Daily News Pakistan

WhatsApp is set to introduce a new feature called double-tap message reactions, similar to those on Instagram DMs, according to WABetainfo. The feature is still in the testing phase with Android currently using the latest beta. To use it, you have to join the WhatsApp Android beta program, which you can do via the Whatsapp page on the Play Store, as invitations are limited and slots fill up quickly. The new feature is a basic tool that allows the recipient to reply to any message with an equally quick reply by doing a double tap on the screen. It willbe possible to reply to photos, videos, and GIFs right from the media viewer screen, thus gaining milliseconds with each action made. You can also use double tapping on the message to make a reaction as opposed to the time required to long press and then select the reaction. A double tap will react with a heart emoji, just like on Instagram. If you want to use a different emoji, you'll still need to long press on the message to o...

Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Iran’s capital Tehran. His death has been confirmed in separate statements by the Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip and Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Here are some reactions to Haniyeh’s death, starting with the actors closest to the situation: Hamas “This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieve fake goals. We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its objectives,” said senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri. “Hamas is a concept and an institution and not persons. Hamas will continue on this path regardless of the sacrifices and we are confident of victory.” Iran “The Islamic Republic of Iran will defend its territorial integrity, honour, pride and dignity, and make the terrorist invaders regret their cowardly action,” President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose inauguration Han...

The United States has announced that it will provide $500m in military funding to the Philippines, as the pair eyes ongoing tensions with China. The announcement came on Tuesday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Manila. The two officials launched an Asia Pacific tour over the weekend, aimed at boosting Washington’s influence in the region in a bid to challenge the “strategic challenge” Beijing poses. “We’re now allocating an additional $500m in foreign military financing to the Philippines to boost security collaboration with our oldest treaty ally in this region,” Blinken told a news conference alongside Manila’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. Blinken described the aid as a “once in a generation investment” to help modernise the Philippine armed forces and coastguard. Austin said the funds demonstrate the commitment of the US to take “bold steps to strengthen our alliance”. “We ar...

At least 56 people have been killed with dozens more feared trapped after a series of landslides triggered by relentless rain struck a hilly region of India’s southern state of Kerala, the authorities said. The southern coastal state of Kerala has been battered by torrential downpours, and the collapse of a key bridge at the disaster site in Wayanad district has hampered rescue efforts, according to local media reports. “Thirty-six deaths have been confirmed in connection with the landslide in Wayanad,” district official D.R. Meghasree told reporters. Kerala state health minister Veena George told the Press Trust of India news agency that “many” others had been injured and were being treated in hospital. Images published by the National Disaster Response Force show rescue crews trudging through mud to search for survivors and carry bodies on stretchers out of the area. Homes were caked with brown sludge as the force of the landslide’s impact scattered cars, corrugated iron a...

The Southern Delta Aquariids are expected to peak from Monday night through early Tuesday in the North American region. Those witnessing the meteor shower can view up to 25 meteors per hour but it depends on the location, according to the American Meteor Society. The Southern Delta Aquariids will be joined by a minor meteor display, Alpha Capricornids, which resembles bright fireballs. During this shower, five meteors are expected to be seen per hour. A fireball meteor is a term used for meteor showers that are brighter than Venus and are caused by a larger size meteor exceeding 1 meter in diameter, according to Nasa. The Southern Delta Aquariids lasts till 21 August and the Alpha Capricornids lasts through August 15. Meteor showers are the product of debris left behind by comets and asteroids in the orbit of the sun and the earth simply encounters the left behind debris annually during its orbital period. According to Robert Lunsfold, the fireball report coordinator for the Ame...

China has successfully completed its National Earthquake Early Warning Project, unveiling the world's largest earthquake early warning network, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) said. The project, through the deployment of 15,899 monitoring stations across the country, will provide the public with earthquake early warning service and rapid earthquake intensity reporting service, Yin Chaomin, vice head of the administration, said at a press conference. Earlier warnings issued by the project can reach the public through TV, IPTV, mobile APPs such as WeChat and Alipay, as well as loudspeakers in villages, according to Yin. Earthquake early warning relies on a dense network of seismic monitoring stations to issue alerts before destructive seismic waves arrive. It takes advantage of the fact that seismic waves travel significantly slower than electromagnetic waves. The public can take precautionary measures to reduce casualties, after receiving warnings a few seconds to te...

Incumbent Nicolas Maduro has been declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election, but the opposition said they were preparing to dispute the results. Elvis Amoroso, president of the CNE electoral authority, said Maduro secured a third six-year term with 51.2 percent of the vote. Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who had been leading in opinion polls, got 44.2 percent, he said. The electoral authority, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, did not immediately release the tallies from each of the 30,000 polling stations nationwide. Opposition representatives said earlier that tallies they collected from campaign representatives at the centres had shown Gonzalez trouncing Maduro. In comments shortly after the announcement, Maduro said his re-election was a triumph of peace and stability and reiterated his campaign trail claims that the voting system was transparent. Maduro, 61, first won power in 2013 after his mentor, socialist Hugo Chavez, died from cancer....

A Bangladeshi student group has vowed to resume protests that sparked a lethal police crackdown and nationwide unrest unless several of their leaders are released from custody. Members of Students Against Discrimination, whose campaign against civil service job quotas precipitated the unrest, said they would end their weeklong protest moratorium. The group's chief Nahid Islam and others "should be freed and the cases against them must be withdrawn", Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters in an online briefing. Masud, who did not disclose his location because he was in hiding from authorities, also demanded "visible actions" be taken against government ministers and police officers responsible for the deaths of protesters. "Otherwise, Students Against Discrimination will be forced to launch tough protests" from Monday, he said. Last week's violence killed at least 205 people including several police officers, according to an AFP news agency count ...

At least 22 people were killed when Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked the city of Al Fashir, a pro-democracy activist group has said, the worst toll after weeks of stalemate on that front in the country's civil war. Al Fashir Resistance Committees said on Facebook on Saturday that the RSF had fired artillery shells on markets, hospitals and residential apartments, and had used a drone to target a hospital. The city is the national army's last remaining position in the Darfur region and a key front in the war with the RSF that has turned Sudan into the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The activist group said it had counted 22 bodies and the casualty toll was expected to rise. There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has in the past denied shelling civilian targets. More than 300,000 people have fled their homes in al-Fashir as a result of fighting that began in April, the United Nations has said

The government has established a five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate malicious campaigns against state institutions on social media. A notification issued by the government stated that the JIT, formed under Section 30 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), will be led by the Inspector General of Islamabad. The team includes the Director of Cyber Crime at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Director of the FIA’s Counter-Terrorism Wing (CTW), the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Investigation Islamabad, and the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Islamabad’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD). The JIT is tasked with investigating the motives behind malicious campaigns against the state and identifying the culprits and their facilitators who attempt to create chaos in Pakistan through social media. According to the legal framework, the JIT will not only identify these individuals but also pursue legal action against them.

Some industrial fuel oil from a capsized Philippine tanker has started to leak into Manila Bay, the coastguard said, as it races to avoid an environmental catastrophe. The MT Terra Nova, carrying 1.4 million litres (369,840 gallons) of industrial fuel, capsized and sank off the coast of the Philippine capital, Manila. The ensuing oil slick has now more than tripled in area, the coastguard said on Saturday, estimating it to stretch 12-14km (7.5-8.7 miles) across the bay, which thousands of fishermen and tourism operators rely on for their livelihoods. The vessel sank in bad weather off Manila on Thursday as Typhoon Gaemi swept over the country, killing one crew member and leaving the country potentially facing its worst oil spill disaster. Sixteen crew members were rescued. Divers inspected the hull of the vessel on Saturday and saw a “minimal leak” from the valves, coastguard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said, adding it was “not alarming yet”. “We’re hoping that tomorro...

US Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill on Friday, aiming to halt security assistance to Pakistan for its alleged threats towards India. The US-India Defence Cooperation Act requires a report on Pakistan's "use of offensive force, including through terrorism and proxy groups against India". The proposed bill also aims to "bar Pakistan from receiving assistance if it is found to have sponsored terrorism against India". Senator Rubio also proposed to strengthen the US-India partnership to counter China's influence, saying it is essential to enhance the strategic diplomatic, economic, and military relationship with New Delhi. The bill aims to provide support to India in its response to growing threats to its territorial integrity and provide necessary security assistance. Senator Rubio, in his legislation, has proposed to treat India as the same status as US allies such as Japan, Israel, South Korea, and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisati...

In May 2023, the Council of Europe initiated the creation of the so-called International “Register of Damage” incurred by Ukraine during its conflict with Russia. It was made operational in April 2024. The establishment of this mechanism is yet another manifestation of the West’s double standards. The Council of Europe has never once bothered to create a “Register of Damage” caused by NATO during its reckless military campaigns against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, involving both the United States and members of the Council of Europe itself. These misadventures had nothing to do with protecting legitimate security interests of NATO countries. In the Council of Europe, the damage caused worldwide by the crimes of the West has never been accounted for. Apparently, Strasbourg believes that NATO shells bring freedom and democracy instead of death and destruction. It is clear to any unbiased observer that by creating such “Register” the West is cynically trying to shift responsibilit...

US Vice President and Democratic party nominee for Presidential elections, Kamala Harris held discussions with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him that it is time to get a ceasefire "deal done," adding that she "will not be silent" about the suffering in Gaza, according to International media. Vice President Harris on Thursday touted her "unwavering" support for Israel during her discussions with Netanyahu. According to an International media, her remarks provided one of the clearest explanations yet of her views on the conflict, as she warned the Israeli government that it matters how the war is conducted. "There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal. And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. So to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you," Harris told reporters in remarks after the ...

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba was in Beijing on July 23-24, for what he called “very deep and concentrated” talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. It was the first time that Ukraine had reached out to China as a mediator with Russia since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022. Kuleba’s visit came in the middle of a major diplomatic initiative by Ukraine to prepare favourable international conditions for direct talks with the Kremlin. Kuleba said Ukraine was ready to engage “when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith,” but “no such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side.” Wang also said that “conditions and timing are not yet ripe.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Kyiv must surrender the four regions of Ukraine his military partly occupies as a precondition to a ceasefire and talks. He also wants Ukraine to promise never to join the NATO alliance, and reduce the strength of its armed forces. More than 80 countries joined Ukraine...

Typhoon Gaemi is sweeping towards southern China after wreaking devastation in Taiwan, killing at least two people and sinking a cargo ship, with its nine crew members missing. The typhoon made landfall on the northeastern coast of Taiwan at about midnight (16:00 GMT) on Wednesday, the country’s Central Weather Administration said, reporting gusts of up to 227kmph (141mph) before it barrelled towards Fuzhou in China’s Fujian province as of 12:15pm (04:15 GMT) on Thursday. Taiwan’s fire department said on Thursday that a Tanzania-flagged cargo ship had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung, forcing its nine crew members from Myanmar to abandon ship in life jackets. Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, said the crew had contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship, but when rescuers finally reached the area, “visibility at the scene was very low and the winds were too strong” to conduct a search. “When the weather permits, we will immediately dispatch ships or ...

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) supremo Imran Khan is set to apply for the position of chancellor at Oxford University, despite currently serving a ten-year jail sentence. The seat became vacant following the resignation of 80-year-old Lord Patten, who stepped down after 21 years in the role, according to the media reports. Oxford University describes the chancellor's role as a ceremonial head, typically an eminent public figure elected for life, presiding over all major ceremonies. The election process for the new chancellor will be conducted online for the first time, allowing the university's 350,000-strong convocation to participate. Imran Khan is currently imprisoned on charges of inciting protests and violence against the military in May of the previous year, allegations which he denies. In a recent interview from jail, Khan stated, "I am confined in a 7ft by 8ft death cell, typically reserved for terrorists. People voted for me because they are fed up with the ...

A United States official said on Wednesday that all political parties should receive equal treatment and the US will urge respect for human rights in the country. Speaking at a routine press briefing on Wednesday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US does not take position on internal political matters in Pakistan. “… internal political matters in Pakistan are something that we do not take a position on. We urge respect for democracy, respect for human rights, and treatment of all political parties equally,” Miller said. He also said that the $101 million requested from Congress will be used to strengthen democracy and fight terrorism in Pakistan. “We would use that for the types of programs to strengthen democracy and civil society, to counter terrorism and extremism, to support economic reforms and debt managemen,” he said. “We have made similar budget requests and similar budget authority – received similar budget authority from Congress in the past a...

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said it is ready to participate after the United States invited the warring sides in Sudan to mediated ceasefire talks. RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo said early on Wednesday that the paramilitary group will participate. The US on Tuesday invited the RSF and Sudanese army to meet for talks in Switzerland on August 14, as efforts to end the conflict mount. The US announced that the negotiations will be co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations as observers. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement: “The talks in Switzerland aim to reach a nationwide cessation of violence, enabling humanitarian access to all those in need, and develop a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure implementation of any agreement.” Sudan’s army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has yet to respond to the invitation. Dagalo said that the invitation ...

The US State Department has expressed concerns over the arrests of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, urging the South Asian nation to respect human rights and uphold democratic principles. "We have seen the reports of the arrests of PTI leaders. We are always concerned when we see arrests of opposition leaders," said US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller while speaking at a press briefing in Washington on Tuesday. Washington's reaction comes against the backdrop of PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan's arrest for allegedly heading a digital media cell involved in running propaganda against Pakistan and its integrity. Hasan, a prominent PTI official, was taken into custody by Islamabad Police on Monday from the party's Central Secretariat in the federal capital and handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a two-day physical remand by a district and sessions court on Tuesday. A First Information Report (FIR) has been regis...

The Meta-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp has recently unveiled a significant update allowing users to register without a phone number. According to reports, users can now maintain their anonymity, particularly crucial for individuals like journalists who require confidentiality. The new feature also expands WhatsApp’s accessibility, enabling users without reliable phone numbers, often found in remote areas, to join the platform. Now, you can use an email address or other methods to sign up. This keeps your information safer and gives more privacy, especially for people like journalists who need to stay anonymous. Businesses can also leverage this feature to offer anonymous support, fostering trust with their customers. However, this update also raises security concerns, as WhatsApp must ensure the new sign-up methods are secure and resistant to fake accounts and misuse. Cybersecurity experts have praised this move, with Dr. Jane Doe, a cybersecurity analyst, noting, “Whats...

More than 150 people have been killed in two landslides in southern Ethiopia, according to government officials, who warned the number could increase. The first landslide, triggered by heavy rains in a remote region of Gofa zone, occurred on Monday and was followed by a second one that buried people who had gathered to help, state officials said on Tuesday. At least 157 bodies had been recovered from two villages, Markos Melese, the zonal head of the national disaster response agency in Gofa, told the Reuters news agency by phone, adding that the search was ongoing and “there are bodies that are yet to be recovered”. Citing Gofa officials, the AFP news agency reported at least 146 dead, while The Associated Press news agency said the death toll had risen from 55 people to 157. “Initially it was three families that were buried by the landslide. We are still searching for bodies. But the death toll surged after the people who came to rescue also got trapped,” said district administ...

Alphabet-owned Google declared on Monday that it was pulling out of its much-discussed plan to prevent tracking ‘cookies’ on its Chrome browser. This decision came at the heels of refusal on the part of online publishers as well as increasing pressure by internet users. ‘Cookies’ are tiny pieces of code, that allow third-party companies to follow the movements of Chrome users. These pieces of information are used by third-party publishers and websites for advertising. Cookies have for a long time been criticised as an intrusion in privacy of the users and thus applications have been discriminated against in the EU and other regions where the use requires the approval of the users. The controversy began with Google’s unveiling of its “Privacy Sandbox” plan in January 2020; while it promised to present an option that was better for both publishers and users, it would not involve the tracking of the latter on an individual basis. However, the implementation of this process encounte...

Palestinian factions have signed a “national unity” agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once Israel’s war on the enclave concludes. The deal, finalised on Tuesday in China after three days of intensive talks, lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The agreement was signed by long-term rivals Hamas and Fatah, as well as 12 other Palestinian groups. “Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity,” said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk at a news conference in Beijing. Mustapha Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, one of the 14 factions to sign the accord, told arab media, the agreement goes “much further” than any other reached in recent years. He said its four main elements are the establishment of an interim national unity government, the formation of unif...

Protesters in Bangladesh have issued demands amid a lull in the violence that has filled the streets in recent days after the government backed down on quotas on hiring for government jobs. Student leaders said on Monday that they plan to continue demonstrations despite a decision by the Supreme Court the previous day scaling back the controversial job quota system that sparked the protests. A deadly government crackdown ahead of the ruling saw a reported 163 people killed, hundreds arrested, and thousands injured. The demonstrators have demanded that the government release protest leaders, lift the military curfew, and reopen the universities, which have been shut since Wednesday. They said they would give the government 48 hours to meet the demands. Protesters were attacked by security forces, as well as other students who back the ruling Awami League party, last week as they launched their call against the quota system, which sought to reserve sought-after government jobs for r...

If you ever used Google’s URL shortening service goo.gl before it was shut down in 2019, be warned — those links will stop working on August 25th, 2025. Google announced in a blog post that “the time has come to turn off the serving portion of Google URL Shortener” and that any links in the https://goo.gl/* format will respond with a 404 error next year. Ahead of the shutdown, links will start showing an interstitial page on August 23rd, 2024, notifying users that “this link will no longer work in the near future.” This message will initially appear for a “percentage of existing links,’’ which will increase as the deadline draws closer. Google is encouraging developers to update impacted links as soon as possible, however, as this interstitial page may cause disruptions to link redirections. When Google announced in 2018 that it was shutting down goo.gl, the company encouraged developers to migrate to Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) — which has also since been deprecated.

The Israeli occupation has intensified its airstrikes and severe shelling on the Al Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip in an unprecedented manner over the past seven days. The Gaza government media office stated on Sunday that the occupation forces bombed the Al Nuseirat camp with fighter jets, tanks, and naval vessels 63 times within a week, resulting in 91 martyrs and 251 wounded. The statement pointed out that more than 75 percent of the casualties from the continuous bombardment on the camp were taken to hospitals with their bodies burnt due to the Israeli occupation's use of thermal and chemical weapons. The Al Nuseirat refugee camp, currently home to a quarter million residents and displaced persons, is subjected to brutal shelling by the occupation forces, disregarding the civilian population density. Among the worst massacres in recent days was the one committed by the occupation at the Al Razi School in the camp, which resulted in 23 martyrs and 73 wounded. ...

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday scrapped most of the quotas on government jobs that have sparked student-led protests in which at least 114 people have been killed in the South Asian country, local media reported. The court's Appellate Division dismissed a lower court order that had reinstated the quotas, directing that 93% of government jobs will be open to candidates on merit, without quotas, the reports said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government had scrapped the quota system in 2018, but the lower court reinstated it last month, sparking the protests and an ensuing government crackdown. It was not immediately clear how the protesters would react to the decision. Streets near the Supreme Court were quiet immediately after the decision and army teams were deployed throughout the capital Dhaka, the reports said. Local media had reported scattered clashes earlier in the day between protesters and security forces. The government had extended a curfew as auth...

A global tech outage related to a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected nearly 8.5 million Microsoft devices, according to a blog post by Microsoft on Saturday. "We currently estimate that CrowdStrike's update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines," Microsoft stated. The software update by CrowdStrike, a leading global cybersecurity firm, triggered system problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off the air, and left customers without access to critical services such as healthcare and banking. "While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services," Microsoft said in its blog post. "While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services," Microsoft said. CrowdStrike has collabor...

United States President Joe Biden has promised to remain in the presidential race and beat his opponent despite growing calls from members of his Democratic Party asking him to withdraw. The 81-year-old, who is isolating at his beach house in Delaware since his COVID-19 diagnosis, took aim at his rival Donald Trump – who just wrapped up the Republican National Convention – in a series of posts online on Friday, and said he would return to campaigning next week. Trump’s “dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans. Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.” But 12 more Democratic politicians, including two senators and a group of Congress members, called on the president to step aside. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who is in a tough race for re-election, said in a statement late on Friday that he agrees with “the many Ohioans” who hav...

Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online on Friday after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages, another incident highlighting the vulnerability of the world's interconnected technologies. After the outage was resolved, companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD.O), one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. Global shipper FedEx (FDX.N), faced major disruptions and some moderators who police content on Meta's Facebook were hit...

US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a strong progressive voice in the Democratic Party who was outspoken on African-American and women's rights, has died, her family posted, opens new tab on X late on Friday. Jackson Lee of Texas announced last month she had pancreatic cancer, opens new tab and was undergoing treatment. She was 74, according to U.S. media. "The road ahead will not be easy, but I stand in faith that God will strengthen me," she said in announcing the diagnosis. "A fierce champion of the people, she was affectionately and simply known as 'Congresswoman' by her constituents in recognition of her near-ubiquitous presence and service to their daily lives for more than 30 years," her family said in the statement. Lee was the chairperson of the Pakistan Caucus in the US Congress. In September 2022, the Pakistan government honoured her with the Hilal-e-Pakistan for her significant role in promoting Pakistan-US relations. Moreover, follo...

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) models are getting more prevalent in workplaces day by day, with ChatGPT and Google Gemini chatbots becoming the most popular, according to a study in 2024. The use of AI has become much more widespread in today’s world, from conducting simple tasks at work or at one’s leisure to generating content for entertainment. The US-based artificial intelligence firm OpenAI’s ChatGPT grew to be a staple, as the chatbot became the most widely used at workplaces, according to the “Top 100 Generative AI for Work Tools” list on the flexos.work website. ChatGPT reigned the list, beating Google’s Gemini, formerly known as Bard, which came in second place, with Canva AI Suite, the generative tool for the online graphic design platform, coming third. The fourth place in the list was taken by Quillbot, the AI writing companion, while Perplexity AI, the research chatbot, took the fifth place in the most used AI tools at work. GitHub Copilot, the AI-powered c...

Just a couple of days ago, during the UN Security Council meeting on multilateral cooperation in the interest of a more just, democratic and sustainable world order, New York. Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov stated that, " The actions of the United States and its allies hinder international cooperation and the creation of a more just world, hold entire countries and regions hostage, prevent peoples from exercising their sovereign rights as enshrined in the UN Charter. They distract from the much-needed joint work to resolve conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and other regions, to reduce global inequality, to eliminate the threats of terrorism, drug crime, hunger and disease". He further added, "I am convinced that the current situation can be remedied - provided, of course, that there is goodwill. In order to prevent the negative scenario from unfolding, we would like to discuss a number of steps aimed at rebuilding confidence and stabilizing the internati...

Hundreds took to the streets on Thursday in Paris to urge President Emmanuel Macron to nominate a prime minister from the left-wing alliance. The crowd gathered near the National Assembly -- the lower chamber of the French parliament -- upon the call of the trade unions, according to the broadcaster BFMTV. Members of the parliament are expected to arrive at the National Assembly later in the day to elect their new president. Protesters aim to pressure Macron to get him to nominate a left-wing prime minister as soon as possible. Around 50 protests are expected across France, BFMTV added. Macron on Tuesday accepted Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s resignation following snap election results, after initially rejecting it on July 8. Attal will continue dealing with the government’s current affairs until a new government is formed. Political parties harshly criticized Macron for rejecting Attal's resignation, delaying the process, and causing instability in the country. The left...