Skip to main content

U.S. federal agencies must show that their artificial intelligence tools aren’t harming the public, or stop using them, under new rules unveiled by the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris says government agencies that use AI tools will be required to verify that those tools do not endanger the rights and safety of the American people. After Thursday's announcement, each agency by December must have a set of concrete safeguards that guide everything from facial recognition screenings at airports to AI tools that help control the electric grid or determine mortgages and home insurance.

TOP NEWS

In a legally binding order, the top United Nations court says Israel must open more land crossings into Gaza for food, water, fuel and other supplies. The International Court of Justice issued two new so-called provisional measures Thursday in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its war in Gaza — charges Israel strongly denies. The U.N. has reported that 100% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are at severe levels of food insecurity. Aid groups say complicated inspection procedures at the border, continued fighting, and a breakdown in public order have caused massive slowdowns in convoys. Israel accuses the U.N. of disorganization.

The end of Georgia’s two-year legislative session has arrived. Thursday is the last day for bills to pass both the House and Senate or die as this term ends. Lawmakers will decide questions including whether to legalize sports betting and tighten rules on immigration. Some key proposals have already passed, including a plan to cut income taxes and a bill to loosen Georgia’s rules for permitting new health care facilities. Others appear to have failed, including a proposal to expand Medicaid health insurance. Also unlikely to pass was an effort to overhaul Georgia’s tax incentives for movie and television production.

Rights groups say the Russian mercenary group known as Wagner is helping government forces in central and northern Mali carry out raids and drone strikes that have killed scores of civilians. Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead. Violence has escalated in Mali since Russian mercenaries arrived there following a coup in 2021. Its ruling junta has ramped up operations, carrying out drone strikes that have hit gatherings of civilians, and raids accompanied by Russian mercenaries that have killed civilians.

At least a dozen people died in Nevada from 2012 to 2021 during or shortly after encounters with police that did not involve a gun. That's according to an investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University, which collaborated with The Associated Press on researching non-shooting deaths after a police encounter. Because these kinds of deadly police encounters are often not publicly reported, no one knows how many truly occur. With attention largely focused on reducing police shooting deaths, deaths involving what law enforcement calls “less-lethal force” often escape the kind of public scrutiny that can lead to reforms. They are also less clear-cut than shootings, in part because they often involve a mental health or drug-induced crisis.

As Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to target ships in a Mideast waterway, satellite pictures analyzed by The Associated Press show what appears to be a new airstrip being built at an entrance to that crucial maritime route. No country has publicly claimed the construction taking place on Abd al-Kuri Island, a strip of land rising out of the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. However, images shot for the AP show workers have spell out “I LOVE UAE” with piles of dirt next to the runway, an abbreviation for the United Arab Emirates. The gulf and the Red Sea to which it leads have become a major battleground between the Houthis and U.S.-led forces as Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages.