Latest news with #Sachs
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposal to protect children from online harassment and 'doxxing' advanced by Maine lawmakers
Jun. 10—AUGUSTA — A proposal to protect children from online harassment and "doxxing" advanced in the Maine Legislature Tuesday. The bill would allow families to file a lawsuit or seek a protection from harassment order if a child is targeted. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted 78-69 in support, followed by the Senate voting 18-14 in support. It will face an additional round of votes before it could be sent to Gov. Janet Mills for her consideration. "Doxxing is harmful," said Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, the bill's sponsor. "It is hurtful, and no child should be subjected to it." The proposal moves forward after Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, was censured by the House in February for posting photos on Facebook of a transgender student as she led calls for the state to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' high school sports. The incident has added to the momentum behind the bill, though it was submitted prior to Libby's post. Sachs said she introduced the bill because of a separate case in 2023 in which an adult was targeting a different student in Freeport through social media posts, website content and podcasts. "I was horrified," said Sachs, who said she was also surprised to learn that there were no Maine laws that mentioned doxxing, which is the knowing or reckless disclosure of personal information that causes physical harm or property damage, constitutes stalking or causes the targeted person to fear for their safety. The bill, LD 537, allows for civil lawsuits against a person who engages in doxxing of a minor and also would allow a minor to obtain a protection from harassment order. Debate on the bill in the House Tuesday was brief. Lawmakers opposed to it said they support the idea but took issue with the way the bill was written. In the Senate, several Republican lawmakers who ended up opposing the measure asked questions and said they were unclear how the proposal differs from what is already allowed in Maine law. Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, responded saying that while the bill doesn't provide for any criminal penalties, it does offer an avenue for civil action in cases that might be hard to prosecute and allows for injunctive relief, which is a court order prohibiting someone from doing something. "This is a piece of legislation that won't apply to a lot of cases because the elements of the civil action are hard to establish, and intentionally so. But the reality is children are being coerced in these ways, and we need to protect them," Carney said. At a public hearing in March, lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee heard overwhelming support from students, educators and mental health professionals about the need for the bill. They also received written testimony in support from Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. Frey said that doxxing is difficult to regulate because of the First Amendment. "But the language in this bill is carefully crafted to anticipate any potential First Amendment concerns and can be defended against a constitutional challenge," he wrote. Several people who testified at the hearing cited Libby's post as a reason the legislation is needed. Libby has defended her actions, saying the state track championship she posted about was a public event and that photos were already posted elsewhere online. She used the student's first name but not their last name. The bill initially approved Tuesday does not cover photos of children if the photos were taken in a public place or previously made public, unless the photos are accompanied by the minor's name or other personal information such as contact information or the address of their home or school. Copy the Story Link
NDTV
07-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
NDTV Exclusive: India Should Not Do Somersaults To Please Trump Says, Top Economist On Tariffs
Quick Read Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. Economist Jeffrey Sachs criticised Trump's trade policies, labelling the US a "Mickey Mouse country." He argues that trade deficits stem from fiscal mismanagement and warns India against making concessions in trade negotiations with the US. Renowned economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs has strongly criticised US President Donald Trump's tariff-driven trade policies, calling them emblematic of a 'Mickey Mouse country.' In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Mr Sachs dissected the President's approach to trade deficits, fiscal policy, and its global repercussions. He emphasised that trade deficits occur when a country, in aggregate, spends more than it produces. He lambasted Mr Trump's understanding of the issue, saying, 'It is dramatically wrong and oversimplified to the point of being ridiculous.' According to Mr Sachs, the United States is spending beyond its means, largely due to what he termed a 'chronic large budget deficit.' He argued that reducing the trade deficit requires addressing the fiscal imbalance. 'If [Trump] wants to get the trade deficits down, he has to get the budget deficit down,' he said, 'but he seems intent on not doing that.' Referring to the much-publicised 'Big Beautiful Bill,' Mr Sachs said the legislation includes more tax cuts for favoured recipients, increased military spending, and larger budget deficits — all of which will only exacerbate the trade deficit problem. Mr Trump has claimed that the trade deficit stems from other countries taking advantage of the US, and in response, imposed a range of tariffs to create what he calls a 'level playing field.' However, the economist warned that such an approach is misguided and potentially harmful for international partners, including India. India is currently attempting to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the US, but Mr Sachs cautioned against making disproportionate concessions. 'I think India has other alternatives and should not do somersaults to try to satisfy the United States in particular,' he said. 'It should not discriminate against its other trade partners. It should not make concessions to the United States that undermine the most favoured nation principle of international trade.' He added pointedly, 'India should watch itself so that it doesn't get sucked into the US game.' Meanwhile, recent minutes from the US Federal Reserve signal rising concerns about a possible recession. Mr Sachs echoed this sentiment, stating that while the US economy had not been on track for a downturn, it is now facing a 'self-inflicted recession or economic crisis,' brought on by policy missteps and increasing economic uncertainty. Tensions surrounding Mr Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' have also caused a fallout between the president and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has called the bill a 'monstrosity.' Commenting on the situation, Mr Sachs remarked, 'Here you have the richest economy in the world, but it just can't behave in a rational way.' The controversial bill is projected to add at least $2.4 trillion to the US national debt over the next decade, further deepening concerns about the long-term sustainability of its economic policy.
The Star
01-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Between the eagle and the dragon
NO TACO Theory was on his table, but renowned economist Prof Jeffrey D. Sachs thinks that when it comes to the crunch, US President Donald Trump will backtrack on his tariff policies. 'TACO' stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out', and like the Wall Street traders trading the acronym for laughs, Prof Sachs believes that the US president cannot keep his trade policy as he had announced it on April 2. 'You know, all of the world is confronting this sudden change of the United States' trade policy. But I personally don't believe that the tariffs are going to stick the way that they were announced. Already a lot has been rolled back,' he explains. For one, he adds, he is confident that the courts in the US will find some of the trade policy illegal because it was 'based on declarations of emergencies that don't really exist.' Last Wednesday, the country's Court of International Trade ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority and blocked his tariffs from going into effect. According to the trade court, the emergency law invoked by Trump did not give him unilateral authority to impose tariffs on the world's countries. And although the court then allowed the US administration to keep collecting tariffs while the White House appeals against the ruling, many investors, as AFP reported, feel that Trump 'does not have a very high tolerance for market pressure and will be quick to back off when tariffs cause pain.' For Prof Sachs, the question lies on whether Trump has the authority to introduce tariffs all by himself; in his view, that is the job of the US Congress. Good neighbours Prof Sachs was in Malaysia to speak in a special dialogue titled 'Asean amidst the shifting global order', hosted by Sunway University founder and chancellor Tan Sri Sir Dr Jeffrey Cheah ahead of the 46th Asean Summit last week. The dialogue was attended by ambassadors, high commissioners, senior bankers, corporate leaders as well as political and government leaders such as Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming and Subang Jaya state assembly person Michelle Ng. The dialogue was attended by ambassadors, high commissioners, senior bankers, corporate leaders as well as political and government leaders such as Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming and Subang Jaya state assembly person Michelle Ng. During his keynote address, Prof Sachs underscored Asean's pivotal role as a regional bloc in navigating geopolitical uncertainties, highlighting the urgency of regional cooperation in areas such as climate action, economic resilience and multilateral diplomacy. Calling on leaders to harness Asean's collective strength to foster peace, sustainability and long-term prosperity, the Sir Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor in Sustainable Development at Sunway University and president of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN) says: 'Asean needs to do two basic things: one is to strengthen the relations within the Asean group, and the second is to strengthen Asean's relations as a group with other partners. 'China will be a major partner, and the GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council), will be a major partner. So, these are two major economic partnerships for Asean.' He notes that Asean is not alone in the tumult of the changing global trade. 'Every place I travel to, I hear the same question. And most of the world simply wants to go on with a rule-based trading system under the WTO (World Trade Organisation) and get the US to go back to that rule-based trading system. 'Most importantly, whatever actions the US takes, which will be detrimental to the US itself, should not impede trade among the rest of the world's countries. No other region should follow the US into this kind of protectionism,' he says. Crucially, he stresses, the US should not try to make Asean choose between it and China. 'That would be unfair, but if Asean were forced to choose, you would choose your neighbour, China, obviously. 'Of course, Asean countries should have good relations with all parts of the world. The goal should be openness to all. So the idea should not be an alliance. The idea should be that Asean, which is a very open region in terms of trade, should be able to trade with the US, and with Europe, with China, and so forth. 'But Asean cannot do without good economic relations with China. That's not even imaginable. So the US should not force or try to force Asean into making choices. 'And if the US tries to put on secondary sanctions that impede Asean's economic relations with China, they would have to be resisted, actually.' As Prof Sachs puts it, 'neighbours need to trade with each other and neighbours need to have common infrastructure.' 'So, at the same time, Asean should work closely with China on physical infrastructure and connectivity. 'The Belt and Road Initiative is a very important, positive initiative. It says, put in fast rail, put in renewable energy, put in digital systems. That's to everybody's mutual benefit.' Ultimately, we need to keep calm, he stresses. 'Keep calm. Don't get into a conflict. We don't want to be in the middle of any conflict. 'There is no reason for a conflict at all, fundamentally. It's a waste of time.' Prof Sachs fully believes that despite the disruptions, turmoil and risks, there are reasons to be optimistic. 'The world is disrupted and changing rapidly, and it is changing in frightening ways on the surface. But I want to argue that below the surface, the deeper trends are positive. And not only positive, but powerful as well. 'For one, the notion of sustainable development, which Sunway University champions, is on the right track. 'There is a lot of work to do, but we are on the path that I believe the world is going to achieve the goals. The world needs to achieve it; it can achieve it, and that combination of both need and capacity, to my mind, suggests that we are going to find our way forward.' 'A cultural revolution' At the core of the shifting global order is an important fact, Prof Sachs stresses: Asia has ended a long period of domination by Europe and the US in the global economy, and the world is now multipolar. 'Asia has restored its place as the centre of gravity of the world economy – the place that Asia has had for most of the last 2,000 years, actually, with the interruption of the period during the Industrial Revolution and Western imperialism. 'Because what has happened is that a world that was profoundly divided by power and technology is now truly a multipolar world; one in which the US and Europe, no doubt, remain very sophisticated and powerful societies, but no longer the dominant societies of the world. 'We've entered the age of multipolarity. That's a big challenge, but it's also a wonderful fact and great opportunity.' Prof Sachs says the US is going through a 'Cultural Revolution', which he believes could last around 20 years. As he points out further, the US market for imports is only about 13% of world imports now. 'So you could close off the US market entirely, and the rest of the world would figure out how to get along pretty well. China, in the meantime, will play a huge, important and positive role for this region, he notes. Still, it is not the end of US' role in the world, says Prof Sachs. 'We are in what I call America's Cultural Revolution. That's not a good thing. Cultural revolutions do not go well. They set back China for 20 years. 'But the US is not lost lost forever. We just need to get through our cultural revolution.'
Herald Malaysia
30-05-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Catholic Social Teaching is for everyone
The modern tradition of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) — the toolbox of principles the Church calls us to draw upon to build the just social order — was instigated by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). We now have a new pope, Leo XIV, who is reminding us of this corpus of teaching as a resource as the world May 30, 2025 Pope Leo XIII is depicted in this official Vatican portrait. He laid the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching with his landmark 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum," addressing the rights and dignity of workers in the face of industrialization. (OSV News photo/Library of Congress) By Jason AdkinsThe modern tradition of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) — the toolbox of principles the Church calls us to draw upon to build the just social order — was instigated by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). We now have a new pope, Leo XIV, who is reminding us of this corpus of teaching as a resource as the world is torn by war and faces the challenge of a new digital industrial revolution. This Catholic Social Teaching tradition, however, is not just for Catholics. It can be studied and applied by all people of goodwill because it is a true philosophy of society, rooted in principles such as the common good, the dignity of the human person, subsidiarity and solidarity. Catholic Social Teaching transcends the normal political binaries. This great tradition is effective in bringing together people of all backgrounds to tackle difficult social problems, and how it does so was the subject of a recent Catholic in America podcast (May 19) with internationally renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs. A gift to the world Sachs, who is Jewish, is a Harvard-trained economist and member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences who has advised two popes (John Paul II and Francis) in the development of papal social encyclicals. He sees in Catholic social teaching a great gift of the Church to the world, and he thinks Catholics should not be sheepish about proposing CST principles to shape public life — not because they are the teachings of a religious community, but because they are true. Pope Francis sought out Sachs because of his work on sustainable development as the former was drafting his encyclical Laudato Si' (On the Care of Our Common Home), which was published ten years ago. The Holy See gathered experts from a variety of disciplines to consider what it means to steward creation while also respecting the human person. In a world that pits humans against the environment, how can the church point the way forward? The great gift of Laudato Si' was to apply the principles of Catholic social teaching to the problem of creation care. The result was the concept of integral ecology, which does justice to both persons and the environment, because everything is connected. Sachs and I discussed how both the words economics and ecology, have the same Greek root word, oikos, which means household. Hence the English title of the encyclical calling us to steward our common home. Economics should put first the well-being of the family and the household. The political community is a family of families, and economic life should promote distribution and social justice, as well as the common good. But while providing for human needs and managing scarce economic resources, we must also work together to promote environmental stewardship and care for our common home. That's a responsibility that transcends every household, community, and nation. Laudato Si' was addressed not just to Catholics, but all people of goodwill, and ten years later it continues to shape the thinking of people from all different backgrounds about how to properly care for creation. Pope Leo XIV's call Although Sachs and I recorded our conversation before Pope Leo XIV's election, the latter is again rekindling interest in Catholic Social Teaching. In his May 16 address to the papal diplomatic corps, Pope Leo XIV stressed that we are called to pursue peace, especially eliminating the violence and destruction that comes from conflict and war. But to achieve peace, he said, we must act justly, and doing so requires knowing the truth. He stated: 'It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society. In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.' Like Francis, Pope Leo XIV is articulating Catholic Social Teaching's rich philosophy of a just social order built on the oikos of family life and the dignity of every human person. In a world hungry for a way to break out of the false binaries of politics, the principles of Catholic social teaching provide real hope. We need not hide this gift under a bushel but instead, as non-Catholics such as Sachs exhort us, we should bring it confidently into every corner of social life.--OSV (Jason Adkins is host of the new Our Sunday Visitor podcast called 'Catholic in America,' which explores topics related to the missionary imperative of faithful citizenship in our time.)
BusinessToday
27-05-2025
- Business
- BusinessToday
ASEAN Centrality A Key Cornerstone For Regional Diplomacy, Jeffrey Sachs
A special dialogue titled 'ASEAN amidst the Shifting Global Order' was hosted by Sunway University founder and chancellor Tan Sri Dato' Seri Sir Dr. Jeffrey Cheah KBE AO ahead of the 46 th ASEAN Summit and was attended by esteemed guests such as Minister of Housing and Local Government Nga Kor Ming, Subang Jaya state assembly person Michelle Ng, as well as ambassadors, high commissioners, senior bankers and corporate leaders. Renowned economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the Sir Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor in Sustainable Development at Sunway University and President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN), engaged in a dynamic discussion moderated by Sunway University pro-chancellor Professor Dato' Sri Dr. Idris Jala, on ASEAN's strategic direction and Malaysia's chairmanship. Sachs, who has advised three UN Secretaries-General including His Excellency António Guterres, outlined the importance of preserving ASEAN centrality as a cornerstone of regional diplomacy, enabling Southeast Asia to shape cooperation and security amidst major power rivalries. During his keynote address, Sachs also underscored ASEAN's pivotal role as a regional bloc in navigating geopolitical uncertainties, highlighting the urgency of regional cooperation in areas such as climate action, economic resilience and multilateral diplomacy. He called on leaders to harness ASEAN's collective strength to foster peace, sustainability and long-term prosperity. 'ASEAN needs to do two basic things: one is to strengthen the relations within the ASEAN group, and the second is to strengthen ASEAN's relations as a group with other partners. In this week's summit, China will be a major partner, and the GCC, the Gulf Cooperation Council, will be a major partner. So, these are two major economic partnerships for ASEAN. I think a lot of deals will come forward from the diplomacy that's underway in the next few days,' said Sachs. In his welcoming remarks, Tan Sri Sir Dr. Jeffrey Cheah said: 'The challenges that stand before us are immense and formidable, but our shared aspirations in ASEAN for a more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future is a source of hope and positivity in these times of turmoil and turbulence. I am a firm believer in the proposition that the world works best when it works together.' 'From a relatively young age, I adopted my conviction that every individual must have a higher purpose in life. For me, that higher calling is a commitment to give back to society in a meaningful and impactful manner and nation-building through quality education and knowledge sharing. Today's presentation by Professor Sachs is a prime example of our mission to bring cutting-edge research and world-class expertise to Malaysia and the wider Asian region,' added Cheah. Related
