for

poverty line—$32,800 a year for a single person. The cutoff for current plans, by contrast, is 150 percent of the poverty line, or $22,000 a year for a single person.

Another immediate change aims to prevent interest from snowballing.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc. eral student loans. Under the standard plan, borrowers are charged a fixed monthly amount that ensures all their debt will be repaid after 10 years. But if borrowers have difficulty paying that amount, they can enroll in one of four plans that offer lower monthly payments based on income and family size. Those are known as income-driven repayment plans.

Income-driven options have been offered for years and generally cap monthly payments at 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income. If a borrower’s earnings are low enough, their bill is reduced to $0. And after 20 or 25 years, any remaining debt gets erased.

How is Biden’s plan different?

AS part of his debt relief plan announced last year, Biden said his Education Department would create a new income-driven repayment plan that lowers payments even further. It became known as the SAVE Plan, and it’s generally intended to replace existing income-driven plans.

Borrowers will be able to apply later this summer, but some of the changes will be phased in over time.

Right away, more people will be eligible for $0 payments. The new plan won’t require borrowers to make payments if they earn less than 225 percent of the federal

As long as borrowers make their monthly payments, their overall balance won’t increase. Once they cover their adjusted monthly payment— even if it’s $0—any remaining interest will be waived.

Other major changes will take effect in July 2024.

Most notably, payments on undergraduate loans will be capped at 5 percent of discretionary income, down from 10 percent now. Those with graduate and undergraduate loans will pay between 5 percent and 10 percent, depending on their original loan balance. For millions of Americans, monthly payments could be reduced by half.

Next July will also bring a quicker road to loan forgiveness. Starting then, borrowers with initial balances of $12,000 or less will get the remainder of their loans canceled after 10 years of payments. For each $1,000 borrowed beyond that, the cancellation will come after an additional year of payments.

For example, a borrower with an See “Biden,” A17

By Liudas Dapkus | The Associated Press

VILNIUs, Lithuania—A pair of colorful children’s scooters rest against the yellow tracks of a battle tank, parked in the shade of skyscrapers in the Vilnius business district. the area, usually busy with cars, cyclists and pedestrians, is closed to traffic and packed with heavy armored vehicles.

“Never in its history was Lithuania this safe,” says Jonas Braukyla, an IT engineer, who brought his family to see the US-made Abrams tanks, German Leopards and Marders and other military hardware brought out to project Nato power ahead of an alliance summit next week. “They are even bringing Patriot missile defenses over here. Now we must help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and I hope the summit will bring good news for them.”

The two-day summit starting Tuesday with US President Joe Biden and other Nato leaders will be the most high-profile international event that Lithuania has hosted since it joined the alliance in 2004, and some locals hope it will be of historic significance.

Others are less optimistic.

“The Vilnius summit will be important, but not historic. I doubt that the decision on Ukraine’s future will be precise and affirmative,” said Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s former president.

Her skepticism reflects a widely held belief in the Baltic countries that the West, even after Russia launched the biggest war in Europe since World War II, has never truly understood the threat that Moscow poses to the continent.

Grybauskaite earned a reputation as the “Baltic Iron Lady” for her resolute leadership and bluntness, particularly regarding Russia. The European Union’s budget commissioner for five years before serving as Lithuania’s president from 2009 to 2019, she was one of few European leaders who warned of Russian interference in eastern Europe even before Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Now, she says, many Western leaders are still grossly misled about the Kremlin’s real intentions and lack the political will to respond accordingly.

“After the Crimea occupation, the reaction from the West was very slow, despite Russia demonstrating openly in broad daylight that it could occupy the territories of neighboring countries,” Grybauskaite told The Associated Press in an interview this week.

“We tried to explain to them what that means, but we were criticized, laughed at, and not believed. Today, most of them agree who was right but that is not important anymore. What is more concerning is that even now they hear us, but they don’t listen.” continued from A16 original balance of $14,000 would get all remaining debt cleared after 12 years. Payments made before 2024 will count toward forgiveness.

She said many Europeans still fail to understand the chasm in values between Russia and the West. She dismissed as “delusions” the idea that the two sides could find common ground through negotiations.

How do I apply?

THE Education Department says it will notify borrowers when the new application process launches this summer. Those enrolled in an existing plan known as REPAYE will automatically be moved into the SAVE plan. Borrowers will also be able to sign up by contacting their loan servicers directly.

It will be available to all borrowers in the Direct Loan Program who are in good standing on their loans.

What are the pros and cons?

SUPPORTERS say Biden’s plan will

“It’s not just the war against Ukraine, it’s the quest against our entire civilization,” said the 67-yearold, who last week received the Manfred Wörner Medal, a prestigious German award for services toward peace and freedom in Europe. “If Ukraine does not achieve a definitive victory on the battlefield, the West will end up in limbo. The aggressive actions against it will last for decades to come.”

Resentment toward Moscow runs deep in Lithuania and in its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Estonia, all of which toiled under Soviet occupation for five decades. Unlike many Western countries, they remained skeptical of peaceful co-existence with Moscow after the Iron Curtain fell.

Lithuania, which borders Russian ally Belarus to the east and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west, is investing heavily in its military, with plans to spend 3 percent of GDP on defense in the near future—well above the Nato target. Its skies are patrolled by Nato jets and Germany has pledged to deploy around 4,000 troops in Lithuania permanently. But critics worry that wouldn’t be enough to protect the country if the war spreads beyond Ukraine.

Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania’s first leader after it regained independence in the early 1990s, has mocked suggestions that an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin might be reached over Ukraine.

“As long as there is Russia, there will never be such a thing as ‘after the war.’ You should say it frankly: ‘after Russia.’ Maybe then the world would have a chance,” he told reporters this week.

That mindset makes some Nato partners uneasy. French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this year said the war in Ukraine must not turn into a campaign to “crush” the Russian Federation.

“I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine, and I want Ukraine to be able to defend itself. But I’m certain that in the end this will not be resolved militarily,” Macron told French media at the annual Munich Security Conference in February. “I don’t think, as some do, that Russia must be totally taken apart, attacked on its territory.... That was never France’s position, and it never will be.” simplify repayment options and offer relief to millions of borrowers.

The small Baltic countries are among the top contributors of military aid to Ukraine on a per-capita basis. They’re also among the staunchest advocates of inviting Ukraine to join Nato, another sensitive issue in the alliance. Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

The Biden administration has argued that ballooning student debt puts college out of reach for too many Americans and holds borrowers back financially.

Opponents call it an unfair perk for those who don’t need it, saying it passes a heavy cost onto taxpayers who already repaid student loans or didn’t go to college. Some worry that it will give colleges incentive to raise tuition prices higher since they know many students will get their loans canceled later.

Voices across the political spectrum have said it amounts to a form of free college. Biden campaigned on a promise to make community college free, but it failed to gain support from Congress. Critics say the new plan is an attempt to do something similar without Congress’ approval.

By Emily Birnbaum & Laura Davison

Those visuals in the Republican National Committee’s ad aren’t real, and the scenarios are pretty obviously fictional. But thanks to the handiwork of artificial intelligence, the images look like real life. Within days of the ad appearing online in April, Representative Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat, introduced legislation to require disclosure of AI-produced content in political advertisements.

“This is going too far,” she said in an interview. Tiny type in the RNC ad reads, “Built entirely with AI imagery.” Clarke’s bill is going nowhere in a legislature controlled by Republicans, but it illustrates the degree to which the rapid advance of artificial intelligence has put Washington on its back foot.

Voters in the US and around the world are already inundated by AIgenerated political content. Click on an e-mail asking for donations, for example, and you may be reading a message drafted by a so-called large language model, political consultants say—the technology behind ChatGPT, the wildly popular chatbot from startup OpenAI. Politicians also increasingly use AI to hasten mundane but critical tasks like analyzing voter rolls, assembling mailing lists and even writing speeches.

As in many industries, AI is poised to increase political workers’ productivity—and probably eliminate more than a few of their jobs. It’s hard to say how many, but the business of politics is full of the sorts of roles that researchers believe are most vulnerable to disruption by generative AI, such as legal professionals and administrative workers.

But even more ominously, AI holds the potential to supercharge the dissemination of misinformation in political campaigns. The technology is capable of quickly creating so-called “deepfakes,” fake pictures and videos that some political operatives predict will soon be indistinguishable from real ones, enabling miscreants to literally put words in their opponents’ mouths.

Deepfakes have plagued politics for years, but with AI, savvy editing skills are no longer required to create them.

Put to its best use, AI could improve political communications.

For instance, upstart campaigns with little cash could use the technology to inexpensively produce campaign materials with fewer staff. Some political consultants that traditionally work only with presidential and Senate campaigns are making plans to work with smaller campaigns using AI to offer more services at a lower price point.

And the tech industry is trying to combat deepfakes. Companies including Microsoft Corp. have pledged to embed digital watermarks in images created using their AI tools in order to distinguish them as fake.

‘Knife fight’

IN June, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign posted an online ad featuring AIgenerated images of President Donald Trump hugging and kissing Anthony Fauci. The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is a pariah among Republicans because of his public-health recommendations during the pandemic.

A fact-checking note was appended to the DeSantis campaign’s tweet saying that the images, mixed among real pictures and videos of Trump, were AI-created. DeSantis’s campaign didn’t initially identify them as fake.

In Germany, a far-right party recently distributed AI-generated images of angry immigrants without telling viewers that they weren’t actual photographs. That one got flagged on Twitter as well, but the incident shows how quickly the technology is being adopted for political messaging and the inherent risks, said Juri Schnöller, the managing director of Cosmonauts & Kings, a German political communication firm.

“AI can save or destroy democracy. It’s like a knife fight, right? You can kill someone, or you can make the best dinner,” Schnöller said.

Mix in Russian and Chinese disinformation mills and the concerns grow even more acute, misinformation experts say. Trolls and hackers in those nations already churn out propaganda and lies within their own borders and in countries around the world.

Graphika, a misinformationtracking firm based in the US, in Feb- ruary found a pro-Chinese influence operation spreading AI-generated video footage of fake news anchors promoting the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, said both nation-state actors and cybercriminals have begun experimenting with ChatGPT-like text generation to trick people online.

“That Russian-native hacker who doesn’t speak English well is no longer going to craft a crappy e-mail to your employees,” Joyce said earlier this year. “It’s going to be nativelanguage English, it’s going to make sense, it’s going to pass the sniff test.”

In March, an anonymous Twitter user posted an altered video that went viral, purporting to show Biden verbally attacking transgender people. Another one, circulated widely by a right-wing US pundit, appeared to show Biden ordering a nuclear attack on Russia and sending troops to Ukraine.

Falling behind

WA SHINGTON is bad at keeping up with emerging technology, much less regulating it. Despite agreeing broadly that Big Tech is too powerful, the two parties have for years been unable to pass any comprehensive legislation to rein in the industry. Between 2021 and 2022, Congress held more than 150 hearings on tech, with little to show for it.

In June, there was a briefing in the Senate called “What is AI?”

The US doesn’t have a federal privacy law and hasn’t updated antitrust laws to account for growing concentration in the tech industry. Lawmakers have been unable to agree on whether—or how—to regulate online speech.

Last month, the Federal Election Commission deadlocked 3-3 on a request to develop rules for AI-generated political ads. Republicans on the panel—which is evenly divided between the parties and routinely finds itself at impasse on controversial matters— said the agency didn’t have explicit authority for the regulations.

Other countries are racing ahead on regulation, spurred into action by the ChatGPT craze. The European Parliament on June 14 voted to restrict the nascent technology’s most anxiety-inducing uses, such as biometric surveillance—AI that can identify people from their faces or bodies. The law, still up for debate, could also require companies to reveal more information about datasets used to train chatbots.

European officials are separately pressing companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc. to label content and images generated by artificial intelligence, in order to help combat disinformation from adversaries like Russia.

Chinese regulators are aggressively imposing new rules on technology companies to ensure Communist Party control over AI and related information available in the country. Every AI model must be submitted for government review before introduction into the market, and synthetically generated content must carry “conspicuous labels,” according to a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace paper this week. Cheaper campaigns IN the best case, AI could make US political campaigns “a lot cheaper,” said Martin Kurucz, the chief executive of Sterling Data Company, which works with Democrats.

The technology is already used to help write first drafts of speeches and op-eds, create ads, draw up lobbying campaigns and more, according to lobbyists, campaign and congressional staffers and political consultants. Art generators like Midjourney, an AI program that generates hyper-realistic images based on text prompts, have the potential to increase productivity or even replace the work of creative teams that can cost thousands of dollars.

While the RNC has already made an attack ad using generative AI, the Democratic National Committee is still experimenting with the technology. A spokesperson said the committee has sent out AI-automated fundraising e-mails and is considering how to expand its use of AI in the future.

On Capitol Hill, the House Chief Administrative Officer’s digital services office in April handed out 40 licenses for ChatGPT Plus, which House offices have used to help write e-mails, research briefs, and even draft legislation. Writing full bills is still too complicated a task for generative AI. The House last month created new rules curtailing the use of ChatGPT in Congress, clarifying that staffers cannot put confidential information into the chatbot.

There’s some indication lawmakers are taking the threat of AI more seriously than previous technologies that were poised to upend politics. After it became clear social media would play a vital role in politics, for example, lawmakers let a decade slide by before they summoned Mark Zuckerberg to testify at a hearing. Bloomberg

EPA sets stricter limits on hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigerators, air conditioners

By Matthew Daly | The Associated Press

WAsHINGtON—the Environmental Protection Agency is enforcing stricter limits on hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners that contribute to global warming.

A rule announced on Tuesday will impose a 40 percent overall reduction in HFCs starting next year, part of a global phaseout designed to slow climate change. The rule aligns with a 2020 law that calls for an 85 percent reduction in production and use of the climate-damaging chemicals by 2036.

Officials said refrigeration and air conditioning systems sold in the United States will emit far fewer HFCs as a result of the rule, the second step in a 15-year phasedown of the chemicals that once dominated refrigeration and cooling equipment.

Here’s a look at HFCs and what the United States and other countries are doing to limit their use.

What are HFCs?

H Y DROFLUOROCARBONS are highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners. HFCs produce greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more powerful than carbon di- oxide. They often leak through pipes or appliances that use compressed refrigerants and are considered a major driver of global warming.

What is being done to limit HFCs?

MORE than 130 countries, including the United States, have signed a 2016 global agreement to greatly reduce use and production of HFCs by 2036.

The Senate ratified the so-called Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone pollution last year in a rare bipartisan vote. The measure requires participating nations to phase down production and use of HFCs by 85 percent over the next 13 years, as part of a global phase out intended to slow climate change.

Scientists said the agreement, reached in Kigali, Rwanda, could help the world avoid a half-degree Celsius of global warming.

Ratification of the amendment, signed last year by President Joe Biden, follows bipartisan action

Congress took in 2020 to approve the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, which phased out domestic HFC manufacturing. The AIM Act has accelerated an industry shift from HFCs to alternative refrigerants that use less harmful chemicals and are widely available throughout the country. The law also averts a previous patchwork of state laws and regulations that govern HFCs.

What does the latest rule do?

THE new rule announced on Tuesday builds on a 10 percent reduction required by the end of this year. It requires a 40 percent overall reduction from 2024 through 2028.

Companies that produce, import, export, destroy, use, process or recycle HFCs are subject to the rule.

EPA officials said the rule would help ensure the US leads the way as countries around the world implement the Kigali Amendment. The HFC phasedown, “bolstered by domestic innovation to develop alternative chemicals and equipment, is paving the way for the United States to tackle climate change and strengthen global competitiveness,” said Joe Goffman, principal deputy assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.

White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said the rule will help develop next-generation technologies for refrigeration, “ensuring that American workers reap the benefits of a growing global market for HFC alternatives.”

What does industry say?

THE Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, which represents air conditioning, heating and commercial refrigeration manufacturers, called the rule a crucial step to implement the AIM Act.

“Our industry appreciates the work of the EPA and the timely issuance of this rule as we prepare for the next HFC reduction step-down next January,” said AHRI president & CEO Stephen Yurek.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical manufacturers and users, welcomed the EPA rule.

“ACC has long supported the HFCs phasedown, which can reduce a sizable source of greenhouse gas emissions while creating manufacturing jobs and growing our nation’s share of the global market for air-conditioning and refrigeration products,’’ the group said in a statement. US companies have developed effective alternatives to HFCs, the group added.

A18 Thursday, July 13, 2023

SOLON: ENFORCE DRUNK DRIVING LAW TIGHTLY

WITH 11,000 deaths recorded annually in the Philippines because of road crashes due to drunk driving, over speeding, texting while driving, and human error, lawmakers are pushing passage of a measure mandating more traffic officers in enforcing the law against driving under the influence of alcohol or dangerous drugs, while integrating road safety and drivers’ education into the K-to-12 curriculum.

B icol Saro Partylist Rep.

Brian Raymund Yamsuan said the number of personnel from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) remains insufficient in implementing Republic Act (RA) 10586 or the AntiDrunk and Drugged Driving Act, which makes the law ineffective in minimizing road crashes and other accidents.

A mending RA 10586 to make it mandatory for the LTO to deputize selected officers of thePhilippine National Police (PNP), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the local government units (LGUs) in enforcing this law’s provisions will help ensure road safety and help educate drivers on the perils of drinking under the influence of alcohol and drugs, Yamsuan said.

T his proposed amendment is provided under House Bill (HB) 7968 filed by Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

T he bill, which has been referred to the Committee on Transportation of the House of Representatives, also aims to integrate road safety and driv - ers’ education into the K-to-12 curriculum to help instill in the early stages of a child’s development the value of exercising extreme caution on the road and warn against the devastating effects of drunk or drugged driving.

“

One life lost to drunk or drugged driving is one too many. The number of deaths from drunk or drugged driving-related accidents could have been minimized, if not totally prevented, had we had more officers on the streets to conduct roadside operations especially during the holidays when cases of driving under the influence significantly increase,” Yamsuan said. Yamsuan, who is also a member of the House Committee on Transportation, underscored the need for the LTO and its deputized agencies to procure enough sobriety and drug test kits to effectively enforce the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act. He cited reported cases when obviously drunk drivers were let go instead of being charged outright for violating the antidrunk and drugged driving law, simply because the apprehending officers had no testing equipment available.

The law was enacted...to ensure that drunk and drugged drivers do not get to harm others when they take the wheel. What we need is express action when it comes to apprehending them. Our law enforcers need to have the proper equipment necessary to do their job right and quickly get these irresponsible drivers off the streets,” Yamsuan said.