Italian government mocked over appointment of aging AI czar: 'Dumbledore syndrome'

The Italian government appointed a former prime minister to head up the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, prompting anger among many arguing the man’s age of 85 should disqualify him from the role. 

"Under this government, we are becoming a country that is unable to take into consideration our young people, a dinosaur-ocracy stuck in an outdated and conservative vision," MP Emma Pavanelli said in response to Giuliano Amato’s appointment as head of the Artificial Intelligence Algorithms Commission. 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was not informed of the appointment, and she said she was "irritated" by the development, according to The Telegraph. 

Italy earlier this year blocked ChatGPT’s use in the country amid concerns about user data and site processes, but the decision was later reversed. 

NEW TECHNOLOGY SET TO REVOLUTIONIZE HOW FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS OPERATE

Italian outlet Il Tempo asked why Italy appointed the elderly Amato while other nations, such as the United Kingdom, appointed younger, more experienced experts to lead similar initiatives. The outlet claimed Amato’s appointment left "many" people "dumbfounded." 

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

The Algorithms Commission will carry out fact-finding investigations into the new technology and determine the "positive and negative" implications of its use, particularly on "publication and information." The commission includes 10 people, including a research director at the Center for Artificial Intelligence, the director of the CNR Institute for Networks and High Performance Computing and university professors and other experts. 

Those experts will now have to answer to Amato, whose appointment reportedly happened due to a "communication mix-up," according to the undersecretary of the presidency of the Technological Innovation Council. He apologized for making the appointment without informing Meloni. 

Members of parliament challenged Amato’s credentials with information technology, with the newspaper La Stampa challenging whether Amato knows "what an algorithm is." 

"Will he be able to look it up on Google?" the publication wondered. 

RETIRED GENERAL REVEALS CRITICAL COMPONENT US MILITARY NEEDS TO STAY AHEAD OF POTENTIAL ADVERSARIES

"Why not appoint a young person, there are plenty who are capable," the paper wrote. "That’s easy to answer – because in Italy, we suffer from Albus Dumbledore syndrome."

That was a reference to the principal of Harry Potter’s school, Hogwarts. 

The Telegraph reported that Meloni’s party and opposition party Forza Italia, which nominated Amato for the role, have had "strained" relations after allegations the party was part of creating a scandal for the prime minister revolving around her husband, a presenter at a channel run by conglomerate Mediaset.

The company belonged to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was also a member of Forza Italia until his death in June. 

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Jewish American students outraged by rising antisemitism in US amid Hamas terror attacks on Israel

JERUSALEM, Israel - American Jews studying in Israel say they are outraged by what they see as a rise of antisemitism back home in the United States following the worst terrorist attack in the history of the Jewish state.

Gideon Rone, a student from Baltimore, Maryland relayed his frustration over anti-Semitism that is being displayed across the United States as people protest in support of Hamas amid the war between Israel and the terrorist group. 

"1400 people murdered by terrorists in cold blood in the most gruesome of ways that we haven't seen in 75 years. You don't see the same type of support because no other reason than we're Jewish," Rone said.

Oran Goodman, another student from Englewood, New Jersey expressed his concerns and confusion as to why people would tear down the posters of hostages that were taken by Hamas. 

GRANDSON OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS BLAMES COLLEGES AFTER STUDENTS PROTEST AT VIGIL FOR SLAIN ISRAELIS

"People have been going around tearing down pictures of hostages. Why? Why would you ever tear down a picture of a hostage?" Goodman asked. 

"We weren't even given proper time to grieve," Rone explained. "Protests started the next day in America, anti-Israel. And, you know, we all know people who died. Two of my friends are being held captive in Gaza and all I could see was people saying how I was wrong, how I was the reason living here. I was the reason that my friends are being held captive."

Goodman says he is having second thoughts about attending NYU next year. Asked if he felt safe about going to the university, he was not sure. "'I'm still struggling with that. Part of me feels that somebody needs to be there because if nobody's there, then who's the only voice?" Goodman explained.

TENSIONS LEAD TO UNREST AT PRO-PALESTINIAN RALLIES ACROSS US CITIES

Rone says he feels safer in Israel than he would back home. "I'm much more scared for them and my family in America than I am for my well-being here." 

Despite being an American citizen, Beth Levin from the Bronx says she feels a closer affinity to Israel right now, "In America you can be sent to Afghanistan … and can be fighting in a different country like you're not fighting necessarily for your homeland. In Israel, we're just fighting to exist." 

Levin says she is outraged by the anti-Israeli protests back home.

JEWISH STUDENTS AT GEORGETOWN LAW FEAR VIOLENCE AMID HEATED RHETORIC FROM CLASSMATES AND ANTI-ISRAELI GROUPS

"Friends I even know who aren't Jewish. They started posting things like Free Palestine. They didn't even understand it then. It just like-- it made me realize how much I want to stay in Israel and how this is my country. They say that they're for human rights. Just not when it comes to Jewish rights," she said. 

Another student Joseph Savenor is shocked at what is happening, "Seeing all this hatred, antisemitism is like, why are we going back?"

Asked if he felt people should be more sympathetic to what happened in Israel, he told Fox News, "I don't understand like-- it's very obvious that, like, they're killing our babies. Like, what can be more clear?"

CORNELL PROFESSOR WHO WAS 'EXHILARATED' AFTER HAMAS ATTACK ISSUES APOLOGY FOR 'REPREHENSIBLE' REMARKS

About half the girls in Beth Levin’s school in Jerusalem left after the massacre. Beth says she never considered leaving. Nor did any of the other Americans we spoke with. "I never realized how much I want to be here for Israel, because Israel is the place of the Jews. It's my home. I can't go anywhere else." Levin said.

"What is happening in our world? Why is our world upside down?" Goodman asked. "I feel unsafe as an American Jew now. I never felt unsafe as an American Jew," he said.

"All across the world, all we see is division, and that's not what we need," Rone stated. 

These students hope by sharing their stories - there will be more support for the Jewish people worldwide.

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Hurricane Otis, strongest storm in eastern Pacific's history, tears through Acapulco

Hurricane Otis ripped across Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a powerful Category 5 storm early Wednesday, tearing through buildings in the resort city of Acapulco, sending sheets of earth down steep mountainsides and leaving large swaths of the southwestern state of Guerrero without power or cellphone service.

While little is known about possible deaths or the full extent of the damage — the main highway into Acapulco was impassable — experts are calling Otis the strongest storm in history to make landfall along the Eastern Pacific Coast.

By midmorning, Otis had weakened to a tropical storm, yet many on the coast were left reeling.

OTIS TO BE UPGRADED TO HURRICANE BEFORE MAKING LANDFALL NEAR ACAPULCO

Flor Campos had been trudging through mud for more than an hour along a highway outside Acapulco before she peeled off her shoes, worried she'd lose them in the muck.

The domestic worker from a small town in Guerrero was among dozens of families, women and children who clambered over tree trunks and other debris left by landslides in the mountainous terrain. It was a daunting escape, but people were desperate to get out.

"We had been waiting since 3 in the morning to get out, so we decided to walk. It was more dangerous to stay. There are trees knocked down, power lines down," Campos said.

On Tuesday, Otis took many by surprise when it rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a powerful Category 5 as it tore along the coast.

Researchers tracking the storm told The Associated Press that the storm also broke records for how quickly it intensified, at a time when climate change has exacerbated devastating weather events like this one.

"It’s one thing to have a Category 5 hurricane make landfall somewhere when you’re expecting it or expecting a strong hurricane, but to have it happen when you’re not expecting anything to happen is truly a nightmare," said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.

Acapulco, Tecpan and other towns along the Costa Grande in Guerrero were hit hard, said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He said conditions were so bad that communication with the area had been "completely lost."

By midmorning, the weakened storm was located about 130 miles north-northwest of Acapulco, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, and was moving north-northwest at 10 mph.

While authorities predicted that the storm would dissipate by Wednesday night, Campos and others in Guerrero were shocked by the extent of the damages.

"There are children back there, 2 or 3 years old, with no water, nothing," Campos said.

Photos and video shared by Mexican news outlets from Acapulco after dawn showed the walls of buildings ripped off, flooded hotel rooms with collapsed ceilings, and rubble and downed trees lining the streets.

Acapulco is a city of nearly 1 million people at the foot of steep mountains. Luxury homes and slums alike cover the city’s hillsides with views of the glistening Pacific. Once drawing Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, Acapulco has in more recent years fallen victim to competing organized crime groups that have sunk the city into violence, driving many international tourists to the Caribbean waters of Cancun and the Riviera Maya or beaches farther down the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca.

Between the internationally known resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo are two dozen small towns and villages.

On the outskirts of Acapulco on Wednesday, highway workers looked on helplessly without the heavy machinery needed to clear debris from the roadway. They warned the road could give way at any time because of the rain-softened ground beneath. Bridges in some areas had collapsed, and trees leaned almost horizontally across the highway, not because they were uprooted, but because the earth they grew on had slid down the slope.

Damage to the local military airport made it hard for authorities to access the region, López Obrador said. He said high-ranking members of his government would travel to Guerrero to help.

A long convoy of trucks from the national electric company moved through the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo, toward Acapulco before dawn Wednesday. Officials in Guerrero said on Wednesday afternoon that they were working to restore phone service.

HURRICANE NORMA CLOSES IN ON MEXICO'S LOS CABOS RESORTS

Otis is stronger than Hurricane Pauline, which hit Acapulco in 1997, López Obrador said. Pauline destroyed swaths of the city and killed more than 200 people. Hundreds of others were injured in flooding and mudslides. Otis’ arrival came just days after Hurricane Norma struck the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula to the north.

While many were caught by surprise, Acapulco still was able to open two dozen shelters in the hours before Otis made landfall.

Videos from hotel guests in Acapulco posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, as the storm came ashore showed blinding horizontal rain and howling winds.

In one, white towels danced high above a hotel’s cavernous courtyard like sheets of paper and bed mattresses trembled on balconies, apparently put there to blunt the storm’s winds. Another showed wind and rain howling unimpeded down hotel hallways. In still another, a family huddled inside a hotel room shower to escape breaking windows and fierce wind.

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Tammy moved northeast over open water with winds of 105 mph after sweeping through the Lesser Antilles over the weekend. Tammy was about 515 miles southeast of Bermuda, and was moving northeast at about 13 mph. The storm was expected to become a powerful extratropical cyclone by Thursday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

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Israel air force reveals note Hamas fighter allegedly carried during Oct 7 attack

The Israeli air force published a chilling, handwritten note Wednesday that it alleged was found on a Hamas fighter who invaded the country on Oct. 7. 

"The words from Hamas commanders," according to the Israeli air force, "consist of an order to kill Jews and encouragement to decapitate their victims and tear out their hearts and livers. 

"Know that this enemy of yours is a disease that has no cure, other than beheading and extracting the hearts and livers!" the Israeli military agency quoted the note as saying in a post on X. 

The emergence of the purported note comes days after Israel released what it described as "gruesome" and "unseen" bodycam footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack in order to counter a "Holocaust denial-like phenomenon evolving in real time."

LIVE UPDATES: ISRAEL AT WAR WITH HAMAS 

The screening happened in Israel Monday morning. Some of the content, according to Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin, included Israelis being ambushed in their cars, a girl being executed after Hamas terrorists found her hiding under a desk and a father dying after a Hamas fighter threw a grenade into a bomb shelter that he and his two children were seeking cover in. 

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said in a video posted on X before the release that the Israel Defense Forces have "been collecting footage from bodycams taken by the Hamas death squads," and that they would be making the footage public to maintain a record to counter those who doubt whether certain events took place. 

FATHER OF AMERICAN KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: I HAVE ONE MISSION – BRING HERSH HOME 

The war between Israel and Hamas, which began with the Oct. 7 attack, is now in its third week. 

At least 6,400 people have been killed in the war on both sides, including at least 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers and 33 Americans.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claims at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank and more than 15,270 wounded. Additionally, at least 10 Americans are feared to be among the 222 people held captive by Hamas. 

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report. 

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Costa Rica investigating theft of $6.1M from national bank

Costa Rica is investigating the theft of 3.3 billion colons ($6.1 million) in cash from its national bank, the largest bank robbery in the country's history, anti-corruption authorities confirmed Tuesday.

The money was noticed missing from bank vaults three weeks ago, but the robbery itself must have taken place in August, or earlier, said Jaime Murillo, interim manager of Costa Rica's Banco Nacional.

PANAMA, COSTA RICA ANNOUNCE BUSING PLAN FOR DARIEN GAP MIGRANTS, LIKELY EXPEDITING THEIR TREK TO US BORDER

Two area supervisors, a technician, a guard and an accountant — all of whom worked in the area of the bank that handles currency — are under investigation. All five were suspended with pay once the theft was noticed Oct. 3. No one has been arrested.

Murillo said in a press conference that the bank had been investigating the theft privately, but that national prosecutors took up the case after details were leaked to the press and the bank brought an official complaint.

INTEL TO INVEST $1.2 BILLION IN COSTA RICA OVER NEXT 2 YEARS

Authorities have not provided details about how the theft was carried out.

The state-owned Banco Nacional is the largest financial institution in Costa Rica.

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Officials update on cruise ship crew member who went overboard

Officials in the United Kingdom ended their search for a man who went overboard from a cruise ship on Sunday.

The man went overboard off the AIDAperla cruise ship early Sunday morning near Ramsgate, United Kingdom, according to BBC News. His Majesty's Coastguard was alerted to the incident and assisted in searching for the missing person.

After a nine-hour search, the man wasn't found, the outlet reported. The search ended at around 18:00 BST on Sunday and involved a helicopter and boats, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency told the outlet. According to Sky News, the individual was a crew member on the ship.

The cruise ship continued its trip to Spain on Sunday night after returning to the Ramsgate area for the search.

CREW MEMBER BURNED, PASSENGERS EVACUATED FROM SMALL CRUISE SHIP IN MAINE AFTER EXPLOSION

AIDA Cruises said in a statement that its thoughts are "with the family of the missing person and his colleagues."

"In addition, we are in close contact with his family and the AIDAperla crew," the company said.

CRUISE SHIP FALL LEFT VIRGINIA WOMAN FEARING 'SHE WAS GOING TO DIE' IN FOREIGN HOSPITAL, DAUGHTER SAYS

The cruise initially departed from Hamburg, Germany, and was headed to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

"The ship was immediately stopped and returned to the spot where the incident was believed to have taken place and took part in the search," a spokesperson for AIDA Cruises said.

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At least 50 kidnapped in Cameroon by gunmen of unknown origin

At least 50 people were kidnapped in two separate incidents over two days in northern Cameroon, local authorities said Tuesday.

The kidnappings occurred Sunday and Monday afternoons by an unknown armed group near the border with Chad, the mayor of Touboro town, Celestin Yandal, told The Associated Press.

Seven people have been released so far. Abductions in this area happen often, but locals say the scale of these attacks is rare.

OVER 30 WOMEN HELD HOSTAGE BY CAMEROONIAN REBELS RELEASED

The first kidnapping took place between Touboro and Koutere towns, where mostly Chadians were taken as well as some people from Cameroon including students and shopkeepers, the mayor said.

The second abduction occurred while people were traveling on a bus from Ngaoundere city to Touboro, he said.

Cameroon has been plagued by fighting since English-speaking separatists launched a rebellion in the Central African nation in 2017 with the stated goal of breaking away from the area dominated by the French-speaking majority and setting up an independent, English-speaking state.

BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS KILL 8 IN NORTHERN CAMEROON

The government has accused the separatists of committing atrocities against civilians. The conflict has killed more than 3,300 people and displaced more than 750,000 others, according to the United Nations.

The country also faces a threat from Islamic extremists in the region.

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