If heat-trapping pollution from burning coal, oil and gas continues unchecked, thousands of hazardous sites across the United States risk being flooded from sea level rise by the turn of the century, posing serious health risks to nearby communities, according to a new study.

Researchers identified 5,500 sites that store, emit or handle sewage, trash, oil, gas and other hazards that could face coastal flooding by 2100, with much of the risk already locked in due to past emissions. But more than half the sites are projected to face flood risk much sooner — as soon as 2050. Low-income, communities of color and other marginalized groups are the most at risk.

The rapid rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI systems has disrupted education, transforming how students learn and study.

Students everywhere have turned to chatbots to help with their homework, but artificial intelligence's capabilities have blurred the lines about what it should — and shouldn't — be used for.

They're cute, even cuddly, and promise learning and companionship — but artificial intelligence toys are not safe for kids, according to children's and consumer advocacy groups urging parents not to buy them during the holiday season.

These toys, marketed to kids as young as 2 years old, are generally powered by AI models that have already been shown to harm children and teenagers, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to an advisory published Thursday by the children's advocacy group Fairplay and signed by more than 150 organizations and individual experts such as child psychiatrists and educators.

The U.S. jobless rate crept up in September even as hiring exceeded analyst expectations, according to a delayed employment report published Thursday after a record-long government shutdown.

The world's biggest economy added 119,000 jobs in the month -- up from August -- but the unemployment rate edged up from 4.3 percent to 4.4 percent, said the Labor Department.

Israel may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity when it forcibly expelled 32,000 Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps earlier this year during a military operation in the area, a human rights group said Thursday.

Human Rights Watch said in a report that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz should be investigated for war crimes and prosecuted if found responsible.

Over 60 delegations are meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss reconstruction, governance and security in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and reforming the Palestinian Authority.

France and Saudi Arabia are chairing a meeting of Palestine Donors Group, focusing on reforms of the PA called for by a U.S. peace plan that won approval at the United Nations Security Council on Monday. The PA currently administers semi-autonomous pockets in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and is making a renewed push to become a player in postwar Gaza.

An express train collided with another passenger train in the southern Czech Republic on Thursday, injuring dozens of people, officials said.

The accident took place near the city of Ceske Budejovice at around 6:20 a.m.

Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect.

The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16, beginning Dec. 10.

Indonesian authorities said Thursday they helped more than 170 climbers who were caught a day earlier by Mount Semeru's sudden eruption to return to safety as the seismic activity of Java island's highest volcano indicated that the eruption will continue.

NASA unveiled close-up pictures on Wednesday of the interstellar comet that's making a quick one-and-done tour of the solar system.

Discovered over the summer, the comet known as 3I/Atlas is only the third confirmed object to visit our corner of the cosmos from another star. It zipped harmlessly past Mars last month.