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CHATHAM, N.J. (AP) — That buzzing coming out of New Jersey ? It's unclear if it's drones or something else, but for sure the nighttime sightings are producing tons of talk, a raft of conspiracy theories and craned necks looking skyward. Cropping up on local news and social media sites around Thanksgiving, the saga of the drones reported over New Jersey has reached incredible heights. This week seems to have begun a new, higher-profile chapter: Lawmakers are demanding (but so far not getting) explanations from federal and state authorities about what's behind them. Gov. Phil Murphy wrote to President Joe Biden asking for answers. New Jersey's new senator, Andy Kim, spent Thursday night on a drone hunt in rural northern New Jersey, and posted about it on X. But perhaps the most fantastic development is the dizzying proliferation of conspiracies — none of which has been confirmed or suggested by federal and state officials who say they're looking into what's happening. It has become shorthand to refer to the flying machines as drones, but there are questions about whether what people are seeing are unmanned aircraft or something else. Some theorize the drones came from an Iranian mothership. Others think they are the Secret Service making sure President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster property is secure. Others worry about China. The deep state. And on. In the face of uncertainty, people have done what they do in 2024: Create a social media group. The Facebook page, New Jersey Mystery Drones — let’s solve it , has nearly 44,000 members, up from 39,000 late Thursday. People are posting their photo and video sightings, and the online commenters take it from there. One video shows a whitish light flying in a darkened sky, and one commenter concludes it’s otherworldly. “Straight up orbs,” the person says. Others weigh in to say it’s a plane or maybe a satellite. Another group called for hunting the drones literally, shooting them down like turkeys. (Do not shoot at anything in the sky, experts warn.) Trisha Bushey, 48, of Lebanon Township, New Jersey, lives near Round Valley Reservoir where there have been numerous sightings. She said she first posted photos online last month wondering what the objects were and became convinced they were drones when she saw how they moved and when her son showed her on a flight tracking site that no planes were around. Now she's glued to the Mystery Drones page, she said. “I find myself — instead of Christmas shopping or cleaning my house — checking it,” she said. READ: She doesn't buy what the governor said, that the drones aren't a risk to public safety. Murphy told Biden on Friday that residents need answers. The federal Homeland Security Department and FBI also said in a joint statement they have no evidence that the sightings pose “a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.” “How can you say it’s not posing a threat if you don’t know what it is?” she said. “I think that’s why so many people are uneasy.” Then there's the notion that people could misunderstand what they're seeing. William Austin is the president of Warren County Community College, which has a drone technology degree program, and is coincidentally located in one of the sighting hotspots. Austin says he has looked at videos of purported drones and that airplanes are being misidentified as drones. He cited an optical effect called parallax, which is the apparent shift of an object when viewed from different perspectives. Austin encouraged people to download flight and drone tracker apps so they can better understand what they're looking at. Nonetheless, people continue to come up with their own theories. “It represents the United States of America in 2024,” Austin said. “We’ve lost trust in our institutions, and we need it.” Federal officials echo Austin's view that many of the sightings are piloted aircraft such as planes and helicopters being mistaken for drones, according to lawmakers and Murphy. That's not really convincing for many, though, who are homing in on the sightings beyond just New Jersey and the East Coast, where others have reported seeing the objects. For Seph Divine, 34, another member of the drone hunting group who lives in Eugene, Oregon , it feels as if it’s up to citizen sleuths to solve the mystery. He said he tries to be a voice of reason, encouraging people to fact check their information, while also asking probing questions. “My main goal is I don’t want people to be caught up in the hysteria and I also want people to not just ignore it at the same time,” he said. “Whether or not it’s foreign military or some secret access program or something otherworldly, whatever it is, all I’m saying is it’s alarming that this is happening so suddenly and so consistently for hours at a time,” he added. ___ Golden reported form Seattle. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Trump’s lawyers rebuff DA’s idea for upholding his hush money conviction, calling it ‘absurd’None
Regrettably, 2024 was a good year for scammers. Colorado is on pace to see a bigger financial loss from scams by the end of 2024 than the nearly $190 million stolen in 2023. The mass use of artificial intelligence could be driving the surge, according to the Colorado Attorney General’s office. Long gone are the days of using clear misspellings, unprofessional website design and fishy email domains as reliable identifiers for online scams. With the recent explosion of artificial intelligence into everyday life, scammers have transitioned from using flashy pop-up advertisements to duplicating the voices of family members in fake emergency situations to extract money and information. “Artificial intelligence takes existing scam opportunities and puts them on steroids,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said. The FBI Denver Field Office reported scammers stole $187 million from nearly 11,500 Coloradans in 2023. This was an increase of nearly $9 million over the 2022 dollar amount — an upward trend that shows no signs of slowing down in 2024. In 2023, the top three schemes with the largest dollar amount losses in Colorado were investment fraud ($60 million), business email compromise ($57 million) and tech support ($23 million), according to the FBI’s report. Weiser said his office has seen a record-breaking number of scam complaints since 2019, each year greater than the last. The complaints were reported through StopFraudColorado.gov , an education outreach program in the Attorney General’s Office where Coloradans can report cases of fraud and learn about online risks. In 2019, consumers in Colorado filed 9,819 complaints and inquiries with the Consumer Protection Section in the Attorney General’s office. During 2023, the number of complaints hit 20,390. According to the FBI Denver Field Office, Colorado ranks seventh in the nation for complaints per capita. “There’s no question that the use of AI is a part of what’s driving up those scams,” Weiser said. “I hate to say this because it will be a painful occasion, but I’m bracing myself for that number to go up this year,” he added. The most common types of complaints in 2023 were for unauthorized subscriptions and retail services, professional services, automobile sales and services, and home repair services. The fifth most common complaint alerted Weiser’s office of imposter scams. He gave the example of the “grandparent scam,” which involves targeting victims who have a grandchild traveling abroad. The scammer will contact the grandparent, either by email or phone, to tell them that their grandchild is in jail in a different country and they need money right away in order to be released. The selling point comes when scammers use AI to replicate the voice of the grandchild in a phone call, making it more believable. “One of the scary parts is many people have a hard time understanding the difference between the so-called deepfakes made by AI and what’s real, and the implication of this means that everybody needs to practice constant vigilance,” Weiser said. One of the telltale signs that something is a scam is a false sense of urgency. The pressure from the scammer to “act now before things get worse” can keep people from calling appropriate family members or authorities to make sure the call is real. “Don’t trust those calls. Hang up, and then you can call the right source — the bank, for example — and ask, ‘Is there anything going on with my account, or is this a scam?'” he said. “You will have saved yourself a lot of headache and a lot of money by proceeding carefully as opposed to acting immediately.” Weiser explained that the people most vulnerable to these scams are often younger internet users who are less experienced, and older adults who are perhaps overly trusting. “AI is not a brand-new technology, but the widespread use of ChatGPT has taken the adoption of AI to a new level,” Weiser said. Austin Hastings, assistant vice president and data analyst for Colorado-based Alpine Bank, said customers often see repeats of the same types of scams until people stop falling for them — after which scammers select a new strategy and use it until failure. “If there’s a big batch of people that fall for one scam and then ... people start talking to each other, posting things on social media, (they’re) not going to be able to compromise as many people,” he said. “They’re almost incentivized to ‘stay fresh.'” AI technology has been used by scammers to clone the voices of loved ones or employers (often paired with fake caller IDs), forge copies of trusted websites to steal login credentials, hijack smartphones and other devices with malware, and place fake QR codes over parking meters, restaurants and advertisements. Hastings said they’ve seen an increase in reports of fraud involving AI this year, mostly in the form of phishing rather than video or audio manipulation. Part of what’s behind the increase is the ability of AI to mass-produce email and website templates to look like the real thing. Alpine Bank, which serves over 170,000 customers across the state, suggests that its customers be extra vigilant around holidays as scammers are more active during seasons of high spending. Alpine Bank offers the following guidelines to help consumers avoid falling victim to sophisticated scams: “No. 1 would be, don’t click the link. But if you do, communicate it with the bank,” Hastings said. It’s better to report things right away, as timing can impact what kind of help victims can get from their bank. Alpine Bank has worked with victims of scams to recover funds, restrict accounts and coordinate with law enforcement. Another way to avoid becoming the target of scammers is restricting the sharing of personal data, an option enabled by the Colorado Privacy Act in 2021 . The act gives Coloradans the right to opt out of the sale of their personal data or its use for targeted advertising, as well as requiring entities to safeguard personal data. “It’s a dangerous world out there, and AI is making it more dangerous, so please protect yourself and protect those you love,” Weiser said.
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SES AI (NYSE:SES) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?(Bloomberg) — Stocks in Asia are set for a mixed open after investors looked past Donald Trump’s tariff plan to lift the US benchmark to yet another record. President Joe Biden said Israel and Hezbollah reached a cease-fire agreement. Equities opened higher in Sydney, while futures pointed to a drop in Tokyo and little change in Hong Kong and the US. The S&P 500 rose for a seventh day to notch its 52nd record this year, with gains driven by software companies including Microsoft Corp. that are less susceptible to tariff risk, while automakers fell due to their exposure to Mexico and China. President-elect Trump’s vow to place an extra 10% tariffs on Chinese imports and 25% levies on all products from Mexico and Canada roiled markets on Tuesday, sending a gauge of emerging markets down 0.5%. The world’s no. 2 economy responded by defending its track record and refrained from mentioning any planned retaliation. China “is likely to respond cautiously at first to Trump’s threats, until it gets a better sense of the balance between confrontation and deal-making in his second term,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. Biden said Israel reached a cease-fire deal with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah after weeks of talks mediated by the US. While anticipation of the announcement sent oil lower on Tuesday, crude was little changed early Wednesday after an industry report showed a drop in US stockpiles and traders looked to an OPEC meeting this weekend. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. US 10-year yields advanced three basis points to 4.31%. A dollar gauge gained 0.2%, while the yen was the sole G-10 currency to gain against the greenback in haven trading. The Mexican peso and Canadian dollar slid. While US stocks gained on Tuesday, the bond market response was mild following its second-biggest advance this year. Federal Reserve officials indicated support for a careful approach to rate cuts, according to minutes from their latest policy meeting. That comes as a bearish tone takes hold in the market for interest-rate options, suggesting that traders are bracing for Treasury yields to surge anew in the coming weeks. The wagers are a reminder that even though yields have surrendered the brunt of their post-election advance, investors are well aware of the potential for the so-called Trump trade to gain traction again. At BMO Capital Markets, Ian Lyngen says that perhaps the muted response in Treasuries is because not only had the market already priced in a renewed emphasis on “tariffs as trade policy,” but it’s also an acknowledgment that increases in levies have a one-time impact on realized inflation. Elsewhere, a measure of French bond risk rose to levels last seen during the euro area debt crisis as a political standoff over the country’s budget threatens to bring down the government. The premium investors demand to hold 10-year French government bonds over German bonds surged on Tuesday to end the day above 86 basis points, the highest close since 2012. Key events this week: Some of the main moves in markets: Stocks Currencies Cryptocurrencies Bonds Commodities This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
NEW YORK (AP) — No ex-president had a more prolific and diverse publishing career than Jimmy Carter . His more than two dozen books included nonfiction, poetry, fiction, religious meditations and a children’s story. His memoir “An Hour Before Daylight” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002, while his 2006 best-seller “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” stirred a fierce debate by likening Israel’s policies in the West Bank to the brutal South African system of racial segregation. And just before his 100th birthday, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation honored him with a lifetime achievement award for how he wielded “the power of the written word to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding.” In one recent work, “A Full Life,” Carter observed that he “enjoyed writing” and that his books “provided a much-needed source of income.” But some projects were easier than others. “Everything to Gain,” a 1987 collaboration with his wife, Rosalynn, turned into the “worst threat we ever experienced in our marriage,” an intractable standoff for the facilitator of the Camp David accords and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. According to Carter, Rosalynn was a meticulous author who considered “the resulting sentences as though they have come down from Mount Sinai, carved into stone.” Their memories differed on various events and they fell into “constant arguments.” They were ready to abandon the book and return the advance, until their editor persuaded them to simply divide any disputed passages between them. “In the book, each of these paragraphs is identified by a ‘J’ or an ‘R,’ and our marriage survived,” he wrote. Here is a partial list of books by Carter: “Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President” “The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East” (With Rosalynn Carter) “Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life” “An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections” “Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age” “Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems” (With daughter Amy Carter) “The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer” “Living Faith” “The Virtues of Aging” “An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood” “Christmas in Plains: Memories” “The Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War” “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis” “Faith & Freedom: The Christian Challenge for the World” “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” “A Remarkable Mother” “Beyond the White House” “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work” “White House Diary” “NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter” “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power” “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety”Longest-lived US president was always happy to speak his mind
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