The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits slipped last week. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 238,000 from a 10-month high of 243,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which evens out weekly ups and downs, rose by 5,500 to 232,750, highest since September. Weekly unemployment claims — a proxy for layoffs — remain at low levels by historical standards, a sign that most Americans enjoy unusual job security.
President Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a summit with its leader, Kim Jong Un, as the two nations deepen their cooperation. The visit comes amid growing concerns about an arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology to enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program. Despite their often aligning interests, relations between Russia and North Korea have experienced highs and lows.
Hungary has lifted its veto on Mark Rutte becoming the next head of NATO. The move came after the Dutch prime minister gave written guarantees that he would not force Hungary to take part NATO's new plans to provide support to Ukraine. Rutte’s assurances remove a major obstacle to him becoming the next NATO secretary-general. It could also allow NATO to put on a major show of unity and demonstrate solidarity with war-ravaged Ukraine next month. U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts are meeting in Washington on July 9-11 mark NATO’s 75th anniversary. Current Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg steps down in October. Rutte's last hurdle is a final candidate, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
Artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT could soon run out of what keeps making them smarter — the tens of trillions of words that people have written and shared online. A new study released Thursday by research group Epoch AI projects that tech companies will exhaust the supply of publicly available training data for AI language models by roughly the turn of the decade -- sometime between 2026 and 2032. Comparing it to a “literal gold rush” that depletes finite natural resources, Tamay Besiroglu, an author of the study, said the AI field might face challenges in maintaining its current pace of progress once it drains the reserves of human-generated writing.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens says he will support a plan to spend $5 million reimbursing businesses for losses during water outages in the city in recent days. He's also promising a commission to examine the city’s infrastructure needs and to deploy monitors to detect leaking pipes. Dickens' announcements on Wednesday came a day after workers finished repairs on a ruptured water main. Officials say they've restored water flow and normal pressure to customers after troubles began Friday. Downtown Atlanta and nearby neighborhoods remain under an order to boil water before drinking until sampling shows the water is safe. That period is likely to last until Thursday.
Military Times interviewed more than a dozen military experts, including current and former U.S. military officials, about how a conflict might begin and how it could play out. This is what they said could happen:
Military treatment facilities have completed fewer than 100 abortions in the past five calendar years, and only include cases related to rape, incest or pregnancies that would have killed the mother.
Israeli-Arab security overtures have grown since the Pentagon switched coordination with Israel from U.S. European Command to Central Command last year.
