Democrats in Congress are pressing back against a US Department of Labor (DOL) proposal that could significantly expand how Americans can use 401(k) retirement accounts—particularly by allowing allocations to crypto assets. In a letter shared with The Guardian, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and House education and workforce committee ranking member Bobby Scott of Virginia said the proposal would place an estimated $14.2 trillion in 401(k) savings at risk. They also warned that the change likely would not survive a court challenge. The Fight Over Crypto Access In Retirement Plans According to the letter, the proposal would “strip long-held investor protections from retirement savers” and encourage “more risky, complex, and expensive investments.” The lawmakers called it harmful to American workers, pointing to the way these alternative assets can behave during market stress. They argue that extreme price swings are not a hypothetical risk but a known feature of the
A belated change of policy on nude digital images of children must be part of a wider reset
Amid the flurry of resignations by ministers who said they had lost confidence in Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, Jess Phillips’s attack on his record on tech regulation stood out. “Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants, that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves,” she wrote. The postponement of an announcement in March left her frustrated. In the end, all that Ms Phillips managed to secure was a pledge that the law might change sometime.
Other campaigners echoed her frustration. Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the Internet Watch Foundation, agreed that the government had been slow to act, despite the rise in offences involving self‑generated explicit imagery.
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Bitcoin’s weekend crash below $60,000 can be linked to a deeper meaning relating to the May 2026 jobs report that came in far stronger than expected. The report from the US Department of Labor shows a resilient labor market, but it also complicated the liquidity that risk assets had been trying to price in, leaving […]
The post WTI US Oil Price Forecast: Rises to near $88.50 as Kuwait under attack, uptrend remains intact appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $88.45 during the early European trading hours on Monday. WTI price attracts some buyers following the Kuwaiti military reports of a missile and drone attack. Traders will closely monitor the Middle East developments and the US-Iran peace deal progress. The Guardian reported on Monday that Kuwait’s armed forces said that the country’s air defense systems were intercepting hostile missiles and drone attacks after air raid sirens sounded and emergency alerts were issued nationwide. Minutes after Kuwait reported coming under attack, US Central Command (Centcom) said it had conducted “strikes on Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones” over the weekend. Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said that it targeted an airbase used by the US
Dr Susan Oman on a campaign that is designed to raise public awareness of AI
Your editorial on Pope Leo XIV’s call to centre human dignity in AI debate makes an important argument (The Guardian view on the Pope and Claude: Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI is right to put humanity first, 25 May). While governments, faith leaders and tech bosses debate the future of AI, one group is consistently left out of the conversation: the public, the very people whose lives the technology is shaping.
Last week, I gave evidence on AI sovereignty to the all-party parliamentary group on AI that aligns with Pope Leo’s position. I argued that AI sovereignty was a series of deeply human and societal questions that exceed technical, material and macroeconomic concerns. I showed that public concern about AI has risen by 10% in two years, and that 91% believe fairness should be prioritised over economic gain. Yet there is no national programme to help the public understand, trust or have a say in AI.
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In calling for regulation of the digital revolution, and foregrounding human dignity, the pontiff has contributed to a crucial ethical debate
When the present pope adopted his regnal name, he explained the choice by reference to a 19th-century predecessor who used the papacy to address the great social question of his time. In the 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), Pope Leo XIII analysed the social forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution, and outlined principles for a just settlement between the forces of capital and labour. Leo XIV hopes to do something similar in relation to the accelerating digital upheaval of our own age.
As anxiety grows over big tech’s impact on how we work and live, such ambition should be applauded. The early fruits of the pope’s work were presented in the Vatican on Monday after the publication of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). In 42,000 or so words the document itemises the daunting challenges posed by dev
Once again, digital tools are running ahead of regulators. Civil liberties must not be sacrificed to policing
It is a familiar story. Extravagant claims are made on behalf of novel computerised tools. The public are told that this or that digital application or system is going to change the world for the better. Efficiencies will be unlocked and problems solved as human limitations are overcome by networked devices plugged into vast stores of data. Anyone who questions the narrative is a pessimist or, perhaps, a criminal.
This appears to be the logic behind arguments put forward on behalf of one such tool – live facial recognition technology. Law-abiding citizens have “nothing to fear” from the police’s increased reliance on mounted cameras, said the Home Office minister, Sarah Jones, last month, after a high court challenge brought on human rights and privacy grounds failed. The use of AI-powered identification software, made by the Japanese company NEC, “only locates specifically wa
A new study from Harvard Medical School indicates that AI can outperform doctors in initial assessments in emergency care, according to The Guardian. The study, published in the journal Science, compared AI tools with doctors in triage situations — the process in which patients are sorted and prioritized, and where quick decisions must be made based on limited information.
The results show that the AI system identified the correct or nearly correct diagnosis in 67% of cases, compared to 50% to 55% percent for doctors. When more detailed patient data was available, the AI’s accuracy increased to 82%, while the doctors’ accuracy ranged from 70% to 79%.
The AI, based on OpenAI’s model o1, also performed better when it came to developing treatment plans. In a test using clinical cases, the AI achieved 89% accuracy, while doctors using traditional tools such as search engines reached 34%.
However, the researchers emphasized that the results do not mean AI can outright replace doctors. The s
Welcome to AI Insider’s The Week Ahead in AI. See the key developments and events we’re watching May 3- 9. Weekend AI News Briefs AI Facial Recognition Oversight Lagging Far Behind Technology, Watchdogs Warn According to The Guardian, Britain’s biometric watchdogs warned that the rapid expansion of AI-powered facial recognition technology by police and retailers is […]
