DevCat

A new analysis released last week by the international non-profit InfluenceMap reveals an overwhelmingly unequal share of fossil fuel pollution worldwide. From 2016 to 2022, 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions were produced by just 57 companies.

Though she argued that she supports “the ability for mothers and fathers to have total access for IVF,” Hyde-Smith said she would not support Duckworth’s legislation.

“The bill before us today is a vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way to far, far beyond ensuring legal access to IVF,” she argued.

The Mississippi Republican said that the bill did not include limits on genetic engineering, surrogacy, or even cloning.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Married people in West Virginia could be charged with certain acts of sexual abuse against their spouses for the first time under a bill passed by the state Senate. The bill pushed by former prosecuting attorney Republican Sen. Ryan Weld would remove marriage as a defense to first- and third-degree sexual assault. There are two crimes of sexual violence outlined in West Virginia code. One is penetrative assault and the other is the forcible touching of a person’s sexual organs, breasts, and some other areas by another person. For the latter offense, there exists a martial exemption that shields a person from conviction if the crime is perpetrated against their spouse.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday asked a judge to impose a limited gag order on former President Donald Trump, who is charged in New York with falsifying business records related to hush money he paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

In their request, prosecutors cited what they called Trump's "longstanding and perhaps singular history" of attacking people he considers to be adversaries, including those associated with his other criminal and civil cases.

The trial in Trump's hush money case is scheduled to get underway on March 25.

Benjamin Goggin, NBC News’s deputy tech editor, defended his report on Nazis receiving a “friendly reception” at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference after CPAC publicly called it “false, misleading, and grossly manipulative.”

Goggin noted in his report that CPAC has long had to deal with far-right extremists trying to infiltrate the conference, but in past years would quickly eject those with explicit ties to neo-Nazis, like Nick Fuentes.

“But this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn’t meet any perceptible resistance at the conference where Donald Trump has been the keynote speaker since 2017,” Goggin wrote...

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued to block a proposed merger between grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, saying the $24.6 billion deal could result in higher prices for millions of American consumers.

The FTC filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oregon, alleging that the deal is anticompetitive and could harm shoppers by boosting prices for groceries and other essential household items. The merger could also result in lower quality products and services, as well as limit shoppers' options for where to buy groceries, the agency alleged.

The FTC was joined in the suit by eight state attorneys general and the District of Columbia.

Federal regulators are poised to ban the impersonation of anyone, aiming to thwart scams in an AI-driven world.

Driving the news: The FTC announced Thursday that it's proposing to modify a rule that already prevents the impersonation of government and businesses to include the impersonation of individuals.

Between the lines: The FTC's proposed rule could specifically make it illegal to use AI platforms to foster impersonation, such as "voice cloning" and falsified video.

The Authy Desktop apps for Windows and MacOS that are available or were previously downloaded from authy.com/download as well as those for Linux will reach their End-of-Life on March 19, 2024

BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s top seller of electric vehicles (EV) at the end of last year, crowning an extraordinary rise for the Chinese carmaker.

It delivered more fully electric cars than Tesla for the first time in the three-month period to December 31, and slashed the sales lead held by Elon Musk’s company over the year as a whole.

So how did a little-known Chinese battery maker grow so quickly to become Tesla’s biggest rival?

Kentucky’s law is one of the nation’s most sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ laws, limits instruction of human sexuality/gender identity in schools

Around the country, LGBTQ+ students and the campus groups founded to support them have become a growing target in the culture wars. In 2023 alone, 542 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced by state legislatures or in Congress, according to an LGBTQ-legislation tracker, with many of them focused on young people. Supporters of the bills say schools inappropriately expose students to discussions about gender identity and sexuality, and parents deserve greater control over what their kids are taught. Critics say the laws are endangering already vulnerable students.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – During a hearing Thursday in a suit against the state of Florida over its law that bans gender-affirming healthcare for minors, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle flatly stated that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly spread false information claiming that doctors were mutilating children’s genitals as the reason to enact the law.

The Associated Press reported Judge Hinkle told Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer for the state, the law was sold as defending children from mutilation when it is actually about preventing trans children from getting health care.

“When I’m analyzing the governor’s motivation, what should I make of these statements?” Hinkle asked. “This seems to be more than just hyperbole.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9979209

BUFFALO — G. Steven Pigeon, at one time one of the most powerful Democratic political power brokers in New York state, looked thin and gaunt, his suit coat sagging on his shoulders, as he stood before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller on Friday morning.

Pigeon wore a blank expression as Boller addressed him, not as a political kingmaker, but as a convicted sex offender.

Just days before Christmas, Pigeon would face his sentence for his November guilty plea to one count of first-degree sexual abuse, a class D violent felony. The charge stemmed from an incident involving a 9-year-old girl, six years ago.

The victim, Erie County prosecutors said, was someone that Pigeon knew. Prosecutors said Pigeon had taken the young girl out for a Christmas celebration.