World News: 11 May 2023

Google is giving its dominant search engine an artificial-intelligence makeover
Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., already has been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard. That product, powered by technology called generative AI that also fuels ChatGPT, has only been available to people accepted from a waitlist.
But Google announced Wednesday that Bard will be available to all comers in more than 180 countries and more languages beyond English.

Read more...


Taiwan's wind industry braves cross-strait risks in clean energy boom
The wind farms are part of Taiwan's ambitious push to power its massive tech tech industry with renewable energy and sit in a waterway that has become a focal point of tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Read more...


Lucid losses put Saudi Arabia's EV strategy in the headlamps
The electric car maker is among the biggest U.S. investments by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) which has been tasked with driving the kingdom's ambitious plan to cut its reliance on oil revenue.chall For PIF, the Lucid bet is proving challenging.

Read more...



Shell wins UK Supreme Court case on 2011 oil spill off Nigerian coast
The case stems from the leakage of an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil on December 20, 2011, during the loading of an oil tanker at Shell’s Bonga oil field, 120 km off the coast of Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta.
A group of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities living in the delta have been trying to sue Shell, saying the resulting oil slick polluted their lands and waterways, damaging farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests and religious shrines.

Read more...


Uzbekistan attracts foreign investors thanks to extensive government reforms
Uzbek start-ups in fintech, e-commerce and software are benefitting from foreign investment thanks to green economy strategies, the privatisation of Uzbek banks and public-private partnership laws.
International investment in Uzbekistan has increased tenfold in the last six years. Extensive government reforms which started in 2017 have opened up the economy and are attracting foreign capital to the Central Asian country and the number of investor taking notice is growing.

Read more...


China, Ecuador sign free trade agreement, says Chinese commerce ministry
The agreement will further unlock the potential of trade and investment cooperation between the two countries; promote the upgrading of China-Ecuador economic and trade cooperation in all aspects; advance sustainable, stable and diversified development of bilateral trade; and deliver more benefits to people and enterprises of both countries, it added.

Read more...



Comments