Indonesian authorities closed an international airport and residents left homes near an erupting volcano due to spreading ash, falling rocks and the possibility of a tsunami. Mount Ruang on Sulawesi Island had five large eruptions Wednesday, and smoke emitted from the crater all day Thursday. More than 11,000 people were told to leave at-risk areas, and at least 800 have done so. Indonesia's volcanology center noted it's possible part of the volcano could collapse into the sea and cause a tsunami. Читать дальше...
Authorities evacuated an area of Ohio’s capital, Columbus, for several hours out of fear that a fire in truck’s trailer could have caused lithium ion batteries to explode. Police began evacuating a several-block area west of downtown shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday and closed off several highway exits near the Scioto River. Officers went door-to-door to alert residents about the evacuation, and a shelter was set up. Although firefighters were still battling the blaze as of late morning, the evacuation... Читать дальше...
A juror in the hush money trial of Donald Trump was dismissed after expressing doubt about her ability to be fair and impartial.
Generative AI is advancing so quickly that the latest chatbots available today could be out of date tomorrow. Google, Meta Platforms and OpenAI, along with startups such as Anthropic, Cohere and France’s Mistral, have been churning out new AI language models and hoping to persuade customers they’ve got the smartest, handiest or most efficient chatbots. Meta is the latest to up its game, unveiling new models Thursday that will be among the most visible: they’re already getting baked into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Читать дальше...
A southern Arizona jury will hear closing arguments in the trial of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border. George Alan Kelly was charged with second-degree murder in the January 2023 death of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who lived south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. The more than two-week trial included a visit by jurors to Kelly's cattle ranch. The case attracted national attention amid increased interest in border security during a... Читать дальше...
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small says he remains committed to his family and to his city as he deals with charges that he and his wife abused their teenage daughter. In his first public comments since prosecutors on Monday charged him and his wife, LaQuetta, the city’s superintendent of schools, with abusing their 16-year-old daughter and endangering her welfare, Small said he would not be distracted from his duties. He told an audience at a gambling conference that his situation is personal. He said... Читать дальше...
Wall Street is pointing higher as bond markets stabilize and more corporate earnings trickled in. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are both up 0.2% before the bell Thursday. Alaska Air Group rose 1% after it projected better-than-expected profits in the current quarter. Credit reporting company Equifax slid 9.5% after it gave a weak forecast. Streaming entertainment giant Netflix reports its most recent financial results after the bell Thursday. Bond markets have stabilized... Читать дальше...
The jury selection process at the historic criminal trial of former President Donald Trump can already credit modern technology for shaping the eventual panel. Several potential jurors whose social media footprint raised alarms have been cut. One of them was a man who was dismissed after lawyers found a 2017 online post about Trump that said “Lock him up!” Seven jurors have been chosen for the New York state court trial over a prosecutor's claim Trump falsified business records to hide a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign. Читать дальше...
Canadian police say nine people are facing charges in the biggest gold theft in Canadian history from Toronto’s Pearson International airport a year ago. Authorities say 6,600 gold bars worth more than 20 million Canadian dollars or $14.5 million were stolen and the gold was melted down and used to purchase illegal firearms. Police said Wednesday that those charged include an Air Canada warehouse employee, a former Air Canada manager and a jewelry store owner.
The Maine Legislature has approved sweeping gun safety legislation nearly six months after the deadliest shooting in state history. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and the Democratic-led Maine Legislature pressed for a number of gun and mental health proposals after the Oct. 25 shooting that claimed 18 lives and injured another 13 people, despite the state’s strong hunting tradition and support for gun owners. The bills that received approval included background checks on private gun sales, 72-hour waiting... Читать дальше...
Officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong when the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Hawaii town, more than a half-year after the disaster. But two key reports released this week are filling in some of the blanks. A detailed timeline of the events was released by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez on Wednesday. And the previous day the Maui Fire Department put out a separate after-action report. It detailed the challenges the department... Читать дальше...
Georgia’s parliament has voted in the first reading to approve a proposed law that would require media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. Thousands gathered outside parliament to protest. Opponents say the proposal would obstruct Georgia’s long-sought prospects of joining the European Union. They denounce it as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatize independent news... Читать дальше...
A California lawmaker wants to require limited liability companies and similar businesses to report the identities of their owners to the government. Such information would be available for public view. The proposal aims to crack down on the practice of opaque ownership structures that enable some companies to operate anonymously and skirt state laws without consequence. The practice is prevalent in many industries. The bill passed a committee Wednesday. Proponents say more transparency would make it easier to hold bad actors accountable. Читать дальше...
With cloud seeding, it may rain, but it doesn’t really pour or flood — at least nothing like what drenched the United Arab Emirates and paralyzed Dubai. Meteorologists say cloud seeding, although decades old, is still controversial in the weather community, mostly because it has been hard to prove it does very much. No one reports the type of flooding that on Tuesday doused the United Arab Emirates, which often deploys the technology to squeeze every drop of moisture from the sky. Meteorologists... Читать дальше...
The Senate has dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the the U.S.-Mexico border and ending his trial before arguments even began. Senate Democrats argued that the articles were unconstitutional. The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with immigration law. The second article charged Mayorkas with a “breach of trust” for saying the border was secure. Читать дальше...
CSX railroad's first-quarter profit slipped 10% even though the railroad delivered 3% more goods as shipments it handled shifted to a less-profitable mix. The railroad based in Jacksonville, Florida, said Wednesday that it earned $893 million, or 46 cents per share, in the first three months of the year. That’s down from $987 million, or 48 cents per share, a year ago. The results were slightly better than Wall Street predicted. The analysts surveyed by FactSet Research expected CSX to report earnings per share of 45 cents. Читать дальше...
The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to pay approximately $100 million to settle claims with about 100 people who say they were sexually assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar. A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press about the deal on Wednesday. The deal has not been finalized and no money has been paid. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak before a formal announcement. An internal investigation found that... Читать дальше...
A civilian contractor sent to work as an interrogator at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison resigned within two weeks of his arrival and told his corporate bosses that mistreatment of detainees was likely to continue. Jurors saw the October 2003 email from the interrogator who worked for military contractor CACI during testimony Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by three Abu Ghraib survivors. The three are suing the Virginia-based company, which they allege shares responsibility for the mistreatment they endured at the prison. Читать дальше...
