AI, surveillance and robotics are transforming police departments — and alarming privacy advocates

NEW YORK — On a Harlem street this summer, New Yorkers caught a glimpse of the future.

Strutting between a logjam of NYPD vehicles blocking an intersection was one of the NYPD’s newest recruits: a robotic canine called Digidog that was emblazoned with the department’s blue and white colors and outfitted with a number of high-tech accessories.

The funds to purchase the cybernetic hound did not go through the standard budgeting process, which requires oversight and a vote from the New York City Council. Instead, police brass received cash directly from the federal government under something called the Equitable Sharing Program, which supplements the budgets of local police departments with money and property forfeited in the course of criminal investigations.

The multi-billion dollar initiative has helped law enforcement agencies pay overtime and arm themselves with equipment and sophisticated weaponry since the Reagan era. But the program is now entering a new phase as it provides access to a futuristic era of high-tech policing tools that have raised fresh questions about the balance between privacy and public safety along with biases inherent in supposedly neutral algorithms.

Advances in artificial intelligence, surveillance and robotics are putting the stuff of yesteryear’s science fiction into the hands of an ever-growing list of municipalities from New York City to Topeka.

Privacy advocates are worried.

“More departments are using more tools that can collect even more data for less money,” said Albert Fox Cahn, head of the New York City-based watchdog group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “I’m terrified about the idea that we’ll start seeing decades of work to collect massive databases about the public being paired with increasingly invasive AI models to try to determine who and who isn’t a threat.”

A key asset

Between fiscal years 2018 and 2021, the Department of Justice deposited nearly $6.5 billion in its Assets Forfeiture Fund, which is fueled by cash and property that federal prosecutors seize in the course of litigating crimes, according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that argues for changes to the forfeiture process.

Of that sum, more than $1 billion was doled out to state and local governments, which along with similar streams of cash from the Department of the Treasury and local district attorneys have created a rich source of funding used to purchase emerging technology. Cities in Kansas, Illinois, California and Michigan have spent federal forfeiture money on license plate reading systems. Broward County, Fla. purchased an audio gun detection system and the district attorney in Allegheny County, Penn., spent $1.5 million over the last several years upgrading a Pittsburgh surveillance network.

New York City has spent north of $337 million in federal and state forfeiture funds over the last decade, according to statistics from the city Comptroller, and had a balance of more than $42 million as of last summer.

According to the NYPD, under longstanding rules the department is eligible to apply for a share of the forfeiture proceeds whenever it participates in an investigation with state and federal partners.

“The Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury Asset Forfeiture Programs are, first and foremost, law enforcement programs,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “They remove the tools of crime from criminal organizations, deprive wrongdoers of the proceeds of their crimes, recover property that may be used to compensate victims, and deter crime.”

Recently, the NYPD drew down $750,000 to purchase two Digidogs, which police officials say will be ideal for hostage situations or entering radioactive or chemically hazardous areas that would be too dangerous for a human.

Under a previous (but short-lived) pilot during the Bill de Blasio administration, a Digidog was deployed during at least two standoffs and, in one instance, was used to deliver food to hostages. In April this year, firefighters deployed a separate Digidog to search for survivors at a lower Manhattan building collapse.

The city’s most recent robot purchase is part of a broader push from Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat and retired police captain, to incorporate high-tech policing tools into the NYPD’s arsenal, no matter the source of funding.

After taking office, the mayor touted new technology that could scan for guns in a crowd or at schools and promised to increase the department’s use of facial recognition and other types of surveillance. Earlier this month, when the president of Israel visited an NYPD command center, police officials told him the department has access to 60,000 cameras, which a dedicated team uses to track suspects via video feed around the city. And this month, a New York Post report noted the NYPD recently purchased new drones and is exploring the idea of sending them to 911 calls before first responders and blasting out messages to the public.

At a press briefing in Times Square in April, when Adams unveiled the Digidogs, he also announced two other pieces of new tech: An autonomous robot resembling a Star Wars droid that will patrol Times Square, and a tracking device that can be fired by an officer at a fleeing car to avoid a high-speech chase. Both were purchased with funds from the city’s own budget, according to the NYPD.

“We are scanning the globe on finding technology that would ensure this city is safe for New Yorkers, visitors, and whomever is here in this city,” the mayor said at the event. “This is the beginning of a series of roll outs we are going to do, to show how public safety has transformed itself.”

Policing experts have extolled emerging technology as ways to ensure law enforcement solves more crimes with speed and accuracy, in part by automating evidence that was previously collected under less reliable circumstances.

“Critics like to portray such policing technologies as DNA databases, photo-recognition software, automatic license-plate readers, and, in New York City, the gang database as instruments of Orwellian government surveillance,” Bill Bratton, former police commissioner in New York City and Los Angeles, wrote in The Atlantic last year. “They are nothing of the kind: DNA, photo recognition, and license-plate readers are all more reliable identification tools than the traditional reliance on eyewitnesses.”

Caveat emptor

While recognizing that technology can sometimes be a helpful tool to fight crime, privacy advocates nevertheless worry about a lack of ethical guardrails for police departments using robots, facial recognition and increasingly broad local surveillance networks.

At the end of a press release announcing the purchase of the Digidogs, for instance, the NYPD sought to assuage a concern grimly indicative of this new era.

“Under the NYPD’s protocols, officers will never outfit a robot to carry a weapon and will never use one for surveillance of any kind,” the department wrote.

It turns out, that’s an important disclaimer.

Companies like Ghost Robotics have already attached sniper rifles to quadruped robots. And in November, the San Francisco legislature voted to give law enforcement robots the authority to use lethal force. The proposal — which would have allowed police to place explosives on automatons in limited circumstances — was reversed after public outcry. But the legislature left the door open to reconsidering the initiative in the future.

Other technology seems to have biases baked into its foundation, with serious implications for communities of color. Facial recognition, for example, has proven to be more susceptible to false identifications when the subject is Black.

Earlier this year, a Detroit woman was arrested and charged with robbery and carjacking based on what authorities later determined was an incorrect facial recognition match. Before the charges were dropped, the woman — who is Black and was eight months pregnant at the time — was arrested in front of her house and held in a detention facility for 11 hours before posting a $100,000 bond. She had to appear in court twice.

And vast amounts of biometric data, along with license plate readers that can pinpoint the location of a particular vehicle, are creating the capability for broad surveillance of the citizenry.

As recently as last year, the New York State Police were using a social media monitoring platform that aims to identify potential criminals by their internet activity in what is known as “predictive policing.”

“In our country, the police should not be looking over your shoulder, literally or figuratively, unless they have an individualized suspicion that you are involved in wrongdoing,” Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union said in an interview. “They can’t just watch everybody all the time in case you commit a crime.”

Alongside the new concerns that come with each technological advancement, the money underwriting some of these products is also under increasing scrutiny.

Paying the tab

In October, 2020, police in Rochester, N.Y. raided the apartment of Cristal Starling after suspecting her then-boyfriend of dealing drugs. In the course of searching her home, officers found no illicit substances, but seized more than $8,000 and transferred it to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Starling’s partner was later acquitted. The DEA kept the money.

The incident highlights a longstanding dichotomy of asset forfeitures cases, which are often pursued in civil court separate from any criminal proceedings that triggered the seizure in the first place — if there even is a criminal proceeding.

The two-track system can sometimes result in Kafkaesque cases like Starling’s — she herself was not accused of any wrongdoing, and was denied a chance at recouping her money after missing a deadline.

While Starling appealed and recently had her claim reinstated by a federal court, many people are unable to afford a lawyer — or the cost of litigating exceeds the value of what was taken — and simply let the government keep the money.

For the Institute for Justice, which represented Starling in her case, there exists an inherent conflict of interest in the process. Not only does asset forfeiture incentivize a focus on cash-rich cases, but law enforcement entities are able to allocate funds to themselves without the input of the legislative branch.

“Only elected officials should be able to raise and appropriate funds,” Lee McGrath, senior legislative counsel at the institute, said in an interview. “Members of the executive branch should not have that power.”

That concern is amplified when forfeiture cases are pursued through the civil courts, which can ensnare people with only ancillary connections to a crime. Increasingly, local governments are taking notice.

“This is a way that municipalities, an especially police departments, can help offset some of their expenses, but it is not tracked in the way it should be, and it costs a lot of money if someone wants to bring a case to get their belongings back,” state Assembly Member Pamela Hunter, who represents Syracuse, said in an interview. “Usually, this affects disproportionately low-income people who don’t have the means to hire an attorney.”

In January, Hunter introduced a bill that would end the civil forfeiture process on the state level.

Under the legislation, similar versions of which were passed in New Mexico and Maine, law enforcement would only be able to pursue asset forfeiture through the criminal courts — an option that already exists for federal prosecutors — in cases where a conviction is secured. The idea being that the forfeited property would have a closer nexus to the crime at hand.

The bill would also qualify defendants for pro bono legal representation and would mandate any money seized would go into a general fund, rather than the coffers of law enforcement.

Without diverting the stream of money, Fox Cahn of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project warned that the system has the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Clearly we are seeing this huge growth in police surveillance, across the board data collection and the use of AI,” he said. “What I fear is that it will become a vicious cycle where police purchase more surveillance software to seize more assets to fund even more surveillance.”

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Presidential candidate in Ecuador shot to death at campaign event

QUITO — Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed Wednesday by an unidentified gunman while at a political rally in the country’s capital of Quito, President Guillermo Lasso said.

The killing comes amid a startling wave of violence in the South American nation, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise.

“I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished,” Lasso said in a statement. “Organized crime has gone too far, but they will feel the full weight of the law.”

Videos on social media appear to show the candidate walking out of the event surrounded by guards. The video then shows Villavicencio entering a white truck followed by gunfire.

The politician, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement. He was one of eight presidential candidates for the late August election.

He was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former President Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017. He filed many judicial complaints against high ranking members of the Correa government.

Early accounts show that several others were injured in the attack, though authorities did not confirm how many.

He was married and is survived by five children.

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Wildfire on Maui kills at least 6 as it sweeps through historic town

KAHULUI, Hawaii — A wildfire tore through the heart of the Hawaiian island of Maui in total darkness Wednesday, reducing much of a historic town to ash and forcing people to jump into the ocean to flee the flames. At least six people died, and dozens were wounded.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke said the flames “wiped out communities,” and urged travelers to stay away.

“This is not a safe place to be,” she said.

The wind-driven conflagration swept into coastal Lahaina with alarming speed and ferocity, blazing through intersections and leaping across wooden buildings in the town center that dates to the 1700s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Aerial video revealed entire blocks of homes and businesses flattened, including on Front Street, a popular shopping and dining area. Other images portray a scene of near-complete devastation. Smoking heaps of rubble lay piled high next to the waterfront and gray smoke hovered over the leafless skeletons of scorched trees.

“It was apocalyptic from what they explained,” Tiare Lawrence said of 14 cousins and uncles who fled as the inferno descended on the family’s hometown. “The heat. Smoke and flames everywhere. They had to get my elderly uncle out of the home.”

The relatives took refuge in Lawrence’s house in Pukalani, east of Lahaina. She was also frantically trying to reach her siblings Wednesday morning, but there was no phone service.

Lahaina resident Keʻeaumoku Kapu was tying down loose objects in the wind at the cultural center he runs in Lahaina when his wife showed up Tuesday afternoon and told him they needed to evacuate. “Right at that time, things got crazy, the wind started picking up,” said Kapu, who added that they got out “in the nick of time.”

Two blocks away they saw fire and billowing smoke. Kapu, his wife and a friend jumped into his pickup truck. “By the time we turned around, our building was on fire,” he said. “It was that quick.”

Crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the tourist destination on the western coast and an inland, mountainous region. In West Maui, 911 service was out and residents were directed to call the police department directly.

“Do NOT go to Lahaina Town,” the county tweeted hours before all roads in and out of the community of 12,000 residents were closed to everyone except emergency personnel.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles, was partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph that knocked out power, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. Aircraft resumed flights Wednesday as the winds diminished somewhat.

The Coast Guard on Tuesday rescued 14 people, including two children, who had fled into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, the county said in a statement.

Fires killed six people on Maui, but search and rescue operations continued, and the number could rise, County of Maui Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said at a Wednesday morning news conference. He said he had just learned the news and didn’t know the details of how or where the deaths happened.

Six patients were flown from Maui to the island of Oahu on Tuesday night, said Speedy Bailey, regional director for Hawaii Life Flight, an air-ambulance company. Three of them had critical burns and were taken to Straub Medical Center’s burn unit, he said. The others were taken to other Honolulu hospitals. At least 20 patients were taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, he said.

Authorities said earlier Wednesday that a firefighter in Maui was hospitalized in stable condition after inhaling smoke.

Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Gov. Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the Hawaii National Guard to assist.

“Certain parts of Maui, we have shelters that are overrun,” Luke said. “We have resources that are being taxed.”

There’s no count available for the number of structures that have burned or the number of people who have evacuated, but officials said there were four shelters open and that more than 1,000 people were at the largest.

Kahului Airport, the main airport in Maui, was sheltering 2,000 travelers whose flights were canceled or who recently arrived on the island, the county said.

Officials were preparing the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in up to 4,000 of displaced tourists and locals.

“Local people have lost everything,” said James Tokioka, director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals.”

Kapu, the owner of the Na Aikane o Maui cultural center in Lahaina, said he and his wife didn’t have time to pack up anything before being forced to flee. “We had years and years of research material, artifacts,” he said.

Alan Dickar said he’s not sure what remains of his Vintage European Posters gallery, which was a fixture on Front Street in Lahaina for 23 years. Before evacuating with three friends and two cats, Dickar recorded video of flames engulfing the main strip of shops and restaurants frequented by tourists.

“Every significant thing I owned burned down today,” he said. “I’ll be OK. I got out safely.”

Dickar, who assumed the three houses he owns are also destroyed, said it will take a heroic effort to rebuild what has burned.

“Everyone who comes to Maui, the one place that everybody goes is Front Street,” he said. “The central two blocks is the economic heart of this island, and I don’t know what’s left.”

The fires weren’t only burning on Maui.

There have been no reports of injuries or homes lost to three wildfires burning on Hawaii’s Big Island, Mayor Mitch Roth said Wednesday. Firefighters did extinguish a few roof fires. One blaze is “pretty much under control,” he said. Another was 60% contained, and the other near Mauna Kea Resorts continued to have flareups, he said.

There are 30 power poles down around Lahaina, leaving homes, hotels and shelters without electricity, Bissen said. About 14,500 customers in Maui were without power early Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us.

“It’s definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it’s multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas,” County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said.

In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1.7 square miles, Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.

Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.

Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.

A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

Lahaina is often thought of just a Maui tourist town, Lawrence said, but “we have a very strong Hawaiian community.”

“I’m just heartbroken. Everywhere, our memories,” she said. “Everyone’s homes. Everyone’s lives have tragically changed in the last 12 hours.”

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Utah man suspected of threatening Biden is shot and killed as FBI served warrant

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man accused of making threats against President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state Wednesday, authorities said.

Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m., the FBI said in a statement.

Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and “clean the dust off the m24 sniper rifle,” according to court documents.

In another post, Robertson refers to himself as a “MAGA Trumper,” a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

The posts indicated he did appear to own a long-range sniper rifle and numerous other weapons, as well as camouflage gear known as a “ghillie suit,” investigators said in court records. Robertson was charged under seal Tuesday with three felony counts, including making threats against the president, court documents show.

Robertson also referenced a “presidential assassination” and made other threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Tish James, court documents state.

“The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” authorities say Robertson wrote in a September 2022 Facebook post included in the filings. No attorney was immediately listed for Robertson in court documents.

No further details were immediately released about the shooting, which is under review by the FBI.

Biden is in the middle of a trip to the Western United States. He spent Wednesday in New Mexico, where he spoke at a factory that will produce wind towers, and is scheduled to fly to Utah later in the day.

On Thursday, he’s expected to visit a Veterans Affairs hospital to talk about the PACT Act, which expanded veterans benefits, and hold a reelection fundraiser.

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In DeSantis' Fla., schools get OK for climate-denial videos

Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. And people who champion those beliefs are fighting oppression.

These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms.

Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, which produces videos education experts say distort science, history, gender and other topics. And those researchers fear that the nation’s third-largest state has opened a door that will help spread the videos to classrooms in other states.

Florida is the first state to allow PragerU materials in public schools, where teachers will have the option of showing the five- to 10-minute videos in their classrooms.

PragerU CEO Marissa Streit says the videos will rebalance schools that have been “hijacked by the left.”

“Young kids are being taught climate hysteria," Streit said in an interview. "They’re hearing that the world is coming to an end, and we think that there needs to be a healthy balance.

“The climate is always changing,” Streit added, repeating a climate-denial motto that rejects fossil fuel burning as the cause of continuing record-high temperatures.

For now, Florida has approved using PragerU videos only in civics and government for younger children. Some PragerU climate denial videos are classified under non-climate categories, which could enable their use in Florida.

Florida’s approval is alarming because children will watch the videos when they are at their most impressionable stage, in kindergarten through 5th grade, said Adrienne McCarthy, a researcher at Kansas State University who tracks PragerU. Extreme ideas are presented as common beliefs in many videos, she said.

“They can take these right-wing, controversial ideas and cloak them in seemingly harmless and friendly rhetoric,” McCarthy said. “Then they create this kind of facade of normal conservative beliefs, and they use authoritative figures [in the videos] in order to convince the audience.”

“It’s also targeted at the parents themselves, saying that if you want to be a good parent, you should be teaching your kids this,” McCarthy added.

Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, said Florida is effectively supporting parents and teachers who want to tear down accurate climate science lessons.

Florida’s approval “may be telling climate change-denier teachers about the availability of these materials,” Branch said. Teachers who want to teach climate change accurately could feel coerced to do otherwise “by hinting that there are resources out there with the opposite view, and people are going to be pressuring you into using them.”

Climate-denial talking points, verbatim

Florida Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said in a statement that the PragerU material “aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards” and “is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.”

PragerU’s videos use talking points common among global warming skeptics to frame climate science and policy. Many of the videos attack renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

An eight-minute video, “Poland: Ania’s Energy Crisis,” exemplifies how PragerU introduces climate denialism to children by subtly attacking established science and the people concerned about global warming.

In the video, teenager Ania is concerned about climate change because of what she learned at school. Climate-denial talking points are introduced almost verbatim in the trusted voice of Ania’s mother and father.

Ania’s parents tell her that the climate has always cooled and warmed — “long before carbon emissions were a factor” — and that climate action is pointless until China and India cut their emissions. Ania also hears that renewable energy is unreliable and too expensive.

Ania repeats her parents' claims in class and is shunned by her teacher and classmates. Her sadness lifts, however, when her grandfather tells her about life under Nazism in World War II. Ania feels empowered because her grandfather says “fighting oppression always takes courage.”

A PragerU video about a child in Africa features a narrator calmly attacking solar and wind because “their batteries break down and become hazardous waste” and because it's risky “to rely on things like wind and sunlight, which are not constant.”

Streit, the PragerU CEO, said she wants to ensure schools frame climate science as a debate. A goal of her organization is to reach children when they are at their most impressionable. That’s why Florida approved the PragerU Kids channel content, she said.

“The science is actually contrary to what most educational institutions that have been really controlled by one ideology are saying,” Streit said, rejecting decades of peer-reviewed research by some of the world’s top science agencies showing that humanity is warming the planet at a dangerous rate. “There is debate about the severity of the changing of the climate as well as the pragmatic solutions.”

PragerU’s goal is to develop a “turnkey curriculum” that can be expanded to as many states as possible, Streit said. She expects to announce soon that more states have approved PragerU content and will use it for classrooms in all grades. PragerU is developing a curriculum module that could be used for course credit in high school, Streit said.

DeSantis leads the way

PragerU’s foray into approved classroom use comes as conservative states and politicians aggressively seek to dismantle curriculum in African-American history and LGBTQ issues.

The leader has been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president. DeSantis recently faced loud, bipartisan condemnation after education officials in his government released new curriculum standards that say enslaved people gained “personal benefits” from a lifetime of forced labor.

Less documented are the conservative efforts to tear down climate science and to promote in classrooms the use of fossil fuels.

Florida is just the latest state to open the door to climate disinformation. Texas changed its science curriculum to require that schools teach positive lessons about fossil fuels. It’s an effort to downplay accurate climate science and to influence the national textbook market, since Texas is one of the biggest consumers of educational materials in the U.S.

Climate scientists long ago determined that fossil fuel use is driving rapid global warming and pushing the planet toward dangerous tipping points. Most states center their climate change curriculum around that consensus. Only a small number of researchers with legitimate academic credentials doubt the consensus science, and PragerU videos feature many of them.

PragerU’s website contains thousands of videos, which have a variety of classification tags to help users find its videos on topics such as civics, financial literacy or government. Climate denial videos, including some pushing conspiracy theories like the “Great Reset," are classified with tags other than climate change, such as “government,” “global issues,” “life lessons” and “freedom,” which lets them qualify for approved use outside of science classes.

PragerU also has materials that avoid partisan slants, including videos explaining the Electoral College and the offices of the president and vice president.

In Florida, DeSantis has long assailed what he says is liberal “indoctrination” in education. PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host, has proclaimed that his PragerU materials are specifically designed for “our indoctrination.”

“It’s true we bring doctrines to children,”Prager told the conservative group Moms for Liberty at a conference in Philadelphia in July. “But what is bad about our indoctrination?”

PragerU has produced anti-climate policy videos since shortly after it began in 2009. The Prager foundation has received millions of dollars from the billionaire brothers, Farris and Dan Wilks of Texas, who made their fortune in fracking. Wilks funding also was essential to the growth of The Daily Wire, a popular website and media company that routinely pushes climate disinformation. 

PragerU has received additional funding from foundations that oppose climate regulations such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

PragerU’s video library goes far beyond climate change and introduces viewers to a worldview framed around the belief system of the far right.

PragerU CEO Streit said her group has tapped into angry parents who want their politics reflected more in classrooms.

“Many of us, as parents, don’t feel like we’re being heard,” Streit said. “We feel like we’re being gaslit, so we’re hoping that this product will better explain to everyone what we want to see in our children’s schools.”

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Biden to issue new rules restricting U.S. investments in China

President Joe Biden on Wednesday will establish new rules limiting American investments in high-end Chinese technology sectors — a long-awaited effort meant to stop U.S. capital from financing Beijing’s military development, according to two individuals briefed on the action.

The move represents the first time the U.S. government has sought to impose broad investment rules on U.S. firms overseas — an escalation of the economic conflict with China that is likely to earn a sharp rebuke from Beijing. Until now, U.S. firms have largely been given free rein by Washington to develop business in other countries, except for limitations on a narrow list of military-related goods. But national security officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations have warned that U.S. investors have been financing Beijing’s military advancements by funding Chinese firms that turn around and give their technology to China's military.

The executive order will prohibit some investments in Chinese firms engaged in developing quantum computing, sensors and networks, as well as advanced semiconductor firms, and certain artificial intelligence firms, according to those briefed on the action. It will also require U.S. firms to notify the federal government if they invest in some lower-end semiconductor production not already covered by export controls, said the individuals, who requested anonymity because the action was not yet announced.

The rules will only apply to new investments — not existing deals — and will go into effect following a comment period for industry. The White House declined to comment.

The administration's action comes just prior to an expected trip by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to China in the coming weeks and after months of efforts to soothe relations between the two countries that had been in turmoil ever since a Chinese spy balloon was discovered in U.S. airspace. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Beijing in early July where she signaled that the two sides had made progress in shoring up the frayed relationship.

Despite that engagement, the executive order appears slightly more aggressive than recent expectations. In February, POLITICO reported that the administration had scaled back the executive order by cutting out some industrial sectors — like biotech and clean energy — and only applying investment prohibitions to the advanced semiconductor sectors.

Today's order will likely go beyond that, though administration officials have emphasized for months that any actions would be narrowly targeted at military technologies and those that have both military and civilian applications. During months of internal debate, the Treasury and Commerce Departments have argued for a more modest action, while the National Security Council and other Defense officials have pushed for a more aggressive approach.

Despite recent changes, the order still puts the Biden administration in a more hawkish position than congressional lawmakers, who have also debated legislation on American investments in China for years.

Last month, Senate lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to add a similar measure — the Outbound Investment Transparency Act — to the yearly defense authorization bill. But that measure contains no investment prohibitions after it was watered down by congressional Republicans. House lawmakers are pursuing a different approach that focuses on expanding existing corporate blacklists at Treasury, Commerce and the Defense Departments, and will likely unveil that bill this fall.

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Biden says he has ‘practically’ declared a climate emergency. But he actually hasn’t.

President Joe Biden said he has already “practically” declared a climate emergency. But he has yet to actually make a declaration, which would give him a host of new powers to combat climate change as the country faces record-breaking heat and more frequent and intense floods, droughts and wildfires.

“We've already done that,” Biden said Wednesday when asked whether he was prepared to declare a national climate emergency during an interview on The Weather Channel. “We've conserved more land, we've moved into rejoining the Paris Climate Accord. We've got a $60 billion climate control facility.”

When pressed about whether he has actually declared an emergency, Biden responded, “Practically speaking, yes.”

However, no such declaration has come from the White House. Experts say Biden could invoke the 1976 National Emergencies Act to give himself the power to order the manufacture of clean energy technology, deploy renewables on military bases, block crude oil exports or even suspend offshore drilling — though that would require compensation to the owners.

Though the law limits emergency declarations to one year, it could be renewed annually to address the increasingly troubling impacts of climate change.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre did not walk back Biden’s comments when asked about them during an interview on CNN later Wednesday morning.

“This is a president that has taken really an ambitious approach to climate change,” Jean-Pierre said, turning the conversation to the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping bill Biden championed last year that included hundreds of billions of dollars to help the U.S. transition away from fossil fuels.

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