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North Korea has confirmed it launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards waters off its eastern coast in what was the longest flight time yet for a North Korean missile, authorities in South Korea and Japan said, raising fears of advanced weapons development by Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was present at the missile test launch and issued a warning to his enemies, the KCNA state news agency said. “The test-fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals, who have intentionally escalated the regional situation and posed a threat to the security of our Republic recently, of our counteraction will,” Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement the missile launched towards the East Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan, was detected at about 7:10am local time (22:10 GMT) and was fired on a “lofted trajectory”. The JCS said later that initial analysi...

At least 62 people have been killed in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain for three decades after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia on Tuesday, leaving roads and towns under water, local authorities said on Wednesday. Rescuers using dinghies worked in the dark to scour the floodwaters, rescuing several people, television pictures from the town of Utiel showed and emergency services were still working to reach the worst-hit areas. “For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address. “To the villages and cities destroyed by this tragedy, I say the same: Together, we will rebuild your streets, your squares, your bridges,” he said. Carlos Mazon, the regional leader of Valencia, one of Spain’s most important agricultural regions, said some people remained isolated in inaccessible locations. “If [emergency services] have not arrived, it’s not due to a la...

Canada has accused Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah of being behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh activists, in a move likely to extend a recent diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New Delhi. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison confirmed to the members of the national security committee late on Tuesday that the government considers Shah – considered India’s second-highest leader and a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – the architect of the campaign against Sikh separatists in Canada, which has included the assassination of an activist. India has not so far responded, however, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that government officials had rejected the accusation. Morrison told committee members that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which had earlier reported the allegations. “The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee. He di...

Kamala Harris will urge Americans to turn the page on Donald Trump as she delivers her closing election argument Tuesday on the spot where her rival rallied supporters before the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack. With polls in a dead heat exactly one week before Election Day, the Democratic vice president’s campaign said she chose the symbolic site to push her case that the Republican former president is a threat to American democracy. But Harris will also deliver an “optimistic and hopeful” message, a senior campaign official said, amid rumblings in the party that she is focusing too much on Trump and not enough on her own policies. She will address some 20,000 people on the Ellipse, a park outside the White House where Trump delivered a fiery speech in which he ramped up his false claims that he won the 2020 election. Trump supporters then marched on the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, in an assault that left at least five people dead and 140 polic...

Apple rolled out its first set of artificial intelligence features, dubbed Apple Intelligence, across its premium iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices on Monday marking the tech giant's major push into generative AI. The release, which was first previewed by the company in June, marks Apple's foray into an AI race that has seen US tech giants rush into ChatGPT-style technology. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple are convinced that generative AI's powers are the next chapter of computing and have ramped up spending so as not to be left behind. "Apple Intelligence is generative AI in a way that only Apple can deliver, and we're incredibly excited about its ability to enrich our users' lives," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a blog post. Apple's new features include enhanced writing tools, improved photo searching capabilities, and a more conversational Siri virtual assistant. The company also plans to integrate ChatGPT's capabilities into its services by...

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem has been elected as the new chief of the Lebanese resistance movement after his predecessor Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was martyred in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut last month. In a statement, Hezbollah expressed its commitment to upholding the legacy of Sheikh Qassem’s predecessor, describing the election as part of a sacred mission. "We pledge to God Almighty, to the soul of our beloved martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (may God be pleased with him), to the martyrs, to the Islamic resistance fighters, and to our resilient and loyal people, to work together to fulfill Hezbollah’s principles and goals." Hezbollah emphasized the organization’s dedication to carrying forward the cause of resistance. The Shura Council expressed its hope for Sheikh Qassem's success in leading Hezbollah, entrusting him with the responsibility of preserving the movement’s resistance and raising its banner until victory. On September...

North Korea has sent some 10,000 troops to train in Russia, the Pentagon said on Monday, more than tripling the previous estimate as Nato warned of a dangerous expansion of the Ukraine war. Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance in the course of the conflict, but the deployment of Pyongyang’s troops into combat against Kyiv’s forces would mark a significant escalation. “We believe that the DPRK has sent around 10,000 soldiers in total to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name. “A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast,” Singh said. The number of North Korean troops in Rus...

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has stated that Tehran will “use all available tools” to respond to Israel’s recent military strikes on Iranian targets. Although Iran initially downplayed the impact of Israel’s air attack on Saturday, describing the damage as minimal, U.S. President Joe Biden has called for an end to the escalating tensions that threaten to ignite a broader conflict in the Middle East. During a weekly televised press conference, Baghaei emphasized that Iran’s response will be determined by the specifics of the Israeli attack, although he did not provide further details. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remarked on Sunday that Iranian officials should decide how to effectively showcase Iran’s strength to Israel, advising that the Israeli strike should neither be underestimated nor overstated. The Israeli military reported that dozens of its jets conducted three waves of airstrikes early Saturday against missile production facilities and ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) could significantly reduce missed fractures on X-rays, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which endorses AI technology as a support tool for NHS clinicians. This advancement aims to ease the burden on the overextended radiology workforce while ensuring more accurate diagnostics. NICE's research indicates that integrating AI into urgent care for X-ray analysis can enhance the accuracy of fracture diagnoses, especially as it helps identify cases that might otherwise be overlooked due to high clinical demands. The health body has recommended four specific AI tools for trial across England, with healthcare professionals still overseeing each AI-supported diagnosis. This joint approach, NICE suggests, will lead to faster assessments without compromising patient care. The demand for AI assistance arises as emergency departments across the NHS report a shortage of radiology staff, with vacancy rates for radiologist...

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to stay in office despite receiving a major blow in Sunday’s snap election he called himself to shore up more support for his party. Ishiba told reporters on Monday he would not allow a “political vacuum” to occur after Japan’s ruling coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a significant defeat for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed the country almost continuously since 1955. Ishiba, 67, called the vote days after assuming office on October 1. But voters, angry at a funding scandal, punished the LDP by reducing it to 191 seats, down from 259 in the 465-member lower house of parliament. LDP’s coalition partner Komeito won 24 seats. The snap election was the governing coalition’s worst result in 15 years, exit polls and results reported by national broadcaster NHK and other media showed. The yen hit a three-month low as results came out. Despite this, Ishiba said: “I want to fulfill my duty by protecting peo...

Alphabet’s opens new tab Google is developing artificial intelligence technology that takes over a web browser to complete tasks such as research and shopping, according to reporsts. Google is set to demonstrate the product code-named Project Jarvis as soon as December with the release of its next flagship Gemini large language model, the report added, citing people with direct knowledge of the product. Microsoft opens new tab backed OpenAI also wants its models to conduct research by browsing the web autonomously with the assistance of a “CUA,” or a computer-using agent, that can take actions based on its findings, Reuters reported in July. Anthropic and Google are trying to take the agent concept a step further with software that interacts directly with a person’s computer or browser, the report said. Google didn’t immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) confirmed the killing of four of its troops, including one officer and three soldiers, during confrontations in southern Lebanon. The occupation forces reported that the four dead from Battalion 8207 were killed during confrontations in southern Lebanon on Saturday, with 14 others sustaining serious injuries in the same confrontations. The soldiers include Rabbi Avraham Yosef Goldberg, platoon commander Amit Chayut, deputy company commander Eliav Amram Abitbol, and sergeant Gilad Elmaliach. Israeli media acknowledged that the situation in the north is challenging and comes at a significant cost, with approximately 13 soldiers and officers killed during the Sukkot holiday alone, most of them in confrontation in Lebanon. The IOF admitted the killing of the officer and three soldiers after the Israeli Ministry of Security admitted that 890 soldiers, officers, police, and security personnel have been killed since October 7, 2023.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump battled for holdout votes over the penultimate weekend of campaigning across US swing states, with Michelle Obama to join the Democrat onstage before the Republican nominee hosts an eyebrow-raising rally in New York. With just 10 days left in a bitterly contested presidential race, the rivals converged on Saturday on Michigan, one of the three “Blue Wall” states — along with Wisconsin and top prize Pennsylvania — that Democrats see as critical to election day victory on Nov 5. Polls show a dead heat in the final days of the race, and with more than 38 million people nationwide already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding whether to elect the country’s first-ever woman president, or its oldest commander in chief. Part of Harris’s strategy is to peel moderate Republicans away from an increasingly vituperative Trump, who continues to demean some Americans as the “enemy”. The ex-president still refuses to accept his defeat at the polls four year...

Nvidia briefly overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable company on October 25, marking a milestone for the semiconductor giant. Nvidia’s valuation surged to $3.53 trillion as its stock reached a high of $144.13, outpacing Apple’s $3.52 trillion. By mid-day trading, both companies were neck and neck in market value, each sitting around $3.52 trillion. This ascent highlights Nvidia’s meteoric rise since late 2022, when OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT catalyzed demand for Nvidia’s AI-enabled GPUs. In less than two years, Nvidia’s stock has climbed over 740%, adding $3.1 trillion in market valuation as AI applications have swept industries. As a key supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs) essential for artificial intelligence, Nvidia has capitalized on a tech revolution that has redefined the cloud, healthcare, and finance sectors. Analysts project further growth for Nvidia, expecting it could soon surpass a $4 trillion valuation as AI demand increases. Bank of America re...

The Israeli military launched strikes on military bases in Iran, hitting about 20 sites over several hours in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran. The Iranian army confirmed two soldiers were killed after it said the attacks on Saturday targeted military bases but resulted in only “limited damage”, the barrage marking an escalation in the ongoing tensions in the Middle East. The Israeli army announced that the operation was complete, and military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that if Iran carries out retaliatory strikes, Israel will be “obligated to respond”. Iran’s air defence headquarters said the “aggressive action was successfully intercepted and countered by the country’s integrated air defense system”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Iran was “entitled and obligated to defend itself against external aggressive acts” after the attacks on its soil. Here are some world reactions: Qatar The attack was a “blatant violation of Iran’s sovereignty and a clear breach of international l...

Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, saying it was retaliating against Tehran's strikes on Israel this month, the latest attack in the escalating conflict between the heavily armed rivals. Hours later the Israeli military said its strikes had been completed and its objectives achieved, but a semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a "proportional reaction" to Israeli moves against Tehran. Iranian media reported multiple explosions over several hours in the capital and at nearby military bases, starting shortly after 2am (2230 GMT on Friday). Before dawn, Israel's public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed and that the operation was over. Iran said its air defence system successfully countered Israel's attacks on military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam with "limited damage" to some locations. The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's retaliation for a ballistic-missile b...

A team of researchers in the United Kingdom (UK( has dived into the realm of 'paleo-inspired' robotics to uncover the evolutionary secrets of species that have long been extinct. The team, led by Dr Michael Ishida from Cambridge University, aim to stimulate millions of years of evolution within just a day by animating the robotic models of extinct animals. "With a couple lines of code or a new 3D-printed leg we can simulate those millions of years of evolution in a single day of engineering effort," The Guardian quoted Ishida as saying. The team focused on re-creating the movements of fossilised fish ancestors as a start and is currently centered on mudskippers, unique fish that adapted to life on land. According to the researchers, robots that mimic the anatomy and movements of mudskippers would help them understand the evolutionary pressures that prompted these animals to come out of water. Although engineers have traditionally built robots to mimic living an...

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued a stark warning in its 2024 Emissions Gap Report, highlighting that greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high. The UN stressed the urgency of immediate and comprehensive action to avoid surpassing the critical 1.5°C global temperature increase limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. “Climate crunch time is here,” stated UNEP’s Executive Director, Inger Andersen. She emphasized that global mobilization is needed on an unprecedented scale and speed, starting immediately, to fulfill climate pledges. If nations fail to act, she warned that the 1.5°C goal will be at risk, potentially leading to a scenario where global temperatures rise significantly above two degrees Celsius. The report was launched during the COP16 global biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, and it tracks the gap between current emissions trajectories and the levels needed to limit warming to well below 2°C while striving for the 1.5°C target. Accor...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday accused member state Mongolia of failing to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin during a trip there last month and referred the matter for further action. The Russian leader visited Ulaanbaatar in early September despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the Hague-based court, for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children after his troops invaded the country in 2022. “The International Criminal Court found that, by failing to arrest Mr Putin while he was on its territory and surrender him to the Court, Mongolia has failed to comply with the Court’s request to cooperate,” the ICC said in a statement. The Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty signed by all member states, compels countries to arrest wanted suspects. “States Parties and those accepting the court’s jurisdiction are duty-bound to arrest and surrender individuals subject to ICC warrants, regardless of official position or nationality,” the ICC’...

The United States and Qatar have announced a resumption of negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said mediators are exploring new options after months of failure to seal a US-led plan. With less than two weeks before US elections, Blinken is paying his 11th trip to the region since Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Blinken said Thursday negotiators would resume talks “in the coming days” on ways to end the yearlong Gaza war and free dozens of captives seized by Hamas. “We talked about options to capitalise on this moment and next steps to move the process forward,” Blinken said, after talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. He said that the two partners were seeking a plan “so that Israel can withdraw, so that Hamas cannot reconstitute, and so that the Palestinian people can rebuild thei...

At least four people have been killed and 14 others wounded in an attack on the headquarters of Turkey’s aerospace and defence company Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) near the capital Ankara, Turkey’s president has said. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was holding talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin at the time of the attack on Wednesday, confirmed the toll, and condemned what he said was a “heinous terrorist attack”. “Two terrorists were neutralised” in the incident at the headquarters of the state-run firm, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X. Footage from the scene broadcast by local media showed huge clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara. According to local media reports, there was a loud explosion at the site and subsequent gunfire. Security camera images from the attack, aired by broadcasters, showed a man in plainclothes carrying a backpack and holding an ass...

Hezbollah announced the martyrdom of Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, the head of the Executive Council of the Resistance movement, in an Israeli airstrike that took place days ago. Safieddine, a key figure in the Lebanese resistance movement, was killed alongside several of his fellow fighters, in what the Resistance condemned as a "criminal and aggressive Zionist airstrike." In a statement issued on Wednesday, Hezbollah said Safieddine was martyred in "a brutal and aggressive Zionist airstrike." Safieddine was widely expected to be formally elected as Hezbollah’s next secretary general after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on September 27. “Sayyed Hashem has now joined his brother, our most revered and beloved martyr, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” the statement read. “He was his brother, his right hand, his banner bearer, his trusted confidant in times of hardship, and his d...

Taiwan’s defence chief has warned that a Chinese "blockade" would be an act of war and have far-reaching consequences for international trade after Beijing held military exercises to encircle the self-governed island. Taiwanese Defence Minister Wellington Koo made his comments on Wednesday as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continued exercises near the democratically-ruled island after last week carrying out war games that included a simulated blockade. “If you really want to carry out a so-called blockade, which according to international law is to prohibit all aircraft and ships entering the area, then according to United Nations resolutions it is regarded as a form of war,” Koo said in remarks to reporters at parliament. “I want to stress that drills and exercises are totally different from a blockade, as would be the impact on the international community,” Koo added. China claims Taiwan as its territory and has said it reserves the right to use force to b...

WhatsApp has introduced a new privacy feature that offers users enhanced control over contact management across multiple devices, by allowing them to choose whether to store their contacts within the app or sync them with their phone's address book. This feature, which is easily accessible by navigating to WhatsApp Settings > Privacy > Contacts > WhatsApp Contacts, also enables to add and edit contacts seamlessly across their linked devices, WABetaInfo reported. The new feature has introduced a new toggle labeled "Sync contact to phone" that appears when users add a new contact. It lets users decide whether to sync a particular contact to their phone or keep it solely within WhatsApp. If users choose to maintain certain contacts exclusively within WhatsApp, then the chosen contacts will not appear in the phone's general contact list. Additionally, WhatsApp has also introduced a new storage system called Identity Proof Linked Storage (IPLS), which secure...

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in China for the second time this year, he said on social media on Tuesday, as the US technology giant seeks to shore up slumping sales in a crucial overseas market. The iPhone maker remains popular among Chinese consumers but has ceded ground to domestic rivals in recent years as the Asian nation faces slowing economic growth and sluggish consumption. Cook said Tuesday on his official account on social media platform Weibo that he had met with Chinese university students using Apple products to boost sustainable farming practices. And in another video uploaded to his official page late Monday, Cook accompanied fashion photographer Chen Man on a walk through a historic quarter of the Chinese capital. “It’s great to be back in Beijing,” Cook wrote. Apple reported a $21.4 billion profit in the three months ending in June, on $85.8 billion in revenue over the period. The revenue was a five per cent jump from a year ago. But the iPhone maker’s sales in China ...

Two dozen world leaders gathered in Russia on Tuesday for the opening of a three-day summit of the Brics group, an alliance of emerging economies that the Kremlin hopes will challenge Western “hegemony”. With the summit, the biggest such meeting in Russia since it ordered troops into Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is seeking to show Western attempts to isolate Moscow over the two-and-a-half-year offensive have failed. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — all key partners for Russia — are scheduled to join the gathering, hosted in the western city of Kazan from October 22 to 24. Putin, Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa have already arrived in Kazan, Russian media reported, while Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Xi had landed. Moscow has made expanding the Brics group — an acronym for core members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — a pillar of its foreign policy. The main issue...

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it targeted Israeli positions in the Tel Aviv suburbs on Tuesday including an intelligence base, and launched rockets at a naval base in north Israel’s Haifa. The attacks came after a tense night in Lebanon, with state media reporting heavy Israeli bombardment in and near south Beirut and authorities saying four people including a child were killed in strikes near the country’s biggest public hospital. Hezbollah fighters launched a “salvo of rockets” targeting the “Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit”, the resistance group said in a statement, after claiming similar attacks on the base in the Tel Aviv suburbs the night before. Also Tuesday, the group said it fired rockets at another position in Tel Aviv’s suburbs, and launched a “salvo of rockets” targeting the “Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa”, a coastal city in northern Israel. The Israeli military said in a statement that following sirens “in central Israel, approximatel...

United States Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump remain in a tight contest across seven battleground states with just over two weeks until the November 5 US presidential election, a Washington Post/Schar School opinion poll showed on Monday. Democratic former prosecutor Harris led among likely voters in Georgia 51 per cent to 47pc, while Republican Trump was slightly ahead in Arizona with 49pc to 46pc. Both findings fell within the plus or minus 4.5 percentage points margin of error in the poll, which surveyed 5,016 registered voters from September 30 to October 15. Harris, who became the party’s candidate after President Joe Biden stepped aside in July, also had an edge in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states where she will campaign later on Monday with Republican former US Representative Liz Cheney. Trump led in North Carolina and was tied with Harris in Nevada 48pc to 48pc, according to the poll. The former president will hold a rally ...

Microsoft will allow its customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents from next month, in its latest push to tap the booming technology amid growing investor scrutiny of its hefty AI investments. The company is positioning autonomous agents - programs that need little human intervention unlike chatbots - as "apps for an AI-driven world" that can handle client queries, identify sales leads and manage inventory. Other big technology companies such as Salesforce have also touted the potential of such agents, tools that some analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to monetising the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI. Microsoft said its customers can use Copilot Studio — an application that requires little knowledge of computer code — to create such agents in public preview from November. It is using several AI models developed in-house and by OpenAI for the agents. The company is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents that can he...

British King Charles III faced protest by an Indigenous lawmaker on Monday, telling the monarch the southern Pacific nation was “not” his land. Clad in a fur cloak, Senator Lidia Thorpe raised her voice to make Charles listen to her statement after the monarch delivered his speech in the Australian parliament. Secret services were seen walking towards and pushing the lawmaker out of the room, who accused the British monarch of committing genocide against the indigenous peoples. “This is not your land. You are not my king. You are not our king,” Thorpe is heard saying in a video. Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrived in Sydney on Friday, on their first visit to Australia since ascending the throne. They will spend five days in the region, including attending a meeting of the Commonwealth heads of government in Samoa. “Treaty now,” Thorpe said, addressing the King. The outspoken lawmaker has long demanded a treaty between Australia and First Nations peoples that would mean ...