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Artificial intelligence act: Council and Parliament strike a deal on the first rules for AI in the world

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

Following three-day ‘marathon’ talks, the Council presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators have reached a provisional agreement on the proposal on harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (AI), the so-called artificial intelligence act. The draft regulation aims to ensure that AI systems placed on the European market and used in the EU are safe and respect fundamental rights and EU values. This landmark proposal also aims to stimulate investment and innovation on AI in Europe.This is a historical achievement, and a huge milestone towards the future! Today’s agreement effectively addresses a global challenge in a fast-evolving technological environment on a key area for the future of our societies and economies. And in this endeavour, we managed to keep an extremely delicate balance: boosting innovation and uptake of artificial intelligence across Europe whilst fully respecting the fundamental rights of our citizens.Carme Artigas, Spanish secretary of state for digital...

Racist remarks against Mexicans caught on camera in Disneyland bathroom

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

A woman caught on camera saying “I hate Mexicans” in a Disneyland bathroom led to the arrest of a well-known street-vendor activist in San Bernardino County Sunday.  The Disneyland bathroom exchange unfolded late last week when Eva Ramirez filmed another woman tossing out racist comments after reportedly hearing Ramirez and her son speaking Spanish in the bathroom.  Ramirez said that they were at the theme park enjoying her son’s birthday and that the altercation started with a disagreement over a bathroom stall.  “I’m at Disneyland and this person just heard me speaking Spanish and she said, ‘Great, you’re a f-----g Mexican, right?’ Repeat what you just said,” Ramirez is heard telling the woman in the video. “You have a problem with people that speak Spanish in your country, right?” “Yeah, but it’s America. It’s America,” the unidentified woman responds. “You don’t speak Spanish in America. It’s an English-speaking country.”  “Your comment is racist, and it has ...

Polling centers open in Egypt’s presidential elections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Polling centers in Egypt opened Monday, the second voting day in a presidential election that is certain to see President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi secure another term.The vote, which began across the Middle Eastern nation on Sunday, has been overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, on Egypt’s eastern borders.The vote is also taking place amid a staggering economic crisis in Egypt, a country of 105 million people in which nearly a third live in poverty, according to official figures.The crisis stems from mismanagement of the economy but also from the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, which rattled the global economy.El-Sissi faces no serious challenger, although there are three other candidates: Farid Zahran, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, chairman of the Wafd Party; and Hazem Omar, head of the Republican People’s Party.El-Sissi came to power in 2014, a year after he, as defense minist...

Kishida promises he’ll take appropriate steps ahead of a Cabinet shuffle to tackle a party scandal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday he planned to take “appropriate steps” over his governing party’s widening slush funds scandal as speculation is rife that he may purge implicated Cabinet members in a major shuffle this week. The scandal mostly involves the Liberal Democratic Party’s largest and most powerful faction formerly led by assassinated ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Its key members, including those in top Cabinet and party posts, were suspected of systematically failing to report several hundred million yen (several million dollars) in funds in a possible violation of campaign and election laws, according to media reports. The money is alleged to have gone into unmonitored slush funds.Kishida told reporters Monday that he is aware of the growing public distrust over the fundraising scandal and takes it seriously. He has acknowledged that authorities are investigating the scandal following a criminal complaint.“I’ll take appropriate action at the...

India’s Supreme Court upholds government’s decision to remove disputed Kashmir’s special status

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India’s top court on Monday upheld a 2019 decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as a semi-autonomous region with a separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.The five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the region’s special status had been a “temporary provision” and that removing it in 2019 was constitutionally valid.The unprecedented move also divided the region into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, both ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of their own. As a result, the Muslim-majority region is now run by unelected government officials and has lost its flag, criminal code and constitution.But Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud said the government has promised to restore Jammu-Kashmir’s statehood and should do so as soon as possible. Ladakh, however, will remain a federal territo...

Google antitrust trial focused on Android app store payments to be handed off to jury to decide

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal court jury is poised begin its deliberations in an antitrust trial focused on whether Google’s efforts to profit from its app store for Android smartphones have been illegally gouging consumers and stifling innovation.Before the nine-person jury in San Francisco starts weighing the evidence Monday, the lawyers on the opposing sides of the trial will present their closing arguments in a three-year-old case filed by Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game.The four-week trial included testimony from both Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who sometimes seemed like a professor explaining complex topics while standing behind a lectern because of a health issue, and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who painted himself as a video game lover on a mission to take down a greedy tech titan.Epic alleged that Google has been exploiting its wealth and control of the Android software that powers most of the world’s smartphones to protect a lucrative payment ...

Israel battles militants in Gaza’s main cities, with civilians still stranded near front lines

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in Gaza’s two largest cities on Monday, with civilians still sheltering along the front lines even after massive waves of displacement across the besieged territory.Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and returns all of the scores of hostages still held by Palestinian militants after being captured during the Oct. 7 surprise attack into Israel that ignited the war.The U.S. has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support for the campaign, even as it has urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties and further mass displacement. The war has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and driven nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.Residents said there was heavy fighting in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces opened a new line of attack last week, and battles were...

What did you Google in 2023? ‘Barbie,’ Israel-Hamas war are among the year’s top internet searches

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Your Google search history for 2023 has arrived.Well, actually, the world’s. On Monday, the California-based tech giant released its “Year in Search,” a roundup of 2023’s top global queries, ranging from unforgettable pop culture moments (hello, Barbenheimer ), to the loss of beloved figures and tragic news carrying worldwide repercussions.The ongoing Israel-Hamas war topped news trends in 2023, per Google’s global data, followed by queries related to the Titanic-bound submersible that imploded in June, as well as February’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.Damar Hamlin was Google’s top trending person on search this year. A safety with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, Hamlin experienced a near-death cardiac arrest on the field during a January game, but has since completed a celebrated comeback. Actor Jeremy Renner, who survived a serious snowplow accident at the start of 2023, followed. Meanwhile, the late Matthew Perry and Tina Tur...

UN officials and activists ramp up the urgency as climate talks enter final days

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Delegates at the United Nations climate talks have little time left to decide how the world plans to cap planet-warming emissions and keep the worst of warming at bay, ramping up the urgency as new drafts were expected on key outcomes of the summit. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres returned to the summit on Monday and said it was “time to go into overdrive to negotiate in good faith and rise to the challenge.” He said negotiators in particular must focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and climate justice.He said the global stocktake — the part of talks that assesses where the world is at with its climate goals and how it can reach them — should “phase out all fossil fuels” in order to reach the goal of limiting the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times.“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” Guterres said in brief remarks. “We are out of...

Council approves EU-UK fishing deal for 2024

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:57:28 GMT

The Council has approved an agreement reached with the United Kingdom which secures the fishing rights of EU fishers in the Atlantic and the North Sea. The timely conclusion of the annual consultations for 2024 will ensure stability and certainty for EU fishers and for the industry.Our agreement with the United Kingdom secures important fishing opportunities for our fishers and was reached thanks to the good will demonstrated by both parties during the negotiations. We have ensured that our fishing rights in the Atlantic and the North Sea will continue to be protected in the coming year and we are living up to our sustainability commitments.Luis Planas Puchades, Spanish Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and FoodThe agreement in detailThe agreement reached in the EU-UK annual consultations determines fishing rights for 2024 for around 100 shared fish stocks, in particular the total allowable catches (TACs), that is, the maximum quantities of fish from specific stocks that can be ca...