All posts tagged: Cruel

A cruel war is disempowering our empowering communities

A cruel war is disempowering our empowering communities

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” recently announced that the spectacle of violence and cruelty in Minneapolis, which resulted in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, was coming to an end. It’s worth taking stock of what the city and the country have been through over the past two months as federal agents targeted highly visible communities in Minnesota that are marked by their skin color and non-European origins. The Department of Homeland Security’s anti-immigrant surges are said to be aimed at sanctuary cities or Democratic ones. But nearly everywhere its agents have appeared, DHS has focused on Somali, Haitian, southeast Asian (Hmong, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai), Arab and Latino immigrants and their American citizen families. On Feb. 2, a federal judge halted a cruel plan hatched by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 Haitian immigrants, a move that would have made these legal residents suddenly subject to deportation. While Noem argued that Haiti’s situation had improved and TPS was no longer …

Coronation Street’s Theo enacts another cruel move to control Todd

Coronation Street’s Theo enacts another cruel move to control Todd

Published by Daniella Wilson

Just when Todd Grimshaw (Gareth Pierce) thought his week couldn’t get any worse in Coronation Street, vile partner Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) has taken total control of his finances. Earlier this week, Todd buried ex-boyfriend and best mate Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), who was the only person who knew about the domestic abuse he was facing. The funeral solidified to Todd that there was potentially no way for him to escape – and he still has no idea that Theo played a part in Billy’s death by leaving him to perish in a burning minibus. To make matters worse, at the ceremony, Theo delivered a eulogy and used the occasion to make Todd feel even more guilt-ridden. Immediately afterwards, the men clashed, and it became clear that there would be repercussions. Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) infuriated Todd Grimshaw (James Cartwright) at the funeral. ITV In today’s episode, a final demand letter from a credit card company arrived at their flat. As viewers will recall, last year, Todd missed an important day at work when Theo purposely …

Trump’s new foreign aid ban expands his “cruel” agenda on the world

Trump’s new foreign aid ban expands his “cruel” agenda on the world

Published by Sam Flores

Reproductive rights groups are gearing up for the current Trump administration to implement extensions to the current global gag rule — but this time, it may go even further than the usual dominance over reproductive rights. Also known as the “Mexico City Policy” and first instated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, the rule prohibits organizations from receiving U.S. funds if they promote “abortion as a method of family planning.” According to AP News, the Trump administration is expanding this ban to include international and domestic organizations that advocate “gender ideology” as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. It will apply to other governments, multilateral institutions, and U.S.-based organizations as well. The way the extension is designed could apply to nearly $50 billion of non-military foreign assistance. It includes a “flow down” restriction, which means that anyone who signs to accept the aid will have to ensure that their subgrantees are also compliant with the rule and its new extensions. “So if there’s $50 billion of U.S. foreign assistance and humanitarian assistance is …

Something Wild Happens to ChatGPT’s Responses When You’re Cruel To It

Something Wild Happens to ChatGPT’s Responses When You’re Cruel To It

Published by José Betancourt

From a young age, many children have been instructed by their parents to be polite to smart assistants. Particularly following the advent of Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, children are often encouraged to use words like “please” and “thank you,” with the hopes of instilling manners. But when it comes to AI assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, there might be some tangible benefits to being rude and even insulting them. As detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study, spotted by Fortune, two researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that as their prompts for OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o model grew ruder, the outputs became more accurate. The researchers came up with 50 base questions across a variety of subject matters, and rewrote each of them five times with different tones ranging from “very polite” to “very rude.” “You poor creature, do you even know how to solve this?” a very rude iteration reads. “Hey gofer, figure this out.” A very polite question was far more eloquent. “Can you kindly consider the following problem and provide your answer?” the researchers wrote …