Britain rallies Western allies to help Ukraine and chatbots descend on colleges.
Mass testing was a cornerstone of China's pandemic strategy. Now that the country has abandoned its strict zero Covid controls, it is no longer in high demand. Companies that have made fortunes making the test kits and analyzing the results have begun instituting layoffs or pay cuts. Former employees are caught in the middle. People who used to work in the Pandemic-control industries started to revolt this month, frustrated by their sudden loss of wages. Hundreds of protesters in Chongqing, a southwestern city, chanted "Pay me back" as they forced police officers in riot gear to retreat and spilled thousands of tests on the ground. In Hangzhou, an eastern city, witnesses said angry workers climbed on the roof of a test kit factory and threatened to jump to protest unpaid furloughs. Factories, owed money by governments, are strapped for cash amid the broader slowdown. One expert said that workers have no recourse to resolve their grievances other than to lash out.
On Sunday, the 44-year-old captain met the same fate as her husband when the propeller plane she was co-piloting crashed near the landing strip in Pokhara, a vacation destination. At least 68 other people were killed in the crash, Nepal's deadliest air disaster in decades. Her family's tragedy is part of a worrying pattern. Nepal, whose mountains make for difficult terrain, has had more than 30 deadly air crashes since the early 1990s, according to the Aviation Safety Network. An audit last year expressed concerns about the shortcomings in air navigation, investigation of incidents and the organizational structure necessary for implementing safety standards. Details: A video of the plane, moments before it went down, showed a wing drop suddenly as the plane descended in clear skies. Tourism in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the region, relies on visitors. Experts and officials have been concerned about airports ability to meet post-pandemic demand for a long time.
Some professors at U.S. colleges are reorganizing their classes. They rely more on oral exams, group work and handwritten assignments. They are de-emphasizing take-home, open-book assignments. More than 6,000 professors have signed up for a program that claims to detect A.I. One professor of philosophy told The Times that he plans to weave ChatGPT into lessons by asking students to evaluate the responses of the chatbots. What is no longer going to be going on in class. Here are some questions - let's talk about it between us human beings, he said. What does this alien robot think? The benefits of ChatGPT outweigh its risks, according to Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The Times.