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Opinion: ‘Oppenheimer’ and Hollywood’s fear of the atomic bomb story

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

In 1945, Hollywood set in motion its first big-budget movie drama about the making and use of the atomic bomb. Almost immediately a competing project emerged (with a screenplay by Ayn Rand, no less). Yet for over seven decades, only two other major movie dramas about this epochal event emerged from a studio. Now that is changing with Friday’s arrival of Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated “Oppenheimer,” focusing on the famed lead scientist at Los Alamos who is sometimes called “the Father of the Atomic Bomb.”In the same period, Hollywood has produced far more movies centering on D-day and the defeat of Adolf Hitler. This is unsurprising, as these narratives can focus on American valor and ultimately deliver a stirring victory (and depict U.S. forces helping to liberate the concentration camps). The atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a different story. Onscreen portrayals of the bombings have been incomplete at best, sanitized at worst — and leave open the question of whet...

Opinion: An AI Bill of Rights is unenforceable, may do more harm than good

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

President Joe Biden put forward a “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights” that provides five guiding principles for the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. They outline aspirational goals that also align with principles in the Democratic Party platform.Technology leaders have also expressed concern about the untethered growth of AI and its impact on society, including its affect on work and the spread of misinformation. Looking to the 2024 election, now less than a year and a half away, generative AI has the potential to upend campaigns by swaying and manipulating voters. A classified Senate hearing was recently held to discuss the future of AI and the opportunities and risks it poses.Though many of the points that Biden and technology leaders have raised are worthy of discussion, the challenge of creating guidelines to reign in AI is that they are inherently unenforceable and may ultimately do more harm than good.AI is already ubiquitous, and its pathway will gr...

Kristof: Legalizing the sex trade will only increase trafficking of children

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

More than a decade ago, I met a scared 15-year-old who was trying to recover her life after having been kidnapped by a pimp and sold for sex.Melanie Thompson recalled the day her life changed: She and two other girls in New York City ran into some older boys who invited them to hang out. The girls did so, the boys provided alcohol, Melanie blacked out — and she says she woke up to being raped. She told me how a pimp then locked her with another girl in an abandoned house, and she had a new job: having sex with strangers against her will.She was 13.When we spoke two years later, she was in a residential program for formerly trafficked girls. She was thoughtful, charming and fond of poetry, but I wondered if she would be able to rebuild her life. Then I lost track of her, until a message arrived from her this spring. We met, and she filled me in on her bumpy journey — and her campaign against what she sees as misguided liberalism that would legalize pimping.Melanie spent years in fost...

From extreme heat to deadly storms, Europe has no rest from ‘summer of hell’

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

Europe is grappling with extreme weather from soaring temperatures in southern Italy to powerful storms in Croatia and Italy, piling pressure on emergency services and residents, and challenging tourists seeking some summer recuperation.Temperatures have consistently topped 40 degrees Celsius this week across southern and eastern European countries, and for some areas like Sicily there remains no respite. The Italian island was baking in 46 degrees Celsius on Saturday, according to the Met Office, with night temperatures of 29 degrees offering little in the way of comfort.The heat in parts of Greece was also pushing the mercury into the 40s on Saturday; the island of Kefalonia and the western coast of the mainland are continuing to see 40 degrees Celsius.On the island of Rhodes, firefighters entered their fifth day in a battle to bring difficult wildfires, under control, according to local media reports. And fires continue to burn in areas around Athens.In Malta, residents have been...

Crews searching for missing swimmer at Sandy Beach in Hopkinton

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

Officials in Hopkinton are searching for a 22-year-old who went missing Friday night while swimming at Sandy Beach.Officers said a friend swimming with the missing man called 911 around 8 p.m. when he returned to shore alone from a swim in Lake Maspenock. Police said the swimmers went beyond the safe-swimming zone at the beach. In a statement, officials said this is “now considered a recovery operation,” and Hopkinon and other area fire responders are searching the waters with sonar-equipped rescue boats.Hopkinton police and fire crews searched until midnight Friday, and then resumed Saturday morning. The beach is closed until further notice.

Missing 17-year-old found dead after boat crash in Sesuit Harbor

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

A 17-year-old girl has been found dead after a boat crashed into a jetty in Sesuit Harbor in Dennis, officials said.Massachusetts State Police said the victim was recovered from the water around 11:30 p.m. late Friday night after a search and rescue operation around Cold Storage Beach. Other occupants of the boat were also injured, officials said.The Dennis Fire Department, the US Coast Guard, the Barnstable County Dive Team, the Sandwich Fire Department and the Massachusetts State Police were all assisting in the search Friday night.The death is under investigation by state police detectives.

Yemeni police say they’ve arrested 2 suspects in the killing of a senior World Food Program official

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Yemeni police on Saturday arrested two suspects in the killing of a senior World Food Program official the previous day, authorities said. Ten others were also detained for their alleged involvement in the killing of Moayad Hameidi, who had recently arrived in the country to take the post of the head of the World Food Program in the southwestern province of Taiz. Taiz police did not provide further details.On Friday, two gunmen riding on a motorbike shot Hameidi in the town of Turbah. He died shortly after reaching a hospital. The attackers fled the scene.Hameidi, a Jordanian, was the latest aid worker to be killed in Yemen, which has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014. He had just arrived in Taiz a few days ago to assume his role as head of the WFP office in the province.“The loss of our colleague is a profound tragedy for our organization and the humanitarian community,” said Richard Ragan, WFP’s director in Yemen. “Any loss of life in humanitarian service is an...

Massive protests take place against mob assaults on women in India’s remote northeastern state

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Thousands of people, mostly women, held a massive sit-in in India’s violence-wracked northeastern state of Manipur on Saturday demanding the immediate arrest of those involved in the harrowing mob assaults on two women who were paraded naked. Religious and women organization leaders addressed nearly 15,000 protesters who also called for the sacking of Biren Singh, the top elected official in the state where more than 130 people have been killed since violence between two dominant ethnic groups erupted in early May. The protest was held in Churachandpur, a town 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Imphal, the state capital.A video showing the assaults on women triggered massive outrage and was widely shared on social media late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists locked out of the remote state. The footage shows the two naked women surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.Police said the assault...

Man dead, four others injured after North Lawndale shooting

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

CHICAGO -- A man is dead, and four others are injured after two men opened fire on a group in in North Lawndale overnight. According to police, the men were standing in the 1600 block of North Spaulding Avenue around 12:19 a.m. when two men approached and fired shots at them.Police said a 40-year-old man sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead. 1 in grave condition after being pulled from water at North Avenue Beach in Chicago Another 40-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the face and is in good condition. Another man was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the neck and head. A 44-year-old man was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital with gunshot wounds to the body. He is listed in good condition. A 50-year-old man sustained a graze wound to the right arm and refused medical attention.There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident.In another incident, a 16-year-old boy was...

When is the best time to plant pumpkins?

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:26:52 GMT

While we're making our way through summer, ever wondered when it was the best time to plant pumpkins? Join Weekend Gardening with Tim Joyce to learn more. Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.