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Harris heads to Florida ready to forcefully condemn state’s new Black history standards

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

(CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris will travel Friday to Jacksonville in a last-minute trip to forcefully condemn a newly approved set of standards for teaching Black history by the Florida Board of Education, directly wading into one of the cultural flashpoints that have assumed new prominence ahead of the 2024 election.It’s the latest example of Harris acting as a rapid response voice for the administration, quickly deploying around the country in the immediate aftermath of a controversial vote or law being passed to offer forceful pushback of moves taken by state Republicans on guns, abortion and education.The trip, added to Harris’ schedule Thursday, is meant to highlight the Biden administration’s disagreement with the controversial standards, a White House official said.Harris will be the first Biden administration official in the state since the rules were approved and will discuss the “fight to protect fundamental freedoms, specifically, the freedom to learn and teach Amer...

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech firms agree to AI safeguards set by the White House

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by President Joe Biden’s administration.The White House said Friday that it has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of commercial AI systems, though they don’t detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has brought public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and spread disinformation, among other dangers.The four tech giants, along with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and startups Anthropic and Inflection, have committed to security testing...

Fragments of skull believed to be Beethoven’s returned to Vienna from US for scientific analysis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

(CNN) — Fragments of a skull believed to have been that of composer Ludwig van Beethoven have been donated to a university in Austria after spending decades in the United States.The pieces of bone were donated to the Medical University of Vienna by American businessman Paul Kaufmann, who discovered them in a safety deposit box in a French bank following his mother’s death in 1990.It later emerged that the bones, which were contained in a tin faintly engraved with the word “Beethoven,” had been acquired from the estate of his mother’s great-uncle, Franz Romeo Seligmann.Seligmann, who died in 1892, had been a physician, medical historian and anthropologist in Vienna. The skull pieces, now referred to as the Seligmann fragments, came into his possession in 1863 during a reburial of Beethoven’s bones for study purposes.Over the course of his 56 years, Beethoven famously suffered from progressive hearing loss, as well as gastrointestinal problems and liver disease.In 1802, 25 years befor...

Cupkin children’s cups sold on Amazon recalled over newly-detected lead levels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 345,000 children’s cups are being recalled due to lead levels that exceed the federal content ban, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.Soojimus is recalling 8-ounce and 12-ounce models of its Cupkin Double-Walled Stainless Steel Children’s Cups — sold in various colors on Amazon and the Cupkin website from 2018 through earlier this year.Consumers in possession of the recalled Cupkin cups are urged to stop using them immediately and contact Soojimus for a full refund. No illnesses or injuries related to the recall have been reported to date.According to Cupkin, liquid in the now-recalled cups is “not exposed to lead due to the double walled construction.” The exposure to lead can occur if the cup bottoms are mistreated, the brand said.In a response to the recall on its website, Cupkin noted that it initiated the voluntary recall after receiving consumer feedback and conducting additional testing. Lead was not detected during the p...

Pro-war Putin critic Igor Girkin arrested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

Igor Girkin, a former soldier-spy and critic of President Vladimir Putin’s conduct of the war against Ukraine, was arrested on Friday after the latest in a series of diatribes against the Kremlin chief appeared to go too far.Girkin, who goes by the nom de guerre Strelkov (“Shooter”), gained notoriety in 2014 when he led a band of irregular troops into Eastern Ukraine and briefly became the breakaway region’s defense minister. He was convicted in absentia of murder by a Dutch court over his role in shooting down a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet, a tragedy that cost 298 lives.The 52-year-old has since reinvented himself as an ultra-nationalist military commentator and has delivered a series of withering critiques of Russia’s war aims and strategy in Ukraine.In a statement posted to Girkin’s Telegram channel, his wife Miroslava Reginskaya said that representatives of Russia’s Investigative Committee — an anti-corruption and crime-fighting agency — had taken ...

Boston police arrest North End restaurant owner who had been on the run following shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

The owner of a North End restaurant police had considered “armed and dangerous” was taken into custody after going on the run for nearly a week.The Boston Police Department announced that officers assigned to its Fugitive Unit arrested Patrick Mendoza on Friday morning. The owner of Monica’s Trattoria had been wanted in connection with a brazen shooting in the North End that happened the night of Wednesday, July 12.The shooting had left a bullet hole in the window of Modern Pastry on Hanover Street and led to a warrant being issued for Mendoza’s arrest on charges that included:Assault by Means of a Dangerous Weapon (Gun)Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous WeaponAssault and BatteryVideo from that night obtained by 7NEWS showed a man police say was Mendoza as he rode up on a bicycle and opened fire on a man. The victim could be seen running away after taking cover behind a nearby vehicle. No injuries were reported.Mendoza’s arrest came after the c...

Wanted North End restaurant manager in police custody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

Patrick Mendoza is in custody, according to police.Mendoza, 54, was wanted by police for allegedly shooting at a man outside Modern Pastry last Wednesday. He faces an array of charges, including assault to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and multiple firearms offenses, according to the Boston Police Department.Mendoza was apprehended in Falmouth down on Cape Cod, according to a source with knowledge of the case.Police said in a statement, “On Friday, July 21, 2023, Officers assigned to the Boston Police Fugitive Unit arrested Patrick Mendoza on a warrant issued out of Boston Municipal Court for: Assault by Means of a Dangerous Weapon (Gun), Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon, and Assault and Battery, in relation to an incident that occurred on July 12, 2023 at 257 Hanover St., Boston.”He is expected to be arraigned in court today.A police report said a suspect identified as Mendoza fired “three shots” at a man and then fled on “...

Where to eat and drink near Del Mar Racetrack this season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Time to bust out your finest attire and biggest hats because horse racing season is set to begin in Del Mar Racetrack this week.Opening Day -- set for Friday, July 21 -- will feature 10 races, the Opening Day Hats Contest and "all the fanfare that makes it an unofficial San Diego holiday," said the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Opening Day at Del Mar Racetrack: What to know before you go Attendees can expect world-class racing on top of luxury food and drinks. From steak dinners to picnic lunches, there are options for everyone to create a memorable experience during the 2023 racing season.Here are some go-to restaurants and bars near the Del Mar Racetrack for pre-race libations, or post-race dinner celebrations after a big win.One PaseoThis urban shopping and dining hub is just a short drive from the excitement at the Del Mar Racetrack. This area is a great pre-race spot to grab a drink and a bite, or even grab last minute attire at one of many boutiques for the occasio...

Fire damages building that houses office of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — A fire has caused heavy damage Friday morning to a building that houses the Bowling Green office of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul as well as a local law firm.Fire crews were called to the building on State Steet around 2 a.m. Friday and found a heavy blaze that required additional units, Bowling Green Fire Department spokeswoman Katie McKee told the Daily News.Six units worked for hours to extinguish the flames, with firefighters manning aerials to get at the blaze from above. The fire caused a roof collapse and a plume of heavy gray smoke rose from the top of the building at sunrise, the newspaper reported.No injuries were reported, McKee said. The cause and origin of the fire were under investigation.Paul said in a statement that he was thankful for first responders who arrived quickly to extinguish the blaze. He said his office is working with authorities to assess damages and determine a cause and will continue to operate for constituents.“We have a very well...

UN expert decries the practice of taking boys from their mothers at detention camps in Syria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:27 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-backed human rights advocate says hundreds of boys — some as young as 11 — held in detention camps run by U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria have been wrongly separated from their mothers on the “unproven” belief that they pose a security risk.Fionnuala Ni Aolain, an independent U.N. rapporteur on the protection of rights while countering terrorism, aired concerns Friday about lingering “mass arbitrary detention” in the infamous al-Hol camp and others like it that she saw during her trip to the region this week — billed as the first visit of its kind by an independent human rights expert.For years, human rights advocates have been calling on foreign countries — in Europe, north Africa and beyond — to repatriate their nationals from the camps housing family members of Islamic State group militants, especially children who were not involved in the atrocities carried out by the extremist group.The group rose to power amid an uprising-turned...