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Kennedy family fisticuffs, ChatGPT's government move and Mona Lisa moves

 
Today's POLITICs story

Caroline Kennedy urges Senate to reject RFK Jr.

What happened
Caroline Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador and the only living child of President John F. Kennedy, urged senators yesterday not to confirm her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump's health secretary. In a letter she later read aloud on social media, she called her cousin a "predator" who holds hypocritical and "dangerous" medical views. His niece Dr. Kerry Kennedy Meltzer also made a bid at "derailing his nomination" yesterday, Stat News said, sharing a "trove of private emails" showing her uncle "making false claims about Covid-19 vaccines," flu shots and autism "in unguarded, personal moments."

Who said what
"I have known Bobby my whole life," and "it's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator," Caroline Kennedy said. "His basement, his garage, his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence."

The siblings and cousins that Robert Kennedy "encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death" while he rebounded to "misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life," she said. And he is now "addicted to attention and power," profiting off his damaging "crusade against vaccination" even as he vaccinated his own children.

Kennedy is among Trump's "most vulnerable Cabinet nominees," The Washington Post said. His cousin's "testimonial may not sway Republicans," but "it could shore up Democrats' opposition."

What next?
Caroline Kennedy's "searing public denunciation of her cousin" was all the more "devastating" because she has "kept quiet" and avoided the spotlight for decades, The New York Times said. Her astute "timing all but ensures her concerns will be aired" in Kennedy's Senate confirmation hearings today and tomorrow.

 
 
Today's TECH story

OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Gov for government use

What happened
OpenAI yesterday unveiled ChatGPT Gov, a new version of its flagship chatbot tailored for use by U.S. government agencies.

Who said what
Government adoption of generative artificial intelligence could "boost efficiency and productivity," as well as "enhancing America's global leadership⁠ in this technology," OpenAI said. With ChatGPT Gov, "we aim to ensure AI serves the national interest and the public good, aligned with democratic values."

This is OpenAI's "biggest product launch since its enterprise rollout," CNBC said. The new platform is underpinned by ChatGPT Enterprise, which the federal government has not yet "accredited for use on nonpublic data." But the company "touts heightened cybersecurity protections" in ChatGPT Gov "so federal employees can feed it sensitive information," Semafor said. The release "marks a deepening of ties" between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (pictured above) and the Trump administration as the industry seeks fewer guardrails and a new, more resource-efficient Chinese AI chatbot threatens America's dominance in artificial intelligence.

What next?
OpenAI is embracing government cooperation as a "key to ensuring rapidly developing AI capabilities are well understood by policymakers," Fox News said. Felipe Millon, OpenAI's head of federal sales, said ChatGPT Gov would be available in the "near future" and ready for live testing "within a month."

 
 
Today's Culture Story

The Louvre is giving 'Mona Lisa' her own room

What happened
French President Emanuel Macron yesterday announced plans for a major renovation of the Louvre in Paris, the world's most-visited art museum, including moving Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" to a dedicated room, with a separate ticket, in a new part of the museum. 

Who said what
The Louvre's last major refresh, in the 1980s, added I.M. Pei's glass pyramid entrance and prepared the museum to accommodate 4 million visitors a year. Last year, 8.7 million people visited the Louvre, most of them standing in long, noisy lines to catch a brief glimpse of — and likely a selfie with — Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile behind her protective glass.

Macron has been seeking a "new cause with which to assure his legacy" since he lost control of parliament last year, the BBC said, and his "much-praised leadership" in rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral "appears to have whetted his appetite for a similar grand projet at the Louvre." At the same time, "concerns about overtourism achieved a critical mass" globally last year, The New York Times said, though "efforts to limit visitors in tourist hot spots have had mixed results, at best."

What next?
The remodel, slated for completion in 2031, will also add more restrooms and restaurants and a new entrance, at an estimated cost of about $800 million. Visitors from outside the EU will be charged higher entrance fees next year.

 
 

It's not all bad

A study involving seven dogs being trained to sniff out bowel cancer is off to a promising start, researchers said. The pups — three cocker spaniels, three labradors and one flat-coated retriever — started their training with the U.K. charity Medical Detection Dogs in 2024. They have already shown they can detect tumors by smelling urine in pots. The dogs will "face a new stage of double-blind tests before the results are confirmed 100%," the Good News Network said.

 
 
Under the radar

There is some hope among the smoldering ruins in many parts of Los Angeles County. Entire neighborhoods were ravaged by the recent wildfires, but among the devastation, the odd house stands completely untouched.

Houses like these "are heralded as miracles," said National Geographic, and images of their solitary survival have been shared thousands of times by astonished social media users. While luck may have played a part, these houses were almost certainly saved by a combination of fire prevention measures their owners had carefully put in place.  

It all starts with "home hardening." Building — or retrofitting — a house with specific fire-resistant materials is "absolutely critical," Daniel Berlant, a Californian fire officer, told the Los Angeles Times. You can achieve a "double-digit increase" in a house's chances of surviving a fire by ditching wooden decks and installing cement stucco walls, a metal roof and gutters, tempered window glass and mesh screening on chimneys, eaves and vents.

But no matter how "hardened" your home is, constant vigilance is also required. That means clearing debris off the roof and leaves out of gutters, plugging gaps in rafters, and never leaving recycling piling up by your door.

Local fire prevention laws in L.A. already require homeowners to cut grass and brush within 200 feet of a house. But proposals for stricter rules, including limiting greenery on windowsills, have so far met with strong public resistance. And that's a challenge with urban fires: you can defend the space around your own house, but it's no good if your neighbors don't step up, too.

 
 
On this day

January 29, 1954

Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Winfrey was born to a single mother and eventually earned a job on the radio. She worked her way up to become a television host and launched "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 1986. The daytime talk program helped turn Winfrey into a global cultural icon.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Donald Trump's "unwieldy spending freeze" order "leads to bedlam" before being blocked by a federal judge, The Washington Post says on Wednesday's front page. The order caused "chaos, confusion and fear," the Chicago Sun-Times says, and despite the "temporary hold," local leaders are "bracing for serious potential cuts" to "major program." The new president is "racing to reshape America," The Boston Globe says. "Trump offering workers a buyout" to "shrink federal workforce; critics warn of chaos," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. "Trump threats promise tariffs for any cause," The New York Times says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

One person's junk...

Opportunistic eBay users are attempting to make a quick buck by selling iPhones that have TikTok installed, in the wake of the social media platform's partial ban in the U.S. Although American users can once again access TikTok, the app is not available in the Apple and Google Play stores, so it cannot be downloaded. Several eBay listings are in the high thousands, with one TikTok-enabled iPhone 15 already selling for $3,100.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Helen Brown, Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Photographer Name / Getty Images; Andrew Harnik / Getty Images; Bertrand Guay / Pool / AFP via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images