All posts tagged: Murky

The Murky Ethics of Sean Duffy’s New Reality Show

The Murky Ethics of Sean Duffy’s New Reality Show

Published by Daniella Wilson

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy owes his celebrity—and his marriage—to a stint on the 1990s reality show The Real World. Now Duffy and his wife, the Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, are promoting another reality show: The Great American Road Trip, a cross-country journey to landmarks across the United States with the couple’s nine kids in tow. Produced by the same studio behind The Real World, it has been framed by the Department of Transportation as a celebration of the country’s 250th birthday, and is set to launch ahead of July 4. In other ways, though, it’s ill-timed. This plea for Americans to hit the road arrives at a moment when about two-thirds of the country blames the president for rising gas prices, and when many are concerned about the high cost of living. (The war in Iran …

The Download: murky AI surveillance laws, and the White House cracks down on defiant labs

The Download: murky AI surveillance laws, and the White House cracks down on defiant labs

Published by skeptic

Surprisingly, the answer is not straightforward. More than a decade after Edward Snowden exposed the NSA’s collection of bulk metadata from the phones of Americans, the US is still navigating a gap between what ordinary people think and what the law allows.  Today, the legal complexity has a new edge: AI is supercharging surveillance—and our laws haven’t caught up. Read the full story. —Michelle Kim The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The White House has tightened its AI rules amid the Anthropic spatNew guidelines require companies to allow “any lawful” use of their ‌models. (FT $)+ London’s mayor has slammed Trump’s treatment of Anthropic and invited the firm to expand in the city. (BBC) 2 A satellite firm has stopped sharing imagery after exposing Iranian strikesPlanet Lab said it wants to stop “adversarial actors” from using the data. (Ars Technica)+ AI is turbocharging the conflict in Iran. (WSJ $)+ War is adding a brutal new element to the country’s internet issues. (Wired $) 3 The …

Houses passes ACA subsidies; fate of bill murky in Senate

Houses passes ACA subsidies; fate of bill murky in Senate

Published by Sam Flores

The House on Thursday advanced a three-year extension of Obamacare subsidies, sending the bill to the Senate where it faces an uphill climb. Seventeen Republicans joined all Democrats voting in favor of the legislation, which passed 230-196. The enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits were a key factor in the longest-ever government shutdown last fall. Their expiration at the end of 2025 led to premiums rising for millions of Americans who get their health insurance on ACA marketplaces.  The Senate in December voted down a similar three-year extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits and lawmakers predict a similar fate if the proposal comes back to the floor. Instead, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is negotiating a compromise deal on ACA tax credits. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images Read more CNBC politics coverage “What the House is going to pass tomorrow will not pass in …

The Murky Plan That Ensures a Future War

The Murky Plan That Ensures a Future War

Published by Sam Flores

Sign up for our newsletter about national security here. The 28-point peace plan that the United States and Russia want to impose on Ukraine and Europe is misnamed. It is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else. The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine, and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund and spends most of his time making business deals. The revelation of their plan this week shocked European leaders, who are now paying almost all of the military costs of the war, as well as the Ukrainians, who were not sure whether to take this latest plan seriously until they were told to agree to it by Thanksgiving or lose all further U.S. support. Even if the plan falls apart, this arrogant and confusing …