Author: Gulf News Week
MOSCOW (news agencies) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran, Ukraine and other issues on Thursday in a “frank and constructive” phone call, the Kremlin said, in their sixth publicly disclosed chat since Trump returned to the White House. While discussing the situation around Iran and in the broader Middle East, Putin emphasized the need to resolve all differences “exclusively by political and diplomatic means,” said Yuri Ushakov, his foreign affairs adviser. The leaders agreed that Russian and U.S. officials will maintain contacts on the issue, he added. The United States struck three sites in…
LONDON (news agencies) — If you’re using ChatGPT but getting mediocre results, don’t blame the chatbot. Instead, try sharpening up your prompts.Generative AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have become hugely popular and embedded into daily life for many users. They’re powerful tools that can help us with so many different tasks.What you shouldn’t overlook, however, is that a chatbot’s output depends on what you tell it to do, and how. There’s a lot you can do to improve the prompt — also known as the request or query — that you type in. Here…
LONDON (news agencies) — When Naomi Osaka opened up about her anxiety and depression at the 2021 French Open, it sparked a conversation in sports — and society at large — about mental health and the importance of addressing such issues.In the time since, more and more players have spoken about the topic and seeking help, and whatever taboos there were seem to have faded. Still, the way three-time Grand Slam finalist Alexander Zverev discussed his state of mind after a first-round exit at Wimbledon this week revived the conversation.“I feel very alone out there at times. I struggle mentally.…
Washington imposes financial penalties on an Iraqi businessman who it says helped smuggle Iranian oil.Washington, DC – The United States has issued a new wave of sanctions against Iranian oil exports, the first penalties against Tehran’s energy sector since a Washington-backed ceasefire between Israel and Iran came into effect last month. Among those targeted by the sanctions announced on Thursday are Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said and his United Arab Emirates-based company, which the US accused of smuggling Iranian oil by blending it with Iraqi oil. “Iran’s behavior has left it decimated. While it has had every opportunity to choose…
BOGOTA, Colombia (news agencies) — The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Thursday issued a landmark advisory opinion linking governments’ human rights obligations to their responsibility to address the threat of climate change — a move expected to shape policy and litigation across Latin America and the Caribbean.The opinion is the first of its kind from the region’s top human rights tribunal and responds to a 2023 request from Colombia and Chile. It says states have a duty under international law to prevent, mitigate and remedy environmental harm that threatens human rights, including through laws, policies and actions aimed at…
WASHINGTON (news agencies) — The Trump administration will hold back delivering to Ukraine some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons as part of its announced pause to some arms shipments amid U.S. concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said.The details on the weapons in some of the paused deliveries were confirmed by a U.S. official and former national security official familiar with the matter. They both requested anonymity to discuss what is are being held up as the Pentagon has yet to provide details.The pause includes some shipments of Patriot missiles, precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire…
Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs in the U.S. remain low despite uncertainty about how tariffs will impact the economy.The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims for the week ending June 28 fell by 4,000 to 233,000, less than the 241,000 that analysts forecast. Applications for unemployment aid are considered a proxy for layoffs.In a separate report Thursday, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 147,000 jobs in June, a sign that the American labor market continues to show surprising resilience despite uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The job gains were much…
LOS ANGELES (news agencies) — Clayton Kershaw was laboring in pursuit of his 3,000th strikeout. His pitch count soaring, he was down to the last batter he would face, needing one more swing and miss to become the 20th pitcher to reach the milestone.“It’s a little bit harder when you’re actually trying to strike people out,” he said, smiling. “I never really had to do that before.”Kershaw accomplished the feat when Vinny Capra of the Chicago White Sox took a slider for a called third strike for the final out of the sixth inning on Wednesday night.“I made it interesting.…
Air raid hits vehicle in Khaldeh, south of Lebanese capital, as Israel continues its near-daily attacks on Lebanon.An Israeli drone attack has killed at least one person and injured three near the Lebanese capital, Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says, the latest violation of the ceasefire between the two countries. The air raid on Thursday hit a vehicle on a busy motorway in the Khaldeh area, about 12km (8 miles) south of Beirut. The Israeli military said it targeted “military sites and weapons depots” in the area. Bombing an area near the Lebanese capital marks another escalation by…
Cnews agenciesE CANAVERAL, Fla. (news agencies) — NASA has discovered an interstellar comet that’s wandered into our backyard.The space agency spotted the quick-moving object with the sky-surveying Atlas telescope in Chile earlier this week, and confirmed it was a comet from another star system. It’s officially the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system and poses no threat to Earth.The newest visitor is 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) from the sun, out near Jupiter. NASA said the comet will make its closest approach to the sun in October, scooting between the orbits of Mars and Earth…