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A planted bomb targeting police kills 5 and wounds 20 at a bus stop in northwest Pakistan

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb planted in a parked motorcycle exploded near a police vehicle in northwest Pakistan, killing at least five people and wounding 20 others Friday, police said.The explosion happened in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Gul Sher Khan said. The motorcycle was parked near a bus stop and the bomb was detonated remotely when a police bus carrying officers from the city to the nearby Takwara area passed by, Khan said. All of the dead were locals, and the explosion at the busy stop wounded both civilians and police constables, he said. A rescue official, Bilal Faizi said wounded were moved to a nearby hospital, where three of them were in serious condition.There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any group, but the suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces since 2022. Authorities say the insurgents have become emboldened while livi...

Daylight saving time 2023: Why attempts to make observation permanent failed

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – For residents of all but two states, this weekend will mark the end of daylight saving time when clocks "fall back" at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday.The annual ritual means catching up on an extra hour of sleep, but some members of Congress would prefer to stay on daylight saving time year-round, something which has been tried unsuccessfully in the past.In March, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act which is designed to do just that. Despite a rare show of support from senators of both political parties, the measure has been stalled after it was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.Both Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have been outspoken in support of doing away with clock changes, which happen twice a year except in most of Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Permanent daylight saving time? Where efforts to ‘lock the clocks’ stand “Changing the clock twice a year i...

Most adults think AI will add to election misinformation in 2024, poll finds

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The warnings have grown louder and more urgent as 2024 approaches: The rapid advance of artificial intelligence tools threatens to amplify misinformation in next year's presidential election at a scale never seen before.Most adults in the U.S. feel the same way, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.The poll found that nearly 6 in 10 adults (58%) think AI tools — which can micro-target political audiences, mass produce persuasive messages, and generate realistic fake images and videos in seconds — will increase the spread of false and misleading information during next year's elections.By comparison, 6% think AI will decrease the spread of misinformation while one-third say it won’t make much of a difference.“Look what happened in 2020 — and that was just social media,” said 66-year-old Rosa Rangel of Fort Worth, Texas.Rangel, a Democra...

John Martin Fischer: Some scientists say we don’t have free will. As a philosopher I say, of course we do

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

A new book by a Stanford neurobiologist offers a jarring proposition: that humans do not have free will and thus cannot be considered morally responsible for our actions. In “Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will,” Robert Sapolsky contends that much harm comes from our belief in free will: needless anxiety and guilt, unjust and cruel penal institutions and so forth.Perhaps surprisingly, these views — which seem so unintuitive — have become more influential in contemporary philosophy and even legal theory. They are, nevertheless, a minority opinion. Although philosophy isn’t about majority rule (nor should it be!), many of us inside the field — and likely outside it, too — find this skepticism toward free will and moral responsibility deeply problematic.Sapolsky and others contend that we lack free will based on determinism. According to this doctrine, everything is fully caused and explained by the past and laws of nature, meaning ...

GroundBreak, Center for Economic Inclusion expand efforts to close wealth gaps

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

Two Twin Cities-based initiatives aimed at closing the stark wealth gap between Blacks and whites have announced major expansions.GroundBreak, a coalition of 40 philanthropic, private and public institutions located throughout the metro, announced it has amassed nearly $1 billion toward wealth-building initiatives, with a focus on creating more Black homeowners, entrepreneurs and commercial developers. The funding is the first step toward a goal of putting $5.3 billion into similar efforts over the next decade.The coalition, which launched in May 2022 with strong backing from the McKnight Foundation and the banking community, released a report Tuesday outlining its initial progress, including amassing $927 million for financial tools and products that are expected to be available by the end of 2024. A key strategy is to work with existing banks on financial products targeting Black homebuyers and entrepreneurs.The challenge is that Minnesota ranks sixth worst in the nation in terms ...

5 things to know this Friday, November 3

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Happy Friday! According to Meteorologists Jill Szwed and Matt Mackie, we can expect milder days ahead after some blistery temperatures to kick off the new month. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! There was a heavy police presence on Hill Street at around 6 a.m. on Thursday. The Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a second-floor apartment where they seized drugs and firearms. Meanwhile, officials are investigating an explosion in Dutchess County. They said that a struck gas line caused an explosion, a fire, and the partial collapse of a building in Wappinger’s Falls. These stories, and more, are covered in your five things to know this Friday morning. 1. Deputies seize drugs and firearms from Troy residenceThere was a heavy police presence on Hill Street at around 6 a.m. on Thursday. The Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a second-floor apartment wh...

Ask Amy: Nonbinary adult faces misgendering at work

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

Dear Amy: I’m a young professional in my second year at an office job that I love. I’m also nonbinary — neither a man nor a woman — and my pronouns are the gender-neutral “they/them.”My workplace is very accepting, and my pronouns are displayed on our agency’s website and on a nameplate at my desk.Most of my coworkers are mindful of how they refer to me, and correct themselves when they make mistakes. However, there are a few people in our small office who have trouble getting it right.I have to make choices every day between the discomfort of getting misgendered and the vulnerability of correcting others, and I accept this as part of my daily life as an openly nonbinary individual.But at a certain point, when someone I know well and see every day doesn’t even notice when they’ve gendered me incorrectly, it can be hurtful.I try to continue correcting people that slip up, but it gets more difficult as it becomes clear they aren’t ...

Human trafficking: The EU’s fight against exploitation 

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

Learn how the EU is strengthening anti-trafficking rules to respond to changes in the way people are being exploited, Society.What is human trafficking? Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit Human trafficking factsEvery year more than 7,000 victims of human trafficking are registered in the EU, although the actual figure is likely to be much higher as many victims remain undetected.The majority of victims are women and girls, but the number of men is on the rise particularly as forced labour. Types of human traffickingReasons for human trafficking include:Sexual exploitation - victims are predominantly women and children.Forced labour - victims primarily from developing countries, forced to work in labour-intensive jobs, or kept in domestic servitude.Forced criminal activities - victims must carry out a range of illegal activities. Vi...

DePetris: Biden and Xi aim to meet as U.S., China try to get on same page

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

With all eyes on Gaza, a recent series of meetings in Washington between senior U.S. and Chinese officials was slightly overlooked by the news cycle. Those sessions, however, have the potential to bring President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping into the same room as soon as mid-November, when the U.S. is due to host an economic conference in San Francisco.The last time Biden and Xi met for in-person talks was during the November 2022 G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia. Those discussions were a seminal event, not because of anything the two agreed to but rather because the meeting happened at all.The previous month, the U.S. slapped strict export controls on advanced technology to China, which Chinese officials up and down the Communist Party bureaucracy strongly condemned as a transparent attempt to stifle the Chinese economy and undermine Beijing’s rise as a great power. Several months before that, in August 2022, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the House...

Word Game: Nov. 3, 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:50:43 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — ARMORED (ARMORED: ARM-erd: Wearing a defensive body covering for combat.)Average mark 31 wordsTime limit 40 minutesCan you find 40 or more words in ARMORED? The list will be published tomorrow.YESTERDAY’S WORD — FORTHRIGHT fight firth fort forth fright frog froth rift right rigor riot roti thigh thrift tight tort trig trio trot troth high gift girth grift gritTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.Contact Word Game creator Kathleen Saxe at [email protected].