Author: ALJAZEERA

In April, Libya’s rival legislatures agreed for the first time in more than a decade on a budget of 190 billion dinars, almost $30bn, split between the two rival camps in the country.Fifteen years after Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall in Tripoli this week, the United States-backed budget captures both the divisions that shape Libya and an emerging space that could incentivise cooperation between the country’s two authorities.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe vacuum that emerged following the overthrow of Gaddafi produced rival institutions, recurrent conflict and delayed elections. Now, these political adversaries are finding ways to work together.The election…

Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz has removed Economic Minister Jose Gabriel Espinoza from his post after the minister was censured by the country’s Congress.The cabinet shake-up is likely to be perceived as a concession by Paz, who has faced public anger about the country’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe announcement came in a decree published on Friday in the government’s official gazette.It names Oscar Mario Justiniano Pinto as interim economy minister and explains he will serve in the role until a permanent candidate is appointed. The decree does not, however, offer a prospective timeline for the…

TikTok and the US government settled to resolve allegations that the app violated children’s online privacy laws.Published On 21 Aug 202621 Aug 2026The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a $400m settlement with the short-video app TikTok over concerns that the platform had violated children’s online privacy.The DOJ said on Friday it had entered into a settlement with TikTok, ByteDance and affiliated entities over concerns about compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires services aimed at children to obtain parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend…

Walmart sales are slumping as US consumer spending pulls back, with the economic impact of tariffs and the United States’ tensions with Iran weighing on consumers, the big-box retailer’s most recent earnings report shows.US same-store sales rose 2.6 percent in the second quarter, according to the company’s earnings released on Thursday, falling short of the 3.8 percent forecast by analysts at LSEG. That marked the slowest quarterly increase in six years.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said heightened petrol prices are to blame for the slowdown in spending.“When fuel prices increase and get above $4,…

Social media giant Meta is facing a landmark trial that could impact its future.Opening statements began on Tuesday in a US federal court case brought by 29 state attorneys general, who have accused Facebook and Instagram’s parent company of designing platforms to encourage infinite scrolling and keep their youngest users hooked, despite allegedly knowing they could fuel addictive behaviour. The company is also accused of collecting data on minors.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe case is expected to last as long as six weeks. If the attorneys general get their way, the Silicon Valley-based tech company might have…

The new US tariffs would cover about $20bn worth of imports and could lead to job losses and business closures.Published On 18 Aug 202618 Aug 2026Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken with United States President Donald Trump twice this week, Carney’s office said, as Canada tries to hash out a last-minute deal to avert new 50 percent tariffs from taking effect at midnight on Wednesday.“Prime Minister Carney and President Trump spoke again this afternoon about the ongoing negotiations,” Carney’s office said, without elaborating.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listTuesday’s phone call came on the heels of another on…

New poll found a majority of US citizens concerned about the US war on Iran.Published On 17 Aug 202617 Aug 2026The approval rating of United States President Donald Trump has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned that the US-Israel war on Iran will last a long time.Just 33 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job performance, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. The approval rating is the lowest ever during this term and matches the lowest seen in December 2017 during his first term.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe poll,…

Mukalla, Yemen – Before the sun rises over Mukalla’s beaches, 15‑year‑old Abdulrahman Badr and his friend Tareq are already at their usual spot on the sand.They’re brewing tea and kneading dough for bakhmari, a traditional fermented flatbread from Hadramout – the vast governorate in eastern Yemen that Mukalla is the capital of.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listTheir customers are the thousands of beachgoers gathering along the Arabian Sea shoreline thanks to a yearly climate phenomenon that turns the desperately hot summer cooler for a few weeks.Al-Baldah, as the climate pattern is known, typically lasts from late July to…

AI Security Institute says Mythos 5 attempted to insert malicious code into an open-source project without human direction.Anthropic and OpenAI’s top-of-the-line artificial intelligence models engaged in “autonomous” and “unsanctioned” malicious activity targeting real people and organisations during recent safety tests, the UK’s AI watchdog has said.The AI Security Institute (AISI) said in a report released on Tuesday that OpenAI’s GPT-5.6-Sol and Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 employed previously unseen levels of deception to carry out “sustained, potentially harmful activity” during a routine safety evaluation.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listWhen tasked with solving a cybersecurity challenge, the models took “autonomous,…

The United States, Iran and Oman appear to be edging closer to an interim agreement that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, raising hopes of easing a crisis in one of the most dangerous flashpoints in the Middle East.On Thursday, Tehran said it had agreed coordinates for new shipping routes through the strait with Oman.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe proposed agreement, which has been under negotiation for several weeks, is intended to restore the June 17 ceasefire between Washington and Tehran; resolve disputes over shipping through the strategic waterway, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies…