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The Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong on Wednesday revealed he has been working “behind the scenes” to create a “bias meter” for every article that comes out of the newspaper.

He said he hopes the new tool, which will be backed by artificial intelligence, will be released by January.

Its the businessmans latest project to balance out the newsroom, after he vowed to bring more conservative voices to the paper and faced heated backlash for blocking the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Soon-Shiong discussed the upcoming venture with his recent editorial board pick, Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator and staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump.

Every article in the LA Times news and opinion sections will have a bias meter tagged to it, Soon-Shiong said on Wednesday as Jennings guest-hosted “The Mike Gallagher Show.”

So that someone could understand as a reader that the source of the article has some level of bias, said Soon-Shiong, who bought the Times in 2018 for $500 million.

The reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments, he explained.

The LA Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Soon-Shiong first vowed to even out the papers left-leaning political slant in November.

If we were honest with ourselves, our current board of opinion writers veered very left, which is fine, but I think in order to have balance, you also need to have somebody who would trend right, and more importantly, somebody that would trend in the middle, he said.

His pledge came despite fervent backlash the month before when he blocked the Times editorial board from endorsing Harris. Thousands of readers canceled their subscriptions and urged others to boycott the company on social media. Several outraged members of the editorial board resigned.

But Soon-Shiong doubled down and said the LA Times had conflated news and opinion, and promised to ensure both sides of the political spectrum will be heard and represented.

Last week, he announced Jennings would be joining the papers editorial board — another decision that sparked controversy.

The billionaire newspaper owner abruptly ended an interview with reporter Oliver Darcy, who left CNN and launched a standalone newsletter, after Darcy pressed him on his choice to hire Jennings.

In his Status newsletter, Darcy reported that the interview began warmly enough but took a turn when he pushed back on Soon-Shiongs claim that Jennings was respectful and thoughtful on air alongside his fellow CNN panelists.

Darcy wrote that he said it was very debatable that Jennings was respectful and criticized him for defending Trump and his endless stream of lies and conspiracy theories.

A visibly annoyed Soon-Shiong took issue with the conversation around Trump, snapping that Darcy was a so-called reporter before ending the interview, Darcy wrote in the newsletter.

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Politics

Banking Committee chair sets September goal for market structure bill

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Banking Committee chair sets September goal for market structure bill

Banking Committee chair sets September goal for market structure bill

After passing the GENIUS stablecoin bill, Republican leadership on the Senate Banking Committee has turned its sights to digital asset market structure.

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Environment

Podcast: Xiaomi shocks with YU7, Tesla Robotaxi launch, Rivian brings back tank mode, and more

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Podcast: Xiaomi shocks with YU7, Tesla Robotaxi launch, Rivian brings back tank mode, and more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Xiaomi shocking the industry with YU7, Tesla’s Robotaxi launch, Rivian bringing back tank mode, and more.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

Today, the episode is live at 12:15 a.m instead due to Fred’s travels in China and Seth’s in.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

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After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.

Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:

Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 12:15 a.m. ET (or the video after 1 a.m. ET):

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World

Japan executes ‘Twitter killer’ who murdered and dismembered nine people

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Japan executes 'Twitter killer' who murdered and dismembered nine people

A man guilty of murdering nine people, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media, has been executed in Japan.

Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer”, was sentenced to death in 2020 for the 2017 killings of the nine victims, who he also dismembered in his apartment near Tokyo.

His execution was the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years and it was carried out as calls grow to abolish the measure in Japan since the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.

He was freed after 56 years on death row, following a retrial which heard police had falsified and planted evidence against him over the 1966 murders of his boss, wife and two children.

Eight of Shiraishi’s victims were women, including teenagers, who he killed after raping them. He also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.

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Police arrested him in 2017 after finding the bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage cases in his apartment.

Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes.

More on Japan

Read more from Sky News:
Vietnam veteran executed after almost 50 years on death row
‘Great progress’ made in Gaza ceasefire talks, says Trump

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised Shiraishi’s hanging, said he made the decision after careful examination, taking into account the convict’s “extremely selfish” motive for crimes that “caused great shock and unrest to society”.

“It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed,” Mr Suzuki said.

There are currently 105 death row inmates in Japan, he added.

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