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Upon the release of her debut novel The Country Girls she was vilified in Ireland for her depiction of the sex lives of het young female protagonists. Book burnings followed – but her greatness as an arwtist long outlived that poisonous response. “Edna was a fearless teller of truths,” the President said. The great Irish novelist Edna O’Brien has died. She was aged 93. Widely regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest writers of hte modern era, she made her initial breakthrough with her debut novel The Country Girls, published in 1960. It was enormously controversial in Ireland, moving way beyond…

Among U.S. adults ages 50 and older who never had children, majorities say achieving certain things in life – such as having a fulfilling life, or a successful career – don’t have much to do with whether someone has children. At the same time, many say not having children has made some aspects of life easier for them. General impact of not having children Majorities of adults ages 50 and older who don’t have children say a person’s ability to do each of the following doesn’t have much to do with having kids: Have a fulfilling life (66%) Have a…

DALLAS – In one of the largest recoveries of its kind, the U.S. Department of Labor has recouped more than $1.5 million in unpaid overtime wages and damages from a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company that deprived 430 technicians of their rights, protections and benefits under law by misclassifying them as independent contractors.The recovery follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found C&G HVAC LLC in Dallas owed the affected technicians $756,158 in unpaid overtime wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. “C&G HVAC denied these technicians their full wages, hurt taxpayers by not paying related…

Lawmakers and others were quick to condemn the news on X, with IPAC Executive Director Luke de Pulford tagging China’s foreign ministry and writing: “You don’t get to decide the travel plans of foreign politicians. Please leave us alone. Thanks.” “The CCP [Communist Party of China] believes that it can use pressure and coercion to stop democratically elected legislators from gathering,” Slovakian MEP Mariam Lexmann, who co-chairs IPAC, wrote in a post on X. “We will not be deterred, nor will our commitment to working with our partners to defend freedom and democracy waver.” IPAC is a group of hundreds…

Humans are interacting more than ever with artificial intelligence (AI) – from the development of the first “social robots” (a robot with a physical body programmed to interact and engage with humans) like Kismet in the 1990s to smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa. But this technology is changing how humans relate with it – and with each other. Our new research looked at how humans experience interacting with AI social robots or digital avatars – AI virtual chatbots designed to look and interact like a human on a device. These are designed to increase human interaction with them. Social…

The Prime Minister was pleased to meet His Highness the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani in Paris.  The two leaders acknowledged the fruitful discussion they had in December last year, when the Prime Minister visited Qatar as Leader of the Opposition.  They discussed their mutual enjoyment of the Olympic opening ceremony and both commended France for a successful event.  The Emir said the relationship between the UK and Qatar is profound and growing each year, a sentiment the Prime Minister echoed.  The two leaders pledged to build on the existing partnership, particularly in areas of mutual…

Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, sizes and levels of sophistication. They are used for many roles including short- and long-range attack, reconnaissance, electronic disruption, communications relay and supply. Many are repurposed consumer drones, such as the low-cost Chinese DJI designs sold in electronics stores. Such drones are modified as combat demands require and are being flown in their hundreds every day in Ukraine. Before the war, military aircraft were very expensive…

Hundreds of firefighters from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Africa are being deployed to western Canada to help fight wildfires while a major fire has damaged a third of the structures in the picturesque town of Jasper. Australian fire managers have arrived in Lac La Biche, Alta. while other experts from Australia and New Zealand were deployed to British Columbia to assist with wildfires there. Meanwhile, over 200 firefighters and two helicopters from Ontario headed to Alberta to lend a hand. But, why do these kinds of exchanges happen and how are they co-ordinated? The…

Ireland has a poor history of backing up its cyber security operations 8.5m Windows devices and 674,620 direct customers in 1,200 unique industries were affected. Photo: GettyOne of the things that’s supposed to help stop another ‘blue screen of death’ outage is the NIS2 Directive – an EU law that requires better backups, more resilience and quicker, more proactive responses to cyber security incidents.But an apparent staffing crisis at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) could mean that Ireland won’t introduce the law when it’s due to be transposed, in mid-October. Source link

A majority of U.S. adults ages 50 and older who don’t have children say not having kids hasn’t had much of an impact on their personal relationships. And for the most part, they report that they rarely, if ever, felt pressure to have children when they were younger. Similarly, majorities of adults under 50 who say they are unlikely to have children say they rarely, if ever, talk about having kids with family or friends. The impact of not having children on relationships Among adults ages 50 and older, large shares say not having children has had neither a positive…