World

The battle of the AI chatbots has stepped up a notch after Chinese search giant Baidu unveiled its much-anticipated rival to ChatGPT. The company showed off Ernie (short for “enhanced representation through knowledge integration”), which analysts believe could be Beijing’s strongest competitor in a crowded field dominated by US firms. ChatGPT is made by the

The US says the drone which crashed into the Black Sea after encountering two Russian fighter jets will not provide intelligence of any value should Moscow attempt to recover its wreckage. Russian officials have said they will seek to find whatever is left of the MQ-9 Reaper, which was downed on Tuesday. Sergei Naryshkin, head

Police in Vienna have put more armed officers on the streets after intelligence suggested a possible Islamist terror attack was being planned against churches. “There is a nonspecific threat of an assault against churches,” police in the Austrian capital tweeted. “If there is a concrete danger for the population at a concrete location, Vienna police

The US and Russia have different accounts of what caused an American drone to crash into the Black Sea on Tuesday. It is the first time the two powers have come into direct contact since the Ukraine war started last year. ‘Something clearly went wrong’; follow Ukraine latest American officials say two Russian fighter jets

Joe Biden will visit Northern Ireland following a formal invitation from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The invitation was extended as the pair met for talks in San Diego to announce a nuclear submarine deal with Australia. “It’s my intention to go to Northern Ireland and the Republic,” Mr Biden said as they met in Point

Naatu Naatu from the Telugu-language blockbuster RRR has made history as the first Indian song to win an Academy Award, taking the Oscar for best original song.  With its catchy chorus and energetic choreography, the song sparked a viral TikTok challenge as people tried to master the acrobatic moves. The song by MM Keeravani and Chandrabose beat

Aside from the business at hand, events in China’s Great Hall of the People really are an impressive spectacle. Everything is performed to perfection, from the synchronised tea pouring to the delegates clapping and even page-turning in unison. The National People’s Congress (NPC) is an annual event that theoretically decides policy and occasionally makes changes

China must modernise its military to make it a “Great Wall of Steel”, President Xi Jinping has said. Speaking for the first time in his precedent-breaking third term as head of state, Mr Xi called for China to step up its ability to safeguard national security and manage public security. “Security is the foundation for

The Indian government is pushing back on an attempt by campaigners to win legal recognition for same-sex marriage, according to reports. Officials have urged the court to reject challenges to the current legal framework lodged by LGBT couples, reported Reuters news agency, which has seen a Sunday filing submitted to the Supreme Court. The Ministry

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been brutal and attritional, and has shocked most of the “civilised” world. Russia’s evident disregard for casualties and collateral damage in the pursuit of victory is very different to the West’s approach to warfare, which has profound implications for the war in Ukraine, and the West’s wider defence planning assumptions.

Several people have been killed in a shooting inside a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg. Shots were fired at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Hall in the Gross Borstel district, with police alerted at around 9.15pm on Thursday. Police say “several people” died and “several” were wounded and taken

I met Larysa standing on broken glass outside her Kyiv apartment block trying to convince two council workmen to come up to her flat and mend her shattered windows. Only hours earlier she had been shaken to the core by a huge explosion in the residential complex car park three floors beneath her. She invited

Georgia’s ruling party said it will drop a controversial bill on “foreign agents” after two days of violent protests. The ruling party, named Georgian Dream, said in a statement it would “unconditionally withdraw the bill we supported without any reservations”. It cited the need to reduce “confrontation” in society but denounced “lies” told about the

Ireland will hold a vote in November on removing “outmoded” references to a woman’s place being in the home from the country’s constitution. The Irish government said on Wednesday that it will hold a referendum on Article 41.2, which says Ireland recognises that “by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a

Twitter boss Elon Musk has backpedalled after publicly mocking an employee on the social media platform.  Twitter worker Haraldur Thorleifsson wasn’t sure whether he had been sacked by the company after finding himself locked out of his work computer, along with 200 others. Unable to get a clear answer as to whether he was still

In the migrant camps in northern France, it’s Mother Nature that calls the shots.  Many of the people staying in makeshift tent villages are waiting to catch small boats to the UK. Today, it’s the weather which has disrupted some of those crossings rather than an announcement from Westminster. “I’m going because my wife and my

Iran has secretly supplied large quantities of bullets, rockets and mortar shells to Russia for the war in Ukraine and plans to send more, a security source has told Sky News. The source claimed that two Russian-flagged cargo ships departed an Iranian port in January bound for Russia via the Caspian Sea, carrying approximately 100

Ukraine has vowed to avenge the death of a soldier it said was shot by Russian troops in a video that spread on social media. The video, which emerged online on Monday, purportedly shows the killing of an unarmed Ukrainian soldier. In a statement last night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “the occupiers” killed “a

Japan’s space agency was forced to destroy a new rocket just moments after its launch. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) had to send a self-destruct command to its H3 rocket 14 minutes into the flight after the ignition for the second stage of its launch failed. It comes just three weeks after the country’s

A Russian court has jailed the founder of an opposition Telegram channel, accusing him of spreading misinformation about the country’s armed forces. Dmitry Ivanov will spend more than eight years in a colony. Last year, the Kremlin passed a law making it illegal to publish false information about its war in Ukraine. Ukraine war –