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[1/4] People gather at the station to flee from Khartoum during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan April 19, 2023. Guterres and senior officials from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt called Sudan's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to urge an end to violence. Urging a three-day ceasefire, he said civilians trapped in conflict zones should be allowed to escape and to seek medical treatment, food and other supplies. Witnesses in the city of El-Obeid, east of Darfur, described clashes between the army and RSF troops and widespread looting. Many other local people remain trapped, along with thousands of foreigners in a city that has become a war zone.

☆ Sudan's army chief, the warlord and a feud that risks civil war
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Michael Georgy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

ABANDONING THEIR BENEFACTORAmid the bloodshed, Hemedti captured the attention of Bashir, a general who came to power in a 1989 coup. Bashir also gave his family and associates free rein to sell Sudan's gold, helping him amass a fortune. In the aftermath, Hemedti secured the post of deputy head of state, a position that technically reports to Burhan. Like Sudan's army, the RSF deployed fighters to Yemen where Gulf Arab states have fought a proxy war for years against Iranian-backed Houthis. The military wants the RSF integrated into the regular army and under its controls, two military sources said.

Stringer/ReutersThe RSF denied those reports, telling CNN in a statement that it “will never assault any UN staff or employees. Meanwhile, tense efforts to establish a ceasefire have ramped up, with the UN calling for rival factions to end their hostilities. Satellite imagery of the smoke plume at Khartoum International Airport on Sunday. The Sudanese Armed Forces later issued conflicting statements on a proposed 24-hour ceasefire, intended to go into effect later on Tuesday. Both sides had previously agreed to a three-hour ceasefire on Sunday, and again on Monday, with fighting resuming afterward, Perthes said.

The Sudanese Doctors' Union earlier reported at least 25 people were killed and 183 wounded in battles that erupted on Saturday between the military and the RSF. The army told soldiers seconded to the RSF to report to nearby army units, which could deplete RSF ranks if they obey. The military and RSF, which analysts say is 100,000 strong, have been competing for power as political factions negotiate forming a transitional government after a 2021 military coup. The RSF shared a video that it said showed Egyptian troops who "surrendered" to them in Merowe. Clashes also erupted between the RSF and army in the Darfur cities of El Fasher and Nyala, eyewitnesses said.

OSLO, April 12 (Reuters) - A court in Oslo on Wednesday began hearing a gender discrimination case brought by an employee at Norway's $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund against her employer. Elisabeth Bull Daae, head of trading analytics at Norges Bank Investment Management, is suing the unit of the central bank managing the fund for 16 million crowns ($1.54 million) in compensation and damages. The central bank, which pushes the firms it invests in to have more women on their boards and to combat all forms of discrimination, denies the allegations. Or are we in front of a clear, systematic case of pay discrimination based on gender?" The lawyer representing the fund said the relationship between employee and employer had broken down despite its efforts to improve it.

☆ The 'Robinhood of passports' says it's a mistake to ban golden visas — make them fund affordable housing and refugee programs instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Portugal and Ireland recently announced they are shutting down their "golden visa" programs. Their less-advantageous siblings, "golden visas," provide temporary residence permits in exchange for investment, as opposed to permanent citizenship. A golden taxInstead of banning golden passports and visas outright, countries should adjust the investment requirements to match their current needs, Arton says. A scandalous historyBut golden passports don't only raise the issue of inequality, the European Commission argues, they also pose a threat to national security. Last year, 282 of Ireland's 306 golden visa applications came from Chinese citizens, The Irish Times reported.

☆ A proposed law in Vietnam would allow people the right to change gender identity and get medical access to gender-reaffirming surgery
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A proposed Vietnam law would allow citizens to change their gender identities and get gender-affirming surgery. The proposed law might be included in the government's 2024 agenda, according to Việt Nam News. Lawmaker Nguyễn Anh Trí proposed the law which would allow people to change their gender identity, request a different gender identity from the one assigned at birth, and get gender-affirming surgery, according to The Pink News. The proposed law, which only mentions genders male and female, might be included in the government's 2024 agenda, according to Việt Nam News. As it stands, there are no regulations on gender identity in Vietnam and no laws that prohibit same-sex relationships or activities, but LGBTQ rights remain controversial, the outlet reported.

Some Arabs said they hoped the crisis would lead to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political demise. Others expressed hope of more far-reaching consequences for Israel, which fought numerous wars with Arab adversaries after its establishment in 1948 and occupies land the Palestinians seek for a state. The sentiment was echoed by Mohammad Abdullatif in Syria, from which Israel captured the Golan Heights in a 1967 war. Gaza political analyst Talal Okal said the crisis had brought a sense of relief among Palestinians. "But there is also a fear, they may carry out military adventures or wars to escape the internal crisis."

☆ Fact Check-Resurfaced clip shows farmer protests spraying police with hay in Brussels in 2015
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A video showing protesters spraying hay on to a police line dates back to a 2015 demonstration in Belgium, but the footage has been recently miscaptioned in posts claiming it depicts a Dutch farmers protest in March 2023. Examples are viewable on Twitter (here) and Facebook (here ), with one popular tweet reading, “The Netherlands is seizing privately owned farm land. In protest, Dutch farmers are spraying government buildings and riot police with MANURE! Another video by outlet New Europe, seemingly depicting the same scene as the clip shared online (youtu.be/14vowMfvrIs?t=26 ), also shows the tractor throwing hay at police officers. This video showing protesters spraying hay on to a police line was filmed in Belgium in 2015.

[1/2] Air India passenger aircraft are seen on the tarmac at Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport in Mumbai, India, February 14, 2023. Current limits on the amount of flying allowed between India and many markets date back to heavy losses at Air India around the beginning of the last decade, analysts said. "We are not getting enough share from this market," Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Bilal Eksi told the CAPA India conference. "I think it's about time that our carriers looked at the international market with greater focus. Other analysts noted India is not alone in making use of a post-war system of air traffic agreements to aid development.

☆ Algerian president says Morocco ties have reached 'point of no return'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

CAIRO, March 21 (Reuters) - Algeria's relations with Morocco have reached the point of no return, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. Algeria broke off relations with Morocco in 2021 amid growing tensions over issues that included the dispute over the territory of Western Sahara. Reporting by Omar Abdel-Razak in Cairo; writing by Angus McDowall; editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Summary Ruling has implications for oil, mineralsNon-EU Norway has sovereignty over Svalbard Arctic islandsState can sue Norway -expertOSLO, March 20 (Reuters) - Norway's Supreme Court ruled on Monday that EU ships cannot fish for snow crab off the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic in a case also deciding who has the right to explore for oil and minerals in the region. At stake was whether EU vessels had the right to catch snow crab, whose meat is considered a delicacy by gourmets in Japan and South Korea, in the same way as Norwegian vessels did. But what is valid for the snow crab, a sedentary species living on the seabed, is also valid for oil, minerals and other resources, the Supreme Court ruled in a 2019 case. "The company does not have the right to catch snow crab on the continental shelf outside Svalbard," the Supreme Court said in its verdict, which was unanimous. "It is a domestic court decision, (so) an international court can also hear this question at a later stage."

☆ North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles could hit central US in just 33 minutes, says Chinese study
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

North Korea's ICBMs can conceivably penetrate the US missile defense system, a Chinese study found. The study simulated the launch of a Hwasongpho-15 missile towards Columbia, Missouri. The study simulated the firing of a Hwasongpho-15 missile from the central North Korean city of Sunchon, towards Columbia, Missouri, per the SCMP. The report, released mid-February, came ahead of a series of North Korean test-firings this week. On Monday, two strategic cruise missiles were fired from a submarine off North Korea's eastern coast, according to Al-Jazeera.

☆ Zelenskyy vows to find Russian killers after horrific video appears to show them shoot a POW for shouting 'Glory to Ukraine'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A horrific video shows a Ukrainian soldier being shot dead after shouting: "Glory to Ukraine." Zelenskyy drew attention to the video in his nightly address, vowing to find his killers. His comments were in response to a video that has been circulating on various Telegram channels, which appears to show the brutal execution of an unarmed Ukrainian soldier. The phrase "Glory to Ukraine" and the response "Glory to the Heroes" has been used as a rallying cry since the start of Russia's attack on Ukraine last year. "Horrific video of an unarmed Ukrainian POW executed by Russian forces merely for saying 'Glory to Ukraine'.

[1/3] Greta Thunberg is carried away as activits demonstrate outside the Ministry of Finance entrance and several other ministries in protest that the wind turbines at Fosen, which the Supreme Court has said are illegal, have not been demolished. Alf Simensen/NTB/via REUTERSOSLO, March 1 (Reuters) - Norwegian police on Wednesday briefly detained environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg during a demonstration in Oslo, removing her and other activists from the finance ministry. The campaigners are demanding the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures on Sami Indigenous land in central Norway. Thunberg, holding a red, blue, yellow and green Sami flag, was lifted and carried away by police officers while hundreds of demonstrators chanted slogans. Activists on Tuesday said they had raised close to $100,000 in recent days to help individual demonstrators pay police fines.

☆ If China allies with Russia there will be a new World War, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that China allying with Russia would lead to another world war. The Ukrainian president expressed his hope that China backs Ukraine over Russia in the ongoing war. US officials have expressed concern that China could support Russia by providing lethal aid. But "if China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that," he said. US Vice President Kamala Harris also warned China against providing support to Moscow during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

☆ Video shows Ukrainian soldiers in intense house-to-house fighting in Bakhmut as Russia's invasion approaches one-year mark
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Footage released by Ukrainian forces shows intense scenes of border guards firing at Russians. In the video released last Tuesday on Facebook, the Border Guard Service said four Russian "occupiers" were killed, and five were wounded. Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to capture Bahkmut by the war's one-year mark on February 24, Sky News reported. Ukrainian forces have held off shelling of 20 settlements near Bakhmut as of Friday, General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Facebook post. Russian forces are responsible for a "widespread and systematic attack" against Ukrainian civilians, she said, including execution-style killings, rape, and torture.

☆ Fact Check-Image does not show Joe Biden’s pants on backwards
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Pictures of Joe Biden’s visit to Puerto Rico in October 2022 show the president was wearing his pants correctly, despite posts on social media claiming otherwise. A search through Reuters Pictures returned a similar image to the one used in the meme, in which Biden is also wearing a blue shirt, beige pants and dark glasses. This higher definition photograph shows he was wearing his pants correctly, as a belt buckle and zip can be seen (bit.ly/3RVpdLy). President Joe Biden walks with First Lady Jill Biden and Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Pierluisi at Port of Ponce, Puerto Rico, October 3, 2022.”A photograph from the same day shared by the White House (here) also shows Biden was wearing his clothes properly. Joe Biden did not wear his pants backwards during a visit to Puerto Rico.

☆ Factbox: Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh no stranger to controversy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Journalist Seymour Hersh speaks at the Al Jazeera Forum "Media and the Middle East - Beyond the Headlines" in Doha April 1, 2007. REUTERS/Fadi Al-AssaadFeb 9 (Reuters) - Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. reporter Seymour Hersh said this week that U.S. Navy divers, in a CIA operation ordered by President Joe Biden, planted explosives that destroyed three Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last September. The White House dismissed Hersh's report, which relied on a single source to support its claim about the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines, as "utterly false and complete fiction." Here are some key events in Hersh's career:- Hersh in 1969 exposed the massacre of South Vietnamese villagers by U.S. troops in the hamlet of My Lai. Both governments denied Hersh's allegations that Pakistan had been holding bin Laden prisoner and knew about the raid in advance.

☆ The 3 Chinese spy balloons spotted during the Trump administration were initially classified as UFOs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Chinese spy balloon seen floating over the United States was shot down on Saturday. Three spy balloons were seen during the Trump administration and were initially classified as UFOs. Trump, however, denies the balloons ever existedIn a Sunday interview with Fox News, Trump said the Biden administration lied about Chinese balloons being seen during his term because "they look so bad." It is unclear if the spy balloons seen during the Trump administration were shot down, as limited details about the incidents were only made public this week. Balloon surveillance has been utilized as far back as the 1800s, according to Al Jazeera, and was popularized during the first World War.

☆ 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.

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