Instagram says it is pausing a rollout of new features on its app following backlash online from users, influencers, and celebrities.
Among the new features was an increase in recommended video content, in a similar style to rival app TikTok, writes BBC technology reporter Shiona McCallum.
The display and feeds were criticized as people felt they were not seeing photos from friends and family as much.
Meta, Instagram's parent company, said it wanted to "take the time"...
The U.S. and Chinese leaders have warned each other over Taiwan during a phone call that lasted more than two hours.
President Joe Biden told Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that the U.S. strongly opposed any unilateral moves to change the island's status, the BBC reports.
But he added that U.S. policy on Taiwan had not changed.
Beijing said Xi had told Biden to abide by the one-China principle, warning him that "whoever plays with fire will get burnt."
Tensions over...
(American Academy of Neurology) – People who eat the highest amounts of ultra-processed foods such as soft drinks, chips, and cookies may have a higher risk of developing dementia than those who eat the lowest amounts, according to a study published in the July 27 online issue of Neurology.
Researchers also found that replacing ultra-processed foods in a person's diet with unprocessed or minimally processed foods was associated with a lower risk. The study does not...
Ukraine says work has started at three ports aimed at forming "green corridors" to allow grain exports, the BBC reports.
A spokesperson for the Odesa military administration said naval teams will build routes out of southern ports in Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdennyi.
Once the routes are established, "caravans" of ships led by Ukrainian naval vessels will sail through the Black Sea, Serhiy Bratchuk said.
Kyiv and Moscow struck a deal to allow the grain exports last week.
Under...
Researchers at Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine have discovered key human genomic signatures that could help explain why COVID-19 is severe in some people and mild in others. After analyzing volumes of diverse worldwide DNA sequence data, the scientists identified mutations in two human proteins that might sway the course of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19.
Their study reveals that variants in the genes for ACE2 and TMPRESS2 can lead to an increase or...
Russian energy giant Gazprom says it will once again drastically cut gas supplies to the EU through its main pipeline due to maintenance work.
Gazprom said stopping another turbine at the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would cut daily gas delivery to 20%, halving the current level of supply.
The German government said there was no technical reason to limit gas supply.
It is likely to make it more difficult for EU countries to replenish their stores of...
The White House said Sunday it was confident authorities could "eliminate" monkeypox from the United States by speeding up the rollout of vaccinations and treatment to combat the virus's spread.
"I think monkeypox can be contained, absolutely," doctor Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator, told CBS News talk show "Face the Nation."
"We have acted swiftly," Jha said, pushing back against accusations that President Joe Biden's administration was caught flat-footed when the first cases began appearing...
A robot broke a seven-year-old boy's finger during a chess match in Moscow last week, Russian news outlets report.
"The robot broke the child's finger," Sergey Lazarev, Moscow Chess Federation President, told Tass news agency. "This is of course bad."
A video shared on social media shows the robot taking one of the boy's pieces. The boy then makes his own move, and the robot grabs his finger.
Four adults rush to help the boy, who is...
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – About a decade ago, deep-learning models started achieving superhuman results on all sorts of tasks, from beating world-champion board-game players to outperforming doctors at diagnosing breast cancer.
These powerful deep-learning models are usually based on artificial neural networks, which were first proposed in the 1940s and have become a popular type of machine learning. A computer learns to process data using layers of interconnected nodes, or neurons, that mimic the human brain.
As...
(Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago) – Nearly 6% of children who presented to the emergency department (ED) with COVID-19 reported symptoms of long COVID 90 days later, according to a study conducted in eight countries and published in JAMA Network Open. Initial hospitalization of 48 or more hours, four or more symptoms at the initial ED visit, and age 14 years or older were associated with long COVID.
"We found that in...
