This photo provided by Amazon shows models of the Amazon Echo Show. Amazon is giving its voice-enabled Echo speaker a touch screen and video-calling capabilities as it competes with Google’s efforts at bringing “smarts” to the home. The new device, called Echo Show, goes on sale on June 28, 2017. Amazon says it’s also bringing calling and messaging features to its existing Echo and Echo Dot devices […]
A UN forum held in Riyadh last week amounted to a “slap in the face” for Saudis jailed in a country which does not allow independent NGOs, a rights group said Monday. Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), was commenting on a two-day UNESCO NGO Forum staged in the Saudi capital. “To host a prestigious NGO event in Saudi Arabia is a slap […]
A schism appears to exist at the heart of The Lightning Seeds, a disconnect between joyous 1990s pop hits such as Pure, Perfect, Marvellous and Lucky You and the dour-faced man who wrote them. Ian Broudie is often photographed in moody black and white, wearing sunglasses and looking absently off into the distance. “I’ve always written by melody, and I think the melodies are very uplifting – […]
By Giulia Segreti | MILAN MILAN Former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was confident that the United States would keep moving “in the right direction” on climate change, although the process might slow down under the current administration. Before taking office, President Donald Trump pledged to cancel a deal signed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015, which aims to limit rising temperatures […]
Moon Jae-in has triumphed in the South Korean presidential election with over 40 percent of the vote, according to exit polls. But the liberal leader’s solid victory can’t patch over deeper political wounds. Just as the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union left British society divided and Donald Trump’s election polarized Americans, the impeachment of Park Geun-hye has split South Korea. While more than 75 […]
The movement of atoms through a material can cause problems under certain circumstances. Atomic-resolution electron microscopy has enabled researchers to observe for the first time a phenomenon that has eluded materials scientists for many decades. (via WSJ)
Quebec police continued the search on Tuesday for a toddler swept away in a swollen Quebec river and said her stepfather’s body had been found, the first fatality in floods that have inundated the Canadian province. Almost 2,000 people have fled their homes in recent days amid floods caused by heavy rains in the province, according to government emergency informatiom bureau Urgence Quebec. The city of Montreal […]
This piece originally appeared in Local Edition, our newsletter following the digital transformation of local news. Want to be part of the conversation? You can sign up here. Justin Aglio’s title at Montour School District in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania includes a word we use a lot in journalism right now. He’s director of innovation. When he started that job after creating an alternative evening high school program in […]
OSLO Nations around the world have adopted more than 1,200 laws to curb climate change, up from about 60 two decades ago, which is a sign of widening efforts to limit rising temperatures, a study showed on Tuesday. “Most countries have a legal basis on which future action can be built,” Patricia Espinosa, the U.N.’s climate change chief, told a webcast news conference of the findings issued […]
There are two types of brunch in this city. The first, a casual get-together that involves a near-unlimited food and drinks from a high-end restaurant. Much merriment will be had by guests who attend, and it provides the venue with an excellent platform to serve a generous selection of dishes that showcases the best it has to offer. The second type, however, is not so much a […]
A federal appeals court on Tuesday said the U.S. government did not commit an “illegal exaction” harming American International Group Inc (AIG.N) shareholders led by former Chief Executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg when it bailed out the insurer in 2008. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. also said Greenberg’s Starr International Co did not have legal standing to pursue claims over the government’s acquisition of […]
Minnesota is currently dealing with the worst measles outbreak the state has seen in the past three decades. According to the state health department, there have been 44 confirmed cases since the outbreak was first identified in April. This is particularly worrisome given the high transmission rate of the virus — one person with measles can infect between 12 and up to 18 other people in the unimmunized […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN Syrian government warplanes struck rebel outposts near the Jordanian border early on Tuesday, rebels said, bringing the war closer to Syria’s U.S.-allied neighbour to the south. The air strikes, at around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) were the first near that part of the border, a Jordanian official said. They came hours after Syria’s foreign minister warned Jordan against sending troops into […]
ABU DHABI // Bollywood spectaculars, live stage shows featuring popular children’s cartoon characters and crowd-pleasing stand-up comedians are all part of the line-up for Abu Dhabi Summer Season 2017. Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority has teamed up with UAE event organisers to bring international ticketed and free events and activities to multiple venues across the emirate from July 20 to August 20, said Mubarak Hamad Al […]
Members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet have a new catchphrase for how they see the future role of the US: not just “energy-independent”, but “energy-dominant”. As Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, put it at an industry conference in Houston last week: “Dominance is what America needs.” It would be tempting to dismiss that talk as hype, except that every week the US energy sector is coming up […]
Dubai, UAE, 9 May 2017 Azizi Developments, the fast growing and award-winning Dubai real estate developer, announced the incredible sales results for Azizi Aura, its first project in Downtown Jebel Ali. The developer has sold 57 per cent of the residential apartments before its official launch, which will take place on May 13th at the Murjaan Ballroom within Madinat Jumeirah’s Conference and Events Centre from 10 AM […]
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Investing in new ways of utility-scale electricity storage and capturing carbon to store underground should be a priority for governments aiming to meet the greenhouse gas and ‘green energy’ targets set out in the Paris Agreement despite shrinking research and development budgets, suggests a new paper published today in Nature Energy. Researchers analyzed a range of studies and expert reports on public energy […]
BEIJING China’s military has conducted live-fire drills and weapons tests in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to the Korean peninsula, the country’s defence ministry said on Tuesday. In a brief statement late on Tuesday, the ministry said the tests of new missiles and weapons were carried out by the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force “in recent days” and were designed to raise operational capability so as to […]
Bitcoin is now up for 16 of the last 18 days, soaring over 50% in the last month and up almost 90% in 2017 – making its the year’s best performing currency. There appears to be no specitic catalyst for today’s move as the surge in Japanese interest (as we detailed here) and news that Russia is considering, like Japan just did, to allow cryptocurrencies as a […]
SEOUL Exit polls in South Korea’s presidential election showed Moon Jae-in, a liberal human rights lawyer and advocate of a moderate policy on rival North Korea, was expected to win the vote held on Tuesday. Moon, 64, was likely to take 41.4 percent of the votes, easily beating the conservative challenger, former prosecutor Hong Joon-pyo, with 23.3 percent of the votes, according to the exit polls conducted […]
On Monday, we brought you the story of TokenCard, the Ethereum-based venture set to revolutionise the world of payments by bringing crypto folk the, errr, power of the Visa network. Yes, you’re wondering, what’s so special about that? Doesn’t every above-board payment facilitator offer Visa access? You’re right. They do. And a card processed by Visa is hardly a breakthrough innovation worth shouting about here in the […]
PATTANI, Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state in the south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand were suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack on Tuesday outside a supermarket in the city of Pattani that wounded 42 people, police said. A decades-old separatist insurgency in the largely ethnic Malay Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has killed more than 6,500 people since 2004, according to independent […]
BERLIN Investment advisory firm Hermes EOS has urged Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) shareholders not to clear the carmaker’s management and supervisory boards from responsibility for actions taken in 2016, citing VW’s failure to resolve long-standing corporate governance and transparency issues. A day before VW’s annual shareholder meeting in Hanover, Germany, Hermes called on VW to publish key findings of its investigation into the emissions scandal, criticized the carmaker’s efforts […]
By Douglas Busvine | DHARAMSALA, India DHARAMSALA, India A U.S. Congressional delegation visited the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in India on Tuesday, seeking to draw world attention to human rights in Tibet as President Donald Trump eyes warmer ties with China. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi flew with a bipartisan delegation to the Himalayan hill town where the 81-year-old Buddhist leader is based, on a trip […]
