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Larry Magid: Voice cloning makes virtual kidnapping more convincing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

Last week I wrote about a call I received claiming my wife had been kidnapped and demanding ransom. It came from a number that was nearly the same as my wife’s, began with a crying distraught woman, and as I explained in the column, the scammer used other tricks to make me think it might have been real. It was an extremely scary 20 minutes before I knew she was OK.Larry Magid That column resulted in numerous emails, including some from readers who had similar experiences. One grandmother wrote, “A sobbing girl came on the phone claiming to be my teenage granddaughter and using her name. She said she had hit someone with her car and was in the police station. Said she was injured but didn’t want to tell her parents and get in trouble over the accident.”But criminals are taking the scam even further by using AI to clone the voice of the supposed kidnapping victim to make the call even more convincing. As a Federal Trade Commission blog post explains, “A scammer could use AI to cl...

Stock market today: Wall Street sinks as bank fears flare

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are sinking on Wall Street Thursday as worries crank higher about a cracking U.S. banking system. The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower in midday trading as several market-moving forces swirled, from the latest rate increase by the European Central Bank to a report indicating more U.S. workers got laid off last week than expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 390 points, or 1.2%, at 33,023, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower. Some of the wildest action was in the financial industry, where shares of PacWest Bancorp tumbled 48.4%. It’s been under heavy scrutiny by investors recently following three of the four largest U.S. bank failures in history. Wall Street has been hunting for other possible weak links in the system, which could see a swift exodus of customer deposits as the industry contends with much higher interest rates. PacWest said overnight that it’s considering its options and that several potential partner...

Takeaways from AP report on Guyana’s nascent oil boom

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

ANN’S GROVE, Guyana (AP) — Guyana is poised to become the fourth-largest offshore oil producer in the world, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico and Norway.But the list of needs is long in this South American country of 791,000 people. Many worry their lives won’t change even as the oil boom will generate billions of dollars for this largely impoverished nation. Bitter fights also are certain over how the wealth should be spent in a place where politics is sharply divided along ethnic lines.Here are the key takeaways:HAS THE COUNTRY SEEN ANY CHANGES AS A RESULT OF THE OIL BOOM?Change is already visible in this country, which has a rich Caribbean culture and was once known as the “Venice of the West Indies.” Guyana is crisscrossed by canals and dotted with villages called “Now or Never” and “Free and Easy” that now co-exist with gated communities with names like “Windsor Estates.” In the capital, Georgetown, buildings made of glass, steel and concrete rise abov...

Stanley Cup-winning Czech forward Petr Klima dies at 58

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech forward Petr Klima, a Stanley Cup winner with the Edmonton Oilers in 1990, has died. He was 58.The news was announced by HC Litvinov, the Czech club where he started his career in the 1981-82 season, and by Kadan, where he previously worked as the general manager. The cause of death was not given.Litvinov said the news caused “great pain in the heart.”Klima emigrated from communist Czechoslovakia in 1985, four years before the collapse of the Iron Curtain.In 786 games across 13 seasons in the NHL, the right winger scored 313 regular season goals and added 260 assists. He netted another 28 times with 24 assists in 95 playoff games.He played for the Detroit Red Wings, Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins.“The NHL mourns the passing of Czech legend Petr Klima,” the league said in a statement. “Klima helped the Oilers win the 1990 Stanley Cup while scoring a memorable triple-overtime winner in Game 1 of the Final. Our sympathie...

Las acciones de First Horizon caen tras el colapso de la fusión con TD Bank

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

(CNN) — First Horizon y TD Bank cancelaron un acuerdo de US$ 13.000 millones que habría formado el sexto banco más grande de Estados Unidos, lo que se suma a la agitación que afecta a los prestamistas regionales del país.Atrapado en la peor crisis bancaria desde 2008, el precio de las acciones de First Horizon se desplomó un 40% en los últimos dos meses, muy por debajo de los US$ 25 dólares que TD ofreció cuando se anunció la adquisición en febrero de 2022.Las acciones cerraron a US$ 15,05 por acción este miércoles y se desplomaron otro 40% en las operaciones matutinas de este jueves después de que los bancos abandonaran mutuamente el trato.First Horizon es un prestamista regional en el sureste de Estados Unidos y habría ayudado a TD de Canadá a expandirse al sur de la frontera. Pero los bancos regionales han estado perdiendo la confianza de los inversores y clientes desde el colapso de marzo de Silicon Valley Bank y Signature Bank.Este lunes, un tercer banco regional, First R...

Caught on camera: 'Road rage" shooting in Denver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — A driver was caught in the middle of a shooting on Monaco and Evans and captured it all on a dashcam. Now, police are looking for the suspects.The shooting took place Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. at the intersection of Monaco Street Parkway and Evans Avenue in the Goldsmith neighborhood.Dashcam footage obtained by FOX31 shows a dark-colored SUV and a white pickup truck swerving in and out of traffic for nearly 40 seconds. Bullet narrowly misses toddler in car seat in road rage shooting The video shows the white truck trying to get away from the SUV, and once the two vehicles pass through the intersection the driver in the SUV fires shots at the truck. Immediately, the truck swerves onto the wrong side of the road to escape the SUV.More shots can be heard as the truck turns back onto the right side of the road and drives towards incoming traffic. Did you know you could get caught speeding by an aircraft? The person filming the shooting can be seen exiting the roadway ...

Man taken into custody after 12-hour SRT standoff in SW Miami-Dade

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

The Miami-Dade Special Response Team (SRT) responded to a townhouse in Southwest Miami-Dade after a man barricaded himself inside the residence, Miami-Dade Police Department officials said. After a 12-hour standoff, he exited the house and was taken into custody.Around 12:40 a.m. Thursday, authorities responded to the area of 154th Avenue near 72nd Street due to a domestic-related incident. Officials with the police department said someone called 911 when they noticed a man held his girlfriend inside the home at gunpoint for three days. She was able to escape sometime overnight.According to officials, the man barricaded himself inside the home after officers arrived and made threats to the police; that was when the SRT was called in.Twelve hours later, the man exited the property with his hands in the air and was arrested by Miami-Dade Police officers. Local residents posted their own perspectives of the situation on social media.One person posted a video that showed the SRT throwin...

2 arrive at Lauderdale Lakes Fire Station, 1 shot and transported to hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

Lauderhill Fire Rescue transported a victim to a nearby hospital after arriving at a fire station and claiming they had been shot, Thursday. A man and a female arrived in a black Nissan sedan at Station 110, located at 3120 NW 12th Place in Lauderhill. The shooting did not occur at the station, but somewhere in the area.One of them had been shot in the chest. The shooting victim was transported to Broward Health Medical Center with serious injuries but was conscious at the time. This is the third day in a row a shooting has occurred in Lauderdale Lakes. On Tuesday, a man was killed after being shot at a Walmart. Broward Sheriffs’ Office has taken over the investigation. Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.

Hundreds of pounds of pasta mysteriously dumped in New Jersey town

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

(TMX) – Hundreds of pounds of cooked pasta were found mysteriously dumped by a creek in New Jersey last week.Former town council candidate Nina Jochnowitz shared photos of the mess in the woods next to a stream near Veterans Park in Old Bridge Township on April 26. They show several large mounds of a variety of cooked noodles.She said the town was alerted to the estimated 500 pounds of dumped pasta, but hadn’t taken action.“No surprise when we see the dumping of construction and other garbage spewed in all of the neighborhoods,” Jochnowitz said. Per reports, Old Bridge is the only town in Middlesex County without bulk garbage pickup, and sees widespread illegal dumping.In an update two days later, on April 28, Jochnowitz said the social media attention had prompted action, and the town’s Public Works department cleaned up the creek.“The township heard or read the comments and responded by doing a rapid cleanup [of] the river basin and pasta dump,” Jochnowitz wrote on Facebook....

SWAT situation underway in Dania Beach

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:58:43 GMT

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies worked with SWAT officers after a man barricaded himself inside a home.Just before 10 a.m. Thursday, authorities investigated an occupied burglary near the 600 block of West Dania Beach Boulevard. According to BSO officials, the burglar fled the scene and barricaded himself in an empty house.BSO SWAT teams were notified and responded to the scene.Authorities said the investigation is ongoing as negotiators continue to ask him to exit the house.Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.