A Florida mother is suing a tech company over an AI chatbot that she says pushed her son to kill himself. The lawsuit filed this week by Megan Garcia of Orlando alleges that Character Technologies Inc. engineered a product that pulled 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III into an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide.

The lawsuit says the chatbot encouraged Sewell after the teen said he wanted to take his own life. A spokesperson said Friday that the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation. In a statement to The Associated Press, the company said it had created “a more stringent model” of the app for younger users.

Just seconds after the Character.AI bot told him to “come home,” the teen shot himself, according to the lawsuit.

Character Technologies is the company behind Character.AI, an app that allows users to create customizable characters or interact with those generated by others, spanning experiences from imaginative play to mock job interviews. The company says the artificial personas are designed to “feel alive” and “human-like.”

75 more sickened in McDonald’s outbreak

A deadly outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has expanded, with at least 75 people sick in 13 states, federal health officials said Friday.

A total of 22 people have now been hospitalized, and two have developed a dangerous kidney disease complication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. One person has died in Colorado.

No definitive source of the outbreak has been identified, officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said. Early information analyzed by the FDA showed that uncooked slivered onions used on the burgers “are a likely source of contamination,” the agency said.

Taylor Farms, a California-based produce grower that supplies raw slivered onions to McDonald’s, issued a voluntary recall this week for yellow onions because of possible E. coli contamination, federal officials said. McDonald’s confirmed that the recalled Taylor Farms onions were sent to one distribution point and used in the restaurants involved in the outbreak.

Taylor Farms has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Another company that runs Burger King restaurants said it gets whole onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado facility. It stopped using them, although no illnesses had been reported.

U.N. calls for eyes on Sudan amid attacks

A senior United Nations official on Friday called for more international attention to “the forgotten crisis” in Sudan, where more than a year and a half of war pushed the African country to the brink of famine.

The appeal by Ted Chaiban, deputy head of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, came as the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces rampaged through villages and towns in east-central Gezira province, looting and vandalizing public and private properties, according to a doctors’ union and a youth group. Dozens of people were reported killed.

Chaiban said the war, which erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF, created “one of the most acute crises in living memory” with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes, making Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.

“We’ve never in a generation seen these types of numbers,” he told the Associated Press in an interview, referring to the displaced people, as well as the 8.5 million people who are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, and 775,000 others who are facing famine-like conditions.

Nonprofit raises funds for storm victims

Nearly 1,000 hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will benefit this week from a new disaster aid program that employs a model not commonly used by philanthropy in the United States: Giving people rapid, direct cash payments.

The nonprofit GiveDirectly plans to send payments of $1,000 on Friday to some households impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The organization harnesses a Google-developed artificial intelligence tool to pinpoint areas with high concentrations of poverty and storm damage. On Tuesday, it invited people in those areas to enroll in the program through a smartphone app used to manage SNAP and other government benefits. Donations will then be deposited through the app’s debit card.

Russia raises interest rates to 21%

Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21% in an effort to stem growing inflation as massive government spending on the military amid the fighting in Ukraine strains the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and drives up workers’ wages.

The central bank said in a statement that “growth in domestic demand is still significantly outstripping the capabilities to expand the supply of goods and services.” Inflation, the statement said, “is running considerably above the Bank of Russia’s July forecast,” and “inflation expectations continue to increase.” It held out the prospect of more rate increases in December.

NASA astronaut in hospital after return

A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday.

A SpaceX capsule carrying three Americans and one Russian parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week. The capsule was hoisted onto the recovery ship where the four astronauts had routine medical checks.

Soon after splashdown, a NASA astronaut had a “medical issue” and the crew was flown to a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, for additional evaluation “out of an abundance of caution” the space agency said in a statement.

Kidnapped newborn found in Amsterdam

A prematurely born baby who was abducted from the maternity ward of a Paris-region hospital earlier this week has been found in an Amsterdam hotel, police in the Dutch capital said Friday.

“Following an international search warrant, we arrested a man and a woman in a hotel in the center of Amsterdam today on suspicion of kidnapping their premature baby,” police said on X. “The baby is currently in a hospital to receive the care he needs.”

French authorities said Santiago, who was 17 days old when he was abducted, needs constant medical care.

The police alert identified the baby’s 23-year-old father and 25-year-old mother as the only suspects and included photos of them both.

Ex-Abercrombie CEO denies sex charges

The former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch pleaded not guilty Friday to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.

Michael Jeffries, 80, declined to comment after he entered the plea in federal court in Central Islip, on Long Island. He is free on $10 million bond and is due back in court on Dec. 12.

Prosecutors allege that for years, Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man, 71-year-old James Jacobson, lured men into taking part in sex parties by dangling the promise of modeling for the clothing retailer, once famous for its preppy, All-American aesthetic and marketing with shirtless male models.

Jacobson, who was an employee of Jeffries when prosecutors say the crimes occurred, also pleaded not guilty and declined to speak to reporters afterward.

In charges announced earlier this week, prosecutors say 15 accusers were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in drug-fueled sex parties.

7 changed in Olympics cyberbullying case

Seven people have been charged in connection with cyberbullying targeting Thomas Jolly, the artistic mastermind behind the Paris Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies, French authorities announced Friday.

The online attacks erupted after Jolly’s acclaimed but controversial opening July spectacle on the Seine — a queer-inclusive, high-energy fusion of tradition and modernity that, for some, was too bold to ignore.

The abuse quickly escalated, laced with homophobic and antisemitic slurs, and reportedly aimed to silence the artistic intent behind the show. Jolly responded by filing a formal complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office on July 31, prompting an investigation that led to the “first wave” of arrests, with more expected as the probe unfolds.

The seven people charged, ranging in age from 22 to 79, face counts of death threats, aggravated insults, and cyberbullying — serious allegations carrying the weight of potential prison time and heavy fines.

Two more L.A. Times editorialists quit

Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board have resigned after the newspaper’s owner blocked the board’s plan to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein announced their resignations Thursday, a day after the editorial page editor Mariel Garza left in protest over L.A. Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision not to endorse a candidate.

— From news services