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Australian capital hit by new Covid wave

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Health authorities in Australia’s capital Canberra on Tuesday warned against a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith revealed that modeling has indicated the territory is currently experiencing another wave of Covid infections, reports Xinhua news agency.

“We are seeing those case numbers starting to increase and we expect that is potentially the start of another wave of COVID-19 through this winter period into July and potentially into early August,” she was quoted as saying.

“We are conscious of that and we are keeping a close eye on the case numbers to see if that trajectory is going to be maintained.”

It comes after the ACT set a new record for Covid-19 hospitalizations.

There were 121 people infected with thevirus being treated in ACT hospitals, marking the highest number since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, according to the latest update on Tuesday.

The ACT government said an outbreak in a cancer ward at Canberra Hospital had contributed to the increase.

Paul Craft, clinical director of the ward, said that authorities were still investigating how Covid had spread in the ward.

“It’s been a little difficult to track where the virus has spread through the population since then, we’re still working on that,” he told local media.

“It will probably be a long time before it’s exactly clear how the outbreak occurred.”

A total of 8,023,259 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Australia, with 9,704 deaths, and 226,653 active cases, according to the federal Department of Health.

There were 3,133 cases being treated in hospitals nationwide, including 111 in intensive care.

On Tuesday, Australia reported more than 30,000 new cases and over 70 deaths.

Business

‘Its Prime Real Estate’: Anand Mahindra Expresses Awe At Grandiose Of Brabus Big Boy 1200

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In the City of Dreams that is Mumbai, one of the biggest ‘dreams’ of most who live in the metropolis is to find an abode, that they can call it their own. Real estate in Mumbai is known for its sky-high pricing, with figures of Rs 10-15 crore not surprising anyone.

The Motorhome

Space is a major issue in city, given the paucity of it, in a region that encompasses millions. However, what happens when the space is not only available but also mobile? That is precisely what a ‘motorhome’.

It may not been the most commonly seen or discussed avenue in this part of the world, but in other parts of the world, particularly in the US, an RV or recreational vehicle is the way of life, either by choice or by circumstance.

Mahindra Group chairman, Anand Mahindra recently reacted to one such motorhome. In a post on X, he shared a minute-long clipping of the Brabus Big Boy 1200. This is an uber-luxe, profligate motorhome manufactured by the German automobile company Brabus.

Mahindra, while reacting to the video of a person showing around the bus said, That’s not transport. It’s prime real estate.”

And one may arguably agree with Mahindra on this. The vehicle is extravagant and has a length of 12 meters or 39.4 ft and over 30 square meters or 320 sq ft. For context, the average size of homes in city of Mumbai hovers around 400-700 sq ft.

What Are The Features Of This Motorhome?

In addition, the vehicle also has two electrically extendable slide-outs on each side. These slide-outs can extend the bedroom and saloon to a width of 4.50 meters.

In addition, the motorhome also consists of a double bed measuring 160 x 200 centimeters.

A closet is integrated into the rear wall of the vehicle.

For amusement, the vehicle also has a desk and a 43-inch 4K television. Here one could watch TV programs that have been made available on the system play games on the integrated Playstation 5 system.

In addition, one can also connect to the internet through the Starlink system.

When it comes to the vehicle, it runs on a12.8-liter six-cylinder turbodiesel engine. This engine can deliver 390 kW / 530 hp and can generate a maximum torque of 2,600 Nm.

The vehicle is priced at around USD 1.5 million or a whopping Rs 12 crore.

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Business

‘If They Tax Us We Tax Them’: Donald Trump Gives Fresh Warning To India

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US President-Elect Donald Trump has issued a fresh warning to India saying that if it taxes American products, the US will do the same. Trump’s words came during his interaction with journalists at his Mar-a-Lago resort Since his first term, Trump has been hawkish about taxing foreign products but has not fully implemented what he has said. However, Trump’s warnings are taken seriously as markets move according to what a US president says.

“If they tax us, we tax them the same amount,” Trump told reporters.

Other than about India, Trump has been vocal about taxes imposed on American products by Brazil, Mexico and China.

“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us – India, we don’t have to talk about our own – if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle, and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot,” said Trump.

“India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing,” he added.

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden has sounded upbeat about India-US ties. On Tuesday, Biden administration said that it was leaving India-US relations “in a very strong place”

“We continue to be very ambitious about the US-India relationship. We’ve had very high-level engagement over the course of the last several months with the QUAD summit in Delaware, and we are anticipating a high-level engagement in the last few weeks of the Biden administration,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Tuesday.

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Business

Who Was Suchir Balaji? OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead Allegedly By Suicide In San Francisco

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Suchir Balaji, a former researcher at OpenAI, allegedly took his own life in his apartment in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In an interview with The New York Times in October, the 26-year-old Indian American man expressed worries about OpenAI violating copyright law.

Found Dead In His Apartment

A representative from the San Francisco Police Department verified that the young researcher was discovered deceased in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26. After officers and medics were summoned to his home in the city’s Lower Haight district for a wellness check after concerns were raised by his friends and colleagues. Officers discovered Suchir Balaji deceased. Police have reported that no signs of foul play have been discovered and ruled possibility of suicide.

A TechCrunch report states that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has recognized the deceased as Suchir Balaji, 26, from San Francisco. The cause of death has been established as suicide. The OCME has informed his relatives.

Who was Suchir Balaji?

Suchir Balaji was a 26 year old AI researcher who studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, before working at OpenAI. He interned at OpenAI and Scale AI while in college.

During his early days at OpenAI, Balaji worked on WebGPT, and later went on to work on the pretraining team for GPT-4, reasoning team with o1, and post-training for ChatGPT, his LinkedIn states.

Balaji quit OpenAI after working at the company for four years. He told The New York Times that he realised the technology would bring more harm than good to society, his main concern being how OpenAI allegedly used copyright data.

Balaji expressed his concerns in an X post in October, saying, “ initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on.”

The day prior to the discovery of the OpenAI whistleblower’s death, a court document allegedly identified him in a copyright case filed against the company. OpenAI, in a gesture of good faith, stated that it would review Balaji’s custodial file concerning the copyright issues he raised.

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