Category: Technology

CAPE CANAVERAL: A US commercial mission carrying crew from India, Poland and Hungary blasted off to the International Space Station Wednesday, taking astronauts from these countries to space for the first time in decades. Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, launched from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:31am (0631 GMT), with a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The vehicle is scheduled to dock with the orbital lab on Thursday at approximately 1100 GMT and remain there for up to 14 days. Aboard the…

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Meta Platforms’ popular messaging service, WhatsApp, has been prohibited from all United States House of Representatives devices, effective Monday, according to an internal memo distributed to House staff. The ban cites “high risk” security concerns related to the application’s data handling and encryption practices. The notice from the chief administrative officer, issued by the Office of Cybersecurity, stated that WhatsApp poses a significant risk to users “due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its…

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WASHINGTON: On Monday, the team behind the much-anticipated Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile released its first images, showcasing stunning views of star-forming regions and distant galaxies. Over 20 years in development, the massive US-funded telescope is located atop Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where the dark skies and dry climate offer perfect conditions for cosmic observation. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in…

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By Tariq Usmani Artificial intelligence (AI) can effectively support doctors in making diagnoses. It makes different mistakes than humans—and this complementarity represents a previously untapped strength. An international team led by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development has now systematically demonstrated for the first time that combining human expertise with AI models leads to the most accurate open-ended diagnoses. Diagnostic errors are among the most serious problems in everyday medical practice. AI systems—especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT-4, Gemini, or Claude 3—offer new ways to efficiently support medical…

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WASHINGTON: AI-generated deepfakes, video game footage misrepresented as actual combat, and chatbot-produced falsehoods are distorting the Israel-Iran conflict. This tech-enabled misinformation is fueling a battle of narratives across social media platforms. The information warfare occurring alongside ground combat—triggered by Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership—highlights a digital crisis in an era of rapidly advancing AI tools that blur the lines between truth and fabrication. The surge in wartime misinformation has exposed an urgent need for stronger detection tools, experts say, as major tech platforms have largely weakened…

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President Donald Trump announced on Thursday he had given social media platform TikTok another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States. “I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025),” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s January inauguration. The Republican, whose 2024 election…

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HOUSTON: A SpaceX Starship exploded during a routine test late Wednesday at the company’s Starbase facility in Texas, according to local law enforcement — marking the latest setback in Elon Musk’s ambition to make humanity a multiplanetary species. Cameron County authorities confirmed on Facebook that Starship 36 experienced a “catastrophic failure and exploded” shortly after 11:00pm local time (0400 GMT Thursday). Accompanying video footage showed the massive rocket still attached to the launch arm when a sudden flash ignited a towering fireball, engulfing the test platform in flames. Musk’s Space…

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NEW DELHI: The Indian government has granted a license to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, marking the beginning of “India’s next frontier of connectivity,” according to the country’s communications minister. The introduction of Starlink, which offers high-speed internet access to remote areas through low Earth orbit satellites, has sparked intense debates in India regarding issues such as predatory pricing and spectrum allocation. Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said he held a “productive meeting” with Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Starlink owner SpaceX. Shotwell “appreciated the license granted…

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SAN FRANSISCO: US President Donald Trump is likely to prolong the Thursday deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country. It would be the third time Trump put off enforcing a federal law requiring its sale or ban, which was to take effect the day before his January inauguration. “I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May, adding: “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension”. Trump…

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WhatsApp announced on Monday it will introduce its boldest advertising features yet, marking a significant shift for the messaging platform that has largely remained ad-free since its launch. The move is a sensitive one for WhatsApp, whose chief firmly denied a report in 2023 that said the Meta-owned app was exploring advertisements as it sought to boost revenue. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms, WhatsApp has maintained minimal advertising since Meta acquired it in 2014. Users and regulators have kept a close watch on whether the social media giant…

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