Why India fell behind China in tech innovation

25 April 2025 at 05:00

China’s DeepSeek moment has triggered unease for the Indian government and tech industry. Earlier this month, India’s commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, rebuked the country’s entrepreneurs for their lack of innovation....

Brazil’s AI-powered social security app is wrongly rejecting claims

Rest of World

By: Gabriel Daros

24 April 2025 at 05:00

When Josélia de Brito, a former sugarcane worker from a remote town in northeast Brazil, filed for her retirement benefits through the mandated government app, she expected her claim would...

Kenya’s solution to teacher shortage: Embrace AI

Rest of World

By: Stephanie Wangari

23 April 2025 at 05:00

Sylvia Osewe, an elementary school teacher in the Nairobi area, loves seeing her students learn and grow. But at one time early in her career, she nearly quit. “I had...

Chinese sellers and U.S. buyers prepare for the end of ultracheap shopping

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

23 April 2025 at 05:00

Phillip Dampier, in Rochester, New York, spends up to eight hours a day on Chinese shopping sites, and has already shelled out about $3,500 on electronics and home goods. He...

FILE -- A shopper at a Shein pop-up store at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas, Aug. 26, 2022. Two bipartisan bills were introduced in Congress this week seeking to change a nearly 100-year-old trade law that allows imported packages that fall under a certain price threshold to receive less oversight while moving through the United States customs process. Shein is one of the companies the bills would affect. (Cooper Neill/The New York Times)

When the world connected on Skype

Rest of World

By: Isra Fejzullaj · Rina Chandran and Michael Zelenko

22 April 2025 at 05:00

Skype, the online video-calling service, is shutting down in May after more than two decades of service. For those of a certain generation, Skype changed everything. Before it launched in...

How Big Tech hides its outsourced African workforce

Rest of World

By: Stephanie Wangari and Gayathri Vaidyanathan

21 April 2025 at 05:00

Firms that provide outsourced digital labor for big tech companies tend to be secretive. They are often bound by legal contracts that limit what they can say, allowing tech companies...

Why Vietnam is in the middle of the U.S.-China trade war

Rest of World

By: Lam Le

18 April 2025 at 05:00

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ongoing tour of Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia has drawn U.S. ire as he promotes free trade in a region facing some of the stiffest American tariffs....

Foxconn’s iPhone factory is fueling a real estate boom in a small Indian farming town

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

17 April 2025 at 05:00

Foxconn’s arrival is quickly changing a rural town in southern India into a real estate hot spot. Devanahalli, located on the outskirts of India’s tech hub, Bengaluru, is home to...

Venezuelan migrants relied on clickwork to survive. Now AI is replacing them

Rest of World

By: Laura Rodríguez Salamanca

16 April 2025 at 05:00

It doesn’t matter if Oskarina Fuentes is at a medical appointment an hour from her home in the mountain town of Caldas in Colombia. Nor does it matter if it’s...

Oskarina Fuentes while working as a data worker from her home in Caldas, Antioquia, Colombia.

How Starlink took over Africa’s largest internet market

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

15 April 2025 at 05:00

In the sprawling electronic market of Lagos’ Computer Village, an item is flying off the shelves: the Starlink kit. These satellite dishes, with their distinctive white faces and plug-and-play simplicity,...

DeepSeek and chip bans have supercharged AI innovation in China

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo and Tiffany Ap

14 April 2025 at 05:00

The rise of DeepSeek has reenergized China’s artificial intelligence industry, drawing billions of dollars in state funding and a bigger push toward self-sufficiency. Its success has also sparked a race...

Uber and Chinese-owned rival 99 have a common enemy in Brazil

Rest of World

By: Gabriela Sá Pessoa

11 April 2025 at 05:00

“Uber Moto: Rio de Janeiro has it,” declared a digital billboard along one of São Paulo’s busiest streets last month. “São Paulo doesn’t.” The ad, from Uber, is the latest...

Trump’s tariffs test Vietnam’s role as manufacturing alternative to China

Rest of World

By: Lam Le

10 April 2025 at 05:28

Vietnam remains on edge, even though Donald Trump has put sweeping tariffs on hold, granting the Southeast Asian country a 90-day window for negotiations. As Trump announced 46% tariffs on...

Quang Chau Industrial Park in Bac Giang, Vietnam, April 7, 2025.

Tesla arrives in Saudi Arabia after Musk’s tumultuous history

Rest of World

By: Damilare Dosunmu

10 April 2025 at 03:35

Tesla is finally set to debut in Saudi Arabia, years after a dramatic fallout between Riyadh and Elon Musk. The electric vehicle company will open showrooms in Riyadh, Jeddah, and...

Tracking the global fallout of Trump’s escalating trade war

Rest of World

By: Rest of World Staff

9 April 2025 at 05:00

Update: As of April 9 at 2PM ET, President Trump has announced that the tariffs will be paused for 90 days and replaced with a near-universal 10%. This does not...

Workers sort out packages at a delivery company warehouse to be delivered to customers during "Singles' Day" -- the world's biggest 24-hour shopping event -- in Beijing on November 11, 2019. - Chinese consumers closed in on a new spending record November 11 during the annual "Singles' Day" frenzy, the world's biggest 24-hour shopping event, which kicked off this year with a glitzy show by US megastar Taylor Swift.

Illegal charging stations are powering Delhi’s e-rickshaw revolution

Rest of World

By: Suprakash Majumdar

9 April 2025 at 05:00

India’s pollution-choked capital city is making a big push for electric vehicles, but much of the adoption is powered by illegal means in the absence of adequate government support. Late...

A driver in Okhla packing the charging equipment/metre after charging his e-rickshaw at an unofficial charging spot

Trump’s tariffs are testing Nvidia’s chip supremacy. Can Jensen Huang weather the storm?

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

8 April 2025 at 10:20

Stephen Witt’s new book, The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip, is out this week, just as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have prompted fears...

Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., on March 18, 2025.

What we learned from tracking AI use in global elections

Rest of World

By: Khadija Alam

8 April 2025 at 05:00

2024 marked a big year for democracy, with elections held in over 70 countries representing nearly half the world’s population. It was also dubbed the year of the “AI election”...

Uber wades into a fierce price war to stay competitive in India

Rest of World

By: Cheena Kapoor

8 April 2025 at 05:00

India’s homegrown ride-hailing startups are forcing Uber to rethink its strategy. In February, the Silicon Valley giant ditched its commission-based pricing for two- and three-wheeler segments, allowing drivers to pay...

New Delhi, Indien. Blick von der Dachterrasse des Vivek Hotel in New Delhi auf das pulsierende Leben dieser Großstadt. © Andy Ridder / VISUM

iPhones were already losing ground in China. Then came Trump’s tariffs

Rest of World

By: Selina Cheng and Joanna Chiu

7 April 2025 at 12:30

At a Huawei store in a bustling shopping mall in northern Hong Kong last week, shoppers flocked to the Mate XT, the world’s first tri-fold smartphone, which can turn into...

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