Rubio Criticizes Hong Kong Authorities After Warrants Issued for Overseas Activists
'The extraterritorial targeting of Hong Kongers who are exercising their fundamental freedoms is a form of transnational repression,' Rubio said in a statement on July 26. 'We will not tolerate the Hong Kong government's attempts to apply its national security laws to silence or intimidate Americans or anyone on U.S. soil.'
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The Hill
15 minutes ago
- The Hill
Former ambassador to EU: 15 percent tariff can be baked into profit margins
President Trump's first-term ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, brushed off concerns on Sunday about higher prices for Americans following news of the U.S.-EU trade deal, which set tariffs at 15 percent on European goods. In an interview with CNN's Jessica Dean, Sondland was asked to respond to folks who see the 15 percent tariff on imported goods and are worried that, for example, their perfume bottles from France will now be 15 percent more expensive. He said Americans might initially see higher prices, but they will soon adjust as competition returns to the market. 'At 15 percent, I think consumers will initially pay, but I also think that this will be baked into the profit margins — or a reduction of the profit margins — on a lot of these products, because the market will start to pull prices back down again as there's more competition,' he said. Sondland said a 15 percent rate will generate enough revenue to make a dent in the reduction of the annual deficit. 'I think at a 15 percent tariff, it's enough to generate. If everything that we imported bore a 15 percent tariff, that would generate about $450 billion for the United States Treasury, which would make an enormous dent in our annual deficit,' Sondland said. 'If the tariff were 30 or 40 or 50 percent, that would be an absolute shutdown, so that wouldn't work. But 10 to 15, I think we can swallow it, and I think it's going to generate a tremendous amount of money if Congress doesn't piss it away on other things,' he added. Trump and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade deal on Sunday, setting tariffs at 15 percent for European goods, including automobiles. The European Union will purchase $750 billion worth of energy from the U.S. as part of the deal, Trump announced, and agreed to invest in the U.S. $600 billion more than the current investments for other goods. The agreement is lower than the 30 percent tariff Trump had threatened to impose on the EU, which would have begun on Friday, and avoids a trade war with the U.S.'s largest trading partner.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Social Security Warning Issued as Retirees Could Face $18,000 Cut
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Retirees could face a huge cut to benefits in the next seven years if a new funding solution isn't found for Social Security, a new report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has outlined. The committee has estimated that a couple with medium dual income retiring in 2033 would lose $18,100 per year in benefits if the trust fund conundrum is not solved. For a single income couple, this would be $13,600. Why It Matters Social Security is relied on by tens of millions of Americans who collect monthly benefits, which help form the bedrock of income in retirement. The program is funded by a combination of payroll taxes and government reserve funds. But according to the latest Social Security Trustees report, the program's two trust funds—the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) funds—when combined are projected to reach insolvency by 2034. At that point, benefits would rely entirely on incoming payroll taxes, resulting in an automatic cut of approximately 21 percent, unless Congress intervenes. What To Know The size of future Social Security benefit cuts would vary significantly depending on a couple's age, marital status, and employment history. Dual-earner couples with low incomes would face a slightly smaller cut of around $11,000 per year, while high-income couples might experience reductions approaching $24,000 annually. While the dollar amount is lower for low-income couples, the impact would be more severe relative to their total income and lifetime earnings. These projected reductions are higher than those outlined in the latest Social Security Trustees' report, which projected a 21 percent cut in benefits if no solution is found. The CRFB calculations are based on a 24 percent cut, due to the recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which include tax rate cuts and an expanded senior standard deduction. The OBBBA ensures that almost 90 percent of Social Security recipients will no longer be required to pay income taxes on their benefits, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA). "The tax rate cuts and increase in the senior standard deduction from the recently enacted OBBBA would reduce Social Security's revenue from the income taxation of benefits, increasing the required cut by about a percentage point upon insolvency," CRFB said in its report. "If the expanded senior standard deduction and other temporary measures of OBBBA are made permanent, the benefit cut would grow larger." Social Security has weathered similar financial challenges before. In the early 1980s, the program neared insolvency, making Congress implement a series of reforms. These included increases in payroll taxes, gradually raising the full retirement age, and introducing taxes on a portion of Social Security benefits. Stock image/file photo: A Social Security card with U.S. Dollars. Stock image/file photo: A Social Security card with U.S. Dollars. GETTY What People Are Saying The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said in its report: "Policymakers pledging not to touch Social Security are implicitly endorsing these deep benefit cuts for 62 million retirees in 2032 and beyond. It is time for policymakers to tell the truth about the program's finances and to pursue trust fund solutions to head off insolvency and improve the program for current and future generations." Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in a news release earlier this month about the OBBBA: "This is a historic step forward for America's seniors. For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans. By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump's promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they've earned." What Happens Next? Lawmakers are offering proposals to shore up the system. Among them is the reintroduced Medicare & Social Security Fair Share Act from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, both Democrats. Their bill would impose payroll taxes on wages and investment income exceeding $400,000. A bipartisan effort comes from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who have proposed establishing a $1.5 trillion investment fund for Social Security. The Treasury would front the funding, which would be invested across a broad portfolio of stocks, bonds, and other assets to generate higher long-term returns. After 75 years, the Treasury would be repaid, and the accumulated gains would be directed toward supporting Social Security benefits.
an hour ago
Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier. Fighting back may take even more AI
WASHINGTON -- The phone rings. It's the secretary of state calling. Or is it? For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump's administration. Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age. Responding to the challenge will require laws, better digital literacy and technical solutions that fight AI with more AI. 'As humans, we are remarkably susceptible to deception,' said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and founder of the tech firm Pindrop Security. But he believes solutions to the challenge of deepfakes may be within reach: 'We are going to fight back.' This summer, someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app. In May someone impersonated Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Another phony Rubio had popped up in a deepfake earlier this year, saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service. Ukraine's government later rebutted the false claim. The national security implications are huge: People who think they're chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. 'You're either trying to extract sensitive secrets or competitive information or you're going after access, to an email server or other sensitive network," Kinny Chan, CEO of the cybersecurity firm QiD, said of the possible motivations. Synthetic media can also aim to alter behavior. Last year, Democratic voters in New Hampshire received a robocall urging them not to vote in the state's upcoming primary. The voice on the call sounded suspiciously like then-President Joe Biden but was actually created using AI. Their ability to deceive makes AI deepfakes a potent weapon for foreign actors. Both Russia and China have used disinformation and propaganda directed at Americans as a way of undermining trust in democratic alliances and institutions. Steven Kramer, the political consultant who admitted sending the fake Biden robocalls, said he wanted to send a message of the dangers deepfakes pose to the American political system. Kramer was acquitted last month of charges of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. 'I did what I did for $500,' Kramer said. 'Can you imagine what would happen if the Chinese government decided to do this?' The greater availability and sophistication of the programs mean deepfakes are increasingly used for corporate espionage and garden variety fraud. 'The financial industry is right in the crosshairs," said Jennifer Ewbank, a former deputy director of the CIA who worked on cybersecurity and digital threats. 'Even individuals who know each other have been convinced to transfer vast sums of money.' In the context of corporate espionage, they can be used to impersonate CEOs asking employees to hand over passwords or routing numbers. Deepfakes can also allow scammers to apply for jobs — and even do them — under an assumed or fake identity. For some this is a way to access sensitive networks, to steal secrets or to install ransomware. Others just want the work and may be working a few similar jobs at different companies at the same time. Authorities in the U.S. have said that thousands of North Koreans with information technology skills have been dispatched to live abroad, using stolen identities to obtain jobs at tech firms in the U.S. and elsewhere. The workers get access to company networks as well as a paycheck. In some cases, the workers install ransomware that can be later used to extort even more money. The schemes have generated billions of dollars for the North Korean government. Within three years, as many as 1 in 4 job applications is expected to be fake, according to research from Adaptive Security, a cybersecurity company. 'We've entered an era where anyone with a laptop and access to an open-source model can convincingly impersonate a real person,' said Brian Long, Adaptive's CEO. 'It's no longer about hacking systems — it's about hacking trust.' Researchers, public policy experts and technology companies are now investigating the best ways of addressing the economic, political and social challenges posed by deepfakes. New regulations could require tech companies to do more to identify, label and potentially remove deepfakes on their platforms. Lawmakers could also impose greater penalties on those who use digital technology to deceive others — if they can be caught. Greater investments in digital literacy could also boost people's immunity to online deception by teaching them ways to spot fake media and avoid falling prey to scammers. The best tool for catching AI may be another AI program, one trained to sniff out the tiny flaws in deepfakes that would go unnoticed by a person. Systems like Pindrop's analyze millions of datapoints in any person's speech to quickly identify irregularities. The system can be used during job interviews or other video conferences to detect if the person is using voice cloning software, for instance. Similar programs may one day be commonplace, running in the background as people chat with colleagues and loved ones online. Someday, deepfakes may go the way of email spam, a technological challenge that once threatened to upend the usefulness of email, said Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop's CEO.
