While the coronavirus pandemic increased the demand for online services, especially blockchains and crypto assets, major companies looking for new methods to earn money, are now gearing up to capture the physical world through what they call the "metaverse." 

The concept of metaverse has appeared with investments worth billions of dollars from firms including Facebook, Microsoft, Roblox and Epic and is seen as the next level of the internet.

Through metaverse, companies hope to offer a new fictional universe that can be accessed via the internet.

With the rise in remote work, the demand for more realistic online interaction activities also grew.

People can go shopping, subscribe to services, work with colleagues and play games with others via metaverse's 3D universe.

Metaverse enables people to enter the digital world, reflecting holograms of their own bodies to other places.

This kind of universe was portrayed in movies, games and programs including the Matrix, Pokemon Go, Minority Report and Black Mirror.

Facebook, which changed its name to Meta, managers define metaverse as an environment where people can feel like they are together while playing games or doing research.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook or Meta, said his company will be a Metaverse firm within five years instead of a social media company.

He underlined that people will not only be online on platforms but live, work and game on the platforms.

Facebook announced that it will employ 10,000 people in Europe for building its metaverse universe.

The company, which also owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, aims to be a key player in the new internet world.  

Next generation of internet

Tuong H. Nguyen, principal analyst at technology firm, Gartner, said metaverse is a persistent and immersive digital environment of independent, yet interconnected networks that will use yet-to-be-determined protocols for communications.

It enables, persistent, decentralized, collaborative, interoperable digital content that intersects with the physical world’s real-time, spatially oriented and indexed content, he stressed.

Metaverse is an example of a combinatorial trend in which several individually important, discrete and independently evolving trends and technologies interact to give rise to another trend, he underlined.

Victoria Petrock, emerging tech analyst, also said: "Metaverse has many different definitions. It’s becoming a bit of a buzzword now, but I think of it as the next generation of the internet."

"A shared virtual 3D environment that can be accessed via the internet and that will enable users to seamlessly move between a variety of interconnected virtual spaces where they (via their avatars or other digital representations of themselves) can meet and interact, shop, work, collaborate, consume entertainment, and play games," she said.

Petrock noted that in metaverse, all of the various separate digital platforms that exist now will theoretically come together and will be accessible via VR headsets, AR glasses, smartphone apps or other yet-to-be-invented devices.

"In the metaverse, people will be living their virtual lives in parallel to their in-person lives via digital doppelgangers – and may even be merging these lives, or not," she added.

Saying that the basic concept of the metaverse has been around for a long time, she stressed that the pandemic has hastened efforts to develop and capitalize on it.

"Physical resources are currently finite, but digital ones can be infinite," she said. /aa  

The cost of adapting to climate change in developing nations could reach $300 billion in 2030, according to the latest report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.That figure could get up to $500 billion in 2050 if mitigation targets are not met. 

Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected climate change and its effects.

Ahead of the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Scotland, the UN report calls for a transformative approach to climate adaptation, with advanced economies ensuring multilateral institutions can support developing countries to manage the pressures from a changing climate without compromising development goals.

“Climate change has no borders, so our strategy to adapt to it must be globally coordinated,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said in a statement. “Fulfilling the $100 billion a year pledge for the Green Climate Fund is a must at Glasgow. But aligning ambition and action will require a concerted reform effort at the multilateral level.”

The UN recommends reforms focus on increasing the proportion of additive finance designated for climate change adaptation and resilience building.

“If the G7 countries had met the 0.7% ODA (official development assistance) target in 2020, an additional $155 billion would have been available to meet development goals,” the report indicates.

It also said debt relief and restructuring for developing countries should be put firmly on the climate agenda.

Poorer countries face a $15 billion annual loss.

The report also warned that the push to liberalize trade in environmental goods and services will benefit mainly exporters in developed countries and constrain fiscal space in developing countries.

“Developing and least developed countries will lose $15 billion per annum in tariff revenue if this approach is pursued,” said the report.  

What is COP?

COP, an abbreviation for the Conference of the Parties, will be attended by countries that have signed onto the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The numbered COP gatherings are hosted by a different country each year, with the very first, COP1, in Berlin in 1995.

COP26 was originally scheduled to take place last November in Glasgow, but was postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic and is now being hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy.

The last conference was in Madrid, Spain, in November 2019 and ended with issues unresolved, but an agreement was reached on cutting carbon dioxide emissions./aa

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) paved the way on Friday for Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for children aged five to 11, opening the door to getting millions more shots in arms. 

The FDA signed off on smaller doses for children than those given to adults and teenagers in its emergency use authorization. The dose approved by the FDA is one-third of that given to the other age groups, and the health authority said the vaccine proved 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 in children.

It found no serious side effects in a study comprised of over 4,600 children.

“As a mother and a physician, I know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s authorization. Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement.

“Our comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of the data pertaining to the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness should help assure parents and guardians that this vaccine meets our high standards,” she added.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will have the final say on whether or not Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine will receive approval for children. An advisory committee will meet next week to take up the FDA's decision.

Children five to 11 comprise 39% of COVID-19 cases in people younger than 18, according to the FDA. Roughly 8,300 COVID-19 cases in children resulted in hospitalization, and 146 children have died.

“The FDA is committed to making decisions that are guided by science that the public and healthcare community can trust. We are confident in the safety, effectiveness and manufacturing data behind this authorization," Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said./aa

In the runup to the COP26 climate summit, which begins next week in the Scottish city of Glasgow, a large crowd of activists gathered Friday outside of the London headquarters of Standard Chartered to demand an urgent end to the bank’s financial support for fossil fuel projects and activities.

“Financial institutions have been putting enormous amounts of funding into fossil fuels since the (2015) Paris agreement, which was six years ago,” Alex, a climate activist, told Anadolu Agency.

“The COP26 conference is coming up and we desperately need for financial institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels as soon as possible,” he added.

The COP26 global UN summit, which begins Sunday, is being called a pivotal turning point in tackling global warming, one of the greatest threats that has ever faced humanity.

The summit will be the first to assess if the world has made any progress since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

Along with world-famous teen activist Greta Thunberg, other young protesters in London say they are planning to put mounting pressure on banks and private companies to make them “actually listen, step up, and take concrete action in the fight against climate change.”

UK subsidizing fossil fuels more than any other country in Europe

Alex said advanced countries have been pledging to phase out fossil fuels while actually continuing to finance projects which damage the environment.

“They keep investing in coal and oil, because it's profitable, and they’re accountable to their shareholders, right. They will only stop if they’re regulated. So that's what we need,” he urged. “We need urgent action.”

The UK for example, he argued, is giving more subsidies to fossil fuels under accepted World Trade Organization (WTO) than any other country in Europe.

The government does this through all kinds of tax breaks and direct financial support, he said.

But he also said the Bank of England has various ways of regulating financial institutions at its disposal to make it much more expensive for them to invest in fossil fuels.

Boris says UK is climate leader but continues to invest in coal

Criticizing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for touting the UK as a “climate leader,” Alex said: “He keeps saying that, but what he's actually doing is opening a new (offshore) oil field in Cambo, opening a new coal mine in Cumbria.”

“It's complete nonsense,” he said, claiming that the government’s most recent budget did little to address climate change, contrary to its messaging.

No time for ‘old promises’

Nadia, 15, a demonstrator from South America, said she was in the UK to make the youth voice heard.

“We can’t stand seeing how the negotiations continue without a clear ambition,” she said.

“We need to have clear goals to stop funding fossil fuel projects, especially in countries like mine,” Colombia, she added.

Saying that Colombia has one of the biggest coal plants in Latin America, she said financial bodies like Standard Chartered continue to finance it.

“World leaders continue going to COPs, making big associations and making empty promises but still we don't see development in our territories,” she said.

“Our people are running out of time. We don't have the time to continue listening to the same old promises.”/aa

A former al-Qaeda courier who was detained by the US in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay has told a court about the brutal torture he endured at the hands of the CIA, according to a recently published report.

Majid Khan was addressing jurors as they weighed his sentence for war crimes. He said during his sentencing hearing, which is expected to conclude on Friday, that he was subjected to "days of painful abuse" at CIA black sites, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Khan's case marks the first time a high-profile Guantanamo detainee testified in court about his experience in enduring the US intelligence community's "enhanced interrogation" techniques, a program that has been a black stain on the CIA and been widely condemned as torture.

"I thought I was going to die," Khan said, according to the AP.

"I would beg them to stop and swear to them that I didn't know anything," he added. "If I had intelligence to give I would have given it already but I didn't have anything to give."

Khan reportedly told the court that he was forced to remain awake for days on end, and was doused with ice water to prevent him from sleeping. He also recalled being suspended from a beam while naked for extended periods of time.

Khan is a Pakistani national who was born in Saudi Arabia. His family moved to the US in the 1990s and was granted asylum.

He pled guilty in 2012 to a host of crimes, including murder and attempted murder, according to the AP. A military judge ruled in June that a jury could grant the former al-Qaeda operative a more lenient sentence due to the torture he sustained, National Public Radio reported at the time.

Khan apologized during Thursday's hearing, taking full responsibility for his actions while saying he forgives the individuals who tortured him.

"I have also tried to make up for the bad things I have done," he said, according to the AP. "That's why I pleaded guilty and cooperated with the USA government."

Thirty-nine people remain imprisoned at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, including five men charged with orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks./aa

Pandemic fears and slow air traffic recovery put pressure on airports in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, Fitch Ratings said Friday.

Some of the other factors creating pressure include risks of the emergence of new and more infectious virus variants, and frequent and uncoordinated changes in travel restrictions, and border controls.

"The recovery in year-to-date EMEA airport traffic has been slower than we originally anticipated, which led to the revision of our traffic assumptions in the region," the agency said in a statement.

"Individual airports’ recovery paths will depend on the proportions of business and leisure travelers in the passenger mix, as well as the traffic split by destination, including domestic, international short-haul and long-haul," it added.

Fitch noted that many airports had reached or neared their maximum capacity and were planning expansions before the pandemic, adding their strong liquidity positions have supported them during the pandemic as expansions were postponed.

It added that fiscal and monetary policies in many countries have provided support to airports as part of government programs that targeted the sectors most affected by the pandemic./agencies

Next month’s COP26 global UN summit in Glasgow, Scotland is being called a pivotal turning point in tackling global warming, one of the greatest threats that has ever faced humanity.

The summit will be the first to assess if the world has made any progress since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, a pact Turkey signed onto earlier this year, to much praise.

At that summit, countries agreed to work together to reduce greenhouse gases, accelerate renewable energy production, and cut global warming to "well below" 2C, limiting it to 1.5C if possible.

Yet the commitments laid out in Paris are still far away from becoming a reality.

In light of this, many believe that COP26 has an extraordinary urgency since in recent years natural disasters have been affecting more and more regions across the globe and millions of people, facing storms, floods, and wildfires.

So this year’s event is being seen as momentous, with world leaders and negotiators, government representatives, business leaders, and members of the public sitting down for 12 days of talks on climate change policy.

Great expectations

One of the main metrics for success in Glasgow will be as many governments as possible submitting new and more ambitious climate action plans towards lowering global warming to the 1.5C benchmark.

The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius is significant: each degree increase carries irreversible risks to people, communities, and ecosystems.

This seemingly tiny but yawning divide is why one of the main aims of the Glasgow summit is to “keep the 1.5-degree goal alive.”

Another goal is channeling funds to fight climate change to developing countries.

In UN climate talks, rich countries had previously committed $100 billion a year by 2020 to help underdeveloped countries tackle the effects of climate change.

But this goal has not yet been achieved, as a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), last month showed that in 2019, the latest year for which data is available, only about $80 billion was enabled.

So a tangible outcome on this issue is also expected from the summit.

Although no one can predict what will come from the summit, it is clear that expectations are running higher than ever.

What is COP?

COP, an abbreviation standing for "Conference of the Parties," will be attended by countries that have signed onto the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The numbered COP gatherings are hosted by a different country each year, with the very first – COP1 – held in Berlin in 1995.

COP26 was originally scheduled to take place last November in Glasgow but was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now is being hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy.

The last conference, COP25, was held in Madrid, Spain, in November 2019, and ended with many issues unresolved, but an agreement was reached on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

Which world leaders will attend?

Over 100 world leaders are expected to attend the conference, but the number of actually confirmed attendees is so far smaller.

Along with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leaders who have confirmed their attendance includes US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The presidents of Russia and China – two countries that are among the world’s top five main sources of greenhouse gases – have reportedly confirmed that they would not attend the event.

Queen Elizabeth II, 95, was scheduled to appear at the summit, but Buckingham Palace said that after an overnight hospital stay last week for health checks, her doctors have advised her to rest./aa

The heads of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and nine other international organizations on Friday called on governments to prioritize integrated water and climate action given the all-pervasive impacts on sustainable development.

"Accelerated action is urgently needed to address the water-related consequences of climate change that impact people and the planet," said a letter issued ahead of COP26, the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12.

The letter urged governments to address more effectively the water dimensions of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

"Climate change is dramatically affecting the water cycle, making droughts and floods more extreme and frequent and decreasing the natural water storage in ice and snow," it read.

The letter was signed by the heads of WMO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Environment Program (UNEP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN University (UNU), the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP).

The letter said changing rainfall patterns are already impacting agriculture, food systems, and livelihoods are becoming increasingly vulnerable. "Rising sea levels threaten communities, infrastructure, coastal environments, and aquifers," it added.

It called for promoting and financing global water monitoring systems to provide timely knowledge about current and future water availability and quality levels at the global, regional, and local levels./agencies

US software company Microsoft surpassed technology firm Apple as the most valuable US company on Friday right after US stock market opening.

Microsoft stock price climbed to $326.52 per share with a 0.67% gain at 9.30 a.m. EDT on the Nasdaq, giving the company a market value of $2.45 trillion, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

Apple stock price declined to $147.75 per share with a 3.16% loss at the opening bell, as the firm's market capitalization fell to $2.44 trillion on the Nasdaq.

At 9.45 a.m. EDT, Microsoft maintained the lead with $2.45 trillion, against Apple's $2.42 trillion.

The recent overtake came just hours after Apple released its financial results on Thursday after closing bell, in which revenue came below market expectation.

Despite posting a record quarterly revenue of $83.4 billion in the July-September period of this year, which was up 29% from $64.7 billion the same period of last year, the recent revenue came short of $84.9 billion market estimate.

Microsoft's revenue, on the other hand, increased 22% to $45.3 billion July-September period, from $37.1 billion the same period of last year, according to its financial results statement released Tuesday after market closing./aa

US technology firm Apple posted a record quarterly revenue in the July-September period of this year, but it failed to beat market expectations.

The company had a record revenue of $83.4 billion in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2021 that ended on Sept. 25, which was up 29% from $64.7 billion the same period of last year, according to its financial results statement released late Thursday.

The market expectations for the revenue, however, was to come at $84.9 billion.

Net income increased 62% to $20.6 billion in July-September, from $12.7 billion year-on-year.

Record revenue was largely driven by higher sales of smartphones and services, according to the results.

Apple's iPhone sales jumped to almost $38.9 billion from $26.4 billion – over a 47% increase.

Services climbed 26% to almost $18.3 billion from $14.5 billion during that period.

Apple stock price closed Thursday at $152.57 per share for a 2.5% gain on the Nasdaq. With revenue release after closing bell, it declined 3.85% in after-hours trading./agencies