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By Matthieu DEMEESTERE BRUSSELS, Dec 18, 2023 (AFP) – Belgium launched one of the biggest drug trafficking trials in its history, with more than 120 defendants in the dock, thanks in large part to investigators cracking encrypted messaging apps. Suspects from Belgium, Albania, Colombia and North Africa accused of involvement in a vast criminal operation face justice at the hearings in a high-security courtroom in the former headquarters of military alliance NATO in Brussels. “Your […]
NEW YORK, May 14, 2023 (AFP) – As people brace for the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and everyday living, those in the world of audio books say their field is already being transformed. AI has the ability to create human-sounding recordings — at assembly-line speed — while bypassing at least part of the services of the human professionals who for years have made a living with their voices. Many of them are […]
SAN FRANCISCO, May 13, 2023 (AFP) – A former US-based executive of ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has sued it for wrongful dismissal, saying he was fired for sounding the alarm over what he called its “culture of lawlessness.” The suit, filed by Yintao Yu in a San Francisco court, comes as political pressure has been growing in the US to ban TikTok. Critics say the popular platform allows Beijing to covertly collect […]
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify in March to US lawmakers in Washington where the Chinese social media app faces accusations that it is beholden to the Communist Party in Beijing. TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, is fighting for its survival in the United States with rising calls from mainly Republican lawmakers that the company should be outright banned for its links to Beijing. Chew will give testimony before the House Energy […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — San Francisco police faced an unprecedented problem recently when an officer stopped a car that was driving at night with no headlights on, only to discover there was no one inside. The vehicle, it turned out, was a self-driving car, and the police officer’s encounter was captured on film by a passerby, who posted the footage on social media. The clip, showing bemused officers circling the vehicle and peering […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Tuesday launched the final satellite in its homegrown geolocation system designed to rival the US GPS network, marking a major step in its race for market share in the lucrative sector. Footage from state broadcaster CCTV of the launch in southwestern Sichuan province showed the rocket blast off against a backdrop of lush mountains as a small group of onlookers filmed on their phones. The launch of the Beidou-3GEO3 […]
by Andrea Palasciano MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Working in secrecy for a year, the Telegram messaging service has a plan: to beat Facebook in the race to launch a cryptocurrency with its new project “Gram”. Little is known about Gram, but media reports say Russian-founded Telegram aims to create an accessible service that is easier to use than various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin — still confined to a relatively small market. In a document leaked […]
by Daniel SILVA Agence France-Presse BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Handset makers are racing to launch their first smartphones with folding screens but analysts warn the technology is still too rudimentary — and expensive — to woo consumers in large numbers for now. Samsung, the world’s biggest seller of smartphones, unveiled a handset that folds open like a book to be a tablet at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday, becoming the first major manufacturer […]
by Daniel Silva and Julie Jammot Agence France Presse LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — The inventor of the World Wide Web on Monday (Nov. 5) called for a “contract” to make internet safe and accessible for everyone as Europe’s largest tech event began in Lisbon amid a backlash over its role in spreading “fake news”. Some 70,000 people are expected to take part in the four-day Web Summit, dubbed “the Davos for geeks”, including […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP)–Over 7,000 New York City car-for-hire license applications were filed between the announcement of a one-year cap on new licenses — a blow to the likes of Uber and Lyft — and the measure coming into force, the city regulator said Thursday. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the bill into effect Tuesday, a first in the United States after a city council vote earlier this month. It stipulates a […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — US chipmaking giant Qualcomm on Friday agreed a sharply reduced fine with Taiwan after officials said it had harmed market competition and manipulated prices, as it faces a number of probes worldwide. Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission last year fined the firm Tw$23.4 billion ($763 million) saying the world’s biggest handset chip supplier had violated fair trade rules for at least seven years. The authorities found that Qualcomm had refused to offer […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Technology won’t always save us. A man blindly following his GPS app has driven an SUV with two passengers on board into an icy lake in the northeastern state of Vermont, local police said. The trio — friends from out of state driving a borrowed car — escaped unharmed, local media and police in the city of Burlington said in their report of the January 12 incident. The unnamed driver […]
