US VP Harris blasts Florida ‘extremists’ over education guidelines about slavery

By Jeff Mason and Brad Brooks (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Florida “extremists” on Friday for backing educational guidelines that taught “revisionist history” about slavery in the United States. Florida’s board of education approved new guidelines this week with “benchmark clarifications,” including one for middle school students that states “instruction includes how…

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California grid operator urges power conservation as temperatures soar

(Corrects to removes reference to ‘flex’ alert in first paragraph) (Reuters) – The California power grid operator issued an emergency alert from 1930 until 2200 hours on Thursday, urging customers to conserve electricity anticipating high loads and temperatures. Current demand stood at 41,100 megawatts, versus available capacity at 45,170 MW, the California ISO said. (Reporting…

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Democrats say new Alabama congressional map shorts Black voters

By Josephine Walker and Joseph Ax (Reuters) -Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature on Friday passed a new congressional map that increased the number of Black voters in one of the state’s districts, but Democrats said the plan defied a U.S. Supreme Court ruling intended to protect minority voters’ rights. Civil rights groups have already vowed to challenge…

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OpenAI, Google, others pledge to watermark AI content for safety -White House

By Diane Bartz and Krystal Hu WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -AI companies including OpenAI, Alphabet and Meta Platforms have made voluntary commitments to the White House to implement measures such as watermarking AI-generated content to help make the technology safer, President Joe Biden announced on Friday. “These commitments are a promising step but we have a…

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