Category Archives: World News

US tech stocks partly recover after Trump says DeepSeek AI chatbot is ‘wake-up call’

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Tentative rise comes after emergence of cheaper Chinese rival wiped $1tn off the value of leading US tech companies

US tech stocks tentatively recovered on Tuesday after Donald Trump described the launch of a chatbot by China’s DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence.

The emergence of DeepSeek, which has built its R1 model chatbot at a fraction of the cost of competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, wiped $1tn (£800bn) in value from the leading US tech index on Monday.

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Giorgia Meloni says she is under investigation for repatriation of Libyan warlord

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Rome prosecutor launches investigation into controversial release of Osama Najim, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes

Giorgia Meloni has said she is under investigation in connection with Italy’s unexpected release and repatriation last week of a Libyan general who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court.

The Italian prime minister said in a video message posted on social media that she is suspected of aiding and abetting a crime and embezzlement in connection with the case of Libya’s chief of judicial police, Osama Najim – also called Almasri.

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Doomsday Clock set closer to midnight than ever to stress global catastrophe risks

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Atomic scientists push clock to 89 seconds before midnight, citing nuclear risk, AI and climate crisis as a ‘warning’

A panel of international scientists has moved their symbolic “Doomsday Clock” closer to midnight than ever before, citing Russian nuclear threats amid its invasion of Ukraine, tensions in other world hotspots, military applications of artificial intelligence and the climate crisis as factors underlying the risks of global catastrophe.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock to 89 seconds before midnight – the theoretical point of annihilation. That is one second closer than it was set last year. The Chicago-based non-profit created the clock in 1947 during the cold war tensions that followed the second world war to warn the public about how close humankind was to destroying the world.

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AI-linked stocks make modest gains after DeepSeek rout; Boeing posts its second-biggest annual loss on record – business live

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Donald Trump says China’s DeepSeek is a ‘wake-up call’ for American AI firms

Donald Trump has suggested that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.

When asked if Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, the US president said “I would say yes”, adding “A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”

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Mexicans make Emilia Pérez parody poking fun at French stereotypes

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Spoof fires back at supposed inauthenticity of Oscar-tipped screen musical with a song-and-dance tale of boulangeries at war

The war of words between Mexico and France over trans gangster musical Emilia Pérez has heated up even more after the release of a spoof film called Johanne Sacreblu poking fun at French stereotypes.

Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard and which is up for the best picture Oscar along with a best actress nomination for its star Karla Sofia Gascón, is the story of a cartel boss who hires a lawyer (played by Zoe Saldana) to enable a gender transition, and has attracted much criticism in Mexico, where it is supposedly set.

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Trump repeats suggestion Palestinians should leave Gaza for Egypt and Jordan

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US president insists leaders of both countries would agree to move that could be ‘temporary or long-term’

Donald Trump has repeated his suggestion that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza for Egypt or Jordan, despite widespread opposition to the proposal from Palestinian leadership, the UN and US allies in the region.

Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One on Monday night, the US president was asked about his comments over the weekend about “cleaning out” the Gaza Strip either “temporarily or long-term”. Trump reiterated he would “like to get [Palestinians from Gaza] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much”.

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Trump will not be ‘meteor’ blow to Irish economy, says employers’ group

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Businesses should avoid panic amid fears US will attempt to repatriate jobs and taxes, says Danny McCoy

Donald Trump will not be a knockout “meteor” to Ireland’s economy despite its heavy reliance on US multinationals, the head of the country’s business trade organisation has said.

While the US president told world leaders gathered at Davos last week that “Europe treats us very, very unfairly” there is a heightened sense of nervousness in Ireland that this could translate to an attempt to repatriate jobs and taxes from the 950 US companies there.

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Fears for ‘security of Jews worldwide’ in wake of Elon Musk AfD speech

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Top US Jewish advocate Halie Soifer calls Trump adviser’s address to far-right Germany rally ‘incredibly dangerous’

Elon Musk’s remarks to a German far-right party that Germans should not focus on their country’s Nazi past should prompt “deep concern” about “the security of American Jews” and “of Jews worldwide”, a leading US Jewish advocate has told the Guardian.

“Speaking as a deeply concerned American Jew,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), “I am deeply concerned about the security of American Jews, of Jews worldwide, given our president’s clear alignment with dangerous rightwing extremists.”

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ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants over atrocities in Darfur

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Karim Khan says civilians being targeted and communities destroyed in western region of Sudan

The prosecutor for the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for people accused of atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the US and others have determined that a paramilitary group and its allies have perpetrated genocide.

Karim Khan told the UN security council in New York: “Criminality is accelerating in Darfur. Civilians are being targeted, women and girls are subjected to sexual violence, and entire communities are left in destruction.

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Google Maps will rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America in US

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Tech firm to make change in line with Trump’s executive order, using both names in world outside US and Mexico

Google has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US, after an executive order from Donald Trump.

It will remain the Gulf of Mexico in Mexico, while users outside of the US and Mexico will see both names on Google Maps. The Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, will also be changed to Mount McKinley in the US in line with Trump’s executive order on 20 January.

Reuters contributed to this report

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We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan

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The AI app soared up the Apple charts and rocked US stocks, but the Chinese chatbot was reluctant to discuss sensitive questions about China and its government

The launch of a new chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek triggered a plunge in US tech stocks as it appeared to perform as well as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI models, but using fewer resources.

By Monday, DeepSeek’s AI assistant had rapidly overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular free app in Apple’s US and UK app stores. Despite its popularity with international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government.

What happened on June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square?

What happened to Hu Jintao in 2022?

Why is Xi Jinping compared to Winnie-the-Pooh?

What was the Umbrella Revolution?

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France seeks UN resolution naming Rwanda as backer of M23 rebels in DRC

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M23’s lightning advance into east DRC being supported by up to 4,000 Rwandan troops, say UN officials

France is seeking western support for a UN security council resolution that names Rwanda as being behind the M23 rebel group attacks inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the surprise weekend seizure of parts of Goma, the largest city in eastern DRC.

UN officials said as many as 4,000 Rwandan troops were escorting the M23 rebels. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Sunday called on “the Rwandan defence forces to stop supporting the M23 and to withdraw from the territory of the DRC”. It was his clearest statement of Rwandan responsibility for much of the violence.

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One of Europe’s most-wanted drug traffickers living in Sierra Leone, say Dutch prosecutors

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Jos Leijdekkers, reportedly the son-in-law of African country’s president, was sentenced to 24 years in prison

One of Europe’s most wanted men, the Dutch crime boss Jos Leijdekkers, is hiding out in Sierra Leone, Dutch prosecutors have said.

The statement came after Dutch media published footage that appeared to show the violent drug trafficker at a New Year’s Day church service seated close to Sierra Leone’s presidential family. Sierra Leone’s information office said it was investigating reports that he was benefiting from high-level protection.

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Swedish national security adviser quits after mislaying classified documents

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Henrik Landerholm left behind documents at a hotel, a phone at an embassy and a notebook after a radio interview

Sweden’s national security adviser has announced his resignation as police opened an investigation after he inadvertently left classified documents at a hotel, one of a series of mishaps that Swedish media have revealed in recent weeks.

Henrik Landerholm, whose appointment two years ago sparked debate due to his longstanding friendship with the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, also left a notebook behind after an interview and left his phone at the Hungarian embassy, incidents particularly embarrassing given his sensitive national security role.

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Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more Europeans by 2100, study finds

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Net increase of 80,000 deaths a year projected in hottest scenario, with milder winters failing to redress balance

Dangerous temperatures could kill 50% more people in Europe by the end of the century, a study has found, with the lives lost to stronger heat projected to outnumber those saved from milder cold.

The researchers estimated an extra 8,000 people would die each year as a result of “suboptimal temperatures” even under the most optimistic scenario for cutting planet-heating pollution. The hottest plausible scenario they considered showed a net increase of 80,000 temperature-related deaths a year.

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Donald Trump’s toxic remarks on Gaza reveal lack of joined-up thinking

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US president has already caused trouble abroad and at home with incoherent ideas about Middle East politics

The suggestion by the US president, Donald Trump, that Gaza’s Palestinian population could be “cleaned out” and moved to Egypt and Jordan is an idea that has long been circulated by the Israeli right.

Over the decades since the Six Day war in 1967, when Israeli forces first captured the Gaza Strip, which had been under Egyptian military rule, Israeli officials and commentators have periodically pushed the notion that Palestinians in Gaza could be resettled in Egypt.

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Tesla takes EU to court over tariffs on EVs made in China

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Elon Musk’s company still imports large number of cars into Europe from its Shanghai factory

Tesla has filed a complaint against the European Commission after the imposition of tariffs by the bloc on its Chinese-made electric vehicles.

The EU announced its decision to impose tariffs on all imports of Chinese electric cars in June, alleging that the Chinese government had provided unfair state subsidies to manufacturers in order to win a dominant position in the emerging industry. EU leaders approved the tariffs in October.

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No 10 accused of trying not to upset French by renaming HMS Agincourt

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Decision to change name of new submarine to HMS Achilles is ‘craven political correctness’, says ex-navy officer

Downing Street has defended the government’s decision to change the name of a new attack submarine from HMS Agincourt to HMS Achilles, after critics accused ministers of trying not to upset the French.

A No 10 spokesperson called the decision to change the planned name of the vessel “appropriate and fitting”, despite criticism that ministers were being “craven”. Officials say the name Achilles had been chosen in part to pay tribute to an earlier ship of the same name.

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Ancient British coins found in Dutch field likely to be spoils of Roman conquest

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Archaeologists hail discovery of very rare hoard featuring 44 gold coins bearing name of Celtic king Cunobelinus

A hoard of British coins bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin and found in a Dutch field have been identified as very likely to be the spoils of war of a Roman soldier from the conquest of Britain.

The 44 gold coins, known as staters, were discovered alongside 360 Roman coins, by two amateur archaeologists with metal detectors in a field in Bunnik, near Utrecht. The coins are believed to have been given as military pay.

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Refugee’s justice hopes ‘crushed’ after Italy releases Libya war crimes suspect

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David Yambio says Rome ‘has blood on its hands’ after freeing police chief he alleges beat him in Tripoli prison

A man who says he experienced abuses at a notorious prison in Tripoli at the hands of the head of Libya’s judicial police, Osama Najim, has said Italy has “crushed” his hopes for justice by releasing the war crimes suspect despite an international criminal court arrest warrant.

David Yambio was held at Mitiga prison in Tripoli after several attempts to cross the Mediterranean in search of refuge in Europe were thwarted by Libya’s coastguard as part of a controversial pact with Italy.

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