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North Korea and Russia meet over arms deal, US intel reveals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

New U.S. intelligence shows North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing” high-level talks for additional weapons and other materials to assist Moscow’s brutal war in Ukraine, the Biden administration disclosed on Wednesday.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently traveled to North Korea to try to secure additional artillery ammunition, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Since that visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un have exchanged letters pledging to increase their cooperation.Also after Shoigu’s visit, another group of Russian officials traveled to Pyongyang for follow-up discussions about potential arms deals between the two nations, Kirby said. Under the potential agreements, North Korea would ship Russia “significant quantities and multiple types” of weapons for use in Ukraine, he said.The potential deals also include the provision of raw materials that could help boost Russia’s military manufacturi...

Rare blue supermoon captures eyes of San Diegans

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Locals were in for a treat Wednesday evening as the San Diego County skies revealed a rare blue supermoon.A blue moon is when the full moon is seen twice in a single month while a supermoon is when the moon is at or near its closes point to earth at the same time as it is full, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).With Wednesday's full moon just 222,043 miles or so away, it became the closest full moon of the year. It was 100 miles closer than the Aug. 1 supermoon.Also visible alongside the moon, Saturn could be seen as a bright point 5 degrees to the upper right of the moon at sunset in the east-southeastern sky, per NASA. Bridge to Oceanside Pier will be demolished, replaced FOX 5 captured a mesmerizing timelapse of the blue supermoon and an image of the celestial spectacle over the San Diego city skyline. Viewers from Oceanside to Escondido to Coronado sent in photos to FOX 5 of the rare sight, which can be found in the slideshow below:...

Travelers hoping to enjoy one last summer fling over Labor Day weekend should expect lots of company

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — By some measures, air travelers have enjoyed a less stressful summer than last year, but canceled flights remain elevated as airlines face their last big test of the prime vacation season: Labor Day weekend.The Federal Aviation Administration predicts that this will be the third busiest holiday weekend of the year so far, behind only the Juneteenth weekend, which included Father’s Day, and the Presidents Day break. Hurricane Idalia should be heading away from the Atlantic Coast as most holiday revelers hop in cars or head to the airport. Airlines canceled several dozen flights in Florida and Georgia scheduled for Thursday but very few for Friday, according to tracking service FlightAware. Tampa International Airport said it would resume normal operations including departing flights early Thursday. Travelers can check conditions where they are going on the FAA website.Thursday figures to be the busiest day in U.S. airspace, with 52,203 flights scheduled, followed ...

Visual artists fight back against AI companies for repurposing their work

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Kelly McKernan’s acrylic and watercolor paintings are bold and vibrant, often featuring feminine figures rendered in bright greens, blues, pinks and purples. The style, in the artist’s words, is “surreal, ethereal … dealing with discomfort in the human journey.”The word “human” has a special resonance for McKernan these days. Although it’s always been a challenge to eke out a living as a visual artist — and the pandemic made it worse — McKernan now sees an existential threat from a medium that’s decidedly not human: artificial intelligence.It’s been about a year since McKernan, who uses the pronoun they, began noticing online images eerily similar to their own distinctive style that were apparently generated by entering their name into an AI engine.The Nashville-based McKernan, 37, who creates both fine art and digital illustrations, soon learned that companies were feeding artwork into AI systems used to “train” image-generators — something that once sounded l...

Trains suspended, people warned away from the coastline as Typhoon Saola churns toward south China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media report at least 121 passenger trains are suspending service in anticipation of the arrival of Typhoon Saola, while people in coastal areas of southern China were being warned to stay away from the coastline. The suspensions on key lines running from north to south as well as on regional networks will begin Thursday and continue through Sept. 6, state broadcaster CCTV reported. China’s National Meteorological Center said Saola was moving toward the coast at a speed of about 15 kph (9 mph) and is due to make landfall Friday afternoon in the southern province of Guangzhou with sustained winds of 119 kph (74 mph) and gusts of up to 220 kph (137 mph). The storm will then travel west down the coast into the Guangxi region before curving south out to sea between Saturday night and Sunday morning, gradually weakening as it goes. The weather center has already issued a red alert for potentially destructive winds and possible flooding, with some areas expect...

At least 38 people have died in a fire in a building in South Africa’s biggest city, authorities say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Emergency services say at least 38 people died in a fire in a multi-story building in Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city. Emergency Management Services said another 43 people were injured in the blaze, which that broke out in the predawn hours Thursday. Spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said a search and recovery operation was underway, and it was likely the death toll would rise. Authorities said the fire had been largely extinguished, but smoke still seeped out of windows of the blackened building in downtown Johannesburg.___AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africaThe Associated Press

China’s Baidu makes AI chatbot Ernie Bot publicly available

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm Baidu made its ChatGPT-equivalent language model fully available to the public Thursday, raising the company’s stock price by over 3% following the announcement.Beijing sees artificial intelligence as a key industry to rival the United States and aims to become a global leader by 2030. Chinese technology firms have also raced to unveil their generative AI models — in which algorithms allow the technology to produce and create new content — after U.S. firm OpenAI launched the widely popular ChatGPT.Baidu said Thursday that Ernie Bot would be fully open to the general public via an app or an official website.By releasing the model publicly, Baidu will be able to collect massive real-world human feedback, according to Baidu CEO Robin Li, who said this would in turn help improve Ernie and Baidu’s foundation models.Like Europe, China has made efforts in recent months to regulate the generative AI industry. China issu...

Japan’s defense ministry requests nearly 12% budget increase to bolster military’s strike capability

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s defense ministry is requesting a nearly 12% budget increase that includes two warships with advanced radar and long-range cruise missiles as it further fortifies the nation’s military in the face of North Korean threats and Chinese military advancement.The record 7.7 trillion yen ($52.5 billion) request for the 2024 fiscal year marks the second year of a rapid five-year military buildup under a new security strategy Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government adopted in December. It focuses on reinforcing strike capability in a break from Japan’s postwar principle of having a military only for self-defense.Under the five-year plan, Japan plans to spend 43 trillion yen ($315 billion) through 2027 to nearly double its annual spending to around 10 trillion yen ($68 billion), making Japan the world’s third-biggest spender after the United States and China. How to finance and justify the growing military spending is uncertain in a country with steeply decli...

A fire kills 15 in a Philippine factory, where rains and a wrong address delayed firefighters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A fire killed 15 people Thursday in a small apparel factory in a Philippine residential area, where firefighters were delayed by flooding, traffic and a wrong address, a fire protection official.Most of the victims appeared to be factory workers and carpenters who were sleeping in rooms when the fire broke out Thursday morning. Some were found dead on an aisle outside the rooms and the factory owner and his child were among the dead, Nahum Tarroza of the Bureau of Fire Protection said. Three people survived with injuries by jumping off the second floor of the two-story factory in panic, Tarroza said. The three were taken to a hospital. The firefighters arrived in about 14 minutes after rain and wind cause flooding and traffic jams and a wrong address was given to firefighters, Tarroza said. The fire in the Pleasant View residential enclave in Tandang Sora village in suburban Quezon city was extinguished in two hours. An investigation was looking into the c...

Wildfires: Biggest rescEU aerial firefighting operation in Greece

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:58:33 GMT

To tackle the biggest wildfires ever recorded in the EU, the Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre has mobilised 11 firefighting planes and 1 helicopter from the rescEU reserve, stationed in six member states. In addition, six European countries have contributed with six ground forest fire fighting teams via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. So far, over 81,000 hectares have been burnt in Greece's Alexandroupolis region. This wildfire is the largest in the EU since 2000, when the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) began recording data.Since Greece activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, for the second time this summer, on 20 August, the EU has deployed 11 rescEU firefighting airplanes stationed in Croatia, Cyprus, France Germany, Spain and Sweden, 1 Blackhawk helicopter from Czechia, 407 fire fighters and 62 vehicles from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, France Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. In addition, the EU's Copernicus satellite mapping serviced as iss...