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Google packs more artificial intelligence into new Pixel phones, raises prices for devices by $100

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

Google on Wednesday unveiled a next-generation Pixel smartphones lineup that will be infused with more with more artificial intelligence tools capable of writing captions about photos that can be altered by the technology, too.The injection of more artificial intelligence, or AI, into Google’s products marks another step in the company’s attempt to bring more of the technology into the mainstream – a push they signaled they were embarking upon during their annual developer’s conference five months ago.“Our focus is on making AI more helpful for everyone in a way that is bold and responsible,” Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services, said during Wednesday’s event held in New York. As if to leave no doubt about Google’s current priorities, Osterloh described the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones as a conduit for having “AI in your hand.”The company’s next moves will include allowing its 7-year-old Google Assistant to tap into the company’s recently...

Oops! Nobel chemistry winners are announced early in rare slip-up

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The most prestigious and secretive prize in science ran headfirst into the digital era Wednesday when Swedish media got an emailed press release revealing the winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry and the news prematurely went public.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it was investigating.About four hours before the official announcement was planned Wednesday, several Swedish media received a press release from the academy revealing that U.S.-based scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov had won the 2023 chemistry prize for their work on quantum dots.The Associated Press did not receive the press release in advance and decided not to publish the names until confirmed by the academy, but many Swedish media organizations did. Many were suspicious of the email at first. They published the information, however, since the academy didn’t write it off as false, merely insisting that the final decision on a winner had not yet been taken.“We don’t k...

Police raid on a house in western Mexico uncovers workshop for making drone-carried bombs

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A police raid on a house built to look like a castle uncovered a workshop for making drone-carried bombs, authorities in Mexico’s western state of Jalisco said Wednesday.State police distributed photos of 40 small cylindrical bombs with fins meant to be released from drones. Police also found bomb-making materials, including about 45 pounds (20 kilograms) of metal shrapnel and 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of gunpowder.A suspect was spotted running into the house but he apparently escaped out the back, and no arrests were made, officials said.The raid occurred Wednesday in Teocaltiche, a town in an area where the Jalisco and Sinaloa drug cartels have been fighting bloody turf battles. In August, five youths went missing in the nearby city of Lagos de Moreno, and videos surfaced later suggesting their captors may have forced the victims to kill each other.In August, the Mexican army said drug cartels have increased their use of drone-carried bombs, which were unkno...

Amphibians are the world’s most vulnerable animals and threats are increasing

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

The world’s frogs, salamanders, newts and other amphibians remain in serious trouble.A new global assessment has found that 41% of amphibian species that scientists have studied are threatened with extinction, meaning they are either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. That’s up from 39% reported in the last assessment, in 2004. “Amphibians are the world’s most threatened animals,” said Duke University’s Junjie Yao, a frog researcher who was not involved in the study. “Their unique biology and permeable skin make them very sensitive to environmental changes.”The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that the loss of habitat from the expansion of farming and ranching is the single biggest threat to amphibians worldwide. But a growing percentage of amphibian species are now also pushed to the brink by novel diseases and climate change, the study found.Amphibians are especially vulnerable animals. They have distinct life stages that each...

Top Wisconsin Senate Republican calls on Assembly to impeach state’s top elections official

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican president of the Wisconsin Senate on Wednesday called on the Assembly to impeach the presidential battleground state’s nonpartisan top elections official, who has remained in office while Democrats fight in court against a Senate vote to fire her.Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe’s actions “could rise to the level of corrupt conduct in office,” Senate President Chris Kapenga said in a letter urging Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to pursue impeachment.The Republican-controlled Senate voted last month to fire Wolfe despite the state’s Democratic attorney general and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys saying they did not have the authority to do so at that time.Vos, who has been criticized by Democrats for establishing a secret panel to investigate the criteria for impeaching a liberal state Supreme Court justice, did not immediately respond to a Wednesday email seeking comment. The GOP-led Assembly ca...

AP, theGrio join forces on race and democracy panel discussion, as 2024 election nears

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press and theGrio have come together for a candid conversation about issues facing Black Americans ahead of the 2024 election and amid high levels of polarization, discussing topics ranging from targeted racial violence to barriers to voting.The panel discussion, titled “Race and Democracy: The Facts and The Fury,” is the first of its kind between the nation’s oldest wire service and Allen Media Group’s multimedia platform. It will be carried on APNews.com and theGrio.com, Wednesday at 12 p.m. Eastern. It also will air on theGrio Television Network Series “TheGrio with Marc Lamont Hill” at 7:30 p.m. ET.“At a time when many Black people say they aren’t seeing themselves represented fairly and humanely across the media, it’s critical that they see legacy news outlets like the AP speaking truth and supporting it with facts,” said Aaron Morrison, editor of AP’s race and ethnicity team. “The future of our democracy depends on responsible journalism that d...

South African mining employs many and may only have decades left, report warns

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s overall mining profits slipped by more than $5 billion in the last financial year, while the country that was once the world’s largest gold producer might have less than 30 years of a viable gold industry left without renewed investment, according to a new report by big four auditing firm PwC.The report released Tuesday also estimated that South Africa’s iron ore mining industry may only last 13 more years without further commitment from companies to identify, pursue and extract new deposits. The country is among the world’s top 10 producers of the raw material key to the steel-making process.PwC’s annual report on the South African mining industry said global drops in some commodity prices following the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the reduced profits. But so did South Africa’s local challenges of currency fluctuations, high inflation, power blackouts and logistical problems in exporting minerals because of d...

Capitol rioter who attacked Reuters cameraman and police officer gets more than 4 years in prison

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

A man who attacked a police officer and a Reuters cameraman during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than four years in prison.Shane Jason Woods, 45, was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.Woods, of Auburn, Illinois, took a running start and tackled the Reuters cameraman “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing.Woods also attacked and injured a Capitol police officer who was 100 pounds (45 kilograms) lighter than him, according to prosecutors. He blindsided the officer, knocking her off her feet and into a metal barricade. The next day, the officer was still in pain and said she felt as if she had been “hit by a truck,” prosecutors said.“Woods’ actions were as cowardly as they were violent and opportunistic,” prosecutors wrote. “He targeted people smaller than him who did not see him coming. He attack...

Quebec slow to improve public services for Indigenous people, says Ombudsman

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

MONTREAL — The Quebec government has failed to implement most of the recommendations from a landmark 2019 report that said Indigenous people suffered systemic discrimination in public services.Québec Ombudsman Marc-André Dowd made the declaration today about the government’s progress on the report by retired judge Jacques Viens, who made 142 recommendations.Dowd says 11 recommendations have been fully implemented and another 34 are in progress.The Quebec government appointed Viens in December 2016 to lead an inquiry into the barriers that Indigenous Peoples face when they seek access to public services.Calls for an inquiry came after Indigenous women in Val-d’Or, Que., accused police of sexual assault and other forms of abuse.Dowd says the province has moved slowly because it lacks a strategy to implement Viens’ recommendations. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2023. The Canadian Press

Biden's latest moves on student loan forgiveness leave borrowers unimpressed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:50:12 GMT

President Biden is in murky water with student loan borrowers and advocates after revealing his next avenues for relief may not be available for everyone the way he originally promised. Just before student loan payments turned back on after a more than three-year pandemic pause, the administration announced its initial policy considerations for its next debt forgiveness plan. The announcement showed the Department of Education is looking to forgive debt for certain groups of borrowers, but for now apparently backing away from universal relief.  Trump’s New York fraud trial enters day three: live updates While there is time for plans to change — or for additional ones to emerge — the proposal rattled advocates and supporters who now question if Biden will ever be able to help all 45 million borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down his previous proposal.“This is the way the student loan swamp in Washington, D.C., operates. They want to put forth a face like they're really wanti...