Author: ALJAZEERA

Democratic lawmakers express concern that Tesla CEO is seeking to weaponise the tax system against his rivals.Elon Musk’s task force for streamlining the United States government is seeking access to troves of taxpayer information, media outlets have reported, prompting fears of privacy violations and retribution against political rivals. In the latest phase of his sweeping cost-cutting drive, Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are pushing to access the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) protected Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), outlets including The Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times and the Washington Post reported on Monday. The IDRS…

Personal Information Protection Commission says Chinese start-up accepted proposal to suspend downloads of AI chatbot.South Korea has suspended downloads of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot pending a review of the Chinese start-up’s privacy standards. South Korea’s privacy watchdog said on Monday that DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot was removed from the local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play after the Hangzhou-based firm acknowledged that it had failed to comply with personal data protection rules. The Personal Information Protection Commission said in a statement that DeepSeek accepted its proposal to suspend downloads of the app. The chatbot is still available for those…

Central bank says Southeast Asian economy on track for robust investment, exports and household spending going forward.Malaysia’s economy grew 5.1 percent in 2024, as strong domestic demand and investment offset a downturn in the commodities sector, according to the Southeast Asian country’s central bank. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 5 percent in the October-December quarter, Bank Negara Malaysia said on Friday, down from 5.3 percent growth in the third quarter but ahead of an advance estimate of 4.8 percent. The year on year performance marked a significant jump from GDP growth of 3.7 percent in 2023. “Going forward, while the…

As United States President Donald Trump barrels forward with tariff threats against key trading partners Canada and Mexico, a renegotiation of the three countries’ trade agreement could be in the offing. In his first term as president, Trump pushed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with the current United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Under Trump’s leadership, the US added a clause, Article 34.7, which requires a joint review of the pact within six years, a deadline that lands on July 1, 2026. The agreement also includes a sunset clause to render the pact void by 2036 in the…

Two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent tech titans, Elon Musk and his former protégé Sam Altman, are in the middle of a very public feud over the future of OpenAI, the company behind the groundbreaking ChatGPT. Musk – the world’s richest man and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX – has filed multiple lawsuits over the past year to stop Altman from restructuring OpenAI from a hybridised nonprofit into a for-profit company. Earlier this week, Musk raised the stakes by offering to buy the nonprofit for $97.4bn to preserve the original mission of the AI research lab – ensuring that “artificial…

When United States President Donald Trump announced his latest tariffs on steel and aluminium this week, he insisted there would be “no exemptions, no exceptions”. Washington’s closest allies in the Asia Pacific are hoping they will be able to change the mercurial US president’s mind. Japan and Australia, US treaty allies with export-reliant economies, have both confirmed they are seeking exemptions from Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, while South Korea, also a US treaty ally, has announced it is seeking high-level talks on the issue. “We will take necessary measures, including lobbying the United States for an…

California-based internet giant says the name of the body of water will depend on the user’s location.Google has begun calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America following United States President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water. The California-based internet giant said on Monday that the name of the gulf on its applications would depend on the location of the user. “People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” Google wrote in a blog post. Google flagged its…

US penalties target Iran’s ‘oil network’ as Donald Trump pledges to bring back ‘maximum pressure’ against Tehran.Washington, DC – The United States has imposed the first batch of sanctions against Iran since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, as the president pushes to reimpose “maximum pressure” on Tehran. The US Treasury announced the sanctions on Thursday, saying that they are aimed at Iran’s “oil network”. The measures targeted firms, ships and individuals affiliated with companies already sanctioned by the US. Under former President Joe Biden, the US routinely issued such penalties to enforce existing sanctions. “The Iranian regime remains…

Bangkok, Thailand – At the end of January, Cambodia’s Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance was unexpectedly informed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that all funding for its tuberculosis programme had been put on hold for 90 days. KHANA, as the NGO is more commonly known, detects about 10,000 tuberculosis (TB) cases each year, providing preventive treatment to some 10,000 close contacts and medical care for some 300 rural patients, according to executive director, Choub Sok Chamreun. With funding drying up, many rural Cambodians will soon lose care, Chamreun said. “Within the suspension period, these people will have a…

Reserve Bank of India announces first rate cut in nearly five years as world’s most populous nation faces slowdown.India’s central bank has cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly five years as officials try to reverse slowing economic growth in the world’s most populous country. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday that it had lowered the repo rate, which the central bank lends to commercial banks, by 0.25 percent to 6.25 percent. The RBI last cut the key interest rate in May 2020, after which it rolled out a series of hikes aimed…