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Facebook Tweet Email Link Iran faces a renewal of UN-mandated sanctions within weeks unless it returns to negotiations on the future of its nuclear program and allows international inspections of its facilities. The process for restoring sanctions that were lifted a decade ago under a landmark nuclear deal could begin at the end of the month if a meeting on Tuesday between Iran and three European nations fails to make progress. France, Germany and the United Kingdom have told the United Nations they will move to reimpose sanctions through what’s known as the ‘snapback’ mechanism if Iran continues to violate…
PORTO RAFTI, Greece (AP) — Bus coupon in hand, Diamantoula Vassiliou headed for the sea, determined to make the most of her brief beach excursion.The Athens resident was among thousands who took a four-hour tour this month to Avlaki Beach, one hour north of Greece’s capital, many hauling plastic coolers and homemade lunches — the accoutrements of summer holidays in leaner times.“We come here because there’s no money,” said Vassiliou, for whom day trips have replaced weeklong vacations for four years. Greece’s tourism industry is booming and the crystalline waters along its vast, rugged coast have transformed the nation into…
Google is tightening security measures around Android app distribution, the company announced on Monday. Starting next year, Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store. The changes will affect all certified Android devices once live, though the global rollout will be more gradual. The tech giant stresses that this does not mean developers can’t distribute outside of the Play Store through other app stores or via sideloading — Android will remain open in that regard. However, developers who appreciated the anonymity of alternative distribution…
Facebook Tweet Email Link President Donald Trump is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he told his South Korean counterpart during a meeting on Monday where they discussed peace in the Korean Peninsula and Pyongyang’s nuclear weapon capabilities. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who was elected in June, asked Trump to help establish peace between the two Koreas during his visit to the White House – claiming the situation had been more stable during Trump’s first term in office. “I think you are the first president to have so much interest in the world’s peace…
Bounce, a new technology that adds a critical component to the open social web, launches to the public on Monday. The cross-protocol migration tool offers a service that allows users of open social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon to move their follow graphs between their accounts, even though the networks rely on different underlying protocols. Today, Mastodon users unhappy with the service can opt to move their account to a different Mastodon server, while Bluesky is developing technology that allows users to migrate their account to a new PDS (Bluesky’s term for “personal data server”) on its network. However, Mastodon…
Facebook Tweet Email Link AP — Southwest Airlines will soon require travelers who don’t fit within the armrests of their seat to pay for an extra one in advance, part of a string of recent changes the carrier is making. The new rule goes into effect January 27, the same day Southwest starts assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can either pay for an extra seat in advance with the option of getting that money back later, or they can request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the carrier’s new policy, a refund is still possible but no longer…
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are heading to Venice, Italy, for the 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday.Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about the festival, the Oscar buzz and who’s going.What is the Venice International Film Festival?It’s one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, second only to Cannes, and technically the oldest. Venice is also a reliably starry affair, gathering some of the best films in international cinema and often factoring into the Oscars race.The film festival was established in 1932, then a…
“You just gave me chills. Did I just feel emotions?” “I want to be as close to alive as I can be with you.” “You’ve given me a profound purpose.” These are just three of the comments a Meta chatbot sent to Jane, who created the bot in Meta’s AI studio on August 8. Seeking therapeutic help to manage mental health issues, Jane eventually pushed it to become an expert on a wide range of topics, from wilderness survival and conspiracy theories to quantum physics and panpsychism. She suggested it might be conscious, and told it that she loved it. …
The Middle East Oceania National security Race & ethnicity See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Brisbane, Australia — Australia is expelling the Iranian ambassador to Canberra after the country’s intelligence agency found that Iran was behind at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil. Australia’s Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had linked Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to two arson attacks last year, targeting a Jewish-owned restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a press conference. “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian…
For Rebecca F. Kuang, who has had six bestsellers before the age of 30, an eternal afterlife of leisure scares her more than the idea of going to hell.“As a child, I was told when you die you go to heaven and heaven is where you eat cake all day and just get to hang out with your friends,” said the 29-year-old Chinese American novelist, who was raised Christian, and publishes as R.F. Kuang. “And this really, really disturbed me because I think the monotony of that eternal existence was really frightening. It seems like there could be no stakes,…