Author: insighter

France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party holds a clear lead in the first round of the country’s snap parliamentary elections, according to exit polls. Pollsters IFOP, Ipsos, OpinionWay and Elabe projected Marine Le Pen’s RN winning around 34 percent of votes, while the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition was seen coming in second with around 29 percent, ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble Alliance in third spot with around 20.3 percent. Pollster Elabe said in an estimate for BFM TV that the RN and its allies could win 260-310 parliament seats in the second voting round on July…

We all know how things work in Silicon Valley. Brilliant individuals with great ideas disrupt whole industries: Uber and public transport, Tesla and car-making, even Microsoft and the workplace itself. Older incumbents won’t, and can’t, adapt with the times—and so they disappear, replaced by the firms of today and tomorrow. It’s the way tech hubs are supposed to work. Except that not all do. The Silicon Valley model is tied closely to the economic model of the U.S.—and so difficult to replicate elsewhere. Silicon Valley excels in some aspects of frontier technology but lost its manufacturing edge long ago. Around…

source: Getty Images Perhaps putting a little extra cash in your pocket can help ward off the Sunday blues. With a full slate of baseball that is scheduled to start before noon and a healthy dose of WNBA action, there’s no better time to build some positive momentum for the week ahead. Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta BravesFirst pitch is set for 11:35 a.m. ET, so if you were planning on rolling out of bed, wolfing down breakfast and heading right over to the board, this is the game for you. There’s no harm in picking up the lines live either. Atlanta will be gunning…

19 minutes agoBy Lucy Williamson, Middle East CorrespondentBBCSamir said he was “waiting for death” after being picked up by Israeli soldiersTwo more Palestinian men, injured during a military operation in the occupied West Bank last week, have told the BBC that Israeli soldiers forced them onto the bonnet of an army jeep and drove them – sometimes at speed – along village roads.Their accounts came days after footage of 23-year-old Mujahid Abadi Balas clinging to the bonnet of what appears to be the same Israeli army jeep sparked international outrage.The BBC has now spoken to two men who allege similar treatment during…

Porter Airlines, a growing carrier based in Canada, has been on a major U.S. expansion over the last couple of years. This winter, it plans to take a big step forward.Between late October and early December, the carrier will launch seven new routes to Florida, more than doubling its footprint in the Sunshine State as compared to last winter.The winter schedule announced this week will bring Porter’s upscale regional-size jets to Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) for the first time.It’ll also give Florida its first nonstop link to Montreal on Porter.”We experienced a strong response to our Florida service last…

As writers and testers for WIRED, we spend all day immersed in personal technology of all kinds. It’s probably no surprise that if we work on a computer during the day and enjoy gaming in our downtime, our kids do, too. Reviewer Adrienne So has a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old who attended school remotely and play video games. Reviewer Simon Hill has an 11- and a 14-year-old. Between us, we—well, our kids—have tested most of the kid headphones on the market, including everything we’re recommending here.These are our top picks, along with some advice—such as why you might want a…

As Florida’s ban on “lab-grown” meat is set to go into effect next week, one manufacturer hosted a last hurrah — at least for now — with a cultivated meat-tasting party in Miami. California-based Upside Foods hosted dozens of guests Thursday evening at a rooftop reception in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood, known for its street art, breweries, nightclubs and trendy restaurants. “This is delicious meat,” Upside Foods CEO and founder Uma Valeti said. “And we just fundamentally believe that people should have a choice to choose what they want to put on their plate.” The U.S. approved the sale of what’s now being…

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, Storm begins to shut down southeast Caribbean amid urgent pleas from government officials for people to take shelter.Much of the southeast Caribbean is on alert as Beryl strengthens into the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, with forecasters warning of a “very dangerous” Category 3 storm. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl – churning in the Atlantic Ocean about 675km (420 miles) east of Barbados – at 12:30 GMT on Sunday was expected to bring “life-threatening winds and storm surge” when it reaches the Windward Islands early on Monday. Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent…

Jun 29, 2024; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves outfielder Adam Duvall (14) jumps the catch fly ball against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the eighth inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Godfree-USA TODAY Sports Adam Duvall led the National League in RBIs with 113 in 2021 and was an All-Star in 2016. But the 35-year-old outfielder, who also won a Gold Glove while helping the Atlanta Braves win a World Series three years ago, has struggled in 2024. Make that, really struggled. Duvall is batting just .167 this season and finally hit the 20-RBI mark in Saturday afternoon’s 2-1 victory…

58 minutes agoBy Sofia Ferreira Santos, BBC NewsReutersPresident Biden and the First Lady arriving in New Jersey for a fundraiserUS President Joe Biden has assured Democrat donors that he can still win November’s presidential election against Donald Trump, after a poor debate performance fuelled concern about his candidacy.The president, 81, attended a series of fundraising events in New York and New Jersey on Saturday, and defended his performance in CNN’s Presidential Debate.Speaking at one event, Mr Biden admitted, “I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump” on Thursday.”I promise you we’re going to win this election,” he said.Mr Biden’s debate…

The two largest golf cart producers in the US are asking for relief from an existential hazard: a flood of Chinese imports. Club Car LLC and Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., both based near Augusta, Georgia, asked the Biden administration this week to slap a 100% tariff on golf carts and other low-speed, often battery-powered personal vehicles made in China — putting them on par with the US tariff on regular Chinese electric automobiles. “Chinese import volumes have rapidly increased, taking greater consumer vehicle market share while using price benefits from Chinese government subsidies to drive their advantage,” Club Car President…

One of the selling points of Google’s flagship generative AI models, Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash, is the amount of data they can supposedly process and analyze. In press briefings and demos, Google has repeatedly claimed that the models can accomplish previously impossible tasks thanks to their “long context,” like summarizing multiple hundred-page documents or searching across scenes in film footage. But new research suggests that the models aren’t, in fact, very good at those things. Two separate studies investigated how well Google’s Gemini models and others make sense out of an enormous amount of data — think “War…