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AI presents political peril for 2024 with threat to mislead voters: ‘We’re not prepared for this’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election.The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or two away. No more. Sophisticated generative AI tools can now create cloned human voices and hyper-realistic images, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to powerful social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread far and fast and target highly specific audiences, potentially taking campaign dirty tricks to a new low.The implications for the 2024 campaigns and elections are as large as they are troubl...

Election at UN migration agency pits its European chief against his American deputy

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — He’s European. She’s American. He runs the U.N. migration agency. She wants his job.International Organization for Migration director-general Antonio Vitorino of Portugal faces what could be a tight race against his Biden administration-backed deputy, Amy Pope, as member countries of the Geneva-based agency choose its chief for the next five years on Monday.The election comes as migrants have been on the move like never before, driven from their homes by factors including conflict, economic distress and the growing impacts of climate change.The U.S. and the European Union — both major funders of IOM — are facing challenges with migration. Critics fault the EU for failing to do more to prevent often-deadly trips by migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe by boat. The U.N. refugee agency and others have expressed concern about how changes to U.S. migration law will affect people trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States.But ...

Kerry challenges oil industry to prove its promised tech rescue for climate-wrecking emissions

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil and gas producers talk up technological breakthroughs they say will soon allow the world to drill and burn fossil fuels without worsening global warming. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry says the time is here for the industry to prove it can make the technology happen — at scale, affordably and quickly — to stave off climate disaster.And Kerry says he has “serious questions” whether it can.Kerry’s comments came in an interview with The Associated Press on one of the most crucial topics in the fight to slow global warming: the argument from oil and gas producers that they will soon have technology in place to extract the climate-damaging gases that make fossil fuels the main culprit in climate change, allowing companies to keep pumping crude and natural gas worry-free.Kerry said the ideal solution is a fast global switch to renewable energy, but oil and gas states and companies have a right to give their claim of technological rescue a try.“If you’re ab...

Serbia: 13,500 weapons collected in amnesty, including rocket launchers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian authorities on Sunday displayed many of around 13,500 weapons they say people have been handed over since this month’s mass shootings, including hand grenades, automatic weapons, and anti-tank rocket launchers.The authorities have declared a one-month amnesty period for citizens to hand over unregistered weapons or face prison sentences as part of a crackdown on guns following the two mass shootings that left 17 people dead, many of them children.Populist President Aleksandar Vucic accompanied top police officials on Sunday for the weapons’ display near the town of Smederevo, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital, Belgrade. Vucic said the approximately half of the weapons collected were illegal while the other half were registered weapons that citizens nonetheless handed over. He added the weapons will go to Serbia’s arms and ammunitions factories for potential use by the armed forces.“After June 8, the state will respon...

Quebec avian flu cases higher than expected as bird deaths near 1 million: expert

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

MONTREAL — Poultry farmers in Quebec are grappling with a series of outbreaks of deadly avian flu, as the number of birds that have died or been euthanized due to the disease since early last year nears the one million mark. Sylvain Junior Henrie, who co-owns Ferme La Caboche in Rimouski, Que., said poultry farmers are all taking extra precautions. At his farm northeast of Quebec City, people change boots and coveralls before entering any buildings. He’s waiting until later in the year to put his flock outside, and he’s invested in mobile shelters and a series of tarps and canvas to ensure that wild birds can’t mix with his organic chickens, ducks and turkeys.“The important thing is not to bring something from the outside into our breeding areas,” Henrie said.Henrie and others farmers in his region have so far been spared, but the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is having a widespread impact on poultry farming in the province, from anxiety for farmers to a...

Sweden celebrates Eurovision win; Ukrainian duo defiant after Russian strike on hometown

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool cleaned up from the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday, as Sweden celebrated victory and Ukraine remained defiant after a night of Russian bombardment, including a strike on the hometown of the country’s competitors.Electronic duo Tvorchi represented Ukraine at the spectacular pan-continental pop competition on Saturday night, coming sixth of the 26 finalists with “Heart of Steel,” an anthem to the country’s resilience inspired by the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as the contest was underway in Liverpool, and Ukraine’s military said a barrage of Russian drones and missile strikes left dozens wounded. One strike hit Ternopil, home city of Tvorchi in western Ukraine.Ternopil was attacked again on Sunday morning, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Civilian buildings and cars were damaged; there was no immediate information on victims.“Ternopil is the name of our hometown, which was bombed by R...

3 people injured in drive-by shooting in River North

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

CHICAGO — Three people were shot early Sunday morning in Chicago's River North, according to the Chicago fire and police departments.The shooting happened around 3 a.m. near West Hubbard Street and North State Street. 1 dead, at least 9 injured in crash on Chicago’s South Side A man, 22, and another man, 26, were both shot multiple times and taken to the hospital in critical condition, officials said. A man, 32, was shot in the left arm and was stable when they were transported to a hospital. Chicago police said the men were standing outside when they were shot by people in two passing cars.No one has been arrested yet and the incident is still under investigation.

Highest-rated cafes in Chicago, according to Yelp

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

From the first coffee houses in the Ottoman Empire to Boston's London Coffee House, cafes have always been an egalitarian place to gather, sip, and share ideas, many of which have changed the world.During the Enlightenment, cafes would regularly entertain the likes of Voltaire, Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Isaac Newton. Later, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre would spend hours in cafes, pondering their works and holding court alongside other intellectuals.Needless to say, coffee and cafes beget some revolutionary ideas; sipping a cup may even be a political act. When settlers dumped tea into the Boston Harbor to send a message to the British empire, tea became a British loyalist's drink, and coffee became a popular substitute. Unsurprisingly, Boston's London Coffee House opened in 1689, was soon renamed the American Coffee House. Later on in Philadelphia, Merchant Coffee House, also known as the City Tavern, would host the likes of George Washington, Tho...

4 injured after head-on collision on 183 Toll

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Four people were taken to the hospital with potentially serious injuries early Sunday after a head-on collision, according to Austin-Travis County EMS.Medics arrived in the 1600 block of the US-183 Toll road at approximately 4 a.m.ATCEMS said four adults were taken to the hospital in two ambulances. All patients were trauma alerts, according to officials.As of 4:48 a.m., EMS was no longer on the scene.

Influential Lutheran pastor Morris George Cornell Vaagenes, North Heights leader, remembered in Saturday funeral services

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 19:54:15 GMT

Funeral services were held Saturday for Pastor Emeritus Morris George Cornell Vaagenes, former leader of an Arden Hills megachurch for nearly four decades, who died this week at 93.He was the longtime pastor at North Heights Church, which was founded in 1946 and operated for years in a 450-seat church in Roseville. Its Arden Hills property was added in 1985, a 43-acre campus bigger than the site of the Minnesota Vikings stadium, with a full-sized basketball court, a racquetball court, several chapels and a cavernous sanctuary with 1,350 seats.Vaagenes is credited with sparking a spiritual movement that followers say transformed the lives of more than 650 million Christians across the world, a movement that originated at his North Heights Church. Under his leadership, the church was hailed as one of the most influential Lutheran churches in the country.Vaagenes grew up in the Lutheran Free Church, a denomination that valued the mystical gifts of the Holy Spirit, as the child of Norwe...