Author: News Desk

New York: Apple Inc. briefly reached a market valuation of $4 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, becoming the third Big Tech company to hit the milestone, following Microsoft and Nvidia. The surge was fueled by strong global demand for its latest iPhone 17 lineup, which helped ease investor concerns about the company’s slower pace in the artificial intelligence (AI) race. Apple’s stock momentarily climbed to $269.89, pushing its valuation to $4.005 trillion, before closing slightly lower at $3.992 trillion, up 0.1 percent for the day. The milestone marks a remarkable turnaround, with the company’s shares gaining about 13…

Sydney: Major social media platforms, including Meta, ByteDance, and Snap, have confirmed that they will comply with Australia’s new law banning users under the age of 16. The law, which takes effect on December 10, will require companies to take ‘reasonable steps’ to block underage users or risk fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32.5 million). The announcement marks a significant shift in the industry’s response to the legislation, which is being closely watched by governments worldwide amid rising concerns about youth mental health. Previously, these companies argued that such a ban would push minors toward unsafe online spaces and…

London: A groundbreaking study led by King’s College London has scientifically confirmed that viewing original artworks in a gallery can relieve stress, reduce the risk of heart disease, and boost immune function, offering tangible evidence of art’s power to enhance both mental and physical well-being. The research, described as the first study of its kind, measured the physiological effects of viewing original masterpieces by celebrated artists, including Manet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. Participants experienced art in two distinct environments: some viewed the authentic works at the Courtauld Gallery in London, while others viewed high-quality reproductions in a non-gallery setting. The…

London: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), often dismissed as mere ‘winter blues’ or ‘depression-lite,’ is one of the most misunderstood mood disorders, experts have warned. Despite its deceptively simple name, SAD is classified as a major depressive disorder that occurs cyclically, typically during winter months, and subsides during other seasons. Dr. Laurence Wainwright, a psychiatry academic at Oxford University, explained that SAD is a ‘recurrent depressive phase’ linked to seasonal changes. Dr. Wainwright noted that while the condition’s acronym makes it easy to overlook, it can be ‘harrowing’ for those affected. Between 0.5 percent and 2.4 percent of the UK population,…

Melbourne, Australia: About 26,000 households in south-east Queensland were without power on October 27 after a severe thunderstorm passed over the state, producing wind gusts of up to 109 km/h. Residents also reported giant hailstones, with sizes reaching up to 7 cm in some areas. More than 1,300 energy customers in Victoria experienced outages following Melbourne’s wettest day in a year and a half, though most of these were resolved soon. Energex, which supplies power to 1.5 million homes and businesses in south-east Queensland, said that the thunderstorm caused ‘significant damage,’ including downed wires across the greater Brisbane region. On…

London: Leading scientists have urged the UK government to require cigarette-style warning labels on bacon and ham, highlighting that chemicals used in processing these meats can cause bowel cancer. The scientists criticized successive British governments for doing ‘virtually nothing’ over the past decade to reduce risks from nitrites, despite overwhelming evidence of their harm. October 2025 marks ten years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared processed meat carcinogenic to humans, placing it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos. Nitrites, the chemicals added to bacon and ham during processing, serve to cure and preserve the meat and give…

Seattle: The Amazon outage this week was caused by a bug in its automation software, leaving services from Signal to smart beds offline for several hours. In a detailed post, AWS outlined a cascading series of events that triggered the outage, taking down thousands of websites and applications relying on its cloud infrastructure. The Amazon outage primarily affected DynamoDB, AWS’s database system where customers store data, due to “a latent defect within the service’s automated DNS [domain name system] management system.” DynamoDB manages hundreds of thousands of DNS records and uses automation to monitor the system, ensuring updates, capacity adjustments,…

Kingston, Jamaica: Tropical Storm Melissa is steadily moving through the central Caribbean, with forecasters warning that it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane while unleashing potentially catastrophic flash flooding and landslides in southern Haiti. As of October 24, the storm was centered about 150 miles (245 km) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and roughly 270 miles (430 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, moving north at 3 mph (6 km/h) with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 km/h), according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami. Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to drop copious rain…

Jakarta: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has urged international sports federations to refrain from hosting events in Indonesia following the country’s decision to deny visas to Israeli gymnasts at the ongoing Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta. Indonesia said the move was necessary to ‘maintain public order.’ The IOC’s executive board issued a statement recommending that world sports bodies cease holding competitions in Indonesia. The statement also confirmed that Indonesia’s potential Olympic Games bids will not proceed until the government provides assurances that all athletes, regardless of nationality, will be allowed to compete in future events. Earlier this month, Indonesia,…

Beijing: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (9988.HK) has launched a new AI chatbot assistant service integrated into its Quark app, marking a renewed push into the consumer-facing artificial intelligence sector currently dominated by ByteDance and Tencent. The company announced the launch, describing the new service as part of its broader effort to enhance user experience through intelligent, real-time digital tools. The Quark app, which originally debuted as a web browser, has been repositioned this year as Alibaba’s flagship consumer platform, incorporating advanced AI capabilities such as smarter search functions and voice-enabled assistance. According to Alibaba’s statement, the new chat assistant…