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France exposes mega Russian disinformation campaign

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

PARIS — France has uncovered a wide-ranging Russian disinformation campaign to undermine Western support to Ukraine, the country’s agency in charge of spotting foreign interference online announced today. “The involvement of Russian embassies and cultural centers that actively participated in amplifying this campaign, including via their institutional accounts on social networks, is a further illustration of the hybrid strategy Russia is implementing to undermine the conditions for democratic debate,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said, according to Agence France-Presse. According to agency Viginum’s report, the campaign consisted of spreading pro-Russian content; impersonating media such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien, as well as government websites including France’s ministry of European and foreign affairs; creating websites on francophone news with polarizing angles; and coordinating fake accounts to spread the content creat...

Google forced to postpone Bard chatbot’s EU launch over privacy concerns

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

Google will have to postpone starting its artificial intelligence chatbot Bard in the European Union after its main data regulator in the bloc raised privacy concerns. The Irish Data Protection Commission said Tuesday that the tech giant had so far provided insufficient information about how its generative AI tool protects Europeans’ privacy to justify an EU launch. The Dublin-based authority is Google’s main European data supervisor under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).“Google recently informed the Data Protection Commission of its intention to launch Bard in the EU this week,” said Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle. The watchdog “had not had any detailed briefing nor sight of a data protection impact assessment or any supporting documentation at this point.”The Irish regulator said it asked and is waiting for the company to provide a detailed assessment and answer additional questions about how Bard complies with EU&#...

Researchers spot rare sight: Orcas in New England waters, along with dozens of other whales, dolphins

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

Research scientists with the New England Aquarium made a rare find during an aerial survey over the weekend – killer whales in southern New England waters.The whales, also known as orcas, were spotted as researchers scanned the ocean surface during surveys conducted some 40 miles south of Nantucket on Sunday.“Initially I could just see two splashes ahead of the plane,” assistant research scientist Katherine McKenna said in a statement. “As we circled the area, two whales surfaced too quickly to tell what they were. On the third surfacing, we got a nice look and could see the tell-tale coloration before the large dorsal fins broke the surface.”Given the species’ small population in the western North Atlantic, associate research scientist Orla O’Brien said it is “always unusual to see killer whales in New England waters.” “Seeing them swim in formation was just unreal,” said O’Brien, who leads the aerial survey team. “We believe the sighting to be two males and two fe...

10 wounded in Denver mass shooting after the Nuggets win NBA Finals

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Ten people were wounded in a mass shooting early Tuesday in Denver in an area where basketball fans had been celebrating the Nuggets first NBA title win, police said, and a suspect was taken into custody.The shooting happened about 12:30 a.m. — about 3 1/2 hours after the game — and three of the injured were in critical condition, the Denver Police Department said in a statement. The suspect, a man, was one of the seven people who suffered injuries believed to be non-life-threatening.The shooting happened about a mile from Ball Arena, where the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat on Monday night.“As far as what led up to this altercation that resulted in the shots being fired, that’s still under investigation at this time,” police spokesperson Doug Schepman said. “It did occur in the area where we had largest gathering of folks celebrating during the night.”The area was taped off and evidence markers were at the scene.A small crowd was in the area at the time of the shooti...

The Heat needed Jimmy Butler to be special to win the NBA Finals and he fell short

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

Jimmy Butler and Jamal Murray averaged the same number of points in the NBA Finals, and that is why the Miami Heat lost.It’s difficult to look at an NBA Finals series as lopsided as Denver’s 4-1 gentlemen’s sweep of the Heat in a vacuum. Miami was overmatched, shorthanded, and competing against the player who should have won his third straight league Most Valuable Player of the Year this season.The Nuggets had the deeper team one through five, a transcendent point center in Nikola Jokic and had the healthiest starting five of any team in the playoffs.With the deck stacked, the Heat had just one viable route to emerge from this series as NBA champions.Jimmy Butler had to be special.And not just special, because special is what got the Heat to the NBA Finals in the first place. Special is how Butler powered the Heat past the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, courtesy of 37 points per game against the NBA’s top-ranked regular-season defense. Special is how But...

US consumer price growth slowed last month as inflation shows signs of steady decline

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER (AP Economics Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices in the United States cooled last month, rising just 0.1% from April to May and extending the past year’s steady easing of inflation. At the same time, some measures of underlying price pressures remained high. Measured year over year, inflation slowed to just 4% in May — the lowest 12-month figure in over two years and well below April’s 4.9% annual rise. The pullback was driven by tumbling gas prices, a much smaller rise in grocery prices than in previous months and less expensive furniture, air fares and appliances.Tuesday’s inflation figures arrive just as Federal Reserve officials begin a pivotal two-day meeting, after which they’re expected to leave interest rates alone after imposing 10 straight rate hikes dating back to March 2022. On Wednesday, the central bank will likely announce that it’s skipping a rate hike but may hint that it will resume raising rate...

Live updates: Donald Trump supporters and protesters start gathering in downtown Miami

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon for his first appearance in a historic criminal case against him.Trump has been charged with 37 felony counts. The Justice Department said he hoarded top secret government documents, boastfully displayed them to visitors and tried to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.Please check back for updates throughout the day.10:30 a.m. | Where will trial take placeTrump’s arraignment is in federal court in Miami, but that doesn’t mean his trial will take place there.Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, serving Tuesday as an unpaid legal analyst for MSNBC live coverage of Trump’s first court appearance, told viewers that West Palm Beach is a more logical location.“There’s no connection between Miami and the Mar-a-Lago documents. It’s just they’re both in the Southern District of Florida,” he said, adding that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is slated to presid...

German curator on a mission to return silver heirlooms stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

MUNICH (AP) — Matthias Weniger put on a pair of white cloth gloves and carefully lifted a tarnished silver candleholder, looking for a yellowed sticker on the bottom of it.The candlestick is one of 111 silver objects at the Bavarian National Museum that the Nazis stole from Jewish families during the Third Reich in 1939. That’s when they ordered all German Jews to bring their personal silver objects to pawn shops across the Reich — one of many laws created to humiliate, punish and exclude Jews.What started with anti-Jewish discrimination and persecution in 1933, after the Nazis were voted to power in Germany, led to the murder of 6 million European Jews and others in the Holocaust before World War II ended with Germany’s surrender in 1945.Weniger, who is a curator at the Munich museum and oversees its restitution efforts, has made it his mission to return as many of the silver objects as possible to the descendants of the original owners.“These silver objects handed in a...

What to expect when Trump appears in federal court in Miami to face felony charges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

Donald Trump makes his first appearance in a Miami federal court on Tuesday facing 37 counts related to the mishandling and retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.Here’s a look at the charges, the special counsel’s investigation and how Trump’s case differs from those of other politicians known to be in possession of classified documents:WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?Trump was to surrender to federal authorities ahead of a hearing scheduled for 3 p.m. in federal court in Miami. He was to appear alongside his valet Walt Nauta, who is also charged in the case.Unlike his arraignment in New York, there won’t be photographs from the courtroom because cameras aren’t allowed in federal court. There may, however, be sketch artists, and theirs would be the only images from the actual courtroom appearance.There’s also a prohibition on reporters bringing electronic devices into the courthouse, so there won’t be live updates by tweet or text. That rule is usually up to to each federal j...

US lawmakers ask Biden administration to punish South Africa for alleged support for Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:25 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers wants the Biden administration to punish South Africa for its alleged support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by relocating an important trade meeting to another country, according to a letter published Tuesday in The New York Times.The lawmakers said South Africa’s “aid” for Russia, including allegedly supplying Moscow with weapons, called into question its eligibility to receive trade benefits from the U.S. under a law that improved U.S. market access to qualifying sub-Saharan African countries.The letter, dated June 9, was sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.South African foreign ministry spokesperson Clayson Monyela said in a statement that the letter had been “noted” but South Africa still “enjoys the support of the U.S. government” for its hosting of the African Growth and Opportunity Act meeting.South...