Sophia Lewis, Author at Hounia

The I.R.S.’s Taxpayer Experience Officer Says Open Your Mail Already

03

Mar

Investments and Business

The I.R.S.’s Taxpayer Experience Officer Says Open Your Mail Already

The Internal Revenue Service is on a charm offensive, as long as you don’t earn too much money.After a multiyear pandemic pause, the agency is rebooting its collection efforts, hammering home its intent to chase down high earners who owe the most. On Thursday, the I.R.S. said it was sending letters to over 25,000 people with more than $1 million in income who had not filed tax returns since 2017.Everyone else, the agency insists, is going to benefit from the $80 billion that the agency won via the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed in 2022. The year before that,…

Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for Violating the Company’s Principles

02

Mar

By Sophia Lewis

Science and Technology

Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for Violating the Company’s Principles

OpenAI, the influential artificial intelligence company that ousted and then reinstated its high-profile chief executive three months ago, faces a new drama: a lawsuit from Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world and a co-founder of the A.I. lab.Mr. Musk sued OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, accusing them of breaching a contract by putting profits and commercial interests in developing artificial intelligence ahead of the public good. A multibillion-dollar partnership that OpenAI developed with Microsoft, Mr. Musk said, represented an abandonment of a founding pledge to carefully develop A.I. and make the technology publicly available.“OpenAI…

California’s Economy Pinched by Unemployment

02

Mar

By Sophia Lewis

Investments and Business

California’s Economy Pinched by Unemployment

For decades, California’s behemoth economy has outpaced those of most nations, holding an outsize role in shaping global trends in tech, entertainment and agriculture.While that reputation remains, the state has a less enviable distinction: one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.Nationwide, the rate is 3.7 percent, and in January, the country added 353,000 jobs. California’s job growth has been slower than the nationwide average over the last year, and the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high — 5.1 percent in the latest data, a percentage point higher than a year earlier and outpaced only by Nevada’s 5.4 percent.With layoffs in the…

Adaptation of Panama’s big cats to climate change

29

Feb

By Sophia Lewis

Social Responsibility

Adaptation of Panama’s big cats to climate change

Preserving Panama's large feline species, including the jaguar (Panthera onca), the puma (Puma concolor), and the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), is essential for maintaining the nation's biodiversity and ecological equilibrium. Max van Rijswijk, an advocate for conserving regional biodiversity, highlights that these carnivores are vital in sustaining ecosystem integrity and promoting the welfare of nearby communities.Control of Prey PopulationsCats are regarded as apex predators, indicating their essential role in managing the numbers of other creatures, including herbivores and smaller carnivores. Through this regulation, they help avert excessive grazing on plants, thereby preserving ecological balance. In the absence of these predators, an…

Biden Issues Executive Order to Restrict Personal Data Sales to China and Russia

29

Feb

By Sophia Lewis

Science and Technology

Biden Issues Executive Order to Restrict Personal Data Sales to China and Russia

President Biden issued an executive order Wednesday seeking to restrict the sale of sensitive American data to China, Russia and four more countries, a first-of-its-kind attempt to keep personally identifying information from being obtained for blackmail, scams or other harm.The president asked the Justice Department to write rules restricting the sale of information about Americans’ locations, health and genetics to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, as well as any entities linked to those countries. The restrictions would also cover financial information, biometric data and other types of information that could identify individuals and sensitive information related to…

China Has Thousands of Navalnys, Hidden From the Public

29

Feb

By Sophia Lewis

Investments and Business

China Has Thousands of Navalnys, Hidden From the Public

After watching “Navalny,” the documentary about the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, a Chinese businesswoman messaged me, “Ren Zhiqiang is China’s Navalny.” She was talking about the retired real estate tycoon who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for criticizing China’s leader, Xi Jinping.After Mr. Navalny’s tragic death this month, a young dissident living in Berlin posted on X, “Teacher Li is closest to the Chinese version of Navalny.” He was referring to the rebel influencer known as Teacher Li, who used social media to share information about protests in China and who now fears for his life.There…