Author: staff

YouTube will start playing advertisements directly after the “peak” moments of its videos, the latest in a string of new tools from its parent company that are backed by artificial intelligence (AI).The platform will use Google’s AI model Gemini to identify the point in videos “where audiences are the most engaged” – and allow brands to place ads there, the company said in a blog post Wednesday.YouTube gave an example: A video of a marriage proposal atop a snowy mountain could be strategically interrupted with an ad immediately after the groom pops the question.The new tool is called “Peak Points,”…

The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, examined how climate and other factors have influenced the spread of dengue and chikungunya in Europe over the past 35 years. It found that outbreaks have become more frequent and severe since 2010, in line with rising temperatures. “Our findings highlight that the EU is transitioning from sporadic outbreaks of Aedes-borne diseases towards an endemic state,” the study said. In 2024, the hottest year on record, a total of 304 dengue cases were reported in the EU — “a historic peak compared with the combined total of 275 cases in the previous 15…

Lhermitte said that during the same time period, American investors were spooked by geopolitical tensions, spiking energy costs and sluggish growth. The coronavirus pandemic and the rise of energy prices set off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have plunged Europe in period of industrial decline. “A region with no growth during three years is exhausting,” Lhermitte said. The situation is likely to get worse, especially with Trump’s threat to raise across-the-board tariffs on European goods from 10 percent to 20 percent as he seeks to convince foreign companies to produce more goods in the United States.  “Companies tell us that this is a major reason for concern,” said Lhermitte.…

Over 95 per cent of French Guiana – a French overseas department nestled between Brazil and Suriname – is covered in tropical forests, a wild, thick, humid ecosystem found in regions near the equator. Tropical forests play an important role in mitigating climate change, as they absorb a great share of the carbon dioxide (CO2) stored in terrestrial biomass. However, quantifying exactly how much CO2 these forests absorb is challenging, as their dense canopies make them almost impenetrable.But the answer to these doubts might come from French Guiana itself. Blasting off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou on April 29, the European…

TikTok is the second platform to receive a warning from the EU under the Digital Services Act (DSA), following preliminary findings against Elon Musk’s X released last summer. TikTok does not “provide the necessary information about the content of the advertisements, the users targeted by the ads, and who paid for the advertisements,” and it also does not allow the public to search for ads, the Commission said. The investigation into TikTok started in February 2024, and several aspects of the probe are outstanding: addictive design, minors’ protection and giving data access to researchers. The Commission closed another DSA investigation…

TikTok’s advertising repository is in breach of the EU’s online platforms rules, the European Commission said on Thursday with the publication of preliminary findings in its Digital Services Act (DSA) probe which it began in February 2024.Under the DSA, very large online platforms need to have such an advertising repository in place for researchers and civil society to detect scam advertisements and hybrid threat campaigns.The Commission’s investigation found that video sharing app TikTok does not provide the necessary information about the content of the advertisements, the users targeted by the ads, and who paid for the advertisements.In addition, TikTok’s repository…

Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy serve up their essential guide to the day in British politics. Today, Sir Keir Starmer heads to Albania to announce a crackdown on migrant smuggling gangs in the Balkans, while internal political unrest continues to brew at home. Sam and Anne discuss the growing tension inside both the Labour and Conservative parties, and Sam reveals how the first cracks between the chancellor and the PM have started to form. What does this mean for an increasingly under-pressure Starmer? Plus: Tory uncertainty deepens, leaving MPs wondering where Kemi Badenoch’s leadership is taking them.

President Donald Trump has suggested that India has offered to drop tariffs on US goods to zero, something not immediately acknowledged by New Delhi.Trump made the comments during a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar, on his Mideast tour, first discussing Apple’s plans to build manufacturing plants for its iPhone in India.“It’s very hard to sell into India and and they’ve offered us a deal where basically they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff,” Trump said.India is a close partner of the US and is part of the Quad, which is made up of the US, India, Japan and Australia,…

Britain’s economy expanded a little faster than expected in the first quarter, as a strong performance from the services sector offset a decline in industrial output. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.2 percent month-on-month in March, the Office for National Statistics said today in a preliminary estimate. Analysts had expected it to stay stagnant. That left GDP up by 0.7 percent over the first three months of the year, a little more than the 0.6 percent forecast. The Bank of England had said last week that, while it expected a solid performance in the first quarter, the U.K. economy…

European Council President Antonio Costa continued his Western Balkans tour on Wednesday with a visit to Kosovo, another EU membership hopeful.Costa arrived in the capital Pristina during an institutional and parliamentary crisis. Even after three months of elections, the new parliament chair had not been chosen, and the new government was nowhere in sight.Costa met with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who is on a technical mandate while also serving as MP in the new parliament.At a joint press conference with Osmani, Costa said that the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is crucial for further EU…