WASHINGTON: Climate change is happening and the effects will only get worse as temperatures continue to increase, oceans warm, sea levels rise and freshwater resources that are already scarce in some regions dwindle. This will fuel conflict and migration, especially in the poorest and most vulnerable nations in the Middle East and Africa.

This was one of the messages from participants in a panel discussion hosted by the Middle East Institute in Washington on Wednesday titled “Climate Injustice? How poorer nations are shouldering the burden of climate change.”

JERUSALEM: The UN Middle East peace envoy urged Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday to calm surging violence in the occupied West Bank, a day after the latest Israeli raid killed six people.

“We are in the midst of a cycle of violence that must be stopped immediately,” Tor Wennesland said in a statement.

“The Security Council has spoken with one voice, calling on the parties to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric.”

BRUSSELS: The 7th Strategic Dialogue between the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the EU was held on Thursday in Brussels.

The strategic dialogue is an annual forum for both organizations to assess and evaluate their cooperation in line with their signed joint declaration for 2021-2024. 

DUBAI/RIYADH: Silicon Valley startup OpenAI caused a sensation when it released ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot tool capable of formulating detailed, human-like answers on a seemingly limitless range of topics. In retrospect, that was just the start. 

Google has since announced its own web tool, Bard, in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT. Both tools are built on large language models, which are trained on vast troves of data in a way that they can generate impressive responses to user prompts.

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran announced Tuesday it had made the first arrests in a spate of mystery poisonings of schoolgirls that has affected more than 5,000 pupils since late November.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called Monday for the perpetrators of the “unforgivable crime” to be tracked down “without mercy” as public anger mounts.
The interior ministry said in a statement on Tuesday “a number of people” suspected of manufacturing hazardous substances had been arrested in six provinces, including a pupil’s parent.