Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some urgent stories to share with you right now, and we begin with this.
A number of people are dead following a tragic shooting at a K-12 school in Wisconsin, President-elect Donald Trump weighs in on the increasing number of mysterious drone sightings, and some low-grade radioactive material has just gone missing; federal authorities have been notified, and they’re now involved.
Also, the incoming administration announces a massive new investment in the United States, and a prominent former software executive says that artificial intelligence (AI) could pose a serious threat to the entire world.
Police Say 3 Dead, 6 Injured in Wisconsin School Shooting
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said that shortly before 11 a.m., officers responded to a call regarding an active shooter at Abundant Life Christian School, and when they arrived, they found multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds.The police chief said later that both a teacher and a teenage student had been killed in the shooting by a fellow student. He went on to say that six people were injured, and that two of these victims remain in critical condition.
Barnes said that the suspect likely died by suicide following the shooting. He also said that police found a handgun at the scene, that the gunfire was confined to one area, and so you know, officers say they never had to fire their weapons.
At the time, police did not provide any further details regarding either the victims or the suspect, including their gender or age.
Meanwhile, multiple state officials responded to the shooting on social media, offering condolences and prayers for the victims of this tragedy.
The White House says that President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incident, and authorities from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are in the process of beginning their investigation.
So you know, the website for Abundant Life Christian School says that the school is nondenominational and has nearly 400 enrolled students.
This is another in a long series of school shootings that have all of us across the country deeply concerned.
Trump Says He Canceled Trip Amid Drone Sightings
Trump says he’s canceling an upcoming weekend trip to his New Jersey golf course in Bedminster because drones were spotted very nearby, and he says he also thinks the military knows where the drones take off from and where they go.He went on to say that if they took off from a garage, they’d be able to track them right into that garage, and he called for more transparency from both the outgoing Biden administration and federal law enforcement officials, because he says they know what’s happening and for some reason, don’t want to comment.
He also said he can’t imagine that the drones are being deployed by “an enemy” of the United States.
Over the weekend, Trump wrote on Truth Social that if the U.S. government doesn’t know the origin of the drones, then they should be shot down. However, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says that federal agencies don’t have that type of authority.
Meanwhile, both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security continue to say they have no evidence that the sightings pose either a national security risk or a threat to public safety.
By the way, many elected officials are also calling for the federal government to take action and provide more information about the drone sightings. They say the public deserves clear answers.
Additionally, the governor of New York says that federal officials will now send high-technology drone detection systems to the Empire State after an airport in the Hudson Valley was recently closed due to a drone sighting.
Radioactive Medical Device Lost in Transit in New Jersey
The NRC says the radioactive material was on its way for disposal when it went missing during transit from a cancer treatment center in New Jersey.In a recent report, the commission says that the material came from a medical device used to take what are called PET scans, which are imaging procedures that use radioactive materials to examine the inside of a person’s body.
The report says that the shipping container that held the material arrived at its destination “damaged and empty.” The NRC went on to say that the cancer center has filed a claim with the shipper, and if the missing material isn’t found within 30 days, the center will follow up with a full written report about the incident.
So you know, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection was notified shortly after the material went missing, and a couple of days later, that agency made contact with the NRC.
The event was categorized as “Less than Category 3,” meaning the situation is not an emergency and the very small amount of radioactive material is considered unlikely to cause any permanent injury to the public.
Now you might find this very interesting. The NRC’s revelation comes amid the recent increase in the number of drone sightings, and in one widely circulated video, the CEO of an aerospace firm in Kansas speculated that the drones may be operated by the U.S. government to check for nuclear radiation or gas leaks.
The Epoch Times contacted the NRC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI for comment on the CEO’s claims, and so far, no federal officials have publicly commented on the video, which was uploaded over the past weekend.
Trump, Softback Announce $100 Billion US Investment
Trump says that over the next four years, a Japanese internet services and telecommunications company called SoftBank will invest $100 billion in U.S.-based projects that are centered on artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-related infrastructure, including energy, chips, and data centers.The president-elect called the historic investment a “monumental demonstration” of confidence in America’s future, and he said the funding will create at least 100,000 new jobs during his second term.
He also said the new investment will help ensure that emerging technologies and other industries of tomorrow are built, created, and grown right here in the United States.
So you know, Softbank’s founder and CEO says that his confidence level in the U.S. economy increased tremendously following Trump’s reelection. He also said that he hopes the president-elect will bring peace into the world again, and that since Trump is a “double-down” president, he may even double his investment to $200 billion.
By the way, following Trump’s first election victory in 2016, SoftBank committed to investing $50 billion in the United States. The organization ultimately ended up investing $72 billion in a number of successful companies, including food delivery service DoorDash, messaging app Slack, coworking startup WeWork, and even Uber.
At a news conference held yesterday celebrating Softbank’s latest investment, Trump pointed to a dramatic recent increase in small business optimism, and he promised to build the greatest economy the world has ever seen.
He went on to reiterate his campaign promises to slash regulations, lower corporate taxes, and speed up permitting for any business or individual investing $1 billion or more in the United States.
Ex-Google CEO: Autonomous AI Poses Existential Threat
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that soon, computers will be running on their own and deciding what they want to do, and that when the system can “self-improve,” we’ve reached a dangerous point.So you know, Schmidt is not the first tech leader to raise these concerns, and for some, the rapidly developing technology calls to mind the “Terminator” movies, which are set in a dystopian future in which AI takes over the planet.
In a recent interview, Schmidt says he’s concerned about what’s known in the tech world as “artificial general intelligence,” or AGI, which are far more complex AI systems than the ones we have now and could develop sentient, independent motives that are potentially dangerous to human interests.
Schmidt says no such systems exist today but we’re moving quickly in that direction. He went on to say that he’s been working at this for 50 years and has never seen innovation at this scale.
He said that if autonomous AGI-like systems are inevitable, it will require massive cooperation among both corporate interests and governments around the world to avoid potentially devastating consequences.
Schmidt also said that right now, regulation of the field remains insufficient. However, he said he expects that government safeguards dealing with expanding technology will accelerate dramatically in the coming years.
In case you’re not aware, earlier this year, employees of both Google and OpenAI signed a letter warning of “serious risks” posed by AI, and they called for greater government oversight of the field.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re gonna call it a wrap for the Tuesday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
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And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote and this one comes to us from Norman Vincent Peale who said:
“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
Peale was an author well known for his best-selling book The Power of Positive Thinking.
By the way, the countdown to Christmas has begun and we’re just eight days away from the big holiday.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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Enjoy the remainder of your day and we’ll see you right back here next time for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
