Le Journal

Baidu on Thursday unveiled Ernie 5.0, a multimodal artificial intelligence model with 2.4 trillion parameters, as use of the Chinese tech giant’s AI-powered namesake assistant climbed to 200 million monthly active users. The omni-modal foundation model, capable of processing text, images, audio and video, is the Beijing-based company’s most advanced to date. The model was first previewed in November and has since climbed the rankings. A leaderboard published last week by LMArena showed...

The restart of the world’s largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan on Thursday just hours after the process began, its operator said, but the reactor remains “stable”. Operations to relaunch a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province, closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, began late on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator despite divided public opinion. But its operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), said that...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it all in a phone call to his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, last week. With Tehran in turmoil and Washington threatening to intervene, Wang was holding Beijing’s long-standing line. “[China] opposes the use or threat of force in international relations, opposes imposing one’s own will on others and opposes a return of the world to the law of the jungle,” he said, adding that Beijing was willing to play a “constructive role” in resolving differences...

A wild boar carcass found outside the luxury Deep Water Bay residence of Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing triggered a brief scare over possible human remains before authorities confirmed on Thursday that it was an animal. A 61‑year‑old security guard at Li’s home at 79 Deep Water Bay Road called police shortly before noon on Thursday after detecting a strong odour. Officers arrived and discovered the carcass of a wild boar at the bottom of a 20-metre (66-foot) slope. The Food and...

India and the European Union are stepping up a long-delayed push for a free-trade agreement as New Delhi prepares to host the bloc’s top leaders later this month, with both sides signalling urgency amid mounting pressure from US tariffs and a shifting global order. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a speech at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, said she would be travelling to India after the conference, adding that the two sides were “on the cusp of a historic trade...