India’s Modi offers aid to Caribbean nations while meeting leaders in Guyana
Modi’s visit marks the first time an Indian prime minister has come to Guyana since Indira Ghandi in 1968
Updated 54 sec ago
AP
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday he would share technology for combatting seaweed infestation with Caribbean nations, as he visited Guyana in the first such visit by an Indian leader in more than 50 years.
Guyana, a South American nation with many citizens of Indian origin, serves as headquarters for the 15-member Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom, and Modi met with regional leaders Wednesday as part of the India-Caricom summit. They last met in 2019.
Modi arrived with promises to help the region in areas including health, energy and agriculture. He also announced more than 1,000 scholarships over the next five years for trade bloc nations, mobile hospitals for rural areas and drug-testing laboratories as well as river and sea ferries for marine transport.
But Caribbean leaders reserved their loudest applause when Modi announced that India had made tremendous progress in converting large quantities of sargassum into fertilizer and other economic uses as he urged the region to take advantage of his offer.
“We are willing to share this with all the countries,” he said, calling the seaweed invasion on beaches in the tourism-dependent region “a very big problem.”
Modi also was thinking of home. Noting Guyana’s growing importance as an oil-producing nation after vast quantities of oil and gas were discovered off its coast in 2015, he said: “Guyana will play an important role in India’s energy security.”
He added that his government also is willing to fully equip at least one government building in each of the trade bloc nations with a solar power system.
Speaking after meeting with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, the country’s first Muslim leader, Modi promised to help Guyana and the region improve agriculture production, saying food security is important to island nations.
Trade between India and Guyana has strengthened in recent years, with India providing Guyana lines of credit for military passenger planes and funding to buy a fast river ferry that services far-flung jungle areas close to neighboring Venezuela.
Modi also noted that indentured laborers from India were brought to Guyana during the British colonial era and now make a significant contribution to the country. Nearly 40 percent of the population is East Indian.
Modi’s visit marks the first time an Indian prime minister has come to Guyana since Indira Ghandi in 1968.
US gathers allies to talk AI safety as Trump’s vow to undo Biden’s AI policy overshadows their work
Trump believes Biden’s executive order on AI safety "hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology”
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says AI safety is good for innovation, and tech industry groups are mostly pleased with the approach
Updated 8 sec ago
AP
SAN FRANCISCO, California: President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to repeal President Joe Biden’s signature artificial intelligence policy when he returns to the White House for a second term.
What that actually means for the future of AI technology remains to be seen. Among those who could use some clarity are the government scientists and AI experts from multiple countries gathering in San Francisco this week to deliberate on AI safety measures.
Hosted by the Biden administration, officials from a number of US allies — among them Australia, Canada, Japan, Kenya, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the 27-nation European Union — began meeting Wednesday in the California city that’s a commercial hub for AI development.
Their agenda addresses topics such as how to better detect and combat a flood of AI-generated deepfakes fueling fraud, harmful impersonation and sexual abuse.
It’s the first such meeting since world leaders agreed at an AI summit in South Korea in May to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology.
“We have a choice,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to the crowd of officials, academics and private-sector attendees on Wednesday. “We are the ones developing this technology. You are the ones developing this technology. We can decide what it looks like.”
Like other speakers, Raimondo addressed the opportunities and risks of AI — including “the possibility of human extinction” and asked why would we allow that?
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks at the convening of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes at the Golden Gate Club at the Presidio in San Francisco on Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
“Why would we choose to allow AI to replace us? Why would we choose to allow the deployment of AI that will cause widespread unemployment and societal disruption that goes along with it? Why would we compromise our global security?” she said. “We shouldn’t. In fact, I would argue we have an obligation to keep our eyes at every step wide open to those risks and prevent them from happening. And let’s not let our ambition blind us and allow us to sleepwalk into our own undoing.”
Hong Yuen Poon, deputy secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information, said that a “helping-one-another mindset is important” between countries when it comes to AI safety, including with “developing countries which may not have the full resources” to study it.
Biden signed a sweeping AI executive order last year and this year formed the new AI Safety Institute at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which is part of the Commerce Department.
Trump promised in his presidential campaign platform to “repeal Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.”
But he hasn’t made clear what about the order he dislikes or what he’d do about the AI Safety Institute. Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to emails this week seeking comment.
Addressing concerns about slowing down innovation, Raimondo said she wanted to make it clear that the US AI Safety Institute is not a regulator and also “not in the business of stifling innovation.”
“But here’s the thing. Safety is good for innovation. Safety breeds trust. Trust speeds adoption. Adoption leads to more innovation,” she said.
Tech industry groups — backed by companies including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft — are mostly pleased with the AI safety approach of Biden’s Commerce Department, which has focused on setting voluntary standards. They have pushed for Congress to preserve the new agency and codify its work into law.
Some experts expect the kind of technical work happening at an old military officers’ club at San Francisco’s Presidio National Park this week to proceed regardless of who’s in charge.
“There’s no reason to believe that we’ll be doing a 180 when it comes to the work of the AI Safety Institute,” said Heather West, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. Behind the rhetoric, she said there’s already been overlap.
Trump didn’t spend much time talking about AI during his four years as president, though in 2019 he became the first to sign an executive order about AI. It directed federal agencies to prioritize research and development in the field.
Before that, tech experts were pushing the Trump-era White House for a stronger AI strategy to match what other countries were pursuing. Trump in the waning weeks of his administration signed an executive order promoting the use of “trustworthy” AI in the federal government. Those policies carried over into the Biden administration.
All of that was before the 2022 debut of ChatGPT, which brought public fascination and worry about the possibilities of generative AI and helped spark a boom in AI-affiliated businesses. What’s also different this time is that tech mogul and Trump adviser Elon Musk has been picked to lead a government cost-cutting commission. Musk holds strong opinions about AI’s risks and grudges against some AI industry leaders, particularly ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which he has sued.
Raimondo and other officials sought to press home the idea that AI safety is not a partisan issue.
“And by the way, this room is bigger than politics. Politics is on everybody’s mind. I don’t want to talk about politics. I don’t care what political party you’re in, this is not in Republican interest or Democratic interest,” she said. “It’s frankly in no one’s interest anywhere in the world, in any political party, for AI to be dangerous, or for AI to in get the hands of malicious non-state actors that want to cause destruction and sow chaos.”
US Senate blocks bid to halt some Israel military sales
Seventy-nine of the 100 senators opposed a resolution that would have blocked sales of tank rounds to Israel, while 18 approved it and one voted present
Updated 14 min 58 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The US Senate on Wednesday blocked legislation that would have halted the sale of some US weapons to Israel, which had been introduced out of concern about the human rights catastrophe faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
Seventy-nine of the 100 senators opposed a resolution that would have blocked sales of tank rounds to Israel, while 18 approved it and one voted present.
The Senate was to vote later on Wednesday on two other resolutions that would stop shipments of mortar rounds and a GPS guidance system for bombs.
All of the votes in favor of the measure came from the Democratic caucus, while “no” votes came from both Democrats and Republicans. The “resolutions of disapproval” were filed by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and co-sponsored by a handful of Democrats.
Strong bipartisan support for Israel meant the resolutions were unlikely to pass, but backers hoped significant support in the Senate would encourage Israel’s government and President Joe Biden’s administration to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced and the enclave is at risk of famine, more than a year into Israel’s war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave. Gaza health officials say more than 43,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive.
Sanders said the military aid to Israel violates US law barring weapons sales to human rights abusers. “We think that the United States government should obey the law. That’s number one,” he told a news conference on Tuesday ahead of the votes.
“And number two, from a moral perspective, all of us are appalled that the United States of America is complicit in the starvation and malnutrition of many, many thousands of children in Gaza,” he said.
Opponents said the resolutions were inappropriate as Israel faces threats from militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and from arch-enemy Iran.
“Israel is surrounded by enemies dedicated to its annihilation,” the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a Senate speech before the votes.
New study shows voting for Native Americans is harder than ever
Updated 51 min 9 sec ago
AP
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma: A new study has found that systemic barriers to voting on tribal lands contribute to substantial disparities in Native American turnout, particularly for presidential elections. The study, released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice, looked at 21 states with federally recognized tribal lands that have a population of at least 5,000 and where more than 20 percent of residents identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. Researchers found that between 2012 and 2022, voter participation in federal elections was 7 percent lower in midterms and 15 percent lower in presidential elections than among those living off tribal lands in the same states. Earlier studies show voter turnout for communities of color is higher in areas where their ethnic group is the majority, but the latest research found that turnout was the lowest on tribal lands that have a high concentration of Native Americans, the Brennan Center said. “There’s something more intensely happening in Native American communities on tribal land,” said Chelsea Jones, a researcher on the study. Jones said the study suggests some barriers may be insurmountable in predominately Native communities due to a lack of adequate polling places or access to early and mail-in ballots. Many residents on tribal lands have nontraditional addresses, meaning they don’t have street names or house numbers, making mail-in voting even more difficult. As a result, many Native American voters rely on P.O. boxes, but the study notes that several jurisdictions will not mail ballots to P.O. boxes. Long distances to the polls that do exist on tribal lands and little to no public transportation creates additional hurdles for Native American voters. “When you think about people who live on tribal lands having to go 30, 60, 100 miles (up to 160 kilometers) to cast a ballot, that is an extremely limiting predicament to be in,” Jones said. “These are really, truly severe barriers.” Additionally, Jones said they found Native American voters were denied the ability to vote using their tribal IDs in several places, including in states where that is legally allowed. All of these roadblocks to the ballot can create a sense of distrust in the system, which could contribute to lower turnout, Jones said. The Brennan Center study also highlights on ongoing issue when it comes to understanding how or why Native Americans vote: a lack of good data. “There are immense data inequities when it comes to studying Native American communities, especially as it pertains to politics,” Jones said. Native American communities are often overlooked when it comes to polling data and sometimes when they are included those studies do not reflect broader trends for Indigenous voters, said Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, the director of the Research for Indigenous Social Action & Equity Center, which studies systemic inequalities faced by Indigenous people. “Generally speaking, polling is not well positioned to do a good job for Indian Country,” said Fryberg, who is also a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. “There are ideas that are held up as the gold standard about how polling works that don’t work for Indian Country because of where we live, because of how difficult it is to connect to people in our community.” Fryberg, a member of the Tulalip Tribe in Washington State, was one of several Indigenous researchers who denounced a recent exit poll conducted by Edison Research that found 65 percent of Native American voters who participated said they voted for Donald Trump. The poll only surveyed 229 self-identified Native Americans, a sample size that she said is too small for an accurate reading, and none of the jurisdictions in the poll were on tribal lands. “Right there, you’re already eliminating a powerful perspective,” Fryberg said. The Indigenous Journalists Association labelled that polling data as “highly misleading and irresponsible,” saying it has led “to widespread misinformation.” In a statement to the Associated Press, Edison Research acknowledged that the polling size is small, but said the “goal of the survey is to represent the national electorate and to have enough data to also examine large demographic and geographic subgroups.” The survey has a potential sampling margin of error of plus or minus 9 percent, according to the statement. “Based on all of these factors, this data point from our survey should not be taken as a definitive word on the American Indian vote,” the statement reads. Native Americans are not just part of an ethnic group, they also have political identities that come with being citizens of sovereign nations. Fryberg said allowing those surveyed to self-identify as Native Americans, without follow-up questions about tribal membership and specific Indigenous populations, means that data cannot accurately capture voting trends for those communities. Both Fryberg and Jones said that in order to create better data on and opportunities for Native Americans to vote, researchers and lawmakers would have to meet the specific needs of Indigenous communities. Jones said passage of the Native American Voting Rights Act, a bill that has stalled in Congress, would ensure equitable in-person voting options in every precinct on tribal lands. “This is not an issue that we see across the country,” Jones said. “It’s very specific to tribal lands. So we need provisions that address that uniquely.”
‘Bomb cyclone’ kills 2 and knocks out power to over half a million homes across the Northwest US
Updated 54 min 18 sec ago
AP
ISSAQUAH, Wash: A major storm swept across the U.S. Northwest battering the region with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages, closing schools and downing trees that killed at least two people. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture — that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season overwhelmed the region. The storm system that hit starting Tuesday is considered a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. In California, the weather service extended a flood watch into Saturday for areas north of San Francisco. Up to 16 inches of rain (40 cm) was forecast in northern California and southwestern Oregon through Friday. Dangerous flash flooding, rock slides and debris flows were possible, officials warned. A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,066 meters), where 15 inches (28 cm) of snow was possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph (120 kph) in mountain areas, forecasters said. Heavy, wet snow was expected to continue along the Cascades and in parts of far northern California. Forecasters warned of blizzard and whiteout conditions and near impossible travel at pass level due to accumulation rates of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 centimeters) per hour and wind gusts of up to 65 mph (105 kph). Falling trees struck homes and littered roads across western Washington. In Lynnwood, a woman died Tuesday night when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, South County Fire said in a statement. In Bellevue, east of Seattle, a tree fell onto a home, killing a woman Tuesday night, fire officials said. Tracy Meloy of Issaquah, Washington, felt well-prepared for the storm Tuesday afternoon, with dinner prepped and lanterns ready. But then she spent the night listening to wind-whipped debris hit the outside of her home, including a particularly loud “thump” around 9 p.m. On Wednesday morning she ventured outside to survey the damage to her neighborhood about 17 miles (27 kilometers) east of Seattle. “Now that I’m standing here in front of the house, I can tell it’s the tree that was across the street,” Meloy said. The tree pulled down the power lines in front of her home. Limbs, leaves and other plants were strewn all over the road. “It looks like a forest floor instead of a street,” she said. The number of power outage reports in Washington fluctuated wildly Tuesday evening, but steadily declined to about 460,000 by Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. More than a dozen schools were closed in Seattle alone. About 2,800 customers were reported to be without power Wednesday in Oregon, 38,000 in California and 10,000 around Carson City and Reno, Nevada. Three Reno schools were closed and semi-trucks were prohibited on the main highway between the two cities due to high winds. All chairlifts were shut down at the Mt. Rose Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe. The first significant snow of the season in the Dakotas and Minnesota led to accidents and slippery roadways. The weather service said up to 16 inches (40 cm) of snow could fall in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, and Minot could get up to 8 inches (20 cm) of snow. Winds were expected to be problematic in parts of Montana and Nebraska, with gusts up to 60 mph (97 kph), the weather service said. Officials briefly advised no travel throughout northern North Dakota due to the wintry weather. State troopers in northern Minnesota responded to several accidents, including tractor-trailers that jackknifed on Interstate 94 after the roadway became slippery from snow and ice. The storm was contributing to high wind conditions in Juneau, Alaska, where gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph) were expected. The weather service warned people on the West Coast about the danger of trees during high winds, posting on X, “Stay safe by avoiding exterior rooms and windows and by using caution when driving.” Southbound Interstate 5 was closed for an 11-mile (18-kilometer) stretch from Ashland, Oregon, to the border with California on Wednesday morning due to extreme winter weather conditions in northern California, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. It was expected to be a long-term closure, the department said. The weather service issued a flood watch for parts of southwestern Oregon through Friday evening, while rough winds and seas halted a ferry route in northwestern Washington between Port Townsend and Coupeville for part of the day. Robert and Lisa Haynes, of Issaquah, Washington, surveyed the damage in their neighborhood Wednesday. Fallen branches or trees blocked driveways and roads, and they were stuck at home. “It's like a snow day,” Robert Haynes said, “but with no snow.”
US charges five in ‘Scattered Spider’ hacking scheme
US Attorney says the hackers conducted phishing attacks targeting 12 multinational companies and cryptocurrency investors
In September 2023, Scattered Spider hackers broke into and locked up the networks of two casino operators was reportedly paid millions as ransom
Updated 21 November 2024
Reuters
LOS ANGELES: US prosecutors unveiled criminal charges on Wednesday against five alleged members of Scattered Spider, a loose-knit community of hackers suspected of breaking into dozens of US companies to steal confidential information and cryptocurrency.
Martin Estrada, the US Attorney in Los Angeles, said the defendants conducted phishing attacks by sending bogus but real-looking mass text messages to employees’ mobile phones warning that their accounts would be deactivated.
The hackers, in their teens or 20s at the time, allegedly directed employees to links for entering log-in information, enabling the hackers to steal from their employers and millions of dollars of cryptocurrency from individuals’ accounts.
Victims allegedly included at least 12 companies in the gaming, outsourcing, telecommunications and cryptocurrency fields, plus hundreds of thousands of individuals. Estrada’s office confirmed that the case concerned Scattered Spider. No victims were identified by name.
Security experts and officials have said Scattered Spider is composed of small clusters of people, including youngsters, who collaborate on-and-off on specific jobs.
The group has been blamed for unusually aggressive cybercrime sprees, targeting major multinational companies as well as individual cryptocurrency investors.
Some experts previously complained about law enforcement’s apparent inability to crack down even though the identities of some suspects, including several living in Western countries, were known, industry insiders told Reuters last year.
That may now be changing.
“The days of easy money and no consequences are over,” said Allison Nixon, chief research officer at cybersecurity company Unit 221B. “Defenders and law enforcement are meeting this wave of cybercrime aggressively now. Young people that have fallen into online crime culture need to exit before they become the next target.”
The defendants are Tyler Buchanan, 22, of Scotland; Ahmed Elbadawy, 23, of College Station, Texas; Joel Evans, 25, of Jacksonville, North Carolina; Evans Osiebo, 20, of Dallas; and Noah Urban, 20, of Palm Coast, Florida.
Each was charged with two conspiracy counts and aggravated identity theft, and Buchanan was also charged with wire fraud.
Investigators traced Buchanan through domain registration records for phishing websites, registered under an account whose user name included the name of late actor Bob Saget.
Officials said the suspects’ illegal activity spanned from September 2021 and April 2023.
Scattered Spider drew particular notoriety in September 2023 when members of its community broke into and locked up the networks of casino operators Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, and demanded hefty ransom payments. Caesars paid about $15 million to restore its network.
It was unclear whether these five defendants were connected with Scattered Spider’s casino hackings.
The US Department of Justice declined to comment on specific victims. Caesars did not immediately return requests for comment. MGM said the defendants did not appear to be related to the cyberattack against its network.
Evans was arrested on Tuesday in North Carolina. Urban has pleaded not guilty to 14 fraud and conspiracy charges in a separate case in Florida.
Buchanan was arrested in June at an airport in Palma de Mallorca, Spain as he attempted to board a flight to Naples, Spanish authorities said at the time. He is awaiting extradition from Spain, a Justice Department spokesman said.
A public defender representing Urban did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lawyers for the other defendants could not immediately be identified.
