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Chicago Bears Q&A: Is a reunion with Leonard Floyd a possibility? How much improvement can be expected from Justin Fields?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

The NFL calendar never rests. With the draft and rookie minicamp in the rearview mirror for the Chicago Bears, this week brings the 2023 schedule release, followed by the start of organized team activities on May 22.The Bears still have holes to fill on their roster, too, and that’s where Brad Biggs’ weekly Bears mailbag begins.With a wide-open NFC North, why aren’t the Bears signing some of these defensive ends in free agency to prove-it deals? Plenty of cap space to make this roster better still. — @jameslawrencef2A couple of thoughts here. The Bears certainly have enough cap space to accomplish just about anything they want at this point in the offseason. Overthecap.com estimates they have nearly $31 million available after signing their entire draft class. General manager Ryan Poles has talked about being calculated and remaining flexible, and while you’re correct the division appears wide open, this doesn’t strike me as the time or place to f...

Mass event will let hackers test limits of AI technology

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

No sooner did ChatGPT get unleashed than hackers started “jailbreaking” the artificial intelligence chatbot — trying to override its safeguards so it could blurt out something unhinged or obscene. But now its maker, OpenAI, and other major AI providers such as Google and Microsoft, are coordinating with the Biden administration to let thousands of hackers take a shot at testing the limits of their technology.Some of the things they’ll be looking to find: How can chatbots be manipulated to cause harm? Will they share the private information we confide in them to other users? And why do they assume a doctor is a man and a nurse is a woman?“This is why we need thousands of people,” said Rumman Chowdhury, lead coordinator of the mass hacking event planned for this summer’s DEF CON hacker convention in Las Vegas that’s expected to draw several thousand people. “We need a lot of people with a wide range of lived experiences, subject matter expertise and backg...

Japan, South Korea partnership funds to go to chips, energy

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Top business leaders from Japan and South Korea announced Wednesday they will use a fund meant to underscore the two countries’ burgeoning ties to strengthen their cooperation in energy, industry and other sectors. Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren, and its South Korean counterpart, the Federation of Korean Industry, announced a fund of 200 million yen ($1.5 million) in March. The money comes from an initial installment of 100 million yen ($750,000) from each side to complement efforts initiated by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government to resolve a historical dispute over Japanese brutality during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The two groups selected specific areas of joint projects for the Future Partnership funds, focusing on youth exchanges and industrial cooperation, said Kendanren chair Masakazu Tokura and Federation of Korean Industry acting chair Kim Byong-joon Wednesday at a joint news conference in Toky...

Disney board axed X-rated, liquor stores; forgot about jails

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Before allies of Gov. Ron DeSantis took over, Disney World’s governing district, which at the time was controlled by Disney supporters, reached an agreement in February with the company to prohibit a long list of businesses from ever being operated on its property.Forbidden establishments included tattoo parlors, liquor stores, adult entertainment, oil refineries and trailer parks. But they didn’t include prisons, which the Florida governor recently mused could be built there, when talking in a trolling tone about his year-long feud with the entertainment giant.“What should we do with this land? And so, you know, it’s like, OK, kids — I mean, people have said, you know, maybe have another — maybe create a state park. Maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison,” DeSantis said last month. “Who knows? I mean, I just think that the possibilities are endless.”The agreement, which the DeSantis allies ...

Russia ends visa regime for Georgia, restores direct flights

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed decrees abolishing visas for Georgian nationals and lifting a 2019 ban on direct flights to the South Caucasus nation. According to the documents, starting from May 15, Georgian nationals will be allowed to enter Russia without visas — unless they’re coming to Russia to work or to stay for longer than 90 days. The second decree lifts a ban on flights to Georgia that Russia unilaterally imposed in 2019. Following Putin’s decrees, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement lifting its 2019 recommendation for Russian citizens to avoid traveling to Georgia. Russia-Georgia relations have been rocky and complicated since the Soviet Union’s collapse in the early 1990s. The two countries fought a short war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control of two Russia-friendly separatist regions. Tbilisi had severed diplomatic ties with Moscow, and the issue of the regions’ status remains a key irritant, even as relati...

Imran Khan in court as more violence erupts in Pakistan

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared in court Wednesday, a day after he was dragged from another court and arrested in Islamabad, setting off clashes between his supporters and police. Angry protesters stormed and set fire to a building housing Radio Pakistan in the northwest as the death toll from the violence rose to four. In Islamabad, a judge was asked to approve keeping the 70-year-old opposition leader in custody for up to 14 days. Khan, who lost power last year but remains the country’s most popular opposition figure, is the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in Pakistan. His dramatic arrest on Tuesday deepened the political turmoil and sparked violent demonstrations. Two people were killed first, one Tuesday in the southwestern city of Quetta and another in the northwestern city of Peshawar overnight. Two more were in clashes with police Wednesday in Peshawar. In eastern Punjab province, where authorities said 157 police...

Motorcyclist killed in two-vehicle crash on Hwy. 88 in Simcoe County

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

A 53-year-old man is dead after a crash involving a motorcycle and an SUV north of Toronto.Emergency crews were called to County Road 88 east of Highway 400, in the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday.Investigators with South Simcoe Police Service say the Bradford man who was riding the motorcycle was pronounced dead at the scene.The driver remained at the scene.

Maple Leafs fans set to gather as team fights to stave off elimination

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

Fans will once again gather in downtown Toronto Wednesday night as the Maple Leafs fight to stay alive in the NHL playoffs.The Leafs are playing in Florida, where the Panthers are hosting Game 4 with a 3-0 lead in the second-round playoff series.It’s the furthest the Leafs have gone in the playoffs in nearly 20 years after making it out of the opening round for the first time since 2004.Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) says it is set to welcome fans to an expanded area outside Toronto’s Scotiabank arena on Wednesday evening where they can watch the game on large screens.Spokesperson Victoria Malisani says MLSE’s two tailgate spaces can accommodate about 6,500 fans in total.Similar to other playoff games, Toronto police say there will be an increased police presence around Maple Leaf Square and the Scotiabank Arena to ensure public safety, minimize disruptions, and manage traffic.“The crowds so far have been relatively peaceful, and we hope it stays ...

Schoolboy in Tokyo stabbed in chest, suspect arrested

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police said a schoolboy was stabbed in the chest as he stepped out of his house to go to school Wednesday in a residential area of downtown Tokyo. A suspect was arrested at the scene. The 13-year-old junior high school student was rushed to a hospital, but his injuries were not life-threatening, the Tokyo metropolitan police said.Police said they arrested a 61-year-old man for allegedly assaulting the student. Police refused to say if the suspect, who they said was unemployed, admitted to the attack or gave a motive. Police said the boy, whose name is withheld because he is a minor, was stabbed by a kitchen knife. The suspect had blood on his hands and clothes when he was arrested, media reports said.The attack occurred in a residential neighborhood, a few minutes’ walk away from a train station. Japan has strict gun controls and shootings are rare but there have been high-profile cases of random knife attacks on subways and arson in recent years.The Asso...

ASEAN leaders to agree to cooperate in fighting cyber scams

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:20:39 GMT

LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia (AP) — Southeast Asian leaders have agreed to tighten border controls and law enforcement and improve public education to fight criminal syndicates that are trafficking workers to other nations, where they are forced to participate in online fraud, according to a draft statement to be issued Thursday at the end of a regional summit.The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, who are meeting in the Indonesian town of Labuan Bajo, will express concern “about the increasing abuse of technology in facilitating trafficking in persons in Southeast Asia and globally, proliferated through the use and abuse of social media and other online platforms,” according to a draft of their statement obtained by The Associated Press.The use of social media and other platforms by cybercrime syndicates has “complicated anti-trafficking in persons efforts, as well as multiplied the number and scale of the cases,” it says.Cybercrime scams have become a major issue in ...