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Ukraine dam disaster: WHO requests access to Russian-occupied territory

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

The World Health Organization (WHO) has requested that Russia allow aid workers into territory seized from Ukraine in order to help people affected by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam. In an interview with POLITICO, Hans Kluge, the director of the WHO’s Europe office, said the health authority is assisting flooded zones in Ukraine, sending people and equipment to help with disaster relief. Around 300 WHO health workers have been mobilized, along with medical kits to care for about 16,000 people. Twenty thousand cholera laboratory test kits have been sent to strengthen disease surveillance efforts. Kluge said that the WHO was also concerned with the health situation in territory controlled by Russia, to which it doesn’t have access. The now-defunct Nova Kakhovka dam straddled the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s Kherson region, which is mainly under the control of Russian forces. The structure was critically damaged on June 6 and since then dramatic flooding has affe...

AI drive-thrus may be good for business. But not for the rest of us

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

New York (CNN) — Over the past few years, restaurants from White Castle to Wendy’s have been investing in artificial intelligence tech for drive-thrus. They say it’s a way to ease the burden placed on overworked employees, and a solution to bogged down drive-thrus overwhelmed by a surge of customers.But customers — and workers — may not be thrilled with the technology.Frustrated customers have already documented cases of AI getting their orders wrong, and experts warn the noisy drive-thru is a challenging environment for the technology. And AI may swipe hours or even entire jobs away from fast-food workers.But restaurants are forging ahead, buoyed by the promise of higher sales and faster drive-thrus, whether we like it or not.A challenging environmentSome fast-food aficionados may not have noticed AI at their drive-thru lanes yet, but since about 2021 chains have been testing out AI tools like automated voice ordering, where an AI rather than a person takes...

Fiercest fighting in years erupts in West Bank city of Jenin, at least 5 Palestinians killed

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military raided the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, striking the refugee camp with helicopter gunships.This has triggered the most ferocious fighting in the occupied territory in years, killing five Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounding over 91 others, health officials said, including 12 in critical condition. Seven Israeli soldiers were also wounded, the army said.During nearly 10 hours of fighting, Israeli security forces faced off against Palestinian militants with gunfire, armored bulldozers and missile fire from at least one Apache helicopter. The Israeli military said that helicopters fired at Palestinian gunmen as security forces tried to extract damaged vehicles from the camp. Israeli security forces rarely deploy airpower to strike Palestinian militant targets in the West Bank. It was the first such use of a helicopter gunship in the occupied West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising some two decade...

Soccer fan chuckles after getting ban for wearing offensive jersey related to Hillsborough tragedy

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A soccer fan was banned from attending matches for four years Monday for wearing a shirt to this month’s FA Cup final that made an offensive reference to the Hillsborough Stadium disaster where 97 Liverpool fans died.James White smiled and chuckled after receiving his punishment, which also included a fine of 1,000 pounds ($1,280).White, 33, pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates’ Court in London to displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.White wore a Manchester United jersey with the number “97” and the words “Not Enough” on the back to the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium on June 3. Manchester City won the match 2-1 against United, which is also a big rival of Liverpool.The Football Association said that it spotted the offensive shirt on social media and security tracked down the man wearing it, leading to his arrest.“It is hard to imagine a more … offensive reference to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster,” district j...

Canadian technology organizations form semiconductor working group

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

TORONTO — Several Canadian tech organizations are forming a group to advance the country’s semiconductor industry.The group is called the Semiconductor Industry Leadership and Innovation Canada Action Network.It says it will advocate for the semiconductor industry with the federal and provincial governments and develop a made-in-Canada action plan for leadership across the global sector.Members of the group include the Council of Canadian Innovators, CMC Microsystems, the Alliance for Semiconductor Innovation, Canada’s Semiconductor Council and the Canadian Innovation Network. The U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, Optonique and ISEQ are also members.Semiconductor supply chains were snarled during the COVID-19 pandemic and many companies found themselves scrambling to make or obtain as many of the chips as possible.“Semiconductors are a critical technology, used by virtually all advanced industries as inputs, and they are only becoming more important as technology ad...

Multiple tornadoes have killed at least one person and injured nearly two dozen in Mississippi

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

JACKSON, MISS. (AP) — Multiple tornadoes swept through Mississippi overnight, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen, officials said. State emergency workers were still working with counties Monday morning to assess the damage from storms in which high temperatures and hail in some areas accompanied tornadoes. The death and injuries were reported by officials in east Mississippi’s Jasper County. In a Monday morning news release, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said more than 49,000 homes in central Mississippi were without power. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the tornadoes struck in Jasper County and Rankin County, which borders the capital city of Jackson. Emergency crews were doing search and rescue missions and damage assessments, deploying drones in some areas because they were impossible to reach by vehicle due to downed power lines. Tens of thousands of people in Hinds County were still without power Monday morning after high winds pummeled the state e...

New Chinese premier makes first foreign trip to Europe as part of Beijing’s outreach

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Qiang has started a visit to Germany and France that comes as Europe seeks to balance concerns over economic dependence on China and about its stance toward Ukraine and Taiwan with a desire to engage Beijing on issues such as climate change.Li, on his first trip abroad since taking office, was received by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday. He and a large delegation of Chinese ministers will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and their German counterparts on Tuesday, the seventh time the two countries have held such government consultations. Top officials from both sides also will meet business representatives.Li, a former Communist Party secretary for Shanghai, took office in March as China’s No. 2 official. It was part of a once-a-decade change of government that installed loyalists of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to enforce his vision of tighter political control over the economy and society.The visit comes as Europe and Germany c...

UN hosts Mideast and European envoys to raise money for humanitarian crisis in Sudan

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Envoys from the Middle East and Europe attended a U.N.-hosted meeting Monday aimed at raising money to address Sudan’s deepening humanitarian crisis.Sudan has been rocked by fighting for over two months as the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battle for control of the country. Sudan’s Health Ministry said Saturday that more than 3,000 have been killed in the conflict, which has decimated the country’s fragile infrastructure and sparked ethnic violence in the western Darfur region.Representatives from Egypt, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the European Union met in Geneva to discuss helping Sudan. The U.N. says its emergency aid program launched after the war broke out April 15 has received less than 16% of the required $2.57 billion in aid.Around 24.7 million people, over half of Sudan’s population, are in need of humanitarian assistance, the U.N. says. Over 2.2 million people have fled their homes to safer areas e...

Tom Watson is the latest to want answers on the PGA Tour’s deal with Saudi backers of LIV

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eight-time major champion Tom Watson wants answers on the PGA Tour’s new business partnership with Saudi backers of LIV Golf, asking in a letter Monday to Commissioner Jay Monahan if the deal was the only way to solve the tour’s financial hardship.That was one of several questions posed by Watson in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and was sent to Monahan, the PGA Tour board and “my fellow players.”He said the questions were “compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the moral issue.”On the day after Wyndham Clark became the latest major champion by winning the U.S. Open, focus shifted back to an issue that has consumed golf for the last three years. It took a stunning turn June 6 when the PGA Tour announced it had joined with Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund and the European tour to put commercial businesses under one roof.Monahan has referred to it as a “framework agreement” and he had few answers for players in a meeting two weeks ago...

Montenegro court sentences founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs to 4 months in prison

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:56:49 GMT

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — A court in Montenegro on Monday sentenced the founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, and another citizen of South Korea to four months in prison for using forged documents. Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March on an international arrest warrant in connection with the $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, which devastated retail investors around the world. Both South Korea and the United States have requested his extradition from Montenegro. The courts in the country are yet to decide on those requests in separate proceedings. Authorities said Kwon and the other man were arrested at Podgorica Airport while trying to fly to Dubai using fake Costa Rican passports.The Basic Court in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, said on Monday that time already spent in detention since the pair’s arrest on March 23 will be included in the sentence, state RTCG television reported. “The court found they were guilty of the criminal a...