Author: Reporter

AI fakery is quickly becoming one of the biggest problems confronting us online. Deceptive pictures, videos, and audio are proliferating as a result of the rise and misuse of generative artificial intelligence tools. With AI deepfakes cropping up almost every day, depicting everyone from Taylor Swift to Donald Trump to Katy Perry attending the Meta Gala, it is getting harder to tell what is real from what is not. Video and image generators like DALL-E, Midjourney and OpenAI’s Sora make it easy for people without any technical skills to create deepfakes — just type a request and the system...

With inflatable tanks, radio trickery, costume uniforms, and acting, the American military units that became known as the Ghost Army outwitted the enemy during World War II. Their mission was kept secret for decades, but the group stepped out of the shadows in March as they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in Washington. “The actions of the Ghost Army helped change the course of the war for thousands of American and Allied troops and contributed to the liberation of a continent from a terrible evil,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said during the ceremony...

Olin Pickens sat in his wheelchair facing a life-sized image of himself on a screen, asking it questions about being taken prisoner by German soldiers during World War II. After a pause, his video-recorded twin recalled being given “sauerkraut soup” by his captors before a grueling march. “That was a Tuesday morning, February the 16th,” Pickens’ onscreen likeness answered. “And so we started marching. We’d walk four hours, then we’d rest 10 minutes.” Pickens is among 18 veterans of the war and its support effort featured in an interactive exhibit that opened in March at the National WWII Museum....

The U.N. cultural agency has discovered five bombs hidden within the walls of the historic al-Nouri Mosque in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a remnant of the Islamic State militant group’s rule over the area, UNESCO said in a statement on June 29. The mosque, famous for its 12th-century leaning minaret, was destroyed by IS in 2017 and has been a focal point of UNESCO’s restoration efforts since 2020. The U.N. agency said that five large-scale explosive devices, designed for significant destruction, were found inside the southern wall of the Prayer Hall on June 25. “These explosive...

U.S., European, and Arab mediators are pressing to keep stepped-up cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants from spiraling into a wider Middle East war that the world has feared for months. Iran and Israel traded threats on June 29 of what Iran said would be an “obliterating” war over Hezbollah. Hopes are lagging for a cease-fire in Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza that would calm attacks by Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militias. With the stalled talks in mind, American and European diplomats and other officials are delivering warnings to Hezbollah — which is far stronger...