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Google and Microsoft fight over the future of AI

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

(CNN) — Wall Street was able to breathe a sigh of relief on Tuesday as Google-parent company Alphabet and Microsoft both beat the market’s relatively modest earnings expectations. The companies saw big boosts from their search and cloud computing businesses.After a disastrous year for both stocks, the shares rebounded strongly in the first quarter.And so, with immediate concerns out of the way, executives at Microsoft and Alphabet focused their remarks during earnings calls on what excites them most: Artificial intelligence.Microsoft, Google and a number of smaller rivals are in a race to integrate generative artificial intelligence technology (similar to ChatGPT) into their search functions and other applications.Both companies see it as an integral part of their future, but it was apparent on Tuesday that Microsoft and Google aren’t in agreement about what that future will look like.Analysts have expressed worry that Google is falling behind the competition when ...

Pernod Ricard quietly resumes booze exports to Russia 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

BRUSSELS — Pernod Ricard has resumed exports of brands including Beefeater Gin and Jameson Irish Whiskey to Russia, a week after the French spirits giant was forced into U-turn on a decision to restart exports of Absolut Vodka following a backlash in Sweden.Members of parliament in the U.K. are not happy that the iconic London gin, marketed under the slogan “The Spirit of London” is being sold in Russia, while the country continues to wage an all-out war in Ukraine.“Pernod Ricard profiting from an aggressor state responsible for war crimes is shameful,” said Alicia Kearns, Conservative MP and chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, on Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail.  Pernod Ricard was among many firms to stop exports to Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last February. “It is as disgusting as it is ironic to return to Russia while others are still getting out,” said Mark Dixon, founder of the Moral Rating Agency, in a statem...

Sinn Féin to attend King Charles’ coronation in sign of changed times

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

DUBLIN — The Irish republicans of Sinn Féin — who once supported Irish Republican Army attacks on British royals — announced Wednesday they will send senior representatives to the coronation of King Charles III in a sign of radically changed times.Michelle O’Neill, the party’s deputy leader and first minister-designate for the mothballed Northern Ireland government, said she would represent Sinn Féin at the May 6 ceremony at Westminster Abbey.O’Neill, who wants the Democratic Unionists to end their year-long boycott of power-sharing and permit her to take the helm of government in Belfast for the first time, said she was making the commitment as a way to demonstrate her respect for unionists and their British identity.“I am committed to being a first minister for all, representing the whole community, and advancing peace and reconciliation through respectful and mature engagement,” O’Neill said in a statement.Sinn Féin has traveled a long way from the days when the outlawed IRA was ...

Xi tells Zelenskyy: China won’t add ‘fuel to the fire’ in Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

BRUSSELS — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday reassured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Beijing would not add “fuel to the fire” of the war in Ukraine and insisted the time was ripe to “resolve the crisis politically.” While Xi’s remarks — as reported by the state’s Xinhua news agency — made no specific reference to international fears that China could send arms to Russia’s invading forces in Ukraine, his words will be read as a signal that Beijing won’t give direct military assistance to Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Xi was making his first call to Zelenskyy more than 400 days into the Russian war against Ukraine, and he suggested that Kyiv should pursue “political resolution” through dialogue — presumably with Russia — to bring peace to Europe.For months, Xi had resisted pressure from the West — and pleas from Zelenskyy — for the two of them to have a direct chat. Instead, he held multiple meetings with the diplomatically isolated Putin...

France plans power grab to block porn websites

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

France is coming for porn websites again.The French government wants to give new powers to its media regulator to block adult websites that don’t comply with age verification requirements, according to a report in NextInpact, confirmed by POLITICO.Under the draft new rules, laid out in a tech bill to be presented next week, the regulator for audiovisual and digital communication, Arcom, would no longer need judicial approval to force telecoms operators and search engines to block access to Pornhub or YouPorn in the country, a French government official confirmed. For almost three years, Paris and the porn industry have squabbled over how to verify porn users’ age. In 2020, France was one of the first countries to force adult websites to block online access to minors, but the measure has had limited success. Porn companies including Pornhub have defended themselves before French courts, arguing the text cannot be implemented technically and puts privacy at risk. The porn ...

Big Pharma meets its match as EU refuses to budge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

The European Union is set for a showdown with the pharma industry.Brussels held firm on a planned overhaul of its pharmaceutical rules on Wednesday, confirming a punishing new measure that will cut into the sector’s bottom line. The proposed rules would remove two years of data protection from all new medicines launched in the European Union, allowing unbranded rivals to enter the market more quickly. Since details of this measure were first revealed in a leaked draft published by POLITICO in January, pharma companies have been up in arms about this threat to their earnings. Politicians and activists feared that a recent last minute delay was a sign that the industry had successfully lobbied to water down the package. But while the final version contains some sweeteners for industry, the overall shape of the package — which consists of one regulation and one directive — has stayed the same.Access above allThe reform puts forward a mix of carrots and sticks to try and ...

UK’s Rishi Sunak lines up £1 billion chips strategy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak is preparing to pledge just £1 billion to the U.K.’s fledgling microchip industry as American and European governments shore up their supply chains with massive subsidy packages worth tens of billions of dollars. Four figures with direct knowledge of the process say the total government funding is expected to be worth £1 billion. One person said the deal was done, but two others insisted this figure could yet change in the next few weeks.The prime minister is hoping to unveil the long-awaited semiconductor strategy, which had been due last fall, at next month’s meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) leaders in Japan.One figure with direct knowledge of the discussions said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology were “working towards” a figure of around £1 billion, although cautioned this could still be revised in the weeks ahead. A second figure directly involved in talks said the billion mark was “along the r...

Zoning Change Could Upend Nantucket Rental Market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

Proposed short-term rental regulations set for a vote at Nantucket Town Meeting in May could slash the majority of the island’s supply of immediately available rental units, according to a study that opponents of the measure solicited. The UMass Donahue Institute examined the proposed zoning bylaw known as Article 60, which will come up for consideration at Town Meeting on May 6, and found it would carry major impacts on the market for rentals in the popular vacation destination. The measure would require short-term rental properties in residential districts to provide “long-term residential use more than short-term rental use,” unless they are owner-occupied, defined as an owner residing in the property at least six months every year. Researchers with the Donahue Institute concluded that only 114 of the 2,293 short-term rentals registered on the island are owner-occupied, and that units “unambiguously compliant” with the proposal “are largely lim...

Chris Perkins: Top 10 players that make sense as Dolphins’ second-round pick

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

For the second consecutive year, the Dolphins don’t have a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. But that doesn’t mean they can’t acquire a quality player with their first two picks, which are in the second and third rounds.Here’s a glance, in no particular order, at 10 players who could be available and make an impact for the Dolphins in the second round when they make their selection, No. 51, on Friday night.Steve Avila, G-C, TCUThis would be a selection for skill and attitude as Avila (6-3, 332) is heavy-handed, aggressive and a skilled pass blocker. He made 15 starts at left guard last season, but also has 17 starts at center in his career. Avila’s long arms should benefit him on the interior. With the Dolphins, he’d likely challenge Liam Eichenberg and Robert Jones to start at left guard as a rookie.Jamhyr Gibbs, RB, AlabamaGibbs, a Georgia Tech transfer, led Alabama in all-purpose yards (1,624) while rushing for 926 yards and averaging 6.1 yard...

Healey’s pick for new MassDems chair clinches victory without opposition

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:00:02 GMT

The state’s Democratic party demonstrated a cohesiveness that Massachusetts conservatives could only dream of Tuesday evening when they elected a new chair to steer liberal efforts for the next two years without vocal opposition.Former lieutenant governor nominee Steve Kerrigan, the CEO of the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center, was the lone candidate running to succeed outgoing party chairman Gus Bickford, who leaves his position atop the MassDems after 6-years of successfully expanding liberal control of the legislature, securing the governorship and maintaining every constitutional office.“I inherit a strong foundation thanks to Gus Bickford’s terrific leadership,” Kerrigan said in a statement after his victory. “My goal is to make the Massachusetts Democratic Party the gold standard for state parties across the country. We will do that by harnessing the tremendous energy at our grassroots, by representing all our people and being accessible to all,...