Author: Web Desk

Copenhagen: Snapchat drug dealers have been identified as openly operating on the platform despite the company’s claim of proactive monitoring. Research carried out by Digitalt Ansvar, a Danish organisation promoting responsible digital development, has shown that Snapchat has not effectively blocked usernames that clearly indicate drug activity. The researchers created test profiles of 13-year-olds and found a large number of accounts using usernames such as ‘coke’, ‘weed’ and ‘molly’ to advertise drugs including cocaine, opioids and MDMA. According to the study, 40 such accounts were reported to Snapchat, but the company initially removed only 10. The remaining 30 reports were…

Seoul: South Korea has expressed concern that the US immigration raid Hyundai plant in Georgia may discourage further investment, with President Lee Jae Myung warning that firms will be ‘very hesitant’ to expand in America under such conditions. The large-scale operation last week saw US officials detain 475 people, including more than 300 South Korean nationals. Most have since been released and are scheduled to return home, though their departure was briefly delayed following instructions from the White House. According to Seoul officials, US President Donald Trump asked for the delay to assess whether the workers were willing to remain…

California: Apple has unveiled the iPhone Air, described as the slimmest handset in the company’s history and a major design shift after years of incremental changes. Chief Executive Tim Cook introduced the device at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, referencing a quote from Steve Jobs to highlight the company’s philosophy that design is also about functionality. Measuring 5.6 millimetres thick, the iPhone Air is thinner than Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge at 5.8 millimetres. The internal circuitry has been compressed to the size of postage stamps, which Apple has said enables all-day battery life. The model incorporates the A19 Pro processor tuned…

Brisbane: Australia has approved a koala chlamydia vaccine developed by scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), marking a significant milestone in the fight to protect the endangered species. The vaccine has been designed to curb a chlamydia epidemic that has decimated wild koala populations across eastern Australia, where infection rates in some colonies have reached as high as 70 percent. Researchers stated that without intervention, several colonies were edging close to extinction. Professor Peter Timms explained that the vaccine approval followed over a decade of development and the largest trial ever conducted on wild koalas. With regulatory…

Bangkok: The Thaksin jail ruling has marked another dramatic chapter in Thailand’s turbulent politics, as the Supreme Court decided that the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra must serve Shinawatra’s sentence behind bars. The court concluded that Thaksin’s transfer from prison to hospital was unlawful and that Shinawatra’s medical condition did not warrant inpatient treatment. Thaksin Shinawatra had originally been sentenced to eight years for corruption and abuse of power when he returned to Thailand in 2023 after years of self-imposed exile in Dubai. Shinawatra’s sentence was later reduced to one year by royal pardon. However, after spending less than a…

Washington: A group of six whistleblowers have raised Meta VR whistleblower allegations, claiming the company has covered up evidence of harm to children using its virtual reality products. The disclosures state that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has deleted or manipulated internal safety research that revealed children were being exposed to sexual harassment, grooming, and violence in its VR environments. Jason Sattizahn, one of the whistleblowers and a former member of the VR research team, said that Meta knowingly allowed underage users on its platforms, prioritising engagement and profit over safety. Sattizahn added that internal teams were…

Hong Kong: Authorities in Hong Kong have implemented precautionary measures as Tropical Storm Tapah in Hong Kong brushed close to the territory, passing within 170 km. The storm has delivered gale-force winds and persistent rainfall, disrupting daily life and forcing widespread suspensions of public transport and other services. So far, damage has been minimal, with most districts experiencing only scattered downpours and gusty winds. The Hong Kong Observatory confirmed that the Typhoon Signal No. 8 – the city’s third-highest warning level – will remain hoisted until further notice. Under this warning, businesses may reopen once conditions improve, but the Education…

Athens: Greece has announced a 1.6 billion relief package to tackle a sharp decline in population that threatens to make it Europe’s oldest nation. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described the measures as the boldest tax reform in more than five decades. The package, set to take effect in 2026, introduces broad tax breaks and direct financial incentives aimed at supporting families to help counter Greece’s declining population. It includes a two-point reduction across all tax brackets, while low-income households with four children will pay no income tax. Residents of rural communities with fewer than 1,500 people will also be…

San Francisco: AI firm Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action lawsuit brought by authors who accused the company of using their copyrighted books without permission to train its Claude AI models. The settlement, which still requires the approval of US District Judge William Alsup, has been described by lawyers for the authors as the largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history. The lawsuit was filed last year by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, who alleged that Anthropic had built a business worth billions using pirated material. According to Judge Alsup’s…

Amritsar: Punjab floods have brought catastrophic losses to farmers in northern India and Pakistan, with vast farmland submerged and livelihoods destroyed. The flooding has been described as the worst in more than three decades, causing heavy human and economic damage. In India’s Punjab state, hundreds of thousands of acres of rice paddies, cotton, and sugar cane have been ruined under more than five feet of water. Farmers have said that both crops and homes are under threat after flood, with some families forced to live on rooftops to escape rising waters. Many cattle have drowned, leaving carcasses across villages and…