Petersburg Post Home

The Petersburg Post



US   POLITICS  
Democrats Are Catching Impeachment Fever
- The House of Representatives on Thursday blocked a resolution to impeach President Donald Trump by a bipartisan vote of 237 to 140, with 23 Democrats voting to table and 47 voting "present." But with campaign season approaching, Trump's popularity waning and Democratic primary voters looking for candidates with backbone, Green's lonely quest to use the House impeachment power is gaining some new supporters eager to ...

Source: news.yahoo.com
US   MARKETS  
Here's how much a $50,000 HELOC can cost monthly after the December Fed rate cut
- If you're looking to borrow $50,000 in today's economy and don't want to spend an exorbitant amount in interest to get it, you may not have to look very far. With home equity levels rising to a record high this year, you may easily have this much to borrow from your home. And if you do so with a home equity line of credit (HELOC) , you'll secure an interest rate lower than what's available with home equity loans , ...

Source: cbsnews.com
BUSINESS   TECHNOLOGY  
Disney announces major OpenAI deal, includes $1B equity investment, use of characters on Sora video platform
- Three-year agreement covers Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters for Sora video program launching 2026 Disney has come to an agreement with OpenAI Ranch to license its famous characters for the Sora video program. The two companies made the announcement on Thursday, saying it is a 3-year license that covers 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. The deal does not ...

Source: foxbusiness.com
US   POLITICS  
Judge Orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia Be Removed From ICE Custody Immediately
- The end of the year brings noise. Your membership ensures our newsroom remains a clear, reliable source of facts for the whole community. Help us keep the signal strong for the year ahead. Already a member? A federal judge on Thursday ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the Trump administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador, to be immediately freed from immigration detention. In the order , ...

Source: huffpost.com
US   POLITICS  
Senate rejects extension of health care subsidies
- WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday rejected legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, essentially guaranteeing that millions of Americans will see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year. As Republicans and Democrats have failed to find compromise, senators voted on two partisan bills instead that they knew would fail — the Democratic bill to extend the subsidies, and a ...

Source: bostonglobe.com
US  
The truth problem: Why verifiable AI is the next strategic mandate
- As AI takes center stage, the real win is making sure we can actually trust its decisions — and that's why verifiable AI is becoming non-negotiable. A few years ago, a model we had integrated for customer analytics produced results that looked impressive, but no one could explain how or why those predictions were made. When we tried to trace the source data, half of it came from undocumented pipelines. That ...

Source: cio.com
WORLD   POLITICS  
Trump plan to require social media handles from Europeans and other expedited travelers sparks pushback
- WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A U.S. travel association, a top Democrat, and would-be travelers from Europe and Australia are bristling at President Donald Trump's new plan to require Europeans and ​other visitors using the visa waiver program to provide social media handles used over the past five years. The ‌change, announced in a U.S. government notice this week and effective February 8, would ...

Source: news.yahoo.com
Police don't release details on arrest of fired Michigan coach Sherrone Moore
- ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Sherrone Moore was being held in jail Thursday while police investigate the situation that led to his arrest hours after the once-promising coach was fired at Michigan for what the school said was an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Authorities have yet to release details on Moore's arrest, other than to say he has been held since Wednesday night in the Washtenaw County Jail ...

Source: chicago.suntimes.com
SCIENCE  
Neanderthals Were Starting Fires 400,000 Years Ago and Probably Taught Homo Sapiens Too
- Turns out the ability to use fire might have started long before our species, with Neanderthal ancestors. The old cliché goes like this: humans mastered fire, and with it, we conquered the world. But a plot twist is emerging from the sediment of history. What if it wasn't Homo sapiens who figured this out first? What if it was the Neanderthals, or their ancestors? According to groundbreaking findings from ...

Source: zmescience.com
US   POLITICS  
Justice Department fails to reindict Letitia James for a second time
- A grand jury, for a second time, declined to bring a new indictment against Letitia James, the New York attorney general who defeated President Donald Trump and his company in court, according to multiple sources. The Justice Department presented its case against James to grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, Thursday — a week after a different grand jury in Norfolk declined to bring charges. Of the five cases ...

Source: aol.com
WORLD  
Thailand has launched more airstrikes, claims Cambodia, as heavy fighting flares following ceasefire | World News
- Nine Thai soldiers have been killed since Monday, Thailand's military announced on Thursday. Cambodia said Thailand has launched more airstrikes, as heavy fighting flared and both sides accused the other of violating their sovereignty along the contested border region. The latest large-scale fighting was set off by a skirmish on Sunday that wounded two Thai soldiers and derailed a ceasefire pushed by Donald Trump ...

Source: news.sky.com
Architects of artificial intelligence named Time Person of the Year
- Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Time magazine on Thursday named the architects of artificial intelligence as the 2025 Person of the Year. While no one specific person was singled out by the magazine for the annual honor, the cover story for the edition featured interviews with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Baidu CEO Robin Li. Time editor in chief Sam Jacobs, in a ...

Source: upi.com
US   HEALTH  
Major measles outbreak leads to hundreds quarantined in US county, officials say
- You can now listen to Fox News articles! South Carolina is facing a major measles outbreak , resulting in the quarantine of hundreds of residents. The South Carolina Department of Health (DPH) reported in a media briefing on Wednesday that the current number of measles cases has reached 111 as part of the current Spartanburg County outbreak. DPH first reported a measles outbreak in the Upstate region on Oct. 2. The ...

Source: foxnews.com
WORLD   POLITICS  
Zelenskyy says US seeking 'free economic zone' in eastern Ukraine
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the United States is pushing for Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Donetsk region to establish a "free economic zone" in the Kyiv-held parts of eastern Ukraine that Moscow wants to control. Zelenskyy confirmed on Thursday that his country had presented the US with a 20-point set of counter-proposals for peace amid discussions on security guarantees with top US ...

Source: aljazeera.com
Iceland joins 4 other countries in boycotting Eurovision over Israel's participation
- Bjork supported the boycott move ( JTA ) — The public broadcaster of Iceland announced on Wednesday that it will not participate in this year's Eurovision Song Contest after Israel's participation was confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union last week. The decision drew support from prominent Icelandic artists, including the singer Björk and the former Eurovision representative Paul Oscar, as well as ...

Source: forward.com
POLITICS  
Trump Signs Order Seeking to Limit State-Level AI Regulation (3)
- President Donald Trump signed an order aimed at thwarting state-level regulation of artificial intelligence through lawsuits and funding cuts, handing a win to tech industry leaders who've pressed for preemption of local rules. Trump said the measure was necessary to bolster the emerging technology and counter a patchwork of state-level rules the industry worries will hamper its growth. "You have to have a central ...

Source: news.bloomberglaw.com
US   MEDICINE  
COVID Vaccines Slashed Kids' ER Visits by 76 Percent, Study Finds
- The COVID vaccines reduced the risk of emergency room or urgent care visits by 76 percent in children aged nine months through four years and by 56 percent in those aged five through 17 compared with children who didn't receive a vaccine, according to a study in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly report. The findings, published in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , ...

Source: scientificamerican.com
Killer whales are teaming up with dolphins on salmon hunts, study finds — but not everyone agrees
- It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. Orcas living off the coast of British Columbia in Canada have been spotted hunting with dolphins and sharing scraps of salmon with them after making a kill. The northern resident population of orcas ( Orcinus orca ...

Source: livescience.com
MEDICINE  
Sperm donor with hidden cancer gene fathers nearly 200 kids, families blindsided
- You can now listen to Fox News articles! A sperm donor whose samples helped conceive nearly 200 children across Europe unknowingly carried a cancer-causing genetic mutation — a hidden risk now tied to multiple childhood illnesses and early deaths. An investigation led by the BBC and many other public service broadcasters revealed that the donations were made to Denmark's European Sperm Bank (ESB). Those ...

Source: foxnews.com
New "Trump Cards" Debut, Expediting Visa Process for Those Who Pay $1 Million
- On Wednesday, through a legally dubious executive order, President Donald Trump launched the "Trump Card," a means by which wealthy immigrants or their corporate backers can expedite their visa process and gain entry into the United States. "THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S TRUMP GOLD CARD IS HERE TODAY!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday . "A direct path to Citizenship for all qualified and vetted ...

Source: truthout.org
OpenAI releases GPT-5.2 after "code red" Google threat alert
- Company claims new AI model tops Gemini and matches humans on 70% of work tasks. On Thursday, OpenAI released GPT-5.2, its newest family of AI models for ChatGPT, in three versions called Instant, Thinking, and Pro. The release follows CEO Sam Altman's internal "code red" memo earlier this month, which directed company resources toward improving ChatGPT in response to competitive pressure from Google's Gemini 3 AI ...

Source: arstechnica.com
NASCAR gives teams permanent charters in antitrust settlement
- CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Michael Jordan and NASCAR chairman Jim France stood side-by-side on the steps of a federal courthouse as if they were old friends following a stunning settlement Thursday of a bruising antitrust case in which the Basketball Hall of Famer was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing the top racing series in the United States of being a monopolistic bully. The duo was flanked by three-time ...

Source: chicago.suntimes.com
Washington state under emergency as torrential rain triggers floods, mudslides, and evacuations
- MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Washington was under a state of emergency on Thursday from a barrage of torrential rain that had sent rivers flowing over their banks, caused mudslides to crash down on highways, and trapped people in floodwaters. Tens of thousands of residents were under evacuation orders. Heavy rain continued to fall over parts of the state, prompting rising rivers, road closures, water rescues, and ...

Source: bostonglobe.com
DIGITAL   TECHNOLOGY  
Don't Pay For Photoshop And Acrobat: Use Them For Free In ChatGPT First
- Frontier AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini offer several advanced features beyond text generation that may reduce your need to use (and pay) for a different specialized app. AI image generation and editing capabilities are so advanced that you don't need to learn how to use Photoshop. Just tell the AI to create or edit images for you.  that it can create infographics and slides, so it can replace Adobe ...

Source: bgr.com
DIGITAL   MARKETS  
Oracle shares plummet over 12% in premarket, dragging down AI stocks
- Oracle shares sank on Wednesday after revenue earnings missed analyst expectations. The database software maker extended losses on Thursday. Other AI-related names fell alongside it. In this article Oracle  shares plummeted over 12% in premarket trading on Thursday, extending yesterday's losses after the firm reported disappointing results. The cloud computing and database software maker reported ...

Source: cnbc.com
MEDICINE  
Lilly's next-gen obesity drug delivers major weight loss in Phase 3 trial, but with many discontinuations
- Eli Lilly's next-generation obesity drug led to what appears to be the most weight loss seen so far in a late-stage trial, but rates of side effects were high and many participants discontinued the treatment, including people who felt they were losing too much weight. In a 68-week Phase 3 study of patients with obesity and knee osteoarthritis, those who took the highest dose and stayed on the drug, called ...

Source: statnews.com
New AI Browsers Promise Multistep Automated Workflows | PYMNTS.com
- The age-old desire to automate online work is driving a new arms race in Silicon Valley: the agentic browser. With today's (Dec. 11) launch of Opera's Neon artificial intelligence (AI) browser, available for $20 a month, the field of competitors is expanding, promising an AI assistant that can browse, click, and reason on a user's behalf. These new tools, like Neon's ability to analyze videos, draft text, and ...

Source: pymnts.com
US  
Trump's education department just axed Biden's student loan plan
- Trump's Education Dept. Just Axed Biden's Student Loan Plan One in six adults in the country has federal student loan debt. Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs. The Department of Education announced Tuesday that it reached a settlement agreement with the state of Missouri to end former President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program.  The Saving on a Valuable ...

Source: motherjones.com
Katniss! Peeta! Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson Will Return to the 'Hunger Games' Universe
- Fourteen years after their breakout roles in the juggernaut dystopian franchise The Hunger Games , and a decade since their last appearance in one of the films, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are set to return to Panem. As reported by Deadline , the stars are confirmed to appear in the forthcoming prequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping . The movie follows The Hunger Games (2012) , Catching Fire ...

Source: vogue.com
POLITICS  
FACT FOCUS: Trump blames Biden for the agricultural trade deficit. It's not that simple
- As President Donald Trump announced a $12 billion farm aid package this week to help U.S. farmers hurt by tariffs, he placed responsibility for the U.S. agricultural trade deficit on former President Joe Biden. But in casting blame elsewhere, he is ignoring other factors, including his own role. Currently, farmers — especially those that produce soybeans and sorghum — have had a hard time selling their ...

Source: apnews.com
POLITICS  
Trump to set up militarized zone along US-Mexico border in California
- The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it plans to create a militarized zone along the U.S.-Mexico border in California to support border security operations for three years, the latest in a controversial series of moves aimed at securing the border amid the government's immigration crackdown. that the agency plans to transfer about 760 acres of public land in San Diego and Imperial counties to the ...

Source: bradenton.com
US   POLITICS  
Bipartisan, bicameral bill looks to help the government hire more AI talent
- The proposal follows the exodus of hundreds of thousands government employees — including AI and tech talent — under the Trump administration's push to shrink the government workforce. A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday meant to modernize how the government hires technical talent, especially those specializing in artificial intelligence. The AI Talent Act ...

Source: nextgov.com
US  
Open AI, Microsoft sued over ChatGPT's alleged role in murder-suicide
- The heirs of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman are suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for wrongful death, alleging that the artificial intelligence chatbot intensified her son's "paranoid delusions" and helped direct them at his mother before he died by suicide. Police said Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, a former tech industry worker, fatally beat and strangled his mother, Suzanne Adams, and ...

Source: aol.com
WORLD  
Trump administration claims that spending $140 million on jets for deportations will save money
- In its latest splurge, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will spend nearly $140 million on six Boeing 737 planes to deport immigrants. The new DHS planes are intended to cut costs "by allowing ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to operate more effectively," Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told The Washington Post . The planes will be purchased with funding granted by the One ...

Source: reason.com
US   POLITICS  
Federal judge orders Trump to end California National Guard federalization
- News red__koral__ph / Pixabay Federal judge orders Trump to end California National Guard federalization A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to end its six-month federalization of the California National Guard, ruling the deployment lacks legal justification. US federal law ( 10 USC § 12406 ) permits the president to federalize National Guard troops only when the nation faces ...

Source: jurist.org
POLITICS  
Venezuela's Machado absent from Nobel ceremony but her travel to Oslo draws mixed reactions at home
- – Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was absent Wednesday from the ceremony in Norway in which she was to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize award, but confirmation that she was traveling to Europe elicited mixed feelings in her country, where many backed her precisely because she had not left her homeland. Machado's daughter accepted the award on her behalf in a ceremony that became ...

Source: news4jax.com
BUSINESS   SCIENCE  
A Vital NASA Mars Orbiter Has Gone Dark
- MAVEN has circled Mars for more than a decade, exploring the planet and relaying data from robots on the surface. Reading time 2 minutes NASA has lost the signal from a Martian probe that also serves as a communications relay for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the surface of the Red Planet. The MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft was operating normally on December 6 when its orbit ...

Source: gizmodo.com
MEDICINE  
Heart disease risk greater for women with a common condition they may not be aware they have
- Heart disease has long been the top killer of women in the United States, but new research suggests uterine fibroids, which many may not even be aware they have, could be putting them at a significantly greater risk. A large, 10-year study found that women with leiomyomas had an 81% higher long-term risk of heart disease than those without the common condition. Women with fibroids — generally benign tumors ...

Source: nbcnews.com
US   POLITICS  
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell records
- U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer Tuesday cleared the way for the release of potentially hundreds of thousands of documents from the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. "unambiguously applies" to the Maxwell grand jury testimony and "voluminous" other records from the case, Engelmayer ruled, including evidence not used in the 2021 trial that resulted in Maxwell's 20-year ...

Source: theweek.com
POLITICS  
US Threatens ICC With More Sanctions to Prevent Future Prosecution of Trump: Report
- Exclusive reporting by Reuters on Wednesday cites an anonymous government official who says that the Trump administration has privately reached out to the International Criminal Court in order to threaten new sanctions against the ICC unless it pledges not to prosecute President Donald Trump for any crimes he may have committed. According to the news agency: The Trump administration official, speaking on the ...

Source: commondreams.org
US   POLITICS  
Trump calls media reports on his health 'seditious, perhaps even treasonous'
- Outburst is sparked by reports as the 79-year-old US president's health and appearance come under greater scrutiny Reading Time: 2 minutes US President Donald Trump has blasted media reports questioning his state of health as "seditious, perhaps even treasonous", sparking pushback on Wednesday by one of the major outlets behind the stories. In a long, late-night social media post, the oldest elected president in US ...

Source: scmp.com
US  
DeSantis touts 'Floridians First' budget plan in Orlando
- Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Gov. Ron DeSantis rolled out his "Floridians First" budget proposal Wednesday in Orlando, calling for more than $1.5 billion in funding for teacher pay increases and a continuation of his key environmental and law enforcement initiatives. As he approaches his final year in office, DeSantis said he wants a $117 billion spending plan, about the same as the current year's ...

Source: orlandosentinel.com
POLITICS  
Tourists from 42 countries will have to submit 5 years of social media history to enter U.S. under Trump plan
- The Trump administration is proposing to ask visitors from several dozen nations that enjoy visa-free travel to the U.S. to submit additional personal information before entering the country, including five years of their social media history, the Department of Homeland Security said in a notice this week. Citizens of 42 countries enrolled in the visa waiver program can generally come to the U.S. for up to 90 days ...

Source: cbsnews.com
BUSINESS  
Amazon vows record $35 billion investment in India by 2030 - The
- NEW DELHI: In India's biggest foreign investment, American e-commerce and tech giant Amazon on Wednesday committed to pump in $35 billion (over Rs 3.1 lakh crore) to boost its operations in the country as it adds to the $40 billion-plus it has already put into the market since 2010. The investment is planned by 2030 and came a day after Microsoft committed another $17.5 billion. At its annual 'Smbhav' summit in the ...

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com