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Showing posts from February 1, 2025

GOP-led states quickly mirror Trump’s policy agenda.

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In his nearly four weeks in office, President Donald Trump has unveiled a constant stream of policy priorities in quick succession, from shrinking government, to cutting taxes, to waging a war on diversity initiatives, illegal immigration and transgender rights. His allies in the states are rushing to keep up.   The Florida and Tennessee legislatures have passed sweeping immigration packages that will make it easier for state law enforcement and federal immigration officials to coordinate during recent special sessions. Leaders in Ohio and Arkansas are renewing efforts to place work requirements on Medicaid recipients. And Republicans in at least nine states have moved to create government efficiency task forces inspired by the initiative helmed by billionaire Elon Musk.  Across the country, Republican governors and legislatures are taking advantage of the national spotlight – and friendlier regulatory environment – the Trump administration has created to advance lo...
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18 Pakistan paramilitaries killed in ambush.

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Eighteen paramilitaries were killed and three others seriously wounded in an attack in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, police and local officials told AFP on Saturday. A vehicle "carrying unarmed Frontier Corps paramilitaries" near the town of Mangochar "came under gunfire from 70 to 80 armed assailants who had blocked the road", a police official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The overnight attack killed 17 of the passengers and a paramilitary who came to their aid, he said, confirming reports from local sources.  Three other paramilitaries were seriously wounded and two escaped unharmed, he said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. Security forces have been battling sectarian, ethnic and separatist violence for decades in impoverished but mineral-rich Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. There has been an increase in attacks in the volatile province in recent months, with six people killed in ...
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Cancer causes 12% of deaths in Bangladesh annually: BSMMU study

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Cancer is responsible for 11.9 percent of deaths in Bangladesh each year, according to a new population-based cancer registry by the Department of Public Health and Informatics (DPHI) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU). With 38 different types of cancer prevalent in the country, lung cancer (11.4percent), laryngeal cancer (8.5 percent), and stomach cancer (5.7 percent) are the leading causes of the deaths, the study reveals. The study reports a cancer prevalence of 106 cases per 100,000 people, with 118 cases per 100,000 among males and 96 cases per 100,000 among females. These findings were shared today at a dissemination programme at BSMMU's Super Specialised Hospital in the capital. The event, titled "Cancer Burden in Bangladesh: Evidence from a Population-based Cancer Registry," was organised by BSMMU. Md Khalequzzaman, associate professor of the Department of Public Health and Informatics at BSMMU and principal investigator of the study, pr...
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Trump says India 'will do what's right' on illegal immigration.

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  US President Donald Trump has said India "will do what's right" on the deportation of  illegal migrants following a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The leaders spoke on Monday, their first conversation since Trump's inauguration last  week. They discussed immigration, security issues and trade in what the White House  described as a "productive call". Trump told reporters after the call that Modi was likely to visit the United States  "sometime in February". Since taking office on 20 January, Trump has announced a number of  immigration-related executive orders, paving the way for a widespread effort to crack  down on undocumented migrants in the US. According to the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 725,000 undocumented  Indian immigrants in the US as of 2024. Last week, India's foreign ministry said Delhi would take in Indians overstaying  "anywhere in the world" as long as their documents were shared and n...
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OpenAI says Chinese rivals using its work for their AI apps

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  The maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has complained that rivals, including those in China, are using its work to make rapid advances in developing their own artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The status of OpenAI - and other US firms - as the world leaders in AI  has been dramatically undermined this week  by the sudden emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese app that can emulate the performance of ChatGPT, apparently at a fraction of the cost. Bloomberg has reported that Microsoft is investigating whether data belonging to OpenAI - which it is a major investor in - has been used in an unauthorised way. The BBC has contacted Microsoft and DeepSeek for comment. OpenAI's concerns have been echoed by the recently appointed White House "AI and crypto czar", David Sacks. Speaking on Fox News, he suggested that DeepSeek may have used the models developed by OpenAI to get better, a process called knowledge distillation. "There's substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is ...
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Australian police find explosives for possible antisemitic attack

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  Authorities in Sydney are investigating whether explosives discovered in a caravan were intended for an antisemitic attack. The explosives could have caused a 40-metre-wide blast and "significant damage,"  police said on Wednesday, adding that the threat was contained. A note was found in the caravan that displayed antisemitic messages, investigators said. "This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event," New South Wales Premier  Chris Minns said. New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a news conference  that the caravan was discovered on 19 January in Dural, a suburb of north-west Sydney. The investigation became public on Wednesday after details of it were leaked to the  media. There was "some indication that the explosives might be used in some form of  antisemitic attack," Mr Hudson said, but he wouldn't be drawn on the possible target. He said officers had "mitigated the risk as much as possible" but str...
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