By Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, May 11, 2024 (AFP) – The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday, triggering spectacular celestial light shows in skies from Tasmania to Britain — and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it persists into the weekend. The first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun — came just after 1600 GMT, according […]
Sci-Tech
Boeing Starliner crewed mission postponed shortly before launch
By Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo with Issam Ahmed in Washington CAPE CANAVERAL, May 7, 2024 (AFP) – The first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spaceship was dramatically called off around two hours before launch after a new safety issue was identified, officials said Monday, pushing back a high-stakes test mission to the International Space Station. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were strapped in their seats preparing for liftoff when the call for a “scrub” […]
Microsoft CEO pledges $1.7 bn AI, cloud investment in Indonesia
JAKARTA, April 30, 2024 (AFP) – Microsoft’s chief executive officer pledged a $1.7 billion investment in artificial intelligence and cloud computing to help develop Indonesia’s AI infrastructure after a meeting with the archipelago’s president on Tuesday. Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and has a population of around 280 million across its sprawling archipelago, with a growing demand for data centres and AI tech in the region. Satya Nadella held talks with President Joko Widodo, […]
Microsoft, Google earnings shine as AI drives revenue
By Glenn CHAPMAN Microsoft and Google on Thursday drubbed quarterly earnings expectations as the tech titans continued investing heavily in artificial intelligence promising to shake up the way people live. The results were cheered by Wall Street investors who pushed up Alphabet’s share price more than 11 percent and Microsoft shares up nearly 4 percent in after-market trades. Google parent Alphabet reported profit of $23.7 billion on revenue of $80.5 billion, crediting growth in cloud […]
Bill to ban TikTok in US clears Congress
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2024 (AFP) – The US Senate on Tuesday approved legislation requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be shut out of the American market. The measure was part of a $95 billion foreign aid package, including military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which has now cleared Congress and heads to President Joe Biden’s desk. US and other Western officials have […]
Musk says X will appeal Australia injunction on church stabbing videos
SYDNEY, April 23, 2024 (AFP) – Elon Musk said Tuesday his social media platform X will appeal against an Australian injunction forcing it to take down videos of a church stabbing in Sydney. Australia’s internet watchdog secured an injunction late Monday, forcing X to hide videos that allegedly show a Sydney bishop being slashed in the head during a live-streamed sermon. X ignored earlier Australian pleas to remove the images, and Musk had said the […]
China unveils new cyber force to ‘fight and win’ wars
BEIJING, April 19, 2024 (AFP) – China announced the creation of a new military cyber corps on Friday, saying it would bolster Beijing’s capacity to “fight and win” wars. The Information Support Force will act as a “key support for coordinated development and application of network information systems”, defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. China has ploughed billions of dollars into modernising its armed forces in recent years as tensions with the United States and […]
Apple drops WhatsApp, Threads from China app store on official order: report
BEIJING, April 19, 2024 (AFP) – Apple has removed the Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China following an order from the country’s top internet regulator, Bloomberg reported Friday citing the tech giant. Beijing engages in some of the world’s most extensive internet censorship, with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to many foreign apps without using a virtual private network. “We are obligated to follow the […]
Meta releases beefed-up AI models
Meta on Thursday introduced an improved AI assistant built on new versions of its open source Llama large language model for powering the technology. Meta AI is smarter and faster due to advances in publicly available Llama 3, the tech titan said in a blog post. “The bottom line is we believe Meta AI is now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use,” Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in […]
Astronomers discover largest black hole in Milky Way: study
By Juliette COLLEN PARIS, April 16, 2024 (AFP) – Astronomers identified the largest stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way, with a mass 33 times that of the Sun, according to a study published on Tuesday. The black hole, named Gaia BH3, was discovered “by chance” from data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, an astronomer from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Observatoire de Paris, Pasquale Panuzzo, […]
Microsoft to invest $1.5bn in AI firm in UAE, take board seat
DUBAI, April 16, 2024 (AFP) – Microsoft is to invest $1.5 billion in United Arab Emirates artificial intelligence firm G42, taking a minority stake and a seat on the board, the companies said on Tuesday. The deal, in which G42 will run its applications and services on Microsoft’s Azure platform, comes days after the US giant said it would plough $2.9 billion into Japanese AI. Microsoft has become a major player in the advancement of […]
NASA seeks faster, cheaper way to bring Mars rocks to Earth
NASA said Monday it was looking for ways to bring Martian rocks collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth earlier and at a lower cost than planned after facing criticism for going massively over budget. The effort comes as China is making progress towards a simpler “grab-and-go” sample return mission to the red planet “around 2030,” according to state media, which would make it the first nation to achieve the feat. “The bottom line […]