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LAS VEGAS — Sin City blew a kiss goodbye to the Tropicana before first light Wednesday in an elaborate implosion that reduced to rubble the last true mob building on the Las Vegas Strip.  The Tropicana's hotel towers tumbled in a celebration that included a fireworks display. It was the first implosion in nearly a decade for a city that loves fresh starts and that has made casino implosions as much a part of its identity as gambling itself.  "What Las Vegas has done, in classic Las Vegas style, they've turned many of these implosions into spectacles," said Geoff Schumacher, historian and vice president of exhibits and programs at the Mob Museum.  Former casino mogul Steve Wynn changed the way Las Vegas blows up casinos in 1993 with the implosion of the Dunes to make room for the Bellagio. Wynn thought not only to televise the event but created a fantastical story for the implosion that made it look like pirate ships at his other casino across the street were firing at the Dunes.  From then on, Schumacher said, there was a sense in Las Vegas that destruction at that magnitude was worth witnessing.  The city hasn't blown up a Strip casino since 2016, when the final tower of the Riviera was leveled for a convention center expansion.  This time, the implosion cleared land for a $1.5 billion baseball stadium for the relocating Oakland Athletics, part of the city's latest rebrand into a sports hub.  That will leave only the Flamingo from the city's mob era on the Strip. But, Schumacher said, the Flamingo's original structures are long gone. The casino was completely rebuilt in the 1990s.  The Tropicana, the third-oldest casino on the Strip, closed in April after welcoming guests for 67 years.  Once known as the "Tiffany of the Strip" for its opulence, it was a frequent haunt of the legendary Rat Pack, while its past under the mob has long cemented its place in Las Vegas lore.  It opened in 1957 with three stories and 300 hotel rooms split into two wings.  As Las Vegas rapidly evolved in the following decades, including a building boom of Strip megaresorts in the 1990s, the Tropicana also underwent major changes. Two hotel towers were added in later years. In 1979, the casino's beloved $1 million green-and-amber stained glass ceiling was installed above the casino floor.  The Tropicana's original low-rise hotel wings survived the many renovations, however, making it the last true mob structure on the Strip.  Behind the scenes of the casino's grand opening, the Tropicana had ties to organized crime, largely through reputed mobster Frank Costello.  Costello was shot in the head in New York weeks after the Tropicana's debut. He survived, but the investigation led police to a piece of paper in his coat pocket with the Tropicana's exact earnings figure, revealing the mob's stake in the casino.  By the 1970s, federal authorities investigating mobsters in Kansas City charged more than a dozen operatives with conspiring to skim $2 million in gambling revenue from Las Vegas casinos, including the Tropicana. Charges connected to the Tropicana alone resulted in five convictions.  There were no public viewing areas for the event, but fans of the Tropicana did have a chance in April to bid farewell to the vintage Vegas relic.  "Old Vegas, it's going," Joe Zappulla, a teary-eyed New Jersey resident, said at the time as he exited the casino, shortly before the locks went on the doors.

Nairobi — Kenya’s National Assembly has impeached the country's deputy president over accusations of corruption and abuse of office. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to remove Rigathi Gachagua from office in the vote Tuesday night. The fate of the deputy president now rests in the hands of the Senate.  The process to consider removal of Kenya's deputy president from office moved to the Senate Wednesday after parliamentarians approved a motion to do so Tuesday night. Ahead of the vote, embattled deputy president Rigathi Gachagua and his allies presented his defense to the National Assembly for more than 90 minutes. But the lawmakers were not swayed, and 281 of them approved a motion to remove Gachagua from office. Forty-four others voted against the motion, and one abstained. Gachagua was accused of acquiring properties through corrupt means, though he argued the assets belonged to his late brother.  He is also accused of practicing ethnic politics and acting to undermine the government. The impeachment comes after Gachagua's fell out with President William Ruto. The deputy president has denied all the allegations against him, calling them outrageous and saying they are propaganda meant to tarnish his name. Political commentator Martin Andati said the way in which Gachagua works with other politicians and the people cost him his job. "His fate is sealed. He antagonized the MPs, he antagonized the Senate by talking badly about the chambers and the speakers, and generally, he is not a pro-people person. He has poor people management skills," he said. Some members of parliament, like Robert Mbui, who is also deputy leader of the minority, were against the impeachment. He said the house should concentrate on public issues instead of debating one man. "The cost of living has gone too high, people have no jobs, Mr. Speaker. Those are the things that this house should passionately deal with, but for a whole day, even the last two or three weeks to deal with one matter, I think we are losing direction. It's important that we deal with things that are affecting our people," he said. In the past four months, Kenya has witnessed a wave of protests aimed at President Ruto's government over allegations of corruption by some politicians and government officers. Kenyans also protested high taxes and parliament’s alleged failure to act independently from the president. Some politicians have accused the deputy president of helping to organize anti-government protests, an accusation Gachagua denies. Kenyan political expert Harman Manyora said the parliament is setting a dangerous precedent that threatens the country's political future and ethnic cohesion. “[It] should not surprise us. In the future, we can have governments fall in the manner in which governments come and go in parliamentary democracies like India, Israel, the UK, and Italy, which I doubt we can withstand. From a political front, this is also a country with a lot of flashpoints. It is an ethnically charged country, and a move like this has the potential of negatively impacting the country by causing division, and you can never know where it can lead us,” said Manyora. The debate and voting about Gachagua’s conduct will continue next week. After that, some believe the issue may go to court, where he could seek legal help to either keep his job or clear his name of the allegations against him.

ANN ARBOR, FLINT AND DETROIT, MICHIGAN — U.S. election officials in battleground states are pushing back against disinformation about election integrity and working to assure Americans that their votes will be counted. Officials from both major parties in six states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — met in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last month for panel discussions hosted by the nonpartisan group Keep our Republic. The group seeks to educate the American public about threats to the U.S. election system and build trust in the electoral system. They’re working to avoid a repeat of November 2020 scenes in nearby Detroit and other American cities where supporters of then-President Donald Trump, riled up by his baseless accusations of election fraud, pressured officials to stop counting the votes. This year, many Trump supporters who spoke with VOA say they worry about fraud in this election. “Right now, our government, you're going to question everything about it,” said Marvin Minton, a Trump supporter who attended the Republican presidential nominee's town hall event in Flint, Michigan, in September. “I wish I could say differently, but that's not how America feels. We don't trust nobody.” Angelina Kandow, who was also at the Flint event, said, “Was [the 2020 election] stolen or not? One case, one case is enough to question the whole system.” Some Trump supporters quoted alleged instances of 2020 election fraud that were disproven during court cases triggered by the more than 60 lawsuits filed by Republicans and the Trump campaign after that year’s election. Disinformation around election integrity has gained traction among Republicans, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts poll, released in August. The poll found 67% of Republicans trust Trump and his campaign for accurate information on the outcome of the election. Only 51% of Republicans said they trust the government’s certification of election results. In contrast, 87% of Democrats trust government certifications, while 82% trust Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, and her campaign. Dangerous disinformation Officials in battleground states say disinformation can be dangerous. “They can in some cases lead to people making threats to election officials or worse, based on lies or misinformation they have been told about elections,” said Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections. “Even if it doesn't result in any sort of physical violence, it does undermine trust long term in the election system, which is bad for our republic and is bad for our democracy,” he told VOA. Meagan Wolfe, an election official in Wisconsin, another battleground state, has been targeted with intimidation, even death threats. Republicans loyal to Trump have attempted to oust her over false claims that she helped to rig the 2020 vote in favor of President Joe Biden. Wolfe encouraged people who don’t trust the election process to become involved. “They can become a poll worker. They can become a poll observer. They can watch the audits of the voting equipment,” she told VOA.” All of that is open for [the] public to view.” In many states, efforts to ensure voters that elections are secure are supported by Republicans. Justin Roebuck, a Republican election official in Ottawa County, Michigan, acknowledges it’s an uphill battle. “Our political leaders at every level need to also seek facts and to seek data,” he told VOA. “And I think until that happens, we will have a problem in terms of our confidence and trust in the process.” Roebuck said he is working directly with citizens, instead of through the campaigns. “We have very decentralized elections in the United States. There are always things that we can do better,” he said. “Sometimes we have to work through those challenges and work through those messes.” Messy in Michigan It’s already looking like it could become messy in Michigan. Republicans loyal to Trump have sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, over absentee ballot processing guidelines and voter registration lists. “If Jocelyn Benson is not responding to what is required under the law, we will take her to court to get the courts to compel her to do that,” Michigan Republican Party chairperson Pete Hoekstra told VOA. Benson dismissed it as a Republican strategy to create a “false sense of irregularities in the process.” “In general, we see lawsuits masquerading as a legal strategy when they're really a PR strategy to get misinformation or sow seeds of doubt about our elections into the narrative,” she told VOA. She said that there are “more checks and balances in place than ever before” to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the election process. Both parties have launched election-related lawsuits in various battleground states, which could mean chaos in the November election. “Any kind of legal challenge happening this close to an election, typically, is lawyers putting a placeholder in case they may not win in a state or may not have an outcome they like, and it gives them the ability to challenge the election after the fact,” said Kim Wyman, senior fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center's Elections Project in Washington. There are other potential disruptions, including efforts to delay election certification by county officials who support Trump. “We've seen some legal maneuvers and some boards of elections that have changed the rules that allow more scrutiny over the canvas period and the certification of the election,” Wyman told VOA. After Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, Congress sought to prevent such events from recurring by passing the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. Mandatory deadline The reforms set a new mandatory December 11 deadline for states to submit certified slates of presidential electors, provided expedited court access to resolve challenges and raised the threshold for objecting to election results in Congress. Battleground states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina have passed legislation to ensure that canvasses, recounts, audits and legal challenges meet the new deadline. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have not, leaving their electoral systems vulnerable to partisan lawsuits and political pressures that could force them to miss the certification deadline. This could leave uncertain the fate of 29 electoral college votes. A presidential candidate needs at least 270 electoral college votes to win. VOA’s Rivan Dwiastono contributed to this report.

ISLAMABAD — Hardline Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reported Wednesday that nine people, including at least two women, were publicly flogged after being convicted of various crimes, such as adultery.  Five of the punishments took place at a sports stadium in Kandahar, capital of the eponymous southern province. Local Taliban officials, judicial officers, and ordinary Afghans were among the onlookers.   The Taliban’s Supreme Court announced the details, saying the five individuals were found guilty of adultery, sodomy, and robbery, with each of them receiving 39 lashes and prison sentences ranging from two to seven years. It did not say whether females were among the convicts.  The court separately announced that two men and two women were publicly flogged Wednesday for adultery in the northern Afghan provinces of Takhar and Samangan.  Hundreds of men and women have been lashed in sports stadiums across Afghanistan since the Taliban regained power in 2021.    In June this year, the Islamist leaders carried out a mass lashing of 63 convicts, including 14 women, in a packed northern sports stadium for committing “immoral crimes," such as adultery and homosexuality.   The Taliban have also executed at least five Afghan murder convicts in crowded sports stadiums, citing the Islamic concept of retributive justice known as qisas.  Global outcry  The executions and corporeal punishments have drawn an outcry and calls from the United Nations to immediately end them for being in breach of human rights and international law.  Taliban leaders defend their criminal justice system, arguing that it is in line with their interpretation of the Islamic law of Sharia. They also rejected criticism of their curbs on Afghan women’s access to education, employment, and public life at large.  The United States and the world at large have refused to recognize Taliban authorities as the official government of Afghanistan, citing their treatment of women, among other human rights concerns.  “We continue to make clear that any significant steps towards normalization of relations is contingent upon a profound shift in the Taliban’s human rights conduct,” said Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, speaking to reporters Tuesday. “And there has been remarkable unity among the international community on that question.”  Girls ages 12 and older are not allowed to attend secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world with this restriction, while female students have been barred from universities. Most Afghan women are prohibited from working in both public and private sectors, including the U.N.  The Taliban last month enacted so-called “vice and virtue” laws that, according to critics, have dealt another blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan. The contentious decree deems the sound of a woman’s voice in public a moral violation and requires them to cover their entire bodies and faces when outdoors. It also forbids women from looking at men to whom they are not related and vice versa. 

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As Laos hosts this year’s summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Beijing is calling for additions to its free-trade agreement with the regional forum that focus on smart cities, 5G, artificial intelligence and e-commerce. Ahead of the ASEAN summit, which began Sunday and ends Friday, Chinese state media have stepped up efforts to promote the benefits of what they call an upgrade to the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, or CAFTA, agreement. Analysts point out that the two sides have not reached agreement on what’s being called “CAFTA 3.0,” and that it remains to be seen whether including China's electric vehicles and e-commerce would benefit Southeast Asian industries that are struggling to compete with their Chinese counterparts. "The establishment of a free-trade demonstration zone is actually nothing more than the hope that things can be sold into China,” Ming-Fang Tsai, a professor in the Department of Industrial Economics at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, told VOA. However, he said the Chinese market is facing a lack of domestic demand and overproduction, leading to price competition. “So, is the FTA 3.0 really an upgrade? Actually, it is a big question mark,” he said by email. Nevertheless, some specific areas in the 3.0 agreement still attract the attention of experts, including its focus on the EV industry. Although ASEAN is also actively developing an EV industry, He Jiangbing, a China-based economist and finance commentator, told VOA if China's major EV manufacturers pour into Southeast Asia through changes in the agreement, it would likely have a huge impact on the local automobile industries. “China’s mainland started relatively early in new-energy vehicles and has developed rapidly for 10 years. But the automotive industry in ASEAN is relatively weak. If China's new-energy vehicles are sold in ASEAN, it will be difficult for Southeast Asian [traditional] car companies to resist,” He said. Southeast Asia's own automobile industry will be greatly affected or cease to exist, He said. But Lu Xi, a senior lecturer at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, told VOA that most of China's EVs are not getting into Southeast Asia through exports but through production-line transfer, similar to joint ventures, so a price war should not cause a negative impact. “With the transfer of [China's EV] manufacturing industry chain, the economic structure of Southeast Asia will undergo a huge transformation,” Lu said by email. “Depending on the current political and economic situation between China and the US, Southeast Asia itself also has a very broad local market and a very good young population structure, so on the whole, the Southeast Asian market should be one of the important engines of economic growth in the whole region in the future." Tsai noted that Chinese manufacturers will set up factories in Southeast Asia to avoid the “Made in China” label and restrictions on Chinese products. “U.S. controls on technology may affect the components of EVs in the future,” he said, “which brings great pressure to Chinese manufacturers.” In addition to EVs, the 3.0 agreement also focuses on smart cities, 5G, artificial intelligence and e-commerce. Analysts say China’s e-commerce is already having a negative impact on the region as orders of cheaper Chinese imports and knockoffs are flooding Southeast Asia. Half of the ceramic factories in Thailand's northern Lampang province have closed, and Indonesian textile workers are facing mass layoffs, the South China Morning Post and the Bangkok Post reported. "In the face of the massive entry of the [Chinese] e-commerce, frankly speaking, these Southeast Asian countries are relatively uncompetitive,” said Tsai. “Because first, [they] will not be able to compete with China in marketing and sales. Second, [China's] own products are cheaper. “If my entire e-commerce system is better than yours,” Tsai said, “and my products are not more expensive than yours, then how can you compete with me?” Nonetheless, in a September speech for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, in Nanning, China, ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn called on businesses to take full advantage of the partnership as they move toward the changes. He touted the RCEP, the world’s largest trade bloc, covering nearly 30% of global gross domestic product at $29 trillion and 2.3 billion people across the Asia Pacific region. “ASEAN’s multidirectional economic relations have been a major driver behind the use of RCEP,” said Hourn, according to a written statement. “China, for example, has remained ASEAN’s largest trading partner for the past 15 years and has also climbed from the 5th largest source of FDI to ASEAN in 2022 to the 3rd largest in 2023. With both RCEP and ACFTA 3.0 in place, I am confident that trade and investment between ASEAN, China, and the rest of the RCEP partners will continue to flourish for the benefit of the people in this wider region.” ASEAN calls the free-trade agreement ACFTA; Beijing refers to it as CAFTA. The agreement was established by China and ASEAN in 2009, and the ASEAN-China Summit announced the launch of negotiations for the changes in November 2022. VOA’s Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

LONDON — That long-held Wimbledon tradition of line judges dressed in elegant uniforms is no more.  The All England Club announced Wednesday that artificial intelligence will be used to make the "out" and "fault" calls at the championships from 2025.  Wimbledon organizers said the decision to adopt live electronic line calling was made following extensive testing at the 2024 tournament and "builds on the existing ball-tracking and line-calling technology that has been in place for many years."  "We consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating," said Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club. "For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour."  Bolton said Wimbledon had a responsibility to "balance tradition and innovation."  "Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating setup at the championships for many decades," she said, "and we recognize their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service."  Line-calling technology has long been used at Wimbledon and other tennis tournaments to call whether serves are in or out.  The All England Club also said Wednesday that the ladies' and gentlemen's singles finals will be scheduled to take place at the later time of 4 p.m. local time on the second Saturday and Sunday, respectively — and after doubles finals on those days.  Bolton said the moves have been made to ensure the day of the finals "builds towards the crescendo of the ladies' and gentlemen's singles finals, with our champions being crowned in front of the largest possible worldwide audience."  

Maputo — Mozambicans vote Wednesday between the party that has dominated their country’s political landscape for nearly 50 years or something different. Whoever wins will inherit major challenges, including an insurgency in the oil and gas-rich area of Cabo Delgado. Voters braved morning rain in Maputo to line up as early as 7:00 am to cast their ballots. They have four candidates to choose from; Daniel Chapo, the ruling Frelimo party leader; Ossufo Momade, the candidate of one main opposition party that came in second in the last presidential election; Lutero Simango, the leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement and Venancio Mondlane, an independent who seems popular among youth. Aslak Ore, a researcher on Mozambique at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway, said that while supporters of Mondlane have shown excitement, he still faces stiff challenges. “There’s been a lot of enthusiasm about his candidature, however he doesn’t have the electoral organization of either Renamo or Frelimo. The question is if he’s going to be able to convert that obvious enthusiasm among the population… into the votes,” he said. At a polling place at the Josina Machel secondary school in Maputo, 22-year-old Augusto Paz said he waited about an hour, but he had to make sure to vote. “As a young Mozambican man, I feel like this is important because it might be the choice that would change things in our country. I am talking about healthcare, education, and development in general,” he said. After casting his ballot, Sergio Pantie, a member of parliament and Frelimo supporter, told us he is confident his party will win. “People continue to love and highly consider Frelimo as an option to continue running this country... the results will prove, once again, that Frelimo is loved and esteemed by the Mozambican people,” he said. Two of the candidates, Momade and Simango, voted at the same polling place where outgoing President Filipe Nyusi casts his ballot. Former St. Lucia prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony, who arrived in Maputo on October 2nd, heads the Commonwealth International Observers’ delegation. He told VOA his group was still visiting other polling stations and getting reports from other parts of the country. Meanwhile... “There seems to be some optimism that this is going to be a better administered election than previous elections. Whether that will be the case, I don’t know… we’ve just visited this polling station, and all seem to have gone on very well here,” he said. Whoever wins these elections will inherit many challenges starting with the economy and debt repayments, Ore said. “It’s between 12 and 14 billion dollars in external debt. Recently they have been able to pay back much of that debt, but they have done so by way of accumulating a lot of domestic debt. The state takes up loans from the banking system and institutions locally, so they are accumulating debt at the same time as they are paying back the external debt,” said Ore. In addition to debt challenges, the government has been battling an insurgency in the gas- and oil-rich Cabo Delgado province, where about 4,000 people have been killed and about 1 million displaced since 2017, hindering multibillion-dollar oil and gas projects. Some countries, including Rwanda, have stepped in recently to help quell the insurgency -- an act that Adriano Nuvunga, a social activist and director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Mozambique, disagrees with. “Mozambique, big as it is, massive as it is… 33 million people… but it needs to import soldiers from Rwanda to protect its sovereignty… Rwanda, a tiny country of 13 million people to protect us here,” said Nuvunga. Ruling party candidate Chapo said if he wins, securing the Cabo Delgado area will be his top priority because without security, there is no development he recently told supporters. Nuvunga said while Frelimo was seen as a liberation movement 50 years ago, times have changed. “The people here, they have nothing to do with what people did five decades ago. It’s about today; are you able to put in place credible policies and put in place a credible system of governance that would work for the people,” said Nuvunga. More than 17 million people are registered to vote.

Voters in Indian-administered Kashmir have rejected the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rebuking the party that revoked the region’s semi-autonomy. VOA correspondent Muheet Ul Islam has more from Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir. Camera: Wasim Nabi

Washington — Hurricane Helene's torrential rain and powerful winds were made about 10% more intense due to climate change, according to a study published Wednesday by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group.   Although a 10% increase "might seem relatively small... that small change in the hazard really leads to big change in impacts and damage," said climate scientist Friederike Otto, who heads the research organization.   The study also found that fossil fuels — the primary cause of climate change — have made hurricanes like Helene 2.5 times more likely to occur.   In other words, storms of Helene's magnitude were formerly anticipated once every 130 years, but now the probability is closer to once every 53 years, on average.   To conduct the study, researchers focused on three aspects of Hurricane Helene: precipitation, winds and the water temperature of the Gulf of Mexico — a key factor in its formation.   "All aspects of this event were amplified by climate change to different degrees," Ben Clarke, a co-author of the study and researcher at Imperial College London, told a press conference.   "And we'll see more of the same as the world continues to warm," he continued.   The research by WWA, an international group of scientists and meteorologists who study the role of climate change in extreme weather events, comes as the southeastern US state of Florida prepares for the arrival of another major hurricane, Milton, just 10 days after it was hit by Helene.    Destruction Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida on September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 140 mph (225 kph).   The storm then moved north, causing heavy rain and devastating floods in several states, including North Carolina, where it claimed the highest death toll.   The authors of the study emphasized that the risk posed by hurricanes has increased in scope beyond coastal areas.   Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at NGO Climate Central, said Helene "had so much intensity" that it would take time for it to lose strength, but the "storm was moving fast... so it could go farther inland pretty quickly."   This study utilized three methodologies to examine the three aspects of the storm, and was conducted by researchers from the US, the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands.   To study its rainfall, researchers used an approach based on both observation and climate models, depending on the two regions involved: one for coastal areas like Florida, and another for inland areas like the Appalachian mountains.   In both cases, the study found precipitation had increased by 10 percent because of global warming, which is currently at 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.   To study Helene's winds, scientists looked at hurricane data dating back as far as 1900.   They determined Helene's winds were 11 percent stronger, or 13 mph (21 kph), as a result of climate change.   Lastly, the researchers examined the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico, where Helene formed, finding it was around 2 degrees Celsius above normal.   This record temperature was made 200 to 500 times more likely due to climate change, the study asserts.   Warmer oceans release more water vapor, providing more energy for storms as they form.   "If humans continue to burn fossil fuels, the US will face even more destructive hurricanes," Clarke warned in a statement. 

STOCKHOLM — Scientists David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the award-giving body said on Wednesday, for their work on the structure of proteins. The prize, widely regarded as among the most prestigious in the scientific world, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is worth $1.1 million. "One of the discoveries being recognized this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences," the academy said in a statement. Half the prize was awarded to Baker "for computational protein design" while the other half was shared by Hassabis and Jumper "for protein structure prediction," the academy said. The third award to be handed out every year, the chemistry prize follows those for medicine and physics announced earlier this week. The Nobel prizes were established in the will of dynamite inventor and wealthy businessman Alfred Nobel and are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." First handed out in 1901, 15 years after Nobel's death, it is awarded for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. Recipients in each category share the prize sum that has been adjusted over the years. The economics prize is a later addition funded by the Swedish central bank. Chemistry, close to Alfred Nobel's heart and the discipline most applicable to his own work as an inventor, may not always be the most headline-grabbing of the prizes, but past recipients include scientific greats such as radioactivity pioneers Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie. Last year's chemistry award went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov for their discovery of tiny clusters of atoms known as quantum dots, widely used today to create colors in flat screens, light emitting diode (LED) lamps and devices that help surgeons see blood vessels in tumors. Alongside the cash prize, the winners will be presented a medal by the Swedish king on Dec. 10, followed by a lavish banquet in Stockholm city hall.

BEIJING — China has accused Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te of escalating "hostility" and pursuing independence, as the self-ruled island prepared to celebrate its National Day. China, which split with Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949, regards the island as part of its territory that must eventually be reunified, by force if necessary. Lai, who took power in May after his Democratic Progressive Party won a record third term, has been a vocal defender of Taiwan's sovereignty, angering Beijing. Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for a Chinese body in charge of Taiwan affairs, said Lai had "recycled the 'Taiwan independence' fallacy once again" and exposed "his malicious intent to escalate hostility and confrontation." Zhu's remarks, reported by state media late Tuesday, were in response to Lai saying it was "impossible" for China to be the "motherland" of Taiwan. "One of the most important meanings of these celebrations is that we must remember that we are a sovereign and independent country, and we must always cherish and love our country," Lai said Saturday ahead of Taiwan's National Day. Three members of the U.S. Congress will be among the foreign guests in attendance when Lai delivers his National Day speech on Thursday, which will likely touch on the island's China policies. China's defense spokesman Wu Qian said Wednesday that the United States was "adding fuel to the fire on the Taiwan issue" by providing arms to Taipei, and "pushing Taiwan step by step into a dangerous situation of war." Taiwan was on alert for Chinese military drills near the island on National Day after observing "some maritime deployments," a senior security official told AFP on Wednesday. Beijing maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and in the past two years China has held three rounds of large-scale war games, deploying aircraft and ships to encircle the island. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently used his country's national day celebrations to reiterate his call for the reunification of China and Taiwan. "Achieving complete national reunification is the common aspiration of the Chinese people," Xi said. "It is an irreversible trend, a matter of justice, and it is in accordance with the popular will. No one can stop the march of history," he said.

BEIJING — China's anti-dumping measures against brandies imported from the European Union are "legitimate trade remedy measures," the commerce ministry said on Wednesday, a day after imposing the temporary curb. French brands such as Hennessy and Remy Martin will face the strictures, adopted just days after the 27-nation bloc voted for tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), sparking its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade. China's commerce ministry said preliminary findings of an investigation showed that dumping of brandy from the European Union threatened "substantial damage" to domestic industry. On Wednesday the ministry said the EU's actions against Chinese EVs "seriously lack a factual and legal basis" and "clearly violate" World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. China has protested strongly to the WTO, it added. Trade tensions have surged since the European Commission said last week it would press ahead with tariffs on China-made EVs, even after Germany, the bloc's largest economy, rejected them. Another sign of rising trade tension was the ministry's remarks on Tuesday that an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into EU pork products would deliver "objective and fair" decisions when it wraps up. It also said it was considering a hike in tariffs on imports of large-engine vehicles, which would hit German producers hardest. German exports to China of vehicles with engines 2.5 liters in size, or larger, reached $1.2 billion last year.

BEIJING — Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy will visit China next week, sources familiar with the plan said, as the new Labor government seeks less confrontational ties with the world's second-largest economy and to resume trade and investment talks. British officials have said they want to recalibrate many of the previous Conservative Party-led government's positions on China, which it described as an "epoch-defining challenge," particularly around accepting Chinese job-creating investment. But Britain is unlikely to budge on issues such as Chinese firms' involvement in providing key infrastructure, human rights and restoring the license of state broadcaster CGTN, as it is controlled by China's ruling Communist Party. Lammy, who has vowed to overhaul Britain's ties with China, will meet Chinese officials in Beijing and representatives of British firms in Shanghai, two of the four sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. His itinerary has not yet been finalized, however, another person familiar with the planning said. A Foreign Office spokesperson said ministerial travel would be announced in the usual way. China's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. During a telephone call in August, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took office the previous month, told Chinese President Xi Jinping their countries must be able to talk frankly about disagreements while pursuing closer economic ties and co-operation on global issues. British finance minister Rachel Reeves is also considering traveling to China in the near future, said two sources. Her visit will aim to revive trade and investment talks that are supposed to take place annually. The last round of the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, as it is called, was held in 2019. China is Britain's sixth largest trading partner, accounting for 5% of total trade, British government figures show. But questions on Hong Kong, espionage accusations, and plans for a new Chinese embassy in London await resolution and may slow plans to resume talks and promises of fresh investment. Last week, two Britons, including a former researcher for a senior British lawmaker, pleaded not guilty to a charge of spying for China. That followed China's accusation in June that British foreign intelligence service MI6 recruited two staff members from unnamed state bodies to act as spies. Beijing is also waiting for a go-ahead on plans to build a new embassy in London after they were thrown out on security grounds in December 2022. In recent years, the two countries have also traded barbs on Hong Kong, a former British colony handed back to Beijing in 1997. More than 180,000 people have moved to Britain from Hong Kong under a special visa program set up in response to a crackdown on dissent in the Asian financial hub. In September, a senior Labor lawmaker said Britain should outlaw imports of products made by forced labor in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang.

NEW YORK — The U.S. said on Tuesday it may ask a judge to force Alphabet's Google to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that it says are used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search. In a landmark case, a judge in August found that Google, which processes 90% of U.S. internet searches, had built an illegal monopoly. The Justice Department's proposed remedies have the potential to reshape how Americans find information on the internet while shrinking Google's revenues and giving its competitors more room to grow. "Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google's control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow," the Justice Department said. The proposed fixes will also aim to keep Google's past dominance from extending to the burgeoning business of artificial intelligence, prosecutors said. The Justice Department might also ask the court to end Google's payments to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default on new devices. Google has made annual payments - $26.3 billion in 2021 - to companies including Apple and other device manufacturers to ensure that its search engine remained the default on smartphones and browsers, keeping its market share strong. Google, which plans to appeal, said in a corporate blog post that the proposals were "radical" and said they "go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case." Google maintains that its search engine has won users with its quality, adding that it faces robust competition from Amazon and other sites, and that users can choose other search engines as their default. The world's fourth-largest company with a market capitalization of over $2 trillion, Alphabet is under mounting legal pressure from competitors and antitrust authorities. A U.S. judge ruled on Monday in a separate case, that Google must open up its lucrative app store, Play, to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources. Google is also fighting a Justice Department case that seeks the breakup of its web advertising business. As part of its efforts to prevent Google's dominance from extending into AI, the Justice Department said it may seek to make available to rivals the indexes, data and models it uses for Google search and AI-assisted search features. Other orders prosecutors may seek include restricting Google from entering agreements that limit other AI competitors' access to web content and letting websites opt out of Google using their content to train AI models. Google said the AI-related proposals could stifle the sector. "There are enormous risks to the government putting its thumb on the scale of this vital industry — skewing investment, distorting incentives, hobbling emerging business models — all at precisely the moment that we need to encourage investment," Google said. The Justice Department is expected to file a more detailed proposal with the court by Nov. 20. Google will have a chance to propose its own remedies by Dec. 20. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta's ruling in Washington was a major win for antitrust enforcers who have brought an ambitious set of cases against Big Tech companies over the past four years. The U.S. has also sued Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Apple claiming they illegally maintain monopolies. Some of the ideas in the Justice Department's proposals to break up Google had previously garnered support from Google's smaller competitors such as reviews site Yelp and rival search engine company DuckDuckGo. Yelp, which sued Google over search in August, says spinning off Google's Chrome browser and AI services should be on the table. Yelp also wants Google to be prohibited from giving preference to Google's local business pages in search results.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — In a storyline better befitting a melodrama than a popularity vote, Grazer won her second Fat Bear Contest Tuesday by defeating the male behemoth that killed her cub this summer. Grazer beat Chunk by more than 40,000 votes cast by fans watching live cameras at explore.org of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. Fans cast votes online for their favorite chunky competitor in tournament-style brackets that begins with 12 bears. They picked the bear they believe best exemplifies winter preparedness by the fat they have accumulated over the summer feeding on the sockeye salmon that return to Brooks River. The bears often perch at the top of a falls in the river, grabbing leaping salmon out of the air as the fish attempt to hurdle the waterfall to spawn upstream. This is where Grazer’s cub died after it slipped over the waterfall and was killed by Chunk, perhaps the most dominant brown bear on the river. Grazer fought Chunk in an effort to save the cub, but it later died. The death was captured on the live cameras. Another death was captured live by the cameras just last week, delaying the release of the tournament bracket for a day. Bear 402, a female bear that was supposed to be a contestant in this year’s contest, was killed by a male brown bear the day the brackets were expected to be released. Grazer has conspicuously blond ears and a long, straight muzzle, according to her bio page at explore.org. “She is a formidable presence on Brooks River. Her fearlessness and strength have earned her respect, with most bears avoiding confrontation,” it says. Her other surviving cub from her third litter placed second two weeks ago in the Fat Bear Junior contest. Chunk is perhaps the largest bear on the river, with narrow-set eyes, dark brown fur and a distinctive scar across his muzzle, his bio says. He used his size to rise to the top of the river hierarchy this year and secured the prime fishing spots. “Chunk’s confidence and aggression paid off, allowing him to feast on 42 salmon in 10 hours,” it says. “His physical success is evident in his bulky form.” Adult male brown bears typically weigh 270 to 410 kilograms in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 454 kilograms. Females are about one-third smaller. The annual contest, which drew more than 1.3 million votes last year, is a way to celebrate the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. In addition to the live cameras, Katmai has become a bucket list tourist destination and viewing stands have been built on the river to allow people to watch the brown bears fish for salmon.