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Ukrainian civilians help build up their country’s drone fleet

Inexpensive first-person view – or radio controlled – drones have become a powerful weapon in Ukraine’s war against Russian invaders. As the country presses the West for more military aid, many Ukrainian civilians are stepping in to help by making homemade attack drones. Lesia Bakalets has the story from Kyiv. …

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Biden administration imposes first-ever national drinking water limits on toxic PFAS 

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Altman Back as OpenAI CEO Days After Being Fired

The ousted leader of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is returning to the company that fired him late last week, culminating a days-long power struggle that shocked the tech industry and brought attention to the conflicts around how to safely build artificial intelligence. San Francisco-based OpenAI said in a statement late Tuesday, “We have reached an agreement in …

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Largest Crypto Exchange Fined $4 Billion; CEO Pleads Guilty to Allowing Money Laundering

The U.S. government dealt a massive blow to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, which agreed to pay a roughly $4 billion settlement Tuesday as its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform.  Zhao stepped down as the company’s chief executive, …

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These US States Have the Most Remote Workers

More people work from home in Colorado, while Mississippi has the lowest percentage of teleworkers …

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Solar Panels Over Canals in Gila River Indian Community Will Help Save Water

In a move that may soon be replicated elsewhere, the Gila River Indian Community recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over a stretch of irrigation canal on its land south of Phoenix. It will be the first project of its kind in the United States to …

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Lawmakers, Companies Set New Rules for AI-Generated Political Ads

As the 2024 U.S. presidential race begins to ramp up, some contenders are already using artificial intelligence to generate promotional videos, some of which blur the lines between what is real and what is not. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. VOA footage by Andrey Degtyarev. …

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Microsoft Hires Sam Altman as OpenAI’s new CEO Vows to Investigate Firing

Microsoft snapped up Sam Altman and another architect of OpenAI for a new venture after their sudden departures shocked the artificial intelligence world, leaving the newly installed CEO of the ChatGPT maker to paper over tensions by vowing to investigate Altman’s firing. The developments Monday come after a weekend of drama and speculation about how …

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Space Tracking Helps Australia Monitor, Manage Feral Buffalo Herds

Indigenous rangers in northern Australia have started managing herds of feral animals from space. In the largest project of its kind in Australia, the so-called Space Cows project involves tagging and then tracking a thousand wild cattle and buffalo via satellite. Water buffalo were imported into Australia’s Northern Territory in the 19th century as working …

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Artists Push for US Copyright Reforms on AI, But Tech Industry Says Not So Fast

Country singers, romance novelists, video game artists and voice actors are appealing to the U.S. government for relief — as soon as possible — from the threat that artificial intelligence poses to their livelihoods. “Please regulate AI. I’m scared,” wrote a podcaster concerned about his voice being replicated by AI in one of thousands of …

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Second SpaceX Starship Launch Presumed Failed Minutes After Reaching Space

SpaceX’s uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, was presumed to have failed in space minutes after lifting off on Saturday in a second test after its first attempt to reach space ended in an explosion. The two-stage rocket ship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company’s Starbase launch site …

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Advertisers Flee Elon Musk’s X Amid Concerns of Antisemitism Backlash

Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with billionaire owner Elon Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. IBM said this week that it stopped advertising on X after a report …

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Hollywood Actors Offered Protections Against AI in Labor Deal

Leaders of the union representing Hollywood actors announced a tentative deal recently with film and television studios to end a strike that started in July. It includes pay raises, streaming bonuses for actors, and the industry’s first protections against the use of artificial intelligence. From Los Angeles, Genia Dulot has our story. …

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US Approves SpaceX for 2nd Launch of Starship Super Heavy

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday granted Elon Musk’s SpaceX a license to launch the company’s second test flight of its next-generation Starship and heavy-lift rocket from Texas, the agency said.  SpaceX said it was targeting Friday for a launch, saying a two-hour launch window opens at 7 a.m. Central Time (1300 GMT) and …

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Nickel Miners, Environmentalists Learn to Live Together in Michigan

It began as a familiar old story. In the early 2000s, multinational mining giant Rio Tinto came to the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to dig a nickel mine. Environmentalists feared pollution. The company promised jobs. The usual battle lines were drawn. The usual legal fights ensued. But this time, something different happened. The mining …

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Nepal Bans TikTok, Says It Disrupts Social Harmony

Nepal’s government decided to ban the popular social media app TikTok, saying Monday it was disrupting “social harmony” in the country. The announcement was made following a Cabinet meeting. Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said the app would be banned immediately. “The government has decided to ban TikTok as it was necessary to regulate the …

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Cargo Standstill as Cyberattacks Close Australian Ports 

Several major Australian ports are resuming operations after shutting down due to a cyberattack. The ports are run by DP World Australia, one of the country’s biggest logistics companies. Authorities have not said who might be to blame. The shutdown of several terminals followed a cyberattack on Australia’s second largest port operator. DP World Australia …

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Russia to Limit Only VPN Services That Pose a ‘Threat’ to Security, State Media Say

Russia plans to block certain Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and protocols that are deemed by a commission of experts to pose a threat, state news agency RIA reported, citing correspondence from the digital ministry. Demand for VPN services soared after Russia restricted access to some Western social media after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into …

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Australia Says Ports Operator Cyber Incident ‘Serious’

The Australian government on Sunday described as “serious and ongoing” a cybersecurity incident that forced ports operator DP World Australia to suspend operations at ports in several states since Friday. DP World Australia, which manages nearly half of the goods that flow in and out of the country, said it was looking into possible data …

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Internet Collapses in Yemen Over ‘Maintenance’ After Houthi Attacks Targeting Israel, US

Internet access across the war-torn nation of Yemen collapsed Friday and stayed down for hours, with officials later blaming unannounced “maintenance work” for an outage that followed attacks by the country’s Houthi rebels on both Israel and the U.S. The outage began early Friday and halted all traffic at YemenNet, the country’s main provider for …

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Worker at South Korea Vegetable Packing Plant Crushed to Death by Industrial Robot

An industrial robot grabbed and crushed a worker to death at a vegetable packaging plant in South Korea, police said Thursday, as they investigated whether the machine was defective or improperly designed. Police said early evidence suggests that human error was more likely to blame rather than problems with the machine itself. But the incident …

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Logon: US Farmers Cautious About Autonomous Farm Tech 

For farmers in the Midwest United States, emerging autonomous technology could reduce costs and increase efficiency in the agricultural supply chain. Kane Farabaugh shows the promise of the technology on the farm in this edition of LogOn.  …