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State Visit of King Charles III to France Postponed Amid Mass Strikes and Protests

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On March 24th, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office announced the postponement of King Charles III’s state visit to France. The decision was made due to the ongoing mass strikes and protests in the country. Macron cited “common sense and friendship” as the reason for the delay and stated that the visit would likely be rescheduled for the beginning of summer.

The planned celebrations of cross-Channel relations were at risk of disruption from the strikes and protests against pension reforms. The main concern was that protesters would use the occasion to further their cause against Macron’s plans to increase the retirement age. The visit was due to start on Sunday, and officials from both sides were closely monitoring the situation, with potential last-minute changes to the three-day program being considered.

The decision to postpone the visit was made with the agreement of both the French and British governments, after Macron asked the British government to postpone the visit. The visit will be rearranged as soon as possible, and Buckingham Palace confirmed that the King and Queen Consort Camilla are looking forward to the opportunity to visit France when new dates can be found. The striking trade unionists threatened to withhold red carpets for the visit, but the body responsible insisted they would still be rolled out as planned

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France To Ban TikTok On Phones Of Civil Servants

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According to Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini’s tweets, TikTok will no longer be allowed on government employees’ work phones in France.

“In order to guarantee the cybersecurity of our administrations and civil servants, the government has decided to ban recreational applications such as TikTok on the professional phones of civil servants,” he said in a statement.

He continued by saying that for some weeks, a number of France’s European and international allies had implemented policies to limit or forbid their governments’ employees from downloading and installing the TikTok programme.

Guerini stated that recreational applications lack the cybersecurity and data protection standards necessary to be installed on government equipment. He also added that the prohibition is applicable right now and that government agencies will monitor compliance.

According to him, exemptions can occasionally be granted for business purposes, such as institutional communication from an administration.

In recent weeks, a number of Western governments and institutions, including the UK parliament, the Dutch and Belgian administrations, and the New Zealand parliament, have all outlawed TikTok.

The Commission and the Council, the two largest policy-making bodies in the European Union, banned TikTok on employee phones late last month because to security concerns.

Global worries have grown about the possibility that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, could provide the Chinese government access to users’ contact information and location information.

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Claude Lorius: The Glaciologist Who Proved Human-Caused Global Warming

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Claude Lorius, a renowned glaciologist known for his contributions to proving human-caused global warming, passed away at the age of 91. Over the course of his lifetime, Lorius led 22 expeditions to Greenland and Antarctica.

During one of his trips to Antarctica in 1965, he made a significant discovery after dropping ice samples into a glass of whiskey. Lorius realized the scientific potential of studying ice cores, which led to his groundbreaking research on air bubbles trapped in ice, providing evidence of global warming caused by human-made pollution.

His research gained international recognition and helped scientists study 160,000 years’ worth of glacial records. In addition to his scientific work, Lorius was an advocate for the environment and served as the inaugural expert of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988.

He was awarded the CNRS gold medal in 2002, along with his colleague Jean Jouzel, and was the first Frenchman to receive the prestigious Blue Planet Prize.

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Violent clashes in Paris as pension age row rages

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Large numbers of people are taking to the streets in France, on a ninth day of nationwide demonstrations and strikes over pensions reform. The CGT union estimates there are up to 800,000 people protesting on the streets of Paris where clashes with police are being reported

Police have used tear gas in Nantes and water cannon in Rennes at protests over legislation to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Strikes are disrupting schools and public transport, and some demonstrators are also blockading railway tracks and stations.

Ongoing industrial action at oil refineries is affecting petrol supplies, and also of aircraft fuel.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government forced the legislation through without a vote in the lower house of parliament last week.

Yesterday he defended the changes as “a necessity” in his first public comments on the escalating row.

The vast majority of protests have passed off without violence but some demonstrators dressed in black and known locally as “Black Bloc” radicals have been out on the streets, throwing stones and bottles at police and setting fire to bins.

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IT Services Firm Accenture To Cut 19,000 Jobs, Trims Profit Forecasts

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Accenture Plc, the latest indication that the worsening global economic picture was sapping corporate expenditure on IT services, slashed its annual revenue and profit expectations and announced on Thursday that it will reduce approximately 2.5% of its workforce.

Accenture announced that more than half of the 19,000 employees to be lost will be in its corporate activities that are not billable, which caused its shares to increase by more than 4% before the bell.

Due to a decline in demand brought on by high inflation and rising interest rates, the tech sector has been forced to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers since late last year.

Competitor Cognizant Technology Solutions forecasted quarterly revenue below forecasts and referred last month to “muted” increase in bookings, or the agreements IT services businesses have in the works.

A slowdown in Europe, where the Ukraine war has hurt client spending, has also been noted by IBM Corp. and Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT services provider.

In contrast to its prior prediction of an increase of 8% to 11%, Accenture now anticipates yearly revenue growth to be between 8% and 10%. As opposed to the previous range of $11.20 to $11.52, the estimated earnings per share are in the range of $10.84 to $11.06.

According to a US-based Enterprise Technology Research poll of more than 1,000 IT decision makers, they intend to slow the growth of their budgets by 2023. Now, 3.4% growth is expected, down from a 5.6% gain recorded in October 2022.

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Boat carrying African migrants sinks off Tunisia, leaving at least five dead and 28 missing in attempt to reach Italy

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A boat carrying African migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy sank off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia, resulting in the deaths of at least five people, with another 28 missing. The Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights reported the incident, and the Tunisian authorities were not immediately available for comment. The southern city of Sfax has become a major point of departure for migrants seeking a better life in Europe, fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.

This incident coincides with a significant increase in the number of boats departing from the Tunisian coast towards Italy, as well as Tunisian authorities’ campaign to arrest undocumented sub-Saharan African immigrants. Unofficial United Nations data revealed that 12,000 people who reached Italy this year set sail from Tunisia, compared to only 1,300 in the same period of 2022. Prior to this, Libya served as the main launchpad for migrants from the region.

In conclusion, the sinking of the boat carrying African migrants off the coast of Tunisia highlights the risks that desperate people are willing to take in pursuit of a better life. The increase in boats departing from Tunisia, combined with the crackdown on undocumented immigrants, underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive and compassionate response to the ongoing migration crisis.

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Bill Gates: AI is most important tech advance in decades

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The development of artificial intelligence (AI), according to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is the most significant technological achievement in decades.

He compared it to the development of the microprocessor, personal computer, Internet, and mobile phone in a blog post on Tuesday. According to him, it will alter how people work, learn, travel, access healthcare, and interact with one another.

He was discussing the technology behind programmes like ChatGPT, a chatbot. ChatGPT, an AI chatbot created by OpenAI, is built to respond to internet queries in a manner that is natural and human-like.

Microsoft, where Mr. Gates still serves as an advisor, made a multibillion dollar investment in the project’s team in January 2023. But it is not the only AI-powered chatbot available, with Google recently introducing rival Bard.

Mr. Gates claimed that since 2016, he has met with OpenAI, the group behind the artificial intelligence that drives chatbot ChatGPT.

Mr. Gates stated in his blog that he issued the OpenAI team a challenge to develop an AI that can pass an Advanced Placement (AP) Biology exam in 2022, which is roughly equivalent to an A-level exam. The challenge came with the strict requirement that the AI could not be specifically programmed to respond to questions in biology. A few months later, the findings were made public. According to him, the score was nearly perfect, with only one mark out of fifty being missed.

Mr. Gates claimed that after the test, he instructed the AI to compose a letter to a father of a sick child.

Mr Gates, who co-chairs the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called on governments to work with industry to “limit the risks” of AI, but said the technology could be used to save lives.

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French reforms: Macron refuses to give way as pension protests escalate

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In the face of nationwide protests and two no-confidence votes, French President Emmanuel Macron has defended his decision to push through an increase in the pension age with a resolute attitude.

Radical transformation is a need, he stressed, not a luxury or a pleasure. The government’s use of constitutional authority to drive through reforms without a vote in the National Assembly has emboldened protesters.

On Thursday, there will be a ninth round of nationwide strikes and demonstrations. Several locations have seen hundreds of arrests over the course of six nights of protests.

Bins that were left overflowing by garbage collectors have been set on fire, and 13% of gas stations are out of gasoline as a result of blockades at oil refineries. Nearly half of the pumps in the southern Bouches-du-Rhône region have stopped working.

The upcoming trip to France by King Charles has also been clouded by the demonstrations. Sandrine Rousseau, a Green Party lawmaker, demanded that the trip be cancelled: “Is welcoming Charles III to Versailles truly the top priority? French society is going through something, so it’s important to go and talk to the society that is rising up.”

Mr. Macron made his first public comments on the mounting pensions debate in an interview that was broadcast on two of the major French television networks under pressure to defuse the situation.

He allegedly informed party representatives at the Elysée Palace prior to his appearance that there would be no change in course. He ruled out any drastic action, including a change in the makeup of the government or the dissolution of the legislature.

It was “always a good thing if you want to be respectful to our institutions,” Mr. Macron told his colleagues, adding that he had no regrets about pushing through the reforms.

He and the prime minister have maintained that 175 hours of parliamentary debate had been spent on the measures. Mr. Macron emphasised that several parties had supported the change during its passage through the legislature but then sponsored a motion of no confidence that narrowly failed.

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Ukraine says Russian missiles destroyed in Crimea

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Russian missiles that were being delivered by rail in the north of the annexation of Crimea were destroyed, according to the Ukrainian defence ministry. The city of Dzhankoi’s newly-installed Russian mayor claimed drones had targeted the neighbourhood.

Ukraine reported the blasts but, as is customary, did not specifically claim responsibility for the attack. If true, it would be a very infrequent military incursion by Ukraine into Crimea, which has been annexed since 2014.

In the past, Russia has been attacked in Crimea, but most of the time, Ukraine has refused to take credit or has attributed the attacks to political sabotage. If this strike was real, it would indicate that the Ukrainian air force’s ability to use drones has improved.

Up until today, it has appeared that Ukrainian rockets cannot reach Crimea. Nonetheless, this attack shows that drones are at least capable of penetrating Russian defences farther than previously believed.

Russian Kalibr-NK cruise missiles meant for the Russian Black Sea Fleet were destroyed by the “strange” explosions, according to Ukrainian defence intelligence. In recent months, strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have frequently used Kailbr missiles.

According to an unconfirmed account from a local resident that was mentioned on Ukrainian TV, there were “booms” that lasted for 30 minutes and left some of Dzhankoi without electricity. The explosions “continue Russia’s demilitarisation process and set up the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea for deoccupation,” according to the military ministry.

Russian forces have utilised Dzhankoi as a rail hub connecting Crimea with other regions of seized Ukraine. According to Russian TV reports, there was no damage to the rail infrastructure as a result of the strike on Tuesday.

According to preliminary results, a residential building and a store were damaged, according to Russia’s investigation body. It stated that all of the targets were civilian.

The Russian-installed administrator, Ihor Ivin, reported that a 33-year-old male was rushed to the hospital for treatment after being injured by shrapnel from a downed drone. He said nothing about any military objectives being hurt.

According to Mr. Ivin, the electricity grid was destroyed and a number of structures caught fire. According to a different Russian-appointed official, a drone was struck above a technical institute in the middle of an instruction area and a student residence. Separately, officials in southern Russia said that Ukrainian military had used a drone to attack an oil pipeline pumping station north of the Ukrainian border. There were none, according to the governor of the Bryansk region.

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Rare Computer Mouse That Inspired Steve Jobs Auctioned Off For 147,000 Pounds

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According to Metro, a computer mouse that served as one of Steve Jobs’ primary sources of inspiration recently sold for a staggering 147,000 pounds (Rs 1,48,89,174). Douglas Engelbart’s rare three-button mouse and coding keyset were sold at a Boston-based auction for about 12 times their original estimate of £12,000.


Importantly, the late Apple CEO’s initial rollerball-controlled mouse was modelled after Mr. Engelbart’s invention.

”The rare, early three-button computer mouse designed by Engelbart, measuring approximately 4″ x 2.75″ x 2.5″, utilizes two metal discs (corresponding to the X-axis and Y-axis) on the bottom to locate the position of the cursor, rather than a ball or optical light that came to be used later,” a description of the product on the auction page reads.

The coding keyset has five keys, allowing for 31 possible key presses when typing and entering commands. Using this hardware setup, a user could point and click with the mouse in their right hand while typing commands with their left hand on the keypad.

Steve Jobs had the opportunity to see the mouse and the graphical user interface (GUI) in action in 1979 while touring a research centre. Steve made the decision to streamline and include these simple functions in Apple’s computers after being quite impressed by their use.

Jobs was determined to create a single-button model that costs only 12 pounds because the 245 pound Xerox mice did not roll smoothly. Apple then paid around 33,000 pounds to licence Mr. Engelbart’s mouse patent and contracted IDEO to design the mouse. Engelbart’s idea would, in part, alter the trajectory of modern existence, according to Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction. This device played a crucial role in the evolution of computer history.”

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