Bruce Bentley

Johnny McCamley has spent nearly £5,000 on plots of land. But he can't physically walk on this land - and he can't live there or build a house on it. That's because the 23-year-old's investment is in the metaverse, meaning his land is completely virtual and exists solely within a digital world. Mr McCamley, from Belfast, is one of many people who have decided to buy virtual property in the metaverse. Last year, transactions of virtual land reached $350m (£267m) in The Sandbox, the largest platform for digital property, according to a report by the Center for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship. A further $110m (£84.2m) worth of transactions were made in Decentraland, the second-largest metaverse platform. Image: The metaverse allows users to interact with others, play games, build art galleries and shops. Pic: Johnny McCamley What is the metaverse? The metaverse is not a single digital space. It's a network of

TAIPEI/BEIJING, April 15 (Reuters) - China said it conducted military drills around Taiwan on Friday as a US Congressional delegation visited the island in a show of support to a fellow democracy, with Beijing blaming the lawmakers for raising tensions with their "provocative "trip. China's military sent frigates, bombers and fighter planes to the East China Sea and the area around Taiwan, the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command said, in a statement released as the lawmakers were holding a news conference in Taipei. "This operation is in response to the recent frequent release of wrong signals by the United States on the Taiwan issue," it said, without mentioning the visiting US delegation. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com register "The US bad actions and tricks are completely futile and very dangerous. Those who play with fire will burn themselves," it said. China's Defense Ministry, in a separate statement, s

Today, we're sharing an update on our work to help keep our community safe and protect the integrity of the upcoming Philippine General election on May 9. Activating Our Elections Operation Center For some time, we have had a dedicated team focused on the election and as we get closer to May, we will activate an Elections Operation Center for this election. It will bring together subject matter experts from across the company on critical issues including misinformation, safety, human rights, cybersecurity, and others to monitor and respond to emerging risks in real time. This team includes local experts who can speak the language and who have a deep understanding of the context on the ground in the Philippines. Tackling Hate Speech and Other Harmful Content We use artificial intelligence technology that we've trained in Filipino to help us proactively detect and remove hate speech, bullying and harassment, and content that violates our violence and incitement policie