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Ukrainian officials have denounced a Christmas Eve attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, which has killed one person and injured 15, four seriously. or signup to continue reading A ballistic missile struck an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. "The monsters landed a direct hit on a four-storey residential block with 32 apartments," the head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram. One man whose body had been pulled from under the rubble could not be revived by medics, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. Vilkul later said that a woman had been rescued and taken to a hospital after spending four hours covered in rubble. "While other countries of the world are celebrating Christmas, Ukrainians are continuing to suffer from endless Russian attacks," Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram. Governor Lysak posted photographs of rescuers trawling through a large pile of rubble, recovering a person covered in dust and loading them into an ambulance. Kryvyi Rih is a steelmaking city with a pre-war population of more than 600,000. Its southern outskirts lie about 65 km from the nearest Russian-occupied territory, and it has regularly been the target of Russian missile attacks throughout the war. Russia says it does not deliberately target civilians, although thousands have been killed since Moscow launched its invasion in 2022. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement Advertisement

Canada environment minister warns oil and gas companies against withholding emissions dataGregg Wallace has been roasted but BBC needs grilling too... why did they continue to promote an absolute oaf?

Gangland rule of Kray twins recalled in opposition to ousting hereditary peersWashington State University Vancouver students will soon transform a local art installation into an interactive educational experience, bridging the gap between art, technology and language at the Woodland Community Library . Suspended above the children’s room in the Woodland Community Library is “Phonic Bloom,” an art installation created by Portland-based studio Superfab. This piece repurposed recycled books into a vibrant hanging garden, visually symbolizing the sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Each color-coded bloom represents syllables common to local languages: red for English, yellow for Spanish and blue for Salish — the language spoken by the Cowlitz Tribe for thousands of years. The installation was developed in collaboration with Portland State University linguist Janet Tom Cowell, who worked with Superfab to highlight the shared phonetic elements across these languages. Washington State University Vancouver student and experience team lead James Lesperance showcases a prototype for an app designed to bring an art installation to life through augmented reality during a presentation at WSU Vancouver on Wednesday, Dec. 11. The app allows visitors to interact with an art piece called “Phonic Bloom” at the Woodland library, providing a deeper understanding of phonics in multiple languages. This “data sculpture,” as WSU professor and Digital Technology and Culture lead Dene Grigar explained, presented a special opportunity for her students — developing an augmented reality mobile app to teach visitors about phonics using the installation. Augmented reality uses technology to blend digital content with the real world. The WSU students' app brings “Phonic Bloom” to life similar to the popular mobile app “Pokémon Go.” Visitors can point their phones at the sculpture to see a digital recreation of the garden appear on their screens. Guided by “Bea,” a friendly bee mascot voiced by design team member Bea Calces, users can interact with virtual blooms to learn about the corresponding phonetic sounds. The app features audio and visual representations, including animations of the human vocal system producing sounds like “la” and “shaw.” Mailei Brodniak, the student project manager, described their mission as developing and promoting a mobile app to educate young audiences about phonics. The task came with a steep learning curve, as the team first had to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of phonics before beginning. The students had 16 weeks — one semester — to complete their work. “We had the job of taking that sculpture and then bringing it down to our level and making it so that people from children to families could interact with it and actually understand what it’s saying,” Brodniak said Each year, Digital Technology and Culture students are tasked with a 16-week project using their skillsets to showcase their work on resumes or portfolios. The students learn a variety of skills ranging from videography to game design, choosing one category to be their “superpower.” Their main chosen skill is their focus for the senior project, giving students a chance to add to their portfolio before graduation. “The senior seminar is like a finishing school slash boot camp ... getting them to polish themselves, refine their skills and begin to feel confident so they can have a successful interview. It’s about turning out successful thinkers, makers and doers,” Grigar said. The senior seminar split its 18 students into four teams: • A design team, which conceptualized the app’s appearance and functionality • An experience team, which developed the app, implementing its interactive features • A web development team, which created a complementary website detailing the project’s history and features. • A social media team, which promoted the project across social media The design and experience teams crafted 15 unique 3D models, 26 animations and 20 audio components, supported by over 2,000 lines of code for the project. Student Evan Leyden took on the intricate task of animating a realistic depiction of human vocal anatomy for the app. “I spent over 12 hours just researching the kinematics of how we actually move everything inside our mouth to make sure that the animation was accurate, as well as looking for just the right [animation] plug-in [so] this [Magnetic Resonance Imaging] has fully articulated lips, tongue, velum, jaw and larynx,” Leyden said. The web development team supplemented the app with an interactive website, featuring an interactive phonetic chart and resources about the installation. Meanwhile, the social media team chronicled the project’s development across Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, garnering over 200,000 views and 2,000 engagements. In a Dec. 11 presentation at WSU Vancouver, students demonstrated the fully functional mobile app as attendees watched the interactive experience. Brodniak emphasized the teamwork that was key to the project’s success. “The thing I’m most proud of is how everyone just came together. Everyone communicated so well, and everyone was so friendly with each other. There’s a lot of unity, which you would hope for since we’re making a project about community, but we were able to foster one,” She said. As part of their coursework, each student incorporated their contributions into their resumés and portfolios, participating in mock interviews with local employers. Brodniak, who also worked on the social media team, plans to pursue roles in social media or project management. “This experience gave me a lot of confidence in being a project manager, so I wouldn’t be opposed to working in the management side of things either,” she added. “There is so much here that we created and that we can bring with us moving forward into the career space.” The Phonic Bloom app will launch by the end of 2024. Readers can download the app and learn more about the project at dtc-wsuv.org/projects/phonic-bloom/index.html . The Phonic Bloom art piece can be found at the Woodland Community Library, which is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 411 Lakeshore Dr. Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox.

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By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Related Articles National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18. A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to help expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia. The official said “the pure math” of Ukraine's situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight. Currently Ukraine is not mobilizing or training enough soldiers to replace its battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia's growing military, the official added. The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia's February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than months. But with time running out, the Biden White House is also sharpening its viewpoint that Ukraine has the weaponry it needs and now must dramatically increase its troop levels if it's going to stay in the fight with Russia. The official said the Ukrainians believe they need about 160,000 additional troops, but the U.S. administration believes they probably will need more than that. More than 1 million Ukrainians are now in uniform, including the National Guard and other units. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been hearing concerns from allies in other Western capitals as well that Ukraine has a troop level problem and not an arms problem, according to European officials who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic conversations. The European allies have stressed that the lack of depth means that it may soon become untenable for Ukraine to continue to operate in Russia’s Kursk border region . The situation in Kursk has become further complicated by the arrival of thousands of North Korean troops , who have come to help Moscow try to claw back the land seized in a Ukrainian incursion this year. The stepped-up push on Ukraine to strengthen its fighting ranks comes as Ukraine braces for President-elect Donald Trump to take office on Jan. 20. The Republican said he would bring about a swift end to the war and has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the vital U.S. military support for Ukraine. “There are no easy answers to Ukraine’s serious manpower shortage, but lowering the draft age would help,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "These are obviously difficult decisions for a government and society that has already endured so much due to Russia’s invasion.” Ukraine has taken steps to broaden the pool of draft-eligible men, but the efforts have only scratched the surface against a much larger Russian military. In April, Ukraine’s parliament passed a series of laws, including one lowering its draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25, aimed at broadening the universe of men who could be called on to join the grinding war. Those laws also did away with some draft exemptions and created an online registry for recruits. They were expected to add about 50,000 troops, far short of what Zelenskyy said at the time was needed. Zelenskyy has consistently stated that he has no plans to lower the mobilization age. A senior Ukrainian official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ukraine does not have enough equipment to match the scale of its ongoing mobilization efforts. The official said Ukrainian officials see the push to the lower the draft age as part of an effort by some Western partners to deflect attention from their own delays in providing equipment or belated decisions. The official cited as an example the delay in giving Ukraine permission to use longer-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory. The Ukrainians do not see lowering the draft age to recruit more soldiers as a substitute for countering Russia’s advantage in equipment and weaponry, the official said. Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine throughout the war. Russia’s own problems with adequate troop levels and planning early in the war prevented Moscow from taking full advantage of its edge. But the tide has shifted and the U.S. says the Ukrainian shortage can no longer be overlooked. Some Ukrainians have expressed worry that further lowering the minimum conscription age and taking more young adults out of the workforce could backfire by further harming the war-ravaged economy. The senior Biden administration official added that the administration believes that Ukraine can also optimize its current force by more aggressively dealing with soldiers who desert or go absent without leave. AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller and AP writer Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv contributed to this report.Deal expected to avoid Urban Alchemy layoffsMobile Health mHealth Global Market Expected to Reach $159.66 Billion at a Rate of CAGR 17.1% by 2028

After lackluster spending at U.S. stores on a deals-heavy Black Friday, retailers are pulling out all the stops with steep promotions and discounts on their websites and apps to entice people to buy holiday gifts and other merchandise after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Retailers have been coaxing cautious U.S. shoppers on Cyber Monday — traditionally America’s biggest internet shopping day — with push notifications, emails and other ads touting heavily discounted cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products. With just 23 days before Christmas, the discounts this year have been deeper, with shoppers waiting for promotion-heavy days, experts have said. For instance, Target said it was offering 50% off thousands of items including video games, home decor and other technology items with a “two-day Cyber Monday” sale that started on Sunday. The moves follow a mixed holiday season so far, with muted spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black Friday. Sales at brick-and-mortar stores on Friday grew just 0.7% year over year, according to preliminary estimates by payments processor Mastercard. Meanwhile, data firm Facteus said sales were actually lower. Online, retailers like Walmart and Amazon have relied on generative AI customer service and search features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on websites and mobile apps. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, resident Cheyenne Berens, 29, has been using Amazon’s generative AI chatbot Rufus to track prices of baby merchandise and electronics this holiday season. Amazon launched Rufus in February to give customers product recommendations and details based on its entire catalog of merchandise. “I have found that using Rufus on Amazon has been extremely helpful in determining whether a ‘deal’ is actually a ‘deal’,” Berens said. She’s been tracking the fluctuating prices of a Pack ‘n’ Play portable playpen and waiting for the right time to buy. The price started at $90 before the holidays, briefly rose to $120 and dropped back to $90, she said. Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, a cloud-computing company that tracks global shopping data from more than 1.5 billion consumers, said that GenAI tools such as chatbots to answer online shoppers’ basic questions, such as queries about products, helped retailers protect their profit margins despite rising costs. On Saturday, retailers using GenAI tools for customer service saw a 15% higher purchase rate by users, according to estimates by Salesforce. Schwartz said the higher so-called conversion rate “is a game changer.” Spending online today in the United States is expected to reach $13.2 billion, 6% more than on Cyber Monday a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe Inc. That outlay would follow the roughly $10.8 billion Americans spent online on Black Friday, according to Adobe. Traffic to retail sites from chatbots or shoppers clicking on a link to a website rose 1,800% from Black Friday through the weekend, Adobe said. With many Americans recently carrying more debt, many are using third-party “buy now, pay later” services, with spending on the services likely to approach $1 billion, according to projections by Adobe, which keeps track of devices that use its software to help power more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites.

Syrian foreign minister warns Iran about spreading chaos