Fed Afghan watchdog can’t guarantee US tax dollars ‘not currently funding Taliban’

 The U.S. government’s Afghanistan watchdog told lawmakers on Wednesday he can’t guarantee American aid to Kabul isn’t being funneled to the Taliban. 

“While I agree — and we all agree — Afghanistan faces a dire humanitarian and economic situation, it is critical that our assistance not be diverted by the Taliban,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko told the House Oversight Committee. “Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban.” 

“Nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending from the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people,” he added. 

SIGAR, the independent watchdog founded in 2008 to oversee U.S. spending in Afghanistan amid what was the ongoing war, monitors the more than $8 billion allocated to the country since the American military withdrew in August 2021. 

Because the U.S. has no formal ties with the Taliban, the Biden administration has attempted to funnel the money into Afghanistan via international organizations and nongovernment groups.  

The process is complicated, however, by a lack of U.S. monitors in the country to make sure the humanitarian dollars are going to where they’re intended and not to the Taliban or other nefarious groups. 

Speaking to lawmakers, Sopko referenced SIGAR’s 2023 High-Risk List report, released earlier Wednesday, which identifies the serious issues facing the billions of dollars the U.S. has pledged to the Afghan people, including Taliban interference and a lack of aggressive oversight controls.  

“I don’t trust the Taliban as far as you can throw them. And the information we’re getting … is that the Taliban are already diverting funds,” Sopko told lawmakers. “I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV. They all seem to be fat, dumb and happy. I see a lot of starving Afghan children on TV, so I’m wondering where all this funding is going.” 

Sopko said the problems with oversight are exacerbated by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) “failure to fully cooperate” with SIGAR audits and other inquiries. 

“The lack of cooperation by State … and to a lesser extent USAID, is unprecedented in the nearly 12 years that I have been the SIGAR,” said Sopko, who was appointed to his role in 2012 under the Obama administration. 

He said the agency’s refusal to fully cooperate has led to a significant portion of the watchdog’s work, including five reports for the Oversight Committee, being “hindered and delayed.” 

He implored lawmakers for help to “stop this obfuscation and delay” as “we cannot abide a situation in which agencies are allowed to pick and choose what information an IG gets or who an IG can interview or what an IG may report on.” 

He added: “If permitted to continue, it will end SIGAR’s work in Afghanistan but also Congress’s access to independent and credible oversight of any administration.” 

Asked later about Sopko’s claims that the State Department and USAID have refused to cooperate with his independent oversight and investigations, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed aside the accusations.  

“The administration has consistently provided updates and information,” she told reporters. 

She added that the administration “consistently provided updates,” as well as thousands of documents, hundreds of briefings to bipartisan members and staff, and public testimonies information to “numerous” inspectors general. 

The hearing adds to the furor over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a deadly and disastrous event that has caused much finger-pointing in Congress as to who is most responsible for the outcome. 

Lawmakers have largely fallen along party lines in assessing blame, with Republicans for months vowing to closely examine the withdrawal through congressional hearings. 

The GOP did just that in March with a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing where service members and other individuals involved in the evacuation testified. 

Wednesday’s hearing took a different angle, inviting government watchdogs to give accounts of where humanitarian aid is going within Afghanistan. 

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) took the opportunity to condemn President Biden for poor leadership and planning ahead of the withdrawal. 

Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), meanwhile, said it was “morally confused and politically cynical” to lay blame at Biden’s feet as the war “spanned four Republican and Democratic presidential administrations.” 

The administration also sought to stunt expected criticism of Biden with an early Wednesday memo calling the event a political stunt on the part of Republicans. It also slammed GOP lawmakers for distracting “from their own failures” on solutions to evacuate thousands of people from Afghanistan.   

And earlier this month the Pentagon and State Department provided classified after-action review findings to Congress that placed a significant amount of blame on the Trump administration for not leaving the current White House plans to execute a withdrawal.  

A summary of the findings, later released by the White House, sidestepped an admission of the administration’s own mistakes in the event.  

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3959603-afghanistan-watchdog-cant-guarantee-us-tax-dollars-not-currently-funding-the-taliban/

'Confidence in childhood vaccines dropped around the world during pandemic': UNICEF

 Confidence in childhood vaccines dropped internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, falling by as much as 44 percentage points in some countries, according to a report from UNICEF. 

The report, entitled “The State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination,” found that confidence dropped in 52 of the 55 countries surveyed, with China, India and Mexico being the only three countries where the perception of the importance of vaccines stayed the same or improved. Confidence dropped by more than a third in South Korea, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Ghana and Senegal since the pandemic began. 

Researchers did still find that confidence in childhood vaccines overall remains mostly strong, with more than 80 percent of those surveyed in nearly half of the 55 countries saying vaccines are important for children to have. 

But they warned that factors like uncertainty about the response to the pandemic, access to misleading information, declining trust in experts and political polarization could be allowing vaccine hesitancy to grow. 

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a release that the data is a “worrying warning signal.” She said officials must not allow confidence in vaccines to become “another victim of the pandemic” or many children could die from preventable diseases like measles or diphtheria. 

“At the height of the pandemic, scientists rapidly developed vaccines that saved countless lives. But despite this historic achievement, fear and disinformation about all types of vaccines circulated as widely as the virus itself,” Russell said. 

The release states that the drop in confidence coincides with the largest sustained decrease in childhood immunizations in three decades, which was caused by the pandemic. It states that the pandemic disrupted childhood vaccinations in almost every country because of “intense demands” on health care systems, stay-at-home measures, workforce shortages and immunization resources being diverted to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. 

The report states that 67 million children missed vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, and children born just before or during the pandemic are getting past the age where they would normally be vaccinated for a wide range of diseases. 

Researchers also found that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities, as the children who were most impacted by the drop in childhood vaccines were those living in the poorest, most remote and most marginalized communities. 

UNICEF concluded that governments must “double-down” on increasing funding for vaccination efforts and free up available resources, including COVID-19 funds, to accelerate these efforts. 

The report calls on world governments to identify and reach all children who missed vaccinations during the pandemic, build greater confidence in vaccines and prioritize funding for immunizations and primary health care. It also states that governments should invest in female health care workers, “innovation” and local manufacturing to build up more resilient health care systems.

“We know all too well that diseases do not respect borders. Routine immunizations and strong health systems are our best shot at preventing future pandemics, unnecessary deaths and suffering,” Russell said.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3959896-confidence-in-childhood-vaccines-dropped-around-the-world-during-pandemic-unicef/

Judge delays leaked documents suspect Jack Teixeira's court hearing after defense asks more time

 A federal judge on Wednesday agreed to delay a detention hearing for Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Douglas Teixeira, granting a request from the defense.

Teixeira also waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday, according to court documents, and he made a brief appearance in Boston's federal courthouse.

The detention hearing previously scheduled for Wednesday was postponed for around two weeks, and Teixeira will continue to be detained. No firm date was decided on during Teixeira's brief appearance.

"The defense requires more time to address the issues presented by the government's request for detention," Teixeira's attorney Brendan Kelley wrote Wednesday.

Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, seated second from right, appears in U.S. District Court, in Boston, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Margaret Small)

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Teixeira walked into the courtroom wearing and was unshackled before sitting between his lawyers. Teixeira briefly looked back at his father, and when the hearing ended, the suspect was handcuffed again.

FBI agents arrested Teixeira at a home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, Thursday in connection with a trove of classified documents that have been leaked online in recent months. 

Teixeira, who joined the Air National Guard in September 2019, held the highest level security clearance granted by the federal government for top-secret information, according to an internal Department of Defense email reviewed by Fox News. 

Teixeira was most recently stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base as a member of the of 102nd Intelligence Wing. He was promoted to Airman 1st Class in July, according to the unit. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixeira, 21, is being investigated for the "alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information."  

This image made from video provided by WCVB-TV, shows Jack Teixeira, in T-shirt and shorts, being taken into custody by armed tactical agents on Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Dighton, Mass. (WCVB-TV via AP)

Teixeira allegedly starting sharing classified documents with the private group in recent months, but the leaks gained wider attention after another member shared them in a public forum, according to the report. 

The leaked documents mainly concern Russia's invasion of Ukraine but also include intelligence on China, the Middle East, Israel's spy agency Mossad and world leaders. 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-delays-pentagon-leak-suspect-jack-teixeira-detention-hearing-defense-asks-more-time

Creepy ChatGPT robot EVE looks like this — and will take over jobs

 AI enthusiasts may soon be able to talk to ChatGPT or similar systems face to interface.

The chatbot’s parent company, OpenAI, is working with a robotics firm to develop bold new robotic prototypes powered by state-of-the-art AI systems.

Photos of the potential humanoid forms have users pondering if they’re looking at the new face of artificial intelligence.

OpenAI recently invested $23.5 million in 1X, a Norway-based engineering and robotics company that says it is “producing androids capable of human-like movements and behaviors.”

“Much like how OpenAI is building digital information manipulation systems (e.g. ChatGPT) by losslessly compressing Internet data, we are building a general-purpose AI for manipulating physical information (atoms),” Eric Jang, 1X’s vice president of AI, declared in a tweet.

One of 1X’s robotic darlings is named EVE, which was initially designed as a research bot before being repurposed as a security droid, reported Fortune.

Her crude digital “smiley face” belies an impressive set of physical abilities, ranging from meticulously packing a box to gently opening a window, as seen in an eye-opening video posted last month.

Think of her as a Japanese ramen droid with the surgical precision of Atlas, Boston Dynamics’ bipedal backflipping robot.

EVE’s fine motor skills are a credit to her manipulation by a VR control and AI, Medium reported.

A robot operator sits at a NASA-esque control center with a motherboard featuring a camera, navigation, and real-time status updates on her automatons.

Due to her precise locomotion, this literal robocop could also moonlight in the labor force, which is already being automated in every sector from restaurants to Amazon warehouses.

“1X is exploring opportunities and applications within retail, logistics and health care with leading customers and partners,” Arne Tonning, a partner at the capital firm Alliance Venture Capital, which invested in the tech, wrote in a Medium post last month.

Could this be the new face of ChatGPT?

1X

OpenAI’s funding will also support production of NEO, a mannequin-looking bot that will allow researchers to explore how AI manifests itself in a humanoid form, Medium reported.

One person who is likely not a fan of the ventures? Elon Musk.

The SpaceX boss, who reportedly wanted to take over OpenAI before selling his stake to Microsoft in 2018, recently floated plans to deploy thousands of competing personal servant bots, known as Tesla Bot or Optimus.

At a recent TED Talk, Musk described how the droids could be used in homes to make dinner, mow the lawn and care for elderly people.

They could even become a “buddy” or a “catgirl” sex partner, he claimed.

We’re learning all about EVE. The humanoid robot moves a box in a video posted last month.

1X

Competition notwithstanding, the 1X projects and generative AI as a whole could revolutionize the robotics industry by making them less, well, robotic.

“Generative AI is going to be absolutely transformative for the two problems we currently have with robots — that they are quite dumb, and they don’t always understand what we want,” George Strakhov, chief strategy officer at the advertising company DDB EMEA, told the Daily Mail. “Large language models (like GPT-4) are exceptional at complex reasoning.”

He added, “So when robots are powered by LLMs — they will be able to act much more dynamically, respond to the environment changes, plan ahead, etc.”

Strakhov believes that in the future, we will even be able to have naturalistic back-and-forth conversations with the bots.

“And realistic voice synthesis as well as face/emotions synthesis will enable them to communicate with us much more ‘naturally,’ making it comfortable for more people (including old/young) to interface with robots — the same way they interface with other humans,” the strategist predicted.

This new reality could be closer than ever.

Last week, Ameca — an advanced humanoid language bot that uses the same technology as ChatGPT — wowed onlookers by replying to complex commands in various languages while exhibiting human-like mannerisms.

She would pause to think before responding and even flash the appropriate expression for each situation, such as smiling when happy and furrowing her brow when sad.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/creepy-chatgpt-robot-eve-looks-like-this-and-will-take-over-jobs/

Heavy electric vehicles could put pressure on parking garages

 Parking garages across the US could be at risk of collapse over the weight of heavier electric vehicles, experts warned, as one such garage fell in Lower Manhattan, killing one person and injuring five.

Chris Whapples, a structural engineer and consultant working on new regulations for multi-story garages in the UK, said officials need to understand how the rise in EVs will affect current car parks.

“I don’t want to be too alarmist, but there definitely is the potential for some of the early car parks in poor condition to collapse,” Whapples told The Telegraph.

“Operators need to be aware of electric vehicle weights, and get their car parks assessed from a strength point of view, and decide if they need to limit weight.”

The warning came less than two weeks before Tuesday’s deadly collapse at the NYC parking garage, which reportedly had active violations dating back to 2003.

The victim has been preliminarily identified as Willis Moore, who was listed on LinkedIn as the “location manager” for the Little Man Parking garage.

“We’re still in the process of recovery because there is still a person who’s there that we have to remove from that location,” Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Wednesday, referring to the body of the deceased.

Parking garages across the US could be at risk of collapse over the weight of heavier electric vehicles, experts warn.

Getty Images

Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol noted that there were more than four dozen cars on the roof at the time of the collapse and that there may have been electric cars involved.

“There’s over 50 cars on the roof. The building is not structurally sound, you think about hazardous materials that are in the garage, right gas tanks, fluids, further complicated by the fact that there are possibly some electric vehicles in that garage,” Iscol said.

Electric cars are notably heavier than their gas counterparts due to their powerful batteries.

A parking garage collapsed in Manhattan killing one and injuring five.

Jadess Speller

The battery of an electric GMC Hummer, for example, weighs about 2,900 pounds, roughly the entire weight of a Honda Civic.

Getty Images

The battery of an electric GMC Hummer, for example, weighs about 2,900 pounds, roughly the entire weight of a Honda Civic.

Likewise, the Audi E-tron SUV weighs about 5,765 pounds, much heavier than the Ford Explorer SUV, which weighs about 4,345 pounds.

Jennifer Homendy, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board, outlined the weight disparity earlier this year when discussing concerns about heavy electric vehicles involved in car crashes.

Although she said it was important for America to invest in more electric vehicles, she concluded that the nation needs to have the proper infrastructure and regulations in place first.

“We have to be careful that we aren’t also creating unintended consequences: More death on our roads,” she said. “Safety, especially when it comes to new transportation policies and new technologies, cannot be overlooked.”

https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/electric-vehicles-could-put-pressure-on-parking-garages/