Science and technology

A Japanese biotech firm says it has developed the world’s first early screening test for pancreatic cancer, using the powerful noses of tiny worms. Hirotsu Bio Science this month launched its N-NOSE plus Pancreas test, marketing directly to consumers in Japan and with aims to bring the test to the United States by 2023. Users send a urine sample through a special mail pouch to a lab, where it is put in a petri dish with a species of nematodes. The creatures, known scientifically as C. elegans, have olfactory senses much more powerful than dogs, the company says, and they follow their nose toward cancer cells. That makes the 1-milimetre long animals a potent diagnostic tool, says company founder and chief executive Takaaki Hirotsu, who has been researching them for 28 years. “What’s very important with early detection of cancer and these kinds of diseases is being able to sense very trace amounts,” Hirotsu told Reuters. “And when it comes to that, I think that machines don’t stand

Cryptocurrency exchange operator Binance said on Wednesday it acquired Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a crypto exchange service registered in Japan, to expand into the Asian country. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed by Binance. Through the acquisition, Binance will be able to operate in the Japanese market as an entity regulated by the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA). Takeshi Chino, general manager of Binance Japan, said, “We will actively work with regulators to develop our combined exchange in a compliant way for local users.” Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software. Binance has secured regulatory approvals or authorizations in France, Italy, Spain, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New Zealand, Ka

SpaceX on Wednesday postponed by one day a mission to launch the first private — and Japanese — lander to the Moon. A Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled to blast off at 3:37 am (0837 GMT) Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX said on Twitter that the delay was to carry out more pre-flight checks. Until now, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface. The mission, by Japanese company ispace, is the first of a program called Hakuto-R. The lander would touch down around April 2023 on the visible side of the Moon, in the Atlas crater, according to a company statement. Measuring just over 2 by 2.5 meters, it carries on board a 10-kilogram rover named Rashid, built by the United Arab Emirates. The oil-rich country is a newcomer to the space race but counts recent successes including a Mars probe in 2020. If it succeeds, Rashid will be the Arab world’s first Moon mission. “We have achieved so much in the six short years since we firs

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) said on Wednesday that internet services have been restored across the country, ARY News reported. According to the PTCL spokesperson the fault in the international submarine cable system has been removed and internet services have been restored across Pakistan. Earlier, internet services faced disruptions across Pakistan after reports of cable cut in the International Submarine Cable AAE-1 in Egypt. Read more: INTERNET SERVICES DISRUPTED IN PAKISTAN AFTER CABLE CUT The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) noted that a dual cut in the terrestrial segment of South East Asia, Middle East, and Western Europe 5 a submarine communications cable system that extends between Singapore and France had been reported. Meanwhile, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) said that the cable cut in the International Submarine Cable AAE-1 had partially impacted the internet services and some customers were facing minor s

ISLAMABAD: Internet services faced disruptions across Pakistan on Tuesday after reports of cable cut in the International Submarine Cable AAE-1 in Egypt, ARY News reported. In a statement on Twitter, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) noted that a dual cut in the terrestrial segment of South East Asia, Middle East, Western Europe 5 — a submarine communications cable system that extends between Singapore and France — had been reported. PTA pointed out that the dual cut had been reported between the cities of Abu Talab and Zafrana in Egypt. “Alternate arrangements to provide uninterrupted internet services to the users have been made,” it added. Dual cut in the terrestrial segment of SEAMEWE-5 between the cities of Abu Talab and Zafrana in Egypt have been reported. Alternate arrangements to provide uninterrupted #internet services to the users have been made. Work is underway to remove the fault. — PTA (@PTAofficialpk) November 29, 2022 Meanwhile, Pakistan Telecom

WASHINGTON: WhatsApp, the Meta-owned social messaging application, has started rolling ‘Message Yourself’ feature, which let you chat with yourself. According to details, the ‘Message Yourself’ was first spotted by WaBetaInfo several weeks ago as part of a beta test, but is now being rolled out globally to iOS and Android users in the coming weeks. Once you get the update, you’ll be able to see yourself at the top of the contacts list when creating new messages. The feature will allow users to send notes, reminders and shopping lists to themselves on WhatsApp. Users can also pin their Message Yourself chats to the top of a conversation list for easier access. Until now, you could only message yourself by creating a group with just you as a member or by using the apps “click to chat” feature. Read More: WhatsApp now lets you message to yourself “WhatsApp only publicly started testing this feature back in October. Some users have managed to work around its absence in the past by cr

Elon Musk accused Apple Inc of threatening to block Twitter Inc from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets on Monday that also said the iPhone maker had stopped advertising on the social media platform. The billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla said Apple was pressuring Twitter over content moderation demands. The action, unconfirmed by Apple, would not be unusual as the company has routinely enforced its rules and previously removed apps such as Gab and Parler. Parler, which is popular with U.S. conservatives, was restored by Apple in 2021 after the app updated its content and moderation practices, the companies said at the time. “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?,” Musk, who took Twitter private for $44 billion last month, said in a tweet. He later tagged Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?” Apple did not immediately respond to requests for c

China will launch the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft to its space station at 11:08 p.m. (1508 GMT) on Nov. 29, the China Manned Space Agency said on Monday, the final mission in the country’s plan to complete the crewed orbital outpost. Onboard will be three male astronauts: Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, the agency said at a news conference. The space station will be handed over to them within a week by the three astronauts who arrived in early June. “During the stay, the Shenzhou-15 crew will welcome the visiting Tianzhou-6 cargo ship and hand over the Shenzhou-16 manned spaceship, and are planning to return to China’s Dongfeng landing site in May next year,” said Ji Qiming, a spokesperson at the agency. “Currently, the space station combination is in stable status with all equipment functioning well, and ready for the rendezvous, docking and crew handover,” Ji added. In April 2021, China began construction of the three-module space station with the launch of the Tianhe modul

US cryptocurrency lender BlockFi said on Monday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection along with eight affiliates in a New Jersey court, the latest casualty since FTX’s collapse earlier this month triggered instability in the crypto market. In a court filing, New Jersey-based BlockFi said it owes money to more than 100,000 creditors. It listed crypto exchange FTX as its second-largest creditor, with $275 million owed on a loan extended earlier this year. The company’s largest creditor is Ankura Trust, a company that represents creditors in stressed situations, and is owed $729 million. BlockFi had earlier paused withdrawals from its platform and acknowledged it had “significant exposure” to FTX and its associated entities. The move comes weeks after FTX filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive. In July, FTX had signed a deal with BlockFi to provide the firm with a $400 million revolving credit facility and an o

Britain’s Rolls-Royce said it has successfully run an aircraft engine on hydrogen, a world aviation first that marks a major step towards proving the gas could be key to decarbonising air travel. The ground test, using a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A regional aircraft engine, used green hydrogen created by wind and tidal power, the British company said on Monday. Rolls-Royce and its testing programme partner easyJet are seeking to prove that hydrogen can safely and efficiently deliver power for civil aero engines. They said they were already planning a second set of tests, with a longer-term ambition to carry out flight tests. Hydrogen is one of a number of competing technologies that could help the aviation industry achieve its goal of becoming net zero by 2050. Planemaker Airbus is working with French-U.S. engine maker CFM International to test hydrogen propulsion technology. It said in February it planned to fit a specially adapted version of a current generation engine nea

Britain’s government intends to make it illegal to encourage others to harm themselves online and will fine social media companies that fail to remove such material, as part of a revamp of legislation governing online behaviour. Promoting suicide is already illegal, but Britain’s digital, culture, media and sports ministry said in a statement that it now wanted to require social media firms to block a wider range of content. “Social media firms can no longer remain silent bystanders … and they’ll face fines for allowing this abusive and destructive behaviour to continue on their platforms under our laws,” Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan said. The Conservative government said the proposals aimed to block images and videos similar to those viewed by Molly Russell, a 14-year-old whose death in 2017 sparked ongoing public concern. In September, the coroner investigating her death ruled that social media platforms had fed content to her that “romanticised acts of self-harm by young

Twitter Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk says new user signups to the social media platform are at an “all-time high”, as he struggles with a mass exodus of advertisers and users fleeing to other platforms over concerns about verification and hate speech. Signups were averaging over two million per day in the last seven days as of Nov. 16, up 66% compared to the same week in 2021, Musk said in a tweet late on Saturday. He also said that user active minutes were at a record high, averaging nearly 8 billion active minutes per day in the last seven days as of Nov. 15, an increase of 30% in comparison to the same week last year. Hate speech impersonations decreased as of Nov. 13 compared to October of last year. Reported impersonations on the platform spiked earlier this month, before and in wake of the Twitter Blue launch, according to Musk. Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm the Boring Company, has said that buying Twitter would

Many shoppers looking for Apple’s latest iPhone models returned empty handed from its stores this Black Friday as the technology company struggles with production snafus in China. Among them were Sally Gannon and her son Michael, who were visiting an Apple store in Bethesda, where they found no iPhone Pros in stock. Similarly, Abisha Luitel wanted to get an iPhone 14 Pro for her 21-year old cousin. But the Apple store she visited was out. She purchased an older version, the 12, instead. The “iPhone shortages are accelerating and were front and center this morning on Black Friday across many retailers, Apple Stores, and online channels,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note. “We believe many Apple Stores now have iPhone 14 Pro shortages based on model or color or storage of up to 25%-30% below normal heading into a typical December, which is not a good sign heading into holiday season for Cupertino,” he said referring to Apple’s headquarters. Shares of Apple ended down 2.0% af

Amazon will shut down a food-delivery business it was testing in India, the e-commerce giant said on Friday, a day after it announced the winding down of its online learning platform for high-school students in the country. Amazon Food, a business the company was trialing in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, would be discontinued, it said. “As part of our annual operating planning review process, we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Food,” a company spokesperson told Reuters. “We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are discontinuing these programs in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners.” The Economic Times earlier reported that the business would be discontinued from Dec. 29 onwards, citing a communication from the company to its restaurant partners. On Thursday, Amazon said it was shutting down the Amazon Academy platform in India that was launched early last year amid a boom in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. An unce

The reports circulating on social media platforms that Android users in Pakistan would not be able to get Google Play Store services beginning on December 1, 2022, are untrue. According to the details, the SBP suspended Direct Carrier Billing (DCB). Therefore, the payment of $34 million to overseas service providers like Google, Amazon, and Meta, has been frozen. According to IT Minister Ameenul Haque, mobile users in Pakistan won’t be able to use paid services via the Google Play Store after the SBP suspended $34 million in payments to international service providers. In this regard, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) has written a letter to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, requesting him to issue directions to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to provide payments to international service providers. گوگل ایپلی کیشن کی بندش/امین الحق کا بیان وزیر خزانہ معاملے کا فوری نوٹس لیتے ہوئے اسٹیٹ بینک کو ادائیگی جاری رکھنے کی ہدایت کریں. ضروری ہے کہ مستقبل میں

Twitter’s ban on then President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters was a “grave mistake” that had to be corrected, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, although he also stated that incitement to violence would continue to be prohibited on Twitter. “I’m fine with Trump not tweeting. The important thing is that Twitter correct a grave mistake in banning his account, despite no violation of the law or terms of service,” Musk said in a tweet. “Deplatforming a sitting President undermined public trust in Twitter for half of America.” Last week, Musk announced the reactivation of Trump’s account after a slim majority voted in a Twitter poll in favor of reinstating Trump, who said, however, that he had no interest in returning to Twitter. He added he would stick with his own social media site Truth Social, the app developed by Trump Media & Technology Group. Republican Trump, who 10 days ago announced he was running for election agai

Twitter is planning to roll out its verified service next Friday with different coloured checks for individuals, companies and governments after a botched initial launch led to a surge in users impersonating celebrities and brands on the platform. Chief Executive Elon Musk on Friday allotted colours for the categories – gold for companies, grey for governments and a blue check for individuals including celebrities. Elon, I’m trying. It won’t let me and I’m Verified (need to edit 1 character I can’t spell) — Crypto King (@Cryptoking) November 25, 2022 “Painful, but necessary,” he said, adding that verified accounts will be manually authenticated before a check is activated. The revamped $8-per-month service will allow individuals to have a smaller, secondary logo of their organizations if verified by them, he said in another tweet on Friday. “Longer explanation next week.” So every individual verified as a public official or $8 payment will have the same check? Will they be

Twitter is planning to roll out its verified service next Friday with different colored checks for individuals, companies and governments, after a botched initial launch led to a surge in users impersonating celebrities and brands on the platform . Chief Executive Elon Musk on Friday allotted colors for the categories – gold for companies, grey for governments and a blue check for individuals including celebrities. “Painful, but necessary,” he said, adding that verified accounts will be manually authenticated before a check is activated. The revamped $8-per-month service will allow individuals to have a smaller, secondary logo of their organizations if verified by them, he said in another tweet on Friday. “Longer explanation next week.” The social media platform on Monday delayed its relaunch to make it foolproof as the service is expected to help Twitter grow revenue at a time when Musk is trying to retain advertisers after buying the company last month for $44 billion. The subs

BEIJING: Tesla Inc is recalling more than 80,000 China-made and imported cars produced from as early as 2013, for software and seat belt issues, a statement by the Chinese market regulator revealed on Friday. The U.S.-based electric car maker has recalled 67,698 Model S and Model X cars imported to China between Sept. 25, 2013, and Nov. 21, 2020, due to software problems affecting the battery management system in the vehicles. Tesla said it will upgrade the software of recalled vehicles. Tesla also recalled 2,736 imported Model 3 cars manufactured between January and November 2019, and 10,127 China-made ones of the same model produced between Oct. 14, 2019 and Sept. 26, 2022. Read more: Horrific video: Tesla car crashes into vehicles after driver loses control This was due to potentially faulty seat belt installation which Tesla will check and reinstall, it said. In April, Tesla recalled a total of 127,785 units of Model 3 cars in China, citing potential faults in semiconductor

Elon Musk said Thursday many previously suspended Twitter accounts would be allowed back on the platform after a landslide of users responding to an informal poll by the new owner voted in favor of the move. The announcement comes as Musk faces pushback that his criteria for content moderation is subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others. “The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,” Musk tweeted, responding to the poll. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage meaning “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” that he has used when talking about other Twitter polls. Of 3.16 million respondents to Musk’s Wednesday poll question, 72.4 percent said Twitter should allow suspended accounts back on Twitter as long as they have not broken laws or engaged in “egregious spam,” Musk posted. It was the same type of “yes/no” informal poll of Twitter users that Musk devised to decide in favor of reinstating former

Most galaxies are built around humongous black holes. While many of these are comparatively docile, like the one at our Milky Way’s centre, some are fierce-guzzling surrounding material and unleashing huge and blazingly bright jets of high-energy particles far into space. Using data from the recently deployed Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) orbiting observatory, researchers on Wednesday offered an explanation for how these jets become so luminous: subatomic particles called electrons becoming energized by shock waves moving at supersonic speed away from the black hole. The researchers studied an exotic object called a blazar at the centre of a large elliptical galaxy named Markarian 501 located about 460 million light years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hercules. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). Blazars are a subset of objects called quasars that are powered by supermassive black holes feed

Meta-owned messaging application WhatsApp has planned to soon introduce a screen lock option for desktop users. Recently, WhatsApp has introduced some new updates to make the user’s experience smooth and easy. This new screen lock feature was already available for android users. security of the messaging app was the main concern for desktop users as logging on WhatsApp on the web can be quite unsafe. To overcome this issue WhatsApp has planned to introduce a new screen lock feature. Initially, it will be available for WhatsApp beta users on a test basis. The messaging giant is unlikely to make the feature on default settings for desktop users. The user will have access to the setting options by choice. Read more: WHATSAPP IMPROVES FEATURE TO MAKE IN-APP SHOPPING EASY Earlier, the messaging giant, WhatsApp expanded the “Directory” feature to make in-app shopping easy for its users. It is part of Meta’s mission to step up its game in the online shopping field in Brazil, Colombia,

Few will lose as much as journalists if Twitter dies, having grown reliant on its endless sources and instant updates despite the dangers and distortions that come with it. There has been fevered talk of the platform’s imminent demise since billionaire Elon Musk took over last month and began firing vast numbers of staff. But most journalists “can’t leave,” said Nic Newman, of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. “It’s actually a really important part of their work.” Newman was working at the BBC when Twitter started making waves in 2008 and 2009. “It was a new Rolodex, a new way of contacting people — fantastic for case studies and… experts,” he said. But Twitter also became a competitor, replacing newsrooms as the source of breaking news for the public when terrorist attacks, natural disasters or any fast-moving story struck. “Journalists realised they wouldn’t always be the ones breaking the news and that their role was going to be different — more about context

TAIPEI: Apple’s major supplier Foxconn said on Thursday a “technical error” occurred when hiring new recruits at a COVID-hit iPhone factory in China and apologised to workers after the company was rocked by fresh labour unrest. Men smashed surveillance cameras and windows as hundreds of workers protested at the plant in Zhengzhou city on Wednesday, in rare scenes of open dissent in China sparked by claims of overdue pay and frustration over severe COVID-19 restrictions. Workers said on videos circulated on social media that they had been informed that Foxconn intended to delay bonus payments. Some workers also complained they were forced to share dormitories with colleagues who had tested positive for COVID. “Our team has been looking into the matter and discovered a technical error occurred during the onboarding process,” Foxconn said in a statement. “We apologize for an input error in the computer system and guarantee that the actual pay is the same as agreed and the official re

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haq launched an interest-free installment scheme to buy smartphones, ARY News reported. As per details, the smartphone-for-all scheme was launched for low-income people who cannot afford to pay a huge sum of the amount at once. The initiative was launched by the IT ministry in a joint collaboration between GSMA and Pakistani start-up QisstPay. Addressing the launching ceremony, federal minister Amin Ul Haq said that under the scheme anyone can obtain a Smartphone easily just through CNIC, without any lengthy documentation hassle. In the first phase smartphones worth 10,000 to Rs. 100,000 will be distributed in 3 to 12-month instalments. Read more: IT MINISTER AMINUL HAQUE URGES META TO OPEN OFFICE IN PAKISTAN Earlier, the Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque urged Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to establish its office in Pakistan. In a

FTX was run as a “personal fiefdom” of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, attorneys for the collapsed crypto exchange said in its first bankruptcy hearing as they detailed ongoing challenges such as hacks and substantial missing assets. In the highest-profile crypto blowup to date, FTX filed for protection in the United States after traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. The collapse has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars.  read more An attorney for FTX said at a bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday the company now intends to sell off healthy business units, but has been the subject of cyberattacks and had “substantial” assets missing. FTX said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses.  FTX said on Tuesday  it was receiving interest from potential buyers for its assets and would conduct

Short video platform TikTok said on Wednesday it was on high alert for content that violates its guidelines in Malaysia after authorities warned of a rise in ethnic tension on social media following an inconclusive general election . Saturday’s election ended in an unprecedented hung parliament with neither of two rival alliances able to secure enough seats in parliament to form a government. “We continue to be on high alert and will aggressively remove any violative content,” TikTok, which is owned by the China-based firm ByteDance, said in a statement. TikTok said it had been in contact with Malaysian authorities on severe and repeat violations of its community guidelines since the lead-up to the election. One of the alliances hoping to form a government is a conservative, largely ethnic Malay, Muslim group led by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin. It includes the Islamist party PAS, which has advocated for a strict interpretation of sharia Islamic religious law. Its elect