G20 grants African Union membership
As the summit opened, at least a fifth of G20 heads were not in New Delhi. The leaders of Russia and China opted not to come, ensuring no tough face-to-face conversations with their American and European counterparts over multiple disputes, most acutely the war in Ukraine. Spain’s president couldn’t make it due to COVID-19, and
Ruusia to hold election in Annexed regions of Ukraine
Russian authorities are holding local elections this weekend in occupied parts of Ukraine in an effort to tighten their grip on territories Moscow annexed a year ago .Voters are supposed to elect regional legislatures, which in turn will appoint regional governors. In the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, thousands of candidates are also competing for seats
China’s ChatGPT rival , Ernie
China’s leading artificial-intelligence (ai) chatbot, which was released to the public on August 31st, reckons that covid-19 originated among American vape users in July 2019; later that year the virus was spread to the Chinese city of Wuhan, via American lobsters. On matters of politics, by contrast, the chatbot is rather quiet. Ernie’s reticence will
Cryptocurrency fraudster jailed for 11,196 years
Turks began using cryptocurrencies as a defence against a deep slide in the value of the lira that began more than two years ago. A Turkish cryptocurrency boss and his two siblings have been jailed for 11,196 years each for defrauding investors of millions of dollars. He was extradited back to Turkey in June and
Withholding of Starlink over Crimea
Starlink terminals connect to SpaceX satellites in orbit and have been crucial for maintaining internet connectivity and communication in Ukraine as the conflict has disrupted the country infrastructure. SpaceX, in which Mr Musk is the largest shareholder, began providing thousands of Starlink satellite dishes to Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale assault on its
China government iPhone ban
The instructions not to use iPhones were given to officials by their superiors in recent weeks. Restrictions were also placed on other foreign-branded devices. iPhones were already banned in some agencies, the paper says, but its sources suggested this had now been widened. China is one of Apple’s biggest markets, and iPhones are produced in
NATO monitoring situation in Ukraine after “Russian” drone parts were found in Romania
Ukraine claimed on Monday that Russian drones had also detonated on Romanian territory after yet another overnight attack on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube. The Romanian Ministry of Defence denied the reports initially, and so did president Klaus Iohannis, who said on Tuesday that, although recent Russian attacks on Ukraine hit very close to
Sudan dissolves Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and abolishes the RSF Law of 2017.
The Sovereign Council accused the RSF of rebelling against the state, committing severe human rights violations against civilians, and deliberately damaging the country’s infrastructure. It emphasized that these actions violated the objectives and principles outlined in the 2017 RSF Law. These decisions coincide with individual sanctions imposed by the U.S. administration against the RSF’s second-in-command,
United Kingdom Online Safety Bill vs Technology firm
The Online Safety Bill is due to become law in autumn and cleared its final stage in the House of Lords on Wednesday before returning to the commons. Currently, the two most viable tech solutions are to either break the encryption – which would leave a backdoor open to any bad actors who found it
Using AI to treat infertility in Men
With sperm counts widely reported to have declined by half over the past four decades, infertility remains a growing problem. Factors behind the drop in male fertility are reported to include everything from pollution and smoking, to poor diets, not getting enough exercise, and too much stress. Infertility affects 7% of the male population. Now