Author: Gulf News Week

Waymo’s robotaxis will begin carrying passengers through parts of Atlanta on Tuesday in an expansion of a partnership with Uber that began earlier this year in Austin.Waymo’s driverless march into Atlanta comes just days after Tesla finally launched a limited robotaxi service in Austin, more than five years after CEO Elon Musk brashly promised the electric automaker would quickly overtake Waymo as the leader in autonomous driving technology. Unlike Waymo’s robotaxis, Tesla is initially placing a human in the passenger seat of its rival service to take over the vehicle if something goes wrong. While Tesla is starting with about…

BEIRUT (news agencies) — Sayeh Seydal, a jailed Iranian dissident, narrowly escaped death when Israeli missiles struck Tehran’s Evin Prison, where she was held. She had just stepped out of the prison’s clinic moments before it was destroyed.The June 23 strikes on Iran’s most notorious prison for political dissidents killed at least 71 people, including staff, soldiers, visiting family members and people living nearby, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said Sunday. In the ensuing chaos, authorities transferred Seydal and others to prisons outside Tehran — overcrowded facilities known for their harsh conditions.When she was able to call her family several…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Republicans are inching closer to getting their tax and spending cut bill through Congress with a final Senate vote likely late Monday or early Tuesday. At some 940 pages, the legislation is a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities, including new money for national defense and deportations. President Donald Trump has admonished Republicans, who hold majority power in the House and Senate, to skip their holiday vacations and deliver the bill by the Fourth of July. Democrats are united against the legislation and were offering scores of amendments to alter it…

Victor Wembanyama has another big man to help him out in San Antonio. The Houston Rockets continued their offseason overhaul. And Orlando and Atlanta made moves with eyes on contending this coming season as the NBA’s free agency period got underway Monday.The Spurs lured center Luke Kornet away from Boston with a four-year, $41 million deal, a person with knowledge of the agreement told media. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team cannot announce the deal until the league’s signing moratorium for most contracts is lifted on Sunday.Kornet was part of Boston’s 2024 NBA title team and…

A laser navigating tool doomed a Japanese company’s lunar lander earlier this month, causing it to crash into the moon. Officials for ispace announced the news from Tokyo on Tuesday. The crash landing was the second for ispace in two years. This time, the company’s lander named Resilience was aiming for the moon’s far north in Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter relayed pictures of the crash site last week where Resilience and its mini rover ended up as wreckage. Company officials blamed the accident on the lander’s laser range finder, saying it was slow to…

Five people who are incarcerated at a New Mexico county detention facility have measles, the state health department said Thursday. The Luna County Detention Center, located in the southwest New Mexico city of Deming, houses about 400 incarcerated people and has 100 staff members. State health officials say they are determining the vaccination status of people being held at the facility and are providing testing kits and equipment.As of Friday, the U.S. has 1,227 measles cases nationwide as of Tuesday, including active outbreaks in 12 states.The highly contagious and vaccine-preventable illness has been spreading in New Mexico since February, starting…

For reporters, it’s hardly unusual to call sources on the phone to learn details or get quotes that will enliven their stories. Sometimes people will talk, sometimes they won’t.But the president of the United States?In an almost unfathomable level of access, reporters who call President Donald Trump on his personal cell phone often get an answer — and an interview — from the leader of the free world on the spot. There’s evidence that this is happening more frequently.Paradoxically, it’s the same president who popularized the term “fake news” and has battled against the press for years on multiple fronts.…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday it is delaying by one month the planned cutoff of satellite data that helps forecasters track hurricanes.Meteorologists and scientists warned of severe consequences last week when NOAA said, in the midst of this year’s hurricane season, that it would almost immediately discontinue key data collected by three weather satellites that the agency jointly runs with the Defense Department. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s microwave data gives key information that can’t be gleaned from conventional satellites. That includes three-dimensional details of a storm, what’s going on inside of it and what it is…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending many U.S. economic sanctions on Syria, following through on a promise he made to the country’s new interim leader.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move was designed to “promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace.” The executive order is meant to “end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanizing investments from its neighbors in the region, as well as from the United States,” Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brad…

NEW YORK (news agencies) — In choosing Zohran Mamdani as their candidate for mayor, Democrats in America’s most Jewish city have nominated an outspoken critic of Israel, alarming some in New York’s Jewish community and signaling a sea change in the priorities of one of the party’s most loyal voting groups.The 33-year-old democratic socialist’s surprisingly strong performance against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo makes clear that taking a stance against Israel is no longer disqualifying in a Democratic primary. The state Assembly member has declined to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, refused to denounce the…