When Danielle Gillam-Kirton was given an urn of her parents, who were among nine Brits killed in a Spanish wildfire, she had no reason to suspect there was anything more to remember them by.
The photograph offers a remarkable glimpse of the marine mammals in their natural environment. Martin Shaw, who posted…
Experts believe one-third of wildfires in France are set deliberately, with arson the biggest single cause of forest fires last yearOne is a boy of 15, who threw a burning cigarette into a wood near Bordeaux. Another is a 36-year-old man who set a paper bag of rubbish on fire in bushes near Perpignan. A third is a 50-year-old woman accused of lighting 17 fires south of La Rochelle.According to the French interior ministry, since the start of a summer in which a record 115,000 hectares of forest, scrub and heathland have gone up in flames, 514 people – including 198 minors – have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires. Continue reading...
BANGKOK, HANOI — Tana-wat, 34, an office worker who works in central Bangkok, starts his morning by turning on his BYD Atto 3, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV). On his way to work, he stops for a 20-baht ($0.60) lemonade at Mixue, a low-cost beverage chain from China. When he has a spare moment, he scrolls through TikTok, a Chinese short-form video platform, and clicks links at the bottom of videos to shop on TikTok Shop. His daily routine is surrounded by Chinese brands, known colloquially as "C-brands." Just a few years ago, C-brands were synonymous with “cheap” in Thailand. The picture has now changed dramatically. Their reach has expanded from inexpensive food and beverages to high-end fashion and cutting-edge electric vehicles. Chinese companies’ expansion into Southeast Asia has moved beyond large-scale infrastructure investment and manufacturing and into consumers’ everyday lives. C-brands on every floor of luxury malls At Iconsiam, one of Bangkok’s most upscale shopping malls, C-brands are found on virtually every floor. Among them are Urban Revivo, a fashion brand; Pop
Influencers aren’t just battling competitors for brand deals. They’re now battling AI versions of themselvesEarlier this year, Emily Schuman, the creator of the lifestyle blog Cupcakes and Cashmere, saw a photo of herself she didn’t recognize on Instagram. In a sponsored ad, Schuman, who has more than 500,000 Instagram followers, is holding up a vial of GLP-1 drugs, advertising the telehealth company Gala. There was just one problem: Schuman had never heard of Gala and had nothing to do with the ad.The ad was based on a digitally altered version of a selfie Schuman had taken in her car and posted on Instagram years earlier. Once her followers got wind, they flooded her inbox with questions about the sponsorship as it didn’t seem consistent with Schuman’s personal brand. Soon after, Schuman discovered this was just the beginning. There was also an Instagram post where an AI version of her with darker hair appears to apply foundation to promote a makeup brand called Meroda Cosmetics, and TikTok posts with generated images of her promoting the blood testing company Superpower. Continue reading...
He noted that having all the information on a single platform ReuniteIndia.com helps families who are right now stuck piecing together information scattered across dozens of PDFs, helplines, and social media posts