Israeli forces detained U.S. Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander on Wednesday as he helped Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the occupied West Bank , releasing him hours later while dozens of other volunteers, including a group of American rabbis, remained in custody. The incident was the latest in an annual olive harvest that has been marked by violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers attempting to gather their crops. The Israeli military said the farmers and volunteers had failed to seek prior approval for the harvest and were detained “due to the security risk posed by conducting an uncoordinated harvest near an Israeli community.” It later added that it viewed “the arrival of dozens of activists as an act intended solely to provoke, which undermines the harvesting process.” Lander is running in the Nov. 3 elections to represent a heavily Democratic New York City district in the U.S. House of Representatives. “The occupation is a crime under international law," Lander wrote on social media after he was detained. “Harvesting olives isn’t

MONTREAL — The publisher of top-selling Haitian-Canadian writer Thelyson Orelien said Wednesday it had confirmed that he used artificial intelligence to help write his novel "It Was Either That or Die." Orelien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel and, last week, Canadian publisher Boreal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer. But on Wednesday, Boreal said it had conducted a further investigation into the allegations. "New information, confirmed over the past few days, indicates that artificial intelligence was used in the writing process" of the novel, a Boreal statement said. The publisher announced it was "ending its professional relationship" with Orelien. Boreal said it did not know the extent of AI's use in the writing process "and we will likely never have a definitive answer." It said it gathered all the working versions of the novel and hired an outside party to analyze the various drafts. "The results obtained this week revealed traces of AI tags in the metadata of certain documents," Boreal said. Before conducting this analysis, the publisher

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to allow the Trump administration to immediately enforce new medical restrictions for transgender people in federal prison. The decision leaves in place a lower-court block on the policy. It was adopted after an executive order from President Donald Trump, a Republican who has taken several steps to roll back transgender rights during his second term. The brief order did not detail its legal reasoning. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would have allowed the policy to be enforced as the lawsuit played out in lower courts. The Supreme Court has previously allowed other Trump administration policies for transgender people to move ahead for now, including restrictions on military service and passport sex markers. Trump's order called on the Bureau of Prisons to revise its medical care policies so that federal funds aren’t spent “for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.” The new policy would halt surgeries, taper off hormones and end social accommodations like makeup and wigs. Prison

Meta Platforms has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg to keep him living in California after the CEO warned he was considering leaving the state that houses the company's headquarters if voters pass a wealth tax proposal next month. Under the deal, Zuckerberg will get non-voting shares he can sell to potentially foot a multi-billion-dollar tax bill in the event the proposal is approved, in exchange for a commitment to remain a resident of California, or wherever Meta maintains its headquarters, for eight years, Meta said on Wednesday. Zuckerberg, the world's sixth richest person according to Forbes, told Meta he was considering moving his primary residence outside California because Proposition 40, a ballot measure dubbed the "California wealth tax," could expose him to a massive tax liability, potentially forcing him to sell voting shares to pay it. Proposition 40, which asks Californians whether to impose a one-time 5% tax on the state's billionaires, is far from certain to pass, political analysts say. The state is home to as many as 250 billionaires collectively worth upwards of $2

NEW YORK — Elon Musk's public endorsement this week of a potential $3.5 trillion merger between SpaceX and Tesla has rattled some insiders involved in the discussions, who worry his comments could invite shareholder scrutiny and delay the process by several weeks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks. The disclosure created a "mess" for the process, as it could lead to questions about how well Tesla shareholders' interests would be represented, the person said. The concerns reflect similarities some participants see with Tesla's 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, which sparked years of litigation over Musk's role in the deal. Musk, who serves as CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla and owns significant stakes in each company, this week told investors that the two companies were examining what would be the largest corporate transaction in history and revealed that both had formed special committees to evaluate it. The backlash to those remarks is reported here for the first time. The parties have hired advisers, but discussions are at an early stage, three sources familiar with

TOKYO — Artificial intelligence has found critical security flaws in a major programming language called PHP, with many websites taken offline Thursday as organizations worldwide scramble to fend off would-be hackers. As AI's fast-advancing capabilities fuel concern over the increased risk of cyberattacks, here are some questions and answers about the situation: What is PHP and how widely used is it? Created in the early 1990s, PHP is a computer programming language that helps run an estimated 70 percent of the world's websites. It is "a backbone of the web," according to security firm Wiz Research, which says it used AI to find vulnerabilities hidden in PHP for more than a decade. PHP — a name that originally stood for Personal Home Page — underpins popular web design platforms, meaning the flaws could allow hackers to break into various sites, from online stores to government services. A fix was released Wednesday, with the PHP Foundation telling the tech departments of companies and organizations around the world: "If you run PHP, it is imperative that you update now." That has res

The world’s coral reef ecosystems almost all face a high risk of collapse in the next 50 years mostly due to warming oceans and heat waves, according to a global assessment released Thursday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s assessment, announced on the sidelines of a U.N. biodiversity conference in Albania, found that 96 percent of shallow-water reef systems are already critically endangered and could disappear by 2075. Most of the world’s famous reef systems — including the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Coral Triangle in the Western Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System and the Red Sea coral reefs — are all critically endangered, the highest level of threat. “The risk of coral reef collapse is escalating, but this must be a wake-up call rather than a cause for despair," said Mishal Gudka, the scientific lead of the global IUCN Red List of Coral Reef Ecosystems assessment, the first of its kind. “Coral reefs have shown a remarkable ability to bounce back from devastating bleaching events,” he said. “Pockets of

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin announced Thursday a 10-year agreement for the production of 850 F-35 warplanes, underscoring Washington's long-term commitment to the stealth aircraft. The "framework agreement," which the Pentagon said would "modernize and expand" the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program, still requires congressional approval and funding. The F-35, a joint project between the United States and a number of allies, is one of the world's most advanced military aircraft. There are more than 1,375 F-35s based around the world, according to Lockheed. The deal, if approved, would give Washington a "predictable, affordable, and resilient" fighter jet program, Lockheed said, pointing to billions of dollars in expected savings thanks to "long-term pricing and industry volume discounts." In exchange for the Pentagon's 10-year commitment, Lockheed Martin will fund $7 billion in projects supporting the F-35s, the Pentagon said. "We have fundamentally changed how we stabilize the American defense industrial base to produce at speed and scale," top Pentagon acq

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday encouraged young Catholics to join a "pilgrimage of faith, friendship and hope," saying he looks forward to meeting them in Seoul for World Youth Day 2027. The pope's remarks came as the organizing committee opened registration for World Youth Day, an international gathering of Catholic youth, set to take place in Seoul in August next year. "This is not merely an invitation to see a new city — it is a call to set out on a pilgrimage of faith, friendship and hope," he said in a video message shared by the Vatican to mark the registration opening. "A pilgrimage gives you the chance not only to discover Christian sites in another location, but also to find the time and space to encounter God more deeply, both personally and within the dynamic life of the Church." In addition to deepening faith, the pontiff said participants will be able to meet young people who speak different languages and come from different cultures to forge lifetime friendships. The pope specifically mentioned the theme of World Youth Day, "Take courage! I have overcome the world," calling on p

PARIS — Dozens of protesters took to the Paris streets on Thursday despite bans on demonstrations ordered in multiple French cities following a weekend of clashes and widespread looting that marked France’s most violent unrest in years. Organizers of the Paris protest said an administrative court in the city overturned a ban issued by police. The Paris police prefecture previously said the ban was necessary, given the risk of street violence after groups of masked youth clashed with police forces, looted shops and torched cars over the weekend. The Paris court ruling was not immediately made public. More bans were expected in the coming days. French President Emmanuel Macron said such measures aim to protect city centers, businesses and public buildings. The right to demonstrate in France is protected by the French Constitution, and the ban on demonstrations planned for Thursday in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble was seen by some as an infringement on French people’s right to protest. High school and university student groups said they will continue to mobilize, even though the autu