Tootfinder

Trump Files to Cancel Approval of Maryland Offshore Wind Farm | Financial Post
https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/trump-files-to-cancel-approval-of-maryland-offshore-wind-farm

India's RBI grants Paytm "in-principle" approval to operate as a payment services provider for online merchants, after China's Ant Group sold its entire stake (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/12/indi

Indian fintech Paytm wins a major regulatory battle days after key investor exit | TechCrunch
Paytm has received approval from India’s central bank to resume onboarding new online merchants and offer its digital payment services.

Indian Creek Village,
the “Billionaire Bunker” near Miami,
couldn’t get approval to discharge its waste into a neighboring town’s sewer lines.
So the village quietly persuaded state lawmakers to force the issue.
In a world where billionaires are increasingly exercising political clout,
the fight over sewage in Indian Creek suggests the degree to which their influence is extending not just to policy in the White House and Congress but to some of the most foundat…

A Billionaire Island Where Bezos and Kushner Live Is Fighting Over Sewage
Indian Creek Village, the “Billionaire Bunker” near Miami, couldn’t get approval to discharge its waste into a neighboring town’s sewer lines. So the village quietly persuaded state lawmakers to come to the rescue.

There's a reason that Trump is working to prevent reasonably free and fair midterm elections next year.
https://www.umass.edu/news/article/new-national-umass-amherst-poll-finds-president-trumps-job-approval-…

New National UMass Amherst Poll Finds President Trump’s Job Approval Slides 6 Points Since April | UMass Amherst
The survey finds Trump’s net approval drops to -20 six months into his term, while his approval rating on immigration falls 9 points since April; additionally, 70% say he has not handled the Epstein situation well and 81% blame him for hiding info on case.

China approves Synopsys' acquisition of simulation software company Ansys, after the US lifted restrictions on chip design software sales to China (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-grants-conditional-approval-syno…

The War Between the States - Slightly more civility... for now:
Missouri House Gives Preliminary Approval to GOP Gerrymander, Ballot Initiative Attack
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/missouri-h…

Missouri House Gives Preliminary Approval to GOP Gerrymander, Ballot Initiative Attack
Read more here.

Apple delays iPhone Air pre-orders in China, likely over eSIM regulatory issues, replacing the original schedule with "release information to be updated later" (Coco Feng/South China Morning Post)
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tec…

Apple postpones iPhone Air in China as Beijing keeps tight grip on eSIM approval
Apple says all three state-owned telecoms network operators would provide eSIM support ‘subject to regulatory approval’.

Missouri House Gives Preliminary Approval to GOP Gerrymander, Ballot Initiative Attack (Jen Rice/Democracy Docket)
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/missouri-house-gives-preliminary-approval-to-gop-gerrymander-ballot-initiative-attack/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250909/p72#a250909p72

On Sept. 2, Donald Trump did something shocking even for him:
ordering the cold-blooded murder of 11 people.
With his active approval, they were summarily executed by an air strike on a boat carrying them off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump said that the vessel was manned by “Tren de Aragua Narco terrorists” from Venezuela carrying illegal drugs to the U.S.
He also said, “We have tapes of them speaking” and that “we knew exactly who was in that boat” and “exactly wha…

Trump’s State Terrorism Against Venezuela Will Endanger American Lives
If the champion of the rules-based international order turns to violence as a first resort, so will other countries

Jerry Jones reviews Cowboys' Brian Schottenheimer's performance in first Oxnard camp https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/jerry-jones-reviews-brian-schottenheimer-performance-first-dallas-cowboys-oxnard-camp

Emoji Reactions on Telegram Often Reflect Social Approval Over Emotional Resonance
Serena Tardelli, Lorenzo Alvisi, Lorenzo Cima, Stefano Cresci, Maurizio Tesconi
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06349

Emoji Reactions on Telegram Often Reflect Social Approval Over Emotional Resonance
Emoji reactions are a frequently used feature of messaging platforms. Prior work mainly interpreted emojis as indicators of emotional resonance or user sentiment. However, emoji reactions may instead reflect broader social dynamics. Here, we investigate the communicative function of emoji reactions on Telegram by analyzing the relationship between the emotional and rhetorical content of messages and the emoji reactions they receive. We collect and analyze over 650k Telegram messages that receiv…

Trump wields his ‘secret weapon’: College accreditation
Trump and his allies are using college accreditation to exert pressure on colleges and universities,
an effort that threatens the independence of accreditors and the stability of the institutions they approve.

Accrediting agencies, which have existed for more than a century, determine whether colleges meet standards of quality
by evaluating every aspect of their finances, operations and student achievement.

Trump wields his ‘secret weapon’: College accreditation
The administration is trying to make good on Trump’s campaign promise to use accreditation, a critical stamp of approval for colleges, to remake higher education.

Hello @…, this is there for a few days now. Can you please add our server to the pixelfed directory?
server is punk.photos
thanks in advance!
#pixelfed #pixelfedadmin

Frage an alle #GitLab Admins: gibt es eine Möglichkeit, einen User automatisch auf alle Projekte Instanz-weit in GitLab self hosted zuzulassen?
Für eine Überprüfung reicht ein Audit User nicht aus und ich möchte das so weit wir möglich automatisieren, auch für neue Projekte.

T-Mobile tells FCC it's scrapping DEI as it waits for deal approvals from the agency (Bryan Metzger/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/fcc-tmobile-end-dei-policies-deal-approval-2025-7
http://www.memeorandum.com/250709/p113#a250709p113

Speculative politics
As an anarchist (okay, maybe not in practice), I'm tired of hearing why we have to suffer X and Y indignity to "preserve the rule of law" or "maintain Democratic norms." So here's an example of what representative democracy (a form of government that I believe is inherently flawed) could look like if its proponents had even an ounce of imagination, and/or weren't actively trying to rig it to favor a rich donor class:
1. Unicameral legislature, where representatives pass laws directly. Each state elects 3 statewide representatives: the three most-popular candidates in a statewide race where each person votes for one candidate (ranked preference voting would be even better but might not be necessary, and is not a solution by itself). Instead of each representative getting one vote in the chamber, they get N votes, where N is the number of people who voted for them. This means that in a close race, instead of the winner getting all the power, the power is split. Having 3 representatives trades off between leisure size and ensuring that two parties can't dominate together.
2. Any individual citizen can contact their local election office to switch or withdraw their vote at any time (maybe with a 3-day delay or something). Voting power of representatives can thus shift even without an election. They are limited to choosing one of the three elected representatives, or "none of the above." If the "none of the above" fraction exceeds 20% of eligible voters, a new election is triggered for that state. If turnout is less than 80%, a second election happens immediately, with results being final even at lower turnout until 6 months later (some better mechanism for turnout management might be needed).
3. All elections allow mail-in ballots, and in-person voting happens Sunday-Tuesday with the Monday being a mandatory holiday. (Yes, election integrity is not better in this system and that's a big weakness.)
4. Separate nationwide elections elect three positions for head-of-state: one with diplomatic/administrative powers, another with military powers, and a third with veto power. For each position, the top three candidates serve together, with only the first-place winner having actual power until vote switches or withdrawals change who that is. Once one of these heads loses their first-place status, they cannot get it again until another election, even if voters switch preferences back (to avoid dithering). An election for one of these positions is triggered when 20% have withdrawn their votes, or if all three people initially elected have been disqualified by losing their lead in the vote count.
5. Laws that involve spending money are packaged with specific taxes to pay for them, and may only be paid for by those specific revenues. Each tax may be opted into or out of by each taxpayer; where possible opting out of the tax also opts you out of the service. (I'm well aware of a lot of the drawbacks of this, but also feel like they'd not necessarily be worse than the drawbacks of our current system.) A small mandatory tax would cover election expenses.
6. I'm running out of attention, but similar multi-winner elections could elect panels of judges from which a subset is chosen randomly to preside in each case.
Now I'll point out once again that this system, in not directly confronting capitalism, racism, patriarchy, etc., is probably doomed to the same failures as our current system. But if you profess to want a "representative democracy" as opposed to something more libratory, I hope you'll at least advocate for something like this that actually includes meaningful representation as opposed to the current US system that's engineered to quash it.
Key questions: "Why should we have winner-take-all elections when winners-take-proportionately-to-votes is right there?" and "Why should elected officials get to ignore their constituents' approval except during elections, when vote-withdrawal or -switching is possible?"
2/2
#Democracy

Medicare pilot program to use AI for pre-approval of medical procedures https://ground.news/article/medicare-pilot-program-to-use-ai-for-pre-approval-of-medical-procedures_95fc0d

It's great to see this innovation coming to life! The Recharge 100 🔌 DC fast charging network in 🇸🇪 Sweden (SE3 region) is awaiting final TSO approval to deliver Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCR) to help balance the grid!
https://www.linked…

#virtualpowerplant #evcharging #flexibility #gridintegration #energytransition #flexecharge #recharge | FLEXECHARGE | 26 comments
🌍🔌 BIG NEWS: announcing the first-ever large-scale Virtual Power Plant project on DC-chargers! ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ We’re excited to welcome Recharge, the largest rapid charging network in the Nordics, as our customer! Together with Fever (BSP partner), we’ve deployed the first Virtual Power Plant (VPP) on public DC fast chargers in 🇸🇪 Sweden’s SE3 region. Nearly 100 high-power chargers across 60+ sites are now aggregated to: ⚡ Keep drivers powered up without disruption ⚡ Provi…

T-Mobile has received FCC and DOJ approval for its $4.4B acquisition of US Cellular, after agreeing to phase out DEI programs to comply with FCC policy (Kelcee Griffis/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

A second 90-day extension on Paramount's proposed sale to Skydance has been automatically triggered, allowing more time for FCC approval (Jill Goldsmith/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2025/07/paramount-skydance-latest-90-day…

Paramount, Skydance Latest 90-Day Merger Extension Kicks Off Today
A second 90-day extension of Paramount proposed sale to David Ellison’s Skydance automatically triggered today as per the deal agreement.

Bengals reach $470 million deal to renovate Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, pending final approval

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bengals

Accept or Deny? Evaluating LLM Fairness and Performance in Loan Approval across Table-to-Text Serialization Approaches
Israel Abebe Azime, Deborah D. Kanubala, Tejumade Afonja, Mario Fritz, Isabel Valera, Dietrich Klakow, Philipp Slusallek
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21512

Accept or Deny? Evaluating LLM Fairness and Performance in Loan Approval across Table-to-Text Serialization Approaches
Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly employed in high-stakes decision-making tasks, such as loan approvals. While their applications expand across domains, LLMs struggle to process tabular data, ensuring fairness and delivering reliable predictions. In this work, we assess the performance and fairness of LLMs on serialized loan approval datasets from three geographically distinct regions: Ghana, Germany, and the United States. Our evaluation focuses on the model's zero-shot and in-cont…

Computation of Approximately Stable Committees in Approval-based Elections
Drew Gao, Yihang Sun, Jan Vondr\'ak
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00130 https://

Computation of Approximately Stable Committees in Approval-based Elections
Approval-based committee selection is a model of significant interest in social choice theory. In this model, we have a set of voters $\mathcal{V}$, a set of candidates $\mathcal{C}$, and each voter has a set $A_v \subset \mathcal{C}$ of approved candidates. For any committee size $K$, the goal is to choose $K$ candidates to represent the voters' preferences. We study a criterion known as \emph{approximate stability}, where a committee is $λ$-approximately-stable if there is no other committee…

Adaptive Designs in Fast-Track Registration Processes
Liane Kluge, Werner Brannath
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04092 https://arxiv.org…

Adaptive Designs in Fast-Track Registration Processes
Fast-track procedures play an important role in the context of conditional registration of health products, such as conditional approval processes and listing processes for digital health applications. Fast-track procedures offer the potential for earlier patient access to innovative products. They involve two registration steps. The applicants can apply first for conditional registration. A successful conditional registration provides a limited funding or approval period and time to prepare th…

MCPoison – a vulnerability in the Cursor IDE allows arbitrary code to be executed via MCP: https://research.checkpoint.com/2025/cursor-vulnerability-mcpoison/
Cursor fixed the vulnerability on 29 July with version 1.3. Users should update to this version. We als…

Cursor IDE's MCP Vulnerability - Check Point Research
Identified Cursor IDE's vulnerability allows attackers to modify MCP configuration files after its one-time approval system

Good Morning #Canada
Today, we celebrate the reincarnation of Shep to the shores of Dorchester New Brunswick, despite being reinstalled without proper government approval. The original wood Shep was less than 20 years old when it began to rot, leading to a new, more durable version made of fiberglass and steel. At 2.4 metres high and 135 kilos, it should be able to weather storms and bureaucratic red tape.
#CanadaIsAwesome #BigStuffInSmallTowns
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/shep-2-sandpiper-statue-returns-dorchester-1.6805965

Interior Department Moves to Cancel Reckless Biden-era Approval of Lava Ridge Wind Project (U.S. Department of the Interior)
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-moves-cancel-reckless-biden-era-approval-lava-ridge-wind-project
http://www.memeorandum.com/250806/p60#a250806p60

"UK ministers reopen door to drilling at two North Sea oilfields as new guidance released"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #NorthSea

Fedi meta-musings.
Just went to look at a Mastodon account I interacted with a little while back. Their follow requests require approval (which is fair enough) and the bio states
Got a blank or nonsensical avatar, no visible activity, no pointers to your identity? I'll ignore your follow request.
Well I guess that's me out. I have a good reason for wanting to be pseudonymous, as do many others here I imagine.
Of course it's every user's right to set whatever conditions they want on who follows them, but a blanket refusal on anyone not featuring a "real name" and a human-appearing avatar feels quite over-sensitive to me.
#fediverse #mastodon

Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
responded to Trump’s
"Pocket Recission" attempts by saying that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
Other moderate Republicans issued similar statements, and even Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed some concern, saying he agreed with the president on policy but worried about the process.
Still, the House Republican Co…

One weird trick to stop Trump’s federal spending power grab
Congress can burn a hole in the president’s “pocket rescission.”

No 'classified' info for Trump assassination suspect: Cannon
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/its-disclosure-could-cause-serious-damage-judge-cannon-shields-classified-info-from-trump-assassination-attempt-suspect-gives-doj-approval-to-protect-it/

Trump's approval rating still negative while the public sours further on Democrats, CNBC survey shows (Steve Liesman/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/07/trumps-approval-rating-still-negative-while-the-public-sours-further-on-democrats-cnbc-survey-shows.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/250807/p139#a250807p139

Paramount appoints Kenneth Weinstein, former president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, as the ombudsman for CBS News (Ted Johnson/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2025/09/paramount-ombudsman-cbs-news-1236512021/

Paramount Picks Kenneth R. Weinstein As Ombudsman For CBS News
Paramount has tapped Kenneth R. Weinstein, former president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, to serve as ombudsman for CBS News. Skydance committed to hiring an ombudsman as it sought FCC regulatory approval of its acquisition of Paramount. He’ll report to Jeff Shell, president of Paramount. Per Paramount, under the ombudsman process, Weinstein will take […]

Enhancement Report Approval Prediction: A Comparative Study of Large Language Models
Haosheng Zuo, Feifei Niu, Chuanyi Li
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15098 …

Enhancement Report Approval Prediction: A Comparative Study of Large Language Models
Enhancement reports (ERs) serve as a critical communication channel between users and developers, capturing valuable suggestions for software improvement. However, manually processing these reports is resource-intensive, leading to delays and potential loss of valuable insights. To address this challenge, enhancement report approval prediction (ERAP) has emerged as a research focus, leveraging machine learning techniques to automate decision-making. While traditional approaches have employed fe…

PowerLines: US power providers have sought regulatory approval for $29B in rate increases in H1 2025, up 142% YoY, following booming data center demand (Martha Muir/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/c5f20c78-7931-492f-9153-675f3046e245

Independents Drive Trump's Approval to 37% Second-Term Low
https://news.gallup.com/poll/692879/independents-drive-trump-approval-second-term-low.aspx

Independents Drive Trump's Approval to 37% Second-Term Low
President Donald Trump's job approval rating has fallen to 37%, the lowest of his second term as a result of a decrease among independents.

The ESPN-NFL megadeal looks and feels like a big trade. So we’re grading the participants. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6540718/2025/08/08/espn-nfl-deal-redzone-trade-grades/

Got banned from write.as for triggering an anti-SEO alert — apparently too many links to http://localhost (yes, really). I emailed support right away, assuming it would be resolved quickly. Two weeks later: still banned.
So I took it personally.
According to their rules, I need to delete all posts before I can delete the account… but I can’t do that because, well, I’m banned. 😅
Thanks to full approval from the CEO of TYOLabs.com (me) and the swift action of their lead sysad…

TransLink is expanding its battery-electric bus fleet by over 100 buses, with the approval of significant funding by Metro Vancouver’s Board of Directors. This investment will improve bus service for customers by supporting long-term service growth, expanding charging capabilities, & diversifying the transit fleet.
The newly allocated $479 million will enable the replacement of aging diesel buses with new battery-electric models & support the infrastructure needed to store and …

SpaceX is seeking approval to nearly double rocket launches from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base -- to 95 per year,
putting the company on a collision course with the California Coastal Commission
over concerns about wildlife, noise, and state oversight
That represents a sharp climb from early 2024,
when SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk and working with the U.S. Air Force,
agreed to only six launches a year under a deal with the commission.

Even my shit has a higher approval rating than this president. : r/TheLib
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLib/comments/1m97iew/even_my_shit_has_a_higher_approval_rating_than/

Which is why the conservatives supported it, they were thinking ahead for when they’re in power.
#CdnPoli
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app

Another change proposal was submitted to the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo) for approval[1]:
Replace the #Xorg #Xserver with the X11Libre Xserver for #Fedora 43-

The ESPN-NFL deal will require US regulatory approval, giving President Trump the kind of leverage he seemingly exercised in the 60 Minutes settlement (Mike Florio/NBCSports.com)
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballt

ESPN, NFL need Trump administration to approve massive media deal
It was a footnote to the reporting regarding a deal being done.

Waymo introduces teen accounts in Phoenix, allowing teenagers aged 14-17 to use its Waymo One ridehailing service alone with parental approval (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/699580/waymo-teen-account-phoenix

Waymo introduces teen accounts for the first time in Phoenix
Waymo is introducing teen accounts for the first time in Phoenix. Kids as young as 14 can create an account that’s linked to their parent or guardian.

Six months into his second term,
Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dipped to 37%,
the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term.
Trump’s rating has fallen 10 percentage points among U.S. adults since he began his second term in January,
including a 17-point decline among independents, to 29%,
matching his lowest rating with that group in either of his terms.

Independents Drive Trump's Approval to 37% Second-Term Low
President Donald Trump's job approval rating has fallen to 37%, the lowest of his second term as a result of a decrease among independents.

Trump's approval with independents sinks below Biden's, Trump's post-Jan. 6 | Weekly roundup for July 27, 2025 (G. Elliott Morris/Strength In Numbers)
https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trumps-record-low-approval-with-independents
http://www.memeorandum.com/250727/p26#a250727p26

Replaced article(s) found for cs.GT. https://arxiv.org/list/cs.GT/new
[1/1]:
- Diverse Committees with Incomplete or Inaccurate Approval Ballots
Feline Lindeboom, Martijn Brehm, Davide Grossi, Pradeep Murukannaiah

FDA approves updated Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk groups
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5473728-fda-approval-updated-covid-19-vaccines/

Trump Is a Weak and Failing President, and It’s Time to Say So
Economy loses jobs for August
Donald Trump understands better than anyone else alive that his hold on his supporters
—and on plenty of swing voters, too
—depends on the mere perception that he’s strong, wins everywhere, always acts boldly, and wields absolute mastery over his eternally feckless, disoriented enemies.
Last month, after an anemic July jobs report, Trump fired the steward of jobs data,

Trump Is a Weak and Failing President, and It’s Time to Say So
It’s possible for Trump to be an inept buffoon—but still extremely dangerous. And it shouldn’t be so hard to make that case.

Democrats' approval rating craters to 35-year low: WSJ poll (Ryan King/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/07/26/us-news/democrats-approval-rating-craters-to-35-year-low-wsj-poll/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250726/p29#a250726p29

Methodology for Test Case Allocation based on a Formalized ODD
Martin Skoglund, Fredrik Warg, Anders Thoren, Sasikumar Punnekkat, Hans Hansson
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02311 h…

Methodology for Test Case Allocation based on a Formalized ODD
The emergence of Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) systems has significantly transformed the safety assessment landscape. Because they integrate automated vehicle functions beyond those managed by a human driver, new methods are required to evaluate their safety. Approaches that compile evidence from multiple test environments have been proposed for type-approval and similar evaluations, emphasizing scenario coverage within the systems Operational Design Domain (ODD). Howeve…

F1 owner Liberty Media completes its €4.3B acquisition of MotoGP owner Dorna after EU approval, and says growing in the US is its main goal for MotoGP (Samuel Agini/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/12f49b54-b269-4e99-a301-9eaf3a11bef2

F1 owner Liberty Media targets US growth with MotoGP
The group controls two of the biggest brands in motorsport after winning approval for €4.3bn takeover of MotoGP owner

A new Gallup survey of Trump’s first six months in office finds Trump with a 37% approval rating among adults
-- a new low across all pollsters
-- and losing ground on all issues.
Strikingly, Gallup finds that just 38% of Americans approve of how Trump is handling immigration,
and 37% approve of his job on the economy
— the two issues that probably won him the 2024 election.
Trump has lost double digits on handling the federal budget and 6 points on trade…

Trump's approval with independents sinks below Biden's, Trump's post-Jan. 6 | Weekly roundup for July 27, 2025
This week in political data: Gallup's newsy poll; New Pew benchmark data; Senate ratings; Manufacturing prices increase; and AI disrupting news traffic

Kraken secures a MiCA license from the Central Bank of Ireland to offer crypto services across the EU, following Coinbase's approval in Luxembourg last week (Callan Quinn/Decrypt)
https://decrypt.co/327112/kraken-license-europes-new-rules

Kraken Becomes Latest to Win a License Under Europe's New Rules
Approval from Ireland's central bank gives Kraken the ability to operate across 27 EU states as it races to catch up to rival Coinbase.

Disgruntled independents sink Trump's approval to second-term low (Mike Allen/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/07/25/disgruntled-independents-sink-trumps-approval-to-second-term-low
http://www.memeorandum.com/250725/p29#a250725p29

Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global and president of Showtime/MTV, plans to depart the company once its acquisition by Skydance is completed (Nellie Andreeva/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2025/07/chris-mccarthy-leaving-paramount-skydance-merg…

Paramount Co-CEO Chris McCarthy To Depart Upon Completion Of Skydance Acquisition As Deal Gets FCC Approval
Paramount co-CEO Chris McCarthy has opted to depart upon the completion of the Skydance acquisition as deal has landed FCC approval.

Senator Ron Wyden: "Paramount just paid Trump a bribe for merger approval. When Democrats retake power, I’ll be first in line calling for federal charges. In the meantime, state prosecutors should make the corporate execs who sold out our democracy answer in court, today." — Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/wyden.senate.gov/post/3lsyea6d6hc2t

Replaced article(s) found for cs.GT. https://arxiv.org/list/cs.GT/new
[1/1]:
- On the Parallelizability of Approval-Based Committee Rules
Zack Fitzsimmons, Zohair Raza Hassan, Edith Hemaspaandra

The US General Services Administration approves OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic for AI contracts with civilian federal agencies via its Multiple Award Schedule (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-0…

Everybody Hates Trump Now (Alex Shephard/New Republic)
https://newrepublic.com/article/198624/everybody-hates-trump-approval-rating-polls
http://www.memeorandum.com/250731/p71#a250731p71

Lyft partners with Baidu to launch autonomous vehicles in Germany and the UK in 2026, pending regulatory approval; Lyft will deploy Baidu's sixth-gen robotaxis (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Florida wildlife officials gave preliminary approval for the first black bear hunt since one 10 years ago that was halted early after more than 300 bears were killed in only two days.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-1 at a meeting in Ocala in favor of a bear hunt in December and annually into the future,
allowing the use of up to six dogs to corner the bears.
Methods could include bowhunting, similar to rules for hunting deer, and bear hunting…

Florida gives preliminary approval to controversial black bear hunt amid strong opposition
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has given preliminary approval for a black bear hunt for December and into the future, which could eventually allow the use of up to six dogs to corner the bears and use of bowhunting. The commission voted 4-1 Wednesday on the proposal, which would be the first bear hunt since 2015 when more than 300 bears were killed in only two days. Hunt supporters say managing bear populations is key to preventing dangerous encounters with humans. Oppone…

Sources: the HFPA voted to reconstitute itself on Monday, two years after disbanding, to reexamine Jay Penske and Todd Boehly's deal to buy the Golden Globes (Richard Rushfield/The Ankler)
https://theankler.com/p/hfpa-reboots-upends-golden-globes

Scoop: HFPA Reboots, Upends Golden Globes Ownership by Penske-Boehly
As California's AG withholds deal approval, the voting body required to dissolve for the transaction reverses course and is seeking to oust Helen Hoehne

Trump Claims the Epstein Story Has Boosted His Approval Rating to 'Best Numbers I've Ever Had' (Sarah Rumpf/Mediaite)
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump/trump-claims-the-epstein-story-has-boosted-his-approval-rating-to-best-numbers-ive-ever-had/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250723/p17#a250723p17

xAI has been granted a permit to operate 15 gas turbines at its Memphis campus until 2027, despite protests and a potential NAACP lawsuit over air pollution (Molly Taft/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/xai-data-center-air-pollution-permit/

Despite Protests, Elon Musk Secures Air Permit for xAI
xAI’s gas turbines get official approval from Memphis, Tennessee, even as civil rights groups prepare to sue over alleged Clean Air Act violations.

Justified Representation: From Hare to Droop
Matthew M. Casey, Edith Elkind
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00811 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.00811

Justified Representation: From Hare to Droop
The study of proportionality in multiwinner voting with approval ballots has received much attention in recent years. Typically, proportionality is captured by variants of the Justified Representation axiom, which say that cohesive groups of at least $\ell\cdot\frac{n}{k}$ voters (where $n$ is the total number of voters and $k$ is the desired number of winners) deserve $\ell$ representatives. The quantity $\frac{n}{k}$ is known as the Hare quota in the social choice literature. Another -- more …

The Trump administration has quietly fast-tracked a massive oil expansion project that environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers warned could have a destructive impact on local communities and the climate.
As reported recently by the Oil and Gas Journal,
👉 the plan “involves expanding the Wildcat Loadout Facility, a key transfer point for moving Uinta basin crude oil to rail lines that transport it to refineries along the Gulf Coast.”
🔥The goal of the plan is to transfer an …

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With congressional approval and Trump's subsequent signature July 4, the 2025 tax reconciliation bill offers expanded opportunities for the oil and gas industry.

FDA approves COVID-19 vaccines only for 'high risk' people (Joseph Choi/The Hill)
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5473728-fda-approval-updated-covid-19-vaccines/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250828/p2#a250828p2

OpenAI says the tokenized OpenAI shares Robinhood has started offering are not equity: "We did not partner with Robinhood...and do not endorse it" (MacKenzie Sigalos/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/02/openai-robinhood-tokens.html

OpenAI says Robinhood's tokens aren't equity in the company
OpenAI said it was not involved in Robinhood’s launch of tokenized shares in Europe, warning users the assets were issued without its approval.

Trump's approval rating on immigration and government spending has slipped, new AP-NORC poll finds (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/poll-trump-approval-policies-economy-health-immigration-45681b8cd07782ba7a143d323efe9dd7
http://www.memeorandum.com/250717/p137#a250717p137

While it may not feel like it since January,
the rule of law still matters.
The U.S. remains a signatory to dozens of international agreements related to the use of force,
which ultimately protect our national security interests.
We have a raft of U.S. laws, including a Constitution and Bill of Rights,
that determine how and when our nation may legally engage in conflict abroad.
We are ill-served as a public when the most crucial decision a government can …

Trump endangers US by ignoring rule of law – Marin Independent Journal - EUROPE SAYS
Congressional approval for military engagement still matters. Here’s why.

Hong Kong's stablecoin licensing regime takes effect, requiring issuers to get approval from the Monetary Authority, comply with AML protocols, and more (Callan Quinn/Decrypt)
https://decrypt.co/333078/hong-kong-kicks-off-stablecoin-licens…

Hong Kong Kicks Off Stablecoin Licensing Regime With Eye on Global Hub
Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensing regime takes effect, tightening rules as the city vies for a global crypto edge.

Paramount said late Tuesday that it had agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of an interview on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” an extraordinary bribe to a sitting president by a major media organization.
Paramount said its payment included Trump’s legal fees and costs and that the money, minus the legal fees, would be paid to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library. (wink, wink)
The deal is the clearest sign yet that Trump’s ability to intimi…

Paramount to Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit
President Trump had sued over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The company needs federal approval for a multibillion-dollar sale.

Trump's approval rating dips again in new Pew survey, hits 38% (Zac Anderson/USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/14/donald-trump-pew-research-center-approval-rating/85663592007/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250814/p138#a250814p138

Many are closely watching to see whether Representative
David Valadao, Republican of California
and one of the most politically vulnerable Republicans in the country,
votes to advance the procedural rule.
Almost no other member serves a district that relies as heavily on Medicaid as his,
where nearly two-thirds of the population depends on the program for health care.
This bill was always going to bring about a tough vote for Valadao,
and earlier th…

Live Updates: Trump’s Policy Bill Faces Final House Vote After Senate Approval

The paradox driving Trump's bad polling numbers (Christian Paz/Vox)
https://www.vox.com/politics/417577/trump-paradox-poll-iran-economy-approval-number
http://www.memeorandum.com/250624/p24#a250624p24

Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Plunges with America’s Richest | Charlotte Observer
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article310983835.html

The White House announced an attempt to claw back $4.9 billion in foreign aid funds without congressional approval,
drawing the ire of Democrats and appropriators and increasing the chances of a shutdown. 
Such a move had not been made in nearly a half-century,
and it is expected to face legal challenges.
It also comes two months after GOP lawmakers approved the first rescissions package worth $9 billion
that targeted global aid programs and the Corporation for…

South African regulators approve Canal 's ~$3B acquisition of MultiChoice, set to create Africa's largest pay TV and streaming group with ~50M subscribers (Loni Prinsloo/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/202…

Dinari, which offers blockchain-based US stocks, secures a broker-dealer registration to become the first tokenized equity platform to secure approval in the US (Hannah Lang/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustai…

When Donald Trump addressed the nation in the early hours of November 6, 2024, he didn’t just celebrate his improbable return to the White House.
He hailed an unprecedented political realignment.
“This campaign has been so historic in so many ways,” he said.
“We’ve built the biggest, the broadest, the most unified coalition.
They’ve never seen anything like it in all of American history.
They’ve never seen any.
Young and old, men and women,
rural …

Everybody Hates Trump Now
Six months after Trump bragged about a “historic” realignment, voters from across the political spectrum have soured on the president.

The Big Polling Question Surrounding Trump and the Epstein Saga (Carroll Doherty/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/22/polling-trump-epstein-job-approval-rating-popularity-00466637
http://www.memeorandum.com/250722/p12#a250722p12

Two House Democrats sent Paramount a letter on August 20 demanding documents, communications, and answers regarding the Skydance merger approval process (Dominick Mastrangelo/The Hill)
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5462376-house-democrats-skydance-pa…

Trump approval holds at 40%, lowest level of his term, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (Jason Lange/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-approval-holds-40-lowest-level-his-term-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-08-18/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250818/p140#a250818p140

CISPE files a legal complaint in the EU, arguing that the bloc's approval of Broadcom's VMware buyout failed to impose conditions to prevent market power abuse (Samuel Stolton/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Trump's approval hits new low as Epstein pressure mounts (G. Elliott Morris/Strength In Numbers)
https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trumps-approval-hits-new-low-as-epstein
http://www.memeorandum.com/250718/p24#a250718p24

Trump adds new level of scrutiny to wind and solar projects
The Interior Department said Thursday that it would add additional layers of review for wind and solar energy projects,
following Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at
ending any “preferential treatment” for renewable energy.

The new requirement threatens to trip up the approval process
as wind and solar projects race to begin construction by a deadline next July to qualify for tax credits,
whi…

Trump adds new level of scrutiny to wind and solar projects
The new requirement threatens to slow the approval process for renewable energy projects as they race to begin construction before the deadline for tax credits.

Trump approval steady at 42%, support weakens for his immigration policy, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (Jason Lange/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-approval-steady-42-support-weakens-his-immigration-policy-reutersipsos-2025-06-16/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250616/p129#a250616p129

The first-ever human trial exploring the use of stem cell therapy to reverse hearing loss is about to be under way,
after getting the go-ahead from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
In a nutshell, the treatment,
dubbed Rincell-1,
is intended to regrow damaged nerves in the cochlea
and allow them to start sending signals to the brain again.

Stem Cell Treatment to Reverse Hearing Loss Kicking Off in Human Patients
Researchers in the UK have received approval to conduct the first ever human trials for a stem cell treatment to reverse hearing loss.

Vote-a-rama, last hurdle before megabill's Senate approval, is underway (Katherine Tully-McManus/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/30/congress/senate-votearama-underway-00432351
http://www.memeorandum.com/250630/p61#a250630p61

Consumed by Epstein, Trump has lost ground on the economy and immigration (Dan Balz/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/20/trump-epstein-economy-immigration-approval/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250720/p11#a250720p11

The White House has informed Congress it intends to cancel
$4.9 billion that lawmakers approved for foreign aid programs,
invoking a little-known and legally untested loophole to slash spending without their approval.
The 15-page notification, sent to Congress on Thursday night, is the administration’s first effort to push through what is known as a
“pocket rescission.”
It is an effort to unilaterally claw back money that has already been appropriated
by w…

Defying Congress, Trump Moves to Cut $4.9 Billion in Foreign Aid
The White House notified Congress that it plans to use a legally untested maneuver to circumvent lawmakers and claw back more money for foreign aid programs.

The FCC's sole Democrat, Anna Gomez, warned that "the Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can
— and should — abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage." 
 
Senator Elizabeth Warren called it a "bribe"
Paramount-Skydance may be a politically fraught new playbook for corporate America.
And that's …

Sources: OpenAI wants Microsoft to take a ~33% stake in exchange for giving up future profit rights, and seeks to revise its exclusive cloud deal with Microsoft (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/opena…

OpenAI Seeks New Financial Concessions From Microsoft, a Top Shareholder
Negotiations between Microsoft and OpenAI over the startup’s plan to restructure its for-profit unit, which requires Microsoft’s approval, have entered their eighth month with no end in sight and new conflicts emerging. OpenAI wants Microsoft, the startup’s biggest outside shareholder, to have a ...

Perversely, this most unconventional of presidents
who ruined the party brand
reverted to "Republican Original",
taking the kind of action that would meet approval from George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton and John McCain.
The America First wing, meanwhile, was mostly muted and subdued:
Trump’s cult of personality typically trumps differences over policy
– and that is not likely to change over a military operation that took plac…


Three House Democratic committee leaders have introduced a
⭐️War Powers Resolution
that would limit Donald Trump from escalating a conflict with Iran without congressional approval.

The Democratic resolution
— led by Reps. Gregory W. Meeks (D-New York), ranking Democrat of the House Foreign Affairs,
Adam Smith (D-Washington) of House Armed Services
and Jim Himes (D-Connecticut) of the House Select Committee on Intelligence
— would direct the preside…

Israel-Iran live updates: Qatar closes airspace; IDF expands scope of strikes
Iran reiterated its right to self-defense as President Donald Trump repeated his claim that U.S. strikes caused “monumental damage” to Iranian nuclear sites.

The Pentagon has for months been blocking Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, U.S. officials said,
limiting Kyiv from employing a powerful weapon in its fight against Moscow’s invasion.
A high-level Defense Department approval procedure, which hasn’t been announced, has prevented Ukraine from firing any U.S.-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, deep into Russia

On many issues, Americans are deeply polarized.
War with Iran isn’t one of them.
An Economist/YouGov poll of U.S. adults taken in the days after Israel’s attack last Friday found that Democrats opposed entering the conflict by a margin of 50 points and Republicans opposed entering it by a margin of 30 points.
Given these numbers, you might think Democratic leaders would be doing everything they can to prevent President Trump from striking Iran without the approval of Cong…

Opinion | Schumer and Jeffries Need to Step Up and Challenge Trump on War Powers
Failing to aggressively defend Congress’s role in authorizing war would be a serious blunder for Democrats.

Senate Democrats are increasingly concerned that President Donald Trump is considering striking Iran without seeking authorization from Congress
— or even filling them in on his plans.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) is mounting a last-ditch push to force a vote as soon as next week
to restrain Trump from attacking Iran without Congress’s approval.

Other Senate Democrats say the White House has not briefed them on its plans for a potential strike.
And some are warn…

Democrats raise war powers concerns as Trump mulls Iran strike
The pushback follows Trump’s encroachment on almost every congressional prerogative — from taking control of the power of the purse to threatening tariffs.