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The news was featured on MSN.com: “Prominent Irish broadcaster faces trial over alleged sexual misconduct.” At the top of the story was a photo of Dave Fanning.But Mr. Fanning, an Irish D.J. and talk-show host famed for his discovery of the rock band U2, was not the broadcaster in question.“You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who got in touch,” said Mr. Fanning, who called the error “outrageous.”The falsehood, visible for hours on the default homepage for anyone in Ireland who used Microsoft Edge as a browser, was the result of an artificial intelligence snafu.A fly-by-night journalism outlet called BNN Breaking had used an A.I. chatbot to paraphrase an article from another news site, according to a BNN employee. BNN added Mr. Fanning to the mix by including a photo of a “prominent I...

“The smell of blood in the hospital emergency room this morning was unbearable,” Karin Huster, medical consultant for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said in a statement. “There are people lying everywhere, on the floor, outside.”The Israeli army said it was conducting military operations “above and below ground” against Hamas militants in Bureij and eastern Deir al-Balah, both in central Gaza, and that it had “eliminated” several of them.Hamas also reported clashes with Israeli forces in the area, and on Wednesday said it had fired missiles at Israeli troops east of Bureij.“There is nowhere to escape now,” said Hani Ahmed, a teacher and father of five who lives near the center of Bureij. He said two buildings in his area were hit.“Khan Younis is a pile of rubble. Rafah is under attack...

A panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration voted Wednesday to update the COVID-19 vaccine formula ahead of a planned fall immunization campaign, now an annual step to try to offer better protection against circulating versions of the virus.The unanimous vote of 16 advisers recommends a formula aimed at combating the JN.1 variant, which dominated infections in the United States in February, or a version of it. In recent weeks, JN.1 has been overtaken by descendants known as KP.2 and KP.3.In the coming weeks, the FDA is expected to formally recommend a target variant to vaccine makers for the next round of vaccinations in late summer or early fall. Any decision involves some educated guesswork, given that any new vaccine formula won't be available until months after a vari...

Bertien van Manen, a Dutch photographer who used point-and-shoot cameras to capture intimate images of daily life in the big cities and remote villages of China, the dingy apartments and alleys of post-Soviet Russia, and the coal miners of Kentucky, is died May 26. in Amsterdam. He was 89 years old.His practice director, Iris Bergman, said the cause of his death, which occurred in a rehabilitation facility, was pneumonia.Ms. van Manen was working as a fashion photographer in 1975 when a friend gave her a copy of "The Americans," the groundbreaking collection of photos that photographer Robert Frank took during a trip across the United States in the 1950s.“He wasn't at all interested in making beautiful photographs, and yet that's who I am,” Ms. van Manen told Aperture Magazine. ...

Electric cars are more expensive than petrol ones, mainly because the batteries cost a lot. But new technology could turn these expensive devices into an asset, offering owners benefits such as reduced utility bills, lower rents or free parking.Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW and other automakers are exploring how electric car batteries could be used to store excess renewable energy to help utilities manage fluctuations in energy supply and demand. Automakers would earn money by acting as intermediaries between car owners and energy suppliers.Millions of cars could be thought of as a huge energy system that, for the first time, will be connected to another huge energy system, the electric grid, said Matthias Preindl, associate professor of power electronic systems at Columbia University....

A gunman opened fire at the US embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday and was shot and captured by Lebanese security forces, adding to growing tensions in a crisis-hit nation already tense from months of cross-border attacks between Israel and the group armed militant Hezbollah. .The embassy said a security guard was injured in the attack, without specifying how or whether the injuries were serious.The motive of the attacker, who the Lebanese army identified as a Syrian national and said was hospitalized, was not immediately clear. Lebanese security forces later arrested a second man on suspicion of involvement in the attack after raids in the eastern village of Majdal Anjar, near the border with Syria, according to Lebanon's state news agency.The news agency did not indicate how the second...

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve the use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. An independent advisory panel of experts reviewed the studies on June 4 and decided not to approve the treatment.Lykos Therapeutics submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to get the agency's approval to legally sell the drug to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD, including military veterans at high risk for suicide. No new treatments for PTSD have been approved in more than 20 years.What is MDMA?Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic psychoactive drug first developed by Merck in 1912. After being synthesized in the mid-1970s by Alexander Shulgin, a Bay...

The two contenders to become Britain's next prime minister clashed furiously over taxes, immigration and health policy Tuesday in a televised debate that at times descended into bad-tempered exchanges as the political rivals argued with each other.The clash came exactly a month before the crucial general election that will determine whether the opposition Labor Party can capitalize on its strong lead in opinion polls and end 14 turbulent years of Conservative-led government during which the party has had five different prime ministers.Soon after the debate began, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that his opponent, Labor leader Keir Starmer, would raise taxes on British citizens by 2,000 pounds, about $2,550, a year if he won the election, repeating the same statement numerous times. “A...

A group of OpenAI insiders are calling out what they say is a culture of recklessness and secrecy at the San Francisco artificial intelligence company, which is racing to build the most powerful artificial intelligence systems ever created.The group, which includes nine current and former OpenAI employees, has rallied in recent days around shared concerns that the company hasn't done enough to prevent its artificial intelligence systems from becoming dangerous.Members say OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit research lab and went public with the release of ChatGPT in 2022, is prioritizing profits and growth in an effort to build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the industry term for a computer. program capable of doing everything a human can do.They also allege that OpenAI use...

The House voted mostly along party lines Tuesday to impose sweeping sanctions on International Criminal Court officials, rebuking efforts by the court's top prosecutor to charge top Israeli leaders with war crimes in connection with the offensive against Hamas.The bill would force President Biden to restrict entry to the United States, revoke visas and impose financial restrictions on anyone in court who is involved in attempting to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute “protected persons” or allies of the United States . It would also target anyone providing “financial, material or technological support” to such efforts.Biden's advisers said he is "strongly opposed" to the measure because it would impose sanctions on such a broad group of officials, including court staff membe...