Tech News

Latin America poised to become renewable energy giant: report

Latin America is poised to become a major renewable energy producer, with nearly a billion solar panels' worth of large-scale clean-electricity projects slated to come online in the next seven years, a report found Thursday.. The report found Latin America has especially big potential as a producer of offshore wind energy.

'More important than rainforests': UK pioneers peat partnership

On a windswept hillside in a remote corner of northern England, a peatland restoration plan pooling public and private money is underway which proponents claim provides a model for climate change mitigation.. The venture will use nascent carbon markets but is groundbreaking in England because it is the first time a company, rather than an NGO or charity, has also received public funds to restore privately-owned peatland. 

In EU, a food fight over nutrition labels

Europe is taking longer than planned to concoct an EU-wide food-labelling system after a colour-coded scheme created in France did not go down well in culinary rival Italy.. Those include the green or black "Keyhole" system in Nordic countries and one backed by Italy, NutrInform Battery, which takes into account the potential portions of food consumed.

Cops and Chechens: TikTok duo become unlikely stars

Middle-aged Austrian police officer Uwe and hip young Chechen social worker Ahmad may look like an unlikely duo, but their TikTok videos have become a huge hit in Austria.. It didn't help that in 2021 Austrian police officers were convicted of beating a Chechen after being caught on security cameras.

Biden throws down 2024 gauntlet with populist budget

President Joe Biden will present what amounts to his expected 2024 reelection pitch Thursday with the unveiling of a proposed budget protecting free health care for the elderly, while taxing wealthy Americans to help slash the national deficit.. At the heart of his proposals will also be a plan to raise taxes on those earning more than $400,000 a year to ensure that Medicare -- the government-funded health care system for people over 65 -- remains solvent.

From sharing site to anime giant, Crunchyroll marches forward

Once a semi-legal sharing site, Crunchyroll is now a streaming giant credited with helping Japanese anime transform from a nerdy subculture into a lucrative global industry poised to conquer new markets.. The global market for Japanese anime grew 13 percent to an all-time high of 2.74 trillion yen ($20 billion) in 2021, according to the Association of Japanese Animations.

Afghanistan coffers swell as Taliban taxman collects

A dusty logjam of trucks inches across a rut in the mountains splitting Pakistan and Afghanistan, teeming with a cargo of fruit and coal -- and paying the Taliban authorities for the privilege of passage. . According to a 2022 report by research group XCEPT, coal exports to Pakistan likely doubled under the Taliban government and earned Afghanistan $160 million in tax -- three times what the previous administration was capable of.

Asian markets fluctuate with nervous eye on US jobs data

Asian traders shifted cautiously Thursday ahead of key US jobs data at the end of the week, after Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell warned it could ramp up its pace of interest rate hikes if the economy shows no sign of slowing.. "If -- and I stress that no decision has been made on this -- but if the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we'd be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes," he said.

Medical tourism in spotlight after Mexico kidnapping

As reports swirl around the recent kidnapping in Mexico of four Americans, two of whom were killed, one detail has drawn particular attention -- they had crossed the border for a medical procedure. . A 2020 study that surveyed more than 400 people crossing the US–Mexico border found 92 percent cited cost as a key factor in choosing medical tourism.

US to be 'global leader' in energy transition: Energy Secretary

Pointing to key Biden administration policies to mitigate climate change, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm promised Wednesday that the United States would lead global energy transition.. "The United States will be the global leader of this transition," she added.