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Facebook Tweet Email Link The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday dismissed South Korean claims the North is removing some of its loudspeakers along the inter-Korean border, mocking the government in Seoul for clinging to hopes of renewed diplomacy between the war-divided rivals. South Korea’s military said over the weekend that it had detected the North removing some of its loudspeakers, days after the South dismantled its own front-line speakers used for anti-North propaganda broadcasts in a bid to ease tensions. Kim Yo Jong reiterated previous North Korean statements that it has no immediate interest…

Eric Migicovsky, the original creator of the Pebble smartwatch, on Wednesday showed off the new designs for the upcoming watch, now known as the Pebble Time 2. Although the company originally branded its new watches as the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 when it first announced its plans to return to the market in March, Migicovsky says the company has since been able to regain the Pebble trademark. That means the new watches will instead be called the Pebble 2 Duo and the Pebble Time 2. Migicovsky’s company, Core Devices, had also shown off early ideas for the…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Anchorage, Alaska  —  Alaska is unlikely to have been on many peoples’ bingo cards as the venue for a key summit between the leaders of the United States and Russia. Yet America’s biggest, remotest state is where Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are now set to meet for one of the most potentially consequential encounters of their presidencies. That’s certainly the view from Moscow, where pro-Kremlin propagandists are already flushed with anticipation at the benefits this much-anticipated face-to-face meeting will deliver. Or, more specifically, will deliver for Putin. Firstly, the fact a summit with the…

India-based audio series platform maker Pocket FM aims to be the Netflix of audio. That is, the company intends to match its audio series with hundreds of episodes to its users’ tastes. For that to work, it needs to release content rapidly — something it’s now turning to AI to help with. The Lightspeed-backed startup is giving its writers an AI tool set that can do things like suggest better endings to an episode or make the narrative more engaging. The hope is that the tools will speed up the story-writing process. Pocket FM already uses some AI tools like…

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — To earn his freedom, 15-year-old Cayden Gillespie had to complete three school assignments a day. But school had gone virtual for Cayden and other incarcerated young people in Florida. And sometimes, he didn’t understand it.One day last summer, he kept failing an online pre-algebra test. There were too many words to read. He didn’t know how to find the value of x. And there were no math teachers to show him.“I couldn’t figure it out, and it kept failing me,” Cayden says. He asked the adult supervising the classroom for help. “She didn’t understand either.”Frustrated, Cayden…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Mexico City AP  —  Nearly five centuries after Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés signed it and decades after someone swiped it from Mexico’s national archives, the FBI returned a priceless manuscript page to Mexico on Wednesday. The FBI said in a statement that the document had changed hands various times over the years, so no one will be charged. “This is an original manuscript page that was actually signed by Hernán Cortés on February 20, 1527,” said Special Agent Jessica Dittmer, a member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. By then, Cortés had conquered the Aztec empire…

PARIS (AP) — For visitors to France overwhelmed by the crowds at Versailles, the Paris region offers a calmer chateau experience: The fortress of Vincennes, a medieval royal residence with the tallest keep in Europe that once held renowned figures such as the Marquis de Sade.The massive fortress east of Paris, just 15 minutes from the city center by metro, immerses visitors in history as soon as they walk through the drawbridge.The castle is much older than Versailles and closer to Paris, local guide Cindy Smili-Yesli said. “It’s a fairly quiet castle,” she said. “The visiting conditions are much more…

For decades, NASA built and flew its own relay orbiters and spacecraft to ferry valuable data back to Earth. Now the agency is shifting to buying connectivity as a service, much like it does for launch and astronaut transport. That pivot has sparked a race, with major contenders pitching ways to keep Mars missions online. What’s at stake isn’t a single contract: it’s the data pipe to Mars. This new approach, which will mix NASA assets and commercial infrastructure, would gradually replace the patchwork relay network the agency relies on today. Generally, that works by orbiters like Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter…

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — No matter the offense, states must educate students in juvenile detention. It’s a complicated challenge, no doubt — and success stories are scarce.In Florida, where more than 1,000 students are in long-term confinement, the state last year put those kids’ schooling online. That’s despite strong evidence that online learning failed many kids during the pandemic. The state juvenile justice system contracted with the Florida Virtual School, one of the nation’s oldest and largest online learning systems.State leaders were hoping Florida Virtual School would bring more rigorous, uniform standards across their juvenile justice classrooms. When students left…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A US Navy guided-missile destroyer performed a Freedom of Navigation operation (FONOP) near disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Wednesday, just two days after two Chinese military vessels collided while chasing a Philippine Coast Guard ship in nearby waters. The presence of the US ship in the area prompted China’s military to accuse the US Navy of violating it’s territorial sovereignty, but the US Navy said it had the right to be there. “USS Higgins (DDG 76) asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near Scarborough Reef, consistent with international…