World

Artificial general intelligence could be only five years away, although the path is not without risks, Google’s Demis Hassabis has said The path towards creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) could involve “catastrophic outcomes” such as cyberattacks on energy or water infrastructure, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has warned. He suggested that AGI could arrive within the next decade.  Speaking at …

Late one night in southern Nepal last month, whispers spread of an unusual wedding taking place. Inside a modest home, an 18-year-old girl was about to be wed to a Chinese national nearly twice her age. The match was illegal. Nepal’s minimum age for marriage is 20, and the bride’s youth alarmed onlookers. Police were called and the ceremony in …

Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a peace deal with Russia. The Ukrainian president is meeting European leaders in London today, seeking to ensure any deal deters a future Russian attack. The US president slammed Zelensky, implying he was playing for time when Ukraine’s own negotiators “love” the draft deal which, Trump claimed, Vladimir Putin …

Bureaucrats want a final say on what can and cannot be discussed, Alexandre Guerreiro has said The European Union is using legal tools to pressure social media platforms and steer public debate on politically sensitive topics, Portugal-based international law expert Alexandre Guerreiro has told RT. His comments came after the EU fined platform X €120 million ($163 million) last week …

An eight-year-old boy in eastern China has ignited a heated online discussion after he chopped his mother’s gold necklace into small pieces and gave them to classmates as gifts. The boy’s unusual act, which was only discovered after the month it was carried out, left his mother angry and amused while his father beat him as a punishment because they …

The US president claims the Ukrainian leader hasn’t read his newest peace proposal US President Donald Trump has said that he was disappointed that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky hasn’t read his most recent proposals for peace between Russia and Ukraine. “I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was …

Thailand has launched a series of airstrikes along its shared and disputed border with neighbouring Cambodia, with both Asian nations accusing each other of drawing first blood after a US-brokered treaty saw several months of peace. Tensions are now rising between the two once more, with a truce agreement signed by both countries in October seemingly now dumped. In July, …

Younger Japanese are proving to be the most resistant to immigration, defying assumptions that generational change would produce greater cosmopolitanism. A new survey found that 70 per cent of those aged 18 to 39 expressed safety concerns about foreign workers – higher than any other demographic. This unexpected reversal reveals a generation grappling with anxieties that cut across conventional narratives …

The support for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet is record low, a survey from INSA suggests More than two-thirds of Germans are dissatisfied with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government, a recent survey suggests. According to an INSA poll published by Bild on Saturday, 70% of the 1,005 respondents said they disapproved of the work of the ruling coalition, while only 21% said …

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani posted a video to social media on Sunday explaining immigrants’ right to refuse to speak to or comply with agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), days after federal agents carried out a raid in Manhattan. In the video, Mamdani vowed to protect the city’s 3 million immigrants, saying, “We can all stand …