News
At Least 95 People Die In Devastating Flash Floods In Spain
UTIEL, Spain — Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, destroyed homes, interrupted transportation, and killed at least 95 people in the greatest natural disaster to strike the European country in recent years.
Rainstorms that began on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday produced flooding throughout southern and eastern Spain, from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy floods hurled automobiles along streets at breakneck speeds, while rubbish and household goods swirled in the water. Police and rescue personnel utilized helicopters to transport people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop their vehicles.
Emergency services in the eastern district of Valencia verified the death toll of 92 people.
“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised speech.
At Least 95 People Die In Devastating Flash Floods In Spain
Rescue workers and around 1,100 troops from Spain’s emergency response teams were dispatched to the impacted districts. Spain’s central government formed a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.
Javier Berenguer, 63, evacuated his bakery in Utiel as crushing water threatened to drown him. He claims it swelled to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) inside his shop, and he worries his livelihood is lost.
“I had to climb out of a window as quickly as possible because the water was already up to my shoulders. “I took refuge on the first floor with my neighbors and stayed there all night,” Berenguer told The Associated Press. “It’s taken everything. I have to empty the bakery, including the freezers and ovens.”
María Carmen Martínez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a dramatic rescue.
“It was just dreadful. “There was a man there clinging to a fence, falling and calling for help,” she explained. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and took him away.”
Paiporta, a Valencian town, sustained an unprecedented loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that approximately 30 individuals died in the town of 25,000 residents. Six of them lived in senior housing. News outlets published footage of elderly in chairs and wheelchairs at a Paiporta nursing home, some of whom cried out in apparent panic as the water surged beyond their knees.
Spain’s national weather office said it rained more in Valencia in eight hours than in the previous twenty months, describing the deluge as “extraordinary.”
Valencia, located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, is a tourist attraction famed for its beaches, citrus plantations, and the origin of the rice dish paella. The region features gorges and little riverbeds that are dry for much of the year but quickly fill up with water when it rains. Many of them travel through populated areas.
As the floodwaters retreated, thick muck and trash rendered some streets unrecognizable.
“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said over the phone. “Everything is a complete shambles, ready to be discarded. The muck is over 30 cm (11 inches) deep.
People were gathering outside Viena’s tavern to see what they might save. Cars were stacked high, and the streets were littered with clumps of waterlogged branches.
Spain has seen comparable fall storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compares to the damage of the previous two days, which is reminiscent of floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 that killed 230 people.
The death toll is expected to grow as neighboring regions report deaths and search activities continue in remote areas.
At Least 95 People Die In Devastating Flash Floods In Spain
“We are facing a very difficult situation,” Minister of Territory Initiatives Ángel Víctor Torres remarked. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”
Spain is still recuperating from a severe drought and has recently experienced record-high temperatures. According to scientists, rising extreme weather episodes are most likely due to climate change. The extended drought makes it harder for the land to absorb large amounts of water.
The storms also produced a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm, which ripped holes in car windows and greenhouses.
Transportation was also disrupted. A high-speed train carrying over 300 people derailed in Malaga, but rail officials claimed no one was injured. High-speed train service between Valencia and Madrid has been disrupted, and the transport ministry has stated that owing to line damage, it may take up to four days to restore it to the capital. Bus and commuter rail routes were also disrupted. Many flights were canceled on Tuesday night, leaving approximately 1,500 people stranded at Valencia’s airport overnight. Flights resumed on Wednesday.
Soccer games between Valencia and Levante were canceled, and players from Barcelona and Madrid observed a moment of remembrance for flood victims before training on Wednesday.
Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón recommended residents stay at home, citing challenging traffic conditions owing to fallen trees and broken automobiles. Downed power lines and power outages impeded rescue attempts, and the regional emergency service reacted to approximately 30,000 calls, Mazón reported.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, told reporters in Brussels that the EU will “help coordinate the rescue teams” with its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system.
Some residents used social media, television, and radio to seek information about their lost loved ones.
Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family spent hours searching for his 40-year-old son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a delivery van when the rain started. Enrique claimed his son sent a message claiming his van was flooding and that he had been hit by another car near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is one of the worst impacted.
Orted one death.
“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, mayor of Utiel, a municipality in Valencia, told national radio RTVE Wednesday. He stated that six residents died and others were missing.
“We were trapped like rats. Cars and rubbish containers were moving down the streets. “The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he explained.
Spain’s government proclaimed three days of mourning beginning Thursday.
SOURCE | AP
Washington—Federal officials confirmed new cases of E. coli illness among McDonald’s customers on Wednesday, as investigators looking for the outbreak’s origins discovered an “onion grower of interest” in Washington state.
The Food and Drug Administration reported that 90 people in 13 states have become ill as a result of the incident, up from 75 at the end of last week. The number of individuals hospitalized rose by five to 27. A single death has been linked to the outbreak.
Officials have stated that raw, slivered onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers are the most likely source of E. coli. McDonald’s stated the onions came from a single supplier, Taylor Farms of California. The company has since recalled the yellow onions it distributed to McDonald’s and other restaurant chains.
McDonald’s E. Coli Case Count Rises As Federal Officials Inspect An Onion Grower
The FDA announced Wednesday that it has begun checking Taylor Farm’s processing facility in Colorado Springs and an “onion grower of interest” in Washington state. It did not name the grower.
According to the FDA, more than 80% of persons with E. coli who federal investigators interviewed reported consuming McDonald’s dishes with fresh, slivered onions.
McDonald’s announced last week that onions from its Colorado Springs facility were supplied to about 900 restaurants, including several in transit hubs like airports. After tests determined that beef patties were not the source of the epidemic, the restaurant chain said it would resume serving Quarter Pounders at hundreds of its locations.
McDonald’s E. Coli Case Count Rises As Federal Officials Inspect An Onion Grower
The kind of E. coli causing the outbreak can cause deadly diarrhea, renal failure, and other serious complications. It causes over 74,000 infections in the United States each year, resulting in over 2,000 hospitalizations and 61 fatalities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to FDA officials, the current risk of sickness “is low because the onions have been recalled and should no longer be available.” They highlighted that all recorded incidents happened before Taylor Farms and McDonald’s took the onions off the market.
SOURCE | AP
News
Microsoft Reports $65.6 Billion In Quarterly Sales As Investors Look To Know If AI Spending Worth It
Microsoft reported an 11% profit increase for the July-September quarter compared to the same period last year, as investors sought signs that the company’s significant investment in artificial intelligence is paying off.
The business announced quarterly net income of $24.7 billion, or $3.30 per share, exceeding Wall Street’s estimates.
The Redmond, Washington-based software company reported revenue of $65.6 billion in the quarter, up 16% over the previous year.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research expected Microsoft to earn $3.10 per share on $64.6 billion in revenue.
Microsoft Reports $65.6 Billion In Quarterly Sales As Investors Look To Know If AI Spending Worth It
Microsoft does not declare revenue from AI products specifically, but it claims to have integrated the technology and its AI assistant, Copilot, into all of its business sectors, particularly its Azure cloud computing contracts.
Microsoft’s productivity business sector, which includes its Office suite of email and other office tools, led revenues in the quarter, rising 12% to $28.3 billion.
Microsoft’s cloud-focused business segment increased 20% from last year to $24.1 billion in the three months ending September 30.
Its computing business, anchored by the Windows division, increased 17% to $13.2 billion. This year, Microsoft and the computer makers that run its Windows operating system unveiled a new class of AI-enhanced laptops as the company faces increased competition from Big Tech rivals in pitching generative AI technology that can compose documents, create images, and serve as a lifelike personal assistant at work or home.
Building and operating AI systems is expensive, and Microsoft reported spending $20 billion during the quarter, primarily for cloud computing and AI needs.
In a statement released Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella underscored the company’s push to get customers to use AI platforms in their workplaces as AI transforms employment and work processes.
Microsoft Reports $65.6 Billion In Quarterly Sales As Investors Look To Know If AI Spending Worth It
Nadella, now in his tenth year as CEO, had his yearly remuneration rise 63% this year to $79 million, according to a statement submitted before Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting in December. This is despite Nadella’s willingness to have his cash incentive cut to reflect his responsibility for dealing with cybersecurity concerns.
Earlier this year, a blistering investigation by a government review board identified “a cascade of security failures” by Microsoft that allowed Chinese state-backed hackers to get access to key US officials’ email accounts.
SOURCE | AP
Los Angeles — Robert Downey Jr. believes Marvel officials would never use artificial intelligence to reproduce his portrayal of Tony Stark. But if they did, he would take legal action, even if it was after his death.
On a recent episode of the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast, the Oscar-winning actor stated that he plans to “sue all future executives” who let an AI-created version of himself. When asked about his position as Iron Man, Downey stated that he does not want his likeness reproduced by AI technology.
“I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me,” Downey told the crowd.
Swisher mentioned that those executives would eventually be replaced.
Robert Downey Jr. Says He ‘Intends To Sue’ All Future Executives Who Use His AI Replica
“Well, you’re right,” Downey replied. “I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.”
“You’ll be dead,” Swisher stated.
Downey responded, “But my law firm will still be very active.”
Representatives for Marvel Studios or Downey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The talk comes amid the Hollywood video game performers’ strike, which began in July after more than 18 months of discussions over a new interactive media pact with game industry behemoths failed over artificial intelligence safeguards.
Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have described the labor dispute—and AI in particular—as an existential crisis for actors. Concerns over how movie companies would deploy AI contributed to the union’s four-month film and television strike last year. SAG-AFTRA ultimately reached an agreement requiring filmmakers to obtain the informed consent of actors whose digital reproductions are used.
A representative for SAG-AFTRA stated that Downey has the right to refuse any digital duplicate uses in the film due to California’s new legislation barring the unlawful recreation of a deceased performer’s likeness without prior approval. The union pushed the measure, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September.
Downey debuted on Broadway this month in Ayad Akhtar’s one-act play “McNeal,” which explores artificial intelligence, artistic integrity, plagiarism, and copyright infringement. The 59-year-old actor plays the title character, Jacob McNeal, an accomplished novelist whose struggles with drinking and mental illness come to a head at a critical point in his career.
Robert Downey Jr. Says He ‘Intends To Sue’ All Future Executives Who Use His AI Replica
“I don’t envy anyone who has been over-identified with the advent of this new phase of the information age,” Downey told the crowd. “The idea that somehow it belongs to them because they have these super huge start-ups is a fallacy.”
The podcast episode discussed the play’s themes of truth and power in the age of AI and whether there is a “social contract” around the usage of AI.
SOURCE | AP
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