KBC Channel 1

Author: BBC News

  • Wheat prices soar after Russia warns shipping

    Wheat prices soar after Russia warns shipping

    Wheat prices have risen sharply on global markets after Russia said it would treat ships heading for Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.

    Moscow pulled out of a deal this week that had guaranteed safe passage for grain shipments through the Black Sea.

    A White House spokesperson accused Russia of planning to blame Ukraine for attacks on civilian ships.

    Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he would return to the grain agreement immediately if his demands were met.

    They include reconnecting Russia’s agricultural bank to a global payment system.

    A Russian air strike on the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv wounded 18 people on Wednesday night, according to a local official.

    The region’s governor Vitaliy Kim said nine of the injured, including five children, were taken to hospital for treatment.

    Other air strikes were reported on the port of Odesa.

    Elsewhere, a drone strike in Russian-controlled Crimea killed a teenage girl, a Russian-backed official said.

    Following previous air strikes around Odesa this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting grain export infrastructure and putting vulnerable countries at risk.

    Kyiv urged other countries in the Black Sea region to intervene to assure the safe passage of cargo ships.

    “From 00:00 Moscow time on 20 July 2023 [21:00 GMT Wednesday], all vessels sailing on the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo,” the Russian defence ministry said.

    “Flag states of such vessels will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime,” it added.

    Wheat prices on the European stock exchange soared by 8.2% on Wednesday from the previous day, to €253.75 (£219.78) per tonne, while corn prices were up 5.4%.

    US wheat futures jumped 8.5% on Wednesday, their highest daily rise since just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said strikes had destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain and damaged considerable parts of grain export infrastructure.

    Russia began targeting Ukraine’s ports in the early hours of Tuesday within hours of its withdrawal from the grain deal.

    Marex Capital analyst Charlie Sernatinger said the threat of this kind of escalation could “cut all of the waterborne grain shipments off from the Black Sea, both Russian, and Ukrainian” which would cause a similar situation to that at the start of the war.

    Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading, said: “Things got heated back up over in Ukraine. There is some real shooting going on over there and nobody is going to get in the middle of that.

    “That is the bread basket of Europe and shippers are pulling out.”

    On Wednesday Mr Putin accused the West of using the grain deal as “political blackmail”.

    Moscow also accused Ukraine of using the Black Sea grain corridor for “combat purposes”. It struck at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports after a suspected seaborne drone attack damaged its sea bridge to Crimea on Monday.

  • Kennedy road fire: Hundreds of homes destroyed in Durban

    Kennedy road fire: Hundreds of homes destroyed in Durban

    In a poor neighborhood of the South African port city of Durban, hundreds of homes have been destroyed by a fire.

    One person is known to have died in the blaze that tore through the Kennedy Road informal settlement early on Sunday morning, but there are fears that more bodies could be found.

    Video footage shows the twisted remains of corrugated iron sheets used to build the shacks amid the smouldering debris.

    The cause of the fire is not yet known. However, some eyewitnesses say it started when two people, who had been drinking, got into an argument.

    A South African Red Cross spokesman described it as a disaster and estimated that about 1,000 shacks may have been destroyed, leaving some 3,000 people homeless.

  • Tunisia signs border-policing deal with EU

    Tunisia signs border-policing deal with EU

    The European Union has signed a partnership deal with Tunisia`s president Kai `s Saied, party aiming at combating people trafficking.

    Tunisia has been identified as the main departure point for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, while in Tunisia, promised increased cooperation on border management and search and rescue operations.

    Announcing the deal in Tunis, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised increased cooperation on border management and search and rescue operations.

    Italy`s far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said it was an important step towards creating a true partnership in tackling what she referred to as “the migration crisis” Members of the European parliament have called for the deal to be conditional on respect for democracy and the rule of law in Tunisia.

    Members of the European parliament have called for the deal to be conditional on respect for democracy and the rule of law in Tunisia. President Saïed dissolved parliament in 2021 and has re-written the constitution.

    In recent months,  black Africans in Tunisia have suffered waves of racist violence, following controversial comments from President Saïed, who alleged a plot to change the Arab-Muslims demographics.

     

     

  • Twitter loses nearly half advertising revenue since Musk takeover

    Twitter loses nearly half advertising revenue since Musk takeover

    Twitter has lost almost half of its advertising revenue since it was bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion (£33.6bn) last October, its owner has revealed.

    He said the company had not seen the increase in sales that had been expected in June, but added that July was a “bit more promising.”

    Mr Musk sacked about half of Twitter’s 7,500 staff when he took over in 2022 in a effort to cut costs.

    Rival app Threads now has 150 million users, according to some estimates.

    Its in-built connection to Instagram automatically gives the Meta-designed platform access to a potential two billion users.

    Meanwhile, Twitter is struggling under a heavy debt load. Cash flow remains negative, Mr Musk said at the weekend, although the billionaire did not put a time frame on the 50% drop in ad revenue.

    In a tweet he said: “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.”

    After laying off thousands of employees and cutting cloud service bills, Mr Musk said Twitter was on track to post $3bn (£2.29bn) in revenue in 2023, down from $5.1bn in 2021.

    The development is the latest sign the aggressive cost-cutting measures have not been enough to ignite a return of advertisers who fled after changes to its content moderation rules.

    That is despite an interview Mr Musk gave to the BBC in April, in which he suggested that most had returned to the site.

    However, Meghana Dhar, the former head of partnerships at Snap and Meta, which owns the new Twitter rival Threads, said the company had been struggling prior to Mr Musk’s buyout.

    “Elon and Twitter are in a candidly tough position right now,” she told the BBC’s Today programme. “To be fair to Elon though, we’ve seen that decline in Twitter revenue and growth in revenue since pre-Elon – there’s been kind of a steady decline.”

    Lucy Coutts, investment director at JM Finn, said: “You wouldn’t bet against him, he’s a kind of mercurial figure and I think probably he will turn it around but it is just going to take longer.

    “But unfortunately he has got $13bn of debt to pay by the end of July so we may see more pressure on the shares in Tesla if he has to sell more of his stake in that company.”

    Mr Musk is also the chief executive and majority shareholder of electric car-maker Tesla, which will report its latest quarterly financial results on Wednesday.

    Linda Yaccarino, previously head of advertising at NBCUniversal, was taken on as chief executive of Twitter in June – a move suggesting advertising sales are still a priority for the company.

    Ms Yaccarino has said Twitter plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships. It is said to be in early talks with political and entertainment figures, payments services, and news and media publishers.

  • ChatGPT owner in probe over risks around false answers

    ChatGPT owner in probe over risks around false answers

    US regulators are probing artificial intelligence company OpenAI over the risks to consumers from ChatGPT generating false information.

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent a letter to the Microsoft-backed business requesting information on how it addresses risks to people’s reputations.

    The inquiry is a sign of the rising regulatory scrutiny of the technology.

    OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman says the company will work with the FTC.

    ChatGPT generates convincing human-like responses to user queries within seconds, instead of the series of links generated by a traditional internet search. It, and similar AI products, are expected to dramatically change the way people get information they are searching for online.

    Tech rivals are racing to offer their own versions of the technology, even as it generates fierce debate, including over the data it uses, the accuracy of the responses and whether the company violated authors’ rights as it was training the technology.

    The FTC’s letter asks what steps OpenAI has taken to address its products’ potential to “generate statements about real individuals that are false, misleading, disparaging or harmful”.

    The FTC is also looking at OpenAI’s approach to data privacy and how it obtains data to train and inform the AI.

    Mr Altman said OpenAI had spent years on safety research and months making ChatGPT “safer and more aligned before releasing it”.

    “We protect user privacy and design our systems to learn about the world, not private individuals,” he said on Twitter.

    In another tweet he said that it was important to the firm that its “technology is safe and pro-consumer, and we are confident we follow the law. Of course we will work with the FTC.”

    Mr Altman appeared before a hearing at Congress earlier this year, in which he admitted that the technology could be a source of errors.

    He called for regulations to be created for the emerging industry and recommended that a new agency be formed to oversee AI safety. He added that he expected the technology to have a significant impact, including on jobs, as its uses become clear.

    “I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong… we want to be vocal about that,” Mr Altman said at the time. “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.”

    The investigation by the FTC was first reported by the Washington Post, which published a copy of the letter. OpenAI did not respond to a BBCrequest for comment.

    The FTC also declined to comment. The consumer watchdog has taken a high profile role policing the tech giants under its current chair, Lina Khan.

    Ms Khan rose to prominence as a Yale law student, when she criticised America’s record on anti-monopoly enforcement related to Amazon.

    Appointed by President Joe Biden, she is a controversial figure, with critics arguing that she is pushing the FTC beyond the boundaries of its authority.

    Some of her most high-profile challenges of tech firms activities – including a push to block the merger of Microsoft with gaming giant Activision Blizzard – have faced setbacks in the courts.

    During a five-hour hearing in Congress on Thursday, she faced tough criticism from Republicans over her leadership of the agency.

    She did not mention the FTC’s investigation into OpenAI, which is at a preliminary stage. But she said she had concerns about the product’s output.

    “We’ve heard about reports where people’s sensitive information is showing up in response to an inquiry from somebody else,” Ms Khan said.

    “We’ve heard about libel, defamatory statements, flatly untrue things that are emerging. That’s the type of fraud and deception that we are concerned about,” she added.

    The FTC probe is not the company’s first challenge over such issues. Italy banned ChatGPT in April, citing privacy concerns. The service was restored after it added a tool to verify users’ ages and provided more information about its privacy policy.

  • Pakistan gets final approval for $3bn IMF bailout

    Pakistan gets final approval for $3bn IMF bailout

    The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) board has given its approval for a $3bn (£2.3bn) bailout for Pakistan.

    The crisis-hit nation will get about $1.2bn upfront, with the rest due to be paid out over the next nine months.

    The South Asian nation was on the brink of defaulting on its debts and had barely enough in foreign currencies to pay for a month of imports.

    This week, the country also received funds from allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

    Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the bailout was a major step forward in efforts to stabilise the economy.

    “It bolsters Pakistan’s economic position to overcome immediate to medium-term economic challenges, giving next government the fiscal space to chart the way forward,” he said.

    The IMF deal came after eight months of tough negotiations over how to deal with serious long-term issues with Pakistan’s ailing economy.

    The country had been on the brink of being unable to meet debt repayments to creditors.

    Much of the country was hit by devastating floods last year, which added to other major problems faced by the country, including high inflation and economic mismanagement by successive governments.

    Saudi Arabia deposited $2bn with Pakistan’s central bank on Tuesday, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said.

    On Wednesday, Mr Dar said the central bank had also received $1bn from the UAE.

    The energy-rich Middle Eastern nations had pledged the money in April,but held off handing it over until it was certain that the IMF bailout would be finalised.

    The IMF deal, along with the money from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will unlock more funds to help support Pakistan’s ailing economy.

    Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to rise to around $15bn by the end of this month, Mr Dar has said.

    On Monday, the credit rating agency Fitch upgraded Pakistan’s sovereign rating, with the deal bringing some relief to investors in the country’s stocks and bonds.

    The heavily-indebted country’s bonds have soared since the end of June, when the IMF gave preliminary approval for the bailout.

    Mr Sharif’s coalition government, which is due to face a national election this year, still has to make major spending cuts to meet the conditions of the bailout.

    The cost of living has been soaring in Pakistan. The official annual rate of inflation currently stands at almost 30%.

    Last month, the country’s central bank raised its main interest rate to a record high of 22% as it struggled to curb rising prices.

    This week’s bailout is the latest in a long line of support Pakistan has received from the IMF. It has taken more than 20 loans from the international lender since 1958.

  • Trump loses immunity shield in defamation lawsuit

    Trump loses immunity shield in defamation lawsuit

    Ex-President Donald Trump can be held liable for disparaging comments he made about a woman who accused him of rape, the US Department of Justice has said.

    Its lawyers previously argued Mr Trump was legally immune as he was president when he made the remarks in 2019.

    But on Tuesday government attorneys said they no longer had “sufficient basis” to conclude Mr Trump had acted within the scope of his duties.

    The decision boosts E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump.

    In May, Mr Trump was ordered to pay the former magazine columnist $5m (£3.9m) after being found liable for sexual abuse of her in 1996 at a New York department store.

    Ms Carroll, 79, is currently seeking $10m from Mr Trump in a defamation lawsuit, which is due to go to trial in January.

    The legal action cites his remarks as president about her in 2019 while responding to reporters’ questions.

    The lawsuit has been updated to reflect further comments he made about her during a CNN town hall the day after the court’s verdict two months ago.

    The justice department had previously taken the position that Mr Trump could be defended by government attorneys because he was serving in his capacity as president when he made the remarks.

    But on Tuesday its lawyers said “there is no longer a sufficient basis to conclude that the former president was motivated by ‘more than an insignificant’ desire to serve the United States Government”.

    In a letter filed with the judge presiding over the case, the justice department wrote that “Mr Trump was motivated by a ‘personal grievance’ stemming from events that occurred many years prior to Mr Trump’s presidency”.

    The letter said new evidence had emerged since Mr Trump, 77, left office, referring to the Manhattan civil trial earlier this year.

    The justice department said that though Mr Trump’s comments were made via official channels, the accusation that prompted the statements were in regards “to a purely personal incident: an alleged sexual assault that occurred decades prior to Mr Trump’s presidency”.

    Ms Carroll’s lawyer welcomed the justice department’s reconsideration.

    “We have always believed that Donald Trump made his defamatory statements about our client in June 2019 out of personal animus, ill will, and spite, and not as president of the United States,” said Roberta A Kaplan.

  • Foxconn: Apple supplier drops out of $20bn India factory plan

    Foxconn: Apple supplier drops out of $20bn India factory plan

    Apple supplier Foxconn has pulled out of a $19.5bn (£15.2bn) deal with Indian mining giant Vedanta to build a chip making plant in the country.

    The move comes less than a year after the companies announced plans to set up the facility in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

    Some analysts say it marks a setback to the nation’s technology industry goals.

    However, a government minister says it will have no impact on the country’s chip making ambitions.

    Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn told the BBC that it will now “explore more diverse development opportunities”.

    The firm also said the decision was made in “mutual agreement” with Vedanta, which has assumed full ownership of the venture, but did not give details on why it withdrew from the deal.

    “We will continue to strongly support the government’s ‘Make in India’ ambitions and establish a diversity of local partnerships that meet the needs of stakeholders,” Foxconn added.

    New Delhi-based Vedanta said it had “lined up other partners to set up India’s first [chip] foundry”.

    “The surprise pull-out of Foxconn is a considerable blow to India’s semiconductor ambitions,” Paul Triolo from global advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group told the BBC.

    “The apparent cause of the pull-out is the lack of a clear technology partner and path for the joint venture,” he added. “Neither party had significant experience with developing and managing a large-scale semiconductor manufacturing operation.”

    However, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, said on Twitter that Foxconn’s decision had “no impact on India’s semiconductor fab[rication] goals. None.”

    Mr Chandrasekhar added that Foxconn and Vedanta were “valued investors” in the country and “will now pursue their strategies in India independently”.

    The Indian government has been working on strategies to support the chipmaking industry.

    Last year, it created a $10bn fund to attract more investors to the sector, in a bid to become less reliant on foreign chipmakers.

    Prime Minister Modi’s flagship ‘Make in India’ scheme, which launched in 2014, is aimed at transforming the country into a global manufacturing hub to rival China.

    In recent years, several other firms have announced plans to build semiconductor factories in India.

    Last month, US memory chip giant Micron said it would invest up to $825m to build a semiconductor assembly and test facility in India.

    Micron said that the construction of the new facility in Gujarat will begin this year. The project is expected to directly create up to 5,000 roles, and another 15,000 jobs in the area.

  • Twitter threatens legal action over Threads app

    Twitter threatens legal action over Threads app

    Twitter is considering legal action against Meta over its fast-growing rival app Threads.

    Threads, which was launched to millions on Wednesday, is similar to Twitter and has been pitched by Meta bosses as a “friendly” alternative.

    Twitter’s Elon Musk said “competition is fine, cheating is not” – but Meta denied claims in a legal letter that ex-Twitter staff helped create Threads.

    More than 30 million people have signed up for the new app, according to Meta.

    The look and feel of Threads are similar to those of Twitter, BBC News technology reporter James Clayton noted. He said the news feed and the reposting were “incredibly familiar”.

    In a move first reported by news outlet Semafor, Twitter attorney Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday accusing Meta of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” to create Threads.

    Specifically, Mr Spiro alleged that Meta had hired dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information” that ultimately helped Meta develop what he termed the “copycat” Threads app.

    “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” the letter says.

    “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice.”

    BBC News, which has seen a copy of the letter, has contacted both Meta and Twitter for comment.

    Mr Musk said that “competition is fine, cheating is not” in response to a post on Twitter that referred to the legal letter.

    On Threads, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone posted that “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee – that’s just not a thing”.

    Both Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg have acknowledged the rivalry over Threads, which is linked to Instagram but works as a standalone app.

    As it launched in 100 countries, Mr Zuckerberg broke more than 11 years of silence on Twitter to post a highly popular meme of two nearly identical Spider-Man figures pointing at each other, indicating a stand-off.

    Shortly after, and as the word “Threads” trended globally on his platform, Mr Musk said: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”

    GRAPHICS | BBC

    Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a tweet on Thursday that while the platform, which has previously reported about 260 million monthly users, is “often imitated” it “can never be duplicated”.

    Both Meta and Twitter have undertaken significant layoffs this year, with Meta announcing in April that it would cut staff levels by approximately 10,000.

    Twitter lost a large proportion of its 7,500 employees, as high as 80%, in waves of redundancies following Mr Musk’s takeover last October.

  • Threads: Ten million join Meta’s Twitter rival, Zuckerberg says

    Threads: Ten million join Meta’s Twitter rival, Zuckerberg says

    Ten million users signed up for Meta’s newly-launched Threads app in its first seven hours, the company’s chief Mark Zuckerberg says.

    He pitched the app as a “friendly” rival to Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk in October.

    Experts say Threads could attract Twitter users unhappy with recent changes to the platform.

    Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters, and has many features similar to Twitter.

    Earlier, Mr Zuckerberg said keeping the platform “friendly… will ultimately be the key to its success”.

    But Mr Musk responded: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”

    When asked on Threads whether the app will be “bigger than Twitter”, Mr Zuckerberg said: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.

    “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

    Competitors have criticised the amount of data the app might use. This may include health, financial, and browsing data linked to users’ identities, according to the Apple App Store.

    Threads is now available to download in over 100 countries including the UK, but not yet in the EU because of regulatory concerns.

    ‘Initial version’

    Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, called the new app an “initial version”, with extra features planned including the ability to interact with people on other social media apps like Mastodon.

    “Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text,” the firm said prior to its launch.

    Despite Threads being a standalone app, users log in using an Instagram account. Their Instagram username carries over, but there is an option to customize their profile specifically for Threads.

    Users will also be able to choose to follow the same accounts they do on Instagram, Meta says. The app allows users to be private on Instagram, but public on Threads.

    The new app’s release comes after criticism of Meta’s business practices.

    Last year, Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen said the company had put “profits over safety” and criticised how the platform was moderated.

    The company was also rocked by a scandal in which it allowed third parties, including British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, to access Facebook users’ personal data.

    In an apparent reference to this controversial past, Mr Musk joked on Monday “thank goodness they’re so sanely run”.

    There are several alternatives to Twitter available, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, but these have struggled to gain traction.

    Threads has a significant advantage because it is connected to Instagram, and the hundreds of millions of users already on that platform.

    How does Threads work?

    On Threads, posts can be shared to Instagram and vice versa and can include links, photos, and videos of up to five minutes in length.

    However, some early users on Wednesday reported problems when uploading images, hinting at teething problems.

    Users see a feed of posts, which Meta calls “threads”, from people they follow as well as recommended content.

    They are able to control who can “mention” them and filter out replies to posts that contain specific words.

    Unfollowing, blocking, restricting or reporting other profiles is also possible, and any accounts users block on Instagram are automatically blocked on Threads.

    While Meta stresses ties to Instagram, media coverage has focused on its similarity to Twitter, with some investors describing the app as a “Twitter killer”.

    On Saturday, Twitter boss Elon Musk restricted the number of tweets users could see on his platform per day, citing extreme “data scraping”.

    It was Mr Musk’s latest push to get users to sign up to Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service.

    Twitter has also announced that its popular user dashboard TweetDeck will go behind a paywall in 30 days’ time.

    Since Mr Musk took over, many users of Twitter have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the platform and his stewardship – citing erratic behaviour and political views.

    Last month, Mr Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg agreed – possibly in jest – to a cage fight, and Mr Zuckerberg’s early posts on Threads mentioned his interest in mixed martial arts.

    While Threads will be available in the UK, it is not yet available in the EU because of regulatory uncertainty, particularly around the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

    But the company says it is looking into launching in the EU.

    That act lays down rules on how large companies such as Meta can share data between platforms that they own. The sharing of data between Threads and Instagram is part of the issue.

    Meta maintains protecting privacy is fundamental to its business.