Brazil watchdog moves to block X after court order

Brazil's telecommunications regulator said on Friday it was suspending access to Elon Musk's X social network in the country to comply with an order from a judge who has been locked in a months-long feud with the billionaire investor.

The popular social media platform missed a court-imposed deadline on Thursday evening to name a legal representative in Brazil, triggering the suspension.

Musk has argued that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes was trying to enforce unjustified censorship, while the judge has insisted that social media needs hate speech regulations.

"They're shutting down the #1 source of truth in Brazil," Musk said in a post on X on Friday.

The judge's ruling could cause X to lose one of its largest and most coveted markets, at a time when Musk has struggled with advertising revenue for the platform.

X remained accessible in Brazil late on Friday, though some Brazilians posted on other platforms that their access to X was already being blocked. Three of the country's top telecommunications carriers said they would begin blocking access from midnight (0300 GMT on Saturday), according to a report by local news outlet UOL.

The feud has led to the freezing this week of satellite internet provider Starlink's bank accounts in Brazil. Starlink is a unit of Musk-led rocket company SpaceX.

In his ruling, Moraes ordered that X, formerly Twitter, be suspended in Brazil until it complied with all related court orders, including the payment of more than $3 million in fines, as well as the designation of a local representative, as required by Brazilian law.

Moraes also ordered telecommunications regulator Anatel to implement the suspension order.
The agency told Reuters it is proceeding with compliance, but without specifying a timetable.

To effectively close X in Brazil, telecommunication companies will need to stop carrying the network's traffic, while also preventing users of the site from dodging it by concealing their locations with virtual private networks, or VPNs.

Moraes ordered that those who continued to access X via VPNs be fined up to 50,000 reais ($9,000) per day.

Tech giants Apple (AAPL.O) and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) were initially instructed to remove X from their app stores and implement so-called anti-VPN obstacles that would make it more difficult for users of Apple's iOS operating system and Google's Android to open the X app on phones or tablets.

But Moraes later reversed that part of his order, saying it would not be needed.

India: Helicopter crashes in Kedarnath during airlift

A helicopter being airlifted from Kedarnath to Gauchar in Uttarakhand by an Indian Air Force MI-17 chopper crashed this morning, officials reported. The private helicopter went down near the Mandakini River in Lincholi, but fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, which was captured on video.

The helicopter was en route to the Gauchar airstrip for repairs with the assistance of the MI-17 aircraft. However, the MI-17 began to lose balance due to the weight of the helicopter and strong winds, prompting the pilot to drop the helicopter in a vacant area near Tharu camp, according to Rahul Chaubey, the tourism officer for Rudraprayag district.

"There were no passengers or luggage on board the helicopter," Chaubey stated, adding that a rescue team was dispatched to the crash site immediately after the incident.

The same helicopter had previously made an emergency landing near the Kedarnath helipad in May due to technical issues. It had been used to transport passengers to Kedarnath temple.

Since July 31, there has been a significant decrease in the number of pilgrims visiting Kedarnath due to severe damage caused by heavy rains along the trek route to the temple. Rain-induced landslides on the route from Gaurikund to Kedarnath stranded thousands, leading the administration to initiate a large-scale rescue operation using the Air Force's Chinook and MI-17 helicopters, as well as private helicopters.

Although the trek route was largely suspended in August, pilgrims continued to arrive at the temple via helicopter.

The Chardham Yatra began this year on May 10 with the opening of the Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri temples, followed by the Badrinath temple on May 12. So far, more than 3.3 million pilgrims have visited the Himalayan temples.

Typhoon Shanshan drenches Japan, prompting landslide and flood alerts

Typhoon Shanshan soaked large swathes of Japan with torrential rain on Friday, prompting warnings for flooding and landslides hundreds of miles from the storm’s centre, halting travel services and shutting production at major factories.

At least four people have been killed and 99 injured in storm-related incidents in recent days, according to the disaster management agency.

In the southwestern region of Kyushu, where the storm that authorities say could be one of the strongest ever to hit the region made landfall on Thursday, residents were surveying the damage after a night of heavy rain and severe winds.

Yu Fukuda, 67, who runs a fish farm and adjoining restaurant in the resort town of Yufu in Oita prefecture said she arrived on Friday morning to find flood waters one metre high had inundated the building.

“There were streaks on the windows and everywhere there were marks from mud and dirt, so I could tell how high the water had risen. I felt very sad,” she told Reuters as her staff and relatives cleared the debris of fishing nets and dead fish.

“I wish the typhoon had just passed quickly, but it stayed around here for a long time,” she said.

Bringing gusts of up to 50 metres per second (180 kilometres per hour), strong enough to blow over moving trucks, the typhoon was near the coastal city of Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture at 3:45pm (2345 GMT) and moving east, according to authorities.

Around 250,000 households in seven prefectures were without power in Kyushu on Thursday, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co, but many had seen services restored on Friday.

The warm and moist air flowing around the typhoon brought record-breaking levels of rain in some areas far from the main storm, which authorities say is concerning given its slower than expected movement across the country.

Notices advising residents to evacuate have been issued to more than 3.3 million people nationwide, mostly in the hard-hit Kyushu area and central and eastern regions, including the capital Tokyo and nearby Yokohama. Authorities there warned of possible landslides and rivers bursting their banks due to the heavy rain.

Shizuoka, a major city in central Japan, has seen more than 500 millimetres of rain in the last 72 hours, the highest volume since the weather agency began collecting the data in 1976.

But, as of Thursday, only some 30,000 had been evacuated, mainly in Kyushu, disaster management minister Yoshifumi Matsumura said.

The storm is expected to approach the central and eastern regions, which includes Tokyo, at the weekend and into early next week, the weather agency said.

Toyota has suspended operations in all of its domestic plants through Monday morning due to the storm. Other automakers Nissan and Honda, semiconductor firms Renesas and Tokyo Electron, and electronics giant Sony have also temporarily halted production at some factories.

Airlines, including ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines, have announced cancellations of hundreds of domestic and some international flights. Many ferry and rail services, including the bullet train between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya, were suspended on Friday morning.

Lin Yue-Hua, a 60-year-old tourist from Taiwan, had her flight from Fukuoka back home cancelled on Thursday. She was told to book another flight but was struggling to make her way to the airport on Friday morning.

“We were very worried and upset because we didn’t know what to do,” she told Reuters at a near-deserted train station on Friday morning after finding out that all rail services, including the subway to the airport, had been cancelled.

“We stayed one more day in Japan. Then we saw it in the news that our flight from Taiwan couldn’t land in Japan after flying around the area for about 40 minutes and it flew back to Taiwan. We have been busy trying to find our way home,” she said.

Typhoon Shanshan is the latest harsh weather system to hit Japan, following Typhoon Ampil, which also led to blackouts and evacuations, earlier this month.

Govt confirms installation of advanced Web Management System

The government has officially confirmed the enforcing of an advanced Web Management System with the purpose of better regulation and management of online content within the country.

The system, recently upgraded by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, independently monitors, detects, and blocks websites along with mobile applications involved in unlawful activities, leakage of personal data, or carrying what they call harmfully nugatory content against national institutions.

The Cabinet Division officially informed the National Assembly of the installation and activation of the WMS. As submitted in the report of the division, the PTA has already blocked 2,369 URLs and 183 mobile applications containing material in violation of legal and procedural safeguards for internet users.

This upgraded functionality of the WMS allows the PTA to autonomously carry out content blocking, which multiplies the effectiveness and agility of the system by leaps and bounds.

The integration of advanced DPI capabilities will hence enable the WMS to monitor and control internet traffic at a gateway level. The technology is fundable in the identification and blocking of content that may pose a threat to national security or breed the spread of misinformation against government establishments.

It works to keep the obscene and hate materials away from publication on the internet. The new autonomous system at the PTA is filtering and blocking all IDs involved in spreading propaganda against national institutions to make sure hostile online activities do not damage state integrity and security.

Internet slowdown

Earlier, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued a statement regarding the recent slowdown in internet services across Pakistan. According to the PTA, the primary cause of the disruption is the failure of several international submarine cables.

Out of the seven submarine cables that connect Pakistan to global internet networks, two have suffered significant damage. The PTA highlighted that the AAE-1 submarine cable has already been repaired, which is expected to alleviate some internet issues.

However, the PTA also noted that the SMW4 submarine cable is still experiencing faults, with repairs anticipated to be completed by October. The restoration of the AAE-1 cable is expected to improve the overall internet situation in Pakistan, but full resolution of the issues will depend on the timely repair of the SMW4 cable.

The authority had earlier said Pakistan's internet users would continue facing disruptions in service even after the deadline set by the PTA for the resolution. With the country inching into its 21st day of slow internet, officials hinted full restoration would take more time.

Last week, PTA Chairman Major General (retd) Hafeezur Rehman had addressed the ongoing debate surrounding the installation of a firewall system, confirming its existence in a carefully worded statement.

“It is not some new firewall system, but rather an upgraded version of the web management system introduced during the PTI government,” he had clarified in a heated session of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Information Technology.

The committee members were seeking clarification as to what the system was and what its purpose would be, leading to intense discussions. He further reassured the members that this is the very web management system that was approved in the year 2019 under the PTI and not some new firewall being presented.

Taiwan military says China lacks ability to invade, but has other options

China lacks the ability to “fully” invade Taiwan as it does not have the equipment, but is bringing on line advanced new weapons and has other options to threaten Taiwan, such as inspecting foreign cargo ships, the island’s defence ministry said.

China, which views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert its claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. The government of the defeated Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, and no peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed.

In an annual threat assessment of China sent to lawmakers on Friday, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, Taiwan’s defence ministry said Beijing continues to hone skills such as joint command operations.

“However, the use of tactics and strategies against Taiwan is still limited by the natural geographical environment of the Taiwan Strait and insufficient landing equipment and logistic capabilities,” it said.

China “is not yet fully possessed of the formal combat capabilities for a comprehensive invasion of Taiwan”.

But China is speeding up development of a slew of new weapons, such as the H-20 bomber and hypersonic missiles and beefing up the number of nuclear warheads, while trialling new tactics, the ministry said.

The report said that in May, when China staged war games around Taiwan shortly after Lai Ching-te took office as the new president, Chinese coast guard ships were sent for the first time on interception and inspection drills off the east coast.

China’s aim with the drills was to practice cutting off communication with the outside world and blockade Taiwan, and boarding foreign cargo ships is an option China could take, short of open conflict, the ministry said.

The waters around Taiwan, including the Taiwan Strait, are busy international shipping lanes.

China’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday, the ministry said that as long as Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party “engages in ‘Taiwan independence’ (efforts), there will be no peace”.

“The more they provoke, the faster they will perish,” spokesperson Wu Qian told reporters.

Taiwan’s proposed defence spending will rise faster than expected economic growth next year, as Taipei builds more missiles, submarines and other weapons to deter China.

President Lai, whom China calls a “separatist”, has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing, but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

“Peace achieved by strength is true peace,” Lai told officers at the defence ministry on Friday.

“We will continue to improve our self-defence capabilities and show the world that we are united as a nation and are determined to protect our country.”

What new feature is WhatsApp rolling out now?

WhatsApp, the popular messaging app, has rolled out a new beta update for Android users, introducing passkeys feature for encrypted backups.

The passkeys feature simplifies the process of accessing encrypted backups, replacing complex passwords with biometric authentication methods such as fingerprints or facial recognition.

Currently, WhatsApp allows users to protect their backups with either a custom password or a 64-digit encryption key. While these methods are highly secure, they can be difficult to remember, leading to potential lockouts.

The new passkey feature eliminates this issue, enabling users to quickly and securely access their backups using their biometric data.

The passkey itself will be stored in a password manager, adding an extra layer of convenience and security.

This feature is currently in development and will be available in a future update.

Earlier, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform, announced to introduce a new feature that will allow users to chat without revealing their phone numbers.

The feature, aimed at enhancing user privacy and improving the messaging experience, will add a significant layer of privacy to the platform as WhatsApp users will be able to chat without the need to reveal their phone numbers.

Instead, only their username will be visible to the user they are chatting with, a feature which platforms such as Telegram already implemented with success.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 grounded after failing landing attempt

The US Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded after failing an attempt to land back on Earth during a routine Starlink mission, forcing the company's second grounding this year.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 successfully launched a batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit early on Wednesday morning from Florida. The rocket's reusable first-stage booster returned to Earth and attempted to land on a sea-faring barge as usual, but toppled into the ocean after a fiery touchdown, a SpaceX live stream showed.

"The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a drone ship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation," an FAA spokesperson said.

Groundings of Falcon 9, a rocket that much of the Western world relies on to put satellites and humans in space, are rare. The rocket was last grounded in July for the first time since 2016, following a second-stage failure in space that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites.

Though no satellites or people were endangered during Wednesday's flight, the landing failure indicated something in the rocket went wrong that the FAA tends to believe could pose a greater risk in future missions if not thoroughly investigated.

The rocket's grounding could delay the launch of SpaceX's high-profile Polaris Dawn mission with four private astronauts who are poised to attempt the first private spacewalk. The Polaris mission had been expected to launch this week but was delayed by a launchpad hitch, and then again over bad weather.

After the July grounding, SpaceX returned Falcon 9 to flight 15 days later, after the FAA granted the company's request for an expedited return to flight.

Falcon 9 is also due to launch two Nasa astronauts in late September on a Crew Dragon spacecraft that will bring home next year the two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station after riding Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft.

Nasa regulates Falcon 9 for its missions. It was not immediately clear how the rocket's latest grounding would affect that Nasa mission. The US space agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX has built a sizable fleet of reusable Falcon boosters since the rocket's first launch in 2010 which has allowed the company to vastly outpace its rivals in launch frequency. The individual booster that failed on Wednesday was on its 23rd flight, SpaceX wrote on X.

"After a successful ascent, Falcon 9's first stage booster tipped over following touchdown on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship," SpaceX said, referring to the large ship the booster was supposed to land on.

Another Starlink mission was poised for launch shortly after Wednesday's flight, from SpaceX's other launch site in southern California, but the company called that mission off after the landing failure.

Meta says its Llama AI models being used by banks, tech companies

Meta's Llama artificial intelligence models are being used by companies including Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and AT&T (T.N) for business functions like customer service, document review and computer code generation, the social media giant said in a statement on Thursday.

The mostly free-of-charge Llama models have been downloaded almost 350 million times since Meta began releasing them publicly last year, an increase from the 300 million downloads the company announced when it released the biggest version of its latest Llama 3 model in late July.

Usage via cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure has also increased, more than doubling between May and July this year, Meta said.

The announcement comes as Meta and other tech companies plowing billions into AI have faced questions from investors about how widespread adoption of the technology appears to be and what kind of payoff they can expect for their spending.

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has argued that building state-of-the-art AI models and giving them away for free best positions the company to avoid falling into a position where it is constrained by a competitor's closed technology.

"The path for Llama to become the industry standard is by being consistently competitive, efficient, and open generation after generation," Zuckerberg wrote last month.

Although large language models like Llama have wowed users with their ability to generate human-like prose on command, they continue to struggle with certain logical tasks and are prone to making factual errors, limiting their adoption in business contexts.

Still, Meta pointed to a handful of large enterprises dabbling with the Llama models as both evidence of their utility and as an endorsement of their competitiveness with paid alternatives, like models from industry leader OpenAI.

Other companies it said were using Llama include Japanese bank Nomura Holdings (8604.T) food delivery service DoorDash (DASH.O) and professional services provider Accenture (ACN.N).

EU's humanitarian chief slams Israeli military offensive in West Bank

The EU’s humanitarian chief Janez Lenarcic on Thursday slammed the Israeli army’s major military offensive in the occupied West Bank.

“The situation in the occupied #WestBank is deteriorating further, with indiscriminate use of Israeli military force and settler violence against civilians and extensive destruction of homes and infrastructure, in violation of international law and human rights,” said Commissioner for Crisis Management in the European Commission Janez Lenarcic on X.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched a major military operation in the northern West Bank, the largest in two decades, killing 17 Palestinians, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the "temporary evacuation" of Palestinian civilians as well as "whatever steps are required" to carry out the operation.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

The onslaught has resulted in more than 40,500 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,700 injuries, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.

WhatsApp will allow users to chat without revealing phone numbers

WhatsApp’s new PIN feature will allow users to start new conversations without sharing their phone numbers.

According to WABetaInfo, the latest WhatsApp beta update for Android 2.24.18.2 includes details about this PIN feature.

After selecting a unique username, users will be prompted to set up a PIN.

This PIN must be shared with others to initiate a conversation using the username, allowing users to manage who can message them and block spammers.

However, the release date for this feature hasn't been announced yet, as it's still under development.

In addition to this feature, WhatsApp is also working on a new option that will allow users to easily block messages from unknown senders.

Russia warns US of risks of World War III

Russia said the West was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles and cautioned the United States on Tuesday that World War Three would not be confined to Europe.

Ukraine attacked Russia's western Kursk region on August 6 and has carved out a slice of territory in the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two. President Vladimir Putin said there would be a worthy response from Russia to the attack.

Sergei Lavrov, who has served as Putin's foreign minister for more than 20 years, said that the West was seeking to escalate the Ukraine war and was "asking for trouble" by considering Ukrainian requests to loosen curbs on using foreign-supplied weapons.

Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much broader war involving the world's biggest nuclear powers, though he has said Russia does not want a conflict with the U.S.-led NATO alliance.

"We are now confirming once again that playing with fire - and they are like small children playing with matches - is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

"Americans unequivocally associate conversations about Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively," Lavrov said.

Lavrov added that Russia was "clarifying" its nuclear doctrine.

Russia's 2020 nuclear doctrine sets out when its president would consider using a nuclear weapon: broadly as a response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons "when the very existence of the state is put under threat".

Russia’s response

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this month that the assault on Russia's Kursk region showed that Kremlin threats of retaliation were a bluff.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine, because of the restrictions imposed by allies, could not use the weapons at its disposal to hit some Russian military targets. He urged allies to be bolder in their decisions about how to help Kyiv in the war.

Russia has said that Western weaponry, including British tanks and U.S. rocket systems, have been used by Ukraine in Kursk. Kyiv has confirmed using U.S. HIMARS missiles to take out bridges in Kursk.

Washington says it was not informed about Ukraine's plans ahead of the surprise incursion into Kursk. The United States has also said it did not take any part in the operation.

Putin's foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, said on Tuesday that Moscow did not believe Western assertions that it had nothing to do with the Kursk attack. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the involvement of the United States was "an obvious fact".

Japan issues emergency alert, braces for Typhoon Shanshan

Japan has issued an emergency warning as a powerful typhoon approaches its southwest, prompting carmaker Toyota to shutter factories and airlines to cancel flights.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Wednesday estimated that Typhoon Shanshan was situated 70km (43 miles) from Yakushima island at 2pm (05:00 GMT), heading north towards Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures on the southwestern Kyushu island.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that Shanshan would approach southern Kyushu with “extremely strong force” on Thursday.

Hayashi said the typhoon, expected to pack gusts of up to 250km/h (155mph), would bring “violent winds” and “high waves” stronger than those experienced in the past.

The JMA said that Shanshan will strike Kyushu over the next few days, approaching the central and eastern regions, which include the capital, Tokyo, around the weekend.

Authorities issued evacuation orders on Wednesday for more than 800,000 residents in Kagoshima prefecture in Kyushu and the Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures southwest of Tokyo on central Honshu island.

Carmaker Toyota will suspend operations of all 14 plants in Japan from Wednesday evening through Thursday morning.

Japan Airlines cancelled 172 domestic flights and six international flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, while ANA scrapped 219 domestic flights and four international ones scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The cancellations affect about 25,000 people.

Kyushu Railway said it would suspend some Shinkansen bullet train services between Kumamoto and Kagoshima Chuo from Wednesday night and warned of further possible disruption.

Trains between Tokyo and Fukuoka, the most populous city on Kyushu, may also be cancelled depending on weather conditions this week, other operators said.

Postal and delivery services have also been suspended in the Kyushu region, and supermarkets and other stores announced plans to close early.

Typhoon Shanshan follows closely on the heels of Typhoon Ampil, which also led to blackouts and evacuations in the country earlier this month, with hundreds of flights and trains disrupted.

Ampil came days after Tropical Storm Maria brought record rains to northern areas.

Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released last month.

Disaster Management Minister Yoshifumi Matsumura urged residents in Shanshan’s predicted path to take precautionary measures early, such as by checking their nearest shelters, to save their own lives.

Your diagnosis is just a cough away with Google's new AI model

A team of Google scientists has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of diagnosing diseases by analysing a person’s coughing and breathing sounds.

This year, the tech giant introduced Health Acoustic Representations, or HeAR — a bioacoustic foundation model — to help researchers build models that can analyse sound patterns and produce health insights.

The HeAR model, currently available for researchers, has been trained using “300 million pieces of audio data curated from a diverse and de-identified dataset,” and “roughly 100 million cough sounds.”

It captures meaningful patterns in health-related acoustic data and creates a powerful foundation for medical audio analysis, the Google Research Team said, ranking this AI system higher than other models on a wide range of tasks and for generalising across microphones.

An India-based respiratory healthcare company — Salcit Technologies — has designed Swassa, an AI-powered tool that assesses lung health by analysing cough sounds.

The company is planning to integrate HeAR into Swaasa which can help extend its capabilities. To start with, they are using Google’s AI system to enhance its ability to detect TB early.

“Every missed case of TB (tuberculosis) is a tragedy; every late diagnosis, a heartbreak,” says Sujay Kakarmath, a product manager at Google Research working on HeAR. “Acoustic biomarkers offer the potential to rewrite this narrative. I am deeply grateful for the role HeAR can play in this transformative journey.”

Despite being curable, TB often goes undiagnosed due to limited access to affordable healthcare. Researchers believe that AI can play an important role in improving detection and helping make care more accessible and affordable for people around the world.

With HeAR, the India-based healthcare company sees an opportunity to extend screening for TB more widely across India.

Google is also partnering with organisations like the Stop TB Partnership to bring together experts and affected communities with a goal to end TB by 2030.

“Solutions like HeAR will enable AI-powered acoustic analysis to break new ground in tuberculosis screening and detection, offering a potentially low-impact, accessible tool to those who need it most," said Zhi Zhen Qin, digital health specialist with the Stop TB Partnership.

China strongly condemns attacks in Pakistan, says Chinese foreign ministry

China has strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Balochistan and expressed deep condolences to the victims, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, responding to a question at a daily press briefing, stated, “China firmly opposes all forms of terrorism and will continue to firmly support Pakistan in advancing counter-terrorism operations, maintaining social unity and stability, and protecting people's safety.”

The attacks, which occurred on Sunday night, saw terrorists targeting Pakistani security forces and police across multiple locations in Balochistan. The assailants stopped vehicles, killed innocent civilians, and destroyed infrastructure, including roads and railways.

“China is willing to further strengthen counter-terrorism and security cooperation with Pakistan to jointly safeguard regional peace and security,” Lin added.

Balochistan has witnessed a surge in violence recently, including targeted killings and militant attacks. On Sunday night, around 40 people were killed in one of the province’s most violent days, with incidents spread across various districts.

The deadliest attack took place in Musakhail, where 23 passengers were executed after being removed from a bus. In Kalat, an attack on security forces left 10 dead, comprising both civilians and military personnel.

In response, the Pakistani military launched operations, killing 21 terrorists and thwarting a major terrorist attack in the Lasbela district.

iPhone 16 launching on September 9 with big upgrades

Apple has confirmed the date for its annual iPhone-centric event, which is being called "It's Glowtime" this year, where the company is set to unveil a lineup of brand new devices that fans have been waiting for with bated breath.

The phone-making giant announced Monday that the much-awaited event will take place on September 9 at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. The event is scheduled to kick off at 10am Pacific Standard Time.

At this year's event, Apple is set to unveil the iPhone 16 lineup, new Apple Watch models, and the AirPods 4. Additionally, the tech company is expected to reveal the official launch dates for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and other software updates, according to MacRumors.

All four of the new iPhones are expected to sport the customisable Action Button and a new Capture Button tailored for taking photos, equipped with built-in gestures, such as a swipe for zooming in and out or a soft press for autofocus.

The Capture Button will be on the right side of the devices below the power button.

Apple is also adding an A18 chip to all models, enabling the entire ‌iPhone 16‌ lineup to support Apple Intelligence features that are coming in ‌iOS 18‌.

While no other major new features are expected for the standard ‌iPhone 16‌ models, the Pro lineup will get an increase in display size, going from 6.1 and 6.7 inches to 6.3 and 6.9 inches, respectively, for the Pro and Pro Max.

Both models will also include the 5x Telephoto zoom option that was exclusive to the Pro Max last year.

The fall event will be streamed live on Apple's website, on YouTube, and through the Apple TV app.

Top White House official in Beijing as China faces off against US allies

The national security adviser of the United States, Jake Sullivan, has met China’s top diplomat Wang Yi as Beijing finds itself embroiled in security rows with key US allies.

Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese military aircraft’s incursion into its airspace on Monday with a military spy plane.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the airspace breach – the first by a military aircraft – was “not only a serious violation of Japan’s sovereignty but it also threatens our security”.

Meanwhile, the Philippine defence chief on Tuesday accused China of being the “biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia following a week of confrontations between the two countries’ ships near a flashpoint disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Sullivan’s plane landed at Beijing’s Capital airport just before 2pm (06:00 GMT). He was welcomed on the tarmac by US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Yang Tao.

Sullivan met Wang at a resort on the northern outskirts of the Chinese capital, where they shook hands in front of Chinese and US flags.

In his remarks in front of journalists, Wang described China-US ties as “critical” and which have taken “twists and turns”.

“I hope, as always, the communication will be not only strategic but also substantive and, at the same time, very constructive,” he said.

Before proceeding into a closed-door meeting, Sullivan said they would discuss areas of agreement and disagreement that “need to be managed effectively and substantively”.

In advance of his trip – the first by a US NSA to China since 2016 – an American official said Sullivan would discuss the South China Sea with officials in Beijing, including Wang.

“We are committed to making the investments, strengthening our alliances, and taking the common steps on tech and national security that we need to take,” the official said, referring to sweeping restrictions on US technology transfers to China imposed under President Joe Biden.

“We are committed to managing this competition responsibly … and preventing it from veering into conflict,” she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tech giants urge Malaysia to pause plan for social media platform licenses

An Asian industry group that includes Google (GOOGL.O), Meta (META.O) and X has called on the Malaysian government to pause a plan that will require social media services to apply for a license, citing a lack of clarity over the proposed regulations.

In July, Malaysia's communications regulator said social media platforms with more than eight million users in the country would be required to apply for a license from this month as part of a drive to combat cybercrime.

Legal action could be taken against the platforms if they failed to do so by Jan. 1, 2025, the regulator said.

In an open letter dated Friday and addressed to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) - whose members also include Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Grab (GRAB.O) - said the proposed licensing regime was "unworkable" for the industry and could stifle innovation by placing undue burdens on businesses.

The group said there had been no formal public consultations on the plan, leading to industry uncertainty regarding the scope of obligations to be imposed on social media platforms.

"No platform can be expected to register under these conditions," AIC Managing Director Jeff Paine wrote in the letter posted on the group's website.

Malaysia's communications ministry declined to comment on the letter. The prime minister's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The AIC also expressed concern that the proposed regulations could hamper Malaysia's growing digital economy, which has attracted significant investments this year.

The group said it shared the government's commitment to addressing online harms, but the proposed implementation timeline left the industry with insufficient clarity and time to assess its implications.

The government reported a sharp increase in harmful social media content earlier this year and urged social media firms, including Meta and short video platform TikTok (8645.HK) to step up monitoring on their platforms.

WhatsApp is rolling out AR call effects and filters for iOS users

WhatsApp's new augmented reality (AR) feature for call effects and filters, which was previously exclusive to Android users, will soon be rolled out to iOS users, according to WABetaInfo.

The Meta-owned instant messaging app had previously added an AR feature for call effects and filters to Android users, enhancing the users' interactivity during video calls.

However, WABetaInfo, citing the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS 24.17.10.74 update, reported that WhatsApp is now planning to extend the same features to iOS users.

Currently, the feature is accessible only to beta testers who download the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS via the TestFlight app. These updates will soon be available to more people in the coming weeks.

The new tool offers an array of dynamic facial filters to enhance users' video calling experience. These filters allow you to customise their appearance in real-time during video calls, modifying the overall colour tone of their video feed.

Moreover, WhatsApp has also introduced a background editing tool that allows users to either blur their surroundings or replace them with one of the pre-set backgrounds provided by the app.

It also added the low-light mode toggle, which is designed to enhance visibility in dimly lit environments and is particularly useful for evening calls or for users who frequently find themselves in low-light conditions.

Additionally, the touch-up mode acts as a subtle filter to smooth out skin imperfections, giving users a more polished appearance on video calls.

It is worth noting that WhatsApp will automatically remember the previous configuration settings when placing a new video call, such as the selected background and colour filter.

This means that users don't have to repeatedly adjust their settings each time they start a new call as WhatsApp will always apply the last used background and filter.

Press freedom groups urge EU to punish Israel for violating media rights

Sixty global press freedom and human rights organisations have signed a letter calling on the European Union to take decisive action against Israel for its escalating violations of media freedom and the killing of journalists in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel.

The letter on Monday urged the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the imposition of targeted sanctions on responsible Israeli officials. It was signed by organisations including the International Press Institute (IPI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU).

Addressing top EU diplomat Josep Borrell and European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, the appeal underscored the urgent need for action against what they describe as “unprecedented violations of media freedom by Israeli authorities”.

“These are part of widespread and systematic abuses committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and elsewhere, as documented or acknowledged by Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs, UN experts, the International Court of Justice, and in a request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,” the letter, said.

“These violations should trigger the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and further EU targeted sanctions against those responsible,” it was added in the letter.

The organisations outlined eight actions taken by Israel that require an urgent response by the EU, including the targeted killing of journalists, a ban on independent media access to Gaza, and record-high arbitrary detention of journalists.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has faced accusations of systematic abuses, including the killing of more than 120 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, and the arrest and arbitrary detention of at least 49 journalists.

The letter also highlighted allegations of torture, enforced disappearances, and significant censorship within Israel and the Palestinian territory it occupies.

The cumulative effect of these violations, the letter said, was to create conditions conducive to propaganda and misinformation, ultimately undermining the path to peace and security.

China's military steps up armed patrols near Myanmar border

China’s military has stepped up army and police patrols along its western border with Myanmar amid deepening conflict between the military regime and armed groups opposed to its coup.

The patrols, which also involve air surveillance, will focus on the towns of Ruili, Zhenkang and other front-line areas, the military said in a statement on Monday.

Ruili, in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, is a main route for people and goods heading to and from Myanmar, but China has reported artillery shells injuring residents and damaging structures in its territory amid rising conflict across the border in Myanmar’s Shan State.

Fighting has escalated there since late year when ethnic armed groups formed an alliance to push the military from the area.

A Beijing-brokered truce in January broke down in late June and the armed groups say they have overrun multiple Myanmar military posts and taken control of key towns in a renewed, and expanded, offensive.

The military has responded with bombing raids and drone attacks, and restricted internet and mobile phone networks.

Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.

The Southern Theater of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said it had also organised army units to test soldiers’ ability to “quickly move, block and control, and strike together, and maintain security and stability in the border areas”, the military said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also said recently that China would continue “its commitment to restore peace and stability in Myanmar”.

Myanmar was plunged into crisis when the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

At least 13 dead after migrant boat sinks off Yemen

At least 13 people have died and 14 others remain missing after a boat capsized off Yemen on Tuesday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday.

The migrant boat, carrying 25 Ethiopians and two Yemenis, had been sailing off the coast of Yemen's Taiz governorate in the southwest, IOM said.

The bodies of the deceased, 11 men and two women, were recovered along the shores of Bab al-Mandab Strait — one of the world's most important sea routes for global commodity shipments.

Search operations were continuing in the hopes of locating those who were still missing, which included the Yemeni captain and his assistant, said the report, adding it wasn't clear what had caused the vessel to sink.

In July, a boat with at least 45 refugees capsized off the coast of Yemen's Taiz, and there were only four survivors.

IOM, which runs a tally of migrants who are killed or missing on migration routes, has recorded 2,082 migrant deaths and disappearances along the route running from East Africa and the Horn of Africa to Gulf countries since 2014.

Wildfires affect 30 cities in Brazil, leave two dead

Brazil’s Sao Paulo state said that wildfire outbreaks were affecting or closing in on 30 of its cities on Friday evening, adding two people had died in an industrial plant trying to hold back the flames.

The cities have been affected by dry, hot weather in recent days, the government said in a statement.

The state government also warned that forest fires could spread rapidly from gusts of wind, potentially razing large areas of natural vegetation.

For now, the government has not reported flames directly reaching the city of Sao Paulo, Latin America’s largest by population with more than 11 million residents.

Still, local media reported smoke blocking out some parts of state capital’s sky.

The government said two employees at an industrial plant in the city of Urupes had died on Friday while fighting a fire, without providing more details.

Earlier in the day Raizen, the world’s largest sugarcane processor, said that industrial operations at a plant in Sertaozinho had been halted since Thursday due to fires in sugarcane fields around the plant.

The Sao Paulo state government has created an emergency committee to handle the fires, which had also blocked some 15 highways either fully or partially. Brazil’s wildfire season typically peaks in August and September.

This year wildfires started unusually early in Pantanal, the world’s largest wetlands, in late May, while the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest surged to a two-decade high for the month of July, government data showed early this month.

SpaceX to bring back Boeing’s Starliner astronauts from spaceast

Two US astronauts who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule will need to return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, Nasa officials said on Saturday, deeming issues with Starliner’s propulsion system too risky to carry its first crew home as planned.

Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to ride Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the ISS for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission.

But Starliner’s propulsion system suffered a series of glitches in the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS that has so far kept the astronauts on the station for 79 days as Boeing scrambled to investigate the issues.

Nasa officials told reporters during a news conference in Houston that Wilmore and Williams, both former military test pilots, are safe and prepared to stay even longer. They will use their extra time to conduct science experiments alongside the station’s other seven astronauts, Nasa said.

In a rare reshuffling of operations, the two astronauts are now expected to return in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, due to launch next month as part of a routine astronaut rotation mission. Two of the Crew Dragon’s four astronaut seats will be kept empty for Wilmore and Williams.

The agency’s decision, tapping Boeing’s top space rival to return the astronauts, is one of Nasa’s most consequential in years. Boeing had hoped its Starliner test mission would redeem the troubled programme after years of development problems and over $1.6 billion in budget overruns since 2016.

Five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed during flight and it sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurise the thrusters. It was still able to dock with the station, a football field-sized laboratory that has housed rotating crews of astronauts for over two decades.

Nasa said in a statement Starliner will undock from the ISS without a crew in “early September”. The spacecraft will attempt to return to Earth autonomously, forgoing a core test objective of having a crew present and in control for the return trip.

“I know this is not the decision we had hoped for, but we stand ready to carry out the actions necessary to support Nasa’s decision,” Boeing’s Starliner chief Mark Nappi told employees in an email.

“The focus remains first and foremost on ensuring the safety of the crew and spacecraft,” Nappi said.

Several senior Nasa officials and Boeing representatives made the decision during a Saturday morning meeting in Houston.

Nasa’s space operations chief Ken Bowersox said agency officials unanimously voted for Crew Dragon to bring the astronauts home. Boeing voted for Starliner, which it said was safe.

Nelson told reporters at a news conference in Houston that he discussed the agency’s decision with Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg and was confident Boeing would continue its Starliner programme. Nelson said he was “100 per cent” certain the spacecraft would fly another crew in the future.

“He expressed to me an intention that they will continue to work the problems once Starliner is back safely,” Nelson said of Ortberg.

Second option

Boeing struggled for years to develop Starliner, a gumdrop-shaped capsule designed to compete with Crew Dragon as a second US option for sending astronaut crews to and from Earth’s orbit. The company is also struggling with quality issues on production of commercial planes, its most important products.

Starliner failed a 2019 test to launch to the ISS uncrewed, but mostly succeeded in a 2022 do-over attempt where it also encountered thruster problems. Its June mission with its first crew was required before Nasa can certify the capsule for routine flights, but now Starliner’s crew certification path is uncertain.

The drawn-out mission has cost Boeing $125 million, securities filings show. The company arranged tests and simulations on Earth to gather data that it has used to try and convince Nasa officials that Starliner is safe to fly the crew back home.

Elon Musk's SpaceX testing breakthrough tech in risky spacewalk

SpaceX's attempt at the first ever private spacewalk next week will be a test of trailblazing equipment, including slim spacesuits and a cabin with no airlock, in one of the riskiest missions yet for Elon Musk's space company.

A billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees are poised to launch on Tuesday aboard a modified Crew Dragon craft, before embarking on a 20-minute spacewalk 434 miles (700 km) into space two days later.

Until now, walking into the empty expanse of space has only been attempted by government astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

SpaceX's five-day mission - dubbed Polaris Dawn - will swing in an oval-shaped orbit, passing as close to Earth as 190 km (118 miles) and as far as 1,400 km (870 miles), the farthest any humans will have ventured since the end of the United States' Apollo moon program in 1972.

Crew members, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, will don SpaceX's new, slimline spacesuits in a Crew Dragon vehicle that was modified so it can open its hatch door in the vacuum of space - an unusual process that removes the need for an airlock.

"They're pushing the envelope in multiple ways," retired NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman said in an interview. "They're also going to a much higher altitude, with a more severe radiation environment than we've been to since Apollo."

Modi uses Pakistan airspace for return to India

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plane utilized Pakistan's airspace during his return journey from Poland to Delhi on Saturday morning.

According to civil aviation sources, the aircraft entered Pakistani airspace at 10:15am and remained within the country's borders for 46 minutes.

The plane entered Pakistan's territory over Chitral and then passed through the air control zones of Islamabad and Lahore. It eventually exited Pakistani airspace into India over Amritsar at 11:01am.

Civil aviation authorities confirmed that the flight was monitored as it crossed key regions of Pakistan before making its way into Indian territory.

At least 3 dead, 6 injured in knife attack at festival in Germany

Three people were killed and four others seriously wounded in a stabbing attack at a festival on Friday night in the western German city of Solingen, police said.

They said that at around 10 pm (2000 GMT) a single, unidentified man attacked multiple people and that the perpetrator was still at large.

"It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city. I have tears in my eyes when I think of those we have lost," Solingen Mayor Tim-Oliver Kurzbach said in a statement. "I pray for all those who are still fighting for their lives."

Fatal stabbings and shootings in Germany are relatively uncommon.

The police said the attack occurred at a festival to honour the town's 650th anniversary.

Solingen is in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany's most populous and bordering the Netherlands.

The state's interior minister, Herbert Reul, visited the scene, telling reporters it was a targeted attack on human life but declining to speculate on the motive.

The attack occurred at the Fronhof, the mayor's statement said, a market square where live bands were playing.

The German government has been aiming to toughen rules on knives that can be carried in public by reducing the length allowed.

In June, a 29-year-old policeman died after being stabbed in the German city of Mannheim during an attack on a right-wing demonstration.

21 Indians dead, more feared missing after bus plunges into Nepal river

Half of the passengers in a bus carrying 43 Indians died on Friday when the vehicle plunged into a rain-swollen river in neighbouring Nepal, according to a spokesperson for the Himalayan nation’s armed police.

A total of 21 people died and 22 were injured, Shailendra Thapa, a spokesperson for the armed police said, adding that all 41 passengers and two crew were Indian and headed to the capital Kathmandu from the tourist city of Pokhara when the accident occurred.

Roads in the mountainous region can challenge drivers as they are often narrow and treacherous, making it tough to manoeuvre large vehicles around hairpin curves.

Rescuers pulled 22 people from the rain-swollen waters of the Marsyangdi river in the Tanahun district, about 118 kilometres from Kathmandu, of which 12 were seriously injured and airlifted to the capital.

Police and army teams climbed down long metal ladders to reach the river, using ropes to pull out the injured and dead.

Exhausted women and children lay amid debris scattered on the banks of the fast-flowing river as rescuers hauled a nearly swooning child out of danger, video images showed.

India’s neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, where passengers had boarded the bus, is sending an official to coordinate rescue efforts, news agency ANI said.

World’s second largest diamond found in Botswana

A massive 2,492-carat diamond — the second largest in the world — has been discovered in Botswana, the Canadian mining company that found the stone announced on Thursday.

The diamond was discovered in the Karowe Diamond Mine in northeastern Botswana using x-ray detection technology, Lucara Diamond Corp. said in a statement. Lucara did not give a value for the find or mention its quality. But in terms of carats, the stone is second only to the 3,016-carat Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara president William Lamb said in the statement.

Pictures released by the company show the diamond is as large as the palm of a hand. This find was “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed” and was detected using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology installed in 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-value diamonds, the statement said.

Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweller, 77 Diamonds, confirmed it was the largest rough diamond to be unearthed since the Cullinan Diamond, parts of which adorn Britain’s crown jewels.

“This discovery is largely thanks to newer technology that allows larger diamonds to be extracted from the ground without breaking into pieces. So we will likely see more where this came from,” he said. Botswana is one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds, its main source of income, accounting for 30 per cent of GDP and 80pc of its exports. Before the find was announced, the largest diamond discovered in Botswana was a 1,758-carat stone mined by Lucara at the Karowe mine in 2019 and named Sewelo.

Kamala Harris accepts Democratic nomination ahead of US elections with pledge of ‘new way forward’

Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago on Thursday before a rapturous crowd, pledging a “new way forward” if she beats Republican Donald Trump in November’s blockbuster election.

The 59-year-old sought to strike a presidential tone as she delivered a message of unity and opportunity for Americans following one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in US political history.

She lashed out at Trump, accusing him of trying to “take our country” backwards and of cosying up to foreign “tyrants” like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America,” the vice president said to huge cheers.

“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” she vowed.

The convention became a giant party to celebrate Harris’s astonishing ascent from something of a political afterthought to Democratic standard bearer upon President Joe Biden’s surprise decision to end his reelection bid.

A sea of waving Stars and Stripes flags and chants of “USA” filled the arena as jubilant Democrats anointed Harris.

She was later joined on stage by her running mate Tim Walz and their families, as they held their arms aloft while 100,000 red, white and blue balloons tumbled from the ceiling.

Country act The Chicks sang a version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ while pop star Pink also performed as the Democrats rolled out a list of celebrity backers.

‘President for all Americans’

Harris pledged to be a “president for all Americans” in a bid to reach out to undecided voters.

With the November election, Americans have a “fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past — a chance to chart a new way forward,” she promised.

Harris then took aim at 78-year-old Trump, whose campaign has been upended by having to face a woman two decades younger, rather than the increasingly frail Biden, 81.

“We know what a second Trump term would look like,” she said, referring to a right-wing think tank’s blueprint for a future Republican government. “It’s all laid out in ‘Project 2025,’ written by his closest advisors, and its sum total is to pull our country back to the past.”

She laid out her personal story as a child of a single working mother, and her career as a prosecutor, saying she has the background and experience to serve the country in contrast to Trump who she said only works for himself and “his billionaire friends.”

Harris also laid out her stall on key foreign policy issues.

Going further than Biden’s rhetoric, she called the scale of suffering of people in Gaza “heartbreaking” and vowed to get a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas “done”.

Cheers erupted when she vowed “self-determination” for the Palestinian people.

Harris promised to “stand strong” with Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion and support Nato allies — again all in stark contrast to Trump’s isolationist stance on both issues.

‘Proud’

The Democrats have been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm since Harris took on the mantle from Biden a month ago.

The first Black woman nominee for a major party, Harris has wiped out former president Trump’s lead in the polls, drawn enormous crowds and raised record funds.

Now her challenge is to introduce herself to a country that is still getting used to the new Democratic candidate.

The torch having well and truly been passed, Biden gave a farewell speech on the first day of the convention and said he had called Harris to wish her luck.

“I am proud to watch my partner Kamala Harris accept our nomination for president. She will be an outstanding president because she is fighting for our future,” Biden, who is on holiday in California, said on X.

Yet Democrats will also be trying to temper their hopes, knowing that Harris faces a tough sprint to a nail-biting election on November 5, which as in 2020 may be decided by a handful of votes in key states.

From Barack and Michelle Obama to Bill Clinton, senior figures have warned all week that Harris has a brutal fight on her hands to beat Trump.

Trump is increasingly resorting to personal insults, racially charged attacks, and dark rhetoric.

His campaign described Harris’s performance as the “worst speech ever”. And on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote in his characteristic all-caps style: “SHE HAS LED US INTO A FAILING NATION STATUS!”

Australia greenlights world's 'largest' solar hub

Australia approved on Wednesday plans for a massive solar and battery farm that would export energy to Singapore, a project billed as the "largest solar precinct in the world".

Authorities announced environmental approvals for SunCable's $24 billion project in Australia's remote north that is slated to power three million homes.

The project, which will include an array of panels, batteries and, eventually, a cable linking Australia with Singapore, is backed by tech billionaire and green activist Mike Cannon-Brookes.

"It will be the largest solar precinct in the world — and heralds Australia as the world leader in green energy," said Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

It is hoped that energy production will begin in 2030, providing four gigawatts of energy for domestic use.

Two more gigawatts would be sent to Singapore via undersea cable, supplying about 15% of the city-state's needs.

SunCable Australia's managing director Cameron Garnsworthy said the approval was "a landmark moment in the project's journey".

Numerous approval processes and other hurdles remain despite Wednesday's green light.

The project depends on sign-offs from Singapore's energy market authority, Indonesia's government and Australian Indigenous communities.

Singapore's energy market authority said in a statement it was in "discussions with Sun Cable on its proposal for electricity imports into Singapore" but did not provide further details.

Garnsworthy said: "SunCable will now focus its efforts on the next stage of planning to advance the project towards a final investment decision targeted by 2027."

Countries around the world are racing to bring major solar projects online to ease the transition away from polluting fossil fuels.

China leads the way and is building almost twice as much wind and solar capacity as every other country combined.

Body of British tech entrepreneur Lynch retrieved from yacht, daughter missing

The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was retrieved on Thursday from the wreck of his family yacht that sank earlier this week off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, a senior Italian official said.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still unaccounted for, interior ministry official Massimo Mariani told Reuters after being briefed by the emergency services.

The bodies of four other people who vanished when the boat went down were recovered from the yacht on Wednesday.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared beneath the waves in a matter of minutes after the bad weather struck in the early hours of Monday.

Lynch, 59, was one of the UK’s best-known tech entrepreneurs and had invited friends to join him on the yacht to celebrate his acquittal in June in a major U.S. fraud trial.

His body was brought ashore in a blue body bag and driven in an ambulance to a nearby hospital morgue.

Besides Lynch and his daughter, the other people who failed to make it to safety were Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo; and the onboard chef, Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas.

Thomas’ body was found near the wreck on Monday.

Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife, survived the disaster.

Mariani said it was possible that Hannah Lynch’s body was not in the boat, but might have been swept out to sea.

The families of those missing have not yet commented.

Fire brigade spokesperson Luca Cari warned it could take time, even days, before the last missing person was found, given the difficulty divers were having in accessing all areas of the boat, which is lying on its side at a depth of 50m.

A judicial investigation has been opened into the disaster, which has baffled naval marine experts, who say a boat like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have been able to withstand the storm.

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group which owns Perini, told Italian media the Bayesian was “one of the safest boats in the world” and blamed the crew for failing to follow correct safety procedures.

The captain, James Cutfield, and his eight surviving crew members, have made no public comment on the disaster.

Challenging conditions

Specialist rescuers have been searching inside the hull of the sunken yacht for the past three days in what they said were extremely challenging conditions due to the depth and the narrowness of the places that the divers are scouring.

The fire brigade compared the efforts to those that were carried out, on a larger scale, for the Costa Concordia, a luxury cruise liner that capsized off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people.

Once the final body is recovered, experts will have to decide whether, or how, to salvage the vessel.

The CEO of Italian Sea Group said the yacht’s automatic tracking system suggested that it took 16 minutes from the moment the storm first hit to the sinking.

He said it was clear the ship took in large amounts of water, adding that investigators would need to see what doorways or hatches might have been left open, focusing notably on a main door located on the left side of the yacht.

“A Perini boat survived the Category 5 Katrina hurricane. Do you think one couldn’t survive a waterspout here,” he told Corriere della Sera newspaper, referring to a type of tornado that is believed to have hit the Bayesian.

Under maritime law, a captain has full responsibility for the ship and the crew, as well as the safety of all those aboard.

The captain of the Costa Concordia is serving a 16-year prison term for his role in the 2012 disaster after he admitted to sailing too close to underwater rocks.

Zoom raises annual revenue forecast

Zoom Video Communications (ZM.O) raised its annual revenue forecast on Wednesday, driven by strong demand for its AI-powered collaboration tools deployed in hybrid work models, and said Kelly Steckelberg would step down as its CFO.

Shares of the video-conferencing provider were trading 3% higher after the bell.

Zoom has been doubling down on efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into its products and expand its range of services and leverage the growing trend of hybrid work.

Zoom Contact Center, the company's AI-powered, omnichannel platform that provides businesses personalized responses for their customers, secured several high-profile clients, including its largest single-order deal to date in the second quarter.

Zoom said large accounts, with customers contributing more than $100,000 in trailing 12-month revenue, increased 7.1%. Online average monthly churn also reached its lowest ever rate.

This suggests that Zoom is "doing more than simply holding its ground. They're reinforcing their foundation and making sure they're prepared for the long haul," said Jeremy Goldman, senior director of briefings at Emarketer.

"The company needs to continue innovating and expanding its product offerings Zoom's challenge will be to sustain this momentum by proving they're more than just a one-hit pandemic wonder and by continuing to deliver the kind of growth that can keep investors excited about its long-term prospects," Goldman said.

Zoom said it has begun a search for Steckelberg's successor. Her last day of work with the company will be the day after it announces earnings for the quarter ending Oct. 31.

Steckelberg has been Zoom's CFO since 2017 and led the company through its successful IPO in 2019.
The company expects fiscal 2025 revenue to be between $4.63 billion and $4.64 billion, compared with the $4.61 billion and $4.62 billion forecast earlier.

Greek oil tanker ablaze and adrift in Red Sea after multiple attacks

A Greek-flagged oil tanker with 25 crew members on board has caught fire after multiple attacks and is adrift in the Red Sea.

The Sounion was attacked by more than a dozen people on two small boats who fired multiple projectiles at the ship when it was about 77 nautical miles (143km) west of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday morning, the Greek shipping ministry and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

There was a brief exchange of fire, the UKMTO said. In a later update, it said the ship reported another attack that caused the fire and led the vessel to lose engine power and its ability to manoeuvre.

The EU Red Sea naval mission said it responded to a request from the shipping company and the captain of the vessel and dispatched a unit to provide protection to the crew, made up of 23 Filipinos and two Russians. The crew abandoned the vessel and were rescued by the mission, an official told the Reuters news agency. There were no reports of injuries.

“During the approach to the incident area, in the morning hours of Aug. 22, a USV (Unmanned Surface Vehicle) was successfully neutralised as it posed a threat to the MV SOUNION and its crew,” the mission official added.

Greece’s Maritime Affairs Minister Christos Stylianides condemned what he described as “a flagrant violation of international law and a serious threat to the security of international shipping”.

Greece said the ship could have been hit either by missiles or drones.

Four astronauts set for launch in space for a 'perilous spacewalk mission'

Space X’s Polaris’ four astronauts Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Anna Menon and Sarah Gills will be launched on August 26 from the Kennedy Space Station for a spacewalk mission that has never been done by any privately arranged crew.

The Polaris crew will spend five days aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule set to soar higher than any other spacecraft since Nasa ended its Apollo programme in the 1970’s.

Isaacman and his crew will extend their orbital path high enough to plunge them into the Van Allen radiation belts that pose significant risks to the human body.

Effects on the human body include the disruption in the central nervous system, suppression of hematopoiesis in bone marrow, cataracts and other vision impairments, and acute radiation sickness. These are the effects of long-term low-level or short-term high-level exposure to radiation and they can affect EVAs, as per the European Space Agency (ESA).

ESA further details that there are also stochastic effects which normally link to an increased chance of cancer.

Adding more peril to their spacewalk endeavour, the astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will also become the first non-government astronauts to open the shaft of their capsule and immerse themselves in the vacuum of space.

The EVA suits — developed and designed by SpaceX in just two and a half years — are going to be the sole thing protecting the astronauts during their spacewalk.

What is a spacewalk?

Nasa explains that any time an astronaut gets out of their spacecraft while in space, it is called a spacewalk or an extravehicular activity (EVA).

As per Nasa, spacewalking allows astronauts to work outside of their designated spacecraft such as experiments and helps them learn how the atmosphere of space affects things.

It also helps them to test new equipment or they can get to repairing work if a satellite or spacecraft needs it.

Bosnia: At least three killed in shooting in school

At least three staff members have been killed in a shooting at a school in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, authorities say.

Among those killed in Wednesday’s shooting were the principal, secretary and a teacher at the Sanski Most High School Center, Adnan Beganovic, a spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told media.

The shooting took place at 10:15am (08:15 GMT). The Reuters news agency reported quoting police that a school employee was involved in the shooting.

The Sanski Most town is located approximately 200km (124 miles) northwest of the capital, Sarajevo.

Schools in Bosnia are closed for the summer holiday, which means no classes were being held at the time of the shooting. While no students were present, teachers were meeting to prepare for the upcoming school year.

The suspect “used a military firearm, an automatic rifle, to kill three school employees and tried to kill himself”, Beganovic told national radio.

The wounded man was reported to be in serious condition and was taken to Banja Luka Hospital.

The employee allegedly had a dispute with the school management, The Associated Press news agency said. Police are yet to provide a motive for the attack.

Police and emergency services were deployed to the site.

The Balkan region has been awash with small arms and weapons since the wars of the 1990s, which saw Yugoslavia break up, particularly in Bosnia, a country of about 3.5 million people. But mass shootings are rare.

According to a 2010 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there were about 750,000 weapons in illegal possession in Bosnia.

The last school shooting in the Balkans took place in May 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia, when a teenager shot dead 10 people, including nine classmates.

PTA attributes internet disruption in Pakistan to submarine cable fault

After receiving immense flak from netizens and information technology sector bodies over intermittent internet disruptions, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has finally commented on the issue linking it with a "fault in the undersea submarine cable".

"Submarine Consortium has informed [us] that the internet [services] are affected due to a fault in the submarine cable which will be resolved by August 27," PTA Chairman Major General (retd) Hafeez-Ur-Rehman said while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on IT.

He added that seven fibre optic cables are connected with Pakistan of which one is damaged.

The PTA chief's remarks come in the wake of the prevailing internet slowdown and limited connectivity that experts and stakeholders have attributed to the purported testing of an internet firewall to rein in social media, which is equipped with filters to block unwanted content from reaching a wider audience.

However, the government has denied its involvement in the issue with State Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja blaming the use of virtual private networks (VPN) by internet users as the reason "their phones" slowed down.

"I can swear that the government of Pakistan did not block the internet or slow it down,” she said while speaking to the media last week.

Google finally bringing AI-powered anti-theft upgrade to Android

With global crime rates in the rise, many people often worry about their phones being snatched. However, Android users may worry less now because their phones will soon be protected by artificial intelligence.

In May, Google announced plans to introduce an advanced anti-theft feature for Android phones, set to debut with Android 15 and fans have been anticipating the exciting feature ever since.

According to Google, the Theft Detection Lock tool is designed to use AI technology and the phone's gyroscope and accelerometer to identify suspicious movements associated with theft.

Upon sensing erratic motion patterns, such as a sudden jerk followed by rapid acceleration, the feature will swiftly lock the device's screen, safeguarding the owner’s personal information.

According to ZDNET, Google is finally rolling out the much-awaited AI-powered feature but only to a select group of users in Brazil who signed up for the company’s beta program.

Once the feature rolls out fully, it will "probably start with newer Google phones but will eventually be available on all Android 10+ devices, or essentially any modern Android phone," ZDNET reported.

Earlier this year, Google had announced several tools to protect your data "before, during and after a theft," including:

Making it more difficult to factory reset a phone and set it up under a new account.

Private spaces to hide sensitive apps.

The ability to mark your phone as lost on Find My Device for easier tracking.

Automatic lock for excessive failed authentication.

The ability to lock your phone if it's offline.

Remote lock, which lets you lock your phone's screen using just your number and a quick security challenge.