Japan unveils AI-powered human washing machine, a futuristic pod that washes and dries in just 15 minutes.

‘Ridiculous’: How Washington residents view the new troops in town. Wary residents and curious tourists stop to take photos, while inside the elegant Union Station a string trio plays “What a Wonderful World.”

Christian Calhoun, a 26-year-old consultant who was born and raised in the US capital, told AFP that seeing the troops made him “more than disappointed -- I’m furious.”

“It’s a lot of standing around,” he added.

Declaring that Washington is overrun by crime and plagued by homeless people, President Donald Trump has deployed 800 National Guard troops, as well as ordering a federal takeover of the city’s police department.

Over more than an hour on Thursday afternoon, the most that the handful of troops at Union Station interacted with the public was to let a French tourist take a selfie with them.

Larry Janezich, an 81-year-old resident, said he had not seen the troops taking part in “any kind of meaningful action that is dedicated to the prevention of crime.”

Patricia Darby, a 65-year-old retiree, said that the troops “don’t want to be here,” pointing to how some had their faces covered.

Calhoun said he does “feel bad” for them as they wore heavy combat gear as temperatures soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius).
‘Fake news’

On his Truth Social platform, Trump this week described Washington as “under siege from thugs and killers,” with higher crime rates than “many of the most violent Third World Countries.”

Residents outside Union Station rejected the apocalyptic image.

“It’s ridiculous, and it really just shows how (Trump) sees the people that live here,” Calhoun said.

“It’s totally false, and obviously promulgated on his media to justify an unwarranted exercise of federal power,” Janezich said.

Gerry Cosgrove, a 62-year-old tourist from the Scottish city of Edinburgh only in Washington for two days, had a simple response when asked about Trump’s portrayal of the city: “To quote a phrase: fake news.”

Trump has also ordered homeless people to “move out” of Washington.

“Where are they going to go?” Darby asked, after fetching a bottle of water for a homeless person in the heat.

Randy Kindle, who volunteers with a protest group in a tent outside Union Station, told AFP he was afraid that homeless people could now end up in confinement or jail “when all they need is help.”

Guadalupe, a homeless man in his late 70s originally from Mexico, told AFP that the troops had asked him to move on Wednesday night.

“They have no manners,” he said in Spanish.

“I almost felt sick” during the interaction, he added.

Calhoun said he had mostly seen the troops outside train stations, adding that he noticed they had “a lot of focus on cannabis use.”

Washington legalized cannabis use on private property in 2015, however it is still prohibited under federal law.

Several residents also raised the cost of deploying the troops in their city.

“It’s a waste of money -- I think D.C. was safe,” Darby said.

#Hezbollah vows to keep arms, says Lebanon’s disarmament plan serves #Israel. Naim Kassem said the government’s decision to remove “the defensive weapons of the resistance, its people and Lebanon during an aggression” facilitates the killing of “resistance fighters and their families and evict them from their land and homes.”

He said the government should have instead “spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon.” Speaking in a televised speech to mark a Shiite religious event, he added “the government is serving the Israeli project.”

Kassem added if the ongoing crisis leads to an internal conflict, the government is to blame. He noted that Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, did not to ask their supporters to protest in the streets to give way for more discussions. The Amal movement was one of the main armed groups in Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and is now a powerful political party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

But, he said if a decision is taken to protest in the streets, protesters “will be all over Lebanon and head to the U.S. embassy.” He did not elaborate.

Hezbollah’s weapons have been a major dividing point in Lebanon with some groups that are opposed to Hezbollah saying only the state should be allowed to have arms.

The Lebanese government voted last week for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year and implement a ceasefire with Israel.

The small Mediterranean country has been under international pressure to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms since the 14-month war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November.

However, the Hezbollah leader said his group will only discuss a national defense strategy over its weapons once Israel withdraws from Lebanon and stops its almost daily airstrikes that have killed scores of Hezbollah members since the war’s end.

“The resistance will not hand over its weapons as the aggression continues and occupation remains,” Kassem said, adding that the group will fight a long battle if needed.

The Israel-Hezbollah war weakened the Iran-backed group and left much of its military and political leadership dead. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million and caused destruction that the World Bank said will cost US$11 billion in reconstruction.

After the war ended, Israeli forces stayed in five overlooking locations inside Lebanon.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Israel’s military has said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war.

Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press

U.S. State Department targets Online News Act in human rights report. The Online News Act, which requires Meta and Google to compensate news publishers for the use of their content, is cited in a section of the report covering freedom of the press.

“The U.S. is determined to crush two important pieces of Canadian legislation, the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act. Their end game is clear,” said Fen Hampson, an international affairs professor at Carleton University.

While Meta pulled news from its platforms in response to the 2023 law, news outlets are now receiving payments from a $100-million Google fund. Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated last week he is open to repealing the legislation; a government spokesperson said “implementation of the Online News Act is still ongoing” in response to a query from The Canadian Press.

Carney previously killed a digital services tax that would have applied to many large U.S. tech companies after U.S. President Donald Trump halted trade negotiations with Canada over the tax.

Last week, a group of U.S. Republicans urged the Trump administration to push Canada to eliminate the Online Streaming Act. That bill forces large streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon to make financial contributions to Canadian content and news.

Hampson said large tech companies oppose both pieces of legislation. “What we’re seeing is not what I would call honest criticism. It’s a calculated campaign to protect Big Tech’s profits,” he said.

“I would say, to put it bluntly, the report takes tiny grains of truth and spins them into a full-blown web of deception and misinformation that is perhaps worthy of George Orwell himself.”

Alfred Hermida, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s journalism school, also referred to the concept of doublethink from Orwell’s famous political dystopian novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”

Hermida said the report takes things “that are actually promoting press freedom, but presenting them in a way as if they’re curtailing press freedom.”

The report said the government “generally” respects the freedom of expression in Canada, though it concluded that “significant curtailments of press freedom remained.”

It cited media funding as part of the reason, including the Online News Act, journalism tax credits and government funding for a local journalism initiative that is administered independently of government.

The State Department took issue with a stream of that initiative that prioritizes the hiring of diverse journalists, including those who are Indigenous, Black, have disabilities or are part of the LGBTQ community. The report claimed that discriminated “against journalists who fell outside of these favoured categories.”

Hermida said media has “by and large has been very white and very male” and the effort to increase diversity is attempting to correct historical harms.

Hermida added it’s “really startling” to see such a politicized report come out of the State Department.

He described it as a “MAGA lens on press freedom in Canada.”

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press

Melania Trump demands Hunter Biden retract ‘extremely salacious’ Epstein comments

#Hamas has said that it is ready to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip if Israel pulls out its troops to agreed places, the Al Arabiya television channel reported, citing its sources.

According to the sources, the Hamas delegation in Cairo has handed over its proposals on a potential Gaza ceasefire deal to the Egyptian mediators. "Hamas expressed readiness to withdraw its forces in exchange for Israel’s pulling out its troops to agreed localities and reiterated its commitment to preserving the lives of hostages," the sources said, adding that Hamas "demanded a written agreement with Israel" that will provide for international guarantees that Israel would drop its Gaza occupation plans and would not resume hostilities.

The sources also said that Egypt is working on a roadmap for a comprehensive agreement on Gaza to be implemented by late August.

Egypt’s Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya television channel reported on Wednesday, citing a source, that the Hamas delegation met in Cairo with Egypt’s intelligence chief Hassan Rashind to signal its intention to resume the ceasefire talks as soon as possible. According to the source, the consultations in Cairo are focusing on ways for reaching a 60-day ceasefire agreement.

North Korea not going to signal anything to US via Russian president — Kim’s sister .

#Pyongyang doesn’t plan to convey its readiness for talks with the United States via the Russian side at the upcoming Russia-US summit in Alaska, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, deputy head of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Yo Jong, said.

Earlier, the South Korean media assumed that during the upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin may raise the topic of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and brief the American president on North Korea’s position. In such an event, according to some media outlets, Russia may become a mediator between the US and North Korea instead of South Korea.

"Media of the ROK (South Korea - TASS) made a supposition on August 12 that the DPRK's thoughts may be conveyed to the U.S. side at the Russia-U.S. summit meeting to be held soon. This is a typical proof that the ROK is having a false dream,"

"Why should we send a message to the U.S. side. I would like to remind again the world that is listening to the news of the ROK media spreading false suppositions. We have nothing to do with the U.S.," she stressed. "We are not at all interested in talks that are obsessed with the irreversible past, and there is no more need to explain the reason."

She recalled her earlier statement that "the special personal relations between the top leaders of the DPRK and the U.S. will not be reflected in the policy and that if the U.S. persists with the outdated way of thinking, the meeting between the top leaders will remain only the "hope" of the U.S. side."

The Kremlin press service said on August 12 after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone call with North Korean leader Kim Jong UN that among other things the two leaders had discussed Putin’s upcoming talks with US President Donald Trump.

B.C. #wildfire triggers state of emergency on Vancouver Island. The City of Port Alberni has declared a state of local emergency in response to a fast-moving wildfire that has burned more than 21.5 square kilometres of forest and triggered evacuations south of the Vancouver Island community.

The Mount Underwood wildfire continued to burn out of control Wednesday afternoon, closing the main access road between Port Alberni and Bamfield.

“This is unusual fire behaviour for wildfires on Vancouver Island,” the B.C. Wildfire Service said in an update. “We are in the midst of a severe drought and the island has seen very little rain since the end of June.”

#Qatar sentences the country’s Baha’i leader to 5 years for social media posts. The leader of the small Baha’i community in Qatar was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for social media posts that allegedly “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to court documents obtained by an international Baha’i organization monitoring the case.

A three-judge panel of Qatar’s Supreme Judiciary Council issued the verdict against Remy Rowhani, 71, who has been detained since April, according to documents provided to The Associated Press by the Baha’i International Community office in Geneva, Switzerland.

The judges rejected a defense request for leniency on grounds that Rowhani suffered from a heart condition, according to the documentation.

Saba Haddad, the Geneva office’s representative to the United Nations, depicted the verdict as “a serious breach and grave violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief and an attack on Remy Rowhani and the Baha’i community in Qatar.”

Haddad’s office, in a post on X, called on the international community “to urge Qatar’s government to uphold international law and ensure Mr. Rowhani’s immediate release.”

There was no immediate response from Qatar’s International Media Office to AP’s queries about the case.

The verdict came just two weeks after a group of U.N. human rights experts expressed “serious concern” about Rowhani’s arrest and detention, which they depicted as “part of a broader and disturbing pattern of disparate treatment of the Baha’i minority in Qatar.”

“The mere existence of Baha’is in Qatar and their innocuous presence on X cannot be criminalized under international law,” they said.

Rowhani -- former head of Qatar’s Chamber of Commerce -- had been arrested once previously, accused of offenses such as routine fundraising related to his leadership of Qatar’s Baha’i National Assembly.

The latest charges, filed in April, involve the Baha’i community’s X and Instagram accounts, which contain posts about Qatari holidays and Baha’i writings.

According to the documentation provided by the Geneva office, Qatari prosecutors alleged that these accounts “promoted the ideas and beliefs of a religious sect that raises doubt about the foundations and teachings of the Islamic religion.”

Rowhani’s daughter, Noora Rowhani, who lives in Australia, said via email that the five-year verdict is “so unfortunate and so shocking.”

“My eye condition is deteriorating and in five years, even if I meet, him I will most probably not be able to see him anymore,” she added.

The Baha’i faith -- a small but global religion with an interfaith credo -- fits comfortably into the religious spectrum of most countries but in several Middle East nations, Baha’i followers face repression that is drawing criticism from rights groups.

The abuse is most evident in Iran, which bans the faith and has been widely accused of persecuting Baha’i followers, human rights advocates say. They also report systemic discrimination in Yemen, Qatar and Egypt.

Advocates say Iran’s government has pressed for repression of the Baha’i followers in countries where it holds influence, such as Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels control the northern half of the country, and Qatar, which shares with Iran the world’s largest natural gas field.

The Baha’i faith was founded in the 1860s by Baha’u’llah, a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by his followers. Muslims consider the Prophet Muhammad the highest and last prophet.

From the Baha’i faith’s earliest days, Shiite Muslim clerics have denounced its followers as apostates. That repression continued after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when many Baha’i followers were executed or went missing.

There are less than 8 million Baha’i believers worldwide, with the largest number in India.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

David Crary, The Associated Press

As #octopuses dwindle in Spanish waters, suppliers look to imports and farming despite concerns.

#GALICIA, Spain — At a humming factory in the Spanish town of O Carballino, workers sling dozens of limp octopuses into a metal cauldron, wincing as strings of slime splatter their aprons. Nearby, others slice tentacles and pack them into vacuum-sealed bags destined for restaurants and retailers across Europe, Asia and the United States — part of a growing global appetite for an animal that’s become increasingly scarce in its native waters.

Though O Carballino proudly calls itself Spain’s octopus capital — complete with a towering bronze octopus statue, streets lined with the pulperias that offer them up to diners and an annual octopus festival that draws tens of thousands — the century-old factory hasn’t sourced a single animal from local waters in 10 years.

“Here in Galicia, octopus has become really, really variable and scarce,” said Carlos Arcos, export manager of Frigorificos Arcos SL. “If you’re industrializing a process like we do, you need to guarantee your customers regularity of supply.”

Today, 100 per cent of the company’s octopus comes from Mauritania and Morocco.

While octopus numbers fluctuate naturally from year to year, scientists and fishers say Spain’s long-term trend is downward and surging international demand is only tightening the squeeze. That’s prompted some companies to explore farming the animals in tanks to ensure a long-term supply — a prospect that’s drawn pushback from animal welfare groups.
Pressure forces closure of Spain’s octopus fishery

This summer, that pressure reached a breaking point. Spain’s octopus fishery closed for three months — an unusually long pause meant to give it time to recover.

“The population has only just come back, but once the season opens, we’ll destroy it all in two weeks,” said Juan Martínez, a fisherman of more than four decades. Beside him, hundreds of octopus traps sat idle, stacked along the dock in his home port of Cangas. “This used to be a sustainable industry, but now we’ve broken an entire ecosystem.”

Octopus populations in Galicia also depend heavily on nutrient-rich upwelling — deep ocean water rising to the surface and bringing food for octopuses — said Ángel González, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council. While upwelling naturally fluctuates, climate change is altering wind patterns, ocean stratification and nutrient delivery, making those cycles less predictable and, in some years, less productive. “When that weakens due to changing oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, numbers drop regardless of fishing.”

In response to growing demand and shrinking wild stocks, some companies in Spain are attempting to farm octopus in captivity — a move they say could ease pressure on the oceans. Grupo Profand is developing a research hatchery in Galicia focused on overcoming the biological challenges of breeding octopus. Meanwhile, seafood giant Nueva Pescanova is pursuing a full-scale industrial farm that would raise up to a million octopuses a year for slaughter.

Grupo Profand did not respond to an interview request. A spokesperson for Nueva Pescanova declined to comment.
Animal welfare groups say octopus shouldn’t be farmed

Animal welfare groups have condemned the proposed project as inhumane, citing plans to kill octopuses by submerging them in ice slurry and to confine the often-cannibalistic animals at high densities. They also warn it would pollute nearby waters with discharged waste, worsen overfishing of wild fish used for feed and inflict suffering on one of the ocean’s most complex creatures.

“Farming wild animals is cruel, but especially with octopuses given their solitary nature and extremely high intelligence,” said Helena Constela, head of communications at Seaspiracy, a group that advocates against industrial fishing. Keeping them confined together in tanks, she said, is “basically torture in slow motion.”

Michael Sealey, senior policy advisor at Oceana Europe, said aquaculture should focus on species with lower environmental costs, such as oysters and mussels, which require no fish feed. “We recognize that aquaculture has a role to play in feeding the world,” said Michael Sealey, senior policy advisor at Oceana Europe. “But we need to prioritize low-impact farming — not systems that rely on feeding wild fish to carnivorous species.”

Widespread concerns have already prompted action in the United States. Washington became the first state to ban octopus farming in 2024, followed by California, which also outlawed the sale of farmed octopus. Lawmakers in more than half a dozen other states have proposed similar bans, and a bipartisan federal bill to prohibit both farming and imports of farmed octopus is under consideration in Congress.

Though no commercial farms currently operate in the U.S., these preemptive measures reflect mounting unease over projects moving ahead in Europe, Asia and parts of Central and South America — unease fueled in part by the 2020 Oscar-winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher,” which showcased the animals’ intelligence and emotional complexity to millions on Netflix.
The arguments in favor of farming

“They have a real brain. They’re able to do things other animals cannot,” said González of the Spanish National Research Council. “But please — don’t cross the line. It’s an animal, it’s an invertebrate. We can’t extrapolate these kinds of things. Personality is linked to persons.”

González, who is working with Grupo Profand on their research hatchery, believes farming could help restore wild stocks by raising juvenile octopuses in captivity for release back into the sea — an approach animal welfare groups argue could pave the way for industrial-scale farming.

Javier Ojeda, national aquaculture representative at APROMAR, Spain’s aquaculture business association, said aquatic animals can play a key role in food security and may be more efficient to raise than livestock. “Octopuses grow extremely fast and efficiently — they’re not fighting gravity and they don’t spend energy heating their bodies," he said. He acknowledged welfare concerns but argued they should not block scientific progress.

“Farming octopus is something that cannot be stopped,” said Ojeda. “We’ve been eating them for a long time. Now we need to try to find best practices.”