McDonald's Adjusts Royalty Fees for New US, Canada Franchises After 30 Years

McDonalds announced an increase in royalty fees for new franchises in the US and Canada. The move aligns with global standards and follows the companys revenue challenges and recent price reductions. Starting from...

India's MHA Develops CIAT to Combat Rising Cryptocurrency-Related Crimes

Indias Ministry of Home Affairs initiated the Cryptocurrency Intelligence and Analysis Tool (CIAT) project to mitigate cryptocurrency-related crimes by offering advanced monitoring, data collection, and alert mechanisms to...

EPRS Report Urges Harmonized Crypto Regulation for Global Market Stability

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) report emphasizes the need for harmonized regulations across major jurisdictions for the cryptocurrency market. Highlighting U.S. regulatory fragmentation, it underscores...

Why delaying the ban on petrol and diesel cars won't slow UK's shift to electric vehicles

The UK has delayed its ban on the sale of new cars which burn petrol or diesel in internal combustion engines (ICE) from 2030 to 2035. In some ways, this is no surprise: the original plan was to ban them from 2040, a...

The fraught history of India and the Khalistan movement

City watchdog finds no evidence for recent political 'debanking' – but private banks have been picky for centuries

After a row over the closure of his bank account earlier this year, former politician Nigel Farage has hit out at the UK financial regulator for saying it has found no recent evidence of customers being de-banked over...

Nagorno-Karabakh: longest war in post-Soviet space flares yet again as Russia distracted in Ukraine

Racism and democracy: why claims of ‘division by race’ in the NZ election and Voice referendum need challenging

Five golden rules for effective science communication – perspectives from a documentary maker

Over the past three years, people from all walks of life have learned a great deal about different branches of science. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many of us to information about virology and vaccine production....

Discovering the universe from our own backyards

When I was a college student, I worked at the Charlevoix Astronomical Observatory in Québec. It was a pretty decent summer job, as I got to observe celestial bodies until the dead of night, talk to astronomy...

Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature

People have been using fire for millennia. It is a vital part of many ecosystems and cultures. Yet human activities in the current era, sometimes called the Anthropocene, are reshaping patterns of fire across the...

Jamais vu: the science behind eerie opposite of déjà vu

Repetition has a strange relationship with the mind. Take the experience of déjà vu, when we wrongly believe have experienced a novel situation in the past leaving you with an spooky sense of pastness. But...

YouTube Unveils AI-Driven Tools for Enhanced Video Creation

YouTube revealed a range of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features aimed at assisting creators in producing videos and expanding their audience reach. As companies incorporate generative AI technology...

Not everyone wants to delegate their chores to technology

Household chores have a bad reputation. Many of us do not particularly like doing the dishes and cleaning the floor. No wonder companies are leveraging advances in robotics and artificial intelligence to introduce a new...

In future, we'll see fewer generic AI chatbots like ChatGPT and more specialised ones that are tailored to our needs

AI technology is developing rapidly. ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing online service in history. Google and Microsoft are integrating generative AI into their products. And world leaders are excitedly embracing AI as...

The joke's on us – how big tech is replicating our laughter online

Human laughter as we know it likely developed between ten and 16 million years ago. For context, the stone tools our distant human ancestors made in the Early Stone Age date back around 2.6 million years. These are vast...