Life

China calls for WTO review of US-led chip export restrictions

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing has asked the United States, Japan and the Netherlands to confirm the existence of an alleged agreement between the three countries to curb semiconductor exports to China, state media reported Wednesday. Beijing’s representatives issued the request during a regular meeting this week at the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to a state television broadcast. Representatives demanded that the three countries “notify the WTO of the agreement and subsequent measures, and […]

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India’s ‘brown beauty’ make-up influencers go global

by Nivrita GANGULY, with Anuradha PRASAD in Bulandshahr Mumbai, India (AFP) Under the glow of a ring light in the spare bedroom of a Mumbai high-rise apartment, Indian make-up maven Debasree Banerjee has found fans across the world with a simple philosophy: brown is beautiful. Banerjee’s audience includes women from as far afield as the Middle East and United States who also have a deeper complexion but have historically been overlooked by the cosmetics industry. […]

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Webb telescope discovers oldest galaxies ever observed

by Juliette Collen and Daniel Lawler Agence France Presse Paris, France (AFP) — The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered the four most distant galaxies ever observed, one of which formed just 320 million years after the Big Bang when the universe was still in its infancy, new research said on Tuesday. The Webb telescope has unleashed a torrent of scientific discovery since becoming operational last year, peering farther than ever before into the universe’s […]

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Johnson & Johnson proposes $8.9 bn settlement of talc cancer claims

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday proposed an $8.9 billion settlement to resolve years-old lawsuits claiming that its talcum powder products caused cancer. The New Jersey-based company said the proposed settlement, which needs the approval of a bankruptcy court, “will equitably and efficiently resolve all claims arising from cosmetic talc litigation.” J&J has been facing thousands of lawsuits over talcum powder containing traces of asbestos blamed for […]

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Easy, tiger: study maps big cats’ personalities

by Linnea Pedersen Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Ask any pet owner if their beloved companion has a personality and you’ll most often get an emphatic “yes”. But now tiger researchers can nod along too — a study published Wednesday reveals that the world’s largest felines have individual character traits. The behaviour of the 248 Siberian tigers observed through a personality test showed that the endangered cats had unique traits influencing both their success […]

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Canada opens investigation into AI firm behind ChatGPT

Canada announced Tuesday it has opened an investigation into the US-based software firm behind ChatGPT, the buzzy artificial intelligence chatbot. The investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner into OpenAI was opened in response to a “complaint alleging the collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent,” the agency said. Launched in November, OpenAI’s chatbot uses information available online to provide detailed answers to users’ queries. ChatGPT caused a global sensation when it […]

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First woman, Black astronaut to make 2024 flight around Moon

by Moisés ÁVILA Agence France-Presse Houston, United States (AFP) NASA unveiled the crew on Monday for its first human mission to the Moon in more than 50 years –- including the first woman and Black man to voyage into deep space. Christina Koch, a NASA astronaut who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, will be a mission specialist on next year’s Artemis II flight around the Moon. NASA’s Victor Glover, […]

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Basquiat-Warhol: a rare artistic duo, reunited in Paris

by Eric Randolph and Sandra Biffot-Lacut Agence France Presse Paris, France (AFP) — There are vanishingly few great collaborations in the annals of fine art. For a brief moment in the 1980s, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat showed the world how it was done. It started with a bang. Warhol, 54, met Basquiat, 22, for lunch in October 1982 and took a polaroid of them together. Basquiat took it to his studio and returned just […]

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Dry spell leads to wildfires across South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Firefighters were scrambling Monday to contain wildfires across South Korea as a dry spell led to blazes in multiple regions, including on a mountain popular with hikers in central Seoul. A fire broke out Sunday morning on Mount Inwang, a popular outdoor destination in Seoul’s Jongno district, and spread rapidly due to strong winds, the city government said in a statement. About 120 households were forced to evacuate, but no […]

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NASA to reveal crew for 2024 flight around the Moon

Houston, United States (AFP) NASA is to reveal the names on Monday of the astronauts — three Americans and a Canadian — who will fly around the Moon next year, a prelude to returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time in a half century. The mission, Artemis II, is scheduled to take place in November 2024 with the four-person crew circling the Moon but not landing on it. As part of the […]

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Thai firefighters battle forest blaze

NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand (AFP) — Hundreds of Thai firefighters and soldiers battled a forest blaze less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Bangkok on Friday as the kingdom grapples with air pollution that has made more than 1.7 million people ill already this year. The fire has affected at least 800,000 square meters (200 acres) of forest across three hills in Nakhon Nayok province, to the northeast of the Thai capital, with two districts declared […]

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AI generator Midjourney pauses service over deepfake ‘abuse’

San Francisco, United States (AFP) — Research laboratory Midjourney has paused free trials of its image-generation software after users cranked out realistic deepfakes including of former US president Donald Trump getting arrested and Pope Francis in a puffer jacket. Midjourney responded to a request Thursday for a trial with a message saying it could not be provided and to try again another day. The imagery created using the artificial intelligence platform, particularly those of Trump […]

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