Author: KnowledgeHippo

Attention, bibliophiles: Put Strasbourg, the largest city in eastern France, on your radar. Once home to the godfather of publishing – 15th-century printing press pioneer Johannes Gutenberg – the city is UNESCO’s World Book Capital for 2024. Until next April, more than 200 events and activities will take place in and around Strasbourg, a multilingual city on the German border, whose half-timbered gingerbread houses, gabled roofs, picturesque canals and church spiers seem to have sprung from a storybook of their own.Among the events are exhibitions dedicated to Gustave Doré—a native of Strasbourg and perhaps the most famous illustrator of literary…

Still fighting Israel’s external enemies on multiple fronts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu woke up Monday to a new political battleground at home.The departure this weekend of Benny Gantz and his centrist National Unity party from Israel’s wartime emergency government is unlikely to immediately end Mr Netanyahu’s power. The prime minister’s ruling coalition still holds a slim majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament.But Mr Gantz’s move means Mr Netanyahu is now fully dependent on his far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners as he pursues the Gaza war in the face of growing international abuse, leaving him increasingly isolated and exposed…

The new president of Yale University will be Maurie D. McInnis, currently president of Stony Brook University, a New York state university where she is known for raising the profile, donations and prestige of the school. When he takes over for outgoing Yale president Peter Salovey in July, Dr. McInnis, who earned master’s and Ph.D from Yale in the 1990s, will become the university’s first permanent female president.Her selection followed a search that began last fall. The delay in announcing the successor of Dr. Salovey, who steps down at the end of June, prompted speculation that the university’s selection committee…

Nearly two years after OpenAI sparked a race to add genetic artificial intelligence to products, Apple entered the fray Monday as it unveiled plans to bring the technology to more than a billion iPhone users worldwide.During a two-hour presentation from its futuristic Silicon Valley campus, Apple said it would use genetic artificial intelligence to power what it calls Apple Intelligence. The system will prioritize messages and notifications and offer writing tools capable of correcting and suggesting what users have written in emails, notes or text. It will also lead to a major upgrade for Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant.In unveiling its…

Every year, Apple and Google announce major software updates that bring new features to our smartphones, like cosmetic fixes to the home screen, stronger privacy protections, and fun messaging tools. This year, the changes will be more radical as companies focus on reinventing our phones with artificial intelligence.At its annual software developer conference on Monday, Apple unveiled a slew of improvements coming this fall to iOS 18, its operating system that powers iPhones. The new tools include a revamped version of its voice assistant, Siri, which is easier to talk to, and an AI system that will generate images, create…

The United Automobile Workers union on Monday announced a temporary contract at an Ohio factory that makes batteries for electric vehicles, a step it called a milestone in strengthening wages and safety in the EV supply chain.The deal covers 1,600 workers at a Lordstown plant operated by Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors and a South Korean partner, LG Energy Solution. Produces batteries for GM electric vehicles.The workers were not unionized when the plant opened in 2022, but were brought into the UAW under the terms of the national contract the union negotiated with GM last fall. This…

A coalition of law enforcement agents will begin cracking down on the unruly market for illegal e-cigarettes, under pressure from anti-smoking groups, lawmakers and the tobacco industry to urge federal authorities to stem the flood of vaping devices favored by teenagers.The Justice Department and the Food and Drug Administration announced the new effort, which is expected to target fruit and candy-flavored vapes that contain high levels of addictive nicotine.The new coalition will include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. the US Marshals Service; the Federal Trade Commission and the US Postal Service, taking advantage of federal laws that…

More than a decade ago, Boeing executives made a defining decision: To keep up with the company’s main rival, Airbus, they abandoned the idea of ​​developing a new plane and raced to update the 737, its most popular jet. company.That effort culminated with the 737 Max, which had two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 and drew more scrutiny this year when a panel exploded from one of the planes during a flight in January. The plane’s problems have left Boeing behind Airbus in the global single-aisle plane market, which it once dominated.Now Boeing, which is expected to name a…

Israeli politician Benny Gantz, a key member of the country’s war cabinet, resigned Sunday from the government over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza.The resignation dealt a blow to the appearance of unity that Mr. Netanyahu was able to create at the start of the conflict and exposed divisions at the top of the Israeli leadership over the future of the war and its aftermath.Mr Gantz, a centrist figure who last month threatened to resign if Mr Netanyahu did not address his concerns about how the war will end and what comes next, said his party…

Youssef Hasweh is expected to receive his degree from the University of Chicago on Saturday.What he received instead was an email from the associate dean of students informing him that because he was under investigation for his participation in a protest camp on the campus block, “your degree will not be awarded until this matter is resolved.”Like many other student protesters across the country, Mr. Hasweh has been drawn into a kind of disciplinary vacuum. Although he was allowed to attend the graduation, the university is withholding his degree until it determines whether and how to punish him for violating…