Ukrainian man arrested in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline blasts

Ukrainian man arrested in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline blasts

BERLIN (AP) — A Ukrainian man suspected to be one of the coordinators of undersea explosions thatdamaged the Nord Stream gas pipelinesbetween Russia and Germany in 2022 was arrested in Italy on Thursday, authorities said. The 49-year-old was detained in the early hours in San Clemente, a village inland from Italy's Adriatic coast and 11 kilometers (7 miles) from the resort of Rimini, after Italian authorities were alerted to his possible presence in the country, police in Italy said. Officers raided a bungalow where the suspect was staying with his family for a few days. Police said he surrendered without resistance. The man was detained on a European arrest warrant that was issued Monday by German authorities. German federal prosecutors identified him only as Serhii K. in line with local privacy rules. He was taken to jail in Rimini after his arrest. It wasn't immediately clear how soon he might be handed over to German authorities. Undersea explosions on Sept. 26, 2022, damaged pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The damage added to tensions over thewar in Ukraineas European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources, following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Prosecutors have given little detail so far on their investigation, but said two years ago they found traces ofundersea explosivesin samples taken from a yacht that was searched as part of the probe. In a statement Thursday, German prosecutors said Serhii K. was one of a group of people who placed explosives on the pipelines and is believed to have been one of the coordinators. They said he is suspected of causing explosions, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of structures. The suspect and others used a yacht that set off from the German port of Rostock, which had been hired from a German company using forged IDs and with the help of intermediaries, prosecutors said. They didn't give any information on the other people aboard the yacht or say anything about who else might have been involved in coordinating the suspected sabotage, or about a possible motive. German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig praised what she called "a very impressive investigative success." She said in a statement that the explosions must be cleared up, "so it is good that we are making progress." The explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was Russia's main natural gas supply route to Germany until Moscowcut off suppliesat the end of August 2022. They also damaged the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never entered service because Germanysuspended its certification processshortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February of that year. Russia has accused the U.S. of staging the explosions, a charge Washington has denied. The pipelines were longa target of criticism by the U.S.and some of its allies, who warned that they posed a risk to Europe's energy security by increasing dependence on Russian gas. In 2023, German media reported that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in the sabotage. Ukraine rejected suggestions it might have ordered the attack and German officialsvoiced cautionover the accusation. SwedishandDanishauthorities closed their investigations in February 2024, leaving the German prosecutors' case as the sole probe. ___ Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report

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August 21, 2025

Ukrainian man arrested in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline blasts

Ukrainian man arrested in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline blasts BERLIN (AP) — A Ukrainian man suspected to be one of the coordinators of un...

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North Korea may have a secret base near China with missiles that could reach the U.S.

North Korea may have a secret base near China with missiles that could reach the U.S.

North Koreahas a covert military base near the Chinese border that poses a "potential nuclear threat" to the United States mainland, according to new research. The Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base is about 17 miles from the border withChinain the North Korean province of North Pyongan, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington,said in a reportWednesday. The base could contain six to nine of North Korea's advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles, along with their mobile launchers and thousands of soldiers, the report said. Though the weapons are not likely to be mounted with nuclear warheads, they are capable of carrying them. "These missiles pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States," the report said. The site, which the report said North Korea has never referred to publicly, was only recently discovered despite a strict international regime intended to limit further development of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Researchers said the report was based on interviews with defectors and officials around the world, as well as declassified documents, satellite images and open-source information. The report said the weapons at the base could include North Korea's nuclear-capable Hwasong-15 or Hwasong-18 ICBMs, or a missile that has yet to be revealed. "Current assessments are that during times of crisis or war, these launchers and missiles will exit the base, meet special warhead storage/transportation units, and conduct launch operations from dispersed pre-surveyed sites." According to the latest estimate from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, North Korea has assembled about 50 nuclear warheads and has enough fissile material to produce up to 40 more. Construction of the Sinpung-dong base began around 2004 and it was "generally complete and operational" by 2014, the report said. Satellite images suggest the base continues to be developed and "is active and being well-maintained by North Korean standards," it said. It is one of about 15 to 20 ballistic missile bases and related facilities across the country that North Korea has never declared, the report said. Since the breakdown of denuclearization talks between PresidentDonald Trumpand North Korean leaderKim Jong Unin 2019, North Korea has been steadily advancing its weapons programs in defiance of international sanctions. It has also strengthenedsecurity ties with Russia, including sending arms and troops to fight in itswar against Ukrainein exchange for support that experts say could include technological assistance with its weapons programs. Experts say North Korea is likely to be evenmore determined to pursue nuclear deterrenceafter U.S. strikes againstthree Iranian nuclear facilitiesin June. On Monday, Kim called for arapid nuclear buildupamid annualU.S.-South Korea joint military exercisesthat Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for invasion. Though Trump has expressed an interest in resuming in-person diplomacy with Kim, his regime has dismissed the idea and says the United States mustaccept North Korea as a nuclear power.

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August 21, 2025

North Korea may have a secret base near China with missiles that could reach the U.S.

North Korea may have a secret base near China with missiles that could reach the U.S. North Koreahas a covert military base near the Chinese...

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U.S. immigrant population shrinking for first time since 1960s

U.S. immigrant population shrinking for first time since 1960s

The number of immigrants in the United States appears to be shrinking for the first time since the 1960s — though the population of unauthorized immigrants reached a record-setting 14 million just two years ago,the Pew Research Center saidin new reports released Thursday. In January, the U.S. immigrant population hit 53.3 million, the largest in the country's history. Six months later, it appears to have shrunk by a million people, to 51.9 million. "The data we are looking at represented a dramatic change," said Jeffrey Passel, the Pew Research Center's senior demographer. The reduction is reflected in the labor force, which lost over 750,000 workers since January, according to Pew, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and data analysis institute. "The U.S. population of working-age people isn't growing. That means the only way the workforce can grow is from new immigrants coming in," Passel said. "If the workforce isn't growing, it's harder for the economy." The reduction is the result of immigration policy changes at the border that began in 2024, during the Biden administration, and the immigration crackdown President Donald Trump imposed since he took office this year, Pew said. The Trump administration's amplified immigration crackdownhas led to increased arrestsand detentions of immigrants and citizens at homes and worksites and in the streets. It has also led to curtailments of legal immigration with stepped-up scrutiny for visa applicants, cutoffs of refugee entries, travel bans and new procedural barriers for legal migration. "This is really the first time we've seen a drop like this," said Passel, who said it's difficult to say whether the drop will be consistent through the rest of the year. Early data shows what appeared to be a 2024 slowdown and then a 2025 decline in what is tagged as the unauthorized population, which is a mix of people illegally here and people who had some form of protection from deportation, such as Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, known as DACA. Passel noted that the sample used for the census survey to provide the snapshot of the current immigration population isn't very large, so data pointing to the decline this year is preliminary and incomplete. Pew said the decline may be partly artificial because of a declining response rate by immigrants to the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, on which the Pew data is based. Immigrants who have become U.S. citizens through the naturalization process make up the largest share of the overall immigrant population, 46%, or 23.8 million. They are followed by 14 million "unauthorized" immigrants, or 27%; 11.9 million lawful permanent residents (green card holders), or 23%; and 2.1 million temporary lawful residents, or 4%, who have permission to be in the United States for a limited time, usually for study or work. Despite the decline in the overall immigrant population, the United States continues to have more immigrants than any other country, but it is outmatched by several other countries that have higher proportions of immigrants in their populations. In Canada, immigrants are 22% of the population, and they are three-quarters of the population in the United Arab Emirates. Immigrants were 15.8% of the U.S. population in January, which fell to 15.4% in June, Pew said. Immigrants in the United States with some, but not full, protection from deportation drove the two-year increase in the unauthorized populationto a record high of 14 million in 2023, Pew reported. That took place after an influx of 3.5 million people over two years — which Pew said was the largest consistent increase on record. About 6 million people were in the United States without full protection from deportation in 2023 — up from 2.7 million in 2021, according to Pew. That compares to 2012, when the unauthorized population hit a previous high of 12.2 million, and about 500,000 people had protection from deportation. Early data, however, shows that the increase appears to have slowed in 2024 and declined this year. President Joe Biden'shalt of asylum applications in late 2024and suspension of parole programs, such as the Cuba, Haitian, Nicaragua, Venezuelan program that he created to blunt masses of immigrants arriving at the border, appeared to considerably slow the growth of the unauthorized population in the United States, according to Pew's report. This year, the unauthorized population has begun to decline because of increased deportations and the removal of deportation protections by Trump, Pew said. But the unauthorized population appears to still be above the 2023 levels, based on incomplete data. Other notable findings: During 2021-23, when there were record influxes of immigrants, the United States also had record low unemployment. New unauthorized immigrants are coming from different places than in the past, increasingly from South America rather than Mexico or Central America. While California still leads in the number of immigrants (2.3 million) and Texas remains second (2.1 million), the gap between them had closed from about 1.2 million in 2007 to about 200,000 now. Texas' unauthorized population increased more than California's from 2021 to 2023.

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August 21, 2025

U.S. immigrant population shrinking for first time since 1960s

U.S. immigrant population shrinking for first time since 1960s The number of immigrants in the United States appears to be shrinking for the...

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Wynonna Judd's daughter Grace Kelley says singer 'was never a mother' and ex-stepfather molested her when she was 10

Wynonna Judd's daughter Grace Kelley says singer 'was never a mother' and ex-stepfather molested her when she was 10

Dave Allocca/Starpix/Shutterstock; Rick Diamond/Getty Grace Kelley, the daughter of country iconWynonna Judd, is speaking out about a troubling epoch in Judd family history. In an interview withThe Daily Progresson Wednesday, Kelley accused her former stepfather, D.R. Roach, of sexually abusing her when she was 10. Judd married Roach in 2003, and has previously discussedfiling for divorcein 2007 after learning he had been arrested and charged with sexual battery against a minor. The victim has never been identified, but Kelley told the outlet, "When they found out in counseling what he had done to me, they're like, 'Wait a minute. We're going to report this to law enforcement.'" "When he was arrested and it came out in the news, that's when she divorced him," Kelley continued. "So is my mom rich? Yeah, she's so rich that she was able to sweep me under the rug and abuse me and then cover it all up. I don't want to talk bad about my mom, but we'll just say she's a good performer. She was never a mother." Entertainment Weeklydid not immediately hear back from a representative for Judd. TheTennessee Sex Offender Registryidentifies Roach as an offender against children, and lists his date of offense as Feb. 1, 2007. Looking back on the ordealin 2010, Judd toldOprah Winfreythat Roach was "out of the house within the hour" she learned of his arrest. "This story is so deep and wide. There's more to it than I can tell you... Because of the child, I won't speak about it. It's their story [to tell] when they're ready to talk." Ron Wolfson/WireImage Kelley and her brother Elijah are the products of Judd's marriage to her first husband, Arch Kelley III. Kelley has been forthcoming about her struggles, tellingThe Daily Progress, "Between 12 and 17, I was in 14 different facilities." Sign up forEntertainment Weekly's free daily newsletterto get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. The daughter of the "My Strongest Weakness" singer and granddaughter of the Judds co-founder Naomi Judd wasarrested twice last year, just months after completing aneight-year jail sentencefor violating the terms of probation for her 2016arrest for possession of meth. While her daughter was incarcerated, Judd began raising Kelley's daughter Kaliyah, and continues to parent the 3-year-old. Kelley says she believes that "now's my time," explaining that "I never had a voice, and I was iffy about talking about all this stuff, but no matter what is said about me, the Bible says the truth will set you free." Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

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August 21, 2025

Wynonna Judd's daughter Grace Kelley says singer 'was never a mother' and ex-stepfather molested her when she was 10

Wynonna Judd's daughter Grace Kelley says singer 'was never a mother' and ex-stepfather molested her when she was 10 Dave Allocc...

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Hollywood's biggest AI debut? Las Vegas Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz'

Hollywood's biggest AI debut? Las Vegas Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz'

By Dawn Chmielewski LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -When "The Wizard of Oz at Sphere" opens off the Las Vegas Strip on Aug. 28, audiences will experience the 1939 film classic in a way its creators probably never thought possible. Nearly 18,000 people will find themselves in the eye of the swirling tornado that rips Dorothy's Kansas farmhouse off its moorings and hurtles it onto Munchkinland. The film has been enhanced to fill a 160,000-square-foot wall of LED panels that spans three football fields, encircling the audience and reaching 22 stories high, as 750-horsepower fans kick up wind and debris to simulate the twister. The $104 or more per seat spectacle is more than meets the eye. "The Wizard of Oz" marks one of the most significant partnerships between a studio and technology company to use artificial intelligence to forge a new media experience. Reuters spoke with nine people, including principals directly involved in the project and senior entertainment industry experts, who told the story behind a project that some industry veterans see as a potential watershed moment in Hollywood's use of AI tools. "It definitely represents a really meaningful milestone in AI-human creative collaboration," said Thao Nguyen, immersive arts and emerging technologies agent at CAA. "I think it will set a precedent on how we reimagine culturally significant media." Bringing Dorothy and the Wicked Witch to the massive Sphere, a globe-shaped entertainment venue featuring advanced technology, took two years and brought together its creative team, Warner Bros Discovery executives, Google's DeepMind researchers, academics, visual effects artists -- more than 2,000 people, in all. The development occurred during intense apprehension over AI's impact on jobs in Hollywood and the desire to preserve human creativity. Some visual effects companies initially contacted to work on the project declined because they were not permitted to work with AI at the time. 'YOU'RE TOAST!' Getting here took the blessing of Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, his studio chiefs and lawyers who established guidelines for using AI. "Wizard of Oz at Sphere" drew upon archival materials from the film -- including set blueprints, shot lists, publicity stills and film artifacts -- as well as some 60 research papers to help deliver the movie in resolution representing a ten-fold improvement over previous work. "We had to reimagine the cinematography, we had to reimagine the editing, and we had to do all of this without changing the experience," said Oscar-winner Ben Grossmann, who oversaw the project's visual effects. "Because if you touch anything about this sacred piece of cinema, you're toast!" Rather than exploiting AI to cut jobs, they sought to use it to breathe fresh life into a classic story and create new experiences with existing intellectual property. "Hollywood embraces new technology, and everyone can't wait to be the second one to use it," said Buzz Hays, a veteran film producer who leads Google Cloud's entertainment industry solutions group. "What 'The Wizard of Oz' is doing for us is giving that first opportunity where people go, 'Oh my god, this is not at all what I thought AI was going to be.'" The project began in 2023 with Sphere executives discussing which project would push the technological boundaries of the venue that had already hosted U2 and Darren Aronofsky's "Postcard from Earth." "The Wizard of Oz" quickly topped the list as a familiar, beloved film well-suited for the Sphere's enormous canvas, said Carolyn Blackwood, head of Sphere Studios. It presented an opportunity to re-introduce the classic to a new generation in a way that would place them inside L. Frank Baum's world. Symbolically, the team chose a classic film that was a technical marvel of its time. While not the first movie to use Technicolor, "The Wizard of Oz's" dramatic transition from sepia tones to hyper-saturated color marked a cinematic milestone. Sphere Entertainment's CEO James Dolan and creative collaborator Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and noted film producer, envisioned a more ambitious project than a mere digital remastering of a classic. Rosenthal tapped Hays to bring in Google as a technical partner. AI 'QUARANTINE ZONE' Dolan approached Warner Bros Discovery CEO Zaslav, a friend and business partner from the early days of cable TV, to propose bringing "Oz" to the Sphere. "I had just been to the Sphere with a friend and was really blown away," said Zaslav, adding that Dolan and Rosenthal also won over his studio chiefs, "who loved the idea. It's an example of the great IP we own at Warner Bros." Before turning over one of the world's most important entertainment properties, Warner Bros set strict ground rules. Google could train its generative AI models on each major actor to reproduce their performances, but the data would remain the studio's property. None of the "Oz" training data would be incorporated into Google's public AI models. "One of the things critical to getting this project started was creating a safe place for experimentation," said Grossmann. "Warner Brothers and Google and the Sphere created an environment where they said, 'We don't necessarily know how it's going to end, but we're going to create a little quarantine zone here.'" The visual effects team initially tried enlarging images using CGI, which would have created photorealistic animated versions of the characters. That approach was rejected because it would violate the integrity of the original performances. "AI was effectively a last resort, because we couldn't really do it any other way," said Grossmann, whose Los Angeles studio, Magnopus, worked on such photo-realistic computer animated films as Disney's "The Lion King." AI enhanced the resolution of tiny celluloid frames from 1939 to ultra-high-definition images. It restored details -- like freckles on Dorothy's face or burlap texture on Scarecrow's face -- obscured by Technicolor's process. AI also helped "outpaint" on-screen images to fill gaps created by camera cuts or framing, as when it took a close-up of the Tin Man chopping a door of the Witch's castle with an axe to free Dorothy and completed the image of the woodman. It took months of repeated fine-tuning and Google's DeepMind braintrust to elevate consumer-grade AI tools to deliver crisp images with the Sphere's 16K "super" resolution. Musicians re-recorded the entire film score on the original sound stage to take advantage of the venue's 167,000 speakers. The vocal performances of Judy Garland and other actors remain unaltered. FLYING MONKEYS Despite attention to authenticity, the project has attracted criticism from some cinephiles who object to altering the cherished film. Entertainment writer Joshua Rivera called it "an affront to art and nature." "None of these people criticizing this have seen the film or understand what we are doing," said Rosenthal. In a private midnight screening for Reuters, Grossmann offered a glimpse of what's to come. Some changes are subtle, as when Uncle Henry stands by the front door while neighbor Almira Gulch demands Toto. AI places the performer, who spends much of his time out of view, back into frame, stitching together a wider view to fill the Sphere's expansive viewing plane. Other changes aim to realize the filmmakers' vision in ways that weren't technically feasible 86 years ago. As Dorothy and friends encounter the Wizard in the Emerald Throne Room, a 200-foot-high green head looms over the audience, eyes bulging and voice booming, creating a more imposing depiction than the original image of an actor in green makeup projected on smoke. "Whenever we made a change, it was because we wanted the audience to experience what Dorothy was experiencing directly," said Grossmann. "We completed something filmmakers were intending to do but were limited by 1939's tools . Coordinated physical effects add another dimension. Flying monkeys will swoop into the Sphere as 16-foot-long helium-filled simians steered by drone operators, one of many Four-D effects. The result is an amalgam of cinema, live production and experiential VR. "I think that's going to change the way people think about entertainment and experience," Grossmann said. (Editing by Anna Driver and Ken Li)

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August 21, 2025

Hollywood's biggest AI debut? Las Vegas Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz'

Hollywood's biggest AI debut? Las Vegas Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz' By Dawn Chmielewski LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -When "The Wiza...

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'70s Rock Icon Pete Townshend, 80, Sets Sights On Solo Shows After Farewell Tour: 'I've Got 140 Tracks Ready To Go'

'70s Rock Icon Pete Townshend, 80, Sets Sights On Solo Shows After Farewell Tour: 'I've Got 140 Tracks Ready To Go'

'70s Rock Icon Pete Townshend, 80, Sets Sights On Solo Shows After Farewell Tour: 'I've Got 140 Tracks Ready To Go'originally appeared onParade. The Whomay be saying farewell, butPete Townshendintends to do the exact opposite. The guitarist, keyboardist and co-lead vocalist founded the now legendary rock band withRoger Daltrey,Keith MoonandJohn Entwistlein 1964, and together they went on to create music history. Though Moon tragically died in 1978 and Entwistle in 2002, Townshend and Daltrey have kept the band together and touring for over six decades. "It's a brand rather than a band. Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history," Townshend shared in arecent interview. But now, The Who are in the midst of their Farewell Tour, which wraps up in Las Vegas in September. Audiences will have to say goodbye to the band, but not to Townshend, because the rocker has big plans on the horizon. "I want to continue to be creative," he said in 2025. "I've got songs in all kinds of development, 140 tracks ready to go." Townshend's artistry extends well beyond the studio and the stage. In 2019, he published his debut novel,The Age of Anxiety, a story about a rockstar named Walter who sells his band's catalog of music and then leaves the music industry behind, only to be accused of a heinous crime that took place on a night he can't remember. The victim? His close female friend. "I wanted to write a book where the female characters were as strong as the men," he toldRolling Stonein 2019. "I also wanted them to be really authentic. One of the things that happened is that the women in my mind, the women in my life and the models I used for the female characters, they are much, much stronger than the men." Of the 140 songs Townshend has on the back burner, 26 of them were written forThe Age of Anxiety,an album based on his novel that he intends to release in the future. "It's not autobiographical, but the scope of my own mental journey through addiction and recovery has led me to a place where I feel that I can write a character," he said. Writing and recording music has historically been a precursor to live shows and touring for Townshend, and it seems as though that hasn't changed, even as the octogenarian steps into the solo arena once again. "I plan to experiment with some one-man shows," Townshend said. Judging by the staggering number of fans who are attending The Who's Farewell Tour, there's a massive audience awaiting the chance to buy tickets. '70s Rock Icon Pete Townshend, 80, Sets Sights On Solo Shows After Farewell Tour: 'I've Got 140 Tracks Ready To Go'first appeared on Parade on Aug 21, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Aug 21, 2025, where it first appeared.

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August 21, 2025

'70s Rock Icon Pete Townshend, 80, Sets Sights On Solo Shows After Farewell Tour: 'I've Got 140 Tracks Ready To Go'

'70s Rock Icon Pete Townshend, 80, Sets Sights On Solo Shows After Farewell Tour: 'I've Got 140 Tracks Ready To Go' '70s...

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