
AFP
13876 articles published since 08 Mar 2022
13876 articles published since 08 Mar 2022
Turkey's central bank hiked its key interest rate on Thursday, resuming its tightening cycle as one of the world's highest inflation rates rose again last month. The central bank said Thursday that its "monetary policy stance will be tightened in case a significant and persistent deterioration in inflation is foreseen".
The Swiss National Bank cut interest rates on Thursday -- the first to do so among the major central banks, saying the battle against inflation was working almost two years after launching its monetary tightening campaign. And the Norwegian central bank on Thursday kept its key interest rate unchanged at 4.5 percent but signalled it could start cutting later this year.
As the sun sets over the Bosphorus, a long queue forms on a street in Istanbul as people wait for iftar -- the evening meal that breaks Ramadan's daily fast. - Fraternity in hard times - One hour before iftar, several hundred worshippers wait impatiently before the tent where the meals will be served after sunset.
Outside the warehouse in northwestern Spain, it's a freezing, foggy morning but inside it's balmy, the warmth and LED lights fooling 360 hop plants to flower as if it were late August. "In this warehouse, we control all the environmental and nutrient parameters and the lighting factors, using LED lights to provide the plant what it needs when it needs it," said Sagrario.
Artificial intelligence tools may pose a threat to writers of thrillers and science fiction, but lack the originality and humour to challenge serious novelists, Salman Rushdie wrote in a French journal published Thursday.
Promoting nuclear power was long taboo in Brussels, but a high-profile international summit Thursday will send loud and clear the message that atomic energy -- now touted by its champions as key to fighting climate change -- is back.
Neuralink on Wednesday streamed a video of its first human patient playing computer chess with his mind and talking about the brain implant making that possible. Musk is hardly alone in trying to make advances in the field, which is officially known as brain-machine or brain-computer interface research. gc/bfm
The Bank of England is widely expected to keep its main interest rate at a 16-year high Thursday, rejecting a cut as inflation remains well above target despite recent slowing. Britain entered recession in the second half of last year but with inflation remaining well above the BoE's two-percent target, the central bank is widely expected to freeze interest rates for a few months longer.
The UN General Assembly will turn its attention to artificial intelligence on Thursday, weighing a resolution that lays out the potentially transformational technology's pros and cons while calling for the establishment of international standards.
AFP
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