Briefly

FRANCE

Global GDP growth stabilizes at 3.2%

The GDP growth is projected to stabilize at 3.2 percent in both 2024 and 2025, while inflation should continue to ease, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, said on Wednesday in its latest economic outlook. According to the OECD economic outlook, annual GDP growth in the United States is projected to slow down to 2.6 percent in 2024 and down further to 1.6 percent in 2025, but be cushioned by monetary policy easing. For the area, the OECD said the GDP growth is projected to be 0.7 percent in 2024 and speed up to 1.3 percent in 2025.

UNITED STATES

Meta bets big on celebrity AI voices

Meta launched AI chatbots voiced by Hollywood celebrities, including Dame Judi Dench and John Cena, on Wednesday, betting its billions of users are eager to embrace artificial intelligence. At the company's annual product launch event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also unveiled a prototype of normal-looking augmented reality glasses, which he hopes can one day replace smartphones. Social media giant Meta is banking on AI and virtual and augmented reality applications to diversify its revenue streams. However, the company has yet to convince investors of the need to shift from its highly profitable advertising-based model.

UNITED KINGDOM

Rail union RMT accepts pay deal

Britain's largest railway workers' union, the RMT, said on Wednesday its members had voted in favor of accepting a pay deal, bringing an end to a two-year dispute that saw several waves of strikes disrupt the transport network. It is the latest dispute to be resolved under the country's traditionally trade union-friendly Labour government, which came to power in July. High inflation and a cost-of-living crisis spurred demands for better pay and led to strikes across a wide range of sectors during 2022 and 2023.Earlier this month, train drivers and junior doctors both accepted pay deals. The RMT said 99 percent of its members working for train operating companies who took part in the ballot had backed a 4.75 percent pay rise for 2023/24.

INDIA

46 people drown during Hindu festival

At least 46 people, including 37 children, have drowned while celebrating a Hindu festival in eastern India, a local government official told AFP on Thursday. The 46 drowned in separate incidents in Bihar state while ritually bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent flooding, an official from the Bihar Disaster Management Department told AFP. Authorities were working to recover three other bodies, the official said. The drownings occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday across 15 districts of Bihar state as devotees marked the Jitiya Parv Hindu festival, observed by mothers for the wellbeing of their children.

Agencies - Xinhua