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☆ Microsoft attracting users to its code-writing, generative AI software
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Early evidence is in usage of a little-discussed tool that can write computer code for programmers, called GitHub Copilot. Opened up to the public in June of last year, the tool drew 400,000 subscribers within a month. On Tuesday, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said that more than 1 million people had used Copilot to date. Copilot itself relies on OpenAI's tech, as does a chatbot sensation that Open AI released last year known as ChatGPT. Microsoft has said it will make ChatGPT, which can draft code as well as essays or poetry, available via its cloud.

At stake is whether EU vessels have the right to catch snow crab, whose meat is considered a delicacy by gourmets in Japan and South Korea, in the same way than Norwegian vessels do. "If the Supreme Court thinks the Svalbard treaty applies, it is not only about snow crab, it will be about oil, gas, minerals and fish," he told Reuters. In a sign of the importance the case has for Norway, 16 Supreme Court judges were present on Tuesday to hear arguments during the four-day session. "The key question here is the Svalbard Treaty and the surrounding areas," Hallvard Oestgaard, representing the Latvian fishing firm, told the court in his opening statement. In 2019 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that EU fishermen must ask permission from Oslo to catch snow crab, after the same Latvian fisheries company had tried to fish off Svalbard with only an EU licence.

☆ How Scripps News, the streaming and broadcast network formerly known as Newsy, is pivoting to anti-partisan, 'fact-based' reporting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Streaming and broadcast news network Newsy has been rebranded as Scripps News. The network formerly known as Newsy has a presence on TV stations owned by Scripps and its ION Media stations and is accessible via free over-the-air digital antenna and several streaming platforms — including Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV. The company, which pulled Newsy from cable packages in 2021, boasts that Scripps News offers the only free 24/7 national news broadcast. Scripps News is also absorbing scores of executives from a national desk that fed the company's 61 local stations. Its local stations pulled in $208 million in ad revenue thanks to the midterm elections.

☆ Microsoft says it will roll out ChatGPT on its own AI service after reports it will invest $10 billion into OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The tech giant plans to make the chatbot available through its Azure OpenAI service. Azure OpenAI is now generally available as part of an expansion of Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft's corporate vice president for AI platforms Eric Boyd wrote. Azure OpenAI is a service through which language tools like GPT-3 and Codex can be used and adapted to specific tasks. ChatGPT — which has been trialed on Azure AI infrastructure — will be available through Azure OpenAI soon, the post said. Microsoft highlighted that companies like KPMG, Al Jazeera, and Moveworks are already using its Azure OpenAI service.

☆ Microsoft to expand ChatGPT access as OpenAI investment rumors swirl
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Monday said it is widening access to hugely popular software from OpenAI, a startup it is backing whose futuristic ChatGPT chatbot has captivated Silicon Valley. The news site Semafor reported earlier this month that Microsoft might invest $10 billion; Microsoft declined to comment on any potential deal. Public interest in OpenAI surged following its November release of ChatGPT, a text-based chatbot that can draft prose, poetry or even computer code on command. ChatGPT itself, not just its underlying tech, will soon be available via Microsoft's cloud, it said in a blog post. Microsoft said CarMax, KPMG and others were using its Azure OpenAI service.

☆ Zelenskyy aide resigns after suggesting Ukraine air defense caused a Russian missile to hit an apartment building, killing 44
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Ukrainian official resigned after suggesting Russia did not target a Dnipro apartment block with a missile. Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukraine shot down the Russian missile that hit the block, killing 44. There was an international outcry after a massive Russian KH-22 missile slammed into the residential block on Saturday. Russian missiles have repeatedly struck residential buildings throughout the war. Contrary to Arestovych's statement, Ukraine's air force said that the country doesn't have the capability to shoot down the type of missile Russia used on Saturday, which has been dubbed an "aircraft carrier killer."

[1/4] Portraits of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including of Henry Kissinger, are seen in the meeting room where the Norwegian Nobel Committee holds its meetings at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, January 3, 2023. Nominations to the Peace Prize remain secret for 50 years. Le Duc Tho refused the Peace Prize on the grounds peace had not yet been established. Two out of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee - all now dead - resigned in protest. "The prize was given to Kissinger for having gotten the U.S. out of Vietnam ... without any peaceful solution in South Vietnam," he said.

☆ 30,000 jobseekers almost filled Pakistan's biggest stadium as its capital's police force tried to hire 1,600 new officers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Over 30,000 people attended a recruitment event for a Pakistani police force hiring around 1,600 new staff. So many people applied for jobs with the Islamabad police that they two-thirds filled the country's biggest stadium. Nearly a third of Pakistani's aged 15 to 29 are unemployed, 2022 data showed. There were so many applicants that they took up almost two-thirds of Pakistan's biggest stadium, the 48,000 capacity Jinnah Sports Stadium, which is usually used for soccer matches. Candidates who clear the written application will next be given physical tests, the police force said.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

☆ No more Newsy: The streaming and broadcast network rebrands as Scripps News under Warren Buffett-backed E.W. Scripps
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Streaming and broadcast news network Newsy is being scrapped and rebranded as Scripps News. Parent company E.W. Bellini is a San Francisco-based reporter for Newsy, the 14-year-old streaming news platform owned by E.W. Scripps News is also absorbing scores of executives from a national desk that fed the company's 61 local stations. Its local stations pulled in $208 million in ad revenue thanks to the midterm elections.

☆ The man behind Trump World’s myth of rigged voting machines
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +32 min

He publicly announced his purchase of Montgomery’s data in August at a gathering in Missouri of hundreds of his followers. “I own it,” Lindell said of Montgomery’s data, touting it as irrefutable proof Trump was cheated. On Nov. 9, far-right podcaster Joe Oltmann linked Montgomery’s Hammer and Scorecard claims to a parallel conspiracy theory: that widely used voting machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems were rigged to flip votes from Trump to Biden. Powell amended her complaint a few days later and dropped the expert’s declaration and the references to Montgomery’s claims. But the government said in a recent court filing that the order has nothing to do with election data.

☆ Morocco vs. France World Cup 2022 game highlights globalization
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Tony Karon | Tony Karon Is The Editorial Lead Of Al Jazeera'S Aj | Channel. Also An Associate Professor At The New School In New York | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The iconic image of the 2022 World Cup may well be Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal dancing with his mum after his team’s brilliant upset victory over Portugal in the quarterfinals. Boufal and his mother — like the majority of Morocco’s players and coaches — live in European cities, part of that continent’s vast marginalized and embattled migrant underclass. Morocco’s prowess as the first African team to make the semifinals of the World Cup brings us ever closer to fulfilling soccer icon Pelé’s prophecy. Indeed, this was the first World Cup in which all five African teams were coached by African coaches, rather than by European journeymen. The team's strategy suggests its coach has rewritten the playbook that long recommended African teams play pessimistic defensive football, hoping for a lucky break.

☆ The Taliban has reintroduced public floggings and executions in Afghanistan, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Taliban have reintroduced public floggings and executions in Afghanistan under sharia law. On Wednesday, the Taliban performed the first public execution since seizing Kabul in August 2021. Girls attend class at a secret school on August 14, 2022 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Nava Jamshidi/Getty ImagesAn Afghan woman spoke to Al Jazeera about her experience living under the Taliban regime and her fear of public floggings or execution. Sadaf told Al Jazeera she was sentenced to a public flogging and whipped around 30 times until she passed out.

SummarySummary Companies Ukraine, Russia, Belarus rights campaigners won awardPrize highlight importance of civil society for peaceByalyatski in jail, wife speaks for him at ceremonyOSLO, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Russia wants to turn Ukraine into a "dependent dictatorship" like Belarus, the wife of jailed Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski said on Saturday upon receiving the prize on his behalf, speaking his words. "It highlights the dramatic situation and struggle for human rights in the country," she said, adding she was speaking her husband's words. Pinchuk has met her husband once since he was named a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in prison, behind a glass wall, she told a news conference on Friday. "I know exactly what kind of Ukraine would suit Russia and Putin — a dependent dictatorship. Belarus and Russia are formally part of a "union state" and are closely allied economically and militarily.

“No one will investigate IDF soldiers and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera,” Lapid said. The ICC confirmed Tuesday that it had received a submission from Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera said Tuesday: “The claim by the Israeli authorities that Shireen was killed by mistake in an exchange of fire is completely unfounded. The evidence shows that this deliberate killing was part of a wider campaign to target and silence Al Jazeera,” the network added. Abu Akleh’s family also submitted an official complaint to the ICC earlier this year to demand justice for her death, Al Jazeera reported.

☆ Twitter's clumsy handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story spurred enough bipartisan criticism to risk the existence of the internet as we know it
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Twitter's decision to throttle stories about Hunter Biden's laptop prompted bipartisan criticism. Some lawmakers have since called to repeal Section 230, a law "that created the internet." The criticism has since intensified a movement to repeal Section 230, which could change the Internet forever. Much of Taibbi's thread focused on Twitter's handling of the New York Post's October 2020 story about Hunter Biden's laptop, which the Post reported was left in a Delaware repair shop. Representatives for Khanna did not answer questions about the congressman's current position on whether or not to repeal Section 230.

Formal organizations like the Oath Keepers no longer define the American right-wing landscape. If Biden’s election was illegitimate, the Oath Keepers were ready to defend Trump’s legitimate one. And indeed, the trial has revealed the brazenness of the Oath Keepers, as well as some profound shifts happening in the American right. The evidence of a seditious conspiracy introduced in the Oath Keepers’ trial was damning, yet obvious. While certainly more polished, some of Masters’ talking points would not be out of place at an Oath Keepers meeting.

☆ Fact Check-Fabricated Charlie Hebdo magazine cover shows Ukrainian fans defacing World Cup posters with Nazi symbols
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Social media users have circulated a fabricated image that looks like the cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which appears to show a cartoon of Ukrainian soccer fans defacing a World Cup poster with Nazi symbols. A screenshot of the image shows what appears to be a Charlie Hebdo magazine cover with a cartoon of two soccer fans wearing Ukraine soccer team t-shirts defacing a World Cup poster with a Nazi slogan. The fabricated Charlie Hebdo cover circulated online after a fake Al Jazeera clip was shared on social media, which claimed that three drunken Ukrainian fans were arrested in Doha for defacing posters with Nazi symbols (here). The magazine did release a special edition to mark the World Cup, with a cover that shows skeletons playing football (here). Charlie Hebdo did not publish a cartoon depicting Ukrainian soccer fans defacing a World Cup poster.

☆ Fact Check-Al Jazeera did not release clip reporting that Ukrainian fans were arrested in Qatar for defacing World Cup posters with Nazi symbols
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Qatar’s state-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera did not release a clip reporting that Ukrainian fans had been arrested during the World Cup for “spreading Nazi symbols” in Doha. The video uses Al Jazeera typography with the network’s logo viewable to the top left corner. Text across the clip claims that three drunk Ukrainian fans were arrested in the country’s capital after adding Nazi symbology to posters featuring the Qatar World Cup mascot, La’eeb. Archived versions of the outlet’s coverage of the World Cup similarly do not feature the above clip (here), (here), (here). Ukraine is also not competing in the World Cup in Qatar, after failing to qualify having been defeated by Wales in a playoff in June (here).

☆ Kyiv mayor calls out 'political dances' as Zelenskyy criticizes his efforts to help Ukrainians after Russian attacks threaten power and heat
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Taiyler Simone Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called out the mayor of Kyiv for not doing enough during the war. Mayor Vitali Klitschko defended his efforts publicly in a response on Telegram. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Friday address that Klitschko was not meeting the needs of the people in Kyiv. In particular, there are a lot of complaints in Kyiv … To put it mildly, more work is needed," Zelenskyy said. That same year, Zelenskyy tried to remove Klitschko from his role as mayor, according to The Ukrainian Weekly.

The running of the World Cup is the only opportunity that Qatar sees for redemption," said Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. "The markers of a successful World Cup would be as a nation-branding exercise, to position Qatar as an important sports hub in the Middle East and the wider Arab world," he said. 'HYPOCRISY'The first Middle Eastern country to host the World Cup, Qatar hailed it as a regional milestone when it was awarded the tournament in 2010. "The reasons given for boycotting the World Cup do not add up. Pressing back against its criticism, Qatar points to labour reforms aimed at protecting migrant workers from exploitation and says the system is a work in progress.

The 2022 World Cup has been dogged by controversy since Qatar was announced as the first Middle East nation, and Gulf absolute monarchy, to host it. But a successful World Cup is far from guaranteed. Dorsey said Qatar could use a successful World Cup as a springboard to reform. "This is the first ever World Cup in the region. This is a big, big deal," said Mahjoob Zweiri, director of the Gulf Studies Centre at Qatar University.

☆ U.S. is probing Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing, Israel's defense minister says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Abu Akleh’s supporters accuse Israel of intentionally killing the 51-year-old and have urged Washington to open a full investigation. Gantz, who is set to leave his post following elections earlier this month that vaulted Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to power, was defense minister when Abu Akleh was killed. In September, Israel acknowledged for the first time that Israeli fire probably killed Abu Akleh. Human rights groups have long accused the Israeli military of failing to properly investigate wrongdoing by its own troops and seldom holding forces accountable. Abu Akleh was shot while reporting on an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, long a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

☆ Justice Department Opens Probe Into Killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera Journalist
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A photo of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is seen at a candlelight vigil held for her in Cairo. The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the killing of a Palestinian-American journalist shot dead earlier this year while covering an Israeli miliary raid in the West Bank, Israeli officials said Monday, vowing not to cooperate with the U.S. probe. U.S. officials recently notified Israel that the Justice Department is investigating the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera journalist killed in May. A series of independent investigations concluded that an Israeli soldier about 200 yards away likely shot Ms. Abu Akleh as she walked up a road wearing body armor with the word “PRESS” on the front.

☆ Israel calls U.S. move to investigate Al Jazeera journalist's killing 'serious mistake'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Israel will not cooperate with any external investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday. "The U.S. Justice Ministry's decision to investigate the unfortunate death of Shireen Abu Akleh is a serious mistake," Gantz said in a statement. The circumstances of Abu Akleh's killing remain heavily disputed. Other witness accounts of the incident have disputed that Israeli positions were under fire from the area where Abu Akleh was standing when she was killed. "We continue to pursue all possible avenues for accountability and we have hope that some day we will see justice for Shireen."

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