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☆ Harvard ‘absolutely failed’ to comply with unprecedented subpoena in antisemitism probe, House Education Committee chair says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Republican chairwoman of the House Education Committee, said Tuesday that Harvard University has failed to comply with her unprecedented subpoena for documents on campus antisemitism. Harvard turned over another trove of documents about campus antisemitism to Congress on Monday evening. Foxx argued that heavy redactions by Harvard made several documents “useless,” while many others were duplicates of documents previously submitted. The Education Committee did not detail specifically which steps lawmakers are now considering to enforce its subpoena. “Harvard denounced antisemitism on our campus and have made clear that the University will continue to take actions to combat antisemitism in any form,” Newton said.

Persons: Virginia Foxx, Foxx, ” “, ” Foxx, Harvard, –, “, Alan Garber, Penny Pritzker, There’s, Jason Newton, “ Harvard, ” Newton Organizations: CNN — Rep, House Education, Harvard University, ” “ Harvard, Ivy League, Harvard, Harvard Corporation, Harvard Management Company, CNN, University Locations: Newton

☆ Facing unprecedented subpoena, Harvard submits more documents to Congress in antisemitism probe
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Rene Marsh | Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Harvard University turned over another trove of documents about campus antisemitism to Congress on Monday evening in response to an unprecedented subpoena from the House Education and Workforce Committee. Harvard was facing a 5 pm ET Monday deadline to respond to the subpoena, the first issued since the House Education Committee was founded in March 1867. “Harvard has produced documents in response to the Committee’s subpoena,” Nick Barley, a spokesperson for the House Education Committee, told CNN on Monday evening. “The Committee is currently reviewing those documents.”If Harvard had not responded, the committee would have had to consider further steps to enforce its subpoena. “Harvard denounced antisemitism on our campus and have made clear that the University will continue to take actions to combat antisemitism in any form,” Newton said.

Persons: It’s, Virginia Foxx, “, Nick Barley, Jason Newton, Harvard, “ Harvard, ” Newton, ”, Alan Garber, Penny Pritzker, Foxx Organizations: CNN — Harvard University, House Education, Workforce Committee, Harvard, “ Harvard, CNN, Monday ., University, ” Harvard, Harvard Corporation, Harvard Management Company Locations: Newton

☆ Spiders spin webs to catch prey. They’re also trapping a wealth of DNA
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

They’re also trapping a wealth of DNA from the surrounding environment, a hidden resource that Australian scientists said could be used to track endangered animals and monitor ecosystems. From airborne DNA collected by the spiderwebs, the researchers were able to detect animals of varying behavior and lifestyle. Creatures great and smallAt Perth Zoo, species that were detected spanned in size from the pygmy marmoset to the Asian elephant. The different types of spiderweb collected may also affect the types and quantity of DNA collected, the study noted. By contrast, the majority of webs collected at Perth Zoo were from the Desidae and Theridiidae families, both with tangled, irregular web arrangements.

Persons: Joshua Newton, ” Newton, Austracantha, Newton, “, Princess Fiona, That’s, ”, eDNA, Joshua Newton Elizabeth Clare, wasn’t, Organizations: CNN —, Perth Zoo, Curtin University’s School, Molecular, Sciences, Copenhagen Zoo, Hamerton, York University Locations: Western, Perth, Denmark, United Kingdom, Australian, Ontario, Canada

☆ House GOP threatens Harvard with subpoena, considers expanding antisemitism investigation to Cornell and Columbia
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A spokesperson for the committee provided CNN a list of the 24 documents Harvard turned over to Congress, noting that all of them were already available publicly. Asked if she has considered adding other schools including Cornell University and Columbia University to the investigation, Foxx said yes. We are quite well aware of Cornell and Columbia,” Foxx said, adding that Columbia President Minouche Shafik was invited to testify but was unable to attend. White-shoe law firm WilmerHale is aiding UPenn in the House investigation, a university spokesperson told CNN. But that had nothing to do with our investigation,” Foxx said.

Persons: Virginia Foxx, Harvard, ” Foxx, Foxx, Jason Newton, “, ” Newton, ” Cornell, Minouche Shafik, WilmerHale, UPenn, Liz Magill, Anna Rose Layden, Derek Penslar, Larry Summers, ”, “ We’re, Penslar “, Gay, Claudine Gay Organizations: New, New York CNN — Rep, House Education, Workforce Committee, Harvard University, CNN, Harvard, Columbia, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Columbia University, Cornell, Department of Education, House, Rep, U.S, Capitol, American Academy for Jewish Research, National, Gay Locations: New York, Washington , DC, Israel, Penslar

☆ ‘Can we sleep at night?’: Renowned tech journalist explains why he pulled his newsletter publication from X and Substack
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Over the past several months, Newton has made difficult decisions to sever relationships and move Platformer off both Substack and X, the platform formally known as Twitter. For Newton, maintaining a presence on both X and Substack violated both his personal and business’ moral constitution. In the case of Substack, Newton expressed disappointment that the newsletter publisher had strenuously resisted calls to prohibit “literal 1930s-style Nazis” from building — and monetizing — audiences. “I am writing all the time about how companies are failing to live up to their stated values,” Newton told CNN. “My expectation is we are going to grow a lot more slowly on the free side this year,” Newton candidly acknowledged.

Persons: CNN — Casey Newton, Newton, ” Newton, Zoë Schiffer, “, Elon Musk, I’m, ” Organizations: CNN, NPR

☆ Opinion | A Lot Has Happened in A.I. Let’s Catch Up.
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A lot has happened since. OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, recently dominated headlines again after the nonprofit board of directors fired C.E.O. But that drama isn’t actually the most important thing going on in the A.I. They’ve been closely tracking developments in the field since well before ChatGPT launched. I invited them on the show to catch up on the state of A.I.

Persons: ChatGPT, C.E.O, Sam Altman, isn’t, hasn’t, “, Ezra Klein, Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, Newton, They’ve Organizations: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google, Tech, The Times Locations: A.I

☆ Here are six important questions as Elon Musk faces an ever-deepening crisis over his unhinged behavior
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Elon Musk has an ever-deepening crisis on his hands. Days after the billionaire conspiracy theorist endorsed an antisemitic post on his hate-drenched platform, X, there is mounting pressure for others to take additional action against the unhinged businessman. Here are six questions about the calamity besieging X:What is Musk doing with his lawsuit against Media Matters? Earlier this year, the NFL expressed concern when a Media Matters report found its ads were appearing next to accounts belonging to racists. But it has not said a word since, even as X continued placing ads for NFL teams onto VDARE’s account.

Persons: CNN — Elon Musk, It’s, Musk, Ted Boutrous, X, ” Angelo Carusone, Will Linda Yaccarino, Lou Paskalis, Clare Duffy, Elon Musk, ” Paskalis, she’s, ‘, ” Yaccarino, Axios, TechCrunch, I’m, newsrooms, Casey Newton, ” Newton Organizations: CNN, Media Matters, Media, Hamas, AJL Advisory, NFL, The Washington Post, Financial Times, New York Times Locations: Israel

☆ Drag queens and the long, vibrant history of drag in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Barbara Alper/Getty ImagesDrag has become increasingly visible in recent years through mainstream shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and popular public events such as drag brunches, drag bingo and drag queen story hours, in which drag performers read children’s books to young audiences, often at libraries. Some trans drag queens who received hormone injections were “strongly deplored by stage impersonators who (said) that the whole point of female impersonation depends on maleness,” Newton wrote. But “Drag Race” has also skewed viewers’ definition of drag – no drag kings have ever competed on the series, Testa noted, and the judges have long imposed somewhat traditional beauty standards upon contestants. Pickle reads from a book during the Drag Queen Story Hour program at a Los Angeles library in 2019. These lawmakers falsely claim that drag performers “groom” or sexualize children, of which there is also no evidence.

☆ How a TCU Player Named ‘Fig’ Newton Explains College Football in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Laine Higgins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Until this season, Josh “Fig” Newton had never been part of a winning college football team. In 2018, he was a lightly recruited cornerback who started his career at his hometown university, Louisiana Monroe, which lost all 10 of its games in one of his seasons there. Then last May, thanks to the newly loosened transfer rules that govern college sports, Newton wound up on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He gave a rousing speech in training camp to players he barely knew. During the 2022 season, quarterback Max Duggan was the Horned Frogs’ leader on the field, but Newton emerged as one of their most vocal and emotional leaders in the locker room of a team that will face Michigan on Saturday in a College Football Playoff semifinal.

Laura Kelly, a Democrat, is fighting a tough re-election battle— the issue is almost nowhere to be seen. “What Kelly is doing makes perfect sense," said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka. “I think the abortion vote is possibly very instructive nationally, and for other states, but not for Kansas,” Beatty said. Doing so also allows Kelly and her campaign to avoid wading into the violent history surrounding abortion rights activism in the state. Still, at a debate between the two candidates at the Kansas State Fair earlier this month, Schmidt accused Kelly of supporting abortion “up until the moment of birth,” which is not accurate.

☆ GOP nominee jokes about 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Tudor Dixon, Michigan’s GOP nominee for governor, joked about a 2020 kidnapping plot against rival Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during a pair of campaign events Friday, sparking swift denunciations from Democrats. For someone so worried about getting kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom,” Dixon said at one event. Later that day, in describing a recent appearance by Whitmer, Dixon said, “The look on her face was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is happening. “Multiple people were convicted in a domestic terrorist plot to kidnap the Governor and Tudor Dixon thinks it’s a laughing matter,” Newton tweeted.

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