AFP
13876 articles published since 08 Mar 2022
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High-rises sweep Sao Paulo, but boom casts shadows
Worried by the surge of skyscrapers fast replacing the houses and historic buildings in her Sao Paulo neighborhood, Rosanne Brancatelli put up a sign on her street: "Don't take away our sun." "Sao Paulo's most iconic samba venue," as she calls it, has already seen all the houses around it give way to tall buildings.
Taylor Swift takes on Hollywood
She already rules music, so now it's on to Tinseltown: Taylor Swift's concert documentary is poised to dominate the fall movie season, challenging the hegemony of film studios and consecrating her business empire.
Tire maker honored for tackling electric car pollution
Electric cars are widely hailed as the future of transport, but even though they eliminate the issue of fuel emissions from tailpipes, the problem of particle pollution as a result of tire wear hasn't been resolved.
Google AI tool predicts danger of genetic mutations
Researchers at Google DeepMind, the tech giant's artificial intelligence arm, on Tuesday introduced a tool that predicts whether genetic mutations are likely to cause harm, a breakthrough that could help research into rare diseases. The Google DeepMind tool, called AlphaMissense, reviewed these mutations and was able to predict 89 percent of them, with 90 percent accuracy.
US government at rising risk of shutdown with Congress in deadlock
The United States is less than two weeks away from a potential government shutdown, with the stakes increasing as lawmakers struggle to agree on a short-term spending bill. In June, the United States narrowly avoided a possible debt default, as US senators voted to suspend the federal debt limit after weeks of fraught negotiations.
Google's AI chatbot goes personal tapping into Gmail
Google on Tuesday said it had integrated Gmail, YouTube and other tools into its Bard chatbot as the tech giants seek to persuade users that generative AI is useful and not dangerous or just a fad. Any scraping of personal content from Google's workplace tools -- such as Docs, Drive or Gmail -- would not be used to target ads, train Bard, or be seen by human reviewers, it said.
Efforts to clean up power sector too slow: watchdog
Many of the most polluting countries are failing to cut carbon emissions from their energy sectors quickly enough to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a watchdog said on Tuesday. Slashing greenhouse gas emissions from the highly polluting power generation sector is vital to meet the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
US Fed starts interest rate meeting as traders predict a pause
The Federal Reserve began two days of interest rate deliberations Tuesday amid widespread expectation that it will pause rate hikes as it attempts to fight inflation without sinking the US economy.
UK says no evidence of political bank account closures
Britain on Tuesday said it found no evidence of "political" bank account closures, according to a review launched after the controversial withdrawal of facilities for Nigel Farage, angering the arch Brexiteer.
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