Rubio imposter used AI, Signal to contact foreign officials

WASHINGTON — Someone pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio used AI-generated voice technology and a fake Signal account to contact foreign officials and at least one member of Congress, the latest case of impostors mimicking senior U.S. officials.

A State Department cable dated July 3 said an unknown person left voice and text messages for at least five people, including “three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a U.S. member of Congress” after creating a Signal account that pretended to be Rubio’s in mid-June.

“The actor likely aimed to manipulate targeted individuals using AI-generated text and voice messages, with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,” according to the cable, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News.

The campaign fit with a pattern of cases dating to April that saw unknown hackers impersonate senior U.S. officials. In late May, the Wall Street Journal reported that authorities were investigating an effort to impersonate White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The person claiming to be Wiles had contacted senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and others, it said.

—Bloomberg News

Trump vows to ‘straighten out’ NYC if Mamdani wins mayoral race

President Donald Trump Tuesday vowed to “straighten out” New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins the race for mayor.

Deriding Mamdani as a “communist,” Trump said he would take unspecified steps to intervene in the city’s affairs if the Democrat ousts incumbent Eric Adams in the general election.

“Maybe we’re going to have to straighten it out from Washington,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House. “We’re gonna make New York great again.”

Trump claimed that he could intervene in New York governance, comparing the relationship to that of Washington, D.C., which relies on the federal government for significant funding.

—New York Daily News

Colorado’s Copper Creek wolf pack — with new pups in tow — is under scrutiny again after cattle killings

DENVER — Colorado’s first wolf pack since the species’ reintroduction in 2023 is once again under intense scrutiny after a series of cattle depredations in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Cattle killings in Pitkin County this summer have spurred calls in recent weeks to remove the entire Copper Creek pack — comprising two adults, three yearlings and an unknown number of pups born this year — as a threat. Cattle killings connected to the pack already prompted Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials in May to kill one of the wolves born last year.

The controversy prompted a special meeting Monday of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. Commissioners pressed CPW officials on their plan for handling the pack. But at the end of a nearly two-hour meeting, they did not make any official recommendations or policy changes.

The management plan created after voters in 2020 narrowly chose to reintroduce the apex predator delegates decisions about removing wolves from the wild to CPW, not the commission.

—The Denver Post

Earthquake swarms are fueling fear of the 'big one' in Japan

More than 1,300 earthquakes have hit Japan's Tokara Islands in two weeks, prompting evacuations of dozens of residents from the remote archipelago on the country's southern tip.

Although no major damage has been reported and no tsunami warnings have been issued, the Japan Meteorological Agency has cautioned that tremors as strong as a "lower 6" on Japan's seven-stage seismic intensity scale — such as one that occurred Thursday — may continue.

Lower 6 indicates an intensity that may make it difficult for people to stand without holding on to stable support. "The seismic activity remains dynamic," JMA official Ayataka Ebita said at a news conference Sunday — and that has fueled fears of a megaquake.

The temblors have coincided with viral panic stemming from the 2021 reprint of a comic book that many are now interpreting as a clairvoyant prediction of a major earthquake.

—Los Angeles Times