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US and Iran dispute whether Tehran agreed to nuclear inspections

ISLAMABAD — The U.S. and Iran were in dispute Tuesday over whether Tehran had agreed to allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites. As officials negotiated over how to permanently end the war in Iran, a separate plan emerged to break the shipping bottleneck through the Strait of Hormuz. The disagreement over nuclear inspections came as Iran’s president met with Pakistani mediators and technical teams from the U.S. and Iran continued talks in Switzerland. A United Nations agency said Tuesday that a plan was underway to move stranded ships and their thousands of crew members ...

Reflecting Pool freshly scrutinized

WASHINGTON — The saga over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool took a turn as President Donald Trump said Tuesday that six people have been arrested over recent damage. The president’s troubled $14-million-plus rehabilitation project has become a visceral flashpoint over law enforcement, ...

France deals with record-high heat during warm stretch

PARIS — France recorded its hottest day ever Tuesday as an early heat wave gripped Europe, prompting the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum to restrict visiting hours and disrupting school and transportation schedules in multiple countries. Punishing temperatures extended to the United ...

Shooting suspect scoped out library

The 18-year-old suspect in a shooting at a Northern California library did a walkthrough of the building, then went to his vehicle, got a shotgun and fatally shot a man at the main door and another inside, law enforcement said Tuesday. Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge said gunshots and ...

Senate approves war powers resolution

WASHINGTON — The Senate for the first time approved a war powers resolution Tuesday seeking to block U.S. military action against Iran, as lawmakers warily watch President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve a conflict that the administration launched on its own and now needs Congress to fund. It was the 10th time the Senate has tried to stop the war, and the outcome, on a vote of 50-48, was a stunning turnaround from past efforts. While the resolution is largely symbolic, and does not carry the full force of law, it reflects the growing concerns from a number of Republican lawmakers ...

Lawmakers seek to regulate chatbots

A House committee has set a vote next week for legislation requiring safety protocols for artificial intelligence companionship chatbots. Companionship apps create virtual environments where human users interact with virtual avatars that respond in a human manner. Rep. Melissa Shusterman, D-Montgomery, said that some companionship apps boast of having 20 million users a month, a reflection of the loneliness epidemic impacting as many as half of American adults. “Some users of the AI companion have described close friendships that have led to romantic interactions with their AI ...