US discusses new meeting with Iran amid ongoing Middle East conflict
via Le Matin1 min read
The United States is discussing a new meeting with Iran, as Iran reaffirms its willingness to negotiate. This comes as the world hopes for an extension of the two-week ceasefire, in effect since April 8, and an end to a war that has caused thousands of deaths, primarily in Iran and Lebanon, and is impacting the global economy. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt stated on Wednesday, "We are optimistic about the prospect of an agreement." Pakistan continues its mediation efforts after an initial round of discussions in Islamabad concluded without an agreement. Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir met with Iranian Chief Diplomat Abbas Araghchi in Iran on Wednesday. Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif reported on his country's efforts during a meeting in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as part of a tour that will also include Qatar and Turkey, his cabinet announced on Thursday. Iranian diplomatic spokesman Esmaïl Baghaï confirmed that "several messages had been exchanged via Pakistan" in recent days. However, he maintained Iran's major demand for the country's right to a civilian nuclear program, only opening the door to discussions on "the level and type of enrichment" of uranium. Nearly seven weeks after the war began, triggered by an Israeli-American attack against Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the objectives of Israel and the United States remain "identical," citing specifically "the abandonment of enrichment cap
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Must ReadMorocco, facing structural water scarcity with an annual water endowment of approximately 620 m³ per inhabitant, has initiated a €347 million program to combat this challenge. The year 2024 marked the seventh consecutive year of drought in the Kingdom, exacerbating water resource depletion, while demand continues to grow by 3% annually since 2016 due to demographic pressure, economic development, and agricultural needs. Over-exploitation of groundwater, used to compensate for surface water deficits, is leading to salinization in coastal areas. Additionally, agricultural, industrial, and domestic pollution contribute to qualitative degradation of resources. The country also faces increasing climate hazards, including sudden intense rains and floods, with projections indicating a 2.3 °C rise in average temperature, nearly 30 additional days of extreme heat, and a 17% average decrease in annual precipitation by 2060. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC identifies Morocco as highly vulnerable to reduced rainfall and intensified extreme weather events. The program is co-financed by three sovereign loans of €100 million each from the Agence française de développement AFD, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti CDP, and the German Development Bank KfW, along with a €46.9 million grant from the European Union and an additional €0.4 million grant from AFD. This financial structure is divided into two components: €327 million for budget support linked to public policy reforms and res
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Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, and writer Scott Turow, along with his publishing company S.C.R.I.B.E., have filed a lawsuit in New York against Google. They allege that Google secretly copied millions of works from its digital library, Google Books, and other services, which were provided for limited use, to train its AI model, Gemini. The plaintiffs claim that Gemini can create books and compete with human authors at an unprecedented scale and speed, and that it even imitates the stylistic elements and creative choices of specific authors. They argue that content generated by Gemini directly competes with the original authors' works. The lawsuit seeks a court order to stop these practices and unspecified damages. This legal action is part of a series of copyright infringement lawsuits against AI companies. Several of these publishers, including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, and Scott Turow, had previously sued Meta in May in a New York court for similar reasons. In a related case, Anthropic, developer of the Claude AI models, reached an agreement in September to pay at least $1.5 billion to authors and publishers who sued it for illegally downloading millions of books. However, a judge in that case ruled that feeding a generative AI model with works theoretically protected by copyright did not constitute an infringement.