Category: Extraordinary

UN council to hold first meeting on potential threats of artificial intelligence to global peace

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United Kingdom Ambassador to the United Nations Dame Barbara Woodward speaks during a security council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, June 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council will hold a first-ever meeting on the potential threats of artificial intelligence to international peace and security, organized by the United Kingdom which sees tremendous potential but also major risks about AI’s possible use for example in autonomous weapons or in control of nuclear weapons.

UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward on Monday announced the July 18 meeting as the centerpiece of its presidency of the council this month. It will include briefings by international AI experts and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last month called the alarm bells over the most advanced form of AI “deafening,” and loudest from its developers.

“These scientists and experts have called on the world to act, declaring AI an existential threat to humanity on a par with the risk of nuclear war,” the U.N. chief said. Continue reading

The American flag wasn’t always revered as it is today. At the beginning, it was an afterthought

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FILE – Tang De Wong, lower left, and other members of the Chinese Benevolent Association march in an Independence Day parade in Philadelphia, July 4, 2008. Flags proliferate every July Fourth, but it wasn’t always a revered and debated symbol. Unlike the right to assemble or trial by jury, the flag’s role was not prescribed by the founders: Flags would have been rare during early Independence Day celebrations and were so peripheral to early U.S. history that no original flag exists. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In the bedroom of the Betsy Ross House, a reconstruction of where the upholsterer worked on her most famous commission, a long flag with a circle of 13 stars hangs over a Chippendale side chair and extends across the floor. Over the weeks in 1776 needed to complete the project, Ross would have likely knelt on the flag, stood on it and treated it more like an everyday banner — not with the kind of reverence we’d expect today.

“She would not have worried about it touching the floor or violating any codes,” says Lisa Moulder, director of the Ross House. “The flag did not have any kind of special symbolism.”

Flags proliferate every July 4. But unlike the right to assemble or trial by jury, their role was not prescribed by the founders. They would have been rare during early Independence Day celebrations. Only in the mid-19th century does the U.S. flag become a permanent fixture at the White House, scholars believe; only in the mid-20th century was a federal code established for how it should be handled and displayed; only in the 1960s did Congress pass a law making it illegal to “knowingly” cast “contempt” on the flag. Continue reading

The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will be carried for 68 days before the cauldron is lit

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A map is shown on a giant video screen during the unveiling of the route for the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch relay at Sorbonne University in Paris, Friday, June 23, 2023. The route of the Torch is expected to take in more than 60 departments across France as it is carried for three months in the lead-up to the July Olympics in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

By JEROME PUGMIRE AP Sports Writer

PARIS (AP) — The Olympic flame for the 2024 Paris Games will pass through 64 departments — including five overseas — and 400 towns over 68 days before the cauldron is lit.

Organizers announced the route for the torch relay on Friday at a Paris university.

“Paris 2024 is the greatest collective project in our history,” organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said. “The torch relay plays an important role because it has the capacity to touch so many people.”

The torch will be lit by the sun’s rays on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, Greece. It will then be carried around the nation before its handover in Athens.

The flame will leave Athens on April 27 aboard a three-mast ship named Belem for the French port of Marseille — a former Greek colony founded 2,600 years ago.

The Belem was first used in 1896, the same year the modern Olympics came back. It will be skippered by French navigator Armel Le Cléac’h, winner of the solo around-the-world race Vendée Globe in 2017. The crew will reach Marseille on May 8. Continue reading

As rising oceans threaten NYC, study documents another risk: The city is sinking

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FILE — Waves wash over the seawall near high tide at Battery Park in New York, Oct. 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast. If rising oceans aren’t worry enough, add this to the risks New York City faces: The metropolis is sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, apartment buildings, asphalt and humanity itself — and will eventually become flooded by the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — If rising oceans aren’t worry enough, add this to the risks New York City faces: The metropolis is slowly sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, homes, asphalt and humanity itself.

New research estimates the city’s landmass is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per year, something referred to as “subsidence.”

That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed, but the study published this month in the journal Earth’s Future sought to estimate how the massive weight of the city itself is hurrying things along.

More than 1 million buildings are spread across the city’s five boroughs. The research team calculated that all those structures add up to about 1.7 trillion tons (1.5 trillion metric tons) of concrete, metal and glass — about the mass of 4,700 Empire State buildings — pressing down on the Earth. Continue reading

Nigerian chef cooks nonstop for 100 hours to set new global record

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Chef Hilda Baci cooks to establish a new Guinness world record for the “longest cooking marathon”, the 97-hour cook-a-thon, in Lagos, Nigeria, Thursday, May 11, 2023. A Nigerian chef on Monday continued her quest to set a new global record for the longest hours of nonstop cooking after surpassing the current record of 87 hours and 45 minutes. By 15:00 GMT on Monday, Hilda Baci had cooked for more than 97 hours, becoming a national sensation and to the cheering of many in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos where her kitchen is set. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian chef on Monday set a new global record for the longest hours nonstop cooking as she cooked for 100 hours, surpassing the current record.

Hilda Baci had been cooking since last week Thursday when she set out to beat the Guinness World Record of 87 hours and 45 minutes set in 2019 by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef.

At around 19:45 GMT on Monday, Baci cooked for the 100th hour in the Lekki area of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to become a national sensation in the West African nation. Thousands who gathered at the scene jubilated and sang her praises as she stopped cooking a few minutes after. Continue reading

Americans bet $220B on sports in 5 years since legalization

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A customer checks the odds board in the sports book at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City N.J. on Feb. 6, 2023. Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets in the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for all 50 states to offer it. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets in the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for all 50 states to offer it, and the industry shows few signs of slowing despite some recent scandals that have put a spotlight on wagering safeguards.

When Sunday’s anniversary of the court ruling in a case brought by New Jersey arrives, two-thirds of the country will offer legal sports betting, with additional states likely to join in coming months or years.

The fast-growing industry is also far-reaching: its advertisements reach into most U.S. homes during sporting events and even non-sports programming. Few TV viewers have been spared from repeated ads featuring a Caesar character discussing sports gambling with members of the Manning football dynasty, or from actor Jamie Foxx placing sports bets in between takes on a film set. Continue reading

In final speech, Ardern reflects on leading New Zealand

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Jacinda Ardern makes her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, after her five-year tenure as prime minister. A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern stepped down as prime minister in January, saying “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.” (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

By NICK PERRY Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern described in emotional terms how she’d navigated a pandemic and a mass-shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as prime minister.

She also told humorous anecdotes like how a European leader so admired the striking hair of Ardern’s chief-of-staff that he fluffed it like a hairdresser — which she joked had helped secure a free-trade deal — and how her mother once sent her a uplifting, if somewhat grandiose, message: “Remember, even Jesus had people who didn’t like him.”

On a more serious note, she urged lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change. Continue reading

The US leads the world in weather catastrophes. Here’s why

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FILE – People walk through damage from a late-night tornado in Sullivan, Ind., April 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler, File)

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

The United States is Earth’s punching bag for nasty weather.

Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet, several experts said. Two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas like Florida, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest of weather.

That’s only part of it. Nature dealt the United States a bad hand, but people have made it much worse by what, where and how we build, several experts told The Associated Press.

Then add climate change, and “buckle up. More extreme events are expected,” said Rick Spinrad, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Continue reading

Oil giant Saudi Aramco makes a historic $161B profit in 2022

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FILE – Storage tanks are seen at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 21, 2021. Oil giant Saudi Aramco said Sunday, March 12, 2023, it earned a $161 billion profit last year, attributing its earnings to higher crude oil prices.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported Sunday earning $161 billion last year, claiming the highest-ever recorded annual profit by a publicly listed company and drawing immediate criticism from activists.

The monster profit by the firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., came off the back of energy prices rising after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow’s oil and natural gas in Western markets.

Aramco also hopes to increase its production to take advantage of market demand as China reenters the global market after lifting its coronavirus restrictions. That could raise the billions needed to pay for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to develop futuristic cityscapes to pivot Saudi Arabia away from oil. Continue reading

In Britain, ‘warm hubs’ emerge to beat soaring energy costs

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Anne Bolger, right, works at the Other Place theater, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. The foyer of the Other Place theater in Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon is a cozy refuge from winter. One day a week the theater becomes a “warm hub,” set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company to welcome people who may be struggling to heat their homes because of sky-high energy prices. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, England (AP) — On a blustery late-winter day in Shakespeare’s birthplace, the foyer of the Other Place theater is a cozy refuge. Visitors are having meetings over coffee, checking emails, writing poetry, learning to sew.

It looks and feels like an arty café in the pictureque streets of Stratford-upon-Avon, but it’s a “warm hub” set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company drama troupe to welcome people struggling to heat their homes because of sky-high energy prices.

Warm hubs have sprouted across Britain by the thousands this winter as soaring food and energy prices drive millions to turn down the thermostat or skimp on hot meals. Research by the opposition Labour Party counted almost 13,000 such hubs, funded by a mix of charities, community groups and the government and nestled in libraries, churches, community centers and even a tearoom at King Charles III’s Highgrove country estate. Continue reading