All posts tagged: contentious

AI becomes contentious issue in 2026 midterm elections over donations

AI becomes contentious issue in 2026 midterm elections over donations

Published by Sam Flores

The US Capitol during a rainstorm in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images Funding from AI groups is becoming a flashpoint in the 2026 midterm elections, as a major political action committee that launched in 2025 with support from AI companies announced its latest fundraising haul. Super PAC Leading the Future will announce Wednesday it has raised $15 million in the first quarter of 2026 across all of its entities, bringing the group’s total haul for the 2026 election season to $140 million. The group’s backers include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, SV Angel founder Ron Conway and AI software company Perplexity. The group has backed candidates of both parties in the midterms. It also recently endorsed five House Democrats: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) and Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.). But a coalition of groups led by The Tech Oversight Project, an advocacy group that seeks to break up big tech companies, is pressuring those same Democrats to …

Fraud accusations fly as Hungarians vote in contentious election – POLITICO

Fraud accusations fly as Hungarians vote in contentious election – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Magyar’s Tisza party has made available its own system for voters to report fraud. Fidesz has followed suit by enabling a hotline and a dedicated email address. “The overwhelming majority of these violations are tied to Tisza. They cry fraud — but they are the ones committing it,” Fidesz MEP Csaba Dömötör said Sunday morning. “Based on Fidesz submissions, 639 cases of electoral violations have been established, with 74 police reports currently underway,” Dömötör said. Opposition leader Magyar said early Sunday that he would accept the results as long as there is no serious electoral fraud, urging voters to report any irregularities they see, HVG reported. Magyar said that if the election is fair and free then Tisza will win; and he accused Orbán’s government of preparing false flag actions to invalidate results in Tisza-led districts. Orbán’s international spokesman Zoltán Kovács, meanwhile, posted a message on X Sunday morning accusing Tisza of preparing the ground to storm government buildings if they lose.   “Location matters — and this one speaks volumes,” Kovács said about the …

Senate Democrats wade into their party’s most contentious primaries: From the Politics Desk

Senate Democrats wade into their party’s most contentious primaries: From the Politics Desk

Published by Sam Flores

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In today’s edition, Bridget Bowman explores how Democratic senators are ramping up their midterm activity as primary season heats up. Plus, Dan De Luce examines how President Donald Trump and his top intelligence officials don’t appear to be on the same page on Iran. Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here. — Adam Wollner Senate Democrats wade into their party’s most contentious primaries Analysis by Bridget Bowman The first rule of “Fight Club,” of course, is that you don’t talk about “Fight Club.” But if the secret is already out, the next thing to do is fight. That’s what the group of Democratic senators looking to make their mark on competitive primaries — who call themselves the “Fight Club,” as The New York Times reported last year — are starting to do. This week, one of those Fight Club …

Louisiana Tech Football Is on 2 League Schedules Amid Its Contentious Departure From Conference USA

Louisiana Tech Football Is on 2 League Schedules Amid Its Contentious Departure From Conference USA

Published by Sam Flores

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana Tech’s football team is currently listed on both the Sun Belt and Conference USA league schedules as the Bulldogs’ acrimonious departure from Conference USA continues to drag out. Last July, the Sun Belt extended membership to Louisiana Tech, and the school accepted, citing, among other things, the logic of joining a conference that includes two potential in-state rivals in Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe, along with other programs in the Gulf South, including Southern Miss and South Alabama. All of those schools are on the 2026 football schedule that Louisiana Tech released on Friday. But Conference USA also released a full conference slate this week that includes Louisiana Tech matchups against league members Middle Tennessee, Florida International, Missouri State, Liberty, Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State. When Louisiana Tech announced its move to the Sun Belt, the school stated that the move would occur no later than July 1, 2027, but left little doubt that it preferred to make the move for 2026-27 academic year. Since then, Tech and Conference USA have failed …

Vermont town meetings grapple with contentious debate on big issues : NPR

Vermont town meetings grapple with contentious debate on big issues : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Tuesday is town meeting day in Vermont. Municipalities in New England and elsewhere are increasingly grappling with major national and international issues at the local level. JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images If you haven’t lived in certain New England towns, it can be hard to fathom their centuries-old direct democracy-style Town Meetings, where everyday residents vote on mundane town business such as funding for schools, snow plows and road repairs. These days, voters are also being asked to weigh in on national and international issues, for example, demanding the de-funding of ICE, and condemning “the unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war against Iran.” It’s all fueling a separate – and fierce– debate on what towns ought to be debating. “When you have people sleepwalking into an authoritarian regime, it’s up to us to sound the alarm,” insists Dan Dewalt, an activist in Newfane, Vermont, one of several communities where residents scrambled to draft a resolution against the Iran war in time for their annual Town Meeting …

Israel will begin contentious West Bank land registration : NPR

Israel will begin contentious West Bank land registration : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. Ohad Zwigenberg/AP hide caption toggle caption Ohad Zwigenberg/AP TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel will begin a contentious land regulation process in a large part of the occupied West Bank, which could result in Israel gaining control over wide swaths of the area for future development, according to a government decision on Sunday. It paves the way for the resumption of “settlement of land title” processes, which had been frozen in the West Bank since the Mideast War in 1967. It means that when Israel begins the land registration process for a certain area, anyone with a claim to the land must submit documents proving ownership. The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said the process likely amounts to a “mega land grab” from Palestinians. “This move is very dramatic and allows the state to gain control of almost all of Area C,” said Hagit Ofran, the director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch program. Area C …

House votes to end partial government shutdown, setting up contentious talks on ICE : NPR

House votes to end partial government shutdown, setting up contentious talks on ICE : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with reporters following a rules vote on funding the U.S. government, at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 3. Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images The House has approved a more than $1 trillion spending package that brings to an end the partial government shutdown. The legislation passed by a vote of 217 to 214, with 21 Democrats joining Republicans in supporting. The measure, which President Trump signed into law shortly after passage, funds several of the government’s largest departments through the end of the fiscal year in September. This includes the Pentagon and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the departments of Transportation, Education and Housing and Urban Development. The spending agreement also includes a stopgap measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13. Lawmakers are aiming to use that 10-day window to negotiate changes to federal immigration enforcement in the wake of the deaths of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month. Democrats are …

Walz’s Anne Frank comment shows how Holocaust remembrance has become contentious

Walz’s Anne Frank comment shows how Holocaust remembrance has become contentious

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, one of the guardians of Holocaust memory, shot back quickly earlier this week after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared children’s fears about immigration authorities in his state to Anne Frank’s desperation in her Amsterdam hideout before her arrest by the Nazis. In a post on X, the museum called the governor’s comparison “deeply offensive.” “Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish,” the post said. “Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable.” The reaction, coming a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday (Jan. 27), is the most recent flare-up in a fierce debate about the goals of Holocaust education over the past two years. Is the lesson of Holocaust a universal call to prevent genocide and protect human rights, or is it a specific call to make sure Jews are never again subject to mass murder? The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was closed Tuesday because of Sunday’s winter storm, which still grips the nation’s capital, but a …