Author: rpnadmin

Climate change’s fingerprints are all over the extreme fire weather that sparked this week’s devastating wildfires in Spain and France and has spiked Southern Europe’s burning the past eight years, two new studies conclude. Human-caused climate change made the hot and dry conditions responsible for Spain’s record-sized inferno 20 times more likely to happen, and it doubled the chances of extreme fire conditions for the flames in France, scientists at World Weather Attribution calculated in a rapid analysis Thursday, conducted while fires were still burning. Warming in the past 26 years has tripled the odds of the severe fire risk…

Authorities were working Thursday to find the source of cyberattacks that targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota and came amid warnings that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems. Minnesota IT Services said state officials had yet to identify who was behind the attacks that took place Sunday and Monday. There were no reports that residents had been impacted by the attacks, though one city asked residents to conserve water for a couple hours while they tried to determine what was wrong. The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit and a spokesperson declined to…

An attorney for the family of Nolan Wells said Thursday that they have hired audio engineers to review a distress call made from a boat on the day of his disappearance, which has prompted online speculation and claims of defamation amid the ongoing investigation into the 18-year-old’s death. The recording, released by Mississippi authorities this week, captures a July 4 call to a private marine towing company requesting assistance for a boat that was taking in water off Horn Island, where Wells was last seen. “Our bilge pump stopped working. We’re sinking. Can y’all please come?” the caller asks, noting…

SEATTLE — Seattle’s police chief has resigned amid criticism of the city’s response to a fatal shootout at a food festival last weekend, Mayor Katie Wilson said Thursday. The announcement followed hours of speculation about whether Police Chief Shon Barnes would step down, as some of his supporters said he had rebuffed Wilson’s request that he resign. Wilson said she was appointing Deputy Chief Andre Sayles, a law enforcement veteran with more than two decades of experience, as interim chief. Barnes told The Seattle Times earlier Thursday that whether he remained as chief was “up to the mayor.” He said…

JUNEAU, Alaska — The operator of a commuter plane that crashed on sea ice off Alaska last year, killing all 10 people on board, had a history of overweight flights, according to federal investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board, in a report released Thursday, also found the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of the company, Bering Air, was inadequate. Both were contributing factors to the February 2025 crash, which was one of Alaska’s deadliest plane crashes this century. The NTSB also determined the pilot did not monitor and maintain adequate airspeed, likely because he was trying to manage the plane’s ice…

Ten people connected to a Pennsylvania high school football team, including four coaches, are facing criminal charges after a 15-year-old player was allegedly assaulted twice in the locker room and coaches chose to keep the matter quiet, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. A grand jury found that the sophomore at Cheltenham High School was attacked on Aug. 15, 2025, and again on Sept. 3, 2025, by teammates who allegedly restrained him while another player tried to poke him in the buttocks with a broomstick, prosecutors said. The victim told investigators the broomstick made contact over his shorts…

The government is poorly equipped to detect emerging infectious diseases across human and animal populations because federal surveillance efforts remain fragmented, according to a new report. Agencies rely on informal coordination rather than centralized leadership, prompting experts to recommend sweeping changes to how the government monitors outbreaks before they spread, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. The report comes amid a growing outbreak of cyclosporiasis and a record-breaking number of measles cases in the U.S. No agency has centralized authority to direct cross-agency surveillance, as coordination efforts are described as largely informal or based on “personal relationships.” The…

The Education Department is investigating complaints of illegal favoritism toward minorities in medical school admissions at Dartmouth College, East Carolina University, Saint Louis University, William Carey University and Western University of Health Sciences. The agency announced the probes by its Office of Civil Rights as “part of a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to advance President Trump’s mission to eliminate racial discrimination in medical school admissions processes across the country.” “Your race should not decide whether or not you can study medicine, yet many schools seem to…

A sentencing hearing was underway Thursday for a man who gave his son the gun used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia after he was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Colin Gray’s sentencing comes just days after his 16-year-old son, Colt Gray, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school about 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. His father is one of a handful of American parents who…

At the end of the Civil War, a Union soldier and Baptist minister founded a school in Raleigh, North Carolina, to provide formerly enslaved people with religious literacy. Now that same school – Shaw University – wants to provide literacy of a new kind: AI literacy. Starting next year, Shaw’s divinity school plans to offer a new degree track: a Doctor of Education (or Ed.D) in Artificial Intelligence and Moral Agency. As AI spreads and performs more and more tasks traditionally done by humans, the divinity school wants to get ahead of the curve and probe its moral implications. “We…