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Europe’s world-leading artificial intelligence rules are facing a do-or-die moment

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Hailed as a world first, European Union artificial intelligence rules are facing a make-or-break moment as negotiators try to hammer out the final details this week — talks complicated by the sudden rise of generative AI that produces human-like work.First suggested in 2019, the EU’s AI Act was expected to be the world’s first comprehensive AI regulations, further cementing the 27-nation bloc’s position as a global trendsetter when it comes to reining in the tech industry. But the process has been bogged down by a last-minute battle over how to govern systems that underpin general purpose AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot. Big tech companies are lobbying against what they see as overregulation that stifles innovation, while European lawmakers want added safeguards for the cutting-edge AI systems those companies are developing. Meanwhile, the U.S., U.K., China and global coalitions like the Group of 7 major democracies h...

Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2023

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

From a hot dog vendor to head of the formidable mercenary army Wagner Group, his rise through Russian society could easily be described as meteoric. But it all came to a sudden end when the plane carrying him and others mysteriously exploded.The Aug. 23 death of Yevgeny Prigozhin put an exclamation point on what had already been an eventful year for the brutal mercenary leader. His Wagner troops brought Russia a rare victory in its grinding war in Ukraine, successfully capturing the city of Bakhmut. But internal friction with Russian military leaders later burst into the open, with Prigozhin briefly mounting an armed rebellion — the most severe challenge yet to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.The rebellion was called off and a deal was struck after less than 24 hours. However, just two months later, Prigozhin joined the list of those who have run afoul of the Kremlin and died unnatural deaths.He was just one of many noteworthy people who died in 2023.The world also said good...

Takeaways from The AP’s investigation into the Mormon church’s handling of sex abuse cases

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) — Paul Rytting had been director of the Risk Management Division at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for around 15 years when a 31-year-old church member told him that her father, a former bishop, had sexually abused her when she was a child.Rytting flew from church headquarters in Salt Lake City to Hailey, Idaho, to meet with Chelsea Goodrich and her mother, Lorraine, to discuss what he said was a “tragic and horrendous” story.By that time, Chelsea’s father, John Goodrich, had made a religious confession to a bishop with the church, widely known as the Mormon church, with details of his relationship with his daughter. Following church policy, Bishop Michael Miller had called a church Helpline, established to take calls from bishops about sexual abuse, and John Goodrich was quickly excommunicated.After the excommunication, Chelsea and Lorraine reported Chelsea’s claims of abuse to Mountain Home, Idaho, police. They backed up their accusations with r...

Biden’s allies in Senate demand that Israel limit civilian deaths in Gaza as Congress debates US aid

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a cease-fire ticked down last week and Israel prepared to resume its round-the-clock airstrikes, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a robust group of Democratic senators had a message for their president: They were done “asking nicely” for Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. Lawmakers warned President Joe Biden’s national security team that planned U.S. aid to Israel must be met with assurances of concrete steps from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government. “The truth is that if asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in the position we are today,” Sanders of Vermont said in a floor speech. It was time for the United States to use its “substantial leverage” with its ally, Sanders said.“And we all know what that leverage is,” he said, adding, “the blank-check approach must end.”With Biden’s request for a nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs hanging in the balance, the senators’ toug...

The next Republican debate is in Alabama, the state that gave the GOP a road map to Donald Trump

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Republican presidential candidates will debate Wednesday within walking distance of where George Wallace staged his “stand in the schoolhouse door” to oppose the enrollment of Black students at the University of Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement.The state that propelled Wallace, a Democrat and four-term governor, into national politics is now dominated by Republicans loyal to Donald Trump, another figure who leans heavily on grievance and white identity politics. The former president will not be on stage in Tuscaloosa but remains the prohibitive favorite to win Republicans’ nomination again. Alabama’s path since Wallace ‘s rise helps explain the 2024 dynamics and how Republicans evolved nationally from the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Trump. Certainly, Trump argues he helps all races as a defender of everyday Americans forgotten by Washington elites. He even uses that as a defense against four criminal indictments, accusing establishment...

Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) — Paul Rytting listened as a woman, voice quavering, told him her story. When she was a child, her father, a former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had routinely slipped into bed with her while he was aroused, she said. It was March 2017 and Rytting offered his sympathies as 31-year-old Chelsea Goodrich spoke. A Utah attorney and head of the church’s Risk Management Division, Rytting had spent about 15 years protecting the organization, widely known as the Mormon church, from costly claims, including sexual abuse lawsuits.Rytting had flown into Hailey, Idaho, that morning from Salt Lake City, where the church is based, to meet in person with Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine. After a quick prayer, he introduced himself and said he was there “to look into” Chelsea’s “tragic and horrendous” story.Chelsea and Lorraine had come to the meeting with one clear request: Would the church allow a local Idaho bishop, which in the Mormon church is ak...

Economists predict US inflation will keep cooling and the economy can avoid a recession

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Most business economists think the U.S. economy could avoid a recession next year, even if the job market ends up weakening under the weight of high interest rates, according to a survey released Monday.Only 24% of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said they see a recession in 2024 as more likely than not. The 38 surveyed economists come from such organizations as Morgan Stanley, the University of Arkansas and Nationwide.Such predictions imply the belief that the Federal Reserve can pull off the delicate balancing act of slowing the economy just enough through high interest rates to get inflation under control, without snuffing out its growth completely.“While most respondents expect an uptick in the unemployment rate going forward, a majority anticipates that the rate will not exceed 5%,” Ellen Zentner, president of the association and chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a statement.The Federal Reserve has raised its ...

OxyContin maker bankruptcy deal goes before the Supreme Court on Monday, with billions at stake

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments over a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.The agreement hammered out with state and local governments and victims would provide billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic. The Sacklers would contribute up to $6 billion and give up ownership, and the company would emerge from bankruptcy as a different entity, with its profits used for treatment and prevention. But the justices put the settlement on hold during the summer, in response to objections from the Biden administration. Arguments take place Monday.The issue for the justices is whether the legal shield that bankruptcy provides can be extended to people such as the Sacklers, who have not declared bankruptcy themselves. Lower courts have issued conflicting decisions over that issue, which also has implications for other major product...

AP PHOTOS: 2023 was marked by coups and a Moroccan earthquake on the African continent

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Reports of gunfire in the capital, followed by a television announcement that the president has been deposed by mutinous soldiers. The increasingly familiar storyline unfolded again this year in Africa — first in Niger and then in Gabon.The resurgence of military coups renewed concerns about democracy backsliding on the continent and also underscored shifting regional alliances at a time when international peacekeeping efforts waned.Two thousand twenty-three also brought utter devastation when a rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco in September, damaging thousands of villages in the mountains south of Marrakech and killing nearly 3,000 people.The earthquake and several aftershocks left people and animals buried underneath mud and cinderblock for days as crews raced up narrow, windy roads to supply rescue and aid efforts. Morocco ultimately accepted search-and-rescue assistance from only four countries — Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the United ...

China says a US Navy ship ‘illegally intruded’ into waters in the South China Sea

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 13:34:39 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese military said that an American naval ship had “illegally intruded” on Monday into waters near the Second Thomas Shoal, the site of a hot territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.A Chinese naval force was mobilized to track the USS Gabrielle Giffords during the operation, according to a statement from the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater. The U.S. Navy did not respond immediately to a request for comment.Chinese and Philippine naval and coast guard ships have confronted each other repeatedly around the Second Thomas Shoal in recent months as China tries to prevent the Philippines from resupplying and repairing a rusting warship that it intentionally ran aground in 1999 to serve as a military outpost.Dwarfed by China’s military might, the Philippines has sought America’s help, agreeing to an expansion of the U.S. military presence in the country earlier this year and launching joint sea and air patrols...