Año: 2024

A reformist candidate critical of Iranian government policies, including the mandatory headscarf law, will face a hardline conservative in a presidential runoff next week, Iran’s Interior Ministry announced Saturday. It follows a special vote called after the previous leader, Ebrahim Raisi, died in a helicopter crash last month. The second round of voting, scheduled for July 5, will pit reformist Masoud Pezeshkian against Saeed Jalili, an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator. The need for a runoff was prompted by low voter turnout and a field of three leading candidates, with Iranian law requiring a winner to win more than 50 percent…

Asia-Pacific markets were mostly positive on Thursday, with major Japanese and Taiwanese indices hitting record highs. The Topix rose 0.85%, surpassing its all-time high of 2,886.50 set in December 1989. The Nikkei 225 index rose 0.8%, surpassing its all-time high of 40,888.43 set in March this year. Shares of SoftBank Group hit another all-time high, extending their winning streak to seven days, with a 2.5% gain. Japanese companies have seen their biggest wage increases in three decades this year, according to Japan’s largest labor union. A survey conducted by labor group Rengo since March shows that monthly pay for union-supported…

Relief efforts began Wednesday in New York City’s Caribbean community, as residents anxiously followed the path of Hurricane Beryl. The storm has already claimed at least seven lives in the southeastern Caribbean, leaving thousands without power. By Wednesday afternoon, Beryl had weakened from a Category 5 hurricane to a Category 4 hurricane, coasting just south of Jamaica and unleashing destructive winds and heavy rains on the island. In Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean neighborhood, those with ties to Jamaica have been closely monitoring the storm’s progress. Nadine Ducille, chef at Caribbean Vibes Jamaican Restaurant and Bakery on Nostrand Avenue, said she’s been…

Ray Kurzweil, a renowned inventor and futurist, continues to claim that humans will soon merge with artificial intelligence. During an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, Kurzweil showed a graph illustrating the exponential growth of computing power over the past 85 years. This steady increase, according to him, indicates that the so-called Singularity, when humans and AI become one, will occur within the next two decades. Kurzweil, who has made a career out of making bold predictions, reiterated claims in his 2005 book, The Singularity is NearWith the advent of AI technologies like ChatGPT and efforts to implant…