Ukraine unveils AI-generated foreign ministry spokesperson
Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine has an AI-generated spokesperson called Victoria who will make official statements on behalf of its foreign ministry. The ministry said on Wednesday that it would “for the first time in history” use a digital spokesperson to…
Arizona’s governor signs bill to repeal 1864 abortion law
phoenix — Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has relegated a Civil War-era ban on most abortions to the past by signing a bill Thursday to repeal it. Hobbs said the move was just the beginning of a fight to protect…
Russia uninterested in Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland
Russia said Thursday that it saw no point in attending a conference in Switzerland to discuss how to end the conflict in Ukraine. Switzerland is expected to host the talks June 15-16 at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy….
UN rights chief urges Georgia to scrap ‘foreign influence’ bill
Thousands of people have taken to the streets for days to protest the draft Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, which would require media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving more than 20 per cent of funding from abroad to register…
Sudan: Under siege, El Fasher teeters on the brink of famine
The war has left 25 million Sudanese needing aid, but in El Fasher, an ever tightening siege is cutting off vulnerable civilians who urgently need such basic essentials as food, water and medicines. UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki spoke to Toby Harward,…
Palestine’s economy in ruins, as Gaza war sets development back two decades
The joint study by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), revealed that the poverty rate has surged to 58.4 per cent since the 7 October Hamas-led terror attacks began the escalation…
10,000 people feared buried under the rubble in Gaza
“It could take up to three years to retrieve the bodies using the primitive tools they have on hand,” the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said, amid rising temperatures that will accelerate the decomposition of bodies, potentially increasing the threat…
Is social media access a human right? Norway’s Supreme Court to decide
STAVANGER, Norway — A convicted sex offender is asking the Norwegian Supreme Court to declare social media access is a human right. The case before the court Thursday involves a man who molested a minor and used the Snapchat messaging…
Macron says ruling out actions in support of Ukraine weakens resistance to Russia
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published Thursday it would be wrong to rule out any particular actions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that doing so weakens the capacity to deter Russia. In the interview…
UnitedHealth says hackers potentially stole data from a third of Americans
WASHINGTON — Hackers who breached UnitedHealth’s tech unit in February potentially stole data from a third of Americans, the largest U.S. health insurer’s CEO told a congressional committee on Wednesday. Two congressional panels grilled CEO Andrew Witty about the cyberattack…