Kids online safety push clouded by House-Senate divide

WASHINGTON — Bills that would strengthen online safety for young users have attracted bipartisan coalitions, but lawmakers are still separated over the level of regulation they would impose on social media companies, adding uncertainty to the effort’s prospects.

That divide has come to the fore as the House is expected to consider on Monday a bipartisan House package by the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The package does not include the controversial “duty of care” provision that undergirds a key Senate bill, which led two prominent Democratic Senate backers to call on Friday for the House to delay a floor vote. The Senate bill sponsor, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., last week also criticized the House package for leaving out the provision.

Any kids’ online safety package is also likely to contend with a White House generally hesitant to regulate the tech industry, including through its ongoing push to preempt state laws on artificial intelligence.

—CQ-Roll Call

San Francisco Archdiocese to pay $395 million to sexual abuse victims

The San Francisco Archdiocese will pay out nearly $400 million to survivors of clergy sexual abuse, encompassing 70 years of children falling prey to priests, lawyers announced Monday.

The settlement sets up a trust to compensate 530 survivors of childhood sexual abuse — all of whom are now adults — and establishes extensive child protection reforms to protect minors from abuse, lawyers for the victims said.

The deal comes three years after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a growing number of lawsuits alleging abuse.

Jeff Anderson, one of the lead attorneys for survivors, said the $395 million settlement is “less than a full measure of accountability” but is “monumental” in terms of the conditions it places on the archdiocese, including a 14-point plan for protecting children.

—Los Angeles Times

Money was sought to restore Tampa Bay’s coastal habitat. Gov. Ron DeSantis just vetoed it

TAMPA, Fla. — A suite of habitat restoration goals on a federal wildlife refuge offshore Pinellas County promised big benefits for human and animal residents alike:

More eastern oyster reefs to clean Tampa Bay’s water and curb erosion; more marsh grasses to soften storm surge and give shelter for nesting birds; more hardened shorelines for wary coastal homeowners in the wake of the region’s worst hurricane season in a century.

The $750,000 sought by the nonprofit Tampa Bay Watch would have indirectly helped all residents living around Florida’s largest open-water estuary, the group said in its funding request.

But on Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the money. “This is very disappointing,” said Dwayne Virgint, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer. Virgint said in an interview that the money would have helped refurbish the Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge, a string of federally protected islands — including Tarpon, Indian and Mule Keys — hit particularly hard in 2024 by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

—Tampa Bay Times

Putin ready for Ukraine talks but won’t halt long-range strikes

Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he’s ready to continue talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war in Ukraine, while rejecting a proposal to halt long-range strikes that have proven damaging for both sides.

The Kremlin expects U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to travel to Moscow to continue talks on ending the war in Ukraine once Washington is less focused on the conflict with Iran, Putin said in an interview with state television shown late Sunday.

“We’re ready to continue negotiations and discussion of the details and modalities — if not agreements, then at least the topics discussed in Anchorage,” he said, referring to talks with U.S. President Donald Trump last August in Alaska.

Putin also said there were continued contacts between Kyiv and Moscow, without elaborating further, and that he declined proposals to mutually halt strikes deep inside Russia and Ukraine and to confine fighting to just the four occupied Ukrainian regions.

—Bloomberg News