20/03/2025

THURSDAY | MAR 20, 2025

8

Supreme Court chief rebukes US president

Protect film, TV from AI, pleads Hollywood LOS ANGELES: Hundreds of Hollywood stars including Ben Stiller, Cate Blanchett and Cynthia Erivo have urged the White House to protect film, TV and music copyrights against big tech and artificial intelligence. An open letter – signed by over 400 actors, directors and artistes – hits back against tech giants like Google and OpenAI, who say their AI models must be allowed to train on copyrighted work or risk being left behind by Chinese rivals. But “weakening copyright protections” and allowing tech giants to “exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries” would threaten “the world’s most vibrant creative economy”, says the Hollywood letter. The US entertainment industry supports over 2.3 million jobs that generate some US$230 billion (RM1 trillion) in annual wages, as well as “providing the foundation for American influence and soft power abroad”, it says. The intervention comes after President Donald Trump in January signed an executive order committing to remove “unnecessary government control” of AI and boost “America’s global AI dominance”. The White House invited companies and other interested parties to submit suggestions. Google and OpenAI said they must be allowed to train their AI models on the widest possible range of copyrighted content, warning that rival countries could otherwise gain a dangerous advantage. If Chinese developers “have unfettered access to data and American companies are left without fair use access, the race for AI is effectively over”, wrote OpenAI, noting China’s rapid progress with models like DeepSeek. The Hollywood counter-letter was first sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last week. Organisers said they are continuing to gather signatures. – AFP Judge blocks Musk from more cuts WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from taking more steps to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID), saying the efforts likely violated the US Constitution. In a preliminary ruling, US district judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland ordered Musk and the agency he spearheads to restore access to USAID’s computer systems for its direct and contract employees, including those placed on leave. The plaintiffs claimed in their Feb 13 lawsuit that Musk seized control of USAID and effectively acted as an officer of the United States, violating the Constitution’s requirement that such officers be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They said Musk and DOGE overstepped the authority of the executive branch of government by effectively gutting an agency established by Congress. Chuang, who was appointed by Democratic president Barack Obama, agreed that Musk and DOGE “likely violated the US Constitution and these actions harmed not only plaintiffs but also the public interest”. Musk and DOGE argued in court filings that Musk’s role is strictly as an adviser to Trump, and agency officials, not DOGE, were responsible for the actions challenged by the plaintiffs. Chuang found that Musk and DOGE had effectively exercised direct control over the agency. He did not block the mass terminations of USAID contracts and personnel, which have ended much of the agency’s operations worldwide, because while those terminations likely violate the Constitution, they had been approved by government officials. – Reuters

o Use normal appellate review, Trump told

of district courts that have blocked some of the president’s executive actions. However, this was the first time Trump has personally called for a judge’s impeachment since he took office in January. Brandon Gill, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, announced on X that he had introduced articles of impeachment in the House against Boasberg, whom he described as a “radical activist judge”. Following Roberts’ rare statement, Trump said in another post: “If a president doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our country ... then our country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” Federal judges are nominated by the president for life and can only be removed by being impeached by the House of Representatives for “high crimes or misdemeanours” and convicted by the Senate. Impeachment of federal judges is exceedingly rare and the last time a judge was removed by Congress was in 2010. Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law

professor, described Roberts’ intervention as “extremely rare” and recalled that the chief justice made similar remarks after Trump criticised the rulings of federal judges during his first term. Boasberg ordered a suspension on Saturday to the deportation flights taking alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador. The White House invoked little-used wartime legislation known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as legal justification for the move. However, no evidence has been made public to confirm the deportees were gang members or even in the country illegally. Boasberg held a hearing on Monday on whether the White House had deliberately ignored his orders by carrying out the flights. Justice Department lawyers told the judge the more than 200 Venezuelan migrants had already left the United States when he issued a written order barring their departure. Boasberg no longer had jurisdiction once the planes had left US airspace, they said. – AFP

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s rumbling conflict with the judiciary burst into open confrontation on Tuesday as Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke of a US president over his call for the impeachment of a federal judge. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a brief statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” Roberts’ extraordinary rebuke of the president came after Trump called for the impeachment of District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the suspension over the weekend of deportation flights of alleged illegal migrants. The White House has been sharply critical

Williams gives a thumbs up onboard the recovery ship. – REUTERSPIC

Safe return for stranded astronauts WASHINGTON: After an unexpected nine month stay in space, a pair of Nasa astronauts finally returned to Earth on Tuesday, concluding a mission that captured global attention and became a political flashpoint. A SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – alongside fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a splashdown off the Florida coast. As fast boats raced to the capsule for initial safety checks – an unlikely escort arrived in the form of a playful pod of dolphins. Soon after, a larger recovery vessel hoisted Freedom aboard. Teams opened the hatch, and one by one, the astronauts were helped out onto mobility aids, waving and flashing thumbs-up signs. Next, they will be flown by helicopter to Houston, where they will be able to meet their families in another day or two, and begin a physical rehabilitation programme.

Station on Sunday, beginning their 17-hour journey home after final farewells and hugs with the remaining crew. Wilmore and Williams, both ex-navy pilots and veterans of two prior space missions, flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight. However, propulsion issues rendered the spacecraft unfit for their return, forcing it to return empty. They were subsequently reassigned to Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a crew of two, rather than the usual four, to accommodate the pair, who had become widely referred to as the “stranded” astronauts. – AFP

“Promise made, promise kept,” the White House posted on X, repeating a claim that President Donald Trump’s administration had accelerated the recovery timeline. The quartet left the International Space

Ground teams erupted in cheers as the spacecraft named Freedom bobbed steadily on the waves beneath a clear, sunny sky. “What a ride – I see a capsule full of grins,” said Hague.