American President Donald Trump has said many times in the past that he does not think climate
change is real.
In a recent television appearance, however, Trump seemed to agree in part with recent
scientific and government reports.
"Something is changing and it'll change back again," he said.
He added, "I don't know that it's man-made."
Yet, climate scientists say Trump's position is wrong.
They say human activities are responsible for about 90 percent of climate change.
Most of those activities are connected to burning coal and natural gas for electricity,
or burning gasoline and other fuel for transportation.
Such activities release heat-trapping gasses that are warming Earth.
Scientists have been showing governments evidence of this for more than 20 years, said Princeton
University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer.
He said it cannot be disputed.
Oppenheimer told the Associated Press, "Humans are causing most of the warming."
One way scientists are able to know that humans are causing the Earth's temperature to rise
is by measuring the planet's energy balance.
In other words, they measure the energy that comes in and goes out, said Stanford University
climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh.
These measurements show that, since the late 1800s, the average surface temperature of
the planet has become about 1 degree Celsius warmer.
Most of that warming has happened since the 1980s.
Researchers with the U.S. Global Change Research Program found that natural causes, such as
the sun and volcanoes, have had minor involvement in the temperature rise.
The researchers said most of the temperature rise was the result of heat-trapping gases,
air pollution and changes in land use that release and absorb carbon.
All of these energy sources are the result of human activities.
The report concluded that humans had caused at least 93 percent of the changes scientists
measured from 1951 to 2010.
Climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer says another piece of evidence for man-made climate
change is that the world has warmed in exactly the way physicists had predicted.
Physicists who studied the effect of heat-trapping gases said the air about 10 kilometers above
the Earth's surface would cool.
And it has, Oppenheimer said.
Satellite measurements since the 1980s show the lower atmosphere is becoming warmer, but
the upper atmosphere is getting cooler.
If the warming had come from changes in the sun's energy, the upper air would not have
cooled.
Climate change scientists also expected that heat-trapping gases would cause the North
Pole and the South Pole to warm faster than the rest of the Earth.
That has happened, too, said Columbia University climate scientist Adam Sobel.
The American space agency NASA reports that the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica
are severely decreasing.
Scientists continue to document other major effects in the Earth's ecosystem as a result
of climate change.
The journal PLOS published the findings this month of scientists who studied insects in
the rain forest of Puerto Rico.
They found that insects and other creatures with external skeletons "are declining at
an alarmingrate."
At the same time, the populations of animals that eat these creatures – lizards, frogs,
and birds –also have declined.
The researchers note that temperatures in the forest have risen 2 degrees Celsius since
the 1980s.
They said their study shows that "climate warming is the driving force behind the collapse
of the forest's food web."
Do scientists think the Earth's climate could "change back again" as the American
president suggested?
Science writer Seth Borenstein says it may be possible, but only if humans "drastically
and permanently cut back" on activities that release heat-trapping gasses.
I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.
Apple chief Tim Cook has warned that some companies have "weaponized" user data
in an effort to increase their profits.
Cook made the statement Wednesday in a speech to an international conference on data privacy
in Brussels, Belgium.
Technology industry representatives and privacy officials from more than 70 countries attended
the gathering.
Brussels is the headquarters of the European Union, or EU, which launched a strong new
data privacy law in May.
Cook said the EU law is an example of how officials in many areas are "asking tough
questions" about data privacy issues.
Cook said Apple fully supports proposals for a new federal law in the U.S. to protect users'
data and privacy.
"It is time for the rest of the world, including my home country, to follow your lead," Cook
said.
Calls for new U.S. laws to protect user data have increased since major data breacheshave
been reported.
They have affected millions of internet and social media users across the United States
and Europe.
Unlike Google and Facebook, Apple has avoided major data release mistakes and strong criticism
of its privacy policies.
Apple makes most of its money by selling iPhones and other devices instead of making money
from users' data through advertising.
Cook said technology companies are continuing to create new inventions to aid humanity.
However, this comes with increased risks for misuse of personal information.
Cook said the trade in personal information "has exploded" into a major money-making
operation.
"Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized
against us with military efficiency," he said.
Cook said he considers the collection of personal information by companies a form of "surveillance."
Such data serves "only to enrich the companies that collect them."
He said people should be concerned.
Cook's speech came a week after Apple launched expanded privacy protection measures for people
in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The measures permit users to learn about and capture all personal data held by Apple.
The changes took effect earlier in Europe and Apple plans to expand them worldwide in
the future.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google chief Sundar Pichai did not attend the Brussels
event.
But both sent their own video messages.
Zuckerberg said Facebook takes seriously its "basic ethical responsibility" to safeguard
personal information.
But he added that "the past year has shown we have a lot more work to do."
Both Zuckerberg and Pichai said they supported new privacy protection laws.
Pichai noted that Google recently proposed measures that would build on the EU's new
privacy measures.
I'm Bryan Lynn.
Explosive devices were sent Wednesday to former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and
the New York offices of CNN television.
The devices appeared to target well-known members of the Democratic Party.
The news comes as Americans get ready to vote in the upcoming mid-term elections.
President Donald Trump condemned the attempted bombings.
Trump said, "Acts or threats of political violence have no place in the United States."
He added, "We have to unify, we have to come together."
The U.S. Secret Service said that the "potential explosive devices" were identified and removed
before reaching Obama and Clinton.
The device sent to CNN was addressed to John Brennan, a fierce critic of President Donald
Trump.
He served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency under Obama.
The New York Police Department said explosives experts removed a pipe bomb from the CNN office.
The device appeared to be similar to the one sent Monday to financier George Soros, a long-time
supporter of the Democratic Party.
In Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating an envelope at the office
of Representative Deborah Wasserman Schultz.
She was the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
The envelope had Schultz's office as the return address and was first sent to Eric
Holder with the wrong address.
Holder served as Attorney General in the Obama administration.
Schultz's address was also the return address on the envelope sent to Brennan.
No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that five packages were sent to Soros, Obama, Clinton,
Brennan and Holder.
He said in a statement, "This investigation is of the highest priority for the FBI.
We have committed the full strength of the FBI's resources and, together with our partners
on our Joint Terrorism Task Forces, we will continue to work to identify and arrest whoever
is responsible for sending these packages."
I'm Jonathan Evans.
Google says it is deeply involved in developing artificial intelligence, or AI, to help doctors
identify and treat disease.
The company previously announced successful tests of machine learning systems designed
to assist doctors.
In one case, Google reported AI had examined images to diagnose diabetic eye disease with
equal accuracy to doctors.
Other tests showed that machine learning can be used to study massive amounts of patient
data to predict future medical events.
Google deep learning methods are used to detect diabetic eye disease.
The image on the left is a healthy retina, while the one on the right shows signs of
diabetic disease.
(Google AI) Now the company has published two new studies
showing a high level of success in identifying one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
Google carried out tests with researchers from the Naval Medical Center San Diego.
Google reported the findings on its AI website and results were also published in scientific
journals.
The tests involved machine learning methods to examine digitized images of body tissue
samples for signs of metastatic breast cancer.
Metastatic means cancer that has spread from its main area to other parts of the body.
This kind of cancer is among the most difficult to identify and treat.
Metastatic breast cancer is also one of the deadliest, causing an estimated 90 percent
of all breast cancer deaths worldwide.
In metastatic breast cancer patients, the cancer often travels to nearby lymph nodes.
Usually doctors examine lymph node tissue samples under a microscope to see whether
cancer is present.
It is important for doctors to identify metastatic cancer as quickly as possible to prevent further
spreading.
The process is also important to help make decisions about treatments.
Google notes that previous studies have shown that up to one-fourth of metastatic lymph
node classifications end up being changed after a second examination.
In addition, studies show that small metastatic material can be missed up to 67 percent of
the time when examinations happen under extreme time restrictions.
Google says it created a mathematical algorithm that greatly improves this accuracy rate.
The algorithm, called Lymph Node Assistant, is trained to find characteristics of tissue
affected by metastatic cancer.
When the system examined tissue images, it was able to differentiate between metastatic
cancer and non-cancer 99 percent of the time, Google reported.
In addition, the company said the Lymph Node Assistant was highly effective at finding
the positions of the cancers.
Some of these positions would be too small for doctors themselves to identify, Google
added.
The research also showed that the algorithm method can reduce the usual time needed to
examine a sample by about 50 percent.
The system was designed with extreme sensitivity to "exhaustively" examine every part of
a tissue sample, the researchers wrote in their paper.
But Google makes clear the AI-based system is not meant to replace the work of medical
professionals.
Instead, it is designed to reduce the number of false identifications and help doctors
work faster and more effectively.
The studies suggest that "people and algorithms can work together effectively to perform better
than either alone," Google said in a statement.
The company says that clearly more AI research and experiments will be necessary to further
progress in the fight against breast cancer.
But it is hopeful that "deep learning technologies and well-designed clinical tools" can be
continually developed to improve accuracy and availability for patients worldwide.
I'm Bryan Lynn.
This is What's Trending Today…
A small piece of white paper sold at a convenience store in
Lottery officials in the southern state say a ticket that matched all six numbers of Tuesday's
Mega Millions drawing was sold at the KC Mart shop in Simpsonville.
The town has a population of about 18,000 people.
The world may never know who the winner is, however.
South Carolina is one of eight American states that does not make lottery winners publicly
identify themselves.
The South Carolina Education Lottery tweeted, "Our message to the $1.5 BILLION #MegaMillions
jackpot winner: Sign the back of the ticket, place the ticket in a safe location, speak
with a trusted advisor and call the lottery...Take a deep breath and enjoy the moment!"
The ticket is worth about $877.8 million if the winner chooses to accept a one-time payment.
That is what most lottery winners do.
The other choice is to collect the full amount in yearly payments over the next 29 years.
Earlier estimates had said this week's Mega Millions game would be the largest lottery
jackpot ever.
However, the actual number ended up being just under a record set in 2016.
Still, the jackpot was huge.
In fact, it is 20 percent of South Carolina's yearly budget.
And it is enough money for the winner to give more than $300 to each of South Carolina's
5 million people.
And that's What's Trending Today…
I'm Ashley Thompson.
The Russian military intelligence service GRU is not as famous as other Russian government
agencies, like the KGB or the FSB.
But the GRU has been getting more attention as other countries accuse it of launching
secretive and deadly operations.
The latest accusation came earlier this month from Britain, when the government identified
two Russian men as GRU agents.
It blamed them for nerve-agentpoisonings earlier this year in Salisbury, England.
The official name of the military intelligence service is the Main Directorate of the General
Staff of the Armed Forces.
However, the agency is usually known by its former acronym.
The GRU is the most secret of Russia's secret services.
When its former director Igor Sergun died in 2016, the official announcement was so
short that it failed to give the date, place or cause of death.
The agency appears to have many responsibilities.
The Russian Defense Ministry website says its job is to aid with the success of the
Russian Federation by giving the government the intelligence it needs to make decisions
in "the political, economic, defense, scientific, technical and environmental areas."
Britain claims that two GRU operatives carried out the nerve-agent attack in Salisbury on
former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Both survived the poisoning.
Three months later, two people who lived nearby became sick from the nerve agent.
One died.
Investigators believe they found the container the carried the poison used in Skripal's
attack.
The claim came less than two months after the United States announced charges against
12 suspected GRU agents.
They were accused of hacking into the election campaign of presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton and the Democratic Party in 2016.
U.S. officials say the GRU released tens of thousands of private communications as part
of the Russian plan to interfere in the 2016 elections.
This year, the investigative group Bellingcat reported that a GRU officer was responsible
for operations in eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
At that time, Russia-supported separatist forces that were fighting Ukrainian forces.
Two-hundred-ninety-eight people were killed when a Malaysian passenger airplane flying
over the area was shot down.
International investigators say the plane was shot down by a mobile missile launcher
brought in from Russia.
The GRU officer named by Bellingcat reportedly was responsible for moving weapons to Ukraine.
Russia's RBC news service also reported this year that the GRU directs Russian citizens
fighting in Syria.
Russian officials usually deny accusations against the GRU and refuse to discuss its
activities.
They said they did not recognize the suspects named in the Salisbury poisoning.
The GRU is part of Russia's large security and intelligence system, which includes the
Foreign Intelligence Service, known as the SVR.
It also includes the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which gathers intelligence both in
Russia and overseas.
The SVR and FSB were once part of the KGB.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they became their own organizations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, led the FSB before becoming president.
As head of state, Putin names the top leadership of the GRU.
For most Russians, however, the FSB is the frightening organization because it looks
for threats inside Russia.
But the GRU, created under Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, has an even harder reputation,
because it looks at foreign threats.
The two agencies' operations seem to both compete and cooperate.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military expert, told The Associated Press that the
SVR stays away from military intelligence, and the GRU stays away from political intelligence.
He said that if both sides keep this divide, they do not have to share information.
In the case of U.S. election-related hacking, Felgenhauer said, he believes the services
worked together.
I'm Susan Shand.
More pipe bombs targeting members of the Democratic Party and a critic of U.S. President Donald
Trump were discovered Thursday.
Investigators found three more pipe bombs: one sent to actor Robert De Niro and the others
to former Vice President Joe Biden.
They said the devices were similar to the pipe bombs sent this week to former President
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and CNN television.
The package found at CNN was addressed to John Brennan, a fierce critic of Trump and
a former director of intelligence under Obama.
Others were sent to businessman George Soros, a long-time Democratic Party supporter, and
Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California.
One package mailed to former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under Obama, was returned
to the office of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
She was a former chair of the Democratic Party.
Actor Robert De Niro has long been a vocal critic of President Trump.
At the Tony Awards in June, the actor used an obscenity to insult the president.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has denounced Trump while campaigning for Democrats around
the country.
None of the devices exploded and no one was injured.
But the packages sent to Democrats and critics of the president raised tensions before the
November 6 midterm elections.
The recipients of the pipe bombs have long been targets of the president's supporters.
A conservative talk show hosts even questioned whether someone who opposed Trump sent the
bombs.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump condemned the attempted bombings and said, "Acts or
threats of political violence have no place in the United States."
But Democratic Senate and House leaders Chuck Schumer of New York and Nancy Pelosi of California
said Trump's words "ring hollow."
In other words, the lawmakers suggest Trump's words do not mean much because he supports
violence in other ways.
They noted the president's "support for the Congressman who body-slammed a reporter, the
neo-Nazis who killed a young woman in Charlottesville, his supporters at rallies who get violent
with protestors, dictators around the world who murder their own citizens, and referring
to the free press as the enemy of the people."
By Thursday morning, the president again blamed the media without referring to the bombing
attempts.
Trump wrote on Twitter: "A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused
by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as
Fake News.
It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description.
Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!"
An official told the Associated Press the bombs seized on Wednesday were about 15 centimeters
long and packed with powder and broken glass.
The official said the devices were made from plastic pipe and covered with black tape.
Law enforcement officials said all the packages were similar.
They came in brown envelopes with six stamps and the return address of Democratic lawmaker
Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
All the devices were sent to an FBI lab in Virginia to be studied.
Officials provided no details on a possible suspect or motive.
I'm Jonathan Evans.
A team of Saudi and Turkish investigators said the people who killed Jamal Khashoggi
likely planned the murder in advance.
The top government lawyer in Saudi Arabia, Saud al-Mojeb, said in a statement that the
team used information from Turkish officials to conclude that the killing had been planned.
Al-Mojeb did not say whether Saudi investigators had reached the same conclusion.
However, al-Mojeb's statement seemed to support earlier claims from Turkish officials.
The statement is another change in Saudi Arabia's story about what happened to Khashoggi, a
Saudi journalist and critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He was killed on October 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
After Khashoggi first disappeared, Saudi Arabian officials claimed Khashoggi had simply walked
out of the consulate.
Later, Saudi officials said he had been accidentally killed during a "fistfight."
Governments around the world, however, did not believe those claims.
International leaders and groups continue to call on the Saudi government to be truthful
about what happened to Khashoggi.
Turkish officials especially are pushing the Saudi government to identify who ordered the
killing.
They increased pressure by releasing information and pictures from security cameras.
Turkey's actions are making some wonder whether Prince Mohammed was involved in the
killing, even though he publicly denounced it at an international meeting on Wednesday.
Turkey has continued to demand more answers from Saudi Arabia.
The two countries are competitors in the region and also have economic ties.
Mevlut Cavusoglu is Turkey's foreign minister.
He told reporters on Thursday that he wanted to know where Khashoggi's body is.
"There is a crime here, but there is also a humanitarian situation," Cavusoglu said.
"The family wants to know and they want to perform their last duty."
In other words, the family hopes to bury Khashoggi's body.
Turkish media have published conflicting reports about whether investigators had permission
to search the garden in the Saudi Consulate.
Some have wondered if the body was put in a well there.
Turkish officials also told the Associated Press that investigators were looking for
Khashoggi's remains in a nearby forest and in a city about two hours away from Istanbul.
I'm Caty Weaver.
President Donald Trump has criticized a report by the New York Times about the use of his
personal cellphone.
Trump tweeted Thursday that the report was "incorrect" and said that he used only government
phones.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Chinese and Russian spies often secretly listen
when Trump talks with old friends on his Apple iPhone.
The Times story said that American intelligence reports suggested this was the case.
The Times also reported that Trump's aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone
calls are not secure.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying was asked about the story during a press conference
on Thursday.
Hua compared the report to "fake news."
She said that releasing such a report "would only add to evidence that it was fabricating
fake news."
She went on to suggest that mobile phones produced by Huawei might be a better choice
for security.
Huawei is a major Chinese telecommunications company.
American intelligence agency leaders and others have expressed concern about the Huawei Technologies
company.
They say Huawei may have ties to the Chinese government or ruling Communist Party, increasing
the risk of spying.
Reuters reports that the U.S. Democratic National Committee warned party candidates seeking
election in November not to use Huawei or ZTE devices.
ZTE is another major Chinese telecommunications company.
The U.S. Department of Defense stopped selling some Huawei and ZTE devices on military bases
last May, Reuters reports.
And in March, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai told Congress he shared
concerns about Huawei and spying.
The New York Times cited U.S. officials as saying China was seeking to use information
from the president's calls to learn what Trump thinks, whom he listens to and how best to
influence him.
The report said China was especially interested in trying to use what it learns to stop the
current trade war between the two countries.
I'm Mario Ritter.
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