Iowa Tornadoes Leave Several Dead, Dozens Injured

(MIAMI) Tropical Storm Alberto formed on Wednesday in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, the first named storm of what is forecast to be a busy hurricane season. Alberto was located 185 miles (about 300 kilometers) east of Tampico, Mexico, and 295 miles (about 480 kilometers) south-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. It had top sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

An enduring problem with today’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, like ChatGPT, is that they often confidently assert false information. Computer scientists call this behavior “hallucination,” and it’s a key barrier to AI’s usefulness. Hallucinations have led to some embarrassing public slip-ups. In February, AirCanada was forced by a tribunal to honor a discount that its customer-support chatbot had mistakenly offered to a passenger.

LONDON — Two climate protesters were arrested Wednesday for spraying orange paint on the ancient Stonehenge monument in southern England, police said. The latest act by Just Stop Oil was quickly condemned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “disgraceful act of vandalism.” The incident came just a day before thousands are expected to gather at the 4,500-year-old stone circle to celebrate the summer solstice — the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] English Heritage, which manages the site, said it was “extremely upsetting” and said curators were investigating the damage.

(LISLE, ILL.) — With their bulging red eyes and their alien-like mating sound, periodical cicadas can seem scary and weird enough. But some of them really are sex-crazed zombies on speed, hijacked by a super-sized fungus. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] West Virginia University mycology professor Matt Kasson, his 9-year-old son Oliver, and graduate student Angie Macias are tracking the nasty fungus, called Massospora cicadina.

African-American heroines are everywhere in U. S. history — though they were often unseen by contemporaries. Sometimes, they simply hid. Juneteenth is a fitting occasion to celebrate one woman who did just that: Renee Messelin was a member of the first unit of American women soldiers who served in World War I.

The first debate of the U. S. presidential election, featuring President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, former President and current Republican nominee, will take place on June 27. This comes after the Biden campaign proposed an unusually early date for a debate. The second debate will take place on Sep.