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WSUM News Team compiles recent news in under 5 minutes every Monday through Thursday. Originally aired on the 91.7 FM stream, each newscast is re-posted in audio form.
INTRO GOOD (DAY) EVENING MADISON! YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE 5/6 O’CLOCK NEWS UPDATE ON WSUM 91.7 FM MADISON STUDENT RADIO. I’M TALULA HAYES.
IN THE NEWS TODAY,
IN NATIONAL NEWS,
The 6-3 Supreme Court decision cut key sections of the Voting Rights Act to benefit Republicans. The court is a conservative majority and decided to gut the Act’s requirement that districts are drawn to give minority voters an equal chance to elect representatives. This may lead to fewer minority districts with a majority of Black or Latino voters, hugely impacting the South. Republican lawmakers now have less blockades set to eliminate Democratic districts so they can gain more seats to win the U.S. House. Currently, there are over a dozen seats they could gain more easily in Republican-controlled districts. Republicans are now looking to review congressional maps in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. However, they’re facing setbacks, as this ruling came after filing deadlines for the primary elections were due. These ballots are already set for states and some states have already begun absentee voting. Many state leaders need to meet and respond to this change, facing a quick turnaround. Trump is pushing heavily for the redistricting drawings to try to compensate for Republican power in the House after losing many seats in the midterms.
ALSO IN NATIONAL NEWS,
OpenAI is expanding access to its models to help businesses and governments increase their cybersecurity. This is in direct contrast to Anthropic, which is focusing on controlling and minimizing access to its models to fend off hackers. OpenAI’s Trust Access for Cyber program was only sent out to few partners, however they are working to open access to all vetted governments. This includes federal agencies, state agencies, and local offices that have approved access. Contrastingly, Anthropic’s tool Mythos is much more constricted, even with its astounding ability to exploit software vulnerabilities in companies infrastructure. To protect them from harm, they are rolling out Project Glasswing to control the powerful AI model. OpenAI recently offered workshops in Washington for federal government representatives. Some agencies included the Pentagon, White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to test their cybersecurity tools. They are planning to circle back in Washington in a few weeks to collect feedback data on their policies.
IN ECONOMIC NEWS,
Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, plans to remain on the board on Wednesday. His term as chair ends next month, and he plans to stay a part of the bank’s processes. He claimed Trump’s legal threats have jeopardized the independence of the bank as a whole. This is the first time a Fed chair has chosen to remain on the board as a governor since 1948. This cancels out Trump’s plan to fill the seat with his own appointee, of which there are seven members to their governing board. The Senate Banking Committee already approved Powell’s successor to the chair, a Trump appointee Kevin Warsh. Powell will continue to act as a Fed governor until January 2028. If confirmed, Warsh will take the seat currently held by Stephen Miran, a previous Trump appointee whose term ends in January. Powell’s decision to stay puts Trump in a difficult position, with his demands of rate cuts now being offset. On Wednesday, the Fed did not change its benchmark interest rate for the third straight month but may cut rates in coming months. The Iran war is contributing to the lack of action, with the future of our economy still unclear.
IN ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS,
International rivers are at risk of contamination, threatening local fisheries and farmland. Climate change and pollution are nothing new these days. From deforestation to melting ice caps, it seems there is no end in sight to these problems. To add to this list of troubles is the poisoning of the Mekong River in Thailand. The cause for this, the rising demand for rare earth minerals, creating a spike in unregulated mining. The toxic runoff from these mining sites pose large threats to the nearby rivers and wildlife that inhabit them. This affects not only the plants and animals themselves, but also the locals who depend on them for food. Nearby crops and fish populations have been hit hard from mining pollution, resulting in worry from farmers and fishermen. The river is the local peoples’ “way of life” and the contamination has “cut off that lifeline.” Rare earth minerals are necessary for modern technology, but at what cost?
For WSUM News, I’m Brooke Mitchell
OUTRO: THANK YOU FOR TUNING IN! FROM THE WSUM NEWS BOOTH, I’M TALULA HAYES. HAVE A GREAT EVENING MADISON!