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Senate approves final 11 military nominees after Tuberville backs down from hold

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

(CNN) — Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama on Tuesday backed down for a second time this month, allowing the Senate to unanimously confirm 11 remaining top military nominees by voice vote after months of delaying hundreds of confirmations.The move comes weeks after the former football coach released the majority of his holds, which began earlier this year over his opposition to the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members who have to travel to receive reproductive health care.The 11 nominees confirmed Tuesday are the last of the nominees who had been affected by his hold. The monthslong standoff delayed the confirmations of more than 450 top military nominees.“These are the 11 remaining generals who have just been approved,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday after the vote. “That’s good news.”Tuberville, who faced bipartisan pressure to cease his blanket hold, told CNN on December 5 that he had no choice but to give in after his holds ...

Soccer star Dani Alves’ trial for alleged sexual assault to start in February

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves’ trial for alleged sexual assault will start Feb. 5, a Barcelona-based court said Wednesday.Alves is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona night club in December 2022. The former Barcelona right back has been in pre-trial jail since January. His requests to be released on bail have been rejected because the court considered him a flight risk. Alves has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he had consensual sex with the accuser. He was indicted by an investigative judge in August and the court said there was enough evidence to open a trial.State prosecutors are seeking a nine-year prison sentence. The lawyers representing the alleged victim want him to spend 12 years behind bars.The 40-year-old Alves won 42 soccer titles, including three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and two Copa Americas with Brazil. He played at his third World Cup last year in Qatar.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerThe Associate...

New tower at surfing venue in Tahiti blowing up again as problem issue for Paris Olympic organizers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Organizers of the Paris Olympics said Wednesday that building work will continue on a new tower for judges and TV cameras at the surfing venue in Tahiti despite the sport’s governing body saying it no longer supports the controversial project.The International Surfing Association announced Tuesday that it doesn’t want the tower to be built in the lagoon at Teahupo’o, chosen for the Olympic surfing competitions next July because of its world-famous giant waves.The federation posted on social media that alternatives should be found. It cited “the likelihood that any new construction on the reef will have an impact on the natural environment” and what it said is a lack of support among Tahitians for the tower. The ISA suggested that judges could instead follow the competitions from a tower built on land, rather than in the lagoon with pristine waters and shallow reefs.Campaigners in Tahiti fear that transporting the aluminum tower into...

Poland’s new government moves to free state media from previous team’s political control

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new pro-European Union government said Wednesday that it had changed the directors of state television, radio and the government-run news agency as it embarked on the path of freeing publicly-owned media from the political control of the previous nationalist conservative administration. The Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which took office last week, has made it a priority to restore objectivity and free expression in state media, which the previous government, under the Law and Justice party, used as aggressive propaganda tools, attacking Tusk and the opposition and spreading its euroskeptic views. The new government’s first steps toward a return to media freedom were met with protest by Law and Justice. Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński and many lawmakers occupied buildings housing the offices of state-run television TVP in the hopes that their supporters would come out to demonstrate in big numbers. While that didn’t happen, some of...

Three of the biggest porn sites must verify ages to protect kids under Europe’s new digital law

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Three of the world’s biggest porn websites face new requirements in the European Union that include verifying the ages of users, the 27-nation bloc said Wednesday, expanding the reach of its digital law designed to keep people safe on the internet. Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat have now been classed as very large online platforms under the Digital Services Act because they have more than 45 million users each, according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. The three companies did not respond immediately to requests for comment. They are the first porn sites to be targeted by the sweeping Digital Services Act, which imposes tough obligations to keep users safe from illegal content and dodgy products.Violations are punishable by fines of up to 6% of global revenue or even a ban on operating in the EU. Some 19 online platforms and search engines have already been identified for stricter scrutiny under the DSA, including TikTok, Amazon, Faceb...

Abuse in the machine: Study shows AI image-generators being trained on explicit photos of children

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

Hidden inside the foundation of popular artificial intelligence image-generators are thousands of images of child sexual abuse, according to a new report that urges companies to take action to address a harmful flaw in the technology they built.Those same images have made it easier for AI systems to produce realistic and explicit imagery of fake children as well as transform social media photos of fully clothed real teens into nudes, much to the alarm of schools and law enforcement around the world.Until recently, anti-abuse researchers thought the only way that some unchecked AI tools produced abusive imagery of children was by essentially combining what they’ve learned from two separate buckets of online images — adult pornography and benign photos of kids. But the Stanford Internet Observatory found more than 3,200 images of suspected child sexual abuse in the giant AI database LAION, an index of online images and captions that’s been used to train leading AI image-ma...

You can use your home or car as collateral to get a credit card. Should you?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

Secured credit cards are a credit-building solution for people with bad or limited credit. Approval for a secured credit card is largely based on one’s ability to put up the cash deposit, usually $200-$300, which becomes the card’s credit limit.But a deposit requirement can present financial hardship. Cardholders get the full deposit back when they close the account or upgrade to another card from the same issuer, but not everyone can afford to tie up cash indefinitely.Some financial technology companies are offering solutions for limited liquidity: asset-secured cards. Credit limits on these cards are backed by collateral like fine jewelry, a car or home equity. As such, credit lines on asset-secured cards can be higher, and interest rates may be lower, compared with a traditional secured card.As asset-secured cards have solved one problem, they’ve created a few more. Some of these cards require cardholders to send away their collateral items or car title. A bigger credit line mean...

Man, 55, hit by 2 different vehicles while crossing street on Northwest Side

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

CHICAGO — A 55-year-old man is critically injured after being struck by two different vehicles while crossing the street on the city's Northwest Side.It happened just before 1 a.m. Wednesday in the 4100 block of West Irving Park.According to police, the man was crossing the street and was struck by a gray pickup truck that was traveling eastbound. The driver then fled the scene.The man was then struck by a black Jeep that was traveling eastbound. Police said the male driver stopped and called authorities. 3 injured in high-rise fire in Uptown The man sustained trauma to the body and was transported to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital in critical condition.Area Four Detectives are investigating.

These 10 cities saw the biggest changes in home buying power in 2023

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – With mortgage rates stubbornly climbing for much of 2023, prospective buyers in many U.S. cities watched as their dream home faded further out of reach – but in some cities house shoppers actually saw their buying power increase.A new study from online real estate marketplace Point2 looked at census data for the 100 largest U.S. cities to see how the average affordable home price changed from Nov. 2022 to Nov. 2023.When it comes to defining an "affordable" home, the study assumed a 20% down payment, a 30-year fixed mortgage and monthly payments less than 30% of income. These are the safest small towns and cities in every state: report After factoring in the different mortgage rates (7% in 2022 vs. 7.5% in November, 2023), Point2 found that buying power actually increased in a number of high-priced real estate markets, thanks in part to income growth. In top-ranked Irvine, California, buyers can afford a $498,161 home in 2023, on average, up $53,051 from last year's fi...

Rain chances increase late week through Christmas Eve

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:28:53 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Today marks day 1 of a 5-day stretch of rainfall opportunities courtesy of a major Pacific storm spinning off the West Coast.Mist, drizzle and patchy fog could slow this morning's commute but little in the way of meaningful accumulation is expected. Isolated rain showers are possible through the day but most are expected to stay dry today.Wednesday afternoon rain chanceOur first of two distinct rounds of rain builds in Thursday into Friday. Spotty to scattered rain is expected to develop, growing in coverage and intensity overnight into Friday morning.No flooding or severe weather is anticipated at this time.Thursday afternoon rain chanceFriday morning rain chanceA strong Pacific storm will finally approach us from the west late week, opening up to our north this weekend. This will give us our second round of rain Saturday into Sunday.Warmer than normal through the weekendA cold front sweeps through the area late Sunday, clearing out the rain and dropping temperatur...