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The task was clear: test how well the AI ​​could plan a trip to Norway, a place I had never been. So I didn't do any of my usual obsessive online research and instead asked three AI planners to create a four-day itinerary. None of them, alas, mentioned saunas or salmon.Two assistants, however, were eager to learn more about me to adapt their initially generic recommendations, which they had given out in a matter of seconds. Vacay, a personalized travel planning tool, presented me with a list of questions, while Mindtrip, a new AI-powered travel assistant, invited me to take a quiz. (ChatGPT, the third assistant, didn't ask anything.)The questions from Vacay and Mindtrip were similar: Are you traveling alone? What is your budget? Do you prefer hotels or Airbnb? Would you rath...

Israeli Prime Minister says war in Gaza will soon enter new phase“The intense phase of the war with Hamas is coming to an end,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television interview on Sunday. “This does not mean that the war is coming to an end, but that the war in its intense phase is coming to an end.”But whatever relief those comments may bring after more than six months of horrific bloodshed, Mr. Netanyahu was quick to make two things clear: A ceasefire in Gaza is not imminent. And the next clash could be in Lebanon, with the forces of Hamas’s ally, Hezbollah.After recalling troops to Gaza, he said: “We will be able to move some of our forces north.”Netanyahu stopped well short of announcing an invasion of Lebanon, a move that would likely result in heavy losses for Israel...

Federal health officials have warned that the risk of contracting dengue in the United States has increased this year, a worrying sign as global cases of the mosquito-borne disease have reached record numbers.In the first half of this year, countries in the Americas reported twice as many cases as in all of 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an advisory to health professionals on Thursday.The region has recorded nearly 10 million virus cases so far in 2024, most of which originated from outbreaks in South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina.While local transmission of the virus in the continental United States has been limited, Puerto Rico, classified as having “frequent or continuous” risk, declared a public health emergency in March and reported near...

Two of America's most decorated Olympic swimmers asked Congress on Tuesday to hold the global anti-doping agency accountable for failing to adequately police allegations of cheating by elite Chinese athletes.In testimony before a House subcommittee, Michael Phelps, a 23-time Olympic gold medalist, and Allison Schmitt, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, urged Congress to push for reforms to the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. They said uncertainty over whether Chinese swimmers used banned substances is deeply unfair to competitors taking part in the Summer Games next month in Paris.The hearing came two months after The New York Times reported that Chinese anti-doping authorities and WADA had refused to discipline 23 elite Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug in ear...

Cruise, General Motors' driverless car subsidiary, said Tuesday that a video game industry veteran will become its new CEO, eight months after its previous CEO resigned following a series of safety issues with its its vehicles.The appointment of Marc Whitten, who most recently served as an executive at video game technology company Unity, follows a tumultuous year for Cruise, who in October was ordered by California regulators to take his fleet of vehicles off the road after a series of road accidents. The worst incident occurred on October 2, when a pedestrian was dragged under a Cruise car on a San Francisco street.Cruise has since laid off a quarter of its workforce and laid off nine executives.Mr. Whitten, who will take over on July 16, was also a founding engineer of Xbox and chi...

But ultra-Orthodox parties, with few attractive options, may not be eager to topple Netanyahu's coalition, he said. “They don't see an alternative, so they're going to try to make this work as long as they can,” Mr. Cohen said. “They will compromise more than they might have been willing to do a year ago in an effort to preserve government.”For now, the Army must come up with a plan to potentially welcome into its ranks thousands of soldiers who are opposed to military service and whose insularity and traditions are at odds with a modern fighting force.The court's decision creates an "open political wound at the heart of the coalition" that Netanyahu now must urgently address, said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank....

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on Tuesday declared gun violence in America a public health crisis, recommending a series of preventative measures that he likened to previous anti-smoking and road safety campaigns.The step follows years of calls from health officials, including four of Dr. Murthy's predecessors, to view gun deaths through the lens of health rather than politics.The National Rifle Association vigorously opposed this approach and pushed legislation that effectively eliminated federal funding for gun violence research for a quarter century. Dr. Murthy's 32-page advisory calls for increased funding for gun violence prevention research; advises health care providers to discuss firearm storage with patients during routine doctor visits; and recommends safe storage ...

When Emperor Naruhito and his wife, Empress Masako, of Japan visit Kew Gardens on Thursday as part of a state visit to Britain, ties between their island nation and the famous London landmark will be in full swing show.Scattered throughout the botanical garden's 330 acres are constant reminders of that long-standing relationship. In a large greenhouse, bronze sculptures of bonsai trees, some nearly as tall as the room, pay homage to the Japanese horticultural art form. Just a few steps away is the Japanese Gateway, an intricately carved cypress replica of a Kyoto temple. Nearby, neatly raked gravel in waves and swirls surrounded by Japanese plant species evokes a traditional tea garden.Dignitaries and heads of state from many countries regularly stop at Kew Gardens on official tours...

European Union regulators on Tuesday accused Microsoft of violating antitrust rules by bundling its Teams video conferencing and collaboration software with a suite of other productivity tools, giving it an unfair advantage over rivals.Regulators said Microsoft's packaging of Teams with other established software tools in Office 365 and Microsoft 365, which include programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, amounts to an unlawful abuse of market dominance that Rival companies like Zoom and Slack couldn't match. . Regulators said companies essentially had no choice but to adopt Teams if they wanted other software made by Microsoft.The charges are just the latest in a series of announcements by the European Union in recent months in its bid to crack down on the world'...

WEWorldBusinessArtsLifestyleOpinionAudioGamescookingNippersAtleticoJune 25, 2024, 2:24 ETAn Israeli government committee has issued a warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and four more on Monday as part of a years-long investigation into Germany's multibillion-dollar purchase of submarines and missile boats, an episode considered the worst corruption scandal in the country's history. In a statement, the commission said Netanyahu had endangered Israel's security and bypassed official channels with the purchase during a previous term as prime minister. It was unclear whether Netanyahu himself was suspected of corruption in the case, but the commission said it issued the warning to give him and others — including a former defense minister and a former Mossad chief — the ...