LONDON (AP) — The European Union on Thursday released a code of practice on general purpose artificial intelligence to help thousands of businesses in the 27-nation bloc using the technology comply with the bloc’s landmark AI rule book.
The EU code is voluntary and complements the EU’s AI Act, a comprehensive set of regulations that was approved last year and is taking effect in phases.
The code focuses on three areas: transparency requirements for providers of AI models that are looking to integrate them into their products; copyright protections; and safety and security of the most advanced AI systems
The AI Act’s rules on general purpose artificial intelligence are set to take force on Aug. 2. The bloc’s AI Office, under its executive Commission, won’t start enforcing them for at least a year.
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General purpose AI, exemplified by chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can do many different tasks and underpin many of the AI systems that companies are using across the EU.
Under the AI Act, uses of artificial intelligence face different levels of scrutiny depending on the level of risk they pose, with some uses deemed unacceptable banned entirely. Violations could draw fines of up to 35 million euros ($41 million), or 7% of a company’s global revenue.
Some Big Tech companies such as Meta have resisted the regulations, saying they’re unworkable, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a Paris summit in February, criticized “excessive regulation” of AI, warning it could kill “a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.”
More recently, more than 40 European companies, including Airbus, Mercedes-Benz, Philips and French AI startup Mistral, urged the bloc in an open letter to postpone the regulations for two years. They say more time is needed to simplify “unclear, overlapping and increasingly complex EU regulations” that put the continent’s competitiveness in the global AI race at risk.
There was no sign that Brussels was prepared to stop the clock.
“Today’s publication of the final version of the Code of Practice for general-purpose AI marks an important step in making the most advanced AI models available in Europe not only innovative but also safe and transparent,” the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said in a news release.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining in the historically healthy range of the past couple years.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims for the week ending July 5 fell by 5,000 to 227,000, fewer than the 238,000 that analysts forecast. Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as representative of layoffs.
Last week, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a surprising 147,000 jobs in June, yet another sign that the American labor market continues to show resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The job gains were much bigger than expected and the unemployment rate ticked down 4.1% from 4.2% in May. Analysts had forecast that unemployment would rise to 4.3%.
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Though the job market is broadly healthy by historical standards, some weakness has surfaced as employers contend with fallout from Trump’s policies, especially his aggressive tariffs, which raise prices for businesses and consumers. Most economists believe they make the economy less efficient by reducing competition. They also invite retaliatory tariffs from other countries, hurting U.S. exporters and potentially driving businesses to freeze hiring or cut staff.
The deadline on most of Trump’s stiff proposed taxes on imports were extended again until Aug. 1. Unless Trump reaches deals with other countries to lower the tariffs, economists fear they could act as a drag on the economy and trigger another bout of inflation.
In June, Google confirmed that it had offered buyouts to another swath of its workforce in a fresh round of cost-cutting.
The Labor Department’s report also said that the four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, fell by 5,750 to 235,500.
The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the week of June 28 rose by 10,000 to 1.97 million. That’s the most since November of 2021.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a pregnant woman, two parents and their infants, is among numerous cases challenging Trump’s January order denying citizenship to those born to parents living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, the plaintiffs are seeking to have their case certified as a class action and to block implementation of the order while litigation continues.
“Tens of thousands of babies and their parents may be exposed to the order’s myriad harms in just weeks and need an injunction now,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in court documents filed Tuesday.
FILE – Mairelise Robinson, a U.S. citizen who is 6 months pregnant, attends a protest in support of birthright citizenship, outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
At issue is the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Trump administration says the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means the U.S. can deny citizenship to babies born to women in the country illegally, ending what has been seen as an intrinsic part of U.S. law for more than a century.
“Prior misimpressions of the citizenship clause have created a perverse incentive for illegal immigration that has negatively impacted this country’s sovereignty, national security, and economic stability,” government lawyers wrote in the New Hampshire case. “The Constitution does not harbor a windfall clause granting American citizenship to … the children of those who have circumvented (or outright defied) federal immigration laws.”
Legal battles continue in multiple states
Several federal judges have issued nationwide injunctions stopping Trump’s order from taking effect, but the U.S. Supreme Court limited those injunctions in a June 27 ruling that gave lower courts 30 days to act. With that time frame in mind, opponents of the change quickly returned to court to try to block it.
New Jersey and the more than dozen states joining its case in Massachusetts federal court have asked the judge to determine if the nationwide injunction in their case could still apply under the high court’s ruling. The judge has scheduled a hearing for July 18.
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“Everybody knows there’s a 30-day clock, so our hope is that we get an answer prior to the end of the 30-day clock,” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
In a Washington state case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judges have asked the parties to write briefs explaining the effect of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Washington and the other states in that lawsuit have asked the appeals court to return the case to the lower court judge.
As in New Hampshire, the plaintiff in a Maryland seeks to organize a class-action lawsuit that includes every person who would be affected by the order. The judge set a Wednesday deadline for written legal arguments as she considers the request for another nationwide injunction from CASA, a nonprofit immigrant rights organization.
Ama Frimpong, legal director at CASA, said the group has been stressing to its members and clients that it is not time to panic.
“No one has to move states right this instant,” she said. “There’s different avenues through which we are all fighting, again, to make sure that this executive order never actually sees the light of day.”
New Hampshire plaintiffs include parents, babies
The New Hampshire plaintiffs, referred to only by pseudonyms, include a woman from Honduras who has a pending asylum application and is due to give birth to her fourth child in October. She told the court the family came to the U.S. after being targeted by gangs.
“I do not want my child to live in fear and hiding. I do not want my child to be a target for immigration enforcement,” she wrote. “I fear our family could be at risk of separation.”
Another plaintiff, a man from Brazil, has lived with his wife in Florida for five years. Their first child was born in March, and they are in the process of applying for lawful permanent status based on family ties — his wife’s father is a U.S. citizen.
“My baby has the right to citizenship and a future in the United States,” he wrote.
By MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and ROBERTO E. ROSALES, Associated Press
RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) — The mountain village of Ruidoso returned to the grim rituals of rebuilding after flash flooding and a deadly natural disaster, just one year after wildfire and intense flooding reshaped the popular vacation getaway and its surroundings.
Broken tree limbs, twisted metal, crumpled cars and muddy debris remained as crews worked to clear roads and culverts in the wake of Tuesday’s flash flood that killed three people — including two children — and significantly damaged as many as 50 homes, with one home carried away entirely.
Tracy Haragan, a Ruidoso native on the verge of retirement, watched from his home as a surging river carried away the contents of nine nearby residences.
In this photo provided by Jean Meairs, damage from a flood that tore through the Riverview RV Park along the Rio Ruidoso is seen, Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Ruidoso, N.M. (Jean Meairs via AP)
A man crosses the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack which was partially destroyed after the flood, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Ruidoso, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)
In this photo provided by Barbara Arthur, damage from flash flooding with mud and debris is seen outside a house at the Riverside RV Park, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Ruidoso, N.M. (Barbara Arthur via AP)
A damaged truck is seen on the banks of the river in Ruidoso, N.M. Wednesday, July 9, 2025, a day after major flooding washed away properties and Rv’s along the Rio Ruidoso Tuesday afternoon. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)
In this photo provided by Barbara Arthur, damage with mud and debris from flash flooding is seen outside a house at the Riverside RV Park, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Ruidoso, N.M. (Barbara Arthur via AP)
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In this photo provided by Jean Meairs, damage from a flood that tore through the Riverview RV Park along the Rio Ruidoso is seen, Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Ruidoso, N.M. (Jean Meairs via AP)
“You watched everything they owned, everything they had — everything went down,” he said. “It is such a great town, it just takes a tail-whipping every once in a while. … We always survive.”
An intense bout of monsoon rains set the disaster in motion Tuesday. Water rushed from the surrounding mountainside, overwhelming the Rio Ruidoso and taking with it a man and two children from an RV park along the river. The bodies were found downstream during search and rescue efforts.
The children — a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy — had been camping with their parents when they were swept away. The father and mother were being treated for injuries at a hospital in Texas, according to officials at Fort Bliss, where the father is stationed.
Mayor Lynn Crawford said hearts are broken over the lives lost and stomachs are in knots as residents begin to take stock of the damage.
Rebuilding again in Ruidoso will be hard, if not impossible, said Riverside RV Park owner Barbara Arthur.
Arthur says her guests scrambled up a nearby slope when the river started coursing through the site Tuesday afternoon. She also lost her home in flood.
It was the sixth time the river rose in the last several weeks and by far the worst, she said. And Tuesday’s rainfall was more than could be absorbed by the hillsides and canyons within a wildfire burn scar.
Setting records
The floodwaters of the Rio Ruidoso rose more than 20 feet (6 meters) on Tuesday to set a record high-water mark, said National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Shoemake in Albuquerque. That eclipsed the previously recorded high in July 2024 by nearly 5 feet.
About 3.5 inches of rain fell over the South Fork burn scar in just an hour and a half, Crawford said. As little as a quarter of an inch of rain over a burn scar can cause flooding.
“They were probably already getting some runoff from upstream before it even actually started raining on top of the wildfire burn scar,” Shoemake said. “It really was just kind of a terrible coincidence of events that led to that.”
He likened the intense rainfall to a 100-year storm, which has a 1% chance of happening in any given year.
Cleanup begins
Emergency crews completed dozens of swift water rescues before the water receded Tuesday. Two National Guard teams and several local crews already were in the area when the flooding began, said Danielle Silva of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham requested a presidential disaster declaration, tallying more than $50 million in emergency response expenditures, including water rescues, and damage to public infrastructure, including toppled bridges and washed out roadways. The estimate includes flood damage at Ruidoso and beyond from monsoon rainstorms since late June.
Ruidoso has also recently requested $100 million in federal aid to convert flood-prone private land to public property after successive years of violent flooding laid bare the dangers of an expanded flood plain.
Local officials said the village, as the flood hit, was still in the process of replacing outdoor warning sirens destroyed in last year’s wildfire and reassessing risks along the local flood plain.
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Crawford reiterated Wednesday that Ruidoso will continue to be in the crosshairs with each monsoon, as there’s still work to do to recover from the wildfire. The rainy season begins in June and runs through September.
The river, meanwhile, is running thick with sediment that can settle and raise future water levels.
The village’s tourism-based economy also has been thrown into turmoil again. With floodwaters running through Ruidoso Downs, one of the horse track’s signature races that was scheduled to start Friday has been derailed.
The mayor said people are anxious as the monsoon is sure to bring more rain throughout the summer.
“Yesterday was a good lesson — you know, that Mother Nature is a much bigger, powerful force than we are,” he said Wednesday. “And that we can do a lot of things to protect ourselves and to try to help direct and whatever, but we cannot control.”
Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Bryan from Albuquerque. Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Denver and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque contributed to this report.
