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WASHINGTON (AP) — Already diminished by cuts by the Trump administration, the U.S. Education Department will see more of its work come to a halt due to the government shutdown. The department says many of its core operations will continue in the shutdown kicking off Wednesday. Federal financial aid will keep flowing, and student loan payments will still be due. But investigations into civil rights complaints will stop, and the department will not issue new federal grants. About 87% of its workforce will be furloughed, according to a department contingency plan.Since he took office, President Donald Trump has called for…

DIXON, Calif. (AP) — The owner of a giant Northern California corn maze once crowned the world’s largest wants visitors to remember that there is fun in getting lost. “It is confusing. It’s exciting, and in a world of GPS and constant signage, you always know where you are, where you’re going,” said Taylor Cooley, owner of Cool Patch Pumpkins. “When you’re in the corn, everything looks the same until you pop up on a bridge and you’re like, ‘Oh wait, I’m all the way over here. I thought I was over there.’ ”Cooley’s pumpkin patch and corn maze along…

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Classes were canceled or moved online this week in more than half of the departments at Mexico’s National Autonomous University over security concerns following the recent killing of a student at a university feeder school and a spate of threats.The rector of the country’s leading university committed Tuesday to strengthening security measures and bolstering emotional support available to students.The school has experienced cases of gender-based violence over the years, and is now investigating threats made against several female professors, in addition to last week’s killing of a 16-year-old student at the Sciences and Humanities School South…

Tulum hotels and beach clubs – numbering upwards of a dozen – have joined forces with local residents and businesses regarding restrictions to beaches, which are part of Jaguar Park, which opened last year.“I’m sharing some great news for Tulum: 15 hotels and beach clubs are opening their doors so everyone can access the beach with no entrance fee and no minimum consumption,” said Tulum Mayor Diego Castañón in a story published in Riviera Maya News. “This agreement with the private sector represents an important step for both residents and visitors to freely enjoy the best we have: our beaches,”…

Fubo, the popular live sports TV streaming service, announced on Tuesday that its shareholders have approved its transaction with Disney, combining Fubo with Hulu Live TV.  Initially announced in January, the deal brings the companies closer to finalizing an agreement that is anticipated to disrupt the streaming industry by making Hulu a far bigger threat to its larger rival, YouTube. YouTube TV reportedly now has around 10 million subscribers, in large part due to is live sports-related content. Hulu Live TV and Fubo together have about 6 million subscribers, so this merger is a step toward closing that competitive gap. …

SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) — At least 91 students remain trapped in concrete rubble almost two days after an Islamic school building collapsed on them, authorities said after reviewing attendance records and reports from anxious families of those missing.More than 300 rescue workers desperately worked to free survivors Wednesday morning, after the structure fell on top of hundreds of people, mostly teen boys, who had been performing afternoon prayers Monday in a prayer hall at a century-old al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in East Java province that was undergoing an unauthorized expansion. At least three students have been confirmed dead and…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Chunk, a towering brown bear with a broken jaw, swept the competition Tuesday in the popular Fat Bear Week contest — his first win after narrowly finishing in second place three previous years.The annual online competition allows viewers to follow 12 bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve on live webcams and cast ballots in a bracket-style, single-elimination tournament that lasts a week. Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — beat out Bear 856, who doesn’t have a nickname, in the final bracket, according to totals posted on the organizers’ website.Chunk’s weight was estimated…

International US citizen departures in July 2025 rose by 4.6 percent to 11,765,102 compared to the same period last year, according to data from the National Travel and Tourism Office (NNTO).“The year-to-date market share for North America (Mexico & Canada) was 48.8 percent and overseas was 51.2 percent, NNTO said, adding that Mexico was the recipient of the biggest outbound visitor volume of 3,778,909, which represented 32.1% of July departures. “Canada recorded a year-over-year decrease of 4.3 percent,” NNTO said.“Combined year-to-date, Mexico (24,529,733) and the Caribbean (7,393,922) accounted for 48.7 percent of total U.S. citizen international visitor departures,” NNTO said.…