President Joe Biden praised the first release of hostages by Hamas and said the US expects more captives

By Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE Asian shares slid on Thursday after a surprise interest rate hike by Bank of

At least one person was killed and at least 18 more were injured in a Russian attack on Odesa early on Sunday 23 July, according to Ukraine officials. The missile strike damaged an administrative building and a nearby residential building, as well as the city’s Transfiguration Cathedral. Debris blocked part of a key road in the city centre, with rubble scattered around, power lines damaged, and windows blown out. In the affected residential building, some people became trapped in their apartments as a result of the damage caused by the attack. An 85-year-old woman was rescued by emergency service workers, who gave her first aid. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

On 10 August, California regulators voted to expand the footprint of paid taxi services by autonomous, driverless cars from Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco. Since then, it’s been utter chaos, with the AVs involved in traffic jams, slapstick malfunctions, and a car accident with a fire truck. A day after the vote, video went viral on social media showing about 10 frozen Cruise taxis snarling traffic in the North Beach neighbourhood, which company officials later said was caused by a connectivity issue due to a spike in cell traffic because of a nearby music festival. The following Tuesday, a Cruise taxi was stuck in wet concrete at a construction site. “I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen and this is one of them,” resident Paul Harvey told SFGATE. “It thinks it’s a road and it ain’t because it ain’t got a brain and it can’t tell that it’s freshly poured concrete.” Two days after that, a Cruise taxi had what might be its most serious accident yet, colliding with a fire truck in the Tenderloin neighbourhood, giving the taxi’s passengers non-severe injuries. A firefighter in the truck said the AV “lurched” as it passed through an intersection ABC 7 reports, while Cruise said its vehicle detected the emergency sirens but was unable to get out of the way in time from the truck, which drove into the oncoming traffic lane. “The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light,” the company wrote in a statement. “Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. “The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision,” the company added. Following the repeated mishaps, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked Cruise to cut its 400-strong deployment of AVs in San Francisco in half, with the agency saying it was “investigating recent concerning incidents.” As The Independent reported, critics of AVs warned ahead of their expansion in San Francisco that the driverless cars weren’t ready for primetime, particularly when it comes to interfacing with emergency vehicles. According to data Cruise shared with the state earlier this month, between January and mid-July of 2023, Cruise AVs temporarily malfunctioned or shut down 177 times and required recovery, 26 of which such incidents occurred with a passenger inside, while Waymo recorded 58 such events in a similar time frame. Meanwhile, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA), between April 2022 and April 2023, Cruise and Waymo vehicles have been involved in over 300 incidents of irregular driving including unexpected stops and collisions, while the San Francisco Fire Department says AVs have interfered 55 times in their work in 2023. Last year, Cruise lost contact with its entire fleet for 20 minutes according to internal documentation viewed by WIRED, and an anonymous employee warned California regulators that year the company loses touch with its vehicles “with regularity.” Since being rolled out in San Francisco, robotaxis have killed a dog, caused a mile-long traffic jam during rush hour, blocked a traffic lane as officials responded to a shooting, and driven over fire hoses. Jeffrey Tumlin, San Francisco’s director of transportation, has called the rollout of robotaxis a “race to the bottom,” arguing Cruise and Waymo weren’t yet definitive transit solutions, and instead had only “met the requirements for a learner’s permit.” Read More How a vote to empower autonomous ‘robotaxis’ from Cruise and Waymo has divided San Francisco GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco Chinese military launches drills around Taiwan as 'warning' after top island official stopped in US San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia & ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 10, 2023--

Donald Trump returned to the roots of his first impeachment when he suggested that aid to Ukraine should be conditioned on congressional investigations of President Joe Biden. The former president called for Republicans in Congress to hold back on more support for Ukraine until the White House cooperates with their probes into the business dealings of Mr Biden and his son Hunter Biden. The Saturday night tirade at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania echoed the conduct that led to Mr Trump’s first of his two impeachments when he used military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into then-candidate Biden in 2019. “Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional shipment of our depleted weapons stockpiles … to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden Crime Family’s corrupt business dealings,” Mr Trump said on Saturday. Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s Super PAC Save America spent $40m on legal fees in the first six months of this year, according to The Washington Post. Read More Who's in, who's out: A look at which candidates have qualified for the 1st GOP presidential debate Trump, amid legal perils, calls on GOP to rally around him as he threatens primary challenges Trump rehearses defence over possible election lies charges at Pennsylvania rally Donald Trump’s $475m ‘Hitler’ defamation lawsuit against CNN thrown out by federal judge ‘Poetic’: Trump takes stage in Iowa to song about going to prison

Dutchwoman Demi Vollering succeeded compatriot and great rival Annemiek van Vleuten to win the second edition of the women's Tour de...

By Jack Kim SEOUL A K-pop music concert scheduled for Sunday at a World Scout Jamboree in South

The New Democratic Coalition, which says it has a 98-House member bloc, is ramping up pressure on Speaker Kevin McCarthy to reject hardliners in his party and instead work with Republicans and Democrats to pass its annual defense legislation in a timely manner.

From Sunny Hostin to Joy Behar, 'The View' hosts brutally slam Senator Tommy Tuberville over his 'ignorant' remark

Dutch opposition parties have called a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Mark Rutte for Monday, putting

With the world's largest biometric ID database, a pioneering digital payment system for daily transactions and a flagship space and satellite programme, India knows...