Category: Extraordinary

A robot begins removal of melted fuel from the Fukushima nuclear plant. It could take a century

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This photo shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan, on Aug. 22, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A long robot entered a damaged reactor at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday, beginning a two-week, high-stakes mission to retrieve for the first time a tiny amount of melted fuel debris from the bottom.

The robot’s trip into the Unit 2 reactor is a crucial initial step for what comes next — a daunting, decades-long process to decommission the plant and deal with large amounts of highly radioactive melted fuel inside three reactors that were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Specialists hope the robot will help them learn more about the status of the cores and the fuel debris.

Here is an explanation of how the robot works, its mission, significance and what lies ahead as the most challenging phase of the reactor cleanup begins. Continue reading

Microplastics are everywhere but are they harming us?

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FILE – A blue rectangular piece of microplastic sits on the finger of a researcher with the University of Washington-Tacoma environmental science program, after it was found in debris collected from the Thea Foss Waterway, in Tacoma, Wash., on May 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Microplastics have been found in the ocean and the air, in our food and water. They have been found in a wide range of body tissues, including the heart, liver, kidneys and even testicles.

But are they actually harming you?

Evidence suggests they might, but it’s limited in scope. Some researchers are worried, but acknowledge there are lots of unanswered questions.

Dr. Marya Zlatnik, a San Francisco-based obstetrician who has studied environmental toxins and pregnancy, has seen studies raising concerns about microplastics’ impact on the health of babies and adults. Continue reading

Too many people, not enough management: A look at the chaos of ‘overtourism’ in the summer of 2024

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Tuk-tuks drop off and pick up tourists at the gate of the 19th century Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press

SINTRA, Portugal (AP) — The doorbell to Martinho de Almada Pimentel’s house is hard to find, and he likes it that way. It’s a long rope that, when pulled, rings a literal bell on the roof that lets him know someone is outside the mountainside mansion that his great-grandfather built in 1914 as a monument to privacy.

There’s precious little of that for Pimentel during this summer of “overtourism.”

Travelers idling in standstill traffic outside the sunwashed walls of Casa do Cipreste sometimes spot the bell and pull the string “because it’s funny,” he says. With the windows open, he can smell the car exhaust and hear the “tuk-tuk” of outsized scooters named for the sound they make. And he can sense the frustration of 5,000 visitors a day who are forced to queue around the house on the crawl up single-lane switchbacks to Pena Palace, the onetime retreat of King Ferdinand II. Continue reading

One thing that hasn’t changed in Hollywood: male characters still more than double female ones

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This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ryan Gosling, left, and Margot Robbie in a scene from “Barbie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — In recent years the movie industry has gone through the streaming revolution, the pandemic, labor strikes and “Barbenheimer.” But after countless upheavals in Hollywood, you’re still more than twice as likely to see male speaking characters in theatrical releases than you are female ones.

Just 32% of speaking characters in the top 100 movies at the box office in 2023 were women or girls, according to the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative annual report released Monday. That’s very nearly the same percentage as when Stacy L. Smith first began the study in 2007. Then, it was 30% of speaking characters. Continue reading

From Paris to Los Angeles: How the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics

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Tom Cruise carries the Olympic flag during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

By JAIMIE DING and ANDREW DALTON Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s Los Angeles’ turn for the torch. Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the Paris closing ceremony Sunday, before handing it off to a key representative of LA’s local business — Tom Cruise — who in a pre-recorded trek via motorcycle, plane and parachute kicked off the countdown to 2028.

The city will become the third in the world to host the games three times as it adds to the storied years of 1932 and 1984. Here’s a look forward and back in time at the Olympics in LA. Continue reading

Restaurant critic’s departure reveals potential hazards of the job

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FILE – A waitress carries breakfast dishes to customers at a restaurant on Jan. 20, 2017, in east Denver. In a recent column, New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells announced he’s leaving the beat because the constant eating has led to obesity and other health problems. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer

Restaurant critics appear to have the best job in journalism, enjoying meals a few nights a week on someone else’s dime.

But New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells had painted a more complicated picture. In a recent column, Wells announced he’s leaving the beat because the constant eating has led to obesity and other health problems.

“Intellectually, it was still really stimulating, but my body started to rebel and say, ‘Enough is enough,'” Wells told The Associated Press. “I just had to come face to face with the reality that I can’t metabolize food the way I used to, I can’t metabolize alcohol the way I used to and I just don’t need to eat as much as I did even 10 years ago.”

To write a review, food critics usually make two or three visits to a restaurant and bring a handful of dining companions so they can taste as many dishes as possible. If the restaurant has a special focus on wine or cocktails or desserts, they try those, too. “You have to sample the full range of the menu,” said Ligaya Figueras, the senior food editor and lead dining critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If I really felt like a salad today, I can’t just have the salad.” Continue reading

Biden’s decision to drop out leaves Democrats across the country relieved and looking toward future

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George Ledbetter watches news of President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House at They Say Restaurant in Harper Woods, Mich., Sunday, July 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI, MIKE HOUSEHOLDER and CHARLOTTE KRAMON Associated Press

HARPER WOODS, Mich. (AP) — After weeks of uncertainty about who would be at the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket in November, many voters expressed relief over the news that President Joe Biden would drop his reelection bid and began to think about who might replace him in a dramatically altered election landscape.

Jerod Keene, a 40-year-old athletic trainer from swing-state Arizona, had planned to vote for Biden in November but was thankful for the president’s decision, calling it “inevitable.” Keene said he’s excited about the next candidate, hoping it will be Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed on Sunday. Continue reading

Centenarian veterans are sharing their memories of D-Day, 80 years later

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An American D-Day veteran is welcomed at Deauville airport, Monday, June 3, 2024 in Deauville, Normandy to attend D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations. (AP Photo/Alexander Turnbull)

By SYLVIE CORBET and DANICA KIRKA Associated Press

CAEN, France (AP) — World War II veterans from the United States, Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat.

Few witnesses remain who remember the Allied assault. The Associated Press is speaking to veterans about their role in freeing Europe from the Nazis, and their messages for younger generations.

PAPA JAKE

“I am the luckiest man in the world,” D-Day veteran Jake Larson, a 101-year-old American best known on social media under the name “Papa Jake,” said as he arrived in Normandy this week. Papa Jake has more than 800,000 followers on TikTok.

Born in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson enlisted in the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age as he was only 15. Continue reading

Tests find AI tools readily create election lies from the voices of well-known political leaders

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FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at a news conference at the German government guest house in Meseberg, north of Berlin, Germany, May 28, 2024. A group that monitors for misinformation found deep problems when it tested the most popular artificial intelligence voice-cloning tools and asked them to create audio of some of the world’s leading political figures. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As high-stakes elections approach in the U.S. and European Union, publicly available artificial intelligence tools can be easily weaponized to churn out convincing election lies in the voices of leading political figures, a digital civil rights group said Friday.

Researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate tested six of the most popular AI voice-cloning tools to see if they would generate audio clips of five false statements about elections in the voices of eight prominent American and European politicians.

In a total of 240 tests, the tools generated convincing voice clones in 193 cases, or 80% of the time, the group found. In one clip, a fake U.S. President Joe Biden says election officials count each of his votes twice. In another, a fake French President Emmanuel Macron warns citizens not to vote because of bomb threats at the polls. Continue reading

World Health Assembly hopes to reinforce pandemic preparedness after bold treaty project stalls

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A general view during the opening of the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA77) at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, May 27, 2024. The World Health Organization is kicking off its annual meeting on Monday and government ministers and other top envoys are looking to reinforce global preparedness for, and responses to the next pandemic in the devastating and deadly wake of COVID-19. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — Member countries kicked off the World Health Organization’s annual assembly on Monday with hopes of improving global readiness for deadly outbreaks like COVID-19, after an ambitious “pandemic treaty” ran aground last week.

Health officials are racing to get the world to agree to new ways to prepare for and fight an inevitable future pandemic. COVID-19 is fading into history as elections and crises like climate change and war compete for the public’s attention.

A bold project to adopt a pandemic “treaty” at this week’s World Health Assembly was shelved on Friday as 2 1/2 years of work ran into disagreements over sharing information about pathogens that cause pandemics and the technology used to fight them.

Experts say the best chance now to address pandemics at the assembly will be proposed changes to the WHO’s International Health Regulations, which were set up in 2004. Amendments would urge countries to boost alert, detection and containment capacities and cooperate internationally.

One proposal would let the WHO director-general declare a “pandemic emergency.” Continue reading