, was to consolidate information, generate ideas and learn new things.

The Washington Post spoke to workers to learn how they’re getting the best use out of AI. Here are five of their best tips. A caveat: AI may not be suitable for all workers, so be sure to follow your company’s policy."

‘Morally acceptable’ for U.S. troops to disobey orders, archbishop says; The Washington Post, January 20, 2026

Adela Suliman

, 

Anthony Faiola

 and 

Matthew Hay Brown

, The Washington Post; ‘Morally acceptable’ for U.S. troops to disobey orders, archbishop says

"As the Trump administration intervenes in Venezuela, readies troops for a possible deployment to Minnesota and threatens to seize Greenland, the Catholic archbishop for the U.S. armed forces said it “would be morally acceptable” for troops to disobey orders that violated their conscience.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio is among a chorus of Catholic leaders questioning the administration’s use of force. His comments also underscored the mounting concern being voiced by the first American pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, as well as his top cardinals in the United States, over the Trump administration’s foreign policy."

FREE WEBINAR: REGISTER: AI, Intellectual Property and the Emerging Legal Landscape; National Press Foundation, Thursday, January 22, 2026

 National Press Foundation; REGISTER: AI, Intellectual Property and the Emerging Legal Landscape

"Artificial intelligence is colliding with U.S. copyright law in ways that could reshape journalism, publishing, software, and the creative economy.

The intersection of AI and intellectual property has become one of the most consequential legal battles of the digital age, with roughly 70 federal lawsuits filed against AI companies and copyright claims on works ranging from literary and visual work to music and sound recording to computer programs. Billions of dollars are at stake.

Courts are now deciding what constitutes “fair use,” whether and how AI companies may use copyrighted material to build models, what licensing is required, and who bears responsibility when AI outputs resemble protected works. The legal decisions will shape how news, art, and knowledge are produced — and who gets paid for them.

To help journalists better understand and report on the developing legal issues of AI and IP, join the National Press Foundation and a panel of experts for a wide-ranging discussion around the stakes, impact and potential solutions. Experts in technology and innovation as well as law and economics join journalists in this free online briefing 12-1 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 22, 2026."

AI platforms like Grok are an ethical, social and economic nightmare — and we're starting to wake up; Australian Broadcasting Corporation, January 18, 2026

 Alan Kohler, Australian Broadcasting Corporation; AI platforms like Grok are an ethical, social and economic nightmare — and we're starting to wake up

 "As 2025 began, I thought humanity's biggest problem was climate change.

In 2026, AI is more pressing...

Musk's xAI and the other intelligence developers are working as fast as possible towards what they call AGI (artificial general intelligence) or ASI (artificial superintelligence), which is, in effect, AI that makes its own decisions. Given its answer above, an ASI version of Grok might decide not to do non-consensual porn, but others will.

Meanwhile, photographic and video evidence in courts will presumably become useless if they can be easily faked. Many courts are grappling with this already, including the Federal Court of Australia, but it could quickly get out of control.

AI will make politics much more chaotic than it already is, with incredibly effective fake campaigns including damning videos of candidates...

But AI is not like the binary threat of a nuclear holocaust — extinction or not — its impact is incremental and already happening. The Grok body fakes are known about, and the global outrage has apparently led to some controls on it for now, but the impact on jobs and the economy is completely unknown and has barely begun."

Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize; The New York Times, January 19, 2026

Jeffrey Gettleman and Henrik Pryser Libell , The New York Times; Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize

In a text, President Trump told Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace” and that the U.S. needed the island for global security.

"President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend.

Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s leader, received the text message on Sunday, an official in the prime minister’s office said on Monday.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Mr. Trump wrote in the message, which was first published by PBS.

In the message, Mr. Trump also questioned Denmark’s claim to Greenland, saying, “There are no written documents,” and adding, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you!”"