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How to spot fake posts and media as you follow the Israel-Hamas war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, there has been a growing number of reports of disinformation appearing online, on websites and social media. And in this new age of deepfake videos, AI-manipulated content and overall fictitious posts, more care should be taken when consuming information.“It’s really hard for somebody to just look at their feed, and then just trust that everything’s true,” said digital expert Kim Komando.Her first piece of advice is to see if stories exist on other websites. One way to do that is to use Google to search for the headline of the piece you are reading. She also said the headline itself can sometimes tell you a lot.“If you see a story and it has that big clickbait headline, it’s probably fake,” Komando said.With pictures, Komando recommends downloading the images in question and uploading them to Google or Tin Eye to do a reverse image search. It will search for the picture and show you where the image came fro...

¿Qué lugares están amenazados por el huracán Lidia ahora que tocó tierra en México?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

(CNN Español) – Lidia tocó tierra en el estado de Jalisco, México, como huracán categoría 4 “extremadamente peligroso”, informó el Centro Nacional de Huracanes de Estados Unidos. El ciclón ya deja fuertes vientos e intensas lluvias en la zona. También amenaza con importantes inundaciones.Lidia toca tierra en Jalisco, México, como huracán categoría 4 “extremadamente peligroso”El centro del huracán, con vientos máximos sostenidos de 225 km/h, impactó cerca de Las Peñitas en el municipio Tomatán, Jalisco, poco antes de las 6 p.m., hora local (8 p.m., hora del este), según el centro de huracanes.Se espera que Lidia deje entre 10 y 20 cm de lluvia en la región, e incluso hasta 30 cm en algunas áreas, lo que probablemente causará inundaciones repentinas y deslizamientos de tierra, advirtió la entidad.Por su parte, el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional de México (SNM) informó que el centro de Lidia se localiza a 25 km al sur-sureste de Cabo Corrientes y a 55 km al sur-suroeste de ...

Astros pound 4 homers, with a pair by Abreu, to rout Twins 9-1 and take 2-1 ALDS lead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Late-afternoon shadows made the ball difficult to pick up, and Minnesota’s Sonny Gray presented a tough opponent on the mound.The Houston Astros just powered their way through and produced yet another October masterpiece.José Abreu hit a three-run homer for Houston in a four-run first inning against Gray and piled on with a two-run shot in the ninth, carrying the Astros past the Twins 9-1 on Tuesday for a 2-1 AL Division Series lead.Yordan Alvarez hit his fourth home run in three games and Alex Bregman had a homer and an RBI single for the defending World Series champions, who took charge from their first at-bat and moved within one win of a seventh consecutive AL Championship Series appearance. Astros starter Cristian Javier took it from there with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings.“It was kind of just pass the torch to the next guy,” said Bregman, who has 16 postseason homers. “Put together a good at-bat and grind it out.”Game 4 is at T...

Suspects wanted for sexual assault on a child near South Platte River

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver Police are searching for two suspects who are wanted for allegedly sexually assaulting a child on the South Platte River Trail.According to the Denver Police Department, the assault happened on Aug. 21 at 1 a.m. near 31st Street and North Brighton Boulevard.Police said both suspects are wanted for sexual assault on a child and statutory rape. Family mourns 16-year-old after rollover crash in Arvada The first suspect is described as:White or Hispanic male In his late teens to early 20sDescribed as wearing:A black baseball capA dark T-shirt with a blue and purple image on the chestBlack Adidas-style track pants with white stripesWhite Adidas-style sneakers with white stripesPolice are looking to identify this suspect who is wanted for sexual assault on a child and statutory rape on the Platte River Trail. (Metro Denver Crime Stoppers) The second suspect is described as:Hispanic or Black maleIn his late teens to early 20sDescribed as wearing:White and brown tru...

US may send second aircraft carrier toward Israel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

The U.S. could soon have two aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean, according to Defense Department officials, a move that would mark a major escalation in U.S. military power in the region as fighting intensifies between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, along with its associated warships and fighter jets, was already scheduled to depart from Norfolk, Va., this week and may be ordered to deploy to the waters off the coast of Israel, according to two DOD officials who were granted anonymity to discuss future operations.The Eisenhower group has long been scheduled to deploy and operate near Europe, DOD spokesperson Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry said in a statement Tuesday.The ship is slated to leave Norfolk on Friday and could reach the eastern Mediterranean by the end of October if ordered, one of the DOD officials said. At that point, the Eisenhower would join the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford and its strike group, which the Pe...

Hamas attack might be Israel’s Tet Offensive

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

Daniel C. Thomas is professor of international relations at Leiden University.It is tempting to compare Hamas’ latest attack on Israel, launched at the end of the Simchat Torah holiday, to Egypt and Syria’s 1973 attack on the country during Yom Kippur. But it is the 1968 Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War that may prove a more instructive historical parallel.In late January of 1968, Vietcong guerillas and the army of North Vietnam broke a cease-fire, launching a massive attack against South Vietnamese and United States forces across most of the cities and provinces of South Vietnam.The attack was timed to coincide with the Vietnamese lunar new year festival Tết Nguyên Đán, when many South Vietnamese forces were on leave. But by the time the main offensive ended about eight weeks later, the attackers had suffered enormous casualties without making any territorial gains. In military terms, it was a total failure.The real significance of the Tet Offensive was the political shock wave it ...

No, Jeremy Corbyn: Response to Hamas attack shows how UK Labour has changed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

LIVERPOOL, England — War in the Middle East has often meant war on the British left. But this week’s Labour Party conference has been notable only for moments of solemn silence, and a broader theme of harmony, emerging from the dockside at Liverpool.The opposition party’s unified reaction to the crisis comes at a critical moment — Labour are 17 points ahead in the polls, with an election looming next year — and is the clearest sign yet of leader Keir Starmer’s vice-like grip on his party, and of how far Labour have travelled since left-winger Jeremy Corbyn resigned as leader.“I think we’ve seen a party that has changed beyond comprehension,” said former Labour MP Luciana Berger — one of several Jewish members who left under Corbyn amid bitter complaints of antisemitism within the party.As news broke Saturday of an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, it was clear the renewed conflict would at the very least overshadow Labo...

3 disagreements Macron and Scholz can’t (yet) resolve

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

HAMBURG — It’s no secret French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz don’t get along particularly well. But during a two-day bilateral retreat in Scholz’s hometown of Hamburg, they tried to put on a show of unity.Things could have gone better. During a hour-and-a-half boat tour of the Hamburg harbor, it rained. When the two leaders shared a meal of traditional north German Fischbrötchen, or pickled herring sandwiches, Macron looked like he wanted to gag.It the end, the two leaders, who came to Hamburg with their cabinets to try to forge common positions on a host of issues, from defense to trade with China, announced no concrete progress. Except, that is, for a joint paper on cutting red tape in the EU (always a good one to take out of the desk drawer when you can’t agree on anything else).Though the talks were overshadowed by the war in the Middle East, Scholz said the two countries face “very similar challenges” on a variety of issues — from economic gr...

NATO forced to do the splits over support for both Israel and Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

BRUSSELS — Defense ministers flying into the Belgian capital for a NATO meeting starting Wednesday were expecting to spend their time backing Ukraine — instead, they find their intel briefings full of a region mostly forgotten in the past two years: the Middle East.From the White House’s new military support for Israel to emergency meetings across European capitals, to a fumbled EU response to the crisis, NATO allies are grappling with a renewed sense of urgency over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel over the weekend has led to the Israeli government’s vow of total retaliation in the Gaza Strip, with a record number of 300,000 reservists already drafted within 48 hours.The timing is an inconvenience for the Ukrainians, who aim to galvanize further support from NATO countries in what will be the first defense ministers’ meeting following a NATO leaders’ summit in July that saw beefed-up pledges for Ukraine’s security and...

Hurricane Lidia makes landfall in west-central Mexico as an ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 4 storm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:10 GMT

(CNN) — Hurricane Lidia made landfall in west-central Mexico Tuesday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, bringing fierce winds and heavy rain to the area and threatening significant flooding and storm surge, according to the National Hurricane Center.The hurricane’s center, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, slammed into the state of Jalisco, near Las Penitas, shortly before 6 p.m. MT, according to the National Hurricane Center.Lidia is expected to pound the region with generally 4 to 8 inches of rain, and even up to 12 inches in some areas, likely fueling flash flooding and mudslides in areas of higher terrain, the hurricane center said.Flooding also is expected along the coast, with seawater being pushed toward the shore where Lidia came barreling through.“A dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the south of where Lidia made landfall. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destr...