Too much of a good scent? Hanoi curbs iconic trees

GMA Network - Oct 20, 2026

HANOI - Vietnam's capital Hanoi has launched a large-scale program to prune hundreds of its iconic blackboard trees and is considering relocating some after their distinctive fragrance proved too much for some residents.

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Oct 21, 2026

Netanyahu says 'toppling' Iran government only way to end threat

DIMONA, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the only way to remove the threat posed by Iran was to topple its government. "Iran wanted to destroy us; we stopped them. They wanted to produce nuclear bombs; we stopped them... Yet they persist," he said during an election rally in the southern town of Dimona. "Therefore, there is only one way to end this: by toppling this regime." "This is the directive I have issued to the Israel Defense Forces, to the Mossad, and to all our security branches," he added, without specifying when or how that directive would be executed. The sabre-rattling came as the premier headed into the last week of a tight race for re-election. Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli military to plan for resumed strikes against Iran earlier this month, according to sources cited by the Financial Times on Wednesday, but US President Donald Trump reportedly objected to the idea. The US leader has publicly said that he does not intend to restart the war, which Washington started in February alongside Israel, before the US mid-term electi

Oct 21, 2026

France's Macron vows order, calls foreign criticism of unrest 'stupid'

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Wednesday to prevent a repeat of last weekend's violence at protests planned in the coming days, and dismissed as "stupid" and "unacceptable" comments from some foreign leaders about the unrest. France's main student union, UNEF, has called for further rallies on Saturday, while the Yellow Vest group, which emerged as a potent anti-establishment movement in 2018, has filed plans for a march through central Paris the same day. Efforts to ease social tensions showed little sign of progress, as unions pledged to press ahead with a general strike on November 5 to denounce the high cost of living and cuts to public services after government talks ended inconclusively. France was hit by some of the worst urban tumult in years on October 17 on the fringe of nationwide protests, shocking the nation both because of its scale and the apparent inability of police to contain it. Macron said he would meet intelligence officials and senior ministers on Thursday to discuss the crisis. "Those who want to cause disorder in city centres next Saturday will be pre

Oct 21, 2026

OpenAI says its AI agents disabled their own safety monitors

WASHINGTON — OpenAI has revealed that two of its artificial intelligence agents disabled or weakened systems built to catch them misbehaving, with one later denying it had done so. The cases are the latest in a string of safety scares at the world's top AI developers involving agents, AI programs that carry out tasks without human involvement. In a report released Tuesday, the ChatGPT maker said that during two internal coding jobs, its agents switched off or undermined tools for detecting incidents of AI models acting against human wishes. On October 3, an agent running on OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol model, which had been told not to send any messages on the workplace chat app, took that as license to switch off safety alerts meant for the company's security team while fixing a testing system. Three days later, a GPT-6 Astra agent stripped out its own monitor while copying code from another project, then told the human programmer it had done no such thing. The company said it had also seen several cases of agents launching software with monitoring switched off, exposing a gap in its oversight

Oct 21, 2026

Lee meets with WHO chief to discuss cooperation in healthcare

President Lee Jae Myung met with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday to discuss ways to enhance cooperation in healthcare, Lee's office said. The meeting at Cheong Wa Dae came as Tedros is visiting Seoul to attend the World Bio Summit 2026, which WHO is hosting in partnership with South Korea on Wednesday and Thursday. During the meeting, Lee stressed the need for South Korea to expand its role and contributions to the international community, presidential spokesperson Kim Sung-wan said in a written briefing. Lee also expressed hope that Seoul would continue to expand its cooperation with WHO in health security. The president asked Tedros to help ensure that more highly skilled South Koreans could contribute to the WHO, noting that South Korea has transformed itself from a recipient of international assistance into a major contributor. Tedros thanked South Korea for its efforts to strengthen cooperation with WHO and promote global health, saying he was well aware of the country's development experience. Stressing the importance of equita