Author: admin_fijitimes

Washington, March 13 (IANS) The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation with an overwhelming bipartisan vote that could lead to the banning of the popular social media platform TikTok. The fate of the app, which is used monthly by 170 million Americans, now rests with the Senate where some lawmakers have vowed to prevent the law’s speedy passage. President Joe Biden, who will have the final say, has said he will sign it into law. The legislation passed with 352 affirmative votes to 65 negative and one vote marked as present. It was introduced by the bipartisan duo…

Canberra, March 14 (IANS) A majority of Australian women say they have experienced bias or discrimination in the health system, a national survey has found. The federal government on Thursday released the results of the first End Gender Bias survey, revealing that two thirds of Australian women reported health care related gender bias or discrimination, Xinhua news agency reported. It found that women from diverse backgrounds and those with a disability were more likely to experience bias or discrimination in healthcare settings. The survey of 2,800 women, healthcare professionals and stakeholder groups was led by the National Women’s Health Advisory…

New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) Today, 56 of the world’s largest countries and smallest islands, across six oceans, continue to stand united and celebrate the shared values for Commonwealth Day. Commonwealth Day is traditionally celebrated on the second Monday in March. The theme for this year’s Commonwealth Day and the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is ‘One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Common Wealth’. More than 56 nations will celebrate the occasion throughout this week, with representatives attending an event at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London. This year’s staging is especially significant as the modern Commonwealth will…

New York, March 11 (IANS) The brains of polyglots — people who speak five or more languages — work differently when it comes to their native language, said researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Monday. The study, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, showed that polyglots’ language processing network in the brain, located primarily in the left hemisphere, responds more when they hear any of the languages. However, the response is stronger when hearing their native language. The findings suggest that the brains of polyglots take “comparatively little effort when processing their native language.” In other words,…

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) Google Lens has rolled out the highly-requested feature to save your Visual Search History, so you can revisit any image you have analysed in the future. Currently, when you take a photo using the shutter button in the Google Lens app, the picture is sent to Google for analysis and then disappears. This means that you cannot save the image on your device. Users had to click a photo using the camera app and send it to the app for analysis. The tech giant has now added a new feature that allows you to automatically…

Los Angeles, May 10 (IANS) It’s going to be a clean sweep at the Oscars for ‘Oppenheimer’, and the biopic’s director, Christopher Nolan, may finally get his much-overdue Best Director trophy. These are the predictions of ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ awards expert Scott Feinberg and chief film critic David Rooney. With the 96th Academy Awards, which is the official name of the Oscars, slated to open at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday night (U.S. Pacific Time), all the world’s eyes will be on ‘Oppenheimer’, which has become this year’s awards season favourite at the expense of Greta Gerwig’s…

Los Angeles, March 10 (IANS) Hollywood star Cate Blanchett said that society “needs” to have “tough conversations,” even if people are scared to share their views. “Culturally, we are terrified of tough conversations. Boss to employee. Employee to boss. Friend to friend. But we need them,” said Blanchett. “We talk about radical candour, but when there’s a trigger warning in front of something, you are implying that there is a lack of mutual respect or that the subject hasn’t been properly interrogated,” she told Sunday Times Culture magazine. The actress found it “thrilling” when her movie ‘Tar’ was tagged offensive…

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) The growth of mobile phone production in India over a decade is being described as an unmatched success story in the manufacturing sector. While 78 percent of all the mobile phones sold in the country in 2014 were imported, about 97 percent of the mobile phones are now manufactured in India. According to the industry body, India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), mobile phone production, in value terms, surged from Rs 18,900 crore in 2014-15 to an estimated Rs 4.10 lakh crore in FY24, registering over 20 fold increase. Cumulatively, over 245 crore mobile phone…

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) India and the four-nation EFTA bloc of European nations signed an economic agreement on Sunday India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), comprising Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, signed an economic agreement on Sunday which will step up trade and foreign investment, capping nearly 16 years of negotiations, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said after the signing ceremony. The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) is a binding agreement for the EFTA nations to invest $100 billion over 15 years in India, the world’s fastest growing economy, Goyal said. Switzerland’s Economic Affairs Minister,…

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) Government’s ‘Sangam: Digital Twin’ initiative, which was unveiled last month by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), is a technology that offers a solution by creating virtual replicas of physical assets, allowing for real-time monitoring, simulation and analysis for experimental iterations and feedback loop to adapt to the changes for achieving the best outcomes Department of Telecommunications (DoT), is a technology that offers a solution by creating virtual replicas of physical assets, allowing for real-time monitoring, simulation and analysis for experimental iterations and feedback loop to adapt to the changes for achieving the best outcomes. This…