With votes from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Germany's opposition conservatives broke a taboo on working with the far-right on Wednesday by gaining parliamentary approval for a proposal to significantly restrict migration. Although the plan is not legally binding, the AfD's role in approving it is symbolic in Germany, where a national election is scheduled for February 23 and the far-right party is predicted to come in second only to the conservatives. The leader of Germany's conservative CDU/CSU bloc, Friedrich Merz, is eager to take advantage of the initiative on immigration policy, which has come back into sharper focus following the arrest of an Afghan asylum seeker last week for a series of fatal stabbings. Merz's two non-binding proposals in parliament, which demanded tighter s...

Congo said it planned a fight to retake lost territory as the M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda, continued their advance on Wednesday as an East African group called for an urgent ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. On Wednesday night, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi threatened the country that he might launch a military retaliation, although claiming he prefers diplomacy. He said: The presence of hundreds of Rwandan soldiers on our soil... (is leading) to an escalation with unforeseeable repercussions. At an emergency session, the eight East African Community nations demanded that the Congo engage in negotiations with M23 and that there be an immediate ceasefire in the eastern region of the country. Earlier this week, the UN Security Council also called for an end to th...

The main American authority for the sport announced early Thursday that the airplane that crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday and suffered an in-air collision with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter included elite American figure skaters. According to Russian state media, the American Eagle flight also carried two Russian world champions. The athletes were returning from a training camp in Wichita, Kansas, according to U.S. Figure Skating. According to a statement from the sports organization, these skaters, coaches, and family members were on their way home from the National Development Camp, which was held in connection with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. We have deep sympathy for the families of the victims and are heartbroken by this unimaginable catastrophe, it continue...

A politician who stated Selena Gomez should be "deported" after she shared a since-deleted video of herself sobbing during recent immigration crackdowns was addressed by Selena Gomez. In the wake of the mass deportations that President Donald Trump ordered over the weekend, Gomez, whose paternal grandparents immigrated from Mexico, first uploaded a video to her Instagram Stories on Monday, crying. In the video, Gomez sobbed as she said, "My people are getting attacked." "I'm so sorry, I wish I could do something, but I can't," Gomez responded. "I am at a loss for what to do. I swear, I'll try everything. Instagram Stories are supposed to be visible for 24 hours, however following a flurry of criticism, it seemed the video was later removed. A remark that Gomez posted—and later removed—said...

Less than two months after spearheading a campaign that overthrew Bashar al-Assad, Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaawas tightened his grip on power on Wednesday by declaring himself president for a transitional period. The military command that spearheaded the campaign against Assad said that the Syrian constitution was suspended and that Sharaa was also given the authority to establish a provisional legislative council for a transitional period. The choices came from a gathering of military leaders involved in the attack, which was led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former offshoot of al Qaeda. Speaking to the conference, Sharaa stated that the top objective in Syria is to legitimately and legally fill a void in the government. He added that the development of e...

Football has been officiated with a basic 10-yard chain for over a century. As the sport's judge and jury, the so-called chain gang has decided whether a ball went the required number of yards to give a team a first down and four more scoring opportunities. However, new technology and artificial intelligence may soon render the chain gang obsolete. Hawk-Eye, a sophisticated system, aims to improve game speed and accuracy by combining sophisticated algorithms with numerous cameras. The NFL evaluated the ability of Sony's Hawk-Eye to make calls on line to gain—the officiating phrase for calculating the 10 yards a team must progress the ball to get a first down—during the 2024–25 preseason. Hawk-Eye pieces together every perspective of a football play using up to 60 cameras, including broadca...

This week, DeepSeek's Chinese AI assistant overtook ChatGPT to take the top spot in the Apple App Store, proving that it can compete with all of the industry's main competitors. In practical assessments According to NBC News on Tuesday, DeepSeek exhibits a helpful, amiable manner and is capable of very complex reasoning—until it encounters a topic it is unable to discuss openly. According to the testing, DeepSeek frequently appears to be trained to censor itself (and occasionally exhibit certain political inclinations) over subjects that are considered sensitive in China. Its responses are generally in accordance with what is allowed by the nation's comprehensive system of internet content regulation. In response to a question concerning the apparent censorship, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for...

Washington Reaching out to three conservative former special agents who have criticized the FBI and its extensive investigation into the Capitol incident on January 6, 2021, was one of Kash Patel's first actions after President-elect Donald Trump declared that he wanted Patel to be the next head of the agency. Patel used the term "The Suspendables" to describe the former agents. Republicans have asked two of them—along with an FBI analyst—to testify before Congress after they claimed whistleblower status. Several of them testified in 2023 that Patel, through his Kash Foundation, gave them financial help while they were suspended. According to Kyle Seraphin, 43, a member of the group and a veteran of the military, Patel contacted the three Suspendables the night Trump declared his intent...

AUBURN, NY. This month, a massive donation of fresh fish was made to a food bank in New York, but there was a catch. The Food Bank of Central New York is a mother lode of high-quality protein that could feed thousands of households. LocalCoho, a salmon farm in the small upstate community of Auburn that is about to close, wants to donate 40,000 pounds of coho salmon to the organization. The fish, however, were still alive and swimming in the enormous indoor tanks at the farm. For distribution to local food pantries, the organizations would have to find out how to remove some 13,000 salmon from the water and then process them into frozen fillets. They would also have to act quickly, before the company permanently closed. This Friday is LocalCoho's last day of operation. The team was able t...

Four current and former FBI officials tell NBC News that the head of the bureau has advisers that include a former staffer to one of the FBI's harshest congressional critics and someone who has been connected to Elon Musk's SpaceX. According to the current and former officials, the two are part of a team of at least four individuals who have been brought into the FBI to advise its director. Retired FBI agents make up at least two of the new advisers, including Tom Ferguson, a former assistant to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, an outspoken FBI critic and ardent Trump supporter. There have been no prior reports of the arrival of the individual associated with Space X. The individual's name has not been verified by NBC News. A request for response from a SpaceX representative was not answered. It's...