Author: AFP

Iran has ordered schools and public buildings in a third of the country’s provinces, including Tehran, to close on Saturday, as several power plants remain shut down by fuel shortages. Despite Iran’s huge oil and gas reserves, the country hit by years of international sanctions has been forced to ration electricity in recent months as sub-zero temperatures have prompted a surge in demand that its ageing power stations have been unable to meet. The closures ordered on Friday include the capital Tehran as well as the Shiite Muslim shrine city of Qom, Kurdistan in the west and Mazandaran and Ardabil…

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday that he had called for a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria for six months or one year. However, Tajani added during a press briefing in Lebanon that “lifting sanctions is not a national decision, they are a European bloc decision”.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told visiting Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday that he was ready to stem “illegal immigration” to Europe, the European diplomat said. “Sharaa says he is ready to block illegal immigration, (and) fight against drug traffickers,” Tajani said in the Lebanese capital, the second leg of his trip, adding these were “two crucial commitments for Italy”.

Internet giant Meta’s fact-checking programme aims to counter false information on its social platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Threads — with the help of media organisations, including AFP. Here is a guide to how it works, following Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement on January 6 that he was halting the programme in the United States. – Who does fact-checking? – Meta has since 2016 tasked journalists with assessing false information on its platforms under its “third-party fact-checking” programme — which currently has 80 media organisations working on it. In the United States, for example, Meta has 10 media partners for…

The Israeli military said Friday that an internal inquiry found it likely that it killed two kibbutz residents as it fought Hamas fighters during their October 7, 2023 attack. The inquiry, which heard testimonies from soldiers and civilians, sought to establish the cause of death for Tomer Eliaz-Arava and his mother Dikla Arava, two residents of kibbutz Nahal Oz, one of the communities worst hit by the attack. The army said that according to the inquiry team’s assessment, 17-year-old Eliaz-Arava had first been abducted by Hamas militants and forced to go door to door to persuade residents to come outside.…

Iranian state TV on Friday showed the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps touring an underground missile base used in an attack against Israel, hours after fighters marched through Tehran. The footage of the missile base at an undisclosed location “in the mountains” and the parade by paramilitary Basij volunteers come after the weakening of Iran’s allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during wars with Israel. They also come days before US President-elect Donald Trump is due to take office. During his first term, he oversaw the killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani in…

Today’s robots perform safety checks at industrial plants, conduct quality control in manufacturing, and are even starting to keep hospital patients company. But soon — perhaps very soon — these increasingly humanlike machines will handle more sophisticated tasks, freeing up people while raising complex questions about the roles of artificial intelligence that are gaining attention. At a panel hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), experts described the next five years as a period where robots transition primarily from industrial sites to service settings, helping to address a worsening health care labor…

Today’s robots perform safety checks at industrial plants, conduct quality control in manufacturing, and are even starting to keep hospital patients company. But soon — perhaps very soon — these increasingly humanlike machines will handle more sophisticated tasks, freeing up people while raising complex questions about the roles of artificial intelligence that are gaining attention. At a panel hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), experts described the next five years as a period where robots transition primarily from industrial sites to service settings, helping to address a worsening health care labor…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend a defence meeting of Kyiv’s allies in Germany on Thursday, he said in a video address. “Tomorrow I will attend a meeting in the Ramstein format, and I am also planning talks with partners at the level of defence ministers and military commanders,” Zelensky said Wednesday in the video posted online. He was referring to a meeting of Ukraine’s backers, hosted by the United States at the Ramstein air base in Germany.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday vowed an “all-out battle against corruption” as top leaders convened in Beijing for an annual planning session of the country’s top disciplinary agency. “We must always maintain our tenacity and perseverance… and resolutely fight the tough, protracted and all-out battle against corruption,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The Chinese leader has overseen a wide-ranging campaign against official corruption since coming to power just over a decade ago. Proponents say the policy promotes clean governance, but others say it also serves as a means for Xi to purge political rivals. In November, the…