BRITAIN
Philip to stop royal duties
Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, will retire from royal duties this fall, Buckingham Palace said yesterday. Philip, 95, made the decision himself with the full support of the queen, the palace said in a statement. Philip, known as the Duke of Edinburgh, has had heart disease and other ailments in recent years, but has nonetheless maintained a vigorous public schedule. He seemed to be in good health on Wednesday at an appearance at Lord’s. He joked about being the world’s most experienced person when it comes to unveiling plaques. Officials said the queen, who turned 91 last month, would keep carrying out royal engagements with the support of the royal family. The palace said Philip will continue heading numerous charitable organizations, but will not play an active role attending engagements. The palace did not offer any new details about his health and there were no indications of any new problems. The statement indicated Philip will carry out previously scheduled engagements between now and August.
CUBA
Succession line-up teased
One of the highest-profile members of the ruling family said the country could be surprised by the person who succeeds her father as president. Mariela Castro’s uncle, Fidel, led the nation for a half century before he was succeeded by her father, Raul Castro. Raul Castro has said he plans to step down in February next year. International and domestic observers widely expect him to be succeeded by 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel. When asked on Wednesday about the succession process, Mariela Castro said: “Sometimes you’re going in one direction and suddenly you look over here and go: ‘Wow, how interesting, I hadn’t focused on this person.’” She said that “there are always surprises.”
UNITED STATES
Google shuts down spam
Google said it shut down an e-mail spam campaign that impersonated its online file service, Google Docs. According to online reports — in particular, a detailed user thread on Reddit — clicking on an e-mailed share link, purportedly from a known source, was taking users to a site that asked permission for a fake app calling itself “Google Docs” to access their accounts. If they agreed, the app would then send additional copies of the original e-mail to the users’ contacts. Earlier reports suggested the attack was a phishing scam potentially aimed at harvesting personal information and maybe even Google login credentials. However, in a statement late on Wednesday, Google said that while the campaign accessed and used contact information, no other data was apparently exposed. Google said it was able to stop the campaign in about an hour.
UNITED STATES
Exam exploit thwarted
Police said two University of Kentucky students crawled through an air duct to steal a statistics exam from their professor’s office, but were caught because he was working late. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that university police cited Henry Lynch II and Troy Kiphuth, both 21, for third-degree burglary and referred the case to Fayette County Circuit Court. University spokesman Jay Blanton told the newspaper the instructor left his office at about midnight on Tuesday to get something to eat. When he returned, two men ran from the office. One of them later returned and confessed. Police said Lynch told officers he tried stealing the exam earlier in the night, but could not find it.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
STILL IN POWER: US intelligence reports showed that the Iranian regime is not in danger of collapse and retains control of the public, casting doubt on Trump’s exit Nearly every US Senate Democrat on Wednesday signed a letter sent to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting a “swift investigation” of airstrikes on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and any other potential US military actions causing civilian harm. Reuters reported on Thursday last week that US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the Feb. 28 strike on the school, as US and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran. “The results of this school attack are horrific. The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages
RSS