News from December 1, 2025

Business

Christmas bonus welfare payments to be paid to 1.5m people this week

Almost 1.5 million people in the poorest households will receive the welfare Christmas bonus this week as many experience what Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary described as “pressure ... in the run up to Christmas”. He announced payment arrangements to long-term welfare recipients including pensioners, carers, disabled people, the...

Kitty Holland 3 hours ago

Entertainment

Poem of the week: Rich or Poor, or Saint and Sinner by Thomas Love Peacock

A sharply satirical attack on unevenly applied 19th-century laws to enforce religious observance still bites today

Carol Rumens 3 hours ago

Technology

Detention of a national at Shanghai airport evokes protests from India

NEW DELHI, India: India has lodged a protest with China over what it called an "arbitrary detention" of an Indian citizen at the Shanghai airport after the traveler from a northeastern state said she was held for hours because Chinese authorities refused to recognize her passport. Chinese authorities stopped the...

Unknown 3 hours ago

Technology

Alibaba, ByteDance move AI training offshore amid U.S. curbs: FT

BEIJING: China: Chinese technology companies are increasingly shifting the training of artificial intelligence models to overseas data centres as U.S. export controls tighten access to Nvidia chips, the Financial Times reported. Alibaba and ByteDance are among the firms training new large language models in Southeast Asia, the report said, citing...

Unknown 3 hours ago

Technology

China’s AI giants turn overseas for Nvidia chips, FT reports

BEIJING: China: Chinese technology companies are increasingly shifting the training of artificial intelligence models to overseas data centres as U.S. export controls tighten access to Nvidia chips, the Financial Times reported. Alibaba and ByteDance are among the firms training new large language models in Southeast Asia, the report said, citing...

Unknown 3 hours ago

Technology

Indian national detained at Shanghai airport, verbal slugfest ensues

NEW DELHI, India: India has lodged a protest with China over what it called an "arbitrary detention" of an Indian citizen at the Shanghai airport after the traveler from a northeastern state said she was held for hours because Chinese authorities refused to recognize her passport. Chinese authorities stopped the...

Unknown 3 hours ago