Political parties use May Day rallies as launching pad for election campaignsNewsMain political parties today marked their May Day celebrations in Sri Lanka, unofficially launching their election campaigns with upcoming polls in mind. Leader of the NPP Anura Kumara Dissanayake addressing the May Day rally in Matara said this was the final May Day rally held under a corrupt regime and the next would be under a NPP Government. A colourful May Day rally was held today with the participation of thousands of party supporters at Malligawatte in front of P. de Sirisena grounds to mark May Day celebrations. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena speaking at SLPP’s May Day rally, lauded the enormous contribution that the workforce makes to the economy. National Peoples' PowerAddressing the Colombo rally of the National People's Movement (NPP), Party Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said “This is no longer a party...

Big names miss out as Australia reveal squad for T20 World CupSportA host of big names have missed selection as Australia announced their 15-player group for next month's ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Veteran batter Steve Smith, young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk, experienced seamer Jason Behrendorff and all-rounder Matt Short all miss the cut as the 2021 T20 World Cup champions sprung some surprises when revealing their squad for the four-week tournament in the West Indies and the USA. Mitchell Marsh will captain the side, with his promotion to full-time T20I confirmed by Australia alongside the squad announcement. Selection chair George Bailey believes Australia have a well-balanced squad and is confident of a strong showing in the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup. Australia open their T20 World Cup campaign against Oman in Barbados on June 5, before Group B fixtures against England, Namibia and Scotland.

Source: phys.orgIndustrial fishing boats hover menacingly on the edges of Ecuador's Galapagos Marine Reserve, where schools of multicolored fish and hammerhead sharks frolic in the protected Pacific waters.

SOPA Images/GettyThe California lottery has revealed who won a $1.75 billion Powerball jackpot in October—and it’s more than one person. In a press release on Friday, officials said a man named Theodorus Struyck is the representative of a group of winners who took the second-biggest prize in lottery history. It appears that personal details about Struyck have been largely scrubbed from the internet and social media. Read more at The Daily Beast. Source: www.thedailybeast.com

Sampath Bank and Visa Unveil Innovative Sampath Visa Purchasing Card for Corporate ClientsBusinessSampath Bank PLC is proud to announce its strategic collaboration with Visa, the global leader in payments, to introduce a groundbreaking addition to its Corporate Cards portfolio — the Sampath Visa Purchasing Card. Mr. Shiran Kossinna, Assistant General Manager – Card Centre, Sampath Bank, remarked, "The introduction of the Sampath Visa Purchasing Card represents our continuous effort to further streamline the expense management of the bank's valued corporate clients. With the Sampath Visa Purchasing Card, organisations truly get better control and view of their expenses, enabling smarter finance planning and management. Corporates embracing the Sampath Visa Purchasing Card can benefit from a series of advantages. For more information about the Sampath Visa Purchasing Card and its benefits, please visit www.sampath.lk or contact 1332.

Source: phys.orgBy infusing a virtual fruit fly with artificial intelligence, Janelia and Google DeepMind, scientists have created a computerized insect that can walk and fly just like the real thing.

What's more, February 2024 wrapped up both hemispheres' warmest December-through-February period on record, according to scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. Looking how continents ranked, Europe, North America and South America had their warmest February on record, while Africa had its second warmest. The year-to-date (January and February 2024) temperature currently ranks as the world's warmest such period on record. There is a 45% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year in NOAA's 175-year record and a 99% chance it will rank in the top five. Arctic sea ice extent was slightly below average (by 100,000 square miles), whereas Antarctic sea ice extent was substantially below average (by 370,000 square miles), ranking second smallest on record.

Italy has one of the toughest citizenship regimes in Europe, with children born in the country to foreign parents unable to apply for an Italian passport until they are 18. Now a spokeswoman for campaign group Italians Without Citizenship, she describes the failure to allow children to become citizens as "psychological violence". "The law on access to citizenship in Italy is one of the toughest in Europe," notes demographer Salvatore Strozza. Children born and raised in Italy have no innate right to citizenship, except in rare cases where their parents are unknown or stateless. "An Argentine who has an Italian grandfather will be naturalised faster than a person born in Italy to foreign parents," he told AFP.

The danger low birth rates pose to a developing countryOpinionBy A.W. Singapore faces an ageing population and low birth rates, leading to concerns about a shrinking workforce and increased healthcare needs. Thailand is also grappling with a declining birth rate, potentially affecting its future labour force and economic growth. Economically, it may lead to a shrinking workforce, reducing productivity, and limiting the potential for economic growth. Here are 10 potential solutions for the government to solve low birth rates and increase population growth to an acceptable level.

Fifteen Indian fishermen held for poaching in Lankan watersNewsSri Lanka Navy has captured 15 Indian fishermen who were intruding into local marine zones off the Kovilan Lighthouse in Karainagar during a special naval operation conducted in the early hours of today (Mar. The Mailadi Fisheries Inspector will receive the seized trawler (01) and the fifteen Indian fishermen who were brought to the Kankesanthurai Harbour for further legal proceedings. A special operation was carried out by the Sri Lanka Navy to drive Indian poaching trawlers out of Sri Lankan waters. When the Northern Naval Command noticed that many Indian poaching trawlers were fishing illegally in Sri Lankan waters off the Kovilan Lighthouse, they dispatched Fast Attack Craft to chase them away which led to their capture as they continued to remain in Sri Lankan waters. Following this most recent arrest, the Navy has apprehended 16 Indian poaching trawlers and 125 Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters in 2024; they have since been turned over to the relevant authorities for onward legal action.

Source: phys.orgResearchers have developed a new machine learning system to improve the accuracy and efficiency of sewer-river system models. This innovative approach, detailed in an article published in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, promises to significantly reduce parameter calibration time and enhance model precision in predicting urban water pollution.

The Bandaranaike Museum Committee has taken steps to publish the second limited edition of the Pictorial Biography; ‘SIRIMAVO - Steering the Destiny of a Nation’ in collaboration with the Sarasavi Bookshop and it is now available for sale, the Bandaranaike Museum Committee said. This coffee table book, ‘SIRIMAVO- Steering the Destiny of a Nation’ presents the remarkable story of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, an extraordinary Prime Minister who pioneered new paths in both national and international arenas. The book ‘SIRIMAVO - Steering the Destiny of a Nation’ is published under the auspices of the Bandaranaike Museum Committee and edited by three esteemed professionals in their own fields; Sarath Perera, Nalaka Gunawardena, and WMK Wijayabandara. The foreword of the book ‘SIRIMAVO- Steering the Destiny of a Nation’ was penned by Deshmanya M.D.D. Peiris, a distinguished administrative officer who served as the Prime Minister’s Secretary during the second term of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

(NewsNation) — The U.S. House approved a plan to ban the social media app TikTok, but there is still a long road ahead before it’s potentially implemented. TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users and is highly popular with young Americans, is owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd. Under the bill, app stores or web hosting services in the U.S. would be blocked from having ByteDance-controlled applications, including TikTok, unless the app completely cuts ties with its China-based company. The choice is TikTok’s.”FILE – The TikTok app logo is displayed on Sept. 28, 2020, in Tokyo. The measure banning TikTok has elicited strong reactions from both supporters and opponents who are now one step closer to a potential ban.

However, petty personal and political calculations took precedence over the countryThis political grandstanding is nothing more than benefitting from the country’s misery. When even a remotely cohesive nation is faced with an existential crisis, its disparate stakeholders momentarily set aside their differences. Two years back, it was an existential crisis that threatened the state’s very existence as a cohesive and functioning unit. Sri Lankan politics suffer from a strong sense of self-seeking opportunism that prevents the country from forging a common goal. This also raises concern about the country’s uncertain political future, where political parties thrive in harnessing public anger rather than offering solutions.

Source: phys.orgIn 2021, two Stony Brook University researchers—Jason Jones, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, and Steven Skiena, Ph.D., Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Computer Science—began conducting a survey study on attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) among American adults. Some of their recent findings, published in the journal Seeds of Science, show a shift in Americans' views on AI.