Life

Musk’s AI startup seeks to raise $1 bn

Elon Musk is seeking to raise a billion dollars for his xAI artificial intelligence company that he hopes will compete with ChatGPT’s Open AI. An official filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said the company that Musk created earlier this year had already gathered $134.7 million and plans to raise $1 billion overall. The filing added that there was a firm agreement to raise the full funds needed to meet the […]

Planet tipping points pose ‘unprecedented’ threat to humanity: report

By Daniel Lawler PARIS, Dec 6, 2023 (AFP) – Humanity faces an “unprecedented” risk from tipping points that could unleash a domino effect of irreversible catastrophes across the planet, researchers warned Wednesday. The most comprehensive assessment ever conducted of Earth’s invisible tripwires was released as leaders meet for UN climate talks in Dubai with 2023 set to smash all heat records. While many of the 26 tipping points laid out in the report — such […]

Toxic air divides Delhi between poverty and privilege

By Aishwarya KUMAR NEW DELHI, Dec 5, 2023 (AFP) – Environmental change hits the poorest the hardest, experts say, and in India’s toxic smog-filled capital that includes the air people breathe. In Old Delhi, the ancient heart of the capital, 39-year-old Rizwan pedals a rickshaw tricycle, transporting passengers and heavy goods through crowded streets often too narrow for cars, earning about seven dollars on a good day. There is no escape from Delhi’s deadly smog […]

World could breach 1.5C warming threshold in 7 years: study

By Kelly MACNAMARA PARIS, Dec 5, 2023 (AFP) – The world may cross the crucial 1.5C global warming threshold in seven years as fossil fuel CO2 emissions continue to rise, scientists warned Tuesday, urging countries at the COP28 talks to “act now” on coal, oil and gas pollution. Battle lines are being drawn over the future of fossil fuels at the UN climate summit in Dubai, with big polluters trying to see off calls for […]

US tourist killed by shark in Bahamas

A US tourist visiting the Bahamas was killed by a shark on Monday, police in the Caribbean country said. The unnamed 44-year-old woman, from Boston, was paddle-boarding off a resort on the island of New Providence, also home to the capital Nassau. A lifeguard brought the woman and a male relative she was with to shore and performed CPR, according to a news release from the Royal Bahamas Police Force. “The victim suffered significant trauma […]

The environment: another victim of Russia’s invasion

By Victoria LUKOVENKO with Lea DAUPLE in Warsaw Ravaged forests, flooded towns and dead dolphins: after nearly two years of war in Ukraine, experts say environmental damage is becoming an “enormous” tragedy that will affect generations to come. The invasion of Ukraine has been particularly devastating for nature, said Doug Weir, head of research at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a British non-governmental organisation. Unlike conflicts limited to particular areas, the front line in Ukraine […]

‘Rizz’ charms Oxford wordsmiths to win word of 2023

“Rizz” — a colloquial term defined as “style, charm, or attractiveness” — has been crowned word of the year for 2023, Oxford University Press (OUP) announced on Monday. Its lexicographers chose “rizz”, which also conveys “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner”, from a shortlist of four words and phrases, after help from the public. An online vote had whittled down the list from eight finalists, all selected “to reflect the mood, ethos, […]

‘Failure’ in psychiatric care of Paris attacker: minister

There was a clear failure in the psychiatric care of the radicalised Islamist suffering from mental troubles who stabbed a German tourist to death in central Paris at the weekend, France’s interior minister said Monday. “There was clearly a failure, not from the point of view of his monitoring by the intelligence services, but a psychiatric failure,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told BFM TV, adding the attacker had an “acute mental illness”. “Doctors said on […]

Magnitude 5.1 quake hits sea south of Istanbul

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck just south of Istanbul on Monday, rattling parts of Turkey’s largest city but causing no immediate injuries or damage. The earthquake’s epicentre was in the Marmara Sea’s Gemlik Bay, which lies about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Istanbul, near the city of Bursa, according to the AFAD emergencies service. AFP reporters felt walls shake on both the Asian and European sides of Istanbul, with television images showing people walking […]

11 hikers dead after Indonesia volcano erupts, survivors found

By Irwanda Saputra PADANG, Indonesia, Dec 4, 2023 (AFP) – At least 11 hikers were found dead and three others were rescued by search teams that worked through the night to find people missing after the eruption of a volcano in western Indonesia, officials said Monday. Mount Marapi on the island of Sumatra, with a peak of 2,891 (9,484 feet) metres erupted on Sunday, spewing an ash tower 3,000 metres into the sky that rained […]

Six exoplanets discovered in synchronised dance around star

By Juliette Collen PARIS (AFP) – Six exoplanets have been spotted in a perfectly synchronised dance around a nearby star, offering clues about the formation of our own Solar System, astronomers said on Wednesday. The six planets orbit the bright star HD 110067 around 100 light years away from Earth. The star is visible from the Northern Hemisphere as part of the Coma Berenices constellation. The planets are so close to their star that all […]

EU demands Meta provide more information on measures to address child sexual abuse online

BRUSSELS, Dec 1, 2023 (AFP) – The EU on Friday demanded Instagram-owner Meta provide more information about measures taken by the company to address child sexual abuse online. The request for information focuses on Meta’s risk assessment and mitigation measures “linked to the protection of minors, including regarding the circulation of self-generated child sexual abuse material (SG-CSAM) on Instagram”, the European Commission said. Meta must also give information about “Instagram’s recommender system and amplification of […]