Life

Musk says X will appeal Australia injunction on church stabbing videos

SYDNEY, April 23, 2024 (AFP) – Elon Musk said Tuesday his social media platform X will appeal against an Australian injunction forcing it to take down videos of a church stabbing in Sydney. Australia’s internet watchdog secured an injunction late Monday, forcing X to hide videos that allegedly show a Sydney bishop being slashed in the head during a live-streamed sermon. X ignored earlier Australian pleas to remove the images, and Musk had said the […]

‘Staggering’ number of workers facing climate change-induced health hazards: UN

GENEVA, April 22, 2024 (AFP) – A large majority of workers worldwide are facing a cocktail of health hazards linked to climate change, the UN said Monday, warning that existing regulations were not equipped to offer adequate protection. “A staggering number of workers are already being exposed to climate change-related hazards in the workplace, and these figures are only likely to get worse,” the United Nations’ International Labour Organization said in a report. Agricultural workers […]

In Ecuadoran Amazon, butterflies provide a gauge of climate change

By Paola LÓPEZ CUYABENO, Ecuador, April 22, 2024 (AFP) – Biologists on a trail in the Ecuadoran Amazon hold their breath as they distribute a foul-smelling delicacy to lure butterflies, critical pollinators increasingly threatened by climate change. A team has hung 32 traps made of green nets, each baited with rotting fish and fermented bananas. They are meant to blend in with the forest canopy. Their pungent odor clearly does not. Since last August, a […]

Europe suffered record number of ‘extreme heat stress’ days in 2023: monitors

By Nick Perry PARIS, April 22, 2024 (AFP) – Europe endured a record number of “extreme heat stress” days in 2023, two leading climate monitors said Monday, underscoring the threat of increasingly deadly summers across the continent. In a year of contrasting extremes, Europe witnessed scorching heatwaves but also catastrophic flooding, withering droughts, violent storms and its largest wildfire. These disasters inflicted billions of dollars in damages and impacted more than two million people, the […]

China unveils new cyber force to ‘fight and win’ wars

BEIJING, April 19, 2024 (AFP) – China announced the creation of a new military cyber corps on Friday, saying it would bolster Beijing’s capacity to “fight and win” wars. The Information Support Force will act as a “key support for coordinated development and application of network information systems”, defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. China has ploughed billions of dollars into modernising its armed forces in recent years as tensions with the United States and […]

H5N1 strain of bird flu found in milk: WHO

GENEVA, April 19, 2024 (AFP) – The H5N1 bird flu virus strain has been detected in very high concentrations in raw milk from infected animals, the WHO said Friday, though how long the virus can survive in milk is unknown. Avian influenza A(H5N1) first emerged in 1996 but since 2020, the number of outbreaks in birds has grown exponentially, alongside an increase in the number of infected mammals. The strain has led to the deaths […]

Apple drops WhatsApp, Threads from China app store on official order: report

BEIJING, April 19, 2024 (AFP) – Apple has removed the Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China following an order from the country’s top internet regulator, Bloomberg reported Friday citing the tech giant. Beijing engages in some of the world’s most extensive internet censorship, with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to many foreign apps without using a virtual private network. “We are obligated to follow the […]

Japan doctors sue Google Maps over ‘punching bag’ reviews

By Tomohiro OSAKI TOKYO, April 19, 2024 (AFP) – Around 60 doctors in Japan have accused Google Maps of ignoring vitriolic reviews of their clinics in a class-action lawsuit touted as the first of its kind. The medics are seeking 1.4 million yen ($9,000) in total damages from Google in a bid to hold the US tech titan accountable for inaction over the reviews. They sued the company on Thursday, saying they are powerless to […]

Human cases of bird flu ‘an enormous concern’: WHO

The World Health Organization voiced alarm Thursday at the growing spread of H5N1 bird flu to new species, including humans, who face an “extraordinarily high” mortality rate. “This remains I think an enormous concern,” the UN health agency’s chief scientist Jeremy Farrar told reporters in Geneva. The current bird flu outbreak began in 2020 and has led to the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, with wild birds also infected as well as land […]

Meta releases beefed-up AI models

Meta on Thursday introduced an improved AI assistant built on new versions of its open source Llama large language model for powering the technology. Meta AI is smarter and faster due to advances in publicly available Llama 3, the tech titan said in a blog post. “The bottom line is we believe Meta AI is now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use,” Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in […]

Slow recovery as Dubai airport, roads still deluged

By Amanda MOUAWAD Dubai airport, one of the world’s busiest, witnessed major disruption for a third straight day Thursday after the heaviest rains on record drenched the desert United Arab Emirates. Emirates, Dubai’s state-owned flagship airline, and sister carrier flydubai resumed check-ins after telling passengers to stay away on Wednesday, when thousands of delayed passengers clogged the airport. The airport, which handles more international passengers than any other, hopes to resume “something approaching normality” within […]

‘Human-induced’ climate change behind deadly Sahel heatwave: study

DAKAR, April 18, 2024 (AFP) – The deadly heatwave that hit Africa’s Sahel region in early April would not have occurred without “human-induced” climate change, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group published Thursday. The West African nations of Mali and Burkina Faso experienced an exceptional heatwave from April 1 until April 5, with soaring temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius triggering a large number of deaths. Observations and climate models used […]