AFP USA

A man who pleaded guilty to killing a convenience store worker by setting her on fire is to be put to death in Texas on Tuesday in the second of three executions to be carried out in the United States this week.Matthew Johnson, 49, is to executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville some time after 6:00 pm Central Time (2300 GMT).Johnson was sentenced to death for the 2012 murder of Nancy Harris, a 76-year-old grandmother.Johnson admitted at trial to pouring lighter fluid on Harris and setting her alight during an early morning robbery of a store in Garland, Texas.Harris suffered severe burns and was taken off life support five days later.Johnson’s execution is scheduled to take place just hours after the midwestern state of Indiana carried out its second execution since 2009.Benjamin Ritchie, 45, was put to death by lethal injection overnight at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City for the 2000 murder of officer Bill Toney, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement.Toney, a father of two, was shot to death after pursuing a van that had been stolen by Ritchie and another man from a gas station in the town of Beech Grove.The other execution scheduled this week is in the southern state of Tennessee.Oscar Smith, 75, is to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1989 shooting and stabbing murders of his estranged wife, Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett.There have been 17 executions in the United States this year: 13 by lethal injection, two by firing squad and two using nitrogen gas.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and called on his first day in office for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

The United States will limit routine Covid-19 boosters to people over 65 or those at higher risk of serious illness, while requiring new placebo-controlled trials to justify vaccines for healthy individuals under that threshold, senior health officials said Tuesday.In a letter to the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, the Food and Drug Administration’s Vinayak Prasad and Commissioner Martin Makary said the shift brought US policy more in line with European nations.They described the initial rollout of Covid-19 vaccines as “a major scientific, medical, and regulatory accomplishment” — but argued that the benefits of repeated boosters in low-risk individuals remained uncertain. They contrasted the US approach with that of countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, which limit booster recommendations to older adults and those with underlying conditions.Going forward, the FDA believes it will continue to find the benefit-risk balance favorable for people over 65, and people over the age of six months with one or more underlying conditions.However, “for all healthy persons — those with no risk factors for severe Covid-19 — between the ages of 6 months and 64 years, the FDA anticipates the need for randomized, controlled trial data,” they said. “The control group could receive a saline placebo.”They identified adults aged 50 to 64 as an ideal study population, and said trials should assess whether boosters reduce symptomatic illness, severe disease, hospitalization, and death.Makary and Prasad also sought to reassure those worried about losing access to vaccines under the new framework.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition of risk factors is “vast, including obesity and even mental health conditions such as depression,” they wrote, adding that between 100 million and 200 million Americans would likely still qualify under this guidance.Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist who now leads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), rose to prominence during the pandemic for publicly questioning the widespread use of boosters.

Billionaire Elon Musk said Tuesday he was pulling back from spending his fortune on politics, asserting his Tesla electric car company was doing well despite blowback over his support of US President Donald Trump.”In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk told Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, speaking by video link from Austin, Texas.Musk, the richest person on Earth, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help Trump win the 2024 presidential election, and questions were rife in Washington whether his largesse would continue.”If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason,” he said in the often tense interview.The comments will trigger speculation that the close relationship between Trump and Musk may be shifting as the Tesla tycoon steps away from his full-time role as cost-cutting chief for the US administration.When it comes to politics, “I did what needed to be done,” Musk said.Musk confirmed he has reduced his role as the unofficial head of the administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” working there now just one or two days a week.Tesla, which is the major source of Musk’s wealth, has suffered significant brand damage due to his political work, particularly with Trump. He has also expressed support for the far-right anti-immigration AfD party in Germany.Since Trump took office, Tesla dealerships have become scenes of protest and vandalism in the United States and beyond.”It’s certainly fine to object to political things, but it’s not fine to resort to violence and hanging someone in effigy and death threats,” Musk said.But he pushed back when asked if he was worried about the effects of his political positions on sales at the electric carmaker, saying the company was doing fine.Aside from a sales decline in Europe, “we’re strong everywhere else,” Musk said.He pointed to the performance of Tesla’s shares on Wall Street as a sign that the company was on good footing.”We’re now back over a trillion dollars in market cap, so clearly, the market is aware of the situation, so Tesla is already turned around,” he said.- ‘Annoying’ -In the wide-ranging conversation, Musk said he was in no rush to take his rocket and space exploration company SpaceX public, saying he didn’t need the money or the added scrutiny.Going public “is, I guess, a way to potentially make more money, but at the expense of a lot of public company overhead, and inevitably, a whole bunch of lawsuits, which are very annoying,” he said.Musk has faced a series of lawsuits from shareholders in publicly traded Tesla, including one that saw a US judge reject his massive $55.8 billion compensation package.”The compensation should match that something incredible was done,” Musk said, when asked about the judge’s decision.”But I’m confident that whatever some activist posing as a judge in Delaware happens to do will not affect” his future pay.Musk also said he was pushing ahead with his lawsuit against OpenAI despite that company, which he cofounded in 2015 before leaving, saying it was keeping non-profit oversight as it continues to expand ChatGPT and its AI models.Musk dismissed the recent restructuring and said his anger towards OpenAI for becoming a profit-driven AI giant, now one of the biggest tech companies in the world, still had merit.”I funded OpenAI for roughly $50 million and it was intended to be a nonprofit, open source company, and now they’re trying to change that for their own financial benefit into a for-profit company that is closed source,” he said.”This would be like you funded a nonprofit to help preserve the Amazon rainforest, but instead of doing that, they became a lumber company, chopped down the forest and sold the wood.”

Three US senators said Tuesday they had written to Paramount over its efforts to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against its news division, suggesting that the entertainment giant risks violating bribery laws.The trio warned Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone that the company “may be engaging in improper conduct involving the Trump administration in exchange for approval of its merger with Skydance Media.”Trump’s lawsuit argues that the editing of a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris was biased in her favor and “deceptive.” It is described by Trump’s critics as part of a broader assault on press freedom that has seen him bar the Associated Press from the Oval Office and sue other media organizations over their coverage.Paramount nevertheless entered into mediation in a bid to placate Trump as it seeks to close its $8 billion merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which needs federal government approval.”Paramount appears to be attempting to appease the administration in order to secure merger approval,” wrote Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden, plus independent Bernie Sanders.Republicans control both chambers of Congress, limiting the power of Democrats to investigate or compel answers from witnesses.The senators’ letter comes after CBS News head Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens announced they were quitting over Paramount’s handling of the showdown with Trump. Warren, Wyden and Sanders noted that the company had initially called the suit “completely without merit” and had sought to have it dismissed.”If Paramount officials make these concessions in a quid pro quo arrangement to influence President Trump or other administration officials, they may be breaking the law,” they wrote.Trump accuses CBS of airing two different snippets from the same answer the then-vice president gave about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to help her in her election campaign. The Republican billionaire — who is seeking at least $20 billion in damages — sued last October, alleging that the interview violated a Texas consumer protection law. Legal experts have argued that the lawsuit would be an easy victory for CBS if it ever came to court.The network — which has made public an unedited transcript of the Harris interview — didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment but has denied any wrongdoing.Media watchers have pointed out that Trump routinely takes part in interviews that are edited for all manner of reasons. 

Top finance leaders from the G7 nations gather in Canada starting Tuesday, with concerns including war in Ukraine at the fore while the advanced economies grapple with fallout from US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.In talks running through Thursday, leaders are set to discuss global economic conditions, with participants seeking a common position on Ukraine, while issues like non-market practices are also on the agenda.The talks come amid an uncertain approach among the G7 democracies towards the war in Ukraine — after Russia’s invasion in 2022 — since Trump returned to the presidency this year.Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko will be present as well at the meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors in Canada’s western province of Alberta. He is due to take media questions Tuesday.Once broadly unified, the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — has been rattled by Trump, who has reached out to Russia and slapped tariffs on both allies and competitors.Economists have warned that tariffs could fuel inflation and weigh on growth. The effects of US trade policy on economic stability will loom over Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s talks with counterparts.A US Treasury spokesperson said Bessent seeks to get the grouping “back to basics and focused on addressing imbalances and non-market practices,” including in non-G7 countries.A source briefed on US participation expects China’s excess industrial capacity to be discussed, with G7 members generally sharing concerns on the issue.A Japanese official told AFP the delegation is arranging for a meeting with Bessent this week, seeking to speak on topics like foreign exchange.While the grouping discusses policies and solutions to issues like trade, security and climate change, analysts warn of unpredictability as leaders deal with internal tensions.- ‘A test’ -The Banff, Alberta gathering will be “a test or signal of the G7’s ability or inability to agree on a final statement,” a French finance ministry official told reporters Tuesday ahead of talks.While Canada’s presidency hopes to issue a communique, such an outcome must reflect “a shared understanding of the global economic situation and common goals in addressing the challenges outlined in the statement, the official said.”We will not be able to accept language that is completely watered down.”The source briefed on US participation said Washington is not inclined to “do a communique just for the sake of doing a communique,” adding that a consensus will have to align with Trump administration priorities too.Carl Weinberg, chief economist at research group High Frequency Economics, called the talks a “litmus test” on how a leaders’ summit in June will go.For now, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil warned Tuesday that trade disputes with the United States should be resolved as soon as possible.In comments before meeting his counterparts, Klingbeil said tariffs and uncertainties are a burden on the economy and job security.Trump has slapped a blanket 10 percent tariff on most US trading partners, threatening higher rates on economies including the European Union.He also imposed tariffs on imports of steel, aluminum and other goods, raising the temperature with G7 countries.”A possible metric for success is that the US wants to engage and negotiate a trade deal with these countries,” said Ananya Kumar, a deputy director at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.Officials told AFP they are not expecting trade agreements to be unveiled this week, but maintain the gathering is another chance to find common ground.- Russia sanctions -Trying to move forward on trade will help with progress on other issues, said Kumar, who expects members to also seek “commitment towards the status quo with Ukraine.”The issue of sanctions on Russia remains uncertain.Trump said Russia and Ukraine would start peace talks after he spoke Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the EU on Tuesday formally adopted a new round of sanctions on Russia, targeting its “shadow fleet” of oil tankers.A source briefed on US participation in this week’s summit maintained that all options remain regarding sanctions.But they stressed sanctions are aimed at achieving foreign policy results such as ending the war — a Trump administration priority.

Billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday said he was pulling away from spending his fortune on politics, asserting that his Tesla electric car company was doing well despite blowback due to his support of US President Donald Trump.”In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk told Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, speaking by video link from Austin, Texas.Musk, the richest person on Earth, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Trump’s political campaign, and questions were rife in Washington whether his largesse would continue.”If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason,” he said in the often tense interview.The comments will trigger speculation that the close relationship between Trump and Musk may be shifting as the Tesla tycoon steps away from his full-time role as cost-cutting chief for the US administration.Musk confirmed that he has reduced his role as the unofficial head of the administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” working there now just two days a week.Tesla, which is the major source of Musk’s wealth, has suffered significant brand damage due to his political work, particularly with Trump. He has also expressed support for the far-right anti-immigration AfD party in Germany. Since Trump took office, Tesla dealerships have become scenes of protest and vandalism in the United States and beyond.When asked if he was worried about the effects of his political positions on sales at the electric carmaker, Musk hit back to say the company was doing fine.Aside from a sales decline in Europe, “we’re strong everywhere else,” Musk said.He pointed to the performance of Tesla’s shares on Wall Street as a sign that the company was on good footing.”We’re now back over a trillion dollars in market cap, so clearly, the market is aware of the situation, so (Tesla) is already turned around,” he said.

US President Donald Trump rallied Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday to back a so-called “big, beautiful bill” that is likely to increase the yawning budget deficit and cut health care for millions of Americans.Sharp divisions in the party have slowed the progress through Congress of Trump’s budget bill, which pairs an extension of the billionaire’s signature tax cuts from his first term with a series of savings.But conservatives are angling for much deeper spending cuts to tackle the ballooning deficit, while moderates say the savings would mean millions of the poorest Americans lose health coverage under the Medicaid program.Trump said as he was greeted by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson that there were “one or two grandstanders” blocking the bill but that he was confident of a deal.He warned that without the bill the United States would face huge tax increases.”I think we’re going to have a very good discussion. There are one or two points that some people feel strongly about, but maybe not so strong,” Trump told reporters as he went in to meet lawmakers.Trump has been eager to present the bill as a significant legislative accomplishment early in his second term, after a frenzied first few months where he has governed largely through presidential orders.- Health care fears -Fiscal hawks oppose the bill on the grounds that it would pile on to the already huge US budget deficit. Independent congressional analysts calculate that the mega-bill’s tax provisions would add more than $4.8 trillion over the coming decade.Trump insisted that he was “not touching” Medicaid but just cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” — the slogan of the administration’s cost-slashing drive led by tech tycoon Elon Musk.The bill would, however, add new restrictions on the Medicaid program that helps provide health insurance for more than 70 million lower-income Americans.They would include toughening work requirements for those receiving assistance and cutting it for undocumented migrants.The policy change would result in more than 10 million people losing coverage under the program, according to estimates by the independent Congressional Budget Office.Moderate Republicans fear overly large cuts in the popular program could upset the party’s prospects in the November 2026 midterm elections.The bill — which is formally known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — cleared a key hurdle on Sunday when it finally progressed out of the House Budget Committee.Several rebels who had blocked it on Friday dropped their earlier opposition after speaker Johnson spent the weekend persuading them.But Trump will need everyone onside for it to get past Congress.Republicans have a very slim majority in the House, meaning the legislation needs almost unanimous support to pass, with Democrats united against the bill.Even if the bill passes in the House, it will face challenges in the Senate, where Republicans are demanding major changes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Tuesday of delaying peace talks in a bid to pursue its three-year invasion, even as US President Donald Trump pushes for an immediate ceasefire.Trump spoke by phone on Monday to both Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, while Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on Friday for their first direct talks on the conflict in more than three years.The talks failed to yield a truce, and Zelensky accused Putin of sending “empty heads” to the negotiating table.”It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.Trump framed his two-hour conversation with Putin, the third so far this year, as a breakthrough.The Republican is seeking an elusive deal to end the war that he had promised on the election campaign trail to solve in 24 hours.But Putin again rebuffed the call for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire, instead saying only that he was ready to work with Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining a possible roadmap and different positions on ending the war.Moscow is feeling confident, with its troops advancing on the battlefield and Trump having resumed dialogue with Putin after almost three years of the West shunning the Kremlin chief.”The memorandum buys time for Russia,” Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.”The cessation of hostilities is not a condition for it, which means that Russia can continue its offensive,” he added.Zelensky said on Monday he had no details of what this “memorandum” would be but was willing to look at Russia’s ideas.Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has since destroyed swathes of the country’s east, killed tens of thousands and now controls around one-fifth of its territory.- Trump’s no ‘messiah’ -People who spoke to AFP both in Kyiv and Moscow were sceptical about peace prospects and thought the Putin-Trump call had not bring them closer. “I never had any faith in him and now I have none at all,” a retired teacher Victoria Kyseliova told AFP in Kyiv, when asked if she was losing confidence in Trump.Vitaliy, a 53-year-old engineer from Kyiv, said Trump was no “messiah” and that his flurry of diplomacy has changed little. Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said Trump’s latest calls had only added to the uncertainty.”This conversation not only failed to clarify the future of the negotiations but further confused the situation,” he said.He said Trump had fallen for Putin’s tactics of trying to use talks “as a cover to continue and intensify the war”.In Moscow, there was defiance and confidence.  “I believe that we don’t need these negotiations. We will win anyway,” Marina, a 70-year-old former engineer, told AFP.- Sanctions push -Ukraine and Europe are trying to put pressure on Trump to impose on Moscow a new package of massive sanctions after Putin declined to travel to Turkey for face-to-face talks with Zelensky.Kyiv accused Moscow’s negotiators of making unrealistic demands at the Istanbul talks, including sweeping territorial claims that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected.Zelensky said on Monday that Kyiv and its allies needed to “work hard” to convince Trump of the need for more sanctions.On Tuesday, the European Union formally adopted its 17th round of sanctions on Moscow, targeting 200 vessels of Russia’s so-called shadow maritime fleet, and drawing ire from Russia.”Western politicians and the media are making titanic efforts to disrupt the constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States,” said Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and lead economic negotiator with the United States.Russia has successfully withstood sanctions, rerouting its vital oil and gas supplies to India and China.Zelensky said he had discussed preparations for the next sanctions package with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. “Russian oil, energy trade infrastructure, banks and financial schemes — these are the areas that hurt Russia the most and therefore contribute the most to peace,” he said. The Ukrainian president added he was closely coordinating every step with the European partners following yesterday’s conversation with Trump. Russia’s key ally China said on Tuesday it also backed direct dialogue between the warring sides.”It is hoped that the parties concerned will carry on with the dialogue… to reach a fair, lasting and binding peace agreement acceptable to all parties,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

Rising seas will severely test humanity’s resilience in the second half of the 21st century and beyond, even if nations defy the odds and cap global warming at the ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius target, researchers said Tuesday. The pace at which global oceans are rising has doubled in three decades, and on current trends will double again by 2100 to about one centimetre per year, they reported in a study.  “Limiting global warming to 1.5C would be a major achievement” and avoid many dire climate impacts, lead author Chris Stokes, a professor at Durham University in England, told AFP.”But even if this target is met,” he added, “sea level rise is likely to accelerate to rates that are very difficult to adapt to.”Absent protective measures such as sea walls, an additional 20 centimetres (7.8 inches) of sea level rise — the width of a letter-size sheet of paper — by 2050 would cause some $1 trillion in flood damage annually in the world’s 136 largest coastal cities, earlier research has shown. Some 230 million people live on land within one metre (3.2 feet) of sea level, and more than a billion reside within 10 metres.Sea level rise is driven in roughly equal measure by the disintegration of ice sheets and mountain glaciers, as well as the expansion of warming oceans, which absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat due to climate change.Averaged across 20 years, Earth’s surface temperature is currently 1.2C above pre-industrial levels, already enough to lift the ocean watermark by several metres over the coming centuries, Stokes and colleagues noted in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.The world is on track to see temperatures rise 2.7C above that benchmark by the end of the century.- Tipping points -In a review of scientific literature since the last major climate assessment by the UN-mandated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Stokes and his team focused on the growing contribution of ice sheets to rising seas.In 2021, the IPCC projected “likely” sea level rise of 40 to 80 centimetres by 2100, depending on how how quickly humanity draws down greenhouse gas emissions, but left ice sheets out of their calculations due to uncertainty. The picture has become alarmingly more clear since then.”We are probably heading for the higher numbers within that range, possibly higher,” said Stokes. The scientist and his team looked at three baskets of evidence, starting with what has been observed and measured to date. Satellite data has revealed that ice sheets with enough frozen water to lift oceans some 65 metres are far more sensitive to climate change than previously suspected.The amount of ice melting or breaking off into the ocean from Greenland and West Antarctica, now averaging about 400 billion tonnes a year, has quadrupled over the last three decades, eclipsing runoff from mountain glaciers. Estimates of how much global warming it would take to push dwindling ice sheets past a point of no return, known as tipping points, have also shifted.”We used to think that Greenland wouldn’t do anything until the world warmed 3C,” said Stokes. “Now the consensus for tipping points for Greenland and West Antarctica is about 1.5C.”The 2015 Paris climate treaty calls for capping global warming at “well below” 2C, and 1.5C if possible.The scientists also looked at fresh evidence from the three most recent periods in Earth’s history with comparable temperatures and atmospheric levels of CO2, the main driver of global warming.About 125,000 years ago during the previous “interglacial” between ice ages, sea levels were two to nine metres higher than today despite a slightly lower average global temperature and significantly less CO2 in the air — 287 parts per million, compared to 424 ppm today.A slightly warmer period 400,000 ago with CO2 concentrations at about 286 ppm saw oceans 6-to-13 metres higher. And if we go back to the last moment in Earth’s history with CO2 levels like today, some three million years ago, sea levels were 10-to-20 metres higher.Finally, scientists reviewed recent projections of how ice sheets will behave in the future. “If you want to slow sea level rise from ice sheets, you clearly have to cool back from present-day temperatures,” Stokes told AFP.”To slow sea level rise from ice sheets to a manageable level requires a long-term temperature goal that is close to +1C, or possibly lower.”

US President Donald Trump signed a bill on Monday making it a federal crime to post “revenge porn” — whether it is real or generated by artificial intelligence.The “Take It Down Act,” passed with overwhelming bipartisan congressional support, criminalizes non-consensual publication of intimate images, while also mandating their removal from online platforms.”With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have been harassed with deepfakes and other explicit images distributed against their will,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House.”And today we’re making it totally illegal,” the president said. “Anyone who intentionally distributes explicit images without the subject’s consent will face up to three years in prison.”Websites that fail to remove the images promptly, within 48 hours, will face civil liabilities, Trump said.First Lady Melania Trump endorsed the bill in early March and attended the signing ceremony in a rare public White House appearance.The First Lady has largely been an elusive figure at the White House since her husband took the oath of office on January 20, spending only limited time in Washington. In remarks at the signing ceremony, she described the bill as a “national victory that will help parents and families protect children from online exploitation.””This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused,” she said.Deepfakes often rely on artificial intelligence and other tools to create realistic-looking fake videos.They can be used to create falsified pornographic images of real women, which are then published without their consent and proliferate.Some US states, including California and Florida, have laws criminalizing the publication of sexually explicit deepfakes, but critics have voiced concerns the “Take It Down Act” grants the authorities increased censorship power.The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on free expression, has said the bill gives “the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don’t like.” The bill would require social media platforms and websites to have procedures in place to swiftly remove non-consensual intimate imagery upon notification from a victim.- Harassment, bullying, blackmail -An online boom in non-consensual deepfakes is currently outpacing efforts to regulate the technology around the world due to a proliferation of AI tools, including photo apps digitally undressing women.While high-profile politicians and celebrities, including singer Taylor Swift and Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been victims of deepfake porn, experts say women not in the public eye are equally vulnerable.A wave of AI porn scandals have been reported at schools across US states with hundreds of teenagers targeted by their own classmates.Such non-consensual imagery can lead to harassment, bullying or blackmail, sometimes causing devastating mental health consequences, experts warn.Renee Cummings, an AI and data ethicist and criminologist at the University of Virginia, said the bill is a “significant step” in addressing the exploitation of AI-generated deepfakes and non-consensual imagery.”Its effectiveness will depend on swift and sure enforcement, severe punishment for perpetrators and real-time adaptability to emerging digital threats,” Cummings told AFP.At least one mother hailed the new legislation as a step in the right direction.”It’s a very important first step,” Dorota Mani told AFP on Monday, calling it at “very powerful bill.”As the mother of a young victim, Mani said she felt empowered because “now I have a legal weapon in my hand, which nobody can say no to.”